Post-stroke neurorehabilitation is an emerging application field of robotics, aiming to design new treatment systems and protocols based on the use of robotic technology and virtual reality to improve patient recovery after stroke. One goal in this field is to develop robotic therapy devices that are compliant but can still assist weakened patients in making desired movements. It is hypothesized that, in this way, the interaction with the robotic system can maintain patient engagement and effort, and promote and stimulate the motor learning process of the patient. One way that has been proposed to maintain compliance while assisting weak patients is to use an adaptive controller with a forgetting term, which allows the robotic system to learn a model of the forces needed to assist the patients during exercises while encouraging patient effort. A limitation of such an approach is that the adaptive gain must be large enough to rapidly change the model for different target movements, which decreases the compliance of the robot. We show here in simulation that by building independent models for different target movements, robot compliance can be increased while still accurately achieving the target movements.Copyright © 2008 by ASME


We have used 16S ribosomal genes to estimate the bacterial contents of Lake Vostok accretion ice samples at 3551 m and 3607 m, both containing sediment inclusions and formed 20000–15000 yr ago. Decontamination proved to be a critical issue, and we used stringent ice chemistry-based procedures and comprehensive biological controls in order to restrain contamination. As a result, up to now we have only recognized one 16S rDNA bacterial phylotype with confident relevance to the lake environment. It was found in one sample at 3607 m depth and represents the extant thermophilic facultative chemolithoautotroph Hydrogenophilus thermoluteolus of beta-Proteobacteria, and until now had only been found in hot springs. No confident findings were detected in the sample at 3551 m, and all other phylotypes revealed (a total of 16 phylotypes, 336 clones including controls) are presumed to be contaminants. It seems that the Lake Vostok accretion ice is actually microbe-free, indicating that the water body should also be hosting a highly sparse life. The message of thermophilic bacteria suggests that a geothermal system exists beneath the cold water body of Lake Vostok, what is supported by the geological setting, the long-term seismotectonic evidence from 4He degassing and the '18O shift' of the Vostok accretion ice. The seismotectonic activity that seems to operate in deep faults beneath the lake could sustain thermophilic chemolithoautotrophic microbial communities. Such a primary production scenario for Lake Vostok may have relevance for icy planets and the approaches used for estimating microbial contents in accretion ice are clearly relevant for searching for extraterrestrial life.


Immigration law's "post-departure bar" destroys the jurisdiction of either an immigration judge or the Board of Immigration Appeals to hear a motion to reopen or reconsider filed by an alien who is no longer physically within the country. This Note examines the current conflict between the federal circuits regarding the post-departure bar and why the circuits that have decided to strike down the bar in the cases before them have ruled in line with certain trends present in recent Supreme Court immigration cases. Conflict between the circuits has arisen because the governing statute, the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, was enacted without reference to the bar, which had been in place before the Act's passage. In that statutory silence, the Attorney General promulgated regulations intended to reestablish the bar. In recent years, circuits have taken various positions on the bar's validity. Many have struck the bar down on the basis of either Chevron deference or the grounds outlined in Union Pacific Railroad Co. v. Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, which bars an agency from limiting its jurisdiction in certain situations. Still, other circuits have upheld the bar by using Chevron to conclude that deference to the agency is proper. This Note suggests that the circuits that have struck down the bar are in line with prevailing trends in recent immigration cases decided by the Supreme Court. Further, this Note argues that it does not matter whether a circuit court relies upon Chevron or Union Pacific to strike down the bar, as the use of either precedent to attack the bar serves these trends, and is consistent with the overall direction of American immigration law.


Poliomyelitis, derived from the Greek words polio (grey) and myelon (marrow, indicating the spinal cord), is a viral infection that can cause paralysis when the spinal cord is affected. The successes achieved in the past to control and eradicate polio in several parts of the world, raises the hope of total world eradication of polio. Smallpox is the only virus to date that has been completely eradicated world-wide. Even though several factors pertaining to the polio virus and adverse effects with vaccination against polio may render the process of polio eradication more complex than that of smallpox, successful eradication of polio in several countries globally, is an indication that world-wide eradication of polio is well within reach.


This study uses high-frequency water consumption data from 311 smart meters to link consumption with census data. For this purpose a well-established procedure was adopted. Results include the identification of the socio-demographic profiles associated to low, medium, medium-high and high water consumption groups and distinct daily consumption patterns in terms of the period of the day with maximum consumption: (i) morning period, (ii) morning and lunch period, (iii) dinner period. The main socio-demographic drivers to accurately understand water consumption within their different patterns were identified and refer to the characteristics of the population – rented middle size dwellings, middle size families, average educated (high school level) and professionally active population.


This paper presents the findings from a quantitative analysis of the Community College of Baltimore County's Accelerated Learning Program (ALP). Under ALP, students placed into upper-level developmental writing are "mainstreamed" into English 101 classes and simultaneously enrolled in a companion ALP course (taught by the same instructor) that meets in the class period immediately following the English 101 class. The aim of the ALP course, which has only eight students, is to help students maximize the likelihood of their success in English 101. Our results suggest that among students who place into the highest level developmental writing course, participating in ALP is associated with substantially better outcomes in terms of English 101 completion and English 102 completion, the two primary outcomes ALP was designed to improve. However, we found no evidence that ALP students' greater likelihood of completing English 101 and 102 correlates with increased rates of college persistence or passing other college-level courses. Looking at the costs of ALP in relation to our findings on its effects, we found that ALP is a more cost-effective pathway through the required collegelevel English courses than the traditional developmental English sequence as measured by cost per successful student ($2,680 versus $3,122). A rough cost-benefit analysis finds that the benefits of ALP are more than double the costs.


Abstract Risk factors and underlying mechanisms for liver injury associated with amiodarone remain elusive. This study aimed to investigate the drug-related covariates for acute liver injury by amiodarone—an intriguing compound of high lipophilicity, with a long half-life and notable efficacy. The medical, pharmacy, and laboratory records of new amiodarone users admitted to the cardiac or surgical intensive care units of a medical center were examined retrospectively. A Cox regression model with time-varying dose-related variables of amiodarone was utilized to estimate the hazard ratio (HR) of amiodarone-associated liver injury while adjusting for concomitant therapy and relevant covariates. Of the 131 eligible patients among 6,572 amiodarone users (46,402 prescriptions), 6 were identified as amiodarone-associated liver injury cases. In comparison to controls (n = 125), this liver injury cohort (n = 6) had significantly higher numbers of amiodarone-interacting (2.7 ± 2.0 vs 0.9 ± 0.9 drugs, P = .02) and hepatotoxic (3.8 ± 0.8 vs 2.5 ± 1.7 drugs, P = .03) comedications. The number of comedications with amiodarone-interacting potential (HR 2.07, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.02−4.22, P = .04) and amiodarone cumulative doses standardized by body surface area (HR 6.82, 95% CI 1.72–27.04, P = .01) were independent risk factors for liver injury associated with amiodarone. Drug-related (amiodarone cumulative dose, interacting drugs) factors were significant predictors of amiodarone-associated acute liver injury. A prudent evaluation of each medication profile is warranted to attain precision medicine at the level of patient care, especially for those treated by medications with complex physicochemical and pharmacokinetic properties, such as amiodarone.


Free/Libre open source software (FLOSS, e.g., Linux or Apache) is primarily developed by distributed teams. Developers contribute from around the world and coordinate their activity almost exclusively by means of email and bulletin boards, yet some how profit from the advantages and evade the challenges of distributed software development. In this article we investigate the structure and the coordination practices adopted by development teams during the bug-fixing process, which is considered one of main areas of FLOSS project success. In particular, based on a codification of the messages recorded in the bug tracking system of four projects, we identify the accomplished tasks, the adopted coordination mechanisms, and the role undertaken by both the FLOSS development team and the FLOSS community. We conclude with suggestions for further research.


A concept of an integrated optical isolator is presented which uses the TM(0) mode propagating perpendicular to the in-plane magnetization of a planar magnetooptical waveguide. The cut-off thickness of the waveguide depends on the propagation direction. If the magnetic film has a strong Faraday rotation and is weakly guiding, the cut-off thicknesses for forward and backward propagation differ markedly. Operating close to cut-off yields a large difference between coupling efficiencies to the waveguide for forward and backward propagation.


Based on a summary description of privacy protection research within three fields of inquiry, viz. social sciences, legal science, and computer and systems sciences, we discuss multidisciplinary approaches with regard to the difficulties and the risks that they entail as well as their possible advantages. The latter include the identification of relevant perspectives of privacy, increased expressiveness in the formulation of research goals, opportunities for improved research methods, and a boost in the utility of invested research efforts.


In the frame of the European Fusion Technology Programme, the Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe and the CRPP Villigen are developing a 60 kA current lead for the ITER Toroidal Field Coils using High Temperature Superconductors. In part 2 of the task, two 10 kA HTS modules were ordered in the industry and one is being fabricated at the Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe using different conductor designs. One 10 kA current lead using Bi-2223 stripes stabilized by Ag/Au has been tested at CRPP Villigen. The conventional heat exchanger is cooled by 60 K helium gas whereas the HTS module is conduction cooled. The test covers the electrical and thermal steady state as well as the thermal transient behaviour after switching off the helium mass flow with respect to the temperature profile, the head load at 4.5 K, the minimum mass flow rate of 60 K helium, the critical current evaluation and the quench behaviour. Special feature of the test equipment is the use of small Hall probes to measure the current distribution during both the steady state condition and the current sharing regime. The paper describes the experimental results as well as the thermal and electrical models developed to explain the data.


A randomized controlled experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of expressive writing and fact-control writing about experiences with ovarian cancer on emotional well-being and quality of life one month after writing in women diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Moderation effects of emotional approach coping and social constraints were predicted based on a matching hypothesis for the fit between the demands of writing and individual differences (Niles et al., 2014) and the role of social constraints on disclosure (Lepore & Revenson, 2007). Cancer-related avoidance and cancer-related intrusive thoughts were examined as mediators on the relationships between social constraints and emotional well-being at follow up and social constraints and quality of life at follow up. Results showed that participants in the expressive writing condition reported increased emotional well-being at follow up, controlling for baseline levels of emotional well-being, but there were no differences in quality of life at follow up between the two writing conditions, controlling for baseline quality of life. There were no differences in reported average negative affect post writing sessions between the two writing conditions. In a model predicting emotional well-being at follow up, expressive writing had a positive effect, social constraints had a negative effect, and emotional approach coping had no effect. The hypothesized moderation effects between emotional approach coping, social constraints and writing condition in predicting emotional well-being at follow up were not detected and support for the matching hypothesis proposed by Niles et al (2014) was not found. In a marginally significant model, social constraints had a significant effect and interacted with writing condition to predict quality of life at follow up, such that participants with high baseline levels of social constraints benefitted more from the fact control condition, whereas participants with low baseline levels of social constraints benefitted more from the expressive writing condition. Finally, cancer-related intrusive thoughts mediated the effect of social constraints on emotional well-being at follow up but not on quality of life at follow up. Cancer-related avoidance was not found to mediate the effect of social constraints on either emotional well-being at follow up or quality of life at follow up. © 2017 National Association for Poetry Therapy JOURNAL OF POETRY THERAPY, 2017 VOL. 30, NO. 3, 203–207 https://doi.org/10.1080/08893675.2017.1328867


Sappho's prediction came true; fragments of work by the earliest woman writer in Western literate history have in fact survived into the 21st century. But not without peril. Sappho's writing remains only in fragments, partly due to the passage of time, but mostly as a result of systematic efforts to silence women's voices. Sappho's hopeful boast captures the mission of this anthology: to gather together women engaged in the art of persuasion - across differences of race, class, sexual orientation, historical and physical locations - in order to remember that the rhetorical tradition indeed includes them. This book offers 20 women rhetoricians - from ancient Greece to the 21st century - a room of their own for the first time. Editors Joy Ritchie and Kate Ronald do so in the feminist tradition of recovering a previously unarticulated canon of women's rhetoric. Women whose voices are central to such scholarship are included here, such as Aspasia (a contemporary of Plato's), Margery Kempe, Margaret Fuller and Ida B. Wells. Added are influential works on what it means to write as a woman - by Virginia Woolf, Adrienne Rich, Nancy Mairs, Alice Walker and Helene Cixous. Public "manifestos" on the rights of women by Hortensia, Mary Astell, Maria Stewart, Sarah and Angelina Grimke, Anna Julia Cooper, Margaret Sanger and Audre Lorde also join the discourse. But "Available Means" searches for rhetorical tradition in less obvious places, too. Letters, journals, speeches, newspaper columns, diaries, meditations and a fable (Rachel Carson's introduction to "Silent Spring") also find places in this room. Such unconventional documents challenge traditional notions of invention, arrangement, style and delivery, and blur the boundaries between public and private discourse. Included, too, are writers whose voices have not been heard in any tradition. Ritchie and Ronald seek to "unsettle" as they expand the women's rhetorical canon. Arranged chronologically, "Available Means" is designed as a classroom text that will allow students to hear women speaking to each other across centuries, and to see how women have added new places from which arguments can be made. Each selection is accompanied by an extensive headnote, which sets the reading in context. The breadth of material will allow students to ask such questions as "How might we define women's rhetoric? How have women used and subverted traditional rhetoric?". A topical index at the end of the book provides teachers a guide through the rhetorical riches. "Available Means" should be a useful text for rhetoric courses of all levels, as well as for women's studies courses.


In this paper, we report, for the first time, corner effect analysis in the gate-all-around equilateral triangular silicon nanowire (NW) junctionless (JL) nMOSFETs, from subthreshold to strong accumulation regime. Corners were found to accumulate and deplete more electrons than the flat sides or the channel center, when above (local accumulation) and below (local depletion) the flat-band voltage, respectively. On the contrary to the corner effect in the inversion mode (IM) devices, there is no major contribution of corners in the subthreshold current, and therefore, there is no subthreshold device behavior degradation (only one threshold voltage in the system). N-type channel doping levels of 1 × 1019, 5 × 1018, and 1 × 1018 cm-3 were used for quasi-stationary device simulations of JL and AM MOSFETs, and corner effect was studied for 5, 10, and 15 nm wide equilateral triangular Si NW MOSFETs with a 2 nm SiO2 gate oxide thickness (VDS = 0 V; T = 300 K). While the local quantum and classical electron density peaks are located in the corner regions above the flat-band voltage, reducing the channel doping and the channel cross-section was found to slightly suppress the normalized total accumulation electron density per unit length, Ntacc/(CWeff), in strong accumulation regime.


The development of the latest generation of wide-body carbon-fibre composite passenger aircraft has heralded a new era in the utilisation of these materials. The premise of superior specific strength and stiffness, corrosion and fatigue resistance, is tempered by high development costs, slow production rates and lengthy and expensive certification programmes. Substantial effort is currently being directed towards the development of new modelling and simulation tools, at all levels of the development cycle, to mitigate these shortcomings. One of the primary challenges is to reduce the extent of physical testing, in the certification process, by adopting a 'certification by simulation' approach. In essence, this aspirational objective requires the ability to reliably predict the evolution and progression of damage in composites. The aerospace industry has been at the forefront of developing advanced composites modelling tools. As the automotive industry transitions towards the increased use of composites in mass-produced vehicles, similar challenges in the modelling of composites will need to be addressed, particularly in the reliable prediction of crashworthiness. While thermoset composites have dominated the aerospace industry, thermoplastics composites are likely to emerge as the preferred solution for meeting the high-volume production demands of passenger road vehicles. This keynote paper outlines recent progress and current challenges in the development of finite-element-based predictive modelling tools for capturing impact damage, residual strength and energy absorption capacity of thermoset and thermoplastic composites for crashworthiness assessments. CITATION: Falzon, B. and Tan, W., "Predicting Impact Damage, Residual Strength and Crashworthiness of Composite Structures," SAE Int. J. Mater. Manf. 9(3):2016, doi:10.4271/2016-01-0497. 2016-01-0497 Published 04/05/2016 Copyright © 2016 SAE International doi:10.4271/2016-01-0497 saematman.saejournals.org Downloaded from SAE International by Brian Falzon, Tuesday, April 05, 2016


China and India are home to one-third of the world's population. And they're undergoing social and economic revolutions that are capturing the best minds--and money--of Western business. In Billions of Entrepreneurs, Tarun Khanna examines the entrepreneurial forces driving China's and India's trajectories of development. He shows where these trajectories overlap and complement one another--and where they diverge and compete. He also reveals how Western companies can participate in this development. Through intriguing comparisons, the author probes important differences between China and India in areas such as information and transparency, the roles of capital markets and talent, public and private property rights, social constraints on market forces, attitudes toward expatriates abroad and foreigners at home, entrepreneurial and corporate opportunities, and the importance of urban and rural communities. He explains how these differences will influence China's and India's future development, what the two countries can learn from each other, and how they will ultimately reshape business, politics, and society in the world around them. Engaging and incisive, this book is a critical resource for anyone working in China or India or planning to do business in these two countries.


The involvement of host communities (or destination residents), particularly in developing countries, is critical to the success of tourism development and to the creation of a "Just Destination". This paper investigates host community perceptions about obstacles to their participation in tourism development in Lombok, Indonesia, providing new insights into institutional influences on tourism opportunities and issues. Purposive and snowball sampling techniques targeted separate groups of destination residents who live in a developed tourism destination, a less developed tourism destination, a remote rural village far away from tourism destinations, as well as a group of university students. Data were collected through in-depth interviews, qualitative questionnaires and observation, and were analysed using content analysis. Results show three main institutional factors inhibit host community participation in tourism: tourism agencies, private sector providers and tourism infrastructure, and perceptions of the negative impacts of tourism. The underperformance of state tourism agencies and private sector providers resulted in a lack of tourism infrastructure and limitations on host community opportunities to participate in tourism development and businesses. The findings suggest the need for improvement in the training of state tourism agency employees, better coordination among government agencies, and improved education and training for tourism operators.


In this investigation, flow behavior of Ti-6Al-4V ELI alloy was studied by conducting compression tests over a wide range of temperatures and strain rates. Constitutive relations were determined from the flow behavior, and a dynamic material modeling was conducted on this alloy. Thus, the optimum processing condition in terms of temperature and strain rate was identified. Microstructural changes during high temperature deformation were also characterized.... Ti-6Al-4V ELI, Deformation Processing, High temperature deformation, Processing map, Metalworking.


The Southeast Asia and Melanesia region has extensive nickel (Ni)‐rich lateritic regoliths formed from the tropical weathering of ultramafic rocks. As the global demand for Ni continues to rise, these lateritic regoliths are increasingly being exploited for their economic benefit. Mining of these regoliths contributes to the enrichment of coastal sediments in trace metals, especially Ni. The present study used high‐throughput sequencing (metabarcoding) to determine changes in eukaryote (18s v7 recombinant DNA [rDNA] and diatom‐specific subregion of the 18s v4 rDNA) and prokaryote (16s v4 rDNA) community compositions along a sediment Ni concentration gradient offshore from a large lateritized ultramafic regolith in New Caledonia (Vavouto Bay). Significant changes in the eukaryote, diatom, and prokaryote community compositions were found along the Ni concentration gradient. These changes correlated most with the dilute‐acid extractable concentration of Ni in the sediments, which explained 26, 23, and 19% of the variation for eukaryote, diatom, and prokaryote community compositions, respectively. Univariate analyses showed that there was no consistent change in indices of biodiversity, evenness, or richness. Diatom richness and diversity did, however, decrease as sediment acid extractable‐Ni concentrations increased. Threshold indicator taxa analysis was conducted separately for each of the 3 targeted genes to detect changes in taxa whose occurrences decreased or increased along the acid extractable‐Ni concentration gradient. Based on these data, 46 mg acid extractable‐Ni/kg was determined as a threshold value where sensitive species began to disappear. In the case of the estuarine sediments offshore from lateritized ultramafic regolith in New Caledonia, this is recommended as an interim threshold value until further lines of evidence can contribute to a region‐specific Ni sediment quality guideline value. Environ Toxicol Chem 2021;40:1892–1905. © 2021 SETAC


The main purpose of this research is to examine the relationship between fathers' involvement, their gender perceptions, and the gender stereotypes of children. A relational survey model was used in this research. The sampling of the research is composed of 151 randomly selected 60 to 72-month-old children, who attended preschools in the centre of Mugla province in Turkey, and their fathers. As data collecting tools, Demographic Information Form, Father Involvement Scale (60), Perceptions of Gender Scale (3), and Gender Stereotypes Assessment Instrument (65) were utilized. According to research results, fathers' equalitarian perspective regarding gender increases their involvement levels. On the other hand, it was determined that the gender of the child and the age of their father play a significant role in their father's involvement. It was determined that there is a significant positive relation between the gender stereotypes of the child and their father's arbitrary engagement, which is one of the sub-dimensions of the father involvement scale. It was also discovered that while the fathers' income is significant in the gender stereotypes of children; factors like their occupation, age, gender perceptions, and their involvement levels are not.


Reparations, the unpaid account of the Truth and Reconciliation Process The author contends that the final question about the contribution of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission will not be whether the Human Rights Violations Committee or even the Amnesty Committee were successful in their respective tasks of collecting data, as well as holding numerous victims' and amnesty hearings throughout the country, but concerns the question of reparation to the victims of apartheid. Raising his concern about the fact that government was slow to act upon the TRC's reparation proposals, he underlines the reasons why proper reparation was of supreme importance to the victims as well as to the nation. After discussing the five categories of reparation proposals, the author suggests a number of areas where the faith communities in the country have a unique and significant contribution to make.


Commercial fertilizers are commonly applied in farming to maximize crop yield. Lifting nutrient limitation to plant growth when water and light conditions are sufficient may permit plants to grow to the maximum of their ability; however, plant ability to resist pathogen infections is also modified. A meta-analysis was conducted on 57 articles to identify the way plant disease severity of fungal pathogen-induced infection is modified following fertilization, and the key regulators of such an effect. The analysis largely focused on N fertilization events in order to minimize the effect of heterogeneity that could result from differences in the way different nutrient fertilizers are able to modify plant disease severity. Fungal pathogen identity and fungal pathogen lifestyle were the main significant regulators affecting the extent of the modification of plant disease resistance following N fertilization, whereas contradictory results were obtained with the susceptibility of plant species. No differences were detected between pot or field experiments and following artificial or natural infection. Although in the vast majority of instances N fertilization increased disease severity, characteristic plant species and fungal pathogens could be identified for which disease severity following N fertilization declined. It is concluded that the potential of some plant species such as Solanum spp. to show reduced disease severity following N fertilization requires further investigation, as in such cases N fertilization could potentially be used as an additional means of suppressing fungal pathogens.


Previous research has not specified the circumstances under which foreign aid may increase the probability of armed conflict. The purpose of this dissertation is to address this gap by employing a theoretical framework in which foreign aid produces incentives for a rent-seeking scramble among elites. A set of conditions affecting the likelihood of armed conflict are identified and tested on global data in a series of statistical analyses. Paper I argues and finds that foreign aid increases the probability of armed conflict in states where there are few constraints on executive power, allowing for a scramble for rents. Paper II proposes and finds a threshold effect of aid, such that the likelihood of armed conflict increases only when aid has reached a certain level. Paper III suggests and demonstrates that sudden negative changes in aid flows enhance the risk of armed conflict as well as coup attempts, as aid shortfalls accelerate distributional conflict over aid rents. Paper IV claims and shows that civil wars are less likely to be terminated by settlement in the form of elections when conflict parties are dependent on rents. In sum, this dissertation contributes by theoretically specifying and empirically identifying conditions under which foreign aid increases the probability of armed conflict.


In the workplace, coping by the individual is an adaptational process for maintaining interpersonal relationships, solving task-related problems, and ameliorating the emotional consequences of stressful events. In the management literature, coping strategies have been studied in terms of their relationships to job loss, new jobs and adjustment to work, business disasters, and role demands such as burnout. These investigations have varied in type of occupation, organization, and gender considered. This article analyzes an instrument that has been developed for identifying coping strategies used in these situations. A brief overview of coping and communication is presented, followed by an analysis of the Ways of Coping Questionnaire, including reliability and validity information.


A 234U and 230Th determination method based on an extraction chromatographic separation followed by ICP-MS with quadrupole (ICP-QMS) was developed. For authigenic carbonates, a second separation step with ion exchange chromatography in a HNO3 solution was added. These methods were applied to seven fossil deep-water coral and two authigenic carbonate samples from the continental slope of the Campos Basin - Brazil. The ages determined for the fossil corals samples from the same sediment core ranged from 9 to 202 ky with a 1% uncertainty, consistent with the values determined by 14C dating and with those determined by 230Th/234U using flow injection coupled to an ICP-QMS. One of the authigenic carbonates analyzed presented an age of approximately 80 ky. The other sample exhibited a 230Th/234U activity ratio close to equilibrium and out of the application range of the method.


ABSTRACT The language of mothers and fathers to their toddler sons and daughters at play with three different types of toy was analysed for both sentence types and structural elements. Two of the play contexts, dolls and vehicles, were highly sex-role stereotyped, and the third, shape sorters, was neutral. Few differences in speech were found as a function of either parent or child gender. Each of the three play contexts, however, elicited its own language pattern. With dolls, parental speech was characterized by a relatively large amount of language and a frequent use of questions and nouns, especially by contrast with vehicle play, which involved little language. Play with shape sorters elicited a high proportion of directives and attentionals and a relatively low variety in language. These results suggest that children who play frequently with dolls may receive more opportunities to learn and practise language than do children who select other toys for play. In this way early toy preferences may contribute to differential socialization by parents.


In almost all cases, the goal of the design of automatic control systems is to obtain the parameters of the controllers, which are described by differential equations. In general, the controller is artificially built and it is possible to update its initial conditions. In the design of optimal quadratic regulators, the initial conditions of the controller can be changed in an optimal way and they can improve the performance of the controlled system. Following this idea, a LMI-based design procedure to update the initial conditions of PI controllers, considering the nonlinear plant described by Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy models, is presented. The importance of the proposed method is that it also allows other specifications, such as, the decay rate and constraints on control input and output. The application in the control of an inverted pendulum illustrates the effectively of proposed method.


Monads have become a powerful tool for structuring effectful computations in functional programming, because they make the order of effects explicit. When translating pure code to a monadic version, we need to specify evaluation order explicitly. Two standard translations give call-by-value and call-by-name semantics. The resulting programs have different structure and types, which makes revisiting the choice difficult.
In this paper, we translate pure code to monadic using an additional operation malias that abstracts out the evaluation strategy. The malias operation is based on computational comonads; we use a categorical framework to specify the laws that are required to hold about the operation.
For any monad, we show implementations of malias that give call-by-value and call-by-name semantics. Although we do not give call-by-need semantics for all monads, we show how to turn certain monads into an extended monad with call-by-need semantics, which partly answers an open question. Moreover, using our unified translation, it is possible to change the evaluation strategy of functional code translated to the monadic form without changing its structure or types.


At this time, security threat to the state cannot only be seen from military threats but also can be seen from non-military threats. Non-military threats, such as threats of ideological, political, economic, social and cultural dimensions can undermine the spirit of nationalism. To overcome the low sense of nationalism, then the government organized a state defense program. The synergy between regional command unit of Indonesian National Army (TNI AD) and local government in the state defense program is considered important by considering the geopolitical and geostrategic aspects of Indonesia. In its implementation, the civilian communities are considered that the state defense program that is conducted by regional command unit of TNI AD and local government is very important and provides many benefits, such as the growing sense of unity, the love of the homeland, the discipline, and the vigilance of security threats. Public gives a positive response because there is a  synergy between the Regional Military Command with Local Government of Sukabumi Regency. The synergy between two institutions is achieved due to loyalty to partners, efforts to maintain interdependence, adjustment with the partner (cultural fit), the integrity and intensity of the relationship, and the institutionalization.


ABSTRACT Fosfomycin is a decades-old antibiotic which is being revisited because of its perceived activity against many extensively drug-resistant Gram-negative pathogens. FosA proteins are Mn2+ and K+-dependent glutathione S-transferases which confer fosfomycin resistance in Gram-negative bacteria by conjugation of glutathione to the antibiotic. Plasmid-borne fosA variants have been reported in fosfomycin-resistant Escherichia coli strains. However, the prevalence and distribution of fosA in other Gram-negative bacteria are not known. We systematically surveyed the presence of fosA in Gram-negative bacteria in over 18,000 published genomes from 18 Gram-negative species and investigated their contribution to fosfomycin resistance. We show that FosA homologues are present in the majority of genomes in some species (e.g., Klebsiella spp., Enterobacter spp., Serratia marcescens, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa), whereas they are largely absent in others (e.g., E. coli, Acinetobacter baumannii, and Burkholderia cepacia). FosA proteins in different bacterial pathogens are highly divergent, but key amino acid residues in the active site are conserved. Chromosomal fosA genes conferred high-level fosfomycin resistance when expressed in E. coli, and deletion of chromosomal fosA in S. marcescens eliminated fosfomycin resistance. Our results indicate that FosA is encoded by clinically relevant Gram-negative species and contributes to intrinsic fosfomycin resistance. IMPORTANCE There is a critical need to identify alternate approaches to treat infections caused by extensively drug-resistant (XDR) Gram-negative bacteria. Fosfomycin is an old antibiotic which is routinely used for the treatment of urinary tract infections, although there is substantial interest in expanding its use to systemic infections caused by XDR Gram-negative bacteria. In this study, we show that fosA genes, which encode dimeric Mn2+- and K+-dependent glutathione S-transferase, are widely distributed in the genomes of Gram-negative bacteria—particularly those belonging to the family Enterobacteriaceae—and confer fosfomycin resistance. This finding suggests that chromosomally located fosA genes represent a vast reservoir of fosfomycin resistance determinants that may be transferred to E. coli. Furthermore, they suggest that inhibition of FosA activity may provide a viable strategy to potentiate the activity of fosfomycin against XDR Gram-negative bacteria. IMPORTANCE There is a critical need to identify alternate approaches to treat infections caused by extensively drug-resistant (XDR) Gram-negative bacteria. Fosfomycin is an old antibiotic which is routinely used for the treatment of urinary tract infections, although there is substantial interest in expanding its use to systemic infections caused by XDR Gram-negative bacteria. In this study, we show that fosA genes, which encode dimeric Mn2+- and K+-dependent glutathione S-transferase, are widely distributed in the genomes of Gram-negative bacteria—particularly those belonging to the family Enterobacteriaceae—and confer fosfomycin resistance. This finding suggests that chromosomally located fosA genes represent a vast reservoir of fosfomycin resistance determinants that may be transferred to E. coli. Furthermore, they suggest that inhibition of FosA activity may provide a viable strategy to potentiate the activity of fosfomycin against XDR Gram-negative bacteria.


This Article questions the widely held view that the fiduciary duties that corporate directors ordinarily owe to or for the benefit of shareholders should shift to creditors when the corporation is in financial distress. This view suffers from two important flaws. First, it mistakenly assumes a strong connection between duty and priority in right of payment. Thus, the thinking goes, as the corporation approaches insolvency, creditors should displace shareholders as the residual claimants, to whom duties should run. While this may make sense when a corporation liquidates, it ignores the fact that priority is a distributional doctrine, and therefore functions very differently than does duty. The second, and more important, mistake is that linking priority and duty causes us to ignore the deeper normative concerns that should animate duty in the corporate context. These normative concerns usually respond to power imbalances expressed as disparities of volition (voluntariness), cognition (information), and exit (access to secondary markets). On this view, it is apparent that not all creditors of the distressed corporation are equal. Creditors who lack volition, cognition, and exit - and thus should benefit from directorial duties - might include tort creditors, terminated at-will employees, taxing authorities and certain trade creditors. Other creditors - chiefly banks and bondholders - neither need nor deserve directorial duties. They typically benefit from high levels of volition, cognition, and exit, as expressed in both the heavily negotiated contracts that govern their relationships with the corporate debtor and their access to well-established secondary markets. This Article contains a proposal for adjusting directors' duties accordingly.


This article is based on ethnographic research conducted in the USA with migrants who use an act of relocation as a means of deliberately constructing identity as well as seeking greater 'balance' and 'control' in their lives. Specifically, it examines how 'second' homes can serve as a transitional or 'potential space' in the lives of these migrants not only between different geographic places but also what are taken to be distinct identities and ideals associated with these places and the lives lived in them. Such behaviour is not simply about coping and adapting to a new environment; rather, it is about using qualities of destination places to reconcile different visions of self and family purposefully set apart by relocation and a particular notion of 'the good' that underlies a 'lifestyle commitment' attached to the new place. The author highlights how research into the changing dynamics of work and family can help us understand, generally, effects of an emergent, economic order on working families and, specifically, how associated social and cultural changes shape this migration behaviour. Through analysis of lifestyle migration, this article contributes to discussion of the ways in which cultural values of work and family interrelate in migrancy as well as of challenges and opportunities facing migrants who purposefully attend to leisure activities and places associated with leisure as proper domains for essential identity work and to lifestyle as the means of realising what we may call the 'potential self'.


With literally hundreds of examples and thousands of lines of code, the Java Servlet and JSP Cookbook yields tips and techniques that any Java web developer who uses JavaServer Pages or servlets will use every day, along with full-fledged solutions to significant web application development problems that developers can insert directly into their own applications. Java Servlet and JSP Cookbook presents real-world problems, and provides concise, practical solutions to each. Finding even one tested code "recipe" that solves a gnarly problem in this comprehensive collection of solutions and best practices will save hours of frustration--easily justifying the cost of this invaluable book. But "Java Servlet and JSP Cookbook" is more than just a wealth of cut-and-paste code. It also offers clear explanations of how and why the code works, warns of potential pitfalls, and directs you to sources of additional information, so you can learn to adapt the problem-solving techniques to similar situations. These recipes include vital topics like the use of Ant to setup a build environment, extensive coverage of the WAR file format and web.xml deployment descriptor, file-uploading, error-handling, cookies, logging, dealing with non-HTML content, multimedia, request filtering, web services, I18N, web services, and a host of other topics that frustrate even the most seasoned developers. For Java web developers of all levels who are eager to put into practice the theory presented in other API-focused books, the solutions presented in this practical book will prove invaluable over and over again. This is painless way for less experienced developers who prefer to learn by doing to expand their skills and productivity, while accomplishing practical solutions to the pressing problems they face every day. More experienced developers can use these recipes to solve time-consuming problems quickly, freeing up their time for the more creative aspects of their work.


In recent years there has been tremendous interest in the growth of low-cost airlines in Europe operating from regional and secondary airports. These have been entirely in the short-haul sector, however. Intercontinental services remain dominated by a few large airports such as London Heathrow, Frankfurt, Paris CDG and Amsterdam. This paper examines the recent development of long-haul services and shows that some of the medium sized European airports have seen their network reduced in the last decade, while it also appears more difficult to replicate Ryanair's use of obscure minor airports in the long-haul arena. Possible means of providing long-haul links to European regional airports are examined. Continental Airlines is launching new routes from New York to places such as Belfast and Bristol with the Boeing 757 offering around 150 seats. These obviously depend upon the hub feed at the US end to gather a much wider range of North American destinations together. Emirates has ambitious plans to serve more European airports from its rapidly growing hub at Dubai. Already it offers the only eastbound long-haul flight out of Scotland (Glasgow-Dubai). Routes between smaller airports catering for the visiting friends and relatives market have developed where there has been historical migration. These are typically at low frequencies. Canada has services from Europe such as Cardiff-Toronto and Lyon-Montreal. Hamburg has a link to Accra in Ghana, Las Palmas (Canary Islands) to Havana, Cuba and Birmingham to Ashgabat in Turkmenistan. In some cases it is possible to support a service through a second stop in Europe (e.g. Lisbon-Porto-Caracas). Low frequency services are also to be found catering for the holiday market such as to Florida or the Caribbean (e.g. Dusseldorf-Orlando). In the absence of any direct long-haul service, connections via a European hub are necessary to access intercontinental points from regional airports in Europe. International alliances between airlines are shown to have been a mixed blessing in this respect. They have generally widened connection opportunities via the major hubs and led to more competitive through fares becoming available. However, some secondary and regional hubs have been run-down in favour of major hubs in the same alliance (which may be in a different European country), reducing accessibility from smaller and more peripheral regional airports. Examples include London Gatwick which has the main London service from many smaller UK airports such as Jersey, Inverness and Plymouth but has been run down as a long-haul hub by British Airways and Copenhagen, which now has very limited long-haul service by SAS; instead a double-change is required from many small Scandinavian airports to reach Star Alliance services out of Frankfurt. The growth of low-cost short-haul airlines such as Ryanair and easyjet may have reduced fares for local passengers but has reduced global connectivity where they have driven a traditional hub airline off the route. A good example is Belfast in Northern Ireland which used to have a link to Amsterdam by KLM. They have been displaced by easyjet, which is fine for passengers only travelling to Amsterdam but beyond there is no longer co-ordinated scheduling and through fares to KLM's global network. If a passenger does attempt to connect via Amsterdam it will usually cost them more than previously and if anything goes wrong, the connection is 'at their own risk'. The scope for a long-haul low-cost airline is examined. It is demonstrated that it is difficult to obtain a sufficient cost advantage in long-haul for a 'no-frills' all-economy class product. This is because the major airlines are able to obtain very high yields from their first and business class traffic (one full fare first class passenger with a lie flat bed may be paying the equivalent of 40 deeply discounted economy excursion fares). This enables airlines to offer the seats at the back of the aircraft based on a very low marginal cost. It is difficult to increase aircraft and crew utilisation as this is already high on intercontinental sectors. Cargo is less easy to ignore as it provides significant extra revenue on long-haul flights although introduces complexity. It is also difficult to eliminate all 'frills' on flights of 8 or 12 hours duration: even if charged for it is necessary to maintain food service (galley space) and in-flight entertainment, while keeping standard provision of toilets, baggage handling etc. The cost saving from using secondary airports is marginal for long distance traffic where it forms a much smaller proportion of total costs. Many of these smaller airports have runway length or apron/terminal space insufficient to handle widebody aircraft. Hub feed is much more crucial for long-haul services: there are few dense routes (mainly Virgin Atlantic's long-haul network from London plus Paris-New York). Intercontinental services from Frankfurt or Amsterdam typically depend on connections for 70-80% of their traffic. Bilateral air services agreements between governments also restrict the opportunities for long-haul services from regional airports. When the UK-India bilateral was renegotiated to allow extra flights, the three British carriers applying all wanted to use this scarce capacity from London Heathrow rather than any regional airport. Other bilaterals may specifically name the capital city only in the route schedule. It is concluded that the best scope for long-haul services from the regions is to major hub airports in other parts of the world, such as those developed by Emirates and Continental. Opportunities for point-to-point leisure services fall into two main categories: ethnic links and holiday destinations (some of which may already exist as charters). A long-haul low-cost 'no-frills' air service is likely to be a risky venture but carriers such as easyJet may be tempted to try this from their bases in secondary airports such as London Stansted or Berlin Schonefeld if profits falter on their European network, using their short-haul services to provide feed. Otherwise, the regional airports are in the hands of the major airlines or alliance groups and their European feeder operations. Important links are currently under threat from lack of capacity for small aircraft at the major hubs, run-down of secondary hubs and competition from low-cost airlines for short-haul traffic.


This study was carried out with the objectives of understanding the
behaviour of squid in response to artificial light, determining the effects of different
characters of light on squid net fishing and estimating the distribution pattern of
underwater light which is currently employed by Malaysian fishermen. The
experiments on squids were conducted in confinement and open waters. The
distribution pattern of underwater illuminance was estimated by theoretical model.
Experiment in confined floating cage showed the response of big fin reef
squid (Sepioteuthis lessoniana) and mitre squid (Loligo chinensis) to the different
characters of artificial light. These two species prefer to remain in the underwater
illuminance ranging from 1.5 to 22.5 and 1.5 to 25.0 lux, respectively, with the
majority of both species occuring at 2.5 to 10.0 lux. However, big fin reef squid demonstrated a considerably stronger phototaxis animal than mitre squid. This was
supported by the open water study in which big fin reef squid would swim up to
the water surface with active movement, while mitre squid prefer to remain at the
sea bottom.
Studies on the effect of different characters of artificial lights used by
fishermen indicated no significant difference between CPUE and the different types
and intensities of fishing lamp. It is recommended that the intensity of light source
for Malaysian squid netting boats should be reduced and the present type fishing
lamp should be replaced by high pressure mercury lamp. The use of red and white
spotlight lamps are also recommended.
Results on the estimation of a theoretical model also confirmed that the
current usage of attracting light system was in excess of the optimum level of light
intensity for Malaysian squid fishing grounds. The efficiency of lamp and the
height of light sources installed on the boat should be considered for lighting
management.


BACKGROUND AND IMPORTANCE: Papillary endothelial hyperplasia (PEH) is a rare form of exuberant reactive endothelial proliferation that can mimic neoplasm. We report the largest series of patients with histologically confirmed intracranial extravascular PEH developing in the field of previous treatment with stereotactic radiosurgery. CLINICAL PRESENTATION: We collected the clinical, radiological, surgical, and pathological findings from 4 patients in whom intracranial extravascular PEH developed after treatment with stereotactic radiosurgery. In all patients, the development of an enlarging hemorrhagic mass lesion at the site of previous radiotherapy on magnetic resonance imaging was radiographically suspicious for neoplasm and prompted biopsy or resection. All 4 patients elected to undergo biopsy or surgical resection. Histological examination of the biopsy and resection specimens in all patients demonstrated the classic features of PEH. CONCLUSION: The interval to the development of PEH ranged from 5 months to 6 years, 10 months. Clinical follow-up was available for 3 of the 4 patients. None of these 3 patients have demonstrated evidence of recurrence during a mean follow-up period of 22 months (range, 15-30 months). These patients share common radiological features, potentially allowing preoperative diagnosis and improved guidance of clinical management. These cases suggest a link between radiosurgery and the development of PEH. These findings also suggest that PEH should be considered in the differential diagnosis for patients treated with radiosurgery in whom a hemorrhagic mass lesion subsequently develops at or near the site of previous treatment. We think that complete surgical excision is the best treatment for intracranial PEH.


There have been promising studies that show a potential of providing social signal feedback to improve communication skills. However, these studies have primarily focused on unimodal methods of feedback. In addition to this, studies do not assess whether skills are maintained after a given time. With a sample size of 22 this paper investigates whether multimodal social signal feedback is an effective method of improving communication in the context of media interviews. A pre-post experimental evaluation of media skills training intervention is presented which compares standard feedback with augmented feedback based on automated recognition of multimodal social signals. Results revealed significantly different training effects between the two conditions. However, the initial experiment study failed to show significant differences in human judgement of performance. A 6-month follow-up study revealed human judgement ratings were higher for the experiment group. This study suggests that augmented selective multimodal social signal feedback is an effective method for communication skills training.


This paper describes the synthesis and characterization of porous polymeric materials as a support for rhodium(I) cationic coordination compounds and their use as heterogeneous catalysts for alkene hydrogenation. The synthetic strategy was the insertion of a vinyl-moiety in a bis(2-chloroethyl)amine precursor to provide highly porous resins with an enriched modifiable surface. The precursors synthesized were N,N-bis(2-chloroethyl)prop-2-en-1-amine (Alk-POL) and N,N-bis(2-chloroethyl)acrylamide (Acy-POL). The resins were obtained through suspension polymerization of methyl acrylate and divinylbenzene as a co-polymer and cross-linker, respectively. The resin surfaces were functionalized with diphenylphosphine groups followed by Rh(I) metal deposition using [Rh(COD)2]BF4 (COD = 1,5-cyclooctadiene) as the catalyst precursor. The Rh-catalysts were characterized by different physicochemical techniques and assessed for their catalytic performances in the heterogeneous hydrogenation of styrene and its derivatives. It was found that the catalytic activities and selectivity of the heterogenized rhodium complex (Rh-Alk-POL and Rh-Acy-POL) in the hydrogenation reactions were comparable to its homogeneous analogue. Analysis of the spent homogeneous resin Rh-Alk-POL catalyst after the first reaction cycle showed the presence of metallic Rh nanoparticles arising from the reduction of the Rh complex. Extensive recycling and Rh leaching studies were carried out for the Rh-Acy-POL catalyst. Both the activity and selectivity could be maintained for at least seven reaction runs and without metal leaching during the reaction cycles. We have also studied the liquid-phase hydrogenation reaction of various styrene m-substituted derivatives. The Rh-Acy-POL catalyst exhibits excellent catalytic activity for hydrogenation of the substrates and only vinyl-group hydrogenation was detected. Finally, the presence of electron-donating/-withdrawing substituents at the meta-position resulted in different rates of vinyl group hydrogenation. This effect was quantified in terms of the Hammett relationship, in which the catalyst displayed a linear correlation between the Hammett substituent constant (σmeta) and the hydrogenation rate.


As a filmmaker, as well as a person with epilepsy I would like more people to know about epilepsy on an intimate level even if they do not have, or know anyone with epilepsy. In this paper I will compare the techniques used to explain a medical disorder in three different films. What can the filmmaker do to both capture the attention of their audience in order to explain what life can be like for someone with a particular disorder? I argue that, by blending a personal approach with the use of experimental techniques, a filmmaker can appeal to a wider audience by expressing the emotional or experiential reality of living with a given disorder. My own thesis film, Seizing the Unrecorded, shows my own journey to understand how my filmmaking and my epilepsy are connected. Using similar techniques to those found in essay and performative films, I go beyond simply explaining what epilepsy is scientifically, and engage the viewer in larger questions such as the concept of what is memory, what it means to be vulnerable, and the emotional as well as physical costs of epilepsy.


A study on how Zambian migrants living in Cape Town perceive and experience the implications of labial elongation on women's health was conducted. Labia minora elongation (LME) is a genital modification that some women in east and southern Africa practice. This tradition is not common in Western Cape province (southwestern part of South Africa). The aim of this article is to discuss the methodological choices made in the design and conduct of this study, in which a White European male interviewed the female study participants on the health implications of a practice that is considered a woman's private issue. Constructivist grounded theory informed by a feminist perspective was chosen as the most suitable methodological approach to enable cogeneration of knowledge with the female participants. The methods and tools used by the lead investigator facilitated access to the participants' emic views. Grounded theory methodology holds the potential to be an appropriate methodological approach for researchers who seek to erode the power imbalances influencing research processes that aim to explore the associated meanings and health implications of female genital modifications, such as LME, as narrated by the women who practice them.


The birth of low-cost carriers (LCC) in recent years, have added a new dimension to the aviation business, especially in Asia. There have been several success stories of these LCCs, compared with conventional full-serviced carriers. Two renowned airlines in Asia, Air Asia and Singapore Airlines have been chosen as our sample companies for the purpose of this research paper. Air Asia will represent the LCC segment, while Singapore Airlines is the proxy for traditional carriers. These two classes of airlines have different business models, which prompt us to find out how each has performed in the recent financial meltdown in 2007/08. In this paper, we will use financial ratios and stock analysis to find out the performance of Air Asia and Singapore Airlines. This quantitative and event methodology approach is apt to provide market participants, such as investors, which segment of the airline industry tend to outperform in time of an economic crisis. Based on our empirical findings, we have found that Air Asia has a better financial performance and is a less risky stock, compared with Singapore Airlines, during such economic downturn. So investors seeking for a more sound investment in such troubled times, may be able to find some gem in LCCs.


Phage–host interactions likely play a major role in the composition and functioning of many microbiomes, yet remain poorly understood. Here, we employed single cell genomics to investigate phage–host interactions in a diffuse-flow, low-temperature hydrothermal vent that may be reflective of a broadly distributed biosphere in the subseafloor. We identified putative prophages in 13 of 126 sequenced single amplified genomes (SAGs), with no evidence for lytic infections, which is in stark contrast to findings in the surface ocean. Most were distantly related to known prophages, while their hosts included bacterial phyla Campylobacterota, Bacteroidetes, Chlorobi, Proteobacteria, Lentisphaerae, Spirochaetes, and Thermotogae. Our results suggest the predominance of lysogeny over lytic interaction in diffuse-flow, deep-sea hydrothermal vents, despite the high activity of the dominant Campylobacteria that would favor lytic infections. We show that some of the identified lysogens have co-evolved with their host over geological time scales and that their genes are transcribed in the environment. Functional annotations of lysogeny-related genes suggest involvement in horizontal gene transfer enabling host's protection against toxic metals and antibacterial compounds.


In modern computer-aided translation workflows, Machine Translation (MT) systems are used to produce a draft that is then checked and edited where needed by human translators. In this scenario, a Quality Estimation (QE) tool can be used to score MT outputs, and a threshold on the QE scores can be applied to decide whether an MT output can be used as-is or requires human post-edition. While this could reduce cost and turnaround times, it could harm translation quality, as QE models are not 100% accurate. In the framework of the APE-QUEST project (Automated Post-Editing and Quality Estimation), we set up a case-study on the trade-off between speed, cost and quality, investigating the benefits of QE models in a real-world scenario, where we rely on end-user acceptability as quality metric. Using data in the public administration domain for English-Dutch and English-French, we experimented with two use cases: assimilation and dissemination. Results shed some light on how QE scores can be explored to establish thresholds that suit each use case and target language, and demonstrate the potential benefits of adding QE to a translation workflow.


Arsenic contamination of drinking water is a major global problem, with contamination in Bangladesh deemed most serious. Although the current World Health Organisation (WHO) maximum contamination limit (MCL) for arsenic in drinking water is 10 μg L−1, due to practical and economic constraints, the standard limit in Bangladesh and many other developing nations is 50 μg L−1. We propose that an ideal arsenic sensor, designed for routine monitoring, will have five essential qualities: sensitivity and selectivity for arsenic; speed and reliability; portability and robustness; reduced health and environmental risks; and affordability and ease of use for local technicians. It is our opinion that many of these characteristics can be accentuated by microfluidic systems. We describe candidate colorimetric, electrochemical, biological, electrophoretic, surface-sensing, and spectroscopic methods for arsenic detection; and comment on their potential for portable microfluidic adaptation. We also describe existing developments in the literature towards the ultimate creation of microfluidic total analysis systems (μTASs) for arsenic detection. The fundamental purpose of this review is to highlight the need for better portable arsenic contamination detection, and describe how microfluidic technology may be developed to address this need.


The planet Mars hosts an atmosphere that is perhaps the closest in terms of its meteorology and climate to that of the Earth. But Mars differs from Earth in its greater distance from the Sun, its smaller size, its lack of liquid oceans and its thinner atmosphere, composed mainly of CO2. These factors give Mars a rather different climate to that of the Earth. In this article we review various aspects of the martian climate system from a physicist's viewpoint, focusing on the processes that control the martian environment and comparing these with corresponding processes on Earth. These include the radiative and thermodynamical processes that determine the surface temperature and vertical structure of the atmosphere, the fluid dynamics of its atmospheric motions, and the key cycles of mineral dust and volatile transport. In many ways, the climate of Mars is as complicated and diverse as that of the Earth, with complex nonlinear feedbacks that affect its response to variations in external forcing. Recent work has shown that the martian climate is anything but static, but is almost certainly in a continual state of transient response to slowly varying insolation associated with cyclic variations in its orbit and rotation. We conclude with a discussion of the physical processes underlying these long- term climate variations on Mars, and an overview of some of the most intriguing outstanding problems that should be a focus for future observational and theoretical studies.


Abstract Members of the genus Scutellonema can cause substantial crop losses to ornamental and cultivated plants directly by feeding ectoparasitically on plant roots (Bridge et al., 2005; Coyne et al., 2006). In May 2015, a soil sample from a house garden from Heraklion city in Crete, Greece, was sent for diagnosis of plant-parasitic nematodes. In this place, there had been cactus (Opuntia sp.) plants (probably imported), which were uprooted 3 to 4 years earlier. After that, the area was cropped with cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) in spring–summer and leaf vegetables such as spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.) and chicory (Cichorium intybus L.) in autumn–winter. The soil was collected 1 mon after the end of chicory crop. A population density (ca. 30 individuals/100 cm3 of soil) of spiral nematodes (Scutellonema sp.) was found by extracting soil with the wet sieving and decanting method (Cobb, 1918). Morphological and molecular analyses of females identified the species as Scutellonema brachyurus (Steiner, 1938) Andrássy, 1958. The morphology of females was characterized by a hemispherical lip region with four to six annuli, morphometric data for 12 females were L, 640 to 760 μm; a, 24.6 to 30.6; b, 5.8 to 7.4; c, 69.1 to 99.3; ć0.5 to 0.6; stylet, 24.5 to 27.5 μm with an terior part shorter than posterior; and spermatheca nonfunctional and male absent. The morphology agreed with the description of S. brachyurus (van den Berg et al., 2013).Alignment indicated that the D2-D3 and ITS sequences (KU059494 and KU059495, respectively) showed 99% and 100% to 99% similarity, respectively, to other sequences of S. brachyurus (type A) deposited in GenBank from the United States, Italy, and Korea (JX472037-JX472046, DQ328753, FJ485643; and JX472069, JX472070, JX472071, respectively), differing from one to six nucleotides. Phylogenetic analyses using Bayesian inference of these sequences placed the Scutellonema sp. in a highly supported (100%) clade that included all S. brachyurus (type A) sequences deposited in GenBank (van den Berg et al., 2013). All identification methods were consistent with S. brachyurus. To our knowledge, this is the first report of S. brachyurus for Greece. As the cucumbers and the leaf vegetables cultivated in the area were seed planted, we consider that the nematode originated most probably from the cactus plants which had been previously root ball planted. Scutellonema brachyurus may represent a threat for ornamental and cultivated plants production in Crete, Greece. The nematode has been already reported, mainly in greenhouses of six European countries (CABI and EPPO, 2006). In most of these cases, it is hypothesized that the nematode was introduced by imported plant material.


Implement the design principles and configurations behind MPLS-based VPNs for broadband access networksThe book discusses how MPLS and its VPN service are best used in a broadband environment, concentrating on key design issues and solutions, including How to manage tens of thousands of interfaces and host routes and hundreds of dynamic VPNs When a Virtual Home Gateway is necessary Why use dynamic address assignment How routes should be summarized into the coreDeploy MPLS VPNs successfully in broadband networks with Building MPLS-Based Broadband Access VPNs. This book helps you understand why and how today's broadband networks function, covering the principal access technologies: DSL, Ethernet, and cable. The book also examines the different tunneling protocols used for VPN solutions today, namely GRE, IPSec, and L2TP, with examples of how these solutions are deployed and a discussion of their strengths and weaknesses.Building MPLS-Based Broadband Access VPNs also includes an in-depth description of the IOS VRF Lite, which helps you use VRF-aware features with an IP core.Detailed descriptions of the technologies, design principles, network configurations, and case studies are provided throughout the book, helping you develop a pragmatic understanding of MPLS-based broadband access VPNs. Obtain a realistic understanding of large-scale broadband access network design requirements Recognize the business impact of using MPLS to provide access VPN services, including the advantages of QoS, availability, and provisioning Use MPLS in access VPN and transport networks and deal with the unique scalability problems that such networks pose Leverage VRF-aware features to deploy IP-based VPNs Includes detailed Cisco IOS configuration examples based on real-world scenariosThis book is part of the Networking Technology Series from Cisco Press"i?? which offers networking professionals valuable information for constructing efficient networks, understanding new technologies, and building successful careers.


A flurry of research examining the effect of body-worn cameras (BWCs) on policing has arrived at mixed and inconclusive set findings. We present a multi-year study of the precinct-by-precinct rollout of BWCs in the New York City Police Department (NYPD), the largest metropolitan police force in the United States. Our study adds meaningfully to the prior body of work and begins to clarify some of the discord within it, particularly with respect to large urban police departments. We estimate the effect of BWC deployment on precinct volumes of citizen stops, arrests, complaints against officers and use-of-force incidents. Results indicate that BWCs lead to both significant increases in police stops of citizens, and significant decreases in arrests and citizen complaints. We find no significant change in the use of force by officers. We also document evidence of significant heterogeneity in the nature of stops and complaints. Our findings speak to at least three potential benefits of BWCs in urban law enforcement: (1) an increase in legitimate proactive policing; (2) a decrease in citizen complaints alleging that the police have abused their authority; and (3) a reduction in arrests (which appears to be beneficial regardless of whether the reduction is a result of modified behavior on the part of police, citizens, or both).


ABSTRACT Spatial visualization is an essential prerequisite for understanding geological features at all scales, such as the atomic structures of minerals, the geometry of a complex fault system, or the architecture of sedimentary deposits. Undergraduate geoscience majors bring a range of spatial skill levels to upper-level courses. Fortunately, spatial thinking improves with practice, and students benefit from intentional training. Several promising teaching strategies have emerged from recent cognitive science research into spatial thinking: gesturing, predictive sketching, and comparison, including analogy and alignment. Geoscience educators have traditionally incorporated many of these tools in their teaching, though not always consciously, intentionally, and in the most effective ways. Our research team, composed of geoscientists and cognitive psychologists, has collaborated to develop curricular materials for mineralogy, structural geology, and sedimentology and stratigraphy courses that incorporate these strategies intentionally and purposefully, supporting student understanding of the spatially challenging concepts and skills in these courses. Collectively, these two dozen learning activities comprise the Spatial Thinking Workbook (http://serc.carleton.edu/spatialworkbook/index.html). Pre- to posttest gains on a suite of assessment instruments, as well as embedded assessments, show that these curricular materials boost students' spatial thinking skills and strengthen their ability to solve geological problems with a spatial component.


INTRODUCTION
Interdisciplinary differences regarding understanding the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) concepts activity/participation may hinder its unifying purpose. In the ICF model, functioning (and disability) is described as a tripartite concept: 1) Body structures/functions, 2) Activities, and 3) Participation. Activities refer to an individual perspective on disability that does not tally with the basic structure of social models.

OBJECTIVE
To review how activity and participation are actually used in studies of intellectual disability (ID).

CONCLUSION
Based on 16 papers, four different usages of activity/participation were found. 1) Theoretical reference to tripartite ICF concept with attempts to use it. 2) Theoretical reference to tripartite ICF concept without actual use of activities. 3) "Atheoretical" approach with implicit focus on participation. 4) Theoretical reference to bipartite concept with corresponding use of terms. The highlighted studies have in common a focus on participation. However, the usage of the term "activity" differs both within and between studies. Such terminology will probably confuse interdisciplinary communication rather than facilitating it. Also, the use of an explicit underlying theory differs, from references to a tripartite to references to a bipartite concept of disability. This paper is focused on ID, but the discussed principles regarding the ICF and interdisciplinary disability theory are applicable to other diagnostic groups within rehabilitation practices.


Globally, one third of food produced is wasted. In the UK, 47% of the food waste is post-consumer revealing a need to encourage more efficient consumption. This research asserts that manufacturers and retailers can play a crucial role in minimising consumer food waste (CFW) through consumer engagement and provision of smart solutions that ensure more efficient use of food products. Supporting manufacturers and retailers to minimise CFW can be achieved via two stages: a) understanding and evaluating CFW, and b) identifying improvements to manufacturing and retail activities that would reduce CFW. On-site waste audits have identified that the percentage of edible CFW from domestic environments (77%) is greater than that disposed of in public areas (14%) supporting the hypothesis that improving the full food provisioning process (e.g. packaging, storage, guidance) would be beneficial. This paper proposes a number of mechanisms to support manufacturing and retail in reducing CFW.


Correspondence between Charles William Sloman and Reverend William McCracken concerning the sending of the marriage certificate of Charles and Sarah Sloman when they were married in New Orleans. Sloman's letter was received in New Orleans at Rector Grace Church, and forwarded to McCracken in Nebraska; he had moved here from New Orleans and the letter dated July 6, 1891 asks the new reverend there to send him the information needed. The final letter is sent to Sloman from McCracken in which he says he had enclosed the marriage certificate.


Background: Computed radiography which can capture a latent analog images, which is been then digitized in the Reader. During the translation process there is a chances were artifacts can be produced in the image which can result in non-clinically acceptable for diagnosis. Aim: The aim of this study is to evaluate the CR artifacts, with frequency of occurrence and the types of artifacts occurring with remedial measures.
Materials and Methods: Sampling was done by convenience sampling method considering inclusion and exclusion criteria and a sample of 550 was taken frequency of images with artefact and without artefact was calculated Further the artefacts were categorised in two groups as Image processing artefacts and Image Acquisition artefacts and their frequency of occurrence was calculated and statically analyzed. ]
Result: Out of 550 images with artefact were 184 (33%) and without artefact was 366 (67%). Among 184 images with artefacts, 102 images were with image acquisition artefacts which form 55.4% and 82 images were with image processing artefacts which form 44.5% of total images with artefacts.
Conclusion: Appropriate periodical maintenance and QA may be helpful to produce optimum quality image and quality patient care, decreasing CR artefacts and avoiding repeat radiographs thus optimizes the radiation exposure to patient and radiographer.


Forests represent one of the biggest terrestrial ecosystems of Earth, that can produce important raw renewable materials such as wood with the help of sun, air and water. To efficiently extract these raw materials, the tree harvesting process is highly mechanized in developed countries, meaning that advanced forestry machines are continuously used to fell, to process and to transport the logs and biomass obtained from the forests. However, working with these machines is demanding both mentally and physically, which are known factors to negatively affect operator productivity. Mental fatigue is mostly due to the manual operation of the on-board knuckleboom crane, which requires advanced cognitive work with two joystick levers, while the most serious physical strains arise from cabin vibrations. These vibrations are generated from knuckleboom crane vibrations as a result of aggressive manual operation.To enhance operator workload, well-being, and to increase productivity of the logging process, semi-automation functions are suggested, which are supervised automatic executions of specific work elements. Some of the related issues are addressed in the current thesis. Therefore, the content is divided into: (1) the design and development of a semi-automation function focused only on the base joint actuator (slewing actuator) of a knuckleboom crane, and (2) active vibration damping solutions to treat crane structure vibrations induced by the main lift cylinder (inner boom actuator). The considered reference machine is a downsized knuckleboom crane of a forwarder machine, which is used to pick up log assortments from a harvesting site.The proposed semi-automation function presented in the first part could be beneficial for operators to use during log loading/unloading scenarios. It consists from a closed-loop position control architecture, to which smooth reference slewing trajectories are provided by a trajectory planner that is automated via operator commands. The used trajectory generation algorithms are taken from conventional robotics and adapted to semi-automation context with proposed modifications that can be customizable by operators.Further, the proposed active vibration damping solutions are aimed to reduce vibrations of the knuckleboom crane excited by the inner boom actuator due to aggressive manual commands. First, a popular input shaping control technique combined with a practical switching logic was investigated to deal with the excited payload oscillations. This technique proved to be useful with a fixed crane pose, however it did not provide much robustness in terms of different link configurations. To tackle this problem an H2-optimal controller is developed, which is active in the pressure feedback-loop and its solely purpose is to damp the same payload oscillations. During the design process, operator commands are treated and explained from input disturbance viewpoint.All of the hypothesis throughout this thesis were verified with extensive experimental studies using the reference machine.


BACKGROUND
Since the early 2000s, treatment options for multiple myeloma have rapidly expanded, adding significant complexity to the management of this disease. To our knowledge, no systematic qualitative research on clinical decision-making in multiple myeloma has been published. We sought to characterize how physicians view and implement guidelines and incorporate novel approaches into patient care.

METHODS
We designed a semi-structured qualitative interview guide informed by literature review and an expert advisory panel. We conducted 60-minute interviews with a diverse sample of oncology physicians in the southeast United States. We used a constant comparative method to code and analyze interview transcripts. The research team and advisory panel discussed and validated emergent themes.

RESULTS
Participants were 13 oncologists representing 5 academic and 4 community practices. Academic physicians reported using formal risk-stratification schemas; community physicians typically did not. Physicians also described differences in eligibility criteria for transplantation; community physicians emphasized distance, social support, and psychosocial capacity in making decisions about transplantation referral; the academic physicians reported using more specific clinical criteria. All physicians reported using a maintenance strategy both for post-transplant and for transplant-ineligible patients; however, determining the timing of maintenance therapy initiation and the response were reported as challenging, as was recognition or definition of relapse, especially in terms of when treatment re-initiation is indicated.

CONCLUSIONS
Practices reported by both academic and community physicians suggest opportunities for interventions to improve patient care and outcomes through optimal multiple myeloma management and therapy selection. Community physicians in particular might benefit from targeted education interventions about risk stratification, transplant eligibility, and novel therapies.


The name 'Bobby' comes from Sir Robert Peel who, as home secretary, oversaw the creation of the Metropolitan Police in 1829. In spite of his position as a national institution and his appeal as a solution to present-day concerns about law and order, the social history of the Bobby has rarely been explored. Yet his story (and since the beginning of the twentieth century it is also her story) is as exciting as that of his military cousin, Tommy Atkins. Bobby served on the front line of what is often characterized as 'the war against crime.' He may rarely have fought in pitched battles and almost never with lethal weapons, but his life could be hard and dangerous. Up until the last third of the twentieth century he usually patrolled on foot, in all weathers by day and, more often, by night. The drudgery of the foot patrol fostered that other nickname, 'Mr Plod'; something that may, or may not, have passed Enid Blyton by when she chose the name for the policeman of Noddy's Toytown. The period covered by The Great British Bobby saw massive economic, social and political change in Britain. The policing institution has shifted significantly in tandem, from having its primary relationship directly with the decentralized, local community, to becoming an instrument of the central state with, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, targets set and regulated centrally for the good of what politicians and policing professionals consider as the national community. Criminological expert Clive Emsley is ideally placed to tell the story of this remarkable and iconic institution; his book is nothing less than a social history of Britain over the last 180 years.


Objectives: The study examined and identified the factors that affect lawyers' attitudes to knowledge sharing, and their knowledge sharing behaviour. Specifically, it investigated the relationship between the salient beliefs affecting the knowledge sharing attitude of lawyers', and applied a modified version of the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) in the knowledge sharing context, to predict how these factors affect their knowledge sharing behaviour. Method: A field survey of 273 lawyers was carried out, using questionnaire for data collection. Collected data on all variables were structured into grouped frequency distributions. Principal Component Factor Analysis was applied to reduce the constructs and Simple Regression was applied to test the hypotheses. These were tested at 0.05% level of significance. Results: Results showed that expected associations and contributions were the major determinants of lawyers' attitudes towards knowledge sharing. Expected reward was not significantly related to lawyers' attitudes towards knowledge sharing. A positive attitude towards knowledge sharing was found to lead to a positive intention to share knowledge, although a positive intention to share knowledge did not significantly predict a positive knowledge sharing behaviour. The level of Information Technology (IT) usage was also found to significantly affect the knowledge sharing behaviour of lawyers'. Conclusion: It was recommended that law firms in the study area should deploy more IT infrastructure and services that encourage effective knowledge sharing amongst lawyers.


With the establishment of the information society, security had become the greatest concern for Institutions transacting business over the Internet. Home banking and on-line brokerage applications currently, use basic software-only security functions for the internet such as server authentications and Secure Sockets layer. Higher levels of protections are being achieved with Smart card based authentication schemes and transaction protocols. Password based security identifies users based on what they know – the password or PIN, which can be guessed, hacked, found or stolen. Smart Cards, tokens and badges identify users based on what they have which can also be lost, loaned or stolen.
The objective of the thesis was to design and implement a biometric authentication scheme by means of keystroke dynamics to secure web applications. The scheme illustrates the effect of the template size and the number of biometric features used to improve performance of FAR, FRR and EER. The enrollment process is devoid of spurious outliers that may introduce significant variations to template data. Due to the dependence of the system on the user's psychological characteristics, the adaptation module introduces dynamism into the template features per changes in the legitimate user's login template variants. At the quest of attaining a zero bias in statistical variants, an off-line simulator tool was designed to regenerate impostor and genuine data set obtained from live users and set as input to the system. The report includes an architectural description of the system, conceptual models and analysis of field data of over 200 samples.


The study aims to explore women's psychosocial needs and concerns following an HIV positive diagnosis. It also seeks to understand nature and various sources of care and support that women need for learning how to live with an HIV positive diagnosis. Finally, to understand what women need from HIV/AIDS health care and social service providers. In order to achieve these aims, a sample of 12 HIV positive women age between 20 and 40 was approached and interviewed at the Centres for Disease Control Clinic (CDC) in one of the local hospital in Pietermaritzburg. A qualitative research approach using semistructured in-depth interviews was used in the study. The findings of the study reveal that HIV positive women are still faced with a range of psychosocial needs, different to that of HIV infected men. Their main psychosocial concerns centre on the welfare of their children rather their own health. Women fear rejection from their sexual relationships and as a way of coping with this, they choose to abstain from intimate relationships. Many women receive limited support from their families, health, and social welfare systems.


To achieve the complex task of interpreting what we see, our brains rely on statistical regularities and patterns in visual data. Knowledge of these regularities can also be considerably useful in visual computing disciplines, such as computer vision, computer graphics, and image processing. The field of natural image statistics studies the regularities to exploit their potential and better understand human vision. With numerous color figures throughout, Image Statistics in Visual Computing covers all aspects of natural image statistics, from data collection to analysis to applications in computer graphics, computational photography, image processing, and art. The authors keep the material accessible, providing mathematical definitions where appropriate to help readers understand the transforms that highlight statistical regularities present in images. The book also describes patterns that arise once the images are transformed and gives examples of applications that have successfully used statistical regularities. Numerous references enable readers to easily look up more information about a specific concept or application. A supporting website also offers additional information, including descriptions of various image databases suitable for statistics. Collecting state-of-the-art, interdisciplinary knowledge in one source, this book explores the relation of natural image statistics to human vision and shows how natural image statistics can be applied to visual computing. It encourages readers in both academic and industrial settings to develop novel insights and applications in all disciplines that relate to visual computing.


Background/Context Founded in 1974 by James Gray and a group of teacher colleagues who came together as the Bay Area Writing Project in California, the National Writing Project is a professional development network that has spread from one site to 197 university-based sites across the US. After such a long period of time in operation, it becomes possible to talk about the organization's legacy—not legacy as in something one leaves behind after death, for NWP surely has not died, but one's contribution, that which extends beyond its immediate tangible effects and resonates in a wider sphere. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study Focusing on the broader orientations (Friedrichsen, Van Driel, & Abell, 2011) developed within the NWP network rather than solely on the transmission of specific teaching strategies, we ask specifically, "How do teachers describe the influence of NWP on their teaching?" Research Design This qualitative study uses interview data from NWP teacher-consultants whose involvement in NWP began between 1974 and 1994. Conclusions/Recommendations The legacy of the National Writing Project for the teaching of writing is a set of orientations that guide teachers in making decisions about their work and learning about and from that work. First, they clarified or revised their sense of the purposes for writing, primarily as a tool for learning and for developing ideas. Second, participants used writing processes as an organizing idea by which to scaffold students' writing practices. Finally, participants linked their teaching of writing to their own experience as writers. These findings resonate with Friedriechsen, Van Driel, and Abell's (2011) sense of orientations in science teaching as a set of beliefs that influence practice along the dimensions of goals or purposes of writing, the nature of writing, and writing teaching and learning. If we conceptualize professional development not as merely discrete events that have a linear and concrete impact, but as a decades-long series of encounters with ideas and strategies, then orientations help the field envision how individual teachers, as well as networks such as NWP, can bring coherence to a fragmented and changing landscape. We also offer this study's design and analysis as a possible approach for long-term influence of conceptually based interventions.


A new antibacterial drug is urgently needed. We employed a protein-DNA complex-guided pharmacophore modeling approach to screen inhibitors against the response regulator PmrA of polymyxin B-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae (KP). The identified lead, E1 (IC50 = 10.2 μM), targeted the DNA-binding domain of PmrA (KD = 1.7 μM), whose conserved residues R171, R198, K203, and Y214 have been shown to be hotspots for antimicrobial development. Treatment of E1 restored the susceptibility of KP to polymyxin B.


Residential homes consume 24% of total primary energy while commercial buildings use an additional 19%, totaling 43% of all energy consumption in the U.S. (United States Energy Information Administration [USEIA], 2011). Wall assemblies are a fundamental component of a building's construction and can make significant impacts on building performance. Wall assemblies impact the environment, the builder, and the homeowner in various ways. Depending on the assembly method used to construct walls, a builder may find it easier or more difficult to install, and will identify a labor cost accordingly. Homeowners desire a wall with an affordable cost and appropriate thermal performance. Environmental concerns include using rare or readily available materials or avoiding use of materials which require more energy to produce than they offset. Exploring these factors to discover the ideal wall assembly is critical to enhancing building construction and performance. The purpose of this study was to identify optimal wall assemblies from the US Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2011 using a newly developed Sustainable Cost Benefit Assessment (SCBA). The wall assemblies were analyzed using cost per square foot, clear wall R-value, and embodied energy metrics as a means for comparison. Reviewing the entries to the Solar Decathlon 2011 it is clear that the structures incorporate unique wall assemblies, which have not yet been studied. The results of this study provide data showing which of these wall types may prove to offer the most energy efficient, affordable, and environmentally conscious options. In addition, it contributes data to suggest which methods should not be adopted for widespread use. The conclusions of this study help supply valuable information describing which wall types are the best options for reducing building energy consumption.