In recent years social science has been characterized by a cosmopolitan turn. Of the many questions that arise from this the most important are those that concern the implications for explaining social change. While cosmopolitanism is centrally about social change, much cosmopolitan theory due to its normative orientation lacks a capacity for explanation. The problem of explanation is also a problem that besets all 'big question' approaches in social science. In this paper a broad definition of cosmopolitanism is given and elucidated by an outline of its epistemological, ontological and methodological frameworks. Emphasizing the latter two, a relational conception of cosmopolitanism is developed as an alternative to dispositional/agency based and systemic accounts. First I argue that there are four main kinds of cosmopolitan relationships, which together constitute the social ontology of cosmopolitanism. These are the relativization of identity, the positive recognition of the other, the mutual evaluation of cultures, and the creation of a normative world culture. A methodological framework is advanced that distinguishes between the preconditions of cosmopolitanism, its social mechanisms and processes (of which three are specified: generative, transformational and institutionalizing) and trajectories of historical change. The argument is made that cosmopolitan phenomena can be accounted for in terms of this ontological and methodological framework. The advantage of this approach is that it offers cosmopolitan analysis a macro level account of social change that is broadly explanatory and which can also account for both the diachronic and synchronic levels of the emergence of cosmopolitanism as both a counter-factual normative cultural model and as a part of social and political practices and institutional arrangements.


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
Acute illness with malnutrition is a common indication for hospitalization among children in low- and middle-income countries. We investigated the association between wasting recovery trajectories and neurodevelopmental outcomes in young children 6 months after hospitalization for an acute illness.

METHODS
Children aged 2 to 23 months were enrolled in a prospective observational cohort of the Childhood Acute Illness & Nutrition Network, in Uganda, Malawi, and Pakistan between January 2017 and January 2019. We grouped children on the basis of their wasting recovery trajectories using change in mid-upper arm circumference for age z-score. Neurodevelopment was assessed with the Malawi Developmental Assessment Tool (MDAT development-for-age z-score [DAZ]) at hospital discharge and after 6 months.

RESULTS
We included 645 children at hospital discharge (mean age 12.3 months ± 5.5; 55% male); 262 (41%) with severe wasting, 134 (21%) with moderate wasting, and 249 (39%) without wasting. Four recovery trajectories were identified: high-stable, n = 112; wasted-improved, n = 404; severely wasted-greatly improved, n = 48; and severely wasted-not improved, n = 28. The children in the severely wasted-greatly improved group demonstrated a steep positive MDAT-DAZ recovery slope. This effect was most evident in children with both wasting and stunting (interaction wasted-improved × time × stunting: P < .001). After 6 months, the MDAT DAZ in children with wasting recovery did not differ from community children. In children who never recovered from wasting, there remained a significant delay in MDAT DAZ scores.

CONCLUSIONS
Neurodevelopment recovery occurred in parallel with wasting recovery in children convalescing from acute illness and was influenced by stunting.


ABSTRACT The most influential theory on partner choice, from which I will also depart, the theory on assortative mating, starts from the premise that individuals prefer to marry someone who shares certain characteristics denoted by the Greek term 'homophily'. Religious and ethnic homophily are very important in this context. Consequently, this paper looks at marriages between natives and migrants of different origin, which are at the same time interreligious as the focus is on Muslim migrants. Marriages between natives and migrants from countries with a large Muslim majority have been reported as exceptionally low. Further analyses try to find out what is so exceptional about intermarriage between Muslim migrants and natives and devote attention to levels of individual religiosity, conflicting ideas about family life and relationships, premarital sexuality, attitudes about intermarriage and lastly, the role of parents in the matchmaking process. The latter have been understudied in previous research, as it was mostly not able to go beyond socio-demographic variables. My research provides evidence for all of these factors, but in contrast to earlier research, my analyses show for the first time that parental interference and possibly the importance of value transmission through marriage reduce the likelihood to intermarry.


The incorporation of silicon into the apathetic structure gives significant results in terms of mechanical properties and the bioactive behavior. The Bioactivity promotes the reaction between the bone and the implant, leading to excellent osteointegration and assures then the success of the implant. The biological study was performed on adult dogs. The choice of the experiment focuses on the tibias because these latter represent interesting models for evaluating substances stimulating bone formation. The surgically created defects have been filled by our biomaterials and followed by clinical, radiological and histological studies. The follow-up period was determinated so as to be close to the bone healing time. Therefore, the duration of the experiment was 12 weeks. Different biological studies reveal the biocompatibility, bioactivity and osteoconduction phosphocalcic silicate apatites which are gradually resorbed and replaced by immature bone after three months post filling.


Software defined networking (SDN) brings about innovation, simplicity in network management, and configuration in network computing. Traditional networks often lack the flexibility to bring into effect instant changes because of the rigidity of the network and also the over dependence on proprietary services. SDN decouples the control plane from the data plane, thus moving the control logic from the node to a central controller. A wireless sensor network (WSN) is a great platform for low-rate wireless personal area networks with little resources and short communication ranges. However, as the scale of WSN expands, it faces several challenges, such as network management and heterogeneous-node networks. The SDN approach to WSNs seeks to alleviate most of the challenges and ultimately foster efficiency and sustainability in WSNs. The fusion of these two models gives rise to a new paradigm: Software defined wireless sensor networks (SDWSN). The SDWSN model is also envisioned to play a critical role in the looming Internet of Things paradigm. This paper presents a comprehensive review of the SDWSN literature. Moreover, it delves into some of the challenges facing this paradigm, as well as the major SDWSN design requirements that need to be considered to address these challenges.


Since its inception the world of cinema has embraced the image of the child and both extended and challenged its representations. Vicky Lebeau explores the complex and ongoing adventure of childhood on screen and examines how the child in film has been used to embody the aspirations and anxieties of modern life. Moving from early to contemporary cinema a process that includes discussions of films such as Victorian Child Pictures', "The Spirit of the Beehive", "L'Enfant sauvage", "400 Blows", "Lolita", "The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser", "Tarnation" and "The Woodsman", she uncovers the compulsion of film-makers to visualize the child and their need to use childhood as a way of reflecting on sexuality, language, death and difference. By bringing together childhood and cinema as two institutions of modern culture, this book ultimately uses the figure of the child as image, as narrative, and as myth to reflect on the form and significance of cinema itself. Thought-provoking and engaging, "Childhood and Cinema" is an original and challenging contribution to studies in childhood and visual culture that will be of interest to readers in the fields of literature, film and cultural studies.


Blue line print of survey map of Nolan County, Texas, showing rivers, creeks, towns, mountains, railroads, boundaries, original land grants or surveys, roads, and blocks of land. A diagram of a section is included in the upper-right corner. A handwritten note has been made at the top of the map to give an explanation for the yellow-colored blocks of land. Yellow land was unsold as of the date June 11, 1921. Scale [ca. 1:133,333] (4000 varas to the inch).


In the conventional classes of power amplifiers the efficiency drops at power back-off, whereas in order to maximize the spectral efficiency and data rate, wireless communication standards employ signals with high peak to average power ratio. This results in low average efficiency for power amplifiers, which in turn results in heavy cooling requirements and damage to the environment. To improve the low back-off efficiency Doherty technique has been widely investigated. But, the conventional Doherty power amplifiers are fairly narrowband, while modern transmitters are needed to support multiple standards and operate at multiple frequency bands.

This thesis proposes two novel output combiners for Doherty power amplifiers with extended bandwidth. It will be shown analytically how the problem of wideband Doherty can be converted into an impedance synthesization problem. Then two networks to synthesize the desired impedance are proposed. To achieve the proper load modulation over a wide bandwidth, the first proposed combiner employs a quarter-wave short-circuited stub at the output of the peaking transistor and the second proposed combiner uses a parallel LC tank at the same node.

In addition to inherent wideband characteristics, the proposed Doherty output combiners have three other important benefits. First, they present small low-frequency impedance for both the main and peaking transistors, which results in improved linearity and linearizability when the amplifier is concurrently driven with multi-band modulated signals. Second, the new combiners result in smaller group delay variation across the band compared to the conventional Doherty amplifier, which results in improved linearizability when the amplifier is driven with extra wideband modulated signals. Finally, the output capacitance of the peaking transistor can be easily absorbed into the combiners without compromising the performance of the amplifier.

The thesis starts with an overview of the Doherty power amplifier principles and provides a bandwidth analysis for the conventional Doherty power amplifier. Then it continues with the new approach to extend the bandwidth of Doherty amplifiers with respect to requirements of multi-band transmission. Based on the proposed combiners, two Gallium Nitride 20 W Doherty power amplifiers have been designed and fabricated. The measurement results have been provided to validate the developed theory. The first amplifier covers 1.72 to 2.27 GHz and the second one covers 700 to 950 MHz and both maintain higher than 48 % of drain efficiency at 6 dB back-off across the band. The two amplifiers are successfully linearized when driven with carrier aggregated modulated signals.


The evidence supporting the practice of dysplasia surveillance in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) has remained sparse, and optimal detection strategies are still lacking. These issues, added to the declining incidence of dysplasia in IBD, have led to much debate over the diagnosis and management of dysplasia. White-light endoscopy with targeted and random biopsies remains the technique of choice for most practicing gastroenterologists. However, during the past decade, a surge of literature has questioned the efficacy of this strategy. Simultaneously, chromoendoscopy has emerged as an alternative, and perhaps superior, technique that has been included in some society guidelines. Nevertheless, many issues remain unclear, such as the best way to implement chromoendoscopy into everyday practice, whether there are any outcome benefits that can be attributed to the use of chromoendoscopy, and, perhaps most importantly, how to manage dysplasia uncovered by this and other advanced techniques. In this article, we discuss the various techniques currently available for dysplasia surveillance in IBD, with a focus on chromoendoscopy. Additionally, we highlight the overarching issues of setting appropriate endpoints and individualizing the care of patients with long-standing colitis.


Acute liver failure in Japan usually consists of fulminant hepatitis (FH) due to viral infection, autoimmune hepatitis and drug‐allergy‐induced liver injury. The annual incidence of FH was estimated at 429 cases in 2004. FH is classified into acute or subacute type, and the prognosis of the latter is poor. Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is the most frequently identifiable agent that causes FH in Japan. Transient HBV infection is more prevalent in the acute than subacute type, whereas the frequency of HBV carriers is greater in the subacute type. FH due to HBV reactivation from resolved hepatitis B has been increasingly observed in patients with malignant lymphoma treated with rituximab and corticosteroid combination therapy. The prognosis is poor in HBV carriers with acute exacerbation, especially in patients with HBV reactivation from resolved hepatitis B. Despite careful investigation, the etiology is still unknown in 16% and 39% of the acute and subacute type of FH, respectively. Autoimmune hepatitis and drug‐allergy‐induced liver injury are found in 7% and 10%, respectively, and are more frequently observed in the subacute type of FH. Living donor liver transplantation is now the standard care for individuals with poor prognosis. Artificial liver support with plasmapheresis and hemodiafiltration plays a central role while waiting for a donor liver or for the native liver to regenerate. Further research is necessary to identify the causes of unknown origin. In addition, to improve the prognosis of FH, it is necessary to establish treatment modalities that are effective for liver regeneration.


An $n\times n$ correlation matrix has $k$ factor structure if its off-diagonal agrees with that of a rank $k$ matrix. Such correlation matrices arise, for example, in factor models of collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) and multivariate time series. We analyze the properties of these matrices and, in particular, obtain an explicit formula for the rank in the one factor case. Our main focus is on the nearness problem of finding the nearest $k$ factor correlation matrix $C(X) = \diag(I-XX^T) + XX^T$ to a given symmetric matrix, subject to natural nonlinear constraints on the elements of the $n\times k$ matrix $X$, where distance is measured in the Frobenius norm. For a special one parameter case we obtain an explicit solution. For the general $k$ factor case we obtain the gradient and Hessian of the objective function and derive an instructive result on the positive definiteness of the Hessian when $k=1$. We investigate several numerical methods for solving the nearness problem: the alternating directions method; a principal factors method used by Anderson, Sidenius, and Basu in the CDO application, which we show is equivalent to the alternating projections method and lacks convergence results; the spectral projected gradient method of Birgin, Martinez, and Raydan; and Newton and sequential quadratic programming methods. The methods differ in whether or not they can take account of the nonlinear constraints and in their convergence properties. Our numerical experiments show that the performance of the methods depends strongly on the problem, but that the spectral projected gradient method is the clear winner.


In the Internet of Thing, data is almost collected, aggregated and analyzed without human intervention by machine-to-machine communications resulting in raising serious challenges on access control. Particularly in Smart City ecosystems in which multi-modal data comes from heterogeneous sources, data owners cannot imagine how their data is used to extract sensitive information. Thus, there is a critical need for novel access control methods that minimize privacy risks while increase ability of personalized access control. Our solution is to build a trust-based usage control mechanism called TUCON that enables stakeholders to set access control policies based on their trust relationships with data consumers. In this study, we introduce two novel paradigms integrated in the Smart City shared platform: a Trust Service Platform and a Data Usage Control, then bring them together to establish the new mechanism. The conceptual model, the architecture, the formalization, and the practical development of TUCON is described in detail. We also show the roles and the interactions of TUCON components in the Smart City platform. Our contributions lie in a new trust model with a trust computation procedure based on semantic web technologies, a novel trust-based usage control conceptual model including a formalization, a practical expression and an architecture for Smart City systems. We believe this study provides better understanding on both trust and usage control in the Internet of Things and opens several important research directions in the future.


Galaxy mergers, the dynamical process during which two galaxies collide, are among the most spectacular phenomena in the Universe. During this process, the two colliding galaxies are tidally disrupted, producing significant visual features that evolve as a function of time. These visual features contain valuable clues for deducing the physical properties of the galaxy mergers. In this work, we propose DeepGalaxy, a visual analysis framework trained to predict the physical properties of galaxy mergers based on their morphology. Based on an encoder-decoder architecture, DeepGalaxy encodes the input images to a compressed latent space z, and determines the similarity of images according to the latent-space distance. DeepGalaxy consists of a fully convolutional autoencoder (FCAE) which generates activation maps at its 3D latent-space, and a variational autoencoder (VAE) which compresses the activation maps into a 1D vector, and a classifier that generates labels from the activation maps. The backbone of the FCAE can be fully customized according to the complexity of the images. DeepGalaxy demonstrates excellent scaling performance on parallel machines. On the Endeavour supercomputer, the scaling efficiency exceeds 0.93 when trained on 128 workers, and it maintains above 0.73 when trained with 512 workers. Without having to carry out expensive numerical simulations, DeepGalaxy makes inferences of the physical properties of galaxy mergers directly from images, and thereby achieves a speedup factor of ~105.


Prognostic performance evaluation has gained significant attention in the past few years.Currently, prognostics concepts lack standard definitions and suffer from ambiguous and inconsistent interpretations. This lack of standards is in part due to the varied end user requirements for different applications, time scales, available information, domain dynamics, etc. to name a few. The research community has used a variety of metrics largely based on convenience and their respective requirements. Very little attention has been focused on establishing a standardized approach to compare different efforts. This paper presents several new evaluation metrics tailored for prognostics that were recently introduced and were shown to effectively evaluate various algorithms as compared to other conventional metrics. Specifically, this paper presents a detailed discussion on how these metrics should be interpreted and used. These metrics have the capability of incorporating probabilistic uncertainty estimates from prognostic algorithms. In addition to quantitative assessment they also offer a comprehensive visual perspective that can be used in designing the prognostic system. Several methods are suggested to customize these metrics for different applications. Guidelines are provided to help choose one method over another based on distribution characteristics. Various issues faced by prognostics and its performance evaluation are discussed followed by a formal notational framework to help standardize subsequent developments. This is an openaccess article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.


The post-human genome sequencing project era has seen an influx of genome sequencing projects established to investigate the structure, composition and characteristics of plant genomes. While the genome sequences of smaller plant genomes (ie. Rice) are currently available, there has been a lack of progress on the study of large, complex genomes such as barley (Hordeum vulgare) and wheat (Triticum aestivum), due to the difficulties in their sequencing and assembly. The aim of this study is to assemble and annotate targeted regions of chromosome 3B from Triticum aestivum cv. Chinese Spring (CS) and Hope. This study also aimed to complete a comprehensive, inter- and intra-species comparative analysis using Bioinformatics tools and strategies, in order to define structural and functional elements within the genome.
Genome sequences totalling 2.7Mb from two different loci of chromosome 3B in two different cultivars (ctg11 from the short arm of CS, ctg1034 from the long arm of CS and three assembled sequences over the equivalent ctg11 region of Hope) were assembled using a novel 'two-phase' process that integrated information from a genome sequence assembler and a Triticeae-specific transposable element database. Through comparative genomics analysis a gene island was identified within a highly repetitive, heterochromatic region on 3BL that was highly conserved over four other cereal genomes (Brachypodium distachyon, Oryza sativa, Sorghum bicolor and Zea mays). Chromodomain-containing long terminal repeats from the gypsy family of retrotransposons were identified adjacent to the gene island and may suggest an involvement in the targeted insertion of transposable elements at the loci, protecting the gene-island from dynamic evolutionary change. Characterisation of the ctg11 (Sr2 region) genome sequence on 3BS, identified a large ~60kb mitochondrial genome insert and three members of the multi-gene beta-expansin family, with sequence analysis indicating local duplication within the sequence and rearrangements when compared to the equivalent region in a different wheat cultivar. In silico and real-time transcription analysis of the individual gene was also confirmed. Within the equivalent ctg11 in Hope, a germin-like protein (GLP) cluster was identified and characterised that distinguishes between the two wheat cultivars. The genes in this GLP cluster were identified to belong to a sub-gene family that conferred broad level basal resistance in transient over-expressed systems in rice and barley.
The main outcome of this study was the development of a novel strategy of genome sequence assembly by utilising the complex component of the wheat genome that made assembly difficult: transposable elements. The complex genome sequence assembly methodology outlined in this thesis is suitable to be used as a model for future sequence assembly studies. The assembly of large pseudomolecule sequences (among the largest and most complete ever assembled in the wheat genome) enabled the Bioinformatics analysis of a representative sample of wheat chromosome 3B, providing valuable in silico outputs for future functional analyses and allowing an in-depth intra- and inter-species comparative analysis with related genomes.


Nanostructured metal-semiconductor-metal photodetectors (MSM-PDs) can assist in future high-speed communication devices for achieving high responsivity-bandwidth characteristics. We numerically evaluate the periodic nanotextured structures that provide for the confinement of light and concentration of energy near the designed wavelength, a feature attributed to surface plasmon polaritons. This plasmonic-based miniaturization provides a new approach to investigate remarkable optical properties of nanoscale device structuring. A finite-difference time-domain method is used to calculate the maximum light absorption and reflection of nanograting-assisted MSM-PDs by varying detector's physical parameters in comparison with a conventional device. The horizontal and vertical surface resonances are identified as the key mechanisms to excite the surface waves with the aid of normally incident TM-polarized light. The extraordinary optical transmission is notably enhanced by optimizing the grating parameters and light incident angles. The simulation results are presented for light absorption and reflection in the subwavelength region of nanograting-assisted MSM-PDs compared with the conventional MSM-PDs.


Abstract. Homelessness is a problem increasingly visible in many urban and rural communities that have rendered these marginalized people invisible. In Los Angeles County, approximately 53,000 people experience homelessness in a single-night, 4,294 of which reside in downtown's "Skid Row" (LASHA, 2018). In the past months, cases of hepatitis A and murine typhus outbreaks have been reported in Skid Row. These infectious diseases are associated with poor living environments and inadequate access to basic water, sanitation, and hygiene services (WaSH). Therefore, this study addresses homelessness using water insecurity as a lens to look beyond the provisioning of housing (a long-term goal). More specifically, it examines the consequences of water insecurity in the health and lives of people experiencing homelessness using 134 in-depth interviews and surveys collected in July–August 2018. The data we collected were abstracted and analysed in R studio to test for associations between differences in poor access to WaSH and demographic factors, and then visualized in ArcGIS Pro using Hot Spot analysis. The study findings highlight that 56% of all study participants reported difficulty accessing basic WaSH services. Of this total, 65% of women participants reported statistically significant differences in access to showers compared to men (p < 0.05). Additionally, racial differences were reported in the sample, with Hispanic/Latinx and mixed-racial groups having more difficulty in accessing laundry services, drinking water, and showers. Furthermore, temporal differences existed in access to WaSH services, with people resorting to use public spaces (sidewalks, alleyways, and buckets inside their tents) more often at night than morning-time, due to a lack of public facilities remaining open and available throughout the day. Since the data collection took place in the summer time, 43% of participants reported experiencing dehydration, but also diarrhoea (24.39%), and skin infections (20.33%), all which are attributed to their reduced access to WaSH services. Overall, the information gathered from this study provides a deeper understanding of the existing inequities in access to services. It also demonstrates that there is a need for better public policies to address homelessness with more equitable solutions including gender, race, age, and immigration status. In conclusion, increasing access to WaSH resources can be a form of an immediate intervention provided to the homeless in order to 1) restore their human dignity, 2) improve their living environments, which would then lead to 3) the reduction of future health outbreaks and cost of medical emergency services.


In this work petrographic and geochemical analyses allowed us to construct a genetic model of the pervasive dolomitization in the reference section of the Castel Manfrino Dolostones which includes the dolomitized Calcare Massiccio platform and the basinal Corniola sediments (Liassic). Cathodoluminescence and SEM analysis indicates a multiphase dolomitization: an initial calcite replacement (Dolomite 1) followed by recrystallization (Dolomite 2) and cementation events (Dolomite 3), and precipitation of saddle dolomite (Dolomite 4). Carbon and oxygen isotopic data suggest that dolostones underwent several recrystallization and stabilization events under increasing temperatures, in the presence of sea-water derived fluids. Fluid inclusion analyses established that Dolomite 3 took place at temperatures of around 70 degrees C, and Dolomite 4 precipitated at temperatures up to 132 degrees C. The fluid inclusions show salinity values for Dolomite 4 (average 16% NaCl equivalent) higher than Dolomite 3 (average 12%) suggesting a change in fluid geochemistry through time. The burial history, reconstructed from regional data and the succession outcropping in the Montagna dei Fiori area, enables us to match the diagenetic phases with the geological evolution of the area. The shallow burial phase of dolomitization (Dolomite 1) could have occurred during burial from the Upper Jurassic to the Middle Cretaceous. The second dolomitization phase (Dolomite 3), took place starting from the Middle Miocene, when the Lower Jurassic series reached temperatures of about 70 degrees C. After this period the area was subject to the Apennine thrusting, and hydrothermal fluids (with temperatures of 110-130 degrees C) arriving from deep seated faults are believed to have been the dolomitizing fluids for the last event (Dolomite 4).


BACKGROUND
Previous reports revealed poor performance in identifying drugs of abuse users through first-level workplace drug testing (WDT), based on urine samples. In a cross-sectional study, we evaluated: (i) the effect of creatinine normalization of drug values from diluted urine samples (creatinine levels ≤ 20 mg/dL) on the prevalence of drug users; (ii) the independent procedure-related predictors of positivity and dilution.

METHODS
Workers' urine samples were collected at the workplace or at our certified laboratory between 2008 and 2012. All samples were analysed for drugs of abuse by immuno-enzymatic method in our laboratory, according to the Italian WDT law. Detectable drugs of abuse concentrations lower than the positive cutoff values were normalized based on mean levels of urinary creatinine. Detectable concentrations of drugs were confirmed by GC/MS. Multivariate logistic regression was used to detect independent procedure-related predictors of positive and diluted urine samples.

RESULTS
Of the 3080 urine samples screened, 51 (1.7%) were found positive for some drugs of abuse (26 cannabinoids and 16 cocaine) and 116 (3.8%) were diluted. Seventeen out of 23 diluted urine samples with detectable concentrations of cannabinoids or cocaine were found positive after urine creatinine normalization and GC/MS confirmed both negative and positive results. This increased the percentage of positivity for cannabinoids and cocaine from 1.35% to 2.09% (+55%, p=0.0005), which is closer to the expected prevalence of drug users based on Italian self-reported surveys. Collection of samples in the laboratory was an independent predictor of positivity (OR=2.33, 95%CI 1.27-4.28) and diluted urine sample (OR=1.65, 95%CI 1.04-2.61).

CONCLUSIONS
Efficacy of first-level WDT could be improved by well-controlled pre-analytical procedures and urine creatinine normalization of detected concentrations of drugs of abuse.


. Seasonal trade wind-induced upwelling along the southern margin of the Caribbean Sea occurs in response to the annual migration of the Intertropical Convergence Zone. Laminated, high deposition rate sediments of the Cariaco Basin, a small anoxic basin on the Venezuelan continental shelf, clearly record large changes in the past intensity of this upwelling. Because sediments of the Cariaco Basin are largely unbioturbated, they offer a natural opportunity to study the stable isotopic records of multiple planktonic foraminiferal taxa and to evaluate their sensitivity to both the modem hydrography and temporal changes in upwelling intensity and climate. Oxygen isotope data (6(cid:127)80) from four dominant foraminiferal taxa are presented for the time period covering the last 28 kyr. The 6(cid:127)80 data from Globigerina bulloides, after correction for nonequilibrium precipitation, are used as a monitor of sea surface conditions during the winter-spring upwelling season. The 6(cid:127)80 data from white Globigerinoides ruber are used as a measure of annual-average conditions in the near surface, while pink G. ruber data are consistent with use as an index of end-member conditions during the summer-fall nonupwelling season. Data from the deeper dwelling Neogloboquadrina dutertrei yield information on conditions near the base of the local thermocline. During the last glacial, 6(cid:127)80 data from G. ruber and generally reduced interspecific differences indicate cooling of surface waters over the Cariaco Basin by up to 4øC. This longer-term cooling does not appear to be related to changes in upwelling intensity along the coast but may instead reflect more regional cooling of the larger Caribbean. Superimposed on this pattern, between 12.6 and -10 ka, is a convergence of 6(cid:127)80 data between G. bulloides and N. dutertrei, implying much stronger upwelling during the last deglaciation. This scenario is consistent with other evidence for high productivity at this time. At-14 ka, a sharp 6(cid:127)80 depletion event observed in all taxa seems to have been produced by increased freshwater discharge to the southern Caribbean, suggesting either higher regional rainfall or the influence of glacial melting in the Andes. Minimum 6 values of pink G. ruber around 6-7 ka record warmer summer sea surface temperatures and/or decreased salinity in the mid-Holocene. during the glacial, relative to the depths where N. dutertrei lived, is a better explanation of the combined


This paper explores recent developments in the trade-offs between energy security, sustainability and globalisation, focusing on the European Union (EU) energy market. The EU's desire to secure long-term supplies of lower-carbon energy is a key driver for the diversification of sources of natural gas, as is a desire to diversify and maximise intra-EU sources of primary energy, including renewable and nuclear sources. However, any development of domestic energy sources within the EU faces resource limitations and appears to push against trends towards globalisation. This paper develops a risk-based analysis to explore some of these issues by comparing two long-term natural gas supply options for the EU. Firstly the supply of Russian natural gas (currently around 45% of total imports), delivered via pipelines crossing national borders, and an alternative of LNG supplied by Qatar's fast-growing export capacity.


Aim. To highlight the apparently neglected role of erythrocyte antigens in the epidemiology of infectious diseases, especially HIV, with the prime objective of stimulating research in this area. Method. A literature search was performed on the PubMed for relevant papers from 1984 to 2013, the era covering active HIV research. This was achieved by using the phrases "erythrocyte blood groups HIV" (81 papers) or "red cell antigen, blood groups, and HIV" (60 papers). A manual Google Scholar search was done and supplemented by original papers referenced by various authors. However, the review was limited by the relative scarcity of papers on the subject, and only papers written in English were reviewed during the period October 2012 to September 2013. Results. Many communicable and noncommunicable diseases are associated with specific blood groups. Examples of these diseases are discussed in detail. HIV has been shown to bind to erythrocytes, and candidate erythrocyte-binding molecules and mechanisms are also discussed. Moreover, erythrocyte-HIV binding is associated with increased viral infectivity, thus, underscoring the need to study this phenomenon and its implications for HIV epidemiology. Conclusion. Erythrocyte antigens may be important in the pathogenesis and epidemiology of many diseases, including HIV.


Sequestration and storage of carbon (C) by agricultural soils has been cited as one potential part of the solution to soil degradation and global climate change. However, C sequestration in soils is a slow and dynamic process. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of crop rotation and N fertilizer management on soil organic C (SOC) levels at several points in time during 18 yr of a long-term study in the Western Corn Belt. Seven cropping systems (three monoculture, two 2-yr, and two 4-yr rotations) with three levels of N fertilizer were compared. Soil samples were taken in the spring in 1984, 1992, 1998, and 2002 to a depth of 30 cm in 0- to 7.5-, 7.5- to 15-, and 15- to 30-cm increments. No differences were obtained in SOC levels in 1984 at the beginning of the study. After 8 yr, rotation significantly increased SOC 449 kg ha -1 across all cropping systems. From 1992 to 2002, SOC levels in the 0- to 7.5-cm depth decreased by 516 kg ha -1 across all cropping systems. Soil organic C levels in the 7.5- to 15-cm depths in 1992 and 2002 demonstrated similar rotation effects to those in the surface 0- to 7.5-cm, being not significantly affected from 1984 to 1992 but being significantly decreased from 1992 to 2002 (568 kg SOC ha -1 across all cropping systems). Many of the SOC gains in the surface 30 cm measured during the first 8 yr of the study were lost during the next 10 yr in all but the 4-yr cropping systems after 18 yr. The loss of SOC in this latter period occurred when depth of tillage was increased by using a tandem disk with larger-diameter disks. These results demonstrate that more than one point-in-time measurement from long-term experiments is necessary to monitor SOC changes when several management variables, such as cropping system and N fertilizer, are being used. They also indicate that apparent small changes in cultural practices, such as in depth of tillage in this experiment, can significantly change SOC dynamics in the soil. Subtle changes in cultural practices (e.g., tillage depth) can have significant long-term results, but long-term experiments are required to quantify their impact under variable climatic conditions.


To understand the evolution and the habitability of any rocky exoplanet demands detailed knowledge about its geophysical state and history—such as predicting the tectonic mode of a planet. Yet no astronomical observation can directly confirm or rule out the occurrence of plate tectonics on a given exoplanet. Moreover, the field of plate tectonics is still young—questioning whether we should study plate tectonics on exoplanets at this point in time. In this work, we determine the limitations and the emerging possibilities of exogeophysics, the science of connecting geophysics to exoplanets, on the example of plate tectonics. Assuming current uncertainties in model and planet parameters, we develop a qualitatively probabilistic and conservative framework to estimate on what kind of planets and where in the Galaxy plate tectonics might occur. This we achieve by modeling how plate yielding, the most critical condition needed for plate mobility and subduction, is affected by directly observable (planet mass, size) or indirectly, to some degree, assessable planet properties (structure and composition). Our framework not only highlights the importance of a planet's chemistry for the existence of plate tectonics and the path toward practical exogeophysics but also demonstrates how exoplanet science can actually help to better understand geophysics and the fundamentals of plate tectonics on Earth itself.


The main idea of this article is the justification of the necessity and the creation of conditions for attracting investments in economic entities of agrarian and agro-industrial production.The authors consider topical issues of increasing the investment attractiveness of industries and businesses in agro-industrial production of the subsidized region at the federal and regional levels. The authors note that ensuring the food security of the administrative district, the region and the country as a whole largely depends on the solution of this large-scale task. The forms, methods and mechanisms affecting the activation and inflow of investment and financial resources into agro-industrial production are exemplified by the subjects of the North Caucasus Federal District (in particular, the Chechen Republic).The subject of the study is the organizational-economic relations connected with increasing the investment attractiveness of the agrarian sector and agro-industrial production. The article gives authors' definition of the economic category of the "investment attractiveness†.The results can be used by the government of agro-industrial production of subsidized subjects of Russia in the development and implementation of regional agricultural development programs and regulation of markets for agricultural products, raw materials and food, as well as social development of rural areas.


This article presents a novel bio-inspired emergent gradient taxis principle for robot swarms. The underlying communication method was inspired by slime mold and fireflies. Nature showcases a number of simple organisms which can display complex behavior in various aspects of their lives such as signaling, foraging, mating etc. Such decentralized behaviors at the organism level gives rise to an emergent intelligence such as in bees, slime mold, fireflies etc. Chemo taxis and photo taxis are known to be abilities exhibited by simple organisms without elaborate sensory and actuation capabilities. Our novel algorithm combines the underlying principles of slime mold and fireflies to achieve gradient taxis purely based on neighbor-to-neighbor communication. In this article, we present a model of the algorithm and test the algorithm in a multiagent simulation environment.


background and aims. The Severity of Dependence Scale (SDS) measures with five items the degree of psychological dependence on several illicit drugs, including cannabis. Its psychometric properties have not yet been examined in young adult frequent cannabis users, an eminently high-risk group for cannabis dependence. methods. Internal consistency and criterion validity of the SDS were investigated within an enriched community based sample of 577 Dutch frequent (≥ 3 days per week in the past 12 months) cannabis users between 18–30 years. Criterion validity was tested against the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI) 3.0 DSM-IV diagnosis cannabis dependence, and psychometric properties were assessed separately for males and females and for ethnic subgroups. results. Principal component analysis showed that all items of the scale loaded on a single factor and reliability of the SDS total score was good (Cronbach's a = 0.70). However, criterion validity against the CIDI diagnosis cannabis dependence was low: area under curve (AUC) was 0.68 (95% confidence interval: 0.64–0.73) and at the optimal differentiating cut-off (SDS ≥ 4), sensitivity was 61.3% and specificity 63.5%. Results were similar for subgroups on gender and ethnicity. conclusions. While internal consistency of the SDS is good, its use as a screener to differentiate between dependence and non-dependence within populations of young adult frequent cannabis users is not recommended. keywords. Severity of Dependence Scale, cannabis dependence, sensitivity and specificity, frequent cannabis use. peggy van der pol, nienke liebregts, ron de Graaf, dirk j. korf, wim van den brink, margriet Van laar Published in International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research (2013) 22(2): 138–143. 172


Title of Document: STRAIN ENERGY DENSITY AND THERMODYNAMIC ENTROPY AS PROGNOSTIC MEASURES OF CRACK INITIATION IN ALUMINUM Victor Luis Ontiveros, Ph.D., 2013 Directed By: Professor Mohammad Modarres, Department of Mechanical Engineering A critical challenge to the continued use of engineering structures as they are asked to perform longer than their design life is the prediction of an initiating crack and the prevention of damage, estimation of remaining useful life, schedule maintenance and to reduce costly downtimes and inspections. The research presented in this dissertation explores the cumulative plastic strain energy density and thermodynamic entropy generation up to crack initiation. Plastic strain energy density and thermodynamic entropy generation are evaluated to investigate whether they would be capable of providing a physical basis for fatigue life and structural risk and reliability assessments. Navy aircraft, specifically, the Orion P-3C, which represent an engineered structure currently being asked to perform past is design life, which are difficult and time consuming to inspect from carrier based operations and are currently evaluated using an empirically based damage index the, fatigue life expended, is used as an example in this investigation. A set of experimental results for aluminum alloy 7075-T651, used in airframe structures, are presented to determine the correlation between plastic strain energy dissipation and the thermodynamic entropy generation versus fatigue crack initiation over a wide range of fatigue loadings. Cumulative plastic strain energy and thermodynamic entropy generation measured from hysteresis energy and temperature rise proved to be valid physical indices for estimation of the probability of crack initiation. Crack initiation is considered as a major evidence of fatigue damage and structural integrity risk. A Bayesian estimation and validation approach is used to determine systematic errors in the developed models as well as other model uncertainties. Comparisons of the energy-based and entropy-based models are presented and benefits of using one over the other are discussed. STRAIN ENERGY DENSITY AND THERMODYNAMIC ENTROPY AS PROGNOSTIC MEASURES OF CRACK INITIATION IN ALUMINUM


Morocco is a well known hot-spot of biodiversity in the Mediterranean basin. While some taxa like vascular plants are relatively well recorded, important groups of pollinators like bees are still understudied. This article presents an updated checklist of the bee species of Morocco and includes a summary of global and regional distribution of each species. A total of 961 species belonging to six bee families and 68 genera are recorded: Andrenidae (8 genera, 217 species); Apidae (15 genera, 241 species); Colletidae (2 genera, 74 species), Halictidae (12 genera, 144 species), Megachilidae (28 genera, 271 species) and Melittidae (3 genera, 14 species). Among them, 67 species are recorded for the first time in Morocco. Around 70% of the bee fauna of Morocco consists of widespread Palaearctic species. Only 18% of Moroccan species recorded are restricted to North Africa and 8% are Moroccan single-country endemics (81 species). Afrotropical elements in the Moroccan fauna are few, with only 3% of Morocco species co-occuring in that region. This checklist is intended to stimulate new regional research on bees including their taxonomy and biogeography. As many groups of bees have been understudied, discovery of new species for science and new records for the country can be expected. Additional research including inventorying, monitoring, and integrative taxonomic studies are needed to develop a comprehensive strategy for bee conservation in Morocco.


ABSTRACT Cognitive regions and places are notoriously difficult to represent in geographic information science and systems. The exact delineation of cognitive regions is challenging insofar as borders are vague, membership within the regions varies non-monotonically, and raters cannot be assumed to assess membership consistently and homogeneously. In a study published in this journal in 2014, researchers devised a novel grid-based task in which participants rated the membership of individual cells in a given region and contrasted this approach to a standard boundary-drawing task. Specifically, the authors assessed the vague cognitive regions of Northern California and Southern California. The boundary between these cognitive regions was found to have variable width, and region membership peaked not at the most northern or southern cells but at substantially less extreme latitudes. The authors thus concluded that region membership is about attitude, not just latitude. In the present work, we reproduce this study by approaching it from a computational fourth-paradigm perspective, i.e., by the synthesis of high volumes of heterogeneous data from various sources. We compare the regions which we identify to those from the human-participants study of 2014, identifying differences and commonalities. Our results show a significant positive correlation to those in the original study. Beyond the extracted regions themselves, we compare and contrast the empirical and analytical approaches of these two methods, one a conventional human-participants study and the other an application of increasingly popular data-synthesis-driven research methods in GIScience.


Lean mixture burning leads to a decrease in the temperature of the combustion process and it is one of the methods of limiting nitric oxide emissions. It also increases engine efficiency. An effective method to correct lean mixture combustion can be a two-stage system of stratified mixture combustion in an engine with a prechamber. This article presents the results of laboratory research on an SI engine (spark ignition) with a two-stage combustion system with a cylinder powered by gasoline and a prechamber powered by propane-butane gas LPG (liquefied petroleum gas). The results were compared to the results of research on a conventional engine with a one-stage combustion process. The test engine fuel mixture stratification method, with a two-stage combustion system in the engine with a prechamber, allowed to burn a lean mixture with an average excess air factor equal to 2.0 and thus led to lower emissions of nitrogen oxides in the exhaust of the engine. The test engine with a conventional, single-stage combustion process allowed to properly burn airfuel mixtures of excess air factors λ not exceeding 1.5. If the value λ > 1.5, the non-repeatability factor COVLi increases, and the engine efficiency decreases, which makes it virtually impossible for the engine to operate. The engine with a two-stage combustion process, working with λ = 2.0, the Qin/Qtot = 2.5%, reduced the NOx content in the exhaust gases to a level of about 1.14 g/kWh. This value is significantly lower than the value obtained in a conventional engine, which worked at λ = 1.3 with comparable non-repeatability of successive cycles (about 3%) and a similar indicated efficiency (about 34%), was characterised by the emissions of NOx in the exhaust equal to 26.26 g/kWh.


Surgeons prescribing antibiotics have two potentially conflicting responsibilities. First, they should offer optimal therapy for all patients under their care by offering antibiotics. Second, they should preserve the efficacy of antibiotics and minimize the development of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The Global Alliance for Infections in Surgery and the World Society of Emergency Surgery have promoted a coalition that should call for increased awareness and action across all surgical departments worldwide in order to combat AMR. The project has been named World Antimicrobial Resistance Nationally Internationally Networking Globally in Surgery (WARNING in Surgery).


Promoting physical activity has become a priority because of its role in preventing childhood obesity and chronic disease. Ecological approaches that recognise the interaction between individuals and the settings in which they spend their time are currently at the forefront of public health action. Schools have been identified as a key setting for health promotion. An overview of the literature addressed the promotion of physical activity in schools and showed that school-based strategies (elementary or high school) that utilised classroom-based education only did not increase physical activity levels; one notable exception was screen time interventions. Although evidence is sparse, active school models and environmental strategies (interventions that change policy and practice) appear to promote physical activity in elementary schools effectively. There is also strong evidence to support multicomponent models in high schools, particularly models that incorporate a family and community component. An emerging trend is to involve youth in the development and implementation of interventions. In the context of childhood obesity and sedentary lifestyles, modest increases in physical activity levels in school-based trials are important. School initiatives must be supported and reinforced in other community settings. Health professionals play a key role as champions in the community, based on their influence and credibility. Health professionals can lend support to school-based efforts by asking about and emphasising the importance of physical activity with patients, encouraging family-based activities, supporting local schools to adopt an "active school" approach and advocating for support to sustain evidence-based and promising physical activity models within schools.


Software Metrics have being used since the 70s, their purpose is to measure different software attributes, such as complexity and maintainability, to name a few. Software Metrics help programmers obtain valuable information about programs. That information is essential when working with legacy systems. Scientists have been producing Fortran programs for the last six decades, and some of those programs became legacy years ago. We have implemented a set of well known software metrics for Fortran into a widely used IDE (Integrated Development Environment) by means of AST (Abstract Syntax Tree). This integration allows developers to obtain software metrics from their source code while they are programming.


This position paper states our new approach of implementing low-level OS components, especially device drivers. We introduce the notion of concurrent objects into low-level system programming. A device driver for every hardware device is implemented as independent concurrent objects. A device driver object has a single thread of control, so that mutual exclusion operations such as spl and semaphores are not necessary. Mechanisms of synchronization, object scheduling, and interrupt mask handling are clearly separated from actual device control programs, and these are implemented by the system for device driver objects. By these methods, low-level OS components can be made flexible and executed safely, with practical performance.


In "Ecology without Nature", Timothy Morton argues that the chief stumbling block to environmental thinking is the image of nature that most writers on the topic promote: they propose a new worldview, but their very zeal to preserve the natural world leads them away from the "nature" they revere. The problem is a symptom of a far deeper situation - of accepting the idea of "ecology without nature". That is, to have a properly ecological view, we must relinquish, once and for all, the idea of nature. Developing a fresh vocabulary for reading "environmentality" in both content and form, Morton shows that representations of nature inevitably become metaphysical. Ranging widely in 18th to 20th Century literature, philosophy, culture, and the arts, Morton explores the value of art in imagining environmental conditions for the future. In short, the idea of nature has served much the same function in the modern period as the aesthetic has - that of healing what society has damaged; but as a result, unrealistic expectations have developed. Morton investigates our ecological assumptions in a way that is provocative and deeply engaging.


The variability of sea level and surface geostrophic currents in the Southern Ocean is investigated from the first 26 months of unclassified Geosat altimeter data (November 1986 to December 1988). Because of problems unique to Geosat, it has been necessary to develop new techniques for analyzing the height data. These techniques are presented here, and the processed Geosat data are used to examine the relation between mesoscale variability and the mean circulation (as determined from historical hydrographic data). The two are shown to be significantly correlated, implicating the importance of hydrodynamic instabilities in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. The geographical patterns of both the mean flow and the mesoscale variability are shown to be controlled by the bathymetry. An efficient objective analysis algorithm is introduced for generating smoothed fields from observations randomly distributed in time and two space dimensions. The algorithm is applied to the 26 months of Geosat data, and the smoothed fields are used to investigate the large-scale, low-frequency variability of sea level and surface geostrophic velocity in the Southern Ocean. Approximately 33% of the variance is accounted for by the first three empirical orthogonal functions (EOFs) of sea level variability. These three modes describe variability over seasonal time scales and separate into an annual cycle (mode 1), a semiannual cycle (mode 2) and a mode which describes year-to-year variability in the seasonal cycles for 1987 and 1988 (mode 3). The complexity of the spatial patterns of the second- and higher-order modes and the small percentages of variance accounted for by the first three modes (15%, 10% and 8%, respectively) reflect the generally regional, as opposed to coherent circumpolar, nature of sea level variability in the Southern Ocean. The inherent weak zonal coherence of the variability is further emphasized by EOF analysis separately within each basin of the Southern Ocean.


Mobile Communication Systems and Security arms readers with a thorough understanding of all major cellular air-interface technologies and their security layer techniques. Rhee covers the technological development of wireless mobile communications in compliance with each iterative generation up to 3G systems and beyond, with an emphasis on wireless security aspects. By progressing in a systematic manner, presenting the theory and practice of wireless mobile technologies along with various security problems, readers will gain an intimate sense of how mobile systems operate and how to address complex security issues. Written by a top expert in information security Details each generation of cellular technology Gives a clear understanding of wireless security protocol analysis Offers complete coverage of various protocols and specifications in 3GPPs Forecasts new features and promising technologies Presents numerical examples in each chapter for easier understanding Provides source code that can be used for individual practice The book is ideal for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students enrolled in courses such as Wireless Networking, Wireless Security, or Mobile Radio Communications. Practicing engineers in industry and research scientists can use the book as a reference to get reacquainted with mobile radio fundamentals or to gain deeper understanding of the security layer. Access the source code and lecture materials at the companion website: (www.wiley.com/go/rhee)


This thesis is concerned with the transfer of prison healthcare to National Health Service (NHS) responsibility, and investigates whether equitable provision has been achieved for prison-based patients.
The chronic ill health of prisoners in England has been recognised for centuries. For example, Howard debates the issue in 1784. When released from prison, English prisoners' abilities to carry ill health and infection into the community is more recently acknowledged as an additional significant concern (Ramsbotham, 1996).
Three themes are evident when analysing the policy and legislative background demanding fair and equitable provision for all. These are: Philanthropy and Concern for Prison Healthcare, Prison Specific Policy and Recommendations, and the Wider NHS Policy, National Service Frameworks and Strategies. Three distinct phases of the Public Health Agenda are considered in this thesis: 1784 - 1890, 1945 - 1996, and 1997 - 2010.
Investigation of the Public Health Agenda is divided into sub-categories: Health Promotion, Health Education, Disease Prevention, Healthy Settings, and Prisoner Health providing a valuable structure within which the wider literature can be evaluated empirically via this thesis' fieldwork.
Interpretivist in its methodology, this qualitative study adopts Case Study as an appropriate methodology. Research methods include focus groups, interviews, and participant correspondence. Presentation of research phenomena through graphic representation was designed to overcome reported literacy and language issues present within the research population. Combined, these methods offer an opportunity to build a "polyhedron of intelligibility" (Foucault, 1981, p. 6) demanded of this methodological approach.
Between 2005 and 2010, this study explored prisoners' experiences of healthcare post-transfer to NHS responsibility via five distinct phases of fieldwork: the identification of key patient themes of interest within a self-selecting sample, the validation of Phase One material and the generation of
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additional themes, focus group discussions, followed by interviews with participants and wider stakeholders, and finally a discussion group.
Data are analysed and structured according to prison category and gender, age, and ethnicity. Resultant analytical themes linked to a central coding category, the overarching topic of Patient Equivalence. Furthermore, there are three analytical Key Themes: Beliefs, Attitudes and Behaviour; Service Commissioning, Delivery and Constraints; and Patients' Health and Patient Outcomes. Here, the identification of Imprisoned Carers provides a unique and novel finding of this work. From these three analytical categories, a Core Theory emerged.
Research data indicates that, despite considerable policy focus and activity, the lack of integrated service commissioning means that equitable provision for this prisoner population has not been consistently experienced by imprisoned patients. In its absence, prisoners have themselves adopted the role of carer for the sick and frail amongst their prison communities. These individuals report that they undertake these caring roles unsupported by the NHS and/or the Prison Service, whilst at considerable risk to both themselves and the person for whom they care.
To achieve equitable provision for English prisoners, this thesis suggests the development of a prison multi-agency health and social care integrated service commissioning plan which recognises the needs of imprisoned carers as highlighted in this study.


HAJNAL-JAFARI, T., S. DURIC, D. STAMENOV and M. MANOJLOVIC, 2015. Improvement of productive capacity of solonetz by application of microorganisms. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 21: 767–770 Solonetz are dark alkaline soils which are mainly bare or coverd by grasses. These sodic soils are characterized by pore water regime, high sodium saturation that is harmful to plants, unfavorable chemical and physical condition which makes them unsuitable for agricultural uses. Productive capacity of solonetz soils are usually improved by different meliorative measures such are incorporation of gypsum, deep ploughing or planting of a sodium-resistant crop. Application of microbial inocula could be a possible solution for soil quality improvement. The microbiological properties of solonetz from Kumane region were investigated as well as the effectiveness of four isolates of Azotobacter sp. and two isolates of Bacillus sp. Bacteria were isolated from virgin solonetz soil which was not covered by plants and was not recultivated. Pure cultures of each isolate were obtained containing 1010 CFU/ml of Azotobacter sp. and 1012 CFU/ml of Bacillus sp., respectively. Soil samples were inoculated. The virgin solonetz soil without inoculation was the control treatment. Soil sampling was performed 30 days after inoculation. Microbiological analises included the determination of number and enzymatic activity of microorganisms. All six investigated bacteria strains stimulated the microbiological activity of solonetz. The total number of bacteria, number of fungi, actinomycetes, free-living nitrogen fixing bacteria and aminoheterotrophs were increased in relation to the control. Dehydrogenase activity was also higher after bacterial inoculation. This research highlighted the positive effect of Azotobacter sp. and Bacillus sp. application. Further research needs to be carried out in order to increase the benefits of microbial inoculation in semi controlled and field conditions.


Abstract : The United States Air Force (USAF) continues to have a need for assured access to space. In addition to flexible and responsive spacelift, a reduction in the cost per launch of space launch vehicles is also desirable. For this purpose, an investigation of the design optimization of space launch vehicles has been conducted. Using a suite of custom codes, the performance aspects of an entire space launch vehicle were analyzed. A genetic algorithm (GA) was employed to optimize the design of the space launch vehicle. A cost model was incorporated into the optimization process with the goal of minimizing the overall vehicle cost. The other goals of the design optimization included obtaining the proper altitude and velocity to achieve a low-Earth orbit. Specific mission parameters that are particular to USAF space endeavors were specified at the start of the design optimization process. Solid propellant motors, liquid fueled rockets, and air-launched systems in various configurations provided the propulsion systems for two, three and four-stage launch vehicles. Mass properties models, an aerodynamics model, and a six-degree-of-freedom (6DOF) flight dynamics simulator were all used to model the system. The results show the feasibility of this method in designing launch vehicles that meet mission requirements. Comparisons to existing real world systems provide the validation for the physical system models. However, the ability to obtain a truly minimized cost was elusive. The cost model uses an industry standard approach, however, validation of this portion of the model was challenging due to the proprietary nature of cost figures and due to the dependence of many existing systems on surplus hardware.


Pulse Width Modulation variable speed drives are ncreasingly applied in many new industrial applications that require superior performance. Recently, developments in power electronics and semiconductor technology have lead improvements in power electronic systems. Hence, different circuit configurations namely multilevel inverters have become popular and considerable interest by researcher are given on them. Variable voltage and frequency supply to a.c drives is invariably obtained from a three-phase voltage source inverter. A number of Pulse width modulation (PWM) schemes are used to obtain variable voltage and frequency supply. The most widely used PWM schemes for three-phase voltage source inverters are carrier-based sinusoidal PWM and space vector PWM (SVPWM). There is an increasing trend of using space vector PWM (SVPWM) because of their easier digital realization and better dc bus utilization. This research focuses on step by step development SVPWM implemented on an Induction motor. The model of a three-phase a voltage source inverter is discussed based on space vector theory. Simulation results are obtained using MATLAB/Simulink environment for effectiveness of the study.


Although legal scholars treat prosecutors like interchangeable parts, we argue – based on interviews and surveys of over 200 state prosecutors in eight offices – that scholars should be alert to differences among them, because new prosecutors perceive their professional roles differently than their veteran colleagues do. As new prosecutors gain experience, their professional identity shifts: they become more balanced. This article explores the prosecutor's professional transformation and its possible causes. When experienced prosecutors describe their career trajectories, they regret the highly adversarial posture they adopted earlier in their careers. They even give a name to this early collection of beliefs about the importance of every case, the constant quest for trials, and the aggressive posturing with defense attorneys: "young prosecutors' syndrome." While these attitudes may help new prosecutors build trial skills, they also cause real harm. A rookie might goad defendants into trials to prove the prosecutor's professional worth, aggravating crowded trial dockets and subjecting defendants, victims and witnesses to unnecessary courtroom drama and delay. Such a prosecutor might also skirt the edges of disclosure obligations. Seasoned prosecutors embrace a more restrained, pragmatic approach to the job. They see the true variety of cases on their docket and calibrate their responses in individual cases, saving the most costly and severe responses for a handful of defendants. Moreover, veteran prosecutors appreciate the value that defense attorneys add to the criminal justice system. Our interviewees offered several explanations for their transformation toward balance: increasing confidence, lessons learned from past mistakes, the ability to distinguish small crimes from large, and life experience. Because the institutional features of the prosecutor's office can facilitate or impede a new prosecutor's professional transformation, we offer suggestions for chief prosecutors who aim for balance in their workforce. These measures include hiring prosecutors with a mix of experience levels, exposing new prosecutors to case studies of situations that most often lead to regrettable prosecutor choices, and organizing attorneys into units that place senior and junior prosecutors alongside one another on the same teams. We also explain how law schools can plant the seeds of balance before graduation.


This dissertation explores the impact of legal and institutional factors on the development of securities and banking markets in transition economies, and on flows of foreign direct investment into the same. Chapter 1 introduces the main questions the dissertation seeks to address and identifies the topic of each chapter. Chapter 2 presents the methodology, and focuses on the 1999 EBRD Legal Indicator Survey, which provided the data on securities and banking laws, and contract enforcement. It presents background information on the use of surveys in economics, and the economic rationale for attaching weights to the survey questions. Chapter 3 studies the impact of securities laws on several measures of securities market development, and finds that stricter regulation of financial disclosure and market intermediaries raise stock market capitalisation and turnover. The enforcement of disclosure and regulation of intermediaries drives this result. Chapter 4 studies the impact of banking law and its perceived enforcement upon banking development. It establishes that legal indices on information disclosure by banks, such as use of external auditors, and consolidated supervisory examinations of banks, raise private credit, and foreign bank entry. Fewer legal restrictions on foreign ownership of domestic banks are also associated with a more developed banking industry. Chapter 5 examines the relevance of the contract enforcement environment for flows of foreign direct investment, and establishes that foreign investors are attracted to locations, with a transparent legislative process and dissemination of new laws, and which protect litigants' rights of appeal and judicial review of government decisions. FDI is higher in countries with higher confidence in the courts to resolve disputes with the government, but not so in countries with higher confidence in the courts to resolve disputes with private parties. Finally, Chapter 6 summarises the main results, and offers policy implications and guidelines for future research.


Success in injury prevention in the short run is possible. Several studies have documented that injuries can be prevented if programme compliance is sufficient.1–6 However, the efficacy of an intervention is in a controlled trial does not mean that it will be widely adopted and sustained and have an impact on public health.7–9 Finch9 outlined the Translating Research into Injury Prevention Practice framework, emphasising that only research that can and will be adopted by the participants, the coaches and sporting bodies will succeed in the long run.

Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries is an example where there are controlled studies showing promising efficacy (that the intervention is capable of producing the desired effect);5 ,10–13 however, their efficiency (whether the desired effect occurs under real-life conditions) is not known. We wanted to know 'Have ACL injury prevention initiatives taken in Norway during the last decade been successful in the long run?' We report our experience with Norwegian handball as an example, as this is an area where several initiatives (table 1) building on prevention trials have coincided with an ongoing surveillance programme.

View this table:

Table 1
Prevention initiatives from 1998 through 2011

### ACL Injury Prevention Study

The 1998–1999 season served as the baseline for the ACL Injury Prevention Study; during the 1999–2000 season, an injury prevention programme was introduced in the top three divisions in female handball in Norway.10 The intervention consisted of a neuromuscular training programme with exercises on a wobble board, a balance mat and handball-specific exercises. In the first season (1999–2000), the intervention was based on coaches delivering the programme after being instructed by the investigators. However, as compliance was low, physical therapists were engaged to take charge of delivery of the programme during the second intervention season (2000–2001). Compared with a baseline rate of 0.48 ACL injuries per team, …


Multi-view video coding technique has been widely applied to 3D stereoscopic display. This paper proposes a rate control algorithm for multi-view video codec which is a tradeoff method between the data compression ratio and picture quality of 3D video. This study utilizes the characteristics of visual perception for 3D video viewers to determine the interesting regions in all view videos. Interesting regions with different levels, which depend on the existence of macroblocks with high motion, objects with individual shape, or obvious texture, are determined in the proposed algorithm by considering the corresponding Just Noticeable Distortion function, luminance histogram bin variation and edge strength, respectively. Then the proposed algorithm assigns adequate quantization parameters to control the bit-rate for different levels of interesting regions such that the video quality of the interesting regions is preserved and the bit-rate in the non-interesting regions is reallocated to 3D video storage and transmission for stereoscopic display. The experiment results show that the proposed method successfully achieves high quality preservation and low bit-rate for 3D effects.


Background Understanding the induction of immune regulatory cells upon helminth infection is important for understanding the control of autoimmunity and allergic inflammation in helminth infection. Babesia microti, an intraerythrocytic protozoan of the genus Babesia, is a major cause of the emerging human disease babesiosis, an asymptomatic malaria-like disease. We examined the influence of acute B. microti infection on the development of regulatory B cells together with regulatory T cells. Principal Findings Our data demonstrate that B cells stimulated in vitro with B. microti produce interleukin (IL)-10. This cytokine is also secreted by B cells isolated from B. microti-infected mice in response to lipopolysaccharide stimulation. In addition, high levels of IL-10 were detected in the serum of mice after infection with B. microti. The frequency of IL-10-producing CD1dhighCD5+ regulatory B cells (Bregs) and CD4+CD25+FoxP3+ T cells increased during the course of B. microti infection. Furthermore, adoptive transfer of IL-10-producing B cells induced by B. microti infection led to increased susceptibility of recipient mice to infection with B. microti. In contrast, experiments with B cell-deficient (µMT) mice demonstrated that lack of B cells enhances susceptibility to B. microti infection. Conclusions This study is the first demonstration of the expansion of Bregs following infection by an intraerythrocytic protozoan parasite. These data suggest that B. microti infection in mice provides an excellent model for studying Breg-mediated immune responses and begins to elucidate the mechanism by which helminth infection regulates autoimmunity and allergic inflammation.


The alteration of photophysical properties of fluorophores in the vicinity of a metallic nanostructure, a phenomenon termed plasmon- or metal-enhanced fluorescence (MEF), has been investigated extensively and used in a variety of proof-of-concept demonstrations over the years. A particularly active area of development in this regard has been the design of nanostructures where fluorophore and metallic core are held in a stable geometry that imparts improved luminosity and photostability to a plethora of organic fluorophores. This minireview presents an overview of MEF-based concentric core-shell sensors developed in the past few years. These architectures expand the range of applications of nanoparticles (NPs) beyond the uses possible with fluorescent molecules. Design aspects that are being described include the influence of the nanocomposite structure on MEF, notably the dependence of fluorescence intensity and lifetime on the distance to the plasmonic core. The chemical composition of nanocomposites as a design feature is also discussed, taking as an example the use of non-noble plasmonic metals such as indium as core materials to enhance multiple fluorophores throughout the UV-Vis range and tune the sensitivity of halide-sensing fluorophores operating on the principle of collisional quenching. Finally, the paper describes how various solid substrates can be functionalized with MEF-based nanosensors to bestow them with intense and photostable pH-sensitive properties for use in fields such as medical therapy and diagnostics, dentistry, biochemistry and microfluidics.


Th e Integrated Zone Comparison Technique (IZCT) was utilized with computerized polygraph instrumentation and the Academy for Scientifi c Investigative Training's Horizontal Scoring System ASIT PolySuite algorithm, as part of a blind study in the detection of deception. Th is paper represents a synergy analysis of combining fMRI only deception data with each of the three individual physiological parameters that are used in polygraph. Th ey include the electro-dermal response (EDR), pneumo, and cardio measurements. In addition, we compared the detection accuracy analysis using each single parameter by itself. Th e fMRI score and each individual polygraph parameter score on individual subjects were averaged to establish an overall score.


Hydraulic tests of the erosion by waves of a shore profile made from intact samples of till, a cohesive material comprising a large part of the Great Lakes shorelines, have been completed. Over 1000 h of testing in a laboratory flume with random depth-limited breaking waves, varying conditions of sand cover, and varying mean water levels have been run. The vertical erosion rates of the till were measured along the centreline of the 8 m long, 0.35 m wide and 0.25 m thick till profile; its initial shape was the equilibrium form y = Ax common on sandy beaches. Some of the important findings are that this type of hydraulic test is viable, the role of sand in the erosion process is similar to its role in unidirectional flow model tests but the thickness and volatility of the sand layer are also factors, the main effect of varying water levels is to shift the zone of erosion activity up and down the profile, and that erosion can occur in the absence of sand if the rate of wave energy dissipation is high enough (plunging breakers, steep slopes).


Abstract In low-income countries, grassroots collective action for the management of a common environmental resource is a well-known substitute for government provision of public goods. In our research we test experimentally what its effect is on social capital. To this purpose we structure a 'sandwich' experiment in which participants play a common pool resource game (CPRG) between two trust games in a Nairobi slum where social capital is scarce but informal rules regulating the commons are abundant. Our findings show that the change in trustworthiness between the two trust game rounds generated by the CPRG experience is crucially affected by the subjective satisfaction about the CPRG, rather than by standard objective measures related to CPRG players' behaviour. These results highlight that subjective satisfaction in a collective action has relevant predictive power on social capital creation, providing information which can be crucial to designing successful self-organized environmental resource regimes.


SIR,-The "alternative explanation" produced by Drs P M Gaylarde and I Sarkany (16 August, p 435), while plausible, does not in fact stand up to critical evaluation. In the first place there have been very few reports of the oculocutaneous reaction in patients on any of the beta-blocking agents apart from practolol, and most of those in whom oxprenolol or propanolol has been incriminated had also received practolol in the past. Ten of the 21 patients reported by Felix et all subsequently received oxprenolol and four were given propanolol and suffered no adverse effect, although 12 of the group were challenged with practolol and developed reactions. The clinical features of the oculocutaneous syndrome, the development of a positive antinuclear factor test, and the irregularity of the occurrence of this condition are very much in favour of an immunological rather than a pharmacological mechanism being involved. Not that they are mutually exclusive. However, the evidence adduced in favour of a possible pharmacological mechanism is faulty. It is unfortunate that the term "psoriasiform" has stuck to the cutaneous component of this condition. It is also lichenoid, erythematous, and eczematous at times. Histologically, the lesion shows evidence of intraepidermal cell death and there is not the typical hypertrophy of psoriasis. One certainly cannot assume that increased epidermopoiesis is playing an important role in the pathogenesis of the epidermal disorder. While the importance of the cyclic nucleotides as regulators of cell division in some systems cannot be denied, their role in the control of epidermopoiesis has not as yet been firmly established. Our own experience with phosphodiesterase inhibitors and that of others with other compounds active in the adenyl cyclase-cyclic nucleotide system as depressants of epidermopoiesis and as clinically effective agents in psoriasis has been disappointing. Tihere would appear to be good evidence for the involvement of immune mechanisms in the pathogenesis of the oculocutaneous syndrome and very little in favour of a pharmacological mechanism. RONALD MARKS Department of Medicine, University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff


Anesthesiology: A Comprehensive Review for the Written Boards and Recertification is a high-yield, streamlined study aid. It contains more than 1000 updated, realistic multiple-choice questions tailored to the question content of recent American Board of Anesthesiology (ABA) exams. To maximize reading efficiency, key messages are repeated and highlighted in the bullets. While focusing on most-frequently tested keywords by the ABA, this book also covers new "emerging" topics such as patient safety, statistics, and ethics. Well-chosen illustrations and graphs are used to enhance the learning experience. Also novel is a high-yield summary of the 60 most frequently tested topics and concepts to be reviewed just before taking the boards. With this book as guidance, readers will be able to efficiently prepare for the written primary certification or recertification anesthesiology board exam.


_A 5-minute video demonstration of this paper is available at this YouTube link._ PREAMBLE A variety of research on human cognition demonstrates that humans learn and communicate best when more than one processing system (e.g. visual, auditory, touch) is used. And, related research also shows that, no matter how technical the material, most humans also retain and process information best when they can put a narrative "story" to it. So, when considering the future of scholarly communication, we should be careful not to do blithely away with the linear narrative format that articles and books have followed for centuries: instead, we should enrich it. Much more than text is used to communicate in Science. Figures, which include images, diagrams, graphs, charts, and more, have enriched scholarly articles since the time of Galileo, and ever-growing volumes of data underpin most scientific papers. When scientists communicate face-to-face, as in talks or small discussions, these figures are often the focus of the conversation. In the best discussions, scientists have the ability to manipulate the figures, and to access underlying data, in real-time, so as to test out various what-if scenarios, and to explain findings more clearly. THIS SHORT ARTICLE EXPLAINS—AND SHOWS WITH DEMONSTRATIONS—HOW SCHOLARLY "PAPERS" CAN MORPH INTO LONG-LASTING RICH RECORDS OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOURSE, enriched with deep data and code linkages, interactive figures, audio, video, and commenting.


Polyak et al. (Reports, 7 March 2008, p. 1377) reported that development of the western Grand Canyon began about 17 million years ago. However, their conclusion is based on an inappropriate conflation of Plio-Quaternary incision rates and longer-term rates derived from sites outside the Grand Canyon. Water-table declines at these sites were more likely related to local base-level changes and Miocene regional extensional tectonics.


ABSTRACT Teaching has been characterised as a stressful profession that is prone to burnout. Less is known about the specific ways in which teachers experience and navigate stressors associated with their work. This study aimed to qualitatively understand how teachers who perceive high and low levels of burnout characterise their lived experiences in school environments. Data were collected through interviews with 28 inservice teachers (11 male, 17 female) from the US Midwest who reported high- or low-burnout on a psychometric survey. Data were analysed by two experienced qualitative researchers. Results indicated that (a) low-burnout teachers perceived nurturing teaching environments, (b) high-burnout teachers perceived combative and constraining teaching environments, and (c) all teachers had to manage workplace stress. Building from these findings, we present a model for understanding how the school environment influences teacher burnout. This model highlights the importance of developing optimal working conditions that nurture teacher development. Abbreviation: MBI-ES = Maslach Burnout Iventory-Educators Survey; IEP = Individualized Education Plan


By doping a very small amount of 57Fe into La2CuO4, Mossbauer spectroscopy has been applied to study the magnetic property of the parent compound. From the measurement of the magnetic hyperfine field at the Fe nuclei for various temperatures between 4.2 K and TN, the temperature dependence of the sublattice magnetization for La2CuO4 has been discussed. A theoretical calculation shows that, with temperature increasing a 3D‐2D dimensional crossover occurs in the magnetic dynamics of an anisotropic antiferromagnetic, which is indeed confirmed by the data. The best fit to the data using this theory yields J=1600 K and r=0.011.


PURPOSE
Summation of daily DVH from KV-cone beam CT (KV-CBCT) to obtain a composite dose volume histogram (DVH) is challenging. Directly translating the planned dose matrix according to measured daily prostate displacements provided a common reference frame for a composite DVH from daily DVHs. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the shifting planned dose matrix method compared to the dose recalculation method using daily KV-CBCT.

METHODS
Six patients, who received concurrent IMRT treatment for prostate and pelvic lymph nodes with 124 daily CBCTs, were selected for this study. Contours for CBCT's were transferred from the planning CT after soft tissue registration for prostate and bony registration for pelvic lymph nodes. Using the same planning beam configurations, we re-calculated doses for these CBCTs after shifting to corrected treatment isocenters. The planned dose matrix translation was performed by an in-house program written in MATLAB and incorporated with Computational Environment for Radiotherapy Research (CERR) software. The corresponding daily DVH was obtained by shifting the planned dose matrix according to shifts of treatment iso-centers. To compare these two methods, selected endpoint doses for tumor targets and sensitive structures were extracted from DVHs.

RESULTS
For prostate displacement less then 1.5 cm, the dose matrix shifting method resulted in 93% and 98% fractions within 5% differences from the recalculation method for D95 of prostate and pelvic lymph nodes, respectively. These numbers decreased to 58% and 71% when 2% dose difference criterion was used.

CONCLUSIONS
Allowing 5% daily dose difference, shifting planned dose matrix provides effective means to evaluating daily dose changes for concurrent IMRT treatment for prostate and pelvic lymph nodes. The utility of this tool is to provide a common coordinate frame to obtain composite dose distributions.


Abstract Objectives The European Network for Health Technology Assessment (EUnetHTA) was established in 2006 and comprises over eighty organizations from thirty European countries. In its fifth project phase (Joint Action 3), EUnetHTA set up a quality management system (QMS) to improve the efficiency and standardization of joint work. This article presents EUnetHTA's new QMS and outlines experiences and challenges during its implementation. Methods Several working groups defined processes and methods to support assessment teams in creating high-quality assessment reports. Existing guidelines, templates, and tools were refined and missing parts were newly created and integrated into the new QMS framework. EUnetHTA has contributed to Health Technology Assessment (HTA) capacity building through training and knowledge sharing. Continuous evaluation helped to identify gaps and shortcomings in processes and structures. Results Based on a common quality management concept and defined development and revision procedures, twenty-seven partner organizations jointly developed and maintained around forty standard operating procedures and other components of the QMS. All outputs were incorporated into a web-based platform, the EUnetHTA Companion Guide, which was launched in May 2018. Concerted efforts of working groups were required to ensure consistency and avoid duplication. Conclusions With the establishment of a QMS for jointly produced assessment reports, EUnetHTA has taken a significant step toward a sustainable model for scientific and technical collaboration within European HTA. However, the definition of processes and methods meeting the numerous requirements of healthcare systems across Europe remains an ongoing and challenging task.


The IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX) is the promising technique to overcome some disadvantages on the Security concern of the widespread IEEE 802.11 standard. For providing high speed wide area broadband wireless access, WiMAX is an emerging wireless technology for creating multi-hop Mesh network. Based on the wired backbone wireless Mesh networks serve to get over present dependencies of wireless system. Wireless operates on Physical later and MAC layer in the air interface to provide fixed and Mobile Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) in broad range of frequencies. Due to the lack of Physical infrastructure of wireless networks are inherently less secure. In order to protect data exchange between the MAC layer and PHY layer WiMAX specifies a security sub-layer at the bottom of the MAC layer. The security sub-layer provides privacy with SS and BS from service hijacking. For providing authentication, data traffic privacy services and key management a PKM protocol defined by the WiMAX MAC as a sub-layer where the PKM protocol is the main protocol work in the security sub-layer. WiMAX is only a "Paper based" newly established technology based on Wi-Fi system then it is tough to find out its security holes in all the way. Keeping all the fact in mind the objectives of the thesis are to analyze the WiMAX security architecture security keys (AK, KEK and HMAC) are used for authorization, authentication and key management and TEK is for secure data transmission, possible security vulnerabilities, threats and risks are classified according to different layer with 802.16 std Mesh network. In addition, vulnerabilities comparison between IEEE 802.11 and 802.16 std has been pointed out in details, as well as security improvements and possible solutions has been proposed to protect WiMAX attacks.


We describe an application of the discovery system FAHRENHEIT in a chemistry laboratory. Our emphasis is on automation of the discovery process as oposed to human intervention and on computer control over real experiments and data collection as opposed to the use of simulation. FAHRENHEIT performs automatically many cycles of experimentation, data collection and theory formation. We report on electrochemistry experiments of several hour duration, in which FAHRENHEIT has developed empirical equations (quantitative regularities) equivalent to those developed by an analytical chemist working on the same problem. The theoretical capabilities of FAHRENHEIT have been expanded, allowing the system to find maxima in a dataset, evaluate error for all concepts, and determine reproducibility of results. After minor adjustments FAHRENHEIT has been able to discover regularities in maxima locations and heights, and to analyse repeatability of measurements by the same mechanism, adapted from BACON, by which all numerical regularities are detected.


In biological systems, polymeric materials block the movement of some macromolecules while allowing the selective passage of others. In some cases, binding enables selective transport, while in others the most inert particles appear to transit most rapidly. To study the general principles of filtering, we develop a model motivated by features of the nuclear pore complex (NPC) which are highly conserved and could potentially be applied to other biological systems. The NPC allows selective transport of proteins called transport factors which transiently bind to disordered, flexible proteins called FG Nups. While the NPC is tuned for transport factors and their cargo, we show that a single feature is sufficient for selective transport: the bound-state motion resulting from transient binding to flexible filaments. Interchain transfer without unbinding can further improve selectivity, especially for crosslinked chains. We generalize this observation to model nanoparticle transport through mucus and show that bound-state motion accelerates transport of transient nanoparticle application, even with clearance by mucus flow. Our model provides a framework to control binding-induced selective transport in bipolymeric materials.


Together with a few recent publications a number of the online Journal of Art Historiography (June 6, 2012) dedicated to "Islamic Art Historiography" offers a glimpse at the debates that since roughly a decade stir up Islamic art studies as they are practiced in the West. These debates concern the conceptual framework used to both investigate and show in public institutions the material dealt with in this field of research, traditionally designated by the attributive adjective "Islamic". Many consider the latter a misnomer. The underlying objection is that any cultural instance generically labeled with this adjective constitutes a fallacious category that does not reflect much more complex realities. Yet, the contested word remains widely used in spite of the invention of an alternative, the term "Islamicate". This paper examines this phenomenon of epistemological agitation symptomatic of the rather newly constructed field of Islamic art history. The analysis of the 10th century epigraphic wares produced under the patronage of the Iranian dynasty of the Samanids will support the argumentation.