Biogenic aerosol formation is likely to contribute significantly to the global aerosol load. In recent years, new-particle formation has been observed in various ecosystems around the world but hardly any measurements have taken place in the terrestrial Southern Hemisphere. Here, we report the first results of atmospheric ion and charged particle concentrations as well as of new-particle formation in a Eucalypt forest in Tumbarumba, South-East Australia, from July 2005 to October 2006. The measurements were carried out with an Air Ion Spectrometer (AIS) with a size range from 0.34 to 40 nm. The Eucalypt forest was a very strong source of new aerosol particles. Daytime aerosol formation took place on 52% of days with acceptable data, which is 2–3 times as often as in the Nordic boreal zone. Average growth rates for negative/positive 1.5–3 nm particles during these formation events were 2.89/2.68 nmh −1 , respectively; for 3-7 nm particles 4.26/4.03, and for 7–20 nm particles 8.90/7.58 nmh −1 , respectively. The growth rates for large ions were highest when the air was coming from the native forest which suggests that the Eucalypts were a strong source of condensable vapours. Average concentrations of cluster ions (0.34–1.8 nm) were 2400/1700 cm −3 for negative/positive ions, very high compared to most other measurements around the world. One reason behind these high concentrations could be the strong radon efflux from the soils around the Tumbarumba field site. Furthermore, comparison between night-time and daytime concentrations supported the view that cluster ions are produced close to the surface within the boundary layer also at night but that large ions are mostly produced in daytime. Finally, a previously unreported phenomenon, nocturnal aerosol formation, appeared in 32% of the analysed nights but was clustered almost entirely within six months from summer to autumn in 2006. From January to May, nocturnal formation was 2.5 times as frequent as daytime formation. Therefore, it appears that in summer and autumn, nocturnal production was the major mechanism for aerosol formation in Tumbarumba.


Markov logic is a robust approach for probabilistic relational knowledge representation that uses a log-linear model of weighted first-order formulas for probabilistic reasoning. This log-linear model always exists but may not represent the knowledge engineer's intentions adequately. In this paper, we develop a general framework for measuring this coherence of Markov logic networks by comparing the resulting probabilities in the model with the weights given to the formulas. Our measure takes the interdependence of different formulas into account and analyzes the degree of impact they have on the probabilities of other formulas. This approach can be used by the knowledge engineer in constructing a well-formed Markov logic network if data for learning is not available. We also apply our approach to the problem of assessing the compatibility of multiple Markov Logic networks, i. e., to measure to what extent the merging of these networks results in a change of probabilities.


A critical component of nearly all riparian restoration projects is the rapid successful recovery of native vegetation. The dynamic conditions and diverse biotic community supported by riparian ecosystems can present numerous constraints to restoration efforts. This study investigated stunted growth of arroyo willow (Salix lasiolepis) cuttings planted along the banks of Redwood Creek as part of the National Park Service's Muir Beach Restoration Project to restore habitat for special status species in California. Based on observations of deer browsing, as well as signs of extensive biomass removal, I designed a field experiment using exclusionary fencing to test the significance of deer browse on growth of recently planted willows. My study design consisted of measuring the difference in growth (height, mean canopy diameter, estimated aerial percent cover, and volume) in relation to three factors (exclusionary deer fencing, side of bank, and willow age) during the 2013 growing season. Results of my study indicate that deer herbivory was a critical stressor contributing to limited growth of recently planted willow cuttings along the restored banks of Redwood Creek. The main effect of exclusionary fencing was very highly significant for all four growth metrics; however, it had the greatest beneficial effect on younger willows in their second growing season along the right bank. Exclusionary fencing can be used as a cost-efficient method for restricting browsing by wild herbivores at riparian restoration sites, most effective when implemented for protecting willows during their first two growing seasons or until they are resilient to the effects of herbivory.


Abstract. The eruption of the Nabro volcano (Eritrea), which started on 12 June 2011, caused the introduction of large quantities of SO2 into the lower stratosphere. The subsequently formed sulfate aerosols could be detected for several months following the eruption. It is generally assumed that the formation of sulfate aerosols in the stratosphere is a relatively slow process, but in plumes from explosive eruptions significant amounts of aerosols have been seen to form within a few hours. We show that sulfate aerosols were present in the lower stratosphere within hours of the onset of the eruption of Nabro. Evidence comes from nadir UV Aerosol Index (UVAI) and SO2 measurements by SCIAMACHY, GOME-2 and OMI, and limb aerosol measurements by SCIAMACHY. The sulfate plume displays negative UVAI in the western part of OMI's swath and positive UVAI in the eastern part – an effect that is due to the strong viewing angle dependence of UVAI and can only be caused by a high-altitude (>11 km), non-absorbing (single-scattering albedo >0.97) aerosol plume. For the retrieval of the aerosol profile from limb measurements, the horizontal dimensions and the position of the aerosol plume need to be taken into account, otherwise both extinction and layer height may be underestimated appreciably. By combining nadir SO2 column density and UVAI with limb aerosol profiles, a stratospheric plume from Nabro could be tracked from 13 to 17 June, before the plumes from later, lower-altitude explosions started interfering with the signal. Our findings are in agreement with ground-based lidar and sun-photometer data from an MPLNET/AERONET station in Israel and with data from the satellite-borne CALIOP lidar.


Local computation in microcircuits is an essential feature of distributed information processing in vertebrate and invertebrate brains. The insect antennal lobe represents a spatially confined local network that processes high-dimensional and redundant peripheral input to compute an efficient odor code. Social insects can rely on a particularly rich olfactory receptor repertoire and they exhibit complex odor-guided behaviors. This corresponds with a high anatomical complexity of their AL network. In the honeybee, a large number of glomeruli that receive sensory input are interconnected by a dense network of local interneurons (LNs). Uniglomerular projection neurons (PNs) integrate sensory and recurrent network input into an efficient spatio-temporal odor code. To investigate the specific computational roles of LNs and PNs we measured eleven features of sub- and suprathreshold single cell responses to in vivo odor stimulation. Using a semi-supervised cluster analysis we identified a combination of five characteristic features that enabled the accurate separation of morphologically identified LNs and PNs. The two clusters differed significantly in all five features. In the absence of stimulation PNs showed a higher subthreshold activation, assumed higher peak response rates and more regular spiking pattern. LNs reacted considerably faster to the onset of a stimulus and their responses were more reliable across stimulus repetitions. We discuss possible mechanisms that can explain our results, and we interpret cell-type specific characteristics with respect to their functional relevance.


The main focus of this paper is the novel use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in natural disaster, more specifically flooding, to improve flood resilience and preparedness. Different types of flood have varying consequences and are followed by a specific pattern. For example, a flash flood can be a result of snow or ice melt and can occur in specific geographic places and certain season. The motivation behind this research has been raised from the Building Resilience into Risk Management (BRIM) project, looking at resilience in water systems. This research uses the application of the state-of-the-art techniques i.e., AI, more specifically Machin Learning (ML) approaches on big data, collected from previous flood events to learn from the past to extract patterns and information and understand flood behaviours in order to improve resilience, prevent damage, and save lives. In this paper, various ML models have been developed and evaluated for classifying floods, i.e., flash flood, lakeshore flood, etc. using current information i.e., weather forecast in different locations. The analytical results show that the Random Forest technique provides the highest accuracy of classification, followed by J48 decision tree and Lazy methods. The classification results can lead to better decision-making on what measures can be taken for prevention and preparedness and thus improve flood resilience.


The variation of global coherence on propagation plane by plane is examined in the framework of coherent mode representation. It is explained through concrete examples that the global coherence may in general be enhanced, may be reduced, or may not change. When the mode functions form a complete set and the corresponding eigenvalues are in nitely degenerate, there necessarily develops a certain amount of global coherence on propagation, which is the essence of van Cittert-Zernike theorem. The propagation generates a certain pattern of the eigenvalue spectrum from the initial flat one and this is shown to be related to the non-unitarity of the propagation kernel.


Although a lot of things have changed in the field of advertising over the past few years one thing has stayed almost constant: the billboard. Billboards play an important role in advertising; nevertheless a lot of people only perceive them unconsciously and thus cannot remember the advertising message. With MirrorBoard we want to grab people's attention and enhance memorization of the product by letting people interact with the billboard or by integrating the observer into the scene itself. Such posters might act as gateways to mobile services which allow the user seamless and natural interaction with the poster. This paper presents scenarios showing how people can interact with MirrorBoard and describes how such a system can be implemented. To evaluate a prototype system we conducted a user study, the results of which will also be discussed.


Wireless multi-user communication systems that operate in a low signal to interference noise ratio (SINR) region are studied in this thesis.

This thesis examines a class of wireless communication systems that employs an adaptive receiver for multi-user symbol detection that operates in a low SINR (< 5 dB) region. Since the knowledge of channel-parameter estimates is unavailable at the receiver, a pilot (training) sequence is applied in the communication system, to learn the channel state information (CSI) at the receiver.

In studying the classical view of a DFE, the mean square error (MSE) behaviour follows the bit error rate (BER) performance. Certain original results are obtained using the classical adaptive DFE to achieve minimum MSE, employing the least mean square (LMS) algorithm. The results thus obtained for an uncoded adaptive receiver system are applied to a coded system, transmitting either recursive systematic code (RSC) or turbo-code through a spread-spectrum multiuser multiple-path channel, which are referred to as two-stage and three-stage systems respectively in this thesis.

The following claims are made based on the findings of this thesis:

1. It is known that a receiver implementing DFE can mitigate symbol-interference completely at high SINR. An adaptive LMS DFE realizes this by adapting the forward and backward filter coefficients with respective step-size constants. The classical approach to realizing interference mitigation was to set the forward and backward adaptation constants as the same. While this approach has provided interference mitigation at high SINR, it has been shown in this thesis that such an approach does not yield complete interference mitigation, even at high SINR. Instead, using different step-size constants at the backward and forward step-size constants provides the required optimality.

2. A decision feedback detector (DFD) mitigates the effects of interference on the information symbols that are transmitted through this communication channel. This thesis shows that an adaptive (LMS) DFD, using unequal compared to equal step-size constants to update the forward and backward filter coefficients, has a steady-state MSE improvement for an uncoded frequency selective communication channel.

This thesis shows that, when the knowledge of CSI is not assumed to be known at a wireless receiver, a three-stage receiver has a BER performance improvement and operates at a lower SINR, without any additional computational complexity compared to a two-stage receiver.


The aim of this study is to evaluate the results of the newborn-hearing screening program (NHSP) in our institute, investigate the risk factors and their correlation to congenital hearing loss (CHL). Newborns who admitted to our clinic for NHSP from June 2014 to December 2014 were included in the study. After the test parents were asked to fill a questionnaire about the risk factors of CHL. Test results and referral rate were compared with risk factors. One thousand consecutive babies were included in the study. The overall referral rate was 3.5%. Mechanic ventilation, history of familial CHL and familial consanguinity were found to be significantly related to CHL.In the light of our results we can conclude that getting access to every newborn for hearing screening is mandatory and targeting the risk factors and informing the family about the follow-up period is important for diagnosing the delayed hearing impairment.


This paper gives an example-driven introduction to modelling and analyzing virtualized systems in, e.g., cloud computing, using virtually timed ambients, a process algebra developed to study timing aspects of resource management for (nested) virtual machines. The calculus supports nested virtualization and virtual machines compete with other processes for the resources of their host environment. Resource provisioning in virtually timed ambients extends the capabilities of mobile ambients to model the dynamic creation, migration, and destruction of virtual machines. Quality of service properties for virtually timed ambients can be formally expressed using modal contracts describing aspects of resource provisioning and verified using a model checker for virtually timed ambients, implemented in the rewriting system Maude.


We present a combined experimental and theoretical investigation of the surprisingly strong electrostatic effects that can occur in mixtures of low- and high-polar liquids (e.g. oil-water emulsions), here in the presence of colloidal particles. For our experiments, we used confocal microscopy imaging, supplemented with electrophoresis and conductivity measurements. Theoretically, we studied our systems by means of a modified Poisson-Boltzmann theory, which takes into account image charge effects and the electrostatic self-energies of the micro-ions in the different dielectric media. Our results show that the unequal partitioning of micro-ions between the two liquid phases is the common driving force behind most of the observed electrostatic effects. The structural signatures of these effects typically develop on a time scale of hours to days and are qualitatively well-described by our theory. We demonstrate how the partitioning process and its associated phenomena can be controlled by shifting the balance of the interlocked ionic dissociation and partitioning equilibria. Moreover, we present strong experimental proof that the two-dimensional colloidal crystals at the oil-water interface are due to long-ranged Coulombic repulsion through the oil phase. The acquired insight in the role of electrostatics in oil-water emulsions is important for understanding the interactions in particle-stabilized ('Pickering') and charge-stabilized emulsions, emulsion production, encapsulation and self-assembly.


At the core of Machine Learning (ML) analytics is often an expert-suggested model, whose parameters are refined by iteratively processing a training dataset until convergence. The completion time (i.e. convergence time) and quality of the learned model not only depends on the rate at which the refinements are generated but also the quality of each refinement. While data-parallel ML applications often employ a loose consistency model when updating shared model parameters to maximize parallelism, the accumulated error may seriously impact the quality of refinements and thus delay completion time, a problem that usually gets worse with scale. Although more immediate propagation of updates reduces the accumulated error, this strategy is limited by physical network bandwidth. Additionally, the performance of the widely used stochastic gradient descent (SGD) algorithm is sensitive to step size. Simply increasing communication often fails to bring improvement without tuning step size accordingly and tedious hand tuning is usually needed to achieve optimal performance. This paper presents Bösen, a system that maximizes the network communication efficiency under a given inter-machine network bandwidth budget to minimize parallel error, while ensuring theoretical convergence guarantees for large-scale data-parallel ML applications. Furthermore, Bösen prioritizes messages most significant to algorithm convergence, further enhancing algorithm convergence. Finally, Bösen is the first distributed implementation of the recently presented adaptive revision algorithm, which provides orders of magnitude improvement over a carefully tuned fixed schedule of step size refinements for some SGD algorithms. Experiments on two clusters with up to 1024 cores show that our mechanism significantly improves upon static communication schedules.


Background This study contributes robust evidence on the association between mental health and local crime rates by showing how changing exposure to small area-level crime relates to self-reported and administrative data on mental health. Methods The study sample comprised 112 251 adults aged 16–60 years, drawn from the Scottish Longitudinal Study, a 5.3% representative sample of Scottish population followed across censuses. Outcomes were individual mental health indicators: self-reported mental illness from the 2011 Census and linked administrative data on antidepressants and antipsychotics prescribed through primary care providers in the National Health Service in 2010/2012. Crime rates at data zone level (500–1000 persons) were matched to the participants' main place of residence, as defined by general practitioner patient registration duration during 2004/2006, 2007/2009 and 2010/12. Average neighbourhood crime exposure and change in area crime were computed. Covariate-adjusted logistic regressions were conducted, stratified by moving status. Results In addition to average crime exposure during follow-up, recent increases in crime (2007/2009–2010/2012) were associated with a higher risk of self-reported mental illness, among 'stayers' aged 16–30 years (OR=1.11; 95% CI 1.00 to 1.22), and among 'movers' aged 31–45 years (OR=1.07; 95% CI 1.01 to 1.13). Prescribed medications reinforced these findings; worsening crime rates were linked with antidepressant prescriptions among young stayers (OR=1.09; 95% CI 1.04 to 1.14) and with antipsychotic prescriptions among younger middle-aged movers (OR=1.11; 95% CI 1.01 to 1.23). Conclusion Changing neighbourhood crime exposure is related to individual mental health, but associations differ by psychiatric conditions, age and moving status. Crime reduction and prevention, especially in communities with rising crime rates, may benefit public mental health.


Extracted from text ... 48 Management Today July 2006
Lean manufacturing:
implementation barriers still exist
W
Prof Koot Pieterse lectures in world-class
manufacturing and operations management
at the MBA unit of the NMMU
Business School. His research into lean
manufacturing has taken him on many
beaten and unbeaten tracks, locally and
overseas. In his book, Leaning the South
African Way, he analyses the barriers to
implementation experienced by manufacturing
organisations in this country.
"We use big cups to maintain the required
energy levels, " says Clint van der Mescht,
as I pour my coffee in their tearoom.
I can see why. Clint is ..


Eleven incubation experiments were conducted in the South Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean to investigate the relationship between new production (ρNO–3), regenerated production (ρNH+4), and total carbon production (ρC) as a function of varying light. The results show substantial variability in the photosynthesis–irradiance (P vs E) parameters, with phytoplankton communities at stations that were considered iron (Fe)-limited showing low maximum photosynthetic capacity (PBmax) and low quantum efficiency of photosynthesis (αB) for ρNO3, but high PBmax and αB for ρNH4, with consequently low export efficiency. Results at stations likely relieved of Fe stress (associated with shallow bathymetry and the marginal ice zone) showed the highest rates of PBmax and αB for ρNO3 and ρC. To establish the key factors influencing the variability of the photosynthetic parameters, a principal components analysis was performed on P vs E parameters, using surface temperature, chlorophyll-a concentration, ambient nutrients, and an index for community size structure. Strong covariance between ambient nitrate (NO3) and αB for ρNO3 suggests that Fe and possibly light co-limitation affects the ability of phytoplankton in the region to access the surplus NO3 reservoir. However, the observed relationships between community structure and the P vs E parameters suggest superior performance by smaller-sized cells, in terms of resource acquisition and Fe limitation, as the probable driver of smaller-celled phytoplankton communities that have reduced photosynthetic efficiency and which require higher light intensities to saturate uptake. A noticeable absence in covariances between chlorophyll-a and αB, between PBmax and αB, and between temperature and αB may have important implications for primary-production models, although the absence of some expected relationships may be a consequence of the small dataset and low range of variability. However, significant relationships were observed between ambient NO3 and αB for ρNO3, and between the light-saturation parameter Ek for ρNO3 and the phytoplankton community's size structure, which imply that Fe and light co-limitation drives access to the surplus NO3 reservoir and that larger-celled communities are more efficient at fixing NO3 in low light conditions. Although the mean PBmax results for ρC were consistent with estimates of global production from satellite chlorophyll measurements, the range of variability was large. These results highlight the need for more-advanced primary-production models that take into account a diverse range of environmental and seasonal drivers of photosynthetic responses.


When Lieutenant Charles Acland is flown home from Iraq with serious head injuries, he faces not only permanent disfigurement but also an apparent change to his previously outgoing personality. Crippled by migraines, and suspicious of his psychiatrist, he begins to display sporadic bouts of aggression, particularly against women, especially his ex-fiancee who seems unable to accept that the relationship is over. After his injuries prevent his return to the army, he cuts all ties with his former life and moves to London. Alone and unmonitored, he sinks into a private world of guilt and paranoid distrust ...until a customer annoys him in a Bermondsey pub and he attracts the attention of local police investigating three murders which appear to have been motivated by extreme rage ...Under suspicion, Acland is forced to confront the real issues behind his isolation. How much control does he have over the dark side of his personality? Do his migraines contribute to his rages? Has he always been the duplicitous chameleon that his ex-fiancee claims? And why if he hates women does he look to a woman for help?


The Internet of Things (IoT) is penetrating many facets of our daily life with the proliferation of intelligent services and applications empowered by artificial intelligence (AI). Traditionally, AI techniques require centralized data collection and processing that may not be feasible in realistic application scenarios due to the high scalability of modern IoT networks and growing data privacy concerns. Federated Learning (FL) has emerged as a distributed collaborative AI approach that can enable many intelligent IoT applications, by allowing for AI training at distributed IoT devices without the need for data sharing. In this article, we provide a comprehensive survey of the emerging applications of FL in IoT networks, beginning from an introduction to the recent advances in FL and IoT to a discussion of their integration. Particularly, we explore and analyze the potential of FL for enabling a wide range of IoT services, including IoT data sharing, data offloading and caching, attack detection, localization, mobile crowdsensing, and IoT privacy and security. We then provide an extensive survey of the use of FL in various key IoT applications such as smart healthcare, smart transportation, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), smart cities, and smart industry. The important lessons learned from this review of the FL-IoT services and applications are also highlighted. We complete this survey by highlighting the current challenges and possible directions for future research in this booming area.


We advance new active object recognition algorithms that classify rigid objects and estimate their pose from intensity images. Our algorithms automatically detect if the class or pose of an object is ambiguous in a given image, reposition the sensor as needed, and incorporate data from multiple object views in determining the final object class and pose estimate. A probabilistic feature space trajectory (FST) in a global eigenspace is used to represent 3D distorted views of an object and to estimate the class and pose of an input object. Confidence measures for the class and pose estimates, derived using the probabilistic FST object representation, determine when additional observations are required as well as where the sensor should be positioned to provide the most useful information. We demonstrate the ability to use FSTs constructed from images rendered from computer-aided design models to recognize real objects in real images and present test results for a set of metal machined parts.


Abstract. The Fusarium head blight caused mostly by Fusarium graminearum (F.g.) is the most important disease of wheat because it not only leads to yield loss, but the toxin contamination makes the yield harvested. First, visual assessment of the heads was made, then the ratio of Fusarium damaged kernels (FDK) becomes the attention, and since introduction of the toxin limits for wheat, the deoxynivalenol contamination has gained significance. However, the FDK has a greater practical significance, as the identification of Fusarium damaged kernels is the precondition of their separation.For this reason a more exact and more sensitive method was developed by using updated spectroscopy methods. The infection sensitive spectral index (ISSI) function has been developed to characterize spectral features of images of grains with different infection severities. The green and red color ranges could be best used in this analysis. It was also found that the way how different spectra from different grains or samples can be normalized and compared. This histogram analyzing method uses scanned images and it seems to be useful in describing the infection severity of heterogeneous samples better than available before.This might serve as scientific background to develop new instruments for rapid tests.


Studies investigating visual perception in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have identified atypical abilities mediated by low-, mid-, and high-levels of processing (Mottron 2006, Bertone et al 2010a). Much of this research, however, has focused on isolated levels of processing (i.e. low or high). It is therefore unknown if a functional relationship exists between levels of information processing, and moreover, if alterations in early levels of visual analysis influence mid- and high-level perception in ASD. The goal of this project was to systematically assess whether manipulating either (i) the type (luminance vs texture), or (ii) access to early, local information differentially affects performance on tasks targeting low-, mid- and high-level perceptual processes in ASD. Three separate studies examined the effects of manipulating physical stimulus properties on progressively complex visuo-spatial tasks: low-level perception was assessed using luminance- and texture-defined gratings over a range of low to high spatial frequencies; mid-level perception was examined using luminance and texture-defined radial-frequency patterns manipulated to create "bumps" along their contours to optimize global (few bumps) and local (many bumps) processing; high-level perception was assessed using a face-identification task where access to local and global cues was manipulated by presenting faces from different orientations and viewpoints. For the low-level task, results revealed an increased sensitivity of the ASD group for high-spatial frequency information in the luminance-defined condition. For the mid-level task, the ASD group performed worse than the control group for luminance-defined RFPs with few modulations, but similarly for those with many modulations. For the high-level task, individuals with ASD were significantly worse identifying faces in the view-change condition in which local cues were limited. Our findings indicate that visual abilities mediated by low-, mid- and high-level mechanisms in ASD are differentially affected by the nature and access to early visual information during task completion. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015.


The concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide was increased by 200 microliters per liter in a forest plantation, where competition between organisms, resource limitations, and environmental stresses may modulate biotic responses. After 2 years the growth rate of the dominant pine trees increased by about 26 percent relative to trees under ambient conditions. Carbon dioxide enrichment also increased litterfall and fine-root increment. These changes increased the total net primary production by 25 percent. Such an increase in forest net primary production globally would fix about 50 percent of the anthropogenic carbon dioxide projected to be released into the atmosphere in the year 2050. The response of this young, rapidly growing forest to carbon dioxide may represent the upper limit for forest carbon sequestration.


Training neural networks requires increasing amounts of memory. Parameter sharing can reduce memory and communication costs, but existing methods assume networks have many identical layers and utilize hand-crafted sharing strategies that fail to generalize. We introduce Neural Parameter Allocation Search (NPAS), a novel task where the goal is to train a neural network given an arbitrary, fixed parameter budget. NPAS covers both low-budget regimes, which produce compact networks, as well as a novel high-budget regime, where additional capacity can be added to boost performance without increasing inference FLOPs. To address NPAS, we introduce Shapeshifter Networks (SSNs), which automatically learn where and how to share parameters in a network to support any parameter budget without requiring any changes to the architecture or loss function. NPAS and SSNs provide a complete framework for addressing generalized parameter sharing, and can also be combined with prior work for additional performance gains. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach using nine network architectures across four diverse tasks, including ImageNet classification and transformers.


Abstract The aim of this paper is to analyse the effect of the mobile phone penetration rate on inequality in Western Balkan countries and to provide empirical evidence. We explore the question of whether cell phone diffusion helps to decrease inequality and whether it has a positive income equality effect. In the developed conceptual framework, we consider that people with access to mobile telephony also have access to Wi-Fi and GPS and that individuals can perform different activities, such as engaging in e-commerce, e-governance, health, and education; paying bills; saving money; and transferring money to other persons. This represents a good foundation for poor persons exit the cycle of deprivation and leads to the development of equal opportunities. We analyse the impact of mobile phone penetration on inequality in Western Balkan countries by using ordinary least squares and two-stage least squares models (Asongu, 2015). Our results confirm the income-redistributive effect of mobile phone penetration.


Despite prolific use of the term 'blended learning' in tertiary institutions, agreement on a definition remains elusive. The definitions and understandings of the concept are many (Driscoll, 2002; Vignare, 2007) and often offer little pedagogical direction. This is problematic. Under the umbrella of so many definitions almost any teaching practice can be viewed as blended learning. In the absence of pedagogically focused definitions it is difficult to designate the nature of implementation, measure success and provide appropriate institutional support. This paper attempts to help address these issues and so contribute to the fulfilment of the promise of blended learning. The definitions of blended learning in literature and across twenty Australian universities are explored. Against this background, drawing on principles of constructivism, constructivist alignment (Biggs & Tang, 2007) and universal design for learning, a definition of blended learning is proposed. An accompanying planning approach is presented. At the crux of the planning approach is framing blended learning, not as an exercise in technology use but rather as a problem solving exercise, directed at how best to engage diverse groups of learners in learning activities (Shuell, 1986) in order to maximise opportunities for achievement of desirable outcomes. Implicit in this view is the importance of reflective practice as the driving force for continuously improving blended designs.


A random sample of 5,182 adults from 6 U.S. metropolitan areas were questioned about incestuous sexual relationships during childhood. Incest was disproportionately reported by both male and female bisexuals and homosexuals. 148 gays (7.7% of the sample) reported 14 (50%) of same-sex, and 7 (22%) of opposite-sex incestuous experiences, and 20 (69%) of same-sex and 2 (3%) of opposite-sex sexual experiences with other relatives. 88 lesbians (3% of the sample) reported 2 (33%) of same-sex incest and 7 (9%) of opposite-sex incest and 1 (17%) of same-sex and 10 (13%) of opposite-sex sexual experiences with other relatives. 12% of 98 male homosexuals vs 0.8% of 1,224 male heterosexuals with a brother reported brother-brother incest. These findings are consonant with those of other studies in which disproportionately more incest by homosexuals was reported. As opposed to an evolutionary genetic hypothesis, these data support the alternative that homosexuality may be learned, since homosexuals do not produce children at sustainable levels and the incidence of homosexuality varies as a function of various social factors. Incest cannot be excluded as a significant basis for homosexuality.


Spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) are large mammalian carnivores, but their societies, called 'clans', resemble those of such cercopithecine primates as baboons and macaques with respect to their size, hierarchical structure, and frequency of social interaction among both kin and unrelated group‐mates. However, in contrast to cercopithecine primates, spotted hyenas regularly hunt antelope and compete with group‐mates for access to kills, which are extremely rich food sources, but also rare and ephemeral. This unique occurrence of baboon‐like sociality among top‐level predators has favoured the evolution of many unusual traits in this species. We briefly review the relevant socio‐ecology of spotted hyenas, document great demographic variation but little variation in social structure across the species' range, and describe the long‐term fitness consequences of rank‐related variation in resource access among clan‐mates. We then summarize patterns of genetic relatedness within and between clans, including some from a population that had recently gone through a population bottleneck, and consider the roles of sexually dimorphic dispersal and female mate choice in the generation of these patterns. Finally, we apply social network theory under varying regimes of resource availability to analyse the effects of kinship on the stability of social relationships among members of one large hyena clan in Kenya. Although social bonds among both kin and non‐kin are weakest when resource competition is most intense, hyenas sustain strong social relationships with kin year‐round, despite constraints imposed by resource limitation. Our analyses suggest that selection might act on both individuals and matrilineal kin groups within clans containing multiple matrilines.


This study is an attempt to examine the cultural appropriateness of the mental health system in relation to the Vietnamese refugee community in Australia. Culture and mental health, as widely acknowledged in the field of transcultural psychiatry, are closely linked. No aspect of the diagnosis or treatment methods can be justified without reference to the cultural traditions of the mental health system and the client. In a country like Australia, where multiculturalism is a dominant feature of the society, the need is even greater in incorporating culture into every aspect of the mental health system, if it desires to provide a culturally appropriate service to all immigrant groups. Every immigrant group brings with them different cultural values and attitudes. Included in these are viewpoints about mental health/illness that can diverge distinctly from those belonging to the more prevalent Anglo-Saxon cultural norms. How the illness is perceived as to its cause, treatment to healing are different in most cultures. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (1996), Vietnamese immigrants form one of the largest displaced people ever to be accepted into Australia as refugees. Their history of escape from the communist regime in Vietnam have sparked worldwide concerns about the state of their mental health. Their journey of escape is not withoul torture and trauma. Once settled into a country like Australia, they face many settlement obstacles. The cultural and social adjustments that they have to undergo have made them one of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged immigrant groups in Australia. Faced with such a group that have a high predisposition to mental stress and anxiety, the question lies in whether the Australian men:al health system is sufficiently informed and prepared to provide a service which has relevance and meaning to these people. I argue that the system has not adequately provided a oervice to such a purpose. Although much progress and research has been done, it still operates very much within a Western philosophy. Its traditions, values and attitudes reflect a worldview that make little cultural sense to these people. Its racist assumptions and attitudes which promote cultural superiority of the West has resulted in a system labelled as culturally inefficient. Racism has been socially constructed and entrenched within the system for many years and it's origins are lost in the history of Western culture. Its mental health system is essentially monocultural. Culturally inappropriate diagnostic and treatment programmes and a shortage of professionals with the necessary linguistic, cultural and clinical competencies are just some of the deficiencies that exist within the system. Many training programmes have failed to evoke practitioners into questioning the effectiveness and cultural appropriateness of these fundamental structures supporting existing models of service delivery. This study is done through a discussion of the history of racism, certain important concepts. for example, culture and mental health/illness and the social, historical and political experience of the Vietnamese. The rest of the research focusses on certain specific barriers of accessibility and concludes with how these barriers can be addressed. In doing so. it advocates for a totally non-racist approach from an international to a personal level of service. Only through this approach can the mental health system claim to provide a service that is culturally sensitive and meaningful.


In Poland, as well as worldwide, an increase in craft beer production can be observed. In the last several years, more than 150 of such breweries have appeared and according to Polish Brewery Association, their number might ultimately reach 500. Many of them emerge in the areas with no access to a central sewerage system so they have to solve the problem of waste management on their own. The article presents the results of research on the possibility of using a hybrid system for biological treatment of sewage from craft breweries. The sewage came from a craft brewery Waszczukowe located in the Podlaskie province. A laboratory scale model consisted of a trickling filter (TF) (research model Gunt CE701e) and vertical flow constructed wetland (SS-VF). Innovative filling (Certyd produced by LSA company) of TF and SS VF was applied. The conducted study included determining the changes in the sewage parameters during hybrid treatment, as well as TF and SS VF efficiency separately. The aim of the research was to show the possibility of treating sewage to a point when it was possible to discharge it to a receiver, in compliance with the Polish legal regulations. The research results might be used in designing a treatment system or sewage pretreatment in craft breweries. The average efficiency of TF operating with 100% recirculation was 76% for BOD5, 80% for COD, 26% for TN and 34% for TP, while the total treatment efficiency of a hybrid system (TF and SS-VF) was 98%, 98%, 72% and 77%, respectively. The load of TF during operation with recirculation was on average 0.38 kg BOD5 m -2d-1, 0.57 kg COD m-2 d-1. The load of SS-VF was on average 0.09 kg BOD5 m -2 d-1 and 0.12 kg COD m-2d-1. The obtained results of hybrid treatment permitted to discharge the sewage to the receiver.


The classic story of the relationship between Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson, and a unique portrait of the Bloomsbury Group. The marriage was that between the two writers, Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson and the portrait is drawn partly by Vita herself in an autobiography which she left behind at her death in 1962 and partly by her son, Nigel. It was one of the happiest and strangest marriages there has ever been. Both Vita and Harold were always in love with other people and each gave the other full liberty 'without enquiry or reproach', knowing that their love for each other would be unaffected and even strengthened by the crises which it survived. This account of their love story is now a modern classic.


The synthesis of new soluble tetrasubstituted quater- and quinquethiophenesilanes and their application as donor materials in bulk heterojunction solar cells and photodetectors has been described. The solubility of these compounds is governed by their 3D molecular structure, solubilizing linear n-hexyl (for quaterthiophenesilane), and branched 2-ethylhexyl groups (for quinquethiophenesilane). It was demonstrated that oligothiophenesilanes blended with fullerene derivatives can be used as promising active layer materials in organic bulk heterojunction solar cells. The maximum power conversion efficiency of the devices increased proportionally with the conjugation length of the oligothiophene units and reached 1.0% and 1.4% for quater- and quinquethiophenesilane respectively. Photodetectors based on the oligothiophenesilane/fullerene composites showed unusually high speeds of operation, which suggests another direction for the practical implementation of the three-dimensional organic semiconductor family designed herein.


During the past two decades, cancer incidence has steadily increased due to aging populations, lifestyle and environmental factors, with great personal and national economic consequences. Concurrently, cancer treatments have improved with increased treatment options as well as lengthier disease and disease-free survival rates. The latest innovation in cancer treatments are targeted biological treatments, joining the current arsenal of surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy, particularly significant in latter stage cancers associated with very poor survival.

Despite this latest breakthrough in cancer treatment, this has in fact only opened the door to beginning to understand the complexity of cancer on a molecular and genetic basis. Oncology research and development (R&D) has the highest failure rate for new molecular entities (NME) and significantly higher development costs. Although tremendous scientific and economic barriers exist, the oncology development market has increased twofold over the past 5 years.

This report aims to map current oncology R&D funding and management, primarily in Europe and the USA, to examine public-private relationships, current oncology R&D strategies and oncology innovation policies. Its objectives are:

to map current funding and management of oncology RD

to produce a high-resolution bibliometric analysis of oncology drug RD

to investigate the cumulative life-time funding of specific oncology drugs;

to review current public policy affecting oncology drug RD and

to propose future oncology policies supporting the R&D process.


How Do Layoff Costs Affect Employment? General equilibrium analyses of layoff costs have had mixed messages on the implications for employment. This paper brings out the economic forces at work and explains the disparate results. Specifically, we show that positive employment effects of layoff costs come through reducing labor reallocation, whereas negative effects come through reducing the private return to work due to those layoff costs and the associated inefficient allocation of labor. Additional adverse employment effects can arise through an increase in the effective bargaining strength of workers. These forces explain why layoff costs tend to increase employment in search models while the opposite is true in models with employment lotteries. In matching models, we show that the employment effects depend critically on how layoff costs are assumed to enter the bargaining process. JEL Classification: E24, J63, J68


Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics or "STEM" focused pedagogy has been influenced changes in education for decades. Responding to the need for interdisciplinary skilled workforces, the STEM approach has been revised firstly to reflect the incorporation of Arts, (STEAM) and, more recently, to place stronger emphasis on cross-disciplinary connections. However, there is little empirical evidence to drive the development of a practical model for classroom implementation. This systematic review aims to consolidate existing empirical evidence on the incorporation of interdisciplinary learning via a STEM/STEAM approach in high-school environments using a PRISMA review scaffolding. The review identified ninety-nine articles that addressed interdisciplinary learning. However, the majority of them were excluded due to the lack of empirical evidence for such improvements, resulting in only eleven studies being included in the final synthesis. This suggests that more research is required prior to wide-scale implementation within high school education systems. Of those that met the selection criteria, the overarching theme was that improved outcomes were best achieved via either a real-world project-based or problem-based learning pedagogy with the use of community and industry support. However, due to the low number of studies found to fit the criteria, it is recommended that further research is conducted to provide greater empirical evidence to support this finding.


Erasmus in the Twentieth Century: Interpretations c. 1920-2000. By Bruce Mansfield. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press. 2003. Pp. xiv, 324. $70.00.) The title of this monograph by Professor Emeritus Bruce Mansfield is misleading because it is a survey of works about Erasmus of Rotterdam from 1936 to 2000 rather than, as the title indicates, from 1920 to 2000. As such it is not a chronological sequel to Mansfield's two earlier volumes on interpretations of Erasmus which cover the periods 1550 to 1750 (Toronto, 1979) and 1750 to 1920 (Toronto, 1992). The present volume is both cursory and incomplete within the examined time frame because it ignores important studies by Margaret Aston, Irena Backus, A. G. Dickens, and Richard Marius-to name but a few. Mansfield appears to be aware of the lacunae by noting that this volume is of "a different character" (p. ix). The two earlier volumes in his trilogy were "as much interested (or nearly so) in the writers on Erasmus, their social positions, intellectual moorings, religious convictions, and stances in contemporary controversies, as in Erasmus himself" (p. ix). Mansfield chose not to pursue this same critical examination of authors in his final volume because "it is misleading to give them too specific a scholarly, let alone an ideological, character. The result of all this is that the material here is organized, not (as in the previous volumes) by the ideologies and commitments of the writers, but thematically" (p. x). As a result of Mansfield's change of direction, the present volume suffers from a lack of chronological progression. he attempts to lump together various authors from different generations (see chapters 2,3, 5, and 6) but does not note inconsistencies. Mansfield himself admits that "authors are drawn into the discussion as they illustrate these [themes] or advance them" (p. x). More seriously, Mansfield admits that he has not "achieved, or perhaps even attempted, even-handed justice" in drawing his conclusions (p. x) and that he has attempted "to elucidate themes and make progress towards a personal, synthetic view" (p. x). In my opinion, Mansfield is particularly severe with Professor E. V Teile's scholarship. Mansfield also derails any attempt to achieve comprehensiveness in his work by giving special attention to three Erasmus commemorations, namely, in 1936 (400th anniversary of Erasmus' death), 1967-1970 (500th anniversary of Erasmus' birth), and 1986 (450th anniversary of Erasmus' death) and the published articles that resulted from them. …


Opposition to immigration in Australia has continued to weaken. Causes include: a strong economy, restricted access to welfare for new immigrants, less rhetoric about multiculturalism, and general ignorance about the demographic consequences. However, a strong emphasis on border control probably helps. Reformers' protests about Australia's tough asylum-seekers policy have had little effect on attitudes to boatpeople, but may have increased public confidence in legal immigration. But the pattern of decreased concern about immigration is not uniform; people in the outer suburbs of Sydney and in regional New South Wales do not share it, nor do low skilled workers. A curious finding is that people who vote green or belong to environmental groups are more in favour of immigration than others. This probably reflects in accentuated from the strong difference between members of the educated professional classes, with their cosmopolitan outlook, and people without university degrees and their more patriotic outlook.

Copyright. Monash University and the author/s


In this work of sweeping erudition, one of our foremost historians of early Christianity considers a variety of theoretical critiques to examine the problems and opportunities posed by the ways in which history is written. Elizabeth Clark argues forcefully for a renewal of the study of premodern Western history through engagement with the kinds of critical methods that have transformed other humanities disciplines in recent decades."History, Theory, Text" provides a user-friendly survey of crucial developments in nineteenth- and twentieth-century debates surrounding history, philosophy, and critical theory. Beginning with the "noble dream" of "history as it really was" in the works of Leopold von Ranke, Clark goes on to review Anglo-American philosophies of history, schools of twentieth-century historiography, structuralism, the debate over narrative history, the changing fate of the history of ideas, and the impact of interpretive anthropology and literary theory on current historical scholarship. In a concluding chapter she offers some practical case studies to illustrate how attending to theoretical considerations can illuminate the study of premodernity.Written with energy and clarity, "History, Theory, Text" is a clarion call to historians for richer and more imaginative use of contemporary theory.


The GLENVILLE neighborhood is located on Cleveland's east side in the area of St. Clair Ave. and E. 105th St. Incorporated as a village on 4 Oct. 1870, it was formally annexed to the City of Cleveland on 19 June 1905. Shady, thick glens through which little streams tumbled gave the area its picturesque name. Early New England farmers were the first to settle there, followed by immigrants from Scotland, Ireland, and England. Gradually, Glenville grew into a secluded rural village. Almost surrounding the flourishing village center at St. Clair and Doan (E. 105th) St. were truck farms operated by German-Americans, who hauled their produce to the city. During the "Gay Nineties," Glenville's lakeshore location made it a fashionable summer residence for Cleveland's affluent families. Glenville attracted national attention at the turn of the century as a horseracing center with the GLENVILLE RACE TRACK, built in 1870 at St. Clair and E. 88th St. The village also attracted national attention on 14 July 1895 with the opening of the Cleveland Golf Club (see GOLF). By 1930 much of Glenville's population was of Jewish background (see JEWS & JUDAISM), although a growing contingent of AFRICAN AMERICANS accounted for 8% of the neighborhood's residents. By the 1960s, the neighborhood was predominately African American. On 23 July 1968, riots erupted, causing widespread neighborhood arson and looting (see GLENVILLE SHOOT-OUT). In order to promote housing and commercial revitalization in the community, the Glenville Development Corp. was organized in 1978.


Desertification is the diminution or destruction of the biological potential of land, and can lead ultimately to desert-like conditions. The vegetation of southern Africa is claimed to have altered over the past 100 years and much of the change is attributed to pastoral practice. In recent years however there has been much debate around the issue of the deterioration and loss of productivity of the natural rangelands, specifically those under communal management. It is one thing to claim that the vegetation has changed but quite another to produce data and analyses to show this unequivocally. Furthermore it is generally difficult to determine the nature and extent of change in natural ecosystems, as one does not know what the optimal base-line conditions should be. For this reason emphasis has been placed on developing models of potential or expected vegetation. By comparing a model of potential or expected vegetation with that of the contemporary vegetation, areas that deviate from expectation can be identified, in so doing providing evidence of the direction of change in the rangelands under various management treatments. The objective of this study was to determine shifts in the vegetation under different land-use treatments, by developing a technique to predict the potential vegetation of an area. In order to explore the nature and extent of degradation at the landscape scale a study site was selected where a range of land-use and rangeland management practices could be studied in parallel. The mid-Fish River valley consists of three markedly different units of land management, namely commercial rangelands, communal rangelands and nature conservation areas. The vegetation within the mid-Fish River valley falls within the Thicket biome and consists of three main vegetation types namely, Short Succulent Thicket, Medium Succulent Thicket and Mesic Bushclump Savanna. The creation of this potential vegetation model was dependent on the direct gradient analysis approach of relating the community patterns with environmental variables. To achieve this, floristic information was collected at sites along a topographical-moisture gradient. A Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) between the environmental variables and the plant communities produced a classification from which the conditions normally associated with the major plant communities were predicted. When projected as a digital map, the qualifying sites provided a testable hypothesis of the potential vegetation. The results of this study showed a definite grazing gradient, which reflects a change from a more mesic environment towards a more arid environment with an increase in utilisation pressure. The predictive vegetation model proved to be useful for predicting the occurrence of the valley thicket communities within the Eastern Cape.


We explore virtual adversarial training (VAT) applied to neural higher-order conditional random fields for sequence labeling. VAT is a recently introduced regularization method promoting local distributional smoothness: It counteracts the problem that predictions of many state-of-the-art classifiers are unstable to adversarial perturbations. Unlike random noise, adversarial perturbations are minimal and bounded perturbations that flip the predicted label. We utilize VAT to regularize neural higher-order factors in conditional random fields. These factors are for example important for phone classification where phone representations strongly depend on the context phones. However, without using VAT for regularization, the use of such factors was limited as they were prone to overfitting. In extensive experiments, we successfully apply VAT to improve performance on the TIMIT phone classification task. In particular, we achieve a phone error rate of 13.0%, exceeding the state-ofthe-art performance by a wide margin.


Recent studies of early handling in inbred mice do not replicate results from previous work in rats. In addition, studies using extended periods of dam-offspring separation suffer from a lack of consistency in behavioral, physiological and neuroanatomical correlates. This study re-visited the maternal mediation hypothesis in an attempt to resolve some of these discrepancies. Three typical disruptions of mother-offspring relations were used: Early Handling (EH, daily 15 min separation), Maternal Separation (MS, daily 4 hr. separation from dam) and Maternal Peer Separation (MPS, daily 4 hr. separation from dam and littermates). These groups were compared to a weekly cage changed, Animal Facility Reared (AFR) group. MS & MPS dams displayed higher levels of nest attendance, quiescent nursing, activity in the nest and licking post-manipulation. In contrast to the levels of maternal care received, AFR offspring were found to be more emotional in the open field as compared to MPS offspring. Closer inspection of maternal behavior revealed substantial variability within treatment condition. Analysis of offspring behavior as a function of levels of maternal behavior revealed that pups that received high levels of quiescent nursing and activity but not licking were less "emotional". Individual differences in pup licking behavior by dams was found to predict the variability in "emotional" behavior (in open field) for AFR and EH pups but not MS & MPS pups. Future studies employing these paradigms in inbred mice must examine individual differences in maternal care and its relationship to offspring behavioral development.


Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) make up the majority of enterprises in the world, providing employment and contributing significantly to national incomes. Many MSMEs face a number of challenges, including regulatory hurdles and tax burdens, difficulties accessing finance and a lack of general guidance or support. Financial education can be an important tool for helping MSMEs and potential entrepreneurs to obtain access to finance and strengthen money management skills.This working paper presents the results of a stocktake of 21 economies. It shows that, while some MSMEs have access to education, training or mentoring, in most economies approaches are fragmented and risk missing important groups. Identifying MSMEs as a target group within national strategies for financial education would contribute to addressing some of the challenges they face. This would also underline the importance of measuring levels of financial literacy among MSMEs and help policy makers and stakeholders to evaluate programmes that target this group.


Abstract The effect of a Mg- and Al-containing layered double hydroxide (LDH), used as an additive or as a matrix, on the dissolution and solubility of two non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), namely, mefenamic and meclofenamic acids, is reported. The use of MgAl-LDH enhances the solubility of mefenamic acid at the three pH values tested, and the value is larger when the acid is intercalated as opposed to simply being mixed with the layered material. For pure mefenamic acid, the most unfavourable pH is 1.2, while for the physical mixture and the sample with the intercalated drug, the most unfavourable pH is 4.5, for which the minimum increase in the amount of dissolved acid is recorded. The (dissolution) release-rate for both drugs when they are intercalated between the layers is much slower than for the physical mixture or for the dissolution of the pure drug.


A new technique is presented for the measurement of the differential group delay (DGD) between principal states of polarization of an optical device, with a demonstrated accuracy and resolution of roughly 50 attoseconds (50 × 10−18 s). Accuracy was directly assessed by measurement of a crystal-quartz DGD Standard. This permits what is to the author's knowledge the first complete measurement of the polarization mode dispersion (PMD) of straight, submeter lengths of optical fiber. PMD can be reliably measured only when the fiber is straight, since spooling of the fiber changes its PMD by introducing additional mode coupling. Measurement of four fiber samples revealed correlation between DGD and fiber core ovality.


To enhance our understanding of the regional hydroclimate in the Central Tibetan Plateau, different types of water samples were collected across the Naqu River basin in the summer (July, August) and winter (January, December) of 2017 for isotopic analysis. With Cuona Lake as the demarcation point, the δ18O values of the river water increased initially and then decreased from upstream to downstream along the river's mainstream. In the Naqu River system, a general decrease of δ18O values in the trunk stream of the lower reaches (from the head of Cuona Lake) was revealed owing to the gradual dilution of increased isotopically-depleted tributary inflow. Lakes play an important role in regulating runoff and changes in the levels of stable isotopes in rivers or streams. Additionally, the decrease of δ18O is controlled by processes involved in the 'isotopic altitude effect'. Larger contributions of winter precipitation in surface runoff at higher elevations would produce higher deuterium excess in stream water. On the regional scale, with Cuona Lake as the demarcation point, one of the clearest findings was that the river/stream's deuterium excess values decreased first and then increased from the south to the north in the summer; but there was a positive linear increase in the winter. From geographical and climatological perspectives, the changes of deuterium excess could result from increasing effects of summertime, and the generation of continental/local recycled and monsoonal water vapor in the surface runoff northward. The study area is at the critical transition between the Indian monsoon system in the South and the Northern belt of the westerlies, as revealed by the intermediate deuterium excess values.


Home range size is a fundamental concept for understanding animal dispersion and ecological needs, and it is one of the most commonly reported ecological attributes of free-ranging mammals. Previous studies indicate that red foxes Vulpes vulpes display great variability in home range size. Yet, there has been little consensus regarding the reasons why home range sizes of red foxes vary so extensively. In this study, we examine possible causes of variation in red fox home range sizes using data from 52 GPS collared red foxes from four study areas representing a gradient of landscape productivity and human landscape alteration in Norway and Sweden. Using 90% Local Convex Hull home range estimates, we examined how red fox home range size varied in relation to latitude, elevation, vegetation zone, proportion of agricultural land and human settlement within a home range, and sex and age. We found considerable variation in red fox home range sizes, ranging between 0.95 km2 to 44 km2 (LoCoH 90%) and 2.4 km2 to 358 km2 (MCP 100%). Elevation, proportion of agricultural land and sex accounted for 50% of the variation in home range size found amongst foxes, with elevation having the strongest effect. Red foxes residing in more productive landscapes (those in more southern vegetation zones), had home ranges approximately four times smaller than the home ranges of foxes in the northern boreal vegetation zone. Our results indicate that home range size was influenced by a productivity gradient at both the landscape (latitude) and the local (elevation) scale. The influence of the proportion of agriculture land on home range size of foxes illustrates how human landscape alteration can affect the space use and distribution of red foxes. Further, the variation in home range size found in this study demonstrates the plasticity of red foxes to respond to changing human landscape alteration as well as changes in landscape productivity, which may be contributing to red fox population increases and northern range expansions.


Multiyear spaceflight will require innovative strategies to preserve vitamins in foods, in order to retain astronaut health and functionality long-term. Furthermore, space foods must be low weight/volume to comply with cargo restrictions, and must retain sensory quality to ensure consumption. Low water activity products were developed, fortified with vitamins A, B1, B9, C, and E at twice their spaceflight requirements, stored for three years at 21 °C and one year at 38 °C, and analyzed annually for retained vitamin content and organoleptic quality. The vitamins were encapsulated in carbohydrate or lipid coatings and tested in relatively low and high fat versions of compressed bars and powdered drink mix formulations. Susceptibility to degradation at 21 °C followed the sequence B9 > A > B1 > C > E; degradation rates were fitted to first-order kinetics. Vitamins A and C were more sensitive at the higher storage temperature. Vitamin retention was slightly higher in compressed bars verses powders. Effects of matrix lipid level on stability were vitamin dependent. Sensory characteristics for products stored three years at 21 °C remained mostly above 6.0 on a 9-point hedonic scale, whereas those stored for one year at 38 °C remained mostly above 5.0. Compressed bars firmed significantly during storage. All vitamin levels after three years at 21 °C remained above the space flight requirements, demonstrating the suitability of the selected fortification schemes and food matrices for long-term preservation.

PRACTICAL APPLICATION
Vitamins A, B1, B9, C, and E were retained at 70% to 95% levels for three years at 21 °C in carefully formulated, fortified low water activity products. Product compression and vacuum packaging slightly helped to further preserve vitamins. The sensory quality of these products was retained throughout storage.


We present a new model for the Sun's global photospheric magnetic field during a deep minimum of activity, in which no active regions emerge. The emergence and subsequent evolution of small-scale magnetic features across the full solar surface is simulated, subject to the influence of a global supergranular flow pattern. Visually, the resulting simulated magnetograms reproduce the typical structure and scale observed in quiet Sun magnetograms. Quantitatively, the simulation quickly reaches a steady state, resulting in a mean field and flux distribution that are in good agreement with those determined from observations. A potential coronal magnetic field is extrapolated from the simulated full Sun magnetograms to consider the implications of such a quiet photospheric magnetic field on the corona and inner heliosphere. The bulk of the coronal magnetic field closes very low down, in short connections between small-scale features in the simulated magnetic network. Just 0.1% of the photospheric magnetic flux is found to be open at 2.5 R⊙, around 10–100 times less than that determined for typical Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager synoptic map observations. If such conditions were to exist on the Sun, this would lead to a significantly weaker interplanetary magnetic field than is currently observed, and hence a much higher cosmic ray flux at Earth.


The legal profession in England and Wales has a long established approach to the regulation of lawyers' behaviour. This is built on investigation and prosecution of disciplinary breaches by the professional bodies, with more serious cases being brought before disciplinary tribunals. These tribunals have wide disciplinary powers, including the ultimate sanction of striking off or disbarring offenders or re-admitting offenders after a period of time. The establishment of the Legal Services Board (LSB), with regulatory oversight for the legal professions, by the Legal Services Act 2007 focused attention on approaches to regulation and led to a switch in the emphasis of regulation from the individual to firms (or 'entities'). The appointment of independent regulators of the professions suggested that there might be significant changes in regulatory philosophy and strategy. The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) acquired powers to administer small fines on individual solicitors. It also promised to practise 'risk based regulation'. It adopted a system of 'outcomes focused regulation' (OFR) based on a structure of auditing systems and processes. It was anticipated that these changes would drive changes in professional regulation. This research establishes a baseline for assessing these changes. It locates the work of the disciplinary tribunals for solicitors and barristers in the wider context of legal services regulation. It then provides a detailed analysis of all the disciplinary tribunal cases for the main legal professions heard in 2008. This analysis focuses on processes of investigation and prosecution, on the characteristics of respondents before the disciplinary tribunals, such as age, sex and institutional affiliations, the processing of cases and the imposition of sanctions.


Sudan's cotton industry has assumed a key role since the mid 1920's in its
national economic development both on economic and social grounds. This study
addresses the issues of government intervention on Sudan's cotton industry. Control
measures in the cotton industry which span area determination, cotton producers'
price determination, cotton exchange rate and cotton tax rate, are believed to have
negative impacts on the cotton industry supply response. The major objective of this
study is to investigate the implications of government intervention on cotton
industry. The study employs an econometric approach to examine the behavior of
the cotton supply response. The study uses time series data over the period 1969 -
1998. The long and medium staple cotton models incorporate five equations, namely
area, yield, export supply, producers' price and export demand The model equations
have been structured to allow for a balanced representation of both price and nonprice
factors. The models have been estimated using the auto--regressive distributed
lag technique and error correction model The study employs Theil's inequality and
root mean square percentage error as validation techniques to ascertain model performance. A simulation of alternative policy scenarios with regard to cotton
exchange rate and cotton tax rate was carried out to assess the impact of policy
reforms on the magnitude of the endogenous variables. In addition, a simulation of
the policy scenario with regard to food self-sufficiency as a policy objective was also
conducted.
The findings of the study support the view that government interventions on
Sudan's cotton industry have had negative implications on the cotton supply function
components, namely, area and yield The various forms of government intervention
have had, on the whole, undermined the provision of adequate incentives to cotton
producers and as such have resulted in the lack of responsiveness on part of the
cotton producers to changes in the cotton world market. Such a situation has
deprived the country of its inherent comparative advantage as cotton producer. The
study recommends corrective policy reforms in relation to producers' price
determination mechanism and its associate variables mainly cotton exchange rate and
cotton taxation. Moreover, non-price policy variables, which are mainly of
technological nature, have to be appropriately considered in cotton production
planning process in order to elucidate positive supply response.


OBJECTIVES
To determine the frequency of serum cobalamin (Cbl) deficiency and to clarify the biologic importance of low screening Cbl levels in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and idiopathic myelopathy (MYL).

BACKGROUND
A significant association between Cbl metabolism and MS has been postulated based on the observations that patients with MS have lower serum Cbl levels, higher unsaturated Cbl binding capacities, and a higher prevalence of macrocytosis than do normal controls. Whether such observations have biologic importance as documented by abnormal accumulation of metabolites that would result from Cbl deficiency has not yet been determined.

METHODS
Serum Cbl and folate levels were determined in 208 consecutively evaluated patients seen in an outpatient MS clinic setting during a 7-month period. Necessary blood samples were obtained for 165 of these patients. One hundred twenty-five patients had clinically definite MS, 31 had clinically probable MS, and nine had MYL. Serum methylmalonic acid (MMA) and homocysteine (HCY) concentrations, which rise in biologically severe Cbl deficiency, were subsequently determined in all patients whose Cbl levels were lower than 301 pg/mL.

RESULTS
A Cbl level lower than 301 was found in 32 of 156 patients with either clinically definite MS or clinically probable MS but in none of the patients with MYL. Elevated MMA or HCY levels were found in seven of 32 patients with either clinically definite MS or clinically probable MS, six of whom had an elevated HCY level and one of whom had elevated HCY and MMA levels.

CONCLUSIONS
Despite the observation that 32 (19.4%) of 165 of these patients with MS and MYL had screening Cbl levels less than 301 pg/mL, only seven (4.2%) of 165 had elevated MMA or HCY levels. The frequency of biologically severe Cbl deficiency in these patients with MS and MYL was very low.


This paper investigates the nature of students' learning of the Egan Skilled Helper model in enabling them to develop collaborative communication skills which place service-users at the centre of decision making. The paper is a follow-up to an earlier paper which found that the Egan model was helpful to students as a communication and problem management tool and that they had transferred their learning into practice. The current study involves seven students from the first study and examines whether their knowledge and skills from learning the model in year one have been sustained two years later during their third year practice placement. A key finding is that participants were continuing to use most stages of the model (with the exception of challenging skills) with service-users in a variety of settings. Further findings are that the model is still useful in situations where goals are set by social workers rather than by service-users; and that it is the utilisation of role-play when learning the model which most embeds skills. The implications of these findings for skills training are discussed together with suggestions for further focus.


4107 Background: Cellular and non-cellular components in the tumor microenvironment (TME) impact prognosis and treatment in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We previously reported a deep learning-based model of tissue segmentation in pathology images, showing an impact of stromal and malignant cell distribution with respect to gene expression on survival and molecular subtypes of cancer [1]. Methods: Clinical outcomes data, mRNA-seq, and histopathology images of 351 patients (pts) with HCC were obtained from TCGA. We established a combined algorithm of two deep learning models: ResNet-based model for tissue segmentation; YOLO-based model for cell detection, using published data sets [2, 3]. The tissue segmentation model defines six segments having following predominant components: malignant cells, lymphocytes, adipose, stromal, mucinous, and normal liver tissues. The cell detection model calculates density and mapping of cells in the TME. The immune landscape was analyzed via mRNA-seq of 770 genes enriched in TME. This comprehensive analysis defined parameters including the cell density per lymphocyte segmented area (CDpLA), representing the density of lymphocytes on a lymphocyte-rich area in TME. Results: Pts were clustered into two groups with high and low CDpLA (212 and 139 pts). High CDpLA was defined as lymphocyte density > 0.5 (13,618 cells/mm2 lymphocyte area). Pts with high CDpLA showed significantly better median overall survival (OS) than those with low CDpLA (82.9 vs 37.8 month, p < 0.005). The hazard ratio of CDpLA in OS was 0.36 (95% CI 0.18-0.72, p < 0.005). Among pts with available clinical data, 29 and 21 pts were with hepatitis C (HCV) and hepatitis B (HBV). Out of 29 HCV pts, 23 and 6 pts were with high and low CDpLA; out of 21 HBV pts, 17 and 4 pts were with high and low CDpLA. Fifty three were with alcoholic abuse, and 26 and 27 pts were with high and low CDpLA. Of note, pts with high CDpLA had significantly better OS in HCV pts (61.7 vs 19.9 months, p < 0.005). Genomic analysis with mRNA-seq shows that HCV pts with high CDpLA have lower expression of genes related to myeloid-derived suppressor cells (TRANK1, MEGF9, HS3ST2, GPNMB) and higher in genes related to immune activation (PLD4, IL3RA, TNFRSF4). Conclusions: A deep learning-assisted model of TME segmentation and cell detection showed an impact on survival from CDpLA, rather than the total number of lymphocytes in the TME. HCV pts are more likely to have higher CDpLA, and CDpLA was a strong prognostic indicator in HCV pts. Pts with high CDpLA are those with elevated expression of genes related to immune activation and decreased expression of immunosuppressive genes. Retrospective and prospective analysis of clinical response to immunotherapy and tyrosine kinase inhibitors is underway. [1] Kim et al. Cancer Res 2020 (80) (16 Supp) 2631 [2] Kather et al. PLoS Med 2019 16(1): e1002730 [3] Gamper et al. arXiv 2020:10778


The aim of the present study was to evaluate the potential of Turkish propolis extracts if they prevent or protect foreskin fibroblast cells against hydrogen peroxide (H_2O_2)-induced oxidative DNA damage. Hydrogen peroxide (40 μM) was used as an inducer of oxidative DNA damage. The damage of DNA was evaluated by using the alkaline single cell gel electrophoresis (comet) assay. Turkish propolis extracts at concentrations of 25, 50, 75 and 100 μg/ml were prepared by ethanol. Anti-genotoxicity was assessed before, simultaneously, and after treatment of propolis extract (50 μg/ml) with H_2O_2. The results showed a significant decrease in H_2O_2-induced DNA damage in cultures treated with propolis extract. The antioxidant activity of phenolic components found in propolis may contribute to reduce the DNA damage induced by H_2O_2. Our findings confirmed the chemopreventive activity of propolis and showed that this effect may occur under different mechanisms.


The western Idaho suture zone juxtaposes continental and oceanic terranes with distinctive Sr and Nd isotopic signatures across a sharp isotopic transition coincident with the Mesozoic {sup 87}Sr/{sup 86}Sr = 0.706 line (MSL). Late Cretaceous to Eocene granitic plutons that define the MSL are allochthonous and were transported eastward by {approximately}150 km during late Mesozoic to Tertiary (ca. 100-55 Ma) thrusting. Sr and Nd isotopic compositions of Neogene rhyolites and basalts from southwestern Idaho, southeastern Oregon, and northern Nevada define isotopic transitions coincident with the MSL; there are continental affinities east of long 116{degree}30minutesW and oceanic affinities west of 119W. Between these longitudes, intermediate isotopic compositions imply derivation of magmas from both continental and oceanic mantle (basalts) and crustal (rhyolites) sources. It is inferred that the basal decollement of the Mesozoic and Tertiary contractional orogen dips westward below depths of segregation of basaltic magmas, and that oceanic lithospheric mantle was thrust eastward over a shelf of old, isotopically evolved continental lithospheric mantle that now protrudes {approximately}150 km west of the MSL.


Radioactivity of naturally occurring (226Ra, 232Th and 40K) and anthropogenic (137Cs) radioactive nuclides was measured in 29 potable ground and surface water samples of Punjab, Pakistan. The results showed average activity concentrations for 226Ra, 232Th, 40K and 137Cs as 1.09, 0.55, 16.17 and 0.40 Bql−1, respectively. 137Cs was detected in only a few samples. The obtained results showed that, in general, activity concentrations of radionuclides (232Th and 137Cs) in drinking water samples did not exceed WHO recommendations. 226Ra in the majority of samples exceeded WHO drinking water guidelines. The estimated committed effective dose due to intake of the water for three age-groups considered (<1 y, 2–7 y and ≥17 y) was below the ICRP permissible limit (0.1 mSvy−1) except for 226Ra and 40K.


Energy is an extremely critical resource for battery-powered wireless sensor networks (WSN), thus making energy-efficient protocol design a key challenging problem. Most of the existing energy-efficient routing protocols always forward packets along the minimum energy path to the sink to merely minimize energy consumption, which causes an unbalanced distribution of residual energy among sensor nodes, and eventually results in a network partition. In this paper, with the help of the concept of potential in physics, we design an Energy-Balanced Routing Protocol (EBRP) by constructing a mixed virtual potential field in terms of depth, energy density, and residual energy. The goal of this basic approach is to force packets to move toward the sink through the dense energy area so as to protect the nodes with relatively low residual energy. To address the routing loop problem emerging in this basic algorithm, enhanced mechanisms are proposed to detect and eliminate loops. The basic algorithm and loop elimination mechanism are first validated through extensive simulation experiments. Finally, the integrated performance of the full potential-based energy-balanced routing algorithm is evaluated through numerous simulations in a random deployed network running event-driven applications, the impact of the parameters on the performance is examined and guidelines for parameter settings are summarized. Our experimental results show that there are significant improvements in energy balance, network lifetime, coverage ratio, and throughput as compared to the commonly used energy-efficient routing algorithm.


In the contemporary era of "tough on crime" policies and the globalized drug war, the number of women in the criminal justice system has increased across several countries. Women's involvement in the system is not limited to imprisonment, however, and many criminalized women (those involved in the justice system with the assigned status of defendants, offenders, etc.) participate in community-based programs after serving sentences in prisons or jails or as an alternative to incarceration. Criminalized women encounter multiple interlocking forms of oppression based on sexuality, race and ethnicity, class, disability, immigration status, punishment status, and (importantly) gender. Gendered ideas and norms shape the way women are treated not only by the carceral state but also by community-based, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).
 NGOs have played an increasingly prominent role in the provision of social services since the 1970s. Organizations working with criminalized people in more affluent, English-speaking nations commonly address job readiness, psychological and substance issues, parenting, sexuality, romantic relationships, and spirituality, among other important areas. Some NGOs work with criminalized people as a condition of their criminal sentences. Criminalized women's self-reported needs are great, yet resources are often scarce, inadequate, and unwelcoming, particularly for women of color. Responding to a dearth of services available to women, feminists formed NGOs focused on this population beginning in the 1970s; women are also served at NGOs that work with men. "Reducing offending" and "empowerment" are frequently stated goals at NGOs that work with women, but these goals can be interpreted widely depending on the views of NGO leadership and staff about gender.
 NGOs can approach women's gender in a variety of ways. For instance, they can resist or affirm the dominant views used by the carceral state that criminalize and stigmatize women. Their approaches matter because of the implications for equality of opportunities that follow. Two major philosophies can motivate the outreach that NGOs do with criminalized women. Gender sameness disregards gender differences and stresses that it is necessary to treat women "like men" to reverse the disadvantages and marginalization that women encounter. Gender difference emphasizes the importance of treating men or women based on their purportedly unique characteristics and social experiences. Much critical feminist research on NGOs that work with criminalized women has studied programs formed around ideas of gender difference.
 Critical researchers have examined gender in organizational work with women outside of prisons, in community-based prisons run by NGOs, and in more traditional prisons. Researchers have examined practices at programs, the philosophies underpinning them, and their implications. This body of work shows that NGOs can perpetuate gendered exclusions and may expand the power of the carceral state. In their prescriptions for responding to the status quo, critical researchers make arguments along a spectrum from advocating more moderate social change, such as by creating more effective programs, to more radical social change, such as by ending community-based programs that perpetuate carceral control.


© 2019 Association for Information Systems. All rights reserved. Crowdsourcing can be an adopted strategy for researchers where tasks are distributed to internet users to harness different forms of data, which adds to the reliability and validity of the research process. As theory testing is an essential part of the research process, involving activities that most times needs input from different and diverse participants, the need to consider adopting the crowdsourcing strategy for theory testing is paramount. Adopting a design science paradigm to manage this challenge, we design an analytic framework which comprises of important attributes that need to be considered if crowdsourcing is to be used for any of the theory testing activities. The framework which was justified using sample cases gives us an insight into what attributes make such activity crowdsource-able. The value of this artefact lies in its capacity to help researchers utilize crowdsourcing to their advantage.


This paper studies the cost effectiveness of climate policy if there are technology externalities. For this purpose, we develop a forward-looking CGE model that captures empirical links between CO2 emissions associated with energy use, directed technical change and the economy. We find the cost-effective climate policy to include a combination of R&D subsidies and CO2 emission constraints, although R&D subsidies raise the shadow value of the CO2 constraint (i.e. CO2 price) because of a strong rebound effect from stimulating innovation. Furthermore, we find that CO2 constraints differentiated toward CO2-intensive sectors are more cost effective than constraints that generate uniform CO2 prices among sectors. Differentiated CO2 prices, through technical change and concomitant technology externalities, encourage growth in the non-CO2 intensive sectors and discourage growth in CO2-intensive sectors. Thus, it is cost effective to let the latter bear relatively more of the abatement burden. This result is robust to whether emission constraints, R&D subsidies or combinations of both are used to reduce CO2 emissions.


A total of 80 gilts (PIC 327 × 1050; 86 lb initial BW) were used in an 84-d study to determine the effect of different nutrients on the occurrence of osteochondrosis (OC) lesions, several cartilage criteria, growth performance, and carcass composition. Eight dietary treatments were formulated, consisting of 1) control (standard corn-soy diet, 3.5% choice white grease (CWG)) or the control diet plus 2) fish oil (3.5%) replaced CWG, 3) proline and glycine (Pro/Gly; 300 and 200% of lysine), 4) leucine, isoleucine, and valine (BCAA; 200, 100, and 100% of lysine, respectively), 5) silicon (1,000 ppm), 6) copper and manganese (Cu/ Mn; 250 ppm and 100 ppm, respectively), 7) methionine and threonine (Met/Thr; 150 and 100% of lysine), and 8) combination of ingredients in diets 2 through 7. The diets were formulated slightly in excess of the pigâ€TMs requirement for lysine and to meet minimum true ileal digestibility (TID) ratios for the other essential amino acids. The diets were also formulated to be isocaloric by slightly adjusting the fat (CWG) content, and were fed in three phases (1.07, 0.94, and 0.80% TID Lys). Upon completion of the feeding period, pigs were harvested, and the distal aspect of the left femur was evaluated by gross examination for OC lesions. The external surface was evaluated for abnormalities and given a severity score. Then each femur was sliced into 3-mm sections, and lesions were assigned a severity score for the underlying articular cartilage, and physeal growth plate. Overall (d 0 to 84), growth performance was unaffected by dietary treatment (P>0.21). Pigs fed diets containing fish oil or silicon tended (P<0.07) to have a higher severity score for external abnormalities (or defects in cartilage surface), compared with pigs fed the other dietary treatments, with pigs fed the control diet, Pro/Gly, or Cu/Mn intermediate. Pigs fed high Met/ Thr, Cu/Mn, or silicon tended (P<0.08) to have lower articular cartilage severity scores than scores of pigs fed the control diet or BCAA, with the other dietary treatments intermediate. The occurrence of OC lesions at the growth plate, total faces with lesions, and total number of abnormalities were not affected by dietary treatment (P>0.23); there was a trend (P<0.14) for pigs fed diets containing high Met/Thr or fed the combination diet to have lower total severity scores than scores of pigs fed the control diet or fish oil, with the other treatments intermediate. Pigs fed additional Cu/Mn, Met/Thr, or the diet containing all additional ingredients had lower overall severity scores (P<0.03) than did pigs fed the control diet or fish oil. Cartilage compression or shear force were unaffected by dietary treatment (P>0.19), but pigs fed fish oil had a higher ratio for compression: shear energy (P<0.03), compared with the ratio for those fed the control diet, Cu/Mn, or silicon; the other treatments were intermediate. In summary, feeding pigs a diet containing additional silicon, Cu/Mn, Met/Thr, or a combination of these ingredients may offer the potential to reduce the incidence of osteochondrosis in gilts; more research will be required to verify these results.; Swine Day, 2006, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, 2006


An alternative approach to immunization with native GnRH for the inhibition of gonadotropin secretion and gonadal function is the use of peptidomimetics such as peptides of GnRH that could serve as vaccines when these are joined to more immunogenic molecules. The GnRH sequence of many species is well-known. Reported consensual aminoacid sequence of mammals is: Glu-His-Trp-Ser-Tyr-Gly-Leu-Arg-Pro-Gly. Most of the known GnRH sequences, including birds, fish and reptiles, have the Glycin amino acid residue at position 6. Glycin is the smallest amino acid, and confers flexibility to the polypeptide chain. Glycin substitution by Prolin, to confer rigidity, and the coupling to a Tetanic Toxoid T helper epitope (GnRHm1-TT), increases considerably the immune response towards the autolog GnRH when it is administered using an oily adjuvant. In the present study we also investigate the capacity of GnRHm1-TT (active component of a GnRH based vaccine) to bind the natural GnRH receptor in Dunning R3327-G cell line and vesicles of different tissues when administered without an adjuvant. Results showed that GnRHm1-TT do not lose the binding ability to natural GnRH receptor in vitro and in vivo. We also demonstrated that this molecule behaves as a GnRH agonist analog when administered intraperitoneally to Wistar rats.


The asymptotic validity of tests is usually established by making appropriate primitive assumptions, which imply the weak convergence of a specific function of the data, and an appeal to the continuous mapping theorem. This paper, instead, takes the weak convergence of some function of the data to a limiting random element as the starting point and studies efficiency in the class of tests that remain asymptotically valid for all models that induce the same weak limit. It is found that efficient tests in this class are simply given by efficient tests in the limiting problem—that is, with the limiting random element assumed observed—evaluated at sample analogues. Efficient tests in the limiting problem are usually straightforward to derive, even in nonstandard testing problems. What is more, their evaluation at sample analogues typically yields tests that coincide with suitably robustified versions of optimal tests in canonical parametric versions of the model. This paper thus establishes an alternative and broader sense of asymptotic efficiency for many previously derived tests in econometrics, such as tests for unit roots, parameter stability tests, and tests about regression coefficients under weak instruments.