S UMMARY . We surveyed homeown- ers with residential landscapes in Las Cruces, N.M., to determine design features participants valued in their landscapes, their attitudes toward the landscape use of desert plants and opinions on factors that would encourage respondents to reduce landscape water use. We also determined whether the willingness to use desert plants in their landscapes related to the length of residency in the southwestern United States. At least 98% of respondents landscaped to enhance the appearance of their home and in- crease their property value. About half (50.6%) of the participants strongly agreed or agreed that the main reason to landscape was to display their land- scape preferences. Many participants indicated they would use desert plants to landscape their front yard (80.3%) and back yard (56.3%), but relatively lower percentages of participants actually had desert landscapes in their front yard and back yard. Regardless of their property value, respondents were more likely to use desert plants in their backyard the shorter their stay in the desert. Data revealed that participants rank water shortages as the factor that would most likely cause them to reduce the amount of water they applied to their landscapes. We conclude that homeowners report willingness to use desert plants but desert-type landscapes are not a wide- spread feature of managed residential landscapes. Furthermore, water short- ages and the length of time respondents spent in a desert environment would most likely infl uence water use in their landscapes.


OBJECTIVES
We explored the association between the legal infrastructure of local public health, as expressed in the exercise of local fiscal and legislative authority, and local population health outcomes. METHODS. Our unit of analysis was public health jurisdictions with at least 100,000 residents. The dependent variable was jurisdiction premature mortality rates obtained from the Mobilize Action Toward Community Health (MATCH) database. Our primary independent variables represented local public health's legal infrastructure: home rule status, board of health power, county government structure, and type of public health delivery system. Several control variables were included. We used a regression model to test the relationship between the varieties of local public health legal infrastructure identified and population health status.

RESULTS
The analyses suggested that public health legal infrastructure, particularly reformed county government, had a significant effect on population health status as a mediator of social determinants of health.

CONCLUSIONS
Because states shape the legal infrastructure of local public health through power-sharing arrangements, our findings suggested recommendations for state legislation that positions local public health systems for optimal impact. Much more research is needed to elucidate the complex relationships among law, social capital, and population health status.


This study extensively investigates the catalytic mechanism and oxygen effect in the oxidative steam reforming (OSR) of EtOH on Rh(111) by using plane‐wave density functional theory (DFT) and kinetic calculations. The mechanistic results show that both surface acetaldehyde (CH3CHO*) and oxametallacycle (CH2CH2O*) species from CαH and CβH bond scissions of surface ethoxy (CH3CH2O*) groups, respectively, are key intermediates. Both of these species can quickly decomposed into surface carbon (C*), methylidyne (CH*), and carbon monoxide (CO*) species, owing to energetic preferences. However, the removal of the adspecies in the formation of major products CO(g) and CO2(g) through high‐barrier oxidation steps are considered the rate‐determining steps in the overall catalytic process. In the study of the oxygen effect, surface oxygen (O*) species might slightly elevate the barriers for EtOH decomposition, but can lower the barriers for the rate‐limiting oxidation steps. The kinetic calculations, which well‐predict the experimental observations, indicate that the rates of those oxidation steps can be further increased at high oxygen pressures. These results conclude that the oxygen effect plays a crucial role in the OSR of EtOH on Rh‐based catalysts and further implies that the catalytic performance can be improved by using promoters, which have better oxidative capability, and by increasing the oxygen content, which can assist the oxidation process.


As past seismic events showed, Bucharest (capital of Romania) can be significantly affected by another intermediate depth (or subcrustal) Vrancea earthquake. The 1940 (Mw 7.7) and 1977 (Mw 7.4) earthquakes put the number of casualties in Bucharest over 1600. Although most people and authorities are aware of the exposure, the mitigation actions are still improper and there is actually a very uncertain image of the current damage extent. The paper provides scientifically based answers, through quantitative earthquake loss estimation based on recently developed analytical methods, applied for buildings in the historic centre of Bucharest. The approach offers a relevant picture of the actual possible damage distribution after an earthquake similar to the 1977 event, in an area with heavy traffic and a high number of tourists. The Improved Displacement Coefficient Method used in this study relies on the description of structural behaviour within different limits due to specific ground motion parameters like spectral acceleration. The 358 buildings in the study area are assessed individually and specific vulnerability curves are assigned to each typology, based on height, construction year and material. The same classification as in the Near Real-Time System for Estimating the Seismic Damage in Romania is used. The results are evaluated in order to be further included in the system. In addition, an empirical loss assessment procedure reflecting the economic impact of the previously calculated situation was employed. Relevant maps for mean damage ratio and economic losses are presented and interpreted.


With the merger of telecommunication and computer technologies, voice transmission over computer networks has now become possible. This paper describes two types of voice communication over PC networks; a single point-to-point link, using store and forward concept (delayed message technique) for developing voice mail system, and a voice/data integration over Ethernet Local Area Network (LAN). Voice signal sampled from telephone handset is digitized and coded to 4-bit ADPCM codeword by the codec which is interfaced to the PC. In the voice mail example, the digitized data is stored in the PC and subsequently transmitted over a simple point-to-point link to a remote PC. In the second example, the voice data is immediately transmitted via a buffer to the destination station, using Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection (CSMA/CD) medium access protocol. A corresponding codec at the receiver end will decode the digitized voice and convert back to analog signal before being played out on the telephone earpiece.


In this paper we present an optimization-based approach for the design of cable-driven kinematic chains and trees. Our system takes as input a hierarchical assembly consisting of rigid links jointed together with hinges. The user also specifies a set of target poses or keyframes using inverse kinematics. Our approach places torsional springs at the joints and computes a cable network that allows us to reproduce the specified target poses. We start with a large set of cables that have randomly chosen routing points and we gradually remove the redundancy. Then we refine the routing points taking into account the path between poses or keyframes in order to further reduce the number of cables and minimize required control forces. We propose a reduced coordinate formulation that links control forces to joint angles and routing points, enabling the co-optimization of a cable network together with the required actuation forces. We demonstrate the efficacy of our technique by designing and fabricating a cable-driven, animated character, an animatronic hand, and a specialized gripper.


Introduction In accordance with its mandate to provide guidance to Member States on health policy matters, WHO issues a series of regularly updated position papers on vaccines and combinations of vaccines against diseases that have an international public health impact. These papers are generally concerned with the use of vaccines in large-scale immunization programmes; they summarize essential background information on diseases and vaccines, and conclude with the current WHO position on the use of vaccines worldwide.


By combining first-principles electronic-structure calculations with the model Hamiltonian approach, we systematically study the magnetic properties of sodium superoxide (NaO2), originating from interacting superoxide molecules. We show that NaO2 exhibits a rich variety of magnetic properties, which are controlled by the relative alignment of the superoxide molecules as well as the state of partially filled antibonding molecular πg-orbitals. The orbital degeneracy and disorder in the high-temperature pyrite phase gives rise to weak isotropic antiferromagnetic (AFM) interactions between the molecules. The transition to the low-temperature marcasite phase lifts the degeneracy, leading to the orbital order and formation of quasi-one-dimensional AFM spin chains. Both tendencies are consistent with the behavior of experimental magnetic susceptibility data. Furthermore, we evaluate the magnetic transition temperature and type of the long-range magnetic order in the marcasite phase. We argue that this magnetic order depends on the behavior of weak isotropic as well as anisotropic and Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya exchange interactions between the molecules. Finally, we predict the existence of a multiferroic phase, where the inversion symmetry is broken by the long-range magnetic order, giving rise to substantial ferroelectric polarization.


In this study, we evaluate the ability of the BRAMS (Brazilian Regional Atmospheric Modeling System) mesoscale model compared to ECMWF global analysis to simulate the observed vertical variations of water vapour in the tropical upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS). The observations are balloon-borne measurements of water vapour mixing ratio and temperature from micro-SDLA (Tunable Diode Laser Spectrometer) instrument. Data from two balloon flights performed during the 2004 HIBISCUS field campaign are used to compare with the mesoscale simulations and to the ECMWF analysis. The observations exhibit fine scale vertical structures of water vapour of a few hundred meters height. The ECMWF vertical resolution (~1 km) is too coarse to capture these vertical structures in the UTLS. With a vertical resolution similar to ECMWF, the mesoscale model performs better than ECMWF analysis for water vapour in the upper troposphere and similarly or slightly worse for temperature. The BRAMS model with 250 m vertical resolution is able to capture more of the observed fine scale vertical variations of water vapour compared to runs with a coarser vertical resolution. This is mainly related to: (i) the enhanced vertical resolution in the UTLS and (ii) to the more detailed microphysical parameterization providing ice supersaturations as in the observations. In near saturated or supersaturated layers, the mesoscale model predicted relative humidity with respect to ice saturation is close to observations provided that the temperature profile is realistic. For temperature, the ECMWF analysis gives good results partly attributed to data assimilation. The analysis of the mesoscale model results showed that the vertical variations of the water vapour profile depends on the dynamics in unsaturated layer while the microphysical processes play a major role in saturated/supersaturated layers. In the lower stratosphere, the ECMWF model and the BRAMS model give very similar water vapour profiles that are significantly drier than micro-SDLA measurements. This similarity comes from the fact that BRAMS is initialised using ECMWF analysis and that no mesoscale process acts in the stratosphere leading to no modification of the BRAMS results with respect to ECMWF analysis.


Abstract It has become accepted in recent years that the fossil record can preserve labile tissues. We report here the highly detailed mineralization of soft tissues associated with a naturally occurring brain endocast of an iguanodontian dinosaur found in c. 133 Ma fluvial sediments of the Wealden at Bexhill, Sussex, UK. Moulding of the braincase wall and the mineral replacement of the adjacent brain tissues by phosphates and carbonates allowed the direct examination of petrified brain tissues. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) imaging and computed tomography (CT) scanning revealed preservation of the tough membranes (meninges) that enveloped and supported the brain proper. Collagen strands of the meningeal layers were preserved in collophane. The blood vessels, also preserved in collophane, were either lined by, or infilled with, microcrystalline siderite. The meninges were preserved in the hindbrain region and exhibit structural similarities with those of living archosaurs. Greater definition of the forebrain (cerebrum) than the hindbrain (cerebellar and medullary regions) is consistent with the anatomical and implied behavioural complexity previously described in iguanodontian-grade ornithopods. However, we caution that the observed proximity of probable cortical layers to the braincase walls probably resulted from the settling of brain tissues against the roof of the braincase after inversion of the skull during decay and burial. Supplementary material: Information regarding associated fossil material, and additional images, can be found at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.3519984


We apply two different algorithms to measure surface wave phase velocity, as a function of frequency, from seismic ambient noise recorded at pairs of stations from a large European network. The two methods are based on consistent theoretical formulations, but differ in the implementation: one method involves the time-domain cross-correlation of signal recorded at different stations; the other is based on frequency-domain cross-correlation, and requires finding the zero-crossings of the real part of the cross-correlation spectrum. Furthermore, the time-domain method, as implemented here and in the literature, practically involves the important approximation that interstation distance be large compared to seismic wavelength. In both cases, cross-correlations are ensemble-averaged over a relatively long period of time (1 yr). We verify that the two algorithms give consistent results, and infer that phase velocity can be successfully measured through ensemble-averaging of seismic ambient noise, further validating earlier studies that had followed either approach. The description of our experiment and its results is accompanied by a detailed though simplifed derivation of ambient-noise theory, writing out explicitly the relationships between the surface wave Green's function, ambient-noise cross-correlation and phase and group velocities.


Objective To evaluate the surgical, oncological outcome and prognostic factors of laparoscopic radical hysterectomy (LRH) and pelvic lymphadenectomy in patients with stage IB1 cervical cancer. Materials and Methods Patients with IB1 cervical cancer undergoing LRH at the First People's Hospital of Foshan between January 2000 and March 2010 were enrolled in this study. Follow-up data were available. Results A total of 148 patients were identified. One case converted to laparotomy. Median number of resected pelvic lymph nodes was 23. Median blood loss was 250 mL and median operative time was 257 minutes. Intraoperative and postoperative complications occurred in 5.4% and 6.75% patients, respectively. Other medical problems included 47 cases (31.75%) of bladder dysfunction. Twenty-seven patients (18.24%) had microscopic nodal metastasis. A total of 37 patients received adjuvant therapy. After a median follow-up of 28 months, 21 patients had a recurrence. The overall 5-year survival rate is 82%. Univariate analysis showed the factors affecting the survival rate were nonsquamous histologic type, high grade, deep cervical stromal invasion, lymphovascular space invasion, and lymph node metastasis (P = 0.016, P = 0.045, P = 0.021, P = 0.038, and P = <0.001). The Cox proportional hazards regression analysis indicated only lymph node metastasis (odds ratio = 6.293, P < 0.001) was an independent poor prognostic factor. Conclusions Laparoscopic radical hysterectomy can be a safe alternative to abdominal RH for patients with IB1 cervical cancer. Lymph node metastasis was an independent poor prognostic factor.


Multihop wireless networks are used to provide internet connectivity to the users and the level of performance and quality expected by these users are increasing. In order to meet these performance and quality requirements, wireless communications should be enhanced. Previous works from the literature show that the performance and quality provided by an IEEE 802.11-based multihop wireless network are far from optimal and that there exist different ways to increase the efficiency and the quality of service of such a network. Some studies show that using the medium state as a parameter to tune the behaviour of an IEEE 802.11-based multihop network is an appropriate way to proceed. A station in a IEEE 802.11-based multihop wireless network senses the medium either busy or idle. The durations of idle periods and busy periods and their distributions have a clear impact on the network and nodes performance. The understanding of the relationship between these indicators, namely idle and busy periods, the network topology and the traffic, would give new insights to enhance the performance and quality of multihop wireless networks. Due to its multihop and distributed nature, the characterisation of idle period durations is difficult in such a network. This paper explores the characterisation of idle period distribution by proposing a new analytical model and provides an application of this characterisation with the design of an adaptive backoff algorithm based on idle periods.


Shrimp culture in the Americas began in the early 1970's and has experienced rapid growth in some Latin American countries. Currently, Latin America produces one-third of all cultured shrimp with Ecuador as the leading country in the world. Availability of postlarvae and a favorable year-round climate have been the most important factors causing a "Gold Rush" expansion in Ecuador. The long-term potential for shrimp mariculture in Latin America is promising. Projections for 1990 production of cultured shrimp by Latin American countries are between 60,000-70,000 metric tons (mt). Shrimp culture in the United States has begun with the entry of a few small firms. In this paper, investment and production costs are examined for a semi-intensive farm that purchases postlarvae and operates in the southern United States. Total investment decreases as pond size increases for a given size facility. Investment per kilogram of annual average production ranges from just under US $20.00 for a 20-surface ha farm using 2-ha ponds to $80.00 for a 400-ha system using 20-ha ponds. Operation costs per kilogram decline as the size of the system and the size of the ponds increase. It costs $10.10 to produce one kilogram of shrimp on a 20-surface ha farm using 2-ha ponds compared to $5.50 on a 400-surface ha farm using 20-ha ponds. In comparing the operation of a semi-intensive 200-ha farm in Ecuador with a similar farm in the United States, costs of production were $3.12 and $5.83 per kilogram, respectively. The after-tax internal rate of return (IRR) was 59% in Ecuador and 21% in the United States. These IRR's were calculated under the assumption that production, costs and prices received are constant over the investment period (10 years) considered. When risk and timing of investment are considered, these IRR's are reduced.


This is a new study of the history, archaeology and numismatics of Central Asia, an area of great significance for our understanding of the ancient and early medieval world. This vast, land-locked region, with its extreme continental climate, was a centre of civilization with great metropolises. Its cosmopolitan population followed different religions (Zoroastrianism, Christianity, Buddhism), and traded extensively with China, India, the Middle East, and Europe. The millennium from the overthrow of the first world empire of Achaemenian Persians by Alexander the Great to the arrival of the Arabs and Islam was a period of considerable change and conflict. The volume focuses on recent investigations in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. It provides a complex analysis of the symbiosis between the city life based on oases, and the nomadic peoples grazing their animals in the surrounding semi-deserts. Other topics include the influence of the Greek colonists on military architecture, and the major impact of the Great Kushans on the spread of Buddhism and on the development of the Central Asian metropolis. And although written documents rarely survive, coinage has provided essential evidence for the political and cultural history of the region. These essays will be of interest to the scholar, the student, and the armchair traveller


An integrated Kukadi irrigation project in western ghat of Maharashtra state in India comprises of five dams built on the Kukadi River and its tributaries receiving seasonal rains. The water from four reservoirs namely Dimbhe, Manikdoh, Wadaj and Pimpalgaon Joge is fed to Yedgaon reservoir through canal and river. The command area of the Kukadi integrated system downstream of Yedgaon dam extends over three districts. The total irrigable command area under the entire Kukadi project is 156278 Ha. The irrigation requirement of the command area is increasing with completion of the canal system over a period of time. Thus storage in all five reservoirs is to be optimized to its full capacities by the end of monsoon following the approved reservoir operation schedule, to meet irrigation and drinking water requirements of the project for complete water year. In the Kukadi integrated project the works of five dams namely Yedgaon (1976), Wadaj (1975), Manikdoh (1986) Pimpalgaon Joge (1999) and Dimbhe (2001) are completed. The Reservoir has received a yield of more than 75% dependable yield only twice during the last 25 years since its completion. An integrated project comprising of five reservoirs is being severely affected due to less rains than estimated in the Manikdoh catchment area. Due to this fact the storage capacity of Manikdoh reservoir is underutilized and adversely affected the performance of the integrated Kukadi project, ultimately resulting in a great stress on the minds of management engineers to fulfill the targets with limited water resources. In contrast, the Dimbhe catchment is drawing increased yield than estimated and excess water spills over. The topographical suitability for linking two reservoirs is met with as Dimbhe reservoir is situated at higher elevation than Manikdoh reservoir.


We fabricate and experimentally characterize an H0 photonic crystal slab nanocavity with a design optimized for maximal quality factor, Q = 1.7 × 106. The cavity, fabricated from a silicon slab, has a resonant mode at λ = 1.59 μm and a measured Q-factor of 400 000. It displays nonlinear effects, including high-contrast optical bistability, at a threshold power among the lowest ever reported for a silicon device. With a theoretical modal volume as small as V = 0.34(λ/n)3, this cavity ranks among those with the highest Q/V ratios ever demonstrated, while having a small footprint suited for integration in photonic circuits.


Existing deep embedding methods in vision tasks are capable of learning a compact Euclidean space from images, where Euclidean distances correspond to a similarity metric. To make learning more effective and efficient, hard sample mining is usually employed, with samples identified through computing the Euclidean feature distance. However, the global Euclidean distance cannot faithfully characterize the true feature similarity in a complex visual feature space, where the intraclass distance in a high-density region may be larger than the interclass distance in low-density regions. In this paper, we introduce a Position-Dependent Deep Metric (PDDM) unit, which is capable of learning a similarity metric adaptive to local feature structure. The metric can be used to select genuinely hard samples in a local neighborhood to guide the deep embedding learning in an online and robust manner. The new layer is appealing in that it is pluggable to any convolutional networks and is trained end-to-end. Our local similarity-aware feature embedding not only demonstrates faster convergence and boosted performance on two complex image retrieval datasets, its large margin nature also leads to superior generalization results under the large and open set scenarios of transfer learning and zero-shot learning on ImageNet 2010 and ImageNet-10K datasets.


This report evaluates the measurements of information technology investments payoff, and recommends a theoretical framework for testing the costs and benefits of Internet e-commerce investments. A number of research studies are referenced to evaluate the accuracy of the traditional, quantitative-oriented measurements and introduce a few contemporary, more qualitative-oriented alternatives. As one of the major types of information technology investments, Internet e-commerce is chosen as a case to evaluate the measurements by applying the theories generated from various research studies. Based on the case analysis, contemporary approaches are justified and adopted to establish a three-step framework of measuring Internet e-commerce investment payoff.


This article reviews the economics literature on monitoring and enforcement of environmental policy. In the last few years there has been a rapid growth in both theoretical developments and empirical studies of monitoring and enforcement. Various factors have contributed to this growth, including (1) the growth of the law and economics literature and its interest in issues of law enforcement and penalties, (2) increased emphasis on enforcement by EPA and other regulatory agencies, and (3) the availability of data on firm compliance. The economics literature on environmental monitoring and enforcement has closely followed the related field of optimal penalties in the law and economics literature. The scope of the article includes both public and private mechanisms designed to compel firms (and individuals) to comply with environmental formal regulations and informal rules of conduct or social norms. For purposes of this paper, monitoring and enforcement includes monitoring and inspections by enforcement authorities as well as sanctions, remedial actions, and other mechanisms designed to punish and/or bring a firm into compliance. It also includes non-governmental actions such as citizen suits authorized by the government and informal mechanisms such as public pressure. It does not include the role of liability laws (torts, nuisance actions, etc.) in compelling polluters to reduce emissions. The paper begins with a fundamental question--why do firms comply with environmental laws? Next, I consider the various economic theories of government behavior and how they have been used to help explain observed enforcement behavior. Following these positive analyses, I turn to normative theories of optimal penalties as it relates to environmental regulation, including recent developments that have incorporated the complexities associated with sanctioning both organizations and their employees. The paper continues with an assessment of empirical studies on environmental enforcement. In addition to studies of government enforcement, I examine empirical studies of private enforcement mechanisms (e.g., citizen suits) and the role of market forces in compelling compliance behavior. A concluding section assesses the most critical gaps in our knowledge and contains suggestions for future research.


In this study, we investigated the antibacterial effects of bilirubin on certain Gram-negative bacteria using both agar dilution and liquid microdilution methods. Twenty-five strains each of Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains, isolated from various clinical samples in the medical microbiology laboratory of our hospital, were evaluated. Stock solutions of bilirubin (5 mg, 10 mg, and 15 mg/dl) (AppliChem, GmbH, Darmstadt, Germany) were prepared for agar dilution method. Aliquots of bilirubin stock solutions were added to liquid brain heart infusion medium in sterile microplates for liquid dilution methods. The average bilirubin MICs were 61.44, 62.72, ≥ 64.00, and ≥ 64.00 μg/mL for E. coli, K. pneumoniae, A. baumannii, and P. aeruginosa. In agar and liquid dilution methods, all tested bacteria grew at all bilirubin concentrations used. Bilirubin had no in vitro antibacterial effect on E. coli, K. pneumoniae, A. baumannii, or P. aeruginosa.


The Santa Ana winds represent a high-impact weather event owing to the intimate relationship between the extremely dry, fast winds and the wildfire threat. The winds can be locally gusty, particularly in the complex terrain of San Diego county, where the airflow has characteristics of downslope windstorms. These winds can cause and/or rapidly spread wildfires, the threat of which is particularly acute during the autumn season before the onset of winter rains. It remains a day-to-day challenge to accurately predict wind gust speed, especially in the mountainous regions.Our study employs large physics ensembles composed of high-resolution simulations of severe downslope windstorms that involve an exhaustive examination of available model physical parameterizations. Model results are calibrated and validated against the San Diego Gas and Electric (SDG&E) mesonet observations, a dense, homogenous, and well-positioned network with uniform high quality. Results demonstrate model horizontal resolution, model physics, random perturbations and landuse database can have a material effect on the strength, location and timing of Santa Ana winds in real-data simulations. A large model physics ensemble reveals the land surface model to be most crucial in skillful wind predictions, which are particularly sensitive to the surface roughness length. A surprisingly simple gust parameterization is proposed for the San Diego network, based on the discovery that this homogeneous mesonet has a nearly invariant network-averaged gust factor. The gust forecast technique is of special interest in the context of routine weather combined with atmospheric humidity and fuel moisture information. A real-time wildfire threat warning system, the Santa Ana Wildfire Threat Index (SAWTI), has been developed to effectively communicate the upcoming Santa Ana wind strength with respect to the anticipated fire danger to first responders and the public. In addition to the wind and gust forecast techniques, attempts have been made to skillfully model two essential elements that SAWTI is heavily dependent on, i.e., the live fuel moisture and the greenness, using meteorological information. The models developed can skillfully determine these essential elements from both forecast and reanalysis data.


British Columbia's rules of court relating to probate procedure are an important component of the law relating to wills and estates. They must operate in concert with the legislation and common law governing wills and estates. Enactment of the Wills, Estates and Succession Act has created an urgent need to revise the existing probate rules, because certain rule changes must be in place in order for the act to be fully implemented.There are additional reasons for reform of the present probate rules, namely Rules 21-4 and 21-5. Competing priorities and constraints on time and resources did not allow for probate procedure to be given much attention in the process that led to the recently introduced Supreme Court Civil Rules. Rules 21-4 and 21-5 are essentially the same as the former Rules 61 and 62. They preserve some anomalies that were present in the former rules as well and require probate procedures that are overdue for modernization.The British Columbia Law Institute undertook the Probate Rules Reform Project with the support of the Ministry of Attorney General to address the need to reform probate procedure and facilitate the implementation of the Wills, Estates and Succession Act. A distinguished project committee consisting of prominent wills and estates practitioners, a master of the Supreme Court of British Columbia, and experienced probate registry officials devoted much time and collective expertise to this task. This report reflects the results of the project, including an annotated draft of new probate rules.


A review of history of psychology textbooks shows that humanistic psychology is in crisis. Although well understood and respected by some, it is inadequately understood and dismissed by many. The value of the movement is shown to hinge on whether it faithfully embodies the historical tradition of humanism, provides an appropriate philosophical foundation for psychology, asserts relevant critiques of contemporary psychology, affords the discipline theoretical unity, offers rigorous research methodologies, bridges the gap between psychology and the humanities, and assumes leadership in socially reforming the depersonalizing tendencies of modern culture. It is argued that the best work in humanistic psychology has achieved these virtues, and that the major criticisms of the movement do not apply to this work. The contemporary crisis is attributed to sociological factors-inadequate institutional establishments necessary to gain historical impact.


Rapid scientific and technological progress has resulted in the blurring of traditional industry boundaries and in the emergence of new product markets and broader organisational fields. Despite recent scholarly interest in field emergence, there is still little knowledge on how new fields emerge at the intersection of established industries and on the multi-local nature of the phenomenon. The purpose of this study is to increase the understanding of the interaction between actors and institutions in field emergence at the intersection of established industries and spatial scales ranging from local to global. This will be accomplished by building mainly on the literature on institutional entrepreneurship and importing conceptual ideas from social network theory and international business research. The main research question this study aims to answer is "How do new fields emerge from the interaction between actors and institutions at the intersection of established industries and spatial scales?" The study explores the topic through the emergence of the cholesterol-lowering functional foods market during the last two decades. Cholesterol-lowering functional foods represent a science-based field between the food and pharmaceutical industries. The societal relevance of studying functional foods is high as their medicine-like effects challenge conventional institutions regarding regulation, norms and consumer awareness of the relationship between food and health. The primary source of data is 32 semi-structured in-depth interviews carried out in Finland and the U.S. between late 2004 and April 2007. The interviewees consist of managers of MNCs and smaller startups, top scientists in the field, national public health authorities and regulative authorities. Further, a limited amount of participant observation data and a collection of secondary data such as trade journals and patent data is used. Finally, a comparative data set on nanotechnology was used in two co-authored essays on field emergence. This doctoral thesis is divided into two parts. The summary part concentrates on the theoretical and methodological foundations, while the second part consists of four essays, each exploring field emergence through different conceptual lenses. In Essay 1 we investigate the role of micro level activities induced by scientists in the emergence of a spatial cluster. The key contribution of the essay is an analytical division of the various roles played by scientists in cluster formation from the perspective of institutional change. In Essay 2, we depict how depending on their network positions, specific individuals and organisations may act as brokers that span structural holes between previously unconnected industries and disciplines, and hence trigger the emergence of new cross-industry and cross-disciplinary networks and influence the emerging institutions of a new field. The contribution of the essay is to combine social network theory and the literature on institutional entrepreneurship. In Essay 3, we discuss how institutional entrepreneurs in science-based fields mediate between globally circulating discourses and local institutions and competencies. The contribution of the essay is to investigate agency across spatial scales in order to address the central weakness of the institutional entrepreneurship approach, namely that of the concentration on geographically distinct and delimited areas. In Essay 4, I examine the cross-border transferability of the cholesterol-lowering functional foods concept. By building on neoinstitutional theory and on the recent advancement in international business research, I propose a novel concept of industry institutional distance, which is able to consider industry-specific dynamics in emerging fields. In summary, this research deepens the existing understanding on field emergence as a multi-local phenomenon. The results of this thesis indicate the fundamental importance of individual and organisational agency in field emergence. Scientists, enabled by their network position, knowledge and legitimacy, were found to transmit knowledge and practices between disciplines, established industries, and spatial scales. Successful field emergence further necessitates the collective mobilisation of a wide group of field participants and the receptiveness of the institutional environment. The results suggest that the ability to see beyond the boundaries of disciplines and industries and to operate in different institutional environments is crucial in field emergence and in building new product markets. The thesis concludes with a model of field emergence at the intersection of industries, disciplines and spatial scales demonstrating the complexities of the emergence of a new science-based field.


A national dataset of inorganic chemical data of surface waters (rivers, lakes, and dams) in South Africa is presented and made freely available. The dataset comprises more than 500 000 complete water analyses from 1972 up to 2011, collected from more than 2 000 sample monitoring stations in South Africa. The dataset includes the major ion chemical composition and numerous calculated variables that can, amongst others, be used to determine accuracy of the analysis. The methods described here have potential for improving quality control measures in water chemistry laboratories by detecting anomalous samples. The processed data are available in Excel spreadsheets and can be downloaded from the website of the Centre for Water Science and Management based at the North-West University (www.waterscience.co.za/waterchemistry/data. html).


ABSTRACT Chemoreceptors are localized at the cell poles of Escherichia coli and other rod-shaped bacteria. Over the years, different mechanisms have been put forward to explain this polar localization, including stochastic clustering, membrane curvature-driven localization, interactions with the Tol-Pal complex, and nucleoid exclusion. To evaluate these mechanisms, we monitored the cellular localization of the aspartate chemoreceptor Tar in different deletion mutants. We did not find any indication for either stochastic cluster formation or nucleoid exclusion. However, the presence of a functional Tol-Pal complex appeared to be essential to retain Tar at the cell poles. Interestingly, Tar still accumulated at midcell in tol and in pal deletion mutants. In these mutants, the protein appears to gather at the base of division septa, a region characterized by strong membrane curvature. Chemoreceptors, like Tar, form trimers of dimers that bend the cell membrane due to a rigid tripod structure. The curvature approaches the curvature of the cell membrane generated during cell division, and localization of chemoreceptor tripods at curved membrane areas is therefore energetically favorable, as it lowers membrane tension. Indeed, when we introduced mutations in Tar that abolish the rigid tripod structure, the protein was no longer able to accumulate at midcell or the cell poles. These findings favor a model where chemoreceptor localization in E. coli is driven by strong membrane curvature and association with the Tol-Pal complex. IMPORTANCE Bacteria have exquisite mechanisms to sense and adapt to the environment they live in. One such mechanism involves the chemotaxis signal transduction pathway, in which chemoreceptors specifically bind certain attracting or repelling molecules and transduce the signals to the cell. In different rod-shaped bacteria, these chemoreceptors localize specifically to cell poles. Here, we examined the polar localization of the aspartate chemoreceptor Tar in E. coli and found that membrane curvature at cell division sites and the Tol-Pal protein complex localize Tar at cell division sites, the future cell poles. This study shows how membrane curvature can guide localization of proteins in a cell.


AIMS
We evaluated the effect of direct thrombin inhibitors (DTIs) in patients undergoing early percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), using the DTI Trialists' Collaboration database of 35,970 patients from 11 randomized trials of DTIs vs. heparin.

METHODS AND RESULTS
We performed a Cox proportional hazards regression analysis with PCI as a time-dependent covariate to assess the independent impact of DTIs according to the performance of early PCI. PCI was performed in 7049 patients in the first 72 h after randomization. In trials in which PCI was not planned, DTIs were associated with a 10% relative risk reduction in death or myocardial infarction at 30 days (HR=0.90, 95% CI: 0.84-0.97). This benefit was found to be greater in patients undergoing early PCI (HR=0.66, 95% CI: 0.48-0.91) than those undergoing non-early PCI (HR=0.94, 95% CI: 0.86-1.03). After adjustment for baseline characteristics and propensity to undergo PCI, the risk of death or myocardial infarction remained lower with DTI (HR=0.62, 95% CI: 0.44-0.89).

CONCLUSION
After adjustment for baseline differences and propensity to undergo early PCI, DTIs appeared to be more effective than heparin in reducing death or re-infarction among patients undergoing early PCI.


"The International Society for Pediatric Diabetes (ISPAD), the American Diabetes Association (ADA), and JDRF (formerly known as the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation) are committed to the support of innovative laboratory research, therapeutic strategies and clinical trials. However, the provision of unproven treatments to patients, particularly (but not exclusively) in a for-profit context, raises major ethical and safety concerns. The vast majority of potential new therapies that show promise in early stage laboratory studies in animal models are found to be unsafe and/or ineffective when tested in randomized, placebo-controlled clinical studies in humans and cannot be supported by published evidence. It is, therefore, our position that unproven treatments that are believed by the medical and research communities to have clinical potential should only be prescribed to patients in the context of carefully monitored clinical trials. The therapeutic value and safety of all treatments and agents must be evaluated rigorously, and human subject (patient) protections must be in place. We do not endorse any drug or other agent, or treatment protocol that has not been evaluated by strict scientific methodology, conforming to FDA and the International Council for Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (ICH) best practices, to demonstrate safety and effectiveness, and to validate a change in the standard of care."


Our objective was to determine accuracy of identifying anovulatory lactating dairy cows before the application of a timed AI protocol [with or without progesterone supplementation via a controlled internal drug release (CIDR) insert and 2 different timings of AI] by using heatmount detectors and a single ovarian ultrasound examination. At 6 Midwest locations, 1,072 cows were enrolled in a Presynch protocol (2 injections of prostaglandin F2α(PGF2α) 14 days apart) with the second injection administered 14 days before initiating the Ovsynch protocol (injection of gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) 7 days before and 48 hours after PGF2αinjection, with timed AI at 0 or 24 hours after the second GnRH injection). Heatmount detectors were applied to cows at the time of the first Presynch injection, assessed 14 days later at the second Presynch injection and again at initiation of the Ovsynch protocol, and ovaries were examined for presence of a visible corpus luteum (CL) by ultrasound before initiation of treatment. Treatments were assigned to cows based on presence or absence of a visible CL: 1) anovulatory (no CL + CIDR insert for 7 d); 2) anovulatory (no CL + no CIDR); and 3) cycling (CL present). Further, every other cow in the 3 treatments was assigned to be inseminated concurrent with the second GnRH injection of Ovsynch (0 hour) or 24 hours later. Pregnancy was diagnosed at 33 and 61 days after the second GnRH injection. Heatmount detectors and a single ultrasound examination both underestimated proportions of cows classified as anovulatory or having no prior luteal activity compared with those classifications determined by concentrations of progesterone in blood serum. Overall accuracy of heatmount detectors and ultrasound was 71 and 84%, respectively. Application of progesterone to cows without a CL at the time of the first injection of GnRH reduced incidence of ovulation but improved pregnancy rates at day 33 or 61 compared with nontreated cows without a CL at the onset of the Ovsynch protocol. Pregnancy rates and pregnancy survival did not differ for cows having a CL before treatment compared with those not having a CL but treated with progesterone. Pregnancy rates were 1.5-fold greater for cows ovulating in response to the first GnRH injection. Timing of AI at 0 or 24 hours after the second GnRH injection did not alter pregnancy rates, but cows having prior luteal activity before treatment had improved pregnancy rates compared with anovulatory cows. We conclude that identifying anovulatory cows by ultrasound was more accurate than by heatmount detectors. Subsequent treatment of potential anovulatory cows with progesterone failed to improve fertility but had benefit for cows with prior estrous cycles at the onset of the timed AI (TAI) protocol, regardless of luteal status before the final luteolytic injection of PGF2α.; Dairy Day, 2007, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, 2007; Dairy Research, 2007 is known as Dairy Day,


Thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) has long been recognized as the major proliferative and functional stimulus for thyroid follicular cells. TSH receptor (TSHR) engagement stimulates the production of cyclic AMP and the subsequent activation of downstream effector molecules, including protein kinase A, S6K1, and Rap1, whereas the role of the RAS and phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase signaling cascades downstream of TSHR is still controversial. Despite the abundance of candidates, it is still unclear which of these pathways represent(s) the key mitogenic output of TSH-initiated signaling. We have used an in vivo model of goitrogenesis to dissect the contribution of these pathways to TSH-induced thyrocyte proliferation and thyroid hyperplasia. We show that the in vivo proliferative response to chronic TSHR stimulation relies heavily on the activation of the mTOR/S6K1 axis, and that mTOR inhibition during goitrogenic stimulation abrogates the hyperplastic but not the hypertrophic thyrocyte responses to TSH, thus functionally uncoupling these two processes. Strikingly, goitrogenesis was not associated with an increase in AKT phosphorylation levels, underlining the existence of an AKT-independent pathway leading to mTOR activation upon TSH stimulation.


Knowledge of uropodine mite communities in birds' nests in Poland and surrounding areas is very poor. We therefore conducted a survey of 338 nests belonging to 36 bird species, and found that they contained 28 species of Uropodina. The most frequent species were Trichouropoda orbicularis, Apionoseius infirmus, Uroobo- vella pyriformis, Uropoda orbicularis, Nenteria pandioni, and T. ovalis. The dominant species were T. orbicularis, and U. pyriformis, which constituted up to 68% of the total specimens. The majority of species of these mites repro- duce sexually. The species whose populations consist only of females, reproducing by thelytoky, are rather rare. There is distinct variation in the species composition and dominance structure of uropodine communities in the nests of particular bird species, which seems to be largely caused by differing types of nests. The most species-rich uropodine communities were found in large, perennial nests (white stork and raptors), the poorest ones (usually one or two species) occurred in the material collected from nest boxes.


The living ostracod Cyprideis torosa (Jones, 1850) is geographically widespread, often abundant, occurring in modern and late Quaternary marginal-marine and athalassic environments world-wide. The species is capable of withstanding varying salinity over short (diurnal) timescales as well as adjusting to longer-term changes. Much attention has been paid in the past to the development of eco-phenotypic nodes and the shape of sieve-type pores on the external, lateral surfaces as indicators of particular salinity levels. In this paper we demonstrate a bimodal distribution between shell size (which can be determined directly from optical microscopy) and the salinity of the water in which the carapace formed. Between almost 'freshwater' salinity of about 1‰ up to about 8‰ the length of C. torosa increases linearly by about 10%, after this point there is a sharp break in the size–salinity relationship with carapace length reverting to values at or below those of freshwater and gradually declining in size by about 5% through the observed range (a maximum salinity of almost 40‰ in this study). This switch in size–salinity relationship coincides with a physiologically important switch between hypo- and hyper-osmotic regulation at about 8‰ known for C. torosa.


The book is designed to promote student appreciation of the interaction of legal doctrines as they are applied in the white collar crime field. The material exposes students to substantive criminal law, criminal procedure, administrative procedure, corporate law, evidence, civil procedure, sentencing law, and highly specialized regulatory law. The book also allows students to appreciate the influence of administrative policies and the influence of the basic """"culture"""" of white collar criminal practice. In addition to traditional materials in the casebook, a companion statutory and documentary supplement provides rich primary source material.


The objectives set forth by the passage of the Marine Resources and Engineering Development Act of 1966 marked a turning point in U.S. policy toward marine affairs, inaugurating a fresh set of active goals regarding the use of ocean resources. These include expanding the knowledge of the ocean frontier; enhancing commerce and navigation on it; rehabilitating commercial fisheries; encouraging private investment for exploration and development of mineral wealth of the seas; advancing education and training in marine science and engineering; and improving the capabilities, performance, and use of vehicles and instruments for exploring the marine environment with the intent of recovering its resources and utilizing its energies.The primary focus of this volume is on U.S. policy toward the oceans, this being the first concern of ocean engineers in this country. Numerous documents and illustrative material are included, however, relating to the policies of other states and to measures of international cooperation where these are particularly relevant to American interests or activities, or are instructive of other approaches to specific situations. Though the body of knowledge on this subject is undergoing considerable change, the present collection has selected and assembled for study those issues associated with increased utilization of the marine environment and is based on an original compilation used in the new Graduate Ocean Engineering degree program inaugurated by the Department of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering at M.I.T.The book will serve those who are currently involved, or plan to be, in the growing utilization of ocean resources. Government officials, engineers, industrialists, management experts and members of the voting public will find it a contribution to the advancement of knowledge of the seas and the considerations necessary for establishing more enlightened practices in its exploration and utilization as a natural resource.Ten chapters discuss the major facets of public policy: New Goals for National Policy; Territorial Waters and Contiguous Zones; The Continental Shelf; The Seas and International Law; Living Resources of the Sea and Their Regulation; Mineral Resources and Their Exploitation; Pollution of Waters; Safety of Life at Sea; Models for the Future; Political Process and the Future of National Ocean Policy.


Abstract Having a big number of students in content subject of a language class is a challenge for teacher since it is quite difficult to accommodate students' critical thinking and active participation at the same time. Therefore, Hedwig strategy is aimed to give room for students to explore themselves and get involved in the materials delivered in the class. Furthermore, by having group and regroup to deliver message in Hedwig strategy, students are forced to be active participated in classroom activities. The idea of Hedwig strategy is inspired by Jigsaw and Think-Pair-Share which have existed before. To know whether Hedwig strategy is effectively applied in content subject in large language class, it is proposed to do quasi experimental study with one class as an experimental group and one class as a control group. The experimental group is treated by using Hedwig strategy. Prior to the experimental study, it is performed research and development to develop the test for pre-test and post-test. For that reason, the research problem is what test is valid and reliable for an experimental study on the effectiveness of Hedwig strategy for the 4th semester students in Language Teaching Methodology class in English Education Department Universitas Brawijaya. This research reports half of the whole plan where the researchers developed test for pre-test and posttest to measure students' improvement in understanding Language Teaching Methodology. In short, the test developed in this study will be used to carry out experimental study as pre-test and post-test


Insurance being the most important element of risk optimization is the basis of investment activity. The author marks out risks of investors and buyers. As the article is mainly devoted to the insurance role, risks creating the necessary prerequisites for it are considered detailly paying special attention to the reasons bringing about instability on the real estate market con-nected with the risks appearing and therefore high importance of insurance role.


This project won third place in the 2017 Signature Course Information Literacy Award. The award recognizes exemplary student work that achieves the learning outcomes of the Signature Course information literacy requirement, that students will be able to create and execute a research strategy, critically evaluate information, and use citations. This paper was nominated by Dr Camille Weinberg and was submitted in her Fall 2016 Signature Course "Prehistory of Food." This project was chosen because Conrad chose strong sources and did an excellent job synthesizing them into his argument about biofuel use. As Dr. Weinburg said "[Conrad] put substantial time into his research process, as he sought out a variety of appropriate types of sources ranging from books to dissertations to journal articles…this attention to detail and exhaustive effort during the research process is reflected in the way in which Conrad utilizes the sources within his essay…[he] is particularly skilled at integrating each source in a way that is natural and cohesive with his own writing."


We assess the differences that emerge in Taylor rule estimations for the ECB when using ex-pos data instead of real time forecasts and vice versa.We argue that previous comparative studies i this field mixed up two separate effects. First, the differences resulting from the use of ex-post and real time data per se and, second, the differences emerging from the use of non-modified real time data instead of real-time data based forecasted values and vice versa. Since both effects can influence the reaction to inflation and the output gap either way, we use a more clear-cut approach to disentangle the partial effects. Our estimation results indicate that using real time instead of ex pos data leads to higher estimated inflation coefficients while the opposite is true for the output gap coefficients. If real time data forecasts for the current period are used (since actual data become available with a lag), this empirical pattern is even strengthened in the sense of even increasing the inflation response but lowering the reaction to the output gap while the reverse is true if "true" forecasts of real time data for several periods are employed.


Uncertainty is present in every managerial decision, and Managerial Economics: A Mathematical Approach effectively demonstrates the application of higher-level statistical tools to inform and clarify the logic of problem solving in a managerial environment.
 While illuminating managerial decision-making from all possible angles, this book equips readers with the tools and skills needed to recognize and address uncertainty. The book also explores individual, firm, and market-level decisions; discusses all possible risks and uncertainties encountered in the decision-making process; and prepares readers to deal with both epistemic and aleatory uncertainty in managerial decisions. Managerial Economics features:

 An emphasis on practical application through real-life examples and problems

 An accessible writing style that presents technical theories in a user-friendly way

 A mathematical and statistical point of view that reveals the presence of uncertainty inherent in managerial decisions

 Thoroughly class-tested material including problems at the end of each chapter, case study questions, review exercises, and objectives that summarize the main discussions

 Managerial Economics is an excellent book for upper-undergraduate and graduate-level courses in business and economics departments. The book is also an ideal reference and resource for managers, decision makers, market analysts, and researchers who require information about the theoretical and quantitative aspects of the topic.


This evidence-based clinical practice guideline provides recommendations to primary care clinicians for the management of children from 2 months through 12 years of age with uncomplicated acute otitis media (AOM). The American Academy of Pediatrics and American Academy of Family Physicians convened a committee composed of primary care physicians and experts in the fields of otolaryngology, epidemiology, and infectious disease. The subcommittee partnered with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the Southern California Evidence-Based Practice Center to develop a comprehensive review of the evidence-based literature related to AOM. The resulting evidence report and other sources of data were used to formulate the practice guideline recommendations. The focus of this practice guideline is the appropriate diagnosis and initial treatment of a child presenting with AOM. The guideline provides a specific definition of AOM. It addresses pain management, initial observation versus antibacterial treatment, appropriate choices of antibacterials, and preventive measures. Decisions were made based on a systematic grading of the quality of evidence and strength of recommendations, as well as expert consensus when definitive data were not available. The practice guideline underwent comprehensive peer review before formal approval by the partnering organizations. This clinical practice guideline is not intended as a sole source of guidance in the management of children with AOM. Rather, it is intended to assist primary care clinicians by providing a framework for clinical decision-making. It is not intended to replace clinical judgment or establish a protocol for all children with this condition. These recommendations may not provide the only appropriate approach to the management of this problem.


This study is shaped by the recognition that while there has been a great deal of policy development around the transition from unemployment and inactivity to employment over the last decade, policy has not been sufficiently informed about how best to nurture sustainable employment for those at risk of labour market exclusion. The review focused on evidence from 2005: it provides a review of data, UK and international literature and, incorporates findings from four international case studies ( Australia, Germany, Denmark and the United States. The report provides an overview of the economic context for low pay and low skilled work and highlights the need for a continuing commitment to promoting opportunities in the labour market as a means of progression and alleviating poverty and encouraging social mobility. The report argues that there is an inextricable link between skills and 'better jobs'. The authors conclude that a long-term view is required to decide how best to support someone at the point of worklessness: to address employability barriers in the short-term; and prepare the individual to retain, and progress in, employment. The concept of career is explored as a framework for progression: a combination of career guidance, a career / personal development plan and career management skills are identified as tools to raise aspiration and enable individual's to take action once they are in work to support their own progression. Thinking about the workplace, the report reviews the evidence on the role of job design, line management and progression pathways in facilitating workplace learning as a route to progression.


Semi-structured Chinese document anlysis is the most diffcult task for complex structure and Chinese semantics. According to the generic characteristics of the semi-structured document and the specific characteristics of the resume document, the paper researched on resume document block anlysis based on pattern matching, multi-level information identification and feedback control algorithms was also prompted. Based on the research, Resume Parser system was implemented for ChinaHR, which is the biggest recruitment website. It can read, analysis, retrieval and store the information automatically. According to all kinds of experienments results, the accuracy and efficiency of this system can generally satisfy the practical requirements. As the research on the processing of the semi-structured document, it will not only be as a directive of the further research on the resume analysis, but also be as the reference to other form of the semi-structured document.


The notions of pathwidth and the closely related treewidth have become more and more important recently. The importance lies not only in theory but also in practice. Theoretically, lots of NP-hard problems become polynomially solvable when restricted in graphs with bounded pathwidth (or treewidth). Practically, pathwidth and treewidth have significant applications in many different fields such as searching games, VLSI design, matrix computation, etc. Computing pathwidth is an NP-complete problem for general graphs, but polynomially solvable for treewidth-bounded graphs. However, there is no known practical algorithm to compute pathwidth for treewidth-bounded graphs. In this dissertation, a new algorithm for computing pathwidth and finding an optimal pathwidth-decomposition for treewidth-bounded graph is presented. This algorithm uses an interval completion technique and the branch-and-bound method to make the pathwidth computation process more efficient, practical, and easy to implement. It can also be easily converted to a parallel algorithm. The data structure for implementing this algorithm is presented, and some computational results are shown. Some heuristic methods to approximate pathwidth for general graphs are also given, especially for series-parallel graphs.


This paper examines magnitudes and business cycle dynamics of social security contributions (SSC). In most OECD countries studied, we document a negative covariation of payroll tax burdens with GDP and GDP growth at business cycle and lower frequencies. We assess the overall magnitude of the distortion following Barro and Redlick (2011). For most countries, average marginal SSC tax rates exceed average rates, but the latter tracks the former tightly. Changes in average payroll tax burdens are mostly accounted for by changes in tax schedules rather than shifts in the earnings distribution over time. For many countries, SSC rates behave like estimated values of the "labor wedge" (Chari et al. 2007, Brinca et al., 2016).


The impact of new technologies within and across industries is only felt through their widespread diffusion, yet studies of technology diffusion are scarce compared to other aspects of the innovation process. The electric power industry is one industry that is currently undergoing substantial change as a result of both technological and institutional innovations. In this dissertation I examine the economic rationale for the adoption of smart meters by electric power utilities and the relationship between smart meters and the evolving electric power industry. I contribute to empirical research on technology diffusion by studying the early diffusion of smart meters in the US electric power industry. Using a panel dataset and econometric models, I analyze the determinants of both the interfirm and intrafirm diffusion of smart meters in the United States. The empirical findings suggest multiple drivers of smart meter diffusion. Policy and regulatory support have had a significant, positive impact on adoption but have not been the only relevant determinants. The findings also suggest that utility characteristics and some combination of learning, cost reductions, and technology standards have been important determinants affecting smart meter diffusion. I also explore the policy implications resulting from this analysis for enhancing the diffusion of smart meters. The costs and benefits of adopting smart meters have been more uncertain than initially thought, suggesting that some policy support for adoption was premature. The coordination of policies is also necessary to achieve the full benefits of using smart meters.


The rise of financial technology (fintech) driven business models in banking poses a challenge for financial regulators. While the positive effects on the banking sector in terms of greater diversity and competition are generally recognized and encouraged by regulators, the nature of fintech business models may increase the risk of financial instability. Regulators are exploring ways to resolve this dilemma. The paper in hand makes a contribution to the literature by providing a framework for resolving the dilemma that is evaluated in the context of the regulatory response to the rise of fintech credit in the Netherlands. The semi-structured interviews which we conducted with four senior Dutch regulators resulted in three areas that–from their perspective–required urgent action: fintech credit companies need to lower the risk of overlending, increase pricing transparency, and improve lending standards. These findings were confirmed by the results of they survey among fintech credit clients. The current regulatory response to the rise of fintech in banking in the Netherlands provides an interesting case study that delineates the features of the future regulation of fintech in banking.


Inspired by recent work in machine translation and object detection, we introduce an attentionbased model that automatically learns to extract information from an image by adaptively assigning its capacity across different portions of the input data and only processing the selected regions of different sizes at high resolution. This is achieved by combining two modules: an attention sub-network which uses a mechanism to model a human-like counting process and a capacity sub-network. This subnetwork efficiently identifies input regions for which the attention model output is most sensitive and to which we should devote more capacity and dynamically adapt the size of the region. We focus our evaluation on the Cluttered MNIST, SVHN, and Cluttered GTSRB image datasets. Our findings indicate that the proposed model is able to drastically reduce the number of computations, compared with traditional convolutional neural networks, while maintaining similar or better performance.


The environmental factors that control the timing of the spring bloom in the Labrador Sea were investigated using ocean color data from satellites, historical oceanographic data and a pri- mary production model. From the satellite data, the onset of the spring bloom was found to progress with the season from south to north, with the exception of the northern Labrador Sea. The onset for the northern Labrador Sea occurred at approximately the same time as in the southern Labrador Sea. Two possible factors for the regional differences were examined from the data: irradiance and mixed- layer depth (MLD). The early bloom in the northern Labrador Sea is related to the very shallow mixed layer associated with low-salinity water. The temporal variations of the mean chlorophyll concentra- tion in 4 regions of the Labrador Sea (the Grand Banks, southern, central and northern Labrador Sea) during the growth phase of the spring bloom were modeled using a primary production model with MLD derived from historical temperature-salinity data. The temporal variations, in particular the early bloom in the northern Labrador Sea, were well reproduced by the model. A model sensitivity study showed that the onset of the spring bloom is highly sensitive to MLD. This confirms the finding from the data that MLD is a critical environmental factor for the spring bloom. The availability of the photosynthetically-active radiation plays an important role, but is not a determining factor of the early bloom in the northern Labrador Sea. The sensitivity study also showed that pre-bloom oceano- graphic conditions and attenuation of light in water have a greater effect on the timing in a shallow mixed layer than in a deeper mixed layer.


The question of cause-of-death remains of interest among demographers, epidemiologists and public health researchers. Adults in the age group 15-59 years play a significant role in the socio-economic development of a country. However, in most of sub-Saharan African countries, the coverage and accuracy of data on adult mortality has been deficient compared to that of under-five (age group 0-4) mortality. As a result, little research exists on causes-of-death in this age group in most of sub-Saharan Africa and adult mortality remains a health burden for many countries in this part of Africa. Using the 2010-2012 Zambia Sample Vital Registration with Verbal Autopsy (SAVVY) survey data and computing age-sex and cause-specific death rates and ratios as well as constructing cause-deleted life tables, this study examined the causes-of-death among adults in age group 15-59 years. The study found that HIV/AIDS was the major leading cause-of-death across all demographic and socioeconomic background characteristics of the deceased adults. HIV/AIDS deaths increased by age and peaked in age group 35-39 and were higher among females than males. Injuries and accidents were the second leading cause-of-death among males while among females it was tuberculosis. Injuries and accidents were more prevalent in age group 15-35, the highly educated and the never married. Diseases of the circulatory system were the third leading cause-of-death among female decedents while tuberculosis was the third leading cause of death among males. Malaria was the fourth leading cause-of-death for both males and females. Adult deaths attributable to non-communicable diseases were more evident in older ages 45-59. Eliminating HIV/AIDS as a cause of death would have the most impact in reducing adult mortality in Zambia and contribute significantly to the number of additional years of life gained compared to eliminating the other causes-of-death. Therefore, health programmes and interventions on HIV/AIDS should be further supported and strengthened as they would significantly contribute to the reduction of adult mortality in Zambia in line with sustainable development goals (SDGs).


Abstract. Coastal lowlands and estuaries are subjected to increasing flood risks during storm surges due to global and regional changes. Tidal wetlands are increasingly valued as effective natural buffers for storm surges by dissipating wave energy and providing flood water storage. While previous studies focused on flood wave attenuation within and behind wetlands, this study focuses on the effects of estuarine wetland properties on the attenuation of a storm tide that propagates along the length of an estuary. Wetland properties including elevation, surface area, and location within the estuary were investigated using a numerical model of the Scheldt estuary (Belgium, SW Netherlands). For a spring tide lower wetland elevations result in more attenuation of high water levels along the estuary, while for a higher storm tide higher elevations provide more attenuation compared to lower wetland elevations. For spring and storm tide a larger wetland surface area results in a better attenuation along the estuary up to a threshold wetland size for which larger wetlands do not further contribute to more attenuation. Finally a wetland of the same size and elevation, but located more upstream in the estuary, can store a larger proportion of the local flood volume and therefore has a larger attenuating effect on upstream high water levels. With this paper we aim to contribute towards a better understanding and wider implementation of ecosystem-based adaptation to increasing estuarine flood risks associated with storms.


A 50 year-old, 121.5 m long, five span prestressed bridge was situated in the deformation zone close to a mine in Kiruna in northern Sweden. There was a risk for uneven ground deformations so the bridge was analyzed and monitored. Results and measures taken to ascertain the robustness of the bridge are presented. The analysis resulted in an estimate that the bridge could sustain 24 mm in uneven horizontal and 83 mm in uneven vertical displacement of the two supports of a span. To be able to sustain larger deformations, the columns of the bridge were provided with joints, where shims could be inserted to counteract the settlements. To accomplish this, each one of the 18 columns of the bridge was unloaded by help of provisional steel supports. The column was then cut and a new foot was mounted to it. This made it possible to lift each individual column with two jacks, when needed, and to adjust its height by inserting or taking away shim plates. The deformations of the bridge and the surrounding ground were monitored. The eigenmodes of the bridge were studied with accelerometers and by analysis with finite elements (FE) models. Comparison indicated good agreement between the model and the actual bridge, with calculated eigenfrequencies of 2.17, 4.15 and 4.67 Hz, for the first transversal, vertical and torsional modes, respectively. Measurements during winter resulted in higher values due to increased stiffness caused by frozen materials.


Apart from application modeling, the Unified Modeling Language (UML) is also used for designing the tests on various levels (unit, integration, system tests). Designing tests based on UML diagrams will give high quality results, a more robust system. The advantage being that, as same set of UML diagrams are used for modeling production code, same can be used for automated testing. This would enable the developers and testers to test even at the early stages of software development. Different models can be used for defining tests and production code in many ways. In this paper, we will explore different algorithms and techniques applied on use cases and other UML diagrams and cite the work done in the respective areas.


Objective: To analyze the dose–risk relationship for alcohol consumption and intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) in the Ethnic/Racial Variations of Intracerebral Hemorrhage (ERICH) study. Methods: ERICH is a multicenter, prospective, case-control study, designed to recruit 1,000 non-Hispanic white patients, 1,000 non-Hispanic black patients, and 1,000 Hispanic patients with ICH. Cases were matched 1:1 to ICH-free controls by age, sex, race/ethnicity, and geographic area. Comprehensive interviews included questions regarding alcohol consumption. Patterns of alcohol consumption were categorized as none, rare (<1 drink per month), moderate (≥1 drink per month and ≤2 drinks per day), intermediate (>2 drinks per day and <5 drinks per day), and heavy (≥5 drinks per day). ICH risk was calculated using the no-alcohol use category as the reference group. Results: Multivariable analyses demonstrated an ordinal trend for alcohol consumption: rare (odds ratio [OR] 0.57, p < 0.0001), moderate (OR 0.65, p < 0.0001), intermediate (OR 0.82, p = 0.2666), and heavy alcohol consumption (OR 1.77, p = 0.0003). Subgroup analyses demonstrated an association of rare and moderate alcohol consumption with decreased risk of both lobar and nonlobar ICH. Heavy alcohol consumption demonstrated a strong association with increased nonlobar ICH risk (OR 2.04, p = 0.0003). Heavy alcohol consumption was associated with significant increase in nonlobar ICH risk in black (OR 2.34, p = 0.0140) and Hispanic participants (OR 12.32, p < 0.0001). A similar association was not found in white participants. Conclusions: This study demonstrated potential protective effects of rare and moderate alcohol consumption on ICH risk. Heavy alcohol consumption was associated with increased ICH risk. Race/ethnicity was a significant factor in alcohol-associated ICH risk; heavy alcohol consumption in black and Hispanic participants poses significant nonlobar ICH risk.


In this paper we study the exact boundary controllability of a
trapezoidal time discrete wave equation in a bounded domain. We
prove that the projection of the solution in an appropriate filtered
space is exactly controllable with uniformly bounded cost with
respect to the time-step. In this way, the well-known
exact-controllability property of the wave equation can be
reproduced as the limit, as the time step $h\rightarrow 0$, of the
controllability of projections of the time-discrete one. By duality
these results are equivalent to deriving uniform observability
estimates (with respect to $h\rightarrow 0$) within a class of
solutions of the time-discrete problem in which the high frequency
components have been filtered. The later is established by means of
a time-discrete version of the classical multiplier technique. The
optimality of the order of the filtering parameter is also
established, although a careful analysis of the expected velocity of
propagation of time-discrete waves indicates that its actual value
could be improved.


In all areas of academic or practical work related to disaster risk, climate change and development more generally, community and its adjunct community-based have become the default terminology when referring to the local level or working 'with the people'. The terms are applied extensively to highlight what is believed to be a people-centred, participatory, or grassroot-level approach. Today, despite, or because of, its inherent ambiguity, 'community' tends to be used almost inflationarily. This paper aims to analyse the way the concept of 'community' has come into fashion, and to critically reflect on the problems that come with it. We are raising significant doubts about the usefulness of 'community' in development- and disaster-related work. Our approach is to first consider how 'community' has become popular in research and with humanitarian agencies and other organisations based on what can be considered a 'moral licence' that supposedly guarantees that the actions being taken are genuinely people-centred and ethically justified. We then explore several theoretical approaches to 'community', highlight the vast scope of different (and contested) views on what 'community' entails, and explain how 'community' is framing practical attempts to mitigate vulnerability and inequity. We demonstrate how these attempts are usually futile, and sometimes harmful, due to the blurriness of 'community' concepts and their inherent failure to address the root causes of vulnerability. From two antagonistic positions, we finally advocate more meaningful ways to acknowledge vulnerable people's views and needs appropriately.


PiliPaViCius, V. and K. RomaneCKas, 2014. allelopathic activity of creeping thistle water extracts on germination and early growth of winter wheat. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 20: 607-612 allelopathic activity of creeping thistle Cirsium arvense (l.) scop. over-ground and rootstock biomass water extracts affects winter wheat Triticum aestivum l. grain germination and early growth. separately grinded 75 g of creeping thistle overground part and rootstocks was stirred into 750 ml of distilled water and left for 24 hours at a room temperature. Filtered water extract was taken as a stock solution. Stock solution was applied in two, five and ten fold dilution. Winter wheat grain germination was suppressed increasing concentration of Cirsium arvense water extracts while at low concentrations it slightly stimulated grain germination. Cirsium arvense over-ground part was more phytotoxic to the winter wheat grain germination than its rootstock stock solution. Recipient plant concentration (number of winter wheat grains) per Petri dish had no significant P > 0.05 influence on grain germination intensity. Increase of Cirsium arvense water extracts concentration led to winter wheat radicle length decline while seedling growth was suppressed sustaining longer one (except stock solution) than in control treatment of distilled water. Cirsium arvense rootstock water extracts were more phytotoxic to winter wheat seedling and radicle early growth than its over-ground part water extracts while winter wheat radicle as well seedling length was shorter applying Cirsium arvense rootstock than its over-ground part water extracts. increase in concentration of Cirsium arvense regularly increased winter wheat seedling and radicle ratio from 0.87-0.98 to 2.84-3.38 (over-ground water extracts) and from 0.69-0.90 to 4.48-5.94 (rootstock water extracts), describing change from relatively more intensive radicle to seedling growth.


This thesis is a collection of essays about the instrumental use of commitment decisions to facilitate the completion of the European internal electricity market.
European policy can shape markets in many ways, two most evident being regulation and competition enforcement. The interplay between these two instruments attracts a lot of scholarly attention. One of the major concerns in the competition vs. regulation debate is the instrumental use of competition rules. It has been observed that competition enforcement is triggered not only as a response to an anticompetitive harm occurring in the market, but that it sometimes becomes a powerful tool in the European Commission's hands to pursue regulatory goals.
This thesis looks for examples of such instrumentalisation in the context of electricity markets and finds that the Commission is very pragmatic in using all the possible instruments it has at hand to push forward its project of creating the internal electricity market. This includes regulation, competition enforcement and all sorts of political pressure. To the extent that commitment decisions accelerate sector-specific regulation and overcome political deadlocks, they contribute to the Commission's energy policy goals.
However, instrumentalisation of competition rules comes at a certain cost to competition policy, energy policy and, most importantly, to electricity markets themselves. Markets might be negatively affected either indirectly, by application of sector-specific regulation or competition policy building on previous commitment decisions, or directly, through the implementation of inadequate commitments in individual cases.
Concluding, commitment decisions generally contributed to achieving the policy objectives of the internal electricity market, but their use for that purpose does not come without cost. Given that this cost is ultimately borne by the internal electricity market, the Commission should take a more balanced approach to the instrumental use of commitment decisions so that it does not do more harm than good.


Christianity and Creation: The Essence of the Christian Faith and Its Future Among Religions: A Systematic Theology. By James P. Mackey. New York: Continuum, 2006. xix + 403 pp. $34.95 (paper). This remarkable and idiosyncratic book is the twelfth in a series of studies of theology and ethics by a distinguished Roman Catholic theologian currently teaching at Trinity College, Dublin. I say idiosyncratic since it has no index, footnotes, or bibliography (except for list of his own books and articles). It views twentieth-century theology as a series of lapses; sees Hegel as "the greatest Christian theologian of the modern era" (p. xvii) and Karl Barth as "the greatest theologian of the twentieth century" (p. 8); and begins each chapter with an epigraph from Nietzsche. Why? Because Nietzsche "understands cosmic creation as no Christian theologian or preacher of the time did" (p. xvi). Mackey states that this book was written for "those who still maintain a thoughtful and preferably critical interest in religion" (p. xi). The prologue, however, was written for students and practitioners of theology and discusses seven promising moves in twentieth-century theology, which ended in lapses summarized in what he describes as "franchise theology." This he defines as "the superstructure model of grace above and beyond nature, and of revelation above and beyond history" (p. 20). The prologue ends with a summary of the thesis of the book entitled "The Case for a Full-Blown Theology of Creation." The rest of the book consists of two parts. Part one is entitled "The Essence of the Faith of Jesus the Jew" and has chapters on creation, fall, salvation, and God. The last chapter includes a detailed analysis of the development of the doctrines of Christology and Trinity. Part two is entitled "Christianity: The Religion That Developed from the Faith of Jesus the Jew" with chapters on credo, code, cult, and constitution. An epilogue treats "Christianity and Other Religions." Mackey describes his book as "a standing-on-scriptures theology. A thoroughly scriptural theology" (p. xii). This is its main strength, especially in part one which is filled with original, often profound, biblical exegesis, albeit with little discussion of historical critical issues. Mackey focuses on Genesis and John, which he describes as "the two most foundational, powerful and insightful books of the Bible" (p. 145). On this basis, Mackey s book is an extended argument that Christianity is essentially a doctrine of creation, "a creation faith." This is elaborated most clearly and fully in the creative exegesis of part one, showing the deep relation between the doctrines of creation, fall, salvation, and God. Mackey does, however, refer regularly to various theologians and philosophers, especially Plotinus. Mackey's creation faith, in contrast to "sin-driven theology" (p. …


A fruit chemical composition reflects its maturation stage. For coffee, it is also the reflex of the post-harvesting processing type, dry, semi-wet and wet. The object of this work was to verify if headspace solid phase microextraction coupled to gas chromatography (HS-SPME-GC) could be used to discriminate between samples harvested in different maturation stages and treated by different processes. With application of principal component analysis to the area of 117 compounds extracted by SPME, using divinylbenzene/Carboxen/polydimethylsiloxane fiber, it was possible to discriminate, in the roasted and ground coffee, the maturity stage and processing type used .


Subnational diplomacy has become an increasingly important part of foreign policy and international relations. This observation concerns a state of affairs that is not necessarily obvious or given. First, by definition, subnational governments usually conduct subnational activities and address problems that affect their constituencies. Second, in many countries subnational governments undertake such an agenda without an actual legal framework authorizing such initiatives. However, with an intensified global interdependency, policy areas such as environmental protection, human rights, immigration, and trade, just to name a few, require action both at the international and territorialized levels, as many of them transcend political administrative boundaries.
 As a result, in the early 21st century it is possible to determine various forms of international relations conducted by subnational leaders. This activity involves direct interactions undertaken by subnational leaders and bureaucrats with other actors across borders (private, non-governmental, and governmental—national or subnational), participation in transnational networks, and/or participation in international policymaking. Because subnational governments are closer to the people and can test experimental or groundbreaking policies with less risk, oftentimes they can become pioneers of measures that can be rolled out or replicated elsewhere in the international domain. Such policy leadership is just one element of subnational engagement in the diplomatic arena whereby subnational governments move across jurisdictional levels, breaking the fixed scales in which they would traditionally operate.
 In the past years, scholars investigating the external relations undertaken by subnational governments have dedicated great effort to understanding the motivations for regions to go into the international arena. What these studies lack, however, is an understanding of what the implications are of subnational governments' engagement in international relations.


The demands of improving energy efficiency for high performance scientific applications arise crucially nowadays. Software-controlled hardware solutions directed by Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling (DVFS) have shown their effectiveness extensively. Although DVFS is beneficial to green computing, introducing DVFS itself can incur non-negligible overhead, if there exist a large number of frequency switches issued by DVFS. In this paper, we propose a strategy to achieve the optimal energy savings for distributed matrix multiplication via algorithmically trading more computation and communication at a time adaptively with user-specified memory costs for less DVFS switches, which saves 7.5% more energy on average than a classic strategy. Moreover, we leverage a high performance communication scheme for fully exploiting network bandwidth via pipeline broadcast. Overall, the integrated approach achieves substantial energy savings (up to 51.4%) and performance gain (28.6% on average) compared to ScaLAPACK pdgemm() on a cluster with an Ethernet switch, and outperforms ScaLAPACK and DPLASMA pdgemm() respectively by 33.3% and 32.7% on average on a cluster with an Infiniband switch.


The generation and numerical and optical characterization of a single-beam, ponderomotive-optical trap are discussed. A novel segmented wave-plate technique is described, and experimental results of the trap formation are presented. Several methods to tune the traps are discussed, including techniques to realize a bright trap for dark-seeking electrons. The effects of non-Gaussian incident beams and beams with phase aberrations on trap formation are also described.


Cyclin and cyclin-dependent kinase activity play independent roles in the stimulation of the transcription factor GATA4. The transcription factor GATA4 is required for cardiomyocyte proliferation and differentiation during development and for cardiac regeneration in adult animal models. GATA4 enhances the expression of genes encoding proteins that promote the cell cycle, such as cyclin D2 (CycD2) and its associated cyclin-dependent kinase CDK4. Among other functions, cyclins and CDKs can bind to transcription factors and alter their activity. Yamak et al. found that CycD2 binds to GATA4 to promote transcription. Overexpression of CycD2 (but not CycD1) with GATA4 enhanced luciferase activity from GATA4-dependent promoter-based reporters in National Institutes of Health (NIH) 3T3 cells and HL1 mouse atrial cardiomyocytes. Chromatin immunoprecipitation showed that CycD2 and GATA4 were enriched on the promoter of an endogenous GATA4-dependent gene, and coimmunoprecipitation, in vitro binding, and functional domain mapping experiments demonstrated that a conserved N-terminal region of GATA4 bound directly to CycD2. Mutation of GATA4 Ser160, which is mutated in patients with congenital heart defects, reduced the interaction between GATA4 and CycD2 and activation of GATA4-dependent reporters by GATA4 and CycD2. CDK4 phosphorylated GATA4, but not GATA4 S160G, in vitro; in cells, pharmacological inhibition of CDK4 reduced GATA4-mediated activation of the reporter. In contrast, CDK4 inhibition was less effective at inhibiting GATA4-mediated reporter activity stimulated by coexpression of CycD2 and GATA4. Moreover, coexpression of GATA4 with CycD2 K112A, which compromises CDK4 binding, enhanced reporter activity as compared with overexpression of GATA4 alone, suggesting that CycD2 may promote GATA4 activity independent of CDK4. Co-injection of GATA4 and CycD2 mRNAs into Xenopus embryos enhanced expression of cardiac-specific genes in ectodermal explants as compared to GATA4 injection alone or co-injection of GATA4 S160G and CycD2. Thus, during development, GATA4 increases the abundance of CycD2, which then binds to GATA4, enhancing its activity and establishing a feed-forward loop to promote cardiogenesis. A. Yamak, B. V. Latinkić, R. Dali, R. Temsah, M. Nemer, Cyclin D2 is a GATA4 cofactor in cardiogenesis. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 111, 1415–1420 (2014). [Abstract] [Full Text]


This article analyses the distinction between public and private (limited) companies and its relevance for company law. Usually, the distinction refers to the fact that the tradability of shares in private companies is more restricted than in public companies. In this paper the differences between the two company forms are studied from the perspective of the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. In both jurisdictions, the private company is of a more recent origin than the public company and currently the most popular company form in numbers. The paper discusses the motives to choose the public company form over the more lightly regulated private company form, and the justifications for the more extensive regulation of the public company. It is submitted that both British and Dutch law could relax certain mandatory provisions for non-listed public companies and thus offer more flexibility to shareholders. Curiously and in contrast with British law, a Dutch private company can make public offers of its securities and become listed, although there is no appropriate legislative regime as in case of a public company. The article concludes with a discussion of several topics where the British and/or Dutch company legislation make distinctions between public and private companies, including capital protection, resolutions and meetings, rights attached to shares, the board, accounting law and dispute resolution. Improvements in these areas are suggested for both British and Dutch company law.


Aerial photographs of the coastline are useful tools for investigating historic shoreline changes, especially in locations where such photographs are available back to the late 1920's. From aerial photographs, it is possible to locate many prominent shoreline features such as cliff edges, dune vegetation, the water line, and the wetted bound (the visual demarcation between wet and dry sand). Review of historic photographs allows a qualitative analysis of changes to shoreline features, but most of the classic coastal survey points, such as mean high water, mean sea level and mean lower low water are based on vertical elevations and are difficult, if not impossible, to locate on two-dimensional aerial photographs without pre-established vertical controls. One feature which may offer some link between the visual components of the shoreline and the vertical survey points is the wetted bound where the landward extent of the wetted bound is a function of the height of the previous high tide and of wave runup. Knowledge of the tide range when the aerial photograph was taken will enable coastal scientists and planners to estimate the vertical position of the visual wetted bound and link information from aerial photographs more closely to classic coastal surveys. With a modification for tidal elevation, the wetted bound from aerial photographs can be used as supportive evidence to establish the ordinary high tide line, to better understand long-term shoreline trends, and to evaluate seasonal shoreline trends.