Effective hydraulic fracture stimulation is critical for shale development, and microseismic is the only technology able to map the growth of these hydraulic fracture networks. Since the advent of commercial mapping in the Barnett Shale in 2000, microseismic has been used to investigate hydraulic fracture treatments around the globe. Microseismic can be used to tune the stimulation to cover just the intended reservoir depth interval without fracturing out of zone, understand the primary fracture orientation to optimize the well orientation, define the optimum spacing between stages and detect unexpected fracture growth such as fault activation. More fundamentally, however, microseismic images of complex fracture networks have fundamentally changed the conceptual view of hydraulic fractures from simple, planar fractures to intersecting fracture networks in various directions. The recent development of complex fracture models, which implicitly simulate both the geomechanics and mass balance of the injected fluid volume, offer promise to estimate the effective propped volume of the fracture network. These geomechanical simulations also provide insight into not only where the rock is fracturing, but also allow interpretation of microseismic source deformation and mechanism attributes which provide further insight into how the fractures deform.


Questions of collective identity and nationhood dominate the memory debate in both the high and popular cultures of postsocialist Russia, Poland and Ukraine. Often the 'Soviet' and 'Russian' identity are reconstructed as identical; others remember the Soviet regime as an anonymous supranational 'Empire', in which both Russian and non-Russian national cultures were destroyed. At the heart of this 'empire talk' is a series of questions pivoting on the opposition between constructed 'ethnic' and 'imperial' identities. Did ethnic Russians constitute the core group who implemented the Soviet Terror, e.g. the mass murders of the Poles in Katyn and the Ukrainians in the Holodomor? Or were Russians themselves victims of a faceless totalitarianism? The papers in this volume explore the divergent and conflicting ways in which the Soviet regime is remembered and re-imagined in contemporary Russian, Polish and Ukrainian cinema and media.


While the session-RPE (rating of perceived exertion) method can quantify training volume in athletes, this method is not able to evaluate energy expenditure (EE) during a training session. We developed an RPE-based activity record for assessing EE during athletic training, and we compared its results to those obtained using the flex-heart rate (flex-HR) method. The EE of nine female collegiate endurance runners was assessed by the RPE-based activity record and flex-HR methods during eight days in the normal training season. Subjects were asked to record their RPE in the record at 5-minute intervals, and to wear a HR monitor during training. All subjects also participated in an incremental treadmill exercise test, which was used to determine their RPE-EE and HR-EE regression equations. Although the RPE-based activity record significantly overestimated EE (RPE-activity record, 572 kcal/session; flex-HR method, 499 kcal/session; p = 0.031), it had high validity relative to the flex-HR method (intra-class correlation coefficient, 0.891; 95% confidence interval, 0.845–0.923) and there were no systematic errors in EE estimation between the two methods. Therefore, the RPE-based activity record can be used to assess EE during training in female runners. However, RPE-based activity record might overestimate EE for athletes who have more intermittent activities during training than endurance runners, because RPE takes more time for returning to the resting level than HR when the intensity of activity declines. Further research is needed to verify the validity of the RPE-based activity record for assessing EE during other sporting activities or measurement conditions, and to identify the factors affecting the degree of estimation error associated with this method. Jpn J Phys Fitness Sports Med, 64(1): 125-134 (2015)


The functioning of shallow lakes is supposedly very sensitive to water level fluctuations (WLF). Relationships between WLF and submerged macrophyte development were investigated in five Turkish shallow lakes located in a semi-arid to arid Mediterranean climate where the hydrological event of WLF is a common phenomenon. In all lakes, WLF emerged as a major factor determining submerged plant development. High submerged plant coverage was observed in four of the study lakes, Lake Beysehir, Lake Uluabat, Lake Marmara and Lake Mogan when the water level was low throughout the year or during growing season, submerged plants expanded; however, in Lake Isikli extensive submerged plant development was observed at high water levels during winter. In Lake Isikli, an increase of 25 % in the surface area was recorded, which, in turn, might have resulted in an increased potential for expansion of submerged plants. Furthermore, in all the lakes excluding Lake Beysehir, high submerged plant coverage coincided with a significant decrease in the amplitude of intra-annual water level fluctuations. The depth profile, expressed as the morphometry index (Z mean /Z max ), appeared to be critical for the development of extensive vegetation. Expansion of vegetation coincided with either an increased morphometry index or a flatter bottom profile. However, the impact of hydrology on lake morphometry differed between the lakes. In Lake Isikli, the high water level generated a slightly flatter, albeit not significantly so, bottom; however, in the remaining lakes the same effect was observed at low water level. Differences in the morphometry index in response to WLF appeared to depend on the original bottom profile, which is either conical or ellipsoid. Therefore, the impact of hydrology on the bottom profile of a lake may profoundly affect the extent of the littoral zone. Biomass of carp (Cyprinus carpio) had a strong inverse correlation with vegetation development in Lake Marmara and Lake Uluabat, therefore, carp might also have been important in macrophyte development. It may be concluded that littoral plant communities in shallow lakes located in semi-arid to arid regions appear to be particularly susceptible to water level fluctuations.


A 94 kDa nuclear-localization-signal (NLS)-binding protein was purified from Drosophila embryos. The NLS of the simian-virus-40 T-antigen is specifically bound by the dephosphorylated form of the protein. After phosphorylation, the affinity of the protein for the NLS is sharply decreased. In the dephosphorylated form, p94 (protein of 94 kDa) is the major NLS-binding protein in Drosophila embryos. Immunoprecipitation confirmed the ATP-dependent phosphorylation of p94, and co-precipitation of two additional phosphorylated proteins, indicated that the NLS-binding protein is part of a larger complex in Drosophila embryos. In agreement with the immunoprecipitation results, cross-linking experiments demonstrated the interaction of p94 with three additional proteins. These protein-protein interactions were also phosphorylation-dependent.


Spring-like leg behavior was found in the global dynamics of human and animal running in sagittal plane. The corresponding template model, the conservative spring-loaded inverted pendulum (SLIP), shows stability for a large range of speeds and is, therefore, a promising concept for the design of legged robots. However, an anchoring of this template is needed in order to provide functions of biological structures (e.g., mass distribution, leg design) and engineers' details for construction. We extend the SLIP template model towards two new models that we call M-SLIP and BM-SLIP by adding considerable leg masses to investigate the influence of leg rotation on running stability. Our study clearly reveals that the spring-loaded inverted pendulum can be anchored in a leg mass model. This supports model- and simulation-driven engineering towards robotic behavior inspired from biological systems.


The Electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for President and Vice President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves.1 I. INTRODUCTION From day one, Democrats have attacked Texas Governor George W. Bush and former Defense Secretary Dick Cheney as the "two Texas oil men" ticket.2 Following on this theme, a number of legal commentators have raised Twelfth Amendment concerns with the Republican team-most notably Sanford Levinson of the University of Texas.3 Their arguments have been given a public airing in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Associated Press, Time magazine, The New Orleans TimesPicayune, the Denver Rocky Mountain News, the Denver Post, The Kansas City Star, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Sarasota Herald-- Tribune, The Boston Globe, The Hartford Courant, and Findlaw's new web-magazine, Writ.4 The Twelfth Amendment, which repeats similar language in Article II of the Constitution,5 does not bar the election of a President and Vice President from the same state. However, it does prohibit members of the electoral college from voting for a President and a Vice President who are both "inhabitants" of their state-a limitation some claim could prove crucial in this close race, should Cheney require Texas' thirty-two electoral votes to garner a majority.6 This debate should receive a warm welcome not only from Bush-Cheney supporters, but also from anyone who believes in upholding the Constitution and the rule of law. Make no mistake: the Twelfth Amendment presents no hurdle for the Republican ticket.7 Nevertheless, the discussion serves an important function. It reminds us of the importance of enforcing restrictions on the exercise of government power by federal officers-restrictions which have been repeatedly and unapologetically violated by the Clinton-Gore administration,8 most notably by civil rights attorney Bill Lann Lee9 and law professor Walter Dellinger10-as well as preserving the constitutional division of power between the states and the federal government. II. THE TWELFTH AMENDMENT It is well-established that one's "domicile" is determined by physical presence in a particular state and intent to make one's home there indefinitely.11 A person can have one and only one domicile at any moment in time, and the only way to lose domiciliary status in one state is to gain such status in another.12 By contrast, "residence" is a broader and more inclusive concept, reflecting the reality that a person can live in more than one state at one time.13 However, the Twelfth Amendment does not refer to either of these legal concepts. Instead the Constitution employs the more ambiguous term "inhabitant," not only in the Twelfth Amendment, but also in Article I when discussing eligibility for Congressional office.14 The word "inhabitant" escapes easy definition. Although it has existed for over two centuries, the constitutional reference to "inhabitant" has not been authoritatively analyzed or construed. In various statutory contexts, courts have construed the term in a number of ways, spanning "a range of different relationships between a person and a place."15 Thus, one could argue that "inhabitancy" means "domicile," "residency," or some other concept altogether. The strongest arguments, however, favor importing the concept of domicile into the Twelfth Amendment. This paper will discuss these arguments, looking first to the text of the Constitution and second to the original intent of the Framers. It will then conclude that, on the facts, Cheney is domiciled in the state of Wyoming, not Texas. Moreover, even if inhabitancy is defined by residency rather than domicile, Cheney still does not risk losing Texas votes because he has left Texas and is no longer a resident there. Finally, even if, under a different set of facts, Cheney were currently an inhabitant of Texas, a number of cures and escape devices remain to address any resulting Twelfth Amendment complications for the Bush-Cheney ticket. …


We present results from the first study to examine the causal impact of early childhood education on social preferences of children. We compare children who, at 3-4 years old, were randomized into either a full-time preschool, a parenting program with incentives, or to a control group. We returned to the same children when they reached 7-8 years old and conducted a series of incentivized experiments to elicit their social preferences. We find that early childhood education has a strong causal impact on social preferences several years after the intervention: attending preschool makes children more egalitarian in their fairness view and the parenting program enhances the importance children place on efficiency relative to fairness. Our findings highlight the importance of taking a broad perspective when designing and evaluating early childhood educational programs, and provide evidence of how differences in institutional exposure may contribute to explaining heterogeneity in social preferences in society.


Merge-and-shrink abstraction (M&S) is an approach for constructing admissible heuristic functions for cost-optimal planning. It enables the targeted design of abstractions, by allowing to choose individual pairs of (abstract) states to aggregate into one. A key question is how to actually make these choices, so as to obtain an informed heuristic at reasonable computational cost. Recent work has addressed this via the well-known notion of bisimulation. When aggregating only bisimilar states -- essentially, states whose behavior is identical under every planning operator -- M&S yields a perfect heuristic. However, bisimulations are typically exponentially large. Thus we must relax the bisimulation criterion, so that it applies to more state pairs, and yields smaller abstractions. We herein devise a fine-grained method for doing so. We restrict the bisimulation criterion to consider only a subset K of the planning operators. We show that, if K is chosen appropriately, then M&S still yields a perfect heuristic, while abstraction size may decrease exponentially. Designing practical approximations for K, we obtain M&S heuristics that are competitive with the state of the art.


The Vatnfjell post-schistosity fold nappe, southern Saltdal, Nordland, latitude 67°N, develops disharmcnically westwards into the Saltdal Depression, off the anticlinal step in basement that Iies between the former and the higher lying Sulitjelma Depression to the east. The complex faces down in the terms of the regional structural sequence but joins smoothly with upward facing folds to the east and north. The relative lowness of the Sulitjelma Depression probably results more from the elevation of the Tysfjord and Nasafjall cul minations to north and south than to its own changes of level. Thus the hypothesis of lateral spreading from an ascending gneiss lobe restrained by a stiff cover that may apply to more westerly Nordland fold nappes is replaced for the Vatnfjell ccmplex by one of westward flow and shear of a relatively easily deformed marble-rich sequence (perhaps containing folds initiated by regional shortening) between stiffer rocks above and the anticlinal step and accompanying growing depression in the basement below. The domes and fold nappes of Nordland are later than the major strain producing episode and cannot be used as evidence of the role oi gravity at the earlier stage.


We develop a vision system for highly mobile autonomous agents that is capable of dynamic obstacle avoidance. We demonstrate the robust performance of the system in artificial animals with directable, foveated eyes, situated in physics-based virtual worlds. Through active perception, each agent controls its eyes and body by continuously analyzing photorealistic binocular retinal image streams. The vision system computes stereo disparity and segments looming targets in the low-resolution visual periphery while controlling eye movements to track an object fixated in the high-resolution fovea. It matches segmented targets against mental models of colored objects of interest in order to decide whether the segmented objects are harmless or represent dangerous obstacles. The latter are localized enabling the artificial animal to exercise the sensorimotor control necessary to avoid collision.


The Australian mobile telecommunication industry has experienced a significant growth in the last few years. However, mobile data services which have the potential to increase the industry revenue significantly have not been used widely as predicted. At this stage, few studies have been conducted to explore the use of mobile data services in Australia. To better understand mobile phone users' expectations regarding mobile data services, this study explores the current use of mobile data services in Australia through a survey study. The findings indicate that there has been a positive trend towards a wider use of mobile data services in Australia. Price, usefulness and immediate availability of the services have been identified as important factors that can further encourage the use of mobile data services in Australia.


Flocculation using modified clays is a technique widely applied in the management of harmful algal blooms (HABs). Polyaluminum chloride (PAC) modified clay is efficient flocculating agent in HABs control; however its effectiveness in black bloom management is still largely unknown. In the present study, PAC-modified clay was used to flocculate the black bloom under simulated flows. The deposition, resuspension of the black matter/clay flocs and the impact on the spread of quartz sand to the flocs were quantitatively studied. The results showed that the dosage of 1.8 g/L PAC-modified clay (0.8 g/L PAC and 1 g/L diatomite) could reduce turbidity by more than 90% in 1 h. The resuspension of flocs could be generated by a threshold bed shear stress of 0.045 N/m 2 . Addition of quartz sand inhibited the resuspension of flocs. We suggest that quartz sand can be used to effectively inhibit floc resuspension caused by waves and flow currents as the subsequent treatment of black bloom flocculation in Lake Taihu.


The interpolation method has been one of the main tools for proving lower bounds for propositional proof systems. Loosely speaking, if one can prove that a particular proof system has the feasible interpolation property, then a generic reduction can (usually) be applied to prove lower bounds for the proof system, sometimes assuming a (usually modest) complexity-theoretic assumption. In this paper, we show that this method cannot be used to obtain lower bounds for Frege systems, or even for TC0-Frege systems. More specifically, we show that unless factoring (of Blum integers) is feasible, neither Frege nor TC0-Frege has the feasible interpolation property. In order to carry out our argument, we show how to carry out proofs of many elementary axioms/theorems of arithmetic in polynomial-sized TC0-Frege.
As a corollary, we obtain that TC0-Frege, as well as any proof system that polynomially simulates it, is not automatizable (under the assumption that factoring of Blum integers is hard). We also show under the same hardness assumption that the k-provability problem for Frege systems is hard.


In its 2011 Transport Policy White Paper, the European Commission introduced ten targets to be met in order to reach a more competitive and resource efficient transport system. The following dual goal focused on urban transport and commuting: "To halve the use of 'conventionally-fuelled' cars in urban transport by 2030; and to phase them out by 2050; and to achieve "essentially CO₂-free city logistics in major urban centres by 2030." The question driving the research behind this paper is how to realise this dual urban transport goal for 2030, taking into consideration existing trends, available policy options, the diverse interests of stakeholders involved in urban mobility in Europe. The paper draws on data gathered in the EU FP7 TRANSFORuM project, including workshop dialogues with stakeholders representing different interests in and perspectives on urban transport and mobility. The main result is a roadmap that proposes a broad strategy to answer the question "Who has to do what, by when" to achieve the urban transport goal. The roadmap includes detailed proposals for action and milestones at different levels of decision making. This paper will describe the process of consultations and the outcomes of the roadmap process and will also discuss the perspectives for implementation.


Prosocial behavior is crucial for functioning societies. However, its reliable scientific assessment and the understanding of its underlying structure are still a challenge. We integrated 14 paradigms from diverse disciplines to identify reliable and method-independent subcomponents of human prosociality; 329 participants performed game theoretical paradigms and hypothetical distribution tasks commonly used in behavioral economics and completed interactive computer tasks and self-reports typically employed in psychology. Four subcomponents of prosociality were identified by exploratory factor analysis and verified by confirmatory factor analysis in an independent sample: altruistically motivated prosocial behavior, norm motivated prosocial behavior, strategically motivated prosocial behavior, and self-reported prosocial behavior. Altruistically motivated behavior was related to gender, to enhanced cognitive skills, and to reduced negative affect. Our study provides a crucial step toward an overarching framework on prosocial behavior that will benefit future research on predictors, neural underpinnings, and plasticity of human cooperation and prosociality.


We examine the power of nondeterministic finite automata with acceptance of an input word defined by a leaf language, i.e., a condition on the sequence of leaves in the automaton's computation tree. We study leaf languages either taken from one of the classes of the Chomsky hierarchy, or taken from a time- or space-bounded complexity class. We contrast the obtained results with those known for leaf languages for Turing machines and Boolean circuits.


The post--civil rights era perspective of many scientists and scholars was that race was nothing more than a social construction. Recently, however, the relevance of race as a social, legal, and medical category has been reinvigorated by science, especially by discoveries in genetics. Although in 2000 the Human Genome Project reported that humans shared 99.9 percent of their genetic code, scientists soon began to argue that the degree of variation was actually greater than this, and that this variation maps naturally onto conventional categories of race. In the context of this rejuvenated biology of race, the contributors to What's the Use of Race? investigate whether race can be a category of analysis without reinforcing it as a basis for discrimination. Can policies that aim to alleviate inequality inadvertently increase it by reifying race differences? The essays focus on contemporary questions at the cutting edge of genetics and governance, examining them from the perspectives of law, science, and medicine. The book follows the use of race in three domains of governance: ruling, knowing, and caring. Contributors first examine the use of race and genetics in the courtroom, law enforcement, and scientific oversight; then explore the ways that race becomes, implicitly or explicitly, part of the genomic science that attempts to address human diversity; and finally investigate how race is used to understand and act on inequities in health and disease. Answering these questions is essential for setting policies for biology and citizenship in the twenty-first century.


Unravelling patterns of relative sea-level change during previous interglacials enhances our understanding of ice sheet response to changing climate. Temperate-latitude estuarine environments have the potential to preserve continuous records of relative sea level from previous interglacial (warm) periods. This is important because, currently, we typically only have snapshots of sea-level highstands from low-latitude corals and raised palaeoshoreline indicators while the (continuous) deep-sea oxygen isotope record only provides indirect evidence of sea-level changes. Here, we focus on the Nar Valley in eastern England, in which is preserved evidence of a late middle-Pleistocene marine transgression more than 20 vertical metres in extent. By applying a model of coastal succession and sea-level tendencies, as used in Holocene sea-level studies, we assess the mode (abrupt versus gradual) of sea-level change recorded by the interglacial Nar Valley sequences. Compiled palaeo-stratigraphic evidence comprising foraminifera, pollen and amino acid racemization dating, suggests that the mode of sea-level change in the Nar Valley interglacial sequence was gradual, with potentially two phases of regional transgression and relative sea-level rise occurring at two separate times. The first phase occurred during the latter part of marine oxygen isotope stage (MIS) 11 from ~8 to 18 m OD; and, the second phase potentially occurred during early MIS 9 from ~-3 to 3 m OD (with long-term tectonic uplift included in these estimates). We cannot conclusively preclude an alternative MIS 11 age for these lower sediments. The lack of indicators for rapid sea-level oscillations in the Nar Valley adds weight to an argument for steady melt of the ice sheets during both MIS 9 and 11.


[1] In this work we will present a method for retrieving nighttime electron density profiles from OI 135.6 nm limb emissions measured by the Global Ultraviolet Imager (GUVI) aboard the Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED) mission spacecraft. The primary mechanism for 135.6 nm radiance in the nighttime thermosphere is recombination of O+ ions, and the volume emission rate is approximately proportional to the square of the electron density. Herein we describe a two-step inversion method in which we first determine the volume emission rate as a function of altitude from the radiance measurements and then use the inferred volume emission rates to determine the electron density profile. There are two important factors that we have addressed in constructing the retrieval algorithms for this problem. First, the GUVI instrument was primarily designed for day side measurements. Consequently, the signal levels on the night side are very low, and our retrieval algorithms must therefore be able to function in regions where the signals are weak. Second, since we must take the square root of the volume emission rate, it must be everywhere positive in order for the electron density to be deduced. For this reason, we have imposed nonnegativity constraints (using the methods described by Menke [1989]) on what might otherwise be discrete linear retrievals of volume emission rate. After describing the retrieval method we present an error analysis and a preliminary comparison with coincident measurements by incoherent scatter radars (ISRs). In general, the retrieved electron densities from the GUVI data agree well with the ISR data, although more coincident measurements would increase our confidence in the resulting electron density profiles.


Introduction. In the past several years, innovations have become a synonym for rapid technological progress. Using cutting-edge technologies and up-to-date models for the innovation process allows corporations to be one step ahead of their competitors. Problem statement. The research of new ways for the emergence of innovations requires studying the historiography of innovation and tracking changes in the stages of innovative process development. This kind of study stimulates the appearance of modern innovative models that, in turn, can create the conditions for developing the necessary skills to introduce innovations in any context. Purpose. To examine the existing classification of innovations and models in the innovation process, to systematize and to develop author's own classification of researched objects. Materials and methods. Logic method, comparative analysis, system approach method, and analogy method have been used for this research. Ukrainian and foreign scholarly research publications on this topic have been used as references. Results. A historiographic research of the concepts of «innovation» and «innovation process» has been carried out. Special attention is focused on the study of «open innovation». This research has enabled to retrace changes in the concept of «innovation» over time, to classify the existing types of innovations by different features and to distinguish them by categories. Along with that, the dynamics of the innovation process and the models have been scrutinized; the development stages with the respective attributes and disadvantages have been shown. Conclusions. Nowadays, there are numerous innovation types and they continue to appear constantly, though no unified classification of innovations is in place. The classifications made by Ukrainian and foreign researchers differ by the number of attributes. Moreover, at the level of individual corporation, there is no uniform action plan how to become innovative and to survive in current market economy. The top managers choose independently their innovative way taking into consideration the opportunities and challenges of the market.


We present a generalization of Signorini's method to the case of live loads which allows us to derive approximate solutions to some pure traction-value problems in nite elastostatics. The boundary value problems and the corresponding compatibility conditions are formulated in order to determine the displacement of the system up to the second-order approximation. In particular, we consider the case of homogeneous and isotropic elastic bodies and we solve the following two pure traction-value problems with live loads: (i) a sphere subjected to the action of a uniform pressure eld; (ii) a hollow circular cylinder whose inner and outer surfaces are subjected to uniform pressures. Then, starting from these solutions, we suggest
experiments to determine the second-order constitutive constants of the elastic body. Expressions of the second-order material constants in terms of displacements and Lame coefcients are determined. Further we apply the eneralized Signorini's perturbation scheme to analyze radial expansion/contraction of an hollow cylinder made of an isotropic functionally graded elastic material, whose material moduli depend upon the radial coordinate only. We study the case of an hollow circular cylinder under uniform internal and external pressure. The displacement of the sysii tem and its state of stress are determined up to the second-order approximation. We consider both compressible and incompressible functionally graded elastic bodies.
The quantitative analysis of all the described problems has been carried out with the aid of the software Mathematica by Wolfram Research. The programs which have allowed to nd the solutions to these problems are presented and their characteristics are discussed.


The lowest singlet and triplet states of cyclopropyne and silacyclopropyne have been investigated using ab initio electronic structure models. Employing DZP and TZ(2df,2pd) basis sets, optimum geometries and harmonic vibrational frequencies have been obtained with the following methods: restricted Hartree-Fock or self-consistent-field (SCF), two-configuration self-consistent-field (TCSCF), single and double excitation configuration interaction (CISD) and coupled cluster (CCSD), and CCSD incorporating perturbative estimates of connected triple excitations [CCSD(T)]. Although silacyclopropyne has been observed via matrix isolation, cyclopropyne remains a high-lying saddle point on the C{sub 3}H{sub 2} potential energy surface. Structural and electronic differences between these two molecules are explored. The triplet states of cyclopropyne and silacyclopropyne are minima on their potential energy surfaces and lie higher in energy than the corresponding singlet states, by 10 and 40 kcal mol{sup -1}, respectively. 60 refs., 7 figs., 1 tab.


We study the capacity of Nakagami multipath fading (NMF) channels with an average power constraint for three power and rate adaptation policies. We obtain closed-form solutions for NMF channel capacity (with and without diversity) for each power and rate adaptation strategy, and compare them with the additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel capacity. The capacity of a NMF channel is always smaller than the capacity of an AWGN channel. Moreover, the capacities converge to the AWGN channel capacity as the Nakagami fading parameter m tends to infinity, as expected. Our results also show that optimal power and rate adaptation yields a small increase in capacity over just optimal rate adaptation with constant power, and this small increase in capacity diminishes as the average received carrier-to-noise ratio, m parameter, and/or number of diversity branches increase. Finally, fixed rate transmission with channel inversion suffers the largest capacity penalty. However, this penalty diminishes as the amount of fading decreases.


Direct and selective replacement of carbon-hydrogen bonds with new bonds (such as C–C, C–O, and C–N) represents an important and long-standing goal in chemistry. These transformations have broad potential in synthesis because C–H bonds are ubiquitous in organic substances. At the same time, achieving selectivity among many different C–H bonds remains a challenge. Here, we focus on the functionalization of C–H bonds in complex organic substrates catalyzed by transition metal catalysts. We outline the key concepts and approaches aimed at achieving selectivity in complex settings and discuss the impact these reactions have on synthetic planning and strategy in organic synthesis.


The standard model for turbulent shear viscosity in accretion disks is based on the assumption that angular momentum transport is opposite to the radial angular frequency gradient of the disk. This implies that the turbulent stress must be negative and thus transport angular momentum inwards, in the boundary layer where the accretion disk meets the surface of a weakly magnetized star. However, this behavior is not supported by numerical simulations of turbulent magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) accretion disks, which show that angular momentum transport driven by the magnetorotational instability (MRI) is inefficient in disk regions where, as expected in boundary layers, the angular frequency increases with radius. Motivated by the need of a deeper understanding of the behavior of an MHD fluid in a differentially rotating background that deviates from a Keplerian profile, we study the dynamics of MHD waves in configurations that are stable to the standard MRI. Employing the shearing-sheet framework, we show that transient amplification of shearing MHD waves can generate magnetic energy without leading to a substantial generation of hydromagnetic stresses. While these results are in agreement with numerical simulations, they emphasize the need to better understand the mechanism for angular momentum transport in the inner disk regions on more solid grounds.


Individuals classified as sexual predators are the pariahs of the community. Sex offenders are arguably the most despised members of our society and therefore warrant our harshest condemnation. Twenty individual states and the federal government have enacted laws confining individuals who have been adjudicated as "sexually violent predators" to civil commitment facilities post incarceration and/or conviction. Additionally, in many jurisdictions, offenders who are returned to the community are restricted and monitored under community notification, registration and residency limitations. Targeting, punishing and ostracizing these individuals has become an obsession in society, clearly evidenced in the constant push to enact even more restrictive legislation that breaches the boundaries of constitutional protections. The advancement of technology and mass media communication have spawned a constant influx of information about sexual predators. News headlines and Internet webpages are dedicated to reporting on and highlighting sexual crimes and their infamous perpetrators. There is little disputing that the newest surge in legal attention and efforts to contain sexual predators stems from the mass dissemination of sexual offender media stories available to the general public. Thus, we cannot discuss our national obsession with sexual offenses and offenders without considering how the role of the media has framed our conceptualizations of offenders and influenced resulting legal decisions and legislation. The public perception of what constitutes a "sex offender" is undoubtedly linked to the media's portrayal of these types of heinous crimes. The media's attention to high profile, violent sexual offenses has been shown to elicit a panic and fear of rampant sexual violence within our communities. This, in turn, places extreme public pressure on legislators to enact more repressive legislation and on judges to interpret such laws in ways that insure lengthier periods of incarceration for offenders. The media's portrayal of a "largely ineffective" criminal justice system heightens fear; fictionalized portrayals of crime on television dramas may lead viewers to believe that "all offenders are `monsters' to be feared." The media, in short, shapes and produces the reality of crime, as it influences "factual perceptions of the world." A "moral panic" has developed primarily due to the media's depiction of a "sex offender " in the news and newspaper articles. As a result of the incessant media coverage, the general public has conceptualized what it believes to be the prototype of this "monstrous evil" – a male who violently attacks stranger young children .This paper is not the first inquiry into the media's influence on public perceptions and moral panic: the media's influence on sex offender policy, legislation and public opinion has been highlighted in depth throughout much of the literature and academic writings. The other discussions have generally focused on the media's role as a precursor to the enactment of sex offender legislation, the upholding of sex offender laws in the courts, and as a significant influence on the continuation of moral panic. But what has not been looked at significantly, is whether and how the media coverage and presentation of these issues has been transformed over the past two decades, and what effect, if any, this has had on public perception. What if the media has begun to shift away from simply highlighting and describing the feared beast and has begun to focus more on the problematic results of laws and legislation? Would that, in turn, have an effect on public perceptions and inevitably on the formation and enactment of laws and judicial decisions? Slowly and somewhat recently, it appears that the tone of the media's portrayal of sex offender issues has begun to shift. In addition to highlighting salient and horrific sexually violent offenses and contributing to community outrage, the mainstream media has increasingly begun to report on significant concerns surrounding the conceptualization, treatment and containment of the sex offender population. News articles – published in popular newspapers and media sites – more readily dedicate information to expressing expert opinions (that were previously embedded in articles dedicated solely to describing heinous crimes and community outrage), reporting on statistics that question the factual basis of our perceptions, questioning the efficacy of the laws designed to protect the community, and touching on the cost of human rights violations resulting from our laws. This article will consider the role of the media in sex offender issues and further theorize whether the shift in media presentation has affected public perceptions of sex offenders and whether it has had any impact on recent legislation and the future enactment of sex offender laws. As part of this inquiry, we will employ the lens of therapeutic jurisprudence in an effort to assess the broader societal impact of these media depictions.Part I will offer an overview of the major (media-centered) sex offender laws and legislation, focusing on the media accounts of the crimes upon which they were based. Part II will consider the impact of the media's portrayal of offenders as the pariahs of society in the civil and criminal justice system; Part III will detail the proposed recent shift in media presentation and consider how, if at all, this shift has made an impact on new laws, legislation and court opinions. Part IV weighs these developments in the context of therapeutic jurisprudence, and considers its potential impact on dealing with the aftermath of the first decades of the media's volatile influence on this area of law and policy. We conclude by offering several policy recommendations.


The technology that underpins the Internet of Things, offers ways to embed interactivity within the exhibition: microprocessors, sensors, and actuators can be concealed within reactive spaces and smart objects that seamlessly blend with their surroundings. This offers a new perspectives on how to deliver digital curated content in the context of a museum visit through, for example, smart artefacts. Through a series of museum case studies we will discuss how smart artefacts can bridge the gap between the physical and the digital: Can this integration give the visitor an enriched experience and higher level of object association? And to what level do these smart objects act as transitional objects for the curated content? Our observations / evaluations show that the act of holding an object empowers the visitor and engages them to a deeper level. The curator's role in the multidisciplinary team is then that of a storyteller that blends the content and interpretation with aspects of the visitor's interactive experience. The knowledge gained through several case studies was instrumental to the creation of a toolkit that aims at bringing the potential and power of the internet of things on the exhibition floor. By using the cloud-based toolkit, cultural heritage and museum professionals can embed digital content into smart objects and spaces with just a few clicks. This opens up possibilities for exhibition creation using design thinking and fast prototyping. Museums can then explore a wide range of possible visitors' experiences in an experimental environment to assess whether 'it works!' or not. Starting from the case studies the presentation will discuss the journey for idea to implantation.


Are you in a frustrating relationship with someone who expects constant attention and admiration, but doesn't seem able to take your needs and feelings into consideration? Someone who thinks they're better than everyone else and should be treated accordingly? Who dishes out insults and condescension, but flies off the handle at the slightest disagreement or whiff of criticism? If so, you may be dealing with a narcissist. Learn what you need to know about narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) so you can spot the narcissists in your life, protect yourself from their power plays, and establish healthier boundaries.


Acute promyelocytic leukemia (APML) most often is associated with the balanced reciprocal translocation t(15;17) (q22;q11.2) and the expression of both the PML-RARalpha and RARalpha-PML fusion cDNAs that are formed by this translocation. In this report, we investigated the biological role of a bcr-3 isoform of RARalpha-PML for the development of APML in a transgenic mouse model. Expression of RARalpha-PML alone in the early myeloid cells of transgenic mice did not alter myeloid development or cause APML, but its expression significantly increased the penetrance of APML in mice expressing a bcr-1 isoform of PML-RARalpha (15% of animals developed APML with PML-RARalpha alone vs. 57% with both transgenes, P < 0.001). The latency of APML development was not altered substantially by the expression of RARalpha-PML, suggesting that it does not behave as a classical "second hit" for development of the disease. Leukemias that arose from doubly transgenic mice were less mature than those from PML-RARalpha transgenic mice, but they both responded to all-trans retinoic acid in vitro. These findings suggest that PML-RARalpha drives the development of APML and defines its basic phenotype, whereas RARalpha-PML potentiates this phenotype via mechanisms that are not yet understood.


Purpose: The purpose of this present study was to evaluate longitudinal visual field information for 448 patients over their first year of follow-up in the Optic Neuritis Treatment Trial. Methods: We reviewed 6536 automated static visual fields performed on a visual field analyzer (Humphrey Visual Field Analyzer) at nine visits within the 1-year period for each of the patients. Results: The median values of the mean deviations for affected eyes were as follows: -22.88 dB at baseline, -1.94 dB at 6 months, and -1.62 dB at 1 year. At 6 months, 51% of affected eye visual fields were normal, and at 1 year 55.9% were normal. Approximately two thirds (68.8%) of the fellow eyes were classified as abnormal at baseline, although the defects were generally slight. One third (33.2%) were abnormal at 6 months, and approximately one third were still abnormal at 1 year. More than 87% of those abnormal at 6 months and at 1 year had been abnormal at baseline. Binocular analysis revealed that 13.2% of patients showed a chiasmal or retrochiasmal type of field defect at least once during the year (5.1% bitemporal; 8.9% homonymous). Of the patients who showed a retrochiasmal visual field defect, 75.7% had an abnormal magnetic resonance imaging scan at baseline compared with 46% of the rest of the patients in the Optic Neuritis Treatment Trial ( X 2 =10.73, df =1, P Conclusion: Over the first year of follow-up, the majority of patients with visual field defects from acute optic neuritis returned to normal, as measured by automated static perimetry. Many fields showed variation in the pattern and location of the sensitivity loss. Chiasmal and retrochiasmal defects occurred more commonly than previously reported.


Article history: Received October 23,2013 Received in revised format November 25, 2013 Accepted November 27, 2013 Available online November 27 2013 An innovative price plan monitoring and advisory system simulates subscriber usage consumption for offering suitable price plan. The aim of this paper is to develop the decision support system by using Statistical Process Control (SPC) to identify subscriber usage behavior and provide critical visibility into subscriber consumption to detect their inappropriate usage especially in exceeding usage. To explore subscriber usage behavior, a forecasting model and a regression is employed to identify related factors and predictive usage model. The innovative price plan monitoring and advisory system has been verified and validated with one of the largest telecommunication company in Thailand. Using decision support system with effective control chart and real subscriber behavior pattern help mobile network operator grow their revenues and profits by offering an appropriate price plan as well as improve subscriber experience with more flexible choice to meet their individual usage consumption needs. © 2014 Growing Science Ltd. All rights reserved.


This thesis presents the results of an experimental study into the nonlinear optical properties of novel nonlinear materials at infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum for the realisation of nonlinear optical devices in the nearand mid-infrared. Because of its exceptional nonlinear optical properties and its promise of implementation in a range of mid-infrared applications graphene had a prominent place in this research. Extensive investigations in the nonlinear optical properties of single and multilayer chemical vapour deposition (CVD) graphene are presented. This study revealed that graphene presents a nonlinear phase shift due to a negative, irradiance-dependent nonlinear refraction. The high peak powers available enabled the study of both saturable absorption (SA) and two-photon absorption (2PA), identifying the irradiance limits at which the contribution of two-photon absorption exceeded that of saturable absorption. Moreover, the nonlinear optical properties of graphene-polyvinyl alcohol (G-PVA) composite films were studied. The results indicate the thermal damage of the host polymer due to graphene heating and temperature transfer. Studies in the third order nonlinear optical properties of chalcogenide glasses with the perspective of integration with graphene for the development of mid-infrared devices and applications are also performed. Of all the glasses investigated, gallium lanthanum sulphide (GLS) was found to have the most interesting nonlinear optical properties. Its optical Kerr nonlinearity was found to be approximately 35 times higher than silica and the upper limit of its two-photon absorption coefficient was the lowest of all the chalcogenide glasses analysed, implying that GLS would be an excellent candidate for ultrafast all-optical switching. Subsequently GLS was chosen as the host material for optical waveguide and device fabrication via ultrafast laser inscription (ULI). Nearand mid-infrared waveguides were successfully fabricated; fundamental features such as, refractive index profiles and material dispersion were investigated. The Zero Dispersion Wavelength (ZDW) of GLS was experimentally measured for the first time; the ZDW was determined to be between 3.66-3.71 μm for the waveguides and about 3.61 μm for the bulk. Single mode directional couplers at 1550 nm were also developed and their ultrafast all-optical switching properties were investigated, leading to the assessment of the nonlinear refractive index n2 of the ULI modified area. Furthermore, waveguides in Er doped GLS were successfully fabricated and the infrared transitions at 1550 and 2750 nm were detected opening the potential for GLS waveguide lasers.


Land Use and Land Cover Change (LULCC) is the most prominent cause of Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) variability in any landscape. Kenyan Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASALs) have been facing extensive land use/ cover changes in the last three decades prompting a review on the impacts it has on soil quality and consequently on land degradation. This study was carried out in 2016 in Olesharo Catchment, Narok County, one of the prominent ASALs of Kenya. The main objective of the study was to study how the different lands use types within the catchment affects SOC and Total Nitrogen (TN) stocks in the catchment. Using LandSat imageries, four land use types were identified: Shrubland (SH), Agricultural Land (AG), Grasslands (GR) and BareLands (BL). Disturbed and undisturbed soil samples were taken from 30 x 30m plots randomly distributed for each of the Land use type (LUT) at 0-15 cm and 15-30 cm depths for the analysis of SOC/ and TN stocks. The study showed that the means of SOC in land use types were significantly different (P<0.05). Shrublands registered the highest mean total of 31.26 Mg C ha-1 which was significantly higher than GR (13.54 Mg C ha-1) and BL (12.85 Mg C ha-1). In terms of TN mean values, SH was the highest (4.22 Mg N ha-1) while BL was the lowest (1.6 Mg N ha-1). Similarly, the mean SOC and TN stocks in the surface layers (21.38 Mg N ha-1) were significantly higher than the sub-surface (18.74 Mg N ha-1) layers indicative of the stocks decreased as depth increased. The results suggest that land use types have influence on soil properties and their management can contribute to sustainable land management to mitigate negative effects of climate change.


XML tree pattern query, also known as Twig query, is the core operation in XML query processing. In the research of the Twig query algorithm, TreeMatch is considered to be one of the best algorithms because it reduces the generation of intermediate results. However, in the core operation getNext of the TreeMatch algorithm, there are many calculations that depend only on Twig mode. This redundant duplicate calculation affects the performance of the TreeMatch algorithm when there are many getNext calls. In order to further improve the algorithm, this paper proposes a Twig query optimization method based on partial evaluation and hot-trace compilation. This method takes Twig mode as an invariant to perform partial evaluation and translates query requests into a Twig query machine instruction sequence. The duplication calculation of the Twig pattern during the query process is avoided, and the process of interpretation of the instruction sequence of the query machine is optimized by using the hot trace compilation technique. The comparison experiment shows that the optimization method based on partial evaluation and hot-trace compilation can increase the efficiency of twig query by 20% to 60%.


Ecuador experienced an unprecedented wave of international migration since the late 1990s, triggered by a severe economic and financial crisis. This paper gathers individual-level data from Ecuador and the two main destinations of Ecuadorian migrants: the US and Spain. First, we provide a careful description of the main characteristics of migration flows, both in terms of their scale and skill composition. Second, we estimate Mincer regressions for Ecuadorians in the three countries, and attempt to reconcile the features of migration flows with our predictions for earnings by destination. We find that earnings differences can account for the higher share of college graduates among migrants to the US, but fail to explain the larger scale of the flows to Spain. We argue that the puzzle is explained by taking into account that (i) the options to migrate legally to either destination were slim, and (ii) the cost of illegally migrating to Spain was lower than to the US.


THE UNITED STATES was not the first country in the last hundred years to occupy Iraq. That distinction belongs to the United Kingdom, which seized the provinces of Basra, Baghdad, and Mosul from the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I and formally took control ofthe new country in 1920, under a mandate from the League of Nations. A number of pundits have recently noted the parallels between the United Kingdom's experience eight decades ago and the United States' today. The comparisons, however, have generally centered on the early and middle phases of both occupations. Too few have focused on the ignominious end ofthe United Kingdom's reign in Mesopotamia and the lessons those events hold for the United States today. In fact, Washington's current position bears a strong resemblance to London's in the late 1920S, when the British were responsible for the tutelage of a fledgling Iraqi state suffering from immature institutions, active insurgencies, and the interference of hostile neighbors. Eventually, this tutelage was undermined by pressure from the British Parliament and the press to withdraw-forces quite similar to those in the United States now calling for a withdrawal from Iraq. Building a better understanding of the United Kingdom's mistakes-and of the con sequences of that country's ultimate withdrawal from Iraq-could thus help illuminate the present occupation and provide answers to when and how to end it. If the British record teaches anything, it


ABSTRACT Objective: Mental health nurses play a central role in delivering health care to people with severe mental health problems. Since antipsychotic medication remains the principal treatment for severe mental health conditions, an integral element of this role involves monitoring the effectiveness of medication and resultant side effects. The objective of this study was to examine nurses' perceptions of the assessment of antipsychotic medication side effects. Methods: A questionnaire was developed and then disseminated to members of the Australian College of Mental Health Nurses. Quantitative data were analysed using Smallest Space Analysis (SSA). Qualitative data were grouped into themes and used to further delineate the regions identified through the SSA. Results: Questionnaires were returned by 152 respondents, of which 140 were included in the analysis. The SSA identified the following four regions: personal confidence in assessing side effects; system responsibilities and practices for assessing side effects; collective responsibility for assessing side effects; and beliefs about side effect assessments. Discussion: Four important areas were identified that may underpin the use of antipsychotic medication side effect assessment tools. These areas are probably closely interrelated and form part of a complex social health care setting.


Using a dispersive Faraday bandpass filter, we have upgraded our Na temperature lidar to be capable of 24-h operation. Along with a transmitting telescope to reduce the laser beam divergence to 0.2 mrad, the initial use of this unique narrow-band filter in a lidar receiver allowed us to reduce the detected daytime sky background to a level previously encountered at night, making routine daytime temperature measurements in the mesopause region a reality. The implementation, characterization, and results of what we believe are the first daytime mesopause temperature measurements are reported.


Reserves estimation can be based on one or more methodologies, each with its associated uncertainty. These include 'static' volumetrics, reservoir simulation, material-balance analysis, and/or projections of ultimate recovery according to production decline. The static volumetric method is in focus here, as the most commonly used approach during the development and early production stages when there has been limited petroleum recovery and the uncertainty associated with a reserves estimate can be considerable. There are several key technical aspects of the static volumetric process, including: the issue of minimum data requirements in relation to reservoir complexity; the upscaling of reservoir parameters and the interpretative algorithms through which they are interrelated; the identification of net reservoir and net pay; and the integration of data sources in a manner that is dynamically conditioned, i.e. tied back to permeation properties. This last point is especially important because reserves, by definition, are commercially recoverable. Suggested improvements reveal additional opportunities for cross-validation and groundtruthing. The approach is synthesized into a high-level, yet pragmatic workplan. It is proposed that the adoption of such a workplan will remove some of the uncertainty that is currently inherent in the technical process for estimating reserves.


Antimicrobial resistance is a pressing threat to global health, with multidrug-resistant pathogens becoming increasingly prevalent. The bacterial SOS pathway functions in response to DNA damage that occurs during infection, initiating several pro-survival and resistance mechanisms, such as DNA repair and hypermutation. This makes SOS pathway components potential targets that may combat drug-resistant pathogens and decrease resistance emergence. This review discusses the mechanism of the SOS pathway; the structure and function of potential targets AddAB, RecBCD, RecA and LexA; and efforts to develop selective small-molecule inhibitors of these proteins. These inhibitors may serve as valuable tools for target validation and provide the foundations for desperately needed novel antibacterial therapeutics.


What does it mean to call Western society 'secular'? What is 'secularism'? And how should we understand the concept of 'secularism' in international relations, particularly the clash between radical Islam and the West? The Latin term from which the word 'secular' is derived - 'saeculum' - means 'generation' or 'age', and came to mean that which belongs to this life, to the here and now, in this world. It is widely used as a shorthand for the ideology which shapes contemporary society without reference to the divine.However, according to Graeme Smith, 'secularism' represents a great deal more. He offers a radical reappraisal of the notion of secularism and its history, beginning with the Greeks and proceeding to modernity and the contemporary period. The assumption that the West is becoming increasingly secular is often unquestioned. By contrast, Dr Smith discerns a different kind of society: one informed by a historical legacy which makes sense only when it is appreciated that it is religious. Secularism was born of Christianity. Daringly - and very originally - Smith argues that it is impossible to understand the idea of the secular without appreciating that, at root, it is Christian. "A Short History of Secularism" will fundamentally reshape discussions of western culture, religion and politics. It will have strong appeal to students of religion, political philosophy, and the history of ideas.


© 2016 Deane and Murphy. This work is published by Dove Medical Press Limited, and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License. The full terms of the License are available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. 2016 Deane and Murphy. This work is published and licensed by e Medical Press Limited. The full terms of this license are availabl at https://www.dovepress.com/terms. p p and incorporate the Creative Commons Attribution – Non Commercial (unp rted, v3.0) Licen e (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/). By accessing the work you hereby accept the Terms. Non-commercial uses of the work are permitted without any further permission from Dove Medical Press Limited, provided the work is properly attributed. For permission for commercial use of this work, please see paragraphs 4.2 and 5 of our Terms (https://www.dovepress.com/terms.php). Advances in Medical Education and Practice 2016:7 489–496 Advances in Medical Education and Practice Dovepress


Little is know about childless individuals in the Netherlands, although currently one out of every five Dutch individuals remains childless. Who are they? How did they end up being childless? How and to what extent are their life outcomes influenced by their childlessness? By focusing on individual life histories and interdependencies between different life domains, in this study, these questions are studied from a life course perspective. Using data from the Netherlands Kinship Panel Study, the causes and consequences of remaining childless are scrutinized for both women and men. In general, the results of this dissertation are consistent with the principle of life histories and interdependencies between domains. In the first empirical chapter, the causes of childlessness are examined. There, evidence is found for the importance of considering life histories when trying to understand why people end up childless. Educational, occupational and marital pathways shape the likelihood of remaining childless. Moreover, the findings indicate that women and men have distinctive pathways into childlessness. Educational attainment increases the likelihood of remaining childless among women only. A stable career increases the likelihood of remaining childless among women, but it increases the likelihood of entering fatherhood. Years without a partner is positively associated with childlessness among both women and men. Not having had a partnership and having had multiple partnerships are strong determinants of childlessness, especially among men. The second empirical chapter examines differences in values regarding familial responsibility between childless individuals and parents. The results show that differences exist depending on the type of norms of family responsibility studied. Childless individuals, and in most cases only those who opt voluntarily for a childless life, have a weaker sense of universal family responsibility in comparison with parents. Irrespective of parental status, women always feel personally responsible for their own families. Men were found to need the presence of children to activate the significance of family in their own personal lives. Differences between childless individuals and parents are attributable to selection rather than to adaptation. The results from the third and fourth empirical chapter are consistent with the notion of interdependencies between life domains. The third chapter examined the consequences of entering parenthood for feelings of wellbeing. Where previous work often studied the transition to parenthood in a social vacuum, this chapter takes into account the co-occurrence of other life course transitions. The results show a moderate impact of entering parenthood on feelings of well-being. Insofar effects of making the transition to parenthood emerge, they are attributable to changes in partner status and work hours. The fourth and final empirical chapter in this dissertation focuses on the long-term impact of childlessness for men's lives. I extended on previous work by focusing on partnership history as a possible explanation for differences between childless men and fathers. The results show that the impact of childlessness is weaker than was expected. Many initial differences between childless men and fathers are attributable to differences in their partnership history. Nevertheless, childless men differ from resident fathers regarding their community involvement, their level of income and their satisfaction with life. Childless men differ from nonresident fathers with respect to their income and work hours.


Few studies have focused on the use of ocean colour remote sensors in the Gulf of Gabes (southeastern Tunisia). This work is the first study to evaluate the ocean colour chlorophyll-a product in this area. Chlorophyll-a concentrations were measured during oceanographic cruises performed off the Gulf of Gabes. These measurements were used to validate satellite data acquired from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Aqua satellite. First, two atmospheric correction procedures (standard and shortwave infrared) were tested to derive the remote-sensing reflectance, and then a comparison between two bio-optical (OC3M and MedOC3) algorithms were realized using the in situ measurements. Both atmospheric correction procedures gave similar results when applied to our study area indicating that most pixels were non-turbid. The comparison between bio-optical algorithms shows that using the regional bio-optical algorithm MedOC3 improves chlorophyll-a estimation in the Gulf of Gabes for the low values of this parameter.


Context-aware information systems are highly desired, particularly in highly dynamic mobile environments. Semantic Web services (SWS) address context-adaptation by enabling the automatic discovery of distributed Web services based on comprehensive semantic capability descriptions. However, whereas SWS technology supports the allocation of resources, it does not entail the discovery of appropriate SWS representations for a given situational context. Even though the appropriateness of resources in mobile settings is strongly dependent on the current situation, SWS technology does not explicitly encourage the representation of situational contexts. Moreover, describing the complex notion of a specific situation by utilizing symbolic SWS representation facilities is costly, prone to ambiguity issues and may never reach semantic completeness. Moreover, since not any real-world situation completely equals another, a potentially infinite set of situation parameters has to be matched to a finite set of semantically defined SWS resource descriptions to enable context-adaptability. To overcome these issues, we propose mobile situation spaces (MSS) which enable the description of situation characteristics as members in geometrical vector spaces following the idea of conceptual spaces (CS). Semantic similarity between situational contexts is calculated in terms of their Euclidean distance within a MSS. Extending merely symbolic SWS descriptions with context information on a conceptual level through MSS enables similarity-based matchmaking between real-world situation characteristics and predefined resource representations as part of SWS descriptions. To prove the feasibility, we provide a proof-of-concept prototype which applies MSS to support context-adaptation across distinct mobile situations.


The Sveconorwegian autochthonous basement in the Finse area, South Norway, comprises a c. 900 km2 bimodal batholith, dominated by K-feldspar megacrystic granite. The granite is locally intermingling with gabbroic rocks, and cut by different generations of pegmatite and aplite dykes. Zircon U–Pb geochronological data obtained by ID–TIMS demonstrate that granite, granodiorite and gabbro are coeval, as they define a common upper intercept age of 985.6 ± 1.6 Ma, dating emplacement of the batholith. Titanite is variously disturbed by later Sveconorwegian events. Pegmatites cross-cutting all structures yield zircon and titanite ages of 976 ± 8 Ma, 939 ± 2, and possibly 958 ± 2 Ma, reflecting the latest stages of the evolution of the batholith. The Finse batholith is one of the earliest members of the widespread ferroan hornblende-biotite-granitoid (HBG) suite, in the western part of the Sveconorwegian orogen.


Heat and mass transfer analysis in magnetite molybdenum disulphide nanofluid of grade two is studied. MoS 2 powder with each particle of nanosize is dissolved in engine oil chosen as base fluid. A generalized form of grade-two model is considered with fractional order derivatives of Caputo and Fabrizio. The fluid over vertically oscillating plate is subjected to isothermal temperate and species concentration. The problem is modeled in terms of partial differential equations with sufficient initial conditions and boundary conditions. Fractional form of Laplace transform is used and exact solutions in closed form are determined for velocity field, temperature and concentration distributions. These solutions are then plotted for embedded parameters and discussed. Results for the phys- ical quantities of interest (skin friction coefficient, Nusselt number and Sherwood number) are computed in tables. Results obtained in this work are compared with some published results from the open literature.


BACKGROUND
One in four children in England is overweight/obese upon starting school. HENRY (Health Exercise Nutrition for the Really Young) offers a novel, preventive approach to this problem by training practitioners to work more effectively with the parents of preschool children around obesity and lifestyle issues. The programme is being delivered to all Sure Start Children's Centres (the UK government initiative providing family support and childcare in disadvantaged areas) in Leeds, UK.

METHODS
The evaluation covered the first 12 Centres to be trained (these had a reach of approximately 5000 families). A series of semi-structured interviews were conducted with Centre managers, and 'drop boxes' were provided for all staff to leave their comments. Interviews took place up to 11 months post-training, allowing a consideration of any long-term impact.

RESULTS
Data from 12 interviews and 106 comment slips indicated that HENRY training was associated with considerable changes to the Centre environment. Immediate effects included changes to Centre policy and practice, including the provision of age-appropriate portion sizes and the introduction of healthy snacks; a strengthening of team working and increased staff confidence around tackling lifestyle change; and enhanced skills when working with families. Training also induced changes within the staff's personal lives (e.g. increased physical activity and family mealtimes).

CONCLUSIONS
The findings suggest that positive and lasting lifestyle effects can be achieved by brief training courses involving Children's Centre staff teams. Both staff and attendant families appear to benefit. The effect on levels of preschool obesity across the city once HENRY has extended to the remaining Centres is yet to be seen.


In an election year with inflation starting to creep up and beyond the Reserve Bank of Australia's target zone, it is not surprising that the focus of the major parties turned to prices. In particular, petrol prices were of significant consumer concern, having risen by some 15 cents per liter over the January – June 2007 period from an already historical high. In June, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission ('ACCC') raised concerns that local prices had remained high despite a significant fall in international prices. Shortly after this, the Federal Opposition announced that if elected, it would 'appoint a national Petrol Commissioner with the sole responsibility to formally monitor and investigate price gouging and collusion'. The ACCC then recommended to the Treasurer that a general inquiry into petrol prices be conducted by the ACCC, and this was agreed to by the Treasurer the following day. The inquiry was to be completed by the end of October, before the election date later in November, but was subsequently given an extension of time. Also in July, the Opposition Leader made what was billed as a major statement on the cost of living in Australia. He promised, if in government, to strengthen the powers of the ACCC to monitor supermarket prices and to direct the ACCC to hold a National Grocery Pricing Inquiry. The ACCC would also be directed to publish a periodic survey of grocery prices at supermarkets for a typical shopping basket to be published on a dedicated website. The petrol and groceries inquiries subsequently undertaken by the ACCC were both substantial exercises requiring extensive involvement by the Chairman and a number of the Commissioners. They were the first significant prices surveillance inquiry references given by the Federal Government to the ACCC since its establishment through the merger of the Trade Practices Commission and the Prices Surveillance Authority. The provisions of the old Prices Surveillance Act 1983 (Cth) were generally incorporated into Part VIIA of the Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth) in 2004. This paper summarises the key aspects of these two inquiries and comments on the policy recommendations made by them. Whilst generally supporting the views the ACCC has put, there are some areas where we have a different emphasis. Some further general observations on the use of the prices surveillance powers conclude the paper.


Abstract Drawing on Dan Miron's concept of "literary contiguity," this article arranges an encounter between two documentary novels about the experience of the First World War, both told from the perspective of a Jewish officer. Although rather different with regard to their place in the Modern Hebrew canon, the well-known novel The Great Madness (1929) by Avigdor Hameiri and the unknown novel Gold in the Streets (1946) by M. Y. Ben-Gavriêl reveal numerous topical and aesthetic intersections when read alongside each other. The joint analysis shows that besides their pacifism and general criticism of the logic of the nation-state, both novels share a common geographical and ideological trajectory. Their interpretation of the events depicted during the "Great War" envisages the Land of Israel as the ultimate destination of their protagonists.


In 1995, youth ministers from the Commonwealth mandated the Commonwealth Youth Programme (CYP) to develop a diploma in youth and development work that could be delivered through distance education. This initiative led to the establishment of a qualification that is offered by more than 20 tertiary training institutions (referred to as 'partner institutions') across the Commonwealth.
This brief contribution attempts to discuss the issues surrounding the ownership of the CYP's Diploma in Youth in Development. To consider the ownership of the course, I felt it is worth discussing 'partnership', rather than ownership directly on its own. While conversing about the issue of partnership, I will touch on the issue of ownership of the Diploma in Youth in Development.
Although identification of the owner of the diploma is important, I believe that developing interagency collaboration and partnership arrangements in the delivery of the diploma is crucial. Therefore, the article begins with a discussion of partnership arrangements between the CYP, state and partner institutions. This is followed by a discussion of the advantages of national government involvement in the delivery of the programme. Then, I have included a brief discussion on the example of Papua New Guinea (PNG), where a three-way partnership arrangement involving the state was developed. After that, a brief overview is provided of the national task force on the diploma programme and finally a few words on the involvement of the regional youth caucus member.


Introduction The Goldmann applanation tonometer readings were noted to be markedly reduced after Lasik surgery using a thin flap technique which is widely used nowadays, to correct a wide range of myopia and astigmatism. The Ocular Response Analyzer (ORA) is considered one of the important tools for refinement of Intraocular Pressure (IOP) measurements. The aim of this study is to evaluate and refine ORA measurements for IOP changes post- M2 90 Moria microkeratome Lasik procedure for Egyptian myopic and astigmatic patients trying to aid in glaucoma diagnosis and management. Methods Thirty-five eyes of nineteen Egyptian patients with myopia or myopic astigmatism who had undergone Lasik procedure using M2 90 Moria microkeratome were included in this consecutive case series study. All cases were subjected to full ophthalmological examination including uncorrected and best corrected visual acuity, refraction, slit lamp examination, Scheimpflug imaging and ORA (Reichert Ophthalmic Instruments, Inc., Buffalo, NY, USA). The refractive errors were measured using an auto refractometer and were confirmed by trial. For the ocular response analyzer, the Goldmann-correlated IOP measurement (IOPg) which simulates IOP measured by Goldmann tonometer and the Corneal-Compensated Intraocular Pressure (IOPcc) that takes corneal biomechanical properties into consideration were reported as well as the Corneal Hysteresis (CH) and the Corneal Resistance Factor (CRF). Cases were examined preoperatively and again about one month after Lasik, after stabilization of eye condition. The collected data were tabulated and analysed with the suitable statistical methods. The mean values and standard deviation were calculated for quantitative data. Comparison tests (t-test) and correlation tests (Pearson) were also performed. Results In our study, involving M2 90 Moria microkeratome Lasik procedure, a highly significant post-Lasik reduction in IOPg (t-test = 8.62 (p<0.01), and a statistically significant reduction in IOPcc (t-test = 3.37 (p<0.05) by ocular response analyzer. The average post-Lasik reduction in IOP in mmHg was 4.84±2.82 for IOPg and 2.23±3.51for IOPcc. A statistically significant correlation (p<0.05) existed between post-Lasik reduction of IOPg and ablation depth as well as preoperative spherical equivalent. A non-significant correlation existed between post-Lasik reduction of IOPcc and both of ablation depth and preoperative spherical equivalent. Conclusions Following Lasik procedure using M2 90 Moria microkeratome, the IOPcc values by ORA were closer to the preoperative values than the IOPg values and the reduction of IOPcc values was not affected by ablation depth (i.e. preoperative spherical equivalent). Therefore, it is advisable to use the IOPcc values by ORA when evaluating post-Lasik patients for glaucoma diagnosis and management, but with the addition of the average value for post-Lasik reduction which in the study was 2.23±3.51mmHg.


Recent developments of policing in Ireland have seen a shift towards local crime prevention initiatives through local partnerships. The principle aim of this study is to explore the effects of the partnership model of policing with the recent introduction of Joint Policing Committees (JPCs). This dissertation seeks to examine the opinions of members of JPCs towards this model. The research employed a qualitative methodology obtained through semi-structured interviews of JPC members and observational studies. In addition, this thesis reports on literature regarding partnership, security and governance in modern society. While this research project found that informal partnerships between An Garda Siochana and Local Authorities existed prior to the formation of JPC, since their establishment, partnerships have become more formal and accountable. There is strong evidence to suggest that elected representatives were slow to fully engage in the partnership model of policing, the councillors were against community representatives involvement on JPCs as they were 'not elected'. The councillors felt that local authorities and Gardai attended JPCs meetings to answer councillor's questions and report to them. They did not view their role as part of policing partnerships, working together with other agencies to find solutions. Research found that the main strength in the JPC model was local Policing Fora's which were based in local communities. These foras were less formal in structure and involved real community participation, which dealt with local policing issues. It is important for JPCs to establish a system of communication to inform residents of development in relation to the policing of their local area. The principle conclusion has revealed that all participants agreed that the JPC model of partnership is the way forward for policing. This model is capable of developing and involving other agencies, as well as the community in the policing of their local areas. There is a constant need for ongoing monitoring to facilitate the evaluation of Joint Policing Committees processes. In summary it is hoped that this research into the partnership model may be the catalyst for more extensive research to be carried out in the future.


Origami or the art of paper folding receives substantial endorsement from current reform initiatives in mathematics education. Particularly, at the elementary school level, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics in its Principles and Standards for School Mathematics recommends that students use paper folding to perform their initial investigations of symmetry and congruence in geometry (NCTM, 2000). Since prospective elementary school teachers need a solid foundation in the mathematical basis of these reform initiatives, textbooks for these future teachers should contain paper-folding applications. Although origami spans academic disciplines, paper folding has increasingly been applied to mathematical systems and structures (Hull, 1996; Auckly and Cleveland, 1995). Moreover, origami is a unique mathematical activity because one can take a sheet of paper and transform it into a three-dimensional object. This concrete experience in spatial reasoning can then be transformed into a lesson on symmetry or graph theory (Peterson, 1995). Educators have also applied paper folding to such diverse mathematical objects as logical structures (Cipra, 1998), axiomatic systems (Alperin, 2000), and tessellations with geometrical figures (Stewart, 1999). Clements and Battista (1992) defined school geometry as the study of spatial objects, relationships, and transformations that have been formalized. As students participate in the physical opportunities afforded by origami and other manipulations with paper, they gain a foundation from which to build the formalizations needed in school geometry. Particularly, students benefit from experimenting and exploring with physical materials and models, and learning opportunities that require students to visualize, draw, and compare figures in various configurations help to develop spatial sense. Since geometry at the elementary and intermediate school levels aims to help students describe, relate, and represent objects in the environment, students can benefit from activities involving paper cutting, folding and tearing. Put another way, transforming a flat piece of paper into a three-dimensional object is essentially a manifestation of spatial reasoning, a key component of geometrical learning. Thus, origami along with paper cutting and tearing can allow students to create, modify, and investigate specific geometric shapes such as polygons and polyhedra. The use of origami in school programs is also one of the notable differences between American and Asian educational systems. Given the better performance of Asian children in international comparisons in mathematics, it may be worthwhile to give attention to the potential impacts origami can have on the development of US students' mathematical thinking. Rooted in Asia, origami reflects the creativity and aesthetics of those cultures. By taking part in origami and other paper manipulation activities, American students can gain an appreciation of Oferent cultures and alternate ways of observing and studying geometric figures. Cooney (2001) points out, that in our internal, national zeal to improve mathematics education in the US, we should not overlook the attributes and approaches of other cultures that have demonstrated high student achievement in mathematics. Clearly, Asian societies and their contributions to origami and other manipulations with paper are a case in point. Silverman and Manzano (1996) further noted that what is accomplished by using origami is no less than the planting and nourishing of the seeds of geometric thinking. Among the geometric concepts that are embedded in origami are similarity, congruence, measurement, and construction. Understanding these and other basic concepts and the developmental ways that children learn allows the teacher to facilitate activities which are rich in exploration, application, representations, communications and mathematical reasoning. Silverman and Manzano conclude that paper folding provides a highly engaging and motivating environment within which children extend their geometric experiences and powers of spatial visualization. …


Abstract The base of the Cambrian System is recognized by a characteristic (marine) trace fossil suite assigned to the Treptichnus pedum Biozone, which signals increasing complexity of animal behaviour and demarcates the Cambrian from the (older) Ediacaran System (Proterozoic Eonathem). Ichnotaxa of the T. pedum Biozone are not the earliest trace fossils, and are preceded in the latest Proterozoic by a progressive increase in the diversity of trace-producing organisms and the communities they comprised, the structural and behavioural complexity of the trace fossils, and even the depth of burrowing in sediments. Parallels can be drawn with the increasing complexity of subsurface structures associated with human cities, which also reflect evolution of an increasingly complex community. Before the nineteenth century, these structures were limited and simple, but beginning with the development of London in the mid-nineteenth century as the world's first megacity, subsurface structures have become increasingly complex, reflecting the technology-driven behaviour of twentieth- and twenty-first-century humans.


The analysis of the spatial characteristics of cities is very important to the formulation of land use strategy, planning and distribution of urban development. We employed kNN analysis and two measures of spatial heterogeneity: spatial entropy S and dissimilarity index D to characterize the structure pattern of Metro Manila and Manhattan. We show that administrative and economic structures are well dispersed in both cities. The results also show that the formation of economic structures is distinctive and mixed with administrative structures. We present a model of the growth of urban centers based on the attractive tendencies of urban elements along roads. Scanning for different values of the parameters result in realistic-looking spatial scatters.


Using a scintillation camera system, hemispheric and regional cerebral blood flow was measured repeatedly during the course after a stroke. In 20 patients who improved clinically mean hemispheric and regional flow and relative weight of rapidly perfused compartment increased, while these values decreased in IS patients, on an average, whose clinical condition deteriorated or did not change. The changes of flow and relative weight were significantly different between the two groups. Furthermore, the relationship between changes in clinical condition, scored according to a rating scale, and changes in flow and compartmental weight was proved by significant Spearman rank correlation coefficients. In six cases hyperperfused areas in locations of disturbed neurological function were observed; these areas were found to be ischemic at measurements done early and late in the course after the stroke. This type of hyperperfusion was related to beneficial prognosis. The results indicate a shift of tissue from fast to slowly cleared compartment after a cerebrovascular attack. If tissue morphology is not entirely destroyed, recovery might occur; this results in an increas of recorded weight of rapidly clearing compartments, which correlates to the clinical course.


Background Cure rates of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) with fecal microbiota transplant (FMT) have been promising. However, there is debate regarding success of FMT in patients with comorbidities. Methods Electronic chart review was done to collect data on patients who underwent FMT from January 2015 to August 2017. Charts were analyzed in November 2018 with a median follow-up of 25.4 months (interquartile range 20 - 31 months). Results Twenty patients underwent FMT. The primary success rate at our institution was 90% and overall success rate was 100%. Six patients (43%) had FMT failure (two early and four late). Conclusions This case series is a description of our center's initial experience with FMT for treatment of recurrent CDI. Our high success rate reiterates the efficacy and safety of FMT in this population including patients with comorbidities.


On October 20, 2009, a series of felt earthquakes with local magnitudes ranging from 2.8-3.2 occurred in the Tatun volcanic area off the northern tip of Taiwan. Although there was no damage caused by those earthquakes, many residents in the Taipei metropolitan area, particularly for people who live near the Yangminshan National Park, felt strong ground shaking. In order to know what the possible mechanisms were that generated those earthquakes, we carefully examined seismic data recorded by a dense seismic array in the Tatun volcanic area. During the period between October 18 and 22, 2009 we detected at least 202 micro-earthquakes. Most of the earthquakes were relocated using the double-difference method and were clustered in the shallow crust beneath the Dayoukeng area, which is the strongest fumarole in the Tatun volcanic area. Among these earthquakes, 72 focal mechanisms were determined by polarizing the first P-wave motion. Most earthquakes belonged to normal faulting. An extremely high b-value of 2.17 was obtained from those earthquakes. Based on the seismic variations in both the temporary and spatial distribution as well as an extremely high b-value, we conclude that the earthquake sequence on October 20, 2009 was a typically seismic swarm associated with possible active volcanism in the Tatun volcanic area.


In this note, we consider several polynomial optimization formulations of the maximum independent set problem and the use of the Lasserre hierarchy with these different formulations. We demonstrate using computational experiments that the choice of formulation may have a significant impact on the resulting bounds. We also provide theoretical justifications for the observed behavior.


This is the companion volume to Daniel Klionsky's Autophagy: Lower Eukaryotes, which features the basic methods in autophagy covering yeasts and alternative fungi. Klionsky is one of the leading authorities in the field. He is the editor-in-chief of Autophagy. The November 2007 issue of Nature Reviews highlighted his article, "Autophagy: from phenomenology to molecular understanding in less than a decade. He is currently editing guidelines for the field, with 230 contributing authors that will publish in Autophagy. Particularly in times of stress, like starvation and disease, higher organisms have an internal mechanism in their cells for chewing up and recycling parts of themselves. The process of internal "house-cleaning in the cell is called autophagy - literally self-eating. Breakthroughs in understanding the molecular basis of autophagy came after the cloning of ATG1 in yeast. These ATG genes in yeast were the stepping stones to the explosion of research into the molecular analysis of autophagy in higher eukaryotes. In the future, this research will help to design clinical approaches that can turn on autophagy and halt tumor growth. *Establishes the functional roles of specific cellular proteins in selective and nonselective autophagy in mammalian cells, which aides researchers in determining why autophagy is shut down in neoplastia (growth of abnormal tissue mass) and turned on during bacterial invasion *Includes methods to evaluate the role of autophagy in the drug-induced cell death of cancer cells in culture, which helps researchers design clinical approaches that can turn on autophagy and halt tumor growth *Covers higher eukaryotes including lifespan in C.elegans to marine organisms and bridging into the clinical aspects, including autophagy in chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML is one of four types of leukemia), lung cancer, prostate cancer, and cardiac cells.


Tilapia culture in Yucatan State, Mexico, is largely semi-intensive. The producers are mostly poor farmers who receive government subsidies for purchase of fingerlings and balanced feed. Feeding practices are often inadequate (satiety rations), moreover, producers frequently suffer financial and resource shortfalls. During feed shortages producers are known to use empirical application of chaya (Cnidoscolus chayamansa) leaves, used traditionally in human and animal nutrition. A study was done of growth in juvenile tilapia using diets containing balanced feed with chaya (25 and 50% of substitution), complete, half-complete and satiety rations of balanced feed, during the warm season. The results were used to develop a bioeconomic model and implemented in MS Excel program, with a one-day time step. In order to minimize the cost of tilapia feeding, and maximize the benefits by using a limited amount of balanced feed per cycle. In addition the analysis was completed using the Marginal Rate of Technical Substitution (MRTS). According to results from MRTS, it is necessary to add 2.51-3.91 units of chaya for each reduced unit of balanced feed, to maintain the same level of production. In a resource limited situation, substitution of 50% of balanced feed for raw chaya leaves generates a harvest size greater than complete and satiety rations of 24.8 and 28.8% respectively. When considering sale prices that are consistent with size at harvest and costs, treatments with chaya considerably maximized profits.


Sections 5 and 7 of article VIII of the Washington State Constitution, concerning gifts or loans by the state and by local governments, have been a source of confusion to the courts and frustration to the sponsors of government programs. Although some have proposed a single formula for applying the provisions, attempts to create a single rule or set of coherent rules for interpreting these problematical provisions are apt to fail. The constitutional language is complex, involving numerous elements, each of which must be present for the prohibition to apply.Rather than a single formula governing the application of these provisions to every fact pattern, a uniform method of analysis is required. That approach should permit the continued existence of a variety of rules that apply to the different elements of the constitutional clauses in various factual situations. The method proposed in this Article reduces sections 5 and 7 to their component parts, applying appropriate rules to each part while insisting that every part be present before either of the provisions applies.The key is not to develop new exceptions to avoid the language of article VIII, sections 5 and 7, such as the "risk of loss" theory that has appeared in some cases, but rather to approach the constitutional language strictly and rigorously, presuming from the outset that proposed actions by legislative bodies are constitutional and placing the burden on those who challenge the constitutionality of a proposed government action. The court should then insist that each and every element of the applicable provision be present before a prohibition will apply. This approach, a conservative method relying principally on the text of the constitution itself, ultimately may yield more flexibility in practice than will new formulas that may not be easily applied as new situations arise.


This work analyzes and proposes solutions for subtle, but relevant, problems related to the EONIA curve calibration. The first issue examined is how to deal with jumps and turn-of-year effects. The second point is related to the problem caused by imperfect concatenation between spot starting OIS and forward starting ECB dated OIS: in order to avoid distortion, a meta-instrument called "Forward Stub" should cover the section between the maturity of the last spot starting OIS and the settlement of the first ECB OIS. Its implied value can be derived assuming a no-arbitrage conditions. The final issue is the empirical evidence that the forward overnight rates are generally constant between ECB monetary policy board meeting dates: because of this, a log-linear discount interpolation is a good fit. Anyway, flat forward rates are hardly realistic on the long end. This is the rationale to suggest the use of a "Mixed Interpolation" which merges two different interpolation regimes. All the algorithms used to perform the analysis are implemented in the open-source QuantLib project.