OBJECT
Decompressive craniectomy mandates subsequent cranioplasty. Complications of cranioplasty may be independent of the initial craniectomy, or they may be contingent upon the craniectomy. Authors of this study aimed to identify surgery- and patient-specific risk factors related to the development of surgical site infection and other complications following cranioplasty.

METHODS
A consecutive cohort of patients of all ages and both sexes who had undergone cranioplasty following craniectomy for stroke or trauma at a single institution in the period from May 2004 to May 2012 was retrospectively established. Patients who had undergone craniectomy for infectious lesions or neoplasia were excluded. A logistic regression analysis was performed to model and predict determinants related to infection following cranioplasty.

RESULTS
Two hundred thirty-nine patients met the study criteria. The overall rate of complication following cranioplasty was 23.85% (57 patients). Complications included, predominantly, surgical site infection, hydrocephalus, and new-onset seizures. Logistic regression analysis identified previous reoperation (OR 3.25, 95% CI 1.30-8.11, p = 0.01) and therapeutic indication for stroke (OR 2.45, 95% CI 1.11-5.39, p = 0.03) as significantly associated with the development of cranioplasty infection. Patient age, location of cranioplasty, presence of an intracranial device, bone flap preservation method, cranioplasty material, booking method, and time interval > 90 days between initial craniectomy and cranioplasty were not predictive of the development of cranioplasty infection.

CONCLUSIONS
Cranioplasty complications are common. Cranioplasty infection rates are predicted by reoperation following craniectomy and therapeutic indication (stroke). These variables may be associated with patient-centered risk factors that increase cranioplasty infection risk.


How healthy were people in ancient Greece and Rome, and how did they think about maintaining and restoring their health?

For students of classics, history or the history of medicine, answers to these and many previously untouched questions are dealt with by renowned ancient historians, classical scholars and archaeologists.

Using a multidisciplined approach, the contributors assess the issues surrounding health in the Greco-Roman world from prehistory to Christian late antiquity.

Sources range from palaeodemography to patristic and from archaeology to architecture and using these, this book considers what health meant, how it was thought to be achieved, and addresses how the ancient world can be perceived as an ideal in subsequent periods of history.


Recent wireless medium access control techniques, such as the Timeslotted Synchronized Channel Hopping (TSCH) and Deterministic & Synchronous Multi-channel Extension (DSME) modes in the IEEE802.15.4-2015 standard, use frequency diversity to cope with external interference and multipath fading. The result is wire-like reliability in a network built from unreliable wireless links. Yet, the impact of using multiple frequencies on the medium access control layer is still not perfectly understood, and virtually all channel hopping solutions use ``blind'' channel hopping, i.e., hopping over all frequencies equivalently. The goal of this work is to improve our understanding of the behavior of the wireless medium when using multiple frequencies, which will enable the design of more efficient protocols in the future. We collect a large dense connectivity dataset over the USC Tutornet Internet of Things Testbed, with dozens of low-power wireless nodes deployed in an office building. This publicly-available dataset offers complete traces of link quality across frequency, time and space. We analyze the data and extract meaningful and practical insights on the wireless medium when using multiple frequencies.


A simple, parametric model of the gradient refractive index distribution (GRIN) of the human lens with conicoid surfaces able to adapt to individual distributions as well as to the changes of the lens shape and structure with age and accommodation is presented. The first part of this work was published in a companion paper [J. Opt. Soc. Am. A24, 2175 (2007)]. It included the development of the mathematical formulation of the adaptive model; the validation of its customization capability by fitting, sample by sample, a set of in vitro refractive index distributions of lenses of different ages, ranging from 7 to 82 years, from the recent literature; and an average model of the (in vitro) aging crystalline lens. Here we extrapolate that in vitro GRIN model by assuming that the same structural parameters are valid for the living lens. Then, recent data of the changes of the shape of the aging lens with accommodation from the literature are used to build an aging and accommodating lens model. This is straightforward since the GRIN model adapts automatically to the chosen external lens geometry. A strong coupling was found between the adaptive GRIN distributions and the conic constants affecting the refractive power. To account for the lens paradox and the reported changes in lens spherical aberration with age and accommodation, age- and accommodation-dependent functions for the anterior and posterior internal conic constants were derived through optimization.


A molecular approach was used for selecting polyhydroxyalcanoate (PHA)-accumulating potential Gram-negative bacteria from different genera by colony polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Three degenerate primers were designed for amplifying a fragment from PHA synthase gene ( phaC ) (Class I), phaC1 and phaC2 (Class II) genes for detecting PHA-producing bacteria. Thirty-four out of 55 bacterial strains from the old collection selected using Sudan black B staining were phaC+ . PCR was used for directly selecting 35 new collection bacterial strains; these strains were phaC+ and their ability to produce PHA was confirmed by Sudan black B staining. Four specific primers were designed on genes of Class II PHA biosynthesis operon. These primers were used for evaluating 9 strains from the old phaC+ collection; 6 showed Class II PHA synthase organisation. 34 from the old and new bacterial isolation were characterised by 16S ribosomal gene (16S rDNA) gene partial sequencing. The tool proposed here can be used for better directing PHA production based on PHA biosynthesis genes and bacterial genera. Class I or II phaC genes were detected in 9 different genera and were able to infer the type of polymer produced.


We present here some preliminary results on a new approach for the analysis of the propagation of round-off errors in recursive algorithms. This approach is based on the concept of backward consistency. In general, this concept leads to a decomposition of the state space of the algorithm, and, in fact, to a manifold. This manifold is the set of state values that are backward consistent. Perturbations within the manifold can be interpreted as perturbations on the input data. Hence, the error propagation on the manifold corresponds exactly (without averaging or even linearization) to the propagation of the effect of a perturbation of the input data at some point in time on the state of the algorithm at future times. In this paper, we apply these ideas to the Kalman filter and its various derivatives. In particular, we consider the conventional Kalman filter, some minor variations of it, and its square-root forms. Next we consider the Chandrasekhar equations, which apply to time-invariant filtering problems. Recursive least-squares parameter (RLS) estimation is a special case of Kalman filtering and, hence, the previous results also apply to the RLS algorithms. We shall furthermore consider in detail two groups of fast RLS algorithms: the fast transversal filter (FTF) algorithms and the fast lattice fast QR (FLA/FQR) RLS algorithms.


Contractual discussions within construction industry seem inevitable. Advancing insight, changed
circumstances and/or obscurities (vagueness) about the interpretation of contracts are often reasons
to start such discussions. In this research "post contractual discussions" and the courses into which
they develop are analyzed. Design & Construct projects are the major subjects within this research.
The allocation process itself (the way how risks were allocated), how project parties have dealt with
uncertainties, the aims to start discussions and how discussions are finally solved are important points
of focus.
Design & Construct is a relative new method of working. A lot of obscurities exist about "workable"
risk allocations in practice because there is a lack of experience with the new contractual
arrangements. As a result of these obscurities discussions and renegotiations take place after the
closure of contracts. The question "who is liable for undesirable events which have or haven't been
foreseen within the contract?" is often the subject of these discussions.
Albeit contract parties aim for sound and comprehensive contracts not everything is to be foreseen.
Transaction cost theory and principal-agent theory both provide a framework to analyze how
contracting parties deal with these uncertainties. Nine phenomena which embody causes/reasons how
discussions come into existence are derived from both theories. These nine phenomena are translated
into practical situations. These situations and their contribution to the causes for discussions are
verified in five project cases. Further investigation took place in order to verify [1] if these situations do
occur, [2] if they contribute to discussions, and [3] the courses into which the discussions have
developed within the cases.
An important aspect within the analysis of discussions is the shift/transfer of responsibilities. In most of
the discussions the reason for this shift/transfer seems to be that none of the contracting parties
(principal or agent/provider) wants to bear the responsibility for performing a task or situation.
Contracting parties claim not to be liable for consequences which are unforeseen at the moment of
contract closure. Subsequently the discussion can evolve into two different courses:
[1] The risk or a part of it is transferred from one contracting party to another. Risks are transferred
because it often becomes clear that the original allocation does not longer meets the needs of one or
both contracting parties during the design or construction phase. An example is the current state of a
bridge construction which appears more worse during the construction phase than anticipated before.
The agent pointed out he could not have expected this state despite an inspection which he has
executed. Subsequently the principal takes over a share of the design responsibility.
[2] Another possibility is that, after the discussion, the responsibility stays where it has been during
contracting. This situation has been perceived within five discussions divided over the five project
cases. In these cases the transfer of responsibilities was no appropriate or effective solution. Solutions
for these discussions are to make complementary agreements between contracting parties or financial
support provided by the principal. An example is the case in which a principal is to be held
responsible for obtaining the permits to reconstruct several constructions but these permits were
initially not permitted. During the following discussion the responsibility wasn't transferred from one
party to the other. The effect of the discussion mentioned was the project phasing did not work out as
planned and an enormous traffic chaos occurred at the construction site. Finally complementary
agreements were made on top of the contractual agreements to recover a workable situation.
A conclusion based on the case study results is made about the subject of most post contractual
discussions. The subject of most discussions is about the starting point and the activities which have
to be completed before the project can start. Furthermore a clear argumentation behind choices for the
allocation of risks doesn't exist in most of the cases. It appears that contracting parties are
Afstudeerscriptie | Tom Janssen
VI
insufficiently aware about the consequences of the originally chosen allocation, even if the allocation is
explicitly reviewed (afterwards) or is discussed before contracting. As an example this can lead to a
situation where one contracting party bears the risk and financial consequences while another
contracting party has the possibilities to directly influence the risk. Because of that the risk bearer
becomes vulnerable: one party could aim at the delay of activities as a result of which more space is
created for possible additional work or (otherwise) reduction of bonus payments. The conclusion can
be drawn that the separation of the parties who ows the task and who bears the risk is undesirable.
Discussions during the design or construction phase are also the result of "assumptions" as a result of
which the allocation is insufficiently discussed before contracting:
· Assumption 1: judgments about control of are too much made by one party
The idea behind the allocation is in all cases the same: "the risk has to lie at the party who can
control that risk the best of all possible parties". The principal makes often assumptions to
formulate allocations, about the agent's limitations and possibilities with respect to his abilities to
control risks, without discussing them. Those assumptions can be false (appears from case study).
· Assumption 2: risks are too easily transferred when there is an information shortage
The main problem is that, risks are placed at agents, without also providing the information and
means to be able to assess and control them effectively. If agents have to gather information and
make assumptions themselves this has enormous consequences for them. The possible results
before contracting are: the forcing up of prices, delays in the tender process, incomparable bids
because of incomparable starting points; Afterwards: it turns out that the agent can not control the
risk whereupon the principal has to support financially.
Recommendations
The recommendations are related to the discussion of uncertainties (and risks) before contracting and
the allocation process in present practice. The expectation is that by implementing these
recommendations within future projects discussions possibly can be admitted and solved early.
The following principle should prevail:
Make sure risks are as much as possible (consistently) allocated in accordance with the
philosophy behind the chosen tender and contracting form. The principal has to make an
inventory of the risks as a starting point. From that they can take care that risks and their
allocation are discussed.
In first instance it is important that the principal explicitly names the risks. Next an initial allocation is
set up in accordance with the philosophy behind the contracting form and the responsibilities which
result from it. Subsequently it should be taken care of that principal and possible agents discuss the
risks and their allocation. If the initial allocation is discussed agents are also stimulated to think it over.
Therefore the consequences of the allocation become more clear to all parties. Principals as well as
agents do have to be able to speak freely, about obscurities and incompleteness's which they see,
during the whole process. When these are admitted timely, solutions can be found before closing
contracts. The scope of activities/work and the formulation of requirements and risks deserve special
attention within that process.
Competitive tender of risks
After all risks are discussed the agents determine which price they want to attach to the elements
within the contract. They determine a separate sum for the corresponding risks and take that along
with the basic price in their tender. This leads perhaps to the invention of smart solutions for the
control of risks as a result of which risks can be reduced. In the comparison of proposals risks are
taken next to other criteria (like the price of the project elements) within the "EMVI"(economically most
profitable tender)-appraisal.


Environmental and toxicological characteristics of formulated pesticides may substantially differ from those of their active ingredients or other components alone. This phenomenon is demonstrated in the case of the herbicide active ingredient glyphosate. Due to its extensive application, this active ingredient was found in surface and ground water samples collected in Bekes Country, Hungary, in the concentration range of 0.54–0.98 ng/ml. The occurrence of glyphosate appeared to be somewhat higher at areas under intensive agriculture, industrial activities and public road services, but the compound was detected at areas under organic (ecological) farming or natural grasslands, indicating environmental mobility. Increased toxicity of the formulated herbicide product Roundup compared to that of glyphosate was observed on the indicator aquatic organism Daphnia magna Straus. Acute LC50 values of Roundup and its formulating adjuvant polyethoxylated tallowamine (POEA) exceeded 20 and 3.1 mg/ml, respectively, while that of glyphosate (as isopropyl salt) was found to be substantially lower (690-900 mg/ml) showing good agreement with literature data. Cytotoxicity of Roundup, POEA and glyphosate has been determined on the neuroectodermal cell line, NE-4C measured both by cell viability test and holographic microscopy. Acute toxicity (LC50) of Roundup, POEA and glyphosate on NE-4C cells was found to be 0.013±0.002%, 0.017±0.009% and 6.46±2.25%, respectively (in equivalents of diluted Roundup solution), corresponding to 0.022±0.003 and 53.1±18.5 mg/ml for POEA and glyphosate, respectively, indicating no statistical difference between Roundup and POEA and 2.5 orders of magnitude difference between these and glyphosate. The same order of cellular toxicity seen in average cell area has been indicated under quantitative cell visualization. The results indicate that toxicity of the formulated herbicide is caused by the formulating agent, but in some parameters toxicological synergy occurs between POEA and glyphosate.


This paper suggests that close reading of translations and their source texts, in a pedagogical context, can enhance university students' awareness of literary reading as a dynamic process. The text-oriented work by the German reception theorist Wolfgang Iser (1978) serves as a point of departure. The pedagogical context described is Swedish university teaching of literature, but it is assumed that the basic ideas are relevant also for university teaching in other countries. An example from H. B. Paull's English translation of Hans Christian Andersen's tale "The Steadfast Tin-Soldier" is given to illustrate the argument.


The initial phase of Craigavon Borough Council's delivery of the Re-Imaging Communities Programme was to commission three artists to undertake research within Portadown, Brownlow and Lurgan. The rationale for this approach was to expose communities to new approaches and possibilities when addressing issues within their communities. The author was commissioned to undertake a period of research within the Portadown area. The report concludes that the effective implementation of this programme be sustained, engaging, relevant and focus on a shared future within communities and their role within the wider society of Northern Ireland.


Welcome to the 2005 Annual International Conference of ACM's Special Interest Group on Ada (SIGAda), being held in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.We offer you a conference featuring a top-quality technical program focused on important strengths of Ada: distributed, real-time, and embedded systems. The visions of these systems reflected in Ada's original requirements in the 1970s have expanded in almost unimaginable ways with Ada 95 implementations, and continue to be objects of envy by those in the programming language community who understand what the strengths of a language brings to implementers in terms of efficiency, reliability, and effectiveness. Software challenges remain dominant in these domains with rapid hardware advances. Most other languages fail to meet the needs identified as far back as the 1978 Steelman, being able at best to do only 3/4 of the needed function while Ada performs over 95%. Ada's track record of reliability, efficiency, robustness and all-around success is unparalleled at solving real-time and/or distributed system challenges. Ada is used in space/satellite systems, most modern jetliner avionics, high-speed ground transportation systems, and battle automation systems. As such, it is an important part of the world's economies and defenses.Three days of technical papers, keynotes, and invited presentations will report how these successes are achieved and where remaining issues are leading. We are fortunate to have leaders in the software engineering community to provide keynote addresses to set the tone for our conference.We are also fortunate to have special presentations which will give you an opportunity to find out how Ada continues to evolve to meet our future requirements, to result in Ada 2005.Beyond the formal conference of selected papers and presentations, SIGAda 2005 also offers workshops and tutorials with the same duality of on-theme and complementary topics. SIGAda's tutorials provide full-day or half-days on selected topics to enhance one's professional development. SIGAda's workshops allow those working the same issues to share with each other and leverage everyone's accomplishments; workshop products are "delivered" to the community.The broad offerings of career-enhancing tutorials include basic Ada 95 introductions for software engineers new to Ada, intermediate and advanced Ada topics for practitioners striving to expand their Ada expertise, and several language-independent technology topics. These topics are often coupled with Ada technology because only Ada's full and complete definition allows one to indicate what is expected, and to show that it can be achieved. Join us in understanding how these topics mutually support the disciplined development and evolution of serious, high quality software systems.Finally, we hope SIGAda 2005 provides you an outstanding opportunity for rewarding affiliation with colleagues in industry, academia, and government - discussions "in the hall," informal meal-time meetings, and even during the more relaxed moments we make for socializing in this wonderful southern city. If you don't realize it already, you will learn that these associations can be as valuable as the technical program at professional conferences, and often extend the experience after you return home.


Due to the entry of Kuwait into WTO and the expected liberalization of petroleum management, the oil market is to become more competitive. However, the space limitation and public increasing awareness of environmental protection issues and stricter regulation passed by Environmental Public Authority (EPA) in Kuwait make the need for full utilization of oil tanks a prime requirement of a successful oil business. In order to help oil companies to achieve this and maximize revenues by increasing the availability of tanks, an efficient maintenance scheduling is needed. This study introduces a new hybrid evolutionary algorithm and its implantation for solving real-world problem of oil storage tanks. The algorithm incorporates the American Petroleum Institute (API) standard 650 for open inspection procedure to produce a near optimal schedule for maintenance though continuously preserving a population diversity that ensures solution quality and convergence efficiency. The computational results show that the proposed evolutionary algorithm outperforms existing scheduler in literature and produces a higher quality solution which means better revenues though more operational tanks and more environmental protection though maximizing the utilization of existing tanks and less new tanks to build.


Gender gaps in skills exist around the world but differ remarkably among the high and low-and-middle income countries. This paper uses a unique data set with more than 20,000 adolescents in rural India to examine whether socioeconomic status and gender attitudes predict gender gaps in cognitive and noncognitive skills. We find steep socioeconomic and attitude gradients in both cognitive and noncognitive skills, with bigger effect sizes for the socioeconomic status (SES) gradients. Our results suggest that a sizable improvement in gender attitudes would yield important gains for females, but substantial gains would come only from large improvements in household socioeconomic status. Overall, the household socioeconomic and cultural environment is significantly associated with the gender gaps in both cognitive and noncognitive skills.


As a result of the absence of a land market, socialist-era cities tended to look different from their market-economy equivalents. The difference was made more pronounced by the fact that the command economy also favored industrial investment over infrastructure and housing. Yet, with an increasing appetite for additional labor, needed by production units to ensure plan fulfillment, housing became a means to recruit and retain employees. Not all employers could afford to put resources into such "nonproductive" investment, however, and the literature suggests that the notion of priorities allows for discriminating between those enterprises that enjoyed soft budget constraints, and therefore could afford to spend money on worker welfare, and those that could not. As a heuristic framework based on the economics of shortage, the priority model is compelling, but as yet it lacks empirical substantiation. Setting out to test the landscapes of priority model of urban development, this article details the developments of housing construction in Daugavpils, Latvia, during the Soviet period. Based on extensive archive and field research covering all newly constructed or converted housing projects over the period from 1951 to 1991, it yields considerable, if not unqualified, support for the model that until now has not been made subject to systematic empirical tests.


Fly larvae detect high-intensity light all over their bodies, not just with their primitive eyes. Light sensing is not limited to animals with eyes, and even "sightless" animals respond to illumination. This ability to sense light can be critical to finding food or avoiding predation, which in fly larvae involves burrowing into food. Fly larvae have primitive light-sensing structures called Bolwig organs, which allow them to avoid light and burrow. However, as Garrity points out, once their anteriors are buried, how do they avoid winding up like the "ostrich with its head in the sand"? Xiang et al. show that larvae with the Bolwig organs ablated responded to high-intensity light (ultraviolet, violet, and blue, but not red or green), which activated calcium signaling and increased action potential frequency in class IV dendritic arborization neurons (class IV neurons) that have dendrites that provide complete coverage of the body wall. Class IV neurons also responded to light when isolated and cultured. Unexpectedly, the light response of the class IV neurons was normal when analyzed in flies with mutations in several genes encoding known light receptors or downstream signaling molecules, such as rhodopsins, cryptochrome, or phospholipase C. Instead, this form of light detection involved gustatory receptor 28b (Gr28b), which is the closest fly homolog of the G protein–coupled receptor that has been identified as a light receptor in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, and transient receptor potential A1 (TrpA1). Flies with mutations or knockdown of either of the encoding genes failed to exhibit a light response in the class IV neurons, and these manipulations prevented light avoidance in animals without Bolwig organs. Ablation of the class IV neurons decreased light avoidance behavior of larvae, even those with intact Bolwig organs. Analysis of the light avoidance response to different light intensities and wavelengths in larvae with either class IV neurons or Bolwig organs ablated indicated that the Bolwig organ responds to low-intensity light and the class IV neurons respond to high-intensity light. These results not only reveal a sensory process in flies but also provide evidence of another light-sensitive signal transduction pathway that remains to be fully elucidated. Y. Xiang, Q. Yuan, N. Vogt, L. L. Looger, L. Y. Jan, Y. N. Jan, Light-avoidance-mediating photoreceptors tile the Drosophila larval body wall. Nature 468, 921–926 (2010). [PubMed] P. A. Garrity, Feel the light. Nature 468, 900–901 (2010). [PubMed]


A process of confidence building in the MENA region is needed. Transparency in all the safety and non-proliferation issues may be the first step toward the confidence building process between the concerned parties. The inspection of all the nuclear and the suspicious sites and the full cooperation with the IAEA are essential elements in the transparency process. All the concerned parties have to review their paradigm and to look to the safety concerns and the proliferation threats as a whole in the whole region. The Arab states must stop to focus only on the Israeli nuclear warheads. Israel must understand the Arab concerns about its nuclear program and the 5+1 group has also to stop to focus only in the Iranian nuclear program. If the free zone is difficult to establish in the near future in the Middle East, the paradigm review process may lead to create a regional agency able to inspect all the nuclear, chemical and biological facilities in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region including Iran and Israel. Any other cooperation project without transparency is not possible and it is a waste of time. This Agency (The Middle East Inspection and Verification Agency: MEIVA) will hire inspectors from the regional states in order to make each inspection as a mutual inspection. The success of the Agency's inspection and verification mission may lead to open new opportunities to establish peaceful cooperation projects between the MENA countries in all the peaceful scientific and technical areas including nuclear, biological and chemical applications.


With the upsurge of older adults still working, the labour force is becoming increasingly diverse in age. Age diversity in an organisation can increase the likelihood of intergenerational conflict. The present study aims to integrate the dual concern model and social identity theory to explain the underlying mechanisms of intergenerational conflict by examining the effects of social identity salience on motivational orientation and conflict strategies. A 2 (subgroup identity salience: low vs. high younger/older group membership) × 2 (superordinate identity salience: low vs. high organisational group membership) factorial design with a structured questionnaire on motivational orientation and conflict strategies in relation to a hypothetical work conflict scenario was implemented among 220 postgraduate university students in Hong Kong. Results revealed that subgroup and superordinate identities had a combined influence on conflict strategies but not in motivational orientation. Subgroup and superordinate identification promoted integrating and compromising strategies, superordinate identification promoted obliging strategy, subgroup identification promoted dominating strategy and no identification promoted avoiding strategy. Age did not moderate these relationships. This study contributes to the development of the integrated model of conflict.


Summary
1. Many animal species are detected primarily by sound. Although songs, calls and other sounds are often used for population assessment, as in bird point counts and hydrophone surveys of cetaceans, there are few rigorous methods for estimating population density from acoustic data.

2. The problem has several parts – distinguishing individuals, adjusting for individuals that are missed, and adjusting for the area sampled. Spatially explicit capture–recapture (SECR) is a statistical methodology that addresses jointly the second and third parts of the problem. We have extended SECR to use uncalibrated information from acoustic signals on the distance to each source.

3. We applied this extension of SECR to data from an acoustic survey of ovenbird Seiurus aurocapilla density in an eastern US deciduous forest with multiple four-microphone arrays. We modelled average power from spectrograms of ovenbird songs measured within a window of 0·7 s duration and frequencies between 4200 and 5200 Hz.

4. The resulting estimates of the density of singing males (0·19 ha−1 SE 0·03 ha−1) were consistent with estimates of the adult male population density from mist-netting (0·36 ha−1 SE 0·12 ha−1). The fitted model predicts sound attenuation of 0·11 dB m−1 (SE 0·01 dB m−1) in excess of losses from spherical spreading.

5.Synthesis and applications. Our method for estimating animal population density from acoustic signals fills a gap in the census methods available for visually cryptic but vocal taxa, including many species of bird and cetacean. The necessary equipment is simple and readily available; as few as two microphones may provide adequate estimates, given spatial replication. The method requires that individuals detected at the same place are acoustically distinguishable and all individuals vocalize during the recording interval, or that the per capita rate of vocalization is known. We believe these requirements can be met, with suitable field methods, for a significant number of songbird species.


A $b$-coloring of a graph $G$ is a proper coloring of its vertices such that each color class contains a vertex that has at least one neighbor in all the other color classes. The b-Coloring problem asks whether a graph $G$ has a $b$-coloring with $k$ colors. The $b$-chromatic number of a graph $G$, denoted by $\chi_b(G)$, is the maximum number $k$ such that $G$ admits a $b$-coloring with $k$ colors. We consider the complexity of the b-Coloring problem, whenever the value of $k$ is close to one of two upper bounds on $\chi_b(G)$: The maximum degree $\Delta(G)$ plus one, and the $m$-degree, denoted by $m(G)$, which is defined as the maximum number $i$ such that $G$ has $i$ vertices of degree at least $i-1$. We obtain a dichotomy result stating that for fixed $k \in \{\Delta(G) + 1 - p, m(G) - p\}$, the problem is polynomial-time solvable whenever $p \in \{0, 1\}$ and, even when $k = 3$, it is NP-complete whenever $p \ge 2$. We furthermore consider parameterizations of the b-Coloring problem that involve the maximum degree $\Delta(G)$ of the input graph $G$ and give two FPT-algorithms. First, we show that deciding whether a graph $G$ has a $b$-coloring with $m(G)$ colors is FPT parameterized by $\Delta(G)$. Second, we show that b-Coloring is FPT parameterized by $\Delta(G) + \ell_k(G)$, where $\ell_k(G)$ denotes the number of vertices of degree at least $k$.


PURPOSE
Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common and aggressive type of glioma and has the poorest survival. However, a small percentage of patients with GBM survive well beyond the established median. Therefore, identifying the genetic variants that influence this small number of unusually long-term survivors may provide important insight into tumor biology and treatment.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Among 590 patients with primary GBM, we evaluated associations of survival with the 100 top-ranking glioma susceptibility single nucleotide polymorphisms from our previous genome-wide association study using Cox regression models. We also compared differences in genetic variation between short-term survivors (STS; <or= 12 months) and long-term survivors (LTS; >or= 36 months), and explored classification and regression tree analysis for survival data. We tested results using two independent series totaling 543 GBMs.

RESULTS
We identified LIG4 rs7325927 and BTBD2 rs11670188 as predictors of STS in GBM and CCDC26 rs10464870 and rs891835, HMGA2 rs1563834, and RTEL1 rs2297440 as predictors of LTS. Further survival tree analysis revealed that patients >or= 50 years old with LIG4 rs7325927 (V) had the worst survival (median survival time, 1.2 years) and exhibited the highest risk of death (hazard ratio, 17.53; 95% CI, 4.27 to 71.97) compared with younger patients with combined RTEL1 rs2297440 (V) and HMGA2 rs1563834 (V) genotypes (median survival time, 7.8 years).

CONCLUSION
Polymorphisms in the LIG4, BTBD2, HMGA2, and RTEL1 genes, which are involved in the double-strand break repair pathway, are associated with GBM survival.


When Odysseus ordered his men to put wax in their ears, bind him to the mast and keep rowing until they passed the Sirens, no matter what he might later command, and then, in the throes of passion, attempted to countermand his earlier command, there, then, Constitutionalism was born in the West. We are perpetually challenged at rational moments to keep future passions in check, so when the future becomes the present, we can survive it without regret. This brief essay summarily employs the metaphor to account for constitutional rights, long and fixed senatorial terms, life-time judicial tenure, judicial review, executive veto, term limits and an intentionally cumbersome amendment process. It also briefly uses the metaphor newly to illuminate the Declaration's "unalienable rights," problems of honesty in government, the punishment of life-without-parole, and connecting a commitment to original intent with retribution itself. Finally, it points to an essential flaw in Homer's metaphor: How could Odysseus (or his men) and by extension we, today in this post 9/11 world, know when we have safely passed the point of emergency so as to return Sovereignty to the status quo ante?


This oversized reprint volume presents original materials from Moore's northernmost expeditions conducted in the early 1900s as he surveyed areas of potential archaeological interest in the southeastern United States. Some of the sites he found were later targeted for major excavations during the days of the WPA/CCC. Many National Register Historic Sites are today located along the rivers he explored in this work. In many cases, however, Moore's report documents sites since destroyed by river action or by lake impoundments behind hydroelectric dams or by looters. As with all Moore's other investigations, his thorough documentation and collaboration with other scholars advanced understanding of aboriginal peoples and fueled debate among the experts. For instance, more than 296 burials were recovered from Indian Knoll on the Green River in Kentucky. Some graves included ceremonially "killed" artifacts, dogs buried with both adults and children, and exotic materials leading to speculations concerning origins, usage, and trade networks. Stone box graves were widespread and somewhat exclusive to this area, giving rise to early assumptions regarding kinship between scattered modern Indian tribes. Richard Polhemus has compiled a comprehensive inventory of Moore's work in Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi and Kentucky and written a concise introduction to place the work in context. In so doing, he has made available to contemporary scholars of history, archaeology, and anthropology a trove of resource material on one of the most archaeologically rich and artifact-diverse regions in the nation.


When doing installation analysis of flexible pipe systems one has to do dynamical analysis. The goal of said analysis is to find the limiting sea states that various operations or installations can take place in. To do this time domain analysis has to be utilized. The procedure is to make a design storm to check that the installed product can be installed safely. Due to the nature of flexible risers, the loads are often non-linear. Due to this non-linearity the time domain analysis is a heavy burden in terms of computer and engineering time. To get a good estimation of the design parameters it is normal to do 5 to 10 full 3 hour simulations for each wave parameter. When having to check a broad band of periods, wave heights and wave directions these calculations take too much time. The purpose of this thesis is to find faster methods of doing normal time domain analysis without reducing the accuracy of the results. Non-linear time domain analysis has been used to find benchmarking values for a given wave height. The numbers of realizations needed to accurately capture the statistical spread of the design parameters has been looked in to. A simplified method to shorten the time it takes to run a time domain analysis has also been looked into. The idea is to generate the full 3 hour wave trains, and finding the largest wave in this wave train. Then the analysis is completed for a small duration before and after the largest wave. The number of realizations needed for normal flexible lay operations is 5 to 6, when taking maximum axial tension and maximum curvature into consideration. If we go lower than 5 realizations the standard deviations are too large to have confidence in the results. The simplified method showed that 2.5 minutes of simulation before and after the largest wave gave results that mostly had less than 1% deviance from the full 3 hour simulation. For the curvature this was not the case for a few instances, but overall it seemed to give good results. This method should not be recommended if the generated design parameters are close to the critical values for the flexible pipe. For normal scenarios this method of doing the time domain analysis seems promising. The largest upside to using this method is that it can save around 90% of the computational time.


In recent years, there has been much interest in phase transitions of combinatorial problems. Phase transitions have been successfully used to analyze combinatorial optimization problems, characterize their typical-case features and locate the hardest problem instances. In this paper, we study phase transitions of the asymmetric Traveling Salesman Problem (ATSP), an NP-hard combinatorial optimization problem that has many real-world applications. Using random instances of up to 1,500 cities in which intercity distances are uniformly distributed, we empirically show that many properties of the problem, including the optimal tour cost and backbone size, experience sharp transitions as the precision of intercity distances increases across a critical value. Our experimental results on the costs of the ATSP tours and assignment problem agree with the theoretical result that the asymptotic cost of assignment problem is π26 as the number of cities goes to infinity. In addition, we show that the average computational cost of the well-known branch-and-bound subtour elimination algorithm for the problem also exhibits a thrashing behavior, transitioning from easy to difficult as the distance precision increases. These results answer positively an open question regarding the existence of phase transitions in the ATSP, and provide guidance on how difficult ATSP problem instances should be generated.


Principal-agent relationships are typically assumed to be motivated by efficiency gains from comparative advantage. However, principals may also delegate tasks to avoid taking direct responsibility for selfish or unethical behavior. We report three laboratory experiments in which principals repeatedly either decide how much money to share with a recipient or hire agents to make sharing decisions on their behalf. Across several experimental treatments, recipients receive significantly less, and in many cases close to nothing, when allocation decisions are made by agents. (JEL D82)


Introduction: Significantly increased institutional deliveries in India provide an opportune time for offering postpartum family planning services to the women. Although the available contraceptive methods are many, need of a single efficacious, feasible and cost effective method is desirable especially in a low resource country like India.
This study was done to evaluate the acceptance, efficacy and safety of intrauterine contraceptive device as an immediate family planning method following delivery, and the complications associated with it.
Materials and Method:  A total of 115 women who underwent PPIUCD insertion were followed up at 1, 3 & 6 weeks and at 3 & 6 months post-partum. Outcome in terms of side effects, removal and expulsion was noted and compared in vaginal delivery and caesarean section insertions.
Results: Out of 280 women who were counselled, only 115 women (41.07%) accepted the PPIUCD insertion. Insertion in literate women was high and extremely statistically significant (P


Treatment of end stage renal disease (ESRD) by dialysis or renal transplantation has been available for 20 years. This article considers four issues in the management of ESRD services in the UK. First, there remains inadequate evidence on which treatment is best for which patient. Second, the recent increase in continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis may not be a cost-effective choice. Third, both dialysis and transplant centres appear to have substantial opportunities to improve efficiency. Last, the present level of treatment in the UK appears to be meeting needs: other health problems may now have higher priority for health care resources.


Another spirited debate has ensued over the benefits of breast cancer screening,1 freshly stimulated by the recent publication of the 25-year follow-up results of the Canadian National Breast Screening Study (CNBSS) that showed no difference in breast cancer–related mortality in screened women vs controls.2 This latest controversy developed even though the CNBSS is the only one of 8 randomized clinical trials of screening mammography that failed to find a reduction in mortality,3 and despite substantial and well-described limitations in the CNBSS methods,4 including poor image quality and problems in the randomization schema that created a screened cohort with more large palpable cancers than the control group. Fourteen more recent studies published between 2001 and 2010 using more modern technology have shown a 25% to 50% reduction in breast cancer–related mortality for women aged 40 to 74 years.5 In the interval since the randomized trials of screening and with the demonstration of improved diagnostic accuracy for women with dense breasts,6 digital mammography has supplanted film mammography as the screening technology of choice,7 and treatment of breast cancer has improved substantially.8


Our study of the third-order susceptibility for Ag-dielectric composite reveals a critical role of saturation of optical transitions between discrete states of conduction electrons in metal quantum dots. Saturation effects lead to a decrease of the local field enhancement factor that is of particular importance for surface-enhanced phenomena.


Theory typically does not give us reason to believe that economic models ought to be formulated at the same level of time aggregation at which data happen to be available. Nevertheless, this is frequently done when formulating econometric models, with potentially important specification-error implications. This suggests examining the alternatives, one of which is to model in continuous time. The primary difficulty in inferring the parameters of a continuous time model given sampled observations is the "aliasing identification problem." This paper shows how the restrictions implied by rational expectations sometimes do, and sometimes do not, resolve the problem. This is accomplished very simply in the context of a hypothesis about the term structure of interest rates. The paper confirms and extends results obtained for another example by Hansen and Sargent.


Abstract In South Africa, older people have become the primary caregivers of children and grandchildren infected or affected by HIV and AIDS. This study explores the determinants of the perceived ability to care for children and grandchildren in the domains of providing nursing care, communicating with (grand) children, generating income and to relax. Structured one-on-one interviews were conducted among 409 isiXhosa speaking older people in two sites in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. Results showed that perceived ability among older people to provide nursing care was primarily dependent on the level of knowledge on accessing grants and personal norm towards providing care. Perceived ability to communicate effectively with children and grandchildren was most strongly predicted by a positive attitude towards communication and perceived ability to provide income was influenced by a more negative attitude towards people living with HIV or AIDS. Perceived ability to relax was dependent on more negative attitudes towards communication, lower perceived responsibility to provide income and a higher perceived behaviour control over providing nursing care. The findings of this study add relevant information to understanding the psychosocial context in which older people provide HIV and AIDS related care and support the development of targeted programmes to assist older people in their role as caregiver.


Background The extent and clinical relevance of grey matter (GM) pathology in multiple sclerosis (MS) are increasingly recognised. GM pathology may present as focal lesions, which can be visualised using double inversion recovery (DIR) MRI, or as diffuse pathology, which can manifest as atrophy. It is, however, unclear whether the diffuse atrophy centres on focal lesions. This study aimed to determine if GM lesions and GM atrophy colocalise, and to assess their independent relationship with motor and cognitive deficits in MS. Methods Eighty people with MS and 30 healthy controls underwent brain volumetric T1-weighted and DIR MRI at 3 T, and had a comprehensive neurological and cognitive assessment. Probability mapping of GM lesions marked on the DIR scans and voxel- based morphometry (assessing GM atrophy) were carried out. The associations of GM lesion load and GM volume with clinical scores were tested. Results DIR-visible GM lesions were most commonly found in the right cerebellum and most apparent in patients with primary progressive MS. Deep GM structures appeared largely free from lesions, but showed considerable atrophy, particularly in the thalamus, caudate, pallidum and putamen, and this was most apparent in secondary progressive patients with MS. Very little co-localisation of GM atrophy and lesions was seen, and this was generally confined to the cerebellum and postcentral gyrus. In both regions, GM lesions and volume independently correlated with physical disability and cognitive performance. Conclusions DIR-detectable GM lesions and GM atrophy do not significantly overlap in the brain but, when they do, they independently contribute to clinical disability.


PURPOSE
The use of radiographic response as the primary end point in phase II osteosarcoma trials may limit optimal detection of treatment response because of the calcified tumor matrix. We performed this study to determine if time to progression could be used as an end point for subsequent studies.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
We performed a retrospective analysis of outcome for patients with recurrent/refractory osteosarcoma enrolled in one of seven phase II trials conducted by the Children's Oncology Group and predecessor groups from 1997 to 2007. All trials used RECIST or WHO radiographic response criteria and the primary end point of response rate. The following potential prognostic factors-age, trial, number of prior chemotherapy regimens, sex, and race/ethnicity-were evaluated for their impact on event-free survival (EFS). We used data from a phase II study (AOST0221) of patients with osteosarcoma who were given inhaled granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor with first pulmonary recurrence who had an EFS as well as biologic end point to determine the historical disease control rate for patients with fully resected disease.

RESULTS
In each included trial, the drugs tested were determined to be inactive on the basis of radiographic response rates. The EFS for 96 patients with osteosarcoma and measurable disease was 12% at 4 months (95% CI, 6% to 19%). There was no significant difference in EFS across trials according to number of prior treatment regimens or patient age, sex, and ethnicity. The 12-month EFS for the 42 evaluable patients enrolled in AOST0221 was 20% (95% CI, 10% to 34%).

CONCLUSION
The EFS was uniformly poor for children with recurrent/refractory osteosarcoma in these single-arm phase II trials. We have now constructed baseline EFS outcomes that can be used as a comparison for future phase II trials for recurrent osteosarcoma.


The Adaptive Seeding problem is an algorithmic challenge motivated by influence maximization in social networks: One seeks to select among certain accessible nodes in a network, and then select, adaptively, among neighbors of those nodes as they become accessible in order to maximize a global objective function. More generally, adaptive seeding is a stochastic optimization framework where the choices in the first stage affect the realizations in the second stage, over which we aim to optimize. Our main result is a (1 -- 1/e)2-approximation for the adaptive seeding problem for any monotone submodular function. While adaptive policies are often approximated via non-adaptive policies, our algorithm is based on a novel method we call locally-adaptive policies. These policies combine a non-adaptive global structure, with local adaptive optimizations. This method enables the (1 -- 1/e)2-approximation for general monotone submodular functions and circumvents some of the impossibilities associated with non-adaptive policies. We also introduce a fundamental problem in submodular optimization that may be of independent interest: given a ground set of elements where every element appears with some small probability, find a set of expected size at most k that has the highest expected value over the realization of the elements. We show a surprising result: there are classes of monotone submodular functions (including coverage) that can be approximated almost optimally as the probability vanishes. For general monotone submodular functions we show via a reduction from P lanted -C lique that approximations for this problem are not likely to be obtainable. This optimization problem is an important tool for adaptive seeding via non-adaptive policies, and its hardness motivates the introduction of locally-adaptive policies we use in the main result.


Kinetics of the Escherichia coli PriA helicase interactions with the ssDNA has been studied, using the fluorescence stopped-flow technique. Experiments have been performed with a series of fluorescent etheno derivatives of ssDNA adenosine oligomers, differing in the number of nucleotide residues. The PriA helicase binds the ssDNA in the sequential process defined by [reaction: see text]. In the first step, the enzyme associates fast with the ssDNA without inducing conformational changes in the DNA. The dependence of the partial equilibrium constant, characterizing the first step, upon the length of the ssDNA strictly reflects the statistical relationship between the size of the DNA-binding site and the number of potential binding sites on the ssDNA. Only the DNA-binding site that encompasses 6.3 +/- 1 residues is directly involved in interactions. The site is located on a structural domain allowing the enzyme to efficiently search and recognize small patches of the ssDNA. Intramolecular steps are independent of the ssDNA length and accompanied by changes in the DNA structure. Salt and glycerol effects on the studied kinetics indicate a very different nature of the intermediates. While the bimolecular step is characterized by net ion release and water uptake, net ion uptake and water release accompany intramolecular transitions. Specific ion binding stabilizes the helicase-ssDNA complex in (P)(2) and (P)(3) intermediates. However, magnesium and AMP-PNP do not affect the mechanism of enzyme-ssDNA interactions. The sequential character of the mechanism indicates that the enzyme does not exist in a preequilibrium conformational transition prior to the DNA binding.


This South African Journal of Clinical Nutrition (SAJCN) issue comes at a time when childhood obesity is attracting considerable attention in the country. South Africa is a middle-income country and regarded as being in the final stage of nutrition transition. 1 Thus, while successive national surveys in South Africa have shown some decrease in the prevalence of undernutrition, particularly underweight, in children, the prevalence of chronic overnourishment (overweight and obesity) is growing progressively and is a public health concern. This was highlighted in the recently released report of the 2012 South African National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES-1), 2 which concluded that "interventions are needed to address the dual problems of chronic undernutrition (stunting) and the rapidly rising trend of overweight and obesity in children in South Africa".


Parametric Fault Diagnosis of an Active Gas Bearing Recently research into active gas bearings has had an increase in popularity. There are several factors that can make the use of gas bearings favourable. Firstly gas bearings have extremely low friction due to the usage of gas as the lubricant which reduce the needed maintenance. Secondly gas bearings is a clean technology which makes it possible to use for food processing, air condition and applications with similar requirements. Active gas bearings are therefore useful for applications where downtime is expensive and dirty lubricants such as oil are inapplicable. In order to keep as low downtime as possible it is important to be able to determine when a fault occurs. Fault diagnosis of active gas bearings is able to minimize the necessary downtime by making certain the system is only taken offline when a fault has occurred. Usually industry demands the removal of any sensor redundancy in systems. This makes it impossible to isolate faults using passive fault diagnosis. Active fault diagnosis methods have been shown able to isolate faults when there is no sensor redundancy. This makes active fault diagnosis methods relevant for industrial systems. It is in this paper shown possible to apply active fault diagnosis to diagnose parametric faults on a controllable gas bearing. The fault diagnosis is based on a statistical detector which is able to quantify the quality of the diagnosis scheme.


FFT-FBMC waveform was proposed as a modification of the conventional FBMC in order to get rid of the FBMC intrinsic interference. In this paper, we consider the coexistence of two unsynchronized pairs of transmitter/receiver using FFT-FBMC waveform, and analyze the mutual interference caused by their time misalignment. We will show that, like in FBMC, the asynchronous interference is only spread on the immediate adjacent subcarrier. Moreover, the interference level in FFT-FBMC is reduced at least by 10 dB compared to FBMC. Indeed, the interference value in FFT-FBMC has significant variations with respect to timing offset and other designing parameters of the FFT-FBMC waveform. We also evaluate the mean interference averaged with respect to timing offset. Two tables modeling the average interference power are provided and show that, in FFT-FBMC case, the interference is lower than in FBMC case.


In Better Never to Have Been, David Benatar argues that existence is always a harm (Benatar 2006: 18–59). His argument, in brief, is that this follows from a theory of personal good which we ought to accept because it best explains several 'asymmetries'. I shall argue here (a) that Benatar's theory suffers from a defect which was already widely known to afflict similar theories, and (b) that the main asymmetry he discusses is better explained in a way which allows that existence is often not a harm.


We report the implementation of a new, high brightness, high efficiency white-light source based on up-conversion phosphors. Up-conversion materials absorb near infrared light and re-emit in red, green, and blue. It is possible to combine these colors to create a white-light source. Such a source has the same appealing characteristics as those reported for up-conversion displays: very high brightness operation without damage to the emitters, long lifetimes, and efficiencies comparable to those of existing technologies. In addition, they offer simplicity of fabrication and a variety of operating modes. Here we demonstrate a 7-lm/W D65 white light emitter yielding 2 kcd/m 2 on a simple diffuser


The subgradient optimization method is a simple and flexible linear programming iterative algorithm. It is much simpler than Newton's method and can be applied to a wider variety of problems. It also converges when the objective function is non-differentiable. Since an efficient algorithm will not only produce a good solution but also take less computing time, we always prefer a simpler algorithm with high quality. In this study a series of step size parameters in the subgradient equation is studied. The performance is compared for a general piecewise function and a specific p-median problem. We examine how the quality of solution changes by setting five forms of step size parameter.


This article proposes a topological model capable of accounting for the scale and complexity of China's digital infrastructure. Beginning with the troubled development of a submarine data cable between Los Angeles and Hong Kong, it identifies the limitations of topographical analyses of ICTs and then reviews theorizations of "the stack" as a topological model of planetary computation. To situate the stack model in the Chinese context, I draw on 3 case studies—QR codes, filtering, and cybersovereignty— exemplifying three topological configurations: the gateway, the sieve, and the dome. These configurations expand the conceptual vocabulary of the stack model at different scales, and provide useful tools for the analysis of computational infrastructures in Asia and beyond.


Digital image collection as rapidly increased along with the development of computer network. Image retrieval system was developed purposely to provide an efficient tool for a set of images from a collection of images in the database that matches the user's requirements in similarity evaluations such as image content similarity, edge, and color similarity. Retrieving images based on the content which is color, texture, and shape is called content based image retrieval (CBIR). The content is actually the feature of an image and these features are extracted and used as the basis for a similarity check between images. The algorithms used to calculate the similarity between extracted features. There are two kinds of content based image retrieval which are general image retrieval and application specific image retrieval. For the general image retrieval, the goal of the query is to obtain images with the same object as the query. Such CBIR imitates web search engines for images rather than for text. For application specific, the purpose tries to match a query image to a collection of images of a specific type such as fingerprints image and x-ray. In this paper, the general architecture, various functional components, and techniques of CBIR system are discussed. CBIR techniques discussed in this paper are categorized as CBIR using color, CBIR using texture, and CBIR using shape features. This paper also describe about the comparison study about color features, texture features, shape features, and combined features (hybrid techniques) in terms of several parameters. The parameters are precision, recall and response time.


The goal of this paper is to help the motivated students with their course on interest rate modeling and/or to help them learn the LIBOR model by themselves. It implies the reader knows what forward rates, caps, and swap[tion]s are and has some knowledge of the quantitative finance: at least Ito Calculus, Black-Scholes-[Merton] Formula, Girsanov's Theorem (in one dimension is enough) and the risk-neutral pricing. This stuff is usually taught in the first course on continuous financial modeling and is relatively easy. The interest rate modeling is much more complicated. Still those, who carefully read the wonderful Steven Shreve's book can learn the short-rate models, change of numeraire and Heath-Jarrow-Morton framework. But not the multivariate LIBOR Model (though there is a short section on the one factor LIBOR Model and its relation to the HJM). However, the Bond/IR market is essentially multivariate and the LIBOR Model can be introduced independently. But I could not find any tutorial, which would suit me. So I decided to write my own. It concerns theory only and not the calibration and computational aspects, which are the issues for the future papers.


OBJECTIVES
We assessed the relation of childhood sexual abuse (CSA), intimate partner violence (IPV), and depression to HIV sexual risk behaviors among Black men who have sex with men (MSM).

METHODS
Participants were 1522 Black MSM recruited from 6 US cities between July 2009 and December 2011. Univariate and multivariable logistic regression models were used.

RESULTS
Participants reported sex before age 12 years with someone at least 5 years older (31.1%), unwanted sex when aged 12 to 16 years (30%), IPV (51.8%), and depression (43.8%). Experiencing CSA when aged 12 to 16 years was inversely associated with any receptive condomless anal sex with a male partner (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 0.50; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.29, 0.86). Pressured or forced sex was positively associated with any receptive anal sex (AOR = 2.24; 95% CI = 1.57, 3.20). Experiencing CSA when younger than 12 years, physical abuse, emotional abuse, having been stalked, and pressured or forced sex were positively associated with having more than 3 male partners in the past 6 months. Among HIV-positive MSM (n = 337), CSA between ages 12 and 16 years was positively associated with having more than 3 male partners in the past 6 months.

CONCLUSIONS
Rates of CSA, IPV, and depression were high, but associations with HIV sexual risk outcomes were modest.


Interfacial fluctuation effects occurring at wedge- and cone-filling transitions are investigated and shown to exhibit very different characteristics. For both geometries we argue that the conditions for observing critical (continuous) filling are much less restrictive than for critical wetting, which is known to require the fine tuning of the Hamaker constants. Wedge filling is critical if the wetting binding potential does not exhibit a local maximum, whilst conic filling is critical if the line tension is negative. This latter scenario is particularly encouraging for future experimental studies. Using mean-field and effective Hamiltonian approaches, which allow for breather-mode fluctuations which translate the interface up and down the sides of the confining geometry, we are able to completely classify the possible critical behaviours (for purely thermal disorder). For the three-dimensional wedge, the interfacial fluctuations are very strong and characterized by a universal roughness critical exponent ν⊥W = 1/4 independent of the range of the forces. For the physical dimensions d = 2 and d = 3, we show that the effect of the cone geometry on the fluctuations at critical filling is to mimic the analogous interfacial behaviour occurring at critical wetting in the strong-fluctuation regime. In particular, for d = 3 and for quite arbitrary choices of the intermolecular potential, the filling height and roughness show the same critical properties as those predicted for three-dimensional critical wetting with short-ranged forces in the large-wetting-parameter (ω>2) regime.


The aim of this retrospective study was to assess prevalence, risk factors, clinical presentation and outcome of phenobarbitone induced haematological abnormalities (PBIHA) in dogs. The medical records of two veterinary referral institutions were searched for dogs diagnosed with idiopathic epilepsy and treated with PB as monotherapy or polytherapy between March 2003 and September 2010. Sixteen dogs had PBIHA; the median age at diagnosis was 69.5 months. Phenobarbitone was administered at a median dose of 3 mg/kg twice a day for a median period of 100.5 days and the median serum phenobarbitone level was 19 μg/ml. Two dogs had neutropenia, three had anaemia and thrombocytopenia, two had anaemia and neutropenia; the remaining nine had pancytopenia. All dogs were referred for non-specific clinical signs. Phenobarbitone was discontinued after diagnosis, and the median time to resolution of PBIHA was 17 days. The prevalence and risk factors for PBIHA were evaluated from a questionnaire survey of referring practices to obtain more detailed follow-up on cases diagnosed with idiopathic epilepsy. The prevalence rate of PBIHA was 4.2%, and the condition occurred in dogs treated with standard therapeutic doses often within the first three months after starting treatment. Serial haematological evaluations should be therefore considered from the beginning of phenobarbitone therapy to allow early diagnosis and treatment of PBIHA.


Many natural products and xenobiotics become glucosylated in the course of their metabolism in plants. This reaction is catalysed by type 1 UDP-glucose dependent glucosyltransferases (GTs), a super-family of enzymes which differ in their substrate specificity and which are able to glucosylate hydroxy, amino and carboxylic acid groups to form conjugates with altered bioactivities as compared with the parent aglycones. This study has focused both on NGT and OGT enzymes active towards amino and hydroxy groups, respectively, present in natural products and pesticide metabolites in two major crops (Zea mays and Glycine max) and the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. A sensitive radioactive enzyme assay was developed to monitor conjugating activity in vitro and the substrate specificity of N-GTs and O-GTs determined in the three plant species with respect to xenobiotic detoxification. 3,4-Dichloroaniline was found to be the optimal N-GT substrate and 2,4,5-trichlorophenol the preferred 0-GT substrate in all the species tested. In addition, O-GT activities were also determined with other phenols of both natural and synthetic origin. To confirm the importance of N-GTs and O-GTs in xenobiotic detoxification, plant metabolism studies were carried out with [(^14)C]-p-nitrophenol and [(^14)C]-3,4-dichloroaniline. In each case, O- I N-glucosylation was found to be a major route of detoxification respectively. To determine whether or not herbicide-safeners could enhance the glucosylation of xenobiotics as had been demonstrated for the S-glutathionylation of herbicides in cereals; soybean, maize and Arabidopsis were treated with a range of safeners. The plants were then either fed with radiolabelled [(^14)C]-3,4-dichloroaniline, or extracted and assayed for O-GT and N-GT activities. In all species, safener treatment had no significant effect on the rate of uptake of radioactivity following feeding with [(^14)C]-3,4-dichloroaniline. However, specific safeners were found to enliance N-GT and O-GT activities in etiolated shoots, roots or suspension cultures in all species where tested. Several attempts were made to clone GT enzymes from soybean and maize based on a combination of bioinformatic and PCR approaches, the latter using conserved blocks of sequence in type 1 plant GTs to amplify up partial cDNAs. Using PCR and analysis of soybean expressed tagged accessions, it was possible to assemble a full-length cDNA from soybean which encoded a GT resembling an arbutin synthase GT from Rauvolfia serpentina. Although the resulting GT (GmGT32_l) could be expressed as a recombinant polypeptide in E.coli, the resulting protein was inactive and accumulated in the insoluble inclusion bodies. In the case of maize, a GT termed Z/wRP was identified as a random sequenced clone from a proprietary maize cDNA library. However, ZmRP could not be translated into protein using bacterial expression systems. Instead, an alternative proteomics approach at isolating plant GTs involved in xenobiotic detoxification was undertaken in Arabidopsis, using suspension cultured cells as the starting material. The major N-GT conjugating activity towards 3,4-dichloroaniline was purified 9552-fold using a combination of hydrophobic interaction, ion exchange, and affinity chromatographies. The resulting 50 kDa polypeptide was digested with trypsin and the peptide fragments analysed by MALDI TOF MS. Database analysis unambiguously identified the Arabidopsis protein as UGT72B1 (NM 116337). Following the completion of the Ph.D. programme the activity of GT72B1 towards 3,4-dichloroaniline, 2,4,5-trichlorophenol and other xenobiotics was confirmed and an account of the studies earned out on Arabidopsis GTs published (Lao, et al., 2003), (Loutre, et al., 2003).


Mental health services are now required to provide culturally appropriate levels of care, but statutory services have difficulties providing multi-cultural effective services. There has been a vacuum in the understanding of what constitutes culturally appropriate mental health assessment for Asian men. This study provides exploratory data on (i) current assessment procedures applied by different agencies and professionals providing mental health services and (ii) Asian men's experience of the mental health assessments. Mental health providers and male south Asian service users in south London were approached. We interviewed three mental health professionals and eight south Asian men who were using mental health services. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted, and the interview recorded, transcribed and subjected to a content analysis. We identifed Asian men's and mental health professionals' views about the adequacy of current assessment procedures. Cultural issues including religious beliefs were rarely discussed with Asian men in distress, where such discussions were considered by the men to be potentially helpful in their assessment. Cultural beliefs influenced coping styles, but these were rarely assessed. Asian men appeared not to understand the nature of their diagnosis and the rationale for treatment, some perceiving their treatment as authoritarian and disrespectful. Mental health service providers should develop more effective and comprehensive assessment procedures which include the assessment of culturally grounded health beliefs and expectations as well as religious issues.


Aspergilli are filamentous fungi which can cause opportunistic infections in Acquired Immunodeficiency
Syndrome (AIDS) patients. Aspergilli can be found in human tissues either in the form of
spores or hyphae. p53 is a tumor suppressor gene located in the short arm of chromosome 17. It is
a potent transcriptional regulator of genes which are involved in many cellular activities including
cell cycle arrest, apoptosis and angiogenesis. A loss of tumor suppressor function of p53 is the
most common event leading to the development of human cancers. The rate by which p53 has a
homology between different species has been reported from human to other vertebrates, it has
been reported that it is available within Drosophila melanogaster and C. elegans [1] [2]. The aim of
this study is to check if p53 is localized within Aspergilli or not using immunohistochemical techniques
and study the relationship between Aspergilli infection and p53 in human lung tissues. 45
different samples of lung tissues, diagnosed as being none tumor, were taken randomly during the
year of 2003-2004 from the autopsy cases submitted to the forensic medicine center in Irbid, Jordan.
The sample group consisted of 12 females and 33 males. Labeled Streptavidin Biotin (LSAB)
method and Mach-4 method were used to determine the Aspergilli infection and p53. The results
show that the Aspergillus is presented in all used samples (100% of the infection) in the form of
spores or hyphae and all infected samples have mutant p53 molecules (p53 was located in Aspergillus
spores and hyphae). According to this study, it is safe to posit that the mutant p53 molecules
may be used by Aspergillus for its multiplication. Seemingly it is a biological behavior of Aspergillus
to produce p53. The fate of the p53 is questioned, is it going to interact with the human cells
initiating cancer? Further experimental investigations are required to determine such pathway. In
conclusion, this study shows that Aspergillus is a producing agent for p53 and Aspergillus pathogenicity
is caused by production of p53.


The effect of vehicle weight on dynamic loading and vibrations in road structures is examined for eight commercial vehicles with gross weights in the range 32 to 44 tons (32.5 to 44.7 mg). In general there was no obvious relationship between gross vehicle weight and dynamic loading or vibrations, but this may have been obscured by the influence of other vehicle parameters. A comparison of two vehicles having similar structural characteristics showed a slight increase in these quantities with increasing weight. This was insufficient evidence for a generalisation to be made. The dynamic behaviour of individual suspension systems proved to have the most influence on loading and vibrations. The mechanical coupling of some double axled systems gave rise to repeated cycles of loading. Theoretical work shows that this damaging situation can be controlled by suitable suspension design. The test showed that vehicles with gross weights as high as 44 tons (44.7 mg) need not generate larger dynamic loads or vibrations than are produced by some existing 32 ton (32.5 mg) vehicles. They also showed that dynamic effects due to some current vehicles could be reduced below their present levels. /Author/TRRL/


Cloud computing refers to a type of networked computing whereby an application can be run on connected servers instead of local servers. Cloud can be used to store data, share resources and also to provide services. Technically, there is very little difference between public and private cloud architecture. However, the security and privacy of the data is a very big issue when sensitive data is being entrusted to third party cloud service providers. Thus encryption with a fine grained access control is inevitable to enforce security in clouds. Several techniques implementing attribute based encryption for fine grained access control have been proposed. Under such approaches, the key management overhead is a little bit high in terms of computational complexity. Also, secret sharing mechanisms have added complexity. Moreover, they lack mechanisms to handle existence of traitors. Our proposed approach addresses these requirements and reduces the overhead of the key management as well as secret sharing by using efficient algorithms and protocols. Also, a traitor tracing technique is introduced into the cloud computing two layer encryption environment.


STATISTICS FOR MANAGEMENT AND ECONOMICS ABBREVIATED, 8e, emphasizes applications over calculation. It illustrates how vital statistical methods and tools are for today's managers--and teaches you how to apply them to real business problems. Using a proven three-step "ICI" approach to problem solving, the text teaches you how to IDENTIFY the correct statistical technique by focusing on the problem objective and data type; how to COMPUTE the statistics doing them by hand, using Excel, or using MINITAB(TM); and how to INTERPRET results in the context of the problem. This unique approach enhances your comprehension and practical skills. The text's vast assortment of data-driven examples, exercises, and cases covers the various functional areas of business, demonstrating the statistical applications that marketing managers, financial analysts, accountants, economists, and others use. These comprehensive applications give you hands-on practice, while solid pedagogical elements make the material more accessible and easy to apply to your world. In addition, learning resources such as ThomsonNOW(TM) and the Student Suite CD-ROM maximize study time to help you achieve the results you want. Completely up-to-date, the eighth edition offers comprehensive coverage, current examples, and Excel 2007 and MINITAB 15(TM) content.


The purpose of this thesis is to ask: what are the issues that divide today's Liberals, Rawls, Dworkin, and Kymlicka for example, from their Communitarian critics, Sandel, Taylor, MacIntyre and so forth, and how may we see the political theorizing of Michael Oakeshott as going some way to answering, explaining and criticizing these issues. At root, it would appear that the principal issue that divides the Liberals from the Communitarians is agency: what it is, how it ought to be understood, and the normative consequences that are regarded as following from such differing understandings. In the case of the Liberals, they are said to employ an "unembedded" or "emotivist" conception of the self plainly indebted to Kant, with the normative consequences being that of the justification and promulgation of the procedural republic in which impartial justice is regarded as "the first virtue of social institutions." The Communitarians, by contrast, are regarded as employing a more "Hegelian" conception of agency, one in which practice precedes principal, justice is an important element in a complex whole, and the normative consequences are that of the promulgation of a perfectionist "politics of the good." However, in this dissertation, I dispute that the issue that divides the Liberals from the Communitarians is one of philosophy. I prefer in-stead to suggest it is actually one of politics and that such politics as it is composed can best be seen by examining the respective political dispositions, though not philosophies, of Kant and Hegel, and through the lenses of Oakeshott's understanding of Rationalism in Politics. I say this because while the Liberals and the Communitarians borrow the political dispositions of Kant and Hegel, they eschew the metaphysics with which Kant and Hegel underwrote their political philosophies, and it is from such metaphysics that they acquire their normative legitimacy. However, without such metaphysics, they merely become examples of what Oakeshott terms Rationalism in Politics. Once I have staked out these two 'dispositions' in political theorizing in Chapters 4 and 5, I then examine the respective relevant expositors of these dispositions in the current debate. John Rawls's A Theory of Justice will be examined in Chapter 6 as the paradigm example of Deontological Liberalism. Chapters 7 and 8 will examine Alasdair MacIntyre and Charles Taylor's critique of the contemporary theory and practice of Liberalism respectively. Chapter 9 will examine Richard Rorty's attempt at a post-modern ideal. Liberal utopia as a response to our current condition, and lastly, in chapter 10, I shall examine Oakeshott's ideal character of civil association as presented in On Human Conduct as a non-normative resolution of certain important facets of the Liberal-Communitarian debate. Chapter 11 shall provide a summary of the dissertation so far, as well as examine the alternative politics of truly rational conduct. By constructing the dissertation in this way, I hope to demonstrate the following points: One, that today's debate is as much about politics as it is philosophy; two, that there really is much more common ground between the Liberals and the Communitarians than either side is willing to recognize; three, that the Liberal-Communitarian debate is much more parochial and historically bound than might otherwise be thought; and lastly, that in Oakeshott's critique of what he calls Rationalism in Politics, which I examine in Chapter 3, standing on the shoulders of his idealist conception of philosophy presented in Experience and its Modes, we may gain a perspective and critique of the debate that would otherwise remain hidden.


Understanding the powerful factors of sodium reduction benefits older adults by leading to reduce many health risks, lower the health care cost and diminished economic and social burden. This study had two aims: 1) to explore to what degree four factors – selected basic conditioning factors, knowledge of sodium reduction, sodium reduction self-care agency, and sodium reduction self-care behavior predict urinary sodium excretion in hypertensive seniors, 2) to test whether these variables related to sodium reduction were congruent with Orem's Self-Care Theory.
Based on this theory, internal and external conditioning factors were proposed as either positively or negatively influencing an individual's knowledge and capability in sodium reduction or self-care agency. These factors may have had either direct or indirect effects toward self-care behavior. If persons anticipated their knowledge and competence, they would use these clues for taking action in certain situations. These factors were expected to encourage sodium reduction self-care behavior. Later, the ultimate outcome in changing this behavior by consuming less dietary sodium was inversely represented by low urinary sodium excretion.
A cross-sectional, correlational study was conducted in 312 patients age 60 or over who had been diagnosed with hypertension. The Knowledge of Dietary Sodium Reduction Scale, the Dietary Sodium Reduction Self-Care Agency Scale, and the Dietary Sodium Reduction Self-Care Behavior Scale were used in this study along with the 24-hour urinary sodium analysis. Structural equation modeling and the Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS) program were used to analyze the data.
The final model of sodium reduction self-care behavior and urinary sodium excretion fit the data well. Significant associations among variables were observed which were consistent with Orem's Self-Care Theory. Sodium reduction self-care agency, knowledge of sodium reduction, rural/urban, and education accounted for 39% of the variance explaining sodium reduction self-care behavior. Additionally, sodium reduction self-care behavior, sodium reduction self-care agency, knowledge of sodium reduction, rural/urban, and education accounted for 61% of the urinary sodium excretion. Knowledge of sodium reduction and sodium reduction self-care agency were the most important variable in the sodium reduction self-care behavior model and the urinary sodium excretion model, respectively.


Many of the Supreme Court's important holdings concerning campaign finance law are not pure matters of constitutional interpretation. Rather, they are "contingent" constitutional determinations: the Court's conclusions rest in substantial part on legislative facts about the world that the Court finds, intuits, or assumes to be true. While earlier commentators have recognized the need to improve legislative factfinding by the Supreme Court, other aspects of its treatment of legislative facts — particularly in the realm of campaign finance — require reform, as well. Stare decisis purportedly insulates the Court's purely legal holdings and interpretations from future challenge. Factually contingent constitutional rulings should, in contrast, be more susceptible to future revision. The facts underlying contingent holdings may change, litigants in a later case may present different evidence concerning those facts, social or technological developments may occur, new discoveries may be made, or a later court's assessments or assumptions concerning those facts may differ. The Court's campaign finance jurisprudence exhibits the opposite tendency of what theory would predict, however. The Court has proven much more willing to revisit its purely legal interpretations of the First Amendment than its constitutionally contingent holdings. Many of the Court's campaign finance rulings pay insufficient attention to the importance of legislative facts. They reiterate holdings of prior cases as if they were pure declarations of law, without recognizing the underlying legislative facts upon which those holdings depend. This can lead future courts to overestimate these holdings' binding force, overlooking their dependence on certain facts. Several cases also make critical assertions concerning legislative facts without citing support either in the record or from extrinsic sources. Perhaps the biggest impediment to the effective use of legislative facts in campaign finance cases is the vagueness of the decision rules the Court has crafted to implement the First Amendment in this field. Many of the Court's doctrines turn on standards — for example, whether an act poses a risk of apparent corruption — that are vague, underdefined, and fail to provide litigants and future courts with sufficient guidance concerning the nature and extent of evidence necessary to satisfy them. Such indeterminacy allows courts to resolve campaign finance cases based primarily on subjective, ad hoc intuitions and preferences rather than provable legislative facts.


My paper focuses on two forms of teachers' written feedback: direct, i.e. correction of errors, including grammar, punctuation and spelling; and indirect, which identifies but does not correct problems – either real or potential. I argue that the two forms, when they are com- bined, have an important role to play in guiding students to an under- standing of what constitutes a "good" written text in English. Such an understanding is an important element in the overall goal of academic writing, which is not only to produce a text that satisfies the requirements of the examiner but also to create and promote a distinct and stable scholarly identity – an aspect of writing that is often neglected in studies of writing. Unlike much research on the subject, my article focuses on an individual student, a Chinese postgraduate of English at Kristianstad University.


Social media services such as Twitter generate phenomenal volume of content for most real-world events on a daily basis. Digging through the noise and redundancy to understand the important aspects of the content is a very challenging task. We propose a search and summarization framework to extract relevant representative tweets from a time-ordered sample of tweets to generate a coherent and concise summary of an event. We introduce two topic models that take advantage of temporal correlation in the data to extract relevant tweets for summarization. The summarization framework has been evaluated using Twitter data on four real-world events. Evaluations are performed using Wikipedia articles on the events as well as using Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) with human readers (MTurkers). Both experiments show that the proposed models outperform traditional LDA and lead to informative summaries.


A microlithographically fabricated iridium ultramicroelectrode array is used to provide a disk array for formation of mercury microhemispheres. The mercury ultramicroelectrode array (Hg UMEA) shows a response with chronoamperometry and square wave anodic stripping voltammetry equivalent to that expected for a single Hg UME. The array, made up of 19 interconnected 10-pm-diameter UMEs, provides a multiplication of the signal current proportional to the number of UMEs in the array, without any indications of overlap of the diffusion fields. Deposited mercury on the iridium disks is physically and chemically stable with no indication of degradation or dissolution of the iridium pads even after several days of use. This microlithographically fabricated device provides a stable, welldefined, and reproducible array of mercury ultramicroelectrodes. The analytical utility and performance of the Hg UMEA is demonstrated by the analysis of Cd(II), Pb(II), and Cu(I1) in neat spring water samples.


Abstract This paper evaluates ceramic membrane performance and fouling mechanisms in the ultrafiltration of model oil-in-water solutions with addition of NaCl. First, the work estimated the effect of main process parameters, i.e. transmembrane pressure, cross-flow velocity and NaCl content in the feed on oil rejection and permeate flux using 23 experimental design. The ultrafiltration experiments were carried out using pilot installation with commercial tubular ceramic 300 kDa membrane. Ultrafiltration data obtained using experimental design technique was used to determine the regression coefficients of polynomial equations. These equations give information on non-conjugated as well as conjugated effects of two operating parameters and one feed parameter on ceramic membrane performance in ultrafiltration process of model oil-in-water-NaCl solutions. Moreover, these equations can help to determine optimal conditions for ultrafiltration process from the point of view of membrane permeability and selectivity. Next, ultrafiltration results were analyzed using resistance-in-series model. It was found that the process is membrane resistance limited. It was also stated that, resistance caused by reversible fouling is greater than irreversible fouling resistance. Finally, pore blocking models based on modified Hermia's equation were used to determine membrane fouling mechanism responsible for permeate flux decline with ultrafiltration time. In investigated system ceramic membrane fouling was caused by complete and intermediate pore blocking mechanisms.


Gordon I. R. Ambition, human capital acquisition and the metropolitan escalator, Regional Studies. This paper examines the relation between ambition, as a form of dynamic human capital, and the escalator role of high-order metropolitan regions, as originally identified by A. J. Fielding. It argues that occupational progression in such places particularly depends on concentrations both of people with more of this asset and of jobs offering preferential access to valued elements of tacit knowledge, interacting in thick, competitive labour markets. This is partially confirmed with analyses of British Household Panel Study (BHPS) data on long-term progression showing that only the more ambitious gain from residence in the extended London region, and that they only progress faster there.


Abstract Objectives: Although patients with depression often suffer from sleep disturbances, most of them are not sleepy. Upregulation of brain arousal has been proposed as pathophysiological mechanism explaining sleep disturbances, inner tension, autonomic hyperarousal and anhedonia in depression. The aim of the current study was to examine the association between night-time sleep disturbances and brain arousal regulation the next day in depressed versus non-depressed subjects. Methods: Twenty-eight elderly subjects (21 female; age = 70.5 ± 4.4 years) with depressive syndromes without psychotropic medication, and 28 controls (22 female; age = 70.9 ± 4.5 years), underwent a 15-min resting electroencephalogram; the Vigilance Algorithm Leipzig (VIGALL 2.1) provided an objective measure of brain arousal regulation. Sleep disturbances were assessed by a validated and self-rated sleep questionnaire. Results: In the depressive group, but not in controls, more sleep disturbances were associated with a higher brain arousal stability score (high score corresponds to upregulation) the next day (sleep onset latency: rs = 0.69, P < .0001; sleep quality: rs = −0.59, P < .001). Conclusions: The data confirm the hypothesis that in persons with depressive syndromes sleep disturbances are related to upregulation of brain arousal the next day. This finding is in line with the concept that dysregulation of brain arousal is a central pathophysiological aspect in depression.


This paper examines whether cultural dimensions explain the variation in corporate cash holdings around the world as well as within the United States. We establish four major findings. First, in an international setting, corporate cash holdings are negatively associated with individualism and positively associated with uncertainty-avoidance. Second, individualism and uncertainty avoidance influence the precautionary motive for holding cash. Third, firms in individualistic states in the United States hold less cash than firms in collectivistic states. Fourth, we show that individualism is positively related to the firm's capital expenditures, acquisitions, and repurchases while uncertainty avoidance is negatively related. Our findings remain unchanged after controlling for governance factors, firm attributes, and country characteristics.


Populations of lesser scaup and greater scaup have been below the North American Waterfowl Management Plan goal of 6.3 million since 1984. As of 2013, scaup populations are down 12% from their long term average (1955-2013) of 4.7 million birds (Walker 2005). Nesting success has shown to be an important factor in determining population growth. If the mechanisms of nesting success can be identified wildlife managers can make the necessary changes to increase scaup nesting success and thus increase the population. Nests were located during nest searches conducted from May through July and monitored until fate was determined. Nest age, nest location, vegetation height, distance to water and depth of water were recorded at each nest. Program MARK was used to determine known fate models. The model that incorporated both nest age and the effect of nest date showed the greatest support. I found a greater influence of date on nesting daily survival rate than age during this study, although both positively influenced scaup nest daily survival rate. The positive relationship between scaup nest daily survival rate and date, provided support for the nest concealment hypothesis. This posits that increasing vegetation height and density throughout the nesting season decreases predation. Sugden and Beyersbergen (1987) found similar results that artificial nests in tall, dense nesting cover escaped predation from crows for longer than those in sparse cover. The positive effect of nest age on nest survival supports the nest heterogeneity hypothesis, i.e., that low quality nests are depredated at a higher rate than nests of higher quality. Although these results have been supported by others (Klett and Johnson 1982) it has not received