Artikkel mõtestab kogemuspõhiste lugude kaudu kahaneva linna olemust, mida sageli määratletakse eelkõige majanduspoliitiliste katkestuste ja kahaneva rahvaarvu kaudu. Kahte autobiograafilist jutustust kõrvutav temaatiline sisuanalüüs toob esile Detroiti ja Narvaga seonduvad linnalisuse-kogemused, mis ilmestavad postindustriaalseid muutusi. Struktuurse kriisi kontekstualiseerimine linnade kahanemises näitab omakorda mitmeid linnaruumilisi kestvusi ja alternatiive otsivad kultuuripraktikaid. Linnalisuse ümbermõtestamine avaldub siin ruraalsete omaduste ja piiride esitamisega linnamaastikes. Ilukirjanduslike jutustuste ja nende kaudu esitatud lugude põimimine kahanevate linnade uurimusse võimaldab märgata kriisi mõjude ambivalentsust ning seejuures uurida kompleksset mitmesuunalist linnastumist.

The article analyses the characteristics and appearances of shrinking cities, which are too often framed in terms of structural economic ruptures and population decline. The notion of "structural crisis" needs to be contextualised in opening up diverse experiences of transformation in postindustrial urbanity. The study includes the literary stories represented in two books about the cities of Narva and Detroit:  Katri Raik's Minu Narva (2013) and Francesca Berardi's Detour in Detroit (2015). These autobiographical narratives were brought together along with qualitative content analysis, which focused on the emergent qualities of postindustrial cities: rurality, social change, political boundaries and trajectories of the future.
The books analysed represent the shrinking of cities as part of their story of evolution, although the focus is on contemporary situations.  This way of seeing adds the time dimension to changes of urban landscapes, working to observe possible trajectories of the future in on-going events. These autobiographical narratives about the cities' sudden transformations articulate diverse experiences and practices connected to living together, with shrinking infrastructures and economic turbulence.  The shrinking city appears as an ambivalent assemblage, because wasteland and unlit silence generate affective fears for one person, but somebody else will associate these conditions with freedom of practice and of interpretation. The decline of industry as a marker of structural crisis flickers in the narrated landscapes. Beside this, lively initiatives are represented, which associate industrial decline with the potential for emergent new beginnings. Some possible solutions to the postindustrial crisis become entangled with changes in everyday streetscapes. The narratives indicate that there is no reason to view the cities' shrinkage as a total crisis extending into all spheres of urban life.
Comparing these narratives about Detroit and Narva revealed similarities in the changes and in the experiences of the landscapes of the shrinking cities. The large-scale end of industrial production, the rapid decline of inhabitants and ethnic segregation – these are shared aspects of the shrinkage and in Narva, post-socialist transformation is a further factor. Therefore, the context and crisis of post-industrial urbanity evolve through diverse glocal interactions. The narratives show that global change and crisis inhabits particular places, and the search for solutions can lead to shifting urban characteristics. Reductions in municipal infrastructure made the cities more rural, so that such characteristics of dispersed settlements as silence, less lighting and growth of edible plants became widespread in them. Therefore, the framings of 'nature' and 'rural' in processes of post-industrial urbanity require more attention in future research. The (temporary) shrinkage renders visible coexistences between urbanity and nature-based practices, which problematize both the city as a form and the assumption that trends of global urbanisation are linear.
The boundaries and borders that appear in different scales can be approached as spatial spheres of coexistence, which transform in the crisis and simultaneously try to reproduce social integrity. Geopolitical territories appear side by side with the shifting of meaningful boundaries in the streetscapes. In Narva, the nearness of the frontier came, through events, into the everyday lives of people, affecting situations and indicating possible alternatives. Border-making entanglements with geopolitical neighbours were not so important in Detroit's narrative, but changes in the city were presented as a sensitive barometer offering understanding of wider post-industrial transformations. The experience-based and comparative approach to tendencies in the shrinking city indicated a slowness and temporal shift which exist in the middle of turbulence. This spatiotemporal shift exists with fragmentary infrastructures, which accumulate certain cultural practices and simultaneously push to find alternatives for the future.
These texts, with their diverse narratives, enrich the spectre of experience in approaching the tendencies displayed by shrinking cities. The situations and emotional affects represented in the stories can give important hints towards new methods for analysing and rethinking the tendencies summed up as the "shrinking city". A contextual approach is needed to explain settings experiencing structural crisis, which often becomes to frame the shrinking cities. In the narratives analysed, the flickering post-industrial crisis appears alongside a combination of shifting cultural and economic tendencies, which as well as disturbances also generate spatial conditions and publics for re-inscription of political alternatives. Declining industrial production in cities is combined with diverse processes of shrinkage, change-seeking initiatives and durations of urban spaces, helping people cope with sudden turbulences and create meaningful places.


Determining whether a textual phrase denotes a functional relation (i.e., a relation that maps each domain element to a unique range element) is useful for numerous NLP tasks such as synonym resolution and contradiction detection. Previous work on this problem has relied on either counting methods or lexico-syntactic patterns. However, determining whether a relation is functional, by analyzing mentions of the relation in a corpus, is challenging due to ambiguity, synonymy, anaphora, and other linguistic phenomena.

We present the Leibniz system that overcomes these challenges by exploiting the synergy between the Web corpus and freely-available knowledge resources such as Free-base. It first computes multiple typed functionality scores, representing functionality of the relation phrase when its arguments are constrained to specific types. It then aggregates these scores to predict the global functionality for the phrase. Leibniz outperforms previous work, increasing area under the precision-recall curve from 0.61 to 0.88. We utilize Leibniz to generate the first public repository of automatically-identified functional relations.


This report discusses section 123 of the Atomic Energy Act (AEA), the specific requirements of which must be met in order for the United States to engage in civilian nuclear cooperation with other states. The AEA also provides for exemptions to these requirements, export control licensing procedures, and criteria for terminating cooperation.


It is well known that Member States of the European Community ("EC") do not always comply with Treaty provisions or with directly applicable secondary Community legislation. There are, however, legal remedies in the case of noncompliance of Treaty provisions or directly binding regulations. Citizens may bring claims against Member States in national courts or may lodge a complaint with the Commission. The situation is more complicated with claims based on directives because directives must be implemented by Member State legislation. Member States are responsible for adapting their existing legislation or establishing new legislation. Often, this is done late, long after expiration of the period for Member State compliance, or else, in many cases, the transposition does not fully comply with the text or the spirit of the directive. A number of remedies are available in the event of noncompliance. European Court of Justice ("ECJ" or "Court") case law has extended the principles of direct applicability to directive provisions that are clear and unconditional. In the Francovich case, the Court went beyond this and found that citizens can have an action for damages if they suffer a financial loss when a Member State fails to implement a directive in due time. Finally, one of the innovations of the Maastricht Treaty on European Union ("TEU") is the possibility of ordering a Member State that fails to comply with an ECJ judgment to pay a lump sum or penalty. This new provision must be seen in the context of the Treaty provisions for infringement proceedings against Member States. Before turning to this provision, I would like to refer to some other ideas on how to improve the quality of Community legislation in order to improve Member State compliance. HOW TO IMPROVE COMPLIANCE WITH EUROPEAN COMMUNITY LEGISLATION AND THE JUDGMENTS OF THE EUROPEAN COURT OF JUSTICE


ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to examine developmental links between disobedience and teacher-child closeness in a sample of boys with psychiatric disorders (i.e., emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) and autism spectrum disorders (ASD)) and special educational needs who are placed in special education. More specifically, this study examined whether developmental links were different between boys with EBD (n = 150) versus boys with ASD (n = 122). Developmental links between disobedience and teacher-child closeness were investigated by incorporating a multi-informant perspective using teacher, child, and peer ratings and analyzed using autoregressive cross-lagged models across three waves within one school year. Results showed that in general, developmental links between teacher-child closeness and disobedience were stronger for boys with EBD than for boys with ASD. Specifically, boys with EBD experiencing less teacher-child closeness showed more disobedience, which in turn negatively affected their relationship development according to teacher ratings. Surprisingly, for boys with ASD, higher levels of disobedience predicted higher levels of teacher-rated teacher-child closeness during the school year. Our results offer more insight into the differential impact of teacher-child closeness on the behavioral problems for children with EBD and ASD.


Abstract We investigated the behavioural mechanisms by which European badgers receive and transmit information at shared defecation sites (latrines). We surveyed locations of 143 latrines to establish factors influencing latrine position, and monitored the behaviour of badgers at latrines. Badger latrines were significantly closer to tree trunks than were random samples, and were more likely to be associated with conifers than broadleafs. This may serve to protect scent marks from erosion. Latrines were also placed more closely to linear features than expected; linear features may channel the movements of badgers, promoting discovery of latrines. Within latrines, badgers differed in their placement of faeces and subcaudal scent marks. Faeces were placed in a subset of pits, which were used for several consecutive nights, then abandoned for another subset of pits. Subcaudal scent (squat) marks were positioned in prominent places, and there was no consistent tendency to overmark. Meetings were rare at latrines. Sniffing was the most common behaviour, and was focused on defecation sites. At least three distinct behaviours that appear to serve an information transfer function were observed: squat marking; defecation; and digging and scuffing. Squat marking and defecation were performed by all age and sex classes, and may have a role in cross-territorial communication. Digging and scuffing were associated with mating, and may communicate breeding condition. The wide range of marking behaviours, compounded by the lack of any clearly sex-limited behaviour at latrines, suggests a multiplicity of roles in the social lives of all age and sex classes of badgers. Copyright 2002 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd on behalf of The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour


This is the .NET 3.5 edition of Murach's best-selling C# book on Windows Forms development. Here's what developers have said about earlier editions: "I have to tell you that your C# book is far and away the best resource I have seen to date. It really does do what the learner needs. It is simple, straightforward, presents logical examples, and the two-page format is the best.""With this book, I have quickly moved from being intimidated by C# to making it my language of choice, The fact that this process took me only 3 days should speak volumes about how effective this book is.""I am actually flying through the C# 2005 book! And a lot of the topics I had problems with in the past are now making perfect sense."What makes this book so effective? Here are several things it does that other C# books don t do:#1: The OOP section deals with business objects, not cats and dogsObject-oriented programming is the basis for C# 2008. But while other books try to explain it using whimsical examples (like mammals or cars), our book explains it in terms of true business objects, like customers, invoices, and products. So right from the start, you ll see how OOP is applied in the real world.#2: There s a 4-chapter section on database programmingBusiness applications require database processing. So instead of glossing over this crucial function in a chapter or two, this book gives you 4 full chapters that show you how to use RAD tools like data sources as well as ADO.NET code to do fairly sophisticated database processing. There s certainly more to learn. But you ll have a solid set of skills that will let you easily prototype typical database applications in business.#3: Complete applications show how all the pieces interactThe key to mastering C# development is to have plenty of real-world examples that show you how the features you're learning interact...and that help you avoid the problems that you can run into as you build complex applications. That's why this book gives you complete applications for everyday business functions (these can be downloaded for free from the Murach web site).#4: The paired-pages format lets you set your own paceMurach books have a distinctive format, where each two-page spread presents a single topic. You can read every page...skim or skip material you already know...quickly pinpoint the reference details you need...use the book however it works best for you. To see how this works, you can look at some pages in "Search Inside" above or download sample chapters for free from the Murach web site.


This essay studies Sylvia Wynter's "Black Metamorphosis" and draws attention to the ways plantocratic systems generated black creative activities that rebelled against the tenets of white supremacy and its attendant order of consciousness. Building on Wynter's insights, the essay argues that plantation activities were rebellious and inventive spaces that enunciate "the revolutionary demand for happiness." This demand for happiness draws attention to how musical beats and grooves are rebellious enthusiasms that recode ongoing plantation logics and, as well, open up a new order of consciousness.


We present the RPI-MATLAB-Simulator (RPIsim) as an open source tool for research and education in multibody dynamics. RPIsim is designed and organized to be extended. Its modular design allows users to edit or add new components without worrying about extra implementation details. RPIsim has two main goals: 1. Provide an intuitive and easily extendable platform for research and education in multibody dynamics; 2. Maintain an evolving code base of useful algorithms and analysis tools for multibody dynamics problems. Although research often focuses on a specific subset of problems, work too often begins with developing software in a broader scope simply to realize a test bed for research to begin. It is our hope that RPIsim alleviates some of this burden by decreasing development time, thusly increasing efficiency in research. Further, we aim to provide a practical teaching tool. Because it is a fully working simulator, and since it offers the instant gratification of visualized contact dynamics, RPIsim offers students the opportunity to experiment and explore dynamics in the powerful environment of MATLAB. With multiple built-in simulation methods, and support for a simulation data convention, RPIsim facilitates the fair comparison of methods, including those being developed with RPIsim.


A survey was undertaken to establish the nature and extent of Biokinetics services in the Republic of South Africa for the years 1988-1991. Questionnaires were sent to all Biokinetic centres and practices. The results show that Biokineticists willing to enter full time practice (as opposed to those working part-time) increased from 45% in 1988 to 73% in 1991. A growing trend in patient numbers was also experienced i.e. from 5 736 (286/centre) in 1988 to 11 241 (750/centre) in 1991. Of the patients seen by Biokineticists, 41% were referred by other medical disciplines.


With fast-growing consumer demands and rapidly-developing mobile technologies, portable mobile devices are becoming a necessity of our daily lives. However, existing mobile devices rely on the wireless infrastructure to access Internet services provided by central application providers. This architecture is inefficient in many situations and also does not utilize abundant inter device communication opportunities in many scenarios. This paper proposes the human network (HUNET), a network architecture that enables information sharing between mobile devices through direct interdevice communication. We design B-SUB, an interest-driven information sharing system for HUNETs. In B-SUB, content and user interests are described by tags, which are human-readable strings that are designated by users. An experiment is performed to demonstrate the effectiveness of this tag-based content description method. To facilitate efficient data dissemination, we invent the Temporal Counting Bloom filter (TCBF) to encode tags, which also reduces the overhead of content routing. Comprehensive theoretical analyses on the parameter tuning of B-SUB are presented and verify B-SUB's ability to work efficiently under various network conditions. We then extend B-SUB's routing scheme to provide a stronger privacy guarantee. Extensive real-world trace-driven simulations are performed to evaluate the performance of BSUB, and the results demonstrate its efficiency and usefulness.


Many field investigations of earthquake disaster cases confirm that earthquake-induced liquefaction is a main factor resulting in large damages to dyke. Consequently to ensure seismic safety of dyke on the liquefiable foundation, the research on seismic performances of dyke is of great importance. Herein seismic responses of dyke on the liquefiable soils were discussed by means of three dimension effective stress analysis method using a multiple shear mechanism model and liquefaction front. Two numerical models, in which the liquefiable foundation both consisted of saturated fine silica sand of 30% relative density and scenario waves with peak amplitude of 0.8056 and 3.133 m/s2 were used input waves, were conducted to investigate the distribution principles and the changing rules of deformation, acceleration, express pore water pressure, and shear dilatancy behavior in the dyke and the liquefiable foundation. The computed results do good agreements with the measured results from centrifuge tests. And these results may be of theoretical and realistic significance for seismic design of dyke on liquefiable soils.


Wireless sensor networks are made possible by the continuing improvements in embedded sensor, VLSI, and wireless radio technologies. Currently, one of the important challenges in sensor networks is the design of a systematic network management framework that allows localized and collaborative resource control uniformly across all application services such as sensing, monitoring, tracking, data aggregation, and routing.
The research in wireless sensor networks is currently oriented toward a cross-layer network abstraction that supports appropriate fine or course grained resource controls for energy efficiency. In that regard, we have designed a unified role-based service paradigm for wireless sensor networks. We pursue this by first developing a Role-based Hierarchical Self-Organization (RBSHO) protocol that organizes a connected dominating set (CDS) of nodes called dominators. This is done by hierarchically selecting nodes that possess cumulatively high energy, connectivity, and sensing capabilities in their local neighborhood. The RBHSO protocol then assigns specific tasks such as sensing, coordination, and routing to appropriate dominators that end up playing a certain 'role' in the network.
Roles, though abstract and implicit, expose role-specific resource controls by way of role assignment and scheduling. Based on this concept, we have designed a Unified Role-Assignment Framework (URAF) to model application services as roles played by local in-network sensor nodes with sensor capabilities used as rules for role identification. The URAF abstracts domain specific role attributes by three models: the role energy model, the role execution time model, and the role service utility model. The framework then generalizes resource management for services by providing abstractions for controlling the composition of a service in terms of roles, its assignment, reassignment, and scheduling. To the best of our knowledge, a generic role-based framework that provides a simple and unified network management solution for wireless sensor networks has not been proposed previously.
Keywords: Wireless sensor networks (WSNs), sensing metrics, roles, rules, network organization, role assignment, role scheduling, and generic control interfaces or abstractions.


ABSTRACT Conservation of intraspecific variation is a growing focus of conservation biology. Island populations can make up a large portion of the variation of widespread species, as they are often isolated and exhibit differences in phenotype and genetic structure compared with mainland populations. We genotyped 169 Pacific Wrens (Troglodytes pacificus) from 9 locations and 6 subspecies in Alaska, USA, and British Columbia, Canada, to examine the population structure, genetic diversity, and likelihood of genetic rescue of island populations of conservation concern. We found that 25% of genetic variation was partitioned among conservation units delineated by subspecies, suggesting that the present framework of managing subspecies as separate units is warranted. Populations found farthest from possible mainland sources had the lowest genetic diversity. The Attu Island population, subspecies T. p. meligerus, had the lowest genetic diversity and highest genetic divergence of all sampled locations, a signal also found in Attu Island populations of Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia) and Rock Ptarmigan (Lagopus muta). Currently, populations in western Alaska are unlikely to be connected to populations in mainland locations through dispersal, and thus are unlikely candidates for natural genetic or demographic rescue.


This thesis examines the role of craftsmanship from the Mesolithic period to Postmodernism,
with special emphasis on education and training, mainly from an Irish
perspective. Historians always depend on the work of their predecessors, and this is
especially the case in a wide-ranging study such as this. It is also a very personal journey into
the world of apprenticeship.
Ireland is gifted with monuments dating from the Stone Age and arts of metalwork
dating from the La Tene era. Although an astonishingly large amount of material evidence
from the Middle Ages has been excavated throughout Ireland, few written sources survive
today. The early Irish law texts are a rich source of information on a wide variety of topics
relating to Early, and even to Late Medieval Ireland. The bulk of these texts were, on the
basis of linguistic evidence, written down in the 7th and 8th centuries.
Later glosses and commentaries can provide considerable help in understanding the
original laws. Each particular tract must be assessed in the context of the subject with which
it deals. In the Old and Middle Irish law-texts, the Saer was expected to be competent in
many different areas of construction. Although Saer will be translated here as 'craftsman'
and referred to as 'he,' to avoid the encumbrance of constantly using
'craftsman/craftswoman' and 'he/she.' There is, however, a reference to Bansear, a
craftswoman or 'woman wright,' indicating that not all craftspersons were male.
The international composition of the population of medieval Dublin is very well
reflected in its Guild Merchant Roll. While the document itself cannot give more than a
glimpse of the town and its trade, it nonetheless provides the historian and the archaeologist
with c. 8,500 names, the majority of which can be dated by the years they entered into the
iii
merchant guild. The international mix is very well represented, and includes merchants from
Belgium, England, France, Germany, Holland, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Scandinavia,
Scotland, Spain and Wales.
An explosion and fire at the Public Record Office of Ireland, Four Courts, Dublin,
during the civil war in 1922, destroyed nearly a thousand years of what must have been one
of the finest medieval archives of Irelands historical and genealogical facts. Ironically, the
documents were placed there for safe keeping. Most of what had not been transcribed or out
on loan was lost.
The prolific results of the large archaeological excavations undertaken in various
cities and towns of Ireland since, have resulted in great advances being made in the
understanding of the physical character of the towns of the late Viking age as well as of the
contemporary crafts and occupations and commercial contact. From the 1960s, a general
comparison of the physical attributes that survive in the archaeological record-location,
layout, defences and building types shows that the later Viking-age towns shared many traits
and the existence of the Hiberno-Norse town and the Dublin excavations, impressive though
they are, need no longer be studied in isolation. The publication of Scully's and Hurley's
report on the prolific Waterford sites allows of even greater comparison with the Dublin
result. Materials were sourced at the National Museum of Ireland and at Waterford Museum
of Treasures. The Author's archive describes the unfolding of events of the role of the Social
Partners in apprenticeship, Inter College Course Committees, FAS, the Department of
Education and Science.
It may, therefore, be stated that the concept and structure of apprentice training and
education which emerged in Ireland at the beginning of the 21st century wasn't fixed but
inexorably emerged from the flames of consecutive eras of craftsmanship.


This paper constructs an index of regulatory quality for improving financial inclusion for the purpose of assessing and comparing the quality of rules and regulations in a sample of eight Latin American countries. The index comprises 11 regulatory practices classified into three categories: those that determine the overall quality of the financial environment where providers of financial services that meet the needs of the poor operate (the enablers); those that deal with specific types of market frictions and regulate the provision of specific financial products and services (the promoters) to large segments of the population; and those that, albeit unintentionally, create distortions and barriers that adversely affect financial inclusion (the preventers). An important novelty of the index is that the assessment of individual regulatory practices not only takes into account accepted standards, but also recognizes that there are important interactions between regulations for financial inclusion as well as between these regulations and other type of government interventions. Among the countries in the sample, by mid-2017, Peru ranked first in this index, followed closely by Mexico. Chile, Colombia, Paraguay, and Uruguay obtained lukewarm results, although there were wide differences among these countries' individual results. Argentina and Brazil were the two countries with the lowest overall scores. An additional contribution of the paper is that, throughout the analysis, countries' specific areas of strengths and weakness in financial regulatory practices for improving financial inclusion are identified.


Although the phenomenon of foreign fighters is certainly not new, recent developments in Syria and Iraq have put this issue back on the European Union's security agenda. The Western Balkan region is not an exception to this trend. Violent extremism in the region is generally perceived through the lens of Islamist radicalisation and foreign fighters who joined Daesh or Al-Nusra in Syria and Iraq. Other forms of extremism, such as right-wing nationalism, if acknowledged at all, are regarded as a secondary concern.


Copyright is a unique species of the law, tethered in a very tangible way to what is largely an intangible: intellectual property. It should be no surprise then that any collection of laws governing property that can be literally created in a moment out of nothing but the mind of the creator, will ultimately have an eternal struggle keeping pace with that very thing it purports to govern. Historically, copyright law has been relegated to being the horse that is second to cross the finish line at the Kentucky Derby. The horse is indeed world class; however, it is simply not fast enough to keep up with the leader of the pack — creative minds. Copyright law inherently runs behind the creations of the mind that come under its purview. Historically, changes in technology have regularly led to a need for amendments to copyright law. That is nothing new. But in recent years, the blur that is the development of new technology has outpaced the law at a such a speed that even the ordinary observer can see that it is time for significant changes to the law. This article argues that the time has arrived for three significant changes to federal copyright law through adoption of the Fair Play Fair Pay Act, the AMP Act, and the Songwriter's Equity Act. In support of this conclusion, section I of this article provides context by addressing the historical and global evolution of musical exhibition and copyright law in the United States. Section II explains the Fair Play Fair Pay Act and makes the case for its adoption. Section III and section IV do the same for the AMP Act and Songwriter's Equity Act, respectively.


Patterns need to be described and formalized in ways that enable the reader to determine whether the particular solution presented is useful and applicable to his or her problem in a given context. However, many pattern descriptions tend to focus on the solution to a problem, and not so much on how the various (and often conflicting) forces involved are balanced. This chapter describes the user requirements notation (URN), and demonstrates how it can be used to formalize patterns in a way that enables rigorous trade-off analysis while maintaining the genericity of the solution description. URN combines a graphical goal language, which can be used to capture forces and reason about trade-offs, and a graphical scenario language, which can be used to describe behavioral solutions in an abstract manner. Although each language can be used in isolation in pattern descriptions (and have been in the literature), the focus of this chapter is on their combined use. It includes examples of formalizing Design patterns with URN together with a process for trade-off analysis.


We address the problem of synthesizing new video frames in an existing video, either in-between existing frames (interpolation), or subsequent to them (extrapolation). This problem is challenging because video appearance and motion can be highly complex. Traditional optical-flow-based solutions often fail where flow estimation is challenging, while newer neural-network-based methods that hallucinate pixel values directly often produce blurry results. We combine the advantages of these two methods by training a deep network that learns to synthesize video frames by flowing pixel values from existing ones, which we call deep voxel flow. Our method requires no human supervision, and any video can be used as training data by dropping, and then learning to predict, existing frames. The technique is efficient, and can be applied at any video resolution. We demonstrate that our method produces results that both quantitatively and qualitatively improve upon the state-of-the-art.


Mutations in the NPHS2 gene, which encodes podocin, are responsible for some cases of sporadic and familial autosomal recessive steroid-resistant nephrotic syndrome. Inter- and intrafamilial variability in the progression of renal disease among patients bearing NPHS2 mutations suggests a potential role for modifier genes. Using a mouse model in which the podocin gene is constitutively inactivated, we sought to identify genetic determinants of the development and progression of renal disease as a result of the nephrotic syndrome. We report that the evolution of renal disease as a result of nephrotic syndrome in Nphs2-null mice depends on genetic background. Furthermore, the maternal environment significantly interacts with genetic determinants to modify survival and progression of renal disease. Quantitative trait locus mapping suggested that these genetic determinants may be encoded for by genes on the distal end of chromosome 3, which are linked to proteinuria, and on the distal end of chromosome 7, which are linked to a composite trait of urea, creatinine, and potassium. These loci demonstrate epistatic interactions with other chromosomal regions, highlighting the complex genetics of renal disease progression. In summary, constitutive inactivation of podocin models the complex interactions between maternal and genetically determined factors on the progression of renal disease as a result of nephrotic syndrome in mice.


In 2005, the Economist Intelligence Unit conducted a survey with Chief Risk Officers worldwide across all industries and asked about the biggest threat to their businesses. Interestingly, regulatory risk ranked first. It dominated all other types of risk, be it related to reputation, IT, country, market, terrorism or many other causes (Economist, 2005). Apparently, uncertainty related to regulation is difficult for firms to accommodate and significantly influences business decisions. The motivation of the thesis is to shed light on the question of how firms cope with regulatory uncertainty. Furthermore, I want to explore whether this uncertainty is influencing investment decisions since these are key business decisions. To mitigate regulatory uncertainty a firm may address the nonmarket environment and try to influence policy-makers or regulatory authorities to drive policies and decisions in the desired way. Certainly, some firms may be more successful than others in doing so. Therefore, I argue that there is a set of different capabilities that are driving the effectiveness of these "nonmarket strategies" that allow the firms to mitigate risk from regulatory uncertainty. The thesis hence contributes to management literature about nonmarket strategies. I propose a set of capabilities that considers two different sources of value creation through nonmarket strategies. First, firms can create value from their nonmarket strategy by influencing the firm's non-business environment including policy-makers and regulators. Capabilities can be developed to shape policies, to influence regulatory decisions or to change regulatory institutions. I refer to these as "nonmarket capabilities". They help to mitigate the risk from regulatory uncertainty. My main hypothesis is that firms with stronger nonmarket capabilities are less likely to withhold investment because of regulatory uncertainty. Second, firms may also create value from their nonmarket strategy by organizational adaptation or exploitation of business opportunities that result from regulatory changes. I refer to the capabilities that help firms reach the aforementioned goals as "organizational capabilities". They capture the value of the firm's nonmarket action. Both nonmarket and organizational capabilities are analyzed empirically. The empirical analysis that was carried out in the liberalized European electricity generation market is twofold. First, interviews were conducted in the Swiss markets with the largest players. The results showed a high perceived regulatory uncertainty among the players, but with no indication that investment in generation capacity would be withheld. Investment delays are reported as well as a possible shift of upcoming investments to the bordering EU countries. The analysis of the interviews validates my proposed model since both nonmarket and organizational capabilities are developed by the Swiss players. Second, a survey was conducted into the European electricity generation market that encompasses the EU, Norway, Iceland, and Switzerland. The 300 largest generators were invited to contribute to the survey and the response rate reached nearly 30%. The survey results gave detailed information about the firms' capabilities to deal with regulatory uncertainty and with regulatory institutions, to exploit new business opportunities that result from regulatory changes and to adapt their organization to accommodate regulatory changes. About two third of the respondents agreed to the statement that strong regulatory uncertainty exists and nearly half said that they are able to cope well with this uncertainty. The majority disagreed that regulatory uncertainty would lead to reduced investments, but about 27% agreed, which is still a worrying fact. A similar pattern resulted for altered investments, i.e., that regulatory uncertainty leads to a change of investments. This change could be investing in small and more flexible generation projects instead of large and inflexible ones due to regulatory uncertainty. In terms of nonmarket capabilities, the majority of respondents acknowledged their ability to shape policies or influence regulatory decisions, though a minority of 15% stated they would not be capable of even shaping regulatory institutions that affect them. In an econometric analysis hypotheses were made about the setup of each nonmarket capability, i.e., which resources or capabilities are required in its establishing process. Further, hypotheses were developed on how nonmarket capabilities influence investment decisions or the effectiveness of organizational capabilities. The results of the econometric analysis validate the assumed impact on the analyzed investment decisions. First, in the case of potential future investment as stated by the firms in the Platts' PowerVision database all three defined nonmarket capabilities showed significance. Second, in the case of altered investment some significance could be detected. Third, only little significance was found for the case of actually reduced investments. Consequently, the initial argument that nonmarket capabilities allow firms to cope better with regulatory uncertainty and that firms are thus less likely to withhold investments could be proved for the case of potential future investment. Though, the connection could not be sufficiently proved between nonmarket capabilities and actually reduced investment. Further, the impact of nonmarket capabilities on organizational capabilities to exploit business opportunities that result from regulatory changes and rapid organizational adaptation has been analyzed. Particularly the nonmarket capability to influence policies or to regulatory decisions has shown a significant impact. Firms that are able to influence their nonmarket environment are also able to react faster and more adequately in their own organization. Analogously, these firms will also be able to seize business opportunities that result from regulatory changes. Organizational capabilities thus allow firms to secure their sustainable competitive advantage. Based on the results, the thesis closes with recommendations for business strategy.


Accurately identifying the botanical composition of free-ranging animal diets remains a challenge. Currently accepted procedures are time consuming, many requiring painstaking sample preparation while none produce data useful for real-time management. Automated procedures focusing on detection of chemical and/or physical plant properties using specific molecules called fluorophores offers possibilities for determining the species composition of herbivore diets. This study was designed to evaluate fluorometry techniques in herbivore diet determinations using fecal samples obtained from 13 lambs fed a basal diet of tobosa hay (Pleuraphis mutica Buckley), and containing 4 different levels (0, 10, 20, and 30%) of tarbush (Flourensia cernua D C.) leaf material. Chloroform (CHCl3) filtrate obtained from the lamb's feces was exposed to UV light from a xenon arc lamp. This caused fluorophore molecules in the filtrate to have their outer shell electrons move to a higher energy state as a result of UV light excitation. After excitation by UV light at 310, 320, 330, 340, 350, and 355 nm, the fluorophores returned to their ground state giving off light (fluorescence). This fluorescence intensity (counts) varied and when captured using appropriate electronics, produced 1,024 pairs of light intensities (counts) and fluorescent wavelengths between 175 and 818 nm in 0.63 nm increments. Previous research indicated differences among diets could be determined using distinct peaks in the red and blue regions of the visible light spectrum and a univariate (1 variable at a time) analysis. This research demonstrates the entire fluorescence data set can be used to determine differences among diets using multivariate statistics. Sequences of 5 increasingly complex statistical techniques were used to distinguish among diets: 2-dimensional plots, polynomial regression models, confidence interval plots, discriminant analysis, and 3-dimensional plots. Two-dimensional plots indicated 2 spectral fluorescence peaks, 1 in the blue-green (420-600 nm) and 1 in the red (640-720 nm) region of the visible spectrum. Because of the asymmetrical nature of these peaks, fifth-order polynomials were developed to differentiate among the 4 diets. Statistical reliability was high when discriminating between diets containing no tarbush leaf and the diets containing 30% tarbush leaf; however, it was not possible to statistically separate diets containing intermediate (10 and 20%) amounts of tarbush leaf material from each other or from the 2 extremes (0 and 30% tarbush leaf). These results suggest spectral signatures arising from fluorometry data may be useful for differentiating among botanical composition diets that differ in plant form, but that a multivariate approach may require large sample sizes. DOI:10.2458/azu_jrm_v54i4_mukherjee


This paper investigates whether rent control affects community socioeconomic composition. In particular, do rent controls increase the presence of poor and minority residents in a locale? Theoretically, the effect of rent control on community composition is ambiguous, as it depends upon several factors including willingness to occupy controlled apartments, landlord imposed rationing mechanisms, and spillover effects of rent controlled housing on uncontrolled units. Using census data on how Cambridge, Massachusetts and nearby communities responded to the state imposed end of rent control, I find evidence that rent control increased the presence of minority residents but also decreased the proportion of poor residents. This evidence is robust to alternate control areas and several specification checks. I also find that despite its positive impact on minority membership, rent control is associated with an increase in traditional measures of residential segregation.


To prevent an exploit, the security analyst must implement a suitable countermeasure. In this paper, we consider cost-sensitive attack graphs (CAGs) for network vulnerability analysis. In these attack graphs, a weight is assigned to each countermeasure to represent the cost of its implementation. There may be multiple countermeasures with different weights for preventing a single exploit. Also, a single countermeasure may prevent multiple exploits. We present a binary particle swarm optimization algorithm with a time-varying velocity clamping, called SwarmCAG-TVVC, for minimization analysis of cost-sensitive attack graphs. The aim is to find a critical set of countermeasures with minimum weight whose implementation causes the initial nodes and the goal nodes of the graph to be completely disconnected. This problem is in fact a constrained optimization problem. A repair method is used to convert the constrained optimization problem into an unconstrained one. A local search heuristic is used to improve the overall performance of the algorithm. We compare the performance of SwarmCAG-TVVC with a greedy algorithm GreedyCAG and a genetic algorithm GenNAG for minimization analysis of several large-scale cost-sensitive attack graphs. On average, the weight of a critical set of countermeasures found by SwarmCAG-TVVC is 6:15 percent less than the weight of a critical set of countermeasures found by GreedyCAG. Also, SwarmCAG-TVVC performs better than GenNAG in terms of convergence speed and accuracy. The results of the experiments show that SwarmCAG-TVVC can be successfully used for minimization analysis of large-scale cost-sensitive attack graphs.


IN THE OPENING of the Old English Andreas, the practices of the cannibalistic Mermedonians are described in detail: they capture strangers (elpeodas), put out their eyes, force them to drink a magic potion that robs them of their wits, and then, after a calculated delay, slaughter and consume them. (1) On these details, the poem largely agrees with the Greek and Latin texts which also inform the tradition on which Andreas draws. (2) The Old English, however, takes a slightly different approach in its description of the method by which the Mermedonians decide which prisoners will be eaten at which time: Haefdon hie on rune ond on rimcraefte awriten, waelgraedige, wera endestaef, hwaenne hie to mose metepearfendum on paere werpeode weordan sceoldon. (134-37) [They had written in their secret writing and in their calculation the day of men's death, when they had to become food for the hungry among the people.] In the Greek Praxeis and Latin Casanatensis, the Mermedonians give each prisoner a tablet (tablan, 36.15; tabula, 37.10) which indicates the day of their arrest and a corresponding date thirty days later. Each day, the Mermedonians inspect the tablets to see who has completed the allotted thirty days and who, as it were, still has time to kill. (3) Andreas ignores the tablets--there is mention of writing (on rune; there may also possibly be a pun on the -staef element of endestaef, which can be a written letter or a stick on which runes are written), but not of its being given to the prisoners. The Old English poem refers to their elaborate process using the term rimcraeft, "calculation or the computus" a word that has important scientific and theological resonances. (4) In his edition of the poem, Kenneth Brooks glosses rimcraeft first as "computation" but also more generally as "written figures" (5) However, elsewhere in Old English, rimcrceft does not seem to be used to indicate written communication in general, but arithmetic and the process of date-reckoning specifically. It glosses arithmetica, one of the seven liberal arts, in the Old English glossed version of Aldhelm's De u irginitate prosa. (6) More specifically, it frequently refers to the calculations related to the reckoning of time, and to the computus itself, the manual which both sets out these calculations and their products, that is, the tables for calculating the moveable feasts--and, above all, for calculating Easter. This definition of computus had been established since 562, with the production of the so-called Computus paschalis by the circle of monks gathered with Cassiodorus at Vivarium, the first time the word had been applied specifically and exclusively to the calculation of Easter Day: When Byrhtferth of Ramsey writes in the opening to his Enchiridion, "Her ongind gerimcraeft aefter Ledenwarum and aefter Grecum and Iudeiscum and Egiptiscum and Engliscum peodum and ma odra" (1.1.10) [Here begins the computus according to the Roman, Greek, Hebrew, Egyptian, and English people, and of many others], he is placing his work within a history both of astronomical observation and theological tradition. (8) His frequent return to the importance of correctly calculating Easter underscores the role the computus played in orthodox liturgical practice. Because the computus was crucial in determining the date on which the most important day in the Christian calendar was observed, and because its observations were so complex and problematic, it was constantly subject to examination and debate (such as the Easter Controversy, putatively resolved at the Synod of Whitby in 664, and throughout the Benedictine Reform), and to recalculation and reorganization. While Andreas does not overtly participate in these debates--although at the likely time of its composition there were still issues surrounding the adoption of the Roman terms for Easter calculation--the use of rimcraeft to indicate the Mermedonians' practice of food-oriented time-reckoning, paired with repeated references to their collective famine and starvation, suggests that the poem may be read as an Easter poem, or, more precisely, a poem dramatizing the relationship between the Easter sacraments, conversion, and the necessity for orthodox liturgical practice. …


Electron 3D crystallography is a useful method for structure analysis from tiny and thin crystals of membrane proteins and protein complexes, which often yield crystals too small or too thin for even the synchrotron X-ray beam and X-ray free electron laser. More importantly, it can visualize the charged states of amino-acid residues and metals, as the diffraction pattern formed by elastically scattered electrons is directly related to the distribution of Coulomb potential. Here we introduce the development of this technique and structure determination with charges, and discuss further applications including a suitable treatment of electron scattering factors of charged atoms.


Potassium and caesium ion-selective electrodes (ISEs) have been fabricated from poly(vinyl chloride) matrix membranes containing nine different calixarene-based ionophores. They were used with 2-nitrophenyl octyl ether as plasticising solvent mediator. An anion exchanger [potassium tetrakis (4- chlorophenyl) borate] was included in the ISE membrane construction in some electrodes. The electrodes studied so far showed excellent response characteristics, i.e. near Nemstian response over a wide concentration range (lxl0 4M to lxlCHM). Selectivity coefficients were determined for nine metal cations. The best sensor had a lifetime of more than ten months and a dynamic response times was less than 9 seconds (t90%).

Some preliminary results on the performance of solid-state potentiometric sensors based on new materials are also included. These are based on polymeric calixarenes, which have the advantage of producing devices with the active component bonded to the substrate surface. This can simplify the manufacture of the sensors, and prevent the gradual leaking of the active component into the sample. Subsequent to this, the electrodes properties were evaluated by focusing on the stability of their potential response, selectivity, lifetime, and pH dependence.

In the final part of this research a chromogenic calix[4]arene was investigated as a lithium or sodium ion selective indicator system. Colourless solutions of the ligands in THF changed lo a yellow colour upon contact with Li+ or Na+ (LiCl, LiC104 or NaCl or NaC104, but not other salts) in the presence of morpholine as a base. It was found that nitrocalix[4]arene was a suitable indicating system capable of detecting lithium and sodium ions over a wide concentration range. The colour density was concentration dependent. These chromogenic compound could have important application in the fabrication of new opto-sensor for sodium and lithium.


The Devotional Wallpaper (2008 onwards) is the third artist wallpaper Boyce has made. The artwork consists of a roll-call of 200 names of black British women in the music industry that is made into a simple geometric grid pattern, with one entire repeat measuring 5 metres across by 2 metres high.

The Devotional Wallpaper is one of a series of works in 'The Devotional Series' which began in 1999 as a six-month project, as part of the FACT (Foundation for Art & Creative Technology) Collaborations Programme that partners artists with specific community groups in Liverpool to co-produce an artwork. Boyce was partnered with Liverpool Black Sisters. During the sessions, the group was tasked with building a map of black British female singers. Since then, word of mouth has spread as members of the general public have added their favourites towards a list that now contains over two hundred names. The concept of The Devotional Wallpaper came about as a result of a drawn installation of a roll-call of one hundred and eighty names of black women musicians Boyce made at the National Portrait Gallery in 2007. Boyce wanted to develop the National Gallery installation 'total experience' as a portable work, which would afford new kinds of experience and spectatorship.

To arrive at a wallpaper design, Boyce enlisted the help of artist and bespoke wallpaper designer Linda Florence to provide her with some workshops on developing a repeat surface pattern. Out of these workshops Boyce was able to solve the problem of how to use text as both information (a sign) as well as the basis for a series of drawings (to play with its semiotic) as Boyce drew concentric lines around each letter of the performers' names.


Background and Purpose— We demonstrated previously that treatment with selective &kgr;-opioid receptor (KOR) agonist BRL 52537 hydrochloride [(±)-1-(3,4-dichlorophenyl) acetyl-2-(1-pyrrolidinyl) methylpiperidine] (1) has a long therapeutic window for providing ischemic neuroprotection, and (2) attenuates ischemia-evoked NO production in vivo in rats. Neuronally derived NO has been shown to be deleterious in the male but not in the female rodent model of focal ischemic stroke. We tested the hypothesis that BRL provides significant neuroprotection from transient focal ischemia in male but not in female rats. Methods— Halothane-anesthetized adult male and female Wistar rats (250 to 275 g) were subjected to 2 hours of middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) by the intraluminal suture technique. Adequacy of MCAO and reperfusion was monitored with laser-Doppler flowmetry over the ipsilateral parietal cortex. In the first experiment, male and female rats were treated in a blinded randomized fashion with vehicle saline or 1 mg/kg per hour BRL infusion started at the onset of reperfusion and continued for 22 hours. In the second experiment, ovariectomized (OVX) female rats were treated with vehicle or BRL. Infarct volume in the cortex and caudoputamen (CP) complex was assessed by triphenyl tetrazolium chloride staining at 72 hours after MCAO. Results— Infarct volume (percentage of ipsilateral structure; mean±SEM) was attenuated significantly in male rats with BRL treatment (cortex 23±5%; CP 44±6%; n=15) compared with vehicle-treated male rats (cortex 38±4%; CP 66±4%; n=15) but not in female rats (BRL−cortex 26±6; CP 55±8%; vehicle−cortex 26±5; CP 62±5%; n=10 each). Neurologic deficit score was improved in BRL-treated male rats but not in female rats. Infarct volume was not different in OVX female rats treated with vehicle or BRL. Conclusions— These data: (1) demonstrate that this dose of selective KOR agonist provides ischemic neuroprotection in male but not female rats, (2) demonstrate that the lack of protection by BRL is not attributable to circulating ovarian hormones, and (3) highlight the importance of using animal models of both sexes in preclinical studies of experimental ischemia.


A survey of fresh-market vegetables and fruits including orange (Citrus sinensis) lemon (Citrus lemon), tomatoes (Lycopersicon esculentum), grapes (Vitis vinifera), strawberries (Fragaria ananassa), cucurbita (Cucurbita pepo), cucumbers (Cucumis sativus), eggplants (Solanum melongena), Bell pepper (Capsicum annuum), and soft dates (Phoenix dactylifera Linn.) were conducted in Jeddah city to control the most common fungal infections by using biosynthesized Silver nanoparticles as antifungal agent. The results showed that Aspergillus Sp. had the highest occurrence in grapes, Onion, tomatoes and soft dates with a frequency of 70%, followed by Fusarium oxysporum with the frequency of occurrence of 31% in fruits and vegetables such as, strawberries, lemon, oranges, egg plants, cucumber and tomatoes while Penicillium digitatum had the least frequency of 10% each in orange, and lemon, respectively. The objective of this study was to biosynthesize silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) using A. niger fungal isolate and its evaluation as safe antifungal agent against plant pathogenic fungi. UV-visible spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering (DLS), and Fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy (FTIR) were used to characterize the biosynthesized AgNPs. The UV-visible spectra showed a characteristic peak at 430 nm, which correlate to the surface plasmon absorbance (SPA) of AgNPs. Size distribution pattern observation showed particles with sizes ranged from 10-100 nm. Mycosynthesized AgNPs showed considerable antifungal activity against pathogenic plant fungi.


In this study, 2 subspecies; Dactylorhiza romana (Seb.) Soo subsp. romana and Dactylorhiza romana (Seb.) Soo subsp. georgica (Klinge) Soo ex Renz & Taub. mainly distributed in Turkey were investigated in terms of morphological, anatomical characters and habitat properties. Plant and soil samples of D. romana subsp. romana were taken from 9 localities and D. romana subsp. georgica from 7 localities in Turkey. We observed that some of morphological characters such as; underground part length, tuber length, the longest leaf width, and bract length had different properties between both subspecies. Cross sections of the leaves, stems, tubers and roots were taken by free-hand and stained with Sartur solution and Safranin. The same procedure was performed for the surface sections of leaves and stem. Stomatal and epidermal cells, starch granules dimensions, lengths of raphides, stomata index, and cuticular thickness were measured. Anatomical characters of leaves such as cuticle thickness and stomata index displayed between two subspecies. Although D. romana subsp. georgica grows in high altitudes, D. romana subsp. romana prefers lower altitudes. The most common habitat of D. romana is meadow, macchie and forest lands. We obtained that both of them had similar soil properties, while the differencies came out by habitat properties. Morphological and habitat characters were compared with independent-T test.


Buffers in on-chip networks constitute a significant proportion of the power consumption and area of the interconnect, and hence reducing them is an important problem. Application-specific designs have nonuniform network utilization, thereby requiring a buffer-sizing approach that tackles the nonuniformity. Also, congestion effects that occur during network operation need to be captured when sizing the buffers. Many NoCs are designed to operate in multiple voltage/frequency islands, with interisland communication taking place through frequency converters. To this end, we propose a two-phase algorithm to size the switch buffers in network-on-chips (NoCs) considering support for multiple-frequency islands. Our algorithm considers both the static and dynamic effects when sizing buffers. We analyze the impact of placing frequency converters (FCs) on a link, as well as pack and send units that effectively utilize network bandwidth. Experiments on many realistic system-on-Chip (SoC) benchmark show that our algorithm results in 42% reduction in amount of buffering when compared to a standard buffering approach.


Background: The primary infection of pregnant women by Toxoplasma gondii can cause severe complications in the fetus, and can also lead to neurological complications. The aim of the present study was to determine the seroprevalence and seroconversion rates of Toxoplasma gondii in female students who were at childbearing age in Iran. Methods: This cross sectional study was performed on female students at Babol University of Medical Sciences (Babol, Iran) over a three-year period between 2012 and 2014. Two ml blood sample was obtained from volunteers, and the specific antibodies (IgG) to T. gondii were detected by Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay. Second, the blood samples obtained from seronegative cases were used to evaluate the seroconversion during a year. Results: The mean age of the subjects was 21±2.2, ranging from18 to 35 years. Overall, 28% of the participants were positive and 232 (72%) were negative for anti-Toxoplasma antibodies (IgG). The rate of this infection was higher among female students from Mazandaran province (31.7% vs 12.5%) (P=0.031). Based on the results of Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay, the seroconversion rate of Toxoplasma infection among female students was estimated to be 2.5%. Conclusion: This study found a noticeable rate of seroconversion in female students. Therefore, there is an urgent need for a national screening project to determine the seroconversion rate of Toxoplasma infection in women at childbearing age, particularly pregnant women from all over


The decomposition of drugs in the solid state has been studied using aspirin and salsalate as models. The feasibility of using suspension systems for predicting the stability of these drugs in the solid state has been investigated.. It has been found that such systems are inappropriate in defining the effect of excipients on 'the decomposition of the active drug due to chqnges in the degradation pathway. Using a high performance liquid chromatographic method, magnesium stearate was shown to induce the formation of potentlally immunogenic products in aspirin powders. These products which included salicylsalicylic acid .and acetylsalicyclsalicylic acid were not detected in aspirin suspensions which had undergone the same extent of decomposition. By studying the effect of pH and of added excipients on the rate of decomposition of aspirin in suspension systems, it has been shown that excipients such as magnesium stearate containing magnesium oxide, most probably enhance the decomposition of both aspirin and salsalate by alkalinising the aqueous phase. In the solid state, pH effects produced by excipients appear to be relatively unimportant. Evidence is presented to suggest that the critical parameter is a depression in melting point induced by: the added excipient. Microscopical examination in fact showed the formation of clear liquid layers in aspirin samples containing added magnesium stearate but not in control samples. Kinetic equations which take into account both the diffusive barrier presented by the liquid films and the. geometry of the aspirin crystals were developed. Fitting of the .experimental data to these equations showed good agreement. with the postulated theory. Monitorjng of weight issues during the decomposition of aspirin revealed that in the solid systems studied where the bulk of the decomposition product sublimes, it is possible to estimate the extent of degradation from the residual weight, provided the initial weight is known. The corollary is that in such open systems, monitoring of decomposition products is inadequate for assessing the extent of decomposition. In addition to the magnesium stearate-aspirin system, mapyramine maleate-aspirin mixtures were used to model interactive systems. Work carried out in an attempt to stabilise such systems included microencapsulation and film coating. The protection obtained was dependent on the interactive species used. Gelatin for example appeared to stabilise aspirin against the adverse effects of magnesium stearate but increased its decomposition in the presence of mapyramine maleate.


Floodplain water flows have large volumetric flowrates and high complexity in space and time that are difficult to understand using water level gauges. We here analyze the spatial and temporal fluctuations of surface water flows in the floodplain of the Atrato River, Colombia, in order to evaluate their hydrological connectivity. The basin is one of the rainiest areas of the world with wetland ecosystems threatened by the expansion of agriculture and mining activities. We used 16 Differential Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radars (DInSAR) phase observations from the ALOS-PALSAR L-band instrument acquired between 2008–2010 to characterize the flow of surface water. We were able to observe water level change in vegetated wetland areas and identify flooding patterns. In the lower basin, flow patterns are conditioned by fluctuations in the levels of the main river channel, whereas in the middle basin, topography and superficial channels strongly influence the flow and connectivity. We found that the variations in water level in a station on the main channel 87 km upstream explained more than 56% of the variations in water level in the floodplain. This result shows that, despite current expansion of agriculture and mining activities, there remain significant hydrological connectivity between wetlands and the Atrato River. This study demonstrates the use of DInSAR for a spatially comprehensive monitoring of the Atrato River basin hydrology. For the first time, we identified the spatiotemporal patterns of surface water flow of the region. We recommend these observations serve as a baseline to monitor the potential impact of ongoing human activities on surface water flows across the Atrato River basin.


Background: Primary hyperparathyroidism with pancreatitis is very rare during pregnancy. The pregnant state presents a challenge to the diagnosis of hypercalcemia related to the many physiological changes that occur. Objective: To report a case of primary hyperparathyroidism in a pregnant patient, and to advocate a successful management with satisfactory outcome. Results: A 36-year-old multigravida Saudi woman presented during her 34th week of gestation with a five days history of epigastric pain, nausea and vomiting.Diagnosis was made as Primary hyperparathyroidism with severe hypercalcemia in pregnancy complicated by acute pancreatitis. She was initially managed with conservative medical measures and due to the failure of medical management, a multidisplinary team decided to terminate the pregnancy by cesarean section and to do parathyroidectomy at the same time at 34-weeks gestation. The maternal and fetal outcome was quite satisfactory. To the best of our knowledge, this is one of the rare case report in the literature with such finding and satisfactory outcome. Conclusions: Early diagnosis and appropriate management of Primary Hyperparathyrodisim (PHP) during pregnancy is important for better outcome. Multidisciplinary management decisions can significantly reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with the disease during pregnancy.


In this paper, the authors elaborate on a model proposed in 2010 that identifies major sources of stress affecting mental health among war affected populations. That model emphasised the importance of what was termed 'daily stressors', as well as direct exposure to war related violence as predictors of mental health status The authors first summarise the original model and discuss the widespread response to the 2010 paper among researchers and practitioners working in conflict and post conflict settings. Then, the authors expand on the model, suggesting that, like the trauma focused model it was meant to improve upon, the proposed 2010 model still presents an overly static view of the experience of living through organised violence. A transactional version of the model is now proposed, which the authors believe more closely approximates the lived experience of war and the multiple sources of stress it entails. Implications of this transactional model, and possible directions for future research and practice, are suggested.


Background: The purpose of this study was to assess platelet morphological parameters in children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) and to determine the factors affecting those parameters. Methods: A total of 80 children with type 1 diabetes mellitus and 80 healthy control subjects were included in this study. All subjects' platelet parameters including platelet count (PLT), mean platelet volume (MPV), platelet distribution width (PDW) and plateletcrit (PCT) levels were measured. Age at diagnosis, duration of diabetes, and hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) levels of patients with T1DM were also recorded. Results: There was no significant difference in PLT, MPV, PDW and PCT values between patients and controls (P > 0.05). PCT and PLT values were higher in patients with poor metabolic control compared to the other cases (P = 0.002, P = 0.005). Positive correlation was found between HbA1c and PCT (r = 0.28, P = 0.01). There was no correlation between HbA1c and MPV, PDW and PLT. Conclusions: Indices of platelet morphology such as PCT, PLT, PDW and MPV were similar in children with T1DM and in healthy controls. However, an increase in PCT values in poor glycemic control group and a significant positive correlation between PCT and HbA1c were observed, suggesting that PCT levels may be an early marker of vascular complication. J Endocrinol Metab. 2018;8(6):144-148 doi: https://doi.org/10.14740/jem537


North American brine shrimp Artemia franciscana have been exported worldwide since the 1950s for use in aquarium trade and fish farming. Aquaculture is expanding along the Mediterranean coast, leading to the release of A. franciscana into native Artemia populations. A. franciscana was first detected in 1981 in Portugal and has since spread to saltworks along the East Atlantic flyway used by shorebirds. Once A. franciscana becomes established in a locality, native Artemia tend to disappear. To test whether migratory shorebirds can disperse invasive and native Artemia between wetlands, we extracted Artemia cysts from feces and pellets collected at Castro Marim (Portugal) and Cadiz Bay (Spain) during southward migration. We found that large numbers of viable eggs of A. franciscana and native Artemia parthenogenetica were dispersed by Redshank Tringa totanus, Blacktailed Godwit Limosa limosa, and other shorebirds migrating through the Iberian Peninsula. This is the most extensive field demonstration to date that invertebrates can disperse readily via gut passage through birds.


Neurons in the medial superior olive (MSO) process microsecond interaural time differences, the major cue for localizing low-frequency sounds, by comparing the relative arrival time of binaural, glutamatergic excitatory inputs. This coincidence detection mechanism is additionally shaped by highly specialized glycinergic inhibition. Traditionally, it is assumed that the binaural inputs are conveyed by many independent fibers, but such an anatomical arrangement may decrease temporal precision. Short-term depression on the other hand might enhance temporal fidelity during ongoing activity. For the first time we show that binaural coincidence detection in MSO neurons may require surprisingly few but strong inputs, challenging long-held assumptions about mammalian coincidence detection. This study exclusively uses adult gerbils for in vitro electrophysiology, single-cell electroporation and immunohistochemistry to characterize the size and short-term plasticity of inputs to the MSO. We find that the excitatory and inhibitory inputs to the MSO are well balanced both in strength and short-term dynamics, redefining this fastest of all mammalian coincidence detector circuits.


Machine Translation (MT) is one of the classic Natural Language Processing (NLP) applications. The state-of-the-art in MT is represented by statistical methods that aim to learn all necessary linguistic knowledge automatically through large collections of texts (corpora). However, while the quality of statistical MT systems had improved, nowadays these advances are not significant. For this reason, research in the area have sought to involve more explicit linguistic knowledge in these systems. One issue that purely statistical MT systems have is the lack of correct treatment of syntactic phenomena. Thus, one of the research directions when trying to incorporate linguistic knowledge in those systems is through the addition of syntactic rules. To accomplish this, many methods and formalisms with this goal in mind are studied. This text presents the investigation of methods which aim to advance the state-of-the-art in statistical MT through models that consider syntactic information. The methods and formalisms studied are those used to deal with tree languages, mainly Tree Substitution Grammars (TSGs) and Tree-to-String (TTS) Transducers. From this work, a greater understanding was obtained about the studied formalisms and their behavior when used in NLP applications.


Water is significantly lost within water networks in most countries with an estimates of 30% would be lost due to leaks in water pipelines. Water leaks are one of the major factors facing the world, from waste water for no appropriate reason other than a lack of sustainable management programmes. This research work will investigates several sensor techniques and image/signal processing methods to detect water leaks within buried pipeline system. A sensor fusion method for the detection of water leakage in pipes, which consists of two or more sensory systems, is proposed in this research work. The suggested sensor fusion system will investigate a combination of transient signals of several direct types, such as flow and pressure, and non-direct types such as acoustic signals and infrared images. The sensors will identify signals inside the pipeline system and will detect any acoustic or transient signals. This might happen as a result of a leakage while the thermal imager will look outside the pipeline system for any leakage signs. This is by way of detecting the contrast in temperature and humidity of the soil surrounding the leakage point. The data has been collected using software that can read and store the required signal data with the infrared image data as required. The collected data is subjected to processing using the Matlab software and based on the results a computer algorithm which has been developed to be used in detection, locating and identifying the leaks using artificial intelligence techniques. The methodology of this research work includes constructing a test rig of a pipeline equipped with necessary instrumentations for data acquiring purposes. As such, data acquisition device, pressure sensors, acoustic sensors, temperature sensors, infrared camera, normal visual camera and any other necessary equipment for water flow control. A series of experiments have been conducted with the test rig in the laboratory and a field experimental work has been conducted in Libya with the results having been highlighted within this report.

The expected contribution to knowledge would include significant technical and theoretical aspects of the experimental work and analysis. The contribution includes the comparison between the high and low-resolution infrared cameras. Additionally, an application of a novel approach to using a combination of infrared technology and visual images with a sensory fusion system of acoustic emission and transient signal to detect water leaks in pipeline systems. The work requires building a test rig to develop the experimental work as well as carrying out field works. The contribution to knowledge also includes the developing of an artificial intelligence algorithm for detecting water leakage in pipelines, which would determine the best times of detection when estimating and quantifying the leakage amount.


The theoretical dependence of band contour on effective slit width is examined with the object of obtaining a simple method of representation. With an initial Lorentzian the contour can be expressed to a good approximation as a sum of Lorentzian and Gaussian components, and the variation of the function with slit width is studied. How the results can be applied to resolution enhancement is also shown. Two other functions are compared to the sum. The contour arising from distribution of pure forms about a center is briefly investigated.


IMPORTANCE
Children with a history of amblyopia, even if resolved, exhibit impaired visual-auditory integration and perceive speech differently.

OBJECTIVE
To determine whether a history of amblyopia is associated with abnormal visual-auditory speech integration.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS
Retrospective observational study at an academic pediatric ophthalmologic clinic with an average of 4 years of follow-up. Participants were at least 3 years of age and without any history of neurologic or hearing disorders. Of 39 children originally in our study, 6 refused to participate. The remaining 33 participants completed the study. Twenty-four participants (mean [SD] age, 7.0 [1.5] years) had a history of amblyopia in 1 eye, with a visual acuity of at least 20/20 in the nonamblyopic eye. Nine controls (mean [SD] age, 8.0 [3.4] years) were recruited from referrals for visually insignificant etiologies or through preschool-screening eye examinations; all had 20/20 in both eyes.

EXPOSURES
Participants were presented with a video demonstrating the McGurk effect (ie, a stimulus presenting an audio track playing the sound /pa/ and a separate video track of a person articulating /ka/). Normal visual-auditory integration produces the perception of hearing a fusion sound /ta/. Participants were asked to report which sound was perceived, /ka/, /pa/, or /ta/.

MAIN OUTCOME AND MEASURE
Prevalence of perception of the fusion /ta/ sound. Prior to the study, amblyopic children were hypothesized to less frequently perceive /ta/.

RESULTS
The McGurk effect was perceived by 11 of the 24 participants with amblyopia (45.8%) and all 9 controls (100%) (adjusted odds ratio, 22.3 [95% CI, 1.2-426.0]; P = .005). The McGurk effect was perceived by 100% of participants with amblyopia that was resolved by 5 years of age and by 100% of participants whose onset at amblyopia developed at or after 5 years of age. However, only 18.8% of participants with amblyopia that was unresolved by 5 years of age (n = 16) perceived the McGurk effect (adjusted odds ratio, 27.0 [95% CI, 1.1-654.0]; P = .02).

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE
This pilot study suggests that children with a history of amblyopia have impaired visual-auditory speech perception. Early childhood appears to serve as an approximate time point for the development of successful visual-auditory fusion, by which time amblyopia must have either resolved or begun. Interventions to resolve amblyopia may not only influence visual acuity but may also influence the perception of sound.


Abstract Math anxiety is a widespread phenomenon. More recently, children's and adolescent literature has been recognized as a means to teaching math to students through the use of stories to make the math concepts relevant and meaningful. Literature can also be used as a form of therapy to reach students who may be frustrated with math and/or who experience math anxiety. Story and picture books, such as A Gebra Named Al (Isdell, 1993), are now available to use in the classroom as forms of bibliotherapy in helping students overcome or come to terms with anxiety toward math. In this article the author proposes using reading and discussion to aid in reducing math anxiety in students via the story of Sarah and her struggle with math anxiety. ********** Sarah dislikes math. Year after year of drill and practice and being taught math while seeing little or no value in learning it has turned Sarah off to the subject. Sarah has lost her confidence and ability to successfully do math and just plain hates it. Sarah's negative feelings about algebra may be typical of many math-anxious students in middle school. Sarah is not alone in her feeling about algebra or math in general for mathematics anxiety has been a prevalent concern among educators and parents for decades. Educators are noticing more students appearing fearful of math and science classes. Sarah's teacher is well aware of Sarah's math anxiety based on her low performance on assessments, sweaty palms while doing math, and her math anxiety survey which was administered at the beginning of the year which indicated a high level of math anxiety.. Sarah's math teacher and the school counselor are collaborating to address the issue of math anxiety. They have decided to use a combination of psychological approaches including bibliotherapy, counseling, discussion, visualization, and relaxation techniques to help students overcome and/or reduce their frustration with math. Math anxiety is a growing concern in the U.S. Educators need to apply the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics(NCTM) Standards and check for the mathematical disposition of their students. With declining math and science scores internationally, the United States needs to recognize the fear that many Americans have of math and do something while students are still in K-12 schools to help build their confidence in their ability to do math and take as many math classes as possible to stay abreast of the technological era. If students like Sarah do not feel they can succeed at math or that they are not mathematically able, they may decide not to follow a particular career track due to this belief. Teachers and counselors can make a difference in the lives of secondary level students like the "Sarah's" by working with them in overcoming and reducing their dislike and lack of success with math. Evidence of poor attitudes and high levels of anxiety toward math is abundant elementary age through adulthood (Jackson & Leffingwell, 1999; Burns, 1998; Furner, 1996; Tobias, 1993; Hembree, 1990). Since math anxiety is widespread and the need for the understanding of math is critical in an increasingly technological society, teachers must play an important role in reducing the levels of math anxiety in their students. Children's and adolescent literature has been recognized now as a means to teach mathematics to students through the use of stories to make the math concepts relevant and meaningful (Forgan, 2002). Literature can also be used as a form of therapy to reach students who may be frustrated with math or who experience math anxiety. Understanding Math Anxiety in Students Affective factors play a critical role in math learning and instruction (McLeod, 1991) and causes for math anxiety are varied. Much research has shown that teachers and parents who are afraid of math can pass on their anxiety to the next generation by modeling behaviors of their own discomfort with the subject. …


Occupancy sensor systems are gaining traction as an effective technological approach to reducing energy use in exterior commercial lighting applications. Done correctly, occupancy sensors can substantially enhance the savings from an already efficient lighting system. However, this technology is confronted by several potential challenges and pitfalls that can leave a significant amount of the prospective savings on the table. This report describes anecdotal experiences from field installations of occupancy sensor controlled light-emitting diode (LED) lighting at two parking structures and two parking lots. The relative levels of success at these installations reflect a marked range of potential outcomes: from an additional 76% in energy savings to virtually no additional savings. Several issues that influenced savings were encountered in these early stage installations and are detailed in the report. Ultimately, care must be taken in the design, selection, and commissioning of a sensor-controlled lighting installation, else the only guaranteed result may be its cost.


Abstract. During the last two decades surface elevation data have been gathered over the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) from a variety of different sensors including spaceborne and airborne laser altimetry, such as NASA's Ice Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat), Airborne Topographic Mapper (ATM) and Laser Vegetation Imaging Sensor (LVIS), as well as from stereo satellite imaging systems, most notably from Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) and Worldview. The spatio-temporal resolution, the accuracy, and the spatial coverage of all these data differ widely. For example, laser altimetry systems are much more accurate than DEMs derived by correlation from imaging systems. On the other hand, DEMs usually have a superior spatial resolution and extended spatial coverage. We present in this paper an overview of the SERAC (Surface Elevation Reconstruction And Change detection) system, designed to cope with the data complexity and the computation of elevation change histories. SERAC simultaneously determines the ice sheet surface shape and the time-series of elevation changes for surface patches whose size depends on the ruggedness of the surface and the point distribution of the sensors involved. By incorporating different sensors, SERAC is a true fusion system that generates the best plausible result (time series of elevation changes) a result that is better than the sum of its individual parts. We follow this up with an example of the Helmheim gacier, involving ICESat, ATM and LVIS laser altimetry data, together with ASTER DEMs.


This paper is reformatted and reprinted as part of the 40th anniversary of the American Journal of Health Education (formerly School Health Review) Health Education--Our Heritage series. The original paper appeared in Volume 1 (September 1969, pp. 15-19). At that time, Godfrey M. Hochbaum was deputy director, Social Analysis and Evaluation Program, National Center for Health Services Research and Development, Health Services and Mental Administration, U. S. Public Health Services, Washington, D. C. ********** Before considering the need for changing health behavior, it may be useful to think about how we learn health behavior to begin with. This should help us to understand the reasons why it is often difficult to effect changes--and how we may succeed. From the moment the infant is born, almost everything done for him is intended to protect him against harm and to promote his physical and mental development. The infant is helpless and vulnerable, and his health and safety depend entirely on what adults can do for him. As he grows older, some of the responsibility for his own health, safety and welfare is gradually shifted to him. He is led to acquire certain health habits, such as keeping his body clean, not to play in the street, and so on. He begins to learn that if he does certain things they will cause pain either directly, as when he burns himself on a hot object, or through punishment from his parents, as when he is spanked for playing with matches. On the other hand, he reaps rewards for "good" behavior. He feels better when a wound is cleansed and dressed, or he is praised after brushing his teeth. Through such rewards and punishments, he learns to differentiate between desirable and undesirable behavior and acquires various habits and behavior patterns, even though at this young age he does not yet know and understand their implications for his health. Which behaviors he learns to consider desirable depends, of course, on what his parents and other adults around him happen to know and believe--and this may not always be correct. But there are also other sources--the child has varied experiences with illness and with medical personnel, both of which influence his feeling and thinking about health. Perhaps even more important are the many bits and pieces he picks up from overhearing adult conversations, from the often distorted and misinformed stories he hears from other boys and girls, from watching TV programs and commercials, etc. Out of all these diverse, often unreliable, and unrelated sources of health information, he forms ideas, attitudes and beliefs about health and illness before he is able to sort out the valid from the erroneous, and the reliable from the unreliable, and before he understands why some of the practices which he acquires are more important for his present and future health. As he grows older, and especially once he goes to school, he is exposed to more systematic and reliable health information. He also becomes more capable of judging and deciding for himself. It may happen that what he now learns fits in well and reinforces already existing beliefs, attitudes and habits. Thus, if he now learns about the beneficial health effects of oral hygiene this may strengthen his long-established oral hygiene habits. It may, however, happen that what he now learns is different from what he has earlier come to think, believe, or do--in which case he has to choose between the new or the older ideas and habits. The trouble is that many of these early established patterns of behavior and their underlying beliefs and views are by now deeply ingrained and often quite resistant to change, or at least to the complete change that would be suggested by his new knowledge. And so he carries with him both the old and the new, even though these may be fundamentally opposed to one another. We then see that the school child has health information, attitudes, values and habits which are the product of multitudinous sources, influences and experiences. …


resources optimization problems are usually complex and hard to solve using the ordinary optimization methods, or they are at least not economically efficient. A great number of studies have been conducted in quest of suitable methods capable of handling such problems. In recent years, some new heuristic methods such as genetic and ant algorithms have been introduced in systems engineering. Preliminary applications of these methods in water resources problems have shown that some of them are powerful tools, capable of solving complex problems. In this paper, the application of such heuristic methods as Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) have been studied for optimizing reservoir operation. The Dez Dam reservoir in Iran was chosen for a case study. The methods were applied and compared using short-term (one year) and long-term models. Comparison of the results showed that GA outperforms both DP and ACO in finding true global optimum solutions and operating rules.


Sponsoring charity sport events (CSEs) represents an opportunity for businesses to achieve a variety of marketing objectives. Event sponsors need to promote their brand in an authentic manner because CSE participants may be skeptical of the sponsor if they believe the organization is supporting the event solely for commercial purposes. The current research examines the perceptions that CSE participants have for a sponsor's contribution to the value creation process of the event. Semistructured interviews (N = 17) were conducted with MS (multiple sclerosis) Moonlight Walk 2018 participants to explore how this key stakeholder perceives the contribution of the sponsor (Harbour ISP [Internet service provider]) in the event experience. Five themes were uncovered: raising CSE awareness, cultivating a fundraising network, engaging authentically, celebrating constituents, and providing operational support. Building on the findings of this research, CSE managers and sponsors should work to share the story behind their partnership while integrating event participants in the development of the sponsorship program.


ABSTRACT Since 2011, we have witnessed both the worst terror attack ever on Norwegian soil as well as an attempted act of terror. Both actions were conducted by right-wing extremists, who were radicalized by inspiration from, but not actual participation in, far right anti-Islamist groups. Even though most of the current far right groups in Norway do not openly support violence they are not innocent, as the rhetoric they propagate has directly inspired such actions. In this article, we use social movement theory to understand interviews we conducted with leaders of two anti-Islamist groups and one neo-Nazi group, specifically to analyse their mobilizing ideas and proposed solutions to the problems they imagine, as well as whether they believe they have support in the general population. Further, we analyse how the actors' views relate to broader discourses in society. As a background to our analysis, we refer to the larger landscape of far-right groups in Norway during past decades, as well as their equivalents in other European countries.


Direct photon production in central Pb+Pb collisions at CERN-SPS energy is calculated within the relativistic microscopic transport model UrQMD, and within distinctly different versions of relativistic hydrodynamics. We find that in UrQMD the local momentum distributions of the secondaries are strongly elongated along the beam axis initially. Therefore, the pre-equilibrium contribution dominates the photon spectrum at transverse momenta above $\approx 1.5$ GeV. The hydrodynamics prediction of a strong correlation between the temperature and radial expansion velocities on the one hand and the slope of the transverse momentum distribution of direct photons on the other hand thus is not recovered in UrQMD. The rapidity distribution of direct photons in UrQMD reveals that the initial conditions for the longitudinal expansion of the photon source (the meson ``fluid'') resemble rather boostinvariance than Landau-like flow.


OBJECTIVE
To assess the agreement between findings obtained at dark-room gonioscopy and ultrasound biomicroscopy (UBM) in the diagnosis of iridotrabecular apposition in light and dark conditions.

METHODS
We enrolled patients with appositional angle closure at dark-room gonioscopy performed using a 1-mm slitlamp beam that did not cross the pupil. Ultrasound biomicroscopic images were acquired in normal room light and subsequently with all room lights off. Images were evaluated for the presence or absence of iris-cornea contact. The angle opening distance at 500 microm was calculated.

RESULTS
Iridotrabecular apposition in at least 1 angle quadrant was demonstrated in all 18 eyes at dark-room gonioscopy, 17 eyes (94%) at dark-room UBM, and only 10 eyes (56%) at UBM in room light. Of 18 superior angles that were appositionally closed at dark-room gonioscopy, apposition was demonstrated on UBM images in 16 (89%) in a dark room but only 6 (33%) in room light. Angle opening distance was less during dark-room gonioscopy in all but the nasal quadrant.

CONCLUSION
We found high agreement between gonioscopy and UBM when both are performed in a completely dark room. Our findings support the recommendation that, in routine clinical practice, gonioscopy be performed in a dark room to avoid misdiagnosis of treatable iridotrabecular apposition.


This Letter presents a novel absolute phase recovery technique with phase coding. Unlike the conventional gray-coding method, the codeword is embedded into the phase and then used to determine the fringe order for absolute phase retrieval. This technique is robust because it uses phase instead of intensity to determine codewords, and it could achieve a faster measurement speed, since three additional images can represent more than 8(2(3)) unique codewords for phase unwrapping. Experimental results will be presented to verify the performance of the proposed technique.


This study examined the relationship between eight dimensions of spirituality (and religion) and people with four different types of disability status: hearing, vision, physical mobility, and emotional or mental disabilities. The overarching aim was to identify specific spiritual-religious profiles within each disability population relative to the general population. To conduct this cross-sectional examination, the authors used nationally representative data from the General Social Survey in the United States. The results reveal unique spiritual and religious profiles across the four types of disability status examined, although people with emotional or mental disabilities may have the most distinct profile. Compared with their counterparts among the general public, people with hearing, physical, and emotional disabilities were more likely to report praying several times a day; people with all four types of disability were more likely to report having a turning point when they became less committed to religion. Understanding which spiritual and religious dimensions are disproportionately more likely to exist among a given population with a particular disability helps practitioners provide more effective services to members of that group.