The recent advances in light field imaging, supported among others by the introduction of commercially available cameras, e.g., Lytro or Raytrix, are changing the ways in which visual content is captured and processed. Efficient storage and delivery systems for light field images must rely on compression algorithms. Several methods to compress light field images have been proposed recently. However, in-depth evaluations of compression algorithms have rarely been reported. This paper aims at the evaluation of perceived visual quality of light field images and at comparing the performance of a few state-of-the-art algorithms for light field image compression. First, a processing chain for light field image compression and decompression is defined for two typical use cases, professional and consumer. Then, five light field compression algorithms are compared by means of a set of objective and subjective quality assessments. An interactive methodology recently introduced by authors, as well as a passive methodology is used to perform these evaluations. The results provide a useful benchmark for future development of compression solutions for light field images.


As reported previously, gamma interferon (IFN-gamma) production was selectively decreased in thermally injured mice (TI-Mice) and spleen cell cultures from the mice following stimulation with various IFN inducers. The decrease in IFN production was associated with splenic suppressor macrophages. The present study demonstrated that TI-Mice treated with Ge-132 (TGe-Mice) produced IFN following stimulation with IFN-gamma inducers. The level of IFN activity detected in the sera of TGe-Mice approximated that of controls. Similar results were obtained when spleen cells prepared from TGe-Mice were stimulated with IFN-gamma inducers in vitro. While transfer of spleen cells from TI-Mice resulted in the suppression of IFN production in normal mice (N-Mice) stimulated with IFN-gamma inducers, the transfer of spleen cells derived from TGe-Mice did not induce suppression of IFN production in N-Mice. Mononuclear cells (MNC) prepared from N-Mice produced IFN following concanavalin A (Con A) stimulation when they were co-cultured with macrophage-enriched populations (PAC) obtained from the spleens of TGe-Mice. In contrast, MNC stimulated with Con A did not produce IFN activity when they were co-cultured with PAC of TI-Mice. These results suggest that the generation of suppressor macrophages in TI-Mice may be altered by the administration of Ge-132.


We investigated effects of testosterone treatment on timing and rate of moult of wing-feathers in male Shelducks Tadorna tadorna, and whether this treatment influences the timing of moult in untreated females. Three experimental treatments were conducted, each with two groups of sexual inactive male Shelducks, which were kept under natural photoperiods in The Netherlands. Each group consisted of two pairs and a single male. Males received implants with testosterone-proprionate for seven weeks shortly before the natural moult onset of wing-feathers. Statt of treatment was 27 June (treatment 1),5 July (treatment II), and 18 July (treatment III). Males delayed their moult until the end of hormone treatment. The degree of delay in statt of moult within the same treatment was related to androgen blood levels. The untreated females of the testosterone-treated males delayed also their onset of moult. The timing of the end of moult was unaffected by the hormonal treatment. Males that moulted late did not speed up the rate of moult, or changed the pattern of moult, but some of these birds stopped moult before completion. The data indicate that under natural photoperiods the statt of moult is quite flexible, requires low levels of androgens, and is under the influence of social factors, while the end of moult is fixed.


Microrobots can make a great impact in medical applications such as minimally-invasive surgery, screening and diagnosis of diseases, targeted therapy and drug delivery. Small-sized bio-inspired robots can mimic flagellar propulsion mechanisms of microorganisms for actuation in microfluidic environments, which are dominated by viscous forces. Microorganisms propel themselves by means of the motion of their flagella such as rotation of rigid helices or travelling planar waves on flexible tails similar to whipping motion. Here, we present characterization of swimming of onboard-powered autonomous robots inside cylindrical tubes. Robots consist of two links, head and tail, connected with a revolute joint. Rigid helical tails of the swimmer robots are made of steel wires with 12 different configurations of helical radius and pitch. From experiments forward linear velocity of robots and angular velocities of the links are measured, and compared with the mathematical model, which is based on the resistive force theory. Results indicate that the motion of the swimmer inside channels can be predicted by means of the resistive force theory reasonably well.


Background: Generalized anxiety disorders (GAD) are amongst the most prevalent mental disorders. Recent studies have suggested that cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) is an effective treatment for GAD. A controlled clinical trial was done to evaluate the efficacy of CBT treatment in outpatients with pure GAD who were treated by a therapist working in routine care. Methods: Seventy-two outpatients, fulfilling GAD criteria according to DSM-IV, were included in the study. From this group, 36 patients (CBT-A) were randomly assigned to 25 sessions of CBT and the other 36 formed a contact control group (CCG). After the contact control period (CC period), these patients were also treated with CBT (CBT-B), allowing not only a parallel group comparison but also an A-B comparison. Therapists were licensed full-time psychologists who worked routinely in outpatient care and had a professional training in CBT. Treatment was done in accordance with a manual, and treatment conformity was controlled by several methods. Results: The reduction in the score on the Hamilton Anxiety Observer Rating Scale was 6.4% (1.5 points) in the CCG, 35.4% (9.5 points) in the CBT-A and 47.3% (10.3 points) in the CBT-B. In the self-rating Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, a reduction of 2.7% was seen in CCG, 14.6% in CBT-A, and 11.6% in CBT-B. According to the Clinical Global Impression Rating, 65.6% of patients were still at least moderately ill at the end of the CC period, while this rate was 33.4% at the end of CBT-A, or 15.7% at the end of CBT-B. All these differences between treatment and control group are statistically highly significant. The clinical improvement remained stable over a follow-up period of 8 months. Conclusions: CBT is an effective method of treatment for GAD. Differences between control and treatment group are comparable to or larger than those reported in studies on antidepressant drugs.


Stemming words to remove suffixes has applications in text search, translation machine, summarization document, and text classification. For example, Indonesian stemming reduces the words "kebaikan", "perbaikan", "memperbaiki" and "sebaik-baiknya" to their common morphological root "baik". In text search, this permits a search for player to find documents containing all words with the stem play. In the Indonesian language, stemming is of crucial importance: words have prefixes, suffixes, infixes, and confixes that make them match to relate difficult words. This research proposed a stemmer with more accurate word results by employing algorithm which gave more than one word candidate results and more than one affix combinations. New stemming algorithm is called CAT stemming algorithm. Here, the word results did not depend on the order of the morphological rule. All rules were checked and the word results were kept in a candidate list. To make an efficient stemmer, two kinds of word lists (vocabularies) were used: words that had more than one candidate words and list of root word as a candidate reference. The final word results were selected with several rules. This strategy was proved to have better result than the two most known about Indonesian stemmers. The experiments showed that the proposed approach gave higher accuracy than the compared systems known.


We develop and calibrate a search-theoretic model of the labor market in order to forecast the evolution of the aggregate US labor market during and after the coronavirus pandemic. The model is designed to capture the heterogeneity of the transitions of individual workers across states of unemployment and employment and across different employers. The model is designed also to capture the trade-offs in the choice between temporary and permanent layoffs. Under reasonable parametrizations of the model, the lockdown instituted to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus is shown to have long-lasting negative effects on unemployment. This is because the lockdown disproportionately disrupts the employment of workers who need years to find stable jobs.


When non-native scholars wish to write for their counterparts they should try to adapt their writing styles to the English norms which is considered as a national language among the global researchers around the world. Because the language they write is foreign, they face differences which make the writing difficult. These differences may be related to the different identity and cultural backgrounds. Accordingly, scholars should notice about the features of academic writing, in general and, in a particular field to overcome these differences. Therefore, the purpose of the present study is to give some enlightenment on the various elements which can have less or more effects on the style of non-native writers. Thus, this descriptive study makes clear the different features of the academic writing to help non-native writers to know some of the issues which should be pondered by writers in adapting themselves with the norms of writing which is acceptable by the English academic culture in a global scene. The findings give information to the EAP instructors to raise the learners' consciousness about the norms of the target culture.


1) What is the relationship between medical students' final examiner communication skills scores (4th year OSCE) and coded video analysis of these students communication skills with patients on community placement (5th year)? (2) What is the relationship between coded video analysis of students' communication skills & patient satisfaction scores on community placement (5th year)?
Background A large body of literature provides evidence that effective patient-doctor communication leads to more positive health and well-being outcomes for both the patient and the physician, and the delivery of high quality medical care1,2,3,4. Communication skills thus become a taught and assessed core competency of UK medical schools. This study reports on the relationship between the communication skills of 4th year medical students in their exam finals (OSCEs) with simulated patients, and after final examinations their subsequent communication with patients in primary care settings.
Summary of work 39 medical students were videoed interviewing 2 to 6 patients (n=145) in GP surgeries in their final year (5th year). The quality of the videoed communication was rated with the Verona consensus coding scheme (VR-CoDES). The coding scheme detects and quantifies student responses to patient cue/concerns regarding emotional distress. That is, do students provide space for actual patients to
3 / 7
discuss psychosocial distressing issues? All these students had passed communication skills final examinations previously in a simulated setting (4th year OSCE). This examiner data was also collected. Patient satisfaction with students' communication skills data (CAT-S questionnaire) was also collected from videoed patients in the GP clinics.
Analysis We are in the process of analysing the results. Data will be inputted and analysed in SPSS to examine the relationship between coded video communication skills scores in GP surgeries (5th year) and (a) OSCE communication skills examiner and (b) patient satisfaction questionnaires at these surgeries (5th year).
Conclusion and future directions The interpretation and discussion of the findings will pay particular attention to the context of teaching and assessing communication across the transition from medical school to health care settings. It has also highlighted the need to longitudinally examine students' communication skills outside the simulated setting. This is particularly relevant as assessment of communication skills is largely based on simulated student/patient consultations at the University of Liverpool.


Plan Indonesia's water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) program features the use of community led total
sanitation (CLTS) and hygiene promotion projects in several districts in Indonesia. To contribute to
universal access and to reach the most vulnerable people, Plan Indonesia seeks to continuously improve
disability inclusive strategies within its WASH program. Plan Indonesia has found that people with
disabilities (PWD) are unable to access regular sanitation and hygiene facilities even though there is a
strong willingness to improve their own hygiene practices. Together with government partners, Plan
Indonesia's WASH program has explicitly worked with PWD to improve their access to sanitation and
hygiene facilities. Plan Indonesia has also worked with sanitation marketing entrepreneurs for the
provision of specifically-designed toilets that meet the needs of PWD within the program area. Reflecting
on current achievement, Plan Indonesia's aim is for this approach to be adopted by local government
who are not yet aware of disability inclusion issue. This paper provides general information on steps
taken and the results during the implementation of disability inclusive WASH by Plan Indonesia.


In this paper, re-identification techniques are exploited to add context awareness to a multi-target tracker and enhance its tracking performance, in an online manner. To achieve that, targets are labeled as independent, occluders or occluded ones, based on the completeness of their appearance information. For each category, a different tracking strategy is employed to achieve the optimal results. In cases of tracking failure, an online automated re-identification technique is proposed, to alleviate multiple identity assignments to the same target. Experimental evaluation conducted on the CAVIAR and PETS 2009 datasets shows that the proposed mechanism enhances tracking performance compared to a baseline tracker and achieves competitive performance with state of the art methods.


This is an exploratory case study evaluating the process of TQM implementation in the 23 TQM demonstration sites in the NHS. These sites were set up in 1989 by the Department of Health as centres of excellence for the implementation of TQM. An earlier study evaluating TQM in the NHS failed to adequately contextualise the reasons for the argument that orthodox TQM has failed in the NHS. Against this background, it became necessary to carry out an extensive reassessment of TQM initiatives in the NHS. The central thrust of the study involves the identification of: the differing modes of implementation of TQM across the sites; the difficulties managers were encountering in the implementation of TQM; barriers to the implementation of TQM; the critical key success factors for the successful implementation of TQM in the NHS; and, based on empirical evidence seeks to determine whether a specific model of TQM is required in the NHS. As Francis Bacon noted, 'if anyone wants to understand nature, he has to study nature rather than base their understanding on Aristotle's postulations of nature. This is because Aristotle did not understand nature, his ideas about nature were not empirically determined' Hence, to gain a conceptual understanding of TQM, it is necessary to understand 'implementation' and not base understanding on the outmoded ideas of the Gurus, whose philosophies are not grounded in empirical data. Thus, the TQM literature is inundated with TQM models that are based on anecdotal evidence and the personal prescriptions of TQM writers. This situation has led to a call by a number of writers for an empirically determined implementation model for TQM; particularly in the healthcare setting. To determine whether such a model is required in the NHS, this exploratory study used a unique combination of qualitative and quantitative data to sample 23 Quality Managers at the 23 TQM sites in order to provide an accurate rendition of the TQM process in the NHS. The study makes a valid contribution to the quality literature, by contending that TQM has not failed in the NHS as earlier suggested by one study, but is yet to be tried. Allegations of failure arise from improper implementation, which is itself symptomatic of the lack of a context-specific model for the implementation of TQM in the NHS. The conclusion was reached from a number of perspectives: (1) the critique of current TQM literature which is based on the personal ideas of quality management proponents (Chapter Three). (2) a reconceptualisation of the implementation of TQM. The study suggests that the traditional paradigms of TQM lack adequate contextualisation. They onlyprovide answers for the "what" of TQM in the form of step-by-step approaches, or of TQM as a vehicle for culture change, without providing the practising manager with the 'how' of the implementation process. This apparentlimitation, the author suggests, makes TQM orthodoxy inappropriate to dealwith the complexities of the NHS (Chapter Four). (3) the study also found that the suggestions in the literature that the barriers to the implementation of TQM have generic applicability across organisations is a misnomer. In most of the hospitals the difficulties that quality managers were facing were specific to the organisational context (Chapter Five). (4) seventeen critical success factors were identified as valid and specific to the NHS. These factors, unlike the 'Ten Critical Success Factors' identified by Black6 are of equal importance for the implementation of TQM and are not categorised on a scale of importance (Chapter Seven).In the final analysis, the study, as a major contribution to knowledge in the quality management field, provides the first empirically determined context specific model for the implementation of TQM in the NHS. The model represents the first problem specific model validated by the experiences of fifteen quality managers in the NHS. It provides an empirical understanding of the 'nature' of the implementation of TQM within the confines of the British National Health Service. In addition, a measurement framework to monitor the progress of TQM at various stages of the implementation process is offered (Chapter Seven).


Summary
The formation of callus at the basal end of tobacco internode tissues cultured on a basic medium has been used as an indication of the presence of auxin within the tissues. It has been shown in this way that sections of internode are capable of producing auxin. This production of auxin is related to the continued activity of the vascular cambium. If cambial activity and vascular differentiation are eliminated, auxin is no longer produced. When tissues in which cambial activity and vascular differentiation are taking place are cultured on a medium containing an inhibitor of polar auxin transport, tri-iodo benzoic acid, serried ranks of xylem tracheids are formed. It is suggested that auxin is produced as a consequence of xylem differentiation and the observations reported in this paper are interpreted in the light of this hypothesis. It is also suggested that kinins may be produced as a result of xylem and phloem differentiation, and the possibility that autolysing cells are a major source of both auxins and kinins in the plant is discussed.


Geophysicists are often concerned with reconstructing subsurface properties using observations collected at or near the surface. For example, in seismic migration, we attempt to reconstruct subsurface geometry from surface seismic recordings, and in potential field inversion, observations are used to map electrical conductivity or density variations in geologic layers. The procedure of inferring information from indirect observations is called an inverse problem by mathematicians, and such problems are common in many areas of the physical sciences. The inverse problem of inferring the subsurface using surface observations has a corresponding forward problem, which consists of determining the data that would be recorded for a given subsurface configuration. In the seismic case, forward modeling involves a method for calculating a synthetic seismogram, for gravity data it consists of a computer code to compute gravity fields from an assumed subsurface density model. Note that forward modeling often involves assumptions about the appropriate physical relationship between unknowns (at depth) and observations on the surface, and all attempts to solve the problem at hand are limited by the accuracy of those assumptions. In the broadest sense then, exploration geophysicists have been engaged in inversion since the dawn of the profession and indeed algorithms often applied in processing centers can all be viewed as procedures to invert geophysical data.


Become a smoother, faster, and better-conditioned skater-on asphalt and on ice. "Speed on Skates," the most comprehensive and in-depth book ever written on in-line and ice speedskating, gives you the instruction and drills to master basic to advanced techniques. Elite skater and coach Barry Publow combines the science and art of speedskating as he covers every discipline: - In-line-indoor and outdoor - Long track- Short track- Marathon skatingFirst, Publow explains and demonstrates the mechanics of efficient skating form with regard to basic body position, push-off, glide, stroke recovery, weight transfer, crossover steps, and turn mechanics for both in-line and ice speedskating. He also presents straightaway, cornering, and double-push drills plus advanced in-line techniques.Next, Publow shares training methods proven to improve the quality of your workouts and produce the best skating performance. He breaks down the components of an effective conditioning program and highlights the most beneficial training exercises for skaters. Individual chapters focus on heart rate training, interval training, power training, building strength and muscular endurance, and stretching and flexibility. This section concludes with year-round training plans specifying off-season, preparatory phase, and competitive season activities and workloads for in-line and ice skaters.Now that you're in shape to compete, Publow shifts his sights to racing. From selecting the proper equipment to using effective solo strategies and team tactics, you'll learn how to get the edge in both safety and speed! Equally valuable for first-time competitors and elite racers, "Speed on Skates" is the best and most complete guide to speedskating technique, training, and racing. A must for athletes, coaches too will find the book a valuable tool for training their skaters to a higher level of performance.


This study aimed to investigate the antitumor-promoting effects of total ethanolic extract from Perilla leaf (PLE) in a two-stage chemical carcinogenesis protocol in mice. Quantitative analysis active compounds in PLE were performed by thin layer chromatography with normal phase of silica gel F254 and HPLC-PDA with reversed phase of C18 column at UV 300 nm. The cutaneous tumors were initiated by a single application by 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene (DMBA) on the dorsal shaved skin, then promoted by repeated applications of croton oil during 20 weeks. PLE was topically applied daily until the end of the experiment. The results observed from thin layer chromatogram highlighted the presence of rosmarinic acid and luteolin in PLE. By means of HPLC-PDA analysis, the total content of rosmarinic acid and luteolin were found in amounts of 1.178 p 0.011 % (w/w) and 0.105 p 0.001 % (w/w), respectively. The PLE-treated group prolonged the latency period of tumor appearance up to 2 weeks and also significantly reduced tumor volume in dorsal skin of mice as compared to untreated group. In conclusion, the total ethanolic extract from leaves of Perilla frutescens demonstrated promising antitumor-promotion activity in mouse skin.


Muscarinic potassium channels (KACh) are composed of two subunits, GIRK1 and GIRK4 (or CIR), and are directly gated by G proteins. We have identified a novel gating mechanism of KACh, independent of G-protein activation. This mechanism involved functional modification of KACh which required hydrolysis of physiological levels of intracellular ATP and was manifested by an increase in the channel mean open time. The ATP-modified channels could in turn be gated by intracellular Na+, starting at approximately 3 mM with an EC50 of approximately 40 mM. The Na(+)-gating of KACh was operative both in native atrial cells and in a heterologous system expressing recombinant channel subunits. Block of the Na+/K+ pump (e.g., by cardiac glycosides) caused significant activation of KACh in atrial cells, with a time course similar to that of Na+ accumulation and in a manner indistinguishable from that of Na(+)-mediated activation of the channel, suggesting that cardiac glycosides activated KACh by increasing intracellular Na+ levels. These results demonstrate for the first time a direct effect of cardiac glycosides on atrial myocytes involving ion channels which are critical in the regulation of cardiac rhythm.


BACKGROUND: Helicobacter pylori is a bacterium which causes gastric inflammatory diseases. Oral inoculation of H pylori usually results in only a temporary colonisation without a successful infection in the stomach of conventional mice in which lactobacilli are the predominant indigenous bacteria. AIM: To determine whether lactobacilli exert an inhibitory effect on colonisation by H pylori in the stomach. METHODS: The effects of H pylori on attachment to murine and human gastric epithelial cells and the H pylori mediated release of interleukin-8 (IL-8) by these cells were examined in vitro. Lactobacillus salivarius infected gnotobiotic BALB/c mice and control germ free mice were inoculated orally with H pylori to examine whether L salivarius can inhibit colonisation by H pylori. RESULTS: L salivarius inhibited both the attachment and IL-8 release in vitro. H pylori could not colonise the stomach of L salivarius infected gnotobiotic BALB/c mice, but colonised in large numbers and subsequently caused active gastritis in germ free mice. In addition, L salivarius given after H pylori implantation could eliminate colonisation by H pylori. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest the possibility of lactobacilli being used as probiotic agents against H pylori.


Feature Issue on Passive Optical Network Architectures and TechnologiesWe describe how a passive optical network (PON) extender box can be implemented at standard PON wavelengths (1310 and 1490nm) using either optical fiber amplifiers (praseodymium and thulium) or semiconductor optical amplifiers to further increase the physical reach and split of a current standardized PON system such as a G-PON or GE-PON. The transparency to PON protocol of this approach means no changes to the existing standards are required. This is attractive as operators and vendors are keen to fully exploit the investment made in current PON standards.


Lipidomics is a rapidly expanding research field in which multiple techniques are utilized to quantitate the hundreds of chemically distinct lipids in cells and determine the molecular mechanisms through which they facilitate cellular function. Recent developments in electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI/MS) have made possible, for the first time, the precise identification and quantification of alterations in a cell's lipidome after cellular perturbations. This review provides an overview of the essential role of ESI/MS in lipidomics, presents a broad strategy applicable for the generation of lipidomes directly from cellular extracts of biological samples by ESI/MS, and summarizes salient examples of strategies utilized to conquer the lipidome in physiologic signaling as well as pathophysiologically relevant disease states. Because of its unparalleled sensitivity, specificity, and efficiency, ESI/MS has provided a critical bridge to generate highly accurate data that fingerprint cellular lipidomes to facilitate insight into the functional role of subcellular membrane compartments and microdomains in mammalian cells. We believe that ESI/MS-facilitated lipidomics has now opened a critical door that will greatly increase our understanding of human disease.


The net outcome of the Bonn climate talks (23rd Conference of the Parties, COP23) in November was lukewarm at best. Many technical issues were brought forward and the political risks caused by the US announcement to pull out of the Paris Agreement were kept at bay. Yet, leadership to fill the void left by the US was lacking. Germany, who was co-hosting with the Fiji Islands, could not table ambitious solutions as in November 2017 it only had a caretaker government in place. The Fiji Presidency brought attention to adaptation, agriculture, finance and the loss and damage debates, but could not succeed to the full extent, mainly due to conflicts on finance. The performance by China was disappointing as it did not follow up on its ambitions to lead. With a view to 2018, the EU once again claimed a leadership role on the international climate agenda, though not unilaterally. During the Bonn UNFCCC negotiations, however, the EU disappointed many of its partners as it did not deliver as a constructive negotiator and bridge builder. Rather, it pushed for some of the technical issues. Given the urgency to forge a rulebook for the Paris Agreement implementation and in light of progressing climate change, the EU and its Member States need to demonstrate instrumental and directional leadership in the run-up to the next COP in Katowice, Poland in 2018.


OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to verify the influence of net-cage fish farming on zooplankton biomass in the Ita reservoir (Uruguay River, Brazil). METHODS: Samples were collected monthly from October/2009 to May/2010 at the surface and at the bottom in two sampling stations, the net-cage area and in a control area using a Van Dorn bottle and a plankton net (68 µm). RESULTS: The Cladocera and Copepoda biomass was estimated by dry weight using a micro-analytical balance, and the Rotifera biomass by Biovolume. Total zooplankton biomass varied between 6.47 and 131.56 mgDW.m-3 Calanoida copepod presented the highest value of biomass (127.56 mgDW.m-3) and rotifers, despite having an important contribution to total density, showed a maximum biomass of 2.01 mgDW.m-3. Zooplankton biomass at the net-cage area surface was higher when compared with the control area during the months of October to January. However, the zooplankton biomass was similar at the bottom of the two areas throughout the studied period. From February until May, zooplankton biomass decreased in both sampling stations, a fact probably associated with the flushing of the reservoir, followed by an increase in water transparency and a decrease in chlorophyll-a concentration in the following months (February to May). CONCLUSIONS: The influence of fish farming on zooplankton biomass was detected at the surface of the net-cage area only from October to January. From February to May this influence was not found, probably by the influence of the flushing of the reservoir.


We propose regular expression types as a foundation for statically typed XML processing languages. Regular expression types, like most schema languages for XML, introduce regular expression notations such as repetition (*), alternation (|), etc., to describe XML documents. The novelty of our type system is a semantic presentation of subtyping, as inclusion between the sets of documents denoted by two types. We give several examples illustrating the usefulness of this form of subtyping in XML processing.The decision problem for the subtype relation reduces to the inclusion problem between tree automata, which is known to be EXPTIME-complete. To avoid this high complexity in typical cases, we develop a practical algorithm that, unlike classical algorithms based on determinization of tree automata, checks the inclusion relation by a top-down traversal of the original type expressions. The main advantage of this algorithm is that it can exploit the property that type expressions being compared often share portions of their representations. Our algorithm is a variant of Aiken and Murphy's set-inclusion constraint solver, to which are added several new implementation techniques, correctness proofs, and preliminary performance measurements on some small programs in the domain of typed XML processing.


Subaerial fallout from the Holocene eruption of Mount Mazama in the Oregon Cascade Range was deposited upon relatively low permeability volcanic and volcaniclastic bedrock and regolith. In the Walker Rim study area, erosion by ephemeral streams shortly after the eruption disrupted the lateral continuity of the 270 to 300 cm-thick pumice deposit. Co-evolution of the surface- and ground-water systems in a low-relief, low-slope landscape allowed diffuse groundwater discharge from the banks of the evolving stream system. Accumulation of organic material from groundwater dependent ecosystems at these sites of discharge allowed peat deposits to form on gently sloping erosion surfaces cut into the pumice deposit. Following early stream incision, fine-grained, silt-rich deposits accumulated in valleys and contributed permeability barriers to the lateral migration of water in the pumice aquifer. Fens discharge from the pumice aquifer through gently sloping surfaces patterned after the slope of the erosion surface cut into the pumice deposit and overlain by approximately 1 m of peat on the sloping surface and alluvium or iron-cemented pumice overlain by alluvium at the toe of the slope. The predominant source of groundwater is snowmelt which infiltrates the pumice deposit during the freshet. However, shallow groundwater flow also takes place along permeable pathways in bedrock units. Locally, low volume discharge takes place along faults. The snowmelt-dependent hydrologic system that supports the fens of the Walker Rim study area occurs at elevations primarily above 1585 m.


In the present paper the approach of the law of Thirlwall was used to study the relation between the economic growth and the external sector of Argentina in period 1970-2003. Thirlwall maintains that the main restriction that has an opened economy to obtain a rate of growth elevated in the long term is its balance of payments (BP). Strictly the restriction arises by the characteristics from the functions from demand by exports and imports. The law of Thirlwall indicates that if in the long term the rate of real growth of the GDP (yt) can be approximated through the rate of consistent growth with the balance of the BP (yb) and both are small in relation to third countries, then the growth of that economy this restricted by the BP. Empirically we worked first with the equation that relates to the GDP of Argentina and the World GDP through the ratio of the elasticities entrance of the demands by exports and imports, which defines the law of Thirlwall without flows of capitals. We demonstrated to the existence of a relation of long term between the GDP of Argentina and the world-wide GDP. We formalized the relation through the model TIME II. Soon one worked with the definition of the law of Thirlwall with real flows of capitals without getting to formulate a econometric model in as much we could not prove the existence of a relation of long term between the flows of real capitals and the GDP of Argentina between years 1970-2003. We changed the strategy and we studied the equations of demand by exports and imports. Through these we managed to calculate the elasticities income of both functions, that respectively turned out to be 2.02 and 3.41 for the exports and imports. Defining the ratio of elasticities entrance of the exports and imports (e / π) equal to 0.59, minor to the unit. With this result we could calculate the rate of growth of the consistent GDP with the balance of the BP. The annual average of the considered rate was 2%, that approximates in the long term to the rate of real growth of the GDP equal to 1,9%. Both rates are smaller to experimented by regions and the countries in the same period. For example Brazil grew 4%, South America 3.1 and the world economy expanded to 3.1% annual. With these elements we can affirm that the growth of the GDP in Argentina during period 1970-2003 was restricted by the BP.


It has been reported in the media that bid rigging is commonly practised in almost all public works projects in Japan. It was also said that the Japanese anti-trust authority, the Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC), was a watchdog that did not bite, in spite of having a long history of enforcement since 1947. However, the situation is significantly changing because the Japanese Antimonopoly Act was amended in 2005 to greatly strengthen anti-trust enforcement. The JFTC has already succeeded in cracking down against bid rigging committed by big and famous companies under the new Act. For the present, the Japanese business community has to seriously address compliance problems. Can the AMA change the business community?


A deplorable practice has emerged in the world of adoption. Adoptive families are now using the Internet to give their unwanted adopted children over to complete strangers, some of whom are traffickers, pedophiles, child pornographers, or worse. This practice is known as private rehoming. Through the use of online message boards and a simple notarized power of attorney document, adoptive parents are circumventing the adoption system — including its home study and background check requirements for prospective parents — and placing children in great danger. Because only a handful of states have enacted legislation directly targeting private re-homing and because no such legislation exists at the federal level, this Note calls for drastic change to protect the best interests of adopted children. This Note also proposes a model state statute to combat private re-homing. Without regulation or restraint, private re-homing will perpetuate a world wide web of unwanted children. The dangers that this practice poses for adopted children and the severity of its consequences demand the holistic solution that this Note recommends, which includes taking steps at both the state and federal levels to prevent and prohibit private re-homing.


Mobile phones have evolved from communication devices to indispensable accessories with access to real-time content. The increasing reliance on dynamic content comes at the cost of increased latency to pull the content from the Internet before the user can start using it. While prior work has explored parts of this problem, they ignore the bandwidth costs of prefetching, incur significant training overhead, need several sensors to be turned on, and do not consider practical systems issues that arise from the limited background processing capability supported by mobile operating systems. In this paper, we make app prefetch practical on mobile phones. Our contributions are two-fold. First, we design an app prediction algorithm, APPM, that requires no prior training, adapts to usage dynamics, predicts not only which app will be used next but also when it will be used, and provides high accuracy without requiring additional sensor context. Second, we perform parallel prefetch on screen unlock, a mechanism that leverages the benefits of prediction while operating within the constraints of mobile operating systems. Our experiments are conducted on long-term traces, live deployments on the Android Play Market, and user studies, and show that we outperform prior approaches to predicting app usage, while also providing practical ways to prefetch application content on mobile phones.


Effective risk management - the identification, assessment and prioritization of risks - is a vital consideration when looking to safeguard your company's commercial future and deal with the latest regulatory requirements. Managing Business Risk will enable your company to maintain controls on risks that may threaten your business while at the same time delivering transparent reporting to your stakeholders. The book examines the key areas of risk in today's competitive and complex business market. Drawing on expert advice from leading risk consultants, lawyers and regulatory authorities, it shows you how to protect your business against a rising tide of risks. If you don't build risk controls into the structure of your company, from the boardroom down, then your business could be vulnerable to a number of threats - both internal and external. Identify and neutralise them now, and give your company a competitive advantage.


Since the life expectancy increased over 65 years in many populations, the increasing rate of the elderly people in the overall population gets the medical and social problems of the elderly population together. This study was carried out to evaluate the medico-social problems of the elder inhabitants of Trabzon Second Primary Care Region. 650 elderly individuals living in that region were planned to enrol the study, but just 560 individuals of 280 male and 280 female could been reached. The mean age of the women was 70.9 ± 0.3 and men was 70.5 ± 0.4 years. 80.5 % of the individuals were young elder ones. It was found that, 53.6% of the women were married, 45.7% were widow and 87.1% of the men were married and 12.1% were widow. 66.1 % of the women and 42.7 % of the men can't write and read; and 29.7 % of the women and 59.7 % of the men just can write and read or graduated of first school basic education. 98.3 % of the women were housewives and 31.4 % of the men were retired workers. 16.4 % of the women and 9.3 % of the men had no social security. 82.1 % of the women and 92.9 % of the men has a room in the house and 90.0 % of all individuals have at least one friend or relative. 2.1 % of the women and 76.1 % of the men were smokers. No woman drinks and 15.7 % of the men drink alcohol. It was found that 37.9 % of the women had hypertension, 26.8 % had a musculosceletal disease, 16-1% had coronary heart disease and 16.4 % had diabetes mellitus. These diseases were respectively 33.6, 15.4, 22.5 and 10.7 % in the male group. In the investigation of the ordinary activities, it was found that the capacity of the women in getting upstairs and doing simple housework was lower than men. Of the ones that have a chronic syndrome, 64.8 % use drugs continuously. The most used assistance device was tooth prosthesis in the 57.1 % of the female group and glasses in the 49.3 % of the male group. As a result; elderly people are have to been accepted as one of the preceding groups in the planning of the health service. For the preventive geriatrics; it is necessary that the follow up of the quality and the quantity of the population and getting a team witn the family.


This dissertation is an examination of the problematic of Russian identity as manifest in the prose literature and cinema during the last two decades of the twentieth century. The reassertion of Russian "national identity" in the post-Soviet Russian Federation masks a crisis, the historical roots of which extend back to the development of Imperial Russia. The analysis employs the tools of Lacanian psychoanalysis to diagnose this crisis and to analyze the almost unsurmountable difficulties involved in the struggle either to recover or to create anew a usable Russian identity for the twenty-first century.The first chapter reviews the theoretical literature on nationalism as well as studies of the problematic conception of Russian nationhood. It also grounds the use of Lacanian theory for cultural analysis and illustrates, through a case study of Ivan Dykhovichnyi's 1992 film Moscow Parade, the utility of a carefully deployed psychoanalytic interpretation of a cultural text from the period under consideration. The following four chapters contain analyses of four identifiable trends in late- and post-Soviet Russian literature and cinema. The heirs to the Village Prose movement, in their engagement with the postmodern environment of this period, reveal in their works an attempt to recover a "lost" identity that is trapped within the self-reflecting structure of an Imaginary Russia. Advocates of the postmodern in Russian culture deconstruct a Symbolic network of cultural texts in which the dissonant discourses of nation and empire generate an identity that seeks substance in the ephemeral. As the sots-art movement spread from graphic arts to literature and film, it illustrated the ultimate logic of a cultural identity based on the endless generation of ideological signifiers. Finally, the young writer Viktor Pelevin and filmmakers such as Karen Shakhnazarov illustrate the lure and the dangers of a culture that seizes upon fantasy as a way out of the cultural conundrum. The same analytical tools are deployed in the concluding chapter to argue that the period under consideration has come to an end and that Russian culture has entered a new period.


Corporate failures, periodic recessions, regional debt crises and volatile financial markets have intensified the focus on risk management as the means to deal with turbulent conditions. The ability to respond effectively to abrupt environmental impacts is considered an important source of competitive advantage. Yet, surprisingly little research has analyzed whether the presumed advantages of effective risk management are associated with superior outcomes. Here we present a comprehensive study of risk management effectiveness and the relationship to corporate performance based on more than 33,500 observations in 3,400 firms over the turbulent 20-year period 1991-2010. Determining effective risk management as the ability to reduce earnings and cash flow volatility, we find that both have significant positive relationships to lagged performance measures after controlling for industry effects, company size and financial leverage. __________________


THE PRESCRIPTION TO "own" one's messages is ubiquitous in interpersonal communication textbooks and training. (1) Referred to by various titles (e.g., "I-messages," "owning thoughts and feelings," "speaking for self"), the skill involves the use of first-person-singular pronouns to acknowledge personal subjectivity and responsibility. Many interpersonal textbooks suggest that owned messages create a non-defensive communication climate (e.g., Adler, Rosenfeld, & Towne, 1992; Adler & Towne, 1990; Carr, 1991; Deetz & Stevenson, 1986; DeVito, 1990, 1992; Fisher & Smith, 1987; Glaser & Eblen, 1986; Mader & Mader, 1990; Ratliffe & Hudson, 1988; Rosenfeld & Berko, 1990; Verderber & Verderber, 1992; Weaver, 1990). Advocacy of owned messages can be traced to the field of general semantics, particularly Johnson's (1946) notion of "to-me-ness": We express our awareness of the degree to which our thoughts or statements are projections of our own internal condition, rather than reports of fact about something else, by such words as "it seems to me," "apparently," "from my point of view," "as I see it," etc. For convenience, then, we may refer to consciousness of projection as to-me-ness. Like Johnson, and later Berman (1965), Bois (1973) identifies first-person-singular pronouns as a hallmark of responsible communication: The use of I and Me is natural for persons who are aware of abstraction and projection. They know that what they say is much more informative if it is not put, implicitly or explicitly, in the mouth of an all-knowing "goddess of supreme wisdom," the idol that stands behind most absolute statements. Haney (1960) goes further to describe both the intra- and interpersonal value of "to-me-ness": If I can remain conscious of the fact that my perceptions are the way "reality" appears to me -- and not necessarily to the other fellow -- I will find it possible to be a good deal more reasonable and tolerant of other points of view. One way to gain this awareness and to communicate it to others is to substitute in your talking, writing, and thinking, "appears to me" for the is of predication.... By doing so, not only do you heighten your own awareness of the "to-me-ness" nature of perception, but your remarks becomes |sic~ less irreconcilable for the fellow whose perception differs from your own. Because owned messages acknowledge personal responsibility and enhance interpersonal communication, they have been widely endorsed in humanistic psychology (e.g., Alberti & Emmons, 1978; Gordon, 1970; Guerney, 1977; Miller, Nunnally, & Wackman, 1975; Rogers, 1953; Satir, 1976). It was in Gordon's effectiveness training texts (see also 1974, 1977) that the skill of "I-messages" was popularized. Ultimately, "owning" came to be regarded as a sign of interpersonal competence (Argyris 1962, 1965; Berryman-Fink & Pederson, 1981; Bochner & Kelly, 1974; Rose, Cayner, & Edleson, 1977; Ruben, 1976; Wiemann, 1977) because "it shows a willingness to accept responsibility for oneself and commitment to others" (Bochner & Kelly, p. 290). Gordon's technique for sending "I-messages" rather than "You-messages" is seminal to owned-message prescriptions in interpersonal texts; however, his work is rarely acknowledged. Instead, message owning is commonly associated with Gibb's (1961) communication climate model. (2) Many texts link Gibb's supportive component of "description" with I-messages and his contrasting defensive component of "evaluation" with You-messages. The irony is that Gibb never recommends (or even mentions) owned messages as a means for creating a supportive climate. (3) It was Cline and Johnson (1976) who paired Gordon's technique with Gibb's model. Although they concluded that I-messages create less interpersonal defensiveness than You-messages, their contention that "a pattern of messages communicating owning of feelings constitutes a non-defensive climate" remains unsubstantiated. …


This document presents state-of-the-practice information on the evaluation of soil and rock properties for geotechnical design applications. This document addresses the entire range of materials potentially encountered in highway engineering practice, from soft clay to intact rock and variations of materials that fall between these two extremes. Information is presented on parameters measured, evaluation of data quality, and interpretation of properties for conventional soil and rock laboratory testing, as well as in situ devices such as field vane testing, cone penetration testing, dilatometer, pressuremeter, and borehole jack. This document provides the design engineer with information that can be used to develop a rationale for accepting or rejecting data and for resolving inconsistencies between data provided by different laboratories and field tests. This document also includes information on: (1) the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Personal Data Assistance devices for the collection and interpretation of subsurface information; (2) quantitative measure for evaluating disturbance of laboratory soil samples; and (3) the use of measurements from geophysical testing techniques to obtain information on the modulus of soil. Also included are chapters on evaluating properties of special soil materials (e.g., loess, cemented sands, peats and organic soils, etc.) and the use of statistical information in evaluating anomalous data and obtaining design values for soil and rock properties. An appendix of three detailed soil and rock property selection examples is provided which illustrate the application of the methods described in the document.


Through subversive practices that run counter to district-mandated curriculum, and in defiance of hyperaccountability and hyperstandardization, many African American male teachers embrace a revolutionary spirit in their classrooms. While the voices of African American male teachers have not been given adequate attention in discussions of teaching and learning, their experiences in this paper author a narrative that considers their commitment to improving both the educational experience and social conditions of African American students. In an effort to answer this challenge, a qualitative study of 10 African American male teachers pedagogical usage of hip-hop was explored. As each of the participants' pedagogical practices ran contrary to the expressed desires of the school administration and district administration this paper reveals the ways in which they navigated administrative infatuation with hyperaccountability, hyperstandardization, and in the words of one participant, "a fascist regime built on intimidating teachers." Through one-on-one interviews with the teachers, this paper presents a compelling argument for their pedagogical strategies but also utilizes the challenges they faced to help others combat oppressive school climates rooted in administrative intimidation and threat.


Blowhole swabs are a simple and non-invasive method for collecting samples from cetaceans and can be used for screening large numbers of animals in the field. This study reports a real-time PCR assay for the detection of Brucella spp. using blowhole swab samples from bottlenose dolphins Tursiops truncatus stranded in the coastal region of Virginia, South Carolina and northern Florida, USA, between 2013 and 2015. We used real-time PCR results on lung samples from the same dolphins in order to estimate the relative sensitivity and specificity of real-time PCR of blowhole swabs. Brucella DNA was detected in lung tissue of 22% (18/81) and in blowhole swabs of 21% (17/81) of the sampled dolphins. The relative sensitivity and specificity of real-time PCR on blowhole swabs as compared to the real-time PCR on lung samples was 94% (17/18) and 100% (63/63), respectively. These results indicate that real-time PCR on blowhole swabs may be used as a non-invasive test for rapid detection of Brucella spp. in the respiratory tract of dolphins. To our knowledge, this is the first report on the use of blowhole swabs for detection of bacterial pathogens by real-time PCR in bottlenose dolphins.


This Paper, which extends earlier work by Filardo and Guinigundo (2008) and Nelson (2008), reports on a survey conducted in 2007 on the communication practices of 32 members of the Central Bank Governance Network. The questionnaire sent to Network members was divided into two main parts. The first part was mainly factual and focused on the information that central banks disclose about their assessments of economic conditions and their decisions relating to the stance of monetary policy. The second part centred on the strategies underlying central bank communications. It is hoped that the Paper will help central banks compare their arrangements with those of their peers and be useful to those institutions that are in the process of reviewing their communications strategies. It should also help the wider public better understand the various communications strategies adopted by central banks.


Although the relative efficiency of information technology (IT) continues to improve at an exponential rate, the real investment in this technology throughout the economy is also expanding. Despite these two empirical facts, the ability of managements to assess the economic impact of IT on their organization's performance has not progressed very far in the past two decades. This paper presents a methodology for assessing the productivity of expenditures on information systems technology on the economic performance of business units (or profit centers), and demonstrates its use for several types of analysis within an organization. A business unit is modeled as a production process that employs various input resources to produce commodities which yield economic outputs (such as profits, revenues, ROI, market shares, etc.). The approach employs microeconomic production frontiers to compare output performance of organizational units through the method of data envelopment analysis based on mathematical programming. With IT expenditures isolated as separate input factors, methods for analyzing business unit performance based on production efficiency are described. Application of these procedures to cross-sectional and to longitudinal investigations of empirical data are discussed, and numerical examples are included. While the approach is primarily descriptive at this stage, it provides guidance for more indepth normative study to determine preferred management practices.


Everyone experiences leisure differently but, for people who excel in a chosen field, a hobby can become a serious goal-oriented leisure pursuit. Many talented people, however, fail to reach their leisure goals due to constraints. This study explored individual life experiences of serious leisure participants. It focused on the lived experiences of individual event [horse] riders and opera singers who successfully negotiated their constraints, enabling them to reach their high performance goals. The purpose of this study was to explore positive personal strategies that individuals used to negotiate constraints in serious leisure. This was done by exploring intrapersonal, interpersonal and structural leisure constraints using an individual's life experiences. During the process of this study, elitism in the leisure pursuits of event riding and opera singing, and the perceptions about individuals who participate in these activities, were also explored. A multidisciplinary approach was used in this study using a two stage mixed research methodology. The first stage explored the lived experiences of two individuals through a series of in-depth case study interviews, followed by interviews with their parents and coaches. Focus groups followed to establish if a wider group of participants within the same leisure pursuits experienced similar findings. The second stage of the study used a quantitative method, which consisted of a broader national survey. The survey data validated the qualitative findings and strengthened study outcomes. The findings of this study related to the opportunity-seeking skills an individual develops throughout their leisure life. These opportunity-seeking skills were linked to the likes, needs and wants an individual must have to reach a high performance level. It also found four principal 'C Factors' important to individual decision-making processes: conditioning, change, choice and control. Research findings revealed that early support and encouragement, however small, conditioned and motivated individuals to start and continue in a particular leisure activity. It also showed that those who had the ability to improve their talent, who personally believed in themselves, who viewed difficulties or complicated situations positively, and sought opportunities to enhance their leisure goals and change FROM CANTER TO CANTOR – NEGOTIATING CONSTRAINTS. 3 constraint outcomes, continued to succeed. Individuals had to make choices to enable them to control their goal achievement and deal with constraints throughout their leisure life. High performance success was found to be related to superior opportunity-seeking skills. Constraints arising from perceptions of elitism within serious leisure pursuits were found to be based on an individual's life experiences and societal opinions, and not on the actual activity itself. In this study the strength of an individual's motivation and self-belief, had a direct influence on their perceptions of constraints, and how they personally used opportunity-seeking to negotiate these constraints. Although the ability to predict which athletes or artists will become national or world class is limited, the conceptual framework developed in this study based on successful constraint negotiation strategies, could aid individuals wishing to reach a high performance level, and guide their parents and coaches to provide optimal support. FROM CANTER TO CANTOR – NEGOTIATING CONSTRAINTS. 4


The discipline called the "anthropology of Christianity" began to gain traction in the early to mid-2000s when interested scholars focused on Christianity as an object of collaborative and comparative cross-cultural analysis. Along with several landmark works of Joel Robbins, one foundational text is Fenella Cannell's edited volume The Anthropology of Christianity, published in 2006. In her introductory essay, Cannell poses a pointed question for the volume and the discipline itself: "What difference does Christianity make?" Bracketing the question of whether "difference" can or should be defined (Green 2014), several anthropologists have taken inspiration from Cannell, including Naomi Haynes (2014) in the concluding essay to a recent special issue of Current Anthropology, and myself and Debra McDougall (2013) in an edited volume on Christian politics in Oceania. Difference, as the criterion by which continuity and transformation are evaluated, is arguably the key concept for an effective anthropological engagement with Christianity.


Defibrillators acquire both the ECG and the transthoracic impedance (TI) signal through defibrillation pads. TI represents the resistance of the thorax to current flow, and is mea sured by defibrillators to check that defibrillation pads are correctly attached to the chest of the patient. Additionally, some defibrillators use the TI measurement to adjust the energy of the defibrillation pulse. Changes in tissue composition due to redistribution and movement of fluids induce fluctuations in the TI. Blood flow during the cardiac cycle generates small fluctuations synchronized to each heartbeat. Respiration (or assisted ventilation) also causes changes in the TI. Additionally, during cardiopulmonary resus citation (CPR), chest compressions cause a disturbance in the electrode-skin interface, inducing artifacts in the TI signal. These fluctuations may provide useful information regarding CPR quality, length of pauses in chest compressions (no flow time), presence of circulation, etc. This chapter explores the new applications of the transthoracic imped ance signal acquired through defibrillation pads during resuscitative attempts.


Measurements of the magnetic properties of four
gem-quality synthetic diamonds indicate that higher
levels of permanent magnetism can be induced in the
synthetics than could be induced in a number of gem-quality
natural stones. As received, the colored and
included synthetics showed much higher levels of
magnetism than the natural stones, but one near-colorless
synthetic had less magnetism than many of
the natural stones. Most of the magnetism of the
natural stones is due to surface contamination, which
can only be removed by rigorous acid cleaning. After
cleaning, the natural diamonds were not only less
magnetic than all of the synthetic stones, but they
were also more resistant to demagnetization.
Significant levels of metallic impurities were detected
in most of the synthetics. These results on a limited
number of samples suggest that natural diamonds can
be distinguished from synthetics on the basis of their
magnetic properties, but that in the case of near-colorless,
inclusion-free stones, such tests may require
sophisticated instrumentation.


The Amazon of popular imagination and media projections is a pristine rainforest undergoing a uniform deforestation process spreading from its accessible edges. Actual environmental change in the Amazon, however, is connected with spatial patterns of human settlement and the nature of these settlements. Few studies have made note of the phenomenon of Amazonian urbanization, and those that have note that the transformation is a driving factor in the environmental change and damage occurring in the region. Southern Para is a rapidly urbanizing frontier zone that has been settled by non-indigenous peoples only since the mid-1960s; in the environs of my study site-Parauapebas--significant settlement dates only to 1990. However, urbanization and its twin process of land consolidation have been strongly contested in Southern Para: rural people's movements, primarily the Movement of Landless Rural Workers (MST), have fought for the establishment and support of agrarian communities. Rural people possess knowledge and have values that offer possibility for strong environmental ethics and sustainable practices, but they also face economic challenges that contribute to land deterioration. As the MST settlement of Palmares 2 urbanizes, visions of community development must adjust to acknowledge a non-farming population, as well as remain committed to the maintenance of rural homesteading. My research probed the future of rural communities in the context of an urbanizing and politically hostile environment, particularly given the development situation in the region. I sought to understand what knowledge, culture, and possibility for environmental protection will be lost if rural communities fail to sustain support for familiar agriculture and are superseded by an urban economy.


Power consumption and power conversion efficiency have been two key parameters characterizing the performance of electronic circuits since their dawn. With the increasing demand of miniaturization, mobility and portability of electronic industrial and consumer equipment, low-power and high-efficiency circuits are in high demand. Possible energy sources to enable mobility and/or portability are chemical (e.g. batteries, accumulators, micro gas, engine, fuel cells), mechanical (e.g. elastic energy in springs, vibrations, oscillations, ultrasound), thermal (e.g. body heat), EM-Field (e.g. inductive coupling, capacitive coupling, RF) and optical (photovoltaic cells). They are a great number of applications for which lowpower operation can be replaced with remote-powered operation. For optically remote powered operation, we propose the use of optically injected circuits. This has the following advantages: no need for off-chip photovoltaic cells, i.e., reduced package complexity, no need for DC-toDC converters, i.e., improved conversion efficiency, no need for a power distribution grid, i.e., no Joules losses, and reduced interconnection complexity. This paper studies the concept of optically injected logic circuits and proposes their implementation in deep submicron and beyond CMOS technologies. This paper includes all the calculations and all the processes to fabricate the digital logic circuits. These logic circuits can be used in embedded micro-controllers where very low power operation can be replaced by remote powered operation. No local power source of any kind is necessary. Specific areas of application are data acquisition and control systems in bio-medical implants, space applications, wireless fabrication facilities and wafer-scale robots.


This book intends to be an updated compilation of the most important buccal, gastric, intestinal, pulmonary, nasal, vaginal, ocular, skin and blood-brain barrier in vitro models for predicting the permeability of drugs. Concepts and Models for Drug Permeability Studies focuses on different approaches and comprises of various models. Each model describes the protocol of seeding and conservation, the application for specific drugs, and takes into account the maintenance of physiologic characteristics and functionality of epithelium, from the simplest immortalized cell-based monoculture to the most complex engineered-tissue models. Chapters also discuss the equivalence between in vitro cell and tissue models and in vivo conditions, highlighting how each model may provisionally resemble a different drug absorption route.Updated information regarding the most recent in vitro models to study the permeability of drugsShort and concise chapters covering all the biological barriers with interest in drug permeabilityA combination of bibliographic information related with individual models and footnote instructions of technical procedures for construction of cell and tissue-based modelsSimple and clear scientific content, adaptable for young scientists and experimented researchers


Background: Malnutrition is associated with increased morbidity and mortality, and is very common in frail older people. However, little is known about how weight loss in frail older people can be managed in primary care. /

Aims: To explore the views and practices of primary care and community professionals on the management of malnutrition in frail older people; identify components of potential primary care-based interventions for this group; and identify training and support required to deliver such interventions. /

Design and setting: Qualitative study in primary care and community settings. /

Method: Seven focus groups and an additional interview were conducted with general practice teams, frailty multidisciplinary teams (MDTs), and community dietitians in London and Hertfordshire, UK (n = 60 participants). Data were analysed using thematic analysis. /

Results: Primary care and community health professionals perceived malnutrition as a multifaceted problem. There was an agreement that there is a gap in care provided for malnutrition in the community. However, there were conflicting views regarding professional accountability. Challenges commonly reported by primary care professionals included overwhelming workload and lack of training in nutrition. Community MDT professionals and dietitians thought that an intervention to tackle malnutrition would be best placed in primary care and suggested opportunistic screening interventions. Education was an essential part of any intervention, complemented by social, emotional, and/or practical support for frailer or socially isolated older people. /

Conclusions: Future interventions should include a multifaceted approach. Education tailored to the needs of older people, carers, and healthcare professionals is a necessary component of any intervention.


TIPE2 is a recently discovered regulator of immunity and inflammation. Here we describe a new function of TIPE2 in the regulation of Ras signaling and Tumorigenesis. By using various stimuli and inhibitors in T Cells and macrophages we discovered that TIPE2 is regulated at both the message and protein level by inflammatory stimuli. TIPE2 mRNA is regulated in the short to intermediate term by an NF-Kappa B induced micro RNA, and TIPE2 is also ubiquitylated and degraded, possibly by SCF-Beta TRCP. Mechanistically TIPE2 interacts with and inhibits the Ras-interacting domain of the RalGDS family of Ras effectors, leading to a loss of downstream Ral and AKT activity. TIPE2 deficiency led to increased activation of Ral and AKT, resulting in resistance to cell death, increased migration, and dysregulated exocyst complex formation. Overexpression of TIPE2 conversely induced cell death, affected actin polymerization, and reduced exocyst complex assembly. TIPE2 was able to dramatically slow the growth of Ras-induced tumors in mice, and the tumors were required to silence TIPE2 before they were licensed to grow. TIPE2 additionally negatively regulates effectors of the mTOR pathway, including S6K and 4EBP1, possibly via an interaction with, and destabilization of the mTORC2 complex. Crucially TIPE2 expression is either completely lost or heavily down-regulated by human hepatocellular carcinoma. Thus, via its simultaneous role as a regulator of inflammation and cancer, TIPE2 provides a mechanistic link between these two disease states, and may be a potential drug target for both inflammatory and neoplastic disease. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Cell & Molecular Biology First Advisor Youhai H. Chen Second Advisor Xiaolu Yang


South Africa, the continental economic giant and self-appointed spokesman for African development, is finding its distinctive national voice. Emboldened by the invitation to join the BRICS grouping, its membership of the G20 and a second term on the UN Security Council, Pretoria is beginning to capitalize on the decade of continental and global activism undertaken by Thabo Mbeki to assume a position of leadership. Gone is the defensive posturing which characterized much of the ANC's post-apartheid foreign policy, replaced by an unashamed claim to African leadership. The result is that South Africa is exercising a stronger hand in continental affairs, ranging from a significant contribution to state-building in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan, to an unprecedented assertiveness on Zimbabwe. But this new assertiveness remains constrained by three factors: the unresolved issue of identity, a host of domestic constraints linked to material capabilities and internal politics, and the divisive continental reaction to South African leadership. These factors continue to inhibit the country's ability to translate its international ambitions and global recognition into a concrete set of foreign policy achievements.


Health information exchange (HIE) has become a focus of the health care industry. The ability to share information electronically between multiple health care providers is thought to be a key ingredient in the creation of a more efficient global health care system. VA Hospital Memphis has significant challenges in regard to HIE. The Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record (VLER) coordinator at the facility has been charged with establishing an HIE system. This requires the coordinator to identify partners to share health information with electronically, obtain buy-in from patients and providers through education, and to promote/market the VLER program facility-wide. The VA recognizes that sharing health care information electronically is a much needed process. However, the powers that be must understand that establishing HIE is not an easy task and that there are many challenges. This paper details the challenges faced by VA Hospital Memphis as the facility attempts to establish partners in health HIE. THE CHALLENGES OF ESTABLISHING PARTNERS IN HEALTH 3


Monospecific diatom cultures (Thalassiosira punctigera and Skeletonema costatum) were incubated in rotating cylinders together with clay suspensions, present in a range of concentrations (5–100 mg kaolinite L−1) and as different minerals (50 mg L−1 kaolinite, smectite, illite, and clayȁ;sized quartz powder). The addition of lithogenic suspensions to diatom cultures accelerated the formation of visible aggregates in the roller tanks by a factor of <3. Aggregate size decreased and density increased proportionally to the amount of kaolinite added to the diatom cultures. In the presence of kaolinite and illite, aggregate sizes were smaller and sinking rates lower than in the presence of smectite and quartz. The influence of lithogenic matter on the sinking velocities of aggregates was ambiguous. Compound aggregates sank faster with increasing amounts of lithogenic matter present in cultures of T. punctigera until a certain ratio between lithogenic and biogenic material was reached; further increasing the amount of lithogenic matter did not increase sinking rates significantly. In contrast, increasing the concentration of kaolinite added to cultures of S. costatum could decrease sinking velocities of the evolving compound aggregates. This nonlinear behavior is argued to be primarily a function of aggregate composition on aggregate sizes and excess densities. Although the possibility of a mutual acceleration of vertical flux of algae and clay is confirmed, the results show that the presence of lithogenic material could also decrease the downward flux of phytoplankton biomass.


A recent and controversial review1 suggests that the measurement of maximal oxygen intake is passe. The author concludes (p. 554) " It is now time to develop novel testing methods....That the measured VO2max is a relatively poor predictor of both the performance potential of athletes with similar athletic ability and of the changes in performance that occur with continued training should encourage both basic and applied sports scientists to reconsider the real value of this iconic test. "

A number of the arguments that are advanced in this review seem to need correction or refutation. Specifically, this riposte will examine whether a maximal treadmill test is an unrealistic procedure for athletes, whether a unimodal approach to testing is appropriate in sports medicine, and whether an alternative laboratory test will be developed to categorise the performance of individual athletes. Comments will also be made on the place of maximal oxygen intake assessment in various areas of science, sports medicine and clinical medicine.

Noakes argues1 that the treadmill test is an unrealistic approach to the testing of athletes for three reasons: the duration of the exercise is not known to the subject, there is a steep and progressive increase in the intensity of exercise, and the person who is tested has no control over the ultimate intensity of effort. All of these criticisms may be true of the test protocol used in some laboratories. However, the standard recommendation is for a treadmill test lasting 9–11 minutes, and this should be explained to the subject. The appropriate treadmill slope and speed should be ascertained by preliminary submaximal testing; this allows the definitive test to commence close to maximal steady-state effort, thereby avoiding a steep ramp of intensity. Moreover, the maximal …


Cell sorting is a fundamental phenomenon in morphogenesis, which is the process that leads to shape formation in living organisms. The sorting of heterotypic cell populations is produced by a variety of inter-cellular actions, e.g. differential chemotactic response, adhesion and motility. Via a process called chemotaxis, living cells respond to chemicals released by other cells into the environment. Each cell can respond to the stimulus by moving in the direction of the gradient of the cumulative chemical field detected at its surface. Inspired by the biological phenomena of chemotaxis and cell sorting in heterotypic cell aggregates, we propose a chemotaxis-based algorithm for the sorting of self- organizing heterotypic agents. In our algorithm two types of agents are initially randomly placed in a toroidal environment. Agents emit a chemical signal and interact with nearby agents. Given the appropriate parameters, the two kinds of agents self-organize into a complex aggregate consisting of a group of one type of agents surrounded by agents of the second type. This paper describes the chemotaxis- based sorting algorithm, the behaviors of our self-organizing heterotypic agents, evaluation of the final aggregates and parametric studies of the results.


Graduate programs emerging in universities over recent decades support the advanced study of sustainability issues in complex socio-environmental systems. Constructing the problem-scope to address these issues requires graduate students to integrate across disciplines and synthesize the social and natural dimensions of sustainability. Graduate programs that are designed to foster interand transdisciplinary research acknowledge the importance of training students to use integrative research approaches. However, this training is not available in all graduate programs that support integrative research, often requiring students to seek external training opportunities. We present perspectives from a group of doctoral students with diverse disciplinary backgrounds conducting integrative research in universities across the United States who participated in a 10-day, National Science Foundation-funded integrative research training workshop to learn and develop socio-environmental research skills. Following the workshop, students conducted a collaborative autoethnographic study to share preand postworkshop research experiences and discuss ways to increase integrative research training opportunities. Results reveal that students, regardless of disciplinary background, face common barriers conducting integrative research that include: (1) lack of exposure to epistemological frameworks and team-science skills, (2) challenges to effectively include stakeholder perspectives in his/her research, and (3) variable levels of committee support to conduct integrative research. To overcome the identified barriers and advance integrative research, students recommend how training opportunities can be embedded within existing graduate programs. Students advocate that both internal and external training opportunities are necessary to support the next generation of sustainability scientists.


This policy brief is intended to serve as the basis for the discussion of the Ministers of Finance on action needed to promote physical infrastructure and reduce intra-regional trade costs, in the context of the Third Meeting of the Finance Ministers of the Americas and the Caribbean held in Lima (Peru), on May 28, 2010. It is argued that the Latin American and Caribbean region must bridge three interrelated policy gaps in order to advance its integration agenda. First, despite advances in trade liberalization, significant progress still must be made to perfect, harmonize, and bridge existing trade agreements. Second, the logistical costs related to the coverage and quality of physical infrastructure and lack of regulatory harmonization pose a serious constraint to regional integration and global competitiveness. Third, although cross-border strategic investments hold the potential to further advance the region?s integration, their execution would be accelerated by overcoming certain institutional and operational obstacles.


I study the consequences of interest group campaign contributions for administrative oversight. Unlike the few previous studies in this area, however, I study the influence in state bureaucracies and at the level of individual groups. Specifically, I test whether campaign contributions to state elected officials influence the outcomes of annual inspections of skilled nursing facilities in 16 states, leveraging the context of state politics in two important ways. First, I consider the differing effects of contributions to the legislative and executive branches. Second, I argue that legislative capacity for oversight influences the efficacy of contributions Regression analysis of inspection results with controls for facility characteristics provides evidence that contributing facilities have better overall inspection results, with a large reduction in citations for severe problems. Furthermore, contributions to legislators reduce overall problems, particularly in less professionalized legislatures, while those to the governor reduce severe ones.


Abstract
It has been known for some time that Brazil nuts have a high barium content and their natural radioactivity is the highest among foodstuff grown in areas of normal radiation background. Samples of Brazil nuts of known origin, as well as various parts of their trees, were obtained from different regions of the Amazon valley and analyzed for barium, calcium, 226Ra, 228Ra and total alpha activity. No statistically significant correlation was found between concentrations of calcium and barium in the nuts. In general, however, the samples richer in barium had the highest concentration of radium. In samples of different parts of the same tree a certain parallelism was noticed between barium and radium contents. The high radioactivity of Brazil nuts was explained, in agreement with the opinion of other authors, by its tree capacity of absorbing and concentrating barium, which is the natural carrier of radium. Some observations were made on the possibilities of people who consume a considerable amount of the nuts, during many years, building up elevated radium body burdens.


Background There is paucity of data from India on the impact of HIV related immunosuppression in response to TB treatment and mortality among HIV infected TB patients. We assessed the TB treatment outcome and mortality in a cohort of HIV infected TB patients treated with intermittent short course chemotherapy under TB control programme in a high HIV prevalent district of south India. Methodology/ Findings Among 3798 TB patients registered for treatment in Mysore district from July 2007 to June 2008, 281 HIV infected patients formed the study group. The socio-demographic and treatment related data of these patients was obtained from TB and HIV programme records and patient interviews 19 months after TB treatment initiation by field investigators. Treatment success rate of 281 patients was 75% while in smear positive pulmonary tuberculosis cases it was 62%, attributable to defaults (16%) and deaths (19%). Only 2 patients had treatment failure. Overall, 83 (30%) patients were reported dead; 26 while on treatment and 57 after TB treatment. Association of treatment related factors with treatment outcome and survival status was studied through logistic regression analysis. Factors significantly associated with 'unfavourable outcome' were disease classification as Pulmonary [aOR-1.96, CI (1.02–3.77)], type of patient as retreatment [aOR-4.78, CI (2.12–10.76)], and non initiation of ART [aOR-4.90, CI (1.85–12.96)]. Factors associated with 'Death' were non initiation of ART [aOR-2.80, CI (1.15–6.81)] and CPT [aOR-3.46, CI (1.47–8.14)]. Conclusion Despite the treatment success of 75% the high mortality (30%) in the study group is a matter of concern and needs immediate intervention. Non initiation of ART has emerged as a high risk factor for unfavourable treatment outcome and mortality. These findings underscore the importance of expanding and improving delivery of ART services as a priority and reconsideration of the programme guidelines for ART initiation in HIV infected TB patients.


The author utilizes the mode space of certain transforms for digital image data to change and combine images in ways that cannot be visualized directly by an artist. The author's methods include a novel use of nonmatched transform pairs in forward and backward processing. The results retain some broad predictability of effect, while the outcomes of using a particular method vary by image. This demonstrates that an artist can guide the choice of techniques used while obtaining unexpected results that suggest variations in the creative process. Results of this research illustrate some of the systematic and individual effects obtainable in several dimensions using such techniques.


This paper investigates service provisions in community languages offered by Manchester City Council and agencies working alongside to find out whether there is an explicit language policy in Manchester, how such a policy is formulated, how it functions, and how it is reflected in education. Data was collected through interviews with different personnel in MCC, focus group discussions with community language speakers, and the websites of various government agencies. The results show that there is an implicit rather than explicit language policy in Manchester. There exists also a language hierarchy in Manchester's language policy whereby some community languages are given precedence over others, depending on the numerical strength of speakers. The results also show that there is usually a sort of articulation between the micro and macro-levels of language policy in multilingual contexts, which is evident in Manchester, particularly in the role that supplementary schools play in filling the gap in teaching community languages in mainstream schools.


Research design, with its statistical underpinnings, can be especially daunting for students and novice researchers. At its heart, research design might be described simply as a formalized approach toward problem solving, thinking, and acquiring knowledge, the success of which depends upon clearly defined objectives and appropriate choice of statistical design and analysis to meet those objectives. Our three-volume Encyclopedia of Research Design elucidates how one makes decisions about research design, interprets data and draws valid inferences, undertakes research projects in an ethical manner, and evaluates experimental design strategies and results. From A-to-Z, this work covers the spectrum of research design strategies and topics including, among other things: fundamental research design principles, ethics in the research process, quantitative versus qualitative and mixed-method designs, completely randomized designs, multiple comparison tests, diagnosing agreement between data and models, fundamental assumptions in analysis of variance, factorial treatment designs, complete and incomplete block designs, Latin square and related designs, hierarchical designs, response surface designs, split-plot designs, repeated measures designs, crossover designs, analysis of covariance, statistical software packages, and much more.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the long-term survival rate and factors that affect survival time of domestic ferrets treated surgically for hyperadrenocorticism.

STUDY DESIGN
Retrospective case series.

ANIMALS
130 ferrets with hyperadrenocorticism that were treated surgically.

PROCEDURES
Medical records of ferrets surgically treated for hyperadrenocorticism were reviewed. Data recorded included signalment, duration of clinical signs prior to hospital admission, CBC values, serum biochemical analysis results, anesthetic time, surgical time, concurrent diseases, adrenal gland affected (right, left, or both [bilateral]), histopathologic diagnosis, surgical procedure, caudal vena caval involvement (yes or no), postoperative melena (yes or no), days in hospital after surgery, and whether clinical signs of hyperadrenocorticism developed after surgery.

RESULTS
130 ferrets were entered in the study (11 of 130 ferrets were admitted and underwent surgery twice). The 1- and 2-year survival rates were 98% and 88%, respectively. A 50% survival rate was never reached. Combined partial adrenal gland resection with cryosurgery had a significantly negative effect on survival time. No other risk factors were identified. Survival time was not significantly affected by either histopathologic diagnosis or specific affected adrenal gland (right, left, or bilateral).

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE
Ferrets with adrenal gland masses that were treated surgically had a good prognosis. Survival time of ferrets with hyperadrenocorticism undergoing surgery was not affected by the histologic characteristic of the tumor, the adrenal glands affected (right, left, or bilateral), or complete versus partial adrenal gland resection. Debulking was a sufficient surgical technique to allow a favorable long-term outcome when complete excision was not possible.


This paper describes options available for evaluating tool wear, focusing predominantly on closed-die forging. Correct design of tools and evaluation of tool wear have a substantial bearing on the final price of a product, which is why we have been dealing with this question, striving to develop an optimal methodology for tool evaluation. Wear can be evaluated using the finite element method. However, numerical computations must always be calibrated to the material and the process conditions in question.


My dissertation is a foray into blues music's intricate web of racial taxonomies, an aspect that has been neglected by most existing studies of the genre. In particular, I am interested in significant changes that took place in the 1960s under which blues was reconfigured from "black" to "white" in its production and reception while simultaneously retaining a notion of authenticity that remained deeply connected with constructions of "blackness." In the larger context of the Civil Rights Movement and the burgeoning counterculture, audiences for blues music became increasingly "white" and European. In their romantic embrace of a poverty of choice, "white" audiences and performers engaged in discourses of authenticity and in the commodification, racialization and gendering of sounds and images as well as in the confluence of blues music's class origins. I argue that as "white" people started to listen to "black" blues, essentialist notions about "race" remained unchallenged and were even solidified in the process. By the end of the 1960s, moments of cross-racial communication and a more flexible approach to racialized sounds had been thwarted by nostalgia for and a reification of essentialist categories. This marked the emergence of a conservative blues culture that has continued into the present. Individual chapters focus on key figures, events and institutions that exemplify blues music's racial politics and transnational movements of the 1960s. Abstract Approved: ____________________________________ Thesis SupervisorApproved: ____________________________________ Thesis Supervisor ____________________________________ Title and Department ____________________________________ Date BLACK, WHITE AND BLUE: RACIAL POLITICS OF BLUES MUSIC IN THE 1960S


The Greenstone digital library software (www.greenstone.org) provides a flexible way of organizing information and publishing it on the Internet or removable media such as CDROM. Its aim is to empower users, particularly in universities, libraries and other public service institutions, to build their own digital libraries. It is open-source software, issued under the terms of the GNU General Public License. It is produced by the New Zealand Digital Library Project at the University of Waikato, and developed and distributed in cooperation with UNESCO and the Human Info NGO.


In response to the looming environmental crisis, many have recommended lists of environmental virtues. As a result, environmental ethics has been enriched by new virtue terms, such as ecological sensitivity or kinship with nature, and with new applications of older terms, such as benevolence or care. But how do we know which of these are genuine virtues? Although this question is important, it is difficult to answer for two reasons. First, we might think of 'nature' in a variety of ways, each of which presupposes ethical beliefs about the relationship between humans and the nonhuman world. Second, environmental virtue terms seem far less clear than our more familiar virtues, which calls into question both their intelligibility and usefulness as normative concepts. I respond to both problems by considering the environmental virtue of care for nature, and one plausible examplar of this quality, US nature writer and conservationist Rachel Carson. I claim that Carson's example illuminates this virtue, and that care for nature is one environmental virtue we have reason to recognise. While this account might seem vulnerable to a kind of relativism stemming from particular conceptions of nature, I claim that the threat of cultural variation need not shake our reflective confidence in recognising some ways of thinking about nature as excellent.


Cooper's essay shows how the photographs taken by Frances Benjamin Johnston at educational institutions such as the Carlisle Indian Industrial School and Hampton Institute, as well as in the Washington, D.C., public schools, show the influence of social Darwinism on progressive educational ideology. By elucidating how the image of the "Indian" functions as a shifting signifier in these photos, this essay offers insight into how educational institutions for black, white, and native students taught them to acquire different subject positions in the process of adopting U.S. citizenship. Boarding schools for native students encouraged them to adopt detribalized Indian identities while the schools paradoxically taught these students to abandon their native identities in the process of Americanization. At Hampton, symbols of the Indian functioned confusedly, simultaneously encouraging African Americans to feel more assimilated than American Indians and reminding them that the dominant culture considered even the unassimilated Indian to be racially superior to the black man. Finally, Johnston's photos of public schools attended by white children transform images of Indian objects and people into simultaneous embodiments of progress and immobility, bolstering white students' identities as representatives of "civilization." The essay also examines writing by former American Indian boarding-school students to show how they reimagined the figure of the Indian to critique the falsely democratic rhetoric of citizenship education, even as they praised the schools for making them who they were. Both the visual and verbal accounts Cooper discusses speak to subaltern students' ability to express individuality in the face of an evolutionary framework that sought to systematize their identities based on their race.


On 18 February 2008, the Lisbon city district, in the capital of Portugal, suffered the rainiest day on record since the continuous daily precipitation data at the D. Luís Observatory was first published in 1864 in the Observatory's log books (Annales). On this day, 118.4 millimetres was recorded at the Observatory, exceeding the previous highest daily total recorded as long ago as 1876 (Figure 1). This extreme event was responsible for a wide variety of negative impacts, namely urban inundations (motivating hundreds of calls to the fire-fighters and civil protection brigades), flash flooding (occurring mostly in small drainage basins with short concentration times, such as the one shown in Figure 2), and landslides (a total of 64 occurrences related to slope instability were reported). The National Authority of Civil Protection reported four deaths, 65 people dislodged and 121 evacuated in safety and rescue operations. No official information is available concerning the estimate of total financial costs associated with this extreme event, considering that other direct and indirect impacts of the storm should be taken into consideration: namely those associated with disruption of train services, blocked roads and electric power breakdowns. In this paper, we study the spatial distribution and temporal evolution of this extreme rainfall event. Then we fit an appropriate extreme values distribution and compute the return period associated with this event for several stations available in the Lisbon area. Finally, we provide a short description of the evolution of the synoptic situation leading to this extreme rainstorm.