Resource consumption and related waste production are still rapidly increasing all over the world, leading to social and environmental challenges and to the production of the so-called 'wastescapes'. Peri-urban areas—in-between urban and rural territories—are particularly vulnerable and prone to develop into wastescapes because they are generally characterised by mixed functions and/or monofunctional settlements, as well as by fragmentation in a low-density territory that is often crossed by large infrastructure networks. Moreover, peri-urban areas are generally the selected locations for the development of plants for waste management. In this way, they are crossed by waste flows of a different nature, in a landscape of operational infrastructures and wasted landscapes. Implementing Circular Economy (CE) principles, interpreting waste and wastescapes as resources, is a way to significantly reduce raw material and (soil) resource consumption, improving cities' metabolism. A circular approach can positively affect the spatial, social and environmental performances of peri-urban areas. However, the transition towards a CE presents many challenges. This article outlines an approach to address these challenges, presenting a co-creation process among researchers, experts and stakeholders within Living Labs (LLs) processes. LLs are physical and virtual spaces, aiming at the co-creation of site-specific eco-innovative solutions (EIS) and strategies. In the LLs, public–private–people partnerships are developed by applying an iterative methodology consisting of five phases: Co-Exploring, Co-Design, Co-Production, Co-Decision, and Co-Governance. This article presents a case study approach, analysing the co-creation methodology applied in two peri-urban living labs, located in the Metropolitan Areas of Naples (Italy) and Amsterdam (The Netherlands), within REPAiR Horizon2020 research project.


Mission is not just about proclaiming the gospel it encompasses spiritual preparation of those involved in both mission activity and in converted souls. This approach is what is termed as mission spirituality in this article. Mission spirituality is the means by which churches and individual believers participate in the mission of God, through the way they live in and by the Holy Spirit, in order to know the will of God regarding what He is doing in their context and to follow His example. In view of the importance of mission spirituality in missionary activities of the church, this article explores the mission spirituality of the classical Pentecostal churches in Ghana (The church of Pentecost, Christ Apostolic Church International, The Apostolic Church Ghana and the Assemblies of God).


While many may argue as to who deserves the most credit for the discovery of modern anaesthesia, events in the late 18 th and early 19 th centuries led to the introduction and development of modern anaesthetic techniques. English physicist and chemist Humphry Davy [1778-1829] first became aware of the sedative and analgesic properties of nitrous oxide in 1795. Although he never experimented with the drug during a surgical procedure, he was the first to suggest that it would be beneficial in relieving pain during surgical procedures. The mind-altering properties of nitrous oxide and ether were often abused for recreational purposes, and the term 'ether frolics' was coined to describe such use. While physician William Crawford Williamson Long [1815-1878] first used ether during general surgery, medical student William Edward Clarke [1819-1898] was the first to use ether for dental extraction in 1842. Dr. Long neglected to publicize his findings until 1849, thereby denying himself much of the credit he deserved. Dentist Horace Wells [1815-1848] successfully used nitrous oxide for dental procedures, but a public demonstration which he held in January 1845 turned out to be a fiasco. Medical student William Thomas Green Morton [1819-1868] was the first to publicly demonstrate the effectiveness of ether for general surgery on October 16, 1846. This article seeks to give rightful credit to each of these individuals for their unique contributions to the discovery of modern anaesthesia.


Since the end of the 1980's, the development of self-driven autonomous vehicles is an intensive research area in most major industrial countries. Positive socio-economic potential impacts include a decrease of crashes, a reduction of travel times, energy efficiency improvements, and a reduced need of costly physical infrastructure. Some form of vehicle-to-vehicle and/or vehicle-to-infrastructure cooperation is required to ensure a safe and efficient global transportation system. This thesis deals with a particular form of cooperation by studying the problem of coordinating multiple mobile robots at an intersection area. Most of coordination systems proposed in previous work consist of planning a trajectory and to control the robots along the planned trajectory: that is the plan-as-program paradigm where planning is considered as a generative mechanism of action. The approach of the thesis is to plan priorities – the relative order of robots to go through the intersection – which is much weaker as many trajectories respect the same priorities. Then, priorities are merely used as a coordination resource to guide robots through the intersection. Once priorities are assigned, robots are controlled through a control law preserving the assigned priorities. It results in a more robust coordination system – able to handle a large class of unexpected events in a reactive manner – particularly well adapted for an application to the coordination of autonomous vehicles at intersections where cars, public transport and pedestrians share the road.


The engineering design of surgical instrumentation to apply mechanical forces and linear moments on the human bones during the operations constitutes a rather difficult task. This is due both to the natural and pathological irregularities of the human bone morphology and surfaces and also to the individual variations from one patient to another. Usually, the forces are applied by the surgeon only on a determined part of the bone surfaces. This paper describes an innovative computational design method to digitalize, simulate, and fit mathematically the anterior vertebral body facet. We used real experimental data from 17 human cadaveric specimens to get and store a large amount of numerical surface digital values. The complete anterior vertebral body side was visualized and analyzed with grid data Subroutine, which was also used first to select the so-called natural regions of interest (ROIs). These ROIs correspond to those parts of the surface in contact with the surgical instrumentation, where the mechanical forces are applied. Subsequently, a numerical mathematical fitting-model was implemented for these ROIs. This was carried out with the development of a 3D geometrical least-squares optimization algorithm and appropriate software designed according to the proper numerical method selected. In doing so, the 3D superficies equations of the anterior vertebral body (L3, L4, L5, and S1) were determined after these fittings were mathematically checked as appropriate. Statistical parameters and determination coefficients that define the error boundaries and the goodness of this optimal fitting-model were calculated and NURBS error data in similar studies were commented. It was proven that the principal source of error was the micro- and macro-irregularities of human bone facets. The final surface equations, and their geodesics, were used to obtain accurate data for the spinal surgery instrumentation manufacturing. The industrial bioengineering result was the application of these equations for the design of a new spinal vertebral surgical distractor. This innovative distractor separates two adjacent vertebrae while keeping them parallel. That is, at their natural inclination, avoiding hammering the vertebrae to make the intervertebral space wider. The device mechanics also minimizes the necessary force to be carried out by the surgeon during the operation.


Thirty-two patients with systemic lupus erythematosus were evaluated clinically and with computed tomography in order to determine whether the occurrence of cerebral atrophy in systemic lupus erythematosus was due to the steroid therapy or the cerebral manifestations of the disease itself. Of these patients, 14 had central nervous system manifestations of the disease (lupus cerebritis) and 12 of the 14 were on long-term steroid therapy. Eighteen patients had no clinical evidence of lupus cerebritis and all were on long-term steroids. Of the 14 lupus cerebritis patients, 10 showed moderate cerebral atrophy, four minimal atrophy, and none were normal. Of the 18 patients without lupus cerebritis, none had moderate atrophy, six (33%) showed minimal atrophy, and 12 (67%) had normal CT scans. This data suggest that it is the lupus cerebritis rather than the steroid therapy that is responsible for the moderate cerebral atrophy. In patients suspected of lupus cerebritis, steroids should not be withheld because of concern for steroid-induced atrophy. Rather, the dose may need to be increased.


The Journal of Reviews in Clinical Medicine (RCM) is the leading journal of its type at Mashhad University of Medical Sciences covering all aspects of the natural and clinical sciences, which may be a matter of concern for the related specialists. The scope of the journal defines the RCM Publishing Group's ambition to take a considerable step forward in constructing a valuable medical resource for both authors and readers. It offers the practical and the professional support for clinicians to spread the critical and constructive analysis in a specific field through extended explanations on the topic. In other words, it pragmatically provides the readers with recent advances and discoveries by means of previously published literature or data.  Furthermore, the journal expects to generate the ideas of where the researches might go in the future. The RCM Publishing Group hopes to be a gateway to the positive outlook of research in any medical discipline. In this issue, we present the wide range of researches in different fields of medicine, which describe briefly below. Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is one of the most common pediatric disorders that affected the large number of patients. Along with the high rate of treatment success, a modified and individualized diagnostic test can significantly increase the survival rate. Therefore, cytogenetic and molecular tests might play an important role in the prognosis of ALL by detecting the special genetic polymorphism affecting drug metabolism and its subsequent effective level and toxicity. Differential diagnosis between benign and malignant brain tumors has been a dilemma for appropriate management and treatment for years. Magnetic resonance spectroscopy is now addressing the need for noninvasive methods of measuring human brain function. Chronic kidney diseases such as renal failure are considered as the devastating medical problems in different age group. The longterm appropriate medical care especially nutritional support can exert a positive effect on patients` health.   Furthermore, the use of tranexamic acid in cardiac surgery and its complications such as bleeding, the use of herbal medicine in the treatment of refractive seizure in children, the different causes of coma in pediatric medicine and also peripheral nervous system destruction occurred in systemic vasculitis has been discussed. Finally, we focus on cyclooxygenase 2 (COX2) as a major overexpressing enzyme in cancers. Thus, clinicians may consider COX 2 inhibitors as one of the therapeutic agents.  The previous studies evaluated this role are reviewed in Wilms` tumor.  Above all, we want to express our appreciation to all those who have submitted their manuscripts to RCM journal, all the Editorial board members and all the dedicated staffs for their loyal and precious cooperation. We look forward to attracting more specialists, residents and medical students to make RCM a really international and multicultural journal. Frankly, this has promised to be a far more difficult task than we anticipated. However, we will continue our efforts to take the first steps in this evolution more effectively.


UNLABELLED
The 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans recommend that all adults perform muscle-strengthening exercises to work all of the major muscle groups of the body on at least 2 d·wk, in addition to aerobic activity. Studies using objective methods of monitoring physical activity have focused primarily on the assessment of aerobic activity. To date, a method for assessing resistance training (RT) exercises has not been developed using a wrist-worn activity monitor.

PURPOSE
The purpose of this study was to examine the use of a wrist-worn triaxial accelerometer-based activity monitor for classifying upper- and lower-body dumbbell RT exercises.

METHODS
Sixty participants performed 10 repetitions each of 12 different upper- and lower-body dynamic dumbbell exercises. Algorithms for classifying the exercises were developed using two different methods: support vector machine and cosine similarity. Confusion matrices were developed for each method, and intermethod reliabilities were assessed using Cohen's kappa. A repeated-measures ANOVA was used to compare the predicted repetitions, identified from the largest acceleration peaks, with the actual repetitions.

RESULTS
The results indicated that support vector machine and cosine similarity accurately classified the 12 different RT exercises 78% and 85% of the time, respectively. Both methods struggled to correctly differentiate bench press versus shoulder press and squat versus walking lunges. Repetition estimates were not significantly different for 8 of the 12 exercises. For the four exercises that were significantly different, the differences amount to less than 10%.

CONCLUSION
This study demonstrated that RT exercises can be accurately classified using a single activity monitor worn on the wrist.


The Tax Reform Act of 1986: I mpact on Hospitality Industries. Elisa S. Moncarz. FIU Hospitality Review, vol. 5, no. 1, 1987, pp. 5-23. Florida International University, School of Hospitality Management, Tamiami Trail, Miami, Florida 33199. After nearly two years of considering the overhaul of the federal tax system, Congress enacted the Tax Reform Act of 1986. The impact of this legislation is expected to affect virtually all individuals and businesses associated with the hospitality industry. This article discusses some of the major provisions of the tax bill, emphasizing those relating to the hospitality service industries and contrasting relevant provisions with prior law on their positive and negative effects to the industry.


My paper presents a comparative analysis of the development of Indigenous reserve systems in British North America and Western Australia across the nineteenth century. The existing historiography seeks to comprehend the relationship between the British metropole and the colonial periphery, and two opposing frameworks of colonial governance have been developed. One holds that the British Empire operated as an interdependent system, in which colonial Indigenous policies were determined by overarching imperial imperatives based upon imperial capitalism and liberal humanitarianism. The other holds that the explosive growth of settler communities undermined these imperial imperatives and facilitated governance guided by the settlers' need for land, labour, and security. This paper seeks to end the tension between these two frameworks by using Indigenous reserve systems as a case study for understanding colonial governance. Through an analysis of correspondence between local and imperial administrators, this paper argues that the development of Indigenous reserve systems reveals an entrenched conflict between imperial and local administrators lasting throughout the nineteenth century, a conflict in which the local governments of British North America and Western Australia subordinated imperial imperatives of imperial capitalism and liberal humanitarianism to local concerns of security and sovereignty.


Introduction: Adult idiopathic hypertrophic pyloric stenosis (AIHPS) is a rare entity. The most common clinical symptom is abdominal distention relieved by vomiting. There are several treatment modalities for relief of the pyloric obstruction. Case Description/Technique: A 43-year-old woman presented with a long history of epigastric pain, nausea, vomiting, and bloating, which appeared to be caused by functional dyspepsia. She also reported severe postprandial epigastric pain that was thought to be secondary to peptic ulcer disease (PUD). She had lost 7 kg, leading to a poor nutritional status. Further investigation by upper gastrointestinal endoscopy demonstrated moderate stenosis at the pylorus. After discussion, she elected to undergo laparoscopic Heineke-Mikulicz pyloroplasty. The patient was placed supine, and entrance into the peritoneal cavity was obtained with a 5-mm optical trocar. The pylorus was clearly identified and was visibly thickened. Two 2-0 silk stay sutures were placed. Gastrotomy was made with a harmonic scalpel, and the pylorus was cut. The pylorus was reconstructed horizontally by using the Heineke-Mikulicz technique. Finally, a second layer of interrupted 2-0 silk sutures was placed. Discussion: The etiology of AIHPS remains unclear. In a case report, Zarineh et al. classified AIHPS into two main types: primary and secondary. Several factors are important in establishing the diagnosis. The approaches include endoscopic dilation, gastrojejunostomy, partial gastrectomy, and pyloromyotomy with or without pyloroplasty. Despite the technical difficulty, operative procedures such as the Heineke-Mikulicz pyloroplasty have shown favorable results. Currently, laparoscopic pyloroplasty may represent a reasonable, less invasive option for this rare condition.


Between the early seventeenth and the mid-nineteenth century, the field of natural history in Japan separated itself from the discipline of medicine, produced knowledge that questioned the traditional religious and philosophical understandings of the world, developed into a system (called honzogaku) that rivaled Western science in complexity - and then seemingly disappeared. Or did it? In The Knowledge of Nature and the Nature of Knowledge in Early Modern Japan, Federico Marcon recounts how Japanese scholars developed a sophisticated discipline of natural history analogous to Europe's but created independently, without direct influence, and argues convincingly that Japanese natural history succumbed to Western science not because of suppression and substitution, as scholars traditionally have contended, but by adaptation and transformation. The first book-length English-language study devoted to the important field of honzogaku. The Knowledge of Nature and the Nature of Knowledge in Early Modern Japan will be an essential text for historians of Japanese and East Asian science and a fascinating read for anyone interested in the development of science in the early modern era.


Transdermal drug delivery offers various advantages on skin. However, its use is limited because the presence of stratum corneum, which serve as barrier to this route. Vesicular system has potential to evade these barriers include liposome, niosome, and transfersome. Transfersome is one of vesicular systems which has highly stress-adaptive, stress-responsive complex aggregate possessing an aqueous core surrounded by complex lipid bilayer. Transfersome has some potential advantages such as the ability to deform and pass through narrow pores, serve as a carrier for both low as well as high molecular drugs. There are some theories describe which affects the formation of transfersome. Transfersome composed of amphipathic ingredient such as phosphatidylcholine, other component is bilayer softening component such as surfactant, along with lipid and surfactant, preparation method for transfersome also alcohol as a solvent in various ratio and water or phosphate buffer solution for hydration of vesicles. The mechanism behind the transfersome penetration into skin is the development of osmotic gradient because of evaporation of surface water due to body heat. There are various methods exist for the preparation of transfersome such as film dispersion method, reverse phase evaporation method, high-pressure homogenization method, and ultrasonic dispersion method. Transfersome is pertinent in the field of insulin delivery, corticosteroid delivery, delivery of protein and peptide, also serve as carrier for anticancer drug, anesthetics, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, and herbal drug.


Building automation systems (BAS) are used to control and improve indoor building climate at reduced costs. By integrating BAS with wireless sensor networks, the need for cabling can be removed, and both installation and operational costs significantly reduced. Furthermore, temporary BAS installations are made possible. By implementing and evaluating the open BAS standard BACnet on resource-constrained sensor nodes we show that integrating existing standard BAS protocols with wireless sensor networks is feasible.


Title of Dissertation: LEARNING WITH HYPERMEDIA: EXAMINING COGNITIVE, MOTIVATIONAL, AND CONTEXTUAL FACTORS Daniel Charles Moos, Doctor of Philosophy, 2007 Dissertation directed by: Dr. Roger Azevedo Department of Human Development Think-aloud, pretest, posttest, and self-efficacy data collected from 85 undergraduates were used to examine factors related to learning with hypermedia. Participants, randomly assigned to either the No Scaffolding (NS) condition or Conceptual Scaffolding (CS) condition, were given 30 minutes to learn about the circulatory system with hypermedia. Participants in the NS condition received an overall learning goal during the hypermedia learning task, while participants in the CS condition received five guiding questions in addition to the same overall learning goal during the hypermedia learning task. There are four findings from this study. First, results from the pretest and posttest indicated that prior domain knowledge significantly predicted both declarative and conceptual knowledge learning outcomes with hypermedia. Second, results from the self-report selfefficacy questionnaire indicated that while self-efficacy significantly fluctuated during learning, the provision of conceptual scaffolds was not related to this fluctuation. Third, results from a think-aloud protocol indicated that self-efficacy significantly predicted monitoring and planning processes, but not strategy use during the hypermedia learning task. Fourth, results from a think-aloud protocol also indicated that self-regulatory processes (particularly processes related to monitoring) significantly predicted conceptual and declarative learning outcomes. Educational and scientific implications are discussed. LEARNING WITH HYPERMEDIA: EXAMINING COGNITIVE, MOTIVATIONAL, AND CONTEXTUAL FACTORS by Daniel Charles Moos Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2007 Advisory Committee: Associate Professor Roger Azevedo, Chair/Advisor Professor William Holliday Professor Robert Mislevy Assistant Professor Min Wang Professor Allan Wigfield


Over the past couple decades, the capabilities of battery-powered electronics has expanded dramatically. What started out as large bulky 2-way radios, wristwatches, and simple pacemakers, has evolved into pocket sized smart-phones, digital cameras, person digital assistants, and implantable biomedical chips that can restore hearing and prevent heart attacks. With this increase in complexity comes an increase in the amount of processing, which runs on a limited energy source such as a battery or scavenged energy. It is therefore desirable to make the hardware as energy efficient as possible. Many battery-powered systems require digital signal processing, which often makes up a large portion of the total energy consumption. The digital signal processing of a battery-powered system is therefore a good target for power reduction techniques. One method of reducing the power consumption of digital signal processing is to operate the circuit in the subthreshold region, where the supply voltage is lower than the threshold voltage of the transistors. Subthreshold operation greatly reduces the power and energy consumption, but also decreases the maximum operating frequency. Many digital signal processing applications have real-time throughput requirements, so various architectural level techniques, such as pipelining and parallelism, must be used in order to achieve the required performance. This thesis investigates the use of parallelization and subthreshold operation to lower the power consumption of digital signal processing applications, while still meeting throughput requirements. Using an off the shelf fast fourier transform architecture, it will be shown that through paralleliza-tion and subthreshold operation, a 70 % reduction in power consumption can be achieved, all while matching the performance of a nominal voltage single core architecture. Even better results can be obtained when an architecture is specifically designed for subthreshold operation. A novel Discrete Wavelet Transform architecture is presented that is designed to eliminate the need for memory banks, and a power reduction of 26x is achieved compared to a reference nominal voltage architecture that uses memory banks. Issues such as serial to parallel data distribution, dynamic throughput scaling, and memory usage are also explored in this thesis. Finally, voltage scaling greatly increases the design space, so power and timing analysis can be very slow due long SPICE simulation times. A simulation framework is presented that can characterize subthreshold circuits accurately using only fast gate level design automation tools. Acknowledgements First of all, I would like to thank my family for their continued encouragement and the occasional financial …


We build a model of emerging markets crises which features two types of collateral constraints. Firms in a domestic economy have limited borrowing capacity from international investors. They also have limited borrowing capacity with respect to each other. We study how the presence of and changes in these collateral constraints affect financial and real variables. A binding international constraint in the aggregate leads to a sharp rise in interest rates and fire sales of domestic assets, while limited domestic collateral can lead to wasted international collateral. These two collateral constraints can interact in important ways. The first is disintermediation: a fire sale of domestic assets causes banks to fail in their function of reallocating resources across the economy leading to wasted international collateral. The second is a dynamic effect. We show that firms in an economy with limited domestic collateral and a binding international collateral constraint will not adequately precaution against adverse shocks, increasing the severity of these shocks. Our approach is distinctive in that, while much of the literature on the role of financial constraints in macroeconomics draws their insights within either of these collateral deficiencies, we argue that their static and dynamic interactions have important consequences for emerging markets' performance.


Macrophages play a significant role in HIV infection, viral rebound, and the development of AIDS. However, the function of host proteins in viral replication is incompletely characterized in macrophages. Purinergic receptors P2X and P2Y are major components of the macrophage immune response to pathogens, inflammation, and cellular damage. We demonstrate that these receptors are necessary for HIV infection of primary human macrophages. Inhibition of purinergic receptors results in a significant reduction in HIV replication in macrophages. This inhibition is independent of viral strain and is dose dependent. We also identify that P2X1, P2X7, and P2Y1 receptors are involved in viral replication. We show that P2X1, but not P2X7 or P2Y1, is necessary for HIV entry into macrophages. We demonstrate that interaction of the HIV surface protein gp120 with macrophages stimulates an increase in ATP release. Thus, we propose that HIV's binding to macrophages triggers a local release of ATP that stimulates purinergic receptors and facilitates HIV entry and subsequent stages of viral replication. Our data implicate a novel role for a family of host proteins in HIV replication in macrophages and suggest new therapeutic targets to reduce the devastating consequences of HIV infection and AIDS.


Introduction Painful cutaneous ulcers are a clinical challenge as the pain can be difficult to control, frequently requiring a combination of pharmacological and non-pharmacological measures. There is evidence suggesting topical opioid application might be efficacious in the management of painful cutaneous ulcers, however this is largely based on case reports. Methods A series of clinical and laboratory studies were undertaken to determine the utility of opioids applied topically to painful cutaneous ulcers, these included surveys of hospice admissions to determine the prevalence of painful ulcers and the effective dose of topical opioid; a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover trial design to assess the utility of morphine/IntraSite gel mixture, HPLC analysis to determine the mixture's bioavailability and physical stability, and microbiological studies to determine its microbiological stability. Results A survey of 323 hospice admissions over a two-year period identified 125 patients with 221 ulcers, mostly caused by either pressure (183 ulcers) or trauma (25); 147 (67%) of all ulcers were painful. Compared to placebo, morphine/IntraSite mixture was more efficacious; it was safe and well tolerated in this population. Morphine applied topically appears to have an analgesic effect even at low doses of morphine irrespective of background analgesic medication. HPLC analyses suggested morphine and its metabolites might be detectable in the plasma of patients with large ulcers, but only at low concentrations. In addition morphine/IntraSite gel mixture was physically and, under certain storage conditions, microbiologically stable for 28 days allowing the mixture to be prepared and stored before use. Conclusions The studies confirmed that painful cutaneous ulcers are a significant clinical problem in hospice patients and that morphine/IntraSite mixture can be used safely and effectively in this patient group. Bioavailability studies support the possibility that the opioid analgesic effect is local rather than systemic, and stability studies show the morphine/IntraSite combination, once mixed, can be stored for up to 28 days, allowing the mixture to be prepared and stored before use. Given that ulcers can vary in aetiology, size, severity and temporal characteristics of pain, an individualised titration protocol is recommended. Further research is required to confirm and extend these findings to other ulcers and clinical settings.


This article explores the dimensions of law students' schoolwork-related preferences and discusses an empirical assessment of those preferences. The assessment revealed two findings: (1) a positive correlation between students' schoolwork-related preferences and their first-year law school cumulative grade point average (LGPA); and (2) students' schoolwork-related preferences significantly enhanced the predictive power of the traditional law school success predictors, law students' LSAT performance and their undergraduate cumulative grade point average (UGPA). During spring 2014, 215 law students responded to a survey that included questions from the Multidimensional Work Ethic Profile (MWEP) and Work Drive Inventory. Analysis of the responses indicated that while the students' high LSAT and UGPA explained eighteen percent of their LGPA, the students' Work Drive, LSAT and UGPA explained twenty-eight percent of the students' thirty-hour LGPA. The article concludes with a discussion of the significance of these findings and their impact on legal education.


As a student, an educator, and, now, as an instructional designer, I have always been
interested in how individuals relate to each other when they attempt to work together. It
appeared to me that, more often, the road to a finished product was paved with conflict when
individuals had to work together. But what was the cause of this conflict, I often wondered?
Online learning's exponential growth and my extended experiences in working with teams in this
new learning environment added to my perplexity and encouraged me to systematically study
this topic. The purpose of this thesis was to study learning styles as a factor influencing group
development in an online learning environment. It specifically examined how an individual
group member's learning style influences his/her group development process during online
learning as well as how an individual group member's learning style contributes to the
development of the group itself during online learning. The results of the literature review
pointed to lack of a consensus on matching a learner's learning style with an environment similar
to his/her own preference for learning. The analysis of four groups' interactions in an online
class for a course of one semester suggested that learning style of the individual does not seem to
affect the progression of the group given a sequential stage development model.


This demo will showcase LifeJoin, a system that collects raw sensor data from phones and laptop computers to generate interesting events. Given the raw sensor data, LifeJoin implements a number of activity recognition algorithms to generate higher-level events. Furthermore, it uses supervised learning techniques to learn from users' feedback to generate only events of interest. In this demo, the audience will get to interact with the LifeJoin system and be able to examine the internals of LifeJoin.


Big data applications allow people looking for insurances to find communities of peers and secure each other in new ways. This paper presents insights from a multiple case study of existing peer-to-peer solutions in the context of insurance offered on the internet. It analyses different levels on which peer-to-peer interaction is implemented, from technical in-frastructure to contract agreements and community management. Results show that peer-to-peer solutions in the context of insurance are still in an early stage, but have potential to dis-rupt conventional insurance business, as they change the bargaining situation and allow the design of hybrid offerings to secure practices in which financial coverage is only one out of many aspects.


Nanomechanical spectroscopy (NMS) is a recently developed approach to determine optical absorption spectra of nanoscale materials via mechanical measurements. It is based on measuring changes in the resonance frequency of a membrane resonator vs. the photon energy of incoming light. This method is a direct measurement of absorption, which has practical advantages compared to common optical spectroscopy approaches. In the case of two-dimensional (2D) materials, NMS overcomes limitations inherent to conventional optical methods, such as the complications associated with measurements at high magnetic fields and low temperatures. In this work, we develop a protocol for NMS of 2D materials that yields two orders of magnitude improved sensitivity compared to previous approaches, while being simpler to use. To this end, we use mechanical sample actuation, which simplifies the experiment and provides a reliable calibration for greater accuracy. Additionally, the use of low-stress silicon nitride membranes as our substrate reduces the noise-equivalent power to NEP=890 fW Hz−1 , comparable to commercial semiconductor photodetectors. We use our approach to spectroscopically characterize a 2D transition metal dichalcogenide (WS2), a layered magnetic semiconductor (CrPS4), and a plasmonic super-crystal consisting of gold nanoparticles.


Little is known about whether and to what extent the outcome of subsidized and non-subsidized R&D projects differ. In this paper we exploit a novel dataset of patent applications filed in Germany between 1995-2005, which allows us to identify if a patent application stems from a subsidized project or not. We use a variety of patent indicators to elucidate to what extent successful subsidized and non-subsidized R&D projects within the same firm differ. Results show that patent applications from subsidized R&D projects have a higher private value, are more often co-applied, more general, but less original, and have larger inventor teams when compared to all other patent applications filed by the same firms. These differences seem to reflect that thematic R&D programs aim to support collaborative R&D projects that have an immediate economic utilization of results.


Various on-the-road situations can make additional demands on the driver that go beyond the basic demands of driving. Thereby, they influence the appropriateness of in-vehicle input modalities to operate secondary tasks in the car. In this work, we assess the specific impacts of situational demands on gaze, gesture and speech input regarding driving performance, interaction efficiency and subjective ratings. An experiment with 29 participants in a driving simulator revealed significant interactions between situational demands and the input modality on secondary task completion times, perceived suitability and cognitive workload. Impairments were greatest when the situational demand addressed the same sensory channel as the used input modality. This was reflected differently in objective and subjective data depending on the used input modality. With this work, we explore the performance of natural input modalities across different situations and thereby support interaction designers that plan to integrate these modalities in automotive interaction concepts.


The aim of this study was to conduct an investigation into the bacterial diversity in the freshwater-deprived Kariega Estuary, situated along the Eastern Cape coastline, using ribosomal RNA gene sequences obtained by pyrosequencing. Shifts in the microbial diversity were correlated to selected physico-chemical variables along the length of the estuary. More than 27 000 sequences were obtained and rarefaction analyses confirmed a comprehensive appraisal of the microbial diversity present in the Kariega Estuary. Distinct patterns in phylotype distribution from the hypersaline upper reaches to the mouth of the estuary were observed; notably, the importance of the detrital food web within the Kariega Estuary was highlighted by the high occurrence of Bacteroidetes and Actinomycetes. Moreover, while the observed chlorophyll-a concentrations were low (< 0.1 ig..-1), the presence of Pelagibacter and Flavobacteria amongst the microbial community suggests a potentially important contribution of these microbes towards the total primary productivity of the ecosystem. No human pathogenic microbes were detected within waters of the system. We conclude that pyrosequencing provides a versatile and efficient tool for assessing the microbial diversity in the Kariega Estuary and propose that this technology may provide valuable information on the ecosystem functioning and health of aquatic ecosystems.


This casebook contains the fundamentals for a lively, contemporary course in elder law. It emphasizes illustrative factual cases and statutes, and is supported by materials from elder law practitioners and statistical data. It is distinctive in its emphasis upon state and federal court decisions, not simply recitation of statutory provisions. Elder law is of burgeoning historical and social importance. Statistics indicate that by 2030 almost one-fifth of all Americans will be 65 or older. Among the legal issues pertinent to an aging population are estate planning objectives in the context of possible incapacity, integrating nonprobate and probate transfers, asset protection planning, philanthropy and dynasty options, and beneficial tax planning. Recently enacted statutes provide guidance in personal health care decision-making and designating guardians and surrogates to exercise authority when needed. And clients and institutions require legal assistance to navigate federal benefits such as Medicare, Social Security, Veterans Benefits, and the interaction of state-federal Medicaid opportunities. Statistics also indicate that almost two-thirds of all individuals over age 65 will need some form of long-term care. For many, the choices will involve home care or some form of institutional care, with payment derived from private funds, insurance, or government assistance. All of these options will involve legal parameters.


Immersive Analytics is an emerging interdisciplinary research area that investigates the use of nontraditional display and input technology to immerse users in their data. A prominent aspect this research investigates is "immersive data visualization", which uses augmented and virtual reality technology to visually immerse users in their data to facilitate collaboration, exploration and understanding. Currently, there is a lack of simple tools to build interactive data visualizations in immersive environments. The de facto approach is to use off-the-shelf game engines because they allow easy prototyping of 3D user interfaces in these immersive environments. However, game engines do not consider the specialized requirements of data visualization, such as the type and structure of datasets, the breadth of data, especially in the age of "big data", and typical information visualization tasks. IATK: Immersive Analytics Toolkit is an open source visualization toolkit for the Unity game engine that fills this gap. Specifically, IATK: supports an infovis pipeline for virtual and augmented reality environments; visualizes large (up to 1 million) data points at an optimal framerate for immersive applications; and, provides a technology-agnostic model for user interactions with immersive visualizations. This tutorial will introduce participants to the Unity game engine and teach practical skills for implementing immersive data visualisations using IATK.


A single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) is an abundant form of genome sequence variation comprising single base pair alternatives represented at a population frequency of more than 1%. SNPs contribute greatly to the genetic basis of phenotypic variation in ways yet to be fully understood.

Keywords:

genome;
variation;
polymorphism;
allele;
haplotype


1H NMR Spectroscopy is widely used technique, but until recently was of limited practical importance in pharmaceutical and chemical education. Teaching1H NMR spectroscopy remains a challenge in all the chemistry labs, as the number of facts obtained from each experiment is easily overwhelming for the students. We developed four different experimental settings for the undergraduates which connect interdisciplinary problem-solving approaches with the hands-on experience in NMR. The set of the experiments consists of amino acids identification, logP value determination, quantitative determination of the marketed over the counter drugs, and pKa value determination. We could show that our approach to teach NMR has significantly improved the understanding of the technique among our students.


Once upon a time there was a Britain where cakes and ale were considered nutritious and healthy. Late Victorian and Edwardian fleshy figures were further fattened with rich fruit loaf, and ailing ladies imbibed milk stout as a tonic. These were pleasures brought by a new industrial age and the mass-production of food and drink. "Cakes and Ale" is a cultural history of a turn-of-the-century era of feasting, when the first domestic goddesses began cooking in their own kitchens but servants were still on hand for many to mix drinks at glamorous parties. An affluent and leisured new middle class was keen to impress, and working people could enjoy an unprecedented variety of foods and drinks.Manufacturers responded with the glorious printed advertisements and seductive images that illustrate this book and speak volumes about the contemporary social scene. In whisky and beer advertisements gentlemen sport top hats and working men flat caps, Scotsmen always wear kilts and butlers a wily smile. Blazoned alongside them are the plays-on-words that amused and persuaded their audiences. Cookery books were suddenly widely available, with pictures of bowls of punch, crusty pork pies and towering jellies and blancmanges to emulate for seasonal meals. We are what we eat - and drink - and always were. "Cakes and Ale" discovers the lives, the habits and the humour of the Victorians and Edwardians through their sheer enjoyment of feasting.


We present a new method of volumetric interferometer, which is intended to measure the three-dimensional coordinates of a moving object in a simultaneous way with a single optical setup. The method is based on the principles of phase-measuring interferometry with phase shifting. Two diffraction point sources, which are made of the polished ends of single-mode optical fibers are embedded on the object. Two spherical wavefronts emanate from the diffraction point sources and interfere with each other within the measurement volume. One wavefront is phase-shifted by elongating the corresponding fiber using a PZT extender. A CCD array sensor fixed at the stationary measurement station detects the resulting interference field. The measured phases are then related to the three-dimensional location of the object with a set of non-liner equations of Euclidean distance, from which the complete set of three-dimensional spatial coordinates of the object is determined through rigorous numerical computation based upon the least square error minimization.


There are as yet few studies of the hydrogeology of sulphide-mining districts in
wet, temperate, mountainous areas of the world. This is despite the importance of
understanding the influence of hydrogeology on the evolution and management of
environmental issues such as acid mine drainage (AMD). There is a need to
determine whether the special climatic and geological features of such districts result
in distinct groundwater behaviours and compositions which need to be considered in
mining impact studies.
The present study addresses this information gap by broadly delineating the
groundwater regime within the temperate Rosebery catchment, western Tasmania,
Australia. The mountainous Rosebery catchment contains the large, active,
underground, polymetallic Rosebery mine, based on a sulphide deposit hosted in the
Cambrian Mount Read Volcanics. Rainfall in the Rosebery region far exceeds
evapotranspiration and supports a dense cover of vegetation. The Rosebery
groundwater system provides an example of an area in which groundwater
management and hydrogeological research is in its infancy, as it is in many regions
with similar settings.
Although the area has been glaciated historically, mine data, particularly rock
quality designator (RQD) values, provides clear evidence of: (i) a weathering induced
increase in permeability within 100 m of the natural ground surface; (ii) an increased
permeability associated with shear zones and faults; and (iii) beyond a depth of 100
m, a uniform decrease in permeability with depth below the ground surface. Insights
into groundwater flow have been provided by qualitative and quantitative
observations of piezometric level in 29 exploration drillholes, 8 piezometers,
discharging groundwaters, and surface water flow monitoring points. Together piezometric heads, flow rates, and calculated material properties have provided the
framework for developing a conceptual model of the groundwater regime within the
Rosebery catchment. The groundwater flow system is typified by a deep fractured
aquifer (which contain the mine voids), overlain by surficial glacial deposits and
weathered material. Significant interaction between surface waters and groundwater
was observed throughout the catchment. Geochemistry provided support for
conceptual flows and justification of the modelling approaches.
Potential acid-generating and neutralising minerals were identified by examining
whole-rock geochemistry. The net acid generation and acid consuming potential of
Rosebery materials were quantified. The results indicated that mined materials at
Rosebery have the potential to produce a significant volume of acid mine drainage.
At the Rosebery mine, metal contaminated waters originate from localised point
sources of sulphides, such as tailings dams, waste rock, and mine workings. Waters
are contaminated by AMD, resulting in elevated levels of H2SO4 as well as the
elements Pb, Zn, Cu, Fe, Mn, Mg Cd, Al, and Ca. The Mg content of AMD indicates
that neutralisation is occurring, most likely through the dissolution of the hypogene
minerals chlorite, ankerite, and dolomite. Although background surface waters and
contaminated mine waters are acidic, regionally the groundwaters sampled are nearneutral.
The quantification of the important flows in the conceptual model of the
Rosebery catchment allows the construction of a water balance, which provides a
reasonable estimation of annual flows. The average precipitation rate across the
catchment is estimated at 8.4 m3/s. The water budget for the Rosebery catchment is:
(i) 42% of precipitation runs off to become true surface water flow (including
interflow); (ii) 24% of precipitation is lost to evapotranspiration; (iii) 17% of precipitation becomes groundwater and is discharged as baseflow into creeks and
rivers within the catchment; and (iv) 18% remains as groundwater discharging into
the regional groundwater system outside of the catchment or into the Pieman River
system. The water balance highlights the importance of groundwater in the
catchment, with a groundwater to surface water flow rate ratio of 1:1.2. The water
balance was applied to three scenarios: (i) a quantification of the contribution of the
open pit to underground flows; (ii) the filling of the southern exploration decline; and
(iii) the filling of the mine after decommissioning. This work indicated that the open
cut makes only a minor contribution to underground water flow and that the mine is
expected to fill to a decant point after six years.
A steady-state, 3D numerical groundwater flow MODFLOW model with a
geometry representative of the hydrogeologic environment around the Rosebery mine
and surrounding catchment was produced. To satisfactorily represent the dual aquifer
system, deep fracture flow on a regional scale was represented by a continuum
approach to couple with true porous media flow (and shallow fracture flow) in the
near surface aquifer. The groundwater model was calibrated to the local observations
and water balance to represent the mine whilst in operation. A predictive closure
scenario was undertaken using the calibrated model in a non-operational state by
eliminating pumping to simulate a flooded mine. Particle tracking was used to plot
potential contaminant flow pathways from the mine in the Rosebery catchment.
Numerical modelling identified that the potential hydrogeological area of influence of
the mine was chiefly controlled by the topography of the host catchment. The
topographically-driven western flows off Mount Black are redirected south, primarily
by the conduits of the mine workings. Conceptualisation of the groundwater regime
improved using computer generated 3D visualisation, and through the numerical modelling exercise. The numerical modelling suggested that the potential area of
discharge for contaminated mine waters is far more limited in extent than was
previously believed by mine personnel. This area is limited to: (i) areas along the Stitt
River and Rosebery Creeks, which are already experiencing significant acid mine
drainage contamination; and (ii) a very limited area south and north of the Pieman
River's confluence with the Stitt River. The implications of understanding the area of
potential influence are: (i) resources for future monitoring investigations can be
focussed in this discrete area; (ii) the scale of future modelling efforts can be
restricted to this area, improving detail and limiting computational requirements; and
(iii) background monitoring beyond this area can be used to further test the model and
provide data for future model calibration and validation.
The present study at Rosebery has wider implications for researching
groundwater in wet temperate mountainous sulphide mining terrains. The
characteristic feature of such terrains is the local spatial variation in precipitation,
evapotranspiration, and therefore recharge. Estimating a representative recharge
remains the pivotal quantification for undertaking groundwater investigations in such
climates. The significant interaction of surface waters and the groundwater system in
wet, temperate, mountainous environments requires modelling to be capable of
accounting for this interaction.
Surface water and groundwater interactions present an opportunity to investigate
the groundwater regime at the surface and near surface in shallow drillholes. Gauging
stream flow for baseflow contribution provides important quantification of
groundwater flow where suitable drillhole flow data is scarce, a common state in
mined settings. Mine outflows also provide an important quantification of groundwater flow on a large scale. The present study proposed a method for
amalgamating these data which is applicable in other similar environments.
The challenges encountered in the present study provide insight into planning
for similar mining projects. Prior to the present study, there was no general
knowledge of the groundwater patterns of the region, and no clear idea of whether the
Rosebery mine had an influence on the regional groundwater regime. There was no
historical information of the type that is usually associated with groundwater resource
investigations, and the nature of exploration drillholes meant that some typical
groundwater research methodologies were not practical at Rosebery. This resulted in
the investigation taking a different research approach compared to that typically used
for groundwater evaluation in, for instance, agricultural districts.
Although the present study attempted to endure without standard
hydrogeological data, there remains a significant gap in the reliabilty of the
modelling. This is a situation that faces most mines nearing closure, when cash flow
is likely to be reduced. Time-series piezometric levels, and a larger hydraulic
property dataset were the key gaps identified in the present study. Appropriate
budgeting for the acquisition of such information should be considered a priority for
groundwater investigations of wet, temperate, sulphide-mining districts elsewhere.


Although the analytical performance of the diffusive gradients in thin films (DGT) technique is well investigated, there is no systematic analysis of the DGT measurement uncertainty and its sources. In this study we determine the uncertainties of bulk DGT measurements (not considering labile complexes) and of DGT-based chemical imaging using laser ablation - inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. We show that under well-controlled experimental conditions the relative combined uncertainties of bulk DGT measurements are ∼10% at a confidence interval of 95%. While several factors considerably contribute to the uncertainty of bulk DGT, the uncertainty of DGT LA-ICP-MS mainly depends on the signal variability of the ablation analysis. The combined uncertainties determined in this study support the use of DGT as a monitoring instrument. It is expected that the analytical requirements of legal frameworks, for example, the EU Drinking Water Directive, are met by DGT sampling.


Throughout this thesis, we are concerned with filling some of the gaps in the literature concerning parametric and semiparametric Whittle estimation of long-run and/or cyclical persistence in economic time series. In Chapter 2, we consider local Whittle estimation, and without relying on the assumption of a linear model, we establish sufficient conditions for consistency and provide expansions and rate of convergence for the estimator. In Chapter 3, we apply the results of Chapter 2 to examine the local Whittle estimator for the signal plus noise model and some special cases of it: structural model, nonlinear transformations of a Gaussian process, and long memory stochastic volatility model. Under these specifications, we establish the asymptotic properties of the estimator, and raise several issues concerning its rate of convergence and finite sample bias. In Chapter 4, we employ Monte-Carlo simulations to investigate the finite sample properties of the local Whittle estimator under the linear and nonlinear specifications of Chapters 2 and 3. Furthermore, we apply local Whittle estimation to expected and realized inflation rates, nominal and real interest rates, and transformations of foreign exchange rate returns, in order to assess their long-run persistence and address several issues that have appeared in the empirical literature. Finally, Chapter 5 presents two testing procedures, based on the parametric Whittle method, for the null hypothesis of no persistent component in the data. We derive the asymptotic properties of our test statistics, and moreover introduce and validate a bootstrap scheme for calculating their critical values. A Monte-Carlo study of the finite sample performance of our testing procedures, and an empirical application on the growth rate of industrial production and unemployment rate are also included.


The beam energy scan (BES) program at the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) was extended to energies below sNN=7.7 GeV in 2015 by successful implementation of the fixed-target mode of operation in the STAR (Solenoidal Tracker At RHIC) experiment. In this mode, ions circulate in one ring of the collider and interact with a stationary target at the entrance of the STAR time projection chamber. The first results for Au+Au collisions at sNN=4.5 GeV are presented, demonstrating good performance of all the relevant detector subsystems in fixed-target mode. Results presented here include directed and elliptic flow of identified hadrons, and radii from pion femtoscopy. The latter, together with recent HADES results, reveal a long-sought peak structure that may be caused by the system evolving through a first-order phase transition from quark-gluon plasma to the hadronic phase. Directed and elliptic flow for pions are presented for the first time at this beam energy. Pion and proton elliptic flow show behavior which hints at constituent quark scaling, and demonstrate that a definitive conclusion will be achievable using the full statistics of the ongoing second phase of BES (BES-II). In particular, BES-II to date has recorded fixed-target data sets with two orders of magnitude more events at each of nine energies between sNN=3.0 and 7.7 GeV.


Considered one of the most endangered cetacean species, the North Atlantic right whale Eubalaena glacialis suffered declining abundance during the 1990s due to a high rate of anthropogenic-associated mortality and a low rate of reproduction. Previous studies have sug- gested that the reproductive rate is tightly coupled to the abundance of Calanus finmarchicus in the Gulf of Maine (GOM), which has been shown to respond to ecosystem regime shifts associated with decadal-scale climate forcing from the Arctic. Given the endangered status of the right whale population, it is vital to determine how climate-associated changes in prey availability will affect this species in the future. Here, we investigate a 3-state reproduction model that explores multiple environmental proxies as potential predictors of annual calf production during the period from 1980 to 2007. The model achieves its best fit to observations using temporally and spatially resolved C. finmarchicus abundance data derived from Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) sur- veys of the GOM. Building on previous research, this prey-dependent model, which uses bi- monthly and geographically specific abundance anomalies of C. finmarchicus, significantly improves estimates of annual calf production relative to a null model. The temporal and geo- graphic distributions of prey objectively chosen for inclusion in the new version of the model cor- respond well with observed right whale seasonal distribution patterns, providing further evidence that the model captures essential features of right whale reproductive ecology.


Lipophilic dialkylated-a-, β- and γ-cyclodextrin derivatives were used as selective ionophores for a series of clinically relevant ammonium ions, and as enantioselective ionophores for both a- and β-aryl ammonium ions. Sensitive and selective potentiometric detection of the local anaesthetics lidocaine and bupivacaine was achieved by using 2,3,6 trioctyl-β-cyclodextrin as the ionophore, leading to micromolar detection limits. Interference studies showed that the simulated clinical electrolyte background caused minimal interference whereas organic interferents of similar size and charge caused some perturbation of the electrode response at a concentration of 10 mmol dm(^-3). An electrode comprising a plasticized biocompatible membrane matrix, TECOFLEX, with 2,6 didodecyl-β-cyclodextrin was incorporated in a flow injection analysis system and the response to lidocaine studied in the presence of human serum. Human serum caused no adverse effects to the electrochemical response of the electrode. These electrodes are, therefore, very suitable for on-line detection of local anaesthetics. Potentiometric detection of tricyclic antidepressants using didodecyl-a-, β- and γ- cyclodextrins as the ionophore, gave micromolar detection limits. Interference from simulated clinical electiolyte background and selected organic interferents gave similar results to those discussed above. In order to lower the detection limit to sub-nanomolar levels modified amperometric electrodes were assembled by depositing a membrane comprising plasticised TECOFLEX, 2,3,6 triethyl-β-cyclodextrin and TKB on the working electrode of a screen printed electrode. Lipophilic 2,6 didodecyl-a- and β-cyclodextrins exhibited enantiomeric discrimination in the binding of propranolol, ephedrine, amphetamine and methamphetamine. These results were confirmed using potentiometric and NMR techniques.


What is the relationship between trade and current account openness and growth? Can a catching-up economy borrow like Argentina or Spain and grow like China? To address these questions, we develop a model of endogenous converge growth, which we study under various policy regimes regarding trade and capital account openness. In the model, entrepreneurs adopt heterogenous projects based on their profitability. Trade openness has two effects on the relative profitability of tradable projects. First, the foreign competition effect unambiguously discourages tradable innovation. Second, the relative market size effect may favor or discourage tradable innovation. We show that balanced trade ensures that the two effects exactly offset each other, while trade deficits unambiguously favor non-tradable innovation. The increase in domestic consumption associated with international borrowing results in a relative market size effect that reinforces the foreign competition effect to discourage tradable innovation, as well as the aggregate innovation rate and the pace of productivity convergence. We further show that net exports relative to domestic absorption is a sufficient statistic for the feedback effect from aggregate allocation into sectoral productivity growth, and we find empirical support for the predictions of the model in the panel of sectoral productivity growth rates in OECD countries. A sudden stop in capital flows during the transition phase results simultaneously in a recession due to a fall in local demand and a sharp rebound in tradable productivity growth, provided the labor market can adjust flexibly via a sharp decline in the wage rate.


Gas separation is one of the most critical and challenging steps for industrial processes, and metal–organic framework (MOF) membranes are potential candidates for this application. This review mainly focuses on the recent advances in improving the performance of MOF membranes, involving the issues faced with MOF designation and growth for practical applications. First, we discussed three strategies for permeability and selectivity enhancement of MOF membranes, in terms of obtaining ultra-thin two-dimensional (2D) MOF nanosheets, fine-tuning the pore size of the MOF framework and integrating with other species. Second, we reviewed the recent potential resolutions to the problems of MOF membranes for future practical applications including scale-up preparation and stability improvement. Finally, we summarized our work by providing some general conclusions on the state-of-the-art and an outlook on some development directions of molecule-sieving membranes.


Within the Western United States, agricultural and rural lands are being developed into commercial and residential areas. With changes in land use and increasing population, greater demands are placed on water resources for agricultural, industrial, and domestic supplies. Many areas in the Western United States rely exclusively on ground water as their source of drinking water. Areas that use surface-water resources often need to supplement this supply with ground water. Generally, shallow ground water is susceptible to fluctuating water quality within relatively short time scales and therefore can be used as an indicator of land-use stresses that may, in time, affect deep aquifer systems. This regional study examines data on shallow ground-water quality collected from 1993 to 2004 from 273 agricultural and 181 urban wells from 7 U.S. Geological Survey National Water-Quality Assessment study units in Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, south-central Colorado, and Utah. This report determines important influences that land-use practices may have on the quality of recently recharged ground water, which may ultimately affect deep water supplies within the region. The results of this investigation show that nitrate, the principal species of nitrogen present in ground water, exceeds the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) maximum contaminant level (MCL) of 10 milligrams per liter in water from more than 25 percent of agricultural wells and 10 percent of urban wells. In agricultural areas, the probability of exceeding the USEPA MCL for nitrate is influenced primarily by three factors: fertilizer use, irrigation, and aquifer oxidation-reduction (redox) conditions. At the study-unit level, differences in nutrient concentrations between agricultural and urban land use likely are influenced by ground-water redox conditions within respective aquifer systems. The most commonly detected pesticides belonged to the triazine, urea, amide, and carbamate classes. The triazine herbicides were the predominant pesticides present in both agricultural and urban areas. Simazine and diuron were most frequently detected in shallow ground water within agricultural areas, whereas atrazine, prometon, and tebuthiruon were more commonly detected in urban areas. The carbamate pesticides and the amide, metolachlor, were infrequently detected. Pesticide concentrations in shallow ground water within agricultural or urban land-use settings did not exceed established USEPA MCLs for drinking water. Generally, factors that influenced the detection of pesticides in shallow ground water in the regional area were dissolved oxygen, general soil permeability characteristics, temperature, and depth to screened interval. The most commonly detected volatile organic compounds (VOCs) within urban areas were the trihalomethanes (THMs), solvents, and the fuel oxygenate, methyl tert-butyl-ether (MTBE). The most frequently detected THM was chloroform and the primary detected solvents were tetrachloroethene (PCE) and trichloroethene (TCE). Soil fumigants were detected almost entirely within an agricultural area in the Central Valley of California. The predominant fumigant detected was dibromochloropropane (DBCP), and its occurrence may be a result of its persistence and past use as a soil fumigant. THM concentrations did not exceed the USEPA MCL of 80 micrograms per liter (μg/L) for total THMs in any sample. Two ground-water samples collected within urban areas in Nevada exceeded the USEPA MCL for TCE (5 μg/L) and the drinking-water advisory for MTBE (20-40 μg/L). The PCE concentration in one sample from the urban area in Utah and five samples from urban areas within Nevada exceeded the 5 μg/L MCL. An important factor affecting the detection frequencies of VOCs was the ground-water redox condition. Chloroform and PCE were detected more frequently in well-oxygenated ground water, whereas MTBE was detected more frequently in less-oxygenated water. Multivariate logistic-regression showed that dissolved oxygen, pH, and the percentage of industrial land use played important roles in the detection frequency of a number of VOCs present in groundwater samples. Effects of Agriculture and Urbanization on Quality of Shallow Ground Water in the Arid to Semiarid Western United States, 1993–2004 By Angela P. Paul, Ralph L. Seiler, Timothy G. Rowe, and Michael R. Rosen


Many cell types use AMPK (AMP-activated protein kinase) to signal that energy reserves are low so more energy generation is needed. But, say Tamas et al. on page 1665, T cells also use AMPK to signal that energy will be needed in the near future, for attacking target cells, proliferating or churning out cytokines.

Figure 1

AMPK gets phosphorylated (and thus activated) after TCR ligation (α-CD3) in primary T cells.

When cellular energy is in short supply—due, for example, to nutrient deficiency or metabolic stress—rising levels of AMP and falling levels of ATP trigger the activation of AMPK. AMPK then activates ATP-generating pathways, such as fatty acid oxidation. Tamas and colleagues now show that this pathway is also activated in T cells when their energy reserves dwindle. This is the first demonstration of physiological AMPK regulation in T cells.

But T cells turned on AMPK not only in response to falling energy levels but also in anticipation of upcoming energy needs. "If a T cell fluxes calcium," says senior author Doreen Cantrell, "it is indicating that it is about to activate and will need ATP." And this Ca2+ flux, they found, triggered the activation of AMPK.

Ca2+-induced AMPK activation required upstream Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase kinases, which were not needed for AMPK activation in response to rising AMP/ATP ratios. PI3 kinase (PI3K)—an enzyme required for cytokine- and costimulation-induced energy generation in T cells—was also dispensable for AMPK activation. Determining the importance of the AMPK pathway, relative to these other energy-boosting pathways, awaits the development of conditional AMPK-deficient mice.


In this paper, we introduce a family of scalable interconnection network topologies, named Recursive Cube of Rings (RCR), which are recursively constructed by adding ring edges to a cube. RCRs possess many desirable topological properties in building scalable parallel machines, such as fixed degree, small diameter, wide bisection width, symmetry, fault tolerance, etc. We first examine the topological properties of RCRs. We then present and analyze a general deadlock-free routing algorithm for RCRs. Using a complete binary tree embedded into an RCR with expansion-cost approximating to one, an efficient broadcast routing algorithm on RCRs is proposed. The upper bound of the number of message passing steps in one broadcast operation on a general RCR is also derived.


This paper describes the increase in the extinction ratio (ER) of an optical signal achieved by using a semiconductor saturable absorption device (SAD). We investigate a method for optimizing the SAD length in order to increase the ER, where we deal with the SAD characteristics phenomenologically. We then undertake a theoretical analysis of the bit error rate dependence on the ER increase. We clarify experimentally that by using a SAD with an effective length of 350 , the ER of the output optical signals from an uncooled directly modulated light source can be increased from 6.8 to 8.2 dB and, thus, conform to the synchronous optical network/synchronous digital hierarchy standard.


Open Research aims to make research more accessible, transparent, reproducible, shared and collaborative. Doing so is meant to democratize and diversify access to knowledge and knowledge production, and ensure that research is useful outside of academic contexts. Increasing equity is therefore a key aim of the Open Research movement, yet mounting evidence demonstrates that the practices of Open Research are implemented in ways that undermine this. In response, we convened a diverse community of researchers, research managers and funders to co-create actionable recommendations for supporting the equitable implementation of Open Research. Using a co-creative modified Delphi method, we generated consensus-driven recommendations that address three key problem areas: the resource-intensive nature of Open Research, the high cost of article processing charges, and obstructive reward and recognition practices at funders and research institutions that undermine the implementation of Open Research. In this paper, we provide an overview of these issues, a detailed description of the co-creative process, and present the recommendations and the debates that surrounded them. We discuss these recommendations in relation to other recently published ones and conclude that implementing ours requires 'global thinking' to ensure that a systemic and inclusive approach to change is taken.


Spandrel elements in unreinforced brick masonry buildings with timber floors consist of a masonry spandrel supported by either a timber lintel or a masonry arch. When subjected to seismic loading, the force-deformation relationship of such spandrel elements can be described by a piecewise linear relationship which distinguishes two principal regimes: The first regime describes the behaviour up to peak strength of a largely uncracked spandrel. The second regime is associated with a residual strength mechanism after the formation of major cracks in the spandrel. The residual strength of brick masonry spandrels is often less than 80% of their peak strength. Hence, according to established rules in seismic engineering for estimating the ultimate drift capacity of structural members, the residual strength would typically be neglected when assessing the seismic behaviour of existing buildings. However, the residual strength mechanism is typically associated with a rather large deformation capacity and it is therefore argued that it should be considered. Moreover, small cracks due to, for example, previous earthquakes or differential foundation settlements might reduce the peak strength of the spandrel but will have little influence on its residual strength. This paper discusses on the basis of experimental and numerical results the different limit states of brick masonry spandrels subjected to seismic loading, which characterise the two regimes and the ultimate rotation capacity of the spandrel.


Motion planning for constrained systems is a version of the motion planning problem in which the motion of a robot is limited by constraints. For example, one can require that a humanoid robot such as a PR2 remain upright by constraining its torso to be above its base or require that an object such as a bucket of water remain upright by constraining the vertices of the object to be parallel to the robot's base. Grasping can be modeled by requiring that the end effectors of the robot be located at specified handle positions. Constraints might require that the robot remain in contact with a surface, or that certain joints of the robot remain in contact with each other (e.g., closed chains). Such problems are particularly difficult because the constraints form a manifold in C-space, and planning must be restricted to this manifold. High-degree-of-freedom motion planning and motion planning for constrained systems has applications in parallel robotics, grasping and manipulation, computational biology and molecular simulations, and animation. We introduce a new concept, reachable volumes, that are a geometric representation of the regions the joints and end effectors of a robot can reach, and use it to define a new planning space called RV-space where all points automatically satisfy a problem's constraints. Visualizations of reachable volumes can enable operators to see the regions of workspace that different parts of the robot can reach. Samples and paths generated in RV-space naturally conform to constraints, making planning for constrained systems no more difficult than planning for unconstrained systems. Consequently, constrained motion planning problems that were previously difficult or unsolvable become manageable and in many cases trivial. We introduce tools and techniques to extend the state-of-the-art sampling-based motion planning algorithms to RV-space. We define a reachable volumes sampler, a reachable volumes local planner, and a reachable volumes distance metric. We showcase the effectiveness of RV-space by applying these tools to motion planning problems for robots with constraints on the end effectors and/or internal joints of the robot. We show that RV-based planners are more efficient than existing methods, particularly for higher-dimensional problems, solving problems with 1000 or more degrees of freedom for multi-loop and tree-like linkages.


ProBono.Org hosted the second Pro Bono Awards Ceremony on 17 September. Advocates, attorneys, candidate attorneys, the press, community advice office paralegals and others gathered together at The Hill restaurant at Constitution Hill to celebrate the contribution lawyers are making to the poor and needy through pro bono work. Advocate Thuli Madonsela addressed the audience, stressing the imperative of placing the rule of law at the centre of societal peace and progress, saying that" access to justice, incorporating legal empowerment of the poor, is an essential part of the rule of law."


The Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.) organization was set up in 1966 by the artists Robert Rauschenberg and Robert Whitman, in association with the engineers Billy Klüver and Fred Waldhauer. Its purpose was to facilitate collaboration between artists, engineers, and scientists by producing art systems and projects outside the art sphere in a strictly defined sense. Between 1966 and 1970, E.A.T. was thus at the root of more than 600 joint projects in the United States and abroad, most of which, rightly or wrongly, are largely unknown. Billy Klüver and Julie Martin, the organization's last two directors, undertook the task of archiving their activities in a particularly conscientious way, classifying and preserving a collection of documents related to the production of projects that were the organization's brainchildren. They also worked toward developing these records, in particular through the making from the 1990s onward, of documentary films using hitherto unpublished archival documents. This work was undoubtedly affected by the emergence of a certain critical recognition by the art world, as gauged by the increase, in the 2000s, of works made and exhibitions held by exhibition curators, researchers, and art critics. Yet the partial use made of these archives makes it impossible to take the full measure of the organization. In fact, it inadequately reflects both the diversity and the proliferation of the structure's activities, including its systems and methods, its exhibitions and shows, its lectures and, not least, its publications—in other words, its complexity. The collaborative dimension of E.A.T.'s activities (often reduced to technical assistance schemes), of which the creation of systems is just the tip of the iceberg, adds to the problem. Elaborating a response to the seemingly simple question "What is E.A.T.?" therefore calls for the availability and collective use of a great deal of information related to the organization's many activities. Examined in this way, E.A.T. emerges as an exemplary case study for the burgeoning fields of digital humanities and design alike. Based on this case, it is actually possible to identify, within areas of aesthetics, of art history and social art history, new, practical ways of making use of archives not only by providing access to digitized resources, but also—especially—by focusing on the organization of these resources so as to provide answers to issues raised by the scholars engaged in these different disciplines and in the areas where they overlap.


The aspect of sustainability of ferroalloy processes has long been a serious matter for consideration in many of the world's industrialized countries. A number of countries can be named where ferroalloy plants that were once flourishing, have all but disappeared. One of the most important factors playing a role in this type of occurrence is the cost and availability of quality raw materials. Given that all natural resources will be depleted with time, users are compelled to develop new processes that are sustainable in the changing environment. The DC Arc Smelting Furnace is one such process that has proved itself, and has gained increasing popularity over the past two decades. This process, amongst other benefits, directly addresses the use of more readily available and more affordable raw materials in ferroalloy production. Since early in the new millennium, GLPS has been involved in various studies for different clients with regards to furnaces for the production of ferroalloys. Two of these recent studies have culminated in the design, construction and commissioning of DC arc furnaces for the production of ferrochrome. One of these furnaces is a 10 MW unit at Mogale Alloys, and the other a 60 MW unit at the Middelburg Plant of Samancor Chrome. This paper discusses the approach taken in the design and construction of these two furnaces, which, although varying significantly in size and capacity, are very similar in many other aspects of their design.


Characterized by atypical frontalmost appendages, leanchoiliids are early arthropods whose phylogenetic placement has been much debated. Morphological interpretations have differed, some of which concern critical characters such as the number of eyes and head appendages, but methodological approaches also have diverged. Here, we describe a new leanchoiliid, Yawunik kootenayi gen. et sp. nov., based on 42 specimens from the newly discovered Marble Canyon locality of the Burgess Shale (Kootenay National Park, British Columbia; middle Cambrian). This new morphotype demonstrates the presence of a four‐segmented head in leanchoiliids, along with two small antero‐median eyes in addition to lateral eyes. Yawunik is characterized by a 12‐segmented trunk and a carinate, lanceolate telson adorned with minute spines. The 'great appendages' of the animal bear teeth on their two distal rami, which would have enhanced their ability to grasp prey. Attitudes of specimens, resulting from burial at multiple aspects of bedding, suggest the 'great appendages' were flexible and capable of antero‐posterior rotation. We also discuss the nature of intersegmental tissues and filaments present within the 'great appendages'. Our phylogenetic analyses extend the monophyly of leanchoiliids to include Haikoucaris and Yohoia in a new clade, the Cheiromorpha nom. nov. (within Heptopodomera nom. nov.). Other nodes are poorly resolved unless implied weights are used, and in this case, the topology is critically sensitive to the coding prerogative of inapplicable states (NAs). Both the traditional 'Arachnomorpha' hypothesis (NAs as additional states) and the more recently favoured 'Artiopoda + Crustacea' (NAs as uncertainties) were obtained using the same data set and outgroup. This result stresses, first, the historical importance of polarization over data content in scenarios of early arthropod evolution, and second, a pressing need to investigate the impacts of coding inapplicables, especially given the inflating effect of implied weights.


This thesis is an examination of left-wing activist contributions to the Aboriginal rights movement in Australia, with focus upon three important campaigns:
 > Pilbara pastoral walk-offs in Western Australia 1946 – 1949
> Protests about weapons testing programs in Central Australia 1946 – late 1950s
> Aboriginal walk-offs in the Northern Territory 1966 – early 1970s
Information gathered from a broad range of sources (including archival materials, government records, newspapers and participants in this activism) is presented in three mini-narratives. An eclectic assortment of characters features as campaigns progress from sheep stations, through deserts, to cattle stations. The issues in focus also shift, as conflicts over worker and human rights are overwhelmed by modern battleground disputes about lands and compensation.
The study highlights left-wing collaboration, within a much broader pressure group of activists and organisations throughout Australia, working to advance the rights of Aboriginal people. Union support for Aboriginal rights variously ebbed and flowed during the period under investigation, but communists maintained vigorous solidarity throughout. Left-wing activism during the campaigns manifested in many forms, including provision of industrial advocacy and financial support, coordination of protest meetings and marches, hands-on assistance for Aboriginal activist communities, and comprehensive publicity of the stories in left-wing newspapers and journals. Artistic representation of disputes also featured in left-wing poetry, drama, film, music, caricature and literature. Inclusion of this activism in art adds colour to a narrative based so centrally around the dark subject at the heart of the investigation: the intolerable treatment of Aboriginal peoples that these activists were determined to change. The activism occurred during an exceptional period of Australian political history, when union power was at its height, and passionate communist endeavours endured amidst relentless pressures of the Cold War. The Aboriginal rights movement, buoyed by white activist support, grew steadily until the late 1960s when the Black Power model of Aboriginal-driven rights activism evolved, then prevailed.
This study about three campaigns, in different regions of Australia across a time-span of nearly forty years, presents a compelling longitudinal examination of left-wing activism for Aboriginal rights. Activists established vital networks and mechanisms of support and exposure for Aboriginal people so adversely affected by the actions of pastoralists, governments and officials. Evidence presented in the thesis indicates that motivation for such ardent support emanated, in large part, from basic humanitarian desire to better others' lives.


When asking for donations, charitable organizations often suggest a potential amount to contribute. However, the evidence concerning the effects of such suggestions is scarce and inconsistent. Unlike the majority of earlier studies concerned with small-money solicitations, we examine the effect of larger nonbinding suggestions in the context of middle-range donations which are relevant in practice. In a randomized field experiment conducted in conjunction with the Bavarian State Opera, opera visitors received solicitation letters asking to support a social youth project organized by the opera house. The three different treatments were: no suggestion and suggestions of €100 and €200, respectively. Both suggestions were larger than average and median donations in this context. We find that suggested contribution levels substantially influence the distribution of donations actually received. The mean amounts given increase significantly if a suggestion is made. The increase is stronger in the €200 treatment. On the other hand, the participation rate decreases if a suggestion is made. Overall, the returns from the campaign increase non-significantly when a suggestion is made. The solicitation was repeated a year later, without any suggestion. There is weak evidence that suggestions have a long-term effect on individual contribution-level decisions.


Changes in Japanese security policy and institutions over the past decade and a half nullify cultural and institutionalist views of Japan's postwar pacifism. The boundary of the Self-Defense Force (SDF)'s activity-which had been understood exclusively as defending Japan's own territorial integrity-was expanded to UN peacekeeping activities in the early 1990s, and through a series of policy and institutional changes was expanded further to rear support for U.S. troops in regional contingencies and antiterrorist actions. These changes have been accompanied by significant shifts in Japanese attitudes on defense and security issues. Despite the public's fear of entrapment in war through the alliance relationship with the United States, most Japanese believe that Japan needs to strengthen its defense capability through closer military ties with its alliance partner, and that it is better to revise the peace constitution in order to legitimize the SDF and provide it with military flexibility. Key words: Japan, East Asian security, U.S.-Japan relations Dominant Views Postwar Japanese security norms and institutions generally have been regarded as being consistently pacifist. Based on his public opinion survey analysis from 1945 to 1984, for example, Bobrow maintained that Japanese security perceptions had been passive, with the nation relying on its alliance with the United States and pursuing military minimalism with no clear principles. 1 Since the end of World War II, the Japanese have embraced peace as the integral part of postwar democracy.2 Ikenberry and Kupchan argue that this resulted from socialization by a hegemonic power, the United States. During the post-World War II occupation, the United States was able to force the acquiescence of Germany and Japan through diffusion of a set of normative ideals of democratization and demilitarization and the internal reconstruction upholding these ideals.3 Both culturalists and institutionalists in the field of international relations argue for the continuity of Japanese security norms and the maintenance of Japan's postwar security policy, which allow only for a basic defense capability. Katzenstein finds that Japan has indeed kept to its passive and peace-oriented security policy, despite changes in material relations following the end of the cold war, precisely due to the consolidated anti-military culture. He points out that the anti-military culture has effectively limited Japanese government's security policy options, helped by Japanese procedural norms respecting a vocal minority such as radical pacifists.4 Berger also emphasizes that anti-military sentiments still bind post-cold war leaders of Japan and Germany so that, most recently, neither country could opt for participation in the coalition forces during the Gulf War despite belief in its desirability.5 Institutionalists take the general public policy structure to be more accountable for the continuity of security policy in Japan. Katzenstein and Okawara point out that bureaucratic control of the Japanese military and the decision-making process of public policy prioritizing economics have prevented the centralization of security policy and its autonomy. In addition, social isolation of the military and its lack of legitimacy in society make defense and security policy much weaker.6 Risse-Kappen classifies the Japanese security policy process as "quasi-corporatist," where major policy groups participate through institutionalized channels rather than seek broader political coalition.7 These groups tend to be much weaker, however, compared to those in other policy areas. Calder says defense policy remains an orphan in Japanese distributive politics since there are no visible interest groups representing defense policy and politicians specialized in defense issues generally do not draw popular support.8 Gradual but Substantial Changes in Japan's Security Policy The aforementioned arguments rightly point to the importance of identity, norms, and institutions in shaping national interest and security policy. …


The preparation of size- and shape-controlled nanoparticles has enabled the understanding of important nanoscale catalytic phenomena, resulting in the design of advanced catalysts with enhanced activities and selectivities. Metal phosphides have recently emerged as a promising class of non-precious metal catalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), which is a cornerstone in clean and environmentally benign hydrogen production. Although significant progress has been made in metal phosphide catalysts, the impact of the metal phosphide shape has not yet been explored. Herein, we investigated the shape-dependent electrocatalytic activity of nickel phosphide nanoparticles (Ni2P NPs) for the HER. Spherical Ni2P NPs mainly composed of the Ni2P(001) surface showed higher HER activity than rod-shaped Ni2P NPs with the Ni2P(210) surface in terms of overpotential, Tafel slope, and turnover frequency. The results imply that the Ni2P(001) surface would have preferential interactions with the adsorbent and a lower activation barrier for hydrogen adsorption, promoting the overall rate of HER. This study highlights the importance of morphology control in electrocatalysts to boost catalytic performances.


By 1998 all states had enacted zero tolerance laws, which prohibit people younger than 21 from driving with any positive blood alcohol concentration (BAC). A review of the laws was undertaken to determine whether variations in zero tolerance laws might affect their enforcement. Five states were selected (California, Michigan, New Mexico, New York, and Virginia) that appeared to differ in the ease with which the laws could be enforced. Detailed information on enforcement practices was collected in interviews with police officers and motor vehicle officials. The zero tolerance laws in these states have done little to change the way police identify underage drinking drivers. Consequently, these laws rarely are being reinforced independently of the laws against impaired driving aimed at all ages. However, if an officer stops an underage drinking driver, some provisions of the laws can make it easier to issue a zero tolerance citation. For example, in most states an evidentiary test for BAC is required to prove a zero tolerance violation, but in a number of states the implied consent law requires either an arrest for driving while impaired (DWI) or probable cause for an arrest before such a test can be administered. Thus, underage offenders with low BACs cannot be arrested for zero tolerance. By contrast, in California officers can use results from preliminary breath test (PBT) units at the roadside as evidence of zero tolerance if an underage driver is suspected of drinking. Factors that reduce the likelihood of enforcement are discussed.