The protein kinase ATM (mutated in the human disease ataxia telangiectasia, which is associated with a high risk of cancer) is well known to function in cell cycle checkpoint signaling pathways that arrest the cell cycle in response to DNA damage. Now studies by Bakkenist and Kastan have extended our understanding of how the activity of this critical kinase is regulated. They identified an autophosphorylation site in the kinase and generated antibodies that specifically recognized the phosphorylated enzyme. This site of autophosphorylation was found to interact with the kinase domain in vitro. Protein cross-linking in cells treated with formaldehyde revealed that ATM was present as an inactive dimer in the absence of DNA damage, with the active site blocked from interaction with potential targets. The kinase became active in cells exposed to ionizing radiation, and the dimer dissociated after autophosphorylation took place. Experiments monitoring activation of ATM with the antibody to the autophosphorylation site revealed that even slight amounts of DNA damage rapidly activated ATM (within 15 min) and activated a large proportion of the ATM in the cell. The authors reasoned that direct activation of ATM bound to double-strand breaks in DNA was unlikely to account for such extensive activation, so they looked for more general changes in the nucleus that might influence more of the ATM molecules. They suspected changes in chromatin structure as one such alteration, and indeed agents that alter chromatin structure (but do not cause breaks) caused rapid phosphorylation of ATM. Although the precise nature of the damage detection mechanism remains to be resolved, the outlines of the critical pathways protecting the integrity of the genome are coming more clearly into focus. C. J. Bakkenist, M. B. Kastan, DNA damage activates ATM through intermolecular autophosphorylation and dimer dissociation. Nature 421, 499-506 (2003). [Online Journal]


The growing use of nanomaterials and their associated risks necessitate the emergence of efficient decontamination systems. The main objective of this study is to develop a new prototype based on artificial supramolecular hydrogel capable of removing nanoparticle (NP) waste and nanomaterial by-products from aqueous suspensions. We demonstrate the high trapping efficacy of the low-molecular-weight gelators (LMWG) for very small particles (quantum dots (QDs), gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), TiO2 nanoparticles (TiO2-NPs), below 50 nm in diameter) from aqueous suspensions. The performance levels of removing nanoparticles from contaminated effluents could lead to a competitive alternative to filtration and dialysis devices.


1. Outline 2. Humean Chastity: (The utility of heterosexual bonds) 3. Humean Sexual Ethics:(= Emotivism + Utilitarianism + Patriarchy) 4. The Evolution of Sexual Ethics: (Jared Diamond on concealed ovulation) 5. The Naturalistic Fallacy:(G.E. Moore's critique of naturalistic ethics) 6. Sexual Conservatism and Sexual Libertarianism 7. Controversial Issues in Sexual Ethics 7.1. Autoerotic Sex 7.2. Homoerotic Sex 7.3. Heteroerotic Sex 8. The Future of Sexual Ethics 9. Postscript 2. Humean Chastity I begin with a passage from David Hume's An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals (1751): (All book references are on fair use, except as noted.) "The long and helpless infancy of man requires the combination of parents for the subsistence of their young; and that combination requires the virtue of chastity or fidelity to the marriage bed. Without such utility...such a virtue would never have been thought of." There are seven concepts at play here: 1. Childhood frailty (CF), 2. The requirement of heterosexual bonds (HB), 3. Co-parental duties to children (PD), 4. The legitimacy of sexual ethics (SE), 5. Empirical bifurcation (EB), 6. Sexual ethics is a matter of conceptual analysis (SE-1), and 7. Sexual ethics is a matter of empirical contingency (SE-2). I am assuming that Hume is using the extramarital sex taboo as an example representing sexual ethics in general. Childhood frailty is a biological fact about human beings. Empirical bifurcation is an underlying assumption here, and is an important tenet of Hume's philosophy, that being that all judgments are either what he calls "relations of ideas" (conceptual analysis) or "relations of facts" (empirical contingency). The argument then goes as follows: 1. CF 2. CF > PD 2. PD > HB 3. HB > SE 4. SE (as a subconclusion) 5. SE > (SE-1 or SE-2) (empirical bifurcation) 6. SE-1 or SE-2 (from 4. and 5.) 7. CF > ~SE-1 (to be explained) 8. ~SE-1 (from 1. and 7.) 9. SE-2 (from 6. and 8.) What Hume is saying here, first, is that childhood frailty is a contingent biological fact that, with the assumption of the value of the continuance of human civilization, implies co-parental duties (i.e., both parents care for the child), the basis for co-parental duties are the sexual bonds between mother and father, and these bonds are secured by an ethic of sexual exclusivity. Second, there is an underlying assumption of empirical bifurcation. Since the legitimacy of sexual ethics is, in part, based the contingent biological fact of childhood frailty, then sexual ethics must be of the second category--matters of fact. Being, at least in part, a matter of fact, sexual ethics as we know it cannot be purely a matter of deduction based on self-evident principles (conceptual analysis), and, therefore, "such a virtue would never have been thought of" (i.e., the ethic of sexual exclusivity in marriage would have never occurred to us, and so would never have been thought of as a virtue, if it weren't for the biological fact of human frailty.) Another way of looking at it is to consider the reverse course of reasoning. If we were a species that did not have childhood frailty--if human children were well-prepared for life without the long and continued care and protection of their parents--then the heterosexual bonds fostered by sexual exclusivity would not be needed. And thus, the taboo of extramarital sex will have lost its legitimacy. The crucial point here is that sexual ethics cannot be understood or justified independent of the biological facts and/or even the circumstances of human existence. That is, to understand human sexual ethics, we must first understand who we are and what are the principles that govern human society. …


Support vector machines (SVMs) with the gaussian (RBF) kernel have been popular for practical use. Model selection in this class of SVMs involves two hyperparameters: the penalty parameter C and the kernel width σ . This letter analyzes the behavior of the SVM classifier when these hyperparameters take very small or very large values. Our results help in understanding the hyperparameter space that leads to an efficient heuristic method of searching for hyperparameter values with small generalization errors. The analysis also indicates that if complete model selection using the gaussian kernel has been conducted, there is no need to consider linear SVM.


This paper presents evidence of substantial causal effects of parental education on children's health behaviours and long-term health. We study intergenerational effects of a compulsory schooling increase in Germany after World War II, which was implemented across federal states at different points in time. Maternal schooling reduces children's smoking and overweight in adolescence. The effects persist into children's adulthood, reducing chronic conditions that often result from unhealthy lifestyles. We find no effects of paternal education. Children's peer environment early in life and increased investments in their education are possible effect channels. The intergenerational effects exceed the direct effects on health.


So Help Me Hannah, 1979, one of ten performance tapes, black and white, 25 min.So Help Me Hannah

Hannah Wilke

1982, 29 min, color, sound

This documentation of a 1982 event at the A.I.R. Gallery in New York features a riveting performance by Wilke, who is nude (except for high heeled-shoes) and aiming a gun. As she stalks the performance space like Emma Peel crossed with an exotic dancer, two cameramen follow her, recording her every movement. Dissonant music and a voiceover text about art, violence, power and gender provide the aural counterpoint to her often provocative physical gestures.

Camera: Robert Rubin, Bill Dolson. Sound: G. Lindahl.


Many algorithms proposed in networking research papers are widely used in many areas, including Congestion Control, Routing, Traffic Engineering, and Load Balancing. In this paper, we present algorithmic advancements that have impacted the practice of Congestion Control (CC) in datacenters and the Internet. Where possible, we also describe negative examples, ideas that looked promising on paper or in simulations but that performed poorly in practice. We conclude the paper with observations on the characteristics shared by these ideas in taking them from research to impacting practice.


In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the number of hostile share acquisitions of American businesses. The authors examine the validity of the various defensive measures employed by target companies to defeat or deter a hostile takeover bid. They argue that antitakeover activity should not be viewed as a separate subset of legal analysis; rather, it should be analyzed according to four traditional principles of corporate governance: (1) the discretion afforded corporate management by the business judgment rule; (2) the prohibition against discriminating between members of the same class of shareholders; (3) the prohibition against shifting control from the shareholders to the board of directors for actions reserved by statute to the shareholders; and (4) the prohibition against shifting control from a majority to a minority of shareholders for decisions reserved by statute to the majority. Moreover, the authors assert that even if a court uses these principles of corporate government as the basis for its decision, the court's analysis is still incomplete if it focuses only on the target board's initial decision to resist a hostile share acquisition. Rather, a court must undertake a two-step analysis, whereby it looks first at the target board's initial decision to resist the hostile takeover, and second, to the means employed by the target board to effectuate that decision.


Graphene oxide (GO) was synthesized from natural graphite using the Hummers method. Graphene oxide/zinc oxide nano composite were synthesized by mixing of GO and ZnO solutions and then freeze drying. The adsorptive performance of the nano composite was investigated in the removal of methylene blue. The statistical study of the adsorption process was carried out by response surface methodology (RSM). Experimental variables such as sample pH, adsorption time, dye concentration and adsorbent dosage were considered for the optimization process. The process was optimized by response surface methodology (RSM) through Box-Benhken method. The optimum conditions, predicted by the RSM were obtained at pH, contact time, initial dye concentration and adsorbent dosage of 6, 8.5 min, 5 ppm, 0.02 g, respectively. The removal of methylene blue under optimum conditions was predicted to be 98.17%and resulted in 97% in practice. The Pareto analysis suggested that order of relative importance of the factors were as follows: adsorbent dosage > dye concentration > adsorption time > pH. Under optimized conditions, GO/ZnO nano composite showed a higher capacity than GO, carbon nanotube (CNT), ZnO and ZnO/CNT for adsorption of methylene blue. The study revealed that GO/ZnO could be a promising adsorbent for removal of industrial dyes from wastewaters.


Emotions seize powerful status in mental functioning. When we are besieged by stress, the emotional parts of our brain supersede the rational part. Emotional balance and adjustment in adversities could be attained by intelligent use of emotions. A series of studies in the last two decades has established the role of emotional intelligence (EI) as vital in mental health. The detrimental impact of high alexithymia (a state of deficiency in understanding, processing, or describing emotions) or low emotional intelligence on physical illness, depression, low self esteem, suicidal ideation, poor impulse control, anxiety disorders, personality disorders, and increased alcohol and drug use has been supported by number of studies. These findings are not surprising as there is overlap between some of the components of emotional intelligence and prerequisites of mental health. Researchers have established EI as a novel explanatory construct in mental illness and suggest that training EI may play preventive role in the onset of mental illnesses. Studies in the area of emotional intelligence and mental health have consequences for maintaining and promoting individual's mental health. Literature establishes a vista that psychotherapy based on developing EI skills along with other therapeutic measures could be proved effective in certain mental illnesses.


The aim of this work is to provide a precise and accurate measurement of the 238U(n,gamma) reaction cross-section. This reaction is of fundamental importance for the design calculations of nuclear reactors, governing the behaviour of the reactor core. In particular, fast neutron reactors, which are experiencing a growing interest for their ability to burn radioactive waste, operate in the high energy region of the neutron spectrum. In this energy region inconsistencies between the existing measurements are present up to 15%, and the most recent evaluations disagree each other. In addition, the assessment of nuclear data uncertainty performed for innovative reactor systems shows that the uncertainty in the radiative capture cross-section of 238U should be further reduced to 1-3% in the energy region from 20 eV to 25 keV. To this purpose, addressed by the Nuclear Energy Agency as a priority nuclear data need, complementary experiments, one at the GELINA and two at the n_TOF facility, were scheduled within the ANDES project within the 7th Framework Project of the European Commission.

The results of one of the 238U(n,gamma) measurement performed at the n_TOF CERN facility are presented in this work, carried out with a detection system constituted of two liquid scintillators. The very accurate cross section from this work is compared with the results obtained from the other measurement performed at the n_TOF facility, which exploit a different and complementary detection technique. The excellent agreement between the two data-sets points out that they can contribute to the reduction of the cross section uncertainty down to the required 1-3%.


This essay makes a pair of interrelated claims about apathy. One of these is literary-historical, the other critical-literary. During the turbulent middle decades of the nineteenth century, a number of US writers resorted to the emotionless state of apathy even as the wider culture normalized the possession and display of feelings. The antebellum writings of author Herman Melville are hardly alone in demonstrating apathy's hermeneutic and aesthetic uses; they nevertheless suggest a concentrated encounter with apathy, given how the author thematically foregrounds unfeeling in his work. In Melville's writings, we discover an alternative affective register for the characteristic emotionalism of US literary culture in the decades surrounding the nation's Civil War. Meanwhile, apathy continues to pose a challenge to the emotionally implicated modes of reading, reception, and response that have enjoyed critical favor in recent years as a broadly conceived affect studies. If apathy is not a foil for the study of affect, it does extend the emotional range of our criticism by modeling a way to formulate feelings—those associated with the literary subjects of our scholarship, as well as those that inform and motivate our work in the first place—in relative and relational terms. Apathy is more than a generational disposition of postmoderns or the cool, emotionless province of "critique" that Rita Felski identifies with what she (after the French philosopher Paul Ricoeur) names a "hermeneutics of suspicion." Rather, apathy is an interpretive stance in its own right, proactive in the critical postures it adopts as much as it is reactive to any culture that defines itself, at least in part, on the basis of its relation to feelings.


The reaction of aryl isoselenocyanates (1a-d) with 4-diethyl-amino-3-butyn-2-one (6) in refluxing tetrahydrofuran afforded N-arylselenet-2(2H)-imines (7) in moderate yields. The structure of the stable 4-bromophenyl derivative (7b) has been established by X-Ray crystallography. A stepwise cycloaddition via an intermediate zwitterion (A/A') is proposed as the reaction mechanism. In boiling tetrahydrofuran, the selenetimines (7) are in equilibrium with ketenimines (B), which were intercepted by amines to give 2-(diaminomethylene)-3-oxobutane selenamides of type (8).


As each day passes, and as new and better devices and services are developed, more and more government and private services are being moved to an online format. This movement makes access to the internet an essential for 21st Century life. The internet has become so integrated in our lives that many of us cannot imagine how we could operate without it. This omnipresent 'being' affects all forms of 'normal' social and economic activity and does so in ways that we do not realize.

Those with access are able to engage with government, business, and family and friends more easily, which can lead to an improved standard of living. For the disadvantaged, however – those with the desire but without the capacity – a lack of access can be socially isolating.

 "Between the idea

 And the reality

 Between the motion

 And the act

 Falls the Shadow
 – T. S. Elliott. "The Hollow Men"

Engagement in the internet economy requires both physical access and the individual to have the necessary finances and skills to make and sustain their use. If governments and the international community want a fully functioning internet economy this requires that all individuals must be operating in it. That not all individuals do so means, very simply, that the internet economy is not fully functioning.

The text contextualizes for policy makers and legislatures why it is essential to ensure that individuals have appropriate access to the internet and what can be done to achieve it. The interrelationship/overlap between why access is essential, how it can be achieved and the central role of the individual to the internet economy is explored and translated into the concept of connectedness. From this, solutions for ensuring connectedness for all individuals are developed.

It is Dr Cradduck's hope that in the not too distant future readers will puzzle over why texts such as this needed to be written.


Eco of Plant the Polar Below Ground V. Methodological Considerations of the Experimental Approaches Conclusions and Future Directions community was di V erent in the soils under ambient and reduced UV ‐ radiation after three treatment years. These results provide new insight into the negative impact of current UV ‐ B fluxes on high ‐ arctic vegetation. They supplement previous investigations from the Arctic focussing on other variables like growth and so on, which have reported no or minor plant responses to UV ‐ B, and the presented synthesis clearly indicates that UV ‐ B radiation is an important factor a V ecting plant life at high ‐ arctic Zackenberg. However, long ‐ time experiments are needed in order to see whether the observed changes are transient or whether they accumulate over years. Such experiments are especially important for valid determination of below ‐ ground responses, which potentially lead to feedbacks on the ecosystem functioning.


The thymidylate synthase (TS), an important target for many anticancer drugs, has been cloned from different species. But the cDNA property and function of TS in zebrafish are not well documented. In order to use zebrafish as an animal model for screening novel anticancer agents, we isolated TS cDNA from zebrafish and compared its sequence with those from other species. The open reading frame (ORF) of zebrafish TS cDNA sequence was 954 nucleotides, encoding a 318-amino acid protein with a calculated molecular mass of 36.15 kDa. The deduced amino acid sequence of zebrafish TS was similar to those from other organisms, including rat, mouse and humans. The zebrafish TS protein was expressed in Escherichia coli and purified to homogeneity. The purified zebrafish TS showed maximal activity at 28 degrees C with similar K(m) value to human TS. Western immunoblot assay confirmed that TS was expressed in all the developmental stages of zebrafish with a high level of expression at the 1-4 cell stages. To study the function of TS in zebrafish embryo development, a short hairpin RNA (shRNA) expression vector, pSilencer 4.1-CMV/TS, was constructed which targeted the protein-coding region of zebrafish TS mRNA. Significant change in the development of tail and epiboly was found in zebrafish embryos microinjected pSilencer4.1-CMV/TS siRNA expression vector.


The Anglican-Roman Catholic dialogue of Canada (ARC), established over three decades ago, gathers together theologians twice a year for three days at a time in a retreat-like setting to enjoy moments of common prayer, friendship, and serious theological reflection. Members of the dialogue readily express their appreciation for the quality of exchange. Over the years a significant level of trust has been established that allows dialogue to take place quite naturally in a spirit of frankness and mutual respect. It is worth noting that for more than twenty-five years the dialogue of ARC theologians has been complemented by a regular meeting of Anglican and Roman Catholic bishops at the national level (eight bishops from the Anglican Church of Canada, and the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, respectively). The ARC bishops' dialogue is an important forum wherein common pastoral concerns can be explored. Perhaps the most notable issues to retain their attention in recent years are the Catholic response to the sad history of physical and sexual abuse and the Anglican churches' complicity in the government policy of assimilating Canada's First Nations people in church-run residential schools. These encounters play a significant informative and formative role for the bishops in their ministry of communion and have given rise to a variety of forms of collaboration, including the development of common guidelines for the pastoral care of interchurch marriages (1987) (1) and guidelines for the transfer of clergy from one communion to the other (1991). (2) The dialogue among ARC theologians has been dominated by both our interaction with the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC) (For many years ARC Canada was privileged to have both Jean-Marie Tillard and Bishop John Baycroft, key members of ARCIC, as participants.) and by pastoral concerns, some of which are brought to our attention by the bishops' dialogue. Brother Jeffrey Gros of the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops' Office of Ecumenism and Interreligious Affairs and his staff have thankfully published a complete collection of North American and international documents on Anglican-Roman Catholic Relations from 1983 to 1995. (3) This incorporates a significant contribution from ARC Canada, including "Comments on the Observations of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith on Salvation and the Church (1990)," "Reflections on the Experience of Women's Ministries (1991)," an "Agreed Statement on Infallibility" (1992), and a "Reply to the Vatican Response to the Final Report (1993)." (4) In what follows I will attempt to summarize the work accomplished by ARC since 1995. My comments will touch on five projects that include two responses to the work of ARCIC, Life in Christ, and The Gift of Authority; a response to the letter of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Dominus Iesus; and two projects of a more pastoral nature that concern interchurch marriage and differing attitudes toward sacramental sharing. Life in Christ In an effort to receive ARCIC's 1994 study, Life in Christ: Morals, Communion, and the Church, (5) ARC Canada developed a common statement and study guide, "On the Road Together: Anglicans, Catholics, and the Common Good" (1998). Life in Christ showed that, while Anglicans and Catholics may differ in their positions on particular moral questions, they nonetheless share a common vision of humanity, created in the image of God "with the dignity of persons in community, [called] to a life of responsibility and freedom, and endow[ed] with the hope of happiness" (par. 5). ARC Canada attempted to build on this basic consensus and, in the face of a rapidly changing social context wherein the poor were increasingly marginalized, to reflect on principles that guide the participation of Anglican and Catholic Christians in society. It was wonderful to uncover the intersection of the Anglican tradition--particularly as it is reflected in the recommendations of the Lambeth Conferences and in Catholic social teaching--on questions such as human freedom, the responsibility to take part in the social order, the preferential option for the poor, and the role of government both in promoting the common good of human communities and in protecting the poor and the vulnerable. …


We describe how morphological information was used in an Example-Based Arabic-to-English Machine Translation system to produce significant improvement in translation quality on both small and large corpora. We experimented with different methods of generalizing morphology to obtain more candidate source-side matches, while retaining information about the specific input to be translated. This information was then used with adaptation rules and a language model to generate context-appropriate target-side fragments, select and combine them. We outline essential differences between Statistical MT (SMT) and Example-based MT (EBMT), compare ourselves to other EBMT systems used with morphologically complex languages, and justify our choice of EBMT over SMT.


In this thesis, we study Gaussian Markov random field representation of the non-homogenous integrated Wiener process, for the purpose of doing adaptive smoothing of temporal data. We demonstrate that these representations are consistent for irregular locations, and derive Bayesian inferential algorithms with computational cost of only O(n), using numerical algorithms for band-matrices. We outline a more general purpose with the aim of doing more general generic adaptive smoothing of temporal data.


New Zealand primary school teachers are expected to regularly reflect on their teaching practice in order to consider the implications of past teaching on future planning. Aligned to teachers' ongoing reflection, the New Zealand Curriculum (Ministry of Education, 2007) contains a section on effective pedagogy—teacher actions promoting student learning, which includes a Teaching as Inquiry Cycle (pp. 34–35). Embedded within their inquiry, teachers consider the teaching-learning relationship and often turn to frameworks of knowledge for guidance. This article shares the implications of using a framework of teacher knowledge in research. While the framework used contained much detail for the researcher, it overlapped categories and at the same time lacked acknowledgement of some important concepts for teachers in classroom practice. Findings from using a framework in this research were combined with findings from previous research to formulate the Wheel of Professional Knowledge, which was developed for mathematics teachers to use when reflecting on their practice.


Geographical scholarship has rightly problematised the act of archival research, showing how the practice of archiving is not only concerned with how a society collectively remembers, but also forgets. As such, the dominant motif for discussing historical methods in geography has been through the lens of absence: the archive is a space of 'traces', 'fragments' and 'ghosts'. In this paper I suggest that the focus on incompleteness and partiality, while true, may also belie what many geographers working in archives find their greatest difficulty: an overwhelming volume of source materials. I reflect on my own research experiences in the pacifist archive to suggest that the growing scale and scope of many collections, along with the taxing research demands of transnational perspectives, pose immediate practical challenges for geographers characterised as much by abundance as by absence. In the second half of the paper, drawing on recent scholarship in history and geography, I argue that the method of biography offers one possible strategy for navigating archival abundance, allowing geographers to tell stories that are wider, deeper and more revealingly complex within the existing time and financial constraints of humanities research.


As the lead UN agency for Education for Sustainable Development, UNESCO has developed, within the framework of the COP21 the UNESCO GREEN CITIZENS, a project consisting of a multimedia platform and a travelling exhibition which aim to highlight the remarkable work of men and women who work every day to transmit best practices to future generations. The "UNESCO GREEN CITIZENS: Pathfinders for Change" exhibition showcases eight emblematic projects on education for sustainable development while the sharing platform allows educators from all around the world to share their best practices. More than 100 project holders have already shared their initiatives.


Calculation and measurement of performance parameters of public lighting are performed in a grid of points defined by the CIE publication 140 [1] and European standard EN 13201-3.[2] Calculation grid defined in these documents was created at a time of less powerful computers and less precise measuring technology. Distance between two adjacent calculating points may be even 3 m, depending on the geometry of the road. This arrangement is too sparse in view of the fact that presently used computers can cope with much more denser grids in a shorter operation time and the measurement can be performed by luminance analyzers with more accuracy as well. Between the results of the calculation with different grid densities of calculation points there can be significant differences. This fact can be influenced by new optical systems and some LED luminaires which, as it was found out by measurements, may contain various local extremes in the LIDC. When calculating the performance parameters of public lighting with given grid density these extremes may fall between calculation points and thus they are not included in the calculation. The solution is to propose a new density of calculation points which would be designed with respect to current possibilities of computer and measuring technology. The paper deals with the influence of grid density to the resulting photometric parameters of public lighting. In computing software, calculation grid of points according to EN 13201-3 and calculation grid with half and 2 to 10-times densification of calculation points will be used in order to capture the impact of given local extremes to the resulting parameters using luminaires with different optical systems. The results of these calculations will be used as the basis to determine an appropriate density of calculation and measurement grid. The results will be used in the preparation of future revisions of normative documents, which provide a method for determining points of calculation and measurement grid.


Seismic data interpolation plays an indispensable role in common seismic data processing workflows. Iterative shrinkage thresholding (IST) and projection onto convex sets (POCS) can both be considered as a specific form of nonlinear shaping regularization. Compared with linear form of shaping regularization, the nonlinear version can be more adaptive because the shaping operator is not limited to be linear. With a linear combination operator, we introduce a faster version of nonlinear shaping regularization. The new shaping operator utilizes the information of previous model to better constrain the current model. Both synthetic and field data examples demonstrate that the nonlinear shaping regularization can be effectively used to interpolate irregular seismic data and the proposed faster version of shaping regularization can indeed get obvious faster convergence.


Research Findings: Concepts of children's citizenship are highly contested. Contemporary policy and rhetoric increasingly includes the concept of citizenship in relation to children, yet there is considerable ambiguity as to what children's citizenship actually means. Unlike other marginalized groups, it is not children claiming citizenship rights for themselves but adults claiming rights for children on their behalf. Practice or Policy: This paper draws from a doctoral study that inquired into possibilities for young children's active citizenship through analysis of the participation of a class of children aged 5 to 6 years in a social justice storytelling program. Possibilities and quandaries for young children's active citizenship are proposed from critical and poststructuralist readings of young children's comments and actions in response to unfair treatment of others experienced through live storytelling. Implications of these possibilities and quandaries are suggested for those who work with young children in early childhood education and citizenship contexts.


Caregiving of persons with mental illness is challenging as sometimes it is demanding and at other times, it is fulfilling to caregivers. In India, family members are the caregivers for persons with mental illness as there are extremely limited alternative facilities and family members are preferred for caring. The changing social milieu in India such as urbanization and nuclear family is placing significant burden on family members. This article will discuss about the emotional dimensions of caregiving, importance of care receivers, utilizing the caregiving situations to address prevention of mental disorders, promotion of mental health, and fight stigma of mental disorders. In India, majority of the research is on the burden of caregiving on family members and there is less or no research on caregiving in different communities, population groups, and develop programs to make caregiving a positive experience on caregivers and caregiving. In India, there is a need to develop systems of sharing of skills, support, and supervision to caregivers in providing care to the individuals with chronic illnesses. This can minimize the stress of caregiving and maximize the positive feelings of caregiving.


Dave Godin (1936-2004) was the single most influential individual involved in popularising African American popular music in the United Kingdom during the 1960s and 1970s. As such he needs no introduction. This chapter examines two closely related aspects of his thought about the meaning of soul music and the responsibilities of soul fans. Godin wrote extensively about his experiences as a fan and of his conviction that the music was closely related to the historic African American struggle for freedom and dignity. He argued throughout his life that a close relationship existed between supporting the music and supporting this struggle. He also firmly believed that, by buying their records, the British soul community helped to support African American artists, a position that stemmed from his understanding of the political economy of soul music production. The article reveals the relationship between Godin's position regarding soul music and his deeply-held political opinions while also detailing how it led him into conflict with certain members of the Northern Soul community in the 1970s who prized rare records that he felt deserved wider distribution. It argues that for Godin, the soul community was an inclusive and supportive community for the artists as well as the fans, and the fans had a duty to the artists that went far beyond mere appreciation of their music.


Introduction For many years after publication of The Transformation of American Industrial Relations (Kochan, Katz & McKersie 1986), we observed only scant evidence that the transformation process, especially at the strategic level, was actually taking place. Finally, now, in the mid-1990s,a wide range of activities under the banner of labourmanagement, strategic partnerships can be seen, and they possess the potential to bring forth a new paradigm in employment relationships. Many examples in both the manufacturing and public sectors can be found in the United States, Britain, and Ireland, as well as other European countries. Before getting too far into the subject, it is useful to attempt to define the scope of what is meant by a strategic partnership. A recent position paper prepared by a task force between the Communications, Energy and Paper (CEP) Union and Bell Canada defines the elements of a strategic partnership as follows: [Union-management partnerships need to] involve, through the corporate steering committee and other exchanges of information, appropriate union executives in planning, strategy, training, and policy formulation in areas such as quality, human resources planning, new technology, major product and market changes, and strategic alliances with other telecommunications companies. These partnerships take place, for the most part, directly between labour and management - government as a player is generally not involved. Another key distinction is that these partnerships are at the corporate level where key business decisions are made that affect the viability of the enterprise. This is in line with the general decentralisation of collective bargaining that has occurred in Western countries from industry level down to enterprise level. In the face of a natural reluctance by managers to share power, as well as a hesitancy on the part of many union leaders to move away from the traditional system wherein "management acts and the union reacts", we need to understand what has changed in the environment that is driving this important development. In addition, we need to understand the nature of the many, many dilemmas that the parties participating in these new arrangements are experiencing. The purpose of this paper is to explore these developments and challenges, using evidence from a number of partnerships, to demonstrate that this development is both robust and likely to expand. The Explanation for the Emergence of Partnerships One of the most prominent examples of labour-management partnerships in the United States is what has emerged in the integrated sector of the steel industry. Lynn Williams, former president of the United Steelworkers of America, explained recently (in January 1996), in an address to the Trade Union Programme at Harvard University, why he advocated a new strategy and bargained a series of contracts in 1993 with the major steel companies that embodied a comprehensive set of innovations. Basically, his premise was that with employment dropping precipitously and likely to drop even further as companies restructured, and as the character of the industry moved away from the dominance of large integrated operations and increasingly populated by mini-mills (largely non-union), the United Steelworkers Union and its members were going to lose out if ways were not found to participate at the strategic level as key business plans were formulated. Williams also recognised that the integrated sector needed to be more productive, and that such organisational innovations as teams, problem-solving groups, delegation of responsibility downward in the organization, and contingency compensation had to be implemented in the integrated sector (intensely organised by the United Steelworkers union). Otherwise, the union was not going to survive. The phrase that Williams likes to use is: "Managerial decisions are too important to be left just to executives". …


As ultrafast lasers achieve ever higher focused intensities on target, the problem of ensuring a clean laser-solid interaction becomes more pressing. In this paper, we give concrete examples of the deleterious effects of low-contrast interactions, and address the problem of subpicosecond laser intensity contrast ratio on both characterization and control fronts. We present the new technique of high-dynamic-range plasma-shuttered streak camera contrast measurement, as well as two efficient and relatively inexpensive ways of improving the contrast of short pulse lasers without sacrificing on the output energy: a double-pass Pockels cell (PC), and clean high-energy-pulse seeding of the regenerative amplifier.


We address the problem of the DNA sequences developing a "dynamical" method based on the assumption that the statistical properties of DNA paths are determined by the joint action of two processes, one deterministic, with long-range correlations, and the other random and delta correlated. The generator of the deterministic evolution is a nonlinear map, belonging to a class of maps recently tailored to mimic the processes of weak chaos responsible for the birth of anomalous diffusion. It is assumed that the deterministic process corresponds to unknown biological rules which determine the DNA path, whereas the noise mimics the influence of an infinite-dimensional environment on the biological process under study.
We prove that the resulting diffusion process, if the effect of the random process is neglected, is an a-stable Levy process with 1 < a < 2. We also show that, if the diffusion process is determined by the joint action of the deterministic and the random process, the correlation effects of the "deterministic dynamics" are cancelled on the short-range scale, but show up in the long-range one. We denote our prescription to generate statistical sequences as the Copying Mistake Map (CMM).
We carry out our analysis of several DNA sequences, and of their CMM realizations, with a variety of techniques, and we especially focus on a method of regression to equilibrium, which we call the Onsager Analysis. With these techniques we establish the statistical equivalence of the real DNA sequences with their CMM realizations. We show that long-range correlations are present in exons as well as in introns, but are difficult to detect, since the exon "dynamics" is shown to be determined by theentaglement of three distinct and independent CMM's.
Finally we study the validity of the stationary assumption in DNA sequences and we discuss a biological model for the short-range random process based on a folding mechanism of the nucleic acid in the cell nucleus.


Linear chord diagrams are partitions of $\left[2n\right]$ into $n$ blocks of size two called chords. We refer to a block of the form $\{i,i+1\}$ as a short chord. In this paper, we study the distribution of the number of short chords on the set of linear chord diagrams, as a generalization of the Narayana distribution obtained when restricted to the set of noncrossing linear chord diagrams. We provide a combinatorial proof that this distribution is unimodal and has an expected value of one. We also study the number of pairs $(i,i+1)$ where $i$ is the minimal element of a chord and $i+1$ is the maximal element of a chord. We show that the distribution of this statistic on linear chord diagrams corresponds to the second-order Eulerian triangle and is log-concave.


Following our previous spectroscopic observations of z > 7 galaxies with Gemini/Gemini Near Infra-Red Spectrograph (GNIRS) and Very Large Telescope (VLT)/XSHOOTER, which targeted a total of eight objects, we present here our results from a deeper and larger VLT/FOcal Reducer and Spectrograph (FORS2) spectroscopic sample of Wide Field Camera 3 selected z > 7 candidate galaxies. With our FORS2 setup we cover the 737–1070 nm wavelength range, enabling a search for Lyman α in the redshift range spanning 5.06–7.80. We target 22 z-band dropouts and find no evidence of Lyman α emission, with the exception of a tentative detection (<5σ, which is our adopted criterion for a secure detection) for one object. The upper limits on Lyman α flux and the broad-band magnitudes are used to constrain the rest-frame equivalent widths for this line emission. We analyse our FORS2 observations in combination with our previous GNIRS and XSHOOTER observations, and suggest that a simple model where the fraction of high rest-frame equivalent width emitters follows the trend seen at z = 3-6.5 is inconsistent with our non-detections at z ∼ 7.8 at the 96 per cent confidence level. This may indicate that a significant neutral H I fraction in the intergalactic medium suppresses Lyman α, with an estimated neutral fraction χHI∼0.5, in agreement with other estimates.


We address the problem of automatically learning the main steps to complete a certain task, such as changing a car tire, from a set of narrated instruction videos. The contributions of this paper are three-fold. First, we develop a new unsupervised learning approach that takes advantage of the complementary nature of the input video and the associated narration. The method solves two clustering problems, one in text and one in video, applied one after each other and linked by joint constraints to obtain a single coherent sequence of steps in both modalities. Second, we collect and annotate a new challenging dataset of real-world instruction videos from the Internet. The dataset contains about 800,000 frames for five different tasks1 that include complex interactions between people and objects, and are captured in a variety of indoor and outdoor settings. Third, we experimentally demonstrate that the proposed method can automatically discover, in an unsupervised manner, the main steps to achieve the task and locate the steps in the input videos.


Background/Aims Endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) is an effective treatment for early gastric cancer (EGC) that has demonstrated a minimal risk of lymph node metastasis in retrospective studies. We sought to prospectively evaluate the short-term outcomes of ESD treatment in EGCs. Methods A prospective multicenter cohort study of neoplasms 3 cm or less in diameter at endoscopic size evaluation was performed in 12 Korean ESD study group-related university hospitals and the National Cancer Center. Resected specimens were evaluated by the central pathologic review board. Results A patient cohort (n=712) with a total of 737 EGCs was analyzed. The margin-freeen bloc resection rate was 97.3%, and curative resection of 640 lesions (86.8%) was achieved. Lower curative resection rates were associated with lesions 2 to 3 cm in size prior to ESD compared with lesions 2 cm or less in size (78.6% vs 88.1%, respectively, p=0.009). Significant factors associated with noncurative resection were moderately or poorly differentiated histological type, posterior wall tumor location, tumor size larger than 3 cm, ulceration, and submucosal invasion. Delayed bleeding occurred in 49 patients (6.9%), and 12 patients (1.7%) exhibited perforations. Conclusions ESD is an effective treatment with a high curative resection rate for EGCs that meets relatively conservative pre-ESD indications. Long-term survival outcomes should be evaluated in follow-up studies.


In the context of accelerated climate crisis this article investigates the energetic-political possibilities of solar energy in the Czech Republic. In the absence of solar cooperatives, the article examines residential PV installations and a ground-mounted solar mono-plantation as a terrain for possible commoning. It proposes technoecologies as a framework and tool to not only focus on what solar infrastructure brings together, but also what is left out or disarticulated in specific arrangements but can be seen as infrastructure's productive "limits" that entail possibilities for differential inclusion, regeneration, and care. Ethnographic technoecological analysis shows how unexpected plant growth within the plantation points to multispecies refuges transforming the electric monoculture, and how electrical rewiring could connect PV arrays to households in multiple occupancy buildings (paneláky) in ways that enable new forms of sharing and joyful squandering of electricity in times of energy abundance.


Staphylococcus epidermidis are common Gram-positive bacteria and are responsible for a number of life-threatening nosocomial infections. Treatment of S. epidermidis infection is problematic because the organism is usually resistant to many antibiotics. The high degree of resistance of this organism to a range of antibiotics and disinfectants is widely known. The aims of this thesis were to investigate and evaluate the susceptibility of isolates of S. epidermidis from various infections to chlorhexidine (CHX) and to other disinfectants such as benzalkonium chloride (BKC), triclosan (TLN) and povidone-iodine (PI). In addition, the mechanisms of resistance of S. epidermidis to chlorhexidine (the original isolates and strains adapted to chlorhexidine by serial passage) were examined and co-resistance to clinically relevant antibiotics investigated. In 3 of the 11 S. epidermidis strains passaged in increasing concentrations of chlorhexidine, resistance to the disinfectant arose (16-fold). These strains were examined further, each showing stable chlorhexidine resistance. Co-resistance to other disinfectants such as BKC, TLN and PI and changes in cell surface hydrophobicity were observed. Increases in resistance were accompanied by an increase in the proportion of neutral lipids and phospholipids in the cell membrane. This increase was most marked in diphosphatidylglycerol. These observations suggest that some strains of S. epidermidis can become resistant to chlorhexidine and related disinfectants/antiseptics by continual exposure. The mechanisms of resistance appear to be related to changes in membrane lipid compositions.


Vincent Ostrom, Charles Tiebout and Robert Warren first considered polycentricity in the context of U.S. metropolitan reforms in the 1960s. Since then polycentric governance – governance through systems that are composed of many centres of decision-making, which are formally independent of each other – has become a reality in many societies, not least in the European Union. Polycentric theory has continued to develop within the Bloomington School led by Vincent and Elinor Ostrom, making important theoretical and empirical contributions to the study of non-monocentric governance systems. Ostrom's polycentricity encompasses governance models such as federalism and multi-level governance, adding a normative layer based on the importance of self-governance of individuals. In the on-going constitutional debates regarding the European Union and its future, the democratic deficit and 'elite' nature of the European project are often cited but solutions to these (highly politicized) problems remains elusive and methodologically underdeveloped. This article shows the potential of polycentricity as 'outside' option for the development of the European Union, juxtaposed with further European centralization and renationalization of powers. This is the first comprehensive attempt to incorporate legal questions into polycentric theory and to apply it to the European context. This article concludes with a research agenda for a polycentric European Union, based on the centrality of European citizens and their self-governance. Among other things, polycentrism can provide a basis for a more substantive application of the subsidiarity principle within the EU context.


The role of modeling and simulation in development and operational planning of gas distribution networks is crucially important for system designers and operators, since it allows to get a detailed knowledge of the hydraulic properties of the network. The challenges in simulation of gas distribution networks are usually that of computational efficiency of the methods due to large dimensionality of the simulated networks, though it can also be related to flexible incorporation of the peripheral equipment (e.g., valves, compressors, pressure, and flow regulators) into the network model. Today, however, new challenges emerge as a consequence of market changes facing the gas industry in a multienergy system environment. These changes are expected to bring about significant fluctuations and uncertainty in distributed gas supply and demand as a consequence of increased gas-to-power activities, and a number of decentralized entry points, where deliveries of both liquefied natural gas (LNG) and renewable gases, such as hydrogen and synthetic methane, can be achieved. In this article, technical challenges related to problems with maintaining a stable overall gas distribution system with growing diversification of gas quality combined with gas trading activities (nominations and allocations) in units of energy rather than volume are addressed. Models and selected methods of steady state and transient analysis of gas networks relevant to the ongoing discussion in the field of multienergy systems are considered. The simulation problems of a real large-scale gas distribution network are presented and discussed.


This research is about the analysis of errors in inflectional morphemes produced by the Speaking I students of the English Department of Petra Christian University. The focus of this study is to investigate the occurrence of errors in inflectional morphemes, to find out the types of errors and the most occurrence errors in inflectional morphemes produced by the Speaking I students. The writer uses the theory of error analysis by Littlewood and the theory of inflectional morphemes in this thesis. Besides, the writer also uses Katamba?s theory about inflectional morphemes to support Godby?s theory. According to Littlewood, the types of errors are divided into overgeneralization, transfer, and simplification by omission. This theory, of course, is more general compared to the eight inflectional morphemes offered by Godby, those are third person singular present,; past tense; progressive; past participle; plural marker; possessive; comparative adjective or adverb; and superlative adjective or adverb. The source of this study is taken from the conversation which is held in Speaking I classes. First, she records the data, then transcribes the data, after that, she identifies and classifies the data. The writer classifies the data based on the more specific theory then going into the general one. Finally, she finds out that error in inflectional morphemes is 15% out of the total sentences. It is divided into three types of errors; those are 50.9% of omission error; 45.3% of overgeneralization error; and 3.8% of transfer error. Omission error is the most frequent error that happens but omission error is less variable compared to the overgeneralization error. There are only two types of error in overgeneralization which does not occur, namely overgeneralization in possessive and superlative adjective or adverb, yet there are three types of errors that do not occur in the omission error, those are omission in progressive, omission in comparative adjective or adverb and omission in superlative adjective or adverb. The fact above means that the students of the Speaking I class of Faculty of Letters Petra Christian University produce three types of errors. Those are omission, overgeneralization and transfer. From those three, the students tend to produce two types of errors namely omission and overgeneralization.


Cry78Ba1 is Bacillus thuringiensis Berliner (Bacillales: Bacillaceae) (Bt) protein found with high insecticidal activity against the piercing-sucking insect Laodelphax striatellus Fallén (Homoptera: Delphacidae) and has broad application prospects for control of the rice planthopper. As honey bees may be exposed to Bt Cry78Ba1 rice pollen by feeding, we evaluated the risk of Bt Cry78Ba1 toxin to Apis mellifera L. workers. A dietary exposure experiment was conducted on worker larvae and adults under controlled laboratory conditions to examine the effects of Cry78Ba1 toxin on honey bees. Worker bee larvae were fed a diet containing Cry78Ba1 toxin (0.01, 0.1, 1, and 10 mg/liter) on day 2 through day 5 after grafting, and adults were exposed to syrup containing Cry78Ba1 for up to 16 d. Negative control (no test substance added), solvent control (1 mM Tris-HCl), and positive control (dimethoate 45 mg/liter for the larva test, 1 and 45 mg/liter for the adult test) groups were established. Compared with the negative control, larvae and adults that consumed food containing Cry78Ba1 toxin exhibited no significant differences in survival, larval weight, or pollen or syrup consumption. This result indicates that chronic oral exposure to Cry78Ba1 toxin has no negative effects on honey bees at the maximum tested concentration.


This work introduces a hybrid between an elitist multi-objective evolutionary algorithm and a gradient-based descent method, which is applied only to certain (selected) solutions. Our proposed approach requires a low number of objective function evaluations to converge to a few points in the Pareto front. Then, the rest of the Pareto front is reconstructed using a method based on rough sets theory, which also requires a low number of objective function evaluations. Emphasis is placed on the effectiveness of our proposed hybrid approach when increasing the number of decision variables, and a study of the scalability of our approach is also presented.


The under-hood automotive ambient is harsh and its impact on electronics used in electronic control unit (ECU) assembly is a concern. The introduction of Euro 6 standard (Latest European Union Legislation) leading to increase in power density of power electronics in ECU has even amplified the device thermal challenge. Heat generated within the unit coupled with ambient temperature makes the system reliability susceptible to thermal degradation which may result in catastrophic failure if not efficiently dissipated. Previous investigations show that the technology of thermal interface materials (TIMs) is a key to achieving good heat conductions within a package and from a package to heat sinking device. With studies suggesting that conventional TIMs contribute about 60% interfacial thermal resistance, innovative technology is required to improve the thermal performance of TIMs. A review of emerging nanotechnology in TIMs shows that carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and carbon nanofibres (CNFs) when used as the structure of TIM or TIM filler could improve the overall thermal and mechanical properties of TIMs. Hence, CNTs/CNFs have the potentials to advance thermal management issues in ECU. This search identifies chemical vapour deposition (CVD) as a low cost process for the commercial production of CNTs. In addition, this review further highlights the capability of CVD to grow nanotubes directly on a desired substrate. Other low temperature techniques of growing CNT on sensitive substrates are also presented in this paper.


Thellier‐type experiments are a method used to estimate the intensity of the ancient geomagnetic field from samples carrying thermoremanent magnetization. The analysis of Thellier‐type experimental data is conventionally done by manually interpreting data from each specimen individually. The main limitations of this approach are: (1) manual interpretation is highly subjective and can be biased by misleading concepts, (2) the procedure is time consuming, and (3) unless the measurement data are published, the final results cannot be reproduced by readers. These issues compound when trying to combine together paleointensity data from a collection of studies. Here, we address these problems by introducing the Thellier GUI: a comprehensive tool for interpreting Thellier‐type experimental data. The tool presents a graphical user interface, which allows manual interpretation of the data, but also includes two new interpretation tools: (1) Thellier Auto Interpreter: an automatic interpretation procedure based on a given set of experimental requirements, and 2) Consistency Test: a self‐test for the consistency of the results assuming groups of samples that should have the same paleointensity values. We apply the new tools to data from two case studies. These demonstrate that interpretation of non‐ideal Arai plots is nonunique and different selection criteria can lead to significantly different conclusions. Hence, we recommend adopting the automatic interpretation approach, as it allows a more objective interpretation, which can be easily repeated or revised by others. When the analysis is combined with a Consistency Test, the credibility of the interpretations is enhanced. We also make the case that published paleointensity studies should include the measurement data (as supplementary files or as a contributions to the MagIC database) so that results based on a particular data set can be reproduced and assessed by others.


An accurate evaluation of the seasonal dynamics of respiratory microbial flora in extensively raised goats represents the first step in early identification of potentially highly pathogenic bacteria in this species. The aim of the study was to monitor the seasonal influence on the bacterial flora of the animals, and therefore a comparative evaluation of changes during winter and spring seasons. The research was carried out on 20 healthy goats, raised under extensive conditions in Transylvania. Nasal discharge samples were cultured on simple media for isolation, and then identified by use of API 20 E and API 20 Staph biochemical tests. During the winter season, out of the total isolated bacterial strains, 26.8% to belonged to E.coli, 14.6% to each Enterobacter aerogenes and Erwinia spp, 12.1% to each Klebsiella pneumoniae and Enterobacter cloacae, 9.7 % to Staphylococcus xylosus and 4.8% to each Chryseomonas luteola and Staphylococcus lentus. During the spring season, changes in both percentages and isolated species soocred. The highest percentages were present in Enterobacter aerogenes (30.5%), followed by each Staphylococcus xylosus and the newly isolated Serratia fonticola (11.2%), sharply decreased E.coli (8.3%) and Erwinia spp. (5.5%), but increased Chryseomonas luteola (8.6%). Rahnella aquatilis (2.7%), Serratia ficaria (5.5%), Serratia liquefaciens (5.5%), Serratia marcescens (2.7%) and Serratia odorifera (8.3%) were present only in the spring season. The bacteria isolated from clinically healty goats could have a highly pathogenic character under critical/stressfull circumstances, which draws the attention to the importance of early identification of pathogens and the acurate sanitary management of the heard


Microspine grippers address a large variety of possible applications, especially in field robotics and manipulation in extreme environments. Predicting and modeling the gripper behavior remains a major challenge to this day. One of the most complex aspects of these predictions is how to model the spine to rock interaction of the spine tip with the local asperity. This paper proposes a single spine model, in order to fill the gap of knowledge in this specific field. A new model for the anchoring resistance of a single spine is proposed and discussed. The model is then applied to a simulation campaign. With the aid of simulations and analytic functions, we correlated performance characteristics of a spine with a set of quantitative, macroscopic variables related to the spine, the substrate and its usage. Eventually, this paper presents some experimental comparison tests and discusses traversal phenomena observed during the tests.


Piecewise-smooth stochastic systems are widely used in engineering science. However, the theory of these systems is only in its infancy. In this thesis, we take as an example the Brownian motion with dry friction to illustrate dynamical properties of these systems with respect to three interesting topics: (i) weak-noise approximations, (ii) first-passage time (FPT) problems and (iii) functionals of stochastic processes. Firstly, we investigate the validity and accuracy of weak-noise approximations for piecewise-smooth stochastic differential equations (SDEs), taking as an illustrative example the Brownian motion with pure dry friction. For this model, we show that the weak-noise approximation of the path integral correctly reproduces the known propagator of the SDE at lowest order in the noise power, as well as the main features of the exact propagator with higherorder corrections, provided that the singularity of the path integral is treated with some heuristics. We also consider a smooth regularisation of this piecewise-constant SDE and study to what extent this regularisation can rectify some of the problems encountered in the non-smooth case. Secondly, we provide analytic solutions to the FPT problem of the Brownian motion with dry friction. For the pure dry friction case, we find a phase transition phenomenon in the spectrum which relates to the position of the exit point and affects the tail of the FPT distribution. For the model with dry and viscous friction, we evaluate quantitatively the impact of the corresponding stick-slip transition and of the transition to ballistic exit. We also derive analytically the distributions of the maximum velocity till the FPT for the dry friction model. Thirdly, we generalise the so-called backward Fokker-Planck technique and obtain a recursive ordinary differential equation for the moments of functionals in the Laplace space. We then apply the developed results to analyse the local time, the occupation time and the displacement of the dry friction model. Finally, we conclude this thesis and state some related unsolved problems.


Satisfaction with received mental health services is an important indicator for an effective rehabilitation. This study explores the effectiveness of vocational rehabilitation programs on psychiatric patients at a Mental Hospital in Southern Taiwan. Vocational rehabilitation programs at mental health services have become a focus of concern among mental health professionals for an independent culture, however, does it apply for an interdependent culture. We use multiple regression models to analyze indicators of job satisfaction and types of vocational rehabilitation program on satisfaction with received mental health services for psychiatric patients in an interdependent culture. There are four categories: socio-demographic characteristics, diagnosis, work history variables (as controls), and job satisfaction variable. Like Western studies, job satisfaction, in itself, lead to a better satisfaction with mental health services.


Many physical anthropologists study populations using data that come primarily from the historical record. For this volume's authors, the classic anthropological 'field' is not the glamour of an exotic locale, but the sometimes tedium of the dusty back rooms of libraries, archives and museum collections. This book tells of the way in which archival data inform anthropological questions about human biology and health. The authors present a diverse array of human biological evidence from a variety of sources including the archeological record, medical collections, church records, contemporary health and growth data and genetic information from the descendants of historical populations. The chapters demonstrate how the analysis of historical documents expands the horizons of research in human biology, extends the longitudinal analysis of microevolutionary and social processes into the present and enhances our understanding of the human condition.


Abstract Objective: The main aim of this study was to evaluate the quality of goal-directed arm movements in 15 children with cerebral palsy (CP) following four weeks of home-based training with motion interactive video games. A further aim was to investigate the applicability and characteristics of kinematic parameters in a virtual context in comparison to a physical context. Method: Kinematics and kinetics were captured while the children performed arm movements directed towards both virtual and physical targets. Results: The children's movement precision improved, their centre of pressure paths decreased, as did the variability in maximal shoulder angles when reaching for virtual objects. Transfer to a situation with physical targets was mainly indicated by increased movement smoothness. Conclusion: Training with motion interactive games seems to improve arm motor control in children with CP. The results highlight the importance of considering both the context and the task itself when investigating kinematic parameters.


This paper analyzes the distributional effects of international outsourcing in a two sector Heckscher-Ohlin type model if both sectors get economical access to cost-saving international outsourcing. Thereby, it is shown that if both sectors are engaged in international outsourcing in equilibrium, the cost-saving effects of outsourcing as well as the factor contents of the outsourced fragments are relevant for the factor price effects. Concerning the Pareto-criterion the main finding is that a Pareto-improving factor price impact of international outsourcing cannot be excluded from a theoretical point of view.


Previous studies suggest that the amino-terminal ubiquitin-like (ubl) domain of Rad23 protein can recruit the proteasome for a stimulatory role during nucleotide excision repair in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. In this report, we show that the 19S regulatory complex of the yeast proteasome can affect nucleotide excision repair independently of Rad23 protein. Strains with mutations in 19S regulatory subunits (but not 20S subunits) of the proteasome promote partial recovery of nucleotide excision repair in vivo in rad23 deletion mutants, but not in other nucleotide excision repair-defective strains tested. In addition, a strain that expresses a temperature-degradable ATPase subunit of the 19S regulatory complex manifests a dramatically increased rate of nucleotide excision repair in vivo. These data indicate that the 19S regulatory complex of the 26S proteasome can negatively regulate the rate of nucleotide excision repair in yeast and suggest that Rad23 protein not only recruits the 19S regulatory complex, but also can mediate functional interactions between the 19S regulatory complex and the nucleotide excision repair machinery. The 19S regulatory complex of the yeast proteasome functions in nucleotide excision repair independent of proteolysis.


The length of common border between two geographical units is frequently used as a basic weight in spatial analysis. The newest methodological propositions such as tests for hierarchical relations (Markowska et. al. 2014; Sokołowski et. al. 2013), regional spatial moving average and new spatial correlation coefficient (Markowska et. al. 2015) are using border lengths. In cited references new methods have been illustrated by analyses for EU NUTS2 regions. It is obvious that borders between regions belonging to different countries have different socio-economic impact than borders between regions lying in the same country. A new simple method for assesment the importance of borders is proposed in the paper. It is based on a chosen macroeconomic variable available at NUTS 2 level (e.g. GDP, infant mortality, Human Development Index). For neighboring regions bigger value is divided by smaller value giving the local importance of the given border. These measures of local border importance can be than average for borders within the same country and for borders for each pair of neighboring countries.


Infections due to Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) are responsible for severe diarrheal disease in humans and livestock, and these bacteria have recently emerged as a leading cause of renal failure in children. In this study, we have examined medium- and temperature-dependent production of secreted proteins from a STEC O26 serotype strain. Growth of bacteria in Luria broth led to the detection of secreted polypeptides of 104, 55, 54, and 37 kDa (p104, p55, p54, and p37, respectively). When grown in serum-free tissue culture medium, only p104, p37 and two additional polypeptides of 25 and 22 kDa (p25 and p22) were present in supernatant fluids. Production of these polypeptides was growth temperature dependent and induced in cultures grown at 37 degrees C. N-terminal amino acid sequencing revealed that p104 was homologous to the secreted p110 of enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC), and both proteins belong to a family of secreted proteins in pathogenic bacteria of which the immunoglobulin A protease of Neisseria gonorrhoeae is the prototype. The N-terminal amino acid sequences of p55 and p54 were unique to the STEC strain, while p37 and p25 were found to be highly homologous to the similarly sized EspA and EspB proteins, previously detected in culture supernatants of EPEC. Molecular cloning and sequencing of STEC espB alleles from two different serotypes showed that the encoded polypeptides were about 80% homologous. A monoclonal antibody raised against STEC EspB also cross-reacted with its EPEC analog and allowed us to demonstrate medium- and temperature-dependent production of this important virulence factor in STEC and EPEC strains of differing serotypes.


The use of ground-source heat pumps for heating buildings and domestic hot water in dwellings is increasing rapidly in Sweden. The heat pump extracts heat from the ground by a U-pipe in a vertical borehole. In order to reduce the electricity demand in the system, the combination with solar collectors is introduced. This system may be designed in many ways and the advantages differ a lot. Solar heat can also be used for recharging of boreholes when neighbouring boreholes are thermally influencing each other. In order to analyze different systems with combinations of solar collectors and ground source heat pumps, computer simulations have been carried out with the simulation program TRNSYS. Large differences were found between the systems. The optimal design in a new system is to use solar heat is directly for domestic hot water during summertime and (depending on the depth of the borehole) also for recharging of the borehole during wintertime. The advantage is related to the rate of heat extraction from the borehole as well as the whole design of the system. The demand of electricity for the circulation pumps increase with solar recharging, because of the increased operating time. For new, highly efficient circulation pumps this disadvantage decreases and longer operating times for recharging can be accepted. In existing ground-source heat pump systems the advantage with solar heat in the system depends on the system design. In systems with undersized boreholes the advantage with recharging the borehole with solar heat is large. The optimal system is when solar heat is used directly for domestic hot water during summertime and for recharging of the borehole during wintertime, but for extremely short boreholes, recharging all solar heat is the optimal system. Solar heat in combination with ground-source heat pumps gives an advantage when the neighbouring boreholes are drilled so close that they are thermally influencing each other. This may lead to decreasing temperatures in the ground, which gives decreased performance of the heat pump and increased use of electricity. The net annual heat extraction from the ground is reduced by recharging with solar heat. (Less)


Commercialization of the university researches and innovations becomes more and more important in this era of volatile changes. Every day we could feel the challenges associated with this process in any knowledge based institute, such as universities, research centers, R&D centers, etc. Commercialization challenges are an integral part of these entities, and their managers are looking for some ways to handle them. In the present study, we used the Delphi method to find the main challenges and main solutions for commercialization of the university researches and innovations in Iran. After reviewing the literature, the challenges are considered and then the solutions are proposed. Finally, the paper concludes with a discussion of the research findings.


Data security is a serious concern when we migrate data to a cloud DBMS. Database encryption, where sensitive columns are encrypted before they are stored in the cloud, has been proposed as a mechanism to address such data security concerns. The intuitive expectation is that an adversary cannot "learn" anything about the encrypted columns, since she does not have access to the encryption key. However, query processing becomes a challenge since it needs to "look inside" the data. This tutorial explores the space of designs studied in prior work on processing queries over encrypted data. We cover approaches based on both classic client-server and involving the use of a trusted hardware module where data can be securely decrypted. We discuss the privacy challenges that arise in both approaches and how they may be addressed. Briefly, supporting the full complexity of a modern DBMS including complex queries, transactions and stored procedures leads to significant challenges that we survey.


Rare earth elements (REE) are indispensable to infrastructure, technology, and modern lifestyles, which has led to an increasing demand for these elements. The current global rare earth oxides (REO) market is dominated by Chinese production, which peaked in 2006 at 133,000 tonnes REO per year, accounting for some 97.1% of global production, causing concern about the long-term supply of REE resources. Although the REE consist of 17 individual elements (15 lanthanides plus scandium and yttrium) that are hosted by numerous types of mineralization, the relatively modest scale of the global REE mining sector has limited our knowledge of REE mineral resources and mineralizing systems compared to metals such as copper and iron, which are produced in much larger quantities.

In order to quantitatively analyze the mineralogy, concentrations, and geologic types of REE deposits, we compiled a global dataset of REE mineral resources based on the most recently available data (2013–2014). This compilation yields minimum global contained total rare earth oxides plus yttrium oxide (TREO + Y) resources of 619.5 Mt split between 267 deposits. Deposits with available grade and tonnage data (260 of the 267 deposits in our database) contain some 88,483 Mt of mineral resources at an average concentration of 0.63% TREO + Y, hosting 553.7 Mt TREO + Y. Of the 267 total deposits in our database, some 160 have mineral resources reported using statutory mining codes (e.g., JORC, NI43-101, SAMREC), with the remaining 107 projects having CRIRSCO-noncompliant mineral resources that are based on information available in the industry literature and peer-reviewed scientific articles.

Approximately 51.4% of global REO resources are hosted by carbonatite deposits, and bastnasite, monazite, and xenotime are the three most significant REE minerals, accounting for >90% of the total resources within our database. In terms of REE resources by individual country, China dominates currently known TREO + Y resources (268.1 Mt), accounting for 43% of the global REO resources within our database, with Australia, Russia, Canada, and Brazil having 64.5, 62.3, 48.3, and 47.1 Mt of contained TREO + Y resources, respectively. Some 84.3 Mt TREO + Y is hosted within tailings (dominated by tailings from Bayan Obo but with smaller resources at Palabora, Steenkampskraal, and Mary Kathleen) and 12.4 Mt TREO + Y is hosted by monazite within heavy mineral sands projects, illustrating the potential for REO production from resources other than traditional hard-rock mining.

Global REE resources are dominated by the light REE, having an average light REO (LREO; La-Gd) to heavy REO (Tb-Lu and Y) ratio of 13:1. These REE deposits contain an average of 81 ppm Th and 127 ppm U, indicating that radioactive waste associated with REE extraction and refining could be a concern. Modeling the 2012 global production figures of 110 kt TREO + Y combined with an assumed 5% annual growth in REE demand indicates that known REE resources could sustain production until 2100 and that geologic scarcity is not an immediate problem. This suggests that other issues such as environmental, economic, and social factors will strongly influence the development of REE resources.


We describe a method to estimate the capacity limit of fiber-optic communication systems (or ¿fiber channels¿) based on information theory. This paper is divided into two parts. Part 1 reviews fundamental concepts of digital communications and information theory. We treat digitization and modulation followed by information theory for channels both without and with memory. We provide explicit relationships between the commonly used signal-to-noise ratio and the optical signal-to-noise ratio. We further evaluate the performance of modulation constellations such as quadrature-amplitude modulation, combinations of amplitude-shift keying and phase-shift keying, exotic constellations, and concentric rings for an additive white Gaussian noise channel using coherent detection. Part 2 is devoted specifically to the "fiber channel.'' We review the physical phenomena present in transmission over optical fiber networks, including sources of noise, the need for optical filtering in optically-routed networks, and, most critically, the presence of fiber Kerr nonlinearity. We describe various transmission scenarios and impairment mitigation techniques, and define a fiber channel deemed to be the most relevant for communication over optically-routed networks. We proceed to evaluate a capacity limit estimate for this fiber channel using ring constellations. Several scenarios are considered, including uniform and optimized ring constellations, different fiber dispersion maps, and varying transmission distances. We further present evidences that point to the physical origin of the fiber capacity limitations and provide a comparison of recent record experiments with our capacity limit estimation.


This paper presents a new unit commitment scheduling algorithm. The proposed algorithm consist of using a genetic algorithm with domain specific mutation operators. The proposed algorithm can easily accommodate any constraint that can be true costed. Robustness of the proposed algorithm is demonstrated by comparison to a Lagrangian relaxation unit commitment algorithm on three different utilities. Results show the proposed algorithm finds good unit commitment schedules in a reasonable amount of computation time. Included in the appendix is an explanation of the true costing approach.


1. The existing methods for assessing states of acidosis are discussed with particular reference to non-respiratory acidosis. Most of these methods are based either on the Henderson—Hasselbalch equation or on the direct extrapolation of in vitro studies on blood to the whole animal. The evidence available shows that these methods cannot be used to obtain an accurate assessment of disturbances of acid-base balance in the whole animal. 2. The experiments were designed to investigate the acid-base parameters of an animal when a respiratory acidosis was superimposed on a non-respiratory acidosis caused by the infusion of n HCl; from these experiments it was possible to construct CO 2 titration curves at various levels of non-respiratory acidosis. 3. A scheme which is based upon the CO 2 titration curves, has been proposed for assessing an acute acid-base disturbance in terms of its respiratory and non-respiratory components. 4. The use of sodium bicarbonate to correct a non-respiratory acidosis was investigated, and it was shown that the amount of sodium bicarbonate required varied with the rate of infusion. No firm predictions could be made regarding the dose of bicarbonate required, but from the results of the present experiments an infusion rate of 0·1 mEq kg −1 min −1 is recommended in dogs.


A huge part of our economy is invisible, invaluable, and under siege. "The commons" is a term that denotes everything we share as opposed to own privately. Some parts of the commons are gifts of nature: the air and oceans, the web of species, wilderness, and watersheds. Others are the product of human creativity and endeavor: sidewalks and public squares, the Internet, our languages, cultures, technologies, and infrastructure. In graceful and down-to-earth prose, Jonathan Rowe illuminates the scale and value of the commons, its symbiotic relationship with the rest of the economy, its importance to our personal and planetary well-being, and how it is threatened by privatization and neglect.

 Rowe also describes a growing movement to recognize and defend the commons on many fronts: community initiatives, legal actions, and visionary proposals such as a "sky trust" to charge polluters and distribute the proceeds to all of us. Simple gestures can be powerful too: Rowe relates how he set some benches in a vacant lot and watched a public gathering space take shape.

 For decades, people have defended the commons and not known it. They've battled pollution, development, corporate marketing assaults on their kids, and many other attacks on common wealth. What's been missing is a story that unifies all these seemingly unrelated battles with the force of a powerful idea. This is what Jonathan Rowe provides in this thought-provoking book.

 "It's not too much to say that our future as a species requires grasping the ideas in this book."

 —from the foreword by Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature


Motivated by recent physics papers describing rules for natural network formation, we study an elliptic-parabolic system of partial differential equations proposed by Hu and Cai [13, 15]. The model describes the pressure field thanks to Darcy's type equation and the dynamics of the conductance network under pressure force effects with a diffusion rate D ≥ 0 representing randomness in the material structure. We prove the existence of global weak solutions and of local mild solutions and study their long term behavior. It turns out that, by energy dissipation, steady states play a central role to understand the network formation capacity of the system. We show that for a large diffusion coefficient D, the zero steady state is stable, while network formation occurs for small values of D due to the instability of the zero steady state, and the borderline case D = 0 exhibits a large class of dynamically stable (in the linearized sense) steady states.


This study aims to determine the development of the customer (Micro KUR and significant effect between credit amount and the interest rate on the income customers at BRI Unit Micro Kabila. Kind of research used in this study is a survey method. Data used are primary data interviews with customer respondents micro and secondary data from the BRI unit Kabila, the sampling method used was purposive sample, data collection techniques are methods of documentation and interviews. Data analysis technique used is multiple regression analysis and usingdescriptive statistics. Results from this research showed revenue that micro (Y) 63,7% total affected by credit (X1) and interest rate, while the remaining 36,3 %affected by other factors. R value of 0,798 means that income by the number of loans and interest ratest have a very strong positive relationship. T-test showed that the significant amount of credit, because the value is significantly smaller than the value 0,05 (0,000), while the interest rate effect is not real, because the value is significantly smaller than the value of 0,05 (0,874). For the development of the number of credits and the number of clients small loans (KUR) have increased and decreased each year. Keywords: Economic, credit, interest rates, UKM, income


This paper discusses using mind mapping techniques as a viable and complementary approach for analysing the complex qualitative data collected during a research project. Using a case study methodology to undertake the investigation, data collecting focused on conducting semi structured interviews with employees of the Lebanese Association of SOS Children"s Villages. This was followed by an exploratory exercise to analyse ten of the interviews conducted by using mind mapping techniques and assess the possible suitability of the technique for conducting qualitative data analysis. The study concludes that mind mapping is a suitable technique for analysing large amounts of qualitative research data collected from face to face semi structured interviews during a research project. The themes from these interviews could be presented visually and relied upon for communicating back the findings with ease. Detailed information about the themes and sub themes noted on mind maps could be recorded on a spreadsheet. This delivers an audit trail and facilitates conducting an in depth written discussion about the findings. This research adds to the limited quality mind mapping research data to date and suggests why considering the technique as a viable and complementary approach for analysing complex qualitative data is advantageous. Aus. Aca. Busi & Eco. Rev Vol 2(3), July 2016, P 244-262


Through the 1990s and early 2000s the strength of the United States economy has been linked to its ability to foster large numbers of small innovative technology companies, a few of which have grown to dominate new industries, such as Microsoft, Genentech, or Google. US technology clusters such as Silicon Valley have become tremendous engines of innovation and wealth creation, and the envy of governments around the world. Creating Silicon Valley in Europe examines trajectories by which new technology industries emerge and become sustainable across different types of economies. Governments around the world have poured vast sums of money into policies designed to foster clusters of similar start-up firms in their economies. This book employs careful empirical studies of the biotechnology and software industries in the United States and several European economies, to examine the relative success of policies aimed at cultivating the 'Silicon Valley model' of organizing and financing companies in Europe. Influential research associated with the 'varieties of capitalism' literature has argued that countries with liberal market orientations, such as the United States and the United Kingdom, can more easily design policies to cultivate success in new technology industries compared to countries associated with organized economies, such as Germany and Sweden. The book's empirical findings support the view that national institutional factors strongly condition the success of new technology policies. However, the study also identifies important cases in which radically innovative new technology firms have thrived within organized economies. Through examining case of both success and failure Creating Silicon Valley in Europe helps identify constellations of market and governmental activities that can lead to the emergence of sustainable clusters of new technology firms across both organized and liberal market economies.


ABSTRACT The holotype of Phylobktta gaudryi (Agnus, 1903), provided from the famous deposit of Commentry (Allier, France), exhibits a pair of forewings and a hind wing in connection, well preserved. Forewings show a network of veinlets in the area between M and CuA, and evidence of a fusion of some branches of M with CuA. It is concluded that the m-cua veinlets belong to M and that a reticulated fusion between M and CuA occurs. This fusion is considered as a homologue of the "dictyopteran forewing arculus", but as an intermediate polymorphic state between "occurrence of a single discrete arculus" and "no arculus". The preserved hind wing is devoid of an m-cua arculus, has a multi-branched AA vein on the remigium, and has a vannus of limited extent. The new data on P. gaudryi might allow the phylogenetic position of Pennsylvanian stem-dictyopterans with respect to crown-dictyopterans to be better assessed.


Paper presented to the 2007 conference of the International Confederation for Pluralism in Economics (ICAPE), June 1-3, Salt Lake City, Utah. This paper was authored by myself following consultations, and submitted collectively by the Association for Heterodox Economics, as a result of a consultation request issued by the QAA (Quality Assurance Authority) for responses to the 'benchmark' statement for the subject of economics. The benchmark statement seeks to define what will in future be considered the prescriptive standard for economics undergraduate teaching in the UK and in UK-certified institutions abroad. The QAA is responsible for the maintenance of academic standards in the UK and although a non-governmental body, plays a strong role in transmitting government requirements to the higher education sector. The benchmark thus represents the first attempt in UK history to regulate what is considered 'good' teaching in economics. It is a highly neoclassical and orthodox document and, it is argued in the AHE response, entirely lacking in a pluralist perspective. It represents an important landmark in that it sets out the consensus, among orthodox academics, of what the 'mainstream' consists of and how it should be taught. The paper presented at this session represents the consensus, highly critical, response of UK heterodox economists and social scientists to the QAA benchmark statement. It also contains a comparison between the economics benchmark and that proposed by other social sciences, which suggests that economics stands in an isolated position in its attempt to define its field of enquiry by means of a strict prescriptive orthodoxy.


Dr MILES B MARKUS (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa) writes: Dr E Martinez-Vila and others (8 December, p 1626) reiterated my comment' on the treatment of cysticercosis with metriphonate and by means of radioimmunotherapy. Some other advances should be mentioned. In addition to praziquantel2-4 the anthelmninthic flubendazole has recently been used in the management of neurocysticercosis, with apparent success.5 Injection of quinine sulphate in distilled water into subcutaneous cysticerci has also been reported to destroy the bladderworms, thus obviating the need for their surgical excision.6


In Volume 2 of Columbia's comprehensive anthology of modern Japanese literature, thoughtfully selected and carefully translated readings portray the vast changes that have transformed Japanese culture since the end of the Pacific War. Beginning with the Allied Occupation in 1945 and concluding with the early twenty-first century, these stories, poems, plays, and essays reflect Japan's heady transition from poverty to prosperity, its struggle with conflicting ideologies and political beliefs, and the growing influence of popular culture on the country's artistic and intellectual traditions. Organized chronologically and by genre within each period, readings include fiction by Hayashi Fumiko and Oe Kenzaburo; poems by Ayukawa Nobuo, Katsura Nobuko, and Saito Fumi; plays by Mishima Yukio and Shimizu Kunio; and a number of essays, among them Eto Jun on Natsume Soseki and his brilliant novel Kokoro (The Heart of Things), and Kawabata Yasunari on the shape of his literary career and the enduring influence of classical Japanese literature. Some authors train a keen eye on the contemporary world, while others address the historical past and its relationship to modern culture. Some adopt an even broader scope and turn to European models for inspiration, while others look inward, exploring psychological and sexual terrain in new, often daring ways. Spanning almost six decades, this anthology provides a thorough introduction to a profound period of creative activity.


How is it that entropy derivatives almost in their own are characterizing the state of a system close to equilibrium, and what happens further away from it? We explain within the framework of Markov jump processes why fluctuation theory can be based on considerations involving entropy production alone when perturbing around the detailed balance condition. Variational principles such as that of minimum entropy production are understood in that way. Yet, further away from equilibrium, dynamical fluctuations reveal a structure where the time-symmetric sector crucially enters. The fluctuations of densities and currents get coupled and a time-symmetric notion of dynamical activity becomes the counterpart and equal player to the entropy production. The results are summarized in an extended Onsager-Machlup Lagrangian, which in its quadratic approximation is expected to be quite general in governing the small fluctuations of nonequilibrium systems whose macroscopic behavior can be written in terms of a Master equation autonomously describing the time-dependence of densities and currents.


SUMMARY

Different types of 4-component ocean bottom seismometers (OBS) were deployed for variable durations ranging from 1 week to about 4 months in 2007, over soft sediments covering the seafloor of the Tekirdag Basin (western part of the Sea of Marmara, Turkey). Non-seismic microevents were recorded by the geophones, but generally not by the hydrophones, except when the hydrophone is located less than a few tens of centimetres above the seafloor. The microevents are characterized by short durations of less than 0.8 s, by frequencies ranging between 4 and 30 Hz, and by highly variable amplitudes. In addition, no correlation between OBSs was observed, except for two OBSs, located 10 m apart. Interestingly, a swarm of ∼400 very similar microevents (based on principal component analysis) was recorded in less than one day by an OBS located in the close vicinity of an active, gas-prone fault cutting through the upper sedimentary layers. The presence of gas in superficial sediments, together with analogies with laboratory experiments, suggest that gas migration followed by the collapse of fluid-filled cavities or conduits could be the source of the observed microevents. This work shows that OBSs may provide valuable information to improve our understanding of natural degassing processes from the seafloor.