Studies in Witchcraft, Magic, War, and Peace in Africa: Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. Edited by Beatrice Nicolini. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 2006. Pp. xix, 383. $129.95 / £79.95. Beatrice Nicolini, assistant professor of History and Institutions of Africa at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart (Milan, Italy), has edited an interdisciplinary volume dealing with the complex connections among magic, witchcraft, war, and peace in Africa since the nineteenth century. The book brings together scholars from the fields of history, anthropology, philosophy, and literature, and includes the work of both experienced researchers and young academics. In the last two decades, studies of witchcraft and violence have mushroomed and scholars have taken many directions1. Thus, the premise of this volume-inviting scholars to think through this growing set of literature by analyzing connections between supernatural forces and violence-appears to be a stimulating one. The most interesting papers are those that re-historicize magical practices and stress both the complexity and the contingency of power relations associated with the manipulation of supernatural forces. Alan Kirkaldy offers a rich study of witch-hunting in Vendaland and convincingly connects it to local systems of justice. Jesse Benjamin analyzes magic as a subaltern tactic against discourses of domination-in this case development discourses-in postcolonial Kenya. Some papers convincingly show that witchcraft is not entrapped in traditions and is a mutable resource for social groups as well as a product of modernity. For instance, Meshack Owino offers a suggestive contribution that deals with the reconfiguration of burial practices among Askaris (African soldiers) in Kenya. In "Where to be an Ancestor?" Stephen C. Lubkemann subtlety analyzes negotiations and power relations around the displacement of spirits in relation to refugee movements in Mozambique. Terence Ranger's solid contribution elaborates on historiographical debates to establish a convincing distinction between witchcraft and religion. This allows him to revise the overestimated presence of witchcraft in the rebel movement and to unveil the religious dimensions of liberation movements in Zimbabwe. Another theme that runs through many papers is the substantial effort to develop a coherent critique of colonial discourses on witchcraft (Ranger, Kirkaldy) and find alternatives to the colonial library (Accoroni). While not totally new, these efforts remain interesting inasmuch as they refer to specific historical contexts. In general, however, the quality of individual contributions and the overall project suffers from poor editing. Because of the number of contributions-twenty-one essays ranging widely across disciplines-the lack of a proper introduction presents a real problem. The reader is left to discover the essays without much background on the rich and often controversial historiographies of war and peace, witchcraft and magic. …


Early childhood experience of Self in relation to Other may profoundly influence subsequent perception and experience of landscape as an adult. Yet, these past and present spatial relationships are often held in unconscious levels of the psyche, which are difficult to articulate when approached by conventional qualitative methods. Engaging with psychotherapeutic methodologies has proved highly productive in facilitating adults to connect with and articulate their perception of landscape. In this paper I demonstrate the application of object relations psychoanalytic theory in qualitative research undertaken to explore the complexities of the influence of gender identity on landscape perception in adults. I draw on D.W. Winnicott's theory of 'potential space', as the location of culture, to develop a methodology that focuses on sensory experience, in particular the tactile. In this way participants were facilitated to access early regressed spaces whilst staying connected with present experience. Reporting on a series of practical workshops, used alongside in-depth interviewing techniques, I show how it is possible to examine the complex conscious and unconscious relationships at different sensory levels between Self and landscape.


This paper uses cross-country panel data to study the effects of advertising bans and other control policies on alcohol demand. The null hypothesis to be tested is that advertising bans do not decrease alcohol consumption. The study addresses several shortcomings in four previous studies. First, an explanatory variable is included for other alcohol control policies. The control index accounts for fourteen distinct alcohol policies in six major areas. Second, the study examines the history of advertising bans in OECD countries, including the ease of avoidance. Advertising bans are exogenous in the regression models, whereas the control index is endogenous. This result follows in part from policy changes imposed by the European Union. Third, the study also examines differences in cross-country trends that characterize developed countries, including aging of the population, increased tourism, higher unemployment rates, and increased consumption of wine. The Mediterranean wine-drinking countries are shown to be categorically distinct from the beer-drinking countries and Nordic spirits-drinking countries. Fourth, the study examines the panel data for unit roots and employs model specifications that correct for non-stationary data. The empirical results indicate significantly negative results for the control index for other policies and the market price of alcohol. Using alternative model specifications and estimation methods, the null hypothesis is not rejected. The results fail to indicate that advertising bans reduce consumption, which casts doubt on the existence of a market-wide advertising-sales response function.


Swiprosin-1/EFhd2 (EFhd2) is a cytoskeletal Ca2+ sensor protein strongly expressed in the brain. It has been shown to interact with mutant tau, which can promote neurodegeneration, but nothing is known about the physiological function of EFhd2 in the nervous system. To elucidate this question, we analyzed EFhd2−/−/lacZ reporter mice and showed that lacZ was strongly expressed in the cortex, the dentate gyrus, the CA1 and CA2 regions of the hippocampus, the thalamus, and the olfactory bulb. Immunohistochemistry and western blotting confirmed this pattern and revealed expression of EFhd2 during neuronal maturation. In cortical neurons, EFhd2 was detected in neurites marked by MAP2 and co-localized with pre- and post-synaptic markers. Approximately one third of EFhd2 associated with a biochemically isolated synaptosome preparation. There, EFhd2 was mostly confined to the cytosolic and plasma membrane fractions. Both synaptic endocytosis and exocytosis in primary hippocampal EFhd2−/− neurons were unaltered but transport of synaptophysin-GFP containing vesicles was enhanced in EFhd2−/− primary hippocampal neurons, and notably, EFhd2 inhibited kinesin mediated microtubule gliding. Therefore, we found that EFhd2 is a neuronal protein that interferes with kinesin-mediated transport.


Plymouth Marine Laboratory. Authorship was originally taken from the JGOFS CDs (Lowry & BODC) and was changed by request of the BODC.


Ciencias Marinas is a bilingual (English and Spanish) journal publishing peer-reviewed, scientific research on all aspects of marine sciences. The journal has been published since 1974 by the University of Baja California in Ensenada, Mexico, and the printed version is distributed to 59 countries under a subscription and/or exchange basis. In 2006, however, an effort was initiated to offer an open-access electronic version using the Open Journal System software. Since the webpage was established, there has been a linear increase in users of the electronic version of Ciencias Marinas. The number of users is currently increasing at a rate of approximately five per day. Internet data bases, and searches of oceanographic institutions and of author emails from published journals have been the most effective methods for alerting potential users to the Table of Contents and have proved critical for increasing readership. Scientists from at least 45 countries registered as users of the journal in the first six months of implementing the electronic version, representing 76% of the users of the printed version. Users from 18 countries represent 95% of the users of the electronic journal, though Spanish-speaking countries represent 24% of all countries registered. This suggests that the electronic version of the Journal has been reaching more scientists from non-latinamerican countries. The electronic version of Ciencias Marinas is currently being accessed by users representing approximately 30% of countries with coastline and by approximately 80% of countries with University/Government oceanographic programs. The number of manuscripts received has doubled since the electronic system was established. Prior to the electronic version, contributions by Mexican authors represented the bulk of manuscripts received and published. Now, Mexican authors publishing in Ciencias Marinas are in a minority, indicating that the journal is being used by scientists from other countries. While most of the manuscripts received are from Spanish-speaking countries, the number of authors from non-Spanish-speaking countries has increased significantly. Enrollment to the electronic journal was found to decline during summer and winter vacations, thus Table of Content notices have to be mailed well before or after these periods. While the electronic system has been in use for only six months, the readership has increased dramatically and it is expected to increase the impact factor of the Journal.


The fundamental paradox of the incompatibility of the observed large-scale uniformity of the Universe with the fact that the age of the Universe is finite is overcome by the introduction of an initial period of superluminal expansion of space, called cosmic inflation. Inflation can also produce the small deviations from uniformity needed for the formation of structures in the Universe such as galaxies. This is achieved by the conjunction of inflation with the quantum vacuum, through the so-called particle production process. This mechanism is explained and linked with Hawking radiation of black holes. The nature of the particles involved is discussed and the case of using massive vector boson fields instead of scalar fields is presented, with emphasis on its distinct observational signatures. Finally, a particular implementation of these ideas is included, which can link the formation of galaxies, the standard model vector bosons and the observed galactic magnetic fields.


Lighting is a fundamental aspect of computer cinematography that involves the placement and configuration of lights to establish mood and enhance storytelling. This process is labor intensive as artists repeatedly adjust the parameters of a large set of complex lights to achieve a desired effect. Typical lighting controls affect the final image indirectly, requiring a large number of trials to obtain a suitable result.
 We present an interactive system wherein an artist paints desired lighting effects directly into the scene, and the computer solves for parameters that achieve the desired look. The artist can paint color, light shape, shadows, highlights, and reflections using a suite of tools designed for painting light. Our system matches these effects using a nonlinear optimizer made robust by a combination of initial estimates, system design, and user-guided optimization. In contrast, previous work on painting light has not permitted the lights to move, allowing for linear optimization but preventing its use in computer cinematography.
 To demonstrate our approach we lit several scenes, mainly using a direct illumination renderer designed for computer animation, but also including two other rendering styles. We show that painting interfaces can quickly produce high quality lighting setups, easing the lighting artist's workflow.


The understanding and modeling of flow through porous media is an important issue in several branches of engineering. In petroleum engineering, for instance, one wishes to model the "enhanced oil recovery" process, whereby water or steam is injected into an oil saturated porous media in an attempt to displace the oil so that it can be collected. In groundwater contaminant studies the transport of dissolved material, such as toxic metals or radioactive waste, and how it affects drinking water supplies, is of interest.

Numerical simulation of these flow are generally difficult. The principal reason for this is the presence of many different length scales in the physical problem, and resolving all these is computationally expensive. To circumvent these difficulties a class of methods known as upscaling methods has been developed where one attempts to solve only for large scale features of interest and model the effect of the small scale features.

In this thesis, we review some of the previous efforts in upscaling and introduce a new scheme that attempts to overcome some of the existing shortcomings of these methods. In our analysis, we consider the flow problem in two distinct stages: the first is the determination of the velocity field which gives rise to an elliptic partial differential equation (PDE) and the second is a transport problem which gives rise to a hyperbolic PDE.

For the elliptic part, we make use of existing upscaling methods for elliptic equations. In particular, we use the multi-scale finite element method of Hou et al. to solve for the velocity field on a coarse grid, and yet still be able to obtain fine scale information through a special means of interpolation.

The analysis of the hyperbolic part forms the main contribution of this thesis. We first analyze the problem by restricting ourselves to the case where the small scales have a periodic structure. With this assumption, we are able to derive a coupled set of equations for the large scale average and the small scale fluctuations about this average. This is done by means of a special averaging, which is done along the fine scale streamlines. This coupled set of equations provides better starting point for both the modeling of the largescale small-scale interactions and the numerical implementation of any scheme. We derive an upscaling scheme from this by tracking only a sub-set of the fluctuations, which are used to approximate the scale interactions. Once this model has been derived, we discuss and present a means to extend it to the case where the fluctuations are more general than periodic.

In the sections that follow we provide the details of the numerical implementation, which is a very significant part of any practical method. Finally, we present numerical results using the new scheme and compare this with both resolved computations and some existing upscaling schemes.


In this essay, written for a symposium on surveillance for the University of Chicago Law Review, I examine some common difficulties in the way that liberty is balanced against security in the context of data mining. Countless discussions about the trade-offs between security and liberty begin by taking a security proposal and then weighing it against what it would cost our civil liberties. Often, the liberty interests are cast as individual rights and balanced against the security interests, which are cast in terms of the safety of society as a whole. Courts and commentators defer to the government's assertions about the effectiveness of the security interest. In the context of data mining, the liberty interest is limited by narrow understandings of privacy that neglect to account for many privacy problems. As a result, the balancing concludes with a victory in favor of the security interest. But as I argue, important dimensions of data mining's security benefits require more scrutiny, and the privacy concerns are significantly greater than currently acknowledged. These problems have undermined the balancing process and skewed the results toward the security side of the scale.


BACKGROUND
: Cellular proliferation is a key factor in the enlargement of renal cysts in autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD). We determined the extent to which adenosine 3':5'-cyclic monophosphate (cAMP) may regulate the in vitro proliferation of cyst epithelial cells derived from human ADPKD cysts.

METHODS
: Epithelial cells from cysts of individuals with ADPKD and from normal human kidney cortex (HKC) of individuals without ADPKD were cultured. The effects of agonists and inhibitors on the rate of cellular proliferation and the activation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK1/2) were determined.

RESULTS
: 8-Br-cAMP (100 micromol/L) stimulated the proliferation of cells from eight different ADPKD subjects to 99.0% above baseline; proliferation was inhibited by protein kinase A (PKA) antagonists H-89 (97%) and Rp-cAMP (90%). Forskolin (10 micromol/L), which activates adenylyl cyclase, increased proliferation 124%, and receptor-mediated agonists arginine vasopressin, desmopressin, secretin, vasoactive intestinal polypeptide, and prostaglandin E2 stimulated proliferation 54.2, 56.3, 46.7, 37.1, and 48.3%, respectively. The mitogen extracellular kinase (MEK) inhibitor PD98059 completely inhibited ADPKD cell proliferation in response to cAMP agonists, but genistein, a receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor, did not block cAMP-dependent proliferation. cAMP agonists increased the activity of ERK above control levels within five minutes. In contrast to ADPKD, proliferation and ERK activity of cells derived from normal HKC were not stimulated by cAMP agonists, although electrogenic Cl- secretion was increased by these agonists in both ADPKD and HKC cell monolayers.

CONCLUSIONS
: We conclude that cAMP agonists stimulate the proliferation of ADPKD but not HKC epithelial cells through PKA activation of the ERK pathway at a locus distal to receptor tyrosine kinase. We suggest that the adenylyl cyclase signaling pathway may have a unique role in determining the rate of cyst enlargement in ADPKD through its actions to stimulate cellular proliferation and transepithelial solute and fluid secretion.


The COVID-19 pandemic that spread to Russia as well as to other states of the world caused additional problems for our scientific life, making it impossible to hold the preplanned scientific events in usual format. The Centre for the Study of the Russian-African Relations and African States' Foreign Policy of the Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences had scheduled on March 31, 2020 an international scientific conference "Africa in the context of the formation of a polycentric world". The significance of this problem seems considerable enough, since its discussion raises a number of important issues, including the growing role of African countries in the process of creating a polycentric world and the desire of the African countries for greater subjectivity. At the same time, the fact that the modern global processes are taking place in the context of the growing competition among international actors for influence in the world, including Africa, becomes particularly important for Russia.

Given the importance and relevance of the raised issues and the interest shown by potential participants (more than 40 applications were submitted), it was decided to hold the conference on March 31, 2020 by correspondence. The scholars, postgraduates and students, representatives of research institutes of Russian Academy of Sciences (Institute for African Studies RAS, Institute of Oriental Studies RAS, IMEMO RAS, Institute for the US and Canada Studies RAS, Institute of Far Eastern Studies RAS, Institute of Control Sciences RAS), as well as higher educational institutions (RUDN, MGIMO, etc.) took part in this conference. A wide range of issues was discussed, including various aspects of the African countries' foreign policy, issues of African integration, Africa's role and place in new geopolitical conditions, the policy of the leading economically developed and developing countries and Russia's current policy on the African continent.

The discussion on the first block of themes "Africa: global problems and current trends in the world economy" was opened with RUDN Prof. V. I. Yurtaev's paper "Afro-Eurasia: challenges of participation in the formation of a polycentric world". Не raised the following questions: will the rise of the Afro-Asian world as a new alternative to the existing world order occur in the 21st century, and how necessary are the European and/or Eurasian components in this process? A.I. Neklessa made a contribution on the rather controversial topic of "Postcolonialism in the context of civilizational and regional development". In addition, there were papers on economic trends in North Africa (A.A. Tkachenko), digitalization in Tropical Africa (N. N. Tsvetkova), challenges that Africa faces today in the fight against drug trafficking (N. N. Grishina), money laundering and the financing of terrorism (Ntegge Edward).

The second block of issues "Russia and Africa" was opened with E.N. Korendyasov's substantive research paper dedicated to the new stage in the development of Russian-African relations, the milestone of which was the Russian-African Summit and Economic Forum in Sochi in October 2019. This topic was also discussed by G. M. Sidorova and E.V. Kharitonova. The economic aspect of Russian-African relations was reflected in the reports of E.V. Morozenskaya and S.N. Volkov, and the presentations of Z.S. Novikova and L.N. Kalinichenko contained an analysis of Russia's cooperation with African countries in the fields of new technologies and energy sector.

The increase in the scientific interest for African policy of the leading Western powers was shown by the reports of the third block "Western countries and Africa". Five presentations (A.Yu. Urnov, V.K. Parkhomenko, G.R. Grigoryan, A.A. Stepanov, A.Ya.Matkovskaya) were devoted to US policy in Africa; the topic of three other reports (O. S. Kulkova, N.V. Ivkina, N. G. Gavrilova) were the relations of African countries with the EU. Two speakers (A. M. Khalitova and M. R. Toure) focused on the problem of French policies in Africa. Finally, this section concluded with the report on Japanese-African relations (A.A. Zabella). In contrast to the above papers, concerning the policies of separate developed countries or their groups in Africa, the report of corresponding member of RAS, doctor of Economics, Professor Leonid L. Fituni focused on the role of the concept of a politically exposed persons in the structure of mechanisms of the West's sanctions pressure on African elites.

The participants in the discussion showed the expected interest in the problem of the "new players" in Africa. This interest was particularly manifest during the discussion on the topics of the fourth block of problems "Emerging and developing countries and Africa". The BRICS countries policy in Africa was in the focus of attention. Three reports were devoted to China' s African policy (T.L. Deych, E.M. Serbina and O.L. Fituni), while two other (A.Yu. Borzova and A.L. Sapuntsov) – to Brazil-Africa relations. Such active new players on the continent as Turkey (Mirmehti Agazade) and the United Arab Emirates (S. V. Kostelyanets) were not left without attention, as well.

The fifth block contains papers on a fairly broad topic "Foreign policy of African countries and inter-African relations". Two participants (O. V. Konstantinova and A.Yu. Sharova) addressed the issue of African integration that has become particularly relevant in recent years, while the others devoted their reports to the problems of foreign policy of individual African countries: S.V. Nenashev – Angola, T.S. Denisova and E.N. Zanoskina – Nigeria, N.A.Panin and Yu.D. Vertashov – South Africa, S.M. Shlenskaya – Madagascar.

The conference demonstrated a great interest of the scholars, postgraduates and students in the discussed problems and contributed to further researches within these main trends.


In the absence of noble public goals, admired leaders, and compelling issues, many warn of a dangerous erosion of civil society. Are they right? What are the roots and implications of their insistent alarm? How can public life be enriched in a period marked by fraying communities, widespread apathy, and unprecedented levels of contempt for politics? How should we be thinking about civil society? Civil Society examines the historical, political, and theoretical evolution of how civil society has been understood for the past two and a half millennia. From Aristotle and the Enlightenment philosophers to Colin Powell's Volunteers for America, Ehrenberg provides an indispensable analysis of the possibilities-and limits-of what this increasingly important idea can offer to contemporary political affairs. Civil Society is the winner of the Michael J. Harrington Award from the Caucus for a New Political Science of APSA for the best book published during 1999.


In this paper, the various RF MEMS switch are studied and analyzed, RF switch consisting of a thin micromechanical bridge suspended over a dielectric layer. A DC voltage greater than the pull-in voltage is applied across the switch, causing the bridge to collapse onto the dielectric layer with a resulting increase in the capacitance of the device. A penalty based contact force is implemented to model the contact forces as the bridge comes into contact with the dielectric. These complex RF circuits must not impact overall cellular system performance. The optimum solution lies with MEMS switches. Keywords— MEMS, RFMEMS, FEM,COMSOL


BACKGROUND
Numerous studies indicate that the leukocyte telomere length is associated with the risk of cancers, including colorectal cancer (CRC). However, the prognostic value of leukocyte telomere length in CRC patients has not been investigated.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Relative telomere length (RTL) of peripheral blood leukocytes (PBLs) from 571 CRC patients receiving surgical resection was measured using a polymerase chain reaction-based method. The Cox proportional hazards ratio model and the Kaplan-Meier curve were used to estimate the association between RTL and the clinical outcome of CRC patients in the training set (90 patients) and the testing set (86 patients). Finally, an independent cohort of 395 patients was used as an external validation set. The immunophenotype of PBLs and the plasma concentration of several immune-related cytokines were determined by flow cytometry and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, respectively.

RESULTS
Patients with shorter RTL had significantly poorer overall survival and relapse-free survival than those with longer RTL in the training, testing and validation sets. Furthermore, leukocyte RTL and Tumor-Node-Metastasis (TNM) stage exhibited a significant joint effect in the prognosis prediction of combined CRC patients, indicating that patients with both short RTL and advanced stages had the worst prognosis, when compared with other subgroups. In addition, patients with short RTL showed the higher percentage of CD4+ T cell and the lower percentage of B cell in peripheral blood mononuclear cells, as well as the lower concentration of plasma transforming growth factor-β1, suggesting a possibility that the immune functions changed with RTL alteration.

CONCLUSIONS
Our study for the first time demonstrates that leukocyte RTL is an independent prognostic marker complementing TNM stage and associated with the immune functions in CRC patients.


Background: Medical missions have become a part of the Global Health Programs at many academic institutions. Commonly these programs involve annual trips to locations in the United States and around the world. The University of Toledo Medical Center (UTMC) sought to develop a sustainable mission that has educational and clinical value to both the local community and academic institution. Methods: The Department of Emergency Medicine at UTMC has worked with Salud Total, a small health clinic in La Ceiba, Honduras. Salud Total is staffed by a general practitioner, nurse and ancillary staff. During a mission the clinical volume increases over 100 patients a day. UTMC staff and senior ED residents see general medical complaints and perform small surgical procedures. Specialists, such as cardiologists and obstetricians see those needing specialty care. Education is provided in the form of bedside clinical teaching and materials distributed to staff and patients. Results: This mission has provided clinical serv...


This paper argues that St. Anselm's distinction of the two senses of existence in his ontological argument for the existence of God renders Paul Tillich's refutation of it invalid. At the same time, Anselm misuses the two types of existence in his ontological comparison, leading to a logical contradiction between the different kinds and degrees of existence. Since Anselm's idea of different reference subjects does not coherently solve this logical absurdity, Anselm's ontological argument falls well short of being a successful approach to establishing the existence of God.


GARCIA MARTIN, J. and J. GOMEZ GIL, 2008. Calibration and evaluation of a machine vision algorithm to detect agricultural tractor movement. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 14: 436-444 This research is a preliminary project to fuse GPS and machine vision in order to improve positioning accuracy. A machine vision system has been developed to detect the movement in a tractor. The system, which consisted of a camera focused on the ground and software which processes the images, was probed in three kinds of fields. At the same time, GPS positions were being taken. The results of tests have shown that the trajectories detected by means of the vision system match with the path detected using GPS. This research is an example in which GPS and machine vision can work together.


Aminoglycosides occupy a special niche amongst antibiotics in part because of their broad spectrum of action. Bacterial resistance is however menacing to render these drugs obsolete. A significant amount of work has been devoted to understand and overcome aminoglycoside resistance. This mini-review will discuss aminoglycoside-modifying enzymes (AMEs), with a special emphasis on the efforts to comprehend and block resistance caused by aminoglycoside 6'-N-acetyltransferase (AAC(6')).


The design and development of a system for disinfecting medical waste at the site of origin is presented. Investigation of the current commercial systems that accomplish this task shows that they all expose the waste to physical conditions that are harmful to all forms of life. Further, most are very expensive to install and to operate. A recently developed biochemical process promises to effectively inactivate harmful pathogenic orgarusms economically and without the danger of extreme heat or poisonous chemicals. The biochemical process is not yet fully developed. Nonetheless, the development of a marketable system to take advantage of this technology has been initiated. The motivation for developing this technology and the particular system that will employ it is presented. A general overview of the system and components is presented. Previous and suggested future testing strategies are explained. Component interactions and process control are described.


A coherent receiver based on a 120° downconverter architecture, inherited from previous approaches at the microwave and optical fields, is proposed, analyzed, numerically evaluated and compared to the conventional 90° downconverter alternative. It is shown that, due to its superior calibration procedure, the new downconverter architecture allows full compensation of the imbalances in its optical front-end thus leading to an extended dynamic range and a broader operating bandwidth than its 90° counterpart. Simulation results from monolithically integrated downconverters show that our approach can be an interesting alternative to support efficient modulation schemes such as M-QAM that is being studied as potential candidate for the next generation of optical communication systems.


A detailed investigation of the nonlinear multimodal interference in a short graded-index multimode optical fiber is presented. The analysis is performed for a specific device geometry, where the light is coupled in and out of the multimode fiber via single-mode fibers. The same device geometry was recently used to obtain ultra-low-loss coupling between two single-mode optical fibers with very different mode-field diameters. Our results indicate the potential application of this simple geometry for nonlinear devices, such as in nonlinear switching, optical signal processing, or as saturable absorbers in mode-locked fiber lasers. Saturable absorption in this all-fiber configuration is discussed and it is shown that it provides attractive properties that can potentially be used in high pulse energy mode-locked fiber lasers.


This paper discusses two important desiderata for developing creativity support tools, namely ideation and empowerment. We then use them to guide us in designing a new individual creativity support tool codenamed Creative-Pad. Creative-Pad is designed to assist individual advertising creative to develop creative ideas for advertisements. For ideation, Creative-Pad searches and filters information automatically from the internet to present to the user with related words and exemplar sentences. For empowerment, CreativePad is designed in such a way that the user is neither distracted nor burdened to do any other tasks unrelated to conjuring up a creative idea for a new advertisement. Creative-Pad is fully implemented and some preliminary results of its use by advertising creatives are reported.


The last forty years have witnessed a proliferation of very small states, or micro-states with populations of approximately one million or less. Most of these states are developing economies but in recent years even the smallest European micro-states have won acceptance in the councils of the organised international system. This study is a comprehensive examination of the international relations of these states in three principal areas of concern: issues of status and legitimacy; the conduct of diplomacy and the efforts of micro-states to achieve strategies of self-reliant economic development. While the research has confirmed the vulnerabilities of micro-states in all three areas which have been stressed in the literature of the last decade, it also reveals surprising opportunities for some micro-states to ameliorate their weaknesses and to achieve a constructive engagements within the international system. The international milieu and the many support systems at both the regional and global level have actually reinforced the sovereignty of micro-states while providing them with added resources to exploit the opportunities which an increasingly integrated global economy offers. Unlike earlier studies in the field, this dissertation treats the experience of micro-states within the broad context of post-1945 history and thus provides an overall perspective for assessing the impact of very small size over 50 years. It also represents a departure from the existing literature in its determination to include both the developed micro-states in Europe and the more commonly studied micro-states in the developing world. Finally, much of the analysis compares the experiences of micro-states with those of forty larger small states in the next population class, an approach which has not been undertaken elsewhere. The impact of this comparison further confirms the general findings of the dissertation that the international system of the mid to late 1990s has evolved into a largely supportive milieu for micro-states in spite of the serious and occasionally dangerous problems which they continue to face.


Abstract Previous theoretical and empirical research on register variation has argued that linguistic co-occurrence patterns have a highly systematic relationship to register differences, because they both share the same functional underpinnings. The goal of this study is to test this claim through a comparison of two statistical techniques that have been used to describe register variation: factor analysis (as used in Multi-Dimensional analysis, MDA) and canonical discriminant analysis (CDA). MDA and CDA have different statistical bases and thus give priority to different analytical considerations: linguistic co-occurrence in the case of MDA and the prediction of register differences in the case of CDA. Thus, there is no statistical reason to expect that the two techniques, if applied to the same corpus, will produce similar results. We hypothesize that although MDA and CDA approach register variation from opposite sides, they will produce similar results because both types of statistical patterns are motivated by underlying discourse functions. The present paper tests this claim through a case-study analysis of variation among web registers, applying MDA and CDA to analyze register variation in the same corpus of texts.


In 2015 and 2016 almost 2.7 million asylum seekers travelled to Europe in search of protection. More than half of them, 1.4 million people, sought refuge in Germany or Sweden. Germany received the most people by far but Sweden took in more as a share of its population. The big influx of refugees induced major changes in migration and integration in both countries. This paper compares the policies on labour market integration in both countries focusing on what Sweden can learn from Germany to improve integration.


Abstract The U.S. Department of Energy designated the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) a National Scientific User Facility (NSUF) in April 2007 to support U.S. research in nuclear science and technology. As a user facility, the ATR is supporting new users from universities, laboratories, and industry, as they conduct basic and applied nuclear research and development to advance the nation's energy security needs. A key component of the ATR NSUF effort is to develop and evaluate new in-pile instrumentation techniques that are capable of providing measurements of key parameters during irradiation. This paper describes the strategy for determining what instrumentation is needed and the program for developing new or enhanced sensors that can address these needs. Accomplishments from this program are illustrated by describing new sensors now available and under development for in-pile measurement of temperature at various irradiation locations in the ATR.


In order to manufacture large-scale photonic devices of various dimensions at a low cost, a number of patterning techniques have been developed. Nanoimprint lithography is among the most promising given its unique advantages, such as high resolution, fast processing speed, high throughput, compatibility with diverse materials, and low cost. This review covers various aspects of nanoimprint lithography, including its operational principles, material requirements, and different ways of implementation. Nanoimprint lithography facilitates numerous high-performance and low-cost photonic elements, including optical interconnects, sensors, solar cells, and metamaterials. In addition, other related patterning techniques, together with their utilization for photonic device fabrication and their integration with nanoimprint lithography, are briefly discussed.


After the historical period characterized by the search for constructive solutions that allow safe permanence in Antarctica, currently one observes a greater concern with environmental aspects and an explicit claim to undertake the occupation so as to cause minimal or no environmental impact at all. In this scenario, the technologies employed in energy systems and sewage treatment play an important role and contribute with the development of more efficient and sustainable buildings. The aim of this research was to identify and systematize the technologies adopted by referential buildings for energy systems and wastewater treatment plants. The adopted methodology started from the previous selection of six buildings located at sites environmentally differentiated and built in the last decade. As a result, summary charts were prepared with the main features of the systems adopted, being noticeable a trend for the reuse of grey water and adoption of energy from renewable sources concomitant to traditional systems with fossil fuel generators.


This article presents an improved topology of Sequential Switching Shunt Regulator System to reduce the inherent power loss and the effect of Electro Magnetic Interference (EMI). The non-redundant diode which is used to block the reverse flow current from the Bus capacitance has been replaced by a Synchronous MOSFET. The power loss analysis is done for both the diode topology and also using the MOSFET. A novel hysteresis setting is done to achieve single string switching to reduce the effect of EMI. The experimental results are also presented in this article.


In this paper we extend recent theoretical results on the structure of the probability density function of streamflows forced by stochastic rainfall sequences. Our extension is aimed at incorporating an additional, independent source of variability assumed to describe noisy constitutive storage‐discharge relations, thought of as portraying phenomena like transient connectivity, differential activation of preferential flow paths, or macroscopic effects of spatially heterogeneous and hysteretic subsurface properties. We first show by numerical simulation that a colored noise superposed to the storage‐discharge relation does not appreciably affect the overall characterization of the storage distribution. Streamflows prove more sensitive to such noise. This effect is examined by including stochasticity directly into the streamflow generation processes in the form of Gaussian multiplicative noise affecting the discharge equation of a linear reservoir. Under the above conditions, exact analytical probability distributions for the streamflow are derived. The results show that the streamflow regimes, roughly termed wet and dry to describe perennial or ephemeral streamflow regimes, are peculiarly modified by the noise and are controlled by the ratio between the subsubsurface percolation frequency, by the inverse of the mean residence time of subsurface flow, and by the noise strength. Our results suggest new and significant noise‐induced phenomena, with notable ecological implications in particular for possible shifts from perennial to ephemeral regimes.


Rap Music and Street Consciousness. By Cheryl Keyes. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2002. Pp. xxv + 303, preface, acknowledgments, introduction, photographs, musical notation, glossary, notes, discography, bibliography, indices. $34.95 cloth) As a reader whose commitment to the study of folklore is rooted in a fascination with African American oral folk poetry-from toasts to rap to hip hop-I have been alert to Cheryl Keyes' previous writings on this subject (1993, 1996, 2000). Here, in her first full-length treatment of rap, published as part of the distinguished Music in American Life series of the University of Illinois Press, Keyes succeeds in comprehensively approaching rap "from the perspectives of ethnomusicology, folklore, and cultural studies" (ix). The book covers rap from its beginnings until 2000. Written for a general audience, Rap Music and Street Consciousness details the geographic, cultural, and economic settings from which this music emerged, in addition to providing a thorough analysis of the music itself, and it is a pleasure to read. The author situates herself-student outsider, musician not in the industry, African American, woman-and discusses the problematics of these multiple identities in her role as participant-observer. Of many subjects covered in this wideranging work, especially noteworthy are the origins and present social location of rap, the current public controversy over rap language and culture, and the role of women in rap. Keyes' historical overview begins, of course, in Africa. African poetic speech and performance (including antecedents of jive) are shown to have provided an artistic and cultural matrix for formal and stylistic developments in America black performance. Bringing the subject into the present, the author covers new versions of the rap genre that have developed over the past decade and generally entwines recent musical and social developments in an interesting and relevant way. Gang culture, a major context for rap performance, grew out of poverty worsened by the flight of wealth to the suburbs and resultant inner-city decay. The forced migration and involuntary isolation of African American community segments amid gentrification caused by the construction of superhighways such as the Cross Bronx Expressway in New York are further example of social dislocation whose effects are expressed in rap. Generalized apprehension about the oppressor, often expressed in widespread conspiracy rumors-for instance, that African Americans have been the target of intentional spreading of AIDS and crack-cocaine addiction (Turner 1993)-is also expressed in rap poetry and music. In the face of oppressive conditions, however, many rappers have become mainstream, achieving a high degree of commercial success, some artists starting their own labels and becoming moguls. Rap music videos, another popular format, display visually as well as musically the cultural messaging so intrinsic to rap, though the entry of many rap music videos into mainstream television venues remains problematic. …


The European water frog Pelophylax esculentus is a natural hybrid between P. lessonae (genotype LL) and P. ridibundus (RR). It reproduces through hybridogenesis, eliminating one parental genome from its germline and producing gametes containing the genome of the other parental species. According to previous studies, this elimination and transmission pattern is very diverse. In mixed populations, where only diploid hybrids (LR) live in sympatry and mate with one or both parental species, the excluded genome varies among regions, and the remaining genome is transmitted clonally to haploid gametes. In all-hybrid populations consisting of diploid (LR) and triploid (LLR and/or LRR) frogs, diploid individuals also produce gametes clonally (1n in males, 2n in females), whereas triploids eliminate the genome they have in single copy and produce haploid gametes containing the recombined other genome. However, here, too, regional differences seem to exist, and some triploids have been reported to produce diploid gametes. In order to systematically study such regional and genotype differences in gamete production, their potential origin, and their consequences for the breeding system, we sampled frogs from five populations in three European countries, performed crossing experiments, and investigated the genetic variation through microsatellite analysis. For four populations, one in Poland, two in Germany, and one in Slovakia, our results confirmed the elimination and transmission pattern described above. In one Slovakian population, however, we found a totally different pattern. Here, triploid males (LLR) produce sperm with a clonally transmitted diploid LL genome, rather than a haploid recombined L genome, and LR females clonally produce haploid R eggs, rather than diploid LR eggs. These differences among the populations in gamete production go along with differences in genomotype composition, breeding system (i.e., the way triploids are produced), and genetic variation. These differences are strong evidence for a polyphyletic origin of triploids. Moreover, our findings shed light on the evolutionary potential inherent to the P. esculentus complex, where rare events due to untypical gametogenetic processes can lead to the raise, the perpetuation, and the dispersion of new evolutionary significant lineages which may also deserve special conservation measures.


This article concerns the cognitive mechanisms that underlie the efficient allocation of cognitive resources during the translation process. Three indicators of efficient resource allocation are outlined and examined as correlates of translation expertise: flexibility, automaticity, and processing flow. Analyses of eye tracking and keylogging data from two groups of translators – professional translators and student translators – reveal that the more experienced group performs more efficiently. Professionals exhibit greater variation in attention unit duration, indicating greater cognitive flexibility and adaptability, while analysis of pupillary data suggests a lower cognitive load on professional translators' cognitive systems. The two groups of translators exhibit different processing flow patterns. The study demonstrates that analyses of cognitive flexibility, cognitive automaticity, and processing flow are useful to determine processing efficiency in translation.


BACKGROUND
In international studies, greater investment in primary health care is associated with improved population health outcomes.

AIM
To determine whether investment in general practice is associated with secondary care utilisation, patient satisfaction, and clinical outcomes.

DESIGN AND SETTING
Retrospective cross-sectional study of general practices in England, 2014-2015.

METHOD
Practice-level data were stratified into three groups according to GP contract type: national General Medical Services (GMS) contracts, with or without the capitation supplement (mean practice income guarantee), or local Personal Medical Services (PMS) contracts. Regression models were used to explore associations between practice funding (capitation payments and capitation supplements) and secondary care usage, patient satisfaction (general practice patient survey scores), and clinical outcomes (Quality and Outcomes Framework [QOF] scores). The authors conducted financial modelling to predict secondary care cost savings associated with notional changes in primary care funding.

RESULTS
Mean capitation payments per patient were £69.82 in GMS practices in receipt of capitation supplements (n = 2784), £78.79 in GMS practices without capitation supplements (n = 1672), and £84.43 in PMS practices (n = 3022). The mean capitation supplement was £5.72 per patient. Financial modelling demonstrated little or no relationship between capitation payments and secondary care costs. In contrast, notional investment in capitation supplements was associated with modelled savings in secondary care costs. The relationship between funding and patient satisfaction was inconsistent. QOF performance was not associated with funding in any practice type.

CONCLUSION
Capitation payments appear to be broadly aligned to patient need in terms of secondary care usage. Supplements to the current capitation formula are associated with reduced secondary care costs.


The shallow-water (<150 m) antipatharian fauna of the Hawaiian Archipelago is described and illustrated based on a systematic examination of skeletal spine morphology, polyp morphology, colony branching pattern and in situ photographs. A total of 172 black coral specimens were examined, including all available type material of species previously reported from shallow waters off Hawaiʻi. The examined specimens were assigned to three families (Antipathidae, Aphanipathidae and Myriopathidae), six genera (Antipathes, Cirrhipathes, Stichopathes, Aphanipathes, Acanthopathes and Myriopathes), and eight species: Antipathes griggi Opresko, 2009, Antipathes grandis Verrill, 1928, Cirrhipathes cf. anguina (Dana, 1846), Stichopathes echinulata Brook, 1889, Stichopathes? sp., Aphanipathes verticillata mauiensis Opresko et al., 2012, Acanthopathes undulata (Van Pesch 1914) and Myriopathes cf. ulex (Ellis and Solander 1786). The biogeographical distribution of Hawaiian shallow-water black corals is presented and discussed.


It is a matter of debate how far the description of a writing system should be based on the units and categories of the respective spoken language. The present paper pursues the idea of relative autonomy: accordingly, writing systems should be based on as little phonological information as possible. Otherwise, existing structures may be superimposed by structures from the spoken language and not be discovered. As a necessary step in this direction, the present paper proposes a procedure to identify vowel and consonant letters across languages without reverting to phonology. This is achieved by making use of the different distribution of vowel and consonant letters. The proposed identification procedure is shown to work for English, Dutch, and German. Keywords: letter distribution; written minimal pairs; multi-dimensional scaling


Solar photovoltaic (PV) energy has been widely used for decades especially where connection to a national grid is seldom possible and other sources such as fossil fuel and others are either unavailable or uneconomical. Solar PV energy owing to its free, natural availability and environmental friendliness has found demand for use in industries, homes and institutions. However, very little research has been carried out to precisely establish its effectiveness, reliability and adequacy. In this research work, an investigation to system size a PV telecommunication system was carried out for three consequtive months (June, July and August) considered to be the poorest in terms of irradiance by the Kenya Meteorological Department in the year 2012. The study was based on the power rating of a typical telecommunication system which is 1,222VA. However, the set-up was modeled to a typical telecommunication system by scaling down the actual load by a factor of 16 which gave 76.37VA. A standard stand-alone PV power supply unit to power the simulated telecommunication system was mounted in an open area away from any shading outside the solar energy laboratory of University of Nairobi. Voltage, current and hence the power data were measured daily using a data logger for the three months from the PV power supply unit. The irradiance data was also measured using a pyranometer for the same duration of time as that of voltage and current. The irradiance data collected and power harnessed by the installed PV system varied from month to month with July recording the lowest and August the highest. The highest and lowest irradiance fell on sunny day and cloudy day respectively. The daily average irradiance for June, July and August were 452.40W/m 2 , 422.43W/m 2 and 510.67W/m 2 respectively. The corresponding daily average power harnessed from modules for June, July and August were 76.10 VA, 75.37 VA and 85.93 VA respectively. There was a direct correlation between the irradiance and module power output. The irradiance and power harnessed was used to determine the number of modules and batteries required to fully support the Telecommunication PV System. For the month of June the number of modules and batteries were found to be 38, 200W modules and 62, 175Ah batteries. For the month of July they were 38, 200W modules and 62, 175Ah batteries and for the month of August 32, 200W modules and 62, 175Ah batteries respectively. The month that gave the highest number of modules and batteries (poorest month in terms of irradiance and power) was used as reference to size the Telecommunication PV system and in this case it was the month of July. The finding reported in this research work is of great importance to telecommunication campanies as it serves as a guide as to the approximate number of modules and batteries that should be put in place to support the PV telecommunication systems. It also forms the basis for sizing, as can be used to scale down other PV systems to be installed in areas whose average irradiance is known.


Archipelago Marine Research Ltd. was selected by the Alaska Fisheries Science Center to test electronic monitoring (EM) equipment for possible use to examine seabird interactions with trawl third-wire cables on trawl vessels. This pilot study involved field testing of EM systems on shoreside delivery and head and gut bottom trawl vessels conducting operations in the Bering Sea, U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone. EM systems, consisting of two closed circuit television cameras, GPS, hydraulic and winch sensors, and on-board data storage, were deployed on five fishing vessels for 14 fishing trips during a one-month period in the fall of 2002. Detailed analysis of about 200 hours of fishing imagery occurred, representing 20 shoreside delivery vessel fishing events and 32 head and gut fleet fishing events. Results from the study demonstrated that EM could effectively monitor seabird interactions with trawl third-wire cables. The EM system provided imagery of sufficient quality to detect the presence, abundance, and general behavior of seabirds during most daylight fishing events. As well, EM-based imagery was also able to detect third-wire entanglements of seabirds although it was not possible to determine the cause of these entanglements. EM imagery was not very useful for seabird enumeration and species identification. In regard to monitoring seabird interactions with trawl third-wires, EM would be suitable for monitoring the use and effectiveness of mitigation measures.


Mixed-criticality systems integrate components of different criticality. Different criticality levels require different levels of confidence in the correct behavior of a component. One aspect of correctness is timing. Confidence in worst-case execution time (WCET) estimates depends on the process by which they have been obtained. A somewhat naive view is that static WCET analyses determines safe bounds in which we can have absolute confidence, while measurement-based approaches are inherently unreliable. In this paper, we refine this view by exploring sources of doubt in the correctness of both static and measurement-based WCET analysis.


Just as traumatic experiences may lead to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in some individuals, grief may also be a serious health concern for individuals who have experienced bereavement. At present, neither the DSM-IV nor the ICD-10 recognizes any form of grief as a mental disorder. The aim of this review is to summarize recent advances in definition, assessment, prevention, and treatment of complicated grief disorder (CGD) and to compare CGD with PTSD. Four areas are identified to be of importance to clinicians and researchers: (a) the recently proposed consensus criteria of CGD for DSM-V and ICD-11, (b) available assessment instruments, (c) recent prevention and treatment techniques and related effectiveness studies, and (d) emerging disorder models and research on risks and protective factors. This review focuses on the similarities and differences between CGD and PTSD and highlights how a PTSD-related understanding aids the investigation and clinical management of CGD. For the abstract or full text in other languages, please see Supplementary files under Reading Tools online


The current dynamics of organizations produces frequently changing business rules, involving changes into the software applications that embed them. The use of ontologies as software artefacts intended to encapsulate business rules is a mean to raise the exibility, extensibility and ease of maintenance of the software applications. Such ontologies should be developed and maintained in conjunction with other software components, so an ontology building methodology must be considered in the context of the software development process. This paper presents an evolutionary method for building ontologies intended to be used as a structural conceptual model of an information system, encoding business rules in a declarative way and enabling the intertwining of ontology and software development processes.


In rural areas, UV disinfection has a great potential for drinking water treatment because of the ability to achieve target disinfection levels and the ease of operation and maintenance; however, UV disinfection provides no disinfection residual to the water distribution system. This study examines the biological safety of rural water distribution systems following UV disinfection. The results showed that in all the tested villages, heterotrophic plate counts (HPC) were below 500 colony-forming units (CFU)/mL and total bacterial counts (TBC) were below 100 CFU/mL. Both meet the drinking water standard in China. The HPC concentration was related to the water temperature, the assimilable organic carbon (AOC) and water distribution system conditions. Total coliforms were detectable at some water distribution system sampling points in two out of eight villages.


! Masud Khan was one of the most controversial psychoanalysts of the post-war period. This thesis argues that modernist literature and culture are central to Khan's conception and realisation of his psychoanalytic work in Britain from the late nineteen forties onwards. His lifelong engagement with modernist art and writing also shapes Khan's vision of himself as a 'self-exile', and provides the framework for his own imagining of contemporary political life in Europe, Pakistan, and Britain. His psychoanalytic work, thoroughly shaped by the writing of T.S. Eliot, James Joyce, and the painting of the cubists, is a complex response to his own sense of his postcolonial modernity, and the rapid social and political changes of the period. By taking Khan as a case study this project explores the intersection of modernist writing and the end of Empire, especially concerning questions of cosmopolitanism, exile, race, and the politics of modernism. It aims to enrich our sense of the history modernism by exploration of this highly idiosyncratic figure. The explicitly modernist bent of Khan's writing also opens up new readings of his psychoanalytic contemporaries Donald Winnicott, Michael Balint, and Marion Milner that highlight the continuity of their writings with many aspects of modernist culture.! ! More specifically, the study examines the shaping effect of specific ideas and themes in modernist writing on Khan's conception of subjectivity, whilst also reflecting on the meaning of these translations of cultural life into psychoanalytic theory. Explored are: Joyce's articulations of 'epiphany' and exile, as well as his writing on race and Jewishness; T.S. Eliot's concept of 'tradition' and his writing on culture and community, especially as it allows Khan to imagine his own 'feudal' past and ethnic distinctiveness in postwar London; and the painting of Georges Braque and Joan Miró in Khan's figuration of new and radical forms of self-experience in psychic life. ! !


The intracellular protozoan Toxoplasma gondii lacks a de novo mechanism for cholesterol synthesis and therefore must scavenge this essential lipid from the host environment. In this study, we demonstrated that T. gondii diverts cholesterol from low‐density lipoproteins for cholesteryl ester synthesis and storage in lipid bodies. We identified and characterized two isoforms of acyl‐CoA:cholesterol acyltransferase (ACAT)‐related enzymes, designated TgACAT1α and TgACAT1β in T. gondii. Both proteins are coexpressed in the parasite, localized to the endoplasmic reticulum and participate in cholesteryl ester synthesis. In contrast to mammalian ACAT, TgACAT1α and TgACAT1β preferentially incorporate palmitate into cholesteryl esters and present a broad sterol substrate affinity. Mammalian ACAT‐deficient cells transfected with either TgACAT1α or TgACAT1β are restored in their capability of cholesterol esterification. TgACAT1α produces steryl esters and forms lipid bodies after transformation in a Saccharomyces cerevisiae mutant strain lacking neutral lipids. In addition to their role as ACAT substrates, host fatty acids and low‐density lipoproteins directly serve as Toxoplasma ACAT activators by stimulating cholesteryl ester synthesis and lipid droplet biogenesis. Free fatty acids significantly increase TgACAT1α mRNA levels. Selected cholesterol esterification inhibitors impair parasite growth by rapid disruption of plasma membrane. Altogether, these studies indicate that host lipids govern neutral lipid synthesis in Toxoplasma and that interference with mechanisms of host lipid storage is detrimental to parasite survival in mammalian cells.


We present a concept study of a solar wind forecasting method for Earth, based on persistence modeling from STEREO in-situ measurements combined with multi-viewpoint EUV observational data. By comparing the fractional areas of coronal holes (CHs) extracted from EUV data of STEREO and SoHO/SDO, we perform an uncertainty assessment derived from changes in the CHs and apply those changes to the predicted solar wind speed profile at 1AU. We evaluate the method for the time period 2008-2012, and compare the results to a persistence model based on ACE in-situ measurements and to the STEREO persistence model without implementing the information on CH evolution. Compared to an ACE based persistence model, the performance of the STEREO persistence model which takes into account the evolution of CHs, is able to increase the number of correctly predicted high-speed streams by about 12%, and to decrease the number of missed streams by about 23%, and the number of false alarms by about 19%. However, the added information on CH evolution is not able to deliver more accurate speed values for the forecast than using the STEREO persistence model without CH information which performs better than an ACE based persistence model. Investigating the CH evolution between STEREO and Earth view for varying separation angles over ~25-140{\deg} East of Earth, we derive some relation between expanding CHs and increasing solar wind speed, but a less clear relation for decaying CHs and decreasing solar wind speed. This fact most likely prevents the method from making more precise forecasts. The obtained results support a future L5 mission and show the importance and valuable contribution using multi-viewpoint data.


Photograph of Hazel Harvey Peace, an African-American educator and long-time Fort Worth resident. She is seated in a wooden chair, with her hands folded over a closed children's book in her lap. Other books are visibly displayed on library shelves behind her.


With a history of international failures, the survivability of coupled systems of wave energy devices and their moorings, particularly those to be installed at development sites like Wave Hub, is surrounded by uncertainty. Potential design solutions require a better understanding of the hydrodynamics and structural loading experienced during extreme events, like rogue wave impact, in order to mitigate the risk of device and mooring failure. Rogue waves are waves with amplitudes far greater than those expected, given the surrounding sea conditions. Intense study into these events stems from their potential for catastrophic impact on ocean engineering structures. However, little is known about their physical origins and, currently, there is no consensus on their definition or explanation of the mechanism which drives them. This paper concerns the numerical modeling and experimental validation of extreme rogue wave examples at the Wave Hub site. Using hindcast data, the 100 year extreme wave at the Wave Hub site is determined. This extreme wave is replicated in Plymouth University's new COAST Lab using a NewWave, dispersive focusing input. To simulate and analyse these events, we duplicate these conditions in a numerical wave tank (NWT), solving the fully nonlinear Navier-Stokes equations, with a free surface, using the Volume of Fluid (VoF) method and open source CFD library OpenFOAM®. The comparison shows that the CFD software is capable of simulating focused waves similar to those produced in the physical tank but tends to overestimate the crest heights. It is also noted that nonlinear effects are important when considering the shape and location of focused wave events.


Objective Mast cells may play a role in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), but activation of human mast cells in autoimmune settings has been little studied. Toll-like receptors (TLR) and Fcγ receptors (FcγR) are important receptors for cellular activation in the joint, but expression and stimulation of these receptors in human mast cells or the functional interplay between these pathways is poorly understood. Here, we analysed triggering of human mast cells via these receptors in the context of anti-citrullinated protein antibody-positive (ACPA+) RA. Methods RNA and protein expression of TLRs and FcγR was quantified using PCR and flow cytometry, respectively. Mast cells were stimulated with TLR ligands (including HSP70) combined with IgG immune complexes and IgG-ACPA. Results Human mast cells expressed TLRs and produced cytokines in response to TLR ligands. Both cultured and synovial mast cells expressed FcγRIIA, and triggering of this receptor by IgG immune complexes synergised with activation by TLR ligands, leading to two- to fivefold increased cytokine levels. Mast cells produced cytokines in response to ACPA immune complexes in a citrulline-specific manner, which synergised in the presence of HSP70. Conclusions Our data show that synovial mast cells express FcγRIIA and that mast cells can be activated by IgG-ACPA and TLR ligands. Importantly, combined stimulation via TLRs and immune complexes leads to synergy in cytokine production. These findings suggest mast cells are important targets for TLR ligands and immune complexes, and that combined activation of mast cells via these pathways greatly enhances inflammation in synovial tissue of RA patients.


Aaron Copland9s Third Symphony, commissioned by Serge Koussevitzky and premiered by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1946, stands as the single true achievement of the composer9s symphonic career. As befits
 such a weighty composition invested with personal and professional artistic aspirations, the genesis and evolution of the Third Symphony from sketch to score was unusually complex. The present study relies
 heavily on archival materials in the Copland Collection at the Library of Congress——including sketches and scores, historical recordings, and personal correspondence——to document the work9s compositional
 history in detail. In sum, the textual history of the symphony involves nearly 20 manuscripts spanning as many years. Copland began composing the symphony earlier than previously thought and found thematic
 material for the Third in numerous other works dating back to 1940, four years before the actual commission. Variant autograph full scores embody contributions by Serge Koussevitzky and Leonard Bernstein
 made after the symphony9s premiere in 1946 and publication in 1947; Copland9s own copy of the 1966 revised edition contains additional changes and corrections. Such insights place the symphony in a new
 historical and musical context relating to his work during the Great Depression and the Second World War and reveal an unexpected collaborative dimension to Copland9s compositional process.


Originally published in 1910, The Power and the Glory is a fascinating novel set in turn-of-the-century Appalachia. The page-turner centers on spirited heroine Johnnie Consadine and anticipates many contemporary feminist issues. Embarrassed by her family's reputation for "borrowing" rather than working, Johnnie leaves her home deep in Appalachia's Unaka Mountains to take a job at a textile mill in Cottonville, Tennessee, a Chattanooga suburb. Here she challenges the unhealthy, dangerous, and brutal conditions faced by women and children laborers, exposes corporate environmental poisoning, stands up to the hypocritical middle-class ladies of the Uplift Club, invents and patents an idea for improving industrial machinery, and proposes a settlement house, utopian mine, and mill village to help women like herself. A rollicking good read, The Power and the Glory is filled with plot twists and turns that include romance, a lost silver mine, kidnapping, shoot-outs, scheming villains, a wandering chiropractor, and a dramatic automobile chase. The novel's themes of ecological feminism, social activism, gender roles, and class distinctions remain strikingly relevant for modern readers, who will revel in the adventures of a strong, intelligent, funny, and resourceful Appalachian woman.


Theoretical modeling of the dynamics of complexation and decomplexation of guest molecules by container molecules reveals that gating has a critical influence on the ease of formation and stability of host-guest complexes. Hosts equipped with gates can form very stable complexes with a variety of guests under readily achievable conditions. Gating involves conformational processes of the host molecule that alter the size of the portals through which guest molecules pass. "French door" and "sliding door" mechanisms of gate opening are identified.


Mohs' micrographic surgery of facial basal cell carcinoma ensures a high cure rate with maximal preservation of healthy tissue. Using precise margin control, this procedure allows complete examination of all margins of tissue removed. Due to the insufficient facilities for Mohs' micrographic surgery in Sweden, only the most aggressive tumours are referred for this procedure, which could increase the risk of recurrences. We have operated on 228 basal cell carcinomas, 87 primary and 141 recurrent tumours, over the period 1983 to 1992. The tumours were located on the face and all patients were followed for 5 years after surgery. The recurrence rate was 6.5% for primary and 10% for recurrent basal cell carcinomas. After 12 months the functional and cosmetic results were evaluated, showing good or satisfactory results in 93% of cases. Mohs' surgery is an underused but still efficacious technique in Sweden and should be recommended to other centres.


Abstract Benjamin Britten was one of several twentieth-century British composers active before the Second World War who wrote "anthology cycles"—that is, cyclic vocal works on poetry anthologies of the composer9s own making. This apparently British invention is deeply indebted to the widespread success of the anthology as a literary form in classrooms, homes, and marketplaces of Victorian and Edwardian England. Britten9s early attraction to canonical anthologies such as Arthur Quiller-Couch9s Oxford Book of English Verse (1900), for example, is representative of a cultural practice of reading. Britten and other British composers renewed their connection to that practice when they became anthologists for their musical works, identifying themselves as arbiters of poetic and musical taste. Britten9s anthology cycle Serenade for tenor, horn, and strings (1943) uses Quiller-Couch9s Oxford Book for as many as four of its six texts, many of which share pastoral themes. And yet the composer9s musical settings often seem to challenge a conventional reading of the chosen texts and the generic titles Britten assigned to each movement. By creating a canonical, pastoral anthology and then challenging it through music, Britten, who had just returned to England from the United States, invested Serenade with the potential to present the world of prewar England as embattled.


Current Transformer (CT) is used to indicate meters and protective relay systems so; the maintenance process is very important and should make regularly. Routine maintenance is done via cleaning the insulations, tighten the screws and follow up the oil level. Periodic electrical tests are insulation tests, turns ratio test and a saturation curve test. Tests results give a good indication of the internal transformer status. In this paper, maintenance of the CT was made by a new proposed technique. In the proposed maintenance technique, the nanoparticles (NPs) are used to treat the low level of electrical insulation. The insulating medium of the CT is mineral oil, it is a hydrocarbon material. In normal operating situations there is no problem but during the faults and short circuit, the transformer oil is dissolved and carbon atoms are formed within the oil. Due to the repetition of operations, CT becomes invalid and must be replacing by another new one, because it is dangerous to individuals and equipment surrounding it. Nanoparticles attract these particles and raise the electrical insulation level of the CT. An electrical insulation test of the CT is performed before and after treatment to ensure the benefits of the new proposed method. The test results of proposed maintenance processes are compared with the traditional method according to the IEC Standards 60044. The results were studied using statistical analysis and explained substantial differences, when using nanoparticles. CT was raised the efficiency and prolonged life span. Key-Words: Current transformer; nanoparticles; insulation resistance test, dissipation factor and breakdown voltage test.


This book examines the ideology of elite lawyers and judges from the Gilded Age through the New Deal. Between 1866 and 1937, a coherent outlook shaped the way the American bar understood the sources of law, the role of the courts, and the relationship between law and the larger society. William M. Wiecek explores this outlook-often called "legal orthodoxy" or "classical legal thought"-which assumed that law was apolitical, determinate, objective, and neutral. American classical legal thought was forged in the heat of the social crises that punctuated the late nineteenth century. Fearing labor unions, immigrants, and working people generally, American elites, including those on the bench and bar, sought ways to repress disorder and prevent political majorities from using democratic processes to redistribute wealth and power. Classical legal thought provided a rationale that assured the legitimacy of the extant distribution of society's resources. It enabled the legal suppression of unions and the subordination of workers to management's authority. As the twentieth-century U.S. economy grew in complexity, the antiregulatory, individualistic bias of classical legal thought became more and more distanced from reality. Brittle and dogmatic, legal ideology lost legitimacy in the eyes of both laypeople and ever-larger segments of the bar. It was at last abandoned in the "constitutional revolution of 1937", but-as Wiecek argues in this detailed analysis-nothing has arisen since to replace it as an explanation of what law is and why courts have such broad power in a democratic society.


The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which the following factors predict computer use by teachers in classroom instruction: attitudes of teachers toward computers in the classroom, access by teachers and students to computers, training of teachers in computer use, support of teachers in their use of computers, age of the teacher, grade level in which the teacher teaches, curriculum area in which the teacher teaches, gender of the teacher, and number of years the teacher is from retirement. Computer use was measured in five ways: over-all computer use and use in drill and practice, whole class instruction, student-directed learning, and computer skills instruction.
The design of the study was both quantitative and qualitative. The population of the study was the classroom teachers of Carroll County (Virginia) Public Schools. A survey instrument was designed to measure computer use and the factors related to use. The responses from the survey were analyzed with multiple regression techniques to determine which factors were predictors of computer use by teachers in classroom instruction. The qualitative portion of the study consisted of five focus groups (5-7 teachers from grades PreK-2, 3-5, 6-7, 8-9, 10-12). The nominal group technique was used to create a prioritized list of strategies to improve teacher use of computers by focusing on the factors determined to be predictors.
Factors that predict computer use varied by grade level. Training was the most common predictor followed by attitude, support, access, and age of teacher. The prioritized lists of strategies from the focus groups included grade and curriculum specific computer training, technology "coaches" in every building, and computer labs in every building. A major implication of the study was that training must be specifically targeted to grade level and curriculum area to be effective.


Poor quality fertilizer is a growing problem in many countries. This is of special concern to smallholder farmers as they have neither the buying power nor the testing instruments to verify the authenticity of the input. We analyze the effect of fertilizer quality on its use intensity. This study distinguishes between perceived quality and true quality. Results show that perception of higher quality reduces fertilizer application rates. However, the true quality measure based on laboratory testing of fertilizer samples has no statistically significant impact on fertilizer use intensity. There is also no significant correlation between true and perceived quality.


Researchers have often seen Sami bear ceremonies as exclusive male activities since the hunting was performed by men. This asymmetrical outlook on men's and women's participation in rituals is partly due to the old source material, which generally has a male point of departure. This view has also been reinforced by later researchers. By introducing Anna Tomasdotter and her account of the Sami bear ritual, a source not frequently used, the author of the article brings to the fore a female perspective on the ceremony. The complementary gender roles in Sami religion are thus put in focus.


Naturopathy is based on human health care through integrative practices, especially with elements of nature, aiming to maintain and recover health in a humanized process. This article aims to know the ethical problems experienced by naturopaths in the care practice and to know how these professionals seek to solve them, in the light of the ethics of care. It is a qualitative research with semi-structured interviews of which the responses were treated by content analysis. From these interviews the following categories of analysis were created: "limits of care", "inter-professional relations" and "limits of professional practice". Ethical conflicts have occurred both in the direct relationship of care and in indirect situations, such as those involving other professionals, colleagues in the profession and the society. The interviewees emphasized that the field of naturopathy is still not well defined and that, often, ethical conflicts appear due to lack of clear limits to the practice.


"Emerging technologies" and the growing inventory of their dual-use applications increasingly challenge policymakers with how to balance technological development, economic competitiveness, and national security priorities. While dual-use export control regulators have always struggled with balancing economic and security interests, emerging technologies are challenging controls systems ill-equipped to define or practically control them. As the most advanced case, the US export control effort is an instructive regarding the challenges of deploying conventional controls over defining and controlling rapidly developing technology sets. This article reviews the US case in light of the current challenges posed by emerging and foundational technologies.


The onshore and offshore Tertiary sedimentary sequences of Sarawak contain numerous coal seams of Oligocene and Lower Miocene age. The offshore extensions and equivalents of these onshore basins contain oil that is considered to be possibly sourced from these coals and related terrestrial derived organic matter. Despite this, very little information has been published on the geochemical and petrographic characteristics of the Sarawak coals. To rectify this, all the major Tertiary coal deposits of Sarawak have been visited and samples collected. In this preliminary study, results from two areas i.e. the Bintulu area and the Stapang block of the Merit-Pila coalfield will be presented emphasizing on the type of common liptinitic constituents of the coals and their relation to oil generation and expulsion. A number of petrographic features that are commonly considered to indicate oil generation and expulsion from coals were observed. Such features include the occurrence of exsudatinite; oil droplets and oil haze; changes of fluorescence intensity; and development of micrinite. The precursors for the exsudatinite in the Bintulu coals is mainly bituminite and that from Stapang, Merit-Pila is mainly suberinite. The development of the exsudatinite is taken to represent an early phase of liquid hydrocarbon generation and its expulsion took place at about O.4%Ro for the Merit-Pila coals and 0.45%Ro for the Bintulu coals (earlier than the generally considered "oil-window" of 0.5% vitrinite reflectance). It has been possible to recognize the order of liquid hydrocarbon generation for a number of the common liptinitic constituents present in these Tertiary coals of Sarawak.


The following report is a historical overview and an assessment of dead wood habitat management & ancient oak conservation in Sherwood Forest National Nature Reserve. The following survey report provides the first dead wood survey and results completed for Sherwood Forest NNR, along with a detailed assessment of ancient oak response to the conservation practice of haloing. Line-transect sampling was used in order to predict total volume m3/ha for four study areas and then combined to provide a total overall estimate for Sherwood Forest NNR. Four study areas were chosen in which ten 50 metre transect lines were randomly chosen. The study areas were chosen based on past and present management practices of grazing, non-grazing, and the introduction of oak plantations. A total average volume 211.17 m3/ha of dead wood for logs, snags, and stumps were estimated from the four study areas within Sherwood Forest NNR. There were significant differences between grazed and non-grazed study areas for ancient oak and oak volumes. Significant difference was also found between study area 4 when compared to study areas 1, 2, and 3 for ancient oak dead wood volumes. Study areas 2 and 4 for oak dead wood volume also showed significant difference. These differences can be explained by the past and present management practices within the Park. Of the 211.17 m3/ha of estimated dead wood, 66% (139.96 m3/ha) of total dead wood came from snags and stumps. This was an expected find with the abundance of ancient oak snags and stumps throughout the forest. Compared to previous dead wood surveys performed throughout the UK and Europe Sherwood Forest NNR contains a substantial amount of deadwood habitat. Results of total volume, rot class, and species volume for each individual study area have been displayed within the appendices upon the Sherwood Forest site manager's request. A total of twenty-six ancient oaks were surveyed separately using information from previous surveys performed in 2005 and 2011. Assessments were made for each oak found alive to determine whether there was any obvious positive or negative response to haloing practices since 2005 using assessment recommendation keys provided within the 2011 survey. Of the twenty-six ancient oaks surveyed sixteen showed positive response, three moderate, six no response at all, and one found dead since the 2010 survey. Epicormic buds, leaf appearance, and overall tree structure provided the basis of comparison from previous surveys to determine the trees response to the haloing method. Overall Sherwood Forest NNR shows very high levels of deadwood based on line-intersect estimates for an old growth forest. Even though the line-intersect method is known to overestimate snag volume and stump volume; with a total of 71.21 m3/ha for just log volume, Sherwood Forest NNR is within the higher third of previous studies.


Late antiquity saw a proliferation of Christian texts dwelling on the emotions and physical sensations of dying—not as a heroic martyr in a public square or a judge's court but as an individual, at home in a bed or in a private room. In sermons, letters, and ascetic traditions, late ancient Christians imagined the last minutes of life and the events that followed death in elaborate detail. This book traces how, in late ancient Christianity, death came to be thought of as a moment of reckoning: a physical ordeal whose pain is followed by an immediate judgment of one's actions by angels and demons and, after that, fitting punishment. This emphasis on the experience of death ushered in a new ethical sensibility among Christians, in which one's death was to be imagined frequently and anticipated in detail. This was initially meant as a tool for individuals: preachers counted on the fact that becoming aware of a judgment arriving at the end of one's life tends to sharpen one's scruples. But, as this book argues, the change in Christian sensibility toward death did not just affect individuals. Death imagined as the moment of reckoning created a fund of images and ideas within late ancient Christian culture about just what constituted a human being and how variances in human morality should be treated. This had significant effects on the Christian adoption of power in late antiquity, especially in the case of power's heaviest baggage: the capacity to authorize violence against others.


The main objective of radiation therapy is to obtain the highest possible probability of tumor cure while minimizing adverse reactions in healthy tissues. A crucial step in the treatment process is to determine the location and extent of the primary tumor and its loco regional lymphatic spread in relation to adjacent radiosensitive anatomical structures and organs at risk. These volumes must also be accurately delineated with respect to external anatomic reference points, preferably on surrounding bony structures. At the same time, it is essential to have the best possible physical and radiobiological knowledge about the radiation responsiveness of the target tissues and organs at risk in order to achieve a more accurate optimization of the treatment outcome.A computerized whole body Atlas has therefore been developed to serve as a dynamic database, with systematically integrated knowledge, comprising all necessary physical and radiobiological information about common target volumes and normal tissues. The Atlas also contains a database of segmented organs and a lymph node topography, which was based on the Visible Human dataset, to form standard reference geometry of organ systems. The reference knowledgebase and the standard organ dataset can be utilized for Atlas-based image processing and analysis in radiation therapy planning and for biological optimization of the treatment outcome. Atlas-based segmentation procedures were utilized to transform the reference organ dataset of the Atlas into the geometry of individual patients. The anatomic organs and target volumes of the database can be converted by elastic transformation into those of the individual patient for final treatment planning. Furthermore, a database of reference treatment plans was started by implementing state-of-the-art biologically based radiation therapy planning techniques such as conformal, intensity modulated, and radiobiologically optimized treatment planning.The computerized Atlas can be viewed as a central framework that contains different forms of optimal treatment plans linked to all the essential information needed in treatment planning, which can be adapted to a given patient, in order to speed up treatment plan convergence. The Atlas also offers a platform to synthesize the results of imaging studies through its advanced geometric transformation and segmentation procedures. The whole body Atlas is anticipated to become a physical and biological knowledgebase that can facilitate, speed up and increase the accuracy in radiation therapy planning and treatment optimization.


Thirty-one nodulating rhizobium strains were collected from root nodules of spring and winter type faba bean cultivars grown in micro ecoarea, i.e. the same field in Chengdu plain, China. The symbiotic efficiency and phylogeny of these strains were studied. Effectively nitrogen fixing strains were isolated from both winter type and spring type cultivars. Based on phylogenetic analysis of 16S rRNA gene and concatenated sequence of atpD, glnII and recA genes, the isolates were assigned as Rhizobium anhuiense and a potential new Rhizobium species. The isolates were diverse on symbiosis related gene level, carrying five, four and three variants of nifH, nodC and nodD, respectively. Strains carrying similar gene combinations were trapped by both winter and spring cultivars, disagreeing with the specificity of symbiotic genotypes to reported earlier faba bean ecotypes.


Besides improving mechanical performance, wear resistance is the first prerequisite for a dental material to be accepted by both dentists and patients, and therefore good wear behavior may contribute to the longevity and durable aesthetics of a dental material such as brackets or implants. In this work we have investigated the wear and mechanical behavior, along with the thermal stability, of polysulfone/modified alumina. γ-Alumina nanoparticles have been modified with polysulfone (PSU) chains of two different molecular weights. The modification leads to an enhanced homogeneous dispersion, as was confirmed using TEM-image analysis, and enhanced mechanical and wear behavior when compared with a PSU/alumina nanocomposite. Nanoindentation measurements confirmed that the elastic modulus values were enhanced when modified nanoparticles were used to prepare nanocomposites. Abrasive wear analysis revealed that the wear volume loss was decreased when the nanoparticles were modified. The PSU chains grafted to alumina promoted enhanced particle dispersion, which at the same time induced protection in the polysulfone matrix against wearing off. The results showed a clear tendency for increased strength and wear resistance, without sacrificing transparency. Regarding the thermal stability of the materials prepared, the results showed similar thermal stabilities for both neat PSU and modified particle nanocomposites up to a certain temperature (i.e., ∼550 °C), and after this temperature these nanocomposites displayed a higher thermal stability than neat PSU.


Although many writers blend autobiography and fiction, few have been so forthright in admitting it as Gustave Flaubert. In reference to his legendary novel and protagonist, he wrote: "Madame Bovary, c'est moi." Madame Bovary has become an icon for casual readers and feminists alike, but, as Dacia Maraini argues, she is one of the most problematic, though fascinating, female protagonists in modern literature. In this lively, learned, and very personal study, Maraini explores the profound and contradictory relationship between the writer Flaubert and the character his readers have grown to love. Maraini argues that in their desire to claim Emma Bovary as a standard-bearer of revolt, women have often overlooked the bitter, pitiless way in which Flaubert evokes Emma's insignificance and vulgarity. Searching for Emma guides the reader through Flaubert's novel and many of his letters, seeking out the sources of his obsessive cruelty toward Emma. Maraini relates Flaubert's contempt for Emma to his relationship with his mistress, Louise Colet, to his general terror of women, and to his own self-loathing. It was entirely in spite of himself, Maraini writes, that Flaubert created the female Don Quixote so admired for her restlessness and determination. Searching for Emma offers a novelist's insight into the complex relationship between author and character, and into the deepest motivations of fiction.


In this paper, we propose an average connectivity degree cluster (ACDC) scheme gossip algorithm to improve the convergence speed and the accuracy of the consensus, when a common decision is needed for a certain phenomenon in a distributed network. We analyze the effects of the initial value, the network topology (regular and irregular), and the number of clusters on the algorithm convergence rate as well as the accuracy of the value when reaching consensus. A utility function is developed based on two parameters, iteration and relative error, to help the network designers make an optimal decision based on their requirements. An irregular sensor model which is based on the degree of irregular (DOI) radius is introduced to evaluate the robustness of the algorithm. The simulation results demonstrate that for any initial value and network topology, the proposed ACDC gossip algorithm can yield results that are 50% closer to the real average value than the referenced standard gossip and grid cluster gossip algorithms. With different DOI values, our ACDC gossip algorithm can still reach lower relative error compared with other gossip algorithms, which demonstrates that our algorithm is robust enough to be executed in the network.


QR and LU factorizations for dense matrices are important linear algebra computations that are widely used in scientific applications. To efficiently perform these computations on modern computers, the factorization algorithms need to be blocked when operating on large matrices to effectively exploit the deep cache hierarchy prevalent in today's computer memory systems. Because both QR (based on Householder transformations) and LU factorization algorithms contain complex loop structures, few compilers can fully automate the blocking of these algorithms. Though linear algebra libraries such as LAPACK provides manually blocked implementations of these algorithms, by automatically generating blocked versions of the computations, more benefit can be gained such as automatic adaptation of different blocking strategies. This paper demonstrates how to apply an aggressive loop transformation technique, dependence hoisting, to produce efficient blockings for both QR and LU with partial pivoting. We present different blocking strategies that can be generated by our optimizer and compare the performance of auto-blocked versions with manually tuned versions in LAPACK, both using reference BLAS, ATLAS BLAS and native BLAS specially tuned for the underlying machine architectures.