This study examines the population dynamics of juvenile and adult plaice
Pleuronectes platessa L. in the coastal inshore area of North West Wales and Eastern
Anglesey. The population dynamics of the adult population were studied by
conducting autumnal otter trawl surveys in 2004/05. The data obtained were
compared with an earlier study conducted in the same area in 1974/77 and with
current data for other plaice stocks in North West Europe. The size/age structure,
length/weight relationship, growth rate, mortality rate and size/age at first maturity
(L5o/A5o) were described for male and female plaice. The results of the survey showed
that the size/age structures of male and female fish were different with the older,
larger and heavier fish comprising predominately female fish The length/weight
relationships were different for male and female fish with males exhibiting isometric
growth (b=3.02) and females exhibiting positive allometric growth (b=3.20). Growth
patterns, described using the von Bertalanffy growth model, were significantly
different between male (K= 0.62 year 1; LW=26.4 cm SL) and female (K= 0.25 year 1;
L. =43.8 cm SL) plaice. The instantaneous rate of total mortality was higher for male
plaice than for females (Z: 3=1.05 year I cf. Y=0.64 year ). Male plaice matured at
a significantly smaller size and younger age than female plaice (L50, d'=16 cm SL cf
? =20 cm SL; Aso, d=1.33 years cf. Y=2.11 years). A comparison of the results of the
2004/05 survey with the earlier 1974/77 survey showed differences in the size/age
structure, growth rate and maturity ogives between the two surveys. A meta-analysis
of the population dynamics of plaice stocks in North West Europe revealed consistent
similarities in the size-structure and patterns of growth and maturation between the
populations.
A detailed analysis was conducted of the population dynamics of plaice in the coastal
inshore area of North West Wales and Eastern Anglesey, based on the autumnal RV
Prince Madog fisheries surveys, for the time period 1970-2006. A cyclical trend in
abundance (number of plaice hour-1) was apparent in the catch data which was
significantly correlated with the winter North Atlantic Oscillation Index (wNAOI).
The results indicated no significant changes in the size composition of the plaice catch
during the 4 decades (average sizes; (3=24.0 cm SL cf. ? =29.1 cm TL) but a decline
in the proportion of older age classes (>_5 years old) in the catch (average ages; c3=2.6
years cf. Y=3.1 years). Analysis of the sex-ratio data between 1970 and 2006
indicated a decrease in the proportion of male plaice caught in the fisheries surveys
over the last 4 decades. Male and female plaice both showed contrasting changes in
growth patterns between 1970 and 2006. For female plaice, L. tended to increase over
time with no change in K values. In contrast, male plaice showed no long term change
in L. over time, but an increase in K-values post-1990. The Lso/Aso datasets were
limited but analysis of the available data indicated a decrease in L5o/A5o values for
male and female plaice over time. The population biology data for plaice (currently
underexploited but historically overexploited in the 1970s and 1980s) for the time
period 1970-2006 were compared with comparable data for dab Limanda limanda L.
(an unexploited species in the Irish Sea) and whiting Merlangius merlangus L. (an
overexploited species in the Irish Sea) obtained from the same fisheries surveys.
Analysis of the time series data revealed changes in the size and growth patterns for
the three species that were consistent with their level of exploitation (i. e. no changes
for dab cf changes for plaice and whiting). A similar analysis of the Lso/Aso data was
more limited but suggested decreases in the maturity ogive values of plaice and dab.
The results were suggestive of fisheries-induced evolution in plaice and whiting in the
South East Irish Sea. The population dynamics of plaice were examined in relation to
summer/winter/annual sea surface temperatures (SST) and wNAOI to examine
whether any changes were related to recent climate change. This analysis indicated a
correlation between abundance and wNAOI with higher abundances (number plaice
hour') recorded in the survey when the wNAOI was in negative phase. A simple
model outlining the effects of increased/decreased SST on size and growth was
proposed. For male plaice, the correlations between LC/K and SST/ wNAOI followed
those predicted by the model, but the response was not observed for female plaice.
A detailed three year survey of the growth, length/weight relationship and
condition of juvenile plaice on two nursery grounds (Conwy and Red Wharf Bays)
between April 2004 and March 2007 are reported. Modal progression analysis was
used to follow the growth of the 2004,2005 and 2006 year classes with the average
size increasing from 1.5-2.0 cm SL in April/May to ca. 8-10 cm SL the following
February/March Seasonal variations in the length/weight relationships and in
condition factors were observed on both nursery grounds. Condition was lowest in the
winter/spring and increased in the summer/autumn as a result of increased food
availability and growth opportunity. No differences were observed between the two
nursery grounds.


AIM: Spice extracts and their bioactive molecules have been well recognized for their innumerable beneficial effects against various chronic diseases. However, experimental data regarding their potential to abrogate oxidative stress and neurotoxicity in animal models of Parkinson's disease (PD) are rather limited. In the current study, we aimed to assess the neuromodulatory potential of aqueous extracts of spices viz., cumin and cinnamon and their bioactives (Cuminaldehyde (CU) and Cinnamaldehyde (CN) using a neurotoxin model of Drosophila. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Adult male flies (Oregon K) were fed medium enriched (0.1–0.2%) with aqueous extract of Cumin or Cinnamon and their bioactives CU/ CN with without ROT (500 µM) for 7 days. The propensity of extracts or biaoctives to protect flies against ROT-induced lethality, locomotor phenotype, oxidative stress and neurotoxicity was determined. Both the extracts significantly protected the flies against ROT-induced locomotor phenotype and mortality. CU and CN-enrichment markedly reduced the mortality induced by ROT, improved the locomotion and significantly abrogated the degree of oxidative impairments. Both the bioactives also augmented the antioxidant enzyme activities and restored ROT-induced mitochondrial dysfunctions. Interestingly, ROT -induced elevation of the activity of acetylcholinesterase and depletion of dopamine levels were also restored. Further, flies given prophylactic treatment with bioactives exhibited significant resistance to an acute challenge to Paraquat (PQ). In a parallel study, both the bioactives were found to significantly delay the onset of locomotor deficits among ROT-stressed flies besides extending their survival. CONCLUSION: We hypothesise that the efficacy aqueous extract and their bioactives to attenuate ROT-mediated neurotoxicity may be largely related to the combined antioxidant activity of bioactives resulting in improved locomotor performance , abrogation of oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction. Based on these results, we propose that cumin and cinnamon extracts may be exploited as therapeutics against PD and other neurodegenerative diseases.


This paper describes the implementation of an information systems infrastructure using open source software (OSS) in a large Irish public sector organization, Beaumont Hospital. The study identifies the primary organizational drivers in Beaumont's move to OSS, namely principle and pragmatism. It also discusses some of the problems encountered, such as the change in mind-set required when deploying OSS solutions, and resistance from staff who feared being deskilled by moving away from popular proprietary systems. The study reveals a radical shift in open source deployment from invisible horizontal infrastructure systems to highly visible vertical applications. The first phase of OSS implementation is estimated to lead to cost savings of i13 million over five years. These details are useful in that few studies have quantified the savings from OSS deployment. Given that Beaumont was already receiving academic pricing discounts for many of their original proprietary closed source applications, the savings for a typical commercial organization could be even higher. Also, in many cases, the extra functionality available in the OSS systems deployed allowed for a richer feature set overall. Buoyed by the success of this first phase, Beaumont is planning a second phase of OSS implementation for an overall hospital information system, a financial systems suite, and is even considering developing their payroll system in an open source fashion. The study also identifies how a typical company can contribute back to the OSS community in their own unique way, by distributing applications developed from their own particular domain of expertise, rather than having to make code contributions to the code base of GNU/Linux or Apache as might have been assumed to be the case. Indeed, free access to source code played a very limited role in Beaumont's motivation, where given the budgetary constraints, zero cost was of more concern than open source.


A rapid and precise standard-bracketing method has been developed for measuring femtogram quantity rare earth element (REE) levels in natural carbonate samples by inductively coupled plasma sector field mass spectrometry that does not require chemical separation steps. A desolvation nebulization system was used to effectively reduce polyatomic interference and enhance sensitivity. REE/Ca ratios are calculated directly from the intensities of the ion beams of (46)Ca, (139)La, (140)Ce, (141)Pr, (146)Nd, (147)Sm, (153)Eu, (160)Gd, (159)Tb, (163)Dy, (165)Ho, (166)Er, (169)Tm, (172)Yb, and (175)Lu using external matrix-matched synthetic standards to correct for instrumental ratio drifting and mass discrimination. A routine measurement time of 3 min is typical for one sample containing 20-40 ppm Ca. Replicate measurements made on natural coral and foraminiferal samples with REE/Ca ratios of 2-242 nmol/mol show that external precisions of 1.9-6.5% (2 RSD) can be achieved with only 10-1000 fg of REEs in 10-20 μg of carbonate. We show that different sources for monthly resolved coral ultratrace REE variability can be distinguished using this method. For natural slow growth-rate carbonate materials, such as sclerosponges, tufa, and speleothems, the high sample throughput, high precision, and high temporal resolution REE records that can be produced with this procedure have the potential to provide valuable time-series records to advance our understanding of paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental dynamics on different time scales.


Wim Delvoye (b. 1965) is known for his inventive and often controversial projects, and his work has been exhibited around the world. One of a generation of Belgian artists who have revolutionized contemporary art, Delvoye explores the body and its functions, producing art that combines the attractive and the repulsive, and addresses themes including religion and politics. One of his most famous works is Cloaca, a digestion machine; another significant project involves tattooed live pigs. Coinciding with Delvoye's exhibition as guest of honor at the Louvre, Wim Delvoye Introspective is the culmination of close collaboration between the artist and distinguished scholars and critics. This publication presents a complete overview of works by the artist, demonstrating the range of media, technique, and thought-provoking subjects that defines his art.


Values of the applied hydrodynamic torque (Tapplied) and the resisting adhesive torque (Tadhesion) will determine whether a colloid will be immobilized (Tapplied ≤ Tadhesion) or roll (Tapplied > Tadhesion) on a solid water interface. Previous literature has demonstrated in 1–2 collector (grain) systems that the influence of Tapplied on colloid retention can be significant under unfavorable attachment conditions and that only a fraction of the solid surface may contribute to retention. However, many questions remain on how to obtain, analyze, and upscale information on the forces and torques that act on colloids near solid surfaces in porous media. To address some of these gaps in knowledge, high resolution pore‐scale water flow simulations were conducted for sphere packs (25 spheres) over a range of Darcy velocities, grain sizes and distributions, and porosities. The spatial variability of Tapplied was calculated from this information, and successfully described using a lognormal cumulative density function (CDF). Linear interpolation and scaling techniques were subsequently used to predict the lognormal CDF of Tapplied for various colloid sizes, grain sizes and distributions, and water velocities. The lognormal CDF of Tapplied was then evaluated at select values of Tadhesion (i.e, interaction energy) to quantify the fraction and locations on the solid surface that contributes to colloid retention (Sf), and the theoretical maximum solid phase concentration of retained colloids (Smax).


This study is an attempt to address the issue of how the religious representations used and reproduced in fantasy and historical videogames can be useful to understand "gaming" as a social practice but also to understand whether they can constitute a form of historical knowledge, as it has recently been claimed. There is overwhelming evidence regarding the social relevance of "gaming" and its impact on the shaping of popular and global imaginaries, especially for young generations. Current research in social sciences seems to validate this conclusion, although the scientific interest for videogames is relatively recent, as its object of interest, and there is still an on-going debate about research methods. As a consequence, there is a rapidly growing literature focusing on these and similar questions. Several examples of well-known and best-selling computer games will be treated as evidences to be interrogated and interpreted in order to discern the representations and poetics which are at the basis of the use and appeal of religions and religious features in videogames.


Schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive and autistic disorders are traditionally considered as three separate psychiatric conditions each with specific symptoms and pattern of brain alterations. This view can be challenged since these three conditions have the same neurobiological origin, stemming from a common root of a unique neurodevelopmental tree. The aim of this meta-analytic study was to determine, from a neuroimaging perspective, whether i) white matter and gray matter alterations are specific for the three different spectrum disorders, and the nosographical differentiation of three spectra is supported by different patterns of brain alterations. ii) it might be possible to define new spectra starting from specific brain damage. iii) it is possible to detect a "brain damage network" (a connecting link between the damaged areas that relates areas constantly involved in the disorder). Three main findings emerged from our meta-analysis: The three psychiatric spectra do not appear to have their own specific damage. It is possible to define two new damage clusters. The first includes substantial parts of the salience network, and the second is more closely linked to the auditory-visual, auditory and visual somatic areas. It is possible to define a "Damage Network" and to infer a hierarchy of brain substrates in the pattern of propagation of the damage. These results suggest the presence of a common pattern of damage in the three pathologies plus a series of variable alterations that, rather than support the sub-division into three spectra, highlight a two-cluster parcellation with an input-output and more cognitive clusters.


Metal organic frameworks (MOFs) are being intensively studied as solid catalysts for organic reactions in liquid media. This review focuses on those reports in which these materials have been used as catalysts in the absence of solvents or embedding ionic liquids (ILs). One of the major roles of solvents in liquid phase reactions is to desorb reagents and products from the active sites, facilitating the turnover of the active sites. For this reason, it is a general observation that most solid catalysts undergo strong deactivation and poisoning in the absence of solvents. In the present review, examples are presented showing that, due to their large porosity and framework flexibility, MOFs can be used as catalysts in the absence of solvents for several reaction types including cyanosilylations, condensations, cyloadditions and CO2 insertions, among others, and that they show even better performance than in the presence of conventional organic solvents. This review also describes the synergy that arises from the combination of ILs, frequently with suitable task-specific chains, and MOFs due to the cooperation with the catalysis when two centres in MOF and ionic liquid are present and due to the change in the microenvironment of the active sites. By embedding an ionic liquid in the MOF pores or by synthesising the ionic liquid covalently attached to the ligand in satellite positions, reusable and efficient catalysts requiring the minimum amount of ionic liquid can be obtained. Both complementary strategies increase the greenness of MOFs as heterogeneous catalysts and have advantages from the environmental point of view. Finally, the last section describes the catalytic activity of hierarchical porous MOFs in some selected reactions.


It is a common misconception that shallow water biogenic carbonate development is inhibited in areas of active siliciclastic input. However, an increasing number of examples of ancient and modern coral communities are being identified which are affected by siliciclastic input and are developing in areas traditionally regarded as unfavorable. Corals can develop in nearshore settings affected by high sedimentation rates, turbidity, mobile substrates and episodic (storm-related) discharges of freshwater and terrestrially-derived sediments. Coral reefs in these systems are not necessarily impacted reefs, and represent natural states of development with coral abundance and diversity comparable to clear-water systems. Accepted models of shallow water carbonate production in clear water conditions only represent one end-member in a diverse range of shallow coral-dominated communities. In order to investigate the development of shallow water, biogenic carbonate development under the influence of siliciclastic input, two mixed carbonate-siliciclastic successions have been studied from the Tertiary of Spain. The Vie Basin (NE Spain) and the Fortuna Basin (SE Spain) provide contrasting examples of coral reef development within siliciclastic shallow marine shelf environments bordering temperate-humid and semi-arid land areas respectively. The methods employed in this investigation were 1) high resolution sedimentary logging and sample collection, 2) petrographic and palaeontological analysis of samples and 3) quantification of non-carbonate content through acid digestion. The correlation of logged sections, and development of a facies scheme for each study area, has enabled the temporal and spatial relationships between carbonate development and siliciclastic sedimentation to be deciphered. The Calders study area is situated within the Vie Basin. The broad environment of deposition was a moderate energy, northward-prograding siliciclastic shelf where high sediment input and unstable substrates inhibited the development of sessile calcareous biota. Carbonate development occurred following abandonment of the siliciclastic substrate. Abandonment facies, which developed on dune foresets and topsets, are dominated by large benthic foraminifera and coralline algae. Carbonate development, as high-energy foralgal shoals and muddy coral-dominated sediments, occurred down-slope. Carbonate units developed as very low angle clinoforms. Coral development was variable, existing as metre-scale patch reefs with associated debris and protected low-energy environments. Coral framework was only locally evident. Six isolated carbonate intervals are identified within the siliciclastic-dominated succession. The change from carbonate development to siliciclastic deposition is abrupt. It is proposed that sediments situated stratigraphically above the main Calders section in the Sant Amanc area are part of the Terminal Complex. The broad environment of deposition was a protected, inner-shelf that developed in the latest stages of marine sedimentation in the Pyrenean foreland prior to regional deposition of continental sediments. Nutrient-rich conditions persisted due to terrigenous input and terrestrial run-off. Metre-scale patch reefs developed through the baffling effect of the perennial seafloor vegetation that acted as a substrate for large benthic foraminifera. The Altorreal study area is situated within the Fortuna Basin. The environment of deposition was a marginal marine, high-energy fan delta system. Only robust organisms such as oysters were able to tolerate the periodic high-magnitude input of coarse-grained siliciclastics. The temporary abandonment of fan-delta lobes provided a site for coral colonization. Abandonment facies are siliciclastic packstones with laminar stromatolites in up-slope areas. Carbonates contain minor siliciclastic material and form laterally restricted sigmoidal units. Corals formed a framework, with variations in coral morphology a function of water depth. Carbonate production was halted through the combined affects of freshwater input, emergence and erosion. Eroded carbonate bodies were buried by fan-delta sediments as the locus of sedimentation changed. The main impacts of sediment input on photoautotrophs are physical burial, reduction in rates of photosynthesis though increased turbidity and changes in seawater chemistry, particularly salinity and nutrients. The amount and grainsize of siliciclastic sediment input has influenced the biota in both study areas. Siliciclastic-dominated sediments contain a low diversity fauna dominated by echinoids, molluscs and burrowing organisms. The reduction of siliciclastic input created a new environment that was initially colonized by organisms acting as r-strategists. These transitional settings are dominated by larger benthic foraminifera at Calders. At Altorreal, a prolonged period of non-deposition led to the formation of a hardground. Coral development at Calders occurred during a constant input of clay to silt-grade siliciclastics. In low-energy areas where sediment input was particularly high, constratal growth of branching corals is inferred. In marginal marine reef areas at Altorreal, coarse lithoclastic grains supported stick-like coral branches. Demise of coral communities is attributed to a number of factors. At Altorreal, emergence and erosion of the reef is inferred from erosional contacts. The development of columnar stromatolites is associated with a prolonged period of non-deposition and possibly a change in seawater chemistry that was detrimental to corals. The development of coral communities in siliciclastic settings can be aided through the existence of a protection mechanism. At Calders and Altorreal, temporarily abandoned siliciclastic substrates provided sites away from silts of high siliciclastic input. Autogenic factors such as delta lobe switching were the most important controls on coral development in the studied areas although allogenic factors such as climate and the tectonic regime influenced rates, magnitude and grainsize of input were also important.


This research is aimed at studying the business strategies of young small businesses in Finland and Ireland. Needless to say those young small businesses are critical to many economies despite their size. Studying their operational strategies and finding ways to re orient them to attain and sustain their business goals despite being faced with economic challenges, is therefore of scholastic interest To carry out this study, a qualitative method was used. The primary data used was interview of the manager of four young small firms; two from Finland and two from Ireland. To achieve geographical spread and diversity of information 4 firms were selected: 2 each from Finland and Ireland. And to avoid management bias in information delivery; we interviewed selected employees to help cross check information gathered from the latter. Some randomly selected employees of these firms were also interviewed. Secondary data such as literature collected from books, journals and previous researches were also used. Findings on strategies that the businesses applied during their operation were qualitatively analyzed and recommendations made to help re-orient such businesses. The analysis of the collected data revealed that products and service offerings, strategic marketing and communication, operational costs effectiveness, business educational background as well as commitment of the entrepreneur coupled with the corporate social responsibility affects the goals and for that matter the success of young small businesses. In Recommendation, it is therefore that if young small businesses would not consider their size and scale of operation but objectively adhere to strategy formation principles, they would experience swift strategy implementation guidelines and be in a better position to monitor and control their progress to be able to effect appropriate changes on time in order to sustain their business goals in the long run notwithstanding the economic challenges they face.


Righting Educational Wrongs brings together the work of scholars from the fields of disability studies in education and law to examine contemporary struggles around inclusion and access to education. Divided into three parts, the volume explores the intersections between disability studies, law, and education in part one. Contributors in this section forge a theoretical framework for thinking about educational access. Part two takes a critical look at some of the histories of exclusion in education and ways that these exclusions have been upheld by a variety of educational policies and practices. Part three reflects on the ways that the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act is experienced by students with disabilities and their families.


The huge housing backlog that plagues South Africa requires concerted effort to develop capacity for low-income delivery systems that will improve the socioeconomic conditions of low-income people. Social housing, and housing associations in particular are recent housing delivery systems that promise to meet the needs of low-income people in South Africa. It is the intention of this research to investigate to what extent housing associations can improve housing delivery and improve the socio-economic conditions of low-income people. The literature review provides information on national experience in housing delivery. It investigates the difficulties of housing provision and how delivery fails to meet the needs of low-income people in South Africa. An international model of housing associations is used to provide an alternative form of delivery that may assist in reducing the backlog. The research uses integrated development as a framework for housing delivery. This paradigm advocates mixed landuse, and mixed income housing. Thus, it a move against 'housing in the veld" and 'one house one plot' delivery, and encourages housing delivery that is integrated with other functions within the inner city. Two examples of Johannesburg's inner city housing associations, namely Navarone and Jeppe Oval are used as case studies. These two case studies suit an integrated development approach. The survey includes a sample of 30 people from the two housing associations. Data analysis of the socio-economic issues and responses of tenants suggests that housing associations provide better living conditions and therefore a viable option for housing delivery in inner city areas of South Africa.


The sampling frequency and quantity of time series data collected from water distribution systems has been increasing in recent years, giving rise to the potential for improving system knowledge if suitable automated techniques can be applied, in particular, machine learning. Novelty (or anomaly) detection refers to the automatic identification of novel or abnormal patterns embedded in large amounts of "normal" data. When dealing with time series data (transformed into vectors), this means abnormal events embedded amongst many normal time series points. The support vector machine is a data-driven statistical technique that has been developed as a tool for classification and regression. The key features include statistical robustness with respect to non-Gaussian errors and outliers, the selection of the decision boundary in a principled way, and the introduction of nonlinearity in the feature space without explicitly requiring a nonlinear algorithm by means of kernel functions. In this research, support vector regression is used as a learning method for anomaly detection from water flow and pressure time series data. No use is made of past event histories collected through other information sources. The support vector regression methodology, whose robustness derives from the training error function, is applied to a case study.


The outer membrane protein A (OmpA) family contains an evolutionary conserved domain that links the outer membrane in Gram-negative bacteria to the semi-rigid peptidoglycan (PG) layer. The clinically significant pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa carries several OmpA family proteins (OprF, OprL, PA0833, and PA1048) that share the PG-binding domain. These proteins are important for cell morphology, membrane stability, and biofilm and outer membrane vesicle (OMV) formation. In addition to other OmpAs, in silico analysis revealed that the putative outer membrane protein (OMP) with gene locus PA1041 is a lipoprotein with an OmpA domain and, hence, is a potential virulence factor. This study aimed to evaluate PA1041 as a PG-binding protein and describe its effect on the phenotype. Clinical strains were confirmed to contain the lipoprotein resulting from PA1041 expression with Western blot, and PG binding was verified in enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). By using a Sepharose bead-based ELISA, we found that the lipoprotein binds to meso-diaminopimelic acid (mDAP), an amino acid in the pentapeptide portion of PGs. The reference strain PAO1 and the corresponding transposon mutant PW2884 devoid of the lipoprotein were examined for phenotypic changes. Transmission electron microscopy revealed enlarged periplasm spaces near the cellular poles in the mutant. In addition, we observed an increased release of OMV, which could be confirmed by nanoparticle tracking analysis. Importantly, mutants without the lipoprotein produced a thick, but loose and unorganized, biofilm in flow cells. In conclusion, the lipoprotein from gene locus PA1041 tethers the outer membrane to the PG layer, and mutants are viable, but display severe phenotypic changes including disordered biofilm formation. Based upon the phenotype of the P. aeruginosa PW2884 mutant and the function of the protein, we designate the lipoprotein with locus tag PA1041 as "peptidoglycan-binding anchor" (Pba).


This paper challenges the hypothesis that negative yield effects in key temperate grain producing regions of the world resulting from global climate change would have a serious impact on world food production. Model results demonstrate that even with concurrent productivity losses in the major grain producing regions of the world, global warming will not seriously disrupt world agricultural markets. Country/regional crop yield changes induce interregional adjustments in production and consumption that serve to buffer the severity of climate change impacts on world agriculture and result in relatively modest impacts on world agricultural prices and domestic economies.


On a hot summer's day in 1996 a plane carrying Osama bin Laden and a few friends and family landed at a runway just outside the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad. The Saudi-born Islamic activist had little equipment, few followers and minimal local support. Yet within five years he had built an organisation that was to carry out the most shocking and devastating terrorist attack in history. 'Al-Qaeda' is now the most over-used and misunderstood term in the media. In Arabic, it is simply an abstract noun, meaning 'resource', 'network' or 'base'. In the West, it symbolises the greatest threat to global security: though its Afghan training camps have now been reduced to dust, no one believes that al-Qaeda was destroyed with them. But what is al-Qaeda? Is it a disciplined, motivated, structured terrorist organisation led by a single criminal mastermind or no more than an idea, a language in which angry young Muslim men can articulate their rage? Bin Laden's aim to provoke conflict between militant Islam and the West appears closer to fulfilment than ever. But is al-Qaeda the catalyst of this conflict, or merely a symbol of it? Drawing on his unparalleled experience Jason Burke provides


BACKGROUND
Quantitative EEG (qEEG) power could potentially be used as a diagnostic tool for Alzheimer's disease (AD) and may further our understanding of the pathophysiology. However, the early qEEG power changes of AD are not well understood.

OBJECTIVE
To investigate the early changes in qEEG power and the possible correlation with memory function and cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers. In addition, whether qEEG power could discriminate between AD, mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and older healthy controls (HC) at the individual level.

METHODS
Standard EEGs from 138 HC, 117 MCI, and 117 AD patients were included from six Nordic memory clinics. All EEGs were recorded consecutively before the diagnosis and were not used for the consensus diagnosis. Absolute and relative power was calculated for both eyes closed and open condition.

RESULTS
At group level using relative power, we found significant increases globally in the theta band and decreases in high frequency power in the temporal regions for eyes closed for AD and, to a lesser extent, for MCI compared to HC. Relative theta power was significantly correlated with multiple neuropsychological measures and had the largest correlation coefficient with total tau. At the individual level, the classification rate for AD and HC was 72.9% for relative power with eyes closed.

CONCLUSION
Our findings suggest that the increase in relative theta power may be the first change in patients with dementia due to AD. At the individual level, we found a moderate classification rate for AD and HC when using EEGs alone.


SUMMARY Animal rescue centres release large numbers of capt ive-bred, rehabilitated or translocated animals int o the wild annually but little is known about their p ost-release survival and behaviour. We developed a novel and innovative coupling of traditional radio- tags with new GPS loggers to track hand-reared Irish hare Lepus timidus hibernicus leverets after release into the wild. Cyanoacrylat e SuperGlue ® proved a poor fixative with two out of three levere ts managing to detach their tags within 24 hours. Nevertheless, a total of 2,505 GPS locations were r ecorded every 60 seconds for one leveret over three nights (approx. 835 per night). The leveret d ispersed <410 m from the original release site. It demonstrated exploratory behaviour including an abi lity to navigate accurately in a complex and unfamiliar environment returning to a habitual lie- up site each day. Its survival was confirmed up to 9 days post-release at which time its radio-tag detac hed, however, similarly aged leverets were sighted in the area for up to 2 months post-release (sugges ting possible longer term survival). This is the fi rst study to publish data from any GPS tagged lagomorph and provides 'proof-of-concept' that large quantities of behavioural data can be recovered fro m small mammals 1-2 kg. Further development of these techniques will be highly valuable to future studies.


The use of Zen - advertent or inadvertent - in the practice of artistic creation is not
new. From Japanese Haiku poetry, the early poetry of Wordsworth and even aspects
of Shakespeare's Hamlet, to the paintings of Cezanne and Dali, to the novels of Ben
Okri and the work of Samuel Becket and Peter Brooke, we see differing efforts to
transcend the dominant mode of understanding ourselves and the world around us:
namely that of the duality of thought, of the kind our conscious, logical intellect can
comprehend. One could even point to contemporary physics - and in particular the
physics emerging out of quantum mechanics' - to see that efforts to transcend the
limitations of our own intellect in the quest to understand the phenomena of life are
not confined to artists. One could describe this quest as spiritual, in that it is
concerned with understanding life predominantly through feeling.
As a relatively young art form, first conceived and developed within a mechanistic
paradigm, the film medium does not have a tradition that both filmmakers and audience
alike can relate to in terms of transcending modes of dualistic thought and exploring
our spiritual nature. With some notable exceptions who remain on the whole on the
fringes of popular film culture - Ozu, Bresson, Dreyer and Tarkovsky being the most
prominent of these - filmmakers have been confined to working predominantly within
the idiom of cause and effect, conflict and resolution, and the logic of psychologically
explicable character motivation and consequent plot development. With relatively few
reference points, the process of examining and exploring the film form beyond this
psychological realism is difficult, not least because of the economic restraints that have
traditionally hampered innovation within filmmaking. While our conscious thoughts
and emotional lives are amply studied within the bounds of largely Freudian and
humanistic psychology, there remain aspects of human experience - feelings connected
to our transcendental natures - which film does not adequately explore or express.
Here, I shall seek to illustrate and evaluate the efforts I have made as a practicing
filmmaker through three films - One Day Tafo, Reunion and Signs of Life - to explore
and develop a film form which seeks to reveal a truth about myself and the world in
which I live: a truth which goes beyond what may be psychologically and
intellectually explicable, a truth which is essentially experiential and devoid of
traditional concepts of meaning. I am tempted to refer to this as `Zen and the art of
filmmaking'? For me, this work is only the beginning of a life-long process, the
outcomes of which I hope others may be able to use for further research and
exploration.


Depth imaging is commonly based on light. For example, LIDAR and Kinect use infrared light, while stereo cameras use visible light. These systems require hardware operating at high sampling frequencies, precise calibration, and they dissipate significant power. In this paper, we investigate the potential of ultrasound for image and depth acquisition, with applications to human-computer interaction and skeletal tracking in mind. We use a loudspeaker array and a microphone array to sense the scene. We discuss a technique for offline loudspeaker beamforming (commonly used for microphone beamforming) which enables us to significantly increase the frame rate. Further, we propose a sound-source-localization-based method for computing the depth image, giving a substantial improvement over the näıve time-of-flight approach. We designed inexpensive hardware with eight elements per array to obtain both the depth and the intensity images. Even with this limited number of transducers we obtain promising experimental results.


The objective of this article is to present a study that has been made about the use of the interactive persuasion criteria grid in order to identify persuasive elements in the interfaces. Two groups have been created, "criteria" and "control". Both should identify persuasive elements of two interfaces: social network (Facebook) and e-commerce (Cdiscount). During the second phase of the experiment, the "criteria" group had an access to the grid. 27 participants were recruited for this study. The results show that the participants have found more persuasive elements with the grid and that the identification performance was better for the e-commerce website. The average evaluation performance is significantly different (p = 0.000) on the two sites. On Facebook, participants' performance was 9.7% ("control" group) and 23.8% then ("test" group); and for Cdiscount respectively 21.7% ("control" group) and 43.6% ("test" group). The set of guidelines really allows to increase the identification of forms of persuasion in interfaces.


The aftermath of the recent global financial crisis has led to a stricter macro prudential policy in the mortgage market in the Netherlands, which requires a graduate curtail in the maximum loan-to-value ratio. This policy change would no doubt exert substantial impact on the housing market, especially for the first time buyers. Given the substantial changes in the mortgage lending, the question arises that how would the stricter lending criteria affect the house prices? This paper tries to investigate the association between credit constraints and house prices.In a broad context, the macroprudential policies seem necessary and essential to reduce the vulnerability of the financial system, especially with the evidence of the subprime crisis. The credit rationing such as a tightened ceiling loan-to-value ratio is the widely used maroprudential policy in the housing market (Jacome and Mitra, 2015). The housing situation in the Netherlands, however, is unique in the context of Europe.Literature has demonstrated the strong linkage between mortgage lending and house prices, and this linage is only strengthened for Dutch market because households rely more on the mortgage loan to purchase a house due to the low saving rate . This study aims at exploring the channel through which maximum borrowing limit affects the house prices and attempts to provide a theoretical model to interpret the channel between them. Two measurements of the maximum borrowing limit are used to identify the influence of shrinking credit offering on house prices. Particularly, we are driven to investigate the potential consequences or impacts on the ownership market in a scenario of stricter lending policy. The results are expected to give some hints on the future of the housing market.


This chapter addresses the radical potential of human rights. It sketches the contours of the idea of 'righting', which is the resistant excess of human rights. Righting describes the situation where groups exceed the rights that are given to them in order to reconstruct the 'institution of society'. However, simply insisting upon the excess of human rights, in a philosophical sense, is not enough. It is necessary to begin to think about how righting engages with law in order to generate such ruptural moments. The chapter looks to conceptions of critical legal strategy and constituent power to develop a vocabulary of righting. It argues that righting may entail the use of existent rights or the generation of new ones. However, the question is ultimately not about the preservation of a fetishized body of rights, but of unlocking the radical potential which lies within rights discourse.


The optical module of the KM3NeT neutrino telescope is an innovative multi-faceted large area photodetection module. It contains 31 three-inch photomultiplier tubes in a single 0.44 m diameter pressure-resistant glass sphere. The module is a sensory device also comprising calibration instruments and electronics for power, readout and data acquisition. It is capped with a breakout-box with electronics for connection to an electro-optical cable for power and long-distance communication to the onshore control station. The design of the module was qualified for the first time in the deep sea in 2013. Since then, the technology has been further improved to meet requirements of scalability, cost-effectiveness and high reliability. The module features a sub-nanosecond timing accuracy and a dynamic range allowing the measurement of a single photon up to a cascade of thousands of photons, suited for the measurement of the Cherenkov radiation induced in water by secondary particles from interactions of neutrinos with energies in the range of GeV to PeV. A distributed production model has been implemented for the delivery of more than 6000 modules in the coming few years with an average production rate of more than 100 modules per month. In this paper a review is presented of the design of the multi-PMT KM3NeT optical module with a proven effective background suppression and signal recognition and sensitivity to the incoming direction of photons.


This paper develops a model of Bayesian learning from online reviews, and investigates the conditions for asymptotic learning of the quality of a product and the speed of learning under different rating systems. A rating system provides information about reviews left by previous customers. A sequence of potential customers decide whether to join the platform. After joining and observing the ratings of the product, and conditional on her ex ante valuation, a customer decides whether to purchase or not. If she purchases, the true quality of the product, her ex ante valuation, an ex post idiosyncratic preference term and the price of the product determine her overall satisfaction. Given the rating system of the platform, she decides to leave a review as a function of her overall satisfaction. We study learning dynamics under two classes of rating systems: full history, where customers see the full history of reviews, and summary statistics, where the platform reports some summary statistics of past reviews. In both cases, learning dynamics are complicated by a selection effect — the types of users who purchase the good and thus their overall satisfaction and reviews depend on the information that they have available at the time of their purchase. We provide conditions for asymptotic learning under both full history and summary statistics, and show how the selection effect becomes more difficult to correct for with summary statistics. Conditional on asymptotic learning, the speed (rate) of learning is always exponential and is governed by similar forces under both types of rating systems, though the exact rates differ. Using this characterization, we provide the rate of learning under several different types of rating systems. We show that providing more information does not always lead to faster learning, but strictly finer rating systems always do. We also illustrate how different rating systems, with the same distribution of preferences, can lead to very fast or very slow speeds of learning.


The relationship between exposure to abuse and interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome (IC/BPS) is well‐documented. However, studies have yet to examine posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which develops following exposure to trauma and worsens health outcomes in chronic pain. We aimed to assess the prevalence and impact of PTSD in patients with IC/BPS, including their relation to genitourinary symptom presentation and widespread pain phenotype.


For many years, echocardiography remained the main non-invasive bedside-imaging modality to provide reliable assessment of cardiac mechanics. Considering its major prognostic value, vigorous efforts were made to improve ultrasound determination of global left ventricular (LV) systolic function, from M-mode fractional shortening to Simpson's biplane or 3D ejection fraction (EF). However, these volumetric indices of global LV showed inherent variability, influenced by image quality, off-axis imaging or measurement errors. Direct echocardiographic assessment of myocardial fibre deformation has recently become available in routine clinical practice with the development of speckle-tracking imaging software. This relatively new technique is based on frame-to-frame tracking of acoustic markers (speckles) obtained from gray-scale echocardiographic images. However, significant variability was observed within the first generation of software products released by various manufacturers, mostly related to vendor-specific postprocessing algorithms.1 While ongoing efforts from vendors and echocardiographic societies are designed to standardise and calibrate strain measurements, a high level of agreement and reproducibility has recently been reported for global (but not segmental) longitudinal strain (GLS) obtained with the most …


This report reviews published experimental and theoretical investigations of particle deposition from turbulent flows and considers the applicability of this body of work to the specific case of particle deposition from flows in the ducts of heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. Particle deposition can detrimentally affect the performance of HVAC systems and it influences the exposure of building occupants to a variety of air pollutants. The first section of this report describes the types of HVAC systems under consideration and discusses the components, materials and operating parameters commonly found in these systems. The second section reviews published experimental investigations of particle deposition rates from turbulent flows and considers the ramifications of the experimental evidence with respect to HVAC ducts. The third section considers the structure of turbulent airflows in ventilation ducts with a particular emphasis on turbulence investigations that have been used as a basis for particle deposition models. The final section reviews published literature on predicting particle deposition rates from turbulent flows.


Pile supported floor slabs have often been designed solely in ultimate limit state ULS and then foremost with uniformly distributed loadings UDL. The investigation of serviceability limit state SLS has been of simpler nature, even according to the governing codes of practice.Often it has been minimum‑reinforced with the presumption that full friction to the supporting ground is present, whit‑out any inspection, which by the Swedish code of practice even more reduced the addition of crack reinforcement. The cracks have not been controlled, before they in fact have occurred. For pile supported floor slabs the ground support will be there still, at least for a time, after the casting. As the ground settles, as dehydration always will occur, and drainage and the covering roof the precipitation to reach the ground, the slab will often be completely free bearing between the piles. The minimum reinforcement is based on the assumption that only the upper layer is needed to reinforce due to dehydration shrinkage – despite that the whole floor section in time will obtain the same moisture profile and also shrinkage magnitude. One often excludes the influence of creep and temperature and the affect from external loading and local variance of restraints in calculations in the SLS. Research on behaviour in SLS has been modest; in spite of that the contractors and the client and finally the end‑user of the floors often suffer from these problems.It has by this thesis been established that the shrinkage of the concrete used for industrial floors is large 0.9‑1.1 ‰, and that the problem foremost arise from cracking and problems with joints and unevenness in the floor. The integrated method for design and production of industrial floors is a way to the solution, but requires that all involved assign to co‑operate to 100 %. Furthermore it is required that one selects the proper materials to the proper design and the proper production method. If one will save cost this will often be on materials; which will lead to reduced reinforcement content and reduced concrete thickness. This way is wrong and will in end make the client suffer economically. A way to solve this has been to cast the floors with steel fibre concrete SFC; from the beginning often a little bit thicker and with moderate steel fibre content and complementary reinforcement, compared to present execution. The competition from abroad has nevertheless shaped solutions that with thinner slabs and less traditional reinforcement and invalid design calculations compete on faulty grounds. This work demonstrates how this make the floor suffer in ULS and SLS.Trough full‑scale testing (half of a normally loaded industrial floor in matter of geometry) where a pile supported floor slab has been simulated by a flat‑slab floor cast in steel fibre concrete, it has been shown that the solution with steel fibre concrete performs well in slabs for industrial floors. On one hand it gives the opportunity to production wise superior methods for placing concrete which potentially could gain the environment with reduced reinforcement content, and on the other hand SFC brings a ductile failure behaviour for loadings with much larger magnitudes than in normal ULS design, and further SFC provides with a stiffer response and with possibility to construct slabs with small creep deformation.Finally it has been established that, when it comes to short‑term point loadings (ULS) and with long-term point loadings (SLS) one can rely on the bearing capacity and the tough behaviour of SFC. And that one may exert an influence on both limit states, through variation of the SFC and the reinforcement content. This is shown for a real bearing structure, the pile supported industrial floor, and that in a safe way.


The successful production of high-strength concrete which meets the desired strength
and durability is dependent on optimising its rheological (or flow) properties and
reducing its loss of workability during the transportation, placing and compaction
stages. The research presented in this thesis aimed to:
1. Determine whether mix stability and compactability can be adequately
described by the two Bingham parameters of yield value and plastic viscosity.
2. Reduce the uncertainties in material selection with regards to the performance
of superplasticizers and cement replacement materials.
3. Examine how the two Bingham parameters vary at different degrees of
compaction by vibration.
4. Determine how these influence the strength development characteristics in the
hardened state.
5. An additional aim was to carry out any modifications to the test apparatus and
methods which experience makes necessary.
Measurements with Tattersall's MH two-point workability test apparatus indicated that
mix stability correlates more closely with the yield value than with plastic viscosity,
whilst the opposite is true with respect to compactability under self-weight.
The performance of conventional and new-generation superplasticizers (based on
SMF, SNF, MLS, Vinyl and Acrylate polymers) was evaluated with different
dosages, mixing procedures and cements. The SNF superplasticizer produced slightly
lower initial workabilities than the Acrylate superplasticizer, but the longest
workability retentions of the superplasticizers tested. Partial cement replacements by
CSF in binary blends produced lower superplasticizer dosage demands, higher initial
workabilities and longer workability retentions than those due to PFA and GGBS.
When used in ternary blended cements, CSF enhanced the performance of mixes
containing PFA or GGBS at w/b ratios of 0.30-0.22.
A novel method developed to assess the vibration response of fresh concretes has, for
the first time, demonstrated that both the yield value and plastic viscosity decrease
during compaction. The method has also demonstrated that the maximum
compressive strengths and densities of concretes compacted for different vibration
durations/amplitudes coincide with the attainment of zero yield value. Continuous
reductions in plastic viscosity during vibration mainly reduced the homogeneity of
concrete compacted in short columns.


A novel radiation-resistant Filobasidium sp. yeast strain was isolated from seawater. Along with this strain, a total of 656 yeast isolates were purified from seawater samples collected from three locations in the West Sea of Korea and assessed for their radiation tolerance. Among these isolates, five were found to survive a 5 kGy radiation dose. The most radiationresistant strain was classified as Filobasidium sp. based on 18S rDNA sequence analysis and hence was named Filobasidium RRY1 (Radiation-Resistant Yeast 1). RRY1 differed from F. elegans, which is closely related to RRY1, in terms of the optimal growth temperature and radiation resistance, and was resistant to high doses of γ-ionizing radiation (D10: 6-7 kGy). When exposed to a high dose of 3 kGy irradiation, the RRY1 cells remained intact and undistorted, with negligible cell death. When these irradiated cells were allowed to recover, the cells fully repaired their genomic DNA within 3 h of growth recovery. This is the first report in which a radiation-resistant response has been investigated at the physiological, morphological, and molecular levels in a strain of Filobasidium sp.


Abstract. Quasi-continuous, in-situ measurements of atmospheric CO2, O2/N2, CH4, CO, N2O, and SF6 have been performed since August 2005 at the tall tower station near Bialystok, in Eastern Poland, from five heights up to 300 m. Besides the in-situ measurements, flask samples are filled approximately weekly and measured at Max-Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry for the same species and, in addition, for H2, Ar/N2 and the stable isotopes 13C and 18O in CO2. The in-situ measurement system was built based on commercially available analysers: a LiCor 7000 for CO2, a Sable Systems "Oxzilla" FC-2 for O2, and an Agilent 6890 gas chromatograph for CH4, CO, N2O and SF6. The system was optimized to run continuously with very little maintenance and to fulfill the precision requirements of the CHIOTTO project. The O2/N2 measurements in particular required special attention in terms of technical setup and quality assurance. The evaluation of the performance after more than three years of operation gave overall satisfactory results, proving that this setup is suitable for long term remote operation with little maintenance. The precision achieved for all species is within or close to the project requirements. The comparison between the in-situ and flask sample results, used to verify the accuracy of the in-situ measurements, showed no significant difference for CO2, O2/N2, CH4 and N2O, and a very small difference for SF6. The same comparison however revealed a statistically significant difference for CO, of about 6.5 ppb, for which the cause could not be fully explained. From more than three years of data, the main features at Bialystok have been characterized in terms of variability, trends, and seasonal and diurnal variations. CO2 and O2/N2 show large short term variability, and large diurnal signals during the warm seasons, which attenuate with the increase of sampling height. The trends calculated from this dataset, over the period August 2005 to December 2008, are 2.02±0.46 ppm/year for CO2 and −23.2±2.5 per meg/year for O2/N2. CH4, CO and N2O show also higher variability at the lower sampling levels, which in the case of CO is strongly seasonal. Diurnal variations in CH4, CO and N2O mole fractions can be observed during the warm season, due to the periodicity of vertical mixing combined with the diurnal cycle of anthropogenic emissions. We calculated increase rates of 10.1±4.4 ppb/year for CH4, (−8.3)±5.3 ppb/year for CO and 0.67±0.08 ppb/year for N2O. SF6 shows only few events, and generally no vertical gradients, which suggests that there are no significant local sources. A weak SF6 seasonal cycle has been detected, which most probably is due to the seasonality of atmospheric circulation. SF6 increased during the time of our measurement at an average rate of 0.29±0.01 ppt/year.


Portal-systemic encephalopathy in both cirrhosis and non-cirrhotic patients can occur when a large portal-systemic shunt forms within the venous system. Though most commonly found in patients with portal hypertension, after trauma, surgical intervention, and liver biopsy, one can also be idiopathic. A 78-year-old Latino male developed worsening confusion and lethargy during a hospitalization for bridging of his anticoagulation. An extensive laboratory and radiologic workup did not initially reveal the etiology of his delirium and decreased state of consciousness. On exam, he had tremulousness and fetor hepaticus without corresponding liver function abnormalities in his laboratory testing. An ultrasound of the liver demonstrated a large veno-venous shunt between the right portal vein and the right hepatic vein. After multiple episodes of encephalopathy and progressive heart failure from significant right ventricular overload, the shunt was closed by interventional radiology. This treatable cause of encephalopathy may not be evident without radiologic studies.


Sandstorms are commonplace in many parts of the world including Qatar, these storms have significant negative impacts on the economy, environment, infrastructure, and public health. Traditional prevention techniques use chemical stabilizers and cementing agents; however, their application is not only expensive, but may also have negative impacts on the environment and public health. Recently steep regulations on chemical grouts from Japan and the United States has caused many countries to follow suit and propose bans. In turn organic polymers and microbial biogrout have been proposed. However, organic polymers still have significant negative impacts on the environment; while biogrout has proven effective, it has not been tested for surface stabilization and releases harmful ammonia as a byproduct. Our research team has proposed using native extracellular polysaccharide (EPS) producing bacteria, specifically methanotrophic bacteria, for bioaggregation. EPS, sugars formed by the cell and then released outside the cell wall, make up much of the adhesive characteristics of biofilm and have been known to naturally form microbial crusts in Chinese desert sand. EPS is composed of a wide variety of sugars, not all of which are useful for stability, hence multiple species and their EPS must be tested. The proposed technique would involve application of an EPS producing methanotrophic bacterial culture to the sand's surface, or, application of the liquid culture followed by application of purified EPS. Methanotrophic bacteria are capable of using Methane as a carbon source and can produce large amounts of EPS and have been widely studied. The preference is for native methanotrophic bacteria to be used, to prevent introduction of non-native species or genes, and to minimize the disruption to the native ecosystem. We have collected native methanotrophic bacteria from Qatar sand. Samples of sand were incubated in Nitrate Mineral Salt (NMS) media under a 1:1 headspace ratio of air to Methane, and then streaked onto agar plates of the same media. The plates showed growth and EPS production. Since the media contains no carbon source the only accessible carbon source is the methane in the headspace so the bacteria can be assumed to be Methanotrophic. This will be confirmed along with determining species identifications through 16S rRNA Gene Amplicon Sanger Sequencing of the isolates; however, at the time of submission for this abstract sequencing and interpretation of the data are still underway. Until native methanotrophic bacteria can be identified and researched, two well studied strains of Methanotrophs – Methylococcus capsulatus (Bath) and Methylosinus trichosporium OB3b – are being used for preliminary EPS testing. Application of purified EPS, extracted with an Ethanol precipitation extraction method, to sand has shown signs of significant aggregation, along with increases in shear strength. Once a strain of bacteria is chosen by the research team, and the EPS production optimized, a lab scale bioreactor will be built to produce large amounts of EPS for lab scale sand stabilization studies. Lab scale studies will monitor time dependent changes in shear strength during application, microbial community changes, and ability to withstand critical threshold wind velocities. Future plans include field scale studies and the construction of a fluidized bed bioreactor for production of the liquid medium and EPS. Methanotrophic bacteria are easily adapted to large bioreactors and in situ applications. Bioaggregation with EPS producing bacteria would potentially provide an environmental friendly application for the prevention of sandstorms, utilizing methane – an indigenous resource to Qatar – for cost saving benefits.


Much of the literature on environmental justice struggles in the United States and in the Global South has highlighted the disproportionate concentration of environmental hazards in poor communities and communities of color. However, it is equally important to evaluate how human societies distribute access to environmental necessities , such as food and water. Food is a quintessential environmental necessity that is critical human survival, and the right to food is recognized under under a vareity of international human rights law instruments. This article examines the complex ways in which the rules governing international trade in agricultural products affect the fundamental human right to food. The article argues that colonialism and post-colonial trade, aid and development policies have created and institutionalized a double standard in the regulatory regime governing international agricultural trade: protectionism in wealthy, developed countries; trade liberalization in poor, developing countries. As a consequence of this double standard, agribusiness in the developed world is wreaking havoc on the livelihoods of poor farmers in the developing world by dumping agricultural products on world markets at depressed prices. "Leveling the playing field" by imposing the same free market reforms on rich and poor nations is not sufficient to address the underlying structural inequities that perpetuate poverty, hunger, and environmental degradation. The article proposes an asymmetrical set of trading rules that would require developed countries to eliminate agricultural protectionism while giving developing countries the policy flexibility to use certain protectionist instruments to promote economic development, enhance food security, and protect the environment. The article concludes with observations about the meaning of environmental justice at the international level.


At the height of the financial crisis, the Western welfare state prevented a repeat of the Great Depression. But there were also suggestions that social policy had contributed to the crisis, particularly by promoting households' access to credit in pursuit of welfare goals. Others claim that it was the withdrawal of state welfare that led to the disaster. Against this background that motivated our interest, we propose a systematic way of assessing the relationship between financial market and public welfare provisions. We use structural vector auto-regression to establish the causal link and its direction. Two hypotheses about this relationship can be inferred from the literature. First, the notion that welfare states 'decommodify' livelihoods or that there is an equity-efficiency tradeoff would suggest that welfare states substitute to varying degrees for financial market offers of insurance and savings. By contrast, welfare states may support private interests selectively and/or help markets for households to function better; thus the nexus would be one of complementarity.Our empirical strategy is to spell out the causal mechanisms that can account for a substitutive or complementary relationship and then to see whether advanced econometric techniques find evidence for the existence of either of these mechanisms in six OECD countries. We find complementarity between public welfare (spending and tax subsidies) and life insurance markets for four out of our six countries, notably even for the United States. Substitution between welfare and finance is the more plausible interpretation for France and the Netherlands, which is surprising. Data availability constrains us from testing the implications for the welfare state contribution to the crisis directly but our findings suggest that the welfare state cannot generally be blamed for the financial crisis.


Urban spaces are places for the pursuit of freedom, un-oppressed activities and desires, but also ones characterized by systematic power, oppression, domination, exclusion, and segregation. In dealing with these polar qualities diversity has become one of the new doctrines of city planners, urban designers, and architects. It continues to be at the center of recent urban debates. Little is known, however, on how urban space diversity can be achieved. In recent rhetoric, diversity denotes in generic terms a mosaic of people who bring a variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds, styles, perspectives, values and beliefs as assets to the groups and organizations with which they interact. However, in urban discourses it has been addressed as having multiple meanings that include mixing building types, mixing physical forms, and mixing people of different social classes, racial and ethnic backgrounds. While some theorists attribute diversity to the socio-physical aspects of homogeneity within heterogeneity, social differentiation without exclusion, variety, and publicity, others associate it with socio-political aspects of assimilation, integration, and segregation. While some of these meanings represent a concern for a specific group of professionals including architects and urban designers, urban planners, cultural analysts and abstract theorists, they all agree that each meaning or aspect of diversity is linked to the others; they all call for strategies for urban development that stimulate socio-physical heterogeneity. With the goal of unveiling lessons learned on urban diversity from various cases in different parts of the world, this issue of Open House International selects ten papers after a rigorous review process. The edition encompasses several objectives. It aims at providing a conceptualization of urban diversity while articulating its underlying contents and mechanisms by exploring the variety of meanings adopted in the urban literature. In essence, it attempts to establish models for discerning urban space diversity while mapping such models on selected case studies from Europe, African, and the Middle East.


The efficiency of room ventilation by the displacement principle was studied with respect to some influential factors, in particular that of physical activity. The study was experimental and performed in two full-scale test rooms, one of office-size and one of classroom-size. Physical (mainly walking) activity was executed in these rooms by person simulators and by humans. The ventilation efficiency was quantified by tracer gas measurements.In the performed tests, the activity of a walking person generally proved detrimental to the ventilation efficiency. Particularly the air quality in the occupied zone was impaired, due to down-wash of air in the wake behind the moving person, causing transportation of relatively old and contaminated air from the upper part of the room down to lower levels. It appeared, however, that it takes a rather high level of physical activity to completely abolish the displacement effect. Especially the air quality in the breathing zone of non-moving occupants tended to remain significantly better than at perfect-mixing conditions. Completely mixed room air occurred nevertheless when the activity was intense, but the displacement flow pattern was re-established fairly quickly after ceasing of the activity.The contaminant distribution showed substantial horizontal variations in the "classroom". A contaminant released in the occupied zone was effectively extracted from the room when the source was situated on the same side of the room as the extract terminal(s), whereas, when situated on the opposite side, the contaminant accumulated in the upper part of the room. It was further shown that the air supplied from displacement diffusers tends to reach all occupants fairly quickly, also in relatively large and densely populated rooms such as classrooms.The temperature stratification of the room air, and free-convection currents along the walls are crucial for the appearing air flow pattern and contaminant distribution. Transfer and accumulation of heat in materials tend further to make the thermal conditions indoors more or less transient at all times. This entails, it was shown, that also the ventilation efficiency is time dependent. In tests where people suddenly entered the "classroom", the ventilation efficiency improved with time. This generally caused the highest contaminant exposures to occur at the beginning of the stay in the room.Tests with two different ceiling heights showed lower ventilation efficiency with the higher ceiling, involving a higher contaminant exposure of the occupants. The reason for this appears to be enhanced down-flow along the walls, caused by a higher section of relatively low surface temperature, and possibly by the appearance of merging plumes, enhancing the vertical recirculation process.A wall temperature deviating from that of the indoor air impaired the ventilation efficiency, whereas an increase in ventilation rate improved it. In all test cases in this study, however, the air quality in the breathing zone of seated occupants remained significantly better than that at perfect-mixing conditions – a sports-activity test being the only exception.


Recent satellite observations indicate a significant decrease of cloud water in ship tracks, in contrast to an ensemble of in situ ship‐track measurements showing no average change in cloud water relative to the surrounding clouds, and contrary to the expectation of cloud water increasing in polluted clouds. We find through large‐eddy simulations of stratocumulus that the trend in the satellite data is likely an artifact of sampling only overcast clouds. The simulations instead show cloud cover increasing with droplet concentrations. The simulations also show that increases in cloud water from suppressing drizzle by increasing droplet concentrations are favored at night or at extremely low droplet concentrations.


1. Glide-comparison measurements were made on ten species of East African soaring birds using a Schleicher ASK-14 powered sailplane. Horizontal and vertical speed differences between bird and glider were measured by a photographic method, and used to estimate the bird9s horizontal and vertical speeds relative to the air. The analysis refers to the white-backed vulture, since by far the largest number of measurements was obtained on this species. 2. A regression analysis using a two-term approximation to the glide polar yielded an implausibly high estimate of induced drag, which was attributed to a lack of observations at lift coefficients above 0.72. An amended glide polar was constructed assuming elliptical lift distribution and a maximum lift coefficient of 1.6 to define the low-speed end, while the high-speed end was made to pass through the mean horizontal and sinking speeds of all the experimental points. This curve gave a minimum sinking speed of 0.76 m/s at a forward speed of 10 m/s, and a best glide ratio of 15.3:1 at 13 m/s. It did not differ significantly (in the statistical sense) from the original regression curve. 3. In comparing the estimated circling performance, based on the amended glide polar, with that of the ASK-14, it was concluded that the rates of sink of both should be comparable, but that the glider would require thermals with radii about 4.3 times as great as those needed to sustain the birds. The conclusions are consistent with experience of soaring in company with birds. 4. In an attempt to assess the adaptive significance of the low-aspect-ratio wings of birds specializing in thermal soaring, the white-backed vulture9s circling performance was compared with that of an 'albatross-shaped vulture', an imaginary creature having the same mass as a white-backed vulture, combined with the body proportions of a wandering albatross. It appears that the real white-back would be at an advantage when trying to remain airborne in thermals with radii between 14 and 17 m, but that the albatross-shaped vulture would climb faster in all wider thermals; on account of its much better maximum glide ratio, it should also achieve higher cross-country speeds. It is concluded that the wing shape seen in vultures and storks is not an adaptation to thermal soaring as such, but is more probably a compromise dictated by take-off and landing requirements. 5. The doubts recently expressed by Tucker & Parrott (1970) about the results and conclusions of Raspet (1950 a , b ; 1960) are re-inforced by the present experience.


The question of how social media usage impacts societal polarization continues to generate great interest among both the research community and broader public. Nevertheless, there are still very few rigorous empirical studies of the causal impact of social media usage on polarization. To explore this question, we replicate the only published study to date that tests the effects of social media cessation on interethnic attitudes (Asimovic et al., 2021). In a study situated in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the authors found that deactivating from Facebook for a week around genocide commemoration in Bosnia and Herzegovina had a negative effect on users' attitudes toward ethnic outgroups, with the negative effect driven by users with more ethnically homogenous offline networks. Does this finding extend to other settings? In a pre-registered replication study, we implement the same research design in a different ethnically polarized setting: Cyprus. We are not able to replicate the main effect found in Asimovic et al. (2021): in Cyprus, we cannot reject the null hypothesis of no effect. We do, however, find a significant interaction between the heterogeneity of users' offline networks and the deactivation treatment within our 2021 subsample, consistent with the pattern from Bosnia and Herzegovina. We also find support for recent findings (Allcott et al., 2020; Asimovic et al., 2021) that Facebook deactivation leads to a reduction in anxiety levels and suggestive evidence of a reduction in knowledge of current news, though the latter is again limited to our 2021 subsample.


Medical damage is a common problem faced by hospitals around the world and is widely watched by countries and the World Health Organization. As the number of medical damage dispute lawsuit cases rapidly grows, many countries in the world face the problem how to improve the efficiency of the judicial system under the premise of guaranteeing the quality of the trial. Therefore, in addition to reforming the system, the decision support system will effectively improve judicial decisions. This paper takes medical damage judgment documents in China as example, and proposes a court judgment decision support system (CJ-DSS) based on medical text mining and the automatic classification technology. The system can predict the trail results of the new lawsuit documents according to the previous cases verdict rejected and non-rejected. Combined with the cases, the study in this paper found that combined feature extraction method does improve the performance of three kinds of classifiers Support Value Machine (SVM), Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN), the degree of improved performance is different from using DF-CHI combined feature extraction method. In addition, integrated learning algorithm also improves the classification performance of the overall


The words 'competence' and 'capability' are used independently by the human resource managment and the strategy communities who relate the terms to people and organisations respectively. However, the linkage between the individual and organisational level is not well documented. A better understanding of this link is important in being able to understand how organisational and individual performance may be improved but also why things sometimes go wrong.

This research based case study is to identify the linkage between individual and organisation capability through an examination of patient care provided by dcotors in St George's Hospital, Tooting, London using the perspective of the resource based view of the firm.

The research showed that patient care is achieved through the emergent skilful exploitation by doctors of their own capabilities, interaction with others, an their use of artefacts representing technical systems, processes, and structural influences within which the doctor operates. The role of artefacts is particularly important because continuity of patient care is dependent on information provided via artefacts rather than doctors' individual knowledge of particular patients. Doctors need not only medical knowledge but also an understanding of 'how to work the organisation'. that is how to get the organisation to do what the doctor needs for the patient. Competent action of the hospital is dependent on a series of inter-relating and inter-locking activity systems, from the doctor carrying out direct actions for a patient through the operation of departmental support systems to the overall hospital level patient care systems. Contradictions or non-copetence occurred when there was a breakdown within or between the systems.

A conceptual model and diagnostic is developed that will be of use in analysing these dimensions of organisational capability.


Reliable analyses can help wildlife managers make good decisions, which are particularly critical for controversial decisions such as wolf ( Canis lupus ) harvest. Creel and Rotella (2010) recently predicted substantial population declines in Montana wolf populations due to harvest, in contrast to predictions made by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (MFWP). We replicated their analyses considering only those years in which field monitoring was consistent, and we considered the effect of annual variation in recruitment on wolf population growth. Rather than assuming constant rates, we used model selection methods to evaluate and incorporate models of factors driving recruitment and human-caused mortality rates in wolf populations in the Northern Rocky Mountains. Using data from 27 area-years of intensive wolf monitoring, we show that variation in both recruitment and human-caused mortality affect annual wolf population growth rates and that human-caused mortality rates have increased with the sizes of wolf populations. We document that recruitment rates have decreased over time, and we speculate that rates have decreased with increasing population sizes and/or that the ability of current field resources to document recruitment rates has recently become less successful as the number of wolves in the region has increased. Estimates of positive wolf population growth in Montana from our top models are consistent with field observations and estimates previously made by MFWP for 2008–2010, whereas the predictions for declining wolf populations of Creel and Rotella (2010) are not. Familiarity with limitations of raw data, obtained first-hand or through consultation with scientists who collected the data, helps generate more reliable inferences and conclusions in analyses of publicly available datasets. Additionally, development of efficient monitoring methods for wolves is a pressing need, so that analyses such as ours will be possible in future years when fewer resources will be available for monitoring. (cid:1) 2011 The Wildlife Society.


STEFAN COLLINI, RICHARD WHATMORE, AND BRIAN YOUNG, EDS. History, Religion, and Culture. British Intellectual History, 1750-1950. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Pp. viii + 289, index. $64.95. Intellectual historians are given to claiming that the last twenty years or so have been marked by the widespread rediscovery of religion by historians not formerly marked off as "ecclesiastical," and religion's acceptance into an intellectual agenda once dominated by positivist issues. Readers ?ι Anglican and Episcopal History may approach this volume to see how far, and in what ways, that is the case. The expectation would be not wholly misplaced: this volume is one of two (the other entitled Economy, Polity and Society) organized as festschriften for two highly distinguished historians of ideas, John Burrow and Donald Winch. Such volumes attempt to be more than disparate collections; they generally offer an overview of the development of the subject to which the person honored has contributed, and so it is here. Yet Stefan Collini's general introduction, printed in both volumes, does not explore religion as an influence either on the developing discipline of the history of ideas or on the scholarly formation of Burrow and Winch themselves. Collini identifies the contents of this volume as "the relations between historiography, religion, and conceptions of natural and social change" (19), but it is not clear how far the theme of religion takes its rise from any preoccupations of this "school" at the University of Sussex, especially in the school's most formative years, the late 1960s and early 1970s. The volume opens with a wholly secular essay on method by Mark Salber Phillips of British Columbia which seems unindebted to Burrow or Winch. The first two substantive chapters are by J. G. A. Pocock and David Womersley, not members of the Sussex school, and from a different intellectual tradition; they examine in detail the greater role of religion in Gibbon's writings than an earlier identification of him as "the English Voltaire" allowed, but what it was in the developing discipline of the history of ideas that led Pocock and Womersley to this theme is not made explicit. In both cases it may have been the study of historiography, a concern evident from Pocock's first book in 1957 and traceable to the interests at Cambridge of Sir Herbert Butterfield: if so, this is not an intellectual genealogy that closely involves others of the contributors. …


Our daily life strictly depends on distributed civil and industrial infrastructures in which Qatar and other heavily industrialized countries have large investments. Recently, fails in such infrastructures have incurred enormous economic losses and development disruptions as well as human lives. Infrastructures are strategic assets for a sustainable development requiring correct management. To this end, their health levels and serviceability should be continuously assessed. Geophysical and mechanical quantities that determine such serviceability are for instance tilt angles, vibration levels, applied forces, stress, and existence of previous structural defects. It follows that for a feasible serviceability assessment, appropriate sensing and data processing of those parameters have to be achieved. For example, bridges are monitored for structure movements and stress level while earthquake early warning systems detect primary seismic waves before arrival of strong waves. In case of riverbank conservation, water level must be monitored together with the associated mass flow for load estimation. In addition, precipitation rate and groundwater level are paramount indicators to anticipate slope fault. Finally, strain/temperature measurement can be used to sense the health of concrete gravity or arch dams. End-users, engineers and owners can take the most appropriate decisions based on the sensed parameters. The Structural Health Assessment (SHA) is not straightforward. The structural condition is generally complex in terms of architectural parameters like damage existence, distributed masses, damping factors, stiffness matrices, and/or applied distributed forces. The above factors make such SHA extremely difficult and/or exceptionally expensive. With the aim to alleviate this difficulty, possible approaches in SHA are based on vibration measurements. The analysis of such measurements reveals the structure dynamic behaviour, which in turn reflects the characteristics and distributed forces on structures. Also, structural soundness is obtained by the estimation of the inverse analyses of the dynamic performance. However, this dynamic behaviour that is inherently complex in both time and/or spatial scale, is more complicated by the fact that for example deterioration/damage/erosion is essentially a local phenomenon. Commonly, technicians with specific domain knowledge achieve SHAs manually. Obviously, this incurs high costs and inadequate monitoring frequency. Also, there is a high probability of making errors due to improper positioning of the instrumentation or to mere mistakes during data collection. Nevertheless, for commonly large buildings (e.g. towers, general buildings, bridges and tunnels), data from just few distributed sensors cannot accurately fulfil the SHA. Consequently, the use of dense distributed sensors working at a sufficiently high sampling frequency becomes a must. Physical wiring of the site under observation is impractical due to cost and architectural constraints. Thus, for Structural Health Monitoring (SHM), networks of dense distributed sensors, which are wirelessly connected, become imperative. When a copious number of transducers are adopted, wireless communication appears to be attractive. Also, the high cost needed for the installation of wired sensors can be strongly reduced by employing wireless sensors. The present research the authors implemented a WSN-based approach for widespread monitoring without forcing intolerable boundary conditions, i.e., requiring wiring the measuring nodes, triggering manual data collection or imposing strong modifications to the site before the deployment of the sensory hardware (less intrusive). In view of the above discussion, the investigators explored some key issues on the above challenges by referring to several SHM engineering paradigms. The author designed a novel multi-parametric system dedicated to stability monitoring and control of soils, engineering works (e.g. bridges, stadium, tunnels), underground rail tunnels, offshore platform in order to continuously evaluate danger levels of potentially instable areas. The proposed system can be assembled 'in situ' structuring an underground-instrumented column, where different modules are joined together on a digital bus (e.g. via RS485 or CANBUS communication). Each module contains up to ten different sensors (e.g. accelerometers, magnetometers, inclinometers, extensometers, temperature sensors, and piezometers) and an electronic board for data collection, conversion, filtering and data transmission. Special flexible joints that permit strong, continuous adaptability to bends and twists of the drilling hole, link the modules. A control unit, installed outside the ground provides the readings at regular time intervals and it is connected to other columns via wireless communication forming a wide network. In particular, the proposed approach allows both analysing the response of the infrastructure to vibrations on the fly, so an early warning signal can be triggered, and saving the corresponding measurements for further analysis. Authors believe that this proposal is original and unique in three aspects. First, as most of the earlier studies on SHM were carried out by adapting existing hardwired solution for snap shot measurements rather than representative long-term monitoring, our proposal presents the first initiative to develop green WSN technologies applied to sustainable SHM applications. Second, it will develop tailored sensor technology and new techniques for SHM taking into account metrological and physical parameters such as resolution, cost, accuracy, size, and power consumption. Third, the project will commission a novel multi-parametric SHM system, which can be customized to other areas (e.g. environmental monitoring, traffic monitoring, etc.). The research is to support innovations at system and component levels leading to out-of-the-box know-how. The proposed solution is based on novel/customized sensors and data processing, environmentally powered communication platform, and communication networks and algorithms embracing the visionary nature of the IoT with out-of-the-box solutions. Specific outcomes have been experimental proof-of-concept, through testing and prototyping, of a tailored SHM sensor technology and smart techniques that uniquely provide self-calibration and self-diagnostics of faults, a multi-sensor viable instrumented column for SHM with advanced techniques, and environmentally powered wireless platform with innovative MAC protocols (power-aware, context-aware, cognitive and polymorphic). This work employs tools and techniques of modern sensing, processing, and networking in order to generate novel SHM solutions that uniquely provide precision measurement, green IoT-based communication approach, viability, and cost-effectiveness.


Fungi (17 species), oomycetous organisms (four species of Pythium) and a plasmodiophorid (Polymyxa graminis) were recorded in wheat roots analysed by cloning of the total ITS1/2 rDNA and sequencing of representative clones. Roots of a fourth successive wheat crop were inhabited mostly by fungal pathogens including Gaeumannomyces graminis var. tritici, Monographella nivalis var. nivalis, Ophiosphaerella sp. and Helgardia anguioides. Roots of a first wheat crop were inhabited mostly by P. graminis and saprotrophic Pythium species. Results on fungal diversity and density were compared with those obtained by pure culture isolation and morphotyping. Only M. nivalis var. nivalis and H. anguioides were identifed in wheat roots by both the molecular and the pure culture isolation methods. New and additional evidence for the ecological roles of the species recorded is discussed.


Abstract Background: Monoclonal antibodies are promising anti-myeloma treatments. As immunoglobulins, monoclonal antibodies have the potential to be identified by serum protein electrophoresis (SPE) and immunofixation electrophoresis (IFE). Therapeutic antibody interference with standard clinical SPE and IFE can confound the use of these tests for response assessment in clinical trials and disease monitoring. Methods: To discriminate between endogenous myeloma protein and daratumumab, a daratumumab-specific immunofixation electrophoresis reflex assay (DIRA) was developed using a mouse anti-daratumumab antibody. To evaluate whether anti-daratumumab bound to and shifted the migration pattern of daratumumab, it was spiked into daratumumab-containing serum and resolved by IFE/SPE. The presence (DIRA positive) or absence (DIRA negative) of residual M-protein in daratumumab-treated patient samples was evaluated using predetermined assessment criteria. DIRA was evaluated for specificity, limit of sensitivity, and reproducibility. Results: In all of the tested samples, DIRA distinguished between daratumumab and residual M-protein in commercial serum samples spiked with daratumumab and in daratumumab-treated patient samples. The DIRA limit of sensitivity was 0.2 g/L daratumumab, using spiking experiments. Results from DIRA were reproducible over multiple days, operators, and assays. The anti-daratumumab antibody was highly specific for daratumumab and did not shift endogenous M-protein. Conclusions: As the treatment of myeloma evolves to incorporate novel monoclonal antibodies, additional solutions will be needed for clinical monitoring of patient responses to therapeutic regimens. In the interim, assays such as DIRA can inform clinical outcomes by distinguishing daratumumab from endogenous M-protein by IFE.


From its inception in the late nineteenth century, social work has struggled to carry out the complex, sometimes contradictory, functions associated with reducing suffering, enhancing social order, and social reform. Since then, social programs like the implementation of welfare and the expansion of the service economy--which should have augured well for American social work--instead led to a continued loss of credibility with the public and within the academy. A Dream Deferred chronicles this decline of social work, attributing it to the poor quality of professional education during the past half-century. The incongruity between social work's promise and its performance warrants a critical review of professional education. For the past half-century, the fortunes of social work have been controlled by the Council of Social Work Education, which oversees accreditation of the nation's schools of social work. Stoesz, Karger, and Carrilio argue that the lack of scholarship of the Board of Directors compromises this accreditation policy. Similarly, the quality of professional literature suffers from the weak scholarship of editors and referees. The caliber of deans and directors of social work educational programs is low and graduate students are ill-prepared to commence studies in social work. Further complicating this debate, the substitution of ideology for academic rigor makes social work vulnerable to its critics. The authors state that, since CSWE is unlikely to reform social work education, schools of social work should be free to obtain accreditation independently, and they propose criteria for independent accreditation. A Dream Deferred builds on the past, presents a bracing critique of the present, and proposes recommendations for a better future that cannot be ignored or dismissed.