BACKGROUND
Lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs) in young children account for 1.4 million deaths annually worldwide. Antibiotics could be beneficial in preventing LRTIs in high-risk children, and may also help prevent school absenteeism and work days missed by children and/or carers. While it is well documented that the efficacy of antibiotic prophylaxis for RTIs decreases over time, there are no reviews that describe the use of antibiotic prophylaxis to prevent LRTIs in high-risk children aged 12 years and under.

OBJECTIVES
To assess the effectiveness and safety of antibiotic prophylaxis in the prevention of bacterial LRTIs in high-risk children aged 12 years and under.

SEARCH METHODS
We searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL 2015, Issue 1) and the Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects (DARE), MEDLINE and MEDLINE In-Process (OvidSP) (1946 to 13 February 2015), EMBASE (OvidSP) (1974 to 12 February 2015), Science Citation Index Expanded (1945 to 13 February 2015) and Conference Proceedings Citation Index-Science (Web of Science Core Collection) (1990 to 13 February 2015). We searched for ongoing studies on ClinicalTrials.gov and the World Health Organization ICTRP. We handsearched the bibliographies of retrieved full texts of relevant studies.

SELECTION CRITERIA
We included randomised controlled trials (RCTs) comparing oral or intravenous antibiotics versus placebo or no treatment to prevent infections in high-risk children aged 12 years and under. We used a combination of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Health Service (NHS), American Academy of Paediatrics (AAP) and National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines to define conditions at higher risk of complications. Our primary outcome was the incidence of bacterial lower respiratory infections. Secondary outcomes included clinical function, hospital admission, mortality, growth, use of secondary antibiotics, time off school or parental work, quality of life and adverse events.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
We extracted data using a customised data extraction sheet, assessed the risk of bias of included studies using the Cochrane 'Risk of bias' criteria, and used the GRADE criteria to rate the quality of the evidence. We used a random-effects model for meta-analysis. We presented the results narratively where we could not statistically combine data.

MAIN RESULTS
We included 10 RCTs of high-risk children using antibiotics (azithromycin, ciprofloxacin, co-trimoxazole, isoniazid, oral penicillin V or vancomycin) to prevent LRTIs. Three studies included HIV-infected children (n = 1345), four cystic fibrosis (n = 429) and one each sickle cell disease (n = 219), cancer (n = 160) and low birth weight neonates with underlying respiratory disorders (n = 40). The study duration ranged from seven days to three years. The quality of the evidence from studies including children with HIV infection, cystic fibrosis or cancer was moderate. Due to inadequate data, we were unable to rate the quality of the evidence for two studies: one in children with sickle cell disease (low risk of bias), and another in low birth weight neonates with underlying respiratory disorders (high risk of bias).In HIV-infected children receiving continuous isoniazid prophylaxis, there was no significant difference in the incidence of pulmonary tuberculosis (risk ratio (RR) 0.64, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.32 to 1.29, I(2) statistic = 47%, P value = 0.21). There was no significant effect on mortality with co-trimoxazole or isoniazid prophylaxis (RR 0.82, 0.46 to 1.46, I(2) statistic = 76%, P value = 0.58); however, analysis of one study that used co-trimoxazole showed a significant reduction in mortality (RR 0.67, 95% CI 0.53 to 0.85, P value = 0.001). There was a significant decrease in the rates of hospital admission per child-year of follow-up with co-trimoxazole prophylaxis in one study (P value = 0.01). There was no evidence of increased adverse events due to antibiotic prophylaxis (RR 1.10, 95% CI 0.75 to 1.64, I(2) statistic = 22%, P value = 0.28); however, there was scant reporting of antibiotic resistance - the one study that did assess this found no increase.In two studies of children with cystic fibrosis receiving ciprofloxacin prophylaxis, there was no significant difference in Pseudomonas infections (RR 0.76, 0.44 to 1.31, I(2) statistic = 0%, P value = 0.33). In two studies assessing the benefit of azithromycin prophylaxis, there was a significant reduction in the frequency of pulmonary exacerbations (RR 0.60, 95% CI 0.48 to 0.76, I(2) statistic = 0%, P value < 0.0001). The effect of antibiotic prophylaxis on growth in children with cystic fibrosis was inconsistent across the studies. There was an increased risk of emergence of pathogenic strains with either azithromycin or ciprofloxacin prophylaxis in two studies reporting this outcome. There was no significant difference in the quality of life (one study). In three studies, there was no significant increase in the frequency of adverse events with prophylaxis with azithromycin (two studies) or ciprofloxacin (one study). There was no evidence of increased antibiotic resistance in two studies.In the one study of children with sickle cell disease, a significantly lesser proportion of children with pneumococcal septicaemia was reported with penicillin V prophylaxis (P value = 0.0025).In the one study of children with cancer there was a significant decrease in Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia with trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole prophylaxis (RR 0.03, 95% CI 0.00 to 0.47, P value < 0.01). There was no significant increase in the frequency of adverse events with antibiotic prophylaxis.In low birth weight children with underlying respiratory disorders, there was no significant difference in the proportion of children with pulmonary infection with vancomycin prophylaxis (P value = 0.18).No included studies reported time off school or carer time off work.

AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS
There is inconclusive evidence that antibiotic prophylaxis in certain groups of high-risk children can reduce pneumonia, exacerbations, hospital admission and mortality in certain conditions. However, limitations in the evidence base mean more clinical trials assessing the effectiveness of antibiotics for preventing LRTIs in children at high risk should be conducted. Specifically, clinical trials assessing the effectiveness of antibiotics for preventing LRTIs in congenital heart disease, metabolic disease, endocrine and renal disorders, neurological disease or prematurity should be a priority.


Fish Fauna of Gonen Stream (Balikesir) The present work is aimed at determinig the fish fauna of the Gonen Stream. Fort his purpose, four different seasonal field studies were performed during 2010 and 2011. Fish samples were collected from 13 stations located betwen spring and downstream by electrofishing. 14 taxon belonging to the Salmonidae, Cyprinidae, Cobitidae, Siluridae ve Gobiidae families (Alburnus chalcoides, Barbus oligolepis, Cyprinus carpio, Carassius gibelio, Phoxinus phoxinus, Pseu- dorasbora parva, Rhodeus amarus, Rutilus rutilus, Squalius cii, Vimba vimba, Cobitis fahirae, Salmo trutta, Silurus glanis, Neogobius fluviatilis) in Salmonidae, Cyprinidae, Cobitidae, Silu- ridae and Gobiidae families were determined in the stream. Carassius gibelio, Cyprinus carpio, Pseudorasbora parva, Rutilus rutilus, Silurus glanis species were reported at the first time in the Gonen Stream by this study. As a result of this research, it was stated that the most abun- dant fish diversity belonged to the dam lake which is located in the centre of the river and sluices of regulator, and the dominancy of the fish groups belonged to Cyprinidae familia with ten species.


Blake DF, Crowe M, Mitchell SJ, Aitken P, Pollock NW. Vibration and bubbles: a systematic review of the effects of helicopter retrieval on injured divers. Diving and Hyperbaric Medicine. 2018 December 24;48(4):241−251. doi: 10.28920/ dhm48.4.241-251. PMID: 30517957.) Introduction: Vibration from a helicopter during aeromedical retrieval of divers may increase venous gas emboli (VGE) production, evolution or distribution, potentially worsening the patient's condition. Aim: To review the literature surrounding the helicopter transport of injured divers and establish if vibration contributes to increased VGE. Method: A systematic literature search of key databases was conducted to identify articles investigating vibration and bubbles during helicopter retrieval of divers. Level of evidence was graded using the Oxford Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine guidelines. A modified quality assessment tool for studies with diverse designs (QATSDD) was used to assess the overall quality of evidence. Results: Seven studies were included in the review. An in vitro research paper provided some evidence of bubble formation with gas supersaturation and vibration. Only one prospective intervention study was identified which examined the effect of vibration on VGE formation. Bubble duration was used to quantify VGE load with no difference found between the vibration and non-vibration time periods. This study was published in 1980 and technological advances since that time suggest cautious interpretation of the results. The remaining studies were retrospective chart reviews of helicopter retrieval of divers. Mode of transport, altitude exposure, oxygen and intravenous fluids use were examined. Conclusion: There is some physical evidence that vibration leads to bubble formation although there is a paucity of research on the specific effects of helicopter vibration and VGE in divers. Technological advances have led to improved assessment of VGE in divers and will aid in further research.


In "trophy hunting" agreements, wealthy individuals, typically from the Global North, pay locals such as guides or landowners, typically in the Global South, to assist with the planned hunt of rare — if not outright threatened or endangered — species such as lions, polar bears, black rhinoceroses, and giraffes for a fee as a private contractual arrangement. A well-known example is the kill of "Cecil the Lion" in the summer of 2015. American dentist Walter Palmer paid local Zimbabweans $55,000 for their assistance. In other cases, hunters have obtained government permits to kill and import a rare animal. Allegedly, trophy hunts contribute to local economies and can help raise money and awareness for species conservation. However, serious doubt has arisen as to the effectiveness of trophy hunts on society's ultimate goal — undisputed by trophy hunters — of conserving rare species. The "shadowy subculture" that is trophy hunting is one that attempts to make what is unacceptable to the general public sound acceptable under the guise of euphemisms and questionable facts. While such discussions continue, more and more of the very last few specimens of several rare species are killed for "sport." As a society, we cannot allow trophy hunting of wild, rare animals to proceed given the uncertainty surrounding the effects of the practice and the reprehensibility of it to society. Under the Precautionary Principle of Law, nations must err on the side of caution and protect the environment where there is solid scientific doubt about the viability of a given practice. This is the case with trophy hunting. At least until there is reliable evidence that trophy hunting truly helps species conservation, the practice should be banned.Contracts that are considered "unsavory," "undesirable," "at war with the interests of society," or "in conflict with the morals of the time" may be declared unenforceable for reasons of public policy by common law courts regardless of whether or not any underlying legislation provides that the contractual conduct is illegal. Allowing wealthy individuals to kill some of the very last few specimens of rare species for "sport" has become so distasteful to the general public that the time has come for courts to declare such contracts unenforceable for reasons of public policy. This Article demonstrates how this can be accomplished. The Article also examines the wildlife-protective capabilities of the public trust doctrine and the closely related state ownership of wildlife doctrine. These doctrines add further weight to the contractual argument, but also operate as stand-alone protective doctrines. To be able to present any of these arguments to a court of law, standing is a hurdle, but one that can be overcome. This Article highlights how this might be done.Restrictions on trophy hunting also finds support in international trade law. A recent "watershed case" issued by the WTO "reveal[s] that the WTO appreciates the growing worldwide awareness that animal welfare is an ethical concern that may in certain cases trump free trade" and, notably, that public morals can and should be considered as well. The case involved an EU regulation that prohibited placing any seal products from any countries on the internal market. The prohibition was passed as a result of the EU Parliament's careful consideration of the EU citizens' moral concerns surrounding the slaughter and scientific evidence regarding the inhumane hunting methods used to kill seals. The WTO Panel found that the EU measure fell within the ambit of "public morals" under Article XX(a) of GATT and that the "public morals" in connection with seal hunting is a legitimate objective pursuant to the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade. The Panel acknowledged that "animal welfare is an issue of ethical or moral nature" and that "animal welfare is matter of ethical responsibility for human beings in general." The WTO Appellate Body agreed with the Panel decision. It even found that the measure did not go far enough in achieving its objectives. The explicit recognition of the importance of animal welfare by the WTO is considered unprecedented. Since the WTO has now recognized that animal welfare is an ethical concern to be considered and that the protection of public moral concerns in relation to animal welfare is a legitimate objective that can justify trade restrictions, countries have a broader basis upon which to legislate in this field. Further, there is now clear case precedent for taking animal welfare issues into account in the trade regime as well as in national courts. WTO concerns for the animals themselves could support arguments that the remaining populations suffer from the loss of their alpha leaders as well as potential extinction, which could be argued to be a broader welfare issue. With lions, for example, other males have been known to destroy entire an entire generation of cubs in order to be able to insert their own genes into the gene pool and eradicate the genes of the deceased leaders. That is a harsh anthropogenically induced and, arguably, unnecessary result caused by trophy hunting because it has the above-mentioned negative effects on the gene pool in general. Evolution supports the reproduction by alpha animals. Trophy hunting tinkers with that at the risk of worsening the species. Further, although the WTO has been subject to some warranted criticism of the effects of GATT and WTO rules on species and the environment in general, WTO cases and other documentation does support species and environmental protections. This relates to international trophy hunting and trophy import/export agreements too, to the extent, of course, that the WTO is implicated in the first place. Perhaps most importantly, the WTO case demonstrates that at least trade tribunals may take the public outcry surrounding animal cases into consideration. "As society's abhorrence of the systematic mistreatment of animals in industry rises to the level of a public moral concern, citizens will increasingly pressure their governments to ensure that animals are treated humanely by these industries." Trophy hunting is an industry as well and may thus be affected by this case. With the seemingly increasing public sentiment against trophy hunting, both legislatures and courts now have grounds on which to rely for weighing the interests of both the public and the affected animals against the typical trade protection interests and purely monetary arguments.


In the past decade, technological advances in optical sensors have facilitated an increased understanding of the relationship between optical characteristics and biogeochemistry of our oceans. In particular, long‐pathlength liquid core waveguide cells (LCWs) are being used to "map" chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM), as a biogeochemical tracer, in various coastal and open ocean regions. At present, two LCW cell types are used in the study of marine CDOM, and concerns about discrepancies in data collected with the different cell types and problems with baseline offsets have arisen. We conducted a direct comparison of absorption coefficient spectra of a dissolved spectrophotometric standard, molecular weight standard (MWS), and dilution series of natural seawater obtained in type I and type II LCWs to assess data agreement and potential colloid‐mediated biases. Although no statistical difference was observed for the dissolved standard, we found the type I to have a slight bias toward higher absorption coefficient values for MWS 14–150 kDa (within 95% confidence interval) and natural seawater. Seawater CDOM spectral slopes differed significantly between type I and type II LCWs, with a maximum difference in slope of 0.0006 nm−1. Fastidious elimination of microbubbles from the capillary cells greatly reduced baseline offsets and markedly improved CDOM spectral slope precision.


To the Editor: Soft-tissue injuries sustained during wars are subject to environmental contamination and, thus, to a high risk for infection. Efforts to describe the epidemiology of war-associated infections are complicated by difficult access to patients, limited availability of microbiology support, and widespread empirical antimicrobial drug use. Nevertheless, identifying the relevant pathogens is critical because war-associated injuries commonly become infected and antimicrobial drug–resistant bacteria are well-described in these injuries, including those in the Middle East (1–3).

The Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) surgical project in Amman, Jordan, was initially developed for war-injured Iraqis needing surgical reconstruction or management of chronic osteomyelitis. Infection management is based on organism-directed antimicrobial agents and wide surgical resection of involved tissue. The proximity of this project to the Syrian conflict provided an opportunity to describe microbiologic features of infections caused by war-associated injuries in Syrians, who may be at increased risk for infection-associated complications because of exclusion from care in official health systems. We describe a cross-sectional series of 61 Syrian orthopedic patients who had suspected infections, as determined on the basis of surgical samples obtained intraoperatively.

Syrian patients admitted to the MSF clinic underwent initial surgical exploration of wounds; if infection was suspected, >3 intraoperative samples (bone, fibrous tissue, fluid) were obtained for culture and transported (at 4°–8°C) within 2 h to the laboratory at Ibn al-Haytham Hospital in Amman. Patients who were treated with antimicrobial drugs within 2 weeks before admission were excluded from analysis.

We retrospectively reviewed data for patients admitted during August 1, 2011–March 31, 2013. Data were collected from databases and individual charts in Amman and analyzed by using Stata 12 (http://www.stata.com/stata12/). This study was deemed exempt from additional ethical approval by the MSF review board because it involved routinely collected data.

We defined a multidrug-resistant (MDR) isolate as 1) extended-spectrum β-lactamase–expressing Enterobacteriaceae; 2) Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Acinetobacter baumannii isolates resistant to at least 1 agent in 3 antimicrobial categories typically used for treatment; or 3) methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Pathogen identification was conducted by using conventional methods and the API system (bio-Merieux, Durham, NC, USA). Antimicrobial drug susceptibility testing was conducted by using the MicroScan Walk-Away System (Dade Behring, West Sacramento, CA, USA).

During the study period, 870 patient consultations were conducted, of which 345 (40%) were for patients from Syria. At the initial operating room evaluation, infection was suspected in 61 (18%) Syrians. These patients had a median age of 26 years (interquartile range 22–34); 98% were male. The median time from injury to admission was 5 months (interquartile range 1.2–8.1), but for 27 (44%) patients, the time from injury to admission was >6 months. The 2 most common injuries were gunshot wounds (32 patients [52%]) and wounds from explosions (20 patients [33%]). The dominant injury was located in an upper extremity in 14 (23%) patients and a lower extremity in 47 (77%) patients.

For the 61 patients, a total of 67 bacterial isolates were identified from cultures of surgical specimens. Overall, 45 (74%) patients had at least 1 positive culture, and 6 (13%) patients had polymicrobial results. Gram-negative organisms represented 24 (56%) of 43 isolates; 10 (23%) were P. aeruginosa, 8 (19%) were E. coli, and 6 (14%) were A. baumannii. Gram-positive bacteria, including MRSA, represented 19 (44%) of 43 isolates (Table). Overall, 31 (69%) of 45 patients with confirmed infection were positive for MDR organisms. Within this group, MRSA represented 8 (42%) of 19 staphylococcal isolates.

Table

Antimicrobial drug resistance among frequently isolated bacterial isolates from Syrian patients with war-associated wound infections, August 2011–March 2013*

Patients who had experienced delayed definitive management were frequently positive for MDR organisms, especially gram-negative pathogens and MRSA. For a humanitarian surgical project, infection with MDR organisms leads to formidable diagnostic, treatment, and control challenges. For example, treatment of MDR infections requires ongoing access to high-quality clinical microbiology support; late-generation antimicrobial drugs, which are typically given parenterally for up to 6 weeks; trained personnel; and sufficient hospital space to isolate patients with resistant strains. Our findings support the previously reported linkage between war-associated injuries and infection with antimicrobial drug–resistant organisms (1–4) and the implications for patient management.

The source of antimicrobial drug–resistant organisms in war-associated injuries remains uncertain; possibilities include nosocomial transmission (5), particularly through prior contact with severely compromised health systems (6). Another possibility is fecal colonization with extended-spectrum β-lactamase–producing gram-negative bacteria. (7,8). Another likely contributor in Syria is the wide availability of antimicrobial drugs without a prescription (9).

This study has limitations. Although measures were taken to ensure that positive cultures represented clinical infection rather than colonization, we cannot exclude colonization as a possible source of some recovered organisms. In neglected war-associated injuries, multiple pathogens are potentially present, but every strain is not necessarily clinically relevant (10). Furthermore, complete patient histories are difficult to obtain in crisis settings, limiting our ability to describe all prior interventions. Study strengths included partnership with a high-quality culture laboratory, which is uncommon in programs treating war injuries; systemic sampling of patients with suspected infection; and use of intraoperative samples for culture. Further research needed in this neglected area includes prospective studies to determine the effect of MDR isolates on patient outcomes and randomized clinical trials of antimicrobial drug strategies to inform treatment protocols.


Certain lawyers are asking the president-elect Trump and family to sell all his assets including vast world-wide real estate at fire-sale prices and place the proceeds in a blind trust or US Treasury bonds. This will be very disruptive, unfair and may discourage future global entrepreneurs from seeking US presidency. This article offers a fair solution which does not require any sale of assets using some insights from economic theory and Foreign Gifts and Decorations Act of 1966. Aligning the interest of the American people with that Trump family can be accomplished by requiring the Trump family to forfeit all 'excess' gain in their net worth to the US treasury. Accountants at the IRS should be able to estimate what the Trumps might have earned, had Mr. Trump not been the president and hence estimate the excess, if any, at the end of his term.


Network games are widely used as a model for selfish resource-allocation problems. In the classical model, each player selects a path connecting her source and target vertex. The cost of traversing an edge depends on the number of players that traverse it. Thus, it abstracts the fact that different users may use a resource at different times and for different durations, which plays an important role in defining the costs of the users in reality. For example, when transmitting packets in a communication network, routing traffic in a road network, or processing a task in a production system, the traversal of the network involves an inherent delay, and so sharing and congestion of resources crucially depends on time.

We study timed network games, which add a time component to network games. Each vertex v in the network is associated with a cost function, mapping the load on v to the price that a player pays for staying in v for one time unit with this load. In addition, each edge has a guard, describing time intervals in which the edge can be traversed, forcing the players to spend time on vertices. Unlike earlier work that add a time component to network games, the time in our model is continuous and cannot be discretized. In particular, players have uncountably many strategies, and a game may have uncountably many pure Nash equilibria.
We study properties of timed network games with cost-sharing or congestion cost functions: their stability, equilibrium inefficiency, and complexity. In particular, we show that the answer to the question whether we can restrict attention to boundary strategies, namely ones in which edges are traversed only at the boundaries of guards, is mixed.


This paper presents the recurrent costs of rural water services in four local government areas in Mali supported by WaterAid, based on an analysis of data from 2008 to 2011, and examines how these costs are shared between different actors. The actual expenditures observed are also compared with the costs suggested as necessary by national policy and international benchmarks to provide basic sustainable rural water services. Three key lessons are identified. Firstly, operational and minor maintenance and capital maintenance contributions from users are lower than national policy and international benchmarks recommend and should be more closely monitored to understand if users are able and willing to contribute more. Secondly, the definition and responsibility for paying capital maintenance expenditure requires greater clarity. Thirdly, WaterAid and other actors could explore whether the use of municipal WASH Technical Units to support community management could be scaled-up at a lower unit cost by sharing ...


Susana Romano Sued's Procedimiento. Memoria de la Perla y la Ribera is an intense hybrid text in which the forms of testimony, conveyed by the poetic prose, have erected a double construction. One side of this construction is a tomb of the missing, those disappeared in the clandestine detention centers (CDC); the other side is a monument to the will to survive. The writing presents ghostly voices and bodies and at the same time inserts them in their everyday desperate suffering, without any concessions and often with sharp irony. The narration is built upon bodily sensation, and jailers are all the more sadistic since they confront Jewish women. All of the ideological ingredients of radical evil are articulated via actions, and only writing, as a space of conscience and memory, escapes this evil and supports the will to survive. Language becomes a transgressor; the fragmentation of the world is reflected in the fragmentation of discourse and in the multiple voices that create it. In this degraded scene, the word insists on "poetically capturing the testimony and transforming the memory in a factor of clarification of the subjectivity and of transmission of the experience." These peculiar forms of speech, this complex staging of a multiple and open textuality are the subjects of this study.


Teacher's gaze communicates consciously and unconsciously her pedagogical priorities to the students. By creating and responding to eye contact initiatives, people can communicate both status and affection. This research explores the frequency of teacher-student eye contacts and their connection to teachers' scaffolding intentions. The data consisted of mobile gaze tracking recordings of two teachers and stationary classroom videos during three collaborative mathematical problem-solving lessons. The quantitative analysis showed that most of the teacher gazes on student faces did not lead to dyadic eye contacts and those gazes that did, occurred often during affective and cognitive scaffolding. These results offer us novel and important insight in the nonverbal part of scaffolding interaction.


It is not irrelevant to wonder about how deeply and consistently the history of the Russian state, which is historically and culturally connected with Germany, is reflected in German gymnasium history books. This article compares the details and quality of information on Early Rus' presented in the gymnasium textbooks of the FRG between the 1950s and the early 21st century, following the reunification of Germany. The information they contain corresponds to the course of the school reform, big politics, and publication traditions. The author demonstrates that since the late 20th century, the information field connected with the history of Kievan Rus' has become so narrow that some textbooks do not mention this mediaeval state at all. According to the author, this is wrong for a number of reasons. Firstly, it leads to Old Rus''s and, consequently, Russia's separation from the history of Europe, which, in turn, exacerbates the cultural and political separation of the nations. Secondly, the mediaeval history of the three peoples whose origins are connected with Kievan Rus' play a decisive role in education, as they demonstrate the genesis and evolution of ethnic consciousness.


It is now well documented that capital flight has been a dominant feature of capital movements between developing and industrial countries. Since 1988 reductions in the stock of flight capital more than account for private capital flows to emerging markets. This suggests that what appears to be a diversification of portfolios of residents of developed countries may be a restoration of 'home bias' in the portfolios of residents of developing countries. We show that changes in the stock of capital flight can increase or decrease welfare depending on the structure of distortionary taxes and subsidies on capital income and the effects of capital flight on the tax base.


The rapid electrification of the transportation fleet in California raises important questions about the reliability, cost, and environmental implications for the electric grid. A crucial first element to understanding these implications is an accurate picture of the extent and timing of residential electricity use devoted to EVs. Although California is now home to over 650,000 electric vehicles (EVs), less than 5% of these vehicles are charged at home using a meter dedicated to EV use. This means that state policy has had to rely upon very incomplete data on residential charging use. This report summarizes the first phase of a project combining household electricity data and information on the adoption of electric vehicles over the span of four years. We propose a series of approaches for measuring the effects of EV adoption on electricity load in California. First, we measure load from the small subset of households that do have an EV-dedicated meter. Second, we estimate how consumption changes when households go from a standard residential electricity tariff to an EV-specific tariff. Finally, we suggest an approach for estimating the effect of EV ownership on electricity consumption in the average EV-owning household. We implement this approach using aggregated data, but future work should use household-level data to more effectively distinguish signal from noise in this analysis. Preliminary results show that households on EV-dedicated meters are using 0.35 kWh per hour from Pacific Gas and Electric (PGE); 0.38 kWh per hour from Southern California Edison; and 0.28 kWh per hour from San Diego Gas and Electric on EV charging. Households switching to EV rates without dedicated meters are using less electricity for EV charging: 0.30 kWh per hour in PGE. Our household approach applied to aggregated data is too noisy to be informative. These estimates should be viewed as evidence that more focused analysis with more detailed data would be of high value and likely necessary to produce rigorous analysis of the role EVs are playing in residential electricity consumption.


Part of the Adobe Training from the Source series, the official curriculum from Adobe, developed by experienced trainers. Using project-based tutorials, this book/CD volume is designed to teach the techniques needed to create sophisticated, professional-level projects. Each book includes a CD that contains all the files used in the lessons, plus completed projects for comparison. In the course of the book, the reader will build several Web applications using Flex Builder incorporating MXML and ActionScript 3.0. This title covers the component framework for Rich Internet Applications, Adobe Flex 3.0. New Flex 3 features covered in this edition are: the advanced DataGrid, Data Connectivity Wizards, Modularizing the Flex application, and options for deploying your Flex project with AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime).


This article examines how and why the academically-based social sciences, both pure and applied, have lost their relevance to practical human affairs (praxis) and links this discussion to the reasons why action research is a marginal activity in the academic and policy worlds. It also contains a harsh critique of action research practice focused on action researchers' combined sense of moral superiority over conventional researchers and general complacency about fundamental issues of theory, method, and validity. The central argument is that "doing good" is not the same as "doing good social research" and that we action researchers need to hold ourselves accountable to higher standards, not only to compete with conventional social research but for the benefit of the non-academic stakeholders in action research projects.


A new series connected 25 T hybrid magnet system is being set up by the Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin (HZB) for neutron scattering experiments. CRPP has designed and manufactured a pair of 20 kA current leads for the powering of the outer superconducting coils of the hybrid magnet system. In connection with the test of joints for JT60SA, the current leads were tested at ENEA at low voltage up to a current of 18 kA. The mass flow rates required to cool the current leads at different currents measured in the test are in line with the design calculations. For the sum of the resistances of the warm and cold end copper contacts of the HTS module values of 13 (Lead A) and 11 nΩ (Lead B) were measured. In addition, the helium flow through the heat exchanger part was stopped at 10 and 12 kA to study the behaviour of the current leads in case of a loss of flow. The time elapsed between stopping of the helium mass flow and the initiation of a quench was found to be 117 s (Lead A) and 125 s (Lead B) compared to a calculated value of 86 s. The lower value obtained by the calculation can be attributed to the lower initial temperatures in the experiment.


Sustainability project is an important part of project management and depends on many factors, such as financial resources, human resources, scheduling operations and especially potential risks. This paper presents a way to work with uncertain information processing project risk analysis with regard to its sustainability. Risk management is an important part of various disciplines, e.g. Project management, Crisis management, Change management, Information Security Management System, etc. Risk analysis is mostly based on expert estimates. However, this may be a problem with brand new tasks as identification of different threats and their numerical evaluations can be interpreted as a decision-making task which can be formalised as a decision tree. A decision-making task solution requires knowledge of all relevant input information items (III), such as probabilities, penalties and profits. If all those numerical values are known then the well-known methods of decision trees evaluations can be used. However, if complex project management problems are solved then a substantial set of relevant data items is missing or its accuracies are prohibitively low. The aim of this paper is to present easy approach how missing elements of the III set can be obtained and integrated into incomplete data sets. The paper contributes a common sense heuristics to obtain missing elements of the III set which can generate all numerical values, i.e. a problem under complete ignorance is solve, and a reconciliation mechanism based on linear programming which allows results of common sense heuristics simply integrate into incomplete data set, i.e. a problem under partial ignorance is solved. The results are therefore divided into two parts. In the first part solves a problem under total ignorance. The second part of the case study evaluates some unknown probabilities, therefore solves a problem under partial ignorance. Both tasks, i.e. partial and total ignorance are demonstrated using a quasi-realistic decision tree. The decision tree has one root node, 6 lotteries and 15 terminals; the total number of unknown probabilities is 21 under total ignorance and 18 probabilities are evaluated under partial ignorance.


Veterinary medicine, previously a male-dominated profession, has experienced a significant increase in the number of women applying for veterinary colleges. Today approximately 85% of veterinary students are female. Parallel to this development there has been a decline in the number of graduates entering food supply veterinary medicine careers. More and more food animal veterinarians, foremost in rural areas, are complaining about their problems to recruit young professionals for their practice. Feminization as well as the shortage of food animal veterinarians is an international phenomenon. In veterinary practice and scientific literature it has been discussed if these two trends are related. Extensive research has been conducted about this subject, mainly in Australia, Canada and the USA. In this article the existing data have been compared and discussed.


The Committee of Permanent Representatives (Coreper) originated as a diplomatic forum to meet regularly and prepare meetings of the Council of Ministers. It quickly and quietly evolved into a locus of continuous negotiation and de facto decision-making, gaining a reputation as 'the place to do the deal'. This reputation is based on insulation from domestic audiences and an unrivalled ability to make deals stick across a range of issue areas and policy subjects. Most importantly, Coreper spotlights the process of integrating interests in a collective decision-making system with its own organizational culture, norms, and style of discourse. In actual operation, the Committee has much to offer institutional theorizing, as multiple 'logics' of action are discernible and often complexly entwined.


The medicinal credence of Spigelia anthelmia suggests the plant as an important herbal remedy in the treatment of asthma and helminthiasis. A valid pharmacognostic assessment is done to give a standard and quality identification of the medicinal plant. A fresh leaf and a powdered form were evaluated. The foliar micro-morphology (qualitative and quantitative), microscopy, chemo-microscopy, and phytochemical composition were assessed using standard methods. The result indicates that for micromorphology, the cells are rectangular to polygonal with very large cells for both abaxial and adaxial epidermis. It has a straight anticlinal wall. stomata type is anomocytic for both the epidermis which means the leaf is amphistomatic. Trichomes present on the abaxial and adaxial are uniseriate and non-glandular, while they are absent on the adaxial epidermis. The stomata index for abaxial is (10.42%), while for adaxial is (5.88%). The cell length for abaxial (84.55 μm) and adaxial is (81.92 μm), while the cell width for abaxial is (58.15 μm) and for adaxial is (57.85 μm). The cell density is higher on the abaxial with (43.0 μm) and lesser on the adaxial with (32.0 μm). Mean Stomata number on the lower epidermis is (5), while on the adaxial is (2). The macroscopic features identified shows that the leaves are opposite, simple and entire, having a cylindrical shape with horny texture, the bark is coarse and the surface is smooth with a spot of brown nodules. The trunk is simple, without thorns but hairy. The leaf epidermis is straight with numerous starch grains and the crystals of calcium oxalate are present on the abaxial epidermis and absent on the adaxial. It has a granular fracture surface; its color is greyish green with a faint characteristic odor. The chemo-microscopic analysis shows that Starch, calcium carbonate crystals and cellulose are present while lignin, fats, calcium oxalate crystals, and mucilage were absent. The phytochemical screening shows that flavonoid, alkaloid, saponin, phenols, and tannin are present except, cardiac glycoside and anthraquinone. The foliar micromorphology, the macroscopy and phytochemical composition of S. anthelmia have provided proper information for its identification and authentication which can enable it to be included in the official pharmacopeia of Nigerian medicinal plants.


Genetic association studies lead to simultaneous categorical data analysis. The sample for every genetic locus consists of a contingency table containing the numbers of observed genotype-phenotype combinations. Under case-control design, the row counts of every table are identical and fixed, while column counts are random. The aim of the statistical analysis is to test independence of the phenotype and the genotype at every locus. We present an objective Bayesian methodology for these association tests, utilizing the Bayes factor proposed by Good (1976) and Crook and Good (1980). It relies on the conjugacy of Dirichlet and multinomial distributions, where the hyperprior for the Dirichlet parameter is log-Cauchy. Being based on the likelihood principle, the Bayesian tests avoid looping over all tables with given marginals. Hence, their computational burden does not increase with the sample size, in contrast to frequentist exact tests. Making use of data generated by The Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium (2007), we illustrate that the ordering of the Bayes factors shows a good agreement with that of frequentist p-values. Furthermore, we deal with specifying prior probabilities for the validity of the null hypotheses, by taking linkage disequilibrium structure into account and exploiting the concept of effective numbers of tests. Application of a Bayesian decision theoretic multiple test procedure to The Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium (2007) data illustrates the proposed methodology. Finally, we discuss two methods for reconciling frequentist and Bayesian approaches to the multiple association test problem for contingency tables in genetic association studies.


Gender representation in legislative bodies is in the forefront of discussion in the recent times. This paper is a field based research study on the women's empowerment question through the reservation system as pursued through constitutional safety-net arrangements in India. This establishes that the approach has the potential to transform the political destiny of women in India and their neglect or non-inclusion in people's representation at legislative bodies is considered as opposed to the gender justice. Introduction Gender inequality is a major social concern all over the world today. Strengthening of women's participation in all spheres of life has been felt to be a major need for economic and social development. If we look at the recommendations of most international and bilateral development agencies, we will be convinced that more policies to integrate women better into economic and social processes should be introduced while formulating all programmes worthy of accelerating development. In this context, it looks strange that the proposals for the promotion of women still face controversies despite the fact that they are meant to be implemented through affirmative action. This is because women, who form around 50 per cent of the adult population of the world and one third of the official labour force, share a considerably lower presence in elected political bodies. They carry out nearly two-third of all working hours, but receive one tenth of world's income and own less than one per cent of world's property (International Labour Organisation Study). The ILO study thus sums up the poor picture of gender equality on the global level. Women are, more often, relegated to a secondary position in the household, in the society, at workplaces and in governance. Apparently universal franchise is inadequate to overcome structural constraints that impede female presence in political offices. Thus, despite their numerical strength, women are still a minority in respect to political power and positions occupied. The presence of women in the legislative bodies is very minimal or very insignificant. In almost all countries, except some Nordic countries where it is slightly above 10 per cent, women's low percentage of participation in legislative bodies/policy/decision making bodies is a matter of deep concern. This is a case despite the absence of legal constraints. As of 1995, women's representation in the Parliament even in long established democracies has ranged from an abysmally low two per cent in Japan to a slightly comfortable 41 per cent in Sweden. The absence of quantitative and qualitative presence of women in legislatures has virtually rendered governments in democracies mostly the governments 'of men, by men and for men'. The position of women has never been marked with equality in India even though they constitute about 49 per cent of the population (Dhaka and Dhaka 2005:3). It is more true with regard to the participation of women in politics and many reasons can be attributed for this state of affairs like the nature of present day politics. Now-a-days, politics has turned more towards centralisation and criminalisation and it has also undermined all other institutions of civil society. As a result, women are pushed out of leadership positions to carry out certain social work at the local level. The attitude of male politicians can also be a factor. 'Most male politicians feel women don't make good Parliamentarians. That's because for a long time, women have played second-fiddle in matters of governance' (Patil 2005:12). As Swami Vivekananda rightly puts it, 'No nation can be great if half of its population is degraded and discriminated against. Women constitute half of India's teeming population. Political participation is a vital link towards total empowerment of women. With that empowerment, she, as many of my brothers seem to fear, is not a threat to men, but a partner in progress the 'effective-participant'- the true bhagidar' (Giri 2000: IV). …


Addition of leumedin, N-[9H-(2,7-dimethylfluorenyl-9-methoxy) carbon]-L-leucine at 30-60 microM together with LDL almost completely prevented the induction of monocyte chemotactic protein mRNA, reduced monocyte chemotactic protein 1 levels by 84%, and inhibited monocyte migration into the subendothelial space of cocultures of human aortic wall cells by < or = 98%. LDL incubated with leumedin formed a stable complex that remained intact even after refloating in an ultracentrifuge. Leumedin at 50 microM did not change conjugated diene formation during coculture modification of LDL or Cu++ catalyzed oxidation of LDL. Unlike LDL from control rabbits, LDL isolated from rabbits that were injected with 20 mg/kg leumedin was remarkably resistant to modification by the coculture and did not induce monocyte migration to a significant degree. Moreover, HDL isolated from rabbits injected with leumedin was far more effective in protecting against LDL modification by the artery wall cocultures than HDL from control rabbits. We conclude that leumedins can associate with lipoproteins in vivo, rendering LDL resistant to biological modification and markedly amplifying the protective capacity of HDL against in vitro LDL oxidation by artery wall cells.


Human dignity has developed into a core value of modern constitutionalism. In the United States, the Supreme Court has referred to human dignity only sporadically, but several justices and a number of scholars have advocated using the concept of human dignity to modernize American constitutional law and to keep in step with the international community. I argue in this Article that acceptance of the modern, largely European conception of human dignity would weaken American constitutional protections for individual rights. Human dignity as a constitutional concept has drawn its meaning from a European cultural and social context that emphasizes communitarian values, rather than individual ones. In practice, modern constitutionalism prefers balancing and harmonizing rights with other political and social needs. The widespread acceptance of such tradeoffs minimizes the importance of rights because courts review rights as part of a political calculus. By focusing on values such as human dignity, modern constitutionalism deprives rights of their special force. The experience from abroad suggests caution before importing the European ideals of human dignity into American constitutional law.


The present study was to isolate VRE from imported beef Tn Malaysia, beef is the
major consuming animal originated food and most of the beef is imported from those
countries where the use of antibiotics in the feed of animals as a growth promoter was a
common practice and was licensed. Out of 150 samples, 17 (11.3%) were positive for
VRE. Sixty-seven (67) VRE were isolated from frozen imported beef (48) and burgers
(19). The species identified were E. faeclum (35), E. faecalls (22), E. faecalls
asaccharolytic variant (3), E. pseudoavlum (3), E. gal/marum (2), E. maldoratus (1) and
E. avlum (l). Various plating media and broths were evaluated for the isolation of VRE.
Azide Dextrose broth (ADB) with vancomycin concentration of 50 µg/ml for 48 h
enrichment and plating on Slanetz and Bartley agar (SBA) with vancomycin
concentration of 50 µg/ml was concluded best for isolation of VRE. In the present study
antibiotic resistance patterns and the rates of resistance of 67 isolates were evaluated. Itwas observed that all the isolates were multiple resistant and resistant to ten of the sixteen
antibiotics tested. All isolates were 100% resistant to streptomycin, vancomycin and
teicoplanin. Other isolates were resistant between 94% to 97% to other eight antibiotics.
Penicillin, ampicil1in and chloremphenicol showed the least resistance namely, 26.8, 38.8
and 58.2%, respectively. Hemolytic activity on horse blood agar showed that 29 out of 67
isolates (43.3%) were j3-hemolytic indicating to have potency to be pathogenic. The
plasmid profiling revealed that 39 (58.2%) out of 67 bear plasmids of the range 1.0 to
35.8 MDa. Using specific PCR, vanA gene was detected among 65 of 67 isolates (97%)
which is considered to make these isolates resistant to vancomycin. The molecular
epidemiology of E. faecium and E. faecalis using RAPD-PCR technique showed the
difference in the genetic relatedness of the strains isolated from frozen imported beef and
beef burgers. It showed the genetic relatedness in terms of % similarity from the
dendrogram prepared between all the strains taken into study_ RAPD-PCR gave high
discriminating results between all the strains. The work clearly reveals that beef can be a
vehicle for VRE in Malaysia. The need for intervention to control or eliminate antibiotic
resistant Enlerococcu') from foods of animal origin has been made clearer by the results
presented in this study.


Life-saving medical implants like pacemakers and defibrillators face a big drawback that their batteries eventually run out and patients require frequent surgery to have these batteries replaced. With the advent of technology, alternatives can be provided for such surgeries. To power these devices, body energy harvesting techniques may be employed. Some of the power sources are patient's heartbeat, blood flow inside the vessels, movement of the body parts, and the body temperature (heat). Different types of sensors are employed, such as for sensing the energy from the heartbeat the piezoelectric and semiconducting coupled nanowires are used that convert the mechanical energy into electricity. Similarly, for sensing the blood flow energy, nanogenerators driven by ultrasonic waves are used that have the ability to directly convert the hydraulic energy in human body to electrical energy. Another consideration is to use body heat employing biothermal battery to generate electricity using multiple arrays of thermoelectric generators built into an implantable chip. These generators exploit the well-known thermocouple effect. For the biothermal device to work, it needs a 2°C temperature difference across it. But there are many parts of the body where a temperature difference of 5°C exists – typically in the few millimeters just below the skin, where it is planned to place this device. This study focuses on using body heat as an alternative energy source to recharge pacemaker batteries and other medical devices and prevent the possibility of life-risk during repeated surgery.


Abstract: This research describes a method applied at a U.S. university in a thirdyear Russian language course designed to facilitate Advanced and Superior second language writing proficiency through the forum of argumentation and debate. Participants had extensive informal language experience living in a Russian-speaking country but comparatively little formal language instruction, especially with regard to writing. The authors quantitatively analyzed weekly position papers and ACTFL pre- and post- Written Proficiency Test compositions using prescribed complexity measures and compared them with qualitative ACTFL proficiency ratings. Preliminary findings underscore the value to both the writer and instructor of applying both quantitative and qualitative measures; they likewise point out challenges associated with teaching students whose language has become automatized, albeit oftentimes error-full, in part owing to the nature of past language study. Key words: Russian, content-based instruction, curriculum development, second language acquisition, teaching methods, writing proficiency Introduction Matters of oral proficiency have received considerable attention in second language acquisition research, including the effects of study abroad on facilitating and even expediting language uptake. Less examined in the literature, nevertheless noteworthy of attention, is the area of second language (L2) writing, particularly in regard to assessment measures. While oral skills typically exceed other language skills at the ACTFL Novice and Intermediate levels, writing skills become increasingly important as one progresses to the Advanced level and beyond, in part owing to domain-specific expectations associated with such levels. Yet for many, written production never goes beyond the ''speech-written-down style of writing,'' which entails a degree of ''differentiation,'' i.e., a style of language unique from oral production in its syntactic complexity and increased usage of subordinated and embedded clauses (Weissberg, 2006, p. 10). If viewed from the perspective of the ACTFL Written Proficiency Test (WPT) Rating Grid by Sub-Level, then such a process of differentiation becomes particularly evident at the Intermediate-High/Advanced-Low threshold where writers are expected to demonstrate with increasing accuracy and consistency the ability to connect sentences into paragraphs using cohesive elements and devices. Sentence cohesion and paragraph-level discourse become increasingly sophisticated and consistent as one progresses stepwise within the Advanced level, thus contributing to a complexity that distinguishes itself from oral communication (see ACTFL, 2001). One method used for assessing writing proficiency involves counting the total number of connectors per total number of words in a composition. Such measures provide fine-grained, quantitative analyses that, when coupled with qualitative descriptors associated with the holistic ACTFL rating scale, stand to enhance overall rater objectivity. In essence, the WPT can serve as a valuable set of bookends at the beginning and end of a course; however, the gradual and often subtle language gain that transpires in-between those assessments likewise calls for an instrument capable of detecting nuanced degrees of change that help explain general movement in proficiency, e.g., participants' use of transition words, connectors, coordinate, participial, and adverbial clauses. This article describes one method of facilitating foreign language uptake in writing applied at a U.S. university in a third-year Russian language course comprising students with extensive informal language experience in countries of the former Soviet Union but with comparatively little exposure to the formal elements of the language, in particular its writing system. The course was designed to push students' written proficiency from the Intermediate and Advanced levels to the Advanced and Superior levels, respectively. …


Vortex lines in the superfluid cores of neutron stars carry flux due to the induced proton charge current which results from the Fermi liquid interaction between neutrons and protons. As a consequence the scatttering of charges off these magnetic vortex lines equilibrates the core superfluid to the plasma and the crust on time scales of order 1 second after a glitch. Thus, the core superfluid cannot be responsible for the observed time scales of the Vela and Crab pulsars. This result supports the theory of Alpar et al, in which both the glitch and the slow postglitch relaxation are determined by the interaction of vortices with nuclei in the crust.


The development of all-solid photonic crystal fibres for nonlinear optics is an alternative approach to air-glass solid core photonic crystal fibres. The use of soft glasses ensures a high refractive index contrast (> 0.1) and a high nonlinear coefficient of the fibres. We report on the dispersion management capabilities in all-solid photonic crystal fibres taking into account four thermally matched glasses which can be jointly processed using the stack-and-draw fibre technique. We present structures with over 450 nm broadband flat normal dispersion and ultra-flat near zero anomalous dispersion below 5 ps/nm/km over 300 nm dedicated to supercontinuum generation with 1540 nm laser sources. The development of an all-solid photonic crystal fibre made of F2 and NC21 glasses is presented. The fibre is used to demonstrate supercontinuum generation in the range of 730–870 nm (150 nm) with flatness below 5 dB.


The motivation for this Masters thesis is to develop numerical algorithms to study the dynamical evolution of non-Markovian open quantum systems. Such systems are of importance if one is interested in modeling solid state systems which are candidates for the qubit the quantum analog of the binary digit. Such an example may be a trapped spin onto which is encoded a chosen spin state. In reality, such a spin is never completely isolated from the environment, and so from a practical point of view it is of interest to study the dynamics of this interaction between some open system with an environment. The goal here is to create a computer program to simulate this behaviour of all density matrix elements for the open system numerically. Many interesting quantum systems, spin chains as an example, do not behave as a Markovian process, and it is sometimes difficult or perhaps indeed impossible to derive exact analytical solutions. As such, the techniques used in this thesis are aimed at describing non-Markovian processes in a way that approaches the exact solution. The study begins by introducing the reader to important concepts and results in the general study of both closed and open quantum systems. Differences in the treatment of the two types of systems are pointed out, and the necessary standard equations used generally are presented. Additionally, two different techniques are explained for the study of open quantum systems, namely the density matrix approach and the stochastic wavefunction approach. Important results from these two methods are presented and the section ends by convincing the reader of their equivalence. The second chapter begins with an example of an open quantum system which exhibits non-Markovian behaviour. The model of the spin star system is described and important results are given from references. This chapter introduces the reader to the model, conceptually explaining the system, and going on to show its exact analytical behaviour. This basic model, with minor changes, will be used throughout this study and the physics, interactions and symmetries, does not really change. This study then shows how one can use the stochastic wavefunction method to solve the dynamics of the spin star model. This chapter follows with deriving stochastic equations for the same system as the preceding chapter, and using these equations a numerical algorithm is developed, the results of which provide a good comparison between the exact analytical and exact numerical techniques. As a further example, a similar but slightly more complex system is studied in exactly the same manner, with the only important difference being that the open quantum system to be modeled is now a spin-one particle. Important differences in the results are pointed out and explained, and important similarities are highlighted. In presenting the results of this second simulation, shortcomings of the numerical technique and areas of applicability are discussed. In the final chapter the author considers using this numerical technique's ability to completely map the dynamics for a density matrix to investigate a measure of quantumness for an open system. This research has been submitted for publication to a peer reviewed journal.


How should we understand the purpose of publicly engaged art in the twenty-first century, when the very term "public art" is largely insufficient to describe such practices? Concepts such as "new genre public art," "social practice," or "socially engaged art" may imply a synergy between the role of art and the role of government in providing social services. Yet the arts and social services differ crucially in terms of their methods and metrics. Socially engaged artists need not be aligned (and may often be opposed) to the public sector and to institutionalized systems. In many countries, structures of democratic governance and public responsibility are shifting, eroding, and being remade in profound ways -- driven by radical economic, political, and global forces. According to what terms and through what means can art engage with these changes? This volume gathers essays, dialogues, and art projects -- some previously published and some newly commissioned -- to illuminate the ways the arts shape and reshape a rapidly changing social and governmental landscape. An artist portfolio section presents original statements and projects by some of the key figures grappling with these ideas.


The author is with the Central Electricity Research Laboratories (C. E. R. L. ) Leatherhead, of the Central Electricity Generating Board (C. E. G. B. ) In October 1974 he was registered with The City University to undertake research leading eventually to the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The author's research was carried out during the registration period and has also been reported in the following C. E. G. B. Publications: - 1. Nelson, R. L., VACTIL: a program to analyse the natural frequencies and mode shapes of cooling towers whilst explicitly including the effects of leg supports and foundation elasticity, C. E. G. B. pub. No. RD/L/P 10/76. 2. Nelson, R. L., and Hellewell, J. S., * Vibration tests on a 1/250th scale model of Didcot cooling tower, C. E. G. B. pub. No. RD/L/N 112/76. (The first author was a supervisor to the second author who was a pre-university vacation trainee. The first author was a co-worker during the project; also he commissioned the apparatus, planned the experiment and wrote the paper. ) 3. Nelson, R. L1., Stress matrix for a doubly curved shell finite element, C. E. G. B. pub. No. RD/L/N 113/76 4. Nelson, R. L1., A new algorithm to program the element matrices of doubly curved shell finite elements, C. E. G. B. pub. No. RD/L/N 139/77 5. Nelson, R. Ll., Free vibration analysis of cooling towers with leg-supports by a finite element method, C. E. C. B. pub. No. RD/L/R 1935 6. Nelson, R. Ll., Proposals for improved doubly curved shell finite elements, C. E. G. B. pub. No. RD/L/N 140/77 7. Nelson, R. L1., RESAP: a program to calculate the resonant stresses, frequencies and mode shapes of axisymmetric structures, C. E. G. B. pub. No. RD/L/P 9/77. 8. Nelson, R. L1., VACTILo2: a program to calculate the frequencies, mode shapes and stresses of shell structures, C. E. G. B. pub. No. RD/L/P /77. 9. Nelson, R. L1., Calculation of stresses mode shapes and frequencies of shell structures using doubly-curved finite elements, C. E. G. B. pub. No. RD/L/N _187/77. No part of this thesis, in whole or in part, has been submitted elsewhere for the award of a higher degree or qualification. Unless otherwise stated the work is the candidates own.


According to standard theory founded on Harsanyi (J Polit Econ 61 :434- 435, 1953; 63:309-321, 1955) a social welfare function can be appropriately based on the individual's approach to choice under uncertainty. We investigate how people really do rank distributions in terms of welfare. According to Harsanyi, the evaluation can be done from the standpoint of an uninvolved external judge, a public official, for example, or by a person who knows that she holds one of the positions in society, with an equal chance for any of the available positions. Are these two structures to be viewed differently? We use a questionnaire experiment to focus on the two different interpretations of the Harsanyi approach. There are important, systematic differences that transcend the cultural background of respondents.


Efficient collection of light into a photonic integrated circuit is becoming increasingly important. To couple light from free-space into an integrated circuit, one needs to efficiently guide it into a photonic wire. By using multiple light capturing elements and tuning their respective phases, it is possible to efficiently guide light into a single-mode waveguide, even when the phase front is distorted. Using a similar approach, a direction-of-arrival estimation is also performed. This is useful in free-space optical links or wavefront analysis. A 16 element integrated structure that performs these functions is presented here. Increasing the number of elements and downscaling the size will further improve the performance.


THE RECENT WAR in Iraq has triggered the most severe transatlantic tensions in a generation, dividing Europeans and Americans from each other and themselves. Pundits proclaim daily the imminent collapse of three vital pillars in the institutional architecture of world politics: NATO, the UN, and even the EU. And yet some form of trans atlantic cooperation clearly remains essential, given the vast mutual interests at stake. Where, then, should the Western alliance go now? The Iraq crisis offers two basic lessons. The first, for Europeans, is that American hawks were right. Unilateral intervention to coerce regime change can be a cost-effective way to deal with rogue states. In military matters, there is only one superpower-the United States-and it can go it alone if it has to. It is time to accept this fact and move on. The second lesson, for Americans, is that moderate skeptics on both sides of the Atlantic were also right. Winning a peace is much harder than winning a war. Intervention is cheap in the short run but expensive in the long run. And when it comes to the essential instruments for avoiding chaos or quagmire once the fighting stops-trade, aid, peace keeping, international monitoring, and multilateral legitimacy Europe remains indispensable. In this respect, the unipolar world turns out to be bipolar after all. Given these truths, it is now time to work out a new transatlantic bar gain, one that redirects complementary military and civilian instruments


The Westerbork film has become an iconic piece of archive footage. It was granted world document heritage by UNESCO in 2017 and has been a subject in the periphery of the international academic debate on the relationship between archival footage and historical inquiry since Harun Farockis' Respite (2007). Despite its status as one of the most important archive films of the Holocaust, there has been next to no critical research on the provenance of the material. In the course of my dissertation research, it has become clear that at least parts of the edition in circulation today– namely the subject of all written and filmic publications since the early 1990s – is not the original, but instead an altered, shortened form, most likely produced in a Dutch archive during the late 1980s with the intention to present the footage in ways attractive to potential buyers. This essay lays out the extent of these modifications to the original footage and explores their effects on subsequent essays and films. The implications of these findings for the ethics of appropriation and general approaches to archival footage in different contexts such as historiographical research and public commemoration of the genocide of the European Jews are explored in detail.


Klug, J. 2003. Elastic Neutron Scattering at 96 MeV. Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of Science and Technology 854. vi+50 pp. Uppsala. ISBN 91-554-5663-4. A facility for studies of elastic neutron scattering in the 50–130 MeV range has been developed. In addition to elastic neutron scattering, it has been used for (n,p) and (n,d) reaction experiments. The performance of the device has been illustrated in measurements of the (n,p) and (n,n) cross sections on 1H and 12C. Elastic neutron scattering from 12C and 208Pb has been studied at 96 MeV in the 10–70 degree interval. The achieved energy resolution, 3.7 MeV, is about an order of magnitude better than for any previous experiment above 65 MeV incident energy. The present experiment represents the highest neutron energy where the ground state has been resolved from the first excited state in neutron scattering. A novel method for normalization of the absolute scale of the cross section has been used. The estimated normalization uncertainty, 3 %, is unprecedented for a neutron-induced differential cross section measurement on a nuclear target. The results are compared with modern optical model predictions, based on phenomenology or microscopic nuclear theory. The data on 208Pb are in general in good agreement with the theory models. All theory models fail to describe the 12C data in the 30–50 degree interval, where the models predict a saddle structure not displayed by the present experimental data. Various reasons for this discrepancy have been investigated. For the other parts of the angular range studied, the agreement is good. These measurements have to a large degree been motivated by needs in various application areas, i. e., nuclear waste incineration by fast neutrons and biomedical effects caused by neutrons. The implications of the present results on these applications are discussed.


Political institutions play a significant role in the logic of environmental sustainability, in particular for the contribution they can make to the ambitious goals of the Paris Agreement for a global action plan aimed at limiting global warming to well below 2°C. Municipal governments can develop specific actions and initiatives that can considerably foster a local sustainable development, where the dialogue and cooperation between political and socioeconomic actors become a key element. For municipalities, an effective way for supporting the Local Agenda 21 projects and environmental performance improvement is derived from the introduction of a systemic approach for environmental management. By implementing an environmental management system (EMS), municipalities not only can improve the management effectiveness and efficiency, but they can also meet their legal obligations specifically related to the development of local environmental policies and action plans, and improve the transparency to the public about the natural environment quality and environmental protection initiatives. The integration of an Energy Management System (EnMS) can strengthen the actions for a continuous improvement of energy efficiency and, consequently, the attainment of specific energy saving targets in line with the national energy saving targets. The focus of the present paper is aimed at defining the possible actions needed to integrate an EnMS into an implemented and certified EMS. The results of a step-by-step analysis carried out by taking into account the case study of the Municipality of Udine are here presented.


Flow-mediated dilatation has been described mainly in peripheral conduit arteries. The goal of this study was to examine mechanisms and functional implications of flow-mediated dilatation in large cerebral arteries in vivo. Vessel diameter and velocity of blood flow through the basilar artery were measured using a cranial window in 45 anesthetized rats. Mean blood flow velocity through the basilar artery increased by 94 +/- 8% during unilateral common carotid artery occlusion and 203 +/- 13% during bilateral occlusion. Diameter of the basilar artery increased by 10 +/- 1% during unilateral common carotid artery occlusion and 29 +/- 2% during bilateral occlusion from control diameter of 275 +/- 8 microns. Vasodilatation appeared with a delay of 13 +/- 1 seconds after the onset of the increase in flow velocity. With systemic arterial pressure maintained at baseline levels, pressure in the basilar artery (servonull) decreased initially during carotid occlusion, and during dilatation of the basilar artery, pressure was restored partially toward normal. Indomethacin (10 mg/kg i.v.), topical application of tetrodotoxin (10(-6) M), NG-monomethyl L-arginine (5 x 10(-6) M), tetraethylammonium chloride (10(-2) M), glibenclamide (10(-5) M), SKF 525A (3 x 10(-5) M), and ouabain (10(-5) M) had no effect on flow-mediated dilatation.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


Biological systematics has undergone dramatic changes in the last 60 years. Darwin had already used the tree of life metaphor to describe evolution in On the Origin of Species, but it was not until the first rigorous tree reconstruction techniques were introduced in the 1950s and 1960s that biologists accepted the idea of basing classification strictly on "phylogenetic relationship," the branching of evolutionary lineages. This was followed by a series of groundbreaking advances in DNA sequencing and computational methods for phylogeny reconstruction in the 1980s and 1990s, spurring a flood of empirical studies of the tree of life. At the same time, the power of phylogenies in addressing questions in comparative biology was discovered in a wide range of disciplines, making phylogenetic inference an essential tool across the life sciences. A lot of empirical work still remains in most organism groups before the major branches in the tree of life are accurately characterized, but in the more well-studied groups, biologists are now shifting their focus from phylogenetic relationships to the dating of the splits in the tree. Computational approaches are also developing rapidly, allowing the mining of huge genomic data sets in the quest for more accurate evolutionary reconstructions. In parallel with these developments, some systematists are preparing for yet another transformational change, shifting their attention from the major branches in the tree of life (the major lineages) to the charting of the finest twigs and leaves (the species). Advances in both information technology and DNA sequencing are explored in attempts to accelerate the inventory of life on the planet, with the hope of completing our chart of the tree of life in time to save biological diversity for the future. Increasingly, people are becoming aware that this is not merely a question of ethics but that, ultimately, the survival of mankind may be on the line.


Proteolytic processing of the Amyloid Precursor Protein (APP) produces beta-amyloid (Aβ) peptide fragments that accumulate in Alzheimer's Disease (AD), but APP may also regulate multiple aspects of neuronal development, albeit via mechanisms that are not well understood. APP is a member of a family of transmembrane glycoproteins expressed by all higher organisms, including two mammalian orthologs (APLP1 and APLP2) that have complicated investigations into the specific activities of APP. By comparison, insects express only a single APP-related protein (APP-Like, or APPL) that contains the same protein interaction domains identified in APP. However, unlike its mammalian orthologs, APPL is only expressed by neurons, greatly simplifying an analysis of its functions in vivo. Like APP, APPL is processed by secretases to generate a similar array of extracellular and intracellular cleavage fragments, as well as an Aβ-like fragment that can induce neurotoxic responses in the brain. Exploiting the complementary advantages of two insect models (Drosophila melanogaster and Manduca sexta), we have investigated the regulation of APPL trafficking and processing with respect to different aspects of neuronal development. By comparing the behavior of endogenously expressed APPL with fluorescently tagged versions of APPL and APP, we have shown that some full-length protein is consistently trafficked into the most motile regions of developing neurons both in vitro and in vivo. Concurrently, much of the holoprotein is rapidly processed into N- and C-terminal fragments that undergo bi-directional transport within distinct vesicle populations. Unexpectedly, we also discovered that APPL can be transiently sequestered into an amphisome-like compartment in developing neurons, while manipulations targeting APPL cleavage altered their motile behavior in cultured embryos. These data suggest that multiple mechanisms restrict the bioavailability of the holoprotein to regulate APPL-dependent responses within the nervous system. Lastly, targeted expression of our double-tagged constructs (combined with time-lapse imaging) revealed that APP family proteins are subject to complex patterns of trafficking and processing that vary dramatically between different neuronal subtypes. In combination, our results provide a new perspective on how the regulation of APP family proteins can be modulated to accommodate a variety of cell type-specific responses within the embryonic and adult nervous system.


Abstract : We live in disparate times. There seems to be an increase in the occurrence of natural disasters and acts of terrorism, creating an increased dependence on government services and emergency responders. By contrast, public safety budgets are shrinking and there are fewer resources to address this greater, widespread need. The answer may be what homeland security officials have yet to do - engage the public as a full partner. A relatively new concept has emerged in which social media or Web 2.0 tools can be utilized to facilitate the timely and accurate exchange of information and better engage the public. This thesis examines the current use of Web 2.0 technologies and crisis informatics and seeks to discover how existing social media can be used to engage the public in homeland security and emergency management. This thesis concludes that social media connects people and helps build communities. Unfortunately, public safety officials have not embraced Web 2.0 technologies and are missing a great opportunity to engage the public and harness its collective power. With virtually no capital investment, public safety agencies can create an innovative partnership by capitalizing on tools the public uses everyday.


Clustering is an important data exploration task in chance discovery as well as in data mining. The first hierarchical clustering dates back to 1951 by K. Florek; since then, there have been numerous algorithms. However, there is no consensus among researchers as to what constitutes a cluster; the choice of the cluster is application-dependent. Although clustering is sometimes evaluated by interpretability of clusters, few studies have been done to reveal the interpretation aspect of clusters. This paper explains development of a new clustering algorithm by graph-based partitioning which aims to simplify interpretation of clusters. Two typical cluster types are considered: a star and a diamond. A star is a cluster with explicit shared context, represented by a central node. A diamond is a cluster with shared context, whose main cause of the context is implicit and hidden. These two types are very easy to understand. We elicit these types of clusters from a given weighted linkage graph. Minimization of weight of the graph cut isalso considered. Weshow some examples and explain the effectiveness of our method.


The coordinate transformation method for modeling surface-relief gratings is reformulated with use of the recent results [ J. Opt. Soc. Am. A13, 1870 ( 1996)] on the Fourier factorization of products that contain discontinuous periodic functions. The matrix operator of the eigenvalue problem in the traditional formulation is modified following the correct Fourier factorization procedures. In addition, a new and simpler matrix operator is derived. Both the modified old operator and the new operator greatly improve the convergence of the coordinate transformation method for gratings whose profiles have sharp edges.


This work explores the potential value of using the enormous amount of activity traces latest ubicomp environments have started to capture. We sought to understand potential practices of using these traces in the long term through a field-based study in the USA that examines how today's people use traces left by their predecessors in the houses where they live. We found that our participants received, discovered, and made use of many small traces held by artifacts, people, and building materials. Those traces were used to provide practical assistance to participants' appropriation of their houses as well as to connect participants with the past in an evocative manner. Our analysis highlights the roles played by the social context and the mutability of the house in the experience of remembering the house as well as in shaping participants' attitudes of passing on traces of prior appropriation of the place. To illustrate the design implications of those findings, we offer three design concepts to characterize potential ways of using traces captured by ubicomp environments in the long term.


A pandemic, by definition, involves the whole world being impacted by a common threat and calls for a united response. A highly virulent pathogen, the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) has affected every facet of modern life. The virus has revealed the world's underlying inherent inequities, such as economic and food insecurity and availability of and access to a functional healthcare system, not to mention preparedness of nations to manage a coordinated pandemic response. For these reasons, Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) represents an unprecedented challenge to economies, healthcare systems, and nations alike. The closing of international and internal borders, physical distancing, and the resulting decrease in travel and trade have led countries to become insular geographically, socially, and economically. Somewhat ironically, this necessitates an increased need for greater collaboration between countries and other stakeholders to control the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and better manage the global crisis upon us, so as to mitigate the long-term sequelae of this pandemic.


Flixweed (Descurainia Sophia L.) seeds, known as an herbal medicine, for the first time are used as a promising pore-forming agent (pore-former) in ceramic technology. Flixweed seeds were selected because of their unique constant shape (oblong, 1.2 mm long with the aspect ratio of about 2) and narrow size distribution as well as their low-cost. Porous zirconia ceramics have been fabricated using flixweed seeds by tape casting technique. The dried tape-cast cut into disk-shaped pieces and were fired at 1400°C for 2h, resulting in porous zirconia disks with a bulk density of 3.96 g/cm3, total porosity of 34.6 ± 0.9% (open porosity 25.5 ± 0.7%, closed porosity 9.1 ± 0.3%) and a linear shrinkage of 21.5 ± 0.3%. The pore shape and size were similar in shape and size to the original pore-former.


This work presents the derivation of a comprehensive mathematical model for an off-road vehicle such as an agricultural tractor that drags behind it a heavy implement. The models are being developed with the aim of designing robust controllers that will enable the high precision control of the implement's trajectory. The developed model is subjected to real conditions, such as ground undulation and uncertainty, sloping terrain, tyre slippage, and constrained steering of the tractor. The implement is assumed to possess independently steered wheels for aiding in implement alignment. A complete model is presented and simulated under varying conditions. Primarily this work demonstrates and validates the trailed vehicle system behavior when the trailing implement is subjected to large drag forces due to ground engagement and the significantly large lateral disturbances that occur in real life broad acre farming conditions.


The impact of low-molecular-weight organic acids (LMWOAs) on the sorption-desorption of phenanthrene, used as a representative of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, was investigated with a laboratory batch technique. Experiments were conducted with three types of soil samples containing various organic components: citric, oxalic, and malic acids. The sorption of phenanthrene by soils could be well described by a linear-type model irrespective of the addition of LMWOAs. The simulated distribution constant (K d ) and C-normalized distribution constant K oc ) for phenanthrene sorption decreased significantly with the addition of LMWOAs to the soils (P < 0.05). In contrast, the desorption amounts of phenanthrene were clearly enhanced by the addition of LMWOAs, and the impact of citric acid on the sorption-desorption of phenanthrene was generally more significant than those of oxalic or malic acids, probably due to their chemical structures and properties. Compared with the baseline soil samples, the desorption amounts of phenanthrene in the presence of LMWOAs were significantly decreased in soils after 60 d of cultivation (P < 0.05), whereby the level of the fractional soil organic C content (f oc , %) increased proportionally with the inhibition strength of phenanthrene desorption in the presence of LMWOAs. Based on these observations, we suggest that the availability of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons can be enhanced with suitable types and concentrations of LMWOAs.


This contribution explores the use of the formal resources of English (third-person singular pronouns in anaphora, sex-sensitive collocations) for "assigned gender" in a corpus of letters written by settlers of the Great Plains of the United States in the last decades of the nineteenth century. The textual work is introduced by a discussion of significant theoretical aspects of the grammatical category of gender and of certain methodological issues – particularly "Units of Anaphoric Reference". Although assigned gender has been approached from a general perspective, particular attention has been paid to two specific usages: the feminine pronoun as an indicator of colloquial American English, and the neuter pronoun as a frequent (and possibly patterned) choice for nouns like baby or child.


A mysterious parthenogenetic cambarid crayfish (the Marmorkrebs) has been spreading across the globe for the past decade. We compare this crayfish directly to two other cambarids, Procambarus fallax and P. alleni, that have been suggested to be related or even identical to the Marmorkrebs. Using external morphology and sequences of two mitochondrial genes we show clear correspondences between Marmorkrebs and P. fallax, a species found natively throughout peninsular Florida, USA. Based on these congruent results we suggest that the Marmorkrebs is the parthenogenetic form of P. fallax. This finding has potential evolutionary and ecological implications at several levels. The Marmorkrebs might be a type of geographical parthenogenesis, but a natural population in the wild is so far unknown. Furthermore, challenges arise in regard to the respective species status of the Marmorkrebs. Taxonomically we suggest that the Marmorkrebs is treated as 'parthenogenetic form' of P. fallax. Last but not least, the identity of this animal and its ecology has an impact for considering potential spread and effects of this species across the globe.


In this review article determines the different analytical methods for the quantitative establishment of Dasatinib by using HPLC, HPLCMS, HPLC-UV, LC-MS/MS. Pharmaceutical analytical method development of Dasatinib requires valid analytical procedures for quantitative and qualitative analysis in Pharmaceuticals dosage formulations and human serum. This assessment explains that the superiority of the HPLC/LC-MS methods reviewed is based on the quantitative analysis of drugs in formulations, (API), biological fluids such as serum and plasma.


In an earlier article, Two Concepts of Judicial Independence, 72 So. Cal. L. Rev. 535 (1999), I developed a taxonomy of meanings for the idea of "judicial independence" that draws on Sir Isaiah Berlin's distinction between negative and positive concepts of liberty. The constraints on judicial action range along a rough continuum ? from those that raise concerns even under an exclusively negative conception of judicial independence, such as freedom from physical intimidation or freedom from direct pecuniary consequences, to those that pose problems only under an extremely robust positive conception, such as freedom from review by higher courts, freedom to ignore precedents, and freedom to pursue a conception of the good or the just that flies in the face of enacted statutes. In this essay, prepared for a symposium at Ohio State, I apply that framework to the litigation surrounding the presidential election of 2000. I show how that litigation implicated a number of aspects of judicial independence. With respect to the justices of the Florida Supreme Court, I discuss questions such as the effect of their status as popularly elected officials, the peculiar relationship among the branches of government in presidential election cases, and their position within the judicial hierarchy. With respect to the members of the United States Supreme Court, I discuss the implications for judicial independence of potential personal stakes in the outcome of the litigation; individual Justices' desire to influence the future composition of the Court; and the Court's freedom from direct political control. Finally, I discuss the ways in which the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Bush v. Gore reflects two particularly assertive and troubling assertions of judicial independence. First, the Court saw itself as free to determine the meaning of Florida law for itself, without regard to the views of the Florida Supreme Court. Second, the per curiam opinion asserted the Court's freedom from the pervasive constraints on an individual judge's ability to pursue her own ends that precedent and stare decisis normally impose. The litigation surrounding the presidential election of 2000 illustrates a central point about judicial independence: we need to ask quite carefully what constraints judges ought to be free from, and what constraints judges ought to be bound by. In the end, judicial independence is not a single concept, but a constellation of different sorts of autonomy. Not every assertion of judicial autonomy is equally justifiable. Particularly when courts adopt aggressively independent stances, we must measure assertions of judicial autonomy against the competing claims of other actors within our system of democratic self-government.


Evaluation and adaptation are two open research lines in the field of mobile computing. Due to highly dynamism of the nowadays environments, the software agents running on these complex environments have to face problems of adaptation to user needs. That means that the initial states that prompt the software's decision making process in the
first place may dynamically change while the decision making process is still going on just because the user's opinion. So to cope with these problems, such systems should be able to acquire user's opinion and also self-adapt according to it. That is why there is a need of special kind of system that will combine ubiquity, context-awareness, intelligence, natural
interaction and adaptation in an AmI environment. Research in context-aware systems has been moving towards reusable and adaptable architectures for managing more advanced human-computer interfaces. In this paper, we assume that the adaptation decisions are taken with the goal of maximizing the user benefit of the applications or services. We estimate their QoS by using the U2E system developed in previuos work and finally propose a methodology for service adaptation.


As a part of a team, coaches need to develop their ability to leadership and exercise it to achieve the motivation of their players, since persons who are motivated in work get a greater performance. Communicate and make athletes communicate effectively is one of the major responsibilities of the coach. There is a number of aspects during the game that makes communication gain some specificities and is shown as an essential element to the performance of the player considering the limitations (Vives, 2011). Performance in critical situations, making tactical decisions in short time and having limited information, interaction with referees, staff and players as well as managing the anticipative communication are other of the tasks for coaches. The aim of this study is to know the differences of the coaches speeches who compose the sample, and check if it exists between the expert coaches common features that could help us to develop a theorical model of effective behavior during the competition. A sample of 6 expert coaches were recording during 4 games (n=24), differentiating in the register the independent variables moment, time, place and result in which the coach could provide information to their players and being developed as a dependent variable system consisting of 17 categories validated by an expert committee. On having compared the content of the speech of the different coaches, the results show that most of the coaches, place in the very nearby analysis of correspondences, which explain than the majority of the relations that are established among the variables should be weak or moderate and that on the other hand most of the content of the speech is common to almost all.


The ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithm based on the probability density function is applied
for the retrieval of spherical particle size distribution (PSD). The spectral extinction data based on the Mie
theory and the Lambert-Beer Law served as input for estimating five commonly use monomodal PSDs, i.e.,
Rosin-Rammer distribution, normal distribution, logarithmic normal distribution, modified beta distribution,
and Johnson's SB distribution. The retrieval results show that the ACO algorithm has high feasibility and
reliability, thus providing a new method for the retrieval of PSD.


Abstract The longitudinal load in rail caused by thermal expansion must be regularly monitored in order to avoid buckling or rail fracture. Different methods of monitoring with benefits and drawbacks are used or suggested. In this paper one of the proposed methods is investigated by a full-scale experiment. The aim is to measure the change in wavelength of the bending wave caused by the longitudinal load. In contrast to other vibration methods, this method does not require knowledge of the boundary conditions. However, it requires very accurate measurements, advanced finite element (FE) calculations, and sophisticated data analyses. The full-scale experiment shows that this is a method with potential. On the basis of the results of the full-scale experiment the required accuracy of the different steps in the method are clarified. Influence of measurement accuracy, loosened clamps at the sleepers, FE mesh size, degree of wear of the rail, and inaccuracy in the material parameters is considered.