This paper explores political dynamics surrounding dam building in the Mekong river basin, prior to, and following, the World Commission on Dams (WCD). Since the 1950s, dam building in the Mekong river basin has been enmeshed in a complex and shifting geopolitical and eco-political landscape. The broad geopolitical sweep of US hegemony, Cold War, regional rapprochement and the rise of China has been superimposed on ecopolitical shifts between modernist belief in progress as mastery over nature, concerns of global and national environmental movements over dams and their impacts, and a galvanised Mekong environmentalism. During the first decade of the 21st century, mainstream dams on the Lower Mekong have returned to the agenda after having almost disappeared in favour of tributary projects. The growing strength and assertiveness of regional economic players has fundamentally altered the context of energy demand, planning and investment. New sources of finance have relocated the points of political leverage. Environment has been mustered in favour of, as well as in opposition to, dam construction in the contexts of climate-change discourses, protected-area linkage with dam projects, and an industry push for sustainability protocols and certification. Despite the Mekong being one of its focal basins, WCD has not played a prominent role in this transformed arena, yet many of the social and environmental concerns, stakeholder-based processes and safeguard-oriented approaches to hydropower planning that WCD brought to the fore have persisted in the wider ethos of politics around dams in the region.


AI systems consume volumes of relational knowledge to extract patterns and model the world. We face the challenges of scaling to growing volumes of knowledge, identifying more sophisticated patterns and concepts, and compressing and indexing relational knowledge for future access. This paper describes the domain-general path-specific isomorphic abstraction (ψ-abstraction) approach for encoding relational knowledge as relational graphs, and exploiting paths and cycles in these graphs to guide compression and pattern extraction. ψ-abstraction automatically summarizes relational graphs by (1) identifying cyclic and acyclic paths; (2) generalizing the graph along those paths; (3) explicitly annotating generalizable sequences; (4) encoding qualitative relations over generalized quantity sequences; and (5) optionally pruning generalized knowledge to compress the graph. We demonstrate ψ-abstraction on twelve examples spanning diverse domains: 2D spatial; 3D spatial; temporal (calendar) concepts; abstract feedback cycles; narratives; cell signaling; and anatomy. We evaluate ψ-abstracted knowledge for data compression, pattern identification, and structural similarity of examples within and across categories.


The objective of this research was to determine chemical and physical properties of liqui d sugar made from yam starch (Dioscorea hispida Dennst) through enzymatic hydrolysis by using α-amylase. The experiment was designed as a Factorial Block Randomized Design with two factors and three replications. The first factor was concentrations of α-amylase (0.1, 0.3, and 0.5%), and the second was the time course of enzymatic hydrolysis (30, 60, 90, 120, and 150 min). The liquid sugar was analyzed in term of reducing sugar content, equivalent dextrose value, pH, and viscosity. T he addition of different concentrations of α-amylase had significant effects (p > 0.05) on reducing sugar contents and equivalent dextrose values. Enzymatic hydrolysis time course had significant effects (p > 0.05) on reducing sugar content, equivalent dextrose values, pHs, and viscosity of the liquid sugar. The best liquid sugar was obtaine d by 0.5% α-amylase treatment for 60 min of hydrolysis. The liquid sugar had reducing sugar of 103.92 g/L, equivalent dextrose value of 34.64, pH of 5.36, and viscosity of 112.00 Poise.


The purpose of this paper is to document drinking water issues and concerns of the urban public in the Pacific Northwest, USA. Urban residents of the Pacific Northwest region of the USA consider drinking water their most important water resource issue. A survey instrument was developed to measure urban satisfaction with drinking water supplies. Data were collected using mail-based surveys conducted at five-year intervals in 2002, 2007 and 2012. Each survey contained 11 questions about drinking water and was mailed to 2,200 randomly chosen residents of Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington. Return rates in excess of 50% were received for each survey ensuring that the results are statistically valid. On a regional basis 60.7, 64.1 and 68.8% of Pacific Northwest residents relied on public water supply systems for their drinking water in 2002, 2007 and 2012, respectively. This number increased to between 79% (2002) and 86% (2012) when only urban residents were considered. Over 86% of urban residents felt that water they obtained from the tap in their home was safe to drink. However, over 26% of survey respondents reported that they often used bottled water. Very little of this bottled water is consumed in the home and instead used more as a convenience rather than for health-related issues. Bottled water use significantly declined between 2007 and 2012. Almost one in four urban residents had a secondary water filter in their home. The use of in-home filters has increased significantly since 2002. Approximately 15% of survey respondents identified minerals (hard water) as a concern in their drinking water. However, other potential contaminants including pathogens, nitrates, pesticides and heavy metals were identified as problems by less than 5% urban residents. Overall, the urban public is satisfied that their home drinking water is safe; however, in the last 10 years there has been a trend toward more skepticism and additional in-home treatment of drinking water.


This article of this paper is based on a research project carried out on commercial banks in Kakamega Central District, Kenya focusing on the influence of employee productivity on organizational performance which investigated the impact of capacity building and employee productivity in commercial banks since this leads to increase in performance as empirical research has proved. Kenya has experienced banking problems since independence in 1964 culminating in major Bank failures (37 failed banks as at 1998). Some of these problems like weak supervision and equipping employees with expertise, necessary skills and knowledge can be addressed through employee productivity to improve performance of the banks. Banks in Kenya and Kakamega in particular have experienced poor service delivery, organizational ineffectiveness, poor public relations, customer dissatisfactions, and some of these banking institutions have posted a decline in profitability. Research focusing on the firm-level impact of human resource management practices such as employee productivity, satisfaction and motivation has become popular in recent years. This has revitalized interest in the subject of employee productivity and its impact on the performance of organizations. Most studies tend to indicate that employee competence has a positive effect on the organizational performance. Therefore the findings from the study added value to the expanding scope of existing research studies on the influence of employee productivity on the organizational performance. This paper also provides vital information to organizational managers in the banking sector and academicians to encourage employee motivation, satisfaction and future research.

 Key words: Capacity building, employee productivity and performance.


It is internationally acknowledged that small and medium enterprises (SMEs) play a vital role in enhancing a country's economic growth and in creating jobs. It is therefore in the public interest and in the interests of all governments to support SMEs. A study concentrating on the tax function in small and medium manufacturing concerns operating in the Gauteng Province in South Africa was recently undertaken. In this article, which is based on the study, the authors identify the main problem areas that manufacturing SMEs in the Gauteng Province have to cope with in administering government taxes. The article discusses the administration process only, and not the taxes themselves. The authors have identified tax compliance requirements in South Africa as a stumbling block for SMEs. They suggest that the government seriously consider reducing the number of taxes SMEs have to administer, reduce the compliance requirements and make additional tools available to SMEs to assist them in administering taxes.


It is well-known that given a smooth, bounded-from-below, and possibly nonconvex function, standard gradient-based methods can find $\epsilon$-stationary points (with gradient norm less than $\epsilon$) in $\mathcal{O}(1/\epsilon^2)$ iterations. However, many important nonconvex optimization problems, such as those associated with training modern neural networks, are inherently not smooth, making these results inapplicable. In this paper, we study nonsmooth nonconvex optimization from an oracle complexity viewpoint, where the algorithm is assumed to be given access only to local information about the function at various points. We provide two main results: First, we consider the problem of getting near $\epsilon$-stationary points. This is perhaps the most natural relaxation of finding $\epsilon$-stationary points, which is impossible in the nonsmooth nonconvex case. We prove that this relaxed goal cannot be achieved efficiently, for any distance and $\epsilon$ smaller than some constants. Our second result deals with the possibility of tackling nonsmooth nonconvex optimization by reduction to smooth optimization: Namely, applying smooth optimization methods on a smooth approximation of the objective function. For this approach, we prove under a mild assumption an inherent trade-off between oracle complexity and smoothness: On the one hand, smoothing a nonsmooth nonconvex function can be done very efficiently (e.g., by randomized smoothing), but with dimension-dependent factors in the smoothness parameter, which can strongly affect iteration complexity when plugging into standard smooth optimization methods. On the other hand, these dimension factors can be eliminated with suitable smoothing methods, but only by making the oracle complexity of the smoothing process exponentially large.


This work is concerned with the breaking of chiral symmetry in gauge theories and the associated generation of a dynamical mass scale. We investigate this phenomenon in the context of a simple model, three dimensional QED, where the complicating factor of infinite renormalisations is absent. This model possesses an intrinsic scale, set by the coupling [e(^2)] = M, and it is the relationship between this and the dynamically generated mass scale that is of interest. The chiral symmetry breaking mechanism is investigated using the Schwinger Dyson equations which are then truncated in a nonperturbative manner using the Ball-Chiu vertex ansatz. The complexity of the resulting coupled fermion-photon system means that the photon is initially replaced by its perturbative form. Numerical investigations of this simplified system then reveal the existence of an exponential relationship, in terms of the dimensionless parameter N, between the intrinsic and dynamical mass scales, m ~ e(^2) exp(-cN). Contrary to the assertions of Appelquist et al the wavefunction renormalisation was found to be nonperturbative and crucial in determining this behaviour. The sensitivity of this mechanism to the nonperturbative behaviour of the photon is investigated. A simple analysis shows it to be far stronger than previously expected. This is confirmed by a numerical analysis of the coupled photon-fermion system which suggest the relationship between the two scales in the theory is of the form m ~ e(^2) exp(-cN(^2)). This model therefore illustrates how a large hierarchy of scales may naturally occur in a gauge theory, for instance N=3 m/a ~ 10(^-5). Finally an investigation of the gauge dependence of this approach is initiated. The softening of the photon in the low momentum region is shown to amplify automatically any inadequacy of the vertex ansatz by factors of O(a/m) in all but the Landau gauge. It is therefore expected that any incomplete vertex form will result in the generation of a "critical gauge", ɛ(_e), below which chiral symmetry breaking solutions will not exist. A path of further investigation is suggested.


I The Hemingway hero, like the author himself, is always hungry, and a good dinner puts him in a good mood. The descriptions of food and drink in Hemingway's work--from youthful journalism to posthumously published fiction, from obscurity to fame--are both autobiographical and literary. His taste in food, as well as his prose style, changes as his travels broaden and his career develops. He describes meals to reveal character, express ideas, convey a mood, set the scene, and evoke the spirit of a foreign place. His characters move around a lot--Hemingway himself ranged from China to Peru--and you can tell where they are by what they eat. There's a radical change from Hemingway's early to late descriptions of food. They range from vin ordinaire to the finest vintages; from crude fare when camping in the woods, during wars, and on his boats to the haute cuisine of grand hotels in Venice and elegant restaurants in Paris; from rough to refined, simple to sophisticated, provincial to cosmopolitan, naive to pretentious. In the transformation from Brown's Beanery in The Torrents of Spring (1926) and the humble diner in "The Killers" to the increasingly elaborate feasts, beginning with Across the River and Into the Trees (1950), eating replaces action and becomes an end in itself. The shift from the portrayal of food as an essential part of the country and culture to the glorification of the wealthy gourmet's status and taste, signaled by excessive description and a mannered style, reveals the decline of Hemingway's character and his loss of inspiration. In his youth the foreign food Hemingway knew ranged from spaghetti joints, associated with Italian gangsters, to dreary chop suey parlors. But the rich food and wine he discovered, while still in his teens in wartime Italy, added a new dimension to his life. His celebration of drinking in Europe in the 1920s, when the dollar was strong and alcohol cheap, titillated his readers back home, who were constrained by Prohibition and confined to bootleg whisky and sacramental wine. In A Moveable Feast (1964), his memoir of Paris in the 1920s, Hemingway claimed to have been poorer than he really was and said he caught pigeons when food was scarce. He wrote that hunger was worse in Paris because he was constantly tempted by the sight and smell of delectable dishes: "You got very hungry when you did not eat enough in Paris because all the bakery shops had such good things in the windows and people ate outside at tables on the sidewalk so that you saw and smelled the food" (69). But he also maintained, when identifying with his heavy-drinking and sometimes alcoholic friends, that lack of food intensified artistic awareness. Hunger, he felt, "sharpens all of your perceptions, and I found that many of the people I wrote about had very strong appetites and a great taste and desire for food, and most of them were looking forward to having a drink" (101). In "Camping Out" (June 26, 1920), an early evocative article sent from Europe to the Toronto Star, Hemingway, interested in cooking as well as eating, gave exact instructions about how to fry just-caught trout over a coal fire. He based this display of expertise in the rough on his earliest cooking experience and encouraged his readers to follow his example. The pleasure was increased by the androgynous trout: obviously phallic but suggesting, more subtly, the female genitals: Put the bacon in and when it is about half cooked lay the trout in the hot grease, dipping them in cornmeal first. Then put the bacon on top of the trout and it will baste them as it slowly cooks. ... The trout are crisp outside and firm and pink inside and the bacon is well done--but not too done. (45-46) This newspaper article foreshadowed the more resonant description of campfire cooking in "Big Two-Hearted River," the longest and most important story in his first trade book, In Our Time (1925). In this story Hemingway uses characteristically short words and simple sentences as well as effective repetition. …


Mining multiple level association rules in large databases is core area of data mining. Discovering these rules is favorable to the accurate and appropriate decision made by decision makers. Frequent patterns discovery is the key process in multiple levels association rule mining. One of the challenges in developing multiple level association rules mining approaches is to implement an iterative procedure to find association rule, which takes a intricate transaction process. Moreover, the offered mining methods cannot perform proficiently due to repetitive disk access overhead. Due to this, a novel method named MLTransTrie is presented in this paper. It can efficiently discover the association rules at multiple levels of abstraction in large databases and provide the more exact and precise information. The focus is on the comparative exploration and performance assessment of the MLTransTrie algorithm that generates multiple trie structure for all levels in one database scan. For this, the performance of this new algorithm MLTransTrie is analyzed and compared with LWFT and MLT2_L1 algorithm on diverse class of datasets (four real world dataset) and parameters. KeywordsConcept Hierarchy; Confidence; Frequent Patterns; Minimum Support; MLTransTrie Implementation; Multiple-Level Association Rule.


The words, phrases, and stories of the New Testament permeate the English language. Indeed, this relatively small group of twenty-seven works, written during the height of the Roman Empire, not only helped create and sustain a vast world religion, but also have been integral to the larger cultural dynamics of the West, above and beyond particular religious expressions. Looking at the New Testament through the lens of literary study, Kyle Keefer offers an engrossing exploration of this revered religious text as a work of literature, but also keeps in focus its theological ramifications. Unique among books that examine the Bible as literature, this brilliantly compact introduction offers an intriguing double-edged look at this universal text-a religiously informed literary analysis. The book first explores the major sections of the New Testament-the gospels, Paul's letters, and Revelation-as individual literary documents. Keefer shows how, in such familiar stories as the parable of the Good Samaritan, a literary analysis can uncover an unexpected complexity to what seems a simple, straightforward tale. At the conclusion of the book, Keefer steps back and asks questions about the New Testament as a whole. He reveals that whether read as a single document or as a collection of works, the New Testament presents readers with a wide variety of forms and viewpoints, and a literary exploration helps bring this richness to light. A fascinating investigation of the New Testament as a classic literary work, this Very Short Introduction uses a literary framework-plot, character, narrative arc, genre-to illuminate the language, structure, and the crafting of this venerable text. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.


The 2008 M w 7.9 Wenchuan earthquake ruptured a complex thrust‐faulting system at the eastern edge of the Tibetan plateau and west of Sichuan basin. Though the earthquake has been extensively studied, several details about the earthquake, such as which fault segments were activated in the earthquake, are still not clear. This is in part due to difficult field access to the fault zone and in part due to limited near‐fault observations in Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) observations because of decorrelation. In this study, we address this problem by estimating SAR image offsets that provide near‐fault ground displacement information and exhibit clear displacement discontinuities across activated fault segments. We begin by reanalyzing the coseismic InSAR observations of the earthquake and then mostly eliminate the strong ionospheric signals that were plaguing previous studies by using additional postevent images. We also estimate the SAR image offsets and use their results to retrieve the full 3D coseismic surface displacement field. The coseismic deformation from the InSAR and image‐offset measurements are compared with both Global Positioning System and field observations. The results indicate that our observations provide significantly better information than previous InSAR studies that were affected by ionospheric disturbances. We use the results to present details of the surface‐faulting offsets along the Beichuan fault from the southwest to the northeast and find that there is an obvious right‐lateral strike‐slip component (as well as thrust faulting) along the southern Beichuan fault (in Yingxiu County), which was strongly underestimated in earlier studies. Based on the results, we provide new evidence to show that the Qingchuan fault was not ruptured in the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, a topic debated in field observation studies, but show instead that surface faulting occurred on a northward extension of the Beichuan fault during or immediately following the mainshock.

[Electronic Supplement:][1] Parallel ascending‐orbit track coseismic deformation.

 [1]: http://www.bssaonline.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1785/0120160126/-/DC1


The development of best practices and checklists to improve system security has popularized techniques and technologies for strengthening systems. These techniques provide a basis for teaching the importance of assumptions in computer and information security, and the necessity of questioning them. We present an example of analyzing a set of security guidelines to determine the underlying assumptions, and give examples of how to demonstrate the importance of the assumptions to the effectiveness of the guidelines. ††


We present the results from two independent approaches for monitoring ice-sheet melt area over western Greenland. The microwave-based cross-polarization gradient ratio (XPGR) approach (Abdalati, W. and Steffen, K., 1995, Detecting ice-sheet melt area over western Greenland using MODIS and AMSR-E data for the summer periods of 2002–2006. Geophysical Research Letter, 22, pp. 787–790) is compared with a newly developed technique that exploits reflectance characteristics of snow/ice using near-infrared and visible wavelengths, to assess the extent of ice-sheet melt area over the west coast of Greenland. Data from the moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensor onboard the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Earth Observing Satellite (EOS) Terra are analysed through the years 2002–2006 to monitor melt area extent between May and September. Concurrently, the XPGR ratio is derived from advanced microwave scanning radiometer (AMSR-E) data to develop a comparative measure of melt area over the same period of investigation. Although the techniques represent fundamentally different physical approaches, good agreement is observed between these distinct melt area products. The enhanced spatial resolution that is achieved from the MODIS sensor offers additional insight into the melt response over the course of the summer melt period and highlights the advantage of synthesizing diverse sensors and retrieval algorithms for Earth observation.


This article discusses the concept of publicness through the lens of Deleuze and Guattari's machinic thinking. Centring on the case of the Bearpit, a roundabout and public space in the city of Bristol (UK), I examine recent shifts and transformations in public culture and narrate the ways in which relatively small interventions facilitate new connections and organize public assemblages. The article makes four main contributions. First, it develops an approach to the study of publicness that highlights the interactions of machinic assemblages of material and immaterial component parts. Second, it suggests that specific forms of publicness are mediated by bright objects which stitch together and organize ecologies of connected machines. Third, it outlines publicness as a dynamic, plastic social form. Finally, it argues that the struggles for a compassionate public culture in the Bearpit are not necessarily set on a fixed trajectory toward co‐optation or a return to revanchism, but rather are part of an incessant process of unfolding and becoming public where the concerns and contestations of publicness are made visible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]


Bacteria adapt to changes in their environment by regulating gene expression, often at the level of transcription. However, since the molecular processes underlying gene regulation are subject to thermodynamic and other stochastic fluctuations, gene expression is inherently noisy, and identical cells in a homogeneous environment can display highly heterogeneous expression levels. To study how stochasticity affects gene regulation at the single-cell level, it is crucial to be able to directly follow gene expression dynamics in single cells under changing environmental conditions. Recently developed microfluidic devices, used in combination with quantitative fluorescence time-lapse microscopy, represent a highly promising experimental approach, allowing tracking of lineages of single cells over long time-scales while simultaneously measuring their growth and gene expression. However, current devices do not allow controlled dynamical changes to the environmental conditions which are needed to study gene regulation. In addition, automated analysis of the imaging data from such devices is still highly challenging and no standard software is currently available. To address these challenges, we here present an integrated experimental and computational setup featuring, on the one hand, a new dual-input microfluidic chip which allows mixing and switching between two growth media and, on the other hand, a novel image analysis software which jointly optimizes segmentation and tracking of the cells and allows interactive user-guided fine-tuning of its results. To demonstrate the power of our approach, we study the lac operon regulation in E. coli cells grown in an environment that switches between glucose and lactose, and quantify stochastic lag times and memory at the single cell level.


Several studies point out different causes of performance degradation in supervised machine learning. Problems such as class imbalance, overlapping, small-disjuncts, noisy labels, and sparseness limit accuracy in classification algorithms. Even though a number of approaches either in the form of a methodology or an algorithm try to minimize performance degradation, they have been isolated efforts with limited scope. This research consists of three main parts: In the first part, a novel probabilistic diagnostic model based on identifying signs and symptoms of each problem is presented. Secondly, the behavior and performance of several supervised algorithms are studied when training sets have such problems. Therefore, prediction of success for treatments can be estimated across classifiers. Finally, a probabilistic sampling technique based on training set diagnosis for avoiding classifier degradation is proposed


A catastrophic earthquake is followed by a tsunami that inundates the coastline, and around the globe manufacturing comes to a standstill. State-of-the-art passenger jets are grounded because of a malfunctioning part. A strike halts shipments through a major port. A new digital device decimates the sales of other brands and sends established firms to the brink of bankruptcy. The interconnectedness of the global economy today means that unexpected events in one corner of the globe can ripple through the world's supply chain and affect customers everywhere. In this book, Yossi Sheffi shows why modern vulnerabilities call for innovative processes and tools for creating and embedding corporate resilience and risk management. Sheffi offers fascinating case studies that illustrate how companies have prepared for, coped with, and come out stronger following disruption -- from the actions of Intel after the 2011 Japanese tsunami to the disruption in the "money supply chain" caused by the 2008 financial crisis. Sheffi, author of the widely read The Resilient Enterprise, focuses here on deep tier risks as well as corporate responsibility, cybersecurity, long-term disruptions, business continuity planning, emergency operations centers, detection, and systemic disruptions. Supply chain risk management, Sheffi shows, is a balancing act between taking on the risks involved in new products, new markets, and new processes -- all crucial for growth -- and the resilience created by advanced risk management.


Objectives
Exosomes are natural nanoparticles that facilitate cell-to-cell communication by transferring RNAs from donor to recipient cells. Previous studies focused on microRNA cargos and disregarded mRNAs. Exosomes and RNA cargos may be absorbed from milk. RNAs elicit antiviral responses by activating interferon type I (IFN) and NF-kappa B (NF-kB) signaling (Figure 1A).To assess whether 1) bovine milk exosomes (BME) contain microbial mRNAs, 2) microbial mRNAs are bioavailable in humans and mice, and 3) microbial mRNAs activate antiviral responses in reporter cells and mice.

Methods
The mRNA content in BME was assessed by RNA-sequencing. mRNA bioavailability was assessed by RNA-sequencing analysis of human plasma before and 4 h after consumption of 1 L milk and by administering BME transfected with synthetic, fluorophore (IRDye)-labeled Pseudomonas fluorescens capB mRNA to Balb/c mice by oral gavage. (capB mRNA was abundantly expressed in all BME samples sequenced.) Antiviral responses were assessed using liposomes loaded with capB mRNA and cultured with IFN and NF-kB J774 reporter macrophages, and by survival curves of mice fed BME-free or BME-sufficient diets and challenged with influenza A virus. Unpaired t-test was used for statistical analyses; P < 0.05 was considered significant.

Results
About 50% of the mRNA-sequencing reads in BME were non-bovine; after contig assembly, up to two thirds of the non-bovine reads mapped to microbial mRNAs (Figure 1B). IRDye-capB mRNA accumulated in murine intestinal mucosa and liver (and perhaps brain) 6 h and 24 h, respectively, after oral gavage (Figure 2). Microbial mRNAs, including 55 and 36 mRNAs from P. fluorescens and E. coli were detected in human plasma after but not before a milk meal (Tables 1, 2). capB mRNA-loaded liposomes activated NF-kB and IFN signaling in reporter macrophages (Figure 3A). C57BL/6 mice fed a BME-depleted diet died within 11 days of influenza A challenge whereas controls fed a BME-sufficient diet survived (Figure 3B).

Conclusions
This is the first report to suggest a novel interaction between microbiome and hosts: microbial mRNAs in BME are bioavailable, activate antiviral IFN and NF-kB pathways and increase resistance to influenza A.

Funding Sources
NIFA, NIH, Gates Foundation, PureTech Health, USDA Hatch & Multistate. J.Z. is a consultant for PureTech.

Supporting Tables Images and/or Graphs


Iron (Fe) is an important metal to organism homeostasis and exists abundantly in the environment. Moderate levels of Fe obtained from food are necessary for normal cell physiology; however, abnormally high levels of Fe may have toxic effects by reducing H2O2 to the highly cytotoxic hydroxyl radical (OH˙) (Fenton catalysis). Fe is a ubiquitous toxicant to the environment and also widely used in food products; however, its effects on the nervous system are not well understood. Herein, we evaluated the toxic effects of Fe using C. elegans and investigated various parameters in order to contribute to the understanding of Fe-induced toxicity and to validate this model. The Fe LD50 of acute exposure (30 min) was 1.2 mM, and we verified that worms readily take up this metal. Furthermore, sublethal Fe concentrations significantly decreased the worms' lifespan and brood size compared to non-exposed worms. We also observed that animals exposed to Fe had decreased locomotor activity and decreased mechanical sensitivity, suggesting the possible dysfunction of the nervous system. In agreement, we found cholinergic and dopaminergic alterations in the worms. In summary, we suggest that Fe leads to selective neuronal damage, which might be the underlying cause of altered behavior and reproductive defects.


Investigating the timing of key phenological events across environments with variable seasonality is crucial to understand the drivers of ecosystem dynamics. Leaf production in the tropics is mainly constrained by water and light availability. Identifying the factors regulating leaf phenology patterns allows efficiently forecasting of climate change impacts. We conducted a novel phenological monitoring study across four Neotropical vegetation sites using leaf phenology time series obtained from digital repeated photographs (phenocameras). Seasonality differed among sites, from very seasonally dry climate in the caatinga dry scrubland with an eight-month long dry season to the less restrictive Cerrado vegetation with a six-month dry season. To unravel the main drivers of leaf phenology and understand how they influence seasonal dynamics (represented by the green color channel (Gcc) vegetation index), we applied Generalized Additive Mixed Models (GAMMs) to estimate the growing seasons, using water deficit and day length as covariates. Our results indicated that plant-water relationships are more important in the caatinga, while light (measured as day-length) was more relevant in explaining leafing patterns in Cerrado communities. Leafing behaviors and predictor-response relationships (distinct smooth functions) were more variable at the less seasonal Cerrado sites, suggesting that different life-forms (grasses, herbs, shrubs, and trees) are capable of overcoming drought through specific phenological strategies and associated functional traits, such as deep root systems in trees.


Title of Dissertation: Hydrodynamic Models of AGN Feedback in Cooling Core Clusters John C. Vernaleo, Doctor of Philosophy, 2008 Dissertation directed by: Professor Christopher S. Reynolds Department of Astronomy X-ray observations show that the Intra Cluster Medium (ICM) in many galaxy clusters is cooling at a rapid rate, often to the point that it should have radiated away all of its energy in less than the age of the cluster. There is however a very clear lack of enough cool end products of this gas in the centers of the clusters. Energetic arguments indicate that Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) should be capable of heating the inner regions of clusters enough to offset the radiative cooling; truncating massive galaxy formation and solving the cooling flow problem. We present three sets of high resolution, ideal hydrodynamic simulations with the ZEUS code to test this AGN heating paradigm. For the first set of simulations, we study the dependence of the interaction between the AGN jets and the ICM on the parameters of the jets themselves. We present a parameter survey of two-dimensional (axisymmetric) models of back-to-back jets injected into a cluster atmosphere. We follow the passive evolution of the resulting structures. These simulations fall into roughly two classes, cocoon-bounded and non-cocoon bounded. We find that the cocoon-bounded sources inject significantly more entropy into the core regions of the ICM atmosphere, even though the efficiency with which the energy is thermalized is independent of the morphological class. In all cases, a large fraction of the energy injected by the jet ends up as gravitational potential energy due to the expansion of the atmosphere. For the second set, we present three-dimensional simulations of jetted AGN that act in response to cooling-mediated accretion of an ICM atmosphere. We find that our models are incapable of producing a long term balance of heating and cooling; catastrophic cooling can be delayed by the jet action but inevitably takes hold. At the heart of the failure of these models is the formation of a low density channel through which the jet can freely flow, carrying its energy out of the cooling core. Finally, we present a set of simulations with both feedback and precessing jets. The addition of jet precession is not sufficient to couple the jets to the ICM energetically although it can deposit a large amount of energy in sound waves. These sound waves are lost to the system in ideal hydrodynamics, but ultimately may provide a powerful heating mechanism for clusters cores by AGN when additional physical effects are taken into account. Hydrodynamic Models of AGN Feedback in Cooling Core Clusters


Tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV) is a serious disease in tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.). The breeding line 'Polalta' contains a single dominant gene conferring resistance to TSWV that was introgressed from N. alata Link & Otto. The resistance is tightly associated with an abnormal plant type, however, and traditional backcrossing has been ineffective in producing normal plants with TSWV resistance. A potential strategy to overcome this problem is to use molecular markers to select against alien chromatin in backcross progeny. Amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) technology and bulked segregant analysis were applied to identify markers linked to the resistance gene. The DNA bulks from susceptible and resistant doubled haploid lines derived from a cross between susceptible cultivar K326 and Polalta were analyzed to identify linked markers. An F 2 population and the doubled haploids were used to construct a 2.5-cM map of this locus containing 17 coupling phase and seven repulsion phase markers. By selecting for resistant plants with an improved plant type and marker profile in a BC 3 population, four plants were identified that were missing 1 to 14 of the AFLP markers associated with the alien chromatin, demonstrating that rare recombination events can be identified. Four AFLP fragments were successfully converted to sequence characterized amplified region markers suitable for large-scale screening. This approach may facilitate development of TSWV-resistant tobacco cultivars.


Sizing of blast fragmentation using digital image analysis has proven an effective way to evaluate the results of blasting technique. Image analysis methods like WipWares's WipFrag system work best under controlled conditions like over moving conveyor belts, where camera angles and distances can be held constant, lighting can be controlled, and sampling errors can be kept to a minimum. However, once the fragmentation is on the belt, it has usually passed through a primary crusher and is no longer completely indicative of the blasting process. In practice, for many operations, this means that the best measurements can be made by imaging the rock while in transit between the muck pile and the primary crushing station. This includes surface and underground HD (Haul Dump) and LHD (Load Haul Dump) type vehicles which can be images as they dump, or prepare to dump, or as they pass through a gate or other restriction. Brighton Conference Proceedings 2005, R. Holmberg et al © 2005 European Federation of Explosives Engineers, ISBN 0-9550290-0-7


There is considerable interest in the impact of policy alternatives to race-based affirmative action (AA) on under-represented minority (URM) university enrollment. Widely-implemented alternatives include 'top percent' policies, which guarantee admission to top high school students, and holistic review, in which applications are evaluated on a comprehensive set of merits. This study estimates each policy's URM enrollment effect at the University of California (UC). Difference-in-difference estimates show that AA increased annual UC URM enrollment by more than 700 students (12%), and by more than 60% at the Berkeley and UCLA campuses. Three years after UC's AA program ended in 1998, UC guaranteed admission to the top 4 percent of students from each California high school under its Eligibility in the Local Context program. Extrapolation from a regression discontinuity design shows that ELC increased total URM enrollment among applicants annually by about 250, or 3.5%, primarily at three UC campuses. Another regression discontinuity design shows that ELC largely ceased impacting UC enrollment after a 2012 reform, but triple-difference estimates show that several campuses' simultaneous switches to holistic review prevented URM enrollment decline. Six UC campuses have implemented holistic review, with an event study suggesting that each implementation increased URM enrollment at that campus by about 10%, though some enrollees were pulled from other UC campuses. While AA had a larger effect on URM enrollment than top percent policies or holistic review, the latter policies have substantively mitigated URM enrollment declines at some UC campuses following AA's prohibition.


With the increasing number of location-dependent applications, positioning and tracking a mobile device becomes more and more important to enable pervasive and context-aware service. While extensive research has been performed in physical localization and logical localization for satellite, GSM and WiFi communication networks where fixed reference points are densely-deployed, positioning and tracking techniques in a sparse disruption tolerant network (DTN) have not been well addressed. In this paper, we propose a decentralized cooperative method called PulseCounting for DTN localization and a probabilistic tracking method called ProbTracking to confront this challenge. PulseCounting evaluates the user walking steps and movement orientations using accelerometer and electronic compass equipped in cellphones. It estimates user location by accumulating the walking segments, and improves the estimation accuracy by exploiting the encounters of mobile nodes. Several methods to refine the location estimation are discussed, which include the adjustment of trajectory based on reference points and the mutual refinement of location estimation for encountering nodes based on maximum-likelihood. To track user movement, the proposed ProbTracking method uses Markov chain to describe movement patterns and determines the most possible user walking trajectories without full record of user locations. We implemented the positioning and tracking system in Android phones and deployed a testbed in the campus of Nanjing University. Extensive experiments are conducted to evaluate the effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed methods, which show an average deviation of 9m in our system compared to GPS.


The nighttime lunar surface has been scanned at a variety of phases both before and after new Moon. A differential chopping technique was used which records the flux difference between adjacent resolution elements along a scan. In principle the differential scan can be integrated to provide the flux distribution, but slow drifts in the sensor null level frustrated this procedure. However, some cold limb temperatures have been calculated using the planet Jupiter for calibration. The measurements were made with a resolution element of 27 arc seconds on the 28-inch telescope at the University of Arizona. Scan positions were determined by noting features on the illuminated portion of the Moon through a bore-sighted guide telescope. Positional accuracies are within two reso¬ lution elements. The technique is particularly sensitive to the detection of nighttime anomalies, and more than 150 of these have been identified. Prior to new Moon is seen large scale thermal structure, corresponding to a previously unknown nonlinear cooling property of the lunar highlands. The nonlinear behavior consistently disappears 3.5 to 4 days after sunset. The effect could be due to the large scale roughness of the highlands or to a significant rock population with a mean size on the order of 10 cm. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page


This study interprets and interrelates the major political, economic and security developments in Europe - including transatlantic relations - from the end of World War II up until the present time, and looks ahead to how the continent may evolve politically in the future. The book aims to fill a gap in the current literature on Europe, as most studies cover only specific aspects, such as the European Union. "Destination Europe" by contrast weaves all the different strands of European events together into a single overall and up-to-date picture which gives the reader a deeper understanding of the continent and its current and future challenges. The first chapters trace European reconstruction and political, economic and security developments - both in the East and in the West - leading up to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Later chapters examine the European Union's reform efforts, enlargement, movement to a single currency and emerging security role; the political and economic changes in central and Eastern Europe, including Russia; the break-up of Yugoslavia and the wars that ensued; and NATO's enlargement and search for a new mission. Final chapters deal with forces affecting Europe's future such as terrorism, nationalism, religion, demographic trends and globalization. Comprehensive, detailed and accessible, this text should be of use as an introductory text for undergraduate students of European politics and European history.


Background : Soccer presents physiological, metabolic, physical and psychological demands which can deteriorate players' performance due to fatigue. The high variability in physiological, metabolic, physical and psychological responses also influences the magnitude of exercise-induced muscle damage, with symptoms negatively affecting neuromuscular function during recovery or subsequent training sessions or matches. Consequently, more precise and consistent knowledge is required in this area to optimize training and performance. Objective : Therefore, the purpose is to sum-up current evidence on fatigue and recovery in soccer players, to shed light on factors that can affect players' performance, and to suggest applications for coaches and further research. Method : A comprehensive review of the scientific literature on the field was conducted. Results : Physical performance decrements during matches have traditionally been associated with physiological fatigue, but the magnitude of the symptoms in soccer players is unclear and depends on several factors. Moreover, the decline in physical performance during a soccer match is related to specific demands of each match. These could explain inter-individual variability in acute fatigue or training recovery processes when comparing players from the same team. Recovery counteracts the effects of fatigue, both peripheral and central, but there is a lack of consensus about the usefulness of tests used to monitor fatigue and recovery kinetics. Conclusion : Although fatigue and recovery in soccer has been extensively studied, there are still uncertainties about the underlying mechanisms because they are influenced by physiological and match-related demands.


Using detailed Swedish full population data on regional migrants, this paper addresses the question of whether the urban wage premium, and "thick" labor market matching effects, are found only among the higher educated or across all educational groups, and whether the urban population threshold for these type of effects varies by educational category. Estimating initial wages, average wage level and wage growth 2001-2009, we find similar matching effects for all educational groups in the three largest metropolitan areas, but very weak effects for cities ranked 4th - 6th in the urban hierarchy. Our findings suggest that positive urban matching effects are not limited to those with higher education, but that there are distinct population thresholds for these type of effects, regardless of educational background.


Abstract A non parametric Shewhart-type control chart based on a partially rank-ordered set (PROS) sampling design is considered in this study to monitor the process mean. Four non parametric estimators are proposed for the variance of PROS sample mean; also, the performances of these estimators are discussed theoretically and numerically. Then, three non parametric PROS control charts are proposed including the classic 3-sigma control chart, a non parametric bootstrap approach-based control chart, and a hybrid control chart based on a combination of classic 3-sigma and bootstrap control charts. The performance of the proposed PROS control charts is compared with the available chart in terms of controlling the false alarm rate. Results show the merits of both non parametric bootstrap and hybrid PROS control charts. Finally, control charts are illustrated with a real example.


The social ecology of resilience perspective sees resilience as the capacity of individuals to negotiate and navigate their pathways towards the resources that sustain well-being, the capacity of the individual's physical and social ecologies to provide resilience resources, and the capacity of individuals, families and communities to negotiate culturally meaningful ways to share health-promoting resources. This means that resilience is a process that involves an individual's own assets or strengths as well as those found in his or her physical social and ecology. Inclusive education, on the other hand, is a discipline that allows learners whose socio-economic circumstances, physical disability or poverty has become a barrier to their educational success to influence the outcome of the process of teaching and learning positively. This qualitative study of resilience and inclusion, which adopted structuration theory as a lens, was conducted in order to understand the resilience of three learners who achieved educational success in the face of great personal adversity. The participants wrote narratives on what enabled them to cope resiliently and the narratives were analysed in terms of a critical inductive and a structuration theory framework. The main findings show that resilience is an important process that allows learners with barriers to learning to do well. The participants benefitted from personal attributes such as a sense of agency, assertiveness, determination and self-confidence, as well as from social and academic support from their families, peers and teachers within an inclusive educational context. Key concepts: Pedagogy; Teaching; Learning; Educational Success, Inclusion


INTRODUCTION
Chronic pelvic pain (CPP) in women and men is associated with significant sexual dysfunction. Recently, musculoskeletal factors have been recognized as significant contributors to the mechanism of pelvic pain and associated sexual dysfunction, and in particular, pelvic floor muscle hypertonus has been implicated.

AIM
The purpose of this Continuing Medical Education article is to describe the musculoskeletal components involved in pelvic and genital pain syndromes and associated sexual dysfunction, introduce specific physical therapy assessment and intervention techniques, and provide suggestions for facilitating an effective working relationship among practitioners involved in treating these conditions.

METHODS
A review of the relevant literature was performed, clarifying current definitions of pelvic pain, elucidating the role of musculoskeletal factors, and determining the efficacy of physical therapy interventions.

RESULTS
A review of the role of physical therapy for the treatment of pelvic pain and related sexual dysfunction.

CONCLUSIONS
Physical therapy treatment of pelvic pain is an integral component of the multidisciplinary approach to CPP and associated sexual dysfunction.


Many ecologists have lamented the demise of natural history and have attributed this decline to a misguided view that natural history is outdated and unscientific. Although there is a perception that the focus in ecology and conservation have shifted away from descriptive natural history research and training toward hypothetico-deductive research, we argue that natural history has entered a new phase that we call "next-generation natural history." This renaissance of natural history is characterized by technological and statistical advances that aid in collecting detailed observations systematically over broad spatial and temporal extents. The technological advances that have increased exponentially in the last decade include electronic sensors such as camera-traps and acoustic recorders, aircraft- and satellite-based remote sensing, animal-borne biologgers, genetics and genomics methods, and community science programs. Advances in statistics and computation have aided in analyzing a growing quantity of observations to reveal patterns in nature. These robust next-generation natural history datasets have transformed the anecdotal perception of natural history observations into systematically collected observations that collectively constitute the foundation for hypothetico-deductive research and can be leveraged and applied to conservation and management. These advances are encouraging scientists to conduct and embrace detailed descriptions of nature that remain a critically important component of the scientific endeavor. Finally, these next-generation natural history observations are engaging scientists and non-scientists alike with new documentations of the wonders of nature. Thus, we celebrate next-generation natural history for encouraging people to experience nature directly.


In intensive care nurseries it has become common practice to use microwave thawing of frozen human milk for more rapid accessibility. Twenty-two freshly frozen human milk samples were tested for lysozyme activity, total IgA, and specific secretory IgA to Escherichia coli serotypes 01, 04, and 06. The samples were heated by microwave for 30 seconds at a low- or high-power setting and then reanalyzed. One-mL aliquots of 10 additional human milk samples were microwaved at low (20 degrees C to 25 degrees C), medium (60 degrees C to 70 degrees C), and high (greater than or equal to 98 degrees C) setting before the addition to each of 1 mL of diluted E coli suspension. E coli growth was determined after 3 1/2 hours of incubation at 37 degrees C. Microwaving at high temperatures (72 degrees C to 98 degrees C) caused a marked decrease in activity of all the tested antiinfective factors. E coli growth at greater than or equal to 98 degrees C was 18 times that of control human milk. Microwaving at low temperatures (20 degrees C to 53 degrees C) had no significant effect on total IgA, specific IgA to E coli serotypes 01 and 04, but did significantly decrease lysozyme and specific IgA to E coli serotype 06. Even at 20 degrees C to 25 degrees C, E coli growth was five times that of control human milk. Microwaving appears to be contraindicated at high temperatures, and questions regarding its safety exist even at low temperatures.


The spatial dynamic of Posidonia oceanica meadows is a process extending over centuries. This paper shows evidence of the natural dynamics of P. oceanica "shifting intermattes" or "sand corridors" (hereafter SCs): unvegetated patches within a dense meadow. We studied features and temporal evolution (2001-2015) of 5 SCs in the Calvi Bay (Corsica) at 15 m depth and followed the characteristics the P. oceanica meadow lining the edge of patches. All SCs show a similar topography. The eroded side is a vertical edge where roots, rhizomes and sediments are visible, when on the opposite colonized side, the sand is at the same level as the continuous meadow. The vertical edge reaches a maximum height of 160 cm and is eroded by orbital bottom currents with a maximum speed of 12 cm.s -1 , the erosion speed ranging from 0.6 to 15 cm.y -1 . SCs progress toward the coastline with a mean speed of 10 cm.y -1 , the rate of colonization by P. oceanica shoots ranging from 1.5 to 21 cm.y -1 . We calculated that the studied SCs would reach the coastline within 500 to 600 years. We finally discuss the implication of such dynamic in the framework of meadows' colonization assessment and the seascape dynamic.


A high abundance, low diversity ostracod fauna has been collected from the Lower Carboniferous Dimock and Phillips limestones in Nova Scotia, Canada. The ostracod fauna consists of Paraparchites sp. aff. P. kellettae Sohn and Beyrichiopsis lophota Copeland, as well as rare specimens of Acratia acuta (Jones & Kirkby), Bythocypris aequalis (Jones & Kirkby), and Chamishaella suborbiculata (Munster). Growth parameters for the dominant ostracod, Paraparchites sp. aff. P. kellettae, show that a multi-generation, progenetic, parthenogenetic population developed. This reproductive strategy caused rapid population growth and thereby allowed the species to take advantage of the available environmental resources. When considered together, the ostracod fauna and the sedimentology indicate that physiologically stressful hypersaline conditions prevailed. The combined data therefore provide evidence for hypersalinity tolerance and heterochronous development amongst Carboniferous ostracods.


The article explores the relationship of ambiguity to identity in societal contexts dominated by discourses of fixed, essentialist and hierarchic sexual and ethnic dichotomies. Rather than accept hegemonic definitions of ambiguity as something harmful to society and its members, the article suggests that ambiguity functions as a key coping strategy – especially for women and men navigating, negotiating and positioning themselves and their identities in opposition to how they are defined by heteronormative and Eurocentric discourses. Drawing on data collected from psychotherapeutic practice as well as from interviews with women and men who have used ambiguity in this way, the article describes how they define and celebrate their identities in opposition to the stigmatized and subordinate identities ascribed to them by dominant binary discourses in a social field marked by rigid boundaries, uncertainties and paradoxes. The article concludes with a brief discussion of the importance of ambiguity as a strategy not only for aiding interpersonal relationships but also as one crucial in organizational contexts.


We cannot understand contemporary psychology without first researching its history. Unlike other books on the history of psychology, which are chronologically ordered, this Handbook is organized topically. It covers the history of ideas in multiple areas of the field and reviews the intellectual history behind the major topics of investigation. The evolution of psychological ideas is described alongside an analysis of their surrounding context. Readers learn how eminent psychologists draw on the context of their time and place for ideas and practices and shows how innovation in psychology is an ongoing dialogue between past, present, and anticipated future.


Medication adherence is an important determinant of transplant outcomes. Attempts to investigate adherence are frequently undermined by selection bias: It is very hard to recruit and retain non‐adherent patients in research efforts. This manuscript presents recruitment strategies and results from the MALT (Medication Adherence in children who had a Liver Transplant) multisite prospective cohort study. MALT sites recruited 400 pediatric liver transplant patients who agreed to be followed for 2 years. The primary purpose was to determine whether a marker of adherence, the Medication Level Variability Index (MLVI), predicts rejection outcomes. The present manuscript describes methods used in MALT to ensure that a representative sample was recruited, and presents detailed recruitment results. MALT sites were able to recruit a nationally representative sample, as determined by a comparison between the MALT cohort and a national sample of transplant recipients. Strategies that helped ensure that the sample was representative included monitoring of the outcome measure in comparison with a national sample, drastically limiting patient burden, and specific recruitment methods. We discuss the importance of a representative sample in adherence research and recommend that future efforts to study adherence pay special attention to sample characteristics.


This paper presents an investigation into the growth of a radially symmetrical spike, superimposed on a Gaussian laser beam propagating in unmagnetized plasma. Here we consider a collisionless plasma, where nonlinearity arising through the relativistic electron ponderomotive force in addition to the relativistic increase in mass.. The density depression is due to transverse pondromotive force on the electrons is larger than on the ions by the mass ratio. The electrons forced out of the radiation beam region set up an electrostatic restoring force which, on a slower time scale, causes the ions to be expelled. This density depression creates a local increase in the effective index of refraction and acts as an optical guide for the radiation beam. In addition to this self-focusing mechanism, a further reduction in the plasma frequency occurs in regions of high field intensity due to the relativistic mass increase of the electrons in the presence of the radiation beam. The small radius spike on the axis of the main beam grows very rapidly with the distance of propagation as compared to the self-focusing of the main beam. At higher intensities, the saturation effects of nonlinearity become predominant, making the nonlinear refractive index in the paraxial region have slower r dependence, and thus, letting the spike attract relatively less energy from its neighborhood.


The impact of protection on economic growth is one of the traditional issues in economic history, which has enjoyed a revival in recent times, with the publication of a number of comparative quantitative papers. They all share a common weakness: they measure protection with the ratio of custom revenues to imports, which is bound to bias results if imports are not perfectly inelastic. In this paper, we show that the measure of protection matters, by estimating the Trade Restrictiveness Index (TRI) by Anderson and Neary (2005) for Italy from its unification to the Great Depression. We put forward a different interpretation of some key moments of Italian trade policy and we show that the aggregate welfare losses were small in the long run and mostly related to the outlandish protection on sugar in the 1880s and 1890s. We also show that different measures of protection affect considerably the results of econometric tests on the causal relation between trade policy on economic growth in Italy and in the United States. Accordingly, we argue that the economic history of trade policy needs a systematic re-estimating of protection.


To investigate the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings of acute neurological complications in infants and young children with enterovirus 71 (VE71) infections. MRI studies were obtained for 27 or 44 infants and young children who had acute encephalitic symptoms and positive VE71 isolations during an outbreak of hand, foot, and mouth disease in Taiwan from April through December 1998. Among the 27 patients with a total of 32 MRI studies (including five follow-up scans), 20 had abnormal T2 high-signal lesions in the brain stem and the other 7 were normal. The characteristic features of brain stem encephalitis encompassed myoclonic jerks, tremors, ataxia, cranial nerve palsy and, in seven severe cases, apnea and acute neurogenic cardiopulmonary collapse. Among 25 patients who had MRI during the acute stage of illness, 18 showed high signal T2-swighted lesions in the brain stem and/or upper cervical cord. The brain stem lesions observed of MRI were most commonly at the tegmentum of the pons (18/25, 72%) followed by the medulla oblongata (15/25, 60%) and the midbrain which includes the tegmentum, substantia nigra and superior cerebellar peduncles (11/25, 44%). Abnormal signal intensities were also seen in dentate nuclei (8/25, 32%) and upper cervical cord (6/25, 24%). Follow-up MRI in five patients showed normal findings in four patients who had complete recovery, and brain stem atrophy and T2 high-signal abnormalities in the other who had residual deficits. MRI findings during the chronic stage from two patients with prolonged ventilation who had survived from acute cardiopulmonary collapse showed necrosis of the midbrain, the tegmentum of the pons and the medulla oblongata. The MRI findings of EV71 brain stem encephalitis are unique. Young children with epidemic hand, foot, and mouth disease complicated with myoclonus, tremor, ataxia, oculomotor palsy or acute cardiopulmonary collapse should raise the suspicion of EV71 infection. MRI is particularly useful in the early detection of the brain stem lesions that may suggest the diagnosis of EV71 infection before the virus can be isolated.


Timber bridges are susceptible to attack from wood decay fungi. Significant losses in wood material properties are associated with increasing decay. Therefore, timber bridges must be monitored for decay in order to maintain structural safety. Historically, decay has been identifiable in large timber structural elements only after significant losses in structural performance have occurred. Recent developments in nondestructive evaluation techniques have focused on identifying decay before large strength losses occur. For this study, an ultrasonic inspection technique was developed for identifying incipient decay in large bridge timbers. Two large bridge timbers were nondestructively evaluated via ultrasonic inspection. Relative ultrasonic wave velocity measurements were used to identify locations of moderate to advanced decay. The timbers were then dissected and the predicted internal condition compared favorably to the actual internal condition. Specimens suspected of containing incipient decay were removed from one of the bridge timbers and subjected to further ultrasonic testing followed by physical testing. The objective was to develop an ultrasonic inspection technique that can be used to identify the presence of decay before significant losses in physical properties occur. The developed technique involved transmitting ultrasonic waves through the specimen and measuring characteristics of the received signal. The characteristics of the received signal were then correlated with the physical properties of the specimen. Two main signal parameters can be used to identify decay. Wave velocity can be used to identify the presence of moderate to advanced decay but cannot be used to identify incipient decay. Relative ultrasonic wave attenuation can be used to identify incipient through advanced decay. The ability to identify incipient decay will allow for corrective action to take place before structural safety is compromised and before expensive structural repairs are required.


Supplying wheat plants with mixtures of NO 3 - and NH 4 + increases growth and tiller production, but the physiological basis is unclear. Our objectives were to evaluate the roles for cytokinins and N use (e.g., accumulation, distribution, and utilization of absorbed N to produce tillers) in eliciting this response. Two species of spring wheat (Triticum aestivum L. cv. Len and Triticum durum Desf. cv. Inbar) were grown hydroponically in the greenhouse with N supplied as all NO 3 - , all NH 4 + , or an equal mixture of each form. In one experiment, the synthetic cytokinin N 6 -benzylaminopurine (100 μM) was applied repeatedly (a total of five times) to the shoots during tiller initiation and development, while in another, xylem exudate was collected from cut stumps during the early stages of tiller development. Plants not sprayed with cytokinins produced more tillers and accumulated more N when grown with mixed N than with either N form alone. Cytokinin sprays did not affect tillering of mixed N plants but increased tillers in all-NO 3 - -grown or all-NH 4 + -grown plants to levels close to that obtained with mixed N. For unsprayed plants, the presence of NH 4 + increased the shoot/root ratio, the proportion of N in the shoot, and the efficiency with which absorbed N was used to produce tillers, compared with plants grown with all NO 3 - . Exogenous cytokinin appeared to mimic the effects of mixed N (and in some cases NH 4 + ) in altering the distribution and use of N by the plant. In addition, plants grown with mixed N or all NH 4 + exhibited higher concentrations and mass transfer of cytokinins in the xylem than those supplied with all NO 3 - . These data are consistent with the interpretation that mixed N enhancement of tillering in wheat is due to increased synthesis of cytokinins, induced in part by use of NH 4 + -N.


"This paper draws together findings from different elements of a research project examining critical components of pro-poor agricultural growth and of policies that can promote such growth in poor rural economies in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Agricultural growth, a critical driver in poverty reducing growth in many poor agrarian economies in the past, faces many difficulties in today's poor rural areas in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Some of these difficulties are endogenous to these areas while others result from broader processes of global change. Active state interventions in 'kick starting' markets in 20th century green revolutions suggest that another major difficulty may be current policies which emphasize the benefits of liberalization and state withdrawal but fail to address critical institutional constraints to market and economic development in poor rural areas. This broad hypothesis was tested in an analysis of the returns (in agricultural growth and poverty reduction) to different government spending in India over the last forty years. The results reject the alternate hypothesis underlying much current policy, that fertilizer and credit subsidies, for example, depressed agricultural growth and poverty reduction in the early stages of agricultural transformation. The results show initially high but then declining impacts from fertilizer subsidies; high benefits from investment in roads, education and agricultural RD low impacts from power subsidies; and intermediate impacts from irrigation investments. These findings demand a fundamental reassessment of policies espousing state withdrawal from markets in poor agrarian economies. Given widespread state failure in many poor agrarian economies today, particularly in Africa, new thinking is urgently needed to find alternative ways of 'kick starting' markets ways which reduce rent seeking opportunities, promote rather than crowd-out private sector investment, and allow the state to withdraw as economic growth proceeds. Authors' Abstract


6to4 Provider Managed Tunnels (6to4-PMT) provide a framework that can
help manage 6to4 tunnels operating in an anycast configuration. The
6to4-PMT framework is intended to serve as an option for operators to
help improve the experience of 6to4 operation when conditions of the
network may provide sub-optimal performance or break normal 6to4
operation. 6to4-PMT supplies a stable provider prefix and forwarding
environment by utilizing existing 6to4 relays with an added function
of IPv6 Prefix Translation. This operation may be particularly
important in NAT444 infrastructures where a customer endpoint may be
assigned a non-RFC1918 address, thus breaking the return path for
anycast-based 6to4 operation. 6to4-PMT has been successfully used in a
production network, implemented as open source code, and implemented
by a major routing vendor. This document is not an Internet Standards
Track specification; it is published for informational purposes.


Interspecific comparisons have played a prominent role in evolutionary biology at least since the time of Charles Darwin. Since 1985, the "comparative method" has been revitalized by new analytical techniques that use phylogenetic information and by increased availability of phytogenies (often from molecular data sets). Because species descend from common ancestors in a hierarchical fashion, related species tend to resemble each other (elephants look like elephants); therefore, cross-species data sets generally do not comprise independent and identically distributed data points. Phylogenetically based statistical methods attempt to account for this fact. Phylogenetic methods allow traditional topics in comparative and ecological physiology to be addressed with greater rigor, including the form of allometric relationships and whether physiological phenotypes vary predictably in relation to behavior, ecology or environmental characteristics, which provides evidence about adaptation. They can also address new topics, such as whether rates of physiological evolution have differed among lineages (clades), and where and when a phenotype first evolved. We present brief overviews of three phylogenetically based statistical methods: phylogenetically independent contrasts, Monte Carlo computer simulations to obtain null distributions of test statistics, and phylogenetic autocorrelation. In a new result, we show analytically how to use independent contrasts to estimate ancestral values and confidence intervals about them. These confidence intervals often exceed the range of variation observed among extant species, which points out the relatively great uncertainty inherent in such inferences. The use of phytogenies should become as common as the use of body size and scaling relationships in the analysis of physiological diversity.


Background/Context To enhance postsecondary completion and minimize equity gaps, researchers have focused on defining, measuring, and developing students' college readiness, or the preparation required to persist in higher education. While this work has been useful to identify the ingredients of postsecondary success, the emphasis on individual achievement runs the risk of portraying marginalized students as deficient. Culturally relevant studies that highlight institutional accountability for college readiness are needed to inform policy and practice. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study Using Holland and colleagues' (1998) figured worlds theory, this study examines college readiness through the lens of student identity in an urban magnet high school. We investigate how first-generation, low-income students of color interpreted and negotiated local discourses and artifacts to "figure" college-going identities—that is, who they should become and how they should behave to earn a college degree. The purpose of this empirical approach is to contribute information that can inform college readiness efforts nationwide. Research Design The study utilizes an ethnographic approach that focused on how students conceptualized and developed their identities within the figured world of the magnet school. Data collection took place over the course of one school year and included over 200 hours of participant observation, in-depth interviews with 25 students and school staff, and document analysis. Findings The figured world of Jackson Magnet fostered and reinforced a hierarchy that consisted of magnet students ("scholars") and their counterparts in the regular school ("ditchers"). A local feedback loop implied that the magnet school provided more rigorous college preparation than the regular school and, by extension, magnet students figured they would be ready for college. However, real-world feedback (standardized test scores) suggested magnet course rigor did not accurately reflect postsecondary standards. The result was that magnet students were underprepared but did not know it, an outcome that positioned them to experience a drastic identity reckoning in college. Conclusions/Recommendations While most college-readiness research focuses on academic skills preparation, our findings reveal the need to consider how high schools prepare students in terms of identity. In particular, our data suggest the threat of well-intentioned achievement discourses on pre-college identity development. Salient questions include whether and how to increase postsecondary opportunity without socializing students either to discriminate against their peers or to figure a false identity that undermines preparation and future cognitive stability.


This paper examines the versification style of the Romansh poet Andri Peer, who can be considered as the first "modern" poet of the Romansh literature. It focuses on Andri Peer's most frequently used verse lines in his early free forms: the heptasyllabic and hendecasyllabic verse. A rhythmical analysis of the single verse instances revealed that the internal organisation of the line is not very elaborate. In the case of the heptasyllables found in his early free forms, only four patterns make up over 80% of all heptasyllabic verses. Regarding Peer's hendecasyllables, it is shown that his arrangement of the prominent syllables is rather regular, especially in comparison to the hendecasyllables of his precursor Peider Lansel. This trend in Peer's versification to use fixed dispositions of syllables is interpreted as a compensation for the loss of other structural features such as the stanza or the rhyme.


Letters must be no longer than 400 words and must include a word count. All letters are subject to editing . Proofs will not normally be supplied. There should be no more than 4 authors per letter. Each author should provide current qualifications and position. Contact telephone and facsimile numbers should be supplied. Letters from a single author may be su bmitted by e-mau (Bmpco @magna.com.au). but must inc lude full details of postal add ress and telephone number. There should be no more than 5 references. The reference lis t should not include any1hing that has not been published or accepted for publication. Reference details mu st be complete. including: names and initials for up to 4 authors. or 3 authors. et al. if there are more tha n 4; places an d dat es for confer' ences and publishers. places and year of publication for their pro cee dings ; publishers, p laces . ye ar of publication and page numbers for monographs: volume numbers and pag e numbers for journal articl es . Letters


Semiconductor device research for digital circuit design is currently facing increasing challenges to enhance miniaturization and performance. A huge economic push and the interest in novel applications are stimulating the development of new pathways to overcome physical limitations affecting conventional CMOS technology. Here, we propose a novel Schottky barrier device concept based on electrostatic polarity control. Specifically, this device can behave as p- or n-type by simply changing an electric input bias. This device combines More-than-Moore and Beyond CMOS elements to create an efficient technology with a viable path to Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI). This thesis proposes a device/circuit/architecture co-optimization methodology, where aspects of device technology to logic circuit and system design are considered. At device level, a full CMOS compatible fabrication process is presented. In particular, devices are demonstrated using vertically stacked, top-down fabricated silicon nanowires with gate-all-around electrode geometry. Source and drain contacts are implemented using nickel silicide to provide quasi-symmetric conduction of either electrons or holes, depending on the mode of operation. Electrical measurements confirm excellent performance, showing Ion/Ioff > 10^7 and subthreshold slopes approaching the thermal limit, SS 60mV/dec (  63mV/dec) for n(p)-type operation in the same physical device. Moreover, the shown devices behave as p-type for a polarization bias (polarity gate voltage, Vpg) of 0V, and n-type for a Vpg = 1V, confirming their compatibility with multi-level static logic circuit design. At logic gate level, two- and four-transistor logic gates are fabricated and tested. In particular, the first fully functional, two-transistor XOR logic gate is demonstrated through electrical characterization, confirming that polarity control can enable more compact logic gate design with respect to conventional CMOS. Furthermore, we show for the first time fabricated four- transistors logic gates that can be reconfigured as NAND or XOR only depending on their external connectivity. In this case, logic gates with full swing output range are experimentally demonstrated. Finally, single device and mixed-mode TCAD simulation results show that lower Vth and more optimized polarization ranges can be expected in scaled devices implementing strain or high-k technologies. At circuit and system level, a full semi-custom logic circuit design tool flow was defined and configured. Using this flow, novel logic libraries based on standard cells or regular gate fabrics were compared with standard CMOS. In this respect, results were shown in comparison to CMOS, including a 40% normalized area-delay product reduction for the analyzed standard cell libraries, and improvements of over 2× in terms of normalized delay for regular Controlled Polarity (CP)-based cells in the context of Structured ASICs. These results, in turn, confirm the interest in further developing and optimizing CP devices, as promising candidates for future digital circuit technology.


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From Syrian asylum seekers to super-rich foreign investors, immigration is one of the most controversial issues facing Britain today. Politicians kick the subject from one election to the next with energetic but ineffectual promises to 'crack down', while newspaper editors plaster it across front pages.

But few know the truth behind the headlines; indeed, the almost daily changes to our complex immigration laws pile up so quickly that even the officials in charge struggle to keep up.

In this clear, concise guide, Thom Brooks, one of the UK's leading experts on British citizenship – and a newly initiated British citizen himself – deftly navigates the perennially thorny path, exploding myths and exposing absurdities along the way. Ranging from how to test for 'Britishness' to how to tackle EU 'free movement', Becoming British explores how UK immigration really works – and sparks a long-overdue debate about how it should work.

Combining expert analysis with a blistering critique of the failings of successive governments, this is the definitive guide to one of the most hotly disputed issues in the UK today. Wherever you stand on the immigration debate, Brooks's wryly observed account is the essential roadmap.


AIM
To describe nursing students' reasoning about emotionally demanding questions concerning the care of dying patients.

METHODS
The Frommelt Attitude Toward Care of the Dying (FATCOD) Scale was completed by students at the beginning of their education, and there was great variation in the responses to five items. At a follow-up measurement in the second year, an open-ended question, 'How did you reason when completing this question?', was added to each of the these five items. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyse the responses.

RESULTS
Of 140 students who completed the FATCOD, 111 provided free-text responses. The analysis of these responses revealed three themes: death perceptions, the students' understanding of their current situation, and the nurse's responsibility.

CONCLUSION
This study provides useful information on students' reasoning about emotionally demanding questions relating to the care of dying patients. Such knowledge is valuable in helping students to overcome their fear and fulfil their expectations concerning their future proficiency.


In little more than a decade gigantic new financial institutions have emerged in America. These organizations are quite different from their predecessors in that they share the highly complex, diversified characteristics of foreign "universal banks." They are still in the process of developing experienced and mature operational and risk management systems. During this same period, the regulatory framework necessary to match the size, power and hazards generated by these new universal banks remains underdeveloped, and the primary framework around which the system is being constructed, namely Basel II, lies in tatters in the wake of the financial crisis of 2007-08. Given the size and interconnectedness of these universal banks, it is dangerous to permit their continued growth unless and until we develop a proper regulatory framework for supervising them. This article suggests that such a framework can only be developed fully once a single regulator, such as the Federal Reserve System, acquires comprehensive power to supervise large universal banks. Pending such reform, the article offers three actions that current regulators could take to slow the growth of universal banks down to a safe level. These are merger approval conditions that would require: (i) the filing and approval of a detailed, binding implementation and operation plan for any proposed combination; (ii) the filing and approval of a dissolution plan for the entity, should the combination run into difficulties; and (iii) the development and publication by the primary regulator of a regulatory plan for the new combination, detailing the resources required, where these resources would come from, and the methodology to be adopted in supervising the proposed entity.


Non‐random sampling is a source of bias in empirical research. It is common for the outcomes of interest (e.g. wage distribution) to be skewed in the source population. Sometimes, the outcomes are further subjected to sample selection, which is a type of missing data, resulting in partial observability. Thus, methods based on complete cases for skew data are inadequate for the analysis of such data and a general sample selection model is required. Heckman proposed a full maximum likelihood estimation method under the normality assumption for sample selection problems, and parametric and non‐parametric extensions have been proposed. We generalize Heckman selection model to allow for underlying skew‐normal distributions. Finite‐sample performance of the maximum likelihood estimator of the model is studied via simulation. Applications illustrate the strength of the model in capturing spurious skewness in bounded scores, and in modelling data where logarithm transformation could not mitigate the effect of inherent skewness in the outcome variable.


The purpose of a product is to satisfy the needs of the people that are going to acquire it. In order to do so, it has to incorporate characteristics and features that fulfill a series of requirements set by users' expectations and external conditions. In this essay, we are focusing on the design process of a new product and examine up to what extent should sustainability considerations as defined from the triple bottom line should be incorporated and when. Results indicate that the most important factors are the reaction of the customers to the sustainability performance of the product and its price. Attention needs to be paid though, as early incorporation can provide either a competitive advantage or considerably hurt profitability. Finally, we discuss effective policies that could induce a permanent shift towards more sustainable operations.


In this article, we have presented a morphology-based method for building recognition from FLIR image sequences captured by the midwave calibrated camera in dense urban areas. Based on the imaging parameters (the horizontal and vertical angle of field of view, the imaging distance, and the elevation), the imaging size of the building target can be determined in real time, and then the SE, which has a high correlation with the target's imaging size, has been generated. Additionally, to improve the performance of target detection and straight-line extraction, the line segment grouping method and the gradient-based straight-line extraction method are adopted. Experimental results show the algorithm can recognize the prominent building object with higher local contrast in FLIR image sequences in dense urban areas and maintain higher performance.


ActionScript is a scripting language based on ECMAScript. ActionScript is used primarily for the development of websites and software using the Adobe Flash Player platform (in the form of SWF files embedded into Web pages), but is also used in some database applications (such as Alpha Five), and in basic robotics, as with the Make Controller Kit. Originally developed by Macromedia, the language is now owned by Adobe (which acquired Macromedia in 2005). ActionScript was initially designed for controlling simple 2D vector animations made in Adobe Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash). Later versions added functionality allowing for the creation of Web-based games and rich Internet applications with streaming media (such as video and audio)


Path planning is an important area in the control of autonomous mobile robots. Recent work has focused on aspects reductions in processing time than the memory requirements. A dynamic environment uses a lot of memory and hence the processing time increases too. Our approach is to reduce the processing time by the use of a pictorial approach to reduce the number of data used. In this paper, we present a path planning approach that operates in three steps. First, a construction of the visibility tree is performed. The following treatments are not performed on the original image but on the result tree whose elements are specific points of the environment linked by the relationship of visibility. We construct thereafter a visibility graph which one seeks the shortest path. This approach has a great interest because of its fast execution speed. The path search is extended also for the case where obstacles can move. The moving obstacles may be other mobile robots whose trajectories and speeds are known initially. At the end, some applications are provided on solving similar problem such civil aviation in order to guide plane avoiding collisions.


The degradation of aldicarb, and the metabolites aldicarb sulfoxide and aldicarb sulfone, was evaluated in cotton field soils previously exposed to aldicarb. A loss of efficacy had been observed in two (LM and MS) of the three (CL) field soils as measured by R. reniformis population development and a lack of cotton yield response. Two soils were compared for the first test-one where aldicarb had been effective (CL) and the second where aldicarb had lost its efficacy (LM). The second test included all three soils: autoclaved, non-autoclaved and treated with aldicarb at 0.59 kg a.i./ha, or not treated with aldicarb. The degradation of aldicarb to aldicarb sulfoxide and then to aldicarb sulfone was measured using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) in both tests. In test one, total degradation of aldicarb and its metabolites occurred within 12 days in the LM soil. Aldicarb sulfoxide and aldicarb sulfone were both present in the CL soil at the conclusion of the test at 42 days after aldicarb application. Autoclaving the LM and MS soils extended the persistence of the aldicarb metabolites as compared to the same soils not autoclaved. The rate of degradation was not changed when the CL natural soil was autoclaved. The accelerated degradation was due to more rapid degradation of aldicarb sulfoxide and appears to be biologically mediated.


Since the 1960s, the media in Western Europe and the United States has been one important actor in the public understanding of the drug phenomenon. In Russia, however, it is only since the 1980s that illegal drugs have been discussed in the media and this discussion remains on-going today. By using narrative analysis, this article focuses on how illegal drug use among young people is constructed in the Russian press. As a result of the narrative analysis, three main discourses were identified: a foreign problem discourse, a disease discourse, and a medical discourse.


Accurate measurement of film thickness and
its uniformity are very important to the performance of many coated surfaces
and for many applications are critical. Effective inspection of the film
thickness and uniformity is the key to high performance. Conventionally, film
thickness is meas- ured using a spectrophotometer/reflectometer, ellipsometer
or a physical step measurement; however, these techniques all have limitations.
Coherence Scanning Interferometry (CSI) is an established method to measure
surface topography as this technique offers many advantages such as speed, ease
of use and accuracy. The measurement of "thick" films (exceeding ~1.5 μm) which
gives rise to clearly separate fringe bunches is a well-established CSI
capability. However, a methodology known as the 'helical complex field' (HCF) [1]
[2] function allows film thickness to be measured down to ~25 nm. This new
method, combined with Coherence Correlation Interferometry (CCI) [3] offers
film thickness measurements with sub-nanometre vertical resolution and ~1 μm
lateral resolution. It is ideally suited for detailed analysis of coated
optical surfaces. In this paper, the fundamentals of the techniques are
described and some case studies are presented.


Abstract. The accuracy of two-dimensional urban flood models (2D models) is improved when high-resolution Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) is used, but the entailed high spatial discretisation results in excessive computational expenses, thus prohibiting the use of 2D models in real-time forecasting at a large scale. This paper presents a sub-model approach to tailoring high-resolution 2D model grids according to specified targets, and thus such tailor-made sub-model yields fast processing without significant loss of accuracy. Among the numerous sinks detected from full-basin high-resolution DEMs, the computationally important ones are determined using a proposed Volume Ratio Sink Screening method. Also, the drainage basin is discretised into a collection of sub-impact zones according to those sinks' spatial configuration. When adding full-basin distributed static rainfall, the drainage basin's flow conditions are modelled as a 1D static flow by using a fast-inundation spreading algorithm. Next, sub-impact zones relevant to the targets' local inundation process can be identified by tracing the 1D flow continuity, and thus suggest the critical computational cells from the high-resolution model grids on the basis of the spatial intersection. In MIKE FLOOD's 2D simulations, those screened cells configure the reduced computational domains as well as the optimised boundary conditions, which ultimately enables the fast 2D prediction in the tailor-made sub-model. To validate the method, model experiments were designed to test the impact of the reduced computational domains and the optimised boundary conditions separately. Further, the general applicability and the robustness of the sub-model approach were evaluated by targeting at four focus areas representing different catchment terrain morphologies as well as different rainfall return periods of 1–100 years. The sub-model approach resulted in a 45–553 times faster processing with a 99 % reduction in the number of computational cells for all four cases; the predicted flood extents, depths and flow velocities showed only marginal discrepancies with Root Mean Square Errors (RMSE) below 1.5 cm. As such, this approach reduces the 2D models' computing expenses significantly, thus paving the way for large-scale high-resolution 2D real-time forecasting.


The present study intends to compare and correlate serum & salivary glucose level in healthy & diabetic individuals. A total of 500 subjects were examined, of which 429 were healthy & 71 were confirmed diabetics. Post–prandial blood and salivary samples were analyzed. Mann-Whitney test using Pearson correlation was applied, which was statistically significant (P < .001).  To conclude, glucose concentration in saliva is higher in diabetics than in healthy individuals. Moreover the changes in serum glucose concentration are followed by the changes in salivary glucose concentration. Thus saliva can be used as an adjunct diagnostic tool in diabetes mellitus.