Sea cucumbers own the fascinating capability to rapidly and reversibly change the stiffness of their dermis. This mechanical morphing is achieved through a distinctive architecture of the tissue, which is composed of a viscoelastic matrix that is reinforced with rigid collagen microfibrils. Neurosecretory proteins regulate the interactions among the latter, and thereby control the overall mechanical properties of the material. This architecture and functionality have been mimicked by researchers in artificial nanocomposites that feature similar, albeit significantly simplified, structure and mechanical morphing ability. The general design of such stimulus–responsive, mechanically adaptive materials involves a low-modulus polymer matrix and rigid, high-aspect ratio filler particles, which are arranged to form percolating networks within the polymer matrix. Stress transfer is controlled by switching the interactions among the nanofibers and/or between the nanofibers and the matrix polymer via an external stimulus. In first embodiments, water was employed to moderate hydrogen-bonding interactions in such nanocomposites, while more recent examples have been designed to respond to more specific stimuli, such as a change of the pH, or irradiation with ultraviolet light. This chapter provides an overview of the general design principles and materials embodiments of such sea-cucumber inspired materials.


Foraging animals frequently change their pattern of vigilance when they move from a patch with a clear view to one with a relatively obstructed view. This has been widely interpreted as compensation for a reduced ability to detect approaching predators in obstructed habitats. We test the extent to which changes in vigilance may compensate for the effect of reduced visibility on an animal's ability to detect predators. We measured the vigilance, foraging and speed of predator-response behaviours of lone chaffinches Fringilla coelebs that fed on seeds (800 per m2) scattered on artificial stubble habitats (with either a clear view of surroundings or an obstructed view). On both treatments, individuals with more rapid head-up rates responded more quickly to a flying model sparrowhawk Accipiter nisus (P=0.04); as did individuals with shorter food-search times (P=0.02). However, neither head-up rate nor food-search period varied with obstruction. Based on research previously published using this system, we suggest that this is because individuals are constrained in their ability to increase head-up rate because doing so is largely determined by their individually determined foraging efficiency. Instead chaffinches increased the duration of their head-up periods by 13% in the visually obstructed treatment (long stubble) and peck rates were 13% lower. Despite this presumed attempt to compensate for reduced visibility, duration of head-up period had no effect on response time of the fast-moving predator in our experiment and birds were 24% slower to respond in the long stubble. Rather than being maladaptive, increasing head-up duration may have been related to enhanced detection of other predator types, for example stalkers. Our results have implications for the conservation of wild granivorous birds. They support the view that agroeconomic decisions that affect micro-habitat structure over a large scale could affect predation risk, habitat choice and the conservation status of granivorous birds.


Superhydrophobic/superoleophilic fabrics have been the subject of profound research for self-cleaning and oil–water separation applications. However, the practical application of these materials is still limited due to the complex preparation process using fluorinated chemicals and poor stability of the developed coatings on the surface of fabrics under harsh environmental conditions. In this study, we fabricated a dual-functional coating on cotton fabric with superhydrophobicity and visible light photocatalytic activity via an inexpensive dip coating method. The in situ synthesized poly-triethoxyvinylsilane (PTEVS) with the combination of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) was used to obtain a superhydrophobic coating and subsequently a AgBr coating to integrate the photocatalytic activity. The surface morphology and chemical structure of the coated fabric were characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The coated cotton fabric exhibited self-cleaning, superhydrophobic and superoleophilic properties simultaneously with a water contact angle of ∼154°, a water sliding angle of ∼8° and an oil contact angle of ∼0°. The modified fabric can effectively separate a series of oil–water mixtures after being used repeatedly for 10 cycles through an ordinary filtering process. The coated fabric further purifies water containing soluble dyes under visible light illumination. Moreover, the durability of the coating was evaluated under harsh environmental conditions for example exposure to acidic, alkaline, salty solutions, ultraviolet irradiation, mechanical abrasion, and using the adhesive tape test, and the results of all these tests suggested that the coating was stable.


Collateralized debt obligations (CDO) became very popular investment vehicles in recent years—until the financial crisis started unfolding in summer 2007. As evidenced by the recent crisis, there was a failure by market participants to understand the complex relationships between various risk drivers, such as correlations and their impact on the credit worthiness of different tranches across a CDO capital structure. As a step in the direction of understanding these risks, this article examines the impact of correlation on the value of a CDO equity tranche. By examining the impact of an increase in correlation among underlying assets on the value of a collateralized debt obligation (CDO) equity tranche, the authors show that, contrary to general perception, CDO equity can be short on correlation. Specifically, when the underlying reference portfolio comprises high quality assets (assets with low probability of default) or diverse assets (assets with low correlations), the upfront price of a CDO equity tranche can increase with correlation. The implication of these findings is that not all senior and equity tranche trade combinations provide effective correlation hedging. In fact, in some cases, this type of "hedge" might actually increase the correlation risk.


Using the open source Asterisk platform, you can deploy a state-of-the-art VoIP PBX on a low-cost PC or server for a fraction of the cost of conventional PBX systems. The only drawback to Asterisk is its notoriously poor documentation. Practical Asterisk 1.4 and 1.6 is the solution to that problem. This book provides all the detailed, real-world, ground-level information you need to plan, install, configure, and reliably operate Asterisk in any environment. This tutorial and reference systematically introduces each of Asterisks key building blocks and shows how to use them to implement a full spectrum of communications solutions, from conferencing to call queuing, voicemail and fax to IVR. Leading Asterisk consultants Stefan Wintermeyer and Stephen Bosch draw on their extensive experience, presenting detailed usage examples and practical tips not available anywhere else. Coverage includes Detailed instructions for configuring a basic Asterisk system A start-to-finish business case example demonstrating Asterisk design for real-world deployment A thorough introduction to dialplan applications and functions How to use the new Asterisk Extensions Language to build concise, readable, and maintainable dialplans Using Asterisks diverse network and IP telephony protocols, audio codecs, and wire transports Configuring Asterisks powerful voicemail features Building a sophisticated Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system with Asterisk Defining and utilizing call queues in call center environments Using Asterisks built-in conferencing functions Controlling Asterisk from external applications, scripts, or the system shell Interacting with external applications through the Asterisk Gateway Interface Setting up extension monitoring and hints for SIP telephones Upgrading existing systems to the latest versions of Asterisk Whether youre a network professional, telephony expert, software developer, or power user, Practical Asterisk 1.4 and 1.6 will provide you with the most thorough detail and practical Asterisk guidance available anywhere.


According to actualism, an agent ought to φ just in case what would happen if she were to φ is better than what would happen if she were to ~φ. We argue that actualism makes a morally irrelevant distinction between certain counterfactuals, given that an agent sometimes has the same kind of control over their truth-value. We then offer a substantive revision to actualism that avoids this morally irrelevant distinction by focusing on a certain kind of control that is available to an agent. Finally, we show how this revised view has two additional advantages over actualism.


Welcome to the third issue of volume 43 of the IASSIST Quarterly (IQ 43:3, 2019).
Yes, we are open! Open data is good. Just a click away. Downloadable 24/7 for everybody. An open government would make the decisionmakers' data open to the public and the opposition. As an example, communal data on bicycle paths could be open, so more navigation apps would flourish and embed the information in maps, which could suggest more safe bicycle routes. However, as demonstrated by all three articles in this IQ issue, very often research data include information that requires restrictions concerning data access. The second paper states that data should be 'as open as possible and as closed as needed'. This phrase originates from a European Union Horizon 2020 project called the Open Research Data Pilot, in 'Guidelines on FAIR Data Management in Horizon 2020' (July 2016). Some data need to be closed and not freely available. So once more it shows that a simple solution of total openness and one-size-fits-all is not possible. We have to deal with more complicated schemes depending on the content of data. Luckily, experienced people at data institutions are capable of producing adapted solutions.
The first article 'Restricting data's use: A spectrum of concerns in need of flexible approaches' describes how data producers have legitimate needs for restricting data access for users. This understanding is quite important as some users might have an automatic objection towards all restrictions on use of data. The authors Dharma Akmon and Susan Jekielek are at ICPSR at the University of Michigan. ICPSR has been the U.S. research archive since 1962, so they have much practice in long-term storage of digital information. From a short-term perspective you might think that their primary task is to get the data in use and thus would be opposed to any kind of access restrictions. However, both producers and custodians of data are very well aware of their responsibility for determining restrictions and access. The caveat concerns the potential harm through disclosure, often exemplified by personal data of identifiable individuals. The article explains how dissemination options differ in where data are accessed and what is required for access. If you are new to IASSIST, the article also gives an excellent short introduction to ICPSR and how this institution guards itself and its users against the hazards of data sharing.
In the second article 'Managing data in cross-institutional projects', the reader gains insight into how FAIR data usage benefits a cross-institutional project. The starting point for the authors - Zaza Nadja Lee Hansen, Filip Kruse, and Jesper Boserup Thestrup – is the FAIR principles that data should be: findable, accessible, interoperable, and re-useable. The authors state that this implies that the data should be as open as possible. However, as expressed in the ICPSR article above, data should at the same time be as closed as needed. Within the EU, the mention of GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) will always catch the attention of the economical responsible at any institution because data breaches can now be very severely fined. The authors share their experience with implementation of the FAIR principles with data from several cross-institutional projects. The key is to ensure that from the beginning there is agreement on following the specific guidelines, standards and formats throughout the project. The issues to agree on are, among other things, storage and sharing of data and metadata, responsibilities for updating data, and deciding which data format to use. The benefits of FAIR data usage are summarized, and the article also describes the cross-institutional projects. The authors work as a senior consultant/project manager at the Danish National Archives, senior advisor at The Royal Danish Library, and communications officer at The Royal Danish Library. The cross-institutional projects mentioned here stretch from Kierkegaard's writings to wind energy.
While this issue started by mentioning that ICPSR was founded in 1962, we end with a more recent addition to the archive world, established at Qatar University's Social and Economic Survey Research Institute (SESRI) in 2017. The paper 'Data archiving for dissemination within a Gulf nation' addresses the experience of this new institution in an environment of cultural and political sensitivity. With a positive view you can regard the benefits as expanding. The start is that archive staff get experience concerning policies for data selection, restrictions, security and metadata. This generates benefits and expands to the broader group of research staff where awareness and improvements relate to issues like design, collection and documentation of studies. Furthermore, data sharing can be seen as expanding in the Middle East and North Africa region and generating a general improvement in the relevance and credibility of statistics generated in the region. Again, the FAIR principles of findable, accessible, interoperable, and re-useable are gaining momentum and being adopted by government offices and data collection agencies. In the article, the story of SESRI at Qatar University is described ahead of sections concerning data sharing culture and challenges as well as issues of staff recruitment, architecture and workflow. Many of the observations and considerations in the article will be of value to staff at both older and infant archives. The authors of the paper are the senior researcher and lead archivist at the archive of the Qatar University Brian W. Mandikiana, and Lois Timms-Ferrara and Marc Maynard – CEO and director of technology at Data Independence (Connecticut, USA).
Submissions of papers for the IASSIST Quarterly are always very welcome. We welcome input from IASSIST conferences or other conferences and workshops, from local presentations or papers especially written for the IQ. When you are preparing such a presentation, give a thought to turning your one-time presentation into a lasting contribution. Doing that after the event also gives you the opportunity of improving your work after feedback. We encourage you to login or create an author login to https://www.iassistquarterly.com (our Open Journal System application). We permit authors 'deep links' into the IQ as well as deposition of the paper in your local repository. Chairing a conference session with the purpose of aggregating and integrating papers for a special issue IQ is also much appreciated as the information reaches many more people than the limited number of session participants and will be readily available on the IASSIST Quarterly website at https://www.iassistquarterly.com.  Authors are very welcome to take a look at the instructions and layout:
https://www.iassistquarterly.com/index.php/iassist/about/submissions
Authors can also contact me directly via e-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com. Should you be interested in compiling a special issue for the IQ as guest editor(s) I will also be delighted to hear from you.
Karsten Boye Rasmussen - September 2019


In this article, the authors explore compassion in work organizations. They discuss the prevalence and costs of pain in organizational life, and identify compassion as an important process that can occur in response to suffering. At the individual level, compassion takes place through three subprocesses: noticing another's pain, experiencing an emotional reaction to the pain, and acting in response to the pain. The authors build on this framework to argue that organizational compassion exists when members of a system collectively notice, feel, and respond to pain experienced by members of that system. These processes become collective as features of an organization's context legitimate them within the organization, propagate them among organizational members, and coordinate them across individuals.


The currently available vaccines represent an outstanding success story in modern medicine, as they are responsible for a huge reduction in morbidity and mortality worldwide. However, it is clear that new approaches are necessary to enable the development of vaccines against more difficult pathogens, which are not yet under control, including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), malaria and Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcal aureus (MRSA). In addition, vaccines are necessary to counter emerging pathogen threats such as pandemic influenza and Ebola viruses. Potential improvements to current vaccines may include the addition of new adjuvants, which are able to induce more potent immune responses, more rapid responses or responses with an expanded breadth of pathogen coverage. New-generation adjuvants are now becoming available which may enable the development of new and improved vaccines, and this is currently a very active area of research and development.

Key Concepts

Vaccines are safe and effective and have had a major impact on reducing the impact of infectious diseases in the twentieth century and continue to do so early in the twenty-first century.
Adjuvants are included in vaccines to increase the immune response to the vaccine antigens.
Vaccine adjuvants are often necessary to enable vaccines to be effective.
Most currently available childhood vaccines contain insoluble aluminium salts as adjuvants.
To enable the development of vaccines against some more difficult pathogens, such as HIV and malaria, more potent adjuvants will be required.
New-generation adjuvants normally comprise several components combined together to achieve the best immune response to the vaccine.
New vaccine adjuvants will have to undergo extensive safety testing before they will ever be included in licensed vaccines.
Recently, it was identified that traditional small molecular weight drugs could perform as adjuvants, opening up the possibility of discovering many more new adjuvant-active compounds.
Formulation science is a key contributor to allow the development of safe and effective vaccine adjuvants.
It is becoming increasingly important to fully understand the mechanism of action of vaccine adjuvants, how they work is important.

Keywords:

vaccines;
vaccine adjuvants;
infectious diseases;
enhanced immunity


Radiation doses and cancer incidence among the population living within 25 km of three nuclear power plants (NPPs) in Ontario, Canada were investigated for the period 1985 to 2008 for radiation exposure and 1990 to 2008 for cancer incidence. This study design provided at least a five-year latency period between potential radiation exposure and cancer incidence. Around the NPPs, the incidence of childhood cancers, leukemia and non-Hodgkin lymphoma, in young children (aged 0 - 4) was lower than the general Ontario population, but not statistically so. Cancer incidence in children aged 0 - 14 was similar to the Ontario population. Overall, for all ages there was no consistent pattern of cancer incidence (all cancers combined and radio-sensitive cancers) across the population living within 25 km of the three NPPs. Some types of cancers were statistically higher than expected, others were statistically lower than expected, and others were similar to the general Ontario population. Although variations in all cancers combined and radiosensitive cancers were found in this study, the pattern was found to be within the natural variation of cancer in Ontario. During the period 1985 to 2000 (Pickering and Bruce NPPs) and 1985 to 2002 (Darlington NPP) radiation doses to members of the public from the operation of the NPPs, estimated on the basis of a hypothetical individual at the facility fence line, were ≤0.052 mSv/year; while for the period 2001 to 2008 (Pickering and Bruce NPPs) and 2003 to 2008 (Darlington NPP) radiation doses, more realistically estimated using the critical group concept for six age classes, were ≤0.0067 mSv/year. Hence, public doses from environmental releases of radionuclides from Ontario NPPs represent a very small fraction of natural background radiation (1.338 and 2.02 mSv/year) in the regions where the NPPs are located. Our study shows no evidence of childhood leukemia clusters around the three NPPs and that the incidence of all the cancers investigated for all age groups is within the natural variation of the disease in Ontario. The radiation exposure from NPP operation is a small contributor to the public's total exposure to radiation and is not a plausible explanation for any excess cancers observed within 25 km of any Ontario NPP.


One of the key objectives of 5G is to evolve the current mobile network architecture from "one-fit-all" design model to a more customized and dynamically scaling one that enables the deployment of parallel systems, tailored to the service requirements on top of a shared infrastructure. Indeed, the envisioned 5G servicesmay require different needs in terms of capacity, latency, bandwidth, reliability and security, which cannot be efficiently sustained by the same network infrastructure. Coming to address these customization challenges, network softwarization expressed through Software Defined Networking (SDN) programmable network infrastructures, Network Function Virtualization (NFV) running network functions as software and cloud computing flexibility paradigms, is seen as a possible panacea to addressing the variations in the network requirements posed by the 5G use cases. This will enable network flexibility and programmability, allow the creation and lifecycle management of virtual network slices tailored to the needs of 5G verticals expressed in the form of Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs) for automotive, eHealth, massive IoT, massivemultimedia broadband. In this vein, this paper introduces a potential 5G architecture that enables the orchestration, instantiation and management of end-to-end network slices over multiple administrative and technological domains. The architecture is described from both the management and the service perspective, underlining the common functionality as well as how the response to the diversified service requirements can be achieved through proper software network components development. key words: softwarization, NFV, SDN, cloud computing, orchestration, multi-domain


Coaching psychology can be understood as being the systematic application of behavioural science to the enhancement of life experience, work performance and well-being for individuals, groups and organisations who do not have clinically significant mental heath issues or abnormal levels of distress. Although psychologists have long acted as coaches, coaching psychology has only recently emerged as an applied and academic sub-discipline. As coaching psychology continues to grow there will be some exciting challenges from both within and outside of the profession of psychology. First among these there will be the issue of distinguishing the work and professional practices of coaching psychologists from coaches who are not psychologists. Secondly, will be the place of coaching psychology relative to other psychological sub- disciplines, and thirdly will be the development of a research and practice agenda for coaching psychology.


Orientation and affective Sphere in Franz Brentano Franz Brentano has played an important role in the history of Phenomenology. In fact, he has prepared the overview for the first phenomenological theories of Husserl and Scheler. According to the psychological theory of Brentano, every psychic Act has an intentional nature, which is aligned to some object. There are several acts of conscience that Brentano, within the framework of his psychological descriptive theory (thumb). He makes a distinction between "represent", "judge" and "feel". The method of the class "represent" is fundamental, because we can't judge something or take a stand on something without evaluation represented. The second class is that of "judge". The "judge" is not in any simple superimposition of one over the other representations or a simple connection of different representation. The intentional mode of the "judge", however, implies the representative mode by adding a unique specificity that linked the two intentional acts of "recognize" and "reject". The third class, the "feel", encompasses the scope of the affective sphere, in which Brentano highlights the role of intentional acts of "love" and "hate" as cognitive acts in relation to the construction of moral knowledge. In this report, I'm going to discuss the fundamental structures of this ethical theory. Brentano aims to overcome aspects of Kantian ethics, when he calls into question the concept of autonomy of practical reason and the "categorical imperative". Brentano, as opposed to Kant, believes that a "fair and adequate" and not a pure "duty" is the formal principle of moral knowledge.


One of the major sectors within the Agricultural Resource Interregional Modeling System is the livestock sector. There are two types of sectors developed in this manuscript. When location and rations of the livestock sector can be fixed, and the analysis is not going to significantly impact the sector, a fully exogenous sector can be implemented. However, in many cases location of livestock production depends on the competitive nature of each region. This can change as a result of a shift in production, resource limitations, resource surpluses, changes in resource availability or costs, etc. If the analysis is to evaluate the impacts these types of changes will have an livestock, then a partially endogenous livestock sector is required.


Papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is the fastest-growing disease caused by numerous molecular alterations in addition to previously reported DNA mutations. There is a compelling need to identify novel transcriptomic alterations that are associated with the pathogenesis of PTC with potential diagnostic and prognostic implications. Methods: We gathered and compared 242 expression profiles between paired PTC and adjacent normal tissues and identified and validated the coding and long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) associated with the extrathyroidal extension (ETE) of 655 PTC patients in two independent cohorts, followed by predicting their interactions with drugs. Co-expression, RNA interaction, Kaplan-Meier survival and multivariate Cox proportional regression analyses were performed to identify dysregulated lncRNAs and genes that correlated with clinical outcomes of PTC. Alternative splicing (AS), RNA circularization, and editing were also compared between transcriptomes to expand the repertoire of molecular alterations in PTC. Results: Numerous genes related to cellular microenvironment and steroid hormone response were associated with the ETE of PTC. Drug susceptibility predictions of the expression signature revealed two highly ranked compounds, 6-bromoindirubin-3'-oxime and lovastatin. Co-expression and RNA interaction analysis revealed the essential role of lncRNAs in PTC pathogenesis by modulating extracellular matrix and cell adhesion. Eight genes and two novel lncRNAs were identified that correlated with the aggressive nature and disease-free survival of PTC. Furthermore, this study provided the transcriptome-wide landscape of circRNAs in PTC and uncovered dissimilar expression profiles among circRNAs originating from the same host gene, suggesting the functional complexity of circRNAs in PTC carcinogenesis. The newly identified AS events in the SERPINA1 and FN1 genes may improve the sensitivity and specificity of these diagnostic biomarkers. Conclusions: Our study uncovered a comprehensive transcriptomic signature associated with the carcinogenesis and aggressive behavior of PTC, as well as presents a catalog of 10 potential biomarkers, which would facilitate PTC prognosis and development of new therapeutic strategies for this cancer.


The present study was designed to determine whether the osteoconductivity of octacalcium phosphate-collagen (OCP/Col) composite can be improved by controlling the granule size of OCP. The granules of synthetic OCP, with diameters in the range of 53 to 300, 300 to 500, and 500 to 1000 μm, were used as an inorganic source of composite materials mixed with atelo-Col. After vacuum dehydrothemal treatment, OCP/Col disks were implanted into critical-sized calvaria defects in Wistar rats for 4, 8, and 12 weeks and examined radiographically, histologically, histomorphometrically, and histochemically. The materials were characterized according to mercury intrusion porosimetry and scanning electron microscopy. X-ray diffraction was performed before and after implantation. The dissolution of OCP crystals in a Col matrix was determined by immersing OCP/Col disks in a culture medium. OCP/Col had a constant pore size (~30 μm) regardless of OCP granule size. OCP in the Col matrix tended to convert to hydroxyapatite (HA) during the implantation. OCP/Col with the smallest granules of OCP enhances both bone regeneration and biodegradation the most through tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP)-positive osteoclastic cellular resorption of OCP granules. The smallest OCP granules in the Col matrix showed the highest dissolution and had the greatest potential to form HA. The results indicated that the size of the included OCP granules can controll the osteoconductivity of OCP/Col. The overall results suggest that the physicochemical property of OCP crystals is a factor that determines the bone regenerative capacity of OCP/Col in critical-sized calvaria large bone defects in rats.


Snowmaking is now used by ski resorts worldwide as a measure to cope with both natural snow reduction and variability. This extensive recourse casts doubt on its sustainability mainly because of the large amount of natural resources being used (energy, water). In the middle to long run, this problem is expected to increase with future climate change triggering the production of more snow. The research field that focuses on the economic aspects of artificial snow production is still in its infancy but potentially covers a wide array of issues. Among these issues, benefits and costs of snowmaking are important ones. On the one hand, benefits arise as snowmaking extends or preserves the operating period of ski areas. Several empirical studies speculate or show that snowmaking considerably reduces the sensitivity of tourism consumption to variations in snow conditions. These benefits have long been neglected in studies analyzing the consequences of climate change for the winter tourism sector. While failing to introduce these benefits, many studies have generated overly high costs of climate change. On the other hand, investments and operating costs of artificial snow production depend upon several factors, such as technology and local conditions. Consequently, costs vary considerably from one location to another and over time, yet indicative values can be found in the literature. In addition, artificial snow production generates external costs, i.e. costs that are not born by those producing it. Typical of these external costs are environmental ones that are related to CO2 emissions or biodiversity losses. To our knowledge, very little has been done so far to integrate these costs in economic studies. To the extent that vertical integration is absent, it may happen as well that snow production generates important external benefits for different stakeholders at a given ski resort. From an economic point of view, both types of externalities could lead to investment levels that are not optimal in the sense that they do not maximize social welfare. More generally, economic analysis has the potential to explain current investment and snow production levels and to determine optimal ones. It can also predict the evolution of these levels under a warmer climate. For instance, such predictions were carried out for Switzerland as well as for other Alpine countries using a computable general equilibrium model of the world economy with a time horizon up to 2050, the GEMINI-E3 model. With all these points in mind, this presentation aims at reviewing what has been done so far on the economic aspects of artificial snow production and also at identifying avenues for future research.


The Semantic Web proposes the mark-up of content on the Web using formal ontologies that structure underlying data for the purpose of comprehensive and transportable machine understanding. Semantic Web Services: Theory, Tools and Applications brings contributions from researchers, scientists from both industry and academia, and representatives from different communities to study, understand, and explore the theory, tools, and applications of the semantic Web. Semantic Web Services: Theory, Tools and Applications binds computing involving the Semantic Web, ontologies, knowledge management, Web services, and Web processes into one fully comprehensive resource, serving as the platform for exchange of both practical technologies and far reaching research.


Momordica foetida Schum. & Sond. (Cucurbitaceae), locally known as
iNtshungu, is widely used by the Zulu people of Natal-KwaZulu for the
treatment of a variety of ailments.
The dried leaves leaves and stems of this plant was subjected to soxhlet
extraction by refluxing with hexane, chloroform and methanol successively.
Thin layer chromatography of the chloroform extract of the leaves revealed a
multiplicity of compounds. The chloroform extract was further partitioned with
sodium hydroxide resulting in an organic and aqueous phase. The organic
phase, containing extract A, afforded two compounds, viz. compounds 1 and 2.
The basic aqueous fraction was neutralised and re-extracted with chloroform to
give extract B, affording five compounds, viz. compounds 3,4,5,6 and 7.
Structural elucidation was accomplished by techniques such as IH and 13C NMR
spectroscopy, HETCOR, COSY, FTIR and High Resolution Mass
Spectrometry.
Compounds 1 and 2 were identified as cucurbitane triterpenoids known as
momordicines which had been previously discovered in the related species of
this plant, Momordica charantia L. The remaining five compounds were
identified as novel compounds, although natural derivatives of compounds 6
and 7 had been isolated previously from Momordica charantia L. Compounds
3-7 were each isolated as an epimeric mixture but it was possible to select the
resonances corresponding to the major epimer. These five epimers were
respectively identified as 5, 19-epoxy-19(R)-hydroxy-25-methoxy-5β-

cucurbita-6,23-diene-3β-ol [102], 5,19-epoxy-19(R),25-dihydroxy-5β-cucurbita-
6,23-diene-3β-ol [103], 5,19-epoxy-19(R)-methoxy-25-hydroxy-5β-cucrbita-
6,23-diene-3β-ol [104], 5,19-epoxy-25-methoxy-5β-cucurbita-6,23diene-
3β-ol [105] and 5,19-epoxy-19(R),25-dimethoxy-5β-cucurbita-6,23diene-
3β-ol [106].
Appropriate reactions were performed, where possible, on the compounds
isolated in order to confirm their identity.


Introduction The aim of the study was to evaluate the clinical performances of the Aptima Mycoplasma genitalium CE-IVD assay (AMG, Hologic) for the detection of M. genitalium in clinical male and female samples in comparison with the in-house real-time PCR (qPCR) assay routinely used in our laboratory. The Aptima assay uses target capture, transcription-mediated amplification (TMA), and hybridization protection to detect the M. genitalium 16S rRNA. Methods A total of 1431 clinical specimens obtained from 1235 patients were prospectively enrolled from February to June 2016 at the Bacteriology Department of Bordeaux University Hospital (France). For the AMG assay, various specimens collected in the appropriate APTIMA medium were processed according to the manufacturer's instructions on the Panther system (Hologic). DNA extracts were obtained using the MagNA Pure 96 DNA and viral NA small Volume Kit on the MagNA Pure 96TM instrument (Roche Diagnostics). The in-house M. genitalium qPCR assay targeting the MgPa adhesin gene was performed on the cobas z480 analyzer (Roche Diagnostics). Additional RUO M. genitalium TMA assays, MGAlt1 and MGAlt2, and the CE-marked SpeeDx ResistancePlusTM MG assay were performed on the blinded discordant specimens to determine a definitive M. genitalium infection status. All the confirmed M. genitalium-positive specimens were tested for macrolide resistance using three comparative assays: the in-house FRET qPCR assay, the SpeeDx ResistancePlusTM MG assay and the nested reverse-transcription PCR sequencing assay. Results The comparison of the AMG assay with the in-house qPCR result showed a moderate correlation, with a kappa value of 0.69. The TMA assay had a very good clinical sensitivity (100%) and specificity (99.33%) for M. genitalium detection across all specimen types tested. Its sensitivity was significantly higher than that of the in-house qPCR, 100% versus 61.33%. The prevalence of M. genitalium infection was 5.90% (72/1220 patients) and the prevalence of macrolide resistance-associated mutation was 5.47% (4/73). Conclusion The Aptima Mycoplasma genitalium assay performed on the fully automated Panther system is a very sensitive and specific method for detection of M. genitalium in clinical specimens. On the Panther platform this assay can be easily combined with the assay for chlamydia and gonorrhoea detection from the same sample.


The analytical propagation equation of a nonparaxial Lorentz-Gauss beam in free space is derived on the basis of vectorial Rayleigh-Sommerfeld integral formulae. As special cases of the general formulae, the far-field expression and the scalar paraxial result are also presented. According to the obtained analytical representation, the nonparaxial propagation properties of a Lorentz-Gauss beam in free space are illustrated and analyzed with numerical examples. This research provides an approach to investigate the propagation of a Lorentz-Gauss beam beyond the paraxial approximation.


This book focuses on Public Procurement for Innovation. Public Procurement for Innovation is a specific demand-side innovation policy instrument. It occurs when a public organization places an order for a new or improved product to fulfill certain needs that cannot be met at the moment of the order. The book provides evidence of the potential benefits to public and private actors from the selective use of this policy instrument and illustrates the requirements and constraints for its operationalization. The book intends to significantly improve the understanding of key determinants of effective public procurement aiming to promote innovative capabilities in the supplying sectors and beyond. It provides both case studies and conceptual contributions that help extend the frontier of our understanding in areas where there are still significant gaps.


In this current hypercompetitive environment organisations are forced to become more efficient and effective. In this respect, one of the most popular tools used to streamline and improve service delivery is the application of performance appraisal systems. The objective of this study is to determine the extent to which the current performance appraisal system of BCS-Net Pty Ltd complies with the requirements and guidelines for performance appraisal as stipulated in the literature, in other words how effective is the current performance appraisal system utilised by BCSNet Pty Ltd. A quantitative research method was used to seek answers to the research questions. Survey questionnaires were sent to various respondents for data collection. The questions in the survey questionnaire were grouped into various criteria for an effective performance appraisal. All employees that were previously evaluated by the organisation were allowed to participate. A literature review was conducted to determine what criteria constituted an effective performance appraisal system. After analysing the relevant information from the organisation's employees it became apparent that the current performance appraisal system of the organisation was ineffective and it did not meet all the requirements for the criteria for a successful and effective performance appraisal system. Secondly, there was a clear indication that not all the supervisors/managers were adequately trained to conduct a performance appraisal and there was no consistency with regards to the implementation of the current performance appraisal system across the organisation.


Setting up an institutional repository (IR) is just the beginning. The next challenge is to respond to evolving university needs while building on the repository's core vision. Embedding a repository involves engaging with key processes and academically driven deadlines. We illustrate the ramping up and enhancement of workflows, in 2006, to respond to the initial UK research assessment commitments at the University of Southampton. This task included training and managing a growing team for metadata validation and enhancement, creating new tools to manage a large input buffer and negotiating a variety of practical input processes to tight deadlines. It required a sensitivity to current practices in diverse departments. The great benefits were a closer interaction with all the disciplines and a recognition of key library contributions to a complex process. The School of Humanities required a more specific effort with its more varied metadata and research outputs. A core library team - working with Computing Services, EPrints Services in Electronics and Computer Science, administration and the academic schools - provided a coherent focus on the target. Each school is now represented in the IR and, as the workflow calms down, the concentration is now on how to build on these relationships using the library liaison team and evolving procedures to maintain the momentum towards achieving the best representation of the university's output. There can now be a renewed emphasis on opening up access to text, images and audio and facilitating the repurposing of bibliographic information for personal services.


Abstract. The Integrated Carbon Observation System Atmosphere Thematic Centre (ICOS ATC) automatically processes atmospheric greenhouse gases mole fractions of data coming from sites of the ICOS network. Daily transferred raw data files are automatically processed and archived. Data are stored in the ICOS atmospheric database, the backbone of the system, which has been developed with an emphasis on the traceability of the data processing. Many data products, updated daily, explore the data through different angles to support the quality control of the dataset performed by the principal operators in charge of the instruments. The automatic processing includes calibration and water vapor corrections as described in the paper. The mole fractions calculated in near-real time (NRT) are automatically revaluated as soon as a new instrument calibration is processed or when the station supervisors perform quality control. By analyzing data from 11 sites, we determined that the average calibration corrections are equal to 1.7 ± 0.3 µmol mol−1 for CO2 and 2.8 ± 3 nmol mol−1 for CH4. These biases are important to correct to avoid artificial gradients between stations that could lead to error in flux estimates when using atmospheric inversion techniques. We also calculated that the average drift between two successive calibrations separated by 15 days amounts to ±0.05 µmol mol−1 and ±0.7 nmol mol−1 for CO2 and CH4, respectively. Outliers are generally due to errors in the instrument configuration and can be readily detected thanks to the data products provided by the ATC. Several developments are still ongoing to improve the processing, including automated spike detection and calculation of time-varying uncertainties.


Poststructuralist accounts of organizations understand them as flows, as verbs in process of always-becoming. Subjects who work `in' organizations are similarly always in a process of becoming. Organization and members are mutually constitutive, each enfolded within the other. The process by which each is enfolded within and constituted by the other is what is explored in this essai. Its aim is to analyse something of the becoming-ness of organizations/selves, in which the researcher-self is imbricated in this becoming-ness and must therefore be part of that which is studied. To achieve this aim I draw on Lacan's concepts: of the mirror stage, or how I am in an agonistic relationship with the other; Nachträglichkeit or the reliving of the past in the present (deferred action); and identification. I apply these concepts to an interview I, an academic, carried out with a manager, emphasizing the importance of these organizational identities in our encounter with each other. The conclusion I reach is that the organization I am `in' is at the same time `in' me: there is no inside and no outside.


The infrared reflectance of the transition-metal chalcogenide 1T-TaS2 has been measured at temperatures from 30 K to 360 K over 30-45 000 cm(-1) (4 meV-5.5 eV). The optical conductivity was obtained by Kramers-Kronig analysis. At 360 K only modest traces of the phonon lines are noticeable. The phonon modes are followed by a pseudo-gap-like increase of the optical conductivity, with direct optical transitions observed at frequencies above 1 eV. As the temperature decreases, the low-frequency conductivity also decreases, phonon modes become more pronounced, and a pseudogap develops into a gap at 800 cm(-1) (100 meV). We observe an anomalous frequency dependence of the 208 cm(-1) infrared-active phonon mode. This mode demonstrates softening as the temperature decreases below the 180-K transition. The same mode demonstrates strong hysteresis of the frequency and linewidth changes, similar in its temperature behavior to the hysteresis in the dc resistivity. We discuss a possible relation of the observed softening of the mode to the structural changes and changes in electronic properties associated with the 180-K transition.


i»?To the extent that financial contagion from the United States and the euro area crisis has occurred in Asia, this paper focuses on the importance of strengthening the regional financial safety nets. By conjecturing that efforts to prevent and manage a crisis are the essence of providing such safety nets, I argue that efforts made by ASEAN+3 officials, especially in the provision of liquidity support during a crisis, are far from adequate. The collapse of Lehman Brothers in the autumn of 2008 could be a game-changer in the global financial market, making the probability of financial contagion higher than ever before. Even with improved financial conditions and stronger regulations in ASEAN+3 member countries, contagion can and will strike. Making the Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralization more effective is therefore urgent and critical.


Articulate and provocative, Richardo Ffrench-Davis offers the most comprehensive and timely assessment available of Chilean economic reform, from the military dictatorship of Pinochet in the 1970s up to the "reforms of reforms" made by the democratic governments in the 1990s.Written in accessible and readable prose, "Economic Reforms in Chile" begins with an overview of the Chilean economy during the last fifty years. This historical time frame is divided into three periods of economic reform. The first period covers the Pinochet regime, during which the more orthodox neoliberalism was implemented. The second period includes the Pinochet dictatorship, during which economic policy shifted toward pragmatism, particularly in the areas of trade and finance; it also includes the crisis of 1982 and its effects. The third period begins in 1990 with the return to democratic elections and the significant reforms to prior reforms. This section also examines the search for growth-with-equity, success in investment and growth performance, macroeconomic sustainability, and the reduction of poverty. Ffrench-Davis addresses several "paradoxes," or results that defy the expectations of policymakers, in order to analyze the significance of comprehensive macroeconomic equilibrium and its implications for sustainable stability, growth, and equity."Economic Reforms in Chile" will be of interest to economists, political scientists, and policymakers involved with the economies of emerging and developing countries.Ricardo Ffrench-Davis is Principal Regional Advisor, ECLAC, Santiago, and Professor of Economics, University of Chile.


Background There is growing interest in neurofeedback as a treatment for major depressive disorder. Reduction of asymmetry of alpha-activity between left and right prefrontal areas with neurofeedback has been postulated as effective in earlier studies. Unfortunately, methodological shortcomings limit conclusions that can be drawn from these studies. In a pilot-study, we investigated the effectiveness of reduction of asymmetry of alpha-activity with neurofeedback in depressed participants with the use of a stringent methodological approach. Methods Nine participants meeting DSM-IV criteria for major depressive disorder were treated with a maximum of 30 neurofeedback-sessions, aimed at reducing asymmetry of alpha-activity, over a 10-week period. No changes in the use of antidepressants were allowed 6 weeks before and during the intervention. Changes in depressive symptomatology were assessed with the Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptoms, self-report version. Results We observed response in 1 and remission in 4 out of a total of 9 participants. The effectiveness appeared largest in female participants. The mean asymmetry of alpha-activity decreased significantly over sessions in a quadratic fashion. This decrease was associated with clinical response. Conclusions This pilot study suggests that neurofeedback aimed at a reduction of frontal asymmetry of alpha-activity may be effective as a treatment for depression. However, this was an open label pilot study. Non-specific effects of the procedure and/or a beneficial natural course may have confounded the results. Randomized controlled trials will have to establish the efficacy of neurofeedback for depression. Trial Registration Nederlands Trial Register NTR1629


This research was aimed at characterizing the daily rhythms of locomotor activity of cuttlefish Sepia officinalis (Linnaeus, 1758), a promising aquaculture species, in a captive environment. Cuttlefish were distributed within two tanks equipped with infrared photocells, allowing the monitoring of locomotor activity continuously from August to February. Results showed a preference of cuttlefish for being active during the night in summer (24.2 ± 1.3 °C) and in autumn (18.4 ± 3.4 °C), with maximum activity peaks observed, respectively, at 01:09 h and 21:47 h, in close relation with sunset time. In winter (12.7 ± 1.4 °C), this preference changed, with higher levels of activity observed during the afternoon in December (15:20 h) and in January (18:13 h), thus suggesting this species as possessing a dualistic behaviour. Levels of activity progressively decreased during autumn and winter, likely related to low temperatures. The present study offers new insights on the behaviour of Sepia officinalis, presenting a variability of patterns across seasons, regulated by environmental synchronizers; photoperiod determining the activity periods, and temperature modulating the levels of activity. Such information may be a valuable tool for the improvement of cuttlefish culture protocols in aquaculture, and consequently its welfare.


A description is given of FPlus, a Fortran-based programming environment for engineers and scientists that lets them write code, test it immediately, incrementally develop applications, and generate documentation automatically. The incremental generation process is examined. FPlus testing facilities, which are available at any time during development and help to build in reliability, are discussed. Simple mechanisms that evaluate code and design to help improve programming style are provided. The FPlus environment also encourages uniformity with its structure-oriented editor and formatter. FPlus helps the user generate structured code and module and system documentation. It also provides a macro-definition facility for experienced programmers.<<ETX>>


Psalm 88 has been called an embarrassment to conventional faith. The psalm is unique when compared with other psalms of lament. In Ps 88 we find the desperate cry of someone who seeks to connect with YHWH, but YHWH keeps silent. The psalmist finds himself in the deepest darkness of abandonment and despair. Yet, his unanswered cry does not silence the poet. YHWH may stay quiet, but not the psalmist. He continues to hurl his cries into an empty sky, convinced that even in the face of YHWH's inattention, YHWH must still be addressed. Even when confronted with the reality of death, death caused by YHWH, the poet sticks to his protest, to be met yet again with more silence. YHWH doesn't speak, He doesn't act, and He doesn't care. The poet is ignored, snubbed, shunned, and rejected. The last word he speaks is darkness. What should one do about this complete silence and this bottomless darkness? What is this psalm doing in the Bible? What does this psalm say about the life of faith? What should one's response be when facing this dark night of the soul? Should one abandon God in the face of his desertion? This paper argues that Ps 88 stands as a signpost for realism in the life of faith.


We are developing a novel classical over-the barrier model for electron transfer from an in nitely thin conducting disc to a point charge projectile to model multiple electron capture in e.g. keV collisions of atomic ions with poly-cyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). In its nal form, the present model will incorporate the polarization of the PAH molecules due to the active electron and the point charge projectile at a general angle of incidence. This will drastically improve the description of the potential barrier in comparisons with simpler versions of the model where the nite size and polarizability of the target molecule is neglected or treated in an averaged fashion. In this work we arrive at expressions for the electrostatic potential energy barrier experienced by the active electron in the two spatial orientations where the point charge projectile is located along the normal symmetry axis and in the tangent plane of the disc. Applied to coronene (C24H12) such barriers compare better with high level density functional theory (DFT) calculations than with the results from the simpler versions of the classical over-the-barrier models for atomic and spherical cluster targets. These results thus strongly supports the conducting disc approximation of PAHs. Finally we discuss the nal steps in the model development and possible extensions of the model to include less symmetric elliptical discs or spherical caps.


We discuss the uniqueness of quantum states compatible with given measurement results for a set of observables. For a given pure state, we consider two different types of uniqueness: (1) no other pure state is compatible with the same measurement results and (2) no other state, pure or mixed, is compatible with the same measurement results. For case (1), it was known that for a $d$-dimensional Hilbert space, there exists a set of $4d\ensuremath{-}5$ observables that uniquely determines any pure state. We show that for case (2), $5d\ensuremath{-}7$ observables suffice to uniquely determine any pure state. Thus, there is a gap between the results for (1) and (2), and we give some examples to illustrate this. Unique determination of a pure state by its reduced density matrices (RDMs), a special case of determination by observables, is also discussed. We improve the best-known bound on local dimensions in which almost all pure states are uniquely determined by their RDMs for case (2). We further discuss circumstances where (1) can imply (2). We use convexity of the numerical range of operators to show that when only two observables are measured, (1) always implies (2). More generally, if there is a compact group of symmetries of the state space which has the span of the observables measured as the set of fixed points, then (1) implies (2). We analyze the possible dimensions for the span of such observables. Our results extend naturally to the case of low-rank quantum states.


The purpose of this study was to compare the effect of experimenting with Physical Manipulatives (PM), Virtual Manipulatives (VM), and a blended combination of PM and VM, on undergraduate students' understanding of scientific concepts in the domain of Light and Shadows. A pre-post comparison study design was used for the purposes of this study that involved 70 undergraduate students, enrolled in an introductory physics course that was based upon the Physics by Inquiry curriculum (McDermott and The Physics Education Group, 1996). The participants were randomly separated into three groups, each corresponding to a condition that involves the use of one of the three modes of experimentation (VM alone, PM alone, and PM and VM in combination). The first group (Control Group or CG) consisted of 23 students that used PM, the second group (Experimental Group 1, EG1) consisted of 23 students that used VM, and the third group (Experimental Group 2 or EG2) consisted of 24 students that used the blended combination of PM and VM. In the case of the blended combination, the use of VM or PM was selected based on whether it provides an advantage/affordance that the other mode of experimentation cannot provide. These affordances of either VM or PM were identified through a literature review of the domain. None of the participants had taken college physics prior to the study. Conceptual tests were administered to assess students' understanding before and after instruction. The data collected through the tests were analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. Findings revealed that the use of a blended combination of PM and VM enhanced students' conceptual understanding in Light and Shadows more than the use of PM or VM alone.


Abstract The use of disodium peroxodisulphate combined with a neutral buffer is a new method for the efficient removal of organic matter from clay-bearing sediments. The effects of this oxidation procedure on mineral structure were investigated by treatment of different standard clay minerals (kaolinite 'china clay', illite 'Le Puy', montmorillonite SWy-1). The materials were characterized by means of XRD. FTIR, SEM and TEM before and after leaching with disodium peroxodisulphate. Systematic experiments were conducted to determine the effects of leaching on the chemical and isotopic composition of oxygen, hydrogen and K-Ar in these samples. Effects on the physicochemical properties of the clays such as BET external surface area, cation exchange capacity (CEC) and expandability with ethylene glycol were also investigated. The results show that structure, chemical composition, oxygen and hydrogen isotope ratios, as well as the K-Ar system remain unaffected by leaching with disodium peroxodisulphate. The CEC and expandability remain unchanged, whereas changes in BET area can be attributed to mechanical dispersion by ultrasonic treatment.


The University of Missouri-Rolla will identify materials that will permit the safe, reliable and economical operation of combined cycle gasifiers by the pulp and paper industry. The primary emphasis of this project will be to resolve the materials problems encountered during the operation of low-pressure high-temperature (LFHT) and lowpressure low-temperature (LPLT) gasifiers while simultaneously understanding the materials barriers to the successful demonstration of high-pressure high-temperature (HPHT) black liquor gasifiers. This study will define the chemical, thermal and physical conditions in current and proposed gasifier designs and then modify existing materials and develop new materials to successfully meet the formidable material challenges. Resolving the material challenges of black liquor gasification combined cycle technology will provide energy, environmental, and economic benefits that include higher thermal efficiencies, up to three times greater electrical output per unit of fuel, and lower emissions. In the near term, adoption of this technology will allow the pulp and paper industry greater capital effectiveness and flexibility, as gasifiers are added to increase mill capacity. In the long term, combined-cycle gasification will lessen the industry's environmental impact while increasing its potential for energy production, allowing the production of all the mill's heat and power needs along with surplus electricity being returned to the grid. An added benefit will be the potential elimination of the possibility of smelt-water explosions, which constitute an important safety concern wherever conventional Tomlinson recovery boilers are operated. Developing cost-effective materials with improved performance in gasifier environments may be the best answer to the material challenges presented by black liquor gasification. Refractory materials may be selected/developed that either react with the gasifier environment to form protective surfaces in-situ; are functionally-graded to give the best combination of thermal, mechanical, and physical properties and chemical stability; or are relatively inexpensive, reliable repair materials. Material development will be divided into 2 tasks: Task 1, Development and property determinations of improved and existing refractory systems for black liquor containment. Refractory systems of interest include magnesia aluminate and baria aluminate spinels for binder materials, both dry and hydratable, and materials with high alumina contents, 85-95 wt%, aluminum oxide, 5.0-15.0 wt%, and BaO, SrO, CaO, ZrO and SiC. Task 2, Finite element analysis of heat flow and thermal stress/strain in the refractory lining and steel shell of existing and proposed vessel designs. Stress and strain due to thermal and chemical expansion has been observed to be detrimental to the lifespan of existing black liquor gasifiers. The thermal and chemical strain as well as corrosion rates must be accounted for in order to predict the lifetime of the gasifier containment materials. DOE Award Number: 26-03NT41491.002 Page 3 of 28


The study utilized the advanced technology provided by automated perimeters to investigate the hypothesis that patients with retinitis pigmentosa behave atypically over the dynamic range and to concurrently determine the influence of extraneous factors on the format of the normal perimetric sensitivity profile. The perimetric processing of some patients with retinitis pigmentosa was considered to be abnormal in either the temporal and/or the spatial domain. The standard size III stimulus saturated the central regions and was thus ineffective in detecting early depressions in sensitivity in these areas. When stimulus size was scaled in inverse proportion to the square root of ganglion cell receptive field density (M-scaled), isosensitive profiles did not result, although cortical representation was theoretically equivalent across the visual field. It was conjectured that this was due to variations in the ganglion cell characteristics with increasing peripheral angle, most notably spatial summation. It was concluded that the development of perimetric routines incorporating stimulus sizes adjusted in proportion to the coverage factor of retinal ganglion cells would enhance the diagnostic capacity of perimetry. Good general and local correspondence was found between perimetric sensitivity and the available retinal cell counts. Intraocular light scatter arising both from simulations and media opacities depressed perimetric sensitivity. Attenuation was greater centrally for the smaller LED stimuli, whereas the reverse was true for the larger projected stimuli. Prior perimetric experience and pupil size also demonstrated eccentricity-dependent effect on sensitivity. Practice improved perimetric sensitivity for projected stimuli at eccentricities greater than or equal to 30o; particularly in the superior region. Increase in pupil size for LED stimuli enhanced sensitivity at eccentricities greater than 10o. Conversely, microfluctuation in the accommodative response during perimetric examination and the correction of peripheral refractive error had no significant influence on perimetric sensitivity.


Model-based reinforcement learning (mbRL) has been widely used in explaining animal behavior. In mbRL, the model, or the structure of the task, is used to evaluate the associations between actions and outcomes. It has been proposed that the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) encodes the model during mbRL. However, it is not well understood how the OFC acquires and stores model information. Here, we propose a neural network framework based on reservoir computing. Reservoir networks exhibit heterogeneous and dynamic activity patterns that are suitable to encode task states. The information can be extracted by a linear readout trained with reinforcement learning. We demonstrate how our framework acquires and stores the task state space. The framework exhibits mbRL behavior and its aspects resemble experimental findings of the OFC. Our study provides a theoretical explanation of how the OFC may contribute to mbRL and a new approach to understanding the neural mechanism underlying mbRL.


"Europe 2020- A strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth" is a long term programme of socio- economic development of European Union for 2010 – 2020. The present study is to examine the process of implementation of Europe 2020 Strategy indicators as regards social exclusion and poverty combating in Poland and other EU countries, as well as setting trends in this area and forecasting the objectives implementation period for the EU as a whole and for Poland individually. Another objective of the research is categorizing the EU countries as regards the similar level of measures describing the social exclusion phenomenon by means of TOPSIS and Ward's methods. The research period is 2005-2015.


Sport management academic programs can do better at preparing a graduate for a career by addressing the technology demands in the sport industry. Equally important is to weigh the skills that athletic department personnel want and need in a college graduate seeking an entry-level position in a sport communication, media relations, or sports information office. Those offices train student workers as an extension of their learning environment where they can put classroom learning to practice. The purpose of these interviews was to inform and equip sport management educators on how to best prepare students to enter the field of sport communication, specifically using social media in college athletics. Professionals indicated that students should be proficient in content creation and planning, representing an organization's brand, and social media trends across all platforms. It is important for the sport management educator to know the skills and knowledge professionals desire from students so that classroom activity can be planned accordingly.


Designing a website or brochure without an art background? Then step away from the computer and read this engaging, conversational introduction to visual communications first. Written for the beginner, White Space is Not Your Enemy, Second Edition, is a practical graphic design and layout guide that introduces the concepts and practices necessary for producing effective visual communication across a variety of formats--from web to print. This beautifully illustrated, full-color book covers all of the basics to help you develop your eye and produce evocative designs that work. Topics include: What is design? Pre-design research and brainstorming. The "works-every-time layout" and "13 layout sins." The elements and principles of design. Layouts for impact. Getting along with type. Choosing and using color. Working with photos and illustrations. Intros to infographics, storyboarding and multimedia components. Output for the web and print. Visit www.whitespacedesignbook.com for additional supporting materials.


In an attempt to address the negative ecological impacts of habitat fragmentation, wildlife corridors have been proposed as a way to connect areas of biological significance. In this paper, a model to maximize the amount of suitable wildlife habitat in a fully connected parcel network linking core habitat areas subject to a budget constraint is introduced. The standard economic framework of maximizing habitat benefits subject to a budget constraint that we employ in this paper is a divergence from other recently proposed models that focus only on minimizing the cost of a single parcel-wide corridor. While the budget constrained optimization model that we introduce is intuitively appealing, it presents substantial computational challenges above determining the cost-minimizing corridor. The optimization model is applied to the design of a wildlife corridor for grizzly bears in the U.S. Northern Rockies and is shown to drastically increase the aggregate habitat suitability of the corridor over parcel selection based on cost minimization alone. The relative tradeoffs between corridor cost and habitat suitability are illustrated through the construction of an efficiency frontier and, for cases where optimization is computationally impractical, a heuristic is suggested that closely approximates the optimally selected corridor.


The mainstream of meditation (冥思静坐) and cultivate spirit (修仙) methods in the period of Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern dynasties (南北朝) was Cun Shou Shen Shen (存守身神, inner visualize and guard body spirit) of Shang Qing Pai (上清派, Shang Qing faction ). In addition, methods of Shang Qing Pai's inhalingand eating essence qi of sun, moon, and stars (Yu Yi 郁仪, Jie Lin 结璘and Ben Chen 奔辰) and methods of Ling Boa Pai's (灵宝派) inhaling and eating essence qi released from five direction of Sky (Wu Ya 五芽法 ) were also prevalent at that time. As for the inner Dan (內丹) training method "Kan Li Jiao Gou" (坎离交媾, interaction between water and fire) mentioned in the book of Zhou Yi Can Tong Qi (周易参同契) of Han dynasty, the practitioner less. The book "TaiShang San Shi Liu Bu Zun Jing, Huang Ting Jing (太上三十六部尊 经·黃庭经) " is the important Taoism scripture of inner Dan at this time. But, according to the statement "improve inner Dan by using the strength of outer Dan" of Hui Si (慧思, the master of Zen, 515-577 ) in the vows "Nan Yue Si Da Chan Si Li Shi Yuan Wen (南狱思大禅师立誓愿文)", inner Dan's cultivation had affected Buddhist mages in the late stage of Southern and Northern dynasties, then the practice of inner Dan's practice seems to have been valued again by the cultivators . At the beginning of the Sui Dynasty, Su Yuan-lang (苏元朗) deeply studied the book of Zhou Yi Can Tong Qi and had reports on Kan Li Jiao Gou of inner Dan and Wei Dan Ba Shi Shao Lian (外丹八石烧炼) of outer Dan. He also affected by the book "Tai Shang San Shi Liu Bu Zun Jing, Huang Ting Jing" of Southern and Northern dynasties which divided human's living ability into three parts as energy, qi and spirit (jing, qi, shen 精气神). Inner and outer Dan both in the Sui and Tang dynasties were the mainstream of cultivation.
Keywords: Su Yuan-lang, meditation, inner Dan, Kan Li, lead and mercury


This thesis examines the possibility of privatising public owned five star hotels in Egypt through its stock market in order to give a boost to the Egyptian privatisation programme and to help activate its stock market. To explore these aspects, two main technical exercises were executed. First the writer constructed, for the first time in Egypt, a daily price index for Cairo Stock Exchange and an index for the tourism sector, in order to analyze the efficiency of the capital market. This technical analysis showed that Cairo stock exchange is inefficient, stagnant and undergoes minimal fluctuations, especially when compared to other developed and emerging markets. Second, given the importance and complexity of the valuation of SOEs prior to their privatisation, a sample of three five star hotels that could be prime candidates for privatisation via the stock market in Egypt were selected and a detailed financial analysis for the three hotels was concluded. The result was a valuation range for the three hotels using various valuation methods. Nevertheless it was found out that the final value of hotels will be determined by the market itself. Depite the inefficiency of Cairo Stock Exchange, the thesis did not rule out privatisation through the stock market. On the contrary it cited several examples of developing countries that were able to successfully privatise some of their SOEs via their rudimentary capital markets. Finally, the thesis recommended that five star hotels could be pefect candidates for privatisation via the stock market in Egypt. This is because five star hotels are profitable, privately managed, non strategic and not highly capital intensive businesses. In addition, they do not suffer from overstaffing and the industry in which they operate i.e. tourism sector, has high growth prospects and is of an international nature. Therefore it is anticipated that privatisation of five star hotels can attract a lot of investors because of the relatively high returns. This in turn will help activate and popularize the capital market in Egypt. At the same time the benefits of privatisation would be more visible which will give more momentum to the privatisation programme and make it more politically acceptable.


Objective To perform a bibliometric analysis of scientific production related to gut microbiota and Parkinson's disease between 2011 and 2020. Methods A descriptive, retrospective, cross-sectional, and bibliometric study was carried out. The Scopus database was used as a source to evaluate the worldwide scientific production on intestinal microbiota and its relationship with Parkinson's disease. Data were extracted from Scopus using a formula developed with thesaurus terms MeSH (Medline) and Emtree (Embase). Results A total of 591 documents were found. The retrieved manuscripts received an average of 41.9 citations per document. Four of the 10 most productive authors were Italian. The University of Helsinki (Finland) was the institution with the highest scientific production (19 papers) and the highest impact (5921 citations). In terms of productivity and impact, Movement Disorders ranked first with 38 papers and 2782 citations, and those papers published in Q1 quartile journals exceeded the sum of the remaining quartiles. Papers with international collaboration were the most cited. Keyword analysis showed that the terms Parkinson Disease, Disease, and Intestine Flora were the most frequent. Conclusion The number of papers on Parkinson's disease and gut microbiota has been increasing; however, high-quality journals maintain the same high publication rate. International collaboration from high-income countries played an important role in the impact generated by the publications.


Producing live 6DoF video requires video capture with multiple cameras, real-time depth estimation, compression, streaming and playback. All of these components are under development and a ready-made solution is hard to find. To make the right choices during development there is a clear need to be able to predict in advance the effect that system parameters (e.g. baseline) and depth estimation algorithms have on image quality. In this paper, I present a quality evaluation approach that uses ray-traced images of artificial scenes to simulate the acquisition for a given camera capture configuration. The images are passed to real-time depth estimation and view-synthesis software. Views are then synthesized for a pre-set viewing zone and the resulting images are compared with the ray-traced images. Modelling errors are isolated from depth estimation errors by comparing both the images synthesized from ground truth depth and images synthesized from estimated depth with the ray-traced images. INTRODUCTION With an increasing number of display devices supporting positional tracking and 3D interaction, the relevance of multi-camera capturing and 6DoF processing increases. Applications include live concerts, live sports and telepresence. The freedom of selecting one's own viewpoint enriches these applications by increasing the feeling of presence over regular video. Further into the future more immersive scenarios can be conceived where an observer may navigate and interact with a live captured scene. For broadcast applications we need real-time depth estimation on the production side and real-time view synthesis at the client device. Both depth estimation and view synthesis introduce errors and these errors depend on the implementation details of algorithms. Furthermore, the optimal camera configuration depends on the intended application and the 3D structure of the scene being captured. In the next sections, I introduce a ray-tracing approach to quality evaluation inside a target viewing zone. The approach is evaluated using our real-time multi-camera setup for live broadcast.


Since 2001, the State of Texas has been designing and constructing perpetual pavements on some of its heavily trafficked highways where the expected 20-year truck-traffic estimate of 18 kip ESALs is in excess of 30 million. To date, there are 10 in-service perpetual pavement (PP) sections, typically consisting of about 22 inches total thickness of HMA layers and supported on an 8-inch thick treated (lime or cement) base, resting on a well compacted subgrade soil. This report provides an overview of the Texas construction and evaluation experience of PPs including structural design, materials and mix-designs, construction and quality issues, and performance history. The research methodology and scope of work included data collection, extensive laboratory and field testing, computational modeling, and performance evaluations. Based on the research findings, recommendations for the future Texas PP design, construction, and performance monitoring are provided in this report. Overall, performance to date is satisfactory with no major structural distresses. However, construction-related joint and cracking problems were observed on a few projects. Laboratory and field experience has also indicated workability, compactability, and constructability related problems with the Stone Filled (SF) HMA mixes, which serve as the main structural load-carrying layers. Recommendations have accordingly been made to improve or replace the SF mix-designs. Recommendations are also provided for the structural design of future Texas PPs; the current PP designs were found to be conservative with potential for further optimization. The results generated support the transition to higher design moduli values, yielding a 6 or more inch structural thickness reduction in the total HMA thickness.


YouTube's propagation of misleading protobacco content to youth has the potential to increase their protobacco beliefs, attitudes, and smoking behavior. We assessed the effects of potential interventions aimed at ameliorating the effect of misleading protobacco videos. An online experiment randomly exposed past and current young tobacco users ( N = 716) between the ages of 15 and 19 years to real protobacco, pipe-focused YouTube content that was either shown in its original uncorrected form or edited to include either a propositional voiced and text-based rebuttal that warned about the health effects of smoking or a counternarrative that showed that a person who promoted protobacco messages was diagnosed with and eventually died from esophageal cancer. On average, the two interventions were equally effective at reducing the effects of protobacco messages on beliefs and attitudes. However, the narrative correction was more effective for participants who strongly identified with the character. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.


Every image locates intelligence.1 I decided to become an artist due to this premise. Mostof my childhood was spent in front of a TV-screen. By channel surfing across the rangeof our satellite dish I created new narratives of my own, based on the different channelsexisting images. The disappearance of images became as important as their appearance.Art offered me a way of preserving and study these transient images of contemporaryculture.


The emancipatory perspective on entrepreneuring examines the activities undertaken by entrepreneurs to bring about change. Business ecosystems are a mode of organizing economic production that differs from markets and organizational hierarchies, and is increasingly associated with collaborative innovation, opportunities for technology entrepreneurship, and rapid technological progress. This thesis examines how business ecosystems feature in the emancipation actions of entrepreneurs in the commercial spaceflight industry. The research design is a case-based event study of three entrepreneurs and their space ventures: Sir Richard Branson and Virgin Galactic, Peter Diamandis and XPRIZE, and Elon Musk and SpaceX. Results show that business ecosystems can be emancipating – as a means for escaping constraints, in the authoring activities to enact change, and in making declarations to mobilize support, manage interpretations, and motivate change from others. Contributions include a formal operational specification for event studies using the emancipation perspective that can be applied in other field settings.


: Okra is an associate of the mallow family which is related to cotton, hibiscus and hollyhock. It is a tall annual tropical herb cultivated for its edible green seed pod. Okra gum was extracted from the pods of hibiscus esculents using acetone as a solvent. The solution of okra gum in water has the highest viscosity among all the natural polysaccharide exposed till date. Etherification of extracted okra gum was carried out to produce carboxymethylation okra gum. Reaction parameters such as reaction temperature, reaction time, volume of sodium hydroxide and amount of monochloroacetic acid were optimized. Physical and chemical characteristics such as solubility, pH, moisture content and viscosity were observed for carboxymethylation okra gum. Further extracted okra gum and carboxymethylation okra gum were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy.


Background Dietary energy density (DED) does not have a simple linear relationship to fat mass in children, which suggests that some children are more susceptible than others to the effects of DED. Children with the FTO (rs9939609) variant that increases the risk of obesity may have a higher susceptibility to the effects of DED because their internal appetite control system is compromised. We tested the relationship between DED and fat mass in early adolescence and its interaction with FTO variants. Methods and Findings We carried out a prospective analysis on 2,275 children enrolled in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). Diet was assessed at age 10 y using 3-day diet diaries. DED (kJ/g) was calculated excluding drinks. Children were genotyped for the FTO (rs9939609) variant. Fat mass was estimated at age 13 y using the Lunar Prodigy Dual-energy X-ray Absorptiometry scanner. There was no evidence of interaction between DED at age 10 y and the high risk A allele of the FTO gene in relation to fat mass at age 13 y (β = 0.005, p = 0.51), suggesting that the FTO gene has no effect on the relation between DED at 10 y and fat mass at 13 y. When DED at 10 y and the A allele of FTO were in the same model they were independently related to fat mass at 13 y. Each A allele of FTO was associated with 0.35±0.13 kg more fat mass at 13 y and each 1 kJ/g DED at 10 y was associated with 0.16±0.06 kg more fat mass at age 13 y, after controlling for misreporting of energy intake, gender, puberty, overweight status at 10 y, maternal education, TV watching, and physical activity. Conclusions This study reveals the multi-factorial origin of obesity and indicates that although FTO may put some children at greater risk of obesity, encouraging a low dietary energy density may be an effective strategy to help all children avoid excessive fat gain.


This article examines the 2013 riots in Stockholm in the context of other urban rebellions across disadvantaged metropolitan neighbourhoods in the North-Atlantic region over the past three decades of neoliberal transformation. The authors discuss the consequences of securitisation and police repression, institutional racism, the corrosion of citizenship and the structuring of inequality in Swedish cities. Beyond the violence of the recent riots, contemporary Sweden reveals the emergence of an autonomous, non-violent and organisationally embedded movement for social justice among young people contesting urban degradation and reclaiming the nation in terms of an inclusive citizenship, social welfare and democracy. The article asks whether the Stockholm uprising could possibly be read as a sobering moment of self-examination in Swedish politics that could open space up for new political voices.


In Mexico, there were hospitals for the "demented" from the early years of the Spanish colony. It was not until the second half of the 19th century, however, that the first physicians interested in alterations of the brain published articles on the etiology, symptomatology, and treatment of mental illnesses. Within a larger context of health reforms launched during the presidency of Porfirio Díaz (1876–1911), known as the Porfiriato, healthcare officials decided to close the hospitals for the insane and construct a modern institution where psychiatry could grow as a discipline and where patients could be treated using scientific methods. Furthermore, along with the economic and cultural development that took place during the Porfiriato, there was an increase in the number of patients admitted to hospitals for the insane, while at the same time the number of doctors interested in the clinical treatment of mental illnesses increased, as well. The officials' decision became a reality on September 1, 1910—just two months before the Revolution broke out—when La Castañeda General Asylum was opened. It was a complex of twenty-four buildings in the town of Mixcoac. In addition to being an institution for patient care, it was also where the first generations of Mexican psychiatrists and neurologists were trained. As early as the 1930s, the asylum began to have problems with overcrowding, unhealthy conditions, and deterioration of the facilities. The doctors there repeatedly called for the patient care system to be restructured. In 1944, a psychiatric reform called the "Castañeda Operation" began, seeking to decentralize psychiatric care and to use agricultural work as a therapeutic tool. The result was the creation of seven new hospitals and the permanent closure of the asylum in 1968. Recent historiography on psychiatry from its beginnings in the Porfiriato to the time of that reform have shown that it was a period marked by the rise and fall of a utopian dream, that of the therapeutic effectiveness of psychiatric internment. It was a transition from the single, large asylum in the capital city to a network of hospitals that relied on outpatient care, early detection, and medication as a way to dismantle the asylum model. As a result, La Castañeda General Asylum has held a privileged place in historical study as the stage for the beginning, the development, and the consolidation of Mexican psychiatry.


Distinguishing Epigenetic Marks Methylation of the cytosine base in eukaryotic DNA (5mC) is an important epigenetic mark involved in gene silencing and genome stability. Methylated cytosine can be enzymatically oxidized to 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC), which may function as a distinct epigenetic mark—possibly involved in pluripotency—and it may also be an intermediate in active DNA demethylation. To be able to detect 5hmC genome-wide and at single-base resolution, Booth et al. (p. 934, published online 26 April) developed a 5hmC sequencing chemistry that selectively oxidizes 5hmC to 5-formylcytosine and then to uracil while leaving 5mC unchanged. Using this method, mouse embryonic stem cell genomic DNA was sequenced to reveal that 5hmC is found enriched at intragenic CpG islands and long interspersed nuclear element–1 retrotransposons. A sequencing method can discriminate epigenetically modified cytosine nucleotides within embryonic stem cell DNA. 5-Methylcytosine can be converted to 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC) in mammalian DNA by the ten-eleven translocation (TET) enzymes. We introduce oxidative bisulfite sequencing (oxBS-Seq), the first method for quantitative mapping of 5hmC in genomic DNA at single-nucleotide resolution. Selective chemical oxidation of 5hmC to 5-formylcytosine (5fC) enables bisulfite conversion of 5fC to uracil. We demonstrate the utility of oxBS-Seq to map and quantify 5hmC at CpG islands (CGIs) in mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells and identify 800 5hmC-containing CGIs that have on average 3.3% hydroxymethylation. High levels of 5hmC were found in CGIs associated with transcriptional regulators and in long interspersed nuclear elements, suggesting that these regions might undergo epigenetic reprogramming in ES cells. Our results open new questions on 5hmC dynamics and sequence-specific targeting by TETs.


BENJAMIN H. HILL ROSE BEFORE A RAPT AUDIENCE IN ATLANTA, Georgia, on April 4, 1861. Months earlier, he had spoken against secession in the state senate. His message had now changed. As a delegate to the Montgomery, Alabama, constitutional convention and member of the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States of America (CSA), Hill did not need his famed oratory to secure the crowd's attention. He came bearing constitutional meaning: "We have not abandoned the provisions of the old Constitution, nor set at nought the wisdom of its framers. The framers of the new do not claim to be more wise than those of the old." Nevertheless, Hill continued, "They have improved upon the old--not because they were wiser--but because they had the light of seventy-three years' experience to guide them." In this strange constitutional moment, Hill made one principle clear to his constituency. "In short," he proclaimed, "the General Government, in all its jurisdiction, is required to protect Slavery." If a bloody clash with the United States ensued, the Confederacy stood ready because "[w]e can keep our negroes at work to support us while we send our young men to war." On the prospects for reunion, the once cautious Hill vowed, "If it is to go back to the Old Constitution, ... I am UTTERLY, UTTERLY, AND FOREVER opposed to it!" Musing on changes and continuities, this constitutional framer plausibly fulfilled his promise "to speak candidly with you to-night." But there was much Hill could not say. Those "seventy-three years' experience" separating an eighteenth-century Philadelphia hall from the Montgomery framers' convention ensured that the meaning of the Confederacy's constitutional order would only become visible over time and under duress. (1) "Deratification" swept the lower South in early 1861. Constitutional tissue was severed by word, perception, and deed. With the ceremony of conventions and formality of ordinances, six southernmost states had purported to resume perfect sovereignty by February 1861. Texas soon followed, and four states of the upper South had cut their national sinews by May's end. Yet unbridled statehood was fleeting, as southern leaders sought consolidation with existential haste. Gathering in Montgomery on February 4, delegates scripted a political community and legal identity, the Confederate States of America. The convention created a provisional constitution four days after convening and began drafting a "Permanent Constitution," adopted on March 11. The body rendered itself into a Provisional Congress, wielding authority throughout the following year. (2) The Confederacy awoke under looming dangers with an appetite for order, security, and state capacity. "We must meet [Abraham] Lincoln with a President of our own. We want the military resources of the South concentrated at once," U.S. assistant secretary of state William Henry Trescot urged in January, upon resigning his post. (3) Before abandoning the U.S. Senate, Florida's David L. Yulee proposed "a Southern Government as soon as possible, adopting the present Federal Constitution for the time, and a Southern Army." (4) Attentive to risks, financier Gazaway B. Lamar counseled the Provisional Congress on the imperative of constitutional bonds, "to clinch the people for their support hereafter, when things change and the burdens become onerous." Lewis M. Stone, an Alabama secession convention delegate, anticipated "a real, substantial Government--one armed with all the power to resist any shock to which we may be subjected; a Government complete in all its parts, established upon an immovable basis, and possessed of all the elements of national strength." (5) At stake was the viability of secessionists' aims: a slaveholding republic, a South without a North. (6) State conventions swiftly ratified the new Confederate constitution. Only Texas held a referendum. (7) As Alabama delegate Robert Jemison Jr. concluded, it is "our duty . …