The research undertaken was designed to investigate the potential use of coppice woodland for the clean up and remediation of heavy metal contaminated soil. Particular attention was given to high yielding coppice woodland species, especially willow and poplar. This was because breeding and field trials have reported that some hybrid willow clones can produce biomass yields of up to 60 t ha-1 y-1.

The experimental works undertaken comprised three experiments which have been referred to as the 'Field Studies', 'Pot Studies' and 'Hydroponic Studies' and describes the medium in which the trees were grown and studied. The experiments were devised to study the variation in the uptake of metals between different tree species growing in different environments.

The findings of the studies generally indicate that metal uptake rates determined in the field were lower that the uptake levels recorded in the pot and hydroponic studies. These differences were attributed to the increased availability of the study metals in the pot and hydroponic studies. Zinc concentrations in the above ground tissue of willow determined from the three experiments ranged from 159 to 223 mg kg-1 in the field study, 281 to 2995mg kg-1 in the pot study and 40 to 5530 mg kg-1 in the hydroponic study.

Zinc was the only metal accumulated to significant concentration within the biomass of fields samples. Zinc, copper, cadmium, nickel and chromium were accumulated in the biomass of seedlings grown in the pot studies and zinc, copper, cadmium, nickel, chromium and to a lesser extent lead were accumulated by some of the hydroponic study trees. Some of the uptake levels recorded were not dissimilar from accumulation levels reported in hyperaccumulater species and highlights the potential of some tree species to accumulate metals in above ground tissues (leaves, twigs and stem).

The pot and hydroponic studies suffered high seedling fatality rates which were attributed to metal toxicity and/or salinity. These findings could indicate possible establishment problems when trying to plant trees on contaminated sites.


[1] The interaction of auroral electrons with kinetic Alfven waves is complicated by the fact that the Alfven speed above the ionosphere is strongly inhomogeneous, leading to a region often referred to as the ionospheric Alfven resonator (IAR). For these waves, the wave-particle interaction must be treated with a nonlocal kinetic approach. Linear damping of these waves due to the wave-particle interaction has been calculated based on a quasi-dipolar field line model; however, particle orbits in the wave field are not well described by perturbation theory due to the development of new turning points in the particle trajectories, especially for low-energy particles. Full orbit calculations of such particles have been performed in order to assess the validity of the linear theory and to determine how much wave energy is converted into electron energy flux that is precipitated into the ionosphere. In addition, the precipitating electrons show a phase shift with respect to the field-aligned current in the waves, leading to a modification of theories of ionospheric feedback in the ionospheric Alfven resonator.


This study examines the choices of Public Relations practitioners in an agency setting to analyze their preferences for work-life balance and the domestic division of labor. The in-depth interviews of 10 practitioners were used to add to the literature available on the use of Preference Theory to describe why women make up a majority of the Public Relations career field, but do not make up a majority of the leaders within Public Relations. Results indicate that PR practitioners are making work-life balance choices that have affected their career progression, there is an acceptance of long work hours that restricts advancement of people with family commitments, and work-life balance issues were not factors for employees' eligibility for advancement; however, management did feel that their billable hours and ability to balance the two would affect their selection.


The Court's decision in Kentucky v. King, 131 S. Ct. 1849, was many years in the making, necessitated by a need to resolve an increasing discrepancy between various state high courts and the U.S. Courts of Appeals. Specifically, the courts have disagreed in their application of the "police-created exigency doctrine" as an override of the exigent circumstances exceptions to warrantless searches and seizures. While the Supreme Court's holding in King that "warrantless entry to prevent the destruction of evidence is allowed where police do not create the exigency through actual or threatened Fourth Amendment violation" seems at first comforting and even logical, its implications are anything but reassuring. Indeed, the authority of the police (now given more freedom from the Fourth Amendment) conjures images of Nazi storm troopers breaking down the doors of downtrodden citizens of the police-state. In fact, the Court's extension of discretion to individual police officers contracts the authority, and even the necessity, of a neutral magistrate to the extent that warrants are not even required if the officer so reasons at the time of his entry. That is not an issue as long as the police acted "reasonably" up to the point they broke down your door.


The mobile app market is continuously increasing and an increasingly number of actors aims to gain market shares in this business sector. At the same time the number of app stores with a significant influence on the market are few; with Google Play and Apple App Store as the major actors of the app store market. With few distributions channels, and many large companies with resources as competitors, it is crucial for initiated startups to find suitable marketing strategies in order to compete on the app market. This study focuses on startups which are in their earlier phase of existence and do not have an excess of resources. The case of Truecaller is of interest to mobile app startups in general because of its exceptional successfulness in a relative short amount of time.First a thorough research of secondary literature was performed to find marketing activities applicable to mobile app developers. These marketing activities were divided and applied by using the four P's of marketing in order to achieve a perceivable framework which is possible to grasp. The marketing activities were reformed into open-ended questions which were conducted during the interviews on Truecaller's Marketing Manager, and Release/Project Manager. The gathered marketing activities that were demonstrated to be successful by the case of Truecaller, which is the empirical example of a startup in this study, were structured into a marketing strategy framework.The central findings of this study were firstly that unpaid promotional marketing activities in form striving for customer reviews, social media integration and sharing functions implemented to the app should be done in order to increase the word of mouth spread. It is also emphasized to build good relationships with different opinion leaders and further on to send push notifications to remind users of the app. Paid promotional activities were found to be optional for startups in the context of this study. Secondly the central findings regarding the Product strategies were frequent updates of the app to remind users of its existence, strive for feedback, and try to build on network effects. Furthermore in addition to build a unique and functional app which enables a positive user experience, it is important to offer users instant support and to execute localizations strategies. Thirdly the findings of the Place category were the visibility aspects to choose an appealing app name and app description, have an attractive app icon and screenshots, and to choose effective keywords and categories. Moreover it is emphasized to ensure availability and compatibility by supporting several platforms. Lastly concerning Price it is important for startups to find their own customized strategy, but the case of Truecaller stressed the freemium pricing strategy.


When we learn to discriminate between new faces, we memorize the information that best identifies and discriminates them. To study these face memories, we first parameterized the information of 97 face identities using a recursive sinusoidal basis (12 orientations, 2 polarities and 5 spatial frequencies), and computed the principle components of this space (excluding 4 face identities). We trained participants to discriminate these 4 identities by naming them. Participants trained until they reached 100% accuracy (< 40 trials). By construction, the memorized diagnostic information enabling 100% accuracy must be expressible as specific parametric values in the reduced sinusoidal basis. To understand these face memories, for each participant we performed reverse correlation using randomized parameters in the sinusoidal basis (Gosselin & Schyns, 2003, Mangini & Biedermann, 2004, van Rijsbergen et al. 2014). Trials were presented in blocks of 10, for a total of 600. Before each block a memory screen was shown containing the four test identities labeled with their names. On each of the 10 subsequent trials participants selected one of the named identities from an array of three faces randomly generated with the sinuisoidal basis. Crucially, participants did not know in advance of these trials which of the four memorized identities they would be asked to select until after the memory screen disappeared. Every 120 trials, participant memory performance was retested. Ideal observers provide the limit of identity representation. After 15,000 trials an Ideal Observer achieved a parameter correlation of 0.2 with the test identity. A PCA observer that randomizes combinations of principle components reached maximum performance in 200 trials, but failed to learn one identity. A hybrid observer that switched learning strategies from principle components to individual parameters over time, performed better across all 4 identities, suggesting that human performance could be sped up by combining the two Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015.


CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium: 2008 Abstracts

Abstract #202

Introduction: Controversy remains over whether to perform sentinel node biopsy (SNB) before or after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC). We examined the practice patterns, feasibility, and accuracy of this procedure in high risk breast cancer patients treated with NAC in a multi-institutional correlative science study. Methods: Patients with biopsy-proven breast cancer >3 cm enrolled into the I-SPY TRIAL to undergo 4 weeks of anthracycline-based NAC, 4 weeks of taxane treatment, then surgical intervention. Study protocol did not dictate axillary treatment. Timing of SNB was dictated by the surgeon. Practice patterns, outcome of SNB and axillary lymph node dissection (ALND), locoregional recurrence and distant metastases were recorded with a mean follow-up of 2.9 years. Results: 237 patients enrolled, 221 completed the trial, 210 had complete data at the time of analysis; Table 1 shows axillary practice patterns. ![][1] Overall, 43% had a positive SNB and/or ALND after NAC. 129 (61% of 210) patients presented with clinically positive nodes, 39 of which had a post-NAC SNB. 5/39 had no ALND (all SNB negative). Table 2 shows results for those who had a post-NAC SNB and ALND. For this subset of patients, sentinel node ID, accuracy, and false negative (FN) rates were 80%, 91% and 15% respectively. If SNB was negative, 20% of patients still had a positive ALND. 81 (39% of 210) patients presented with clinically negative nodes, 22 of which had a post-NAC SNB. 8/22 post-NAC SNB patients had no ALND (6 negative, 2 positive for 1mm disease). Table 2 shows results for those who had a post-NAC SNB and ALND. For this subset of patients, sentinel node ID, accuracy, and FN rates were 100%, 100% and 0%. ![][2] Overall, there were 26 deaths; 96% occurred in those who presented with clinically positive nodes, 77% had positive post-NAC nodes. A negative axilla post-NAC was predictive of longer DFS over those with axillary disease post-NAC (p<0.05). Conclusions: In clinically node negative patients, post-NAC SNB is feasible and accurate before or after NAC. Our data suggests that a post-NAC SNB is sufficient; this avoids an additional operation and allows us to gain information on post-NAC axillary status which is of prognostic significance. In clinically positive patients, SNB does not adequately reflect axillary disease; even when SNB was negative, 20% still had axillary disease. At this time, we recommend that ALND be performed on all clinically node positive patients.

Citation Information: Cancer Res 2009;69(2 Suppl):Abstract nr 202.

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Tangles are a form of structured pen-and-ink 2D art characterized by repeating, recursive patterns. We present a method to procedurally generate tangle drawings, seen as recursively split sets of arbitrary 2D polygons with holes, with anisotropic and non-stationary features. We formally model tangles with group grammars, an extension of set grammars, that explicitly handles the grouping of shapes necessary to represent tangle repetitions. We introduce a small set of expressive geometric and grouping operators, showing that they can respectively express complex tangles patterns and sub-pattern distributions, with relatively simple grammars. We also show how users can control tangle generation in an interactive and intuitive way. Throughout the paper, we show how group grammars can, in few tens of seconds, produce a wide variety of patterns that would take artists hours of tedious and time-consuming work. We then validated both the quality of the generated tangles and the efficiency of the control provided to the users with a user study, run with both expert and non-expert users.


The visual world is full of noise: from smog to fog to static on a television. Even with noise obscuring our view, we are able to perceive the world and judge visual quality in real-time. How do we judge image quality, and what is it about an image that clues us into its quality? We set out to determine what features of images are utilized to judge quality of an image: we presented images (aerial shots, landscapes and medical images) with noise of varying level added to obscure either global ("diffuse" noise) or local ("sparse" noise) features of an image and naïve observers made a binary choice judgment on better image quality while the diffuse and sparse noisy versions were shown side-by-side. We analyzed each image for the values of various local and global visual features and compared human decisions with classification by a binary tree using these features. Features that aligned with human judgment based on high information gain ratio were determined to be features that observers used to render judgment. The psychophysical task provided data to the classifier: At low noise levels, observers preferred diffuse noise (aerials: 59%, p=0.136; landscapes: 67%, p=0.015; medicals: 73%, p=0.012); at intermediate noise levels, observer preference varied with image type (aerials: 99% diffuse, p< 0.0001; landscapes: 75% sparse, p< 0.0001; medicals: 53% diffuse, p=0.24); at high noise levels, observer preference shifted to sparse noise (aerials: 97%, p< 0.0001; landscapes: 93%, p< 0.0001; medicals: 94%, p< 0.0001). Decision tree analysis of psychophysical data showed clear alignment of local (e.g. local contrast) rather than global (e.g. RMS contrast, spectral power) image features with perceptual decisions across image type and noise level tested. Our results are in stark contrast to the accepted perspective that perceptual processing proceeds from global structuring towards more fine-grained, local analysis. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015.


The values of several non-invasive methods for the diagnosis of right ventricular necrosis in inferior myocardial infarction were compared in 51 consecutive patients who underwent serial radionuclide ventriculography, pyrophosphate scintigraphy, and cross sectional echocardiography. In addition a unipolar electrocardiographic lead V4R was recorded on admission, daily, and during episodes of further pain. Profound right ventricular dysfunction was evident in 50% of patients studied by radionuclide methods after inferior myocardial infarction but recognition on clinical groups alone was poor. Functionally important right ventricular infarction was best detected and followed serially by radionuclide ventriculography. Echocardiographic methods for evaluating right ventricular ejection fraction correlated poorly with radionuclide methods. Increased uptake of radioactivity by the right ventricle on pyrophosphate scintigraphy usually indicated poor right ventricular function, but a scan that was negative in the right ventricular territory did not exclude dysfunction. ST segment elevation in V4R was not specific for right ventricular infarction and its routine use may lead to overdiagnosis of this condition. Serial measurements suggest that profound right ventricular dysfunction persists after acute inferior infarction and is associated with considerable morbidity and mortality. Of 25 patients with severe right ventricular dysfunction, six died in the late hospital period. In the remaining 19 patients mean right ventricular ejection fraction over a two month period did not improve; six patients had persistent right ventricular dyskinesia and features of chronic right ventricular failure developed in three survivors.


Marketing is one of the main principle factorsat business that has great impact on developing and increasing its outcomes. Furthermore, purpose of current literature review was to brilliantrole of marketing at business; likewise, demonstrated this main bus iness al factor as principle motivator at business. Lack of consideration to this organizational factor leadsto various difficulties at business.The absence of accurate marketingat businesslikewiseemerges some insufficient situation and decreases its outco mes. In other word, theexistence of marketing with acceptable strategy can develop and support outcomes of business. In general, thepresent literature review concentrated on the key role of marketinginbusiness and mentionedits effectiveness on business out comes.


Those who associate ceramics with functional vessels or charming knick-knacks are in for a shock. Clay may start out soft, but in the right hands it can deliver a hard blow. From British Toby Jugs to Marcel Duchamp's Fountain to a wall of gruesome tiles that forms a portrait of President George W. Bush, ceramic art has the power to provoke and subvert. Confrontational Ceramics surveys the work of contemporary sculptors, potters, and mixed media artists who have turned the ancient medium of clay into an articulate vehicle for political and social commentary. Educator and curator Judith S. Schwartz gathers the works of more than two hundred artists from thirty different countries into a glossy full-color overview of the radical ceramics scene. Provocative pieces from makers such as Grayson Perry, Robert Arneson, Richard Notkin, Howard Kottler, as well as newer talents, address personal, social, and geopolitical injustices from rape to racism. In their own words, these bold artists discuss the outrage behind their outrageous works. Schwartz provides historical context for current and late twentieth-century protest in the form of ceramics. She also places the artists within thematic groupings: war and politics, the social and human condition, gender issues, the environment, and popular and material culture. Filled with subtle satire, garish jests, grotesque shock treatments, and moving testaments, Confrontational Ceramics is a radical departure from conventional coffee-table ceramics books on decorative housewares or formal abstractions. This art book will amuse, inspire, and possibly offend art historians, ceramics collectors, and anyone with an eye for the outlandish.


Rice was chosen as a model organism for genome sequencing because of its economic importance, small genome size, and syntenic relationship with other cereal species. We have constructed a bacterial artificial chromosome fingerprint–based physical map of the rice genome to facilitate the whole-genome sequencing of rice. Most of the rice genome (∼90.6%) was anchored genetically by overgo hybridization, DNA gel blot hybridization, and in silico anchoring. Genome sequencing data also were integrated into the rice physical map. Comparison of the genetic and physical maps reveals that recombination is suppressed severely in centromeric regions as well as on the short arms of chromosomes 4 and 10. This integrated high-resolution physical map of the rice genome will greatly facilitate whole-genome sequencing by helping to identify a minimum tiling path of clones to sequence. Furthermore, the physical map will aid map-based cloning of agronomically important genes and will provide an important tool for the comparative analysis of grass genomes.


There is a great deal of research about improving Web server performance and building better, faster servers, but little research in characterizing servers and the load imposed upon them. While some tremendously popular and busy sites, such as netscape.com, playboy.com, and altavista.com, receive several million hits per day, most servers are never subjected to loads of this magnitude. This paper presents the analysis of internet Web server logs for a variety of different types of sites. We present a taxonomy of the different types of Web sites and characterize their access patterns and, more importantly, their growth. We then use our server logs to address some common perceptions about the Web. We show that, on a variety of sites, contrary to popular belief, the use of CGI does not appear to be increasing and that long latencies are not necessarily due to server loading. We then show that, as expected, persistent connections are generally useful, but that dynamic time-out intervals may be unnecessarily complex and that allowing multiple persistent connections per client may actually hinder resource utilization compared to allowing only a single persistent connection.


Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) in Peninsular Malaysia continue to be a challenge for the cattle industry. FMD is a transboundary disease and considered as one of the
most contagious disease among domestic and wild cloven-hoofed animals. The disease causes a significant negative economical impact throughout Peninsular Malaysia through production losses and inaccessible export market. Malaysia has been highly dependent on cattle importation to increase the live cattle population and to maintain adequate beef and milk supply. Importation and movement of animals have been constantly linked to FMD outbreaks. This study aimed to find the relation between the importation of live cattle and its contribution to the FMD occurrences in Peninsular Malaysia. The specific objectives of the study were to: describe the cattle importation trends and statistics from year 2000 to 2010 and to suggest its relationship with the local FMD occurrences within the same time frame, describe the import protocol for cattle imposed by the veterinary authority of Malaysia, the Department of Veterinary Services (DVS) so as to achieve a better understanding on the procedure and to identify the presence of gaps or weaknesses that may contribute to the FMD occurrence among local animals and describe the distribution of the government animal quarantine stations (GQS) and temporary
animal quarantine stations (TQS) in Malaysia for the year 2012-2013 and to examine the temporary quarantine station's managers awareness on the requirements and
procedures for quarantine stations. Between 2004 and 2006, the numbers of live cattle imported to Peninsular Malaysia markedly decreased due to the suspension of cattle importation from Thailand by the DVS, Malaysia following several outbreaks of FMD from cattle consignments received in this country. The increase in the volume of cattle imported between 2007 and 2009 appeared to be consistent with the marked increase of FMD
outbreaks within the same time frame. The study also found that several consignments between 2009 and 2010 contained cattle that were non-structural protein (NSP) positive indicating subclinical infection or previous exposure to the virus. The findings suggested that importation and animal movements are indeed
contributors of FMD outbreaks in the country. The cattle import protocol has been developed by the DVS according to the Office International Epizootics (OIE) recommendations in the Terrestrial Codes. DVS
import protocols are established to complement the efforts of FMD control in the country and also to prepare Malaysia towards achieving FMD free status by year
2016. This study examined relevant official documentations and limited accessible data from various sources in order to describe and highlight potential issues in the import protocols in Malaysia. The study focused on the protocols for cattle imported from Thailand and Australia because these two countries are the largest live cattle exporter to Malaysia. The study found that DVS import protocols contains potential discrepancies from the recommendation by the OIE that could increase the risk of disease importation via cattle consignments. The quarantine period of 10 days recommended at the local quarantine station as opposed to 14 days as recommended by the OIE could result in animals with longer incubation period to be released among the local cattle herds and spread the infection. In addition, the level of compliance to the DVS import protocols among the exporters especially from Thailand was poor. Laboratory serological findings from quarantined cattle
discovered evidence that trivalent FMD vaccination as required by the import protocol was not performed. In a consignment of cattle received in 2012, 84% of the cattle within the consignment had less than 50 percent inhibition (PI) for serotype A, 32.3% had less than 50 PI for serotype Asia 1 and 11.7% had less than 50 PI for serotype O. Another consignment had 2.5% cattle with less than 50% PI for serotype O, 84% had less than 50% PI for serotype A and 12% cattle had less than 50% PI for serotype Asia 1. This indicated possibilities that monovalent or bivalent vaccine was used instead of trivalent or the trivalent vaccine used was not potent.
The activities and management of the animal quarantine stations can be a good indicator of the level by which disease can be prevented from entering the country.
Eight temporary quarantine station (TQS) were selected and visited with the aim of assessing the awareness of managers and operators on the biosecurity requirements for quarantine station stated in Arahan Prosedur Tetap Veterinar Malaysia (APTVM) Pendaftaran Stesen Kuarantin Haiwan Sementara 2011 (SKH(S)). On average, 11.8% of the managers ignored the importance of biosecurity and
operational requirement. On the other hand, 82.5% of them were confident that they had a good level of biosecurity and operational knowledge. A quarter (25%) of the respondents agreed that they did not have a good knowledge on how to manage a TQS. More than 37% did not understand the requirements based on the APTVM SKH(S). In addition, 25% did not have any systematic importation
documentation and records while more than 37% were not aware that the consignment proven to be exposed to FMD could only be released to the DVS approved destination.
In conclusion, it was suggested that importation and animal movements are major contributors to the FMD outbreaks in the country. Issues and gaps in the import
protocols and regulations may result in increase risk of FMD introduction. TQS which was allowed for reasons to improve animal quarantine efficiency may in fact
contribute to more damage since the study found that most facilities had poor biosecurity, did not comply with basic infrastructure requirements and station
operators/managers have poor level of understanding about basic quarantine station management and operations.


Telephone operators taking time out for a celebration. Calendar behind them reads "April 1954". Woman seated second to right appears to be holding some sort of phone equipment. Seated from left to right: Anita Winkel, Doris Kolmeier, Dorothy Besier, Julia Helmers, Irene Ketron Eckhardt, Ruby Schumann Reeh.
Standing left to right: Mildred Nixon, Gladys Juenke, Elizabeth Weber, Dorothy Wehmeyer Weinheimer, Frances Moellendorf Stevens, Minnie Simon, Margaret Eckhardt, Mildred Kordzik Grona, Vernell Usener Ellebracht, Meta Pohler, Gertrude Fritz, Olivia Bernhard Lott.

Written in the bottom right corner of the photograph is the year "1954." Stamped on the back is "The Radio Post, Fredericksburg, Texas" and the Kilman Studio's address.


Summary

The governance-and-development agenda that has dominated thinking since the collapse of the Soviet Bloc is fast losing credibility. It continues to be associated with a set of countries, ideas and experiences – the 'West'– that no longer enjoy global leadership. It has not usefully identified the role of governments in promoting economic growth. And it takes little account of the ways in which states are changing. The growing influence of the BRICs and other emerging powers is now widely appreciated. This paper explores the ways in which late twentieth century globalisation is bringing about more subtle changes in the political constitutions of states that may have considerable implications for the ways in which we are governed and the actions that may be needed to reduce the incidence of bad governance. Contrary to widespread expectations, globalisation does not necessarily lead states to become more like one another, or to converge around the 'Western' model of liberal democracy and market capitalism. It also leads states to compete with one another. To the extent that they compete by seeking alternative sources of revenue, this may lead them to diverge politically. The concept of political revenues– the incomes that governments and political elites obtain through the exercise of political power – is central to the analysis. One of the consequences of late twentieth century globalisation is that, in some countries, opportunities for political elites to gather (illicit) elite political revenues have expanded considerably. This helps explain why fragile states have become a normal feature of the global system. A more widespread consequence is that states enjoy a range of new non-tax revenues in addition to 'normal' tax revenues. This has significant implications for the accountability of governments to citizens.


Public financial management (PFM) has a significant role in linking resources to results by financing human development outcomes. When economic stimulus packages are short run in nature, thematic PFM, such as child budgeting, has a crucial role in reducing crime against children. Using fixed effects models, we explore the determinants of reduced crime against children. The PFM-related variables are found to have greater impact than economic growth per se in tackling crime against children. Capital expenditure in the social sector is found to be inversely related to crimes against children, though mere allocation in social sector budgets is not found to be effective in reducing crime rates. Specific PFM tools, like child budgeting, need to be analyzed for their role in child protection services. In India, child budgeting has been introduced in states where the rates of crime against children are also high. To understand the efficacy of child budgeting in reducing crime rates, the year of inception (year in which the child budgeting was introduced in the state) of children budgeting in a state is incorporated in the panel models. The coefficients reveal that years of inception and crime against children are inversely related, reinforcing the effectiveness of PFM tools such as child budgeting in reducing crimes. The existence of a positive link between social expenditure and the incidence of crime is at first counterintuitive, but a closer examination reveals a nonlinear relationship between crime incidence and social spending, which is revealed from the statistically significant negative squared term.


Biogas production from cow dung for powering a tyre tube was investigated, using a 20litre capacity prototype biogas digester, fabricated in the Lagos state university (LASU) research laboratory. The experiment was batch operated and daily gas yield from the digester was monitored for 21 days. The ambient and slurry temperatures, PH were also monitored. Two important aspects of the biogas itself is digester and starter. This Research aim to fabricate a digester that can be used to convert a cow dung into methane for powering a tyre tube and the objective to determine whether cow dung from ranch can produce methane. In this study a mini biogas digester fabricated and tested for organic waste, thirty-five (35) kg of the cow dung, water and starter was used. (The starter that used in this study is silica gel). The cow dung inserted into the digester through the inlet pipe, and kept for three weeks. The ratio of cow dung water is 1:2. The result obtained from the biogas production showed that methane has 67.9%. This result show that these waste could be a source of a renewable gas if managed properly since the waste sluggishly continued gas production after 21 days retention time.


Bacterially derived flagellin binds to an innate immune receptor to form a tail-to-tail heterodimeric signaling complex. The immune system recognizes bacterial infections by binding to conserved molecular fragments derived from the invading bacteria. Molecular mimics of these bacterial determinants have the potential to boost the immunogenicity of vaccines. Yoon et al. now report the crystal structure of the D1-D2 fragment of Salmonella flagellin, a protein critical for the motility of flagellated bacteria, with the ectodomain of zebrafish Toll-like receptor 5 (TLR5), the host receptor that binds to flagellin and signals the immune system to react. Two TLR5-flagellin heterodimers dimerized into a 2:2 tail-to-tail signaling complex. Mutational analysis and use of human TLR5 validated the signaling mechanism, which is conserved from zebrafish to humans. S.-i. Yoon, O. Kurnasov, V. Natarajan, M. Hong, A. V. Gudkov, A. L. Osterman, I. A. Wilson, Structural basis of TLR5-flagellin recognition and signaling. Science 335, 859–864 (2012). [Abstract] [Full Text]


More and more parts of our lives are being digitally enriched. The field of education is no exception. The learning and working worlds are changing, and therefore also the requirements for education, continuing education and further education. At the same time, the period in which knowledge is up-to-date is ever shorter. Thus the ability to do Lifelong Learning is not only decisive for the success of the individual, but also for the sustainable existence of companies, economic sectors and whole regions/destinations. On the basis of psychological, pedagogical and economical concepts the author deals with the How and Why of learning. Based on this he investigates the significance of Online-Further Education in Tourism by means of qualitative expert interviews.


Introduction
The figure shows a positive indirect fluorescent antibody serological test for measles virus immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibody.  Individuals who are seropositive for measles have antibody that binds to infected Vero cells forming a viral antigen-antibody complex.  The antigen-antibody complex is visualized by the addition of an antihuman antibody tagged with fluorescein isothiocyanate (IgG-FITC), which binds to the
antigen-antibody
complex and fluoresces apple green. All cells are counterstained with Evans blue which fluoresces orange red.  Measles virus induces the fusion of infected cells resulting in a large multinucleated cell (syncytia). Note syncytia formation in the center of the photograph. Also note that the viral antigen is found only in the cytoplasm of infected cells. The image was captured using a Pathway Bioimager 855 (BD Biosciences) with a 20x objective.
Methods
Measles virus infected cells that were inactivated and fixed to slides were provided by Hemagen Corporation, Columbia, MD (Virgo Measles IFA Kit, 903105).  Cells were incubated with diluted human serum for 30 minutes at 37oC, washed in phosphate buffered saline for 15 minutes to remove unbound immunoglobulin and then incubated for 30 minutes at 37oC with antihuman IgG-FITC and Evans blue dye counterstain. The slides were washed again for 15 minutes in phosphate buffered saline to remove unbound label and counterstain and imaged using a Pathway Bioimager 855.
Discussion
Measles is an ancient human infection first described by Rhazes in the 10th century (1).  While a very effective live attenuated vaccine developed by Enders and colleagues (2) was licensed in 1963, measles remains a significant source of morbidity and mortality worldwide. The World Health Organization estimates there were 242,000 deaths due to measles in 2006, the majority of deaths occurred in children (3).
Indirect immunofluorescence is a standard diagnostic method for identifying infection and assessing immune status for a variety of viruses including herpes simplex virus, cytomegalovirus, rubella, Epstein-Barr virus, and others.
References

1.
Abu Becr, M. A.
1748.
Discourse on the smallpox and measles (R. Mead, translator). J. Brindley, London, England.

2.
Enders, J. F.,
S. L.  Katz, M. V. Milovanovic, and A.
Holloway.  1960.  Studies on an attenuated measles virus vaccine. I. Development and preparations of the vaccine: techniques for assay of effects of vaccination. N Engl J Med. 263
:
153–159.

3.
World Health Organization.  2008.  Measles fact sheet. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs286/en/.


This paper presents an in-depth analysis of properties of patterns, generated by the Recursive Auto-Associative Memory, based on the idea that representational features can be detected by a classification network. The intension of this analysis is to examine the actual reasons for the success of connectionist processes acting on super-positional activity vectors generated in the fashion described. We show that the structure supplied during training is maintained and is extractable from the generated pattern. Further, we show that the influence of the actual constituents in the structures supplied during training is not necessarily available, in the generated patterns, for holistic processing. The outlook for holistic processing is therefore limited unless new forms can be found which take into account, what Sharkey and Jackson call, `whole net' representations.


Three first-, second- and third-order experimental forested watersheds located within the Francis Marion National Forest in the lower coastal plain of South Carolina were monitored for rainfall and stream outflows. The largest watershed (WS 78) with some open lands, roads and wetlands gave higher annual water yields compared to the two other smal- ler ones (WS 79, WS 80) with mostly forest vegetation, possibly due to a difference in land use, soils and topography as well as increased base flows. Flow duration curves yielded largest flow rates exceeding 4% of the time for the second-order watershed (WS 79). As expected, the daily flows persisted for 79% of the time in the largest 3rd-order watershed (WS 78) with a larger storage compared to only 65 and 60% in the 2nd- and 1st-order watersheds. The flow frequency analysis of peak flows, employing Pearson III-type distri - bution, revealed the peak flows for 100-, 50-, 25-, 10- and 5-year return periods as 1805, 1565, 1326, 1009 and 769 cfs (cubic feet per second) for WS 78; 379, 325, 272, 200 and 146 cfs for WS 79; and 73, 63, 54, 41 and 32 cfs for WS 80. These results are in good agre- ement with the data calculated using the USGS-developed formulae for the South Carolina Lower Coastal Plain and have implications for the design of engineering structures, water and nutrient management, as well as evaluation of the impacts of development and natural disturbances on the forested lands of the Atlantic Coastal Plain.


Probiotic microbial feed supplements are gaining wide acceptance in livestock production, and may be applicable to aquaculture production systems. The present study was conducted to examine probiotic treatment in the fingerling diet of Nile tilapia Oreochromis niloticus (L.). A total of 240 of Nile tilapia fingerlings (weight ranged from 22.96 to 26.40 g) were divided into five experimental groups. The experiment was conducted for 120 days. Experimental diets were identical in all, except for the variation in probiotic levels. A probiotic (Biogen®) was used at 0% (diet 1), 0.5% (diet 2), 1.5% (diet 3), 2.0% (diet 4) and 2.5% (diet 5) inclusion rates in the experimental diets. The growth performance and nutrient utilization of Nile tilapia including weight gain, specific growth rate, protein efficiency ratio, protein productive value and energy retention were significantly (P≤0.01) higher in the treatment receiving probiotic (Biogen®) than the control diet. No differences were observed for moisture, ash and protein content (P≤0.01) among the experimental diets. The lowest gross energy and lipid contents were recorded for fish fed the diet containing 0.5% Biogen® (P≤0.01). The production performance and subsequent cost–benefit analyses clearly indicated that the diets containing probiotic biogen recorded the highest net return and the lowest total cost compared with the control diet.


Zucchini yellow mosaic virus (ZYMV) is a member of the Potyvirus genus in the Potyviridae family, the largest group of plant viruses. Different isolates of this virus have been found in infected cucurbits throughout the world, including localities in Europe, America, Australia, and Asia. In August 2005, mosaic and yellowing of leaves, as well as yellow spots on green fruits, were observed on zucchini (Cucurbita pepo cv. giromontiina) growing in commercial fields in the Kujawsko-Pomorskie Region of Poland. Flexuous virus particles (~750 nm long), typical of potyviruses, were observed in leaf-dip preparations from symptomatic zucchini plants. The virus in the sap from symptomatic plants was mechanically transmitted and systemic infections were produced on Citrullus lanatus, Cucumis melo, Cucumis sativus, C. pepo cvs. giromontiina and patissoniana, C. maxima, and Nicotiana benthamiana. Severe symptoms such as severe malformation of leaves and stunting of plants were observed on zucchini plants (cv. giromontiina) infected mechanically with the virus and grown in the greenhouse. Double-antibody sandwich (DAS)-ELISA using an anti-ZYMV polyclonal antiserum (AS-0234; DSMZ, Braunschweig, Germany) identified the presence of ZYMV in mechanically infected C. pepo cv. giromontiina and N. benthamiana plants. Subsequently, a reverse transcription (RT)-PCR using a universal primer, Sprimer, designed from the consensus sequences that code for the conserved sequence GNNSGQP in the NIb region of Potyviridae family members and the M4 primer was performed (1). The 1740-bp PCR fragments were cloned into the pGEM-T vector (Promega, Madison, WI) and three randomly selected clones were sequenced on an ABI automatic sequencer. An 837-bp sequence representing the full length coat protein gene (GenBank Accession No. EF178505) was compared with homologous sequences from other ZYMV isolates using BioEdit and Mega 3.1 softwares. Genetic distances were calculated by Kimura's two-parameter method (2). Surprisingly, the Polish ZYMV isolate (ZYMV-Zug) was more closely related to ZYMV isolates from Asia than those from Europe. Pairwise comparisons of ZYMV-Zug with several other European ZYMV isolates (GenBank Accession Nos. DQ645729, AJ420020, AJ459956, AJ420014, AJ420019, DQ124239, and AJ420018) indicated an 81 to 82% nucleotide and 91 to 92% amino acid identity, while there was a 94% nucleotide and 99% amino acid identity with the Shanxi (GenBank Accession No. AY074808) and Shandong isolates (GenBank Accession No. AF513552) from China. References: (1) J. Chen et al. Arch. Virol. 146:757, 2001. (2) S. Kumar et al. Brie. Bioinform. 5:150, 2004.


Abstract. A global sensitivity analysis is performed to describe the effects of astronomical forcing on the climate–vegetation system simulated by the model of intermediate complexity LOVECLIM in interglacial conditions. The methodology relies on the estimation of sensitivity measures, using a Gaussian process emulator as a fast surrogate of the climate model, calibrated on a set of well-chosen experiments. The outputs considered are the annual mean temperature and precipitation and the growing degree days (GDD). The experiments were run on two distinct land surface schemes to estimate the importance of vegetation feedbacks on climate variance. This analysis provides a spatial description of the variance due to the factors and their combinations, in the form of "fingerprints" obtained from the covariance indices. The results are broadly consistent with the current under-standing of Earth's climate response to the astronomical forcing. In particular, precession and obliquity are found to contribute in LOVECLIM equally to GDD in the Northern Hemisphere, and the effect of obliquity on the response of Southern Hemisphere temperature dominates precession effects. Precession dominates precipitation changes in subtropical areas. Compared to standard approaches based on a small number of simulations, the methodology presented here allows us to identify more systematically regions susceptible to experiencing rapid climate change in response to the smooth astronomical forcing change. In particular, we find that using interactive vegetation significantly enhances the expected rates of climate change, specifically in the Sahel (up to 50% precipitation change in 1000 years) and in the Canadian Arctic region (up to 3° in 1000 years). None of the tested astronomical configurations were found to induce multiple steady states, but, at low obliquity, we observed the development of an oscillatory pattern that has already been reported in LOVECLIM. Although the mathematics of the analysis are fairly straightforward, the emulation approach still requires considerable care in its implementation. We discuss the effect of the choice of length scales and the type of emulator, and estimate uncertainties associated with specific computational aspects, to conclude that the principal component emulator is a good option for this kind of application.


Medicinal plants have played a very important role in the rejuvenation of worse situation created by the infection of microorganisms. In addition, many new structures of Antibiotic agents are developed using medicinal plants as the resource. Plants are oldest source of pharmacologically active compounds. In the field of Ethnopharmacology, the search for new anti-infection agents has occupied many research groups in the past few decades. According to estimation more than two thirds of the world's population relays on plant derived drugs. There are no of plant products like garlic, Aloe Vera, Croton Latex, Eucalyptus Essential Oil, Grapefruit seed extract (GSE), Usnea and etc., used as a natural antibiotics in the treatment of burns, respiratory tract infections, stimulates immune system, lowers blood pressure, severe diarrhea and etc.


This Article examines an emerging movement so far unexplored by legal scholarship: the proposal and, in some states, the enactment of a Homeless Bill of Rights. This Article presents these new laws as a lens to re-examine storied debates over positive and social welfare rights. Homeless bills of rights also present a compelling opportunity to re-examine rights-based theories in the context of social movement scholarship. Specifically, could these laws be understood as part of a new "rights revolution"? What conditions might influence the impact of these new laws on the individual rights of the homeless or the housed? On American rights culture and consciousness? The Article surveys current efforts to advance homeless bills of rights across nine states and the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico and evaluates these case studies from a social movement perspective. Ultimately, the Article predicts that these new laws are more likely to have an incremental social and normative impact than an immediate legal impact. Even so, homeless bills of rights are a critical, if slight, step to advance the rights of one of the most vulnerable segments of contemporary society. Perhaps as significantly, these new laws present an opportunity for housed Americans to confront our collective, deeply-rooted biases against the homeless.


. . . [T]he thing is, we treat racism in this country like it's a style that America went through. Like flared legs and lava lamps. Oh, that crazy thing we did.We were hanging black people. We treat it like a fad instead of a disease that eradicates millions of people. You've got to get it at a lab, and study it, and see its origins, and see what it's immune to and what breaks it down. (Chris Rock, interviewed by Frank Rich, New York Magazine 2014)


Land application and landfilling are the most common destination for biosolids in the United States. When properly treated and managed in accordance with the existing state and federal regulations and standards, biosolids are safe for the environment and human health. Application of biosolids in vegetable production as an organic amendment to soils can increase plant growth and produce comparable crop yields with less inorganic nutrients than a standard program of commercial synthetic fertilizers. No application rate of treated biosolids alone will produce crop yields equivalent to commercial fertilizers. Biosolids may be used in conjunction with fertilizer thus lessening the application rate required. The major obstacles to public acceptance are issues concerning water pollution, risk of human disease, and odors. Additionally, heavy metals are an issue of bias with public perception. To ensure safe use of biosolids to a vegetable production systems the agronomic rate (nutrient requirement of the vegetable crop grown) should be calculated before application for the specific crop.


The establishment of supervisory authorities in Member States, empowered to perform their tasks and exercise their powers with complete independence, is an essential component of the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of their personal data. Member States should be able to establish more than one supervisory authority, to reflect their constitutional, organisational and administrative structure.


We consider market dynamics in a reduced form model. In the simplest version, there are two investors and several small noninvesting firms. In each period, one investor can acquire a small firm, the other investor decides about market entry. After that all firms play an oligopoly game. We derive conditions under which increasing market concentration arises with myopic firms, we show that a model with forward-looking firms and with arbitrary numbers of investors yield similar results. We apply the framework to a Cournot model with cost synergies and a Bertrand model where acquisitions extend the product spectrum of a firm.


Abstract Neopatrimonialism is a concept that has predominately been applied to describe governance in sub-Saharan Africa. Recently, however, it has also been used to describe governance in states from other world regions. However, scholars have rarely attempted systematically to compare neopatrimonial rule in different regional settings. This paper aims to narrow this gap by examining the effect of neopatrimonialism on the tax administration as a core state function in six countries from three different world regions: Argentina, Venezuela, Indonesia, the Philippines, Kenya and Zambia. We conclude that neopatrimonialism is a valuable concept for comparative area studies with the potential to foster dialogue on the 'state in operation' across the regional divide. Nevertheless, several indicators are more valid for some world regions than for others. We find that there is no systematic relationship between neopatrimonial trajectories and the strength of tax administration. Individual actor decisions influence the outcomes of neopatrimonialism substantially.


A fractional cross-spectral density is defined by use of an optical fractional Fourier transform based on the rotation of a Wigner distribution function within the accuracy of the paraxial approximation. The properties of the planar Gaussian Schell-model (GSM) source field in a fractional Fourier plane are analyzed theoretically. As a result, it becomes clear that the extent, the wave-front-curvature radius, and the spectral shift of the fractional Fourier field depend strongly on the fractional order of the Fourier transform, the Fresnel number associated with the GSM source size, and the scaled spatial-coherence length of the GSM source.


After a two-decade absence, Washington Post journalist Blaine Harden returned to his small-town birthplace in the Pacific Northwest to follow the rise and fall of the West's most thoroughly conquered river. Harden's hometown, Moses Lake, Washington, could not have existed without massive irrigation schemes. His father, a Depression migrant trained as a welder, helped build dams and later worked at the secret Hanford plutonium plant. Now he and his neighbors, once considered patriots, stand accused of killing the river. As Blaine Harden traveled the Columbia-by barge, car, and sometimes on foot-his past seemed both foreign and familiar. A personal narrative of rediscovery joined a narrative of exploitation: of Native Americans, of endangered salmon, of nuclear waste, and of a once-wild river now tamed to puddled remains. Part history, part memoir, part lament, "this is a brave and precise book," according to the New York Times Book Review. "It must not have been easy for Blaine Harden to find himself turning his journalistic weapons against his own heritage, but he has done the conscience of his homeland a great service."


Large Language Models (LLMs) have seen an impressive wave of advances recently, with models now excelling in a variety of tasks, such as mathematical reasoning and program synthesis. However, their potential to effectively use tools via API calls remains unfulfilled. This is a challenging task even for today's state-of-the-art LLMs such as GPT-4, largely due to their inability to generate accurate input arguments and their tendency to hallucinate the wrong usage of an API call. We release Gorilla, a finetuned LLaMA-based model that surpasses the performance of GPT-4 on writing API calls. When combined with a document retriever, Gorilla demonstrates a strong capability to adapt to test-time document changes, enabling flexible user updates or version changes. It also substantially mitigates the issue of hallucination, commonly encountered when prompting LLMs directly. To evaluate the model's ability, we introduce APIBench, a comprehensive dataset consisting of HuggingFace, TorchHub, and TensorHub APIs. The successful integration of the retrieval system with Gorilla demonstrates the potential for LLMs to use tools more accurately, keep up with frequently updated documentation, and consequently increase the reliability and applicability of their outputs. Gorilla's code, model, data, and demo are available at https://gorilla.cs.berkeley.edu


Online Monitoring is a rapidly expanding field in different areas such as quality control, finance and navigation. The automated detection of so-called changepoints is playing a prominent role in all these fields, be it the detection of sudden shifts of the mean of a continuously monitored quantity, the variance of stock quotes or the change of some characteristic features indicating the malfunctioning of one of the detectors used for navigation (the ``faulty sensor problem''). A prominent example for the application of advanced statistical methods for the detection of changepoints in biomedical time series is the multi-process Kalman filter used by Smith and West [Smith 1983] to monitor renal transplants. However, despite the fact that the algorithm could be tuned in such a way that the computer could predict dangerous situations on the average one day before the human experts it has nevertheless become superfluous as soon as new diagnosic tools became available. Many of the automated monitoring systems which are widely used in practice are based on simple threshold alarms. Some upper and lower limits are chosen at the beginning of the monitoring session and an alarm is triggered whenever the measured values exceed the upper limit or fall below the lower limit. This is e.g. common practice for the monitoring of patients during surgery, where such thresholds are chosen for heart rate, blood pressure etc. by the anaesthesist. The fate of the multi-process Kalman filter for monitoring renal transplants teaches two lessons: first, there is considerable power in statistical methods to improve conventional biomedical monitoring techniques. Second, if the statistical model and the methods are too refined they may never be used in practice. We shall suggest a stochastic model for changepoints which we have found to have the capacity to be very useful in practice, i.e. which is sufficiently complex to cover the important features of a changepoint system but simple enough to be understandable and adaptible. We focus our attention on the properties of the threshold alarm for different values of the parameters of the threshold alarm and the model. This will give us practically relevant estimates for this important class of alarm systems and moreover a benchmark for the evaluation of competing alternative algorithms. Note that virtually every algorithm designed to detect changepoints is based on a threshold alarm, the only difference being that the threshold alarm is not fed with the original data but by a transformation thereof, usually called ``residuum'' [Basseville 1993]. As a general measure for quality, we look on the one hand at the mean delay time $\tau$ between a changepoint and its detection and on the other hand at the mean waiting time for a false alarm, the so-called average run length ARL.


PURPOSE
UV irradiation can produce a wide range of DNA damage, which will lead to gene mutation and uncontrolled cell proliferation. Of the many types of DNA damage, DNA double strand breaks (DSBs) are the most serious form, because of the intrinsic difficulty of their repair, inaccurate repair, or a lack of repair of DSBs can lead to mutations and large-scale genomic instability. DSBs are repaired by the DNA double strand break repair system. The DNA double strand break repair system consists of homologous recombination (HR) and nonhomologous end-joining (NHEJ). In humans, NHEJ is the predominant repair system and Ku70 protein plays an initial and important role in the NHEJ system. Genetic polymorphisms in NHEJ genes influence their DNA repair capacity and confer predisposition to UV-induced skin cancer. Because pterygium is an UV-related uncontrolled cell proliferation, it is logical to assume polymorphisms of Ku70 is associated with genetic predisposition to pterygium.

METHODS
One hundred and twenty eight pterygium patients and 114 volunteers without pterygium were enrolled in this study. Polymerase chain reaction based analysis was used to resolve the Ku70 promoter G-57C (rs2267437) and T-991C (rs5751129) polymorphisms.

RESULTS
There were significant differences between pterygium and control groups in the distribution of genotype (p=0.013) and allelic frequency (p=0.005) in the Ku70 promoter T-991C polymorphism. Individuals who carried at least one C allele (T/C and C/C) had a 2.83 fold increased risk of developing pterygium compared to those who carried the T/T wild type genotype (OR=2.83; 95% CI: 1.38-5.82). Moreover, individuals who carried at least one C allele (T/C and C/C) had a higher tendency to develop both sides of pterygium. In the Ku70 promoter C-57G polymorphism, there was no difference between both groups in the distribution of either genotype or allelic frequency.

CONCLUSIONS
The Ku70 promoter T-991C, but not the Ku70 promoter C-57G polymorphism, is correlated with pterygium. The Ku70 promoter T-991C polymorphism might become a potential marker for the prediction of pterygium susceptibility. It also provides a valuable insight into the pathogenesis of pterygium.


We examine the effectiveness of several unsupervised methods for latent semantics discovery as features for aspect-based sentiment analysis (ABSA). We use the shared task definition from SemEval 2014. In our experiments we use labeled and unlabeled corpora within the restaurants domain for two languages: Czech and English. We show that our models improve the ABSA performance and prove that our approach is worth exploring. Moreover, we achieve new state-of-the-art results for Czech. Another important contribution of our work is that we created two new Czech corpora within the restaurant domain for the ABSA task: one labeled for supervised training, and the other (considerably larger) unlabeled for unsupervised training. The corpora are available to the research community.


Structural information on nanometer-sized gold particles has been limited, due in part to the problem of preparing homogeneous material. Here we report the crystallization and x-ray structure determination of a p-mercaptobenzoic acid (p-MBA)–protected gold nanoparticle, which comprises 102 gold atoms and 44 p-MBAs. The central gold atoms are packed in a Marks decahedron, surrounded by additional layers of gold atoms in unanticipated geometries. The p-MBAs interact not only with the gold but also with one another, forming a rigid surface layer. The particles are chiral, with the two enantiomers alternating in the crystal lattice. The discrete nature of the particle may be explained by the closing of a 58-electron shell.


Macrobenthic communities from estuaries throughout the northern Gulf of Mexico were studied to assess the influence of sediment contaminants and natural environmental factors on macrobenthic community trophic structure. Community trophic data were also used to evaluate whether results from laboratory sediment toxicity tests were effective indicators of site-specific differences in benthic trophic structure. A multiple regression model consisting of five composite factors (principal components) was used to distinguish the effects of sediment contaminants and environmental variables on benthic community trophic structure. This model explained 33.5% of the variation in macrobenthic trophic diversity (p<0.001), a variable derived from the distribution of taxas among nine original trophic categories. A significant negative relatinship was found between principal components reflecting concentrations of sediment contaminants and macrobenthic trophic diversity.Detritivores including surface deposit-feeders (SDF), subsurface deposit-feeders (SSDF), and filter feeders (FF) were numerically dominant at 201 random sites, each group accounting for 25–30% of total macrobenthic abundance. The relative abundance of SDFs was considerably lower (12.1±2.9% to 17.1±4.4%) at sites where sediment contaminant concentrations exceeded minimum biological effects thresholds (ER-L values from Long and Morgan 1990 than at sites sampled at random (29.3±5.7%). SSDFs were proportionally more abundant at contaminated sites (42.0±7.7% to 63.6±10.3%) versus random sites (27.5±5.7%), and the relative abundance of SSDFs was positively correlated with concentrations of particular contaminants. Benthic trophic structure was also found to be a function of salinity, where the proportion of SSDFs was negatively correlated with salinity (p=0.035, r=−0.223, n=326). Silt-clay content loaded fairly strongly on the first principal component, but trophic structure parameters were not significantly correlated with sediment grain size or dissolved oxygen (perhaps due, in part, to covariation). Results from laboratory sediment toxicity tests with mysids were predictive of differences in macrobenthic trophic structure in situ (i.e., mysid survival was negatively correlated with %SSDF; p<0.001, r=−0.292, n=326). Results from laboratory sediment toxicity tests with ampeliscid amphipods were not indicative of site-specific differences in benthic trophic structure.Results from this study demonstrated that sediment contaminants can be quite important in structuring macrobenthic communities in soft-bottom estuarine habitats. The fact that macrobenthic trophic diversity decreased significantly with increasing sediment contamination indicates that important general differences in benthic community function may exist between contaminated and random sites. These data suggest that benthic trophic structure analysis may be an effective tool for assessing integrated community responses to chronic sublethal exposure and may be useful for assessing toxicological responses at ecologically relevant levels of organization.


Building and deploying software on high-end computing systems is a challenging task. High performance applications have to reliably run across multiple platforms and environments, and make use of site-specific resources while resolving complicated software-stack dependencies. Containers are a type of lightweight virtualization technology that attempt to solve this problem by packaging applications and their environments into standard units of software that are: portable, easy to build and deploy, have a small footprint, and low runtime overhead. In this work we present an extension to the container runtime of Shifter that provides containerized applications with a mechanism to access GPU accelerators and specialized networking from the host system, effectively enabling performance portability of containers across HPC resources. The presented extension makes possible to rapidly deploy high-performance software on supercomputers from containerized applications that have been developed, built, and tested in non-HPC commodity hardware, e.g. the laptop or workstation of a researcher.


Existing work on domain adaptation for statistical machine translation has consistently assumed access to a small sample from the test distribution (target domain) at training time. In practice, however, the target domain may not be known at training time or it may change to match user needs. In such situations, it is natural to push the system to make safer choices, giving higher preference to domain-invariant translations, which work well across domains, over risky domain-specific alternatives. We encode this intuition by (1) inducing latent subdomains from the training data only; (2) introducing features which measure how specialized phrases are to individual induced sub-domains; (3) estimating feature weights on out-of-domain data (rather than on the target domain). We conduct experiments on three language pairs and a number of different domains. We observe consistent improvements over a baseline which does not explicitly reward domain invariance.


We study the sum capacity of the underlay cognitive broadcast (BC) channel with M primary receivers (PRs) and K secondary receivers (SRs). In particular, the sum capacity is investigated under an average transmit power constraint (TPC) on the SRs and multiple average or peak interference power constraints (IPCs) on the PRs. In a fading environment, the average sum capacity is obtained from the solution of a convex optimization problem. The ergodic sum capacity C is then derived from the limiting case where the number of fading state tends to infinity. Further, the asymptotic capacity is investigated in the homogeneous Rayleigh fading system for which two different asymptotic regimes are analyzed.


An effort to eradicate Phytophthora ramorum, causal agent of sudden oak death, has been underway since its discovery in Oregon forests. Using an information-theoretical approach, we sought to model yearly variation in the size of newly infested areas and dispersal distance. Maximum dispersal distances were best modeled by spring and winter precipitation 2 years before detection, and infestation size the year prior. Infestation size was best modeled by infestation size and spring precipitation the year prior. In our interpretation, there is a 2-year delay between the introduction of inoculum and onset of mortality for a majority of sites. The year-long gap in between allows ample time for the production of inoculum contributing to the spread of P. ramorum. This is supported by epidemic development following changes in eradication protocols precipitated by an outbreak in 2011, attributable to a 2009 treatment delay and an uncharacteristically wet spring in 2010. Posteradication, we have observed an increase in the total area of new outbreaks and increased frequency in dispersal distances greater than 4 km. Although the eradication program has not eliminated P. ramorum from Oregon forests, it has likely moderated this epidemic, emphasizing the need for prompt treatment of future invasive forest pathogens.


In our time, in which social lifeturnes spiritual values into a market, local standards of judgement, human relations and conjugal union has been influenced by this change, also. In our time, conjugal union, which is still seen as a taboo in Turkish society, has become a market with the influence of popular culture. Conjugal union, which has the characteristics of a social institution in our ime, benefits from the opportunities of technology in direct proportion to globalization and new technological developments, while trying to preserve its traditional features at the same time. In this transformation process, various media organs, socialization agents on media tools such as marriage websites play a significant role. In this study, the process of how conjugal union, which is shaped by the direct influence of popular culture, goes through a change in the direction of global market mentality will be discussed and a research will be made on the basis of social media agents.


The use of Augmented Reality and visual cues as a part of navigational instructions, in addition to conventional audio and textual instructions, may improve the experience of the users of the navigation services. This approach can be also more compatible with the way people give instructions in everyday life; People usually associate directions with visual cues (e.g. "turn right at the square") when giving navigational instructions in their daily conversations. In this regard, landmarks as the unique and easy-to-recognise features can play an important role. Such easy to remember features, which are available both indoors and outdoors, can be helpful when exploring an unfamiliar environment. A Landmark-based navigation service can make users sure that they are on the correct route, as the user is reassured by seeing the landmark whose information/picture has just been provided as a part of navigational instruction. Such advantages of use of landmarks visual information as a part of the instructions can decrease the time of travel and improve the experiences of the users. This paper assesses how landmarks can improve the performance of pedestrian movements following landmark-based navigational instructions.


Problem statement: To date, researchers have personalized graphical user interfaces for individual users to reduce visual search time. Little research, however, has been directed at understanding the factors which cause approaches to personalization to have positive effects at one time and negative ones at others. Approach: The study reported here investigated empirically the effects of content size on 5 different personalized menu types: Adaptable, adaptive split, adaptive/adaptable highlighted, adaptive/adaptable minimized and mixed-initiative menus. More specifically, it compared the usability of these five types with regard to task accomplishment time and frequency of error-occurrence. In order to carry out this comparative investigation, we conducted two independent experiments, on small menus (17 items) and large ones (29 items) respectively. These were tested dependently using 30 subjects each. Results: Results showed that the adaptable type was surprisingly the most efficient overall of the small menus and the least efficient of the large ones. Conclusion: Conversely, the minimized type was the slowest of the small menus and the fastest of the large ones. Finally, errors were reduced in adaptable and minimized small menus by 50 and 62% respectively, whilst being increased in the large adaptable one.


Abstract. Emissions of gases and particulates in urban areas are associated with a mixture of various sources, both natural and anthropogenic. Understanding and quantifying these emissions is necessary in studies of climate change, local air pollution issues and weather modification. Studies have highlighted that the transport sector is key to closing the world's emissions gap. Vehicles contribute substantially with the emission of carbon dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx), non-methane hydrocarbon (NMHC), particulate matter (PM), methane (CH4), hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) and nitrous oxide (N2O). Several studies show that vehicle emission inventories are an important approach to providing a baseline estimate of on-road emissions in several scales, mainly in urban areas. This approach is essential to areas with incomplete or non-existent monitoring networks as well as for air quality models. Conversely, the direct downscale of global emission inventories in chemical transport and air quality models may not be able to reproduce the observed evolution of atmospheric pollution processes at finer spatial scales. To address this caveat, we developed a bottom-up vehicular emission inventory along the 258 main traffic routes from Manaus, based on local vehicle fleet data and emission factors (EFs). The results show that the light vehicles are responsible for the largest fraction of the pollutants, contributing 2.6, 0.87, 0.32, 0.03, 456 and 0.8 ton/h of CO, NOx, CH4, PM, CO2 and NMHC, respectively. Including the emissions of motorcycles, buses and trucks, our total estimation of the emissions is 4.1, 1.0, 0.37, 0.07, 63.5 and 2.56 ton/h, respectively. We also noted that light vehicles accounted for about 62.8 %, 84.7 %, 87.9 %, 45.1 %, 71.8 %, and 33.9 % and motorcycles in the order of 32.3 %, 6.5 %, 12.1 %, 6.2 %, 14.8 %, 8.7 %, respectively. Nevertheless, we can highlight the bus emissions which are around 35.7 % and 45.3 % for NMHC and PM. Our results indicate a better distribution over the domain reflecting the influences of standard behavior of traffic distribution per vehicle category. Finally, this inventory provides more detailed information to improving the current understanding of how vehicle emissions contribute to the ambient pollutant concentrations in Manaus and their impacts on regional climate changes. This work will also contribute to improved air quality numerical simulations, provide more accurate scenarios for policymakers and regulatory agencies to develop strategies for controlling the vehicular emissions, and, consequently, mitigate associated impacts on local and regional scales of the Amazon ecosystems.


A double motor innervation has been shown for several muscles of marine crustaceans. The adductors of the claws of Randallia and Blepharipoda and the adductor of the dactylopodite of the walking leg of Cancer were studied physiologically.

The two motor axons which innervate these muscles have a different diameter (ratio 1.4:1). Stimulation of the thick fibre causes a response, which, though it is not always faster than the response of the thin fibre, must be considered as a "fast" contraction. In Randallia and in Blepharipoda the slow contraction is higher than the fast with frequencies of less than ± 50 per sec., in Cancer with frequencies less than 100 per sec.

The action currents of the two kinds of contraction are different. Both show facilitation, but under the same conditions of stimulation the fast-action currents are higher. The first stimulus of the thick fibre causes an action current top which is clearly distinguishable, the action currents of the slow contraction show up only after a number of stimuli. Even when the mechanical reaction on stimulation of the thick fibre is smaller than on similar stimulation of the thin fibre, the action currents are higher in the first case.

A single impulse in the thick fibre does not cause a contraction, but sets up a muscle-action current. The chronaxie of this action current in Blepharipoda and Randallia is 0.8{sigma} and is about the same as that found for the action current of the nerve. Two impulses in the thick fibre may cause a mechanical response, as is shown by summation experiments. The pseudo-chronaxie of this contraction was measured as 3.5 {sigma}. The second action current shows facilitation, when it follows the first within 1 sec.; a mechanical reaction results with summation intervals of two stimuli of less than 10{sigma}. The facilitation of the action current increases with decrease of the time interval between the two impulses; with the shortest intervals that give summation the resulting action current is a smooth high spike.


What are the likely mental and related physical health consequences of prolonged exposure to common stressors to detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba? Significant distress leads to high rates of psychiatric disorders, medical problems, and functional impairments. The consequences are severe, physically and psychologically, affecting the individual, his or her family, and the culture at large. Damaging conditions endured by detainees are multiple and severe and are reviewed here in detail. The author identifies parallels between Guantanamo detainees and similarly mistreated populations (e.g., prisoners of war, asylum seekers, prisoners) to draw inferences from existing research regarding likely outcomes for Guantanamo detainees. Protective factors normally present are systematically disrupted at Guantanamo. Overall, it is likely that detainees and their families are experiencing significant mental and physical health problems as a result of overlapping severe and chronic stressors related to detention and that this will worsen over time, particularly in the absence of appropriate assessment and treatment. The author addresses political and ethical factors, as well as basic implications for assessment, treatment, and advocacy, although these are not the focus of the article. Researchers and clinicians will face challenges in providing care for this population and understanding the long-term effects of such mistreatment. Sources reviewed are current up to September 2009.


Scientific computing requires many and large volumes of complex structured data and metadata that are scattered across data centers. Researchers find it difficult to discover the specific data they need for their research. Traditional search engines, such as Google, are not effective in most of these cases. Moreover, some of the scientific data are confidential and are not publicly indexed. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a custom solution that satisfies the researchers' need for flexible search. This article introduces the Data Discovery Service designed to serve the Virtual Research Environment (VRE) during the VI-SEEM project. The solution is based on a specially configured and upgraded version of the CKAN platform. The main installation procedure is described, as well as the authors' contributions for the purpose of regularly harvesting data from different sources and updating the available content on which user queries are to be executed.


This study evaluated the strategy of supplementing oral micellized natural vitamin E (D-α-tocopherol) to either piglets and/or sows on α-tocopherol concentrations in piglets serum and tissues after weaning. One first experiment tested the influence of the vitamin E supplementation source (natural form in water v. the synthetic form in feed) and dose administered to piglets and/or sows on serum α-tocopherol concentration, α-tocopherol stereoisomer accumulation, antioxidant capacity and immune response of weaned piglets. A second experiment studied the effect of sow source and dose vitamin E supplementation on some of these parameters in piglets. Oral supplementation to sows with natural vitamin E as a micellized form (D-α-tocopherol) at the lowest dose produced a similar concentration of α-tocopherol in serum at days 2, 14 and 28 postpartum to those supplemented with threefold higher dose of the synthetic form in feed. At day 39 of age, neither piglet supplementation source nor dose significantly affected α-tocopherol accumulation in the serum, muscle, subcutaneous fat or liver. Those piglets from sows supplemented with the micellized alcohol form had higher RRR-α-tocopherol stereoisomers (P<0.001) and lower (P<0.001) RRS- RSS- and RSR-α-tocopherol, at day 39 of age than those from sows supplemented with the synthetic form. A predominant importance of sow over piglet vitamin E supplementation was observed on stereoisomer distribution in piglets. Low doses of oral natural vitamin E supplementation to sows or piglets did not increase the oxidative stress of piglets when compared with the use of the synthetic form in feed. Immunoglobulin levels in piglet serum at day 39 were not affected by natural vitamin E supplementation at low doses in drinking water of piglets or sows when compared with the synthetic form in feed. IgA tended to be higher (P=0.145) at day 39 in piglets supplemented with natural vitamin E when compared with those supplemented with the synthetic form. Low doses of oral micellized natural vitamin E supplementation to sows is an interesting feeding strategy, when compared with the use of high doses of the synthetic form in feed, because it results in similar α-tocopherol concentrations, allows a predominant -R stereoisomer distribution in piglets and also maintains their oxidative status in vivo.


Recent attempts to address land degradation have seen calls for greater integration of scientific expertise with local knowledges. In this paper we investigate the potential for such combined understandings to enhance the accuracy, coverage and relevance of land degradation assessment. We followed a participatory approach, using methods from a variety of disciplines, to elicit potential land degradation indicators from communities in Botswana and Swaziland. These indicators were then assessed according to local and scientific understandings. We noted a significant overlap between scientific and local knowledges about land degradation in most instances. Where discrepancies occurred, the integrated participatory approach we used allows appropriate explanation to be reached, supporting the case that such an iterative process can lead to both accurate and relevant monitoring of land degradation. However, the incorporation of integrated knowledges into national policy has not been widespread in either country, suggesting that much greater efforts are required to institutionalise participatory land degradation assessment methodologies. Powerful, often neo‐Malthusian narratives of degradation continue to dominate policy discourse and limit the extent to which hybrid combined local and scientific knowledges can enhance land degradation assessment on a national and regional scale. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


In many applications, an optical detector has to be located relative to mechanical reference points. One solution is to specify stringent requirements on (1) mounting the optical detector relative to the chip carrier, (2) soldering the chip carrier onto the printed circuit board (PCB), and (3) installing the PCB to the mechanical structure of the subsystem. Figure 1 shows a sketch of an optical detector mounted relative to mechanical reference with high positional accuracy. The optical detector is typically a fragile wafer that cannot be physically touched by any measurement tool. An optical coordinate measuring machine (CMM) can be used to position optical detectors relative to mechanical reference points. This approach will eliminate all requirements on positional tolerances. The only requirement is that the PCB is manufactured with oversized holes. An exaggerated sketch of this situation is shown in Figure 2. The sketch shows very loose tolerances on mounting the optical detector in the chip carrier, loose tolerance on soldering the chip carrier to the PCB, and finally large tolerance on where the mounting screws are located. The PCB is held with large screws and oversized holes. The PCB is mounted loosely so it can move freely around. The optical CMM measures the mechanical reference points. Based on these measurements, the required positions of the optical detector corners can be calculated. The optical CMM is commanded to go to the position where one detector corner is supposed to be. This is indicated with the cross-hairs in Figure 2(a). This figure is representative of the image of the optical CMM monitor. Using a suitable tapping tool, the PCB is manually tapped around until the corner of the optical detector is at the crosshairs of the optical CMM. The CMM is commanded to another corner, and the process is repeated a number of times until all corners of the optical detector are within a distance of 10 to 30 microns of the required position. The situation is sketched in Figure 2(b) (the figure also shows the tapping tool and where to tap). At this point the fasteners for the PCB are torqued slightly so the PCB can still move. The PCB location is adjusted again with the tapping tool. This process is repeated 3 to 4 times until the final torque is achieved. The oversized mounting holes are then filled with a liquid bonding agent to secure the board in position (not shown in the sketch). A 10- to 30-micron mounting accuracy has been achieved utilizing this method..


We present radio and X-ray observations, as well as optical light curves, for a subset of 26 BL Lac candidates from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) lacking strong radio emission and with z < 2.2. Half of these 26 objects are shown to be stars, galaxies, or absorbed quasars. We conclude that the other 13 objects are active galactic nuclei (AGNs) with abnormally weak emission features; 10 of those 13 are definitively radio quiet, and, for those with available optical light curves, their level of optical flux variability is consistent with radio-quiet quasars. We cannot exclude the possibility that some of these 13 AGNs lie on the extremely radio-faint tail of the BL Lac distribution, but our study generally supports the notion that all BL Lac objects are radio-loud. These radio-quiet AGNs appear to have intrinsically weak or absent broad emission line regions (BELRs), and, based on their X-ray properties, we argue that some are low-redshift analogs to weak line quasars (WLQs). SDSS BL Lac searches are so far the only systematic surveys of the SDSS database capable of recovering such exotic low-redshift WLQs. There are 71 more z < 2.2 radio-quiet BL Lac candidates already identified in the SDSS, but not considered here, and many of those might be best unified with WLQs as well. Future studies combining low- and high-redshift WLQ samples will yield new insight on our understanding of the structure and formation of AGN BELRs.


The island of Montserrat is made of the products of five major and three parasitic volcanoes of Pliocene to Recent age. Apart from South Soufrière Hill where some basalt lava flows and pyroclast falls occur, the volcanoes have erupted only andesites, mostly dome lavas and pyroclast flows. The Montserrat lavas belong to the calc-alkaline series. Major and trace element analyses of rocks and minerals are presented and used in a computer test which shows that fractionation of a basaltic parent could account for the composition of all the Montserrat lavas. Other considerations, notably of field relationships and relative volumes of rock types, suggest that andesites are produced in this way only at South Soufrière Hill. Alternative origins for the Montserrat lavas are considered briefly.


This thesis explores structures of melancholy in five of Kurt Vonnegut's early novels, Player Piano, The Sirens of Titan, Mother Night, Slaughterhouse-Five and Breakfast of Champions. The thesis attempts to give new readings to each of the novels by drawing on critical approaches to melancholy and by viewing each text as being subject to contemporary cultural influences. In particular, the thesis maps how each of the novels comments on human progress through a combination of historical, scientific, cultural, social and political paradigms. In the chapters on The Sirens of Titan and Mother Night the protagonist is seen as suffering from a number of melancholic complaints that are closely related to schizophrenia, while the narratives as a whole exploit this splintering of the self to suggest a variety of allegorical readings. The chapters on Player Piano, Slaughterhouse-Five and Breakfast of Champions discuss how the Puritan foundations of American culture play a major part in the construction of the self through the establishment of the Protestant work ethic. These chapters also attempt to expose how many of the ideological concepts that adhere to work, progress and capitalism have melancholic consequences for all involved.
Throughout the thesis the relationship between reality and representation,
language and authority is seen as being crucial to understanding the depth of Vonnegut's
early novels and the way in which each novel deconstructs established values and
subverts readers' expectations. Occasionally, the thesis discusses the novels'
poststructural concerns as appearing to precipitate melancholy within both readers and
characters. However, the thesis also explores how melancholy has been seen historically
to galvanise the soul and build up, from the depths of depression, a renewal of spirit.
Overall, the thesis shows how melancholy is a constituent part of Vonnegut's novels,
connecting his work to the tradition in American melancholic writing created by the
founders of the nation. This thesis traces the persistence of this melancholic note within
selected Vonnegut novels and its connections with other themes identified within his
work.


For courses in Introductory Statistics and Research Methods courses using SPSS. Using SPSS guides students through the most basic of SPSS techniques usingstep-by-step descriptions, presents statistical techniques andinstruction on how to conduct statistical analyses, and explains in detail how to avoid all theobstacles common in the study of statistics. The development of easy-to-use statistical software like SPSS has changed the way statistics is being taught and learned. Students can make transformations of variables, creategraphs of distributions of variables,and select among statistical analyses all at the click of a button. However, even with these advancements,students sometimes still find statistics to be an arduous task. Theycontinue to befaced with many potential obstacles and they might feel overwhelmed and stressed rather than challenged and excited about the potential for mastering these important skills. Samuel Green and Neil Salkind have written a text to specifically address these issues.


Hybrid organic–inorganic perovskites have been established as good candidate materials for emerging photovoltaics, with device efficiencies of over 22% being reported. There are currently only two organic cations, methylammonium and formamidinium, which produce 3D perovskites with band gaps suitable for photovoltaic devices. Numerous computational studies have identified azetidinium as a potential third cation for synthesizing organic–inorganic perovskites, but to date no experimental reports of azetidinium containing perovskites have been published. Here we prepare azetidinium lead iodide for the first time. Azetidinium lead iodide is a stable, bright orange material which does not appear to form a 3D or a 2D perovskite. It was successfully used as the absorber layer in solar cells. We also show that it is possible to make mixed cation devices by adding the azetidinium cation to methylammonium lead iodide. Computational studies show that the substitution of up to 5% azetidinium into the methylammonium lead iodide is energetically favourable and that phase separation does not occur at these concentrations. Mixed azetidinium–methylammonium cells show improved performance and reduced hysteresis compared to methylammonium lead iodide cells.


Research and development has always played a strategically important role in the survival and the growth of technology-based firms. R&D is positively linked to company performance measures such as sales, productivity and shareholder returns and in addition to this, facing increased competition, as a result of globalization the viability of many established firms is based on the efficiency of their R&D activities. Similar to other business models, R&D systems are characterized by complex structure and dynamic behavior. It's often difficult to predict or trace the consequences of certain decisions due to the existence of delays, non-linearities and causal feedback inherent to such systems, in other words, the effect of making a decision in one part of the R&D function can manifest itself in another part of the business system at an unexpected time. There's a widely held belief that System Dynamics is the only way for challenging the increasing complexity of decision making in general and the best solution to avoid unintended consequences. This paper investigates the links between complex decision making in R&D management by describing how a dynamic simulation model, which broadly characterizes the causal feedback structure and the dynamic behavior of a typical R&D system, can be built to increase R&D systems efficiency. In this paper, first we start with defining R&D and its different types, and highlighting the importance of R&D. Then systems are defined and we explore complexity and its different types within the systems. As the next step we provide an answer to the question, how decision making complexities are originated in R&D. Then we take a brief look at the history of system dynamics and we become familiar with system dynamics tools (i.e. Causal Loop Diagrams and Stock and Flow Diagrams). Finally we get into modeling complexities faced in R&D decision making by system dynamics approach, starting from basic models and ending with more complex ones.


Abstract

Objectives – To explore summer reading partnerships between public libraries and school libraries, and the impact on student achievement in reading.

Design – The design is mixed methods: tests, interviews and surveys.

Setting – Eleven US sites involving school and public library partners.

Subjects – A total of 357 elementary school students entering fourth grade that met specific criteria. Parents, teachers, school librarians and public librarians were also included.

Methods – This study occurred over a three year period from 2006-2009. It was developed as a partnership between Dominican University, the Colorado State Library Agency and the Texas Library and Archives Commission. Additionally, the Center for Summer Learning at Johns Hopkins University was contracted to conduct the research. It was designed to explore the research question central to a 1978 study by Barbara Heyns.

An advisory committee, with representatives from each partner agency, developed evaluation questions and established the objective selection criteria for participants in the study. The criteria included: at least 50% of students qualifying for free and reduced price meals; at least 85 percent of school population would take the reading proficiency test in English; public library summer reading programs with a minimum of six weeks of programming; a history of collaboration between the paired school and public library applicants; both school and public library would sign a partnership agreement and participate in conference calls.

In spring of 2008, students at participating sites were given a pre-test using the Scholastic Reading Inventory, and also provided with special summer reading logs developed for the study, to be used during their subsequent participation in the public library summer reading programs.

In fall of 2008, the same children were tested on the Scholastic Reading Inventory. In addition, surveys of students, parents, teachers and library staff were administered, as well as a structured interview of library staff.

Main Results – The students who participated in the public library summer reading program did not experience summer loss in reading as measured by the post test administered in their schools.

The researchers note patterns in the demographics of students who chose to participate (participation was self-selected and voluntary): predominantly Caucasian girls above poverty level, who generally scored well on reading tests. Those who participated in the study also used libraries, had more books in their homes, and parents who used libraries and provided literacy activities at home.

Teachers found that students who participated in the program started the school year ready to learn, had improved reading achievement and displayed stronger motivation, enjoyment and confidence in reading. Parents of students who participated in the program also strongly agreed that their children where better prepared to begin the school year.

Conclusion – The results from this study confirmed findings from an earlier study (Heyns, 1978) and subsequent related research that summer reading programs in public libraries can contribute to maintaining reading progress and proficiency, and that the recreational reading that is available to all students regardless of socioeconomic status through the public library can make a difference in reading scores.

In this article the researchers presented results and conclusions based on selected subsets of the results in the full study. The participants were self-reported and no control group was established.

The researchers also use the results of the study as a starting point to provide a call to action that highlights the value of public library summer reading programs, and the need for the education community to invest in partnerships with public libraries, particularly in communities that serve children and families in low-economic or depressed areas. They also note the need to include parents and grandparents in outreach efforts.