1. In twenty normal subjects and five patients with disturbances of potassium balance, the potassium concentration in leucocytes was measured by a modified technique. 2. The precision of the method was three to four times greater than that of techniques previously described, with a coefficient of variation for duplicate analyses of 2.3%. 3. A comparison between intraleucocyte potassium concentration and total body potassium in five patients with pathological alterations in their potassium balance showed that intracellular potassium concentration may reflect the clinical state better than total body potassium.


Lepidopteran larvae are often brightly colored to signal their distastefulness to predators. Within most species, there is usually a degree of individual variation in color patterns that has rarely been studied. Here we report observations, across several years, of larval Queen butterflies ( Danaus gilippus ) in the state of Texas, USA that appeared highly unusual with respect to their color pattern. Queen larvae normally have alternating bands of dark and light stripes and yellow spots, but the Texas caterpillars had patterns of violet-red bands alternating with white bands and minimal yellow spots, giving them an overall red and white appearance. To put these observations into context, we conducted a survey of color patterns of this species by evaluating postings of online photographs from around the country (n=57). In online images, the base color (non-white stripes) of the species was predominantly black (80% of cases), but varied from dark purple to violet. The survey results suggested that the observations of unusual larvae in Texas may represent an extreme form from a naturally occurring, wide spectrum of color patterns in this species.


Reducing income inequality is, in the eyes of many, one of the major political issues of this time. The conventional political approach to reduce income inequality is to raise taxes for the wealthy and redistribute the proceeds to the poor. This approach finds support in the economic literature, which postulates that redistribution through the tax system is more efficient than through the legal system. I argue instead that the legal system is intrinsically superior at reducing income inequality — at least to the extent that inequality is not caused by effort or talent differences but by rents (profits that would not have been earned in a perfectly competitive and transparent economy). The legal system is superior because it can address the specific market failures that make rents possible. This way, it can prevent income inequalities from occurring in the first place — an ex ante approach. The income tax system, by contrast, tries to correct a problem ex post — after it has already occurred. Rents can be seen as implicit commodity taxes, the proceeds of which go to private individuals or companies rather than to the government; just like explicit commodity taxes, they cause labor and price distortion. Legal rules that prevent rents therefore reduce labor and price distortion. Income taxes, by contrast, increase labor distortion and leave the price distortion unaffected. They are less efficient at redistributing income because they are an overly broad instrument, treating income from rents and hard work alike. This finding has major implications. The first is that trade-offs between equity and efficiency should be made in the legal system whenever legal rules generate or reduce rents. The second is that rents (and 'windfalls') should be considered as costs, rather than as zero-sum effects, in law and economics models.


This work is an ethnography about raving. As such, it is based on the
author's actual, inter-subjective and historical experience of that
contemporary international social phenomenon in Britain and in Goa (India)
during the late 1980s and 1990s. It is written from the position of an involved,
participating subject over time. This ethnographic approach and the emphasis
placed upon subjective experience, history and knowledge 'from
within' throughout the work is aimed, critically speaking, at tendencies
within contemporary forms of anthropology which favour academic
introspection, inter-textuality, textual notions concerning social life and overinterpretation.
This commitment to ethnography is also used in the final
section of the work, within a critical-historical appreciation of the discipline,
to argue for a re-statement of Malinowski's radical 'science' of ethnography in
the face of a routinisation of 'science' as a legitimating discourse within the
discipline during the twentieth century.
Furthermore, the ethnographic approach is also set out, in a way which
attempts to make the work relevant not only to practitioners of anthropology,
as a way of producing public knowledge and accounts of social life which are
very different, ethically and politically, from those produced within other
public practices and contexts, such as by the media and government agencies.
Representations and accounts produced by such public agencies are situated
and questioned in the work through attaching them, as loaded products, to
Michel Foucault's political notion of modern 'governmentality ' Within
such a politicised account of representation, the author has used long-established,
humanist notions surrounding the practice of ethnography,
regarding participation and empathy, in order to produce accounts of
raving as a human social practice. These humanised and politicised
accounts of the phenomenon are offered as a contrast to the predominating
public accounts of the practice, produced through distanced and disinterested
discourses, which mainly focus upon its ability to animate certain powerful
social categories and forms of exclusion, such as 'the criminal' and 'the addict',
and socio-political discourses, such as that on 'drugs' and 'the war against
drugs'. This contrast, and the opposition and demand for human tolerance
it expresses, forms part of a wider project within the work which resists dehumanisation;
that is, the treatment of human beings and their practices in
terms of self-serving discourses (monologues) as opposed to the humanising
and politicising effects of experience, interaction and
empathy/understanding (dialogue).

Within this general framework surrounding the politics and ethics
of representation, other areas which are explored are the position/role
of the anthropologist and the use of subjectivity within the
research process, the use of creative writing as a source of
humanised ethnographic knowledge about diverse social worlds, and an
exploration into the possible uses…


Low-level endotoxemia has been identified as a powerful risk factor for atherosclerosis. However, little is known about the mechanisms that regulate endotoxin responsiveness in vascular cells. We conducted experiments to compare the relative responses of human coronary artery endothelial cells (HCAEC) and smooth muscle cells (HCASMC) to very low levels of endotoxin, and to elucidate the mechanisms that regulate endotoxin responsiveness in vascular cells. Endotoxin (≤1 ng/ml) caused production of chemotactic cytokines in HCAEC. Endotoxin-induced cytokine production was maximal at LPS-binding protein:soluble CD14 ratios <1, typically observed in individuals with subclinical infection; higher LPS-binding protein:soluble CD14 ratios were inhibitory. Endotoxin potently activated HCASMC, with cytokine release >10-fold higher in magnitude at >10-fold lower threshold concentrations (10–30 pg/ml) compared with HCAEC. This remarkable sensitivity of HCASMC to very low endotoxin concentrations, comparable to that found in circulating monocytes, was not due to differential expression of TLR4, which was detected in HCAEC, HCASMC, and intact coronary arteries. Surprisingly, membrane-bound CD14 was detected in seven different lines of HCASMC, conferring responsiveness to endotoxin and to lipoteichoic acid, a product of Gram-positive bacteria, in these cells. These results suggest that the low levels of endotoxin associated with increased risk for atherosclerosis are sufficient to produce inflammatory responses in coronary artery cells. Because CD14 recognizes a diverse array of inflammatory mediators and functions as a pattern recognition molecule in inflammatory cells, expression of membrane-bound CD14 in HCASMC implies a potentially broader role for these cells in transducing innate immune responses in the vasculature.


This chapter will consider two related but independent questions. The first question concerns epidemiology: Is the prevalence of violence to others any higher among people who have a major mental disorder than among people who do not? The second question concerns risk assessment: Among people who have a major mental disorder, how can those who will be violent in the future be distinguished from those who will not? These questions are related because the assumed answer to the first, that the prevalence of violence to others is indeed higher among people who have a major mental disorder than among people who do not, is what often motivates the asking of the second. They are independent because it is possible to be interested in the epidemiological question without being concerned with risk assessment (e.g., in studying the stigma of mental disorder) and possible to be interested in risk assessment without being concerned with epidemiology (e.g., if people with mental disorder are less competent to make decisions than people without it [Grisso & Appelbaum, 1998], interventions based on risk assessments may be justified even if violence was less prevalent among people with mental disorder than among other people). In attempting to answer both of these questions, I will not be exhaustive in my citation of evidence. That has been done elsewhere (Monahan, 1997). Rather, I will focus on what I consider the most important recent (i.e., 1990–2000) research and commentary that bear on these issues.


Girl's dress of calico in print of blue, green and gold flowers on red background. Square neckline trimmed in lace with three rows of narrow, black velvet ribbon. Elbow-length sleeves trimmed in matching lace and velvet ribbon. Full length, with dropped waist. Center front opening with five mother-of-pearl buttons and barred buttonholes; snap at bottom of opening. Bodice lined in muslin; sleeves and skirt unlined.

Tag at center back neckline: "105"


Background Computed tomography (CT) of patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) disease depicts the extent of lung involvement in COVID-19 pneumonia. Purpose The aim of the study was to determine the value of quantification of the well-aerated lung obtained at baseline chest CT for determining prognosis in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia. Materials and Methods Patients who underwent chest CT suspected for COVID-19 pneumonia at the emergency department admission between February 17 to March 10, 2020 were retrospectively analyzed. Patients with negative reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) for SARS-CoV-2 in nasal-pharyngeal swabs, negative chest CT, and incomplete clinical data were excluded. CT was analyzed for quantification of well aerated lung visually (%V-WAL) and by open-source software (%S-WAL and absolute volume, VOL-WAL). Clinical parameters included demographics, comorbidities, symptoms and symptom duration, oxygen saturation and laboratory values. Logistic regression was used to evaluate relationship between clinical parameters and CT metrics versus patient outcome (ICU admission/death vs. no ICU admission/ death). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) was calculated to determine model performance. Results The study included 236 patients (females 59/123, 25%; median age, 68 years). A %V-WAL<73% (OR, 5.4; 95% CI, 2.7-10.8; P<0.001), %S-WAL<71% (OR, 3.8; 95% CI, 1.9-7.5; P<0.001), and VOL-WAL<2.9 L (OR, 2.6; 95% CI, 1.2-5.8; P<0.01) were predictors of ICU admission/death. In comparison with clinical model containing only clinical parameters (AUC, 0.83), all three quantitative models showed higher diagnostic performance (AUC 0.86 for all models). The models containing %V-WAL<73% and VOL-WAL<2.9L were superior in terms of performance as compared to the models containing only clinical parameters (P=0.04 for both models). Conclusion In patients with confirmed COVID-19 pneumonia, visual or software quantification the extent of CT lung abnormality were predictors of ICU admission or death.


Feminism and Popular Culture maps the fraught and often unpredictable relationship between popular culture, feminism and postfeminism. From the shadowy city spaces of Mad Men and Homeland to the dystopic suburbia of The Stepford Wives and American Horror Story, the authors trace the maniacal career women, hysterical housewives and amnesiac daughters who roam the postfeminist landscape. Through recourse to these figures, they are able to illuminate postfeminism's obsessive resuscitation of seemingly anachronistic models of femininity and ask why these should today be gilded with new appeal. Analysing postfeminism s historical slippages and haunted temporalities, the book both takes account of the complex ways in which popular culture negotiates ongoing debates within and about feminism, and explores its implications for feminism's future.


The first in‐depth revision of a lacustrine freshwater mollusc fauna of the Serbian Lake System (SLS) is carried out. We describe and discuss well‐preserved faunas from two localities in central and southern Serbia (Mađere and Medoševac), along with the reinvestigation of type material of several species described in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Our revision yields 14 species of gastropods, with the families Hydrobiidae (six species) and Planorbidae (four species) being most abundant, along with one species each of Neritidae, Melanopsidae, Bithyniidae and Bulinidae, as well as two dreissenid bivalve species. Three of the hydrobiid gastropods are new to science, Prososthenia milosevici sp. nov., Prososthenia? naissensis sp. nov., and Prososthenia rundici sp. nov., and so is the bivalve Trigonipraxis madjerensis sp. nov. The present study results in 12 lectotype designations, 10 new generic combinations, and 10 new junior synonyms. About four‐fifths (81.3%) of the species are endemic to the SLS, which is slightly higher than the overall SLS endemism (71.4%). The composition at the genus and family level overlaps strongly with the slightly older faunas of the Dinaride Lake System in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as that of the late Miocene Lake Pannon. Its stratigraphically intermediate position and geographical proximity suggest that the SLS was a stepping stone for many of the mollusc lineages, some of which are found only in those systems.


We begin by briefly examining the achievements of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, and offering it as the model and motivator for the creation of the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems (RLE). The history of the RLE concept within IUCN is briefly summarized, from the first attempt to formally establish an RLE in 1996 to the present. Major activities since 2008, when the World Conservation Congress initiated a "consultation process for the development, implementation and monitoring of a global standard for the assessment of ecosystem status, applicable at local, regional and global levels," have included: development of a research agenda for strengthening the scientific foundations of the RLE, publication of preliminary categories and criteria for examination by the scientific and conservation community, dissemination of the effort widely by presenting it at workshops and conferences around the world, and encouraging tests of the system for a diversity of ecosystem types and in a variety of institutional settings. Between 2009 and 2012, the Red List of Ecosystems Thematic Group of the IUCN Commission on Ecosystem Management organized 18 workshops and delivered 17 conferences in 20 countries on 5 continents, directly reaching hundreds of participants. Our vision for the future includes the integration of the RLE to the other three key IUCN knowledge products (IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, World Database on Protected Areas and Key Biodiversity Areas), in an on-line, user-driven, freely-accessible information management system for performing biodiversity assessments. In addition we wish to pilot the integration of the RLE into land/water use planning and macro-economic planning. Fundamental challenges for the future include: substantial expansion in existing institutional and technical capacity (especially in biodiversity-rich countries in the developing world), progressive assessment of the status of all terrestrial, freshwater, marine and subterranean ecosystems, and development of a map of the ecosystems of the world. Our ultimate goal is that national, regional and global RLEs are used to inform conservation and land/water use decision-making by all sectors of society.


This study reports the phytochemical constituents and anti-diarrhoeal potentials of leafextracts of Corchorus olitorius Linn. (Malvaceae) and that of aerial part of Scoporia dulcis Linn. (Lantaginaceae) in rats. Samples were collected in December, 2016 from Nnewi-ichi, Nnewi, Anambra State and Mandara-Abdu, Biu- Borno State, Nigeria, respectively. The phytochemical screening of the C. olitorius and the aerial part of S. dulcis extracts were conducted using standard methods; the results revealed the presence of cardiac glycosides, flavonoids, free and combined reducing sugar and tannins. Saponins was only found in S. dulcis. The diarrhoea was induced in rats by castor oil-induced method. The rats were grouped into 3 rats of 5 groups for each extract; groups I and II served as negative and positive control, while groups III, IV and V as treatment groups. The results showed a non-dose dependent but significant (p<0.05) effects with the lowest mean number of defecations at 6.67±1.70 and 10.33±0.94; and highest protections of 75.00% and 61.27% respectively at the same dose of 300 mg/kg bd. wt. for C. olitorius and S. dulcis. Comparatively, C. olitorius showed significantly (p<0.05) low severity of diarrhoea relative to S. dulcis. Thus, it showed reduction in the faecal output and protection of the rats from diarrhoea induced by castor oil. These observed results could explain their use as anti-diarrhoeal agents in African Traditional Medicine especially in Nigeria where the plants are used.


Background: Wood charcoal has been the primary fuel for cooking in Ethiopia because it is cheap and easily avialable.However, using wood charcoal has consequences on health and pollution because of smoking. This study aims at providing a biomass as an alternative to wood charcoal using agricultural wastes (dry leaves, coffee husk, sugarcane trash, grass, etc) converted into charcoal briquettes to provide much needed source of cheap fuel that is cleaner in burning. Methods: Simple extruder machine is used as die to make the briquette charcoal.Moreover, an effective carbonizer to change the agricultural waste into charcoal and an effective stove to burn and use the charcoal for cooking is used. Results: The manual extruder machine has a capacity of pressing 30kg/hr and the carbonizer converts 15kg of input agricultural wastes into 5kg of burned charcoal with in 25 minutes. The stove is effective so that three meals are cooked at a time using 100g briquette charcoal. Conclusion: As compared to wood charcoal the charcoal briquette produced from agricultural wastes are economical, environmentally friendly, healthy (no smoke at all) and reduce impact of deforestation. Key words: Pollution, deforestation, extruder, carbonizer, wood charcoal, briquette charcoal, agricultural wastes, pyrolysis


The erosion of the cohesive layers of particulate matter that causes discolouration in water distribution system mains has previously been modelled using the Prediction of Discolouration in Distribution Systems (PODDS) model. When first proposed, PODDS featured an unvalidated means by which material regeneration on pipe walls could be simulated. Field and laboratory studies of material regeneration have yielded data that suggest that the PODDS formulations incorrectly model these processes. A new model is proposed to overcome this shortcoming. It tracks the relative amount of discolouration material that is bound to the pipe wall over time at each of a number of shear strengths. The model formulations and a mass transport model have been encoded as software, which has been used to verify the model's constructs and undertake sensitivity analyses. The new formulations for regeneration are conceptually consistent with field and laboratory observed data and have potential value in the proactive management of water distribution systems, such as evaluating change in discolouration risk and planning timely interventions.


The European Union faces a fundamental dilemma. On the one hand, pressure to reform its structures is growing. The hard negotiations with Greece in summer 2015 have revived the debate on deepening the Eurozone, while at the same time London is pushing to roll back integration, at least for itself. On the other hand, national governments reject any moves that would require a treaty change (such as transfer of powers) as politically impossible. Legal options for evading the dilemma and developing the Union by "covert integration" do exist, but these require unanimous political agreement among all the national governments – and would in the medium term require treaty changes to restore transparency and democratic legitimacy.


In this Master Thesis Work (TFM), the proposal is to study some aspects of the stability, like flutter effects, over a small space launcher (less than 100 kg including propellant and payload). This mini-launcher is called Wiki-Launcher and it is part of a space mission done by the Wikisat team. This team is participating in the N-Prize competition that consists of designing a femto-satellite (Less than 20 grams) and injecting it into orbit by a home-made launcher that costs less than 1,000 Pounds Sterline before September, 2012. Flutter is a kind of self-excited aeroelastic unstable phenomenon where the safety of the flight vehicles may be threatened. Flutter can be catastrophic once it occurs and must be avoided. Thus it is mandatory to verify the flutter boundary of the flight launcher by performing wind-tunnel and flight tests, which always consume plenty of time and money. Efficient and effective flutter prediction methods are in demand so as to accelerate the process of tests, as well as ensuring the safety during the tests. The flutter boundary of a mini-launcher is predicted using the data-based parametervarying model. The core algorithms are the well-developed linear fraction transform (LFT) and μ-analysis. Compared with the former model-based μ method, this approach requires less model information and is easier to handle. In this thesis, we try to check if this method is able to be implemented in a low cost way for the Wiki-Launcher that could be extended to other larger launchers.


Einstein's theories of relativity piqued public curiosity more than any other mathematical concepts since the time of Isaac Newton. Scientists and non-scientists alike struggled, not so much to grasp as to believe the weird predictions of relativity theory--shrinking space ships, bending light beams, and the like. People all over the world watched with fascination as Einstein's predictions were relentlessly and unequivocally verified by a hundred experiments and astronomical observations. In the last decade of the twentieth-century, another of Einstein's theories has produced results that are every bit as startling as the space-time contractions of relativity theory. This book addresses his other great theory, that of heat capacity and the Bose-Einstein condensate. In doing so, it traces the history of radiation and heat capacity theory from the mid-19th century to the present. It describes early attempts to understand heat and light radiation and proceeds through the theory of the heat capacity of solids. It arrives at the theory of superconductivity and superfluidity--the astonishing property of some liquids to crawl spontaneously up and out of their containers, and the ability of some gases to cause light to pause and take a moment's rest from its inexorable flight forward in time. Couched in the terminology of traditional physical chemistry, this book is accessible to chemists, engineers, materials scientists, mathematicians, mathematical biologists, indeed to anyone with a command of first-year calculus. In course work, it is a collateral text to third semester or advanced physical chemistry, introductory statistical mechanics, statistical thermodynamics, or introductory quantum chemistry. The book connects with mainstream physical chemistry by treating boson and fermion influences in molecular spectroscopy, statistical thermodynamics, molecular energetics, entropy, heat capacities (especially of metals), superconductivity, and superfluidity.


Australian state and federal governments have funded business incubators since the early 1990s, the typical purpose of this investment being to provide a nurturing environment for business start-ups while contributing to local economic development. However, this summation of the functions of business incubation does not identify an essential dichotomy concerning the goals of incubator sponsors.
Business incubators depend upon a range of stakeholders (including board members, managers and tenants) for their initial establishment, and subsequently, in their ongoing operation. A review of the extant literature suggests the presence of a 'research gap' in the literature. This 'gap' indicates a failure to consider the goals, benefits and costs accruing to, or being borne by, Australian business incubator stakeholders, especially those involved in boards of management, this group, usually without recompense, providing ongoing governance, mentoring, business advice and other essential services to their incubators.
The literature review provided the necessary background which allowed the researcher to develop a conceptual framework for the study acting as the foundation of the thesis. The research involves qualitative and quantitative methodology. In the first instance, a series of interviews of incubator board members, managers and tenants was completed and documented. Material derived from the interviews, along with internet sourced information, provided a qualitative data base of Australian incubation practice supporting the development of an e-mail survey that was distributed throughout the incubator industry. A series of propositions were tested using survey response material, interpretation including a descriptive investigation followed by bivariate and multivariate analysis.
This study has identified a link between institutional and stakeholder theories in the business incubation sector. The findings, concerning some issues, indicate that incubator stakeholders – particularly board members and managers – are satisfied that they are achieving their goals. However, tenant respondents, possibly due to the differing goals and composition of the tenant cohort, indicate that their goal achievement expectations are not being realised.


Phosphorylation is the most important post-translational modification of proteins in eukaryotic cells and it is catalysed by enzymes called kinases. The balance between protein phosphorylation and dephosphorylation is critical for the regulation of physiological processes and its unbalance is the cause of several diseases. Label-free biosensing techniques can provide improved devices for high throughput drug discovery platforms. We have developed two versatile methods to detect the release of protons (H+) associated with the protein phosphorylation catalysed by kinases [1]. The first approach is based on the pH-sensitive response of oxide semiconductor interfaces and the second method detects the pH changes in phosphorylation reaction using a commercial micro pH electrode. Detection on pH-sensitive silicon nitride (Figure 1) shows a remarkably high sensitivity and response. A good correlation was observed between our hypothesis and the experimental results. Using phosphorylation of myelin basic protein by PKC-α kinase as a case study, silicon nitride based electrolyte insulator semiconductor capacitor structures revealed a change in gate voltage of 37 mV upon phosphorylation as compared to less than 2 mV in control experiments wherein kinase activity was inhibited. The commercial micro-pH meter detected a low change, at around 1.5% of change in pH as compared to the change in pH observed on Si3N4. This is because direct detection of pH variations is challenging due to the buffering capabilities of the solution and the technological difficulties in developing stable micro-pH electrodes. Nevertheless it is still able to significantly distinguish between the phosphorylated and non-phosphorylated sample proved by statistical analysis. These techniques can be readily adopted for multiplexed arrays and high throughput analysis of kinase activity, which will represent an important innovation in biomedical research and drug discovery.


QQ China features interactive and connective online channels that generate social relational resources, encourage individual engagement, and facilitate embedded economic potential. The objectives of this research are to describe QQ users' demographics and virtual behavior characteristics, to identify the underlying dimensions of relational social capital and virtual engagement, and to investigate the impacts of social capital and virtual engagement on purchase intention. Results from an analysis of data (n = 216) from China reveal the significant impacts of relational social capital and virtual engagement on purchase intention. First, functional purchase motivations, channel usage, and purchasing behaviors are captured to portray characteristics among QQ's users. Second, trust, identification, and norm of reciprocity are primary antecedents to predict purchase intention in QQ. Third, three dimensions of relational social capital facilitate QQ users' virtual engagements. Finally, information seeking and knowledge creation leads to product purchase intention.


Abstract. The need for a unifying scale anchor for isotopes of CO2 in air was brought to light at the 11th WMO/IAEA Meeting of Experts on Carbon Dioxide in Tokyo 2001. During discussions about persistent discrepancies in isotope measurements between the worlds leading laboratories, it was concluded that a unifying scale anchor for Vienna Pee Dee Belemnite (VPDB) of CO2 in air was desperately needed. Ten years later, at the 2011 Meeting of Experts on Carbon Dioxide in Wellington, it was recommended that the Jena Reference Air Set (JRAS) become the official scale anchor for isotope measurements of CO2 in air (Brailsford, 2012). The source of CO2 used for JRAS is two calcites. After releasing CO2 by reaction with phosphoric acid, the gases are mixed into CO2-free air. This procedure ensures both isotopic stability and longevity of the CO2. That the reference CO2 is generated from calcites and supplied as an air mixture is unique to JRAS. This is made to ensure that any measurement bias arising from the extraction procedure is eliminated. As every laboratory has its own procedure for extracting the CO2, this is of paramount importance if the local scales are to be unified with a common anchor. For a period of four years, JRAS has been evaluated through the IMECC1 program, which made it possible to distribute sets of JRAS gases to 13 laboratories worldwide. A summary of data from the six laboratories that have reported the full set of results is given here along with a description of the production and maintenance of the JRAS scale anchors. 1 IMECC refers to the EU project "Infrastructure for Measurements of the European Carbon Cycle" ( http://imecc.ipsl.jussieu.fr/ ).


In this paper we describe a corpus, the Lancaster-Leverhulme Corpus of Children's Writing, which is nearing completion at Lancaster University. The corpus has proved a particularly challenging one to construct, as the age range covered by the corpus, 8–11 years of age, is one in which literacy is still very much developing. As a result we have had to make a wide range of transcription decisions related to such issues as spelling and general corpus encoding. Our response to the data has been to develop a set of minimal encoding principles for the transcription of handwritten data. Additionally, to ensure that as much information as possible from the original is preserved, we are digitally scanning as well as transcribing the children's projects, making this a multimedia corpus.


Effective capacity, which provides the maximum constant arrival rate that a given service process can support while satisfying statistical queueing constraints, is analyzed in a multiuser scenario. In particular, the effective capacity region of fading multiple-access channels in the presence of quality of service (QoS) constraints is studied. Perfect channel side information is assumed to be available at both the transmitters and the receiver. It is initially assumed that the transmitters send the information at a fixed power level and, hence, do not employ power control policies. Under this assumption, the performance achieved by superposition coding with successive decoding techniques is investigated. It is shown that varying the decoding order with respect to the channel states can significantly increase the achievable throughput region. In the two-user case, the optimal decoding strategy is determined for the scenario in which the users have the same QoS constraints. The performance of orthogonal transmission strategies is also analyzed. It is shown that for certain QoS constraints, time-division multiple access can achieve better performance than superposition coding if fixed successive decoding order is used at the receiver side. In the subsequent analysis, power control policies are incorporated into the transmission strategies. The optimal power allocation policies for any fixed decoding order over all channel states are identified. For a given variable decoding-order strategy, the conditions that the optimal power control policies must satisfy are determined, and an algorithm that can be used to compute these optimal policies is provided.


Cotton lint trash is a serious problem in the textile industry. The principle upon which this research is based is that different materials have different spectral absorption, excitation, and emission characteristics. Although white-light imaging is widely used to detect colored foreign-matter contaminants, or "trash", it is almost useless for detecting white trash. The objective of the research described in this paper was to achieve the best trash detection result possible in the spectral range from 250 to 850 nm. Diffuse reflection spectroscopy indicated that the differences in gray value between lint and white trash become significant in the ultraviolet (UV) range, especially from 250 to 350 nm. Fluorescence spectroscopy gave reliable evidence that the UV-induced fluorescence intensity of white trash is much stronger than that of lint. To detect several types of trash simultaneously, the interaction of white-light imaging and UV-induced fluorescence imaging was studied. To avoid the spectral interference caused by white light in fluorescence imaging, a novel method—an alternating imaging detection method—is proposed. Experiments indicated that the advantages of both white-light imaging and UV-induced fluorescence imaging were preserved in the method. The novel method could effectively detect both colored and white trash in real time. This method can also be applied to trash detection in seed cotton, wool, tea leaf, and tobacco leaf.


The enzyme gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT) has been investigated in detail, with respect to both its catalytic action and its involvement in amino acid translocation across cell membranes. A novel source of this enzyme was discovered, Caco-2 cell monolayers which show similar characteristics to those of the small intestine. The catalytic action of the enzyme in the cells, was shown to be similar to that of an isolated purified GGT, (bovine kidney) obtained commerical1y. The Caco-2 cell monolayers were used as an in vitro model to study the translocation of amino acids and dipeptides across these biological membranes. The movement of selected substrates was studied using radiochemical techniques. These studies strongly suggest the existence of two distinct transport pathways: an active pathway which is unidirectional, carrier-mediated, saturable, temperature dependent and some way dependent on GGT; a second translocation pathway which is passive, bidirectional, temperature independent and not directly affected by GGT. This evidence is the strongest thus far, to suggest the involvement of GGT, in the translocation of amino acids. However, it cannot be established if GGT is directly involved, ie: via the gamma-glutamyl cycle or whether indirectly via the catalytic formation of a 'messenger' which regulates the passive pathway. A series of gamma-glutamyl donors, acceptors and inhibitors, were synthesised and used to probe the active site of the catalytic action of this enzyme. Studies of the two halves of the ping-pong mechanism via a gamma-glutamyl-enzyme intermediate allowed probing of the gamma-glutamyl donor and the acceptor site respectively. Evidence for three distinct binding sites was shown, which could be fitted to the shape of glutathione, probably the natural donor. The gamma-glutamyl donor was shown to be non-stereospecifc, although its specificity towards chain length was shown to be greater than 104, with respect to ?-aspartyl and gamma-glutamyl. The site was shown for the first time to require both an a-amino and an a-carboxylic acid functional group to undergo binding. The only type of gamma-glutamyl donors were those with a secondary gamma-amide bond. In contrast the acceptor site was shown to be stereospecific, only allowing L-isomers to undergo transpeptidation, while only requiring an a-amino and an a-carbonyl group. The acceptor capability of a particular substrate, is dependent upon two factors. Firstly the pK of its a-amino group, since the pH of the solution will determine the amount of free base present, which is able to attack the gamma-glutamyl-enzyme intermediate. The second factor is governed by its structure, if it binds only to the acceptor or whether it binds to both the acceptor and gamma-glutamyl binding sites, thus inhibiting. It was also demonstrated that substrates which are able to interact with the carboxy terminus binding site, ie: the third site, have a cooperative effect on the gamma-glutamyl binding site, thus stimulating the hydrolysis of donors. Such compounds include maleic acid, N-acetyl-glycine, aminoacyl-glycines and certain donors ie: glutathione and gamma-glutamyl-p-nitroani1ide.


Toppling analysis of a precariously balanced rock (PBR) can provide insight into the nature of ground motion that has not occurred at that location in the past and, by extension, can constrain peak ground motions for use in engineering design. Earlier approaches have targeted 2D models of the rock or modeled the rock–pedestal contact using spring‐damper assemblies that require recalibration for each rock. Here, a method to model PBRs in 3D is presented through a case study of the Echo Cliffs PBR. The 3D model is created from a point cloud of the rock, the pedestal, and their interface, obtained using terrestrial laser scanning. The dynamic response of the model under earthquake excitation is simulated using a rigid‐body dynamics algorithm. The veracity of this approach is demonstrated through comparisons against data from shake‐table experiments. Fragility maps for toppling probability of the Echo Cliffs PBR as a function of various ground‐motion parameters, rock–pedestal interface friction coefficient, and excitation direction are presented. These fragility maps indicate that the toppling probability of this rock is low (less than 0.2) for peak ground acceleration (PGA) and peak ground velocity (PGV) lower than 3  m/s^2 and 0.75  m/s, respectively, suggesting that the ground‐motion intensities at this location from earthquakes on nearby faults have most probably not exceeded the above‐mentioned PGA and PGV during the age of the PBR. Additionally, the fragility maps generated from this methodology can also be directly coupled with existing probabilistic frameworks to obtain direct constraints on unexceeded ground motion at a PBR's location.


It is often stated that electricity systems need further development in order to include the ambitious amount of renewable energy. Smart Grids are seen as an enabler for an electricity market with increased benefits for both consumers and environment. From a system level perspective, many advantages could be achieved by implementing these innovative technologies. Smart Grids are expected to be more flexible and could result in that expensive investments can be avoided. Furthermore, implementing smart metering could give consumers possibilities to obtain a better understanding of their own electricity consumption. The information could also help consumers to react on price signals by adjusting their consumption patterns. Increased knowledge usually increase awareness and could therefore be positive for energy efficiency activities.In order to investigate the potential for increased consumer participation in the electricity market with respect to demand-response and micro generation, a new evaluation method is proposed. In the project "Increased consumer power on the Nordic electricity market" large-scale energy intervention scenarios are being applied.The purpose of this it paper is to describe this methodology, its' relation to other methods and the foreseen benefits to increase knowledge on the potential of demand-side participation in wider areas (e.g. cities and regions). In the experiment different social, economic and environmental incentives are evaluated in order to understand how they influence electricity consumption behaviour in the short term. The design of this new methodology is based on vast experiences of energy consumption surveys in residential consumer segment, feedback studies, focus groups and other consumer interaction methods.


Two main simulation methodologies namely, the network-based simulation and the graphical simulation technique are being used in the construction industry. While the network-based simulation technique, which was originally developed for manufacturing processes, is very tedious, complex, and time consuming, the graphical simulation technique is taking many forms and it is gaining more support within the construction industry. The graphical simulation technique, which was originally derived from what is called the Visual Interactive Simulation (VIS). Tthe Virtual Reality (VR) technology may be used to model, design, and simulate construction operations. There are some attempts in that direction, however, these attempts have either been or are being made within research institutes and large construction companies where expensive computer hardware were purchased and sophisticated software were developed. There is no indication that these attempts were made on non-expensive computer workstations or on the PC platform. This paper describes some state of the art techniques by which construction operations (such as earth removing operations, material handling, manipulating building components.. etc.) can be modeled, visualized, and graphically simulated in real-time 3D environments on the PC. The construction industry will benefit from this study since it introduces new software and hardware technologies that are capable of delivering comparable workstation performance on the PCs at a fraction of the cost.


Understanding public attitudes towards using animals for medical experimentation and the issues that cause public concern is of importance scientifically, economically and ethically. Although national opinion poll data appear to provide enough evidence to propose the hypothesis that 'the majority of people in Britain support animal research' it is clear from reviewing the literature that the attitudes of young people have not been adequately explored. Furthermore, the ethical considerations and scientific understanding underpinning such attitudes are also poorly understood. It is also clear that we have little comprehension of how ethnic minority groups in our society view animal experimentation (AE).
The aim of this study is therefore to acquire a contemporary, comprehensive understanding of young people's perceptions of AL This is pursued by means of a custom made questionnaire that also seeks to explore knowledge/understanding and
values/belief systems within a cross-cultural context. Qualitative aspects of the study, both verbal and pictorial, enrich the quantitative data generated, allowing a unique insight into how young people articulate their attitudes towards AE.
The findings from this study reveal that young people hold a diverse array of attitudes towards AE. Their support is dependent on animal species, which for non-Islamic respondents appears to be based on traditional Western considerations of phylogenic hierarchy. For Islamic respondents, however, attitudes towards certain animals diverge from this phylogenic classification, being driven instead perhaps by traditional cultural relationships with animals. Cross-cultural differences of how animals are viewed were also apparent when value typologies were measured. Scales to assess the human-animal
bond and instrumental attitudes towards animals demonstrate that Islamic respondents have a less emotional attachment to animals, viewing them more instrumentally. The human-animal relationship scales reveal no such differences.
Young people appear to have a poor knowledge base regarding issues surrounding AE and have a negative image of animal welfare within research facilities. These perceptions correlate with attitudes towards AE and hence suggest that there is a need for greater communication between scientists and lay people regarding this issue. When compared with other scales measuring instrumental uses of animals, Islamic respondents supported AE to a lesser extent than might have been expected, which may reflect a lower level of general medical understanding.
Gaining a greater understanding of young people's perceptions of AE is not only important in its own right but may also be of general benefit in the arena of public understanding of science. The recommendations from this study therefore suggest
routes to strengthen scientific communication in regard to the issue of AB that might also be applicable to more general areas of science.


I know of no other autobiography in American letters who celebrates and sings her life with as much verve and display of vulnerability.' With this acknowledgement of Maya Angelou's unique achievement, Dolly McPherson reveals her place within the Black autobiographical tradition. With fascinating insights into Maya Angelou's life and creativity, and a shrewd examination of her techniques and recurring themes, Dolly McPherson provides us with a picture of this extraordinary woman's life and a reading of these rich autobiographical writings. She remarks too on Maya Angelou's exceptional ear, her recording of the precise, vivid a word and phrase, and on the warmth and humour in her writing. The book closes with an interview between these two great friends - a wonderful epilogue to this picture of a greatly admired woman.


Wetlands in West Africa are among the most vulnerable ecosystems to climate change. West African wetlands are often freshwater transfer mechanisms from wetter climate regions to dryer areas, providing an array of ecosystem services and functions. Often wetland-specific data in Africa is only available on a per country basis or as point data. Since wetlands are challenging to map, their accuracies are not well considered in global land cover products. In this paper we describe a methodology to map wetlands using well-corrected 250-meter MODIS time-series data for the year 2002 and over a 360,000 km2 large study area in western Burkina Faso and southern Mali (West Africa). A MODIS-based spectral index table is used to map basic wetland morphology classes. The index uses the wet season near infrared (NIR) metrics as a surrogate for flooding, as a function of the dry season chlorophyll activity metrics (as NDVI). Topographic features such as sinks and streamline areas were used to mask areas where wetlands can potentially occur, and minimize spectral confusion. 30-m Landsat trajectories from the same year, over two reference sites, were used for accuracy assessment, which considered the area-proportion of each class mapped in Landsat for every MODIS cell. We were able to map a total of five wetland categories. Aerial extend of all mapped wetlands (class "Wetland") is 9,350 km2, corresponding to 4.3% of the total study area size. The classes "No wetland"/"Wetland" could be separated with very high certainty; the overall agreement (KHAT) was 84.2% (0.67) and 97.9% (0.59) for the two reference sites, respectively. The methodology described herein can be employed to render wide area base line information on wetland distributions in semi-arid West Africa, as a data-scarce region. The results can provide (spatially) interoperable information feeds for inter-zonal as well as local scale water assessments.


Macroeconomists have been caricatured either as credulous savants in love with the beauty of their mathematical models or as free-market fundamentalists who admit no doubt as to the marketOs wisdom. In this book, Kartik Athreya draws a truer picture, offering a nontechnical description of prominent ideas and models in macroeconomics, arguing for their value as interpretive tools as well as their policy relevance. Athreya deliberately leaves out the technical machinery, providing students new to modern macroeconomics as well as readers with no formal training in economics or mathematics--including economic writers and policymakers--with an essential guide to the sometimes abstract ideas that drive macroeconomistsO research and practical policy advice. Athreya describes the main approach to macroeconomic model construction, the foundational Walrasian general equilibrium framework, and its modern version, the Arrow-Debreu-McKenzie (ADM) model. He then explains the reasons for the relevance of this model for interpreting real-world outcomes, and lays out the so-called Fundamental Theorems of Welfare Economics. In the heart of the book, Athreya shows how the Walrasian approach shapes and unifies much of modern macroeconomics. He details models central to ongoing macroeconomic analyses: the neoclassical and stochastic growth models, the standard incomplete-markets model, the overlapping-generations model, and the standard search model. AthreyaOs accessible primer traces the links between the views and policy advice of modern macroeconomists and their shared theoretical approach.


The peculiar dilemma of the self in our era has been noted by a wide range of writers, even as they have emphasized different aspects of that dilemma, such as the self s alienation, disorientation, inflation, or fragmentation. In "The Self: Beyond the Postmodern Crisis, "Paul C. Vitz and Susan M. Felch bring together scholars from the disciplines of psychology, philosophy, theology, literature, biology, and physics to address the inadequacies of modern and postmodern selves and, ultimately, to suggest what an alternative, transmodern account of the self might look like. The transmodern self, the editors argue, acknowledges meaning and purpose transcending the individual. In other words, it reflects an understanding of the human person that is not only intimately connected with the Judeo-Christian tradition but also rejects the twin delusions of absolute autonomy and cosmic meaninglessness that mark the present age."


The analysis of student access to learning management systems and web-based lecture capture systems is a growing area of interest for teachers in higher education wishing to improve the student learning experience. The data trails left by students as they engage in these environments can be accessed and analysed for meaning. This paper describes a study conducted as part of a wider multi-university study into student study behaviour. It offers a detailed snapshot of four students whose access to Lectopia recordings were tracked and analysed, and who were subsequently interviewed to confirm or disconfirm assumptions made about their study methods from the analysis. The data revealed that a surface analysis using learning analytics was largely insufficient to determine student study characteristics, but qualitative data provided rich information to supplement the analysis. Suggestions are made for further research into how this emerging methodology can be further developed and strengthened.


A spherical mirror, autocollimating plane grating monochromator is described which is compact, stable, and exhibits spectral resolution which is better than 50 percent of the theoretical value. The spectrometer is 30 inches long and uses a 3-in. wide grating with 30,000 lines/inch. The optical system, although not in use in any modern spectrometer, was described by Ebert in 1889. The aberration corrective arrangement of the spherical mirror leaves only astigmatism as a serious aberration. The use of curved slits to remove this effect of astigmatism is described.The mechanical-optical system is described in detail, and use of the instrument with a photomultiplier tube to record visible and ultraviolet emission spectra is described. Spectra are presented which demonstrate a second-order spectral resolution of 0.05A in the visible and ultraviolet region.


When the police suspect a driver is breaking the law, the Fourth Amendment allows them to stop the car. This means compelling the driver to bring the car to a halt. Sometimes a car stop will lead to further investigation, searches, and even arrests. What will these stops look like when people no longer drive their cars and police officers no longer pursue them by driving their own? Autonomous cars are not yet commonplace, but soon they will be. Yet little attention has been paid to how autonomous cars will change policing. The issue matters enormously because today police spend a lot of time stopping cars. For instance, the most common contact most adults in the United States have with the police takes the form of a traffic stop. Vehicles equipped with artificial intelligence and connected both to the internet and one another may be subject to automated stops. The issue is already being discussed as a theoretical possibility and as a desirable policing tool. This essay considers the law and policy issues that will arise when car seizures become remote and automated.


This book provides a biographical view of Texas and its history. The book uses many narratives of the individuals who helped shape Texas history. The book also includes profiles of: the public school system in Texas; banking; the public school system; the State Fair; the Cotton Industry; oil history; and histories of select towns, such as Dallas, Fort Worth, Wichita Falls, Burkburnett, Ellis County, Waco, San Antonio, Galveston, and many others.


We present the properties of NGC 4993, the host galaxy of GW170817, the first gravitational-wave (GW) event from the merger of a binary neutron star (BNS) system and the first with an electromagnetic (EM) counterpart. We use both archival photometry and new optical/near-IR imaging and spectroscopy, together with stellar population synthesis models to infer the global properties of the host galaxy. We infer a star formation history peaked at ago, with subsequent exponential decline leading to a low current star formation rate of 0.01 yr−1, which we convert into a binary merger timescale probability distribution. We find a median merger timescale of Gyr, with a 90% confidence range of . This in turn indicates an initial binary separation of , comparable to the inferred values for Galactic BNS systems. We also use new and archival Hubble Space Telescope images to measure a projected offset of the optical counterpart of 2.1 kpc (0.64re) from the center of NGC 4993 and to place a limit of mag on any pre-existing emission, which rules out the brighter half of the globular cluster luminosity function. Finally, the age and offset of the system indicates it experienced a modest natal kick with an upper limit of ∼200 km s−1. Future GW–EM observations of BNS mergers will enable measurement of their population delay time distribution, which will directly inform their viability as the dominant source of r-process enrichment in the universe.


Transcripts encoding the Drosophila putative transcription factor CF2 are subject to developmentally regulated alternative splicing, and they encode protein isoforms that differ in the number of zinc fingers. One testis-specific RNA encodes an isoform that includes three zinc fingers and a frame-shifted segment. Two other transcripts encode isoforms with six and seven zinc fingers which bind to distinct promoters and DNA target sequences. Thus, because of alternative splicing, a single gene appears to encode distinct DNA-binding proteins, each capable of regulating different gene sets in different tissues and developmental periods.


High-degree, low-precision polynomial arithmetic is a fundamental computational primitive underlying structured lattice based cryptography. Its algorithmic properties and suitability for implementation on different compute platforms is an active area of research, and this article contributes to this line of work: Firstly, we present memory-efficiency and performance improvements for the Toom-Cook/Karatsuba polynomial multiplication strategy. Secondly, we provide implementations of those improvements on Arm® Cortex®-M4 CPU, as well as the newer Cortex-M55 processor, the first M-profile core implementing the M-profile Vector Extension (MVE), also known as Arm® Helium™ technology. We also implement the Number Theoretic Transform (NTT) on the Cortex-M55 processor. We show that despite being singleissue, in-order and offering only 8 vector registers compared to 32 on A-profile SIMD architectures like Arm® Neon™ technology and the Scalable Vector Extension (SVE), by careful register management and instruction scheduling, we can obtain a 3× to 5× performance improvement over already highly optimized implementations on Cortex-M4, while maintaining a low area and energy profile necessary for use in embedded market. Finally, as a real-world application we integrate our multiplication techniques to post-quantum key-encapsulation mechanism Saber


Title: Depicted Signs and Depictions as Signs – Common Reasons for Iconology and Semiotics The aim of this article is to describe some common reasons and origins of modern Icono-logy and Semiotics, and to question the dichotomy which is sometimes made between these disciplines. When emblematics and iconology were established in the Sixteenth Century, first with Andreas Alciatus' Emblemata and later with Caesare Ripa's Iconologia, poetic imagery and rhetorical figures were primary points of reference. Rather than separating visual and verbal capacities, these authors merely affirmed that both visible pictures and spoken or written words could communicate the same images. An antagonism between iconology and semiotics was hardly possible until modern linguistics separated the study of language systems from the study of symbolic systems. The denotation and the connotation, as defined in studies of language systems, have however been compared to Erwin Panofsky's primary and secondary levels of subject matter, respectively. This study rather concludes that the place of denotation in iconological analysis would be the secondary or iconographic level. Differently put, the depiction of signs in iconography could structurally be compared to the depiction or visual denotation as sign. In this manner, common reasons for a systematic approach can be found both in the early beginnings and in recent developments of iconology and semiotics. The reasons may however be different than previously conceived.


Manufacturing companies generally seek to develop management practices demand and establish a productive strategy enabling reduction of storage costs and possible productivity gain. The objective of this research is to develop and apply a mathematical model to minimize production costs and storage of inventories of raw materials and finished products, considering the possibility of holding the postponement of stocks in companies in the printing industry. The research method adopted was applied nature, with a quantitative approach with exploratory and descriptive purpose. The technical procedures adopted were bibliographic, documentary analysis and mathematical modeling. From real data from companies in the printing industry, the results obtained with the model application, the volumes of production, from raw materials to be purchased for the production costs, and production time involved, were validated by professional firms studied. With the application of the mathematical model in the companies studied, it was possible to compare the results obtained with the model and those provided by the companies surveyed. This allowed an analysis of the behavior of the developed model and the possible influence on the productive strategy of each company, with regard to the formulation of manufacturing strategy and its influence on the acquisition of raw materials and the storage of finished products. Another result achieved was to develop a model in Excel that can be used by companies of all sizes and can prove to be an interface between the ERP and APS.


Motivation and Objectives Altered species distributions, the changing nature of ecosystems and increased risks of extinction all have an impact on important areas of social concern. Biologists and environmental scientists are asked to provide decision support for managing biodiversity components of our environment at multiple scales (genomic, organismal, habitat, ecosystem, landscape, etc...) to prevent and mitigate such losses. The BioVeL project (www.biovel.eu) is aspires to address these needs by offering a series of robust and reliable web services that could be managed with the tools suite of the myGRID project. The project proposes the building of workflows exploiting these services to ensure best practice and efficiency of use. These workflows provide the end users the capabilities to execute application easily accessible through several kind of resources such as EGI grid infrastructure, local batch farm or dedicated servers. Within the first round of services produced by the project, here we describe the phylogenetic inference workflows. Phylogenetic inference is a summary of the evolutionary history of a group of organisms. The topology summarizes the relationships among the organisms, while branch lengths summarize the expected changes along a given section of them (Felsenstein, 2004). Therefore, phylogeny can be used as a basic tool to summarize biodiversity, categorize groups of organisms and study the impact of environmental change on biodiversity. Unfortunately, almost all phylogenetic methods are computationally intensive and sensitive to misuse (i.e bad model choice could cause high support for wrong answer). For that, this workflow offers an easy way to use phylogenetic services that will allow a broad adoption of best phylogenetic inference practices in the current work of biodiversity scientists including not only ecologists and environmental scientists (Honeycutt et al., 2010) but also medical doctors interested in studying patients' biome (Cho and Blaser, 2012; Delzenne et al., 2011). In particular, in the field of environmental sequencing processing biosequences within a phylogenetic context is a preliminary step for both taxonomic annotation and inferring evolutionary process from sequences within or across samples. The usage of well designed workflow into Taverna workflow management system (Hull et al., 2006), is the key advantage of this work, as it will allow the end users to manage the execution of complex algorithms with simple interaction such as configuring simple parameters (input files and execution options), while the workflow will ensure the use of quality control steps and flag problematic inference at both the alignment level and then at the phylogenetic step itself. It is important to note that, the implementation of the workflow within a workflow engine and editor publicly available, as in the myGRID suite of tools, allow two important practices to be implemented: 1) detailed peer review of the protocol implemented in a given work and 2) flexible update and/or modification of the workflow by the users without a specific coding capacities. Methods The workflow starts from a user defined list of biosequences (DNA/Amino Acids), access an alignment Web Service that implement HMMER3 align algorithm (Eddy, 2011) and uses, conditioned on the biosequences as queries, the correct PFAM as guiding profile chosen with 'HMMER3 scan' function. Using a supplied user threshold, DNA or Amino acids sites with lower posterior probability are filtered out. The alignment loaded in the workflow engine is then formatted to Nexus format. The MrBayes (Huelsenbeck et al., 2001; Altekar et al., 2004) model block is built following user supplied request, while the MCMCMC (Metropolis-coupled Markov Chains Monte Carlo) numerical integration options are in part specified by the user and in other part are fixed to maximize MPI efficiency on the farm system. MCMCMC numerical integration convergence is assessed by GeoKS (Battagliero et al., 2011) software that estimates burn-in value and the reached convergence based on the tree parameter. The convergence information is back supplied to MrBayes to produce summary statistics submitted successively to the workflow. To control the molecular evolution model fit to the data, a web service implements a posterior predictive test within the software HyPhy (Pond et al., 2005) which uses as input the samples from the posterior distribution to simulate 200 data sets and compare the original data entropy with the distribution of simulated ones. The workflow is built within Taverna Workflow Management System, each of the described steps are executed in a distributed computational environment like EGI grid infrastructure. This is possible because we have built a REST-FUL web service that exploits the usage of JST (Job Submission Tool) (DeSario et al. 2009; Tulipano et al. 2011) in order to submit and monitor the jobs over the grid. In this work we will show how the same web service built in Java and deployed over Tomcat server could be used to submit different applications and all procedures used to ensure the correct execution of the requested runs. We will also describe workflows provided to the final users and how they could help to use the grid infrastructure. Results and Discussion The use of JST helps in the management of jobs submitted to all computing infrastructure, and enables the Web Services to use all resources that are needed from the users. In these workflows, indeed, the user could need different computing resources: grid EGI infrastructure, local batch facilities and dedicated servers. By means of those workflows and the use of JST, the end user could exploit all the resources in a transparent and easy way. To solve the problem of staging input and output, we choose a WebDav server in order to keep the interaction between the users and the service as simple as possible. In fact using the WebDav protocol the user could mount directly the remote server as a local file-system on his own personal computer, allowing a very easy transfer of single files or entire directory with a simple drag&drop. The solution described in this work will allow also the very end user to exploit the power of a computing grid infrastructure like EGI, without the complexity of learning a new interface. Indeed, the community of BioVel, as many others communities are used to have Taverna as the only interface for their research. Expressing the high level formalization of the algorithm in a workflow language, allows scientists interested in setting up algorithm's parameters but not expert in grid technology to improve and update the system, and in same time non-expert scientists to use those services. In fact, using workflows, researchers could only focus the effort on scientific activities instead of learning complex procedures to execute their applications, and once the workflow is developed all others researchers can re-use a part of it or the entire workflow to build ad-hoc application according to their needs. Acknowledgements We would like to thanks FP7 funding that with the grant 283359 made possible this work References Altekar G, Dwarkadas S, Huelsenbeck JP, Ronquist F (2004) Parallel metropolis coupled Markov chain Monte Carlo for Bayesian phylogenetic inference. Bioinformatics 20, 407-415. Battagliero S, Puglia G, Vicario S, et al. (2011) An Efficient Algorithm for Approximating Geodesic Distances in Tree Space. Ieee-Acm Transactions on Computational Biology and Bioinformatics 8, 1196-1207. Cho I, Blaser MJ (2012) APPLICATIONS OF NEXT-GENERATION SEQUENCING The human microbiome: at the interface of health and disease. Nature Reviews Genetics 13, 260-270. De Sario G, Tulipano A, Donvito G, Maggi G, Gisel A (2009) High-throughput Grid computing for Life Sciences. In: M. Cannataro editor. Handbook of Research on Computational Grid Technologies for Life Sciences, Biomedicine, and Healthcare. Delzenne NM, Neyrinck AM, Backhed F, Cani PD (2011) Targeting gut microbiota in obesity: effects of prebiotics and probiotics. Nature Reviews Endocrinology 7, 639-646. Eddy SR (2011) Accelerated Profile HMM Searches. Plos Computational Biology 7. Felsenstein J. 2004. Inferring Phylogenies. Sinauer Associates, Sunderland, Mass. 580pp. Honeycutt LR, Hillis DM, Bickham JW (2010) Molecular approaches in natural resource conservation and management eds. DeWoody JA, Bickham JW, Michler CH, et al. Cambridge University Press. Huelsenbeck JP, Ronquist F, Nielsen R, Bollback JP (2001) Evolution - Bayesian inference of phylogeny and its impact on evolutionary biology. Science 294, 2310-2314. Hull D, Wolstencroft K, Stevens R, et al. (2006) Taverna: a tool for building and running workflows of services. Nucleic Acids Research 34, W729-W732. Pond SLK, Frost SDW, Muse SV (2005) HyPhy: hypothesis testing using phylogenies. Bioinformatics 21, 676-679. Tulipano A., Marangi C., Angelini L., Donvito G., Cuscela G., Maggi G., & Gisel A. (2011). GRID distribution supports clustering validation of large mixed microarray data sets. EMBnet.Journal, 17 (1), pp. 18-25. Note: Figures and tables are available in PDF version only.


The design for sustainability in colombia

Colombia, one of the countries in the world with the greatest wealth in natural resources (Arbelaez-Cortes, 2013; Sanchez, 2002), it has presented an unprecedented deterioration in the last two decades of multiple factors, of which, for the purposes of this research project will expose the lack of strategies to train professionals that respond to complex socio-environmental problems. (Marquez, 2001; Posada, 2007; Sanchez, 2002).

To attack this problem, Colombia has implemented the National Policy of Environmental Education (PNEA) and "Bases for a quality policy of higher education in Colombia", both strategies are committed to environmental research from different disciplines and their close relationship with the training processes, seeking in this way that the proposals respond to problems of the real context. (Molano Nino & Herrera Romero, 2011) .

Regarding the program of industrial design, its history at the national level begins with courses taught in 1966 and formalized between 1973 and 1977 (Camacho-lotero, 2014; Fernandez, 2008), subsequently and hand in hand with the trend of environmentalization of the disciplines (Andrade Vicente, Frazao, & Moreira da Silva, 2012; Ceschin & Gaziulusoy, 2016; Fuad-Luke, 2009; Luffiego Garcia, 2000). Design of the SiNaDi is a national program created, seeking to "generate the necessary conditions to advance towards an inclusive and sustainable society culturally, environmentally and economically" (Torres, 2015,p.45). This new vision of the program has demanded changes of pedagogical paradigms (De Miguel, 2005) and consequently academic courses of eco-design began to appear in the different curriculum of the design programs supported in the experiences of the exterior (Tukker, Haag, & Eder, 2000), in all cases, there have been valuable contributions but lacking an articulation with the national reality". For this reason, the research question is posed: IS IT POSSIBLE TO DEVELOP A TOOLKIT THAT SUPPORTS TRAINING PROCESSES IN DESIGN FOR SUSTAINABILITY, RECOGNIZING THE PARTICULARITIES OF THE COLOMBIAN CONTEXT? Based on this premise, the process discussed below is addressed.

About the dsxc toolkit

According to Geli de Ciurana (2005) "The environmentalization of curriculum university should consider" complex thinking, flexibilization, and curricular permeability, contextualization (time and space), constructivism, consideration of cognitive, affective and action aspects of people, integration of theory and practice, critical and projective thinking, didactic development and better spaces for participation". Starting from this premise, the DSxC is designed as a toolkit that supports academic processes of the sustainable design by grouping, organizing and presenting 10 different methodological frameworks, under the premise that the participants build their own process.

Therefore, to group and organize the methodological frameworks, a review of 10 of the methodologies is carried out (Shedroff, 2009) around Design for Sustainability considering first of all those that address the problems in a systemic way (Aguayo, Estela, Lama, & Soltero, 2011; Bovea & Perez-Belis, 2012; Ceschin & Gaziulusoy, 2016; Crul, Diehl, & Delft University of Technology, 2007a; de Pauw, 2015; Jones, 2014; Navarro, Rizo, Ceca, & Ruiz, 2005; Pigosso, McAloone, & Rozenfeld, 2015): PRODUCT SYSTEM SERVICE DESIGN FOR SUSTAINABILITY -SPSSDE-, SYSTEM DESIGN, BIOMIMICRY, CRADLE -TO- CRADLE –C2C-, CIRCULAR DESIGN , METHOD OF SCENARIOS -BACKCASTING-, HUMAN CENTERED DESIGN -HCD-, LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT – LCA -, DESIGN FOR EXCELLENCE -DFX- and PERMACULTURE.

Regarding the Colombian context, the COLOMBIAN ATLAS FOR SUSTAINABILITY is developed in which is presented all the collected information -government platforms,
studies, statistics, reports, big data- that allow a first approach to understanding the context according to the tool and the methodologies exposed.

On the second hand, to present the DSxC toolkit, researching and analysis of similar tools has been carried out (Crul, Diehl, & Delft University of Technology, 2007b, Guild, 2011, IDEO.org, 2008, Starkey, 2016, Vezzoli et al. ., 2014) in the search for the best possibilities for the presentation of information to the university academic community; This analysis shows the need to propose a physical document that presents the generalities of the process supported in a virtual platform that delves into detail the information of interest.

About the methodological frameworks and their contributions

After reviewing the methodologies, the following assessments are briefly concluded: THE SYSTEMIC DESIGN (Luigi & Bistagnino, 2009) provides principles and strategies to understand complex situations with a strong focus from visual communication; the SSPSDE (Vezzoli et al., 2014) is a rigorous and systemic exercise that presents a large number of strategies focused on the design of products associated with services; the CRADLE TO CRADLE -C2C- (McDonough & Braungart, 2002) implements a vision from closed production cycles and corporate responsibility; BIOMIMICRY (Benyus, 2002) provides a conceptual framework based on natural principles; HUMAN CENTERED DESIGN -HCD- (IDEO.org, 2008) Its main focus is the collaborative work, specifically in the methods to identify and characterize the actors as well as how to relate and make them participants in the project; DFX -DESIGN FOR EXCELLENCE- (Watson, Radcliffe, & Dale, 1996) is a compendium of functional strategies designed for the different phases of the life cycle of the product that can be used during the conceptualization and verification stage; LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT (Orrego, 2012) it is a widely used methodology with multiple approaches whose main objective is the analysis of negative impacts; CIRCULAR DESIGN (Moreno, De los Rios, Rowe, & Charnley, 2016) focuses on the development of proposals under the criteria of the circular economy; the BACKCASTING (Mendoza, Sharmina, Gallego-Schmid, Heyes, & Azapagic, 2017) allows us to plan a future scenario based on desirable variables including the prospective planning to achieve it, and finally the PERMACULTURE (Mollison et al., 1991) with its deep vision about sustainability provides an ideological course.

In total, 264 methods belonging to the 10 methodologies have been reviewed and categorized, of which 69 are concentrated in the research stage, 68 in the concept stage, 60 in the detail stage and 21 for the delivery stage, adding 46 design principles for the SSP approach. These are cataloged to facilitate the decision of the applicator in different criteria such as presence of online format, degree of complexity, degree of intervention,
execution time, qualitative/quantitative approach and use according to CVP, it is also grouped into sub phases of the DSxC ; in RESEARCH, it focuses on context, actors, problems/needs, case studies, and results; in CONCEPT, systems concept, systems design, SSP concept and results; in DETAIL, SSP design, evaluation, detail design and results; and finally in DELIVERY, planning, media strategy, iterations and results.

Dsxc, a kit "step by step"

In practice, the kit has 2 complementary versions: printed and online, the printed version is a quick guide and infographic with presentation of basic concepts about methodologies and their processes, list of methods, advice and warnings of use, and the online version which presents a detailed extension of the topics, links to the primary sources, links to the free formats -creative commons- downloads and multimedia supports. See table 2.
Participants in the process receive a step-by-step explanation on their first approach with the kit, then they begin to acquire the basic knowledge needed to develop a sustainable design process, once they obtain these pre-knowledge, they must choose the criteria for the development of the process – see Table 1-, then start the "process construction" selecting the methods according to the design phases. Throughout the process, the kit will accompany the participants by providing context data, advice, warnings, links, etc.

Conclusions

Education for sustainability from the academic processes typical of industrial design should be oriented to work on real processes -this criterion would imply a knowledge of the local realities in which it develops-, a limited time -defined by academic times-, a constructivist vision -allow the student to be part of the construction and supported in didactic processes that facilitate the implementation of scientific theory- this, together with the appropriation of the community in the territory, the university social responsibility and the capacity of the students in the generation of SPS that stimulate the sustainable growth of society.


"Judicial restraint" is not a well-defined term. Sometimes it is just an all-purpose term of praise for judges who have reached decisions that the speaker likes, in the same way that "judicial activism" is often an epithet used for decisions that the speaker dislikes. (1) But it might be possible to give at least some minimum content to "judicial restraint." Let's say that, at a minimum, "restrained" judges are careful about not letting their views of policy or morality displace the law. If you believe in judicial restraint in that sense, then you should not be an originalist. You should firmly reject originalism, at least in the form in which most self-identified originalists today define it. (2) Instead, you should adopt a view that emphasizes the role of precedent in constitutional law. I'll go further. Whatever judicial restraint means, if you are a conservative today, you should be deeply skeptical of originalism. Instead, you should be receptive to a precedent-based view of constitutional law. (3) There is a paradox here. (4) A couple of generations ago, many people would have thought it obvious, true almost by definition, that both judicial restraint and conservatism mean adherence to precedent. Precedent keeps judges from going off in a direction of their own choosing; (5) cut judges loose from precedent, and you invite unrestrained adjudication. As for conservatism, precedent is a matter of adhering to what has gone before, of conserving what has been done in the past. So, according to a common definition of conservatism, (6) adherence to precedent should be a core conservative view. Today, there are conservatives who would say that adhering to tradition is not the core of conservatism. (7) Even for conservatives who take that view, though, originalism, at least today, is a bad match. Let me begin by addressing originalism and explaining why originalism is not a viable alternative to a precedent-based approach. This is true at least for an originalist approach to our Constitution, because nearly all of the controversial provisions of our Constitution are very old. If we were dealing with newer constitutions, or newly enacted constitutional provisions, originalism would be more defensible. But nearly all the provisions of our Constitution that generate controversy were adopted either in the aftermath of the Civil War or earlier, as part of the original Constitution or in amendments adopted in its wake, like the Bill of Rights. (8) For a constitution like ours, there are at least two principal problems with originalism. These are familiar criticisms of originalism, but I do not think they have been answered satisfactorily. The first is the problem of ascertaining the "original understandings," the original public meanings, or whatever historical fact or condition an originalist is supposed to ascertain. (9) However originalism is conceived, this is essentially a project in intellectual history: it calls for trying to reconstruct what people who lived in an earlier time thought about their world. (10) Intellectual history is a valuable and important discipline, but it is also a discipline that, by its nature, leaves a lot of questions unsettled. Intellectual historians disagree among themselves about the best way to understand the ideas of earlier generations. (11) But perhaps more important for purposes of constitutional law, intellectual historians have the incalculable advantage of being able to choose their own battles. They can decide what period they want to try to understand, and which issues within that period. A judge cannot do that. (12) Suppose, for example, that a historian wanted to analyze how people in an earlier era talked about a constitutional issue. She would examine public statements, public records, and the like--the kinds of materials that originalists say should be the sources of constitutional law. (13) But suppose that the historian, after examining those materials carefully and sympathetically, decides that she just cannot make head or tail of the intellectual currents of that period. …


Entrepreneurs enjoy considerable freedom in choosing the rules that will govern their firms. As a general rule, they are able to select not only the state of incorporation, but also the entity type. When making these choices, entrepreneurs have reason to care about the extent to which other firms are using a particular legal regime. Traditionally, corporate law scholarship on this topic has drawn attention to the relevance of the number of other firms using a given legal regime. Drawing on insights from network theory, Michael Klausner has famously shown that the benefits of a particular legal regime increase as more firms come to use it.This article does not dispute that the number of other users matters, but argues that the qualitative features of a legal regime's users are relevant as well: in particular, firms benefit if the users of their chosen legal regime form a relatively homogeneous group. The benefits of such homogeneity come in two flavors. Some homogeneity benefits are ancillary to network benefits; firms profit from homogeneity because more homogeneous networks yield greater benefits. Other homogeneity benefits, however, are independent from network effects in the sense that they do not presuppose the existence of a network. In particular, firm homogeneity increases the predictability of judicial and legislative interventions, and also promises to improve the fit between such interventions and firm needs.Homogeneity effects are of substantial practical and theoretical interest. They help to explain, or provide efficiency rationales for, a variety of otherwise puzzling or difficult-to-justify phenomena in corporate law. These include the seemingly excessive number of different entity types, the survival of important mandatory norms, and the fact that corporate mobility is observed in some environments but not in others.


This paper reconsiders two questions relating to India's economic growth: structural breaks in growth and the impact of equipment investment on aggregate economic growth. First, statistical tests of structural change show that economic growth in post-independence India has witnessed four structural breaks: in 1964-65, in 1978-79, in 1990-91, and in 2004-05. However, substantial growth accelerations, i.e. increase of more than 1.0% per annum in the growth rate of per capita real GDP, occurred only at two points: 1978-79 and 2004-05. Second, to analyze the impact of equipment investment on growth, I use an ARDL bounds testing methodology. I find a positive and statistically significant long run positive impact of private investment in equipment and machinery on the growth rate of real GDP.


Topological data analysis is an emerging area in exploratory data analysis and data mining. Its main tool, persistent homology, has become a popular technique to study the structure of complex, high-dimensional data. In this paper, we propose a novel method using persistent homology to quantify structural changes in time-varying graphs. Specifically, we transform each instance of the time-varying graph into a metric space, extract topological features using persistent homology, and compare those features over time. We provide a visualization that assists in time-varying graph exploration and helps to identify patterns of behavior within the data. To validate our approach, we conduct several case studies on real-world datasets and show how our method can find cyclic patterns, deviations from those patterns, and one-time events in time-varying graphs. We also examine whether a persistence-based similarity measure satisfies a set of well-established, desirable properties for graph metrics.


One important component in the mating strategy of an already-mated individual is the decision to remain with the partner and care for the offspring or to desert. Almost all research on nest desertion has focused on the costs and benefits of continued parental care versus desertion of both parents. However, if it pays both parents to desert, the timing of desertion is most important In birds, where all eggs are fertilized well before the last egg is laid, males should be the first to desert. Even if females try to hide their fertile period, it is likely that the appearance of eggs acts as a cue that males can use to calculate the timing of their desertion. Here we examine egg burial behavior in penduline tits and its possible effects on parental behavior and desertion. Penduline tits perform uniparental care from the earliest point of breeding, and both sexes try to become polygamous. We found that 36% of investigated males were polygynous and deserted as soon as the first egg appeared in their nest, and 12-5% of females became poryandrous. About 27% of the nests were deserted by both sexes, which means high costs for females in terms of wasted energy in eggs and for males in terms of wasted energy and time in building elaborate nests. Females cover the eggs, and several facts indicate that egg covering is a deceptive "behavior of females: (1) females cover the eggs in the morning before leaving the nest for the first time, (2) females are more aggressive toward their mates during the laying period than before laying, (3) females try to prevent males from entering the nest when eggs have been experimentally uncovered, and (4) females uncover the eggs as soon as males are experimentally removed. Finally, we found that a female can only desert the nest before the male deserts when she covers the eggs. We conclude that the higher the proportion of eggs a female can hide, the greater her chance of becoming potyandrous. K*J words: egg burial, female strategy, mate desertion, penduline do, polyandry. [Bthav Ecol 8:20-27 (1997)]


Shortly after World War I, Ford and GM created the large modern corporation, with its financial and statistical controls, mass production, and assembly lines. In the 1980s, Toyota stood out for combining quality with continuous refinement. Today, Google is reinventing business yet again-the way we work, how organizations are controlled, and how employees are managed. Management consultant Bernard Girard has been analyzing Google since its founding in 1998, and now in The Google Way, he explores Google's innovations in depth-many of which are far removed from the best practices taught at the top business schools. As you read, you'll see how much of Google's success is due to its focus on users and automation. You'll also learn how eCommerce has profoundly changed the relationship between businesses and their customers, for the first time giving customers an important role to play in a major corporation's growth. Finally, Girard speculates about the limits of Google's business model and discusses the challenges it will face as it continues to grow. Google's culture is one of innovation. Why not make that spirit of innovation your own?


The U.S. military does not believe its soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines should be engaged in combat with adversaries on a "level playing field." Our combat individuals enter engagements to win. To that end, the United States has used its technical prowess and industrial capability to develop decisive weapons that overmatch those of potential enemies. In its current engagement—what has been identified as an "era of persistent conflict"— the nation's most important weapon is the dismounted soldier operating in small units. Today's soldier must be prepared to contend with both regular and irregular adversaries. Results in Iraq and Afghanistan show that, while the U.S. soldier is a formidable fighter, the contemporary suite of equipment and support does not afford the same high degree of overmatch capability exhibited by large weapons platforms—yet it is the soldier who ultimately will play the decisive role in restoring stability. This National Research Council (NRC) report establishes the technical requirements for overmatch capability for dismounted soldiers operating individually or in small units. It prescribes technological and organizational capabilities needed to make the dismounted soldier a decisive weapon in a changing, uncertain, and complex future environment and provides the Army with fifteen recommendations on how to focus its efforts to enable the soldier and tactical small unit (TSU) to achieve overmatch.


The government of Uganda is currently decentralizing many of its services including those directly related to agriculture and the environment. Non-government organizations (NGOs) and community-based organizations (CBOs) are being asked to take the lead in the provision of government services such as agricultural extension during the transition to demand driven fee-for-service. This paper explores the role of government programs, NGOs and CBOs in the adoption of land management technologies. We find that government programs were better distributed throughout Uganda and were more likely to operate in poorer areas than NGOs and CBOs. This raises the question of whether or not incentives should be provided for NGOs and CBOs to locate or evolve in less-favored areas. Our analysis of household level involvement in organizations between 1990 and 2000 indicates that female-headed households, households with higher proportions of women, and households with higher levels of natural resource dependence were more likely than other households to be involved in organizations whose main focus was not agriculture or the environment. We also found that social capital is an important determinant of organizational participation. The results of our analysis indicate that the presence of an agriculture or environment focused program or organization at the community level had a negative effect on the adoption of animal manuring and a positive affect on the adoption of pesticides. This suggests that spillover effects of programs and organizations may be greater for technologies that have short-term benefits, and which require some degree of coordination to be most effective. Household level involvement in an agriculture or environment focused organization had a positive effect on the adoption of inorganic fertilizer and mulching. Adoption of land management technologies such as manuring that yield longer-term benefits apparently do not spill over to non-participants in local programs and organizations. Thus, direct involvement of households in programs and organizations that promote such technologies may be necessary to ensure technology diffusion throughout communities. This information may be taken as an indicator of the effectiveness or impact of agriculture and environment focused organizations in Uganda, and should be considered in the broader context of the government devolution of services to NGOs and CBOs. Our findings indicate that careful consideration needs to be given to the potential for NGOs and CBOs to fulfill the roles traditionally filled by government programs in the context of land management. The limited impact of agriculture and environment focused organizations on technology adoption is discouraging though may be linked to the limited profitability of technology adoption in the short-run.


IBD is thought to originate as a consequence of a deregulation of mucosal immunity in predisposed animals3. The loss of tolerance to antigens (food, intestinal bacteria, etc.) is one of the most studied mechanisms that could justify the development of chronic intestinal inflammation1,4,6. The main difficulties in treating dogs with IBD originate from an incomplete understanding of the pathophysiological basis of these diseases. Mostly therapi will fall between steroid and other immunosupresive drug, metronidazole antibiotic and novel food. However this case usually recurrence without unidentifying aethiology.Chronic indigestion or secondary to the inflammation in chronnic recurence IBD mostly cause by the Damp that accumulate in the spleen and intestine2. Damp interferes Spleen to transforming and transporting food which leads to lose stool. Damp that to long accumulate in the Spleen will damage Spleen Yang and Qi. The Spleen will lose one of it main function to controlling the Blood which is keeps the blood circulating within vessels, prevent extravassasion leading to bloody diarrhea and anemia7.


Integrated Sustainability Assessment (ISA) should be both transformational and humble. This paper examines the political and institutional conditions that will be required to create an appropriate policy analysis framework that will embrace ISA. This will mean better connections between agencies that deliver and departments that ponder and finance. Such a combination will not be easy as there is much resistance to full-blooded 'sharing'. Also, the participatory and societal learning elements of ISA will require humility on the part of all players. Learning means reflecting and accommodating. These are never easy when established power has to be shared. Try ISA: it is worth it, and monitor the results.


While popular digital maps support an unprecedented number of use cases, new reference map customization tools have been created for purposes for which those maps fall short. With the goal of informing the design of this new class of cartographic tools, we present the first study of naturalistic ("bespoke") map customization behavior. Through a mixed methods and mixed-media approach involving a survey, the analysis of a corpus of customized maps, and an interview with a power user, we find that bespoke map customization is a relatively common activity and identify frequent use cases as well as map customization strategies. We discuss these use cases and strategies in detail, and propose design implications for future customization tools, such as the use of templates for common use cases, adaptability for various customization styles and the support of multimedia interaction.