Background and purpose The Stroke Specific Quality of Life Scale (SS-QoL) is a well validated measure of health related quality of life in patients with stroke, but with 49 items its length is a disadvantage. A short version of the SS-QoL was developed and tested here. Methods Secondary analyses of three different studies. The short version was developed using data from 141 patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH) and tested on data from independent samples of 97 patients with SAH and 105 patients with ischaemic stroke or intracerebral haemorrhage. The item with the highest item domain correlation from each of the SS-QoL domains was selected to obtain a 12 item SS-QoL (SS-QoL-12) with a total score and physical and psychosocial subscores. Criterion validity of the SS-QoL-12 scores was tested in each sample with the original SS-QoL as reference. Results All three scores of the SS-QoL-12 showed good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha 0.77–0.89). The SS-Qol-12 scores predicted 88–95% of the variance of the original SS-QoL. Mean differences between the SS-QoL-12 and SS-QoL and their 95% CI were generally within 0.1 points on a 1–5 scale. The limits of agreement were generally within 0.4 points. Conclusion The SS-QoL-12 has good criterion validity for all subsets of stroke. Because it consists of only 12 questions, this short form will be easy to use in research and clinical settings.


Preface. Contributors. Chapter 1 Estimating Species Trees: An Introduction to Concepts and Models (L. Lacey Knowles and Laura S. Kubatko). 1.1 Introduction. 1.1.1 Different Tree Types and Their Relationship to Phylogeny. 1.2 The Relationship Between Gene Trees and Species Trees. 1.2.1 Evolutionary Mechanisms for Gene Tree Discord. 1.2.2 The Coalescent Process and Gene Tree Distributions. 1.2.3 Phylogenetic Extensions of the Coalescent Model. 1.3 The Relationship Between Sequence Data and Gene Trees. 1.3.1 Modeling DNA Sequence Evolution along a Gene Tree. 1.4 Statistical Inference of Species Trees. 1.4.1 ML. 1.4.2 Bayesian Analysis. 1.5 Collecting DNA Sequence Data. 1.6 Conclusions. References. Chapter 2 Bayesian Estimation of Species Trees: A Practical Guide to Optimal Sampling and Analysis (Santiago Castillo-Ramirez, Liang Liu, Dennis Pearl and Scott V. Edwards). 2.1 Introduction. 2.1.1 Empirical Examples Using BEST. 2.2 Factors Influencing Confidence in Estimated Species Trees Using BEST. 2.2.1 Simulation Protocol. 2.2.2 Results of Simulations on Number and Length of Loci. 2.2.3 Multifactorial Prediction of Confidence in Species Trees. 2.2.4 Effect of the Number of Alleles Sampled per Locus on Species Tree Estimation. 2.2.5 Effect of Recombination on Species Tree Inference. 2.3 Some Tips on Running the BEST MCMC Algorithm. 2.4 Conclusions and Challenges. Acknowledgments. References. Chapter 3 Reconstructing Concordance Trees and Testing the Coalescent Model from Genome-Wide Data Sets (Cecile Ane). 3.1 Introduction. 3.2 BCA: Background. 3.2.1 Sharing of Information across Gene Trees. 3.2.2 How to Choose the A Priori Level of Discordance alpha. 3.2.3 The Choice of an Infinite alpha in BCA. 3.2.4 A Nonparametric Prior Distribution on Gene Trees. 3.3 Genomic Support versus Statistical Support. 3.4 Comparing CFs of Contradicting Clades for Reconstructing the Dominant History. 3.5 Testing the Hypothesis That All Discordance is Due to ILS. 3.6 Species Tree Reconstruction from CFs. 3.7 The Challenge of Determining Loci on Whole-Genome Alignments. 3.7.1 The Assumption of Homogeneous, Unlinked Loci for GT/ST Reconstruction. 3.7.2 Detecting Recombination Breakpoints for GT/ST Reconstruction. 3.7.3 A Minimum Description Length (MDL) Information Criterion. 3.7.4 Comparisons with Other Partitioning Criteria. Acknowledgments. References. Chapter 4 Probabilities of Gene Tree Topoligies with Intraspecific Sampling Given a Species Tree (James H. Degnan). 4.1 Introduction. 4.2 Background and Terminology. 4.2.1 Incomplete Lineage Sorting. 4.2.2 Notation. 4.3 Gene Tree Topology Probabilities-Theory. 4.3.1 Enumerating Coalescent Histories. 4.3.2 The Probability of a Coalescent History. 4.3.3 Probability Mass Function for Gene Tree Topologies. 4.4 Gene Tree Topology Probabilities-Examples. 4.4.1 Enumeration of Coalescent Histories. 4.4.2 Calculation of Probabilities of Coalescent Histories. 4.5 Applications. 4.5.1 Probabilities of Multilabeled Trees. 4.5.2 Probability of Monophyletic Concordance. 4.5.3 AGTs. 4.6 Conclusions. References. Appendix: Using Coal. Using the Software. Setting Up Species Tree Branch Lengths. Chapter 5 Inference of Parsimonious Species Tree from Multilocus Data by Minimizing Deep Coalescences (Cuong Than and Luay Nakhleh). 5.1 Introduction. 5.2 Trees, Clusters, and the Compatibility Graph. 5.3 Valid Coalescent Histories, Extra Lineages, and the MDC Criterion. 5.4 Exact Algorithms for the MDC Problem. 5.4.1 An ILP Algorithm. 5.4.2 A DP Algorithm. 5.5 Handling Special Cases. 5.5.1 Multiple Individuals per Species. 5.5.2 Nonbinary Trees. 5.6 Performance of MDC. 5.7 Inference from The Clusters of The Gene Trees. 5.8 Using PhyloNet. 5.8.1 Using PhyloNet to Count Valid Coalescent Histories. 5.8.2 Using PhyloNet to Infer Species Trees Under MDC. 5.9 Conclusions. Acknowledgments. References. Chapter 6 Accommodating Hybridization in a Multilocus Phylogenetic Framework (Laura S. Kubatko and Chen Meng). 6.1 Introduction. 6.2 Methods for Detecting Hybridization in The Presence of Incomplete Lineage Sorting. 6.3 A Phylogenetic Model for Hybridization in The Presence of Incomplete Lineage Sorting. 6.3.1 Estimation and Testing for the Hybridization Parameters: Gene Tree Data. 6.3.2 Estimation and Testing for the Hybridization Parameters: Sequence Data. 6.3.3 Comparison of Hybrid Species Phylogenies Using Gene Tree Data. 6.4 Application: Hybridization in the Heliconius Butterflies. 6.4.1 Estimation and Testing for the Hybridization Parameters: Application to the Estimated Gene Trees in Heliconius. 6.4.2 Estimation and Testing for the Hybridization Parameters: Application to Sequence Data in Heliconius. 6.4.3 Comparison of Hybrid Species Phylogenies for the Heliconius Gene Tree Data. 6.5 Conclusions and Future Directions. Acknowledgment. References. Chapter 7 The Influence of Hybrid Zones on Species Tree Inference in Manakins (Robb T. Brumfi eld and Matthew D. Carling). 7.1 Introduction. 7.2 The Manacus Manakins. 7.2.1 Distribution. 7.2.2 Hybrid Zone between M. vitellinus and M. candei. 7.2.3 Two Contact Zones between M. vitellinus and M. manacus. 7.2.4 Inferring a Manacus Species Tree. 7.3 Is Introgression Across the Hybrid Zones Influencing the Species Tree Inference? 7.4 Conclusions. Acknowledgments. References. Chapter 8 Summarizing Gene Tree Incongruence at Multiple Phylogenetic Depths (Karen A. Cranston). 8.1 Introduction. 8.2 Sample Data: Rice, Flies, and Yeast. 8.3 Bayesian Inference of Gene Trees. 8.4 Detecting Convergence Across Hundreds of Genes. 8.5 A Note on Combining Trees. 8.6 BCA. 8.7 gsi. 8.8 Triplet Analysis. 8.9 Missing Data. 8.10 Genomic Distribution of Gene Tree Incongruence. 8.11 Visualization of Gene Tree Incongruence. 8.12 Concluding Remarks. Acknowledgments. References. Chapter 9 Species Tree Estimation for Complex Divergence Histories: A Case Study in Neodiprion Sawflies (Catherine R. Linnen). 9.1 Introduction. 9.2 Study System: Neodiprion Sawflies. 9.3 Sampling Strategy. 9.4 Determining the Source of Mitonuclear Discordance. 9.5 Approaches for Species Tree Estimation. 9.5.1 Concatenation with Monophyly Constraints (CMC). 9.5.2 Minimize Deep Coalescences (MDC). 9.5.3 Shallowest Divergences (SD). 9.5.4 Bayesian Estimation of Species Trees (BEST). 9.6 Comparison of Species Tree Estimates. 9.7 Comparison of Gene Trees to Species Trees. 9.8 Conclusions and Future Directions. References. Chapter 10 Sampling Strategies for Species Tree Estimation (L. Lacey Knowles). 10.1 Introduction. 10.2 Information Content in DNA Sequences for Species Tree Inference. 10.3 Why Phylogenetic History Dictates Appropriate Sampling Strategy. 10.4 Properties of the Data That Impact Sampling Decisions. 10.5 Making Informed Decisions about Sampling Strategies. 10.5.1 Where Does the Initial Species Tree Come from? 10.5.2 Is There Consistency in the Estimated Species Tree Given the Data? 10.6 Summary. Acknowledgments. References. Chapter 11 Developing Nuclear Sequences for Species Tree Estimation in Nonmodel Organisms: Insights from a Case Study of Bottae's Pocket Gopher, Thomomys Bottae (Natalia M. Belfiore). 11.1 Introduction. 11.2 Pocket Gophers. 11.3 Marker Generation Approach and Methodological Comments. 11.3.1 Library Construction. 11.3.2 Subtraction of High-Copy-Number Regions. 11.3.3 Locus Characterization by Genomic Approaches. 11.3.4 Primer Design Experiments. 11.3.5 Locus Evaluation for Inclusion in the Study. 11.3.6 Variation within the Library Construction Species. 11.3.7 Inclusion of Loci and Data Generation within the Genus. 11.4 Data Management and Analysis. 11.4.1 Handling Data and Choosing Analysis Programs. 11.4.2 Phylogenetic Analysis. 11.5 Conclusions. Acknowledgments. References. Chapter 12 Estimating Species Relationships and Taxon Distinctiveness in Sistrurus Rattlesnakes Using Multilocus Data (Laura S. Kubatko and H. Lisle Gibbs). 12.1 Introduction. 12.1.1 Sistrurus Rattlesnakes. 12.2 Analysis of Species and Subspecific Relationships. 12.2.1 Estimation of the Species Phylogeny. 12.2.2 Distinctiveness of Subspecies. 12.2.3 Phased versus Unphased Data. 12.3 Species Tree Estimation. 12.3.1 Estimation Using Gene Trees as Data. 12.3.2 Estimation Using Sequences as Data. 12.4 Distinctiveness Among Species and Subspecies. 12.4.1 Phased Data. 12.4.2 Unphased Data and the Effect of Sample Size. 12.5 Evolutionary and Conservation Implications. 12.6 Conclusions. Acknowledgments. References. Index.


Evacuation planning for private-sector organizations is an important consideration given the continuing occurrence of both natural and human-caused disasters that inordinately affect them. Unfortunately, the traditional management approach that is focused on fire drills presents several practical challenges at the scale required for many organizations but especially those responsible for national critical infrastructure assets such as airports and sports arenas.
In this research we developed Exitus, a comprehensive decision support system that may be used to simulate large-scale evacuations of such structures. The system is unique because it considers individuals with disabilities explicitly in terms of physical and psychological attributes. It is also capable of classifying the environment in terms of accessibility characteristics encompassing various conditions that have been shown to have a disproportionate effect upon the behavior of individuals with disabilities during an emergency.
The system was applied to three unique test beds: a multi-story office building, an international airport, and a major sports arena. Several simulation experiments revealed specific areas of concern for both building managers and management practice in general. In particular, we were able to show (a) how long evacuations of heterogeneous populations may be expected to last, (b) who the most vulnerable groups of people are, (c) the risk engendered from particular design features for individuals with disabilities, and (d) the potential benefits from adopting alternate evacuation strategies, among others.
Considered together, the findings provide a useful foundation for the development of best practices and policies addressing the evacuation concerns surrounding heterogeneous populations in large, complex environments. Ultimately, a capabilities-based approach featuring both tactical and strategic planning with an eye toward the unique problems presented by individuals with disabilities is recommended.


On November 5, 2013 Pakistan conducted its fourth test of the Hatf-IX (Nasr)
short range battlefield 'nuclear' missile. To date there have been four flight tests
of the missile system. After the first three tests (April 19, 2011, May 29, 2012 and
February 11, 2013) Pakistan's Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) had put out
identical press releases.1 These statements claimed that the missile had a range of 60
km and carried 'nuclear warheads (sic) of appropriate yield'. The ISPR statement
following the fourth flight test of Nasr, a salvo firing of four missiles, was worded
differently and did not repeat the claim that Nasr carried a nuclear warhead.
Curiously, it referred to the missile's nuclear capability in a roundabout sort of way.
The statement claimed that the missile 'contributes to the full spectrum deterrence
against threats in view of evolving scenarios'.2
This then begets three questions. Firstly, what is Pakistan trying to signal by way
of the Nasr and what is the significance of the change in wording of the ISPR
statement following the fourth Nasr test flight? Secondly, can Pakistan actually fit a
nuclear warhead into the Nasr? Thirdly, how credible would Nasr be in Indian eyes
and how will it impact the Indo-Pak deterrence relationship.


While it has long been considered that there are only three types of boundary that enclosethe earths tectonic plates, a new class of plate boundary, amagmatic accretionaryridge segments, has recently been recognized as well as a new class of ocean ridge:ultra-slow spreading. This is the direct consequence of the successful investigationsof the very-slow spreading Southwest Indian and Arctic Ridge systems promoted byInterRidge. Amagmatic accretionary ridge segments are a new class of accretionaryplate boundary distinct from magmatic accretionary ridge segments. Amagmatic accretionarysegments are marked by deep troughs often floored by mantle peridotite,with only thin or scattered basalt flows. They represent plate failure originating nearthe base of the plate following the zone of lithospheric necking unlike magmatic accretionarysegments, where the plate fails from the top. Unlike stable transforms andmagmatic accretionary segments, amagmatic accretionary segments may assume anyangle to the spreading direction and replace both orthogonal segments and transformfaults over large sections of ocean ridge. Magmatic and amagmatic accretionary segmentscan stably coexist, one connected to the other for many millions of years, ormay displace one another as mantle thermal structure, composition, ridge geometryor spreading rate change. Ultra-slow spreading ridges are a new class of ridge thatform where the effective spreading rate for mantle upwelling falls below12 mm/yr.The ESR is the orthogonal component of the spreading rate measured perpendicularto the ridge trend. Magmas erupted along ultra-slow spreading ridges may be alkalineand/or isotopically and incompatible trace element enriched compared to typicalMORB. Ultra-slow spreading ridges consist of linked magmatic and amagmatic accretionarysegments and are as mechanically, morphologically and petrologically distinctfrom slow-spreading ridges, as slow-spreading ridges are from fast. The SouthwestIndian Ridge, and the Arctic Ridge system from Iceland to 3E on the Gakkel aretransitional ridges between slow and ultra-slow, with long sections alternating betweenslow and ultra-slow behavior. This is similar to the situation for intermediate spreadingridges, which have long sections that alternate between fast and slow behavior. Apparently,then, there are two classes of intermediate spreading ridges: intermediate-fastand intermediate-slow, representing the transitions from fast to slow and from slow toultraslow spreading.


Through five editions since 1981, this book has offered the most comprehensive accessible guide available to all aspects of copyright law. Now, with the sixth edition, The Copyright Book has been thoroughly updated to cover copyright for the Internet age, discussing a range of developments in the law since 2000. The only book written for nonlawyers that covers the entire field of copyright law, it is essential reading for authors, artists, creative people in every medium, the companies that hire them, users of copyrighted material, and anyone with an interest in copyright law from a policy perspective. New material includes greatly expanded coverage of infringement and fair use, with detailed discussion of recent decisions, including the Grateful Dead, Google, and HathiTrust cases. The new edition considers such topics as open access, the defeat of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), file sharing, e-reserves, the status of "orphan works," and the latest developments under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The sixth edition also brings up to date The Copyright Book's plain English explanation of such fundamental topics as authorship and ownership; transfers and licenses of copyright; copyright notice; registration of copyright (including the new online registration and "preregistration" systems); the scope of rights included in copyright, and exceptions to those rights; "moral rights"; compulsory licenses; tax treatment of copyright; and international aspects of copyright law. As copyright issues grow ever more complicated, The Copyright Book becomes ever more indispensable.


DIDONATO, DANA A. Part I. Design and Synthesis of Prototypes as Leads on a Compound Library Aimed at Plasmepsin II Inhibition. Part II. Synthesis and Evaluation of Modified Nucleotides for DNA Aptamer Selection. (Under the direction of Dr. Bruce E. Eaton.) Malaria infects approximately 300 million people worldwide each year and of those infected, between 1 and 1.5 million people die from the disease. The increasing number of individuals both infected with and dying from this disease is due, in part, to the rise in the number of parasites that are resistant to conventional drug therapies. My research focuses on the synthesis of prototypes to be expanded into leads on a compound library, which, exhibit selective inhibition towards the malarial protease plasmepsin II (Plm II). The attributes of the prototypes include the following: (1) A simple core which can be rapidly elaborated upon in a small number of synthetic steps; (2) A compact, low molecular weight substrate, which is bioavailable as well as biodistributable; and (3) Allows for reverse binding with the enzyme active site. A short series of synthetic transformations were performed to arrive at the key intermediate, enol 5. With this compound in hand, the prototypes were generated and their log P and C log P values determined using ChemDraw Ultra. The log P and C log P values ranged from 1 – 5. DNA, deoxyribonucleic acid, has become an attractive material for functional molecules due to its chemical stability and its ability to be directly amplified using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). A limitation to the use of DNA as a functional molecule is its lowered activity, i.e. antibodies versus aptamers and enzymes versus ribozymes. In an effort to overcome this limitation, the research to be discussed focuses on enhancing the chemical diversity of DNA via the synthesis of modified deoxyuridines (*dUTPs) and deoxycytidines (*dCTPs). The functionality is introduced at the 5 – position through a carboxyamidation reaction. Because any primary amine can be used for this transformation, it is possible to examine a wide range of structural motifs. The aforementioned modified deoxynucleotides will be incorporated into in vitro selection to aid in the isolation of novel protein aptamers. PART I. DESIGN AND SYNTHESIS OF PROTOTYPES AS LEADS ON A COMPOUND LIBRARY AIMED AT PLASMEPSIN II INHIBITION PART II. SYNTHESIS AND EVALUATION OF MODIFIED NUCLEOTIDES FOR DNA APTAMER SELECTION


Abstract In the current paper, the authors present an analysis of the structural characteristics of an intermediate rail vehicle and their effects on crash performance of the vehicle. Theirs is a simulation based analysis involving four stages. First, the crashworthiness of the vehicle is assessed by simulating an impact of the vehicle with a rigid wall. Second, the structural characteristics of the vehicle are analysed based on the structural behaviour during this impact and then the structure is modified. Third, the modified vehicle is tested again in the same impact scenario with a rigid wall. Finally, the modified vehicle is subjected to a modelled head-on impact which mirrors the real-life impact interface between two intermediate vehicles in a train impact. The emphasis of the current study is on the structural characteristics of the intermediate vehicle and the differences compared to an impact of a leading vehicle. The study shows that, similar to a leading vehicle, bending, or jackknifing is a main form of failure in this conventionally designed intermediate vehicle. It has also been found that the location of the door openings creates a major difference in the behaviour of an intermediate vehicle. It causes instability of the vehicle in the door area and leads to high stresses at the joint of the end beam with the solebar and shear stresses at the joint of the inner pillar with the cantrail. Apart from this, the shapes of the vehicle ends and impact interfaces are also different and have an effect on the crash performance of the vehicles. The simulation results allow the identification of the structural characteristics and show the effectiveness of relevant modifications. The conclusions have general relevance for the crashworthiness of rail vehicle design.


To improve the efficiency of crystalline silicon solar cells, should be collected the excess carrier as much as possible. Therefore, minimizing the recombination both at the bulk and surface regions is important. Impurities make recombination sites and they are the major reason for recombination. Phosphorus (P) gettering was introduced to reduce metal impurities in the bulk region of Si wafers and then to improve the efficiency of Si heterojunction solar cells fabricated on the wafers. Resistivity of wafers was measured by a four-point probe method. Fill factor of solar cells was measured by a solar simulator. Saturation current and ideality factor were calculated from a dark current density-voltage graph. External quantum efficiency was analyzed to assess the effect of P gettering on the performance of solar cells. Minority bulk lifetime measured by microwave photoconductance decay increases from 368.3 to 660.8 μs. Open-circuit voltage and short-circuit current density increase from 577 to 598 mV and 27.8 to 29.8 mA/cm2, respectively. The efficiency of solar cells increases from 11.9 to 13.4%. P gettering will be feasible to improve the efficiency of Si heterojunction solar cells fabricated on P-doped Si wafers.


The soluble and readily extractable part of the plant extracellular matrix has been termed, the apoplast and contains a wide range of components such as, complex carbohydrates, structural proteins, enzymes and radicals that are known to be responsive to stress and developmental pressures. This thesis describes the development of a technique for the selective enrichment of apoplastic components for a range of subsequent analyses. Using this technique a number of apoplastic proteins were N-terminally sequenced and revealed 2 cell wall related enzymes, an antifungal protein and 3 auxin-binding/germin-like proteins. This technique also provided a novel approach to the further study of auxin-binding proteins via the use of affinity chromatography at their putative site of action, the apoplast. Three potential auxin-binding protiens were identified. Many attempts were made to subject the material extracted from the apoplast to the highly resolving technique of 2-dimensional electrophoresis, and during the process two unusual 2D systems were developed. These systems could be run in a small format that permitted very rapid analysis and/or using an in-gel loading strategy to subject up to 500µg of protein to 2D separation therefore permitting N-terminal sequencing from single 2D gels. Unfortunately 2D separation of apoplastic proteins was never fully achieved within the time frame of this study due to the vast degree of heterogenity present in the sample material. It did however demonstrate the very complex nature of apoplastic components. A series of experiments revealed that the tobacco leaf apoplast contained compartment specific antioxidant enzymes, some of which share physical characteristics with similar enzymes from other species. The activity of these enzymes altered in response to stress and according to the developmental age of the tissue. The reduced activity of these enzymes directly correlated to the degree of oxidative modification of apoplastic proteins illustrating that these enzymes are important in the detoxification of apoplastic radicals. Follow on experiments following the apoplastic generation of the superoxide anion and nitric oxide from impact stressed potato tuber tissue showed that radicals play important roles in the responses of plant tissue to stress, and show the first involvement of nitric oxide in plants in response to abiotic stress.


We investigate the potential of transparency to influence committee decisionmaking. We present a model in which career concerned committee members receive private information of different type-dependent accuracy, deliberate and vote. We study three levels of transparency under which career concerns are predicted to affect behavior differently, and test the model's key predictions in a laboratory experiment. The model's predictions are largely borne out transparency negatively affects information aggregation at the deliberation and voting stages, leading to sharply different committee error rates than under secrecy. This occurs despite subjects revealing more information under transparency than theory predicts.


Existing studies suggest that English speakers conceptualize time on both the sagittal and transverse axes (Casasanto & Jasmin, 2012), whereas Mandarin speakers conceptualize time on both the sagittal and vertical axes (Boroditsky 2001; Scott, 1989). It has been suggested that the different temporal directions on the sagittal dimension between the two languages are likely to be caused by the different emphases of temporal sequences: deictic time vs. sequential time. While a large amount of literature has focused on differences across the two languages in terms of using different axes, very little has looked at differences that exist within axes. I report findings from English monolinguals, Mandarin monolinguals and Mandarin-English (ME) bilinguals on an explicit task that involves pointing directions for temporal words. It showed that English monolinguals associated the future with front and up; the overt encoding of metaphor has a significant effect in Mandarin but not in English. More importantly, ME bilinguals showed intermediate patterns. The current study tested cross-linguistic influences on the perception of temporal information. It found that when two languages encode time with different spatial words, both language and spatial cues can affect bilingual speakers' associations between time and directions. Future studies could test other languages, such as Mäori, which see the past as ahead and the future as behind based on visual accessibility.


We use the scalar Kirchhoff–Huygens diffraction integral to obtain analytic expressions for both axial and transverse intensity distributions, assuming normal incidence on a circular aperture for four types of incident field: (1) plane wave, (2) Bessel beam, (3) Gaussian beam, and (4) Bessel–Gauss beam. We use the Fresnel approximation to obtain the axial intensity as a function of distance from the aperture. We consider both Fresnel and Fraunhofer diffraction for the case of the transverse intensity distributions. For the axial case, we find that the Bessel–Gauss beam performs worse than the Bessel beam, in terms both of the magnitude of intensity and of its ability to extend a distance from the aperture. In the transverse case, we find that the Bessel–Gauss beam performance in terms of remaining nearly diffraction free over a given distance is highly dependent on the relationship among the aperture radius, the beam waist parameter, and the transverse wave number.


Previous decades brought about a revolution in radio and microprocessor technology that made possible a plethora of new applications. In particular, the possibility of using many inexpensive sensor nodes interconnected by wireless networks (WSN) for a number of ends, such as pollution monitoring and defense, draw the attention of the research community. WSN are usually heavily resource-constrained. Of particular relevance is energy, since in many applications nodes should operate during long periods from batteries. The literature on this topic reveals many techniques to improve energy efficiency, one of them being the use of network aggregation. However, the problem of aggregation of duplicate sensitive summaries (e.g. sum, average, histogram, etc.) in multi-path routing networks is not fully resolved. This paper addresses this problem by sending redundant aggregated information through different paths, so data can be reconstruct to obtain the exact summary, provided that there is at least one feasible path. Two algorithms are presented, one better suited for networks dominated by link errors and another suited to networks where the predominant error source is node failures. The algorithms are light during normal network operation, with the most intensive processing performed during the initialization phase. The approach presented herein outperform previous solutions found in the literature in two key aspects: complete topology independence and aggregation depth independence.


Recent reports indicate that some cancer types are especially sensitive to transcription inhibition, suggesting that targeting the transcriptional machinery provides new approaches to cancer treatment. Cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK)7 is necessary for transcription, and acts by phosphorylating the C-terminal domain (CTD) of RNA polymerase II (PolII) to enable transcription initiation. CDK7 additionally regulates the activities of a number of transcription factors, including estrogen receptor (ER)-α. Here we describe a new, orally bioavailable CDK7 inhibitor, ICEC0942. It selectively inhibits CDK7, with an IC50 of 40 nmol/L; IC50 values for CDK1, CDK2, CDK5, and CDK9 were 45-, 15-, 230-, and 30-fold higher. In vitro studies show that a wide range of cancer types are sensitive to CDK7 inhibition with GI50 values ranging between 0.2 and 0.3 μmol/L. In xenografts of both breast and colorectal cancers, the drug has substantial antitumor effects. In addition, combination therapy with tamoxifen showed complete growth arrest of ER-positive tumor xenografts. Our findings reveal that CDK7 inhibition provides a new approach, especially for ER-positive breast cancer and identify ICEC0942 as a prototype drug with potential utility as a single agent or in combination with hormone therapies for breast cancer. ICEC0942 may also be effective in other cancers that display characteristics of transcription factor addiction, such as acute leukaemia and small-cell lung cancer. Mol Cancer Ther; 17(6); 1156–66. ©2018 AACR.


The University of Arizona Polarization Laboratory with support from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has assembled and is currently calibrating a UV Mueller matrix imaging polarmeter (UV-MMIP). The desire for more accurate polarimetric and radiometric sensors drives the need for stringent polarization requirements and the ability to more precisely measure system and component polarization behavior. One such sensor is JPL's Multiangle Spectropolarimetric Imager (MSPI), which requires highly controlled polarization behavior from UV wavelengths to the short wave IR. The UV polarization properties of components such as broadband coated mirrors, waveplates, dichroic filters, and polarizers often behave much differently than in visible light. The UV-MMIP is designed to provide rapid and accurate determination of the complete polarization properties of components, imaged at high spatial resolution. The UV-MMIP is a dual rotating retarder polarimeter with components selected for best polarimetric precision between 250 nm and 500 nm. Polarization critical components include source, detectors, imaging optics, illumination optics, retarders, and polarizers. The back-illuminated CCD camera images at 512 x 512 pixel resolution, providing 40 micron resolution over a 2 cm field of view or as little as 1 micron resolution over a 500 micron field of view, with auxiliary UV-optimized microscope objectives. Both transmissive and reflective samples are accommodated. The entire 16-element Mueller matrix is measured on a pixel-by-pixel basis to an expected accuracy of 0.1%, matching or surpassing the accuracy of an existing visible light instrument functioning in the same laboratory. Automated data acquisition and analysis software provides detailed images of polarization characteristics including diattenuation, retardance, and depolarization.


Biologists generally assume that habitat loss, fragmentation, and conversion resulting from changes in landuse are primarily responsible for the nearly rangewide declines in northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) abundance noted since at least 1990. Few data-based analyses have addressed this relationship at broad spatial scales. We used data on northern bobwhite abundance from the North American Breeding Bird Survey (BBS; 1966–1999) and county-level landuse from the U.S. Census of Agriculture (COA; 1978, 1987, 1997) to evaluate how 9 landuse variables related to northern bobwhite abundance at the rangewide spatial scale. We also explored the relationship between cropland cover and northern bobwhite abundance by state, physiographic region, and using a moving window approach. Although northern bobwhite abundance typically decreased at the rangewide spatial scale, trends in abundance varied considerably spatially, either exhibiting no trend or increasing in many western and northern portions of this species' range. While both spatial and temporal patterns in landuse were obvious, there were no clear univariate or multivariate relationships among these variables and bobwhite abundance that could be applied universally across this species' range. The relationship between cropland cover and northern bobwhite abundance based on physiographic regions was more interpretable than that based on political boundaries (states). When data were used to define spatial patterns between cropland cover and northern bobwhite abundance, spatially consistent and temporally persistent patterns were obtained. We suggest that further research using moving windows of various dimensions, including landuse variables in addition to cropland, and adding several more decades of bobwhite and landuse data is an essential aspect of formulating defensible, spatially explicit strategies for northern bobwhite conservation and management. Citation: Peterson, M. J., X. B. Wu, and P. Rho. 2002. Rangewide trends in landuse and northern bobwhite abundance: an exploratory analysis. Pages 35–44 in S. J. DeMaso, W. P. Kuvlesky, Jr., F. Hernandez, and M. E. Berger, eds. Quail V: Proceedings of the Fifth National Quail Symposium. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Austin, TX.


Background
Gram-negative bacteremia is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in hospitalized patients. Data to guide the duration of antibiotic therapy are limited.

Methods
Randomized, multicenter, open-label, non-inferiority trial. Inpatients with Gram-negative bacteremia, afebrile and hemodynamically stable for at least 48 hours, were randomized to receive 7 (intervention) or 14 days (control) of covering antibiotic therapy. Patients with uncontrolled focus of infection were excluded. The primary outcome at 90 days was a composite of all-cause mortality; relapse, suppurative or distant complications; and re-admission or extended hospitalization (>14 days). The non-inferiority margin was set at 10%.

Results
We included 604 patients (306 intervention, 298 control) between January 2013 and August 2017 in three centers in Israel and Italy. The source of the infection was urinary in 411/604 (68%); causative pathogens were mainly Enterobacteriaceae (543/604, 90%). A 7-day difference in the median duration of covering antibiotics was achieved. The primary outcome occurred in 140/306 (45.8%) patients in the 7 days group versus 144/298 (48.3%) in the 14 days group (risk difference [RD] -2.6%, 95% confidence interval [CI] -10.5% to 5.3%). No significant differences were observed in all other outcomes and adverse events, except for a shorter time to return to baseline functional status in the short therapy arm.

Conclusions
In patients hospitalized with Gram-negative bacteremia achieving clinical stability before day 7, an antibiotic course of 7 days was non-inferior to 14 days. Reducing antibiotic treatment for uncomplicated Gram-negative bacteremia to 7 days is an important antibiotic stewardship intervention. (ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01737320).


High Mobility Group A1 (HMGA1) is a chromatinic protein whose overexpression is a feature of malignant neoplasias. Many studies support its causal role in cell transformation and cancer progression. Indeed, HMGA1 is an architectural transcriptional factor that regulates, by binding DNA and interacting with various transcriptional regulators, the expression of several genes involved in critical biological processes, such as cell proliferation, apoptosis and migration. Autophagy is a self-degradative process that, providing energy sources, removing damaged organelles and misfolded or aggregated proteins, allows cell survival in stress conditions or, when iper-activated, leads to non-apoptotic programmed cell death. Autophagy is often deregulated in cancer cells in which plays an important and complex role, being mainly oncogenic during cancer initiation, and tumor-suppressive during cancer progression. Studying the effects of HMGA1 knock-down in skin cancer cells SCC-13, I have found that it increases autophagy, as assessed by both western blot and immunofluorescence analysis of several autophagic markers, such as pS6, LC3 and SQSTM1/p62. Interestingly, the ability of HMGA1 depletion to increase autophagy is not restricted to skin cancer cells, since similar results have been achieved also silencing HMGA1 expression in HeLa cells, and mouse embryonic fibroblasts null for Hmga1 are more susceptible than the wild-type counterpart to undergo autophagy after starvation or treatment with rapamycin. Consistently, silencing of HMGA1 upregulates the two autophagy-initiating kinases Unc-51-like kinase 1 (ULK1) and Unc-51-like kinase 2 (ULK2), and functional experiments demonstrate that HMGA1 binds their promoter regions and negatively regulates their transcription. Accordingly, the block of ULK1 expression reduces the pro-autophagic effects induced by HMGA1 silencing indicating that they are, at least in part, mediated by ULK1. Taken together, these results clearly indicate that HMGA1 protects cancer cells from autophagy, thus suggesting, on one hand, a new mechanism through which HMGA1 can contribute to cancer progression and, on the other hand, a mechanism through which autophagy can be deregulated in cancer cells.


This bold re-examination of the history of U.S. economic growth is built around a novel claim, that productive capacity grew dramatically across the Depression years (1929-1941) and that this advance provided the foundation for the economic and military success of the United States during the Second World War as well as for the golden age (1948-1973) that followed. Alexander J. Field takes a fresh look at growth data and concludes that, behind a backdrop of double-digit unemployment, the 1930s actually experienced very high rates of technological and organizational innovation, fueled by the maturing of a privately funded research and development system and the government-funded build-out of the country's surface road infrastructure. This significant new volume in the Yale Series in Economic and Financial History invites new discussion of the causes and consequences of productivity growth over the last century and a half and on our current prospects.


Ambient particulate matter (PM) pollution jeopardizes both the global climate and public health. Therefore, there is a need for a cost-effective and energy-efficient air filter. Herein, a low filtration resistance polyacrylonitrile (PAN) three-dimensional composite membrane with high porosity was controllably fabricated via multi-jet free surface electrospinning. The composite nanofibrous membrane, composed of ternary structures including scaffold nanofibers, microspheres and thin nanofibers, was demonstrated as an air filter for the first time. The scaffold nanofibers constituted a stable skeletal framework in which the microspheres were embedded; the microspheres enlarged the inter-fiber voids thus greatly reducing the pressure drop, while thin nanofibers with diameters of 84 nm interwoven with the scaffold nanofibers improved the collision probability of the airborne particles and guaranteed a robust filtration performance without sacrificing filtration efficiency. Additionally, the embedded microspheres also significantly improved the mechanical properties of the membrane. The fabricated high porosity three-dimensional composite membrane exhibited high filtration efficiency (99.99%) and low pressure drop (126.7 Pa) to sodium chloride (NaCl) aerosol particles under an airflow velocity of 5.3 cm s−1. Furthermore, the as-prepared membrane demonstrated high PM2.5 filtration efficiency (99.24%) in a dynamic PM2.5 filtration system simulating the typical operation environment of an air filter. The low resistance three-dimensional composite membrane fabricated via free surface electrospinning is not only efficient for laboratory research but can also be applied to industrial production and in commercial applications.


Macrophages have a great capacity to take up (e.g. by endocytosis and phagocytosis) exogenous sources of iron which could potentially become cytotoxic, particularly following the intralysosomal formation of low-molecular weight, redox active iron, and under conditions of oxidative stress. Following autophagocytosis of endogenous ferritin/apoferritin, these compounds may serve as chelators of such lysosomal iron and counteract the occurrence of iron-mediated intralysosomal oxidative reactions. Such redox-reactions have been shown to lead to destabilisation of lysosomal membranes and result in leakage of damaging lysosomal contents to the cytosol. In this study we have shown: (i) human monocyte-derived macrophages to accumulate ferritin in response to iron exposure; (ii) iron to destabilise macrophage secondary lysosomes when the cells are exposed to H2O2; and (iii) endocytosed apoferritin to act as a stabiliser of the acidic vacuolar compartment of iron-loaded macrophages. While the endogenous ferritin accumulation which was induced by iron exposure was not sufficient to protect cells from the damaging effects of H2O2, exogenously added apoferritin, as well as the potent iron chelator desferrioxamine, afforded significant protection. It is suggested that intralysosomal formation of haemosiderin, from partially degraded ferritin, is a protective strategy to suppress intralysosomal iron-catalysed redox reactions. However, under conditions of severe macrophage lysosomal iron-overload, induction of ferritin synthesis is not enough to completely prevent the enhanced cytotoxic effects of H2O2.


In July 1993, an extensive study was made of a large bloom of the coccolithophorid Emiliania huxleyi in the North Sea halfway between the Shetland Islands and Norway. Here we report on the hydrography, production and sedimentation of particulate organic carbon (POC) and calcite carbon (calcite-C) at 4 stations occupied for 24 h, 2 inside the bloom and 2 just outside. The coccolithophorid bloom was confined to North Sea waters, where a stable shallow mixed layer had been formed. Bloom development had entered the decaying phase, judged by the relatively low living cell number (maximally 1200 cells cm-3), the high number of loose coccoliths (up to 350000 coccoliths cm-3), and the fact that sedimentation of calcite-C exceeded production. In the top 15 m at the bloom stations, the mean daily production of coccoliths was 17 per cell. At the 2 stations outside the bloom, the dominant coccolithophore was a holococcolithophorid (up to 1400 cells cn1r3), wlth insignificant amounts of calcite produced per cell. At these stations, nutrients were present in non-lim~ting concentrations and production of POC was twice as high as at the bloom stations. In the bloom, mixed layer nitrate levels were below 0.2 PM. Faecal pellets collected in the sediment traps contained large numbers of coccoliths of E, huxleyi. Although the numbers of grazers at the 2 stations outside the bloom were not lower than those in the bloom, the volume of faecal matter sedimenting at 50 m was about 70 times lower. It is hypothesized that faecal pellets outside the bloom were so light in weight that they did not sink very far before degradation, whereas the pellets produced in the E. huxleyi bloom in general were exported rapidly due to their heavy load of calcite. This implies that recycling of materials in the mixed layer of this bloom is relatively low due to high downward flux rate. The ratio at which POC and calcite-C were sedimenting amounted to 1.3 on average for the 2 bloom stations at 50 m water depth.


Direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) has been attracting lots of attention as a power source for transportation, stationary and portable electronic devices due to the high energy density of methanol and ease of handling compared to gaseous fuels such as hydrogen and natural gas. However, the commercialization of DMFC is still limited due to some technical challenges such as methanol crossover and low methanol electro-oxidation kinetics. In order for fuel cells to be a feasible and viable option amongst clean energy technologies, innovations in the materials developments are required for efficient operation of fuel cells. Many efforts have been made in various research laboratories to develop high-performance catalysts that will enhance the methanol electro-oxidation. Compared to any single-metal catalyst, Pt has shown the highest activity for the electro-oxidation of methanol in an acid environment. However, Pt is expensive and during the methanol electro-oxidation reaction, COads and other organic intermediates such as formaldehyde, formic acid and methyl formate are formed on the Pt surface, which results in poisoning of the Pt catalyst. Many binary and ternary catalysts for methanol electro-oxidation have been investigated and reported in the literature, most of them based on modification of Pt with some other metal(s). The aim is to accelerate the oxidation of the intermediates and decrease their accumulation so as to improve the catalyst performance. Among the various catalyst formulations, PtRu alloy has shown the best results for the methanol electro-oxidation. Diverse methods have been used to prepare the PtRu-based catalysts for methanol electro-oxidation. Catalyst composition and method of preparation are known to immensely affect the physical property es and electrochemical performance of a catalyst. Thus, there is the need to use a carefully selected approach in order to prepare a catalyst with the highest attainable performance. Incorporation of transition metals into the PtRu catalysts to form ternary catalysts in order to improve the performance of the PtRu catalysts is one of the techniques attracting a lot of interest. In this work, a novel approach have been used for synthesizing a new class of electrocatalyst nanomaterials for electro-oxidation of methanol by incorporation nano-oxides of transition metals. The prepared nanomaterial catalysts were characterized using FESEM, BET surface area, EDX, FT-IR and XRD. The catalysts performance was studied using cyclic voltammetry and compared with the commercial Pt-Ru/C.


This article critiques current inheritance law relating to adopted children in light of the purposes of modern adoption law and the increasing prevalence of open adoptions. The article proposes an uncling principle to determine intestate inheritance rights in cases of open adoption in which a birth parent has maintained a qualifying functional relationship with the adopted-out child subsequent to the adoption. When applicable, the uncling principle would treat the adopted-out child and her birth parent as potential heirs of one another. Unlike the presently dominant all-or-nothing approach to inheritance rights arising from adoption, however, the proposal would not under any circumstances treat the birth parent as a legal parent of the adopted-out child for purposes of inheritance. Rather, the uncling principle would treat the birth parent as an uncle or aunt to the adopted-out child, and would similarly increase the distance on the family tree between the adopted-out child and members of her birth family by one line of inheritance and two degrees of kinship. When applicable, the uncling principle would better serve the interests of the adopted child, her adoptive family, and her birth family than does the all-or-nothing approach, under which the adopted-out child is either a child of her birth parents for purposes of inheritance or is a stranger to her birth parents for purposes of inheritance. The uncling principle affirms the parental role of the adoptive parents by refusing to treat a birth parent as a legal parent. Simultaneously, the uncling principle recognizes and validates the importance of the bond between the adopted child and her birth family when the birth parent has maintained a sufficient functional relationship with the adopted child subsequent to the adoption.


In this paper, the regression discontinuity design (RDD) is generalized to account for differences in observed covariates X in a fully nonparametric way. It is shown that the treatment effect can be estimated at the rate for one-dimensional nonparametric regression irrespective of the dimension of X. It thus extends the analysis of Hahn, Todd and van der Klaauw (2001) and Porter (2003), who examined identification and estimation without covariates, requiring assumptions that may often be too strong in applications. In many applications, individuals to the left and right of the threshold differ in observed characteristics. Houses may be constructed in different ways across school attendance district boundaries. Firms may differ around a threshold that implies certain legal changes, etc. Accounting for these differences in covariates is important to reduce bias. In addition, accounting for covariates may also reduces variance. Finally, estimation of quantile treatment effects (QTE) is also considered.


Human ICT implants, such as RFID implants, cochlear implants, cardiac pacemakers, Deep Brain Stimulation, bionic limbs connected to the nervous system, and networked cognitive prostheses, are becoming increasingly complex. With ever-growing data processing functionalities in these implants, privacy and security become vital concerns. Electronic attacks on human ICT implants can cause significant harm, both to implant subjects and to their environment. This paper explores the vulnerabilities that human implants pose to crime victimisation in light of recent technological developments, and analyses how the law can deal with emerging challenges of what may well become the next generation of cybercrime: attacks targeted at technology implanted in the human body. After a state-of-the-art description of relevant types of human implants and a discussion how these implants challenge existing perceptions of the human body, we describe how various modes of attacks, such as sniffing, hacking, data interference, and denial of service, can be committed against implants. Subsequently, we analyse how these attacks can be assessed under current substantive and procedural criminal law, drawing on examples from UK and Dutch law. The possibilities and limitations of cybercrime provisions (e.g., unlawful access, system interference) and bodily integrity provisions (e.g., battery, assault, causing bodily harm) to deal with human-implant attacks are analysed. Based on this assessment, the paper concludes that attacks on human implants are not only a new generation in the evolution of cybercrime, but also raise fundamental questions on how criminal law conceives of attacks. Traditional distinctions between physical and non-physical modes of attack, between human bodies and things, and between exterior and interior of the body need to be re-interpreted in light of developments in human implants. As the human body and technology increasingly merge, cybercrime legislation and body-integrity crime legislation will become intertwined, posing a new puzzle that legislators and practitioners will sooner or later have to solve.


Variation in content of polyphenols has been correlated with a diverse set of ecological factors. Prosopis farcta is one of the important medicinal plants known in Iran. The present study was carried out to evaluate the phytochemicals present in this plant roots and branches collected from wild populations of P. farcta a shrubs developed in two distinct localities of Iran. The collected plant material extracted with acetone and methanol. Methanol extracts of roots and branches of P. farcta a from Darreh Shahr showed a higher amount of total phenolic content compared to Ilam. The HPLC analysis of P. farcta a extracts obtained from these two geographic regions revealed the presence of various amounts of several phenolic compounds. The extracted phenolic compounds were such as Apigenin, Myricetin, Vitexin, Luteolin, Isovitexin, Quercetin and Luteolin. Vitexin in branches and caffeic acid derivative in roots were found to be in highest amounts in plants collected from Ilam while 5-deoxy luteolin showed the highest amount in roots of plant obtained from Darreh Shahr. Our results conclusively showed that there were quantitative differences of polyphenols due to different environmental conditions that allowed us to justify the occurrence of two varieties for P. farcta a in Ilam Province, Iran.


Two optical scattering instruments for particle mass measurement the Thermo Personal Data RAM (PDR-1500), the TSI Environmental DustTrak DRX (Model 8543) were evaluated by 1) using polyand mono-disperse test aerosol in the laboratory, and 2) sampling ambient aerosol. The responses of these optical scattering instruments to different particle characteristics (size, composition, concentration) were compared with responses from reference instruments. A Mie scattering calculation was used to explain the 10 dependence of the optical instruments' response to aerosol size and composition. Concurrently, the detection efficiency of one Alphasense Optical Particle Counter (OPC-N2) was evaluated in the laboratory as well. The relationship between aerosol mass concentration and optical scattering was determined to be strongly dependent on aerosol size, and to a lesser extent on aerosol composition (as reflected in the refractive indices of the materials tested) based on ambient measurements. This confirms that there is no simple way to use 15 optical scattering instruments over a wide range of conditions without adjustments based on knowledge of aerosol size and composition. In particular, a test period measuring ambient aerosol with optical scattering instruments and a mass based method (an Aerodyne Aerosol Mass Spectrometer) determined that roughly two thirds of the variance (R2 = 0.64) of the optical to mass signal ratio is explained by the aerosol mass median diameter alone. These observations and calculations help evaluate the applicability and limitations of these 20 optical scattering instruments, and provide guidance to designing suitable applications for each instrument by considering aerosol sources and aerosol size.


Gagne and Shoben's (J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn 23:71–87, 1997) Competition Among Relations In Nominals (CARIN) theory maintains that the interpretation of modifier-noun combinations is influenced primarily by how the modifying noun has been used in the past. As support for this theory, they found that modifiers typically associated with the instantiated relation are interpreted reliably faster than those whose modifiers are less frequently associated with the relation. The CARIN theory explains this phenomenon by proposing that people store statistical distributions regarding the frequency with which modifying nouns have combined with each relation in the past. However, we maintain that an association between relation frequency and response time does not imply a causal influence. In this study we explore whether the effects observed by Gagne and Shoben were caused by the influence of relation frequency per se. Two experiments were conducted in which experiential knowledge about the modifier was controlled. The first experiment involved combinations whose modifiers were relatively rare and the second involved the presentation of nouns without a modifier-head syntax. In both of these experiments, knowledge about historical modifier usage was irrelevant. Our results show that correlations between modifier preference and response time persist even in situations where a knowledge of the modifier's history is not available. These findings provide converging evidence that the relationship between relation frequency and response time is not a causal one. Instead, an understanding of the relationship between modifier properties and usage, as appropriate to the given context, may be the dominant influence on interpretation in many circumstances. In light of this, we propose an alternative account of the factors influencing ease of interpretation.


A MODEL FOR 21ST CENTURY EXEGESIS [*] 1. On the situation of Christianity from an ecumenical perspective The ecumenical movement began over a hundred years ago with the enthusiastic vision of "evangelizing the whole world within a generation". The world mission conference in Edinburgh in 1910 brought together 1200 representatives of missionary societies and churches, but these included only 18 representatives of young churches in the Southern hemisphere. It was recognized that to reach this lofty goal, an important task would be translation of the Bible into local languages, especially in Asia and Africa. This was undertaken in response to a strong impetus from the national Bible societies which had been founded in the 19th century, and in continuation of the work which they had already done. In the decades around the turn of the century, Protestant missions distributed hundreds of thousands of Bibles in the Southern hemisphere. [1] As a result of these efforts, the world mission conferences which followed could record a steadily growing number of delegates from the colonial regions, with a sharp increase in their participation in the World Council of Churches after the end of the colonial era. For the churches, the period of decolonization was marked at first by the complete handing over of church leadership functions to indigenous theologians. These theologians, however, though trained in European theology, soon began thinking in terms of their own cultures and life contexts, and undertook to try to inculturate and contextualize the gospel. In addition, a large number of genuinely indigenous churches were founded, in some cases theologically very different from one another. Theologians from Africa, Asia and Latin America began to organize themselves into national, continental (e.g. the All-African Conference of Churches, AACC) and intercontinental conferences (e.g. the Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians, EATWOT), from wh ich they could confidently bring their own perspectives into the ecumenical debate. At the end of the 20th century, we are beginning to speak of a "shift in the centre of gravity of Christianity" [2] away from the increasingly rich nations of the Northern hemisphere, towards the populations of the economically dependent nations of the Southern hemisphere. Even though the majority of Christians today do live in Africa, Asia and Latin America -- and not in Europe and North America, as they did at the beginning of the 20th century -- this observation is not true only from a numerical viewpoint. The interpretation of the Bible in the countries of the South, and the accompanying developments in worship, teaching and the life of faith, point to an extensive re-orientation and re-focussing of Christianity. In spite of all confessional differences, a common denominator of churches and theology in the Southern hemisphere could be said to be their perspective as economically disadvantaged and impoverished peoples who live by their unshakeable experience of the presence of God. 2. Challenges After almost 200 years of efforts by national and international Bible societies, the Bible has been partially or fully translated into a great many existing languages. These translations represent interpretations which are the result of processes of understanding taking place within specific socio-linguistic contexts. In view of the diversity of contemporary inculturation processes, one may ask how Christians are to communicate among themselves. Even though ecumenical Christianity as a whole represents a living commentary on the one Bible, it can hardly be considered a uniform community of readers worldwide. Instead, the ecumenical community must be seen as made up of many communities of interpretation, each with its own specific cultural and contextual characteristics. One faith -- different faces. But can the members of the ecumenical Christian family look one another in the eye and see in the face of the other, which may be deep black, pale white or in-between, a sister or brother who is their equal? …


Transformation of B-lymphocytes by Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is characterized by the expression of six viral nuclear antigens (EBNA1 to EBNA6) which are encoded by messages derived from long primary transcripts initiated at one of two promoters located in the BamHI C (BCR2) and BamHI W (BWR1) regions of the viral genome. The BWR1 promoter is preferentially utilized during the initial phases of EBV infection, whereas the BCR2 promoter is almost invariably used in transformed lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCLs). In order to gain some insight into the molecular mechanisms underlying promoter usage we have analyzed the activity of reporter plasmids carrying different parts of the BWR1 and BCR2 regulatory sequences in EBV-negative and EBV-carrying B cell lines that, on the basis of their surface marker expression, are representative of different stages of B cell activation/differentiation. We show that: (i) there is an inverse correlation between the activity of BWR1 and oriP-containing BCR2 reporter plasmids in cell lines expressing a BL group I versus a group III phenotype, the BWR1 promoter being virtually inactive in group III cells; (ii) BCR2 reporter plasmids devoid of the oriP region are active in EBV-negative cell lines and EBV-positive cells expressing a group I or group II phenotype and virtually inactive in BL group III cells and LCLs, suggesting that cellular factors are required for activation of BCR2 promoter elements. These factors are lost upon progression to a group III phenotype); (iii) expression of EBNA2 is sufficient to activate reporter plasmids containing the proximal part of the BCR2 promoter in EBV negative cells, whereas coexpression of EBNA2 and EBNA1 is required to activate the promoter in oriP-containing plasmids; (iv) the 30-bp repeat region of oriP acts as a negative cis-element on downstream promoters but is transformed into a transcriptional enhancer by the concerted action of EBNA1 and cellular factors. There was a poor correlation between the activity of exogenous reporter plasmids and endogenous BWR1 and BCR2 promoters in phenotypically different EBV-positive cell lines. The presence of the appropriate trans-acting factors was not sufficient to activate the endogenous BWR1 and BCR2 promoters in BL cells expressing a group I phenotype.


Increasing interest in deep-sea mineral resources, such as polymetallic nodules, calls for environmental research about possible impacts of mineral exploitation on the deep-sea ecosystem. So far, little geochemical comparisons of deep-sea sediments before and after mining induced disturbances have been made, and thus long-term environmental effects of deep-sea mining are unknown. Here we present geochemical data from sediment cores from an experimental disturbance area at 4100 m water depth in the Peru Basin. The site was revisited in 2015, 26 years after a disturbance experiment mimicking nodule mining was carried out, and compared to sites outside the experimental zone which served as a pre-disturbance reference. We investigated if signs of the disturbance are still visible in the solid phase and the pore water after 26 years or if pre-disturbance conditions have been re established. Additionally, a new disturbance was created during the cruise and sampled five weeks later to compare short- and longer-term impacts. The particulate fraction and pore water were analyzed for major and trace elements to study element distribution and processes in the surface sediment. Pore water and bottom water samples were also analyzed for oxygen, nitrate, dissolved organic carbon and dissolved amino acids, to examine organic matter degradation processes. The study area of about 11 km2 was found to be naturally more heterogeneous than expected, requiring an analysis of spatial variability before the disturbed and undisturbed sites can be compared. The disturbed sites exhibit various disturbance features: some surface sediments were mixed through, others had the top layer removed and some had additional material deposited on top. Pore water constituents have largely regained pre-disturbance gradients after 26 years. The solid phase, however, shows clear differences between disturbed and undisturbed sites in the top 20 cm so that the impact is still visible in the plowed tracks after 26 years. Especially the upper layer, usually rich in manganese-oxide and associated metals, such as Mo, Ni, Co, and Cu, shows substantial differences in metal distribution. Hence, it can be expected that disturbances from polymetallic nodule mining will have manifold and long-lasting impacts on the geochemistry of the underlying sediment.


Following the molecular cloning of the PVM
genome, the opportunity to
the individual
genes and proteins of
PVM has
arisen.
This
study
investigated
nucleocapsid
(N)
gene and the phosphoprotein
(P)
gene of
PVM
and attempted to
characterise the polypeptide products expressed from the N
and
P
genes both in
vitro
in PVM-infected
cells.
The
ability of the PVM N
and
P
proteins to
interact
with
other was also
investigated.
The
nucleotide sequence of the PVM P
gene was
determined to be 903
nucleotides
in length
and shown to comprise a
long
open reading
frame
capable of
encoding the 295
amino acid
long P
protein and also a smaller second
ORF
with the
potential to express a polypeptide
137
amino acids
in length. The PVM P
protein
shows overall amino acid
homology
of
35.3%, 35.6%
and
28.3% to the P
proteins of
pneumovirus members
HRSV, BRSV
and
TRTV
respectively.
The PVM P
gene
contrasts with the P
genes of other pneumovirus genus members which
do
not possess
extensive alternative
ORFs.
Both the N
and
P
genes of
PVM
were shown to be
capable of
directing the
synthesis of more than one polypeptide product
both in
vitro and
in PVM-infected
BSC1
cells. mRNA transcribed from the PVM P
gene
long ORF directed the in
vitro
expression of the 39 kDa P
protein and
four
additional polypeptides.
By
constructing
transcription plasmids that contained
5' terminally truncated P
gene cDNA
insets,
these polypeptides were
determined to be
expressed by translational initiation
on
internal P
gene
initiation
codons.
Western blot
analysis
determined
that in
addition to
PVM P
protein, two of these in
vitro expressed P
protein species, with molecular
weights of
26 kDa
and
23 kDa,
were expressed in PVM-infected BSC 1 cells and this
observation was supported
by the results of anti-P protein monoclonal antibody
epitope mapping studies.
The
ability of the PVM P
gene to direct
the expression of
P
protein related polypeptides
from internal initiation
codons
is
a
feature
not yet
described for
any other pneumovirus member.
By immunising
rats with a synthetic peptide, antiserum specific
for the second
polypeptide product
(P2)
was generated.
Western blot
analysis using this anti-P2
antiserum
identified
a species thought to represent
P2 in PVM-infected BSC 1
cell
material.
The
ability of the PVM P
gene to express a polypeptide
from
an alternative
is
a
feature
common to the P
genes of most other morbilliviruses and
paramyxoviruses.
mRNA transcribed from PVM N
gene cDNA was able to direct the in
vitro
translation of the 43 kDa N
protein and also a
highly
abundant polypeptide with a
molecular weight of
24 kDa
which was shown to be
expressed by
way of
internal
initiation
on the fifth N
gene
AUG
codon of the N
gene sequence. The 24 kDa N
protein related polypeptide was expressed in E.
coli, purified, and used to immunise
a
rabbit
for the production of anti-24
kDa
polypeptide antiserum.
Western blot
analysis
using this antiserum with
PVM-infected BSC1
cells
detected the 43 kDa N
protein, a
highly
abundant
30 kDa N
protein related species, but
not the 24 kDa
polypeptide.
precise
identity
of the 30 kDa
polypeptide was not
determined. Possible
mechanisms which could account
for the expression of the protein products of the N
P
genes are
discussed.
By
using a protein
blotting technique the interaction that occurs
between the N
P
proteins of
PVM
was
investigated. The P
protein
binding
affinities of
in
vitro
expressed truncated N
proteins suggested that many regions of the N
protein are co-
operatively
involved in the binding
process, although some regions contributed more
than others.
The N
protein of
Sendai
virus
is believed to bind to the Sendai
virus
P
protein
in
a similar way.
It
was also
determined that both the amino and the carboxyl-
terminal regions of the PVM P
protein were
found to be
essential
for binding
to N
protein.
This
contrasts with the situation
determined for Sendai
virus
in
which
344 P
protein amino-terminal amino acids were
found to be dispensable for binding N
protein.


Fast-ion conductors are critical to the development of solid-state batteries. The effects of mechanochemical synthesis that lead to increased ionic conductivity in an archetypical sodium-ion conductor Na3PS4 are not fully understood. We present here a comprehensive analysis based on diffraction (Bragg and pair distribution function), spectroscopy (impedance, Raman, NMR and INS), and ab initio simulations aimed at elucidating the synthesis-property relationships in Na3PS4. We consolidate previously reported interpretations regarding the local structure of ball-milled samples, underlining the sodium disorder and showing that a local tetragonal framework more accurately describes the structure than the originally proposed cubic one. Through variable-pressure impedance spectroscopy measurements, we report for the first time the activation volume for Na+ migration in Na3PS4, which is ∼30% higher for the ball-milled samples. Moreover, we show that the effect of ball-milling on increasing the ionic conductivity of Na3PS4 to ∼10-4 S/cm can be reproduced by applying external pressure on a sample from conventional high-temperature ceramic synthesis. We conclude that the key effects of mechanochemical synthesis on the properties of solid electrolytes can be analyzed and understood in terms of pressure, strain, and activation volume.


Phase modulated sub-picosecond pulses are converted by a time-to-space processor to quasi-monochromatic spatial beams that are spatially demultiplexed and coherently detected in real-time. The time-to-space processor, based on sum-frequency generation (SFG), serves as a serial-to-parallel converter, reducing the temporal bandwidth of the ultrashort pulse to match the bandwidth of optoelectronic receivers. As the SFG process is phase preserving, we demonstrate homodyne coherent detection of phase modulated temporal pulses by mixing the demultiplexed SFG beam with a narrow linewidth local oscillator (LO) resulting in single-shot phase detection of the converted pulses at a balanced detector. Positively and negatively phase-modulated signal pulses are individually detected and LO shot noise limited operation is achieved. This demonstration of real-time demultiplexing followed by single-shot full-field detection of individual pulses, highlights the potential of time-to-space conversion for ultrahigh bit rate optical communications and data processing applications.


POLYSYS is used to estimate U.S. locations where, for any given energy crop price, energy crop production can be economically competitive with conventional crops. POLYSYS is a multi-crop, multi-sector agricultural model developed and maintained by the University of Tennessee and used by the USDA-Economic Research Service. It includes 305 agricultural statistical districts (ASD) which can be aggregated to provide state, regional, and national information. POLYSYS is being modified to include switchgrass, hybrid poplar, and willow on all land suitable for their production. This paper summarizes the preliminary national level results of the POLYSYS analysis for selected energy crop prices for the year 2007 and presents the corresponding maps (for the same prices) of energy crop production locations by ASD. Summarized results include: (1) estimates of energy crop hectares (acres) and quantities (dry Mg, dry tons), (2) identification of traditional crops allocated to energy crop production and calculation of changes in their prices and hectares (acres) of production, and (3) changes in total net farm returns for traditional agricultural crops. The information is useful for identifying areas of the U.S. where large quantities of lowest cost energy crops can most likely be produced.


Since the 1990s, the notion of social recognition has developed into a key concept for sociological theory. Recognition theory seems especially promising as a means of understanding intercultural conflicts, as the sociology of intercultural relations often addresses claims of recognition of a specific identity that is different from that of the main society.
The aim of this article is to show that recognition theory can be used as a key concept in examining group inclusion in multicultural societies. Nevertheless, the existing theoretical approaches to recognition are insufficient for that purpose. Therefore, I develop my own approach to the recognition of minority groups as second-order recognition .
The concept of second-order recognition helps analyzing, understanding and evaluating conflicts in multicultural societies. It allows conflicts within groups that involve a struggle for firstorder recognition to be distinguished from conflicts between cultural minorities and the main society that involve a struggle for second-order recognition.


Popular music may be ephemeral and superficial but its almost essential transience and insignificance serve as useful barometers of the here and the now, or knowledge of the present. The reviled reflection thesis – that popular-cultural products "reflect" larger society – has cast a long shadow on the social study of the arts and culture. However much social scientists seek to show the salience of production or the relative autonomy of art worlds, the causal primacy of the social or political economy remains robust. I suggest reversing the received perspective and procedure. ARTICLE HISTORY Received 10 February 2019 Revised 3 March 2019 Accepted 10 March 2019


Excerpt] This publication presents data on stateand locallyadministered public pension systems based on information collected from the 2013 Survey of Public Pensions: Stateand Locally-Administered Defined Benefit Data. The data collected from these systems are for defined benefit plans only and do not include data for defined contribution plans or other postemployment benefit plans. Data in this report refer to fiscal years that ended between July 1, 2012, and June 30, 2013 (FY2013), and do not reflect data for the entire calendar year of 2013. This survey covers the following pension system activities: revenues by state (earnings on investments, employee contributions, government contributions); expenditures by state (benefits, withdrawals, other payments); cash and investment holdings by state (governmental securities, assets, foreign and international securities, etc.); membership information by state (number of pension systems, total membership, beneficiaries receiving periodic payments); and liabilities information by state (covered payroll and pension obligations) for stateand locally-administered pension systems only.


Mortality differentials by nativity have not received as much attention as have mortality differentials by race. We examine the joint effects of race/ethnicity and nativity. Raceand nativity-specific life tables are created using US vital statistics for 1989-1991 for each gender; death rates are compared to the reference category (white US-born person). Both race/ethnicity and nativity modify mortality. Generally, immigrants have increased mortality at young ages and a slight advantage later. Possible explanations for the age variation include differences in country of origin, occupation, and socioeconomic status by age, cohort, or gender. Asians, regardless of nativity, have low mortality. The Hispanic mortality differences vary by gender. US-born blacks have especially high mortality, but foreign-born blacks do well. Among the possible explanations of these results are SES and racism.


New high technology products usher in novel possibilities to transform the design, production and use of buildings. The high technology companies which design, develop and introduce these new products by generating and applying novel scientific and technical knowledge are faced with significant market uncertainty, technological uncertainty and competitive volatility. These characteristics present unique innovation challenges compared to low- and medium technology companies. This paper reports on an ongoing Construction Knowledge Exchange funded project which is tracking, real time, the new product development process of a new family of light emitting diode (LEDs) technologies. LEDs offer significant functional and environmental performance improvements over incumbent tungsten and halogen lamps. Hitherto, the use of energy efficient, low maintenance LEDs has been constrained by technical limitations. Rapid improvements in basic science and technology mean that for the first time LEDs can provide realistic general and accent lighting solutions. Interim results will be presented on the complex, emergent new high technology product development processes which are being revealed by the integrated supply chain of a LED module manufacture, a luminaire (light fitting) manufacture and end user involved in the project.


Introduction Sufficient ventilation and oxygenation through proper airway management is essential in patients undergoing cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Although widely discussed, securing the airway using an endotracheal tube is considered the standard of care. Endotracheal intubation may be challenging and causes prolonged interruption of chest compressions. Videolaryngoscopes have been introduced to better visualize the vocal cords and accelerate intubation, which makes endotracheal intubation much safer and may contribute to intubation success. Therefore, we aimed to compare hands-off time and intubation success of direct laryngoscopy with videolaryngoscopy (C-MAC, Karl Storz, Tuttlingen, Germany) in a randomized, cross-over manikin study. Methods Twenty-six anesthesia residents and twelve anesthesia consultants of the University Hospital Zurich were recruited through a voluntary enrolment. All participants performed endotracheal intubation using direct laryngoscopy and C-MAC in a random order during ongoing chest compressions. Participants were strictly advised to stop chest compression only if necessary. Results The median hands-off time was 1.9 seconds in direct laryngoscopy, compared to 3 seconds in the C-MAC group. In direct laryngoscopy 39 intubation attempts were recorded, resulting in an overall first intubation attempt success rate of 97%, compared to 38 intubation attempts and 100% overall first intubation attempt success rate in the C-MAC group. Conclusion As a conclusion, the results of our manikin-study demonstrate that video laryngoscopes might not be beneficial compared to conventional, direct laryngoscopy in easily accessible airways under CPR conditions and in experienced hands. The benefits of video laryngoscopes are of course more distinct in overcoming difficult airways, as it converts a potential "blind intubation" into an intubation under visual control.


"I think," said Co Ek ]u, "that when I return to China I will write a book about the American people." "What put such an idea into your head?" I asked. "The number of books about the Chinese by Americans," answered Go Ek Ju. "I see them in the library; they are very amusing." "See, then, that when you write your book, it is likewise amusing." "No," said Go Ek Ju. "My aim, when I write a book about Americans will be to make it not amusing, but interesting and instructive. The poor Americans have to content themselves with writing for amusement only because they have no means of obtaining any true knowledge of the Chinese when in China; but we Chinese in America have fine facilities for learning all about the Americans. We go into the American houses as servants; we enter the American schools- and colleges as students; we ask questions and we think about what we hear and see. Where is there the American who will go to China and enter into the service of a Chinese family as a domestic? We have yet to hear about a band of American youths, both male and female, being admitted as students into a Chinese university." Sui Sin Far, "A Chinese Book on Americans" (1) Sui Sin Far (Edith Maude Eaton) readily fits none of the categories scholars of Chinese American literature have identified, in that she belongs neither to the group of writers who were born in China in the twentieth century, emigrated to the United States, and write and publish in Chinese, nor to the group of Chinese American writers who were horn in the United States and "write in English about things (Chinese) American" (Shan 117). (2) Born in England in r865, Edith Eaton grew up with an English father and Chinese mother and later described herself as "Eurasian." The family moved from England to North America in 1873, first arriving in Hudson, New York, then settling in Montreal, where the young Edith attended school and, as she writes in an autobiographical essay, where she first discovered discrimination when her schoolmates learned that her mother was Chinese. (3) Nevertheless, as an adult Edith adopted the Chinese name Sui Sin Far and moved to San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Seattle, where she wrote journalistic pieces and fiction based in the Chinese immigrant experience (White-Parks, Sui Sin Far 9). Neither does her fiction reflect the limitations writing in English has typically placed on Chinese writers. In describing the difference between "characteristics of Chinese-language literature in America" and "writing in English by Chinese-American authors," Xiao-huangYin identifies as a "hallmark" of Chinese-language literature in America the freedom such writers have from the restraints of the "social codes of mainstream society" ("Worlds" 177). Yin observes that while American-born Chinese writers "tend to delve into the broad issues of ethnic identity, cultural conflicts, and sentiments of the native-born," what distinguishes Chinese-language writers "is their persistent focus on immigrants" (178). Yet the stories from Sui Sin Far's only book, "Mrs. Spring Fragrance," a collection of short fiction published in 1912, manage at the same time to critique the "social codes" and the political constraints the United States placed on immigrant Chinese in the late nineteenth century, to focus on the complex responses of various Chinese immigrants to their immigrant experiences, and to reflect on the issue of ethnic identity for persons of biracial origin, such as herself. Sui Sin Far remains unique among Chinese American writers. According to Annette White-Parks, Sui Sin Far perhaps used the term "Chinese-American" for the first time in print in the series of sketches of Chinese life in America she published in the Westerner in May 1909 ("Introduction" 174). (4) In other ways as well, critics have considered her unique. Yin, among others, identifies her as the first Chinese American woman writer ("Worlds" 176); S. …


SYNOPSIS Objective . To examine patterns of supportive parenting during the first three years of life in low-income families from three ethnic backgrounds and document associations between these patterns and measures of children's development. Design . Mothers' supportiveness was longitudinally assessed from videotaped parent–child play interactions at 1, 2, and 3 years of age in 1,095 low-income European American, African American, and Latin American mothers and their children who participated in Early Head Start. Links between mothering and 5-year-olds' outcomes were examined. Results . Cluster analysis performed separately for the three ethnic groups identified four patterns of supportiveness over time: High Stable, Low Stable, Increasing, and Decreasing. Similar proportions of mothers in each ethnic group displayed each pattern. Ethnic differences in mean levels of supportiveness within each pattern were found, and different correlates for each group emerged. Conclusions . The same four patterns were identified in all three ethnic groups, but the percentages and mean levels differed, such that fewer African Americans and Latin Americans would have been designated as high stable if analyses had been done for the total sample. The benefits of the high stable pattern for 5-year-olds would have been underestimated for these two groups as well, suggesting the advisability of examining mothering by ethnicity.


Building and maintaining online learning communities (OLCs) among learners of postgraduate writing is crucial to these students' investments in creating effective texts for assessment and possible publication. Well-facilitated OLCs becomes sites of identity negotiation and construction for postgraduate writers, as they create authentic texts and apply industry-focused, text preparation skills for the 'unknown future' Barnett (2004) characterises as a key feature of early 21st century Higher Education. This study uses social constructivist, situated pedagogical theories of building and maintaining e-communities to situate a discussion of strategies experienced tutors use to develop and maintain effective e-communities for writers. The context of the study is a core first-year unit 'Critical friends' in an online Master of Arts (Writing) taught from Melbourne, Australia. This unit aims to socialise groups of distance learners into quasi-communities of practice (CoPs) by exploiting the possibilities for primarily asynchronous discussion within the Asynchronous Learning Network (ALN) of the Learning Management System (LMS) Blackboard. The strategies offer support between facilitators and the OLC and among participant members. Establishment and maintenance of OLCs can help to break down feelings of marginalisation, offer insider support, harness common goals, encourage shared discourse and promote 'belongingness'. This involves facilitating participants' individual and collective learning and providing contexts where it might continue temporally and spatially in real and imagined communities beyond the group. © 2010 Martin Andrew.


Poly l-lactic acid grafted starch (St-g-PLA) copolymers were directly synthesized under microwave irradiation by using sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and stannous 2-ethyl hexanoate acting as a catalyst, without the use of toxic solvents. The product were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), nuclear magnetic resonance (13C CP/MAS NMR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA-DTG). SEM analysis indicated that microwave heating had a considerable effect on the interfacial adhesion between PLA and starch. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA-DTG) revealed that copolymers exhibited better thermal stability. Maximum PLA grafting was achieved with the following reaction conditions: 450W microwave power, monomer ratio of 1:5 and 0.4M of NaOH. This study demonstrates that it is possible to obtain St-g-PLA copolymers with better processing characteristics and smaller sizes via microwave-assisted synthesis. The applied procedure is an interesting "green" synthesis method for the production of biodegradable materials used in a diverse range of applications. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016, 133, 42937.


The occurrence and adverse complications arising from healthcare associated infections (HCAIs) have been well documented as one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality by successive governments and healthcare professional bodies in the United Kingdom (UK). The significance of these challenges has led to a plethora of published regulatory guidance and continuous surveillance tools that focus on good practice. These good practice guidance documents are aimed at reducing the prevalence of both endogenous (internal) and exogenous (external) healthcare associated infections in NHS hospitals. However, there is an acknowledgment that a huge gap still exists between the implementation of knowledge accumulated over the years from the use of these good practice guidance documents and the monitoring tools adopted for benchmarking compliance with good practice in the prevention of HCAIs. With the increasing evidence of the contribution of the healthcare environment to the prevalence of HCAIs, expert opinion has affirmed that the scope for the prevention of healthcare-associated infections no longer rests only within the remit of medicines, but includes other key service providers to the healthcare sector, among which the facilities management discipline is paramount. This has led to a research need for a better understanding of the subtleties of knowledge management processes in healthcare facilities management practice. The aim of this research is to examine the issues of the knowledge management process, i.e. the creation, storing, sharing and usage of knowledge in hospital facilities management cleaning services for the control of exogenous HCAIs. This investigation was carried out within the context of hospital knowledge infrastructure capabilities, which consist of the prevailing culture, structure and technological capabilities.
The research is premised on an interpretivist research philosophy and utilises a sequential explanatory mixed methodology approach. This approach consists of the synthesis and review of literature pertinent to the research subject domain, a questionnaire survey and face-to-face interviews. Quantitative data was obtained from a questionnaire survey of 81 NHS hospital facilities managers in England, and was subjected to rigorous statistical analysis. Qualitative data was obtained from face-to-face interviews with 10 NHS facilities managers and subjected to thematic analysis using NVivo software. Findings across the three data collection instruments were contextualised and subjected to further rigorous statistical analysis using the Relative Importance Index (RII), also known as the "weighted models", to ascertain the empirical importance of the variables. The findings obtained were used to develop a good practice knowledge management framework. Findings from the research showed that efficient management of compliance with good practice guidance protocols in the control of exogenous HCIAs is could be achieve through the provision of cleaning services using directly employed in-house staff. This enables a high level of collaboration between the clinician members of an infection control team and a hospital facilities manager in the control of exogenous HCAIs. The majority of the NHS hospitals surveyed use their bespoke good practice guidance documents in the delivery of hospital cleaning services. These bespoke guidance documents are a combination of key performance indicators (KPIs) drawn from prevailing statutory core guidance documents.
There is evidence of a lack of appreciation and understanding of the relevance of interfacing knowledge management processes to the hospital knowledge infrastructure capabilities in the delivery of facilities management cleaning services for efficient control of exogenous HCAIs. A conceptual knowledge management framework representing the fundamental empirical interface of the knowledge management process elements within the hospital knowledge infrastructure capabilities was developed to assist in the control of exogenous HCAIs through facilities management cleaning service delivery practices in NHS hospitals. This framework was validated by facilities managers across NHS hospitals in England to ascertain its feasibility from both the analytical (scientific) and pragmatic (operational) perspectives.


The use of a non-co-operative television transmitter as the illuminator for a bistatic radar system is investigated. A signal processing scheme is developed that allows airborne targets to be detected and tracked using only the vision or sound carrier of the television broadcast. This scheme requires no synchronisation with the television transmitter, and uses the Doppler shift and bearing of target echoes to estimate the target's track. The signal processing scheme consists of a two-channel fast Fourier transform, to determine the Doppler and phase characteristics of the received signal, followed by time and frequency acting constant false alarm rate detection schemes to detect the target echoes. These echoes are corrected for phase errors arising from antenna element mutual coupling, and the corresponding bearings are calculated. A Kalman filter based tracking scheme is used to associate the individual Doppler and bearing returns belonging to different targets, resulting in Doppler and bearing profiles for each target. These are used to estimate the Cartesian co-ordinates and velocity of each target using an extended Kalman filter, initialised using a genetic algorithm and Levenberg-Marquardt optimiser. It is shown that targets can be detected and tracked over a large area, at ranges of up to 260 km.


Abstract : A set of four case studies related to data quality in the context of the management and use of Big Data are being performed and reported separately; these will also be compiled into a summary overview report. The report herein documents one of those four cases studies. The purpose of this document is to present information about the various data quality issues related to the design, implementation and operation of a specific data initiative, the U.S. Army's Medical Command (MEDCOM) Medical Operational Data System (MODS) project. While MODS is not currently a Big Data initiative, potential future Big Data requirements under consideration (in the areas of geospatial data, document and records data, and textual data) could easily move MODS into the realm of Big Data. Each of these areas has its own data quality issues that must be considered. By better understanding the data quality issues in these Big Data areas of growth, we hope to explore specific differences in the nature and type of Big Data quality problems from what is typically experienced in traditionally sized data sets. This understanding should facilitate the acquisition of the MODS data warehouse though improvements in the requirements and downstream design efforts. It should also enable the crafting of better strategies and tools for profiling, measurement, assessment, and action processing of Big Data Quality problems.


Tropical peatlands are a major, but understudied, biophysical feedback factor on the atmospheric greenhouse effect. The largest expanses of tropical peatlands are located in lowland areas of Southeast Asia and the Amazon basin. The Loreto Region of Amazonian Peru contains ~63,000 km2 of peatlands. However, little is known about the biogeochemistry of these peatlands, and in particular, the cycling of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4), and their responses to hydrometeorological forcings. To address these knowledge gaps, we established an eddy covariance (EC) flux tower in a natural palm (Mauritia flexuosa L.f.) swamp peatland near Iquitos, Peru. Here, we report ecosystem-scale CO2 and CH4 flux observations for this Amazonian palm swamp peatland over a two-year period in relation to hydrometeorological forcings. Seasonal and short-term variations in hydrometeorological forcing had a strong effect on CO2 and CH4 fluxes. High air temperature and vapor pressure deficit (VPD) exerted an important limitation on photosynthesis during the dry season, while latent heat flux appeared to be insensitive to these climate drivers. Evidence from light-response analyses and flux partitioning support that photosynthetic activity was downregulated during dry conditions, while ecosystem respiration (RE) was either inhibited or enhanced depending on water table position. The cumulative net ecosystem CO2 exchange indicated that the peatland was a significant CO2 sink ranging from −465 (−279 to −651) g C m−2 y−1 in 2018 to −462 (−277 to −647) g C m−2 y−1 in 2019. The forest was a CH4 source of 22 (20 to 24) g C m−2 y−1, similar in magnitude to other tropical peatlands and larger than boreal and arctic peatlands. Thus, the annual carbon budget of this Amazonian palm swamp peatland appears to be a major carbon sink under current hydrometeorological conditions.