Cell cultures are important techniques to investigate cellular processes in a simplified manner. The most commonly applied 2D models do not simulate most of the in vivo conditions whereas cryogels as promising 3D cell culture materials are able to provide both a structured microenvironment and tailored surface properties, similar to the natural extracellular matrix (ECM). Herein, we present the synthesis and characterization of hydrophilic cryogels with different 2‐(methacrylamido) glucopyranose amounts followed by 3D cell culture experiments with L929 cells. Selected samples are additionally functionalized with fibronectin‐FITC for improved cellular adhesion. The incorporation of different 2‐(methacrylamido) glucopyranose amounts into the cryogels is demonstrated by Fourier‐transform IR (FTIR) and solid‐state NMR (ssNMR). The gels are able to withstand harsh autoclaving conditions as shown by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and ssNMR measurements. Pore size measurements by automated scanning electron microscopy (SEM) image analysis reveal similar pore sizes among the entire cryogel series. Confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) images suggest the presence of healthy cells due to the absence of morphological abnormalities among the entire cryogel series. L929 cells settled deeper into the cryogels with increasing MAG content. With additional fibronectin functionalization, the cells are retained much stronger and stay in the upper gel layers.


Potassium (K+) is inevitable for plant growth and development. It plays a crucial role in the regulation of enzyme activities, in adjusting the electrical membrane potential and the cellular turgor, in regulating cellular homeostasis and in the stabilization of protein synthesis. Uptake of K+ from the soil and its transport to growing organs is essential for a healthy plant development. Uptake and allocation of K+ are performed by K+ channels and transporters belonging to different protein families. In this review we summarize the knowledge on the versatile physiological roles of plant K+ channels and their behavior under stress conditions in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana.


Abstract Background Gender disparities in education continue to undermine girls' opportunities, despite enormous strides in recent years to improve primary enrolment and attainment for girls in low‐ and middle‐income countries (LMICs). At the regional, country and subnational levels gender gaps remain, with girls in many settings less likely to complete primary school, less likely to complete secondary, and often less likely to be literate than boys. The academic and policy literatures on the topic of gender‐related barriers to girls' education are both extensive. However, there remain gaps in knowledge regarding which interventions are most likely to work in contexts with different combinations of barriers. Objectives This systematic review identified and assessed the strength of the evidence of interventions and exposures addressing gender‐related barriers to schooling for girls in LMICs. Search Methods The AEA RCT Registry, Africa Bibliography, African Education Research Database, African Journals Online, DEC USAID, Dissertation Abstracts, EconLit, ELDIS, Evidence Hub, Global Index Medicus, IDEAS‐Repec, Intl Clinical Trials Registry, NBER, OpenGrey, Open Knowledge Repository, POPLINE, PsychINFO, PubMed, Research for Development Outputs, ScienceDirect, Sociological Abstracts, Web of Science, as well as relevant organization websites were searched electronically in March and April of 2019. Further searches were conducted through review of bibliographies as well as through inquiries to authors of included studies, relevant researchers and relevant organizations, and completed in March 2020. Selection Criteria We included randomized controlled trials as well as quasi‐experimental studies that used quantitative models that attempted to control for endogeneity. Manuscripts could be either published, peer‐reviewed articles or grey literature such as working papers, reports and dissertations. Studies must have been published on or after 2000, employed an intervention or exposure that attempted to address a gender‐related barrier to schooling, analyzed the effects of the intervention/exposure on at least one of our primary outcomes of interest, and utilized data from LMICs to be included. Data Collection and Analysis A team of reviewers was grouped into pairs to independently screen articles for relevance, extract data and assess risk of bias for each included study. A third reviewer assisted in resolving any disputes. Risk of bias was assessed either through the RoB 2 tool for experimental studies or the ROBINS‐I tool for quasi‐experimental studies. Due to the heterogeneity of study characteristics and reported outcome measures between studies, we applied the GRADE (Grading of Recommendation, Assessment, Development and Evaluation) approach adapted for situations where a meta‐analysis is not possible to synthesize the research. Results Interventions rated as effective exist for three gender‐related barriers: inability to afford tuition and fees, lack of adequate food, and insufficient academic support. Promising interventions exist for three gender‐related barriers: inadequate school access, inability to afford school materials, and lack of water and sanitation. More research is needed for the remaining 12 gender‐related barriers: lack of support for girls' education, child marriage and adolescent pregnancy, lack of information on returns to education/alternative roles for women, school‐related gender‐based violence (SRGBV), lack of safe spaces and social connections, inadequate sports programs for girls, inadequate health and childcare services, inadequate life skills, inadequate menstrual hygiene management (MHM), poor policy/legal environment, lack of teaching materials and supplies, and gender‐insensitive school environment. We find substantial gaps in the evidence. Several gender‐related barriers to girls' schooling are under‐examined. For nine of these barriers we found fewer than 10 relevant evaluations, and for five of the barriers—child marriage and adolescent pregnancy, SRGBV, inadequate sports programs for girls, inadequate health and childcare services, and inadequate MHM—we found fewer than five relevant evaluations; thus, more research is needed to understand the most effective interventions to address many of those barriers. Also, nearly half of programs evaluated in the included studies were multi‐component, and most evaluations were not designed to tease out the effects of individual components. As a result, even when interventions were effective overall, it is often difficult to identify how much, if any, of the impact is attributable to a given program component. The combination of components varies between studies, with few comparable interventions, further limiting our ability to identify packages of interventions that work well. Finally, the context‐specific nature of these barriers—whether a barrier exists in a setting and how it manifests and operates—means that a program that is effective in one setting may not be effective in another. Authors' Conclusions While some effective and promising approaches exist to address gender‐related barriers to education for girls, evidence gaps exist on more than half of our hypothesized gender‐related barriers to education, including lack of support for girls' education, SRGBV, lack of safe spaces and social connections, inadequate life skills, and inadequate MHM, among others. In some cases, despite numerous studies examining interventions addressing a specific barrier, studies either did not disaggregate results by sex, or they were not designed to isolate the effects of each intervention component. Differences in context and in implementation, such as the number of program components, curricula content, and duration of interventions, also make it difficult to compare interventions to one another. Finally, few studies looked at pathways between interventions and education outcomes, so the reasons for differences in outcomes largely remain unclear.


Visual speech information present in the speaker's mouth region has long been viewed as a source for improving the robustness and naturalness of human-computer-interfaces (HCI). Such information can be particularly crucial in realistic HCI environments, where the acoustic channel is corrupted, and as a result, the performance of traditional automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems falls below usability levels. In this paper, we review two general approaches that utilize visual speech to improve ASR in acoustically challenging environments: One directly combines features extracted from the acoustic and visual channels, aiming at superior recognition performance of the resulting audio-visual ASR system. The other seeks to eliminate the noise present in the acoustic features, aiming at their audio-visual based enhancement, and thus resulting in improved speech recognition. We present a number of techniques recently introduced in the literature for bimodal ASR and enhancement, and we study their performance using a suitable audio-visual database. Among the methods considered, our recognition experiments demonstrate that decision based combination of audio and visual features significantly outperforms simpler feature based integration methods for audio-visual ASR. For audio feature enhancement, a non-linear technique is more successful than a regression-based approach. As expected, bimodal ASR and enhancement outperform their audio-only counterparts.


A novel approach to disassembling biomass-derived lignin into processible units is described. This transformation is achieved in supercritical methanol, using a Cu-doped porous metal oxide as the catalyst, at a relatively mild temperature (300 °C). Hydrogen transfer from methanol to an organosolv lignin results in the complete hydrogenolysis of phenyl ether bonds, coupled with the hydrogenation of aromatic rings. The product is a complex mixture composed principally of monomeric substituted cyclohexyl derivatives with greatly reduced oxygen content and negligible aromatics. Notably, no char formation was observed. We also describe operational indices based on the 1H NMR spectra that facilitate holistic evaluation of the product distribution in this and other biomass transformations.


It seems to be necessary to reopen the question of the validity of some of the European species of Chirothrips, in order to settle their status. This problem is believed to be of some practical importance, since aculeatus Bagnall infests grasses and sugar-cane, and manicatus Haliday has been recorded as injurious to grasses and cereals. It is known that the validity of a few species, very closely related to Ch. manicatus, is doubtful, as several authors have emphasized already. But unfortunately these species have been quoted repeatedly in recent catalogues or in keys as valid ones, although they were separated from manicatus in the original descriptionptions on the basis of two or three insignificant characters.


T he science of Forensic Entomology is multidisciplinary. It involves the fields of insect taxonomy, physiology, genetics, acarology, population dynamics, ecology, and statistics. Although entomological evidence is most often use to establish a portion of the postmortem interval in human and animal death, it often involves food product contamination cases, and urban Entomology. Utilize this website as a reference as you explore the science behind Forensic Entomology (https://www.forensicentomology.com/).


Plasma digitalis-like substance and altered function of arterial Na+,K(+)-ATPase have both been linked with elevated blood pressure, but the influence of antihypertensive therapy on these factors remains unknown. Therefore, we treated spontaneously hypertensive rats and normotensive Wistar-Kyoto rats with the angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor quinapril for 10 weeks. The therapy markedly reduced blood pressure and plasma digoxin immunoreactivity, and it normalized the elevated plasma Na+:K+ ratio in the hypertensive animals. Relaxations of endothelium-denuded denervated arterial rings induced by return of potassium to the organ bath upon precontractions elicited by potassium-free solution were used to evaluate the function of vascular Na+,K(+)-ATPase. The rate of potassium relaxation was faster in quinapril-treated hypertensive rats and in both Wistar-Kyoto groups than in the hypertensive controls. Potassium relaxation was also effectively inhibited by the Na+,K(+)-ATPase inhibitor ouabain in all groups. In addition, arterial contractions to potassium chloride and relaxations to nitroprusside were examined. The contractions to lower concentrations of potassium chloride (20 mM) were enhanced in untreated hypertensive rats when compared with the other groups, although the maximal responses were corresponding in all groups. The time to reach base-line tension after washout of potassium chloride (125 mM) and the relaxations to nitroprusside did not differ in the study groups. In conclusion, the present results showed that long-term angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibition in parallel reduced plasma digoxin-like factor, enhanced arterial potassium relaxation (probably reflecting enhanced function of Na+,K(+)-ATPase) and normalized plasma Na+:K+ ratio in this type of genetic hypertension.


How does increasing digitalization affect the environment? A number of studies predict that digitalization will ultimately reduce environmental degradation but seem to overestimate the emission-reducing effects of digitalization through increases in resource efficiency, while underestimating substantial rebound effects and negative environmental impact of the construction and maintenance of complex digital infrastructures. Additionally, the environmental benefits of decreasing consumption of one-time usage goods may be outweighed by the environmental costs of the production of ICTs and the increasing use of digital technologies. This paper analyzes the relationship between degrees of countries' level of digitalization and environmental indicators by use of a panel data set of 37 economies. It is the first paper to differentiate between emissions associated with a country's production and those connected to a country's consumption, accounting for emissions related to exports and imports. The level of digitalization in production is approximated by companies' investments in digital technologies. The chosen indicator to measure consumers' proclivity to digital technologies is online shopping behaviour. We address the problem of changes in unobserved heterogeneity by using the recently developed Group Fixed Effects estimator. Results indicate that the beneficial environmental effects of digitalization on reducing climate gas emissions slightly outweigh the undesired environmental effects, both in production and consumption. Ultimately, we find that increases in digitalization have a net positive effect on the natural environment.


A multi-employer database that links medical, prescription drug, absence, and short term disability data at the patient level was analyzed to uncover the most costly physical and mental health conditions affecting American businesses. A unique methodology was developed involving the creation of patient episodes of care that incorporated employee productivity measures of absence and disability. Data for 374,799 employees from six large employers were analyzed. Absence and disability losses constituted 29% of the total health and productivity related expenditures for physical health conditions, and 47% for all of the mental health conditions examined. The top-10 most costly physical health conditions were: angina pectoris; essential hypertension; diabetes mellitus; mechanical low back pain; acute myocardial infarction; chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; back disorders not specified as low back; trauma to spine and spinal cord; sinusitis; and diseases of the ear, nose and throat or mastoid process. The most costly mental health disorders were: bipolar disorder, chronic maintenance; depression; depressive episode in bipolar disease; neurotic, personality and non-psychotic disorders; alcoholism;, anxiety disorders; schizophrenia, acute phase; bipolar disorders, severe mania; nonspecific neurotic, personality and non-psychotic disorders; and psychoses. Implications for employers and health plans in examining the health and productivity consequences of common health conditions are discussed.


Abstract : This paper describes a new technique for interactive planning under conditions of uncertainty. Our approach is based on the use of the Air Force Research Laboratory's Causal Analysis Tool (CAT), a system for creating and analyzing causal models similar to Bayes networks. In order to use CAT as a tool for planning, users go through an iterative process in which they use CAT to create and analyze alternative plans. One of the biggest difficulties is that the number of possible plans is exponential. In any planning problem of significant size, it is impossible for the user to create and analyze every possible plan; thus users can spend days arguing about which actions to include in their plans. To solve this problem, we have developed a way to quickly compute the minimum and maximum probabilities of success associated with a partial plan, and use these probabilities to recommend which actions the user should include in the plan in order to get the plan that has the highest probability of success. This provides an exponential reduction in amount of time needed to find the best plan.


Abstract. The climate system can been described by a dynamical system and its associated attractor. The dynamics of this attractor depends on the external forcings that influence the climate. Such forcings can affect the mean values or variances, but regions of the attractor that are seldom visited can also be affected. It is an important challenge to measure how the climate attractor responds to different forcings. Currently, the Euclidean distance or similar measures like the Mahalanobis distance have been favored to measure discrepancies between two climatic situations. Those distances do not have a natural building mechanism to take into account the attractor dynamics. In this paper, we argue that a Wasserstein distance, stemming from optimal transport theory, offers an efficient and practical way to discriminate between dynamical systems. After treating a toy example, we explore how the Wasserstein distance can be applied and interpreted to detect non-autonomous dynamics from a Lorenz system driven by seasonal cycles and a warming trend.


Recent years have seen a growing focus on automated personalized services, with music recommendations a particularly prominent domain for such contributions. However, while most prior work on music recommender systems has focused on preferences for songs and artists, a fundamental aspect of human music perception is that music is experienced in a temporal context and in sequence. Hence, listeners' preferences also may be affected by the sequence in which songs are being played and the corresponding song transitions. Moreover, a listener's sequential preferences may vary across circumstances, such as in response to different emotional or functional needs, so that different song sequences may be more satisfying at different times. It is therefore useful to develop methods that can learn and adapt to individuals' sequential preferences in real time, so as to adapt to a listener's contextual preferences during a listening session. Prior work on personalized playlists either considered batch learning from large historical data sets, attempted to learn preferences for songs or artists irrespective of the sequence in which they are played, or assumed that adaptation occurs over extended periods of time. Hence, this prior work did not aim to adapt to a listener's current song and sequential preferences in real time, during a listening session. This paper develops and evaluates a novel framework for online learning of and adaptation to a listener's current song and sequence preferences exclusively by interacting with the listener, during a listening session. We evaluate the framework using both real playlist datasets and an experiment with human listeners. The results establish that the framework effectively learns and adapts to a listeners' transition preferences during a listening session, and that it yields a significantly better listener experience. Our research also establishes that future advances of online adaptation to listener's temporal preferences is a valuable avenue for research, and suggests that similar benefits may be possible from exploring online learning of temporal preferences for other personalized services.


Lactose, a residue from the separation of high value-added proteins from whey, was converted into an equimolar mixture of sorbitol and dulcitol through a one-step cascade hydrolysis plus hydrogenation process. The reaction was promoted by an amorphous copper on silica catalyst, highly resistant to water and can also be applied to other disaccharides. The process selectivity can be switched to direct hydrogenation of lactose to lactitol only by changing the solvent.


Acute myocarditis is an inflammatory disease of the heart muscle that may progress to dilated cardiomyopathy and chronic heart failure. A number of factors including the sex hormone testosterone, components of innate immunity, and profibrotic cytokines have been identified in animal models as important pathogenic mechanisms that increase inflammation and susceptibility to chronic dilated cardiomyopathy. The clinical presentation of acute myocarditis is non-specific and mimics more common causes of heart failure and arrhythmias. Suspected myocarditis is currently confirmed using advanced non-invasive imaging and histopathologic examination of heart tissue. However, the diverse presentations of myocarditis and the lack of widely available, safe, and accurate non-invasive diagnostic tests remain major obstacles to early diagnosis and population based research. Recent advances in the understanding of disease pathogenesis described in this review should lead to more accurate diagnostic algorithms and non-invasive tests.


This study examines the development of economic democracy in the United States since the 1700s with particular emphasis on the last 30 years. The particular focus is on employee ownership, although the phenomenon of profit sharing receives some attention. The nature of research and documentation on the subject is reviewed. The study concludes that research in the area has emphasized narrative studies of particular companies and sectors until the 1980s. At that time the support for the concept by the US Federal Government created reporting requirements for companies to the US Department of Labor and the US Internal Revenue Service (the taxation authority) and the US Securities and Exchange Commission. These data-sets have made systematic research on the phenomenon possible. Results of the first national random sample of employed individuals and work sites on the incidence of employee ownership and profit sharing are presented. Finally, we conduct a political economic analysis of the phenomenon. We demonstrate that, despite the growth of employee ownership in particular, a form of employee ownership has developed which encourages workers to use their savings to buy stock in their companies. This form dominates employee ownership in terms of the number of workers, firms, and dollar assets involved. Nevertheless, there is significant employee ownership in a group of closely held firms that use traditional ESOPs (Employee Stock Ownership Plans) and in a group of publicly traded high technology companies that use broad-based stock options. These two sectors offer fertile territory for the development of both economic democracy and nascent forms of industrial democracy.


This Note examines the continuing harms of lead-based paint and attempts by cities and states to hold manufacturers and distributors liable for abatement under the public nuisance doctrine. Such suits have stretched traditional conceptions of public nuisance, particularly on the threshold issue of whether pervasive lead paint in residences infringes on a common right held by the public. This Note reviews the major lead paint public nuisance cases from across the country. The plaintiffs were unsuccessful in each case for a variety of reasons until ten California counties prevailed in People v. ConAgra in November 2017. While subsequently reduced by the appellate court, and further reduced in a postjudgment settlement, the trial court initially awarded the plaintiffs a staggering $1.15 billion in abatement funds. Across the six states that have adjudicated such cases, there exists a great discontinuity not only in outcome but also in the manner by which each state court reached its decision. This Note proposes that future state courts follow the approach taken by the Rhode Island Supreme Court in carefully adhering to the historical boundaries of public nuisance and deferring to the legislature when the amorphous tort is used as an attempt to remedy a complex social issue. Given that no common right exists among private homeowners to be free of lead paint, as traditionally conceived under the doctrine, the claim of public nuisance is simply inapposite. ConAgra impermissibly expanded the bounds of public nuisance by finding a common right where none exists and should not be followed by future courts when adjudicating public nuisance claims.


Previous research demonstrates that high involvement work practices (HIWPs) may be associated with burnout (emotional exhaustion and depersonalization); however, to date, the process through which HIWPs influence burnout is not clear. This article examined the impact of HIWPs on long term burnout (emotional exhaustion and depersonalization) by considering the mediating role of person-organization fit (P-O fit) in this relationship. The study used a time lagged design and was conducted in a Canadian general hospital amongst health care personnel. Findings from structural equation modeling (N = 185) revealed that perceived HIWPs were positively associated with P-O fit. There was no direct effect of HIWPs on burnout; rather, P-O fit fully mediated the relationship between employee perceptions of HIWPs and burnout. This study fills a void in the HR and burnout literature by demonstrating the role that P-O fit has in explaining how HIWPs alleviates emotional exhaustion and depersonalization.


A brief account is given of observations of the fine structure of the insect ear by light microscopy. The observations generally confirm those of previous workers. The electron microscope has revealed many new structures in the ganglion. Problems of the structure of the neuron and its sensory hair, the scolopale, and the relationships of the membranes of the neuron and the various accessory cells, all so little understood by light microscopy, can now be resolved. The locust has a pair of ear drums, situated one on each side of the first abdominal segment. The auditory ganglion is attached to the inner surface of the drum and it contains about seventy bipolar sensory neurons. A sensory neuron, wrapped in a series of three satellite cells, together with an attachment cell, constitutes a sensory unit (sensillum). The sensory units lie inside the capsule of the ganglion and they are attached to the hypodermis of special processes of the drum. The apex of the dendrite of each neuron bears a cilium that contains nine fibrils, orientated longitudinally and concentrically. A root (a rod-shaped structure) runs downwards from the base of the cilium within the dendrite, and splits repeatedly into thirty or more rootlets. Both root and rootlets have a cross-striation of pale and dark bands of different widths. The result is a periodicity which is polarized or asymmetrical. The upper part of the root terminates in nine concentric projections. It is these processes that actually touch the base of the cilium. They enclose a structure termed a root apparatus. The distal part of the dendrite and the cilium project into a scolopale, the body of the cilium being contained in a wide extracellular compartment within the scolopale. The upper region of the cilium has a dilatation containing fibrous structures that are not present in the other parts of the cilium. The tip of the cilium projects into a channel in the scolopale cap. The cap, unlike the other components of the scolopale, is an extracellular structure. By light microscopy the scolopale appears as a tubular structure with a narrow entrance and is sealed at the other end by the cap. Electron microscopy shows that the wall of the scolopale is composed of six or more concentric rods of fibrous material. At the entrance the rods lie close together around the dendrite. Near the cap the rods are also close together and become fused into a tube, into which the cap fits like a lid. In the central region the scolopale rods lie farther apart. The rods are intracellular structures of the scolopale cell (see below). In this central region only a thin layer of scolopale cell cytoplasm and membrane surrounds each rod so that the extracellular compartment around the cilium extends outwards between the columns of cytoplasm containing the scolopale rods. There are three satellite cells. (a) The Schwann cell, whose processes encapsulate the cell body and axon of the bipolar neuron. (b) The fibrous sheath-cell, so-called because it contains fine fibrous material; it is wrapped round the basal region of the dendrite, (c) The scolopale cell, which is wrapped round the upper region of the dendrite, round the extracellular compartment containing the cilium, and contains the scolopale rods in the inner region of its cytoplasm. Finally, the scolopale cell is linked to the hypodermis of the drum by the attachment cell. The auditory nerve carries the axons of the bipolar cells from the ganglion to the central nervous system. Each of these axons has a separate sheath composed of interlocking folds of a Schwann cell. A second group of afferent axons, probably originating from hair receptors of the drum, are also found in the auditory nerve. They do not have individual sheaths, but run in bundles within folds of the Schwann cell.


In this response I circumscribe the nature and scale of the rejoinder to refocus on the ethical and theoretical implications of utilizing developmental exercises, of which Immunity to Change (ITC) is seen as an example. I welcome Zeitler's and Reams' continuation of the ethical discussion, and I want to reclaim and develop some of the delicate points and consequences that were described in my original article. The line of reasoning is based upon the presupposition that developmental methods and techniques are used in the real world with people and consultants with limitations and strengths, in conditions that are neither optimal nor perfect. Among all theoretical and ethical questions, I found the most profound issue to be: does it work?


Changes in plant species composition over a 10 year period were measured by biennial counts of numbers and areas on seven quadrats at each of three sites; one site pathogen free, one in the process of invasion by Phytophthora cinnamomi and one diseased since 1970. Susceptible species died and field-resistant species increased. Partly susceptible species fluctuated in growth. The plant community changed from open forest with sclerophyllous understorey dominated by Xanthorrhoea australis to open forest with large gaps and sedge-dominated ground flora. Tree numbers increased by 25% on the pathogen-free site but decreased by 42.9 and 45.3% on the two infested sites. Susceptible shrub species increased 10% on pathogen-free quadrats but decreased in both numbers and diversity with infestation. The high percentage of bare ground on the old diseased site was gradually colonised by graminoids and legumes. At the end of the 10 year period P. cinnamomi could no longer be isolated from this site, tree crowns showed vigorous growth and seedlings of some susceptible species were observed. The epidemic caused by P. cinnamomi in the Brisbane Ranges may be finite, with peak death periods in 1979 for the invaded site and in 1972 for the old diseased site. The bare ground was later colonised by field-resistant species and the disease potential of the pathogen declined. Regeneration has commenced on the old diseased site and may eventually become complete for the tree stratum, but incomplete for the understorey because Xanthorrhoea australis, formerly dominant, has a very slow growth rate.


We introduce an interlingua-based approach to crosslanguage information retrieval, in which queries, as well as documents, are mapped onto a language-independent concept layer and retrieval operations are performed at the level of that interlingua. This approach is contrasted with one which operates without such an intermediary concept level. Non-English queries (German ones, in our experiments) are directly translated to English queries which, subsequently, are processed on English documents. We provide an empirical evaluation of both alternatives on a large medical document collection.


The liberation of zinc from intracellular stores during pathophysiological conditions, especially those in which reactive oxygen and nitrogen species have been implicated, is central to the progression of neuronal injury. In addition, cellular efflux of a second ionic species, potassium, is similarly responsible for facilitating apoptotic cell death downstream of the initial oxidant-induced zinc liberation. Potassium efflux is mediated by Kv2.1-encoded potassium channels in apoptotic neurons. Here, I have characterized several critical molecular components that link zinc liberation to the loss of cytoplasmic potassium following oxidative injury. First, electrophysiological and viability studies using Kv2.1 channel mutants identified a p38 phosphorylation site at serine 800 (S800) that is required for Kv2.1 membrane insertion, potassium current enhancement, and cell death. In addition, a phospho-specific antibody for S800 detected a p38-dependent increase in Kv2.1 phosphorylation in apoptotic neurons, and reveals phosphorylation of S800 in immunopurified channels incubated with active p38. Next, I present data indicating that an N-terminal tyrosine of Kv2.1 (Y124), which is targeted by src, is also critical for the apoptotic current surge. These latter studies suggest that Y124 works in concert with the C-terminal serine (S800) target of p38 MAPK to regulate Kv2.1-mediated current enhancement. While zinc was previously shown to activate p38 and src, I demonstrate here that this metal inhibits cytoplasmic protein tyrosine phosphatase a (Cyt-PTPa), which targets Y124 and antagonizes the actions of src. Therefore, I have identified two requisite phosphorylation sites on Kv2.1, at Y124 and S800, that cooperatively mediate apoptotic potassium current enhancement. Importantly, disruption of either phosphorylation event is neuroprotective. The work presented here provides a more complete understanding of neuronal apoptotic processes by revealing the intracellular signaling events linking intracellular zinc liberation and cytoplasmic potassium efflux.


ABSTRACT Trials of fire line establishment with a mulcher were conducted with a 261 kW Caterpillar 586C site prep tractor and Cat HM825 mulcher head (2.5 m cutting path). The fire lines were intended for the application of prescribed fire. The trials were on three sites and in two stand types (cutover and thinned pine), and at three production speeds (0.6, 0.8, and 1.2 km h−1). The slowest speed (0.6) was a two-pass application at 1.2 km h−1. Treatments were applied in 16 blocks to 48 segments which ranged from 100 to 300 m in length. Mineral soil exposure ranged from 50% to 80% of the treatment width for all but one block. Slower speeds produced significantly greater mineral soil exposure with some significant interactions of site and treatment. Productive delays were caused by maneuvering and retreatment of skips, due to sudden changes in terrain or obstacles. Productive delays were 9% and 27% of the total time in cutover and thinned stands, respectively. Even with productive delays, most design speeds could be achieved. At the higher speeds, mulched fire line costs ($ km−1) were near current costs for bladed trails. However, mulcher productivity (km h−1) could be 2 to 3 times greater than dozers in open woodlands or young stands where the mulcher can easily navigate. Opportunities for using a wheeled mulcher to create fire lines might include locations that can take advantage of on-road travel between sites or locations that require spot treatments of high fuel loads in high-risk locations.


Regions, as much as nation states alike, are strongly affected by EU policies. A widespread thesis claims that the impact exerted by the latter on the regions would mainly be contingent on the economic strength and performance of regions as well as on its predominant legal patterns. We are arguing that there is at least one further element accounting for variations in the way regions respond to initiatives of the European Community in the widest sense. This is a cultural dimension which can be called 'regional policy styles' and which could be defined by its dominant paradigms (cognitive dimension), its dominant patterns of actor relationships (networks) and the dominant standard operation procedures. By identifying regional policy styles among six European regions on the basis of an European data survey the perception of the European paradigm of partnership, especially its functional dimension and its integration in regional actors strategies is examined. It could be asserted that national patterns in regional acting are far more dominating than claimed and therefore regional policy styles converge to a greater extend within Nation states than between. In addition it could be demonstrated how far the perception of the European paradigm of partnership is varying according to the different policy styles, even if it should be pointed out that the argumentation is not a causal one but supported by correlation.


Eating disorders (EDs) are common amongst athletes, yet few receive treatment. Given that athletes have a unique set of risk factors for eating disorders and are faced with additional barriers to treatment, new models outside of face-to-face treatment are necessary to reach the population and provide more affordable, tailored, evidence-based care. One solution is to use digital mental health programs to provide primary or supplemental therapy. Digital programs can provide accessibility and privacy, and recent advancements allow for more personalized online experiences. However, there have been no studies to date that integrate technology-based tools to address the especially high prevalence rates of EDs in athletes. This paper describes how an integrated model that includes online screening linked to guided self-help programs, all adapted specifically for athletes, can be used to provide prevention and intervention of EDs in athletes.


Over the last few years, the Probabilistic method has become an important tool in Computer Science and Combinatorics. This thesis deals with three applications of the Probabilistic method.
The first problem concerns a model of imperfect randomness: the slightly-random source of Santha and Vazirani. In a slightly-random source with bias $\epsilon$, the conditional probability that the next bit output is 1, given complete knowledge of the previous bits output, is between ${1\over 2} - \epsilon$ and ${1\over 2}+\epsilon$. We show that, for every fixed $\epsilon < {1\over 2},$ and for most sets, the probability of hitting that set using a slightly-random source is bounded away from 0.
The second problem arises in parallel and distributed computing. A set of n processors is trying to collectively flip a coin, using a protocol that tolerates a large number of faulty processors. We demonstrate the existence of perfect-information protocols that are immune to sets of $\epsilon n$ faulty processors, for every fixed $\epsilon < {1\over 2}$.
Finally, we consider a problem in Ramsey theory. Let an adversary color the edges of the Binomial random graph with r colors, the edge probability being ${c\over {\sqrt{n}}}$, where c is a large enough constant. We show that, almost surely, a constant fraction of the triangles in the graph will be monochromatic.


The spelling of the words "eco-logy" and "eco-nomics" in the title is intended to emphasize that both words originated from the Greek word oikos, which means household, house, or family. Despite their common origin, never have two disciplines diverged so dramatically. Economic growth, aided by economic globalization, has markedly diminished natural capital, from which all other forms of capital are derived. Economic growth (without protecting the biospheric life support system) seems to be the primary goal of human society. In reality, the human economy is a subset of the biospheric life support system, which regenerates the resources that are the raw materials of the economic system. Yet political leaders continually state that the biospheric life support system cannot be protected if the possibility of doing so would adversely affect economic growth. However, growth of material goods and population cannot continue indefinitely without severe consequences. At present, many ecologists delay discussing biotic impoverishments with economists, fearing that such candor will "turn them off." The contextual framework of economists and ecologists is far from congruent, although the survival of human society, and even of the human species, depends on it.


Recent years have seen a surge in development of alternative methods for assessment of skin sensitizers. This has been in order to meet the regulatory and industrial demand for accurate safety assessment without the use of animal experimentation, and to address societal expectations. Today, 3 such assays are formally validated and have achieved OECD Guideline status (EC, 2013, 2014, 2015). However, partly due to insufficient predictive capacity, none of the validated assays have received a recommendation for use as a stand-alone method. In addition, there is a view that accurate hazard identification must be based upon an assessment of several key events in the relevant Adverse Outcome Pathway (AOP). For these reasons it is proposed that tests are used in combinations, forming so-called Integrated Testing Strategies (ITSs), to address deficiencies in the performance of individual methods and to incorporate end points that reflect several key events in the AOP (Hartung et al., 2013; Jaworska and Hoffmann, 2010; Rovida et al., 2015). Although such ITSs may be configured in a number of ways, one heavily advocated approach relies on the majority vote of individual assays, often referred to as a 2 out of 3 ITS. That is, the identification of hazard is dependent upon the chemical eliciting a positive response in at least 2 of 3 test methods. This approach is based on the view that this will provide an increased weight of evidence and thereby greater confidence in hazard characterization and risk assessment. Here, we present arguments opposing the claimed benefits of 2 out of 3 ITSs by examining the theoretical probability propagation of combined outcomes, simulated predictions generated by hypothetical assays, and actual data obtained from recently published literature. We argue that the added value of combining the top-performing assay with other assays with less predictive accuracy is overestimated, if present, and may actually be detrimental.


Many fluids in industries and in nature show generalised Newtonian (GN) behaviour, i.e. they show a shear dependent viscosity. Fine particle suspensions found in mining and waste water industries are common examples of GN fluids. Pipes and open channels are two common mediums of transporting these fluids at industrial sites. The current thesis investigates the flow of GN fluids through pipes and open channels using a numerical technique called direct numerical simulations (DNS) to highlight the differences brought by the GN rheology compared to Newtonian fluids. The current work will give a direction to the development of computationally less expensive numerical techniques such as Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes simulations and large-eddy simulations for GN fluids. The work will also be helpful in improving the existing methods of designing fluid systems for GN fluids.


The paper aims to analyze the main barriers and opportunities for the modernization of the agricultural sector of Republika Srpska with a specific focus on the role of small farms. A particular attention has been given to specific elements related to the human, social, and institutional capital. Methodologically the work has been based on an extensive desk research, on the use of a field survey and on a number of personal interviews with national experts and professionals. Overall the investigation has also greatly benefited from the theoretical framework elaborated by R. Yin within the "case study methodology†.


The idea for this book came from a perceived lack of recent, instructive examples of exploration-oriented interpretations of gravity and magnetic data. The Society of Exploration Geophysicists two volumes, Geophysical Case Histories , are probably closest in philosophy to this book. Published in 1948 and 1956, many of the examples in the Case Histories are relatively dated and specific to particular areas. We hope this new book provides an update that includes lessons about gravity and magnetic exploration that can be applied to many parts of the world. The Utility of Regional Gravity and Magnetic Anomaly Maps (SEG, 1985, W.J. Hinze, editor) contains some excellent papers dealing with tectonics that have clear bearing on hydrocarbon exploration, but no paper shows the relationships among hydrocarbon accumulations, exploration, gravity, and magnetics. Geophysical texts focusing on gravity and magnetics, including L.L. Nettleton's classics, include only a few (albeit often excellent) case histories, and many are dated.

Thus, this book's target audience is geologists and geophysicists in operations offices , actively involved in exploration at any level from basin analysis to prospect generation. Although most of the papers deal with hydrocarbon exploration, several papers relate to gravity and magnetic data in mining and environmental applications. A final section is included on new developments, the state of the art.

The book is not intended for gravity and magnetics specialists (although we hope they will find it interesting), or for geophysicists interested in theory, acquisition, and processing, unless those aspects are important to the geologic exploration problem and to the decisionmaking process.

We believe that the philosophical approach to interpretation is almost as important as some aspects of a technical interpretation itself. This book reveals the diversity of philosophies that gravity and magnetic interpreters embrace, as well as the common threads to which all interpreters aspire.

This book is not a textbook, although we have tried hard to highlight the exploration lessons inherent in each technical paper. Additional instructional aspects of the book are the glossary of gravity and magnetic terms, provided by Integrated Geophysics Corporation (with assistance from Richard Hansen of Pearson, DeRidder & Johnson) and an annotated bibliography, which has pointers to the rich literature of gravity and magnetics. Other short "lessons" can be found in stand-alone illustrations or short features throughout the book.

We thank Ray Thomasson for continual encouragement, suggestions, and prodding. Reviewers, whose efforts are appreciated greatly, include Dale Bird, Bill Pearson, Mark Odegard, and several anonymous reviewers. We appreciate the help of the AAPG, especially Ken Wolgemuth, in this, the first effort at serious book publication by the coeditors.


Quantitative and Qualitative Results from Droplet Impingement Experiments on Superhydrophobic Surfaces with Micro-ribs for Three Liquid Types John T. Pearson Department of Mechanical Engineering Master of Science Experiments were performed in which liquid droplets were videographically recorded impacting horizontal superhydrophobic surfaces. The superhydrophobic surfaces were micropatterned with alternating ribs and cavities and coated with a hydrophobic coating. The following surface types were also tested for comparison: smooth uncoated, micropatterned uncoated, and smooth coated surfaces. Three liquid types were used: pure water, ethanol, and a 50/50 water/glycerine mixture. Acquired data demonstrated that the maximum droplet spread diameter exhibited a greater Weber number dependence than that previously reported in the literature. The time delays between impact and maximum spread and between impact and ejection of a vertical jet were characterized, and it was found that experiments with hydrophilic surface behavior follow somewhat different trends than those with hydrophobic behavior, and that there are modest differences between superhydrophobic and hydrophobic surfaces. When analyzing the velocity of the issuing vertical jet, a region of micro-jets was observed with velocities that, under certain conditions, can exceed 15 times the impact velocity. The experimental data acquired were also compared to two recent models from the literature and it was determined that the models do not adequately account for surface anisotropy or apparent slip at the solid-liquid interface. The experiments also showed that instabilities resulting in fingering are dependent upon surface and fluid type, but not contact angle. The onset of peripheral splashing was observed, in general, to occur at a lower Weber number as contact angle increased for the differing surfaces. For surfaces with rib and cavity features, the droplet spread and retraction were generally observed to be asymmetric with spread and retraction faster along the length of the ribs. The occurrence of two-pronged and oscillating jets for water/glycerine tests was also observed for all patterned surfaces. Lastly, an interesting spread pattern with four liquid droplets clustered at about 30° from the perpendicular direction was observed for all fluid types on patterned surfaces for high Weber numbers.


. More than 1300 glacier-like forms (GLFs) are located in Mars' mid-latitudes. These GLFs are predominantly composed of ice–dust mixtures and are visually similar to terrestrial valley glaciers, showing signs of downhill viscous deformation and an expanded former extent. However, several fundamental aspects of their behavior are virtually unknown, including temporal and spatial variations in mass balance, ice motion, landscape erosion and deposition, and hydrology. Here, we investigate the physical glaciology of martian GLFs. We use satellite images of specific examples and case studies to build on existing knowledge relating to (i) GLF current and former extent, exemplified via a GLF located in Phlegra Montes; (ii) indicators of GLF motion, focusing on the presence of surface crevasses on several GLFs; (iii) processes of GLF debris transfer, focusing on mapping and interpreting boulder trains on one GLF located in Protonilus Mensae, the analysis of which suggests a best-estimate mean GLF flow speed of 7.5 mm a − 1 ; and (iv) GLF hydrology, focusing on supra-GLF gulley networks. On the basis of this information, we summarize the current state of knowledge of the glaciology of martian GLFs and identify future research avenues.


Feature Issue on Transmission in Optically Transparent Core NetworksI propose an integrated hybrid optical node (i-HON) architecture that is designed to combine both packet-switched and circuit-switched data in an effective manner to maximize link utilization, minimize communication latencies, and improve overall performance. I demonstrate the feasibility of i-HON by proposing a single wavelength optical header encoder and self-routing binary-encoded optical header address processing. I then develop dynamic hybrid routing heuristics and adapt these to the novel dynamic reconfiguration and routing algorithms suited for asynchronous bufferless optical networks that incorporate optical routing logic. I compare the performance of the presented algorithms. I use simulation results to show that i-HON provides overall system throughput performance improvements of up to 40% with ∼50% reduction in network latency.


HEALTH INFORMATICS: A SOCIO-TECHNICAL PERSPECTIVE Sue Whetton Melbourne: Oxford University Press 2005; PB 262 pp, AUD 59.95 ISBN 019 555078 1Sue Whetton's text is a comprehensive review of the state-of-the-art of Health Informatics. The book is fairly lengthy, partly because she defines the discipline in a much broader manner than I am accustomed to. In her definition, Whetton has included everything related to data or information management that has anything to do with health care. Initially, I resisted this rather catholic approach. However, as I read on, I realised the relevance of her subtitle: A Socio-Technical Perspective. The whole point of the work is to emphasise the relevance of a socio-cultural perspective and to explore the dynamics between health informatics and the socio-cultural environment of health. Health informatics is very much Information Technology in the service of health care. It is not an end in itself; to be useful, it must engage with the users, so it is appropriate that Whetton includes all aspects of information management from accounting and staff management, clinical records, decision support systems, telemedicine and research, to surveys and consumer opinion polls.Whatever the scope of the definition, Health Informatics is here to stay. Modern Information and Communications Technology (ICT) has a habit of generating massive amounts of data. In health care, these data describe both what we know about medicine and what we do with this knowledge. In both these areas, the quantity of data is already so vast that we cannot cope with it without the aid of (increasingly powerful) computers. The potential benefits for the management of these electronic resources are exciting, and achieving such dividends as a national electronic patient record, systematic safety monitoring of medicines and seamless communication across systems is the goal of the 'health informaticiari. However, none of the various e-Health initiatives underway in Australia or overseas provide a model of success: it is clear that health informatics is a vital discipline that is rapidly evolving in the primeval soup of increasingly complex medical care and increasingly capable ICT.The author starts by reminding us of the widespread optimism common in the last century that ICT would 'break down barriers, bring economic growth and prosperity and generally enrich the lives of individuals and communities around the world'. While ICT has certainly brought great benefits in many areas, most would agree that in health care, the promises have far outstripped the results. The book provides a basis for explaining this rather disappointing situation and gives some insight into the causes of the many conflicts that have slowed the introduction of informatics in health.The discussion covers the early tensions between technocentric enthusiasm and the limitations and complexities of health care politics, resource constraints, organisational inertia and the poor management that often sabotaged worthy developments in new areas. …


Commons property is a true challenge to the law, especially in a legal context that respects individual mobility, which is key to freedom and autonomy. While a tragedy of the commons is not inevitable, the sustainability – let alone flourishing – of the commons is far from obvious either. But the rewards of the latter trajectory are critical: a successful commons property can generate significant economic benefits, due to its intrinsic advantages of economies of scale, risk-spreading, specialization, and synergy. These benefits multiply in the context of social commons property regimes that function as the loci and engines of meaningful interpersonal relationships; indeed, they at times even become constitutive elements of commoners' identities. This Essay explores examples of governance mechanisms for the collective management of resources as well as tax tools for collective production that can support the success of these social commons property regimes. These legal devices, which set (respectively) the internal rules of the game and provide external incentives, both counter the potentially destructive dynamics of the commons property and help preserve the noncommodified aspects of its owners' community.


The marriage of art and science often requires the sharing of unique characteristics. Skeletal muscle cells have provided a format in which the biology mimics the interaction of the artist and scientist within a common framework. This interaction, like the complex mechanism of fused muscle cells themselves, reveals and reminds those in both disciplines of the remarkable dynamic of movement between the two fields. This movement stimulates and rewards the artist and the scientist alike. For a scientist who works closely with artists, it is important to re-visit the fundamental concepts that drive the curiosity and stimulate the passion.


Database systems have traditionally used a Client-Server architecture, where clients send queries to a database server. If the data proves popular, the server may become overloaded, leading to clients experiencing an increase in query response time. In the domain of file-sharing, the problem of server overloading has been successfully addressed by the use of Peer-to-Peer (P2P) techniques in which users (peers) supply files – or pieces of files – to each other. This thesis will examine whether P2P techniques can be applied successfully in a database environment. It will introduce the Wigan Peer-to-Peer Database System, a P2P database system based on the popular BitTorrent file-sharing protocol. The potential benefits of a P2P database system include performance and scalability; allowing peers to answer each others' queries will reduce the load on the database server and so could overcome the problem of a busy server becoming overloaded. Other potential benefits are fault tolerance and cost reduction. The Wigan architecture is introduced in this thesis, firstly by describing the BitTorrent algorithms and then by discussing how these algorithms must be modified for use in a database system. Experiments carried out on a simulator of Wigan are analysed in order to determine factors which affect its performance. These allow the identification of scenarios where Wigan could outperform a traditional database server. Further extensions to the Wigan architecture are discussed in this thesis, including possible means of handling data updates.


Background: This promise of a patient centered medical home (PCMH) is being embraced by many, in hopes that it will improve healthcare in the United States by decreasing costs and improving patient outcomes. However, as important as cost and patient outcomes are, another integral part of the PCMH equation isn't discussed very often: the providers. How will PCMHs impact providers? This systematic review of literature will investigate the use of PCMHs and its affect on the satisfaction and burnout of providers. Methods: An exhaustive search of current medical literature was performed on Medline-OVID, EBMRCochrane Review, and CINAHL, using the keyword patient-centered medical home and the MESH terms patient centered care, job satisfaction, and burnout, professional. The references of relevant articles were screened for additional studies. Results: Two articles were found to satisfy inclusion criteria. Lewis et al was an observational retrospective cohort study which used a self-administered survey in 2010 to assess staff morale, job satisfaction, burnout, and respondents' perceptions of PCMH characteristics at 65 safety net clinics in five states. Lewis et al found that the total PCMH score was associated with higher staff morale but that the providers had less freedom from burnout as the PCMH score increased. Reid et al used a prospective, two group before and after evaluation of the PCMH pilot at Group Health, located in western Washington. Researchers compared the staff and providers at the PCMH clinic with the staff and providers at two other non-PCMH clinics. At 24-months the mean emotional exhaustion scores for the PCMH was significantly lower than the control clinics. Conclusion: Research on this topic is of low quality and is very limited with only one study assessing provider satisfaction and two studies assessing provider burnout. Though it may appear that PCMH may decrease provider burnout, conflict in the research does exist. More research is needed as PCMHs become an industry standard in the coming years. Degree Type Capstone Project Degree Name Master of Science in Physician Assistant Studies


In this Thesis I have studied the mechanisms of photo-induced processes at surfaces of nano-crystalline oxides, such as MgO and CaO. To model the photon-induced processes in MgO and CaO nano-particles, I have employed an embedded cluster approach, which combines a quantum-mechanical treatment of a site of interest with a self-consistent classical description of the remaining part of the system. The main results of this work can be summarised as follows:
1) G-tensor, absorption spectra, and formation energies of excitons, electron and hole in MgO and CaO surfaces are calculated and compared with experimental results.
It is demonstrated that low coordinated sites such as corner sites are active centre for selective absorption and emission of light with sub bulk band gap energy. By calculating adiabatic energy surfaces for the ground and several excited states, mechanisms of photo induced process in corner sites are proposed. In particular, theoretical estimates of absorption spectra and luminescence energy for these sites are provided for the first time. Results are in good agreement with experiments.
Adsorption of CI and F ion by MgO corners and terrace has been also studied. Results indicate that CI and F have shown similar behaviour, trapping an electron and producing an hole centre in the neighbour O ion on the MgO surface. Absorption spect5ra and g tensor estimates have been provided for experimental comparisons.

2) Recent experimental data clearly demonstrate that using both femto- and nano-second laser pulses with photon energies tuned to excite particular surface features at the MgO and CaO nano-cluster surfaces, one can achieve a very effective desorption of hyper-thermal atomic O and Mg species. Two main mechanisms are suggested: the double excitation process and trapping hole or electron and subsequent excitation. From the precursor excitation, trapped electron, or hole in corner ions, a further excitation can neutralize the charge of ion terminated corner and lead to desorption of atom. The adiabatic potential energy surfaces for this excited state is such that atom prefers to leave the surfaces with the maximum kinetic energy of several tenths on an eV. The surface site relaxes with the formation of an F+ or V- centre at the corner site previously occupied by the desorbed atom. Results are in good agreement with the experimental photon energies and kinetic energies of desorbed species.

3) Photo induced desorption processes can be iterated from the formed corner vacancies (mechanisms of secondary processes of desorption). Results of calculations show that subsequent excitations in Mg corner vacancy can lead to further desorption of O atom.

To summarise, I have provided mechanisms that can explain both production of electron hole centres and photo induced desorption of species. Estimates of hyperthermal kinetic energy of desorbed species have been given.


The overwhelming majority of existing domain adaptation methods makes an assumption of freely available source domain data. An equal access to both source and target data makes it possible to measure the discrepancy between their distributions and to build representations common to both target and source domains. In reality, such a simplifying assumption rarely holds, since source data are routinely a subject of legal and contractual constraints between data owners and data customers. When source domain data can not be accessed, decision making procedures are often available for adaptation nevertheless. These procedures are often presented in the form of classification, identification, ranking etc. rules trained on source data and made ready for a direct deployment and later reuse. In other cases, the owner of a source data is allowed to share a few representative examples such as class means. In this paper we address the domain adaptation problem in real world applications, where the reuse of source domain data is limited to classification rules or a few representative examples. We extend the recent techniques of feature corruption and their marginalization, both in supervised and unsupervised settings. We test and compare them on private and publicly available source datasets and show that significant performance gains can be achieved despite the absence of source data and shortage of labeled target data.


To reconstruct the already lost tectonic framework of the Early-Middle Paleozoic arc-trench system, U⊖Pb ages of zircons are analyzed using LA-ICPMS from mid-Paleozoic arc-related granitoids and sandstones in the Kurosegawa belt, SW Japan, particularly from western-central Kochi prefecture in Shikoku where the belt attains the greatest width with the greatest variations of rock types. Dated samples include Yokokurayama granite, Ohira quartz diorite, basal sandstone of Lower Silurian Gomi Formation above the Yokokurayama granite, and basal conglomerate/overlying sandstone of Upper Devonian Ochi Formation from the Yokokurayama lenticular body in western Kochi prefecture, as well as Konomori quartz diorite from the Konomori lenticular body in Kochi city. The samples of Yokokurayama granite yield many zircons of ca. 451⊖439 Ma (latest Ordovician to earliest Silurian) U⊖Pb ages, whereas Konomori quartz diorite have only one grain, plotted on Concordia curve, of ca. 382 Ma (Late Devonian). The former ages confirm Ordovician⊖Silurian arc magmatism in Japan, whereas the latter identify late Devonian magmatism for the first time. The unconformably-covering sandstone of the Gomi Formation naturally contains abundant detrital zircons of almost identical ages to the underlying granite. The basal conglomerate of the Ochi Formation contains detrital zircons from Ordovician⊖Silurian granitoids and also some Mesoproterozoic (1400⊖1200 Ma) ones, suggesting an intimate link between Paleozoic Japan and the South China block. These new zircon ages from the Kuroseagawa belt suggest that a unique magmatism occurred in the forearc of Paleozoic Japan to emplace I-type granitoids in shallower crust, possibly by the subduction of a young oceanic plate. This further suggests that the Silurian mid-arc domain changed into a forearc setting with significant tectonic erosion/removal of preexisting fore-arc crust. * 東京大学大学院総合文化研究科宇宙地球科学教室 ** 横倉山自然の森博物館 *** 国立科学博物館地学研究部 * Department of Earth Science & Astronomy, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, 153-8902, Japan ** Yokokurayama Natural Forest Museum, Takaoka, 781-1303, Japan *** Department of Geology and Paleontology, National Museum of Nature and Science, Tsukuba, 305-0005, Japan


When trained at sufficient scale, auto-regressive language models exhibit the notable ability to learn a new language task after being prompted with just a few examples. Here, we present a simple, yet effective, approach for transferring this few-shot learning ability to a multimodal setting (vision and language). Using aligned image and caption data, we train a vision encoder to represent each image as a sequence of continuous embeddings, such that a pre-trained, frozen language model prompted with this prefix generates the appropriate caption. The resulting system is a multimodal few-shot learner, with the surprising ability to learn a variety of new tasks when conditioned on examples, represented as a sequence of multiple interleaved image and text embeddings. We demonstrate that it can rapidly learn words for new objects and novel visual categories, do visual question-answering with only a handful of examples, and make use of outside knowledge, by measuring a single model on a variety of established and new benchmarks.


Background: In 2013, the American College of Cardiology (ACC) and the American Heart Association (AHA) published recommendations for lipid management incorporating a new risk score for assessment of 10-year atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, abbreviated as ASCVD scores. Statins are recommended for 4 specific groups of adults under the age of 75 years: 1) with vascular disease; 2) an LDL-C ≥ 190mg/dL; 3) with Diabetes Mellitus (DM) (and aged 40 - 75); and 4) with an ASCVD score ≥ 7.5%. Data on implementation of these recommendations among minority women are scarce. The purpose of this analysis was to examine racial differences in statin eligibility and use. Methods: Data from the Study of Women's Health across the Nation (SWAN), a prospective, multiethnic cohort study of women, ages 42-52 at time of enrollment, and were used for the present analysis. Participants who contributed data at Visit 12 (2009- 2011) were included. Women were grouped into the four groups defined by the ACC/AHA lipid guidelines. Analysis was performed using Analysis of Variance (AOV), Chi-Square and logistic regression adjusting for age, BMI, site of study and education of the participants. Results: Of the 2399 women who were included, 234 had a cardiovascular disease diagnosis, 354 had Diabetes Mellitus (DM), 53 had an LDL-C ≥ 190 mg/dL and 174 had an ASCVD risk score ≥ 7.5%. Rates of statin use among those with elevated risk was low; 49.5% of those with CVD; 61.6% of those with DM, and 13.2% of those with LDL-C ≥ 190 mg/dL. Blacks and Hispanics had the lowest rates of statin use among these three risk groups. Only 24.7% of the women with an ASCVD score of ≥ 7.5% were on a statin. Blacks were more likely to have an ASCVD risk score ≥ 7.5% than Whites (OR=5.6, confidence interval [CI] 3.5-8.8). Of statin eligible women, 18.8% of the Black women were on a statin compared to 36.4% of the White women. Though not statistically significant, Blacks were less likely to be on a statin (OR=0.57, 95% CI 0.21-1.39) compared to Whites. Conclusion: Among a large, multiethnic cohort of midlife women, women in the four groups recommended for statin therapy by the current AHA guidelines, have low rates of statin use. Rates of statin use were low across all race/ethnic groups. Minority women, in particular, Blacks were more likely to fall into one of the four groups recommended for statin use. Public health significance: One out of every six deaths in the United States is due to coronary heart disease. Eating habits and other lifestyle factors play a key role in causing heart disease. The approach for primary prevention of cardiovascular events depends on assessing the risk using various scores. Our results indicate that risk assessment using the 2013 ACC/AHA guidelines for estimating 10-year atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease risk, could lead to lower rates of cardiovascular events. Accurate identification of such people allows healthcare professionals, policymakers and others to target prevention and treatment to those at the highest risk of morbidity and mortality.


A microsensor for determination of apparent gas diffusivity in pore waters and biofilms is described. The measurement is based on diffusion from an internal gas reservoir, through an internal diffusion barrier positioned within the sensor tip and out into the surrounding medium. The concentration of the gas at the tip of the sensor is then a function of the apparent diffusivity in the medium. Hydrogen was used as a tracer gas in our test 140‐µm thick sensor, but other less reactive gasses may also be used. A mathematical model, describing the signal as a function of diffusivity, is presented; it is shown that a calibration curve can be constructed from measurements in only two media with known diffusivity, such as stagnant water and a sediment composed of microscopic glass beads. The sensor‐determined apparent diffusivities in a variety of media agree well with parallel determinations using a diffusion chamber. The signal from our 140‐µm sensor depends on the diffusivity in a spherical volume within a radius of 0.5 mm from the tip. By use of the diffusivity sensor, it is possible to obtain a much higher spatial resolution of diffusivity in sediments and biofilms than by any other nonoptical method.


Bacteria antagonistic to plant pathogenic fungi were isolated from
various sources and tested for their ability to inhibit fungi or protect
plants in vitro, in the glasshouse and in a field trial.
Five strains of bacterial antagonists were isolated from daisy roots
(Bacillus polymyxa UTl), decomposing woodchips (B. subtilis UT2),
clary sage roots (Pseudomonas cepacia UT3 and P. putida UT4) and
from white clover roots (Acinetobacter sp. UT5). In vitro, the
degree of inhibition of fungi by the five antagonists varied, with strain
UT3 showing antagonism to all fungal pathogens (Sclerotinia
sclerotiorum; S. minor; Botrytis cinerea; Pythium ultimum;
Fusarium solani; Phytophthora cinnamomi; P. cactorum;
Gaeumannomyces graminis; and Penicillium echinulatum) tested.
The action of the antagonists depended on the media used. Isolates of
UTl and UT3 were inhibitory to the fungi on both PDA and KBM; the
other strains were only inhibitory on PDA. Antifungal compounds
produced by the antagonists were thought to be responsible for
inhibiting the pathogens rather than ferric-siderophores, as addition of
iron to the media did not affect the inhibitory activity of the
antagonists.
The antagonists (strains UTl, UT2, UJ"3, UT4, and NIR-6 of P.
putida) significantly reduced wheat take-all disease in an axenic sand
assay with isolate UT3 (P. cepacia) showing the most inhibition to the
pathogen. The antagonists maintained their viability and ability to
protect the wheat roots after 3 weeks of the assay. In the glasshouse,
the five antagonists (strains UTl to UT5) reduced lettuce (La.ctuca
sativa) drop caused by either Sclerotinia sclerotiorum or S. minor
compared with their controls after 10 weeks growth. In the field
however, the antagonists did not significantly protect daisy
(Olearia phlogopappa) plants from the root rot disease caused by
Pythium sp..
Metabolites produced by strains UTl and UT3 were inhibitory to
several fungi in vitro. Strain UT3 of P. cepacia produced two types
of antibiotic designated A and B. Compound A (the main inhibitor)
was inhibitory to both fungi and bacteria tested, while compound B (the
minor inhibitor) was only inhibitory to the bacteria. The main
compound had an Rp 0.40 and the minor had an Rp 0.87 on silica gel
following development in a chloroform-methanol (7:3) solvent system.
Both had very similar retention times (between 20 and 22 minutes)
following separation by C1g reversed phase HPLC and elution with 0-
100% methanol containing 0.1 % trifluoroacetic acid. Both antibiotics
were thermostable and resistant to acidic and alkaline treatments.
Proton NMR indicated that the compound A may be an aromatic
molecule but further characterization was not possible due to
incomplete purification.


During the annealing heat treatment following cold rolling of a 304L austenitic stainless steel sheet material, the material goes through changes in microstructure and mechanical properties. The cold rolling history together with the time/temperature trajectory in the annealing furnace can be used to model the final microstructure. In this work, physically based models for recrystallization and the following grain growth was created for the prediction of the microstructure evolution-both grain size and grain size distribution-, and an artificial neural network, ANN, was added for secondary effects. This is more commonly referred to as a hybrid model. The microstructure hybrid model was tested and validated against cold rolled and annealed production sheet material of various thicknesses and reductions, where the grain size and grain size distribution was measured by Electron Back Scatter Diffraction, EBSD. The recrystallization and grain growth parameters and functionality were fitted for non-isothermal conditions, against experimental tests of cold rolled material. Given process history and time/temperature data from the annealing heat treatment, the model can predict the microstructure, average grain size and grain size distribution with high accuracy and the executing time is short which makes it suitable for in-line use.


Electricity generation for Information and Communications Technology (ICT) contributes over 2% of the human-generated CO2 to the atmosphere. Energy costs are rapidly becoming the major operational expense for ICT and may soon dwarf capital expenses as software and hardware continue to drop in price. In this dissertation, three new approaches to achieving energy-proportional operation of network links and data servers are explored.
Ethernet is the dominant wireline communications technology for Internet connectivity. IEEE 802.3az Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE) describes a Low Power Idle (LPI) mechanism for allowing Ethernet links to sleep. A method of coalescing packets to consolidate link idle periods is investigated. It is shown that packet coalescing can result in almost fully energy-proportional behavior of an Ethernet link. Simulation is done at both the queuing and protocol levels for a range of traffic models and system configurations. Analytical modeling is used to gain a deeper general insight into packet coalescing.
The architecture of a hybrid web server based on two platforms – a low-power (ARM based) and a high-power (Pentium based) – can be used to achieve step-wise energy-proportional operation and maintain headroom for peak loads. A new method based on Gratuitous ARP for switching between two mirrored platforms is developed, prototyped, and evaluated. Experimental results show that for up to 50 requests per minute, a hybrid server where the Master platform is a 2012 server-grade desktop PC can sleep for 50% of time with no increase in response time.
HTTP can be used for redirection in space – a new method for precise redirection in time is proposed and used to schedule requests to a high-power server in a hybrid server. The scheduling method is modeled as a single server queue with vacations where the vacation duration is fixed and the service distribution is directly a function of the request load. This approach is well suited for delay tolerant applications such as application updates and file back-up. Energy-proportional operation is shown to be achievable in a prototype system.
A first-order estimation with conservative assumptions on the adoption rate of the methods proposed and studied here shows that these methods can collectively enable energy savings in the order of hundreds of million dollars in the US annually.


Myocardial ischemia creates abnormal electrophysiological substrates that can result in life-threatening ventricular arrhythmias. Early clinical identification of ischemia in patients is important to managing their condition. We analyzed electrograms from an ischemia-reperfusion animal model in order to investigate the relationship between myocardial ischemia and variability of electrocardiogram (ECG) multifractality. Ventricular epicardial electropotential maps from the anesthetized pig during LAD ischemia-reperfusion were analyzed using multifractal methods. A new parameter called the singularity spectrum area reference dispersion (SARD) is presented to represent the temporal evolution of multifractality. By contrasting the ventricular epicardial SARD and range of singularity strength (Deltaalpha) maps against activation-recovery interval (ARI) maps, we found that the dispersions of SARD and Deltaalpha increased following the onset of ischemia and decreased with tissue recovery. In addition, steep spatial gradients of SARD and Deltaalpha corresponded to locations of ischemia, although the distribution of multifractality did not reflect the degree of myocardial ischemia. However, the multifractality of the ventricular epicardial electrograms was useful for classifying the recoverability of ischemic tissue. Myocardial ischemia significantly influenced the multifractality of ventricular electrical activity. Recoverability of ischemic myocardium can be classified using the multifractality of ventricular epicardial electrograms. The location and size of regions of severe ischemic myocardium with poor recoverability is detectable using these methods


This brief presents the feedforward short-time Fourier transform (STFT). This new approach is based on reusing the calculations of the STFT at consecutive time instants. This leads to significant savings in hardware components with respect to fast Fourier transform based STFTs. Furthermore, the feedforward STFT does not have the accumulative error of iterative STFT approaches. As a result, the proposed feedforward STFT presents an excellent tradeoff between hardware utilization and performance.


A total of 28 strains of Escherichia coli 0157:H7 which were originally
isolated from beef and chicken samples from various locations in Malaysia were
examined and further characterized by various molecular techniques. These
techniques include the plasmid profiling, antibiotic resistance, multiplex PeR, RAPD
pattern, PFGE, and also ERIC fingerprinting. All the strains utilized in this study were
found to exhibit a multiple antibiotics resistance pattern to the fourteen antibiotics [
bacitracin (100%), penicillin G (100%), sulphafurazole (82%), ampicillin (61%),
cephalothin (57%), carbenicillin (50%), ceftazidime (39%), erythromycin (32%),
streptomycin (18%), nalidixic acid (14%), chloramphenicol (11%), kanamycin (7%),
latamoxef (7%), and tetracycline (7%)] used. The plasmid profile obtained ranged in
sizes from 3.23 MDa to 60 MDa. Development of a PCR identification assay for
Escherichia coli 0157:H7 is based on the isolation of species-specific DNA. Two
types of specific primer encoding the Shiga-Like Toxin gene, the SLnI (584 bp) gene
and SLn (348 bp) were utilized in the multiplex PCR assay. Analysis carried out demonstrated that Escherichia coli 0157:H7 strains were positive for the presence of
single SLm gene (17.9 %) or both the SLlI and SLlII genes (82.1%). Three 50%
G+C contents 10-mer random primers, the Gen 1-50-01 (5'-GTGCAATGAG-3'), Gen
1-50-06 (5'-AGGTTCTAGC-3'), and Gen 1-50-09 (5'-AGAAGCGATG-3') were
chosen after screening through ten random primers. In PFGE technique carried out,
two kinds of restriction enzymes, the SpeI (5'-A-l,CTAGT-3') and XbaI (5'T
-l,CTAGA-3') were used to check for the in-situ DNA digestion pattern due to their
inherit advantages of the short sequence of these enzymes. Both the RAPD
polymorphism pattern and the PFGE profile obtained showed a significant
discriminatory fingerprinting among the 28 isolates under studied. A respective
dendrogram was constructed from the binary data matrix obtained from the RAPD,
PFGE and ERIC fingerprints to compare the diversity relationship among the 28
isolates. All the dendrograms were constructed utilising the RAPDistance software
package based on the data retrieved from the presence or absence of banding pattern.
ERIC genotyping technique was used as an additional molecular typing method to
further assists in the molecular characterization of the Escherichia coli 0157:H7.
Interestingly, all the three molecular techniques of RAPD, PFGE, and ERIC
genotyping showed a significant correlation whereby the first 14 and the second 14
isolates of Escherichia coli 0157:H7 used in this study showed a closer relationship in
the respective cluster groups as shown in the constructed dendrograms. From the
overall results obtained both the RAPD and PFGE analysis showed greater
discriminatory power compared to the other phenotypic and molecular
characterization techniques used in this study. Our results demonstrate that the
plasmid profiling, multiplex PCR, RAPD-PCR fingerprinting, PFGE and ERIC
profiling methods are able to act as one of the most appropriate and suitable analysistools for a rapid and reliable molecular typing and identification of Escherichia coli 0157:H7.


It sometimes seems that Germany is a country perpetually caught in the past. There are so many anniversaries that some sort of tracker is necessary to remember them all. Commemorations in 2019 included the seventieth anniversaries of the foundation of the Federal Republic and the formation of the NATO alliance, the eightieth anniversary of the outbreak of World War II, the 100th anniversaries of the Treaty of Versailles, the foundation of the Weimar Republic, and German women achieving the right to vote. In 2020, important commemorations include the seventy-fifth anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the 250th anniversaries of Beethoven's and Hegel's birth, as well as the 100th anniversary of the HARIBO company that invented gummi bears.


Alongside a growing recognition that the traditional territorialist theory is limited in its ability to deal with intensifying cross-border dealings, a pluralistic converging of a multiplicity of legal orders (including domestic) to ensure the efficacy of cross-border commercial law is emerging. The future development of a transnational legal order will reflect the intensifying interactions between diverse norms, laws, actors and institutions – mirroring not necessarily the end of the nation state - but requiring a wider loyalty beyond nation state. To understand these dynamics, this chapter will explore developments in the field of transnational arbitration by examining the evolution of relevant substantive commercial laws and procedure, key forces including global soft law-making bodies, relevant actors including the nation state, arbitrators, parties and institutions, and relevant norms and governance processes influencing the continued evolution of transnational arbitration.


Irrigation scheduling is an important issue for crop management, in a general context of limited water resources and increasing concern about agricultural productivity. Methods to optimize crop irrigation should take into account the impact of water stress on plant growth and the water balance in the plant-soil-atmosphere system. In this article, we propose a methodology to solve the irrigation scheduling problem. For this purpose, a plant-soil interaction model is used to simulate the structural-functional plant growth conditioned by water status. The system dynamics is driven by a delay differential system. By considering a price for the crop yield and for the water resource, an optimal control problem can be formulated in order to find the optimal irrigation strategy. The solution is obtained by dynamic programming. In order to handle the delay term of the system due to the continuous mechanism of plant senescence and the curse of dimensionality, the iterative approach of dynamic programming is used.


PURPOSE
This study describes the expression and distribution of arrestin, phosducin, and recoverin in the cone-dominant retina of the ground squirrel Spermophilus tridecemlineatus.

METHODS
mRNA expression was studied by blot hybridization of ground squirrel retinal RNA, with human and murine RNA as controls. The distribution of the gene products in the ground squirrel retina was investigated by immunocytochemistry using radial and consecutive tangential sections.

RESULTS
Northern blot hybridization showed messages for arrestin (1.9 kb), phosducin (1.4 kb), and recoverin (1.2 kb) in ground squirrel retinal RNA. Both controls showed transcripts of the same or similar sizes. Rod-like cells and blue cones were stained by antibodies against arrestin and phosducin. The arrestin antiserum stained the whole cell bodies, most intensely in the myoid region, whereas phosducin immunoreactivity was confined to the outer and inner segments, which were stained with approximately equal intensity. The strongest immunoreaction was found in the photoreceptor plasma membrane. Recoverin antibodies recognized the entire soma of all photoreceptor cells. The myoid region and the synaptic pedicles were most heavily stained. No light-dependent migration was observed with either antiserum in any photoreceptor type.

CONCLUSION
The presence of arrestin immunoreactivity in rod-like cells and blue cones is consistent with previous reports on other mammals. However, it has not been reported previously that phosducin immunoreactivity is distributed in the same way. The colocalization of arrestin and phosducin in rod-like cells and blue cones is yet another trait distinguishing blue cones from red and green cones.


Due to its unique properties, graphene oxide has become one of the most studied materials of the last decade and a great variety of applications have been reported in areas such as sensors, catalysis and biomedical applications. This comprehensive volume systematically describes the fundamental aspects and applications of graphene oxide. The book is designed as an introduction to the topic, so each chapter begins with a discussion on fundamental concepts, then proceeds to review and summarize recent advances in the field. Divided into two parts, the first part covers fundamental aspects of graphene oxide and includes chapters on formation and chemical structure, characterization methods, reduction methods, rheology and optical properties of graphene oxide solutions. Part Two covers numerous graphene oxide applications including field effect transistors, transparent conductive films, sensors, energy harvesting and storage, membranes, composite materials, catalysis and biomedical applications. In each case the differences and advantages of graphene oxide over its non-oxidised counterpart are discussed. The book concludes with a chapter on the challenges of industrial-scale graphene oxide production. Graphene Oxide: Fundamentals and Applications is a valuable reference for academic researchers, and industry scientists interested in graphene oxide, graphene and other carbon materials. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. All rights reserved.


We test analytic predictions from different models of magnetospheric accretion, which invoke disk-locking, using stellar and accretion parameters derived from models of low-resolution optical spectra of 36 T Tauri stars (TTSs) in NGC 2264 (age ∼3 Myr). Little evidence is found for models that assume purely dipolar field geometries; however, strong support is found in the data for a modified version of the X-wind model which allows for non-dipolar field geometries. The trapped flux concept in the X-wind model is key to making the analytic predictions which appear supported in the data. By extension, our analysis provides support for the outflows predicted by the X-wind as these also originate in the trapped flux region. In addition, we find no support in the data for accretion-powered stellar winds from young stars. By comparing the analysis presented here of NGC 2264 with a similar analysis of stars in Taurus (age ∼1–2 Myr), we find evidence that the equilibrium interaction between the magnetic field and accretion disk in TTS systems evolves as the stars grow older, perhaps as the result of evolution of the stellar magnetic field geometry. We compare the accretion rates we derive with accretion rates based on U-band excess, finding good agreement. In addition, we use our accretion parameters to determine the relationship between accretion and Hβ luminosity, again finding good agreement with previously published results; however, we also find that care must be taken when applying this relationship due to strong chromospheric emission in young stars, which can lead to erroneous results in some cases.


We present complementary multiscale X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) mapping and Raman spectroscopy to analyze pigments in a rare medieval Breton manuscript. Once a codex of 129 parchment leaves in the Bergendal Collection (olim MS 8), the manuscript was sold at auction and then subsequently dismembered page-by-page. The leaves were then disseminated on the open market by the biblioclast. The analysis was performed on 12 illustrated leaves (samples) out of the 92 which were recovered by Rare Books and Special Collections at the University of Notre Dame. The combination of elemental mapping with molecular spectroscopy permits an unprecedented analysis of the illuminations in the manuscript. XRF scanning provides both elemental analysis of large-scale objects as well as microscopic examination of individual pigment particles. The XRF mapping indicates distinctive elemental distributions within specific regions of interest. Raman spectroscopy of these selected areas identifies the molecular composition of the pigments. This combination of analytical techniques provides an in-depth characterization of the Breton manuscript on the macro, micro- and molecular levels. The results from different leaves confirm that pigments and inks of illustrated leaves belong to the same palette. The results also show the pigments utilized in illustrations, text, and borders are identical indicating that the manuscript was prepared in a single setting, by a single artisan or a small number of artisans working closely.


Device drivers today lack two important properties: guaranteed safety and cross-platform portability. We present an approach to incrementally achieving these properties in drivers, without requiring any changes in the drivers or operating system kernels. We describe RevEng, a tool for automatically reverse-engineering a binary driver and synthesizing a new, safe and portable driver that mimics the original one. The operating system kernel runs the trusted synthetic driver instead of the original, thus avoiding giving untrusted driver code kernel privileges. Initial results are promising: we reverse-engineered the basic functionality of network drivers in Linux and Windows based solely on their binaries, and we synthesized safe drivers for Linux. We hope RevEng will eventually persuade hardware vendors to provide verifiable formal specifications instead of binary drivers; such specifications can be used to automatically synthesize safe drivers for every desired platform.


KGoldrunner is a puzzle-oriented platform game with dynamic elements. This paper describes Goldspinner, an automatic level generation system for KGoldrunner. Goldspinner has two parts: a genetic algorithm that generates candidate levels, and simulations that use an AI agent to attempt to solve the level from the player's perspective. Our genetic algorithm determines how "good" a candidate level is by examining many different properties of the level, all based on its static aspects. Once the genetic algorithm identifies a good candidate, simulations are performed to evaluate the dynamic aspects of the level. Levels that are statically good may not be dynamically good (or even solvable), making simulation an essential aspect of our level generation system. By carefully optimizing our genetic algorithm and simulation agent we have created an efficient system capable of generating interesting levels in real time.


A contact service in a municipality is a place where the citizens can apply for processing of their claims concerning municipal jurisdiction. Examples could be application for a place at pre-school, planning permission or change of dustbin etc. The clerks at the contact centre should be able to provide immediate service in most of the matters. This requires the work-process for each matter to be known. Before starting of a contact service this knowledge existed in the administration for the actual claim. In many cases it was tacit and not described. This paper discusses the problem of making this knowledge explicit and described in order to be used at the contact service. Issues concerning work organisation, personnel and job satisfaction are recognised, but not in focus. Instead our focus lies on the work content, processing of the claims, which the clerks are dealing with. It is a qualitative study, based upon three existing contact services and one, which is in the design phase. We start with a brief discussion of different types of knowledge, related to classical epistemologies within the organisation area (Nonaka & Takeuchi, Brown & Duguid, Cook & Brown, Polyani, etc). Based upon empirical material from the cases we identify some typical knowledge categories. It might be general knowledge about rules, procedures and such things; it might be experience-based knowledge from previous claims, typical claims and work praxis developed over time. It might also be knowledge about the specific citizen and about the specific application. But it can also be totally new categories. Two categories we are pretty sure to identify are matter-oriented knowledge, concerning the actual matter and procedural knowledge, concerning the processing of the matter-oriented knowledge. In our previous research about work-flow four levels have been identified and we suspect the same basic reasoning might apply here.


Evidence from Earth Observation Satellites is an edited collection analysing emerging legal issues surrounding the use of satellite data as evidence. It considers whether data from satellite technologies can be a legally reliable, effective evidential tool in contemporary legal systems.