The significance of Spain's Second Republic has been largely overshadowed by the cataclysmic Civil War that immediately followed it. Stanley Payne brings his knowledge of Spanish history to bear on the five-year span of the Second Republic as an historic entity in its own right. In "Spain's First Democracy", he argues that the Republic was one of the major national attempts at political democratisation and reform in Europe between the World Wars and represented the most important effort to swim against the tide during Europe's era of fascism. Payne's study places the Republic within the historical framework of Spanish liberalism and the rapid modernisation of inter-war Europe, which was unlike any other period in Spain's history. Payne discusses the Republicans' efforts to establish Spain's first democratic political systems and to institute major reforms within the Republic. In highlighting reforms in politics and government, education and culture, public works, military affairs, and society as a whole, he assesses the successes and failures of these reforms as well as the reasons for their limitations. He also examines the economic and foreign policy issues of the period. Focusing particularly on political conflict and social cleavage, Payne explores the sources and character of the political polarisation that developed as a result of the assaults on the Republic from the Left and the Right. He identifies the main political actors in this schism and their role in the eventual breakdown of the Republic. Tracing the progressive collapse of the Republican polity in the first half of 1936, Payne stresses the importance of political violence in the democracy's downfall. In restoring perspectives that have been ignored or bypassed, Payne aims to present a consistent and detailed interpretation of Spain's Second Republic, demonstrating its striking parallels to the Weimar Republic in Germany.


SimPoint is a technique used to pick what parts of the program's execution to simulate in order to have a complete picture of execution. SimPoint uses data clustering algorithms from machine learning to automatically find repetitive (similar) patterns in a program's execution, and it chooses one sample to represent each unique repetitive behavior. Together these samples represent an accurate picture of the complete execution of the program. SimPoint is based on the k-means clustering algorithm; recent work proposed using a different clustering method based on multinomial models, but only provided a preliminary comparison and analysis. In this work we provide a detailed comparison of using k-means and multinomial clustering for SimPoint. We show that k-means performs better than the recently proposed multinomial clustering approach. We then propose two improvements to the prior multinomial clustering approach in the areas of feature reduction and the picking of simulation points which allow multinomial clustering to perform as well as k-means. We then conclude by examining how to potentially combine multinomial clustering with k-means.


Response surface methodology was used to optimize the refining conditions of Pinus massoniana cellulose fiber and to improve the mechanical properties of ultra-low density plant fiber composite (ULD_PFC). The effects and interactions of the pulp consistency (X1), the number of passes (X2), and the beating gap (X3) on the internal bond strength of ULD_PFC were investigated. The results showed that the optimum internal bond strength (91.72 ± 2.28 kPa) was obtained under the conditions of 8.0% pulp consistency, two passes through the refiner, and a 30.0 μm beating gap. Analysis of the physical properties of the fibers and handsheets showed that the fibrillation of fibers with optimum refining conditions was improved. Also, the tear index of the optimal specimen was 13.9% and 24.5% higher than specimen-1 with a lowest beating degree of 24 oSR and specimen-6 with a highest beating degree of 73 oSR, respectively. Consequently, the optimal refining conditions of the fibers are valid for preparing ULD_PFCs.


Purpose: Empathy and regard are understood to be critical to high-quality health care. The purposes of this study were: 1) to increase the representation of the rehabilitation sciences within the literature, 2) to refine the distinctions between empathy and regard, and 3) to examine the relation between empathy and regard within the context of two medical conditions with disparate amounts of associated stigma (cerebrovascular accident [CVA] and human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome [HIV/AIDS]). Method: Utilizing the Jefferson Scale of Empathy – Health Professions Student version and the Medical Condition Regard Scale, levels of empathy and regard were assessed twice in first-year graduate students of clinical doctoral programs in occupational therapy and physical therapy and a master's speech-language pathology program, once each in the contexts of CVA and HIV/AIDS. Results: Findings indicate that students of the rehabilitation sciences have empathy levels similar to published levels for students in other health professions; empathy and regard are distinct characteristics, where when assessed in the context of a stigmatized condition, empathy was similar but regard ; and empathy and regard positively vary with one another in the context of a stigmatized medical condition Conclusions: This study suggests that there may be unmet potential for training in empathy and a need for increased education on stigmatized medical conditions to enhance regard.


Abstract Among the various getter materials the interalloy ZrCo has been selected by the ITER team as the reference material for the storage of hydrogen isotopes at the tritium plant because of its excellent getter properties, which are comparable to those of uranium. Only certain conditions, such as the presence of high partial pressure of H2 at relatively low temperatures (350°C to 400°C), or during repeated hydrogen absorption-desorption heat cycles, have been a matter of concern, because under these conditions ZrCo can lose its gettering properties. Indeed, under repetitive loading/deloading cycling, the getter hydride (ZrCoH3) tends to disproportionate, i.e., to convert into ZrH2 and ZrCo2 and thus show a significant performance degradation of its gettering properties. Disproportionation is a major drawback as it fixes almost irreversibly part of the hydrogen (hence, tritium) into a ZrH2 form. To understand the underlying mechanism leading to the disproportionation, a detailed investigation has been undertaken. Using thermal analytical methods and based on crystallographic considerations, we came to the conclusion that the driving force for such disproportionation has to be attributed to the hydrogen occupation (taking place during the hydridation) of the various crystallographic sites available to it. During the hydridation process ~4% of hydrogen goes into the less-stable 8f2 and 8e sites, where the Zr-H distance is shorter than the ZrH2 distance. Therefore, during the dehydridation process these sites are not releasing the hydrogen, but rather they are generating the very stable ZrH2, thus leading to the partial disproportionation of the material. Therefore, we may conclude that ZrCo it is not adequate for the storage of tritium and other hydrogen isotopes within the tritium plant of ITER, and consequently, we would not recommend it for such use.


A new model based on the relationship between C18OO photosynthetic discrimination and carbonic anhydrase activity estimates mesophyll conductance in C3 and C4 plants. Carbonic anhydrase (CA) activity in leaves catalyzes the 18O exchange between CO2 and water during photosynthesis. This feature has been used to estimate the mesophyll conductance to CO2 (gm) from measurements of online C18OO photosynthetic discrimination (∆18O). Based on CA assays on leaf extracts, it has been argued that CO2 in mesophyll cells should be in isotopic equilibrium with water in most C3 species as well as many C4 dicot species. However, this seems incompatible with ∆18O data that would indicate a much lower degree of equilibration, especially in C4 plants under high light intensity. This apparent contradiction is resolved here using a new model of C3 and C4 photosynthetic discrimination that includes competition between CO2 hydration and carboxylation and the contribution of respiratory fluxes. This new modeling framework is used to revisit previously published data sets on C3 and C4 species, including CA-deficient plants. We conclude that (1) newly ∆18O-derived gm values are usually close but significantly higher (typically 20% and up to 50%) than those derived assuming full equilibration and (2) despite the uncertainty associated with the respiration rate in light, or the water isotope gradient between mesophyll and bundle sheath cells, robust estimates of ∆18O-derived gm can be achieved in both C3 and C4 plants.


Boats are essentials of human interaction with aquatic net-ecosystems. Despite Egypt's long-standing reliance on its maritime sphere and an increase in the study of ancient maritime life during the past few decades, the scarcity of references and academic readings discussing the living boats of the Egyptian natural lakes provides great opportunity. Often, the living boats of today are the last vestiges of long-lost vessels of the past. Aware of these lacunae, the authors developed as complete record of the extant boats of Egypt's natural lakes as possible. The goal was to document these boats as living heritage, basically in a format of "boat curriculum vitae," to be used as direct evidence of the maturation of a new paradigm of understanding recent and—when possible—ancient maritime engagement in terms of cultural continuity, cultural relativism, and diffusion.


Summary This paper looks at the subject of corporate social responsibility and how companies use it in their marketing communication activities, a practice known as cause related marketing (CRM). Norwegian consumers were asked their feelings toward company's claims regarding their support of non-profit organizations in their advertising and on their packaging. According to the definition of Angelidis and Ibrahim (1993), corporate social responsibility is "corporate social actions whose purpose is to satisfy social needs". Corporate social responsibility requires investment and it yields measurable outcomes. It is commonly accepted that cause related marketing is a communications tool for increasing customer loyalty and building reputation. The expected change in company's image because of CRM campaigns appears to depend a great deal upon how customers perceive the reasons for company's involvement in cause related programs and the amount of help given to the cause through a company's involvement (Webb & Mohr 1998). Questions measuring skepticism in this study are adapted from Mohr et al. 1998, who suggest that consumers with a high level of skepticism will be less likely to respond positively to CRM campaigns as opposed to consumers with a low level of skepticism. This is one of the first studies to test their methodology. The authors are indebted to Ringnes Breweries in Norway for their support of the project through their mineral water brand Farris, a supporter of Red Cross Norway.


This paper examines the utilisation of maternal health care services among women belonging to migrant and non-migrant households in Uttar Pradesh. Data from the second round of India Human Development Survey (IHDS-II) conducted in 2011-12 have been used for this study. IHDS-II collected information from nationally representative sample of 42,152 households, with 13,952 women aged 15-49. This data provides straight-forward information on out-migration, remittances and maternal health care utilisation. Binary logistic regression and propensity score matching have been applied to fulfil the objectives of the paper. The results show that a vast disparity exists in the utilisation of maternal health care services among women belong to migrants and non-migrant households. The logistic regression shows that full anti-natal care is almost two times higher for women from migrant households compared with women from non-migrant households. This paper further estimates the impact of migration on maternal health care service utilisation by estimating the difference in outcome between exposed (women belongs to migrant households) and non-exposed or the matched control (women from non-migrant households) with the help of propensity score matching analysis. The results show that women of migrant households in Uttar Pradesh have 2.9 per cent higher probability of getting full antenatal care than women in non-migrant households. Globally, the emancipatory potential of migration is a fact. The role of remittances (both internal and international) on development in the sending communities is also widely accepted. Migration helps in improving the quality of life by increasing the family's expenditure on education, business, housing and other necessities.


Abstract Cancers, including cutaneous melanoma, can cluster in families. In addition to environmental etiological factors such as ultraviolet radiation, cutaneous melanoma has a strong genetic component. Genetic risks for cutaneous melanoma range from rare, high-penetrance mutations to common, low-penetrance variants. Known high-penetrance mutations account for only about half of all densely affected cutaneous melanoma families, and the causes of familial clustering in the remainder are unknown. We hypothesize that some clustering is due to the cumulative effect of a large number of variants of individually small effect. Common, low-penetrance genetic risk variants can be combined into polygenic risk scores. We used a polygenic risk score for cutaneous melanoma to compare families without known high-penetrance mutations with unrelated melanoma cases and melanoma-free controls. Family members had significantly higher mean polygenic load for cutaneous melanoma than unrelated cases or melanoma-free healthy controls (Bonferroni-corrected t-test P = 1.5 × 10−5 and 6.3 × 10−45, respectively). Whole genome sequencing of germline DNA from 51 members of 21 families with low polygenic risk for melanoma identified a CDKN2A p.G101W mutation in a single family but no other candidate high-penetrance melanoma susceptibility genes. This work provides further evidence that melanoma, like many other common complex disorders, can arise from the joint action of multiple predisposing factors, including rare high-penetrance mutations, as well as via a combination of large numbers of alleles of small effect.


Objective The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a combined technique for sentinel lymph node (SLN) localization and surgical staging of endometrial carcinoma. Methods This is a single-center prospective observational study carried out from September 2011 to December 2013 including women with a diagnosis of endometrial cancer and scheduled for surgery. A regional lymph node mapping was obtained using SPECT-CT (cervical injection of 99mTc) the day before surgery. On the day of surgery, methylene blue was injected in the cervical tissue. The SLNs were identified intraoperatively guided both by a γ-probe and visual inspection of the blue dye. A pelvic and/or para-aortic lymphadenectomy was completed. A histological analysis was performed on all the removed lymph nodes. We calculated the detection rate for SLN and its negative predictive value (NPV) for malignancy. Results Fifty patients underwent surgery. The SLN was isolated in 46 patients with detection rate of 92% (95% confidence interval, 80.77–97.78). The mean number of detected SLNs per patient was 1.54 (range, 1–5); the average number of non-SLNs removed was 17 (5–34) per patient. The most common SLN location was the external iliac lymph node chain, 33 (46.47%). Five SLNs (7.1%) were isolated in the para-aortic chain. Three SLN cases (5.9%) were positive for malignant cells; the totality of the remaining non-SLNs was negative. The NPV of the SLN was 100% (95% confidence interval, 89.79–99.79). Finally, pathologic findings were 42 endometrioid types (84%), 3 carcinosarcomas (6%), 4 clear cell (8%), and 1 serous papillary tumor (2%). Conclusions The SLN analysis may be useful to assess the presence or absence of lymph node metastases. Its high NPV may be used as criteria to avoid unnecessary lymphadenectomies in endometrial cancer patients.


The existing Internet architecture is based on the "best effort" model for delivering packets across the Internet. The current architecture delivers a packet at its best possible (best-effort) but doesn't guarantee when it will be delivered. Nowadays, the users work and play habits are changing, e.g. users expect to watch movies through the network, play 3-D games, and check their stock online, videoconference and other. The demands of the users have changed dramatically since the creation of IP, where it was mostly used for email and ftp. Another new application is the WWW that has been widely used worldwide. WWW has created a new friendly interface for the user, and stimulated further demands from the network. The existing architecture of IP is inadequate to handle new applications. Time critical applications such as video, audio and several others have created an even greater demand on the Internet. Recently, several different solutions were proposed, but most have failed to replace IP. Lately, several new protocols and architecture were proposed to enable basic quality of service provision in Internet. In this thesis we investigate the Differentiated Services (DiffServ) architecture. DiffServ is a new architecture based on the concept of aggregated differentiated treatment of services. DiffServ was proposed in 1997. Since then it has attracted a lot of attention by many researchers. The aim of this thesis is to implement a differentiated services pilot network in Linux environment and investigate the performance of various network functions, that may provide differentiated quality of service. These functions include various queuing disciplines such as pFifo, RED, and TBF. Through the pilot network we aim to investigate different ways to implement differentiated networks and present recommendations for different network traffic and conditions.


Using the standard strains of Sal. typhi 57 S and R taken from the departmental stock, the author investigated the effects of freezing-drying treatment of bacteria on the specificity of their substrates, the permeability of inhibitors, and the properties of enzyme system, and also observed the differences in enzymatic properties of two strains. The following results were obtained. 1) It was observed the increased permeability of the surface of cells treated by freezing-drying method to inhibitors; NaN3, NaF and HXA. 2) Both strains of bacteria tested could not oxydize gluconate and citrate in fresh state, whil the freezing-dried cells of Sal. typhi 57 R could that in some extent. 3) There was marked decrease of the oxydation capacity for pyruvate by the freezing-dried cells of both strains. 4) From the viewpoint of stoichiometrical studies, it could posturate the presence of different pathway for the degradation of glucose besides Embden-Myerhof's pathway, presumably Warburg-Dicken's shunt, in the fresh cells of Sal. typhi 57 R. But in the freezing-dried cells of both strains the degradation might be carried out through Embden-Myerhof's pathway.


Preliminary Statement of Results The purpose of this paper is to describe an unconformity hitherto unknown that is of more than ordinary interest because it divides rocks, previously referred to the Laramie, into two distinct formations. The investigation is not complete, but enough is known to warrant the statement that during the time interval represented by the unconformity the sedimentary rocks previously laid down within the Raton field were subjected to erosion for a considerable length of time and the Rocky mountains west of this field were elevated and eroded to a depth of several thousand feet. The positions in the geologic column of the two coal-bearing formations are not yet fully determined. Until they are studied in detail and final correlations made, the positions here assigned and the names used should be regarded as serving only the temporary purpose of giving definiteness to the description. The upper formation has . . .


Food waste and food insecurity are two challenges that coexist in many communities. To mitigate the problem, food rescue platforms match excess food with the communities in need, and leverage external volunteers to transport the food. However, the external volunteers bring significant uncertainty to the food rescue operation. We work with a large food rescue organization to predict the uncertainty and furthermore to find ways to reduce the human dispatcher's workload and the redundant notifications sent to volunteers. We make two main contributions. (1) We train a stacking model which predicts whether a rescue will be claimed with high precision and AUC. This model can help the dispatcher better plan for backup options and alleviate their uncertainty. (2) We develop a data-driven optimization algorithm to compute the optimal intervention and notification scheme. The algorithm uses a novel counterfactual data generation approach and the branch and bound framework. Our result reduces the number of notifications and interventions required in the food rescue operation. We are working with the organization to deploy our results in the near future.


Range imagers provide useful information for part inspection, robot control, or human safety applications in industrial environments. However, some applications may require more information than range data from a single viewpoint. Therefore, multiple range images must be combined to create a three-dimensional representation of the scene. Although simple in its principle, this operation is not straightforward to implement in industrial systems, since each range image is affected by noise. In this paper, we present two specific applications where merging of range images must be performed. We use the same processing pipeline for both applications : conversion from range image to point clouds, elimination of degrees of freedom between different clouds, validation of the merged results. Nevertheless, each step in this pipeline requires dedicated algorithms for our example applications. The first application is high resolution inspection of large parts, where many range images are acquired sequentially and merged in a post-processing step, allowing to create a virtual model of the part observed, typically larger than the instrument's field of view. The key requirement in this application is high accuracy for the merging of multiple point clouds. The second application discussed is human safety in a human/robot environment: range images are used to ensure that no human is present in the robot's zone of operation, and can trigger the robot's emergency shutdown when needed. In this case, range image merging is required to avoid uncertainties due to occlusions. The key requirement here is real-time operation, namely the merging operation should not introduce a significant latency in the data processing pipeline. For both application cases, the improvements brought by merging multiple range images are clearly illustrated.


Coastal pond aquaculture used solar energy to produce oxygen via phytoplankton with their cultivation can be extensive such as the culture of low value cultured animals. Pond encompasses a larger culture area for juvenile or grow-out culture which is depending on their carrying capacity of the pond. There is no feeding and the amount of food available depends on pond management which can be increased by manuring. As well as in hatcheries that require a very well environmental control, Recirculation aquaculture systems (RAS) tend to occupy a small area to culture high value species at high densities. The key parameter affecting RAS is the biological filtration system that removes metabolic and other waste products. This contains bacteria which break down the ammonia and nitrite in the water. Moreover, the food from RAS is supplied externally from cultured or formulated feed. Recirculation systems offer the advantage over pond aquaculture of being able to control the environment and water quality parameters to optimise fish health. For production of commodity food fish that are low in price, pond aquaculture is better than recirculation system due to their lower overheads and production cost as the environment acts as a natural water reconditioning system compared to money spent on water recirculation technology. In developing countries, pond will still remain dominant due to the ease of culture and the low initial investments. While, in developed countries, the growing concern about environmentally friendly discharges, the high labour costs and the need for controlling niche markets will result in the adoption of recirculation technology and the production of high value species at high densities. In comparison to pond culture, RAS offered more control and independent from the environment influence.


DNA replication transforms cohesin rings dynamically associated with chromatin into the cohesive form to establish sister-chromatid cohesion. Here, we show that, in human cells, cohesin loading onto chromosomes during early S phase requires the replicative helicase MCM2–7 and the kinase DDK. Cohesin and its loader SCC2/4 (NIPBL/MAU2 in humans) associate with DDK and phosphorylated MCM2–7. This binding does not require MCM2–7 activation by CDC45 and GINS, but its persistence on activated MCM2–7 requires fork-stabilizing replisome components. Inactivation of these replisome components impairs cohesin loading and causes interphase cohesion defects. Interfering with Okazaki fragment processing or nucleosome assembly does not impact cohesion. Therefore, MCM2–7-coupled cohesin loading promotes cohesion establishment, which occurs without Okazaki fragment maturation. We propose that the cohesin–loader complex bound to MCM2–7 is mobilized upon helicase activation, transiently held by the replisome, and deposited behind the replication fork to encircle sister chromatids and establish cohesion.


Abstract Evolutionary radiations have been well documented in plants and insects, and natural selection may often underly these radiations. If radiations are adaptive, the diversity of species could be due to ecological speciation in these lineages. Agromyzid flies exhibit patterns of repeated host‐associated radiations. We investigated whether host‐associated population divergence and evidence of divergent selection exist in the leaf miner Phytomyza glabricola on its sympatric host plants, the holly species, Ilex coriacea and I. glabra. Using AFLPs and nuclear sequence data, we found substantial genetic divergence between host‐associated populations of these flies throughout their geographic range. Genome scans using the AFLP data identified 13 loci under divergent selection, consistent with processes of ecological speciation. EF‐1α data suggest that I. glabra is the original host of P. glabricola and that I. coriacea is the novel host, but the AFLP data are ambiguous with regard to directionality of the host shift.


The unique properties of C(60)-bearing artificial lipids with three C(16) (lipid 1), C(14) (lipid 2), or C(12) (lipid 3) alkyl chains have been characterized by a variety of techniques, including (13)C NMR, UV/Vis, and FT-IR spectroscopies, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), X-ray diffraction, and electrochemistry. The (13)C NMR and UV/Vis spectra show that the lipids 1-3 have a closed aziridine structure at a 6/6-ring junction of C(60). The DSC data reveal that cast films of 1 exhibit two endothermic peaks at temperature ranges of 35-40 degrees C (main transition) and 47-49 degrees C (subtransition) in air, water, and 0.5 M aqueous tetraethylammonium chloride solution, while cast films of 2 and 3 each display one endothermic peak at 50-57 degrees C. The results of temperature-dependent FT-IR and UV/Vis studies of cast films of 1-3, together with the above data, reveal that the main peak in the DSC thermogram of a film of 1 can be attributed to a typical phase transition as seen in lipid bilayer membranes, while the sub-endothermic peak seen with 1 and the peaks for 2 and 3 stem from a change in the orientation of the C(60) moieties. X-ray diffraction patterns of each of the cast films of 1-3 show a diffraction peak corresponding to the (001) plane, suggesting the formation of molecular bilayer membrane structures. Cyclic voltammograms and Osteryoung square-wave voltammograms obtained from cast films of 1-3 on basal plane pyrolytic graphite (BPG) electrodes show strong temperature dependences. Finally, the thermodynamics of the binding of nine different alkylammonium ions and two alkylphosphonium ions to the electrogenerated radical monoanions and dianions of 1-3 cast on electrodes is described.


A formula is given for the neighbour distribution function in liquids and dense gases, assuming that each atom is vibrating in the field of its neighbours when in their equilibrium positions. It is shown that a parabolic potential leads to a simple result. Applying this to potassium, we find a structure which bears some resemblance to a body-centred cubic. Finally we show how interatomic fields may be derived from the distribution function of a single shell of neighbours, when this has been determined from experiment.


Urban furniture is defined as a large set of equipments and is known so because it is installed in cities, streets, and generally in open spaces and has public use. Urban furniture includes more than a hundred labels such as bus stations, urban signs, hygienic services, playgrounds for children, park, body-building urban equipments, tablets and bill boards, trashbins, benches, overpasses, etc. Facilities and Urban equipments or urban furniture, and open spaces are the terms used for such facilities and welfare equipments. The most common term is "Urban Furniture" that can best express all the aspects, even the implicit meanings, though the range of meaning and application of this word is quite extensive. Urban furniture is a collection of movable or semimovable equipments that can be decorative or functional, which are permanently or temporarily available to the city dwellers in the public open spaces of the cities by the official permission of the authorities.1 Observing the standards, identity, beauty, needs of the users, location, relation between urban furniture elements, Advertisements are important factors that should be accounted for in the design of urban furniture. On the whole, routes can be considered as combinatory elements. In other words, they can facilitate the link between man and space in the society. That's why, the urban furniture style elements are narrowly involved in routes. The patterns in which the research papers are to go into details can be posited in two distinctive domains of vehicle routes and sidewalks city vehicle routes.


Rhodium complexes modified by simple trialkylphosphines can be used to carry out homogeneous hydroformylation in supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2). The catalyst derived from PEt3 is more active and slightly more selective for the linear products in scCO2 than in toluene, and under the same reaction conditions [100°C, 40 bar of CO/H2
(1∶1)] P(OPri)3 is also an effective ligand giving good catalyst solubility and activity. Other ligands such as PPh3, POct3, PCy3, and P(4-C6H4But)3 are less effective because of the low solubility of their rhodium complexes in scCO2. P(4-C6H4SiMe3)nPh3−n (n = 3 or 1) and P(OPh)3 impart activity despite their complexes only being poorly soluble in scCO2. Under subcritical conditions, using PEt3 as the ligand, C7-alcohols from hydrogenation of the first formed aldehydes are the main products whilst above a total pressure of 200 bar, where the solution remains supercritical (monophasic) throughout the reaction, aldehydes are obtained with 97% selectivity. High pressure IR studies in scCO2 using PEt3 as the ligand are reported.


Abstract. A phenomenon of frequent noontime SO2 concentration peaks was discovered in a detailed analysis of the SO2 concentrations in the North China Plain (NCP). The possible causes and their contributions are analyzed. The impacts of such a phenomenon on the sulphur cycle were studied and the implications of the phenomenon for atmospheric chemistry, cloud physics, and climate were discussed. Different from the more common SO2 diurnal patterns with high nighttime concentrations, NCP witnessed high frequencies of noontime SO2 peaks, with an occurrence frequency of 50 to 72% at four stations. Down mixing of elevated pollution layers, plume transport processes, mountain-valley winds, and fog/high RH haze events were the possible causes. The contribution of each process varies from day to day and from station to station, however, none of those four processes can be neglected. SO2 peaks occurring during noontime instead of nighttime will lead to a 13 to 35% increase in sulphur dry deposition, a 9 to 23% increase in gas phase oxidation, and an 8 to 33% increase in aqueous phase conversions, which will increase the hygroscopicity and the light scattering of aerosols, thus having important impacts on atmospheric chemistry, cloud physics, and climate.


Abstract The reproductive cycles of turtles are linked to environmental factors, such as photoperiod and temperature. Currently, the reproductive physiology of diamondback terrapins (Malaclemys terrapin) is poorly understood, especially in Gulf of Mexico. The reproductive cycles of terrapins are thought to follow typical seasonal patterns. However, latitudinal variations in temperature regimens lead to longer-lasting warm periods, which can facilitate extended reproductive periods in some turtle species. This suggests that terrapins may show a similar change in the southern parts of their range. To elucidate aspects of the terrapin reproductive cycle, we sampled during the known reproductive season of a southern population of terrapins (May–July), as well as during the winter in late December and early January. We used enzymelinked immunosorbent assays to quantify concentrations of the plasma sex hormones estradiol and testosterone, and the egg yolk protein precursor vitellogenin. Additionally, we used radiography and ultrasonography to monitor the ovarian status and egg development in females. Follicles showed no significant difference in average diameter across sampling periods with preovulatory class follicles existing in both summer and winter. Eggs were only detected from May to July, with radiographic data showing second clutches in 4 individuals. Testosterone and estradiol showed elevated concentrations throughout the nesting season, coinciding with multiple clutches of eggs, before both showed a significant decrease in winter. Vitellogenin showed peak concentrations in June with other months showing lower but detectable concentrations. Our results suggest that in southwestern Florida, terrapins may have extended reproductive potential and continuous vitellogenic cycles given the presence of preovulatory follicles and high quantities of vitellogenin found in summer and winter. However, true continuous reproduction was not detected in this study.


Approximative formulas for the movement of a continuously growing body of oil on the ground-water table are presented and illustrated. The approximaions are many, but the formulas are believed to produce realistic results for a major flow of crude oil from a leaking pipeline. The main objective is a simple hydraulic flow description, where also capillary forces at the rim are considered.


This study provides dissolved and particulate 230Th and 232Th results as well as particulate 234Th data collected during expeditions to the central Arctic Ocean (GEOTRACES, an international project to identify processes and quantify fluxes that control the distributions of trace elements; sections GN04 and GIPY11). Constructing a time series of dissolved 230Th from 1991 to 2015 enables the identification of processes that control the temporal development of 230Th distributions in the Amundsen Basin. After 2007, 230Th concentrations decreased significantly over the entire water column, particularly between 300 and 1500 m. This decrease is accompanied by a circulation change, evidenced by a concomitant increase in salinity. A potentially increased inflow of water of Atlantic origin with low dissolved 230Th concentrations leads to the observed depletion in dissolved 230Th in the central Arctic. Because atmospherically derived tracers (chlorofluorocarbon (CFC), sulfur hexafluoride (SF6)) do not reveal an increase in ventilation rate, it is suggested that these interior waters have undergone enhanced scavenging of Th during transit from Fram Strait and the Barents Sea to the central Amundsen Basin. The 230Th depletion propagates downward in the water column by settling particles and reversible scavenging.


The TriRhenaTech alliance presents the accepted papers of the 'Upper-Rhine Artificial Intelligence Symposium' held on October 27th 2021 in Kaiserslautern, Germany. Topics of the conference are applications of Artificial Intellgence in life sciences, intelligent systems, industry 4.0, mobility and others. The TriRhenaTech alliance is a network of universities in the Upper-Rhine Trinational Metropolitan Region comprising of the German universities of applied sciences in Furtwangen, Kaiserslautern, Karlsruhe, Offenburg and Trier, the Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University Loerrach, the French university network Alsace Tech (comprised of 14 'grandes \'ecoles' in the fields of engineering, architecture and management) and the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland. The alliance's common goal is to reinforce the transfer of knowledge, research, and technology, as well as the cross-border mobility of students.


Introduction: In 2001, the year before citizenship education became a statutory subject in England there were disturbances and violence 'involving large numbers of people from different cultural backgrounds' (The Cantle Report, 2001). That same year the attacks on the Twin Towers rocked the world and in 2005 so-called 'home-grown' extremists bombed London killing 52 people.
Reports were commissioned to explore the reasons behind these events and to suggest recommended ways forward. Concerns were raised about intuitional racism, internal security, a lack of a sense of Britishness and extremism. All prompted an education response. From 2002 teachers had to cope with more and more education initiatives and directives which addressed key issues and concerns, with citizenship education in particular being seen as playing a key role in bringing about the necessary societal change.
The aims of this research are to show how teachers, student teachers and tutors say they are responding to the many top-down initiatives related to citizenship education, and reveal the mechanisms that impact on the ways in which educators say they are responding to the top-down initiatives related to citizenship education.
Methodology: The research uses a qualitative research design which is underpinned by critical realism. Critical realism helped to provide the necessary methodological framework to reveal the generative mechanisms which might be working to influence educators' responses (tendencies) to top-down initiatives; and how and why these tendencies occur in some settings but not others. The empirical research has been generated over a ten year period and I employed a variety of data collection tools including questionnaires; semi-structured interview; focus group and participant observation.
Findings: The number of top-down initiatives that have been introduced by the government has seen some very different responses from educators. Some educators are able to interlace different agendas and weave varied themes together in creative ways as a means of addressing different demands. For others the initiatives seem to be source of pressure which sets up a tendency to interpret the initiatives as something more, something additional that has to be managed, particularly in the case where educators are having to address different priorities such as raising or maintaining results. This in turn helps to create further sets of tendencies and tensions with some educators employing teaching and learning processes which are incompatible with citizenship education.
Conclusion: While there are a number of mechanisms which seem to be particularly significant to tendency generation including school context and appropriate training, highly significant mechanisms for generating educators' responses are personal commitment and motivation, and the ability to think creatively. It is possible that, through appropriate training, educators can acquire skills in creative and critical thinking. However the passion and motivation to teach citizenship education is much harder to impart. The majority of educators who were committed to citizenship, and in particular those committed to teaching for diversity and dialogue, had had some kind of personal experience which had not only provoked commitment but also provided a personal resource for educators to draw on in the classroom, which in turn helped to increase educators' confidence to address potentially highly controversial issues. The potential for innovative educator training to capture and transmit the feelings that personal experience can inspire is thus an area that would benefit from further research.


Cancer may be regarded as genetic disease because of presence of gene mutation and/or anomalies as consequence of exposure to mutagens, carcinogens, errors of DNA replication or damaged DNA repair.
Actually WHO indicates the cytogenetic analysis as essential in the initial evaluation of haematological neoplasms. Repeated analyses are suggested for monitoring the desease evolution and the response to therapy. FISH may be usefull to detect cryptic anomalies not detected by routine techniques.
Our aim was to introduce FISH analyses both at the diagnosis and in the reassessment of cases previously misdiagnosed, then we performed standard analyses in QFQ banding, at the beginning and at different stages of the disease, as well as FISH experiments with various probes: single locus, subtelomeric, whole chromosome painting, chromosome enumeration probes/alphoid sequencies and BAC/PAC probes.
In the last three years 1055 samples have been analyzed by standard techniques and 433 by FISH. Consultation of database of 2367 cases by the year 2000 until now highlighted a noteworthy increase in requests of all cytogenetics analyses, mainly for lymphoid pathologies thirteen time higher in the last year.
Our experience suggest that evolution from single anomaly to complex kariotypes is followed by disease progression, which may be controlled by different therapies, so a constant cytogenetic monitoring is required, using both standard and molecular cytogenetic methods.


The main focus of this thesis is to explore the dynamic shock compaction of multiple component mixtures, specifically Al-MnO2-Epoxy. This will be facilitated by initially simulating the bulk dynamic response in a mesoscale configuration and then comparing these results to experimental data. The mesoscale simulations were performed in the shock code CTH. The first section will discuss the matching of experimental data to computational results. With the goal of determining the bulk shock Hugoniot, a onedimensional flyer plate configuration was created while using a grain-geometry imported from an scanning electron microscope (SEM) micrograph of the mixture. Both the aluminum and manganese dioxide were assigned a strain dependent material strength: AluminumJohnson Cook and MnO2Johnson Ceramic II; this enabled the multiscale investigation down to the nanometer particle sizes as discussed in the second section. The second section will discuss what effect changing the size of the aluminum particles and the alumina coating has on the formation of local hot spots. In addition the presence of voids and their effect on the hot spot formation was also investigated. A representative volume was created where aluminum particle diameters ranged from millimeter to nanometer; also, in the nano-sized setup, the alumina coating was varied from 0 to 3 nanometers. It was noticed that changing the aluminum grain size had a slight effect on the hot spot formation. Changing the alumina coating had an apparently random effect on the maximum temperature reached as no trend is clear. Also, it was found that inserting randomly placed voids into the epoxy binder created a large spike in initial temperature.


In this paper we consider the problem of finding a decomposed solution to a Markov model where the action rates may depend on the global state space. To do this we consider regular cycles in the underlying state space and show that a semi-product form solution exists when the functions describing the action rates have specific forms. The approach is illustrated with a simple queueing example although it clearly extends to more general cases. The results for semi-product form solutions are not entirely new, however the method by which they are derived is both novel and intuitive.


Verb serialization is generally defined as a linguistic device by means of which two or more verbs or verb phrases are juxtaposed without any linker. The output of verb serialization is called "serial verb construction", henceforth SVC. This paper aims to (1) examine the characteristics of events expressed by SVCs, (2) analyze the relationships between serial verbs, and (3) investigate constraints on the serializability of verbs. This paper limits its scope to basic nongrammaticalized SVCs in Thai, which consist of two verb phrases only. It is argued that (i) each SVC expresses a single whole, complex event, and (ii) verbs do not serialize freely. This paper accounts for the serializability of verbs by analyzing semantic relationships between verbs in SVCs.


With the proliferation of mobile fixed-power devices, energy consumption emerged as a vibrant research and development subject area in networking. Mobile devices are designed with several hard constraints such as low cost and small geometries, as well as, low heat dissipation, and operation using fixed power sources. Manufacturers have been adding an ever increasing set of features to small mobile devices, which are no longer binary-use gadgets, but fully-fledged computers. With respect to power management, several mechanisms have been introduced; but, by and large, gains in power consumption at the hardware level have been essentially traded for extended functionality. All in all, the overall operational time has not increased. For example, early GSM cellular phones could only allow for less than an hour of talk time in a single battery charge. By the late 1990s, top models, introduced through better engineering and an evolutionary development approach, featured talk times increased by a factor of 3-5. This level of performance has remained the same over the last decade, although it is well below user expectations. This article reviews the evolution from simple cell phones toward the feature-rich mobile networked devices we have come to expect from manufacturers, and explains the factors that have led to stagnation in operational time. We then turn our attention to the multiaccess nature of modern mobile devices and the respective implications for power management. We find that the current host-centric mobile networking paradigm, based on end-to-end always on connectivity, leads to energy-inefficient operation. Finally, this article introduces information-centric networking and outlines open research issues in the design of energy-efficient future Internet architectures.


BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: Improving materials properties is one of the biggest scientific issues of all the times. When it becomes impossible to further manipulate the raw material, one feasible way to push its properties beyond the theoretical limits is to modify the properties of the surface. That is where advanced surface coatings come in. From a manufacturing point of view, tools for machining are of particular interest. These tools are usually made of hard steels and cemented carbide (WC-Co). For specialized applications, such as aluminium machining, diamond or polycrystalline cubic boron nitride are also used. The main problem with steel, is that it exhibits a relatively low hardness (below 10 GPa) which strongly decreases upon annealing above about 600 K. Thus, the majority of modern tools are nowadays coated with hard coatings, in order to: (i) increase the hardness, (ii) decrease the coefficient of friction, and (iii) protect the tools against oxidation. A similar approach has been recently used to obtain a longer duration of the dies for aluminium die-casting. Multi-component and nanostructured materials represent a promising class of protective hard coatings due to their enhanced mechanical and thermal oxidation properties. METHODS: Three different thin hard nitrogen-rich coatings were mechanically, microstructurally, and thermally characterized: (i) a 2.5 micron-thick nano-layered CrN-NbN, (ii) a 11.7 micron-thick monolayer TiAlN, and (iii) a 2.92 micron-thick multilayer AlTiCrxNy. The main feature of the CrN-NbN coating is the fabrication by the alternate deposition of 4 nm thick-nanolayer of NewChrome (new type of CrN, with strong adhesion and low coating temperature). All the three coatings can reach values of hardness and elastic modulus exceeding 20 and 250 GPa, respectively. Their main applications include stainless steel drawing, plastic materials forming and extrusion, and aluminum alloys die-casting. The here studied TiAlN (SBN, super booster nitride) is one of the latest evolution of TiAlN coatings for cutting applications, where maximum resistance to wear and oxidation are required. The AlTiCrxNy combines the very high wear resistance of the Cr-coatings with peculiarities of the Al-containing coatings, such as high thermal stability and high-temperature hardness. All the coatings were deposited on a S600 tool steel. The coatings were subjected to two different thermal cycling tests: (i) 100 thermal cycles consisting of 60 s dwelling time, respectively at the high- (573 to 1173 K) and at the room-temperature, and (ii) 100 thermal cycles consisting of 115 s dwelling time, at same temperatures of the first test, followed by 5 s dwelling at room-temperature. The temperature induced hardness and elastic modulus coating variations were measured by nanoindentation. RESULTS: During thermal cycling, the TiAlN monolayer coating and the AlTiCrxNy multilayer coating showed a high oxidation resistance even at high temperature, while the CrN-NbN nano-layer coating undergoes a oxidation phenomena, for temperatures above 873 K. CONCLUSIONS: The investigated coatings showed a sufficient-to-optimal thermal response either in terms of mechanical stability, such hardness and elastic modulus, and in terms of oxidation degradation.


OBJECTIVE
To determine to what extent the reduced risk in preterm newborns of intracranial hemorrhage attributed to antenatal corticosteroids (ANCS) reflects reductions in the incidence of respiratory distress and its correlates.

METHODS
In a sample of 239 very low birth weight newborns recruited for a clinical trial of phenobarbital prophylaxis of subependymal/intraventricular hemorrhage, we explored the relationship between ANCS, the occurrence of germinal matrix hemorrhage (GMH) that first became evident after the 12th postnatal hour, and putative intervening variables such as acidosis, elevated peak inspiratory pressure, pneumothorax-pulmonary interstitial emphysema, and elevated continuous positive airway pressure.

RESULTS
In multivariate models adjusting for confounders, newborns exposed to ANCS were at approximately one third the risk of GMH experienced by newborns not exposed to a full course of ANCS. The additions of measures and correlates of respiratory distress severity to these models did not change the GMH risk associated with ANCS.

CONCLUSION
The GMH-protective effect of ANCS does not appear to be a consequence of enhanced pulmonary maturation.


Understanding the circumstances under which arboviruses emerge is critical for the development of targeted control and prevention strategies. This is highlighted by the emergence of chikungunya and Zika viruses in the New World. However, to comprehensively understand the ways in which viruses emerge and persist, factors influencing reductions in virus activity must also be understood. Western equine encephalitis virus (WEEV), which declined during the late 20th century in apparent enzootic circulation as well as equine and human disease incidence, provides a unique case study on how reductions in virus activity can be understood by studying evolutionary trends and mechanisms. Previously, we showed using phylogenetics that during this period of decline, six amino acid residues appeared to be positively selected. To assess more directly the effect of these mutations, we utilized reverse genetics and competition fitness assays in the enzootic host and vector (house sparrows and Culex tarsalis mosquitoes). We observed that the mutations contemporary with reductions in WEEV circulation and disease that were non-conserved with respect to amino acid properties had a positive effect on enzootic fitness. We also assessed the effects of these mutations on virulence in the Syrian-Golden hamster model in relation to a general trend of increased virulence in older isolates. However, no change effect on virulence was observed based on these mutations. Thus, while WEEV apparently underwent positive selection for infection of enzootic hosts, residues associated with mammalian virulence were likely eliminated from the population by genetic drift or negative selection. These findings suggest that ecologic factors rather than fitness for natural transmission likely caused decreased levels of enzootic WEEV circulation during the late 20th century.


Economic research is currently focusing on the role of social capital in the development process and particularly on the role of social capital and social networks in migration flows in a social development perspective.
The main questions our research is trying to address are as follows: which are the major constraints in migration processes affecting the integration process of migrants? Do social capital or social networks play a role? Which is the integration model developed at European level?
In order to address these questions we are focusing on a specific case study: the Romanian migration process in Italy and particularly in the area of Rome.


There exists extensive literature in cognitive science and psychology claiming the presence of indicators of criticality in several cognitive phenomena. However, the absence of quantitative models to understand how criticality produces the observed behavior makes it impossible to derive testable predictions. In particular, in active perception, the characterization of visual processes is frequently based only on the appearance of patterns in the analysis of experimental data without exploring their causes. Assuming a more formal viewpoint, we propose that statistical mechanics would be a general framework to connect active perception with a complex systems perspective. We show that this approach provides methods and experimental tools to measure the "thermodynamic properties" of perceptual processes in a simple visual task by identifying when a system is operating in a critical regime. Our model characterizes different perceptive modes to solve a visual illusion through thermodynamic regimes. Finally, we ...


A sample of 263 junior and senior undergraduates (101 males, 162 females) participated in a study to determine relationships between their agreement/disagreement about a university-wide writing competency graduation requirement and (1) level of writing capability as measured by the Texas Higher Education Assessment (THEA) test, (2) attitudes toward writing in college classes, (3) challenges encountered in writing, and (4) self-regulatory strategies to resolve writing challenges. Students with "high" THEA writing scores approved of the writing graduation requirement, desired more writing in college classes, and sought help in resolving writing dilemmas. Students with "low and average" THEA writing scores disagreed with the graduation policy, desired less writing in classes, and used negative practices to resolve writing challenges. Survey instrument and suggestions for practitioners are included. ********** Personnel in post-secondary institutions have a vested interest in knowing and understanding how students are doing--their level of satisfaction with their overall university experiences (Gillis, 1988; Murrell, & Glover, 1996), how they feel about specific university services (Paradise, & Papa-Lewis, 1986; Webb, & Bloom, 1981), and whether or not they are succeeding in courses. Student feedback can be gathered on a specific program or system-wide basis and can offer university administrators and faculty significant insights about many aspects of the university. Most importantly, faculty can gain important information about class requirements and their instructional methods from the student' viewpoints. The present study was designed to obtain information on undergraduates' perceptions about the junior level essay--a longstanding locally developed, holistically scored writing competency examination required for graduation. The focus of the study was of interest because the only feedback university officials consistently received was summarized results of Junior Level Essay administrations three times per year. During the more than fifty years that the university has maintained the writing requirement for graduation, more students than faculty have questioned its necessity. However, no known documented evidence exists about obtaining student feedback on this requirement. Furthermore, there were no known attempts to obtain information about the educational characteristics of students with differential writing scores on the THEA or the Junior Level Essay. The writing competency graduation requirement at the regional university began in 1950 when support for writing competency in colleges and universities was virtually unknown or was a guarded secret. However, when the nationwide push for basic skills assessment gained momentum in the early 1990's, the writing competency exam at the regional university was in vogue. Generalized support for writing provoked by the nationwide movement on basic skills assessment strengthened the university's stance on the value placed on writing. Academia has historically considered writing to be the most highly developed, abstract, and complex language mode (Gambell, 1991). The importance of writing in a college setting, however, is best reflected in the belief that writing ability is used to communicate thoughts, including what is learned and is a critical element of a college education. Gambell (1991) adds that college students are expected to possess the ability to communicate their thoughts in writing because, "at the undergraduate level writing is the dominant, if not exclusive, language mode through which learning is evaluated", p. 421. Writing may enjoy generalized support on college campuses because students use this skill in all aspects of the university experience such as, taking notes, developing essays, and responding to examinations--each unequivocally related to college success. While the study was not considered an in-depth formative or summative self-evaluation of undergraduates' writing experiences, it was believed that feedback from students in the present study could not be overlooked. …


INTRODUCTION Korea has been a very attractive market for foreign banks because of their excellent earnings records in the past and the bright. outlook of the Korean financial market. It has been reported that net earnings of foreign banks operating in Korea in the past years have been consistently increased (The Bank of Korea, 1991). The results of this paper should be of special interest to the banking industry of the U.S. because the U.S. banks have dominated both in number and in their share. As shown in Table 1 (omitted), about 37 percent of the foreign banks currently operating in Korea are American banks. A HISTORY OF FOREIGN BANKS IN KOREA In 1962, the Korean government launched the first of its ambitious Five Year Economic Development Plans. As an under-developed country in the early 1960s, Korea was not able to obtain internally the required resources for implementing the plan. To finance the plan, business and government used commercial loans from financial institutions in industrialized countries, especially those from the U.S.. However, there was some concern that the domestic banking system was not strong enough to compete with foreign banks. The domestic banking system in operation at this time was established in 1950 with the Bank of Korea Act and the General Banking Act, and was not ready to compete with well-developed foreign banks. Korea, however, decided to admit foreign banks because it believed that, in the long-run, the presence of foreign banks would be beneficial to the economic development of the country. Government officials also believed that for Korean banks to do business in other countries, it was necessary to allow foreign banks to operate in Korea. The Chase Manhattan Bank opened a branch in July, 1967 as the first foreign bank in Korea. During 1967, four other banks opened branches: Citibank, Bank of America, The Bank of Tokyo, and Mitsubishi Bank. It comes as no surprise that these pioneers were American and Japanese banks, because trade with the U.S. and Japan accounted for over 60 percent of the import/export market at that time. Until 1976 only 11 foreign banks were operating in Korea. During 1977 and 1978, 19 more foreign banks were added. It is due to a more aggressive government policy aimed at greater participation in the international financial market, coupled with a rapid expansion of the Korean economy.' Since then, the number increased steadily, and reached 68 branches and 19 offices on June 1992. Twenty five branches and 3 offices of American banks are currently operating, followed by Japan with 14 branches and 9 offices (see Table 1). More than half of the branches and offices of the foreign banks are from the U.S; and Japan. REGULATIONS ON FOREIGN BANKS Foreign banks in Korea have had a mixed history of restriction and preferential treatment. In the 1960s and early 1970s, many privileges were granted to foreign banks to entice them to open branches in Korea, which was at that time a risky and developing country. Some profits were guaranteed by the government. Yet, many restrictions were imposed on their operations because the government was concerned that they might take over the domestic financial market. In the 1980s, many changes took place in the Korean economy as well as in its banking systems. Many regulations on existing foreign banks were changed. As the Korean government was liberalizing its banking systems, it took some protective measures that went against the foreign banks. In 1982, a mandated reduction became effective that lowered from 15% to 10% the percentage of loans to local borrowers that foreign banks could hold as security in the form of compensating balances. Now the banks had to pay interest on what had formerly been interest-free balances. Furthermore, new limits have been placed on foreign bank participation in Korean foreign exchange markets, domestic bond markets, and commissions earned on letters of credit. …


Dr E N WARDLE (Newcastle upon Tyne NE3 3DE) writes: It was interesting that you were able to divulge figures for medical unemployment in European Community countries (7 December, p 1665) while either strict secrecy or total ignorance cloaks the figure from Britain. However the figure is probably 1000UK trained doctors at any one time. In the age of the computer, which is used for almost everything else within medicine, trivial or otherwise, it should surely be possible for unemployed doctors to register themselves, their availability, and their preferences. Since the British Postgraduate Medical Federation will not take on the role of employment arbiter, resolution of each individual problem is left to "private endeavour." Regional health authorities vary considerably in the alacrity with which they predict the need for a locum, and for some the process of appointment is as lengthy and rigorous as for a permanent position. Hence gaps of 4-6 weeks can appear in one's employment record, though in retrospect one finds that one was free at a time when a vacancy needed to be filled urgently in some other part of the country. Mid-Glamorgan has the foresight to run a locum bureau; why do other health authorities not follow its lead?


Lean-premixed combustion has the advantage of low emissions for modern gas turbines, but it is susceptible to thermoacoustic instabilities, which can result in large amplitude pressure oscillations in the combustion chamber. The thermoacoustic limit cycle is generated by the unsteady heat release dynamics coupled to the combustor acoustics. In this dissertation, we focused on reduced-order modeling of the dynamics of a laminar premixed flame. From first principles of combustion dynamics, a physically-based, reduced-order, nonlinear model was developed based on the proper orthogonal decomposition technique and generalized Galerkin method. In addition, the describing function for the flame was measured experimentally and used to identify an empirical nonlinear flame model. Furthermore, a linear acoustic model was developed and identified for the Rijke tube experiment. Closed-loop thermoacoustic modeling using the first principles flame model coupled to the linear acoustics successfully reproduced the linear instability and predicted the thermoacoustic limit cycle amplitude. With the measured experimental flame data and the modeled linear acoustics, the describing function technique was applied for limit cycle analysis. The thermoacoustic limit cycle amplitude was predicted with reasonable accuracy, and the closed-loop model also predicted the performance for a phase shift controller. Some problems found in the predictions for high heat release cases were documented.


Bringing scholars and policymakers to the frontiers of research and addressing the critical issues of the day, the book presents original important new theoretical and empirical results. The distinguished contributors include: P. Agrel, K. Alexander, J. Cremer, X. Dassiou, G. Deltas, F. Etro, L. Filistrucchi, P. Fotis, M. Gilli, J. Harrington Jr, T. Huertas, M. Ivaldi, B. Jullien, V. Marques, M. Peitz, Y. Spiegel, E. Tarrantino and G. Wood.


We report an ab initio molecular dynamics simulation study of the solvation and dynamics of an excess electron in liquid acetonitrile (ACN). Four families of states are observed: a diffusely solvated state and three ACN core-localized states with monomer core, quasi-dimer (π*-Rydberg mode) core, and dual-core/dimer core (a coupled dual-core). These core localized states cannot be simply described as the corresponding anions because only a part of the excess electron resides in the core molecule(s). The quasi-dimer core state actually is a mixture that features cooperative excess electron capture by the π* and Rydberg orbitals of two ACNs. Well-defined dimer anion and solvated electron cavity were not observed in the 5-10 ps simulations, which may be attributed to slow dynamics of the formation of the dimer anion and difficulty of the formation of a cavity in such a fluxional medium. All of the above observed states have near-IR absorptions and thus can be regarded as the solvated electron states but with different structures, which can interpret the experimentally observed IR band. These states undergo continuous conversions via a combination of long-lasting breathing oscillation and core switching, characterized by highly cooperative oscillations of the electron cloud volume and vertical detachment energy. The quasi-dimer core and diffusely solvated states dominate the time evolution, with the monomer core and dual-core/dimer core states occurring occasionally during the breathing and core switching processes, respectively. All these oscillations and core switchings are governed by a combination of the electron-impacted bending vibration of the core ACN molecule(s) and thermal fluctuations.


Although discriminative approaches like the support vector machine or logistic regression have had great success in many pattern recognition application, they have only achieved limited success in speech recognition. Two of the difficulties often encountered include 1) speech signals typically have variable lengths, and 2) speech recognition is a sequence labeling problem, where each spoken utterance corresponds to a sequence of words or phones.In this thesis, we present a framework for automatic speech recognition using logistic regression. We solve the difficulty of variable length speech signals by including a mapping in the logistic regression framework that transforms each speech signal into a fixed-dimensional vector. The mapping is defined either explicitly with a set of hidden Markov models (HMMs) for the use in penalized logistic regression (PLR), or implicitly through a sequence kernel to be used with kernel logistic regression (KLR). Unlike previous work that has used HMMs in combination with a discriminative classification approach, we jointly optimize the logistic regression parameters and the HMM parameters using a penalized likelihood criterion. Experiments show that joint optimization improves the recognition accuracy significantly. The sequence kernel we present is motivated by the dynamic time warping (DTW) distance between two feature vector sequences. Instead of considering only the optimal alignment path, we sum up the contributions from all alignment paths. Preliminary experiments with the sequence kernel show promising results.A two-step approach is used for handling the sequence labeling problem. In the first step, a set of HMMs is used to generate an N-best list of sentence hypotheses for a spoken utterance. In the second step, these sentence hypotheses are rescored using logistic regression on the segments in the N-best list. A garbage class is introduced in the logistic regression framework in order to get reliable probability estimates for the segments in the N-best lists. We present results on both a connected digit recognition task and a continuous phone recognition task.


This section of the comprehensive account of the action research and pedagogical reform of the CASA-Sevilla study-abroad programme concerns the introduction of community-engaged learning as a way to complement classroom instruction. Some experiential elements were already part of the programme's previous design (homestays, cultural visits), but they needed to be structured into the curriculum, with clear learning goals and evaluation criteria. In addition, to palliate the obstacles students experienced when trying to establish connections with the local society, service-learning in community organisations was introduced into the core 'Beyond Stereotypes' course. This section describes the strategies that were designed to encourage active learning in the homestays, the cultural visits and the participation in community organisations, and the role these elements play in the new programme.


Constructability is generally reducing the problems of construction by incorporating the
construction knowledge into the design of a construction project. The Malaysian
construction industry is attempting to promote and use Industrialized Building systems
(IBS) for better construction practice with more effectiveness and efficiency, but in
terms of constructability and research into the application of constructability concepts
for IBS little work has been done. In fact the Malaysian construction industry is still not
applying the concepts of constructability in totality and there is lack of constructability
research in Malaysia. In this research the application status of constructability concepts
which have been previously defined for Malaysia are examined and assessed within the
Malaysian IBS industry. The ease of constructability application of IBS and
conventional building methods are investigated and finally the concepts that are not
being applied up to their potential level in IBS construction and resemble possible problems in the process of application are identified. A survey is used to obtain the
essential data needed for the research from the active IBS industry participants of
Malaysia. It was found that the IBS contractors are applying constructability more than
the designers and suppliers and also the early constructability concepts gained a higher
application score than other concepts. Using information technology and the innovative
concepts of the field operation phase were the most difficult concepts to apply and
generally the application of constructability concepts in IBS construction is easier
compared to the conventional building systems according to the IBS industry
participants.


Based on the convex-concave relaxation procedure (CCRP), the (extended) path following algorithms were recently proposed to approximately solve the equal-sized graph matching problem, and exhibited a state-of-the-art performance (Zaslavskiy et al., 2009; Liu et al., 2012). However, they cannot be used for subgraph matching since either their convex or concave relaxation becomes no longer applicable. In this paper we extend the CCRP to tackle subgraph matching, by proposing a convex as well as a concave relaxation of the problem. Since in the context of CCRP, the convex relaxation can be viewed as an initialization of a concave programming, we introduce two other initializations for comparison. Meanwhile, the graduated assignment algorithm is also introduced in the experimental comparisons, which witness the validity of the proposed algorithm.


We developed a compact plasma-based focusing optic that, in one step, increases the peak intensity of ultrahigh-intensity lasers without modifying the laser system itself. By using a plasma-based focusing optic with extremely small f-number (f/0.4), we have experimentally demonstrated a fivefold reduction of the focal spot size (from 4.4 to 0.9 microm), thus producing an at least eightfold enhancement of the laser light intensity. This innovative plasma-based optic opens the way for the study of high-energy-density and high-field science at intensities greater than presently available.


ABSTRACT CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVE: The combined effect of obesity and asthma may lead to significant impairment of quality of life (QOL). The aim here was to evaluate the prevalence of asthma among obese individuals, characterize the severity of impairment of quality of life and measure its relationship with pulmonary function. DESIGN AND SETTING: Observational cross-sectional study in public university hospital. METHODS: Morbidly obese individuals (body mass index > 40 kg/m2) seen in a bariatric surgery outpatient clinic and diagnosed with asthma, were included. Anthropometric data were collected, the Standardized Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (AQLQ(S)) was applied and spirometry was performed. The subjects were divided into two groups based on the median of the score in the questionnaire (worse < 4 and better ≥ 4) and were compared regarding anthropometric data and pulmonary function. RESULTS: Among the 4791 individuals evaluated, 219 were asthmatic; the prevalence of asthma was 4.57%. Of these, 91 individuals were called to start multidisciplinary follow-up during the study period, of whom 82 answered the questionnaire. The median score in the AQLQ(S) was 3.96 points and, thus, the individuals were classified as having moderate impairment of their overall QOL. When divided according to better or worse QOL, there was a statistically difference in forced expiratory flow (FEF) 25-75%, with higher values in the better QOL group. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of asthma was 4.57% and QOL was impaired among the asthmatic obese individuals. The worst QOL domain related to environmental stimuli and the best QOL domain to limitations of the activities. Worse QOL was correlated with poorer values for FEF 25-75%.


Finding concepts in natural language utterances is a challenging task, especially given the scarcity of labeled data for learning semantic ambiguity. Furthermore, data mismatch issues, which arise when the expected test (target) data does not exactly match the training data, aggravate this scarcity problem. To deal with these issues, we describe an efficient semisupervised learning (SSL) approach which has two components: (i) Markov Topic Regression is a new probabilistic model to cluster words into semantic tags (concepts). It can efficiently handle semantic ambiguity by extending standard topic models with two new features. First, it encodes word n-gram features from labeled source and unlabeled target data. Second, by going beyond a bag-of-words approach, it takes into account the inherent sequential nature of utterances to learn semantic classes based on context. (ii) Retrospective Learner is a new learning technique that adapts to the unlabeled target data. Our new SSL approach improves semantic tagging performance by 3% absolute over the baseline models, and also compares favorably on semi-supervised syntactic tagging.


This paper examines Norwegian gasoline pump prices using daily station-specific observations from March 2003 to March 2006. Whereas studies that have analyzed similar price cycles in other countries find support for the Edgeworth cycle theory (Maskin and Tirole, 1988), we demonstrate that Norwegian gasoline price cycles involve a form of coordinated behavior. We also show that gasoline prices follow a fixed weekly pattern, with prices increasing significantly every Monday at noon, and that gasoline companies appear to use the recommended price as a coordination device with a fixed link between the retail and recommended prices. Moreover, the weekly pattern changed in April 2004; whereas Thursday had been the high-price day, Monday now became the high-price day. The price–cost margin also increased significantly after the weekly pattern changed in April 2004.


The relative short time scale and limited spatial scales of hurricanes allow a normalization of damages to the present time. The most damaging hurricane in the period 1925-1995 was one that hit South Florida in 1926, following a path north of that followed by Hurricane Andrew in 1992, and also caused damage along the Alabama coast. The normalized losses from the 1926 hurricane totaled $72 billion compared with the normalized $33 billion loss caused by Andrew. The most probable loss for a hurricane causing a loss greater than the 1926 hurricane is $152 billion. In constant current dollars, the average yearly loss from floods in the USA is $3.1 billion while losses exceeded $4 billion in 25 years. The largest yearly flood-related loss was from the 1993 Midwest flood, which caused a loss of $19.5 billion. The most probable value for yearly loss greater than that of 1993 is $32.5 billion.


Fatigue cracking has been noted in a number of riveted, coped stringer-to-floorbeam connections on truss bridges in Washington state. The fatigue cracking has raised uncertainty regarding the future performance and life expectancy of these bridges. This laboratory experimental research study evaluated the expected performance of these critical connections to better understand the causes of the fatigue cracking and to compare and evaluate several damage limitation methods for this critical location. Sixteen test specimens were built and tested. During the initial testing, the goal was to develop fatigue cracks in the region of the cope. The cracks were observed, and the rate of crack growth was closely monitored. The results of this work showed that the rate of initial visible cracking is dependent on the surface condition of the cope. Rough or notched copes develop cracks after a very few cycles. Once the crack has developed, the rate of crack growth does not depend on the surface condition of the cope. A damage limitation method (DLM) was applied to most specimens. Three methods--the hole drilling method, the drilled hole with inserted bolt, and the bolt removal method--were evaluated. After the DLM was applied, the specimen was retested to determine whether and when further crack growth occurred. The rate of crack growth was closely monitored, and the relative effectiveness of alternative DLMs was determined. A design and evaluation procedure was developed for predicting the time required for crack development and for selecting appropriate connection stiffnesses for application of the DLMs. This method utilizes load spectra developed in previous field investigations and methods for translating the load spectra into an effective stress and number of cycles for the fatigue evaluation. Models are provided for evaluating connection stiffness and for analyzing the effect of the connection stiffness on the stringer moments.


Natural colloids are defined as macromolecules and nanoparticles with sizes ranging between 1 nm and 1 µm. Colloidal pool is complex "ill-defined" mixture of humic substances, exopolymeric substances (EPS), inorganic oxides, clays, etc. Aquatic colloids have been recognized as key mediators in the removal of trace elements, facilitating contaminant transport, organic carbon cycling and micronutrient bioavailability. The residence times of the colloidal pool (and associate contaminants) can be order of magnitude different from those of the particulate fraction, but unlike the "truly" dissolved fraction, can be subjected to different coagulation and sedimentation processes. Colloids may also influence metal bioavailability by affecting free metal ion concentrations, constraining diffusion and affecting the dissociation kinetics of biological processes. The important environmental role of natural colloids is largely influenced by their surface area and closely related colloidal size. Nonetheless, it is currently unclear to what extend colloidal size can influence their behaviour and contaminant (e.g. toxic metals) binding properties. In our view this is partially related to the difficulties in determination of the colloidal size distributions and their impact in metal behaviour, mainly due to the inherent heterogeneity of the environmental colloids and their low concentrations in the environment. Furthermore, in addition to average parameters, there is a lack of appropriate sample collection and processing procedures, as well as analytical techniques to measure simultaneously the size (or related parameter) distributions of the colloid associated metal. The objective of the present work was therefore to develop sensitive analytical procedures for the fractionation of natural colloids and to apply them to improve the current understanding on the fate of the colloids and associated toxic metals in the freshwaters. To achieve these goals, the capabilities of asymmetric flow-field flow fractionation (aFlFFF) coupled to several detectors was explored. aFlFFF is a versatile technique separating colloids according to their diffusion coefficient. The system was hyphenated with multi-angle laser light scattering (MALS), differential refractive index (DRI), UV detector and, when necessary, high resolution inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Correct interpretation of the experimental results and extrapolation of meaningful molecular parameters by using an analytical tool with such a level of complexity requires improvement of the knowledge of colloids behaviour in the aFlFFF channel and careful optimization of the separation conditions. Given the very complex and dynamic nature of environmental colloids, different experimental procedures was first optimized and validate under lab conditions by using "standardized" colloids (e.g. alginate and EPS isolate from lab bacterial cultures), then applied to characterize colloidal organic matter (COM) isolated from natural water systems. The influence of critical operating parameters, such as crossflow rate, carrier composition and concentration, and sample load, on the alginate retention was carefully evaluated. Combined information obtained simultaneously by DRI and MALS detectors, allowed to set the appropriate combination of optimal parameters for the characterization of alginate, as a model COM. The metal distributions of metal-alginate complexes were probed by aFlFFF - ICP-MS: average values and continuous distributions of molar masses, radius of gyration and hydrodynamic radius, critical for understanding their role as carriers of metal pollutants, were evaluated in presence of lead or cadmium and compared to those in metal-free solutions of alginate. Furthermore, the molecular characteristic of exopolymeric substances (EPS) secreted by bacterium Sinorhizobium meliloti wild type and exoY strains, which is deficient in the production of the succinoglycan, were studied. EPS were collected in the extracellular environment or desorbed from the cell surface using different extraction protocols. EPS fractions with different chemical characteristic and molar mass were found, depending on the strain and extraction protocol. Molecular parameters as the distributions and average values of molar mass and gyration radius, and the polydispersity index have been measured and compared with data obtained by the chemical characterization. Size exclusion chromatography coupled to UV detection was also employed to provide additional information on the small class of size. Moreover, the effect of the cadmium, lead and calcium addition to exopolymeric substances excreted in the extracellular environment was investigated, with the aim to study how does EPS composition, size and mass distributions, can affect the trace metal binding properties of EPS and how the metal addition affects the EPS conformation. Obtained results revealed that cadmium and calcium bound preferentially on the low-size species population and the amount of the bound metal increased with the increasing of the concentration of added metal. In contrast, lead bound on preferentially larger classes of EPS size. The aFlFFF separation parameters were also optimized for the fractionation and characterization of humic substances, as other COM component, and applied to probe the temporal and spatial variability in the size and mass characteristics of COM samples collected in the Amazon River basin. COM characterization demonstrated the existence of a clear decrease of size of the colloidal material when passing from small to large watercourses (spatial variation). No significant changes were found in size distributions of samples collected in different period of the year, during the low and high flow, respectively (temporal variation). The analytical methodology, adapted to determine not only mean characteristics, but the population distributions, developed in the present work, allowed to obtain new information about the colloidal organic matter size distribution, which play utmost role in colloids behaviour and fate in the environment, in particular as toxic metal carriers.


Previous comparisons between Scopus and Web of Science (WoS) paid little attention to universities in African countries. This study investigated the effect of using different data sources on the bibliometric profile of Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria, focusing on the Faculty of Pharmacy for the period 1990-2013. In addition to data from Scopus and WoS, the analysis included articles from the curriculum vitae (CVs) of the faculty staff. The combined dataset (Scopus, WoS and CV data) provided answers to the central question: What differences can be observed in the bibliometric profile of research when comparing the Scopus and WoS output to the total article output? Although Scopus and WoS differed in size, the results of each showed a similar pattern. Notable differences were found with regard to indicators of research collaboration. WoS in particular appeared to be biased towards international collaboration. Additional sources of articles (beyond WoS and Scopus) are required to assess adequately research performance at faculty level for a university in a developing country. The quality aspect of those additional sources cannot be ignored.


We address frequency-dependent quantum transport through mesoscopic conductors in the semiclassical limit. By generalizing the trajectory-based semiclassical theory of dc quantum transport to the ac case, we derive the average screened conductance as well as ac weak-localization corrections for chaotic conductors. Thereby we confirm respective random matrix results and generalize them by accounting for Ehrenfest time effects. We consider the case of a cavity connected through many leads to a macroscopic circuit which contains ac sources. In addition to the reservoir the cavity itself is capacitively coupled to a gate. By incorporating tunnel barriers between cavity and leads we obtain results for arbitrary tunnel rates. Finally, based on our findings we investigate the effect of dephasing on the charge relaxation resistance of a mesoscopic capacitor in the linear low-frequency regime.


Paul S. Steif is a professor of mechanical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. He received a Sc.B. in engineering from Brown University (1979) and M.S. (1980) and Ph.D. (1982) degrees from Harvard University in applied mechanics. He has been active as a teacher and researcher in the field of engineering education and mechanics. His research has focused on student learning of mechanics concepts and developing new course materials and classroom approaches. Drawing upon methods of cognitive and learning sciences, he has led the development and psychometric validation of the statics concept inventory, a test of statics conceptual knowledge. He is the co-author of open learning initiative (OLI) engineering statics, and he is the author of a new textbook Mechanics of Materials, published by Pearson.


Stem borers have been reported as the most injurious insect pests of rice among the insects that attack rice crop globally. Management of stem borers has been relied on the use of synthetic insecticides but has been ineffective due to the cryptic nature of the attack, disruption of environment and unaffordability to purchase insecticides by smallscale farmers. The attempts to control insects have changed over time from chemicals to natural control methods. Among the various natural control methods, biopesticides and botanical extracts have received considerable Original Research Article January et al.; JAERI, 15(4): 1-16, 2018; Article no.JAERI.44015 2 attention as a viable alternative to chemical pesticides. This study was therefore aimed at evaluating the efficacy of fungi based biopesticides and botanical extracts in controlling rice stem borers in screen house under artificial infestation and in laboratory test condition at the Sokoine University of Agriculture, Morogoro, Tanzania between March 2017 and January 2018. The experiment was laid out in a randomised complete block design for screen house trial and a completely randomised design for laboratory trial. All the treatments in all two trials were replicated four times. The two trials involved six treatments which includes two commercial biopesticides (Beauveria bassiana and Metarhizium anisopliae), two botanical extracts (Neorautanenia mitis and Derris elliptica), and one synthetic insecticide (Amekan 344EC) which was the mixture of (Cypermethrin (144 g/L) + Imidacloprid (200 g/L)) and untreated control. The results showed a significant influence of biopesticides and botanical extract in reduction Chillo partellus damage incidences, increased mortality and increased rice grain yield (p < 0.01). Both biopesticides and botanical extracts reduced damage incidences from 45% 64.28% dead heart, 42.01% 76.19% whitehead and decreased yield loss from 60.01% 19.7 % caused by C. partellus. Grain yield of treated samples (4.837 – 6.387 t/ha) with the stem borer mortality rate of 57.51% 78.12% were higher than 0 2.837t/ha from untreated control plots. The control measures used has shown a great influence on grain yield due to a reduction of damage incidences and increased C. partellus mortality. The study, therefore, indicated the possibility of controlling rice stem borers using fungi based biopesticides and botanical extracts.


X-ray structures of two enzymes in the sterol/isoprenoid biosynthesis pathway have been determined in a structural genomics pilot study. Mevalonate-5-diphosphate decarboxylase (MDD) is a single-domain α/β protein that catalyzes the last of three sequential ATP-dependent reactions which convert mevalonate to isopentenyl diphosphate. Isopentenyl disphosphate isomerase (IDI) is an α/β metalloenzyme that catalyzes interconversion of isopentenyl diphosphate and dimethylallyl diphosphate, which condense in the next step toward synthesis of sterols and a host of natural products. Homology modeling of related proteins and comparisons of the MDD and IDI structures with two other experimentally determined structures have shown that MDD is a member of the GHMP superfamily of small-molecule kinases and IDI is similar to the nudix hydrolases, which act on nucleotide diphosphatecontaining substrates. Structural models were produced for 379 proteins, encompassing a substantial fraction of both protein superfamilies. All three enzymes responsible for synthesis of isopentenyl diphosphate from mevalonate (mevalonate kinase, phosphomevalonate kinase, and MDD) share the same fold, catalyze phosphorylation of chemically similar substrates (MDD decarboxylation involves phosphorylation of mevalonate diphosphate), and seem to have evolved from a common ancestor. These structures and the structural models derived from them provide a framework for interpreting biochemical function and evolutionary relationships.


Electronic instrumentation was developed for the measurement of the oxygen partial pressure, P1 ( in a sample gas using fully-sealed zirconia pump-gauge oxygen sensors operated in an AC mode. These sensors, operated typically at 700°C, consisted of two discs of zirconia with porous platinum electrodes on each face separated by a gold seal and enclosing a small internal volume. One disc was operated as a pump enabling oxygen to be electrochemically transferred into and out of the enclosed volume; the other disc operated as a gauge, the Nernst EMF across the electrodes providing a measure of the ratio of the internal to the external oxygen partial pressure. By careful design of the circuitry it was possible to measure the oxygen partial pressure, P, without the need for a separate reference gas supply.
Subsequently, a novel "tracking" mode of operation was proposed and implemented in which leakage effects generally associated with sealed pump-gauge devices were minimised: the sensor was operated in a feedback control-loop in order to adjust automatically the mean internal reference oxygen partial pressure, P0, so as to maintain the ratio (Px/P0) close to unity. The signal-to-noise ratio was markedly improved by using gauge EMFs with high amplitudes which inevitably display a distorted sinusoid due to the logarithmic term in the Nernst equation. Surprisingly, mathematical analysis predicted that the linearity of the output of the instrument using phase-sensitive detection should not be affected by the deviation from a sinusoid and this was confirmed experimentally: signal processing was practically implemented using simple analogue electronics. As anticipated there was a strong influence of sensor temperature on the output of the instrument: consequently, methods for temperature compensation were proposed and shown to be feasible with minimum hardware.
The theory of Operation of leaky pump-gauge was also developed which indicated that a physical leak in the sensor should cause a phase shift and amplitude change in the sensor output. Experimental results were, in general, in agreement with the theory demonstrating the influences of the geometry and dimensions of the leak and of the operating frequency. Importantly, the theory predicted that, when operated in the AC mode, devices with major leakage may still be used for oxygen partial pressure measurement: again this was confirmed by experiment and the additional benefit of a concomitant substantial simplification of the electronic circuitry also realised. Interestingly an unexpected but small influence of oxygen concentration on the phase shift was observed: this requires additional study.


We present a method for consistent automatic transfer of edits applied to one image to many other images of the same object or scene. By introducing novel, content-adaptive weight functions we enhance the non-rigid alignment framework of Lucas-Kanade to robustly handle changes of view point, illumination and non-rigid deformations of the subjects. Our weight functions are content-aware and possess high-order smoothness, enabling to define high-quality image warping with a low number of parameters using spatially-varying weighted combinations of affine deformations. Optimizing the warp parameters leads to subpixel-accurate alignment while maintaining computation efficiency. Our method allows users to perform precise, localized edits such as simultaneous painting on multiple images in real-time, relieving them from tedious and repetitive manual reapplication to each individual image.