Abstract Reconstructing the tree of life requires deciphering major evolutionary transformations and the functional capacities of fossils with "transitional" morphologies. Some of the most iconic, well-studied fossils with transitional features are theropod dinosaurs, whose skeletons and feathered forelimbs record the origin and evolution of bird flight. However, in spite of over a century of discussion, the functions of forelimb feathers during the evolution of flight remain enigmatic. Both aerodynamic and non-aerodynamic roles have been proposed, but few of the form-function relationships assumed by these scenarios have been tested. Here, we use the developing wings of a typical extant ground bird (Chukar Partridge) as possible analogues/homologues of historical wing forms to provide the first empirical evaluation of aerodynamic potential in flapping theropod "protowings." Immature ground birds with underdeveloped, rudimentary wings generate useful aerodynamic forces for a variety of locomotor tasks. Feather development in these birds resembles feather evolution in theropod dinosaurs, and reveals a predictable relationship between wing morphology and aerodynamic performance that can be used to infer performance in extinct theropods. By spinning an ontogenetic series of spread-wing preparations on a rotating propeller apparatus across a range of flow conditions and measuring aerodynamic force, we explored how changes in wing size, feather structure, and angular velocity might have affected aerodynamic performance in dinosaurs choosing to flap their incipient wings. At slow angular velocities, wings produced aerodynamic forces similar in magnitude to those produced by immature birds during behaviors like wing-assisted incline running. At fast angular velocities, wings produced forces sufficient to support body weight during flight. These findings provide a quantitative, biologically relevant bracket for theropod performance and suggest that protowings could have provided useful aerodynamic function early in maniraptoran history, with improvements in aerodynamic performance attending the evolution of larger wings, more effective feather morphologies, and faster angular velocities.


The objective of the study was to evaluate the effect of trichome (fuzz) removal on the efficacy of ultraviolet-C in inactivating Escherichia coli O157:H7 on peach fruit, and quality of peach [Prunus persica (L.) Batsch, cv. PF25] fruit as affected by fuzz removal and ultraviolet-C. Peach (cultivar PF25) fruit, with and without fuzz removal, were inoculated with a five-strain cocktail of E. coli O157:H7 and treated with ultraviolet-C at doses of 0, 221, and 442 mJ/cm2. Fuzz was rubbed off using damped cloths. Survival of E. coli populations was determined at days 1, 4, and 7 at 20 °C. To study fruit quality, noninoculated fruit with and without fuzz removal were treated with ultraviolet-C at the same doses. Results demonstrated that ultraviolet-C at 442 mJ/cm2 reduced the population of E. coli by 1.2 to 1.4 log colony-forming units (CFU)/fruit on peach with fuzz, and 0.9 to 1.1 log CFU/fruit on fruit without fuzz 1 day after ultraviolet-C treatment. However, E. coli populations of all samples were similar with additional storage time, resulting in no significant difference among the treatments after 7 days of storage at 20 °C. Ultraviolet-C at doses up to 442 mJ/cm2 did not have any significant effect on the surface color of peaches during 7 days of storage, although fruit with fuzz removal increased L*, hue, and chroma values. In addition, fuzz removal promoted the loss of firmness during storage. Furthermore, ultraviolet-C at 442 mJ/cm2 increased antioxidant capacity of peach skin with fuzz. Overall, our results suggested that fuzz removal had marginal effects on the efficacy of ultraviolet-C, and ultraviolet-C did not negatively affect the quality of peaches.


AUGUST 2007, VOL. 86 -s 238 ABSTRACT. Simulation tools to search for optimal process parameters are of great interest to reduce the number of experiments and thereby reduce cost and production time. In this paper, robot simulation has been used in combination with finite element simulations to optimize robot speed in order to minimize distortion while keeping complete joint penetration. In an earlier work performed by the authors, a finite element model was developed to predict heat transfer and residual stresses of parts with complex shapes. An interface between a robot simulation model and a finite element analysis model was also constructed. In this paper, an iterative method for robot speed optimization has been developed using MATLAB. The algorithm is designed to maintain complete joint penetration while maximizing productivity by utilizing the fastest weld speed. The method makes it possible to optimize the heat input to the component and thereby minimize component deformation for parts with complex shapes. The system was evaluated on stainless steel plates with varying thicknesses. Robot weld paths were defined off line and automatically downloaded to the finite element software where the optimization was performed. Simulations and experimental validations are presented.


The prescriptive literature on negotiation advises negotiators to generate, evaluate, and select from multiple options at the bargaining table. At first glance, this "option-generation prescription" seems unassailable. After all, negotiators can include in their agreements only those options that they actually consider, so the more options they consider, the more likely it seems they will reach an agreement that maximizes their preferences. Upon closer inspection, however, the option-generation prescription begins to appear vulnerable, for it rests on a questionable premise about negotiator behavior. The option-generation prescription assumes that negotiators will make rational decisions when selecting from multiple options; regardless of the number of options available or the manner in which they are presented, it assumes that negotiators will independently assess the subjective value of each option, rank-order them, and then select the one that offers the most value. In fact, however, people can have great difficulty selecting the value-maximizing option when multiple options are on the table. The purpose of this article is to describe some of the predictable decision-making problems that can arise as a consequence of option generation in negotiation: namely, option devaluation, context dependence (contrast and compromise), non-compensatory decision making, and decision regret. Taken together, these "option costs" stand for the ironic proposition that negotiators who heed the option-generation prescription may be more likely than those who ignore it to enter into inferior agreements with which they may be less satisfied. Recognizing the benefits that option generation can provide, the article does not argue that negotiators should cease generating options. Its more modest goal is merely to cast some doubt on the wisdom of the prescriptive negotiation literature's uncritical endorsement of option generation. The article also explores the implications for lawyer-negotiators. It argues that lawyer-negotiators, acting on behalf of their clients, are more likely than non-lawyer-negotiators, acting on their own behalf, to maximize the benefits and minimize the costs of option generation. Specifically, lawyer-negotiators are more likely to assess decision options rationally; because of this, they can help their clients make "better" decisions and can use decision options strategically to influence their counterparts. Thus, this article identifies another way in which lawyers can add value for their clients.


Increasing amino acid availability (via infusion or ingestion) at rest or postexercise enhances amino acid transport into human skeletal muscle. It is unknown whether alterations in amino acid availability, from ingesting different dietary proteins, can enhance amino acid transport rates and amino acid transporter (AAT) mRNA expression. We hypothesized that the prolonged hyperaminoacidemia from ingesting a blend of proteins with different digestion rates postexercise would enhance amino acid transport into muscle and AAT expression compared with the ingestion of a rapidly digested protein. In a double-blind, randomized clinical trial, we studied 16 young adults at rest and after acute resistance exercise coupled with postexercise (1 h) ingestion of either a (soy-dairy) protein blend or whey protein. Phenylalanine net balance and transport rate into skeletal muscle were measured using stable isotopic methods in combination with femoral arteriovenous blood sampling and muscle biopsies obtained at rest and 3 and 5 h postexercise. Phenylalanine transport into muscle and mRNA expression of select AATs [system L amino acid transporter 1/solute-linked carrier (SLC) 7A5, CD98/SLC3A2, system A amino acid transporter 2/SLC38A2, proton-assisted amino acid transporter 1/SLC36A1, cationic amino acid transporter 1/SLC7A1] increased to a similar extent in both groups (P < 0.05). However, the ingestion of the protein blend resulted in a prolonged and positive net phenylalanine balance during postexercise recovery compared with whey protein (P < 0.05). Postexercise myofibrillar protein synthesis increased similarly between groups. We conclude that, while both protein sources enhanced postexercise AAT expression, transport into muscle, and myofibrillar protein synthesis, postexercise ingestion of a protein blend results in a slightly prolonged net amino acid balance across the leg compared with whey protein.


Lawyers as johns, and judges as prostitutes? Across the United States, attorneys ("johns," as the analogy goes) are giving campaign money to judges ("prostitutes") and then asking those judges for legal favors in the form of rulings for themselves and their clients. Despite its pervasiveness, this practice has been rarely mentioned, much less theorized, from the attorneys' ethical point of view. With the surge of money into judicial elections (e.g., Citizens United v. FEC), and the Supreme Court's renewed interest in protecting justice from the corrupting effects of campaign money (e.g., Caperton v. A.T. Massey Coal Co.), these conflicting currents and others will force the practice to grow both in its pervasiveness and in its propensity to debase our commitment to actual justice and the appearance of justice. This Article takes, in essence, the first comprehensive look at whether attorneys' campaign contributions influence judicial behavior and our confidence in the justice system (they do), whether contributions have untoward systemic effects (again, they do), and most fundamentally, whether attorneys act ethically when they contribute to judges before whom they appear (they do not, all else being equal).


We studied pine weevil (Hylobius abietis (L.)) feeding damage to Norway spruce and Scots pine seedlings planted in regeneration areas located on peatlands or on mineral soil sites in Southern and Central Finland. The survey included two planting years and a total of 60 regeneration areas (40 areas on peatlands and 20 on mineral soil sites). Some sites classified as peatland were as transformed or transforming drained peatlands that also contained mineral soil on a prepared surface. The soil preparation method, type of surface material around a seedling, pine weevil, vole-induced or other damage and the health of each seedling were observed in systematically selected circular sample plots. There was slightly more pine weevil damage on peatland than on mineral soil sites. More seedlings were damaged on unprepared peat and humus than on a prepared surface. Seedlings surrounded by a prepared surface had a slightly greater risk of being gnawed by pine weevil when planted on prepared peat compared to planting on prepared mineral soil. Vole damage was observed only in one region during one year. Mounded areas had slightly less vole damage than patched areas. In order to reduce damage caused by pine weevils and voles, it is important to scarify the regeneration area properly before insecticide-treated seedlings are planted. Mounding and patching are recommended so that seedlings can be planted in mineral soil whenever possible, even in the case of peatlands.


Recent multi-modal contrastive learning models have demonstrated the ability to learn an embedding space suitable for building strong vision classifiers, by leveraging the rich information in large-scale image-caption datasets. Our work highlights a distinct advantage of this multi-modal embedding space: the ability to diagnose vision classifiers through natural language. The traditional process of diagnosing model behaviors in deployment settings involves labor-intensive data acquisition and annotation. Our proposed method can discover high-error data slices, identify influential attributes and further rectify undesirable model behaviors, without requiring any visual data. Through a combination of theoretical explanation and empirical verification, we present conditions under which classifiers trained on embeddings from one modality can be equivalently applied to embeddings from another modality. On a range of image datasets with known error slices, we demonstrate that our method can effectively identify the error slices and influential attributes, and can further use language to rectify failure modes of the classifier.


In seismic reflection tomography, the velocity model of the subsurface is updated by back-projecting travel-time residuals along ray-paths. The travel-time residuals are picked from the seismic data itself and the methodology used to gather these picks is a fundamental part of any velocity inversion workflow. In particular, the density at which the residuals are represented in the four-dimensional data space (inline, crossline, offset and depth/time) appears to have a significant effect on the precision of the velocity updates that are output from the tomographic inversion. Utilising dense, hyperbolic- (or parabolic-) fitting means that the residuals are finely sampled in the data space but does not necessarily represent their true values with great accuracy. Dense, non-hyperbolic fitting offers a similarly fine sampling but with greater adherence to the true residual value. These two methodologies have been compared and contrasted on a complex synthetic dataset. It can be seen from this comparison that the dense, non-hyperbolic tomography offers greater potential for resolving small-scale velocity heterogeneities in the Earth.


We use a tight-binding formalism in the time domain to analyze the effect of resonant gain enhancement and spontaneous emission noise in amplifying coupled-resonator optical waveguides (CROWs). We find the net amplification of a wave propagating in a CROW does not always vary with the group velocity, and depends strongly on the termination and excitation of these structures. The signal-to-noise ratio and noise figure of CROW amplifiers are derived in the tight-binding formalism as well. The physical interpretations and practical consequences of the theoretical results are discussed.


This article explores the process of grammaticalization that has lead to the innovation of a distinct form of negation in Arizona Tewa, a Kiowa-Tanoan language spoken in the U. S. southwest. After reviewing comparative linguistic evidence that clearly establishes the innovative form of the Arizona Tewa negative, the analysis proceeds to examine ethnographic data as a means of understanding an apparent reanalysis of a subordinate clause marker as an obligatory part of negative constructions. Such data provide strong evidence for viewing the powerful role of discourse and language ideological factors in accounting for how this grammatical reanalysis both emerged and ultimately came to be the "preferred" form. Comparative data from Australian languages provides additional evidence for viewing larger discourses as highly influential contexts for grammatical change.


Reframing Resolution provides an original, accessible and critical point of reference for students, practitioners and scholars interested in the management of workplace conflict. Drawing on contemporary empirical evidence from the UK, USA, Ireland and Australia, the book explores the front-line challenges facing organizations and individuals in addressing and responding to conflict. In particular, it examines the extent to which conflict management is treated as a strategic issue and discusses the development of mediation and its impact on employment relations culture, the experiences of participants in mediation and the relationship between ADR and workplace justice. Crucially, the book also assesses key innovations in the management of workplace conflict, and discusses the future potential of more integrated and systemic approaches.


In Germany, mobility is currently in a state of flux. Since June 2019, electric kick scooters (e-scooters) have been permitted on the roads, and this market is booming. This study employs a user survey to generate new data, supplemented by expert interviews to determine whether such e-scooters are a climate-friendly means of transport. The environmental impacts are quantified using a life cycle assessment. This results in a very accurate picture of e-scooters in Germany. The global warming potential of an e-scooter calculated in this study is 165 g CO2-eq./km, mostly due to material and production (that together account for 73% of the impact). By switching to e-scooters where the battery is swapped, the global warming potential can be reduced by 12%. The lowest value of 46 g CO2-eq./km is reached if all possibilities are exploited and the life span of e-scooters is increased to 15 months. Comparing these emissions with those of the replaced modal split, e-scooters are at best 8% above the modal split value of 39 g CO2-eq./km.


This study provides an overview of the immigration policies that are being implemented regarding international students. This report is particularly timely in Ireland, as it follows a period of significant policy activity around the provision of education to international students, with developments in relation to immigration, to monitoring and inspections of education providers, to a restructuring of bodies and their functions, and to the work entitlements of international students. These policy changes have aimed to facilitate a greater balance between actively attracting international students to Ireland for the purposes of study and preventing the misuse of international student routes to access the labour market. Key to the Irish International Education Strategy has been the combination of a drive to enhance the quality of international education as well as to strengthen the visa and immigration system. Efforts to prevent misuse of the student route, through time limits on stay and proof of progression, have been matched by an ambitious and far-reaching marketing and promotional strategy, the impact of which is evident in the increased number of bilateral agreements incorporating an education focus in recent years. It is anticipated that this will translate into greater student numbers in the coming years.


REASONS FOR PERFORMING STUDY
Captive breeding has played a crucial role in the conservation of threatened equid species. Grazing ruminants and rhinoceros in captivity have less abrasion-dominated tooth wear than their free-ranging conspecifics, with potential negative consequences for their health. However, a similar study on wild equids in captivity is missing.

OBJECTIVES
The aim was to establish if different tooth wear patterns are exhibited by free-ranging and captive equids.

STUDY DESIGN
Cross-sectional study of museum specimens comparing free-ranging and captive equids.

METHODS
Dental casts of maxillary cheek teeth of 228 museum specimens (122 from free-ranging and 106 from captive individuals) of 7 wild equid species were analysed using the extended mesowear method. Although teeth showing specific abnormalities were not scored, the presence of focal overgrowths (hooks) of the rostral premolars (106, 206) was recorded.

RESULTS
Captive Equus ferus przewalskii, E. grevyi, E. hemionus, E. quagga boehmi and E. zebra hartmannae have less abrasion-dominated tooth wear on their premolars than their free-ranging conspecifics (P<0.001). Fewer differences were exhibited between populations in the molars. No differences were exhibited in the distal cusp of the molars (110, 210) between populations, except in a small sample of E. kiang. Captive equids exhibited more homogeneous wear along the tooth row whereas free-ranging equids exhibited a tooth wear gradient, with more abrasion on premolars than molars. There were more rostral hooks on the premolars (106, 206) in the captive than the free-ranging population (P = 0.02).

CONCLUSIONS
Captive equids did experience less abrasion-dominated tooth wear than their free-ranging conspecifics, but the differences in tooth wear were less pronounced than those between captive and free-ranging wild ruminant and rhinoceros species. This indicates that feeding regimes for captive equids deviate less from natural diets than those for captive ruminants and rhinoceros but that factors leading to hook formation, in particular feeding height, should receive special attention. The Summary is available in Chinese - see Supporting information.


Companies willing to survive the numeric economy are forced to collaborate with each other in order to maximize their co-creation of value. This co-creation exists for many reasons: to sell and acquire information, goods and services, to optimize the quality of procedures, to improve security and privacy, etc. In this paper, we analyze and model value co-creation through three dimensions: the value's nature, the method of value creation, and the business object impacted by the value. By combining these dimensions, we afterwards suggest different types of co-creation schemas, and we propose an abstract language to communicate them. The latter is finally validated by applying the "The Physics of Notations" guidelines.


The development of computational and communication technology enabled the introduction of a Distribution Management System (DMS) as a sophisticated approach to solve various problems regarding the power supply in modern society. These advanced systems execute a large number of workflows to meet the requirements and provide the desirable functionalities. Very high demands for computational resources, during the DMS operation, imposed a necessity for an adequate DMS workflow management. Three DMS workflow scheduling concepts (architectures) are presented in this paper: centralized, mixed and hierarchical. These scheduling concepts are compared by different parameters, such as performance, scalability and complexity of implementation. The conducted experimental study shows that the hierarchical scheduling concept not only provides the best performance, but is also the most scalable and entirely eligible in terms of implementation complexity.


Improvements for characterizing eruption processes are made commonly through field or remote-sensing measurements, lab experiments and numerical models. However, the main volcanological parameters inter-dependency makes challenging the assessment of tephra dispersion and sedimentation, from which mass eruption rate, total erupted mass, and Total Grain-Size Distribution (TGSD) are typically estimated. This thesis aims at better constraining Eruption Source Parameters (ESP) and in particular the TGSD, usually derived from field sample analysis. The estimation of very fine ash (i.e. < 30 μm) fraction, within the TGSD, commonly suffers from the lack of distal field data, especially for basaltic eruptions. Besides, particle-particle aggregation affects ash dispersal and deposition. Although numerical simulations can account for ash aggregation, they need an accurate TSGD as input. Here, I report the use of the FALL3D model with airborne and ground-based data to quantify i) the very fine ash and the effect on the results and ii) the occurrence of ash aggregation during ash transport. I focus on the integration of field and satellite data to better estimate the TGSD and the PM10 fraction especially. The methodology, which integrates field, ground-based and satellite measurements to improve the TGSD characterization, is applied first to the 23rd February 2013 Etna paroxysm, then to the 23rd November 2013 Etna eruption. Indeed, these eruptions benefited from south-westerly winds dispersing tephra towards the Puglia region (southern Italy; ~410 km from the source), allowing collection of field samples to very distal areas. Then, I studied ash aggregation processes characterizing the explosive eruption of La Soufriere Saint Vincent on 26th April 1979. During this event, a significant aggregate fraction was observed contributing to premature tephra fallout from the vent to Bequia Island (36 km southwards). I investigated the effect of various TGSD together with different aggregation schemes on the resulting tephra loading and ash dispersal.


Tax sparing occurs when a country with a worldwide tax system grants its citizens foreign tax credits for the taxes that they would have paid on income earned abroad, but that escapes taxation by virtue of foreign tax incentives. The supporters of tax sparing argue that it is a form of foreign aid, an obligation owed to developing countries, and a legitimate means of improving the competitiveness of resident investors. Tax sparing, however, has long been opposed by the United States on the grounds that it is an expensive and problematic concession to developing countries, inconsistent with basic and fundamental tax principles, and an inappropriate mechanism for improving the competitiveness of resident investors. The U.S. position appears to be carrying the day as tax sparing has been on the wane.In contrast with the emerging consensus, I offer a new argument for tax sparing. Drawing on the literature on implicit taxes, I argue that tax incentives produce implicit taxes. From the perspective of the investor, implicit taxes are as real as traditional explicit taxes. Thus, tax sparing is best viewed as extending the foreign tax credit to include implicit taxes. Accordingly, I argue that tax sparing is consistent with the notion of a single level of taxation and the foreign tax credit. I also argue that tax sparing is necessary to prevent domestic investors from being disadvantaged by foreign tax incentives. In addition, I show that such arguments support a greatly expanded form of tax sparing. Finally, I demonstrate that the tax sparing credit, as currently calculated, will usually exceed the implicit tax paid and propose an alternative method of calculating the credit that will place investors residing in countries with worldwide tax systems on par with other investors.


The racemic compound (+/-)-BW373U86 ¿(+/-)-4-((alpha R*)- alpha-((2S*,5R*)-4-allyl-2,5-dimethyl-1-piperazinyl)-3-hydroxy- benzyl)-N,N-diethylbenzamide dihydrochloride} is a potent delta opioid receptor agonist in the mouse vas deferens assay with little mu or kappa opioid receptor activity in the guinea pig ileum tissue preparation. In contrast, radioligand binding studies show that (+/-)-BW373U86 is only about 10-fold selective for delta over mu opioid receptors. Studies of the enantiomeric forms of (+/-)-BW373U86 and derivatives (SNC80 and related compounds) show that some of these isomers are significantly better in both receptor binding and pharmacological selectivity than (+/-)-BW373U86. In this study we have determined the binding affinities of 10 different SNC80-related compounds at cloned human delta and mu opioid receptors and measured the potency of SNC80 for the inhibition of forskolin-stimulated adenylyl cyclase. The most selective delta receptor ligand (SNC162) differed from SNC80 by the absence of the 3-methoxy substitution of the benzyl ring. The Ki for SNC162 at the delta receptor (0.625 nM) was over 8700-fold lower than that at the mu receptor (5500 nM), making this the most selective delta receptor ligand available. Reduction of the allyl side chain of SNC80 to produce radiolabeled [3H]SNC121 allowed direct measurement of the association and dissociation rate constants. SNC80 was 26-fold less potent than [D-Pen2, pCI-Phe4, D-Pen5]enkephalin in the delta receptor adenylyl cyclase inhibition assay, but showed full agonist activity with an EC50 value of 9.2 nM. The regulation of SNC80 binding affinity to the delta receptor by GTP analogs is undetectable in [3H]naltrindole binding inhibition studies, but direct binding studies with [3H]SNC121 in the presence of 100 microM 5'-guanylylimidotriphosphate show a 55% reduction in maximum binding site density consistent with a lower affinity for a part of the receptor population. Addition of 120 mM sodium chloride reduces SNC80 affinity nearly 40-fold in [3H]naltrindole binding inhibition studies. The results of these studies define specific structural features of these compounds responsible for opioid receptor interactions and suggest a possibly novel mechanism for delta receptor activation.


Handling variable binding is one of the main difficulties in formal proofs. In this context, Moggi's computational metalanguage serves as an interesting case study. It features monadic types and a commuting conversion rule that rearranges the binding structure. Lindley and Stark have given an elegant proof of strong normalization for this calculus. The key construction in their proof is a notion of relational >>-lifting, using stacks of elimination contexts to obtain a Girard-Tait style logical relation. I give a formalization of their proof in Isabelle/HOL-Nominal with a particular emphasis on the treatment of bound variables.


This project focused on using various writing activities, such as exit tickets, student indicator sheets, and participation log, in a middle school science classroom to investigate the effects on student understanding, problem solving skills, and motivation. In addition, teachers' attitude and motivation was also studied. Writing-to-learn in the science classroom was shown to increase student retention in the content; however student motivation did not increase. The effect on the teacher was increased motivation to teach writing with a slight decrease in the enjoyment of teaching.


A transcription factor induced by phosphate starvation regulates metabolism genes to enhance starch biosynthesis in microalgae. Many eukaryotic microalgae modify their metabolism in response to nutrient stresses such as phosphorus (P) starvation, which substantially induces storage metabolite biosynthesis, but the genetic mechanisms regulating this response are poorly understood. Here, we show that P starvation-induced lipid and starch accumulation is inhibited in a Chlamydomonas reinhardtii mutant lacking the transcription factor Pi Starvation Response1 (PSR1). Transcriptomic analysis identified specific metabolism transcripts that are induced by P starvation but misregulated in the psr1 mutant. These include transcripts for starch and triacylglycerol synthesis but also transcripts for photosynthesis-, redox-, and stress signaling-related proteins. To further examine the role of PSR1 in regulating lipid and starch metabolism, PSR1 complementation lines in the psr1 strain and PSR1 overexpression lines in a cell wall-deficient strain were generated. PSR1 expression in the psr1 lines was shown to be functional due to rescue of the psr1 phenotype. PSR1 overexpression lines exhibited increased starch content and number of starch granules per cell, which correlated with a higher expression of specific starch metabolism genes but reduced neutral lipid content. Furthermore, this phenotype was consistent in the presence and absence of acetate. Together, these results identify a key transcriptional regulator in global metabolism and demonstrate transcriptional engineering in microalgae to modulate starch biosynthesis.


Interview in three sessions in late 1979 and early 1980 with Robert P. Sharp, Sharp Professor of Geology emeritus, who chaired the Division of Geology (later the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences) at Caltech from 1952 to 1968. Begins with his recollections of growing up in Oxnard and of life during his undergraduate years [1930-1934] at Caltech, including his career as quarterback on Caltech's football team, and his one graduate year there. In 1936 he moved to Harvard for further graduate study, doing his thesis work on the Ruby/East Humboldt Range in Nevada. From 1938 to 1943 he taught at the University of Illinois; he discusses expeditions in the Grand Canyon (1937) and the Yukon (1941). After three years with the Army Air Force in Alaska, he joined the faculty of the University of Minnesota, then returned to Caltech as a professor in 1947. He discusses the early history of Caltech's geology division under J. P. Buwalda, the importance of the Seismological Laboratory, and the demise of vertebrate paleontology at Caltech after the death of Chester Stock. Discusses the expansion of the division under his chairmanship into geochemistry and planetary science and other events of his chairmanship; chairing the search committee for a new president upon the retirement of Lee DuBridge; and the advent of Harold Brown. Recalls his participation in the efforts of Eugene Shoemaker and Leon Silver to raise money for a named chair by guiding trips in the Grand Canyon, and his establishment of field trips for the division non-academic staff. The interview concludes with a discussion of his interest in current geological phenomena, such as glaciers and wind effects, and his authorship of guidebooks on Southern California geology for laypeople.


In the midst of the fierce controversies raging in France over the papal bull "Unigenitus," worshipers at the tomb of a revered Jansenist deacon in Paris's Saint-Medard cemetery witnessed a variety of miraculous occurrences. These well-publicized events led to the emergence of a cult that came to affect and be affected by the most furious religious debate of the eighteenth-century. Professor Kreiser provides a full and objective account of the conflicts surrounding this unsanctioned cult, which remained a major "cause celebre" in ecclesiastical politics for nearly a decade.The author details the intricate relationships between Church and State and broadens our awareness of the political implications of popular religion during the "ancien regime." His wide-ranging book is the first account of the Saint-Medard episode to deal with this affair in its multiple contexts. At stake was more than acceptance of the papal bull, whose political history the author discusses. Also involved, as he shows, were fundamental questions about the nature of miracles, conflicts between episcopal and priestly authority, the unwelcome intrusions of the papacy in the affairs of the Gallican Church, and struggles among the crown, the Parlement of Paris, and the French episcopate for control over ecclesiastical affairs.Originally published in 1978.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905."


Technological advances have changed the way information is accessed, retrieved, and utilized. The Internet has contributed to greater accessibility of scientific and technical information (STI), particularly in the arena of technical report literature. Technical reports, which communicate the results of research and development activities, are significant indicators of scientific trends because they often represent public and governmental interest in emerging fields of study. Prior to the widespread use of the Internet, technical reports were disseminated in print format with the use of specific, and often limited, distribution lists. However, as technical report literature found a home on the Internet, it became more accessible to the public as a discoverable resource on par with journal literature. This study investigates the transition from the traditional paper distribution to the digital distribution of technical reports beginning in the mid-1990s. Reports produced and distributed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) are examined to determine trends over time and across disciplines. The scientific disciplines of chemistry and engineering are contrasted with respect to citation patterns. A quantitative analysis is used to determine whether citation patterns of technical report literature reflect the transition from print access to digital access. Publication and citation information was collected in 2009 from ISI's Web of Science product as well as from databases maintained by the Department of Energy's Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI).


Increasing numbers of violent street protests and riots caused by socioeconomic grievances often occur in countries whose truth commissions have studied similar past episodes of violence and repression. These new cycles of violence push us to ask what more transitional justice can do to promote the aims of reconciliation and sustainable peace. The author proposes that truth commissions expand their mandates to include a legal framework that examines the socioeconomic root causes of violence in terms of violations of economic, social and cultural rights. This approach would help increase the compulsion felt by states to redress these conditions, and at the same time would provide local actors with a legitimate platform to lobby for solutions to their grievances. She argues that if the underlying socioeconomic structures that lead to violence are not addressed, sustainable peace will remain beyond our reach. In this way, the proposal supports the development-security nexus paradigm adopted in the last decade in UN peace-building operations. To complement this work, truth commissions could contribute to post-conflict recovery first by diagnosing the socioeconomic causes of conflict and then by issuing recommendations that would orient national political agendas toward addressing poverty and structural inequalities, namely through the promotion of sustainable development. This Chapter was adapted from an earlier article appearing in the International Journal of Transitional Justice.


ABSTRACT Economic anthropology has long advocated a broader vision of savings than that proposed by economists. This article extends this redefinitional effort by examining ceremonial gifts in India and arguing that they are a specific form of savings. Rural households, including those at the bottom of the pyramid, do save, in the sense of storing, accumulating and circulating value. But this takes place via particular forms of mediation that allow savers to forge or maintain social and emotional relations, to keep control over value – what matters in people's lives – and over spaces and their own future. We propose terming these practices relational and reproductive saving, insofar as their main objective is to sustain life across generations. By contrast, trying to encourage saving via bank mediation may dispossess populations of control over their wealth, their socialisation, their territories and their time. In an increasingly financialised world of evermore aggressive policies to push people into financial inclusion, the social, symbolic, cultural and political aspects of diverse forms of financial mediation deserve our full attention.


The last 50 years have seen more rapid change than at any time in human history. Changes in technology have changed every aspect of life: from contraception to computation, from communication to community formation. These changes have affected the ways in which Australians have sought meaning in their lives, from the fulfilment of duty to the maximisation of subjective wellbeing. They have affected deeply the role that religion has played in life with the focus moving from the preservation of tradition to personal spirituality.
 Over the past 30 years, the Christian Research Association has charted these changes. It has done so through the examination of census and survey data and through interviews with thousands of individuals. It has examined these changes in youth culture and rural culture and has explored the impact of migration and the rise of the Pentecostal and charismatic movements. It has suggested ways in which churches and schools might respond to these changes.
 Part 1 of this book tells the story of these changes and how the Christian Research Association has charted them. Part 2 contains contributions from various researchers discussing how the Christian Research Association has served the churches. Part 3 explores some extensions of and parallels to the work of the Christian Research Association in relation to religious institutions, migration and other research.
 The story told in this book is a personal story for Dr Philip Hughes, the senior research officer of the Christian Research Association from 1985 to 2016. But it is also a story of global significance as Christian and other religious institutions grapple with changes to their place in society and their roles in changing perceptions of life.


OBJECTIVE: Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is the most common form of muscular dystrophy in children, and children with DMD die prematurely because of respiratory failure. We sought to determine the efficacy and safety of yoga breathing exercises, as well as the effects of those exercises on respiratory function, in such children. METHODS: This was a prospective open-label study of patients with a confirmed diagnosis of DMD, recruited from among those followed at the neurology outpatient clinic of a university hospital in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. Participants were taught how to perform hatha yoga breathing exercises and were instructed to perform the exercises three times a day for 10 months. RESULTS: Of the 76 patients who entered the study, 35 dropped out and 15 were unable to perform the breathing exercises, 26 having therefore completed the study (mean age, 9.5 ± 2.3 years; body mass index, 18.2 ± 3.8 kg/m2). The yoga breathing exercises resulted in a significant increase in FVC (% of predicted: 82.3 ± 18.6% at baseline vs. 90.3 ± 22.5% at 10 months later; p = 0.02) and FEV1 (% of predicted: 83.8 ± 16.6% at baseline vs. 90.1 ± 17.4% at 10 months later; p = 0.04). CONCLUSIONS: Yoga breathing exercises can improve pulmonary function in patients with DMD.


Most countries emerged from the Second World War with capital accounts that were closed to the rest of the world. Since then, a process of capital account opening has occurred, with the result that all developed and many emerging-market countries now have capital accounts that are both de facto and de jure open, while many developing countries also have de facto openness. This study examines this in part by considering some of the first lessons from the current global financial crisis. This crisis may change the terms of the debate on capital account liberalization in a deeper and more lasting way than any of the crises of the past two decades because it may mark a reversal in the secular trend of financial liberalization at the core of the international financial system. The current crisis also raises new questions about the appropriate policy responses to boom-bust dynamics in domestic credit and in international credit flows. Intellectual consistency is needed between the domestic and international dimensions of financial regulation and the policies aimed at dealing with boom-bust dynamics in domestic and international credit.


'We don't live alone ... We are responsible for each other' A policeman interrupts a rich family's dinner to question them about the suicide of a young working-class girl. As their guilty secrets are gradually revealed over the course of the evening, 'An Inspector Calls', J. B. Priestley's most famous play, shows us the terrible consequences of poverty and inequality. The other powerful plays in this collection - 'Time and the Conways', 'I Have Been Here Before' and 'The Linden Tree' - explore time, fate, free will and the effects of war. 'A vastly talented and exceptionally versatile and wise writer' Iris Murdoch 'Priestley was volcanic, fertile ... and never dull' Anthony Burgess If you enjoyed An Inspector Calls, you might like Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, also available in Penguin Modern Classics.


Objective It has been hypothesised that the use of ACE inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) might either increase or reduce the risk of severe or lethal COVID-19. The findings from the available observational studies varied, and summary estimates are urgently needed to elucidate whether these drugs should be suspended during the pandemic, or patients and physicians should be definitely reassured. This meta-analysis of adjusted observational data aimed to summarise the existing evidence on the association between these medications and severe/lethal COVID-19. Methods We searched MedLine, Scopus and preprint repositories up to 8 June 2020 to retrieve cohort or case–control studies comparing the risk of severe/fatal COVID-19 (either mechanical ventilation, intensive care unit admission or death), among hypertensive subjects treated with: (1) ACE inhibitors, (2) ARBs and (3) both, versus untreated subjects. Data were combined using a random-effect generic inverse variance approach. Results Ten studies, enrolling 9890 hypertensive subjects were included in the analyses. Compared with untreated subjects, those using either ACE inhibitors or ARBs showed a similar risk of severe or lethal COVID-19 (summary OR: 0.90; 95% CI 0.65 to 1.26 for ACE inhibitors; 0.92; 95% CI 0.75 to 1.12 for ARBs). The results did not change when both drugs were considered together, when death was the outcome and excluding the studies with significant, divergent results. Conclusion The present meta-analysis strongly supports the recommendation of several scientific societies to continue ARBs or ACE inhibitors for all patients, unless otherwise advised by their physicians who should thus be reassured.


The International Symposium on Advanced Radio Technologies (ISART) originated as a forum to explore the current state of the radio art and to identify directions in which the technology would likely evolve in the future. While the early ISART meetings tended to focus on specific areas of technology, it is clear that an understanding of the big picture requires a more inclusive point of view. After all, the development and deployment of radio technology is not driven solely by technical know–how. Certainly understanding the underlying technology clarifies what is theoretically possible, but the development of new products and services also depends on what existing policies and regulations allow, as well as what makes economic sense. Similarly, it would be a critical mistake to make business decisions or enact new regulations without a solid understanding of the radio science.

With this in mind, the ISART conferences have evolved to provide a more holistic view of the radio art. Rather than providing a purely technical focus, ISART now strives to bring together a diverse collection of people from academia, business, and government agencies to discuss these issues in a common forum. Assembling this group of business experts, technologists, and government regulators so they can share their points of view and debate issues during round table discussions makes a deeper exploration of the intricacies of the radio art possible.

Two specific changes were made to the ISART program this year. The first of these was adding a fourth day to the meeting. This was done to include more discussion on topics related to spectrum usage, management, policy and regulation. There are a number of controversial topics that will undoubtedly be discussed during these sessions. One of these is the question of how to create regulations that support the deployment of new technology such as ultrawideband. Another is the debate about whether the spectrum is a finite resource that should be treated as private property or if instead it should be open for relatively unregulated public use.

The other change establishes ISART as a place for speakers to publish papers. The new "ISART Proceedings" gives the radio community a resource in the form of an NTIA/ITS special publication where ideas spanning a number of disciplines can be recorded for peer review and reference. Not only does this allow speakers to provide more detail describing theoretical concepts, data, and/or methodology than is possible in an oral presentation, the call–for–paper process also gives the radio community a way to suggest presentation topics on subjects that the ISART Technical Committee might otherwise not have known about. Publication of this first issue of the ISART Proceedings is just the next step in growing ISART as a valuable community resource supporting the future of radio.


Potassium chloride is a logical alternative to sodium chloride in water softening. Water Softening with Potassium Chloride provides a thorough overview of the process, the equipment, and the techniques used. Then it compiles diverse trade and technical data on water softening with potassium chloride so readers can make informed decisions. It documents the health and environmental consequences and benefits of using potassium chloride and includes a chapter with summaries of recent research projects and FAQs. This is a key reference for professional water treatment specialists, environmental science researchers, and others.


China has traditionally been treated as a non-market economy for purposes of anti-dumping investigations. The result was that countries determined whether dumping was taking place by comparing the export price from China with the normal value established in a third country. The European Union (EU) also determined the export price from China on the basis of the average export price from that country unless an exporter met specific requirements set for the EU's 'individual treatment' standard. China challenged these practices both in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and in European courts, while the South African International Trade Administration Commission (ITAC) appealed a decision from the High Court on how it had to treat imports from China. The Appellate Body of the WTO ruled that China's accession agreement to the WTO did not provide for the determination of export prices on any basis other than each individual exporter's own prices, unless the investigating authority made a specific finding that two or more parties are related, in which case those parties could be treated as a single entity. Before the European Court of Justice (ECJ), in an appeal lodged by the Council of the European Union, the ECJ found that the Council could not equate 'government control' in a company with 'government interference', and that the Council had to make a specific finding as regards interference before it could find that a company was not operating under market conditions. In South Africa, the Supreme Court of Appeal found that there was no duty on ITAC to consider any information submitted by parties to show that exporters in China were operating under non-market conditions, thus paving the way for ITAC always to treat cooperating exporters as operating under market conditions in disregard of the provisions of the applicable legislation. The verdicts in these three fora have significantly altered the way in which future anti-dumping investigations will be conducted against Chinese exporters, and will allow those exporters greater access to the EU and South African markets. It is submitted that while the decisions in the WTO and the ECJ are correct, the Supreme Court of Appeal in South Africa delivered an incorrect decision in the ITAC appeal, and in so doing rendered parts of the law redundant.


Summary
An analysis made of the weather conditions associated with human outbreaks of eastern encephalitis in the United States revealed that the major outbreaks occurred in Massachusetts and New Jersey, and that a weather pattern of excessive rainfall during the summer of the outbreaks and the preceding autumn was consistently associated with the disease outbreaks. The only other state which reported four or more human cases in a single year was Louisiana with ten reported cases in 1947, during which no specific weather pattern was apparent.
Equine outbreaks of eastern encephalitis in Massachusetts and New Jersey coincided with human outbreaks and were, therefore, associated with the same weather pattern. The relationship between the amount of precipitation and the number of equine cases was less consistent in Delaware and Maryland, and only occasional associations were noted between excessive amounts of rainfall and equine outbreaks in Florida, Louisiana, and Texas.
It seems reasonable that weather conditions might be used to predict human and equine outbreaks of eastern encephalitis in the northeastern United States. In the Taunton, Massachusetts, area there would appear to be danger of an eastern encephalitis outbreak during any year when 26 inches or more of rainfall had accumulated during the previous August through October and the current June and July.
In states south of New Jersey, the available data are not adequate to provide a basis for predicting epidemics or epizootics.


1. Changes in land use and land cover due to human activities produce physical changes in land surface albedo, latent and sensible heat, and atmospheric aerosol and greenhouse gas concentrations. The combined effects of these changes have recently been estimated to account for 40% ± 16% of the human-caused global radiative forcing from 1850 to present day (high confidence). As a whole, the terrestrial biosphere (soil and plants) is a net "sink" for carbon (drawing down carbon from the atmosphere), and this sink has steadily increased since 1980 (very high confidence). Because of the uncertainty in the trajectory of land cover, the possibility of the land becoming a net carbon source cannot be excluded (very high confidence). 2. Climate change and induced changes in the frequency and magnitude of extreme events (e.g., droughts, floods, and heat waves) have led to large changes in plant community structure with subsequent effects on the biogeochemistry of terrestrial ecosystems. Uncertainties about how climate change will affect land cover change make it difficult to project the magnitude and sign of future climate feedbacks from land cover changes (high confidence). 3. Since 1901, regional averages of both the consecutive number of frost-free days and the length of the corresponding growing season have increased for the seven contiguous U.S. regions used in this assessment. However, there is important variability at smaller scales, with some locations actually showing decreases of a few days to as much as one to two weeks. Plant productivity has not increased commensurate with the increased number of frost-free days or with the longer growing season due to plant-specific temperature thresholds, plant–pollinator dependence, and seasonal limitations in water and nutrient availability (very high confidence). Future consequences of changes to the growing season for plant productivity are uncertain. 4. Recent studies confirm and quantify that surface temperatures are higher in urban areas than in surrounding rural areas for a number of reasons, including the concentrated release of heat from buildings, vehicles, and industry. In the United States, this urban heat island effect results in daytime temperatures 0.9°–7.2°F (0.5°–4.0°C) higher and nighttime temperatures 1.8°– 4.5°F (1.0°–2.5°C) higher in urban areas, with larger temperature differences in humid regions (primarily in the eastern United States) and in cities with larger and denser populations. The urban heat island effect will strengthen in the future as the structure, spatial extent, and population density of urban areas change and grow (high confidence). CSSR 5OD: FINAL CLEARANCE Chapter 10 Subject to Final Copyedit 28 June 2017 405 10. Changes in Land Cover and Terrestrial Biogeochemistry 1


The first images of the asteroid 243 Ida from Galileo show an irregular object measuring 56-kilometers by 24 kilometers by 21 kilometers. Its surface is rich in geologic features, including systems of grooves, blocks, chutes, albedo features, crater chains, and a full range of crater morphologies. The largest blocks may be distributed nonuniformly across the surface; lineaments and dark-floored craters also have preferential locations. Ida is interpreted to have a substantial regolith. The high crater density and size-frequency distribution (–3 differential power-law index) indicate a surface in equilibrium with saturated cratering. A minimum model crater age for Ida—and therefore for the Koronis family to which Ida belongs—is estimated at 1 billion years, older than expected.


SOLAR UNIVERSAL TECHNOLOGIES, INC., organized as the Solar Distribution Co. by Milton Kates in 1977, provided alternative heat sources to alleviate the energy crisis brought on by the high price of imported oil and offered conservation services as well. With the growing demand for experts in environmental cleanup in the early 1980s, the firm expanded its services to include site-removal of hazardous wastes, contamination assessment and removal, landfill design and construction, and wetlands survey, changing its name to Solar Universal Technologies, Inc. Under U.S. government contract, the company established and operated a water filtration system on the oil-contaminated Platte River in Michigan's Sleeping Bear National Park, which was used as a model for future government cleanup projects. By 1993 the company, located at 13308 Euclid Ave., had expanded into 4 states and had increased its annual revenue increase 20% in each of the past 4 years. In 1995, despite a minor slowdown in economic growth (10-15% in 1994), Solar Universal was involved in the multimillion dollar cleanup of the Middlesex College Project in Edison, NJ.


Abstract Objective: Clinical observation and anecdotal reports suggest changes can occur to dental occlusion following intervention with the National Upper Cervical Chiropractic Association (NUCCA) procedure. This case controlled study discerned if occlusion changes are measurable using a dental force plate (T-Scan®) following an adjustment to the craniocervical junction (CCJ). Methods: A degree of case control was established by active patients being assessed twice prior to and following intervention. Before–after intervention assessment included posture evaluation and dental occlusion (T-Scan®). Results: Findings suggest that changes in posture and occlusion can be observed after the NUCCA chiropractic procedure. Not all patients demonstrated a more balanced contact pattern following the adjustment, indicating a need for further investigation. Discussion: These findings may suggest interconnectivity between the CCJ and an individual's occlusal contacts and support the need for further integration between chiropractors and dentists seeking to co-manage temporomandibular joint disorders.


Objective A systematic review to assess the equity impact of interventions/policies on youth smoking. Data sources Biosis, Cinahl, Cochrane Library, Conference Proceedings Citation Index, Embase, Eric, Medline, Psycinfo, Science Citation Index Expanded, Social Sciences Citation Index and tobacco control experts. Published January 1995 to October 2013. Study selection Primary studies of interventions/policies reporting smoking-related outcomes in youth (11–25 years) of lower compared to higher socioeconomic status (SES). Data extraction References were screened and independently checked. Studies were quality assessed; characteristics and outcomes were extracted. Data synthesis A narrative synthesis by intervention/policy type. Equity impact was assessed as: positive (reduced inequity), neutral (no difference by SES), negative (increased inequity), mixed (equity impact varied) or unclear.Thirty-eight studies of 40 interventions/policies were included: smokefree (12); price/tax (7); mass media campaigns (1); advertising controls (4); access controls (5); school-based programmes (5); multiple policies (3), individual-level cessation support (2), individual-level support for smokefree homes (1). The distribution of equity effects was: 7 positive, 16 neutral, 12 negative, 4 mixed, 1 unclear. All 7 positive equity studies were US-based: price/tax (4), age-of-sales laws (2) and text-messaging cessation support (1). A British school-based intervention (A Stop Smoking in Schools Trial (ASSIST)) showed mixed equity effects (neutral and positive). Most neutral equity studies benefited all SES groups. Conclusions Very few studies have assessed the equity impact of tobacco control interventions/policies on young people. Price/tax increases had the most consistent positive equity impact. There is a need to strengthen the evidence base for the equity impact of youth tobacco control interventions.


The paper presents details of a three-dimensional finite element (FE) model for the prediction of response of reinforced concrete (RC) beams under an elevated temperature regime. The beams were reinforced with either steel or fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) bars. Crack formation and propagation were modeled with the help of smeared cracks. Changes in the material properties of both concrete and reinforcing bars at high temperatures have been considered. Constitutive models for the temperature-dependent material properties of carbon FRP (CFRP) bars and thermal expansion coefficients for both concrete and steel have been proposed. The effects of tension softening and stiffening have been included in the model. Excellent convergence and numerical stability of the formulation was found. The models showed good agreement with the recorded data of temperature and beam strength and stiffness. Analytical concrete stress distribution is compared in steel and FRP reinforced beams and differences are discussed.


Volcano observatories and researchers are recognizing the potential usefulness of thermal imaging cameras both before and during volcanic eruptions. Obvious applications include measurements of the surface temperatures of active lava domes and lava flows to determine the location of the most active parts of these potentially hazardous features. If appropriate precautions are taken, the new generation of thermal imaging cameras can be used to extract quantitative as well as qualitative information on volcanic activity. For example, they can be used to measure the temperature of lava on eruption and to reveal how the crust cools during flow emplacement. This is important for the validation of lava flow models. To ensure that meaningful temperatures are collected, thermal imaging data must be corrected for instrumental errors, emissivity of the surface being imaged, atmospheric attenuation, viewing angle and surface roughness. Controlled laboratory experiments have been undertaken to determine the emissivity of smooth and rough samples and the effects of viewing angle and to quantify the errors. Measured emissivities range from 0.973 ± 0.002 for smooth samples of basalt and 0.984 ± 0.004 for rough samples. Errors in emissivity-corrected temperatures are within ±15°C for lava at 1100°C. Variations from individual sensor receptors, which provide individual pixel temperature data, were found to be 0.6% and instrumental errors of the cameras used were 0.1%. Apparent temperatures were found to vary by less than the instrumental error for viewing angles up to 30 degrees from normal to lava, and thereafter increased by ∼1°C per degree. By increasing the apparent viewing distance of a small vent on Mount Etna from 1.5 to 30 m, the maximum temperature is shown to decrease by 53°C due to integrated averaging of radiance over increased pixel areas. At a viewing distance of 250 m the maximum temperature decreased by ∼200°C with a further 75°C decrease due to atmospheric attenuation for a relative humidity of 50%. However, errors in relative humidity measurements can lead to atmospheric attenuation correction inaccuracies up to 200°C at viewing distances of 1 km. We show how temperatures measured using thermal imaging cameras can be corrected to give improved estimates of temperature distributions on the surface of active lava flows.


The purpose of this paper was to report a case of central serous chorioretinopathy following pulse corticosteroid therapy in multiple sclerosis. The patient was a 40-year-old female patient admitted to neurology clinic with muscle weakness and difficulty in moving. Having the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis, she was hospitalised for the treatment of the acute attack. Pulse intravenous methylprednisolone therapy was introduced and on the third day of the therapy, patient reported acute visual loss. Magnetic resonance imaging was performed to exclude optic neuritis. Complete eye examination and imaging of the fundus revealed retinal pigment epithelial detachment as the cause of the visual loss. Corticosteroids (endogenous or exogenous) are known risk factors for central serous chorioretinopathy. As retinal pigment epithelial detachment is a component of central serous chorioretinopathy, systemic corticosteroid was thought to be responsible for acute visual loss in this case. Steroid therapy was gradually tapered and acetazolamid was introduced. Her visual acuity improved but retinal pigment epithelial detachment was found to be persisting 2 years later. Although optic neuritis, the most common ocular presentation, is generally responsible for acute visual loss in multiple sclerosis, one should consider that systemic corticosteroid therapy for the acute attack may be in charge.


Modern smartphones can provide various features to enrich people's everyday life. Localization is one feature that has gained more popularity recently. The fundamental techniques to support localization are GPS, WiFi and Cell-ID. Each technique is different from another in terms of accuracy, energy consumption and availability. Although GPS, WiFi and Cell-ID come in handy for localization on mobile phones, there are still some problems that limit their usage, such as low battery capacity and the high cost to locate a user indoors. Therefore, some new positioning systems are required to improve the performance of localization. In this paper, the main positioning techniques(GPS, WiFi, Cell-ID) along with their advantages and disadvantages are introduced. Several existing positioning systems are then presented. Users' mobility is also very useful for positioning systems. One common idea is to use a user's mobility to control when to turn on/off the location sensing mechanism. For example, it is not necessary to track a user when he is standing still so the location sensing mechanism should be turned off in this case. In addition to the localization, I suggest two WiFi-based movement detection methods, Majority agreement and Top K, in this paper. The evaluation shows that both methods are able to provide approximately 90% accuracy to distinguish between absolute standing still and moving at walking speed around the UD area.


This thesis addresses three questions: What are proxy wars? How are proxy wars waged? Why are proxy wars waged? Each research question addresses a gap, a flaw or a deficiency in the current knowledge of proxy wars. Accordingly, each question is matched with a research aim. The first aim is to establish a conceptual and definitional baseline for proxy wars as a point of inquiry. The second seeks to restrict the empirical domain of proxy wars in an effort to enhance our ability to recognise proxy wars in the contemporary security environment. Lastly, the third objective is an analysis of the normative and causal dynamics underpinning party interaction in proxy wars. Taken together, the three research questions form the focus of my research, namely to understand and explain proxy wars as a self-standing form of political violence. I apply my research questions to Africa on a timeline beginning with 1945 leading up to 2011. I build a qualitative dataset, the Proxy War Dataset, which maps the spread of the phenomena across time, space (regions, countries), and conflict indicators (incompatibility). I use it as a descriptive tool to understand proxy wars, as well as a theory-informing source of data. In answering the causality problem, I put forward a theory of distributional violence focused on strategic interaction which yields four distinct logics of distribution of violence in proxy wars: pre-emptive, managerial, retaliative, and cooperative. I probe the theory with a series of four case studies focused on proxy wars in Ethiopia, the country most affected by the phenomena under observation throughout the 1945-2011 timeline.


Colleges and universities remain settings where women are particularly at risk for experiencing all forms of unwanted sexual activity, namely, sexual assault (Cass, 2007). While there are different types of sexual assault--acquaintance rape, date rape, stranger rape, party rape, and gang rape, most rape occurs with individuals who have had some form of association or contact with the perpetrator prior to the incident of assault (Armstrong, Hamilton, Sweeney, 2006; Morway, 2006). Research indicates that there are factors influencing the risks for sexual assault among college women (Cass). Close quarters in residence halls, as well as the social interaction created from involvement in student organizations, such as Greek life, may further contribute to sexual pressure, which has been referred to as "a common element of college life" (Adams-Curtis & Forbes, 2004, p. 94). Young college-aged women may also find themselves at a greater risk for sexual assault than older or married female college students given the fact the former group is typically single, often new to the university environment and adjusting to college life (Fisher, Daigle, Cullen & Turner, 2003). It is uncertain whether women of color are more or less vulnerable than White women to experiencing sexual assault during their college years (Cass; Fisher et al.; Gross, Winslett, Roberts, & Gohm, 2006). It is clear however, that a void exists in the literature regarding sexual assault incidents suffered by Black women as a specific population (Long, Ullman, Starzynski, Long, & Mason, 2007; West & Rose, 2000). According to a longitudinal study of a mostly White survey sample by Smith, White, and Holland (2003), 88% of women were sexually assaulted at one point from early adolescence through the end of college. Most sexual assault studies focus on White women and most rape incidents are intraracial (George & Martinez, 2002; West & Rose, 2000). Consequently, the effects of sexual assault on the identity development of Black female victims in the general population, as well as those in college, are largely unknown. The compounding and devastating effects of racism, sexism, and sexual assault, which Black female rape victims encounter, are particularly damaging to their identity development. The purpose of this article is to explore the psychosocial effects of sexual assault and its impact on the identity development of Black college women. Helms' (1990) Womanist Identity Development theory and Cross' (1978) Black Racial Identity Development theory are used as the theoretical framework in contextualizing the influence of race and gender on the formation of self-identity among Black victims of sexual abuse. Theoretical Framework Cross' (1978) Black Racial Identity Development model illuminates the process by which Black women progress from a stereotypical, externally based identity to an internally based racial identity. In other words, Blacks move through a series of stages whereby they increasingly understand and positively embrace their race. The individual begins in the Pre-encounter stage, in which she does not call racist attitudes into question, but instead accepts negative social stereotypes. The initial questioning occurs during Encounter, which is the second stage. The Immersion-Emersion stage initially marks the critical reevaluation of Eurocentrism and the strong preference for anything representative of Black culture. The later part of this stage (Emersion) is not as "reactionary" as the first part (Immersion), yet it maintains the strong appreciation of all that Black culture entails (Cross). Once Black women enter the Internalization stage they begin to interpret the world in a broader way; they embrace, rather than idealize their racial identity (Cross). During this final stage, reaching out to the Black community is actively valued along with embracing an appreciation for Black culture in the larger society (Boisnier, 2003). …


In our lab in Sabanci University, Istanbul, we focus on signaling events regulating mammalian autophagy in health and disease. To discover new autophagy regulators and coordinators, we performed several unbiased functional screens. Our microRNA (miRNA) screens led to the discovery of several miRNAs targeting autophagy at various steps of the pathway. miRNAs are able to affect the expression of a number of proteins at once. Therefore, miRNA networks seem to integrate cellular stress response pathways including autophagy and apoptosis, and coordinate them to shape cell faith. Our published and unpublished results allowed us to have a better picture of the miRNA networks modulating autophagic responses in human health and disease. Protein interaction screens performed in our lab led us to discover novel proteins involved in auto-phagy regulation. In fact, some of these proteins were directly interacting with the core autophagy machinery components. Unexpected direct links between autophagy and other important cellular pathways were found, allowing us to reveal novel entry points for autophagy regulation and coordination in cells. Interestingly, some of this interactions seemed to be autophagy signal specific, and our work revealed novel dynamics in autophagy regulation. Results from our recently published and unpublished studies will be presented and physiological and pathological implications of our results will be
 discussed.
 *This work was supported by The Scientific and
 Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK)
 1001 Grant number: 114Z982 and Sabanci
 University.


The U.K.'s decision to exit the E.U. (popularly known as "Brexit") sets the stage for a potential retaliatory trade war. Similarly, the aggressive nationalism of U.S. President Donald Trump does also. In both cases, game theory suggests how such a conflict might be resolved. This paper first examines three standard game theory models—the Chicken Game, the Prisoner's Dilemma, and the Stag-Hunt Game—and then turns to the strong incentives for rent-seeking by special interests and considers how rent-seeking likely affects how these games might play out. Although the conventional wisdom expects that the U.K. will suffer retaliation for Brexit, this paper argues that retaliation will produce counter-retaliation in a mutually destructive cycle. Thus, it proposes a strategy to produce a more clearly iterated game and hence increase the potential for cooperation and a compromise aimed at enhancing public welfare, rather than private interests.


A method involving Headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) fiber combined with gas chromatography (GC) coupled with flame ionization detection (FID) and gas chromatography with mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was developed and optimized to investigate volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from different tissues (flowers, leaves, stems, rhizosphere and whole plants) of Floribunda and Hybrid Tea roses (intact and cut). Three-phase fiber 50/30 μm divinylbenzene/carboxen/polydimethylsiloxane (DVB/CAR/PDMS) was used. Two types of chambers (Tedlar bag and glass jar) were evaluated for collection of VOCs and glass jar was selected. Absorbed compounds on the fiber were completely desorbed in the GC injector port at three desorption times (5, 10 and 15 min), and 5 min at 250?C was used. The maximum extraction efficiency for flowers tissues (equilibrium absorption) was achieved 2 h after fiber exposure in the headspace for intact and cut Floribunda and Hybrid Tea flowers. Under the optimized HS-SPME and GC-FID/MS conditions, 1h extraction time was chosen for intact and cut Floribunda and Hybrid Tea leaves and stems. The results demonstrated that 5 cm depth was selected for root and soil part (rhizosphere) for both rose cultivars, and 6 h and 12 h extraction time of VOCs from rhizosphere was achieved for Floribunda and Hybrid Tea, respectively. One hour was chosen for VOCs released from whole rose plants for both cultivars. In this study, the VOC profiles of two rose cultivars were characterized by the optimized HS-SPME-GC method. The different tissues of rose plants gave wide range of the VOCs; also the chromatograms of different cultivars were quite different and the specific VOC pattern of rose types depends on the species. Results from this study demonstrate the feasibility of this method for identifying VOCs from two rose cultivars and the potential use of this method for physiological studies on rose plants or on other floriculture plants.


Understanding migratory requirements is critical for the conservation of diadromous fishes. Tupong (Pseudaphritis urvillii) are diadromous fishes found in freshwater and estuarine regions of south-eastern Australia. Previous studies have hypothesised that mature female tupong undertake downstream spawning migrations from freshwater to the estuary or sea, with a compensatory return of juveniles, and possibly spent fish, back upstream. We applied acoustic telemetry to test this hypothesis. We tagged 55 female tupong in two river systems in Victoria, Australia, and tracked movements for 4- to 6-month periods over 2 years. Thirty-one fish undertook rapid downstream migrations and then appeared to move through the estuary and out to sea between May and August in each year. Migration was associated with relatively high river discharges, and movement from the estuary to the sea tended to occur most frequently during intermediate moon phases. Low rates of movement between September and April suggested that tupong inhabited restricted home ranges outside of the spawning season. The apparently disparate migratory patterns of female (catadromous) and male (non-diadromous) tupong are rare amongst fishes globally. Differential exertion of a range of selective pressures may have resulted in the evolution of sexual differences in migratory modes in this species.


Most of the analyses are performed in order to find the impact of EU membership on trade relations and economic impact for the member states. In contrary the BREXIT is the first case to discus and predict the exit process. In this paper we will try to analyse the BREXIT with regard to enlargement impact for the Western Balkans. The main question to be addressed is: the lack of political support of Britain for the EU enlargement of the Western Balkans, second issue is trade and economic issues; third issue is probability of decrease of EU programmes for Western Balkans due to withdraw of Britain and their contribution for the EU budget. Another important issue to be tackled is the Negotiation Process. Assuming that Britain cannot negotiate optimally with EU, therefore this option could impose long term negotiations therefore the main focus of the European Union will be directed to the BREXIT process compare to Western Balkans enlargement. In order to have the empirical results about the expectations of respondents about the future prospects of the European Union in the Western Balkans, we employed a survey involving 400 respondents mainly academics working on EU affairs and other stakeholders. Based on the statistical indicators, as well as the survey results we can conclude that the people in the Western Balkans still believe in the Europen Project despite the BREXIT and other challenges. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.eis.0.11.18125


Francesca Carnevali's work stressed the key role of politics and institutions in determining a country's banking structure, which in turn shapes its industrial structure. Segmented banking systems in France, Germany and Italy allowed different types of banks to specialize in different market segments, ensuring the fulfilment of smaller firms' financial requirements. In Britain, local banks did not survive the wave of amalgamation of the 1960s. This void left smalland medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and banks facing high transaction costs on the credit market due to little – or even an absence of – knowledge of the local business environment. Focusing on the Italian case this paper discusses how major parties in the political spectrum, as well as economic institutions such as the Bank of Italy, agreed to foster SMEs after the Second World War. This led to the establishment of a segmented banking system, in which local banks were preserved to serve the financial needs of SMEs clustered in local production systems. Then the paper moves on to explore the establishment of the mediumcredit institutes (the Mediocrediti and the Artisan Bank) and their provision of additional financial support to SMEs and to artisan firms.


This paper deals with new job profiles in libraries, mainly systems librarians (German: Systembibliothekare), IT librarians (German: IT-Bibliothekare) and data librarians (German: Datenbibliothekare). It investigates the vacancies and requirements of these positions in the German-speaking countries by analyzing one hundred and fifty published job advertisements of OpenBiblioJobs between 2012-2016. In addition, the distribution of positions, institutional bearers, different job titles as well as time limits, scope of work and remuneration of the positions are evaluated. The analysis of the remuneration in the public sector in Germany also provides information on demands for a bachelor's or master's degree.
The average annual increase in job vacancies between 2012 and 2016 is 14.19%, confirming the need and necessity of these professional library profiles.
The higher remuneration of the positions in data management, in comparison to the systems librarian, proves the prerequisite of the master's degree and thus indicates a desideratum due to missing or few master's degree courses. Accordingly, the range of bachelor's degree courses (or IT-oriented major areas of study with optional compulsory modules in existing bachelor's degree courses) for systems and IT librarians must be further expanded. An alternative could also be modular education programs for librarians and information scientists with professional experience, as it is already the case for music librarians.


Reducing mishaps from medical management is central to efforts to improve quality and lower costs in health care. Nearly 100 000 patients are estimated to die preventable deaths annually in hospitals in the United States, with many more incurring injuries at an annual cost of $9 billion. Underreporting of adverse events is estimated to range from 50%-96% annually.1–3 This annual toll exceeds the combined number of deaths and injuries from motor and air crashes, suicides, falls, poisonings, and drownings.4 Many stakeholders in health care have begun to work together to resolve the moral, scientific, legal, and practical dilemmas of medical mishaps. To achieve this goal, an environment fostering a rich reporting culture must be created to capture accurate and detailed data about nuances of care.

Outcomes in complex work depend on the integration of individual, team, technical, and organisational factors. 5 6 A continuum of cascade effects exists from apparently trivial incidents to near misses and full blown adverse events. 7 8 Consequently, the same patterns of causes of failure and their relations precede both adverse events and near misses. Only the presence or absence of recovery mechanisms determines the actual outcome.9 The National Research Council defines a safety "incident" as an event that, under slightly different circumstances, could have been an accident.10 Focusing on data for near misses may add noticeably more value to quality improvement than a sole focus on adverse events.

Schemes for reporting near misses, "close calls," or sentinel ("warning") events have been institutionalised in aviation,w1 w2 nuclear power technology,w3 w4 petrochemical processing, steelw5 production,w6 military operations, and air transportation.w7-w11 In health care, efforts are now being made to create incident reporting systems for medical near misses 8 11–15 to supplement the limited …


Objective: The aims of our study were to characterize ultraviolet (UV)A- and UVB-induced damages in a keratinocytes cell line (HaCaT), and to evaluate the protective capacities two plant-derivative compounds, namely Thymus vulgaris L leaf extract and thymol, its major component. A polyphenol rich diet has gained wide attention and it is now considered to be a protective agent for human skin, which can be over-exposed to environmental factors and in particular UV light.
Methods: Cells were pretreated for 1 h, in serum-free medium, with thymol (1 μg/ml) or Thymus vulgaris L (1.82 μg/ml) then exposed to different UVA (8-24 J/cm2) or UVB doses (0.016-0.72 J/cm2). Immediately after the UV exposure the intracellular redox status was evaluated by reactive oxygen species quantification and apoptotic events. Genotoxic aspects were evaluated 24 h after the end of irradiations using the alkaline comet assay and the immunostaining of phosphorylated H2AX histone protein (detected 1 h after the end of UV exposure).
Results: The pre-treatment of our experimental model with the two substances confirmed an antioxidant action and anti-apoptotic effect by reducing the cells percentage (sub-G1 phase). Furthermore, thymol and extract of Thymus vulgaris L were able to reduce genotoxic damage. The alkaline comet assay showed that the two substances were capable to decrease DNA damage. Also in this case, Thymus vulgaris L extract is more effective than thymol in decreasing genotoxicity markers.
Conclusions: Our results confirmed the more oxidant UVA and more genotoxic UVB effects. Regarding the protective effect of thymol and Thymus vulgaris L extract, data obtained proved their antioxidant and free-radical scavenging ability as known for phenolic (which our compounds belong to) and polyphenolic compounds. Thymol and mainly Thymus vulgaris L extract were also able to reduce the direct genotoxic damage.


We study the impact of functionalized gold nanoparticles on the impedance response of nematic nanoparticle/liquid crystal dispersions in the frequency range of 0.1 Hz–100 kHz. By fitting a suitable equivalent electric circuit model to the experimental data we show that nanoparticle doping does not affect the permittivity of the nematic host, but significantly increases its conductivity. This causes a Debye-type relaxation process in the Hz and low kHz regime, which originates from mobile charge carriers accumulating near the electrodes of the test cell. The effect of this electrode polarization on the electro-optical response of the nanocomposites is discussed with respect to threshold voltage and dielectric permittivity. We demonstrate that nanoparticle doping does not alter the electro-optic response at frequencies above the occurrence of electrode polarization, while it strongly deteriorates the performance in the low frequency regime.


Combining action observation (AO) and physical practice contributes to motor skill learning, and a number of studies pointed out the beneficial role of AO training in improving the motor performance and the athletes' movement kinematics. The aim of this study was to investigate if AO combined with immediate conventional training was able to improve motor performance and kinematic parameters of a complex motor skill such as the lineout throw, a gesture that represents a key aspect of rugby, that is unique to this sport. Twenty elite rugby players were divided into two groups. The AO group watched a 5-min video-clip of an expert model performing the lineout throw toward a target at 7 m distance and, immediately after the AO, this group executed the conventional training, consisting of six repetitions x five blocks of throws. The CONTROL group performed only the conventional lineout training. Intervention period lasted 4 weeks, 3 sessions/week. The AO group showed significant improvements in throwing accuracy (i.e., number of throws hitting the target), whilst no significant changes were observed in the CONTROL group. As concerns kinematic parameters, hooker's arm mean velocity significantly increased in both groups, but the increase was higher in AO group compared to CONTROL group. Ball velocity significantly increased only in the AO group, whereas ball angle release and ball spinning significantly decreased in both groups, with no differences between groups. Finally, no significant changes in knee and elbow angles were observed. Our results showed that the combination of AO and conventional training was more effective than a conventional training alone in improving the performance of elite rugby players, in executing a complex motor skill, such as the lineout. This combined training led to significant improvements in throwing accuracy and in hooker's and ball's kinematic parameters. Since AO can be easily implemented in combination with conventional training, the results of this study can encourage coaches in designing specific lineout training programs, which include AO cognitive training.


The Symposium

Lay of the land (and other such myths) is a new project and symposium by artist Victoria Lucas, produced by Mark Devereux Projects for HOME's PUSH Festival.

Featuring an all female panel with presentations by Alison J Carr, Elly Clarke and Victoria Lucas, this performative symposium will investigate connections between gender and imaginary geographical place through open-ended, playful narratives proposed by the panel.

Expect notions of body imagery, stereotypes, contemporary celebrity culture and fictional realities to be addressed, with attendees left to discern how events and histories can be fabricated.

Abstracts:

Elly Clarke: #AnOrgyofAlgorithms

#Sergina is Clarke's drag alter ego - a border-straddling drag princess who is desperately addicted to and yet done in by everything that comes to her through her mobile phone. For the Lay of the Land (and other such myths) symposium #Sergina tell viewers a long story about a relationship or two.

Alison J Carr: Showgirl Manifesto: Georgie's Tale

Alison J Carr will speak in character as Georgie Miller, a chorus girl on the periphery of unspecified radical art and intellectual groups circa the twenties and thirties. Through Georgie, Carr brings to the surface feelings of the side-lined, over-looked and historically neglected women who were part of the milieu from which our cultural super-figures were formed.

Victoria Lucas: Orgasmic Phantasmic: Ms 'Other' World and her call from Beyond

As an optical representation, Ms. Other World is the figment of your imagination. She represents what you understand to be female, but in fact she is just surface, intangible matter. Misguided assumptions and cultural indoctrination make her who she is, and she exists to please, to fulfil your fantasies. Ms. Other World will be whatever you want her to be… until now.


A key economic issue is whether poor countries or regions tend to grow faster than rich ones: are there automatic forces that lead to convergence over time in levels of per capita income and product? After considering predictions of closed- and open-economy neoclassical growth theories, we examine data since 1840 from the U.S. states. We find clear evidence of convergence, but the findings can be reconciled quantitatively with neoclassical models only if diminishing returns to capital set in very slowly. The results from a broad sample of countries are similar if we hold constant a set of variables that proxy for differences in steady-state characteristics. Two types of existing theories seem to fit the facts: the neoclassical growth model with broadly-defined capital and a limited role for diminishing returns, and endogenous growth models with constant returns and gradual diffusion of technology across economies.


Antitrust law currently lacks a unified theory of liability and damages. The Supreme Court's acceptance of consumer welfare as the goal of antitrust law underscores a growing judicial inclination to construe antitrust liability rules to encourage efficient production and efficient resource allocation. As the Court reconstructs the law of antitrust liability, it should also revise the law of antitrust damages by defining the rights created by those damage measures to accomplish specific economic goals. Part I analyzes the consumer's economic injury from exploitative behavior and shows that, prevailing contrary opinion notwithstanding, the Clayton Act does not unambiguously establish a consumer right to be free from such injury. Because the prevailing interpretation may cause allocative inefficiency, Part I proposes a countervailing producer's right and a corresponding damage rule. Part II analyzes the kind of injury that competitors suffer from expansionary behavior. It criticizes the competitor's right suggested by the current damage rule and proposes an alternative right and damage rule that would improve social welfare by enhancing productive efficiency. Part III proposes implementing the economic rights suggested in Parts I and II through a judicial test for calculating antitrust damages that would restrict the availability of such damages.


Transgender people are increasingly tolerated, and sometimes even actively celebrated, within contemporary Western popular culture. However, despite the broader political movement against gender-based discrimination, transgender people's participation in elite sport remains contentious. Although American transgender professional tennis player Renee Richards drew attention to transgender athletes as early as the mid-1970s, even major sports organizations such as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) struggle to formulate fair and consistent gender policies. This article discusses the specific case of transgender players in men's netball in New Zealand, a somewhat uniquely gendered sport, as a means of understanding emerging issues surrounding transgender athletes' participation in sport more broadly.


A customized, stepwise, log-linear, distributed lag, restricted market response model is proposed to estimate the effects of various elements of promotion expenditures on sales in the presence of potentially significant effects due to trend and/or seasonality when using time-series data. As distinct from standardized software packages, the customization offers management several benefits: (a) an (optional) imposition of prior restrictions on the directions of the coefficient variables; (b) an empirical determination of the lag structure for selected variables; (c) the detrending of the data to allow for the assessment of incremental marketing mix effects above trend; and (d) a simplified sensitivity analysis. The model is empirically tested and validated using sales data for a brand where the impact of several marketing mix variables is estimated and investigated via policy simulations. A comparison of these results with those obtained from a corresponding unrestricted model illustrates the advantages of this approach. Finally, the limitations of this procedure and directions for future research are discussed.


We consider a straight cylindrical duct with a steady subsonic axial flow and a reacting boundary (e.g. an acoustic lining). The wave modes are separated into ordinary acoustic duct modes, and surface modes confined to a small neighbourhood of the boundary. Many researchers have used a mass-spring-damper boundary model, for which one surface mode has previously been identified as a convective instability; however, we show the stability analysis used in such cases to be questionable. We investigate instead the stability of the surface modes using the Briggs-Bers criterion for a Flugge thin-shell boundary model. For modest frequencies and wavenumbers the thin-shell has an impedance which is effectively that of a mass-spring-damper, although for the large wavenumbers needed for the stability analysis the thin-shell and mass-spring-damper impedances diverge, owing to the thin shell's bending stiffness. The thin shell model may therefore be viewed as a regularization of the mass-spring-damper model which accounts for nonlocally-reacting effects. We find all modes to be stable for realistic thin-shell parameters, while absolute instabilities are demonstrated for extremely thin boundary thicknesses. The limit of vanishing bending stiffness is found to be a singular limit, yielding absolute instabilities of arbitrarily large temporal growth rate. We propose that the problems with previous stability analyses are due to the neglect of something akin to bending stiffness in the boundary model. Our conclusion is that the surface mode previously identified as a convective instability may well be stable in reality. Finally, inspired by Rienstra's recent analysis, we investigate the scattering of an acoustic mode as it encounters a sudden change from a hard-wall to a thin-shell boundary, using a Wiener-Hopf technique. The thin-shell is considered to be clamped to the hard-wall. The acoustic mode is found to scatter into transmitted and reflected acoustic modes, and surface modes strongly linked to the solid waves in the boundary, although no longitudinal or transverse waves within the boundary are excited. Examples are provided that demonstrate total transmission, total reflection, and a combination of the two. This thin-shell scattering problem is preferable to the mass-spring-damper scattering problem presented by Rienstra, since the thin-shell problem is fully determined and does not need to appeal to a Kutta-like condition or the inclusion of an instability in order to avoid a surface-streamline cusp at the boundary change.