The dominant view of cognitive aging holds that while controlled processes (e.g., working memory and executive functions) decline with age, implicit (automatic) processes do not. In this paper we challenge this view by arguing that high-level automatic processes (e.g., implicit motivation) decline with age, and that this decline plays an important and as yet unappreciated role in cognitive aging. Specifically, we hypothesized that due to their decline, high-level automatic processes are less likely to be spontaneously activated in old age, and so their subtle, external activation should have stronger effects on older (vs. younger) adults. In two experiments we used different methods of implicitly activating motivation, and measured executive functions of younger and older adults via the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test. In Experiment 1 we used goal priming to subtly increase achievement motivation. In Experiment 2 motivation was manipulated by subtly increasing engagement in the task. More specifically, we introduce the Jerusalem Face Sorting Test (JFST), a modified version of the WCST that uses cards with faces instead of geometric shapes. In both experiments, implicitly induced changes in motivation improved older- but not younger- adults' executive functioning. The framework we propose is general, and it has implications as to how we view and test cognitive functions. Our case study of older adults offers a new look at various aspects of cognitive aging. Applications of this view to other special populations (e.g., ADHD, schizophrenia) and possible interventions are discussed.


Background NADPH oxidase is implicated in neurotoxic microglial activation and the progressive nature of Alzheimer's Disease (AD). Here, we test the ability of two NADPH oxidase inhibitors, apocynin and dextromethorphan (DM), to reduce learning deficits and neuropathology in transgenic mice overexpressing human amyloid precursor protein with the Swedish and London mutations (hAPP(751)SL). Methods Four month old hAPP(751)SL mice were treated daily with saline, 15 mg/kg DM, 7.5 mg/kg DM, or 10 mg/kg apocynin by gavage for four months. Results Only hAPP(751)SL mice treated with apocynin showed reduced plaque size and a reduction in the number of cortical microglia, when compared to the saline treated group. Analysis of whole brain homogenates from all treatments tested (saline, DM, and apocynin) demonstrated low levels of TNFα, protein nitration, lipid peroxidation, and NADPH oxidase activation, indicating a low level of neuroinflammation and oxidative stress in hAPP(751)SL mice at 8 months of age that was not significantly affected by any drug treatment. Despite in vitro analyses demonstrating that apocynin and DM ameliorate Aβ-induced extracellular superoxide production and neurotoxicity, both DM and apocynin failed to significantly affect learning and memory tasks or synaptic density in hAPP(751)SL mice. To discern how apocynin was affecting plaque levels (plaque load) and microglial number in vivo, in vitro analysis of microglia was performed, revealing no apocynin effects on beta-amyloid (Aβ) phagocytosis, microglial proliferation, or microglial survival. Conclusions Together, this study suggests that while hAPP(751)SL mice show increases in microglial number and plaque load, they fail to exhibit elevated markers of neuroinflammation consistent with AD at 8 months of age, which may be a limitation of this animal model. Despite absence of clear neuroinflammation, apocynin was still able to reduce both plaque size and microglial number, suggesting that apocynin may have additional therapeutic effects independent of anti-inflammatory characteristics.


Native American myths, legends and oral traditions are rich with stories of giant beings existing in ancient times. They all talk of giant Thunderers or Thunder-beings, giant snakes and great Thunderbirds. Even the first humans were said to be giants, some half man, half animal. The Tsistsistas (Cheyenne) have a name for the giant beings that their ancestors encountered during the early migration to the grasslands of the Great Plains. They called them haztova hotoxceo or "two-faced star people". Other Plains tribes such as the Black Feet, Gros Ventres and Lakota have similar stories.
These old stories may have real world counterparts. Discovered in a prehistoric effigy-mound group (the Kolterman Mounds) in south-eastern Wisconsin (U.S.A.) is a human-like petroform or lithic effigy with a serpentine body and wing-like arms known as the 'Star-being'. Configured in stone, it is approximately 20 metres in length with a red coloured, bison-shaped headstone aligned to face the summer solstice sunrise. However, it is not a lone or singular occurrence. The 'Star-being' is but one of two human-like petroform effigies discovered in south-eastern Wisconsin. There is another of almost the same size called the Starman which also has a red coloured, bison-shaped headstone aligned to face the summer solstice sunrise. Both the Starman and Star-Being lithic complexes are codified by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin as archaeological sites of Archaic age.
Each giant lithic effigy appears to be a reflection of certain constellations and stars. The 'Star-being' is a mirror-image of the (western) constellations of Scorpius and Libra (with Sagittarius); the Starman is an almost exact representation of Taurus and the Pleiades. Both giant effigies are estimated to be 3500-6000 years old, embodiments of ancient legends and traditions writ large in stone and connected to 'The People' through ceremony and acts of cosmic renewal.


This study investigates the effect of filtrates from an allelopathic dinoflagellate, Alexandrium tamarense, on four microbial food webs that have been manipulated experimentally from natural seawater by modifying the availability of resources in the form of dissolved organic carbon with additions of peptone, and by altering the grazing pressure with size fractionation. Bacterial production was generally not affected by allelochemicals, but bacteria showed higher net growth in all food webs when allelochemicals were added, whereas heterotrophic nanoflagellates > 7 μm and ciliates were constrained in all food webs. Allelochemicals had the largest negative effects on microbial communities with low grazing pressure. In food webs with high grazing pressure and additional resources, phytoplankton and small nanoflagellates were positively affected by the addition of allelochemicals, suggesting that those were interfering with trophic interactions in the microbial communities. By the lysis of organisms sensitive towards allelochemicals, resources are made available and grazing pressure on certain microorganisms is reduced. However, the intensity of these interactions is modulated by both the availability of resources and the biomass of grazers in the initial food web.


One of the most important tasks faced by adolescents and young adults is the formation of romantic relationships. Little is known, however, about the developmental timing of early relational experiences. This study investigated the age at which an ethnically diverse sample of young adults ( N = 683) experienced their very first date, love, serious relationship, kiss, and act of intercourse. Most had experienced each event by the end of high school, with first dates and kisses occurring at earlier ages than falling in love or intercourse. Gender and ethnic differences were found. For example, young men began dating at earlier ages than did young women. Asian American participants were less sexually and romantically experienced, and had their very first sexual experiences at an older age, than African American, Latino/Hispanic, and Caucasian/non-Hispanic White participants. Interestingly, there were no differences in first romantic love experience. Almost all men and women within each ethnic group had fallen in love at least once, typically around age 17; this suggests that romantic love is a common human life event and that it first occurs during the developmental period spanning late adolescence and early adulthood.


This paper discusses strategies to stem capital flight from African countries. It emphasizes the importance of the distinction between licitly and illicitly acquired capital, and the need to tailor strategies to the specific type of capital flight concerned. Policies to prevent the illegal export of honestly acquired capital and strategies to address both trade-related capital flight and transfer pricing are examined. The paper discusses strategies for preventing asset theft and for tracking and repatriating stolen assets. It discusses the burden of odious debts and the role of debt audits in addressing this problem. Finally it maps the contours of a global compact for the prevention of capital flight and tax evasion.


The Bible is obviously not a prayer book in the more commonly understood sense of that term, though one of its books, Psalms, has been used as a treasury of prayers down the ages. However, it does contain a great many prayer texts outside Psalms, and other passages describe how central biblical figures pray, even if they give no indication of the content of their prayers. Here Professor Clements examines the nature of prayer in the Bible, not least the question whether prayer was felt to be something that anyone could engage in or whether the help of priest or minister was needed in an approach to God. He then goes on to study the texts of more than twenty extended prayers, from Abraham to the Book of Revelation. Here are prayers attributed to Moses and Hannah, David and Solomon, Jeremiah and Ezra, Job and Daniel, Mary and Simeon, Jesus and Paul. Discussion of them not only opens up many of the concerns of contemporary biblical criticism, but also shows how study of devotional texts, like studies of art or music, can open our eyes to new riches and make words speak at a deeper level than before.


Creating an accurate model of gas emissions is an important task in monitoring and surveillance applications. A promising solution for a range of real-world applications are gas-sensitive mobile robots with spectroscopy-based remote sensors that are used to create a tomographic reconstruction of the gas distribution. The quality of these reconstructions depends crucially on the chosen sensing geometry. In this paper we address the problem of sensor planning by investigating sensing geometries that minimize reconstruction errors, and then formulate an optimization algorithm that chooses sensing configurations accordingly. The algorithm decouples sensor planning for single high concentration regions (hotspots) and subsequently fuses the individual solutions to a global solution consisting of sensing poses and the shortest path between them. The proposed algorithm compares favorably to a template matching technique in a simple simulation and in a real-world experiment. In the latter, we also compare the proposed sensor planning strategy to the sensing strategy of a human expert and find indications that the quality of the reconstructed map is higher with the proposed algorithm.


Christopher Nolan's Inception (2010) is a difficult film to categorize. It partakes of various genres, blurring the distinctions between them. It is science fiction, but it does not contain many of the ingredients associated with that genre. It can also be identified as a kind of heist film, and there are shades of film noir as well, not only because of the heist motifs but also due to its character types. It can also be described as a psychological thriller, telling the story of one man's attempt to flee his past and regain access to his family, of his coming to terms with the death of his wife. In addition, it plays with time, questioning the certainty of consciously experienced real time, and revealing that the personal experience of the passing of time is variable. The film also explores the nature of the mind and how dreams are related to the conscious and unconscious mind. This book covers all of these facets of a complex, yet highly successful, film, as well as considering it in the context of the director's other work.


Beam trawl fisheries in the Black Sea target the veined rapa whelk (Rapana venosa) while other species of fish and crabs are re-turned to the sea dead or alive. Smaller bivalves and crabs are also packed with the catch without elimination. In this study, novel grid-net designs (GNDs) with two different bar spacings were tested to reduce the bycatch. Thirty hauls (15 hauls for each bar spacing) were carried out in the south-eastern Black Sea between 17 and 26 August 2017. Bycatch compositions were compared by towing a commercial diamond mesh and one of the grid-net beam trawls simultaneously onboard a commercial vessel. There were statistically significant (p<0.01, 78% and 83%) decreases in the mean bycatch weight for 20 mm and 30 mm grid-nets, respectively. The estimated commercial loss was 14% in the 20 mm GND and 39% in the 30 mm GND in the landing values as compared to the commercial gear. In conclusion, the use of grid-net design for beam trawl fishing in the south-eastern Black Sea can significantly reduce the bycatch of most benthic species. There is a trade-off between the reduction in the bycatch and some commercial loss, which could be offset with some compensation to fisheries, such as an extension of the fishing season.


Sensory systems neuroscience aims to study how patterns of neural activity represent stimuli of the outside world. To this end, the present work addresses how olfactory stimuli are represented by three successive layers in the locust olfactory system. Activation by an odorant of primary sensory neurons in the antenna gives rise to broadly distributed, oscillatory spatiotemporal activity patterns across the antennal lobe (AL). This is in marked contrast to the representation in the mushroom body (MB), where Kenyon cells (KCs) respond very sparsely and very briefly. In the AL, an odor gives rise to a particular trajectory through Projection Neuron (PN) phase space, with individual timepoints representing different aspects of the stimulus; in the MB, very small subsets of KCs respond selectively at particular timepoints along this trajectory. Two mechanisms are identified that contribute to the sparsening across the two structures: an intrinsic voltage dependence in the KCs, which gives rise to a superlinear response to synchronous inputs, and a canonical network motif, feedforward inhibition, which diminishes the KC response to nonsynchronous excitatory inputs. From a decoding perspective, this makes the oscillation cycle the relevant timestep of the AL trajectories, and it demonstrates a role for synchronous oscillations in sensory networks. While broad activation of the AL promotes extensive local interactions, giving rise to dynamic representations and enabling multiple features to be extracted, the sparse representation after decoding by KCs likely facilitates the storage of relevant patterns in memory.

A subset of MB extrinsic neurons with dendrites densely invading the [beta]-lobe ([beta]LNs) is well placed to decode the KCs' sparse responses. The synapses formed by KCs onto these cells are powerful and undergo Hebbian spike-timing dependent plasticity (STDP) on a timescale similar to the synchronous oscillations generated in the AL (and propagated through the MB). STDP has a homeostatic effect on the firing phase of [beta]LNs by fine-tuning the strength of KC-[beta]LN synapses, contributing to tight locking among subsets of [beta]LNs during odor stimulation and facilitating the flow of synchronous information.

The facilitation of tight synchrony among [beta]LNs by STDP further ensures that different odor features computed and formatted as a function of cycle number by the AL, and represented by the sparse representations of KCs, remain segregated between LFP oscillation cycles. This segregation is also sustained by phase locked feedforward inhibition onto [beta]LNs, which restricts the window of integration for inputs from KCs, and is found to be due to neighboring [beta]LNs of the same class. The implications of the resultant competition among [beta]LNs due to this inhibition, and particularly its interaction with STDP at the KC-[beta]LN synapse are addressed with a network model. The results are considered within the context of the circuit in which the KC-[beta]LN network is embedded, and a cycle-specific mechanism for learning an arbitrary subset of the odor features computed in the AL is proposed.


Abstract Air tightness is an important property of building envelopes. It is a key factor in determining infiltration and related wall-performance properties such as indoor air quality, maintainability and moisture balance. Air leakage in U.S. houses consumes roughly 1/3 of the HVAC energy but provides most of the ventilation used to control IAQ. There are several methods for measuring air tightness that may result in different values and sometimes quite different uncertainties. The two main approaches trade off bias and precision errors and thus result in different outcomes for accuracy and repeatability. To interpret results from the two approaches, various questions need to be addressed, such as the need to measure the flow exponent, the need to make both pressurization and depressurization measurements and the role of wind in determining the accuracy and precision of the results. This article uses two large datasets of blower door measurements to reach the following conclusions. For most tests the pressure exponent should be measured but for wind speeds greater than 6 m/s a fixed pressure exponent reduces experimental error. The variability in reported pressure exponents is mostly due to changes in envelope leakage characteristics. It is preferable to test in both pressurization and depressurization modes due to significant differences between the results in these two modes.


The environmental quality of the southwest Iberian coast was assessed in different areas (Ria Formosa Lagoon, Guadiana Estuary and Cadiz Bay) focusing on metal contamination (Cd, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn) in Nereis diversicolor whole tissues. In addition, associated toxicological effects were assessed using a multibiomarker approach combining several conventional biomarkers. The set of biomarkers selected included antioxidant enzymes (catalase, superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase), metallothionein and lipid peroxidation. N. diversicolor from the Ria Formosa Lagoon, Guadiana River and Cadiz Bay responded differently to metal contamination with different biomarker responses showing a clear site trend, suggesting different sources and/or magnitudes of contamination. Cadmium was a source of oxidative stress in polychaetes, mainly in Cadiz Bay, with a significant influence on antioxidant enzymes and enhancement of lipid peroxidation. The highest MT concentrations were in the Ria Formosa Lagoon and in the Guadiana River, where there was a direct relationship with high nickel concentrations. Biomarker responses of N. diversicolor are useful tools for environmental quality assessment on the southwest Iberian coast, and more specific metal biomarkers should be included in future assessments.


From the macaws of South America to the cockatoos of Australia, parrots are among the most beautiful and exotic birds in the world--and also among the most endangered. This stunningly illustrated, easy-to-use field guide covers all 356 species and well-differentiated subspecies of parrots, and is the only guide organized by geographical distribution--Australasian, Afro-Asian, and neotropical. It features 146 superb color plates depicting every kind of parrot, as well as detailed, facing-page species accounts that describe key identification features, distribution, subspeciation, habitat, and status. Color distribution maps show ranges of all subspecies, and field identification is further aided by relevant upperside and underside flight images. This premier field guide also shows where to observe each species in the wild, helping make this the most comprehensive and user-friendly guide to the parrots of the world. The only parrot guide to focus on geographical distribution Covers all 356 species Features 146 color plates depicting all species and well-differentiated subspecies Provides detailed facing-page species accounts that describe key identification features, distribution, subspeciation, habitat, and status Includes color distribution maps Shows where to observe each species in the wild


Exposes the inner workings of Cisco CallManager to help you maximize your Cisco IP Communications solution Read new content on QSIG, SIP trunks, video support, hunt lists and line groups, time-of-day routing, and new features added in CallManager releases 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 4.0, and 4.1 Review content from the first edition that has been fully revised and updated to CallManager release 4.1 Learn how to deploy and manage a CallManager solution Understand the components that make up CallManager call routing through the use of basic to advanced examples that solve enterprise call routing problems Gain a full understanding of how CallManager manages media resources and processes information for conferencing, transcoding, annunciation, and more Learn detailed information about North American and international dial plans, trunk and station devices, media resources, and much morei¾ Cisco CallManager Fundamentals, Second Edition, provides examples and reference information about Cisco® CallManager, the call-processing component of the Cisco IP Communications solution. Cisco CallManager Fundamentals uses examples and architectural descriptions to explain how CallManager processes calls. This book details the inner workings of CallManager so that those responsible for designing and maintaining a Voice over IP (VoIP) solution from Cisco Systems® can understand the role each component plays and how they interrelate.This book is the perfect resource to supplement your understanding of CallManager. You'll learn detailed information about dial plan management and call routing, hardware and software components, media processing, call detail records, system management and monitoring, and the history of CallManager. The authors, all members of the original team that developed and implemented the CallManager software and documentation from its early stages, also provide a list of features and Cisco solutions that integrate with CallManager.This second edition of Cisco CallManager Fundamentals covers software releases through release 4.1. With this book, you will gain a deeper understanding of the system and find answers to questions not available in any other source.This book is part of the Cisco Press® Fundamentals Series. Books in this series introduce networking professionals to new networking technologies, covering network topologies, example deployment concepts, protocols, and management techniques.


We consider the problem of efficiently and fairly allocating bandwidth at a highly congested link to a diverse set of flows, including TCP flows with various Round Trip Times (RTT), non-TCP-friendly flows such as Constant-Bit-Rate (CBR) applications using UDP, misbehaving, or malicious flows. Though simple, a FIFO queue management is vulnerable. Fair Queueing (FQ) can guarantee max-min fairness but fails at efficiency. RED-PD [10] exploits the history of RED's actions [6] in preferentially dropping packets from higher-rate flows. Thus, RED-PD attempts to achieve fairness at low cost. By relying on RED's actions, RED-PD turns out not to be effective in dealing with non-adaptive flows in settings with a highly heterogeneous mix of flows. In this paper, we propose a new approach we call RED-NB (RED with No Bias). RED-NB does not rely on RED's actions. Rather it explicitly maintains its own history for the few high-rate flows. RED-NB then adaptively adjusts flow dropping probabilities to achieve max-min fairness. In addition, RED-NB helps RED itself at very high loads by tuning RED's dropping behavior to the flow characteristics (restricted in this paper to RTTs) to eliminate its bias against long-RTT TCP flows while still taking advantage of RED's features at low loads. Through extensive simulations, we confirm the fairness of RED-NB and show that it outperforms RED, RED-PD, and CHOKe [11] in all scenarios.


"When countries such as Turkey with weak law enforcement and lack of transparency undertake massive economic reforms that involve lucrative privatization deals, corruption may eat away at the system." A Stanford political science professor starts her first lecture with this question: What is most important for developing countries--stability, participation, economic growth, equity or justice? Those who raise their hands for stability are exclusively from developing countries, while those who value participation and equity tend to be mainly from the United States or Europe. Being born in Turkey, I had also once raised my hand for stability Throughout the Cold War, stability was indeed the most important consideration for the countries of the Western bloc. Human rights violations, military coups and massive corruption were not preeminent subjects for international consideration and action. During the past decade, however, as the world became more interdependent, a consensus gradually emerged that stability, without an institutionalized democratic system and the requisite checks and balances, is simply not enough. Consequently, corruption began to be viewed as the root of many political, economic and social problems. In the old bipolar world, a crude division of "us" and "them" meant that membership in one bloc was sufficient. As long as rulers were able to deliver on their alliance obligations, they were free to do whatever they wanted domestically. However, globalization--based on free markets and the unrestricted flow of capital--requires rule of law and basic regulated markets that safeguard private property, enterprise and capital. The global market has no place for closed economies that hide behind walls of regulations and tariffs, privileged and politically connected elites or domestic cartels and entangled bureaucracies that have no interest in giving up traditional and lucrative access to wealth. In the past, to combat corruption, the World Bank and the IMF would prescribe macro and microeconomic policies to governments and the United Nations would develop other policy recommendations. Nevertheless, many countries, even some experiencing spectacular economic performance, became failed states due to their inability to tackle corruption. More recently; partly because of the work of Transparency International and the focus on corruption by other NGOs, both the World Bank and the IMF have begun to recognize that creating efficient practices that diminish corruption is integral to sustainable development. Similarly, increased application of the United States Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the anti-corruption program under the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, has ensured greater attention to this cancerous issue. This paper will focus on two aspects of corruption in Turkey First will be the corruption emanating from Cold War-era state structures. Residual and obsolete Cold War forces, whose related clandestine activities were once valued, have since become a part of the commercial underworld. A second, more widespread form of corruption relates to the abuse of broad, discretionary powers by public officials, with little accountability This involves an unhealthy recipe where commercial interests, resulting in biased government tenders and privatization processes, drive media, business and politics. When countries, such as Turkey, with weak law enforcement and lack of transparency undertake massive economic reforms that involve lucrative privatization deals, corruption may eat away at the system. TURKEY'S CHALLENGE Located to the south of the former Soviet Union, and at the crossroad of Europe and Asia, Turkey enjoyed a role as a key NATO ally throughout the Cold War. As a secular Muslim and democratic polity in the Middle East, Turkey has been touted as the model for the rest of the Islamic world. A few years ago, the United States identified Turkey as one of the top emerging markets, attributable to its economic growth potential, get-political location and its large and dynamic population of 63 million people--of which currently half are below the age of 30. …


The Miocene of the Madrid basin includes relatively abundant silica rocks (cherts, opals and opaline cherts), which were used during the Palaeolithic and Neolithic to make lithic tools. This work establishes the chemical characteristics that can be used to classify those silica rocks on the basis of their geographical location, explaining at the same time their mineralogical, petrological and geochemical features. The geographical classification of silica rocks is very useful to define the source areas of lithic tools made during the Prehistory. The mineralogical and petrological classification was made using transmitted light optical microscopy, X-Ray diffraction and Raman spectrometry. Chemical analyses of major, minor and rare elements were performed using Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) mass and emission spectrometry. Most of the silica rocks from the Miocene of the Madrid basin were formed by the replacement of sedimentary rocks that constitute the infill of the basin. This process implies the dissolution of the host rock (limestone, dolostone, gypsum, clays, etc.) and the precipitation of silica minerals (quartz, opaline phases and moganite). Both, the chemical composition of the host rock relicts and the elements incorporated by the opaline phases, constitutes a characteristic geochemical signature from each sampled zone (sample group). Therefore, this signature can be used to define and characterize silica rocks on the basis of their geographical location. The study of the data was carried out using bivariate analysis (i.e. correlation coefficients) and multivariate analysis (i.e. main components and the discriminant function). All the chemical elements analyzed are important in the discriminant analysis, because when fewer elements are taken into account (even when only those elements with a lower weight in the discriminant function are removed), the number of samples that can be included in the groups decreases importantly.


Despite considerable research widely acknowledging that embedded knowledge is a necessity for successful development and implementation of information systems, there has been insufficient empirical research carried out in this area. Existing literature has been significant in directing attention towards the importance of embedded knowledge and the determinants that affect its transfer. However, it offered little insight into the actual knowledge transfer process itself. Thus, the research set out to investigate and understand how user embedded knowledge requirements could be transferred from the user to developer and then elicited by the developer during the systems development process.

An interpretive multi-case study approach based upon interviews, reflective practices, observation and document analysis was chosen. The findings presented in this thesis illustrate the knowledge transfer processes that were used by systems developers to ensure the successful elicitation of the users' embedded knowledge requirements. The analysis of both case studies supported the initial conceptualisations that participation in the users' context, observations, investigation of the informal networks, personal interactions, user collaboration and storytelling result in the transfer of these requirements between the system users and developers. Since this research was interested in understanding the transfer of knowledge for systems development, it relied upon the human centred systems theory for its theoretical explanations.

From this study, a number of important practical and theoretical contributions arose. For example, the detailed case description provided substantial insights into the knowledge transfer processes and techniques that should be employed during every stage of the development lifecycle. By utilising these processes and techniques, developers can ensure that the developed system will meet and support the users' working practices and knowledge needs. Indeed, for these requirements to be successfully elicited, the developer must collaborate and involve the users throughout the development lifecycle at every stage. The research has also contributed to theory by expanding the literature on information systems development. For instance, the development of a model that would allow systems developers to identify and elicit embedded knowledge requirements is a significant contribution to theory as it has not been researched before. Furthermore, this research has expanded the literature on knowledge transfer by illustrating that knowledge transfer processes do not transpire as a sequential orderly progression but are complex and occur simultaneously.


Because of high costs and labour requirements along with the highly variable nutritional value of live feeds, we investigated the possibility of early weaning for barramundi (Lates calcarifer Bloch) larvae aimed at reducing the use of Artemia. Two commercial microdiets, Gemma Micro (Skretting, Australia) and Proton (INVE, Belgium) were compared for growth and survival of larvae using three weaning protocols, until 33 days posthatch (dph). Enriched rotifers were fed to larvae in all protocols through mouth opening until 21, 18 and 30 dph (protocols 1, 2 and 3, respectively). At 13 dph, enriched Artemia metanauplii were introduced to weaning protocols 1 and 2, and continued until 29 and 24 dph, respectively, whereas protocol 3 did not receive Artemia. Microdiet was initiated at 20, 16 and 13 dph in protocols 1, 2 and 3, respectively. Barramundi larvae grew successfully to 33 dph when co-fed rotifers and microdiet, and significantly larger larvae resulted from feeding Gemma Micro rather than Proton, when Artemia were not used. However, larvae weaned onto Proton using a longer period of Artemia provision were significantly larger than larvae reared according to all other protocols. Survival was significantly higher in all Gemma Micro protocols when compared with Proton protocols. This was in part due to higher cannibalism when using Proton compared with Gemma Micro (22.8 ± 0.9% and 9.2 ± 0.6%, respectively). Cannibalism became more noticeable in all protocols when the larvae reached 7-8 mm standard length and further increased after the cessation of live feed. Tank biomass production was the highest when larvae were weaned onto Gemma Micro including a short period of Artemia provision as a result of a combination of high growth and survival. However, similar biomass production resulted when larvae were weaned directly from rotifers onto Gemma Micro and/or from a prolonged Artemia period onto proton. The success of weaning barramundi larvae directly to microdiet from rotifers, thus eliminating the need for Artemia, was influenced by the microdiet. Relatively higher levels of free amino acids and lipids were believed to contribute to increasing larval growth and survival. Larvae that were fed Gemma Micro showed higher growth when Artemia were utilized for a shorter period, while Proton-fed larvae benefited from an extended Artemia feeding period.


Pictograms (icons) are ubiquitous in visual communication, but creating the best icon is not easy: users may wish to see a variety of possibilities before settling on a final form, and they might lack the ability to draw attractive and effective pictograms by themselves. We describe a system that synthesizes novel pictograms by remixing portions of icons retrieved from a large online repository. Depending on the user's needs, the synthesis can be controlled by a number of interfaces ranging from sketch-based modeling and editing to fully-automatic hybrid generation and scribble-guided montage. Our system combines icon-specific algorithms for salient-region detection, shape matching, and multi-label graph-cut stitching to produce results in styles ranging from line drawings to solid shapes with interior structure.


Is globalization forcing economies that are not coordinated market economies, such as Spain's, to converge on a British-American model? This essay seeks to build on the hypotheses generated by the literature on varieties of capitalism to analyze the challenges of developing and sustaining coordination while adjusting for economic change. In particular, it seeks to explore ways in which subnational factors promote the ability of socioeconomic actors to develop public-private institutions. By focusing on a particular autonomous region of Spain, the Basque Country, this article explores the role of institutional arrangements at the regional level in determining national adjustment. In the Basque Country the relative power and the particular interests of the regional state have been central factors in promoting distinctive patterns of coordination. At the same time, actors' preferences and policy outcomes have been constrained by the differences in the quality and configuration of institutional frameworks, political deals, and the existing economic structure.


Inspired by the London harbor strike of 1889, Syb Talma went from being a young, Dutch Reformed pastor of the ethical theological school to actively advocating for workers' rights in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century in the Netherlands, particularly from within the labor organization Patrimonium. Talma remained loyal to the Dutch Reformed Church even after the split of 1886, when Abraham Kuyper led the formation of the Reformed Churches of the Netherlands, a more conservative denomination. Yet, inspired by Kuyper's speech at the First Christian Social Congress, Talma also joined the former's Antirevolutionary Party and remained loyal to it until his death, even holding public office in the early twentieth century. This article examines Talma's life and work, specifically focusing on his views of politics, labor unions, and workers' rights. Gerard van Krieken, "Syb Talma: A Dutch Christian Socialist," Journal of Markets & Morality 14, no. 2 (Fall 2011): 393-418


Abstract. For the first time in the Mediterranean Sea various temperature sampling strategies are studied and compared to each other by means of the Observing System Simulation Experiment technique. Their usefulness in the framework of the Mediterranean Forecasting System (MFS) is assessed by quantifying their impact in a Mediterranean General Circulation Model in numerical twin experiments via univariate data assimilation of temperature profiles in summer and winter conditions. Data assimilation is performed by means of the optimal interpolation algorithm implemented in the SOFA (System for Ocean Forecasting and Analysis) code. The sampling strategies studied here include various combinations of eXpendable BathyThermograph (XBT) profiles collected along Volunteer Observing Ship (VOS) tracks, Airborne XBTs (AXBTs) and sea surface temperatures. The actual sampling strategy adopted in the MFS Pilot Project during the Targeted Operational Period (TOP, winter-spring 2000) is also studied. The data impact is quantified by the error reduction relative to the free run. The most effective sampling strategies determine 25–40% error reduction, depending on the season, the geographic area and the depth range. A qualitative relationship can be recognized in terms of the spread of information from the data positions, between basin circulation features and spatial patterns of the error reduction fields, as a function of different spatial and seasonal characteristics of the dynamics. The largest error reductions are observed when samplings are characterized by extensive spatial coverages, as in the cases of AXBTs and the combination of XBTs and surface temperatures. The sampling strategy adopted during the TOP is characterized by little impact, as a consequence of a sampling frequency that is too low. Key words. Oceanography: general (marginal and semi-enclosed seas; numerical modelling)


Today marks the official launch of Unpaywall, a web browser extension that links users directly to free full-text versions of research articles. Heather Piwowar and Jason Priem of Impactstory, the team behind Unpaywall, report on the successful pre-release phase, and explain how two decades of investment, a slew of new tools, and a flurry of new government mandates have helped build a powerful momentum behind green open access.


The solution to the Kohn-Sham equation in the density functional theory of the quantum many-body problem is studied in the context of the electronic structure of smoothly deformed macroscopic crystals. An analog of the classical Cauchy-Born rule for crystal lattices is established for the electronic structure of the deformed crystal under the following physical conditions: (1) the band structure of the undeformed crystal has a gap, i.e. the crystal is an insulator, (2) the charge density waves are stable, and (3) the macroscopic dielectric tensor is positive definite. The effective equation governing the piezoelectric effect of a material is rigorously derived. Along the way, the authors also establish a number of fundamental properties of the Kohn-Sham map.


An unusual complication following partial lateral splint bone ectomy is described. Four weeks following the surgery, the horse fell onto the surgery site and from that point on showed a lameness on that limb. Despite a positive local anesthesia, the re-evaluation did not reveal any abnormal ultrasonographic and radiographic findings. The local steroid injection reduced the lameness only slightly. The clinical evaluation at our clinic revealed the potential presence of a fracture in the lateropalmar cortex. The horse was scheduled for surgery and the special fluoroscopic examination prior to surgery confirmed the tentative diagnosis. The origin of the fracture turned out to be the horizontal saw cut in the lateropalmar cortex of McIII, which occurred accidentally during the osteotomy of the fractured splint bone. The fall of the horse onto the partially amputated splint bone in association with the horizontal cut in the lateropalmar cortex of McIII, resulted in this avulsion fracture associated with significant pain. The splint bone and the fracture were stabilized with the help of a 9-hole 3.5 mm DCP applied over the splint bone and with the screws traversing the entire lateropalmar cortex of McIII. The horse responded positively to this treatment and 10 weeks postoperatively the plate was removed. An additional reason for this relatively early plate removal was the presence of an additional suspensory problem, which demanded a prolonged recovery period.


Thirty-six lactating New Zealand White rabbit does were divided into 6 groups according to ambient temperature and feed intake. The does were kept at 20 °C during pregnancy and at kindling, then they were put into climatic chambers at temperatures of 5, 15, 23 or 30 °C. One part of the does were fed ad libitum (5A, 15A, 23A and 30A), two other groups were housed at 15 °C, but they received the same amount of pellet as the does' intake at 23 °C or 30 °C (15/23R and 15/30R). The litter sizes were equalized to seven. The weight of does, milk production, feed intake and water intake were recorded daily. Heat stress reduced milk yield (148, 152, 150 and 106 g/day), feed intake (287, 279, 260 and 179 g/day) and water intake (497, 512, 526 and 428 g/day), but increased the water/feed ratio (1.73, 1.84, 2.02 and 2.39) in the groups of 5A, 15A, 23A and 30A, respectively. Body weight of does decreased at 23 °C and 30 °C by 5.6% and 8.5%, respectively, compared to 15 °C. Comparing the groups of rabbits kept at 23 °C and 30 °C fed ad libitum (23A and 30A) and the data obtained for groups of 15/23R and 15/30R it was observed that the milk yield decreased by 8.0% and 2.5%, water intake increased by 8.6 and 13.3%, and the feed/water ratio was higher by 0.18 and 0.18, respectively. The effect of heat stress was less significant on kits than on does. It can be concluded that the high ambient temperature mainly affected the milk production through the reduction of feed intake.


Well-being in the broadest sense is what we have when we are living lives that are not necessarily morally good, but good for us. In philosophy, well-being has been an important topic of inquiry for millennia. In psychology, well-being as a topic has been gathering steam very recently and this research is now at a stage that warrants the attention of philosophers. The most popular theories of well-being in the two fields are similar enough to suggest the possibility of interdisciplinary collaboration. In this essay I provide an overview of three of the main questions that arise from psychologists' work on well-being, and highlight areas that invite philosophical input. Those questions center on the nature, measurement, and moral significance of well-being. I also argue that the life-satisfaction theory is particularly well suited to meet the various demands on a theory of well-being.


Abstract The Korean fusion technology roadmap specifies the construction of a fusion power plant at demonstrative scale by 2030. Obviously, the safety requirements for demonstration fusion reactors will be quite different and more stringent than that of experimental reactors. Nevertheless, the regulatory framework for such reactors was not fully matured due to the limited resources and the lack of technical feasibility in Korea. Sharing with the motivation, this research investigated and compared the safety characteristics of fission and fusion power plants to facilitate designing of engineered safety features. Korea has gained a vast experience over the last 30 years, regarding design, construction and operation of both pressurized light and heavy water reactors, which is useful to address the attributes for fission power plants. In case of fusion reactor technology, the operational experiences with ITER and K-STAR can be referred, considering their demonstration scale. Comparative study was performed in top-down manner. We compared the top requirements such as safety principles and defense-in-depth for fusion and fission power plants. The inherent safety parameters such as the reactivity feedback coefficients of fission power plants were investigated how these parameters would be represented in fusion power plants. The limits for operating conditions for a fusion reactor were investigated to recognize important parameters which would contribute to nuclear safety or, more specifically accident prevention. For the accidents beyond the operation limits, the need of engineering safety features was found indispensable for accident mitigation. However, it is anticipated that the engineering safety features for fusion reactors will be reduced in number, size, type, and safety-margin because the total amount of hazardous material is much lower as compared to fission reactors. Finally we proposed the table of contents of safety analysis report for fusion power plants borrowing the basic structure from the safety reports on fission reactors. The outcome of this study helps to prioritize research projects to be devoted for analyzing the safety of demonstration fusion plant, and to develop design and regulatory framework in South Korea.


Due to various green initiatives, renewable energy will be massively incorporated into the future smart grid. However, the intermittency of the renewables may result in power imbalance, thus adversely affecting the stability of a power system. Frequency regulation may be used to maintain the power balance at all times. As electric vehicles (EVs) become popular, they may be connected to the grid to form a vehicle-to-grid (V2G) system. An aggregation of EVs can be coordinated to provide frequency regulation services. However, V2G is a dynamic system where the participating EVs come and go independently. Thus, it is not easy to estimate the regulation capacities for V2G. In a preliminary study, we modeled an aggregation of EVs with a queueing network, whose structure allows us to estimate the capacities for regulation-up and regulation-down separately. The estimated capacities from the V2G system can be used for establishing a regulation contract between an aggregator and the grid operator, and facilitating a new business model for V2G. In this paper, we extend our previous development by designing a smart charging mechanism that can adapt to given characteristics of the EVs and make the performance of the actual system follow the analytical model.


SUMMARY The recent completion of high-coverage draft genome sequences for several alveolate protozoans – namely, the chromerids, Chromera velia and Vitrella brassicaformis; the perkinsid Perkinsus marinus; the apicomplexan, Gregarina niphandrodes, as well as high coverage transcriptome sequence information for several colpodellids, allows for new genome-scale comparisons across a rich landscape of apicomplexans and other alveolates. Genome annotations can now be used to help interpret fine ultrastructure and cell biology, and guide new studies to describe a variety of alveolate life strategies, such as symbiosis or free living, predation, and obligate intracellular parasitism, as well to provide foundations to dissect the evolutionary transitions between these niches. This review focuses on the attempt to identify extracellular proteins which might mediate the physical interface of cell–cell interactions within the above life strategies, aided by annotation of the repertoires of predicted surface and secreted proteins encoded within alveolate genomes. In particular, we discuss what descriptions of the predicted extracellular proteomes reveal regarding a hypothetical last common ancestor of a pre-apicomplexan alveolate – guided by ultrastructure, life strategies and phylogenetic relationships – in an attempt to understand the evolution of obligate parasitism in apicomplexans.


We develop a theory of endogenous political entrenchment in a simple two-party dynamic model of income redistribution with probabilistic voting. A partially self-interested left-wing party may implement (entrenchment) policies reducing the income of its own constituency, the lower class, in order to consolidate its future political power. Such policies increase the net gain that low-skill agents obtain from income redistribution, which only the Left (but not the Right) can credibly commit to provide, and therefore may help offsetting a potential future aggregate ideological shock averse to the left-wing party. We demonstrate that political entrenchment by the Left occurs only if incumbency rents are suffi ciently high and that low-skill citizens may vote for this party even though they rationally expect the adoption of these policies. We also discuss the case where the left-wing party may have the incentive to ex-ante commit to not pursue entrenchment policies once in power. Finally, we show that, in a more general framework, the entrenchment policies can be implemented also by the right-wing party. The comparative statics analyzes the effects of state capacity, a positive bias of voters for one party and income inequality on the incentives of the incumbent party to pursue entrenchment policies. The importance of our theory for constitutionally legislated term limits is also discussed. The theory sheds light on why left-wing parties or politicians often support liberal immigration policies of unskilled workers, are sometime in favor of free trade with less developed economies and of globalization more generally, or fail to reform plainly "dysfunctional"public educational systems damaging the lower classes.


The analysis of electroencephalogram or EEG plays an important role in diagnosis and detection of brain related disorders like seizures. In this dissertation, we propose three new seizure detection algorithms that can classify seizure from nonseizure data with high accuracy. The first algorithm is based on time-domain features which are the approximate entropy (ApEn), the maximum singular value (MSV) and the median absolute deviation (MAD). These features were fed into the AdaBoost and the Support Vector Machine (SVM) algorithms, which were used to classify the signal as either seizure or non-seizure. The accuracy of these classifications was summarized and compared to different algorithms in the literature. In the second algorithm, the Rényi entropy was extracted from different spectral components after the EEG signal was decomposed using either Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) or the Discrete Dyadic Wavelet Transform (DWT). The knearest neighbor (k-NN) classifier was use to classify the seizure segments based on the extracted features. In the third algorithm, we decompose the EEG signal into subcomponents occupying different spectral sub-bands using the EMD. A decomposition energy measure was used to discard those sub-components estimated to contain mostly noise. Different time-frequency representations (TFRs) were computed of the remaining sub-components. Local energy measures were estimated and fed into a linear classifier to determine whether or not the EEG signal contained a seizure. The three algorithms were tested on noisy EEG signals from roaming rats as well as the relatively noise free human seizure from a well-known public dataset provided on-line (Andrzejak et al., 2001). Using Metrics of total Sensitivity, Specificity and Accuracy, it was demonstrated that the proposed algorithms gave either equivalent or superior performance when compared against several other brain seizure algorithms previously reported in the literature. Furthermore, we propose a new warping function to create a new class of warped Time-Frequency Representations (TFRs) that is a generalization of the previously proposed k Power Class and Exponential Class TFRs. The new warping function is k t e t w at / 1 ) ( = ∧ . We provide the formulas for the one-to-one derivative warping function and its inverse defined using the Lambert-W function. Examples are provided demonstrating how the new warping function can be successfully used on wide variety of non-linear FM chirp signals to linearize their support in the warped TimeFrequency plane. An optimization scheme was proposed to find the optimal parameter, "a", of the new warping function for a given non-linear FM chirp signal; algorithms have previously been proposed for finding the k. The performance of the optimization technique was compared to other warped Time-Frequency Representations; the new warped TFRs achieved better linearization in several cases. The new warping function was used to develop a new algorithm which iteratively isolates and separates nonlinear FM signal components in a multicomponent signal. The isolated components have negligible interference terms and have energy support concentrated along a curve close to the true instantaneous frequency.


Aseptic loosening of the tibial implant remains one of the major reasons of failure in Total Knee Arthroplasty (TKA). The cement viscosity at the time of application to the bone is of great importance to ensure a long-term success of the arthroplasty, as it influences the cement penetration and stability of the prosthesis. Currently, there are number of cements available with a wide range of viscosities and set times. High viscosity faster-setting cements may significantly reduce operating room times. However, the concern is that this positive feature may be at the expense of decreased penetration into the bone, and hence reduced stability of the construct. The use of four cement types ((DePuy II (DePuy Inc. Warsaw, IN), Endurance (DePuy Inc. Warsaw, IN), Simplex-P (Stryker Corp Kalamazoo, MI), and Palacos (Zimmer, Inc, Warsaw, IN)) were compared and evaluated during TKA using surrogate tibiae, with respect to the depth of cement penetration according to the Knee Society Total Knee Arthroplasty Roentgenographic Evaluation System. On radiographic analysis of the implanted surrogate tibiae, it was found that Simplex had the maximum commulative penetration of 19.2 mm in seven zones in Mediolateral view, and 12.7 mm in three zones in anteroposterior view. In zone seven, the difference was statistically significant when comparing Simplex with Palacos (11 mm vs 4.6 mm, two-tailed P value = 0.035), somewhat significant with Depuy 2 (11 mm vs 6 mm, two tailed P value = 0.08), but the different was not significant when compared with Endurance (11 mm vs 10 mm, two-tailed P value = 0.6345). In Zone 5, the difference was statistically significant with Simplex vs Endurance (0.3 mm vs 2.2 mm, P = 0.028), and with Simplex vs Depuy 2 (0.3 mm vs 2.17 mm, P = 0.012). This study enhances the understanding of the relation between cement viscosities and cement penetration into cancellous bone during TKA.Copyright © 2008 by ASME


An unstructured model for growth and lactic acid production during two-stage continuous cultures of Lactobacillus helveticus was previously developed. The Verlhust model was considered to describe growth kinetics. Production models was based on modified Luedeking-Piret expressions involving an inhibitory effect for the first stage (seed culture) and a nutritional limitation effect for the second stage (culture). To account for the decrease of the biomass concentration observed in the second stage, the dilution rate D c was replaced by an exponential term of the dilution rate in the growth and product relations. Contrarily to the previous model, the important decrease of the biomass concentration observed at steady state in the second stage at high dilution rates, namely close to wash out, was correctly described by the new model. It also proved to satisfactory describes production data and volumetric productivity.


We present a novel online end-to-end neural diarization system, BW-EDA-EEND, that processes data incrementally for a variable number of speakers. The system is based on the Encoder-Decoder-Attractor (EDA) architecture of Horiguchi et al., but utilizes the incremental Transformer encoder, attending only to its left contexts and using block-level recurrence in the hidden states to carry information from block to block, making the algorithm complexity linear in time. We propose two variants: For unlimited-latency BW-EDA-EEND, which processes inputs in linear time, we show only moderate degradation for up to two speakers using a context size of 10 seconds compared to offline EDA-EEND. With more than two speakers, the accuracy gap between online and offline grows, but the algorithm still outperforms a baseline offline clustering diarization system for one to four speakers with unlimited context size, and shows comparable accuracy with context size of 10 seconds. For limited-latency BW-EDA-EEND, which produces diarization outputs block-by-block as audio arrives, we show accuracy comparable to the offline clustering-based system.


"This study assesses which agricultural subsectors have the strongest capacity to drive economic growth and poverty reduction in Ethiopia, and what kind of agricultural and nonagricultural growth is needed to achieve the millennium development goal of halving the 1990 poverty rate by 2015. A spatially disaggregated, economywide model was developed under the study, enabling the analysis of growth and poverty reduction linkages at national and regional levels using national household surveys, agricultural sample surveys, geographic information systems, and other national and regional data. The study reveals that agriculture has the potential to play a central role in decreasing poverty and increasing growth in Ethiopia, primarily through growth in staple crops and livestock. Agricultural growth also requires concurrent investments in roads and other market conditions. At the subnational level, similar rates of agricultural growth have different effects on poverty, necessitating regionally based strategies for growth and poverty reduction." Authors' Abstract


Filing for bankruptcy is the primary legal mechanism by which homeowners in foreclosure can exert control over ownership of their home, yet little is known about the interplay among bankruptcy types, mortgage servicers, state foreclosure laws, and home foreclosure auctions. We analyze 4,280 lower-income homeowners in the United States who were more than 90 days late paying their 30-year fixed-rate mortgages. Two dozen organizations serviced these mortgages and initiated foreclosure between 2003 and 2012. We identify wide variation between mortgage servicers in their likelihood of bringing a property to auction. We also show that when homeowners in foreclosure filed for bankruptcy, foreclosure auctions were 70% less likely. Chapters 7 and 13 filings both reduce the hazard of auction, but the effect is 5 times greater for Chapter 13, which contains enhanced tools to preserve homeownership. Bankruptcy's effects are strongest in states that permit power-of-sale foreclosure or withdraw homeowners' right-of-redemption at the time of auction.


In the present
survey, 200 randomly inducted participants selected on the basis of' frequency
to visit symbolic religious places were studied. All participants were tested
for helping and attachment attitudes. It was assumed that the visit frequency
would influence DV's. Participants were divided into two groups 100 religious
and 100 less religious based on visit frequency, each group was consisting of
50 male and 50 female. Helping Attitude Scale and Parental Attachment
Questionnaire were administered to all. Results reflected helping attitude and
parental attachment means significantly higher among religious than less
religious group. Helping attitude was found significantly correlated with
parental attachment. Means of helping
attitude and parental attachment were found higher among female. Findings
focusing Mosque visitors in the present study found
resembling with earlier reported findings about Synagogue and Church visitors,
which reflected the similarity of symbolic religious places influence on
visitors. Religion out group global importance discussed for more studies.


We study the effect of retardation of gravity in binary pulsars. It appears in pulsar timing formula as a periodic excess time delay to the Shapiro effect. The retardation of gravity effect can be large enough for observation in binary pulsars with the nearly edgewise orbits and relatively large ratio of the projected semimajor axis to the orbital period of the pulsar. If one succeeds in measuring the retardation of gravity it will give further experimental evidence in favor of General Relativity.


Recent research suggests that public and private agreements are inherently different. Public contracts should indeed be more permeable to the external (and, more specifically, the political) environment. This paper studies empirically the intrinsic dierences between these two types of contracting. We focus in particular on the dierent impact local elections have on the execution of public and of private agreements. In order to do so, we investigate the occurrence of renegotiations of each type of contract prior to local elections. We believe that, as public contracts belong to the public sphere, their renegotiations should be aected by the electoral calendar, while renegotiations of private contracts should not. To test this, we use an original dataset comprising every renegotiation of the exhaustive set of public-private and private-private contracts signed by the French car park leader between 1968 and 2008. We use a dierence-in-dier ence methodology to show that, compared with private contract renegotiations, public contract renegotiations significantly increase before local elections. In particular, renegotiations aiming at modifying the enduser fees or the financial side of the contract (i.e. the remuneration of one of the parties) increase before an election, whereas all other types of renegotiation do not.


Long term corrosion tests carried out in the UK have shown that weathering steels continue to corrode at a finite rate. It is therefore necessary to use thicker steel and to monitor the corrosion. A novel ultrasonic instrument to measure residual steel thickness has been assessed. This measures steel thickness through a rust layer, requires no couplant to transmit the ultrasound into the steel and gives only the steel thickness not the thickness of the steel plus a layer of rust. This instrument provides a suitable method of measuring the residual steel thickness on weathering steel structures where corrosion has been generally uniform. However, the instrument can give no information on localised roughness or pitting of the underlying steel surface and it would seem worthwhile to include test specimens in any monitoring scheme so that the surface condition of the steel can be assessed. (Author/TRRL)


The research presented in this article is motivated by the increasing importance of complex human relations in linked data, either extracted from social networks, or found in existing databases. The FOAF vocabulary, targeted in our research, plays a central role in those data, and is a model for lightweight ontologies largely used in linked data, such as the DBpedia ontology and schema.org. We provide an overview of FOAF and other approaches for describing human relations, followed by a detailed analysis and critique of the FOAF Relationship Vocabulary, the most important FOAF extension. We propose an explicit formal axiomatization of this vocabulary, and an ontological analysis concerning the properties used to describe human relationships. We analyze the distribution of human relations based on their epistemological status, and define an ontoepistemic meta-property as characteristic of some of these predicates. Our analysis is generalizable to semantic modeling of social networks. Additionally, the modeling patterns used in other relevant linked data vocabularies are analyzed for comparison.


The conversion of unmanaged forest land to homesites dominated by managed turfgrass lawns continues to increase and has large potential impacts on biogeochemical cycling. The conversion process from forest into mowed turfgrass involves a major disturbance to soil properties and shift in ecological conditions, which could affect soil physical, chemical and biological properties, including carbon sequestration. We conducted a study on 64 residential properties, ranging from 5 to 52 years since development, to compare soil carbon content, bulk density, temperature, and moisture, between lawns and the surrounding forests from which they were converted. Homeowners were surveyed on lawn management practices and environmental attitudes, and the relationships between these and soil properties were investigated. Soil bulk density was significantly higher in the upper 10 cm of lawns compared to adjacent forest (35% higher at 0–5 cm and 15.6% higher at 5–10 cm). Total soil C content to 30 cm of lawn (6.5 kg C m−2) and forest (7.1 kg C m−2) marginally differed (p = 0.08), and lawns contained significantly greater C (0.010 g C cm−3) than forests (0.007 g C cm−3) at the 20–30 cm soil depth (p = 0.0137). In the lawns, there was a positive relationship between time since development and surface (0–5 cm) C concentration (p = 0.04), but a negative relationship at 20–30 cm (p = 0.03). Surface soils also exhibited a positive correlation between fertilization frequency and C (p = 0.0005) content. Lawn management intensity (fertilizer and pesticide use) increased with environmental commitment. Homeowners with a higher environmental commitment had lawns with greater soil carbon levels. Our results indicate that converting unmanaged Appalachian hardwood forest into managed, turfgrass-dominated residential landscapes may affect C depth distribution, but results in little change in total soil carbon sequestration in the upper 30 cm.


Multiply charged ions are present in vacuum arc plasmas. The ions are produced at cathode spots, and their charge state distributions (CSDs) depend on the cathode material but only little on the arc current or other parameters as long as the current is relatively low and the anode is not actively involved in the plasma production. There are experimental data of ion CSDs available in the literature for 50 different cathode materials. The CSDs can be calculated based on the assumption that thermodynamic equilibrium is valid in the vicinity of the cathode spot, and the equilibrium CSDs "freeze" at a certain distance from the cathode spot (transition to a non-equilibrium plasma). Plasma temperatures and densities at the "freezing points" have been calculated, and, based on the existence of characteristic groups of elements in the Periodic Table, predictions of CSDs can be made for metallic elements which have not yet been used as cathode materials.


A novel strategy was developed to prepare hollow molecularly imprinted polymers (HMIPs) with thin solid shells, in which a soft polystyrene core and a hard inner shell of SiO2 were introduced; this strategy combined surface molecular imprinting of Sudan I and in situ polymerization. The HMIPs possessed good morphological stability without deformation or breakage owing to the existence of SiO2. The thin imprinted coating (50 nm) of HMIPs ensured a faster mass transfer and a higher efficiency of active site utilization during adsorption. Moreover, the HMIPs were successfully applied as a solid-phase extraction (SPE) sorbent for the selective adsorption of Sudan I in chilli powder samples, and satisfactory recoveries were obtained in the range of 95–108% with spiked samples.


The traversing mechanism on a winding machine causes the yarn guide and hence the yarn to reciprocate. This work is an attempt to eliminate the too and fro motion of the yarn guide wherein the guide profile ensures proper transfer of yarn with the desired pattern and pitch. The change in yarn direction after completing one axial traverse poses the most challenging aspect in designing an efficient guide profile. With idealizing assumption of the yarn behaving as a thin wire under the taut condition between three support points at the top ring, profile point on the guide and the bobbin, the ideal profile for consistent guidance of the yarn has been developed.


We have carried out the first examination of pathways of cell differentiation in model genetic networks in which cell types are assumed to be attractors of the nonlinear dynamics, and differentiation corresponds to a transition of the cell to a new basin of attraction, which may be induced by a signal or noise perturbation. The associated flow along a transient to a new attractor corresponds to a pathway of differentiation. We have measured a variety of features of such model pathways of differentiation, most of which should be observable using gene array techniques. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Complexity 11: 52–60, 2005


Abstract We report the first detailed study on the types and distributions of active subaqueous fumaroles and surface diffuse CO2 degassing in the three main volcanic lakes of São Miguel Island (Sete Cidades, Fogo and Furnas), Azores archipelago, Portugal. The results of the surveys, carried out in May 2011 using a floating accumulation chamber and a dual beam 50 and 200 kHz echo sounder, revealed a very low surface CO2 degassing at the three lakes, in the range of 32–608 kg d−1. However, dense subaqueous degassing plumes were found in the north of the Furnas crater lake (7.5–9 plumes per 100 m2), and moderate-density degassing in the Fogo (1.5–2 plumes per 100 m2) and Sete Cidades crater lakes (1–1.5 plumes per 100 m2). The echo sounder detected hydroacoustic signatures interpreted as acoustic flares, 'puffing' bubble plumes or walls of bubbles associated with numerous subaqueous fumaroles. The recorded echograms show that the bubbles rise at average speeds of between 19 and 30 cm s−1 at the bottom, with frequencies of release from 1–2 to 31 s. Most subaqueous fumaroles disappear due to the dissolution of CO2 before reaching the lake surface. These dissolution processes are enhanced by the pH range observed in the three volcanic lakes (c. 7–9). Observed dissolved CO2 values indicate that the pressure of this gas in the three lakes remained much lower than the hydrostatic pressure and the risk of a limnic eruption is therefore negligible. We suggest that the rising levels of CO2 from the subaqueous bubbles could constitute a critical fuel for subsurface phytoplankton layers, interpreted as horizontal acoustic layers with high backscattering values. The highest density of subaqueous bubbling correlates with recent submerged secondary craters formed around the caldera rims of the three Late Quaternary stratovolcano complexes of São Miguel Island. Our results emphasize the need to perform regular surface degassing studies as an important volcanic surveillance tool in the Azores archipelago.


The striking differences between the clinical symptoms of tetanus and botulism have been ascribed to the different fate of the parental neurotoxins once internalised in motor neurons. Tetanus toxin (TeNT) is known to undergo transcytosis into inhibitory interneurons and block the release of inhibitory neurotransmitters in the spinal cord, causing a spastic paralysis. In contrast, botulinum neurotoxins (BoNTs) block acetylcholine release at the neuromuscular junction, therefore inducing a flaccid paralysis. Whilst overt experimental evidence supports the sorting of TeNT to the axonal retrograde transport pathway, recent findings challenge the established view that BoNT trafficking is restricted to the neuromuscular junction by highlighting central effects caused by these neurotoxins. These results suggest a more complex scenario whereby BoNTs also engage long-range trafficking mechanisms. However, the intracellular pathways underlying this process remain unclear. We sought to fill this gap by using primary motor neurons either in mass culture or differentiated in microfluidic devices to directly monitor the endocytosis and axonal transport of full length BoNT/A and BoNT/E and their recombinant binding fragments. We show that BoNT/A and BoNT/E are internalised by spinal cord motor neurons and undergo fast axonal retrograde transport. BoNT/A and BoNT/E are internalised in non-acidic axonal carriers that partially overlap with those containing TeNT, following a process that is largely independent of stimulated synaptic vesicle endo-exocytosis. Following intramuscular injection in vivo, BoNT/A and TeNT displayed central effects with a similar time course. Central actions paralleled the peripheral spastic paralysis for TeNT, but lagged behind the onset of flaccid paralysis for BoNT/A. These results suggest that the fast axonal retrograde transport compartment is composed of multifunctional trafficking organelles orchestrating the simultaneous transfer of diverse cargoes from nerve terminals to the soma, and represents a general gateway for the delivery of virulence factors and pathogens to the central nervous system.


In heteroleptic iridium(III)-complexes capable of near-infrared (NIR) emitting, elaboration of their ancillary ligands is under-explored. In this study, through OH-modification at the 3-position of the picolinato (pic) ancillary ligand, we report two new complexes [Ir(iqbt)2(hpa)] (1; Hiqbt = 1-(benzo[b]-thiophen-2-yl)-isoquinoline; hpa = 3-hydroxypicolinate) with intramolecular hydrogen bonding and [Ir(iqbt)2(BF2-hpa)] (2) with further BF2-chelation, exhibiting desirable NIR luminescent properties (λem = 700 nm with a shoulder at 760 nm, lifetime τ = 2.13 μs and quantum yield ΦPL = 0.13 for 1versus λem = 692 nm with a shoulder at 756 nm, lifetime τ = 0.76 μs and quantum yield ΦPL = 0.08 for 2) in their respective solutions at RT. Moreover, two series of solution-processed NIR polymer light-emitting diodes (PLEDs-I-II) are fabricated from these two complexes, either in the presence or absence of a TmPyPB-assisted (TmPyPB = 1,3,5-tri[(3-pyridyl)-phen-3-yl]benzene) carrier balance, where a superior performance (ηmaxEQE = 2.22% and almost negligible efficiency-roll-off) is obtained for complex-1-doped NIR-PLED-II, with particular respect to facilitated electron transport.


The objectives of this research to determine the effect of coconut water concentration  on dragon fruit ( Hylocereus costaricensis ) nursery. This research was conducted at dragon fruit plantation of dragon fruit Tameran, Bengkalis, in August to December 2012. This experiment used Completely Randomized Design (CRD) which consisting of 5 treatments and 4 replications. The treatments were Coconut Water  Concentration (P) as followed: P1: 0% (0 ml coconut water in 100 ml of water), P2: 25 % (25 ml coconut water in 75 ml of water), P3: 50% (50 ml coconut water in 50 ml of water), P4: 75% (75 ml coconut water in 50 ml of water), P5: 100% (100 ml coconut water in 0 ml of water). Parameters observed: those appearing shoot, shoot length, number of shoot, added root length, added number of roots, root volume, fresh and dry weight. Data were analyzed statistically using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and further tested using Duncan New Multiple Range Test level 5%. The research suggested that 50% concentration coconut water was the best for growth added root length, added number of roots, root volume, fresh and dry weight. Keywords : Dragon fruit cutting, coconut water and growth.


When mammalian cells or tissues are exposed to DNA damaging agents a programmed cell death pathway is induced as well as a cell cycle arrest. In mice in which the p53 gene has been inactivated by homologous recombination this response is profoundly diminished. These mice develop normally so that developmentally induced apoptotic events do not require p53. The p53 gene product is a 393 amino acid nuclear protein that binds specifically to DNA and can act as a positive transcription factor. High levels of p53 can induce the transcription of gene products involved in the cell cycle arrest and apoptotic pathway. The p53 proteins activity is very tightly controlled both by allosteric regulation of its DNA binding function and by regulation of the protein's stability. These results are discussed in the context of the mutations in p53 found in human tumours and their implications for the treatment of the disease by the use of radiation and chemotherapeutic agents that target DNA.


Presenting a double reading of architectural spaces, this article aims to bring together works of the archi- tects Alvar Aalto and Rogelio Salmona and identify some shared themes in their architectural approaches. While using literary description as a mode of architectural investigation, it shows how the use of writing in architectural analysis can bring to the surface some of the more ephemeral aspects of architecture, such as embodied perception, memory and use - aspects that contribute to the very meaning of architecture but that are hard to describe in purely factual terms. By experiential descriptions, the article will give an account of two projects of each architect, based on my own repeated visits to these buildings over the past two decades. The projects include Centro Gaitan in Bogota, the Virgilio Barco Library in Bogota, Colombia (Rogelio Salmona, 2001), Helsinki University of Technology and the Viipuri City Library of Alvar Aalto. The comparitive descriptions will show that the resonances between the work of both architects goes beyond their similar use of brick and their preferences for certain geometries, but rather concern the humanism that lay at the basis of both their architectural practices, a human interest translated into form, materiality and light.


This is Whitney Balliett's long-awaited "big book." In it are all the jazz profiles he has written for The New Yorker during the past 24 years. These include his famous early portraits of Pee Wee Russell, Red Allen, Earl Hines, and Mary Lou Williams, done when these giants were in full flower; his recent reconstructions of the lives of such legends as Art Tatum, Coleman Hawkins, Jack Teagarden, Zoot Sims, and Dave Tough; His quick but indelible glimpses into the daily (or nocturnal) lives of Duke Ellington and Charles Mingus; and his vivid pictures of such on-the-scene masters as Red Norvo, Ornette Coleman, Buddy Rich, Elvin Jones, Art Farmer, Michael Moore, and Tommy Flanagan. Also included are such lesser known but invaluable players as Art Hodes, Jabbo Smith, Joe Wilder, Warne Marsh, Gene Bertoncini, Joe Bushkin, and Marie Marcus. All these profiles make the reader feel, as one observer has pointed out, that he is "sitting with Balliett and his subject and listening in." The book can be taken as a kind of history of jazz, as well as a biographical encylopedia of many of its most important performers. It can also be regarded as a model of American prose. Robert Dawidoff said of Whitney Balliett"s most recent book, Jelly Roll, Jabbo and Fats, that "few people write as well about anything as Balliett writes about jazz." And the late Philip Larkin wrote in 1982 of the "transcendence of Balliett's prose."


We present a Heterogenous Data Quality Methodology (HDQM) for Data Quality (DQ) assessment and improvement that considers all types of data managed in an organization, namely structured data represented in databases, semistructured data usually represented in XML, and unstructured data represented in documents. We also define a meta-model in order to describe the relevant knowledge managed in the methodology. The different types of data are translated in a common conceptual representation. We consider two dimensions widely analyzed in the specialist literature and used in practice: Accuracy and Currency. The methodology provides stakeholders involved in DQ management with a complete set of phases for data quality assessment and improvement. A non trivial case study from the business domain is used to illustrate and validate the methodology.


Studies from tumor cells suggest that tumor-suppressor AIP1 inhibits epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). However, the role of AIP1 in the tumor microenvironment has not been examined. We show that a global or vascular endothelial cell (EC)-specific deletion of the AIP1 gene in mice augments tumor growth and metastasis in melanoma and breast cancer models. AIP1-deficient vascular environment not only enhances tumor neovascularization and increases premetastatic niche formation, but also secretes tumor EMT-promoting factors. These effects from AIP1 loss are associated with increased VEGFR2 signaling in the vascular EC and could be abrogated by systemic administration of VEGFR2 kinase inhibitors. Mechanistically, AIP1 blocks VEGFR2-dependent signaling by directly binding to the phosphotyrosine residues within the activation loop of VEGFR2. Our data reveal that AIP1, by inhibiting VEGFR2-dependent signaling in tumor niche, suppresses tumor EMT switch, tumor angiogenesis, and tumor premetastatic niche formation to limit tumor growth and metastasis.


Mineral dust has a large effect on cloud formation and ultimately the climate. Several studies have shown the addition of acid to these mineral dust particles decreases their ability to nucleate ice. This study explores what chemistry occurs between common components of mineral dust particles and sulfuric acid. Hematite (Fe2O3), calcite (CaCO3), and quartz (SiO2) were exposed to sulfuric acid, and then analyzed using a combination of Attenuated Total Reflectance-FTIR, Diffuse Reflectance-FTIR Spectroscopy, X-Ray Diffraction, and Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectroscopy to identify functional groups, mineral species, and aqueous phase elements. Quartz did not react with sulfuric acid. Calcite and hematite react readily with sulfuric acid to produce bassanite (CaSO4• /2H2O) and rhomboclase (H3O ) Fe(SO4)2•(H2O)3 respectively. Knowing how sulfuric acid affects these common mineral dust particles helps us understand how they age in the atmosphere and the effect on climate from this aging. Future experiments will explore other mineral dust components and eventually relate what chemical changes affected ice nucleation abilities.


This study aims to analyze the volatility spillover between bond and
 commodity markets in terms of global liquidity risk. The data covers the
 daily closing prices of bond markets in specified countries - Brazil,
 Russia, India, China, and Turkey - and certain commodities - gold and oil -
 for the period January 2008 to January 2022. We utilized the DCC-GARCH model
 to analyze volatility spillover between these markets and the Copula
 DCC-GACRH model to determine dependence structures between them.
 Additionally, we applied the Hong Causality in Variance Test to determine
 the direction of the causal relationships between these markets. Our
 empirical findings indicate the existence of significant volatility
 spillovers between gold and most of these bond markets (Brazil, China,
 Russia, and Turkey), and between oil and some of these bond markets (Russia,
 India and Turkey). Our results indicate a limited diversification benefit
 for investors and portfolio managers.


For researchers interested in linking firm-level datasets with establishment-level Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) microdata, the fundamental challenge is to find all the EINs that these firms use in their reports to the Unemployment Insurance programs of the 50 states. In this paper, we assess the extent to which data compiled by the Census Bureau for multiple-establishment firms can aid this task. We find that for a convenience sample of firms, the Census Bureau data contain most of the Employer Identification Numbers (EINs)—and add additional EINs—to those found through labor-intensive searches of the BLS Longitudinal Database (LDB). However, not every apparently valid EIN for these firms in the BLS LDB appears in the Census Bureau's lists of EINs for these firms. Furthermore, some of the EINs that appear in the Census Bureau's lists do not appear to be valid EINs for these firms in the BLS LDB in the relevant year or quarter. We conclude that using Census Bureau data on multi-establishment firms can reduce (but not replace) the labor-intensive work of finding all the establishments for particular firms in BLS microdata.


As illustrated by the example of the French Protestants, the religious statistics produced by the four censuses held in France from 1851 to 1872 must be taken with great caution. Curiously, in 1851, the distribution of religious denominations by departement was not published, due to unspecified «considerations of a particular nature». The question on religion was then removed from the 1856 census before reappearing in 1861, the census administrators noting with satisfaction that the ?quite severe? difficulties encountered in 1851 had by that time disappeared. The stability of the Reformed population count as published, the differences between the enumeration of the urban Protestant population in 1851 and the figures given by local sources, its rapid growth over the subsequent period and the fact that the Reformed population numbers published for this census correspond precisely to the minimum required to justify the number of pastors remunerated by the state under the Concordat suggest that Protestant numbers may have been substantially under-reported. The state may have adjusted the number obtained in 1851 to stave off the threat of politico-religious problems. Under-reporting then decreased from 1861, with a delay of several years in Paris.


Recent predictions of increased hurricane activity in the Atlantic basin, as well as explosive coastal population growth, have prompted a study of the trends in quantity and intensity of U.S. landfalling hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico. Gulf of Mexico hurricane landfalls from Cape Sable, Florida, to Brownsville, Texas, are binned by decade from 1886 to 1995 to determine whether gulf hurricane landfalls are becoming more or less frequent. From these bins, subsets of intense hurricanes (sustained winds of 96 kt or more) per decade are also made. The results show that there is no sign of an increase of hurricane frequency or intensity in the Gulf of Mexico at this time.


An old problem comes calling again

That retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is occurring with increasing frequency in transitional economies is no longer debatable. Recognising this fact, the World Health Organization has identified ROP as a leading cause of vision impairment in children in the developing world.1 Others have identified ROP as an important, increasingly common, and potentially treatable condition in emerging economies.2,3 No doubt, improvements in neonatal care in various regions of the world are allowing smaller infants to survive. The question is, what constitutes a low birthweight infant in an emerging economy? To answer this question requires information on the demographics of ROP in these regions.

But demographics of ROP in transitional economies are hard to ascertain. Without this knowledge, it will be difficult to identify those infants who should be screened and treated. Reports of the disease occurring in larger than expected birthweight infants, in increasing frequency, in more mature infants, are alarming. These reports are well designed and carefully conducted but they are hampered by the chaos that exists in medical care delivery in the developing world. This must be especially true when premature infants are considered. Nothing should be left to chance in evaluating premature infant disease in the developing world, and no demographic data should be considered entirely reliable unless directly …


Tensor-based multimodal fusion techniques have exhibited great predictive performance. However, one limitation is that existing approaches only consider bilinear or trilinear pooling, which fails to unleash the complete expressive power of multilinear fusion with restricted orders of interactions. More importantly, simply fusing features all at once ignores the complex local intercorrelations, leading to the deterioration of prediction. In this work, we first propose a polynomial tensor pooling (PTP) block for integrating multimodal features by considering high-order moments, followed by a tensorized fully connected layer. Treating PTP as a building block, we further establish a hierarchical polynomial fusion network (HPFN) to recursively transmit local correlations into global ones. By stacking multiple PTPs, the expressivity capacity of HPFN enjoys an exponential growth w.r.t. the number of layers, which is shown by the equivalence to a very deep convolutional arithmetic circuits. Various experiments demonstrate that it can achieve the state-of-the-art performance.


BACKGROUND
Nummular eczema is an idiopathic inflammatory skin disease that mostly has a chronic and relapsing course. Many factors are thought to be responsible for this condition, such as atopic dermatitis, dry skin, emotional stress or seasonal variation.

OBJECTIVE
The purpose of the study was to assess clinical findings and aggravating factors of nummular eczema and to evaluate characteristics, severity of disease and quality of life of patients.

METHODS
One hundred patients aged from 18 years old diagnosed as nummular eczema were asked about general data, characteristics and clinical findings of nummular eczema, and completed the Thai version of the Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) questionnaires. They also underwent a physical examination.

CONCLUSIONS
Clinical features and possible aggravating factors of nummular eczema were reported. The result confirmed the chronic course of the disease. The nummular eczema affected quality of life of patients and itching caused the most impairment.

RESULTS
Mean (SD) age was 42.1 (18.4) years and two-thirds were women. Fourteen percent had history of atopic dermatitis and half had history of atopy or contact dermatitis. From patch tests, the most common allergen was found to be nickel. Ninety percent of lesions located in lower extremities and two-thirds had a co-existing dryness of the skin. Emotional stress and drinking alcohol aggravated the disease. Those who had exacerbation in summer or skin dryness tended to have persisting disease. Mean(SD) total DLQI score among our patients was 9.2(6.8). Quality of life of the patients was significantly impaired in younger life, office workers, those with trunk-distributed lesions and those having extensive lesions.

CONCLUSIONS
Clinical features and possible aggravating factors of nummular eczema were reported. The result confirmed the chronic course of the disease. The nummular eczema affected quality of life of patients and itching caused the impairment.


Purpose: To analyze HER2 status in primary breast cancer (PBC) compared with correspondent metachronous metastases and to investigate whether BC phenotype may be predictive of change in HER2 expression. Experimental Design: HER2 was investigated by immunohistochemistry, silver in situ hybridization (SISH), and FISH, in a series of 137 tumors, building up a tissue microarray to concurrently analyze each single PBC and metastatic (MBC) on the same slide. Results: HER2 status was discordant in 14 cases (10%): 12 negative in PBC and positive in metastases and two positive in PBC and negative in metastases (P 1⁄4 0.04). These findings were confirmed by a PCR based test termed Multiplex Ligation-dependent Probe Amplification (MLPA). HER2 status changed in hormone receptor-positive BC more frequently than in negative ones (P 1⁄4 0.002). In addition, we evaluated HER2 gene and chromosome 17 copy number by SISH in the 123 cases with unchanged HER2 status during progression. We found consistentHER2 gene copy number stability in the 100 nonamplified cases. Conversely, of the 23 amplified PBC, 13 (57%) demonstrated a significant increase in theHER2 gene and chromosome 17 copy number in their paired metastases (P 1⁄4 0.01), as defined by SISH (k 1⁄4 0.54, P < 0.0001) and MLPA. Patients who changed HER2 status from negative to positive, presented significant longer time to progression when treated with trastuzumab compared to those who were untreated (P 1⁄4 0.04). Conclusions: When feasible, HER2 reassessment in metastatic lesions should be carefully taken into account, especially for metastases coming from primary hormone receptor-positive BC. Clin Cancer Res; 17(7); 1–10. 2011 AACR.


Using monthly data from 1994 to 2012 we study the long-run relation between the pre-tax retail prices of petrol and heating gasoil with crude price and the nominal exchange rate. We find a strongly significant long-run relation. We then use the nonlinear ARDL (NARDL) model to assess the asymmetries on both the short- and long-run elasticities. The estimation results confirm the presence of a strong asymmetry in the long-run elasticities.


The problem of diseases of the oral mucosa covers a wide range of issues. Despite numerous studies, etiology, pathogenesis, clinical presentation, treatment of this pathology is not fully permitted. The current most widely used medical term is "recurrent aphthous stomatitis" or simply "aphthous stomatitis". Historically, many different terms have been used to refer to recurrent aphthous stomatitis or its sub-types, and some are still in use. Synonyms for major RAS include Sutton's ulcers (named after Richard Lightburn Sutton), Sutton's disease, Sutton's syndrome and pariadenitis mucosa necrotica recurrens. The incidence of the disease ranges from 10 to 40%, according to WHO, 20% of the population is affected. Currently, the etiology and pathogenesis of this disease are not fully established and, despite the variety of studies conducted in our country and abroad, remain the subject of numerous discussions. Microscopic and histological studies of the " Denta Aloe" preparation were carried out in the histological laboratories of the Republican Pathological Center, the staining of the micropreparations was performed using hematoxylin and eosin dyes.


Research in L2 learners' use of discourse markers (DMs), which largely focuses on single-word DMs and reports learners' overuse or underuse tendency, generally concludes that L2 learners need a keener register awareness in this regard. This lack of awareness in using DMs in accordance with the appropriate register, however, is not further pursued. Although extensive studies have been carried out in examining multi-word discourse markers (MDMs), researchers have exclusively focused on the formulaic nature of these MDMs. The linking nature that MDMs possess has been largely neglected. This thesis therefore aims to explore further the pragmatic awareness of L2 learners in their use of MDMs by including both corpus-based studies and experiments. Questions to be addressed include to what extent L2 learners exert their pragmatic awareness and use MDMs appropriately, and whether or not English proficiency affects the types and quantities of MDMs used by learners. The thesis first describes the usage patterns of the targeted MDMs in 4 native speaker (NS) corpora, leading to the creation of a formality continuum along which various MDMs can be placed. An additional investigation in the Cambridge Learner Corpus (CLC) shows that the overuse/underuse phenomenon has to be discussed by taking into account the semantic categories of MDMs. Two studies - the reaction time (RT) task and the multiple discourse completion task (MDCT) - are carried out with the goals of perceiving learners' pragmatic awareness and testing whether the learners' corpus-based results can be supported by the experimental data. The results show that advanced L2 learners notice the embedded formality mismatch better than the intermediate learners. The L2 participants in the two studies find identifying Concessive links the most difficult and this is supported by the fact that CLC learners also show a lack of register awareness in using Concessive MDMs. Future work includes applying the methodology to other multi-word units, recruiting different groups of L2 learners (ESL), and pursuing the thesis's implication for teaching.