A vast majority of the burden from neglected tropical diseases result from helminth infections (nematodes and platyhelminthes). Parasitic helminthes infect over 2 billion, exerting a high collective burden that rivals high-mortality conditions such as AIDS or malaria, and cause devastation to crops and livestock. The challenges to improve control of parasitic helminth infections are multi-fold and no single category of approaches will meet them all. New information such as helminth genomics, functional genomics and proteomics coupled with innovative bioinformatic approaches provide fundamental molecular information about these parasites, accelerating both basic research as well as development of effective diagnostics, vaccines and new drugs. To facilitate such studies we have developed an online resource, HelmCoP (Helminth Control and Prevention), built by integrating functional, structural and comparative genomic data from plant, animal and human helminthes, to enable researchers to develop strategies for drug, vaccine and pesticide prioritization, while also providing a useful comparative genomics platform. HelmCoP encompasses genomic data from several hosts, including model organisms, along with a comprehensive suite of structural and functional annotations, to assist in comparative analyses and to study host-parasite interactions. The HelmCoP interface, with a sophisticated query engine as a backbone, allows users to search for multi-factorial combinations of properties and serves readily accessible information that will assist in the identification of various genes of interest. HelmCoP is publicly available at: http://www.nematode.net/ helmcop.html.


Historical evidence indicates that the role of the undertaker gradually evolved as the
collective responsibilities of family and community for dealing with the dead were
passed to a full-time specialist known today as the funeral director.
Around 1900 the function of the undertaker was chiefly to supply the coffin and the
means of transportation to the place of disposal. However, due to urbanization and the
transition of the place of death from home to hospital, both of which have occurred this century, the funeral director's role has developed to embrace that of the custodian of the dead. In conjunction with the preference towards cremation, the shift from animate to vehicular power and the adoption of embalming, the funeral director
has acquired not only increased responsibilibty but also considerable control over funeral performance.
Parallel with these developments ,a shift in ownership of funeral firms has occurred
especially during the last three decades as independent organizations have been
acquired by large organizations. This latter type of firm has, it is argued, exploited
occupational control attributable to the rationalization of the death and disposal
environment by managing their funeral operations on a centralized basis, thus
achieving cost savings.
Commencing with an overview of the organization of death and disposal since the
fifteenth century, this thesis identifies and examines societal and technical changes that
have resulted in the control of the disposal process by formal organizations. It is argued
in this thesis that through the large centralized organization gaining a presence in the
funeral industry a number of negative consequences are apparent. Firstly, although
operational economies are achieved there is no evidence to suggest that these are
passed on to the consumer. Secondly, retention of the original trading name deceives
the public. Thirdly, through fieldwork conducted in a small, independent firm and
within a large centralized organization it is concluded that a degree of depersonalization
exists.
It is further argued that the operational rationale of the large funeral organizations
is being challenged as the recent increase in consumer awareness has led to the question
of exploitation, such as through a monopoly market structure. The position is
compounded by the emerging trend of newly-established independent funeral directors
offering competitively priced funerals.
The final area examined is the issue of professionalization of the funeral director.
Reasons why funeral directors embarked upon this quest are examined followed by an
analysis of strategies to achieve the objective. The change in the funeral director's role
and the issue of stigmatization through bodyhandling are critically assessed in addition
to the contribution to the process by the operational policies of the large organization.


The ring-opening polymerization of cyclic ketene acetals (CKAs) by controlled radical mechanisms represents an alternative route for the synthesis of aliphatic polyesters. For the first time, 5,6-benzo-2-methylene-1,3-dioxepane (BMDO) and 2-methylene-4-phenyl-1,3-dioxolane (MPDL) were homopolymerized by nitroxide mediated polymerization (NMP), from the commercially available SG1-based BlocBuilder MA alkoxyamine. Various experimental conditions (i.e., reaction temperature, nature of solvent, and nature of the alkyl initiating radical) were varied to determine the optimized conditions in terms of polymerization kinetics and living character of the final polymer. Chain-end extensions from either PS-SG1 or PBMDO-SG1 were also performed in order to furnish PS-b-PBMDO and PBMDO-b-PS, respectively, thus demonstrating the synthesis of block copolymers comprising a CKA block. In order to have a better insight into the polymerization mechanism, the occurrence of side reactions was analyzed by 31P NMR spectroscopy and ESI-MS. It was supposed that the ketal-based macroradical could be irreversibly trapped by nitroxide and thus the corresponding macroalkoxyamine decomposed by CO–N bond dissociation. DFT calculations as well as PREDICI modeling were also undertaken in order to support this hypothesis.


The increasing of deepwater oil field developments brings a growing need for thermal management to prevent hydrate and wax formations in the subsea production system, due to the low environment temperature and long-distance transportation. Pipeline insulation coating is a typical strategy for thermal management. In a subsea production system, pressure, temperature, flowrate, and length of each flowline vary, leading to different thermal performances of the transported fluid. Therefore, the insulation coating should be carefully designed from the overall perspective to minimize the total material volume, thus reducing the cost. In this paper, an optimization model for the insulation material volume of a rigid subsea flowline system is proposed. Then, the best insulation thickness of each subsea flowline can be determined under given flow parameters and temperature requirements. The factor that defines the temperature drop from the riser base to the top termination is introduced and analyzed. There is a proper temperature drop factor associated with the insulation material volume for subsea flowlines, as well as a proper insulation capacity for the risers. This optimization model can define the subsea system insulation and provide reliable results for cost estimation.


The fact that you are reading this lesson suggests that you have heard of open educational resources (OER). Currently, there is a lot of buzz about OER. Some see them as totally revolutionising how we bring learning materials into our education system and use them, while others see OER from a more pragmatic perspective. Before we start looking at OER, including their origin, benefits and challenges, it is important to consider the problems that we are facing today in education. While these problems range, in different countries, from lack of access to poor quality, there is a common thread in most: low availability of good-quality educational materials. Although learning materials are available, the cost of access in many locations is very high and increases each year. For example, the cost of college textbooks in the United States increased 82 per cent between 2002 and 2013— three times the rate of inflation.1 According to the College Board, in the 2014–15 academic year, students in the USA spent about USD 1200 each on textbooks.2 Another study indicated that 65 per cent of U.S. students do not buy textbooks due to prohibitive costs, despite being concerned about grades.3 Is this not alarming? While there are many other reasons to support OER, the cost issue is a primary factor in their growing popularity amongst students and teachers.


A National Strategy for E-health has been introduced in Swedish county councils. The strategy indicates that health care needs to become more accessible. To generate usable and sustainable e- Health solutions in Swedish health care, Participatory Design (PD) was introduced as a working method in an e-Health project in the south of Sweden. The project has met with opposition; e-health solutions are not exactly what Swedish health care wanted at the same time as different arenas within the health care organization have difficulties understanding each other. The aim of this study is to find work methods that result in applicable, usable, and sustainable ICT- solutions in every day work within Swedish health care. The study suggests that a modification of third generation of PD may be one way to the challenges PD has come across in the health care context.


Vaccination with irradiated tumor cells engineered to secrete granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) enhances tumor immunity in murine models through improved tumor antigen presentation by mature CD11b+ dendritic cells and macrophages. CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, CD1d-restricted invariant NKT cells, and antibodies are required for tumor protection. We have conducted several Phase I clinical trials of this vaccination scheme, using adenoviral mediated gene transfer to engineer autologous tumor cells, in patients with advanced melanoma, non-small lung carcinoma, ovarian carcinoma, and myeloid leukemia. These studies have revealed that vaccination increases tumor immunity in the majority of subjects, as distant metastases become densely infiltrated with T and B cells that accomplish extensive tumor necrosis. Moreover, the administration of a fully human monoclonal antibody that blocks cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated antigen 4 (CTLA-4) to previously vaccinated patients evokes additional tumor destruction with lymphocyte and granulocyte infiltrates and the disruption of the tumor vasculature. Unexpectedly, we found that some patients who achieved clinically significant responses to these therapies developed high titer antibodies against MHC class I chain-related protein A (MICA). This NKG2D ligand is frequently expressed on tumor cells as part of the DNA damage response. While the activation of NKG2D on innate and adaptive cytotoxic lymphocytes contributes to immune-mediated tumor destruction, tumor cell shedding of MICA, results in immune suppression through down-regulation of NKG2D surface expression. Nonetheless, we found that the immunotherapy-induced humoral reactions to MICA were associated with a reduction of circulating soluble MICA (sMICA) and an augmentation of NK cell and CD8+ T lymphocyte cytotoxicity. These anti-MICA antibodies efficiently opsonized cancer cells for dendritic cell crosspresentation, which was correlated with a diversification of tumor antigen recognition. The anti-MICA antibodies also accomplished tumor cell lysis through complement fixation. Together, these findings establish a key role for the NKG2D pathway in the clinical activity of CTLA-4 antibody blockade and GM-CSF secreting tumor cell vaccines. Moreover, these results highlight the therapeutic potential of anti-MICA antibodies to overcome immune suppression and effectuate tumor destruction in patients.


This paper reports a field study undertaken to determine if the foliar application of herbicides fluroxypyr (150 mL 100 L-1 a.i.) and metsulfuron-methyl (12 g 100 L-1 a.i.) were capable of reducing the germination and viability of Chromolaena odorata (L.) R.M.King & H.Rob. (Siam weed) seeds at three different stages of maturity. After foliar application of fluroxypyr germination of mature seeds was reduced by 88% and intermediate and immature seeds were reduced by 100%, compared to the control. Fluroxypyr also reduced the viability of mature, intermediate and immature seeds by 79, 89 and 67% respectively, compared to the control. Metsulfuron-methyl reduced germination of intermediate and immature seeds by 53 and 99% respectively compared to the control. Viability was also reduced by 74 and 96% respectively, compared to the control. Mature seeds were not affected by metsulfuron-methyl as germination and viability increased by 2% and 1% respectively, as compared to the control. These results show that these herbicides are capable of reducing the amount of viable seed entering the seed bank. However depending on the treatment and stage of seed development a percentage of seeds on the plants will remain viable and contribute to the seed bank. This information is of value to Siam weed eradication teams as plants are most easily located and subsequently treated at the time of flowering. Knowledge of the impact of control methods on seeds at various stages of development will help determine the most suitable chemical control option for a given situation.


In the real estate industry, regulatory interventions increased after the subprime crisis 2007/2008 and were followed by a regulatory shock and, in parts, a restructuring of the industry. In addition, the digitalization has entered industries. New opportunities arise, (production and business) processes transform and the value creation shifts from production to service to software. In the large body of innovation research manufacturing industries and product innovations have been in the focus ever since. Non-manufacturing organizations such as in the real estate industry and transforming manufacturing industries with blurring boundaries fueled by the digital age are currently under-researched. This paper investigates the relationship between firm innovativeness, an organization's overall potential to innovate, and its innovation output while considering the influential organization's context. It sheds light on the impact of the external environment and the regulatory interventions that shape the industry structure. To address the heterogeneous subsectors of the real estate industry and to ensure comparability among them, we develop and empirically test a universally applicable measurement model of firm innovativeness that comprehensively captures all relevant aspects on a higher level of abstraction. Furthermore, we have purposely incorporated measures that rely on the respondent's perception because perception determines reality. Variance-based structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) is used to analyze the dyadic design of our study including a sample comprised of 241 individuals, i.e., top-level executives and their employees from 76 organizations of the German real estate industry. Results prove validity of the newly developed measure for firm innovativeness and show that environmental heterogeneity moderates the flow from firm innovativeness to new product and service introductions. Highly competitive environments negatively influence the introduction of new products and services directly, and environmental dynamism does not have an impact (for now). Contrary to the expectation, high levels of regulation prove to facilitate organizations to introduce new products and services as well as new internal processes.


We study ultra-cold bosons out of equilibrium in a one-dimensional (1D) setting and probe the breaking of integrability and the resulting relaxation at the onset of the crossover from one to three dimensions. In a quantum Newton's cradle type experiment, we excite the atoms to oscillate and collide in an array of 1D tubes and observe the evolution for up to 4.8 seconds (400 oscillations) with minimal heating and loss. By investigating the dynamics of the longitudinal momentum distribution function and the transverse excitation, we observe and quantify a two-stage relaxation process. In the initial stage single-body dephasing reduces the 1D densities, thus rapidly drives the 1D gas out of the quantum degenerate regime. The momentum distribution function asymptotically approaches the distribution of quasimomenta (rapidities), which are conserved in an integrable system. In the subsequent long time evolution, the 1D gas slowly relaxes towards thermal equilibrium through the collisions with transversely excited atoms. Moreover, we tune the dynamics in the dimensional crossover by initializing the evolution with different imprinted longitudinal momenta (energies). The dynamical evolution towards the relaxed state is quantitatively described by a semiclassical molecular dynamics simulation.


Wild dabbling ducks (genus Anas) are the main reservoir for influenza A virus (IAV) in the Northern Hemisphere. Current understanding of disease dynamics and epidemiology in this virus-host system has primarily been based on population-level surveillance studies and infection experiments conducted in laboratory settings. Using a combined experimental-natural approach with wild-strain captive mallards (Anas platyrhynchos), we monitored individual IAV infection histories and immunological responses of 10 birds over the course of 15 months. This is the first detailed study to track natural IAV infection histories over several seasons amongst the same individuals growing from juvenile to adults. The general trends in the infection histories of the monitored birds reflected seasonal variation in prevalence at the population level. However, within the study group there were significant differences between individuals in infection frequency as well as in short and long term anti-IAV antibody response. Further observations included individual variation in the number of infecting virus subtypes, and a strong tendency for long-lasting hemagglutinin-related homosubtypic immunity. Specifically, all infections in the second autumn, except one, were of different subtypes compared to the first autumn. The variation among birds concerning these epidemiologically important traits illustrates the necessity for IAV studies to move from the level of populations to examine individuals in order to further our understanding of IAV disease and epidemiology.


ABSTRACT Understanding the interaction between broadly neutralizing antibodies and their epitopes provides a basis for the rational design of a preventive hepatitis C virus (HCV) vaccine. CBH-2, HC-11, and HC-1 are representatives of antibodies to overlapping epitopes on E2 that mediate neutralization by blocking virus binding to CD81. To obtain insights into escape mechanisms, infectious cell culture virus, 2a HCVcc, was propagated under increasing concentrations of a neutralizing antibody to isolate escape mutants. Three escape patterns were observed with these antibodies. First, CBH-2 escape mutants that contained mutations at D431G or A439E, which did not compromise viral fitness, were isolated. Second, under the selective pressure of HC-11, escape mutations progressed from a single L438F substitution at a low antibody concentration to double substitutions, L438F and N434D or L438F and T435A, at higher antibody concentrations. Escape from HC-11 was associated with a loss of viral fitness. An HCV pseudoparticle (HCVpp) containing the L438F mutation bound to CD81 half as efficiently as did wild-type (wt) HCVpp. Third, for HC-1, the antibody at a critical concentration completely suppressed viral replication and generated no escape mutants. Epitope mapping revealed contact residues for CBH-2 and HC-11 in two regions of the E2 glycoprotein, amino acids (aa) 425 to 443 and aa 529 to 535. Interestingly, contact residues for HC-1 were identified only in the region encompassing aa 529 to 535 and not in aa 425 to 443. Taken together, these findings point to a region of variability, aa 425 to 443, that is responsible primarily for viral escape from neutralization, with or without compromising viral fitness. Moreover, the region aa 529 to 535 is a core CD81 binding region that does not tolerate neutralization escape mutations.


This paper presents research on polar cap ionosphere space weather phenomena conducted during the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) action ES0803 from 2008 to 2012. The main part of the work has been directed toward the study of plasma instabilities and scintillations in association with cusp flow channels and polar cap electron density structures/patches, which is considered as critical knowledge in order to develop forecast models for scintillations in the polar cap. We have approached this problem by multi-instrument techniques that comprise the EISCAT Svalbard Radar, SuperDARN radars, in-situ rocket, and GPS scintillation measurements. The Discussion section aims to unify the bits and pieces of highly specialized information from several papers into a generalized picture. The cusp ionosphere appears as a hot region in GPS scintillation climatology maps. Our results are consistent with the existing view that scintillations in the cusp and the polar cap ionosphere are mainly due to multi-scale structures generated by instability processes associated with the cross-polar transport of polar cap patches. We have demonstrated that the SuperDARN convection model can be used to track these patches backward and forward in time. Hence, once a patch has been detected in the cusp inflow region, SuperDARN can be used to forecast its destination in the future. However, the high-density gradient of polar cap patches is not the only prerequisite for high-latitude scintillations. Unprecedented high-resolution rocket measurements reveal that the cusp ionosphere is associated with filamentary precipitation giving rise to kilometer scale gradients onto which the gradient drift instability can operate very efficiently. Cusp ionosphere scintillations also occur during IMF B Z north conditions, which further substantiates that particle precipitation can play a key role to initialize plasma structuring. Furthermore, the cusp is associated with flow channels and strong flow shears, and we have demonstrated that the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability process may be efficiently driven by reversed flow events.


We present a detailed Cu K-edge resonant inelastic x-ray scattering RIXS study of the Mott insulator La2CuO4 in the 1 – 7 eV energy loss range. As initially found for the high-temperature superconductor HgBa2CuO4+, the spectra exhibit a multiplet of weakly dispersive electron-hole excitations, which are revealed by utilizing the subtle dependence of the cross section on the incident photon energy. The close similarity between the fine structures for in-plane and out-of-plane polarizations is indicative of the central role played by the 1s core hole in inducing charge excitations within the CuO2 planes. On the other hand, we observe a polarization dependence of the spectral weight, and careful analysis reveals two separate features near 2 eV that may be related to different charge-transfer processes. The polarization dependence indicates that the 4p electrons contribute significantly to the RIXS cross section. Third-order perturbation arguments and a shake-up of valence excitations are then applied to account for the final-energy resonance in the spectra. As an alternative scenario, we discuss fluorescence-like emission processes due to 1s → 4p transitions into a narrow continuum 4p band.


Microbreweries and craft beers are a growing trend
nationwide. In order to encourage more development in this growing industry, the state of Maryland
has created a few new liquor licenses that make small-scale brewing easier. One of these is the Class 8 Farm Brewery License. This license is just for farmers and is especially useful because it allows for on-site consumption of the beer, not just sale. Any farmer with a Class 8 farm brewery license may
also sell and deliver beer from the farm brewery to a wholesale company or directly to an individual consumer. The license has an annual fee of $200
and the license application can be found online here. In addition to the requirements of this license, you will also need to comply with Federal regulations, and perhaps additional county or district laws depending on where the brewery will be located.


Multi-Dimensional analyses have been conducted for many different discourse domains and many different languages. Using bottom-up statistical analyses, these studies have investigated specific patterns of register variation in several different discourse domains of English, as well as the more general patterns of register variation in many different languages. Each study identifies linguistic dimensions that are peculiar to that particular language/domain. However, the more theoretically interesting finding is that linguistically similar dimensions emerge in nearly all of these studies. Two of these dimensions are especially robust, making them strong candidates for universal dimensions of register variation: 1) a fundamental opposition between clausal/'oral' discourse vs. phrasal/'literate' discourse, and 2) the opposition between narrative vs. non-narrative discourse. The present paper introduces the methodology of Multi-Dimensional analysis and surveys the research studies carried out to date, with an emphasis on these potentially universal patterns of register variation.


Aims and Objectives: To report a synthesis of the literature on the meaning of trust in the context of patients' experiences of nursing. The review question was "How do patients describe the meaning of trust in the nursing relationship?" Background: Trust is essential in nursing as it has the potential to create opportunities for the human being to gain faith, hope and meaning in life as well as open up for new experiences. Trust is an interpersonal and essential element of all patient-nurse relationships and requires nurses to create a trusting relationship with the patients. Design: Systematic qualitative literature review. Methods: Systematic searches were conducted for the period January 2002 to December 2012, updated in January 2014. 20 papers were included. Results: Four categories emerged: Attitudes related to trust, indicating that trust is fundamental and existential; Experiences of trust, concerning how trust can be sensed; The patient-nurse relationship, revealing the qualities of the person who creates trust; and Where trust occurs, illuminating the contextual relevancies of trust. Conclusions: Patients' experiences of trust in nursing are dependent on the nurses' knowledge, level of commitment in the dialogue to creating and developing the relationship and contextual issues. Implications for nursing practice: Reflection on a trusting relationship with the patient is necessary for a deeper conceptual understanding of trust in nursing. Clinical nurse researchers nurse supervisors, managers and nurse educatorsshould discuss different areas of trust during nursing supervision and focus-group meetings as well as with nursing graduates to ensure that nurses develop knowledge of how to create a trusting patient-nurse relationship.


Safety of street-vended smoked fish has become public health issue in Nigeria in recent times. This study therefore was carried out to assess the microbial quality and chemical safety of modern convective smoked Guinean barracuda fish from Lagos State, Nigeria. Fresh fish (100) samples were collected from twenty major processing centres from Lagos State, Nigeria and the samples were smoked with modern convective kiln. The fresh and smoked fish samples were analysed for proximate, quality and rancidity indices (PV, TBA, TVB-N, TMA and FFA), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH), heavy metals and microbiological (coliform, fungi, Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella paratyphi and Staphylococcus aureus ). The results revealed that the mean moisture, protein, fat, crude fibre, ash and carbohydrate contents (%) of smoked fish samples ranged from 8.34-9.78, 57.43-63.71, 13.24-17.47, 1.36-1.92, 1.89-2.89 and 8.29-12.12 respectively. The vales of PV, TBA, TVB-N, TMA and FFA were in the range of 7.23-9.53 meq. peroxide/kg, 1.11-1.51,  1.00-1.51 mg Mol/kg , 15.36-17.91 mgN/kg and 2.03-2.49 mgN/kg respectively. The results of PAHs showed the presence of sixteen (16) PAHs compounds in the smoked fish samples.  However, only few of the sixteen PAHs compounds detected are above the 5.0 μg /kg B (α) P maximum permissible levels stipulated by EU Regulation 1881/2006. The concentrations (μg/g) of Hg, Pb, Cd, and Cr in the smoked fish samples were in the range of 0.0016-0.0024, 0.0012-0.0023, 0.0015-0.0023, and 0.0629-0.0856 respectively. The microbiological analysis revealed the presence of L. monocytogenes and S. aureus in the smoked fish samples. In conclusion, study showed that smoked Guinean barracuda fish may constitute higher risks (chemical) to consumers if adequate precaution is not taken but the samples are microbiological safe.


"I am a philosopher because I am a Christian," writes Brian Leftow. "To many intellectuals, this probably sounds like saying that I am a dog because I am a cat." Indeed, prejudice against religious belief runs deep in the academy; in particular, many philosophers hold that faith is incompatible with their profession. But Thomas Morris has met that view head-on by asking a distinguished group of philosophers to write about the union of faith and reason in their lives. God and the Philosphers offers a series of highly personal, thoughtful essays by traditionally religious philosophers, revealing the power of belief in their intellectually rigorous lives and work. Figures such as William P. Alston, William J. Wainwright, Marilyn McCord Adams, Peter van Inwagen, and Morris himself, to name a few, speak of their own spiritual journeys, sharing their experiences as philosphically reflective individuals seeking to center themselves on God. We read of conversions from unbelief, struggles with doubts raised by the presence of evil in the world, and changing convictions shaped by constant questioning and communing with God. For example, Brian Leftow describes his acceptance of Christianity, after being raised in a secular Jewish home, and Laura Garcia writes about her conversion to Catholicism from her earlier Protestant stance. Along the way, the writers reveal religious philosophy at work--demonstrating, as Arthur F. Holmes writes, "the motivation to intellectual inquiry that Christian faith brings." Here we see how individuals with extraordinary intellectual training, discipline, and knowledge grapple with personal and existential problems, drawing on their faith as well as their finely honed reason to achieve new understanding. Profoundly honest and deeply thoughtful, these essays reveal how highly educated philosophers--working in the halls of dispassionate analysis--come to grips with their faith in a skeptical world. Together, they make a profound statement on contemporary spirituality, and the quandaries facing today's religious individual.


A device for making comparator settings by photoelectric scanning of spectrum line images is described. The fiducial position is determined by matching mirror image oscilloscope traces of the line contour. This method combines the advantages of increased speed, precision, objectivity of setting, and decreased eye and nervous strain on the operator. The device is readily adaptable to comparators of the fixed microscope-moving plate type, and conversion from photoelectric to visual setting can be accomplished in a few minutes.


In this paper an exact baseband equivalent model of a quadrature modulated all-digital transmitter is derived. No restrictions on the number of levels of a digital switched-mode power amplifier (SMPA) driving input, nor the pulse encoding scheme employed, are made. This implies a high level of generality of the proposed model. We show that all-digital transmitter (ADT) can be represented as a series connection of the pulse encoder, discrete-time Volterra series model of fixed degree and memory depth, and a linear time-varying system with special properties. This result suggests a new analytically motivated structure of a digital predistortion (DPD) of SMPA nonlinearities in ADT. Numerical simulations in MATLAB are used to verify proposed baseband equivalent model.


One of the most challenging tasks in software system design is to assure reliability, especially as these systems are increasingly used in sensitive and often life-critical environments such as medical systems, air traffic control, and space applications. Many claim that formal methods not only provide assurance of reliability but also have the potential to reduce costs. Although the literature contains many excellent examples of applications of formal methods for large, critical, or even business transaction systems, a large percentage of practitioners see formal methods as irrelevant to their daily work. Why? This roundtable brings together some preeminent experts in the field, asking them to address the question "What is hindering the use of formal methods in industry?"


We present a new time‐slice reconstruction of the Eurasian ice sheets (British–Irish, Svalbard–Barents–Kara Seas and Scandinavian) documenting the spatial evolution of these interconnected ice sheets every 1000 years from 25 to 10 ka, and at four selected time periods back to 40 ka. The time‐slice maps of ice‐sheet extent are based on a new Geographical Information System (GIS) database, where we have collected published numerical dates constraining the timing of ice‐sheet advance and retreat, and additionally geomorphological and geological evidence contained within the existing literature. We integrate all uncertainty estimates into three ice‐margin lines for each time‐slice; a most‐credible line, derived from our assessment of all available evidence, with bounding maximum and minimum limits allowed by existing data. This approach was motivated by the demands of glaciological, isostatic and climate modelling and to clearly display limitations in knowledge. The timing of advance and retreat were both remarkably spatially variable across the ice‐sheet area. According to our compilation the westernmost limit along the British–Irish and Norwegian continental shelf was reached up to 7000 years earlier (at c. 27–26 ka) than the eastern limit on the Russian Plain (at c. 20–19 ka). The Eurasian ice sheet complex as a whole attained its maximum extent (5.5 Mkm2) and volume (~24 m Sea Level Equivalent) at c. 21 ka. Our continental‐scale approach highlights instances of conflicting evidence and gaps in the ice‐sheet chronology where uncertainties remain large and should be a focus for future research. Largest uncertainties coincide with locations presently below sea level and where contradicting evidence exists. This first version of the database and time‐slices (DATED‐1) has a census date of 1 January 2013 and both are available to download via the Bjerknes Climate Data Centre and PANGAEA (www.bcdc.no; http://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.848117).


The perception that juvenile crime is out of control and that the juve nile justice system is too lenient on offenders has led to a reevaluation, in popular discourse and academic scholarship, of the goals of the juvenile justice system. This article seeks to determine the extent to which "get tough" rhetoric has been operationalized by legislatures in the purpose clause of the juvenile justice code. The purpose clause is found at the beginning of a code section. It serves the function of explaining the goals of that section of the code, outlining what the legislature hopes to accom plish through the code. We examine juvenile justice code purpose claus es to determine which states still adhere to the traditional model of juve nile justice, which states have adopted a punitive approach, which states have endorsed the balanced approach, and which states have failed to adopt a coherent set of goals for the juvenile justice system.


This paper describes a mechanism for improving the scalability of preservation actions on large linked archives, such as WARC and ARC files produced from the archiving of web sites. To enable accurate but efficient preservation actions, information on the files embedded within a container object, such as the file formats of the embedded files, are aggregated and recorded as properties of the container object. This occurs during the ingest of objects into the archiving system, specifically at the characterization stage when files are identified and validated. To ensure that the details of all embedded files are also recorded, nested archives are recursively unpacked and their contents characterized to identify all files in a package. Information about the embedded files is then stored as properties of the container object: this allows us to efficiently aggregate information about the contents of a container as queryable properties of the container. This storage of the embedded file type information on the container object reduces the number of objects and properties which have to be queried to perform a preservation action, such as migration to a more recent file type. The database can be queried for a specific file type, and all files of that type, and archives containing files of that type will be returned without needing to query each embedded object individually. Archives containing files in need of preservation are temporarily unpacked and the files in need of transformation identified and migrated. Following the preservation action, the internal links within the archive are updated to maintain the integrity of the archive and the modified objects are re-ingested back into the system. This approach results in minimal extra overhead at the ingest stage of preservation, but substantially reduces the number of entities which need to be queried to identify objects at risk when performing preservation actions. In the case of large web archives, this may be several orders of magnitude, producing a corresponding increase in performance and scalability.


The α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (α7 nAChR) is an important and challenging target for drug discovery in the area of neuropsychiatric disorders. The current screening for chemicals targeting α7 nAChRs is primarily achieved by the use of low-throughput assay two-electrode voltage clamp (TEVC) in nonmammalian Xenopus oocytes. Automated patch clamp system has emerged as an attractive approach compared to conventional electrophysiology. To develop a mammalian cell-based functional assay in an automated electrophysiology system, we in this study generated a stable expression of α7 nAChRs in GH3 cells that originated from a rat pituitary tumor cell line and utilized automated QPatch-16 to test a set of tool compounds and chemicals identified as α7 agonists by TEVC. For the improvement of evaluating weak or partial α7 nAChRs agonists, we achieved enhancement of the signal-to-noise ratio by the addition of a positive allosteric modulator PNU-120596, which only activates α7 current in the presence of agonist. This improved assay was further validated by using known α7 partial agonists, such as RG3487, EVP-6124, and A-P90. Using this validated assay, we were able to identify a novel agonist 140507C that partially activates α7 nAChRs. Taken together, our results validate the use of QPatch-16 for evaluation α7 partial agonists, demonstrating its utility as an effective tool for α7 ion channel drug discovery.


Abstract A glance at key indicators—in terms of growth forecast and stable elections—will project Sierra Leone as a political settlement model for a post-conflict state. Sierra Leone has been an important laboratory for UN and international donors' interventions and thinking. However, efforts by the international donor community to decentralise power to the margins, both geographically and demographically, have failed. Instead, this focus on the institutions of governance has allowed the same elite to maintain power. Sierra Leone today shares similar socio-economic and political conditions with the Sierra Leone before the outbreak of the civil war. A detailed analysis of the country's socio-economic trends, its political institutions and the logic and dynamics of violence show a disturbing picture. While the international community considered that an exit strategy was feasible, the political settlement remains an experiment in that it is detached from everyday life and livelihood concerns of Sierra Leoneans and reveals the structural violence behind this process.


Abstract The robustness of the EU's constitutional framework – and its ability to accommodate democratic politics – is challenged as never before. The growing disconnect between formally democratic procedures and substantive choice is well illustrated by the Greek crisis. Since its first bailout in May 2010, Greece has held four general elections and a referendum. Yet, the anti-austerity preferences of the Greek electorate have not been effectively translated into policy. This article uses the Greek crisis to analyse the EU's democratic deficit, and the related issue of the locus of legal and political sovereignty in the EU. It argues that the EU's constitutional framework is not sufficiently responsive to changing material conditions or to the changing preferences of Europeans. Thus, EU constitutionalism needs to be refashioned in order to strike a better balance between democratic and technocratic governance, as well as between the needs of individual citizens, national citizenries, and states.


A combined approach of deductive and inductive reasoning can leverage the clear separation between the evolving (streaming) and static parts of online knowledge at conceptual and technological levels. What are the hottest topics discussed on Twitter? Which topics have my close friends discussed in the last hour? Which movie is my friend most likely to watch next? Which Tuscan red wine should I recommend? With many popular social networks publishing microblogs and feeds, the information required to answer these queries is becoming available on the Web.


Even if you've never used Macromedia Dreamweaver before, this Visual QuickStart Guide will have you up and running with Macromedia's popular Web authoring program in no time. In this completely updated edition of our best-selling guide to Macromedia Dreamweaver, leading technology authors Tom Negrino and Dori Smith use their trademark crystal-clear instructions and friendly prose to introduce you everything that's new in Dreamweaver 8. Filled with step-by-step, task-based instructions and loads of visual aids, this book explains how to use all of the program's visual layout tools, application development features, and code editing support to create stunning, accessible Web sites. Along the way, you'll find extensive coverage of all the program's new features: drag-and-drop integration of XML data feeds, improved CSS support, advanced style rendering toolbar, the industry's first integrated Web accessibility evaluation tool for Section 508 and WCAG 2 checkpoints, and more!


The province of Alberta, like other provinces in Canada, has made considerable progress in increasing supply of good quality water for domestic use and consumption. However, the quality of rural drinking water in southern Alberta has received considerable attention in recent years because of intensive agricultural activities, livestock density, floods and the highest incidence of E coli O157:H7 infection in the country. In fact relevant literature indicates that the region's water sources have high concentration levels of nitrate and/or coliform bacteria that exceed drinking water guidelines thus threatening the health of local farmers and residents. Little information is available on the farmstead drinking water safety practices of livestock farm families in southern Alberta so an inperson survey of feedlot farm families was carried out in Lethbridge Northern Irrigation District (LNID), one of the 13 irrigation districts located in southern Alberta. All respondents strongly agreed that access to safe and clean drinking water is essential for human and animal health and performance and they indicated that they use multiple water sources to avoid health problems. Other drinking water safety practices included the use of bottled water and/or home water treatment technologies for human consumption and the use of LNID monitored irrigation water for feedlot operations and gardens. Regarding the type of home water treatment technology used, a majority (over 70%) used filtered water for cooking, drinking and washing. Only 9% used the city water supply for domestic purposes and 6% depended on the LNID water supply. It was interesting to note that 66% were concerned about their local water source and 67% were concerned about waterborne illnesses and 45% of respondents reported that they tested their water quality annually.


In this article we explore social movement solidarity through an examination of narratives offered by participants in a metaphysical movement. Drawing from contemporary social movement theory, we focus on how members develop a carefully built collective identity that perpetuates movement goals and ideology. Data for this project are drawn from in-depth interviews with local psychics, participant observation in various metaphysical fairs, and document analysis. We find that the movement's collective identity is centered around several narratives that help establish boundaries, identify antagonists, and create a collective consciousness. Together these narratives form a web of belief that binds members to the movement. The data we present in this article have implications for understanding other expressive movements, as well as for social movement theory in general.


Heavily irradiated peritoneal cells (PC) from congenitally athymic nude (nu/nu) mice markedly restored the impaired in vitro antibody response of nu/nu spleen cells to sheep erythrocyte antigens (T-dependent antigen), whereas irradiated spleen or lymph node cells from nu/nu mice had no effect on the response. This activity of the irradiated PC of nu/nu mice was completely abolished by treatment with anti-Thy-1.2 antiserum plus normal guinea pig serum (C') and is, therefore, attributable to a function of matured T cells.


A numerical procedure for assessing the performance of an active noise and vibration control system for a harmonically excited weakly coupled multimodal vibroacoustic system is presented. The structure and the contiguous acoustic space have been modeled separately with a commercially available finite element analysis package (ANSYS) and then combined using a modal coupling theory for weakly coupled systems. Numerical results are compared against experimental measurements for a finite longitudinally stiffened cylinder with an integral floor. Experimental based response matrices were measured and used to predict the system response. Modal analysis was applied in order to reduce the required effort in determining the response matrix. A design methodology for optimizing the physical control system is reviewed and several trends presented.


Abstract This essay examines the history of the 'Eurafrican project' as it evolved from the Pan-European movement in the 1920s to its institutionalization in the European Economic Community (EEC) (i.e. today's EU) in the late 1950s. As shown in the essay, practically all of the visions, movements and concrete institutional arrangements working towards European integration during this period placed Africa's incorporation into the European enterprise as a central objective. As so much of the scholarly, political and journalistic accounts at the time testify, European integration was inextricably bound up with a Eurafrican project. According to the intellectual, political and institutional discourse on Eurafrica – or the fate of Europe's colonial enterprise – a future European community presupposed the transformation of the strictly national colonial projects into a joint European colonization of Africa. Indeed, there is strong evidence to suggest that these ideas were instrumental in the actual diplomatic and political constitution of the EEC, or of Europe as a political subject. The essay discusses the conspicuous absence of these matters from scholarship on European integration and its historical origins and trajectory. It also notes that it is equally neglected in postcolonial studies, which should be able to provide the theoretical and historical tools to engage with the complex and instructive issues with which the Eurafrican project and its intimate links to the history of European integration confront today's scholars.


ABSTRACT Signed two-mode networks have so far predominantly been analyzed using blockmodeling techniques. In this work, we put forward the idea of projecting such networks onto its modes. Two projection methods are introduced which allow the application of known dichotomization tool for weighted networks to obtain a simple signed network. It turns out, however, that resulting networks may contain ambivalent ties, defined as conjunctions of positive and negative ties. We show that this requires the reformulation of matrices related to the network and introduce the complex adjacency and Laplacian matrix. These matrices are used to prove some properties related to balance theory including ambivalence.


Fiber optic temperature sensing has become a well-defined field in the past few decades [1] through the use of Fiber Bragg Gratings, Fabry-Perot interferometry, and pyrometry, to list several techniques in use today. The use of fiber optics offers significant advantages over electronic sensing in terms of size and insensitivity to harsh conditions such as extreme temperatures and corrosive environments. The availability of optical sapphire materials, including fibers, has allowed the creation of fiber optic sensing elements able to continuously operate at temperatures of 1600°C [2] or more, thus outstripping the abilities of many commonly used thermocouples (excluding platinum types R, S, and B) [3] which will also exhibit a sensitivity to electromagnetic fields. In addition to the aforementioned benefits, fiber optic sensing techniques provide a great deal of accuracy in temperature measurement over the entire working range of the sensor. The work documented in this thesis consists of efforts to minimize the overall footprint of a sapphire based extrinsic Fabry-Perot interferometry (EFPI) temperature sensing element, as well as strides made in multiplexing the same element and reducing the error potential from cross sensitivity of the thermometer with applied strain. This work has been variously funded by Pratt & Whitney and the Department of Energy.


Feed-forward neural networks can be understood as a combination of an intermediate representation and a linear hypothesis. While most previous works aim to diversify the representations, we explore the complementary direction by performing an adaptive and data-dependent regularization motivated by the empirical Bayes method. Specifically, we propose to construct a matrix-variate normal prior (on weights) whose covariance matrix has a Kronecker product structure. This structure is designed to capture the correlations in neurons through backpropagation. Under the assumption of this Kronecker factorization, the prior encourages neurons to borrow statistical strength from one another. Hence, it leads to an adaptive and data-dependent regularization when training networks on small datasets. To optimize the model, we present an efficient block coordinate descent algorithm with analytical solutions. Empirically, we demonstrate that the proposed method helps networks converge to local optima with smaller stable ranks and spectral norms. These properties suggest better generalizations and we present empirical results to support this expectation. We also verify the effectiveness of the approach on multiclass classification and multitask regression problems with various network structures.


Here, we present an analysis of monthly, seasonal, and annual long‐term precipitation time‐series compiled from coastal meteorological stations in Greenland and Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) ice cores (including three new ice core records from ACT11D, Tunu2013, and Summit2010). The dataset covers the period from 1890 to 2012, a period of climate warming. For approximately the first decade of the new millennium (2001–2012) minimum and maximum mean annual precipitation conditions are found in Northeast Greenland (Tunu2013 c. 120 mm water equivalent (w.e.) year−1) and South Greenland (Ikerasassuaq: c. 2300 mm w.e. year−1), respectively. The coastal meteorological stations showed on average increasing trends for 1890–2012 (3.5 mm w.e. year−2) and 1961–2012 (1.3 mm w.e. year−2). Years with high coastal annual precipitation also had a: (1) significant high number of precipitation days (r2 = 0.59); and (2) high precipitation intensity measured as 24‐h precipitation (r2 = 0.54). For the GrIS the precipitation estimated from ice cores increased on average by 0.1 mm w.e. year−2 (1890–2000), showing an antiphase variability in precipitation trends between the GrIS and the coastal regions. Around 1960 a major shift occurred in the precipitation pattern towards wetter precipitation conditions for coastal Greenland, while drier conditions became more prevalent on the GrIS. Differences in precipitation trends indicate a heterogeneous spatial distribution of precipitation in Greenland. An Empirical Orthogonal Function analysis reveals a spatiotemporal cycle of precipitation that is linked instantaneously to the North Atlantic Oscillation and the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation and with an ∼6 years lag time response to the Greenland Blocking Index.


The aberrations of optical systems formed by spherical surfaces whose centers coincide and lie on coincident object and image planes are analyzed. Formulas are obtained for estimating the aberrations of a broad meridional beam and the distortion. It is shown that, when certain conditions are satisfied, the circle of confusion for off-axis image points can acquire a shape close to rectangular and square in such systems. © 2005 Optical Society of America


The High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on the Mars Express orbiter (Neukum et al. 2004) is a multi-line pushbroom scanner that can obtain stereo and color coverage of targets in a single overpass, with pixel scales as small as 10 m at periapsis. Since commencing operations in 2004 it has imaged ~77% of Mars at 20 m/pixel or better. The instrument team uses the Video Image Communication And Retrieval (VICAR) software to produce and archive a range of data products from uncalibrated and radiometrically calibrated images to controlled digital topographic models (DTMs) and orthoimages and regional mosaics of DTM and orthophoto data (Gwinner et al. 2009; 2010b; 2016). Alternatives to this highly effective standard processing pipeline are nevertheless of interest to researchers who do not have access to the full VICAR suite and may wish to make topographic products or perform other (e. g., spectrophotometric) analyses prior to the release of the highest level products. We have therefore developed software to ingest HRSC images and model their geometry in the USGS Integrated Software for Imagers and Spectrometers (ISIS3), which can be used for data preparation, geodetic control, and analysis, and the commercial photogrammetric software SOCET SET (® BAE Systems; Miller and Walker 1993; 1995) which can be used for independent production of DTMs and orthoimages. The initial implementation of this capability utilized the then-current ISIS2 system and the generic pushbroom sensor model of SOCET SET, and was described in the DTM comparison of independent photogrammetric processing by different elements of the HRSC team (Heipke et al. 2007). A major drawback of this prototype was that neither software system then allowed for pushbroom images in which the exposure time changes from line to line. Except at periapsis, HRSC makes such timing changes every few hundred lines to accommodate changes of altitude and velocity in its elliptical orbit. As a result, it was necessary to split observations into blocks of constant exposure time, greatly increasing the effort needed to control the images and collect DTMs. Here, we describe a substantially improved HRSC processing capability that incorporates sensor models with varying line timing in the current ISIS3 system (Sides 2017) and SOCET SET. This enormously reduces the work effort for processing most images and eliminates the artifacts that arose from segmenting them. In addition, the software takes advantage of the continuously evolving capabilities of ISIS3 and the improved image matching module NGATE (Next Generation Automatic Terrain Extraction, incorporating area and feature based algorithms, multi-image and multi-direction matching) of SOCET SET, thus greatly reducing the need for manual editing of DTM errors. We have also developed a procedure for geodetically controlling the images to Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) data by registering a preliminary stereo topographic model to MOLA by using the point cloud alignment (pc_align) function of the NASA Ames Stereo Pipeline (ASP; Moratto et al. 2010). This effectively converts inter-image tiepoints into ground control points in the MOLA coordinate system. The result is improved absolute accuracy and a significant reduction in work effort relative to manual measurement of ground control. The ISIS and ASP software used are freely available; SOCET SET, is a commercial product. By the end of 2017 we expect to have ported our SOCET SET HRSC sensor model to the Community Sensor Model (CSM; Community Sensor Model Working Group 2010; Hare and Kirk 2017) standard utilized by the successor photogrammetric system SOCET GXP that is currently offered by BAE. In early 2018, we are also working with BAE to release the CSM source code under a BSD or MIT open source license. We illustrate current HRSC processing capabilities with three examples, of which the first two come from the DTM comparison of 2007. Candor Chasma (h1235_0001) was a near-periapse observation with constant exposure time that could be processed relatively easily at that time. We show qualitative and quantitative improvements in DTM resolution and precision as well as greatly reduced need for manual editing, and illustrate some of the photometric applications possible in ISIS. At the Nanedi Valles site we are now able to process all 3 long-arc orbits (h0894_0000, h0905_0000 and h0927_0000) without segmenting the images. Finally, processing image set h4235_0001, which covers the landing site of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover and its rugged science target of Aeolus Mons in Gale crater, provides a rare opportunity to evaluate DTM resolution and precision because extensive High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) DTMs are available (Golombek et al. 2012). The HiRISE products have ~50x smaller pixel scale so that discrepancies can mostly be attributed to HRSC. We use the HiRISE DTMs to compare the resolution and precision of our HRSC DTMs with the (evolving) standard products. We find that the vertical precision of HRSC DTMs is comparable to the pixel scale but the horizontal resolution may be 15-30 image pixels, depending on processing. This is significantly coarser than the lower limit of 3-5 pixels based on the minimum size for image patches to be matched. Stereo DTMs registered to MOLA altimetry by surface fitting typically deviate by 10 m or less in mean elevation. Estimates of the RMS deviation are strongly influenced by the sparse sampling of the altimetry, but range from <50 m in flat areas to ~100 m in rugged areas. * Corresponding author


The enforcement of the antitrust laws is supposed to be a traditional task of the courts in the United States. However, the line between lawful and unlawful restraints of competition is not easily drawn. The courts struggle to assess the competitive effects of restraints, in particular outside the area of per-se unlawful restraints. Still, we are inclined to comfort ourselves by the seemingly acceptable outcomes of enforcement, achieved with the support of expert bodies like the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ) and later the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Nevertheless, the authorities' resources to litigate cases in full are limited. A full litigation, with extensive discovery, with hearing of witnesses, and possibly with receipt of briefs of amicus curiae, may reveal tons of information, but the necessary knowledge for a sound, lasting decision ("root knowledge") may still not be acquired. Even if it would be theoretically possible to acquire "root knowledge", a rational actor will not try to acquire it if his efforts are subject to information and search costs. Bounded rational agents, i.e. also courts and authorities, generally experience limits in formulating and solving complex problems and in processing (receiving, storing, retrieving, transmitting) information. Enforcement results, therefore, vary, rendering Type I (false positives) and type II (false negative) errors. Given the circumstances, consent decrees – although probably more vulnerable to errors due to limited analysis – proved helpful to obtain fast relief and reduce the costs of enforcement; amicable settlements enjoy great success in antitrust enforcement. The obvious advantages of the consent decree over traditional antitrust enforcement by litigation come along with serious inherent flaws. Quite often, the settlement process is accused to be vulnerable to undue political influence and possibly corruption. The Tunney Act addressed these concerns by opening up the results of the settlement process to interested third parties and by requiring the government to reveal its justifications for settling the case. However, the Tunney Act fails to guarantee an informed decision of the court on the public interest of the proposed consent decree, and, consequently, fails also to deter participants from drafting inadequate settlements. This paper is focused on the disregard of public interest by the use of consent decrees by the government. After describing the instrument of consent decree in the United States, the European Community and Switzerland (1.), I want to address inherent flaws of the settlement process (2.) and proposals to mitigate these flaws (3.). Due to the lack of a conflict of interest, the integrity of settlements in private antitrust cases are hardly compromised, and will not be discussed, except as an instrument mitigating a possible perversion of public interest. Further, I will neglect the enforcement activity of the States' Attorneys General.


This research focuses on the language environment of children with Down syndrome (DS) in primary and secondary classrooms. In contrast to much of the previous work in this area, the study takes both qualitative and quantitative approaches to data collection. In particular, it highlights teachers' speech rates and speech strategies in relation to children's individual listening comprehension. Previous research shows that the listening comprehension of children with DS may be limited by deficits in phonological loop capacity and hearing loss. However, most of this previous research has used quantitative measures to compare the memory performances of children with DS with their typically developing or mental agematched peers. This has tended to result in conclusions that regard children with DS as a homogeneous group. This study, however, aims to consider each child with DS as an individual and to explore in depth the relationship between their listening comprehension and teachers' speech rates and speech strategies in classroom settings. The study was conducted in 2 stages, both using case-study approach to investigate individual children's interactions with their class teachers (CTs) and teaching assistants (TAs). The Stage 1 research was conducted with three case-study children in four distinct phases and used an inductive approach to collect data. Phase one observed each child in their classroom environment, involving the interactions between teaching staff and the case-study child. Phase two identified the child's language ability by using standardised language assessments. Phase three then assessed the impact of speech rates on children's understandings and, finally, Phase four tested the research validity by representing the stories with a counter-balanced design. The results of the Stage 1 research suggested that the use of the slow speech rate improves the children's listening comprehension although there were clear indications that there would be more significant benefit if they could be given more time to process information. The Stage 2 research focused on speech strategies, with an emphasis on clustered speech and a deductive approach was adopted. Six additional children with DS were assessed by the BPVS and WISC-IV to investigate further speech rate but also in the context of speech strategies. This further examined whether clustered speech could be beneficial to improving the children's listening comprehension. The findings show that the clustered speech strategy can improve the listening comprehension of all of the children in this phase, particularly at the slow normal speech rate. The key benefit of this strategy is that it can be used to offset problems in processing information that the children experience because of their limited memory capacity. The outcome of my research can provide teaching staff with knowledge that will enable them to enhance the listening comprehension of children with DS.


Importance The increasing burden due to cancer and other noncommunicable diseases poses a threat to human development, which has resulted in global political commitments reflected in the Sustainable Development Goals as well as the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Action Plan on Non-Communicable Diseases. To determine if these commitments have resulted in improved cancer control, quantitative assessments of the cancer burden are required. Objective To assess the burden for 29 cancer groups over time to provide a framework for policy discussion, resource allocation, and research focus. Evidence Review Cancer incidence, mortality, years lived with disability, years of life lost, and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) were evaluated for 195 countries and territories by age and sex using the Global Burden of Disease study estimation methods. Levels and trends were analyzed over time, as well as by the Sociodemographic Index (SDI). Changes in incident cases were categorized by changes due to epidemiological vs demographic transition. Findings In 2016, there were 17.2 million cancer cases worldwide and 8.9 million deaths. Cancer cases increased by 28% between 2006 and 2016. The smallest increase was seen in high SDI countries. Globally, population aging contributed 17%; population growth, 12%; and changes in age-specific rates, −1% to this change. The most common incident cancer globally for men was prostate cancer (1.4 million cases). The leading cause of cancer deaths and DALYs was tracheal, bronchus, and lung cancer (1.2 million deaths and 25.4 million DALYs). For women, the most common incident cancer and the leading cause of cancer deaths and DALYs was breast cancer (1.7 million incident cases, 535 000 deaths, and 14.9 million DALYs). In 2016, cancer caused 213.2 million DALYs globally for both sexes combined. Between 2006 and 2016, the average annual age-standardized incidence rates for all cancers combined increased in 130 of 195 countries or territories, and the average annual age-standardized death rates decreased within that timeframe in 143 of 195 countries or territories. Conclusions and Relevance Large disparities exist between countries in cancer incidence, deaths, and associated disability. Scaling up cancer prevention and ensuring universal access to cancer care are required for health equity and to fulfill the global commitments for noncommunicable disease and cancer control.


Because of the open character of Wikipedia readers should always be aware of the possibility of false information. WikiTrust aims at helping readers to judge the trustworthiness of articles by coloring the background of less trustworthy words in a shade of orange. In this study we look into the effects of such coloring on reading behavior and trust evaluation by means of an eye–tracking experiment. The results show that readers had more difficulties reading the articles with coloring than without coloring. Trust in heavily colored articles was lower. The main concern is that the participants in our experiment rated usefulness of WikiTrust low.


Objectives Physical activity declines during adolescence. The Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) is a useful framework for investigating activity but leaves variance unexplained. We explored the utility of a dual‐process approach using the TPB and the Prototype Willingness Model (PWM) to investigate correlates of physical activity, and 1‐year change in physical activity, among a large sample of adolescents. Design A cross‐sectional and longitudinal analysis of baseline and follow‐up data from the Fit to Study cluster‐randomized trial. Methods A total of 9,699 secondary school pupils at baseline and 4,632 at follow‐up (mean age = 12.5 years) completed measures of past week physical activity and constructs from both behaviour‐change models, at time‐points 1 year apart. Cross‐sectional analyses used multilevel, stepwise regression models to measure the strength of associations between model constructs and physical activity, and variance in behaviour explained by PWM over and above TPB. In longitudinal analyses, change scores were calculated by subtracting follow‐up from baseline scores. Models controlling for trial treatment status measured the strength of associations between change scores, and variance explained. Results At baseline, after controlling for past behaviour, physically active prototype similarity had the strongest relationship with activity after the intention to be active. Change in prototype similarity had the strongest relationship with change in activity after the change in intention and attitudes. Prototype perceptions and willingness explained additional variance in behaviour. Conclusion A dual‐process model incorporating prototype perceptions could more usefully predict physical activity than models based on rational expectations alone. Behaviour‐change interventions promoting an active self‐image could be tested for effects on physical activity.


Abstract Distributed storage systems employing dispersal techniques provide retrieval services with a minimal subset of available servers' file shares. Generally, cryptography-based techniques aid data retrievability and storage correctness in distributed storages; we propose an equivalent, alternative approach that uses "server trust". Our work makes available, file retrieval and dynamic restoration of corrupted file shares with highest probability. We present a novel trust–reputation model to quantify and manage the trust of servers operating in an untrusted environment; a significant aspect is in quantification of good/bad behaviour of servers in terms of trust index, using analytical expressions. The scheme provides selection of the most reliable, minimal server set for file reconstruction and identification of servers for restoration of corrupted file shares. Singular treatment of incorrect servers, statistical means of server reward/punishment and selection of the minimal set of file shares for reconstruction are the key features of the model. Our scheme achieves the triple goals of availability, retrievability and recoverability, despite non-crash and crash-stop faults in storage. The model has evolved into a comprehensive system satisfying the triple goals, standard framework and crucial recommendations demanded of such a system. Extensive simulation studies carried out validate the model and its adaptability.


ABSTRACT This study reviews 25 empirical research articles that have examined the impact of Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training over the past 10 years. Overall, little can be said about the effectiveness of CIT training due to varying outcomes, a reliance on self-report data, lack of comparison or control groups, and inadequate follow-up data. Results of this systematic review of 25 studies demonstrated a mix of positive and negative results, and a focus on urban environments. The impact of officer characteristics and community resources on outcomes is unknown. This review indicates that additional research is necessary before CIT training can be considered an evidence-based practice that should be widely implemented. New training protocols that incorporate empirical research and are responsive to the resources in individual agencies and communities may be more effective.


Passive Hallux Adduction Decreases Blood Flow to Plantar Fascia Julia Lorene Dunbar Department of Exercise Sciences, BYU Master of Science Purpose: Due to the vital role that blood flow plays in maintaining tissue health, compromised blood flow can prevent effective tissue healing. An adducted hallux, as often seen inside a narrow shoe, may put passive tension on the abductor hallucis, consequently compressing the lateral plantar artery (LPA) into the calcaneus and thus restricting blood flow. The purpose of this study was to compare blood flow within the LPA before and after passive hallux adduction (PHA). Methods: Forty-five healthy volunteers (20 female, 25 male; age = 24.8 ± 6.8 yr; height = 1.7 ± 0.1 m; weight = 73.4 ± 13.5 kg) participated in this study. Blood velocity and vessel diameter measurements were obtained using ultrasound imaging (L8-18i transducer, GE Logiq S8). The LPA was imaged deep to abductor hallucis for 120 seconds: 60 seconds at rest followed by 60 seconds of PHA. Maximal PHA was performed by applying pressure to the medial side of the proximal phalanx of the hallux. Blood flow was then calculated in mL/min, and pre-PHA blood flow was compared to blood flow during PHA. Results: Log transformed data was used to run a paired t-test between the preadduction and postadduction blood flow. The volume of blood flow was 22.2% lower after PHA compared to before (−0.250 ± 0.063, p < 0.001). Conclusion: Although PHA is only a simulation of what would happen to the hallux inside of a narrow shoe, our preliminary findings of decreased blood flow through PHA suggest blood flow in narrow footwear and its effects on tissues within the foot are worth investigating.


The King-Devick (KD) test is a quick screening tool used to detect oculomotor and attention related brain function impairments following a concussion. Adequate cerebral blood flow (CBF) is an indicator of structural and functional integrity and impairments in CBF have been linked to cognitive deficits following concussion. Cerebral vasoreactivity (CVR), a key measure of hemodynamic reserve, is an important factor in CBF regulation. PURPOSE: To examine the association between CVR and oculomotor and attention function, using KD test scores, in collegiate athletes following a concussion. METHOD: Eighteen male and female athletes diagnosed with a sports-related concussion were enrolled in the prospective cohort study. Twenty-two non-injured athletes were enrolled as controls. Data was collected longitudinally on day-3, day-21, and day-90 following a concussion. Middle cerebral artery blood velocity (MCAV) was obtained using transcranial Doppler ultrasonography (TCD). CO2 was used as a stimulus to assess CVR. End-tidal CO2 (EtCO2) was monitored with an infrared CO2 analyzer attached to a nasal cannula. Continuous MCAV was obtained for 2-minutes each in response to three CO2 stimuli; normal room-air (normocapnia), inspiring 8% CO2 and 21% O2 gas mixture (hypercapnia), and during hyperventilation (hypocapnia). MCAV and EtCO2 data were plotted and CVR was estimated as the slope of the MCAV and EtCO2 relationship. For the KD test, subjects read aloud single-digit-numbers left to right from three test cards with progressive level of difficulty. Subjects were instructed to read as fast as possible without making errors. KD test score was determined as the sum of the total time required to complete the three test cards. Nonparametric Wilcoxon test was used to assess CVR and KD test scores between control and the concussed group at each of the three time points. Spearman rank order correlation was used to assess the association between CVR and KD scores at each time point. RESULTS: Compared to the control, CVR (1.33±0.31vs.1.14±0.43U; p=0.03) was blunted and KD score (44.4±7.7vs.48.1±6.9sec; p=0.04) was slower on day-3. CVR was comparable to the controls on days 21 and 90. However, a learning effect was observed in KD test score over time (42.1±8.9, p=0.02 [day-21]; 42.03±8.5, p=0.03 [day90]). In addition, a negative correlation between CVR and KD test was observed on day-3 (p= 0.04). CONCLUSION: The preliminary results indicate that deficits in oculomotor function and attention, as identified by KD test, may result from inadequate CBF regulation during the acute recovery phase post-concussion. Further studies should be done to evaluate the potential role of CVR in oculomotor function following concussion in collegiate athletes.


ABSTRACT.
 This study investigated influences of flow regulation of the Dolores River, Colorado, by McPhee Dam on establishment of 3 native riparian tree species (Populus angustifolia, Populus deltoides subsp. wislizenii, and Acer negundo). Tree establishment was documented with dendrochronology at 2 reference sites, the unregulated Upper Dolores and San Miguel rivers, and at multiple reaches along the Lower Dolores River for a pre-dam, canal-diverted period (1961–1984) and a post-dam period (1985–2008). Tree establishment along the Lower Dolores River relative to unregulated reference rivers was negatively affected by river regulation for A. negundo, but not for P. angustifolia and P. deltoides. For P. angustifolia, similar establishment occurred at the Upper and Lower Dolores rivers; establishment was low from 1969–1988, with greater establishment occurring prior to and following this period. For P. deltoides, pulses of tree recruitment occurred along the Lower Dolores River after river damming during 1989–1993 and 2005–2008, and overall recruitment after river damming was significantly greater than that observed for unregulated rivers. Establishment of A. negundo was low at the Lower Dolores River during the last 8 years (2001–2008) of the study period. Our results suggest that flow releases from McPhee Dam into the Lower Dolores River between 1985 and 2008 provided appropriate conditions for Populus establishment, particularly at low topographic positions within the active channel in recent years, whereas A. negundo may require greater flows to bolster establishment at the higher topographic positions where it often occurs.


Legal literature and case law depicts the infamous conviction of Alfred Dreyfus for treason and espionage in 1899 as a prime example of the irresistible power of even grossly fallacious mathematical demonstrations to overwhelm a legal tribunal. This essay shows that Dreyfus is not a case of mathematics run amok, unchecked and uncomprehended. To the contrary, the defects in the mathematical proof were dramatically exposed, and this evidence did not lead Dreyfus's judges to condemn him. This history undercuts the reliance of modern courts and commentators on Dreyfus as an indication or illustration of the alleged dangers of probability evidence in criminal cases.


This memo defines a registry for IP Performance Metrics (IPPM). It
assigns and registers an initial set of OBJECT IDENTITIES to currently
defined metrics in the IETF. This memo also defines the rules for
adding IP Performance Metrics that are defined in the future and for
encouraging all IP performance metrics to be registered here. IANA
has been assigned to administer this new registry. This document
specifies an Internet Best Current Practices for the Internet
Community, and requests discussion and suggestions for improvements.


An aircraft encounters a wide range of operating conditions during its missions, i.e. flight altitude, Mach number and angle of attack, which consideration at the design phase enhances the system robustness and consequently the overall fleet consumption. Numerical optimization of aerodynamic shapes contributes to aircraft design, and relies on the automation of geometry generation and numerical simulations of the flight physics. Minimization of aerodynamic shapes drag must take into account multiple operating conditions, since optimization at a single operating condition leads to a strong degradation of performance when this operating condition varies. Besides, structural flexibility deforms the wings differently depending on the operating conditions, so has to be simulated during such optimizations. In the present thesis, the mission fuel consumption minimization is formulated as an optimization problem.
The focus is made on the choice of operating conditions to be included in the optimization problem, since they have a major impact on the quality of the results, and the computational cost is proportional to their number. A new theoretical framework is proposed, overcoming and giving new insights on problematic situations revealed by state-of-the-art methods for multipoint optimization problem setup. An algorithm called Gradient Span Analysis is proposed to automate the choice of operating conditions. It is based on a reduction of dimension of the vector space spanned by adjoint gradients obtained at the different operating conditions. Programming contributions to the optimization chain enabled the evaluation of the new method on the optimizations of the academic RAE2822 airfoil, and the XRF-1 wing-body configuration, representative of a modern transport aircraft. While the shapes resulting of single-point optimizations present strong degradations of the performance in off-design conditions, adequately formulated multi-Machmulti- lift optimizations present much more interesting performance compromises. It is finally shown that fluid-structure interaction adds new degrees of freedom, and has consequences on multiple flight conditions optimizations, opening the perspective of passive shape adaptation.


Deep mid-infrared (MIR) observations could reveal a population of faint, high-redshift (z > 3), dusty starburst galaxies that are the progenitors of present-day spheroids or bulges and are beyond the reach of current instruments. We utilize a semianalytic galaxy formation scheme to find a range of models for the MIR galaxy counts, down to a flux level of a few nanojanskys. The models incorporate the formation of heavily dust-enshrouded stellar populations at high redshift and are consistent with existing observations, including faint counts at 1.6 μm in the NICMOS Hubble Deep Field, and the upper limit on the extragalactic MIR background from TeV gamma rays. Our models predict ~0.04-0.4 galaxies arcsec-2 at the threshold of 100 nJy at 6 μm, with a comparable or larger surface density at longer MIR wavelengths. We conclude that a significant new population of high-redshift galaxies could be detected by the James Webb Space Telescope. Such a population would constitute background noise for the Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) and could necessitate repeat observations: every TPF resolution element would have a chance of up to ~10% of being contaminated by a background galaxy.


Midget, feeble-minded, crippled, lame, and insane: these terms and the historical photographs that accompany them may seem shocking to present-day audiences. A young woman with no arms wears a sequined tutu and smiles for the camera as she smokes a cigarette with her toes; a man holds up two prosthetic legs while his own legs are bared to the knees to show his missing feet. The photos were used as promotional material for circus sideshows, charity drives, and art galleries. They were found on begging cards and in family albums. In Picturing Disability, Bogdan and his collaborators gather over 200 historical photographs showing how people with disabilities have been presented and exploring the contexts in which they were photographed. Rather than focus on the subjects, Bogdan turns his gaze on the people behind the camera. He examines the historic and cultural environment of the photographs to decipher the relationship between the images and the perspectives of the picture makers. In analyzing the visual rhetoric of these photographs, Bogdan identifies the wide variety of genres, from sideshow souvenirs to clinical photographs. Ranging from the 1860s, when photographs first became readily available, to the 1970s, when the disability rights movement became a force for significant change, Bogdan chronicles the evolution of disability image creation. Picturing Disability takes the reader beyond judging images as positive or slanderous to reveal how particular contexts generate specific emotions and lasting depictions.


This paper develops a simplified approach for the calculation of three phase short circuit current in radial low voltage LV networks. This method is based on data available at design stage, such as, voltage drop in cables and maximum design currents. It is an effective method for construction engineers in the field of electrical installation for checking the dimensions of switchgears and other equipmement to withstand the thermal and dynamic effects of short circuits in site conditions.


The purpose of the present study was to analyze the longer-term results for a previously reported cohort of patients with cementless acetabular fixation and to compare the results with those for historical controls with cement fixation and a comparable follow-up period. One hundred and twenty consecutive nonselected total hip arthroplasties were performed in 108 patients with use of a cementless acetabular component. This series was evaluated at a minimum of twenty years of follow-up and was compared with 330 consecutive hip arthroplasties that had been performed by the same surgeon with use of cemented acetabular components and had been followed for a comparable period of time. Thirty-nine patients (forty-two hips) in the cementless fixation group were living at twenty years of follow-up. In the group of 120 hips with cementless acetabular fixation, twenty-two hips (18.3%) were revised during the follow-up period, but only one hip (0.8%) was revised because of loosening of the acetabular component, with no additional cup loosening since the previous report at thirteen to fifteen years of follow-up. In the group with cemented acetabular fixation with comparable follow-up, thirty-two hips (10%) were revised overall and eighteen hips (6%) were revised because of acetabular loosening. An additional twenty-five hips (8%) had acetabular cups that were loose on radiographs but had not undergone revision. At a minimum of twenty years of follow-up, cementless acetabular components provided superior long-term fixation compared with cemented components but the overall rates of acetabular revision for mechanical reasons were comparable.


The purpose of this paper is to analyse the morphosyntactic and semantic aspects of the augmentative forms in the Toba language (Guaycuruan family), spoken in the Gran Chaco region (Argentina). The study of the forms linked to the notion of augmentative in this language comprises both derivational morphology and nominal composition, and embodies a great range of meanings from 'big size', 'abundance', 'intensity' or 'affection' to the (generally pejorative) notions of 'excess' or 'mockery'. Augmentative forms also play a role as a source of lexical creation and as a nominal categorization device. Furthermore, in the ethnobiological lexicon, they constitute a preferred means in word formation for naming animals and plants, and they code meanings such as 'hierarchy' ('more dangerous' or 'with outstanding qualities') or 'anomaly' ('stranger/ unknown/ unusual'). Keywords: Toba; Guaycuruan; augmentative; evaluative morphology; kinship compounds


Observer variation in kidney depth measurement for correction of soft-tissue attenuation and kidney region of interest (ROI) drawing was evaluated using 60 clinical dogs with a wide range of glomerular filtration rate (GFR) for their effect on the calculated percentage uptake of 99mTc-diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid (DTPA) and individual kidney GFR by scintigraphy. Kidney depth was measured separately on the lateral image using two color tables: a threshold and a continuous red-green-blue. Within-observer variability of the semi-automatic ROI drawing of the estimated total GFR was up to 10% for the right kidney (RK) and 9% for the left kidney (LK). The variability was lower between observers, 6% for RK and 8% for LK. Manual ROI drawing caused more within observer variation than semi-automatic: up to 14% for RK and 11% for LK. Continuous red-green-blue table caused more variation within and between observers than threshold table. Average within-observer variability from both observers of kidney depth measurement on different color tables could vary up to 5.5% and 6.5% variation of the GFR of RK and LK, respectively. Most variation affecting the DTPA percentage uptake came from the ROI drawing technique. Variations of the method because of the effects of both kidney depth and kidney ROI drawing were up to 8% and 10% for RK and LK, respectively. To minimize these variations a threshold scale should be used for the kidney depth measurement and an automatic or semi-automatic ROI should be used whenever possible. In sequential examinations the same person should make all the measurements.


This paper describes work on early detection of space launch vehicle failures that could lead to loss of control during ascent. The particular focus is on the Solid Rocket Motor (SRM) comprising First Stage of the Crew Launch Vehicle (CLV). Some of the most important failure modes leading to loss of vehicle control are caused by hot gases ejected from the SRM combustion chamber through a case breach, through a joint between SRM segments, through a nozzle joint, or through an igniter seal. These hot gases create lateral thrust augmentation, with the resulting tilting moment possibly leading to loss of control. By using Thrust Vector Control (TVC) gimballing of the main nozzle, the flight control system tries to counter any attitude disturbance, which could mask the moment augmentation till it overwhelms the TVC and the control authority is lost. The approach proposed and demonstrated in a medium-fidelity simulation of the rocket dynamics employs continuous model-based multivariable estimation and monitoring of the augmentation forces and moments for early detection of the failure. The computations are performed in two stages. First, a 6-degree-of-freedom model of vehicle dynamics is used to compute the predicted vehicle accelerations. Second, the differences with the observed accelerations – model prediction residuals – are used in optimal multivariable algorithms to estimate the thrust augmentation. A case breach failure may thus be detected well before its effect on trajectory becomes noticeable in the raw data.


Recent developments in tissue engineering permit to use isolated hepatocytes in a bioreactor for the creation of a bioartificial liver which supports patients suffering from acute liver failure. In this study, the authors discuss the development of a flat membrane bioreactor using pig hepatocytes for the replacement of liver functions. The flat membrane bioreactor permits a high-density hepatocyte culture under sufficient oxygenation conditions, comparable to an in vivo microenvironment. In this bioreactor, built according to the in vivo organisation of the liver, pig hepatocytes are cultured with non-parenchymal cells within an extracellular matrix between oxygen-permeable flat-sheet membranes as individual plates. The performance of the "scale-up bioreactor" was tested in vitro for 18 days in static and flux conditions. Pig hepatocytes in the bioreactor were maintained in three-dimensional co-culture with non-parenchymal cells and are reorganised in a way similar to the liver cell plates in vivo: cells remained polarised in vitro clearly demonstrating biliary zones surrounding individual hepatocytes. The biochemical performance of the bioreactor was assessed by estimating its ability to remove two of the major toxins associated with hepatic encephalopathy: benzodiazepines and ammonia. The rates of ammonia elimination and drug biotransformation were maintained at constant high levels for almost two weeks. This "scaled-up bioreactor" provides conditions favourable for the formation of contiguous cell sheets, which allow to maintain constant liver specific functions.


ABSTRACT Bacterial biofilms often form multispecies communities in which complex but ill-understood competition and cooperation interactions occur. In light of the profound physiological modifications associated with this lifestyle, we hypothesized that the biofilm environment might represent an untapped source of natural bioactive molecules interfering with bacterial adhesion or biofilm formation. We produced cell-free solutions extracted from in vitro mature biofilms formed by 122 natural Escherichia coli isolates, and we screened these biofilm extracts for antiadhesion molecules active on a panel of Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. Using this approach, we showed that 20% of the tested biofilm extracts contained molecules that antagonize bacterial growth or adhesion. We characterized a compound, produced by a commensal animal E. coli strain, for which activity is detected only in biofilm extract. Biochemical and genetic analyses showed that this compound corresponds to a new type of released high-molecular-weight polysaccharide whose biofilm-associated production is regulated by the RfaH protein. We demonstrated that the antiadhesion activity of this polysaccharide was restricted to Gram-positive bacteria and that its production reduced susceptibility to invasion and provided rapid exclusion of Staphylococcus aureus from mixed E. coli and S. aureus biofilms. Our results therefore demonstrate that biofilms contain molecules that contribute to the dynamics of mixed bacterial communities and that are not or only poorly detected in unconcentrated planktonic supernatants. Systematic identification of these compounds could lead to strategies that limit pathogen surface colonization and reduce the burden associated with the development of bacterial biofilms on medical devices. IMPORTANCE We sought to demonstrate that bacterial biofilms are reservoirs for unknown molecules that antagonize bacterial adhesion. The use of natural strains representative of Escherichia coli species biodiversity showed that nonbiocidal antiadhesion polysaccharides are frequently found in mature biofilm extracts (bacterium-free suspensions which contain soluble molecules produced within the biofilm). Release of an antiadhesion polysaccharide confers a competitive advantage upon the producing strain against clinically relevant pathogens such as Staphylococcus aureus. Hence, exploring the biofilm environment provides a better understanding of bacterial interactions within complex communities and could lead to improved control of pathogen colonization. We sought to demonstrate that bacterial biofilms are reservoirs for unknown molecules that antagonize bacterial adhesion. The use of natural strains representative of Escherichia coli species biodiversity showed that nonbiocidal antiadhesion polysaccharides are frequently found in mature biofilm extracts (bacterium-free suspensions which contain soluble molecules produced within the biofilm). Release of an antiadhesion polysaccharide confers a competitive advantage upon the producing strain against clinically relevant pathogens such as Staphylococcus aureus. Hence, exploring the biofilm environment provides a better understanding of bacterial interactions within complex communities and could lead to improved control of pathogen colonization.