The involvement of the basal ganglia in motor control has been highlighted in studies of Parkinson's
disease (PD) and other movement disorders. The loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra pars
compacta and subsequent decrease of the dopamine level in the basal ganglia is recognized as the hallmark of
PD. The classical view of the architecture of the dopamine depleted basal ganglia-thalamo-cortical circuit
identifies changes in firing rates as the probable cause for the motor impairments in PD. Yet, more recent
findings have shown that disturbances in other intrinsic dynamical properties of these networks may also
contribute to motor deficits. Electrophysiological recordings in the basal ganglia of deep brain stimulation
(DBS) patients (when OFF stimulation) have found pathological oscillations at beta frequency (13-30 Hz). This
abnormal oscillatory activity has also been found in basal ganglia nuclei of animal models of PD. Additionally,
the beta frequency oscillations were found to decrease when the patients are on dopamine replacement therapies
and as they initiate movement. Beta frequency oscillations have been identified in the firing of single neurons
and in the coupling of discharges between neurons.
Within the framework of information theory, we proposed a time series model to analyse and relate the
effects of changes in the dynamics of individual factors – such as alterations in firing rates, oscillations and
synchrony (or auto and cross-correlations) caused by dopamine depletion – on the coding capacity (i.e., entropy)
of a network. We estimated the entropy of a neural network based on the probabilities of current spiking
conditioned on the observation of firing rate and spiking history of the current neuron and of neighbouring
neurons. Moreover, we could estimate entropies for each of these factors separately, in healthy and dopamine
depleted conditions, and assess their relative contribution to the decrease of coding capacity in disease.
Furthermore, the causal characteristics of the model made it possible to compare the synaptic connectivity of
neuronal populations in health with that in disease, by measuring the amount of directed information transferred
between populations.
We employed the model to study the external globus pallidus (GPe) network in control and
6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) lesioned rats – a model for PD. We found a significant decrease in the coding
capacity in lesioned animals, compared to controls, and that this decrease was predominantly on account of a
reduction in the GPe firing rates. Although to a lesser extent, the amplification of the oscillatory activity (mainly in the beta frequency range) observed in the lesioned animals had also a significant impact on the reduction of
their coding capacity. The higher synchrony found in the 6-OHDA rats had the least effect. We also found that
the levels of coding capacity in the GPe were restored to levels close to control when the lesioned animals were
treated with the dopamine agonist apomorphine. In addition, we detected a stronger coupling between the
subthalamic nucleus (STN) and the GPe in the dopamine depleted rats, pointing to an abnormally exaggerated
transfer of information within this network.
We have shown that the GPe and the STN-GPe networks in the dopamine depleted rat exhibit
information processing irregularities. We believe these deficits in processing and relaying information may also
be present in other structures of the basal ganglia-thalamo-cortical circuit and that they may underlie the motor
impairment in PD.


A hot rolled, low-carbon steel pot used to melt magnesium alloys leaked, releasing about 35 kg (80 lb) of molten magnesium onto the foundry floor and causing an extensive fire. Due to the fire, the original leakage hole could not be investigated. Samples of the failed pot were polished and etched and were found to be composed of ferrite and pearlite mixtures, as would be expected. However, the sample taken from a location about 75 mm (3 in.) from the hole contained a cluster of unusually large inclusions. By removing the beryllium window from in front of the detector, EPMA spectra were obtained from the inclusions and from the steel matrix. The inclusion spectrum contained primarily iron and oxygen, whereas the matrix spectrum contained primarily iron. X-ray maps were made to show the distribution of iron and oxygen. These results indicated that the inclusions were iron oxide. A similar inclusion at the failure site in the melting pot may have reacted violently with the molten magnesium, causing the leak.


In this work, the potential of the increase in exergy and energy efficiency of the Greek construction and Food, Drink and Tobacco (FDT) industries has been examined using energy and exergy analysis methodology. These two industries play a vital role towards sustainable development of the country. The continuous increase in energy use in these two industries during the years 1971?2000 shows that both remain steadily in an ascendant orbit. The aim was to analyse and compare the energy use and exergy consumption in the Greek construction and FDT industries to gain insights into each sector's efficiency of energy use.


This memorandum describes the GTAP version 10A Multi-Region Input Output (GTAPMRIO) Data Base. GTAP-MRIO extends the standard GTAP Data Base (Aguiar et al., 2019) by additionally distinguishing bilateral trade and tariff flows by agents or so-called end-users,namely: firms, private household, government and investors. In constructing GTAP-MRIO,we employ the methodology in Carrico (2017) and update it in four ways. First, an updated concordance table is used—i.e., the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) 6-digit Harmonized System 2012 to Broad Economic Categories concordances revision 4 to System of National Accounts end-use framework (HStoBECtoSNA). Second, the International Trade Centre (ITC) Market Access Map (MAcMap) data is directly used in lieu of the TASTE utility (Horridge
and Laborde, 2008) which is also based on MAcMap. Third, the optimization programs are updated to take advantage of grid facility in GAMS, thereby reducing MRIO data build time by 90 percent and easing MRIO data construction at the full dimensionality of GTAP data—i.e., 65-sectors and 141-regions for version 10A. Fourth, accompanying GTAPAgg2 (Horridge, 2019) and FlexAgg packages (Villoria and McDougall, 2012) are provided to aid researchers aggregate the GTAP-MRIO data.


There is still some lack of clarity regarding the question of what the Capability Approach actually is, how it should be interpreted and operationalised, and not least whether it is an adequate and useful concept for the analysis of social policy in Europe. Against the backdrop of these questions, this paper looks at recent contributions which use the Capability Approach (CA) for analysing social policy. This leads me to argue that the most interesting applications of the CA may not lie in policy evaluation in the classical sense, but rather in an analysis of policy outputs through the lens of concepts such as individualisation and diversity. In this sense, the CA may serve as normative foundation for addressing the dependent variable problem in comparative welfare regime research. In order to play this role, however, CA-applications will need to clearly differentiate between the potential and implications of the CA itself, and various external normative reference points which should not be identified with the CA.


This paper presents auditory displays of power grid voltage. Due to the constantly changing energy demands experienced by a power system, the voltage varies slightly about nominal, e.g., 120±2 V at 60±0.04 Hz. These variations are small enough that any audible effects, such as transformer hum, appear to have constant volume and pitch. Here, an audification technique is derived that amplifies the voltage variations and shifts the nominal frequency from 60 Hz to a common musical note. Sonification techniques are presented that map the voltage magnitude and frequency to MIDI velocity and pitch, and create a sampler trigger from frequency deviation. Several examples, including audio samples, are given under a variety of power system conditions. These results culminate in a multi-instrument track generated from the sonification of time-synchronized geographically widespread power grid measurements. In addition, an inexpensive Arduino-based device is detailed that allows for real-time sonification of wall outlet voltage.


Double‐difference locations of ∼8000 earthquakes from 1969–2002 on the Parkfield section of the San Andreas Fault reveal detailed fault structures and seismicity that is, although complex, highly organized in both space and time. Distinctive features of the seismicity include: 1) multiple recurrence of earthquakes of the same size at precisely the same location on the fault (multiplets), implying frictional or geometric controls on their location and size; 2) sub‐horizontal alignments of hypocenters along the fault plane (streaks), suggestive of rheological transitions within the fault zone and/or stress concentrations between locked and creeping areas; 3) regions devoid of microearthquakes with typical dimensions of 1–5 km (holes), one of which contains the M6 1966 Parkfield earthquake hypocenter. These features represent long lived structures that persist through many cycles of individual events.


How do prosecutors acquire professional prerogatives, organizational autonomy, and legal authority? In contrast to previous research, which identifies top-down, bottom-up and outside-in models of reform, we show that government officials can engage in transformation from within their own ranks. Specifically, we examine how Brazilian prosecutors evolved from a low profile assemblage of transient and politically dependent prosecutors into one of the most autonomous and authoritative public agencies in the country. We find that they created cohesion among their ranks, lobbied incessantly, and crafted alliances that nonetheless keep their options open. Thanks to this responsive and pragmatic strategy, they took full advantage of ongoing turbulence in Brazilian politics: whenever the opportunity context expanded, they advanced their cause; whenever the context contracted, they strengthened their mobilizing structures and protected their gains. While previous research looks at one transition at a time, this longitudinal study shows the heterogeneous strategies of long-term reform.


Background: Capillary whole-blood point-of-care prothrombin-INR (PT-INR) testing at home is an alternative to hospital-based monitoring for patients on lifelong warfarin. Aim: To retrospectively assess the safety and efficacy of home point-of-care testing for children on long-term warfarin. Method: All patients who had been on point-of-care home monitoring for at least 6 months were included in the study. Their warfarin control was assessed while on home monitoring and compared to that achieved in a similar period before changing from hospital monitoring. Results: Thirty-seven patients were studied for a mean of 1.0 year on clinic monitoring and 1.07 years on home monitoring. The clinic monitoring tests were within a therapeutic range for a median 70.0 (inter-quartile range 34.5) and the home monitoring were within range for median 75.0 (inter-quartile range 44.5). There were no major haemorrhagic or thrombotic complications in either group during the study period. Only 2.3% of all tests had an INR greater than 6.0 with no statistical differences seen between the clinic and home monitoring groups. Conclusion: Home point-of-care testing in children on lifelong warfarin is safe, effective and offers a number of advantages to the child and family. Ongoing training and support for the families is essential for this service.


This thesis covers a range of important issues in hair analysis and includes 27 scientific works in which the name of the candidate was either listed as the first author or as the major contributor. The work presented in this thesis involved the development of a series of analytical methods to detect trace amounts of drugs in hair and also investigated the mechanisms by which drugs may be incorporated into hair. The major areas covered in this study can be summarized as follows:

1. The methods for the identification and quantification of opiates, amphetamines, ketamine, cannabis, cocaine, benzodiazepines, antidepressants, antipsychotics, and anabolic steroids in hair were developed using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS), liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) and gas chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS). With GC-MS methods, the limits of detection were 0.1-0.5 ng mg-1 of hair for antidepressants and antipsychotics. For illegal drugs, hair specimens were analyzed by GC-MS with limits of detection of 0.02-2ng mg-1. GC/MS/MS is more sensitive than GC-MS to detect these drugs in hair. The lower limits of detection ranged from 0.001 to 0.020 ng mg-1 for 21 anabolic androgenic steroids and their esters in hair using liquid chromatographic-tandem mass spectrometric method. And the limits of detection ranged from 0.2 to 5 pg mg-1 for benzodiazepines in hair. Tandem mass spectrometry is characterized by its sensitivity, selectivity and specificity, which makes it particularly suitable for the analysis of trace amount of target analytes in hair.

2. Usually, screening for drugs of abuse is the first step in clinical and forensic toxicology. There are a large number of controlled substances and doping agents and novel compounds, which have yet to be characterised. A series of screening methods for drugs of abuse in hair were developed using LC-MS/MS and GC-MS/MS. Using our own library of MRM transitions, the optimum collision energies selected for each transition and retention times were set up. These methods have been applied successfully in forensic casework.

3. Of growing importance to the field of hair analysis is the detection of metabolites related to the parent drugs. Demonstrating the presence of a metabolite of a drug (such as, heroin, amphetamines, cocaine, meperidine, ketamine, triazolam or psychotropic drugs) provides compelling evidence for exposure to the parent drug, and permits distinction between external contamination from ingestion and facilitation of the interpretation of results. The presence of antidepressant and antipsychotic drugs and their metabolites in the hair of psychiatric patients was investigated using GC-MS-EI and GC-MS-PCI. The parent drug and its major metabolite, such as opiates (morphine, 6-acetylmorphine), methamphetamine (methamphetamine, amphetamine), ketamine (ketamine, norketamine), cocaine (cocaine, benzoecognine), meperidine (meperidine, normeperidine), triazolam (triazolam, α-hydroxytriazolam), and clonazepam (clonazepam, 7-aminoclonazepam) were quantified in authentic hair samples simultaneously. The differences were finding in the ratio of parent drug to metabolite. For illegal drugs, the concentrations of parent drugs were higher than that of their metabolites. The results of triazolam and clonazepam were contrary. These data are suitable reference values and are the basis for the interpretation of results.
4. The mechanisms by which drugs are incorporated into hair are not fully understood. Based on experiments with guinea pigs with black, white, or brown hair, the mechanisms of incorporation of cocaine, methamphetamine, ketamine, triazolam and anabolic steroids into hair were investigated. The concentrations of drugs in hair were found to be related to physicochemical properties of drugs. The parent drugs were the predominant analytes in hair. There was an obvious relationship between the concentration of drugs in hair and hair pigmentation. The concentrations of drugs deposited in black hair was found to be higher than that in brown and white hair samples, even when comparing results using hairs on the same multicoloured animal body. This work confirmed that melanin affinity is a governing factor in drug incorporation into hair shafts. These studies on the distribution of drugs in the hair shaft and how their concentration changes along the shaft provide information relevant to the time of ingestion and substance use/abuse.

5. In recent years an increase in drug-facilitated sexual assault (DFSA) has been reported. Segmental hair analysis has proved useful in widening the window of detection, as blood and urine analyses are of limited use, due to the long delays between the actual assaults and obtaining samples from suspects that are frequently encountered in investigations of such crimes. In China, benzodiazepines are the most frequently observed compounds in cases of drug-facilitated crime. In a paper reported here, 14 volunteers ingested a single 1-6 mg estazolam tablet to permit the evaluation of segmental hair analysis after a single drug dosage. Hair was collected one month after administration of the drug. All the proximal segments tested positive for estazolam. With increased dosage, estazolam could be detected in the 2-4 cm segments nearest the hair root in some subject's hair shafts. In some cases, the 4-6 cm segments also tested positive. Hair analysis was applied to samples from two authentic criminal cases. A significant variation was observed between those obtained from previous studies and the results presented here. The intersubject variability in segmental analysis can be explained mainly due to melanin content and diffusion from sweat or other secretions during formation of the hair shaft. However, more substantial procedural and interpretation guidelines are required to use segmental hair analysis in drug-facilitated crimes. On the other hand, the minimal dosage for detection, which is a critical but previously unknown threshold value of fundamental importance in hair analysis, was determined for triazolam and ketamine in guinea pig hair.

6. Doping with endogenous anabolic steroids is one of the most serious drug issues in sports today. The measurement of anabolic steroid levels in human hair permits the distinction between pharmaceutically produced steroids and naturally occurring steroids. Full-length hair samples were taken at the skin surface from the vertex of 39 males, 30 females and 11 children from China. None of the subjects were professional athletes. Testosterone and dehydroepiandrosterone were detected in all the hair segments. The physiological concentrations of testosterone were in the range 0.8-24.2 pg mg-1, 0.1-16.8 pg mg-1 and 0.2-11.5 pg mg-1 in males, females and children, respectively. However, the mean values of dehydroepiandrosterone were much higher than those for testosterone. This is the first investigation into the physiological concentrations of anabolic steroids in human hair in Chinese subjects. These data provide suitable reference values and form the basis for the interpretation of results from investigations into the abuse of endogenous anabolic steroids.

In conclusion, the work presented in this study demonstrates that there was a good correlation between the concentration of drugs in hair and drug dosage. There was an obvious relationship between hair drug concentration and hair colour. Melanin affinity is shown to be a governing factor in determining drug incorporation into hair, and the concentration of drugs deposited in black hair was found to be higher than that in brown and white hair samples. This thesis provides data that will be useful in the application of hair analysis regarding drugs of abuse and in the interpretation of toxicological results.


This volume explores the emerging and current, cutting-edge theories and methods of modeling, optimization, dynamics and bioeconomy. It provides an overview of the main issues, results and open questions in these fields as well as covers applications to biology, economy, energy, industry, physics, psychology and finance. The majority of the contributed papers for this volume come from the participants of the International Conference on Modeling, Optimization and Dynamics (ICMOD 2010), a satellite conference of EURO XXIV Lisbon 2010, which took place at Faculty of Sciences of University of Porto, Portugal, and from the Berkeley Bioeconomy Conference 2012, at the University of California, Berkeley, USA


The Nigerian University system enjoys the block grant funding policy, for both recurrent and capital funds. Unfortunately, the allocation of capital grants was never based on scientific parameters right from inception thereby necessitating the research work. The main aim and objectives of the research were to develop a more equitable model for the allocation using acceptable parameters. Condition surveys were conducted to obtain information on: ages of selected buildings, floor areas, years of commissioning and years of last renovation. Eleven out of the twenty-one Federal universities selected on stratified sampling basis, were used to assemble the primary data as at 1997. The main assumptions imposed on the data on the buildings were: no remarkable differences in: (i) height and shape, (ii) location and climatic factors, (iii) labour and management policy. Multiple Regression Analysis was used to develop a linear allocation model which enabled some predictive transparent variables to be developed and was used to estimate the cost of repairs for the existing building stocks. A predictive linear model with goodness of fit value (R2) of 81.55% was developed which provided a basis for allocating available capital funds among the Universities. It was recommended that, for practical purpose, the method of capital funds allocation should have the combination of formula and non-formula driven components. Modified forms of the model can be used in policy issues on building maintenance allocations for other tertiary institutions in Nigeria, and in other African countries. The research work points out the need for: (a) the establishment of modem maintenance information system in all the Universities with a central database at the National Universities Commission, Abuja; (b) the introduction of independent contractor/consultant-controlled Facilities Management outfits for each University; (c) educating the Universities on the new fiscal allocation strategies; and, (d) developing appropriate linkages with maintenance research establishments.


This study examines the relationship between college major, religious orientation, informal curriculum, and certain student life experiences and moral judgment at an urban commuter institution. Particular attention is paid to business students. Research questions included the effect of college major, religious orientation, and informal curriculum on moral judgment. Students answered questions relating to the constructs using a survey incorporating Sarason's Social Support questionnaire and Batson and Ventis's Religious Orthodoxy Scale. Moral judgment was measured by the Defining Issues Test. Responses were analyzed using least squares multiple regression analysis. The results indicated statistically significant relationships involving moral judgment with college major, social support, and religious orientation. Finally, a t-test was undertaken showing that liberal arts and other students outscored business students on the Defining Issues Test. Implications for research and practice are offered.


Gamut mapping color constancy algorithms (originally introduced by Forsyth[For90]) attempt to map RGBs of surfaces viewed under an unknown light to corresponding RGBs under a known reference illuminant. With respect to a reference light source the set of all observable RGBs occupies a 3-dimensional convex region, or gamut, of RGB space. If a triple of 3 simple scalar factors defines the map from image colors to reference conditions then it has been shown that the set of all maps taking RGBs into the reference gamut is also a convex set. Gamut mapping algorithms work in 2 stages. First, the set of feasible maps is computed then in a second stage an optimal member of this map set is chosen. Here we show that feasible map set does not need to be computed. Rather we combine the final map selection stage with the enforcement of the constraint that image colors are mapped inside the reference gamut. The main contribution of this paper is to show that this combined computation can be set up as a simple convex programming problem. Two main advantages result from this reformulation of gamut mapping. First, several reasonable designations of 'optimal' map can be formulated and tested within the convex programming framework. If we maximize the sum of the triplet of map parameters then color constancy is shown to be a linear programming problem. Maximizing the Euclidean magnitude of the mapping triplet gives a quadratic programming formulation and maximizing the volume of the mapped image gamut (Forsyth's original gamut mapping algorithm) is also possible The second advantage is that convex programming provides a fast solution to the color constancy problem. Indeed, we show that linear programming color constancy is a strictly more efficient implementation of gamut mapping compared to previous methods. Experiments indicate that, for the Simon Fraser Data set (synthetic and real images), linear programming color constancy provides the best performance over all the convex programming methods tested.


ABSTRACT Sexual violence is prevalent in abusive relationships and yet, has received substantially less attention than physical violence in relationships or sexual violence, in general. The present study compared intimate partner sexual violence (IPSV) with non-sexual intimate partner violence (IPV) and sexual violence against other non-intimate partner victims on demographic data of perpetrators and victims, offence and police reporting features, and the perpetrators' criminal history and recidivism. Sexual and violent assaults reported to local law enforcement that led to an arrest were randomly selected. Analyses revealed that IPSV occurrences took longer to report compared to the other violent occurrences. However, IPSV was similar to IPV occurrences in that weapons were rarely involved, occurrences were more likely outside of the downtown area, and perpetrators were younger. These findings contribute to our limited knowledge about IPSV perpetration and highlight avenues for future exploration in the literature.


The study of video games and morality has emerged only recently. Thus far, research has examined the topic through the lens of moral foundations theory and moral disengagement theory. Generally, these lines of research have found that players often treat in-game behavior as morally significant as long as the behavior is considered morally relevant and the player is not morally disengaged. Another nascent domain of research concerns video games and identification with in-game avatars. This area has found that video games can temporarily alter implicit and explicit self-concepts to be more similar to the characters or roles that are played in video games. Moreover, this self-other merging may have important implications for real-world behaviors. The present study synthesized these three lines of research by utilizing a 2 (moral disengagement: unjustified violence/justified violence) x 2 (avatar identification: low/high) design with explicit and implicit guilt as the primary outcome variables. It was predicted that player experience of guilt would be stronger when participants carried out unjustified (as compared to justified) violence (H1), and this effect would be especially pronounced in the high identification condition (H2). Moreover, it was predicted that this effect would only occur for players who consider the in-game behavior to be morally relevant (H3). Finally, it was expected that player experience of guilt would yield short-term increases in the salience of violated moral foundations. When a continuous measure of similarity identification was used instead of the experimentally manipulated avatar identification factor, results supported H2 for explicit guilt. Participants who carried out unjustified violence were more likely to experience guilt if they felt similar to their in-game avatars, but feeling similar to one's avatar had no effect on the likelihood of experiencing guilt for players who carried out


We propose a new probabilistic model for analyzing dynamic evolutions of relational data, such as additions, deletions and split & merge, of relation clusters like communities in social networks. Our proposed model abstracts observed time-varying object-object relationships into relationships between object clusters. We extend the infinite Hidden Markov model to follow dynamic and time-sensitive changes in the structure of the relational data and to estimate a number of clusters simultaneously. We show the usefulness of the model through experiments with synthetic and real-world data sets.


In the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean up to 35°S, Neogene benthic foraminiferal faunal changes have been interpreted, alternatively, as changes in deepwater-masses distribution and organic matter availability. In surface, the Southwestern South Atlantic presents a highly dynamic frontal zone and exhibits large spatial and temporal variability in primary productivity that influences the export of organic carbon from the euphotic zone. However, below ~1000 meters depth, it is characterized by the interaction of several water masses. For this reason, the western sector of the South Atlantic is a natural laboratory to test the benthic foraminifera's response to changes in both, the deep water-masses distribution and the exported productivity. In order to define which was the main factor controlling the benthic foraminiferal assemblages structure during a glacial Mid-Late Pleistocene event, abundance analysis of organic matter content, oxygen availability and water masses marker species, and Q-mode factor analysis were carried out on core SP1251 (3400m; ~38°S - 54°W). Our results indicate that the benthic foraminiferal assemblages are mainly composed of high organic matter and oxygen availability-associated species revealing that productivity has been the main factor in determining the structure of the assemblages' composition. These results also reflect that surface productivity regime would have not been uniform as a result of variations in the shelf break upwelling of Patagonia as a consequence of variations in the Antarctic upwelling.


The Productive Drapery project is a multidisciplinary investigation intended to correct architecture and create better interiors. Historically drapery has been utilized to block and filter light, provide privacy, and mend construction to minimize drafts.1 Picture windows, popular in American mid-century tract homes, caused drapery to be utilized to further "right" architecture. They were situated for exterior symmetry, but generated difficult to inhabit imbalanced interiors, wall to wall curtaining was implemented as a correction.2 Contemporary urban glass towers, with floor to ceiling glazing, have further exacerbated this problem. The task of Productive Drapery, unlike Petra Blaisse's spatial curtaining for the site-specific and spectacle,3 is to address and rectify quotidian interior issues in multiple conditions. Those caused by large expanses of glass as well as obstructions created by HVAC elements found in more typical construction.

We continue to develop a taxonomy of conditions that address the pragmatics of drapery via analogue and digital methods. This praxis research is an extension of the theoretical inquiries found in the expanding body of knowledge for Interior Design.4 Through the manipulation of prototypes, we test pedestrian ideas of domesticity and create new textile based interiors. Fabrication methods encompass, hand sewing, machine sewing, smocking, folding, pleating, and embroidery. Materials include, various textiles including, woven, knit, and felted as well as conductive thread, thin film photovoltaic and smart textile assemblies.

The Productive Drapery prototypes provide context for window treatment beyond the decorative, adapting to frame views, compressing and expanding to meet changing spatial and climatic conditions. Illuminating Curtaining's historically performative role also questions issues of home goods consumption. In combining the tasks of decorative objects; lights/curtains, picture frames/curtains, these prototypes provide an edited cohesive environment extending the definition of interiority and human habitation.

1. Grier, K. Culture and Comfort: Parlor Making and Middle-Class Identity 1850-1930, Smithsonian, Washington DC, 2010.
2. Petty, M.M. "Curtains and the Soft Architecture of the American Postwar Domestic Environment," Home Cultures Vol. 9, issue 1(2012): 35-56.
3. Blaisse, P. "Curtain as Architecture: Casa Da Musica, Porto," in Inside Outside Reveiling, Nai Publishers, Rotterdam
4. For further research in this area see volumes from Lois Weinthal, Graeme Brooker, Mark Taylor and Julianna Preston, and Deborah Schneiderman and Alexa Griffith-Winton.


The problem of the SIF determination of internal cracks under contact loading is dealt with. An approach based on the weight function method was developed for the determination of KI and KII . The effect of the contact and of friction between the crack faces was taken into consideration by using approximate relations. The results were compared with the ones obtained by finite element analyses and the agreement was found satisfactory, both without and with the contact between the crack faces. As possible application of the approach, the case of contact fatigue crack propagation in a automotive gear was dealt with.


Blackboards were turned into tables … Questioning 'horizontality' in collaborative pedagogical art projects is research based on the practice of the collective microsillons, which is developing collaborative pedagogical art projects in different contexts.

The aim of the research is to explore the possibilities offered by 'horizontal pedagogical exchanges' and to question the very notion of 'horizontality'. It interrogates the possibility to challenge, through artistic projects in educational contexts, the traditional master–pupils (or artist–participants, or gallery educator–public) relationship.

After a presentation of microsillons' position in the cultural field, in particular regarding gallery education practices, collaborative art practices and the Educational Turn in Curating, a series of five collaborative pedagogical art projects realized by the collective between 2009 and 2011 are presented.

Inspired by methods such as thick description and Participatory Action Research, situations in those projects are studied where a more horizontal pedagogical exchange is sought.

Paulo Freire's reflection about dialogical pedagogy serves as a starting point in this reflection. Anarchist and libertarian pedagogies, as well as the critical pedagogies discourses following Freire, are used to discuss the various strategies used by microsillons.

Through those case studies are discussed the ideas of the classroom as a laboratory for democracy, of content co-generation, of network-like organization, of unpredictability and of constructive conflicts.

Drawing from poststructuralist and feminist perspectives, key terms of critical pedagogy (such as empowerment) are then rethought and the idea of 'horizontality' questioned, complexified, presented as a utopian horizon rather than a practicable concept. Shortcomings and paradoxes in the projects' attempts toward more egalitarian exchanges are identified and the limitations of the term are discussed.

Thoughts about ways to overcome those reservations and to avoid romanticizing 'horizontality' are proposed, opening to microsillons' future projects.


An experimental setup, based on the laser-induced deflection technique, is developed to measure simultaneously the 244 nm laser absorption, scattering, and luminescence on optical components. The different techniques and methods that have been specifically developed to obtain both high resolution (micronic) and sensitivity (a few 10(-7) of the incident power for the absorption, 10(-8) for scattering and fluorescence) are presented. Different applications are then explored: the study of losses in deep UV multilayer coatings (HfO2/SiO2 mirrors) and the analysis of contamination defects on bare substrate and structural defects in optical coatings.


Business process improvement is the systematic analysis of processes in order to measure and improve process performance. Some games have been created for teaching several aspects of management, but process improvement is still outside the focus of such work. Also, the ABSEL community has some effort in teaching and understanding business management, the broader area that covers business improvement. In this paper we propose a game for practicing the main steps of business process improvement. The game was played by several students and real-world practitioners with promising results.


Continual learning aims to learn a sequence of tasks from dynamic data distributions. Without accessing to the old training samples, knowledge transfer from the old tasks to each new task is difficult to determine, which might be either positive or negative. If the old knowledge interferes with the learning of a new task, i.e., the forward knowledge transfer is negative, then precisely remembering the old tasks will further aggravate the interference, thus decreasing the performance of continual learning. By contrast, biological neural networks can actively forget the old knowledge that conflicts with the learning of a new experience, through regulating the learning-triggered synaptic expansion and synaptic convergence. Inspired by the biological active forgetting, we propose to actively forget the old knowledge that limits the learning of new tasks to benefit continual learning. Under the framework of Bayesian continual learning, we develop a novel approach named Active Forgetting with synaptic Expansion-Convergence (AFEC). Our method dynamically expands parameters to learn each new task and then selectively combines them, which is formally consistent with the underlying mechanism of biological active forgetting. We extensively evaluate AFEC on a variety of continual learning benchmarks, including CIFAR-10 regression tasks, visual classification tasks and Atari reinforcement tasks, where AFEC effectively improves the learning of new tasks and achieves the state-of-the-art performance in a plug-and-play way.


This paper studies the interlinked relationship between globalisation and technological upgrading in affecting employment and wages of skilled and unskilled workers in a middle income developing country. It exploits a unique longitudinal firm-level database that covers all manufacturing firms in Turkey over the 1992-2001 period. Turkey is taken as an example of a developing economy that, in that period, had been technologically advancing and becoming increasingly integrated with the world market. The empirical analysis is performed at firm level within a dynamic framework using a model that depicts the employment and wage trends for skilled and unskilled workers separately. In particular, the System Generalized Method of Moments (GMM-SYS) procedure is applied to a panel dataset of about 15,000 firms. Our results confirm the theoretical expectation that developing countries face the phenomena of skill-biased technological change and skill-enhancing trade, both leading to increasing the employment and wage gap between skilled and unskilled workers. In particular, a strong evidence of a relative skill bias emerges: both domestic and imported technologies increase the relative demand for skilled workers more than the demand for the unskilled. "Learning by exporting" also appears to have a relative skill- biased impact, while FDI imply an absolute skill bias.


Direct numerical simulations (DNS) of laminar separation bubbles on a NACA-0012 airfoil at Rec=5×104 and incidence 5° are presented. Initially volume forcing is introduced in order to promote transition to turbulence. After obtaining sufficient data from this forced case, the explicitly added disturbances are removed and the simulation run further. With no forcing the turbulence is observed to self-sustain, with increased turbulence intensity in the reattachment region. A comparison of the forced and unforced cases shows that the forcing improves the aerodynamic performance whilst requiring little energy input. Classical linear stability analysis is performed upon the time-averaged flow field; however no absolute instability is observed that could explain the presence of self-sustaining turbulence. Finally, a series of simplified DNS are presented that illustrate a three-dimensional absolute instability of the two-dimensional vortex shedding that occurs naturally. Three-dimensional perturbations are amplified in the braid region of developing vortices, and subsequently convected upstream by local regions of reverse flow, within which the upstream velocity magnitude greatly exceeds that of the time-average. The perturbations are convected into the braid region of the next developing vortex, where they are amplified further, hence the cycle repeats with increasing amplitude. The fact that this transition process is independent of upstream disturbances has implications for modelling separation bubbles.


Background: Acinetobacter, a nonfermenting Gram-negative coccobacilli, have emerged as significant pathogens causing multidrug-resistant (MDR) ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP). Metallo-beta-lactamase (MBL)-producing Acinetobacter spp. have become an emerging therapeutic concern worldwide due to the MDR isolates. Aim and Objectives: Phenotypic detection of MBL producing MDR Acinetobacter isolates in patients with VAP and to study the antibiotic susceptibility pattern of MBL-producing isolates. Materials and Methods: This was a prospective observational and noninterventional study conducted on patients with VAP over a period of 2 years. This study was conducted at a tertiary care teaching hospital in the intensive care unit. A total of 164 MBL-producing MDR AB isolates were included in the study. MBL was detected by imipenem-EDTA double-disc synergy test (DDST), imipenem-EDTA combined disc synergy test (CDST-IPM), and MBL-E test. Results: A total of 188 samples were enrolled for the study, fulfilling the inclusion criteria of VAP. Total MDR Acinetobacter spp. isolates were 188 (76.42%) of them, 164 (87.23%) were MBL producing and 24 (12.76%) were nonMBL (P < 0.002). Total 11.17% and 88.83% MDR VAP due to Acinetobacter spp. were early-onset VAP and Late-onset VAP, respectively (P < 0.001). Late-onset VAP due to MDR Acinetobacter spp. was predominant in the present study caused by Acinetobacter spp. Of total 188 MDR Acinetobacter isolates, 156 (82.98%) were Acinetobacter baumannii, 15 (7.98%) were Acinetobacter iwoffii, 9 (4.79%) were Acinetobacter calcoacetiucs, 5 (2.66%) were Acinetobacter hemotyticus, and 3 (1.59%) were ABC complex, predominated by A. baumannii (P < 0.001). Of total 188 MDR Acinetobacter spp. 164 (87.23%) were putative MBL producing and 24 (12.67%) were nonMBL Acinetobacter spp. Of 164 MBL-producing isolates, 141 (85.98%) were detected by the DDST method, and 23 (14.02%) were DDST negative. Total 146 (89.02%) MDR Acinetobacter spp. were detected by a combined disc test-IMP test. A total of 152 (92%) MDR Acinetobacter spp. were detected by MBLe-Test. All MBL-producing MDR Acinetobacter spp. isolates (164) were resistant to piperacillin (PI), piperacillin + tazobactam (PIT), ciprofloxacin (CIP), ceftazidime (CAZ), cefepime (CPM), imipenem (IMP), and meropenem (MRP). The tigecycline (21.34%) resistance was significantly less compared to all other antibiotics. Conclusions: The present study highlighted the burden of MDR MBL producing Acinetobacter spp. in patients with VAP. About three-fourth of patients with VAP had MDR Acinetobacter spp. Eighty percent were MDR Acinetobacter spp. were MBL producers. MDR Acinetobacter isolates, including MBL producer, were significantly higher in late-onset VAP. The ability of phenotypic identification of Acinetobacter spp. for MBL producer among imipenem-EDTA double-disc synergy test (DDST), CDST-IPM and MBL-E Test were comparable. All MBL-producing MDR Acinetobacter spp. isolates were resistant to PI, Ciprofloxacin, CAZ, CPM, IMP, and MRP. The tigecycline resistance was significantly less (1/5th). The study of antibiotic sensitivity patterns and screening for MBL production among A. baumannii isolates is essential for controlling Acinetobacter infections. The judicious use of antimicrobial therapy and combined approaches of rotational antibiotic therapy is strongly suggested.


Abstract:  Prior to geochemical analyses, fossil bones and teeth are often extracted from any surrounding lithified sediments using chemical techniques such as immersion in acid. As stable isotope analysis becomes more commonplace in palaeoecological investigations, it is important to consider what effects these chemical preparation techniques may have on any subsequent isotopic data and to constrain these effects as quantitatively as possible. This study aims to elucidate these effects, as it is vital that variability in a data set should not be introduced as a result of protocols used during sample preparation; in addition, it defines the most effective and viable method of carbonate removal for processing bulk fossil samples without causing alteration of their stable isotopic signatures. Various strengths of two weak acids commonly used during palaeontological preparation were tested to evaluate their effects on the δ15N and δ13Corg isotopic signatures of the vertebrae of a large Eocene fossil fish. Changes in the isotopic values occurred over time regardless of which acid was used, each causing a variable response in both δ15N and δ13Corg isotopic values. Without careful monitoring of the acidification process in a controlled environment, any resulting data could therefore confound interpretation. Based on these experiments, it is recommended that 2 m acetic acid be used for the pretreatment of fossils prior to the acquisition of N and C isotope data where carbonate removal is necessary.


Chrissie Wellington is the world's No 1 female Ironman triathlete, a four times World Champion, having recently won the her fourth title in October 2011 and the World Record holder. In 2009 she was voted 'Sunday Times Sportswoman of the Year' and in 2010 was awarded the MBE. She is the undefeated champion of Triathlon, having won thirteen Ironman titles from thirteen races. She set a new World Record of 8 hours19:13 at Quelle Roth Germany in 2010, which slashed over 14 minutes from the previous record and where she was only beaten by six men. She went on to improve this time by another minute in the 2011 race. She also set a new world record for the fastest ever Ironman sanctioned event at Ironman South Africa in April 2011. Chrissie has displayed unprecedented levels of stamina, strength and competitiveness in becoming Ironman World Champion in only her second event at Ironman level. Her victory in Kona, Hawaii in 2007 finishing five minutes ahead of her nearest rival was described as the 'biggest upset in Ironman history' and 'a remarkable feat, deemed to be near impossible task for any athlete racing as a rookie at their first Ironman World Championships'. She defended her World title in Hawaii in 2008 and again in 2009. However a bout of severe sickness on the eve of the 2010 event meant she was unable to make the start line to defend her title. She bounced back in 2011 to retain her title in her most fiercely competitive race to date, which adds another fantastic chaper to her extraordinary sporting career. This is the remarkable story of how a Norfolk girl - a 'sporty kid, swimming, playing hockey, running, but never excelling and always more interested in the social side of the sports scene' - became a world champion.


Reported expenditures for environmental protection in the U.S. are estimated to exceed $150 billion annually or about 2% of GDP. This estimate is often used as an assessment of the burden of current regulatory efforts and a standard against which the associated benefits are measured. This makes it a key statistic in the debate surrounding both current and future environmental regulation. Little is known, however, about how well reported expenditures relate to true economic cost. True economic cost depends on whether reported environmental expenditures generate incidental savings, involve uncounted burdens, or accurately reflect the total cost of environmental protection. This paper explores the relationship between reported expenditures and economic cost in a number of major manufacturing industries. Previous research has suggested that an incremental $1 of reported environmental expenditures increases total production costs by anywhere from $1 to $12, i.e., increases in reported costs probably understate the actual increase in economic cost. Surprisingly, our results suggest the reverse, that increases in reported costs may overstate the actual increase in economic cost. Our results are based a large plant-level data set for eleven four-digit SIC industries. We employ a cost-function modeling approach that involves three basic steps. First, we treat real environmental expenditures as a second output of the plant, reflecting perceived environmental abatement efforts. Second, we model the joint production of conventional output and environmental effort as a cost-minimization problem. Third, we calculate the effect of an incremental dollar of reported environmental expenditures at the plant, industry, and manufacturing sector levels. Our approach differs from previous work with similar data by considering a large number of industries, using a cost-function modeling approach, and paying particular attention to plant-specific effects. Our preferred, fixed-effects model obtains an aggregate estimate of thirteen cents in increased costs for every dollar of reported incremental pollution control expenditures, with a standard error of sixty-one cents. This single estimate, however, conceals the wide range of values observed at the industry and plant level. We also find that estimates using an alternative, random-effects model are uniformly higher. Although the higher, random-effects estimates are more consistent with previous work, we believe they are biased by omitted variables characterizing differences among plants. While further research is needed, our results suggest that previous estimates of the economic cost associated with environmental expenditures have been biased upward and that the possibility of overstatement is quite real. Key words: environmental costs, fixed-effects, translog cost model


We previously showed that widespread expression of Nras G12D/G12D from its endogenous locus in mice leads to an acute myeloproliferative disease (MPD) with a complete penetrance, whereas bone marrow-specific expression of Nras G12D/G12D in recipient mice did not result in sustained MPD phenotypes but 100% penetrant acute T-cell lymphoblastic leukemia/lymphoma (TALL). Such a phenotypic switch also is seen in the case of endogenous oncogenic Kras. Two possibilities might account for this observation and they are not necessarily mutually exclusive. First, the MPD phenotypes in primary Nras G12D/G12D mice might be a transient phenomenon attributable to microenvironmental factors that do not necessarily imply the potential for long-term maintenance in a hematopoietic-cell autonomous manner. Second, it is likely that MPD phenotypes are maintained by genetically altered hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). Nras G12D/G12D signaling might substantially alter HSC behaviors (e.g. induce their proliferative exhaustion) so that these HSCs no longer sustain MPD phenotypes to a lethal stage in recipient mice. Here, we show some preliminary results to support the second hypothesis. Our results suggest that different lineages of hematopoietic cells might have differential requirements of HSC activity and Nras G12D signaling during leukemogenesis.


Disks are among the most frequently failing components in today's IT environments. Despite a set of defense mechanisms such as RAID, the availability and reliability of the system are still often impacted severely. In this paper, we present a highly accurate SMART-based analysis pipeline that can correctly predict the necessity of a disk replacement even 10-15 days in advance. Our method has been built and evaluated on more than 30000 disks from two major manufacturers, monitored over 17 months. Our approach employs statistical techniques to automatically detect which SMART parameters correlate with disk replacement and uses them to predict the replacement of a disk with even 98% accuracy.


Weak probabilistic bisimulation on probabilistic automata can be decided by an algorithm that needs to check a polynomial number of linear programming problems encoding weak transitions. It is hence polynomial, but not guaranteed to be strongly polynomial. In this paper we show that for polynomial rational proba- bilistic automata strong polynomial complexity can be ensured. We further discuss complexity bounds for generic probabilistic automata. Then we consider several practical algorithms and LP transformations that enable an efficient solution for the concrete weak transition problem. This sets the ground for effective compositional minimisation approaches for probabilistic automata and Markov decision processes.


Surveying the intellectual passions and pursuits of a lifetime in his memoir Errata: an Examined Life (1997), George Steiner commented that 'such was the response to The Portage to San Cristobal of A. H. and to Alec McCowen's overwhelming interpretation on stage of the dominant figure that I could have made of the novel or novella my foremost business'. Adapted by Christopher Hampton and directed at the Mermaid by John Dexter in 1982, The Portage is the only example of Steiner's fiction to have been dramatized for the stage. Through the character of A. H., Steiner – Britain's foremost scholar, critic, and polemicist on the Shoah and European thought in a 'posthuman' era – proposes the metaphysical idea of 'negative transcendence' as necessary to any attempt to understand Jewish fate during the Holocaust, a perspective unique amongst dramatic representations seen in Britain. The play itself has not been produced on the professional stage in the following twenty years, and critics and commentators continue to be perplexed by Steiner's decision to present his arguments in such a fashion. Nick White argues that while the novel's weaknesses were mercilessly exposed by the 'translation' of Steiner's novel into the dramatic idiom of stage naturalism, it was the subsequent controversy which exposed as fundamentally flawed Steiner's attempt (through recourse to the ideas and language of his own critical writing) to construct a composite, 'inter-textual' identity for the character A. H. He goes on to show that the initial confusion became polarized around conflicting interpretations of Steiner's intentions: were the arguments advanced by A. H. to be understood as an accurate rendering, or a misinterpretation – by the master manipulator of language, A. H. – of Steiner's published theses about the compulsions upon which Jewish fate depended during the Holocaust?


This guide will help you find information from the federal government. To a lesser degree it will also cover Michigan state government and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).


In the last years, new technologies - referred as emerging information and communication technologies (EICTs), have appeared and are immersed in peoples' lives assisting them and facilitating their daily activities. Taking advantage of the diffusion and infusion of these technologies, governments are using EICTs to deliver better public services to citizens. However, to address citizens' demands and to provide customer oriented services governments face various types of challenges. The aim of this research work is to provide solutions to some of the challenges, in particular to the rapid development of electronic public services (EPS) and the service integration in the context of development of smart cities. Following the aim, we propose an approach, called Virtual Factory for Smart City Service Integration. The idea of the virtual factory is to provide a framework to automatically produce software based on a given set of specifications of a family of EPS taking advantage of similarities in the EPS business processes. The expected contributions of this research work is to produce a domain specific language (DSL) for service specification and supporting tools that based on the produced specifications, workflow techniques and ideas of software product lines (SPL) can automatically produce software applications for EPS that can be easily parameterized and completed.


Abstract We prove Hardy-type inequalities for a fractional Dunkl–Hermite operator, which incidentally gives Hardy inequalities for the fractional harmonic oscillator as well. The idea is to use h-harmonic expansions to reduce the problem in the Dunkl–Hermite context to the Laguerre setting. Then, we push forward a technique based on a non-local ground representation, initially developed by Frank et al. ['Hardy–Lieb–Thirring inequalities for fractional Schrödinger operators, J. Amer. Math. Soc. 21 (2008), 925–950'] in the Euclidean setting, to obtain a Hardy inequality for the fractional-type Laguerre operator. The above-mentioned method is shown to be adaptable to an abstract setting, whenever there is a 'good' spectral theorem and an integral representation for the fractional operators involved.


We explore the task of designing an efficient multi-agent system that is capable of capturing a single moving target, assuming that every agent knows the location of all agents on a fixed known graph. Many existing approaches are suboptimal as they do not coordinate multiple pursuers and are slow as they re-plan each time the target moves, which makes them fare poorly in real-time pursuit scenarios such as video games. We address these shortcomings by developing the concept of cover set, which leads to a measure that takes advantage of information about the position and speed of each agent. We first define cover set and then present an algorithm that uses cover to coordinate multiple pursuers. We compare the effectiveness of this algorithm against several classic and state-of-the-art pursuit algorithms, along several performance measures. We also compute the optimal pursuit policy for several small grids, and use the associated optimal scores as yardsticks for our analysis.


Tecnalia is working in the development of gasification technology for the production of hydrogen from biomass. Biomass is an abundant and disperse renewable energy source that can be important for the production of hydrogen. The development of hydrogen system from biomass requires multifaceted studies on hydrogen production systems, hydrogen separation methods and hydrogen safety aspects. Steam gasification of biomass produces a syngas with high hydrogen content, but this syngas requires a posttreatment to clean and to separate the hydrogen. As a result of this analysis, Tecnalia has defined a global process for the production, cleaning, enrichment and separation of hydrogen from the syngas produced from biomass gasification. But, besides the technical aspects, safety considerations affecting all the described processes have been identified. For that reason, it is being developed a procedure to establish the technical requirements and the recommended practices to ensure the highest level of safety in the production and handing of hydrogen.


Over the last few years the issue of corruption has attracted renewed interest both among academics and policymakers. Today corruption is acknowledged to be a key factor in preventing development in large areas of the world, and accordingly a vast array of projects and tools have been developed to fight it effectively and to build a strong organizational system of immunity to corruption. The study of corruption and its effect on the workplace has become one of the 21st centuries' most exciting and burgeoning fields of research.Public statements on anti-corruption policies and reporting practices are one of the crucial steps in a company's anti-corruption activities. Open declarations of this kind encourage the development of management systems which helps companies to "walk the talk". The main purpose of this paper is to look at anti-corruption materials published on the websites of the biggest companies in Australia, New Zealand, Poland and Ukraine. One of the foundations of any anti-corruption policy is its visibility both inside and outside organization. In this paper we present the results of international research about organizations' anti-corruption declarations and reporting practices.


Numerous grant funding calls, as well as public and scientific debates are now focusing on the cause of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). While it is important that we search for the cause(s) of the disorder - in order to improve support, education, employment and so on for those on the spectrum - such an approach is problematic for two reasons. First, there is an implicit suggestion that the quest for a cause will be simple and thus achievable. Second, there is a general assumption that there will be a unitary (single) cause to explain all of the wide ranging behaviours seen within an individual with ASD, as well as across the spectrum of the condition. With the development of molecular and behavioural genetic research programmes, as well as neuroimaging research, this quest has appeared to many to have an end in sight. Despite the wealth of superb minds focused on understanding the condition, why, then, have we failed to identify one (or more) causes of ASD?


We investigate the properties of two relatively different spanning trees of complex networks, so-called communication kernel and response network. First, for the communication kernel, we construct spanning trees carrying a maximum total weight of edges that is given by average traffic, which is defined as edge betweenness centrality. It is found that the resulting spanning tree plays an important role in communication between vertices. We also find that the degree distribution of spanning trees shows scale-free behavior for many model and real-world networks and the degree of the spanning trees has strong correlation with their original network topology. For the response network, we launch an attack on a single vertex which can drastically change the communication pattern between vertices of networks. By using minimum spanning tree technique, we construct the response network based on the measurement of the betweenness centrality changes due to a vertex removal. We find that the degree distribution of the response network indicates the scale-free behavior as well as that of the communication kernel. Interestingly, these two minimum spanning trees from different methods not only have same scale-free behavior but overlap each other in their structures. This fact indicates that the complex network has a concrete skeleton, scale-free tree, as a basic structure.


Until recently, the higher-level phylogenetic relationships of coleoid cephalopods have remained unclear. A thorough knowledge of the higher-level phylogeny of the group has been limited by the paucity of paleontological data for this poorly-fossilized group and the lack of cladistic analyses of developmental, morphological, and molecular data applied to the coleoids. In this study we analyzed a 657 base pair portion of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) gene from 48 cephalopod species representing a broad spectrum of coleoid diversity to examine higher-level phylogenetic relationships within the group. The COI gene exhibited a high degree of nucleotide sequence variability, with one halfofthe sites varying in at least one taxon. COI amino acid sequences were highly conserved, but were useful in determining basal-level relationships among the Coleoidea. The evolutionary rate of COI amino acid sequences differed significantly between the two main lineages. The average amino acid sequence divergence within the Octopodiformes was over twice that of the average divergence within the decapods. In addition to analysis of the unweighted data set, phylogenetic analysis was conducted on the data subjected to a single round of rescaled consistency index (RCI) weighting to reduce the effect of homoplasious substitutions in determining phylogenetic structure. To further reduce the influence of homoplastic change and to facilitate bootstrap analysis of the data, a nested analysis of the data was employed beginning with an analysis of the entire data set to determine proper outgroups to be used in the more restrictive analysis of the decapods and octopods separately. We draw the following conclusions from our analysis of cephalopod COI sequences: (1) the Coleoidea, Octopoda, Vampyromorpha, and Decapoda are monophyletic groups; (2) the Vampyromorpha and Octopoda are sister groups; (3) the Sepioidea, as including the five families Spirulidae, Sepiolidae, Sepiidae, Sepiadariidae, and Idiosepiidae, is polyphyletic; (4) Spirula is more closely related to the Teuthoidea than it is to the remaining members of the Sepioidea; and (5) the Oegopsida, as currently defined, is polyphyletic.


Today the utilization of 3D mock-ups is very common in GIScience. Since 2001, with the emergence of Google Earth, citizen have become used to virtual globes. However, a majority of applications using these technologies are still restricted to professional users. This is the case with urbanism and decision making where only static 3D scenes are shared with the public. In this paper, we describe the early results of a 3D virtual globe platform to support participatory decision making processes for urban planning. Our concept is built on the visualization of specific scenes. Context, content and design are crucial elements that need to be considered for the development of any participatory decision making tool. Our goal is the development of a web-based platform that focuses on collecting feedback from realworld citizen. The next step of this project is to utilize the platform in a real-world scenario and to evaluate the feedback from real-world citizen.


OBJECTIVES: To study whether sewage workers are exposed to genotoxic substances. An increased risk of cancers among sewage workers has been noted. If this increased risk is due to an exposure to genotoxic agents, primarily DNA damage could be used as a biological marker of exposure. METHODS: In a cross sectional study, DNA damage in peripheral lymphocytes from 35 sewage workers and 30 controls was compared with alkaline single cell gel electrophoresis, a technique for detecting single strand breaks and alkali labile sites in DNA. The controls were selected from among municipal workers matched for age and smoking habit. Information about occupational exposures and possible confounders was collected by means of a questionnaire. RESULTS: No increase in DNA damage was found among the sewage workers when compared with the unexposed controls. CONCLUSIONS: The failure to detect increased damage to DNA in peripheral lymphocytes by alkaline single cell gel electrophoresis suggests that the sewage workers studied here were not exposed to genotoxic agents to a greater extent than other municipal workers. It may be, however, that the lymphocyte is not the appropriate target cell to study, or that sewage workers are exposed to carcinogens which do not damage the genetic material.


While quantum computing proposes promising solutions to computational problems not accessible with classical approaches, due to current hardware constraints, most quantum algorithms are not yet capable of computing systems of practical relevance, and classical counterparts outperform them. To practically benefit from quantum architecture, one has to identify problems and algorithms with favorable scaling and improve on corresponding limitations depending on available hardware. For this reason, we developed an algorithm that solves integer linear programming problems, a classically NP-hard problem, on a quantum annealer, and investigated problem and hardware-specific limitations. This work presents the formalism of how to map ILP problems to the annealing architectures, how to systematically improve computations utilizing optimized anneal schedules, and models the anneal process through a simulation. It illustrates the effects of decoherence and many body localization for the minimum dominating set problem, and compares annealing results against numerical simulations of the quantum architecture. We find that the algorithm outperforms random guessing but is limited to small problems and that annealing schedules can be adjusted to reduce the effects of decoherence. Simulations qualitatively reproduce algorithmic improvements of the modified annealing schedule, suggesting the improvements have origins from quantum effects.


Extensive studies have been conducted on botanicals for the presence of estrogenic molecules, unfortunately, very little has ever been done to identify plant-based progestins. This underexplored area is troubling especially since there is a body of scientific evidence supporting the presence of progesterone receptor (PR) modulators in plant material that may affect endocrine function. The goal of this dissertation was to identify and characterize natural progesterone (P4)-like compounds from botanical extracts for the improvement of women's health. Red clover, hops, angelica, black cohosh, kudzu, dogwood, and chaste-tree berry were investigated for their ability to interact with purified PR, to activate PRE-luciferase transcription in human breast cancer cells, and for tissue specific regulation of P4 inducible genes. Kaempferol was identified as having P4-like activity and may function in a cell-specific manner. In vivo studies revealed that kaempferol exhibited P4-like effects in ovariectomized Sprague-Dawley rat model. Since genistein is a phytoestrogen that previously demonstrated to increase uterine weight and proliferation, the ability of kaempferol to block genistein action in the uterus was investigated. Analyses of proliferation, steroid receptor expression, and induction of well-established PR-regulated targets Areg and Hand2 were completed. In addition, kaempferol in silico binding analysis was completed for PR, as was the activation of ER and AR signaling in vitro in order to determine receptor specificity. The data from this dissertation suggest that kaempferol interacts with PR, activates the receptor without stimulating its degradation, induces known PR target genes in vitro and in vivo and blocked genistein-induced proliferation in the luminal epithelial cells in Sprague-Dawley rat uteri. The toxicity of hops extracts in cell-based assays precluded further investigation in vitro, but an initial bioassay screen suggested that natural progestins can be identified from hops extracts. Further chemical and biological analyses are warranted to identify and characterize progestins from hops. The comprehensive framework outlined in this thesis will provide a promising avenue for the identification of potentially better and safer compounds capable of activating PR signaling from botanical extracts used for women's health.


LifeCode™ (patent pending) is a Natural Language Processing and Expert System that extracts demographic and clinical information from free-text clinical records. The initial application of LifeCode is for the Emergency Medicine clinical specialty. An application for Diagnostic Radiology is now in beta -test. A pilot program for performing data mining on acute care clinical records has been completed. The LifeCode NLP engine uses a large number of specialist readers whose particular outputs are combined at various levels to form an integrated picture of the patient's medical condition(s), course of treatment and disposition. The LifeCode Expert System performs the tasks of combining complementary information, deleting redundant information, assessing the level of medical risk and level of service represented in the clinical record and producing an output that is appropriate for input to an Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system or a billing system. Because of the critical nature of the tasks, LifeCode has a unique "self-awareness" feature that enables it to recognize the limits of its competence and thus ask for assistance from a human expert when faced with information that is beyond the bounds of its competence. The LifeCode NLP and Expert Systems are wrapped as DCOM servers and reside in various delivery packages including On-Line Transaction Processing (OLTP), a web browser interface and an Automated Speech Recognition (ASR) interface.


The purpose of this study was to determine the lifetime prevalence of emotional/psychological abuse among married female healthcare providers in tertiary care hospitals in Karachi, Pakistan. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in a sample of 350 married female nurses and doctors, recruited from three tertiary healthcare hospitals (one public and two private). This study used the self administered modified truncated WHO multi-country questionnaire. Descriptive and univariate analysis was performed. Of the total sample of 350 female married healthcare providers, 97.7% (n = 342) were reported with one or more forms of domestic violence at some point in their married life, whereby 62.6% (n = 214) lifetime prevalence of emotional abuse was found due to any forms of violence. The univariate analysis showed that those female healthcare providers who had done their diploma were more prone to emotional abuse 46.7% (n = 100). And, nurses experienced more emotional abuse 57.9% (n = 124) in their life than doctors. Moreover, there was a significant difference of emotional abuse among those participants' husband who used and do not use alcohol (p = .009). The most common study participants responses against emotional abuse were: 62% (n = 212), verbally fighting back, 15.2% (n = 52) keeping quiet, 27.2% (n = 93) talking to husband, family/friends, 7% (n = 24) returning to parents' home and 5.8% (n = 20) attempting suicide. Domestic violence leads to emotional scars and should be considered as an inhuman act. However, its prevalence exists in every culture and more so in underdeveloped, economically challenged cultures. Emotional abuse is frequent among nurses and doctors. Socio-demographic factors of women have been identified as one of the determinants of emotional abuse among healthcare professionals. Future research should investigate emotional abuse patterns not only for professional women but also for housewives.


Many important economic problems concern an intertemporal choice between alternate dynamical systems. One example is determining the optimal management of alternative production technologies. This significance has motivated a substantial theoretical literature generalising the necessary conditions of Optimal Control Theory to multiple-phase problems. However, gaining detailed insight into their practical management is difficult because suitable numerical solution methods are not available. This paper resolves this deficiency through the development of a flexible and efficient computational algorithm based on a set of necessary conditions derived for finite-time multiple-phase systems. Its effectiveness is demonstrated in an application to a complex crop rotation problem.


Cloned murine Th having properties of either Th1 or Th2 cells as well as CD8+ CTL were tested for the capacity to lyse: 1) nucleated target cells bearing Ag or coated with anti-CD3 mAb, or 2) SRBC target cells coated with anti-CD3 mAb in a short term 51Cr-release assay. The lysis of SRBC occurs by a mechanism that does not involve nuclear degradation but presumably does involve membrane damage. Three patterns were observed: CTL and some Th2 cells lysed efficiently nucleated target cells and SRBC coated with anti-CD3 mAb. Th1 and some Th2 T cells lysed nucleated target cells but did not lyse efficiently the SRBC coated with anti-CD3 mAb. Finally, some Th2 cells failed to lyse efficiently either nucleated or SRBC targets. We also examined these clones for their expression of N-alpha-benzyloxycarbonyl-L-lysin thiobenzyl esterase activity, and for the expression of perforin or CTLA-1 (granzyme B) mRNA. Total N-alpha-benzyloxycarbonyl-L-lysin thiobenzyl esterase activity expressed by CTL and Th2 clones tended to be higher than that of Th1 cells. Perforin mRNA and CTLA-1 mRNA were readily detectable in CTL and some Th2 clones. Expression of perforin and CLTA-1 mRNA correlated well with the capacity of these clones to lyse SRBC coated with anti-CD3 mAb. Our results show that some but not all Th2 clones have lytic characteristics similar to those of CD8+ CTL. Two mechanisms appear to contribute to their lytic process, one mechanism of lysis involves membrane damage that correlates with the expression of perforin mRNA; a second mechanism involves the induction of DNA degradation in the target cells. In contrast, some CD4+ effector cells appear to lack the capacity to lyse efficiently via the mechanism involving membrane damage and may only have the lytic activity associated with the capacity to induce DNA degradation.


Increasing labour market flexibility is at the top of the European agenda. A new and challenging view is a lack of mobility in the labour market may arise from rigidities in the housing market. The research in this book has been inspired by the intriguing hypothesis put forward by Andrew Oswald that homeownership may be a hindrance to the smooth working of the labour markets, as homeowners tend to be less willing to accept jobs outside their own region. This book brings together leading economists from across Europe to analyse the interaction between housing markets and labour markets. In the EU homeownership rates have been on the increase, often as a result of government policies, making the barriers that homeownership creates in terms of labour mobility increasingly important. This book shows on the one hand, at the individual level, that homeownership limits the likelihood of becoming unemployed and increases the probability of finding a job once unemployed. On the other hand, the transaction costs inherent in the housing market and homeownership hamper job-to-job changes and increase unemployment at the country level. This insight provides a clear policy message to European policymakers: reform in the housing market, aimed at lowering transaction costs and providing less generous subsidies for homeowners could be an effective instrument for reducing unemployment and improving labour market flexibility. This publication is not online available. Order this publication at Oxford University Press .


We consider a problem of minimum cost (energy) data aggregation in wireless sensor networks computing certain functions of sensed data. We use in-network aggregation such that data can be combined at the intermediate nodes en route to the sink. We consider two types of functions: firstly the summation-type which includes sum, mean, and weighted sum, and secondly the extreme-type which includes max and min. However for both types of functions the problem turns out to be NP-hard. We first show that, for sum and mean, there exist algorithms which can approximate the optimal cost by a factor logarithmic in the number of sources. For weighted sum we obtain a similar result for Gaussian sources. Next we reveal that the problem for extreme-type functions is intrinsically different from that for summation-type functions. We then propose a novel algorithm based on the crucial tradeoff in reducing costs between local aggregation of flows and finding a low cost path to the sink: the algorithm is shown to empirically find the best tradeoff point. We argue that the algorithm is applicable to many other similar types of problems. Simulation results show that significant cost savings can be achieved by the proposed algorithm.


Social relations among the inhabitants of an apartment building amount to more than neighbor relations. Depending on the type and social layout of the building, they can also involve renter-owner relations, co-owner relations and service and work relations with building managers. Moreover, such intra-building relations not only imply interactions among individuals and groups but also pertain to an institutional and legal framework, including the different actors and organizations that intervene in matters of housing and all the laws, rules and regulations that frame people's practices. The notion of residential configuration allows for describing this doubly complex reality. Here that notion is substantiated through a historical and ethnographic study of relations over the last 50 years among the different categories of inhabitants living in a Haussmann-design apartment building in Paris.


Ant colonies reside in social insect societies and maintain distributed systems that
present a highly structured social organization despite of the simplicity of their
individuals. Ants' algorithm belongs to the Swarm Intelligence (SI), which is
proposed to find the shortest path. Among various works inspired by ant colonies, the
Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) metaheuristic algorithms are the most successful
and popular, e.g., AntNet, Multiple Ant Colony Optimization (MACO) and
AntHocNet. But there are several shortcomings including the freezing problem of the
optimum path, traffic engineering, and to link failure due to nodes mobility in
wireless mobile networks.
The metaheuristic and distributed route discovery for data load management in
Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) and Mobile Ad-hoc Network (MANET) are
fundamental targets of this study. Also the main aim of this research is to solve the
freezing problem during optimum as well as sub-optimum path discovery process. In
this research, Intelligent AntNet based Routing Algorithm (IANRA) is presented for routing in WMNs and MANET to find optimum and near-optimum paths for data
packet routing. In IANRA, a source node reactively sets up a path to a destination
node at the beginning of each communication. This procedure uses ant-like agents to
discover optimum and alternative paths. The fundamental point in IANRA is to find
optimum and sub-optimum routes by the capability of breeding of ants. This ability
is continuation of route that was produced by the parent ants. The new generations of
ants inherit identifier of their family, the generation number, and the routing
information that their parents get during their routing procedure. By this procedure,
IANRA is able to prevent some of the existing difficulties in AntNet, MACO and Ad
hoc On Demand Distance Vector (AODV) routing algorithms.
OMNeT++ was used to simulate the IARNA algorithm for WMNs and MANET.
The results show that the IANRA routing algorithm improved the data packet
delivery ratio for both WMNs and MANET. Besides, it is able to decrease average
end-to-end packet delay compared to other algorithms by showing its efficiency.
IANRA has decreased average end-to-end packet delay by 31.16%, 58.20% and
48.40% in MANET scenario 52.86%, 64.52% and 62.86% by increasing packet
generation rate in WMNs compared to AntHocNet, AODV and B-AntNet routing
algorithms respectively with increased network load. On the other hand, IANRA
shows the packet delivery ratio of 91.96% and 82.77% in MANET, 97.31% and
92.25% in WMNs for low (1 packet/s) and high (20 packet/s) data load respectively.


This case examines a proposed $2 billion asset-backed securitization offering that is to be supported by Formula One's television broadcasting rights. The case is written from the perspective of Steve Din, executive director of Securitization for Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, who is responsible for placing the securities in September 1998. The proposed Eurobond issuance for Formula One (F1) follows a delayed initial public offering (IPO) in 1997 that failed to materialize owing to disputes with the Formula One teams. In the wake of the delayed IPO, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter replaced Salomon Brothers as the adviser to Bernie Ecclestone, the eccentric billionaire owner of the F1 trademarks, and became the lead manager for the $2 billion structured finance placement meant to bridge Formula One to an eventual IPO. Students are asked to recommend a course of action to meet the challenges of marketing the new issue. The case is designed for use in finance electives focusing on financing methods, investment banking, securitization, or other advanced topics in corporate finance.


This study evaluates the estimates of seasonal snowmelt runoff in the Sutlej, Indus, Kabul and Chenab rivers derived from the model of snow cover area vs. runoff against those obtained from cross correlation of concurrent flows in the rivers. The concurrent flow correlation model explains more than 90 percent of the variability in flow of these rivers. Compared to this model, the model of snow-cover area vs. runoff explains less of the variability in flow. However, unlike the snow-cover model, the concurrent flow correlation model cannot be used for operational forecasting procedures. Where the strength of correlation is high, the concurrent flow correlation model has potential for use in retrospective analysis of flow for estimating missing data, extending time series and for evaluating estimates derived from other models. In the Himalayan basins under study and at least for the period under observation, the concurrent flow correlation model provides a set of results with which to compare the estimates from the snow cover model.


Before the recent recession, the consensus among researchers was that the zero lower bound (ZLB) probably would not pose a significant problem for monetary policy as long as a central bank aimed for an inflation rate of about 2 percent; some have even argued that an appreciably lower target inflation rate would pose no problems. This paper reexamines this consensus in the wake of the financial crisis, which has seen policy rates at their effective lower bound for more than two years in the United States and Japan and near zero in many other countries. We conduct our analysis using a set of structural and time series statistical models. We find that the decline in economic activity and interest rates in the United States has generally been well outside forecast confidence bands of many empirical macroeconomic models. In contrast, the decline in inflation has been less surprising. We identify a number of factors that help to account for the degree to which models were surprised by recent events. First, uncertainty about model parameters and latent variables, which were typically ignored in past research, significantly increases the probability of hitting the ZLB. Second, models that are based primarily on the Great Moderation period severely understate the incidence and severity of ZLB events. Third, the propagation mechanisms and shocks embedded in standard DSGE models appear to be insufficient to generate sustained periods of policy being stuck at the ZLB, such as we now observe. We conclude that past estimates of the incidence and effects of the ZLB were too low and suggest a need for a general reexamination of the empirical adequacy of standard models. In addition to this statistical analysis, we show that the ZLB probably had a first-order impact on macroeconomic outcomes in the United States. Finally, we analyze the use of asset purchases as an alternative monetary policy tool when short-term interest rates are constrained by the ZLB, and find that the Federal Reserve's asset purchases have been effective at mitigating the economic costs of the ZLB. In particular, model simulations indicate that the past and projected expansion of the Federal Reserve's securities holdings since late 2008 will lower the unemployment rate, relative to what it would have been absent the purchases, by 1-1/2 percentage points by 2012. In addition, we find that the asset purchases have probably prevented the U.S. economy from falling into deflation.


Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs) promise to improve road safety greatly. Despite the numerous CAV trials around the globe, their benefit has yet to be proven using real-world data. The lack of real-world CAV data has shifted the focus of the research community from traditional safety impact assessment methods to traffic microsimulation in order to evaluate their impacts. However, a plethora of operational, tactical and strategic challenges arising from the implementation of CAV technology remain unaddressed. This thesis presents an innovative and integrated CAV traffic microsimulation framework that aims to cover the aforementioned shortcomings.A new CAV control algorithm is developed in C++ programming language containing a longitudinal and lateral control algorithm that for the first time takes into consideration sensor error and vehicle platoon formulation of various sizes. A route-based decision-making algorithm for CAVs is also developed. The algorithm is applied to a simulated network of the M1 motorway in the United Kingdom which is calibrated and validated using instrumented vehicle data and inductive loop detector data. Multiple CAV market penetration rate, platoon size and sensor error rate scenarios are formulated and evaluated. Safety evaluation is conducted using traffic conflicts as a safety surrogate measure which is a function of time-to-collision and post encroachment time. The results reveal significant safety benefit (i.e. 10-94% reduction of traffic conflicts) as CAV market penetration increases from 0% to 100%; however, it is underlined that special focus should be given in the motorway merging and diverging areas where CAVs seem to face the most challenges. Additionally, it is proven that if the correct CAV platoon size is implemented at the appropriate point in time, greater safety benefits may be achieved. Otherwise, safety might deteriorate. However, sensor error does not affect traffic conflicts for the studied network. These results could provide valuable insights to policy makers regarding the reconfiguration of existing infrastructure to accommodate CAVs, the trustworthiness of existing CAV equipment and the optimal platoon size that should be enforced according to the market penetration rate.Finally, in order to forecast the conflict reduction for any given market penetration rate and understand the underlying factors behind traffic conflicts in a traffic microsimulation environment in-depth, a hierarchical spatial Bayesian negative binomial regression model is developed, based on the simulated CAV data. The results exhibit that besides CAV market penetration rate, speed variance across lanes significantly affects the production of simulated conflicts. As speed variance increases, the safety benefit decreases. These results emphasize the importance of speed homogeneity between lanes in a motorway as well as the increased risk in the motorway merging/diverging areas.


Abstract Background: The proteins p16, p53, Bcl-2, and Bax are important cell cycle and apoptotic regulators involved in carcinogenesis and found to have prognostic significance in various cancers. However, the data for squamous cell carcinoma of oral cavity (OSCC) and of oropharynx (OPSCC) are conflicting. Objective: We sought to determine if expression of p16, p53, Bcl-2, and Bax expression are associated with 5-year overall survival (OS) of patients with OSCC and OPSCC. Methods: One-hundred thirty-seven cases of OSCC and 140 cases of OPSCC diagnosed from January 2002 to December 2004 at Songklanagrind Hospital, Songkhla, Thailand, were analyzed using a Cox proportional hazards model for 5-year OS in relation to immunohistochemical detection of Bcl-2, Bax, p53, and p16 proteins. Results: The frequencies of p16, p53, Bcl-2, and Bax expression in OSCC were 13%, 45%, 4%, and 66%, and in OPSCC were 18%, 53%, 22%, and 75%, respectively. In univariate analysis, clinical variables including T stage, N stage and treatment were significantly associated with survival. In multivariate Cox regression, Bax overexpression was significantly associated with poor survival both in OSCC (HR 1.77, 95% CI 1.04-3.01) and in OPSCC (HR 2.21, 95% CI 1.00-4.85). We found no significant association of p16, Bcl-2, and p53 expression with survival. Conclusion: The expression pattern of p16, p53, Bcl-2, and Bax are similar in OSCC and OPSCC. Only Bax expression has prognostic significance for both tumor sites.


Molecular imaging enables non-invasive visualization of the dynamics of molecular processes within living organisms in vivo. Different imaging modalities as MRI, SPECT, PET and optic imaging are used together with molecular probes specific for the biological process of interest. Molecular imaging of transcription factor activity is done in animal models and mostly in transgenic reporter mice, where the transgene essentially consists of a promoter that regulates a reporter gene. During inflammation, the transcription factor NF-κB is widely involved in orchestration and regulation of the immune system and almost all imaging studies in this field has revolved around the role and regulation of NF-κB. We here present a brief introduction to experimental use and design of transgenic reporter mice and a more extensive review of the various studies where molecular imaging of transcriptional regulation has been applied during inflammation.


"Between 1850 and 1907, Native Hawaiians sought to develop relationships with other Pacific Islanders, reflecting how they viewed not only themselves as a people but their wider connections to Oceania and the globe. Kealani Cook analyzes the relatively little known experiences of Native Hawaiian missionaries, diplomats, and travelers, shedding valuable light on the rich but understudied accounts of Hawaiians outside of Hawaiʻi. Native Hawaiian views of other islanders typically corresponded with their particular views and experiences of the Native Hawaiian past. The more positive their outlook, the more likely they were to seek cross-cultural connections. This is an important intervention in the growing field of Pacific and Oceanic history and the study of native peoples of the Americas, where books on indigenous Hawaiians are few and far between. Cook returns the study of Hawai'i to a central place in the history of cultural change in the Pacific."--Book description from Cambridge University Press


DNA sequence alignments are usually not homogeneous. Mosaic structures may result as a consequence of recombination or rate heterogeneity. Interspecific recombination, in which DNA subsequences are transferred between different (typically viral or bacterial) strains may result in a change of the topology of the underlying phylogenetic tree. Rate heterogeneity corresponds to a change of the nucleotide substitution rate. Various methods for simultaneously detecting recombination and rate heterogeneity in DNA sequence alignments have recently been proposed, based on complex probabilistic models that combine phylogenetic trees with factorial hidden Markov models or multiple changepoint processes. The objective of my thesis is to identify potential shortcomings of these models and explore ways of how to improve them. One shortcoming that I have identified is related to an approximation made in various recently proposed Bayesian models. The Bayesian paradigm requires the solution of an integral over the space of parameters. To render this integration analytically tractable, these models assume that the vectors of branch lengths of the phylogenetic tree are independent among sites. While this approximation reduces the computational complexity considerably, I show that it leads to the systematic prediction of spurious topology changes in the Felsenstein zone, that is, the area in the branch lengths configuration space where maximum parsimony consistently infers the wrong topology due to long-branch attraction. I demonstrate these failures by using two Bayesian hypothesis tests, based on an inter- and an intra-model approach to estimating the marginal likelihood. I then propose a revised model that addresses these shortcomings, and demonstrate its improved performance on a set of synthetic DNA sequence alignments systematically generated around the Felsenstein zone. The core model explored in my thesis is a phylogenetic factorial hidden Markov model (FHMM) for detecting two types of mosaic structures in DNA sequence alignments, related to recombination and rate heterogeneity. The focus of my work is on improving the modelling of the latter aspect. Earlier research efforts by other authors have modelled different degrees of rate heterogeneity with separate hidden states of the FHMM. Their work fails to appreciate the intrinsic difference between two types of rate heterogeneity: long-range regional effects, which are potentially related to differences in the selective pressure, and the short-term periodic patterns within the codons, which merely capture the signature of the genetic code. I have improved these earlier phylogenetic FHMMs in two respects. Firstly, by sampling the rate vector from the posterior distribution with RJMCMC I have made the modelling of regional rate heterogeneity more flexible, and I infer the number of different degrees of divergence directly from the DNA sequence alignment, thereby dispensing with the need to arbitrarily select this quantity in advance. Secondly, I explicitly model within-codon rate heterogeneity via a separate rate modification vector. In this way, the within-codon effect of rate heterogeneity is imposed on the model a priori, which facilitates the learning of the biologically more interesting effect of regional rate heterogeneity a posteriori. I have carried out simulations on synthetic DNA sequence alignments, which have borne out my conjecture. The existing model, which does not explicitly include the within-codon rate variation, has to model both effects with the same modelling mechanism. As expected, it was found to fail to disentangle these two effects. On the contrary, I have found that my new model clearly separates within-codon rate variation from regional rate heterogeneity, resulting in more accurate predictions.