Comparison of catchment geomorphology and lithostratigraphical analysis of sediments in two small neighbouring alpine lakes show that the minerogenic influx into the lakes has varied significantly during the Holocene, despite similarities in environmental setting. One lake contains a homogeneous organic-rich sediment sequence whereas the sediment of the other lake is laminated and has a higher minerogenic content. X-ray radiographs are used to visualise lithostrati- graphical structures and provide high-resolution density data. We find that moderate differences in geomorphology and process activity in the lakeshore region around alpine lakes can significantly affect the lake sediment composition. Minerogenic sediment accumulation rates vary strongly over time, owing to different depositional processes, which compli- cate temporal reconstructions. We also find that non-glacial processes deposit minerogenic sediment layers with similar characteristics (high density, low organic content) as layers interpreted as having a glaciofluvial origin. This has implications for palaeoclimate studies based on proglacial lacustrine sediment. Our results indicate that erosion of surface sediments in the catchments characterised the early Holocene. A low and constant minerogenic inflow indicates that stable environmental conditions (with little fluvial erosion) were established in the catchments during the middle Holocene. The varia- bility in sediment composition increased again in the late Holocene, possibly as a result of short-term climate fluctuations superimposed on a general climate deterioration trend. Copyright 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Male fiddler crabs are commonly recognized by the presence of a single massive claw used in a variety of contexts, including territorial defence, agonistic interactions, and courtship behaviour. The most common behavioural context involving these enlarged chelipeds is their use in waving displays, which are remarkably diverse among species. Although the waving display is one of the most obvious behavioural features of male fiddler crabs, little is known about their main evolutionary trends during the diversification of the genus. The present study employed phylogenetic comparative methods to investigate the evolution of waving behaviour in a sample of 19 species of Uca from Central and North America. Digital recordings were used to quantify the temporal dynamics of waving behaviour in each species. Multivariate ordination methods were used to assess whether different elements of the display showed distinct evolutionary dynamics, particularly with respect to body size and the environment where species are most commonly found. Most of the interspecific variation in displays involves differences in the overall waving velocity, with no correspondence to their local environments, nor their body size. Interestingly, despite the strong concentration of variance in the first two ordination axes, there was no statistically significant evidence for phylogenetic signals in their respective scores. These results suggest that the overall structure of waving displays is evolutionarily labile, at the same time as being concentrated in a few particular axes of variation, possibly indicating evolution along lines of least resistance. The approach employed in the present study highlights the utility of phylogenetic comparative methods for elucidating the evolution of complex behavioural characteristics, such as the waving display in male fiddler crabs. © 2012 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2012, 106, 307–315.


Antimicrobials with specific activity against Gram-positive cocci (glycopeptides, oxazolidinones and streptogramins) have pharmacokinetic differences that are important to know. Linezolid and teicoplanin can be administered extravascularly due to their good bioavailability, allowing their use as sequential therapy in patients requiring prolonged treatment. All of these antimicrobials have an adequate distribution in extracellular tissues, even teicoplanin, due to the balance between the fraction that is bound and unbound to plasma proteins and its long terminal half-life. As the elimination of glycopeptides is almost exclusively renal, it is necessary to perform a posology adjustment in patients with renal failure. Quinupristin/dalfopristin and linezolid are metabolized by the liver, but CYP450 is only involved in streptogramin elimination.


To the Editor: I read with interest the review article by Kim and Nemergut entitled "Preparation of Modern Anesthesia Workstations for Malignant Hyperthermia-susceptible Patients." The authors are to be congratulated on this comprehensive review describing the challenges to preparing a modern anesthesia machine for use with malignant hyperthermia (MH)-susceptible patients. Indeed, their review of the literature suggests that a straightforward method of preparing the machine that can be applied to all workstations has not been determined. Further, the current information on the Malignant Hyperthermia Association of the United States website does not provide practical guidance to prepare all types of anesthesia machines.* For the anesthesia practitioner, reading the available literature does not provide a clear approach to be used in practice. A new device promises to provide an easy method for preparing any anesthesia workstation for MH-susceptible patients in just a few minutes. The Vapor-Clean device (Dynasthetics Inc., Salt Lake City, UT) consists of charcoal filters designed to be placed between the anesthesia machine and the inspiratory and expiratory limbs of the breathing circuit. The rationale for this approach is sound and based on the well-known property of activated charcoal to absorb potent anesthetic vapors that can trigger MH. If a clean breathing circuit is used and the Vapor-Clean device is in place, anesthetic vapor contaminating the internal components of the anesthesia workstation is prevented from reaching the patient. Previous studies have documented the utility of activated charcoal for preparing the anesthesia machine but to date, a convenient device designed and approved by the Food and Drug Administration for this purpose has not existed. A study of the Vapor-Clean has demonstrated that the concentration of anesthetic agents (isoflurane, sevoflurane, and desflurane) in the breathing circuit can immediately be reduced to less than 5 ppm immediately upon placing the device in the circuit. The concentration of anesthetic vapor that protects the susceptible patient from an MH reaction has never been determined with certainty, but concentrations less than 5 ppm are generally considered acceptable, and the results documented in the abstract exceed that goal. With the introduction of the Vapor-Clean device, a simple approach to rapidly preparing any anesthesia workstation for the MH susceptible patient now exists. Additional studies will likely document the universal utility of this device for all workstations and anesthetic vapors, but given the simplicity of the device and the well-known properties of activated charcoal, I submit that there is sufficient evidence to adopt this device into clinical practice. The manufacturer provides a clear protocol for using the device that can be easily implemented by any practitioner. With the advent of the VaporClean device, it would seem that the challenge of protecting MH susceptible patients from trace amounts of anesthetic vapor has been solved.


Trust typically becomes an issue when we find it wanting. In Internet governance, it was the disclosure of mass surveillance that has drawn new attention to trust as a crucial resource of engagement and collaboration. But what exactly is trust? Public discourse tends to create a binary understanding that portrays trust as a positive and distrust as a negative thing. This article challenges this view by suggesting that trust and distrust co-occur and that distrust can be a productive source of institution-building. It will be argued that modern constitutions are examples of how distrust towards the abuse of power has been transformed into generalized trust. Democracies are able to generate basic cultures of trust by institutionalizing the fear of its abuse. Normative certainty, reliable mechanisms of accountability and the enforcement of rights, duties and responsibilities are among the conditions conducive to the development of general trust in governance arrangements. Internet governance, characterized by a constitutional framework still in its infancy, faces the challenge to generate the specific conditions itself for creating generalized trust in its institutions. The first section of this paper discusses concepts of trust with implications for the political sphere. The second section illuminates the sphere of Internet governance from a trust perspective. The third section briefly describes the crisis of confidence in Internet governance caused by Edward Snowden's revelations about mass surveillance on the Internet. This crisis of confidence serves as the empirical background for two scenarios sketching out potential trajectories in Internet governance. Referring to Albert Hirschman's concept of voice and exit, the first scenario assumes that a significant loss of trust facilitates a process of constitutionalization of Internet governance while the second suggests that the decline of trust accelerates a gradual fragmentation of the Internet.


Aerodynamic loads may have effects on the hunting stability, and the factor of curved track makes it more complicated. Therefore, considering the steady aerodynamic loads generated by crosswind and airflow in the opposite advancing direction of train, the hunting stability of high-speed railway vehicle on a curved track is studied in this paper. The changes of gravitational restoring force and creep coefficients which are caused by aerodynamic loads are considered, and the change of equilibrium position due to aerodynamic loads, centrifugal force and the factor of curved track is also in consideration. A mathematical model of a high-speed railway vehicle during curve negotiation with aerodynamic loads is set up. A program based on the model is written and verified. Using this program, the linear critical speed considering the effects of aerodynamic loads is determined by the eigenvalue analysis. This paper investigates the critical speeds in three aerodynamic conditions. Considering the aerodynamic loads, the dependence of critical speed on curve radius and super-elevation is analyzed, and the impact of aerodynamic loads on instability mode is analyzed as well. In addition, this paper obtains the dominant factors affecting critical speed and the variation tendency of critical speed with primary longitudinal stiffness by orthogonal experiments. The results show that the critical speed decreases or increases while the wind is blowing to outer rail or inner rail respectively. The aerodynamic loads produce obvious effects on the instability mode. The variation tendency of critical speed dependence on curve radius in the conditions with aerodynamic loads keeps consistent with the case without aerodynamic loads. It is seen from the orthogonal experiments that, aerodynamic loads and curve radius are the dominant factors affecting linear critical speed of vehicle on a curved track, and the linear critical speed decreases with the increasing of primary longitudinal stiffness.


A classic finding of the psychology of memory is the "serial position effect." Immediate free recall of a word list is more efficient for items presented early (primacy effect) or late (recency effect), with respect to those in the middle. In an event-related, randomized block design, we interfered with the encoding of unrelated words lists with brief trains of repetitive TMS (rTMS), applied coincidently with the acoustic presentation of each word to the left dorsolateral pFC, the left intraparietal lobe, and a control site (vertex). Interference of rTMS with encoding produced a clear-cut double dissociation on accuracy during immediate free recall. The primacy effect was selectively worsened by rTMS of the dorsolateral pFC, whereas recency was selectively worsened by rTMS of the intraparietal lobe. These results are in agreement with the double dissociation between short-term and long-term memory observed in neuropsychological patients and provide direct evidence of distinct cortical mechanisms of encoding in the human brain.


Purpose:

There is historical evidence that the success rate for major infrastructure projects in developing countries is significantly lower than in those with more mature economies. Further, it is perhaps axiomatic that developing countries have greater difficulties funding such projects and have less capacity to absorb any losses incurred. In addition, it could be argued that any finance available could be better deployed, at least in the short term, to address immediate issues such as providing medical or famine relief. This situation is often exacerbated by the over-optimistic claims of project advocates (Fiedler. J., Kostka. G., Anzinger. N., & Schuster. S., 2016) and the belief by populous of some developing countries that any benefits accruing from such projects will not be fairly distributed (Jenkins. A.K. & Savage. C.J., 2016).

In the light of this is it morally or ethically justifiable to invest in long term infrastructure projects in the hope of improvements through trade development when the chances of success may be limited and there are more urgent needs for finance?

Research approach:

The research is exploratory in nature and uses a qualitative design, incorporating multiple case studies that have been deliberately selected because they share a common feature (Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill, 2012), namely these megaprojects are deemed to have failed (although the meaning of failure needs to be established). The selected mega transport and logistics infrastructure projects are located in either a developing country (South Africa) or a developed country (Germany) to establish the effects of failure on the country concerned. Major issues and themes are identified from a comparative analysis of the case studies (Quinlan, Babin, Carr, Griffin & Zikmund, 2015) and conclusions drawn.

Findings:

The findings synthesised information from previous research, literature and new data to define types of project failure and their causes as well as the probable impact of both success and failure. This showed that, in developing countries, the chances of major infrastructure projects succeeding, generating income through increased trade and retaining it in the country as well as distributing it evenly across the population are not great. Combining the probabilities of these factors suggests that the chance of such a development succeeding and leading to a genuine distribution of the resulting income is likely to be very small.

Financial resources tend to be limited in developing countries, their capacity to absorb the impact of failure very small and what financial resources are available may be needed urgently for other purposes, such as medicine or famine relief. Set against this is the consideration that if no infrastructure investment is made, logistics and therefore trade development will also be restricted.

Therefore, there is an ethical dimension to the risk assessment and decision making process that should precede the commissioning of these projects.

Research Impact:

The output supports previous research and challenges the ethics of developing nations making speculative investments in major infrastructure developments where this may restrict the funding of potentially more immediately beneficial projects.

Practical Impact:

The identification of this ethical issue could contribute to triple bottom line costing of future large infrastructure developments in developing countries. The research shows that project risk and benefit analysis in developing countries must include the impact on those members of the population living at a subsistence level, who may not have a 'political voice' as well as those that may be more obvious beneficiaries.


The effects of trigger laser pulse width on the jitter time of a GaAs photoconductive semiconductor switch (PCSS) is investigated in the experiment. The laser is split into two optical beams by a cross grating to excite two 3 mm gap GaAs PCSSs in parallel at the same time. This work reveals that the jitter time of the GaAs PCSS is reduced as the trigger laser pulse width decreases. Our results overcome a significant obstacle that hinders the testing and theory of GaAs PCSSs in high-time-precision synchronous control.


What present study purports is to explore two kinds of contrast transitions occurring to Korean vowel inventory, i.e. diphthongization of front rounded vowels /y/ and /ø/ and merger of front mid-vowels /e/ and /ɛ/. Overall, our endeavors start from the premise that the weak contrast associated with concerned vocalic segments might bring about the wavering of what they sound like. The null hypothesis is that the correlates derived from a certain amount of information as a measure of communicative efficiency deeply impact the determination of the degree of contrast among phonological units. For the purpose, relying on the corpora based on written and spoken texts, and other subsidiary data sources, the intervention of surprisal, entropic contribution, relative contrastiveness, and perceptual distance is examined as part of diagnostics on the segmental changes over time. What we found therein is that for a proper explication of /y/-/ø/ disintegration and /e/-/ɛ/ merger, the Information-theoretic approach is compelling to a certain extent.


The foundation of this work explores how one can exercise forgiveness, and the come to acknowledge the innocence of the perpetrator of the harm done. Forty-nine portraits done in oil paint comprise a radical act of forgiving my father's physical and verbal abuse lasting twelve years from childhood through early adolescence. When I was fifteen, my father answered the call from God, committing himself to accept Christ as his personal savior and to preach the Word of God. Matthew 18:22: "21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother who sins against me? Up to seven times?" 22 Jesus answered, "I tell you, not just seven times, but seventy-seven times!" As an adult, taking the inward, conscious steps to forgive my father, I questioned the practical application and usage of the scripture. From therefore decided to create my own version of forgiveness. This act was not intended to result in a final reconciliation, but rather was an exercise to explore the fragile human emotions and the complex dynamics of family abuse as they engage with issues of culture, parental control, and lack of love. I See Him In Me was an outward act or expression of compassion that affirmed innocence, both his and mine.


This paper examines reference pricing, a form of defined contribution health benefits, where plan sponsors pay a fixed amount or limit their contributions toward the cost of a specific health care service, and health plan members must pay the difference in price if a more costly health care provider or service is selected. Reference pricing for hip and knee replacement, colonoscopy, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the spine, computerized tomography (CT) scan of the head or brain, nuclear stress test of the heart, and echocardiogram were examined because these services have fairly uniform protocols, and they are less likely to experience variation in quality, both of which make price comparisons easier for patients. Potential aggregate savings could reach $9.4 billion if all employers adopted reference pricing for the health care services examined in this paper. The $9.4 billion represents 1.6 percent of all spending on health care services among the 156 million people under age 65 with employment-based health benefits in 2010. Savings from reference pricing materializes through the combination of 1) patients choosing providers at the reference price, 2) patients paying the difference between the reference price and the allowed charge through cost sharing, and 3) providers reducing their prices to the reference price. Any increase in prices among providers below the reference price would reduce the potential for savings. Reference pricing for knee and hip replacements would result in savings averaging $10,367 per knee or hip replacement among the cases that were above the reference price, and would account for about 40 percent of the aggregate savings. While the incidence rate of hip and knee replacements in the population of people with employment-based coverage is relatively low, the costs are relatively high. In contrast, stress tests of the heart accounted for only 2 percent of the aggregate potential savings. While incidence rates ranged from 14 to 20 percent between 2008 and 2010, only $87 per case would be saved from reference pricing. Colonoscopies, CT scans of the head or brain, and echocardiograms each accounted for between 15-20 percent of aggregate potential savings, while MRIs of the spine accounted for about 10 percent of the potential savings. Plan sponsors should consider a number of issues as they weigh adopting reference pricing, including how the reference price is determined and how providers may react. Communication to plan members is also key to effective use of reference pricing.


The present study investigates the extent to which a program guided by the principles of critical pedagogy, which seeks to develop critical consciousness, is associated with the improved academic performance of students attending a low-performance middle-school in Buffalo, New York. The students were enrolled in an in-school academic support program called the Community as Classroom, which used critical project-based learning to show students how to improve neighborhood conditions. The study found that the Community as Classroom program bolstered student engagement as reflected in improved attendance, on-time-arrival at school, and reduced suspensions. Although class grades did not improve, standardized scores, particularly in Math and Science, dramatically improved for these students from the lowest scoring categories. We suspect that given increased student engagement and dramatically improved standardized test scores, teacher bias might be the cause of no improvements in class grades. We conclude that critical pedagogy, which leads to increased critical consciousness, is a tool that can lead to improved academic performance of students. Such a pedagogy, we argue, should be more widely used in public schools, with a particular emphasis on their deployment in Community Schools.


The demand for green energy conversion and storage for various applications, such as portable electronics, electric vehicles, and large-scale power stations, has boosted the exploration of advanced energy storage technologies. Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), sodium-ion batteries (SIBs), and liquid-metal batteries (LMBs) meet the different requirements of high-energy density, low cost, and large-scale energy storage, respectively. Currently, designing and synthesizing appropriate electrode materials with high performance, abundant natural availability, and low cost are the main challenges for rechargeable battery technology. Recent studies have demonstrated that Sb-based materials are promising electrode candidates for LIBs, SIBs, and LMBs because of their relatively low cost and high electrochemical performance. This review critically presents recent developments in Sb-based electrode materials, including storage mechanisms, synthesis strategies, and applications in LIBs, SIBs, and LMBs. It also presents challenges and prospects on further improving Sb-based electrode materials for real applications.


Triassic strata exposed. in the Lucero uplift of Cibola, Valencia and Socorro Counties are nonmarine red beds of the Moenkopi Formation and Chinle Group. Moenkopi Formation strata disconformably overlie Middle Permian (Guadalupian) limestones and dolomites of the San Andres Formation and are mostly grayish red, trough-crossbedded and ripple-laminated micaceous litharenites intercalated with beds of intraformational conglomerate and grayish red, micaceous siltstone and mudstone. Charophytes, ostracods and capitosauroid amphibians indicate the Moenkopi Formation in the Lucero uplift is of Middle Triassic (early Anisian) age. Overlying Chinle Group strata consist of (ascending) the Shinarump, Bluewater Creek, Petrified Forest, Owl
Rock and Rock Point Formations. In the Lucero uplift, strata of the San Pedro Arroyo Formation laterally replace Bluewater Creek Formation strata south of the Rio Salado. Shinarump Formation strata are extrabasinal
conglomerates (mostly Paleozoic limestone clasts) and sandstones as much as 17 m thick that disconformably overlie Moenkopi strata. Locally, pedogenically modified sandstones, conglomerates and siltstones - the "mottled strata" laterally replace Shinarump conglomerates and sandstones. Bluewater Creek Formation strata are at least 70 m thick and are mostly reddish brown siltstones, mudstones and ripple-laminated sandstones
The distinctive McGaffey Member - 5-6 m of mostly ripple-laminated sandstone is present in the
upper half of the Bluewater Creek Formation in the northern part of the Lucero uplift. Below the McGaffey Member, the Bluewater Creek Formation contains an Adamanian (late Carnian) tetrapod fauna that includes cf.
Buettneria, indeterminate phytosaurs and Stagonolepis. The base of the Petrified Forest Formation in the
Lucero uplift is the Sonsela Member; evidently the Blue Mesa Member has been removed by erosion at the
pre-Sonsela unconfornlity. Sonsela strata are as much as 15 m thick and are mostly trough-crossbedded micaceous
litharenite and intrabasinal calcrete-pebble conglomerate. Overlying Painted Desert Member strata are
mostly reddish-brown bentonitic mudstone at least 100 m thick. Owl Rock and Rock Point strata are only
exposed in the Petaca Pinta area (SW 1/4 T6N, R6W and SE 1/4 T6N, R7W). The Owl Rock is mostly grayish-
red and very pale green,·calcareous mudstone and grayish-red purple bioturbated sandy siltstone and is up
to 37 m thick. Rock Point strata are up to 70 m thick and consist of laterally extensive beds of massive, moderate-
reddish brown sandy siltstone and laminar to trough-crossbedded moderate reddish brown quartzose sandstone.
Middle Jurassic (Entrada) to Upper Cretaceous (Dakota) strata disconformably overlie Upper Triassic
Chinle Group rocks in the Lucero uplift.


This document is part of a collection that serves two purposes. First it is a public archive for data and documents resulting from evolutionary, ecological, and behavioral research conducted by the KettersonNolan research group. The focus of the research is an abundant North American songbird, the dark-eyed junco, Junco hyemalis, and the primary sources of support have been the National Science Foundation and Indiana University. The research was conducted in collaboration with numerous colleagues and students, and the objective of this site is to preserve not only the published products of the research, but also to document the organization and people that led to the published findings. Second it is a repository for the works of Val Nolan Jr., who studied songbirds in addition to the junco: in particular the prairie warbler, Dendroica discolor. This site was originally compiled and organized by Eric Snajdr, Nicole Gerlach, and Ellen Ketterson.


To evaluate postural control and performance in subjects with Down syndrome (SwDS), we measured postural sway (COP) in quiet stance in four 20-second tests: with eyes open or closed and on hard or foam surface. Ten SwDS and eleven healthy subjects participated, aged 29.8 (4.8) and 28.4 (3.9), respectively. The time-series recorded with the sampling rate of 100 Hz were used to evaluate postural performance (COP amplitude and mean velocity) and strategies (COP frequency, fractal dimension and entropy). There were no intergroup differences in the amplitude except the stance on foam pad with eyes open when SwDS had larger sway. The COP velocity and frequency were larger in SwDS than controls in all trials on foam pad. During stances on the foam pad SwDS increased fractal dimension showing higher complexity of their equilibrium system, while controls decreased sample entropy exhibiting more conscious control of posture in comparison to the stances on hard support surface. This indicated that each group used entirely different adjustments of postural strategies to the somatosensory challenge. It is proposed that the inferior postural control of SwDS results mainly from insufficient experience in dealing with unpredictable postural stimuli and deficit in motor learning.


Gas-filled microbubbles suspended in a liquid or suitable gel are useful as a pressure probe for MRI. These microbubbles create size-dependent magnetic perturbation in their immediate vicinity, which alters the measured MR signal. The flexibility of these biocompatible bubbles enables them to undergo a change in size due to a change in pressure, resulting in a measurable MR signal change. The novel work we present here focuses on demonstrating, by in-vitro and in-vivo investigations, that phospholipid microbubbles entrapped in alginate spheres can be used as a contrast agent to measure pressure variations in the human stomach. The development of the pressure-sensitive contrast agent by entrapping microbubbles into alginate gel spheres is first presented. The T2eff relaxation time of the alginate spheres has been assessed using an MSME sequence and is found to decrease by a factor of 2 in the presence of microbubbles. Furthermore, by applying increasing pressure on to the alginate spheres containing microbubbles, the T2eff is seen to increase as the pressure increases, with a sensitivity of 43% change per bar. The pressure sensitivity of the contrast agent is further assessed, in-vitro, by performing rapid pressure cycle experiments with the use of the RARE sequence, which exhibited around 40% signal change per bar, in both the 2.35T small animal Bruker and the 3T whole body Philips MRI scanners. Although this sensitivity is seen to decrease in the presence of a simulated gastric acid solution, the effect has been minimised by suspending the alginate spheres in a locust bean gum gel with a 2% w/v concentration. The gel solution is also acting as an immobiliser tool preventing the spheres from rising due to the buoyancy of the microbubbles. The capability of the contrast agent in sensing the dynamic pressure change in the stomach is then tested through in-vivo investigation. The study has been carried out on healthy human volunteers by preparing contrast agent as a meal for direct ingestion and v further imaged with the 3T whole body scanner. Initial results with the RARE sequence showed the signal change was dominated by the breathing movement, an artefact which was then dramatically reduced by the use of the BTFE sequence. However, the heterogeneity of the meal being captured in different images of the dynamic measurement was found to be another contributing artefact and we attempted to minimise this by locking the image acquisition to a specific volume of the meal with the use of respiratory triggering. As a result, the signal intensity change exhibited in the meal within the antrum region is between 5 to 10%. This is slightly higher than expected signal variation which should be around 1.6 to 4.3%, when considering the typical 40% per bar sensitivity. Nevertheless, a novel pressure-sensitive contrast agent has been produced and its capability in measuring pressure changes in simulated human gastric conditions has been demonstrated. Furthermore, the preliminary in-vivo study demonstrates that this contrast agent shows great potential in sensing the dynamic pressure change in the human stomach. As a medical diagnostic tool, this will be useful for the clinician as an alternative avenue from the current invasive methods in diagnosing the clinical conditions related to functional dyspepsia.


The article examines Russia's participation in world trade and trade policy, using trade data for 1996–2017 and simulations of a numerical world trade model where Russia is divided into domestic regions. Since the mid-1990s, Russia's foreign trade has grown much faster than the world average. This was accompanied by rapid deterioration in the trade balance for manufacturing, and fast redirection of imports, with more from China and relatively less from others, especially Eastern Europe. Only /8 of Russia's foreign trade in 2017 was with Eastern Europe. This is why Russia can gain more from trade integration with the world beyond Eastern Europe, according to the model simulation analysis. For Russian domestic regions, multilateral liberalization among all countries has a similar effect across all of them, with a welfare gain due to lower import prices. For the commodity-exporting regions of Russia, preferential free trade agreements (FTAs) have a similar impact. For the more industrialized Russian regions, on the other hand, FTAs lead to manufacturing growth, rising wages and higher prices, and a larger welfare gain. According to the model simulations, trade integration promotes industrial diversification, with manufacturing growth also in some commodity regions. The results indicate that external liberalization is particularly important for the central parts of Russia; with Volga and West Siberia generally obtaining the strongest manufacturing boost from trade integration.


This paper explores if more generous social spending polices in fact lead to less income inequality, or if redistributive outcomes are offset by behavioral disincentive effects. To account for the inherent endogeneity of social policies with regard to inequality levels, I apply the System GMM estimator and use the presumably random incidence of certain diseases as instruments for social spending levels. The regression results suggest that more social spending effectively reduces inequality levels. The result is robust with respect to the instrument count and different data restrictions. Looking at the structure of benefits, particularly unemployment benefits and public pensions are responsible for the inequality reducing impact. More targeted benefits, however, do not significantly reduce income inequality. Rather, their positive effect on pre-government income inequality hints at substantial disincentive effects.


BACKGROUND
People on haemodialysis (HD) are at risk of consuming a poor quality diet. This includes inadequate intake of omega-3 long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 LCPUFA).

OBJECTIVE
This study aims to investigate diet quality, with a particular focus on n-3 LCPUFA intake, in a population of incentre HD patients.

DESIGN
Dietary intake was measured using three 24 hour recalls; the Polyunsaturated food frequency questionnaire (PUFA FFQ) and the Total Diet Score (TDS). Dietary intake was also compared to evidence based practice guidelines (EBPG). Nutritional status was assessed using the Patient Generated Subjective Global Assessment (PG SGA).

SUBJECTS
A total of 32 dialysis patients were recruited, from two regional HD centres in New South Wales, Australia.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE
Diet quality was the main outcome measure.

RESULTS
Diet quality of study participants was poor, with the majority not meeting the EBPG for energy, protein and potassium. All participants exceeded the recommended amount of saturated fat. The mean TDS of the dialysis cohort was 10.2, which was significantly higher than the TDS of 9.3 of a healthy disease free cohort (p < 0.05). Positive correlations were found between TDS and LC omega-3 intake (r = 0.392) and TDS and total omega-6 intake (r = 0.363). Only 22% of participants met the suggested dietary target for n-3 LCPUFA intake.

CONCLUSION
Dialysis patients in this study had suboptimal diet quality. Improvements are required for better adherence to the EBPG. Increased consumption of n-3 LCPUFA fatty acids may also be of benefit.


We propose a method for cycle-slip mitigation in circular multilevel quadrature amplitude modulation (C-mQAM) coherent optical systems, with constellation rotational asymmetry, based on an adaptive boundaries approach. The impact of cycle-slips in C-mQAM coming from Viterbi-Viterbi algorithm limits the phase noise tolerance. By introducing adaptive boundaries and a differential coding scheme, the ambiguity of asymmetrical rotation of constellation can be effectively removed. Performance of the proposed method is evaluated for a C-16QAM and C-64QAM for various laser linewidths. Results show a noticeable improvement in linewidth symbol duration product (Δν · TS) tolerance compared with the previous studies on C-mQAM and mQAM constellations. The Δν · TS tolerance reaches 4 × 10-4 and 1.1 × 10-4 for C-16QAM and C-64QAM, respectively, for 1 dB penalty at a symbol error rate of 10-3.


For courses in computer science and programming Starting Out with Java: From Control Structures through Data Structures provides a smooth introduction to programming with Java that moves fluidly from beginner to more advanced topics. The first half of the book is taught for a CS1 course and teaches fundamental programming and problem solving concepts, while the second half, meant for a CS2 course, teaches advanced topics, algorithms, and data structures. The Third Edition is extremely flexible in its organization, which teaches programmers to implement data structures with or without generics. As with all text in Gaddis Starting Out series, the tone is friendly, the material detailed, and major concepts easy to understand. With rich examples throughout, programmers learn to use Java through real programming practice.


Aim: To Compare the safety of asenapine and iloperidone as per information available in public domain. Method: In addition to their USFDA approved prescribing information, literature on these two drugs from Pubmed indexed journals in English language were searched for appropriate information. We found 8 relevant articles on asenapine and iloperidone, results of which are discussed in this review. Data on the adverse effects commonly reported for atypical antipsychotics were collected from these articles and compared. Descriptive statistics was used to present the results. Results: Iloperidone is more frequently found to be associated with QTc prolongation (dose dependent), orthostatic hypotension & related dizziness (despite slow up-titration), weight gain and antimuscarinic side effects. On other side, asenapine is more frequently associated with extrapyramidal side effects and akathisia as well as the only one associated with headache, oral hypoesthesia and adverse event related discontinuations. Conclusion: Although, asenapine appears to be less frequently associated with adverse events commonly associated with atypical antipsychotics, complex sublingual dosing and higher discontinuation related to adverse events offsets this safety advantage. More importantly, both these agents require close counselling of patients for adequate compliance and/ or combination with other antipsychotic to achieve optimum antipsychotic efficacy in Indian context. Key words: Adverse events, Antipsychotics, Asenapine, Iloperidone, Extrapyramidal side-effects, Indian context.


Trafficking in Human is the trade of humans for the purpose of forced labour, sexual slavery, or commercial sexual exploitation for the trafficker or others. This may encompass providing a spouse in the context of forced marriage, or the extraction of organs or tissues, including for surrogacy and ova removal. Human trafficking can occur within a country or trans-nationally. Human trafficking is a crime against the person because of the violation of the victim's rights of movement through coercion and because of their commercial exploitation. Human trafficking is the trade in people, especially women and children, and does not necessarily involve the movement of the person from one place to another. People smuggling (also called human smuggling and migrant smuggling) is a related practice which is characterized by the consent of the person being smuggled. Smuggling situations can descend into human trafficking through coercion and exploitation.People are held against their will through acts of coercion, and forced to work for or provide services to the trafficker or others. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), forced labour alone (one component of human trafficking) generates an estimated $150 billion in profits per annum as of 2014. In 2012, the ILO estimated that 21 million victims are trapped in modern-day slavery. Of these, 14.2 million (68%) were exploited for labour, 4.5 million (22%) were sexually exploited, and 2.2 million (10%) were exploited in state-imposed forced labor. The International Labor Organization has reported that child workers, minorities, and irregular migrants are at considerable risk of more extreme forms of exploitation. Statistics shows that over half of the world's 215 million young workers are observed to be in hazardous sectors, including forced sex work and forced street begging. Ethnic minorities and highly marginalized groups of people are highly estimated to work in some of the most exploitative and damaging sectors, such as leather tanning, mining, and stone quarry work. Human trafficking is the third largest crime industry in the world, behind drug dealing and arms trafficking, and is the fastest-growing activity of trans-national criminal organizations.


The hemoglobin dehaloperoxidase (DHP), found in the coelom of the terebellid polychaete Amphitrite ornata, is a dual-function protein that has the characteristics of both hemoglobins and peroxidases. In addition to oxygen transport function, DHP readily oxidizes halogenated phenols in the presence of hydrogen peroxide. The peroxidase activity of DHP is high relative to that of wild-type myoglobin or hemoglobin, but the most definitive difference in DHP is a well-defined substrate-binding site in the distal pocket, which was reported for 4-iodophenol in the X-ray crystal structure of DHP. The binding of 2,4,6-trihalogenated phenols is relevant since 2,4,6-tribromophenol is considered to be the native substrate and 2,4,6-trichlorophenol also gives high turnover rates in enzymatic studies. The most soluble trihalogenated phenol, 2,4,6-trifluorophenol, acts as a highly soluble structural analogue to the native substrate 2,4,6-tribromophenol. To improve our understanding of substrate binding, we compared the most soluble substrate analogues, 4-bromophenol, 2,4-dichlorophenol, and 2,4,6-trifluorophenol, using (1)H and (19)F NMR to probe substrate binding interactions in the active site of the low-spin metcyano adduct of DHP. Both mono- and dihalogenated phenols induced changes in resonances of the heme prosthetic group and an internal heme edge side chain, while (1)H NMR, (19)F NMR, and relaxation data for a 2,4,6-trihalogenated substrate indicate a mode of binding on the exterior of DHP. The differences in binding are correlated with differences in enzymatic activity for the substrates studied.


This paper interrogates the sociolegal nexus between mega infrastructure in tertiary institutions and accessibility of students with one form of disability or another for effective academic work. Disability is the physical impairment of the body either partial or permanent loss of limbs or sight which make locomotion and everyday life activities restrictive and oppressive. The physical impairment itself is a functional limitation for the individual but the individual also, has the potential to discover oneself to live 'normal' and independently with the necessary institutional structures and support of society. However, since the twilight of history, society has consciously or unconsciously stratified, segregated and excludes disabled persons via institutional, cultural and environmental mechanisms of denying the disabled of their basic human rights. Many tertiary institutions in Ghana have resorted to building gargantuan infrastructure in order to effectively maximize the use of limited land for future expansion and for aesthetic purposes. While the flourishing and expansion of these buildings are plausible, adequate access to this infrastructure has remained a serious challenge to students with disabilities. This phenomenon impact negatively on the academic performances of disabled students and a direct contravention to the freedom of movement enshrined in the Ghanaian constitution. We argue that discrimination, social exclusion and the various physical curtailment of movement of students with disabilities in tertiary institutions constitute a core human right violation.


With new advances such as Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) and Internet of Things (IoT), more and more discrete software systems interact with continuous physical systems. State machines are a classical approach to specify the intended behavior of discrete systems during development. However, the actual realized behavior may deviate from those specified models due to environmental impacts, or measurement inaccuracies. Accordingly, data gathered at runtime should be validated against the specified model. A first step in this direction is to identify the individual system states of each execution of a system at runtime. This is a particular challenge for continuous systems where system states may be only identified by listening to sensor value streams. A further challenge is to raise these raw value streams on a model level for checking purposes. To tackle these challenges, we introduce a model-driven runtime state identification approach. In particular, we automatically derive corresponding time-series database queries from state machines in order to identify system runtime states based on the sensor value streams of running systems. We demonstrate our approach for a subset of SysML and evaluate it based on a case study of a simulated environment of a five-axes grip-arm robot within a working station.


In the fifty years following the Revolution, America's population nearly quadrupled, its boundaries expanded, industrialization took root in the Northeast, new modes of transportation flourished, state banks proliferated and offered easy credit to eager entrepreneurs, and Americans found themselves in the midst of an accelerating age of individualism, equality, and self-reliance. To the Jacksonian generation, it seemed as if their world had changed practically overnight. The Politics of Individualism looks at the political manifestations of these staggering social transformations. During the 1830s and 1840s, Americans were consumed by politics and party loyalties were fierce. Here, Kohl draws on the political rhetoric found in speeches, newspapers, periodicals, and pamphlets to place the Democrats and the Whigs in a solid social and psychological context. He contends that the political division between these two parties reflected the division between Americans unsettled by the new individualistic social order and those whose character allowed them to strive more confidently within it. Democrats, says Kohl, were more "tradition-directed," bound to others in more personal ways; Whigs, on the other hand, were more "inner-directed" and embraced the impersonal, self-interested relationships of a market society. By examining this fascinating dialogue of parties, Kohl brings us bright new insight into the politics and people of Jacksonian America.


In the main there are three questions to be answered in this investigation: First, what are the motives that have controlled the growth and development of the junior colleges in Texas? Second, what are the leading events in this development? Third, what is the present state of development of the junior college movement in Texas? A survey of the existing junior college situation in Texas is presented in the first chapter, while a more detailed history of development is outlined in the later chapters.


A better understanding of the mechanisms driving superpredation, the killing of smaller mesopredators by larger apex predators, is important because of the crucial role superpredation can play in structuring communities and because it often involves species of conservation concern. Here we document how the extent of superpredation changed over time, and assessed the impact of such temporal variation on local mesopredator populations using 40 years of dietary data collected from a recovering population of northern goshawks (Accipiter gentilis), an archetypical avian superpredator. We then assessed which mechanisms were driving variation in superpredation, e.g., was it opportunistic, a response to food becoming limited (due to declines in preferred prey) or to reduce competition. Raptors comprised 8% of goshawk diet on average in years when goshawk abundance was high, which is higher than reported elsewhere. Additionally, there was a per capita increase in superpredation as goshawks recovered, with the proportion of goshawk diet comprising raptors increasing from 2% to 8% as the number of goshawk home-ranges increased from ≤14 to ≥25. This increase in superpredation coincided with a population decline in the most commonly killed mesopredator, the Eurasian kestrel (Falco tinnunculus), which may represent the reversal of the "mesopredator release" process (i.e., mesopredator suppression) which occurred after goshawks and other large raptors declined or were extirpated. Food limitation was the most likely driver of superpredation in this system given: 1) the substantial decline of two main prey groups in goshawk diet, the increase in diet diversity and decrease in goshawk reproductive success are all consistent with the goshawk population becoming food-limited; 2) it's unlikely to be purely opportunistic as the increase in superpredation did not reflect changes in the availability of mesopredator species; and 3) the majority of mesopredators killed by goshawks do not compete with goshawks for food or nest sites.

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This paper reports on the medium-term mean 2-year prospective follow-up of a patient cohort of 50 unselected patients with mean age of 55 years who visited our tertiary referral pain center for painful sciatica refractory to not less than 8 weeks of conventional physical therapy with a view for treatment with low-level laser therapy (LLLT) as a possible alternative to operative intervention. Materials and methods: All patients in this prospective cohort study had documentation of the diagnosis by magnetic resonance imaging documenting one level inter-vertebral disc prolapse before study entry and all had failed to respond to a combination of conventional physical therapy and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medications for not fewer than 8 weeks. LLLT, at a wavelength of 810 nm emitted from a GaAIAs semiconductor laser device with 5.4 J per point and a power density of 20 mW/cm2, was employed to irradiate not only the relevant acupuncture points, but also via the use of scanning mode for the whole affected dermatome. The treatment regimen consisted of three sessions of treatment per week for 12 consecutive weeks. Each treatment session lasted 540 seconds, with 180 seconds for irradiation of the axial skeleton and 180 seconds for the affected dermatome. An additional 180 seconds will be used to irradiate the relevant acupuncture points. Serial clinical assessment was undertaken using the Visual Analogue Score (VAS) for pain. Treatment failure being defined as break-through pain which necessitated operative intervention or the need for surgery within 2 years. Results: A total of 50 sciatica patients with one level disc prolapse with nerve root impingement were treated, with 2.2 years mean follow up. With the exception of one patient who defaulted after one week of therapy, all subjects showed significant improvement in VAS pain score at the end of 12-weeks' LLLT treatment and, surprisingly, the improvement was found maintained at follow-up assessments at 1-year mark and 2-year mark. None of the subjects required operative intervention at the 2-year mark. The results achieved statistical significance as the null hypothesis was rejected.


Around 1970, scholars adopted the term "modernism" as a designation for the radical changes that took place in Anglo-American literature in the early twentieth century. The concept lent prestige to works and authors associated with it, encouraging the developments of a vast body of criticism while blocking academic recognition of literature to which it did not readily apply. This book challenges the concept of modernism, testing its viability in searching analyses of individual texts, writers and processes.


: A variety of public critiques, reports and government reviews into Initial Teacher Education (ITE) in Australia and globally have called for a rethink on teacher education. Similarly, key researchers such as Hattie (2011), Smith and Lynch (2010) and Ingvarson et al. (2014) have argued for new, innovative approaches to ITE that are able to provide alternative pathways to the training of teachers. From this perspective the current article examines several models and features of ITE in terms of innovation. This examination provides clarification concerning the nature and role of ITE reform, as well as a series of arguments highlighting the need for ITE innovation, in order to illustrate and suggest how initial teacher education might move forward in a way that best supports the aims and goals of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers.


In 1994 a comprehensive reform of upper secondary education was introduced in Norway, giving all 16-year-olds—including SEN students—a statutory right to enter upper secondary. In a longitudinal study following a representative group of SEN students through upper secondary from 1994 until 1999, the main findings were: (1) SEN students in special classes appear to achieve a lower level of success—measured by achievement of formal competence—than SEN students in ordinary classes, all other things being equal; and (2) an increase in the amount of special education for SEN students in ordinary classes appears to have a negative effect on the achievement of formal competence, all other things being equal. Following these findings, it may be concluded that special education in Norwegian upper secondary does not seem to fulfil its own ambition of reducing differences.


ABSTRACT This paper presents description and interpretation of 20 caribou bone assemblages from Inuit sites on the Kazan River in northern Canada. A diversity of features including caches, disposal areas, and surface scatters, are quantified in order to understand aspects of butchery, transport, and storage of caribou carcasses. Element distributions are compared to four published indices which quantify bone density, food utility, meat drying, and marrow, in order to understand which factors played important roles in decision-making by Inuit in the region. While several factors are identified as having affected these assemblages, by far the most important factor relates to the season during which the caribou were hunted. During warm seasons, the drying of meat dictated relatively complex division of the carcass for processing and storage. During colder seasons, on the other hand, rapid freezing of meat allowed for greater flexibility, which often simply meant that entire articulated carcasses were cached after skinning and gutting.


Power plants with complex technology have various gradations in design process so that this level in the current time by maintaining the goals of sustainability and sustainable development have a critical importance. These buildings require to be sustainable according to their complexity to provide the finance and discrete budgets for functional needs, meanwhile to design solutions to avoid creating pollution and the reduction of energy should be careful and they are in their life cycle which have a social function. These solutions are possible to offer providing a method in design. Focusing on interventional and unique procedures in design can be very efficient. The present research is applicable with the aim to emphasize and recognize the importance of prioritizing in selecting different areas in combined cycle power plants based on the parameters of sustainable development and responds to the question on what priority should be set in the areas of combined cycle power plants,while observing the principles of sustainable development in the direction of control and decrease of economic, social and environmental risks, describes the infrastructures of sustainable development in the areas of combined cycle. Therefore while addressing senior managers, advisors and contractors ,has presented a list with the consultation of the experts and in the second stage through scrolling using questionnaire and survey from experts and AHP software analysis among consulting companies managers, contractors and professionals the criteria were prioritized in hierarchical method. The economicfunctional criteria with rank 0.541 have been in the first priority of attention form the experts' choice and considering the effect of these criteria on the choices, the choice of steam in combined cycle power plants was placed in the first priority with final weight 0.313 and the gas area was determined in the second priority with final weight 0.266. This was also true in the sensitivity test. Thus paying attention to the functional criteria in order to gain economic productivity in the steam area was defined in the priority of attention.


Microvascular functions have been shown to be sensitive to agents associated with changes in cyclic nucleotide levels. The central hypothesis of the current study was that one measure of capillary exchange capacity, hydraulic conductivity (Lp), would be elevated by agents shown to elevate cellular levels of cGMP. To evaluate the hypothesis, frog mesenteric capillary Lp was measured during luminal exposure to 1) atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP), 2) the truncated atriopeptins ANP-I and ANP-III, 3) the nitrovasodilator sodium nitroprusside (SNP), 4) the cGMP phosphodiesterase inhibitor M&B 22948, and 5) methylene blue dye, both alone and in combination with ANP or SNP. ANP (100 nM) elevated Lp by 2.3 +/- 0.2-fold from control levels (n = 15); 10 nM ANP induced a 2.1 +/- 0.3-fold change (n = 8), while 10 nM ANP-III elicited a 1.7 +/- 0.4-fold change (n = 8). In contrast, Lp did not change from basal levels during 10 nM ANP-I infusion (Lp ANP-I/Lp control = 1.2 +/- 0.2; n = 14). SNP (1 microM) induced a reversible, 2.6 +/- 0.5-fold increase in Lp (n = 30) that was inhibitable by methylene blue dye (Lp SNP + MetB/Lp control = 1.1 +/- 0.1; n = 8). Methylene blue did not mask the response to 100 nM ANP (Lp ANP + MetB/Lp control = 2.1 +/- 0.5; n = 7). M&B 22948 (30 microM) increased Lp by 2.8 +/- 0.6-fold (n = 9). These data constitute strong inference that agents demonstrated to elevate cGMP also mediate an increase in capillary Lp in in situ, perfused exchange vessels.


The infrared spectra of seven compounds containing the -CHCl2 group attached to various carbonyl functionalities have been carefully recorded under a variety of conditions. Group frequency ranges for the CH, CC, and CCl (two) stretching modes and two CH bending modes have been developed. With the exception of the CC stretching mode, these vibrations fall in rather narrow regions of the spectrum. The conformational equilibria present in chlorine-substituted acetic acid derivatives are reflected by their infrared spectra in various ways. The situation with regard to the observed carbonyl stretching frequencies as related to conformational equilibria is reviewed.


Ralf Sander investigates the relevance of transformation, invisibility and belief for the art. During his Exhibition in La Serpara Museum and sculpture garden, Ralf Sander presented a series of images and prints, protected in dark boxes and a thought manipulation machine, the Apocalytor. Once the images are exposed to light they will disappear. The images are portraits. The installation is comparable with the " Schroedinger`s Cat" experiment. It is a thought experiment, sometimes described as a paradox, by Austrian physicist Erwin Schrodinger in 1935 It illustrates what he saw as the problem of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics applied to everyday objects. Also other techniques for image disappearance were developed in a rigorous process of series of experiments. The Machine is a sculptural construction exploring the use of fear to reduce our human rights, a powerful instrument of manipulation which will have you asking questions about the world in which we live. It contains a sound installation, whispered quotes of news and also the last interview with George Orwell about his Book 1984. In his installation Sander started to investigate mechanism of manipulation such as creating fear, fake news and felt truth.


Context: Botulinum toxin has been widely shown to have analgesic effects independent of its action on muscle tone, mostly by acting on neurogenic inflammatory mediators and reducing the release of neurotransmitters at the sensory nerve or the autonomic nerve terminals. Objective: The aim of this study is to try and understand the differences that could exist between injecting the painful zone or injecting a possible trigger zone (TZ) in case of trigeminal neuralgia. Methods: 28 patients (26 female, 2 male), with an average age of 61 years (41-88 years), were injected with type A botulinum toxin, the dose which was used varied between 15 and 50 U Botox* . 16 (57%) were injected over the entire painful area and only 12 (43%) were injected in the TZ. Results: Overall, we can note an efficacy of 100% in the case of injection in the area of referred pain and 83% in the case of injection in the TZ alone, the calculation of the p-value in Fisher's exact test showing no statistically significant difference between the two techniques. Conclusion: This study confirms the efficacy of the toxin and the lack of significant difference between injecting the painful zone or injecting a possible TZ. In this later case, treating it directly would seem to be the first choice, according to the average dose of botulinum toxin used.


Quality of Service (QoS) in distributed systems supporting real-time and multimedia applications must be guaranteed system-wide, including end-systems, communications systems and networks. This paper concentrates primarily on the transport layer of such a system but also describes a generalised Quality of Service Architecture (QoS-A) used to specify and implement application defined QoS over all architectural layers. The central QoS-A concepts are flow, service contract and flow management. A flow is a unidirectional end-to-end data stream with a specific QoS requirement. Service contracts are binding agreements between users and providers at each architectural level involved in a flow. Flow management provides for the monitoring and maintenance of the contracted QoS levels of a flow over all layers. The paper first describes an enhanced transport service which permits extremely flexible QoS configuration for real-time and multimedia transport users. Subsequently, we show how flow management concepts and mechanisms can ensure that QoS levels contracted at the transport service interface are maintained by the lower layers - i.e. the supporting network and operating system infrastructures. Our work is placed in the wider context of a local ATM environment in which the QoS-A is currently being implemented.


The primary goal of digital physics research is to provide a description of the physical universe in terms of simple programs. One approach to attaining this goal is creating a toolbox of algorithms that reproduce the behavior of basic quantum phenomena. As a step in this direction, a simple pseudo-particle algorithm has been developed that exhibits rotationally invariant, glider-like motion across graphs in two or more dimensions. This algorithm is applied to a range of lattice and irregular graphs from the sparse to the densely connected, and it is shown that rotationally invariant motion can be easily obtained from irregular graphs that are sufficiently densely connected. Such graphs are also shown to be potentially compatible with spatial curvature and relativistic invariance. This work points the way toward a class of algorithms that can be used to tightly approximate the basic phenomena encountered in particle physics, while maintaining the desired properties of discreteness, determinism, and algorithmic simplicity.


A site-specific labeling method was developed in which sulfhydryl groups of a murine IgG2a anti-ovarian monoclonal antibody, 5G6.4, were biotinylated with N-iodoacetyl-N'-biotinylhexylenediamine (Compound 1) following partial reduction of disulfide bonds with dithiothreitol. Reaction of 1-alkylated 5G6.4 with 125I-streptavidin gave immunoreactive streptavidin-1-biotinylated complexes. Radio-fast protein liquid chromatography data were consistent with the formation of a stable monovalent streptavidin-half-antibody complex as the major species. In vivo specific localization of these radioantibody conjugates to human tumor xenografts of ovarian carcinoma was confirmed by a comparative biodistribution study in nude mice using as a control the nonspecific 125I-streptavidin-1-alkylated UPC-10 (an irrelevant IgG2a monoclonal antibody) complex prepared analogously as described above. Tumor uptake for radiolabeled 5G6.4 [0.279 +/- 0.041% (SE) kg injection dose/g) was significantly greater [P less than 0.025] than for UPC-10 [0.165 +/- 0.027% kg injection dose/g]. The tumor:blood ratio (7.38 +/- 1.285) for 5G6.4 was approximately 3 times that for UPC-10 (2.48 +/- 0.708, P less than 0.01). This sulfhydryl site-directed approach demonstrated that reduced disulfides of monoclonal antibodies are viable sites for attaching labels without significant loss of in vitro and in vivo immunoreactivity.


The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) currently insures bank deposit balances up to $100,000. According to some observers, statutory protection creates moral hazard problems for insurers because it allows banks to engage in risky activities. As an example, moral hazard was a key contributor to huge losses suffered when thrift institutions failed during the 1980s. This brief by Konstas outlines a plan to reduce the risk of government losses by replacing insured deposits with uninsured deposits and eliminating some of the costs of deposit insurance. His plan proposes a self-insured (SI) depositor system that places an intermediary between the lender (saver) and borrower (bank) in the credit-flow chain. The FDIC would guarantee saver loans and allow the intermediary to borrow at the risk-free interest rate if the intermediaryOs bank deposit is statutorily defined outside the realm of FDIC insurance. The risk is therefore transferred to depositors (intermediaries); thus creating incentives for depositors to earn a rate of return at least equal to the cost of borrowing plus a risk premium based on the risk profile of banks.


Paleoclimate evidence and climate models indicate that certain elements of the climate system may exhibit thresholds, with small changes in greenhouse gas emissions resulting in non-linear and potentially irreversible regime shifts with serious consequences for socio-economic systems. Such thresholds or tipping points in the climate system are likely to depend on both the magnitude and rate of change of surface warming. The collapse of the Atlantic thermohaline circulation (THC) is one example of such a threshold. To evaluate mitigation policies that curb greenhouse gas emissions to levels that prevent such a climate threshold being reached, we use the MERGE model of Manne, Mendelsohn and Richels. Depending on assumptions on climate sensitivity and technological progress, our analysis shows that preserving the THC may require a fast and strong greenhouse gas emission reduction from today's level, with transition to nuclear and/or renewable energy, combined eventually with the use of carbon capture and sequestration systems.


An acyclic edge coloring of a graph is a proper edge coloring such that there are no bichromatic cycles. The acyclic chromatic index of a graph is the minimum number k such that there is an acyclic edge coloring using k colors and is denoted by a'(G). A graph G is called fully subdivided if it is obtained from another graph H by replacing every edge by a path of length at least two. Fully subdivided graphs are known to be acyclically edge colorable using Δ+1 colors since they are properly contained in 2-degenerate graphs which are acyclically edge colorable using Δ+1 colors. Muthu, Narayanan and Subramanian gave a simple direct proof of this fact for the fully subdivided graphs. Fiamcik has shown that if we subdivide every edge in a cubic graph with at most two exceptions to get a graph G, then a'(G)=3. In this paper we generalise the bound to Δ for all fully subdivided graphs improving the result of Muthu et al. In particular, we prove that if G is a fully subdivided graph and Δ(G) ≥3, then a'(G)=Δ(G). Consider a graph G=(V,E), with E=E(T) ∪E(C) where T is a rooted tree on the vertex set V and C is a simple cycle on the leaves of T. Such a graph G is called a Halin graph if G has a planar embedding and T has no vertices of degree 2. Let Kn denote a complete graph on n vertices. Let G be a Halin graph with maximum degree Δ. We prove that, a'(G) = 5 if G is K4, 4 if Δ = 3 and G is not K4, and Δ otherwise.


Background Proprioception is a specialized variation of the sensory modality of touch that includes the sensation of joint motion and joint position. It is an essential part of shoulder stability and neuromuscular control. It is controversial whether throwing sports and sports training effects shoulder proprioception. Objective To analyse the shoulder proprioceptive abilities of professional handball players. Design Prospective study with control group and descriptive analysis. Setting Elite division handball players. Participants 70 professional handball players from top national league and 25 healthy volunteers as control. Interventions Shoulder proprioception was evaluated by measuring error of active reproduction of joint position (EARJP). Own construction electronic goniometer (Propriometer) with accuracy of 0,1o was used for measurements. Both dominant and non-dominant shoulders were evaluated. EARJP was measured in 4 directions and 3 positions for each direction: flexion and abduction (60o, 90o, 120o), external and internal rotation (30o, 45o, 60o). Three repetitions for each position were performed to obtain an average EARJP for every subject and position. Results Based on statistical analysis there was significantly better proprioceptive control (lower EARJP) in throwing versus non throwing and throwing versus control group shoulder. No difference in proprioception when comparing dominant and non-dominant shoulders in control group. Higher reference angles correlated with better proprioception. Increased external rotation correlated with better shoulder control in mid range of external rotation. Conclusions Throwing sport affects neuromuscular shoulder control. Handball players show significantly better proprioceptive abilities when compared to control normal population. Throwing shoulder has better neuromuscular control then the opposite one.


This work presents an integer-N divider based on multi-modulus frequency dividers (MMDs) which covers a continuous integer-N divider ratio range of 8 to 127 and was built using current mode logic (CML). A new powerful and simple modulus extension for MMDs optimized for fast CML implementations is demonstrated. The proposed divider is a hybrid composition of emitter coupled logic (ECL) stages and source coupled logic (SCL) stages. Along an input frequency range of 1 GHz to 7.5 GHz the needed input voltage level is less than 45 mVPP which is equivalent to −20 dBm at a 100Ω load. The maximum operating input frequency is 8.1 GHz while the divider consumes only 18.4 mW. The circuit was implemented in a low cost 180 nm BiCMOS process and is an essential part of a phase looked loop circuit (PLL). Together with the controllable current biasing circuitry it occupies an area of less than 0.09 mm2.


Essential thrombocythemia (ET) is characterized by abnormal megakaryopoiesis and enhanced thrombotic risk. Once-daily (od), low-dose aspirin is the recommended antithrombotic regimen, but accelerated platelet generation may reduce the duration of platelet cyclooxygenase (COX)-1 inhibition. We performed a multicenter, double-blind trial to investigate the efficacy of three aspirin regimens in optimizing platelet COX-1 inhibition while preserving COX-2-dependent vascular thromboresistance. Two-hundred-forty-five patients on chronic od low-dose aspirin were randomized (1:1:1) to receive 100 mg aspirin od, twice-daily, bid), or three-times daily (tid) for 2 weeks. Serum thromboxane B2 (sTXB2), a validated biomarker of platelet COX-1 activity, and urinary prostacyclin metabolite (PGIM) excretion were measured at randomization and after 2 weeks, as primary surrogate endpoints of efficacy and safety, respectively. Urinary TX metabolite (TXM) excretion, gastrointestinal tolerance, and ET-related symptoms were also investigated. Evaluable patients assigned to the bid and tid regimens showed substantially reduced inter-individual variability and lower median values of sTXB2: 19.3[9.7-40], 4 [2.1-6.7], and 2.5[1.4-5.65] ng/ml in the od (n=85), bid (n=79) and tid (n=79) arms, respectively. Urinary PGIM was comparable in the three arms. Urinary TXM was significantly reduced by 35% in both experimental arms. Patients in the tid arm reported a higher abdominal discomfort score. In conclusion, the currently recommended aspirin regimen of 75-100 od for cardiovascular prophylaxis appears largely inadequate in reducing platelet activation in the vast majority of ET patients. The antiplatelet response to low-dose aspirin can be markedly improved by shortening the dosing interval to 12 hours, with no improvement by further reducing it. (EudraCT 2016-002885-30).


Even though the market size is still small at this moment, applications of robots are gradually spreading out from the manufacturing industrial environment to face other important challenges, like the support of an aging society and to educate the new generations. The development of human-friendly robots drives research that aims at autonomous or semi-autonomous robots that are natural and intuitive for the average consumer to interact with, communicate with, and work with as partners, besides learning new capabilities. In this chapter, an overview of research done on the mechanism design and intelligent control strategies implementation on different platforms and their application to entertainment and education domains will be stressed. In particular, the development of an anthropomorphic saxophonist robot (designed to mechanically reproduce the organs involved during saxophone playing) and the development of a two-wheeled inverted pendulum (designed to introduce the principles of mechanics, electronics, control, and programming at different education levels) will be presented.


The structural evolution of calderas in rifts helps to characterize the spatiotemporal relationships between magmatism, long wavelength crustal deformation and the formation of tectonic deformation zones along the rift axis. We document the structural characteristics of the c. 36 ka old Menengai Caldera located within a young zone of extension in the central Kenya Rift. Field mapping and high-resolution digital surface models show that NNE-striking Holocene normal faults perpendicular to the regional ESE–WNW extension direction dominate the interior sectors of the rift. Inside the caldera, these structures are overprinted by post-collapse doming and faulting of the magmatic centre, resulting in obliquely slipping normal faults bounding a resurgence horst. Radiocarbon dating of faulted units as young as 5 ka cal BP and the palaeo-shorelines of a lake formed during the African Humid Period in the Nakuru Basin indicate that volcanism and fault activity inside and in the vicinity of Menengai must have been sustained during the Holocene. Our analysis confirms that the caldera is located at the centre of an extending rift segment and suggests that other magmatic centres and young zones of faulting along the volcano-tectonic axis of the Kenya Rift may constitute nucleation points of faulting that ultimately foster future continental break-up. Supplementary material: 40Ar/39Ar radiometric dating data table is available at: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.4647818


Activation of the Arp2/3 complex by VCA‐motif‐bearing actin nucleation‐promoting factors results in the formation of "daughter" actin filaments branching off the sides of pre‐existing "mother" filaments. Alternatively, when stimulated by SPIN90, Arp2/3 directly nucleates "linear" actin filaments. Uncovering the similarities and differences between these two mechanisms is fundamental to understanding how actin cytoskeleton dynamics are regulated. Here, analysis of individual filaments reveals that, unexpectedly, the VCA motifs of WASP, N‐WASP, and WASH destabilize existing branches, as well as SPIN90‐Arp2/3 at linear filament ends. Furthermore, branch stabilizer cortactin and destabilizer GMF each have a similar impact on SPIN90‐activated Arp2/3. However, unlike branch junctions, SPIN90‐Arp2/3 at the ends of linear filaments is not destabilized by piconewton forces and does not become less stable with time. It thus appears that linear and branched Arp2/3‐generated filaments respond similarly to the regulatory proteins we have tested, albeit with some differences, but significantly differ in their responses to aging and mechanical stress. These kinetic differences likely reflect the small conformational differences recently reported between Arp2/3 in branch junctions and linear filaments and suggest that their turnover in cells may be differently regulated.


Marine life is the basis for most industries in the Turks and Caicos Islands, located on the outskirts of the Caribbean Sea. Few studies have been carried out to assess the current status of reefs in this region, especially those off the shore of South Caicos Island. The AGRRA v.4.0 methodologies were employed create baseline assessments of stony corals, macroalgae and associated fishes and to explore the relationships between these key reef organisms. This study was based on 10 different locations both inside and outside of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and including exposed and sheltered reefs in proximity to South Caicos. Findings were highly variable, although a statistically significant positive correlation was found between macroalgal cover and herbivorous fish abundance, namely Acanthuridae and Scaridae. No significant relationships were found between macroalgal cover and coral cover or between coral cover and herbivore abundance. Minimal differences were found between exposed and sheltered reefs or between protected and unprotected areas. The findings of this study indicate a need for further reef assessments at additional locations.


One of the most fundamental problems in the development of an intelligent highway system or an autonomous mobile robot system for factory use is to find the necessary input control variables for smooth and safe movement of the vehicle, or robot, between any two configurations. In this paper it is demonstrated that this problem can be converted into one of finding a fitting function which satisfies the boundary conditions. Three curves, a quintic polynomial, a cubic polynomial and a triangular function are developed to perform the parallel transfer manoeuvre which forms the basis of several important manoeuvres such as reverse parking, moving off, negotiating a stationary obstacle, overtaking a moving vehicle, and changing lane. A detailed discussion of the effect of the vehicle's steering angle limit on the feasibility of these manoeuvres is presented. Simulation results using three typical vehicles, a long commercial vehicle, an ordinary car, and a small laboratory robot, travelling along three curves are also presented and discussed. Based on the comparative study, some suggestions for further work are made. Compared with other methods, this approach is simple and provides excellent simulation of human driver techniques. The paper concludes with a focused discussion about the integration of these techniques with satellite based GPS systems for automated vehicle guidance on highways.


The study was conducted to investigate the potential of several organogelators in structuring palm superolein such as polyglycerol behenic acid ester (PBAE), sunflower wax (SFW), fully hydrogenated palm-based monoacylglycerols, hard stearin and fully hydrogenated palm stearin. A simple inverted vial approach was used to observe the stability of the oleogels for 90 days at 15°C, 20°C and 25°C. The results indicated that at least 8% (w/w) of fully hydrogenated palm-based monoacylglycerols was needed to form stable oleogels at all storage temperatures. For the hard stearin and fully hydrogenated palm stearin, 10% (w/w) was still insufficient to structure the superolein at 20°C and 25°C. In contrast, only 1% (w/w) of PBAE and SFW gelators were needed to form stable gels that lasted for 90 days at 15°C and 20°C. The effectiveness of these gelators in structuring the superolein mainly relied on their solubility in the oil. The hard palm stearin and fully hydrogenated palm stearin were very much less effective to form superolein gel as compared to PBAE and SFW gelators due to their relatively higher solubility in the superolein. Therefore, these gelators were withdrawn from further investigation.


In this paper, is proposed a smart design for a two-dimensional (2-D) optical display using 2-D laser scanning and an electronically programmable three-dimensional (3-D) beamforming lens element. Specifically, an electronically controlled variable focal length lens (ECVFL) adjusts its focus power to produce the smallest focused beam spot on the display screen within the designed variable screen distance range. Since the screen distance is known, the angular scan range for the scan mirrors can be computed to generate the desired number of scanned spots in the 2-D display. Thus a smart display with the smallest pixel spot size is formed leading to the highest spatial resolution display for any given distance. Furthermore, if the scan angles are increased, a larger size display of higher pixel count can be formed without sacrificing display pixel size at this larger display size. A proof-of-concept smart display optics system is designed and demonstrated for a red 633-nm laser wavelength and an optimal display variable screen distance of 20-150 cm, giving optimized display pixel sizes of 51.92 and 538.1 μm, respectively.


Selective capture of glycopolypeptides followed by release and analysis of the former glycosylation-site peptides has been shown to have promise for reducing the complexity of body fluids such as blood for biomarker discovery. In this work, a protocol based on capture of polypeptides containing a N-linked carbohydrate from human plasma using commercially available magnetic beads coupled with hydrazide chemistry was optimized and partially automated through the use of a KingFisher magnetic particle processor. Comparison of bead-based glycocapture at the protein-level vs the peptide-level revealed differences in the specificity, reproducibility, and absolute number of former glycosylation-site peptides detected. Evaluation of a range of capture and elution conditions led to an optimized protocol with a 24% intraday and 30% interday CV and a glycopeptide capture specificity of 99%. Depleting the plasma of 14 high abundance proteins improved detection sensitivity by approximately 1 order of magnitude compared to nondepleted plasma and resulted in an increase of 24% in the number of identified glycoproteins. The sensitivity of SPEG for detection of glycoproteins in depleted, non-fractionated plasma was found to be in the 10-100 pmol/mL range corresponding to glycoprotein levels ranging from 100's of nanograms/mL to 10's of micrograms/mL. Despite high capture specificity, the total number of glycoproteins detected and the sensitivity of SPEG in plasma is surprisingly limited.


Roberto Calasso is one of the most original and acclaimed of writers on literature, art, culture and mythology. In Baudelaire's Folly, Calasso turns his attention to the poets and writers of Paris in the nineteenth century who created what was later called 'the Modern.' His protagonist is Charles Baudelaire: poet of nerves, art lover, pioneering critic, man about Paris, whose groundbreaking works on modern culture described the ephemeral, fleeting nature of life in the metropolis - and the artist's role in capturing this - as no other writer had done. With Baudelaire's critical intelligence as his inspiration, Calasso ranges through his life and work, focusing on two painters - Ingres and Delacroix - about whom Baudelaire wrote acutely, and then turns to Degas and Manet, who followed in the tracks Baudelaire laid down in his great essay The Painter of Modern Life. In a mosaic of stories, insights, dreams, close readings of poems and commentaries on paintings, Paris in Baudelaire's years comes to life. In the eighteenth century, a 'folie' was a garden pavilion set aside for people of leisure, a place of delight and fantasy. Here Calasso has created a brilliant and dramatic 'Folie Baudelaire': a place where the reader can encounter Baudelaire, his peers, his city, his extraordinary likes and dislikes, and his world, finally discovering that it is nothing less than the land of 'absolute literature'. Born in Florence, Roberto Calasso lives in Milan, where he is publisher of Adelphi. He is the author of Tiepolo Pink, The Ruin of Kasch, The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony, winner of the Prix Veillon and the Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger, Literature and the Gods, Ka and K.


ABSTRACT This article provides researchers and practitioners with a better understanding of how consumers behave within a cross-cultural context. Literature often focuses on culture per se, but to understand consumer behavior better in a cross-cultural context, some studies have considered variables other than the key component elements of culture, encompassing families friends, society, etc. This research focuses on two slightly different variables: the perception of time and exploratory buying behavior. Within this context the first section of the paper validates the Time Style Scale and the Exploratory Buying Behavior Scale within a cross-cultural context. Results show that the Temporal Styles Scale (Usunier and Valette-Florence, 1994) is validated when using the entire dataset as well as data from an English version of the instrument. However, data collected from the Chinese version of the questionnaire does not fit the model well. The Exploratory Buying Behavior Scale (Baumgartner and Steenkamp, 1996) can be reduced to four exploratory acquisition of products (EAP) and three exploratory information seeking (EIS) items. Data collected from both language versions are considered as fitting the model adequately. The second section of the research examines the relation between elements of culture, time orientation, exploratory buying behavior, and consumer behavior. Results of a canonical analysis show that the group of variables associated with culture are best at discriminating the phenomenon. However, as far as the variables are concerned, the exploratory product-acquisition factor has a more important role than some variables associated with culture.


Abstract An emerging option in several European countries has been the state provision of publicly funded Islamic education. It is an alternative that lies at the heart of concerns over religious freedom, equal rights to education, integration, and social cohesion, but that is also connected to matters of securitization and the state's attempt to control Islam. This article compares the provision of faith-based schooling in general, but publicly funded Islamic education in particular, in Finland and Sweden—two neighboring countries, historically and culturally connected, but with a different approach to faith based schooling.


Functional interactions between ligand-gated, voltage-, and Ca(2+)-activated ion channels are essential to the properties of excitable cells and thus to the working of the nervous system. The outer hair cells in the mammalian cochlea receive efferent inputs from the brain stem through cholinergic nerve fibers that form synapses at their base. The acetylcholine released from these efferent fibers activates fast inhibitory postsynaptic currents mediated, to some extent, by small-conductance Ca(2+)-activated K+ channels (SK) that had not been cloned. Here we report the cloning, characterization, and expression of a complete SK2 cDNA from the mouse cochlea. The cDNAs of the mouse cochlea alpha9 and alpha10 acetylcholine receptors were also obtained, sequenced, and coexpressed with the SK2 channels. Human cultured cell lines transfected with SK2 yielded Ca(2+)-sensitive K+ current that was blocked by dequalinium chloride and apamin, known blockers of SK channels. Xenopus oocytes injected with SK2 in vitro transcribed RNA, under conditions where only outward K+ currents could be recorded, expressed an outward current that was sensitive to EGTA, dequalinium chloride, and apamin. In HEK-293 cells cotransfected with cochlear SK2 plus alpha9/alpha10 receptors, acetylcholine induced an inward current followed by a robust outward current. The results indicate that SK2 and the alpha9/alpha10 acetylcholine receptors are sufficient to partly recapitulate the native hair cell efferent synaptic response.


This paper presents a new way to identify and understand the industry clusters in the Colombian economy. The analysis relies on a recent methodology proposed by Duque and Rey (2008) where intricate input-output linkages between industries are simplified using network analysis. In addition to other techniques for cluster identification available in the literature, this novel methodology allows us not only to classify each industry in a given cluster, but also to understand how industries are related to each other within their clusters. This methodology offers a conciliatory approach to two radically different views about the economic unit from which policy makers should design their strategies for resource allocation: Porter's cluster strategy versus Hausmann's industrial targeting


Coherent-light diffraction on random phase screens with fractal properties leads to the formation of speckle patterns with peculiarities in correlation characteristics in the small-scale region. Such peculiarities are manifested in asymptotic behavior in intensity autocorrelation and structure functions in the vicinity of the zero values of their arguments. Intensity fluctuations in the far and the near diffraction zones are also characterized by values of fractal (Hausdorff-Besicovitch) dimensions D(HB), differing from the corresponding Euclidean dimension. Relationships between the exponential factors of the structure functions of boundary field phase and scattered-light intensity fluctuations as well as between values of D(HB) have been obtained as a result of speckle-formation analysis for different conditions. Their dependencies on the illumination and observation conditions obtained in experiments with fractallike scatterers (rough glass plates) are in satisfactory agreement with theoretical results.


Cochlear implant surgery is performed to restore hearing in patients with a range of hearing disorders. To optimise hearing outcomes, trauma during the insertion of a cochlear implant electrode has to be minimised. Factors that contribute to the degree of trauma caused during surgery include: the location of the electrode, type of electrode, and the competence level of the surgeon. Surgical competence depends on knowledge of anatomy and experience in a range of situations, along with technical skills. Thus, during training, a surgeon should be exposed to a range of anatomical variations, where he/she can learn and practice the intricacies of the surgical procedure, as well as explore different implant options and consequences thereof. Virtual reality simulation offers a versatile platform on which such training can be conducted. In this paper, we discuss a prototype implementation for the visualisation and analysis of electrode trajectories in relation to anatomical variation, prior to its inclusion in a virtual reality training module for cochlear implant surgery.


Perennial forage grasses can be viewed as modular organisms. The phytomer is usually considered the basic unit of the grass plant and consists of a leaf blade and sheath, the internode, the node, and the associated axillary bud below the point of sheath attachment. The tiller is a collection of phytomers differentiated from a single apical meristem. The grass plant is a group of tillers that ultimately arise from a single zygote and are of the same genotype. A grass sward is a population of individual plants, often genetically related, but usually of unique genotypes. The developmental morphology of perennial grass swards is dynamic and is a function of the spatial and temporal distribution of growth stages within the population of tillers comprising the sward. Management practices were applied to forages at the sward level. Systems for quantifying developmental morphology of perennial grasses that are to be used for management purposes must be applicable at the sward, or population, level. The phyllochron concept, which is widely used in studies of cereals, has been employed in only a limited number of studies on forage management. Numerical indices have been used successfully to quantity grass morphology, but have some inherent limitations when used for predictive purposes. The principles of population ecology, particularly plant demography, provide a framework for studying the developmental morphology of perennial grass populations and can be used in conjunction with numerical indices to describe tiller populations


Ultra-high intensity lasers in use are connected with ionizing radiation sources that raise a real concern in relation to installations, personnel, population and environment protection. The shielding of target areas in these facilities has to be evaluated from the conceptual stage of the building design. The sizing of the protective concrete walls was determined using computer codes such as Fluka. For the experiments to be carried out in the facility of the Center for Advanced Laser Technologies (CETAL), both proton beams with the energy of 100 MeV and electron beams with 300 MeV energy were considered to calculate the dimensions of structural shielding and to establish technical solutions fulfilling the radiation protection constraints imposed by the National Commission for Nuclear Activities Control.


In this paper we investigate the application of motion planning techniques to the untangling of mathematical knots. Knot untangling can be viewed as a high-dimensional planning problem in reparametrizable configuration spaces. In the past, simulated annealing and other energy minimization methods have been used to find knot untangling paths. We have developed a probabilistic planner that is capable of untangling knots described by over 400 variables. We have tested on known difficult benchmarks in this area and untangled them more quickly than has been achieved with minimization in the literature. In this work, the use of motion planning techniques is critical for the untangling. Our planner defines local goals and makes combined use of energy minimization and randomized tree-based planning. We also show how to produce candidates with a minimal number of segments for a given knot. The planner developed in this work is novel in that it is used to study issues arising in practical motion planning for high-dimensional and reparametrizable geometry. The use of energy methods, local goals and tree-based expansion is also novel and may suggest solutions in other planning applications. Finally, we discuss some possible applications of our untangling planner in computational topology, in the study of DNA rings and protein folding and for planning with flexible robots.


The Internet is a powerful channel that presents new opportunities for touching customers, enriching products and services with information, squeezing out costs through process automation, and redesigning internal business processes through enhanced communication and knowledge sharing. In most firms e-business processes are changing the nature of the buyerseller relationship, the role of information technology (IT), and the design of organizational structures and roles. As firms attempt to capitalize on their existing capabilities through the Internet, they necessarily disrupt their embedded processes. This process of leveraging strengths and disrupting habits underlies the migration to e-business?a migration from market place to market space. This report describes that migration using cross-case analysis of nine firms' ebusiness efforts.