This book on constrained optimization is novel in that it fuses these themes: use examples to introduce general ideas; engage the student in spreadsheet computation; survey the uses of constrained optimization;. investigate game theory and nonlinear optimization, link the subject to economic reasoning, and present the requisite mathematics. Blending these themes makes constrained optimization more accessible and more valuable. It stimulates the students interest, quickens the learning process, reveals connections to several academic and professional fields, and deepens the students grasp of the relevant mathematics. The book is designed for use in courses that focus on the applications of constrained optimization, in courses that emphasize the theory, and in courses that link the subject to economics.


Experiments on the Belousov-Zhabotinskii reaction in a stirred flow reactor reveal behavior that is strikingly similar to that generated by one-dimensional maps with a single extremum. In particular, a period-doubling sequence is observed that leads to a regime containing both chaotic and periodic states. Within the experimental resolution the ordering of the periodic states is in accord with the theory of one-dimensional maps.


Passive immunisation with neutralising antibodies can be a potent therapeutic strategy if used pre- or post-exposure to a variety of pathogens. Herein, we investigated whether recombinant monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) could be used to protect chickens against avian influenza. Avian influenza viruses impose a significant economic burden on the poultry industry and pose a zoonotic infection risk for public health worldwide. Traditional control measures including vaccination do not provide rapid protection from disease, highlighting the need for alternative disease mitigation measures. In this study, previously generated neutralizing anti-H9N2 virus monoclonal antibodies were converted to single-chain variable fragment antibodies (scFvs). These recombinant scFv antibodies were produced in insect cell cultures and the preparations retained neutralization capacity against an H9N2 virus in vitro. To evaluate recombinant scFv antibody efficacy in vivo, chickens were passively immunized with scFvs one day before, and for seven days after virus challenge. Groups receiving scFv treatment showed partial virus load reductions measured by plaque assays and decreased disease manifestation. These results indicate that antibody therapy could reduce clinical disease and shedding of avian influenza virus in infected chicken flocks.


High entropy alloy has excellent performance, such as high mechanical property, thermal stability and corrosion resistance, etc., as compared to the traditional alloys, which presents a high research value and great potential application in industry. It might be an alternative material that could be used in ultra high temperature and corrosion resistant equipments in future. This paper reports the preparation of FeNiCoBiMn high entropy alloy film by electroplating deposition method, and the test results of microscopic observation, energy dispersive spectrometer and X-ray diffraction analysis. Research results indicates that the film is amorphous, the molar content of each element in the high entropy alloy film is greater than 5%, the surface of the filmis granular structure with grain size of about 1µm. It provides a new way for exploring preparation of high entropy alloy.


We present a definition of cause and effect in terms of decision-theoretic primitives and thereby provide a principled foundation for causal reasoning. Our definition departs from the traditional view of causation in that causal assertions may vary with the set of decisions available. We argue that this approach provides added clarity to the notion of cause. Also in this paper, we examine the encoding of causal relationships in directed acyclic graphs. We describe a special class of influence diagrams, those in canonical form, and show its relationship to Pearl's representation of cause and effect. Finally, we show how canonical form facilitates counterfactual reasoning.


Many historians and members of the public insist that Thomas Jefferson was a diehard racist who defended the justice of black slavery and opposed its abolition. However, at various times, even occasionally as president of the United States, and more often after he retired from office, he voiced a preference for sending Virginia's rebellious slaves, the type who were executed by the dozen in August and September 1800 after the famous "Gabriel's Rebellion" was crushed, to Haiti. The purpose of this article is to suggest that Jefferson was not averse to Haiti's existence as an independent republic. On the contrary, at the beginning of his tenure as third president of the United States in 1801, he suggested that slaves convicted in Virginia's courts of "conspiracy and insurrection" against the state should be deported to Haiti (at that time called "Saint-Domingue" or "St. Domingo" because it was still regarded as a French colony) to begin life anew as free men and women. Despite the assumptions and charges of many historians, during his presidency Jefferson did not deliberately pursue an anti-Haitian policy. He was not personally involved in advocating the trade embargo that Congress imposed against Haiti in 1806 and renewed in 1807 for one more year. The primary advocate of this law was George Logan, a Pennsylvania Quaker Senator. Intimidated by diplomatic protests from the French minister to the United States, General Turreau, and the notorious French Foreign Minister, Talleyrand, infamous for the "XYZ Affair" in 179798, Logan feared that France might declare war on the United States if the government did not act against Haiti. He introduced the embargo resolution against Haiti in the Senate, both in 1805 and 1806.1 Certainly, Jefferson never contemplated an invasion of Haiti to destroy its independence. He seemed to prefer keeping it out of the hands of European countries, whose leaders, pursuing Old World mercantilist policies, would try to bar U.S. trade with Haiti. Moreover, after Jefferson retired from the presidency, his son-in-law, Virginia's Governor, Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr., perhaps following the revered old man's advice, proposed in 1820 that the state legislature emancipate a certain number of slaves annually and transport them to Haiti. Although the Virginia assembly defeated Randolph's measure, Jefferson continued to advocate it in letters to correspondents in the northern states and elsewhere in the final years of his life. He considered it· a means to find justice for African Americans, give them a chance to prove themselves in a society where men of their color ruled, and simultaneously preserve the United States as a White Man's Country where democracy, peace and happiness, albeit only for white people, could finally be attained. In old age especially, Thomas Jefferson became more and more convinced that the solution to the problem of southern slavery was the gradual emancipation of the slaves and their deportation to Haiti. When, amid the national crisis over Missouri's admission to the Union as a slave state in 1820, his son-in-law, governor of Virginia Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr., proposed such a plan, Jefferson supported it from the sidelines, praising his "courage." "Altho' this is not ripe to be immediately acted on," he observed after the state legislature defeated the proposal, "it will, with the Missouri question, force a serious attention to that object by our citizens, which the vicinage of St. Domingo brings within the scope of possibility."2 Randolph's proposal for gradual emancipation, in his message to the Virginia assembly in December 1820, would be voluntary on the part of slaveholders. It was therefore less far-reaching than what Jefferson had in mind. Motivated by misperception of free blacks' indolence, race hatred, and involvement in fencing goods stolen by slaves as much as by hatred for slavery, Randolph charged that their practices were ruining "the Farmers of Virginia. …


Action potentials were recorded from different regions of the guinea pig ventricle to characterize regional differences in waveform configuration, and to acquire insight into the generation of the T-wave of the electrocardiogram. Isolated tissue preparations were driven at 1 Hz, and microelectrodes were used to map accessible surface regions of the epicardium, endocardium, and septum. There were minimal differences in regional resting potentials (mean -87 mV) and amplitudes (mean 122 mV), but Vmax in the epicardium (mean 110 V/sec) was much smaller than elsewhere (mean 247 V/sec). The action potential duration at the -80 mV repolarization level was longest in the papillary muscles (mean 154 msec), shortest in the septum (mean 126 msec), and generally 10-15 msec longer at the base than at the apex. The characteristics of intramural action potentials were inferred from measurements on enzymatically isolated myocytes, the rationale being that most dissociated myocytes originated from intramural cell layers. The action potentials in about 40% of the myocytes had durations similar to those recorded from the tissue surface (110-170 msec), and the remainder ranged from 170-290 msec long. The existence of longer-than-surface action potentials in the ventricle was also inferred from the body surface electrocardiogram and from bipolar electrograms of isolated left ventricles. In both cases, the Q-T intervals could be accounted for only by action potentials longer than those recorded from the ventricular surface.


The challenge for every company on the way to sustainable consumption and production (SCP) is not only to use appropriate methods and measures to solve their specific sustainability problems, but first of all to select appropriate performance indicators and implement an effective sustainability performance evaluation system. It may be useful to use an integrated indicator as a single comparable index, reducing the number of sustainability decision-making criteria that need to be considered. Since there is still no comprehensive framework for integrated sustainability assessment of the overall company state on the basis of manufacturing processes, products/services as well as relationship with various stakeholders, the algorithm for integrated sustainability assessment of the overall company state that can help to solve the most significant problems in 3 levels - manufacturing processes/company's activities, products/services and relationship with various stakeholders - was presented in an earlier author's publication. This framework proposes the assessment of current sustainability conditions of a company on the basis of sub-indices of the composite index I SCP for sustainability evaluation and, according to them, can help to select and introduce the most suitable sustainable development tools for a particular enterprise to achieve its environmental and social performance goals. As the subjected algorithm was still theoretical, there was an urgent necessity to verify its real potential in particular enterprises. Therefore, the results of its verification procedure performed in 2 large, well-known Lithuanian joint-stock companies (JSC) from different business sectors are presented. The preliminary results of algorithm verification, despite all the limitations, are enough to propose that it is universal enough to be adapted for companies from various sectors of activities. Calculated values of the I SCP indicated an average level of the sustainability state in both companies. As the results of the sub-indices showed similar moderate results, both enterprises are strongly recommended to reconsider all 3 levels of their performance by applying some of the recommended measures and tools or at least by correcting the management and operation of already implemented ones. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.erem.71.2.12332


We report the effect of hydrogen on the crystallization process of silicon nanocrystals embedded in a silicon oxide matrix. We show that hydrogen gas during annealing leads to a lower sub-band gap absorption, indicating passivation of defects created during annealing. Samples annealed in pure nitrogen show expected trends according to crystallization theory. Samples annealed in forming gas, however, deviate from this trend. Their crystallinity decreases for increased annealing time. Furthermore, we observe a decrease in the mean nanocrystal size and the size distribution broadens, indicating that hydrogen causes a size reduction of the silicon nanocrystals.


In this paper, the 2-dimensional decentralized parallel interference channel (IC) with 2 transmitter-receiver pairs is modelled as a non-cooperative static game. Each transmitter is assumed to be a fully rational entity with complete information on the game, aiming to maximize its own individual spectral efficiency by tuning its own power allocation (PA) vector. Two scenarios are analysed. First, we consider that transmitters can split their transmit power between both dimensions (PA game). Second, we consider that each transmitter is limited to use only one dimension (channel selection CS game). In the first scenario, the game might have either one or three NE in pure strategies (PS). However, two or infinitely many NE in PS might also be observed with zero probability. In the second scenario, there always exists either one or two NE in PS. Using Monte-Carlo simulations, we show that in both games there always exists a non-zero probability of observing more than one NE. More interestingly, we show that the highest and lowest network spectral efficiency at any of the NE in the CS game are always higher than the ones in the PA.


Ice cores drilled at Vostok Station, Antarctica, and studied over the past 10 years by Russia, France, and the United States (Figure 1) are providing a wealth of information about past climate and environmental changes over more than a full glacial-interglacial cycle. The ice cores show that East Antarctica was colder and drier during glacial periods than during the Holocene and that large-scale atmospheric circulation was more vigorous during glacial times. They also support evidence from deep-sea sediment studies favoring orbital forcing of Pleistocene climate, reveal direct correlations of carbon dioxide and methane concentrations with temperature, and indicate how the accumulation of trace compounds have changed through time.


We propose data-driven one-pass streaming algorithms for estimating the number of triangles and four cycles, two fundamental problems in graph analytics that are widely studied in the graph data stream literature. Recently, Hsu et al. (2019a) and Jiang et al. (2020) applied machine learning techniques in other data stream problems, using a trained oracle that can predict certain properties of the stream elements to improve on prior "classical" algorithms that did not use oracles. In this paper, we explore the power of a "heavy edge" oracle in multiple graph edge streaming models. In the adjacency list model, we present a one-pass triangle counting algorithm improving upon the previous space upper bounds without such an oracle. In the arbitrary order model, we present algorithms for both triangle and four cycle estimation with fewer passes and the same space complexity as in previous algorithms, and we show several of these bounds are optimal. We analyze our algorithms under several noise models, showing that the algorithms perform well even when the oracle errs. Our methodology expands upon prior work on "classical" streaming algorithms, as previous multi-pass and random order streaming algorithms can be seen as special cases of our algorithms, where the first pass or random order was used to implement the heavy edge oracle. Lastly, our experiments demonstrate advantages of the proposed method compared to state-of-theart streaming algorithms.


Background: Given the high capability of dobutamine stress echocardiography (DSE) in the actual estimation of the ventricular function and the prediction of the intraoperative or postoperative outcomes of revascularization, especially following coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), we aimed to assess the relationship between DSE findings and CABG outcomes. Methods: This retrospective case–control study was conducted on forty patients with left ventricular (LV) systolic dysfunction who underwent CABG during an 8-year period. All the patients were assessed with DSE to determine their ventricular functional status. Checklists containing DSE findings based on the latest guideline, demographics, and the outcomes of revascularization were filled out for the participants. Telephone follow-up was done for all the participants after 6 months. The data were analyzed using SPSS, version 16. Results: Resting LV ejection fraction (LVEF) ≤25%, peak DSE LVEF ≤35%, absolute increase in the LVEF (LVEF change) <8%, a minimum resting wall motion score index (WMSI) of 2, a post-DSE WMSI >2.25, a minimum pulmonary artery pressure (PAP) of 30 mmHg, and nonviable myocardium had positive correlations with the short- and long-term complications of CABG. These correlations were statistically significant between a maximum pre-DSE LVEF of 25% and an LVEF change of < 8% and the operating room complications (P < 0.001) and between nonviable myocardium and the complications in the intensive care unit (ICU; P < 0.001). However, our results did not show that the peak DSE LVEF, WMSI, PAP, and nonviable myocardium were the significant predictors of death due to CABG. It appears that only a pre-LVEF of <25% is a significant predictor of death after CABG (P < 0.001). Conclusions: DSE findings were able to predict complications in the operating room and in the ICU, especially in the participants with low LVEFs.


Testing creativity in tertiary learning activities is a young field of research, and current assessment methods are difficult to apply within the diverse context of media production education, where disciplines range from journalism through to video game production. However, the concept of remix is common across this wide range of media, and offers practitioners 'endless hybridizations in language, genre, content, technique and the like' (Knobel & Lankshear, 2008, p. 22). The conceptual commonality of remix indicates that the study conclusions will have useful implications across a range of media production disciplines. This study aims to consider new methods for testing creativity in media production learning activities and to provide better assessments for learning design. This study focused upon a learner cohort of music technology students that were undertaking a work-integrated learning programme with a record label. To make the students more work-ready and inspire greater creativity, they remixed tracks recorded by professional music artists as part of a unit assessment. Subsequent self-report surveys (N = 29) found that the process of creating a 'remix' enhanced their creativity and provided suggested improvements to the design of the learning experience. Importantly, we found no relationship between the survey responses and objective assessments, indicating that the self-reported improvements in creativity were not simply a measure of how well the students performed the formally assessed tasks. Although more research is needed to establish effective measures of creativity, these findings demonstrate that self-report survey tools can be a powerful tool for measuring creativity and supporting improved iterative learning design.


The diagnosis of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) still remains a clinical challenge and the most accurate diagnostic procedure is a combination of clinical tests including invasive endoscopy. In this study we evaluated whether systematic miRNA expression profiling, in conjunction with machine learning techniques, is suitable as a non-invasive test for the major IBD phenotypes (Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC)). Based on microarray technology, expression levels of 863 miRNAs were determined for whole blood samples from 40 CD and 36 UC patients and compared to data from 38 healthy controls (HC). To further discriminate between disease-specific and general inflammation we included miRNA expression data from other inflammatory diseases (inflammation controls (IC): 24 chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), 23 multiple sclerosis, 38 pancreatitis and 45 sarcoidosis cases) as well as 70 healthy controls from previous studies. Classification problems considering 2, 3 or 4 groups were solved using different types of penalized support vector machines (SVMs). The resulting models were assessed regarding sparsity and performance and a subset was selected for further investigation. Measured by the area under the ROC curve (AUC) the corresponding median holdout-validated accuracy was estimated as ranging from 0.75 to 1.00 (including IC) and 0.89 to 0.98 (excluding IC), respectively. In combination, the corresponding models provide tools for the distinction of CD and UC as well as CD, UC and HC with expected classification error rates of 3.1 and 3.3%, respectively. These results were obtained by incorporating not more than 16 distinct miRNAs. Validated target genes of these miRNAs have been previously described as being related to IBD. For others we observed significant enrichment for IBD susceptibility loci identified in earlier GWAS. These results suggest that the proposed miRNA signature is of relevance for the etiology of IBD. Its diagnostic value, however, should be further evaluated in large, independent, clinically well characterized cohorts.


Contemporary social work with young people and their families is facing major challenges with the advent of the Internet and social media, particularly in the sphere of fostering. The identified challenges are concerned with issues of safeguarding that are related more often than not to threats outside of the familial home (Firmin, 2013). Another significant challenge includes the relevance of child protection processes and systems that are currently geared towards children under ten years of age (Gorin and Jobe, 2013; Hanson and Holmes, 2014; The Association of Directors of Children's Services, 2013 and the Department of Education, 2014).

It will be argued that the challenges outlined are being managed using a psychologically informed model of social work which is reliant upon theoretical approaches such as ecological, systems and attachment theories, all of which have a predisposition to individual pathology and the ability of the service users to change if the correct social work intervention is applied (Goodyer, 2012). This model of social work as it relates to fostered young people means that behaviours such as irresponsibility, immaturity and an inability to comprehend the possible consequences feed into the taken for granted assumption that there is a link between vulnerability and risk (Goodyer, 2012; Fursland, 2011; and Stephenson, 2009).

This discussion paper will explore how risk and vulnerability involving fostered young people and their use of the Internet and social media is managed using a psychologically informed model of social work. This exploration will not only give attention to the manifestations of this type of practice as it relates to fostered children, there will also be a focus on the shortcomings of the model. The discussion will move on to look at an alternative practice model that is informed by the sociology of childhood. An argument will be made that this model of practice can effectively be used to the meet the challenges of safeguarding fostered young people in a technological age where the importance of the mobile phone is vital as a mode of communication and connection in the often complex familial and friendship networks that characterise their lives and perception of risk (Carrick-Davies, 2012). It will also be argued that this alternative model not only provides an opportunity to develop with fostered young people a partnership that promotes a shared goal of protection but also, a way of working that allows their experiences to be heard and validated.


Phase-field modeling is emerging as a promising tool for the treatment of problems with interfaces. The classical description of interface problems requires the numerical solution of partial differential equations on moving domains in which the domain motions are also unknowns. The computational treatment of these problems requires moving meshes and is very difficult when the moving domains undergo topological changes. Phase-field modeling may be understood as a methodology to reformulate interface problems as equations posed on fixed domains. In some cases, the phase-field model may be shown to converge to the moving-boundary problem as a regularization parameter tends to zero, which shows the mathematical soundness of the approach. However, this is only part of the story because phase-field models do not need to have a moving-boundary problem associated and can be rigorously derived from classical thermomechanics. In this context, the distinguishing feature is that constitutive models depend on the variational derivative of the free energy. In all, phase-field models open the opportunity for the efficient treatment of outstanding problems in computational mechanics, such as, the interaction of a large number of cracks in three dimensions, cavitation, film and nucleate boiling, tumor growth or fully three-dimensional air-water flows with surface tension. In addition, phase-field models bring a new set of challenges for numerical discretization that will excite the computational mechanics community.


In the United States, employment rates among individuals with disabilities are persistently low but vary substantially. In this study, we examined the relationship between employment outcomes and features of the state and county physical, economic, and policy environment among a national sample of individuals with disabilities. To do so, we merged a set of state- and county-level environmental variables with data from the 2009–2011 American Community Survey accessed in a U.S. Census Research Data Center. We estimated regression models of employment, work hours, and earnings as a function of disability, personal characteristics, and these environmental features. We found that economic conditions and physical environmental variables had stronger associations than policy variables with employment outcomes. Although the estimated importance of environmental variables was small relative to individual disability and personal characteristics, our results suggest that these variables may present barriers or facilitators to employment that can explain some geographic variation in employment outcomes across the United States.


This study empirically examines the extent to which business journalism has taken over labor reporting between 1980 and 2000. The authors conduct a content analysis of The New York Times , The Washington Post, and Associated Press during this time frame. Our results note a widening gap between labor and business coverage dramatically in favor of business-oriented journalism. Business journalists now cover labor issues. Qualitative and quantitative changes in coverage are discussed, as well as the implications from these trends. The authors suggest that labor groups invest in more media and/or public relations to better convey their messages.


We test for the long-term effects of experience during youth on consumption in nontraditional taste-forming categories. A unique dataset that tracks individuals over twenty years from 1992-2011, residing in nine Chinese provinces that vary widely in both income levels and rate of economic growth, helps us identify cohort and intra-cohort "prosperity-inyouth" (PIY) effects on consumption. We first demonstrate that non-traditional category consumption increases strongly among cohorts that entered adulthood during China's boom years. We then show evidence of the intra-cohort PIY effect, controlling for individual level experience by leveraging the heterogeneity in the timing and rate of growth in prosperity across Chinese provinces. We find that the PIY effect has two dimensions– a direct effect of one's own prosperity and an indirect effect of the prosperity of one's province during youth. The indirect effects suggest that norms and aspirations created by the consumption of nontraditional categories by the surrounding rich during one's youth have significant impact on long-term consumption—almost the same magnitude as the direct effect. We conduct a large number of robustness checks; in particular, we rule out potential supply side and attitude based explanations for the PIY effect. Our results imply that segmentation and consumption forecasts based on birth cohorts and experience of prosperity can be effective for taste forming non-traditional products in emerging markets.


The main part of this thesis treats measurements in the HELIOS experiment of the production of e-mu and mu+mu-pairs in 450 GeV/c p-Be collisions. The mumu measurement covers the kinematical covers the kinematical range of 2Mmu < M < 1.5 GeV, 0.03 < xF < 0.25, and 0 < pT < 2 GeV. Production of the vector mesons rho, omega , and phi is observed. The branching ratio omega to mu+mu- is for the first time experimentally measured. The continuum at masses below the mu mass is studied, and compared with the contributions from known sources, normalized to the vector meson peaks in the mu+mu- mass spectrum, and to measurements in this experiment of the mu cross section. The res ult is compared with that of other experiments, discussed in terms of different background estimates used. A significant signal of unlike-sign e-mu-pairs is observed, forming a continuum peaking at a mass below 500 MeV. Correlations between e-mu and neutrino production are studied. The shape of the e-mu mass and missng-energy spectra indicate significant non-charm contributions. A search for lepton-number-violating decays is made, resulting in upper limits on a number of branching ratios. Also discussed here is the author's work in the DELPHI experiment, contributions that are related to analysis of heavy quark production. Keywords: muon. pair, dimuon, dilepton, lepton, low mass, continuum, eta, rho, omega, branching ratio, emu, e-mu, mue, mu-e, muon-electron, electron-muon, electron, charm, neutrino, missing energy


Changes in the balance between soil carbon storage and release can significantly amplify or attenuate global warming. Although a lot of progress has been made in determining potential drivers of carbon release through large‐scale decomposition experiments, climate predictions are still hampered by data limitation at a global scale as a result of high effort and measurement costs of comparative litter decomposition studies. We introduce an innovative, cost‐effective, well‐standardised method to gather data on decomposition rate and litter stabilisation using commercially available tea bags as standardised test kits. By using two tea types with contrasting decomposability, we can construct a decomposition curve using a single measurement in time. The acquired Tea Bag Index (TBI) consists of two parameters describing decomposition rate (k) and litter stabilisation factor (S). The method was tested for its sensitivity and robustness in contrasting ecosystems and biomes, confirming that the TBI is sensitive enough to discriminate between these systems. Within an ecosystem, TBI is responsive to differences in abiotic circumstances such as soil temperature and moisture content. The collected k and S values are in accordance with expectations based on decomposition process literature. They are therefore interpretable within the current knowledge framework. Tea Bag Index is a unique, multifunctional method requiring few resources and minimal prior knowledge. The standardisation and simplicity of the method make it possible to collect comparable, globally distributed data through crowdsourcing. TBI can further provide an excellent decomposition reference and has the potential to increase reliability of soil carbon flux estimates based on extrapolations of decomposition data.


Fixed-point iteration is an efficient technique for manual and machine calculation of normal depth. The method is applied to the solution of Manning's equation for two basic uniform flow problems in trapezoidal and circular channels. Computing normal depth when discharge and bed width, or diameter, are given, or computing bed width, or channel diameter, required to sustain a given discharge and normal depth. The iteration function has a standard form and uses only two variables, the area and hydraulic radius, for . various channel geometries. It has been tested over a wide range of the variables. Convergence to the correct normal depth occurred in an average of three to four iterations regardless of the starting value used.


A key quantity of interest in Bayesian inference are expectations of functions with respect to a posterior distribution. Markov Chain Monte Carlo is a fundamental tool to consistently compute these expectations via averaging samples drawn from an approximate posterior. However, its feasibility is being challenged in the era of so called Big Data as all data needs to be processed in every iteration. Realising that such simulation is an unnecessarily hard problem if the goal is estimation, we construct a computationally scalable methodology that allows unbiased estimation of the required expectations -- without explicit simulation from the full posterior. The scheme's variance is finite by construction and straightforward to control, leading to algorithms that are provably unbiased and naturally arrive at a desired error tolerance. This is achieved at an average computational complexity that is sub-linear in the size of the dataset and its free parameters are easy to tune. We demonstrate the utility and generality of the methodology on a range of common statistical models applied to large-scale benchmark and real-world datasets.


An interlaboratory trial was performed to assess the
transferability of a near-infrared spectral library for the identification
of 15 common solvents. Ten laboratories, recruited from the pharmaceutical
industry and academia, participated. Instruments were of both diffraction
grating and Fourier transform types using a wide range of sampling
accessories which included fibre optic probes fitted with transflectance
caps and direct transmission modules. One hundred and seventy three solvent
spectra were returned to the organising centre, of which 139 were internal
and 34 external to the spectral library. Second-derivative spectra of the
solvents over the wavelength range 1136–2000 nm were compared against
a master reference library using correlation in wavelength space with the
critical value of r set to >0.97 for a positive identification.
To compare spectra to the master library, purpose-written software was
needed to circumvent problems of incompatibility between the software of
different instrument manufacturers. Spectra originally recorded in
wavenumber were first converted to equally spaced data points in wavelength
using cubic spline interpolation. In the majority of cases high
correlations (r > 0.99) were obtained for solvents included in
the library and identified correctly. When r
⩽ 0.97 the causes
were traced to incorrect labelling, sample contamination or the use of an
uncalibrated instrument. Apart from industrial methylated spirits 74 OP,
all solvents external to the library were correctly identified as
unknowns.


The effect of ethnic violence on electoral results provides useful insights into voter behaviour and the incentives for political parties in democratic societies. Religious riots have claimed more than 14,000 lives in India since 1950. We study the effect of Hindu-Muslim riots on election results in India. We combine data on riots with electoral data on state legislature elections and control variables on demographics and public goods provision to construct a unique panel data set for 16 large states in India over a 25 year period commencing in 1977. We use a new instrument that draws upon the random variation in the day of the week that important Hindu festivals fall on in each year to isolate the causal effect of riots on electoral results. We find that riots occurring in the year preceding an election increase the vote share of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the election. We find suggestive evidence that communal polarisation is the likely mechanism driving our


Most landscape cover assessments for conservation programs rely largely on remote sensing analyses. These analyses, however, neglect how people inhabiting protected zones perceive and structure land cover. Using socio-ecological systems (SES) analysis in a forest-savanna mosaic on the Congo basin forest edge (Democratic Republic of Congo), we investigated how human practices, landscape perceptions and land use patterns affected forest cover. We conducted remote sensing analysis using a Sentinel-2 satellite image and 187 GPS landmarks, producing a land cover map with 11 classes. Our results yielded an 81.85% correspondence with additional 164 GPS landmarks, a robust score in tropical areas. We conducted forty individual interviews, eighteen focus group discussion workshops, and nine months of participant-observation of human practices to identify 19 land units and elaborate a granular SES system structuring the landscape. Integrating local knowledge and practices with general ecological and agronomic processes, we developed a landscape dynamics model revealing progressive forest colonization of savannas. Our methods demonstrate that a forest-edge landscape cover evaluation through remote sensing and local knowledge can contribute to finer-grained assessment of land cover and ecosystem services. This assessment can assist conservation efforts by considering local populations' practices on and perceptions of landscape change.


The importance of genetic factors in the pathogenesis of diseases is well established. Association between different pathologies and their gene expression may improve treatment and knowledge about them. There are some important studies about gene expression analysis and anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury. A familial relationship of ACL injuries has been described. Also, studies have shown a relationship between ACL injury and genes of different types of collagen, such as collagen type 1 (COL1A1),type 3 (COL3A1), type 5 (COL5A1), type 12 (COL12A1), type 14 (COL14A1) and type 15 (COL15A1). Nonetheless, gene factors that are responsible for metalloproteinase, proteoglycans and angiogenesis-associated signalling pathway have been correlated to the risk of ACL rupture. Despite the fact that the relationship between gene expression and genetic polymorphism and ACL injury is not nearly fully understood, current data present new interesting facts. Further studies may help us understand the actual importance of genetic factors and aetiology of ACL tears, which could ultimately lead us to new approaches in the prevention and treatment of these injuries.


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International License. ABSTRACT Italian physician Dr. Luigi Mongeri (1815–82), who graduated from the School of Medicine in Pavia and worked as chief physician at Süleymaniye and Toptaşı Lunatic Asylums, introduced important reforms that shaped modern psychiatry in the Ottoman Empire. Before the appointment to Süleymaniye, Mongeri worked as a sanitary physician in the International Quarantine Organization from 1840 to 1849. This article examines Mongeri's encounter with epidemics while focusing on his work on cholera. With this in mind, I will try to bring Mongeri's experiences and challenges to today's scenario and discuss them within the context of COVID-19 pandemic. A physician's life during cholera years does not teach us directly about today's pandemic, but learning from a physician's perspective may show us how the epidemics and pandemics are not merely matters of health, but also matters of politics and behavioural patterns of the society.


In this dissertation we consider some boundary value and stability problems
for electro-active soft rubberlike materials which withstand finite deformations elastically.
In the beginning we consider in detail the problem of finite deformation of a pressurized
electroelastic circular cylindrical tube with closed ends with compliant electrodes at its
curved boundaries. Expressions for the dependence of the pressure and reduced axial
load on the deformation and a potential difference between the electrodes, or uniform
surface charge distributions, are obtained in respect of a general isotropic electroelastic
energy function. To illustrate the behaviour of the tube specific forms of energy functions
accounting for different mechanical properties coupled with a deformation independent
quadratic dependence on the electric field are used for numerical purposes, for a given
potential difference and separately for a given charge distribution. Numerical dependences
of the non-dimensional pressure and reduced axial load on the deformation are obtained for
the considered energy functions. Results are then given for the thin-walled approximation
as a limiting case of a thick-walled cylindrical tube without restriction on the energy
function. The theory provides a general basis for the detailed analysis of the electroelastic
response of tubular dielectric elastomer actuators, which is illustrated for a fixed axial load
in the absence of internal pressure and fixed internal pressure in the absence of an applied
axial load.
Using the theory of small incremental electroelastic deformations superimposed on an
electroelastic finitely deformed body, we then look for solutions of underlying configurations
which are different from perfect cylindrical shape of the tube. First, we consider
prismatic bifurcations. We obtain the solutions which show that for neo-Hookean electroelastic material prismatic modes of bifurcation become possible under inflation. This
result is different from the pure mechanical case considered previously in Haughton and Ogden
(1979), because in Haughton and Ogden (1979) prismatic bifurcation modes were found
only for an externally pressurised tube. Second, we consider axisymmetric bifurcations,
and we obtain results for neo-Hookean and Mooney-Rivlin electroelastic energy functions.
Our solutions show that in the presence of an electric field the electroelastic tube become
more unstable: axisymmetric bifurcations become possible at lower values of circumferential
stretches as compared with the values of circumferential stretches found for analogous
problems solved for electromechanically indifferent materials, or equivalently, when electric
field is not present.
Within similar lines we consider the bifurcation of a thick-walled electroelastic spherical shell with compliant electrodes at its curved boundaries under internal and external
pressure. The solutions obtained for neo-Hookean electroelastic energy function show that
in some cases axisymmetric modes of bifurcation become possible under inflation in the
presence of electric field.


INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: Gender-affirming vaginoplasty is a surgery to create the female vulva and vaginal canal for those people assigned male sex at birth who have gender dysphoria. Dissection of the neovagina space can be particularly challenging, with risk of injury to anal and urethral sphincters, urethra, and rectum. We present our surgical technique for vaginal canal dissection in gender-affirming vaginoplasty. METHODS: Our technique for creation of the neovaginal space follows the Young approach to perineal prostatectomy. We sharply dissect a space between the anal canal/rectum and the urethra to the level of the apex of the prostate, then enter the potential space between the ventral rectal fascia and Denonvillier's fascia. We then complete the dissection bluntly to the peritoneal reflection. A Lowsley retractor is used to guide the dissection through the ventral rectal fascia into the potential space between it and Denonvillier's fascia, covering the dorsal surface of the prostate. Bimanual examination with a finger in the rectum is used throughout to confirm that we are not dissecting into the rectal wall. RESULTS: Out of 165 primary feminizing gender-affirming genital surgeries performed by the senior author between May 1, 2016 and November 1, 2018, 135 (82%) included dissection and construction of a neovaginal canal. The average patient age was 40.5 years old with average body mass index of 27.4. At the time of surgery, the median vaginal depth was 14cm, and the mean was 13.7cm, range 10cm-15cm. Complications specific to this portion of the surgery include full-thickness rectal wall injury, recognized and repaired in 2 patients. One of these patients later developed a rectovaginal fistula. Two addition patients had recognized injury to the muscular wall of the rectum, repaired without further complication. One patient had a recognized urethral injury repaired, who later had minor stress urinary incontinence that resolved spontaneously. CONCLUSIONS: Neovaginal canal dissection for gender affirming vaginoplasty can be challenging. Frequent palpation for the Lowsley retractor with digital rectal examination are important steps to guide safe dissection, and patience during dissection around the apex of the prostate is critical to avoid injury to the urethral sphincter or rectum. Figure. No caption available. Source of Funding: None


Self-selection by more food-needy households into the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly called the Food Stamp Program) makes it difficult to observe positive effects of the program in survey data. This study investigates self-selection and ameliorative program effects by examining households' food security month by month for several months prior to initial receipt of SNAP benefits and for several months after joining the program. Two-year panels are constructed by matching the same households interviewed in the Current Population Survey Food Security Supplement in 2 consecutive years using data from 2001 to 2006. Food security is observed to deteriorate in the 6 months prior to beginning to receive SNAP benefits and to improve shortly after. The results clearly demonstrate the self-selection by households into SNAP at a time when they are more severely food insecure. The results are consistent with a moderate ameliorative effect of SNAP—reducing the prevalence of very low food security among recent entrants by about one-third—although they do not conclusively demonstrate that extent of amelioration.


Physical pain may, in many cases be considered as a psychic symptom, in the same way as anxiety, depression and obsession. This is the main thesis of this work which demonstrates, with the help of many clinical case studies, that chronic pain (for which tests reveal no physical cause) always has its origin in a childhood which is seriously lacking in affection. The book presents a fascinating theoretical description of pain, with particular reference to Freud's ideas on the subject, and a detailed account of the treatment by analytical psychotherapy of patients suffering from chronic pain


Abstract The turtle fauna of the Middle Jurassic Xiashaximiao Formation in the Sichuan Basin and the type series of Chengyuchelys baenoides Young & Chow, 1953 are revised. By the absence of a mesoplastron and other shell characters, both the holotype and paratype of Chengyuchelys baenoides belong to the family Xinjiangchelyidae and come probably from the Upper Jurassic Shangshaximiao Formation. The Middle Jurassic turtle assemblage of the Sichuan Basin is composed of two entities: the Bashuchelyidae fam. nov. (Bashuchelys gen. nov., Chuannanchelys gen. nov.) and Protoxinjiangchelys gen. nov. on the one hand, and Sichuanchelys on the other hand, with the former as the dominant group. Bashuchelyids and xinjiangchelyids are closely related to one another, while Sichuanchelys is more primitive and has no shared apomorphic features with bashuchelyids. The whole assemblage appears to be endemic to the Sichuan Basin at genus level and distinct from the Late Jurassic turtle fauna of the same basin in its relict nature and absence of the Polycryptodira.


This paper is about the everyday occurrence of coming across an object in the world and evaluating whether or not it is up for grabs. My project explores the shared space at the precipice of the laws of finders, abandonment, destruction, and conversion: a space we often inhabit, but wherein our rights in relation to an object are indiscernible ex ante under current law. I propose a system by which actors and courts may evaluate the reasonableness of a person's actions from the moment he or she chooses to acquire a chattel unilaterally. My system derives from the signals chattels convey to us—signals that have everything to do with context and little or nothing to do with value.


A high-resolution laser Doppler velocimeter with an optical-fiber pickup has been developed, and we have succeeded for the first time in measuring velocities of pulsatile blood flows in femoral and coronary arteries of mongrel dogs. The measurements were in real time with 100-microm spatial and 8-msec temporal resolutions, using a 150-m long fiber to reach the animal operation laboratory from the optics laboratory.


Abstract The aim of this work was to determine the distribution of trace metals in the coastal sediments from the area between Silifke and Alanya (Turkey) and to investigate the sources of these elements, based on their mineralogical, petrographical and geochemical characteristics. Forty three samples were analysed for the determination of their water content, grain-size distribution, petrographical features and their chemical and mineralogical compositions. The samples had low water content, in agreement with the large sand grain size. The mineralogical composition reflects the complex geological setting of the area. The most abundant mineral phases are represented by calcite and dolomite, followed by quartz and mica. Chlorite, feldspar and other carbonates are present in lesser amounts, while kaolinite was detected in one sample only. All samples contain hematite, chromite, magnetite and goethite and one sample contained pyrite. Samples with high concentrations of trace metals, contained fragments of metamorphic rocks with pyroxene, amphibole, quartz and feldspar, whereas carbonates and opaque minerals were subordinate. Compared to literature data, the average concentrations of several elements and trace metals were great enough to be considered as possibly toxic, exceeding the Turkish higher acceptable limits. Geochemical data were treated statistically using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to obtain evidence of their distribution and to identify any correlations. Based on the distribution of mineral phases, the area investigated was divided into different provinces, each characterized by the abundance of one, or more, tracer minerals. In the westernmost areas, between Alanya and Demirtas, the sediments indicate a provenance from dolomites or marbles. In the area between Demirtas and Gazipasa the provenance was from quartzites, clastic and metamorphic rocks and in the sector between Guney and Anamur, the sediments were derived mostly from low-grade metamorphic rocks, in particular metaschists and metabasites. The sediments in the area between Anamur and Ovacik, display variable source rocks and those between Ovacik and Silifke, were derived from limestones and, subordinately, clastic rocks. The trace-metal concentrations in beach sands appear to be related to the abundance of silicate minerals derived from weathering of the metamorphic-rock outcrops in the inland mountainous regions. In contrast, the trace-metal contents of the limestone- and dolomite-bearing beach sands were small.


In this paper we extend the research on happiness and spatial theory of voting by exploring whether strategic and sincere voting affect subjective well-being. We conduct the analysis with data on a large sample of individuals over 50 elections in 16 OECD countries. The results of the analysis show the existence of a negative effect of strategic voting on subjective well-being. In addition, the likelihood of being satisfied decreases when individuals vote strategically for a political party that wins the electoral race. Furthermore, when we analyse separately left-wing and right-wing voters, we find that the described effect holds for left-wing voters but no for right-wing voters. We discuss this evidence in the light of expressive voting theory (Hilman, 2010) and lack of empathy with future selves (Kahneman and Thaler, 1991). Our results are robust to different measures of strategic voting and subjective well-being.


AC electromagnetic trackers are well suited for head tracking but are adversely affected by conductive and ferromagnetic materials. Tracking performance can be improved by mapping the tracking volume to produce coefficients that correct position and orientation (PnO) measurements caused by stationary distorting materials. The mapping process is expensive and time consuming, requiring complicated high-precision equipment to provide registration of the measurements to the source reference frame. In this study, we develop a new approach to mapping that provides registration of mapping measurements without precision equipment. Our method, i.e., the interpolation volume calibration system, uses two simple fixtures, each with multiple sensors in a rigid geometry, to determine sensor PnO in a distorted environment without mechanical measurements or other tracking technologies. We test our method in a distorted tracking environment, constructing a lookup table of the magnetic field that is used as the basis for distortion compensation. The new method compares favorably with the traditional approach providing a significant reduction in cost and effort.


Microelectrode techniques were used on epidermal peels of Avicennia germinans to characterize functional aspects of secretion in salt glands. Increasing the concentrations of K+, Na+, or Mg++ in the bath medium decreased the measured transcellular voltage and resistance. The velocity and magnitude of these transcellular depolarizations varied: K+ > Na+ > Mg++ >> Cl-. Increasing the pH of the incubation medium from 5.5 to 7.0 reduced both the rate and the magnitude of voltage decrease when Na+ concentration was changed; tissue incubated at pH 8.0 did not form secretion droplets. Transcellular depolarizations resulting from concentration shifts of K+ from 10 to 100 mM were partially suppressed in the presence of La+++. The voltage decrease accompanying changes in K+ concentration was partially blocked by tetraethyl ammonium chloride (TEA) but not in Na+. Niflumic acid reduced the magnitude of the transcellular voltage with increased K+ concentration but did not affect the velocity. The small voltage decrease accompanying changes in Cl- concentration was not affected by either TEA or niflumic acid (NA). 2-4-Dinitrophenol (DNP), sodium azide, and vanadate markedly reduced the rapidity and the magnitude of voltage decrease accompanying increases in concentration of K+, Na+, or Mg++. Ion concentrations in secretion droplets indicated that a considerable cation flux occurred across epidermal peels of A germinans in regions where there were salt glands. Salt secretion is best explained by a modified chemiosmotic hypothesis where cation channels and/or permeases work in concert with the electrochemical proton gradient generated by the plasma membrane H+/ATPase.


Commemorations as part of ceremonial politics normally are dialogues, speeches and symbolic actions (laying wreaths or lighting candles) between representatives and inside audiences. A TV transmission makes TV viewers another audience participating in an outside dialogue. The BBC transmission of the first UK Holocaust Memorial Day consisted of commemorative and informative discourses (aiming at "Lessons of the Holocaust") realized in footage, documentaries, testimonies, musical performances, addresses, voice-over texts, etc. Its complexity asks for a multimodal discourse analysis informed by documentary film audience design analysis. When do we find congruence amongst the modes (words, pictures, sounds, music and their respective sub-modes) under investigation, and when do we find incongruence? The focus is on TV viewers who overhear and oversee multimodal commemorative and informative performances. A transcription of the TV transmission is the main source of the analysis.


There is a long history of hyperthermia in oncology, but its wide range acceptance and application are missing even today. A new approach of oncological hyperthermia, oncothermia, looks promising modality of the complementary treatment of advanced malignant cases. Our present paper is targeting this method, trying to answer the question of its feasibility to treat various advanced cases in monotherapy process, as well as its applicability for a long, large number of treatment sessions protocols.


Permafrost is one of the essential climate variables addressed by the Global Terrestrial Observing System (GCOS). Remote sensing data provide area-wide monitoring of e.g. surface temperatures or soil surface status (frozen or thawed state) in the Arctic and Subarctic, where ground data collection is difficult and restricted to local measurements at few monitoring sites. The task of the ESA Data User Element (DUE) Permafrost project is to build-up an Earth observation service for northern high-latitudinal permafrost applications with extensive involvement of the international permafrost research community (www.ipf.tuwien.ac.at/permafrost). The satellite-derived DUE Permafrost products are Land Surface Temperature, Surface Soil Moisture, Surface Frozen and Thawed State, Digital Elevation Model (locally as remote sensing product and circumpolar as non-remote sensing product) and Subsidence, and Land Cover. Land Surface Temperature, Surface Soil Moisture, and Surface Frozen and Thawed State will be provided for the circumpolar permafrost area north of 55° N with 25 km spatial resolution. In addition, regional products with higher spatial resolution were developed for five case study regions in different permafrost zones of the tundra and taiga (Laptev Sea [RU], Central Yakutia [RU], Western Siberia [RU], Alaska N-S transect, [US] Mackenzie River and Valley [CA]).
This study shows the evaluation of two DUE Permafrost regional products, Land Surface Temperature and Surface Frozen and Thawed State, using freely available ground truth data from the Global Terrestrial Network of Permafrost (GTN-P) and monitoring data from the Russian-German Samoylov research station in the Lena River Delta (Central Siberia, RU). The GTN-P permafrost monitoring sites with their position in different permafrost zones are highly qualified for the validation of DUE Permafrost remote sensing products. Air and surface temperatures with high-temporal resolution from eleven GTN-P sites in Alaska and four sites in Siberia were used to match up LST products. Daily average GTN-P borehole- and air temperature data for three Alaskan and six Western Siberian sites were used to evaluate surface frozen and thawed. First results are promising and demonstrate the great benefit of freely available ground truth databases for remote sensing products.


Accurate activation energies for 67 hydrocarbon radical addition and β-scission reactions are calculated with the CBS-QB3 ab initio method. An extension of Benson's group additivity method to activation energies is introduced. The underlying hypotheses, that is, the group concept and the additivity approximation, are validated with ab initio data. Standard activation group additivity values are obtained from the ab initio calculations for reactions involving primary, secondary, tertiary alkylic, allylic, benzylic, and vinylic radicals. The proposed group contribution method yields accurate activation energies for radical addition and for β-scission reactions. The effect of substituents on the carbon atoms of the reactive center on the activation energy can be as large as 95 kJ/mol for the adding radical, and 187 kJ/mol for the product radical of the β-scission. Non-nearest-neighbor effects such as gauche and cis interactions have an influence of less than 3 kJ/mol per interaction on the activation energies. However, for hydrocarbons that are heavily branched near the reactive center, these interactions can become important. © 2004 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 50: 426–444, 2004


Diminishing ice presence in the Arctic provides the potential for extended operable period for oil and gas exploration in the Arctic. Floaters are a flexible solution for such scenario whereas they can fully take advantage of the extended drilling season as well as operate in other harsh environment regions during the off-season. Such floaters can disconnect and reconnect to avoid large ice features such as icebergs and multi-year ice ridges. However, they still need to encounter relatively large level ice. Accompanying icebreakers will ideally assist in breaking the level ice into manageable pieces. The interaction of such level ice floes with floater has a significant influence on the dynamic ice load on the floater and resulting mooring load. There is significant uncertainty in the simulation of level ice-floater interaction numerically. Most of the current research focuses on the influence of ice breaking and subsequent flow of the broken ice around the floater. However, the hydrodynamic load due to the incoming level ice will also affect the response of the floater, which is usually not simulated. A recent study simulated the multibody hydrodynamics of level ice and floater Such multibody hydrodynamic analysis is computationally expensive, and complexity in the modelling is a hindrance to its implementation in the design phase. The present study, therefore, employs a conservative estimation to include the effect of wave load on the floater in addition to the ice load. Parametric studies are performed to estimate this effect by varying the incoming wave amplitude and wave period, ice sheet thickness, ice drift velocity, floater's hull angle, mooring stiffness and the distance of large ice-sheet from the floater. Significant impacts of waves on the floater in terms of total force are observed which clearly reflects the importance of this study. The effect of mooring stiffness on total load is also investigated at the end of this study which can be considered as a foundation for further research on optimizing the mooring stiffness for such kind of arctic floater.


This second volume of Migration and Society marks our continued intellectual engagement with authors, artists, and guest editors to make the journal a dynamic platform for exchange and debate across disciplines and fields of thought and action around the issue of migration. Migration
continues to be an ongoing issue of global import, and in the past few years we have seen powerful stakeholders around the world developing processes, dialogues, policies, and programs to respond to the challenges and questions that it raises. As editors of Migration and Society, we remain committed to the importance of fostering critical examinations of, and reflections on, migration and the way it is framed and understood by all actors. As these processes and policies have increasingly aimed to "control," "manage," "contain," and "prevent" migration, the need for careful attention to migrants' everyday practices, desires, aspirations, and fears is particularly urgent, as is the importance of situating these both historically and geographically.


Motivation We introduce TRONCO (TRanslational ONCOlogy), an open-source R package that implements the state-of-the-art algorithms for the inference of cancer progression models from (epi)genomic mutational profiles. TRONCO can be used to extract population-level models describing the trends of accumulation of alterations in a cohort of cross-sectional samples, e.g., retrieved from publicly available databases, and individual-level models that reveal the clonal evolutionary history in single cancer patients, when multiple samples, e.g., multiple biopsies or single-cell sequencing data, are available. The resulting models can provide key hints in uncovering the evolutionary trajectories of cancer, especially for precision medicine or personalized therapy. Availability TRONCO is released under the GPL license, it is hosted in the Software section at http://bimib.disco.unimib.it/ and archived also at bioconductor.org. Contact email@example.com


ABSTRACT This article investigates two accounts of political propaganda in autocratic regimes. One argues that propaganda's content does not matter substantively and that propaganda is mostly a signal of the regime's overwhelming power over citizens. A second argues that propaganda is substantively meaningful: autocrats may communicate strategically either by attracting attention through highlighting the regime's strengths or by distracting attention away from the regime's malperformance. Using nearly 135,000 North Korean state-generated news articles between 1997 and 2018 we show that North Korea systematically adjusted its communication strategies following the leadership transfer from Kim Jong Il to Kim Jong Un.


The purpose of this study is to undestand the effect and mechanism of preventing ultrafiltration(UF) membrane fouling by using magnetic ion exchange resin (MIEX R ) in terms of fractional compent and molecular weight of NOM. In the experiment, pretreatment decreasing trans-membrane pressure and preventing membrane fouling were studied. The result showed: when the MIEX R dosage reached 800 bed volume ( BV ), the polymeric aluminium chloride (PAC) dosage could be reduced to 14 mg/L, and the Trans-Membrane Pressure (TMP) could be recovered effectively after hydraulic flush. This pretreatment could remove most of the hydrophobic and hydrophilic charged organics as well as some neutral organics. F oulants of molecular weight (MW) < 1000 dalton (Da) and 3000 Da < MW < 100,000 Da organics could be removed by 40.7% and 96.0%, respectively. By reducing pore blocking and membrane cake resistance, the ultrafiltration (UF) membrane reduced the total resistance of membrane. As a result, membrane fouling was alleviated and the water production ratio was enhanced.


This paper describes a portable collecting light, designed by the authors, that weighs 0.3 kg, is powered by 8 AA batteries, and uses 9 light-emitting diodes (LEDs) to attract night-flying insects. Five different wavelengths of these LED lights, all within the long-wave ultraviolet spectrum, were compared to each other and to a commercially-available 15w fluorescent ultraviolet tube light for their abilities to collect insects over a series of 5 nights in July 2016. There was no difference in order richness, total specimen abundance, or the specimen abundance of most common orders between any of the wavelengths tested. Most LED wavelengths, however, caught fewer Diptera specimens than the fluorescent tube light, largely due to a lower abundance of chironomid midges. Differences in specimen abundance were greater based on sampling date or specific sampling location than based on type of collecting light. Due to their greater portability and possibly lower bycatch of Diptera, these new LED lights are presented as a potential alternative to ultraviolet tube lights.


Reinforcement learning tasks are typically specified as Markov decision processes. This formalism has been highly successful, though specifications often couple the dynamics of the environment and the learning objective. This lack of modularity can complicate generalization of the task specification, as well as obfuscate connections between different task settings, such as episodic and continuing. In this work, we introduce the RL task formalism, that provides a unification through simple constructs including a generalization to transition-based discounting. Through a series of examples, we demonstrate the generality and utility of this formalism. Finally, we extend standard learning constructs, including Bellman operators, and extend some seminal theoretical results, including approximation errors bounds. Overall, we provide a well-understood and sound formalism on which to build theoretical results and simplify algorithm use and development.


For research to have a positive impact on society, it is essential that it is scientifically credible. The researcher plays a key role in establishing and maintaining credibility, particularly in the field of climate change. This paper provides a structure for relating the credibility of researchers themselves to that of research outputs, analysing ?researcher credibility? with reference to three overlapping domains: personal, professional and public. The researcher?s role in each domain is considered in a reflexive way, examining the process of research and the researcher?s own actions. The varied definitions of researcher credibility and possible means to achieve it in each domain are discussed, drawing on relevant literature and the perspectives and experiences of the authors. We argue that, in certain contexts, the actions of researchers can have a direct impact on the credibility of their research. More public-oriented definitions of researcher credibility have merit but may be contentious, as there are potential conflicts between public action and professional credibility, with the latter usually takingprecedence. By contrast, personal action (or inaction) rarely affects professional credibility, but the personal behaviours of researchers may influence public perceptions of the credibility of research and even of the importance of addressing climate change.


Arthur Chapman and James Woodcock have collaborated before: Woodcock extended Chapman's familiar casual metaphor of the final straw breaking a poor abused camel's back. Here, they collaborate more explicitly to suggest a means of teaching students to produce adequately nuanced historical explanation. Their two central ideas are to produce a decisionmaking simulation (using PowerPoint) to enable students to make the kinds of decisions that might have faced participants in the Abyssinian crisis, and to ask students to design a game to simulate the process. The effect of these activities is to leave students with a fantastic level of detailed knowledge of the events of the Abyssinian crisis – a knowledge obtained as far as possible without using hindsight. Their students are also inspired by creating a game to think carefully about the relative importance of each part of the causal explanation. Chapman and Woodcock's prose – and the students' responses – are rich with causal metaphors which might aid students' understanding. This article also contains a rich analysis of the types of causal errors students make – and why they are errors, and what to do about them. Most importantly, though, it brings exciting, active teaching and learning to GCSE history, in a manner bound to engage students of all abilities.


Biomass is a promising renewable energy resource despite its low energy density, high moisture content and complex ash components. The use of biomass in energy production is considered to be approximately carbon neutral, and if it is combined with carbon capture technology, the overall energy conversion may even be negative in terms of net CO2 emission, which is known as BECCS (bioenergy with carbon capture and storage). The initial development of BECCS technologies often proposes the installation of a CO2 capture unit downstream of the conventional thermochemical conversion processes, which comprise combustion, pyrolysis or gasification. Although these approaches would benefit from the adaptation of already well developed energy conversion processes and CO2 capture technologies, they are limited in terms of materials and energy integration as well as systems engineering, which could lead to truly disruptive technologies for BECCS. Recently, a new generation of transformative energy conversion technologies including chemical looping have been developed. In particular, chemical looping employs solid looping materials and it uniquely allows inherent capture of CO2 during the conversion of fuels. In this review, the benefits, challenges, and prospects of biomass-based chemical looping technologies in various configurations have been discussed in-depth to provide important insight into the development of innovative BECCS technologies based on chemical looping.


The applicability of 231Pa/230Th as a tracer for the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is still a great matter of discussion. Recently published results from the Bermuda Rise [1] challenged the idea of interpreting high 231Pa/230Th ratios as reduced AMOC during cold events like Younger Dryas or Heinrich-1 [2].
Although the effect of particle flux and particle composition has been studied and modelled in detail [3][4],
there are still significant gaps in both our understanding of this proxy and in the spatial coverage of downcore 231Pa/230Th data. Applying ICP-MS and (newly) low energy AMS [5], we measured 231Pa/230Th profiles along a transect from the North-(ODP 983), to the West- (ODP 1063) and South-(ODP 1089)Atlantic Ocean covering the past 30,000 yr.
During Heinrich-Events 1 and 2, ODP 1063 reveals high 231Pa/230Th, but also high diatom abundances. ODP 983 displays extreme holocene 231Pa/230Th values during times of
vigorous AMOC accompanied by increased diatom appearance, too. This qualitative concordance of 231Pa/230Th and diatom abundance may point to the conclusion that high 231Pa/230Th are not solely caused by diminished AMOC but also may be influenced by a change of the prevailing water mass (e. g. the injection of southern and silicate rich waters to
the North-Atlantic). The Southern Atlantic Site (ODP 1089),
in contrast, remained under the influence of 231Pa-depleted
Antarctic Bottom Waters reflected by constantly low 231Pa/230Th ratios below the production ratio of 0.093.


In this study the biotreatability of Jebel Chakir landfill leachate (Tunisia) using a mixture of dairy industry reject (bactofugate) and Aloe sp. leaf gel was evaluated. The effect of Aloe gel fermentation using Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast strain was investigated against some selected bacterial and fungal strains. The inoculation size effect of the treatment mixtures (2, 6, 10 and 12%) in the treatment efficiency was also studied. The obtained results showed that when natural Aloe gel and bactofugate mixtures were used the recorded chemical oxygen demand removal rates exceeded 56% within 48 h of treatment. Whereas, the use of the fermented Aloe gel in the treatment mixtures has promoted the organic matter removal to reach 72%.


Radiotherapy in the treatment of pediatric brain tumors is often associated with debilitating late-appearing adverse effects, such as intellectual impairment. Areas in the brain harboring stem cells are particularly sensitive to irradiation (IR) and loss of these cells may contribute to cognitive deficits. It has been demonstrated that IR-induced inflammation negatively affects neural progenitor differentiation. In this study, we used mice lacking the third complement component (C3−/−) to investigate the role of complement in a mouse model of IR-induced injury to the granule cell layer (GCL) of the hippocampus. C3−/− and wild type (WT) mice received a single, moderate dose of 8 Gy to the brain on postnatal day 10. The C3−/− mice displayed 55 % more microglia (Iba-1+) and a trend towards increase in proliferating cells in the GCL compared to WT mice 7 days after IR. Importantly, months after IR C3−/− mice made fewer errors than WT mice in a reversal learning test indicating better learning capacity in C3−/− mice after IR. Notably, months after IR C3−/− and WT mice had similar GCL volumes, survival of newborn cells (BrdU), microglia (Iba-1) and astrocyte (S100β) numbers in the GCL. In summary, our data show that the complement system contributes to IR-induced loss of proliferating cells and maladaptive inflammatory responses in the acute phase after IR, leading to impaired learning capacity in adulthood. Targeting the complement system is hence promising for future strategies to reduce the long-term adverse consequences of IR in the young brain.


Carbon nanotube networks in biopolymer solutions are explored as potential ink systems for the extrusion printing of conducting structures. The biopolymer gellan gum is found to act as an excellent dispersant of multiwalled carbon nanotubes and has the appropriate flow properties to act as a thickener for the controlled dispensing of carbon nanotube networks. Absorbing substrates are found to improve the resolution and the flexibility of the printed structures. These printed conducting carbon nanotube networks exhibit interesting mechanical and electrical characteristics, which are applied to demonstrate their actuating and strain gauging capabilities.


Abstract
 We evaluated the relationships among species in the genus Gelidiella using 47 rbcL and 29 COI sequences, including those from 18 specimens collected in Madagascar. Molecular analyisis revealed the presence of three major lineages among Magalasy Gelidiella which were assigned, based on morpho-anatomical observation, to Gelidiella acerosa, G. ligulata and a so far not described species for which we here proposed the name G. incrassata. Both molecular and morphological data demonstrated the presence of three species in Madagascar: the G. acerosa complex, G. ligulata, and G. incrassata sp. nov., described here. Gelidiella incrassata was collected on small gravel from the intertidal down to a depth of 14 m on the southeast coast of Madagascar. It is distinguished by its large size (up to 7 cm), opposite to alternate ramuli, thick-walled cortical and medullary cells, and stalked tetrasporangial stichidia with irregular arrangement of tetrasporangia. Phylogenetic analyses of rbcL and COI sequences revealed the sister relationship between G. incrassata and G. fanii from southeast Asia and Hawaii. Gelidiella acerosa comprised three genetic groups in Madagascar, each being genetically distinct (pairwise distances, 4.9–8.3% for COI and 1.2–2.3% for rbcL). Further sampling of G. acerosa is needed before taxonomic revisions can be proposed. The distribution of G. ligulata is expanded to include the southwest Indian Ocean.


An approximate expression of a Bessel-Gaussian beam (BGB) with desired topological charge is introduced using a coherence superposition of decentered Gaussian beams (dGBs). And based on such an expression and the extended Huygens-Fresnel principle, the propagation properties of BGBs traveling in turbulent atmosphere are explored. An analytical expression of the average intensity of a BGB with phase singularity propagating through turbulent atmosphere is obtained and analyzed numerically. It is found that intensity profiles of BGBs experienced successive variations and the phase singularity rapidly fades away during propagating in turbulent atmosphere.


Breaking out of your mental and emotional prison and deepening the range of perception enables you to link inner reflection and vision--the mental, emotional, instinctive, imaginal, spiritual, and the subtle bodily awareness--with social, political action and lived experiences to generate subversive knowledges.--Gloria Anzaldua (2002: 542) IN ADDITION TO BEING ARTISTS, ELOY TARCISIO, FRANCISCO TOLEDO, LUIS ZARATE, Niceforo Urbieta, and Marcela, Vera, whose work I discuss here, have been protagonists in several of Mexico s contemporary social movements. Yet their role as social change agents is not well understood or appreciated by most scholars of social movements. Perhaps, in part, this is because the dominant structures of modern European thought make it difficult to readily comprehend what performance artist Maris Bustamante (a contributor to this issue) has often told me is a distinct logic at work in Mexico, where culture is deeply influenced by pre-colonial, indigenous structures of thought and aesthetics. I am not suggesting a genetic phenomenon in which contemporary Mexicans inherited some biologically distinct sense of time, space, beauty, and rationality. I am referring to the sociocultural reality of indigenous memory, as described by historian Enrique Florescano (1999): in Mexico's syncretistic cultures, despite the Spaniards' determined efforts at cultural eradication, core structures and values from pre-Hispanic thought have been reproduced (and transformed) in daily life through symbols, rituals, ceremonies, fiestas, popular sayings, myths, oral histories, and the like. (1) (Consider, as one obvious example, Mexican Catholicism: All Saints/All Souls days are fundamentally enactments of pre-Hispanic beliefs about death, and for many the Virgin of Guadalupe is another manifestation of the Nahuatl-speaking people's Tonantzin and the Oaxacan Christ, el Senor del Rayo, is the Zapotec's last emperor.) The work of the artists I describe below is, in one form or another, about the recovery and re-creation of social memory and historical systems of thought and knowledge within contemporary conditions. And therein lay their contributions to movements for social change. Until somewhat recently, such cultural phenomena were largely unrecognized by social movement scholars and activists alike. Much of the social science literature on social movements, like modern European approaches to knowledge, emphasized the "rational," "objective," and quantifiable elements of movements: their composition, organization, resources, and measurable outcomes. For scholars like me, who did a youthful tour of duty in the Marxist-Leninist Left, such tendencies were reinforced by our laser-like focus on winning state power for the proletariat. However, a decade ago, social movement theorist Alberto Melucci (1996: 68) noted "a renewed interest in cultural analysis which corresponds to a shift towards new questions about how people make sense of their world, how they relate to texts, practices, and artifacts rendering these cultural products meaningful to them." Our understanding of social movements and social change in general had begun to respond to a variety of developments inside and outside the academy. Feminist scholars such as Donna Haraway (1988) dared us to question any claims of "objectivity," insisting that all knowledge is "situated" and "embodied." Scholars of race and ethnicity, such as Stuart Hall (1994), argued for the centrality of culture, claiming that all identities are constructed within representation. And on the ground, a plethora of new social movements were clearly ignoring the wisdom of counsel to keep their eyes on the prize of party building, proletarian revolution, economic modernization, and state power. An anthology edited by Alvarez, Dagnino, and Escobar (1998: 7) is an excellent example of an approach to social movements that recognizes the centrality of cultural processes of representation and signification. …


Management of the drip irrigation system requires proper knowledge of the system, climate and suitable environmental conditions for the cultivated crops. To achieve good management practices for drip irrigation, the impacts of climate variables on plant growth and production during different seasons should be understood. The planning of irrigation system and installation of components in the right way is considered one of the most essential matters to ensure the highest efficiency possible use of available irrigation water and allows the plants to benefit from the most water used. Assessment of the irrigation system and improving its efficiency involves many variables, the details concerning the parts of the irrigation system and also the method of its management and maintenance. Periodic maintenance of the irrigation system is very important, especially when the irrigation system is compact and by drip, for the sustainability of the irrigation system and ensure no poor distribution of water efficiency. The maintenance includes repair and replaces any of the parts of the irrigation system to prevent leaks and closures. Also, it includes maintenance and washing the filter and irrigation pipes to remove the accumulated impurities and salts. This paper describes the drip irrigation system components, installation, and management of the users which are required for the different stakeholders in the agricultural sector.


THE EFFECTS OF DISCRETE EMOTIONS ON RISKY DECISION MAKING by Hoeun Sim Contrary to the dominant view that generally equates feelings with poor thinking, converging evidence indicates that decisions – including those involving risk – are influenced by affective experiences. Research, however, is limited to studies on undifferentiated, global positive versus negative mood states; less is known about the influence of discrete emotions. The purpose of this research was to extend the affectcognition literature by (a) examining the effects of discrete emotions varying along the dimensions of valence and arousal, and (b) identifying the systematic ways that discrete emotions underlie risky decision making. We used a set of emotion-laden IAPS images to elicit and compare the impact of incidental emotions on risky decision making. One hundred and twenty-two undergraduate students were randomly assigned to one of the four affective conditions: excitement, contentment, fear, and sadness. Following the emotion induction procedure, participants completed the Choice Dilemmas Questionnaire (CDQ) to assess their risk-taking propensity. Results indicated an interaction effect between valence and arousal for positive emotions, such that excited participants were significantly more risky in their decision making compared to contented participants. The discussion focuses on the theoretical and practical health implications of these findings. We recommend that future research capitalize on the insights gained from emotion research and use it favorably to improve decision making under risk.


# Background

Factors in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) that lead to excess mortality and poor maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH) include poor nutrition, lack of adequate services for antenatal (ANC) and postnatal care (PNC), poor immunization coverage for women and children, elevated rated of malaria and low treatment rates, inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene, and increased rates of gender based violence.

# Objective

To analyze the impact of a modified Champion Community Approach (CCA) implemented in DRC on MNCH indicators.

# Methods

Implemented in four provinces and 34 health zones in DRC, this modified CCA utilized a bottom up and inclusive approach and eliminated competition and the top down approach first used in Madagascar in the 1990s. Action plans and accountability were built into the approach with steering and executive committees for mentorship and guidance with the inclusion of all community structures into the approach. A unique modification to the approach included income generation and development of the champion community into a non-governmental organization (NGO). Utilizing District Health Information System (DHIS2), MNCH indicators were analyzed to assess differences between health areas with a Champion Community compared with health areas with no Champion Community.

# Results

Between 2012 and 2017, 73 Champion Communities were developed. Among health areas with Champion Communities compared with health areas with no champion community, there were statistically significant increases in health area indicator rates in antenatal care (48%), early and exclusive breastfeeding (77%), family planning (55%), assisted birth (50%) and decreased moderate malnutrition rates (44%).

# Conclusion

The modified CCA implemented in DRC was an innovative community mobilization approach that fostered and institutionalized community leadership. Income generation and NGO status were unique and transformative steps that led to independence, autonomy and sustainability of the approach and were associated with improved MNCH indicators through behavior change.


Critical heat flux (CHF) at a natural boiling condition is an important phenomenon for a research reactor having a small-hydraulic-diameter geometry under a large-break loss-of-coolant accident condition. Accurately predicting the CHF under this condition is very important; therefore, the CHF models used in the best-estimate codes must be validated using appropriate experimental data for a given geometry. The present work focuses on validating the CHF calculations and models within the COolant Boiling in Rod Arrays-Two Fluid (COBRA-TF) code by simulating two sets of experiments, which were performed in tubes and annuli with different length-to-diameter ratios. In this work, the cocurrent upflow and downflow correlations developed by Mishima and Nishihara and Holowach et al. and Zuber correlations for the CHF used in COBRA-TF are validated against the experimental data obtained by Monde and Yamaji and Islam et al. Conclusions on the predictive capability of COBRA-TF for the CHF calculations for small-hydraulic-diameter geometry under natural boiling conditions are provided with the description of the correlations and models used.


Online consumer sales are growing at a substantial rate. An estimated 45% of online purchases by consumers in Australia are from overseas sellers, including US sellers. The question whether these transactions are governed by the Australian Consumer Law (ACL) is examined. The conclusion drawn is that cross-border transactions are usually governed by the ACL – at least in theory. In practice a consumer will invariably confront a bewildering array of procedural complexities and face prohibitive costs. US law and standard form terms are generally less favourable to consumers than Australian and European laws. There also appears to be an increasingly pro-seller bias developing in US standard form terms. The article considers why this is so. Why, for instance, are market forces not operating to provide incentives for the development of party balanced terms? The article then considers ways in which the interests of consumers can be better protected and enhanced regarding cross-border online transactions. It is proposed that a series of standard form 'Fair Terms' which could be made freely available on the Internet for parties to voluntarily incorporate into their contracts should be developed. This proposal follows the lead provided by developments for international commercial transactions. The article concludes by suggesting starting points for the development of fair terms provisions.


Many texts we encounter in our everyday lives are lexically and syntactically very complex.
 This makes them difficult to understand for people with intellectual or reading
 impairments, and difficult for various natural language processing systems to process.
 This motivated the need for text simplification (TS) which transforms texts into their
 simpler variants. Given that this is still a relatively new research area, many challenges
 are still remaining. The focus of this thesis is on better understanding the current problems
 in automatic text simplification (ATS) and proposing new data-driven approaches
 to solving them.
 We propose methods for learning sentence splitting and deletion decisions, built
 upon parallel corpora of original and manually simplified Spanish texts, which outperform
 the existing similar systems. Our experiments in adaptation of those methods to
 different text genres and target populations report promising results, thus offering one
 possible solution for dealing with the scarcity of parallel corpora for text simplification
 aimed at specific target populations, which is currently one of the main issues in ATS.
 The results of our extensive analysis of the phrase-based statistical machine translation
 (PB-SMT) approach to ATS reject the widespread assumption that the success
 of that approach largely depends on the size of the training and development datasets.
 They indicate more influential factors for the success of the PB-SMT approach to ATS,
 and reveal some important differences between cross-lingual MT and the monolingual
 v
 MT used in ATS.
 Our event-based system for simplifying news stories in English (EventSimplify)
 overcomes some of the main problems in ATS. It does not require a large number
 of handcrafted simplification rules nor parallel data, and it performs significant content
 reduction. The automatic and human evaluations conducted show that it produces grammatical
 text and increases readability, preserving and simplifying relevant content and
 reducing irrelevant content.
 Finally, this thesis addresses another important issue in TS which is how to automatically
 evaluate the performance of TS systems given that access to the target users
 might be difficult. Our experiments indicate that existing readability metrics can successfully
 be used for this task when enriched with human evaluation of grammaticality
 and preservation of meaning.


The modeling and remodeling of bone requires activation and polarization of osteoclasts, achieved by reorganization of the cytoskeleton. Members of the Rho subfamily of small GTPases, including Cdc42, are known regulators of cytoskeletal components, but the role of these proteins in bone physiology and pathophysiology remains unclear. Here, we examined loss-of-function mice in which Cdc42 was selectively ablated in differentiated osteoclasts and gain-of-function animals wherein Cdc42Gap, a protein that inactivates the small GTPase, was deleted globally. Cdc42 loss-of-function mice were osteopetrotic and resistant to ovariectomy-induced bone loss, while gain-of-function animals were osteoporotic. Isolated Cdc42-deficient osteoclasts displayed suppressed bone resorption, while osteoclasts with increased Cdc42 activity had enhanced resorptive capacity. We further demonstrated that Cdc42 modulated M-CSF-stimulated cyclin D expression and phosphorylation of Rb and induced caspase 3 and Bim, thus contributing to osteoclast proliferation and apoptosis rates. Furthermore, Cdc42 was required for multiple M-CSF- and RANKL-induced osteoclastogenic signals including activation and expression of the differentiation factors MITF and NFATc1 and was a component of the Par3/Par6/atypical PKC polarization complex in osteoclasts. These data suggest that Cdc42 regulates osteoclast formation and function and may represent a promising therapeutic target for prevention of pathological bone loss.


Operator-Valued Kernels (OVKs) and associated vector-valued Reproducing Kernel Hilbert Spaces provide an elegant way to extend scalar kernel methods when the output space is a Hilbert space. Although primarily used in finite dimension for problems like multi-task regression, the ability of this framework to deal with infinite dimensional output spaces unlocks many more applications, such as functional regression, structured output prediction, and structured data representation. However, these sophisticated schemes crucially rely on the kernel trick in the output space, so that most of previous works have focused on the square norm loss function, completely neglecting robustness issues that may arise in such surrogate problems. To overcome this limitation, this paper develops a duality approach that allows to solve OVK machines for a wide range of loss functions. The infinite dimensional Lagrange multipliers are handled through a Double Representer Theorem, and algorithms for $\epsilon$-insensitive losses and the Huber loss are thoroughly detailed. Robustness benefits are emphasized by a theoretical stability analysis, as well as empirical improvements on structured data applications.


This article discusses a systematic review of studies of interventions in low-income developing countries that evaluated the elimination of school user fees (including tuition, uniforms, textbooks and other contributions). Only five rigorous empirical studies were identified that evaluate a school fees elimination program.  Overall, the 36 empirical and descriptive studies identified show positive enrollment and persistence outcomes for fees elimination, although some indicate accompanying tradeoffs in education quality.  The review highlights the need for more rigorous and longitudinal empirical research regarding the effects of various types of school fees elimination policies in low-income developing nations—particularly on the effectiveness of targeting policies to the most vulnerable groups, effects on education quality, and the extent to which fees abolition policies can be sustainable.


BACKGROUND
Autism is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder that usually presents in early childhood and that is thought to be influenced by genetic and environmental factors. Although abnormal metabolism of methionine and homocysteine has been associated with other neurologic diseases, these pathways have not been evaluated in persons with autism.

OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to evaluate plasma concentrations of metabolites in the methionine transmethylation and transsulfuration pathways in children diagnosed with autism.

DESIGN
Plasma concentrations of methionine, S-adenosylmethionine (SAM), S-adenosylhomocysteine (SAH), adenosine, homocysteine, cystathionine, cysteine, and oxidized and reduced glutathione were measured in 20 children with autism and in 33 control children. On the basis of the abnormal metabolic profile, a targeted nutritional intervention trial with folinic acid, betaine, and methylcobalamin was initiated in a subset of the autistic children.

RESULTS
Relative to the control children, the children with autism had significantly lower baseline plasma concentrations of methionine, SAM, homocysteine, cystathionine, cysteine, and total glutathione and significantly higher concentrations of SAH, adenosine, and oxidized glutathione. This metabolic profile is consistent with impaired capacity for methylation (significantly lower ratio of SAM to SAH) and increased oxidative stress (significantly lower redox ratio of reduced glutathione to oxidized glutathione) in children with autism. The intervention trial was effective in normalizing the metabolic imbalance in the autistic children.

CONCLUSIONS
An increased vulnerability to oxidative stress and a decreased capacity for methylation may contribute to the development and clinical manifestation of autism.