This article examines the organisational and cultural factors, both formal and informal, which lead to the inappropriate non-use of sick leave or 'presenteeism'. A two-stage research process supplies the empirical data for this paper. Preliminary quantitative research was gathered from 200 questionnaires sent to staff at two centres; however, the results from this stage were inconclusive. The article therefore focuses on the findings from qualitative data, gathered through the use of in-depth interviews and focus groups with 30 workers at a single site in the public sector. Taking further the study by McKevitt et al. (1997), we consider whether presenteeism results in subsequently higher rates of sick leave. By understanding the fears associated with taking sick leave, we suggest that sick leave can be understood as a 'risk-taking' activity rather than a health-promoting one. In addition, informal discussions with management suggest that managers do not appreciate that policies designed to reduce sick leave may ultimately increase it. We suggest that a tendency to construct ideal models of the social and working environment may result in unintended and negative consequences for both employers and employees. Finally, we address briefly the social representation of sickness and the sick role. It is not usual for people to resist the sick role, and we consider not only the factors which contribute to reluctance to take sick leave, but also the attitudes of fellow workers to those who resist.


Aim: To define the endoscopic features and distribution of colonic tuberculosis (CTB) and Crohn's disease (CD) for early diagnosis. Methods: All adult patients referred for colonoscopy for CTB and CD was included. Demographic and colonoscopy features were recorded and biopsy taken. Results: Ninety patients, of which 48 in CTB were enrolled. In CTB, lesions were mainly located on the right colon and ulcers were single or three to five, size more than 5 cm, irregular in shape, yellow glistening in color, circumferentially oriented, border indistinct with nodular component. CD involved both side of the colon and ulcers were more than five in number, linear or oval in shape, less than 2 cm, longitudinal orientation, dirty yellow color and intervening mucosa contain aphthous ulcers or cobble stoning Conclusion: Colonic tuberculosis and Crohn's disease has distinct endoscopic and distribution pattern with some overlap. Colonoscopy and biopsy is an important diagnostic tool for early diagnosis in CTB and CD.


In this study several components responsible for the formation and function of the unidirectional flagellum of R. sphaeroides WS8 were identified via the characterisation of motility impaired TnphoA mutants. The role of the alternative sigma factor sigma 54 in flagellar gene regulation was also examined.
Mutant M18 was defective in a fliI homologue, characterisation of this mutant revealed that FliI is not essential for flagellar formation in R. sphaeroides. This differs from that reported in the literature for S. typhimurium and so highlights the importance of studying R. sphaeroides as a model for flagellar motility.
Analysis of another mutant Nm7 revealed that it was defective in FliF, a rotor component around which other flagellar components assemble. Overexpression of a FliF fusion protein allowed the production of anti FliF antiserum.
DNA sequencing upstream and downstream of the fliF gene, revealed several other genes encoding flagellar components and a potential flagellar gene regulator (Torf).
fliE, encoding a component of the basal body of unknown function, was identified upstream of fliF, an interposon mutant was created and was unable to be complemented by the wild type gene in trans suggesting a dominant effect. This is the first dominant mutation to be isolated in any fliE .
The gene encoding the motor component FliG was also identified downstream of fliF and its C-terminal motility domain was found to contain regions that are conserved between FliG proteins from unidirectional and bidirectional motors, these may play a role in motor rotation and not switching. An overexpressed poly histidine FliG fusion protein was found to form a complex with the FliF-GST fusion protein ill vitro.
The torf gene encodes a protein with homology to sigma 54 enhancer binding proteins. The Torf protein lacks any obvious DNA binding motif and may represent a novel member of the sigma 54 enhancer binding protein family.


Objective: Angiotensin II is an endogenous hormone with vasopressor and endocrine activities. This is a systematic review of the safety of IV angiotensin II. Data Sources: PubMed, Medline, Scopus, and Cochrane. Study Selection: Studies in which human subjects received IV angiotensin II were selected whether or not safety was discussed. Data Extraction: In total, 18,468 studies were screened by two reviewers and one arbiter. One thousand one hundred twenty-four studies, in which 31,281 participants received angiotensin II (0.5–3,780 ng/kg/min), were selected. Data recorded included number of subjects, comorbidities, angiotensin II dose and duration, pressor effects, other physiologic and side effects, and adverse events. Data Synthesis: The most common nonpressor effects included changes in plasma aldosterone, renal function, cardiac variables, and electrolytes. Adverse events were infrequent and included headache, chest pressure, and orthostatic symptoms. The most serious side effects were exacerbation of left ventricular failure in patients with congestive heart failure and bronchoconstriction. One patient with congestive heart failure died from refractory left ventricular failure. Refractory hypotensive shock was fatal in 55 of 115 patients treated with angiotensin II in case studies, cohort studies, and one placebo-controlled study. One healthy subject died after a pressor dose of angiotensin II was infused continuously for 6 days. No other serious adverse events attributable to angiotensin II were reported. Heterogeneity in study design prevented meta-analysis. Conclusion: Adverse events associated with angiotensin II were infrequent; however, exacerbation of asthma and congestive heart failure and one fatal cerebral hemorrhage were reported. This systematic review supports the notion that angiotensin II has an acceptable safety profile for use in humans.


The insulin like growth factor-II/mannose-6-phosphate (IGF-II/M6P) receptor has been detected in many cells and tissues. In the rat, there is a dramatic developmental regulation of IGF-II/M6P receptor expression, the receptor being high in fetal and neonatal tissues and declining thereafter. We have systematically studied the expression of the human IGF-II/M6P receptor protein in tissues from 10 human fetuses and infants (age 23 weeks gestation to 24 months postnatal). We have asked 1) whether there is differential expression among different organs, and 2) whether or not the human IGF-II/M6P receptor is developmentally regulated from 23 weeks gestation to 24 months postnatal. Protein was extracted from human tissues using a buffer containing 2% sodium dodecyl sulfate and 2% Triton X-100. Aliquots of the protein extracts were analyzed by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and immunoblotting using an anti-IGF-II/M6P receptor antiserum (no. 66416) and 125I-protein A or an immunoperoxidase stain. IGF-II/M6P receptor immunoreactivity was detected in all tissues studied with the highest amount of receptor being expressed in heart, thymus, and kidney and the lowest receptor content being measured in brain and muscle. The receptor content in ovary, testis, lung, and spleen was intermediate. The apparent molecular weight of the IGF-II/M6P receptor (220,000 kilos without reduction of disulfide bonds) varied among the different tissues: in brain the receptor was of lower molecular weight than in other organs. Immunoquantitation experiments employing 125I-protein A and protein extracts from human kidney at different ages revealed a small, albeit not significant, difference of the receptor content between fetal and postnatal tissues: as in other species, larger amounts of receptor seemed to be present in fetal than in postnatal organs. In addition, no significant difference of the receptor content between human fetal liver and early postnatal liver was measured employing 125I-protein A-immunoquantitation in three fetal and five postnatal liver tissue samples. The distribution of IGF-binding protein (IGEBP) species, another abundant and major class of IGF binding principles, was also measured in human fetal and early postnatal lung, liver, kidney, muscle, and brain using Western ligand blotting with 125I-IGF-II: as with IGF-II/M6P receptor immunoreactivity there was differential expression of the different classes of IGFBPs in the various organs.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)


Ever since Justice Scalia passed away last February, the Supreme Court has been composed of eight Justices equally divided among Republicans and Democrats. This paper argues that Congress should permanently set the number of Justices at eight and require that at all times there are four Republicans and four Democrats on the Court. A permanent, evenly-divided Court will work harder to reach narrower decisions in its hardest cases and will be less able to impose its ideological agendas on the American people while at the same still have the tools necessary to maintain the supremacy and uniformity of federal law. To the extent the Justices do deadlock on a case, the issues will be resolved by court of appeals judges who are much more politically, educationally, and geographically diverse than the Justices.This proposal to limit the Court's power, unlike abolishing term limits or requiring a super-majority of Justices to strike down laws, does not require a constitutional amendment (the original number of Justices was six). Although the President could nominate any person he desires, even if it disrupts the Court's balance, the Senate could refuse to confirm any nominee who would lead to one of the political parties having a majority of Justices on the Court. This paper spells out the details of this proposal and explains both how it could be easily implemented and why it benefits both political parties, the Congress, the President, and the American people.Preexisting intellectual commitments or interpretative theories have not and cannot limit the Court's power. It is well past time to experiment with structural changes that will make it more difficult for the Justices to strike down state and federal laws based on ideological disagreement instead of a demonstration of clear inconsistency with the Constitution.


Using the S-Coordinate Rutgers University Model (SCRUM) of Song and Haidvogel(1993), a coupled coastal (86 m depth) and deep ocean (4600 m depth) California Coastal region has been investigated for the dynamics of the California Current System (CCS) under the joint effects of realistic coastline geometry, bottom topography, wind forcing, and surface heat flux. The model equations are the three-dimensional, free surface, primitive equations with orthogonal curvilinear coordinates in the horizontal and the s-coordinate in the vertical. Three kinds of surface forces - steady wind field with positive curl, long-term oscillatory wind, and diurnal cycling wind and thermal forcing - are used to simulate the variations of the CCS. Two alternate parameterizations, dynamic instability mixing and turbulence closure mixing, are used in the diurnal cycling problem. The model is shown to be stable and capable of handling the joint effects of geometry and surface forcing. Our simulations show that: (1) upwelling and a depressed surface height are always found at the coast for equatorward wind stress; (2) the equatorward surface jet and the poleward undercurrent persist for all upwelling-favorable winds; (3) a meandering jet and eddies can be caused by the coastline geometry and wind curl in combination; (4) surface and bottom layers mixing increases the variations of the CCS.


For this third edition of "Distributed Systems," the material has been thoroughly revised and extended, integrating principles and paradigms into nine chapters: 1. Introduction 2. Architectures 3. Processes 4. Communication 5. Naming 6. Coordination 7. Replication 8. Fault tolerance 9. Security A separation has been made between basic material and more specific subjects. The latter have been organized into boxed sections, which may be skipped on first reading. To assist in understanding the more algorithmic parts, example programs in Python have been included. The examples in the book leave out many details for readability, but the complete code is available through the book's Website, hosted at www.distributed-systems.net. A personalized digital copy of the book is available for free, as well as a printed version through Amazon.com.


The zinc transporter OsZIP9, expressed at the exodermis and endodermis of root mature region, contributes to Zn uptake from soil in rice. Zinc (Zn) is an important essential micronutrient for plants and humans; however, the exact transporter responsible for root zinc uptake from soil has not been identified. Here, we found that OsZIP9, a member of the ZRT–IRT-related protein, is involved in Zn uptake in rice (Oryza sativa) under Zn-limited conditions. OsZIP9 was mainly localized to the plasma membrane and showed transport activity for Zn in yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae). Expression pattern analysis showed that OsZIP9 was mainly expressed in the roots throughout all growth stages and its expression was upregulated by Zn-deficiency. Furthermore, OsZIP9 was expressed in the exodermis and endodermis of root mature regions. For plants grown in a hydroponic solution with low Zn concentration, knockout of OsZIP9 significantly reduced plant growth, which was accompanied by decreased Zn concentrations in both the root and shoot. However, plant growth and Zn accumulation did not differ between knockout lines and wild-type rice under Zn-sufficient conditions. When grown in soil, Zn concentrations in the shoots and grains of knockout lines were decreased to half of wild-type rice, whereas the concentrations of other mineral nutrients were not altered. A short-term kinetic experiment with stable isotope 67Zn showed that 67Zn uptake in knockout lines was much lower than that in wild-type rice. Combined, these results indicate that OsZIP9 localized at the root exodermis and endodermis functions as an influx transporter of Zn and contributes to Zn uptake under Zn-limited conditions in rice.


This report presents one month trainee work on development of French Automatic Speech Recognition ASR system using a french part of multilingual database GlobalPhone_FR. The purpose of this report is to explain and give results of the training and testing of the ASR with this specific database. Two different methods are presented, the Hidden Markov Model (HMM) with MFCC/PLP features and tandem features from Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) phone posteriors. The report presents data preparation for GlobalPhone_FR ASR training, and compares the two different approaches. Word recognition accuracy achieved with MFCC features is 71.46% and the tandem features with 3-layer MLP improved the accuracy to 72.15%. We interpret this result as a baseline for the GlobalPhone_FR database.


The contribution takes a glance at the application of BIM technologies in the design and construction phases of shield tunnelling projects. The intention is to show how Building Information Modelling can be translated into actual benefit, not only in the operation phase but also in the design and construction phases of bored tunnels. Emphasising the integrative character of referencing data uniformly in space and time, examples are given of seamless communication between 3D geometrical modelling, efficient numerical simulation and model adaptation based on measured data acquired during the boring process. The article covers the complete range from predesign through structural analysis and detailed design until the actual excavation process including its interactions with the environment. Special emphasis is given to data management, which is the key to transforming a mere 3D visualisation into a Building Information Model. The article therefore presents a concept for database‐supported, web‐based integration of software modules for geometrical modelling in various levels of detail, efficient numerical simulation tools that are based upon this representation, and process controlling that manages all data acquired during the construction process in a spatially and temporally coordinated reference system.


Taking analogy as both its mode and object of inquiry, this Article canvasses the relationship between historical-geographical analogies and generational segregation (the large-scale separation of children and adults) from three complementary perspectives. First, due to restrictions recently introduced by the Israeli authorities, Palestinian prisoners have been prevented from reading popular study materials dealing with both Indigenous child removal and analogies concerning settler-Indigenous relations in North America and Australia. Reviving the critical potential of this encounter with analogies and accounts, I put forward an analogy between the removal of Indigenous children to boarding schools in the United States and Canada, Australia's Aboriginal "stolen generations", and the increased separation of Palestinian children and adults themselves in Israeli custody. This analogy highlights key parallels: the deleterious effects of allegedly benevolent generational segregation; the invocation of law and children's "best interests"; the severance of unwanted intergenerational influences; the targeting of children due to their presumed plasticity; the use of separation to govern adults; and links between generational segregation, "national security", and incarceration. Second, these analogies – those Palestinians explored in Israeli prison and the generational segregation analogy developed here – partly overlap with, and acquire their potential and implications from other analogies, concerning settler-Indigenous relations in North America, Australia, and Israel/Palestine. I examine the roles such analogies have played, and their alignment with competing ideologies, across a range of legal and political discourses over the past two centuries. Finally, in order to maximize the critical potential of such historical-geographical analogies, I offer a conceptual critique of three relevant discourses: legalistic analogies concerning generational segregation, which leave unchallenged the broader field of child law and policy on which such segregation hinges; analogies between North America, Australia, and Israel/Palestine that rigidly conceptualize (settler) colonialism; and a tendency to reduce analogy to similarity. Bringing into conversation previously separate bodies of scholarship, these three interdependent perspectives shed new light on important yet hitherto unexamined issues at the intersection of analogy and generational segregation.


During the second and third decades of the twentieth century, the U. S. Supreme Court issued a handful of opinions rejecting 14th Amendment constitutional challenges by employers to implementation of workers' compensation statutes in the United States. Unknown to many, the statutes were largely the fruit of privately-sponsored investigations, principally by the Russell Sage Foundation and the National Association of Manufacturers, of European workers' compensation systems during the first decade of the twentieth century. Some of those systems had been in existence since the 1870s and 1880s, and many employers preferred them to newly-emerging American employer liability statutes that retained tort liability while eliminating many or all affirmative defenses. The Minnesota Employees' Compensation Commission and the National Civic Federation (NCF) catalyzed the national conversation on workers' compensation from 1909-1911, and it was an NCF lawyer who was substantially responsible for a draft that became the first workers' compensation statute upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court as constitutional. Contrary to the view held by some, the foundational Supreme Court opinions constitutionally authorizing the workers' compensation "Grand Bargain" — statutory benefits for tort damages — set no workers' compensation benefit floor. The article parses the opinions to emphasize the point, and then goes on to explore the context of what seems a strange omission. Ultimately, the article concludes that the Court "deferred," sub silentio, to the private bodies of experts who had been investigating, reporting, and deliberating upon the European systems. The difficulty with the Court's approach is that little has been left to posterity explaining what scale of employee benefits the Court might have deemed inadequate or unreasonable as an exchange for employee tort damages. The pregnant silence on federal constitutional boundaries continues to impact current discussions on limits to legislative reductions of workers' compensation benefits. This absence of an explicit benefit floor should give pause to proponents of schemes seeking to export the workers' compensation model to other legal regimes.


A system is described which uses a diode array TV camera to view the real-time fringes and digital electronics to measure and store the irradiance levels at a 100 × 100 array of points. A microcomputer calculates the phase at each point from the irradiance values obtained from three successive scans of the array made with the phase of the reference beam shifted in steps of 120° by means of a mirror mounted on a piezoelectric translator. The optical system permits four holograms to be recorded in quick succession, using a photothermoplastic camera, with the object illuminated from four different directions. Phase data from these holograms are processed in a microcomputer to determine the components of the vector displacement at each of these points; these figures can then be transferred to a fast computer for further processing to evaluate the stress distribution.


Countries have pledged to stabilize global warming at a 1.5–2°C increase. Either target requires reaching net zero emissions before the end of the century, which implies a major transformation of the economic system. This study reviews the literature on how policymakers can design climate policies and their nationally determined contributions to reach zero‐net emissions before the end of the century in a socially and politically acceptable manner. To get the ambition right, policymakers can use sectoral roadmaps with targets and indicators that track progress toward zero emissions (e.g., regarding renewable power or reforestation). Indeed, monitoring economy‐wide emissions‐reductions alone would not ensure that short‐term action contributes meaningfully to the long‐term decarbonization goal. To get the political economy right, climate policies can be designed so that they contribute to nonclimate objectives and create broad coalitions of supporters. For instance, carbon taxes revenues can fund social assistance and infrastructure investment, while reducing tax evasion and informality. To minimize social and economic disruptions and avoid stranded assets, policymakers can also start with a low carbon price level and use complementary policies. Designed at the sector level, complementary policies such as performance standards or feebates for cars, building norms, or moratoriums on new coal power plants can be negotiated in partnership with local stakeholders and trigger a transition to zero carbon that does not directly affect existing polluting capital. WIREs Energy Environ 2017, 6:e256. doi: 10.1002/wene.256


We study the impact of post-1990 school finance reforms, during the so-called "adequacy" era, on absolute and relative spending and achievement in low-income school districts. Using an event study research design that exploits the apparent randomness of reform timing, we show that reforms lead to sharp, immediate, and sustained increases in spending in low-income school districts. Using representative samples from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, we find that reforms cause increases in the achievement of students in these districts, phasing in gradually over the years following the reform. The implied effect of school resources on educational achievement is large.


Genetic programming for self-renewal Instead of repopulating themselves from tissue-resident stem cell pools like most types of differentiated cells, tissue macrophages maintain themselves by self-renewing. The underlying genetic programs that allow for this, however, are unknown. Soucie et al. now report that in macrophages at homeostasis, a pair of transcription factors (MafB and c-Maf) bind to and repress the enhancers of genes regulating self-renewal. When macrophages need to replenish their stocks, for example in response to injury, they transiently decrease MafB and c-Maf expression so they can self-renew. A parallel pathway also operates to control the self-renewal of embryonic stem cells. Science, this issue p. 10.1126/science.aad5510 Tissue macrophages and embryonic stem cells use similar genetic programs to self-renew. INTRODUCTION In many organs of the body, differentiated cells are frequently lost and need to be replaced as part of normal homeostatic tissue maintenance or in response to injury. In most cases, this regeneration is assured by differentiation from tissue-specific stem cells. Together with a few other cell types, tissue macrophages represent a rare exception to this pathway, as they can be maintained independently of blood stem cells by local proliferation. Under certain conditions, mature macrophages can also be expanded and maintained long term in culture without transformation or loss of differentiation status. The gene regulatory mechanisms that allow such differentiated cells to self-renew while maintaining cell type–specific identity have so far remained unknown. Self-renewing macrophages provide a rare opportunity to study this question. RATIONALE Molecularly, cell identity can be defined by the genomic positions of gene regulatory enhancer elements. The cell type–specific signatures and activity status of such elements have been characterized by the analysis of specific histone modifications and the binding of regulatory proteins. To identify the regulatory mechanisms that enable macrophage self-renewal capacity to be integrated into the overall program of epigenetic macrophage identity, we have compared the enhancer repertoires of quiescent and self-renewing macrophages. Based on our previous observations that deletion of MafB and c-Maf transcription factors results in an extended self-renewal capacity of macrophages, we further investigated how the absence of Maf transcription factors affects the enhancers of specific self-renewal genes and how these mechanisms activate macrophage self-renewal under homeostatic and challenge conditions in vivo. RESULTS Compared to quiescent macrophages, self-renewing macrophages showed no appreciable difference with respect to genome-wide enhancer positions but displayed an increase in the activation status of many enhancers that were also bound by the lineage-specifying transcription factor PU.1 in both cell types. This finding suggests that these poised macrophage-specific enhancers became active in self-renewing macrophages. We found activated enhancers to be associated with a network of genes, centered on Myc and Klf2, that were up-regulated and functionally important for self-renewal in these cells. The same genes were also required for embryonic stem (ES) cell self-renewal but were associated with a distinct, ES cell–specific set of enhancers. We observed that activated self-renewal–associated macrophage enhancers were directly repressed by MafB binding. The loss of MafB and c-Maf expression relieved this repression and led to activation of the self-renewal gene network in MafB and cMaf knockout macrophages, as well as in alveolar macrophages that express constitutively low levels of these transcription factors. In vivo single-cell analysis further revealed that, both in the steady state and in response to immune stimulation, proliferating resident macrophages could access this network by transient down-regulation of Maf transcription factors. CONCLUSION Our results demonstrate that self-renewal in macrophages involves down-regulation of MafB and cMaf, as well as concomitant activation of a self-renewal gene network shared with ES cells but controlled from cell type–specific enhancers. Macrophage enhancers associated with self-renewal genes are already present in quiescent cells and can become activated when direct repression by Maf transcription factors is relieved. Our findings provide a general molecular rationale for the compatibility of self-renewal and differentiated cell functions and may also be more generally relevant for the direct activation of self-renewal activity in other differentiated cell types with therapeutic potential. The self-renewal potential of both ES cells and differentiated macrophages is dependent on a shared network of self-renewal genes (left) that are controlled by distinct lineage-specific enhancers (right). In quiescent macrophages, the transcription factor MafB binds and represses these enhancers. The loss of MafB expression results in enhancer activation and enables macrophage self-renewal. At bottom left, red arrows indicate activation; blue bars represent inhibition. Circle size is a function of the number of times the target is affected by other regulators. MΦ, macrophage; E, enhancer; P, promoter. ILLUSTRATION: SERENA BIELLI Differentiated macrophages can self-renew in tissues and expand long term in culture, but the gene regulatory mechanisms that accomplish self-renewal in the differentiated state have remained unknown. Here we show that in mice, the transcription factors MafB and c-Maf repress a macrophage-specific enhancer repertoire associated with a gene network that controls self-renewal. Single-cell analysis revealed that, in vivo, proliferating resident macrophages can access this network by transient down-regulation of Maf transcription factors. The network also controls embryonic stem cell self-renewal but is associated with distinct embryonic stem cell–specific enhancers. This indicates that distinct lineage-specific enhancer platforms regulate a shared network of genes that control self-renewal potential in both stem and mature cells.


This study provides validity evidence for the MUSIC Model of Academic Motivation Inventory (MUSIC Inventory; Jones, 2012), which measures college students' beliefs related to the five components of the MUSIC Model of Motivation (MUSIC model; Jones, 2009). The MUSIC model is a conceptual framework for five categories of teaching strategies (i.e., eMpowerment, Usefulness, Success, Interest, and Caring) that were derived from research and theory as ones that are critical to students' motivation ( Jones, 2009). Participants included 338 undergraduate students who provided questionnaire responses in reference to 221 different courses at a large public U.S. university. Our analyses included classical item analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, the calculation of Rasch measurement scales, and Pearson's correlation coefficients. Results support the validity of scores produced by the MUSIC Inventory for use with college students. This inventory could be useful to instructors and researchers interested in assessing the effects of instruction on students' motivational beliefs.


We combine experimental and modeling results from a headwater catchment at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest (HBEF), New Hampshire, USA, to explore the link between stream solute dynamics and water age. A theoretical framework based on water age dynamics, which represents a general basis for characterizing solute transport at the catchment scale, is here applied to conservative and weathering‐derived solutes. Based on the available information about the hydrology of the site, an integrated transport model was developed and used to compute hydrochemical fluxes. The model was designed to reproduce the deuterium content of streamflow and allowed for the estimate of catchment water storage and dynamic travel time distributions (TTDs). The innovative contribution of this paper is the simulation of dissolved silicon and sodium concentration in streamflow, achieved by implementing first‐order chemical kinetics based explicitly on dynamic TTD, thus upscaling local geochemical processes to catchment scale. Our results highlight the key role of water stored within the subsoil glacial material in both the short‐term and long‐term solute circulation. The travel time analysis provided an estimate of streamflow age distributions and their evolution in time related to catchment wetness conditions. The use of age information to reproduce a 14 year data set of silicon and sodium stream concentration shows that, at catchment scales, the dynamics of such geogenic solutes are mostly controlled by hydrologic drivers, which determine the contact times between the water and mineral interfaces. Justifications and limitations toward a general theory of reactive solute circulation at catchment scales are discussed.


This paper presents an artificial market model to clarify the definition of the contrary opinion phenomena. Our research target is to show the contrary opinion, which is based on market participants' experiences, statistically. At first, we constructed a more realistic artificial market model and simulated it. Second, we selected 'highly corresponded forecasts' among the fitted sample paths. Third, we classified them into three groups: the ones which on a uptrend with the following trend reversal, those which on a uptrend only and otherwise. Finally, we compared between the volume at all the observations and those both before and after at the observation in each group. This is based on a rule of thumb that both acceleration of price and increasing volume can be seen before the turning point in financial markets. The results indicate that the volume at the peak of the price, when a contrary opinion phenomenon occurs, is the largest. While those of other groups were not. This shows the rule of thumb was replicated in our model. Especially, because the contrary opinion phenomena were clarified statistically, these results could be noticeable.


Solar diameters have been measured from different ground-based instruments on different sites all around the world. There are values dating back to three centuries ago, but the revival of interest began in the 1970s when it was claimed that a temporal periodic modulation had been found. The interest of such measurements, pinpointed from only two decades, may not lie in these temporal variations, but in the fact that a latitudinal heliographic dependence may exist. Such a solar shape distortion has been deduced from the analysis of solar astrolabe data sorted by heliographic latitudes, but observational evidence has also been obtained by means of a scanning heliometer (Pic du Midi Observatory). Latitudinal dependence implies sub-surfacic physical mechanisms and can be explained theoretically. Thus, in spite of the fact that ground-based observations are altered by seeing effects that may amplify or superimpose noise, it can be advanced that the solar shape is not a pure spheroid. We present here a new theory based upon the thermal-wind equation, which explains the observed distorted solar shape. Using the W  parameter (called here asphericity-luminosity parameter), we show that large negative values ( W ranging from around -0.075 up to -0.6) leading to a prolate Sun, are unlikely. The best range of W lies between around -0.075 and +0.6. Concerning observations, only space missions (or balloon flights) will be able to reach a clear conclusion. A space mission called PICARD is scheduled to be launched by 2008: one of its major aims is to measure these asphericities with astrometric precision.


The Clean Power Plan is expected to play an important role in reducing US greenhouse gas emissions. On February 9, 2016, responding to appeals from the affected industries and states, the Supreme Court issued a "stay" suspending implementation of the Clean Power Plan until after the judicial review process. Industry groups stated the plan will pose large "irreparable" costs to the coal sector during the period of judicial review. However, modeling suggests that because of prevailing market, technological, and policy trends, the Clean Power Plan will result in near-zero costs beyond current trends until 2025, in part because of the plan's built-in flexibility. These factors and lessons from option theory suggest the stay is economically unjustifiable based on claims of irreparable economic harm to the coal sector. If implementation of the rule proceeds, current trends imply the stay will have little effect on industry's ability to follow the current compliance schedule.


The objective of the present work is to analyse the potential of using non-classical additions in concrete and mortar compositions such as coal bottom ash (BA) and biomass ash (Bio), as partial replacing binder of ordinary Portland cement. It is intended to deal with production of these type of wastes and its accumulation and contribute to the minimisation of carbon and embodied energy in construction materials. The aim is to identify the concrete and mortars formulation types where it is possible to get more benefit by incorporating BA and Bio. Based on the optimisation of the rheological properties of cement-based materials, mortars with repair function and concrete compositions were developed including 0%, 10%, 15% and 20% of BA and Bio as cement replacement. An assessment of the evolution of relative concrete compressive strength was calculated as a function of the relative solid volume fraction of several concretes. BA compositions present low resistance to high flow rates, increasing the ease of placement and vibration. BA seems to present more filler and pozzolanic effect when compared with Bio. BA mortars fulfil the compressive strength and stiffness requirements to be used as repair mortars, allowing the replacement of 15% or 20% of cement by an industrial waste. This by-product is able to work in the development of the mortar and concrete microstructure strength adopting a much more sustainable solution for the environment.


One of the main information channels on oral health during pregnancy is direct and regular contact with obstetricians and gynecologists, who are the health professionals that future mothers consult most often during pregnancy. Thus, it would be desirable to promote information campaigns on dental topics aimed at women, starting with pre- and post-partum courses, to prepare them for the changes of the perinatal period. In recent years, health professionals have increasingly focused on maternal health during pregnancy. In a survey conducted in the United States just over ten years ago on a large sample of obstetrician-gynecologists, most respondents recognised the importance of pregnancy care. However, 77% of respondents had not advised the patients to undergo dental checkups, and 73% seldom asked the patients whether they had seen a dentist in the past 12 months [Morgan, 2009]. In light of these discouraging findings, in 2012 the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Dental Academy devised appropriate guidelines [OHRC, 2012]: It would be desirable to promote similar initiatives globally, and we ask our readers to report to us the current status in their own country. Regarding Italy, the recent partnership between the European Federation of Periodontology and the Italian Society of Periodontology has made it possible to offer a wealth of useful information, accessible online, aimed at professionals and expectant mothers as an aid to achieve optimal oral health in pregnancy [EFP and SIdP, 2017]. Thanks to the compliance and the positive attitude of future mothers, as a result of the support of healthcare professionals and widespread dissemination, it is now possible to reduce the incidence of both pregnancy-related and childhood diseases. We are well aware that the paediatric dentist is often consulted too late, in the presence, for instance, of advanced carious lesions. Therefore it is crucial for general and paediatric dentists to inform future mothers on the critical issues that may arise during pregnancy and the first years of their child's life, and to provide them a set of instructions, starting with basic notions such as the recommended frequency of brushing and the correct use of fluorinated toothpastes. Finally, it would be useful to promote programmes that are aimed at evaluating the patients' knowledge about aspects such as prevention and oral health. This would aid in identifying any weaknesses in the current prevention strategies, and help health professionals implement targeted projects supported by both the private sector and the national health system in order to include all the information required to achieve true primary prevention.


The market is flooded with numbers of good books on Embedded Systems designed especially with the most popular MCS51 family. These books are traditional in nature i.e. they start with the routine architectural features of 8051, description of registers, ports, interrupts etc. Most of these things are already covered in the device data sheet and application notes. In this book all such routine things are skipped. The focus is on programming microcontrollers, to be specific MCS-51 family in C using Keil IDE.Exploring C for Microcontrollerspresents seventeen live case studies apart from the many basic programs organized around every on-chip resource like port, time/counter, interrupt , serial I/O etc. Rather than introducing the underpinning theory or reproducing lengthy data sheets, our approach is "learning-through-doing" and one that appeals to busy electronics designers. The C codes given are well supported by easy to understand comments wherever required. Mastering the basic modules and hands on working with the projects will enable to grasp the basic building blocks for most 8051 programs. Whether you are a student using the MCS-51 family of microcontrollers for your project work or an embedded systems programmer, this is a book that will give you a kick-start in using and understanding the most popular microcontroller. Authors through their interaction with the undergraduate, postgraduate students as well as industry professionals have found that such a book is a need of the microcontroller community interested in C programming. The book will bridge the gap between the microcontroller hardware experts and the C programmers.


This report presents towing tests made in the N.A.C.A. tank of a parent form and five variations of a flying-boat hull. The beams of two of the derived forms were made the same as that of the parent and the lengths changed by increasing and decreasing the spacing of stations. The lengths of the two others of the derived forms were made the same as that of the parent while the beams were changed by increasing and decreasing the spacing of buttocks, all other widths being changed in proportion. The remaining derived form has the same length and beam as the parent, but the lines of the forebody were altered to give a planing bottom with no longitudinal curvature forward of the step. The test data were analyzed to determine the minimum resistance and the angle at which it occurs for all speeds and loads. The results of this analysis are given in the form of non dimensional curves for each model. The effect of variation in over-all size, as indicated by a "complete" test on any given hull, is pointed out. The effect of changing length alone by the spacing of buttocks, as well as the effects of the changes in length-beam ratio and longitudinal curvature that result from these operations are discussed. The difficulties encountered in interpreting test results of systematic families derived by the method used are emphasized. Further studies are suggested in which changes in the variable under consideration would not be obscured by secondary changes in other important variables.


The authors have developed a high pressure method to produce bulk chalcogenide glasses of a unique AsS composition. The structure, optical properties, and stability of the obtained glasses have been studied. Glasses have an intrinsic deep-red color, optical pseudogap Eg≈1.75eV, a broad Urbach absorption tail WU≈120meV, and high temperature stability up to 130°C. AsS glasses show photoinduced transformations, including photocrystallization. The glass structure is largely based on the quasimolecular As4S4 units with partial polymerization providing an example of an inorganic molecular-based glass.


An algorithm based on the radiance transfer model (RM) and a dynamic learning neural network (NN) for estimating water vapor content from moderate resolution imaging spectrometer (MODIS) 1B data is developed in this paper. The MODTRAN4 is used to simulate the sun-surface-sensor process with different conditions. The dynamic learning neural network is used to estimate water vapor content. Analysis of the simulation data indicates that the mean and standard deviation of estimation error are under 0.06 gcm(-2 )and 0.08 gcm(-2). The comparison analysis indicates that the estimation result by RM-NN is comparable to that of a MODIS water vapor content product (MYD05_L2). Finally, validation with ground measurement data shows that RM-NN can be used to accurately estimate the water vapor content from MODIS 1B data, and the mean and standard deviation of the estimation error are about 0.12 gcm(-2 )and 0.18 gcm(-2).


This article studies equilibrium dynamics in consumer durable goods markets after aggregate credit shocks. We introduce two novel features into a general-equilibrium model of durable consumption with heterogeneous households facing idiosyncratic income risk and borrowing constraints: (1) indivisible durable goods are vertically differentiated in their quality and (2) trade on secondary markets at market-clearing prices, with households endogenously choosing when to trade or scrap their durables. The model highlights a new transmission mechanism for macroeconomic shocks and successfully matches several empirical patterns that we document using data on U.S. car markets around the Great Recession. After a tightening of the borrowing limit, debt-constrained households postpone the decision to scrap and upgrade their low-quality cars, which depresses mid-quality car prices. In turn, this effect reduces wealthy households' incentives to replace their mid-quality cars with high-quality ones, thereby decreasing new-car sales. We further use our framework to evaluate targeted fiscal stimulus policies such as the Car Allowance Rebate System in 2009 ("Cash for Clunkers").


A general numerical simulation method is presented for the analysis of the dynamic interaction problem between a large-span concrete culvert, discretized by a plane strain finite element model (FEM), and a dynamic system of vehicle traversing at various speeds. The vehicle is represented as a mass-spring-damper FEM system with seven degrees of freedom. The time-variable coupled dynamic system is solved by a step-by-step solution technique using Newmark's integration scheme. The backfill soil elastic modulus is modeled as varying linearly with depth below the ground surface. Several numerical examples are investigated by modifying different parameters such as backfill height and road surface stiffness, respectively. The dynamic displacement response for the mid-span point of the concrete culverts is analyzed, as well as the displacement impact factor. The research results demonstrate that the impact factor changes with the vehicle speed and strongly depends on the road surface roughness conditions.


The main practical limitation of the McEliece public-key encryption scheme is probably the size of its key. A famous trend to overcome this issue is to focus on subclasses of alternant/Goppa codes with a non-trivial automorphism group. Such codes display then symmetries allowing compact parity-check or generator matrices. For instance, a key-reduction is obtained by taking quasi-cyclic (QC) or quasi-dyadic (QD) alternant/Goppa codes. We show that the use of such symmetric alternant/Goppa codes in cryptography introduces a fundamental weakness. It is indeed possible to reduce the key-recovery on the original symmetric public-code to the key-recovery on a (much) smaller code that has no symmetry anymore. This result is obtained thanks to an operation on codes called folding that exploits the knowledge of the automorphism group. This operation consists in adding the coordinates of codewords which belong to the same orbit under the action of the automorphism group. The advantage is twofold. The reduction factor can be as large as the size of the orbits, and it preserves a fundamental property: folding the dual of an alternant (respectively, Goppa) code provides the dual of an alternant (respectively, Goppa) code. A key point is to show that all the existing constructions of alternant/Goppa codes with symmetries follow a common principal of taking codes whose support is globally invariant under the action of affine transformations (by building upon prior works of Berger and Dür). This enables not only to present a unified view but also to generalize the construction of QC, QD, and even quasi-monoidic Goppa codes. Finally, our results can be harnessed to boost up any key-recovery attack on McEliece systems based on symmetric alternant or Goppa codes, and in particular algebraic attacks.


Collection of data for economics studies frequently is a time-consuming and expensive process. This is particularly true of studies of plants that process and distribute agricultural products. During the last 2 years the Agricultural Marketing Service has been experimenting with a low-cost method of collecting data on the operations of more than 60 independent milk-distributing companies. The Service has now had enough experience with the method to permit a critical evaluation of it. In the accompanying paper the primary purpose of the authors is to present such an evaluation. They point out advantages and limitations of the method from the viewpoint of researchers who are actively engaged in analysis of data obtained by the procedure.


People used moderate natural resources and obeyed the natural laws. Last Century of the II millennium constitutes a turning point in the relations, since it brought into question the harmony between people and the natural environment. The concept of "sustainable development" is development which meets the needs of the present providing the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The aim of this concept refers to the continuous improvement of quality of life and cannot be achieved if the community is not able to rationally and effectively use natural resources and ecological potential of the economy, providing an unbreakable link between economic prosperity, environmental protection and public interest. Water is an important natural resource. Engineering solutions for river training structures have a strong and long-lasting impact on the economy and society in general. Traditional structural solutions in river training works are focused on basic requirements as flood protection, littoral zone protection, river bed protection, providing the space for economic development. These solutions may lead to environmental degradation, i.e. alteration of physical-chemical and morphological characteristics of the natural components of the environment, decrease of diversity and biological productivity of natural and anthropogenic ecosystems, impacts on the ecological balance and quality of life. The main purpose of this thesis was to define a approach for the selection of hydraulic structures using multi criteria analysis, that would in addition to the basic water management requirements (flood protection, coastal protection, protection of the river bed, securing the space for economic development) provide the ecological development of rivers in accordance with the requirements of the "sustainable development". This thesis elaborates on the application of multi criteria analysis method in selecting an appropriate alternative river training proposed solution for the section of the river course. Presented method is an aid to decision-making that helps stakeholders organize available information, think on the consequences, explore their own wishes and tolerances.
Approach presented is based on the author's selection of sustainability criteria and identifies the best solution for the sustainable development of the river system, regarding to the environmental impact of proposed river training structural solution. In the case study section of the river in lower part of Carpathian Mountains is considered, for which three relevant intended alternative solutions are designed: riverbed with concrete lining, riverbed slope protection with
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gabions/gabion mattresses and natural (unregulated) riverbed. For alternative solutions respectable comparison the ELECTRE and PROMETHEE GAIA methods were applied, which allow comparison of different criteria unit measures. The main difference in the application of these methods is in defining the criteria weights, which in the method ELECTRE are exclusively subjective, while in a PROMETHEE GAIA method a respectable comparison of three scenarios of application of subjective, objective and integrated subjective and objective weights for criteria are given. For the analysis of the three scenarios defined alternatives, complete ranking of PROMETHEE GAIA method was performed using the software package Decision Lab 2000. In the case study, the final ranking of alternative solutions in both methods indicates that design of second structural solution is sustainable. MCA is not a tool providing the "right" solution in a decision problem, since no such solution exists. The solution provided might be considered best only for the stakeholders who provided their values in the form of weighting factors, while other stakeholders' values may indicate another alternative solution. Results obtained in the work and the conclusions derived have general character and can be applied in all areas of water management in the selection of optimal hydraulic constructive solutions.


Australia has a voluntary premerger notification regime, administered by a well-resourced and proactive antitrust authority, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (the ACCC). The Merger Guidelines recommend that business should seek clearance from the ACCC in the event that the postmerger market share of the merged entity is greater than twenty percent. After appropriate investigation and market inquiries, the ACCC can clear a transaction relatively promptly. If it has concerns with a proposal, it has extensive investigatory powers, which can result in a lengthy second phase process that has no statutory time limit. Ultimately, if the ACCC has concerns with a merger, it will commence proceedings in court to restrain its completion or seek divestiture of the acquired shares or assets.


Abstract. The surface sediments in the Black Sea are underlain by extensive deposits of iron (Fe)-oxide-rich lake sediments that were deposited prior to the inflow of marine Mediterranean Sea waters ca. 9000 years ago. The subsequent downward diffusion of marine sulfate into the methane-bearing lake sediments has led to a multitude of diagenetic reactions in the sulfate-methane transition zone (SMTZ), including anaerobic oxidation of methane (AOM) with sulfate. While the sedimentary cycles of sulfur (S), methane and Fe in the SMTZ have been extensively studied, relatively little is known about the diagenetic alterations of the sediment record occurring below the SMTZ. Here we combine detailed geochemical analyses of the sediment and porewater with multicomponent diagenetic modeling to study the diagenetic alterations below the SMTZ at two sites in the western Black Sea. We focus on the dynamics of Fe, S and phosphorus (P), and demonstrate that diagenesis has strongly overprinted the sedimentary burial records of these elements. In line with previous studies in the Black Sea, we show that sulfate-mediated AOM substantially enhances the downward diffusive flux of sulfide into the deep limnic deposits. During this downward sulfidization, Fe oxides, Fe carbonates and Fe phosphates (e.g., vivianite) are converted to sulfide phases, leading to an enrichment in solid-phase S and the release of phosphate to the porewater. Below the sulfidization front, high concentrations of dissolved ferrous Fe (Fe2+) lead to sequestration of downward-diffusing phosphate as authigenic vivianite, resulting in a transient accumulation of total P directly below the sulfidization front. Our model results further demonstrate that downward-migrating sulfide becomes partly re-oxidized to sulfate due to reactions with oxidized Fe minerals, fueling a cryptic S cycle and thus stimulating slow rates of sulfate-driven AOM ( ∼  1–100 pmol cm−3 d−1) in the sulfate-depleted limnic deposits. However, this process is unlikely to explain the observed release of dissolved Fe2+ below the SMTZ. Instead, we suggest that besides organoclastic Fe oxide reduction and reactivation of less reactive Fe oxides by methanogens, AOM coupled to the reduction of Fe oxides may also provide a possible mechanism for the high concentrations of Fe2+ in the porewater at depth. Our results reveal that methane plays a key role in the diagenetic alterations of Fe, S and P records in Black Sea sediments. The downward sulfidization into the limnic deposits is enhanced through sulfate-driven AOM with sulfate, and AOM with Fe oxides may provide a deep source of dissolved Fe2+ that drives the sequestration of P in vivianite below the sulfidization front.


Title of Document: BRAVE NEW NARRATIVES: POSTRACE IDENTITY AND THE AFRICAN AMERICAN LITERARY TRADITION Laura Camille Williams, Doctor of Philosophy, 2012 Directed By: Professor Mary Helen Washington, Department of English This study examines late twentieth-century and millennial black middle-class fiction, often described as the New Black Aesthetic (NBA), as a vital and expansive aspect of literary studies and racial discourse. I focus on fictional depictions to analyze the narration of race in a so-called postrace era. The novels in my study have in common protagonists who are writers that resemble their NBA authors. As imagined writers creating narratives in texts, these protagonists show how narratives make race. Because they exhibit the unique position that the NBA occupies in a postCivil Rights U.S., the protagonists featured here provide both counter-narratives and dominant narratives of race. The term "postrace" dominates current discourse about race in the U.S., often to imply a class arrival and an advance beyond racial constructs. I argue that NBA fiction characterizes the post-Civil Rights black middle class as not moving past race, but rather inexorably engaging and confronting race in tandem with gender, class, sexual orientation, and/or nationality. Black middle-class protagonists in NBA fiction occupy a transient social position in which they experience figurative returns to the past. I call these returns "postrace moments"—narrative moments that connect contemporary protagonists to collective memories and political histories of race and other forms of social identity. My introduction historicizes twentieth-century constructs of blackness and postraciality in African American literature. In Chapter One I argue that fiction is the ideal form for examining the narration of race. I show how the protagonist of Trey Ellis's Platitudes narrates himself both in and out of heteronormative definitions of social identity. Chapter Two illustrates how Percival Everett's Erasure allows the author and protagonist to disappear into multiple narratives and counter-narratives of identity and authorship. In Chapter Three I argue that the protagonist of Danzy Senna's Symptomatic narrates herself in relation to a foil to challenge and confirm conventional tropes. And, in Chapter Four, I show how the protagonist of Andrea Lee's Lost Hearts in Italy narrates black femininity both on the periphery and at the center of empire. My conclusion shows how the NBA and postrace identity can expand literary studies. BRAVE NEW NARRATIVES: POSTRACE IDENTITY AND THE AFRICAN AMERICAN LITERARY TRADITION


Many reptiles, including the red-eared slider turtle (Trachemys scripta), possess a temperature-dependent sex determination (TSD) mechanism where the temperature at which the developing embryos are incubated dictates the gonadal sex of the animal. A number of mammalian gene orthologues have been identified in the sex determination/differentiation cascade of reptiles with TSD although the exact trigger(s) is not well understood. A potential early regulator of gonadal differentiation, Lhx9, controls the proliferation of gonadal cells in mice and its absence prevents gonadal development and drastically reduces the expression of Sf-1, a gene that regulates the expression of steroidogenic enzymes in the bipotential gonad. In the current study, we cloned Lhx9 from T. scripta and analyzed its expression throughout the thermosensitive period of gonad development using quantitative PCR. We examined the expression profiles of Lhx9 in embryos incubated under control conditions at male- and female-producing temperatures and with the application of exogenous 17β-estradiol or an aromatase inhibitor, Letrozole, to induce sex reversal. The T. scripta Lhx9 cDNA and predicted amino acid sequence showed high homology to those of chicken, anole, and mouse. Lhx9 was expressed at both male- and female-producing temperatures with expression levels increasing throughout the thermosensitive period. Letrozole induced sex-reversal did not alter Lhx9 expression levels. 17β-estradiol treatments appeared to inhibit or delay gonadal differentiation and resulted in lower Lhx9 expression from the presumptive gonadal ridge region. The structural homology and temporal expression pattern of Lhx9 suggests that this represents a conserved element in the gonadal differentiation cascade of T. scripta.


Two leading international agencies, the OECD and the IMF, are now becoming more closely involved with climate change issues, in conjunction with finance and economics ministries within their member countries. This broader official involvement opens up an opportunity: it could lead to a more informed and less presumptive treatment of the issues. At present, however, there is no sign that the opportunity will be perceived as such. In both the agencies and national capitals, it is taken for granted that 'the science' can be viewed as 'settled', and that the established advisory process which governments have created is objective and authoritative. For reasons set out here, this is not the right point of departure. A new framework is needed—less presumptive, more inclusive, more watertight professionally, and more attuned to the huge uncertainties that remain. Besides dealing with specifically economic aspects, work in both agencies should be directed more broadly to creating such a framework.


While clopidogrel remains the dominant oral antiplatelet agent (OAA), newer P2Y12 platelet inhibitors such as prasugrel or ticagrelor are expanding for postacute coronary syndrome indications. However, reliable randomised data among these three OAA are lacking, and thus, the comparative outcomes remain unclear. Even less is known regarding special patient subsets dichotomised by age, gender, comorbidities and concomitant medications. Therefore, data from carefully designed and properly implemented meta-analyses may provide critical, but yet missing evidence. Moreover, yielding specific advantages or risks of certain OAA for various clinical scenarios represent an urgent, unmet and unsolved need with regard to the choice of agents, duration of treatment and potential dose/regimen adjustment. The lack of large, randomised clinical trials that are adequately powered to compare the various OAA and designed to specifically assess the impact of gender, the absence of standardised efficacy and safety data and the overly optimistic publications that have been based on post hoc subanalyses of the primary mega-trials have tended to exaggerate the clinical benefits and minimise risks of the newer agents.

Lately, both prasugrel and ticagrelor suffer from array of secondary subset publications claiming superiority although the quality of such data are usually poor, while their interpretation is somewhat biased. Finally, triaging patients by any variable in general, and gender in particular is problematic due …


Globalisation has affected the relationship between the trade balance and the real exchange rate in two ways. On the one hand, the growth of trade taking place within industries makes the trade balance more sensitive to real exchange movements. On the other hand, a higher degree of vertical specialisation and more global supply chains act to reduce this sensitivity. The relative importance of these two effects varies across countries. According to the estimates presented in this article, changes in the real exchange rate could play a larger role in curbing the US trade deficit than in reducing the Chinese trade surplus. This confirms that real exchange rate adjustment is only part of the solution for global rebalancing, and needs to be accompanied by other policy actions.


Atterby, C. 2019. Antibiotic resistance gone wild. A One Health perspective on carriage, selection and transmission of Extended-Spectrum Cephalosporinaseand Carbapenemaseproducing Enterobacteriaceae. Digital Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of Medicine 1617. 79 pp. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. ISBN 978-91-513-0817-3. Antibiotics have saved millions of lives since they came into clinical use during the Second World War in the 1940s. Today, our effective use of antibiotics is under great threat due to emerging antibiotic resistance in bacteria. This thesis addresses the problems of antibiotic resistance from a "One Health" perspective. The focus is on antibiotic resistant Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Klebsiella pneumoniae (K. pneumoniae) in the environment and wildlife, and also considering the situation in healthy humans and livestock. In Paper I-III, high occurrence of Extended-Spectrum Beta-Lactamase (ESBL) -producing E. coli and/or K. pneumoniae was detected in fecal samples from wild birds, and the bacteria had genetic similarities to bacteria that cause disease in humans. Proximity to humans was associated with higher occurrence of cephalosporinase (ESBL and pAmpC)-producing E. coli in wild gulls. In Paper IV, ciprofloxacin resistant E. coli was enriched in the gut of mallards exposed to low concentrations of ciprofloxacin, and plasmid conjugation between E. coli bacteria readily took place. In Paper V, carbapenem resistant and blaOXA-48 harbouringE. coli/K. pneumoniae was rare, but present in healthy humans in rural Cambodia, while cephalosporinase-producing E. coli/K. pneumoniae was common in both humans and livestock. The same ESBL/pAmpC genes were detected in humans and livestock, and exposure to animal manure and slaughter products were risk factors for fecal carriage in humans. In conclusion, wild birds can function as potential resistance reservoirs and sentinels for antibiotic resistant E. coli. Environmental pollution from humans is the primary source for antibiotic resistant Enterobacteriaceae found in wildlife, but selection for antibiotic resistant bacteria may also occur in wild birds. The results indicate that transmission of cephalosporinaseproducing E. coli/K. pneumoniae occur between wildlife, humans and livestock, but more in-depth molecular work is needed to determine the mechanisms of dissemination. The high community carriage of multidrug-resistant bacteria in rural Cambodia is worrying and highlights Southeast Asia as a hotspot for antibiotic resistance. Antibiotic resistance surveillance is biased towards high-income countries and research should be focused more on lowand middle-income countries, and also include the important "One Health" perspective.


The Orange County Landfill began operation in 1971 as an EPA demonstration project for the purpose of defining landfill operations in high groundwater table areas. To prevent groundwater or surface water contamination from landfill cells, perimeter drainage and collection ditches were eventually constructed to lower the groundwater table beneath the landfill. This activity dewatered Wide Cypress Swamp, which burned in the early 1980s. The leachate mixed with stormwater that is collected in the ditches is routed to a borrow pit pond and subsequently pumped to North Wide Cypress Swamp for treatment and wetland restoration. The overall goal of the research program is to evaluate the use of North Wide Cypress Swamp as a treatment system. More specifically the long-term goals of the research program are to evaluate the ecologic and hydrologic responses of the wetland to water pumped from the borrow pit pond; evaluate the capacity of the wetland for treatment and/or storage of constituents found in water pumped from the borrow pit pond; and evaluate the effect water pumped from the borrow pit pond has on the physico-chemical environment of wetland soils.


The transcripts of the 55 dispatches written by Francesco Vendramin, the last Venetian bailo of Constantinople between 1796 and 1797, appear very important to the eye of the historian. Even though they were written in Constantinople, they reflect the hardships of the political climate that the fall of the Veneta Repubblica and the establishment of the Municipalità Provvisoria brought to Venice.Moreover, they provide a unique insight into the bailo house in Constantinople. Vendramin had to explain the functioning of the bailaggio and the necessity of the diplomatic office to maintain a decorum of credibility for the State (both the Repubblica and the Municipalità). This needed to be clarified to the new rulers, who were mostly bourgeois and not experts in political issues, especially issues of an international nature, while the old rulers, the august senators, have been experts for decades in both internal and external political affairs of the Republic.The first 27 dispatches were written when the Veneta Repubblica was still alive. The remaining 28 were written after its fall (12th May 1797), when Vendramin had no official role. He was accredited with the Porta Ottomana, as the Venetian delegate of the Doge, but he never received any formal task by the Municipalità. Nevertheless the Ottoman government continued to consider Vendramin as an ambassador, not knowing how to act otherwise.The first collection of dispatches again proposes, with proper adjustments to the new situation, the schemes and the themes that characterize the Venetian-Ottoman relationship in the modern age. The second group is full of information on the Venetian colony in the Empire. As a consequence, it gives information on the functioning of the consulates and on the personal licenses given to merchants and vendors. Moreover, the figure of the French ambassador du Bayet appears strong. He stands as a supporter of many choices in the name of an effective French supremacy on Venice, that in Constantinople is shown without the shield of the Municipalità.


Scientific knowledge in consumer behavior is defined as consisting of consumer behavior structural frameworks or models (microtheories) and well-supported empirical generalizations in various areas of consumer behavior (microfindings). This re-inquiry first examines a pioneering attempt to develop a test of scientific knowledge in consumer behavior, the Armstrong Test. The problems with that test are instructive in revealing threats to validity in test construction and analysis. Second, detailed steps are proposed for constructing a comprehensive, valid test of scientific knowledge in consumer behavior. Such a test should be useful for assessing the consumer behavior knowledge held by business educators, consultants, managers, market researchers, and business students.


BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The higher relaxivity of gadobenate dimeglumine compared with gadodiamide is potentially advantageous for contrast-enhanced brain MR imaging. This study intraindividually compared 0.1-mmol/kg doses of these agents for qualitative and quantitative lesion enhancement. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Adult patients with suggested or known brain lesions underwent 2 identical MR imaging examinations at 1.5T, one with gadobenate dimeglumine and the other with gadodiamide. The agents were administered in randomized order separated by 3–14 days. Imaging sequences and postinjection acquisition timing were identical for the 2 examinations. Three blinded readers evaluated images qualitatively for diagnostic information (lesion extent, delineation, morphology, enhancement, and global preference) and quantitatively for contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR). RESULTS: One hundred thirteen of 138 enrolled patients successfully underwent both examinations. Final diagnoses were intra-axial tumor, metastasis, extra-axial tumor, or other (47, 27, 18, and 21 subjects, respectively). Readers 1, 2, and 3 demonstrated global preference for gadobenate dimeglumine in 63 (55.8%), 77 (68.1%), and 73 (64.6%) patients, respectively, compared with 3, 2, and 3 patients for gadodiamide (P < .0001, all readers). Highly significant (P < .0001, all readers) preference for gadobenate dimeglumine was demonstrated for all qualitative end points and for CNR (increases of 23.3%–34.7% and 42.4%–48.9% [spin-echo and gradient-refocused echo sequences, respectively] for gadobenate dimeglumine compared with gadodiamide). Inter-reader agreement was good for all evaluations (κ = 0.47–0.69). Significant preference for gadobenate dimeglumine was demonstrated for all lesion subgroup analyses. CONCLUSION: Significantly greater diagnostic information and lesion enhancement are achieved on brain MR imaging with 0.1-mmol/kg gadobenate dimeglumine compared with gadodiamide at an equivalent dose.


An amperometric enzyme biosensor with electronic-type-controlled (metallic and semiconducting) single-walled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) is presented. In this research, we investigate how the electronic types of CNTs influence the amperometric response of enzyme biosensors and what their working mechanisms are. The biosensor of interest is for glucose detection using enzyme glucose oxidase (GOD). In the presence of oxygen, the response of a metallic CNT-GOD electrode was 2.5 times more sensitive than that of a semiconducting CNT-GOD electrode. In contrast, in the absence of oxygen, the response of the semiconducting CNT-GOD electrode was retained, whereas that of the metallic CNT-GOD electrode was significantly reduced. This indicates that direct electron transfer occurred with the semiconducting CNT-GOD electrode, whereas the metallic CNT-GOD electrode was dominated by a hydrogen peroxide pathway caused by an enzymatic reaction. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy was used to show that the semiconducting CNT network has less resistance for electron transfer than the metallic CNT network. The optimized glucose biosensor revealed a sensitivity of 5.6 µA mM−1 cm−2 at +0.6 V vs Ag/AgCl, a linear dynamic range of 0.025–1.4 mM, and a response time of 8 s.


Inspired by the close relation between nearest neighbor search and clustering in high-dimensional spaces as well as the success of one helping to solve the other, we introduce a new paradigm where both problems are solved simultaneously. Our solution is recursive, not in the size of input data but in the number of dimensions. One result is a clustering algorithm that is tuned to small codebooks but does not need all data in memory at the same time and is practically constant in the data size. As a by-product, a tree structure performs either exact or approximate quantization on trained centroids, the latter being not very precise but extremely fast. A lesser contribution is a new indexing scheme for image retrieval that exploits multiple small codebooks to provide an arbitrarily fine partition of the descriptor space. Large scale experiments on public datasets exhibit state of the art performance and remarkable generalization.


Background & Aims : Leukemia as the most common childhood cancer, not only for children, has created a serious challenge for the whole family, especially parents, it could change their quality of life. This study aimed to examine quality of life of parents of children with leukemia and related factors. Material & Methods : This was a descriptive study in 2012 on parents of 200 children with leukemia referred to the hospital affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences, selected by consecutive sampling. Data were collected using the Caregiver Quality of Life Index Cancer Persian (CQOLC-P) and demographic questionnaires of parents and children with 1 to 15 years old. Outcomes analyzed using descriptive statistics (independent t-test, ANOVA and linear regression) in SPSS- PC version 16. Results: The results showed that the mean of quality of life of subjects is less than 50% of total score of quality of life. Furthermore, there was significant relationship between gender, incomejob status and quality of life (p ≤ 0.05). Discussion and Conclusion: According to the finding, inappropriate quality of life of parents of children with leukemia, education of parent about way of care of child and recognizing their problem for specific guidance for dealing and coping with the situation are essential .


BACKGROUND
The cementless fixation technique in total hip arthroplasty (THA) was developed to solve clinical problems such as aseptic loosening and osteolysis which were thought to be associated with the use of bone cement. This retrospective study reports our mid-term results with cementless THA.

METHODS
A series of 173 consecutive, unselected cementless THA procedures using the Omnifit prosthesis was performed by a single surgeon. Sixteen hips were excluded from the study because of insufficient follow-up evaluation. One hundred and fifty-seven THAs with an average follow-up period of 10.2 (range, 5-12) years were retrospectively reviewed.

RESULTS
The overall revision rate was 7.0%. Ninety-five percent of unrevised hips achieved a Merle D'Aubigne hip score of 16 points or above. Radiographically, bone ingrowth occurred in all unrevised cups, and in 95% of unrevised stems. Osteolytic lesions, seen on 28.1% of femora and 8.9% of pelvises, appeared at an average of 3.8 years postoperatively. Femoral osteolytic lesions were confined to the proximal Gruen zones 1 and 7. The mean annual polyethylene wear rate was 0.15 mm. Approximately 1/3 of the hips were noted to have excessive wear.

CONCLUSION
These results suggest that cementless Omnifit THA provides stable fixation for as long as 12 years after implantation. Of significant concern is the high incidence of excessive polyethylene wear and associated osteolysis. Our experience also indicates that a femoral stem with a circumferential porous coating in the proximal region can protect the femur from distal osteolysis.


A design is proposed for a refracting optical element for forming a rectangular
 directional pattern for a compact radiation source. The calculation of the surfaces
 of the optical element reduces to solving trivial problems with cylindrical
 symmetry. The results of the numerical modelling of the calculated elements are
 presented. The rms error of the formation of equilibrium rectangular intensity
 distributions is less than 10% for angular sizes of the directional patterns of (120°–180°)×(10°–40°).


Guidelines for prioritizing buffers on location-based management (LBM) projects are established through the use of critical chain theory (CCT). Buffer management theory in LBM has gained little attention from the research community. CCT builds on the assumption that each task is, either consciously or unconsciously, given a certain time buffer with which to cope with unpredicted events, and that these buffers become a large part of the project lead time. However, CCT suggests that these buffers entail inherent waste within schedules and fail to protect both critical activities and projects. CCT assumes that time estimates become self-fulfilling prophecies, as practitioners tend to procrastinate, and the buffers are often wasted. In addition, excess time rarely benefits the project if activities do finish early, because succeeding activities are unlikely to begin before the planned date. Although the criticisms by CCT also apply to LBM projects, CCT is based on the critical path method, and the guidelines from CCT must be adapted to the criticality principle of LBM theory. Accordingly, the contribution to the body of knowledge of this article is guidelines of buffer placement and prioritization in LBM that are based on critical chain buffer management theory.


In robotics, the origami-based design methodology uses straightforward fabrication and assembly processes to create small-scale parallel mechanisms. Delta mechanisms are among the well-known parallel mechanisms used mostly in pick-and-place operations due to their capability to reach high speeds and accelerations. In this work, we present a novel Delta mechanism based on origami-inspired designs and two-dimensional layer-by-layer fabrication methods, reducing the time and errors in manufacturing. We developed a new flat parallelogram providing translations in X–Y–Z directions, respecting the Delta mechanism's conventional kinematic models. The fabrication and assembly processes include laser machining and lamination, eliminating manual-folding and bonding steps. The mechanism operates in a 20 × 20 × 20 mm3 workspace and a 17.5 cm diameter circular footprint when it is entirely flat. The kinematic performance of the mechanism is analyzed using a six degrees-of-freedom position sensor on the end effector. The experiments are conducted to follow circular trajectories with varying radii at different heights. Despite having no feedback control from the end effector, the mechanism follows the given trajectories with 1.5 mm root-mean-square (RMS) precision. We also present the effects of the elasticity of flexible materials at different regions of the mechanism on the performance of the Delta robot.


Disease modelers have been modeling progression of diseases for several decades using such tools as Markov models or microsimulation. However, they need to address a serious challenge; many models they create are not reproducible. Moreover, there is no proper practice that ensures reproducible models, since modelers rely on loose guidelines that change periodically, rather than well-defined machine-readable standards. The Systems Biology Markup Language (SBML) is one such standard that allows exchange of models between different software tools. Recently, the SBML Arrays package has been developed, which extends the standard to allow handling simulation of populations. This paper demonstrates through several abstract examples how microsimulation disease models can be encoded using the SBML Arrays package, enabling reproducible disease modeling.


Data from the Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager (SEVIRI) on board the first Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) satellite have been available since February 2003. Four MSG satellites are planned to ensure an operational service until at least 2018. A software package, which derives from MSG/SEVIRI imagery a set of 12 products useful for nowcasting purposes, has been developed cooperatively by the Satellite Application Facility for supporting NoWCasting and very short range forecasting (SAFNWC) and is distributed by EUMETSAT. This paper describes the cloud mask (CMa) and type (CT) algorithms implemented in this SAFNWC/MSG software package. A multispectral thresholding technique has been used: the test sequence depends on illumination conditions and geographical location whereas most thresholds are dynamically computed from ancillary data (atlas, climatology maps, numerical weather prediction (NWP) model forecast fields) using radiative transfer models. These algorithms have been prototyped using GOES‐8 and MODIS imagery before being applied to MSG‐1/SEVIRI. The cloud mask and type can be extracted in any area inside the MSG full disk. Preliminary validation results obtained from a comparison with surface observations using a few months of MSG‐1/SEVIRI data show good performances.


This is the first comprehensive study of lysianassoid and stegocephaloid amphipods from the north coast of Papua New Guinea. The study reports 19 species in 11 genera in five families living in several discrete habitats in the Madang Lagoon and Astrolabe Bay. In the Lysianassidae one new genus and eight new species (Paralysianopsis mazamoz n.sp., P. padoz n.sp., Rhinolabia elliotti n.sp., R. jebbi n.sp., R. paeowai n.sp., Riwo mizeui n.gen., n.sp., Tryphosella astrolabensis n.sp. and 7: wongada n.sp.) are described. These are the first records of Paralysianopsis and Rhinolabia from the Indo-Pacific. In the Opisidae n.fam. one new species (Podoprionella dagadugaban n.sp.) is described. This is the first record of Podoprionella from the Indo-Pacific. In the Uristidae the new genus Nagada and three new species (Nagada garagassi n.sp., N. papua n.sp. and N. uwedoae n.sp.) are described. Two new species of Stegocephalidae (Andaniotes bagabag n.sp. and A. karkar n.sp.) are described. Species diversity was greatest among scavenging lysianassoids. Five lysianassoid genera (Zchnopus, Nagada, Paralysianopsis, Rhinolabia and Tryphosella) represented by eleven species (Zchnopus malpatun Lowry & Stoddart, 1992, Nagada garagassi, N. papua, N. uwedoae, Paralysianopsis mazamoz, Rhinolabia elliotti, R. paeowai, R. jebbi, Riwo mizeui, Tryphosella astrolabensis and 7: wongada) and both Andaniotes species were only collected in baited traps and are considered to be at least opportunistic scavengers. Podoprionella dagadugaban was also collected in a trap, but it is suspected of being an epiparasite of fish. Three species (Paralysianopsis padoz, Riwo mizeui and Tryphosella wongada) were taken among living coral inside and outside the lagoon. Five species (Nagada garagassi, N. papua, N. uwedoae, Rhinolabia jebbi and Tryphosella astrolabensis) were found in deep water outside the lagoon, probably on sand and mud bottoms. Three free-living species (Paralysianopsis padoz, Parawaldeckia lowryi Myers, 1985 and Pseudambasia acuticaudata (Ledoyer, 1984)) and two suspected commensal species (Pseudocyphocaris gosema Lowry & Stoddart, 1990 and P. lobata Lowry & Stoddart, 1990) occurred among coral rubble. 50 lysianassoid species was found in seagrass beds or living among sponges, but P. gosema and l? lobata are suspected of living with the tunicate Didemnum molle. Little is known of the biogeographic affinities of this fauna because so little is known from other parts of the Indo-Pacific. However, I. malpatun also occurs in New Caledonia, Pseudambasia acuticaudata also occurs in New Caledonia and the Austral Isles, and Parawaldeckia lowryi also occurs in Fiji and Tonga. * Christensen Research Institute Contribution No. 102.


The cruise leg MSM09/3 was conducted as a cooperative project between the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Resources (BGR), the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) and Dalhousie University. A geophysical survey covered areas of Baffin Bay and Davis Strait between Greenland and the Canadian Baffin Island. A component of the IPY 2007/08 Lead Project Plate Tectonics and Polar Gateways in the Earth System (PLATES & GATES), this project DAVIS GATE is aimed to develop a tectonic and sedimentary reconstruction of the opening process of this oceanic gateway. Baffin Bay and Davis Strait play an important role in the shallow water exchange from the Arctic to the Atlantic Ocean. The plate-tectonic evolution as well as the magmatic history of this region has been sparsely known and required a careful geophysical investigation in order to construct a set of gridded detailed paleo-topographic maps for a complete geodynamic reconstruction of this gateway. With a set of three seismic refraction/wide-angle reflection profiles, using ocean-bottom seismometers on 62 stations, as well as multi-channel reflection seismic recordings with a 3000-m long streamer, data were acquired from the sedimentary cover to the deep crust and even from parts of the uppermost mantle. Additional seismic data supplement these profiles and provide insights into the structures of the basement and dominant fault zones such as the Ungava fault system. A parallel running magnetic survey aimed to resolve the temporal evolution of the oceanic crust of Baffin Bay. The extension and subsidence of the continental and transitional crust in the Davis Strait and the evolution of oceanic crust in the Labrador Sea and Baffin Bay could be investigated with dataset to which continuously recorded gravity anomaly data and sub-bottom profiler data also contribute. This dataset provides the basis of geometrical and physical properties of the crust required for a realistic geodynamic model which will describe the break-up and the ocean basin evolution between Greenland and Canada in terms of detailed paleo-topography.


ABSTRACT When grown in divalent cation-limited medium, Pseudomonas aeruginosa becomes resistant to cationic antimicrobial peptides and polymyxin B. This resistance is regulated by the PhoP-PhoQ and PmrA-PmrB two-component regulatory systems. To further characterize Mg2+ regulation in P. aeruginosa, microarray transcriptional profiling was conducted to compare wild-type P. aeruginosa grown under Mg2+-limited and Mg2+-replete conditions to isogenic phoP and pmrA mutants grown under Mg2+-limited conditions. Under Mg2+-limited conditions (0.02 mM Mg2+), approximately 3% of the P. aeruginosa genes were differentially expressed compared to the expression in bacteria grown under Mg2+-replete conditions (2 mM Mg2+). Only a modest subset of the Mg2+-regulated genes were regulated through either PhoP or PmrA. To determine which genes were directly regulated, a bioinformatic search for conserved binding motifs was combined with confirmatory reverse transcriptase PCR and gel shift promoter binding assays, and the results indicated that very few genes were directly regulated by these response regulators. It was found that in addition to the previously known oprH-phoP-phoQ operon and the pmrHFIJKLM-ugd operon, the PA0921 and PA1343 genes, encoding small basic proteins, were regulated by Mg2+ in a PhoP-dependent manner. The number of known PmrA-regulated genes was expanded to include the PA1559-PA1560, PA4782-PA4781, and feoAB operons, in addition to the previously known PA4773-PA4775-pmrAB and pmrHFIJKLM-ugd operons.


Morphogen gradients play fundamental roles in patterning and cell specification during development by eliciting differential transcriptional responses in target cells. In Drosophila, Decapentaplegic (Dpp), the BMP2/4 homolog, downregulates transcription of the nuclear repressor brinker (brk) in a concentration-dependent manner to generate an inverse graded distribution. Both Dpp and Brk are crucial for directing Dpp target gene expression in defined domains and the consequent execution of distinct developmental programs. Thus, determining the mechanism by which the brk promoter interprets the Dpp activity gradient is essential for understanding both Dpp-dependent patterning and how graded signaling activity can generate different responses through transcriptional repression. We have uncovered key features of the brk promoter that suggest it uses a complex enhancer logic not represented in current models. First, we find that the regulatory region contains multiple compact modules that can independently drive brk-like expression patterns. Second, each module contains binding sites for the Schnurri/Mad/Medea (SMM) complex, which mediates Dpp-dependent repression, linked to regions that direct activation. Third, the SMM repression complex acts through a distance-dependent mechanism that probably uses the canonical co-repressor C-terminal Binding Protein (CtBP). Finally, our data suggest that inputs from multiple regulatory modules are integrated to generate the final pattern. This unusual promoter organization may be necessary for brk to respond to the Dpp gradient in a precise and robust fashion.


Submodular functions have applications throughout machine learning, but in many settings, we do not have direct access to the underlying function $f$. We focus on stochastic functions that are given as an expectation of functions over a distribution $P$. In practice, we often have only a limited set of samples $f_i$ from $P$. The standard approach indirectly optimizes $f$ by maximizing the sum of $f_i$. However, this ignores generalization to the true (unknown) distribution. In this paper, we achieve better performance on the actual underlying function $f$ by directly optimizing a combination of bias and variance. Algorithmically, we accomplish this by showing how to carry out distributionally robust optimization (DRO) for submodular functions, providing efficient algorithms backed by theoretical guarantees which leverage several novel contributions to the general theory of DRO. We also show compelling empirical evidence that DRO improves generalization to the unknown stochastic submodular function.


INTRODUCTION The genus Linuparus White was recently reviewed by Bruce (1965) who gave an excellent account of two species, the type species L. trigonus (Von Siebold) and a previously undescribed species L. sordidus Bruce from the South China Sea. George & Main (1967) reviewed the family Palinuridae and suspected that "four geographically isolated species are probably represented within the recorded distribution of Linuparus; one in Japan (trigonus), one in South China sea (sordidus), one off Portuguese East Africa. .. and one off east Australia...". During 1970, when one of us (R.W.G.) visited the Oceanographic Research Institute at Durban, the opportunity was taken by us to assemble relevant specimens of Linuparus for comparison and review of that suspicion. On the basis of the examined material, three species of the genus Linuparus are recognised: L. trigonus (Von Siebold, 1824) in the western Pacific from Japan, South China Sea, Philippines and eastern Australia (81 to 313 m), L. sordidus Bruce, 1965, from South China Sea to northwestern Australia (310 to 328 m) and L. somniosus sp. nov. in the western Indian Ocean from Mocambique to Natal (216 to 320 m). The three species can be distinguished with the help of the following key: 1. Submarginal posterior groove of carapace as wide medially as laterally. No pleopods on first abdominal segment of female 2 — Submarginal posterior groove of carapace much wider medially than laterally. Vestigial pleopods present on first abdominal segment of female...... L. somniosus sp. nov. 2. Epistomal ridges coarsely granulated, without an acute well developed anterior tooth.


The aim of this paper is to investigate the various effects of climate conditions on outdoor insulators in coastal areas as a result of saline contamination under acidic and normal cold fog, determining significant electrical and physico-chemical changes on the insulator surface and considering the effect of discharge current, electric field distribution and surface roughness. To replicate similar conditions near the shoreline, experimental investigations have been carried out on insulation materials with the combined application of saline contamination and acidic or normal cold fog. The test samples included silicone rubber (SiR), ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM) and high-density polyethylene (HDPE), which were used as reference. The materials are of the same composition as those used in real-life outdoor high voltage insulators. All samples were aged separately in an environmental chamber for 150 h for various saline contaminations combined with acidic and normal cold fog, and were generated by means of the adopted experimental setup. This analysis represented conditions similar to those existing near the shoreline exposed to saline and acid spray during winter and early spring. Electric field and discharge current along polymeric samples were examined under acidic and normal cold fog. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopic (SEM) were used to probe the physico-chemical changes on the samples surface and investigate the hydrophobicity recovery property after aging tests. Finally, a comparative study was carried out on polymeric samples before and after being exposed to the acidic and normal cold fog based on the results obtained from the experiment. Research data may provide references for the better prediction of surface degradation as well as for the better material coating and design of external insulation.


This paper presents an analysis on the receiver front-end architectures for multiband orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing ultra-wide-band (UWB) terminals. An interference analysis is carried out in order to derive the main linearity specifications of the receiver front-end. A reconfigurable narrow-band architecture is introduced that can best cope with the main challenges of the UWB receivers: broadband impedance matching and high out-of-band linearity. Simulation results show that linearity requirements can be achieved with sizeable margin.