ABSTRACT
Water-soluble inorganic ions (WSII), organic carbon (OC) and elemental carbon (EC), and metals in the residue of the water-soluble fraction were studied in fine (PM2.5) and coarse (PM2.5-10) particles during winter over two urban cities, Amritsar (AMS) and New Delhi (DEL), in northern India. The PM2.5/PM2.5-10 mass ratios at DEL and AMS were 3.6 and 2.79, respectively. ∑WSIIs was nearly 25% of the total mass in two size fractions and was higher in PM2.5 than PM2.5-10 at both sites. The secondary ions SO42− and NH4+ were dominant at both sites. The adsorption of fine particles onto larger ones may be a possible source of soluble ions in PM2.5-10. SO42− and NO3− were neutralized by NH4+, and the formation of (NH4)2SO4 dominated over NH4NO3 in PM2.5, and by Ca2+ in PM2.5-10 over DEL. Coal burning, and agricultural and livestock emissions were potential sources of precursor gases of SO42− and NH4+. Plastic burning and the brick kiln industry contributed Cl− in the PM2.5. OC dominated over EC above both sites, and the total carbon (OC + EC) was higher over AMS than DEL. Emissions from low-temperature rather than high temperature combustion processes were dominant, as indicated by the higher quantity of char-EC than soot-EC. OC, EC, and K+ resulted from biomass burning over AMS, whereas they originated in multiple sources over DEL. The Al normalized ratios of elements in the samples compared to the crust were higher in PM2.5 than PM2.5-10. Fe, Ti, and Mn ratios of 0.5 indicated the spatial heterogeneity in the particle chemistry between the two sites. To improve the air quality and safeguard human health, biomass burning and the re-suspension of dust must be restricted.


Abstract In this study we investigate the active constituents of the rhizome of Zingiber officinale, Roscoe (ginger) and determine their activity on glucose uptake in cultured L6 myotubes and the molecular mechanism underlying this action. Freeze-dried ginger powder was extracted with ethyl acetate (1 kg/3 L) to give the total ginger extract, which was then separated into seven fractions, consisting of nonpolar to moderately polar compounds, using a short-column vacuum chromatographic method. The most active fraction (F7) was further purified for identification of its active components. The effect of the extract, fractions, and purified compounds on glucose uptake was evaluated using radioactive labelled 2-[1,2-3H]-deoxy-D-glucose in L6 myotubes. The pungent phenolic gingerol constituents were identified as the major active compounds in the ginger extract enhancing glucose uptake. (S)-[6]-Gingerol was the most abundant component among the gingerols, however, (S)-[8]-gingerol was the most potent on glucose uptake. The activity of (S)-[8]-gingerol was found to be associated primarily with an increase in surface distribution of GLUT4 protein on the L6 myotube plasma membrane, as detected by expression of hemagglutinin epitope-tagged GLUT4 in L6 muscle cells. The enhancement of glucose uptake in L6 rat skeletal muscle cells by the gingerol pungent principles of the ginger extract supports the potential of ginger and its pungent components for the prevention and management of hyperglycemia and type 2 diabetes.


On agricultural lands, animal waste disposal as fertilizer has been practiced since the beginning of agriculture. However, the practice has been an environmental concern in recent years due to over disposal of animal waste in some instances. This study evaluated soil NO 3 response to beef-manure application on a corn (Zea mays L.) field and tested the Root Zone Water Quality Model (RZWQM) for manure management. The experiment site was located in Northeastern Colorado on a silage-corn field with a history of fertilization with beef manure every fall after corn harvest. To study the residual effect of long-term manure application, 582 kg ha -1 of manure-N was applied to the east side of the field in the Fall of 1993, 1994, and 1995, while the west side received manure in 1993 only. Average silage-corn yields from the west site were 25.4, 31.9, and 22.5 Mg ha -1 for 1994, 1995, and 1996, respectively, which were not significantly different from that harvested from the east site (25.1, 30.9, and 24.3 Mg ha -1 , respectively). Average soil NO 3 concentrations decreased significantly from 14.9 to 8.5 mg N kg -1 in the top 30 cm of soil, and from 5.4 to 3.7 mg N kg -1 in the 30- to 60-cm soil profile after stopping manure application. No significant difference in soil NO 3 concentrations between the manured and not-manured sites was found below 60 cm. Average plant N uptake ranged from 140 to 362 kg N ha -1 and was not significantly different between the two sites. The RZWQM was calibrated on the basis of the measured silage-corn yield and plant N uptake, and was then used to predict soil NO 3 concentration and total water storage in the soil profile. Generally, the calibrated model provided adequate predictions for both NO 3 and soil water content with r 2 > 0.83. The model was further used to evaluate alternative scenarios of manure and water management.


The fringe-vector theory of holographic strain analysis was applied experimentally to determine strain and rotation tensors of rotated and deformed objects. One object was supported in a specially designed positioner, and the other was heated internally with a temperature controlled device. The rigid body motions and deformations were determined directly from the fringes that were observed on the surface of the object. This was done by taking photographs of the virtual image of the object from several different directions through the same hologram; the photographs were digitized manually, and the parameters obtained were, in turn, analyzed using a computer. The strains and rotations determined experimentally from holograms compared satisfactorily with the theoretical ones.


The seismic activity in Peru has its origin in the convergence process between the Nazca and South American plates. Such convergence takes place at an average speed on the order of 7–8 cm/year (DeMets et al. 1980; Norabuena et al. 1999). This process is responsible for the offshore earthquakes with depths smaller than 60 km that take place off the coast of Peru (Dorbath et al. 1990; Tavera and Buforn 2001), which are all associated with seismogenic contact. Moderate to large earthquakes occur on average at a rate of more than 60 per year and usually affect the towns near their epicenters. Earthquakes of larger magnitude ( Mw > 7.0) have produced significant damage over broad areas, such as the event that occurred in southern Peru on 23 June 2001 ( Mw = 8.2), which affected an area of 370 × 70 km2 between the towns of Atico (Arequipa) and Ilo (Moquegua) (Tavera et al. 2006).

The earthquake that is the subject of this article occurred on 15 August 2007 with a magnitude of Mw 7.9 and was named "the Pisco earthquake" because its epicenter was located 60 km west of Pisco city. The earthquake produced significant damage in Pisco city (approximately 80% of all structures) and minor damage in nearby towns, and it was assigned an approximate intensity of VII–VIII on the Modified Mercalli Intensity (MMI) scale in Pisco city. The epicenter of the Pisco earthquake and its aftershocks were located between the rupture areas of the 1974 Lima earthquake (Mw 7.5) and the 1996 Nazca earthquake (Mw 7.7). The earthquake also produced a tsunami, which originated south of the epicenter in the Paracas Peninsula. Focal mechanisms for these earthquakes generally correspond to reverse motion with nodal planes oriented in a NNW-SSE direction and near horizontal plane …


A growing body of evidence suggests that it is unwise to make the a-priori assumption that university students are ready and eager to embrace modern online technologies employed to enhance the educational experience. We present our opinion on employing Wiki, a popular Web 2.0 technology, in small student groups, based on a case-study of using it customized to work as a personal learning environment (PLE 1 ) (Fiedler and Valjataga, 2011) for supporting thesis research in hydrology. Since inception in 2006, the system presented has proven to facilitate knowledge construction and peer-communication within and across groups of students of different academic years and to stimulate learning. Being an open ended and egalitarian system, it was a minimal burden to maintain, as all students became content authors and shared responsibility. A number of unintended uses of the system were also observed, like using it as a backup medium and mobile storage. We attribute the success and sustainability of the proposed Web 2.0-based approach to the fact that the efforts were not limited to the application of the technology, but comprised the creation of a supporting environment with educational activities organized around it. We propose that Wiki-based PLEs are much more suitable than traditional learning management systems for supporting non-classroom education activities like thesis research in hydrology. 1 Here we use the term PLE to refer to the conceptual framework to make the process of knowledge construction a personalized experience – rather than to refer to the technology (in this case Wiki) used to attempt implementing such a system.


The condenser is one of the main components in most transmitted light compound microscopes. In this Letter, we show that such a condenser can be replaced by a programmable LED array to achieve greater imaging flexibility and functionality. Without mechanically scanning the sample or changing the microscope setup, the proposed approach can be used for dark-field imaging, bright-field imaging, microscopy sectioning, and digital refocusing. Images of a starfish embryo were acquired by using such an approach for demonstration.


Volumes of the routine carcass field data used in the official genetic evaluation for carcass traits in Japanese Black cattle are increasing rapidly. The purposes of this paper are to describe a Bayesian approach via Gibbs sampling (GS) to be used in the Japanese Black carcass genetic evaluation, and in particular using a very large carcass field data, to compare breeding values for sires and dams of animals with records estimated using GS and the conventional empirical best linear unbiased prediction (EBLUP) employing the restricted maximum likelihood (REML) estimates of variance components. The total of six carcass traits evaluated were carcass weight, rib eye area, rib thickness, subcutaneous fat thickness, estimated muscle yield percentage and marbling score. As prior distributions for GS, uniform, normal and independently scaled inverted chi-square distributions with degree of belief and scale parameters of –2 and 0 were used for nuisance parameters, breeding values and variance components, respectively. The posterior means were calculated using every 10th sample from a total of 90 000 samples, after 10 000 samples had been discarded. Moment and rank correlations between breeding values estimated by the GS and the REML-EBLUP were all very close to one, and the coefficients and the intercepts for linear regression of the GS on the REMLEBLUP estimates were substantially one and zero, respectively, showing a very good agreement between breeding value estimation by the GS and the REML-EBLUP.


That is the question. Specifically, it is the question posed by Bazemore et al in this issue of the Annals1 in their study of the association between the comprehensiveness of care provided by family physicians and health care costs for Medicare beneficiaries, framed in the context of an "existential debate" over the fundamental character of family medicine.

Comprehensiveness is one of the 4 cardinal functional features of primary care, as articulated by Barbara Starfield2 and further iterated by the Institute of Medicine3; the other 3 features being continuity, coordination, and first contact care. Physicians in non–primary care fields may manifest some of these features—emergency medicine physicians perform first contact, comprehensive care and gynecologists may have continuity relationships with their patients and be first contact care for reproductive health conditions—but only primary care clinicians combine all 4 of these features.

Among the generalists in the United States serving as primary care clinicians, family physicians have prided themselves as representing the specialty that is most comprehensive in its scope. Family physicians are trained to care for patients in ambulatory and hospital settings for most of their health care needs, including prenatal and perinatal care. For many family physicians, this notion of "doing it all" is what attracted them into the specialty.4 Studies tracking the scope of practice of the nation's family physicians, however, document a steady decrease in the proportion of family physicians who deliver babies, care for patients in the hospital, and, to a lesser degree, care for children. This trend is causing angst among some who worry that the specialty is losing its defining identity as the most comprehensive of the primary care disciplines, compromising the ability to address the needs of the whole patient and sustain healing relationships. Another view considers the flexibility of generalists to be an important part of an adaptive health system, with family physicians appropriately adjusting their scope in response to the local health care ecology and societal trends such as an aging population..

Is "to be or not to be comprehensive" simply an existential drama among Hamlets in family medicine who are grieving the passing of an era and having trouble adapting to a changing health care environment? Or does an eroding scope of family medicine have practical ramifications for the Triple Aim of better care, better health, and more affordable costs? Little research has systematically investigated how comprehensiveness of primary care affects quality and costs of care. The study by Bazemore and colleagues advances knowledge in this area. Using 2 different methods to measure comprehensiveness of care, the authors examined a sample of family physicians and the Medicare beneficiaries receiving primary care from these physicians. The findings were consistent for both measures used: more comprehensive scope of practice was associated with significantly lower Medicare expenditures per beneficiary. The 10% to 15% lower costs represents a savings of substantial policy import.

The study must be interpreted with a few caveats. The authors did not measure quality of care or patient experience, making it impossible to know if the findings represent just less expensive care or better value. Because of its cross-sectional observational design, the study is subject to possible confounding by unmeasured variables. For example, although the authors adjusted for location of family physicians on an urban-rural continuum, they did not adjust for other variables such as the geographic variation in the prices Medicare pays. The validity of the authors' conclusions, however, is bolstered by a recent study conducted at the Peterson Center on Health Care.6 Those investigators used data from a commercial insurance plan rather than Medicare to identify primary care practices that were "positive outliers" in delivering high-quality care at lower-than-average cost. One characteristic that distinguished the high-value primary care physicians was a more comprehensive scope of ambulatory care practice, such as performing basic dermatologic and orthopedic procedures in their offices rather than referring patients to specialists.

These studies support the conclusion that comprehensiveness of primary care matters to patients and the health system, not just to the self-identity of family physicians, but what aspects of comprehensiveness matter the most for achieving high value care? In the United States, whether family physicians care for patients in the hospital and deliver babies often dominates debates about comprehensiveness. It is important to appreciate the context of this debate, influenced by the historical role of family physicians in the United States and Canada working in hospitals and the large amount of North America comprised of sparsely populated rural areas where a family physician often by necessity does it all. In more densely populated Europe, general practitioners have practiced almost exclusively in the ambulatory setting for decades. General internists and general pediatricians in these nations rarely serve as primary care clinicians, but rather provide hospital-based secondary care—hospitalists in the US lexicon—a role that was well established before this division between the generalist physician hospital and ambulatory workforce developed in the United States. A study comparing primary care physicians in the United States and general practitioners in the United Kingdom found that US physicians were more than twice as likely as British general practitioners to refer their patients to a specialist7; this difference was not explained by differences in disease burden among patients, suggesting that British primary care physicians have a broader scope than their US counterparts in their ambulatory practices.

Unfortunately, the study by Bazemore et al does not allow readers to identify which specific components of comprehensiveness most strongly determined the association with lower costs. The authors measured comprehensiveness as an ordinal score, with each component counting equally toward the total score. It may be that caring for one's patients in the hospital is an essential element of the comprehensiveness that reduces health care costs. It may just as plausibly be the case that it is those family physicians in the study who more closely resemble British general practitioners in emphasizing a broad ambulatory scope of care, including performing office-based procedures and home visits and minimizing unnecessary specialty referrals, irrespective of whether they care for patients in the hospital, who embody the type of comprehensiveness that results in lower costs.

The Bazemore et al study illuminates the likely economic benefit to the health care system of having family physicians who practice a comprehensive style of primary care. The study also exposes an important need for deeper investigation. Research will need to explore comprehensiveness as a multi-dimensional construct and not just a general concept measured by a single ordinal score, and examine the components of comprehensiveness that are most strongly associated with the outcomes of interest. It will need to consider definitions of comprehensiveness that extend beyond a medical model, responding to Gottlieb's challenge that, for primary care to be truly comprehensive, it must address fundamental social determinants of health.8 And it will need to explore comprehensiveness as a practice-team property and not only at the unit of the individual clinician. This study serves as a welcome spur to family physicians to consider "to be or not to be comprehensive" not as an existential rumination about the specialty's identity and professional prerogatives, but a call to objectively assess how comprehensiveness of primary care advances society's aims of better health, better patient experience, and more affordable costs. Fostering comprehensive primary care will not simply be achieved by promoting a broad scope of training during residency education, but by ensuring that physician payment policies fairly compensate family physicians and their practice teams who invest the time and effort to provide the type of holistic care that brings value to patients and the health system.


Safety behaviour, which includes idiosyncratic strategies aimed at reducing anxiety and avoiding or averting perceived catastrophe, has been conceptualized in cognitive-behavioural models of anxiety disorders as having an anti-therapeutic, anxiety-maintaining function. There is substantial empirical support for its proposed negative effects in the context of exposure-based treatments for anxiety disorders. However, other hypotheses and findings suggest that incorporation of safety behaviour into such treatments might instead facilitate gains and/or enhance treatment acceptability. This research aimed to further understand the role of safety behaviour in the treatment of anxiety disorders. In Study 1, an experimental paradigm was used to examine the effect of 'safety gear' on belief change. Spider fearful participants were asked to evaluate the validity of a targeted negative belief about spiders during a brief session with a live tarantula while either using or not using protective gear during the session. The results demonstrated that negative beliefs declined equally and robustly in both groups after the session. Study 2 investigated treatment acceptability and preference as a function of safety behaviour use (judicious vs. discouraged) and treatment rationale (cognitive vs. extinction). Clinically anxious participants and undergraduate students provided acceptability ratings and preference ranks for four written vignettes describing a course of CBT for fear or anxiety. Treatment descriptions promoting judicious safety behaviour use received significantly higher acceptability ratings than those discouraging its use. Descriptions that presented a cognitive versus an extinction rationale were also rated as more acceptable. The most highly ranked treatment included judicious safety behaviour use under a cognitive rationale. The same pattern of results was observed in both participant groups. Study 3 involved the development and psychometric evaluation of a novel self-report measure of safety behaviour, the Safety Behaviour Inventory (SBI), using a large undergraduate student sample and a smaller sample of clinically anxious participants. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses and analyses of reliability and validity were conducted. Preliminary support was obtained for the discriminant and construct validity of a four-factor SBI. The combined results of these studies are discussed in terms of cognitive-behavioural theories and treatments of anxiety disorders, and future research directions are suggested.


Canadian counter-terrorism as practiced in the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) has been more respectful of human rights than Canadian counter-terrorism as practiced outside the ATA and outside of Canada. Although the ATA was influenced by British law, its definition of terrorism, preventive arrest, investigative hearings and secrecy provisions are more restrained than those of some other democracies. The ATA demonstrates a commitment to legality and democratic debate. In contrast, counter-terrorism outside the ATA has involved indeterminate detention of non-citizens on the basis of secret evidence and with the threat of deportation to torture; listing of terrorists on the basis of secret evidence; and refusal by Canadian courts to require Canada to request Omar Khadr's repatriation or to restrain Canadian officials from transferring Afghan detainees to possible torture by Afghan officials. Despite the recommendations of the Arar and Air India public inquiries, Canada does not have adequate accountability structures to monitor and restrain informal and transnational counter-terrorism.


ASEAN's engagement with human rights is characterized by an actionidentity gap; member states have created impressive regional commitments while continually violating rights domestically. This gap suggests that member states of ASEAN have used rights for political ends, the enhancement of ASEAN's legitimacy in the eyes of critics, not because they are understood as morally correct. The strategic use of norms indicates that existing recourse to constructivist accounts of norms in ASEAN, currently the dominant explanatory framework, is incorrect. This article argues that an alternative, rational choice, framework for appraising norms within ASEAN offers greater explanatory insight into how and why human rights emerged into ASEAN after 1997. This argument suggests a revised approach to understanding norm violation within


We present a detailed investigation of a novel platform for integration of spintronic memory elements and a photonic network, for future ultrafast and energy-efficient memory. We designed and fabricated magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) structures based on (Tb/Co)x5 multilayer stack with optically switchable magnetization. Optical single-pulse measurements allowed us to estimate the value of the stray field present in the parallel configuration, which prevents the structure from all-optical switching. We performed numerical calculations based on the Finite Difference Time Domain method and ellipsometry measurements of (Tb/Co)x5 to compute the absorption by the MTJ structure. Simulation results are in good agreement with the experimental measurements, where we implemented a thermal model to estimate effective absorption in the pillar. These estimations showed up to 14% absorption of the incident optical power in 300-nm-wide MTJ. Moreover, we designed and realized an integrated optical network with focusing structures to efficiently guide and couple the light into the MTJs. We show a chain of necessary steps to obtain the threshold value of the switching energy, and our results presenting a path forward for full system integration of optically switchable MRAM technology.


Modulus of elasticity (MOE) in the tangential direction for Norway spruce, Picea abies (L.) H. Karst, was measured. Test samples were tested in three-point bending, and moisture content (MC) and temperature were varied between the green condition and 7% MC and between 20°C and 80°C, respectively. Using correction factors calculated from finite element simulations, an adjustment of measured MOE was made to the ideally tangential direction. The results show MOE and the gradients with respect to MC and temperature and how they vary with MC and temperature. The gradients are factors in gradient terms in the incremental stress-strain relation for linear elastic behaviour during load cycles where there are mechanical loads and at the same time, varying MC and temperature. The gradient terms add to the temperature and MC expansion coefficients and may be of significant size for cases with high stress, high temperature, and high MC.


Aim To examine the relationship between hand rim propulsion power and energy expenditure (EE) during wheelchair wheeling and to investigate whether adding other variables to the model could improve on the prediction of EE. Methods Individuals who use manual wheelchairs (n=14) performed five different wheeling activities in a wheelchair with a PowerTap power meter hub built into the right rear wheel. Activities included wheeling on a smooth, level surface at three different speeds (4.5, 5.5 and 6.5 km/h), wheeling on a rubberised track at one speed (5.5 km/h) and wheeling on a sidewalk course that included uphill and downhill segments at a self-selected speed. EE was measured using a portable indirect calorimetry system. Stepwise linear regression was performed to predict EE from power output variables. A repeated-measures analysis of variance was used to compare the measured EE to the estimates from the power models. Bland-Altman plots were used to assess the agreement between the criterion values and the predicted values. Results EE and power were significantly correlated (r=0.694, p<0.001). Regression analysis yielded three significant prediction models utilising measured power; measured power and speed; and measured power, speed and heart rate. No significant differences were found between measured EE and any of the prediction models. Conclusion EE can be accurately and precisely estimated based on hand rim propulsion power. These results indicate that power could be used as a method to assess EE in individuals who use wheelchairs.


We conducted a meta-analysis to elucidate the role of experimental scale in field trials exploring the role of habitat diversifications on herbivore and predator abundance. Literature from a period of 18 years from 6 journals yielded a total of 25 predator and 41 herbivore abundance observations in experimental treatments with higher plant diversity compared to a control. These were divided into three size bins based on reported plot size. A clear pattern emerged for herbivore abundance whereby diversification experiments performed in small plots yielded a large negative effect on herbivores, intermediate sized plots showed an intermediate effect, and the largest plots exhibited a negligible effect. Predators were more abundant in medium sized diversified plots than in small ones, but, again, no effect could be discerned in the largest plots. These results suggest that past literature reviews and meta-analyses illustrating general trends of herbivore declines associated with increased vegetation diversity may be misleading. In particular, the effects of diversification appear to vary widely as a function of the spatial scale of vegetation plots. We speculate that effects of vegetation diversification may be enhanced when insects can move uninhibited among control and treatment plots in small scale experiments. In smaller plots herbivores may aggregate in the control plots that present a more concentrated resource, and generalist predators move to the more diverse habitat. At larger scales the ability of insects to choose between simple and diverse plots is diminished.


If youre seeking MCDST certification, heres the book you need to prepare for Exam 70-271, Supporting Users and Troubleshooting a Microsoft XP Operating System, and Exam 70-272, Supporting Users and Troubleshooting Desktop Applications on a Microsoft Windows XP Operating System. This revised and updated Deluxe Edition features over 200 pages of new content-including the very latest updates to the exams as well as case studies-and provides complete instruction to meet the exacting requirements of each exam. Prepare for your certification and career with this two-in-one, value-packed guide. Inside youll find: Practical information on how to analyze problems and provide support to end users Hundreds of challenging review questions Bonus CD loaded with exam prep software, four bonus exams, Sybex test engine, and 300 electronic flashcards Authoritative coverage of all exam objectives, including: Exam 70-271 Installing a Windows Desktop Operating System Managing and Troubleshooting Access to Resources Configuring and Troubleshooting Hardware Devices and Drivers Configuring and Troubleshooting the Desktop and User Environments Troubleshooting Network Protocols and Services Exam 70-272 Configuring and Troubleshooting Applications Resolving Issues Related to Usability Resolving Issues Related to Application Customization Configuring and Troubleshooting Connectivity for Applications Configuring Application Security SYBEX TEST ENGINE: Test your knowledge with advanced testing software. Includes all chapter review questions plus bonus exams. ELECTRONIC FLASHCARDS: Reinforce your understanding with flashcards that can run on your PC, Pocket PC, or Palm device. Also on the CD youll find the entire book in searchable and printable PDF. Study anywhere, any time, and approach the exam with confidence. Visit www.sybex.com for all of your Microsoft certification needs Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.


Spodosols are a soil order frequently exhibiting a redistribution of Al and Fe because of organic matter complexation, illuviation of these complexes, and immobilization of the Al and Fe as poorly crystalline silicates in deeper soil horizons. Little information is available concerning the organic matter complexation and migration of other elements, particularly the rare earth elements (REE). Four pedons representing the Padus series (coarse-loamy, mixed, superactive, frigid Alfic Haplorthods) from Wisconsin were selected to determine if selected transition metals and the REE are mobilized, illuviated, and then immobilized. Sequential soil extractions consisted of Na-pyrophosphate, ammonium oxalate, ammonium oxalate-ascorbic acid, and aqua-regia partitioned elements into operationally defined chemical environments. Total elemental contents of the whole soil and the whole silt fraction were determined using instrumental neutron activation analysis. Aluminum and Fe in the Napyrophosphate extraction, for the majority of the pedons, were discretely more abundant in the upper Bs horizon. The light REE were largely recovered by the aqua-regia extraction, implying that these elements are associated with apatite, whereas the heavy REE were only very slightly recovered, suggesting that the heavy REE reside in different minerals. A Na-pyrophosphate leach extracted only minor quantities of the light REE and undetectable to trace quantities of the heavy REE, suggesting that these elements have not been influenced by podzolization processes.


Beyond the Goldmine Standard is an evolving exhibition curated by Matthew Hearn for RPM Music. Organised around the programme for Record Store Day 2015, and in association with the current BALTIC39 exhibition, The Curves of the Needles, the project considers a recurring interest in the vinyl record as an inspiration for artists.

Conceived in response to a series of fan-made record sleeves found amidst collections of second-hand records bought by RPM, Beyond the Goldmine Standard raisies questions of the parameters that govern value by inviting over 50 artists to work directly with a series of select second-hand LPs.

Between April 6 and May 15, 58 artists were invited to re-imagine and re-work a series of second hand records. Each Monday a new batch of artist reworked records will be re-released in RPMMusic and displayed in and around the existing points of sale in the record shop.

Working directly with and into the actual records existing measures of value were intentionally sidelined. Whilst we might recognize certain symbolic personal and cultural value in the presence of writing of other visible interventions on the surface of record covers, another resister of value, the Goldmine Standard sees such 'residue' as marring or of detriment to a record's corresponding worth. Beyond the Goldmine Standard deems differently, and has been an invitation to think beyond such regimented classification.

The chosen records are not themselves considered particularly valuable or collectable, not are they jointly intended as a reflection of personal or established notions of taste. Through the interventions, 'Beyond the Goldmine Standard' explored the implications and creative possibilities in stamping a personal signature on these records: can such modifications compliment, enhance or redeem the value of these objects.

There will be a special closing event on Saturday 16 May, 5-7pm during which the LP's will be for sale.

A Publication marks the first phase of the project cataloguing 62 LP's exhibited in RPM Music across this period. 12" x 12" 32pp colour.


Abstract Seismic waves propagating in porous rocks saturated with two immiscible fluids can be strongly attenuated. Predicting saturation effects on seismic responses requires a sound understanding of attenuation and velocity dependencies on the fluid distribution. Decoding these effects involves interpreting laboratory experiments, analyzing well-log data, and performing numerical simulations. Despite striking differences among scales, flow regimes, and frequency bands, some aspects of wave attenuation can be explained with a single mechanism — wave-induced pressure diffusion. Different facets of wave-induced pressure diffusion can be revealed across scales.


Clinical islet transplantation is an accepted treatment for the severe secondary complications of type 1 diabetes but is limited by the number of donors needed to achieve insulin independence. The requirement for multiple donors is probably due to the loss of up to 60% of islet mass after transplantation from hypoxia, caused by a lack of functional vasculature. Revascularisation of the transplanted islet does occur but takes up to 14 days. The aim of this project was to investigate the revascularisation process and devise a method of manipulating islets in order to improve islet engraftment. The scientific research was supplemented by the establishment of clinical transplantation. A sygeneic intraportal model of islet transplantation was used to explore the revascularisation of islets and develop a novel dual endothelial/insulin staining technique. The experiments show clear observation of revascularisation with quantifiable changes in vascular density and islet composition. Interestingly, the vascular density of transplanted islets was greater than native islets. Pre treatment of isolated islets with was desferrioxamine explored as a method for up regulating angiogenic growth factors. This method produced a sustained increase in VEGF expression that did not adversely affect islet viability or secretory function but did not improve clinical outcome post transplant. Three diabetic patients were transplanted with human islets and the outcome, clinical course and issues related to organ donation and processing are and also discussed. Islet revascularisation is quantifiable and can be explored to examine the effect of manipulating engraftment. Iron depletion offers a simple method for manipulating islets prior to transplantation but further work is necessary to establish if there is any improvement in islet engraftment with this technique. Clinical islet transplantation programmes within the UK are achievable but further progress, collaboration and funding are required to establish islet transplantation as a routine treatment.


Abstract The activity of glycogen Phosphorylase and carbohydrate hydrolyzing enzymes &agr;-amylase, glucoamylase, trehalase, and sucrase was studied in the development of the Carniolan honey bee, Apis mellifera carnica Pollman (Hymenoptera: Apidae), from newly hatched larva to freshly emerged imago of worker and drone. Phosphorolytic degradation of glycogen was significantly stronger than hydrolytic degradation in all developmental stages. Developmental profiles of hydrolase activity were similar in both sexes of brood; high activity was found in unsealed larvae, the lowest in prepupae followed by an increase in enzymatic activity. Especially intensive increases in activity occurred in the last stage of pupae and newly emerged imago. Besides &agr;-amylase, the activities of other enzymes were higher in drone than in worker broods. Among drones, activity of glucoamylase was particularly high, ranging from around three times higher in the youngest larvae to 13 times higher in the oldest pupae. This confirms earlier suggestions about higher rates of metabolism in drone broods than in worker broods.


Legal parentage under American state laws is significantly and rapidly evolving. And, it is increasingly imprecise. No longer is legal parentage only defined at precise moments in time or for particular conduct, as by giving birth, having biological ties, marriage to the birth mother at time of conception or birth, name placement on a birth certificate, or formal adoption. Both men and women can now become legal parents, as through de facto parenthood or equitable adoption, where neither the time of the relevant conduct nor the conduct prompting parentage can be precisely determined. Because legal parentage increasingly depends upon fluid and imprecise doctrines, lawyers and judges must be vigilant in handling legal disputes implicating parentage. Together with the growing phenomenon of imprecise legal parentage, lawyers and judges are also challenged because an established legal parentage in one setting often is inapplicable in other settings. Parentage under law is frequently contextual. Thus, a father for child support purposes often is not a father for childcare purposes. Further, lawyers and judges are now challenged both in proceedings first establishing and later overriding legal parentage. Legal parentage increasingly can be overridden via imprecise norms, including standards on waivers, forfeitures, rebuttals, and rescissions. The numbers of disestablished parents are growing due to reliable and inexpensive genetic testing, births during marriage resulting from adultery, and greater use of assisted reproduction. Moreover, lawyers and judges investigating both the establishment and disestablishment of legal parentage are challenged due to significant interstate variations. As one distinguished commentator observed: "The relative importance of biology, intent, contract, and parental function varies tremendously by jurisdiction and even by case, adding confusion and unpredictability to a determination of critical importance." Because parents and their children are quite mobile, in resolving parentage disputes, choices increasingly must be made between competing and quite different imprecise American state parentage laws. This article examines the challenges for lawyers and judges investigating parentage. First, it will survey varying American state imprecise parentage laws. Then, it will examine the investigative norms guiding parentage inquiries. In conclusion, it will review the possible results of failed inquiries and offer suggestions to lawyers and judges who must contend with an array of differing fluid, imprecise, and contextual American state parentage laws.


The 331ST INFANTRY REGIMENT served during WORLD WAR I as part of the U.S. Army 83d Infantry Division. Composed entirely of Clevelanders ages 21-31 who had been drafted into the army, the regiment included companies A, B, C, D, H, and L and a supply company. Basic training of the new recruits was conducted at Camp Sherman, northwest of Chillicothe, OH.


Recent advances in high throughput sequencing have transformed the study of wild organisms by facilitating the generation of high quality genome assemblies and dense genetic marker datasets. These resources have the potential to significantly advance our understanding of diverse phenomena at the level of species, populations and individuals, ranging from patterns of synteny through rates of linkage disequilibrium (LD) decay and population structure to individual inbreeding. Consequently, we used PacBio sequencing to refine an existing Antarctic fur seal (Arctocephalus gazella) genome assembly and genotyped 83 individuals from six populations using restriction site associated DNA (RAD) sequencing. The resulting hybrid genome comprised 6,169 scaffolds with an N50 of 6.21 Mb and provided clear evidence for the conservation of large chromosomal segments between the fur seal and dog (Canis lupus familiaris). Focusing on the most extensively sampled population of South Georgia, we found that LD decayed rapidly, reaching the background level by around 400 kb, consistent with other vertebrates but at odds with the notion that fur seals experienced a strong historical bottleneck. We also found evidence for population structuring, with four main Antarctic island groups being resolved. Finally, appreciable variance in individual inbreeding could be detected, reflecting the strong polygyny and site fidelity of the species. Overall, our study contributes important resources for future genomic studies of fur seals and other pinnipeds while also providing a clear example of how high throughput sequencing can generate diverse biological insights at multiple levels of organization.


In the last thirty years, two main theoretical traditions in crime prevention literature have emerged: 1) the victimization perspective, which considers the victim, offender, and environment, and 2) the social control perspective, an alternative view that considers the role that community and family members play in informally influencing the moral values of potential offenders. Both of these theories have been used to inform crime prevention techniques by focusing on modifying the behavior of potential victims and the motivations of potential offenders. While both the social control and victimization perspectives have been used to discuss criminal behavior and crime prevention, neither acknowledge the role that technology plays in the lives of those that may commit crimes or be victimized. In this paper, we attempt to "digitalize" theories of crime prevention. By digitalize, we mean to understand how technology use influences the lives of both potential offenders and victims. We explore the theoretical foundations of both the victimization and social control perspectives and discuss their limitations as a result of not considering how technology influences information-seeking practices and communication routines. We argue that examining technology use is essential to crime theories that are used to help understand and predict criminal behavior, and we propose modifications to each framework to increase their effectiveness in predicting criminal behavior and practical application.


In 2010, Arizona made national headlines when it enacted laws targeting undocumented immigrants, perceived in the state to be primarily Mexican. Arizona experienced population growth that projected it would become a minority majority state within one or two decades. Republican politicians spearheaded a ban on ethnic studies, with its intended target a successful Mexican American studies program at the Tucson Unified School District. The Mexican American studies program was initiated as part of a desegregation decree in ongoing desegregation litigation against the Tucson Unified School District. State superintendents of education in Arizona branded the program "racist" because students were encouraged to think critically about U.S. history and question the role that race plays in the development of U.S. society. This Article examines ethnic studies, their role as a desegregation remedy, and in crafting a more accurate and informed view of history. Ethnic studies are a vibrant and vital educational tool to explore and challenge established historical and cultural orthodoxies that adversely affect formation of individual and group identity, and they encourage and develop critical thinking about race and ethnicity in all student populations. This Article contends that state efforts to prohibit ethnic studies programs are constitutionally infirm and should engage strict scrutiny under the Equal Protection Clause because they classify and prohibit curricular content and offerings on the basis of race or ethnicity, burdening only minority races.


Large earthquakes initiate chains of surface processes that last much longer than the brief moments of strong shaking. Most moderate‐ and large‐magnitude earthquakes trigger landslides, ranging from small failures in the soil cover to massive, devastating rock avalanches. Some landslides dam rivers and impound lakes, which can collapse days to centuries later, and flood mountain valleys for hundreds of kilometers downstream. Landslide deposits on slopes can remobilize during heavy rainfall and evolve into debris flows. Cracks and fractures can form and widen on mountain crests and flanks, promoting increased frequency of landslides that lasts for decades. More gradual impacts involve the flushing of excess debris downstream by rivers, which can generate bank erosion and floodplain accretion as well as channel avulsions that affect flooding frequency, settlements, ecosystems, and infrastructure. Ultimately, earthquake sequences and their geomorphic consequences alter mountain landscapes over both human and geologic time scales. Two recent events have attracted intense research into earthquake‐induced landslides and their consequences: the magnitude M 7.6 Chi‐Chi, Taiwan earthquake of 1999, and the M 7.9 Wenchuan, China earthquake of 2008. Using data and insights from these and several other earthquakes, we analyze how such events initiate processes that change mountain landscapes, highlight research gaps, and suggest pathways toward a more complete understanding of the seismic effects on the Earth's surface.


Weighted automata are nondeterministic automata with numerical weights on transitions. They can define quantitative languages L that assign to each word w a real number L(w). In the case of infinite words, the value of a run is naturally computed as the maximum, limsup, liminf, limit average, or discounted sum of the transition weights. We study expressiveness and closure questions about these quantitative languages. We first show that the set of words with value greater than a threshold can be non-omega-regular for deterministic limit-average and discounted-sum automata, while this set is always omega-regular when the threshold is isolated (i.e., some neighborhood around the threshold contains no word). In the latter case, we prove that the omega-regular language is robust against small perturbations of the transition weights. We next consider automata with transition weights 0 or 1 and show that they are as expressive as general weighted automata in the limit-average case, but not in the discounted-sum case. Third, for quantitative languages L1 and L2, we consider the operations max(L1, L2), min(L1, L2), and 1-L1, which generalize the boolean operations on languages, as well as the sum L1 + L2. We establish the closure properties of all classes of quantitative languages with respect to these four operations.


Analysis of complex composite structures requires a fine contiguous mesh of threedimensional (3D) solid elements. The embedded element technique is a promising technique for predicting stiffness and stress. This paper presents a new method for enhancing the embedded element with continuum damage mechanics methods for predicting the evolution of damage in fiber reinforced composite structures. Comparison of the model prediction with experimental results reveals an excellent correlation between the tensile strength of quasi-isotropic laminate with an open hole. The embedded element technique allows the fiber reinforcement and matrix domains to be meshed independently and failure is evaluated separately in each domain. The enhanced embedded element approach allows the failure modes to be observed, specifically, the evolution of matrix cracking and fiber rupture. Compared to the traditional contiguous mesh finite element method, the present modelling technique demonstrates a clear advantage in predicting the experimentally observed failure modes and accurate characterisation of intralaminar fracture.


Abstract We tested the palatability of 12 species of anuran larvae that occur in eastern Texas using four common predators. Palatability was determined by offering larvae to predators and recording the behavior of the predator. We also tested for ontogenetic shifts in palatability in twelve species of anuran larvae. Incilius nebulifer, Anaxyrus woodhousii, Lithobates catesbeianus, L. clamitans and L. sphenocephalus all showed evidence of unpalatability in laboratory experiments. These noxious larval anurans also showed ontogenetic shifts in palatability to one or more predators by becoming more palatable throughout development. Predator tolerance to noxiousness also played a key role in predation trials. Bluegills were the least tolerant, followed by green sunfish and dragonfly larvae. Crayfish had the highest tolerance to noxiousness.


Selenium is an essential micronutrient for the human body because it is needed for the synthesis of selenoproteins, which have various biological functions. As a result, selenium deficiency associated with diets and/or environments manifests in different disease states such as epilepsy, multiminicore disease and cardiovascular injury which in some cases is a presage of cardiomyopathy.This objective was to review published cases and identify selenium-responsive cardiomyopathy due to selenium deficiency by various factors.Published case reports in English were identified and extracted from PubMed, Scopus, Embase, and Science Direct Library.28 case reports met inclusion criteria out of an initial 189 articles.Acquired selenium deficiency is a causative factor for the development of cardiomyopathy in patients under different conditions, and treatment of these patients with selenium is effective in normalizing cardiac function or reducing cardiac dysfunction. Thus, it is important to include selenium deficiency as a possible cause of cardiomyopathy for diagnosis and treatment purposes.


Methane hydrate is a methane-bearing, ice-like material that occurs in marine sediments and in permafrost regions. The amount of methane contained in hydrate deposits is enormous, although it is likely that much of the hydrate occurs in low concentrations and would have no commercial potential. Hydrate deposits are estimated to contain a much greater amount of natural gas than conventional accumulations, however, there is today no practical and environmentally safe way to produce the gas. Destabilization of the hydrates with uncontrolled release of large volumes of methane is a significant hazard. Legislation was introduced into the 105 Congress, which would have authorized an interagency research and development program to develop methane hydrate resources. The bill passed the Senate and hearings were held in the House before Congress adjourned. The measure was reintroduced in the 106 Congress as S. 330, which was reported from the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on March 22, 1999 (S. Rept. 106-33). The Senate passed S. 330 on April 19, 1999. Subsequently, H.R. 1753 was introduced into the House and jointly referred to the Committees on Science and Resources. The bill was reported from both Committees (H.Rept. 106-377, Parts I and II) and passed the House on October 26, 1999. H.R. 1753 passed the Senate as amended on November 19, 1999.


This paper presents the implementation of a facial-identity and -expression recognition mechanism that confirms or negates physical and/or computational actuations in an intelligent built-environment. Said mechanism is built via Google Brain's TensorFlow (as regards facial identity recognition) and Google Cloud Platform's Cloud Vision API (as regards facial gesture recognition); and it is integrated into the ongoing development of an intelligent built-environment framework, viz., Design-to-Robotic-Production & -Operation (D2RP&O), conceived at Delft University of Technology (TUD). The present work builds on the inherited technological ecosystem and technical functionality of the Design-to-Robotic-Operation (D2RO) component of said framework; and its implementation is validated via two scenarios (physical and computational). In the first scenario—and building on an inherited adaptive mechanism—if building-skin components perceive a rise in interior temperature levels, natural ventilation is promoted by increasing degrees of aperture. This measure is presently confirmed or negated by a corresponding facial expression on the part of the user in response to said reaction, which serves as an intuitive override / feedback mechanism to the intelligent building-skin mechanism's decision-making process. In the second scenario—and building on another inherited mechanism—if an accidental fall is detected and the user remains consciously or unconsciously collapsed, a series of automated emergency notifications (e.g., SMS, email, etc.) are sent to family and/or care-takers by particular mechanisms in the intelligent built-environment. The precision of this measure and its execution are presently confirmed by (a) identity detection of the victim, and (b) recognition of a reflexive facial gesture of pain and/or displeasure. The work presented in this paper promotes a considered relationship between the architecture of the built-environment and the Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) embedded and/or deployed.


SIGCHI chapter was born. Like all babies, this chapter was not born instantly. The idea was conceived back in early 2002, when we started our work in HCI in Indonesia. Many still considered HCI an alien concept from the West at that time. In order to grow awareness, we held a series of informational events for academics and professionals in the region. In 2011, we saw a light at the end of the tunnel when Adi Tedjasaputra received an invitation from Zhengjie Liu, adjunct chair for developing worlds at SIGCHI, to attend the SIGCHI Asia workshop in Beijing. I represented Adi at the event, and suddenly a new hope arose. During the event, attended by many ACM SIGCHI chairs and representatives from Asian countries, we were informed how ACM SIGCHI could support developing countries in nurturing the field of HCI. After reviewing the readiness of the market, Adi and I approached ACM SIGCHI at the end of 2013 about advancing HCI and UX in Indonesia with their support. It was indeed the right timing—they accepted our proposal to support a special kick-off event. UX Indonesia-Malaysia 2014 was held on April 26, 2014, in Jakarta as the first-ever UX conference conducted in Indonesia. The event was attended by academics, practitioners, and students from a variety of affiliations in Indonesia and Malaysia and featured renowned speakers from Indonesia, Malaysia, China, Australia, and the U.S. This first HCI/UX venue opened our eyes to a significant commitment to keeping the flame alight in the wider community. There had been an increase in people working in HCI/UX in Indonesia and Malaysia, yet many of us still worked in silos. After the conference, we invited several people to be part of the process of forming a new chapter. Our eventual proposal to ACM to form Indonesia ACM SIGCHI was approved on May 19, 2014. What a joy to have reached this milestone! Indonesia ACM SIGCHI is a unique chapter, as it covers the whole nation of Indonesia, the fourth most populated country in the world. To run this giant chapter, we seeded the development of local representatives. At the moment, there are six local representatives that work on the specific needs of the community in their own regions. This concept seems to work well, as we have been developing and executing diverse ideas and programs from each region. Since its formation, this local chapter has been active, conducting seminars, bootcamps, and workshops to promote both ACM SIGCHI and the fields of HCI/UX in Indonesia. We hope this chapter will continue to grow and have a greater impact. We look forward to seeing you all at CHIuXID 2015 (April 8–10, 2015; http://chiuxindo. uxindo.com/chi-ux-indonesia-2015/)!


A kinase in macrophages is required for high-fat diet–induced metabolic changes and inflammation. Inflammation is thought to be an important driver of diet-induced obesity and insulin resistance. Proinflammatory, M1 phenotype macrophages and the c-Jun N-terminal kinases (JNK) are central players in this process. But whether JNK is specifically required inside macrophages is unclear. In mice containing a macrophage-specific deletion in both Jnk1 and Jnk2, Han et al. (see the Perspective by Ferrante) found that the mice were protected against many of the diet-induced metabolic changes, including insulin resistance, despite similar weight gain as control mice on a high-fat diet. This protection was associated with a decrease in the presence of M1 macrophages in adipose tissue. M. S. Han, D. Y. Jung, C. Morel, S. A. Lakhani, J. K. Kim, R. A. Flavell, R. J. Davis, JNK expression by macrophages promotes obesity-induced insulin resistance and inflammation. Science 339, 218–222 (2013).[Abstract] [Full Text] A. W. Ferrante Jr., Improving metabolism by throwing out all the JNK. Science 339, 147–148 (2013).[Abstract] [Full Text]


MapReduce is often used to run critical jobs such as scientific data analysis. However, evidence in the literature shows that arbitrary faults do occur and can probably corrupt the results of MapReduce jobs. MapReduce runtimes like Hadoop tolerate crash faults, but not arbitrary or Byzantine faults. We present a MapReduce algorithm and prototype that tolerate these faults. An experimental evaluation shows that the execution of a job with our algorithms uses twice the resources of the original Hadoop, instead of the 3 or 4 times more that would be achieved with the direct application of common Byzantine fault-tolerance paradigms. We believe this cost is acceptable for critical applications that require that level of fault tolerance.


We propose a rigorous basis for identifying and assessing visual frames as part of a pre-production phase of formative evaluation for climate change campaigns. We review research on images in climate change communication and examine the role of formative evaluation in communication campaigns in general and climate change campaigns in particular. From 350 images in 200 randomly selected climate change news articles from 1974–2009, manual content analysis generated over 100 highly reliable image themes, and cluster analysis generated 15 dominant visual frames. We discuss possible implications for use of those frames in climate change campaign messages. The dominant visual frames also provide bases for more structured and comprehensive formative evaluation research that could justify use or avoidance of certain visual frames in the pursuit of particular outcomes though communication with specific audiences.


The Mechanism of heat generation at the cutting region (tool-workpiece interface) during machining processes is a highly complicated phenomenon and depends on many process parameters. Elevated temperature during the machining process is a root cause of residual stress on the machined part as well as a cause of rapid tool wear. Although several methods have been developed to measure the temperature in machining, the in-situ application of these methods has many technical problems and restrictions. As a result, the utilization of computational methods to predict temperature in machining is very demanding. In this paper, the artificial intelligent models known as Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and Adaptive Neuro Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) were used to model and predict the temperature in machining. Several experiments were conducted to validate these models. These experiments were carried out on thin-walled AL7075 work pieces to investigate the effect of different machining parameters on temperature in turning. A thermal imaging Infrared (IR) camera was used to measure the temperature of the cutting area during machining. With respect to experimental data, the ANN and ANFIS models were developed and the results obtained from those models were then compared to the experimental results to evaluate the performance of the models. According to the results, the ANFIS model is superior to the ANN model in terms the accurate and reliable prediction of temperature in machining.


A patient arrives in the emergency room apparently in a comatose state. But is he really unconscious or just faking? The young doctors on duty are skeptical. Failing to get a reaction with a chest rub, they try a variety of methods that become increasingly sadistic—pressing on the patient's fingernail with a ballpoint pen, spraying his testicles with a skin-freezing compound, announcing an imminent eye injection to scare the patient awake.

I first encountered those chilling pen-and-ink images in a 2012 comic book, Disrepute, authored by Thom Ferrier, the nom de plume for British general practitioner Ian Williams. Disrepute is part of a young but growing genre that Williams helped dub "graphic medicine" when he founded a website by that name in 2007. Using the graphic novel form, doctors, nurses, and patients are producing accounts that often reveal the dark underbelly of the world of medicine. From patients and their families, these include portraits of imperious and insensitive physicians or nurses; from doctors, explorations of the doubt that racks them when their treatment ends in a mistake or a patient's death. While the form is also referred to as "comics," the work, as in Williams's strip, is bleak just as often as it is humorous.


New novel derivatives of 1-(1-((5-nitrbenzo [d] oxazol-2-yl)methyl)-6-oxido-4,8-dihydro-1H- [1,3,2]dioxaphosphepino[5,6-c]pyrazol-6yl)-3(phenyl/p-tolyl/4-methoxy phenyl /4-chlorophenyl) ureas (8a-d as per scheme: I ) were Synthesized by condensation reaction of 1-((5-nitro benzo [d] oxazol-2-yl)methyl) -1H-pyraazole- 4,5-diyl) dimethanol (6) and (phenyl carbamoyl) phosphoric acid dichlorides 7(a-d). The synthon (6) was obtained by deprotection of isopropilidine group of 6, 6-dimethyl-1-((5-nitrobenzo[d]oxazol-2-yl) methyl-4, 8-dihydro-1H-[1, 3] dioxepino [5, 6-c] pyrazole (5). The synthon (5) was obtained by condensation reaction between 2-(6, 6-dimethyl- 4, 8-dihydro -1H-[1, 3] dioxepino [5, 6-c] pyrazole-1-yl) acetic acid (3) and 2-amino-nitrophenol. Similar procedures were adopted to prepare N-(1-((5-nitrobenzo [d] oxazol -2-yl) methyl)-6-oxido-4, 8-dihydro-1H-[1, 3, 2] dioxaphospheno [5,6-c] pyrazol-6-yl) morpholine/piper dine/4-methyl piperazine carboxamides (8e-g as per scheme: II). The synthesis of 1-(1-(benzo [d] thiazole-2-yl) methyl)-6-oxido-4,8-dihydro-1H- [1,3,2]dioxaphosphepino[5,6-c]pyrazol-6yl)-3(phenyl/p-tolyl/4-methoxyphenyl/4-chloro phenyl) ureas(12a-d as depicted in scheme:III) and N-(1-(benzo [d]thiazol-2-ylmethyl)-6-oxido-4, 8-dihydro-1H-[1, 3, 2] dioxaphosphepino [5.6-c] pyrazol-6-yl) morpholine / piperidine /4-methyl piperazinecarboxamides (12e-g as depicted in scheme:IV) were also carried out by the usage of similar synthetic procedures.


Technology plays an essential role in all industrial activities. When different technologies bring comfort and convenience to our lives, the rapid material consumption also results in various forms of environmental deterioration. Gradually, it is realized that pushing technological development in an environmentally-friendly direction is an important task, and public policy is one of the major driving forces.Among various types of environmental policies, extended producer responsibility (EPR) is a relatively new and market-oriented approach. OECD (2001) defines it as "an environmental policy approach in which a producer's responsibility, physical and/or financial, for a product is extended to the post-consumer stage of a product's life cycle". When resources are drawn from the upstream actors, i.e. the producers, to the downstream waste management activities, there exists potential for innovation to occur at both sides. The producers may make product changes in order to reduce their cost, and the waste managers receive more support, either financial subsidies or an enlarged market for example, to have their job done.In this paper, we aim to look for empirical evidence regarding how EPR stimulates technological changes. In Norway, some EPR policy instruments have come into force for the electrical and electronic (EE) industry since 1999: the EE Regulation and the EE Covenant. To fulfill their obligations accordingly, the Norwegian producers have collectively set up a national return system for their end-of-life products and pay a fee when introducing new products in the market to producer responsibility organizations (PROs), who then take over the physical responsibility to coordinate the collection and treatment of scrapped EE products. At the moment, there are three major PROs in the Norwegian EE industry.At the EU level, two directives regarding EE products were promulgated in October 2002: the Directive on waste electrical and electronic equipment (the WEEE Directive) and the Directive on the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment (the RoHS Directive). The former requires producers to take back and recycle their waste, while the latter basically demands that new EE products should not contain six hazardous substances.The above-mentioned domestic and international policy instruments, together with some others, bind on the Norwegian EE industry. It is then of our research interest to find out whether these EPR instruments have driven technological change among actors in the sector. A web-based survey entitled "Green" technological changes in the Norwegian EE sector was conducted. 71% answered "yes" when asked whether there have been technological changes in the products or processes during the last 10 years to deal with environmental problems. Based on those who answered yes, the driving forces were identified as: "environmental regulations in EU" (68%), "environmental awareness and commitment in the organization" (59%), "environmental regulations in Norway" (55%), and "market demand" (50%). In spite of the survey results, interviews with staff from PROs and industry associations revealed that the upstream actors in the Norwegian EE industry are not yet very active in carrying out environmentally-friendly product changes. Reasons to this can be that, first, Norway is only a small market with no big producers, and second, there is no clear mechanism to stimulate "green products" in the pricing structure of the collective scheme. However, the implementation of the RoHS Directive drew rather high attention and participation from the producers to remove focal substances from their products.Though the Norwegian national EPR scheme does not bring out much of the upstream actors, the resources that are collected and flow into waste management motivate the downstream actors. To date, several EE waste treatment plants can be found national-wide. They are preoccupied to find technological solutions to process tricky EE products and increase their process efficiency.Three company cases were selected to be closely examined, in order to see the mechanism of policy influence. In Osram AS, lead was removed from their production of incandescent lamps, and the RoHS Directive was the main cause. Research activities in the mother company even started some years before the directive was finally promulgated. WEEE Recycling AS put together "the most modern recycling plant in the world" for EE waste, and Elektronikkgjenvinning AS possessed "the world's first facility capable of processing SF6" from some sealed-forlife electrical switch gears. For these process changes, the Norwegian EPR regulations have everything to say.


The invariance principle from causality is at the heart of notable approaches such as invariant risk minimization (IRM) that seek to address out-of-distribution (OOD) generalization failures. Despite the promising theory, invariance principle-based approaches fail in common classification tasks, where invariant (causal) features capture all the information about the label. Are these failures due to the methods failing to capture the invariance? Or is the invariance principle itself insufficient? To answer these questions, we revisit the fundamental assumptions in linear regression tasks, where invariance-based approaches were shown to provably generalize OOD. In contrast to the linear regression tasks, we show that for linear classification tasks we need much stronger restrictions on the distribution shifts, or otherwise OOD generalization is impossible. Furthermore, even with appropriate restrictions on distribution shifts in place, we show that the invariance principle alone is insufficient. We prove that a form of the information bottleneck constraint along with invariance helps address key failures when invariant features capture all the information about the label and also retains the existing success when they do not. We propose an approach that incorporates both of these principles and demonstrate its effectiveness in several experiments.


Various problems regarding the behaviour of fixed bed catalytic reactors involving highly exothermic reactions have been studied in relation to optimal design and control.

Steady and unsteady state mathematical models of various degrees of complexity have been used from those considering axial and radial diffusion to the simple one dimensional representation neglecting both mechanisms. Since these models would be used repeatedly, they must be relatively simply solved by a computer in a reasonable time and without loss of detail necessary to take full advantage of control or optimization processes.

Orthogonal collocation has proved a very efficient method of solution for solution of the radial diffusion and axial diffusion models. It has been shown that in the former case, an optimal distribution of the collocation points in the radial direction requires the minimum number
of points. Double collocation, under certain conditions, is an efficient integration procedure both for steady and unsteady state models. In the case of the axial diffusion model, some orthogonal polynomials converge faster than others depending on the profiles to be approximated.

It has been recognised that further reduction in computing time is usually coupled with a reduction in model dimensionality. A model reduction technique has been used to lump the radial profiles in the unsteady state radial diffusion model. This lumped model has the ability
to regenerate the radial profiles from simple algebraic expressions with reasonable accuracy compared with the distributed parameter system.

Studies on the transient behaviour of the reactor have indicated that the major dynamic factor is the solid heat capacitance and that the inlet temperature and concentration may be manipulated to effectively
control the reactor in a multi-variable mode. Consideration has also been given to the response of the reactor to sinusoidal and damped sinusoidal perturbations at the inlet. It has been found that for certain frequencies severe hot spots may be formed over a part of the
radial profiles before a safe quasi-stationary state is reached. A detailed examination of this behaviour has shown that the differences in the speeds of propagation of the concentration and temperature waves along the reactor were significant factors in determining the resulting
behaviour.

A steady state axial diffusion model in which the radial variation in temperature is approximated by a parabolic radial temperature profile has been considered. The limitations of this approximation have been identified and treated by the model reduction technique. Thus the model
developed gives adequate representation of axial and radial dispersion processes. Axial dispersion becomes important if the axial temperature and concentration gradients increase beyond a certain value. This value may be calculated from the axial profiles of the one dimensional model which neglects axial diffusion.

Consideration has been given to a dynamic model based on the above and the collocation and the reduction technique used to solve the model. The solution time is reduced to reasonable levels making, it suitable for detailed studies. Including the axial dispersion in the dynamic model
did not alter the qualitative behaviour of the reactor.

The exceptional cases are those related to parametric sensitivity or temperature runaway studies. Instability arising from parametric sensitivity or multiple states in either the radial or axial diffusion models has been considered. The criteria developed indicate that if
instability is to occur in the reactor, it is likely to originate from the solid phase regardless of the mechanisms considered in the fluid. Thus, conditions of catalyst particle stability are essential in establishing local stability of the reactor.


The Splanchnotrophidae are bizarre copepod endoparasites of shell-less opisthobranch gastropods which were rarely found in the Indo-Pacific. The genus Ceratosomicola Huys, 2001 included only the type species, C. sacculata (O'Donoghue, 1924), from tropical Western Australia. The present study points towards a much higher diversity: three new species, C. coia spec. nov., C. delicata spec. nov and C. mammillata spec. nov., are described from chromodoridid nudibranch hosts from Sulawesi, Indonesia. The parasite morphology was examined in detail using SEM. All female Ceratosomicola possess 3 pairs of elongate body processes, 4 pairs of cephalic appendages (two pairs of antennae, one pair of mandibles and one pair of maxillae) and highly reduced thoracopods. Major specific differences refer to the body shape, presence and number of dorsal and ventral bulges, and the structure of labrum, labium and thoracopods. The new species are sexually dimorphic, dwarf males of Ceratosomicola are herein described for the first time. Morphological structures are discussed comparatively; both intraspecific and intersexual variability is addressed. The genus Ceratosomicola is regarded as monophyletic, radiation may have occurred in and south of the Indonesian Archipelago, by host switching. All four Ceratosomicola species appear to be host specific, with females showing positional preferences inside their hosts. Biological adaptations of splanchnotrophids to special hosts and aspects of co-evolution are discussed.


With the advance of computer technology, kinetic typography, the animation of moving text, is becoming widely used in human communication. Yet, to date, there have been few social semiotic and multimodality studies in this area. This article draws on a case analysis of a national television public service advertisement in China to demonstrate how the concept of transitivity can be used to understand the meaning-making processes of kinetic typography. Kress and Van Leeuwen's Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design (2006[1996]) transitivity of visual grammar and Leão's 'A systemic functional approach to the analysis of animation in film opening titles' (2013) transitivity system of animation are applied in the analysis. The results show that their models can be basically applied to the analysis of kinetic typography. However, they also have restrictions that can be improved. For this reason, the author proposes an extended model of transitivity for the analysis of kinetic typography. The article ends with a discussion of some cross-cultural aspects of the analysed advertisement.


The local binary pattern (LBP) operator has been proved to be effective for image representation, but it is too local to be strength. In this paper, we propose Co-occurrence Matrix of Local Average Binary Pattern operator (CMLABP), and apply it to face recognition. In my method, calculation is performed based on average values of P-neighbor values of pixels, instead of individual pixels. In addition instead of histogram; that represents only the occurrences of the patterns without any indication about their locations, we use of Co-occurrence Matrix to extract features.The experimental results on the FERET and ORL face databases validate that the offered algorithm has better performance than or comparable performance with state-of-the-art local feature based methods.


Oxy-fuel combustion is one of the main candidates for carbon dioxide capture from power plants. In oxy-fuel combustion, oxygen diluted with recycled flue gas oxidizes the fuel. The elimination of air-borne nitrogen generates a flue gas that mainly consists of carbon dioxide and water. The carbon dioxide is compressed and separated from impurities to generate a stream suitable for storage. The emission of nitrogen oxides (NOx), which is the topic of this thesis, is important in the construction of all power plants. In oxy-fuel power plants, NOx may require consideration in the gas entering the flue gas treatment, in the gas ventilated to the atmosphere, and in the storage gas.
The combustion conditions of importance to nitrogen chemistry differ between the state of air and oxy-fuel operation due to the low concentration of air-borne nitrogen and the recycling of flue gases. This work investigates two combustion strategies for controlling the emission of NOx from oxy-fuel combustion: 1) reburning and 2) what we call "high-temperature reduction". Reburning reactions rapidly reduce NOx, which is recycled back to the flame zone. Reburning is promoted by sub-stoichiometric combustion and by controlling combustion temperatures. The high-temperature reduction is made feasible by the low concentration of nitrogen in oxy-fuel combustion, which may reverse the Zeldovich mechanism (responsible for thermal NOx formation) to reduce the NOx formed from fuel-bound nitrogen. To achieve this result, a combustion strategy with low air-ingress, sub-stoichiometric conditions and high inlet oxygen concentration is required. In contrast with the strategy for reburning reduction, the combustion strategy for high-temperature reduction is not conventional, but benefits from reduced flue gas flow and efficient combustion.
An oxy-fuel power plant also offers expanded opportunities for controlling NOx in the flue-gas treatment, which are reviewed in the present work. For example, the elevated pressure increases the formation of NO2, which may be absorbed in water. To find the optimal organisation of NOx control in oxy-fuel power plants, further work is required to define the limits of NOx, experimentally validate the proposed measures, and then evaluate the corresponding cost. It is of importance not to mimic the air-combustion in the development of oxy-fuel combustion, but rather utilize the broadened combustion conditions to arrive at the optimal performance with respect to emissions, combustion efficiency and investment.


Objectives To assess the feasibility of improving identification of familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH) in primary care, and of collecting outcome measures to inform a future trial. Design Feasibility intervention study. Setting 6 general practices (GPs) in central England. Participants 831 eligible patients with elevated cholesterol >7.5 mmol/L were identified, by search of electronic health records, for recruitment to the intervention. Intervention Educational session in practice; use of opportunistic computer reminders in consultations or universal postal invitation over 6 months to eligible patients invited to complete a family history questionnaire. Those fulfilling the Simon-Broome criteria for possible FH were invited for GP assessment and referred for specialist definitive diagnosis. Outcome measures Rates of recruitment of eligible patients, identification of patients with possible FH, referral to specialist care, diagnosis of confirmed FH in specialist care; and feasibility of collecting relevant outcome measures for a future trial. Results Of 173 general practices, 18 were interested in participating and 6 were recruited. From 831 eligible patients, 127 (15.3%) were recruited and completed family history questionnaires: 86 (10.7%) through postal invitation and 41 (4.9%) opportunistically. Among the 127 patients, 32 (25.6%) had a possible diagnosis of FH in primary care. Within 6 months of completing recruitment, 7 patients had had specialist assessment confirming 2 patients with definite FH (28.6%), and 5 patients with possible FH (71.4%). Potential trial outcome measures for lipid tests, statin prescribing and secondary causes of hypercholesterolaemia were extracted using automated data extraction from electronic records alone without recourse to other methods. Conclusions The intervention is feasible to implement in GP, and facilitates recruitment of patients with raised cholesterol for targeted assessment and identification of FH. Extracting data directly from electronic records could be used to evaluate relevant outcome measures in a future trial.


Nepal was hit by a powerful earthquake in 2015, causing enormous damage to physical infrastructure and human lives in many parts of the country. It caused serious threat to women's and children's health both during and after the earthquake. An article in this issue of the journal highlights one easily forgotten hardship among many faced by women in this situation. Budhathoki and coworkers describe the difficulties surrounding menstrual hygiene in post-earthquake Nepal, where women used and reused clothes as sanitary towels – a practice that was considered culturally acceptable and feasible in crisis situations.1 The authors argue that menstrual hygiene received a low priority due to the overwhelming need of water, food and shelter in such crisis situations. An earlier report based on field visits carried out in temporary camps in Sindhupalchok district has also highlighted that menstruation and childbirth are considered natural physiological phenomena not requiring attention, and are not prioritised in disaster areas.2

Even before the earthquake, women's health had not been prioritised in Nepal, …


Mechanical resonators are attractive for many applications in signal processing and sensing applications [1]. However, the aggressive scaling of their dimensions into the nanometer range with a simultaneous increase of the resonance frequency makes their direct measurement extremely difficult with electrostatic transduction, due to the very low signal level. Novel current modulation mechanisms, such as the FET based detection [2,3,4] and piezoresistive [5,6] current modulation, demonstrated the most promising results for highly sensitive motion detection in Nano-Electro-Mechanical (NEM) resonators.


This paper investigates a torque estimation method for muscle fatigue tracking, using stimulus evoked electromyography (eEMG) in the context of a functional electrical stimulation (FES) rehabilitation system. Although FES is able to effectively restore motor function in spinal cord injured (SCI) individuals, its application is inevitably restricted by muscle fatigue. In addition, the sensory feedback indicating fatigue is missing in such patients. Therefore, torque estimation is essential to provide feedback or feedforward signal for adaptive FES control. In this paper, a fatigue-inducing protocol is conducted on five SCI subjects via transcutaneous electrodes under isometric condition, and eEMG signals are collected by surface electrodes. A myoelectrical mechanical muscle model based on the Hammerstein structure with eEMG as model input is employed to capture muscle contraction dynamics. It is demonstrated that the correlation between eEMG and torque is time varying during muscle fatigue. Compared to conventional fixed-parameter models, the adapted-parameter model shows better torque prediction performance in fatiguing muscles. It motivates us to use a Kalman filter with forgetting factor for estimating the time-varying parameters and for tracking muscle fatigue. The assessment with experimental data reveals that the identified eEMG-to-torque model properly predicts fatiguing muscle behavior. Furthermore, the performance of the time-varying parameter estimation is efficient, suggesting that real-time tracking is feasible with a Kalman filter and driven by eEMG sensing in the application of FES.


Home security and control is one of the basic needs of mankind from early days. But today it has to be updated with the rapidly changing technology to ensure vast coverage, remote control, reliability, and real time operation. Deploying wireless technologies for security and control in home automation systems offers attractive benefits along with user friendly interface. In this paper, implementation of a novel security and control system for home automation is presented. The proposed system consists of a control console interfaced with different sensors using ZigBee. Suspected activities are conveyed to remote user through SMS (Short Message Service) or Call using GSM (Global System for Mobile communication) technology. Upon reply, the remote user can control his premises again through GSM-ZigBee combination. Besides, traditional burglar alarm enhances security in case of no acknowledgment from remote user. This system offers a low cost, low power consumption and user friendly way of a reliable portable monitoring and control of the secured environment. Using the concept of serial communication and mobile phone AT-commands (Attention Telephone/Terminal commands), the software is programmed using C-language. The design has been implemented in the hardware using ZigBee EM357 module, Atmega128 MCU (microcontroller unit) and Sony Ericsson T290i mobile phone set.


We report the first direct measurement of the grating phase shift evolution during white light illumination for the development of a fixed grating in an Fe-doped lithium niobate crystal. Stabilized holographic recording is shown to be essential to enable the present measurements. Experimental data are in good agreement with theory and allow computing relevant material parameters for the sample under anal ysis. The results here reported are of the upmost relevance for understanding the advantageous behavior of oxidized samples in hologram fixing.


The p-principal points of a random variable X with finite second moment are those p points in minimizing the expected squared distance from X to the closest point. Although the determination of principal points involves in general the resolution of a multiextremal optimization problem, existing procedures in the literature provide just a local optimum. In this paper we show that standard Global Optimization techniques can be applied.


Abstract According to Article 12 of Regulation (EC) No 396/2005, EFSA has reviewed the maximum residue levels (MRLs) currently established at European level for the pesticide active substance bispyribac. To assess the occurrence of bispyribac residues in plants, processed commodities, rotational crops and livestock, EFSA considered the conclusions derived in the framework of Directive 91/414/EEC as well as the European authorisations reported by Member States (including the supporting residues data). Based on the assessment of the available data, MRL proposals were derived and a consumer risk assessment was carried out. All information required by the regulatory framework was present and a risk to consumers was not identified.


Background/Aims: Previously, we demonstrated that blockade of the intracellular clearance systems in human retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells by MG-132 and bafilomycin A1 (BafA) induces NLRP3 inflammasome signaling. Here, we have explored the activation mechanisms behind this process. NLRP3 is an intracellular receptor detecting factors ranging from the endogenous alarmins and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) to ultraviolet radiation and solid particles. Due to the plethora of triggers, the activation of NLRP3 is often indirect and can be mediated through several alternative pathways. Potassium efflux, lysosomal rupture, and oxidative stress are currently the main mechanisms associated with many activators. Methods: NLRP3 inflammasomes were activated in human RPE cells by blocking proteasomes and autophagy using MG-132 and bafilomycin A1 (BafA), respectively. P2X7 inhibitor A740003, potassium chloride (KCl), and glyburide, or N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC), ammonium pyrrolidinedithiocarbamate (APDC), diphenyleneiodonium chloride (DPI), and mito-TEMPO were added to cell cultures in order to study the role of potassium efflux and oxidative stress, respectively. IL-1β was measured using the ELISA method. ATP levels and cathepsin B activity were examined using commercial kits, and ROS levels using the fluorescent dye 2´,7´-dichlorodihydrofluorescein diacetate (DCFDA). Results: Elevated extracellular potassium prevented the priming factor IL-1α from inducing the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). It also prevented IL-1β release after exposure of primed cells to MG-132 and BafA. Inflammasome activation increased extracellular ATP levels, which did not appear to trigger significant potassium efflux. The activity of the lysosomal enzyme, cathepsin B, was reduced by MG-132 and BafA, suggesting that cathepsin B was not playing any role in this phenomenon. Instead, MG-132 triggered ROS production already 30 min after exposure, but treatment with antioxidants blocking NADPH oxidase and mitochondria-derived ROS significantly prevented IL-1β release after this activating signal. Conclusion: Our data suggest that oxidative stress strongly contributes to the NLRP3 inflammasome activation upon dysfunctional cellular clearance. Clarification of inflammasome activation mechanisms provides novel options for alleviating pathological inflammation present in aggregation diseases, such as age-related macular disease (AMD) and Alzheimer's disease.


This work reports the preparation and characterization of hafnium (IV) oxide (HfO2) nanoparticles grown by derived sol-gel routes that involves the formation of an organic polymeric network. A comparison between polymerized complex (PC) and polymer precursor (PP) methods is presented. For the PC method, citric acid (CA) and ethylene glycol (EG) are used as the chelating and polymerizable reagents, respectively. In the case of PP method, poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) is used as the chelating reagent. In both cases, different precursor gels were prepared and the hafnium (IV) chloride (HfCl4) molar ratio was varied from 0.1 to 1.0 for the PC method and from 0.05 to 0.5 for the PP method. In order to obtain the nanoparticles, the precursors were heat treated at 500 and 800 °C. The thermal characterization of the precursor gels was carried out by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and the structural and morphological characterization by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The XRD patterns of the samples obtained by both methods shows the formation of HfO2 at 500 °C with monoclinic crystalline phase. The PC method exhibited also the cubic phase. Finally, the HfO2 nanoparticles size (4 to 11 nm) was determined by TEM and XRD patterns.


Video-on-Demand (VoD) has been hailed as a "killer app" of the Internet for a long time, but it has yet to really make a major breakthrough, due to various technical and political reasons. The recent influx of community-driven video distribution has reactualized the research into efficient distribution methods for streaming video. In this paper, we propose a number of modifications and extensions to the BitTorrent (BT) distribution and replication system to make it suitable for use in providing a streaming video delivery service, and implement parts of these in a simulator. Also, we report on a simulation study of the implemented extensions to the BT system.


Pain assessment in fish is particularly challenging due to their evolutionary distance from humans, their lack of audible vocalization, and apparently expressionless demeanour. However, there are criteria that can be used to gauge whether pain perception occurs using carefully executed scientific approaches. Here, the standards for pain in fish are discussed and can be considered in three ways: neural detection and processing of pain; adverse responses to pain; and consciously experiencing pain. Many procedures that we subject fish to cause tissue damage and may give rise to the sensation of pain. Fish are popular as pets, in animal exhibits, and as experimental models, but are also cultured or caught for food. There is little legislation for the protection of fish welfare. Many countries are now exploring the welfare cost to fish, and current practices may need to be reviewed with respect to the current evidence for fish perceiving pain.


Sediment and water from urban water bodies in the Lulea area, northern Sweden, were studied to determine the degree of contamination from metals and PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons). The heavy metals Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn, which are of main concern in urban stormwater, are enriched in all investigated bays. PAH concentrations were also found to be enriched. The water and sediment quality of the investigated water bodies depends on catchment area characteristics and emission impact, from point sources in particular. Water volume and turnover rate in the water bodies with low water levels and no surface runoff during wintertime, and ice covering during winter, contribute to anoxic conditions in the water column and sediments. The present redox conditions in the water bodies predominantly cause fixation of pollutants in the sediment due to formation of sulphides and slow oxidation of organic pollutants. Postglacial land uplift implies continuous changes in the environment, which can lead to changing redox conditions, thereby necessitating new risk assessments.


The extensive usage of Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifier (EDFA) in fiber optic networks creates many
new configurations and technologies. Conventional optical amplifiers based on EDFA can amplify
multiple channels at the same time, but within a single fiber optic core. The amplifier can be made to
support multiple fibers, however the channels must be at different set of wavelengths, which is
impractical since optical channels are standardized at a specific set of wavelengths. Therefore, the
application of optical amplifiers are limited for one fiber core only. As an alternative, a design of an
EDFA is hereby proposed. With this amplifier, it will make the network management simpler. It also
provides flexibility in optical network design.
In this dissertation, the design and development of EDFA is detailed and discussed. The design has
made it possible to support two fibers with each one carrying the same set of wavelengths. This is
achieved by taking advantage the polarization multiplexing techniques which allow a combination of lights by setting them linear and orthogonally apart. The signals co-exist in a single core EDF by
differentiating both of their polarity using polarization controllers. Then it will combine through in a
single core using a 3dB coupler. The combined signals are then amplified by the EDFA
simultaneously, doubling the amount of signals carried by the same wavelength.
The amplifier has been successfully tested at the transmission speed as high as 2.5Gbps. Moderate
gain and noise figure of the EDFA was achieved at an optimum pump power for the EDF at 40mW.
The transmission performance also shows tolerable polarization crosstalk due to unpolarized amplified
spontaneous emission with the bit error rate showing little difference compared to that of the
conventional amplifier. The results were obtained mainly through experimentation while others are
through software simulation.


Cells are tiny manufacturing plants for proteins. To ensure the quality of these products, the cell picks out misfolded and misassembled proteins and destroys them. In his Perspective, Riezman describes recent progress in understanding this quality control process and explains a report presented in this issue by [ Biederer et al .][1], which sheds light on how these defective proteins are labeled for destruction by the cell.

 [1]: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/short/278/5344/1806