A pandemic is not only a biological event and a public health disaster, but it also generates impacts that are worth understan ding from a societal, historical, and cultural perspective. In this contribution, we argue that as the disease spreads, we are able to harness a valuable key resource, namely people who have immunity to Corona. This vital resource must be employed effectively, it must be certified, it must be searched for, it must be found, and it may even be actively produced. We discuss why this needs to be done and how this can be achieved. Our arguments not only apply to the current pandemic, but also to any future rapidly spreading, infectious disease epidemics. In addition, we argue for awareness of a secondary non-biological crisis arising from the side effects of pandemic reactions. There is a risk that the impacts of the secondary crisis could outweigh that of the biological event from a health and societal perspective.


In 1940, Gustav Herling was arrested after he joined an underground Polish army that fell into Russian hands. He was sent to a northern Russian labour camp, where he spent the two most horrible years of his life. In this book, he tells of the people he was imprisoned with, the hardships they endured, and the indomitable spirit and will that allowed them to survive. Above all, he creates a portrait of how people - deprived of food, clothing, proper medical care, and forced to work at hard labour - can come together to form a community that offers hope in the face of hopelessness, that offers life when even the living have no life left.


The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on provision of endoscopy services globally as staff and real estate were repurposed. As we begin to recover from the pandemic, a cohesive international approach is needed, and guidance on how to resume endoscopy services safely to avoid unintended harm from diagnostic delays. The aim of these guidelines is to provide consensus recommendations that clinicians can use to facilitate the swift and safe resumption of endoscopy services. An evidence-based literature review was carried out on the various strategies used globally to manage endoscopy during the COVID-19 pandemic and control infection. A modified Delphi process involving international endoscopy experts was used to agree on the consensus statements. A threshold of 80% agreement was used to establish consensus for each statement. 27 of 30 statements achieved consensus after two rounds of voting by 34 experts. The statements were categorised as pre-endoscopy, during endoscopy and postendoscopy addressing relevant areas of practice, such as screening, personal protective equipment, appropriate environments for endoscopy and infection control precautions, particularly in areas of high disease prevalence. Recommendations for testing of patients and for healthcare workers, appropriate locations of donning and doffing areas and social distancing measures before endoscopy are unique and not dealt with by any other guidelines. This international consensus using a modified Delphi method to produce a series of best practice recommendations to aid the safe resumption of endoscopy services globally in the era of COVID-19.


An easily accessible introduction to over three centuries of innovations in geometry
Praise for the First Edition
". . . a welcome alternative to compartmentalized treatments bound to the old thinking. This clearly written, well-illustrated book supplies sufficient background to be self-contained." —CHOICE
This fully revised new edition offers the most comprehensive coverage of modern geometry currently available at an introductory level. The book strikes a welcome balance between academic rigor and accessibility, providing a complete and cohesive picture of the science with an unparalleled range of topics.
Illustrating modern mathematical topics, Introduction to Topology and Geometry, Second Edition discusses introductory topology, algebraic topology, knot theory, the geometry of surfaces, Riemann geometries, fundamental groups, and differential geometry, which opens the doors to a wealth of applications. With its logical, yet flexible, organization, the Second Edition: • Explores historical notes interspersed throughout the exposition to provide readers with a feel for how the mathematical disciplines and theorems came into being • Provides exercises ranging from routine to challenging, allowing readers at varying levels of study to master the concepts and methods • Bridges seemingly disparate topics by creating thoughtful and logical connections • Contains coverage on the elements of polytope theory, which acquaints readers with an exposition of modern theory Introduction to Topology and Geometry, Second Edition is an excellent introductory text for topology and geometry courses at the upper-undergraduate level. In addition, the book serves as an ideal reference for professionals interested in gaining a deeper understanding of the topic.


Exceptions in OO languages provide a convenient mechanism to deal with anomalous situations. However, many of the loop optimization techniques cannot be applied in the presence of conditional throw statements in the body of the loop, owing to possible cross iteration control dependences. Compilers either ignore such throw statements and apply traditional loop optimizations (semantic non-preserving), or conservatively avoid invoking any of these optimizations altogether (inefficient). We define a loop optimization to be xception-safe, if the optimization can be applied even on (possibly) exception throwing loops, in a semantics preserving manner. In this paper, we present a generalized scheme to do exception-safe loop optimizations and present a scheme of optimized exception-safe loop tiling (oESLT), as a specialization thereof.

oESLT tiles the input loops, assuming that exceptions will never be thrown. To ensure the semantics preservation (in case an exception is thrown), oESLT generates code to rollback the updates done in the advanced iterations (iterations that the unoptimized code would not have executed, but executed speculatively by the oESLT generated code) and safely-execute the delayed iterations (ones that the unoptimized code would have executed, but not executed by the code generated by oESLT). For the rollback phase to work efficiently, oESLT identifies a minimal number of elements to backup and generates the necessary code. We implement oESLT, along with a naive scheme (nESLT, where we backup every element and do a full rollback and safe-execution in case an exception is thrown), in the Graphite framework of GCC 4.8. To help in this process, we define a new program region called ESCoPs (Extended Static Control Parts) that helps identify loops with multiple exit points and interface with the underlying polyhedral representation. We use the popular PolyBench suite to present a comparative evaluation of nESLT and oESLT against the unoptimized versions.


This paper explores speakers' notions of the situational appropriacy of linguistic variants. We conducted a web-based survey in which we collected ratings of the appropriacy of variants of linguistic variables in spoken German. A range of quantitative methods (cluster analysis, factor analysis and various forms of visualization techniques) is applied in order to analyze metalinguistic awareness and the differences in the evaluation of written vs. spoken stimuli. First, our data show that speakers' ratings of the appropriacy of linguistic variants vary reliably with two rough clusters representing formal and informal speech situations and genres. The findings confirm that speakers adhere to a notion of spoken standard German which takes genre and register-related variation into account. Secondly, our analysis reveals a written language bias: metalinguistic awareness is strongly influenced by the physical mode of the presentation of linguistic items (spoken vs. written)


Since there are two vibration components at a mechanical output terminal of a thick flexural transducer, that is, lateral and rotational components, corresponding electrical ports have to be provided in the electrical equivalent circuit. A load applied to the transducer also has to be considered separately corresponding to each vibration component. To treat this situation with the electrical equivalent circuit, an analytical solution, namely, Timoshenko's beam theory given by Miklowitz and the piezoelectric equation, is applied to calculate the free vibration mode and the electrical equivalent components of the transducer. Using this derived equivalent circuit, the behavior of the loaded flexural transducer is experimentally studied to prove the validity of the proposed circuit. This is the first trial to derive such an equivalent circuit that can treat two vibration components simultaneously.


The Eastern oyster, Crassostrea virginica, influences a range of economic and ecological systems. The effects of agricultural runoffs, such as the herbicide atrazine, on marine species, has not been well documented. To analyze the effect of atrazine, the oyster shell surface was analyzed. The shell protects the internal organs from predators. The shells of adult oysters are also required in the spawning of new oysters. This study analyzed the effects of atrazine on oyster shells using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). SEM images were taken of juvenile oysters exposed to three different concentrations of atrazine (30, 10, 3 μg/L) to determine if there is a statistical significance in microstructure frequencies and GLCM texture features of three regions of the shell. Using a multivariate t-test, a significant difference was found in the texture features of the edge regions of the shells treated with 30μg/L and 0 μg/L of atrazine. The same t-test found a significant difference in microstructures near the edge regions for shells treated with 10μg/L and 0 μg/L of atrazine. These results provide computational strategies to distinguish shells treated with high concentrations of atrazine. Future work will tie evidence collected from imaging analysis into transcriptome data to illustrate the genetic impacts of atrazine exposure.


This paper analyzes the role of peer effect in the market for higher education. Peer effect is a key variable to understand why higher education institutions set tuition in a way to maintain permanent excess demand. We use data on undergraduate business courses in Brazil to estimate a discrete choice model of demand. The results show a strong impact of peer effect on students' choice of school. We calculate the tuition increase that would eliminate the excess demand. The results show that the upper limit of the total investment in peer effect is equal to US$ 770 thousands per month for the freshmen year, or 5.13% of the current revenues.


The structure of finite CP shows some unexpected syntactic variation in the marking of finite subordinate clauses in the Indic languages, which otherwise are strongly head-final. Languages with relative pronouns also have initial complementizers and conjunctions. Languages with final yes/no question markers allow final complementizers, either demonstratives or quotative participles. These properties define three classes, one with only final CP heads (Sinhala), one with only initial CP heads (Hindi, Punjabi, Kashmiri) and others with both possibilities. The lexical differences of final vs initial CP heads argue for expanding the CP projection into a number of specialized projections, whose heads are all final (Sinhala), all initial, or mixed. These projections explain the systematic variation in finite CPs in the Indic languages, with the exception of some additional restrictions and anomalies in the Eastern group.


Title of dissertation: HIGHLY PARALLEL GEOMETRIC CHARACTERIZATION AND VISUALIZATION OF VOLUMETRIC DATA SETS Derek Christopher Juba Dissertation directed by: Professor Amitabh Varshney Department of Computer Science Volumetric 3D data sets are being generated in many different application areas. Some examples are CAT scans and MRI data, 3D models of protein molecules represented by implicit surfaces, multi-dimensional numeric simulations of plasma turbulence, and stacks of confocal microscopy images of cells. The size of these data sets has been increasing, requiring the speed of analysis and visualization techniques to also increase to keep up. Recent advances in processor technology have stopped increasing clock speed and instead begun increasing parallelism, resulting in multi-core CPUS and manycore GPUs. To take advantage of these new parallel architectures, algorithms must be explicitly written to exploit parallelism. In this thesis we describe several algorithms and techniques for volumetric data set analysis and visualization that are amenable to these modern parallel architectures. We first discuss modeling volumetric data with Gaussian Radial Basis Functions (RBFs). RBF representation of a data set has several advantages, including lossy compression, analytic differentiability, and analytic application of Gaussian blur. We also describe a parallel volume rendering algorithm that can create images of the data directly from the RBF representation. Next we discuss a parallel, stochastic algorithm for measuring the surface area of volumetric representations of molecules. The algorithm is suitable for implementation on a GPU and is also progressive, allowing it to return a rough answer almost immediately and refine the answer over time to the desired level of accuracy. After this we discuss the concept of Confluent Visualization, which allows the visualization of the interaction between a pair of volumetric data sets. The interaction is visualized through volume rendering, which is well suited to implementation on parallel architectures. Finally we discuss a parallel, stochastic algorithm for classifying stem cells as having been grown on a surface that induces differentiation or on a surface that does not induce differentiation. The algorithm takes as input 3D volumetric models of the cells generated from confocal microscopy. This algorithm builds on our algorithm for surface area measurement and, like that algorithm, this algorithm is also suitable for implementation on a GPU and is progressive. HIGHLY PARALLEL GEOMETRIC CHARACTERIZATION AND VISUALIZATION OF VOLUMETRIC DATA SETS


Reputation mechanisms offer an effective alternative to verification authorities for building trust in electronic markets with moral hazard. Future clients guide their business decisions by considering the feedback from past transactions; if truthfully exposed, cheating behavior is sanctioned and thus becomes irrational.

It therefore becomes important to ensure that rational clients have the right incentives to report honestly. As an alternative to side-payment schemes that explicitly reward truthful reports, we show that honesty can emerge as a rational behavior when clients have a repeated presence in the market. To this end we describe a mechanism that supports an equilibrium where truthful feedback is obtained. Then we characterize the set of pareto-optimal equilibria of the mechanism, and derive an upper bound on the percentage of false reports that can be recorded by the mechanism. An important role in the existence of this bound is played by the fact that rational clients can establish a reputation for reporting honestly.


Managing global water resources is one of the greatest challenges of the 21st Century. It is a resource that is under growing pressure as global populations rise and the natural supply, in the form of precipitation, is becoming increasingly variable and uncertain with climate change. It is therefore essential that water resources (surface and groundwaters) are managed sustainably in terms of both their quantity and quality. One of the most common causes for the impairment of water quality in surface waters and groundwaters is the presence of particulate matter. Particulate matter, from nano-scale particles and colloids to silt-sized sediments, can have a range of detrimental effects on water resources, from aesthetic issues and higher costs of water treatment, to a decline in the fisheries resource and serious ecological degradation. However at present, there is a poor understanding of the particulate conditions that water quality managers should aim to achieve in order to support good ecological status in different environments. There is also currently a general lack of rigour and standardisation in measurements of particulate matter in aquatic ecosystems, which in turn limits our understanding of the effects of these particles, and importantly, limits our ability to guide effective remediation. This poster describes a research approach that is currently being developed in the UK to address these issues; supporting (1) the development of ecosystem-specific water quality guidelines for particulate matter, and (2) the innovation of more advanced monitoring technologies for particulate matter in aquatic environments. The research project will utilise an established network of 13 reference condition sites (i.e. sites that have minimal anthropogenic disturbance) that contain distinct aquatic communities and are located in contrasting environment types. Hydrological and biological monitoring will be carried-out concurrently with analysis of the physical and geochemical properties of the particulates in each environment. Monitoring of the dynamics of these parameters will continue for 3.5 years, providing a medium to long-term record that can be used to develop statistical models and inform both water resource policy and technological innovation.


We propose a simple deterministic test for deciding whether or not a non-zero element $a \in \mathbb{F}_{2^n}$ or $\mathbb{F}_{3^n}$ is a zero of the corresponding Kloosterman sum over these fields, and analyse its complexity. The test seems to have been overlooked in the literature. For binary fields, the test has an expected operation count dominated by just two $\mathbb{F}_{2^n}$-multiplications when $n$ is odd (with a slightly higher cost for even extension degrees), making its repeated invocation the most efficient method to date to find a non-trivial Kloosterman sum zero in these fields. The analysis depends on the distribution of Sylow $p$ subgroups in two corresponding families of elliptic curves, which we prove using a theorem due to Howe.


Large-scale displacement takes place in the context of disaster because the threat or occurrence of hazard onset makes the region of residence of a population uninhabitable, either temporarily or permanently. Contributing to that outcome, the wide array of disaster events is invariably complicated by human institutions and practices that can contribute to large-scale population displacements. Growing trends of socially driven exposure and vulnerability around the world as well as the global intensification and frequency of climate-related hazards have increased both the incidence and the likelihood of large-scale population dislocations in the near future. However, legally binding international and national accords and conventions have not yet been put in place to deal with the serious impacts, and material, health-related, and sociocultural losses and human rights violations that are experienced by the millions of people being swept up in the events and processes of disasters and mass population displacements. Effective policy development is challenged by the increasing complexity of disaster risk and occurrence as well as issues of causation, adequate information, lack of capacity, and legal responsibility. States, international organizations, state and international development and aid agencies must frame, define, and categorize appropriately disaster forced displacement and resettlement to influence effective institutional responses in emergency humanitarian assistance, transitional shelter and care, and durable solutions in managing migration and resettlement if return is not possible. The forms that disaster-associated forced displacements are projected to take and corresponding national responses are explored in the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 in Sri Lanka, a massive disaster in a nation riven by civil conflict; Hurricane Katrina of 2005 in the United States, where the scale and nature of displacement bore little relation to hazard intensity; and the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, Tsunami, and nuclear exposure incident exemplifying the emerging trend of complex, concatenating, multihazard disasters that bring about large-scale population displacements.


In this dissertation we study radiating stars in strong gravitational fields. We generate new classes of exact solutions to the Einstein field equations and the boundary condition applicable to radiating relativistic stars. The model of a radiating star in general relativity, matching to the Vaidya exterior spacetime, is reviewed. The boundary condition is converted to a Riccati equation and we consider both cases involving geodesic and non-geodesic particle trajectories. We present the metrics found previously. We first solve the boundary condition for the geodesic case and find the gravitational potentials which are expanding and shearing. This is a new result. Secondly the boundary condition is analysed for the non-geodesic case and we seek new gravitational potentials which are accelerating, expanding and shearing. We are able to identify only geodesic solutions for this second case; this appears to be a new class of models. The solutions found are presented in terms of elementary functions which are helpful in studying the physical properties. The new solutions found cannot be categorised in existing classes of known solutions; they are examples of a new generic class different from previous studies. The matter variables of the model are generated.


"Diapir" and "diapirism" come from the Greek diapeirein , which means "to pierce." Diapirism sensu lato is a process by which earth materials from deeper levels have pierced, or appear to have pierced, shallower materials; it is divided into magmatic intrusion and diapirism sensu stricto on the basis of the temperature at which piercement occurs. Diapirs s.s . are composed of evaporites, argillaceous sediments, coal, peat, ice, serpentine, or other earth materials which have the critical characteristics of low equivalent viscosity and low density. These materials range in age from Precambrian to Recent. Diapirs are found in all parts of the world except the shield areas. They have many forms, ranging from smoothly rounded pillows to complexly injected laminae, are either connected with or disconnected from the "mother" bed, and are present either at the surface, where they form distinctive features, or at considerable depth. Diapirs have well-developed internal structures indicative of an origin by flow. Strata around a diapir may be strongly affected structurally and/or stratigraphically by the diapir, or they may be unaffected. Field and model studies indicate that diapirs have developed as a result of horizontal compression, gravitational instability, or both. Diapiric structures of various types contain large quantities of oil and gas, sulfur, salt, and potash and are important for underground storage and nuclear testing.


The present paper reviews several approaches that can be used in capturing urban features in coarse resolution two-dimensional (2D) models and it demonstrates the effectiveness of a new approach against the straightforward 2D modelling approach on a hypothetical and a real-life case study work. The case study work addresses the use of coarse grid resolutions in 2D non-inertia models. The 2D non-inertia model used solves continuity and momentum equations over the cells of the coarse model while taking the minimum elevation as a surface level. The volume stored in every cell is calculated as a volume-depth relationship. In order to replicate restriction in conveyances in x – y directions of fine resolution models due to building blocks, the friction values of the coarse-resolution model are adjusted to match the results of the high-resolution model. The work presented in this paper shows the possibility of applying a 2D non-inertia model more effectively in urban flood modelling applications whilst still making use of the high resolution of topographic data that can nowadays be easily acquired.


Credit markets have shown a dramatic development at the start of the 21st century. Increased regulatory pressure on financial institutions has spurred the development of innovative products that allow for transfer of credit risk. These developments lay at the base of the largest financial crisis since the great depression. This dissertation contains three essays on the pricing of credit risky instruments relating to several trends in credit markets leading up to the crisis. The essays cover the pricing effect of liquidity on the pricing of Credit Default Swaps, the regulatory price impact of credit ratings on corporate bonds and the decomposition of unexpected corporate bond returns into cash flow and discount rate news components. As such, this dissertation increases the understanding of credit markets leading up to and at the onset of the crisis. Moreover, it gives an in-depth discussion of the findings against the backdrop of current and future financial regulation.


An aggregate array computation is a loop that computes accumulated quantities over array elements. Such computations are common in programs that use arrays, and the array elements involved in such computations often overlap, especially across iterations of loops, resulting in significant redundancy in the overall computation. The paper presents a method and algorithms that eliminate such overlapping aggregate array redundancies and shows both analytical and experimental performance improvements. The method is based on incrementalization, i.e., updating the values of aggregate array computations from iteration to iteration rather than computing them from scratch in each iteration. This involves maintaining additional information not maintained in the original program. The authors reduce various analysis problems to solving inequality constraints on loop variables and array subscripts, and they apply results from work on array data dependence analysis. Incrementalizing aggregate array computations produces drastic program speedup compared to previous optimizations. Previous methods for loop optimizations of arrays do not perform incrementalization, and previous techniques for loop incrementalization do not handle arrays.


BACKGROUND
The Italian Registry of Thrombosis in Children (RITI) was established by a multidisciplinary team with the aims of improving knowledge about neonatal and paediatric thrombotic events in Italy and providing a preliminary source of data for the future development of specific clinical trials and diagnostic-therapeutic protocols.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
We analysed the subset of RITI data concerning paediatric systemic venous thromboembolic events that occurred between January 2007 and June 2013.

RESULTS
Eighty-five deep venous thromboses and seven pulmonary emboli were registered in the RITI. A prevalence peak was observed in children aged 10 to 18 years and, unexpectedly, in children aged 1 to 5 years. A central venous line was the main risk factor (55% of venous thromboembolic events); surgery (not cardiac) (25%), concomitant infections (23%) and malignancy (22%) were the clinical conditions most often associated with the onset of venous thromboembolism. There was a diagnostic delay of more than 24 hours in 37% of the venous thromboembolic events. Doppler ultrasound was the most widely used test for the objective diagnosis of deep venous thrombosis (87%). Antithrombotic therapy was administered in 96% of venous thromboembolic events, mainly low molecular weight heparin (60%). In 2% of cases recurrences occurred, while post-thrombotic syndrome developed in 8.5% of cases.

DISCUSSION
Although the data from the RITI are largely in agreement with published data, peaks of prevalence of thrombosis, risk factors and objective tests used for the diagnosis showed some peculiarities which may deserve attention.


An important aspect of forensic science is the detection and identification of biological fluids at a crime scene (Virkler and Lednev 2009). The determination of the type and origin of a biological sample can yield valuable information that supports a link between the criminal act and donor, which in turn may assist in the reconstruction and sequencing of a crime scene (An et al. 2012). A body and therefore any associated biological stains may not be located for a period of time, during which the decedent will begin to decompose. Blood and decomposition fluid stains have been reported to be visually similar (Comstock 2014) and therefore, it is important to determine the source of the stain. The presence of blood would suggest an injury has occurred before or shortly after death, whereas decomposition fluid is produced as a part of the naturally occurring decomposition process. Several approaches including visual examination, pH measurements, presumptive testing for blood, spectroscopic techniques, the analysis of volatile organic compounds, genomics, and proteomics may provide potential methods of biological stain identification and differentiation (Harbison and Fleming 2016; Stuart 2013; Virkler and Lednev 2009). However, there are associated limitations to these methods. This dissertation reviewed the effectiveness of these methods, which then informed the development of a proof--‐of--‐ concept study to assess if the technique of microfluidic proteomics by protein electrophoresis can identify potential differences between blood and decomposition fluid stains. When compared to conventional techniques, microfluidic devices offer many advantages including improved efficiency, a decrease in sample and reagent consumption, and automation (Li 2015). The potential results obtained from the proposed study design will assist in enhancing the knowledge base surrounding the differentiation of blood and decomposition fluid stains.


To ensure state synchronization of signalling operations, many signaling protocol designs choose to establish "soft" state that expires if it is not refreshed. The approaches of refreshing state in multi-hop signaling system can be classified as either end-to-end (E2E) or hop-by-hop (HbH). Although both state refresh approaches have been widely used in practical signaling protocols, the design tradeoffs between state synchronization and signaling cost have not yet been fully investigated. In this paper, we investigate this issue from the perspectives of state refresh and state removal. We propose simple but effective Markov chain models for both approaches and obtain closed-form solutions which depict the state refresh performance in terms of state consistency and refresh message rate, as well as the state removal performance in terms of state removal delay. Simulations verify the analytical models. It is observed that the HbH approach yields much better state synchronization at the cost of higher signaling cost than the E2E approach. While the state refresh performance can be improved by increasing the values of state refresh and timeout timers, the state removal delay increases largely for both E2E and HbH approaches. The analysis here shed lights on the design of signaling protocols and the configuration of the timers to adapt to changing network conditions.


Summary Sensitive assays capable of detecting proteinases in single females of the phytoparasite Globodera pallida have been developed and used to define the proteinase activity of young adult females. Digestion of the large subunit of the plant protein Rubisco established a pH optimum for the proteinase activity at pH 5·7. The activity was inhibited by the cysteine proteinase inhibitors p-chloromercuribenzoic acid (PMBA) and p-chloromercurisulphonic acid (PMSA) and stimulated by both cysteine and dithiothreitol (DTT). It was moderately reduced by L-trans-epoxysuccinyl-leucylamido-(4- guanidino) butane (E64) but not by specific inhibitors of serine, aspartate or metallo-proteinases. The activity separated into 3 bands on a non-denaturing gel but only I proteinase of 62 kDa was recovered following a combination of anion-exchange chromatography and affinity chromatography using PMBA. The effect of inhibitors was similar to that reported previously for some of the cysteine proteinase activity recovered from Caenorhabditis elegans but is apparently not that for which the corresponding gene has been cloned in this nematode and Haemonchus contortus. The proteinase may have a major role in digestion of dietary protein and so offers an exciting target for future control of this important plant-parasitic nematode.


A novel application-specific communications scheme for RF-based indoor wireless localization networks is proposed. In such a system wireless badges, attached to people or objects, report positions to wireless router units. Badges have very limited communication, energy, and processing capabilities. Routers are responsible for propagating collected badge information hop-by-hop toward one central unit of the system and are significantly less constrained by battery than the badges. Each unit can radiate a special sequence of bits at selected frequencies, so that any router in the wireless neighborhood can sense, store, aggregate and forward Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) information. Once the central unit receives RSSI from routers, it calculates the overall relative position of each unit in the system. This new scheme has been developed based on the Chipcon CC1010 Evaluation Module with limited communication capabilities. The implemented protocol rules allow scalability of numerous system parameters. The feasibility of the proposed protocol is simulated on a typical floor: 2-dimensional topology where routers are deployed in a grid fashion. Results show that assuming normal operation and a maximum of thousand badges the system can periodically report about every five seconds. Different scenarios are compared, and the proposed scheme is demonstrated to meet strict reliability requirements while providing energy-efficient badges and an acceptable level of latency.


The proinflammatory cytokine interleukin (IL)-1beta and the IL-1 receptor antagonist are expressed by atherosclerotic plaques and may be linked to the development of atherosclerosis. Existing evidence shows that retinoids and their receptors are involved in inflammatory response and that they are found in atherosclerotic plaques. In all-trans-retinoic acid (atRA)-treated human aortic smooth muscle cells (AOSMC), significant increases in IL-1beta levels were observed, compared with untreated cells. Examination of IL-1 receptor antagonist and IL-1 receptor type I levels did not show any difference between atRA-treated and -untreated AOSMC. The results show that atRA-treated AOSMC express both the precursor (33 kDa) and the active form (17 kDa) of the IL-1beta protein. atRA-treated carotid lesions showed significantly elevated IL-1beta mRNA levels (2.9 +/- 2.33) compared with untreated lesions (2.0 +/- 1.77; p < 0.05). These results support the role of atRA as a regulator of inflammation such as in atherosclerosis.


The Civil Service Commision was created in 1855 and became the key institution in the development of the British civil service. Its work was primarily the recruitment of civil servants by fair methods, treating all qualified applicants equally, and using open competitions wherever practicable. It was held in high esteem not only in the United Kingdom but also in the many other countries throughout the world which, in many places, modelled their methods of public service recruitment on its pioneering work. It continued until 1991, when most of its work was devolved to over 3,000 government departments and executive agencies.
This book describes the gestation, growth, development and eventual demise of the Commision and includes a number of in-depth case studies. Using source material such as official files, many only recently available for research, together with other records and evidence to official committees, the book provides a biography of an institution. It shows how the department was formally organised and there is a particular focus on how it actually worked on a day-to-day basis. With three in-depth chapters on the chronological development of the Commision and seven case studies of themes or issues that reveal methods of work and influences on its activities, this book uses file-based research more extensively than any other history of a British government department.
The Civil Service Commision, 1855-1991 reveals insights into civil service recruitment and makes a major original contribution to our understanding of the practice and politics of public administration.


On the basis of both civil and criminal suits, some private and some brought by the government, Professor Tachau demonstrates that the federal courts in Kentucky were immediately accessible, visible, and deeply involved in the lives of the people. The actual legal practice revealed in the records thus contradicts much of the conventional wisdom and traditional assumptions about the "inferiority" of the lower federal judiciary and suggests that a major revision of American legal and constitutional history may be in order.Originally published in 1978.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.


I am prompted to write this editorial by the release of 30 papers this month from the encode Project Consortium. This decade-long project involved an international team of 442 scientists who have compiled what is being called an "encyclopedia of DNA elements," a comprehensive list of functional elements in the human genome. The detailed overview is expected to spur further research on the fundamentals of life, health, and disease. ENCODE exemplifies a "big-science" style of research that continues to sweep the headlines, and the increased efficiency of data production by such projects is impressive. Does this mean that the highly successful "small-science" era of biological research will soon be over? Will government funding increasingly favor big-science projects? I certainly hope that the answer is no.


We consider the problem of maximizing a submodular function when given access to its approximate version. Submodular functions are heavily studied in a wide variety of disciplines, since they are used to model many real world phenomena, and are amenable to optimization. However, there are many cases in which the phenomena we observe is only approximately submodular and the approximation guarantees cease to hold. We describe a technique which we call the sampled mean approximation that yields strong guarantees for maximization of submodular functions from approximate surrogates under cardinality and intersection of matroid constraints. In particular, we show tight guarantees for maximization under a cardinality constraint and 1/(1+P) approximation under intersection of P matroids.


Due to Norway's mountainous landscape, we have an extensive network of both roads and small airports connecting cities. We are the ones travelling the most by air travel domestically compared to other countries. Cheap airfares have made us more flexible and our world smaller. Nevertheless, they have also made us responsible for releasing tremendous amounts of greenhouse gasses.In a time where global warming and climate change is on the agenda, it's perhaps time to look at the alternatives?On the other hand, snow-capped mountainous terrain, deep blue fjords, lush valleys, wild and untouched nature, cold winters and mild summers make Norway to what it is.However, we believe that this challenging nature is exactly what would make Norwegian high-speed rail into more than just a transport leg, making for one of the most scenic rail experiences in the world.With the objective to frame and encapsulate the bypassing nature, this project aims to create a whole new experience. Through a systemic design approach and extensive field research, we have created a train where the rail journey is in focus. All while catering to the needs of a universal target group within three different zones: Immersive, Productive and Essential. By reinventing the role of the employees and the layout of the train we were able to create a more personal and engaging experience for all. The outcome of centralising facilities and service eliminates transport in the length of the train, resulting in a single coach experience for all activities including dining, seating, and viewing.


In almost all applications of UV Curing, the issue of oxygen inhibition must be addressed in one form or another. As such, different UV curable formulations must be optimized to contain an appropriate initiator package and UV light source to overcome oxygen inhibition which ads additional cost and development time. The advent of LED lights has enabled less expensive lights with increased operating lifetimes and improved energy efficiency. However, rather than covering a broad spectrum of wavelengths, LED lights emit in narrow bands of light. The narrow wavelength emission spectrum of LED lights will inevitably have an effect on both curing rates and oxygen inhibition. In this study, we evaluate the use of broadband mercury, both deep UV-LED and 385 nm LED lights, and Electron Beam curing across a range of different acrylic formulations. The different methods of curing are compared by examining their effect on oxygen inhibition, cure speed, and material properties.


Despite significant losses in the 2006 midterm elections, the Republican Right remains a powerful and defining force in American politics. Donald Critchlow, a leading historian of American conservatism, shows that time and again the GOP Right appeared defeated, only to rebound with explosive force. The ascendancy of the GOP Right was not preordained, nor was its political triumph inevitable. Rather, the history of the post-war Right was one of fierce political warfare as moderate Republicans battled right-wing Republicans for control of their party, and conservatives battled liberals for control of government. In the struggle against the dominant New Deal state, conservatives gained control of the Republican party, but their advance against liberalism and the Democratic party proved less steady. At each point the accident of historical circumstance precluded a predictable outcome.In this provocative history of the Right in modern America, Critchlow finds a deep dilemma inherent in how conservative Republicans expressed their anti-statist ideology in an age of mass democracy and Cold War hostilities. As the Right moved forward with its political program, partisanship intensified and ideological division widened - both between the parties and across the electorate. This intensified partisanship reflects the vibrancy of a mature democracy, Critchlow argues, and a new level of political engagement despite its disquieting effect on American political debate."The Conservative Ascendancy" boldly captures the twists and turns of the GOP Right over the last sixty years, offering a story of how deeply held beliefs about the nature of the individual and the good society are translated into political power.


A regressive megasequence of Eocene age consisting of the offshore Frysjaodden Formation, the shallow-marine Battfjellet Formation, and the continental Aspelintoppen Formation (together constituting the "GBA-unit") represents the last of three depositional cycles filling in the Central Basin on Spitsbergen, Svalbard. This foreland basin developed in front the West Spitsbergen Fold and Thrust Belt (WSFTB) during the breakup between Svalbard and Greenland. The Battfjellet Formation has been subject to extensive research, especially on the shelf edge deltas and clinothems in the western and central parts of the basin. This study however, investigates the facies distribution and sandbody geometry of the lesser-documented Battfjellet Formation shelf deltas in the eastern part of the basin, in an area of approximately 5km2 at Liljevalchfjellet, Svalbard.
Analysis of facies and facies associations revealed a wide range of depositional environments from offshore to continental. The internal structure of these regressive successions suggests a highly wave-dominated deltaic setting. However, due to a significant presence of carbonaceous detritus, distributary fluvial channels incising shallow marine deposits and previous studies documenting a complex delta lobe stacking pattern, a fluvio-wave interaction delta is suggested for the Battfjellet Formation. A combination of high subsidence and sedimentation rate lead to rapid progradation of the delta lobes into a wave-agitated basin, while transgressive reworking of interdistributary bay/lagoons took place simultaneously between the delta lobes.
A total of six stacked parasequences with an overall regressive low angle ascending shoreline trajectory was identified by combining work from Olsen (2012) with this study. Paleocurrent measurements points to a southeastward-directed outbuilding of the system, different to the generally interpreted eastwards outbuilding for the GBA-Unit. Thus, a shift towards a more southward directed progradation likely took place in the later stages of basin infill. To better view the sandbody geometries and facies distributions, a 3D conceptual reservoir model focusing on the Battfjellet Formation is presented.


The purpose of this study was to understand TB patients' experiential accounts of access to TB diagnosis and treatment and more specifically about their experiences of medical help from health care professionals. METHOD: This narrative enquiry was undertaken in three boroughs of London, including two boroughs with the highest TB notification rates in the UK. The study involved pilot interviews with ten patients to develop the research question. In-depth narrative interviews with 32 additional patients were then undertaken. All participants were over eighteen years of age. The analysis of narratives involved descriptive; holistic-form and categorical content (themes) approaches to identify story 'plot' and 'subplots' and themes covering the whole of the patients' journeys to treatment. RESULTS: Seven narrative plots and thirty subplots were grouped into six categories of medical help and specific themes embedded in them were grouped in three stages of patients' pathways 'before' 'during' and 'after' diagnosis. These themes are listed below sequentially to illustrate these patients' pathways. 1. Symptoms were misinterpreted and misdiagnosed. 2. Kept on ineffective antibiotics/painkillers for many visits. 3. Referred quickly for suspected TB or other serious illnesses. 4. Referred only when critically ill. 5. Referred when antibiotics and pain killers not helping. 6. Referred only after pushing for referral. 7. Sought help from A&E. 8. Diagnosed immediately after TB testing. 9. Referred to wrong specialist and waited too long. 10. Had to fight for TB test. 11. Had lots of tests but no results. 12. Doubts about diagnosis. 13. Felt ignored and had no information. 14. Felt listened and cared for. 15. Quickly began my treatment. 16. Felt better after treatment, no side-effects. 17. Felt better after treatment with side-effects. 18. Felt needed longer treatment. CONCLUSIONS: The accounts of two thirds of the study participants suggest that their doctors' misunderstanding of their illness and miscommunication with them contributed to delayed diagnosis and treatment ranging from one month to twelve months. TB service providers and commissioners need to raise clinical staff awareness about TB and review the factors hindering doctor-patient communication about TB care. The findings in this research indicate that health service related delay is likely to contribute to increased TB transmission rates in the two research settings in London.


Frequent pattern mining is one of the active research themes in data mining. It plays an important role in all
data mining tasks such as clustering, classification, prediction, and association analysis. Identifying all
frequent patterns is the most time consuming process due to a massive number of patterns generated. A reasonable solution is identifying maximal frequent patterns which form the smallest representative set of patterns to generate all frequent patterns. In this paper, an efficient numerical method for mining frequent patterns is proposed. This method is based on prime number characteristics to generate all frequent patterns by using maximal frequent ones. There are two new properties introduced in this method; a novel tree structure called PC_Tree and PC_Miner algorithm. The PC_Tree is a simple tree structure but yet capable to capture the whole of transactions information with an efficient data transformation technique that utilizes the prime number theory. The PC_Miner algorithm traverses the PC_Tree by using an efficient pruning
technique. The experimental results verify the compactness and the efficiency of mining shown by the proposed method.


Water-limiting effects on the production of maize, cv. Suwan 1, in rainfed rice or lowland environment and upland environment were simulated using CORNCROS, a maize crop growth model assembled from modules of the MACROS model. Validation against data for six growing seasons at Bertam Mardi station (lowland environment) showed simulated yield on a sandy clay loam soil overlying a clay loam with a water table at 1.5m depth, to differ from the observed by less than 14% in five out of six cases. The simulated yields that ranged from 3234 kg/ha to 5249 kg/ha were reduced by 0.1-1.2 t/ha as a result of waterlogging if a plough pan or a layer with impeded drainage were present at a depth of 20cm. In upland environment, represented by Serdang, maximum rooting depth has limited influence on yield when there is sample supply of water but plays an important role when there is insufficient rain. Yield on a heavy clay in the rainy season may exceed more than 3.5 t/ha providing water table can be maintained at 2-3 meters and there is minimal impedance to root growth. Mean simulated rainfed yields on sandy clay loam overlying a clay loam at Bertam over the period 1979-88 range between 5.0 t/ha for April sowing to 1.2 t/ha for December sowing. On an identical soil in Serdang, the yields vary between 4.6 t/ha for March sowing and 3.6 t/ha for June and November sowing. The yield variations at both sites are fair relections of the monthly rainfall patterns. Frequency distribution analyses for March 15 sowing at Bertam and March 1 sowing at Serdang based on 20 years of weather data indicate very high probability af attaining rainfed yields of 4.0 t/ha and above over wide range of soil conditions. Nevertheless, the best yields are obtained from deep, medium-textured soils.


Fire is a complex event that maintains many ecological systems. The Florida Sand Skink (Plestiodon reynoldsi) is precinctive to Florida Scrub, a habitat that is maintained by infrequent fire. We characterize the effect of fire on genetic diversity and genetic differentiation at eight microsatellite loci in the Florida Sand Skink (n = 470) collected from 30 replicate sites over three 'time since last fire' categories at the Archbold Biological Station. Long unburned sites had greater allelic richness and expected heterozygosity than either recently or intermediately burned sites. More recently, burned sites had greater standard deviations of allelic richness and private allelic richness. Expected heterozygosity positively correlated with 'time since fire' (r = 0.36, P = 0.05) and abundance (r = 0.53, P = 0.002). There was a significant spatial component to genetic differentiation, and results indicate individuals rarely disperse >1 km. Genetic differentiation was positively correlated with geographic distance in long unburned units (r = 0.59, P = 0.04), yet this relationship was disrupted by fire in recently (r = 0.00, 1) and intermediately (r = −0.81, 0.05) burned areas. Simulations indicate that demographic changes to a local population could have generated the observed differences among 'time since fire' categories. Our findings indicate that infrequent fire may be beneficial to the Florida Sand Skink and that local populations begin to recover from changes attributable to the fire after 10 years. Too frequent fires may reduce genetic diversity because it may take multiple generations for local populations to recover.


This paper is focused on modeling Web request and session level arrival processes. We propose a statistically rigorous approach which includes testing for non-stationarity and Gaussianity, and uses model selection criterion. Furthermore, a goodness of fit test is applied to each candidate model - ARMA, ARIMA, FARIMA, and FGN - and for validation purpose real data is compared with data simulated from the models. The results based on data extracted from six Web servers with different workload intensities show that (1) there is no one-fits-all solution and (2) servers with high workloads have both request and session traffic modeled well with FARIMA model which is capable of capturing both long-range and short-range dependence.


Lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) is the prototypic arenavirus and a natural mouse pathogen. LCMV-Armstrong, an acutely resolved strain, and LCMV-clone 13, a mutant that establishes chronic infection, have provided contrasting infection models that continue to inform the fundamental biology of T cell differentiation, regulation of exhaustion, and response to checkpoint blockade. In this study, we report the isolation and characterization of LCMV-Minnesota (LCMV-MN), which was naturally transmitted to laboratory mice upon cohousing with pet shop mice and shares 80–95% amino acid homology with previously characterized LCMV strains. Infection of laboratory mice with purified LCMV-MN resulted in viral persistence that was intermediate between LCMV-Armstrong and -clone 13, with widely disseminated viral replication and viremia that was controlled within 15–30 d, unless CD4 T cells were depleted prior to infection. LCMV-MN–responding CD8+ T cells biased differentiation toward the recently described programmed death-1 (PD-1)+CXCR5+Tim-3lo stemlike CD8+ T cell population (also referred to as progenitor exhausted T cells) that effectuates responses to PD-1 blockade checkpoint inhibition, a therapy that rejuvenates responses against chronic infections and cancer. This subset resembled previously characterized PD-1+TCF1+ stemlike CD8+ T cells by transcriptional, phenotypic, and functional assays, yet was atypically abundant. LCMV-MN may provide a tool to better understand the breadth of immune responses in different settings of chronic Ag stimulation as well as the ontogeny of progenitor exhausted T cells and the regulation of responsiveness to PD-1 blockade. Key Points We performed isolation and characterization of a novel LCMV strain from pet shop mice in Minnesota. LCMV-MN exhibits intermediate viral persistence compared with LCMV-Arm and LCMV-Cl13. LCMV-MN infection generates abundant stemlike exhausted progenitor CD8 T cells.


HISAT is a new, highly efficient system for alignment of sequences from RNA sequencing experiments that achieves dramatically faster performance than previous methods. HISAT uses a new indexing scheme, hierarchical indexing, which is based on the Burrows-Wheeler transform and the Ferragina-Manzini (FM) index. Hierarchical indexing employs two types of indexes for alignment: (1) a whole-genome FM index to anchor each alignment, and (2) numerous local FM indexes for very rapid extensions of these alignments. HISAT's hierarchical index for the human genome contains 48,000 local FM indexes, each representing a genomic region of ~64,000 bp. The algorithm includes several customized alignment strategies specifically designed for mapping RNA-seq reads across multiple exons. In tests on a variety of real and simulated data sets, we show that HISAT is the fastest system currently available, approximately 50 times faster than TopHat2 and 12 times faster than GSNAP, with equal or better accuracy than any other method. Despite its very large number of indexes, HISAT requires only 4.3 Gigabytes of memory to align reads to the human genome. HISAT supports genomes of any size, including those larger than 4 billion bases. HISAT is available as free, open-source software from http://www.ccb.jhu.edu/software/hisat.


The Community Policing and Education Project was launched by VicRoads and Victoria Police in 2009 to reduce the likelihood of motorcycle crashes through a combination of enforcement and education countermeasures. The Centre for Automotive Safety Research at the University of Adelaide was chosen to evaluate the effectiveness of the project. Methods used to evaluate the project included a process evaluation, analysis of crash data, on-road speed surveys, an online survey of motorcyclists, and roadside traffic observation. This paper provides an account of the roadside traffic observations, which were focused on helmet use, headlight use, use of protective clothing, and rider conspicuity. The roadside observations in metropolitan Melbourne revealed an apparent effect of the project, with observed increases in the use of full body protection by motorcyclists following an educational operation targeting commuting riders. Across the three surveys, this proportion increased from 17 (before the operation) to 24 (just after the operation) to 38 per cent (three weeks after the operation). Improvement was most marked among riders of sports and standard/naked motorcycles but is still needed among riders of cruisers and scooters.


Objective: Quantum dots (QDs) has widely applied in the field of science, whose potential toxic effect has increasingly become a focus concern we need pay attention to in public health. The purpose of this article was to explore the toxicity mechanism with oxidative damage from treatment with QDs at the molecular level through a gene microarray. Methods: Mice were administered aqueously synthesized cadmium telluride QDs (CdTe aqQDs) via intravenous tail injection of a 2 µmol/kg solution (based on the molar mass of Cd), and their kidneys were collected at 1 day in strict accordance with the programs used for treated mice. We determined the hierarchical clustering of expression ratios, enriched gene ontology (GO) terms and signaling pathways through gene microarray analysis and bioinformatics analysis in kidney tissue and screened the key enzyme genes, which were verified by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (real-time qPCR). Results: Compared to control group, 459 lncRNAs (197 down-regulated and 262 up-regulated) and 256 mRNAs (103 down-regulated and 153 up-regulated) were differentially expressed. According to biological processes in enriched GO terms, the response to a redox state played a significant role in the biological processes involved altered genes. Pathway analysis showed that the signaling pathways that involved cytochrome P450 (CYP450) enzymes had a close relationship with QDs. Among these signaling pathways, gene expression profiling revealed that selected differentially expressed mRNAs (CYP19A1, CYP1B1, CYP11A1, CYP11B2, and CYP17A1 in the kidney and CYP19A1 and CYP1B1 in the liver) were validated by real-time qPCR, resulting in expression levels of CYP11A1, CYP11B2 and CYP17A1 in the kidney and CYP19A1 and CYP1B1 in the liver that were significantly increased, however in expression levels of CYP19A1 and CYP1B1 compared with control group in the kidney, there was no significant difference. Conclusions: Our results provide a foundation for and potential insight into the role of CYP450-related genes in QD-induced oxidative stress. QDs may produce a great deal of reactive oxygen species (ROS) by promoting high expression of CYP450 enzymes and accumulating steroid hormones, which may be an important toxicity mechanism for mediating oxidative stress and tissue damage.


Aquatic ecosystems of North American deserts are frequently very restricted in area and tend to harbour very specialized species endemic to their restricted habitats. Small changes in environmental conditions of these specialized forms may jeopardize their persistence. A notable example of endemic and specialized species that may have been influenced by slight changes in its habitat is the Devils Hole pupfish (Cyprinodon diabolis), which occurs only in a small pool ecosystem in the Mojave Desert of the Southwestern United States. In this study, we use a computational fluid dynamic (CFD) model to examine the physical effects of climate change and local groundwater management on Devils Hole and combine those results with a conceptual ecological model to consider the impacts of those changes on annual recruitment of C. diabolis. The CFD model predicts water temperatures as a response to climate and water level, and the ecological model is used to determine the timing of tipping points that may encourage or suppress the annual recruitment of C. diabolis. The combination of interdisciplinary modelling approaches offers a method to quantify and compare the suitability of habitat under a range of management and climate scenarios. Our results show that the influence of water level on peak temperatures in Devils Hole (and on the ecosystem's suitability for C. diabolis) is an order of magnitude greater than the influence of climate change. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


[1] Submicron aerosol size distributions, CN and CCN concentrations at a constant supersaturation of 0.6% were measured at a relatively remote coastal site at Gosan in Jeju Island, Korea, during the ABC-EAREX from 11 March to 8 April 2005. The average CN concentrations were 6088 ± 3988, 5231 ± 2454 and 3513 ± 1790 cm−3, respectively, for the three major air mass types classified by their origins. The corresponding CCN concentrations were 2393 ± 1156, 2897 ± 1226 and 1843 ± 585 cm−3. The type III air mass was the closest to maritime origins, but these lowest concentrations at Gosan were an order of magnitude higher than those of clean marine boundary layer, indicating that regardless of air mass designation springtime submicron aerosols at Gosan were under steady continental influences. Distinct new particle formation and growth events occurred on 6 d, when clear sky weather conditions prevailed that brought air from northern China, Mongolia or Russia by anticyclonic circulations. Simultaneous occurrence of these events at a western coastal site in the Korean Peninsula 350 km north of Gosan suggests that these events were not local but at least regional-scale events. CCN concentrations were predicted with the aerosol size distributions and the assumption of particles being composed of (NH4)2SO4. The predicted to measured CCN concentration ratio was 1.27 ± 0.29 and the r2 was 0.77 for the whole measurement period. The type I air mass that has the most continental influences showed a slight tendency to overpredict CCN concentrations but the good agreement overall suggests that springtime Gosan aerosols act almost like ammonium sulfate as far as CCN activity is concerned, almost regardless of air mass origin.


The supply of affordable crop insurance is hampered by the existence of systemic weather risk which results in large risk premiums. In this article, we assess the systemic nature of weather risk for 17 agricultural production regions in China and explore the possibility of spatial diversification of this risk. We simulate the buffer load of hypothetical temperature-based insurance and investigate the relation between the size of the buffer load and the size of the trading area of the insurance. The analysis makes use of a hierarchical Archimedean copula approach (HAC) which allows flexible modeling of the joint loss distribution and reveals the dependence structure of losses in different insured regions. Our results show a significant decrease of the required risk loading when the insured area expands. Nevertheless, a considerable part of undiversifiable risk remains with the insurer. We find that the spatial diversification effect depends on the type of the weather index and the strike level of the insurance. Our findings are relevant for insurers and insurance regulators as they shed light on the viability of private crop insurance in China.


This thesis investigates the role of spatial configuration in shaping resident's
experience of their neighbourhood. Studies to date have found that spatial
configuration affects spatial behaviour and movement patterns (e.g., Hillier et al,
1993), however there has been little investigation of the cognitive processes that
might underlie this relationship. Other research into cognition of the urban
environment suggests that local spatial factors may play a role in cognitive
processes (e.g., Hart & Moor, 1973), however these studies have not addressed
global spatial configuration in quantitative terms. No studies to date have sought
to integrate cognitive, behavioural and configurational factors within a single
framework. Using Hillier's (1996) definition of intelligibility as the relationship
between local and global configurational factors, this thesis investigates the
relationship between resident's cognition, observed patterns of movement and the
spatial configuration of an area.
Two adjacent areas in Hampstead Garden Suburb in North London were
investigated in detail. One area is relatively intelligible, the other less so.
Structured interview surveys were carried out with local residents to elicit aspects
of their cognition of the local area and detailed observations were made of
movement patterns in the two neighbourhoods. Analysis of the spatial
characteristics of the two areas using 'space syntax' methods provided a common
basis for analyses of these data.
The findings confirm that spatial configuration, spatial cognition and space use
patterns are all related to one another. The main finding is that the degree of
intelligibility of the area is the most significant intervening variable in relations
between the three variables. The more intelligible area showed more powerful
correlations between spatial configuration and patterns of movement, as well as
giving rise to perceptions of greater legibility and increased neighbourhood size
by local residents. Strong correlations were also identified between residents'
cognitive maps and observed patterns of movement in the area. The correlations
were again found to be stronger in the intelligible area than the unintelligible area.
These findings suggest that spatial configuration may play an important role in
determining people's daily spatial experience by increasing or reducing their sense
of autonomy. By reducing the ability to predict either one's precise location within
his/her global context, or the likely behaviour of others in space, unintelligible
urban configurations may result in perceptions of a lesser sense of personal
control over one's own actions in the environment. The thesis concludes that
'architectural intelligibility' may be a basic aspect in achieving human spatial
needs.


Marine sediment cores are the fundamental data source for information on seabed character, depositional history and environmental change. They provide raw data for a wide range of research including studies of climate change, palaeoceanography, slope stability, oil exploration, pollution assessment and control, seafloor survey for laying cables, pipelines and construction of seafloor structures. During the last three decades, a varied suite of new technologies have been developed to analyse cores, often non-destructively, to produce high-quality, closely spaced, co-located downcore measurements. These techniques can characterize sediment physical properties, geochemistry and composition in unprecedented detail. Palaeoenvironmentally significant proxies can now be logged at decadal, and in some cases, annual or sub-annual scales, allowing highly detailed insights into climatic history and associated environmental change. These advances have had a profound effect on many aspects of the Earth Sciences and our understanding of the Earth's history. In this volume, recent advances in analytical and logging technology and their application to the analysis of sediment cores are presented. Developments in providing access to core data and associated datasets, and advances in data mining technology in order to integrate and interpret new and legacy datasets within the wider context of seafloor studies are also discussed.


The discovery of the Higgs boson by the ATLAS and CMS experiments is one of the main results of Run 1 of the Large Hadron Collider. However, clear evidence for the Higgs boson decay to a pair of b-quarks has not been observed and is crucial to establish the nature of the new found particle. The work presented in this thesis focuses on the search for the Higgs boson in the VH(bb) channel, where it is produced in association with a leptonically decaying vector boson (W, Z), and decays to a pair of b-quarks. Prior to the start of LHC operations, the challenges posed by a pp collider to a H→bb search motivated the development of jet substructure techniques. The boosted regime plays a vital role in the sensitivity of a VH(bb) search and the topologies where the decay products merge can be recovered by implementing a substructure-based selection. The sensitivity of such an approach in a VH(bb) search is studied using ATLAS pp collision data, at a centre-of-mass energy of √s = 7 TeV. It was found that the sensitivity in the boosted region of the VH(bb) channel in Run 1 is already fully exploited by the resolved approach. The mass of the Higgs boson, the energies and luminosities delivered and the good performance of anti-kt jets resulted in little or no gain, at this stage, from performing a jet substructure analysis. The final ATLAS VH(bb) Run 1 result is presented. The systematic uncertainties related to the W+bb process are estimated and discussed. As an irreducible background to this search, the description of W+bb events plays an important role on the final obtained sensitivity. Finally, in preparation for Run 2 and future colliders, the potential benefits from jet substructure techniques are reviewed at different centre-of-mass energies in the context of a boosted WH(bb) search. A detailed study of the signal significance as a function of the boost of the system reveals that the region of highest sensitivity is already fully exploited by the resolved reconstruction. A substructure approach is only beneficial in events with boosts greater than 600 GeV, outside the phase-space region of maximum significance.


The current market environment for corn prices place many firms involved with cattle feeding in financial distress. Producers are looking for ways to ease the burden of higher feed costs and uncertainty associated with the grain market. Some options include altering weaning dates and implementing low cost feeding strategies that only utilize high cost feedstuffs at critical life stages. Profitability comparisons are made across alternative feeding and weaning strategies using a Monte Carlo simulation replicating both input and output prices for distributions based on historical data to assess overall profitability of the alternative management strategies analyzed.


Through a new programming interface based on Open Database Connectivity, programs written in the SIMSCRIPT II.5 programming language gain the ability to access relational databases. Retrieving input data, storing simulation results, and sharing data with other software tools are facilitated. A common interface to multiple database management systems, running on local or remote computers, gives the programmer a flexible range of choices.


Segregation remains a feature of life in American cities, despite legislative efforts to end discrimination in housing. The political and economic causes of segregation have been the topic of rigorous scholarship, but segregation is embedded in urban space, as well as in socioeconomic and political systems. This paper discusses the spatial production of segregation in Baltimore by identifying the markers of division that are produced by formal and informal urban design practices. It proposes that a visual culture of segregation reinforces racial division in the urban environment. Focusing specifically on urban form, land use, and iconography, the paper explores how symbols, signs, and ornamentation produced by public and private actors create informal borders that denote distinct racial places in the city. The principle findings are: that urban design elements can maintain and reinforce politically significant sociological divisions, and that visual culture is a significant place-


Objectives To examine associations between occupational exposures to rubber dust, rubber fumes and N-nitrosamines and non-cancer mortality. Methods A cohort of 36 441 males aged 35+ years employed in British rubber factories was followed-up to 2015 (94% deceased). Competing risk survival analysis was used to assess risks of dying from non-cancer diseases (respiratory, urinary, cerebrovascular, circulatory and digestive diseases). Occupational exposures to rubber dust, rubber fumes, N-nitrosamines were derived based on a population-specific quantitative job-exposure matrix which in-turn was based on measurements in the EU-EXASRUB database. Results Exposure–response associations of increased risk with increasing exposure were found for N-nitrosomorpholine with mortality from circulatory diseases (subdistribution hazard ratio (SHR) 1.17; 95% CI 1.12 to 1.23), ischaemic heart disease (IHD) (SHR 1.19; 95% CI 1.13 to 1.26), cerebrovascular disease (SHR 1.19; 95% CI 1.07 to 1.32) and exposures to N-nitrosodimethylamine with respiratory disease mortality (SHR 1.41; 95% CI 1.30 to 1.53). Increased risks for mortality from circulatory disease, IHD and digestive diseases were found with higher levels of exposures to rubber dust, rubber fumes and N-nitrosamines sum, without an exposure-dependent manner. No associations were observed between rubber dust, rubber fumes and N-nitrosamines exposures with mortality from asthma, urinary disease, bronchitis, emphysema, liver disease and some digestive diseases. Conclusions In a cohort of rubber factory workers with 49 years of follow-up, increased risk for mortality from circulatory, cerebrovascular, respiratory and digestive diseases were found to be associated with cumulative occupational exposures to specific agents.


Constitutional scholarship often assumes a strict separation between processes of constitutional drafting and interpretation. Yet on constitutional courts around the world, the judges charged with interpreting a constitution's text are often the same people who helped write or ratify that text only a few years before. This Article examines the phenomenon of constitutional drafters as judges and the insights to be gained from a study of such judges about the nature of democratic constitution-making — i.e., the degree to which constitution making inevitably takes place over an extended time period, involves processes of constitutional interpretation as well as drafting, and combines forms of legal and political judgment. It further suggests that insights of this kind may invite closer attention to the virtues of certain kinds of judges as agents of democratic constitutional change — i.e., judges who resemble a majority of democratic constitutional drafters by possessing both legal and political relationships, skills, and commitments, or who resemble many actual drafter-judges in that they are lawyer-politicians.


Public opinion matters in different regime types, and an authoritarian state like China is as deeply concerned with opinions of their citizens just as democracies do. Popular opinion as reflected in victims' petition and sympathy in social media is an influential force for Chinese courts to reckon with in making decisions. In the end, death penalty decisions require the broad support of the society and cannot be left merely for judges to decide. This article has argued that the Chinese penal populism occurs in a different cultural context. The Chinese penal populism challenges principally the perceived abuse of power and addresses the issue of social inequality with the Chinese egalitarianism at the backdrop. This article also argues that what is passed in the name of public opinion in China is really the opinions taken by victims, defendants and their respective supporters who advocate for certain specific positions - either for lenience or harshness in sentencing and either pro or against the death penalty. Piercing the veils of public opinions in many sensational cases, one may quickly realize that public opinion may not be as spontaneous as it initially appears. Behind public agitation and outcry, victim families and their supporters actively mobilize and exploit the sympathy of the general public, tactically frame their tragedies, and aggressively "sell" a particular line with the explicit aim to bring public pressure to bear on decision-makers. There are professional middlemen for hire, who can fan public emotion and bring the case to a higher profile. The perfect storm would not have formed except through painstaking, persistent and aggressive organization of public opinion. The storm can then shape the political agenda and override the judicial decision-making process.


Understanding roundwood production in the United States at fine spatial and temporal scales is needed to support a range of analyses for decision making. Currently, estimates of county-level roundwood production are available at various time intervals for different regions of the country and for different products. Here we present our reasoning for moving to an annual timber products monitoring program and further present a comparison of sample designs to facilitate an annual program without increased effort. We found that both probability proportional to size and stratified simple random sampling designs were viable options, but the stratified simple random sampling design provided more flexibility. This flexibility was deemed important to target emerging markets and to enable sampling with certainty of specific firms. Our results lay the foundations for moving to an annual timber products output monitoring design in support of market, sustainability, and policy analyses as well as projections.


This paper reveals the stratigraphic applicability of the larger benthic foraminifer (LBF) Lockhartia from the Paleocene to Lower Eocene of the eastern Neo-Tethyan Ocean outcropping in South Tibet. During the Paleocene, faunas of the western and eastern Neo-Tethys show distinct differences: The western area is dominated by coralgal assemblages, while in the east, LBF predominate the so-called " Lockhartia Sea". Shallow-water limestones of Tingri, Gamba and a completely new section close to the village of Guru in the eastern Neo-Tethyan Ocean reveal the stratigraphic ranges of seven species of Lockhartia : L. conditi, L. haimei, L. hunti, L. praehaimei, L. retiata, L. roeae and L. tipperi . Five interval biozones, called " Lockhartia biozones", are defined for the Paleocene to Lower Eocene based on the stratigraphic distribution of these species. The biozones are used to facilitate regional correlations of the three sections and to compare them with the well-established shallow benthic zones (SBZ) used for biostratigraphy of shallow-water environments. The stratigraphic distribution of Lockhartia suggests an earlier evolution of some species in the eastern Neo-Tethyan Ocean compared to the western region as a result of different latitudinal positions of the ocean basins.


Flexible multivariate distributions are needed in many areas. The popular multivariate Gaussian distribution is however very restrictive and cannot account for features like asymmetry and heavy tails. Therefore dependence modeling using copulas is nowadays very common to account for such patterns. The use of copulas is however challenging in higher dimensions, where standard multivariate copulas suffer from rather inflexible structures. Vine copulas overcome such limitations and are able to model complex dependency patterns by benefiting from the rich variety of bivariate copulas as building blocks. This article presents the R package CDVine which provides functions and tools for statistical inference of canonical vine (C-vine) and D-vine copulas. It contains tools for bivariate exploratory data analysis and for bivariate copula selection as well as for selection of pair-copula families in a vine. Models can be estimated either sequentially or by joint maximum likelihood estimation. Sampling algorithms and graphical methods are also included.


You want to write professional-grade applications: Rails is a full-stack, open-source web framework, with integrated support for unit, functional, and integration testing. It enforces good design principles, consistency of code across your team (and across your organization), and proper release management.But Rails is more than a set of best practices. Rails makes it both fun and easy to turn out very cool web applications. Need Ajax support, so your web applications are highly interactive? Rails has it built in. Want an application that sends and receives e-mail? Built in. Supports internationalization and localization? Built in. Do you need applications with a REST-based interface (so they can interact with other RESTful applications with almost no effort on your part)? All built-in.With this book, you'll learn how to use ActiveRecord to connect business objects and database tables. No more painful object-relational mapping. Just create your business objects and let Rails do the rest. Need to create and modify your schema? Migrations make it painless (and they're versioned, so you can roll changes backward and forward). You'll learn how to use the Action Pack framework to route incoming requests and render pages using easy-to-write templates and components. See how to exploit the Rails service frameworks to send emails, implement web services, and create dynamic, user-centric web-pages using built-in Javascript and Ajax support. There is extensive coverage of testing, and the rewritten Deployment chapter now covers Phusion Passenger.As with the previous editions of the book, we start with an extended tutorial that builds parts of an online store. And, of course, the application has been rewritten to show the best of Rails V2.


Limbless organisms such as snakes can navigate nearly all terrain. In particular, desert-dwelling sidewinder rattlesnakes (Crotalus cerastes) operate effectively on inclined granular media (such as sand dunes) that induce failure in field-tested limbless robots through slipping and pitching. Our laboratory experiments reveal that as granular incline angle increases, sidewinder rattlesnakes increase the length of their body in contact with the sand. Implementing this strategy in a physical robot model of the snake enables the device to ascend sandy slopes close to the angle of maximum slope stability. Plate drag experiments demonstrate that granular yield stresses decrease with increasing incline angle. Together, these three approaches demonstrate how sidewinding with contact-length control mitigates failure on granular media. Robots based on sidewinder rattlesnakes are used to understand motion on sloped granular terrain. [Also see Perspective by Socha] What's that coming over the hill—is it a robot? Crossing a slope can be difficult, particularly if it is made of sand. Sidewinder rattlesnakes manage to climb sandy hills by adjusting the length of their body in contact with the sand. Marvi et al. designed robots based on this idea to determine what affects climbing ability on sandy slopes (see the Perspective by Socha). Based on the behavior of the robots, the authors performed further animal studies, and used an iterative approach to improve the robots' capabilities and to better understand animal motion. Science, this issue p. 224; see also p. 160


Background Unintentional injuries are a leading cause of children's hospitalisations and death globally and are thus a pressing public health concern. Fortunately, they are largely preventable, and understanding children's perspectives on safe and dangerous outdoor play can help educators and researchers identify ways to mitigate the likelihood of their occurrence. Problematically, children's perspectives are rarely included in injury prevention scholarship. In this study, we acknowledge children's right to have their voices heard by exploring the perspectives on safe and dangerous play and injury of 13 children in Metro Vancouver, Canada. Methods We employed tenets of risk and sociocultural theory and a child-centred community-based participatory research approach to injury prevention. We conducted unstructured interviews with children aged 9–13 years old. Results Through our thematic analysis, we identified two themes: (1) 'little' and 'big' injuries and (2) risk and danger. Conclusion Our results suggest children differentiate between 'little' and 'big' injuries by reflecting on the potential loss of opportunities for play with friends. Further, they suggest children avoid play they perceive as dangerous, but enjoy 'risk-seeking' because it is thrilling and provides them with opportunities to push their physical and mental capabilities. Child educators and injury prevention researchers can use our findings to inform their communications with children and make play spaces more accessible to, fun and safe for children.


"Aurora Leigh" (1856), Elizabeth Barrett Browning's epic novel in blank verse, tells the story of the making of a woman poet, exploring 'the woman question', art and its relation to politics and social oppression. The texts in this selection are based in the main on the earliest printed versions of the poems. What Edgar Allan Poe called 'her wild and magnificent genius' is abundantly in evidence. In addition to "Aurora Leigh", this volume contains poetry from the several volumes of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's published poetry from 1826 to 1862, including "Casa Guidi Windows" (1851), "Songs for the Ragged Schools of London" (1854) and the British Library manuscript text of the 'Sonnets from the Portuguese' (1846) which records her courtship with Robert Browning.


With an increase in the number of candidate genes for important traits in livestock, effective strategies for incorporating such genes into selection programmes are increasingly important. Those strategies in part depend on the frequency of a favoured allele in a population. Since comprehensive genotyping of a population is seldom possible, we investigate the consequences of sampling strategies on the reliability of the gene frequency estimate for a bi-allelic locus. Even within a subpopulation or line, often only a proportion of individuals will be genotype tested. However, through segregation analysis, probable genotypes can be assigned to individuals that themselves were not tested, using known genotypes on relatives and a starting (presumed) gene frequency. The value of these probable genotypes in estimation of gene frequency was considered. A subpopulation or line was stochastically simulated and sampled at random, over a cluster of years or by favouring a particular genotype. Line was simulated (replicated) 1000 times. The reliability of gene frequency estimates depended on the sampling strategy used. With random sampling, even when a small proportion of a line was genotyped (0·10), the gene frequency of the population was well estimated from the across-line mean. When information on probable genotypes on untested individuals was combined with known genotypes, the between-line variance in gene frequency was estimated well; including probable genotypes overcame problems of statistical sampling. When the sampling strategy favoured a particular genotype, unsurprisingly the estimate of gene frequency was biased towards the allele favoured. In using probable genotypes the bias was lessened but the estimate of gene frequency still reflected the sampling strategy rather than the true population frequency. When sampling was confined to a few clustered years, the estimation of gene frequency was biased for those generations preceding the sampling event, particularly when the presumed starting gene frequency differed from the true population gene frequency. The potential risks of basing inferences about a population from a potentially biased sample are discussed.


Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is often difficult to diagnose and challenging to treat. Untreated, it is characterized by a progressive increase in pulmonary vascular resistance leading to right ventricular failure and death. The past decade has seen remarkable improvements in therapy, driven largely by the conduct of randomized controlled trials. Still, the selection of most appropriate therapy is complex, and requires familiarity with the disease process, evidence from treatment trials, complicated drug delivery systems, dosing regimens, side effects, and complications. We tried to provide evidence-based treatment recommendations for physicians involved in the care of these complex patients. Due to the complexity of the diagnostic evaluation required, and the treatment options available, it is strongly recommended that consideration be given to referral of patients with PAH to a specialized center.


In near future Autonomous driving will affect every aspect of transportation and offer a significant boost in mobility for everyone. Autonomous driving techniques and modules must be chosen according to the task the platform is developed for. Slow speed driving on campus or highway driving in poor weather conditions, may require different sets of sensors, vehicle models and as a result different software architecture. Some of the main modules that an autonomous driving system needs are the vehicle state estimator and vehicle controller. The development of these two modules relies heavily on the robustness of the vehicle model chosen and the task at hand. University of Waterloo decided to join the Autonomous Driving research by participating in the project, which required development and implementation of the autonomous driving demo sequence for Consumer Electronics Show in 2017. Since the demo sequence was to be performed at slow speeds and, because certain vehicle parameters were not available at the time, a kinematic vehicle model was used in implementation of the core autonomous driving modules: state estimation and control. These modules are implemented on a full scale autonomous driving platform and were designed based on the needs and requirements of the demo sequence. The implementation results show that the chosen vehicle model enables the state estimator to fuse incoming sensor data and allows the controller to track the desired path and velocity profile. For further deployment of the autonomous driving platform for research in urban and highway driving an aggressive driving framework was proposed that is based on dynamic vehicle model and incorporates the tire forces in the generation of the speed profile and keeps the vehicle at the limits of adhesion. The aggressive driving controller can be utilized for emergency evasive maneuvers at low road friction conditions. The controller was tested on a high fidelity simulation software for a double lane change emergency maneuver. The results showed that the aggressive driving framework proposed can be successfully incorporated into the autonomous driving architecture and can perform position and velocity tracking at maximum possible speed.


B101 Purpose: The human ortholog of Rabphillin-3A-Like gene (RPH3AL) is located at 17p13.3 distal to the p53 gene locus (17p13.1). In our previous study, we observed one third of sporadic colorectal adenocarcinomas (CRCs) exhibited loss of heterozygosity (LOH) at these loci. The current study assessed whether these molecular abnormalities are associated with patient race and their clinical outcomes.
 Methods: One hundred thirty-seven archival tissues of CRCs (80 non-Hispanic Caucasians and 57 African-Americans), with long follow up information, were selected for this study. The LOH status of these two loci was assessed by evaluating four polymorphic microsatellite markers spanning the RPH3AL locus (D17S1866, D17S926, D17S849 and D17S643) and two polymorphic microsatellite markers of the p53 locus (TP53.PCR15 and TP53.PCR18) using ABI 3100 genetic analyzer. Also, we stained 103 (out of 137 cases) tissue sections to assess the phenotypic expression of RPH3AL and p53 using anti-human RPH3AL polyclonal (dilution: 10ug/ml; GenScript, Piscataway, NJ) and anti-human p53 monoclonal (Clone: BP53.12.1 and dilution: 1:80; BioGenex, San Ramon, CA) antibodies. The immunostained slides were evaluated by two independent pathologists.
 Result: Our analysis demonstrated that 50% of African-Americans have exhibited LOH at 17p13.1 (25 of 50 informative cases) and 65% cases (36 of 55 informative cases) were positive for LOH at 17p13.3 locus. In non-Hispanic Caucasians, the incidence of LOH at p53 locus was 58% (40 of 69 informative cases) and the LOH incidence at RPH3AL locus was 74% (58 of 78 informative cases). In African-Americans, 42% CRCs (21 of 50 informative cases) have exhibited LOH at both loci and 26% CRCs (13 of 50 informative cases) were without LOH at these two loci. In non-Hispanic Caucasians, 51% (35 of 69 informative cases) cases were positive for LOH at both these loci and 14% (10 of 69 informative cases) cases were without LOH at these two loci. Among the 21 cases which exhibited LOH at both loci in African-Americans, 12 cases had nodal metastasis (57%), whereas only 23% (3 of 12 cases) had nodal metastasis in CRCs without LOH at these two loci. Such a difference was not observed in non-Hispanic Caucasians (46% nodal metastasis in CRCs with LOH at both loci versus 40% nodal metastasis in CRCs without LOH at these two loci). In African-Americans, there was a significant difference in survival between cases with and without LOH at both loci (logrank, p=0.044). This difference was not observed in non-Hispanic Caucasians (logrank, p=0.750). In this study, we did not find a significant correlation between immunohistochemical expression of p53 and RPH3AL with their underlying genetic abnormalities at these two loci.
 Conclusion: These findings suggest that there is a significant correlation between LOH at p53 and RPH3AL loci and the aggressive tumor behavior in African-Americans; thus, contributing for their short survival. This work is supported partially by funds from the Department of Pathology, University of Alabama at Birmingham and by a grant from the National Institute of Health/National Cancer Institute (RO1-CA98932-01).


This paper proposes a novel system to assist human image analysts to effectively browse and search for objects in a camera network. In contrast to the existing approaches that focus on finding global trajectories across cameras, the proposed approach directly models the relationship among raw camera observations. A graph model is proposed to represent detected/tracked objects, their appearance and spatial-temporal relationships. In order to minimize communication requirements, we assume that raw video is processed at camera nodes independently to compute object identities and trajectories at video rate. However, this would result in unreliable object locations and/or trajectories. The proposed graph structure captures the uncertainty in these camera observations by effectively modeling their global relationships, and enables a human analyst to query, browse and search the data collected from the camera network. A novel graph ranking framework is proposed for the search and retrieval task, and the absorbing random walk algorithm is adapted to retrieve a representative and diverse set of video frames from the cameras in response to a user query. Preliminary results on a wide area camera network are presented.


ObjectivesTo evaluate the use of a real-time surveillance tool to track a variety of occupationally-related emergency room visits through the state based syndromic surveillance system, EpiCenter.IntroductionThis study uses data from the New Jersey syndromic surveillance system (EpiCenter) as a data source to enhance surveillance of current non-fatal occupational injuries, illnesses, and poisonings. EpiCenter was originally developed for early detection and monitoring of the health of communities using chief complaints from people seeking acute care in hospital emergency rooms to identify health trends. Currently, syndromic surveillance has not been widely applied to identify occupational injuries and illnesses. Incorporating syndromic surveillance data from EpiCenter, along with hospital discharge data, will enhance the classification and capture of work-related non-fatal injuries with possible improved efforts at prevention.MethodsEpiCenter Emergency Department data from January to December 2014 was evaluated, using work-related keywords and ICD-9 codes, to determine its ability to capture non-fatal work-related injuries. A collection of keywords and phrases specific to work-related injuries was developed by manually assessing the free text chief complaint data field's. Sensitivity, specificity, and positive predictive value (PPV), along with descriptive statistics was used to evaluate and summarize the occupational injuries identified in EpiCenter.ResultsOverall, 11,919 (0.3%) possible work-related injuries were identified via EpiCenter. Of these visits 956 (8%) indicated Workman's Compensation as payer. Events that resulted in the greatest number of ED visits were falls, slips, trips (1,679, 14%). Nature of injury included cuts, lacerations (1,041, 9%), burns (255, 2%), and sprains, strains, tears (185, 2). The part of the body most affected were the back (1,414, 12%). This work-related classifier achieved a sensitivity of 5.4%, a specificity of 99.8%, and a PPV of 2.8%.ConclusionsEvaluating the ability and performance of a new and existing surveillance data source to capture work-related injuries can lead to enhancements in current data collection methods. This evaluation successfully demonstrated that the chief complaint reporting system can yield real-time knowledge of incidents and local conditions for use in identifying opportunities for prevention of work-related injuries.