We investigate the computational complexity of axiom pinpointing, which is the task of finding minimal subsets of a Description Logic knowledge base that have a given consequence. We consider the problems of enumerating such subsets with and without order, and show hardness results that already hold for the propositional Horn fragment, or for the Description Logic EL. We show complexity results for several other related decision and enumeration problems for these fragments that extend to more expressive logics. In particular we show that hardness of these problems depends not only on expressivity of the fragment but also on the shape of the axioms used.


NOTES FROM A SLIGHTLY SMALL ISLAND: SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL Following a two-year hiatus that included a complete revamping of its structure and organization, the Singapore International Film Festival returned for its 25th edition (4-14 December 2014) bigger and better than ever, with a re-branding effort that changed the former 'SIFF' into its current 'SGIFF'. A part of the inaugural Singapore Media Festival, SGIFF featured over 147 films from 50 countries spread over ten days and eleven sections, with a team headed by executive director Wahyuni Hadi and director-programmer Zhang Wenjie. It may be safe to say that the revitalized SGIFF heralds a new golden age of Singaporean and Southeast Asian, cinema....


Microbiorobotics is a new engineering discipline that inherently involves a multidisciplinary approach (mechanical engineering, cellular biology, mathematical modeling, control systems, synthetic biology, etc). Building robotics system in the micro scale is an engineering task that has resulted in many important applications, ranging from micromanufacturing techniques to cellular manipulation. However, it is also a very challenging engineering task. One of the reasons is because many engineering ideas and principles that are used in larger scales do not scale well to the micro-scale. For example, locomotion principles in a fluid do not function in the same way, and the use of rotational motors is impractical because of the difficulty of building of the required components. * Microrobotics is an area that is acknowledged to have massive potential in applications from medicine to manufacturing. This book introduces an inter-disciplinary readership to the toolkit that micro-organisms offer to micro-engineering* The design of robots, sensors and actuators faces a range of techology challenges at the micro-scale. This book shows how biological techniques and materials can be used to meet these challenges* World-class multi-disciplanry editors and contributors leverage insights from engineering, mathematical modeling and the life sciences - creating a novel toolkit for microrobotics


Abstract In this paper, the standard almost complex structure on the tangent bunle of a Riemannian manifold will be generalized. We will generalize the standard one to the new ones such that the induced (0, 2)-tensor on the tangent bundle using these structures and Liouville 1-form will be a Riemannian metric. Moreover, under the integrability condition, the curvature operator of the base manifold will be classified.


Since the mid-1990s, emerging market economies have been hit by dramatic highs and lows: lifted by large capital inflows, then plunged into chaos by constrained credit and out-of-control exchange rates. The conventional wisdom about such crises is strongly influenced by the experience of advanced economies. In Emerging Capital Markets in Turmoil, Guillermo Calvo examines these issues instead from the perspective of emerging market economies themselves, taking into account the limitations and vulnerabilities these economies confront. A succession of crises -- Mexico in 1994-5, East Asia in 1997, Russia in 1998, and Argentina in 2001 -- prompted an urgent search in economic policy circles for cogent explanations. Calvo begins by laying the groundwork for a new approach to these issues. In the theoretical chapters that follow, he argues that financial crisis theory regarding emerging markets has progressed from focusing on such variables as fiscal deficits, debt sustainability, and real currency devaluation to stressing the role of the financial sector -- emphasizing stocks rather than flows as well as the role credibility plays in containing financial crises. He then returns to a more empirical analysis and focuses on exchange-rate issues, considering the advantages and disadvantages of flexible exchange rates for emerging market economies. Coming after a decade of ongoing crises, Calvo's timely reassessment of the importance of external factors in making emerging market economies safer from financial turmoil offers important policy lessons for dealing with inevitable future episodes of financial crises.


: The aim of the present work was to study the reactive changes in avian (chicken) hepatic microcirculatory bed and epithelium following a single exposure to hyperthermic conditions at different stages of ontogenesis. Application of morphometric methods resulted in a demonstration of a unidirectional response of hepatic acinus vascular bed in embryonic period and after hatching of the birds, as well as differently directed effects of the mechanisms of cellular reproduction. In both experimental groups, heat shock results in the destructive changes in hepatic epithelium.


Secondary tumors of the thyroid are quite rare with an estimated prevalence of < 1%. Herein, we describe the incidental discovery of metastatic small cell lung cancer in a non-toxic multinodular goiter. A 57-year-old lady has had a non-toxic multinodular goiter for over 10 years. She has had two thyroid fine needle aspirations (FNAs) in the past, which were reported benign. As the goiter was increasing in size and causing compression, she underwent a total thyroidectomy. Pathology revealed multi-centric high grade carcinoma with small cell/neuroendocrine features with the largest focus being 1.1 cm. Calcitonin staining was negative. Further imaging revealed a 68 × 37 × 51 mm soft tissue mediastinal mass and an 18 × 10 mm left upper lobe pulmonary nodule. She was then initiated on chemotherapy and radiation therapy for extensive stage small cell cancer of the lung. After two cycles of chemotherapy, restaging chest computed tomography (CT) showed interval improvement in lung masses. This rare presentation of small cell lung cancer with multi-centric metastasis to the thyroid highlights the need to obtain nodule directed FNAs, as the two non-directed FNAs done prior to surgery were benign. It also points out to clinicians that rapidly growing goiters are a cause for concern, and should be evaluated, even if patients are not symptomatic. J Endocrinol Metab. 2017;7(6):190-193 doi: https://doi.org/10.14740/jem468w


The Rensselaer Mandarin Project enables a group of foreign language students to improve functional understanding, pronunciation and vocabulary in Mandarin Chinese through authentic speaking situations in a virtual visit to China. Students use speech, gestures, and combinations thereof to navigate an immersive, mixed reality, stylized realism game experience through interaction with AI agents, immersive technologies, and game mechanics. The environment was developed in a black box theater equipped with a human-scale 360◦ panoramic screen (140h, 200r), arrays of markerless motion tracking sensors, and speakers for spatial audio.


The United Kingdom is a relatively small, open economy. The Monetary Policy Committee monitors global influences on UK costs and prices as part of its assessment of the outlook for CPI inflation. One suggested measure of these global influences is the global output gap, defined as the deviation of world demand from world potential supply. This article considers the relevance of such a measure in assessing global influences on UK costs and prices. It argues that there are a number of conceptual problems and measurement issues relating to the global output gap.


We solve the task of representing free forms by an arrangement of panels that are manufacturable by precise isometric bending of surfaces made from a small number of molds. In fact we manage to solve the paneling task with surfaces of constant Gaussian curvature alone. This includes the case of developable surfaces which exhibit zero curvature. Our computations are based on an existing discrete model of isometric mappings between surfaces which for this occasion has been refined to obtain higher numerical accuracy. Further topics are interesting connections of the paneling problem with the geometry of Killing vector fields, designing and actuating isometries, curved folding in the double-curved case, and quad meshes with rigid faces that are nevertheless flexible.


Prosthetic use and satisfaction in wounded servicemembers and veterans with unilateral upper-limb loss has not been thoroughly explored. Through a national survey, we enrolled 47 participants from the Vietnam conflict and 50 from Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation Enduring Freedom (OIF/OEF) with combat-associated major unilateral upper-limb loss. Upper-limb prosthetic devices were used by 70% of the Vietnam group and 76% of the OIF/OEF group. Mechanical/body-powered upper-limb devices were favored by the Vietnam group, while a combination of myoelectric/hybrid and mechanical/body-powered devices were favored by the OIF/OEF group. Upper-limb devices were completely abandoned in 30% of the Vietnam and 22% of the OIF/OEF groups. Abandonment was more frequent for transhumeral and more proximal levels (42% of Vietnam and 40% of OIF/OEF) than more distal limb-loss levels. Upper-limb prostheses were rejected because of dissatisfaction with the device by significantly fewer (23%) members of the Vietnam group than the OIF/OEF group (45%) (p < 0.001). Most common reasons for rejection included pain, poor comfort, and lack of functionality. A significant paradigm shift has been noted in the OIF/OEF group, who use a greater number and diversity of upper-limb prostheses than the Vietnam group.


Vivian A Fonseca

Vasudevan A Raghavan

Cyrus Desouza

Strong epidemiological evidence indicates that diabetes is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD), and despite advances in the treatment of CVD, outcomes in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) remain suboptimal. In the European prospective investigation into cancer in Norfolk (EPIC–NORFOLK) study,1 the risk of CVD and total mortality associated with haemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) concentrations increased continuously through the sample distribution. An increase in HbA1c of 1 percentage point was associated with a relative risk of death from any cause of 1.24 (95% CI 1.14 to 1.34; p<0.001) in men and with a relative risk of 1.28 (95% CI 1.06 to 1.32; p<0.001) in women. Several meta-analyses2–4 arrived at similar conclusions, setting the stage for the conduct of randomised controlled trials exploring the effect of glycaemic control on CVD outcomes.

Several plausible mechanisms underlie the relationship of DM and CVD, all of which lend themselves to the development of specific treatment targets, although the lowering of glucose per se appears to be an appropriate and potentially beneficial intervention. Obesity is characterised by an expanding adipose tissue mass and the development of an inflammatory state caused by the increased secretion of cytokines and adipokines from adipose tissue.5 The hyperglycaemic state causes oxidative stress and increased glycation of proteins in the body, leading to the formation of advanced glycation end products.6 These in turn contribute to exacerbation of the proinflammatory state, activation of macrophages and vascular smooth muscle cells, low-density lipoprotein oxidation and accelerated atherogenesis.

It thus seems logical that a reduction in blood glucose to near normal would result in a reduction in CVD events. Although clinical trials have shown that intensive glucose control reduces the risk of microvascular complications among patients with type 2 DM, its effect …


We develop a versatile theoretical framework for the study of fluorescence resonant energy transfer (FRET, or Forster transfer) in complex environments, under arbitrary illumination, including optical near fields. By combining the field-susceptibility formalism with the optical Bloch equations method, we derive general equations for the computation of the energy transfer between pairs of donor-acceptor molecules excited by optical near fields and placed in a complex geometry. This approach allows accounting for both the variations of the molecular population rates and the influence of the environment. Several examples illustrate the ability of the technique to analyze recent FRET experiments performed in the optical near field.


Executing applications in parallel can produce significant performance gains, yet the time and expertise needed for the low-level details of parallelism is often prohibitive. Additionally, many applications rely heavily on domain-specific libraries, while it is not practical to write an optimizing compiler each time a domain-specific library is developed. In order to obtain high performance parallelism from a high-level, domain-specific scripting language, we are developing a parallel Matlab compiler, called the Matlab D compiler, using a telescoping languages framework [6, 2] to generate Fortran with MPI from Matlab scripts. The goal of telescoping languages is to automatically generate high performance compilers for domainspecific languages written in the form of libraries. Before user-script compilation, the domain-specific library routines are precompiled and optimized to form specialized variants, which are substituted into the user script during user-script compilation. With this strategy, user scripts are compiled quickly, and the compiler produces applications with the same high performance as if the user's application were available at library compile time. To create a parallel Matlab, we augmented the language with array distribution types to create Matlab D. When declaring an array intended to be used in a parallel computation, the user specifies the desired distribution for the array. Our Matlab D compiler, leveraging HPF compiler technology, generates the data movement operations and partitions the computations automatically to obtain the parallelism implied by the distributions. Thus, users can develop applications in a high-level scripting language and obtain the high performance necessary without incurring the cost of low-level programming. This paper presents the framework of the Matlab D compiler from a telescoping languages perspective and our preliminary work on the project.


Thesis completed in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Fine Arts degree in the School of Art and Design at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, Alfred, NY.


Many Information Retrieval (IR) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) tasks require predicting structured objects (e.g., sequences, rankings, matchings, parse trees) that are evaluated using F-score (i.e., the harmonic mean of precision and recall), precision at k (P@k, which limits the number of positive predictions to k), discounted cumulative gain (DCG), alignment error rate (AER), Hamming loss (i.e., accuracy) or other multivariate performance measures. Due to the non-convexity of most of the multivariate performance metrics, and the computational intractability of optimizing empirical risk over those metrics, traditional Machine Learning algorithms use convex surrogates (e.g., log-loss for Logistic Regression, hinge-loss for Support Vector Machine) as the approximations for empirical risk optimization. However, these approximations introduce a mismatch between the learner's objective and the desired application performance.

How can Machine Learning algorithms' predictions be more closely aligned with application performance measures in Information Retrieval and Natural Language Processing? In this thesis, we focus on answering this question by building an adversarial prediction framework - Multivariate Prediction Game (MPG) - for the metrics that are widely used in Information Retrieval and Natural Language Processing areas. MPG treats the multivariate prediction as an adversarial zero-sum game between a loss-minimizing prediction player and a loss-maximizing evaluation player constrained to match specified properties of training data. By solving the problem of effectively finding the best responses to the opponent's strategies, and applying the double oracle constraint generation method, the framework avoids the non-convexity of empirical risk minimization, and hence directly optimizes the metrics.

In this thesis, we first introduce the background of our research with its related works. Then, the Multivariate Prediction Game framework is explained in detail. For each metric of predicting structure, we give the corresponding algorithm for effectively finding the best responses. Finally, the MPGs are evaluated on several widely used data sets in Information Retrieval and Natural Language Processing areas to demonstrate their effectiveness.


Shrimp feeds on the natural organisms such as plankton, bacteria and
benthos. Problems in shrimp farming are due to pollution, diseases and poor
feeding practices. There are several advantages in improving natural food in
shrimp farming. First, water quality is very much improved since the oxygen
evolved in photosynthesis is used in aerobic decomposition of organic matter.
Moreover, ammonia in the water are reduced due to uptake by algae. Secondly,
the digestibility and acceptability of natural food by shrimp have been well
established. Understanding the contribution of natural foods in the shrimp
culture system may help to increase the production and reduce the cost of farming. This study was carried out to demonstrate the importance of natural
food in intensive shrimp culture system. Analysis of composition and
abundance of macrobenthos in shrimp culture ponds was done by sampling the
sediment from six different locations of two shrimp ponds. Gut content analysis
was also performed to assess the fullness of shrimp gut. A significant negative
correlation (r =-0.97, p<0.05) was also observed between the gut content and the
abundance of macrobenthos in the pond bottom. There was a decline in the
fullness of the shrimp foregut with the reduction of benthic populations in the
pond sediments, probably indicating the importance of benthos as food for
shrimp in culture system. In another field experiment the effect of bacterial
product on development of benthic community in shrimp ponds, was
determined. The density of polychaetes and insect-larvae was significantly (p<
0.05) higher in ponds with commercial bacteria products than the control, and
also showed better feed conversion ratio (FeR). Laboratory experiments showed
that the growth rate of P. monodon juvenile was significantly (p< 0.05) higher
when fed with the combination of natural and artificial diets than other
treatments. Survival rate was also significantly (p< 0.05) higher in those shrimp
fed on natural diet compared to the others. The presence of bottom sediment
significantly (p< 0.05) increased the survival rate of the shrimps. Shrimps fed
with artificial diet showed significantly higher excretion of ammonia compare to
the others. The results showed that unicellular algae could help shrimp to attain
high growth and survival rates. In addition these algae control the water quality
parameter such as ammonia-N and nitrite-No Tanks without shrimp showed
significantly lower (p <0.05) rate of nitrogen change compared to the rest of the treatments, indicating that most of the nitrogenous source was from the shrimp
excretion. There was no significant difference among the ingestion rates of three
algal species but was relatively high with Chaetoceros calcitrans and low with
Tetraselmis tetrahele. The results indicated that Penaeus monodon juvenile was able
to ingest and digest the unicellular algae. Feeding with natural feed enhanced
the non-specific immune system of the shrimp. The results showed that feeding
on chironomid larva significantly (p<O.05) increase the survival rate when
shrimp was exposed to the white spot virus (WSV).
The results of this study showed that natural food play an important role
in shrimp farming. The presence of suitable natural food may enhance the
growth and survival of shrimps in a culture pond and improve the water and
sediment quality. This study suggested that the optimum growth of shrimp
could be obtained by the right combination of natural and artificial diets.


The crown structure and canopy arthropods of Eucalyptus obliqua were studied at the Warra Long Term Ecological Research Site in the wet sclerophyll forests of Southern
Tasmania. Eight 100 year old and eight old-growth (between 300-500 years old) trees were studied in pairs. Despite their critical role in the economy and ecology of Tasmania, few studies have addressed the canopy arthropod biodiversity of these trees. The crown structure was mapped by recording a vector in spherical space for every branch. 3- dimensional computer models were generated to aid in illustrating the tree maps. Sticky traps, flight
intercept traps, and funnel crawl traps were placed in the crown to sample mobile arthropods. The age classes were quantifiably different in crown structure. 100 year old trees had young mature crowns of original branches. Old trees had either senescent original crowns or resprouted epicormic secondary crowns. Old trees expressed a greater variability in crown structure, and were more complex as measured by the amount of information required to display the computer image. Structural attributes such as hollows, dead tops, dead flanks, trunk fissures, burls, vascular epiphytes, snapped trunks, and litter collections were all present more often in the old trees than the 100 year old trees.


The objective of the present paper is to review the significance of administration of antibiotics at the end of a lactation period/beginning of the dry-period in ewes. During the stage of active involution, there is an increased risk of new mastitis cases and recrudescence of subclinical infections that had occurred during the previous lactation period. The main pathogens involved in the so-called 'dry-period mastitis' are coagulase-negative staphylococci. The principle of antibiotic administration at the end of a lactation period involves the intramammary infusion of a preparation to both mammary glands of ewes in the flock. Although a variety of products is licensed for administration in ewes, preferably the product for administration should be selected on the results of susceptibility testing of bacteria to be isolated from samples from ewes in the flock. In many clinical studies from around the world, performed in dairy- or mutton-production flocks, administration of antimicrobial agents at the end of a lactation period has been found beneficial in curing intramammary infections present at cessation of a lactation period, as well as in minimising the risk for intramammary infections during the dry-period. In dairy flocks, there are also benefits from increase in milk yield and decrease flock bulk milk mean somatic cell counts during the subsequent lactation period. Antibiotic administration at drying-off may be performed to all animals in a flock ('complete') or only to those considered to be infected ('selective'). In all cases, after administration of the antibiotic, definite and complete cessation of the lactation period is essential for success of the procedure. Moreover, maintenance of the prescribed withdrawal periods is essential to safeguard public health. The procedure should always be applied as part of a strategic udder health management plan in a flock; implementation improves the welfare of animals and affords significant financial benefits to the farmer. A mastitis prevention scheme during lactation will minimise the incidence of the disease; effective treatment of cases of the disease during lactation will decrease the bacterial populations in the flock and limit risk of infection of other animals. Administration of antibiotics at the end of a lactation period will complement the above procedures and will contribute to improved mammary health for the forthcoming lactation period.


Because it looks funny and is pretty useless, we do not frequently touch our shoulder with our ear. It turns out that this insight has led to an exciting discovery in the field of cue combination. To interpret our senses, we rely on other senses. For example, to know how the image on our retina relates to the outside world, we need to know the alignment of our eyeball with respect to the outside world. To know this alignment, in turn, we need to know the orientation of our head relative to the outside world. Similar problems occur in other sensory and motor contexts. For example, the perceived direction of sound depends on the orientation of our head and movements of our body rely on the alignment of our body relative to the outside world. One way of formalizing these problems uses the idea of a coordinate system: every sensor provides information in a particular coordinates (e.g., retinal coordinates for visual input or joint angle coordinates for proprioceptive information).

The fact that sensory information arrives in many different coordinate systems produces a challenge for the brain: how to combine information that is encoded in different coordinate systems for successful movements. Both behavioral (Soechting and Flanders, 1989; van Beers et al., 1999; Sober and Sabes, 2003) and neural recording (Wallace et al., 1998; Fetsch et al., 2007) studies have explored how the brain "transforms" information across coordinate systems. It is generally understood that information degrades as it is transformed across coordinate systems.

Another important fact about information integration is that the brain must make all of its decisions based on unreliable and sometimes conflicting sensory data. Crucially, sensory uncertainty can be reduced by combining information from multiple sensors. Any combination needs to assign weights to different inputs. Should each sensor have the same importance or are some sensors more important than others? Based on studies showing that the brain often weights sensory inputs in a near-optimal fashion (Yuille and Kersten, 2006; Trommershauser et al., 2010), it is generally understood that the brain is exquisitely sensitive to statistical issues that occur when combining information.

That coordinate transforms are costly and sensory information is uncertain sets the stage for a remarkably interesting problem. Tasks require precision in the relevant coordinate system. Imprecise sensory information arrives from multiple sources. How should the brain combine information from multiple sources to move successfully? One intuition is that information that requires less coordinate transformation should be trusted more than information that requires more transformation – it should get more weight. The current study by Blohm and Burns (2010) tests a crucial prediction of this intuition: if one sensor is made more difficult to transform into the required coordinate system then it should be assigned a lower weight.

The authors begin with an established cue-conflict paradigm that allows the experimenter to measure the weight subjects put on vision versus proprioception (Sober and Sabes, 2003, 2005). Then, in a variant of the experiment, the subjects performed the task while holding their heads at a 30° angle. The rationale was that in this very unusual posture, we should have more uncertainty about the alignment of the head-centric and the body-centric coordinate systems. If this increases the difficulty of coordinate transformations then subjects should show less reliance on signals that must be transformed across coordinate systems.

The authors beautifully show that changing the difficulty of the transformation affects weights. For example, in the experiment, proprioceptive information about the hand relative to the body should be independent of head tilt. Visual information about the same variable, on the other hand, should be affected by the tilt as it requires converting information from retinal to joint coordinates. Indeed, the authors find that head tilt leads to smaller visual weights (see Figure 8A, light blue line). However, at some level the paper raises as many questions as it answers, since there seem to be two completely independent (but not mutually exclusive) interpretations of the results.

One interpretation, provided by the authors, is that the precision of our sense of head rotation is probably good when the head is held normally and less good when the head is rotated. This should be true due to the Weber-law properties of many sensors, which can result from the signal-dependent noise that has been characterized in the relevant orientation sensors. In this case, it is uncertainty about the relative orientation of the head to the body that gives rise on uncertainty about the alignment of the coordinate systems (Kording and Tenenbaum, 2006). In this interpretation transformed signals are given less weight during head rotation simply because our position sense from the eyes is made less reliable because of uncertainty about the head position.

Another interpretation is that the precision of computations in the nervous system should be better for coordinate transformations that happen more often. As the head is usually roughly at a 90° angle relative to the shoulders, the nervous system has more experience and might devotes more neural resources to the associated coordinate transformation, independent of any signal-dependent noise arising from peripheral sensors. In this interpretation transformed signals are given less weight because the brain avoids the neural noise associated with performing a less-familiar version of the transformation.

The paper thus opens up a new set of questions that should also be asked about previous studies (Sober and Sabes, 2003, 2005). How much of cross-modal weighting is determined by neural noise in coordinate transfers and how much is due to uncertainty about the coordinate system alignments? Future variants of the experiment could give additional cues about the relative alignment of the head or remove such cues. Such a manipulation should have no effect if neural noise dominates and should have a strong effect if alignment uncertainty dominates.


[1] We present new measurements of Os-186/Os-188 and Os-187/Os-188 in 10 Os-rich platinum group element (PGE) alloys from placer deposits formed by the mechanical erosion of peridotite-bearing ophiolites in the Klamath and Siskiyou Mountains in northern California and southwestern Oregon. These data nearly double our database of high-precision Os-186/Os-188 measurements on such samples. Together with previously published data, our new results reinforce the conclusion that the radiogenic Os-186/Os-188 compositions of these PGE alloys are very difficult to reconcile with a derivation of their Os from the outer core. Such a model requires extremely early growth of the inner core to its present size, within several hundred million years after accretion of the Earth, which is geophysically implausible. Collectively, our data suggest instead that partial melting or metasomatic processes in the upper mantle play a primary role in controlling the Os isotopic systematics of these Os-rich PGE alloys and suggest the existence of upper mantle components characterized by radiogenic Os-186/Os-188 ratios. Pyroxene-rich lithologies are possible candidates.


This essay examines "photoshopping" as an important emerging genre of vernacular practice on the Internet. By sharing digitally altered images across networks, users engage in a vernacular process that creates and participates in discourses concerning shared expectations and communal values. To demonstrate this process, this essay analyzes how photoshopping was used as a response to the pepper-spraying of a group of peaceful protesters on theUniversityofCalifornia,Davis, campus. Enabled by the affordances of networked communication, this essay argues that photoshopping represents a powerful new form of vernacular expression for the digital age.


A basin‐wide transect of nitrate isotopes (δ15NNO3, δ18ONO3), across the UK GEOTRACES 40°S transect in the South Atlantic is presented. This data set is used to investigate Atlantic nutrient cycling and the communication pathways of nitrogen cycling processes in the global ocean. Intermediate waters formed in the subantarctic are enriched in δ15NNO3 and δ18ONO3 from partial utilization of nitrate by phytoplankton and distant denitrification processes, transporting heavy isotope signatures to the subtropical Atlantic. Water mass modification through the Atlantic is investigated by comparing data from 40°S (South Atlantic) and 30°N (North Atlantic). This reveals that nitrate in the upper intermediate waters is regenerated as it transits through the subtropical Atlantic, as evidenced by decreases in δ18ONO3. We document diazotrophy‐producing high N:P particle ratios (18–21:1) for remineralization, which is further confirmed by a decrease in δ15NNO3 through the subtropical Atlantic. These modifications influence the isotopic signatures of the North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) which is subsequently exported from the Atlantic to the Southern Ocean. This study reveals the dominance of recycling processes and diazotrophy on nitrate cycling in the Atlantic. These processes provide a source of low δ15NNO3 to the Southern Ocean via the NADW, to counteract enrichment in δ15NNO3 from water column denitrification in the Indo/Pacific basins. We hence identify the Southern Ocean as a key hub through which denitrification and N2 fixation communicate in the ocean through deepwater masses. Therefore, the balancing of the oceanic N budget and isotopic signatures require time scales of oceanic mixing.


Triple Pattern Fragments (TPFs) is a low-cost interface for querying knowledge graphs on the web. In this work, we present teepee, a visualization tool for analyzing the profiling results of TPF performance. Moreover, teepee allows for comparing the performance of different configurations of TPF servers. Attendees will observe how the execution of requests against TPFs is impacted by i) the type and cardinality of the requested triple patterns, and ii) network delays and server workload. The demo is available at http://km.aifb.kit.edu/services/teepee/.


Ba0.8Ce0.35Zr0.5Tb0.15O3-δ (BCZT) perovskite has been synthesized by glycine-assisted solution combustion method. The Ni-Ba0.8Ce0.35Zr0.5Tb0.15O3-δ-based cermet membrane is obtained by cosintering NiO and BCZT powder mixture at 1550°C in reducing atmosphere. The X-ray diffraction pattern of sintered pellet shows the characteristic peaks of both Ni and BCZT phases. FESEM image and elemental mapping confirm the presence of randomly distributed metallic nickel in the BCZT matrix. An electrical conductivity of ~14 S/cm at 700°C is achieved in Ni-BCZT membrane, which reduced further with increase in temperature (>700°C). The cermet membrane (1.5 mm thick) shows a highest hydrogen permeation flux of ~0.07 mL/min/cm2 at 900°C. Chemical stability of Ni-BCZT membrane has also been examined under humid and carbon dioxide containing atmosphere. The membrane shows good structural stability without any significant change in hydrogen permeation flux.


ABSTRACT Fossilized trackways have rarely been analyzed quantitatively to examine major trends and patterns in evolution despite their potential utility, especially in understanding locomotory evolution. In the present study, trackways of Triassic archosauriforms were analyzed. The analyses showed foot and stride lengths of archosauriforms increased from the Early to Middle Triassic, especially those of dinosauromorphs, which tripled. Dinosauromorphs were much smaller in foot length and stride length compared to other archosauriforms during the Early Triassic. They reached similar stride length compared with other archosauriforms during the Middle Triassic and similar foot length in the Late Triassic. Stride/foot ratio is significantly higher in dinosauromorphs compared to other archosauriforms throughout the Triassic. This relatively long stride length of dinosauromorphs is attributed to either faster speed or higher relative hip height that was probably caused by their digitigrade foot posture. Analyses of trackway data sets, especially in combination with precise trackmaker assignment and age determination, would bring us more thorough knowledge about locomotory evolution of tetrapods that complements body fossil evidence.


The 2 May 1983 Coalinga, California, earthquake (magnitude 6.5) failed to rupture through surface deposits and, instead, elastically folded the top few kilometers of the crust. The subsurface rate of fault slip and the earthquake repeat time are estimated from seismic, geodetic, and geologic data. Three larger earthquakes (up to magnitude 7.5) during the past 20 years are also shown to have struck on reverse faults concealed beneath active folds.


Abstract. Atmospheric particulate matter is one of the most harmful pollutants in the atmospheric environment, and has an important impact on climate change, reduced visibility, environmental hazards (such as acid rain, smoke) and health hazards. PM2.5 is the main factor causing haze weather, reducing visibility and affecting traffic safety. PM2.5 enters the alveoli through the respiratory tract and endangers human health. The basic characteristics of PM2.5 are small size, light weight, long residence time in the atmosphere, and can be transported to a long distance by the atmospheric circulation, causing a wide range of air pollution.In 2018, the proportion of days with excellent and good air quality in Guilin City in January and February was 71.2%, ranking 10th among the 14 cities in the Guangxi Autonomous Region. As a famous tourist city, its air quality should be paid more attention. The main air pollutant in Guilin City is PM2.5, which refers to fine particles with a diameter of 2.5 μm or less in the air, it has great harm to human health and reduces the visibility of the atmosphere. Air quality data, meteorological data, and GPS tropospheric delay data (ZTD: zenith tropospheric delay) were collected to calculate the correlation between PM2.5 concentration and influencing factors by the gray correlation model, and the relationship between the main influencing factors and the variation characteristics of PM2.5 concentration was analyzed. The result shows that PM2.5 has strong correlation with other air pollutants SO2, NO2, wind direction, relative humidity, ZTD, temperature and wind speed; moderately correlated with rainfall and pressure. The degree of gray correlation between the impact factor and PM2.5 varies with the seasons.Based on this research and analysis, air quality pollutants and meteorological factors are used as input factors and the concentration of PM2.5 values as the output factor of the neural network model. The model is trained by training sample data to establish a neural network model to predict the concentration value of PM2.5 in Guilin. The accuracy of the model is verified by the accuracy index. The summer neural network model has the best precision. The MAE is 4.51 μg/m3, the RMSE is 5.73 μg/m3, and the MRE is 15.1%. The correlation coefficient between the predicted value and the measured value reaches 0.908. It shows that the neural network model based on meteorological factors and ZTD has a good predictive effect and has certain guiding significance for the prevention and control of air pollution in Guilin.


In addition to race and gender, education is a determinant of status in U.S. society: The more years of education an individual receives, the greater the likelihood that individual will command greater occupational prestige and higher income. Because of its impact on status attainment, researchers have spent considerable effort examining factors that influence level, or years, of education. This focus on level or years of education has superseded an additionally important aspect of education: content or subject matter. Subject matter, specifically in the form of academic major in college, influences, among other things, differential occupational opportunities and rewards (Pascarella & Terenzini, 1991). In particular, baccalaureate degrees in technical programs lead to more lucrative early careers than degrees in nontechnical programs (see Table 1). [1] Engineers and physicists, for example, had starting salaries in 1997 of $38,719 and $35,554, respectively; the starting salary for people with baccalaureates in the humanities was $25,078, and in business it was $29,346 (Statistical Abstract, 1998). [2] Some claim that Asian Americans have succeeded economically because, like whites, they choose technical academic programs, such as engineering, which result in higher incomes (Winnich, 1990). But is this true? Do Asian Americans and European Americans choose different college majors than other racial groups? In this analysis, I consider the choice of academic major for members of different racial groups, identify what factors influence that choice, and assess whether these determining factors differ by race. To accomplish this, I consider factors identified by the status attainment tradition which potentially influence a student's educational experience. Potential Explanations Although most research on status attainment and racial inequality has not focused specifically on academic major, it has identified determinants that influence the level of educational attainment. These determinants have been specifically directed toward level of educational attainment, but arguably, they could also influence choices made regarding academic major. I will briefly describe each of the determinants and explain its applicability to choice of academic major. Family Socioeconomic Status Socioeconomic explanations of status attainment suggest educational structures reproduce the social order; that is, parents' socioeconomic status is an important determinant in the educational attainment of their children (Blau & Duncan, 1967; Coleman et al., 1966; Sewell, Haller, & Ohlendorf, 1970; Sewell & Shah, 1967, 1968a, 1968b). Although the mechanism that results in this reproduction has never been specified, neo-Marxists (Bowles & Gintis, 1976; Carnoy, 1975; Levin, 1976) refer to the educational impact of family SES as the correspondence principle: The social relations of schooling and family life correspond to the social relations of production such that the class hierarchy of the larger society is reproduced and reinforced in the educational system. [3] A strict application of the correspondence principle to choice of academic major would imply that children follow directly in the educational and occupational footsteps of their parents. African, Hispanic, and Native Americans are disproportionately represented at the lower socioeconomic levels (Statistical Abstract, 1998). If class position is reproduced in the educational system, as neo-Marxists contend, I would expect more African, Hispanic, and Native American students to choose academic programs, such as the social sciences, which typically lead to less lucrative jobs. Academic Preparation The National Research Council (1992) and others (Anderson, 1977; Berryman, 1983; Hanson, Schaub, & Baker 1992; McDonald, Clarke, & Dobson 1990; McJamerson, 1991; Pearson, 1987; September, 1990) use a "pipeline" metaphor to explain the small numbers of African, Hispanic, and Native Americans in postsecondary education in the United States. …


Based on comparative qualitative research with 14- to 25-year-olds in Italy and the UK, this study draws on Bourdieu's theory of practice and culturalist perspectives on citizenship, and situates participation as a socially embedded, contingent online/offline practice that is shaped by the interrelation between participatory habitus, differential access to resources, and the political context. Young people's diversity is manifested in their different vocabularies of participation, which include a vocabulary of (a) citizenship orientations, (b) citizenship practices, and (c) digital engagement. Based on vocabularies of participation, 5 participatory habitus were identified: the legitimate, the critical, the alternative, the radical antagonist, and the excluded. Each participatory habitus is produced by different combinations of resources and political experiences, and in turn shapes how young people participate on- and offline.


The concentrations of selected hydroxylated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (OH-PAHs) were determined in the bile of the African sharptooth catfish Clarias gariepinus from impoundments in the urban impacted Klip River system in Soweto, South Africa. Fish were sampled from three impoundments (Lenasia, Fleurhof, and Orlando dams) during the early high-flow season (September/October) of 2013. Biliary OH-PAHs were analysed using a high-pressure liquid chromatograph coupled to a tandem mass spectrometer (HPLC-MS/MS). Seven of the thirteen targeted metabolites were present in the fish of Soweto. The ΣOH-PAHs ranged between 0.1 and 1 876 ng ml−1, with greatest ΣOH-PAH mean at Orlando (947 ng ml−1) followed by Fleurhof (371 ng ml−1). The most dominant metabolite in the sampling area was 2–,3–OH fluorene, ranging between not detected and 1 429 ng ml−1, with the greatest mean at Orlando (709 ng ml−1). PAH metabolites quantified in C. gariepinus most likely originated from the sediments. The hepatosomatic index of the C. gariepinus increased proportionally with the biliary OH-PAH concentrations. To the authors' knowledge this data on biliary OH-PAH for fish is the first for South Africa.


Increasing public concern regarding air quality has led to the development of efficient aerosol-monitoring techniques. Among the various aerosol measurement instruments based on electrical methods, in this study, an electrical cascade impactor (ECI) was designed and fabricated in our laboratory and was used to measure the real-time size distribution of submicron-sized aerosols. In the study by Park et al. (2007), it was assumed that the size distribution of incoming particles follows a unimodal lognormal distribution. However, in this study, the distribution of particles captured at each stage (including the Faraday cage) was assumed to be a unimodal lognormal distribution; hence, the incoming particles may follow any size distribution. After the particle charging characteristics were obtained for different particle sizes, experiments were performed with monodisperse test particles to determine the collection efficiency of each stage. The current measured in each stage was converted into a number based size distribution of aerosols by using the data inversion algorithm, which utilized the experimentally obtained collection efficiency. Then, a performance evaluation was performed, both in the laboratory and in the field. The results obtained by our ECI were in agreement with the scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS) data.


Introduction: In Brazil, the wild boar is an exotic invasive species that has been reported as a disease reservoir in several parts of the world. The result of crossing a boar with a domestic pig is called, in Brazil, a ´´javaporco´´. In Brazilian territory, boars and javaporco have been recorded serving as food sources for blood-feeding bats (Desmodus rotundus), and the impacts of such interactions on human health are still unknown. Objetive: Characterize attacks by wild boar and javaporco on human, and anti-rabies treatment that follows such accidents. Methods: Reports and epidemiological investigation records of human rabies treatment from 2007 to 2017 stored in the National System of Notifiable Diseases database were analyzed by descriptive epidemiology. Results: 309 attacks - 271 (87%) by wild boar and 38 (12.3%) by javaporco were reported - an increase in the number of reports in the most recent years of the evaluated time series. Attacks occurred in all regions of the country, in 17 Federated Units and in 252 municipalities. Men were most commonly attacked sex (283 - 91.58%), with the most commonly attacked age group being 35 to 49 years (86 - 27.83%), and occupations being wire fence constructor (31 - 10.03%), retired or pensioner (15 - 4.85 %) and student (13 - 4.20%). Single lesions (197 - 63.75%), deep (248 - 80.25%), produced by bite (292 - 94.49%), in the lower limbs (159 - 51.45) were the most recorded. Most of the individuals attacked had no history of anti-rabies treatment (249 - 80.58%), and the treatment indicated was serum plus vaccine (162 - 52.42%). Conclusion: Given the rising profile of the attacks and the geographical expansion of the wild boar's range in Brazil, with the consequent risk of attacks this study has shown, the health authorities should be alert to episodes of aggression, which should be monitored and, after incidents the medical care guidelines of the National Rabies Control Program should be followed.


We report a high power and high energy all-fiber-based single frequency nanosecond pulsed laser source at ~1918.4 nm in master oscillator-power amplifier (MOPA) configuration. The pre-shaped pulsed fiber laser seed with a variable pulse duration and repetition rate were achieved by directly modulating a continuous wave (CW) single frequency fiber laser using a fast electro-optical modulator (EOM) driven by a arbitrary waveform generator (AWG). One piece of single mode, large (30 μm) core, polarization-maintaining (PM) highly thulium-doped (Tm-doped) germanate glass fiber (LC-TGF) was used to boost the pulse power and pulse energy of these modulated pulses in the final power amplifier. To the best of our knowledge, the highest average power 16 W for single frequency transform-limited ~2.0 ns pulses at 500 kHz was achieved, and the highest peak power 78.1 kW was achieved at 100 kHz. Furthermore, mJ pulse energy was achieved for ~15 ns pulses at 1 kHz repetition rate. Theoretical modeling of the large-core highly Tm-doped germanate glass double-cladding fiber amplifier (LC-TG-DC-FA) is also present for 2 μm nanosecond pulse amplification. A good agreement between the theoretical and experimental results was achieved. The model was also utilized to investigate the dependence of the stored energy in the LC-TGF on the pump power, seed energy and repetition rate, which can be used to design and optimize the LC-TG-DC-FA to achieve higher pulse energy.


This conceptual paper looks at and discusses differences between the concepts of organizational learning and (the) learning organization. Since there still seems to be confusion regarding the meaning of the two concepts, aims to clarify the two main existing distinctions – that organizational learning is existing processes while learning organization is an ideal form of organization. Also distinguishes between a traditional and a social perspective of organizational learning, which the existing distinctions have not – at least not explicitly. Thus, distinctions are made between three concepts. In addition to the improvement of the existing distinctions, suggests two complementary ones – entities of learning and knowledge location. These two distinctions might make it easier to distinguish also between the two perspectives of organizational learning.


Providing a practical introduction to state space methods as applied to unobserved components time series models, also known as structural time series models, this book introduces time series analysis using state space methodology to readers who are neither familiar with time series analysis, nor with state space methods. The only background required in order to understand the material presented in the book is a basic knowledge of classical linear regression models, of which a brief review is provided to refresh the reader's knowledge. Also, a few sections assume familiarity with matrix algebra, however, these sections may be skipped without losing the flow of the exposition. The book offers a step by step approach to the analysis of the salient features in time series such as the trend, seasonal, and irregular components. Practical problems such as forecasting and missing values are treated in some detail. This useful book will appeal to practitioners and researchers who use time series on a daily basis in areas such as the social sciences, quantitative history, biology and medicine. It also serves as an accompanying textbook for a basic time series course in econometrics and statistics, typically at an advanced undergraduate level or graduate level.


The Australia-Indonesia Centre welcomed Indonesian designers
Patrick Owen and Peggy Hartanto to Melbourne for the Virgin Australia Melbourne
Fashion Festival 2015.

Patrick and Peggy's visit was made possible by a fashion
partnership between Australia and Indonesia, launched on the runways of Jakarta
Fashion Week in November 2014.

As part of this partnership, Jakarta-based Patrick Owen
received the inaugural AIC Young Indonesian Designer Award, which celebrates
the rising stars of Indonesia's fashion scene. The $10,000 award was presented
by AIC Director Paul Ramadge and Chair of the Australian Global Fashion
Alliance and Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival Laura Anderson.

Surabaya-based Peggy Hartanto received a second award in
recognition of her outstanding achievements.

From 14-22 March 2015 both Patrick and Peggy took part in
the Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival, where they met key figures in
the global fashion industry. Patrick Owen also presented a runway show to
launch the Australian debut of his label.


In commercial equine embryo transfer programs, the cost of recipient mares represents one of the major economical items that increases the final cost of the pregnancies (Douglas 1985; Losinno and Alvarenga 2006). Due to the risks to newborn foal, it is uncommon to use foaling recipients in the large equine embryo transfer programs in Argentina. The objective of this study was to evaluate pregnancy and early embryonic loss rates between foaling and non-foaling recipients in a commercial embryo transfer program. A total of 173 embryos were collected from Arabian donor mares during 3 consecutive breeding seasons, 2006-2009. Donor mare's ages ranged from 2 to 22 years, and donors were inseminated with either fresh or frozen semen from 8 stallions 2-17 years old and of proved fertility. Uterine flushing was performed on Day 8 to 9 post-ovulation by standard techniques (Douglas 1985) and recovered embryos were transferred nonsurgically. Recipient mares 3-12 years old were selected clinically by rectal palpation and ultrasound. All embryos were transferred to synchronized recipient mares (-1 to +1 according to donor's ovulation day) and randomly assigned to non-foaling (n = 84) or foaling (n = 89) recipient groups. For the analysis, we first considered pregnancy and early pregnancy loss rates in both groups, and second, the foaling mares were divided in 3 groups according to the days between foaling and transfer: 1) before 30 days postpartum (n = 10), 2) between 31 and 60 days postpartum (n = 30), and 3) after 61 days postpartum (n = 49). Pregnancy diagnosis was performed by ultrasonography on Days 14, 30, and 60 post-ovulation of the donor. Results were evaluated by chi-square test. No statistical differences (P > 0.05) were observed in pregnancy rates between non-foaling and foaling recipients (76.2% and 80.9%, respectively) and in post-foaling groups (80% for recipients transferred before 30 days postpartum, 73.3% for recipients transferred between 31 to 60 days postpartum, and 85.7% for recipients transferred after 61 days postpartum). No statistical differences (P > 0.05) were found in pregnancy loss rates between recipients transferred before 30 and after 61 days postpartum (25% v. 4.8%, respectively) and between recipients transferred before 30 days postpartum and the non-foaling group (25% v. 10.9%, respectively). Pregnancy loss rates for recipients transferred after 31 and 61 days postpartum (9.1% and 4.8%, respectively) were not significantly different with the non-foaling group, and both are within previously reported values. Our results show that postpartum recipients can be used 30 days after normal foaling in a commercial embryo transfer program with similar pregnancy and early pregnancy loss rates and can be a valuable tool maximizing the use of the recipient mares during consecutive breeding seasons.


The modern Internet relies on the Domain Name System (DNS) to convert between human-readable domain names and IP addresses. However, the correct and efficient implementation of this function is jeopardized when the configuration data binding domains, nameservers and glue records is faulty. In particular lame delegations, which occur when a nameserver responsible for a domain is unable to provide authoritative information about it, introduce both performance and security risks. We perform a broad-based measurement study of lame delegations, using both longitudinal zone data and active querying. We show that lame delegations of various kinds are common (affecting roughly 14% of domains we queried), that they can significantly degrade lookup latency (when they do not lead to outright failure), and that they expose hundreds of thousands of domains to adversarial takeover. We also explore circumstances that give rise to this surprising prevalence of lame delegations, including unforeseen interactions between the operational procedures of registrars and registries.


This article critiques the Australian Government's White Paper: Australia in the Asian Century. It begins by reflecting on the relationship between Australia and Asia suggesting that this is measured solely through the narrow economic lens of Australian interests. The critique then focusses on the key drivers presented as the means by which Australia will navigate the Asian century concluding that although Australia punches above its weight in terms of living standards, equity and social inclusion, the White Paper overstates the country's capability and capacity particularly in the areas of skills, education, innovation and relationship development. This presents a number of unrealistic expectations, presenting difficulties for the current government to fund the fundamental initiatives required to deliver on the promises contained in the document.


There are thousands of offshore oil and gas platforms worldwide that will eventually become obsolete, and one popular decommissioning alternative is the "rigs to reefs" conversion that designates all or a portion of the underwater infrastructure as an artificial reef, thereby reducing
 the burden of infrastructure removal. The unique architecture of each platform may influence the size and structure of the associated fish assemblage if different structural elements form distinct habitats for fishes. Using scuba survey data from 11 southern California platforms from 1995
 to 2000, we examined fish assemblages associated with structural elements of the structure, including the major horizontal crossbeams outside of the jacket, vertical jacket legs, and horizontal crossbeams that span the jacket interior. Patterns of habitat association were examined among three
 depth zones: shallow (<16.8 m), midwater (16.8–26 m), and deep (>26 m); and between two life stages: young- of-the-year and non-young-of-the-year. Fish densities tended to be greatest along horizontal beams spanning the jacket interior, relative to either horizontal or vertical
 beams along the jacket exterior, indicating that the position of the habitat within the overall structure is an important characteristic affecting fish habitat use. Fish densities were also higher in transects centered directly over a vertical or horizontal beam relative to transects that
 did not contain a structural element. These results contribute to the understanding of fish habitat use on existing artificial reefs, and can inform platform decommissioning decisions as well as the design of new offshore structures intended to increase fish production.


Recent discoveries offshore Tanzania and Mozambique highlight East Africa as an emerging world-class pet-roleum province. Oil and gas estimates for this province total 12.5 BBO and 250 TCFG (Brownfield et al., 2012) as yet undiscovered. Play-opening reservoir systems have been verified in Paleocene, Eocene, and at least two Oligocene deep-water submarine fan and intraslope channel complexes (Law, 2011). In deep-water Tanzania, there have been seven gas discoveries (of eight attempts) since 2010, with recent announcements putting total gas reserves in Tanzania at 24–26 TCFG. In neighboring Mozambique, 19 wells were completed by Anadarko and ENI in the Ruvuma Basin from 2009 to June 2012, only two of which were not announced as commercial discoveries. With the additional drilling, the increase of reported reserves now approaches or exceeds 100 TCFG. Evidence continues to mount that suggests the Late Cretaceous section contains deposits from similar depositional settings (Tanzania Petroleum Development Corpo...


OBJECTIVE
Evaluate, based on the evolution of new biochemical markers of cardiac damage, if electrical cardioversion (ECV) causes myocardial injury.

METHODS
Seventy-six patients (P) submitted to elective ECV for atrial fibrillation or atrial flutter were evaluated. Creatine phosphokinase (CPK), CK-MB activity, CK-MB mass, myoglobin and cardiac troponin I (cTnI) were measured before, and 6 and 24 hours after ECV.

RESULTS
ECV was successful in 58 P (76.3%). Cumulative energy (CE) was up to 350 joules (J) in 36 P, from 500 to 650 J in 20 P and from 900 to 960 J in 20 P; the mean energy delivered being 493 J (+/- 309). The levels of cTnI remained within normal limits in all 76 P. The increase of cumulative energy led to an elevation of CPK levels (> p value = 0.007), CK-MB activity (> p value = 0.002), CK-MB mass (> p value = 0.03), and myoglobin (> p value = 0.015). A positive correlation between the cumulative energy and CPK peaks was observed (r = 0.660; p < 0.001), CK-MB activity (r = 0.429; p < 0.0001), CK-MB mass (r = 0.265; p = 0.02), and myoglobin (r = 0.684; p < 0.0001), as well as between the number of shocks and the CPK peaks (r = 0.770; p < 0.001), CK-MB activity (r = 0.642; p < 0.0001), CK-MB mass (r = 0.430; p < 0.0001), and myoglobin (r = 0.745; p < 0.0001).

CONCLUSION
ECV does not cause myocardial injury detectable by cTnI measurement. Elevations of CPK, CK-MB activity, CK-MB mass and myoglobin result from skeletal muscle injury and are positively correlated with the CE delivered or with the number of shocks.


Natural spring resources, other fresh water and used water related to natural springs have an important influence in Turkey and elsewhere. The value of water resources can be affected by pollution of the water by organic, inorganic, heavy metal, radioactive and biological substances. The rapid increase in pollution in Golcuk, a town of Kocaeli in the Marmara Region, and its surrounding area, is likely to create a problem for providing water needs in the future. The object of the research reported is to determine the heavy metal concentrations of the water supply. The investigation was carried out at eight surface water sources in Golcuk town and its surroundings. The water samples were collected from these sources each month in order to analyse for the following heavy metals Cr6, Cd, Pb, Ni, Zn, Cu, F-;, Fe, total cyanide (TCN). The pH of each sample was also measured. This work was conducted between 1996-1997. The variations in parameters with time, season, rainfall and environment have been observed during this period. The temperature of the water samples was measured at their sources, and their colours and transparencies were observed either in situ or by laboratory analysis. The parameters have been evaluated according to national standards. The results show that no changes were observed in the levels of Cr+6, Cd, Pb, Zn, F-;, Fe, T.CN in a year but some changes were observed in levels of Ni, Cu and pH. All of the springs were interpreted according to the national standard for water springs and are discussed in terms of drinkable, usable and irrigation water.


Traffic congestion continues to be a serious problem in major cities around the world. Congestion results not only in time lost while sitting in traffic jams. It also constitutes a disruption to company supply chains and the general flow of commerce. Idling vehicles contribute as well to air pollution. Congestion thus reduces the quality of life, but government efforts to limit it have been, for the most part, woefully inadequate. Indeed, in many metropolitan areas people take for granted the fact that helicopters will patrol thoroughfares in order to inform drivers about locations where traffic problems are particularly severe. Since 1975 Singapore has priced vehicle entry into its central business district (CBD). The main purpose of this pricing has been to manage traffic volumes rather than the collection of revenue. Prices have been adjusted as traffic conditions have changed. Tolls for roads, bridges, and highways have a long history around the world, but the tolls collected have been used mostly to help pay for transportation infrastructure. Charges for "hot lanes" on highways in Southern California, which help to smooth out traffic flows, have been the exception and not the rule. The city of London introduced congestion pricing in part of its downtown area in 2003. The pricing has succeeded in reducing traffic volumes by about 15 percent, and average traffic speeds have increased about 9.2 percent (The Economist, 9 June 2005). It is possible that road pricing will be instituted on a nationwide basis in the years ahead. The idea of road charges remains politically contentious, with prominent politicians vowing to stop them. The Dutch government made elaborate plans for more than 10 years to introduce widespread road pricing, but when the time came to implement the proposal in 2001, politicians could not summon the will to do so. In Singapore, by contrast, there is no doubt about the long-term survival of pricing as a means to control traffic volumes. Such pricing has already existed for three decades. Much can be learned from Singapore's experience. It should be emphasized that road pricing is viewed in Singapore as only one part of an eclectic approach to transportation management, and even in Singapore--where one political party has dominated the government--there are some political barriers to effective pricing. The introduction of superior technology for toll collection is also a sensitive matter. Nevertheless, Singapore has clearly been road pricing's world leader. The Economies of Road Pricing Elementary economies teaches us that an excess demand for a good or service can be eliminated if its price is raised sufficiently high. The demand for roadway use is no exception. Chronic traffic congestion indicates that there is an excess demand for roadway use, but in most cases, there is no explicit price charged for driving on streets and highways. Gasoline taxes may mildly discourage driving, but they do not charge vehicles according to time and place. Roadways may be mostly free of vehicles at some times and places, but they may be extremely congested at other times and locations. Moreover, traffic patterns may change over the years. Road pricing offers the possibility of targeting specific thoroughfares at specific times for more intensive traffic control. If the prices charged bear a reasonable relationship to the supply and demand for roadways, there are also payoffs with respect to information about driver preferences and road construction. In response to a higher price, for example, some travelers may choose to carpool, change the time of their travel, or use an alternative form of transportation. The higher price signals to people that they should consider changing their behavior, but the people involved make the decisions based on their own information about circumstances of time and place (Hayek 1945). …


The Passive/Active L-/S-band (PALS) microwave instrument has been developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to investigate the synergism of radiometer and radar measurements for soil moisture remote sensing. In July 1999, PALS was installed on the NCAR C-130 with six successful flights near the Oklahoma City during the Southern Great Plains 1999 (SGP99) Experiment. The data from these and subsequent ocean flights indicate a calibration stability of better than 0.1 dB for each flight. During the SGP99 experiment, there was a significant rain event between the second and the third flights. The data from before and after the rain event indicate a change of 3 to 4 dB in all radar polarization channels, and a decreasing radar backscatter with the drying of surfaces. The dataset enables us to illustrate the correlation of multi-polarization radar signatures with the soil moisture and vegetation biomass.


The optimization of the population as vital has been remolded with recent expressions of multispecies living, a rejuvenation of Environmentalism, the inception of ecology into politics and conceptualizations of post-human society. In this paper we address this re-establishment of government by analyzing the portraits of, and everyday discussions on and with, the First dog Bo Obama. The question we pose is how the First dog is constituted as a true family accessory, well behaved and in extension, an authority who can call upon the presidential subject and the ideal caring citizen? This also requires that the presidential family and staff occasionally walk in the other end of a leash, cuddle with and are companions to, the dog. Equally is the dog shaped to behave in a certain manner coupled with a specific mode of speech, representative of our time. By analyzing the imagery around, and peripheral statements on Bo and his relation to Barack Obama, the First family, the White House and in particular, interactive people, such as animal rights activists, we scrutinize the capillary workings of power. By intertwining Animal Studies with Governmentality theory we illustrate that the discourse around Bo produces him as a neo-liberal social being, offered to speak his own opinion in front of journalists' microphones and TV cameras, obliged to express taste and distaste, seduced to exercise and keep his body fit, all furthered at internet forums by human animals pretending to be dogs. The imagery around Bo produces a specific reality of not only a legitimate presidential family life filled with standardized leisure time, but also of new possibilities for how to govern the population. As people voluntarily engage in seeing through the eyes of the dog, evaluating their president in relation to the dog, and speaking on behalf of the dog, new power relations arise that utilize this engagement. This exemplifies how a governmental rationality evolves, by how it increasingly takes the life of the non-human animal as its objective whilst people are rendered governable, rationalized to be calculated upon, to be optimized at an aggregate level.


Book synopsis: This collection of essays explore the long-standing,intricate relationship between law and faith. Faith in this context is to be read in the broadest sense, as extending beyond religion to embrace the knowledge, beliefs, understandings and practices which are at work alongside the familiar and seemingly more reliable, trusted and relatively certain content and conventionally accepted methods of law and legal reasoning. The essays deal with three broad themes. The first concerns the extent to which faith should be involved in legal decision making. Ought decisions to aspire simply to right reason or ought faith-based models of decision-making to be incorporated into the legal system? If the latter, how is this best done? Ought faith to operate simply as a reason itself or ought it to help to structure the method by which legal decisions are reached? The second, and perhaps most familiar theme, stemming in part from rights discourse, is the extent to which law does, and ought to, respect the rights of those whose religious beliefs conflict with the dominant social norms and practices. Liberal democratic constitutions typically provide protection for religion and religious beliefs. Are these justified, and if so how? Can such protection as exists suffice from the perspective of the faithful, or does law's otherwise pervasive agnosticism make this impossible or illusory? Thirdly, questions of identity and difference arise. Assuming that most societies remain a mix of many faiths (religious and secular) and no faith, how should law and legal theory understand the varying and, it must be said, conflicting claims for recognition. Should we encourage conformity in the hope of reducing friction, or should we preserve and promote difference, seeking to understand others, whether groups or individuals, without removing that which makes them distinct? More radically and controversially, should we be more sceptical of individual and group claims to authenticity and see them rather as strategies in an ongoing power game? Faith after all, like reason and law, has never been far from politics and intrigue, especially in its institutional representation.


Erythropoietin (EPO) and its receptor (EPOR) are known to be essential for erythropoiesis. However, the EPO/EPOR system turned out to have additional important functions in non-hematopoietic tissue. The brain is one of the target areas and both, EPO and EPOR, are expressed in the brain. EPO has been shown to be neuroprotective and to improve the cognitive performance of patients suffering from schizophrenia and multiple sclerosis. Interestingly, the mechanism of cognitive enhancement is also present in healthy individuals and genetic common variants of EPO/EPOR can actually influence cognitive performance. The cellular and molecular basis of this phenomenon is not totally understood and by systemically administered EPO, it is difficult to separate the direct effect on neural cells from hematopoietic effects through enhanced tissue oxygenation. In this study, a transgenic mouse line was generated expressing a constitutively active EPOR (cEPOR) in GABAergic and glycinergic interneurons in order to enable us to specifically examine the impact of EPO/EPOR on cognition, when expressed in inhibitory neurons. For this purpose, the cEPOR construct was inserted into the Viaat bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) RP23-392P11 and microinjected into fertilized eggs of C57BL/6N females. Nine independent mouse strains were generated by breeding the founders with wildtype mice. The strains showed varying levels of construct expression and one strain actually had an insertion of different copy numbers in two different chromosomes. This relatively rare event in strain D14-0023 was further analyzed. Indeed, the offspring of D14-0023 segregated into low and high expressers, which was confirmed on the mRNA and protein levels. The phenotype of low and high expressers was then investigated in behavior and electrophysiological tests. Here, the basic behavior of the transgenic mice appeared to be comparable to wildtypes with respect to anxiety, olfaction, hearing, motor performance and pain perception. In the hole board working memory task, the transgenic mice showed a worse performance in rule learning in the acquisition phase, but no significant differences between the low and high expressers. Electrophysiological tests were conducted with the high expressers, measuring gamma oscillation and long term potentiation in the hippocampus. Whereas a significant influence of cEPOR could not be found in the gamma oscillation, short and long-term potentiation was increased. Hence, the study provides new information about the influence of the EPO/EPOR system on synaptic plasticity and cognitive performance. Importantly, the effects are pure neuronal effects, excluding hematopoietic side effects as confounding factors.


Biochemical analyses of blood and cerebrospinal fluid of nine patients with diabetic ketoacidosis and impaired levels of consciousness were performed before and after four hours of intravenous therapy with insulin, saline, and bicarbonate. A comparison with previously reported data from a similar group of patients treated with insulin and saline alone revealed no significant differences in blood or cerebrospinal fluid with the following exceptions. First, the fall in CSF osmolality was significantly less after insulinsaline-bicarbonate therapy than in patients receiving only insulin and saline. Second, CSF pH values declined in both groups with therapy but were significantly lower in the group receiving insulin-saline-bicarbonate. Definite and progressive clinical improvement was noted in all nine patients from admission to discharge. It was concluded that the use of sodium bicarbonate did not discernibly alter the clinical course of the nine patients studied except for the unexplained slower decline in CSF osmolality. The use of NaHCO3 appears to be indicated primarily in situations in which prompt correction of metabolic acidosis is essential, e.g., to improve cardiovascular function.


This paper aims to detect whether or not people could work for more years in the presence of a more flourishing and cheaper formal care market, which, in turn, would provide support for people who are still at work and who have to cope with the care of their elderly parents and relatives. We focus on the flow of immigrants as a key variable in order to detect whether or not this channel is at work. We disentangle retirement decisions, first by modelling retirement choice using a simple life-cycle framework in which caring for parents is introduced into the choice set. We then correlate retirement choice with the gap between the foregone salary if early retirement is chosen and the price of formal care. The findings show that immigrants contribute to the postponement of retirement for women only.According to our estimates, we predict that the increase in immigration rate (equal to 4 percentage points) which occurred over the period 2000-2008 raised the retirement age for Italian women (with parents who are still alive) by almost one year, while the impact on men was non-existent.


It's Christmas; you're in a hospital isolation ward, sleep-deprived and depressed, bilious and sometimes swallowing your own vomit to keep the pills down, with a painful 3 cm hole in your lung and slowly going deaf – that's how it was for one unfortunate Somerset West doctor two years ago.

Now remove aspiring paediatrician Dr Dalene von Delft's medical aid, her cutting edge collegial advice, a steadfast and supportive doctor-husband and an ability to persuade a major drug company to allow compassionate use of an as-yet unproven drug for multi-drug resistant TB – and you have the distilled experience of most MDR TB and XDR TB-infected South Africans. Von Delft counts her blessings because she knows that her struggle pales in comparison with most of her compatriots'. Today she is alive and well, joining the privileged and/or lucky minority (estimates are 42%) of South Africans cured of MDR TB. The worst three months of her treatment left her a changed person, and an activist clinician with strong ideas on the value of basic TB prevention methods that educationalists, peers and health system designers could implement so easily, thus saving hundreds of lives as the local epidemic burgeons.


The well-known micro plane theory is extended to account for micro ro- tations and couple stresses in the framework of the micro polar Cosserat continua. The main purpose is to obtain reliable macro- scopic constitutive equations and models for engineering materials like concrete and other composites based on available and precise in- formation of their complex microstructure. The proposed macroscopic descriptions ac- count also for anisotropic material response behavior by means of the well-developed mi- cro plane concept applied within a micro po- lar continuum setting. For the formulation of the micro polar-based micro plane theory a thermodynamically consistent approach is considered, whereby the main assumption is the integral relation between the macroscopic and the microscopic free energy as advocated by Carol et al. (2001) and Kuhl et al. (2001). Thereby, the micro plane laws are chosen such that the macroscopic Clausius-Duhem inequality is fully satisfled. This theoretical framework is considered to derive both elas- tic and elastoplastic micro polar micro plane models. Numerical predictions of the uniaxial tensile and simple shear tests in plane strain conditions obtained with a micro polar micro plane elastoplastic model are also presented and contrasted to the corresponding predic- tions of the classical micro polar elastoplastic model.


Background Significant health issues and service delivery costs are associated with post-stroke pneumonia related to dysphagia. Silent aspiration is known to increase pneumonia and mortality in this population. The utility of cough reflex testing (CRT) for reducing pneumonia in acute stroke patients was the subject of this randomised, controlled trial. Methods Patients referred for swallowing evaluation (N = 311) were assigned to either 1) a control group receiving standard evaluation or 2) an experimental group receiving standard evaluation with CRT. Participants in the experimental group were administered nebulised citric acid with test results contributing to clinical decisions. Outcomes for both groups were measured by pneumonia rates at 3 months post evaluation and other clinical indices of swallowing management. Results Analysis of the data identified no significant differences between groups in pneumonia rate (P = 0.38) or mortality (P = 0.15). Results of CRT were shown to influence diet recommendations (P < 0.0001) and referrals for instrumental assessment (P < 0.0001). Conclusions Despite differences in clinical management between groups, the end goal of reducing pneumonia in post stroke dysphagia was not achieved.


A device denoted a board saver has been developed as a means of reducing wear and tear of a printed-circuit board onto which an antifuse field programmable gate array (FPGA) is to be eventually soldered permanently after a number of design iterations. The need for the board saver or a similar device arises because (1) antifuse-FPGA design iterations are common and (2) repeated soldering and unsoldering of FPGAs on the printed-circuit board to accommodate design iterations can wear out the printed-circuit board. The board saver is basically a solderable/unsolderable FPGA receptacle that is installed temporarily on the printed-circuit board. The board saver is, more specifically, a smaller, square-ring-shaped, printed-circuit board (see figure) that contains half via holes one for each contact pad along its periphery. As initially fabricated, the board saver is a wider ring containing full via holes, but then it is milled along its outer edges, cutting the via holes in half and laterally exposing their interiors. The board saver is positioned in registration with the designated FPGA footprint and each via hole is soldered to the outer portion of the corresponding FPGA contact pad on the first-mentioned printed-circuit board. The via-hole/contact joints can be inspected visually and can be easily unsoldered later. The square hole in the middle of the board saver is sized to accommodate the FPGA, and the thickness of the board saver is the same as that of the FPGA. Hence, when a non-final FPGA is placed in the square hole, the combination of the non-final FPGA and the board saver occupy no more area and thickness than would a final FPGA soldered directly into its designated position on the first-mentioned circuit board. The contact leads of a non-final FPGA are not bent and are soldered, at the top of the board saver, to the corresponding via holes. A non-final FPGA can readily be unsoldered from the board saver and replaced by another one. Once the final FPGA design has been determined, the board saver can be unsoldered from the contact pads on the first-mentioned printed-circuit board and replaced by the final FPGA.


Rodents with cyclic population dynamics are important herbivores in alpine areas with major effects on vegetation composition, biomass and diversity. Many places in Fennoscandia the population cycles in lemmings and voles have been fading out during the last two decades. Together with the recent climate change this has the potential to cause serious changes in alpine plant communities. This study has investigated the distribution of rodents in response to preferred and non-preferred plant species and their effect on seedling emergence in two Norwegian alpine regions with contrasting rodent dynamics over the last decades; Borgefjell with intact 3-4 year population cycles and Dovrefjell where the cycles have been absent in recent years. Field work was conducted in the summer of 2011, a peak year for rodents in both mountain regions. Recordings of vegetation, rodent tracks and number of seedlings were done in 270 square (0.5×0.5 m) plots in lee sides and snow beds in the low alpine zone. The results indicate that lemming and voles avoid patches with high frequencies of non-preferred forage. In both regions seedling emergence was significantly positively correlated with disturbance from rodents, with the increase in number of seedlings being higher in Dovrefjell compared to Borgefjell. This suggests that microsite limitation is common in both regions. Generally fewer seedlings were found in Borgefjell than Dovrefjell, and as expected, the number of seedlings was higher in snow beds compared to lee sides in both regions. These results indicate that rodents have an important role for the presence of recruitment dynamics in lee side and snow bed communities in alpine areas.


Results are reported of laboratory simulated weathering processes on a range of sedimentary rocks and the investigation of the deterioration of rock masses as observed on engineered and quarried rockslopes.

The simulated weathering processes include freeze-thaw, wetting and drying, salt weathering and slaking. It is found that the rock properties of pore volume, saturation coefficient and microporosity exert greatest influence on susceptibility to breakdown. For stronger rocks it is
found that durability correlates well with high strength and elasticity.

A range of rock flaws visible in hand specimen are described and their influence on rock deterioration assessed. Linear flaws such as laminations and stylolites are more likely to be associated with breakdown, and the role of structural weaknesses is most evident in stronger
rocks. Rock breakdown mode due to experimental weathering is found to closely resemble material weathering of source slopes in the field. A range of rock breakdown mechanisms are inferred from changes in pore microstructure and rock strength. There are indications of a progression from deterioration which is invisible and involves modification of the existing pore structure, to macro deterioration resulting from generation of new void space and microcracks.

After field investigation of more than two hundred rockslopes deterioration is found to be widespread, and there is little evidence of a systematic approach to its assessment or mitigation. Fracture spacing, rock strength and lithology are found to be the most influential factors in rockslope deterioration and these are used to define a characteristic range of rock mass types. A range of morphological forms attributed to deterioration are defined and described. An engineering classification of deterioration modes is presented, based on constituent material size, velocity of movement and frequency of occurrence. Deterioration modes correlate well with
rock mass type.

A new rock mass classification, called Rockslope Deterioration Assessment (RDA) is proposed, dealing specifically with shallow, weathering and erosion-related rockslope processes. RDA is divided into three stages; a ratings assessment of deterioration risk, a qualitative review of the likely deterioration hazard, and guidance on appropriate mitigation. The findings of the experimental work are incorporated into stage one of RDA where appropriate. Notable in this respect is the emphasis in RDA on evaluation of fracture spacing on the basis of all fractures present, whether open or incipient, and whether natural, or induced by blasting, weathering or stress release. RDA is applied to the slopes investigated in the fieldwork and shows that certain types of rock mass are associated with higher risk of failure. There is also an element of predictability in the occurrence of deterioration modes. Correlation between stage one of RDA
and Rock Mass Rating is examined and it is shown that, although there are some similarities, a fundamental difference relates to the basis upon which fracture spacing is assessed.


Protein phosphorylation is a dynamic and reversible event that greatly influences cellular function. Identifying the key regulatory elements that determine cellular phenotypes during development and oncogenesis requires the ability to dynamically monitor proteome-wide events. Here, we report the development of a new strategy to monitor dynamic changes of protein phosphorylation in cells and tissues using functional protein microarrays as the readout. To demonstrate this technology's ability to identify condition-dependent phosphorylation events, human protein microarrays were incubated with lysates from cells or tissues under activation or inhibition of c-Met, a receptor tyrosine kinase involved in tissue morphogenesis and malignancy. By comparing the differences between the protein phosphorylation profiles obtained using the protein microarrays, we were able to recover many of the proteins that are known to be specifically activated (i.e., phosphorylated) upon c-Met activation by the hepatocyte growth factor (HGF). Most importantly, we discovered many proteins that were differentially phosphorylated by lysates from cells or tissues when the c-Met pathway was active. Using phosphorylation-specific antibodies, we were able to validate several candidate proteins as new downstream components of the c-Met signaling pathway in cells. We envision that this new approach, like its DNA microarray counterpart, can be further extended toward profiling dynamics of global protein phosphorylation under many different physiological conditions both in cellulo and in vivo in a high-throughput and cost-effective fashion.


In this work, a helical spring made from a pseudoelastic shape memory alloy was embedded in a dynamic system also composed of a mass, a linear spring and an excitation system. The mechanical behaviour of shape memory alloys is highly complex, involving hysteresis, which leads to damping capabilities and varying stiffness. Besides, these properties depend on the temperature and pretension conditions. Because of these capabilities, shape memory alloys are interesting in relation to engineering design of dynamic systems. A theoretical model based on a modification of the 1D Brinson model was established. Basically, the hardening and the sub-loop behaviour were altered. The model parameters were extracted from force–displacement tests of the spring at different constant temperatures as well as from differential scanning calorimetry. Model predictions were compared with experimental results of free and forced vibrations of the system setup under different temperature conditions. The experiments give a thorough insight into dynamic systems involving pseudoelastic shape memory alloys. Comparison between experimental results and the proposed model shows that the model is able to explain and predict the overall nonlinear behaviour of the system.


We introduce the thermodynamic variational objective (TVO) for learning in both continuous and discrete deep generative models. The TVO arises from a key connection between variational inference and thermodynamic integration that results in a tighter lower bound to the log marginal likelihood than the standard variational variational evidence lower bound (ELBO) while remaining as broadly applicable. We provide a computationally efficient gradient estimator for the TVO that applies to continuous, discrete, and non-reparameterizable distributions and show that the objective functions used in variational inference, variational autoencoders, wake sleep, and inference compilation are all special cases of the TVO. We use the TVO to learn both discrete and continuous deep generative models and empirically demonstrate state of the art model and inference network learning.


Deep neural networks, in particular convolutional neural networks, have become highly effective tools for compressing images and solving inverse problems including denoising, inpainting, and reconstruction from few and noisy measurements. This success can be attributed in part to their ability to represent and generate natural images well. Contrary to classical tools such as wavelets, imagegenerating deep neural networks have a large number of parameters—typically a multiple of their output dimension—and need to be trained on large datasets. In this paper, we propose an untrained simple image model, called the deep decoder, which is a deep neural network that can generate natural images from very few weight parameters. The deep decoder has a simple architecture with no convolutions and fewer weight parameters than the output dimensionality. This underparameterization enables the deep decoder to compress images into a concise set of network weights, which we show is on par with wavelet-based thresholding. Further, underparameterization provides a barrier to overfitting, allowing the deep decoder to have state-of-the-art performance for denoising. The deep decoder is simple in the sense that each layer has an identical structure that consists of only one upsampling unit, pixel-wise linear combination of channels, ReLU activation, and channelwise normalization. This simplicity makes the network amenable to theoretical analysis, and it sheds light on the aspects of neural networks that enable them to form effective signal representations.


Professional service firms (PSFs) play an important role in the knowledge-based economy. Their success is highly dependent on their people, the knowledge resources they possess, and how they use these resources. However, how to systematically manage human resources to attain high performance is not fully understood. This study addresses this issue by investigating the linkage mechanisms through which high-performance work systems (HPWS) influence the performance of PSFs. We integrate resource-based and dynamic capability theories in order to identify and investigate two intervening mechanisms that link HR practices to firm performance. The first mechanism is the intellectual capital resources comprising the human, social, and organizational capital that HPWS create. The second mechanism is the uses to which both HPWS and resources can be applied, operationalized as organizational ambidexterity, the simultaneous exploitation of existing knowledge and exploration of new knowledge. These mechanisms are hypothesized to link HPWS to firm performance in the form of a practices-resources-uses-performance linkage model. Results from a longitudinal study of 93 accounting firms support this linkage model. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


DuringJuly and August 2000 and 2001, mist nets were set concentrated on three drainages in the Jessieville District of the Ouachita National Forest: North Fork Ouachita River (ten sites), Irons Fork Creek (five sites), and Muddy Creek (two sites). A total of 83 bats representing seven species was caught during 20 evenings (43 net nights). Sampled habitats included pools in road ruts, intermittent streams, man-made ponds on ridgelines, a wet road rut fed by a seep, small drainages that flowed only after a heavy rain, a standing pool in a clearing, and larger streams. Eastern red bats (Lasiurus borealis) were caught 64 times. Other bats caught included three evening bats {Nycticeius humeralis), eight eastern pipistrelles {Pipistrellus subflavus), two hoary bats (Lasiurus cinereus), three northern long-eared myotis (Myotis septentrionalis), one big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus), and two Seminole bats (Lasiurus seminolus). A juvenile Seminole bat, only recently volant, represents the first documentation of likely reproduction of this bat in Arkansas.


Wireless sensor networks have been proposed for facilitating various monitoring applications (e.g., environmental monitoring and military surveillance) over a wide geographical region. In these applications, spatial queries that collect data from wireless sensor networks play an important role. One such query is the K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN) query that facilitates collection of sensor data samples based on a given query location and the number of samples specified (i.e., K). Recently, itinerary-based KNN query processing techniques, which propagate queries and collect data along a predetermined itinerary, have been developed. Prior studies demonstrate that itinerary-based KNN query processing algorithms are able to achieve better energy efficiency than other existing algorithms developed upon tree-based network infrastructures. However, how to derive itineraries for KNN query based on different performance requirements remains a challenging problem. In this paper, we propose a Parallel Concentric-circle Itinerary-based KNN (PCIKNN) query processing technique that derives different itineraries by optimizing either query latency or energy consumption. The performance of PCIKNN is analyzed mathematically and evaluated through extensive experiments. Experimental results show that PCIKNN outperforms the state-of-the-art techniques.