Objectives We have previously shown mitogen-activated protein kinase phosphatase 2 (MKP-2) to be a key regulator of proinflammatory cytokines in macrophages. In the study presented here, we investigated the role of MKP-2 in inflammatory arthritis with a particular focus on neutrophils. Methods To achieve this, we subjected MKP-2 deficient and wild type mice to collagen antibody induced arthritis, an innate model of arthritis, and determined disease pathology. To further our investigation, we depleted neutrophils in a prophylactic and therapeutic fashion. Last, we used chemotaxis assays to analyse the impact of MKP-2 deletion on neutrophil migration. Results MKP-2-/- mice showed a significant increase in disease pathology linked to elevated levels of proarthritic cytokines and chemokines TNF-α, IL-6 and MCP-1 in comparison to wild type controls. This phenotype is prevented or abolished after administration of neutrophil depleting antibody prior or after onset of disease, respectively. While MCP-1 levels were not affected, neutrophil depletion diminished TNF-α and reduced IL-6, thus linking these cytokines to neutrophils. In vivo imaging showed that MKP-2-/- mice had an increased influx of neutrophils into affected joints, which was higher and potentially prolonged than in wild type animals. Furthermore, using chemotaxis assays we revealed that MKP-2 deficient neutrophils migrate faster towards a Leukotriene B4 gradient. This process correlated with a reduced phosphorylation of ERK in MKP-2-/- neutrophils. Conclusions This is the first study to show a protective role for MKP-2 in inflammatory arthritis.


Cyclic anhydrides, key intermediates of carbon-neutral and biodegradable polyesters, are currently produced from biomass-derived dicarboxylic acids by a high-cost multistep process. We present a new high-yielding process for the direct intramolecular dehydration of dicarboxylic acids using a reusable heterogeneous Lewis acid catalyst, Nb2O5·nH2O. Various dicarboxylic acids, which can be produced by a biorefinery process, are transformed into the corresponding cyclic anhydrides as monomers for polyester production. This method is suitable for the production of renewable polyesters in a biorefinery process.


By using a plethora of technologies and formats, the distance learning paradigm offers access to education through a large spectrum of subjects which are situated in different geographic areas. This paper presents the successful collaboration between Politehnica University of Timisoara, Romania, and the Technical Faculty "Mihajlo Pupin" of Zrenjanin, Serbia, which offer a low maintenance cooperation model based on a web cast system that allows subjects from both countries to have access to each other's educational material. The aim of this project is to raise the interest of pupils, students and graduates to the latest information regarding technical content used in the IT industry. The access takes place in real time and from the distance without the necessity of being present in order to receive the information. The obtained results are very encouraging regarding the usage of such a distance learning environment and the further development of such tools and cooperation.


The wide adoption of non-executable page protections in recent versions of popular operating systems has given rise to attacks that employ return-oriented programming (ROP) to achieve arbitrary code execution without the injection of any code. Existing defenses against ROP exploits either require source code or symbolic debugging information, or impose a significant runtime overhead, which limits their applicability for the protection of third-party applications. In this paper we present in-place code randomization, a practical mitigation technique against ROP attacks that can be applied directly on third-party software. Our method uses various narrow-scope code transformations that can be applied statically, without changing the location of basic blocks, allowing the safe randomization of stripped binaries even with partial disassembly coverage. These transformations effectively eliminate about 10%, and probabilistically break about 80% of the useful instruction sequences found in a large set of PE files. Since no additional code is inserted, in-place code randomization does not incur any measurable runtime overhead, enabling it to be easily used in tandem with existing exploit mitigations such as address space layout randomization. Our evaluation using publicly available ROP exploits and two ROP code generation toolkits demonstrates that our technique prevents the exploitation of the tested vulnerable Windows 7 applications, including Adobe Reader, as well as the automated construction of alternative ROP payloads that aim to circumvent in-place code randomization using solely any remaining unaffected instruction sequences.


Rater-mediated performance assessment (RMPA) is a critical component of interpreter certification testing systems worldwide. Given the acknowledged rater variability in RMPA and the high-stakes nature of certification testing, it is crucial to ensure rater reliability in interpreter certification performance testing (ICPT). However, a review of current ICPT practice indicates that rigorous research on rater reliability is lacking. Against this background, the present study reports on use of multifaceted Rasch measurement (MFRM) to identify the degree of severity/leniency in different raters' assessments of simultaneous interpretations (SIs) by 32 interpreters in an experimental setting. Nine raters specifically trained for the purpose were asked to evaluate four English-to-Chinese SIs by each of the interpreters, using three 8-point rating scales (information content, fluency, expression). The source texts differed in speed and in the speaker's accent (native vs non-native). Rater-generated scores were then subjected to MFRM analysis, using the FACETS program. The following general trends emerged: 1) homogeneity statistics showed that not all raters were equally severe overall; and 2) bias analyses showed that a relatively large proportion of the raters had significantly biased interactions with the interpreters and the assessment criteria. Implications for practical rating arrangements in ICPT, and for rater training, are discussed.


In this thesis settlement areas and settlements from the Bronze Age on Gotland are in focus. The island of Gotland in the middle of the Baltic Sea is famous for its rich archaeological remains of monuments and relics from all pre-historic periods, and the Bronze Age (1700-500 BC) especially is well repre- sented. There are nearly a thousand cairns, over 300 stone-ship settings and a large amount of bronze finds, but there are few traits of contemporary settlements. With few exceptions the settlements from all pre-historic periods are in one way "invisible" but during the last decades the context has changed, as has knowledge of the settlements from the Bronze Age. Research published throughout the first ten years of the 21th century offers new and refreshing interpretations concerning settlements and houses from the period in question on both a regional level and in more comprehensive studies across Scandinavia. This is due to continued advances in archaeological methods to see the invisible remains however many of the sites are discovered in exploitation-excavations. In a smaller scale this is also true for Gotland and during the last decade there are scattered finds of houses from the period in the shape of post-holes, hearths and cooking pits. The situation on the island is not to expect larger ex- ploitations followed by excavations so we have to test other ways to look for the settlement areas and settlements. In this study I therefor examine if there are any relations to the visible, in first hand cont- emporary types of monuments such as burnt mounds, cairns, stone ship settings and finds of bronzes, to sites seen as possible settlement areas from the Bronze Age. In this context I also have to consider the remains from the early Iron Age, foremost the visible remains of fossilised fields and ancient forts.The theoretical framework is a hermeneutic approach in the study of the relations of each cont- emporary types of monuments contextualized with possible settlements. As Gotland is an island I have to relate to the meaning of landscape and islands. To get closer to the society and the social orga- nisation, my aim is also to come closer to the people who lived their daily lives on Gotland during the Bronze Age and to consider the question of the chiefdoms and the social organisation.


This study examines some peculiarities of Bl. John Duns Scotus's soteriology. The Subtle Doctor offers a theological interpretation of Christ's sufferings and death which moves away from the most common "sin-centered" view, mostly promoted by St. Anselm of Canterbury. Duns Scotus instead, emphasizes the gratuitousness of Christ's passion and death, along the path already followed by St. Bernard of Clairvaux, one of the most influential advocates of such position. The Word assumed the human nature in its weakness, and accepted agony and death not bound by any need, but in order to reveal more effectively the fullness of God's love for the human being. In this way the human creature would be more effectively moved to love his Creator not compelled by fear or threat but as a token of gratitude towards his Creator who loved first.


This thesis focuses on several aspects of olfactory processing in Drosophila . In chapter I and II, I will discuss how odorants are encoded in the brain. In both insects and mammals, olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs) expressing the same odorant receptor gene converge onto the same glomerulus. This topographical organization segregates incoming odor information into combinatorial maps. One prominent theory suggests that insects and mammals discriminate odors based on these distinct combinatorial spatial codes. I tested the combinatorial coding hypothesis by engineering flies that have only one class of functional ORNs and therefore cannot support combinatorial maps. These files can be taught to discriminate between two odorants that activate the single functional class of ORN and identify an odorant across a range of concentrations, demonstrating that a combinatorial code is not required to support learned odor discrimination. In addition, these data suggest that odorant identity can be encoded as temporal patterns of ORN activity. Behaviors are influenced by motivational states of the animal. Chapter III of this thesis focuses on understanding how motivational states control behavior. Appetitive memory in Drosophila provides an excellent system for such studies because the motivational state of hunger promotes reliance on learned appetitive cues whereas satiety suppresses it. We found that activation of neuropeptide F (dNPF) neurons in fed flies releases appetitive memory performance from satiety-mediated suppression. Through a GAL4 screen, we identified six dopaminergic neurons that are a substrate for dNPF regulation. In satiated flies, these neurons inhibit mushroom body output, thereby suppressing appetitive memory performance. Hunger promotes dNPF release, which blocks the inhibitory dopaminergic neurons. The motivational drive of hunger thus affects behavior through a hierarchical inhibitory control mechanism: satiety inhibits memory performance through a subset of dopaminergic neurons, and hunger promotes appetitive memory retrieval via dNPF-mediated disinhibition of these neurons. The aforementioned studies utilize sophisticated genetic tools for Drosophila. In chapter IV, I will talk about two new genetic tools. We developed a new technique to restrict gene expression to different subsets of mushroom body neurons with unprecedented precision. We also adapted the light-activated adenylyl cyclase (PAC) from Euglena gracilis as a light-inducable cAMP system for Drosophila . This system can be used to induce cAMP synthesis in targeted neurons in live, behaving preparations.


Weeds are serious problem in dry direct seeded rice (DDSR). A field experiment was conducted during rainy seasons of 2010 and 2011 at research farm of the Regional Agricultural Research Station (RARS) Parwanipur, to study the effect of integrated weed management practices on the performance of dry direct seeded rice. Ten treatment combinations viz; weedy, weed free (weekly), Pendimethalin fb (followed by) Bispyribac, Pendimethalin fb two hand weeding, Stale seedbed fb Bispyribac, Stale seedbed fb Pendimethalin fb Bispyribac, Mulch 4 t/ha fb Bispyribac fb one hand weeding, Stale seedbed fb mulch 4 t/ha fb Bispyribac, Pendimethalin and Sesbania co-culture fb 2,4-D Na salt fb one hand weeding and Pendimethalin fb 2,4-D fb one hand weeding were tested in a randomized complete block design and replicated thrice. Observations were taken on weed, plant growth and yield attributes, yield, and socio-economic parameters. All weed control treatments significantly reduced the weed density and dry weight of weed resulting significant increase in yield of DSR over weedy check in both years. Weed free treatment resulted the highest yield, however, it was not economical due to high cost of cultivation. The use of Pendimethalin fb 2,4-D fb one hand weeding produced yield (5161 in 2010 and 6160 kg/ha in 2011) which were statistically at par with yield (5305 in 2010 and 6319 kg/ha in 2011) obtained under the weed free treatment. Further, the highest benefit cost ratio (CBR) 1.77 and 2.22 and net return Rs 47700 and 75084/ha during 2010 and 2011, respectively, were obtained under this treatment indicating its superiority over other treatments. The grain yield, yield attributing characters viz. panicles per m 2 , panicle weight, filled grain per panicle, thousand grain weight as influenced by different weed management practices revealed that higher yield resulted from weed free plot followed by Pendimethalin followed by two hand weeding and Pendimethalin followed by 2,4-D followed by one hand weeding. However, the net return per unit investment resulted highest in Pendimethalin followed by 2,4-D followed by one hand weeding. This proved that amid increasing wage rate and labor scarcity integrated weed management through Pendimethalin 30 EC (stomp) @ 1 kg a. i./ha as pre- emergence herbicide application followed by 2,4-D sodium salt 80 WP @ 0.5 kg a.i./ha followed by one hand weeding or stale seed bed followed by Pendimethalin 30 EC (stomp) @ 1 kg a. i./ha followed by Bispyribac (nominee gold) @ 25 g a. i./ha 10 % @ 200 ml/ha at 20 days of seeding resulted best alternative for manual hand weeding practices giving higher net return per unit investment. Agronomy Journal of Nepal (Agron JN) Vol. 3. 2013, Page 53-63 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/ajn.v3i0.9006


Competence for natural transformation is widespread among bacterial species. In the case of Gram-negative systems, a key step to transformation is the import of DNA across the outer membrane. Although the proteins essential for transformation have been identified, the mechanism of DNA uptake remains to be elucidated. In this work, we combine fluorescence microscopy, nanomanipulation by optical tweezers and molecular biological techniques. Employing these methods, we reveal the mechanistic role of the periplasmic DNA binding protein ComE in DNA uptake over the outer membrane and compare the uptake efficiency of double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) and single-stranded DNA (ssDNA).
We have shown that the periplasmic DNA binding protein ComE forms complexes with imported DNA at the site of DNA uptake in Neisseria gonorrhoeae. These relatively stable complexes support the accumulation of ample amounts of DNA within the gonococcal periplasm in a gene-dosage dependent fashion.
Further, we provided evidence that ComE powers DNA uptake over the outer membrane of Gram negative bacteria via a translocation ratchet mechanism. In this type of active transport, the diffusion of a biopolymer inside a membrane pore is rectified by the binding of chaperones inside the target compartment. Our evidence can be divided into three parts: 1. The force-velocity relationship of DNA uptake is in very good agreement with a theoretical description of a translocation ratchet mechanism. 2. The velocity of DNA uptake depends on the concentration of ComE. 3. The force-velocity relationship of type IV pilus retraction excludes it as a power source for DNA uptake.
Finally, we characterized DNA uptake and transformation of dsDNA and ssDNA in N. gonorrhoeae. For successful DNA uptake as a prerequisite for transformation, DNA has to bind to the cell surface in a first step in order to be transported across the outer membrane in a second step. We found that a double-stranded DNA uptake sequence (DUS) is required for species-specific DNA recognition and binding in the first step. In contrast, the kinetics of DNA transport in the second step are comparable for dsDNA and ssDNA, which is consistent with a ComE-dependent translocation ratchet mechanism.
Based on our findings, we propose a more precise mechanistic model for the DNA uptake process into the periplasm of Gram negative bacteria. Initially, a type IV competence pilus binds DNA at the surface of the cell and threads it into the periplasm by pilus retraction. In a second step, ComE binds to periplasmic DNA and powers transport via a translocation ratchet mechanism. While the secondary structure of DNA is important for initial, species-specific DNA binding, it is irrelevant for DNA transport. A second, stronger molecular motor transports the transforming DNA from the periplasm to the cytoplasm.


Background: Type-2 diabetes mellitus can be effectively treated with dipeptidyl peptidaseIV inhibitors. Diverse classes of molecules have exhibited promising DPP-IV inhibition. Objective: In this perspective, 3D-QSAR and pharmacophore studies on a series of substituted pyridopyrimidinedione derivatives were performed to explore the structural requirements for effective DPP-IV inhibitory activity. Methods: 3D-QSAR was performed on 3D-QSAR module of Vlife molecular design suite (MDS) while two strategies were used for pharmacophore identification: MolSign module of MDS and Pharmagist. Results: The most significant 3D-QSAR models obtained from kNN and PLSR exhibited 79% and 77% of internal and 66% and 67% of external predictability respectively. The results from both kNN and PLSR models suggest the contribution of electronegative group with optimum bulk to be favourable for biological activity. Additional information about field point S_376 suggests a more bulky group to be favourable around S_376 at R1. The results from pharmacophore studies by both the strategies indicate the contribution of three hydrogen bond acceptors, one hydrogen bond donor and one aromatic feature for biological activity. Conclusion: Findings of the present study can be utilized for development of new lead compounds exhibiting promising DPP-IV inhibitory activity.


Background: Rabies is a zoonotic disease and many vulnerable sections like rag pickers and municipality workers neglect animal bites due to ignorance of their potential deadly outcomes. Stray dogs abound in garbage pits and this population is exposed to their attacks. It should be a mandate for municipalities to help protect their sanitary workforce, especially rag pickers, from deadly infectious diseases such as Rabies, Hepatitis-B, HIV, Tetanus etc. Objectives: Objective of this study was to study methods to provide pre-exposure Rabies vaccination for such highly exposed populations by engaging them and understanding their perception of this disease through a constant dialogue with them. Methods: We started by engaging with the rag pickers to know how best to entice them to get themselves immunized. We then attempted to search literature for the most practical methods likely to succeed in reducing risk of rabies deaths in this population. Results: WHO approved 3 injections of 0.1 ml tissue culture vaccine on days 0, 7 and 21 were tried but were shown to result in many dropouts among rag pickers for repeat injections. We then followed a method where 0.1 ml of rabies vaccine was injected at 4 different anatomical sited in one setting. This proved acceptable and relatively inexpensive. A small number of subjects were studied by determination of neutralizing antibody by RFFIT, which proved immunogenic having anamnestic response on boosters given single IM or at 4 sites ID subsequently, implying that short schedule rabies pre-exposure vaccination can be done in high risk groups and may save lives if applied to the poorest that are highly exposed.


This study focuses on firms' optimal entry strategies in new markets when products are differentiated in quality. We are interested in investigating how many products of different qualities firms should introduce into an empty market. One profitable strategy is that firms introduce multiple products to proliferate the product space such that entry by competitors is deterred. Our results show that firms' optimal strategy to enter new markets is described by introducing a single product only. Firms differentiate their products not only toward their rivals' products to soften price competition, but also toward their own goods in order to avoid cannibalizing their own (high quality) product demand.


This is a textbook for a course designed for middle and senior managers in microfinance institutions (MFIs). It is relevant for institutions that have already diversified and are looking for ways to manage their diversification more effectively, as well as institutions that have not yet diversified and are looking for guidance on where and how to begin. This course is also useful to funding agencies and technical assistance providers that are trying to support MFIs diversification efforts. This second volume builds on the highly acclaimed Making Microfinance Work: Managing for Improved Performance. The content includes chapters on various product options, including savings, insurance, leasing, money transfers and even grants and non-financial services. It also explores how to combine different product menus to serve specific market segments, such as the ultra-poor, youth, women, SMEs and persons in rural areas and post-crisis environments. The book concludes with discussions about managing partnerships to enable MFIs to expand their product offerings and strategies to overcome the challenges of delivering a diverse product portfolio. It provides specific suggestions for managing diversification, including adapting the institutional culture, redistributing responsibilities, empowering staff, communicating with clients, reengineering systems and managing change.


OBJECTIVE
To examine street victimization and posttraumatic stress symptoms among urban homeless adolescents and to test whether emotional numbing and avoidance represent distinct posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom clusters.

METHOD
Structured, private interviews were conducted with homeless adolescents (N = 374) in the Seattle metropolitan area (95% response rate) from 1995 to 1998.

RESULTS
Eighty-three percent of street youths were physically and/or sexually victimized after leaving home. Approximately 18% of these youths met research criteria for PTSD. Results from a confirmatory factor analysis suggest that disaggregating symptoms of avoidance from symptoms of emotional numbing provides a better fit of the data than the current DSM-IV model in which these symptoms are combined in one factor.

CONCLUSIONS
Sexual and physical victimization are serious threats for homeless adolescents, and those who are victimized are at risk for PTSD. Results challenge the belief that symptoms of avoidance and numbing represent one unified cluster in this population.


Background: Within the last decade there has
been a rapid expansion in the UK of Clinical
Nurse Specialists (CNS), yet there has been
limited evidence of their effectiveness. Palliative
care has one of the largest numbers of CNS
which has particularly started to escalate in the
acute hospital setting. In light of the current
policy emphasis of Clinical Governance and
Clinical Effectiveness, there is an urgent need to
demonstrate the contribution that the CNS
make. Method: This paper presents the
qualitative findings from an evaluation study
on the impact of the CNS within a palliative
care team in a large acute university hospital in
the UK. A stakeholder evaluation was used that
encompassed tape-recorded semi-structured
interviews, to explore how the stakeholders saw
the impact of the CNS within palliative care on
doctors and nurses. 27 interviews were
conducted with stakeholders across the hospital
setting including; senior nurses, consultants,
junior doctors and nurses representing the
different grades. The data was analysed for
emerging themes using case and cross case
analysis. Results and Discussion: The results
indicated that the palliative care CNS was seen
to be providing support, advice and education
for the medical and nursing staff. Additionally
senior stakeholders identified a potential
disadvantage in the deskilling of staff. This
paper will focus upon exploring these benefits
as well as the potential disadvantage of hospital
based palliative care CNS.


This article represents one of the few attempts to conceptualize the role of some social security law principles in the regulation of social security relations. The author starts from conceptualizing the meaning of law principle as such and emphasizes the growing role of law principles in today's jurisprudence. There are six principles discussed in this article: 1. The principle of the proper reflection of the personal needs in the base of social maintenance; 2. The principle of the equality between men and women; 3. The principle of social solidarity; 4. The principle of the differentiation and unity of the retirement provisions; 5. The depolitization principle of the retirement provisions; 6. The valorization principle of the pension. The first principle means, those social security relations, including the pension relations, and the provisions regulating them shall not stay unchanged for a very long time frame. The principle of the equality between men and women shall not be challenged, though the author indicates some problems when implementing it in practice. The principle of social solidarity is one of the basic principles of the social security. Though, as the author suggests, it is being contravened recently just after the Law of the accumulation of the pensions went into force. The principle of the differentiation and unity of the retirement provisions requests to seek for maximum unifying of the provisions of retirement for most pensioners, by leaving the possibility of differentiated provision just for just a small circle of persons. The depolitization principle of the retirement provisions means that retirement provisions shall be implemented on the base of objective criteria of the existing needs, rather than on the interests of particular parties or representatives of particular professions etc. The valorization principle of the pension means that the value of the pension has to be corrected following the inflation processes, so their real value would not decline. In author's view every of these principles is being contravened in today's Lithuania's social security system. Some of the pension provisions are not in accordance with actual situation. By discussing every of the indicated principles the author gives reasoned suggestions, how the particular provisions should be amended, so they would proper reflect the actual circumstances of contemporary social relations.


Among the most important aspects of government policy aimed at Jews in the nineteenth-century Polish lands was the issue of where Jews could reside. Medieval in its roots, the conviction that some form of separation was needed was vested in contemporary arguments. Pertinent in this context was the stance taken by the authorities of the Duchy of Warsaw. The article discusses the question whether old city privileges imposing restrictions on Jews were in force at that time. The author claims—contrary to previous historiography—that this question cannot be reduced to a simple "yes"or "no"answer. Referring to the concepts of sociology of law, the double dimension of law (law in books and law in action) can be identified. The issue may serve as an interesting example of legal pluralism and the power of law-convictions. Based on ministerial and local correspondence, the analysis leads to two major conclusions. First, while in theory old city privileges were no longer in force— and this was clearly stated by ministers—the latter decided to refrain from announcing this to the public. Moreover, they agreed to develop an unofficial policy of resolving some cases "as if the old privileges were still binding."Second, the officially introduced concept of district (rewir) was designed to replace the old privileges, as it offered a variety of new justifications. These were linked to the modernization policy, with claims regarding the integration of acculturated individuals, order, sanitation, and safety.


Crop diseases and how they are managed can have a large impact on agricultural productivity. This paper discusses the effects on agricultural productivity of Verticillium dahliae, a soil borne fungus that is introduced to the soil via infested spinach seeds and that causes subsequent lettuce crops to be afflicted with Verticillium wilt. We use a dynamic structural econometric model of Verticillium wilt management for lettuce crops in Monterey County, California to examine the effects of Verticillium wilt on crop-fumigation decisions and on grower welfare. We also discuss our research on the externalities that arise with renters, and between seed companies and growers due to Verticillium wilt, as these disease-related externalities have important implications for agricultural productivity.


During a time when religious animosities were reaching their peak in Medieval Europe leading up to the violent crusades, Christians, Jews, and Muslims residing in close proximity in Medieval Spain experienced a period of relative peace, prosperity, and cultural exchange. This historical episode, referred to as La Convivencia, or the coexistence, is a puzzle to many period historians. This paper argues that this anomalistic period arose due to the emergence of commerce, which generated cooperation and mitigated conflict among these heterogeneous groups, à la the Doux-Commerce Thesis of the Scottish Enlightenment. Commercial exchange between Christians, Jews, and Muslims was established through the use of safe-conducts, a promise of protection sold to foreign merchants. This paper details the operation of safe-conducts and the civilizing role that commerce played among Christians, Jews, and Muslims in Medieval Spain.


We propose Neural Reasoner, a framework for neural network-based reasoning over natural language sentences. Given a question, Neural Reasoner can infer over multiple supporting facts and find an answer to the question in specific forms. Neural Reasoner has 1) a specific interaction-pooling mechanism, allowing it to examine multiple facts, and 2) a deep architecture, allowing it to model the complicated logical relations in reasoning tasks. Assuming no particular structure exists in the question and facts, Neural Reasoner is able to accommodate different types of reasoning and different forms of language expressions. Despite the model complexity, Neural Reasoner can still be trained effectively in an end-to-end manner. Our empirical studies show that Neural Reasoner can outperform existing neural reasoning systems with remarkable margins on two difficult artificial tasks (Positional Reasoning and Path Finding) proposed in [8]. For example, it improves the accuracy on Path Finding(10K) from 33.4% [6] to over 98%.


Introduction: Pranayama is believed to increase the respiratory stamina, relax the chest muscles, expand the lungs, raise energy levels, calm the body and cause over-all improvement in lung functions. In the present study an attempt had been made to assess the authenticity of such changes. Methods: 60 male medical students in first year MBBS in the age group of 18 to 20 were recruited for this study. Thirty were in the control group who did not practice pranayama and the other thirty were in the study group who underwent the regular practice of pranayama daily for 30 minutes in the morning. Four types of pranayama namely Vibhagha pranayama, Kapalabhati pranayama, Nadi suddhi pranayama and Savithri pranayama were chosen for this study. Pulmonary function test was done to measure vital capacity, forced vital capacity, forced expiratory volume in first second, peak expiratory flow rate and maximum ventilatory volume before and after six weeks. Results: There was significant increase in all these variables (p < 0.001) in the study group after 6 weeks of pranayama, whereas, control group did not show any significant change in these variables. Conclusion: The results of this study show the combined effect of different types of pranayama in improving the lung functions within the short period of six weeks.


This study explored the culturally driven variables in the marketing process that contribute to a brand's success or minimize cultural missteps. The primary research question was: How are consumer brand organizations building capabilities and organizing to embed cultural inclusion and insights throughout the marketing communications process? Twenty senior-level marketing executives contributed to the mixed-methods study. Five critical variables were found to be consistent across industries: effective data collection, reporting, and integration are critical; leadership must be courageous and culturally skilled; strategic alignment around cultural inclusion throughout the enterprise and across internal and external stakeholders is necessary; culturally adaptive talent management is required; and an end-to-end focus and recalibration of the processes requires resource investments and a commitment to hardwire a refined approach. Recommendations for leveraging the variables included a greater focus on data integration, inclusive leadership development, process recalibration and development of cultural agility competencies, and knowledge sharing across industries.


Communication is an important tool for evolutionary robotics. Some important aspects are the emergence of signals, the environment, and manipulation of social and evolutionary variables. In this paper we focus on social aspects related to exploration in poisoned and food environments. These aspects are as follows: a) intermediate levels of heterogeneity in population of evolutionary robots, and b) cooperation of robots for fitness contribution to regulate the emergence of communication signals. The FARSA simulator and Marxbot robot are used in order to optimize the weights of neural networks using a steady state genetic algorithm. A basic communication system is developed based on color LEDs and linear cameras.


The primary mission of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is to protect investors. However, current securities regulation clearly separates between public markets and private markets with respect to investor protection. While the federal securities laws impose strict and costly disclosure and anti-fraud requirements on issuers that offer their securities to the public, they exempt private offerings from such rigid regime. The liberal approach toward private offerings is based on the assumption that investors in private markets are sophisticated and thus can "fend for themselves". This Article explores the validity of such traditional dichotomy between the public market and the private market in a relatively new, organized secondary market for ownership interests in private companies with retail investor access (the "Secondary Market"). The Secondary Market provides investors and employees with an opportunity to sell their holdings even before the first exit event. It also allows greater flexibility in capital formation, which may enhance productivity and job growth. However, the Secondary Market raises serious problems with regard to investor protection. As this Article shows, the rise of the Secondary Market has revealed conspicuous cracks in the wall traditionally separating the public and the private markets and the two markets' participants – the sophisticated investors versus the unsophisticated investors. This separation was undermined by the penetration of unsophisticated investors to the private market sphere and by the erosion of the assumptions regarding the ability of Secondary Market's participants to fend for themselves. The Article suggests that the erosion of the sophistication presumption deems the classic dichotomy between the heavily regulated public market and the lightly regulated private market artificial. It calls for a reexamination of the current regulatory regime with respect to investor protection. Such reexamination is of particular importance in light of the new Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act that would enable private companies to stay private longer, and the Secondary Market to thrive.


We consider a number of ways of testing whether macroeconomic forecasters herd or anti-herd, i.e., whether they shade their forecasts towards those of others or purpose- fully exaggerate their differences. When applied to survey respondents expectations of inflation and output growth the tests indicate conflicting behaviour. We show that this can be explained in terms of a simple model in which differences between forecasters are primarily due to idiosyncratic factors or reporting errors rather than imitative behaviour. Models of forecaster heterogeneity that stress informational rigidities will also falsely indicate imitative behaviour.


A linear microphone array is shown to be a simple tool to locate aerodynamic sound sources on a horizontal axis wind
turbine. This paper discusses the capabilities and limitations of a linear microphone array to locate sound sources and
measure aerodynamic noise on the blades of a horizontal axis wind turbine rotor. Compared with a planar microphone
array, a linear array requires fewer microphones to achieve the same resolution, a simpler structure to support it and a
simpler signal processing algorithm. For a linear array, areas exist in the rotor plane where the sources cannot be located
unambiguously. For certain applications, it is not necessary to map the whole rotor plane. This paper also shows the result
of an experimental test aimed at locating and measuring aerodynamic sound sources on the three blades of a wind turbine.
Each blade received a different surface treatment, with the goal of comparing their relative sound emission levels. The
test was carried out with a 10.32 m linear microphone array, placed horizontally near the ground, extending parallel to the
rotor plane. The results show that for all three blades, most of the noise is generated in the outer 25% of the blade span,
with a maximum occurring just after the blade has passed the horizontal position going downwards. Results also show that
tripped blade is the noisiest of the three, whereas the smoothest, polished blade is clearly the quietest. Copyright © 2012
John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Changes in water chemistry along the lower 500 km stretch of the Parana River were assessed. The water composition of the river and of a representative floodplain marsh were compared. Short-term changes in nutrient concentrations were monitored in marsh enclosures filled with river water in order to simulate the nutrient dynamics under floodplain inundation. Experiments were performed by resuspending river suspended matter (SM) in synthetic river water acidified to floodplain pH values and short term changes in soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP) and calcium recorded. Marsh water exhibited strong depletions of oxygen and nitrate. Dissolved free CO 2 was an order of magnitude higher and pH lower than in river waters. In the marsh, the net heterotrophic metabolism below the water surface seems to be the most plausible explanation for such features. The lack of a significant downstream increase in nitrate concentration in the river, in spite of large cultural inputs, was consistent with the low nitrate concentrations observed in marsh waters and the fast nitrate disappearance in enclosure experiments, suggesting large losses by denitrification. A decrease in SM along the Lower Parana River would indicate high sediment retention within the floodplain. Calcium, bicarbonate, and soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP) concentrations were higher in the marsh than in the river. High marsh SRP concentrations are likely to originate from the weathering of river SM upon sedimentation, in response to the reducing and acidic marsh environment. The observed release of calcium and SRP upon acidification of SM is consistent with the higher contents observed in the marsh. Downstream increases in calcium, bicarbonate, and SRP along the river course suggest the effect of a large water exchange between the river and its floodplain. The downstream increase in the P content of SM was correlated to SRP concentration. Mean inorganic nitrogen/SRP ratio, by weight, decreased from 8 in the upmost sampling site, to 3.6-3.8 close to the river mouth, being 0.6-0.8 in the floodplain marsh. The TOC and POC correlations to hydrometric level and the fact that both parameters attained their maxima at the receding stage after the flood peak, suggest the floodplain origin of the river organic loading. Conductivity, sodium, potassium, chloride, and sulphate increased from Santa Fe to Rosario, without further changes downstream, suggesting an important contribution from the Salado River, a tributary of high salinity that merges with the Parana River downstream from Santa Fe.


Diseases related to the spine are common in the daily practice of neurology. As a result of recent advances in spine imaging, improved resolution and diagnostic capabilities have been realized, and the future of spine imaging holds much promise and excitement. In this focused review, we will discuss categories of spinal diseases, emphasizing the most common diseases and their imaging characteristics. There is no best technology for evaluating the spine. Rather, the choice of imaging modality should be guided by the patient's symptoms and clinical scenario. Thus, as is the case when ordering any study, it is important to have a clear differential diagnosis in mind when ordering and interpreting these tests.


This article provides a perspective on electronic publishing by distinguishing between what we call "Newtonian" publishing and what we call "quantum-mechanical" publishing. This distinction revolves around the means by which information is distributed. We conclude that much of what is currently called electronic publishing is actually classical Gutenberg-style publishing carried out by modern methods and that, from our perspective, electronic publishing has been a reality for many years. Computers and recent advances in telecommunications, however, have greatly increased the capabilities of electronic publishing and have also given rise to the possibility of creating new types of publishable artifacts, some of which we describe. The article ends with an examination of some of the recent copyright-law issues and their relationship to quantum-mechanical publishing; in particular, this section explores the distinction between the replication and the display of a copyrightable work. THE PROBLEM OF ELECTRONIC PUBLICATION Suddenly people are speaking of the "advent of the electronic publishing age." Yet publishing has existed since the time of Gutenberg and, for nearly a century now, information has been disseminated electronically. One can argue that electronic publishing was established, at least in America, in East Pittsburgh in 1919-1920 with Frank Conrad's music broadcasts at radio station KDKA (previously station 8XK).(1) In this paper we will explore the meaning of electronic publishing. We will argue that much of what today is called electronic publishing is firmly rooted in the printing press tradition, albeit updated to use electronic paper. Our thesis is that electronic publication is a delivery medium: publication is an action, a process, rather than an artifact. From the verb "to publish" comes the noun "publication," which means simply anything that is published. Calling something a publication says little about the nature of the thing, except that it can be reproduced or displayed at a distance. An electronic publication, in the strict sense, is anything that is published through electronic means; it says almost nothing about the nature of the work--the content of the media. Our first task must be to distinguish the new electronic delivery mechanisms from the classical, Gutenberg, delivery mechanisms. We will then review some of the works that can be delivered through these two kinds of media. We will discuss not only updated forms of old printed works reworked for electronic delivery, but also new classes of works based on electronic technologies. The latter are not, from our point of view, merely electronic publications, but rather new kinds of works that can be delivered only over the channels of electronic publication. They are artifacts that exploit the capabilities of the electronic channel in essential ways. Finally, we will explore some of the ramifications of electronic publication for intellectual property rights and the copyright laws used to protect such rights. MEDIA AND PUBLISHING Since Gutenburg, publishing has primarily involved hard copy media, of which paper has been the most popular. Traditionally, each step of the publishing process--authoring, submission, referencing, editing, typesetting, printing, disseminating, storing, and delivering--has used paper. How do paper and electronic media differ? To label the distinction, one might say that hard copy publishing is "Newtonian," and electronic publishing is "quantummechanical." The difference between the two becomes apparent if we construct a simple thought experiment about document delivery over a relatively large distance. It is not relevant whether the publication was created or stored electronically. What is relevant is the method of delivery. In this experiment we wish to deliver a published journal article to a space station in orbit 800 kilometers above the earth. …


The Kingdom of Sicily Image Database uses new media technologies to reframe our understanding of medieval Europe by focusing on the role of the built environment for the formation of state identity in the medieval Kingdom of Sicily ruled by Norman, Swabian, Angevin and Aragonese dynasties (950-1420). The theme is important for two reasons: the significance of South Italy as a prototype of multicultural state formation and the highly fragmentary (war bombardment, earthquakes, urban transformation) state of the sites that played a central role in the power structures of this new state. A comprehensive database of historical images of monuments and cities (prints, drawings, maps, photographs, etc.) made by scholars, artists and travellers from the 15th to the 20th centuries, can enable scholars and the public to recover the appearance of the landscape, of cities, and of individual monuments prior to radical renovations or destructions. An interdisciplinary research team is conducting a systematic survey and critical cataloguing of images dispersed in the archives, museums and libraries of Italy, Europe and US.


Thousands of workers labored at Kennedy Space Center around the clock, seven days a week, for half a year to prepare for the liftoff of Apollo 11. This is the story of what went on during those hectic six months. Countdown to a Moon Launch provides an in-depth look at the carefully choreographed workflow for an Apollo mission at KSC. Using the Apollo 11 mission as an example, readers will learn what went on day by day to transform partially completed stages and crates of parts into a ready-to-fly Saturn V. Firsthand accounts of launch pad accidents, near misses, suspected sabotage, and last-minute changes to hardware are told by more than 70 NASA employees and its contractors. A companion to Rocket Ranch, it includes many diagrams and photographs, some never before published, to illustrate all aspects of the process. NASA's groundbreaking use of computers for testing and advanced management techniques are also covered in detail. This book will demystify the question of how NASA could build and launch Apollo missions using 1960s technology. You'll discover that there was no magic involved - just an abundance of discipline, willpower, and creativity.


Three-phase capillary pressure is difficult to measure experimentally and therefore has to be estimated by other methods. In this work a network model was applied to generate a consistent set of two-phase and three-phase capillary pressure curves. Experimental data for two-phase, gas-oil and oil-water, capillary pressure from a North Sea reservoir was used in this study. The network model was anchored to the measured two-phase data, and three-phase capillary pressure was constructed. The gas-oil and mercury capillary pressure anchors the pore structure parameters, while water-oil capillary pressure anchors the wettability parameters in the network model. The three-phase capillary pressure is predicted by using the pore structure and wettability found for the two-phase cases as input. The network model quantifies the difference between two-phase and three-phase capillary pressure. In the cases studied the difference between two-phase and three-phase capillary pressure is significant.


Between the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth, Americans underwent a dramatic transformation in self-conception: having formerly lived as individuals or members of small communities, they now found themselves living in networks, which arose out of scientific and technological innovations. There were transportation and communication networks. There was the network of the globalized marketplace, which brought into the American home exotic goods previously affordable to only a few. There was the network of standard time, which bound together all but the most rural Americans. There was the public health movement, which joined individuals to their fellow citizens by making everyone responsible for the health of everyone else. There were social networks that joined individuals to their fellows at the municipal, state, national, and global levels. Previous histories of this era focus on alienation and dislocation that new technologies caused. This book shows that American individuals in this era were more connected to their fellow citizens than ever-but by bonds that were distinctly modern.


Journalism as a field is a theoretical construction inspired by Pierre Bourdieu's field theory, which sheds new light on the issues of media studies. This analytical framework was developed in France, beginning in the 1990s with the work of Patrick Champagne on the mutual influences between the fields of journalism and politics; the rare writings of Bourdieu on the journalistic field; and finally the work of young researchers on the subfields of specialized journalism. Reception of field theory in international journalism research dates back to the early 2000s, in particular around the work of Rodney Benson.
 The journalistic field is a theoretical framework consisting of about 10 main concepts that raise a large number of research questions, both theoretical and empirical. It first describes the internal relations in the social space, both as a field of struggle (with concepts of illusio or field effect) and as a field of forces (with concepts of capital, commercial vs. civic poles, autonomy, or subfield). At an individual level, it also makes sense of the conduct of individual journalists (with concepts of habitus, position and position taking, and strategy). Second, it enables consideration of the place of journalism in society and its relations with other social spaces (the concept of media capital), referring in particular to the analysis of information sources or mediatization of society.
 This research program has been incompletely realized thus far: general descriptions of the structure of current fields are lacking; little work has been done on the reception of media messages and consideration of the development of the Internet; and transnationalization of the media is insufficient. The journalistic field nevertheless has a strong heuristic potential in at least two directions. First, it is a useful tool for comparing media systems because its relational approach avoids the pitfalls of nominalism and facade comparisons. Second, it is valuable in considering the history of journalism because it describes the emergence of specifically journalistic activity without giving way to anachronism or culturalism.
 The journalistic field is a demanding but nonexclusive theoretical framework, presenting a refreshing analytical challenge for traditional topics of journalism studies, such as the production of journalistic information, the mediatization of societies, the history of journalism, or the comparison of media systems.


Lake Tana Basin is of significant importance to Ethiopia concerning water resources aspects and the ecological balance of the area. The growing high demands in utilizing the high potentials of water resource of the Lake to its maximal limit, pictures a disturbing future for the Lake. The objective of this study was to assess the influence of topography, soil, land use and climatic varia-bility on the hydrological and hydrodynamic processes of the Lake Tana Basin. The physically based SWAT model was successfully calibrated and validated for flow and sediment yield. Se-quential uncertainty fitting (SUFI-2), parameter solution (ParaSol) and generalized likelihood un-certainty estimation (GLUE) calibration and uncertainty analysis methods were compared and used for the set-up of the SWAT model. There is a good agreement between the measured and simulated flows and sediment yields. SWAT and GIS based decision support system that uses multi-criteria evaluation (MCE) was used to identify the most vulnerable areas to soil erosion in the basin. The results indicated that 12 to 30.5% of the watershed is high erosion potential. Pro-jected changes in precipitation and temperature in the basin for two seasons were analyzed using outputs from fifteen global climate models (GCMs). A historical-modification procedure was used to downscale large scale outputs from GCM models to watershed-scale climate data. The results showed significant changes in streamflow and other hydrological parameters in the period between 2045-2100. SWAT was combined with a three dimensional hydrodynamic model, GEMSS to investigate the flow structure, stratification, the flushing time, lake water balance and finally the Lake's water level response to planned water removal. We have found an alarming and dramatic fall of the water levels in Lake Tana as response to the planned water withdrawal. The combination of the two models can be used as a decision support tools to better understand and manage land and water resources in watersheds and waterbodies. The study showed that the Lake Tana Basin may experience a negative change in water balance in the forthcoming decades due to climate change as well as over abstraction of water resources.


A subharmonic mixer that has two switching stages is used to improved mixer gain in a direct downconversion receiver. The first switching stage mixes a received RF signal to an intermediate frequency that is one-half the received RF signal frequency. The second switching stage mixes the intermediate frequency to baseband. By connecting the two switching stages in series, current is reused and harmonic content from the first stage is fed into the second stage thereby improving the mixer gain.


Until now, there has been no standard method for domain names to use characters outside the ASCII repertoire. This document defines internationalized domain names (IDNs) and a mechanism called Internationalizing Domain Names in Applications (IDNA) for handling them in a standard fashion. IDNs use characters drawn from a large repertoire (Unicode), but IDNA allows the non-ASCII characters to be represented using only the ASCII characters already allowed in so- called host names today. This backward-compatible representation is required in existing protocols like DNS, so that IDNs can be introduced with no changes to the existing infrastructure. IDNA is only meant for processing domain names, not free text.


Some steroids are synthesized within the central and peripheral nervous systems, mostly by glial cells. These are known as neurosteroids. In the brain, neurosteroids have been shown to act directly on membrane receptors for neurotransmitters. For example, progesterone inhibits the neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptor, whereas its 3 alpha,5 alpha-reduced metabolite 3 alpha,5 alpha-tetrahydroprogesterone (allopregnanolone) activates the type A gamma-aminobutyric acid receptor complex. Besides these effects, neurosteroids also regulate important glial functions, such as the synthesis of myelin proteins. Thus, in cultures of glial cells prepared from neonatal rat brain, progesterone increases the number of oligodendrocytes expressing the myelin basic protein (MBP) and the 2',3'-cyclic nucleotide-3'-phophodiesterase (CNPase). An important role for neurosteroids in myelin repair has been demonstrated in the rodent sciatic nerve, where progesterone and its direct precursor pregnenolone are synthesized by Schwann cells. After cryolesion of the male mouse sciatic nerve, blocking the local synthesis or action of progesterone impairs remyelination of the regenerating axons, whereas administration of progesterone to the lesion site promotes the formation of new myelin sheaths.


This chapter provides a critical commentary of Article 2 of the Paris Agreement. Article 2 is the key provision of the much-lauded Paris Agreement, setting its key 'target temperature' – "well below 2°C" – and giving a novel degree of prominent to climate adaptation and finance. Although ostensibly focusing on its aims, objectives and principles, the paper argues that Article 2 is also the product of questionable compromises that may well undermine the core objectives of the entire climate regime. The language of Article has made more challenging the task of enforcing climate law, and distorted the concept of differentiation. These weaknesses, now hardwired into the international framework for climate action, create a legal void into which national and regional processes of constitutionalism must now step. The paper sets out a framework for the creation of credible commitments in national law, and their attainment. It remains to be seen whether systems of constitutional law can bear this weight placed upon them by an inadequate international regime.

NB: The paper also addresses the implications of the UK Plan B/Heathrow airport decision


This research has the main objective of enhancing the Rational Unified Process to better address the emerging new Globalization and Internationalization requirements of modern software, focusing on integrating the Globalization Processes, Artifacts, Roles, Activities, and best practices into the Rational Unified Process (RUP). RUP is a well established Software Development Process (SDP) that intends to guarantee quality by controlling the project schedule, budget, communication, productivity, and trustworthiness. Meanwhile, the gRUP - produced in the coarse of this research - intends to guarantee that the developed software is ready for globalization, matches the required globalization and internationalization requirements, and ensures the implementation of best practices and tests to guarantee that the produced software is globalization ready. gRUP is constructed by incorporating essential globalization activities and artifacts into RUP, and incorporates an additional Globalization Discipline to the standard nine RUP disciplines.


Although it is well known that Walter Benjamin played a leading role in the antebellum German Youth Movement, withdrawing from the presidency of the Berlin Independent Students Association and from other reformist activities only with the onset of World War I, scholars often do not ask whether this multifaceted student activism had any effect on his later thought and writing. This dossier proposes to investigate the early writings on youth and educational reform and their discernible afterlife in the better known historical-materialist phase of Benjamin's career, including his writings on radio, film, children's literature, and children's theater, as well as his studies of Franz Kafka and Bertolt Brecht. The introduction provides brief summaries of the ten articles comprising the dossier and their relation to one another, and it addresses the question of the relevance of Benjamin's ideas on education to contemporary debates concerning pedagogy.


Laws that mandate contraceptive coverage by private health insurance plans are common at the state level, and the Affordable Care Act (ACA) also recently mandated coverage at the national level. Little empirical work has examined the potential impact of these laws on women's contraceptive utilization. I perform both 1) a short-term analysis of the impact of the ACA's mandate using available data, and 2) an examination of 29 state-level contraception coverage mandates passed between 1999 and 2010 that could shed light upon the long-term utilization impacts of the national mandate. For these analyses, I use two datasets: the first a 50-state survey with an extensive set of individual-level covariates, and the second a proprietary claims dataset with detailed information on contraceptive utilization and out-of-pocket spending. I find suggestive evidence that the state mandates resulted in increased insurance coverage of some methods of contraceptives, but find no resulting changes in overall utilization or the type of method chosen. I find that the ACA mandate has caused large decreases in out-of-pocket spending on contraceptives, but I detect only very small changes in utilization in response, implying that demand for contraceptives among privately insured women is fairly price-insensitive. My results suggest that mandating insurance coverage of contraceptives is unlikely to result in immediate or large changes in patterns of contraceptive use in the U.S. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Health Care Management & Economics First Advisor Daniel Polsky Second Advisor Mark Pauly


Transition Metal Oxides (TMOs) show a wealth of intriguing properties which are governed by the interplay of charge, spin, and orbital degrees of freedom. Moreover, the comprehension of the features of strongly correlated TMOs with signi cant Spin Orbit Coupling (SOC) represents a challenging work and the interplay between large SOC and lattice geometry is undoubtedly a relevant ingredient in the exploration of such features. The most dramatic example of that occurs in iridates, where SOC deeply impacts the magnetic state, changing the character of the multiplet state within the t2g manifold in the case of an octahedral arrangement of the ions. Corresponding e ects in eg manifold have rarely been considered, due to the conventional wisdom that eg subshells ensure a perfectly quenched orbital momentum. In the rst part of the thesis, we study the in uence of SOC on the magnetic state of a d TM ion located in a tetrahedral environment, proving that its e ect can be strongly enhanced in the case of distorted geometry. Under this condition, our theoretical research reveals that SOC can induce a substantial anisotropic unquenched orbital angular momentum and can a ect the hierarchy of the lowest energy levels involved in the magnetic superexchange. Since particular geometries can give rise to novel SOC e ects, the structure


'Poverty is a very exacting teacher and I had been taught well'. The post-war urban jungle of the Glasgow tenements was the setting for Molly Weir's childhood. From sharing a pull-out bed in her mother's tiny kitchen to running in terror from the fever van, it was an upbringing that was cemented in hardship. Hunger, cold and sickness was an everyday reality and complaining was not an option. Despite the crippling poverty, there was a vivacity to the tenements that kept spirits high. Whether Molly was brushing the hair of her wizened neighbour Mrs MacKay, running to Jimmy's chip shop for a ha'penny of crimps or dancing at the annual fair, there wasn't a moment to spare for self-pity. Molly never let it get her down as she and the other urchins knew how to make do with nothing. And at the centre of her world was her fearsome but loving Grannie, whose tough, independent spirit taught Molly to rise above her pitiful surroundings and achieve her dreams.


IntroductionRecent advances in data linkage infrastructure in Australia mean that data can be linked based on various identifiers across datasets. In a first for Australia, we tested the feasibility of linking data between a clinical quality disease registry with Australian and state government health data across multiple jurisdictions.
Objectives and ApproachTo determine whether high quality linked data for stroke can be obtained using a non-government managed registry (Australian Stroke Clinical Registry, AuSCR), national death registry data (Australian government), and hospital admission and emergency presentation data (state governments) to assess the accuracy of consistent variables across the different datasets. We used a cohort design with probabilistic data linkage to merge patient-level records. Descriptive statistics presented for matching concordance and Cohen's kappa for concordance across demographic variables. The sensitivity and specificity of in-hospital deaths collected in the AuSCR was assessed against national death registrations.
ResultsThere were 16,214 registrants in the study cohort. Their identifiers in the AuSCR from 2009-2013 were linked with death, emergency department and hospital discharge data from April 2004 to December 2016. In total, 99% of the AuSCR registrants were linked to one or more datasets; 98\% were linked with emergency presentation (80%) and/or admission (95%) data. Linkage to national death registrations identified 4,183 death; 1440 of these were identified as in-hospital deaths in both data sets demonstrating that in-hospital death classification in AuSCR had a 98.7% sensitivity and 99.6% specificity. Concordance between common demographic variables was excellent (kappa 0.84 for aboriginal status and kappa 0.99 for sex).
Conclusion/ImplicationsThe majority of AuSCR registrants were accurately linked to the Australian and state government datasets. Linkage quality was excellent and there was high concordance between common variables. The ability to reliably merge the datasets assures future comprehensive analyses of stroke care, ongoing health care resource utilisation and patient outcomes.


Background The safety of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) with testicular sperm in azoospermic men has been a concern. We evaluated ICSI outcomes, including neonatal outcomes, in children born using testicular sperm or donor sperm. Material/Methods Ninety-nine males with nonobstructive azoospermia (NOA) who underwent microdissection testicular sperm extraction (micro-TESE) and 126 males with obstructive azoospermia (OA) were included in this study. Sixty-one patients with NOA used donor sperm for ICSI on the day of oocyte retrieval when no spermatozoa were identified by micro-TESE on the day before oocyte retrieval. ICSI outcomes were compared among OA, donor, and NOA groups. Results There was no statistical difference in terms of female partner characteristics among OA, donor, and NOA groups. The normal fertilization rate (P=0.005), high quality embryo rate (P=0.014), implantation rate (P<0.001), clinical pregnancy rate (P=0.015), live birth rate (P=0.043) were significant lower in the NOA group, compared with the donor sperm group. The normal fertilization rate was significant lower in the NOA group than the OA group (P<0.001), but the live birth rate was not significantly lower (P=0.058). The high-quality embryo rate (P=0.014) and implantation rate (P=0.009) were lower in the OA group than the donor group. No differences between groups were observed in our study regarding neonatal parameters of the infants born. Conclusions The fertilization and pregnancy outcomes were negatively affected by using testicular sperm from males with NOA. Once a live birth was achieved, there was no difference in neonatal outcomes.


Abstract We reared newly hatched Phaon Crescent butterfly larvae to the adult stage on a completely artificial diet. About 37% of first instars survived to the adult stage. Addition to the diet of freeze-dried host plant leaves equal to 10% by weight of dry ingredients produced up to 66% survival to the adult stage. Survival of larvae and production of adults on the artificial diet without host plant leaves was increased to equal that of diet with host plant leaves by adding 5% glucose or 5% Beck's salt mix. Although the ovaries of females produced on host-free artificial diet appeared to be mature at emergence and contained mature-looking eggs, we never obtained viable eggs from them. In contrast, females produced on the artificial diet containing at least 10% by weight of freeze-dried host plant leaves laid viable eggs, and four successive generations were reared on the artificial diet with 10% freeze-dried host plant leaves. Males produced on the artificial diet without host plant tissue displayed abnormalities in the shape of the testes and parts of the vas deferentia, compared to males reared on the diet with freeze-dried host leaves or on living host plants. The role of host plant tissue in nutrition and reproduction of both male and female Phaon crescents remains to be determined.


The synthesis of PLGA-Nanoparticles therapeutics capable of controlled loading and synchronized release of multiple therapeutic agents remains a difficult challenge in drug delivery and polymer chemistry. Herein, we report the synthesis of PLGA-Nanoparticles that carry accurate weight ratios of Amphotericin B and Doxorubicin. To our knowledge, this work provides the example of macrophage targeted therapy against visceral leishmaniasis by incorporating macrophage specific ligand-Lectin which specifically targets to the localized target sites. The highly convergent synthetic approach opens the door to new Nanoparticles based combination therapies for visceral leishmaniasis.


Abstract : Cultivation and production of opium in Afghanistan has skyrocketed since the Taliban was toppled in 2001 such that Afghanistan now supplies 92 percent of the world's illicit opium. The expanding opium trade is threatening to destabilize the Afghan government and turn the conflict-ridden country back into a safe haven for drug traffickers and terrorists. This paper examines the nature of the opium problem in Afghanistan and analyzes the strategy to counter this growing crisis. In analyzing the current counter-narcotics strategy, it points out pitfalls including the counterproductive aspects of opium eradication. Finally, changes to the strategy are proposed which include the following: increasing troop levels and eliminating national restrictions; substantially increasing financial aid; de-emphasizing opium eradication; focusing on long-term alternative livelihoods; aggressively pursuing drug kingpins and corrupt government officials; and exploring the possibility of Afghanistan entering the licit opium market.


Two dominant approaches underline the theory, practice, and methodology of global journalism. The first approach captures the various ways that journalism is practiced in different countries. This is reflected in the burgeoning field of comparative journalism studies. The second approach examines the underlying notion of globalization of the interconnected nature of the world and of global journalistic practices that not only relativize the significance of the nation state but also highlight the forces that shape the global village. Each of these perspectives has implications for journalism practice and how the world is understood. Each is influenced by complexities of the existing environment in which journalism is practiced, such as sociocultural practices and barriers, as well as economic, institutional, structural, legal, and political forces that inform journalism at national and international levels. Regardless of the differences, the two approaches are interrelated in various ways. They examine the interlocking relationship between journalism and globalization; factors that influence global news flows and foreign reporting; diverse journalistic practices and modes of education; and global journalism ethics. Altogether these perspectives provide rich analytical insights and background into the past, current, and emerging issues that inform global journalism.


The Northern/Western industrialized states exercise their power in accordance with their neoclassical perspective - which focuses on individual wealth. On the international field, we see the result in the behavior of the most powerful aggregation of individuals, the multinationals. Today, the North is waging two battles of both real and symbolic importance, one against corruption, and the other against AIDS. In this context, the North defines corruption through, for example, the OECD's anti-bribery convention, so as to assist the North-based multinational. This convention has transborder effects not sensitive to the cultural realities of bribe-receiving jurisdictions (generally assumed by the OECD to be located in the South). Similarly, the North's response to AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa has focused on the financial interests of the individual multinationals. These enterprises, sheltered behind the WTO's TRIPS Agreement, have sought to impose intellectual property rights nation-by-nation, despite the disease's transborder impact on the world-wide population. So long as the North retains disproportionate power, one means of righting the balance is to modify the North's pro-individual, wealth-maximizing perspective. Third-generation human rights, because of their focus on transborder effects and on culture, can be the tool to reshape the North's perspective.


This paper is devoted to the presentation of a risk-management methodology (RiMaHCoF) that is specifically tailored for the health-care environment. The proposed methodology includes five successive stages in all, namely initiation, domain analysis, risk assessment, risk analysis and domain monitoring. This paper focuses on the risk analysis stage. The RiMaHCoF ("Risk Management in Health Care - using Cognitive Fuzzy techniques") methodology enhances risk management in the specific domain of health care in the sense that it deems the patient's health-care information, processed and stored in a typical health-care institution, to be of utmost importance to such institution. The methodology further enhances risk management in this domain in that it incorporates cognitive fuzzy-logic techniques - as opposed to quantitative techniques such as annual loss exposure (ALE) calculation - to assess and analyse the information-technology risks. In this way, it is ensured that full cognisance is taken of the intuitive nature of human observation when assessing the possible IT risks to be incurred in a health-care institution. In addition, the methodology takes into account the vagueness of the decision making process with respect to securing patient information. The cognitive fuzzy approach to the assessment and analysis of information technology risks in health care does not only identify the high-risk areas within a typical health-care institution, but also helps to manage risks by facilitating the decision-making process with respect to securing patient information.


The impact ionization properties in InP have been studied by using an ensemble Monte Carlo (EMC) method. In our EMC model, analytical model which contains three conduction bands and three valance bands is adopted to describe the band structure. The electron and hole impact ionization rate is fitted to the available measurement in the wide range of electric field by using Keldysh formula. The steady properties of InP are presented and analyzed. Particularly, the impact ionization behaviors in InP under submicron scale are discussed in detail. It is found that the impact ionization coefficient is not only a function of the applied electric filed but also behaves a size-dependent property when the size is down to submicron scale. We also find that, the size-dependent impact ionization effect which results from the dead space effect and the confined size, can help to prevent the carriers from impact ionization. Finally, the ratio of the electron impact ionization coefficient and the hole impact ionization coefficient is further studied. By taking the size-dependent impact ionization effect into consideration, this ratio is no longer holding as a constant but changing with the size of the devices under the specific electric field. As the size scaling down, the ratio will tend to deviate from one unit, which may contribute to a new look at the noise theory of APD devices.


This article presents a study of optimal control strategies for an energy storage system connected to a network of electrified Rubber Tyre Gantry (RTG) cranes. The study aims to design optimal control strategies for the power flows associated with the energy storage device, considering the highly volatile nature of RTG crane demand and difficulties in prediction. Deterministic optimal energy management controller and a Model Predictive Controller (MPC) are proposed as potentially suitable approaches to minimise the electric energy costs associated with the real-time electricity price and maximise the peak demand reduction, under given energy storage system parameters and network specifications. A specific case study is presented in to test the proposed optimal strategies and compares them to a set-point controller. The proposed models used in the study are validated using data collected from an instrumented RTG crane at the Port of Felixstowe, UK and are compared to a standard set-point controller. The results of the proposed control strategies show a significant reduction in the potential electricity costs and peak power demand from the RTG cranes.


Twenty samples of potential source rocks from formations of the Molasse Basin, of which some are from identical formations, but different depths, were selected from the stores of oil companies. The pulverized sample materials were treated with org. solvents, followed by demineralization of the insol. residues to obtain the kerogen fractions. The exts. were sepd. by liq. chromatog. The stable C isotope ratios of the ext. fractions and those of the kerogens were detd. The bore cores from the West Molasse are not distinctly related to the corresponding crude oils. In the East Molasse, there exist isotopic relations in the case of the Rupelian and the Sannoisian samples which do not preclude the characterization of these formations as potential source rocks. As the samples investigated are too immature for the prodn. of oil, more mature source rocks may occur in larger depths, near the southern margin of the basin. According to theor. and exptl. considerations, only an insignificant enrichment in 13C in kerogen is to be expected with increasing metamorphism; therefore, isotopic correlation methods can be applied to immature kerogen samples with some success.


Data from serial renal magnetic resonance imaging of the Consortium of Radiologic Imaging Study of PKD (CRISP) autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (PKD) population showed that cystic expansion occurs at a consistent rate per individual, although it is heterogeneous in the population, and that larger kidneys are associated with more rapid disease progression. The significance of gene type to disease progression is analyzed in this study of the CRISP cohort. Gene type was determined in 183 families (219 cases); 156 (85.2%) had PKD1, and 27 (14.8%) had PKD2. PKD1 kidneys were significantly larger, but the rate of cystic growth (PKD1 5.68%/yr; PKD2 4.82%/yr) was not different (P = 0.24). Cyst number increased with age, and more cysts were detected in PKD1 kidneys (P < 0.0001). PKD1 is more severe because more cysts develop earlier, not because they grow faster, implicating the disease gene in cyst initiation but not expansion. These insights will inform the development of targeted therapies in autosomal dominant PKD.


To avoid the middle income trap, Indonesia needs to start shifting its economy to higher-value products, which requires a workforce that has an increasingly high level of knowledge, skills, and competencies. this implies that Indonesia needs to put more serious effort into the improvement of the quality of its education system. currently only 37% of teachers have the appropriate teaching qualification as defined by the 2005 teacher law and approximately 15% of all teachers are absent from their class each school day across Indonesia. to set a higher standard for teachers and to upgrade their skills, the government has implemented a massive teacher certification program beginning in 2006. this teacher certification is attached to a professional allowance that effectively doubles certified teachers' salaries. this has provided an incentive for teachers to upgrade their qualifications and increase their teaching loads to meet the certification requirements. furthermore, the program has attracted more university graduates to enter the teaching profession and produced a jump in demand for teacher education in Indonesian universities. on the other hand, there is yet to be any clear evidence that the program has had a significant impact on improving students' overall educational performance and reducing rates of teacher absenteeism. similarly, other efforts to reduce teacher absenteeism, such as the provision of a special allowance for teachers working in remote areas, have yet to show a significant impact on reducing teacher absenteeism.


The repository community has many organizations, experts, consultants, and "thought leaders" prepared to give direction and advice to the developers and managers of institutional repositories. This presentation is about how one repository (ours) has found success by rejecting much of their "conventional" wisdom and "expert" advice. We have declined to support the SPARC Addendum, promote campus mandates, encourage Creative Commons licensing, use open-source software, rely on faculty self-archiving, or require peer-review for original publishing; and we are not even considered truly "open" access by SPARC or the hard-line "libre" adherents. Yet we are the second-largest U.S. institutional repository, with more than 70,000 full-text documents available. We experience 7.5 million hits and furnish 6 million downloads annually. Our content ranks higher than Elsevier's and Springer's in Google search results. We enjoy a high degree of faculty participation and an exceptional level of return "business." Our repository accounts for 10%–12% of all daily university website traffic. We are a medium-size public university (25,000 students, 1,500 faculty) in a predominantly agricultural state (beef, corn, & soybeans), without a library school or a medical college. We have used third-party software and developed a variety of innovative service practices to win the hearts and minds of our campus community and attract users throughout the world. These practices include mediated deposit, delegated hunting and gathering, typesetting and formatting post-prints to match published versions for layout, pagination, etc., assistance with PubMed Central deposits, original and reprint monograph publishing, and the aggressive application of U.S. copyright rules on eligibility and the public domain.


The name Dar es Salaam comes from the Arabic phrase meaning house of peace. A popular but erroneous translation is 'haven of peace' resulting from a mix-up of the Arabic words "dar" (house) and "bandar" (harbour). Named in 1867 by the Sultan of Zanzibar, the town has for a long time benefitted from a reputation of being a place of tranquility. The tropical drowsiness is a comfort to the socialist poverty and under-equipment that causes an unending anxiety to reign over the town. Today, for the Tanzanian, the town has become Bongoland, that is, a place where survival is a matter of cunning and intelligence (bongo means 'brain' in Kiswahili). Far from being an anecdote, this slide into toponomy records the mutations that affect the links that Tanzanians maintain with their principal city and the manner in which it represents them. This book takes into account the changes by departing from the hypothesis that they reveal a process of territorialisation. What are the processes—envisaged as spatial investments—which, by producing exclusivity, demarcations and exclusions, fragment the urban space and its social fabric? Do the practices and discussions of the urban dwellers construct limited spaces, appropriated, identified and managed by communities (in other words, territories)? Dar es Salaam is often described as a diversified, relatively homogenous and integrating place. However, is it not more appropriate to describe it as fragmented? As territorialisation can only occur through frequenting, management and localised investment, it is therefore through certain places—first shelter and residential area, then the school, daladala station, the fire hydrant and the quays—that the town is observed. This led to broach the question in the geographical sense of urban policy carried out since German colonisation to date. At the same time, the analysis of these developments allows for an evaluation of the role of the urban crisis and the responses it brings. In sum, the aim of this approach is to measure the impact of the uniqueness of the place on the current changes. On one hand, this is linked to its long-term insertion in the Swahili civilisation, and on the other, to its colonisation by Germany and later Britain and finally, to the singularity of the post-colonial path. This latter is marked by an alternation of Ujamaa with Structural Adjustment Plans applied since 1987. How does this remarkable political culture take part in the emerging city today? This book is a translation of De Dar es Salaam a Bongoland: Mutations urbaines en Tanzanie, published by Karthala, Paris in 2006.


While theoretical models of dust condensation predict that most refractory elements produced in core-collapse supernovae (SNe) efficiently condense into dust, a large quantity of dust has so far only been observed in SN 1987A. We present an analysis of observations from the Spitzer Space Telescope, Herschel Space Observatory, Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, and AKARI of the infrared shell surrounding the pulsar wind nebula in the supernova remnant G54.1+0.3. We attribute a distinctive spectral feature at 21 μm to a magnesium silicate grain species that has been invoked in modeling the ejecta-condensed dust in Cas A, which exhibits the same spectral signature. If this species is responsible for producing the observed spectral feature and accounts for a significant fraction of the observed infrared continuum, we find that it would be the dominant constituent of the dust in G54.1+0.3, with possible secondary contributions from other compositions, such as carbon, silicate, or alumina grains. The total mass of SN-formed dust required by this model is at least 0.3 M⊙. We discuss how these results may be affected by varying dust grain properties and self-consistent grain heating models. The spatial distribution of the dust mass and temperature in G54.1+0.3 confirms the scenario in which the SN-formed dust has not yet been processed by the SN reverse shock and is being heated by stars belonging to a cluster in which the SN progenitor exploded. The dust mass and composition suggest a progenitor mass of 16–27 M⊙ and imply a high dust condensation efficiency, similar to that found for Cas A and SN 1987A. The study provides another example of significant dust formation in a Type IIP SN explosion and sheds light on the properties of pristine SN-condensed dust.


Metal oxide gas sensors have been widely used in robotics application to perform remote and mobile gas sensing. However, previous researches have indicated that this type of sensor technology is cross-sensitive to environmental temperature and humidity. This paper therefore investigates the effects of these two factors towards gas distribution mapping and gas source localization domains. A mobile robot equipped with TGS2600 gas sensor was deployed to build gas distribution maps of indoor environment, where the temperature and humidity varies. The results from the trials in environment with and without gas source indicated that there is a strong relation between the fluctuation of the mean and variance map with respect to the variations in the temperature and humidity maps.


Background: Graaff-Reinet is a rural community in the Cacadau district in the Eastern-Cape with a population of about 45,000 people. The Graaff-Reinet Municipal Area includes the town of Graaff-Reinet itself and a large farming community. Healthcare workers in the area became aware that diabetic control was sub-optimal and that a number of patients were being admitted to the local hospital due to diabetic complications. Diabetes is a costly and a very serious medical problem. Many patients with diabetes do not receive the standard of care required to avoid the complications directly associated with the disease. High quality care for patients with diabetes has been shown to make a difference. General agreement among the community of healthcare professionals on a single set of measures could provide a powerful tool for focussing on key components of care as a basis for quality improvement. In this study quality of diabetes care was determined by assessing adherence to the American Diabetes Association (ADA) clinical practice recommendations as reported by the American Diabetic Association Standard of medical care guidelines

Aims and objectives: The aims and objectives of this study were to investigate the quality of diabetic care patients at the Graaff-Reinet Muncipal Clinic are receiving.

Methods:
A retrospective descriptive study design was used to investigate the quality of care that diabetic patients at the Graaff-Reinet Municipal Clinic are receiving. This study was conducted over a one month time period during April 2008. Only diabetic patients 18 years and older and who were able to give written informed consent were included in this study. Patient interviews were conducted by healthcare professionals and data obtained from patient files.

Results: In this study, amongst the 82 participants, 59 were female and 23 males. Mean patient age was 56.78 years. 74.39% of patients were unemployed. Co-morbid diseases were present in 62 (75.66%) of patients while 66 (80.48%) had an average Body Mass Index (BMI) above 25kg/m2. The average blood glucose of patients was 10.8 mmol/L. The mean systolic and diastolic pressure was 150mmHg and 81.3mmHg respectively. No patients had their glycosylated haemoglobin (HBA1C ) tested whilst only 26.82% of patients had an eye examination. From the 82 patients 14 (17.07%) had a foot examination. Lipograms were done on only 5 patients while no patients had their urine tested for micro albumin. Self-monitoring of glucose was reported by only 8.53% of patients.

Conclusion: This study concluded that quality of care of diabetic patients at the Day Hospital in Graaff-Reinet is suboptimal and does not meet the American Diabetic Association (ADA) standards. Major changes will need to be implemented in order to make a difference to the quality of care. A follow up study will be necessary to investigate whether the implementation of new diabetic strategies and guidelines has resulted in improvements in standards of care.


This paper summarizes a series of experiments on P-leaching in structured clayey soil, mostly conducted on intact soil columns with diameter 0.5 m, and length 0.5, 0.73 or 1.0 m. Breakthrough curves of pulse-applied 32 P- and 3 H 2 O-tracers demonstrated that preferential flow was the dominant process controlling solute leaching. In the upper 0.5 m of the soil profile, dye tracing revealed the active preferential pathways to consist mainly of tubular biopores, while at increasing depths fracture planes became increasingly important. Tracing of surface applied phosphate by use of 32 P-autoradiography pointed to larger diameter biopores (diam. > 3 mm) as sole contributors to long-distance phosphate transport. The impacts of ionic strength, reducing soil conditions, faeces application, and soil depth, on P-leaching were investigated, as were the P-sorption characteristics of different macropore wall materials and bulk top- and subsoil. The results suggested P leaching to proceed through two continuously repeated steps: A loading step in which P is loaded from its solid phase sources into mobile solution, and a translocation step in which P is translocated through the soil profile with the mobile solution. Both steps depend on a range of parameters, and P-leaching will occur only if both steps are completed successfully.


Background: A microRNA, miR499c, has been discovered in human fetal heart which rescues mutant hearts in cardiac nonfunction mutant axolotl (salamander) embryos and also induces the differentiation of mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) to form into definitive cardiomyocytes. Results: Eight days after transfection with MiR499c, approximately 75-80% of the stem cells develop typical cardiomyocyte morphologies and express the cardiac specific marker, Troponin T, as well as the muscle proteins, tropomyosin and α-actinin, as shown by immunohistochemical staining. qRT-PCR confirms that transfection with MiR499c increases expression of troponin T and tropomyosin and further shows an increased expression of myosin as well as Wnt11 and Sox17. Untreated controls do not show significant expression of these proteins. Conclusion: It is evident that the miR499c induces the development of contractile myofibrils characteristic of striated cardiac muscle indicating that the miR499c microRNA plays an important role in the differentiation of cardiomyocytes.


Benthic metabolism and nutrient cycling were examined in depositional sediments of Broad Sound, Massachusetts Bay, Stellwagen Basin and Cape Cod Bay between 1990 and 1994 in water 16 to 76 m deep. Bottom water nitrate and dissolved oxygen concentrations were typically 70% of saturation. Sediment organic content was uniformly low at all sites ranging from 1.3 to 2.1% carbon and 0.1 to 0.3% nitrogen. Sediment chlorophyll a and phaeopigment con- centrations averaged ca 2 and 15 ug cm -3 respectively. Porewater nutrients and sediment-to-water fluxes of O2, dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), NH4 + , NO2 - + NO3 - , urea, PO4 3- , N2O and dissolved silicon (DSi), were measured in cores from 4 stations, 4 to 6 times a year, for 2 yr, in order to examine seasonal and annual patterns. An additional 8 sites were examined over several years in late summer in order to examine spatial patterns. Average benthic community respiration ranged from 10.6 to 14.3 mmol O2 m -2 d -1 or 12.1 to 29.8 mmol C m -2 d -1 . Within regions, respiration was highest in Broad Sound, followed by Massachusetts Bay, Cape Cod Bay and Stellwagen Basin. Sediments were sources of inorganic N. Annual average dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) fluxes ranged from 0.5 to 1.8 mmol N m -2 d -1 . For all stations, the flux of DIN was dominated by NH4 + . The importance of NO3 - fluxes relative to NH4 + increased with increasing depth. For example, in late summer the relative importance of NO3 - fluxes increased from 0 to 44% of total DIN flux between Broad Sound (<24 m) and Stellwagen Basin (75 m). Fluxes of N2O and urea were always extremely small (<0.1% of DIN). Seasonal cycles, which in general tracked bottom-water temperature and phytoplankton sedimenta- tion, were very strong for respiration (O2 and DIC) but not for fluxes of NO3 - , urea, N2O, and PO4 3- . Annual variation in benthic respiration was ca 25%, similar to that for primary production. Inorganic nutrient fluxes often varied in excess of 100% between years. Sediment mixing or porewater advec- tion is thought to contribute to high nutrient flux variability. C, N, and P flux stoichiometry deviated substantially from the Redfield ratios, suggesting strong phosphorus retention by sediments and large nitrogen removal via denitrification. DSi fluxes were relatively high, which we attribute to focusing of biogenic material in these depositional sediments. Denitrification exceeded total DIN flux, averaging 1.9 and 1.3 mmol N m -2 d -1 in Massachusetts Bay and Stellwagen Basin respectively. The percentage of remineralized N that was denitrified increased with increasing water depth (from 60 to 72% for 35 and 75 m water). Denitrification was supported almost exclusively by coupled nitrification and denitrification. The benthic community decomposed 12 to 22% of overlying water primary pro- duction but only provided 3 to 8% of the phytoplankton inorganic N requirement.


The aging effects on composite stiffness are important when structures are monitored under long-term mechanical loads and harsh chemical environment. This work aims to reveal the role of fibre-to-matrix interfacial aging on elastic constants due to a long-term sulfuric acid immersion at a high temperature and pressure. The aging effects of glass fibre matrix interfaces are rather impossible to measure directly and they cannot be easily subtracted from macro scale test results. Here, extensive numerical simulations are automatically run to show the sensitivity of all the essential elastic constants on the experimentally observed output of mechanical tests in reality. Material models are formulated for two different length-scales to understand (1) the sensitivity of the layer's length scale related elastic constants and (2) micro scale material properties. The well-established Halpin-Tsai parameters are used to include interfacial effects. The experimental results show that the aging significantly affects tensile and flexural behavior of glass fibre vinylester epoxy composites: tensile and flexural stiffness decreased 6–49% and ultimate strength values 13–34%. The simulations presented that the degradation of fibre matrix interfaces cannot be excluded and they verified the degradation of glass-fibres' modulus due the conditioning.