What is driving the remarkable increase over the last decade in the propensity of patents to cite academic science? Does this trend indicate that stronger knowledge spillovers from academia have helped power the surge in innovative activity in the U.S. in the 1990s? This paper seeks to shed light on these questions by using a common empirical framework to assess the relative importance of various alternative hypotheses in explaining the growth in patent citations to science. Our analysis supports the notion that the nature of U.S. inventive activity has changed over the sample period, with an increased emphasis on the use of the knowledge generated by university-based scientists in later years. However, the concentration of patent-to-paper citation activity within what we call the "bio nexus" suggests that much of the contribution of knowledge spillovers from academia may be largely confined to bioscience-related inventions.


Intelligent Buildings (IB) have become increasing popular during the past decade, driven through the need to reduce energy, have more reactive and safer buildings, and increase productivity. IB integrate many systems that were in the past isolated from each other, including fire and life safety, HVAC, lighting, security, etc. Facilities contain commercial-in-confidence material and other valued assets; however, IB are integrated through open and common data communication protocols and hardware, leaving facilities exposed to external and internal threats. The study presents an investigation into IB, based on a defeat evaluation methdology. IB vulnerabilities considered two areas, namely physical and software vulnerabilties. Physical hardware vulnerabilities included physical access to the automation devices or workstations, communication networks, wiretapping, remote connectivity, foreign devices and local field programming. Software vulnerabilities included common connectivity protocols, restricted encryption and limited security considerations. These vulnerabilities could result in such attacks as denial of service, covert facilty entry or espionage. IB risks are contextual, aligned with the facility's threat exposure; nevertheless, there are generic mitigation strategies that can be taken to protect IB systems. Protection includes situational threat driven security risk management, understanding system criticalities, integration of departments, a degree of network isolation and greater awareness.


In the title compound, C18H19BrN2O4, the chromene unit is not quite planar (r.m.s. deviation = 0.199 Å), with the methyl C atoms lying 0.027 (4) and 1.929 (4) Å from the mean plane of the chromene unit. The six-membered carbocyclic ring of the chromene moiety adopts an envelope conformation, with the dimethyl-substituted C atom as the flap. The methylamine and nitro groups are slightly twisted from the chromene moiety, with C—N—C—O and O—N—C—C torsion angles of 2.7 (4) and −0.4 (4)°, respectively. The dihedral angle between the mean plane of the chromene unit and the benzene ring is 85.61 (13)°. An intramolecular N—H⋯O hydrogen bond generates an S(6) ring motif, which stabilizes the molecular conformation. In the crystal, molecules are linked via N—H⋯O hydrogen bonds, forming hexagonal rings lying parallel to the ab plane. A region of disordered electron density, most probably disordered ethanol solvent molecules, occupying voids of ca 432 Å3 for an electron count of 158, was treated using the SQUEEZE routine in PLATON [Spek (2009 ▶). Acta Cryst. D65, 148–155]. Their formula mass and unit-cell characteristics were not taken into account during refinement.


Students have difficulty in understanding Econometrics. Based on existing problems, needed a learning materials in the form of Worksheets based on Practice which is capable of supporting courses of Econometrics as well as being able to cultivate self-reliance in students. The purpose of this study is to describe (1) development of student activity sheets on teaching Econometrics, (2) the feasibility of the development of student activity sheets based on teaching Econometrics, (3) student learning outcomes after using Student worksheets based on practical Econometrics, and (4) the response of the students of Student-based teaching worksheets Econometrics. This research uses a type of research development by using 4 d approach (Four-D models). The products of this activity are embodied in materials in the form of worksheets students practical work-based, where in each of the basic skills that exist within the courses of Econometrics will be served content material, Practical tutorial with the help data processing software, as well as Practical case studies. Based on the review and validation of content and media expert expert each obtained a score of 31% and 35% with the criteria. Thus the student activity sheet-based practical feasibility in the process of teaching and learning activities.


Using water vapor data from HALOE and SAGE II, an anti-correlation between planetary wave driving (here expressed by the mid-latitude eddy heat flux at 50 hPa added from both hemispheres) and tropical lower stratospheric (TLS) water vapor has been obtained. This appears to be a manifestation of the inter-annual variability of the Brewer-Dobson (BD) circulation strength (the driving of which is generally measured in terms of the mid-latitude eddy heat flux), and hence amount of water vapor entering the stratosphere. Some years such as 1991 and 1997 show, however, a clear departure from the anti-correlation which suggests that the water vapor changes in TLS can not be attributed solely to changes in extratropical planetary wave activity (and its effect on the BD circulation). After 2000 a sudden decrease in lower stratospheric water vapor has been reported in earlier studies based upon satellite data from HALOE, SAGE II and POAM III indicating that the lower stratosphere has become drier since then. This is consistent with a sudden rise in the combined mid-latitude eddy heat flux with nearly equal contribution from both hemispheres as shown here and with the increase in tropical upwelling and decrease in cold point temperatures found by Randel et al. (2006). The low water vapor and enhanced planetary wave activity (in turn strength of the BD circulation) has persisted until the end of the satellite data records. From a multi-variate regression analysis applied to 27 years of NCEP and HadAT2 (radiosonde) temperatures (up to 2005) with contributions from solar cycle, stratospheric aerosols and QBO removed, the enhancement wave driving after 2000 is estimated to contribute up to 0.7 K cooling to the overall TLS temperature change during the period 2001–2005 when compared to the period 1996–2000. NCEP cold point temperature show an average decrease of nearly 0.4 K from changes in the wave driving, which is consistent with observed mean TLS water vapor changes of about −0.2 ppm after 2000.


Fatigued driving was investigated using a telephone survey followed by small discussion groups using participants recruited from among survey participants based on their responses to fatigue-related items. The surveys and discussion groups were conducted in suburban areas of Sydney (in the outer west, the Hills district, and southern suburbs), Tamworth, and Newcastle. The results of both the surveys and the discussion groups suggested that day-to-day activities are an important factor in fatigued driving, and that fatigued drivers in urban areas continue to drive despite their awareness of both their fatigue and its potential consequences. The relevance of the results for countermeasure development are discussed.


The Earth's crust releases or absorbs heat energy in response to changes in the thermal regime. Numerical simulations of basin-scale heat transport which use the sediment–basement interface as a thermal boundary assume that near-surface temperature changes have no effect on basement rocks and vice versa (unbuffered model). We test this assumption by comparing numerical models of transient fluid flow and heat transport in the Arkoma foreland basin with and without thermal buffering by basement rocks. Thermal buffering by basement rocks reduces cooling (by fresh water recharge) of deep basin sediments near the fold–thrust belt and reduces warming (by upward fluid discharge) of basin margin sediments. The unbuffered model predicts a temporary warming of basin margin sediments which is largely an artefact of the model thermal boundary conditions. In all cases, the buffered model produces no significant thermal transient. Exaggerated temperature predictions also can occur in numerical simulations of uplift and erosion or heat refraction.


Automatically detecting online misinformation at scale is a challenging and interdisciplinary problem. Deciding what is to be considered truthful information is sometimes controversial and also difficult for educated experts. As the scale of the problem increases, human-in-the-loop approaches to truthfulness that combine both the scalability of machine learning (ML) and the accuracy of human contributions have been considered. In this work, we look at the potential to automatically combine machine-based systems with human-based systems. The former exploit superviseds ML approaches; the latter involve either crowd workers (i.e., human non-experts) or human experts. Since both ML and crowdsourcing approaches can produce a score indicating the level of confidence on their truthfulness judgments (either algorithmic or self-reported, respectively), we address the question of whether it is feasible to make use of such confidence scores to effectively and efficiently combine three approaches: (i) machine-based methods, (ii) crowd workers, and (iii) human experts. The three approaches differ significantly, as they range from available, cheap, fast, scalable, but less accurate to scarce, expensive, slow, not scalable, but highly accurate.


In future 5G systems, the millimeter wave (mmWave) band will be used to support a large capacity for current mobile broadband. Therefore, the radio access technology (RAT) should be made available for 5G devices to help in distinct situations, for example device-to-device communications (D2D) and multi-hops. This paper presents ultra-wideband channel measurements for millimeter wave bands at 19, 28, and 38 GHz. We used an ultra-wideband channel sounder (1 GHz bandwidth) in an indoor to outdoor (I2O) environment for non-line-of-sight (NLOS) scenarios. In an NLOS environment, there is no direct path (line of sight), and all of the contributed paths are received from different physical objects by refection propagation phenomena. Hence, in this work, a directional horn antenna (high gain) was used at the transmitter, while an omnidirectional antenna was used at the receiver to collect the radio signals from all directions. The path loss and temporal dispersion were examined based on the acquired measurement data—the 5G propagation characteristics. Two different path loss models were used, namely close-in (CI) free space reference distance and alpha-beta-gamma (ABG) models. The time dispersion parameters were provided based on a mean excess delay, a root mean square (RMS) delay spread, and a maximum excess delay. The path loss exponent for this NLOS specific environment was found to be low for all of the proposed frequencies, and the RMS delay spread values were less than 30 ns for all of the measured frequencies, and the average RMS delay spread values were 19.2, 19.3, and 20.3 ns for 19, 28, and 38 GHz frequencies, respectively. Moreover, the mean excess delay values were found also at 26.1, 25.8, and 27.3 ns for 19, 28, and 38 GHz frequencies, respectively. The propagation signal through the NLOS channel at 19, 28, and 38 GHz was strong with a low delay; it is concluded that these bands are reliable for 5G systems in short-range applications.


Compression of dynamic 3D geometry obtained from depth sensors is challenging, because noise and temporal inconsistency inherent in acquisition of depth data means there is no one-to-one correspondence between sets of 3D points in consecutive time instants. In this paper, instead of coding 3D points (or meshes) directly, we propose to represent an object's 3D geometry as a collection of tile images. Specifically, we first place a set of image tiles around an object. Then, we project the object's 3D geometry onto the tiles that are interpreted as 2D depth images, which we subsequently encode using a modified multiview image codec tuned for piecewise smooth signals. The crux of the tile image framework is the "optimal" placement of image tiles - one that yields the best tradeoff in rate and distortion. We show that if only planar and cylindrical tiles are considered, then the optimal placement problem for K tiles can be mapped to a tractable piece-wise linear approximation problem. We propose an efficient dynamic programming algorithm to find an optimal solution to the piecewise linear approximation problem. Experimental results show that optimal tiling outperforms naïve tiling by up to 35% in rate reduction, and graph transform can further exploit the smoothness of the tile images for coding gain.


We initiated an earthquake reporting project in 2016 to collect field observations of ground damages caused by large earthquakes from trained volunteers and interested citizens. After a potentially damaging earthquake occurs in the Taiwan area, our system, the Taiwan Scientific Earthquake Reporting System (TSER), would send a notice to the participants, who are encouraged to visit the epicentral area to survey and describe as in detail as possible the variations of the ground damages using a Usahidi-based mapping platform. They may also upload relevant images in the field when the condition permitted (i.e., good mobile signal). This collective information will be shared with the public after a quick check by the on-duty scientists. Statistically in Taiwan, damaging inland earthquakes, e.g., magnitude greater than 6, occurred every 2-3 years. During the intermittent time, the platform serves to share educational materials such as pictures of geological structures and landscapes, which are beneficial to many of the volunteers, who are high school science teachers. This experimental, science-oriented crowdsourcing system was first tested during the February 6, 2018 Mw 6.4 offshore Hualien, Taiwan earthquake. We received 19 field reports in the first 3 days after the earthquake. Most of these reports provide surface damage details along the Milun fault, which also ruptured during the 1951 ML 7.1 Longitudinal Valley earthquake sequence. The crowdsourcing approach of TSER has proven to be effective in enhancing public awareness and the potential for scientific advancement in hazard mitigation.


Many physical phenomena and properties of soft matter systems are characterized by an interplay of interactions and processes that span a wide range of length- and time scales. Computer simulation approaches require models, which cover these scales. These are typically multiscale models that combine and link different levels of resolution. In order to reach mesoscopic time- and length scales, necessary to access material properties, coarse-grained models are developed. They are based on microscopic, atomistic descriptions of systems and represent these systems on a coarser, mesoscopic level. While the connection between length scales can be established immediately, the link between the different time scales that takes into account the faster dynamics of the coarser system cannot be obtained directly. In this perspective paper we discuss methods that link the time scales in structure based multiscale models. Concepts which try to rigorously map dynamics of related models are limited to simple model systems, while the challenge in soft matter systems is the multitude of fluctuating energy barriers of comparable height. More pragmatic methods to match time scales are applied successfully to quantitatively understand and predict dynamics of one-component soft matter systems. However, there are still open questions. We point out that the link between the dynamics on different resolution levels can be affected by slight changes of the system, as for different tacticities. Furthermore, in two-component systems the dynamics of the host polymer and of additives are accelerated very differently.


William Vickrey (1961) proposed an auction mechanism in which bidders submit sealed bids, and the highest bidder wins the good in return for payment of the secondhighest bid amount. For decades, economists have credited Vickrey with inventing this auction format, and have believed that the Vickrey auction is rarely used in practice. This paper presents evidence that Vickrey auctions have long been the predominant auction format for mail sales of collectible postage stamps. Stamp auctioneers developed this auction format on their own, as early as 1893, even before Vickrey was born.


Bio-manufacturing of nano-scale palladium was achieved using bacterial cells. Highly active Pd-catalyst (Bio-Pd) produced by an E. coli mutant gave power output in a fuel cell. Up to ~115% of the maximum power generation was achieved by electrodes of Bio-Pd catalysts from Escherichia coli, compared to that from a commercial-Pd electrode (~0.099 W). A bio-precious-metals (Bio-PM) catalyst made directly from an industrial reprocessing solution by the E. coli was also made into fuel cell electrodes and ~0.06W of maximum power generation was observed.


A representation for structured activities is developed that allows a robot to probabilistically infer which task actions a human is currently performing and to predict which future actions will be executed and when they will occur. The goal is to enable a robot to anticipate collaborative actions in the presence of uncertain sensing and task ambiguity. The system can represent multi-path tasks where the task variations may contain partially ordered actions or even optional actions that may be skipped altogether. The task is represented by an AND-OR tree structure from which a probabilistic graphical model is constructed. Inference methods for that model are derived that support a planning and execution system for the robot which attempts to minimize a cost function based upon expected human idle time. We demonstrate the theory in both simulation and actual human-robot performance of a two-way-branch assembly task. In particular we show that the inference model can robustly anticipate the actions of the human even in the presence of unreliable or noisy detections because of its integration of all its sensing information along with knowledge of task structure.


STUDY QUESTION
Do the ultrasonographic criteria for polycystic ovaries supported by the 2003 Rotterdam consensus adequately discriminate between the normal and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) condition in light of recent advancements in imaging technology and reliable methods for estimating follicle populations in PCOS?

STUDY ANSWER
Using newer ultrasound technology and a reliable grid system approach to count follicles, we concluded that a substantially higher threshold of follicle counts throughout the entire ovary (FNPO)-26 versus 12 follicles-is required to distinguish among women with PCOS and healthy women from the general population.

WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY
The Rotterdam consensus defined the polycystic ovary as having 12 or more follicles, measuring between 2 and 9 mm (FNPO), and/or an ovarian volume (OV) >10 cm(3). Since their initial proposal in 2003, a heightened prevalence of polycystic ovaries has been described in healthy women with regular menstrual cycles, which has questioned the accuracy of these criteria and marginalized the specificity of polycystic ovaries as a diagnostic criterion for PCOS.

STUDY DESIGN, SIZE, DURATION
A diagnostic test study was performed using cross-sectional data, collected from 2006 to 2011, from 168 women prospectively evaluated by transvaginal ultrasonography. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analyses were performed to determine the appropriate diagnostic thresholds for: (i) FNPO, (ii) follicle counts in a single cross section (FNPS) and (iii) OV. The levels of intra- and inter-observer reliability when five observers used the proposed criteria on 100 ultrasound cases were also determined.

PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS, SETTING, METHODS
Ninety-eight women diagnosed with PCOS by the National Institutes of Health criteria as having both oligo-amenorrhea and hyperandrogenism and 70 healthy female volunteers recruited from the general population. Participants were evaluated by transvaginal ultrasonography at the Royal University Hospital within the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, University of Saskatchewan (Saskatoon, SK, Canada) and in the Division of Nutritional Sciences' Human Metabolic Research Unit, Cornell University (Ithaca, NY, USA).

MAIN RESULTS
Diagnostic potential for PCOS was highest for FNPO (0.969), followed by FNPS (0.880) and OV (0.873) as judged by the area under the ROC curve. An FNPO threshold of 26 follicles had the best compromise between sensitivity (85%) and specificity (94%) when discriminating between controls and PCOS. Similarly, an FNPS threshold of nine follicles had a 69% sensitivity and 90% specificity, and an OV of 10 cm(3) had a 81% sensitivity and 84% specificity. Levels of intra-observer reliability were 0.81, 0.80 and 0.86 when assessing FNPO, FNPS and OV, respectively. Inter-observer reliability was 0.71, 0.72 and 0.82, respectively.

LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTION
Thresholds proposed by this study should be limited to use in women aged between 18 and 35 years.

WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS
Polycystic ovarian morphology has excellent diagnostic potential for detecting PCOS. FNPO have better diagnostic potential and yield greater diagnostic confidence compared with assessments of FNPS or OV. Whenever possible, images throughout the entire ovary should be collected for the ultrasonographic evaluation of PCOS.

STUDY FUNDING AND COMPETING INTEREST
This study was funded by Cornell University and fellowship awards from the Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation and Canadian Institutes of Health Research. The authors have no conflict of interests to disclose.


Abstract This project involved schools and teachers in England and China. It was designed to explore the ways in which teachers in two very different cultural settings took on ideas and strategies focused on the fostering of creative and critical thinking in their pupils. The authors were particularly interested to explore the extent to which challenges to teachers' thinking and learning resulted in professional dilemmas. It was hypothesised that where wide discrepancies exist between pre-existing teacher beliefs, and externally provided ideas and solutions to classroom practice, the articulation of dilemmas, which teachers face may help teachers to bridge these discrepancies. This empirical study was designed to explore the ways in which teachers dealt with such dilemmas, either confrontationally or incrementally. Similarities and differences across cultures were noted. The teachers' beliefs did not seem to change greatly across the project period. However, their practice did; the constructivist pedagogy of the thinking strategies intervention was seen to influence the didactic teaching in China toward a more dialogical method by teachers. Teachers in both settings increased in their detail and precision in the planning of teaching episodes, although the English teachers employed greater diversity in the sequencing and techniques used in the thinking lessons compared to the teachers in China


The growing popularity of mobile search and the advancement in voice recognition technologies have opened the door for web search users to speak their queries, rather than type them. While this kind of voice search is still in its infancy, it is gradually becoming more widespread. In this paper, we examine the logs of a commercial search engine's mobile interface, and compare the spoken queries to the typed-in queries. We place special emphasis on the semantic and syntactic characteristics of the two types of queries. %Our analysis suggests that voice queries focus more on audio-visual content and question answering, and less on social networking and adult domains. We also conduct an empirical evaluation showing that the language of voice queries is closer to natural language than typed queries. Our analysis reveals further differences between voice and text search, which have implications for the design of future voice-enabled search tools.


Information on the dispersal ability of flightless insect species associated with woodlands is severely lacking. Therefore, a study was conducted examining the dispersal ability of wood cricket (Nemobius sylvestris) juveniles (nymphs) and adults in a wooded landscape on the Isle of Wight, UK, to further our understanding of the ecology and management of this and other flightless insects. A series of experiments were conducted where nymphs and adults were released and observed at a range of spatial-temporal scales within different habitat environments. The results of this investigation indicated no difference in the dispersal ability of wood cricket nymphs and adults. However, adult females moved less than adult males. Adult males were found to spread twice as fast as females, and males were found capable of traversing up to 55 m away from woodland habitat through semi-natural and grazed grassland. Additionally, rates of population spread of both wood cricket nymphs and adults (males and females) were found to be accurately described by the inverse-power function, predicting only few individuals dispersing over time. Together this indicates that overall colonization success and rate of population spread, being female dependent, is likely to be low for this species. Wood crickets were found to live in and able to move along mature woodland edges directly bordering agricultural land. This indicates that conservation initiatives focusing on creating woodland corridors and developing woodland habitat networks have the potential to facilitate the spread and population viability of wood crickets, if the woodland edges are given enough time to develop. However, long-term monitoring is needed to evaluate the overall effectiveness of such approaches.


This essay revisits the controversy between Louis Althusser's Marxist structuralism and Edward P. Thompson's Marxist humanism. It draws conclusions from this controversy for the foundations of the Marxist theory of communication. The controversy's key disagreements concern the questions of how the economic and the non-economic (the base/superstructure problem), as well as structures and agency are related. Whereas Althusser focuses on articulation and over-determination, Thompson stresses the role of experience in society in general, and class societies in particular. This essay reflects on how both these approaches relate to the role of communication in society and capitalism. Communication is a process in which humans produce and reproduce social relations in manners that mediate not just understanding the world and other humans, but also the dialectic of structure and agency and the dialectic of society's realms. For a Marxist theory of society, also the forgotten meaning of communication as commoning is of crucial importance.


Peter Martyr Vermigli played a key role in developing and formulating the Reformational version of the political covenant for legitimating the political order. Three important perspectives shaped Vermigli's covenantal views: first, St. John Chrysostom's idea of political office; second, Luther's work on the divine origin of magisterial government and third, Heinrich Bullinger's commentaries on the Biblical covenant. These perspectives were integrated by Vermigli into an influential paradigm of covenantal politics. The impact of the ideas emanating from Vermigli's theologico-political federalism was not limited to the 16th-century Reformation, but also exerted considerable influence on the development of political contractarianism in 17th - and 18th-century liberalism. In this contribution the emphasis is on Chrysostom's and Luther's contributions to Vermigli's political theology.


UNLABELLED
Glass ionomer cement with addition of chlorhexidine used as a varnish on tooth surfaces has been shown to reduce the number of interproximal mutans streptococci (ms). The effect of a single application of such a varnish containing 2.5% chlorhexidine on occlusal caries development of the first permanent molars on 6-year-old children in a high caries incidence area was investigated. The children were examined according to WHO criteria and 262 children with 2 caries free contra-lateral molars were selected for treatment. Salivary ms samples were collected using the Strip-mutans (SM) method. After brushing the occlusal surfaces with a toothbrush and pumice in water slurry, rinsing and drying with a cotton roll, glass ionomer cement containing chlorhexidine (GI-CHX) and glass ionomer (GI) were applied randomly with a micro brush and the varnish was covered with occlusal wax. At baseline, the mean defs was 18.18 and DMFS was 0.25 and after one year 18.24 and 0.83 respectively. The salivary ms scores were high or very high (SM 2 and 3) in 85.6% at baseline. At the one-year follow up, the GI-CHX and GI materials could not be detected in the fissures. Also, a large number of fissure sealants had been placed in the molars outside the study protocol; thus 4% of the GI-CHX and GI, and 70% of the untreated were sealed at year one. Overall, there was no significant difference between the caries-reducing effect of GI-CHX and GI, but a trend towards a higher effect was seen for GI-CHX. Excluding the sealed molars the reduction was 74% in the GI-CHX-group, and 71% in the GI-group.

CONCLUSION
Addition of 2.5% chlorhexidine to glass ionomer did not seem to increase the caries-reducing effect of the varnish in this high caries incidence population.


There is in our social milieu marked resistence to accept any class of disability weather physical, sensorial or intelectual. Persons afflicted by disabilities are considered nonentities, useless or invalid persons. In such a way disability becomes synonymous with weakness, lack of security and total helplessness and a sense of pity develops towards ourselves and other afflicted people. In this article my purpose is to demostrate that disability is a personal election and that as disabled and handicapped people we have the capacity to teach persons in the same conditions, and to the whole world, that we are superior to our external appearance since we are ordinary human beings, despite of our difference. "Normal" or "complete" persons can as well suffer unfulfillment, dissatisfaction or functional differences leading to various emotional and spiritual difficulties to relate with other people. In my personal case disability has opened me to a different world that has been an element of personal and spiritual transformation. Key words: Deficiency, disability, decision.


Spinocerebellar ataxias (SCAs) are a heterogeneous group of dominantly inherited neurodegenerative disorders affecting the cerebellum and its associated pathways. There are no available symptomatic or disease-modifying therapies available for any of the over 30 known causes of SCA. In order to develop precise treatments for SCAs, two strategies can be employed: (I) the use of gene-targeting strategies to silence disease-causing mutant protein expression; and (II) the identification and targeting of convergent mechanisms of disease across SCAs as a basis for treatment. Gene targeting strategies include RNA interference and antisense oligonucleotides designed to silence mutant genes in order to prevent mutant protein expression. These therapies can be precise, but delivery is difficult and many disease-causing mutations remain unknown. Emerging evidence suggests that several common disease mechanisms may exist across SCAs. Disrupted protein homeostasis, RNA toxicity, abnormal synaptic signaling, altered intracellular calcium handling, and altered Purkinje neuron membrane excitability are all disease mechanisms which are seen in multiple etiologies of SCA and could potentially be targeted for treatment. Clinical trials with drugs such as riluzole, a potassium channel activator, show promise for multiple SCAs and suggest that convergent disease mechanisms do exist and can be targeted. Precise treatment of SCAs may be best achieved through pharmacologic agents targeting specific disrupted pathways.


Surface wave tomography of the western United States reveals the presence of an unusually slow shear wave velocity anomaly beneath a region in the Basin and Range Province, sometimes termed the amagmatic zone, which is renowned for its lack of volcanic activity. We present a model of the three-dimensional shear wave velocity structure beneath the southwestern United States constructed from the inversion of fundamental mode Rayleigh wave dispersion. The abundance of data from the deployment of the USArray (a component of the EarthScope project) provides unprecedented resolution. There is an excellent correlation between the location of slow shear wave velocity anomalies and recent (younger than 1 Ma) volcanism. This correlation and the unusually low values of absolute shear velocity beneath the magmatic gap lead us to conclude that there is melt present beneath this region. Previous studies have proposed that the preservation of cold continental lithosphere beneath the magmatic gap accounted for the lack of volcanism; however, this hypothesis is inconsistent with anomalously slow shear wave velocities in the 50–100 km depth range. Perhaps the prevalence of low-angle normal faulting in this region has made it difficult for the melt to escape the mantle. Beneath an immediately adjacent region, the southwestern Nevada volcanic field, where volcanism was abundant 10–15 m.y. ago but has since waned, significantly higher shear velocities suggest that the melt has been extracted from the mantle.


The process of prey capture by inertial suction was studied in three species of sunfishes ( Lepomis auritus, L. macrochirus , and L. gibbosus ) by the simultaneous recording of buccal and opercular cavity pressures in order to test current hydrodynamic models of feeding in fishes. Synchronous high-speed films permitted the correlation of kinematic patterns of jaw bone movement with specific pressure waveforms. Opercular cavity pressures averaged onefifth buccal pressures and pressure magnitude was correlated with prey type. Peak buccal and opercular pressures were −650 cm H 2 O and −150 cm H 2 O respectively; peak rate of pressure change was −100 cm H 2 O/ms. Buccal pressure magnitude varied inversely with degree of predator satiation. Opercular pressure waveforms have an initial positive phase followed by a prolonged negative phase and then a final positive phase. The initial positive pressure may be absent during slow strikes at worms. Buccal pressure waveforms show considerable variability. The modal waveform consists of a sharp negative pressure pulse followed by a positive phase and finally by another pressure reduction. Delayed opercular abduction relative to mouth cavity compression correlates with the presence of a positive buccal phase. The second buccal negative pressure is the result of rapid mouth closing causing a pressure reduction (water hammer effect) as water flow continues posteriorly. These data indicate that (1) the buccal and opercular cavities are functionally separated by a gill curtain of high resistance, (2) that inertial effects of water are important in the description of the suction feeding process, (3) that a reverse flow of water (opercular to buccal cavity) may occur during the early phase of mouth opening prior to establishment of a buccal to opercular flow regime, and (4) current models of respiratory pressure and flow pattern cannot be applied to feeding. Current hydrodynamic models of suction feeding in fishes are re-evaluated in the light of this analysis.


12C ion therapy has had growing interest in recent years for its excellent dose conformity. However at therapeutic energies, which can be as high as 400 MeV/u, carbon ions produce secondary fragments. For an incident 400 MeV/u 12C ion beam, ~70% of the beam will undergo fragmentation before the Bragg Peak. The dosimetric and radiobiological impact of these fragments must be accurately characterised, as it can result in increasing the risk of secondary cancer for the patient as well as altering the relative biological effectiveness. This work investigates the accuracy of three different nuclear fragmentation models available in the Monte Carlo Toolkit Geant4, the Binary Intranuclear Cascade (BIC), the Quantum Molecular Dynamics (QMD) and the Liege Intranuclear Cascade (INCL++). The models were benchmarked against experimental data for a pristine 400 MeV/u 12C beam incident upon a water phantom, including fragment yield, angular and energy distribution. For fragment yields the three alternative models agreed between ~5 and ~35% with experimental measurements, the QMD using the "Frag" option gave the best agreement for lighter fragments but had reduced agreement for larger fragments. For angular distributions INCL++ was seen to provide the best agreement among the models for all elements with the exception of Hydrogen, while BIC and QMD was seen to produce broader distributions compared to experiment. BIC and QMD performed similar to one another for kinetic energy distributions while INCL++ suffered from producing lower energy distributions compared to the other models and experiment. Disciplines Engineering | Science and Technology Studies Publication Details Bolst, D., Cirrone, G. A. P., Cuttone, G., Folger, G., Incerti, S., Ivanchenko, V., Koi, T., Mancusi, D., Pandola, L., Romano, F., Rosenfeld, A. B. & Guatelli, S. (2017). Validation of Geant4 fragmentation for Heavy Ion Therapy. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors, and Associated Equipment, 869 68-75. Authors David Bolst, Giuseppe A. Cirrone, Giacomo Cuttone, Gunter Folger, Sebastien Incerti, Vladimir N. Ivanchenko, Tatsumi Koi, Davide Mancusi, Luciano Pandola, Francesco Romano, Anatoly B. Rosenfeld, and Susanna Guatelli This journal article is available at Research Online: http://ro.uow.edu.au/eispapers1/635 Validation of Geant4 Fragmentation for Heavy Ion 1


High school religious education lessons were not effectively capturing students' attention or enhancing their understanding of basic faith concepts. From September 2013 to April 2014, scientific practices were integrated into newly designed ninth grade religious education lessons, using inquiry-based learning strategies and fundamental Catholic teachings. Classroom environment and Catholic resources were overhauled to provide students with Catholic Study Bibles, YouCats, YouCat Study Guides, YouCat Prayer books, Scripture reference sheets, Samsung tablets, and a lab-like setting, with elevated tables, stools, journals, and mini-whiteboards. Over the course of 20 lessons, scientific practices, including: asking questions and defining problems, developing and using models, planning and carrying out investigations, analyzing and interpreting data, using mathematics and simulation thinking, constructing explanations, engaging in argument from evidence, and obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information, were implemented with innovative demonstrations, case studies, peer-to-peer service projects, and mock court sessions to improve students' faith knowledge and engagement. With meaningful and relevant topics, mini-lectures with PowerPoint, Prezis, and video accompanied practices in lessons. Incorporating scientific practices proved to be an effective way for students to learn and personally engage in the Catholic faith. The Religious Education & Scientific Practices Questionnaire indicated that 92% of ninth grade students believed that scientific practices had a positive impact on their faith learning (N=12). One student reported, "This year I have learned more than I ever had in religion." Another student said scientific practices "made class more interesting than in other years." Ninety-two percent of surveyed students reported that using scientific practices in religious education lessons improved faith knowledge and 75% stated that scientific practices are an effective way of improving faith knowledge. Before scientific practices, 0% of students felt knowledgeable about their faith. After scientific practices, 75% of students surveyed strongly agreed that they felt knowledgeable about their faith. Data further revealed heightened engagement in students' religious education experience. Before practices, 17% of respondents strongly agreed that religious education classes were interesting and engaging. After practices, 75% strongly agreed that lessons were more engaging. One student reported, "It made the classes more interesting. I didn't know what was going to happen next."


Don't shoot the ambulance! Humanitarians are neither enemies to be killed, nor merchandise to be sold. And yet, the recent attack against the house of United Nations' staff in Kabul shows that aid workers in general, and the UN in particular, are clearly considered to be parties to the conflict. In Somalia, the war between the transition government and opposition groups has resulted in a huge increase in the price of militias. Those who do not have access to the spoils of piratry are looking for other sources of revenue. As a result, the hostage industry has made venturing into the field extremely dangerous. In Darfur, hostage taking is no doubt carried out more for political ends than for financial gain, and the recent events in Chad and CAR have not yet been analysed in sufficient detail. Different approaches exist to these situations. The bunker approach, with armed escorts, should be the last resort. Strategies are being developed to improve acceptance of humanitarians by local people and parties to conflicts or to limit the attention that the aid sector attracts. In certain contexts, it is now quite common for humanitarians to use a "remote control" approach. Unfortunately, violence continues to be aimed at those who have chosen to bring assistance and protection to people in distress. It has become increasingly extreme and remains utterly unacceptable. Certain victims come out at the other end broken by the experience, others come out in body bags. We have friends among the victims and our thoughts are with them, their families and their colleaguesWWe are left full of anger, because it is a combination of political mistakes, ideological folly and a predatory strategy which has cut access to people in distress, and this access is central to the work we do. François Grunewald Editorial Humanitarian Aid on the move


Numerous snake species worldwide are threatened due to human activity. Therefore, ecological information pertaining to snake assemblages needs to be periodically updated to document potential changes in species composition that can be used to develop effective conservation strategies. Here, we present recent data on the status of, and threats to, snake species in Chitwan National Park in Nepal and its surroundings including adjacent areas of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh States of India. We identified 32 species from a total of 448 vouchered specimens. We document the first country record for  Boiga siamensis  in Sauraha, Chitwan. We provide the fifth distribution report, with voucher specimens and habitat information, for  Daboia russelii  in Nepal. We also report the first known record of  Lycodon striatus  in the central and western lowlands of Nepal. We document intentional killing of snakes, which may contribute to local population declines and even local extirpation of some species. We recommend periodic snake surveys in the future to better understand snake populations in this area and to provide data that can be used to develop and refine effective conservation strategies. Keywords. Chitwan National Park, conservation, herpetofauna, snake


Nuclear factor interleukin-3 (Nfil3; also known as E4-binding protein 4) is a basic region leucine zipper transcription factor that has antiapoptotic activity in vitro under conditions of growth factor withdrawal. To study the role of Nfil3 in vivo, we generated gene-targeted Nfil3-deficient (Nfil3−/−) mice. Nfil3−/− mice were born at normal Mendelian frequency and were grossly normal and fertile. Although numbers of T cells, B cells, and natural killer (NK) T cells were normal in Nfil3−/− mice, a specific disruption in NK cell development resulted in severely reduced numbers of mature NK cells in the periphery. This defect was NK cell intrinsic in nature, leading to a failure to reject MHC class I–deficient cells in vivo and reductions in both interferon γ production and cytolytic activity in vitro. Our results confirm the specific and essential requirement of Nfil3 for the development of cells of the NK lineage.


We characterize a family of regularized loss minimization problems that satisfy three properties: scaled uniform convergence, super-norm regularization, and norm-loss monotonicity. We show several theoretical guarantees within this framework, including loss consistency, norm consistency, sparsistency (i.e. support recovery) as well as sign consistency. A number of regularization problems can be shown to fall within our framework and we provide several examples. Our results can be seen as a concise summary of existing guarantees but we also extend them to new settings. Our formulation enables us to assume very little about the hypothesis class, data distribution, the loss, or the regularization. In particular, many of our results do not require a bounded hypothesis class, or identically distributed samples. Similarly, we do not assume boundedness, convexity or smoothness of the loss nor the regularizer. We only assume approximate optimality of the empirical minimizer. In terms of recovery, in contrast to existing results, our sparsistency and sign consistency results do not require knowledge of the sub-differential of the objective function.


We show here that through an adaptive deformation of digital holograms it is possible to manage the depth of focus in 3D imaging reconstruction. Deformation is applied to the original hologram with the aim to put simultaneously in focus, and in one reconstructed image plane, different objects lying at different distances from the hologram plane (i.e., CCD sensor). In the same way, by adapting the deformation it is possible to extend the depth of field having a tilted object entirely in focus. We demonstrate the method in both lensless as well as in microscope configuration.


A major problem in traditional cell culture methods, such as Petri dishes and culture flasks, is the very simplified artificial environment around the cells. Traditional cell culture methods lack features of the native cell niche, such as gradients and cell organization. This lack probably explains why pharmaceutics against the neurodegenerative Alzheimer's disease successfully stop the propagation of the disease in the Petri dish, but fail so far in clinical trials. This thesis intends to improve cell culture methods for neuroscience research related to neural developmental questions and neurodegenerative diseases. As the cortex is the main part in our brain, related to memory, emotions and perception, this thesis does focus on cell culture tools and protocols for primary cortical neurons. Currently, dissociated neurons are cultured in pure or co-culture of neural and non-neural cells, but structuring elements and controlled gradient formation is missing. The first part of this thesis discusses different studies that implicate environmental components for neural cells in their native neural cell niche. We will establish a generic neural cell niche, which consists of different neural and non-neural cells, a structured 3D environment, molecular gradients and oriented neurite networks, in a nutshell. Additionally, a simplified model of the generic neural cell niche is introduced that is implemented in a microfluidic base cell culture tool. This novel artificial neural cell niche will provide cell layer structure in 3D and local control of molecular gradients at the microscale. We will use microfluidic technology to integrate missing features in cell culture techniques for primary cortical neurons. The microfluidic device will consist of three parts: (1) a main cell culture channel that is used to organize neural cells in 3D hydrogel layers, side-by-side; (2) parallel perfusion channels to mimic nutrient supply and to control stable gradient formation, (3) interconnecting microchannels, called junction channels, that separate perfusion driven molecular transport from diffusive molecular transport. The perfusion channels are connected to device-incorporated reservoirs that allow maintenance of stable molecular gradients based on perfusion and diffusion without the use of peristaltic or syringe pumps. By injecting cortical neurons entrapped in an agarose-alginate solution in the microfluidic device, we generated 3D micropatterned neural cell layers with stable gradients perpendicular to the layer orientation. We demonstrated neurite outgrowth behavior until three weeks in culture. The application of different cell organization patterns revealed an influence of the pattern on the cell culture response. Using neurotrophic gradients of nerve growth factor (NGF) and nutrient supplements (B27), we showed that neurite guidance and synapse formation followed synergistic NGF/B27 gradients. We found that the gradient induced effects are very sensitive to changes in the environmental structure, such as the cell layer organization. Using a gradient of a phosphatase inhibitor, okadaic acid, we generated locally diseased states of the protein Tau in both 2D and 3D micropatterned neural cell cultures. The diseased form of Tau, hyper-phosphorylated Tau, is a major hallmark of Alzheimer's disease. For the first time, local formation of hyper-phosphorylated Tau was demonstrated to affect a defined cell population in a compartmentalized 2D or 3D neural cell culture. Our results revealed that the propagation mechanism of this Alzheimer's diseased lesion is determined through the formation of the 2D or 3D environment. We think that this new neural cell culture tool has the potential to answer biological questions related to environmental and structural parameters involved in the formation of the cerebral cortex and in the propagation of neurodegenerative diseases. Future studies in modern neuroscience research can now better investigate the effect of gradient parameters such as the slope, average concentration or gradient profile on cell culture and disease propagation in a controlled manner. Furthermore, the influence of cell patterns in 2D and 3D is addressed with the ability to modify cell position, density and type at the microscale. The local formation of neurodegenerative disease lesions in a micropatterned neural cell culture is generic, which makes the integration of other neurodegenerative disease models, such as Parkinson's disease, Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or Huntington's disease, possible.


In this paper, we propose a new clustering model for speaker diarization. A major problem with using greedy agglomerative hierarchical clustering for speaker diariza-tion is that they do not guarantee an optimal solution. We propose a new clustering model, by redefining clustering as a problem of Integer Linear Programming (ILP). Thus an ILP solver can be used which searches the solution of speaker clustering over the whole problem. The experiments were conducted on the corpus of French broadcast news ESTER-2. With this new clustering, the DER decreases by 2.43 points.


A 200 bp sequence including a stretch of 54 base pairs of alternating guanosine and adenosine nucleotide residues [(dG-dA)27.(dT-dC)27] was cloned in the simian virus 40 (SV40) genome between the KpnI and HpaII sites. This sequence was discovered earlier as part of a region limiting the amplification of sequences adjacent to an integrated polyoma virus in a transformed rat cell line. The newly constructed DNA was transfected into African Green monkey kidney CV1 cells and the variant virus was isolated by plaque-purification. The insertion was stably maintained and the variant virus grew more slowly than the wild type, had lower titers and gave smaller plaques. In mixed infection experiments, the variant was found to be stable, though the wild type replicated more rapidly. Pulse labeling experiments indicated that the unusual inserted sequence acts as a pause site for fork progression during DNA replication, as evidenced by the rate of incorporation of radioactively labeled nucleotides into various regions of the SV40 genome. Statistical fit of the experimental curves with theoretically generated curves suggested the pause of fork progression to be about one minute.


Land-based reflection data sets always include many types of coherent noise. This article deals specifically with the ubiquitous problem of filtering noise known as ground roll. Ground roll is a particular type of Rayleigh wave and has high amplitude, low frequency, and low velocity. Ground roll is also dispersive and overwhelms the desired reflection signals unless special steps are taken in data acquisition and processing to get rid of it. Because of the dispersive character of this noise, shallow reflections at short offsets and deep reflections at long offsets are masked in the space-time domain and thus their waveforms are distorted. On the other hand, frequencies of ground roll and reflections overlap in the spectral domain (frequency or f-k). Figure 1 illustrates spectra of signal with ground-roll noise (black), signal (green), and ground-roll noise (red). Their frequencies clearly overlap in the low-frequency part of the spectrum.


"The Saints Go Marching": The Church of God in Christ and the Civil Rights Movement in Memphis, Tennessee, 1954-1968 By Jonathan Chism Having assumed black Pentecostals are "otherworldly" or detached from politics and this-worldly concerns, many religious and civil rights scholars have ignored black Holiness-Pentecostals' involvements in the Civil Rights Movement and instead focused on the roles of black Baptists and Methodists. Primarily guided by historical, sociological, theo-ethical, and hermeneutical methods, this dissertation examines Church of God in Christ (COGIC) members' engagements in the Civil Rights Movement in Memphis, Tennessee, 1954-1968. I chose Memphis as the location to examine these assumptions because the most renowned Civil Rights leader, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., delivered his last sermon at Mason Temple Church of God in Christ (COGIC), the headquarters of the largest and oldest black holiness-Pentecostal denomination. The dissertation argues that Memphis COGIC members were not divorced from the Memphis Movement but endeavored to combat racial injustice and inequality through a diversity of means, including through politics, nonviolent direct action, and spiritual quest. I contend that despite being marginalized and treated as outsiders on account of their race and religious faith, prior to the Civil Rights Movement early saints affirmed their identity as United States citizens, valued American democratic ideas of freedom and equality, and endeavored to advance democratic principles through participating in civic life. Additionally, when the Civil Rights Movement came to Memphis in the 1950s, COGIC members joined and worked alongside black church leaders from other denominations and engaged in nearly every aspect of the struggle, including political campaigns, desegregation efforts, and the Sanitation Workers Strike. Furthermore, I argue that Holiness-Pentecostal theology informed the activism of Memphis COGIC Civil Rights activists. Affirming his Holiness-Pentecostal heritage, Bishop J.O. Patterson Sr., a prominent Memphis Civil Rights activist, sought to persuade blacks in general and to remind black Christian activists in particular of the indispensability of spiritual presence and empowerment for social struggle. My research findings provoke scholars of religion to rethink the meaning and implications of otherworldliness. Additionally, this research indicates that there is greater complexity to black churches involvement in the Civil Rights Movement besides the contributions of black Baptists and Methodists.


Background: In populations at a high-risk for gestational diabetes (GDM), the recommendation of screening every pregnant woman with the oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) is very demanding. Aim: To assess the usefulness of the portable, plasma optimized glucometer in simplifying the approach to screening of GDM. Methods: 1,662 pregnant women underwent the one-step 75 g OGTT for routine screening of GDM, as defined by the criteria of the American Diabetes Association. The glucometer was used to measure the initial fasting venous whole blood glucose (FBG) to assess its value as a screening test in predicting the need to proceed with the OGTT. Results: 186 (11.2%) women had GDM. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of the FBG was 0.876 (95% CI 0.847–0.906). A FBG threshold (at an acceptable sensitivity of 85%) independently could 'rule-out' GDM in 1,138 (68.5%) women; i.e. over two-thirds of the women would not need to continue with the cumbersome OGTT. Conclusions: Using the glucometer to initially measure the venous FBG as a screen can help to significantly reduce the number of OGTTs needed for the diagnosis of GDM. This algorithm offers a simple, practical, cost-effective and patient-friendly approach for the screening of GDM.


Prison statistics have shown for a considerable period of time that people from black and minority ethnic groups (BMEs) are over-represented in the prison population (Home Office Statistical Bulletin 21/94). The Prison Service must therefore manage a population in which issues of discrimination against and between prisoners will occur. Although the Prison Service has had a race relations policy for 18 years, until now, there has been no clear evidence of how prisons have implemented these initiatives on the ground to reduce levels of discrimination against prisoners. Over the last 18 years, the Prison Service has revised its race relations policy several times. The latest Prison Service Order on Race Relations was published in 1997, (PSO 2800), the Prison Service Race Relations Group (PSRRG) was established in 1998, and initiatives such as RESPOND and RESPECT have now been implemented (see Clements, 2002 for a summary of recent initiatives). Until now, the main focus has been on the diversity agenda for prison staff, rather than prisoners' experiences (Clements, 2002). However, in 1999, the Prison Service, on the recommendation of PSRRG, commissioned this research to measure to what extent discrimination against BME prisoners could be reduced and to identify the process by which this is best achieved. The results reported here outline the main findings from this pilot action research programme carried out in three prisons in the North West of England between the end of 1999 and mid-2001.


Information on cell size is central to studies of phytoplankton ecology, yet in situ measurements of particle size distribution remain a challenge. The LISST‐100 (Laser In Situ Scattering and Transmissometry; Sequoia Scientific, Inc.) is one of few commercially available instruments that provide autonomous measurements of size distributions of suspended particles in situ. Its capability to size phytoplankton needs to be evaluated, however, for two reasons. First, size is not measured directly; rather, information on size is obtained from near‐forward scattering measurements that are inverted to obtain size distributions. The inversion assumes that particles are homogeneous spheres. Phytoplankton, however, display a wide range of cell shapes and their scattering behavior is likely to be different from that of spheres. Second, the LISST‐100 was originally designed for sediments and its inversion assumes an index of refraction typical of inorganic particles. We compared size and volume concentration distributions obtained by the LISST‐100 to those derived via microscopy for phytoplankton cultures of different cell sizes and shapes. Results demonstrate the success of the LISST‐100 in measuring size and volume concentrations of cells with a cell aspect ratio that is close to 1 and illustrate its limitations when nonspherical cells are present in the sample. Uses of the LISST‐100 in laboratory and field studies are discussed in light of the results from this study.


We analyze modulation instability (MI) in metamaterials with saturable and focusing nonlinearity according to the propagation model, including the self-steepening (SS) parameter and the second-order nonlinear dispersion (SOND). A detailed discussion on the common role of saturable nonlinearity, SS, and SOND terms on the MI is presented. It is found that MI is irrespective of the sign of the SS parameter and dependent on the sign of SOND. Generally, SS and saturable nonlinearity suppress the MI generation, and SOND promotes the MI in the anomalous group-velocity dispersion (GVD) region. Moreover, linear stability analysis predicts that MI may occur in both the abnormal GVD and normal GVD regime, even at the zero-GVD point, which is to say that some interesting MI phenomena appear involving the additional excited SOND term induced by the dispersive magnetic permeability. In particular, the saturable nonlinearity changes the generation condition of MI seriously. Finally, the numerical simulation is performed to confirm the theoretical predictions.


NACTA Journal • March 2016, Vol 60(1) Abstract American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) students can experience a disconnect between their indigenous culture and the Eurocentric focus of U.S. science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) classrooms. As a result, some AI/AN students are less motivated to participate in educational activities that seem irrelevant or detached from their daily existence. An educational methodology utilizing AI/AN culturally-relevant medicinal plant knowledge as a foundation for inquiry-based bioexploratory lectures and laboratory experiments was tested for its potential to promote enhanced engagement in STEM instruction for AI/AN students. Workshop modules were held with 40 AI/AN high school student participants in Alaska and 12 middle and high school Lakota students and ten college Lakota students in North Dakota. The STROBE technique, an observational method previously validated to measure engagement in medical school lectures, was used to determine the level of engagement among students during the lecture, discussion, and laboratory portions of the workshops. From 1718 discrete student observations, students exhibited engagement behavior 1247 times, for an average of 72.5%. College students displayed higher levels of engagement (80.0% average) compared to high school students (70.3%). This research suggests that emphasizing traditional AI/AN culture in a participatory learning environment has the potential to enhance engagement of AI/AN students in STEM disciplines.


Projects are the best means of creating and diffusing innovation in complex and risky environments. However, surveys reveal that the majority do not achieve their goals and waste huge amounts of resources. Notorious examples are the NHS NPfIT project which has massively overspent its initial budget by £10 billion in addition to lagging behind completion by several years, and many multibillion EU funded projects involving innovations that were abandoned after the pilots. Research from academics and practitioners in the past two decades suggests that this failure is the result of using conventional project management methods, which fail to capture the serendipitous, evolutionary and experimental nature of the activities in innovation projects. Therefore the question remains as to the best method to manage projects that involve high levels of change. The results of my previous research based on multiple EU healthcare innovation projects revealed that a key concept taken from system thinking is most suitable to be developed into a method that helps managing change in projects. This concept, called equifinality, refers to the fact that similar results can be achieved flexibly through different trajectories and in spite of initial circumstances. However a robust method based on equifinality has not yet been established, which is the basis for this proposal. The research question is: How can the system thinking concept of equifinality be applied to current project methods, so as to empower project managers in the handling of change, thereby improving the achievement of their goals? This paper critically assesses the ways equifinality has been explored in previous research in other fields of management like operations and manufacturing, the discontinuous application of system thinking in management research and explores methods based on multiple case studies and triangulation through which equifinality can be explored further in project management. The issues of holism and interdisciplinarity are discussed as critical to the application of system thinking in project management. This research does not only provide a new theoretical framework. By taking a concept from one theoretical field (system thinking ) and applying it to another (project management), it proves that academia will benefit substantially because by crossing its disciplinary boundaries theory will be enriched through a more holistic way of organizing, improving both the relevance to practice of explanatory rigour of theory and methods.


The purpose of this paper is to explore teachers' acceptance and readiness in using the cloud-based community as a platform for professional collaboration related to their teaching and learning. Familiarity with certain social networking platforms has made the preferable collaboration among teachers only limited to using Facebook, WhatsApp or Telegram. However, with time and space constraints in schools, some of the sharing sessions could not be done effectively most of the time. The study focuses on teachers' acceptance and readiness of having their community in the cloud when they were introduced to the platform during a Continuous Professional Development (CPD) course. A total number of 61 teachers used Google Community named as 'Contemporary Children's Literature (CCL) 2016' as a platform for their Professional Learning Community (PLC) during the course. Descriptive analysis was done using Google Sheets and the findings show that these teachers are receptive towards Google Community in terms of its engagement level, usefulness as well as ease of use. The introduction to Google Community has created a new pathway for their collaboration especially for teaching and learning purposes. In a nutshell, their acceptance towards the cloud-based community indicates that, given the right training channel, teachers are positive and opened to utilising and integrating the cloud-based technology in their current teaching practice.


Abstract Merrillite [Ca9NaMg(PO4)7] occurs as a dominant primary Ca-phosphate mineral in martian meteorites and therefore presumably also on Mars. The mineral is an important phase in exploring differences in geologic processes between Earth and Mars, and also has astrobiological implications due to its potential role as a significant source of the bio-essential nutrient phosphate. Merrillite does not occur terrestrially as a discrete mineral phase, making it difficult to obtain for Mars-relevant studies. It can, however, be synthesized from a similar terrestrial mineral, whitlockite (natural or synthetic), through dehydrogenation. Here we present methods for synthesizing relatively large quantities (0.5 g or greater per batch) of coarse crystalline (75 μm+) Mg-whitlockite, Fe-whitlockite, mixed Fe/Mg-whitlockites, and from these synthesized minerals produce Mg-merrillite, ferrous and ferric Fe-merrillite, and ferrous and ferric mixed Fe/Mg-merrillite. Chemistry and atomic structures of synthesized Fe- and mixed Fe/ Mg-whitlockite and ferrous and ferric Fe- and mixed Fe/Mg- merrillite resulting from single-crystal X-ray diffraction, infrared spectroscopy, and electron microprobe analyses are presented. We also present a mechanism for maintaining charge balance during the formation of merrillite from whitlockite. Our results shed light on these mineral structures for future martian studies, and provide methods for creating coarse crystalline merrillite for use in Mars-relevant thermodynamic, kinetic, soil/dust simulant, crystallographic, astrobiological, and other studies.


Hierarchical surface patterns fabricated on Ti-6Al-4V alloy combining two laser micro-machining techniques are presented. The used technologies are based on nanosecond Direct Laser Writing and picosecond Direct Laser Interference Patterning. Squared shape micro-cells with different hatch distances were produced by Direct Laser Writing with depths values in the micro-scale, forming a well-defined closed packet. Subsequently, cross-like periodic patterns were fabricated by means of Direct Laser Interference Patterning using a two-beam configuration, generating a dual-scale periodic surface structure in both micro- and nano-scale due to the formation of Laser-Induced Periodic Surface Structure after the picosecond process. As a result a triple hierarchical periodic surface structure was generated. The surface morphology of the irradiated area was characterized with scanning electron microscopy and confocal microscopy. Additionally, static contact angle measurements were made to analyze the wettability behavior of the structures, showing a hydrophobic behavior for the hierarchical structures.


Until recently it was seldom remarked that for over thirty years the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has been a specialized agency of the United Nations. As a specialized agency, the WIPO is meant to reflect and respond to priorities set in the UN General Assembly--priorities often related to the promotion of economic development in the poorer country members of the UN, and that are part of the mandate of a number of other specialized agencies. However, the WIPO takes a specific (and idiosyncratic) view of development; its documents and activities suggest that development is best served by a strong intellectual property regime. This is to say that the WIPO sees promoting the use of intellectual property rights (IPRs) throughout the global system as the best way to support economic development. In the last two decades, the WIPO has spent some time fighting back from its partial marginalization during the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations, which resulted in the establishment of the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) agreement. (1) A key element of this project, to reinsert the organization into the politics of international policy around intellectual property, is its Patent Agenda, established at the turn of the millennium. The Patent Agenda has encompassed a number of sets of treaty negotiations at the WIPO aimed at strengthening the international enforcement of patents while also widening their scope. Although the pro-IPRs position that underpins the Patent Agenda is strongly held by the negotiators and representatives of the WIPO's richest and most developed members, it is not universally supported among the organization's wider membership. Hence, in 2004, a group of the WIPO's members set out a new Development Agenda as a direct response to the Patent Agenda. The Development Agenda originated in a proposal that Argentina and Brazil informally circulated to the members of the WIPO at the beginning of September 2004, for the then imminent WIPO General Assembly. (2) Although there had been some discussion of the developmental dimension of intellectual property at previous assemblies, this was the first time since the WIPO's establishment in 1970 that a linked agenda, rather than merely a fragmented set of measures raised during assembly meetings, had been proposed. Almost immediately upon presentation, the proposed Development Agenda gathered another eleven cosponsors (Bolivia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Iran, Kenya, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, and Venezuela) and became the focus for developing country negotiations at the WIPO, led by the Group of Friends of Development, a group made up of the two original proposers of the agenda alongside the cosponsors, and Peru and Uruguay. The central concern of the Development Agenda's supporters is to make development a central concern for the WIPO, which hitherto has presented itself to the world as merely a technical agency with no political role in the global system. In this article, I briefly set out the shape of the Development Agenda and explore its political significance. The Development Agenda The Development Agenda focuses on an assertion that has been central to the WIPO's practices: that the WIPO exists to "promote intellectual property" through technical/legal support of its members. The agenda calls into question the compatibility of this goal with the expected objectives of an agency associated with the United Nations. The UN's other (development-oriented) specialized agencies place technology transfer and poverty alleviation above the globalized protection of the IPRs in order of importance. Indeed, in the original treaty making the WIPO a specialized agency of the UN, it was obliged to work with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) to promote and facilitate "the transfer of technology to developing countries in such a manner as to assist these countries in attainting their objectives in the fields of science and technology and trade and development" (Article 10, emphasis added). …


BACKGROUND
Agenesis of the corpus callosum is a rare congenital brain malformation that can be associated with other cerebral malformations and/or underlying genetic causes. Prenatal counseling is hampered due to the lack of reliable long-term data on neurodevelopmental outcome.

METHODS
Since 2010, a total of 23 children with agenesis of the corpus callosum (mean age 3.8 years, range 0.7 to 9.7 years) were registered in our ACC outpatient clinic and diagnosed in a standardized manner; the data were analyzed retrospectively. Prenatal and postnatal imaging, associated malformations, genetic and clinical findings, and psychological testing (Bayley Scales, Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children II, Snijders-Oomen Non-verbal Test, Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale I-III) were included. The clinical outcome was classified as "normal" (intelligence quotient 85 to 115, unremarkable motor skills), "moderate developmental delay" (intelligence quotient 70 to 85, mild motor abnormalities), and "severe developmental delay" (intelligence quotient <70, severe movement disorder).

RESULTS
Isolated corpus callosum malformation was diagnosed in 15 of 23 (65%), associated cerebral malformations in four of 23 (17%), and associated cerebral malformations plus intracranial cyst in four of 23 (17%) children. Prenatal diagnosis changed in nine of 23 (39%) cases. Overall, a normal outcome or moderate or severe developmental delay was present in 15 of 23 (65%) or five of 23 (22%) or three of 23 (13%) children, respectively. Also six of eight children with associated cerebral malformations showed normal outcome.

CONCLUSION
Our findings support the notion that developmental outcome is favorable in about two-thirds of children with prenatally diagnosed agenesis of corpus callosum. However, the individual outcome in children with agenesis of corpus callosum is difficult to predict. Even children with correctly characterized phenotypes show a variety of outcomes, making prenatal counseling challenging.


The Elberton granite is a fine-grained granite (1-2mm grain size) composed of 4-7% biotite, 30% quartz, 30-35% Na-rich plagioclase (An15-27), 30-35% Kfeldspar, ~ 1% allanite, and lesser apatite, magnetite, sphene, and zircon. Crystallized at depths of ~13km and P=4Kb, its fine grain size was interpreted by Whitney and others (1980) as having resulted from rapid pressure drop due to loss of exsolved volatiles at this depth. The Stone Mt. granite (90 miles east of Elberton) is a medium-grained (2-5mm), two-mica granite composed of 12% biotite, 6-12% muscovite, and sub-equal quartz (29-33%), Na-plagioclase (An10-18) (30-35%), and K-feldspar (20-27%). Both granites have similar U-Pb zircon ages (Stone Mt. 325 Ma, Elberton 320 ± 20 Ma) and both formed from subduction-related magmas of the Alleghenian orogeny. Both granites solidified at ~600oC, but each shows unusual sub-solidus features related to hot hydrothermal fluids, likely vapors, emanated after solidification. The Elberton granite is cut by thin (1-4cm), white, sub-horizontal sheet-like structures called waves, while the Stone Mountain granite contains ovoid black-and-white patches called cat's paws (3-6 cm wide) with a 2-5 cm "black" center rich in tourmaline + quartz, and a 0.5-1cm wide "white" rim rich in plagioclase, K-spar, and quartz. The goal of this study is to use microscopic point-counting techniques to quantify wave and cat's paw mineralogy, and to use this quantitative mineralogy to infer a stoichiometry of the responsible chemical reactions. Results of Elberton point counts show that its waves (42-47% plag, 40-41% Kspar, 6-12% qtz, 3-4% biotite) are enriched in plag and Kspar, but depleted in quartz, biotite, and allanite relative to the host granite. Microscopic textural features indicate that the depleted minerals were replaced hydrothermally by plag and Kspar, and chemical stoichiometry suggests the replacement reaction involved qtz-bio-allanite replacement by fluids or vapors rich in Na+ and K+. Stone Mt. point counts show that cat's paw centers have 13-17% tourmaline, 26-38% plag, 19-23% Kspar, 30-37% quartz, 0-1% muscovite, and trace biotite – thus more tourm + qtz, less plag + Kspar, and much less musc + bio than the host granite, while cat's paw rims are strongly enriched in plag (39-48%) + Kspar (22-27%), but depleted in qtz (20-32%), musc (3-6%), and bio (0%) compared to the host. These data suggest (1) that cat's paw centers formed from high-temp B2O3 vapors that replaced musc, bio, and plag with tourm + qtz (+ excess K+, Na+, Al+3) and (2) that the excess excess K+, Na+,and Al+3 was transferred outward to paw rims to replace qtz-bio-musc with plag+Kspar. Stone Mt. Granite, 9% musc. Features indicating abundant volatile phases and varying volatile pressures during late magmatic crystallization : oscillatory plag (Stone Mt.) and resorbed quartz (Elberton)


This paper evaluates the welfare impact of observed levels of migration and remittances in both origins and destinations, using a quantitative multi-sector model of the global economy calibrated to aggregate and firm-level data on 60 developed and developing countries. Our framework accounts jointly for origin and destination characteristics, as well as the inherently multi-country nature of both migration and other forms of integration, such as international trade and remittance flows. In the presence of firm heterogeneity and imperfect competition larger countries enjoy a greater number of varieties and thus higher welfare, all else equal. Because of this effect, natives in countries that received a lot of migration – such as Canada or Australia – are better off. The remaining natives in countries with large emigration flows – such as Jamaica or El Salvador – are also better off due to migration, but for a different reason: remittances. The quantitative results show that the welfare impact of observed levels of migration is substantial, at about 5 to 10% for the main receiving countries and about 10% for the main sending countries.


This paper evaluates some of the key lessons of behavioral economics and finance research over the last decade for pension plan design. We divide the discussion into the natural phases of the retirement saving life cycle: accumulation, investment, and decumulation. After reviewing the lessons of behavioral finance, we conclude by outlining plan design alternatives that would be of use to plan sponsors and policymakers seeking to design more cost-effective and efficient retirement plans for the future.


The Journal of Surveying Engineering covers the broad spectrum of surveying and mapping activities encountered in modern practice. It includes traditional areas such as construction surveys, control surveys, photogrammetric mapping, engineering layout, deformation measurements, precise alignment, and boundary surveying. It also includes newer development such as satellite positioning; spatial database design, quality assurance, and information management of geographic information systems; computer applications involving modeling, data structures, algorithms, and information processing; digital mapping, coordinate systems, cartographic representations, and the role of surveying engineering professionals in an information society.


An interview study of horsemanship has been conducted in the community of Angelholm. The study is part of a larger project, where a further four students who are writing their thesis' have conducted interviews in Lerum, Hassleholm, Nykoping and Enkoping, a total of 52 horse holders in 5 different communities. The collective results are summarised in "Hur halls hastarna i Sverige och vilka ar motiven" by Catharina Svala. The purpose of this larger report has been to examine why Swedish horsemanship is the way it is today through communication with the various horse holders. The thesis will become the basis for a further study where proposals can be put forward on how horsemanship can be better adjusted to suit the need of both the horses and the horseholders and with less effect on the environment, in a dialog with the horseholders and the planning department.

From the interviews conducted in the community of Angelholm, the answers surrounding the methods and techniques used for weaning and systems for horse keeping from an animal welfare point of view are highlighted. How the term animal welfare should be described and defined has long been a topic of discussion between researchers and society and the answer is not one of objective terms. The results showed that single box systems are by far the dominating system for holding horses. This system was also propagated as the only system for housing competitive horses due to the risk of injuries to the horses. These arguments were put firmer forth by those whose economy was a larger part of the equation. Some horse holders commented that it wasn't possible to do it any other way than with single boxes. "The stables have been like that for the past fifty years". A few commented that the risk of injury to the workers was also accounted for when choosing the system.

The biggest problem in horse holding evident in the interviews was lack of knowledge and lack of competence from others who have horses. Much revolved around that others do things in the wrong ways. Ideas of how the future of horse holding might be like veered towards loose house systems, an alternative which could benefit mares, foals and young horses. Other positive aspects were that it would be an easier system for the handlers to manage due to being able to gather the dung using tractors.

The horses in Angelholm seem mainly to be handled by people who regard themselves to be "horse people". After conducting these interviews it appears that strong traditions are the main force in limiting development and therefore the biggest problem in horsemanship. There is a large amount of knowledge and research on alternative methods for horse holding with more beneficial effects on the horses' psychological wellbeing which could be adopted by horse holders. Unfortunately, lack of interest in these new methods from the horse holders themselves may be the main problem. Values which do not grow themselves but are instead imposed upon from outside influences will always be opposed. The limitations for changing a system is often the unwillingness of those involved to change. Thus it is important to change this, not least in the case of horse holders. Apparently there is not as much thought given to change, as there is given to the opinion that too many others don't know how things should be done. There is already a will to form loose housing systems, and maybe that will could drive people to aim for a horsemanship more natural for the horses, and which is also more practical for the horse holders.


ABSTRACT Working memory (WM) is one of the most studied cognitive constructs in psychology, because of its relevance to human performance, including language processing. When measuring verbal WM for sentences, the reading span task is the most widely used WM measure for this purpose. However, comparable sentence-level updating tasks are missing. Hence, we sought to develop a WM updating task, which we termed the selective updating of sentences (SUS) task, which taps the ability to constantly update sentences. In two experiments with Finnish-speaking young adults, we examined the internal consistency and concurrent validity of the SUS task. It exhibited adequate internal consistency and correlated positively with well-established working memory measures. Moreover, the SUS task also showed positive correlations with verbal episodic memory tasks employing sentences and paragraphs. These results indicate that the SUS task is a promising new task for psycholinguistic studies addressing verbal WM updating.


As suggested by its etymology, regeneration usually carries positive connotations while its negative aspects tend to be belittled. However, any renewal results in major morphological, physiognomic, functional or social changes, which imply changes in the meanings encoded in space. These transformations are not always welcome and they may lead to public discussions and conflicts. Skopje 2014 is a project within which such controversial transformations have been taking place. The area surrounding the Vardar River and its banks plays a major role here. On the river banks monumental buildings were erected, bridges over the river were modernised and new ones, decorated with monuments, were built for pedestrians. Bridges can be considered a valuable component of any urban infrastructure as they link different parts of a settlement unit (in the case of Skopje – left (northern) bank and the right (southern) bank; Albanian and Macedonian), improve transport, facilitate trade and cultural exchange. In this context, referring to Lotman's semiosphere theory, they may become borders of semiotic space, which acts as a filter that facilitates the penetration of codes and cultural texts. Yet, in multicultural Skopje meanings attached to bridges seem to lead to social inequalities as they glorify what is Macedonian and degrade the Albanian element. To validate this assumption we carried out semiotic analysis of bridges over the Vardar River which were renewed or built within the Skopje 2014 project to identify their role in shaping the semiosphere of the Macedonian capital.


The events in the Arab Spring have previously been examined by journalistic and academic sources. Arguments surrounding the series of social movements that swept through the Middle East have shifted focus over time to assessing the success of revolutions in unseating political regimes, resulting in an inordinate amount of attention paid to "successful revolutions," and the devalorization of "unsuccessful" ones. In the case of Syria, the 2011 Revolution has been linguistically relegated from revolution to crisis and finally to civil war . This article draws from the conviction that long-term change is required to unsettle long-standing and stable dictatorships such as the one in Syria. Thus, this visual analysis of the Hezbollah logo parodies that emerged following the party's military support of the Syrian regime recognizes the carnivalesque ability of revolution to suspend existing regimes de savoir and break the fear to widen the discursive space toward uncrowning hitherto uncontested political authority. Thus, this study suggests a novel perspective for when revolutions conclude, and when assessments of their results may be made.


Both 3C and 6H stacking faults have been observed in a low doped 4H-SiC epitaxial layer grown in a hot-wall CVD reactor on a heavily doped (off-axis) 4H-SiC substrate. They appear differently on the different parts of sample, with energetic dispersion ranging from 3.01 eV to 2.52 eV. Since they behave as natural type-II quantum wells in the 4H-SiC matrix, the thickness dependence of the excitonic recombination is investigated using the standard effective mass approximation. The results are discussed in terms of built-in electric field and inter-well coupling effects.


The fermi paradox uses an appeal to the mediocrity principle to make it seem counter-intuitive that humanity has not been contacted by extraterrestrial intelligence. A numerical, statistical analysis was conducted to determine whether this apparent loneliness is, in fact, unexpected. An inequality was derived to relate the frequency of life arising and developing technology on a suitable planet in the galaxy, the average length of time since the first broadcast of such a civilization, and a constant term. An analysis of the sphere reached thus far by human communication was also conducted, considering our local neighborhood and planets of particular interest. We clearly show that human communication has not reached a number of stars and planets adequate to expect an answer. These analyses both conclude that the Fermi paradox is not, in fact, unexpected. By the mediocrity principle and numerical modeling, it is actually unlikely that the Earth would have been reached by extraterrestrial communication at this point. We predict that under 1 percent of the galaxy has been reached at all thus far, and we do not anticipate to be reached until approximately half of the stars/planets have been reached. We offer a prediction that we should not expect this until at least 1,500 years in the future. Thus the Fermi paradox is not a shocking observation, and humanity may very well be contacted within our species' lifespan.


America and the European Community ,'' from which this part is derived, including its sectoral annexes on tele-communication equipment, electromagnetic compatibility, electrical safety, recreational craft, pharmaceutical Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) inspections, and medical devices shall enter into force on the first day of the second month following the date on which the parties have exchanged letters confirming the completion of their respective procedures for the entry into force of that agreement. (b) That agreement including any sectoral annex may, through the Joint Committee, be amended in writing by the parties to that agreement. Those parties may add a sectoral annex upon the exchange of letters. Such annex shall enter into force 30 days following the date on which those parties have exchanged letters confirming the completion of their respective procedures for the entry into force of the sectoral annex. (c) Either party to that agreement may terminate that agreement in its entirety or any individual sectoral annex thereof by giving the other party to that agreement 6-months notice in writing. In the case of termination of one or more sectoral annexes, the parties to that agreement will seek to achieve by consensus to amend that agreement, with a view to preserving the remaining Sectoral Annexes, in accordance with the procedures in this section. Failing such consensus, that agreement shall terminate at the end of 6 months from the date of notice. (d) Following termination of that agreement in its entirety or any individual sectoral annex thereof, a party to that agreement shall continue to accept the results of conformity assessment procedures performed by conformity assessment bodies under that agreement prior to termination, unless a regulatory authority in the party decides otherwise based on health, safety and environmental considerations or failure to satisfy other requirements within the scope of the applicable sec-toral annex. § 26.81 Final provisions. (a) The sectoral annexes referred to in § 26.80(a), as well as any new sectoral annexes added pursuant to § 26.80(b), shall form an integral part of the ''Agreement on Mutual Recognition Between the United States of America and the European Community,'' from which this part is derived. (b) For a given product or sector, the provisions contained in subparts A and B of this part shall apply in the first place, and the provisions of subpart C of this part in addition to those provisions. In the case of any inconsistency between the …


Over the years, many techniques that exploit the filters' structure and properties to achieve fault tolerance have been proposed. The TMR, which triplicates the design and adds voting logic to correct errors, is commonly used. However, it more than triples the area and power of the circuit, something that may not be acceptable in some applications.  Digital filters are widely used in signal processing and communication systems. In some cases, the reliability of those systems is critical, and fault tolerant filter implementations are needed. As technology scales, it enables more complex systems that incorporate many filters. In those complex systems, it is common that some of the filters operate in parallel, for example, by applying the same filter to different input signals. Recently, a simple technique that exploits the presence of parallel filters to achieve fault tolerance has been presented. In this brief, that idea is generalized to show that parallel filters can be protected using error correction codes (ECCs) in which each filter is the equivalent of a bit in a traditional ECC. The technique is evaluated using a case study of parallel finite impulse response filters showing the effectiveness in terms of protection and implementation cost. This new scheme allows more efficient protection when the number of parallel filters is large.


PURPOSE
To decide whether the identical topography of short- and middle-wavelength cone photoreceptors in two species of rodents reflects the presence of both opsins in all cone cells.

METHODS
Double-label immunocytochemistry using antibodies directed against short-wavelength (S)-and middle- to long-wavelength (M/L)-sensitive opsin were used to determine the presence of visual pigments in cones of two species of rodents, the Siberian hamster (Phodopus sungorus) and the pouched mouse (Saccostomus campestris) from South Africa. Topographical distribution was determined from retinal whole-mounts, and the colocalization of visual pigments was examined using confocal laser scanning microscopy. Opsin colocalization was also confirmed in consecutive semithin tangential sections.

RESULTS
The immunocytochemical results demonstrate that in both the Siberian hamster and the pouched mouse all retinal cones contain two visual pigments. No dorsoventral gradient in the differential expression of the two opsins is observed.

CONCLUSIONS
The retina of the Siberian hamster and the pouched mouse is the first example to show a uniform coexpression of M and S cone opsins in all cones, without any topographical gradient in opsin expression. This finding makes these two species good models for the study of molecular control mechanisms in opsin coexpression in rodents, and renders them suitable as sources of dual cones for future investigations on the role and neural connections of this cone type.


Abstract Inaccurate specification of model coefficients can lead to false or distorted findings in modeling investigations of natural resource management. Hence, this paper outlines a decision framework for optimization problems in which only the bounded set of outcomes for uncertain parameters is known. These models can be solved with standard mathematical programming software and are no larger than their deterministic equivalent. The robust approach is contrasted against deterministic analysis and is demonstrated for two applications regarding the management of natural resources. Deterministic plans are infeasible in at least 40% of cases when parameters vary from their point estimates. Inclusion of robust constraints immunizes against this infeasibility, thereby removing errors arising from false certainty. Additionally, incorporation of bounded parameters in the objective function yields interval‐valued sets containing potential outcomes. However, this increase in the general relevance of model output introduces some degree of suboptimality as deterministic plans are buffered to proactively account for potential variability. The cost of robustness increases with the simulated spread of uncertain coefficients but may be reduced through accounting for the uncertainty aversion of decision makers.