Progressivity in both marginal and average tax rates seems to be a universal phenomenon. Yet the optimal taxation literature does not, by and large, imply progressivity and most of the investigations of politically determined tax schedules deal with linear taxation. This paper considers the determination of the tax structure by majority rule when tax schedules are characterized by three parameters and individuals differ in ability. It is shown that if the rankings of income and of ability always coincide the set of schedules preferred by the individual with median ability is contained in the set of local majority winning schedules. Under some additional restrictions this result is extended to any (global) movement along the tax possibility frontier. The paper uses this result to demonstrate that the existence of both marginal and average progressivity of tax schedules can be explained as the outcome of a majority voting process in which the median individual is pivotal with respect to the tax schedule chosen by the political process. Marginal progressivity is more likely the stronger the right hand skewness and the larger the variance in the distribution of abilities. It is also more likely if the labor supply response to increased tax burdens of high ability individuals is smaller in absolute value than that of low ability individuals. The paper also discusses conditions for uniqueness of the tax schedule. A Political Theory of Progressive Income Taxation By Alex Cukierman and Allan H. Meltzer* Revised December 1988


PURPOSE
To investigate the cost-effectiveness of computed tomography (CT) relative to radiography for cervical spine screening in trauma patients.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
A decision analysis model was constructed to compare the incremental cost-effectiveness of radiography and CT as primary cervical spine screening modalities in trauma patients. Analyses were performed from a societal perspective, and probability and cost estimates from the literature and institutional experience were used. In separate cost-effectiveness analyses, hypothetical cohorts of trauma patients from three defined clinical scenarios were considered: high, moderate, and low risk for cervical spine fracture. Outcome measures included cases of paralysis prevented, total cost of screening strategies, and incremental cost-effectiveness ratios.

RESULTS
In high-risk patients, screening with CT is a dominant strategy that prevents cases of paralysis and saves money for society. In moderate-risk patients, screening with CT is cost-effective with reference-case assumptions and within the range of most sensitivity analyses. In the low-risk group, CT screening helps prevent cases of paralysis, but the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio is high (> $80,000 per quality-adjusted life year).

CONCLUSION
CT is the preferred cervical spine screening modality in trauma patients at high and moderate risk for cervical spine fracture.


The history of 'electroshock therapy' (now known as electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)) in Europe in the Third Reich is still a neglected chapter in medical history. Since Thomas Szasz's 'From the Slaughterhouse to the Madhouse', prejudices have hindered a thorough historical analysis of the introduction and early application of electroshock therapy during the period of National Socialism and the Second World War. Contrary to the assumption of a 'dialectics of healing and killing', the introduction of electroshock therapy in the German Reich and occupied territories was neither especially swift nor radical. Electroshock therapy, much like the preceding 'shock therapies', insulin coma therapy and cardiazol convulsive therapy, contradicted the genetic dogma of schizophrenia, in which only one 'treatment' was permissible: primary prevention by sterilisation. However, industrial companies such as Siemens–Reiniger–Werke AG (SRW) embraced the new development in medical technology. Moreover, they knew how to use existing patents on the electrical anaesthesia used for slaughtering to maintain a leading position in the new electroshock therapy market. Only after the end of the official 'euthanasia' murder operation in August 1941, entitled T4, did the psychiatric elite begin to promote electroshock therapy as a modern 'unspecific' treatment in order to reframe psychiatry as an 'honorable' medical discipline. War-related shortages hindered even the then politically supported production of electroshock devices. Research into electroshock therapy remained minimal and was mainly concerned with internationally shared safety concerns regarding its clinical application. However, within the Third Reich, electroshock therapy was not only introduced in psychiatric hospitals, asylums, and in the Auschwitz concentration camp in order to get patients back to work, it was also modified for 'euthanasia' murder.


Background: Tobacco advertising in Indonesia is among the most aggressive and innovative in the world, and tobacco advertisements saturate the environment. Tobacco companies are politically and financially powerful in the country because they are one of the largest sources of government revenue. As a result, there are few restrictions on tobacco marketing and advertising. National surveys reveal that 62% of men and 1% to 3% of women are smokers. Over 90% of smokers smoke clove cigarettes (kretek). This paper examines the social and cultural reasons for smoking in Indonesia and discusses how the tobacco industry reads, reproduces and works with culture as a means of selling cigarettes. An analysis is provided of how kretek tobacco companies represent themselves as supporters of Indonesian national identity. This analysis is used to identify strategies to break the chains of positive association that currently support widespread smoking. Methods: Between November 2001 and March 2007, tobacco advertisements were collected from a variety of sources, including newspapers and magazines. Frequent photographic documentation was made of adverts on billboards and in magazines. Advertisements were segmented into thematic units to facilitate analysis. In all, 30 interviews were conducted with smokers to explore benefits and risks of smoking, perceptions of advertisements and brand preferences. Focus groups (n = 12) were conducted to explore and pretest counter advertisements. Results: Key themes were identified in tobacco advertisements including control of emotions, smoking to enhance masculinity and smoking as a means to uphold traditional values while simultaneously emphasising modernity and globalisation. Some kretek advertisements are comprised of indirect commentaries inviting the viewer to reflect on the political situation and one's position in society. Conclusions: After identifying key cultural themes in cigarette advertisements, our research group is attempting to engage the tobacco industry on "cultural ground" to reduce consumption and social acceptability. To do this, we need to take back social spaces that the tobacco industry has laid claim to through advertising. Active monitoring and surveillance of tobacco advertising strategies is necessary and legislation and enforcement to curb the industry should be put in place.


Multiobjective (MO) optimisation is a useful technique for evolving portfolio optimisation solutions that span a range from high-return/high-risk to low-return/low-risk. The resulting Pareto front would approximate the risk/reward Efficient Frontier [Mar52], and simplifies the
choice of investment model for a given client's attitude to risk.
However, the financial market is continuously changing and it is essential to ensure that
MO solutions are capturing true relationships between financial factors and not merely over
fitting the training data. Research on evolutionary algorithms in dynamic environments has
been directed towards adapting the algorithm to improve its suitability for retraining whenever
a change is detected. Little research focused on how to assess and quantify the success of
multiobjective solutions in unseen environments. The multiobjective nature of the problem
adds a unique feature to be satisfied to judge robustness of solutions. That is, in addition to
examining whether solutions remain optimal in the new environment, we need to ensure that
the solutions' relative positions previously identified on the Pareto front are not altered.
This thesis investigates the performance of Multiobjective Genetic Programming (MOGP)
in the dynamic real world problem of portfolio optimisation. The thesis provides new definitions
and statistical metrics based on phenotypic cluster analysis to quantify robustness of both
the solutions and the Pareto front. Focusing on the critical period between an environment
change and when retraining occurs, four techniques to improve the robustness of solutions are
examined. Namely, the use of a validation data set; diversity preservation; a novel variation on
mating restriction; and a combination of both diversity enhancement and mating restriction.
In addition, preliminary investigation of using the robustness metrics to quantify the severity
of change for optimum tracking in a dynamic portfolio optimisation problem is carried out.
Results show that the techniques used offer statistically significant improvement on the
solutions' robustness, although not on all the robustness criteria simultaneously. Combining
the mating restriction with diversity enhancement provided the best robustness results while
also greatly enhancing the quality of solutions.


We provide a general mechanism to design online learning algorithms based on a minimax analysis within a drifting-games framework. Different online learning settings (Hedge, multi-armed bandit problems and online convex optimization) are studied by converting into various kinds of drifting games. The original minimax analysis for drifting games is then used and generalized by applying a series of relaxations, starting from choosing a convex surrogate of the 0-1 loss function. With different choices of surrogates, we not only recover existing algorithms, but also propose new algorithms that are totally parameter-free and enjoy other useful properties. Moreover, our drifting-games framework naturally allows us to study high probability bounds without resorting to any concentration results, and also a generalized notion of regret that measures how good the algorithm is compared to all but the top small fraction of candidates. Finally, we translate our new Hedge algorithm into a new adaptive boosting algorithm that is computationally faster as shown in experiments, since it ignores a large number of examples on each round.


In 1853, William G. Allen, the "Coloured Professor" of Classics at New York Central College, became engaged to Mary King, a student at the coeducational, racially integrated school and daughter of a local white abolitionist minister. Rumors of their betrothal incited a mob of several hundred men armed with "tar, feathers, poles, and an empty barrel spiked with shingle nails." Allen and King narrowly escaped with their lives, married in New York City, and then fled as fugitives to England and Ireland. Their love story and brave resistance were recorded in engrossing detail by Allen in two pamphlets-The American Prejudice Against Color: An Authentic Narrative, Showing How Easily the Nation Got into An Uproar (1853) and A Short Personal Narrative (1860). Reproduced here in their entirety, Allen's forthright, eloquent, and ironic accounts, which include excerpts from abolitionist and anti-abolitionist newspaper reports about the incident, drew renewed threats against the exiled pair as well as support from the couple's circle of anti-slavery friends and allies, a diverse group including Harriet Beecher Stowe, Beriah Green, Gerrit Smith, Reverend Samuel J. May, and George Thompson. The experiences related by Allen vividly illustrate the rampant fears of "amalgamation" that sparked violent protests in antebellum America. He also reveals white abolitionists' contradictions regarding mixed-race relationships. Also contained in this volume is Louisa May Alcott's M.L., a fictional tale of interracial love based on her familiarity with the Allen-King episode through her abolitionist uncle, the Reverend Samuel J. May. Alcott's story was refused by The Atlantic magazine because, she said, it "might offend the dear South." An insightful introduction by editor Sarah Elbert places the writings within a historical and cultural context. She details William G. Allen's notable career as a graduate of the Oneida Institute and as an active abolitionist in the network reaching from New York's North Star Country through Boston, Canada, England, and Ireland. In exile, William and Mary King Allen, important members of the trans-Atlantic movement, continued their struggle for "free association" and supported their family by teaching poor children in London.


In this article, we study the political and legal model currently used by Norway in its Northern counties. This work is a part of comprehensive research supported by the Russian Science Foundation. Our study aims to provide a historical perspective to the model of Norway's national ethnic policy in the Northern counties by identifying the operational capabilities and assessing the efficiency of these models amid increasing migration flows and changes in the country's socio-economic environment. The methods we use in this multidisciplinary study are situated at the interface of national and international law, political science, history, and sociology. They include the comparative historical method (the dynamics of ethno-political processes), the systemic method (ethic policy in the framework of target-based programme management), the comparative law method (a comparison of national legal systems and international contractual standards), the value and norm-driven method (ethnic policy viewed through the prism of public good), institutional method (the role of political institutions), and the secondary analysis of sociological data. We also rely on qualitative methods, namely, the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data on ethnic diasporas living in the North of Norway. As a result, we establish that the Kingdom of Norway has a unified approach to national ethnic policy, which rests on self-confessed multiculturalism. However, different ethnic political models are applied in the case of certain ethnic groups. Today, against the background of declared state multiculturalism and integration, the models of acculturation and non-violent assimilation are both operational in Norway. There are sporadic expressions of nationalism and voluntary segregation. We conclude that, despite a unified approach to ethnic policy and despite Norway's political and legal achievements in the protection of indigenous peoples' rights, the country's government carries out a differentiated 'hybrid' ethnic policy towards ethnic groups living on its territory. The growing infighting between the right and the left parties in the Storting translates into unpopular and spur-of-the-moment political decisions as regards inter-ethnic relations.


This article has three major components that include, in addition to the technical aspects, reminiscences of my academic upbringing, my move to the USA from India, and my professional career. I have recounted many stories that I hope convey some sense of time, especially in these two countries with vastly different cultures, my personal journey with its ups and downs and how I made the transition to an academic career path in USA even though that was not in my future plan as a young man. The development of the field of thermobarometry and its integration with diffusion and crystal kinetic modelling of compositional zoning (or lack thereof) and cation ordering in minerals have led to important quantitative constraints on the pressure-temperature-time evolution of terrestrial rocks and meteorites. I review the historical developments in these areas and a segment of my own research spanning the period of 1964-2021. The foundational works of the thermometry of metamorphic rocks and palaeothermometry were laid at the University of Chicago around 1950. Subsequently, the synergetic growth of thermodynamics and experimental studies in petrology in the 1960s and 1970s, along with the introduction of electron microprobe as a nondestructive analytical tool with micron scale resolution, gave a major boost to the field of thermobarometry. There were also significant new developments in the field of thermodynamics of solid solutions in the petrology community and demonstration from observational data, countering strong scepticism, that the principles of classical thermodynamics were applicable to "complex natural systems". The section on thermodynamic basis of thermobarometry concludes with a discussion of the thermodynamics of trace element and single mineral thermometry. I further deal with the experimental protocols, along with selected examples, for phase equilibrium studies that provide the bedrock foundation for the field of thermobarometry based on elemental compositions of coexisting minerals in a rock. It is followed by an account of the controversies and international meetings relating to the aluminum silicate and peridotite phase diagrams that play crucial roles in the thermobarometry of metamorphic rocks and mantle xenoliths, respectively. The construction of quantitative petrogenetic grids to display stability relations of minerals in multicomponent–multiphase systems came into play in the field of metamorphic petrology in the mid-1960s and early 1970s. Augmented by experimental data, these petrogenetic grids led to important discoveries about the P-T-f(O2) and bulk compositional controls on the stability of certain "index" minerals that are used to define metamorphic isograds and different types of regional metamorphism; one such grid also opened up a new field that came to be known as ultra-high temperature metamorphism. The construction of petrogenetic grids has now evolved to computer based calculations of complex equilibrium P-T phase diagrams, commonly referred to as "pseudosections", by minimisation of Gibbs free energy of a system with fixed bulk composition. I discuss these historical developments and modern advancements. Subsequently I highlight some aspects of thermobarometry and diffusion kinetic modelling of selected natural samples along with their broader implications and present a critical discussion of different protocols for thermobarometry of natural assemblages. Following up on the introductory historical perspective of development of palaeothermometry, I discuss the modern advancements using density functional theory (DFT). Examples of DFT based calculations have been shown for hydrogen isotope fractionation in mineral-water/hydrogen systems and "clumped isotope" thermometry. The hydrogen isotope fractionation data led the development of new low temperature palaeothermometers using serpentine-talc/brucite mineral pairs. These results enable simultaneous solutions of both temperature and source of fluid in the serpentinisation process of rocks. The final section is devoted to high temperature thermochronology dealing with the problems of closure temperature of decay systems in minerals and the use of bulk and spatial resetting of mineral age according to a specific decay system to determine cooling rates of the host rocks. Complications arise in the interpretation of mineral ages determined by such decay systems as 176Lu-176Hf or the short- lived system 53Mn-53Cr in which the parent nuclide has a much lower closure temperature than the corresponding daughter product. Numerical simulations help explain the discrepancy between the 176Lu-176Hf and 147Sm-143Nd ages of garnets in metamorphic rocks and enable construction of the entire T-t cycle from the discrepant ages and some additional constraints.


This article argues that the author of 1 Peter uses the expression not as a reference to the word of God as is suggested by many modern scholars (Achtemeier; Boring), but rather to the whole doctrine of Christ resulting in a new way of life (Jobes). The article consists of an overview of First Peter, its authorship and audience and the characteristics of the letter. It discusses the texts of both 1 Peter 2:1-3 and its influence by LXX Psalm 33.


Solute transport in natural formations at the regional scale is influenced by several scales of heterogeneity which correspond to the presence of several geological units called facies. As customarily assumed in stochastic theories, inside the facies the transport can be characterized by a single scale of heterogeneity. At the regional scale several geological units are present such that a hierarchy of relevant scales needs to be defined. A possible model for this spatial variability assumes the log conductivity as a random space function of stationary increments characterized by a power law semivariogram. With this hypothesis the ergodic dispersion coefficient grows unbounded as time increases, leading to the phenomenon called anomalous dispersion. An alternative approach considers the plume in nonergodic conditions and assumes the effective dispersion coefficient, which is defined through differentiation in time of the expected value of the spatial second-order plume moment, as representative of macrodispersion. Large differences have been observed in the resulting plume spreading while approaching the problem using the above alternative definitions. In this paper we provide first-order analytical solutions for the longitudinal effective dispersion coefficient, D(L), as well as for the expected value of the longitudinal spatial plume moment, , that complement semianalytical expressions recently proposed in literature. Furthermore, we provide a semianalytical expression for the standard deviation of the longitudinal second-order moment which is important in assessing the interval of confidence of the estimation provided by . Suitable numerical simulations are performed to validate analytical and semianalytical expressions as well as to assess the impact of the cutoff in the log conductivity power spectrum imposed by choosing a finite domain dimension. We conclude that according to recently published results, the dispersion is anomalous when the Hurst coefficients, H, is larger than 0.5 while it is Fickian for H < 0.5. This is in contrast with the ergodic analysis which concludes that the dispersion is anomalous irrespective of the Hurst coefficient. Hence the effective dispersion coefficient is more effective than the ergodic dispersion coefficient to represent the plume spreading. However, the standard deviation of the longitudinal spatial second-order moment is of the same order of magnitude as the expected value leading to the conclusion that the estimations provided by D(L) and are affected by large uncertainties. Numerical results are in good agreement with the analytical solutions, and under some hypotheses they are not influenced by the cutoff. This is not the case for the ergodic second-order longitudinal moment, which strongly depends on the imposed cutoff.


OBJECTIVE: The objective of this selective EBM review is to determine whether or not the use of varenicline for smoking-cessation therapy creates or increases depression in patients without existing depressive illness. STUDY DESIGN: Review of two randomized controlled trials published in 2011 and one observational cohort study published in 2009, all English language. DATA SOURCES: Two randomized, double-blind, controlled clinical trials comparing varenicline to placebo in smoking cessation, and one observational cohort study comparing varenicline use within subjects. All articles were found using PubMed and EBSCO. OUTCOMES MEASURED: Changes in depression was evaluated using the MontgomeryAsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS), and adverse events were recorded and classified into depression-related according to the Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities version 12 and, in the observational cohort study, the British Drug Safety Research Unit standards. RESULTS: Bollinger et al. and Garza et al. demonstrated a present but nonsignificant increase in depressive adverse events associated with varenicline use. Garza et al. reported a similarly small and nonsignificant worsening in MADRS score in the varenicline arm. Kasliwal et al. reported a nonsignificant change in depressive adverse events. CONCLUSIONS: Results of the three studies show that there is inconclusive evidence regarding a link between varenicline and new-onset depression in smoking cessation. None of the studies demonstrated any significant relationship between varenicline and depression or depressive adverse events, but limitations in study design prevent the results from convincingly addressing such a relationship. The results encourage further studies designed both to assess varenicline's relationship with depression and to account for the varenicline's higher quit rate as a possible source of depressive changes. KEY WORDS: varenicline, depression, randomized, adverse Brown, Varenicline and Depression, 1


Studies were conducted on spring cantaloupes from 2004-2006 to evaluate two adult and nymph based thresholds used for timing the application of Oberon (spiromesifen) and Courier (buprofezin) in spring melons for controlling whiteflies. The results of these studies demonstrate that these selective insecticides offer melon growers effective foliar management alternatives for controlling whiteflies. Both Oberon and Courier provided economic control of whitefly nymphs and significantly prevented sooty mold contamination when applied after populations exceeded either an adult threshold of 2 adults per leaf or an immature threshold or 0.5 large nymph per 2 cm leaf disc. Applied at these thresholds, both compounds provided consistent residual suppression of whitefly immature population growth for 21-28 days under spring growing conditions.


During the ten years from 1947 to 1956, typhoons with a maximum velocity of more than 34 knots have attacked Japan at an average of 26.8 times a year, inflicting damages amounting to 240 thousand million yen on the average each year (1946-1955) . However, depending on the course and scale of the typhoon and the season of the year, except for damages to vessels, in some cases, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages as the abundant ram fall resulting from a typhoon is beneficial to agriculture and hydraulic power generation widely developed throughout the country. In the past, damages from typhoons consisted of storm and flood disasters with the flooding of inland waterways and landslides in mountainous districts due to heavy precipitation. However, lately, with the rapid progress of modern industries, cities with ports and harbors are expanding with the development of large industrial zones along coastal areas where raw materials can be obtained from foreign countries at low cost of transportation, and vast areas of land for the establishment of industrial plants can be acquired without encountering serious obstacles through land reclamation along the shores. These circumstances have called for the necessity of protecting the coastal areas from the direct attack of high tides and wind waves generated by typhoon.


Abstract Purpose: This paper seeks to document the progression of disability in a developing country and to examine gender differences in this process. Methods: The data come from the Mexican Health and Aging Study (MHAS), a nationally representative sample of older adults. An ordinal logistic regression (n = 3283) is used to measure the progression of disability that considers: (1) no disability, (2) mobility problems, (3) mobility problems with IADLs limitations, (4) mobility problems with ADLs limitations, (5) combinations of the latter three and (6) death. Results: Approximately 43% of the sample remained in the same level of disability after 2 years. The patterns of progression with two disabilities differ for men and women. Conclusions: Our model reflects the importance of separating ADLs and IADLs in the study of disability progression in Mexico. Varying risk profiles and cultural differences might influence the divergent disability paths followed by each gender. Implications for Rehabilitation The disablement process involving transitions from mobility impairments to IADL and ADL limitations seen in developed countries differs for older adults in Mexico. Cultural differences may influence the progression from non-disabled to becoming disabled in different ways for females in developing countries like Mexico. One-fifth of individuals showed greater function and independence over time, suggesting that the disablement process is reversible. This finding highlights the need to focus on improving mobility, ADL, and IADL skills to facilitate successful aging. Although disability is often conceptualised as a combination of ADL and IADL limitations, gender differences seen in Mexico indicate the need to separate ADL and IADL when developing approaches to prevent or ameliorate disability.


Inertial wearable sensors constitute a booming industry. They are self contained, low powered and highly miniaturized. They allow for remote or self monitoring of healthrelated parameters. When used to obtain 3-D position, velocity and orientation information, research has shown that it is possible to draw conclusion about issues such as fall risk, Parkinson disease and gait assessment. A key issues in extracting information from accelerometers and gyroscopes is the fusion of their noisy data to allow accurate assessment of the disease. This, so far, is an unsolved problem. Typically, a Kalman filter or its nonlinear, non-Gaussian version are implemented for estimating attitude – which in turn is critical for position estimation. However, sampling rates and large state vectors required make them unacceptable for the limited-capacity batteries of low-cost wearable sensors. The low-computation cost complementary filter has recently been re-emerging as the algorithm for attitude estimation. We employ it with a heuristic drift elimination method that is shown to remove, almost entirely, the drift caused by the gyroscope and hence generate a fairly accurate attitude and drift-eliminated position estimate. Inertial sensor data is obtained from the 10-axis SP-10C sensor, attached to a wearable insole that is inserted in the shoe. Data is obtained from walking in a structured indoor environment in Votey Hall. Keywordsenhanced heuristic drift elimination, indoor pedestrian tracking, zerovelocity update, explicit complementary filter


Judder may fall under the headings of cold or hot judder but by far the most
complex to understand is hot judder. This may result from rotor deformation or an effect
referred to as "hot spotting". It is clear that to minimise the occurrence of thermal judder it is
necessary to avoid excessive heating of the rotor and at the same time avoid significant
variation in temperature across the rotor. To this end the designer must ensure uniform heat
dissipation from the rotor.

In high performance braking applications vented discs are normally used as these provide a
greater cooling surface. These discs increase cooling efficiency by employing braking
surfaces (blades) separated by a number of "ribs" or "vanes" which allow air to pass between
the two blades. To increase cooling efficiency some vented discs use pins to separate the
braking surfaces as this arrangement increases the available area to dissipate the heat. The
cooling efficiency of the brake discs depends on two parameters; the mass flow rate of air
through the disc and the effective heat transfer coefficient on the surface of the disc blades
and vent vanes/pins. "Pin" type vented discs have been found to be good at increasing heat
transfer coefficient but mass flow rates through such discs are generally smaller when
compared to vane type discs.

This paper attempts to define a plausible way of controlling the shape of the columns within a
pin vented disc with a view to finding an optimised configuration for a disc consisting of three
rows of 36 "pins" positioned so that their centre lines are separated by ten degrees, with the
central row of pins offset by five degrees to the outer and inner rows. The optimisation of this
"pin" arrangement attempts to increase the average heat transfer coefficient and the wetted
area in order to enhance the aero-thermal characteristics of the disc to increase heat
dissipation from the rotor in a uniform manner and hence decrease the discs tendency to
judder.

The results presented within clearly show the advantages of increasing the pumping efficiency
of the brake rotor; this is demonstrated by the "high mass flow rate" design. It has also been
shown that increasing the width of the second an third rows of pins produces a decrease in the
flow rate through the disc whereas the first row has an optimal width that creates a venturi at
the inlet which aids inlet velocities. A reasonable correlation has been demonstrated between
the results from the computational fluid dynamic analysis and those gained from empirical
formulas as well as previous computational studies.


How do trees make sweet edible sap in spring? At the end of winter, sap of temperate broadleaf eudicot trees provides energy-rich sugars for animals and peoples of North America. Here, I conduct a multi-disciplinary synthesis to elucidate a theory of sap production and movement at a 'whole tree' level. I begin by contrasting settler knowledge to Indigenous knowledge of maples, and describe how "two-eyed seeing" may be used to address settler appropriation of maples and begin to decolonize maple provisions. Second, with a synthesis of scientific literature I show that sugars are not just byproducts of sap movement, but are signaling molecules that reveal a blurred functional distinction between xylem and phloem. I propose numerous predictions from my theory of sap movement. Finally, when testing whether spring xylem sap sugar concentration correlates with number of cells in the width of xylem rays I found significant positive correlation.


Thermal analysis using finite element modeling (FEM) is widely used in automotive industry nowadays. FEM can give simulation results at design stage. However, as FEM is a kind of simulations, it normally suffers from deviations with experimental results. Therefore, experimental measurement is necessary. To measure the 3D temperature distribution on a car body, we normally use a number of temperature sensors and then record the temperature values according to the positions of the sensors. It can provide the temperature values at different positions. Using this information, we can obtain the 3D temperature distribution on a car body. However, this method is time consuming and inconvenient, as we have to place a number of sensors on a car body, measure its corresponding positions as well as process the measured temperature values. In contrast, we firstly take a sequence of 2D thermal infrared images of the car body to have 2D temperature distribution and then reconstruct the 3D temperature distribution from the 2D images using computer vision method. It provides a more convenient method to acquire 3D temperature distribution compared to using a number of temperature sensors. The experimental results show the feasibility of our method.


The article problematizes the trend in the sex films Kesong puti (White Cheese, 1997), Talong (Eggplant, 1999), Kangkong (Water Spinach, 2000), and Itlog (Egg, 2002) to derive their titles from agricultural produce and contextualize their narratives within the agricultural industry. Not to be dismissed as simple promotional lures to capture viewer's attention and simultaneously evade state censorship, this trend is read against the backdrop of the nation's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995. These films share the same response to trade globalization of the agricultural sector and small and medium enterprises (SMEs), tasked with the country's food security and sufficiency. The response is a nostalgia for the feudal economic setup, which has long plagued the nation's history. With globalization ushering in a new economic order no longer to be determined by patronage but by competition, the old feudal system hastens to arrive at a compromise with those it previously marginalized by trying to resolve past social class conflicts through sex and legitimation bestowed by the Church. Sex becomes the form of compromise with the feminization of globalized labor for the Filipino with the deployment of sex workers, caregivers, entertainers, nurses, and household helpers from the country. The patriarch, now emasculated, tries to impede further erosion of his hold on the social system by conceding to share power with previously marginalized sectors, the lower class and woman workers, who somehow find themselves more mobile in the global economic system.


A drawback of structured prediction methods is that parameter estimation requires repeated inference, which is intractable for general structures. In this paper, we present an approximate training algorithm called piecewise training (PW) that divides the factors into tractable subgraphs, which we call pieces , that are trained independently. Piecewise training can be interpreted as approximating the exact likelihood using belief propagation, and different ways of making this interpretation yield different insights into the method. We also present an extension to piecewise training, called piecewise pseudolikelihood (PWPL) , designed for when variables have large cardinality. On several real-world natural language processing tasks, piecewise training performs superior to Besag's pseudolikelihood and sometimes comparably to exact maximum likelihood. In addition, PWPL performs similarly to PW and superior to standard pseudolikelihood, but is five to ten times more computationally efficient than batch maximum likelihood training.


Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) has in recent times become an important public health issue owing to the considerable health care resources utilized in its management, its deleterious effect on quality of life and the increasing prevalence of a relatively rare complication of reflux disease – esophageal adenocarcinoma. We review here the major current challenges in the field of reflux disease and its complications, and provide some approaches that may be useful in management. The issues to be faced include the very limited comprehension of the reasons behind the increasing prevalence of the disease, difficulties in correlating symptoms with objective data of pathological gastroesophageal reflux and the relatively unsophisticated tools we are employing to investigate the underlying pathophysiology. It is certain that the lack of well-defined and characterized methodologies to compare the effects of therapy require the development of more effective questionnaire-type analytic tools. In regard to treatment, there is little doubt that the widely prescribed proton pump inhibitors have dose-equivalent efficacy and are the most highly effective agents capable of suppressing acid, controlling many of the symptoms of GERD and healing erosions. Nevertheless, many patients continue to experience symptoms on withdrawal or at night. Pharmacological agents that can effectively increase lower esophageal sphincter pressure or promote motility are as yet unavailable. Although the introduction of laparoscopic techniques has resulted in a modest revival in surgical intervention using a variety of 'wrap-type' operations, the indications are few and the procedure is associated with a significant morbidity and even mortality especially if the expertise of the surgeon is an issue. Endoscopic techniques of regulating reflux are at this time experimental and not applicable to the general population. Intestinal metaplasia in the lower esophagus is probably very common. Whether and how to, first, screen for, and then, perform surveillance in Barrett's esophagus remains highly problematic and contentious.


An instrumented creep testing capability is being developed for specimens irradiated in pressurized water reactor coolant conditions at the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR). A test rig has been developed such that samples will be subjected to stresses up to 350 MPa at temperatures up to 370°C in pile. Initial Idaho National Laboratory (INL) efforts to develop this creep testing capability for the ATR are summarized. In addition to providing an overview of in-pile creep test capabilities available at other test reactors, this paper reports efforts by the INL to evaluate a prototype test rig in an autoclave at INL's High Temperature Test Laboratory. Data from autoclave tests with Type 304 stainless steel and copper specimens are reported.


A groundbreaking title in the field of higher education writing, uncovering norms and conventions across the whole spectrum of tertiary education written work. Why do university students write? What are they expected to write? To what extent do academics understand the process of setting a writing assignment, and – significantly – how proficient are they in creating appropriate prompts to elicit the kind of writing they expect? On first reading, none of these questions seem that demanding, nor might you expect them to have interesting answers. Nevertheless, it is precisely with such issues that Genres across the Disciplines concerns itself.


Concentrating Photovoltaic Thermal (C-PVT) solar collectors produce both thermal and electric power from the same area while concentrating sunlight. This paper studies a C-PVT design where strings of series-connected solar cells are encapsulated with silicone in an aluminium receiver, inside of which the heat transfer fluid flows, and presents an evaluation on structural integrity and performance, after reaching stagnation temperatures. Eight test receivers were made, in which the following properties were varied: Size of the PV cells, type of silicone used to encapsulate the cells, existence of a strain relief between the cells, size of the gap between cells, and type of cell soldering (line or point). The test receivers were placed eight times in an oven for one hour at eight different monitored temperatures. The temperature of the last round was set at 220 °C, which exceeds the highest temperature the panel design reaches. Before and after each round in the oven, the following tests were conducted to the receivers: Electroluminescence (EL) test, IV-curve tracing, diode function, and visual inspection. The test results showed that the receivers made with the transparent silicone and strain relief between cells experienced less microcracks and lower power degradation. No prototype test receiver lost more than 30% of its initial power, despite some receivers displaying a large number of cell cracks. The transparent and more elastic silicone is better at protecting the solar cells from the mechanical stress of thermal expansion than the compared silicone alternative, which was stiffer. As expected, larger cells are more prone to develop microcracks after exposure to thermal stress. Additionally, existing microcracks tend to grow in size relatively fast under thermal stress. EL imaging taken during our experiment leads us to conclude that it is far more likely for existing cracks to expand than for new cracks to appear.


Abstract We study the source mechanism and depth of the recent moderate earthquake, which occurred on 1 May 2013 in the Kashmir seismic gap. The epicenter of the earthquake lies southeast of the Kashmir valley and close to the meisoseismal zone of the 1555 Kashmir earthquake (magnitude ∼7.6). This event provides an excellent opportunity in which to study the seismotectonics of the Kashmir Himalaya using global digital seismic data. We modeled the source parameters of the earthquake by least‐squares fitting of the teleseismic P ‐ and SH ‐waveform data. The minimum‐misfit solution reveals that the earthquake occurred on an oblique thrust fault with strike, dip, and rake of 346°, 26°, and 121°, respectively, and originated at a depth of 16±3  km. The strike of the fault plane matches that of the mapped Himalayan thrust faults in the region, and its depth puts it within the Himalayan wedge, close to the basal decollement (main Himalayan thrust [MHT]). However, the dip of the causal fault plane is larger than the inferred dip of the MHT and therefore requires the earthquake to have occurred on a ramp or a splay thrust. The most likely candidate is the main boundary thrust the downdip end of which matches with the geometry of the fault plane and coincides with the observed hypocentral distribution of small‐to‐moderate earthquakes in the region. We synthesize our findings with geodetic measurements from the Kashmir Himalaya to show that the hypocentral zone of this event marks a region of strain accumulation beneath the Kashmir seismic gap. This region could possibly be the point of initiation of a future great earthquake. We conclude by highlighting the outstanding questions in assessing seismic hazards in this region and designing a broadband seismological field experiment that is currently being undertaken to address these important issues.


In this paper I argue that the transitional controls placed upon access to the UK labour market for Romanian and Bulgarian nationals from 2007 to 2014 should be understood not only as a form of everyday bordering (Yuval-Davis et al, 2017), but also as leading migrants into a 'punitive trap'. I argue that such punitive labour market controls form part of a wider regime of using labour as a site of inclusion and exclusion, in which some (e.g. prisoners, the unemployed) may find themselves forced to labour in order to 'reintegrate' them into social norms, which deem productive labour to be part of wider citizenship duties, whilst others (e.g. asylum seekers and other migrants) are denied the right to labour completely or to labour on an equal footing with citizens and other migrants. Here I explore specifically how this use of labour as a site of exclusion was negotiated and understood by Romanian migrant workers in South London with whom I carried out ethnographic research from 2009 to 2013. I suggest that the 'punitive trap' arose from their exclusion from the labour market as they were forced into bogus self-employment and became dependent on employment agency owners to access paid work. Being bogusly self-employed and unfamiliar with local regulations, they found it difficult to avoid other potential punishments and fines from UK authorities for minor infringements such as failing to submit tax returns. However, the 'hyperprecarity' (Lewis et al, 2015) of their position meant that they were not only open to further potential state-sponsored punishment, but were punished by a range of other actors. Agency owners, landlords and those offering support services, such as so-called 'accountants' and 'lawyers', would often also informally punish certain migrants for not complying to their demands to work long hours or pay excessive costs by withdrawing access to employment, accommodation and the other help and support they needed. In this way, many Romanian migrant workers found themselves trapped in low-paid (and even unpaid), precarious employment and poor living conditions, which they were unable to escape because of the multi-scalar and multi-agentic punishments to which they could potentially be subjected.


Various types of gambling tasks have been used for investigating the gambling behavior. However, those tasks can measure only few sides of gambling behavior per one task. In this study, the authors developed a new gambling task, the Game of Dice Task-Revision(GDT-R) that modified the Game of Dice Task(GDT; Brand et al., 2005). The GDT-R can measure the risk of gambling, bet, speed, and the time of an end. And we conducted two experiments with healthy undergraduates to confirm the validity of the GDT-R. In Experiment 1, participants(N = 60) performed the GDT-R, Iowa Gambling Task(IGT; Bechara et al., 1994), and the actual Roulette. We compared the behaviors of each task. Results indicated that participants behaves similarly among the GDT-R and Roulette. And there were no significant correlation among the GDT-R and IGT. So it seems that the GDT-R is the task that resembles the reality scene. In Experiment 2, participants(N = 30)performed the GDT-R, and we assessed their emotional states and perceived luck before the first trial and after every trial. Results indicated that after participants experienced wins, compared to losses, their emotional state became more positive and aroused, and their perceived luck increased. These findings are consistent with the results of the previous studies using the GDT. The utility of the GDT-R is explored.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the efficacy of noninvasive ventilation on in-hospital mortality in adult patients with acute cardiogenic pulmonary edema (ACPE) .

METHODS
We searched PubMed, Embase, Wanfang, CNKI data to find relevant randomized controlled trials of noninvasive ventilation for ACPE, which were reported from January 1980 to December 2012. Meta-analysis was performed with software of RevMan 5.1.

RESULTS
According to inclusive criteria and exclusion criteria, 35 randomized controlled trials with 3 204 patients were enrolled for analyses. Meta-analysis of the trials showed that continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) reduced in-hospital mortality by 43% (RR = 0.57, 95%CI 0.43-0.75, P < 0.01) and bilevel positive pressure ventilation (BiPAP) reduced mortality by 31% (RR = 0.69, 95%CI 0.51-0.94, P = 0.02) compared with standard therapy. There were no significant differences in in-hospital mortality between BiPAP and CPAP (RR = 1.09, 95%CI 0.80-1.49, P = 0.57) and myocardial infarction rate (BiPAP vs. CPAP: RR = 1.20, 95%CI 0.95-1.52, P = 0.12; BiPAP vs. standard therapy: RR = 1.10, 95%CI 0.88-1.38, P = 0.40).

CONCLUSION
Noninvasive ventilation (BiPAP and CPAP) could reduce in-hospital mortality of adult patients with ACPE, which could be used as first-line management strategies for these patients.


Participation rates in most means-tested welfare programs in the United States are low. Many low-income individuals refrain from using welfare benefits available for them, although their value of such benefits is presumably high. This Article studies the causes of forgone welfare benefits (unwelcome benefits) and the disparities in participation propensity among eligible individuals. It is shown that avoidable and unavoidable costs, states' distorted incentives, and social norms are the major sources of impediments to benefits and that most of these impediments are embedded in or result from certain legal mechanisms of the welfare system. The analysis and empirical evidence indicate that common impediments to benefits disproportionately burden the most and the least disadvantaged eligible individuals. These polarized participation patterns entail important policy implications, since the conditions of the polar groups and size of benefits forgone by them are fundamentally different. The case of the more disadvantaged individuals who forgo relatively large benefits is troubling. In contrast, the case of nearly ineligible individuals who forgo meager benefits poses the question of why such unattractive benefits are offered in the first place. The differences between the polar groups thus suggest that it is more instructive to identify and evaluate specific participation patterns, rather than to study general participation rates as performance indicators of welfare programs. Finally, the Article draws several conclusions regarding benefit levels, benefit framing, work requirements, time limits, and available means that could attain redistributive improvements.


Site-1 protease (S1P) is a subtilisin-related protease that cleaves sterol regulatory element-binding proteins (SREBPs) in the endoplasmic reticulum lumen, thereby initiating a process by which the transcriptionally active NH2-terminal fragments of SREBPs are released from membranes. In the current experiments, we transfected cDNAs encoding epitope-tagged hamster S1P into HEK-293 cells or mutant hamster cells that lack S1P. Protease protection assays showed that the bulk of S1P is in the endoplasmic reticulum lumen, anchored by a COOH-terminal membrane-spanning segment. Cleavage of the NH2-terminal signal sequence of S1P generates S1P-A (amino acids 23–1052), which is inactive. The protein is self-activated by an intramolecular cleavage at Site-B, generating S1P-B (amino acids 138–1052) and liberating a 115-amino acid propeptide that is secreted intact into the medium. The sequence at Site-B is RSLK, which differs from the RSVL sequence at the cleavage site in SREBP-2. S1P-B is further cleaved at an internal RRLL sequence to yield S1P-C (amino acids 187–1052). Mutational analysis suggests that S1P-B and S1P-C are both active in cleaving SREBP-2 in a fashion that requires SREBP cleavage-activating protein. The activity of S1P-C may be short-lived because it appears to be transported to the Golgi, a site at which SREBP-2 cleavage may not normally occur. These data provide the initial description of the processing of a subtilisin-related protease that controls the level of cholesterol in blood and cells. In an accompanying paper (Cheng, D., Espenshade, P. J., Slaughter, C. A., Jaen, J. C., Brown, M. S., and Goldstein, J. L. (1999), J. Biol. Chem., 274, 22805–22812), we develop an in vitro assay to characterize the activity of purified recombinant S1P.


We report an all-in-one platform – ScanDrop – for the rapid and specific capture, detection, and identification of bacteria in drinking water. The ScanDrop platform integrates droplet microfluidics, a portable imaging system, and cloud-based control software and data storage. The cloud-based control software and data storage enables robotic image acquisition, remote image processing, and rapid data sharing. These features form a "cloud" network for water quality monitoring. We have demonstrated the capability of ScanDrop to perform water quality monitoring via the detection of an indicator coliform bacterium, Escherichia coli, in drinking water contaminated with feces. Magnetic beads conjugated with antibodies to E. coli antigen were used to selectively capture and isolate specific bacteria from water samples. The bead-captured bacteria were co-encapsulated in pico-liter droplets with fluorescently-labeled anti-E. coli antibodies, and imaged with an automated custom designed fluorescence microscope. The entire water quality diagnostic process required 8 hours from sample collection to online-accessible results compared with 2–4 days for other currently available standard detection methods.


Background : Allergic diseases like atopic dermatitis have recently increased. A naturally occurring glycoside, Esculeoside B, has been identified as a major component in tomato juice from the can. Accordingly, the present study investigated the effects of esculeoside B on experimental dermatitis mice. Results : Oral treatment with 10 mg/kg of esculeoside B on the experimental dermatitis mice for 4 weeks significantly decreased the skin clinical score of 2.0 compared to the control score of 5.0. Furthermore, the scratch frequency of mice treated with esculeoside B was lower compared to the control group. Overall, the administration of esculeoside B significantly inhibited T lymphocyte proliferation and demonstrated a tendency to decrease in IL-4 production. For example, the 121.2 pg/ml in the control group decreased to 96.1 pg/ml. There was also a decrease in serum IgE levels from 928.0 ng/ml in the control group to 687.8 ng/ml. Conclusion : Our study is the first to demonstrate how tomato juice saponin or esculeoside B may ameliorate mice experimental dermatitis by the inhibition of T cell proliferation. Keywords : tomato juice; experimental atopic dermatitis; IgE; cytokine; tomato saponin; esculeoside B


Abstract This paper offers an account of how to engage one phenomenologically orientated version of relational research based on ideas from existential phenomenological philosophy as well as Gestalt theory, relational psychoanalysis, intersubjectivity theory and feminist methodology. Relational dynamics (both conscious and unconscious) between researcher and co-researcher are explored reflexively using illustrations from various phenomenological projects in which the author has been involved. The relational approach to phenomenology described involves attending to four interlinked dimensions: open presence, embodied intersubjectivity, dialogic co-creation and entangled selves. The paper aims to show the importance of retaining an open, empathic, embodied presence to another's personhood while acknowledging the power of dialogue to bring to life new realities. Data is seen to emerge out of the researcher/co-researcher relationship and is mutually cocreated in this encounter as each touches and impacts on the other. What we can learn and know about another arises within the intersubjective space between. In this zone of ambiguity and uncertainty, the unforeseen hovers and layered meanings invite discovery.


Data clustering represents an important tool in exploratory data analysis. The lack of objective criteria render model selection as well as the identification of robust solutions particularly difficult. The use of a stability assessment and the combination of multiple clustering solutions represents an important ingredient to achieve the goal of finding useful partitions. In this work, we propose a novel way of combining multiple clustering solutions for both, hard and soft partitions: the approach is based on modeling the probability that two objects are grouped together. An efficient EM optimization strategy is employed in order to estimate the model parameters. Our proposal can also be extended in order to emphasize the signal more strongly by weighting individual base clustering solutions according to their consistency with the prediction for previously unseen objects. In addition to that, the probabilistic model supports an out-of-sample extension that (i) makes it possible to assign previously unseen objects to classes of the combined solution and (ii) renders the efficient aggregation of solutions possible. In this work, we also shed some light on the usefulness of such combination approaches. In the experimental result section, we demonstrate the competitive performance of our proposal in comparison with other recently proposed methods for combining multiple classifications of a finite data set.


The documentation and assessment of the current state of language in socially and culturally contextual use remains one of the continuing challenges of the development of effective conservation strategies (Gippert, Himmelmann and Mosel 2006). Thoroughly sophisticated and capacious documentation of grammatical structure and lexical domains may nevertheless be inadequate to documenting and evaluating necessary dimensions of language in sociocultural practice for conservation or revitalization purposes. In conversation with recent works that seek to bridge some of the gaps between documentation and revitalization efforts elsewhere in French Polynesia (Cablitz, Ringersma, Kemps-Snijders 2007; Zinn, Cablitz, Ringersma, Kemps-Snijders, and Wittenburg 2008; Cablitz and Chong 2009a, 2009b), we investigate a series of poetic traditions in French Polynesia's Gambier Islands. Specifically we examine and critically reevaluate the current status of Mangarevan, an understudied Eastern Polynesian language, in the Mangarevan community in both home islands and in diaspora in the Society Islands. We suggest, on one hand, that documenting four distinct poetic genres in Mangarevan offers an interesting tool for assessing the state of this language and characterizing aspects of language change and shift over the last decades and century. We document the erosion and eventual loss over the 20th century of two genres, significant endangerment for another genre, and the perhaps surprising resilience of a forth genre. On the other hand, we suggest that adequately documenting and engaging with poetic genres can be (re)evaluated for use as an significant tool for developing effective strategies to scaffold linguistic endurance and revitalization efforts (Lewis and Simmons 2010; Dwyer 2011). Indeed, our work with speakers of this language over the last decade, across several generations, including one of the authors' insights as an indigenous speaker, suggests that meaningful scaffolds for future maintenance and revitalization efforts may be identified in the community's experience of the loss and endurance of the various traditional poetry genres. Situated at the intersection of concerns with historically and socioculturally sensitive language documentation and revitalization efforts, we argue that identifying some of the poetic dimensions of language shift and loss in Mangarevan affords a more nuanced metric for assessing the current state of the language, and critical features of the community's experience of language change including anxieties about the past and present and hopes for the future.
 REFERENCES: Cablitz, G., and F. Chong. 2009a. The Documentation of Endangered Linguistic, Lexical and Cultural Knowledge of the Marquesan and Tuamotuan Languages of French Polynesia. 11eme Inter-congres des Sciences du Pacifique Joint aux 2nd Assises de la recherche francaise dans le Pacifique, 2-6 mars, TAHITI, Polynesie Francaise.
 Cablitz, G., and F. Chong. 2009b. Empowerment and Capacity Building in Endangered Speech Communities : an Example from French Polynesia. 11eme Inter-congres des Sciences du Pacifique Joint aux 2nd Assises de la recherche francaise dans le Pacifique, 2-6 mars, TAHITI, Polynesie Francaise.
 Cablitz, G., J. Ringersma, and M. Kemps-Snijders, M., 2007. Visualizing endangered indigenous languages of French Polynesia with LEXUS. In Proc. of the 11th Int'l Conf. on Information Visualization. IEEE Computer Society.
 Dwyer, Arienne M. 2011. Tools and techniques for endangered-language assessment and revitalization. In Vitality and Viability of Minority Languages. October 23-24, 2009. New York: Trace Foundation Lecture Series Proceedings. Preprint. Online: http://www.trace.org/events/events_lecture_proceedings.html.
 Gippert, J., N.P. Himmelmann, and U. Mosel (eds.), 2006. Essentials of language documentation. Mouton de Gruyter. Berlin.
 Lewis, M.P. and G. Simons. 2010. Assessing Endangerment: Expanding Fishman's GIDS. Revue Roumaine de Linguistique/Romanian Review of Linguistics, v. 2.
 Zinn, C., G. Cablitz, J. Ringersma, M. Kemps-Snijders and P. Wittenburg. 2008. Constructing Knowledge Spaces from Linguistic Resources. Paper presented at CIL 18, Workshop 12 on Linguistic Studies of Ontology: From Lexical Semantics to Formal Ontologies and Back, July 21-26, 2008, Seoul, Republic of Korea.


Combining excellent thermoelectric and mechanical properties, half-Heusler (HH) materials have been considered as one of the most promising candidates for thermoelectric applications in the high-temperature range. In this work, we apply the self-propagation high-temperature synthesis (SHS), a facile and scalable method, to HH thermoelectric materials. Comparing three families of HH materials, we show that MNiSn and MCoSb (M: Ti, Zr, Hf) can be successfully obtained by the SHS, but RFeSb (R: Nb, V) cannot. Our first-principles calculation suggests that the failure of SHS for RFeSb is because the formation enthalpy of these compounds is too low to overcome the reaction barrier. Our experiment also reveals a two-step reaction mechanism for the SHS of ternary HH compounds, i.e., two elements of lower melting points react first to form binary intermediate products and then the binaries react with the element of the highest melting point, where the second step contributes most of the heat released in the SHS, which is supported by our first-principles calculation. Finally, we optimize the HH materials through doping and show that the thermoelectric properties of SHS-synthesized HH compounds are comparable or even superior to those synthesized by laboratory-scale methods.


The ancestral sequence reconstruction problem asks to predict the DNA or protein sequence of an ancestral species, given the sequences of extant species. Such reconstructions are fundamental to comparative genomics, as they provide information about extant genomes and the process of evolution that gave rise to them. Arguably the best method for ancestral reconstruction is maximum likelihood estimation. Many effective algorithms for accurately computing the most likely ancestral sequence have been proposed. We consider the less-studied problem of computing the expected reconstruction error of a maximum likelihood reconstruction, given the phylogenetic tree and model of evolution, but not the extant sequences. This situation can arise, for example, when deciding which genomes to sequence for a reconstruction project given a gene-tree phylogeny (The Taxon Selection Problem). In most applications, the reconstruction error is necessarily very small, making Monte Carlo simulations very inefficient for accurate estimation. We present the first practical algorithm for this problem and demonstrate how it can be used to quickly and accurately estimate the reconstruction accuracy. We then use our method as a kernel in a heuristic algorithm for the taxon selection problem. The implementation is available at http://www.mcb.mcgill.ca/ blanchem/mlerror.


Liquid crystal drops dispersed in a continuous phase of silicone oil are generated with a narrow distribution in droplet size in microfluidic devices both above and below the nematic‐to‐isotropic transition temperature. Our experiments show that the surface properties of the channels can be critical for droplet formation. We observe different dynamics in liquid crystal droplet generation and coalescence, and distinct droplet morphology on altering the microchannel surface energy. This is explained by the thermodynamic description of the wetting dynamics of the system. The effect of the nematic‐to‐isotropic transition on the formation of liquid crystal droplets is also observed and related to the capillary number. We also investigate how the nematic droplet size varies with the flow rate ratio and compare this behaviour with a Newtonian reference system. The effect of the defect structures of the nematic liquid crystal can lead to distinctly different scaling of droplet size in comparison with the Newtonian system. When the nematic liquid crystal phase is stretched into a thin filament before entering the orifice, different defect structures and numbers of defect lines can introduce scatter in the drop size. Capillary instabilities in thin nematic liquid crystal filament have an additional contribution from anisotropic effects such as surface gradients of bending stress, which can provide extra instability modes compared with that of isotropic fluids.


We consider the problem of labeling points on a fast-moving data stream when only a small number of labeled examples are available. In our setting, incoming points must be processed efficiently and the stream is too large to store in its entirety. We present a semi-supervised learning algorithm for this task. The algorithm maintains a small synopsis of the stream which can be quickly updated as new points arrive, and labels every incoming point by provably learning from the full history of the stream. Experiments on real datasets validate that the algorithm can quickly and accurately classify points on a stream with a small quantity of labeled examples.


The Grateful Dead, a North American rock band that stopped performing in 1995 after thirty years together, was as well known for its fans as it was for its music. Deadheads, as these fans are called, traveled from venue to venue to hear the band play, sometimes staying "on tour" with them for extended periods of time. Although there is still a large concentration of Deadheads in the San Francisco Bay area where the band originally performed, there are now Deadheads everywhere in the United States and in many foreign countries as well.


Dealing with the sensitive issue of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Britain's historical responsibility in laying ground for it, Peter Kosminsly's epic TV serial The Promise has created a heated and polarizing public debate since it was first aired on UK's Channel 4 in early 2011. Despite its flaws and biases, the drama is powerful in its portrayal of the multi-generational drama that is Israel-Palestine. This is an epic production that recounts the story of the conflict in two parallel narratives situated in two different eras: the first spans from 1945 to 1948; the second takes place in 2005. By nature, The Promise possesses incendiary qualities: Whereas Israeli officials saw it as "hostile" to Israel, some reviewers noted Kosminsky's portrayal of the Arab characters as the Oriental Other. Perhaps one of the main challenges that Kosminsky has set for his viewers and critics is his portrayal of several cross-national, cross-religious relationships. It is the merciless depiction of supposedly transgressive acts of reaching out to rivals that spells out Kosminsky's bleak stance on the current state of affairs and its history. Indeed, while attempts at forming romantic relationships are abundant in The Promise, expressions of true love and affection seem to be missing. Instead, romance is yet another tool in a system whose role is to monitor, control, and conquer; lovers are often sworn enemies; and relationships are motivated by political ambitions and emotions. This essay will explore Kosminsky's vision of Israel/Palestine both in the 1940s and today—one in which the concept of love is often marred by violence and undermined by a national cause, and the only attachment allowed is that of a man to his land.


The majority of 'Sport in Development' (SiD) research imparts a heteronormative framework that serves to prevent nuanced understandings of how sexuality and gender matter in programming that aspires to achieve development through/with sport. The authors review existing SiD academic literature and draw on personal work and research experiences within the SiD field to evidence this claim. Three reasons for this heteronormative frame are identified: (1) limited engagement with themes of sexuality within research on international development; (2) few examinations of queer desire and sport in areas of the Global South; and (3) the emphasis on quantitative monitoring and evaluation tools within SiD programming. The authors conclude by offering suggestions on how to challenge the existing heteronormative framework within SiD research.


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The objective of this study is to develop a conceptual model to analyze the role of rice paddy fields in water management and to use the model to suggest an appropriate countermeasure for land development. Rice paddy fields are traditionally seen in East and South-East Asia, particularly in areas that have a considerable seasonal variation in rainfall resulting in flooding and drought. One of the advantages of these fields in East Asia is that the period of rainfall is similar to the period of the water demand of the rice paddy. In this study, the water management functions of rice paddy are evaluated using rainfall–storage–discharge (RSD) modeling. The RSD system is a type of onsite structure used for rainwater management. In this study, the area of the rice paddy is assumed to be 10,000 m 2 , and the rice paddy is considered to perform the storage and catchment functions of a rainwater harvesting system. The RSD system can be used for analyzing the outflow rate according to the rice paddy area and the peak outflow curves for a 100-year period; further, the effectiveness of the RSD system in reducing the final water discharge rate through a rice paddy is evaluated.


The chapters in this volume canvass political change and development across the Pacific Islands from a variety of perspectives, each contributing to the analysis of a region growing in complexity and in confidence. They fall neatly into three sections: Oceania and its Inheritance; Oceania – Current Needs and Challenges; Oceania and its Wider Setting. The new states of the Pacific have demonstrated considerable resilience, and in many cases, an extraordinary capacity to bounce back from difficulty and to maintain optimism for the future. The continuing professionalisation of public management across the region is building on that tradition. The growth of civil society organisations is also beginning to play a positive role in policy and implementation. Donors are becoming more coherent in their strategies, more attuned to the realities of generating development outcomes in small island states, and are beginning to acknowledge and map progress. This book explores these themes of governance, development and security that signal both continuity and change in the Pacific's pattern of islands.


This study examined whether requiring undergraduate college nonmusic majors, enrolled in a music fundamentals course, to own a keyboard would enhance their keyboard skills. The course included instruction in reading notation, singing and keyboard skills. There were two groups. One group (experimental) owned keyboards and had them accessible at their homes for practice, while the other group (contact-control) had to check out keyboards for use in the music building. Students' keyboard skills were tested three times. There was no significant difference in keyboard performance data between groups. There was also no significant difference in overall student achievement, which included music reading, singing, rhythm accuracy and keyboard skills. While one might assume that students having ready access to their own keyboard at home would increase the likelihood of practice and therefore enhance their keyboard performance, as well as other music skills, that was not the case in this study.


The West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) is a currency union with a fixed exchange rate and limited capital mobility and, therefore, an independent monetary policy in the short run. The Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) is conducting the single monetary policy with the main goal of preserving price stability and supporting economic growth. However, the effectiveness of its monetary policy remains low, with a weak reaction of market interest rates and inflation to BCEAO's policy actions. The paper concludes that, while the institutional setup and the instruments of monetary policy are adequate, the transmission mechanism of monetary policy remains constrained by liquidity management practices, shallow and segmented financial markets, and interest rate rigidities. To improve the effectiveness of monetary policy the BCEAO should be more proactive in determining the stance of fiscal policies, develop financial markets, and liberalize controlled interest rates. The BCEAO is undertaking important reforms in these directions.


Abstract. Terrestrial laser scanning constitutes a powerful method in spatial information data acquisition and allows for geological outcrops to be captured with high resolution and accuracy. A crucial aspect for numerous geologic applications is the extraction of rock surface orientations from the data. This paper focuses on the detection of planes in rock surface data by applying a segmentation algorithm directly to a 3D point cloud. Its performance is assessed considering (1) reduced spatial resolution of data and (2) smoothing in the course of data pre-processing. The methodology is tested on simulations of progressively reduced spatial resolution defined by varying point cloud density. Smoothing of the point cloud data is implemented by modifying the neighborhood criteria during normals estima-tion. The considerable alteration of resulting planes emphasizes the influence of smoothing on the plane detection prior to the actual segmentation. Therefore, the parameter needs to be set in accordance with individual purposes and respective scales of studies. Fur-thermore, it is concluded that the quality of segmentation results does not decline even when the data volume is significantly reduced down to 10%. The azimuth and dip values of individual segments are determined for planes fit to the points belonging to one segment. Based on these results, azimuth and dip as well as strike character of the surface planes in the outcrop are assessed. Thereby, this paper contributes to a fully automatic and straightforward workflow for a comprehensive geometric description of outcrops in 3D.


Introduction: Communication is one of the basic and most important skills for health care providers. Using health literacy strategies in patient education as a communication tactics by nurse practitioners make the information understandable for patients and also the effectiveness of the education will increase dramatically. The aim of this study was to assess nurse practitioners knowledge and practice of health literacy strategies in patient education and the correlation between these two factors. Materials and Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was done in May and June 2014 on 148 nurse practitioners of Al-Zahra educational hospital, Isfahan and Iran. Data collected via researcher made standardized questionnaire consist of three parts respectively: Demographics, Knowledge about health literacy and its strategies, and health literacy strategies practice. Data analyzed by SPSS v.17 using descriptive-analytic statistics. Results: The mean score of knowledge was dramatically low 5.89±2.1 (from maximum available score of 14) and the mean score of nurses in health literacy strategies practice was 21.74±3.47. There was a positive relationship between total knowledge of respondents and their practice and also there was statistically significant correlation between basic facts about health literacy and standards for designing health materials subscales and practice. Discussion and Conclusion: According to the findings nurse practitioners have limited knowledge about health literacy strategies and don't have desirable use of health literacy strategies in practice. Considering that nurses who had better knowledge about health literacy had also better practice in using health literacy strategies in patient education and the key role of health literacy in high quality patient centered health care, it seems retrain courses for nurses with aim of empowering them in this field is necessary.


Several different types of bacteria were cultured from surface-sterilized Bemisia argentifolii Bellows, Perring, Gill and Hedrick 1994 (Homoptera: Aleyrodidae) adults and nymphs, including Bacillus spp., Gram-variable pleomorphic rods and Gram-positive cocci. Two of the isolates were capable of being ingested by adults and passed into the honeydew. One of these, Enterobacter cloacae, was found within the gut cells of adult whiteflies and was mildly pathogenic. This isolate represents the first bacterium with potential as a pathogen of whiteflies. Bacteria which were not capable of being ingested, may have been located in structures which were protected from surface sterilization, such as the lingula or the female reproductive tract.


Higher education learning and teaching has faced a significant challenge in 2020. The novel coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) has required institutions to engage in emergency response teaching and deliver distance, online, or socially distanced delivery in most jurisdictions globally. The literature to date has focused on understanding this from the perspective of the institutions and academics primarily. For example, institutional case studies and staff critical reflections. There has been literature published on student learning, student experience, and student wellbeing during COVID-19, but these are typically constructed through an academic lens (e.g. a student satisfaction survey). This research offers a coconstructed account developed adopting a students as partners philosophy. Our research team includes four students from two countries (Australia and Singapore) to independently reflect on their experience and collectively consolidate their learning journey through the pandemic, and be mentored and supported by two academics. Our findings indicate that students feel generally disconnected from their experience. Students felt their agency was important, self-awareness and accountability enabled this. Students also reflected that changes to their learning environment had made it more difficult to create social connections. They also include opportunities to change our teaching practice to be more supportive of our students' collective learning during COVID-19.


ObjectiveFind practical ways to sort through statistical noise in syndromic data and make use of alerts most likely to have public health importance.IntroductionThe National Syndromic Surveillance Program's (NSSP) instance of ESSENCE* in the BioSense Platform generates about 35,000 statistical alerts each week. Local ESSENCE instances can generate as many as 5,000 statistical alerts each week. While some states have well-coordinated processes for delegating data and statistical alerts to local public health jurisdictions for review, many do not have adequate resources. By design, statistical alerts should indicate potential clusters that warrant a syndromic surveillance practitioner's time and focus. However, practitioners frequently ignore statistical alerts altogether because of the overwhelming volume of data and alerts. In 2008, staff in the Virginia Department of Health experimented with rules that could be used to rank the statistical output generated in ESSENCE alert lists. Results were shared with Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab (JHU/APL), the developer of ESSENCE, and were early inputs into what is now known as "myAlerts," an ESSENCE function that syndromic surveillance practitioners can use to customize alerting and sort through statistical noise. NSSP–ESSENCE produces a shared alert list by syndrome, county, and age-group strata, which generates an unwieldy but rich data set that can be studied to learn more about the importance of these statistical alerts. Ultimately, guidance can be developed to help syndromic surveillance practitioners set up meaningful ESSENCE myAlerts effective in identifying clusters with public health importance.MethodsThe region/syndrome alert list generated from NSSP's instance of ESSENCE on the BioSense Platform was downloaded and ranked based on five criteria:1. Observed count causing the alert2. Expected count generated by ESSENCE3. Total number of alerts for that syndrome in that county and number of prior alerts during that week for the same syndrome, county, and age group4. Density of alerts during the prior week5. Recency of the latest alertAlerts were then ranked based on:1. Higher absolute counts (regardless of expected value)2. Higher partial chi-square, (Obs-Exp)2 / Exp3. Higher total alerts for a given county/syndrome4. Higher number of earlier alerts for same county/syndrome/age group5. Multiple alerts same day > alerts on consecutive days > alerts separated by days without alerts6. Alerts present on more recent daysThe top 20 alerts with the highest scores were then reviewed and if anything unusual was noticed (i.e. problems unrelated to recent data quality problems or onboardings, seasonal trends, etc.) then there was follow-up with the site. The alert list rankings were then evaluated for differences among factors available in the ESSENCE myAlert function. We compared the top 5% of ranked alerts to the remaining 95% to determine if there were significant differences in the following factors:1. Total number of alerts across six age groups (including all ages) within 8 days of each syndrome and county stratum;2. Average alert frequency across six age groups (including all ages) within 8 days for each stratum;3. Average count across the strata;4. Average expected value across the strata;5. Average of the difference between the count and expected values for each stratum; and6. Average Level across the strata.ResultsPreliminary interactions with sites revealed important clusters – some already known and some not. For example, a cluster of healthcare workers exposed to Neisseria meningitides, and kids exposed to a bat at summer camp and presenting for prophylaxis were among the clusters identified. Additionally there were differences seen in the adjustable myAlert parameters when comparing the top 5% to the lower 95% of ranked alerts.ConclusionsThe differences seen and preliminary feedback suggests that this ranking method may be effective in identifying alerts representing true clusters of public health importance. Testing designed to evaluate myAlert parameters based on the differences seen in the top 5% of ranked alerts is underway in sites where more detailed data access is available. More study is needed; however, there are indications that cutoff values for these parameters may be a valuable way for syndromic surveillance practitioners to reduce the review burden and focus on the most important statistical clusters identified by ESSENCE statistical algorithms.References*ESSENCE stands for the Electronic Surveillance System for the Early Notification of Community-based Epidemics and is designed by Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.


FORTY ACRES AND A MULE." JUDGE PAUL L. FRIEDMAN BEGAN HIS 1999 decision in Pigford v. Glickman, the successful class-action suit brought by African American farmers, with that familiar broken promise from the Civil War/Reconstruction era. The case concerned the sorry civil rights record of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and its denial of federal benefits to black farmers in the years after World War II and in particular the thirty-five years since the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The decline of black farmers alter World War II contrasted dismally with their gains in the half century after emancipation when, demonstrating tremendous energy and sagacity, they negotiated a maze of racist law and custom and--during the harshest years of segregation, peonage, and violence--gained land and standing in southern communities. By 1910 African Americans held title to some sixteen million acres of farmland; by 1920 there were 925,000 black farms in the country. In the teens and twenties, however, the graph of rising ownership faltered and then plunged downward. Depression, mechanization, and discriminatory federal programs devoured black farmers, but their fate was eclipsed by press coverage of school segregation, voting rights, and public accommodations. They almost disappeared without a trace. (1) Racism circulated through federal, state, and county USDA offices, and employees at every level bent civil rights laws and subverted government programs in order to punish black farmers. Judge Friedman admitted that the Pigford case would "not undo all that has been done" but insisted it was "a good first step." By 2000, of course, it was too late for hundreds of thousands of black farmers. When Judge Friedman handed down his decision only months before the end of the millennium, there were but eighteen thousand black farms left, and many of those were endangered. Underlying Friedman's decision was a disturbing contradiction: black farmers suffered their most debilitating discrimination during the civil rights era when laws supposedly protected them from racist policies. While white farmers also lost land, black farmers endured not only similar economic forces but also USDA racism. The increase in USDA programs had an inverse relationship to the number of farmers: the larger the department, the more programs it generated, and the more money it spent, the fewer farmers who survived. (2) For a century and a third, the U.S. Department of Agriculture presided over monumental changes in the U.S. countryside. Since its founding during the Civil War, the USDA has encouraged better farming methods, and over time its staff has swelled and its reach has extended to every crossroads and farm. Early in the twentieth century the Extension Service became a conduit for feeding farmers advice on the latest science and technology from experiment stations and corporations. Some farmers welcomed and utilized research findings, but others were skeptical of experts and outsiders. The USDA and its supporters denigrated farmers who did not accept the gospel of progress. Yet the substitution of science and technology for human experience and expertise deskilled farmers who relied increasingly upon formulaic methodology rather than husbandry. Knowledge handed down or gained by trial and error laded away. The human cost that accompanied the rise of agribusiness was eclipsed by the story of tractors and picking machines, insecticides and herbicides, and hybrids and genetically engineered crops. (3) The term agribusiness came into vogue during the World War II era and in its broadest context refers to the farms, firms, and lobbying groups that thrive on the production, processing, storing, shipping, and marketing of food and fiber. Agribusiness's counterpart in the public sector, agrigovernment, often worked from a similar agenda and included the USDA's headquarters bureaucracy, complex of experiment stations, research facilities, regulation units, and acreage policy divisions; the land-grant universities; state agricultural offices; and county agricultural employees and committees. …


Memory disturbance is common in epileptic patients and might be changed by anti convulsion drugs. In this research neuropsychological functions of epileptic patients with grand mal seizure (GMS) and complex partial seizure (CPS) who have been under drug treatment were compared together and then with normal people.

Materials and Methods: In a descriptive study 60 epileptic patients between 15 to 44 ages with GMS and CPS were randomly selected from neurology clinics and were given neuropsychological tests. Data was analyzed by SPSS.

Results: There was no significant difference between epileptic and normal people in visual memory. However there was a significant difference between epileptic and normal people in attention and working memory (P<0.05). Also there was a significant difference between GMS and CPS patients in attention and working memory but there was no difference between them in visual memory.

Conclusion: The results suggesting that disturbances in attention and working memory might be due to either drug therapy or underlying pathology of GMS and CPS or both.


Purpose

Previous studies on tourism input-output (IO) primarily focus on a single year's snapshot or utilize outdated IO coefficients. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the multi-period development of regional tourism capacities and its influence on the magnitude of the industry's regional economic contribution. The paper highlights the importance of applying up-to-date IO coefficients to avoid estimation bias typically found in previous studies on tourism's economic contribution.

Design/methodology/approach

For the period 2008-2014, national IO tables are regionalized to estimate direct and indirect economic effects for output, employment, income and other value-added deffects. A comparison of Leontief inverse matrices is conducted to quantify estimation bias when using outdated models for analyzing tourism's economic contribution.

Findings

On the one hand, economic linkages strengthened, especially for labour-intensive sectors. On the other hand, sectoral recessions in 2012 and 2014 led to an economy-wide decline of indirect effects, although tourists' consumption was still increasing. Finally, estimation bias observed after applying an outdated IO model is quantified by approximately US$4.1m output, 986 jobs full-time equivalents, US$24.8m income and US$14.8m other value-added effects.

Research limitations/implications

Prevailing assumptions on IO modelling and regionalization techniques aim for more precise survey-based approaches and computable general equilibrium models to incorporate net changes in economic output. Results should be cross-validated by means of qualitative interviews with industry representatives.

Practical implications

Additional costs for generating IO tables on an annual base clearly pay off when considering the improved accuracy of estimates on tourism's economic contribution.

Originality/value

This study shows that tourism IO studies should apply up-to-date IO models when estimating the industry's economic contribution. It provides evidence that applying outdated models involve the risk of estimation biases, because annual changes of multipliers substantially influence the magnitude of effects.


The construction of consumer price indexes (CPI) has historically relied on manually and centrally collected price data. As point of sale (POS) scanner data and web-scraped data become more accessible, these alternative data represent a rich new source of information to produce consumer price information. While outlier detection methodologies are well established for traditional data sources, more research is required to better understand the unique quality and format of the alternative data. Several national statistical institutions (NSIs) have already started to conduct research into alternative data source and the outlier detection methodologies that are necessary before these data can be incorporated into CPI calculations. This report reviews the outlier detection methodologies adopted by NSIs that have started to incorporate alternative data sources in their calculation of CPI.


The paper addresses how hyperdocuments, accessible via electronic books (e-books) which are read using the World Wide Web, can be endowed with features that personalise the interaction process that takes place between the reader and the e-book. A novel, abstract approach to modelling the personalisation of hyperdocuments is introduced. This approach aims to make available features that allow readers to interact with these documents in a manner much closer to that with paper-based documents. The research is based on a formal characterisation of personalisable hyperlink-based interaction. This characterisation is unique in formally modelling a rich set of user-initiated personalisation actions that allow users to come closer to satisfying their specific, often dynamic, information retrieval goals.


The Miocene Sequence (23.03 – 5.33 Ma), in Iraq has large diversity in lithofacies, biofacies, depositional environments, tectonic effect, and geographical distribution. The Savian movements caused development of broad and shallow basins, which had covered large areas in the Iraqi territory, as compared with the earlier Oligocene sequence, which was characterized by great sea level drop causing very limited depositional basins, the main intraplate basin became narrower due to the tilting of west Arabia. The Miocene Sequence, in Iraq includes 11 stratigraphic units, some of them have not formation order, and these are: Serikagni, Euphrates, Ghar, Dhiban Anhydrite, Jeribe, Fatha, Nfayil, Injana, Mukdadiya, Govanda Limestone and Red Bed Series. However, some of these units have age that is not limited to the Miocene, they have range of either younger or older than Miocene. The main major event that had occurred during the Miocene was the change from the dominating marine phase in the Early Miocene to continental phase during the Late Miocene. This main change is attributed to the major thrusting, which occurred during the collision of the Sanandaj – Sirjan Zone with the Arabian Plate. This event also is considered as the beginning of the Neotectonic effect in Iraq. Many formations were terminated; others were started with different 1 Consultant Geologist. 2 Retired Expert, U.S.A. 3 Senior Chief Geologist, Iraq Geological Survey. 4 Lulea University of Technology, Sweden. 272 Varoujan K. Sissakian et al. lithological and depositional environments, as well as different faunal assemblages. The faunal assemblages, depositional environments, paleogeography, lithology of each exposed stratigraphic units are reviewed and discussed. Moreover, the tectonic effect on each exposed unit in different tectonic zones is discussed too, beside the mutual relation between the exposed units.


A DC power distribution system (PDS) of a transport aircraft was modeled and analyzed using MATLAB/Simulink software. The multi-level modeling concept was used as a modeling approach, which assumes modeling subsystem of the PDS at three different levels of complexity. The subsystem models were implemented in Simulink and combined into the whole PDS model according to certain interconnection rules. Effective modeling of different scenarios of operation was achieved by mixing subsystem models of different levels in one PDS model. Linearized models were obtained from the nonlinear PDS model for stability analysis and control design. The PDS model was used to examine the system stability and the DC bus power quality under bidirectional power flow conditions. Small-signal analysis techniques were employed to study stability issues resulting from subsystem interactions. The DC bus stability diagram was proposed for predicting stability of the PDS with different types of loads without performing an actual stability test based on regular stability analysis tools. Certain PDS configurations and operational scenarios leading to instability were identified. An analysis of energy transfer in the PDS showed that a large energy storage capacitor in the input filter of a flight control actuator is effective for reduction of the DC bus voltage disturbances produced by regenerative action of the actuator. However, energy storage capacitors do not provide energy savings in the PDS and do not increase its overall efficiency.