The main goal of this thesis is to assess the load-carrying capacity of one of the vaults located on the
Administration Building of the Hospital Sant Pau, a UNESCO World Heritage site located in Barcelona,
Spain. Firstly, a brief historical survey of the city and the complex is done, in order to understand the
hospital complex's own cultural, social and environmental values. Also, an introduction to timbrel
construction -the constructive technique used for building all the hospital vaults- is detailed, explaining
the execution process and the historical development, reviewing the state of the art on timbrel
construction analysis and describing the most common timbrel vault typologies built. The main
available methods for studying masonry historical constructions are detailed, an introduction to the
history of shell structures analysis is provided and some of the most recent studies regarding timbrel
constructions analysis are presented.
Secondly, the main characteristics of the numerical model are covered, like the mesh generated, type
of elements used, integration schemes, material modelling and iterative procedure implemented.
Then, the numerical model development process is explained, till a satisfactory representation of the
real structure is achieved. By this, the load-carrying capacity of the vault is assessed. In addition, a
brief parametrical analysis varying the values of compression strength and fracture energy is provided.
Finally, some conclusions and recommendations for future analysis are given.
The results of the study constitute an important support to the structural assessment of the building
and can contribute to the evaluation of further studies or possible interventions.


A preliminary study by Freeman et al (1996b) has suggested that when complex patterns of motion elicit impressions of 2-dimensionality, odd-item-out detection improves given targets can be differentiated on the basis of surface properties. Their results can be accounted for, it if is supposed that observers are permitted efficient access to 3-D surface descriptions but access to 2-D motion descriptions is restricted. To test the hypothesis, a standard search technique was employed, in which targets could be discussed on the basis of slant sign. In one experiment, slant impressions were induced through the summing of deformation and translation components. In a second theory were induced through the summing of shear and translation components. Neither showed any evidence of efficient access. A third experiment explored the possibility that access to these representations may have been hindered by a lack of grouping between the stimuli. Attempts to improve grouping failed to produce convincing evidence in support of life. An alternative explanation is that complex patterns of motion are simply not processed simultaneously. Psychophysical and physiological studies have, however, suggested that multiple mechanisms selective for complex motion do exist. Using a subthreshold summation technique I found evidence supporting the notion that complex motions are processed in parallel. Furthermore, in a spatial summation experiment, coherence thresholds were measured for displays containing different numbers of complex motion patches. Consistent with the idea that complex motion processing proceeds in parallel, increases in the number of motion patches were seen to decrease thresholds, both for expansion and rotation. Moreover, the rates of decrease were higher than those typically expected from probability summation, thus implying mechanisms are available, which can pool signals from spatially distinct complex motion flows.


AIM
This paper reports a study to determine the effect of music on physiological parameters and level of pain in patients undergoing application of a C-clamp after percutaneous coronary interventions.

BACKGROUND
Most percutaneous coronary interventions are performed through the femoral artery. In order to stop bleeding and achieve homeostasis, a C-clamp is used after percutaneous coronary interventions. However, the experience is painful for patients and they inevitably suffer discomfort. Pain may lead to stress responses and may affect the physical and mental health of patients. One potential beneficial practice is having the patient listen to relaxing music, which might have the effect of reducing situational discomfort and pain.

METHODS
A randomized controlled study was conducted during the period September 2004 to March 2005. Forty-three people (20 experimental and 23 control) were recruited from the intensive care units of two acute care hospitals in Hong Kong. Physiological and psychological variables were collected at baseline and at 15, 30 and 45 minutes.

RESULTS
In the music group, there were statistically significant reductions (P=0.001) in heart rate, respiratory rate, and oxygen saturation than the control participants at 45 minutes. In the music group, statistically significant reductions (P=0.001) in systolic blood pressure, heart rate, respiratory rate and oxygen saturation were found at the four time points, but not in the control group. No statistically significant differences were found at baseline comparison of the two groups, but statistically significant differences in pain scores were found at 45 minutes for participants in the music group compared with the control group (P=0.003). Participants in the control group showed statistically significant increases in pain at 45 minutes compared with baseline (P<0.001).

CONCLUSIONS
The benefits of preventing physiological reactions to pain were demonstrated. Music is a simple, safe and effective method of reducing potentially harmful physiological and psychological responses arising from pain.


Spectral observations are reported for transitions to the ground term and first excited term of the one-electron configurations in the 4f145p6nl isoelectronic sequence from Yb ii through Bi xv. Resonance lines are reported for the isoelectronic sequence Yb iii through Bi xvi in which the ground state is 4f145p61S0 and the upper levels are the J = 1 levels of the 4f135p6nd, 4f145p5nd, and 4f145p5ns configurations. The wavelengths fall in the range 70–3700 A. The spectra were produced by means of sliding and triggered spark discharges and photographed with 10.7 m normal and grazing incidence spectrographs. The data in the Yb iii sequence demonstrate the crossing of binding energies of the 4f and 5p shells at W vii. Rydberg series terms were found in a sufficient number of cases to provide extrapolation curves through Bi xv and Bi xvi. These data enabled us to calculate ionization energies for each of these ions with an uncertainty of ~1% or better.


Recent work by Tania Ionin and colleagues (Ionin et al. 2004a; Ionin et al. 2008) has suggested that native speakers of article-less languages may fluctuate between selecting articles based on definiteness and selecting them based on specificity. This was termed the Fluctuation Hypothesis (Ionin et al. 2004a). The Fluctuation Hypothesis assumes learners to have full access to Universal Grammar (UG) properties, including those which are not instantiated in their L1 grammars. This contrasts with the Failed Functional Features Hypothesis (Hawkins and Chan 1997), now termed the Representational Deficit Hypothesis (Hawkins and Franceschina 2004; Hawkins et al. 2006). This proposes that learners will fail to acquire uninterpretable features, if these are not present in their L1. The current study tests the Fluctuation Hypothesis with two new groups of speakers acquiring languages with definite and indefinite articles which are marked for definiteness, whilst still allowing a semantic distinction between [+specific] and [–specific]. The languages acquired are German, by native speakers of Japanese, a language without articles; and English, by native speakers of Syrian Arabic, a language with an overt marker for definiteness, but not for indefiniteness. Although the initial results seem to indicate that fluctuation may be responsible for optionality amongst these learners, further analysis shows that this variation may be due to other factors.


One of several challenges in cool climate viticulture with a short growing season is to consistently reach a uniform, optimal fruit technological maturity at harvest before the first autumn frost. Weather conditions in Michigan from veraison to harvest are highly variable and unpredictable among years, constraining the preharvest assessment of fruit quality for grapegrowers and wineries. Under these environmental conditions, cluster thinning and leaf removal are commonly adopted viticultural techniques to enhance fruit ripening. Cluster thinning consists of a selective elimination of clusters to optimize the source/sink ratio of the vine. Cluster zone leaf removal induces changes in the fruit microenvironment, particularly solar radiation, temperature, and aeration. In this work, we evaluated the effects of cluster thinning and cluster zone leaf removal, applied separately in combination at veraison, on Cabernet franc in two consecutive years, 2011 and 2012. The two seasons had very distinct weather patterns from veraison to harvest. Fruit maturity was enhanced at 15 to 20 days after veraison in both years by these viticultural techniques, but with very different dynamics. The combination of leaf removal and cluster thinning led to greater fruit uniformity and better chemical composition at harvest in 2011, a year characterized by low heat accumulation after veraison. In 2012, when heat accumulation and mean temperatures after veraison were higher than in 2011, no differences were observed among treatments.


This paper develops a taxonomy of information technology strategies used by third-party logistics (3PL) firms in China based on a cluster analysis of survey data from 105 of these 3PL firms. The information technology strategies have been classified into three major groups: supportive, technological, and aligned. The paper also investigates the effect of information technology strategies on information technology advantage, competitive advantage, and financial performance. The results of the study indicate that efforts to improve information technology systems can only be effective if the information technology improvements are properly aligned with a company's overall strategy. It is found that companies that attempt to improve their information technology systems without the proper alignment of information technology with the company's overall strategy can achieve information technology advantages relative to their competitors, but not competitive advantages or improved financial performance. This study is the first attempt to develop an information technology strategy taxonomy for 3PL companies in China. It provides valuable guidance and insights for managers in the development of information technology strategies in 3PL companies.


Luminescent radicals, whose emission comes from the doublet exited state, have potential application in the field of organic optoelectronics. However, few radicals show luminescence at room temperature. Herein, a new pure red-emissive biphenyl-type (N-pyrido[3,4-b]indolyl)bis(2,4,6-trichlorophenyl)methyl radical (PyID-BTM) is designed and synthesized, in which the carbazole moiety of CzBTM (a previously reported biphenylmethyl radical by our group) is successfully replaced by β-carboline. Its photophysical properties, including the ground and excited states, and the radiative and non-radiative processes are systematically investigated. The photoluminescence quantum efficiency (ϕ = 19.5%) of PyID-BTM is ten times higher than that of CzBTM (ϕ = 2.0%) in cyclohexane. The crystal structure, magnetic properties, photostability and electroluminescence performance of PyID-BTM are studied. An optimized OLED device using PyID-BTM as an emissive dopant showed pure red emission with CIE coordinates of (0.649,0.317) and a maximum EQE of 2.8%, and the formation ratio of doublet excitons was up to 70%. This study provides a new approach for designing high-performance luminescence biphenylmethyl radicals for applications in organic electroluminescence.


Build your own distributed sensor network to collect, analyze, and visualize real-time data about our human environmentincluding noise level, temperature, and people flow. With this hands-on book, youll learn how to turn your project idea into working hardware, using the easy-to-learn Arduino microcontroller and off-the-shelf sensors.Authors Alasdair Allan and Kipp Bradford walk you through the entire process, from prototyping a simple sensor node to performing real-time analysis on data captured by a deployed multi-sensor network. Demonstrated at recent OReilly Strata Conferences, the future of distributed data is already here. If you have programming experience, you can get started immediately.Wire up a circuit on a breadboard, and use the Arduino to read values from a sensor Add a microphone and infrared motion detector to your circuit Move from breadboard to prototype with Fritzing, a program that converts your circuit design into a graphical representation Simplify your design: learn use cases and limitations for using Arduino pins for power and grounding Build wireless networks with XBee radios and request data from multiple sensor platforms Visualize data from your sensor network with Processing or LabVIEW


This guide provides research tips for searching topics such as: art history, illustration, photography and more. It also offers search tips and tricks for finding information about an artist or artwork.


Fractal parameters of soils become increasingly important in understanding and quantifying transport and adsorption phenomena in soils. It is not known yet how soil degradation affects fractal characteristics of soil pores. We estimated pore surface area fractal parameters from Hg porosimetry data on samples of a Udic Argiboroll, a Typic Haploboroll, and a Ustolic Orthid before and after simulated soil degradation. Three or four distinct intervals with different fractal dimensions were found in the range of pore radii from 4 nm to 5 μm. This was attributed to differences in composition of soil particles of different sizes. The simulated degradation caused an increase in fractal dimensions in one or more fractal intervals, thus manifesting the increased roughness and irregularity of the pore surfaces. The interval of the smallest radii had the highest average fractal dimension, close to 3; some estimated values were >3, probably due to the compressibility of bulk material and air entrapment. Values of the fractal dimension in this interval increased after cyclic wetting-drying but were not affected by organic matter oxidation. Smaller fractal dimensions were found in the next interval of radii. Here average fractal dimension increased markedly after organic matter oxidation and grew slightly after cyclic wetting-drying, reflecting the loss of bonds between particles. The range of largest radii included two fractal intervals after cyclic wetting-drying and one fractal interval for all other samples. Neither organic matter oxidation nor cyclic wetting-drying significantly affected the boundaries between the fractal intervals


The objective of this study was to describe health services utilization by homeless and housed poor adults stratified by six-month primary sheltering arrangements. The primary method used in this study was a cross-sectional survey of 373 homeless adults. Interviews at twenty-four community-based sites (in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania) assessed demographic and clinical characteristics, reasons for homelessness, functional status and social support networks, and health services utilization during the previous six months. Multivariate logistic regression analysis identified factors independently associated with health services utilization. Subjects were classified as unsheltered, emergency-sheltered, bridge-housed, doubled-up, and housed-poor. The median age of the subjects was 38.4 years; 78.6 percent were African American and 69.9 percent had health insurance. Overall, 62.7 percent reported health services use in the past six months, with significantly more use among emergency-sheltered and bridge-housed subjects than among unsheltered subjects. The study concludes that health services use among the homeless is substantial and is independently associated with sheltering arrangement, comorbid illness, race, health insurance, and social support.


OBJECTIVE
To his study describes the geographical distribution of pleural cancer deaths and asbestosis cases from 1980 to 2000 in Sardinia Region (Italy). For both conditions regionwide registration systems have been available for a relatively long time and allow the identification of statistically significant clusters.

DESIGN
For each town we have estimated Standardized Mortality Ratios (SMRs) for pleural cancer and Standardized Incidence Ratios (SIRs) for asbestosis. Expected cases were estimated from age- and gender specific rates in Sardinia. SatScan software was used to identify clusters and to verify their statistical significance.

SETTING
Sardinia Region (Italy).

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Standardized mortality and incidence rates respectively for pleural cancers and asbestosis cases and territorial clusters.

RESULTS
The most important cluster of pleural cancer was identified in the area defined by Carloforte, Calasetta, Portoscuso and Sant'Antioco municipalities (Southwestern Sardinia) with 15 observed cases (p value= 0.003). Other clusters were detected in the municipality of La Maddalena (11 observed cases against 1.91, expected p value= 0.008) and in Southern Sardinia between Cagliari and Sarroch (p value= 0.018). The town of Marrubiu is clearly the most important cluster (p value= 0. 001) with 6 asbestosis cases in the period.

CONCLUSIONS
These results indicate the urgency of the epidemiological surveillance of asbestos related diseases in Sardinia. The active search for incident cases of malignant mesothelioma in the whole Region and the analysis of modalities of asbestos exposure (according to national guidelines) is an indispensable tool for the primary prevention of occupational, environmental and domestic exposures from unknown asbestos sources of contamination.


The martial art of karate can be practiced by anyone, regardless of age or gender, and can be undertaken at any time during a person's life. Embraced by people the world over, this traditional Japanese art continues to hold universal appeal. Among the most important aspects of karate practice are the kata, patterns of movement that are carefully choreographed and arranged in sequences. With Karate: The Complete Kata, Hirokazu Kanazawa, the foremost figure in the karate world today and a disciple of Gichin Funakoshi, the father of modern karate, offers the definitive work on the subject. Kanazawa explains all the key kata in great detail; and his text is accompanied by thousands of photographs. He also goes into some of the other more difficult aspects of karate, including steps, breathing techniques, and pressure points. Kata need to be practiced regularly on an individual basis, and this book is written with such training in mind. From the beginner to the most advanced practitioner, anyone interested in this revered martial art will want to add Kanazawa's book to his or her library.


Kosali Simon, an assistant professor of policy analysis and management, begins her courses in health care policy by drawing a circle in the center of the board. "What are we ultimately concerned about here?" she asks students in both the undergraduate course Economics of Health Policy and the graduate course Health Policy. She answers her own question by writing "the health of the population" in the circle. ********** As the lecture proceeds, more circles appear; Simon fills them with phrases including "person's own actions," "genetic make-up," and more. The circle titled "medical care" has satellite circles marked with "hospital standards" and "doctor licensure." The topic "health insurance" also is given a circle of its own, with many smaller circles around it. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] While interested in the broad fields of health economics, labor economics, and public finance, Simon, who joined the Cornell faculty in 2001, currently is concentrating on the economics of health insurance policy. "I use this graphic at the start of health care policy courses because I want students to remember that everything in health policy relates to the ultimate goal of creating a healthy population," she explains. "The chart also shows that it's possible to separate all the components that can influence people's health." For the rest of the semester Simon and her students systematically examine all of these interacting elements and the hierarchy of issues imbedded within them. Within the subject of medical care, for example, one of the topics affecting the health of the American population that is most hotly debated--in politics as well as Simon's classroom--is the consequence of public policy on the price of prescription drugs. Examining what goes into the price of prescription drugs leads to a discussion of patents, an essential incentive for pharmaceutical companies to invest in research and drug development. Since the goal is to create the most number of new pharmaceuticals in the most affordable way, how long, she asks the class, should those patents extend? In that discussion she exposes an inherent conflict--a reasonably long patent is required as an effective incentive, but the longer the patent life, the higher the price of the drug. In this way, within a single topic Simon shows students how complexities abound in the realm of public policy making. Any policies aimed solely at reducing the price of drugs can have grave consequences for the future, she points out. One example that she uses includes medications developed to treat HIV-positive individuals and those with active AIDS. If the government were to eliminate patents and allow the production of generic AIDS drugs, there would be a huge health benefit for people who cannot now afford the expensive medications, she explains. But the potential loss to future generations of Americans is huge if pharmaceutical companies stop creating new drugs. Since AIDS occurs worldwide, Simon requires her students to consider the implications of international policy overriding patents for drugs that are sold abroad. This experience shows students how a debate about intellectual property rights has major consequences for the availability of AIDS drugs, she notes. "I want students to realize that while there are tools provided by disciplines such as economics that allow a problem to be analyzed, that does not mean everyone comes to the same conclusion," says Simon. Nor does it mean that what analysts conclude actually will happen. For these reasons, she explains, rigorous research is imperative. Examining the effects of health insurance regulations and institutions on labor market and health outcomes has compelled Simon since graduate school at the University of Maryland. As a native of Sri Lanka, she was struck by the uniqueness of the health insurance system in the United States, she explains. …


In collective decision making, political alliances naturally arise and are critical to the negotiation processes that lead to the actual implementation of decisions. In the present context, an "alliance" refers simply to a group of political actors who share common, but not identical, interests against some adversary. In this paper we focus on the relationship among three constructs: the structure of an alliance, the context in which negotiations take place, and the performance of the alliance. The term "alliance structure" refers to the configuration of alliance members' preferences as well as to their bargaining attributes. The "context" of negotiation refers to the rules of the bargaining game, including such factors as the structure of admissible coalitions and the range of allowable policy proposals. "Alliance performance" refers to the alliance's effectiveness in furthering its members' common objectives through the negotiation process. For example, if the space of issues can be represented in an Edgeworth box, a natural measure of alliance performance might be the location of the negotiated solution along the contract curve.


This special issue of the Social Science Computer Review provides a sample of the latest strategies employing large data sets in social media and political communication research. The proliferation of information communication technologies, social media, and the Internet, alongside the ubiquity of high-performance computing and storage technologies, has ushered in the era of computational social science. However, in no way does the use of "big data" represent a standardized area of inquiry in any field. This article briefly summarizes pressing issues when employing big data for political communication research. Major challenges remain to ensure the validity and generalizability of findings. Strong theoretical arguments are still a central part of conducting meaningful research. In addition, ethical practices concerning how data are collected remain an area of open discussion. The article surveys studies that offer unique and creative ways to combine methods and introduce new tools while at the same time address some solutions to ethical questions.


Speleothems are well-proven archives of terrestrial climate variation, recording mean temperature, rainfall, and surface vegetation data at subannual to millennial resolution. They also form within the generally stable environment of caves, and thus may remain remarkably well preserved for many millions of years and, most important, can be dated radiometrically to provide robust chronologies that do not rely on orbital tuning, ice-flow modeling, or estimates of sediment deposition rates. The recent adaptation of the U-Pb dating technique to speleothems has greatly extended their potential as paleoclimate recorders back into the more distant geological past, well beyond the ∼500 k.y. limit previously imposed by U-series techniques, but the opportunities presented by these new methods have yet to be fully explored. As an extreme example, here we report on samples recovered from Permian cave fills, the oldest radiometrically dated speleothems so far documented. Using state of the art analytical techniques it is possible to determine not only their age and state of preservation, but also to extract apparently nearly pristine climate proxy data. Armed with these methods, it now seems reasonable to apply the lessons learned from more recent speleothems to ancient materials, wherever they can be found, and of whatever age, to generate snapshots of paleoclimate that can be used to greatly refine the records preserved within the sediments and fossils of the time.


A typical approach in supervised learning is to select an accuracy measure and train a predictor that maximizes it. This can be insufficient in remote-sensing applications where predictor performance is often evaluated over multiple domain-specific accuracy measures. Here, we test the hypothesis that predictors can be trained to maximize performance over multiple accuracy measures. To do this, we evaluate several metalearning algorithms on the problem of aerosol optical depth (AOD) retrieval. The multiple accuracy measures included mean squared error, correlation, relative squared error, and fraction of satisfactory predictions. The proposed metalearning algorithms have a two-layer architecture, where the first layer consists of multiple neural networks, each trained using a different accuracy measure, and the second layer aggregates decisions of the first layer predictors. To evaluate AOD predictors, we used nearly 70 000 collocated data points whose attributes were radiances, solar and view angles, and terrain elevation from MODerate resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) instrument satellite observations and whose target AOD variable was obtained from the ground-based AEROsol robotic NETwork (AERONET) instruments. The data were collected at 221 AERONET locations over the globe in the period between 2005 and 2007. AOD prediction accuracies of neural networks were compared to the recently developed operational MODIS C005 retrieval algorithm and to several other data-mining methods. Results showed that neural networks are better at reproducing the test data than the operational retrieval algorithm and that predictors obtained by metalearning are robust over multiple accuracy measures.


Background Scientific research is replete with poor accessibility to data, materials, and protocol, which limits the reproducibility of a study. Transparency with regard to materials, protocols, and raw data sets enhances reproducibility by providing the critical information necessary to verify, replicate, and resynthesize research findings. The extent to which transparency and reproducibility exist in the field of orthopaedics is unclear. In our study, we aimed to evaluate transparency and reproducibility-related characteristics of randomly sampled publications in orthopaedic journals. Methods We used the National Library of Medicine catalog to identify English language and MEDLINE-indexed orthopaedic journals. From the 74 journals meeting our inclusion criteria, we randomly sampled 300 publications using a refined PubMed search that were published between January 1, 2014, and December 31, 2018. Two investigators were trained for data extraction and analysis. Both investigators were blinded and independently extracted data from the 300 studies. Results Our initial search yielded 68,102 publications, from which we drew a random sample of 300 publications. Of these 300 publications, 286 were screened for empirical data and 14 were inaccessible. For analysis purposes, we excluded publications without empirical data. Of the 182 with empirical data, 13 studies (7.1%) included a data availability statement, 9 (4.9%) reported materials were available, none (0.0%) provided analysis scripts, 2 (1.1%) provided access to the protocol used, 5 (2.7%) were preregistered, and only 2 (1.1%) provided a statement about being a replicated study. Conclusions Components necessary for reproducibility are lacking in orthopaedic surgery journals. The vast majority of publications did not provide data or material availability statements, protocols, or analysis scripts, and had no preregistration statements. Intervention is needed to improve reproducibility in the field of orthopaedics. The current state of reproducibility in orthopaedic surgery could be improved by combined efforts from funding agencies, authors, peer reviewers, and journals alike. Level of Evidence N/A


In their  Heart  manuscript, Aschieri et al report an impressive impact of the availability of automated external defibrillators (AEDs) on survival after sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) in amateur sports centres.1 For this observational study, the authors analysed data from a registry on all out-of-hospital SCA cases from the Piacenza area (Italy). Using the predetermined variable 'location', they selected 26 cases. As AEDs were gradually introduced over an 18-year period, a comparison could be made according to the on-site presence of an AED. Neurologically intact survival rates in sports centres with and without on-site AED were 93% (14/15) and 9% (1/11), respectively.

At first glance, this impressive difference should lead to patently clear conclusions. A closer look at the methodology and the data, however, urges caution as at least four (often interrelated) issues potentially leading to bias should be mentioned. First, the AEDs were not allocated at random since the sports centres decided whether or not to start a local AED project, implying that all results are prone to bias. Second, the time of collapse was not registered. Although the authors state that all cases were witnessed and that the emergency medical services (EMS) dispatch centre was never alerted for pre-arrest symptoms, one cannot exclude that in sports centres with an on-site AED the collapse to call interval was shorter, for example, because a local campaign aiming at an optimal AED use also emphasised the importance of an early call to the dispatch centre. Third, the gradual introduction of AEDs (ie, only 36 devices in 2007 vs 207 in 2016) is reflected by an increasing proportion of SCA cases in AED-equipped sites (ie, only 1 out of 8 cases between 1999 and 2007 vs 14 out of 18 between 2008 and …


Northern peatlands are a major natural source of methane (CH4) to the atmosphere. Permafrost conditions and spatial heterogeneity are two of the major challenges for estimating CH4 fluxes from the northern high latitudes. This study reports the development of a new model to upscale CH4 fluxes from plant communities to ecosystem scale in permafrost peatlands by integrating an existing biogeochemical model DeNitrification‐DeComposition (DNDC) with a permafrost model Northern Ecosystem Soil Temperature (NEST). A new ebullition module was developed to track the changes of bubble volumes in the soil profile based on the ideal gas law and Henry's law. The integrated model was tested against observations of CH4 fluxes measured by closed chambers and eddy covariance (EC) method in a polygonal permafrost area in the Lena River Delta, Russia. Results from the tests showed that the simulated soil temperature, summer thaw depths and CH4 fluxes were in agreement with the measurements at the five chamber observation sites; and the modeled area‐weighted average CH4 fluxes were similar to the EC observations in seasonal patterns and annual totals although discrepancy existed in shorter time scales. This study indicates that the integrated model, NEST–DNDC, is capable of upscaling CH4 fluxes from plant communities to larger spatial scales.


The nineteenth century has attracted considerable interest in German historical (socio)linguistics over the last twenty-five years, as it is considered to be the century in which the 'roots' of present-day German can be found. A great deal of the research literature has been devoted to the rise of standard German. Little attention has been paid to the relationship between norms and usage. In order to gain an understanding of their complex relationship, this chapter will first look at socio-historical developments and language ideologies which can be seen as crucial for the external language history of nineteenth-century German. It will then discuss different models of standardization, shaped by different ideologies and notions of 'standard language'. Next, an overview will be given of the main prescriptive works and the most important text sources and corpora for research on the language use of this period. This relationship will be illustrated with a few examples from grammar, followed by the conclusions.


Many governments have engaged in policy experimentation in various forms to resolve uncertainty and facilitate learning. However, little is understood about the characteristics of policy experimentation, and how the structure of experimentation may affect policy learning and policy outcomes. We aim to describe and understand China's policy experimentation since 1980, among the largest and most systematic in recent history. We collect comprehensive data on policy experimentation conducted in China over the past four decades. We find three main results. First, more than 80% of the experiments exhibit positive sample selection in terms of a locality's economic development, and much of this can be attributed to misaligned incentives across political hierarchies. Second, local politicians allocate more resources to ensure the experiments' success, and such effort is not replicable when policies roll out to the entire country. Third, the presence of sample selection and strategic effort is not fully accounted for by the central government, thus affecting policy learning and distorting national policies originating from the experimentation. Taken together, these results suggest that while China's bureaucratic and institutional conditions make policy experimentation at such scale possible, the complex political environments can also limit the scope and bias the direction of policy learning.


Differences in the incidence, prevalence of and mortality from coronary heart disease (CHD) are observed between and within countries. These differences are believed to be related to differing levels of CHD risk factors and medical care. Medical care for acute myocardial infarction has changed significantly in the past decades, with the development of new methods for diagnosis and treatment. Although widely known, these technologies are not consistently applied for reasons of availability and cost, as well as local medical cultures and traditions. The outcomes of medical care for acute myocardial infarction are best measured by case fatality of those hospitalized. Since the early 1960s, case fatality has fallen to less than half that observed previously. This has occurred in the context of widespread use of coronary care unit monitoring, innovative pharmacologic agents and invasive reperfusion treatments. A common debate compares aggressive invasive management with more conservative pharmacologic methods. In this context, studies have produced mixed results with no clear advantage to one approach when both methods are available and effectively applied to appropriately selected patients


This document describes the Telephony Gateway Registration Protocol
(TGREP) for registration of telephony prefixes supported by telephony
gateways and soft switches. The registration mechanism can also be
used to export resource information. The prefix and resource
information can then be passed on to a Telephony Routing over IP
(TRIP) Location Server, which in turn can propagate that routing
information within and between Internet Telephony Administrative
Domains (ITADs). TGREP shares a lot of similarities with the TRIP
protocol. It has similar procedures and finite state machine for
session establishment. It also shares the same format for messages and
a subset of attributes with TRIP. [STANDARDS-TRACK]


In the present study, an innovative methodological approach has been proposed in order to characterize meteoritic samples without removing or causing damage to any part of them. In particular, Raman and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) measurements have been preliminarily performed, using portable instruments, in order to obtain qualitative and semi-quantitative compositional information, respectively. These analyses have been followed and supported by time of flight neutron diffraction (TOF-ND) experiments, which allowed us to perform quantitative mineralogical phase analysis. Such a methodological approach was tested on four meteoritic samples, of different types and sizes, coming from several different regions of the Solar System (e.g., the Moon, Mars and asteroids). The validity and strength of the results obtained using these techniques are discussed and compared with results available in the literature.


Numerous studies have so far been focused on increasing irrigation efficiency through such measures as soil moisture retention and soil moisture capacity as well as improving soil physical conditions. In this study, surface runoff reduction, deep penetration of rain water, and use of rain water at irrigation sites with the help of water absorbent chemicals were investigated as measures of supplying for tree water demand and also of reducing drought effects. The absorbent material was purchased from Iran Polymer Research Center. The experimental design included three independent experiments in a completely randomized block design (CRBD) with 5 treatments (0, 50, 100, 150 and 200 gr. of the absorbent material) and three replications. The tree species used in the experiments were Amygdalus sp., Vitis vinifera, and Pistacia vera. There were 5 experimental units with 4 trees planted 3×3 meters apart. Appropriate amounts of the test material (absorbent) were mixed with soil. Three characters of survival including: growth diameter, height, and canopy cover were recorded 4 times a year over two consecutive years. Mstat-c statistical software was used in the statistical analysis (Factor option). Results showed that the tree species had significant differences in their survival due to their genetic and physiological characteristics, so that the species of Vitis vinifera and Pistacia vera recorded the minimum and maximum survival values, respectively. Data collection within the present study is suggested to be continued and similar studies with light and sandy textured soils under greenhouse conditions are needed in order to gain more accurate information on these effects.


Goods trade is a supply chain transaction that involves shippers buying goods from suppliers and carriers providing goods transportation. Shippers are issued invoices from suppliers and carriers. Shippers carry out goods receiving and invoice processing before payment processing of bills for suppliers and carriers, where invoice processing includes tasks like processing claims and adjusting the bill payments. Goods receiving involves verification of received goods by the Shipper's receiving team. Invoice processing is carried out by the Shipper's accounts payable team, which in turn is verified by the accounts receivable teams of suppliers and carriers. This paper presents a blockchain-based accounts payable system that generates claims for the deficiency in the goods received and accordingly adjusts the payment in the bills for suppliers and carriers. Primary motivations for these supply chain organizations to adopt blockchain-based accounts payable systems are to eliminate the process redundancies (accounts payable vs. accounts receivable), to reduce the number of disputes among the transacting participants, and to accelerate the accounts payable processes via optimizations in the claims generation and blockchain-based dispute reconciliation.


The lateral transfer of genes among bacterial strains and species has opposing effects, conferring potentially beneficial adaptations whilst introducing disharmony in coadapted genomes. The prevailing outcome will depend upon the fitness cost of disrupting established epistatic interactions between genes. It is challenging to understand this in nature because it requires population-scale analysis of recombination and genomic coadaptation, and laboratory confirmation of the functional significance of genotype variation. By assigning the ancestry of DNA in the genomes of two species of the world's most common enteric bacterial pathogen, we show that up to 28% of theCampylobacter coligenome has been recently introgressed fromCampylobacter jejuni. Then, by quantifying covariation across the genome we show that >83% of putative epistatic links are between introgressedC. jejunigenes in divergent genomic positions (>20kb apart), consistent with independent acquisition. Much of this covariation is between 16 genes, with just 5 genes accounting for 99% of epistatic SNP pairs. Laboratory mutagenesis and complementation cloning assays demonstrated functional links between these genes, specifically related to formate dehydrogenase (FDH) activity. These findings suggest that the genetic confederations that define genomic species may be transient. Even for complex traits such as central metabolism in the bacterial cell, conditions can arise where epistatic genes can be decoupled, transferred and reinstated in a new genetic background.


Procurement packaging has important effects on not only the bidders' bidding behavior, but also contractors' performance. By changing the size of public contracts, procurers can encourage (or discourage) market competition and improve contract performance, avoiding unnecessary cost overruns and project delays. In practice, there is no single solution about how to package public contracts. With procurement data from road projects in Nepal, this paper examines the optimal size of road contracts in rural areas. The optimum varies depending on policy objectives. To maximize the bidder participation, the length of road should be about 11 kilometers. To minimize cost overruns and delays, the contracts should be much larger at 17 and 21 kilometers, respectively. Compared with the current procurement practices, the findings suggest that procurers take more advantage of enlarging road packages, although contracts that are too large may increase the risk of discouraging firms from participating in public tenders.


This paper computes the change in welfare associated with the introduction of incentives. Specifically, we calculate by how much the welfare gains of increased output due to incentives outweigh workers' disutility from increased effort. We accomplish this by studying the use of incentives by a firm in the check-clearing industry. Using this firm's production records, we model and estimate the worker's dynamic effort decision problem. We find that the firm's incentive scheme has a large effect on productivity, raising it by 14% over the sample period. Using our parameter estimates, we show that the cost of increased effort due to incentives is equal to the dollar value of a 9% rise in productivity. Welfare is measured as the output produced minus the cost of effort, hence the net increase in welfare due to the introduction of the firm's bonus plan is 5%. Under a first-best scheme, we find that the net increase in welfare is 6%.


This case study describes a method of collecting data on students' experiences of developing digital literacy (ICT) skills as part of their course at the UK's Open University. An online reflective quiz was integrated into three health and social care modules, offering students the opportunity both to reflect on their experience of developing skills, and to give feedback to module authors. To make this quiz engaging and motivate students to complete it we used a variety of question types, including some that were interactive. We also used the quiz, very successfully, to invite students for interview. Recruiting interviewees can be a difficult process, especially with distance learners. Although there was no evidence of higher response rates, there are indications our data quality may be better than often achieved with standard questionnaires. Respondents value the reflective and interactive aspects of the quiz. Some question types, while improving the respondent experience, require extra work to extract data for analysis, but we suggest the effort is worthwhile in terms of the quality of data generated. Our method reaches all students on a module, not just a sample, and allows us to collect longitudinal data from repeated module presentations.


Data breaches are the most serious security breaks among all types of cybersecurity threats. While Cloud hosting services provide assurances against data loss, understanding the security service level agreements (SSLAs) and privacy policies offered by the service providers empowers consumers to assess risks and costs associated with migrating their information technology (IT) operations to the Cloud. We have developed ontologies to represent security SLAs so that consumers can understand cybersecurity threats, techniques for mitigating the risks, and their roles and responsibilities and those of the service provider in terms of protecting IT systems. Our ontological representation of security services offered by a provider allows the customer to evaluate the level of compliance with respect to federal regulations such as Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). In this paper, we also describe ways to quantitatively assess the strength of compliance and the quality of protections offered by an SSLA. We hope that our approach can lead to negotiated SSLAs. Keywords–service level agreement; SLA; security; SSLA; cloud computing.


The western termination of the 1999 Izmit earthquake still remains as an intriguing problem for researchers and the people residing around the Sea of Marmara. There have been numerous offshore mapping and modelling studies performed in the Gulf of Izmit. However, the main debate about the western termination of the 1999 Izmit surface rupture is linked to the Hersek Peninsula and corresponding fault geometry. We focused our efforts at resolving the fault geometry on the Hersek Peninsula by applying geological mapping, geomorphic analyses, palaeoseismic trenching and geophysical surveys. Our studies reveal that the North Anatolian Fault forms a restraining stepover and did not experience surface rupture during 1999 Izmit earthquake in the vicinity of Hersek Peninsula. We tested this fault geometry with a finite element model in half elastic space and correlated the results successfully with the existing topography. In addition, we ran a simple Coulomb model to explain the possible cause of surface rupture termination at this specific location. Our studies, combined with detailed off shore bathymetry data, suggest that the restraining step of the North Anatolian Fault on the Hersek Peninsula is capable of creating an efficient earthquake rupture barrier.


Interdisciplinary frailty assessment teams are in development throughout Ireland. Clinical pharmacy assessment (CPA) improves patient outcomes. Review is time consuming. Prioritising patients using frailty-specific toolkits should result in the greatest benefit for patients in a resource-limited setting.

 Consecutive acute emergency patients identified as Variable Indicative of Placement positive at triage, underwent standardised interdisciplinary assessment tool. Age, gender, reason for referral and clinical frailty score were recorded in an Excel database. From 7/1/2019 to 31/1/2019, polypharmacy, defined as 5 or more medications triggered CPA. In phase 2, 11/3/2019 to 5/4/2019, a prioritisation toolkit was used. This toolkit identified 4 groups. 1. Regular use of high-risk medication or greater than 10 medications. 2. Patients with specific pharmaceutical concerns eg. desire to reduce their medication burden; 3. Acute/Chronic Kidney Injury; 4. Medication related admission potentially related to medications or admitted with non-mechanical falls.

 In phase 1, 57 patients were referred with polypharmacy from 7/1/2019 to 31/1/2019. 49%(n=27) received CPA. The mean age(+/_SD) was 82.8(+/-6.5). The female to male ratio was 1:1. The average CFS score(+/-SD) was 5.8(+/-1.2). In phase 2, 45 patients were prioritised with the toolkit from 11/3/2019 to 5/4/2019. 55%(n=25) received CPA. The mean age was 81.1(+/-8.3). The female to male ratio was higher (2.8:1). The average CFS score was 5.9(+/-0.9).

 The prioritisation toolkit slightly reduced the number of referrals for CPA. The total number of CPAs remained constant. Women accounted for a greater percentage of patients in phase 2, consistent with previously published work. Further prioritisation is needed to ensure that patients with the highest risk of medication-related safety issues are identified and reviewed. Further prioritisation will be trialled and analysed using a plan, do, study, act approach. The ultimate aim will be to create and validate a prioritisation toolkit for the frail elderly presenting through an emergency department.


In this paper, I draw on my experiences as facilitator of a seven-week intergroup dialogue on race to explore the role of dialogue as a tool for racial reconciliation, particularly in the context of domestic U.S. race relations. Additionally, I examine and raise questions about the cultural frameworks and assumptions that shape dialogue processes and methodologies: is the dialogue framework (as a conflict resolution tool) inherently racialised? How are power imbalances addressed in a dialogue setting, and how do these power imbalances influence opportunities for racial reconciliation? I posit that the dialogue framework has been constructed through a culturally/racially biased lens that privileges 'White Talk' characteristics, and does not adequately address power imbalances. As power imbalances are not effectively addressed in a dialogue setting, opportunities for genuine and comprehensive racial reconciliation (as defined by leading reconciliation scholars) are limited. Ultimately, I argue that dialogue alone is not enough to reach a genuine and sustainable process for racial reconciliation. Mechanisms to address structural inequality and power disparities at the societal level must be in place together with the interpersonal reconciliation that takes place within dialogue settings.


Description: A straightforward guide to inventing, patenting, and technology commercialization for scientists and engineers Although chemists, physicists, biologists, polymer scientists, and engineers in industry are involved in potentially patentable work, they are often under–prepared for this all–important field. This book provides a clear, jargon–free, and comprehensive overview of the patenting process tailored specifically to the needs of scientists and engineers, including: Requirements for a patentable invention How to invent New laws created by President Obama's 2011 America Invents Act The process of applying for and obtaining a patent in the U.S. and in foreign countries Commercializing inventions and the importance of innovation Based on lecture notes refined over twenty–five years at The University of Akron, How to Invent and Protect Your Invention contains practical advice, colorful examples, and a wealth of personal experience from the authors.


The changing operating environment and the constantly growing threat of terrorism impose new demands on counter-terrorism. This National Counter-Terrorism Strategy provides actions for responding to those demands. Combating terrorism and violent radicalisation through international security and development cooperation safeguards Finland's national interests and promotes the security of Finland and its population. Prevention of terrorism means addressing the underlying causes of terrorism. Efforts are made to combat and detect terrorist offences as early as possible and to prepare for terrorist incidents. Communications by public authorities support counter-terrorism by preventing harm and dissemination of false information and by treating all population groups equally. The National Counter-Terrorism Strategy sets strategic counter-terrorism objectives, policies and actions. The objectives guide Finland's activities at national and international level. The strategic policies emphasise the active involvement of all actors in the prevention, detection and combatting of terrorism and in incident management. The strategic actions aim to increase the effectiveness of Finland's national and international counter-terrorism efforts. The Ministry of the Interior will monitor the implementation of the National Counter-Terrorism Strategy and prepare an interim report on the Strategy in 2020. Publisher Ministry of the Interior Distributed by/ publication sales Online version: julkaisut.valtioneuvosto.fi Publication sales: julkaisutilaukset.valtioneuvosto.fi


Social service is an integral part of social protection of the sick, the handicapped, the senior, etc. It relates to many categories of citizens who need governmental help. Providing this support acts as a guarantee for observance of social, human, freedom and civil rights. The social service system is organized in such a way that enables to provide help for everyone who needs it. Only in this case it meets the interests of the society.In Kursk and Belgorod regions the local social service systems are presented by various types of institutions. In the Kursk region these institutions are: general and psychoneurological care homes, social rehabilitation centres for minors, social assistance centres for families and children, medical social rehabilitation centers, social shelters for children and adolescents, social professional centre. In the Belgorod region these are: general and psychoneurological care homes, social rehabilitation centres for minors, women's refuges, child development and socialization centres, rehabilitation centre for children and adolescents with limited health capacities, geriatric center, child guidance and family counselling centre, a special care-home for the senior and the handicapped. The comparative analysis of social service systems in Kursk and Belgorod regions revealed that in both regions their social service systems are fully formed and provide services in institutional, non-institutional and partially inpatient forms. The network of social service institutions in Kursk and Belgorod regions is widely presented by various types of institutions, but in the Belgorod region it is wider and has a bigger variety of the institutions. It is likely to be explained by the attention that local authorities pay to this problem and the funding level for it from the regional budget.


UNLABELLED
: Lymph node removal for staging, as part of the initial surgical management of patients with endometrial carcinoma, remains a controversial topic in gynecologic oncology. There is currently wide variability among clinical practices, with surgical approaches ranging from no nodal evaluation to comprehensive pelvic and aortic lymphadenectomy. Lymphatic mapping has emerged as an increasingly popular option over the past few years, with several attractive features in its concept, innovative surgical approach, and encouraging preliminary results. At this time, however, several different techniques have been described and used for lymphatic mapping in endometrial cancer, incorporating a variety of mapping agents and injection sites. Although recently published results are encouraging, they are limited to single-institution series or multi-institutional collaborations undertaken without the aegis of a prospective randomized controlled trial. However, the surgical staging of endometrial cancer with lymphadenectomy was historically established based not on randomized trial data but on prospective clinicopathologic studies. Another evolving field in endometrial cancer staging is the interpretation of pathologic ultrastaging of sentinel lymph nodes (SLNs), which can identify low-volume metastases for which the clinical significance and the ideal management remain uncertain. This is particularly an issue with extremely low-volume nodal metastasis and isolated tumor cells. Furthermore, it has become apparent that applying a predefined SLN algorithm can decrease false-negative rates. The Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center SLN algorithm can be used as a checklist to ensure standardization of care and to reduce the chance of missing nodal disease. Prospective trials are under way at many institutions to help establish the definitive role of SLN mapping for staging of endometrial cancer. The objective of this study was to provide an update on the latest clinical data related to lymphatic mapping for the staging and management of endometrial cancer and its role in clinical practice.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE
Lymphatic mapping is an increasingly popular option in the surgical treatment of endometrial cancer. The aim of using this tool is to target the lymph nodes that are the most likely to be involved with metastatic cancer cells (sentinel lymph nodes) and thereby limit the extent of surgery needed and decrease surgical complications and long-term side effects associated with extensive lymph node removal. By examining a limited number of sentinel lymph nodes, a more detailed examination of the node can be done (ultrastaging). This allows for the detection of a small number of cancer cells (low-volume metastasis) that can be missed with standard techniques.


Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the plastic deformation of NiTi and CuNiTi archwires submitted to mechanical cycling. Material and Methods: Orthodontic archwires made of CuNiTi of five commercial brands (n=10) were used: RMO, Orthometric, Ormco, Aditek and Eurodonto; and a Control Group of NiTi archwire: Aditek thermoactivated. All the archwires, with caliber 0.016", were fitted into the slots of four conventional brackets, aligned and fixed to an acrylic plate. The test was performed by applying a load of 3 N and frequency of 2 Hz between the most central brackets, limited to 10,000 cycles. After cycling, the presence or absence of archwire fracture was observed. When there was no fracture, the archwires were analyzed relative to plastic deformation with the use of a transferer, measuring the angulation of the deformed archwire. Results: The results showed that there was no fracture in any of the wires analyzed. The Kruskal-Wallis test showed differences among the angulations of the orthodontic archwires  (p=0.0009). With exception of the Ormco wires, the other types presented plastic deformation. The highest median of the angulation value was observed for the Aditek Copper NiTi archwire. The lowest median values were observed for the RMO, Eurodonto and Ormco archwires.  The Aditek thermoactivated and Orthometric archwires presented intermediate angulation. Conclusion: None of the archwires analyzed presented fracture. These archwires presented differences in plastic deformation, irrespective of the presence of copper in their chemical composition. The Ormco archwire was the only type that presented no deformation whatever. Keywords Mechanical cycling; Copper; Deformation; Orthodontic wires; Fracture.


The Voronoi Treemap is a space-filling treemap technique that relaxes the constraints of rectangular nodes. Its organic shapes maintain a one-to-one aspect ratio, are flexible with their placement, allowing stable zooming and dynamic data values. In this paper, we present algorithms for efficient computation and dynamic update of Voronoi Treemaps. Our GPGPU-based technique allows for rapid computation of centroidal Voronoi Diagrams, providing almost two orders of magnitude speedup over previous work. In addition, we present a hierarchical algorithm for stable updates. Finally, we demonstrate the application of Voronoi treemaps to real-world dynamic datasets, including interactive navigation.


The economic justification for energy efficiency policy primarily focuses on market failures and barriers that prevent energy consumers from undertaking privately profitable investments in efficiency. These consumeroriented market imperfections are the subject of a substantial and growing body of research regarding human behaviour and economic incentives that influence the demand for energy-efficient technologies. But the literature has focused much less on the producers of energy efficient technologies, and intermediaries such as retailers, who supply technology choice sets for consumer adoption as a result of their competitive strategy (which includes decisions regarding research and development activities, supply chain management, risk management, marketing approaches, etc.). This paper focuses on the question: How could supplier strategy issues help explain the observed "energy efficiency gap" between the privately optimal energy efficiency of goods and services and the actual energy efficiency of goods and services? We begin by providing background on the energy-efficiency gap and the different intellectual paradigms that have been brought to bear on it. Then we provide examples from the literature of apparent market imperfections on the supply side of energy-efficient technology development, including documentation of the concentration of the industries involved in the manufacture of appliances and other products that energy-efficiency policy efforts address. A central point of the paper is the observation that the efficiency gap is dynamic, changing over time and with the processes of innovation; the invention of new, more energy-efficient technologies can widen the gap, while the refinement and take-up of such technologies can narrow it. We conclude with a discussion of interventions on the supply side that could encourage a reduction in the energy-efficiency gap.


Fake news is defined as a made-up story with an intention to deceive or to mislead. In this paper we present the solution to the task of fake news detection by using Deep Learning architectures. Gartner research [1] predicts that " By 2022, most people in mature economies will consume more false information than true information " . The exponential increase in production and distribution of inaccurate news presents an immediate need for automatically tagging and detecting such twisted news articles. However, automated detection of fake news is a hard task to accomplish as it requires the model to understand nuances in natural language. Moreover, majority of the existing fake news detection models treat the problem at hand as a binary classification task, which limits model ' s ability to understand how related or unrelated the reported news is when compared to the real news. To address these gaps, we present neural network architecture to accurately predict the stance between a given pair of headline and article body. Our model outperforms existing model architectures by 2.5% and we are able to achieve an accuracy of 94.21% on test data.


We tested the hypothesis that species (clones) of Daphnia, originating from lakes with very different cyanobacterial abundances, use strategies to optimize their performance in the presence of toxic Microcystis aeruginosa by distributing differently in vertical gradients of valuable food, toxigenic cyanobacteria, and temperature. A laboratory tube system with different combinations of food items in the temperature gradient was used to determine the vertical distribution and performance (growth and lipid index) of Daphnia from three contrasting environments: (1) Daphnia carinata from a eutrophic lake with dense populations of cyanobacteria; (2) Daphnia galeata adapted to low cyanobacteria densities in a deep, mesotrophic lake; and (3) arctic Daphnia pulex assumed to be naïve with few adaptations against pelagic cyanobacteria. When confronted with toxic Microcystis in the epilimnion, Daphnia can respond by avoidance behavior (i.e., suffer metabolic costs from low temperature), reduction of their overall feeding rate in order to avoid the ingestion of toxic cells, metabolizing the toxin biochemically, or not responding if they were never confronted with toxic cyanobacteria. The experiments suggest that D. carinata was sensitive to toxigenic Microcystis and responded by avoidance, D. galeata was less sensitive and preferred to stay in the warm epilimnion, and D. pulex was naïve as expected. Thus, the behavioral strategies of the three Daphnia species appear to reflect interplay between evolutionary history, sensitivity to Microcystis, and the environmental conditions.


Presentation to the U.S. EPA ORD, CSS Research Program Board of Scientific Counselors (BOSC) Chemical Safety Subcommittee Meeting February 2021Feb 2-5, 2021


This paper tries to differentiate cultural trauma from political taboo, as well as to show the manifestations of both in Croatia. By capturing the recent tendencies of political tabooization and de-tabooization of the main national identity. signifiers, it is possible to discern several clear lines of collective relationships towards the country's cultural traumas. First, the cultural victim trauma related to the Homeland War is sanctified and frozen. Furthermore, narratives built from that period have been increasingly applied to the Second World War, in order to represent the quisling Independent State of Croatia in a more positive light. Such attempts of making an ideological continuity are a clear falsification of history. Second, the cultural perpetrator trauma from both periods is denied and silenced. There have been several attempts to question both forms of cultural trauma in the fields of arts and civil society, but they are of limited reach and influence, especially because the mainstream media, political and religious actors promote the relativization and revision of the past. At the end of the paper, the author gives several pieces of advice for public action in order to change this mainstream condition of silencing and the tabooization of troubling traces from the past.


A dual-hop cognitive (secondary) relaying system incorporating collaborative spectrum sensing to opportunistically switch between data transmission and energy harvesting is introduced. The secondary relays, first scan the wireless channel for a primary network activity, and then convey their reports to a secondary base station (SBS). Afterwards, the SBS, based on these reports and its own estimation, decides cooperatively the presence of primary transmission or not. In the former scenario, all secondary relays start to harvest energy from the transmission of one or more primary nodes. In the latter scenario, the system initiates secondary communication via a best relay selection policy. The performance of the proposed scheme is thoroughly investigated by assuming realistic channel conditions, i.e., non-identical link-distances and outdated channel estimation, while its overall energy consumption is evaluated, indicating the efficiency of the switching approach.


We propose a silicon-compatible plasmonic electro-optic modulator employing a silicon racetrack ring resonator coupled to a bus waveguide. A silicon-plasmonic hybrid phase shifter clad with electro-optic polymer is introduced to achieve high-speed performance and low energy consumption. Simulations show that the proposed modulator can achieve an extinction ratio of more than 15 dB at 1550-nm wavelength under a 1.2-V bias voltage. The misalignment tolerance and fabrication feasibility of the modulator are also discussed.


Context. In recent years, there has been a number of detections of gradients in the radial velocity profile across jets from young stars. The significance of these results is considerable. They may be interpreted as a signature of jet rotation about its symmetry axis, thereby representing the only existing observational indications supporting the theory that jets extract angular momentum from stardisk systems. However, the possibility that we are indeed observing jet rotation in pre-main sequence systems is undergoing active debate. Aims. To test the validity of a rotation argument, we must extend the survey to a larger sample, including younger sources. Methods. We present the latest results of a radial velocity analysis on jets from Class 0 and I sources, using high resolution data from the infrared spectrograph GNIRS on GEMINI South. We obtained infrared spectra of protostellar jets HH 34, HH 111-H, HH 212 NK1 and SK1. Results. The [Fe II] emission was unresolved in all cases and so Doppler shifts across the jet width could not be accessed. The H2 emission was resolved in all cases except HH 34. Doppler profiles across the molecular emission were obtained, and gradients in radial velocity of typically 3 km s −1 identified. Conclusions. Agreement with previous studies implies they may be interpreted as jet rotation, leading to toroidal velocity and angular )


Abstract. Structured light with inhomogeneous phase, amplitude, and polarization spatial distributions that represent an infinite-dimensional space of eigenstates for light as the ideal carrier can provide a structured combination of photonic spin and orbital angular momentum (OAM). Photonic spin angular momentum (SAM) interactions with matter have long been studied, whereas the photonic OAM has only recently been discovered, receiving attention in the past three decades. Although controlling polarization (i.e., SAM) alone can provide useful information about the media with which the light interacts, light fields carrying both OAM and SAM may provide additional information, permitting new sensing mechanisms and light–matter interactions. We summarize recent developments in controlling photonic angular momentum (AM) using complex structured optical fields. Arbitrarily oriented photonic SAM and OAM states may be generated through careful engineering of the spatial and temporal structures of optical fields. Moreover, we discuss potential applications of specifically engineered photonic AM states in optical tweezers, directional coupling, and optical information transmission and processing.


This paper forms part of a series of papers that present profiles of South Africa's provinces, with a specific focus on key demographic statistics, poverty and inequality estimates, and estimates of unemployment. In this volume comparative statistics are presented for agricultural and non-agricultural households, as well as households from different racial groups, locations (metropolitan, urban and rural areas) and district municipalities of KwaZulu-Natal. Most of the data presented are drawn from the Income and Expenditure Survey of 2000 and the Labour Force Survey of September 2000, while some comparative populations statistics are extracted from the National Census of 2001 (Statistics South Africa). The papers should be regarded as general guidelines to (agricultural) policymakers as to the current socio-economic situation in KwaZulu-Natal, particularly with regards to poverty, inequality and unemployment.


Women with chronic disabling conditions live with multiple symptoms that decrease their ability to function in society, and they may be at elevated risk for further morbidity with age. Despite research indicating that health-promoting behaviors decrease the risk for further morbidity, few interventions have been designed to help women with chronic disabling conditions promote their health. The purpose of this article is to present the results of a pilot study of a wellness intervention adapted for use with women with fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS). First, the development of the original wellness intervention for women with multiple sclerosis (MS) will be described. Next, the steps taken to adapt the intervention to the needs of women with FMS will be described. Finally, it will be argued that commonalities in symptoms and social experiences and the universal need for health-promoting skills make this intervention adaptable to multiple groups of women with chronic disabling conditions.


AIM
The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of hyperhomocysteinemia in a population with peripheral vascular occlusive disease in Kuwait.

METHODS
From November 2000 to May 2002, total serum homocysteine levels were measured in 172 consecutive patients admitted to the vascular surgery unit because of peripheral vascular arterial disease. A fluorescence polarization immunoassay was used for measuring total serum homocysteine levels. Serum homocysteine levels over 15 mol/L were considered as high.

RESULTS
The mean ankle-brachial index was 0.59+/-0.2 and 0.55+/-0.2 for right and left legs, respectively. The mean serum homocysteine level was 14.9+/-4.7 mol/L (range, 4.2-50.0). High homocysteine levels were found in 70 out of 172 patients (40.7%). The prevalence of hyperhomocysteinemia was significant in patients with hypertension (P=0.03) and ischaemic heart disease (P=0.04). Binary logistic regression model showed that male gender, diabetes mellitus and hypertension were significant independent predictors for high levels of homocystinemia in peripheral vascular occlusive disease [adjusted odds ratio (OR) 2.90; 95% confidence interval (CI); 1.18-7.12; P=0.02]; [0.35 OR; 95% CI; 0.15-0.79; P=0.01] and [2.12 OR; 95% CI; 0.98-4.59; P=0.05], respectively. Diabetes was significant but appeared to protect for peripheral vascular occlusive disease in patients with high levels of serum homocysteine.

CONCLUSION
Elevated homocysteinemia was found in 40.7% of patients suffering from peripheral vascular disease. In this cohort, male gender, diabetes and hypertension were found to be risk factors along with elevated homocysteine levels.


The applied geological mapping study of the Wigan Metropolitan Borough was completed in October 1995 by the British Geological Survey (BGS) in association with the planning consultants Roger Tym & Partners. The aim of the project was to provide a geoscience basis for planning and development decisions. The users of the study were seen primarily as planners and developers but also engineers, conservationists and others. The important common factor was that the users need not have geological training. The study represented the state-of-the-art in the UK in terms of the transfer of geological information to nongeologists. Geoscience data were compiled as a series of nine thematic maps and a technical report in which the geology of the area, and its modification by human activities, were described. The engineering geology map is significant in that it uses the stripe method of showing subsurface information, a method rarely used in the UK since its first use by Dearman in the North East of England. The key geological factors relevant to planning and development were identified by the project team during discussions with local planners and developers. They were summarized on a map and described in a report that indicated how and where geology might significantly affect development. The successful outcome of this study required a multidisciplinary team approach and good communication between team members.


Many fundamental studies of the origins of states have built upon landscape data, but an overall study of the Near Eastern landscape itself has never been attempted. Spanning thousands of years of history, the ancient Near East presents a bewildering range of landscapes, the understanding of which can greatly enhance our ability to infer past political and social systems.
Tony Wilkinson now shows that throughout the Holocene humans altered the Near Eastern environment so thoroughly that the land has become a human artifact, albeit one that retains the power to shape human societies. In this trailblazing book—the first to describe and explain the development of the Near Eastern landscape using archaeological data—Wilkinson identifies specific landscape signatures for various regions and periods, from the early stages of complex societies in the fifth to sixth millennium B.C. to the close of the Early Islamic period around the tenth century A.D.

From Bronze Age city-states to colonized steppes, these signature landscapes of irrigation systems, tells, and other features changed through time along with changes in social, economic, political, and environmental conditions. By weaving together the record of the human landscape with evidence of settlement, the environment, and social and economic conditions, Wilkinson provides a holistic view of the ancient Near East that complements archaeological excavations, cuneiform texts, and other conventional sources.

Through this overview, culled from thirty years' research, Wilkinson establishes a new framework for understanding the economic and physical infrastructure of the region. By describing the basic attributes of the ancient cultural landscape and placing their development within the context of a dynamic environment, he breaks new ground in landscape archaeology and offers a new context for understanding the ancient Near East.


* Winner of the George Perkins Marsh Prize for Best Book in Environmental History * Winner of the Meridian Book Award for Outstanding Work in Geography * James Blaut Award in recognition of innovative scholarship in Cultural and Political Ecology Tales of deforestation and desertification in North Africa have been told from the Roman period to the present. Such stories of environmental decline in the Maghreb are still recounted by experts and are widely accepted without question today. International organizations such as the United Nations frequently invoke these inaccurate stories to justify environmental conservation and development projects in the arid and semiarid lands in North Africa and around the Mediterranean basin. Recent research in arid lands ecology and new paleoecological evidence, however, do not support many claims of deforestation, overgrazing, and desertification in this region. Diana K. Davis's pioneering analysis reveals the critical influence of French scientists and administrators who established much of the purported scientific basis of these stories during the colonial period in Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia, illustrating the key role of environmental narratives in imperial expansion. The processes set in place by the use of this narrative not only systematically disadvantaged the majority of North Africans but also led to profound changes in the landscape, some of which produced the land degradation that continues to plague the Maghreb today.Resurrecting the Granary of Rome exposes many of the political, economic, and ideological goals of the French colonial project in these arid lands and the resulting definition of desertification that continues to inform global environmental and development projects. The first book on the environmental history of the Maghreb, this volume reframes much conventional thinking about the North African environment. Davis's book is essential reading for those interested in global environmental history.


Intact sediment cores from North Lake (Perth, Western Australia) were air-dried for 40 days, reflooded with lake water and incubated at 20°C. Under aerated conditions, air-drying increased phosphorus release. When aeration was stopped, air-dried sediments continued to release P into the water, but the rate was much slower than that in the early stage of the aeration. The results suggest a gradual depletion of labile phosphorus from the dried sediments. Under anaerobic conditions, the phosphate release was also markedly higher for air-dried sediments than for the 'wet' controls. The accumulation of soluble inorganic phosphorus during air-drying, owing to breakdown of organic material and a drying-induced decrease in phosphate sorption, may be the cause of release on rewetting. The results suggest that drought-induced sediment dehydration in natural wetlands may be followed by a significant increase of internal phosphorus loading under both aerobic and anaerobic conditions. Care must therefore be taken in using drawdown as a lake management technique to improve water quality.


This article describes the Swedish rules about experiments on animals and the function of the Swedish animal ethics experimentation committees. A small survey of the rules about experiments on animals in Norway, Denmark, Finland, England and Wales, and the EU, is included. The Swedish rules on animal experimentation are examined in order to see how their form and functions relate to theories about different kinds of decision making in public law. The extents to which the rules agree with the aims of the law and with existing normative patterns are also examined. The difficulties to handle the ethical weighting between the importance of the experiment and the suffering of the animals are discussed.


Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine an organisation-wide restructuring exercise by investigating the effectiveness of strategy development and deployment processes in a National Health Service (NHS) Community Health Services (CHS) organisation. Design/methodology/approach - The authors used an embedded single-case study approach to gather and analyse rich data in order to understand how an organisation can develop and deploy its strategy, and to appreciate the key tools, techniques and issues related to this process. A range of data collection methods, including archival records, interviews, observations and questionnaires, was employed to permit triangulation of the results. Findings - The research led to an understanding of how the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) and the Closed-Loop Management System (CLMS) can be adapted to support the local CHS. In total, 17 key areas for success are presented and used to assess the current capability within the case study organisation. Research limitations/implications - The authors' investigation examined the potential for improved strategic development and deployment through the adaptation of the BSC and a CLMS within a NHS CHS organisation. Practical implications - A six-step conceptual model is presented which can be used to guide organisations. The model permits the assessment of capability in order to highlight current strengths and weaknesses. Originality/value - As a suitably skilled workforce is required for the successful implementation of any management system, the research expanded the scope of the study by including an assessment of the organisation's readiness for adapting formal strategy deployment systems.


RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) is a powerful approach for measuring gene expression levels in cells and tissues, but it relies on high-quality RNA. We demonstrate here that statistical adjustment employing existing quality measures largely fails to remove the effects of RNA degradation when RNA quality associates with the outcome of interest. Using RNA-seq data from a molecular degradation experiment of human brain tissue, we introduce the quality surrogate variable (qSVA) analysis framework for estimating and removing the confounding effect of RNA quality in differential expression analysis. We show this approach results in greatly improved replication rates (>3x) across two large independent postmortem human brain studies of schizophrenia. Finally, we explored public datasets to demonstrate potential RNA quality confounding when comparing expression levels of different brain regions and diagnostic groups beyond schizophrenia. Our approach can therefore improve the interpretation of differential expression analysis of transcriptomic data from the human brain.


Hypothesizing that every syntactic object reaching the interfaces must be labeled, Chomsky (2013, 2015) introduce an independent label-identifying operation, Labeling Algorithm (LA). This newly proposed LA, which is an instance of Minimal Search, is assumed to search for not only the categorial feature of heads but also any agreeing features shared by two heads to determine the label of a given syntactic object. This paper argues, however, that postulation of the latter type of search by LA (i.e., locating agreeing features) adds a computational burden to the grammar by forcing LA to perform two different types of search, namely, a "comparison search" in addition to the widely agreed-upon Minimal Search. This paper also addresses some conceptual and empirical problems that arise from the paired form of the non-categorial label, < φ , φ > , whose introduction results from the problematic comparison search by LA. To solve these problems, I present an alternative analysis in which LA searches only for the categorial feature of heads. Consequently, neither comparison search nor the paired form of the label, < φ , φ > , becomes necessary in the analysis.


The law of international extradition in the United States rests on a series of myths that have hardened into doctrine. Perhaps the most significant is the frequent claim that by its nature, extradition is "an executive function, rather than a judicial one." This claim, in turn, supports additional rules, such as the "rule of non-inquiry," under which courts hearing extradition cases may not inquire into the procedures or treatment, including possible physical abuse, that await the extraditee in the requesting state. In its 2008 decision in Munaf v. Geren, for example, the Supreme Court applied this rule to the transfer of two U.S. citizens from U.S. military custody to Iraqi custody for trial in Iraqi courts. In response to their claim that they were likely to be tortured in Iraqi custody, the Court stated that "it is for the political branches, not the judiciary, to assess practices in foreign countries and to determine national policy in light of those assessments." This article uses the rule of non-inquiry to assess the current state of extradition law and the theories that support it. I focus first on the doctrinal status of the rule, with the goal of demonstrating that it is more flexible than courts often purport to believe and that a more explicitly functional approach would better serve the issues that the non-inquiry doctrine encompasses and implicates. Throughout my doctrinal discussion, I also consider the proper scope of habeas corpus review of extradition decisions. This article also has broader ambitions. First, my discussion of non-inquiry and the scope of habeas review seeks to historicize these doctrines. Second, I argue for unfreezing extradition law and putting it back into the overall structure of federal law and the current of legal change. Third, my suggestions for the rule of non-inquiry also work within and seek to incorporate some of the many changes in international law that have taken place since the rule was first announced. Fourth, I contest the notion that foreign affairs concerns require courts to refuse to inquire into constitutional or human rights claims. Finally, I explore the rule of non-inquiry's reliance on a traditional notion of national, territorial sovereignty. Some writers have pointed to the Supreme Court's decision in Boumediene v. Bush as an example of changing conceptions of sovereignty. By contrast, the Munaf majority repeatedly stressed and relied upon Iraq's "sovereign right" or "prerogative" to punish offenses "committed on its soil." Thus, on the same day in June 2008, the Supreme Court declared both that sovereignty has changed, and that it remains the same. This article asks whether Munaf's conception of sovereignty was already outdated or whether it gives the lie to claims that sovereignty has eroded. I also consider a third option, that both conceptions can exist and be consistent with each other in U.S. law, and the article ends by exploring what that coexistence might mean.


Switzerland has a mixed public and private healthcare system. All citizens are enrolled in compulsory basic health insurance. A 1996 law allows people to choose among different sickness funds and managed care plans. The federal government is empowered to act on important health issues, but the 26 cantons have prime responsibility in health care and social welfare. They have their own laws on health care, hygiene, hospitals, and social welfare. These laws are not harmonized. The system is complex, with a mix of public (mainly hospitals) and private (mainly doctors' offices) providers. The health services are decentralized. Ambulatory care was traditionally provided in doctors' offices, but the last decade has seen the development of centers for day surgery, group practices, and managed care plans. Decisions on placement, location, and extension of services are decentralized. The payment system is very complex. Current trends include global budgets, cost analyses, and prices related to patient categories. However, coverage policy is developed centrally and includes both traditionally established services and new technologies. New technologies are added to the list only after evaluation by the Federal Coverage Committee. The coverage process integrates health technology assessment (HTA). Coverage can be granted in stages, including limited coverage and temporary coverage. Technologies and coverage can be reevaluated on the basis of registries or assessment information. The structure of the Swiss healthcare system does not lend itself to the establishment of a national HTA program. However, recent moves include the development of a coordinating mechanism for HTA in Switzerland.


PVS (Prototype Verification System) is a general-purpose environment for developing specifications and proofs. This document deals primarily with the abstract datatype mechanism in PVS which generates theories containing axioms and definitions for a class of recursive datatypes. The concepts underlying the abstract datatype mechanism are illustrated using ordered binary trees as an example. Binary trees are described by a PVS abstract datatype that is parametric in its value type. The type of ordered binary trees is then presented as a subtype of binary trees where the ordering relation is also taken as a parameter. We define the operations of inserting an element into, and searching for an element in an ordered binary tree; the bulk of the report is devoted to PVS proofs of some useful properties of these operations. These proofs illustrate various approaches to proving properties of abstract datatype operations. They also describe the built-in capabilities of the PVS proof checker for simplifying abstract datatype expressions.


During World War II, when the Office of War Information urged the American film companies to help the nation win the war, the OWI's Bureau of Motion Pictures delivered both moral support and guidance. The BMP "Manual" (1942), for instance, encouraged producers to show women dropping off their children at day-care centers, then cheerfully heading off to jobs where they enjoyed equal opportunity and equal pay. Scenes like those may have been fantasy, and for some women wryly amusing, and yet, in the late 1940s and beyond, as one historian says, World War II came to be thought of as "the best war ever," the war, according to myth, where there were no tensions over class, or race, or gender.


Biliary pseudolithiasis has been reported in patients who received ceftriaxone therapy. To examine this phenomenon further, serial gallbladder sonograms were evaluated in 44 adult patients who received intravenous ceftriaxone at 2 g or a placebo daily for 14 days in a double-blind controlled study. Ultrasound examinations of gallbladders were performed on days 1 and 14 of therapy and 2 weeks posttherapy if abnormalities were observed on day 14. Eight patients were unevaluable because of abnormal base-line gallbladder sonograms. Thirty-six patients (ceftriaxone, n = 28; placebo, n = 8) demonstrated normal baseline gallbladder sonograms and were evaluated for the development of change. A total of 6 of 28 (21.4%) ceftriaxone-treated patients and 1 of 8 (12.5%) patients who received the placebo demonstrated abnormal gallbladder sonograms on day 14 (P = 0.491). Four of the six ceftriaxone-treated patients demonstrating abnormal sonograms were clinically asymptomatic, while two patients reported vomiting. The abnormal sonograms of gallbladders of patients treated with ceftriaxone returned to normal between 9 and 26 days posttherapy. These data suggest an association between ceftriaxone treatment and the development of gallbladder abnormalities on ultrasound examination which resolve spontaneously on discontinuation of ceftriaxone therapy.


THE BIDIRECTIONALITY OF IMPULSIVITY AND ALCOHOL USE: AN ECOLOGICAL MOMENTARY EXAMINATION AMONG EMERGING ADULTS Amy L. Stamates Old Dominion University, 2019 Director: Dr. Cathy Lau-Barraco Impulsivity is a robust risk factor for alcohol use among emerging adults (i.e., 18 to 25), but significant gaps remain in our understanding of the way that impulsivity relates to alcohol harms. Most prior research has been limited to between-level differences; thus, within-person variability in impulsivity at the momentary level and its bidirectional association with alcohol use has not been examined. Consequently, the present research used a 14-day ecological momentary assessment (EMA) design to: (1) determine momentary impulsivity as a predictor of subsequent alcohol use and problems; (2) examine the influence of alcohol use on subsequent impulsivity; (3) test socio-cognitive mechanisms (motives, expectancies, and norms) as real-time mediators explaining the link between momentary impulsivity and alcohol use; and (4) test context and sex as moderators of the relationship between momentary impulsivity and alcohol use. Participants were 96 (63 women) heavy drinking, college students. The mean age was 19.80 (SD = 1.76) years. Participants completed a baseline questionnaire and 14 consecutive days of momentary reports sent in the morning, afternoon, and evening; participants also completed two user-initiated reports during a drinking occasion (i.e., at the beginning and the end of their drinking). Multilevel modeling results indicated that greater levels of impulsivity experienced during the day was not associated with alcohol use or problems experienced that night. For bidirectional effects, alcohol use was associated with greater impulsivity reported at the end of the drinking occasion and greater alcohol use predicted greater impulsivity the next morning. Multilevel structural equation modeling revealed significant within-person mediation, such that on days when individuals reported greater than usual impulsivity, they also reported greater enhancement motives, positive expectancies, and negative expectancies, which in turn, was associated with greater alcohol consumption. Coping motives and norms did not mediate the association between impulsivity and alcohol use. A peer drinking context and sex were not significant moderators of the link between impulsivity and alcohol use. Overall, this study was the first to examine the bidirectional relationship between impulsivity and alcohol use as well as mechanisms and moderators using an EMA methodology. Findings supported impulsivity's conceptualization as a state construct, and fluctuations in momentary states of impulsivity may coincide with alcohol use behaviors. Thus, findings from the present study contributed to conceptual daily process models of drinking by identifying how alcohol behaviors unfold in the real world. Future research is needed to examine other potential within-person mechanisms that may underlie or factors that may impact the examined relationships.