This research investigated adaptation of photosynthesis manifest in populations of grasses adapted to growth on abnormal
levels of cations. The main investigative plants belong to the Agrostis genus. Plants were sampled from habitats with soi.ls
which provided a range of abnormal levels of cations; mine spoil sites with heavy metal contaminations, calcareous and acidic sites with contrasting levels of cations particularly calcium and serpentine sites with low calcium and high magnesium and nickel levels were sampled.
Barley and lettuce were used as comparative material as they are more routinely used in photosynthesis investigations. A
commercially available seed stock of a heavy metal tolerant cultivar of Festuca rubra was compared with a non—tolerant
cultivar.
The comparative responses of plants to metals were examined using a range of monitors of photosynthetic reactions including fluorescence, oxygen evolution and light—induced electron transport.
Techniques involving the measurement of steady state emission fluorescence spectra of excised leaves were standardised and applied. The soil conditiens were shovn to have a marked effect on the flucrescence spectra of leaves of barley plants grown in a rccge of soil typcs.
The assay of light—induced oxygen evolution from excised leaf segments of the Merlin cultivar of Festuca clearly showed that increased resistance to metal inhibition is also present in the leaves as well as in the roots. The increased tolerance could be due to modifications of the cell wall or cytoplasm as has been extensively studied in the root. However a greater relative metal tolerance was also demonstrated in this cultivar at the level of the chioroplast membranes.
Isolated, broken (type D) chloroplasts from ten Agrostis ecotypes showed a variation in their sensitivities to metals in the light—induced photosynthetic electron transport through photosystem 2. The chloroplasts from the mine spoil Agrostis races were more resistant to inhibition by the heavy metals (Pb, Zn, Cu, Ni, Cd) in general, although the degree of tolerance did
not always relate directly to the root toiernr.ce indices or exchangeable soil metal content.
A co—sensitivity between calcium and cadmium was revealed in the roots and in the chloroplasts which is probably related to the similarity in the two cations ionic radii. Plants from high calcium soils showed an increased tolerance to cadmium.
The results recorded from work on chlorcplasts isolated from lettuce, barley and Agrostis ecotypes showed that Ca" can have fundamental effects on photosynthesis, both stimulatory and inhibitory. Ca 2+ was shown to stimulate the light—induced photosynthetic electron transport rates through PS2 and to protect isolated chloroplasts from loss of acti'Qity with ageing. Hcwever the degree and nature of the Ca2+ effect was dependent on plant species, ecotype, growing conditions and experimental protocol of CaZ+ addition. 'A marked inhibition with incubation in Ca' 4 after IL extraction was measured in four Agrostis races which originated from soils with low exchangeable calcium levels. However not all low soil_CaZ+ Azrostis ecot ypes were inhibited and this was interpreted to indicate a division between distributional calciftges and physiological calciophcbes.. SE! PAGE profiles of chloroplasts from within Agrostis and Festuca were compared for differences in the band regions reported in the literature to be associated with metal tolerance and Ca2+ binding in other species. Variations in the levels of proteins in the 30 and 36 kDa ranges have been obsened in the Pb— and Znresistant Festuca. In the Agrostis, Ca 2 /Cd'' sensitivity in three races is co—incidental with reduction in a band La the region of 30-33 kDa. A loss or gain of a specific band could not be associated with heavy metal tolerance in the Agrostis chloroplasts.
It is therefore clear from this work that photosynthetic activity of isolated chloroplasts depends on (a) the heavy metalard Ca2+ content of the soils at the collection site (b) the Ca2+ level of the growth medium (c) the level of Ca 2 in the extraction
buffer. The variable ebloroplast activity is probably a reflection of genetic adaptations of the plants to variable growth
conditions. This is reflected in variations in proteins in the chloroplasts.


Over the past decade, the chief information officer (CIO) in the health care enterprise has gained recognition as a member of the senior management team based on an understanding of business processes and business language. The clinical information system (CIS) in the health care environment poses a new frontier for CIOs, who are generally unfamiliar with both clinical languages and clinical processes. The authors discuss the role formal informatics training can have in preparing learners for future careers as CIOs in CIS environments. The health information management (HIM) specialization within the MBA program at the University of Illinois at Chicago is one example of an educational program designed to train future CIOs who can manage the business, technical, and clinical aspects of the health care environment.


The article explores the parallel between the process of transmission in the context of Sufism and in the context of guilds. The concern of the artisan to inscribe his gestures in a hereditary chain or in a "guild family" has its parallel in the spiritual fraternity of the takya, and the initiation of the novice on the Path towards God. For within the takya are formed the bonds of a celestial brotherhood. Even though most guilds have more or less disappeared since the 12th century, this mode of organizing a society which was perpetuated during ten centuries has profoundly marked the city and explains even to this day the modes of transmission of a profession.


One of the most important theories in the study of environmental governance and policy is the pathology of command and control, which describes the negative consequences of top-down, technocratic governance of social and ecological systems. However, to date, this theory has been expressed somewhat inconsistently and informally in the literature, even by the seminal works that have established its importance and popularized it. This presents a problem for the sustainability science community if it cannot be sure of the precise details of one of its most important theories. Without such precision, applications and tests of various elements of the theory cannot be conducted reliably to advance the knowledge of environmental governance. I address this problem by synthesizing several seminal works to formalize this theory. The formalization involves the identification of the individual elements of the theory and a diagrammatic description of their relationships with each other that unfold in a series of semi-independent causal paths. Ideally, with such a formalization, scholars can use this theory more reliably and more meaningfully in their future work. I conclude by discussing the implications this theory has for the governance of natural resources.


With the help of Kant's Critique of Pure Reason this paper aims to investigate the very possibility of philosophical reflection. Starting from a reading of two Eugen Fink texts, a phenomenologically discovered question is posed and a critical response attempted. It will be shown how, by orienting itself upon the subjective feeling of reason's demand for the unconditioned, critical thought is then able to restrict itself to a valid use of reason, thus securing its own possibility. The transcendental methodology employed by Kant and the concept of pure apperception will also be discussed as key components in the facilitation of philosophical reflection. The Kantian response offered here is largely centred around the concept of transcendental illusion as discussed in the 'Transcendental Dialectic' and by taking related concepts such as transcendental reflection into consideration it is subsequently shown that, despite being raised here phenomenologically, the question of philosophical reflection is very much of interest to critical thought.


Many years after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in late 1979, Zbigniew Brzezinski and Robert Gates revealed several formerly classified details regarding the Carter Administrations pre-invasion aid to the Mujahideen resistance fighters. Unwittingly, these separate yet interconnected disclosures from Brzezinski and Gates gave the appearance that the White House had intentionally lured the USSR into an insurgent-infested trap in Afghanistan designed to give Moscow its own Vietnam War. Brzezinski, being in a much higher position within the administration than Gates and coming forth with the most provocative revelations, was subsequently accused by many of essentially instigating a war all by himself. But although Brzezinski had hoped that the Soviets would get bogged down in a Vietnamese quagmire in Afghanistan if they decided to intervene, he did not attempt to lure the Russians into a trap. The covert aid to the Mujahideen was carried out to trap Moscow only if it continued to act aggressively in the Third World.
In addition to Brzezinskis need to limit the Soviet Unions capability to project strength in the Third World, he admitted to this author that he had other strategic and personal reasons for aiding the Mujahideen. Months before President Carter signed the covert aid directive on July 3, 1979, Brzezinski had begun to receive quite explicit information from CIA assets in his native Poland that the situation there was on the verge of an explosion. These developments prompted him to turn his thoughts toward both crises simultaneously, with the ultimate goal to develop a strategy that would protect his homeland at all costs. In the final analysis, Brzezinski was correct in his assessment that aiding the Mujahideen and turning up the heat on the Soviets in Afghanistan would later prevent the Kremlin from sending its troops into Poland in order to squelch the burgeoning labor movement known as Solidarity.


We have measured resonance strengths and energies for dielectronic recombination (DR) of Mg-like Fe XV forming Al-like Fe XIV via N = 3 → N′ = 3 core excitations in the electron-ion collision energy range 0-45 eV. All measurements were carried out using the heavy-ion test storage ring at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg, Germany. We have also carried out new multiconfiguration Breit-Pauli (MCBP) calculations using the AUTOSTRUCTURE code. For electron-ion collision energies ≲25 eV we find poor agreement between our experimental and theoretical resonance energies and strengths. From 25 to 42 eV we find good agreement between the two for resonance energies. But in this energy range the theoretical resonance strengths are ≈31% larger than the experimental results. This is larger than our estimated total experimental uncertainty in this energy range of ±26% (at a 90% confidence level). Above 42 eV the difference in the shape between the calculated and measured 3s3p(1P1)nl DR series limit we attribute partly to the nl dependence of the detection probabilities of high Rydberg states in the experiment. We have used our measurements, supplemented by our AUTOSTRUCTURE calculations, to produce a Maxwellian-averaged 3 → 3 DR rate coefficient for Fe XV forming Fe XIV. The resulting rate coefficient is estimated to be accurate to better than ±29% (at a 90% confidence level) for kBTe ≥ 1 eV. At temperatures of kBTe ≈ 2.5-15 eV, where Fe XV is predicted to form in photoionized plasmas, significant discrepancies are found between our experimentally derived rate coefficient and previously published theoretical results. Our new MCBP plasma rate coefficient is 19%-28% smaller than our experimental results over this temperature range.


The breathtaking growth of international criminal law over the past decade has resulted in the prosecution of Balkan and Rwandan mass murderers, the development of a substantial body of atrocity law jurisprudence and the creation of a permanent International Criminal Court with jurisdiction over genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. The growth of international criminal procedure, unfortunately, has not kept pace. Among its shortcomings, critics have pointed to lengthy pre-trial detention without a real possibility of provisional release, the use of affidavits and transcripts instead of live witnesses at trial, the absence of juries, and the right of prosecutorial appeal. Existing literature has pointed out these deficits but has failed to offer a systematic or comprehensive explanation for them. While such literature is helpful in identifying the problem, it has failed to provide a conceptual framework necessary for formulating solutions. This article constructs such a framework and uses it to provide a starting point for expanding international due process protections. It contends that three separate phenomena contribute to the restriction of international due process growth: (1) fragmentation of enforcement; (2) integration of conflicting legal systems; and (3) gravity of the crimes involved. It also analyzes the interplay among these three restricting phenomena and argues that any future growth of due process will hinge on efforts to achieve greater degrees of structural globalization, procedural hybridization, and transnational public awareness.


Providing a comprehensive and accessible examination of Shari'ah Law, this well considered introduction examines the sources, characteristic features, and schools of thought of a system often stereotyped for its severity in the West. In a progressive and graduated fashion, Mohammad Hashim Kamali discusses topics ranging from juristic disagreement to independent reasoning. Also broaching more advanced topics such as the principle of legality and the role and place of Shari'ah-oriented policy, Kamali controversially questions whether Islam is as much of a law-based religion as it has often been made out to be. Complete with a bibliography and glossary, and both a general index and an index of Arabic quotations, this wide-ranging exploration will prove an indispensable resource for Islamic students and scholars, and an informative guide to a complex topic for the general reader.


Plasma phospholipid transfer protein (PLTP) transfers phospholipids between lipoprotein particles and alters high density lipoprotein (HDL) subfraction patterns in vitro, but its physiological function is poorly understood. Transgenic mice that overexpress human PLTP were generated. Compared with wild-type mice, these mice show a 2.5to 4.5-fold increase in PLTP activity in plasma. This results in a 30% to 40% decrease of plasma levels of HDL cholesterol. Incubation of plasma from transgenic animals at 37°C reveals a 2to 3-fold increase in the formation of pre-b-HDL compared with plasma from wild-type mice. Although preb-HDL is normally a minor subfraction of HDL, it is known to be a very efficient acceptor of peripheral cell cholesterol and a key mediator in reverse cholesterol transport. Further experiments show that plasma from transgenic animals is much more efficient in preventing the accumulation of intracellular cholesterol in macrophages than plasma from wild-type mice, despite lower total HDL concentrations. It is concluded that PLTP can act as an antiatherogenic factor preventing cellular cholesterol overload by generation of preb-HDL. (Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol . 2000;20:1082-1088.)


The benefit of recreational book reading is well recognized, however the role of teachers in encouraging recreational reading beyond the primary school years of skill acquisition is not clearly defined. In 2012, the West Australian Study in Adolescent Book Reading was undertaken in 20 schools in Western Australia. As part of the study, students from selected classes in Year 8 and Year 10 reflected on the encouragement of recreational book reading given by their primary school and high school teachers in the past and at present. This provided a direct end-user perspective on perceived teacher attitudes and practices that supported adolescent recreational book reading. The information was analyzed to identify specific mechanisms of encouragement that students deemed effective. Findings indicated that best practice included exhibiting personal enjoyment of recreational book reading; demonstrating willingness to instigate and support student-centered discussion around books; possessing broad knowledge of both young adult texts and youth popular culture; effectively communicating expectations that students will read at school and at home; learning about the interests and aspirations of the students; and using in-class practices that encourage reading for pleasure, such as reading aloud to students and silent reading.


This article addresses the problem faced by a regulated natural monopolist who must raise outside funds to finance socially desirable projects. We demonstrate that fair rate of return utility price regulation will lead to underinvestment incentives in the presence of asymmetric information between the firm and the capital markets regarding the firm's assets and future costs. This problem is especially severe when financing choice is restricted to equity. Underinvestment can be either completely eliminated by adjusting the allowed rate of return above the fair rate or reduced by switching to debt finance.


Nitric oxide (NO) is an important signalling molecule of the central nervous system (CNS), immune system and vascular endothelium. In the vascular system NO acts as a vasodilator as well as having anti-thrombotic and atheroprotective functions. The development of cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a complex multifactorial process known to have a heritable component. The aim of this study therefore was to investigate the role of three candidate genes involved in regulation of NO synthesis and susceptibility to CVD. This study investigated the association between cardiovascular risk factors and polymorphisms in the p22phox subunit of NADPH oxidase, GTPCH1 and DDAH2. This study showed the previously identified C242T polymorphism in p22phox was associated with endothelium-dependent vasodilation in healthy subjects. Individuals homozygous for the T allele exhibited increased endothelium-dependent vasodilation compared to C allele carriers. Single strand conformational polymorphism analysis (SSCP) identified four polymorphisms within the GCH1 gene, three in the promoter (-577G/A, -741T/C and -796G/A) and one in intron 1 (599C/G). Genotyping of 2390 healthy men revealed an association between the -796 and -577 polymorphisms and circulating levels of neopterin. An association was also found between -796 genotype and endothelial function in a second cohort of 246 healthy subjects. SSCP of the DDAH2 gene identified six polymorphisms. Five in the promoter region at position - 1415G/A, -1151C/A, -1020C/G, -871 6G/7G and -449C/G and the sixth at position 618C/T within intron 4. No significant associations were identified between DDAH2 genotype and ADMA, SDMA ADMA/SDMA ratio or other cardiovascular disease risk factors in healthy subjects, renal failure patients or diabetics. In conclusion, this study has identified common polymorphisms in enzymes affecting NO synthesis or inactivation. Polymorphisms in the p22phox gene and GTPCH1 gene were associated with risk factors for cardiovascular disease including endothelium-dependent vasodilation and plasma neopterin (a marker of BH4).


This work is a discussion of the history of the construction and propagation over time (1949- 2002), by New Zealanders, of positive images of the People's Republic of China (PRC). This was done primarily through the New Zealand China Friendship Society. The thesis also looks at China-aligned communist parties, students who went on New Zealand University Students'  Association study tours in the 1970s, and key interlocutors such as Rewi Alley. These other groups had cross-membership with the NZCFS but differing engagements with China. The images propagated by the New Zealanders altered over time in response to changes in the PRC, developments in New Zealand, and shifting characteristics amongst the people who were engaged in the practice of producing images of the PRC. The thesis looks at how these observers of the PRC, and the organisations which they are combined, are themselves created, and see themselves, in relation to their process of viewing the PRC. This idea of a shifting sense of China and the changing sense of self is explored using a range of ideas. These include ideology, subjectivity, concepts of truth and practices of truth-telling. The thesis is an attempt to provide a sympathetic reading of a wide range of material and trying to understand what the PRC has meant at different times, in different circumstances and to different people. Accounts of the PRC are examined contextually. This involves the re-reading of a range of texts that have 'written' the PRC for those New Zealanders who, in different circumstances, have themselves been sympathetic to projections of successes taking place in the PRC.


How non‐dispersive taxa colonize islands is generalized as being by wind, or rafting, with the implicit assumption that such events involve one (wind) or a few (rafting) individuals. However, because of the evolutionary time‐scale for colonization events, the fit of individual species to a conceptual model of wind or rafting is difficult to assess. Here, we describe an alternative testable geological model for inter‐island colonization that can result in larger effective founding population sizes than traditionally accepted colonization mechanisms. We then test for the fit of genetic data to this model using weevils from the Laparocerus tessellatus species complex.


This study seeks to uncover the role that high-stakes testing mandated by "No Child Left Behind" legislation and student-teacher ratio has on the retention of the traditional high-school student with an emphasis on the retention disparity between minority students and their White peers. This empirical, quantitative analysis uses school level data from the Common Core of Data. This data set was used to observe national trends between minority students and their White counterparts because minority students are generally the group plagued by underachievement and high dropout rates. Given the already expansive body of work surrounding what we refer to as the achievement gap, which can include issues of achievement ranging from grades to standardized test scores and even the issue of retention rates which this study focuses on, this study seeks to approach the issue from a different direction with a broader data set. Analyses showed that for minority male students (Black and Hispanic) a lower-student teacher ratio greatly contributed to their retention yet conversely White females' retention seemed to be somewhat unaffected by studentteacher ratio fluctuations and high-stakes testing. Therefore, this study suggests that although studentteacher ratio and testing do have an impact on retention, this impact is primarily only for minority students, impacting minority males at the highest level.


A QAM processor for applications in QAM demodulators with modulation schemes of up to 1024 QAM and baud rates of up to 60 Mbaud has been implemented on a single chip. The chip performs all digital base-band signal processing of a high-capacity QAM demodulator including the digital parts of the timing and carrier recovery as well as the controlling and biasing functions for the proceeding A/D converters. The chip can be operated in half-baud spaced mode and can also be used for cross-polarisation interference cancellation in systems using co-channel transmission modes. The computational power of the QAM processor exceeds 5 gigamultiply-accumulate operations per second. The 800 k-transistor chip has been implemented on a chip area of 185 mm2 using a 1.0-μm CMOS technology and has a power consumption of 4.4 W at 60 MHz clock frequency.


This paper introduces a novel assistive device (AD) control strategy that provides intermittent assistance and is capable of encouraging user effort during AD use. The assistance regulation controller (ARC) presented here is designed to regulate joint torque and can be used for arbitrary joint and limb motions without requiring any a priori information about the user's intended motion. Data from eight healthy subjects who performed a forearm tracking experiment using a single degree-of-freedom powered orthosis demonstrate that the ARC is capable of encouraging user effort. On average, subjects generated 40% more joint torque when performing the tracking experiment with the ARC instead of a conventional torque-amplifying controller. The results also demonstrate that the ARC is safe to use for dynamic orthosis-assisted joint motions which require several transitions into and out of the assistance and no assistance states of the controller. As such, the results also confirm that the ARC is an effective assist-as-needed control strategy suitable for use with ADs.


Understanding the effects of disturbances on aquatic biota is important for management of the world's rivers. Riverine deltas are among the most biologically productive ecosystems, yet the ecological effects of floods in deltas are poorly understood. Therefore, the goal of this study was to examine impacts of an historic flood in the Missouri River basin in 2011 on fishes and aquatic habitats in the Lewis and Clark Delta, located in South Dakota and Nebraska, USA. Fish community structural indices declined in the six years preceding the flood, with species richness and diversity (Fisher's α) decreasing from 25 to 22 and 4.56 to 3.48, respectively. However, the fish community exhibited short-term resistance to the flood as both metrics were similar to pre-flood levels after the disturbance in 2012. Evenness (J′) declined from 0.88 to 0.73 before the flood but increased to 0.84 after the disturbance. The majority of species exhibited greater relative abundance after the flood regardless of age class (i.e., juvenile, adult), morphology (i.e., small-bodied, large-bodied), introduction history (i.e., introduced, native), or recreational importance (i.e., sport fish, non-recreational). However, the flood reduced relative abundance of juvenile freshwater drum (Aplodinotus grunniens) and white crappie (Pomoxis annularis) and did not affect the three small-bodied species that were studied, including emerald shiner (Notropis atherinoides), red shiner (Cyprinella lutrensis), and spotfin shiner (Cyprinella spiloptera). The flood decreased side channel and backwater frequency and width/area but increased sandbar abundance. Physical alterations evidently had minimal effects on structural indices of the fish community. However, an overall increase in relative abundance across species suggests that interspersed fluvial and slackwater habitats in the delta provided refuge from floodwaters during the disturbance. Maintaining habitat connectivity in deltas during and after floods is particularly important for fisheries conservation. Illustrating the ecological effects and implications of a major flood, this study contributes to the nascent field of delta ecology.


Marine transform faults and associated fracture zones (MTFFZs) cover vast stretches of the ocean floor, where they play a key role in plate tectonics, accommodating the lateral movement of tectonic plates and allowing connections between ridges and trenches. Together with the continental counterparts of MTFFZs, these structures also pose a risk to human societies as they can generate high magnitude earthquakes and trigger tsunamis. Historical examples are the Sumatra-Wharton Basin Earthquake in 2012 (M8.6) and the Atlantic Gloria Fault Earthquake in 1941 (M8.4). Earthquakes at MTFFZs furthermore open and sustain pathways for fluid flow triggering reactions with the host rocks that may permanently change the rheological properties of the oceanic lithosphere. In fact, they may act as conduits mediating vertical fluid flow and leading to elemental exchanges between Earth's mantle and overlying sediments. Chemicals transported upward in MTFFZs include energy substrates, such as H2 and volatile hydrocarbons, which then sustain chemosynthetic, microbial ecosystems at and below the seafloor. Moreover, up- or downwelling of fluids within the complex system of fractures and seismogenic faults along MTFFZs could modify earthquake cycles and/or serve as "detectors" for changes in the stress state during interseismic phases. Despite their likely global importance, the large areas where transform faults and fracture zones occur are still underexplored, as are the coupling mechanisms between seismic activity, fluid flow, and life. This manuscript provides an interdisciplinary review and synthesis of scientific progress at or related to MTFFZs and specifies approaches and strategies to deepen the understanding of processes that trigger, maintain, and control fluid flow at MTFFZs.


Traditionally mechanically graded lumber has been produced from 2-inch-thick lumber from softwoods. However, there is increasing interest in using hardwood dimension lumber for structural applications, and procedures have been proposed for the mechanical grading of both softwood and hardwood structural timbers. Research has shown that mechanical grading offers improvements in grading efficiency over visual grading for hardwood dimension lumber and softwood and hardwood structural timbers. Two-inchthick lumber produced from hardwoods can be mechanically graded using the currently available equipment and procedures that are used to mechanically grade softwoods. It has also been demonstrated that there are no technical barriers to bar the development of standardized mechanical grading procedures for structural timbers. This article discusses extending the mechanical grading process to dimension lumber produced from hardwoods and the possibility of mechanically grading structural timbers of softwoods and hardwoods.


Pyritized twigs and roots from the Eocene London Clay of SE England were studied to gain a better understanding of the process of pyritization by investigating pyrite textures in relation to cell type and quality of preservation. Highly polished sections and fractured surfaces taken from 124 specimens were examined using optical microscope and SEM, the latter equipped to map pyrite and carbon. Pyrite textures include microcrystalline, framboidal, massive polycrystalline, and subhedral or euhedral forms. The highest fidelity of preservation is always associated with microcrystalline pyrite precipitation on wall surfaces with subsequent infilling of cells with framboids or polyhedra preventing compression during burial but contributing nothing to actual ultrastructural preservation. Ultrastructurally, parenchymatous cell walls are coalified, whereas microcrystalline pyrite plus coalified material were observed within lignified cell walls. In all, four stages of pyritization are documented. Observations are interpreted in the light of recent experiments on pyritization of living material and the chemistry of pyrite formation in anoxic environments involving an aqueous, and hence mobile, FeS cluster complex as a precursor. The complexity of the fossilization process is reflected in the presence of different textures in adjacent cells of the same tissue. This demonstrates the development of isolated chemical microenvironments as pH and Eh vary in response to decay, and mineralization and pyrite overgrowths within a cell indicate local microenvironmental changes through time.


Leaf area index (LAI) is a key biophysical variable influencing land surface fluxes. Different algorithms have been developed to estimate LAI from remote sensing data. This prompts the need for an evaluation of their comparability and performance. We present an evaluation of the comparability of four products (i.e., MODIS (MOD15A2), NN-MERIS, CYCLOPES, and GLOBCARBON) and their performance against in situ LAI for an entire growing season in a broadleaf deciduous forest. All the LAI products detected the phenological trend of this biome reasonably accurately, albeit with differences in absolute values. The MODIS LAI was higher than the in situ LAI throughout the growing season whereas the GLOBCARBON LAI was higher in the summer months. The NN-MERIS was closest to the in situ measurements whereas the CYCLOPES product was lower than the in situ measurements. The NN-MERIS and CYCLOPES LAI were closely matched (RMSE = 0.45), whereas MODIS and CYCLOPES LAI were the most divergent (RMSE = 1.57). All the algorithms were significantly different (p < 0.05) indicating a need for more efforts to harmonize these algorithms. Finally, the spatial consistency between the NN-MERIS LAI and in situ LAI revealed a season dependency trend. Better spatial agreement was observed during the summer season as opposed to early spring and autumn seasons.


Dramatic physical and physico-chemical changes in soil properties may arise due to temperature and moisture variations as well as swelling of soil organic matter (SOM) under constant conditions. Soil property variations may influence sorption/desorption and transport processes of environmental contaminants and nutrients in natural-organic-matterrich soils. Notwithstanding the studies reported in literature, a mechanistic model for SOM swelling is unavailable yet. The objective of the present study was the evaluation of the swelling of peat soils, considered as SOM models, by 1 H NMR relaxometry and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Namely, information on the processes governing physical and physicochemical changes of peat during re-hydration were collected. The basic hypothesis of the present study was that the changes are slow and may affect water state as well as amounts of different water types into the peats. For this reason, such changes can be evidenced through the variations of mobility and thermal behaviour of the involved H2O molecules by using 1 H NMR relaxometry and DSC. According to the experimental results, a mechanistic model, describing the fundamental processes of peat swelling, was obtained. Two different peats re-wetted at three temperatures were used. The swelling process was monitored by measuring spin-spin relaxation time (T2) over a hydration time of several months. Moreover, DSC, T1 – T2 and T2 – D correlation measurements were done at the beginning and at the end of the hydration. Supplementary investigations were also done in order to discriminate between the swelling effects and the contributions from soil solution, internal magnetic field gradients and/or soil microorganisms to proton relaxation. All the results revealed peat swelling. It was evidenced by pore size distribution changes, volumetric expansion and redistribution of water, increasing amounts of nonfreezable and loosely bound water, as well as formation of gel phases and reduction of the translational and rotational mobility of H2O molecules. All the findings implied that changes of the physical and physicochemical properties of peats were obtained. In particular, three different processes having activation energies comprised in the interval 5 – 50 kJ mol -1 were revealed. The mechanistic model which was, then, developed included water reorientation in bound water phases, water diffusion into the peat matrix and reorientation of SOM chains as fundamental processes governing SOM swelling. This study is of environmental significance in terms of re-naturation and re-watering of commercially applied peatlands and of sorption/desorption and transport processes of pollutants and nutrients in natural organic matter rich soils.


BACKGROUND
1,5-Anhydroglucitol (1,5-AG) is a novel biomarker of glycemic control proposed to monitor recent hyperglycemic excursions in persons with diabetes. The clinical utility of 1,5-AG outside of diagnosed diabetes is unclear, but it may identify people at high risk for diabetes and its complications. We compared associations of 1,5-AG with 2-h glucose for risk of major clinical complications.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS
We prospectively followed 6644 Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study participants without diagnosed diabetes for incident diagnosed diabetes, chronic kidney disease, cardiovascular disease, and all-cause mortality for ∼20 years. We assessed associations of 1,5-AG and 2-h glucose (modeled categorically and continuously with restricted cubic splines) with adverse outcomes using Cox models and evaluated improvement in risk discrimination using Harrell's c-statistic.

RESULTS
1,5-AG <10 µg/mL was statistically significantly associated with incident diabetes (HR: 2.70, 95% CI 2.31, 3.15), and showed suggestion of association with the other outcomes compared to 1,5-AG ≥10 µg/mL. Continuous associations of 1,5-AG with outcomes displayed a clear threshold effect, with risk associations generally observed only <10 µg/mL. Comparing associations of 1,5-AG and 2-h glucose with outcomes resulted in larger c-statistics for 2-h glucose than 1,5-AG for all outcomes (difference in c-statistic [2-h glucose -1,5-AG] for diagnosed diabetes: 0.17 [95%CI, 0.15, 0.19]; chronic kidney disease 0.02 [95%CI 0.00, 0.05]; cardiovascular disease 0.03 [95%CI, 0.00, 0.06]; and all-cause mortality 0.04 [95%CI, 0.02, 0.06]).

CONCLUSIONS
In this community-based population without diagnosed diabetes, low 1,5-AG was modestly associated with major clinical outcomes and did not outperform 2-h glucose.


Since their emergence around 2006, Next-Generation Sequencing technologies have been revolutionizing biological and medical research. Quickly obtaining an extensive amount of short or long reads of DNA sequence from almost any biological sample enables detecting genomic variants, revealing the composition of species in a metagenome, deciphering cancer biology, decoding the evolution of living or extinct species, or understanding human migration patterns and human history in general. The pace at which the throughput of sequencing technologies is increasing surpasses the growth of storage and computer capacities, which creates new computational challenges in NGS data processing.

In this thesis, we present novel computational techniques for read mapping and taxonomic classification. With more than a hundred of published mappers, read mapping might be considered fully solved. However, the vast majority of mappers follow the same paradigm and only little attention has been paid to non-standard mapping approaches. Here, we propound the so-called dynamic mapping that we show to significantly improve the resulting alignments compared to traditional mapping approaches. Dynamic mapping is based on exploiting the information from previously computed alignments, helping to improve the mapping of subsequent reads. We provide the first comprehensive overview of this method and demonstrate its qualities using Dynamic Mapping Simulator, a pipeline that compares various dynamic mapping scenarios to static mapping and iterative referencing.

An important component of a dynamic mapper is an online consensus caller, i.e., a program collecting alignment statistics and guiding updates of the reference in the online fashion. We provide Ococo, the first online consensus caller that implements a smart statistics for individual genomic positions using compact bit counters. Beyond its application to dynamic mapping, Ococo can be employed as an online SNP caller in various analysis pipelines, enabling SNP calling from a stream without saving the alignments on disk.

Metagenomic classification of NGS reads is another major topic studied in the thesis. Having a database with thousands of reference genomes placed on a taxonomic tree, the task is to rapidly assign a huge amount of NGS reads to tree nodes, and possibly estimate the relative abundance of involved species. In this thesis, we propose improved computational techniques for this task. In a series of experiments, we show that spaced seeds consistently improve the classification accuracy. We provide Seed-Kraken, a spaced seed extension of Kraken, the most popular classifier at present. Furthermore, we suggest ProPhyle, a new indexing strategy based on a BWT-index, obtaining a much smaller and more informative index compared to Kraken. We provide a modified version of BWA that improves the BWT-index for a quick $k$-mer look-up.


The Virtuoso Liszt. By Dana Gooley. (New Perspectives in Music History and Criticism.) New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004. [xv, 280 p. ISBN 0-521-83443-0. $75.] Music examples, illustrations, bibliography, index. In the afterword to his study of Franz Liszt's virtuoso piano career, Dana Gooley describes the process by which he came to write this book: "I began by pursuing the question of how he historically anticipated the modern popular star, only to 6nd that his popularity rested on unfamiliar premises quite specific to the 1830s and 1840s" (p. 266). This confession highlights two of the strengths of the work-first, the study draws on a remarkable array of sources to shed light on the cultural climate unique to the time, and second, Gooley demonstrates a flexible intellect that allows him to look at old questions in new ways, challenging his own preconceptions and those of his readers in the process. Liszt's virtuosity has been the subject of countless popular and scholarly studies starting in his own lifetime and continuing to the present. Considering the amount of attention that has been devoted to the topic, one would assume that there would not be much left to discover in the way of documentary evidence. Gooley demonstrates the fallacy of this assumption with the introduction of a quantity of previously unexamined sources. These include articles in small provincial newspapers and journals as well as writings in difficult and seldom accessible languages, for instance a Croatian account of Liszt's 1846 visit to Zagreb (pp. 142-45). More important than the new documents, though, are the new perspectives on familiar events. Gooley deconstructs some of the most famous events of Liszt's performing career, in each case challenging assumptions that have been perpetuated by the biographical traditions that have grown up around his performances. In chapter 1, "Liszt, Thalberg, and the Parisian publics," Gooley looks at the famous duel between Liszt and his greatest rival. He goes beyond the question of who was the better pianist and also transcends the issue of the two pianists' different playing styles, concentrating instead on the audience that each pianist hoped to attract. He posits that Thalberg's aristocratic manners and vocally oriented style of playing were designed to appeal to the dilettanti of the conservative aristocracy, who attended the Theâtre des Italiens and belonged to the landed gentry whose fortunes had suffered since the July Revolution. Gooley argues that rather than aiming for the broad bourgeois public, as other biographers have claimed, Liszt set his sights on a different faction of the aristocracy. The target audience for Liszt consisted of the "aristocracy of wealth" (bankers and merchants) as well as the "aristocracy of talent" (artists and literary figures). The real reason, then, why Liszt found Thalberg so threatening was that he split the aristocracy into factions and kept Liszt from conquering all of fashionable society as he had hoped. Perhaps the most intriguing assertion in Gooley's discussion is that the real winner of the famous duel was Thalberg, who emerged with a stronger social position than his rival (p. 19). In chapter 2, "Warhorses: Liszt, Weber's Konzertstuck, and the cult of Napoleon," Gooley discusses Liszt's efforts to create a persona modeled after Napoleon. He argues that Liszt's playing-particularly of his most frequently programmed piece, Weber's Konzertstuck-evoked martial images that allowed him to capitalize on the growing fascination with Napoleon. On a deeper level, he writes that Liszt's playing was inherently violent: "Liszt turned the virtuoso concert into a spectacle of cultivated aggression, and his unprecedented popularity can be attributed in part to this fact. The aggressiveness of his playing was protected by the alibi of 'art,' with its much-trumpeted civilizing mission, and this alibi continues to shield Liszt's virtuosity from full view" (p. …


Few previous studies have examined acute injuries in competitive cycling or training as compared to other sports. By using nationwide insurance data including all injured cyclist registered in the Swedish Cycling Federation and all reported injuries during exercise race in Sweden, the objective was to examine acute injuries during competitive cycling or training for different types of cyclists. The injury incidence and injuries leading to permanent medical impairment were examined. All cyclists that were injured during 2008-2017 were included (n=1937). Among the 2666 licensed cyclists the incidence of cyclists injured during training or competition was 44 per 1000 licensed cyclists per year. Focusing on participants in exercise races, the incidence was annually 1.5 injured cyclists per 1000 participants per year. The most commonly injured body region was the upper extremity (41%), followed by head and neck (18%). In total 9.4% of all injured cyclists sustained a permanent medical impairment. Given an injury, non-licensed participants in exercise races were slightly older, and the proportion of females were higher (30% vs. 16%), than among licensed cyclists. The injury incidence among the cyclists was high, and to maintain a healthy and physically active population it is important to make efforts to prevent injuries.


The Bible holds a great treasure of amazing women. They are judges and prophets, caregivers and teachers, prominent matriarchs of large clans or quiet disciples, women who suffered alone or sang joyous praises to God amid the crowds. Their stories come alive in these pages as they are interwoven with the lives of modern women, bound together by common threads of strength and courage in the face of vulnerability and violation. From Eve to Revelation's woman clothed with the sun--from the first creative impulse to the close of time--female energy has been and will continue to be a river of life and wisdom, of dignity and hope.


Wind and solar power generation will continue to grow in the energy supply of the future, but its inherent variability (intermittency) requires appropriate energy systems for storing and using power. Storage of possibly temporary excess of power as methane from hydrogen gas and carbon dioxide is a promising option. With electrolysis hydrogen gas can be generated from (renewable) power. The combination of such hydrogen with carbon dioxide results in the energy carrier methane that can be handled well and may may serve as carbon feedstock of the future. Biogas from biomass delivers both methane and carbon dioxide. Anaerobic microorganisms can make additional methane from hydrogen and carbon dioxide in a biomethanation process that compares favourably with its chemical counterpart. Biomethanation for renewable power storage and use makes appropriate use of the existing infrastructure and knowledge base for natural gas. Addition of hydrogen to a dedicated biogas reactor after fermentation optimizes the biomethanation conditions and gives maximum flexibility. The low water solubility of hydrogen gas limits the methane production rate. The use of hollow fibers, nano-bubbles or better-tailored methane-forming microorganisms may overcome this bottleneck. Analyses of patent applications on biomethanation suggest a lot of freedom to operate. Assessment of biomethanation for economic feasibility and environmental value is extremely challenging and will require future data and experiences. Currently biomethanation is not yet economically feasible, but this may be different in the energy systems of the near future.


Soldier from the Wars Returning is one of the truest, most profound and readable personal accounts of the Great War. The author waited nearly fifty years before writing it, and the perspective of history enhances its value. He writes only of the battles in which he participated (including the Somme and Passchendaele), though his comments on affairs beyond his knowledge at the time, through later study and reflection, are pungent and stimulating. Among other topics, he describes the politicians, the generals, Kitchener's Army, Hore-Belisha, German gas attacks, Picardy, dug-outs, tanks, the sex-life of the soldier, scrounging. trench kits and the censoring of letters. The author saw the First World War from below, as a fighting soldier in a line regiment. In the Second World War he served as a staff officer liaising between the Army and the RAF; serving two tours at RAF Bomber Command HQ at High Wycombe. This equipped him to draw forthright comparisons between the conduct of the two wars.


We examine how deep agreements on domestic regulations affect welfare in a world where such agreements are influenced by producer lobbies. The answer to this question depends in a critical way on whether the agreement focuses on product standards or on production regulations. International cooperation on product standards can decrease welfare, and this is more likely to happen when producer lobbies are stronger. On the other hand, international cooperation on production regulations tends to enhance welfare when lobbying pressures are strong. A key determinant of the welfare impact of deep agreements is whether the interests of producer lobbies in different countries are aligned or in conflict: the former situation tends to occur in the case of product standards, while the latter situation tends to occur in the case of production regulations.


Corporate restructuring is a key area in strategic management, finance and organizational theory. Although various fields have contributed to the literature, numerous restructurings have failed in practice, which has resulted in vast criticism of the process. Results from empirical performance investigations of restructurings reveal adverse spectrum of conclusions. While some companies have been very successful in their restructuring efforts, others have destroyed shareholder value. This paper reviewed this evidence concluding that corporate restructuring and firm value is yearning for more research as a result of inconclusive and mixed results of the empirical studies.


Insulin-like growth factor 2 mRNA-binding protein-1 (IMP-1) is an oncofetal protein that binds directly to and stabilizes oncogenic c-Myc and regulates, in turn, its posttranscriptional expression and translation. In contrast to normal adult tissue, IMP-1 is reexpressed and/or overexpressed in human cancers. We show that knockdown of c-Myc in human colon cancer cell lines increases the expression of mature let-7 miRNA family members and downregulates several of its mRNA targets: IMP-1, Cdc34, and K-Ras. We further show that loss of IMP-1 inhibits Cdc34, Lin-28B, and K-Ras, suppresses SW-480 cell proliferation and anchorage-independent growth, and promotes caspaseand lamin-mediated cell death. We also found that IMP-1 binds to the coding region and 30UTR of K-Ras mRNA. RNA microarray profiling and validation by reverse transcription PCR reveals that the p53-inducible proapoptotic protein CYFIP2 is upregulated in IMP-1 knockdown SW480 cells, a novel finding. We also show that overexpression of IMP-1 increases c-Myc and K-Ras expression and LIM2405 cell proliferation. Furthermore, we show that loss of IMP-1 induces Caspase-3and PARP-mediated apoptosis, and inhibits K-Ras expression in SW480 cells, which is rescued by CYFIP2 knockdown. Importantly, analysis of 228 patients with colon cancers reveals that IMP-1 is significantly upregulated in differentiated colon tumors (P 0.0001) and correlates with K-Ras expression (r 1⁄4 0.35, P 0.0001) relative to adjacent normal mucosa. These findings indicate that IMP-1, interrelated with c-Myc, acts upstream of K-Ras to promote survival through a novel mechanism that may be important in colon cancer pathogenesis. Cancer Res; 71(6); 2172–82. 2011 AACR.


Given a graph $G$, an incidence matrix ${\cal N}(G)$ is defined on the set of distinct isomorphism types of induced subgraphs of $G$. It is proved that Ulam's conjecture is true if and only if the ${\cal N}$-matrix is a complete graph invariant. Several invariants of a graph are then shown to be reconstructible from its ${\cal N}$-matrix. The invariants include the characteristic polynomial, the rank polynomial, the number of spanning trees and the number of hamiltonian cycles in a graph. These results are stronger than the original results of Tutte in the sense that actual subgraphs are not used. It is also proved that the characteristic polynomial of a graph with minimum degree 1 can be computed from the characteristic polynomials of all its induced proper subgraphs. The ideas in Kocay's lemma play a crucial role in most proofs. Kocay's lemma is used to prove Whitney's subgraph expansion theorem in a simple manner. The reconstructibility of the characteristic polynomial is then demonstrated as a direct consequence of Whitney's theorem as formulated here.


The dispersed condition of the Romerike region has ancient roots, and the area has sought after qualities for main groups of newcomers. The region is currently under a planning regime of transit oriented, polycentric development, which aims to concentrate growth in a few selected nodes. This thesis utilize the dispersed model as a premise to explore how the landscape can accommodate a new paradigm of public transportation, and how a continuous model of dispersion may be anticipated through a strategy which is anchored in the logic of the landscape.


Benedetto Croce is one of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century. His work in aesthetics and historiography has been controversial, but enduring. When the first edition of DEGREESEsthetic appeared in 1902, Croce was seen as foremost in reasserting an idealistic philosophy, which despite its source in continental idealists from Descartes to Hegel, offers a system that attempts to account for the emergence of scientific systems. Croce thus combines scientific and metaphysical thought into a dynamic aesthetic. Croce regards aesthetics not merely as a branch of philosophy, but as a fundamental human activity. It is inseparable from historical, psychological, political, economic, and moral considerations, no less than a unique frame of artistic reference. Aesthetic is composed of two parts: Part One concentrates on aesthetic theory and practice. Among the topics it covers are: intuition and expression, art and philosophy, historicism and intellectualism, and beauty in nature and in art. Part Two is devoted to the history of aesthetics. Croce analyzes such subjects as: aesthetic ideas in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, Giambattista Vico as the inventor of aesthetic science, the philosophy of language, and aesthetic psychologism. In his new introduction to a classic translation, John McCormick assesses Croce's influence in aesthetic theory and historiography. He notes that the republication of this work is an overdue appreciation of a singular effort to resolve the classic questions of the philosophy of art, art for its own sake and art as a social enterprise; both find a place in Croce's system.


A healthy sleep pattern is crucial to the overall health and wellbeing of teenagers, and poor sleep patterns can harm school performance. Due to stay-at-home orders mandated by the governor of Ohio in March 2020, students were converted to remote learning. The purpose of this study was to compare the sleep patterns of teenagers before the stay-at-home orders and during remote learning. Individual chronotypes impact peak productivity, and remote learning imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic provides a unique opportunity to study how teenagers may take advantage of their chronotype for optimal learning. Data was collected using an online survey distributed to teenagers in the Greater Cincinnati area. The survey completed by 141 participants compared teenagers' overall sleep habits and attitude towards school before and during the remote learning period. During the stay-at-home orders, teenagers participating in remote learning extended their sleep duration by 1-2 hours, resulting in 83% of surveyed teenagers receiving healthy sleep amounts and 55% reporting feeling more rested. Sleep patterns of teenagers were also altered by the stay-at-home orders, as seen by the significant shift to later bedtimes and wake times. Later wake times and bedtimes align with the self-reported night owl chronotype reported by a majority of respondents. These results can help create more effective learning periods for adolescents that optimize personal chronotype.


Abstract. Better characterisation of aerosol processes in pristine, natural environments, such as Antarctica, have recently been shown to lead to the largest reduction in uncertainties in our understanding of radiative forcing. Our understanding of aerosols in the Antarctic region is currently based on measurements that are often limited to boundary layer air masses at spatially sparse coastal and continental research stations, with only a handful of studies in the vast sea-ice region. In this paper, the first observational study of sub-micron aerosols in the East Antarctic sea ice region is presented. Measurements were conducted aboard the icebreaker Aurora Australis in spring 2012 and found that boundary layer condensation nuclei (CN3) concentrations exhibited a five-fold increase moving across the polar front, with mean polar cell concentrations of 1130 cm−3 – higher than any observed elsewhere in the Antarctic and Southern Ocean region. The absence of evidence for aerosol growth suggested that nucleation was unlikely to be local. Air parcel trajectories indicated significant influence from the free troposphere above the Antarctic continent, implicating this as the likely nucleation region for surface aerosol, a similar conclusion to previous Antarctic aerosol studies. The highest aerosol concentrations were found to correlate with low-pressure systems, suggesting that the passage of cyclones provided an accelerated pathway, delivering air masses quickly from the free troposphere to the surface. After descent from the Antarctic free troposphere, trajectories suggest that sea-ice boundary layer air masses travelled equatorward into the low-albedo Southern Ocean region, transporting with them emissions and these aerosol nuclei which, after growth, may potentially impact on the region's radiative balance. The high aerosol concentrations and their transport pathways described here, could help reduce the discrepancy currently present between simulations and observations of cloud and aerosol over the Southern Ocean.


This paper seeks to discuss recent sites of contestation of the implications one  assigns to migration from Africa and the Middle East to Central and Western  Europe. It will be predominantly Eurocentric in its data and analysis, dealing less  with the motivations of the migrants and the second generation, and more with the  various responses to that migration among Europeans (e.g., what are "they" doing  to "us"). The major literary texts involved in the paper will be Michel Houellebecq's  Submission (2015), and Jenny Erpenbeck's Go, Went, Gone (2015), with initial  consideration of Jean Raspail's The Camp of the Saints (1973). In these encounters,  the overriding question is less "Who are these people," than "Who are we in the face  of these others?" Despite their varying motivations, they are texts that continue to  define Europe by viewing it against the backdrop of the other. I will conclude with  a reference to two projects that seek to engage viewers/readers vicariously in the  lived experiences of particular Africans forced to flee their homes. Such empathy  elicits an aggressively negative reaction among some Europeans, a white paranoia  that foresees the extinction of a romantically imagined pure ethnically-based  culture and recalls earlier campaigns with similarly violent results.


Herein, Mn4+-activated Ca1−xYxAl12−xMgxO19 (x = 0–0.50) solid solutions were prepared using a conventional high-temperature solid-state reaction. Crystal structure transformation via chemical co-substitution of Y3+/Mg2+ for Ca2+/Al3+ was investigated in detail. The optical properties of Ca1−xYxAl12−xMgxO19 (x = 0–0.50) have been reported for the first time using a combination of techniques including structural refinement and luminescence measurements. Co-doping of Mg and Y cations within the CaAl12O19 host in a controlled manner resulted in the as-prepared samples with red/far-red ratio-tunable luminescence properties. The emission bands well-matched with the absorption band of phytochrome. Interestingly, enhanced Mn4+ luminescence can be obtained upon the addition of Mg2+ and Y3+. Unexpectedly, the quantum yields exhibit a slight change when x is in the range from 0.05 to 0.40; this indicates that these solid solutions have significant potential as lighting systems for plant growth.


The considerable influence of inherent uncertainties on structural behavior has led the engineering community to recognize the importance of a stochastic approach to structural problems. Issues related to uncertainty quantification and its influence on the reliability of the computational models are continuously gaining in significance. In particular, the problems of dynamic response analysis and reliability assessment of structures with uncertain system and excitation parameters have been the subject of continuous research over the last two decades as a result of the increasing availability of powerful computing resources and technology. This book is a follow up of a previous book with the same subject (ISBN 978-90-481-9986-0) and focuses on advanced computational methods and software tools which can highly assist in tackling complex problems in stochastic dynamic/seismic analysis and design of structures. The selected chapters are authored by some of the most active scholars in their respective areas and represent some of the most recent developments in this field.The book consists of 21 chapters which can be grouped into several thematic topics including dynamic analysis of stochastic systems, reliability-based design, structural control and health monitoring, model updating, system identification, wave propagation in random media, seismic fragility analysis and damage assessment.This edited book is primarily intended for researchers and post-graduate students who are familiar with the fundamentals and wish to study or to advance the state of the art on a particular topic in the field of computational stochastic structural dynamics. Nevertheless, practicing engineers could benefit as well from it as most code provisions tend to incorporate probabilistic concepts in the analysis and design of structures.


Caring Is a Competitive Advantage
 Suffering in the workplace can rob our colleagues and coworkers of humanity, dignity, and motivation and is an unrecognized and costly drain on organizational potential. Marshaling evidence from two decades of field research, scholars and consultants Monica Worline and Jane Dutton show that alleviating such suffering confers measurable competitive advantages in areas like innovation, collaboration, service quality, and talent attraction and retention. They outline four steps for meeting suffering with compassion and show how to build a capacity for compassion into the structures and practices of an organization—because ultimately, as they write, "Compassion is an irreplaceable dimension of excellence for any organization that wants to make the most of its human capabilities."


At Harnaschpolder wwtp phosphate removal from wastewater and sludge dewatering is optimised by dosing magnesium hydroxide to digested sludge. To optimise sludge dewatering and phosphate removal, a full-scale test has been executed since August 2015 using temporary equipment. In this test magnesium hydroxide is added to the digested sludge buffer. Significant positive results are achieved. An excellent quality of the reject water is obtained, through which the phosphorus load in this reject water returned to head of works is negligible. This decrease in combination with other optimisations are beneficial for the biological phosphorus removal process. In 2016 the phosphorus effluent quality remained constant, while 42% less iron chloride was added to meet the legal phosphorus effluent quality requirements (yearly moving average Ptotal, 1.0 mg P/l). The polymer usage decreased by 25% and the year average dry matter content of the dewatered sludge increased from 22% in 2014 to 24% in 2016. Struvite scaling or blockage is avoided in piping, pumps or dewatering equipment, through optimised control of dosage of magnesium hydroxide. The full-scale test results prove that the addition of magnesium hydroxide to digested sludge leads to a significant cost reduction and major environmental benefits. In 2017 a permanent installation will be realised. The magnesium hydroxide dosage will be further optimised based on lessons learnt. Also an improved operation control of sludge dewatering is possible through additional in-line measurements for dry solids content of dewatered sludge. It is therefore expected that results will further improve concerning the use of iron chloride and polymers, dry solids content of dewatered sludge and phosphate effluent quality. Through this optimisation, the operating costs of Harnaschpolder wwtp are reduced by over 4%. The return on investment is estimated at 1.5 years.


The sheer scale of modern datasets has resulted in a dire need for summarization techniques that identify representative elements in a dataset. Fortunately, the vast majority of data summarization tasks satisfy an intuitive diminishing returns condition known as submodularity, which allows us to find nearly-optimal solutions in linear time. We focus on a two-stage submodular framework where the goal is to use some given training functions to reduce the ground set so that optimizing new functions (drawn from the same distribution) over the reduced set provides almost as much value as optimizing them over the entire ground set. In this paper, we develop the first streaming and distributed solutions to this problem. In addition to providing strong theoretical guarantees, we demonstrate both the utility and efficiency of our algorithms on real-world tasks including image summarization and ride-share optimization.


After the Supreme Court's decision in United States v. Ballard, Spiritualism's adherents, like other members of minority belief systems, could qualify for the same First Amendment protections as members of mainstream religions. While Spiritualists could thus celebrate a certain level of victory, they still faced intolerance and outright persecution from some government officials and state legislatures who continued to believe that common Spiritualist practices, which included communication with the dead, divination, and in some cases, faith healing, were simply shams for frauds perpetrated on members of the public who were grieving over the loss of loved ones. In their grief, members of the public sought out Spiritualist practitioners who convinced them that their deceased relatives and friends could speak to them through Spiritualist intervention, and often with the assistance of donations to a Spiritualist church. In many cases, Spiritualist ministers did (and still do) offer assistance in the form of messages from loved ones to assist in guidance for the future.Some prosecutors and police did not see such messages as legitimate spiritual guidance or genuine prophecy. They still labeled such communications as fortune telling. Under "rogue and vagabond" statutes, a type of disorderly person legislation enacted as early as the 1790s in the United States, fortune telling and like activities were considered fraudulent activity, not religious ministrations. The statutes defined those who carried them out as crafty sciences practitioners or "rogues and vagabonds," not members of the clergy. However, both the ruling in Ballard and ministerial exemptions that state legislatures carved out of statutes before and after Ballard protected clergy from accusations of fraud. Beginning early in the twentieth century, but in growing numbers after the Second World War, members of minority religions could take advantage of ministerial exemptions to protect themselves from a charge of fraud, even if their activities resembled "crafty sciences practices," if they could convince the police or the courts that they were clergy and the practices they followed were recognized by their churches.However, crafty sciences practitioners who were not members of minority religions had more difficulty in escaping fraud accusations. Even if they spoke to willing clients, even if they did not request payment for their services (and some did not, although they accepted donations), and whether they performed their services in entertainment venues or in storefronts, they ran the risk that the police might arrest them and prosecutors might bring criminal charges against them. State statutes and local ordinances that banned fortune telling, palmistry, divination, phrenology, or other crafty sciences practices offered no defense because the First Amendment did not protect such speech. Law enforcement and prosecutors tended to bring fewer complaints of outright fraud against Spiritualists after 1945, and shifted their attention to claims of fraud against others who engaged in the same kinds of practices, including fortune tellers, and by extension, palmists, clairvoyants, and astrologers. At the same time, other minority religious practitioners, emboldened by the success of the Spiritualists as well as other non-traditional groups, began to argue that they too should be able to claim the protections of the First Amendment Free Exercise Clause for practices that included divination, prophesy, and other "crafty sciences" if those practices were part of religious rituals. This Article examines those claims and government responses, in the form of bans and regulations such as zoning and licensing, and tests whether these responses are constitutional under the First Amendment.


This paper focuses on understanding distributed leadership and professional learning communities (PLCs). Through an Australian Government grant, the Teacher Education Done Differently (TEDD) project, data were analysed from 25 school executives about distributed leadership as a potential for influencing educational change through forums such as PLCs. Findings will be discussed in relation to: (1) Understanding the nature of a PLC, (2) Leadership within PLCs, (3) Advancing PLCs, and (4) PLCs as forums for capacity building a profession. A cyclic model for facilitating PLCs is presented, where information such as issues and problems are brought to the collective, discussed and analysed openly to provide further feedback. There are implications for leaders to up-skill staff on distributed leadership practices and further research required to determine which practices facilitate successful PLCs.


Applications of flexible pipe have been growing because of its characteristic features (i.e. low bending stiffness and high axial strength) which are because of various composite and steel layers have been used in the structure of this pipe. These characteristics make flexible pipeline capable to transfer oil and gas from wellhead to the fixed and floating platforms, or to inject water into the wells.
There are a number of technical and economic advantages for the use of flexible pipe with respect to conventional rigid line pipe. Rapid installation, typically 5 to 10 km per day, and special polymer material (i.e. elimination of needs for cathodic protection) suggest it may be used as a suitable option for installation in harsh environment fields. Furthermore, the pipe exhibits advantageous mechanical performance characteristics with respect to strength, collapse resistance, thermal expansion and vibration response, and fatigue and abrasion resistance.
Flexible pipe comprises of carcass and pressure armours which are interlocked layer wrapped with angle close to 90 degree and stand toward radial pressures; extruded polymer layers which prevents leakage of fluids to the other layers; high strength tape which are considered to prevent radial expansion of tensile armours; tensile armours which are rectangular cross section helical wires with pitch angle close to 35 degrees made by high strength steel to stand for axial and bending and torsional loads.
For deepwater flexible pipe systems, in response to local damage and loss of constraint, the tensile armour wires may exhibit two forms of local instability that includes radial buckling (i.e., birdcaging) and lateral buckling. These two failure modes may occur during installation or operational conditions due to pure axial compression and bending curvature.
Due to the complex mechanics for integrating the mechanical response of each layer and the corresponding interactions between adjacent layers, there are few analytical and numerical modelling studies addressing the mechanical performance of composite flexible pipe. These investigations are constrained by the underlying idealizations and assumptions used, and the available hardware and software technology. As the technology development and fabrication of flexible pipe is company-specific proprietary, intellectual property, there are few experimental studies available in the public domain. To improve knowledge, and potentially advance current engineering design and practice, it is important to develop a thorough understanding of the pipe mechanical response, strength performance limits and deformation mechanisms.
The main goals and major contributions in this thesis are the development and advancement of three-dimensional finite element modelling procedures investigating the local radial and lateral buckling of the tensile armour wires in flexible pipe. This investigation has provided new knowledge and insight, which is either incremental or unique, on these local instability mechanisms for tensile armour wires. The importance of using an implicit solver rather than the traditional use of an explicit solver has also been established. The simplifying assumptions of existing finite element and analytical models mostly have been improved and built sufficient reliability to be used for the different industrial practices.
The significance of pipe model characteristics (e.g., element type, topology, segment length), interlayer contact formulations, boundary conditions (i.e., natural, essential), interface friction, hydrostatic loads, damage condition, and curvature on the local instability mechanisms have been examined which is another unique step for consolidating the design standards.


Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to discuss how educators can harness the natural momentum of learning to create a dramatic and exciting hero's learning journey. Given the importance of motivation, educators can borrow ideas from game designers by using gamification – a process to re-frame a real life goal to be more appealing and achievable. A series of learning activities, developed to meet both cognitive and emotional needs, results in an engaging learning journey.

Design/methodology/approach

The concept presented, based on PSI Theory, OCEAN Big Five character traits and player/learner archetypes, is that learners are motivated by three basic needs: affiliation, competence or certainty (assuming other physiological needs are met).

Findings

Armed with insight into types of motivations at different phases, learner experience designers can create different learning journeys and user profiles. Learning activities can be planned for each need and phase based on changing motivations: collaborate and curate (affiliation), choice and ownership (certainty), challenge and accountability (competence).

Research limitations/implications

Further research is needed in the area of gamification in education. A qualitative study should be conducted on preferred learning and assessment activities for each player archetype and, importantly, this research should represent broad samples and not be restricted to the online gaming community.

Originality/value

Rather than focussing on an isolated unit of study, and asynchronous eLearning modules, learning designers can use modern technologies to seed and nurture learning communities where each person has an appealing pathway to enable them to move from novice to expert at their own pace in a spiral of satisfying learning.


Interventional neuroradiology—a relatively new medical subspecialty known also as endovascular neurosurgery—treats cerebrovascular, head and neck, and spinal disease by using minimally invasive techniques. Interventional neuroradiology was originally developed in the 1980s by neuroradiologists and neurosurgeons. Since that time, dramatic advances in interventional neuroradiology have been made possible by similarly rapid advances in medical technology, such as neuroimaging (particularly digital subtraction cerebral angiography and angiographic road-mapping), and development of revolutionary medical devices. Many medical conditions which could not be treated effectively 15 years ago can now be treated curatively using current endovascular techniques. Indeed, even within the field of interventional neuroradiology, new technology and devices introduced within the past five years have allowed interventional neuroradiologists to increase the number of life-threatening cerebrovascular diseases which can be treated effectively.

Emergence of interventional neuroradiology has marked a transition from the radiologist's traditional role as a consultant: Interventional neuroradiologists serve not only as consultants but as clinicians who assume an active role and responsibility in treatment.

This article provides a brief overview of the historical basis for interventional neuroradiology, current treatment options for different types of cerebrovascular disease, and anticipated future developments in the field. This article also discusses current status and future plans for the Interventional Neuroradiology program at Kaiser Permanente (KP) Medical Center in Redwood City, California.


This study explored the measurement of 238U/235U ratios in black spruce seedlings as a tracer to investigate the origin of U taken up by this biogeochemical sampling media. Inductively coupled plasma quadrupole mass spectrometer (ICP-QMS) and neutron activation (NAA) analyses of the 238U/235U ratios in the total digested (HF/HNO3-aqua regia) portions of substrates (soil and peat) treated with 200 ml aliquots of 100, 250, and 400 mg/l of aqueous solutions of depleted uranium (DU) exhibited a substantial deviation from the accepted natural value of 137.88. Similarly, the measured 238U/235U ratios in stems of seedlings grown in the DU-dosed substrates ranged from 174 to 210 and are linearly correlated with the dose of DU applied. The elevated 238U/235U ratio in the seedlings suggests that U taken up by the plants is derived predominantly from the labile DU components in water rather than the component adsorbed onto mineral phases in the substrate. Consequently, it was concluded that the U contents in vegetation used as a biogeochemical sampling medium are derived from the labile components in groundwater and/or surface water. The precision and accuracy of the measured ratios were compared with the 238U/235U ratios of in-house granite and uraninite reference samples.


Following previous observations, this study was undertaken to determine the level of salt required in the diet of gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata L.) juveniles in order to enhance growth performances and survival when rearing in inland brackish water with a salinity of 2.9‰ TDS (Total Dissolved Salts). The juveniles were reared for 10 weeks in twelve rearing tanks, each stocked with 65 fish. Four different test diets were prepared: a control diet without added salt, and three diets with 12%, 14% and 16% added salt. Fish were fed by hand ad libitum three times daily. All diets were accepted equally well. The highest growth rate (p<0.05) was achieved in fish fed the 12% diet followed by the 14% diet, the control diet, and finally the 16% diet. The 12% diet produced the best specific growth rate, feed conversion ratio and protein efficiency ratio. The highest survival was achieved in fish fed the 12% diet (88%) and the lowest in fish fed the 16% diet (80%) and the control diet (80%). This study demonstrates that growth performance and survival in gilthead sea bream reared in water of low salinity can be significantly improved by adding 12% salt to their diet.


Microsatellite markers were developed to examine the genetic diversity of field populations of the centric diatom Ditylum brightwellii. Polymerase chain reaction amplification of two dinucleotide microsatellite loci using DNA extracted from single cell isolates was sensitive enough to identify genetically distinct clones. Each of four culture collection isolates was genetically distinct. Moreover, 23 of 24 isolates obtained from the Hood Canal Basin in Puget Sound, Washington, displayed unique genotypes. The gene diversity of the field isolates is 0.88, indicating that the D. brightwellii population was composed predominantly of unrelated individuals. Maximum growth rates were measured for eight genetically distinct field isolates that were maintained at three light intensities. The growth rates of the isolates differed significantly, indicating that high levels of physiological variability also existed within the population. The results of this study indicate that both extensive genetic and physiological diversity can exist within diatom populations isolated from a single geographical locale at a single time. The observed high levels of diversity are hypothesized to result from the exposure of individual diatom cells to a constantly changing environment and thus to changing selection pressures. The extensive physiological and genetic diversity documented here may help explain how diatoms are able to bloom under a wide range of environmental conditions.


Open student modeling (OSM) is an approach to technology-based learning, which makes student models available to the learners for exploration. OSM is known for its ability to increase student engagement, motivation, and knowledge reflection. A recent extension of OSM known as open social student modeling (OSSM) complements cognitive aspects of OSM with social aspects by allowing students to explore models of peer students and/or an aggregated class model. In this paper, we introduce an OSSM interface, MasteryGrids, and report the results of a large-scale classroom study, which explored the impact of the social dimension of OSSM. Students in a database management course accessed nonrequired learning materials (examples and problems) via the MasteryGrids interface using either OSM or OSSM. The results revealed that OSSM-enhanced learning, especially for students with lower prior knowledge, compared with OSM. It also enhanced user attitude and engagement. Amount of student usage, efficiency of student usage, and student attitude varied depending on the combination of interface condition (OSM/OSSM), gender, and student social comparison orientation.


We have fabricated a soft silicone structure to support the regeneration of a sciatic nerve. The device consists of 70 parallel (120 × 110 μm2) channels through which axons extend and then reconnect to the muscles on the other side of the device. Through histology and electrophysiology, we show that axons grow through the device and functionality of the muscle control is restored. Nerve functionality as demonstrated with stimulated electromyography (EMG) recordings is still intact at 9 months after implantation. Future work on this device will include electrodes for recording and stimulating the regenerating nerve.


This paper provides local scale temperature scenarios for Austria from the middle up to the end of the 21st century. Climate simuations based on the IPCC emission pathways A2 and A1B have been carried out with the global climate models ECHAM5 (three A1B and two A2 realizations) and HadGEM2 (three A1B realizations). The corresponding large scale projections of sea level pressure and 850 hPa temperature fields are statistically downscaled to stations spread across Austria using a perfect prognosis (PP) approach and Multiple Regression Models. The downscaling performance is assessed by a split sample test. Simulated time series are compared to actual measurements by means of the simulated variance, the root mean square and the mean error. Performances are highest during the cold season and sites located in valleys exhibit somewhat lower values. In summer performances show about a 10 percent lower skill than in winter. Downscaled local scale scenarios differ between seasons, scenarios, GCMs and regions in Austria. A1B estimates derived from ECHAM5 indicate a winter-temperature increase of approximately 3 °C at the end of the 21st century compared to present conditions, which is about one degree above the HadGEM2 based projections. This situation is reversed in summer: the HadGEM2 based projections show a warming of about 4 °C while those derived from ECHAM5 indicate a 0.5 °C lower warming. Statistically downscaled winter warming rates at stations < 1400 m NN can be roughly split into three regions. The stations exhibiting the largest warming rates are located in the north-eastern parts of Austria, whilst stations showing the lowest increases are located south of the Alpine ridge. The rest of the stations are found north of the Alpine crest in the north-western parts of Austria. In summer spatially rather uniform temperature increases are detected. Mountain sites above 1400 m NN exhibit an average warming of around 0.5 °C higher than the remaining stations.


We report on the detailed analysis of the high-energy extended emission from the short Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB) 081024B, detected by the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. Historically, this represents the first clear detection of temporal extended emission from a short GRB. The light curve observed by the Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor lasts approximately 0.8 seconds whereas the emission in the Fermi Large Area Telescope lasts for about 3 seconds. Evidence of longer lasting high-energy emission associated with long bursts has been already reported by previous experiments. Our observations, together with the earlier reported study of the bright short GRB 090510, indicate similarities in the high-energy emission of short and long GRBs and open the path to new interpretations. Subject headings: gamma rays: bursts


Abstract The Kyrgyz pastoralists of Afghanistan's Wakhan Corridor have weathered thirty years of endemic warfare and warlordism, large population out-migrations, and social and health problems ranging from widespread opium addiction to having possibly the world's highest maternal mortality rate. Yet, despite the odds and the predictions of specialists that the Wakhan Kyrgyz would soon follow their kinsmen into neighbouring countries as refugees, this 1,500 person community continues to follow the innovative pastoral production strategies developed over the past 100 years as a result of having to cope with the demands of year-round residence in such harsh conditions and with little overall land available. However, today, the persistence of the Wakhan Kyrgyz may be reaching its limits and the community has considered 'repatriation' to Kyrgyzstan as an alternative to the remoteness of the Afghan Pamirs. Keywords: Afghanistan, Kyrgyz, pastoralists, Pamirs And when you leave this little country, and ride three days north-east, always among mountains, you get to such a height that 'tis said to be the highest place in the world! And when you have got to this height you find a fine fiver running through a plain clothed with the finest pasture in the world; insomuch that a lean beast there will fatten to your heart's content in ten days ... The plain is called Pamier, and you ride across it for twelve days together, finding nothing but a desert without habitations or any green thing, so that travelers are obliged to carry with them whatever they have need of. The region is so lofty and cold that you do not even see any birds flying. And I must notice that because of this great cold, fire does not burn so brightly, nor give out so much heat as usual, nor does it cook food so effectually. (Marco Polo, The Travels of Marco Polo) Background In this famous description, Marco Polo captures the barren and forbidding nature of the Bam-e-Dunya, the 'Roof of the World', Afghanistan's Wakhan Corridor. Yet, for the very reason that Polo notes in this passage--its lush pasturage--the Wakhan has been the seasonal home of nomads for thousands of years. More recent travellers than Polo were still told legends concerning the fabled Pamir pasture lands: 'A single blade of Pamir grass is as good as a haystack' (Michaud 1972: 458). The most recent group of people to dwell in this remote corner of Central Asia are the Kyrgyz, who had traditionally roamed the vast grasslands and river valleys of what was, until fairly recent geopolitical events divided it into nations, simply known as Turkestan. First Russian colonial expansion, then the Bolshevik revolution of 1917 and finally the Chinese Communist Revolution of 1949 forced the various Central Asian pastoral nomadic groups either to settle or move into increasingly marginal, isolated areas, delimited in a way that made no sense from a pastoralist's perspective. As the international borders of the Soviet Union, China, Pakistan and Afghanistan became more clearly defined--and politically sensitive--during the twentieth century, one small population of Kyrgyz nomadic pastoralists found themselves confined to living on the Roof of the World. Even this remote mountain refuge proved insufficient to insulate the Kyrgyz from the effects of greater geopolitical forces, as external 'socio-political interference led to the creation of an arena of confrontation in the Pamirs, Hindukush and Himalaya during the Cold War which was one of the least permeable frontier regions in the world' (Kreutzmann 2005: 23). In April 1978, a Marxist coup in Kabul toppled the republican government of Mohammed Daoud. The Saur Revolution sent tremors up into the faraway Pamirs, as the Kyrgyz, who had in the past sporadically fought with Soviet forces just across the border in the Yajik Soviet Socialist Republic, heard that this coup was backed by the Soviets. Additionally, soon after the Saur Revolution, the Kyrgyz claim to have seen increased Soviet military activity near the border. …


OBJECTIVES
We aimed to study the predictive value of heart rate-corrected QT interval (QTc) for incident coronary heart disease (CHD) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality in the black and white general population, and to validate various QT measurements.

BACKGROUND
QTc prolongation is associated with higher risk of mortality in cardiac patients and in the general population. Little is known about the association with incident CHD. No previous studies included black populations.

METHODS
We studied the predictive value of QTc prolongation in a prospective population study of 14,548 black and white men and women, age 45 to 64 year. QT was determined by the NOVACODE program in the digital electrocardiogram recorded at baseline.

RESULTS
In quintiles of QTc, cardiovascular risk profile deteriorated with longer QTc, and risk of CHD and CVD mortality increased. The high risk in the upper quintile was mostly explained by the 10% with the longest QTc. The age-, gender-, and race-adjusted hazard ratios for CVD mortality and CHD in subjects with the longest 10% relative to the other 90% of the gender-specific QTc distribution were 5.13 (95% confidence interval 3.80 to 6.94) and 2.14 (95% confidence interval 1.71 to 2.69), respectively. The increased risk was partly, but not completely, attributable to other risk factors or the presence of chronic disease. The association was stronger in black than in white subjects. Manual- and machine-coded QT intervals were highly correlated, and the method of rate correction did not affect the observed associations.

CONCLUSIONS
Long QTc is associated with increased risk of CHD and CVD mortality in black and white healthy men and women.


The involvement of GABA in neuronal differentiation and maturation precedes its role as inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain. It was therefore investigated whether GABAA receptors mediating the actions of GABA in neonatal and adult brain can be distinguished by their molecular structure and cellular location. Immunohistochemistry with subunit-specific antibodies was employed to analyze changes in the distribution of GABAA-receptor subunits during postnatal development. In particular, subunit association patterns, as evidenced by colocalization of subunits within individual neurons, were analyzed by confocal laser microscopy. The subunits analyzed include the alpha 1- and alpha 2-subunits, which are associated with pharmacologically distinct GABAA-receptor subtypes, and the beta 2,3-subunits, which are a major constituent of GABAA receptors in both immature and adult rat brain. Each of these subunits exhibited age-dependent changes in their distribution, indicative of a differential maturation process. The alpha1-subunit immunoreactivity (-IR) was low at birth, restricted to a few areas, and increased dramatically during the first postnatal weeks. By contrast, the alpha 2-subunit-IR displayed a widespread distribution throughout the brain at birth, and disappeared from numerous areas soon after the appearance of the alpha 1-subunit. Double-immunofluorescence staining demonstrated the coexistence of both subunits in many individual neurons during a short time window, indicating that receptors containing the alpha 1-subunit gradually replace receptors containing the alpha 2-subunit in these cells. Staining for the beta 2,3-subunits was prominent and ubiquitous at every developmental age, indicating that these subunits are present in both neonatal and adult GABAA receptors. Indeed, double-immunofluorescence staining revealed an extensive colocalization of the alpha 2- and beta 2,3-subunits in neurons from neonatal rats, whereas the beta 2,3-subunits were associated with the alpha 1-subunit at later stages. Thus, the onset of alpha 1-subunit staining in maturing brain is indicative for the expression of a new, prevalent receptor subtype, presumably involved in synaptic inhibition. These findings demonstrate a switch in the subunit composition of GABAA receptors during postnatal development, suggesting the existence of molecularly distinct immature and adult forms of GABAA receptors in rat CNS.


In the present work, the effect of temperature and additives on the ionic conductivity of mixed organic/ionic liquid electrolytes (MOILEs) was investigated by conducting galvanostatic charge/discharge and ionic conductivity experiments. The mixed electrolyte is based on the ionic liquid (IL) (EMI/TFSI/LiTFSI) and organic solvents EC/DMC (1:1 v/v). The effect of electrolyte type on the electrochemical performance of a LiCoO2 cathode and a SnO2/C composite anode in lithium anode (or cathode) half-cells was also investigated. The results demonstrated that the addition of 5 wt.% succinonitrile (SN) resulted in enhanced ionic conductivity of a 60% EMI-TFSI 40% EC/DMC MOILE from ~14 mS·cm−1 to ~26 mS·cm−1 at room temperature. Additionally, at a temperature of 100 °C, an increase in ionic conductivity from ~38 to ~69 mS·cm−1 was observed for the MOILE with 5 wt% SN. The improvement in the ionic conductivity is attributed to the high polarity of SN and its ability to dissolve various types of salts such as LiTFSI. The galvanostatic charge/discharge results showed that the LiCoO2 cathode with the MOILE (without SN) exhibited a 39% specific capacity loss at the 50th cycle while the LiCoO2 cathode in the MOILE with 5 wt.% SN showed a decrease in specific capacity of only 14%. The addition of 5 wt.% SN to the MOILE with a SnO2/C composite-fiber anode resulted in improved cycling performance and rate capability of the SnO2/C composite-membrane anode in lithium anode half-cells. Based on the results reported in this work, a new avenue and promising outcome for the future use of MOILEs with SN in lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) can be opened.


Purpose: Mentoring is a professional development approach that can be effectively used in improving publication outputs among academics. The challenge to develop academics in the area of publication is essential. This study highlights the role of the mentor in the process of encouraging academics to improve their skill in publishing. Method: Participatory action research was used in this study. Nine academics, with the authors as mentors, participated in a support group over a 10-week period and monthly follow ups for 12-months. Results: Key aspects identified by the mentors were information sharing, providing and receiving feedback, and continuous support and motivation. Support in developing novice authors does not end when the manuscript is submitted but has to be maintained throughout the process until publication. Conclusion: Mentoring can assist in the development of academics regarding the skills for writing for publication.


The Columbia River Gorge, site of the nation's first national scenic area and the only near sea level passage through the Cascade Mountains, possesses the longest continuously occupied site of human habitation in North America. The Gorge has served as a major transportation corridor between the Pacific and the Great Basin for hundreds of years, is home to spectacular scenery, dozens of waterfalls, many sacred sites, and abundant recreational activities, including world-class kite boarding and wind surfing. The Gorge has also been the location of over a century of legal battles that have made major contributions to American natural resources law. From judicial interpretations of 19th Indian treaties, to the development of the largest interconnected hydroelectric system in the world, to ensuing declines in what were once the world's largest salmon runs – ultimately resulting in endangered species listings – to innovative federal statutes concerning electric power planning and conservation and land use federalism, to compensation schemes for landowners burdened with regulation, to dam removal and conflicts between sea lions and salmon, the Gorge has spawned a legal history as rich as its geography. This article surveys these developments and suggests that no area of the country has produced more varied and significant contributions to natural resources law.