The second epidemiologic transition is defined as "the age of receding pandemics", wherein mortality declines, life expectancy increases, and population growth occurs. The major causes of death also shifted from predominantly acute infectious diseases to degenerative and "man-made" diseases (Omran, 1983). The aim of this study was to determine the timing of the transition in Zurich (Switzerland) and to investigate patterns of tuberculosis mortality during this period. This is one of the first studies to specifically investigate the timing of the second transition in Zurich, Switzerland. The data sources for this study were Swiss records of mortality from the Staatsarchiv (Canton Archives), Stadtarchiv (City Archives) and a published volume of State Statistics (Historische Statistik der Schweiz). The changes in mortality through time were addressed for all causes of death in the city ofZurichfor the years 1893 to 1933 that is, the time including the second epidemiological transition. After 1933 the structure of the mortality data collection changed as the responsibility was transferred away from the canton archives. Mortality from tuberculosis was then examined in greater detail and compared with changes in living standards as well as population density occurring at the time.


AIM
To evaluate the clinical treatment effects of a glycine powder air-polishing or ultrasonic device on peri-implant mucositis.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Thirty-seven patients with one implant diagnosed with peri-implant mucositis (probing depth ≥4 mm (0.2N) and bleeding on probing (BOP) (primary outcome)) were randomly assigned to treatment with either glycine powder air-polishing (GPAP) or ultrasonic (US) debridement. Treatment was performed at baseline and at 3 and 6 months. Professional supra gingival cleaning was performed at 9 and 12 months. Oral hygiene instructions were reinforced at each visit.

RESULTS
At 12 months there was a statistically significant reduction in mean plaque score, bleeding on probing and number of periodontal pockets ≥4 mm within the treatment groups compared to baseline. The percentages of diseased sites were significantly reduced for both groups.

CONCLUSIONS
Treatment with a glycine powder air-polishing or an ultrasonic device is effective in non-surgical treatment of peri-implant mucositis.


The concept of silence, which is understood by Myanmar people as a sign of submission to the powerful who are anyone in a position of authority, has gained importance in Myanmar due to its prolonged history of imperial, colonial, and post-colonial authoritarian rules. This prolonged history reinforces the rule of the powerful and their control of the people. It has greatly impacted the current political and social sphere, including between rulers and ruled, relationships between men and women, parents and children, and also the religious sphere between leaders and followers of different religions in Myanmar. Within Myanmar Christianity, this concept of silence as a sign of women's submission to authority gained its importance through the teachings of nineteenth century missionaries. Among the missionaries, Adoniram Judson was the most influential due to his scholarly work on Burmese Bible translation. Myanmar Christians read this Scripture from their past experiences of silence, and thus uncritically accept the role of silence for women in church and society. In this context, the first question that this work seeks to answer is "what is the impact of 1 Corinthians 14:33b-36 on Myanmar Christians' views of the role of women in the church?" Therefore, this work looks at this text, which demands that women keep silent in the church, and how this text was translated in the Judson's Burmese Bible. The uncritical acceptance of Judson's translation demonstrates that the common hermeneutical approach in Myanmar is a literal approach. This approach is unaware of how the text embodies the translator's interpretive viewpoints in translation. This indicates the need for a critical analysis of hermeneutics in Myanmar, and thus leads to the second question that asks "what would a satisfactory contextual hermeneutic in Myanmar today look like in order to interpret passages that concern women for today?" In order to answer this, firstly, this work looks at how 1 Corinthians 14:33b-36 has been interpreted by three representative contemporary schools of interpretation: the literal traditional, feminist and egalitarian interpretations, and thus points out the importance of starting point in determining the meaning of the text. All of these interpretations represent current views in Myanmar about the role of women in the church. They will be analyzed in order to draw appropriate hermeneutical principles for Myanmar today. Then this work proposes a critical contextual feminist hermeneutical methodology for Myanmar, which takes the Bible seriously as the rule of faith and life. This method includes exegesis and the evaluation of three contexts, Myanmar culture, exegesis of Scripture, and analysis of Judson's Burmese Bible Translation. The intention is to promote critical evaluation that leads to an informed response that makes it possible for Myanmar Christians to evaluate and implement appropriate contextualized practices. Critical keys for evaluation in analyzing the text include Jesus' example of servant leadership, and Paul's general acceptance of women's involvement in the church. This work challenges the traditional reading of the concept of silence and raises questions of relevancy in the contemporary context of Myanmar. These questions require a critical dialogue with the gospel.


This theoretically focused and discursive paper explores the role that participatory media can play in the field of nursing research and subsequent knowledge dissemination. Being able to gather information, sieve through it, access the latest developments in the field, and produce new information is a core part of the academic researcher's role. Moreover, it could even be argued that for centuries it has been knowledge workers' main tangible work currency. Indeed, the information age is not exclusive of the networked society. Haigh (2010) has noted that the information gathering and sharing opportunities, referred to as participatory media, offered by the second generation of web design that allow for information sharing – known as web 2.0 – have expanded our horizons beyond academia to the whole of the global research and education community. If we accept the premise that the use of social networks in the development of ideas is one that has a long and distinguished pedigree, then it can be seen that the role of participatory media is the latest iteration in its evolution. What makes this development such a challenge for nursing research in particular is that whilst nursing academia generally remains suspicious of the advantages offered by technology, this paper argues that the next 10–15 years will see an increase in the chasm between the existing research community and the next generation of researchers. This has been attributed to the difference between the two groups in their approach and attitude to technology.


CD4+ T cells are at the nexus of the innate and adaptive arms of the immune system. However, little is known about the evolutionary history of CD4+ T cells, and it is unclear whether their differentiation into specialized subsets is conserved in early vertebrates. In this study, we have created transgenic zebrafish with vibrantly labeled CD4+ cells allowing us to scrutinize the development and specialization of teleost CD4+ leukocytes in vivo. We provide further evidence that CD4+ macrophages have an ancient origin and had already emerged in bony fish. We demonstrate the utility of this zebrafish resource for interrogating the complex behavior of immune cells at cellular resolution by the imaging of intimate contacts between teleost CD4+ T cells and mononuclear phagocytes. Most importantly, we reveal the conserved subspecialization of teleost CD4+ T cells in vivo. We demonstrate that the ancient and specialized tissues of the gills contain a resident population of il-4/13b–expressing Th2-like cells, which do not coexpress il-4/13a. Additionally, we identify a contrasting population of regulatory T cell–like cells resident in the zebrafish gut mucosa, in marked similarity to that found in the intestine of mammals. Finally, we show that, as in mammals, zebrafish CD4+ T cells will infiltrate melanoma tumors and obtain a phenotype consistent with a type 2 immune microenvironment. We anticipate that this unique resource will prove invaluable for future investigation of T cell function in biomedical research, the development of vaccination and health management in aquaculture, and for further research into the evolution of adaptive immunity.


There is a general agreement that Climate Change impacting Nepal rather disproportionately compared to its size and its own meagre contribution of the green house gases. However, given its location between two rapidly growing economies of India and China, Nepal cannot escape the rapidly increasing influence of climate and global changes. The rapidly retreating glaciers (average retreat of more than 30 m/year), rapid rise in temperature (>0.06°C), erratic rainfalls and increase in frequency of extreme events such as floods and drought like situation are some of the effects Nepal is facing during the last few years. Most of the big rivers of Nepal are glacier-fed and its main resources of water and hydroelectricity will be seriously affected due to the ongoing changes in glacier reserves, snowfall and natural hazards. Nepal has to prepare itself to try and mitigate these effects if possible and if not adapt to them to reduce their impacts on our lives and livelihoods. Nepal is largely a mountainous country and current indications are that the mountain regions are more vulnerable due to increased warming trends as well as extreme changes in altitude over small distances. These alarming trends not only make Nepal's major sectors of economy such as agriculture, tourism and energy more vulnerable but also endanger the health, safety and wellbeing of Nepali people. Biodiversity - the other important resources of Nepal is also being affected as invasive species will spread fast and useful medicinal, food and nutrition related plants may disappear. Climate change is becoming already dangerous to our survival and we have to do everything possible to prevent it being catastrophic to us. The globally accepted strategy to contain disastrous climate change impacts is Adaptation and Mitigation. For a least developed country such as Nepal, adaptation should be the priority. Nepal is currently preparing National Action Plan on Adaptation (NAPA) which should be made as comprehensive and topical as possible. Well coordinated, quick and serious implementation of NAPA will be extremely important to mitigate and adapt to the growing impacts of climate change in Nepal. Nepal's central location in the Himalaya portends the fact that it is the prime target country of climate change impacts and calls for it to play a leadership role at least in showing political will and playing a responsible role in global events such as the COP-15 at Copenhagen. DOI: 10.3126/init.v3i0.2425 The Initiation Vol.3 2009 p.30-37


Abstract In a fusion reactor, almost 30% of fusion energy is deposited on plasma facing components. In the divertor region, it is, however, difficult to utilize this energy with conventional cooling techniques based on high velocity flow with highly subcooled cooling. From this viewpoint, the authors have been developing a cooling technique with metal porous media. In this study, in order to attain both the higher cooling performance and the acquisition of high density energy, high heat removal experiments are performed by using homogeneous and functionally graded porous media to estimate their fundamental heat transfer performances. From the experiments with the homogeneous porous media, it is clarified that the cooling performance is not always improved by using finer pore size media. The functionally graded porous media can reduce a pressure loss. Additionally, in case of the functionally graded porous media with the finer pore, the heat transfer coefficient is higher than that obtained in the homogeneous case. As for the optimal design, it is important to consider the degree of vapor development near a heated surface in the porous media and an effective discharge of vapor from the heated region.


Multi-factor productivity (MFP) compares the growth of gross domestic product with the growth of combined capital and labor inputs. The growth rate of MFP assumes theoretical significance because it represents the slope of the steady-state growth path, and hence is a major determinant of the long-term growth trend. This paper offers a balanced panel of the estimated growth rates of MFP for 24 OECD countries over 1986-2011. Based on the estimates of MFP growth, a number of notable trends in productivity growth are identified for the entire OECD area as well as for three major economies – the US, the Eurozone and Japan – within the OECD. In addition, this paper presents panel estimation results confirming that research and development (R&D) is a key determinant of MFP growth.


We report a series of 5 infertile couple who were seen in a free camp in India. The women were found to be clinically anaemic, treated with dietary supplements (Vitamin B12 and folic acid and Iron) 4 out of 5 couples treated conceived between 4 months and 1 year of treatment . The 5th couple is undergoing further treatments. INTRODUCTION Infertility has been seen as a social stigma since dark ages and still remains to be so in the deprived and uneducated population of the developing world. Anaemia is a common manifestation of economic deprivation in societies. Infertility has been a focus of research and groundbreaking advances have been made for its treatment. But basic clinical judgement and simple measures may still be more effective than most advanced treatment. We report a series of 5 women complaining of inability to conceive. 4 of whom conceived with improved nutrition and only one needed any further investigations to help with infertility. CASE REPORT 5 women were reviewed in a health camp organised in a poor deprived community organised by a Charity .They had all been complaining of inability to conceive. Clinically they all looked pale and were from low socio economic status, uneducated and a dietary history indicated a poor diet. They all had normal menstrual history and three of five women had one or more children while two had none. Haemoglobin was accessed in the camp and was fund to be low In all cases table 1 the slides indicated mixed iron and foliate B12 deficiency .The proposed management plan was to start with dietary supplements ( Iron and Folic acid ) and give dietary advise and a course of Albendazole ( due to high prevalence of helminthic infections ) in the first place and advise contraception for next few months as a pregnancy was not desirable with such low haemoglobin. Keeping in view the poor socio-economic status and the family dietary history, nutritional supplements were distributed for the husband and children as well and the women were advised to visit with their husbands and children on the next visit. Check at 3 month reported improved general well being improving haemoglobin table 1 treatment was continued and advise to continue contraception was given. 6 month review revealed rising haemoglobin level chart 1 and 3 of 5 women were already pregnant. One lady got pregnant 2 months later. One lady( kd ) is still under treatment and husbands sperm count was found to be low. DISCUSSION Surveys suggest that 65 per cent of adult women, 75 per cent of pregnant women, 77 per cent of pre-school children, and nearly 45 per cent of adult men in India are anaemic 1, 2 Perinicious anaemia and folate deficiency are known to cause secondary infertility 3,4,5,6 in both men and and women. Anaemia as a cause of infertility has been seen only in the cases of malabsorption syndromes in the developed world. In economically deprived communities of developing countries dietary deficiency anaemias are still a cause of infertility. Besides causing infertility folate deficiency may also cause increased risk of miscarriage 7 The high incidence of anaemia amongst the deprived populations of developing world makes it a common cause Anaemia as A Cause Of Infertility: Focus On Management Of Anaemia As First Line Management Of Infertility 2 of 3 of infertility. Pregnancy in a severely anaemic woman is a risk to both mother and foetus. Any efforts to treat infertility or to even start preliminary investigations should be deferred until anaemia is treated. Empirically treating both partners for dietary deficiency was reasonable in our case as we were in a one day camp away from our base hospital, but in an other situation checking partners haemoglobin would be a better option. Treatment of anaemia itself may resolve the infertility issues and should be taken as a first line treatment in all cases. If the couple is still unable to conceive further treatments and investigations can be planned in he healthy mother. Figure 1 CORRESPONDENCE TO Pooja Singh 7 Teal Mews Skipton Road Steeton Keighley West Yorkshire United Kingdom BD 20 8UW Tel: 07983385585 E-mail email@example.com References 1. http://nutritionfoundationofindia.res.in/archives.asp?archivei d=33b114(5):178-9. 4. Infertility and folate deficiency. Dawson DW, Sawers AH. Br J Obstet Gynaecol. 1982 Aug;89(8):678-80. 5. Pernicious anemia, vitiligo, and infertility Gulden KD J Am Board Fam Pract. 1990 Jul-Sep;3(3):217-20 6. Prophylactic folic acid in women with pernicious anaemia pregnant after periods of infertility. Marion Hall and Ronald J. L. Davidson J Clin Pathol. 1968 September; 21(5): 599-602. 7. Plasma folate levels and risk of spontaneous abortion George L, Mills JL, Johansson AL, JAMA.2002 Oct 16;288(15):1867-73 Anaemia as A Cause Of Infertility: Focus On Management Of Anaemia As First Line Management Of Infertility 3 of 3 Author Information Pooja Singh, M.B.B.S. Raj Nursing Home Smiriti Singh, M.B.B.S. Raj Nursing Home R. Singh, M.B.B.S., M.R.C.S. Raj Nursing Home Rekha Raghuvanshi, M.B.B.S., D.G.O. Raj Nursing Home


Background: Classical ballet is an art form that seems graceful on the surface. However, beneath the disguise of beauty and ease lies an extremely physically demanding activity that calls for dedication, strength and perseverance. Ballet requires a specific body type and precise techniques, which predispose the dancer to musculoskeletal injury. Although a few studies have been conducted to investigate biomechanical factors as risk factors for injury in ballet dancers, few have included amateur ballet dancers and a range of biomechanical factors. Objectives: This study aimed to determine characteristics of ballet-related injury in amateur ballet dancers in the greater Durban area; to measure and record lower limb biomechanical measurements of these dancers; and to identify associations between the biomechanical measurements and characteristics of injury in the population. Method: A quantitative, questionnaire-based survey with biomechanical measurements was conducted on 21 amateur ballet dancers in the greater Durban area. Statistical analysis included the description of categorical variables using frequency and percentages in tables and bar charts. Continuous variables were summarised using mean, standard deviation and range, or median and range as appropriate. Independent Sample T-tests were used to compare biomechanical measurements between two independent groups. A p value <0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Pearson's correlations and ANOVA testing were also used. Results: The period prevalence of ballet-related injury over the last 2 years was found to be 62% and the point prevalence 38%. There were 37 total previous injuries, most of which occurred in the hamstring (24%). Most of the worst previous injuries were reported to have occurred in the low back (31%). Most of the worst previous (70%) and current (93%) injuries occurred over time. The worst previous injuries reported ranged from mild to severe in severity, while the worst current injuries reported ranged from mild to moderate. Significant associations were found between right weight-bearing ankle dorsiflexion and previous injury; right weight-bearing ankle dorsiflexion and current injury; 'functional turnout' and onset of injury; right non weight-bearing ankle dorsiflexion and onset of injury; and 'compensated turnout' and onset of injury. Conclusion: The results suggest a significant association between musculoskeletal ballet-related injury and reduced weight-bearing ankle dorsiflexion; between injuries that occur over time (overuse injuries) and decreased 'functional turnout'; and between overuse injuries and decreased non weight-bearing ankle dorsiflexion. These findings may help identify risk factors for injury in ballet dancers and contribute towards preventing ballet-related injury.


Photovoltaic performance of planar perovskite hybrid solar cells (pero-HSCs) has been improved by mixing CH3NH3PbIxCl3−x and an electron donor polymer [N-9′′-hepta-decanyl-2,7-carbazole-alt-5,5-(4′,7′-di-2-thienyl-2′,1′,3′-benzothiadiaz-ole)] (PCDTBT). PCDTBT contains lone pairs of electrons due to the presence of S and N atoms, which could passivate the trap states of the perovskite layer and thus reduce the number of film defects. A Stonehenge-like structure could be formed by the interaction of CH3NH3PbIxCl3−x and PCDTBT, developing more ordered orientation crystallization and a high quality film morphology. The doped solar cells are characterized by their excellent photovoltaic properties and enhanced stability. When the doping concentration is 0.3 mg mL−1, the fabricated solar cell device exhibits an outstanding power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 15.76%, which represents a significant improvement with respect to the magnitude of 16% obtained for the reference device.


The article examines the dynamics between organisational change processes and facilitating dissensus in a dialogic organisational action research project. The article has two purposes. Firstly, it shows how earlier organisational change processes become present in the social interaction between partners and action researchers as tensions between different interests and voices. Secondly, based on underststanding facilitating as enactment of power, it discusses if and how dissensus can be facilitated as context inquring dialogues where dissensus becomes the vehicle of future changes. This discussion shows that facilitation of dissensus even at team level deals with a complex situation. The article presents these two purposes in relation to co-operation with the joint team in the Citizen Service of the Municipality of Silkeborg (CSMS) in Denmark from August 2008 to September 2009. In dialogue with different theories, the article defines theoretical concepts as complexity and organisational change, power and facilitation, participation and voice, and dissensus approach.


Institutional Change for Sustainable Development presents a flexible, accessible, yet robust conceptual framework for comprehending institutional dimensions of sustainability, emphasising the complexity of institutional systems, and highlighting the interdependence between policy learning and institutional change. This framework is applied and developed through the analysis of five significant arenas of institutional and policy change: environmental policy in the EU; New Zealand's landmark Resource Management Act; strategic environmental assessment; emerging National Councils for Sustainable Development; and transformative property rights instruments. From these explorations, key principles for institutional change are identified, including the institutional accommodation of a sustainability discourse, the interdependence of normative and institutional change; reiteration and learning; integration in policy and practice; subsidiarity; and legal change.


Until the 1940s, social life in Taiwan was generally organized through the family—marriages were arranged by parents, for example, and senior males held authority. In the following years, as Taiwan evolved rapidly from an agrarian to an industrialized society, individual decisions became less dependent on the family and more influenced by outside forces. Social Change and the Family in Taiwan provides an in-depth analysis of the complex changes in family relations in a society undergoing revolutionary social and economic transformation. This interdisciplinary study explores the patterns and causes of change in education, work, income, leisure time, marriage, living arrangements, and interactions among extended kin. Theoretical chapters enunciate a theory of family and social change centered on the life course and modes of social organization. Other chapters look at the shift from arranged marriages toward love matches, as well as changes in dating practices, premarital sex, fertility, and divorce. Contributions to the book are made by Jui-Shan Chang, Ming-Cheng Chang, Deborah S. Freedman, Ronald Freedman, Thomas E. Fricke, Albert Hermalin, Mei-Lin Lee, Paul K. C. Liu, Hui-Sheng Lin, Te-Hsiung Sun, Arland Thornton, Maxine Weinstein, and Li-Shou Yang.


Abstract Volcanic rocks in south County Waterford include flow-top hyaloclastite, pillow lavas and peperite, which are formed typically by sub-aqueous eruption or intrusion into unconsolidated sediment. Element mobility in wet sediment during emplacement of volcanic intrusions was reconstructed on a variety of spatial scales using bulk-rock and mineral analysis. Magma-sediment and magma-water interactions enhanced hydrothermal alteration. The chemistry of chlorite was a function of mixing between an Fe-rich magmatic fluid and a Mg-rich meteoric fluid. Chlorite geothermometry yields temperatures of formation between 230 and 388°C compatible with other metamorphic indicators. Fluid inclusion microthermometric data from genetically-related mineralized quartz veins reveal a hydrothermal vein mineralization event that occurred at lower temperatures during the end stage of volcanic activity. A convection driven mixing trend reflects the trapping of co-existing brine with entrained seawater concomitant with, the late stages of emplacement of the Bunmahon Volcano intrusions.


Description: An authoritative yet highly accessible guide to the design and operation of the FlexRay bus, the latest protocol for automotive network communications A translation of the French edition, originally published in January 2011, this work is the result of numerous training courses that Dominique Paret has given in companies, and it provides detailed explanations of the design and operation of the FlexRay bus. Comprised of five parts the book covers: the FlexRay concept and its communication protocol; the FlexRay physical layer; synchronization and global time and; architecture of a node, components and development aid tools for hardware and software.-Provides comprehensive treatment of the FlexRay network, including its implementation through a real automotive application-Includes the latest specifications (Version 3) concluded by the FlexRay consortium widely expected to become the industry standard-Written by an author with in-depth experience of automotive electronics, including FlexRay, and presenter of specialist training courses to the industry-Includes a review of industrial tools to help design and implement a FlexRay based distributor application


Australia has joined the world in pushing the boundaries of timber construction. In recent years several tall all timber buildings have demonstrated the significant advantages of mass timber construction, especially in multi-unit, multi-level residential buildings. Recent modifications to the National Construction Code of Australia have provided a deemed-to-satisfy pathway for timber structures of up to 25 meters (or 8 stories), further accelerating the adoption of tall timber buildings. As these buildings become more commonplace, it is natural that architects and clients begin to push the boundaries of structural form. This leads to increasing spans, irregularities and openings. One such structure is a ten storey aged care facility currently under construction in Sydney, Australia. The entire structural system is composed of engineered wood, predominantly of Cross Laminated Timber (CLT), with the exception of the steel framed balconies, sitting on a two storey reinforced concrete base. The architectural design required large open spaces and expansive glazed façades. Economies gained from importing the CLT panels from Europe limited the design team in possible panel dimensions. These challenges meant that innovative solutions and design approaches were required, supported by learnings from past projects, both in Australia and around the world. This paper provides an overview of the design challenges and discusses a range of solutions to issues including the incompatibility of 'standard' European brackets with Australasian architectural layouts, modelling of limited size wall panels, analysis of diaphragm response and problems of floor dynamics. A collaborative design team ensured that these challenges were overcome, enabling what will be one of Australia's most exciting mass timber buildings.


This book is for those new to programming or that know other programming languages and would like to know Ruby. The book teaches the fundamentals of object-oriented programming and starts with creating a basic program. Everything is covered such as control structures and variables, taking input, and creating output. Moving from the basic to more advanced topics, a solid understanding of Ruby is taught in logical progression. The book ends with an overview of the Web development framework, Ruby on Rails.


Using the upper echelons perspective together with corporate governance and strategic renewal literature, this paper investigates how top managers' corporate governance orientation influences a firm's strategic renewal trajectories over time. Through both a qualitative analysis (1907–2004) and a quantitative analysis (1959–2004), we investigate this under‐researched question within the context of a large incumbent firm: Royal Dutch Shell plc. Our results indicate that top managers having an Anglo‐Saxon corporate governance orientation are more likely to pursue exploitative and external‐growth strategic renewal trajectories, while those having a Rhine corporate governance orientation are more likely to pursue exploratory and internal‐growth strategic renewal trajectories. We also found a positive moderating effect of the proportion of shareholders from the Anglo‐Saxon countries on exploitative and external‐growth strategic renewal trajectories. Our findings indicate that top managers' corporate governance orientation can be an important antecedent of strategic renewal and of organizational ambidexterity, both of which influence corporate longevity.


Open access to data, as a core principle of open science, is predicated on assumptions that scientific data can be reused by other researchers. We test those assumptions by asking where scientists find reusable data, how they reuse those data, and how they interpret data they did not collect themselves. By conducting a qualitative meta-analysis of evidence on two long-term, distributed, interdisciplinary consortia, we found that scientists frequently sought data from public collections and from other researchers for comparative purposes such as "ground-truthing" and calibration. When they sought others' data for reanalysis or for combining with their own data, which was relatively rare, most preferred to collaborate with the data creators. We propose a typology of data reuses ranging from comparative to integrative. Comparative data reuse requires interactional expertise, which involves knowing enough about the data to assess their quality and value for a specific comparison such as calibrating an instrument in a lab experiment. Integrative reuse requires contributory expertise, which involves the ability to perform the action, such as reusing data in a new experiment. Data integration requires more specialized scientific knowledge and deeper levels of epistemic trust in the knowledge products. Metadata, ontologies, and other forms of curation benefit interpretation for any kind of data reuse. Based on these findings, we theorize the data creators' advantage, that those who create data have intimate and tacit knowledge that can be used as barter to form collaborations for mutual advantage. Data reuse is a process that occurs within knowledge infrastructures that evolve over time, encompassing expertise, trust, communities, technologies, policies, resources, and institutions. (See Supplementary Materials for methodological and other details, including a full bibliography.)


A new class of cyclometalated pyridine N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) Pt(II) complexes with electronically different alkyne derivatives (C≡CR; R = C6H4C(CH3)3 (1), C6H5 (2), C6H4F (3), C6H3(CF3)2 (4)) as ancillary ligands were synthesized, and the consequences of the electronic properties of the different substituted phenylacetylene ligands on the phosphorescent emission efficiencies were studied, where C≡CC6H4C(CH3)3 = 4-tert-butylphenylacetylene, C≡CC6H5 = phenylacetylene, C≡CC6H4F = 4-fluorophenylacetylene, and C≡CC6H3(CF3)2 = 3,5-bis(trifluoromethyl)phenylacetylene. Structural characterization, electrochemistry, and photophysical investigations were performed for all four compounds. Moreover, the emission quantum efficiencies and wavelength emission intensities of the complexes were also recorded in different weight percents in poly(methyl methacrylate) films (PMMA) and evaluated in the CIE-1931 chromaticity diagram. The square planar coordination geometry with the alkynyl ligands was corroborated for complexes 1, 2, and 3 by single crystal X-ray diffraction studies. These complexes show tunable monomeric high energy triplet emission and an additional concentration-dependent low-energy excimer-based phosphorescence. While adopting weight percent concentrations between 15 and 25%, the two emission bands covering the entire visible spectrum were obtained with these particular complexes displaying the properties of an efficient white light triplet emitter with excellent CIE-1931 coordinates (0.31, 0.33). On the basis of the high luminescent quantum efficiency of over 50% for white light emission, these compounds could be potentially useful for white organic light-emitting diodes (WOLEDs) based applications.


CONTEXT
The surgical treatment of necrotizing pancreatitis includes percutaneous drainage of acute necrotic collections and sequestrectomy in the late phase of the disease.

OBJECTIVE
The aim of the study was to compare the conventional open necrosectomy (CON) approach with the alternative focused open necrosectomy (FON) approach in patients with infected necrosis and progression of sepsis.

METHODS
Patients with acute necrotizing pancreatitis were included in the study prospectively from January 2004 to July 2014. All patients had been admitted with the first or a new episode of disease. Symptomatic large fluid collections were drained percutaneously. The step-up approach was used in patients with several distant localizations of infected necrosis. The methods were analysed by comparing the individual severity according to the ASA, APACHE II and SOFA scores, infection rate, postoperative complication rate and mortality.

RESULTS
A total of 31 patients were included in the FON group and 39 in the CON group. The incidence of infection was similar in groups. More ASA III comorbid conditions, a higher APACHE II score, a more frequent need for renal replacement therapy was observed in the CON group. The postoperative complication rate was in the range of 32% to 44%; mortality reached 6.5% in the FON group and 12.8% in the CON group.

CONCLUSIONS
Comorbid conditions, organ failure, and infection are the main risk factors in patients with necrotizing pancreatitis. The step-up approach and perioperative ultrasonography navigation improves the clinical outcome and reduces the extent of invasive surgical intervention in patients unsuited to other minimally invasive procedures.


Abstract Ideas spread across social networks, but not everyone is equally positioned to be a successful recommender. Do individuals with more opportunities to connect otherwise unconnected others—high information brokers—use their brains differently than low information brokers when making recommendations? We test the hypothesis that those with more opportunities for information brokerage may use brain systems implicated in considering the thoughts, perspectives, and mental states of others (i.e. 'mentalizing') more when spreading ideas. We used social network analysis to quantify individuals' opportunities for information brokerage. This served as a predictor of activity within meta-analytically defined neural regions associated with mentalizing (dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, temporal parietal junction, medial prefrontal cortex, /posterior cingulate cortex, middle temporal gyrus) as participants received feedback about peer opinions of mobile game apps. Higher information brokers exhibited more activity in this mentalizing network when receiving divergent peer feedback and updating their recommendation. These data support the idea that those in different network positions may use their brains differently to perform social tasks. Different social network positions might provide more opportunities to engage specific psychological processes. Or those who tend to engage such processes more may place themselves in systematically different network positions. These data highlight the value of integrating levels of analysis, from brain networks to social networks.


Abstract The multiple, complex and systemic problems of the agriculture–food–water–environment nexus ("Nexus") are among the most significant challenges of the 21st century. China is a key site for Nexus research amidst profound socio‐environmental problems. The policy implications of these problems have been authoritatively summarized elsewhere. This study presents discussions at an international workshop in Guangzhou that asked instead "What science is needed to deliver the growing policy commitments regarding these challenges? And, What changes are needed to the science itself?" Understanding and effective intervention regarding the Nexus calls for a paradigm shift: to a new kind of science of (capacity for) international, interdisciplinary, and impactful research working with and within complex socio‐natural systems. We here argue that science must become proactive in approach, striving only for "minimal harm" not "silver bullet" solutions, and adopting an explicitly long‐term strategic perspective. Together, these arguments lead to calls for reorienting science and science policy in three ways: from short‐term remediation to longer‐term optimization; from a focus on environmental threats to one on the opportunities for international collaborative learning; and toward supporting new forms of scientific career. We bring these points together by recommending a new form of scientific institution: a global network of collaborative Nexus Centres, under the umbrella of a global Food Nexus Organization akin to those of the human genome and proteome.


The antenna of a zero-offset off-ground ground-penetrating radar can be accurately modeled using a linear system of frequency-dependent complex scalar transfer functions under the assumption that the electric field measured by the antenna locally tends to a plane wave. First, we analyze to which extent this hypothesis holds as a function of the antenna height above a multilayered medium. Second, we compare different methods to estimate the antenna phase center, namely, 1) extrapolation of peak-to-peak reflection values in the time domain and 2) frequency-domain full-waveform inversion assuming both frequency-independent and -dependent phase centers. For that purpose, we performed radar measurements at different heights above a perfect electrical conductor. Two different horn antennas operating, respectively, in the frequency ranges 0.2-2.0 and 0.8-2.6 GHz were used and compared. In the limits of the antenna geometry, we observed that antenna modeling results were not significantly affected by the position of the phase center. This implies that the transfer function model inherently accounts for the phase-center positions. The results also showed that the antenna transfer function model is valid only when the antenna is not too close to the reflector, namely, the threshold above which it holds corresponds to the antenna size. The effect of the frequency dependence of the phase-center position was further tested for a two-layered sandy soil subject to different water contents. The results showed that the proposed antenna model avoids the need for phase-center determination for proximal soil characterization.


Interviews were carried out amongst a cohort of 488 parents who lived as subsistence farmers in a remote and very poorly resourced region of South Africa. The majority of respondents had invested heavily in the education of their children, contrary to what might have been predicted from large family sizes and the economic and ecological pressures that families faced. There was little evidence of child specialization, in which educational investment might have been targeted more to some children than others in a family. However, relatively wide birth spacing may have made the financial and opportunity costs of schooling more manageable. This speculation is given some support by two findings: first, that the number of grades of schooling children complete before leaving increases significantly as birth spacing increases; second, that children who are still in school progress more rapidly as birth interval increases. Greater opportunities for the schooling of sons (made possible by low rates of migrant labour in the community), coupled with high opportunity costs associated with the schooling of daughters, made it likely that sons would be educated to a higher level than daughters. However, there was consistent evidence for gender equity in schooling patterns. This is attributed to the lower risk of financial and opportunity losses that are associated with rearing daughters in this particular community. Birth order exerted only modest effects on the decisions parents made about schooling their offspring. The investment strategy as a whole could be interpreted as ``bet-hedging'' under conditions where events outside parental control prevented them from targeting investment to children who could be readily identified as having favourable educational and employment prospects. It is concluded that parents invest in their sons and daughters in a manner that can only be understood when the complexities of their particular social, economic, and ecological contexts are taken into account.


International criminal law was born out of the Holocaust – the systematic extermination of millions of people by a government attempting to annihilate a race. It was the gravity of those crimes that provided the theoretical and political justifications for the first international criminal trials at Nuremberg. Yet today, the International Criminal Court's Office of the Prosecutor is considering situations involving as few as six killings and an international tribunal has been established to address the assassination of a single political leader. This Article explains how the ambiguity of international criminal law's foundational concept of gravity has facilitated this expansion. It exposes the consequences of expansion for state sovereignty and individual rights, and suggests a solution that moves beyond ambiguous gravity to interrogate the interests at stake in decisions about international criminal adjudication.


This essay condenses the argument made in my article with Robert Wolfe and Vinhcent Le on transparency obligations in the area of subsidies and how transparency disciplines work or might work in this area. Subsidies are important mechanisms for the provision of public goods, the correcting of market failures, and the furthering of economic development. Yet they also create transnational externalities, whether through providing advantages to certain traders or through adversely affecting global public goods. Disciplining such government support through formally binding rules is thus notoriously difficult. A focus on substantive law alone is insufficient for understanding how subsidies law develops and has effects on social understandings and practices. Discipline on subsidies depends fundamentally on the existence of fora to discuss definitions, generate information about the incidence of subsidies, and then to determine whether a particular measure fits the definition and ought to be subject to censure. In the trading system, the World Trade Organization (WTO) provides a forum regarding subsidies generally, but there are others, such as the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, the International Monetary Fund, the G20, and informal networks organized by non-governmental organizations and other stakeholders. The essay first looks at transparency mechanisms within the WTO governing subsidies generally, followed by those developed through other processes.


To develop a thin and flexible hollow waveguide for terahertz (THz) waves that can be applied to endoscopic applications, a new (to our knowledge) fabrication method is proposed in which thin polymer tubing is first drawn and then a silver layer is formed on the outside of the tubing. By using this method, a thick dielectric layer, which was difficult to form by liquid-phase deposition, is easily obtained with high accuracy in the thickness. A transmission loss at 1.5 THz measured by a Fourier transform IR spectrometer was 3.0 dB for a 50 cm long, 1 mm inner-diameter waveguide. It is shown that the transmission losses are not affected by the bending of the waveguide when the bending radius is larger than around 10 cm.


The overarching purpose of the studies presented in this report is the exploration of the uses of information theory and Bayesian inference applied to neural codes. Two approaches were taken: Starting from first principles, a coding mechanism is proposed, the results are compared to a biological neural code. Secondly, tools from information theory are used to measure the information contained in a biological neural code. Chapter 3: The REC model proposed by Harpur and Prager [33] codes inputs into a sparse, factorial representation, maintaining reconstruction accuracy. Here I propose a modification of the REC model to determine the optimal network dimensionality. The resulting code for unfiltered natural images is accurate, highly sparse and a large fraction of the code elements show localized features. Furthermore, I propose an activation algorithm for the network that is faster and more accurate than a gradient descent based activation method. Moreover, it is demonstrated that asymmetric noise promotes sparseness. Chapter 4: A fast, exact alternative to Bayesian classification is introduced. Computational time is quadratic in both the number of observed data points and the number of degrees of freedom of the underlying model. As an example application, responses of single neurons from high-level visual cortex (area STSa) to rapid sequences of complex visual stimuli are analyzed. Chapter 5: I present an exact Bayesian treatment of a simple, yet sufficiently general probability distribution model. The model complexity, exact values of the expectations of entropies and their variances can be computed with polynomial effort given the data. The expectation of the mutual information becomes thus available, too, and a strict upper bound on its variance. The resulting algorithm is first tested on artificial data. To that end, an information theoretic similarity measure is derived. Second, the algorithm is demonstrated to be useful in neuroscience by studying the information content of the neural responses analyzed in the previous chapter. It is shown that the information throughput of STS neurons is maximized for stimulus durations ≈ 60ms.


Experimental transmission spectra of samples fabricated of germanium single crystals doped with stibium were registered in the infrared 2.5-25 μm and terahertz 130 μm regions of spectrum. It is shown that doping concentration and treatment of the crystals surface have a noticeable influence on the samples absorption.


As the landscape of wearable devices continues to expand, power remains a major issue for adoption, usability, and miniaturization. Users are faced with an increasing number of personal devices to manage, charge, and care for. In this work, we argue that power constraints limit the design space of wearable devices. We present AlterWear: an architecture for new wearable devices that implement a batteryless design using electromagnetic induction via NFC and bistable e-ink displays. Although these displays are active only when in proximity to an NFC-enabled device, this unique combination of hardware enables both quick, dynamic and long-term interactions with persistent visual displays. We demonstrate new wearables enabled through AlterWear with dynamic, fashion-forward, and expressive displays across several form factors, and evaluate them in a user study. By forgoing the need for onboard power, AlterWear expands the ecosystem of functional and fashionable wearable technologies.


As human populations increase world-wide, land use and land cover are altered to support the rapid anthropogenic expansion. These landscape alterations influence patterns of zoonotic infectious disease emergence and propagation. It is therefore becoming increasingly important to study emerging and re-emerging diseases to predict and manage for future epidemics. Studies of directly-transmitted infectious diseases should consider three components of disease epidemiology: characteristics of the pathogen, ecology of the host, and habitat configuration of the underlying landscape. I studied the influence of both the host ecology of the striped skunk (Mephitis mephitis) and the alteration of the underlying landscape on the epidemiology of rabies virus in the Flint Hills of Kansas. This tall-grass prairie is experiencing woody expansion due to anthropogenic disturbance, altering the landscape on which the rabies virus emerges and spreads. We first studied the behavioral and social ecology of the striped skunk using field and genetic methods. We concluded that 1) striped skunks reached high population densities in anthropogenically disturbed habitats, 2) these individuals were not closely related, and 3) contact rates could be influenced by temperature. Using habitat-specific skunk densities from this initial study, we created spatially-explicit contact networks of skunk populations across the Upper Kansas River Watershed and simulated the emergence and spread of rabies through the system. This modeling approach revealed a threshold of forest habitat beyond which striped skunks became increasingly connected and the rabies virus reached greater extents across the landscape. Based on these findings we recommend fire regimes and land cover alterations to reduce woody encroachment across the Flint Hills and to avoid future disease epidemics in the region.


Commercially available silicon carbide (SiC) MOSFET power modules often have a design based on existing packages previously used for silicon insulated-gate bipolar transistors. However, these packages are not optimized to take advantage of the SiC benefits, such as high switching speeds and high-temperature operation. The package of a half-bridge SiC MOSFET module has been modeled and the parasitic elements have been extracted. The model is validated through experiments. An analysis of the impact of these parasitic elements on the gate-source voltage on the chip has been performed for both low switching speeds and high switching speeds. These results reveal potential reliability issues for the gate oxide if higher switching speeds are targeted.


The horizontal branch (HB) morphology of globular clusters (GCs) is most strongly influenced by metallicity. The second parameter phenomenon, first described in the 1960s, acknowledges that metallicity alone is not enough to describe the HB morphology of all GCs. In particular, astronomers noticed that the outer Galactic halo contains GCs with redder HBs at a given metallicity than are found inside the solar circle. Thus, at least a second parameter was required to characterize HB morphology. While the term "second parameter" has since come to be used in a broader context, its identity with respect to the original problem has not been conclusively determined. Here we analyze the median color difference between the HB and the red giant branch, hereafter denoted as Δ(V − I), measured from Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) photometry of 60 GCs within ∼20 kpc of the Galactic center. Analysis of this homogeneous data set reveals that, after the influence of metallicity has been removed from the data, the correlation between Δ(V − I) and age is stronger than that of any other parameter considered. Expanding the sample to include HST ACS and Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 photometry of the six most distant Galactic GCs lends additional support to the correlation between Δ(V − I) and age. This result is robust with respect to the adopted metallicity scale and the method of age determination, but must bear the caveat that high-quality, detailed abundance information is not available for a significant fraction of the sample. Furthermore, when a subset of GCs with similar metallicities and ages is considered, a correlation between Δ(V − I) and central luminosity density is exposed. With respect to the existence of GCs with anomalously red HBs at a given metallicity, we conclude that age is the second parameter and central density is most likely the third. Important problems related to HB morphology in GCs, notably multi-modal distributions and faint blue tails, remain to be explained.


The northwest-striking, northeast-directed Piney Creek thrust on the northeastern flank of the Bighorn Mountains in north-central Wyoming is traditionally interpreted as abruptly terminated on the northwest by the transverse Granite Ridge fault zone (new name). The structure of the mountain front north of this fault generally has been described as an unfaulted monocline. However, seismic-reflection, gravity, and borehole data, and the requirement of reasonable shortening balance along the mountain front indicate subsurface continuity of the (buried) Piney Creek thrust northward from the Granite Ridge fault zone—perhaps to the Tongue River lineament near the Montana border. Based on these subsurface data, the Granite Ridge fault is described here as a true tear fault confined to the hanging wall of an uninterrupted, ∼30°-dipping Piney Creek thrust, segmenting hanging-wall thrust displacement between the Piney Creek block on the south and Walker Mountain block on the north. Slip on the Granite Ridge tear fault is expressed at the surface along the eastern margin of the Bighorn Mountains, west of Story, Wyoming, as a resequent fault-line scarp with ∼2000 ft (600 m) of relief, and with ∼3.3 mi (∼5.3 km) of left separation of steeply dipping, Paleozoic rocks. Based on measurement between piercing points produced by the lines of intersection of the steeply, east-dipping Cambrian-Precambrian unconformity with the Piney Creek thrust surface along either side of the Granite Ridge tear fault, a (reverse) left-oblique slip of ∼15,000 ft (∼4500 m) is measured on this tear fault zone. Thus, 30,000 ft (9100 m) of net slip on the Piney Creek thrust in the Piney Creek block decreases to 15,000 ft (4500 m) of net slip in the Walker Mountain block, and slip on the thrust further declines northward. The described Granite Ridge tear fault–Piney Creek thrust geometry may provide a useful model in the investigation of similar fault-offset mountain fronts within the Laramide foreland province of the Middle Rocky Mountains.


There is a rich existing economic literature that considers the impact of matching offers on the behavior of donors to nonprofit organizations, both in the laboratory and in the field. We evaluate the impact of matching gift offers included in a nonpartisan nonprofit organization's holiday mail fundraising drive. We add to the existing literature in two ways. First, our use of a nonpartisan nonprofit is uncommon. Second, prior literature establishes that more generous matches (beyond $1:$1) generally do not increase donations in a cost-effective way. However, few studies consider less generous offers. We evaluate the impact of a $1:$10 matching offer. Our results suggest that the nonprofit organization's donors are not generally susceptible to matching offers, but that the $1:$1 match led to a higher response rate and larger gift than the $1:$10 match for legacy donors. We also find that donors more closely tied to the organization through prior giving are more likely to give in response to an ask without matching offers than donors without past giving. Our results suggest that low matching offers are not worth pursuing for many nonprofit organizations, and that the response to offers differs across regular donors to the organization compared to other donor types.


The Consensus Coding Sequence (CCDS) project (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/CCDS/) is a collaborative effort to maintain a dataset of protein-coding regions that are identically annotated on the human and mouse reference genome assemblies by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) and Ensembl genome annotation pipelines. Identical annotations that pass quality assurance tests are tracked with a stable identifier (CCDS ID). Members of the collaboration, who are from NCBI, the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and the University of California Santa Cruz, provide coordinated and continuous review of the dataset to ensure high-quality CCDS representations. We describe here the current status and recent growth in the CCDS dataset, as well as recent changes to the CCDS web and FTP sites. These changes include more explicit reporting about the NCBI and Ensembl annotation releases being compared, new search and display options, the addition of biologically descriptive information and our approach to representing genes for which support evidence is incomplete. We also present a summary of recent and future curation targets.


Autoimmune encephalitis defines brain inflammation caused by a misdirected immune response against self-antigens expressed in the central nervous system. It comprises a heterogeneous group of disorders that are at least as common as infectious causes of encephalitis. The rapid and ongoing expansion of this field has been driven by the identification of several pathogenic autoantibodies that cause polysymptomatic neurological and neuropsychiatric diseases. These conditions often show highly distinctive cognitive, seizure and movement disorder phenotypes, making them clinically recognisable. Their early identification and treatment improve patient outcomes, and may aid rapid diagnosis of an underlying associated tumour. Here we summarise the well-known autoantibody-mediated encephalitis syndromes with neuronal cell-surface antigens. We focus on practical aspects of their diagnosis and treatment, offer our clinical experiences of managing such cases and highlight more basic neuroimmunological advances that will inform their future diagnosis and treatments.


Data over cable service interface specification (DOCSIS) introduced the possibility of a variable bit-loading over the subcarriers within a channel in its release DOCSIS 3.1. This variable bit-loading will improve the data rates. However, to limit the encoding processing overhead, the concept of profiles was introduced. Each profile defines the modulation per subcarrier for a given channel while the number of allowed profiles is limited. Thus, an efficient profile assignment scheme, which determines the best set of profiles based on the users' channel conditions, is needed. Although various profile assignment algorithms have been proposed in the literature, realistic evaluation of these schemes has been difficult, as channel quality measurements of real DOCSIS 3.1 systems has not previously been available. In this paper, we exploit DOCSIS 3.1 measurement data to evaluate performance of the proposed algorithms. We propose to employ principal component analysis to derive low-dimensional clustering variables in order to ensure efficient profile optimization. We show how this technique can be employed with different clustering algorithms to improve the spectrum efficiency of the profiles by extracting the most important information of the channels in low-dimensional vectors. This not only reduces the complexity of the clustering, but also ensures better throughput. Moreover, we adapt the clustering algorithms to tailor them to the profile optimization problem. Finally, we present an exhaustive simulation-based performance analysis to compare the different algorithms for various scenarios using extrapolation of the measurements data.


The ipv6 security architecture, IPSec, plays a positive role in the protection of IPv6 networks. To some special attacks, especially DDoS attacks, IPSec appears relatively weak, because IPSec can only defend against DDoS attacks that spoof their source addresses. In cases where attackers launch DDoS attacks with their real identity, IPSec is helpless. This paper proposes a link signature based DDoS attacker tracing algorithm. It can immediately reconstruct the entire attack path after suffering a DDoS attack whether or not the source addresses are spoofed. To verify the validity of our algorithm, we implemented it under a simulated IPv6 environment with the OMNeT++ IPv6Suite.


Aim: To enumerate the reasons for encounter (RFE) and the diagnoses (pre-existing or new) of patients seen in Klipfontein sub-district of the Western Cape.

Design: Prospective, cross-sectional survey.

Methods: The International Classification of Primary Care -2 (ICPC-2) was used to code data collected over a 9-month period (Oct 09 to June 10) on five different days of the week from patients presenting at primary care facilities in the Klipfontein sub-district (Doctor Abdurahman, Heideveld, Hanover park and Gugulethu CHC). This study was part of a larger project that collected the same data in primary health facilities in other parts of the Western Cape, as well as the Northern Cape, North West and Limpopo Provinces.

Results: During the study, 1985 patients (male 697, female 1288) were seen and resulted in 4241 RFE and 3565 diagnoses.
The top twenty RFE in descending order of frequency were: cough, headache, appointments related to the cardiovascular system (mostly hypertension), visit for results related to cardiovascular system, backache, appointments related to the endocrine system (mostly diabetes), cardiovascular system follow up-unspecified, joint symptoms, localized abdominal pain, tiredness, pruritus, leg pain, sneezing, throat symptoms, dysuria, generalized body pain, vomiting, localized rash, diarrhoea, generalized rash
The top twenty diagnoses presented were uncomplicated hypertension, diabetes, arthritis, upper respiratory tract infections, asthma, tuberculosis, urinary tract infection, lower respiratory tract infection, allergic rhinitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, gastroenteritis, complicated hypertension, ischemic heart disease, HIV/AIDS, fibromyalgia/muscle pain, epilepsy, high cholesterol, eczema, gastritis and heart failure.

Conclusions:
This survey has identified the range of RFEs and diagnoses amongst patients attending ambulatory primary care in provincial health centres within the Klipfontein sub-district, Cape Town. Non-communicable chronic diseases and infectious diseases such as respiratory tract infections and gastroenteritis made up the majority of consultations. HIV/AIDS, TB, maternal and child health as well as trauma were all under represented relative to the burden of disease. Mental disorders were also poorly recognized relative to their expected prevalence. The findings have implications for district managers, guideline developers and those responsible for the training of primary care providers.


Drawing together insights from key figures in the collections industry and observation at one of the UK's largest debt purchasers, this paper opens up the socio-material mechanisms of 'market attachment' through which, drawing on Franck Cochoy, the potential 'captation' of the defaulting consumer credit debtor occurs. It begins by setting out the analytical deficits in the contemporary analysis of consumer debt collection practices, before tracing the industry's responses to the particular problematic of consumer collections. It focuses on the role played by the 'capture of affect' in collections processes, building on existing work exploring socio-economic objects that may be described as 'non-representational'. A richer understanding of the relationship between markets and the body is thus brought to Actor-Network Theory influenced studies of processes of 'economization'. It follows the debtor's progress along collections 'trajectories', exploring different not necessarily compatible modes of captation being deployed by collectors attempting to enact defaulters as repayers, ranging from the quasi-therapeutic to the disciplinary. It concludes by examining the increasing role for performative forms of in vitro and in vivo experimentation being deployed in the collections process, through the use of econometric modelling techniques. Both the debtors' pasts and their actions as they move through the present are shown to provide the empirical grounding for a process of repeated affective 'testing', aimed at discovering – and profiting from – minute variations in debtor dispositions.


Parasitoids make mating and oviposition decisions during foraging, and encounter trade-offs while making decisions to maximise fitness. The aim of this study was to test how the three aspects of the reproductive choice – (1) oviposition vs. mating choice, (2) mate selection and (3) host selection – affect the reproductive performance in a parasitic wasp, a cabbage aphid parasitoid Diaeretiella rapae. The reproductive output was quantified as the number of progeny produced and the progeny sex ratio. Protandry (the majority of males emerge before females) and haplodiploidy in D. rapae give females the opportunity to choose between ovipositing and mating when they first emerge. When the choice was given to female D. rapae in laboratory conditions, most of them preferred to spend time searching for mates and parasitise the hosts after mating, even though they were more likely to encountering hosts than potential mates. The females which chose to mate before oviposition eventually produced more female offspring. Female D. rapae are monandrous (mate only once). In mate choice experiment, the female D. rapae rejected the multiple-mated males, and preferred to mate with virgin males, which resulted in more female offspring. Females that mated with multiple-mated males became sperm depleted. When given hosts of various sizes, females preferred larger hosts to oviposit fertilised eggs even though the females had to spend more time and energy (stings) to parasitise them. The offspring that emerged from larger hosts developed quicker, larger in body size, lived longer and themselves produced more offspring than offspring produced from small host. Results of this study, therefore, suggest that parasitoids make their foraging decisions to maximise their reproductive performance.


OBJECTIVE
Procalcytonin is a useful marker of bacterial infections. Several studies have reported elevated serum levels of PCT in patients with infective endocarditis (IE) and/or other infections sustained by cocci. We report a rare case of IE attributed to Streptococcus viridans in whom levels of PCT were normal.

CASE REPORT
A 67 years-old male was admitted to the Emergency Department for a 25-day history of recurring night fever. Upon admission, patient underwent blood test, including PCT, showing normal levels, except for a slight increased creatinine concentration (1.6 mg/dl). CBC showed WBC levels of 10.24 x 10^9/l with neutrophil concentration of 8.64 x 10^9/l. Three blood culture were performed, and all of them were positive for Streptococcus viridans (S. oralis). Dosage of PCT was then repeated two times within the next 2 days after the admission, with negative results. An echocardiogram was performed, showing a lesion of the left anterior aortic leaflet. This finding was confirmed by a transoesophageal echocardiogram. The patient was then treated with G penicillin (6 million of Units quid) for 3 weeks; during the course of antibiotic therapy fever disappeared and blood cultures become negative.

CONCLUSIONS
In the literature, there are just few data about the association between PCT levels and endocarditis and sepsis but there are not etiological differentiations particularly for those sustained by Streptococcus viridans. Only one study suggests that a Streptococcus viridans' infection could reduce PCT accuracy in diagnosis oh endocarditis. So, our observation although come from a single case, could merits, further investigation.


We report reversal of chronic postsurgical pain (CPSP) along with functional restoration after total knee replacement (TKR) in two patients, using a combination therapy that included ultrasonography-guided pulsed radiofrequency (PRF) of nerves supplying the knee to provide pain relief, along with dry needling (DN) to relax myofascial triggers/bands that caused painful stiffness and restricted movement of muscles acting across the knee. Both patients showed demonstrable pain relief, as evidenced by changes in pain as assessed on the Numeric Rating Scale (patient 1: 4-9/10 [pre-treatment] to 0-3/10 [6 months post-treatment]; patient 2: 5-9/10 to 0-4/10), Oxford Knee Score (patient 1: 17 to 40; patient 2: 12 to 39), Self-Administered Leeds Assessment of Neuropathic Symptoms and Signs score (patient 1: 16 to 0; patient 2: 18 to 0), and Patient Health Questionnaire-9 score (patient 1: 17 to 2; patient 2: 20 to 2). The selection of the PRF-and-DN combination for treating post-TKR CPSP was based on a new idea that CPSP is a neuromyopathic phenomenon involving both sensory and motor neuropathy. It has evolved from our experience of 8 years. Physiotherapy worked synergistically with DN, optimizing muscle performance and pain relief.


This thesis examined solar thermal collectors for use in alternative hybrid solar-biomass power plant applications in Gujarat, India. Following a preliminary review, the cost-effective selection and design of the solar thermal field were identified as critical factors underlying the success of hybrid plants. Consequently, the existing solar thermal technologies were reviewed and ranked for use in India by means of a multi-criteria decision-making method, the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). Informed by the outcome of the AHP, the thesis went on to pursue the Linear Fresnel Reflector (LFR), the design of which was optimised with the help of ray-tracing. To further enhance collector performance, LFR concepts incorporating novel mirror spacing and drive mechanisms were evaluated. Subsequently, a new variant, termed the Elevation Linear Fresnel Reflector (ELFR) was designed, constructed and tested at Aston University, UK, therefore allowing theoretical models for the performance of a solar thermal field to be verified. Based on the resulting characteristics of the LFR, and data gathered for the other hybrid system components, models of hybrid LFR- and ELFR-biomass power plants were developed and analysed in TRNSYS®. The techno-economic and environmental consequences of varying the size of the solar field in relation to the total plant capacity were modelled for a series of case studies to evaluate different applications: tri-generation (electricity, ice and heat), electricity-only generation, and process heat. The case studies also encompassed varying site locations, capacities, operational conditions and financial situations. In the case of a hybrid tri-generation plant in Gujarat, it was recommended to use an LFR solar thermal field of 14,000 m2 aperture with a 3 tonne biomass boiler, generating 815 MWh per annum of electricity for nearby villages and 12,450 tonnes of ice per annum for local fisheries and food industries. However, at the expense of a 0.3 ¢/kWh increase in levelised energy costs, the ELFR increased saving of biomass (100 t/a) and land (9 ha/a). For solar thermal applications in areas with high land cost, the ELFR reduced levelised energy costs. It was determined that off-grid hybrid plants for tri-generation were the most feasible application in India. Whereas biomass-only plants were found to be more economically viable, it was concluded that hybrid systems will soon become cost competitive and can considerably improve current energy security and biomass supply chain issues in India.


In order to construct a suitable scaffold for corneal cell culture and transplantation in vitro, different chitosan-chondroitin sulfate blended membranes were prepared and the properties of blended membranes were studied. Corneal stroma cells and corneal endothelial cells were seeded onto the blended membrane surface and the effects of the blended membranes on corneal cell attachment and metabolism were investigated. The results showed that chitosan and chondroitin sulfate had good compatibility in blended membranes. Chondroitin sulfate improved the homogeneousness, crystallization, transparency, and tensile strength and decreased the water content of the blended membrane. Within the blending ratio of 1:0.1, chondroitin sulfate reduced the damage of chitosan membranes to cells and improved the biocompatibility between cells and membranes. Corneal cells grew and formed a confluent monolayer on chitosan-chondroitin sulfate blended membranes (CH-CS3). All results indicated that the blended membranes of chitosan and chondroitin sulfate could be used as a scaffold for corneal cell culture in vitro and have potential to be used as carriers for corneal endothelial cell transplantation. Copyright © 2010 VBRI press.


Forty-eight males aged 4-28 years diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) participated in an exploratory study to investigate the type and extent of reported bowel and bladder problems. using parental interviews, this study aimed to identify the types and incidence of bowel and bladder voiding problems and explore associations with mobility, eating and drinking patterns. One third of the study group reported urinary and bowel urgency and constipation, and did not urinate during a school or workday. urinary frequency and hesitancy, bowel pain and discomfort were reported in a quarter of the group. The high levels of reported urinary problems, especially in the transition group, as well as the lack of association between bowel problems and mobility, were of interest.


In the last two decades, there was an extensive research focused on the study of synthetic amphiphilic vesicles, prepared by nonionic surfactants (niosomes). The particle size of these vesicles is critical for their intended therapeutic benefits. Formulation and processing factors affect greatly the physical characteristics of the resulted nanosystems. Therefore, the present work was adopted to investigate how proper manipulation of various formulations and processing factors on vesicular Z-average particle size. The selected variables were membrane additives, [including cholesterol (CHO), dicetylphosphate (DCP) and stearylamine (SA)], sonication time as well as drug loading factor (using mannitol and estradiol). Sorbitan monopalmitate (span 40) niosomes were prepared by the conventional thin film hydration method. Particle size, measured by Photon Correlation Spectroscopy, and polydispersity indices were measured and compared.The results indicated that CHO increased the vesicular size, with 2:1 and 1:1 (span 40:CHO) ratios showing the same size. Sonication reduced the vesicle size by 23, 35 and 42% after 10, 20 and 30 min, respectively. After 30 min, the effect of sonication was minor. The addition of charge inducing agents changed the zeta potential depending on the type of the additives. Surface charge increased the size by 24 and 11% when using DCP and SA, respectively. Drug incorporation increased the vesicle size to an extent based on its aqueous solubility. There were about 35 and 6.2% increase in vesicular size for estradiol and mannitol, respectively, supporting the partitioning of lipophilic drug within the fatty acyl side chains of the bilayer membrane.


In this revisionist study of texts from the mid-Heian period in Japan, H. Richard Okada offers new readings of three well-known tales: The Tale of the Bamboo-cutter, The Tale of Ise, and The Tale of Genji. Okada contends that the cultural and gendered significance of these works has been distorted by previous commentaries and translations belonging to the larger patriarchal and colonialist discourse of Western civilization. He goes on to suggest that this universalist discourse, which silences the feminine aspects of these texts and subsumes their writing in misapplied Western canonical literary terms, is sanctioned and maintained by the discipline of Japanese literature.

Okada develops a highly original and sophisticated reading strategy that demonstrates how readers might understand texts belonging to a different time and place without being complicit in their assimilation to categories derived from Western literary traditions. The author's reading stratgey is based on the texts' own resistance to modes of analysis that employ such Western canonical terms as novel, lyric, and third-person narrative. Emphasis is also given to the distinctive cultural circles, as well as socio-political and genealogical circumstances that surrounded the emergence of the texts.

Indispensable readings for specialists in literature, cultural studies, and Japanese literature and history, Figures of Resistance will also appeal to general readers interested in the problems and complexities of studying another culture.


Abstract. Emission rates of greenhouse gases (GHGs) entering into the atmosphere can be inferred using mathematical inverse approaches that combine observations from a network of stations with forward atmospheric transport models. Some locations for collecting observations are better than others for constraining GHG emissions through the inversion, but the best locations for the inversion may be inaccessible or limited by economic and other non-scientific factors. We present a method to design an optimal GHG observing network in the presence of multiple objectives that may be in conflict with each other. As a demonstration, we use our method to design a prototype network of six stations to monitor summertime emissions in California of the potent GHG 1,1,1,2-tetrafluoroethane (CH2FCF3, HFC-134a). We use a multiobjective genetic algorithm to evolve network configurations that seek to jointly maximize the scientific accuracy of the inferred HFC-134a emissions and minimize the associated costs of making the measurements. The genetic algorithm effectively determines a set of "optimal" observing networks for HFC-134a that satisfy both objectives (i.e., the Pareto frontier). The Pareto frontier is convex, and clearly shows the tradeoffs between performance and cost, and the diminishing returns in trading one for the other. Without difficulty, our method can be extended to design optimal networks to monitor two or more GHGs with different emissions patterns, or to incorporate other objectives and constraints that are important in the practical design of atmospheric monitoring networks.


We consider the log-likelihood ratio test (LRT) for testing the number of components in a mixture of populations in a parametric family. We provide the asymptotic distribution of the LRT statistic under the null hypothesis as well as under contiguous alternatives when the parameter set is bounded. Moreover, for the simple contamination model we prove, under general assumptions, that the asymptotic local power under contiguous hypotheses may be arbitrarily close to the asymptotic level when the set of parameters is large enough. In the particular problem of normal distributions, we prove that, when the unknown mean is not a priori bounded, the asymptotic local power under contiguous hypotheses is equal to the asymptotic level.


The Paleozoic Variscan orogeny was a large-scale collisional event involving amalgamation of multiple continents and micro-continents. Existing data, suggests oroclinal buckling of an originally near-linear convergent margin during the last stages of Variscan deformation in the late Paleozoic. Closure of the Rheic Ocean resulted in E-W shortening (present-day coordinates) in the Carboniferous, producing a near linear N-S trending, east-verging belt. Subsequent N-S shortening near the Carb-Permian boundary resulted in oroclinal buckling. This late-stage orogenic event remains an enigmatic part of final Pangea amalgamation. The present-day arc curvature of the Variscan has inspired many tectonic models, with little agreement between them. While there is general consensus that two separate phases of deformation occurred, various models consider that curvature was caused by: dextral transpression around a Gondwana indentor; strike-slip wrench tectonics; or a change in tectonic transport direction due to changing stress fields. More recent models explain the curvature as an orocline, with potentially two opposite-facing bends, caused by secondary rotations. Deciphering the kinematic history of curved orogens is difficult, and requires establishment of two deformation phases: an initial compressive phase that forms a relatively linear belt, and a second phase that causes vertical-axis rotation of the orogenic limbs. Historically the most robust technique to accurately quantify vertical axis-rotation in curved orogens is paleomagnetic analysis, but recently other types of data, including fracture, geochemical, petrologic, paleo-current and calcite twin data, have been used to corroborate secondary buckling. A review of existing and new Variscan data from Iberia is presented that argues for secondary buckling of an originally linear orogenic system. Together, these data constrain oroclinal buckling of the Cantabrian Orocline to have occurred in about 10 Ma during the latest Carboniferous, which agrees well with recent geodynamical models and structural data that relate oroclinal buckling with lithospheric delamination in the Variscan.


This is the exclusive story behind Intuit's hard-won success. It's a modern-day David and Goliath story for the business world: a company dreamed up at a kitchen table, built on explosive PC growth, and forced to battle a giant in the race to revolutionize an industry. This is the story of Intuit, creator of renowned software products like Quicken, QuickBooks, and TurboTax - the company that beat mighty Microsoft and changed the way 25 million people manage their finances. Written by Intuit veteran Suzanne Taylor and seasoned business manager Kathy Schroeder - who were granted exclusive interviews with founder Scott Cook and other key figures - "Inside Intuit" tells this company's original and fascinating tale for the first time.The book vividly recounts each dramatic stage of Intuit's development: from initial conception to "bet the company" investments; from strokes of marketing genius to disastrous product launches; and from battles for survival to successive victories against arch-rival Microsoft - the company no one else could beat. Evident throughout this account is the power of Intuit's relentless customer focus, which guided the company from tiny start-up to a 6,000-employee, $1.4 billion business. Instructive and inspiring, Inside Intuit chronicles an enduring company's extraordinary success against overwhelming odds."This important book doesn't take any shortcuts in analyzing the building blocks of success. Taylor and Schroeder have written a fascinating blow-by-blow account of the thousand and one decisions that have made Intuit what it is. Highly readable, thorough, and extremely well researched Inside Intuit is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand success in Silicon Valley." - Emanuel Rosen, author, "The Anatomy of Buzz"."Inside Intuit is more than the history of a start-up that grew to dominate a major software category. It is a blueprint of success for entrepreneurs and investors who want to build great businesses in difficult environments." - Roger McNamee, cofounder, Silver Lake Partners and Integral Capital Partners. ""Inside Intuit" is a very entertaining book. Any entrepreneur at heart will enjoy and learn from the story of how Scott Cook and Tom Proulx faced so much adversity and came back from the brink of disaster to build a very successful, highly admired Silicon Valley company.Readers can learn many lessons from both Intuit's successes and mistakes.In the end, good ideas, hard work, determination, and strong values really do pay off!" - Dan Rudolph, Senior Associate Dean/Chief Operating Officer, Stanford Graduate School of Business. "I was thrilled to read the inside story of how Intuit was born and raised. I've always admired Intuit's strict attention to customer needs and feedback. Now I have a much better idea of how that culture was created." - Stewart Alsop, General Partner, New Enterprise Associates. ""Inside Intuit" offers readers the secrets behind that company's extraordinary success. The authors' insights into how Intuit trounced Microsoft alone are worth the price of the book!" - Andrea Butter, coauthor, "Piloting Palm: The Inside Story of Palm, Handspring and the Birth of the Billion Dollar Handheld Industry".


Harvesting offshore wind energy resources using floating vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs) has attracted an increasing interest in recent years. Due to its potential impact on fatigue damage, the aerodynamic damping should be considered in the preliminary design of a floating VAWT based on the frequency domain method. However, currently the study on aerodynamic damping of floating VAWTs is very limited. Due to the essential difference in aerodynamic load characteristics, the aerodynamic damping of a floating VAWT could be different from that of a floating horizontal axis wind turbine (HAWT). In this study, the aerodynamic damping of floating VAWTs was studied in a fully coupled manner, and its influential factors and its effects on the motions, especially the pitch motion, were demonstrated. Three straight-bladed floating VAWTs with identical solidity and with a blade number varying from two to four were considered. The aerodynamic damping under steady and turbulent wind conditions were estimated using fully coupled aero-hydro-servo-elastic time domain simulations. It is found that the aerodynamic damping ratio of the considered floating VAWTs ranges from 1.8% to 5.3%. Moreover, the aerodynamic damping is almost independent of the rotor azimuth angle, and is to some extent sensitive to the blade number.


From a metaphysical point of view, it is important clearly to see the ontological difference between what is studied in mathematics and mathematical physics, respectively. In this respect, the paper is concerned with the vectors of classical physics. Vectors have both a scalar magnitude and a direction, and it is argued that neither conventionalism nor wholesale anti-conventionalism holds true of either of these components of classical physical vectors. A quantification of a physical dimension requires the discovery of ontological order relations among all the determinate properties of this dimension, as well as a conventional definition that connects the number one and (in case of vector quantities) mathematical unit vectors to determinate spatiotemporal physical entities. One might say that mathematics deals with numbers and vectors, but mathematical physics with scalar quantities and vector quantities, respectively. The International System of Units (SI) distinguishes between basic and derived scalar quantities; if a similar distinction should be introduced for the vector quantities of classical physics, then duration in directed time ought to be chosen as the basic vector quantity. The metaphysics of physical vectors is intimately connected with the metaphysics of time. From a philosophical-historical point of view, the paper revives W. E. Johnson's distinction 'determinates-determinables' and Hans Reichenbach's notion of 'coordinative definition'.


The viability of living systems depends inextricably on enzymes that catalyze phosphoryl transfer reactions. For many enzymes in this class, including several ribozymes, divalent metal ions serve as obligate cofactors. Understanding how metal ions mediate catalysis requires elucidation of metal ion interactions with both the enzyme and the substrate(s). In the Tetrahymena group I intron, previous work using atomic mutagenesis and quantitative analysis of metal ion rescue behavior identified three metal ions (MA, MB, and MC) that make five interactions with the ribozyme substrates in the reaction's transition state. Here, we combine substrate atomic mutagenesis with site-specific phosphorothioate substitutions in the ribozyme backbone to develop a powerful, general strategy for defining the ligands of catalytic metal ions within RNA. In applying this strategy to the Tetrahymena group I intron, we have identified the pro-S P phosphoryl oxygen at nucleotide C262 as a ribozyme ligand for MC. Our findings establish a direct connection between the ribozyme core and the functionally defined model of the chemical transition state, thereby extending the known set of transition-state interactions and providing information critical for the application of the recent group I intron crystallographic structures to the understanding of catalysis.


ABSTRACT This article investigates the role of food self-provisioning for the intake of nutrients of households in Mongolia. We analyse nutritional outcomes within and across urban wage employees, rural households with small herds, and pastoralists with large herds. Food self-provisioning significantly affects dietary quality and quantity. Farming food crops improves the nutrient intake. In contrast, animal husbandry increases the intake of calories and nutrients from animal sources, while it decreases the intake of carbohydrates and nutrients from vegetal sources. This finding suggests household-specific market failures due to remoteness exist. Last, exposure to a weather shock does not affect households' calorie intake.


Persons with intellectual disability may encounter difficulties in making choices and expressing preferences because of restricted communication skills or a tendency to acquiesce. In addition, many studies provide evidence that these persons have less opportunity to make choices and express their preferences. The aim of this study was to conduct a field test of an innovative method to assess vocational preferences using choice and task completion observations. Sixteen educators were trained to use this method. They were recruited through local developmental disability agencies specializing in services for persons with intellectual disability in the Province of Quebec (Canada). Nineteen persons with intellectual disability were assessed. Occurrences of four types of behaviors (choice, refusal, positive emotional and off-task behaviors), as well as length of time spent working on the task, were computed to determine levels of preferences. Interviews were conducted with the educators to collect their perceptions regarding the effectiveness and usefulness of the method as a measure of its value in use. Results suggest that this method is useful to assess vocational preferences with persons with intellectual disability. Interviews conducted with educators reveal a high satisfaction with the method. Vocational preferences assessment should rely on frequency of choices, as other behaviors previously considered as expressing preferences are not reliable. This study also provides further evidence that proxy opinions may differ from one's actual preferences.


The financial crisis which began in 2007 has been widely interpreted as a crisis of neoliberalism, akin to the crisis of Keynesianism of the 1970s. But there is little sign of a major paradigmatic alternative, either in theory or in practice. This article looks at how the crises and failures of neoliberalism are occurring at a micro-policy level, where they are interpreted in terms of the fallibility of individual rational choice. Policy responses to this crisis, drawing on more psychologically nuanced accounts of economic behaviour, can be described as 'neocommunitarian', inasmuch as they echo the communitarian critique of the liberal self. Where neoliberalism rests on a vision of the individual as atomised and rational, neocommunitarianism treats individuals as governed by social norms and incentives simultaneously. And where neoliberalism subjects individuals to periodic audit organised around targets and outputs, neocommunitarianism conducts a constant audit of behavioural fluctuations in real time.


The Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI") and U.S. Attorney's Office's investigation into National Collegiate Athletic Association ("NCAA") Division I men's basketball revealed allegations of NCAA Division I men's basketball coaches accepting money from sport agents to persuade NCAA Division I men's basketball players to become clients of said sport agents. This investigation highlights the pervasiveness of violations of preexisting laws governing sport agents, namely, the Uniform Athlete Agents Act (the "UAAA") and Sport Agent Responsibility and Trust Act ("SPARTA"). Despite the believed routine violation of the UAAA and SPARTA in the recruitment of NCAA student-athletes as clients by sport agents, the laws are rarely used to prosecute sport agents. Thus, the investigation into NCAA Division I men's basketball highlights the need for new mechanisms to safeguard the rights and interests of NCAA student-athletes related to sport agents. This paper analyzes the efficacy of existing legal and NCAA mechanisms regulating sport agents and presents a thematic analysis of NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision ("FBS") member institutions' sport agent policies to highlight the need for and present a model NCAA Division I FBS member institution sport agent policy and education model.


The genus Casmaria H. Adams & A. Adams, 1853 (family Cassidae) is widespread in the tropical Indo-Pacific and has been documented from some Atlantic localities as well. Two Casmaria species, C. erinaceus (Linnaeus, 1758) and C. ponderosa (Gmelin, 1791), are common in Indo-Pacific shallow-water sandy bottom communities and are characterized by high morphological variability; both species encompass multiple, often sympatric forms of uncertain status. In the present study we carry out a phylogenetic analysis of some Philippine Casmaria morphs and demonstrate that one of the distinctive morphs earlier assigned to Casmaria ponderosa is in fact a different species, which we describe as Casmaria boblehmani sp. nov. The smooth form of Casmaria ponderosa , C. ponderosa ponderosa , and the solid nodulose form, widely called "form nodulosa " despite being strikingly different in shell morphology, are shown to be conspecific. Studied specimens of these two morphs even from different localities share the same haplotype of the CO1 gene. In light of these new data on the morphological variability of Casmaria species, we discuss criteria of species delimitation in the genus Casmaria and possible affinities of Casmaria boblehmani sp. nov. within the genus.


Removal of biomass for bioenergy production may decrease soil organic carbon. While perennials or cover‐cropped grains often have greater root production than annual grain crops, they variably impact soil carbon and underlying mechanisms remain unclear. We used high‐frequency measurements of soil respiration and natural abundance carbon stable isotopes to differentiate respiration sources, pool sizes, and decomposition rate constants during a 10 month incubation of soils collected to 1 m depth from a 10 year old field experiment in Iowa, United States. Conversion of corn–soybean rotations to reconstructed prairies or addition of a rye cover crop to continuous corn significantly altered respiration sources and dynamics of fast‐ and slow‐cycling carbon (turnover times of weeks to months–years, respectively), but had little effect on bulk soil carbon and several extractable pools (except in fertilized prairie). Both unfertilized and fertilized prairies increased slow‐cycling carbon pools relative to annual crops, but only in 0–25 cm soil. Compared with fertilized prairie, the unfertilized prairie significantly increased decomposition rates of fast‐ and slow‐cycling carbon pools in 0–25 cm soil, likely explaining the lack of significant bulk soil carbon accrual despite twofold greater root production. Carbon derived from C4 plants decomposed faster than C3‐derived carbon across all depths and cropping systems and contributions of C3‐carbon to respiration increased with depth. Respiration of cover crop‐derived carbon was greatest in 0–25 cm soil but comprised >25% of respiration below 25 cm, implying a disproportionate impact of the cover crop on deep soil metabolism. However, the cover crop also increased the decomposition rates of fast‐ and slow‐cycling carbon pools and decreased their pool sizes across all depths relative to corn without a cover crop. Despite their notable environmental benefits, neither unfertilized perennials nor cover crops necessarily promote rapid soil carbon sequestration relative to conventional annual bioenergy systems because of concomitant increases in decomposition.