Previous studies have associated activation of canonical Wnt signaling in osteoblasts with elevated bone formation. Here we report that deletion of the murine Wnt antagonist, secreted frizzled-related protein (sFRP)-1, prolongs and enhances trabecular bone accrual in adult animals. sFRP-1 mRNA was expressed in bones and other tissues of +/+ mice but was not observed in -/- animals. Despite its broad tissue distribution, ablation of sFRP-1 did not affect blood and urine chemistries, most nonskeletal organs, or cortical bone. However, sFRP-1-/- mice exhibited increased trabecular bone mineral density, volume, and mineral apposition rate when compared with +/+ controls. The heightened trabecular bone mass of sFRP-1-/- mice was observed in adult animals between the ages of 13-52 wk, occurred in multiple skeletal sites, and was seen in both sexes. Mechanistically, loss of sFRP-1 reduced osteoblast and osteocyte apoptosis in vivo. In addition, deletion of sFRP-1 inhibited osteoblast lineage cell apoptosis while enhancing the proliferation and differentiation of these cells in vitro. Ablation of sFRP-1 also increased osteoclastogenesis in vitro, although changes in bone resorption were not observed in intact animals in vivo. Our findings demonstrate that deletion of sFRP-1 preferentially activates Wnt signaling in osteoblasts, leading to enhanced trabecular bone formation in adults.


How much of academia is infiltrated by activists? Some conservatives claim that "neo-Marxism" and its sister paradigms like feminist pedagogy, post-structuralism, and post-modernism have long infected certain departments in the humanities and social sciences. Those paradigms have now spread to more disciplines and funding committees.However, conservatives have been slow to explain how activist departments capture institutions. In that light, this policy brief reviews two feminist papers that detail institutional capture. The campus activism process is quite successful and it's critical to show how activists use academic departments to capture institutions (both on the faculty and the administrative sides). For leaders who want to protect institutions against a political takeover, some workable and achievable policies can help them preserve a free academy.


In 2012, I conducted my first PhD study exploring general practitioners' attitudes toward online patient
feedback. After designing the research questions and topic guide to conduct the interviews, I reviewed
existing literature where authors described recruiting general practitioners to take part in research. I
found there was some focus in the literature on the challenges associated with low general practitioner
participation in survey-based and intervention studies, but little that described the process, experience,
and challenges associated with recruiting general practitioners to take part in qualitative research.
Although general practitioners are known to be a difficult group to recruit to take part in research, the
recruitment process I experienced was much more challenging than I had anticipated. This case study
sheds light on my experience of recruiting 20 general practitioners in England to an interview-based
study, and outlines a critical reflection on the eight strategies used for recruitment. I started by using
traditional methods such as postal invitations and faxes to recruit general practitioners. Due to the very
low success rate, I resorted to using more inexpensive and creative methods, such as sending an
invitation letter through email, advertising in general practitioner Email Newsletters, seeking help from
existing research networks, recruiting through friends and acquaintances, and using social media. In
this case study, I also describe the participants' (general practitioners') motivations for taking part in the
study, and I conclude with offering suggestions on how to maximize response rates to general
practitioner-based qualitative studies in England.


Abstract At low temperature and in the presence of an acid catalyst, SO2 adds to 1,3-dienes equilibrating with the corresponding 3,6-dihydro-1,2-oxathiin-2-oxides (sultines). These compounds are unstable above -60 °C and equilibrate with the more stable 2,5-dihydrothiophene 1,1-dioxides (sulfolenes). The hetero-Diels-Alder additions of SO2 are suprafacial and follow the Alder endo rule. The sultines derived from 1-oxy-substituted and 1,3-dioxy-disubstituted 1,3-dienes cannot be observed at -100 °C but are believed to be formed faster than the corresponding sulfolenes. In the presence of acid catalysts, the 6-oxy-substituted sultines equilibrate with zwitterionic species that react with electron-rich alkenes such as enoxysilanes and allylsilanes, generating β,γ-unsaturated silyl sulfinates that can be desilylated and desulfinylated to generate polypropionate fragments containing up to three contiguous stereogenic centers and an (E)-alkene unit. Alternatively, the silyl sulfinates can be reacted with electrophiles to generate polyfunctional sulfones (one-pot, four-component synthesis of sulfones), or oxidized into sulfonyl chlorides and reacted with amines, then realizing a one-pot, four-component synthesis of polyfunctional sulfonamides. Using enantiomerically enriched dienes such as 1-[(R)- or 1-(S)-phenylethyloxy]-2-methyl-(E,E)-penta-1,3-dien-3-yl isobutyrate, derived from inexpensive (R)- or (S)-1-phenylethanol, enantiomerically enriched stereotriads are obtained in one-pot operations. The latter are ready for further chain elongation. This has permitted the development of expeditious total asymmetric syntheses of important natural products of biological interest such as the baconipyrones, rifamycin S, and apoptolidin A.


Two years after the Fukushima disaster started unfolding on 11 March 2011, its impact on the global nuclear industry has become increasingly visible. Global electricity generation from nuclear plants dropped by a historic 7 percent in 2012, adding to the record drop of 4 percent in 2011. This World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2013 (WNISR) provides a global overview of the history, the current status and the trends of nuclear power programs worldwide.


In light of the overwhelming popularity of self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (SCUBA) diving, general dental practitioners should be prepared to address complications arising as a result of diving and to provide patients with accurate information. The aim of this article was to introduce the concepts of diving medicine and dentistry to the dentist, and to supply the dental practitioner with some diagnostic tools as well as treatment guidelines. The literature was reviewed to address diving barotrauma (pressure-induced injury related to an air space) to the head, face and oral regions, as well as scuba mouthpiece-related oral conditions. The relevant conditions for dentists who treat divers include diving-associated headache (migraine, tension-type headache), barosinusitis and barotitis-media (sinus and middle ear barotrauma, respectively), neuropathy, trigeminal (CN V) or facial (CN VII) nerve baroparesis (pressure-induced palsy), dental barotrauma (barometric-related tooth injury), barodontalgia (barometric-related dental pain), mouthpiece-associated herpes infection, pharyngeal gag reflex and temporomandibular joint disorder (dysfunction). For each condition, a theoretical description is followed by practical recommendations for the dental practitioner for the prevention and management of the condition.


This research effort was developed to record and analyze the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) bridge/structure inspection processes as an aid to modernizing and automating these inspection processes through the use of mobile personal computer (PC) devices such as Palm/PPCs and other wearable computing devices. The research was conducted using an informal conversational interview process coupled with direct observations to match the perceived processes with actual processes. Once the interviews and observations were completed, workflows were mapped and analyzed for operational bottlenecks and process improvement opportunities. The results of the mappings and a comprehensive literature review were used to analyze the existing work processes. New process transformation maps were created and overlaid on current mappings to complete a transportation model. Redundancies were observed in the reporting function, and bottlenecks were identified within the inspection management and inspection functions. The research also indicates that the inspection process is readily transformable from one that relies on marking up paper reports in the field and then returning to the office for semi-manual reporting to one that is electronically assisted in areas of data capture, automated bridge inventory updates, and semi-automated report production. From this analysis a series of strategies and recommendations were made to assist VDOT in modernizing and transforming their current bridge inspection processes to more efficient digitally assisted processes.


Sufficient oxidation stability of advanced carbon based materials is a key feature for their application in fusion, fission, aerospace and chemical engineering. These materials were examined as part of the EU research projects ExtreMat and Raphael-ML. This paper discusses the presently available oxidation model, outlines its limits on basis of respective experiments and proposes improvements. Methods for oxidation protection of advanced carbon based materials as doping and coating with different components are discussed. Experimental oxidation results on EX10, a carbon fibre in SiC matrix, in air at high flow rates and high temperatures are presented.


Abstract. Cerion uva gouldi is described as a new subspecies to include only fossil and subfossil Cerion uva from Aruba. The name Cerion uva arubanum Baker, 1924 had previously been applied to all Cerion uva from Aruba, living and fossil. A recent molecular study has shown that Cerion uva arubanum, a taxon based on living type material from Aruba, is a synonym of Cerion uva uva (Linnaeus, 1758), with which it shares a preponderance of mitochondrial haplotypes. Cerion uva was widespread on Aruba during the Pleistocene, but became extinct on that island and was subsequently reintroduced from a population near Willemstad in eastern Curaçao by humans within the past 800 years. Earlier authors had recognized that fossil Cerion from Aruba differ in morphology from those living on the island today, with fossils being more similar to specimens from western Curaçao and Bonaire, while those living on Aruba today are most similar to Cerion uva uva from eastern Curaçao. Cerion uva gouldi may be distinguished from living populations of Cerion on Aruba on the basis of its cylindrical rather than ovate shell shape, its more closely spaced whorls, and its round aperture with a uniform rather than anteriorly expanded parietal rim.


The Fosberg fire weather index is a simple tool for evaluating the potential influence of weather on a wildland fire based on temperature, relative humidity and wind speed. A modification to this index that includes the impact of precipitation is proposed. The Keetch-Byram drought index is used to formulate a 'fuel availability' factor that modifies the response of the fire weather index. Comparisons between the original and modified indices are made using historical fire data from the Florida Division of Forestry. The addition of the fuel availability factor helps increase the utility of the fire weather index as it offers an improved relationship between the index and area burned.


This presentation focuses on the role of the Inter-American Development Bank in the socioeconomic development of the indigenous peoples of Latin America. Following a brief description of who the region's indigenous peoples are, and of the issues and concerns that face them, this paper presents the broad outlines of a more detailed strategy document that is currently being prepared. This presentation provides some examples of what the IDB has been doing to respond to its mandate to address the needs of indigenous peoples. It also mentions some of the major challenges that the Bank faces in order to be more effective in fostering the sustainable socioeconomic development of indigenous people. The Bank's thrust in this area emphasizes the positive relationship between economic development, participation and strengthening cultural heritage within a framework that recognizes the rights of indigenous peoples. This presentation was presented at the IDB Forum of the Americas on April 8th, 1997.


An innovative tri-sector partnership has been formed in two peri-urban areas in Durban and Pietermaritzburg, in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, which aims to provide sustainable water and sanitation services to these previously disadvantaged communities. This forms part of the world-wide Business Partners for Development (BPD) programme initiated by the World Bank to bring together the diverse resources, expertise and perspectives of three distinct sectors: business sector, public sector and civil society, in particular Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO's). The project focus includes infrastructure upgrading, water loss management, community involvement and capacity building, education and awareness on water conservation, health and hygiene, and customer management. The establishment of a common research framework examining impacts and outcomes and an international sharing and learning programme will, it is hoped, lead ultimately to better and replicable practices.


Essential or primary hypertension is a complex polygenic disease with genetic
heritability averaging approximately 30% and with strong influence of
environmental factors and gene-environment interaction. Heterogeneity in the
general population and the polygenic complexities of the disease has meant that
identification and functional validation of candidate genes has proved extremely
difficult in humans. Several strategies have been developed to dissect genetic
determinants of hypertension, one of which is the use of rodent models (1;2).
Animal models of heritable hypertension offer more favourable investigative
opportunities because of reduced genetic heterogeneity, the capacity for
controlled breeding and environmental conditions, and the ability to produce
genetic crosses and analyse large numbers of progeny. The stroke-prone
spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHRSP) is a commonly used model of human
essential hypertension. Previous studies conducted in our laboratory utilizing a
combination of congenic strain construction and genome-wide microarray
expression profiling in the SHRSP have allowed us to identify the positional
candidate gene, glutathione S-transferase μ-type 1 (Gstm1), which is involved in
the defence against oxidative stress and is significantly down-regulated in the
SHRSP (3;4). Genomic DNA sequencing of Gstm1 in SHRSP and WKY identified 13
single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), an insertion and a deletion (5).
Luciferase reporter gene assays implicated five SNPs to be responsible for
significant reduction in luciferase activity measurements (6). In consideration of
these previous studies, it is hypothesized that Gstm1 deficiency in the SHRSP
plays a causative role in the development of oxidative stress and hypertension.
To establish definitive proof that reduced Gstm1 expression affects blood
pressure regulation and oxidative stress, two independent transgenic lines
(referred to as Trans1 and Trans2) of SHRSP were created with the aim of
rescuing Gstm1 deficiency by incorporation of a normal Gstm1 gene into the
SHRSP genome. Generation of these transgenic SHRSP rats involved
microinjection with a 2.7 kb linear construct encoding wild type (WKY) Gstm1
under the control of the universal EF-1α promoter. They were generated using
the same expression platform and microinjection fragment purification protocol
employed in the successful production of the CD-36 transgenic, rat as previously
described (7). The transgenic protocol was carried out in collaboration with Dr
17
Michal Pravenec (Prague), who is an expert in transgenic rat production, using
male and female SHRSP rats from the University of Glasgow colony.
Oxidative stress is an important pathogenic factor in the development of
cardiovascular disease. Glutathione S-transferases protect against oxidative
stress-induced injury through the detoxification of reactive oxygen species. It is
hypothesised that Gstm1 deficiency in the SHRSP plays a causative role in the
development of oxidative stress and hypertension. Thus the aims of this study
were to establish definitive proof that reduced Gstm1 expression in the SHRSP
plays a causative role in the development of hypertension and oxidative stress
through utilizing a combinational approach of in vivo and ex vivo studies
alongside molecular analysis to fully characterize the Gstm1 transgenic SHRSP
rat. Additionally, information and insights gained from this investigation from the
Gstm1 transgenic SHRSP will be applied to a translation aspect for the
investigation of GSTM family in humans.
Functional validation through hemodynamic and cardiac analysis included
measurement of systolic, diastolic and mean arterial blood pressures, pulse
pressure and heart rate using the Dataquest IV telemetry system (Data Sciences
International) and transthoracic echocardiography was used to assess cardiac
geometry and contractility. Telemetry data show that there is a significant
reduction in systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressures, and pulse pressure
in both of the transgenic lines when compared to the SHRSP suggesting that
incorporation of a WKY type Gstm1 gene into the SHRSP genome does indeed
reduce the hypertensive phenotype. Moreover, the observed reduction in systolic
blood pressure is remarkably similar in magnitude to that demonstrated in the
Chromosome 2 congenic strain, SP.WKYGla2c*, in which Gstm1 was identified as
a candidate gene for hypertension. In order to investigate the potential role of
Gstm1 deficiency in the salt-sensitivity phenotype in SHRSP rats, parental strain
rats and Trans1 animals underwent 1% salt loading starting at 18 weeks of age.
This resulted in Trans1 displaying a trend towards salt-sensitivity (i.e.
exaggerated night-time daytime blood pressure variation) similar to that of the
SHRSP, however, the Trans1 line still maintained a significant decrease in systolic
and diastolic blood pressure compared to the SHRSP during salt loading.
18
In parallel with the significantly lower SBP, DBP and PP we also observe
significantly improved cardiac function and reduced cardiac hypertrophy in the
two independently generated transgenic lines. While there was no significant
changes in both fractional shortening (FS) and ejection fraction (EF), between
the four strains, relative wall thickness was significantly reduced in WKY, Trans1,
and Trans2 rats when compared to the SHRSP with Trans1 and Trans2 rats
showing an intermediate phenotype between the parental strains.
Analysis of genetic and molecular changes resulting from the random insertion of
Gstm1 into the SHRSP genome included assessment of transgene (WKY form) and
total Gstm1 gene expression, protein quantification, immunohistochemistry
(IHC), transgene insertion and copy number. Both transgenic lines demonstrated
an increase in total and transgene specific expression of Gstm1 in kidneys at 5
weeks of age as well as increased transgene expression in several other
cardiovascular tissues. Protein expression was also similarly increased in the
kidney at 5 weeks of age and showed a similar expression pattern to that of the
WKY. Additionally, we saw increased total Gstm1 expression in a range of
cardiovascular tissues at 21 weeks of age without changes of other Gstm family
members (Gstm2 and Gstm3). Although it was not possible to identify the exact
location of the transgene insertion site in both transgenic lines, data presented
indicate that they are not identically inserted. Furthermore, sequencing data
shows that each transgenic line contains multiple copies of the transgene across
a number of generations.
To assess renal function in the Gstm1 transgenic lines, rats from each line that
were implanted with telemetry probes were assessed by 24-hr metabolic cage
measurements which allowed for analysis of indirect glomerular filtration rate
along with proteinuria and urinary electrolyte measurements. Histological
analysis was used to assess renal morphology by examining haematoxylin and
eosin (H&E) stained sections. Fibrosis was examined by staining with picrosirius
red. At 21 weeks, we saw evidence of reduced renal pathology as indicated by
the absence of renal vessel hyperplasia and reduced proteinuria in the WKY,
Trans1, and Trans2 rats. H&E staining showed a more similar morphology to the
WKY in the transgenic lines with no signs of accelerated hypertension. These
improvements in renal pathology were also apparent in salt-loaded Trans1 rats.
19
Oxidative stress and myography measurements were also carried out in order to
ascertain the impact of increased Gstm1 expression on the SHRSP genetic
background. The data presented in this study clearly shows a reduction in renal
oxidative stress in both transgenic lines. Furthermore, these improvements in
oxidative stress were also apparent in salt-loaded Trans1 rats. Aortic and
mesenteric artery wire myography data showed that there was no significant
difference between SHRSP and transgenic lines for vascular function. Pressure
myography in the mesenteric arteries, demonstrated that the transgenic lines
were only significantly different from the SHRSP in terms of increased vessel
cross sectional area (CSA), but did show trends of improved structure and
mechanical alterations of these vessels.
Additionally, we investigated the rodent GSTM family and applied them to a
human cohort in order to assess translational aspects and expanded the study
previously conducted by Delles et al. (8). The investigation included a larger
number of subjects than that studied previously by Delles et al. and allowed for
the elucidation of the relationship between other members of the GSTM family
and human essential hypertension. While there was no significant difference in
renal expression in GSTM5, GSTM3, GPx-1 and GPx-3 between normotensive and
hypertensive patient, we found that GSTM2 expression was significantly
increased in hypertensive patients when compared to normotensive patients.
Moreover, we found there to be a borderline significance (p=0.054) between the
rs11802 SNP genotype and GSTM5 expression. Further investigation between gene
expression correlations showed there was a significant linear correlation
between GSTM5 and GPx-1.
In summary, multiple phenotypic and molecular techniques were applied in the
analysis of the GSTM1 transgenic SHRSP. Transgenic SHRSP rats expressing the
WKY form of the GSTM1 gene demonstrate significantly reduced blood pressure,
oxidative stress and improved levels of renal GSTM1 expression. This data
supports the hypothesis that significantly reduced renal GSTM1 plays a causative
role in the development of hypertension in the SHRSP rat.


Self-organized anodic titania (TiO2) nanotube arrays are an interesting model anode material for use in Li-ion batteries owing to their excellent rate capability, their cycling stability and their enhanced safety compared to graphite. A composite material where carbothermally treated conductive TiO2 nanotubes are used as support for a thin silicon film has been shown to have the additional advantage of high lithium storage capacity. This article presents a detailed comparison of the structure, surface and bulk morphology of self-organized conductive TiO2 nanotube arrays, with and without silicon coating, using a combination of X-ray diffraction, X-ray reflectivity, grazing-incidence small-angle X-ray scattering (GISAXS) and time-of-flight grazing-incidence small-angle neutron scattering (TOF-GISANS) techniques. X-ray diffraction shows that the nanotubes crystallize in the anatase structure with a preferred (004) orientation. GISAXS and TOF-GISANS are used to study the morphology of the nanotube arrays, delivering values for the inner nanotube radius and intertubular distances with high statistical relevance because of the large probed volume. The analyses reveal the distinct signatures of a prominent lateral correlation of the TiO2 nanotubes of ∼94 nm and a nanotube radius of ∼46 nm. The porosity averaged over the entire film using TOF-GISANS is 46%. The inner nanotube radius is reduced to half (∼23 nm) through the silicon coating, but the prominent lateral structure is preserved. Such in-depth morphological investigations over large sample volumes are useful towards development of more efficient battery electrode morphologies.


Abstract The paper discusses strategies and findings from an explorative R&D project: a transition theory-inspired research and development effort to green the tourism trade by niche formation. The paper analyses part of this transition effort in mobilizing organic farmers to become involved as niche agents, where we focus on experience-economic design for gaining economic benefits and cultural learning. The paper builds on 4 years of R&D efforts striving for experience-oriented innovations in the tourism trade by strategic formation of an environmental tourism niche on a regional arena in Denmark. This is done along the tourism chain from tour operators abroad, incoming bureaus, national and regional tourism organizations to local eco-destinations, such as organic farmers. From our R&D project and experience economy literature, we identify the key elements in an instructive organic experience. To do this, we reflect upon designing or staging eco-experiences in a way that may enhance learning, and we identify other positive outcomes that can motivate others to go in the same direction. Finally, we reflect on the results and challenges in forming the niche strategy within tourism, and for the organic farmers to improve the experience economy and carry out the green experience concepts.


We employ a dynamic framework to study how product innovation activities of a firm are influenced by its investments in production capacity of an established product and vice versa. The firm initially has capacity to sell an established product. Additionally, it also has the option to undertake an R&D project, which upon completion allows the firm to introduce a new vertically and horizontally differentiated product to the market, thereby extending its current product range. The breakthrough probability of detecting the new product depends on both the value of the firm's R&D stock and its current R&D investment. It is shown that the initial production capacity for the established product influences the intensity of R&D activities of the firm. In particular, there are constellations such that for large initial production capacity for the established product the firm never invests in R&D and the new product is never introduced. For small initial capacity the firm keeps investing in R&D implying that eventually the new product is always introduced. Finally, for an intermediate range of initial capacity levels the firm initially invests in product R&D, but then reduces these investments to zero. In this scenario the new product is introduced with a positive probability, which is however substantially smaller than 1. From a technical perspective this analysis gives the example of a new type of Skiba threshold phenomenon in the framework of a multi-mode optimization model.


Aims The aim of this study was to assess the current available evidence about when patients might resume driving after elective, primary total hip (THA) or total knee arthroplasty (TKA) undertaken for osteoarthritis (OA). Materials and Methods In February 2016, EMBASE, MEDLINE, Web of Science, Scopus, Cochrane, PubMed Publisher, CINAHL, EBSCO and Google Scholar were searched for clinical studies reporting on 'THA', 'TKA', 'car driving', 'reaction time' and 'brake response time'. Two researchers (CAV and JJT) independently screened the titles and abstracts for eligibility and assessed the risk of bias. Both fixed and random effects were used to pool data and calculate mean differences (MD) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) between pre‐ and post‐operative total brake response time (TBRT). Results A total of 19 studies were included. The assessment of the risk of bias showed that one study was at high risk, six studies at moderate risk and 12 studies at low risk. Meta‐analysis of TBRT showed a MD decrease of 25.54 ms (95% CI ‐32.02 to 83.09) two weeks after right‐sided THA, and of 18.19 ms (95% CI ‐6.13 to 42.50) four weeks after a right‐sided TKA, when compared with the pre‐operative value. Conclusion The TBRT returned to baseline two weeks after a right‐sided THA and four weeks after a right‐sided TKA. These results may serve as guidelines for orthopaedic surgeons when advising patients when to resume driving. However, the advice should be individualised.


At the beginning of the 20th century an immense library of medieval manuscripts was discovered in the caves of Dunhuang in northwest China. Among these manuscripts there is a relatively small body of vernacular texts that shed new light on the opaque history of literature written by the Chinese non-elite. This article presents an emended edition and a German translation of the five remaining manuscripts of "Han Peng fu", arguably one of the most moving and heart-warming vernacular texts recovered at Dunhuang. Set in the period of the Warring States, "Han Peng fu" tells the romantic and tragic story of the young Zhenfu and her husband Han Peng, whose fate is to unite only in death to which they are driven by the malicious schemes of the King of Song and his cunning advisor Liang Bo. Comparing "Han Peng fu" with other existing versions of the legend of Han Peng found on Bamboo strips from the late Western Han Dynasty and included in some later works such as Lieyi zhuan, Yuejue shu and Soushen ji, this article further studies the tradition of this narrative and identifies possible connections to other famous lores such as Meng Jiang nu, Kongque dongnan fei, Liang Shanbo yu Zhu Yingtai, and the legend of Xishi.


South Africa is one of the few nations that have made significant progress to integrate traditional and complementary medicine into the legislative framework for health practitioners. Traditional medicine, represented by approximately 190 000 traditional health practitioners, has sustained the health of millions of South Africans over centuries. There are currently about 3 600 registered Allied Health Care Professionals in South Africa.
In recent years there has been an influx of a number of herbal and other health products onto the South African market. Without an appropriate registration system many of these products are currently sold without control. It is estimated that there are approximately 25 000 complementary medicines, including traditional medicines, that have been submitted to the Medicines Control Council to facilitate the implementation of the Accelerated Registration Programme. There is evidence of cooperation between traditional healers and practitioners of allopathic medicine and this trend is expected to grow.


During the GWADASEIS cruise (Lesser Antilles volcanic arc, February–March 2009) a very high resolution (VHR) seismic-reflection survey was performed in order to constrain Late Quaternary to Present faulting. The profiles we obtained evidence frequent " ponding " of reworked sediments in the deepest areas, similar to the deposition of Mediterranean " homogenites ". These bodies are acoustically transparent (few ms t.w.t. thick) and are often deposited on the hanging walls of dominantly normal faults, at the base of scarps. Their thickness appears sufficient to compensate (i.e. bury) co-seismic scarps between successive earthquakes, resulting in a flat and horizontal sea floor through time. In a selected area (offshore Montserrat and Nevis islands), piston coring (4 to 7 m long) was dedicated to a sedimento-logical analysis of the most recent of these particular layers. It corresponds to non-stratified homogenous calcareous silty sand (reworked calcareous plankton and minor volcanoclas-tics). This layer can be up to 2 m thick, and overlies fine-grained hemipelagites. The upper centimeters of the latter represent the normal RedOx water/sediment interface. 210 Pb and 137 Cs activities lack in the massive sands, while a normal profile of unsupported 210 Pb decrease is observed in the hemipelagite below, together with a 137 Cs peak corresponding to the Atmospheric Nuclear Experiments (1962). The RedOx level was thus capped by a recent instantaneous major sedimentary event considered as post-1970 AD; candidate seismic events to explain this sedimentary deposits are either the 16 March 1985 earthquake or the 8 October 1974 one (M w = 6.3 and M w = 7.4, respectively). This leads to consider that the syntectonic sedimentation in this area is not continuous but results from accumulation of thick homogen-ites deposited after the earthquakes (as observed in the following weeks after Haiti January 2010 event, McHugh et al., 2011). The existence of such deposits suggests that, in the area of study, vertical throw likely results from cu-mulated effects of separated earthquakes rather than from aseismic creep. Examination of VHR profiles shows that all major co-seismic offsets are recorded in the fault growth sequence and that co-seismic offsets can be precisely estimated. By using a sedimentation rate deduced from 210 Pb decrease curve (0.5 mm yr −1) and taking into account minor reworking events detected in cores, we show that the Redonda system may have been responsible for five > M 6 events during the last 34 000 yr. The approach presented in this work differs from fault activity analyses using displaced sets of isochronous surfaces and postulating co-seismic offsets. Combining VHR seismic imagery and coring we can decipher co-seismic vs. slow continuous displacement, and thus actually estimate the amplitude and the time distribution of major co-seismic offsets.


Due to the ubiquity and popularity of XML, users often are in the following situation: they want to query XML documents which contain potentially interesting information but they are unaware of the mark-up structure that is used. For example, it is easy to guess the contents of an XML bibliography file whereas the mark-up depends on the methodological, cultural and personal background of the author(s). None the less, it is this hierarchical structure that forms the basis of XML query languages. We exploit the tree structure of XML documents to equip users with a powerful tool, the meet operator that lets them query databases with whose content they are familiar, but without requiring knowledge of tags and hierarchies. Our approach is based on computing the lowest common ancestor of nodes in the XML syntax tree: e.g., given two strings, we are looking for nodes whose offspring contains these two strings. The novelty of this approach is that the result type is unknown at query formulation time and dependent on the database instance. If the two strings are an author's name and a year mainly publications of the author in this year are returned. If the two strings are numbers the result mostly consists of publications that have the numbers as year or page numbers. Because the result type of a query is not specified by the user we refer to the lowest common ancestor as nearest concept. We also present a running example taken from the bibliography domain, and demonstrate that the operator can be implemented efficiently.


A number of factors are likely to have restrained household spending growth over the recent past, including weak income growth, tight credit conditions, concerns about debt levels, the fiscal consolidation and uncertainty about future incomes. This article examines the factors affecting spending and saving decisions using the latest survey of households carried out for the Bank of England by NMG Consulting. Real incomes have been squeezed. Concerns about debt levels and tight credit conditions appear to be important factors supporting saving. But many households are also uncertain about their future incomes and have been affected by the fiscal consolidation. Over the next year, households do not expect to change the amount they save significantly, with the same factors that have supported saving recently continuing to be important.


INTRODUCTION The transradial approach has been well described for arteriography of the coronary vessels. To assess the safety and success rate of the transradial approach for three-vessel or four-vessel diagnostic cerebral arteriography, we reviewed the experience at our institution and compared our complication rates with those found in the literature for transfemoral cerebral angiography and transradial coronary angiography. METHODS We reviewed the electronic medical records of 129 consecutive patients in whom 132 cerebral angiographic studies were performed by use of a transradial approach between December 1999 and June 2001. A total of 54 selective catheterizations were performed, of which 39 were of the vertebral artery, 11 of the internal carotid artery, and 4 of the external carotid artery. Records were reviewed for periprocedural and delayed complications, indications for diagnostic angiography, and requirement of conversion to a femoral approach. Records were reviewed prospectively for the first 55 procedures and retrospectively for the next 77 procedures. RESULTS The mean time to initial clinical follow-up was 1.5 months (median, 0.5 mo). The combined rate of periprocedural and delayed complications was 9%, and there were no major complications. Minor periprocedural complications included transient radial artery spasm (four patients), failure to access the brachial artery (two patients), severe pain (one patient), skin desquamation (one patient), and hematoma (one patient). There were no major complications. At the time of follow-up evaluation, these patients were without deficits related to cannulation of the radial artery. CONCLUSION The transradial approach for cerebral angiography is a safe alternative to the transfemoral route. After transradial cerebral angiography, patients require a shorter observation period and are not restricted to bed rest. As technological developments generate smaller, more pliable endovascular surgical devices, future endovascular surgery may be performed transradially.


Summary During a survey on tapeworm larval stages in Artemia franciscana from an artificial pond in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, a high prevalence of Eurycestus avoceti-like cysticercoids was established. Adult male and female crustaceans showed a prevalence of 61.9 and 62.7 %, respectively. The intensity ranged from one to four and one to three cyst, respectively. Out of 215 examined cysticercoids, 207 specimens had morphological features matching with E. avoceti. The flaky structure of the surrounding capsule, the elongated shape of the cysticercoid and the larger number of hooklets on the suckers suggest that the eight further larval cestodes belonged to another species of the genus Eurycestus.


Communication for Business introduces students to the core topics necessary for their undergraduate studies in business communication and is designed with the future professional in mind. It bridges academic theory and real-world business knowledge and provides lots of practical examples in the companion digital obook. It offers a fresh approach to the subject in the form of the three business communication principles: logic, clarity and courtesy in the way they frame the contents of the book. Written by a combination of management, communication, ethics and journalism academics it presents information that is practical and interesting in a style that is theoretical and accessible.


Sleep: A Comprehensive Handbook begins with a brief introduction to the basic science of sleep, from neurobiology to physiologic processes. This leads into sections offering comprehensive coverage of insomnia, sleep apnea, narcolepsy, parasomnias, movement disorders, and much more. Sleep and related disorders are also discussed, followed by chapters on considerations for special patient groups. Special materials for practitioners include a sample interview and questionnaire as well as a chapter on operating and managing a sleep center. The text concludes with discussions of sleep assessment methods such as polysomnography, actigraphy, and video EEG monitoring.


Own-rooted Riesling vines were subjected, over a five-year period, to five training treatments [alternate double crossarm (ADC); Lenz Moser (LM); low cordon (LC); low-V (LV); pendelbogen (PB)] and three within-row vine spacings (1.4, 1.8, and 2.4 m), with and without basal leaf removal applied to one-half of each vine at approximately 45 days post-bloom. Weight of cane prunings (vine size) was nearly optimal in ADC, LM, and PB systems, but was excessive in the other two training treatments. Increased vine spacing decreased vine size linearly on a per meter of row basis. Canopy density was optimized by ADC and PB training, and these two systems also had the least number of shaded leaves. Both ADC and LV systems tended to have the greatest number of exposed clusters. Yields of divided canopies (ADC and LV) averaged 55% higher than single curtain systems, but cluster weights were lower, and ADC berry weights were also lower. The ADC system produced fruit with lowest °Brix, but also with lowest titratable acidity (TA) and pH, and highest free volatile terpene (FVT) and potentially-volatile terpene (PVT) content. Leaf removal consistently reduced TA, canopy density, and shaded leaves, and significantly increased cluster exposure, FVT, and PVT. Vine spacing had a limited influence on yield and fruit composition, but interacted with training system and leaf removal on some components. ADC training led to higher leaf and cluster exposure, and higher cluster temperatures than LC training, with little difference in transpiration rate and leaf water potential. Labor requirements per m of canopy were lowest in ADC vines.


Today's flywheel batteries, embody technological advances, and they are serious contenders for a variety of important energy-storage applications. They are, for example, competitive with chemical batteries in applications like transportation or improving power quality, which involve many charge-discharge cycles and little in the way of long-term storage. Progress in power electronics, particularly in high-power insulated-gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) and field-effect transistors (FETs), underlies higher-power flywheel operation. While the stored energy is determined by the speed, mass, and geometry of the wheel, the limits on input and output power are in general set by the power electronics. With these higher power devices, fewer individual components are needed, so the power electronics package can be comparable in size to the flywheel plus motor-generator combination. This paper describes the main features of flywheel energy storage systems and space, hybrid electric vehicle, and combat vehicle applications.


The presence of a heavy truck on the road can impose an externality if accidents occur that would not have otherwise. We find each additional truck on the road increases the risk of a truck accident – but also, at an even higher rate, the risk of a car-on-car collision. Our estimates imply two percent of all car-on-car collisions can be attributed to trucks on the road. This negative externality falls on all road users through higher car insurance premiums: one truck, driving for a year in the same zip code, increases the insurance premium of each new enrollee by $0.48/year.


In the context of Switched Ethernet, the Flexible Time-Triggered Switched Ethernet protocol (FTT-SE) was proposed to overcome the limitations and related problems of using COTS switches in real-time networks, such as overflow of switch queues due to uncontrolled arrival of packets. Although the FTT-SE protocol has been validated by several experiments on real applications, evaluation of different architectures as well as evaluation of large scale networks is not straightforward. Therefore, a simulator to evaluate different network architectures based on the FTT-SE protocol is useful. In this paper we present such a simulator. We address the extended FTT-SE protocol using multiple switches and we present a modular simulator based on Simulink/Matlab to visualize message transmissions and to evaluate end-to-end delay bounds of messages.


The principal aim of this dissertation is to examine the dynamics of the contemporary reconstruction of the Ethiopian state on the basis of "ethnic federalism" and democratisation. Among the many African multiethnic polities, Ethiopia is the only country that recognises
ethnicity explicitly as an organising principle, even to the extent of de-emphasising the idea of a unitary state and national identity. According to Article 39 (1) of the new Ethiopian Constitution, "every nation, nationalities and peoples in Ethiopia has a right to selfdetermination,
including secession. " No other constitution (except, briefly, the former Soviet Constitution) has ever gone so far as to allow such a right. This is perhaps understandable in view of the recent history of regional and ethno-political violence in Ethiopia.

The study adopts an historical approach using a qualitative methodology. It analyses and demonstrates how the policies of state centralisation and Amhara hegemonic control
transformed ethnic identity into nationalist mobilisation and conflict that finally ended military rule and brought about the demise of Amhara hegemony. It then examines the
government that replaced the military regime of Mengistu, its theoretical and philosophical underpinnings of "ethnic federalism" and the democratic accommodation of diversity.

The study finds that Ethiopia's political system that began in 1991 has successfully established a new federal democratic order but has so far failed to become a truly "selfgoverning unit" and consolidated democracy. Democratisation and devolution of power opened channels for Ethiopian nations and nationalities to participate as equal citizens in Ethiopian political life and to access to political power, resources, and to protect their ethnic
interests both at the national and local levels. It resulted in the formation of local autonomy where regional states were set up on the basis of ethnicity.

Ethiopian political change has taken place under inauspicious circumstances that are generally
unfavourable to democratic transition and consolidation. And, whilst the EPRDF has made major strides towards successful democratisation in spite of these conditions, it has been unable to consolidate fully the new federal institutions in Ethiopia. As a result, it has instead
been transformed into a pseudo-federal and democratic state with minority [Tigrean] hegemony at the centre.

The study concludes that non-democratic federalism, with which the EPRDF regime tried to experiment, can generate violence rather than serving as a political panacea for ethnic conflict, as also attested by Yugoslav and Soviet experience. The study stresses that successful federalism requires the end of TPLF hegemony and a democratic arrangement that can facilitate "real self-government" for the nation, nationalities and peoples of Ethiopia in
line with the new Ethiopian Constitution. It notes that a democratic mechanism is effective as a means of dealing with ethnic cleavages in plural societies like Ethiopia. Thus, only if Ethiopia's democratisation can truly progress, can its political integration also advance and
support for separatist movements consequently weaken If not, ethno-political conflict will continue and at worst the Yugoslav scenario might follow.

Clearly the study of Ethiopian efforts at democratic change has relevance for similar problems beyond its boundaries. Recent events around the world have shown that nationalist conflicts are an important feature of the post-Cold War World. Although not a completely new phenomenon, ethnic conflicts are considered crucial challenges to national and international politics alike and are often accompanied by a gradual collapse of state authority, particularly
in Africa. The persistence of ethnic identity in developed societies as well as in the former communist and developing states has challenged theories that assume that ethnic identity would disappear through modernisation. The ongoing civil war in many countries illustrates the problems of ethno-political conflicts and the needs for its management. Democratisation and power-sharing is emerging as a key element in contemporary [post] civil war settlements
and to manage conflict in deeply divided societies.


In goal-oriented dialogue systems, users provide information through slot values to achieve specific goals. Practically, some combinations of slot values can be invalid according to external knowledge. For example, a combination of "cheese pizza" (a menu item) and "oreo cookies" (a topping) from an input utterance "Can I order a cheese pizza with oreo cookies on top?" exemplifies such invalid combinations according to the menu of a restaurant business. Traditional dialogue systems allow execution of validation rules as a post-processing step after slots have been filled which can lead to error accumulation. In this paper, we formalize knowledge-driven slot constraints and present a new task of constraint violation detection accompanied with benchmarking data. Then, we propose methods to integrate the external knowledge into the system and model constraint violation detection as an end-to-end classification task and compare it to the traditional rule-based pipeline approach. Experiments on two domains of the MultiDoGO dataset reveal challenges of constraint violation detection and sets the stage for future work and improvements.


Problem statement: Form is a fundamental concept in the discourse of architecture that has been affected by the evolutions of architectural thinking. The non-systematic accumulation of form concepts results in ambiguity in contemporary discourse. On the other side, disregarding the dynamic nature of form, and poor identification of the factors influencing its evolution, and its application domains have made form a frozen concept and have reduced its effectiveness in responding to today's architectural issues. Research objectives: this paper concentrates on clarifying and organizing the diverse concepts of the form. Besides a theoretical framework is provided to guarantee the conceptual dynamism of the form. Research method: Present research is conducted based on Foucault's genealogy approach. First, the original conditions of the first appearance of form in philosophical thinking are examined, then based on the results obtained, is referred to revolutionary theories of architecture. The fundamental evolutions of the concept of the form will be analyzed, and finally, a critique of today's form status is provided. Conclusion: According to the findings, the evolution of the concept of form is originated from the evolutions of philosophical knowledge of architecture from at least three perspectives: ontology, aesthetics, and epistemology. Among these factors, epistemological approaches have made the most substantial contribution to the evolutions of form, from pre-modern to the contemporary era. The evolution of philosophical knowledge of architecture has led to the formation of six conceptual limits of form, including appearance, idea, type, structure, meaning, and affordance. Each of these concepts has limited the architecture to specific aspects; however, introducing the concept of "form field" helps to gain a comprehensive understanding of architecture while providing a framework for organizing the form concepts. It also ensures the dynamics of this concept in line with the evolutions of philosophical knowledge of architecture.


Local history remains a dynamic meeting place between the man on the street and the discipline of history. The popularity of this field and its potential for academic enterprise has been exploited by numerous researchers at South African universities as well as the Human Sciences Research Council. The spin-offs are now beginning to gain momentum.


Based on predicted changes in the magnitude and distribution of global precipitation, temperature and river flow under the IPCC SRES A1B and A2 scenarios, this study assesses the potential impacts of climate change and CO2 fertilization on global agriculture, and its interactions with trade liberalisation as proposed for the Doha Development Round. The analysis uses the new version of the GTAP-W model, which distinguishes between rainfed and irrigated agriculture and implements water as an explicit factor of production for irrigated agriculture. Significant reductions in agricultural tariffs lead to modest changes in regional water use. Patterns are non-linear. On the regional level water use may go up for partial liberalization, and down for more complete liberalization. This is because different crops respond differently to tariff reductions, and because trade and competition matter too. Moreover, trade liberalization tends to reduce water use in water scarce regions, and increase water use in water abundant regions, even though water markets do not exist in most countries. Considering impacts of climate change the results show that global food production, welfare and GDP fall over time while food prices increase. Larger changes are observed under the SRES A2 scenario for the medium term (2020) and under the SRES A1B scenario for the long term (2050). Combining scenarios of future climate change with trade liberalization countries are affected differently. However, the overall effect on welfare does not change much.


Can noncooperative behaviour of merchants lead to a market allocation that prima facie seems anticompetitive? We introduce a model in which service providers aim at optimizing the number of customers who use their services, while customers aim at choosing service providers with minimal customer load. Each service provider chooses between a variety of levels of service, and as long as it does not lose customers, aims at minimizing its level of service; the minimum level of service required to satisfy a customer varies across customers. We consider a two-stage competition, in the first stage of which the service providers select their levels of service, and in the second stage --- customers choose between the service providers. (We show via a novel construction that for any choice of strategies for the service providers, a unique distribution of the customers' mass between them emerges from all Nash equilibria among the customers, showing the incentives of service providers in the two-stage game to be well defined.) In the two-stage game, we show that the competition among the service providers possesses a unique Nash equilibrium, which is moreover super strong; we also show that all sequential better-response dynamics of service providers reach this equilibrium, with best-response dynamics doing so surprisingly fast. If service providers choose their levels of service according to this equilibrium, then the unique Nash equilibrium among customers in the second phase is essentially an allocation (i.e. split) of the market between the service providers, based on the customers' minimum acceptable quality of service; moreover, each service provider's chosen level of service is the lowest acceptable by the entirety of the market share allocated to it. Our results show that this seemingly-cooperative allocation of the market arises as the unique and highly-robust outcome of noncooperative (i.e. free from any form of collusion), even myopic, service-provider behaviour. The results of this paper are applicable to a variety of scenarios, such as the competition among ISPs, and shed a surprising light on aspects of location theory, such as the formation and structure of a city's central business district.


Investors need not be rational for markets to be efficient. The axiom of efficient market hypothesis that it is not possible to earn excess profits because the available information gets factored in instantaneously fell flat due to influence of human behaviour on the investment process. Exuberance of investors escalates asset values unduly on the back of financial irrationality. The intersection of human behaviour and the investment decisions has since evolved as 'behavioural finance. Research demonstrates that investment decision-making process is more human than analytical, owing to behavioural biases. Recent studies in prospect theory and heuristic decision-making process focused more on investor behaviour causing market anomalies. At a time when irrational behaviour is demonstrated not only in security markets but also in other markets such as property, bullion and commodities, this paper explores the contemporary research in behavioural finance. Keywords : Behavioural finance, Capital market, Financial irrationality, Irrational behaviour. JEL Classifications : M10, M20, M50


Abstract Tobit estimation of the market value of timber sales in national forests of North Carolina demonstrates the important effect of stand diversity on the formulation of bid prices for mixed-species timber tracts. The hedonic model generates a shadow price for diversity according to changes in bid prices, an effective shift in the demand curve for auctioned tracts due to stand diversity attributes. This approach contrasts with traditional shadow price analyses that focus on the supply effects of environmental constraints. Results are corrected for the effects of bidder participation, market conditions, production costs, and other stand attributes. Econometric results demonstrate that stand heterogeneity is a highly significant factor influencing the market value of timber sales from national forests of the Appalachian region. Greater heterogeneity results in lower bid prices for timber sales, indicating a positive shadow price for maintenance of stand diversity.


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Nano science and technology have received much attention recently due to their exciting applications in the fields of clean energy technology and biomedical sensing devices. Also what makes nano science and technology more relevant in this 21st century is the increasing environmental concern and accelerated depletion of fossil fuels. This realization has spark the renewed research interests in the development of new technology using alternative energy sources, most noticeably those fuels that can be utilized by proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). A broad spectrum of nano materials of distinct sizes, morphologies and compositions are now available for application in clean energy and biosensing technologies.
Platinum (Pt), gold (Au) and PtAu alloy nanoparticles (NPs), were applied in this work for designing cost effective novel electrocatalysts for PEMFCs and biosensing systems. These nanoparticles did not only improve the electrocatalysis of small organic molecules for fuel cell application (Methanol Fuel cells and Direct Formic acid fuel cells) but also showed enhanced performance towards the oxidation of bio-analytical molecules (ascorbic acid and dopamine) with promising values of sensitivity and selectivity. The goal of the research is to provide deeper insight into the mechanisms and structure-sensitivity of these oxidation reactions on these metal nanoparticles electrodes.
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The specific objective of the thesis work was to study the oxidation of formic acid, methanol, dopamine and ascorbic acid on platinum-gold nanoparticles by employing conventional electrochemical methods. The platinum-gold alloy nanoparticles of varying composition. (PtxAu100-x alloy NPs) were supplied by our collaborators and were synthesized by pulsed laser ablation in aqueous medium via a single metal target prepared from mixtures of pure platinum and pure gold nanoparticles. Cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry studies of formic acid and methanol oxidation on platinum-gold alloy nanoparticles in sulphuric acid electrolyte solution were performed to determine the influence of the nanoparticles composition on the mechanism and kinetics of the oxidation reactions. As a result of the low catalytic activity of the nanoparticles towards methanol oxidation in acidic medium, we also investigated the methanol oxidation in alkaline medium. In the case of ascorbic acid and dopamine oxidation, in addition
to the voltammetric studies, differential pulse voltammetry was also employed to probe the current response as an evolution of the analytes concentration changes in phosphate buffer solution (PBS) in a neutral medium.
During the electrocatalytic performances of the PtAu alloy NPs towards the formic acid oxidation, the formic acid oxidation followed a dehydrogenation pathway on these as-prepared PtAu alloy NPs. However, the dehydration was the privileged mechanism on as-prepared mixtures of pure Pt and pure Au NPs. After electrochemical aging in 0.5 M sulphuric acid, the dehydrogenation pathway was the privileged reaction pathway on both PtAu alloy and Pt+Au mixture NPs. This was attributed to the structure modification of Pt and Au nanoparticles through electrochemical aging which makes the Pt+Au mixture to behavior as an alloy. It was suggested that metal dissolution and metal redeposition occur during the electrochemical aging process resulting in possible atomistic re-organization on the catalyst surface. Also, after 600 s of potentiostatic polarization, the mass activities of PtAu alloy NPs displayed a factor of 2 times larger than that of the Pt+Au mixtures with the same surface composition. Nevertheless, both types of catalysts display similar activity with respect to the total electrochemically active surface area.
During methanol oxidation in alkaline environment, the bifunctional character of PtAu alloys emerged quite clearly with 50-50 bimetallic composition: the ability of Au surface atoms to provide active sites for oxygen-containing species such as OHads at low electrode potentials facilitated the oxidation of CO migrating to these sites from either Pt or Au sites. In addition, it was found that the intrinsic activity and mass activity of Pt in the PtAu NPs towards oxidation reaction of methanol reaction was 8 times and 5 times larger for Pt30Au70 NPs (Au-rich alloy) with respect to Pt NPs and Pt70Au30 NPs (Pt-rich alloy). We suggested that this enhancement was due to an additional electronic effect on the adsorption strength of CO and CO-like species on Pt-Au pair sites as against the Au sites, therefore shifting the equilibrium position of the methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) to more negative omset potential. The strong synergistic effect PtAu alloy electrode toward the electrooxidation of MOR in alkaline medium was not observed for the same composition of PtAu alloy electrodes in acidic environment. Instead, a continuous decrease in activity with increasing Au content in PtAu NPs was found in acid medium. The
electrocatalytic behavior of the PtAu alloy NPs electrodes towards MOR in acidic medium were merely due to ensemble effect of neighboring atoms.
This thesis also describes results of an investigation of the electrocatalytic oxidation of dopamine (DA) and ascorbic acid (AA) on AuxPt100-x alloy nanoparticles catalysts prepared by pulsed laser ablation in water. The electrochemical sensing and properties of AuPt NPs was found to be dependent on the bimetallic compositions of the NPs. Electrochemical studies have shown that the catalytic oxidation of DA and AA on AuPt NPs electrodes can afford a peak potential separation of 156 mV and 190 mV on Au and Au50Pt50 alloy NPs respectively which was large enough for the determination of DA in AA/DA mixed solution. The Au-rich alloy electrode exhibited superior electrocatalytic activity towards AA oxidation due to synergic effect between alloy Au and Pt in AuPt alloy shifting the potential to the more negative direction as compared to Au NPs. Further, while the Au and Au50Pt50 NPs favored sensing of dopamine, the Au70Pt30 NPs favored AA oxidation. The DA and AA oxidation current increases linearly with DA and AA concentration respectively for all selected electrodes.
Prior to the electro-oxidation of these small organic molecules (formic acid, methanol oxidation, ascorbic acid and dopamine) on the AuPt-based alloy nanoparticles, electrochemical cycling was performed in acid, neutral and alkaline medium based on the type of molecules studied. The effect of alloying on the peak positions of the metal oxide reduction of the nanoparticles in these media was correlated. While the Pt-oxide reduction peak shifted negatively in all media with increasing Au content in the bimetallic AuPt NPs, the Au-oxide reduction peak remain fairly constant in all media with Au content in the AuPt bimetallic NPs. In general, the application of these nanoparticles could bring many advantages for the fuel cell and sensing systems investigated in this work.


The ageing population of Europe is a concern for political decision makers as the ageing population by 2020 will represent very large groups of people (18-23% of the population in most EU countries). The issues raised concern elderly people, the age group 75-90 years, as their need for health and social care is expected to grow beyond what national economies can afford. Not much thought is given the "young elderly"the age group 60-75 years – as the serious age-related problems are yet not visible among them and, hence, they are not on the political radar. Nevertheless, interventions to form and sustain wellness routines among the "young elderly" as part of preventive action programs could significantly reduce the problems society faces when people become elderly. We propose that digital wellness services on smartphones can serve as interventions to form and sustain wellness routines.


The Triple Pattern Fragment (TPF) interface is a recent proposal for reducing server load in Web-based approaches to execute SPARQL queries over public RDF datasets. The price for less overloaded servers is a higher client-side load and a substantial increase in network load (in terms of both the number of HTTP requests and data transfer). In this paper, we propose a slightly extended interface that allows clients to attach intermediate results to triple pattern requests. The response to such a request is expected to contain triples from the underlying dataset that do not only match the given triple pattern (as in the case of TPF), but that are guaranteed to contribute in a join with the given intermediate result. Our hypothesis is that a distributed query execution using this extended interface can reduce the network load (in comparison to a pure TPF-based query execution) without reducing the overall throughput of the client-server system significantly. Our main contribution in this paper is twofold: we empirically verify the hypothesis and provide an extensive experimental comparison of our proposal and TPF.


This paper considers the trend towards megaregionalism (TTIP, TPP) that became prominent in the trade domain in the last years of the Obama administration. While megaregionalism has fallen by the wayside since Trump's inauguration, the underlying rationale for such treaties will most likely reassert itself rather soon. So there are structural issues that need to be discussed from a standpoint of global justice. In all likelihood, megaregionalism is detrimental to global justice. TTIP in particular, or anything like it, might derail any possibility for a trade organization to aid the pursuit of justice at the global level, and any possibility that trade will be used to that end. From the standpoint of global justice one must hope that megaregionalism does not replace WTO multilateralism. The global-justice framework used here is the grounds-of-justice approach offered in the author's 2012 On Global Justice.


Pepino mosaic virus (PepMV) is a highly infectious potexvirus that causes a severe disease in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) crops worldwide. In Sicily, the first outbreak was detected in a single greenhouse in 2005 and it was promptly eradicated. However, in 2008, a large number of greenhouses were simultaneously affected, and it was impossible to eradicate or control the virus. This study addressed the dispersion and the genetic diversity of PepMV isolates obtained from the outbreak in Sicily, in comparison with worldwide PepMV isolates, to gain insight into the factors determining the evolution and epidemiology of the virus. A total of 1800 samples from plants with and without symptoms were collected in the Sicilian provinces of Agrigento, Caltanissetta, Palermo, Ragusa, Siracusa and Trapani. Three isolates collected at different times were biologically characterized. The incidence of the virus increased rapidly from 13% in 2011 to 63% in 2013, and phylogenetic analysis showed that all Sicilian isolates of PepMV belonged to the CH2 strain, one of the six strains previously described. Nucleotide diversity of the Sicilian isolates was low, thus suggesting rapid spread and genetic stability.


We consider the task of tuning hyperparameters in SVM models based on minimizing a smooth performance validation function, e.g., smoothed k-fold cross-validation error, using non-linear optimization techniques. The key computation in this approach is that of the gradient of the validation function with respect to hyperparameters. We show that for large-scale problems involving a wide choice of kernel-based models and validation functions, this computation can be very efficiently done; often within just a fraction of the training time. Empirical results show that a near-optimal set of hyperparameters can be identified by our approach with very few training rounds and gradient computations.


This guide explains how to operationalize inclusion of women, Indigenous Peoples and other under-represented groups in multi-stakeholder forums (MSFs).Around the world, MSFs have been promoted and adopted as decision making, consultation and dialogue platforms to bring together diverse constituencies to share ideas and formulate decisions in a more open and equitable. Research finds that MSFs organizers believed that their forums foster equity simply by inviting more under-represented actors to the table; however, they spend less effort in addressing the power inequalities among participants and the quality of the participation and representation of historically under-represented groups.Getting it right focuses on the inclusion of women and Indigenous Peoples in natural resource management and governance contexts. In particular, we analyzed how these actors participate and/or are represented in spaces such as forest user group committees, co-management groups or forest commodity roundtable meetings. Our hope is that presenting cases of women and Indigenous Peoples provides insights into how different dimensions of social differentiation intersect in practice, pushing us to look at these different scales and inform us about other under-represented groups.Getting it right provides several tools that are designed to operationalize inclusion at specific trigger points where we believe action is most effective. Our goal with this guide is to present ideas, not solutions; the challenges to inclusion are complex, and unique to every MSF.


People with disabilities are the ticking time bomb of the electorate. An estimated thirty to thirty-five percent of all voters in the next twenty-five years will need some form of accommodation. Despite the significant and growing population of voters with disabilities, they do not vote in proportion to their numbers. We can consider voters with disabilities as "the canaries in the coal mine," the people who are an advanced warning of the structural difficulties in voting not just for themselves, but also for the system as a whole. Solving problems in voting for people with disabilities will strengthen the entire system and will help improve the voting process for everyone, especially people from disempowered communities. Furthermore, although election law scholars have largely ignored the unique voting problems confronting voters with disabilities, virtually every major voting controversy in contemporary American electoral politics directly implicates issues of disability.This Article examines the state of disability access to voting in the lead-up to the 2016 election, revealing an electoral problem that has been lurking in the background for far too long. Current debates about access to voting and voter restrictions often ignore the current legal landscape's disparate effect on those with disabilities. The insights in this Article offer another angle of intervention towards ameliorating the problems in the voting process for disempowered individuals. This call for reform is timely in light of the upcoming presidential election. We tend to think of problems of voting and disability, if we think of them at all, as classic issues of physical access. But in fact, the contemporary problems with respect to voting that preoccupy election lawyers are also heavily implicated by disability as well and moreover are central to the inquiry. This Article reveals those hidden disability implications of our contemporary election law problems.


Dr. Uri Treisman, professor of mathematics and public affairs at The University of Texas at Austin and the director of the Charles A. Dana Center, has deep and active roots in mathematics and mathematics education. Dr. Treisman is well known for his early work at the University of California at Berkeley, where he developed the Calculus Workshop Model in response to differential outcomes in Calculus among African American, white, and Asian students. His continuing work in mathematics education, particularly his impact on equity in the field and his current work focusing on mathematics teaching and learning in community colleges was reflected in his remarks on September 29, 2012, during the annual Program in Mathematics Colloquium Series. Dr. Treisman had initially planned to give a talk on the technical aspects of scaling educational innovations, but seeing that the audience was composed largely of young teachers and teachers-to-be, he instead gave an impromptu talk on teaching mathematics. This is an edited version of those remarks. —Ed.


How consumers feel about themselves––particularly in relation to technology––may have an important influence on their adoption and use of technology. Although research on electronic channels has shown that Web site and consumer characteristics are important predictors of consumer trust, researchers have not considered the role played by consumers' commitment to their identity as technology users. This paper explores whether consumer identity commitment and calculative commitment to electronic channels impact consumer use of electronic channels and perceived value from the service firm. More specifically, it examines whether these effects are mediated by trust in technology and trust in the firm. Using survey data from 834 consumers engaged in both offline and online banking, plus transaction frequency data supplied by a host firm, the study finds that identity commitment plays an important role in building consumer trust in technology and that calculative commitment increases transaction frequency directly, unmediated by trust in technology. Theoretical and managerial implications of these findings are explored.


Lone mothers are more likely to be unemployed and in poverty, which are both factors associated with a risk of poor health. In Switzerland, weak work-family reconciliation policies and taxation that favours married couples adopting the traditional male breadwinner model translate into low labour market participation rate for mothers. In the case of lone mothers, employment can be associated with better health because it eases the potential economic hardship associated with being the sole earner. However, working can represent an additional stress factor due to lone mothers? responsibility as the main caregiver. We investigate how family arrangements and employment status are associated with self-reported health in Switzerland. Our analyses on the Swiss Household Panel (waves 1999-2011) suggest that lone mothers who are out of the labour market have a higher probability of reporting poor health, especially those with an upper secondary level of education. Lone mothers reported being in better health when working full-time versus part-time, whereas the opposite applied to mothers living with a partner.


Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) aims at finding practical and sustainable solutions to water resource issues. Research and practice have shown that innovative methods and tools are not sufficient to implement IWRM - the concept needs to also be integrated in prevailing management paradigms and institutions. Water governance science addresses this human dimension by focusing on the analysis of regulatory processes that influence the behavior of actors in water management systems. This paper proposes a new methodology for the integrated analysis of water resources management and governance systems in order to elicit and analyze case-specific management paradigms. It builds on the Management and Transition Framework (MTF) that allows for the examination of structures and processes underlying water management and governance. The new methodology presented in this paper combines participatory modeling and analysis of the governance system by using the MTF to investigate case-specific management paradigms. The linking of participatory modeling and research on complex management and governance systems allows for the transfer of knowledge between scientific, policy, engineering and local communities. In this way, the proposed methodology facilitates assessment and implementation of transformation processes towards IWRM that require also the adoption of adaptive management principles. A case study on flood management in the Tisza River Basin in Hungary is provided to illustrate the application of the proposed methodology.


We have identified and characterized a new peripheral myelin protein 22 (Pmp22) mouse mutant. The mutation results in a serine to threonine amino acid substitution at residue 72, which is a hot spot for mutation in human PMP22, leading to the peripheral neuropathy Dejerine-Sottas syndrome. We have previously described two other Pmp22 mutants, providing an allelic series for gene function analysis. Pmp22 mutations generally lead to abnormal intracellular trafficking of Pmp22, and we show that each mutant protein in the allelic series has a unique pattern of intracellular localization in transfected cell lines. The mutant protein from the less severely affected mutants occurs in large aggregates, while the mutant protein from the most severely affected mutant occurs in a diffuse perinuclear pattern that largely colocalizes with wild-type protein. This suggests that large Pmp22 aggregates may be protective in this form of peripheral neuropathy.


The measurement of stable isotope ratios on dissolved organic carbon (DOC) has long posed analytical problems and limited the use of this powerful tracer in biogeochemical studies in aquatic systems. Here, we provide a detailed description of a successful coupling of a custom‐modified total organic carbon analyzer (Thermo HiPerTOC) to an isotope‐ratio mass spectrometer (IRMS). The method is based on the wet oxidation of up to ~20 mL aqueous sample in a closed reactor, whereby complete oxidation is ensured by a combination of sodium persulfate addition, heating, and UV irradiation. The produced CO2 is carried over a water trap and purification column in a stream of He and introduced into the IRMS via a conventional open‐split interface, enabling both quantification and δ13C analysis. Typical reproducibility of δ13C analyses on DOC in this setup is in the order of 0.2‰ or better, comparable to that obtained in a more conventional elemental analyzer‐IRMS setup. With appropriate blank correction procedures, accurate analyses can be obtained on concentrations as low as 0.5 mg DOC L−1, representing the lower limit typically observed in marine systems. Typical overall system blank values for DOC analysis are in the order of 1 µg C. Analytical conditions (reaction time, reagent concentrations) were optimized for samples from brackish and marine environments, so that a single method can handle all types of environmental DOC samples. Although no certified DOC standards exist for δ13C, we analyzed the δ13C values of a DOC "consensus reference material" from a deep‐ocean environment (cfr. Hansell 2005) and found a δ13C value of −19.5 ± 0.4‰ (n = 3), which is consistent with its oceanic origin.


Abstract The Sinian and Cambrian systems within the Yangtze stratigraphic province represent continuous deposits, and the strata above and below the Sinian–Cambrian boundary are rich in fossils. From all the relevant boundary sections, the Meishucun section in Jinning County, Yunnan Province serves as the stratotype section for the Sinian–Cambrian boundary and is the Chinese candidate for the global stratotype section and point for the Precambrian–Cambrian boundary. The present paper, with the various charts and tables, elaborates on several typical Sinian–Cambrian boundary sections and the distribution of fossils in them. In accordance with the characteristics of biological evolution, three biotas can be recognized for the period from the Late Sinian to the Early Cambrian. The first biota appeared in the Late Sinian, characterized by the presence of the soft-bodied metazoans; the second biota occurred during the Meishucun Stage of the early Cambrian, and is characterized by the appearance and prevalence of small shelly fossils from many different phyla; and the third biota came into existence during the Qiongzhusi Stage of the Early Cambrian; it is characterized by the first appearance and prevalence of trilobites. The Meishucun Stage of the Lower Cambrian can be divided into three fossil zones. The Sinian–Cambrian boundary is placed at the base of the first Anabarites–Circotheca–Protohertzina zone. According to isotopic dating by the Rb–Sr whole-rock isochron technique, the age of the Sinian–Cambrian boundary is inferred to be 610±10 Ma.


Several compositions of the Cu3NbS4−xSex (x = 0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, and 4) series were synthesized through combination of the elements using conventional solid-state reactions. X-ray powder diffraction patterns suggest that the synthesized polycrystalline powder samples are isostructural to sulvanite (Cu3VS4). However, plotting the refined lattice parameters as well as the measured "true" density as a function of Se content (x) showed deviations from linearity, suggesting that the Cu3NbS4−xSex series is not a "true" solid solution. Differential scanning calorimetry data showed that all compounds incongruently melt at ∼1100 K and recrystallize with a minor impurity phase. Optical diffuse reflectance UV/Vis/NIR spectroscopy revealed a nearly linear contraction of the optical band gap with increasing Se content. The direct band gap decreases from 2.53 eV for x = 0.1 to 2.43 eV for x = 0.8. Electronic transport data indicate p-type semiconducting behavior for all samples. Thermal conductivity data showed a rather surprising trend, with the substituted compositions exhibiting higher thermal conductivity than the two end members.


OBJECTIVE:In some patients with primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC), a localized, high-grade (dominant) stricture may be the principal cause of symptoms and hyperbilirubinemia. The aim of this retrospective study was to compare the beneficial effects and risk of balloon dilation alone versus dilation followed by stenting in PSC patients with dominant strictures.METHODS:Charts from a group of 1009 patients with PSC seen over 10 yr were reviewed to identify those patients who had undergone endoscopic or percutaneous therapeutic intervention. Procedural and clinical data were recorded.RESULTS:A total of 71 PSC patients, median age of 49 yr (range 18–78 yr) were identified. Thirty-four patients were treated with endoscopic balloon dilation alone, and 37 patients were treated with balloon dilation plus stent placement. Stents were placed percutaneously (n = 19), endoscopically (n = 14), or using both interventions (n = 4). Both groups were comparable at baseline with regards to age, symptoms, and bilirubin level. The median duration of follow-up after intervention was similar in both groups. The number of intervention-related complications (30 vs 6, p = 0.001) as well as the incidence of acute cholangitis (p = 0.004) were more common in the stent group compared to the balloon dilation group. There were more complications related to percutaneous stent placement than endoscopic placement (23 vs 7, p = 0.001). There was no significant difference between the two groups with regards to improving cholestasis.CONCLUSIONS:There was no additional obvious benefit from stenting after balloon dilation in the treatment of dominant strictures in PSC patients. Stenting was associated with more complications, and its role after dilation should be assessed in a randomized trial rather than being accepted as routinely indicated in this setting.


Carbonate sediments are the sole indigenous source of aggregate for infrastructure development on many Pacific islands, and their importance has increased markedly since the middle of the last century. Biogenic gravel and sand are extracted in many places by dredging of shallow lagoons and by the mining of beach deposits. As demand increases, environmental and other problems caused by unrenewable, and thus unsustainable, and/or inappropriate extraction of this limited resource have grown. Majuro Atoll in the Marshall Islands exhibits many of the problems that are widespread in the Pacific. There is now concern on this atoll about damage to the coastline and the largely uncontrolled nature of aggregate extraction, linked to pressure to increase the habitable space by coastal reclamation and leading to the need for discourse among land owners, developers, and government agencies. The lagoon is large and well suited to study by high-resolution multibeam swath mapping, which has allowed three-dimensional imaging of aggregate deposits and dredge scars and pits. Thus, the technique is valuable both for rapid and accurate surveying and, used in conjunction with satellite imagery, as a means of providing to stakeholders colored images of past damage and areas of future interest.


Digital cameras are increasingly used for measurement tasks within engineering scenarios, often being part of metrology platforms. Existing cameras are well equipped to provide 2D information about the fields of view (FOV) they observe, the objects within the FOV, and the accompanying environments. But for some applications these 2D results are not sufficient, specifically applications that require Z dimensional data (depth data) along with the X and Y dimensional data. New designs of camera systems have previously been developed by integrating multiple cameras to provide 3D data, ranging from 2 camera photogrammetry to multiple camera stereo systems.

Many earlier attempts to record 3D data on 2D sensors have been completed, and likewise many research groups around the world are currently working on camera technology but from different perspectives; computer vision, algorithm development, metrology, etc. Plenoptic or Lightfield camera technology was defined as a technique over 100 years ago but has remained dormant as a potential metrology instrument. Lightfield cameras utilize an additional Micro Lens Array (MLA) in front of the imaging sensor, to create multiple viewpoints of the same scene and allow encoding of depth information. A small number of companies have explored the potential of lightfield cameras, but in the majority, these have been aimed at domestic consumer photography, only ever recording scenes as relative scale greyscale images.

This research considers the potential for lightfield cameras to be used for world scene metrology applications, specifically to record absolute coordinate data. Specific interest has been paid to a range of low cost lightfield cameras to; understand the functional/behavioural characteristics of the optics, identify potential need for optical and/or algorithm development, define sensitivity, repeatability and accuracy characteristics and limiting thresholds of use, and allow quantified 3D absolute scale coordinate data to be extracted from the images.

The novel output of this work is; an analysis of lightfield camera system sensitivity leading to the definition of Active Zones (linear data generation good data) and In-active Zones (non-linear data generation poor data), development of bespoke calibration algorithms that remove radial/tangential distortion from the data captured using any MLA based camera, and, a light field camera independent algorithm that allows the delivery of 3D coordinate data in absolute units within a well-defined measurable range from a given camera.


"Operative Techniques in Spine Surgery" provides full-color, step-by-step explanations of all operative procedures in spine surgery. It contains 19 chapters from the spine section and 10 chapters from the pediatric section of Dr. Sam W. Wiesel's "Operative Techniques in Orthopaedic Surgery", as well as 18 new chapters covering advanced procedures. Written by experts from leading institutions around the world, this superbly illustrated volume focuses on mastery of operative techniques and also provides a thorough understanding of how to select the best procedure, how to avoid complications, and what outcomes to expect. The user-friendly format is ideal for quick preoperative review of the steps of a procedure. Each procedure is broken down step by step, with full-color intraoperative photographs and drawings that demonstrate how to perform each technique. Extensive use of bulleted points and tables allows quick and easy reference. Each clinical problem is discussed in the same format: definition, anatomy, physical exams, pathogenesis, natural history, physical findings, imaging and diagnostic studies, differential diagnosis, non-operative management, surgical management, pearls and pitfalls, postoperative care, outcomes, and complications.


The focus of this paper is model-based behavioural analysis for the diagnosis of the air-gap eccentricity fault condition in the three-phase induction machine. To facilitate reliable and sensitive diagnosis, an online condition monitoring system has to depend on multiple signals and signatures. Air-gap mixed eccentricity fault signatures derived from three non-invasive methods
such as stator line current, instantaneous power, and estimated air-gap torque are presented. Modified winding function theory and multiple coupled circuit approaches are used to model the machine. The sidebands present around the fundamental frequency in the spectrum of stator current, and around double the supply frequency in the spectrum of instantaneous power indicate
the presence of air-gap mixed eccentricity. The low frequencies which exist near the DC component in the spectra of the air-gap torque and instantaneous power also indicate the same. These specific components were also observed in the high-frequency spectra around the principal slot harmonics. The modelling approach, the torque estimation approach, the simulation results at
different severity and load conditions, and the experimentation result in a motor with prefabricated eccentricity are presented. Copyright © 2020 Praise Worthy Prize S.r.l. - All rights reserved.


[Records reported on winter presence of Booted Eagle in Agrigento district. In 2005 the presence of 5-10 individuals has been estimated, in 2006 the number of 20-30 and in 2007 between 15 and 20. In 2008- 2009-2010-2011 annual presence of 10 individuals has been registered, while in 2012-2013-2014 a significant increase has been noted, with 16-17 wintering for every year. The Booted Eagles mainly winter in the old town center of Agrigento, where they hunt Rock Doves, Columba livia, and Collared Doves, Streptopelia decaocto. They arrive in October- November and leave again between the end of March and April.]

[Article in Italian]


UGC 3995 is an interacting and occulting galaxy pair. UGC 3995B is a foreground face-on spiral and UGC 3995A a bright background spiral with an AGN. We present analysis of the dust in the disc of UGC 3995B based on archival Hubble Space Telescope (HST) WFPC2 and PPAK IFU data from the CALIFA survey's first data release. From the HST F606W image, we construct an extinction map by modeling the isophotes of the background galaxy UGC 3995A and the resulting transmission through UGC 3995B. This extinction map of UGC 3995B shows several distinct spiral extinction features. The radial distribution of AV values declines slowly with peaks corresponding to the spiral structures. The distribution of AV values in the HST extinction map peaks near AV = 0.3–0.4. Beyond this point, the distribution of AV values drops like an exponential: N(AV ) = N0×eV /0.5). The 0.5 value is higher than typical for a spiral galaxy. The outer arms may be tidally distended; the extinction in the corresponding interarm regions is small to an unusually small radius. To analyze the PPAK IFU data, we take the ratio of a fibre spectrum in the overlap region and the corresponding background fiber spectrum to construct an extinction curve. We fit the Cardelli, Clayton and Mathis (CCM) curve to the extinction curve of each fiber element in the overlap region. A map of the extinction constructed from PPEX IFU data-cubes shows the same spiral structure of the HST extinction map but the some differences in the distribution of the normalization of the CCM fits (AV ). The inferred extinction slopes (RV ) maps do not display any structure and a range of values partly due to the sampling effects of the disc by fibers, sometimes due to bad fits, and possibly partly due to some reprocessing of dust grains in the interacting disc. We compare these findings to our other analysis of an occulting pair with HST and IFU data. In both cases the canonical RV = 3.1 is not recovered even though there is enough signal in the extinction curve. We attribute this to mixing opaque and more transparent sections of the disc in each resolution element (∼3′′ or 0.9 kpc). To illustrate the difficulty of imposing a RV = 3.1 law over a section of a spiral disc, we average all spectra and show how a fully gray extinction curve is recovered.


This article examines the political economy of free trade agreements. It assumes that, unlike labour, capital in two countries is owned and represented by the same lobby group. Using a Heckscher-Ohlin framework, factors affecting the likelihood of political parties and lobby groups supporting free trade agreements are investigated. The effects of free trade agreements on tariffs facing non-member countries are also examined.


From the Publisher:
Take virtual instrumentation to the next level with high-level programming.

High-level programming with LabWindows/CVI
Live data display via Internet or intranet sources
Programmatic creation and control of GUIs
Data acquisition and VXI device communication
Graph control, table control, function panels, instrument drivers, and Open GL

Unleash the true power of LabWindows/CVI when you employ the rich features of this programming environment. In this follow-up to his LabWindows CVI Programming for Beginners, Shahid F. Khalid presents the sophisticated techniques that allow experienced users to make the most of this virtual instrumentation powerhouse.

The flexibility of LabWindows/CVI software means that you can build virtual instrumentation using Microsoft Visual Basic and Visual C++ as well as ANSI C. Advanced Topics in LabWindows/CVI focuses on the use of C in an open software architecture. It is a project-oriented guide that will teach you to build applications using the more complex features of this programming environment. Applications include:

Live data acquisition via Internet or intranet sources using Data Socket technology
GUI controls created and manipulated in real time
Advanced features of graph and table controls
3-D data plotting with Open GL
Communications with VXI devices using VISA
Creating and using function panels and instrument drivers

The material is organized to present information with maximum clarity, keeping the reader in mind. For convenience, each chapter concludes with an explanation of theprototype of the library functions under discussion. Advanced Topics in LabWindows/CVI will give students and working professionals the tools to build and automate sophisticated virtual instrumentation for a world of applications.
About the CD:
The accompanying CD-ROM includes a demo version of LabWindows/CVI 6.0 that is included as a component of Measurement Studio and all the projects in the book in complete, ready-to-run form. Just load and run the projects as you work along with the text.


In January 1993, the U.S. Fish & Wild Life Service ("FWS") added the delta smelt, a small, silvery blue fish, to the Endangered Species Act's ("ESA") list of threatened wildlife. Species on the list are entitled to the ESA's protections. In Natural Resource Defense Council v. Jewell, the Natural Resource Defense Council ("NRDC") brought an action against the Bureau of Reclamation (the "Bureau") for violating Section 7(a)(2) of the ESA, the consultation requirement, to protect the delta smelt. The consultation provision required the Bureau to consult with the FWS before it renewed contracts that controlled water rights in the delta smelt's habitat. To use the ESA's citizen suit provision, a plaintiff must establish Article III standing. The NRDC was able to satisfy all three elements of Article III standing: injury in fact, causation, and available redress. The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit found that a non-governmental organization could have Article III standing to challenge a federal agency's violation of the ESA consultation requirement. This Comment argues that the Ninth Circuit properly reasoned that redress could be available before a listed species suffers actual harm, thereby providing species with protections guaranteed by the ESA.