The infuence of relativistic effects, more specifically of spin–orbit coupling (SOC), on the geometric and energetic features of halogen bonds mediated through astatine (At) has been investigated through quantum chemistry calculations. For complexes between ammonia and diastatine or diiodine, the accounting of SOC results in stronger interaction energies with iodine, in contrast to scalar-relativistic calculations which predict astatine as a better halogen-bond (XB) donor. In AtI, where the competition is intramolecular, astatine always appears as the strongest XB donor. Whereas calculations in the absence of SOC predict that 15% of the XB complexes with toluene occur on the iodine atom, this population becomes three times lower when SOC is taken into account. The investigation of hypoastatous acid properties highlights a substantial decrease of the hydrogen-bond (HB) and XB interaction energies for AtOH when SOC is considered. The calculation of complementary electrostatic (electrostatic potential, VS,max) and charge transfer (local electrophilicity, ω+S,max) descriptors provide guidelines for the rationalization of these trends, underlining the significant role of SOC in astatine electronegativity. Finally, the SOC effects are shown in AtI and AtOH to be significantly transferred from astatine to its neighbouring atoms, resulting in stronger alterations of their XB or HB properties than on the XB donating ability of astatine itself.


Abstract Spatial correlations of ground‐motion intensity measures (IMs) are essential for seismic analysis of spatially distributed systems. In this paper, geostatistical analysis is conducted to calculate the spatial correlations for cumulative absolute velocity (CAV), Arias intensity (Ia), and spectral accelerations (SA) using a total number of more than 1500 earthquake records from nine recent earthquakes occurred in Taiwan, California, and Japan. The results indicate that the spatial correlations for these IMs are closely related to the regional site conditions, and they can be predicted based on the spatial correlations of shear‐wave velocity in the top 30 m ( V S 30 ). In general, an IM recorded from a relatively homogeneous regional site condition tends to have a larger spatial correlation range than that from a heterogeneous site condition. Due to their intrinsic similarity to represent the integration of acceleration time histories, CAV and Ia have similar spatial correlation coefficients. Besides, the range of spatial correlation of SA generally increases as the spectral period increases. Simple predictive equations are proposed in this study to quantify the spatial correlations of CAV, Ia, and SA based on regional site conditions. Methods for data correction are also proposed to eliminate artificial correlations due to biased distance scaling and V S 30 estimation in the database. Finally, Monte Carlo method is used to generate spatially distributed IMs. The results demonstrate that the annual frequency of exceedance curves for spatially distributed IMs differ significantly if different ranges of spatial correlations are used.


The unique antitubercular activity of isoniazid requires that the drug be oxidized by the katG-encoded mycobacterial catalase-peroxidase to an activated drug form. In order to quantitatively assess the catalytic capabilities of the enzyme, the native catalase-peroxidase from Mycobacterium smegmatis was purified over 200-fold to homogeneity. The enzyme was shown to exhibit both catalase and peroxidase activities, and in the presence of either hydrogen peroxide or t-butyl peroxide, was found to catalyze the oxidation of the reduced pyridine nucleotides, NADH and NADPH, as well as artificial peroxidase substrates, at rates between 2.7 and 20 s. The homogeneous enzyme exhibited a visible absorbance spectrum typical of ferric heme-containing catalase-peroxidases, with a Soret maximum at 406 nm. Low temperature (10 K) electron paramagnetic resonance spectra in the presence of ethylene glycol revealed a high spin Fe(III) signal with g values of 5.9 and 5.6. The enzyme was very slowly (t = 20 min) reduced by dithionite, and the reduced form showed typical spectral changes when either KCN or CO were subsequently added. The M. smegmatis catalase-peroxidase was found to contain 2 heme molecules per tetramer, which were identified as iron protoporphyrin IX by the pyridine hemochromogen assay. The peroxidatic activity was inhibited by KCN, NaN, isoniazid (isonicotinic acid hydrazide), and its isomer, nicotinic acid hydrazide, but not by 3-amino-1,2,4-triazole. The role of mycobacterial catalase-peroxidases in the oxidative activation of the antitubercular prodrug isoniazid is discussed.


Recently, several school districts in the US have adopted or consider adopting the Student-Optimal Stable mechanism or the Top Trading Cycles mechanism to assign children to public schools. There is evidence that for school districts that employ (variants of) the so-called Boston mechanism the transition would lead to efficiency gains. The first two mechanisms are strategy-proof, but in practice student assignment procedures typically impede a student to submit a preference list that contains all his acceptable schools. We study the preference revelation game where students can only declare up to a fixed number of schools to be acceptable. We focus on the stability and efficiency of the Nash equilibrium outcomes. Our main results identify rather stringent necessary and sufficient conditions on the priorities to guarantee stability or efficiency of either of the two mechanisms. This stands in sharp contrast with the Boston mechanism which has been abandoned in many US school districts but nevertheless yields stable Nash equilibrium outcomes.


A novel silicon based dual-mass vibrating tuning fork vibratory gyroscope (TFG) with differential capacitor structure is designed in this paper. the U-shaped beam is adapted to connecting the two decoupling movement of the framework structure in order to achieve the independent of the movement of drive direction and sense direction. The TFG structure is also optimized to further reduce the mechanical coupling of the device. The drive combs are designed on the mass, while the sense combs are designed on the frame. All the combs in this gyroscope are dominated by slide-film air damping in order to lower the air damping. This gyroscope is designed to obtain robust operation against variations under atmospheric pressure condition. The TFG is tested at atmospheric pressure with a sensitivity of 17.8mV/◦/s and a linearity of 99.989%, capacitance structure sensitivity is 21.5αf/◦/s with an equivalent noise angular rate of 0.028◦/s/Hz1/2, respective.


We study exact confidence intervals and two-sided hypothesis tests for univariate parameters of stochastically increasing discrete distributions, such as the binomial and Poisson distributions. It is shown that several popular methods for constructing short intervals lack strict nestedness, meaning that accepting a lower confidence level not always will lead to a shorter confidence interval. These intervals correspond to a class of tests that are shown to assign differing $p$-values to indistinguishable models. Finally, we show that among strictly nested intervals, fiducial intervals, including the Clopper-Pearson interval for a binomial proportion and the Garwood interval for a Poisson mean, are optimal.


A relatively neglected aspect of the many strands of judicial federalism is the review by the United States Supreme Court of decisions on federal law by state courts. The Supreme Court has undertaken such review almost from its inception, but this article considers two apparent shocks to this review, one recent and well-known, the other one more long-standing and less the subject of comment. The first is Bush v. Gore (2000), where the Supreme Court reversed a decision of the Florida Supreme Court, thus resolving the post-presidential election controversy in favor of Texas Governor George W. Bush. The Florida court's decision, ordering manual recounts of votes, was ostensibly based on state law, yet the Supreme Court majority (or at least three Justices thereof) disagreed with the state court's interpretation of its own law, in order to reach federal legal issues. Much can, will, and should be said about Bush v. Gore, but the question is whether the majority's aggressive review portends a new role for the Court for other state court cases. The second, less noticeable but potentially as profound a shock to the understood system of Supreme Court review is the Court's decreasing caseload. Through most of the 20th century the Court was deciding well over 100 cases per Term, and as late as the mid-1980s the number was almost 150. But starting in 1990 the number began to sharply spiral down, and for much of the 1990s the Court was only deciding 70 to 80 cases per Term. The likelihood of review of any given decision, not high to begin with, is even lower today. What might account for the Court's shrunken caseload, and what are its implications for state court decision-making? This paper addresses some of these questions. Part II considers the effect of Supreme Court review on the development of state constitutional law. After briefly surveying the history of Court review of state court decisions, and of the New Judicial Federalism, Part II addresses the impact of two controversial Supreme Court decisions: Michigan v. Long (1983), in which the Court held that review of federal issues was possible, unless the state court plainly stated that it was relying on state law, and the aforementioned Bush v. Gore. Part III of the paper turns toward the Supreme Court's shrunken docket, and in particular its possible impact on the adjudication of federal issues in state courts. Finally, Part IV considers the role of state intermediate appellate courts regarding the issues raised in Parts II and III.


In virtual garment prototyping, designers create a garment design by using Computer Aided Design (CAD). In difference to traditional CAD the word "aided" in this case refers to the computer replicating real world behavior of garments. This allows the designer to interact naturally with his design. The designer has a wide range of expressions within his work. This is done by defining details on a garment which are not limited to the type of cloth used. The way how cloth patterns are sewn together and the style and usage of details of the cloth's surface, like appliques, have a strong impact on the visual appearance of a garment to a large degree. Therefore, virtual and real garments usually have a lot of such surface details.

Interactive virtual garment prototyping itself is an interdisciplinary field. Several problems have to be solved to create an efficiently usable real-time virtual prototyping system for garment manufacturers.
Such a system can be roughly separated into three sub-components. The first component deals with acquisition of material and other data needed to let a simulation mimic plausible real world behavior of the garment. The second component is the garment simulation process itself. Finally, the third component is centered on the visualization of the simulation results. Therefore, the overall process spans several scientific areas which have to take into account the needs of each other in order to get an overall interactive system. In my work I especially target the third section, which deals with the visualization.

On the scientific side, the developments in the last years have shown great improvements on both speed and reliability of simulation and rendering approaches suitable for the virtual prototyping of garments.
However, with the currently existing approaches there are still many problems to be solved, especially if interactive simulation and visualization need to work together and many object and surface details come into play. This is the case when using a virtual prototyping in a productive environment.

The currently available approaches try to handle most of the surface details as part of the simulation. This generates a lot of data early in the pipeline which needs to be transferred and processed, requiring a lot of processing time and easily stalls the pipeline defined by the simulation and visualization system. Additionally, real world garment examples are already complicated in their cloth arrangement alone.
This requires additional computational power. Therefore, the interactive garment simulation tends to lose its capability to allow interactive handling of the garment.

In my work I present a solution, which solves this problem by moving the handling of design details from the simulation stage entirely to a completely GPU based rendering stage. This way, the behavior of the garment and its visual appearance are separated. Therefore, the simulation part can fully concentrate on simulating the fabric behavior, while the visualization handles the placing of surface details lighting, materials and self-shadowing.
Thus, a much higher degree of surface complexity can be achieved within an interactive virtual prototyping system as can be done with the current existing approaches.


Even during his lifetime, the French revolutionary Girondin leader Jacques-Pierre Brissot de Warville's reputation was tarnished by allegations that, before 1789, he was a swindler, police spy, and political pornographer. These charges resurfaced in 1968 in a celebrated article by Robert Darnton, which found miscellaneous, fragmentary evidence to support them, above all in the papers of the pre-revolutionary police chief, Lenoir. Although Darnton's view has been challenged by several historians, no critic has supplied any substantive new evidence, and hence the Brissot debate remains mired in assertions and counter-assertions. This article finally offers such evidence, drawing both on Darnton's main source, the Lenoir papers, and on sources unavailable to him in 1968, notably records of Brissot's Licée de Londres and his embastillement, now on deposit in the Archives Nationales. While acquiting Brissot on all counts, it finds that Darnton's suspicions were not entirely unfounded. Brissot did have compromising links to both police and political pornographers. Nevertherless, allegations that he spied and wrote scandalous pamphlets appear malicious, despite Brissot's arrest on the latter charge in 1784. The article also attempts to explain Brissot's motivations and the lasting implications of his arrest and persecution in shaping Brissot and the French Revolution.


Hubert Rees was born on 2 October 1923 in Llangennech, Carmarthenshire, in Wales, and died on 13 September 2009 in Aberystwyth. Hugh, as he was known to his wide circle of friends and colleagues, was educated at Llandovery and Llanelli grammar schools. After leaving school he joined the Royal Air Force (RAF) and in 1944 he became a Lancaster bomber pilot. On demobilization in 1946 he enrolled as a student at Aberystwyth University, graduating with first-class honours in agricultural botany in 1950. After a short secondment to the John Innes Horticultural Institution at Bayfordbury he took up an appointment as Lecturer in Cytology at the newly-formed Department of Genetics at Birmingham University. In 1958 he returned to Aberystwyth as Senior Lecturer in Agricultural Botany, being promoted to Reader in 1966 and ultimately Professor and Head of Department. He rapidly built up an internationally acclaimed school of study into the genetic control of chromosome behaviour in plants, and on evolutionary changes in chromosome organization. Hugh Rees had an impressive intellect and was an inspirational teacher who left his mark on all who came under his supervision. In 1983 he was appointed Vice Principal at Aberystwyth. He retired in 1991 and then pursued his many interests and hobbies. Together with his wife, Mavis, he was well known to many friends and colleagues for his generous hospitality, his love of good food and wine, and as a raconteur. Hugh is survived by his wife, a son and two daughters. Another son predeceased him.


In the context of the continually expanding demand of natural gas worldwide, the LNG industry is undergoing significant changes in its trade structure and shipping characteristics. The growth in LNG trade will continue and with it the growth of the LNG shipping industry. Departing from the rigid structure of the traditional LNG trade, the introduction of trade flexibility through development of short-term contracts and spot trading is altering the picture in LNG shipping. In the current work, the evolution and future of LNG trade as a share of the natural gas trade is presented and analysed, with respect to worldwide and regional (mainly European) supply and demand and its competition with other current (pipeline) and emerging natural gas transportation alternatives. Changes in the structure of the LNG trade, in LNG chain economics and LNG fleet characteristics are detected, correlated and assessed. All efforts towards improving the competitiveness of the LNG industry must take into account the above-mentioned changes and, to this extent, it is revealed that the shipping link of the LNG chain presents adequate margins for technological advances. In this respect, areas of priority and measures for promoting the economics, reliability and safety of the LNG tankers are proposed.


Importance Atypical ductal hyperplasia (ADH) is a known risk factor for breast cancer. Published risk estimates are based on cohorts that included women whose ADH was diagnosed before widespread use of screening mammograms and did not differentiate between the methods used to diagnose ADH, which may be related to the size of the ADH focus. These risks may overestimate the risk in women with presently diagnosed ADH. Objective To examine the risk of invasive cancer associated with ADH diagnosed using core needle biopsy vs excisional biopsy. Design A cohort study was conducted comparing the 10-year cumulative risk of invasive breast cancer in 955 331 women undergoing mammography with and without a diagnosis of ADH. Data were obtained from 5 breast imaging registries that participate in the National Cancer Institute–funded Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium. Exposures Diagnosis of ADH on core needle biopsy or excisional biopsy in women undergoing mammography. Main Outcomes and Measures Ten-year cumulative risk of invasive breast cancer. Results The sample included 955 331 women with 1727 diagnoses of ADH, 1058 (61.3%) of which were diagnosed by core biopsy and 635 (36.8%) by excisional biopsy. The mean (interquartile range) age of the women at diagnosis was 52.6 (46.9-60.4) years. From 1996 to 2012, the proportion of ADH diagnosed by core needle biopsy increased from 21% to 77%. Ten years following a diagnosis of ADH, the cumulative risk of invasive breast cancer was 2.6 (95% CI, 2.0-3.4) times higher than the risk in women with no ADH. Atypical ductal hyperplasia diagnosed via excisional biopsy was associated with an adjusted hazard ratio (HR) of 3.0 (95% CI, 2-4.5) and, via core needle biopsy, with an adjusted HR of 2.2 (95% CI, 1.5-3.4). Ten years after an ADH diagnosis, an estimated 5.7% (95% CI, 4.3%-10.1%) of the women had a diagnosis of invasive cancer. Women with ADH diagnosed on excisional biopsy had a slightly higher risk (6.7%; 95% CI, 3.0%-12.8%) compared with those with ADH diagnosed via core needle biopsy (5%; 95% CI, 2.2%-8.9%). Conclusions and Relevance Current 10-year risks of invasive breast cancer after a diagnosis of ADH may be lower than those previously reported. The risk associated with ADH is slightly lower for women whose ADH was diagnosed by needle core biopsy compared with excisional biopsy.


Background and Objective: To assess the diagnostic value of hys- terosalpingography (HSG) in the evaluation of the uterine cavity in recurrent aborters in comparison to hysteroscopy as the gold standard of diagnosis. Methods: 58 reproductive age women, all with habitual abortion (3 con- secutive abortions), were examined by both HSG and hysteroscopy. Results: The overall sensitivity and specificity of HSG was 18.75% and 82.2%, respectively. The false positive and false negative results of HSG were 17.8% and 81.25%, respectively, and the positive predictive value for HSG is, therefore, 37.5%. Conclusion: Regarding very low sensitivity, specificity and high false- negative rates of HSG, it is concluded that it has low value in detection of uter- ine cavity abnormalities in habitual abortion and hysteroscopy should be used as the gold standard method for diagnosis in these patients.


This report analyses the transition of young people to formality and emphasizes the need for a life course, or trajectory, approach to examining formality in the labour market. It describes the age-related formality profile and its characteristics, causes, consequences and policy implications. The most important conclusion is that policies aimed at the transition of young people to formality affect not only a young worker's current situation, but rather the lifetime formality profile of that individual. Current youth employment strategies should make young people aware of the long-term implications that a good start to their working lives has on their entire careers.


Judicial independence, despite its long history and cherished place in American jurisprudence, has periodically been attacked by those who disagree with particular outcomes. In recent years, Congress and the executive branch have mounted a sustained assault on decisional independence in the adjudication of deportation (now called "removal") cases. Various actions taken by Attorney General Ashcroft in 2002 and 2003 and still in place today have left both immigration judges and the members of the Board of Immigration Appeals without any meaningful decisional independence. Meanwhile, in 1996 and again in 2005, Congress imposed severe limitations on judicial review of administrative orders of removal. Each of these developments has been the subject of a separate scholarly literature. This article argues that the whole is even worse than the sum of its parts. The combination means that, for the affected categories of cases, there is no point anywhere in the process at which a deportation decision will be either made or reviewed by a body that enjoys decisional independence.That conclusion generates a more fundamental question: What is so great about decisional independence? To answer that question, this article examines the history and theories of judicial independence in England and early America. Here too, a vast literature has accumulated largely in segregated clumps; in the United States there are separate bodies of writing on the independence of United States federal article III judges, the judges of article I courts, federal administrative law judges (ALJ's), and state court judges. Writings have also proliferated on the degrees of independence possessed by judges of foreign domestic courts and the judges of international courts and tribunals. Surprisingly, there has been almost no scholarly examination of how these strands of judicial independence theory interrelate. This article propounds ten theories that either have been or could be asserted on behalf of decisional independence generally. It suggests that, ultimately, the most convincing theories are united by the principle of the rule of law. The article also argues that, at a minimum, the law should require decisional independence at some stage of every adjudication process unless a particular case presents a compelling need for political accountability or the individual interests are trivial.The article concludes by sketching the possible forms that solutions might take in the particular arena of deportation. It recommends that the resulting structure embody meaningful decisional independence in the administrative phase of the deportation process, followed by the reinstatement of the right of judicial review in all deportation cases. That discussion also identifies the relevant sub-variables and considers the general pros and cons of different adjudication models.


When applying RFID in production, it needs to be integrated into the used IT systems. However, till today system designers cannot rely on a standard solution for integrating RFID technology in manufacturing software systems. Each manufacturer has to deal with the same challenges: No consolidated findings on how to integrate RFID into the IT infrastructure exist. The consequence is that each IT department has to develop a solution from scratch. In order to give well-founded design guidelines for embedding RFID into the company's IT infrastructure, we conducted seven in-depth case studies of the state-of-the-art in manufacturing IT infrastructures. Our findings allowed us to specify architectural patterns for common RFID applications in manufacturing. With our work we support system designers in choosing the appropriate architecture for different RFID applications and design goals. We present our solutions in form of architectural patterns that enable manufacturing IT systems to benefit from RFID.


New fossil material of the problematic reptile species Pachystropheus rhaeticus from the uppermost Triassic (Rhaetian) of England, and re-examination of other specimens, demonstrate that it may be the earliest known example of the Choristodera, a poorly understood group of semi-aquatic diapsid reptiles. As a result, the fossil record of choristoderes is extended back in time by approximately 45 million years and a significant gap in the fossil record of these reptiles is highlighted. Failure of the record to reveal the evolutionary histories of those reptilian taxa that are most prone to fossilization (i.e. semi-aquatic and aquatic forms) emphasizes the need for rigorous, character-based studies in phylogenetic analysis of tetrapod lineages, rather than reliance upon stratigraphical position as an indicator of phylogenetic branching sequence. Furthermore, cladistically-based predictions of pre-Jurassic choristoderes are themselves seemingly reinforced by this discovery.


Through my community service project at Granada Insider, an English language tourist magazine, I was encouraged to research upcoming events that may give tourists a different perspective of Granada. As I compiled lists of activities in Granada, I was struck by the quantity of events that promoted consciousness about critical themes concerning gender, immigration, and social justice. At my home institution, I had been involved in various campus organizations that are concerned with social issues. My personal interest led me to investigate the role of the provincial government in raising consciousness in public locations. In my project, I establish the importance of using art and cultural events to influence citizens to recognize injustices in their community and take action. I attended several events in Granada, including a film series showcasing women directors in Afghanistan and a festival raising awareness on human rights. Many film screenings and lectures took place in public auditoriums in the Library of Andalucia and the Palacio de los Condes de Gabia, and I reflect on the accessibility of these spaces. Although the provincial government has been involved in planning and funding these events, community organizations still face many difficulties navigating the bureaucracy of the institution to plan events for the public. In order to continue a critical and constructive dialogue on social issues, the government must take initiative to connect with community organizations, publicize upcoming events, and support grassroots initiatives as much as possible. As a foreigner, I was deeply affected by the work artists, students, and community organizations have put in to spread awareness in their community. I hope that the passion I have witnessed here will continue to inspire me to create a more critically conscious and inclusive environment in my community.


The aim of this research was to investigate the oxidation progress and pathways of krill and fish oil during 21 days of incubation at 40°C. The oxidative stability of the oils was investigated through: (i) classical methods such as peroxide value (PV), anisidine value (AV), thiobarbituric reactive substance (TBARS), conjugated dienes and trienes, and antioxidant content, and (ii) advanced methods such as determination of volatiles content by dynamic headspace (DHS)-GC/MS, lipid classes, and pyrrole content. In addition, the oxidative stability of the oils was evaluated under accelerated oxidation conditions using the Oxipres™ at 90°C. The results from analysis of PV, AV, TBARS, conjugated dienes and trienes, and the antioxidant content suggested that krill oil was more oxidatively stable than fish oil. However, the color or other constituents of the krill oil might affect the result of these classical methods. Nevertheless, the conclusion was supported by the results of the Oxipres™ measurements, which showed that the oxygen consumption was higher for fish oil. Furthermore, the level of most volatile lipid oxidation products was higher for fish oil. The development of Strecker degradation products and pyrroles formed as a result of non-enzymatic browning reactions could only be observed in krill oil. The presence of pyrroles might have contributed to the higher oxidative stability of krill oil. Krill oil also contained a higher level of tocopherol, astaxanthin and phospholipids than fish oil, which could have resulted in better protection against oxidation. The results demonstrated that the classical methods for measuring oxidative deterioration of lipids were not useful for krill oil.


PURPOSE
To understand fiducial marker movement in prostate and to improve prostate patient positioning with fiducial markers.

METHODS
Patient planning CT and positioning CBCT were retrospectively analyzed. CBCT images were automatically registered to the corresponding CT ones based on their bony structures in Eclipse. The coordinates of the markers in the CT and CBCT were recorded. The status of bladder and rectum fillings, and gas in rectum were indexed into four levels and recorded. An algorithm was developed to optimally register the (three) fiducial markers in CBCT with those in the CT so that only the information on prostate deformation and marker migration remained. A mathematical model was built to estimate the marker migration and the relative contribution to the deformation from the status change of bladder and rectum.

RESULTS
The registration error from our optimal registration algorithm indicates the minimal patient setup error by using fiducial markers. The results from our analyzed 3 patients were average(standard deviation) = 1.10(0.40), 1.27(0.67) and 0.62(0.38) mm, but there were some fractions when the registration errors were over 2 mm. From our mathematical model, it was found that the marker migration could be as large as 2.9 mm. If 2 mm tolerance is required in such as SBRT, then soft tissue based registration may be more appreciated when the optimal registration error is greater than 2 mm or from the date when the migration is greater than 2 mm because the migrated marker may not change the location thereafter. In addition, for one investigated patient, the relative contribution to the deformation from the bladder, rectum filling and gas in the rectum is 0.43:0.31:0.26. More patient data are in analysis, and other interesting results will be reported.

CONCLUSIONS
Fiducial marker migration can be over 2 mm. The migration will Result in a conclusion that small registration error does not mean good patient positioning.


This is a collection of essays on Aquinas and Wittgenstein. It is inspired by, and dedicated to the memory of Victor Preller, whose interpretations of these figures helped to prepare the ground for recent discussions of religious language, knowledge of God, the role of grace in human life, and the ethical significance of virtue. This book's main purpose is to advance our understanding of the issues on which texts like "Summa Theologiae" and the "Philosophical Investigations" have a bearing.


The recently developed Spherical Wave Expansion-to-Plane Wave Expansion (SWE-to-PWE) antenna diagnostics technique is employed in an investigation of the antenna system in the Microwave Imaging Radiometer using Aperture Synthesis (MIRAS) for ESA's Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission. The SWE-to-PWE antenna diagnostics technique successfully identifies the sources of the anomalies detected in 2 of the 138 MIRAS antenna far- field patterns that were measured during the on-ground calibration at the DTU-ESA Spherical Near-Field Antenna Test Facility in 2006. In addition to its obvious value for the SMOS mission, this investigation also provides an experimental validation of the SWE-to-PWE antenna diagnostics technique. (6 pages)


After drawing a discursive theorisation of norms in legal practice, this article outlines the shared linguistic manifestations of extra-legal gendered norms in Swedish criminal proceedings on rape. Spaces for interpretation and reframing created behind images of flawless positivist objective procedural conduct are targeted for analysis, identifying regularities in the decisive factors of the verdicts, including what is attributed and dispossessed of meaning. Two discursive orders of rape are found to constitute judges' perceptions of what the act of rape entails, separated by the existence of preceding relationships between the parties. The orders constitute adjudication processes in response to archetypes of how the events of the crime as well as the criminal proceedings usually take place, based in traditional conceptions of women's bodies and sexuality. Injured parties are thus understood as responsible for being exposed to what took place during the event, while suspects' responsibilities are nonexistent as long as they can claim ignorance.


This study was conducted to investigate the toxic effect of Aluminum sulphate (alum). Nine Nubian goat kids were divided into 3 groups, each of three goats. Group 1 animals were the undosed controls. Test groups were given alum at dose rates of 1 and 20% respectively for groups 2 and 3 for a period of 10 weeks after an adaptation period of two weeks during which the animals were X kept under ideal experimental conditions. Clinical signs were closely observed with postmortem and histopathological examinations. Chemical investigations included enzymatic activities of ALP, AST, CK, ALT and LDH and metabolic changes of albumin, urea, total protein, cholesterol, bilirubin, glucose and creatinine were detected. Fluctuations in electrolyte levels of Mg, Fe, Na, K, Ca and P were monitored together with hematological changes in Hb, PCV, RBCs and WBCs. Mortalities occurred to variable degrees irrespective to the dose level. On alum challenge, the test species showed clinical signs of low voice, inappitence, dullness, whitish salivation, watery diarrhea and also recumbency. On atomic absorption only the lungs kept residual alum, while the livers washed out the substance, maybe via bile. Notably oral dosing with alum caused changes consisted of congested liver with white spots, stiff-greenish lungs and inflammed empty intestines. The un-dosed group 1 goats showed a normal picture. On histopathology, alum-dosed group of goats showed necrosis in the cortex and medulla of the kidney in one group member, emphysema in the lungs and necrosis in the hepatocytes and congestion in the liver in all group members. On evaluation of the previous results, alum was considered toxic to Nubian goat kids at all tried dose rates. Practical implications of the results were highlighted as suggestions for future work were put forward.


Students with learning disabilities (LD; defined by compromised academic performance) often have higher levels of anxiety, school-related stress, and less optimal social skills compared with their typically developing peers. Previous health research indicates that meditation and relaxation training may be effective in reducing anxiety and promoting social skills. This pilot study used a pre—post no-control design to examine feasibility of, attitudes toward, and outcomes of a 5-week mindfulness meditation intervention administered to 34 adolescents diagnosed with LD. Postintervention survey responses overwhelmingly expressed positive attitudes toward the program. All outcome measures showed significant improvement, with participants who completed the program demonstrating decreased state and trait anxiety, enhanced social skills, and improved academic performance. Although not directly assessed, the outcomes are consistent with a cognitive-interference model of learning disability and suggest that mindfulness meditation decreases anxiety and detrimental self-focus of attention, which, in turn, promotes social skills and academic outcomes.


Abstract—Additive manufacturing (AM) is increasingly crucial in biomedical and aerospace industries. As a recently developed AM technique, selective laser melting (SLM) has become a commercial method for various manufacturing processes. However, the molten pool configuration during SLM of metal powders is a decisive issue for the product quality. It is very important to investigate the heat transfer characteristics during the laser heating process. In this work, the finite element method (FEM) software ANSYS® (work bench module 16.0) was used to predict the unsteady temperature distribution for resolving molten pool dimensions with consideration of temperature-dependent thermal physical properties of TiAl6V4 at different laser powers and scanning speeds. The simulated results of the temperature distributions illustrated that the ratio of laser power to scanning speed can greatly influence the size of molten pool of titanium alloy powder for SLM development.


The present paper reports the results of an open pilot trial of an Internet based clinician-assisted computerized cognitive behavioural treatment (CaCCBT) program for panic disorder. Ten participants meeting DSM-IV criteria for Panic Disorder with Agoraphobia were recruited. Over 9 weeks, participants completed 6 online lessons and homework assignments, received emails from a therapist, and contributed to an online discussion forum with other participants. Paired sample t-tests and effect sizes (Cohen's d) were calculated using an intention-to-treat design. Eighty percent of participants completed the 6 lessons. Medium to large pre- to posttreatment effect sizes were obtained on questionnaires measuring anticipatory and catastrophic thoughts, physical sensations associated with anxiety, agoraphobic avoidance, and depression. Seventy percent of participants did not meet criteria for panic disorder with agoraphobia at post-treatment. Mean therapist time spent per patient over the duration of the program was 206 minutes. These results are consistent with previous literature indicating that Internet-based treatment programs for panic disorder combined with individual and forum based therapist guidance can result in clinically significant improvements in outcomes for patients. Keyword s: Clinician assisted computerized cognitive behavioural therapy; panic disorder; treatment; Internet


Each book in the "World Religions and Ecology" series deals with the teachings, beliefs, history and present-day attitudes and contribution of a particular faith to the environment. The books cover several areas: teachings and traditions, environmental practice and responding to the crisis. Under teachings and traditions the books look at core ideas and beliefs as found within the faith's main scriptures and traditional teachings. They also include studies of historical turning points in the faith's teachings about the environment. Under environmental practice, the books examine the practices and ways of life arising from the teachings outlined in the first section and their impact (negative and positive) on the environment. The final section, responding to the crisis, looks at how the faith is rethinking or re-examining its teachings and practices in the light of the ecological crisis. What does the faith believe to be the most important insights it has to bring to the debate about the future? What are the faith's hopes for the future? This section also contains case studies of practical action to protect the environment undertaken as an expression of faith. Through a series of stories, examples, teachings from sacred texts, illustrations, interviews with Hindus involved with ecology and descriptions of current projects, this study demonstrates how humanity's role in preserving the environment is a central theme of Hinduism.


Artikkel analuusib huvitavat epistolaarset materjali Teise maailmasoja aastatest ja sellele jargnenud ajast – kasvatusteadlase Enn Koemetsa kirju oepoeg Heino Liimetsale, kellest sai hiljem samuti pedagoogikaoppejoud ja akadeemik. Kirjades voib tahele panna Koemetsa teoreetilisi seisukohti oppimisest ja opetamisest ning nende rakendamist eesmargiga kasvatada oepojast teadlast ja oppejoudu. Tervikuna ja koos kommentaaridega ilmuvad kuus Koemetsa kirja aastatest 1942–1943. When discussing Estonian educational science, we need to talk about the Koemets-Liimets family where six people from three generations have been or still are active in this field. Such career choice was first made by the pedagogue, educational scientist and psychologist Enn Koemets (1911–1973). 50 letters, found in the personal home archive of the author of the present article, offer interesting material for a theoretical treatment of Enn Koemets' biographical data as well as of the growing of Heino Liimets' into a scientist. The present article publishes in full six letters which Koemets wrote in Tartu from 1942–1943 and sent to Valga to his nephew Heino Liimets (1928–1989), who studied at the Valga Gymnasium and was 14 years old in 1942. Later, Heino Liimets became a pedagogue, educational scientist and a professor as well. First, the article discusses why and how can such continuity of choosing again and again one and the same specialty develop in a family. Looking at it from the viewpoint of educational philosophy, we could answer that this could well be caused by such phenomena as education and growth development. A person does not become a scientist only by studying at some educational institution and passing some specific curriculum, but they have to grow and be raised into being a scientist due to certain conditions or, due to the fact that people of different generations live in the same spiritual space, communicating with each other based on certain ideas, values and principles. Enn Koemets' letters to his nephew show, on the one hand, the spiritual reality full of ideals and, on the other hand, the real, everyday environment centred on home. We can say without doubt that Koemets attempted to live his real life according to the pedagogical and psychological ideas which he had formulated in his studies. He knowingly and purposefully raised his nephew to be a scientist, a teacher and a colleague at the university. Eleven letters originate from the earlier period of the correspondence (1942–1945), from the time Heino Liimets was a gymnasium student. All these letters are characterised by the fact that Enn Koemets inspired and invited his nephew to enter his own spiritual space. According to the ideas he had published in his research, he taught the young man in the way that would activate his self-education. Koemets wrote to the boy very seriously about the books he was reading and topics he was studying because he knew that the existence of a model and the direct immediate inspiration are essential for the emergence of ideals and higher spiritual aspirations. We can see that Koemets had undertaken the task of teaching the young man to study "in a right way" and to acquire skills and tools (foreign languages, skills for thorough and long-time concentration and for doing research, time management, etc.) necessary for a scientist. He consistently guided the young man in widening his cultural horizons, suggested reading materials and information sources, knowing that a good scientist cannot do without such knowledge and skills. The roots of Koemets' own aspirations and values should be searched for at the Valga All-boys Gymnasium where he had studied from 1924–1929. Among Koemets' friends at the gymnasium and at the university was the writer Bernard Kangro, who immigrated to Sweden in 1944. Thanks to Kangro's novels of the Tartu series, we can find both the Koemets-Liimets' age-old family residence—the Koemetsa Farm in the Koemetsa Village in Vorumaa County—and Enn Koemets himself captured in a fictional reality. The Enn Koemets, who has been depicted as one of the main characters of Kangro's novels—the energetic and bright Pardijaak—was in his letters a similar inspirer and model for his nephew Heino Liimets.


Diosgenin is a steroidal saponin extract from numerous plants, including Solanum and Dioscorea species, and has been reported to possess neuroprotective activity. However, the role of diosgenin in neuropathic pain remains unclear. The present study examined the effects of diosgenin on allodynia and the levels of inflammatory mediators in rats following neuropathic pain evoked by chronic constriction injury (CCI). In addition, the underlying molecular mechanisms involved in diosgenin‑induced suppression of neuropathic pain were examined. The results of the present study demonstrated diosgenin reversed CCI‑decreased mechanical withdrawal threshold and thermal withdrawal latency. Furthermore, diosgenin inhibited CCI‑induced upregulated levels of the pro‑inflammatory cytokines tumor necrosis factor‑α, interleukin (IL)‑1β and IL‑2, and suppressed oxidative stress induced by CCI in the spinal cord. Furthermore, diosgenin significantly inhibited the expression of phosphorylated‑p38 mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK) and nuclear factor (NF)‑κB in the spinal cord in CCI rats compared with sham‑operated rats. In conclusion, the present study demonstrated that diosgenin attenuates neuropathic pain in CCI rats by inhibiting activation of the p38 MAPK and NF‑κB signaling pathways. These results implicate diosgenin in the treatment of neuropathic pain, which merits further clinical investigation.


Abstract. Spatio-temporal measurements of landform evolution provide the basis for process-based theory formulation and validation. Over time, field measurements of landforms have increased significantly worldwide, driven primarily by the availability of new surveying technologies. However, there is no standardized or coordinated effort within the scientific community to collect morphological data in a dependable and reproducible manner, specifically when performing long-term small-scale process investigation studies. Measurements of the same site using identical methods and equipment, but performed at different time periods, may lead to incorrect estimates of landform change as a result of three-dimensional registration errors. This work evaluated measurements of an ephemeral gully channel located on agricultural land using multiple independent survey techniques for locational accuracy and their applicability in generating information for model development and validation. Terrestrial and unmanned aerial vehicle photogrammetry platforms were compared to terrestrial lidar, defined herein as the reference dataset. Given the small scale of the measured landform, the alignment and ensemble equivalence between data sources was addressed through postprocessing. The utilization of ground control points was a prerequisite to three-dimensional registration between datasets and improved the confidence in the morphology information generated. None of the methods were without limitation; however, careful attention to project preplanning and data nature will ultimately guide the temporal efficacy and practicality of management decisions.


Driven by global competition and economic pressures, organizations are increasingly interested in transferring and leveraging local expertise at the global level. While many of the challenges of knowledge transfer (KT) have been discussed in the literature (e.g., incentives, cognitive limitations), the challenge of KT in distributed, or "virtual", settings and the role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) have received limited attention. While any given ICT may be described in terms of one's perceptual awareness of its capabilities (e.g., richness, interactivity), it may also be described relative to the meanings an individual attaches to it, i.e., the idea of it or its purpose, rather than capability. We propose that understanding both perceptions and meanings, particularly as new ICTs are introduced, is critical to understanding selection and use by KT participants, and ultimately outcomes. In this paper, we conceptually explore the implications of meanings and perceptions on KT in virtual settings.


Although weak social bonds are found to be associated with addictive behaviors in cross-sectional studies, few studies have explored the longitudinal impacts of social bonds on nonmedical prescription drug use (NPDU). This study adopted a developmental perspective on social bonds and tested how their different trajectories are associated with NPDU among adults. With panel surveys from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health from 1994 to 2008, this study employed group-based latent trajectory modeling to obtain the different trajectories of social bonds including religious, civic, familial, educational, and marital, and then used them as predictors of NPDU while controlling for potential confounders and the baseline NPDU. The findings show that constant and high-level social bonds significantly reduce the risk of NPDU, except for educational bond. However, for religious, civic, and educational bonds, the "low initial" trajectories are not significantly different from the "high-decrease" trajectories, implying that strong early-life social bonds do not prevent NPDU if such bonds register a recent decline. Weak social bonds constitute significant risk of NPDU for adults in their late twenties, and recent social bonds override the contribution of early-life bonds in most cases. Policy makers may consider strategies to sustain the active and meaningful participation in conventional institutions, and not solely rely on programs that facilitate early-life social integration.


Introduction: The dietary strategies aim at improving both diabetes control and cardiovascular risk factors is the use of low–glycemic index diets. Diet has been the sheet anchor in the management of diabetes. We studied the effect of increasing the intake of millet based diet in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Methods: In a randomized, crossover study, we assigned 300 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus to follow millet based  diabetic diet, each for 90 days: a diet containing moderate amounts of fiber similar to as recommended by the American Diabetes Association (ADA). The diet is being prepared in a research laboratory of NAIP of UAS Dharwad. We compared the effects of the millet based diet on glycemic control and plasma lipid concentrations. Fasting plasma total cholesterol and triglycerides were measured. Cholesterol in the low-density lipoprotein (LDL) fraction was estimated. Results: Compliance with the diets was excellent. The millet based diet lowered HbA1c (19.14%), fasting glucose (13.5 %), insulin (1.9%) concentrations, total cholesterol concentrations (13.25 %), triglyceride concentrations (13.51%), and very-low-density lipoprotein cholesterol concentrations by 4.5 percent in the patients with type 2 diabetes. However, the group did not differ for changes in body weight. Conclusions: A high intake of millet based dietary fiber, improves glycemic control, decreases hyperinsulinemia, and lowers plasma lipid concentrations in patients with type 2 diabetes.


2D materials with honeycomb lattices are increasingly studied due to their unique electronic and mechanical properties. The typical preparation techniques, such as chemical vapor deposition and cleavage of bulk crystals, are either complicated or limited to only certain classes of materials. Here we discuss basic ordering principles in 2D monoatomic layers and show that electrochemical deposition can also result in 2D films with desired honeycomb structures. The principles are first studied on model ionic 2D layers prepared in ultrahigh vacuum. Two ordering possibilities are identified: a bilayer structure for covalently bonded films and a mixed monolayer structure for ionically bonded films. Typically, the most energetically favorable configuration in mixed layers is when ions with one polarity are closely surrounded by ions of the opposite polarity. This translates into a layer with honeycomb structure on substrates with p6/p3 symmetry. This phenomenon can be used to prepare germanene, a layer with such a structure.


A saturated core fault current limiter (FCL) essentially utilizes the dynamic and nonlinear magnetic behavior of steel cores to operate as a variable reactor. However, the nonlinear characteristic of magnetic materials has made modeling this unique device a difficult task. Hence, experimental measurements and finite-element method (FEM) analysis are the most common techniques used to characterize the transient behavior of the device. Both of these techniques, while accurate, cannot be used to analyze the transient electrical behaviour of FCLs in complex power systems, particularly when investigating power system switchgear behavior during fault events. FEM-based FCL modelling, despite its usefulness as a design verification tool, cannot be easily coupled to all electromagnetic transient programs that are in use today. This paper presents two modeling approaches to represent the saturated core FCL in transient network simulators: 1) the nonlinear reluctance model and 2) the nonlinear inductance model. Both models are implemented in PSCAD/EMTDC and are validated by experimental results of a single-phase prototype saturated core FCL, where excellent agreement between the experimental and the modelling approaches is achieved.


Lysogeny is prevalent in the microbial-dense mammalian gut. This contrasts the classical view of lysogeny as a refuge used by phages under poor host growth conditions. Here we hypothesize that as carrying capacity increases, lysogens escape phage top-down control through superinfection exclusion, overcoming the canonical trade-off between competition and resistance. This hypothesis was tested by developing an ecological model that combined lytic and lysogenic communities and a diversification model that estimated the accumulation of prophages in bacterial genomes. The ecological model sampled phage-bacteria traits stochastically for communities ranging from 1 to 1000 phage-bacteria pairs, and it included a fraction of escaping lysogens proportional to the increase in carrying capacity. The diversification model introduced new prophages at each diversification step and estimated the distribution of prophages per bacteria using combinatorics. The ecological model recovered the range of abundances and sublinear relationship between phage and bacteria observed across eleven ecosystems. The diversification model predicted an increase in the number of prophages per genome as bacterial abundances increased, in agreement with the distribution of prophages on 833 genomes from marine and human-associated bacteria. The study of lysogeny presented here offers a framework to interpret viral and microbial abundances and reconciles the Kill-the-Winner and Piggyback-the-Winner paradigms in viral ecology.


The tumor suppressor, p53 regulates a large number of target genes to control cell proliferation and apoptosis. In addition, it is also implicated in the regulation of cell differentiation in muscle, the circulatory system and various carcinoma tissues. We have recently shown that p53 also controls lens differentiation. Regarding the mechanism, we reveal that p53 directly regulates several genes including c-Maf and Prox1, two important transcription factors for lens differentiation, and αA and βA3/A1, the lens differentiation markers. In the present study, we present evidence to show that the γA-crystallin gene distal promoter and the first intron also contain p53 binding sites and are capable of mediating p53 control during mouse lens development. First, gel mobility shifting assays revealed that the p53 protein in nuclear extracts from human lens epithelial cells (HLE) directly binds to the p53 binding sites present in the γA-crystallin gene. Second, the exogenous wild type p53 induces the dose-dependent expression of the luciferase reporter gene driven by the basic promoter containing the γA-crystallin gene p53 binding site. In contrast, the exogenous dominant negative mutant p53 causes a dose-dependent inhibition of the same promoter. Third, ChIP assays revealed that p53 binds to the γA-crystallin gene promoter in vivo. Finally, in the p53 knockout mouse lenses, the expression level of the γAcrystallin gene was found attenuated in comparison with that in the wild type mouse lenses. Together, our results reveal that p53 regulates γA-crystallin gene expression during mouse lens development. Thus, p53 directly regulates all 3 types of crystallin genes to control lens differentiation.


Hamlet on the Holodeck was first published in 1997 and was met with both praise and condemnation. Janet H. Murray's original work was highly speculative and in many respects accurately predicted how storytelling in "cyberspace" would evolve as the twenty-first century dawned. Murray accurately foresaw, for example, that episodic television would migrate to the web and that viewers would be able to "binge watch" on demand entire seasons of their favourite dramas (318). Indeed, Murray is uniquely positioned to offer up such a forecast: she began her professional career as a computer scientist at IBM in the 1970s, later researched at MIT's Experimental Study Group, and in 1992 began teaching an electronic fiction course to students from both the humanities and the sciences, also at MIT.


Incorporating evaluation metrics with GUI development tools will help designers create consistent interfaces in the future. Complexity in design of interfaces makes efficient evaluation impossible by a single consistency checking evaluation tool. Our focus is on developing a family of evaluation tools in order to make the evaluation process less cumbersome. We have developed a dialog box typeface and color table to facilitate detection of anomalies in color, font, font size, and font style. Concordance tools have been developed to spot variant capitalization and abbreviations globally in the interface and specifically in the button widgets. As buttons are frequently used widgets, a button layout table has been created to spot any inconsistencies in height, width and relative position between a given group of buttons if present. Finally, a terminology basket tool has been created to identify unwanted synonyms of computer related terms used in the interface which may be misleading to the end user.


Background Patients undergoing re-transplantation often receive high doses of immunosuppression, which may lead to an immunocompromised status of the recipient. This study investigates the outcomes after intestine/multivisceral re-transplantation. Material/Methods Clinical outcomes of 23 patients undergoing 24 re-transplantations at a single intestine transplant center were reviewed. Bone marrow suppression was used as a surrogate marker of immunocompromised status, and was defined as platelet count <50 k/mm3 and absolute lymphocyte count <200/mm3. Results All re-transplants except one were liver inclusive. Fifteen of 23 patients died at a median time of 12 months (range 0.2–75) after re-transplantation. Of the 15 deaths, nine (60%) resulted from complications associated with a compromised host immune status: graft versus host disease (GVHD) affecting bone marrow (three cases), persistent viral infection (three cases), post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder (PTLD (one case), metastatic cancer (one case), multi-drug resistant polymicrobial sepsis (one case). Four deaths (27%) resulted from severe rejection. Non-survivors were more likely to have received alemtuzumab, and had higher incidence of bone marrow suppression. In addition to immunocompromised status and rejection, the use of alemtuzumab was associated with mortality after intestinal/multivisceral re-transplantation. Conclusions High mortality was associated with intestine/multivisceral re-transplantation. To improve clinical outcomes of intestine and multivisceral transplantation, it is important to allow reconstitution of host immunity. Longer interval between the two transplantations, and strategies such as allograft specific immunosuppression, may spare the host from the devastating effects of potent immunosuppression currently used.


In 1618, Reformation and the Catholic Church's Counter-Reformation engulfed Europe in a complex war that lasted until the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648. In a similar manner, the passage of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) in 1974, and the ensuing growth of managed care, have engulfed health care in a holy war between insurers, physicians, and patients over the control of medical decisionmaking. This fight is driven by the increasing cost of health care, both in absolute terms and as a percentage of the Gross National Product (GNP). Private and governmental health care insurers, who pay for almost all health care in the United States, argue that traditional fee-for-service medicine created incentives that increase cost and lead to substandard medical care through over-treatment and inappropriate treatment. Many patients and health care providers counter that insurers want to cut costs without regard to quality of care. The battleground is state legislatures and state courts, where opponents of managed care initiate tort lawsuits and draft state insurance regulations.Part I of this article reviews the pre-ERISA landscape of medical care delivery and how it was shaped by the issues associated with traditional health insurance. This section further explains how medical inflation arises both from a very real expansion of medical needs and from medical imperialism - the failure of the medical care paradigm in the United States. Part II of this article examines the rise of ERISA-protected Managed Care Organizations (MCOs)and their effects on medical care delivery. Part III of this article analyzes the Supreme Court's retrenchment on ERISA preemption, beginning with Pegram v. Herdrich and culminating with Kentucky Ass'n of Health Plans v. Miller.While Kentucky Ass'n of Health Plans may not be the health care Treaty of Westphalia, it will have profound effects on health care insurance. Finally, Part IV of this article discusses how the erosion of ERISA protections and the ever increasing cost of health care will drive market consolidation in health insurance, shifting health insurer management of medical decisionmaking towards a system run in accordance with national guidelines that define "medical necessity" and appropriate medical procedure.We argue that this brave new world of standardized medical care may improve care in some situations and can lower costs while preserving or improving the quality of care. On the other hand, we argue that the construction and mass utilization of clinical guidelines does not address the failure of the United States to examine the underlying social welfare and environmental issues that lead to poor health and increase the cost of medical care. Moreover, we assert that guideline-driven protocols fail to address universal access to care and the tragic choices implicit in a system based on a paradigm that promises cures and miracles for aging and death itself.


The Caribbean and Western Atlantic region hosts one of the world's most diverse geopolitical regions and a unique marine biota distinct from tropical seas in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. While this region varies in human population density, GDP and wealth, coral reefs, and their associated ecosystem services, are central to people's livelihoods. Unfortunately, the region's reefs have experienced extensive degradation over the last several decades. This degradation has been attributed to a combination of disease, overfishing, and multiple pressures from other human activities. Furthermore, the Caribbean region has experienced rapid ocean warming and acidification as a result of climate change that will continue and accelerate throughout the 21st century. It is evident that these changes will pose increasing threats to Caribbean reefs unless imminent actions are taken at the local, regional and global scale. Active management is required to sustain Caribbean reefs and increase their resilience to recover from acute stress events. Here, we propose local and regional solutions to halt and reverse Caribbean coral reef degradation under ongoing ocean warming and acidification. Because the Caribbean has already experienced high coral reef degradation, we suggest that this region may be suitable for more aggressive interventions that might not be suitable for other regions. Solutions with direct ecological benefits highlighted here build on existing knowledge of factors that can contribute to reef restoration and increased resilience in the Caribbean: (1) management of water quality, (2) reduction of unsustainable fishing practices, (3) application of ecological engineering, and (4) implementing marine spatial planning. Complementary socioeconomic and governance solutions include: (1) increasing communication and leveraging resources through the establishment of a regional reef secretariat, (2) incorporating reef health and sustainability goals into the blue economy plans for the region, and (3) initiating a reef labeling program to incentivize corporate partnerships for reef restoration and protection to sustain overall reef health in the region. © 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). ∗ Corresponding authors. E-mail addresses: firstname.lastname@example.com (A.J. Andersson), email@example.com (A.A. Venn). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rsma.2019.100677 2352-4855/© 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). 2 A.J. Andersson, A.A. Venn, L. Pendleton et al. / Regional Studies in Marine Science 29 (2019) 100677


One of the most popular aids adopted by users to reduce the pain suffered from the use of passwords is browsers' autocomplete feature. This feature, caching username and password after getting the user consent and using them later for automatic completion, is available in all modern browsers but communication with the user asking consent is implemented in different ways. In this paper, we report on user studies comparing active communication with a blocking dialog box and passive communication with a non-intrusive toolbar. We found that a dialog box misled users to save passwords in public computers. Conversely, no security problem was observed with passive communication. Our exploration provides empirical evidence for the risks of preferring active communication for password autocomplete and other similar interactions and sheds light on many other aspects of password autocomplete.


This Policy Contribution, based on a note written for the Bundestag EU Committee, explores the possible consequences of a no-deal Brexit for the European Union and assesses preparations on the EU side. It also provides guidance on the optimal strategy for the EU, depending on the choices made by the United Kingdom. Overall, a no-deal Brexit would be disruptive in the short-term - There would be immediate very significant administrative and logistical challenges in trade. Preparations to reduce those disruptions are underway but are unlikely to be sufficient. But while Most-Favoured Nation tariffs will affect some sectors significantly, the macroeconomic effect on the German economy might not be huge. If the UK fails to honour its financial commitments to the EU, about €16.5 billion would be missing for the remainder of the current EU budgetary period. The gap could be filled thanks to the existing 'own resources' ceiling. The overall missing 'Brexit bill' would amount to about €45-50 billion. Not honouring financial commitments would be considered by the EU as akin to default and would likely lead to an uncooperative no-deal Brexit. It would be more disruptive than a cooperative no-deal Brexit, in which the EU and the UK cooperate on a number of pressing emergency files. The European Commission has issued a number of draft regulations to mitigate the effects of a no-deal Brexit, including on issues such as aviation and visas. These are comprehensive but would not offset the effects of a no-deal Brexit, which would be highly disruptive in some sectors. The effects of a no-deal Brexit in the medium to long term are difficult to assess. A no-deal Brexit would lead to deterioration in long-term political relationships, which would make a new trade arrangement and other cooperation in the future less likely. A specific concern is the situation in Ireland, which is also the most contentious part of the Brexit negotiation. If the EU wants to protect the integrity of its single market, a no-deal Brexit will mean the imposition of customs controls on the Irish border. The European Commission's draft legislation aims to preserve the peace process, but a hard border could provoke renewed violence. The overall strategic direction the EU should take would be to increase the cost to the UK of a no-deal Brexit as much as possible (respecting ethical limits), while showing more flexibility over the political declaration and possibly the withdrawal deal itself.


We analyze the surface-wave propagation in homogeneous layers of chiral or optically active materials. Two cases of chiral slab are considered: a symmetric chiral slab waveguide and a grounded chiral slab waveguide. The dispersion relation and the electric-field components for surface waves guided in a symmetric chiral slab are analyzed and discussed in detail. The plots of dispersion diagrams and normalized intensities of electric-field components of surface waves are given for both symmetric and grounded chiral slabs, and their novel features are pointed out. The effects of chirality on these diagrams and field components are discussed. Physical insights and potential applications of the results are addressed.


"Small, but massive" - the stories that make me 'me'

Sometimes, when listening, a small fragment of an unfolding narrative will stand out, bringing a moment of clarity which then sticks – those are the 'gems'. I remember during one of the early focus groups for co-designing Bridges in Brain Injury there had been some discussion about what to call the book section where people describe how they keep on going, despite challenges, beyond simply carrying out physical activities. One of the project contributors, John, suddenly had the idea that the section could be called "This is me". Everyone nodded, smiled, agreed, and that was decided. Within this section of the Bridges Brain Injury book, contributors share stories of their personal, everyday ways in which they incorporate the things that "make me feel like me" – which are, as John says, "small, but massive" (another gem).

I consider the telling of and listening to stories - people talking about what they do, have done, want to do, and what it means to them, to be central in supporting self-management through the Bridges way of interacting. Starting from co-production of the resources, people's own stories of their experiences are the essential drivers, told in their own words and including their own choice of subjects. Someone recently made a general comment that, "Stories can't just be told any old way" – but why not, when that is what makes them unique, meaningful and contextualised. Supporting people in this way requires us to listen to stories, respond flexibly and without contamination from our own imposed structures and categorisations.

I have just returned from a conference called Broken Narratives and the Lived Body. Depending on whom I share this experience with, the responses range between a confused, "Huh?" to an enthusiastic, "Ooh". One fellow conference attendee told me a story about when she described her ethnographic research (on interactions of acute healthcare staff with patients) to a medical consultant, who had stopped to express momentary interest in her purpose on the ward: he responded, "Sounds like watching paint dry." No, not at all, it's fascinating, we both agreed.

The theme of the Broken Narratives conference portrayed the idea that when people become ill, the narrative structure and stability of their life stories are disrupted. If we are to offer meaningful support as healthcare professionals, then really listening to people's stories is essential. The importance of making time for this sort of listening, even in a busy acute setting, is powerfully captured in this blog called letting patients tell their stories to understand patients as people and 'placing them in the context of their long, messy, beautiful lives'.

'Broken narrative' research illustrates ways that narrative disruption does not simply relate to a personal narrative that is no longer continuing into the future according to an expected, or hoped for, plot. As listeners, we become aware of other ways in which narratives can be broken. Someone who is not able to convey their story in a conventionally linear way - perhaps confusing events across time, perhaps missing parts or details - may be considered to be giving a 'fragmented narrative', or to be telling their story incompletely. A person's stories do not exist in isolation though, but rather as 'entangled stories' that have been built on common ground between friends, partners, family members and others. Meaningful interactions and support from healthcare professionals require us to listen out for the shared social resources in these relationships, and the harmonies and tensions in people's entangled stories.

As listeners who are healthcare professionals, we also actively influence what is told to us, and can support the telling by providing 'scaffolding' when we hear 'fragmented' stories. What do we bring to this co-construction, and whose priorities drive it? Do we support people to tell us their story of "This is me"?


Effective delivery and accumulation of antimicrobial agents into the microbial organism is essential for the treatment of bacterial infections. Transports of hydrophilic drug molecules, however, encounter a robust barrier of hydrophobic double membrane cell envelope, thus, leading to drug-resistance in Gram-negative bacteria. Accordingly, a deeper understanding about a transit of charged molecules through a bacterial membrane is needed to remediate the antibacterial resistance. Herein, we apply a steady-state voltammetry using nanopipet-supported interfaces between two immiscible electrolyte solutions (ITIES) to quantitatively study transport-kinetics of antimicrobial drug ions (quinolones and sulfonamides) at a water/oil interface. Importantly, ITIES can mimic a cellular membrane system, thus, being employed as insightful surrogates for the kinetic study of drug entry through bacterial cytoplasmic membranes. This approach enables us to voltammetrically and amperometrically detect redox-inactive drug ions as pristine under physiological conditions. Considerably slow kinetics of drug-ion transports are successfully measured by nanopipet voltammetry and theoretically analyzed. This analysis reveals that the drug-ion transport is ∼3 orders of magnitude slower than tetrabutylammonium ion transport. In addition, the extreme hydrophilicity of drug ions in comparison to ClO4- is quantitatively assessed from half-wave potentials of obtained voltammograms. The high hydrophilicity exclusively attributed to localized negative charges on carboxylate or amide group of deprotonated quinolone or sulfonamide, respectively, may play a dominant role in sluggish kinetics due to the increase in energy barriers upon interfacial ion transfer. Notably, this study using nanopipet voltammetry provides physicochemical insights on the correlation between structural properties of pristine drug ions and their transfer kinetics at a water/oil interface in lieu of biological membranes.


This paper aims to analyze the effects of the Toxoplasma gondii infection in the intestinal wall and myenteric plexus of chicken (Gallus gallus). Ten 36-day-old chickens were separated into two groups: control and experimental, orally inoculated with oocysts of the T. gondii strain M7741 genotype III. After 60 days the birds were submitted to euthanasia and had their duodenum removed. Part of the intestinal segments was submitted to histological routine, HE staining, PAS histochemical technique, and Alcian Blue. Qualitative analysis of the intestinal wall and comparative measurements among the groups with respect to total wall thickness, muscle tunic, mucosa, and tunica mucosa were carried out. Caliciform cells were quantified. The other part of the intestinal segments was fixed in formol acetic acid and dissected having the tunica mucosa and the tela submucosa removed. Neurons were stained with Giemsa, counted, and measured. Chickens from the experimental group presented diarrhea and inflammatory infiltrates in the tunica mucosa, thickness reduction of all the parameters assessed in the intestinal wall, and an increase of the number of caliciform cells. There was a ~70% reduction regarding the intensity of myenteric neurons; and the remaining cells presented a reduction of ~2.4% of the perikarion and ~40.5% of the nucleus (p<0.05). Chronic infection induced by T. gondii oocysts resulted in intestinal wall atrophy, mucin secretion increase, death and atrophy of chicken myenteric plexus neurons. Death and atrophy of myenteric plexus neurons may be related with the causes of diarrhea observed in chickens with toxoplasmosis.


Inflammation is a cellular and molecular response to infection and/or tissues injury. While a suited inflammatory response in intensity and time allows for killing pathogens, clearing necrotic tissue, and healing injury; an excessive inflammatory response drives various diseases in which inflammation and tissues damages/stress self-sustain each other. Microbes have been poorly implied in non-resolving inflammation, emphasizing the importance of endogenous regulation of inflammation. Mitochondria have been historically identified as the main source of cellular energy, by coupling the oxidation of fatty acids and pyruvate with the production of high amount of adenosine triphosphate by the electron transport chain. Mitochondria are also the main source of reactive oxygen species. Interestingly, research in the last decade has highlighted that since its integration in eukaryote cells, this organelle of bacterial origin has not only been tolerated by immunity, but has also been placed as a central regulator of cell defense. In intact cells, mitochondria regulate cell responses to critical innate immune receptors engagement. Downstream intracellular signaling pathways interact with mitochondrial proteins and are tuned by mitochondrial functioning. Moreover, upon cell stress or damages, mitochondrial components are released into the cytoplasm or the extra cellular milieu, where they act as danger signals when recognized by innate immune receptors. Finally, by regulating the energetic state of immunological synapse between dendritic cells and lymphocytes, mitochondria regulate the inflammation fate toward immunotolerance or immunogenicity. As dysregulations of these processes have been recently involved in various diseases, the identification of the underlying mechanisms might open new avenues to modulate inflammation.


In the twenty-first century, the European Union is confronted by myriad security problems that demand concerted action and cooperation. As a negotiating power, it seeks to persuade Iran to forswear a nuclear weapons programme. As a crisis manager it seeks to contribute to global peace and stability through civilian and military operations. Closer to home, it is wrestling with questions about membership enlargement, large-scale migration and terrorist threats to the security of its populations and infrastructure. European governments, already under financial strain from ageing workforces and welfare systems, face ever more difficult choices about budget cuts in security and defence after the near-collapse of the global banking system. Will it be possible to enhance cooperation between member states? How can the EU complete its transition from a security actor with great potential to a player that credibly aligns available policy instruments and resources? These and other issues about the very nature and identity of the Union are explored in this Adelphi. From the need to establish its hard-power credentials, overcome its reluctance to demonstrate them against non-compliant states, and leverage its relationships with other great powers, to attempts to break its dependence on Russian energy, it is clear the EU has its work cut out. But, by affirming its commitment to multilateralism and defining a careful balance between closer cooperation and the national security concerns of EU member states, this book suggests, the European Union can build on its status as a global security power in the making.


Examining the intestinal tract of a female of Struthio molybdophanes Rchw., died in the Zoological garden at Rotterdam , I found in both the coeca a large number of Nematoids, which I believe to represent a new species, belonging to the genus Sclerostoma Rud. The parasite is characterized as follows: Body cylindrical, transversely striated, slightly narrowed in front, attenuated gradually towards the posterior extremity, with two narrow lateral-membranes. Anterior part of the head surrounded by an annular wall. Buccal capsule with a single row of stiff cilia, surrounding the mouth and a longitudinal furrow along the middle of the dorsal side. The sub-median oral papillae are conical, the lateral ones spade-shaped. Two small, pointed neck-papillae about the middle of the oesophagus. The caudal extremity of the male bent backwards and furnished with a trilobed bursa, consisting of two broad, rather polygonal, lateral lobes and a narrower, pear-shaped dorsal one. Each posterior ray bears at its base two short secondary branches, of which the external is somewhat longer than the internal. The posterior lateral ray (costa posterior externa Schneid.¹)) is rather slender and originates beneath the base of the common stam of the posterior rays; the middle rays are separated, the anterior being larger than the posterior. The anterior lateral ray (costa anterior externa Schneid.) is short and narrow, not much longer than the half of the middle ray; two anterior rays, of which the external is somewhat longer than the internal. Before the cloacal opening of the male there are two large and several small papillae. Two long, slightly S-like bent spicules, measuring 0,87 m.m., with their distal extremity curved kneelike. The caudal extremity of the female terminating in a conical, pointed tail; a large, papillose elevation before the vulva, situated 0,25 m.m. above the point of the tail. A bifurcated vagina, passing into two parallel uterine ducts, directed forwards and terminating each in a long ovarian coecum, with numerous coils.


The production of housing, beyond its role as a primary response to the human right of dwelling and provision of human shelter and welfare, has gradually shifted towards being a synonym of the capitalization of land, and of profitability and speculation in metropolitan regions worldwide. Only half a century ago, in Spanish post civil-war contexts, the (silenced) informal production of housing on the one side and the state-driven provision of mass housing in growing metropolises like Barcelona or Madrid on the other side responded to a massive demand. During that same period, the British architect John F. C. Turner studied informal housing production and strategies of selforganization in Peru, also in a demand-responding context, which led him to finally write his article "Housing as a verb" (in: Freedom to Build, New York, 1972), where housing is described as a process and an activity that corresponds to the real needs of its inhabitants in each step of their personal biography and development. At the turn to the 21st century, Spanish major urban agglomerations have shifted from a necessity-driven housing production towards merely speculation-driven dynamics, disconnected from real needs and a human-oriented urban development. In a contemporary context and as a consequence of the global financial crisis, those housing complexes built as pure products have become underutilized and even inaccessible products to possible users and have, as such, completely transformed the perception of housing production. Meanwhile, Latin American cities reinvent new mechanisms and policies of mass housing production, still in order to respond to an existing demand, but neglecting any participatory achievements of a past half-century, and are gradually evening the path towards adopting similar speculative tendencies in a post-colonial context. The paper claims for a contemporary (re)definition of housing as a verb and an activity and defines both forms of urban activisms and manifestations of urban memory as motors to achieve a reorientation of housing policies in contemporary Hispano-American contexts.


Nematode mitochondria expresses two types of extremely truncated tRNAs that are specifically recognized by two distinct elongation factor Tu (EF-Tu) species named EF-Tu1 and EF-Tu2. This is unlike the canonical EF-Tu molecule that participates in the standard protein biosynthesis systems, which basically recognizes all elongator tRNAs. EF-Tu2 specifically recognizes Ser-tRNASer that lacks a D arm but has a short T arm. Our previous study led us to speculate the lack of the D arm may be essential for the tRNA recognition of EF-Tu2. However, here, we showed that the EF-Tu2 can bind to D arm-bearing Ser-tRNAs, in which the D–T arm interaction was weakened by the mutations. The ethylnitrosourea-modification interference assay showed that EF-Tu2 is unique, in that it interacts with the phosphate groups on the T stem on the side that is opposite to where canonical EF-Tu binds. The hydrolysis protection assay using several EF-Tu2 mutants then strongly suggests that seven C-terminal amino acid residues of EF-Tu2 are essential for its aminoacyl-tRNA-binding activity. Our results indicate that the formation of the nematode mitochondrial (mt) EF-Tu2/GTP/aminoacyl-tRNA ternary complex is probably supported by a unique interaction between the C-terminal extension of EF-Tu2 and the tRNA.


Premise of the study: Using sequence data generated via target enrichment for phylogenetics requires reassembly of high-throughput sequence reads into loci, presenting a number of bioinformatics challenges. We developed HybPiper as a user-friendly platform for assembly of gene regions, extraction of exon and intron sequences, and identification of paralogous gene copies. We test HybPiper using baits designed to target 333 phylogenetic markers and 125 genes of functional significance in Artocarpus (Moraceae). Methods and Results: HybPiper implements parallel execution of sequence assembly in three phases: read mapping, contig assembly, and target sequence extraction. The pipeline was able to recover nearly complete gene sequences for all genes in 22 species of Artocarpus. HybPiper also recovered more than 500 bp of nontargeted intron sequence in over half of the phylogenetic markers and identified paralogous gene copies in Artocarpus. Conclusions: HybPiper was designed for Linux and Mac OS X and is freely available at https://github.com/mossmatters/HybPiper.


Experiments in vitro suggest that although interleukin 5 (IL-5) stimulates the late stages of eosinophil differentiation, other cytokines are required for the generation of eosinophil progenitor cells. In this study transgenic mice constitutively expressing the IL-5 gene were established using a genomic fragment of the IL-5 gene coupled to the dominant control region from the gene encoding human CD2. Four independent eosinophilic transgenic lines have thus far been established, two of which with 8 and 49 transgene copies, are described in detail. These mice appeared macroscopically normal apart from splenomegaly. Eosinophils were at least 65- and 265-fold higher in blood from transgenics, relative to normal littermates, and approximately two- or sevenfold more numerous relative to blood from mice infected with the helminth Mesocestoides corti. Much more modest increases in blood neutrophil, lymphocyte, and monocyte numbers were noted in transgenics, relative to normal littermates (less than threefold). Thus IL-5 in vivo is relatively specific for the eosinophil lineage. Large numbers of eosinophils were present in spleen, bone marrow, and peritoneal exudate, and were highest in the line with the greatest transgene copy number. Eosinophilia was also noted in histological sections of transgenic lungs, Peyer's patches, mesenteric lymph nodes, and gut lamina propria but not in other tissues examined. IL-5 was detected in the sera of transgenics at levels comparable to those seen in sera from parasite-infected animals. IL-3 and granulocyte/macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) were not found. IL-5 mRNA was detected in transgenic thymus, Peyer's patches, and superficial lymph nodes, but not in heart, liver, brain, or skeletal muscle or in any tissues from nontransgenics. Bone marrow from transgenic mice was rich in IL-5-dependent eosinophil precursors. These data indicate that induction of the IL-5 gene is sufficient for production of eosinophilia, and that IL-5 can induce the full pathway of eosinophil differentiation. IL-5 may therefore not be restricted in action to the later stages of eosinophil differentiation, as suggested by earlier in vitro studies.


Biliary tract carcinomas are relatively rare, but are increasingly diagnosed. They comprise several anatomically contiguous sites, so are often grouped together, but they do appear to represent distinct diseases, in part because of anatomical and surgical considerations. Complete upfront surgical resection is generally difficult because these cancers are often diagnosed at relatively advanced stages of disease. Thus, adjuvant therapy is often considered. This paper will review the evidence underpinning current recommendations for adjuvant therapy in biliary carcinomas.


Bilinear feature transformation has shown the state-of-the-art performance in learning fine-grained image representations. However, the computational cost to learn pairwise interactions between deep feature channels is prohibitively expensive, which restricts this powerful transformation to be used in deep neural networks. In this paper, we propose a deep bilinear transformation (DBT) block, which can be deeply stacked in convolutional neural networks to learn fine-grained image representations. The DBT block can uniformly divide input channels into several semantic groups. As bilinear transformation can be represented by calculating pairwise interactions within each group, the computational cost can be heavily relieved. The output of each block is further obtained by aggregating intra-group bilinear features, with residuals from the entire input features. We found that the proposed network achieves new state-of-the-art in several fine-grained image recognition benchmarks, including CUB-Bird, Stanford-Car, and FGVC-Aircraft.


Neither the Current EC Directives nor TRIPS make significant legal adjustments to cater for digitised information systems serving world networks, for information superhighways are too novel and shifting a phenomenon. The implications for Copyright, as the most likely tool for shoring up their economic value, are of course, under urgent scrutiny. Whatever else, the provision of on-line services for education, information, entertainment, business and Government promises very considerable realignments in what may be loosely labeled the information industry. In conditions of such insecurity, it seems highly important at least to ensure, if possible, that creators and other providers can secure returns on the users of their material which correspond to the sale of copies and the showing of material in cinemas and on television in the world to date. There are considerable hopes and considerable dangers in a digitised world.Authors, and the creative works that they develop, will ultimately determine whether new digital networks and the global information society succeed or fail. People simply will not take part in the new digital networks if the content available is not sufficiently interesting, creative or useful. Maintaining strong copyright protections for authors of every kind of creative work is necessary to ensure that these authors have adequate, market-driven incentives and rewards to create such content and to make it available to the public in these new ways. The Berne Protocol offers thoughtful and sensitive solutions to the challenges presented by the global Information society - particularly as to the issues of computer programs, temporary copying and use, distribution, digital transmissions and technical protections - while maintaining the maximum opportunity for the quality and quantity of content to grow in the new, digital environment. A successful negotiation of the Protocol will indeed help to make new laws in the digital copyright era.


In this thesis I explore the feasibility of technology enhanced teacher-learning approaches in rural Bangladesh. The secondary teachers of English are my research focus and, apart from them, the core stakeholders include the head teachers and the local teacher trainers. My research questions cover specific inquiries on the learning culture of these teachers, their attitudes about the application of technology in teacher-learning, and realistic pedagogical and management procedures for operationalising technology enhanced teacher-learning in rural Bangladesh. In my investigation I follow the critical realist and mixed-method research approaches by addressing the psychological, social, educational and technological perspectives of the stakeholders. Based on an extensive literature review on learning, pedagogy and technological interventions in professional development, I propose that the post-constructivist approaches (I use this term to refer to social constructivism and connectivism) are appropriate for the teacher-learning programmes for rural Bangladeshi teachers. The approaches are also compatible to various technological interventions. I initially design a technology enhanced teacher-learning framework emphasising the applications of teachers' experiences and reflections which, based on my research findings, extends to the applied form by incorporating the management, application of teacher-learning in teaching, and monitoring procedures. For collecting the research data I conduct a questionnaire-based survey and a series of six workshop-led focus group discussion sessions in a rural district of Bangladesh. In the process I emphasise the inclusion of different stakeholders and their higher participation to gain relevant indigenous knowledge representing realistic findings. The collected research data and their analysis provide useful baseline information particularly about the learning culture of the stakeholders and their perceptions about technology enhanced teacher-learning approaches. It also provides practical guidelines on the effective and sustainable approaches of technology enhanced teacher-learning in rural Bangladesh context. I expect that the learning from this research would help design and implement effective technology enhanced teacher-learning schemes for rural Bangladesh and, at the same time, provide guidelines to operationalise similar professional development programmes for the teachers of other subjects of other institutional levels representing different educational contexts.


Urban flow prediction benefits smart cities in many aspects, such as traffic management and risk assessment. However, a critical prerequisite for these benefits is having fine-grained knowledge of the city. Thus, unlike previous works that are limited to coarse-grained data, we extend the horizon of urban flow prediction to fine granularity which raises specific challenges: 1) the predominance of inter-grid transitions observed in fine-grained data makes it more complicated to capture the spatial dependencies among grid cells at a global scale; 2) it is very challenging to learn the impact of external factors (e.g., weather) on a large number of grid cells separately. To address these two challenges, we present a Spatio-Temporal Relation Network (STRN) to predict fine-grained urban flows. First, a backbone network is used to learn high-level representations for each cell. Second, we present a Global Relation Module (GloNet) that captures global spatial dependencies much more efficiently compared to existing methods. Third, we design a Meta Learner that takes external factors and land functions (e.g., POI density) as inputs to produce meta knowledge and boost model performances. We conduct extensive experiments on two real-world datasets. The results show that STRN reduces the errors by 7.1% to 11.5% compared to the state-of-the-art method while using much fewer parameters. Moreover, a cloud-based system called UrbanFlow 3.0 has been deployed to show the practicality of our approach.


We offer an explanation of government's preference for discretionary policy action. The main elements are asymmetric information and the ability and desire of governments to maximize reelection prospects. Discretionary policy imposes a social cost. We show that the cost is eliminated if all voters have the same information as the government. An optimal, state contingent policy rule that precommits government through a constitution eliminates the cost by removing government's opportunities to exploit its informational advantage. Rules of this kind, and constitutional restrictions, are difficult to enforce in the presence of uncertainty and different information available to government and the public.