Accurate modeling of geographic distributions of species is crucial to various applications in ecology and conservation. The best performing techniques often require some parameter tuning, which may be prohibitively time-consuming to do separately for each species, or unreliable for small or biased datasets. Additionally, even with the abundance of good quality data, users interested in the application of species models need not have the statistical knowledge required for detailed tuning. In such cases, it is desirable to use "default settings", tuned and validated on diverse datasets. Maxent is a recently introduced modeling technique, achieving high predictive accuracy and enjoying several additional attractive properties. The performance of Maxent is influenced by a moderate number of parameters. The first contribution of this paper is the empirical tuning of these parameters. Since many datasets lack information about species absence, we present a tuning method that uses presence-only data. We evaluate our method on independently collected high-quality presence-absence data. In addition to tuning, we introduce several concepts that improve the predictive accuracy and running time of Maxent. We introduce "hinge features" that model more complex relationships in the training data; we describe a new logistic output format that gives an estimate of probability of presence; finally we explore "background sampling" strategies that cope with sample selection bias and decrease model-building time. Our evaluation, based on a diverse dataset of 226 species from 6 regions, shows: 1) default settings tuned on presence-only data achieve performance which is almost as good as if they had been tuned on the evaluation data itself; 2) hinge features substantially improve model performance; 3) logistic output improves model calibration, so that large differences in output values correspond better to large differences in suitability; 4) "target-group" background sampling can give much better predictive performance than random background sampling; 5) random background sampling results in a dramatic decrease in running time, with no decrease in model performance.


This article explores how a lack of access to increasingly complex and overlapping digital communications platforms in times of disaster for people with disabilities has the potential to make already life-threatening situations considerably more dangerous. As we are increasingly coming to rely on a social media mash-up of digital platforms to assist in communications during disaster situations, the issue of accessibility for people with disabilities is as dire as if it was high ground during a tsunami or transport during a typhoon. The contemporary social media environment is characterised by a complex and overlapping network of complementary platforms, populated by user-generated content, where people communicate and exchange ideas. In this environment, YouTube videos are posted to Facebook and embedded in blogs, and Twitter is used to link to these other sites and is itself embedded in other platforms. These networks are increasingly supplementing and supplanting more traditional communication platforms, such as the television and radio, particularly in times of disaster. The concern of this paper is that the elements from which this mash-up of communications channels is made are not always accessible to people with disabilities. This evolving network of social media-based communication exposes the limits of existing Internet-based universal design.


Counterparty risk has been at the heart of the recent crisis driven by the toxicity of over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives and failure of high profile financial institutions. This has led policymakers to propose laws that would require most standard OTC derivatives to be centrally cleared. Central clearing involves a central counterparty (CCP) intermediating a transaction and acting as an insurer of counterparty risk. This has advantages, potentially leading to enhanced transparency and liquidity in markets and smoothing major systemic problems. The idea is also popular since it represents a single and intuitively simple solution to the severe problem of counterparty risk. However, whilst CCPs may have a role to play in reducing counterparty risk, they can also be counterproductive to the stability of financial markets. In this paper, we argue that the introduction of CCPs should be carefully considered and that, far from reducing counterparty risk, they may actually allow it to breed and contribute to the next crisis.


The year 1937 marked the bimillenary of the birth of Augustus. With characteristic pomp and vigor, Benito Mussolini undertook numerous initiatives keyed to the occasion, including the opening of the Mostra Augustea della Romanità , the restoration of the Ara Pacis , and the reconstruction of Piazza Augusto Imperatore. New excavation campaigns were inaugurated at Augustan sites throughout the peninsula, while the state issued a series of commemorative stamps and medallions focused on ancient Rome. In the same year, Mussolini inaugurated an impressive square named Forum Imperii, situated within the Foro Mussolini known today as the Foro Italico, in celebration of the first anniversary of his Ethiopian conquest. The Forum Imperii's decorative program included large-scale black and white figural mosaics flanked by rows of marble blocks; each of these featured inscriptions boasting about key events in the regime's history. This work examines the iconography of the Forum Imperii's mosaic decorative program and situates these visual statements into a broader discourse that encompasses the panorama of images that circulated in abundance throughout Italy and its colonies. Therein I highlight the Roman, particularly Augustan, models that Mussolini consciously exploited to depict himself as the founder of a new empire. Of special interest are instances of analogy to the figurative references displayed on state-issued postcards, medals, and stamps. This study of quotidian often ephemeral objects, fundamental in any archeological analysis, underscores not only the scope of the iconography and its audiences, but also the extent to which the minor arts, along with state architecture, functioned as integral components of a multi-faceted system of propaganda. I demonstrate how the Forum Imperii operated effectively in the aggregate of Fascist propaganda by exploiting the images already present in the collective memory of Rome, a memory established through Mussolini's observance of the Augustan model of ritual, policy, public display, colonization, and his belief in personal destiny. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Art & Archaeology of Mediterranean World First Advisor Charles B. Rose


American artist Glenn Ligon (b. 1960) is best known for his landmark body of text-based paintings, made since the late 1980s, which draw on the writings and speech of diverse figures including Jean Genet, Zora Neale Hurston, Jesse Jackson, and Richard Pryor. Throughout his career, Ligon has pursued an incisive exploration of American history, literature, and society across a body of work that builds critically on the legacies of modern painting and more recent conceptual art. His subject matter ranges widely from the Million Man March and the aftermath of slavery to 1970s coloring books and the photography of Robert Mapplethorpe-all treated within artworks that are both politically provocative and beautiful to behold. Glenn Ligon: AMERICA, created in close collaboration with the artist, surveys twenty-five years of Ligon's art, including paintings, sculptural installations, prints, and drawings. Essays examine his working methods in depth and situate his output within a broad cultural context, while lavish new photography highlights the formal subtlety of his art. This first comprehensive survey of Ligon's career will greatly advance our appreciation of his pioneering oeuvre.


An aerodynamic analysis of low-Reynolds number flows is presented. The focus is placed on the laminar separation bubbles, a peculiar phenomenon of these kind of flows. The only simulations techniques feasible to be applied to complex configurations appear to be the methods based on the Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes equations. A critical point is the turbulence modelling. In fact, the turbulence models are calibrated for flows at high Reynolds number with separation in the turbulent regime. The flow over a flat plate with an imposed pressure gradient, and around the Selig-Donavan 7003 airfoil is considered. Large eddy simulations have also been performed and used as reference for the RANS results. Laminar separation bubbles have been found by the Spalart-Allmaras and the k-w SST turbulence models. The models have been used without prescribing the transition location and assuming low values of the free-stream turbulence. The main results have been achieved for the k-w SST turbulence model. This model is very reliable for transonic flows at high Reynolds number, but has shown limits when applied to low-Reynolds number flows. A modification of the model has been proposed. The modified model, named as k-w SST-LR, has provided a correct simulation of the boundary layer in the tests performed at low and high Reynolds numbers. The laminar separation bubble arising of the SD 7003 airfoil has been well captured. The accuracy of the new model is not reduced in transonic regime.


Moor (1985) designated two major problem sources typifying the social and ethical implications of computer technologies, namely, "policy vacuum" and "conceptual muddles." Motivated by Moor's seminal definition and Floridi's (2013) conceptualization of information and communication technologies (ICTs) as re-ontologizing technologies, this study aims to explore Omani undergraduates' cognition regarding ICT ethics.,Adopting a grounded theory approach for the constant comparative thematic analysis, the constituents of ICT ethics-related cognition among undergraduates and influencing factors were scrutinized. Qualitative data were gathered via focus group discussions with undergraduates and interviews with academics and information systems professionals at Sultan Qaboos University.,In total, 10 thematic categories revolving around a core category, constructing conceptual perceptions of and attitudes toward the realms constituting ICT ethics using an ontological, object-oriented approach, emerged from the comparative analysis. Undergraduates were found to adopt an applied approach when defining professional ICT ethics codes and policies, with a particular focus on information privacy and integrity.,This qualitative study was conducted at a single research site. This may restrict the generalizability of the findings. Postgraduates were not considered when designing this qualitative inquiry.,The findings of the study hold theoretical and methodological significance with regard to ICT ethics-related cognition in the era following the fourth industrial revolution by sustaining feminist ethics in this research. Ultimately, the study developed a substantive theory scrutinizing the constitutive elements of ICT ethics-related cognition among Generation Z.


The aim of this paper is to examine whether a long-term trend can be identified in the mobility regime of French society from the middle of the century. It begins with a review of the international literature on temporal trends in social fluidity within modern societies. Analysing recent French research which has concluded that inequality of opportunity has remained unchanged in France during the last two decades, the paper argues that such a conclusion can only have resulted from the use of insufficiently powerful statistical techniques. The second part of the paper analyses father-son and father-daughter mobility tables drawn from national representative surveys carried out in 1953, 1970, 1977, 1985 and 1993 (N=35,741 for males and 18,484 for females). The use of log-linear and log-multiplicative models reveals that the statistical association (as measured with the logarithm of the odds ratio) between social origin and destination has declined steadily by 0.5 % a year over a period of forty years. This finding highlights a slow but continuous trend towards a reduction in inequality of opportunity from the middle of the century. Of the twelve million French men and women between the ages of 35 and 59 who were in employment in 1993, nearly half a million would have belonged to different classes without this forty year increase in social fluidity. The paper concludes that the thesis of temporal invariance in the intergenera- tional mobility regime cannot be maintained for France, but that the reasons of this change still remain to be ascertained.


This essay provides an overview of the purposes, themes and scholarly methodologies evidenced at the October 2016 conference, The U.S. Feminist Judgments Project: Writing the Law, Rewriting the Future, a two-day conference hosted by the Center for Constitutional Law at the University of Akron School of Law. This essay provides some of the background to the development of the path-breaking book, Feminist Judgments: Rewritten Opinions of the United States Supreme Court (Cambridge University Press, 2016). It also focuses attention on the importance of diversity on the bench, with a particular need for judges who understand or experience the intersecting relationships among race, ethnicity, class, sexual orientation, physical abilities and many other factors. The authors argue that one theoretical foundation of Feminist Judgments Projects in the U.S. and globally is the belief that judges with feminist perspectives – broadly construed – will pay more attention to facts, context and a broad range of authorities, thus advancing equal justice under the law. The essay concludes by identifying further questions about the relationship between feminist perspectives and the judicial role, including how feminism can disrupt default judicial positions that otherwise make it more difficult to realize fully the law's promise of equality.


We present the design, implementation, and evaluation of Sierra: a power-proportional, distributed storage system. I/O workloads in data centers show significant diurnal variation, with peak and trough periods. Sierra powers down storage servers during the troughs. The challenge is to ensure that data is available for reads and writes at all times, including power-down periods. Consistency and fault-tolerance of the data, as well as good performance, must also be maintained. Sierra achieves all these through a set of techniques including power-aware layout, predictive gear scheduling, and a replicated shortterm versioned store. Replaying live server traces from a large e-mail service (Hotmail) shows power savings of at least 23%, and analysis of load from a small enterprise shows that power savings of up to 60% are possible.


Multiple myeloma accounts for approximately 10% of hematologic malignancies. The diagnosis requires ≥10% clonal bone marrow plasma cells or a biopsy proven plasmacytoma plus evidence of one or more multiple myeloma defining events: CRAB (hypercalcemia, renal failure, anemia, or lytic bone lesions) features felt related to the plasma cell disorder, bone marrow clonal plasmacytosis ≥60%, serum involved/uninvolved free light chain (FLC) ratio ≥100 (provided involved FLC is ≥100 mg/L), or >1 focal lesion on magnetic resonance imaging. Patients with del(17p), t(14;16), and t(14;20) have high‐risk multiple myeloma. Patients with t(4;14) translocation and gain(1q) have intermediate‐risk. All others are considered standard‐risk. Initial treatment consists of bortezomib, lenalidomide, dexamethasone (VRd). In high‐risk patients, carfilzomib, lenalidomide, dexamethasone (KRd) is an alternative to VRd. In eligible patients, initial therapy is given for approximately 3‐4 cycles followed by autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT). Standard risk patients can opt for delayed ASCT at first relapse. Patients not candidates for transplant are treated with VRd for approximately 8‐12 cycles followed by lenalidomide or lenalidomide plus dexamethasone. After ASCT, lenalidomide maintenance is recommended for standard risk patients, while maintenance with a bortezomib‐based regimen is needed for patients with intermediate or high‐risk disease. Most patients require a triplet regimen at relapse, with the choice of regimen varying with each successive relapse. Aggressive relapse with extramedullary plasmacytomas or plasma cell leukemia may require anthracycline containing combination chemotherapy regimens.


This thesis provides analysis and modeling for one of the Micro-Eletro-Mechanical System (MEMS) electrostatic actuator that consists of a micro-plate at the end of a cantilever beam, and introduces different type of MEMS electrostatic actuator; a paddle structure, which is a micro-plate suspended by two cantilever beams on each side. An electrode plate is placed right under the micro-plate to apply an actuation voltage. A step-by-step analysis explains how to obtain each parameter used for the simulations. Static and dynamic models are presented with governing equations for the paddle-shaped MEMS electrostatic actuator. The key findings are that the proposed electrostatic MEMS demodulator architecture taking advantage of the resonance circuit principle not only theoretically work in analytical model, and numerical simulations, but also work in real life. For the Amplitude Modulations (AM) demodulations, simulations with various damping factors are provided, and experimental data are discussed. By measuring the displacement using the phase detector circuit and vibrometer, as a proof of versatility of the demodulation architecture based on the MEMS electrostatic actuator, the results from Frequency Modulations (FM), Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK), and Frequency Shift Keying (FSK) demodulation scheme experiments that are conducted with the physically identical dimensions and configuration are provided. The future plan for further analysis and experiment is discussed at the end.


This essay focuses on the Victory Garden movement in the US during World War II. Victory Gardens were not a new idea for the American public. The gardening movement as subsistence for the home front had actually been implemented during World War I as "War Gardens" [1] by the government. Victory Gardens emerged throughout the US after the attack on Pearl Harbor, but the Department of Agriculture did not immediately implement the order for all citizens to have Victory Gardens until 1943. The government feared food shortages due to labor shortage and Americans caught onto the gardening bug when canned goods started to be rationed. Victory Gardening hit an all-time high in 1943, and with the end of the war the gardening effort sloughed off, despite the government warning of continued food rationing and possible shortages. Victory Gardens brought about a new sense of participation in the war effort, and also gave people a place to work out their nervousness from the stress of the war. The imagery of ads, government pamphlets and newspaper articles of the time reveal that all members of families were involved in Victory Gardening. These ads show happy people working and planting seeds to create their own food in order to have enough to eat for any lean months ahead. This essay will explore the roles of the family members in the Victory Garden movement and the larger picture of government action in providing food for the American public during war time. The success of the Victory Garden movement showed that Americans of the time were interested in helping with the war effort, specifically doing more proactive work to become self-sufficient. These home front actions therefore helped to take pressure off the government of providing food for the American people and the focus of the government can then be on providing for the needs of the armies. The primary sources for this essay will be primarily images, newspaper articles, and governmental ads from the time period showing the people working in their gardens and talking about the effort at home. By also using governmental pamphlets from the era, which talk specifically about how to set up a garden and how to maintain it, these sources show how the government helped administer the victory garden program. [1] Tucker, David M., Kitchen Gardening In America: A History (Ames Iowa: Iowa State University Press, 1993), pp. 121.


We previously reported that compared with normals, patients with chronic schizophrenia have reduced regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) during performance of the Wisconsin Card Sort Test (WCS), a DLPFC-related cognitive task, but not during nonprefrontal tasks, such as a simple number-matching (NM) test. We also found that unlike normals, patients failed to activate DLPFC during the WCS over their own baseline (NM) level. To explore the reproducibility of these findings, a new cohort of 16 medication-free patients underwent a series of xenon 133 inhalation rCBF studies under the following conditions: at rest, while performing the WCS, and while performing NM. The results confirmed our earlier findings. In addition, the concentrations in cerebrospinal fluid of homovanillic acid and 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid correlated with prefrontal rCBF during the WCS but not during the NM test or at rest. The results show that behavior-specific hypofunction of DLPFC in schizophrenia is reproducible, and they implicate a monoaminergic mechanism.


When training neural networks, the use of Synthetic Gradients (SG) allows layers or modules to be trained without update locking - without waiting for a true error gradient to be backpropagated - resulting in Decoupled Neural Interfaces (DNIs). This unlocked ability of being able to update parts of a neural network asynchronously and with only local information was demonstrated to work empirically in Jaderberg et al (2016). However, there has been very little demonstration of what changes DNIs and SGs impose from a functional, representational, and learning dynamics point of view. In this paper, we study DNIs through the use of synthetic gradients on feed-forward networks to better understand their behaviour and elucidate their effect on optimisation. We show that the incorporation of SGs does not affect the representational strength of the learning system for a neural network, and prove the convergence of the learning system for linear and deep linear models. On practical problems we investigate the mechanism by which synthetic gradient estimators approximate the true loss, and, surprisingly, how that leads to drastically different layer-wise representations. Finally, we also expose the relationship of using synthetic gradients to other error approximation techniques and find a unifying language for discussion and comparison.


This paper gives insights into the possible trade creating effects of service trade liberalization via Mode 4. In particular we expect that temporary movements of persons, like permanent movements, have the potential to reduce transaction costs for merchandise trade between home and host country. Exploiting data on H-1B beneficiaries from different origins in the United States and using a gravity model of trade, we find significantly positive effects of temporary movements of persons on bilateral merchandise trade. In addition to this, the paper provides insights into the determinants of temporary movements of persons.


This article estimates the effect of environmental regulation on firm productivity using a spatial regression discontinuity design implicit in China's water quality monitoring system. Because water quality readings are important for political evaluations and the monitoring stations only capture emissions from their upstream regions, local government officials are incentivized to enforce tighter environmental standards on firms immediately upstream of a monitoring station, rather than those immediately downstream. Exploiting this discontinuity in regulation stringency with novel firm-level geocoded emission and production data sets, we find that immediate upstream polluters face a more than 24% reduction in total factor productivity (TFP), and a more than 57% reduction in chemical oxygen demand emissions, as compared with their immediate downstream counterparts. We find that the discontinuity in TFP does not exist in nonpolluting industries, only emerged after the government explicitly linked political promotion to water quality readings, and was predominantly driven by prefectural cities with career-driven leaders. Linking the TFP estimate with the emission estimate, a back-of-the-envelope calculation indicates that China's water regulation efforts between 2000 and 2007 were associated with an economic cost of more than 800 billion Chinese yuan.


Abstract Gradients in photosynthesis (P) and respiration (R) were measured on an unperturbed portion of the Rio Mameyes, a tropical stream in the Luquillo Experimental Forest, northeastern Puerto Rico. Rates of P, which were similar to those of streams in temperate-deciduous forests, were low in the heavily canopied headwaters (<70 g O2 m−2 y−1) and were higher (453–634 g O2 m−2 y−1) in middle and lower reaches. Periphyton biomass did not show the expected increase as the canopy opened downstream, probably because of increasing herbivory in downstream reaches. Rates of R, which were much higher than in most temperate streams, also were lower in the headwaters (767 g O2 m−2 y−1) than in the middle and lower reaches (1550–1660 g O2 m−2 y−1). High rates of R and suppressed periphyton abundance caused annual P/R to be ≪1 from headwaters to lower reaches. Results for the Rio Mameyes suggest that intense herbivory, which is favored by the presence of large herbivores and consistently high temperatures, may be more typical of tropical than temperate streams. Results also show that the tropical rainforest provides the stream with sufficient amounts of labile organic C to support high rates of respiration over long distances across the basin.


Cushion plants can occur in two-dimensional mosaics of species, which have
been shown to be stable in their proportions of species, but unstable in their
patterns (Gibson and Kirkpatrick 1992). Possible causes of this state of
quasi-stability were explored for a cushion mosaic composed of four principal
species, Pferygopappus lawrencii, Abrotanella forsteroides, Dracophyllum
minimum and Oreobolus pumilio at Mount Field National Park, Tasmania. An
area of a cushion mosaic was selected, the topography measured,
temperature readings taken under different synoptic conditions and the ability
of the two most common species, Pferygopappus lawrencii and Abrotanella
forsteroides to repel moisture measured. Slope, aspect and radiation input in
clear sky conditions were calculated for the 418 grid points at which
topography and temperature were measured and the species noted. The
differences between species in their distributions at the study site were
related to slope, aspect, elevation, clear sky radiation input and temperature
adjusted for radiation and slope. Chi-squared was used to determine the
significance of differences between species for misting and droplet
treatments. O. pumilio was associated with steep slopes and lower radiation
inputs. P. lawrencii was at lower elevations than A. forsteroides. Water
beaded on the surface of P. lawrencii at a higher rate than on A. forsteroides,
regardless of drop size. Temperature alone was found to be a poor indicator
of species occurrence. Species switched their temperature rankings in
different weather conditions. To conclude, the data most closely fit a model of
temporal environmental fluctuations with continuous competition. Differential cushion growth appears to lead to variation in topography and therefore
differences in interception of radiation. This negative feedback mechanism
may be contributing to the perpetuation of coexistence.


Summary: This paper examines employees' earnings inequality in Portugal for 1986-2017 using data from the Personnel Records database. Our objective is twofold: (a) characterize earnings inequality by comparing representative distributions, before and after the great crisis; and (b) investigate the role played by the business cycle on the behaviour of earnings inequality by estimating Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ADL) models. To identify trends and variations along the trend in earnings inequality we use cardinal measures and the coefficient of variation. We inspect the characteristics of earnings distributions in terms of mo-ments (mean and median) and polarization (using relative distributions analysis). The main findings are: (1) earnings inequality shows a positive trend (except during the great crisis); (2) polarization is present in every year, with lower po-larisation prevailing over upper polarization, both evolving at different paces (very fast 1989-2002; slower pace 2002-2008; negative growth 2008-2017); (3) the business cycle relationship with earnings inequality is negative. JEL: D33, I39, J20, O12.


Spoken language systems are highly complex and teaching of students in this subject matter and in the underlying technologies could benefit greatly from instructional software. The aim of this work has been to give students hands-on experience via a fully functioning spoken dialogue system as a teaching aid. This dialogue system was built using our toolkit for spoken language technology as a dedicated laboratory environment for students. The system was used in a lab which was part of two courses on spoken language technology given by our department. Students were given some initial guidance on how to modify and extend the system but most of their work was unsupervised. Overall, the laboratory system was a success and we plan to improve and extend it for the coming academic year. Thanks to the rapid prototyping and development character of our toolkit we might even use it and the modules from the system as a software basis for student projects in spoken language technology.


Studies of political development have traditionally focused on emerging countries with the shortest histories and poorest documentary records. This book brings the discussion into a realm where the time span is considerable and the documentation is vast--the formation of national states in western Europe. Through a series of essays on major state-making activities, the authors ask what processes and preconditions brought powerful national states, rather than some other form of political organization, into a dominant position in western Europe. The essays compare the experience of major European states between 1500 and 1900 with respect to war-making, policing, taxation, control of food supply, and recruitment and training of professionals and officials. The aim is to determine how well that experience fits available models of political change, especially ideas of political development.


Despite a history of worker exploitation and environmental degradation, today the cut-flower industry is striving for ethical production practices. Ecuador is leading the way in this regard, and one farm, Fairtrade certified Nevado Roses, appears to be a shining example. In 2012, I set out to conduct ethnographic research centering workers' perspectives about labor conditions and life as Fairtrade rose cultivators at Nevado Roses. I wanted to understand how women, who comprise the majority of flower workers, fare on a farm with socially and environmentally sustainable policies. The research confirmed the benefits of ethical production practices, but also revealed that Fairtrade production does not alleviate workers' struggles to balance work and family. This case describes the research methods I employed, from the inception of the research idea to the final stages of analysis. It highlights the challenges encountered and choices made at all stages of the project to give readers a behind-the-scenes view of ethnographic research. I focus attention on feminist research methods and the relationships between the researcher and the research subjects.


Guanine nucleotides have been reported to stimulate reticular Ca2+ release. By using the structure-linked latency of microsomal mannose-6-phosphate phosphatase as an index of microsomal permeability [Arion, Ballas, Lange & Wallin (1976) J. Biol. Chem. 251, 4901-4907], the effects of GTP on Ca2+ release and membrane permeability were compared in liver microsomes. In a stripped rough-microsome preparation, GTP caused a dose-dependent increase in mannose 6-phosphate permeability. Half-maximal and maximal effects were observed at 3 microM- and 10 microM-GTP respectively. The time course of the change in membrane permeability coincided with the time course of GTP-dependent Ca2+ release. This increase in microsomal permeability displayed positive to-operativity with respect to GTP (Hill coefficient = 1.8). By analogy to the GTP-dependent Ca2+ release process, guanosine 5'-[gamma-thio]triphosphate and guanosine 5'-[beta gamma-imido]-triphosphate inhibited the ability of GTP to alter microsomal permeability, but were without effect when added alone. In the presence of 50 microM-GTP, complete inhibition of the GTP-dependent increase in microsomal permeability was achieved with 10 microM-guanosine 5'-[gamma-thio]triphosphate, whereas a 25% inhibition was observed with 10 microM-guanosine 5'-[beta gamma-imido]triphosphate. In contrast with previous observations in crude microsomal preparations, GTP-dependent Ca2+ release in the stripped rough-microsome preparation did not require the addition of poly(ethylene glycol), although the latter did stimulate the rate of Ca2+ release. The ability of GTP to alter microsomal permeability was blocked by prior treatment with the thiol reagent p-hydroxymercuribenzoate; complete inhibition was observed after a 10 min exposure to 50 microM. Inhibition was reversed by subsequent treatment with dithiothreitol. The marked similarities between the two GTP-sensitive processes indicate that they may function via the same mechanism.


BACKGROUND
The number, type and roles of specialist nurses dedicated to the care and management of patients with inflammatory bowel disease is increasing. Despite this increase, there has been little evidence to date to demonstrate the effectiveness of specialist nursing interventions. This review aims to identify and evaluate the impact of specialist nursing interventions on management of inflammatory bowel disease, access to treatment, remission, morbidity and quality of life.

OBJECTIVES
To identify and evaluate the impact of specialist nursing interventions for improving the care and management of patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

SEARCH STRATEGY
A comprehensive search of databases including the Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, and British Nursing Index was carried out to identify trials. References from relevant papers were searched and hand searching was undertaken of relevant publications including gastroenterology conference proceedings to identify additional trials (date of last search 30 September 2008).

SELECTION CRITERIA
Randomised controlled trials, controlled before and after studies and interrupted time series studies of gastroenterology and IBD specialist nurses intending to improve access and outcomes for patients with ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease were considered for inclusion.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
Two investigators independently extracted data and assessed trial quality. Any discrepancies were resolved by consensus.

MAIN RESULTS
One randomised controlled trial of 100 IBD patients receiving a specialist nurse delivered counselling package (n = 50) or routine outpatient clinic follow-up (n = 50), with assessments at entry and six and 12 months, was included in this review. This study was of low methodological quality. Disease remission, patient compliance, clinical improvement, utilisation of nurse-led services, patient satisfaction, hospital admission, outpatient attendance, progression to surgery, length of hospital stay and cost effectiveness data were not reported. Pooled mean mental health scores at 6 months were higher in patients who received nurse-led counselling compared to patients who received routine follow-up. However, this difference was not statistically significant (WMD 3.67; 95% CI -0.44 to 7.77; P = 0.08). Other pooled assessments of physical and psychological well-being showed no statistically significant differences.

AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS
Although specialist nurse counselling interventions might provide benefit for IBD patients the one included study was of low quality and the results of this study should be interpreted with caution. Higher quality trials of gastroenterology and IBD specialist nursing interventions are needed to assess the impact of specialist nursing interventions on the care and management of patients with inflammatory bowel disease.


Natural language generation plays a critical role in spoken dialogue systems. We present a new approach to natural language generation for task-oriented dialogue using recurrent neural networks in an encoder-decoder framework. In contrast to previous work, our model uses both lexicalized and delexicalized components i.e. slot-value pairs for dialogue acts, with slots and corresponding values aligned together. This allows our model to learn from all available data including the slot-value pairing, rather than being restricted to delexicalized slots. We show that this helps our model generate more natural sentences with better grammar. We further improve our model's performance by transferring weights learnt from a pretrained sentence auto-encoder. Human evaluation of our best-performing model indicates that it generates sentences which users find more appealing.


The Federal Power Act of 1920 (Act), as amended by the Electric Consumers Protection Act of 1986, requires that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, in order to adequately and equitably protect, mitigate damage to, and enhance fish and wildlife affected by hydropower development, include conditions that are based on the recommendations of Federal and state fish and wildlife agencies. Section 10(j) (2) of the Act requires that when the Commission believes that any recommendations may be inconsistent with the Act or other applicable law, the Commission and the fish and wildlife agencies shall attempt to resolve any such inconsistencies giving due weight to the recommendations, expertise, and statutory responsibility of such agencies. This paper describes the meaning and significance of Section 10(j), the negotiation process used to resolve any such inconsistencies, the findings the Commission must make, the Commission's track record in dealing with agency recommendations, and how the problems of ex parte communications are handled.


In Boumediene v. Bush, which grants non-citizens detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, constitutional habeas corpus privileges the Supreme Court took notice that the United States maintains "de facto sovereignty" over that territory. As its sole precedential support, the Court cited a case that never mentions the term de facto sovereignty. What is this concept? How important is it to the Court's holding? Did the Court get the concept right given its longstanding usage and meaning in Supreme Court precedent? And what can de facto sovereignty tell us about when the Court will find habeas to extend to other situations involving extraterritorial detention of non-citizens in the war on terror?


We consider the electromagnetic field due to the reflection and transmission of a plane wave by a bounded periodic structure containing chiral layers. The problem is solved using the 2x2-block-representation transfer-matrix formulation. The frequency and angular dependences of the reflection and transmission coefficients are given. The boundaries of the passbands and stopbands are determined from the basic-element transfer-matrix eigenvalue analysis.


In order to help users navigate an image search system, one could provide explicit information on a small set of images as to which of them are relevant or not to their task. These rankings are learned in order to present a user with a new set of images that are relevant to their task. Requiring such explicit information may not be feasible in a number of cases, we consider the setting where the user provides implicit feedback, eye movements, to assist when performing such a task. This paper explores the idea of implicitly incorporating eye movement features in an image ranking task where only images are available during testing. Previous work had demonstrated that combining eye movement and image features improved on the retrieval accuracy when compared to using each of the sources independently. Despite these encouraging results the proposed approach is unrealistic as no eye movements will be presented a-priori for new images (i.e. only after the ranked images are presented would one be able to measure a user's eye movements on them). We propose a novel search methodology which combines image features together with implicit feedback from users' eye movements in a tensor ranking Support Vector Machine and show that it is possible to extract the individual source-specific weight vectors. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the decomposed image weight vector is able to construct a new image-based semantic space that outperforms the retrieval accuracy than when solely using the image-features.


The full impact of the intrauterine environment on the long-term health and well-being of the growing child remains incompletely understood. However, it is increasingly clear that poor fetal growth has critical effects on both long-term medical and developmental outcomes. Infants born after intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) have increased risk for several adult-onset diseases including hypertension, heart disease and diabetes.1 In multiple studies, infants with IUGR have subtle but likely important deficits in cognitive, motor, language and neuropsychiatric outcomes. Importantly, interpretation of the literature on the effects of IUGR is hindered by variation in the definition of growth restriction and therefore wide differences in populations selected for study. Furthermore, the impact of growth on outcomes is likely a 'U'-shaped continuum, in which poor growth is increasingly detrimental while excessive growth is also harmful. For instance, among more than a thousand Finnish children born at term and followed until 56 months, each SD decrease in birth size was associated with incremental decrements in outcomes across multiple developmental domains.2 In the same cohort, large body size was also associated with adverse outcomes.

A multitude of approaches may be used to characterise the intrauterine growth of a newborn infant. Most commonly, birth weight plotted on standardised growth curves is used to indicate whether the infant suffered from poor fetal growth. However, in addition to birth weight, length, body mass index (BMI), weight for length percentile, midarm circumference (MAC), MAC to head circumference ratio, ponderal index and cephalisation index (head …


In order to reach the Millennium Development Goals for significantly reducing the number of people without access to adequate sanitation, new holistic concepts are needed focusing on economically feasible closed-loop ecological sanitation systems rather than on expensive end-of-pipe technologies. An analysis of a former civilization in the Amazon (nowadays Brazil) highlights the possibility to close the loop with a more sustainable lifestyle integrating soil fertility, food security, waste management, water protection and sanitation, renewable energy. Terra Preta do Indio is the anthropogenic black soil produced by ancient cultures through the conversion of bio-waste, fecal matter and charcoal into long-term fertile soils. These soils have maintained high amounts of organic carbon several thousand years after they were abandoned. Deriving from these concepts, Terra Preta Sanitation (TPS) has been re-developed and adopted. TPS includes urine diversion, addition of a charcoal mixture and is based on lactic-acid-fermentation with subsequent vermicomposting. Lacto-fermentation is a biological anaerobic process that generates a pre-stabilization of the mixture. The main advantage of lacto-fermentation is that no gas and no odor is produced. What makes it particularly interesting for in-house systems even in urban areas. Instead, vermicomposting is an aerobic decomposition process of the pre-digested materials by the combined action of earthworms and microorganisms. It transforms the carbon and nutrients into the deep black, fertile and stable soil that can be utilized in agriculture. No water, ventilation or external energy is required. Starting from ancient Amazonian civilizations traditional knowledge, the aim of this work is to present TPS systems adopted nowadays.


A membrane based treatment strategy was developed for the possible recycling of rinsing wastewater from indigo dyeing to the process itself. Performances of three different nanofiltration (NF) (NF 270 and NF 90, Dow Film Tech, USA and NF 99, Alfa Laval, Denmark) and two different reverse osmosis (RO) (HR 98 PP and CA 995 PE, Alfa Laval, Denmark) membranes were investigated with wastewater collected from the first post-rinsing tank of indigo dyeing process of a denim manufacturing plant. Dead-end microfiltration with a 5 µm filter was employed to remove coarse particles and minimize fouling of further NF and RO membranes. For NF and RO, a lab scale plate-and-frame membrane module was operated at a pressure of 5.07 bar and at a 0.62 m/s cross-flow velocity. The permeate quality from all the tested NF and RO membranes was acceptable for reuse in terms of COD and color. However, only the permeate from HR 98 PP RO and NF 90 membranes were with an acceptable conductivity. On the other hand, NF 270 membrane was superior to all the other NF and RO membranes in terms of the permeation rate. Flux declines obtained for all membranes were higher than 50% but fouling was not considerable and completely reversible. The good performance of NF 270 in terms of permeate quality (permeate conductivity, color, and COD values were 4.3 mS/cm, 8 Pt-Co, and 87 mg/L, respectively) together with a higher flux makes this membrane preferable over the other membranes to recycle denim textile rinsing wastewaters.


'Whatever Happened to Sex in Scandinavia?' is the title of the extended catalogue that follows the exhibition/project Whatever Happened to Sex in Scandinavia? held at Office for Contemporary Art Norway in 2008/09. This book constitutes the culmination of this project, reflecting and furthering its multiple areas of research and including the results of the archival and critical investigation, addressing the representation of Scandinavia as a sexually utopic territory constructed primarily during the 1960s and 70s in the rest of Europe and the US. The overall project investigates this representation, and analyses it in relation to the actual socio-political context in Scandinavia and a variety of cultural and artistic representations, both in Scandinavia and internationally. It does so by studying the theoretical underpinnings of this construction, the actual historical events and situation, and the cultural representations and interventions within this context.

'Whatever Happened to Sex in Scandinavia?' consists of an anthology of writings by different authors, including reprints of currently unavailable texts, translations into English of texts from other languages, and new commissions, with contributions by writers and theorists such as Herbert Marcuse, Susan Sontag, Jacqueline Rose, Henry Miller, Wilhelm Reich, Norman O. Brown, Elise Ottesen-Jensen, Daniel Guerin and Otto Weininger, and artists such as Claes Oldenburg, Stan Brakhage, Lee Lozano, Edvard Munch, Jonas Mekas, Thomas Bayrle, Paul Gernes, Paul Sharits, Carolee Schneemann and others, as well as material from periodicals and underground journals from the 1960s and 70s.


Elite athletes constantly search for the edge over their opponent (Applegate and Grivetti 1997). Indeed, athlete training and competition schedules have resulted in a need to fully recover rapidly from such sessions (Dawson, Gow et al. 2005; Cormack, Newton et al. 2008a; Cormack, Newton et al. 2008b; Elias, Varley et al. 2012; Elias, Wyckelsma et al. 2012; Mooney, Cormack et al. 2012). To overcome the stressors from training and competition, sports compression garments which offer low levels of compression, are commonly used to enhance recovery due to their ease of use, accessibility and affordability. Although a substantial body of research exists investigating compression garment use after a variety of exercise stimuli (Kraemer, Bush et al. 1998a; Kraemer, Bush et al. 1998b; Kraemer, Volek et al. 2000; Kraemer, Bush et al. 2001a; Kraemer, Bush et al. 2001b; Chatard, Atlaoui et al. 2004; Kraemer, French et al. 2004; Duffield and Portus 2007; Duffield, Edge et al. 2008; French, Thompson et al. 2008; Montgomery, Pyne et al. 2008a; Montgomery, Pyne et al. 2008b; Davies, Thompson et al. 2009; Duffield, Cannon et al. 2010; Jakeman, Byrne et al. 2010b; Jakeman, Byrne et al. 2010a; Kraemer, Flanagan et al. 2010; De Glanville and Hamlin 2012), their influence on perceptual, biochemical and performance recovery after actual team sport training and competition, where physical contact is a key component, is lacking. Further, the positive physiological actions of compression garments have mostly been established using a medical style garment, which typically exert a greater volume of compression, in clinical settings. Recent research has sought to determine performance, perceptual and physiological differences when wearing compression garments during exercise that offer varying levels of compression, where the level of compression (low, medium, or high) made no difference to performance or physiological measures (Ali, Creasy et al. 2011; Dascombe, Hoare et al. 2011). It remains unknown if differences in recovery, where the garment is worn exclusively post exercise, would occur between a sports (low level of compression) and medical (high level of compression) style garment in team sport scenarios. Thus this thesis investigated the influence of wearing compression garments on perceptual, biochemical and performance variables following repeat sprint exercise on consecutive days in recreationally trained individuals (Chapter 4); following elite Australian football (AF)training (Chapter 5) and competition (Chapter 6). It also included a comparison between a sports (Spo) and medical (Med) style compression garment. A magnitude based effects approach, using effect sizes and the smallest worthwhile change was used to analyse treatment effects.


SNX33 (sorting nexin 33) is a homologue of the endocytic protein SNX9 and has been implicated in actin polymerization and the endocytosis of the amyloid precursor protein. SNX33 belongs to the large family of BAR (Bin/amphiphysin/Rvs) domain-containing proteins, which alter cellular protein trafficking by modulating cellular membranes and the cytoskeleton. Some BAR domains engage in homodimerization, whereas other BAR domains also mediate heterodimerization between different BAR domain-containing proteins. The molecular basis for this difference is not yet understood. Using co-immunoprecipitations we report that SNX33 forms homodimers, but not heterodimers, with other BAR domain-containing proteins, such as SNX9. Domain deletion analysis revealed that the BAR domain, but not the SH3 (Src homology 3) domain, was required for homodimerization of SNX33. Additionally, the BAR domain prevented the heterodimerization between SNX9 and SNX33, as determined by domain swap experiments. Molecular modelling of the SNX33 BAR domain structure revealed that key amino acids located at the BAR domain dimer interface of the SNX9 homodimer are not conserved in SNX33. Replacing these amino acids in SNX9 with the corresponding amino acids of SNX33 allowed the mutant SNX9 to heterodimerize with SNX33. Taken together, the present study identifies critical amino acids within the BAR domains of SNX9 and SNX33 as determinants for the specificity of BAR domain-mediated interactions and suggests that SNX9 and SNX33 have distinct molecular functions.


In well-functioning domestic legal systems, courts provide a mechanism through which commitments and obligations are enforced. A party that fails to honor its obligations can be brought before a court and sanctioned through seizure of person or property. The international arena also has courts or, to expand the category somewhat, tribunals. These institutions, however, lack the enforcement powers of domestic courts. How, then, do they work, and how might they work better or worse? The first objective of this Article is to establish that the role of the tribunal is to promote compliance with some underlying substantive legal rule. This simple yet often-overlooked point provides a metric by which to measure the effectiveness of tribunals. But a tribunal does not operate in isolation. The use of a tribunal is one way to resolve a dispute, but reliance on diplomacy and other traditional tools of international relations is another. Furthermore, even if a case is filed with a tribunal, there may be settlement prior to a ruling and, even if there is a ruling, the losing party may refuse to comply. Understanding international tribunals, therefore, requires consideration of the entire range of possible outcomes to a dispute, including those that do not involve formal litigation. The second goal of this Article is to develop a rational-choice model of dispute resolution and tribunals that takes this reality into account. The third goal is to explore, based on the above model, various ftatures of international tribunals and identify those that increase effectiveness and those that reduce it. Finally, the Article applies the analysis to help us understand two prominent tribunals: the World Trade Organization's Appellate Body and the United Nations Human Rights Committee.


Zirconium based Metal-Organic Framework
UiO-66 is to date considered one of the benchmark compound among stable MOFs
and it has attracted a huge attention for its employment in many strategic
applications. Large scale production of UiO-66 for industrial purposes requires
the use of safe and green solvents, fulfilling the green chemistry principles
and able to replace the use of N,N-Dimethyl-Formamide (DMF), which,
despite its toxicity, is still considered the most efficient solvent for
obtaining UiO-66 of high quality. Herein we report on a survey of about 40
different solvents with different polarity, boiling point and acidity, used for
the laboratory scale synthesis of high quality UiO-66 crystals. The solvents
were chosen according the European REACH
Regulation 1907/2006 among those having low cost, low
toxicity and fully biodegradable. Concerning MOF synthesis, the relevant
parameters chosen for establishing the quality of the results obtained are the
degree are the crystallinity, microporosity and specific surface area,
yield and solvent recyclability. Taking into account also the chemical physical
properties of all the solvents, a color code was assigned in order to give a
final green assessment for the UiO-66 synthesis. Defectivity of the obtained products, the use
of acidic modulators and the use of alternative Zr-salts have been also taken
into consideration. Preliminary
results lead to conclude that GVL (γ-valerolactone) is among the most promising
solvents for replacing DMF in UiO-66 MOF synthesis.


What does the world admire most about America? Science, technology, higher education, consumer goods-but not, it seems, freedom and democracy. Indeed, these ideals are in global retreat, for reasons ranging from ill-conceived foreign policy to the financial crisis and the sophisticated propaganda of modern authoritarians. Another reason, explored for the first time in this pathbreaking book, is the distorted picture of freedom and democracy found in America's cultural exports. In interviews with thoughtful observers in eleven countries, Martha Bayles heard many objections to the violence and vulgarity pervading today's popular culture. But she also heard a deeper complaint: namely, that America no longer shares the best of itself. Tracing this change to the end of the Cold War, Bayles shows how public diplomacy was scaled back, and in-your-face entertainment became America's de facto ambassador. This book focuses on the present and recent past, but its perspective is deeply rooted in American history, culture, religion, and political thought. At its heart is an affirmation of a certain ethos-of hope for human freedom tempered with prudence about human nature-that is truly the aspect of America most admired by others. And its author's purpose is less to find fault than to help chart a positive path for the future.


We explored how inter- and intra-specific competition among larvae of two temporary-pool mosquito species, Culiseta longiareolata and Ochlerotatus caspius, affect larval developmental strategy and life history traits. Given that their larvae have similar feeding habits, we expected negative reciprocal inter-specific interactions. In a microcosm experiment, we found sex-specific responses of larval survival and development to both intra- and inter-specific larval competition. C. longiareolata was the superior competitor, reducing adult size and modifying larval developmental time of O. caspius. We observed two distinct waves of adult emergence in O. caspius, with clear sex-specific responses to its inter-specific competitor. In males, this pattern was not affected by C. longiareolata, but in females, the timing and average body size of the second wave strongly varied with C. longiareolata density. Specifically, in the absence of C. longiareolata, the second wave immediately followed the first wave. However, as C. longiareolata abundance increased, the second wave was progressively delayed and the resulting females tended to be larger. This study improves our understanding of the way intra- and inter-specific competition combine to influence the life histories of species making up temporary pond communities. It also provides strong evidence that not all individuals of a cohort employ the same strategies in response to competition.


The competitive success of organizations is heavily dependent on the quality of leadership within those organizations. Among the growing list of skills required for effective leadership is the need for leaders to promote the deployment of effective teams in the workplace. There are numerous strategies and methods that have been utilized to prepare future leaders to meet the challenge of developing and promoting high performance teams in the workplace. This idea brief summarizes one approach developed by faculty for a new course in a graduate management/leadership program titled, "Leading and Developing High Performance Teams." The approach summarized in this article includes a hypothetical/fictional mini-case that was developed specifically for the purpose of meeting course objectives related to the identification of issues/challenges related to virtual teams, as well as diversity in teams. The mini-case is followed by some proposed questions that will accompany the case. A sample of acceptable responses is also provided.


Situated in an emirate's farming industry, this ethnographic study develops a framework to help bridge the existing knowledge gap about what and how local contexts interact with emerging technology, RFID in particular. Findings suggest that numerous local factors pertaining to the researched emirate's unique environmental, project, cultural, and societal/political contexts shape and/or are reshaped by RFID implementation. For example, geographic landscape demands systems modification and device adaptation; religious custom increases project difficulty, and the systems, in turn, requires changes in certain religious practice; the notion of social sustainability establishes objectives for RFID project, while the latter helps reshape social welfare systems. As these local factors have rarely been empirically examined, my framework can help contribute to future RFID implementation in different local contexts. More specifically, insights gained urge stakeholders involved to carefully manage unique factors of the emirate or similar contexts for intended RFID projects. The findings also suggest that stakeholders should be aware of RFID's reshaping effects on the local context particularly because those effects might be unexpected.


Open content has the potential to change the playing field when it comes to every individual's right to education. Development of new course content is both expensive and time consuming and open content can help educational organizations to deal with these problems by offering free‐to‐use educational resources. Despite the benefits of open content the usage is very low in developing countries and understanding why content developers choose not to use open content is the first step towards finding a solution to the problem. Which inhibiting factors for reuse do content developers in developing countries experience with open content? To answer the question interviews, questionnaires and observations have been made with content developers from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and from UNESCO Open Training Platform. Findings show that many of the inhibiting factors with reuse of open content do not necessarily relate to the actual content. Educational rules and regulations, lack of infrastructure, teaching practices and traditions etc. are major obstacles that need to be overcome if the usage of open content should increase.


The challenges which modern hotel businesses are called upon to address within a constantly changing globalized world, with rapid technological developments that dictate new corporate governance models, render the strategic analysis of competition necessary for their growth. This study views competition as one of the fundamental parameters when implementing holistic strategic management in a business, in an effort to give it a competitive edge, with special emphasis on how this is reflected on the business's performance. Our study focuses on tourism businesses where competition and competitive forces attract special interest.


Will it be possible to create a self-aware and reasoning entity that has the capacity for decision making similar to that we ascribe to human beings? Modern agent systems, although used today in various applications wherever intelligence is required, are not ready for applications where human rationalities are usually the only option in making important decisions in critical or sensitive situations. This thesis is a contribution to this area: a decision-making methodology is introduced to address the different characteristics that an agent should have in order to be better trusted with such critical decisions. The work begins with a study of philosophy in the literature (Chapter 2), which reveals that trust is based on emotions and faith in performance. The study concludes that a trustworthy decision has five main elements: it considers options and their likely effects; it predicts how the environment and other agents will react to decisions; it accounts for short- and long-term goals through planning; it accounts for uncertainties and working with incomplete information; and, finally, it considers emotional factors and their effects. The first four elements address decision making as a product of "beliefs"; the last addresses it as a product of "emotions". A complete discussion of these elements is provided in Section 2.1. This thesis is divided into two main parts: the first treats trust as a product of beliefs and the second treats trust as a product of emotions. The first part builds the decision-making methodology based on argumentation through a five-step approach where first the problem situation representing the actions available to the agent and their likely consequences is formulated. Next, arguments to perform these actions are constructed by instantiating an argumentation scheme designed to justify actions in terms of the values and goals they promote. These arguments are then subjected to a series of critical questions to identify possible counter arguments so that all the options and their weaknesses have been identified. Preferences are accommodated by organising the resulting arguments into an Argumentation Framework (we use Value-Based Argumentation [VAF] for this approach). Arguments acceptable to the agents will be identified through the ranking of the agent's values, which may differ from agent to agent. In the second part (Chapters 5 and 6), this methodology is extended to account for emotions. Emotions are generated based on whether other agents relevant to the situation support or frustrate the agent's goals and values; the emotional attitude toward the other agents then influences the ranking of the agent's values and, hence, influences the decision. In Chapters 4 and 6, the methodology is illustrated through an example study. This example has been implemented and tested on a software program. The experimental data and some screen shots are also given in the appendix.


Contrastive self-supervised learning (CSL) has attracted increasing attention for model pre-training via unlabeled data. The resulted CSL models provide instance-discriminative visual features that are uniformly scattered in the feature space. During deployment, the common practice is to directly fine-tune CSL models with cross-entropy, which however may not be the best strategy in practice. Although cross-entropy tends to separate inter-class features, the resulting models still have limited capability for reducing intra-class feature scattering that exists in CSL models. In this paper, we investigate whether applying contrastive learning to fine-tuning would bring further benefits, and analytically find that optimizing the contrastive loss benefits both discriminative representation learning and model optimization during fine-tuning. Inspired by these findings, we propose Contrast-regularized tuning (Core-tuning), a new approach for fine-tuning CSL models. Instead of simply adding the contrastive loss to the objective of fine-tuning, Core-tuning further applies a novel hard pair mining strategy for more effective contrastive fine-tuning, as well as smoothing the decision boundary to better exploit the learned discriminative feature space. Extensive experiments on image classification and semantic segmentation verify the effectiveness of Core-tuning.


In 2009, Singapore began replacing the British-based specialist training that constituted its postgraduate medical education with a United States-based Residency program, which is more structured. Singapore is the first country outside the United States to be accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education — International (ACGME-I). This paper reviews the recent changes in the context of the Pediatrics program at the KK Women's and Children's Hospital, one of the five specialties chosen to launch the new residency programs. Most of the changes were made for accreditation purposes, so as to align with the requirements set by ACGME-I; however, local content and Ministry of Health (MOH) stipulations were also taken into account when designing the new pedagogical and training curriculum. Areas discussed include faculty numbers and development, concurrent training of trainees from the previous system, selection of residents, resident training, resident duty hours, mentors, curriculum, rotations, continuity clinics, scholarly activity, postgraduate exams, remediation, and chief residents.


The Asset Management in Planning and Operations Peer Exchange was held on September 7-8, 2004. It was sponsored by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and hosted by the Transportation Research Board (TRB). Asset Management (AM) in planning and operations was selected as the peer exchange focus because of the expanding role of AM as a comprehensive approach to managing agency resources and transportation systems. In addition, the benefits associated with the application of AM principles underscored AM as an area of critical importance to the transportation field. The goal of the AM peer exchange was to gather additional information about the state of the practice and to identify research needs and potential areas for innovation. Lance Neumann, Cambridge Systematics, Inc., began the peer exchange with a brief overview of available AM resources and observations from state department of transportation (DOT) implementation of AM. Kirk Steudle, Michigan DOT, gave an update on the AASHTO subcommittee on Asset Management. Peer exchange participants applauded the efforts of the AASHTO subcommittee but encouraged the inclusion of cities, counties, and metropolitan planning organizations in the effort to expand the adoption of AM practices. Dave Geiger, FHWA Office of Asset Management, discussed recent efforts to further integrate AM principles into existing FHWA offices and reported on the FHWA-supported AM education efforts. Finally, Sue McNeil, University of Illinois at Chicago, reported on recent TRB Asset Management Committee activities. This report serves to document and further distribute the insights raised during the meeting. To facilitate discussion, each participant was asked to answer a set of questions before coming to the peer exchange. The participant answers to the AM questions are contained in Section 2 of this report along with a summary of the written responses. Section 3 presents the key themes discussed, notable agency accomplishments, and potential areas for innovation. The appendix contains a list of peer exchange attendees.


This sixth report in BCEC's Focus on the States series will examine the way in which the organisation of work is changing – from workforces to workplaces – and the implications of these changes for Australia. The organisation of work is changing. With alternative forms of employment, freelancing and the gig economy on the rise, the traditional notion of holding down a steady job or two for an entire career is receding fast. And as new technologies and automation take over some of the tasks previously performed by human labour, and industries move offshore, the service sector continues to forge ahead as the major player in the future of work. But are we placing too much emphasis on technology and not enough on the quality of jobs that we should strive to create in the workplaces of the future? Is now the time for workers to return to education and begin re-skilling? What kinds of careers can our children expect and where should they focus their education?


The construction of large pipeline infrastructures for CH4, CO2 and H2 transportation usually constitutes a major and time-consuming undertaking, because of safety and environmental issues, legal and (geo)political siting arguments, technically un-trivial installation processes, and/or high investment cost requirements. In this paper we focus on the latter and present an overview of both the total costs and cost components of the transmission of these three gases via pipelines. Possible intricacies and external factors that strongly influence these costs, like the choice of location and terrain, are also included in our analysis. Our cost breakdown estimates are based on transportation data for CH4, which we adjust for CO2 and H2 in order to account for the specific additional characteristics of these two gases. Our main finding is that the economics of CH4, CO2 and H2 transportation through pipelines are volatile. In particular for CH4 and CO2 the overall trend seems that pipeline construction costs have not decreased over recent decades or, at least, that possible reductions in overall costs have been outshadowed by the variability in the costs of key inputs. We speculate on the reasons why we observe limited learning-by-doing effects and expect that negligible construction cost reductions for future CH4 and CO2 pipeline projects will materialize. Cost data of individual pipeline projects may strongly deviate from the global average because of national or regional effects, such as related to varying costs of labor and fluctuating market prices of components like steel. We conclude that only in an optimistic scenario we may observe learning effects for H2 pipeline construction activity in the future, but there are currently insufficient data to fully support the limited evidence for this claim, so that the uncertainty of this prediction for now remains


Effective treatments and animal models for the most prevalent neurodegenerative form of blindness in the elderly, called age-related macular degeneration (AMD), are lacking. Genome-wide association studies have identified lipid metabolism and inflammation as AMD-associated pathogenic pathways. Given liver x receptors, encoded by NR1H3 and NR1H2, are master regulators of these pathways, herein we investigated the role of LXR in human and mouse eyes as a function of age and disease, and tested the therapeutic potential of targeting LXR. We identified immunopositive LXR fragments in human extracellular early dry AMD lesions and a decrease in LXR expression within the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) as a function of age. Aged mice, lacking LXR presented with isoform dependent ocular pathologies. Specifically, loss of the Nr1h3 isoform results in pathobiologies aligned with AMD, supported by compromised visual function, accumulation of native and oxidized lipids in the outer retina, and upregulation of ocular inflammatory cytokines, while absence of Nr1h2 is associated with ocular lipoidal degeneration. Therapeutically, LXR activation, ameliorated lipid accumulation and oxidant-induced injury in RPE cells in vitro, and decreased ocular inflammatory markers and lipid deposition in a mouse model, in vivo, providing translational support for pursuing LXR-active pharmaceuticals as potential therapies for dry AMD.


This qualitative case study examined interactions, the effect of instructional strategies on interactions, participant attitudes, and perceptions that occurred during two courses taught via interactive videoconferencing in higher education. Analysis of coded observational data, field notes, and interviews with students and instructors provided insights about the distance learning environment. Using an interaction model, the classroom interactions were grouped into the following categories: (a) learner-content, (b) learnerins true tor, (c) learner-learner, and (d) leamerinterface. Results showed that learner-instructor and learner-learner interactions were highest during classes which were organized as discussion sessions with specific guidelines for the content and the nature of questions on which the dialog would focus. Several instructor strategies appeared to increase interactions with the students at the remote site. Statements of praise and acceptance of student ideas and the use of questions that required the learners to synthesize and draw conclusions rather than simply recall information were effective in soliciting responses. Humanizing the ix Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. students ' learning experiences by using their names and relevant personal experiences increased participation. Use of visual realia and well-designed textual visuals provided a scaffold for connecting the students with course content and facilitated dialog. A strategy that proved to be minimal in effectiveness was the use of peer presentations. During these presentations, fewer interactions occurred and more off-task behaviors were observed. A major determinant of effectiveness in the distance learning classroom is the expertise of the instructor to present content information and elicit student participation. Learner-instruetor interactions were impaired by limitations of the technology. Students at the remote site reported feelings of isolation when excluded from informal conversations at the local site. Both instructors and students indicated that the technology created a barrier to spontaneity and the ability to read facial expressions and other physical cues. A mediator located at one remote site helped reduce transactional distance by manipulating the cameras and helping learners to interface with the technology. This assistance allowed the instructor to focus more attention on teaching and engaging students x Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. with content information. Additionally, the mediator facilitated student participation through modeling and encouragement. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Chapter


For the greater part of the 20th century, mainstream economists viewed negative externalities as a prima facie justification for government intervention in the market (see Bator 1958). Absent such government action, they argued, nothing would be done to prevent or remedy the damages suffered by third parties as a result of unrestrained "spillovers" or "neighborhood effects." For example, in the words of Joseph Stiglitz (1988: 76), "without government intervention there would be an underprovision of pollution control." Even such staunch defenders of the market as Milton Friedman (1962: 30) and F. A. Hayek (1979: 43-45) conceded that spillovers might justify government intervention, although they embraced neither the "blackboard economics" conclusion that government intervention is desirable and effective in all cases of spillovers nor the "nirvana" standard implicit in Stiglitz's use of the orthodox term "underprovision." Not until the argument of Ronald Coase's 1960 article "The Problem of Social Cost" began to penetrate the profession's understanding did economists start to appreciate how private contracting--usually viewed as property-right creations or exchanges of various sorts--might be employed to prevent or remedy negative externalities without any government intervention to impose regulation, taxes, or subsidies. Gradually, a literature has developed in which an assortment of cases--private construction and maintenance of lighthouses (Coase 1974), private provision of bee-pollination services (Cheung 1973), private policing (Benson 1994), private provision of highways (Klein 1990, Benson 1994, Klein and Yin 1996), private management of coastal development (Rinehart and Pompe 1997), private improvement of riverine water-quality (Yandle 2004), private indemnification of losses from cattle disease spread by drovers (Anderson and Hill 2004: 147)--illustrates the voluntary internalization of externalities (both positive and negative) in history. Even now, however, more than 40 years after the publication of Coase's landmark article, economists and economic historians continue to learn about important cases of private contracting to allay pollution problems and, in particular, about the variety of means that private contractors have employed to organize themselves for this purpose and to carry it out. In the present article, I relate the history of an important and little-known case, the voluntary measures that mine, mill, and smelter operators undertook in the Coeur d'Alene mining district beginning at the turn of the 20th century. These parties not only purchased existing private property rights specifically in order to internalize negative externalies, but they engaged in creative organizational and technological innovation to achieve the same end. They did not do so, however, merely out of the goodness of their hearts. The interplay between legal and political proceedings, on the one hand, and the operators' "internalization" projects, on the other hand, lies at the heart of the story. The Fabulous Coeur d'Alene The Coeur d'Alene mining district is located in the Idaho panhandle approximately 300 miles east of Seattle and 70 miles east of Spokane. Mining began there after the discovery of gold near the North Fork of the Coeur d'Alene River in 1883 kindled a gold rush that brought thousands of people in search of quick riches. The town of Murray sprang up, "a city a half a mile long" that "had its own lawyers, doctors, gamblers, and women of ill repute" ("Coeur D'Alene Mining District" 1998). By 1885 the rush had subsided, but gold mining continued near Murray for decades afterward. As prospectors fanned out from the original gold rush on the North Fork, they discovered mineral deposits rich in silver, lead, and zinc near the South Fork of the river in 1884, and those deposits became the basis for the development of one of the world's greatest mining districts, known nowadays as the Silver Valley (Ojala 1972: 6-8; Bennett, Siems, and Constantopoulos 1989: 145; Bennett 1994: 6). …


The goal of this research was to investigate whether there has been a whole-genome duplication (WGD) in the ancestry of Sphagnum (peatmoss) or the class Sphagnopsida, and to determine if the timing of any such duplication(s) and patterns of paralog retention could help explain the rapid radiation and current ecological dominance of peatmosses. RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) data were generated for nine taxa in Sphagnopsida (Bryophyta). Analyses of frequency plots for synonymous substitutions per synonymous site (Ks ) between paralogous gene pairs and reconciliation of 578 gene trees were conducted to assess evidence of large-scale or genome-wide duplication events in each transcriptome. Both Ks frequency plots and gene tree-based analyses indicate multiple duplication events in the history of the Sphagnopsida. The most recent WGD event predates divergence of Sphagnum from the two other genera of Sphagnopsida. Duplicate retention is highly variable across species, which might be best explained by local adaptation. Our analyses indicate that the last WGD could have been an important factor underlying the diversification of peatmosses and facilitated their rise to ecological dominance in peatlands. The timing of the duplication events and their significance in the evolutionary history of peat mosses are discussed.


How difficult is it for patients having oral ulcers to get diagnosed?. Int. J. Odontostomat., 15(4) :823-826, 2021. ˚ ABSTRACT: Oral ulcers cause high levels of impairment of the patients' quality of life. Therefore, patients having oral ulcers visit clinicians while seeking treatment. This study aims to investigate the extent of patients' suffering till reaching the correct clinician specialty, and therefore, proper diagnosis and treatment. The study included 62 diagnosed oral ulcer patients. They filled a questionnaire about previously visited clinicians and their specialties, causes of their referral and Oral Health Impact Profile-14 indicating their quality of life. The study revealed that participants visit a mean number of 2.93 clinicians before reaching a specialist. Furthermore, the number of the visited clinicians was positively correlated to the impact of the oral ulcer on quality of life. The study reflects the degree of unnecessary suffering of patients having oral ulcers due to unnecessary delay of diagnosis. It, thereby, highlights the necessity for higher awareness about Oral Medicine specialty among medical practitioners and among general population as well.


The majority of South African attorneys do not enjoy the benefits that may be derived from the marketing and advertising of their services. They seem to be unaware or do not make use of marketing and advertising opportunities to promote their firms and the services they render. The lack of marketing knowledge, ignorance of the value of advertising, as well as the perception that advertising will cause unnecessary costs, are reasons why many legal firms are not marketing oriented. This paper reports the results of an empirical study done to determine the role of marketing and advertising in the legal profession in South Africa. JEL M37


The tick Boophilus microplus contains a nucleoside phosphate-hydrolysing enzyme which, in many respects, resembles the well characterized 5'-nucleotidase from mammalian tissue. The tick enzyme has been purified to homogeneity. It is a membrane-bound glycoprotein with an apparent Mr of 67,000 and, although it fails to hydrolyse a range of nucleoside 2'- or 3'-monophosphates, it has broad specificity for the 5' derivatives. Further investigation of the enzyme's substrate specificity, however, shows some important differences from the mammalian nucleotidases. It hydrolyses both bis-p-nitrophenyl phosphate and p-nitrophenyl phenylphosphonate, typical substrates for phosphodiesterases. However, the tick enzyme is most strikingly different from the mammalian enzymes in that it hydrolyses not only AMP but ADP and ATP as well. Further, the products of the hydrolysis of ATP are adenosine and tripolyphosphate, a reaction which has not been reported previously. The products of ADP hydrolysis are adenosine and pyrophosphate.


OBJECTIVE: To determine the barriers to adopting preventive oral health procedures in medical primary care. METHODS: Medical providers who participated in a Medicaid demonstration in North Carolina completed questionnaires reporting their experiences with providing preventive dental services for children from birth to 3 years of age. Eleven factors were established as possible obstacles to the adoption of an oral health program. After 12 months of participation in the Into the Mouths of Babes training program, providers (N = 231) from 49 pediatric practices and 28 family physician practices reported if any of the 11 factors had been an obstacle to adoption and, if so, whether these obstacles were overcome. Program adoption and implementation, defined as providing all of the services on a regular basis, were predicted by using logistic regression to analyze the responses from providers who reported 1 or more barriers, the number of barriers identified (knowledge, attitudes, and external factors), and the number that were overcome. RESULTS: Program-adoption rates were high, with 70.3% of the participants providing dental services on a routine basis. Attitude and external factors were positively associated with adoption, particularly with difficulty in applying the varnish, integration of the dental procedures into practice, resistance among staff and colleagues, and dentist referral difficulties. From 40.4% to 61.5% of providers overcame these 4 most common barriers. Those who reported external barriers and were unable to overcome them were less likely to provide the services, compared with those providers who reported no barriers (odds ratio: 0.08 [95% confidence interval: 0.01–0.44]). CONCLUSIONS: The number of barriers to adopting preventive dental procedures in primary care medical practices is associated with implementation. A large proportion of these barriers can be overcome, leading to high adoption rates in a short amount of time. The barriers to adoption are similar to those identified in the literature on changing patient care, with the unique aspects of fluoride application to teeth. Interventions to promote preventive dental care in medical settings should rely heavily on empirical literature. Training physicians in preventive dentistry should identify and target potential barriers with information and options for introducing office-based systems to improve the chances of adoption.


In 2004, the State Department gathered more than a thousand interviews from refugees in Chad that substantiated Colin Powell's UN and congressional testimonies about the Darfur genocide. The survey cost nearly a million dollars to conduct, and yet it languished in the archives as the killing continued, claiming hundreds of thousands of murder and rape victims and restricting several million survivors to camps. This book for the first time fully examines that survey and its heartbreaking accounts. It documents the Sudanese government's enlistment of Arab Janjaweed militias in destroying Black African communities. The central questions are these: Why is the United States so ambivalent about genocide? Why do so many scholars deemphasize racial aspects of genocide? How can the science of criminology advance understanding and protection against genocide? This book gives a vivid firsthand account and voice to the survivors of genocide in Darfur.


In NRA v. City of Chicago, Judge Easterbrook held that the Second Amendment, which protects the right to keep and bear arms, did not bind state governments. This article examines the reasoning that he uses to reach that result, which it contrasts with the style of argumentation that led to the opposite conclusion in Judge O'Scannlain's decision in Norkdye v. King. Easterbrook's approach emphasized the imperative need for lower court deference to the Supreme Court's explicit Reconstruction Era holdings that the Second Amendment does not bind the states, even after the Supreme Court's game-changing decision in District of Columbia v. Heller and thus gave only scant attention to the various historical authorities that O'Scannlain referred to in Nordyke. On balance it appears that Easterbrook is against incorporation on a variety of historical and federalism grounds, none of which are likely to prevail when the Supreme Court addresses the issue of incorporation when it hears the case later in the 2009 October Term.


This paper deals with a so-far unnoticed phenomenon in prosodic phonology, which we dub prosodic smothering. Prosodic smothering arises when the prosodic status of a clitic or affix varies with the presence or absence of some outer morpheme. We first illustrate prosodic smothering with novel data from two genetically unrelated languages, Macedonian (Slavic) and Kaqchikel (Mayan). We then provide a unified account of the prosodic smothering based on a principled extension of the theory of prosodic subcategorization (Inkelas 1990, Peperkamp 1997, Chung 2003, Yu 2003, Paster 2006, Bye 2007, among others). Prosodic subcategorization typically involves requirements placed on items to the left or the right of the selecting morpheme. We show that prosodic smothering naturally emerges in a theory which also allows for subcategorization in the vertical dimension, such that morphemes may select for the prosodic category which immediately dominates them in surface prosodic structure. This extension successfully reduces two apparent cases of non-local prosodic conditioning to the effects of strictly local prosodic selection.


[1] We present a model study of carbon monoxide for 1988–1997 using the GEOS-Chem 3-D model driven by assimilated meteorological data, with time-varying emissions from biomass burning and from fossil fuel and industry, overhead ozone columns, and methane. The hydroxyl radical is calculated interactively using a chemical parameterization to capture chemical feedbacks. We document the inventory for fossil fuels/industry and discuss major uncertainties and the causes of differences with other inventories that give significantly lower emissions. We find that emissions hardly change from 1988 to 1997, as increases in Asia are offset by decreases elsewhere. The model reproduces the 20% decrease in CO at high northern latitudes and the 10% decrease in the North Pacific, caused primarily by the decrease in European emissions. The model compares well with observations at sites impacted by fossil fuel emissions from North America, Europe, and east Asia suggesting that the emissions from this source are reliable to 25%, and we argue that bottom-up emission estimates are likely to be too low rather than too high. The model is too low at the seasonal maximum in spring in the southern tropics, except for locations in the Atlantic Ocean. This problem may be caused by an overestimate of the frequency of tropical deep convection, a common problem in models that use assimilated meteorological data. We argue that the yield of CO from methane oxidation is near unity, contrary to some other studies, based on removal rates of intermediate species.


Xenopus oocytes expressing human aquaporin-7 (AQP7) exhibit greater osmotic water permeability and 3H-glycerol uptake vs. those expressing the bacterial glycerol facilitator GlpF. AQP7-expressing oocytes exposed to increasing extracellular [glycerol] under isosmolal conditions exhibit increasing swelling rates, whereas GlpF-expressing oocytes do not swell at all. To provide a structural basis for these observed physiological differences, we performed X-ray crystallographic structure determination of AQP7 and molecular-dynamics simulations on AQP7 and GlpF. The structure reveals AQP7 tetramers containing two monomers with 3 glycerols, and two monomers with 2 glycerols in the pore. In contrast to GlpF, no glycerol is bound at the AQP7 selectivity filter (SF), comprising residues F74, G222, Y223, and R229. The AQP7 SF is resolved in its closed state because F74 blocks the passage of small solutes. Molecular dynamics simulations demonstrate that F74 undergoes large and rapid conformational changes, allowing glycerol molecules to permeate without orientational restriction. The more rigid GlpF imposes orientational constraints on glycerol molecules passing through the SF. Moreover, GlpF-W48 (analogous to AQP7-F74) undergoes rare but long-lasting conformational changes that block the pore to H2O and glycerol.


We assessed the effect of parental loss during childhood on the development of psychopathology in 90 adults. The subjects with a history of adult psychopathology (PATH group), in comparison with subjects with no history of a psychiatric disorder (NO PATH group), had poorer quality of childhood home life and personal adaptation subsequent to parental loss as assessed by the Home Life and Personal Adaptation (HAPA) scale developed by us. Total HAPA scale scores were the single most powerful predictor of adult psychopathology, accounting for correct prediction of adult psychopathology in 80% (72/90) of the subjects. The PATH subjects had significantly increased plasma levels of cortisol and beta-endorphin immunoreactivity. Moreover, cortisol and adrenocorticotropic hormone levels significantly correlated with total HAPA scores. First-degree family history of psychiatric disorders, age at loss, and parental vs maternal loss were not significantly different between PATH and NO PATH subjects. We conclude that the quality of home life subsequent to early parental loss is critically related to the development of adult psychopathology. The hypothesis that early trauma results in enduring neuroendocrine alterations in hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis function is examined.


AIMS
We explored the in vivo effects of knockdown of caldesmon on vascular development in zebrafish.

METHODS AND RESULTS
We investigated the effects of caldesmon knockdown on the vascular development in a zebrafish model with special attention for the trunk and head vessels including the aortic arches. We examined the developing fishes at various time points. The vascular abnormalities observed in the caldesmon morphants were morphologically and functionally characterized in detail in fixed and living embryos. The knockdown of caldesmon caused serious defects in vasculogenesis and angiogenesis in zebrafish morphants, and the vascular integrity and blood circulation were concomitantly impaired.

CONCLUSION
The data provide the first functional assessment of the role of caldesmon in vascular development in vivo, indicating that this molecule plays a crucial role in vasculogenesis and angiogenesis in vivo. Interfering with caldesmon opens new therapeutic avenues for anti-angiogenesis in cancer and ischaemic cardiovascular disease.


In the fragile and uncertain environment of arid and semi-arid area, camel plays a crucial role as a primary source of livelihood for pastoralists and agro-pastoralists. However, pastoral and agro-pastoralists in developing countries including Ethiopia are marginalized and generally not given due consideration in wider social-political analysis, although the camel and camel milk had been victim of neglect by policy, research and development under the livestock subsector. Therefore, this study is initiated with providing information on camel milk production and marketing though chain analysis and multiple linear regression model in agro-pastoral and pastoral area of Easter Ethiopia as such information would be useful to develop policy which is based on evidence.

 Key words: Camel milk, agro-pastoral, fermented milk, lactation period.


We discuss the generation, wavelength-division-multiplexed (WDM) long-haul transmission, and coherent detection of 112-Gb/s polarization-division-multiplexed (PDM) 16-ary quadrature amplitude modulation (16-QAM) at a line rate of 14 Gbaud and spectral efficiencies beyond 4 b/s/Hz. We describe the (off-line) digital signal processing and blind filter adaptation algorithms used in our intradyne receiver and characterize its performance using both simulated and measured 16-QAM waveforms. We measure a required optical signal-to-noise ratio of 20.2 dB (0.1-nm reference bandwidth; 10-3 bit-error ratio), 3.2-dB off the theoretical limit. We study the effects of finite analog-to-digital converter resolution, laser frequency offset, laser phase noise, and narrowband optical filtering. Our experiments on a 25-GHz WDM grid (4.1-b/s/Hz spectral efficiency) reveal a 1-dB penalty after 7 passes though reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers (ROADMs) and an achievable transmission reach of 1022 km of uncompensated standard single-mode fiber. At a spectral efficiency of 6.2 b/s/Hz (16.67-GHz WDM channel spacing) a transmission reach of 630 km is attained.