Abstract This paper draws on feminist and queer philosophers? discussions of precarity and employment, too often absent from disability studies, to explore the working lives of people with learning disabilities in England in a time of austerity. Recent policy shifts from welfare to work welcome more disabled people into the job market. The reality is that disabled people remain under-represented in labour statistics and are conspicuously absent in cultures of work. We live in neoliberal-able times where we all find ourselves precarious. But, people with learning disabilities experience high levels of uncertainty in every aspect of their lives, including work, relationships and community living. Our research reveals an important analytical finding: that when people with learning disabilities are supported in imaginative and novel ways they are able to work effectively and cohesively participate in their local communities (even in a time of cuts to welfare). We conclude by acknowledging that we are witnessing a global politics of precarity and austerity. Our urgent task is to redress the unequal spread of precaritization across our society that risks leaving people with learning disabilities experiencing disproportionately perilous lives. One of our key recommendations is that it makes no economic sense (never mind moral sense) to pull funding from organisations that support people with intellectual disabilities to work.


In the article the system of early childhood intervention (ECI) in Lithuania has been presented: the structure, organisation, functioning, the legal background of ECI, and the requirements for professional training in ECI field have been described, "Life-line" of a very young child at risk or a child with developmental disorders has been shown. The opinions of parents and ECI professionals about various aspects of collaboration: parents' satisfaction with ECI, collaboration between parents and professionals, organisational priorities of ECI activity, the nature of child's recognition, professional improvement, have been analysed and parents participation in ECI has been described. The scientific publications on ECI in the country have been analysed. The survey of on ECI in Lithuania stressing on positive aspects as well as on the challenging issues has been performed.


Unmediated representations of women's everyday subjective experiences of historical events are difficult to find in discourses about masculinity and femininity. Discussions often centre on normative expressions of sexual difference, explaining the ways in which patriarchy was reconstituted rather than focusing on women's experiences. Late nineteenth century strands of nationalist thought in the Bengal relied on gendered ideas about the nation, self, and society in their representations of womanhood, which served as a symbol of the nation. Various historians have explored the idealised versions of women that these discourses presented, but often these studies fail to examine portrayals of the subjective experiences of women who might have confronted these gendered ideological standpoints. This paper suggests that using film as an archive to explore depictions of female subjectivity can be useful, especially to feminist and gender researchers who are searching for new ways of conceptualising the everyday experience of women in the past. It raises questions about how, if ever, experience can be used as evidence in history, how portrayals of articulations of difference and resistance are helpful for writing gender history, and why film is a fruitful archive in which to imagine how women might have experienced and expressed their dissatisfaction with gender-normative roles within the patriarchal family setting. It discusses ideas about speaking and articulation in scholarship on women in the past, to posit that film is a useful place to imagine women's articulations of difference from the Other that patriarchal discourses would cast them as.


Dow AgroSciences has issued a 2(ee) label recommendation for Lorsban 4E (chlorpyrifos) insecticide in Iowa. The recommendation is to control thistle caterpillar and potato leafhoppers in soybean. Application rates for both insects are 1-2 pints per acre. Do not apply the last treatment within 28 days of harvest. Lorsban 4E is a restricted use pesticide. Consult the 2(ee) label for additional directions for use and precautions.


Branching, in software development, is the process of creating a copy of a code base for the purpose of modifying it in some way. Branching inevitably raises the issue of merging. Changes made in one branch may need to be propagated to the others. Merging, however, poses substantial challenges. A common issue, particularly relevant to systems software, such as Linux, is that within a single branch, developers often create new code by copying existing code that is expected to have a similar intent, and possibly modifying it slightly according to its new context. A change that applies to the original code is likely to be relevant to the clones as well, even when the original code has been deleted in the current branch. The objective of this thesis is to provide a methodology to identify such code clones in the di erent branches between which changes have to be propagated and integrated. This thesis will provide analyses and tools for identifying code clones and supporting automatic change integration.


We study the determinants of wage inequality in 16 OECD countries in the last two decades of the twentieth century. We find that these are quite different in the 1980s than in the 1990s. In the 1980s, growing wage dispersion is due to changes in the institutions of the labor market. Declining unionization and declines in the level at which wages are bargained collectively both contribute to widening pay dispersion in the 1980s. In the 1990s, by contrast, increases in pay inequality are due to increasing trade with less developed nations. To the extent that low-pay workers have been protected from rising wage differentials in the 1990s, it has been because of government policy, in the form of social insurance, and not thanks to labor organizations. This is the first study to report that the causes for pay inequality differed between the 1980s and the 1990s.


Triplications and cusp edges can occur in homogeneous transverse isotropy (TI) provided the strength of anisotropy exceeds a critical value. The critical strength of anisotropy is 9.50% for axial triplication, 9.71% for basal triplication, 8.86% for oblique triplication, and 9.72% for double triplication. No TI with strength less than the critical can display triplications. On the other hand, high values of the strength of anisotropy do not guarantee the existence of triplications. Hence, observations of triplications on the wave surface cannot serve as a unique criterion defining strong TI.


Processes of the exchange of energy and momentum at the sea ice-ocean-atmosphere interface are key processes for the polar climate system. Heat and moisture fluxes are strongly modulated by open water fractions associated with polynyas, having important consequences for the atmosphere, ocean processes, ice formation, brine release, gas exchange and biology. Our paper aims at the study of atmospheric processes forcing and maintaining polynyas in the Laptev Sea of the Siberian Arctic. This region is known as being a highly productive area for the formation of new ice throughout the winter season. We study polynya processes using passive satellite remote sensing data, high-resolution (5km) sea-ice/ocean and atmospheric models, as well as in-situ data obtained during experimental studies in that area. Passive microwave sensor data (SSM/I, AMSR) are used together with atmospheric reanalysis to characterize the long-term spatiotemporal characteristics of polynya events. A special focus lies on the detection of thin ice in polynya areas, which is studied using thermal infrared data (MODIS, AVHRR). Thin ice statistics combined with microwave data allows for estimations of ice production rates for the last decades. The NWP model COSMO is used together with the sea-ice/ocean model FESOM to study polynya dynamics. Model simulations are validated using satellite data and in-situ measurements from two campaigns in the Laptev Sea area.


The paper analyses factors influencing match attendance in the three main European rugby union leagues using data for over 4,000 fixtures over 15 seasons. The effect of competitive balance on attendance at sports events has received considerable attention in the literature. We find that (short- and medium-term) competitive balance have a large and statistically significant effect. However, this effect is smaller in magnitude than the effect brought about by the other aspects of the fixture with the strength of the home team being the single most important influence on attendances.


The extent to which changes in brain activity can foreshadow human error is uncertain yet has important theoretical and practical implications. The present study examined the temporal dynamics of electrocortical signals preceding a lapse of sustained attention. Twenty-one participants performed a continuous temporal expectancy task, which involved continuously monitoring a stream of regularly alternating patterned stimuli to detect a rarely occurring target stimulus whose duration was 40% longer. The stimulus stream flickered at a rate of 25 Hz to elicit a steady-state visual-evoked potential (SSVEP), which served as a continuous measure of basic visual processing. Increasing activity in the α band (8–14 Hz) was found beginning ∼20 s before a missed target. This was followed by decreases in the amplitude of two event-related components over a short pretarget time frame: the frontal P3 (3–4 s) and contingent-negative variation (during the target interval). In contrast, SSVEP amplitude before hits and misses was closely matched, suggesting that the efficacy of ongoing basic visual processing was unaffected. Our results show that the specific neural signatures of attentional lapses are registered in the EEG up to 20 s before an error.


This thesis examines growth and decline trends in the Irish industrial sector between 1790 and 1910. It challenges existing perceptions of industrial decline in the nineteenth century; instead it argues that industrial output experienced growth during the period in question. Chapters have been written on brewing, distilling, engineering, shipbuilding, woollen, cotton and linen. An additional chapter has been written to cover some of the remaining industries (milling, food processing, tobacco, glass, tanning, paper). Each of these chapters provides a synthesis of research in each industry, in addition to some new research which has been done by the author on the business records of a number of industrial companies. Part of the research task was to bring together the available statistics in each industry; these have been extensively used to gain some idea of trends in each industry. A more macro perspective has been taken in the conclusion which contains two new estimates of industrial output in 1840-5 and 1907. The former is the first estimate of industrial output to be made for nineteenth century Ireland. A second objective of the thesis is to identify the major economic factors which led to the industrialisation of east Ulster while most of the remainder of the country failed to achieve significant industrial development during this period. This theme in particular is explored in the chapters on linen, shipbuilding, engineering and in the conclusion. A further objective of the thesis is to identify how much the extent, location and nature of each industry changed during the period in question. Earlier research on the Irish industrial sector has either concentrated on one region (particularly Ulster), or has only concentrated on one industry. This thesis is the first attempt to look at almost all of the industries which created added value on the island of Ireland. In 2014 a considerably revised version of this thesis was published as a book.


BACKGROUND
Intensive care unit -acquired infections constitute an important worldwide health problem.

AIM
Our aim was to determine the incidence and risk factors of device-associated infection and those of mortality in a Tunisia ICU.

METHODS
We conducted a prospective observational cohort study over a six months period in the adult medical intensive care unit of University Hospital-Farhat Hached (Sousse-Tunisia). Patients admitted to the unit were included in the study if they stayed in the ICU for more than 48 hours.

RESULTS
During the study period, 105 patients were surveyed; 16 of them (15.2%) developed 17 episodes of device associated infections (16.9 DAI/1000 days of hospitalization). The most frequently identified infections were central and peripheral venous catheter -associated infection (respectively, 21.4 CVC-AI/ 1000 CVC-days and 10.2 PVCAI / 1000 PVC-days). At ICU discharge, overall mortality was 40%. Independent risk factors for acquiring infection in ICU were the use of central venous catheter (p=0.031) and length stay (0.002), those of mortality in ICU were immunosuppression (p=0.013), DAI (p=0.002) and the use of central venous catheter (p = 0.001).

CONCLUSION
Even if DAI rates in Tunisian ICU were lower than those published in some reports from other North African countries, DAI data and mortality rate, dominated by the use of catheter associated infections show the need for more-effective infection control interventions in our hospital.


Pronoun interpretation is central for comprehension. Prior work focused mostly on anaphora, where pronouns refer to previously-mentioned antecedents. Less research is on cataphora, where antecedents follow pronouns. Existing work suggests cataphora triggers an active-search mechanism: The parser actively searchers for a syntactically-licenses antecedent. Our results on Italian null and overt subject pronouns show that both processing constraints ("impatient parser") and the grammatical properties of referring expressions contribute to the outcome of reference resolution; parsers try to "discharge" unresolved pronouns when encountered first (i.e., cataphora) due to a processing load of keeping an unresolved pronoun in memory, even if this goes against grammar specific properties. Furthermore, in line with related research, we find that strong grammatical principles (Binding Theory) are powerful enough to "block" processing effects, contributing to our view of how different components of language processing interact. This working paper is available in University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics: http://repository.upenn.edu/pwpl/


The accurate prediction of wear depth is of great significance to the failure evaluation of gear transmission. At present, the traditional wear calculation method is still unable to accurately predict the wear depth of helical gears under variable working conditions. The present work proposes a novel wear depth prediction method of helical gear, which based on the theory of thermodynamics and the degradation entropy generation (DEG) theorem. The method can be used in not only dry contact friction, but also mixed elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) condition. The degradation coefficient of helical gear material was determined by wear experiment. The advantages of using DEG theorem to calculate wear loss under variable operation conditions are demonstrated by wear experiment. Moreover, the influence of ignoring the update of tooth surface load on the calculation results in wear process is further studied. The results reveal that the wear depth prediction method of helical gear proposed in this work can obtain the consistent wear depth distribution with the traditional method. The results calculated by the traditional method are generally higher than the method in this paper, and ignoring the load update in the wear process will make the results larger. The prediction method of helical gear wear depth presented in this paper will be useful for accurately predicting the wear of helical gear.


Background: It is estimated that 20%–40% of advanced medical imaging in the United States is unnecessary, resulting in patient overexposure to radiation and increasing the cost of care. Previous imaging utilization studies have focused on clinical appropriateness. An important contributor to excessive use of advanced imaging may be a physician "knowledge gap" regarding the safety and cost of the tests. Objectives: To determine whether safety and cost information will change physician medical image decision making. Research Design: Double-blinded, randomized controlled trial. Following standardized case presentation, physicians made an initial imaging choice. This was followed by the presentation of guidelines, radiation exposure and health risk, and cost information. Results: Approximately half (57 of 112, 50.9%) of participants initially selected computed tomography (CT). When presented with guideline recommendations, participants did not modify their initial imaging choice (P=0.197). A significant reduction (56.3%, P<0.001) in CT ordering occurred after presentation of radiation exposure/health risk information; ordering changed to magnetic resonance imaging or ultrasound (US). A significant reduction (48.3%, P<0.001) in CT and magnetic resonance imaging ordering occurred after presentation of Medicare reimbursement information; ordering changed to US. The majority of physicians (31 of 40, 77.5%) selecting US never modified their ordering. No significant relationship between physician demographics and decision making was observed. Conclusions: This study suggests that physician decision making can be influenced by safety and cost information and the order in which information is provided to physicians can affect their decisions.


The traditional knowledge of making drugs from medicinal plants have a major role in pharmaceutical industries. The objective of the present work is to find out how tribal peoples make use of plants as their medicine to prevent numerous diseases without having any modern medical science mastery. The structure of the research was based on four parts: 1. Ethnobotanical survey study.2.plants use value.3. Phytochemical screening.4. Ethnomedicinal uses. The research work developed in tribal community of Niyamagiri hills, Kalahandi district of Odisha, India. The duration of the research was one year. The collection of medicinal plants were done from tribal peoples of Niyamagiri hill region of Kalahandi district of Odisha. plant extraction was performed in the lab, followed by Phytochemical screening. The results reflects the rich diversity of medicinal plants of Niyamagiri hill with 50 plants species are used as herbal therapy for the healing of various ailments. Among them, 13 plants were trees, 12 plants were shrubs, and 25 plants were herbs. These were enumerated with their medicinal value. Out of the 50 plant species studied 43 were dicot and 7 were monocot. The study identified 50 medicinal plants belonging to 35 families used against 27 diseases categories such as, skin diseases, gastro intestinal disease, wound healing etc. treating various kinds of ailments between different ethnic communities in Niyamagiri hill. The plants use value Show that the most frequently used plant species was B. laciniosa, Z.oenoplia, T. bracteata giving the highest use value of 1.33. B. laciniosa is recognized to its use in the treatment of different ailments and it is well renowned by all informants as the plant having the maximum medicinal value. The extracts phytochemical screening revealed the presence of Alkaloid, Flavonoids, phenols, Tannins, Saponins Terpenoids in all plants approximately .G.sylvestre contain all of these secondary metabolites except Saponins.


Abstract The European Commission is frequently faced with leaks, much like other public administrations in Western democracies. While executive leaders often criticise the practice of leaking as an unwanted breach of confidentiality and secrecy, leak prevention is usually not taken seriously compared to the scale of the phenomenon. This article discusses leaking and leak prevention more broadly and analyses the efforts of the European Commission to prevent leaks. It finds that leaking and leak prevention were regularly discussed at the highest level of the EU's executive between 2006 and 2015. However, few Commission officials have been sanctioned for leaking in that period, and mostly for leaks that appear unrelated to the substance of those discussed at the political level. This mismatch is explained by a decoupling of talk and action regarding leak prevention, allowing the European Commission and other public administrations to manage inconsistencies in competing internal and external demands for openness and confidentiality.


The varietal thiols 3-mercaptohexanol (3MH), derived from odorless precursors in the grape juice, and 3-mercaptohexyl acetate (3MHA), arising from 3MH during fermentation, are prominent compounds responsible for tropical fruit aromas in Sauvignon blanc wines. Machine-harvested grapes were sourced from three different locations in Marlborough, New Zealand. Different concentrations of sulfur dioxide (0, 30, 60, 120, and 300 mg/kg) were added to the grapes and juice in the field, followed by transport to the University of Auckland, pressing, and fermentation in triplicate 750 mL bottles using EC1118 yeast at 15°C. Juices transported without SO2 or with a low SO2 addition were more oxidized and contained lower concentrations of most polyphenols. The juices fermented at a similar rate, with a delay in the onset of fermentation of up to a day with the 120 mg/kg SO2 juices, but around 12 days for the 300 mg/kg SO2 additions. In the more oxidized juices, there were higher concentrations of C6-alcohols in the finished wines but lower concentrations of the corresponding acetate esters. With each set the highest concentrations of 3MH and 3MHA were found in wines produced from the juices with a 120 mg/kg addition of SO2 at harvest. Conversely, wines made from juices that were transported with low SO2 additions had much lower concentrations of the varietal thiols.


Abstract The Port Askaig Formation (Fm.) is a thick glaciogenic succession within the Dalradian Supergroup that consists of over 700 m of variably dolomitic diamictite, conglomerate, sandstone mudstone and minor dolomite, and is bounded by mixed siliciclastic–carbonate successions of the Islay (Lossit) and Bonahaven formations. These strata are exposed in the metamorphic Caledonides of Scotland, although excellent preservation of sedimentary structures can be found at several sites. An extensional setting for this succession has been proposed based on stratigraphic and structural arguments. The available chemostratigraphic data include the Chemical Index of Alteration, δ13C and Sr-isotope values. Palaeomagnetic analyses have been shown to be subject to post-depositional Caledonian overprinting. There is also continued debate over the regional palaeogeographical reconstructions of the Scottish promontory for this time period. The succession is chronologically poorly constrained with U–Pb analyses of stratigraphically much higher or lower deposits. The thick succession is thought to record glacially influenced marine sedimentation and reworking of unstable sediments in a tectonically active setting with evidence of ice-margin fluctuations. Alternative palaeoenvironmental interpretations that focus on glacial terrestrial processes and emphasize climatic influence instead of tectonic activity have also been proposed. The overlying carbonate is a lithologically diverse coastal complex and so does not fit the Neoproterozoic norm. Research has to date focused on the stratigraphic and sedimentological aspects of this succession, as well as some of the broader palaeogeographical and structural features of the Dalradian basin. Future efforts should focus on the chronological, structural and palaeogeographical constraints of this succession.


No gold standard has been established as a primary endpoint in trials of initial treatment of chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), and evidence showing the association of any proposed primary endpoint with clinical benefit has not been conclusively demonstrated. To address this gap, we analyzed outcomes in a cohort of 328 patients enrolled in a prospective, multicenter, observational study within 3 months after diagnosis of chronic GVHD. Complete and partial response, stable disease, and progressive disease were defined according to the 2014 National Institutes of Health Consensus Development Conference on Criteria for Clinical Trials in Chronic Graft-Versus-Host Disease. Success was defined as complete or partial response with no secondary systemic treatment or recurrent malignancy at 1 year after enrollment. Success was observed in fewer than 20% of the patients. The burden of disease manifestations at 1 year was lower for patients in this category than for those with stable or progressive disease. Systemic treatment ended earlier, and subsequent mortality was lower among patients with complete or partial response than among those with stable or progressive disease and those who had received secondary systemic treatment. We conclude that survival with a complete or partial response and no previous secondary systemic treatment or recurrent malignancy at 1 year after initial systemic therapy is associated with clinical benefit, a critical characteristic for consideration as a primary endpoint in a pivotal clinical trial. This prospective observational study was registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov as #NCT00637689.


An XML parser facilitates in simplifying the process of manipulating XML documents. The two commonly used models for parsing XML are pull and push. The Simple API for XML (SAX) [5] is the industry standard for parsing based on the push model. However, no standard exists for pull parsing. In this paper we propose the design, API and implementation, XML Pull Parser 2.0 (XPP2), that allows for both pull and push based parsing. We discuss the various features of SAX and provide a description of existing technologies to parse XML. We describe our implementation of this API and show how a SAX driver can be built on top of XPP2.


Join the Mouse Guard and defend the Mouse Territories against predators and dangers, in this roleplaying game based on the acclaimed "Mouse Guard" comic book series! Players form their own Mouse Guard patrol and attempt to complete missions while the Game Master takes on the roles of the weather, animals, and the wilderness, all trying to thwart the fearless mice. Designed by Origins Award-winning game designer Luke Crane for beginners and veterans alike, the game comes complete with three sample patrols and three sample missions, so you and your friends can get started playing right away. It includes art and extensive background material on the Mouse Territories specially prepared by Mouse Guard creator David Petersen, as well as character sheets and maps.


The survey is concerned with the issue of information transmission from experts to non-experts. Two main approaches to the use of experts can be traced. According to the game-theoretic approach expertise is a case of asymmetric information between the expert, who is the better informed agent, and the non-expert, who is either a decision-maker or an evaluator of the expert's performance. According to the Bayesian decision-theoretic approach the expert is the agent who announces his probabilistic opinion, and the non-expert has to incorporate that opinion into his beliefs in a consistent way, despite his poor understanding of the expert's substantive knowledge. The two approaches ground the relationships between experts and non-experts on so different premises that their results are very poorly connected.


You have just read about two pathways in glucose catabolism—glycolysis and the citric acid cycle—that generate ATP. Most of the ATP generated during the aerobic catabolism of glucose, however, is not generated directly from these pathways. Rather, it is derived from a process that begins with moving electrons through a series of electron transporters that undergo redox reactions. This causes hydrogen ions to accumulate within the matrix space. Therefore, a concentration gradient forms in which hydrogen ions diffuse out of the matrix space by passing through ATP synthase. The current of hydrogen ions powers the catalytic action of ATP synthase, which phosphorylates ADP, producing ATP.


The study aimed to establish the contribution of Table banking in the empowerment of women entrepreneurs in Eldoret, Kenya. The questions explored were 1) What is Table banking , 2) Which categories of women are involved in Table banking in Eldoret, Kenya? 3) What contribution has Table banking brought in the empowerment of women entrepreneurs in Eldoret , 4) What challenges are facing women entrepreneurs as far as Table banking is concerned , 5) what can be recommended 120 women entrepreneurs from Eldoret town were randomly sampled. A questionnaire was used as the data collecting instrument. Findings revealed that Table banking has played a significant role in the empowerment of women entrepreneurs in Eldoret. Table banking has enabled women to purchase land, start and expand businesses, brought harmony at homes and financial independence. Regarding the challenges facing women entrepreneurs, in Eldoret as far as Table banking is concerned include default cases, poor record keeping, disagreements, failure to attend meetings and failure to pay loan interests. Recommendations put forward among others are provision of training of women entrepreneurs in time and financial management, introduction of a law that would restrict women on the number of Table banking groups one joins among others. Further research in this field is recommended.


There has been a recent shift in emphasis towards the principles of sustainable development in New Zealand's built environment. Yet, there is a lack of credible information on the contribution that concrete products make to the sustainability of the built environment, particularly from a New Zealand perspective. This paper serves to outline the current position with regard to concrete's contribution to sustainable development in themes such as durability, fire performance, thermal mass, acoustic performance, recycling, storm-water management, roading, demolition and deconstruction et al. By outlining concrete's sustainability credentials, gaps in the collective knowledge will also be identified. One such knowledge gap surrounds the promising potential of recarbonation. CO2 sequestration is an important and significant property, which needs urgent research. Furthermore, to support the principle of recarbonation it will be necessary for the current embryonic aggregate recycling industry in New Zealand to develop significantly. In conclusion, this paper will seek to challenge the industry to overcome complacency and strive for excellence in the sustainability paradigm. The authors wish to acknowledge the contribution of Roman Jacques and Rachel Hargreaves of BRANZ in the compilation of this paper.


Abstract This article explores the formation of British evangelical university students as believers. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted with a conservative evangelical Anglican congregation in London, I describe how students in this church come to embody a highly cognitive, word-based mode of belief through particular material practices. As they learn to identify themselves as believers, practices of reflexivity and accountability enable them to develop a sense of narrative coherence in their lives that allows them to negotiate tensions that arise from their participation in church and from broader social structures. I demonstrate that propositional belief—in contexts where it becomes an identity marker—is bound up with relational practices of belief, so that distinctions between 'belief in' and 'belief that' are necessarily blurred in the lives of young evangelicals.


New analyses of rare earth elements (REEs) and abundances of K, Rb, Sr, Ba, Th, U, Ta, and Hf in peridotites from Zabargad Island, Red Sea, indicate that light REE-enriched amphibole peridotites in the northern and central bodies have undergone a complex, multistage, metasomatic history during Red Sea rifting. The metasomatism is partly attributed to the passage of alkalic basalts through the mantle lithosphere, which possibly occurred during the early, continental-rift history of the Red Sea. The metasomatism also results from the interaction of the uppermost lithosphere with hydrous crustal fluids released from thinning continental crust. The last metasomatic event is associated with the development of an oceanic hydrothermal system in the Red Sea, after the continental breakup. The available data also suggest that the Zabargad peridotites represent pieces of pan-African lithospheric mantle (the northern and central bodies) pierced by asthenospheric material (the southern body).


Dermatan sulfate is a highly sulfated polysaccharide and has a variety of biological functions in development and disease. Iduronic acid domains in dermatan sulfate, which are formed by the action of two DS-epimerases, have a key role in mediating these functions. We have identified the catalytic site and three putative catalytic residues in DS-epimerase 1, His-205, Tyr-261, and His-450, by tertiary structure modeling and amino acid conservation to heparinase II. These residues were systematically mutated to alanine or more conserved residues, which resulted in complete loss of epimerase activity. Based on these data and the close relationship between lyase and epimerase reactions, we propose a model where His-450 functions as a general base abstracting the C5 proton from glucuronic acid. Subsequent cleavage of the glycosidic linkage by Tyr-261 generates a 4,5-unsaturated hexuronic intermediate, which is protonated at the C5 carbon by His-205 from the side of the sugar plane opposite to the side of previous proton abstraction. Concomitant recreation of the glycosidic linkage ends the reaction, generating iduronic acid. In addition, we show that proper N-glycosylation of DS-epimerase 1 is required for enzyme activity. This study represents the first description of the structural basis for epimerization by a glycosaminoglycan epimerase.


This paper gives an account of indefinites as epsilon terms within a model of utterance processing as a task of labelled deduction, in which partially specified inputs are progressively resolved during the interpretation process. The formal tools used are labelled deduction (Gabbay), the epsilon calculus (Meyer-Viol 1995), and a tree-logic (LOFT - Blackburn & Meyer-Viol 1994) which characterises the structure as it is incrementally built. The system has been partly implemented in SWI-Prolog as part of a longer-term project and the model is a transition system which defines the steps which license movement from state to state.Article


The study deals with the international transmission of economic shocks, their consequences for exchange rates and the reconciliation of exchange rate management with monetary policy. The theoretical part of the study consists of a mainstream model of two large, interdependent economies with special emphasis on the effects of various shocks on the inflation rate and exchange rate. The empirical application uses US and German data to shed light on the exchange rate implications of the choices faced by European and US monetary policymakers.The results suggest that the inflation rate is dominated by domestic supply shocks in both economies studied.When such shocks raise the domestic price level, the currency also depreciates.This aspect of the results means that, from a single-country perspective, monetary policy measures aimed at stabilizing the price level can be compatible with stabilization of the exchange rate as well.However, from the viewpoint of the other country, a conflict emerges between exchange rate and price stability.This difference causes a dilemma in international monetary coordination.Allowing that exchange rate considerations affect monetary policy, the situation is further complicated by the fact that exhange rate volatility seems to be for the most part independent of the economic fundamentals included in the study. Keywords: euro, monetary policy, exchange rate, shock transmission


The growing recognition of harm as an unwelcome and frequently unrecognized byproduct of health care has initiated focused efforts to create highly reliable organizations for safe healthcare delivery. While debate continues over the exact magnitude of harm, there is a general acceptance of the need to improve our ability to deliver care in a safer manner. A major barrier to progress in safety has been the ability to effectively measure harm consistently and thus develop effective and targeted strategies to prevent its occurrence. This has resulted in a shift from initiatives focused exclusively on analysis of errors to those targeting events linked to harm. There is a growing recognition of a distinction between errors and adverse events as they often represent unique concepts fostering different strategies for improvement of safety. Conventional approaches to identifying and quantifying harm such as individual chart audits, incident reports, or voluntary administrative reporting have often been less successful in improving the detection of adverse events. As a result, a new method of measuring harm—the trigger tool—has been developed. It is easily customized and can be readily taught, enabling consistent and accurate measurement of harm. The history, application, and impact of the trigger tool concept in identifying and quantifying harm are discussed.


Abstract. This study is based on zircon U-Pb ages of 12 volcanic ash layers and volcanogenic sandstones from two deep water sections with conformable and continuous formational Permian–Triassic boundaries (PTBs) in the Nanpanjiang Basin (South China). Our dates of single, thermally annealed and chemically abraded zircons bracket the PTB in Dongpan and Penglaitan and provide the basis for a first proof-of-concept study utilizing a Bayesian chronology model comparing the three sections of Dongpan, Penglaitan and the Global Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) at Meishan. Our Bayesian modeling demonstrates that the formational boundaries in Dongpan (251.939 ± 0.030 Ma), Penglaitan (251.984 ± 0.031 Ma) and Meishan (251.956 ± 0.035 Ma) are synchronous within analytical uncertainty of  ∼  40 ka. It also provides quantitative evidence that the ages of the paleontologically defined boundaries, based on conodont unitary association zones in Meishan and on macrofaunas in Dongpan, are identical and coincide with the age of the formational boundaries. The age model also confirms the extreme condensation around the PTB in Meishan, which distorts the projection of any stratigraphic points or intervals onto other more expanded sections by means of Bayesian age–depth models. Dongpan and Penglaitan possess significantly higher sediment accumulation rates and thus offer a greater potential for high-resolution studies of environmental proxies and correlations around the PTB than Meishan. This study highlights the power of high-resolution radio-isotopic ages that allow a robust intercalibration of patterns of biotic changes and fluctuating environmental proxies and will help recognizing their global, regional or local significance.


The Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR) for the upcoming CloudSat Mission is a spaceborne 94-GHz nadir-looking radar that measures the power backscattered by clouds as a function of distance from the radar. This sensor is expected to provide cloud measurements at a 500-m vertical resolution and a 1.5 km horizontal resolution. CPR will operate in a short-pulse mode and will yield measurements at a minimum detectable sensitivity of -28 dBZ.


We herein report a new strategy of directly converting amines and CO to formamides with 100% atom utilization efficiency. It is suitable for up to 25 amine substrates with no additives. Ru/ceria is found to be an excellent catalyst for this reaction due the efficient co-activation of CO and amine on Ru species.


A variety of analogue and digital radio systems with different channel bandwidths operate in the land mobile frequency bands. Spectrum congestion in some of these bands, coupled with advances in DSP technology, vocoding technology as well as modulation and coding techniques are driving the move towards narrow-band channels. It therefore became essential to have an algorithm to carry out interference analysis between transmitters and receivers that may be utilizing different channel bandwidths or even different transmission technologies. To complicate this issue further, standards for radio receivers are no longer mandatory in Canada and the United States. At the same time, many of the radio receivers in use are proprietary. As a result, a need arose for the development of models for the adjacent channel frequency selectivity of the receiver. In this paper, models are developed for the interfering signal power spectral density and for the frequency selectivity of radio receivers. These models are intended for interference prediction among land mobile radio systems.


The paper studies the effectiveness of applying value engineering to concrete mixtures. It was conducted in the State of Qatar on a number of strategic construction projects for the 2022 World Cup projects, in order to generally improve the quality and productivity of ready-mixed concrete used in construction and hydraulic projects. The application of value engineering to such concrete mixtures resulted in the following: Improving the quality of concrete mixtures and increasing the durability of buildings; Optimizing the use of resources, and enhancing sustainability; Reducing the use of cement, thus reducing CO2 emissions which ensure the protection of environment and public health; And Increasing the market share and competitiveness of concrete producers The research shows that applying of value engineering to concrete is an effective way to save around 5% of the total costs of concrete mixtures and, in turn, reducing the costs of construction projects.


Mentoring programmes have gained increasing popularity in institutions of higher education to support undergraduates in community service or outreach efforts. Many of these programmes partner mentors with inner‐city youth, providing assistance in underserved communities while mentors gain experiences that connect theory and practice. Here we report on two years of fieldwork in a Community Technology Centre that created mentoring partnerships in which 36 liberal arts undergraduates engaged with local youth to design, create, and build technology projects involving graphics, video, music, and animation. We analysed over 200 field notes, which described their mentoring interactions over eight weeks and conducted exit interviews about their mentoring experiences. Our results indicate that mentors participated not just as more knowledgeable peers but also as facilitators, advisors, observers and, most importantly, as learners in this process. In the interviews, nearly all mentors reviewed assumptions about their own learning and mentoring, in addition to reflections about social issues. We discuss the importance of these findings for conceptualising mentoring as a partnership by creating more equitable interactions in service learning initiatives. We also address the role of constructionist activities in facilitating learning opportunities for both mentors and mentees.


Academic advising is an essential service in facilitating students' educational and personal goals at higher education institutions. It guides students with the institutional policies and procedures. It fosters students' interaction with academic advisors to exchange information about academic matters and future goals. This study examines undergraduate students' perspectives on academic advising at Eritrea Institute of Technology. The study also identifies some challenges concerning academic advising. Using semi-structured interview, the findings revealed that the experiences of undergraduate students on academic advising is characterized by infrequent advisee-advisor communication. However, it serves as bridge to other offices, offer information and motivate students for better outcomes. In addition, the study found that lack of close contacts, advisor's lack of follow-ups, and advisee shyness were some of the challenges identified related to academic advising. Despite its small scale, the study contributes in filling the research gap on academic advising in Eritrean higher education and enhancing the literature on the subject. In order to broaden our understanding on this area, further study is needed from the faculty members' perspectives and the voices from other Eritrean higher education institutions.


This article examines the evolution of the representation of Islam and Muslim cultures in textbooks in Quebec. Results indicate signicant improvements in the new secondary school history textbooks, both quantitatively (for they contain more information about pillars, key concepts, and relations with Christianity and Judaism) and qualitatively (on account of their depth of coverage, fewer negative views than in the 1980s, and fewer factual errors than in the 1990s). The positive role played by Muslim scientists in preserving old knowledge and enriching is also recognized. However, textbooks still view Islam as a religion of submission, proscriptions, and forced conversion, failing to recognize the diversity within Islam and Muslim cultures.


The Arctic plays a key role in the Earth's climate system, because global warming is predicted to be most pronounced at high latitudes, and one third of the global carbon pool is stored in ecosystems of the northern latitudes. The degradation of permafrost and the associated intensified release of methane, a climate-relevant trace gas, represent potential environmental hazards. The microorganisms driving methane production and oxidation in Arctic permafrost soils have remained poorly investigated. Their population structure and reaction to environmental change is largely unknown, which means that also an important part of the process knowledge on methane fluxes in permafrost ecosystems is far from completely understood. This hampers prediction of the effects of climate warming on arctic methane fluxes. Further research on the stability of the methane cycling communities is therefore highly important for understanding the effects of a warming Arctic on the global climate. This review first examines the methane cycle in permafrost soils and the involved microorganisms. It then describes some aspects of the potential impact of global warming on the methanogenic and methanotrophic communities.


This chapter is an introduction to passive synthetic aperture radar (SAR) using global navigation satellite systems (GNSS), as illuminators of opportunity. Such systems include the global positioning system (GPS), the Russian GLONASS system, or the forthcoming Galileo constellation. Apart from the traditional benefits of a passive radar system, which include cost efficiency, license-free and covert operation, GNSS-based systems have a number of relative merits compared to passive systems based on terrestrial illuminating sources. One of its most prominent features is the potential for persistent monitoring anywhere in the world due to the global GNSS coverage. In addition, as GNSS guarantee a number of satellites illuminating the same point on Earth from multiple aspect angles simultaneously, this provides an opportunity to enhance radar information space. This can be done either by comparing individual passive SAR images obtained from multiple satellite perspectives, or combining them using multistatic SAR techniques. On the other hand, the relatively low power flux density near the Earth's surface restricts the field of view of applications for such a system to monitoring local areas. At the same time, and partially due to its rather broad scope, this technology has not yet reached the maturity of terrestrial-based systems. As such, the purpose of this chapter is to present methods and results on the fundamental science and technology behind GNSS-based SAR, as a stepping stone to realizing its full potential. This includes an introduction to the system concept and its fundamental parameters (power budget/resolution), signal processing algorithms for signal synchronization and image formation, as well as proof-of-concept results for advanced techniques such as change detection, multi-perspective and multistatic imaging.


CAPTCHAs have established themselves as a standard technology to confidently distinguish humans from bots. Beyond the typical use for security reasons, CAPTCHAs have helped promote AI research in challenge tasks such as image classification and optical character recognition. It is, therefore, natural to consider what other challenge tasks for AI could serve a role in CAPTCHAs. The Winograd Schema Challenge (WSC), a certain form of hard pronoun resolution tasks, was proposed by Levesque as such a challenge task to promote research in AI. Based on current reports in the literature, the WSC remains a challenging task for bots, and is, therefore, a candidate to serve as a form of CAPTCHA. In this work we investigate whether this a priori appropriateness of the WSC as a form of CAPTCHA can be justified in terms of its acceptability by the human users in relation to existing CAPTCHA tasks. Our empirical study involved a total of 329 students, aged between 11 and 15, and showed that the WSC is generally faster and easier to solve than, and equally entertaining with, the most typical existing CAPTCHA tasks.


One of the foremost concerns facing turbomachinery users today is that of torsional vibration. In contrast to lateral vibration problems, torsional failures are especially heinous since the first symptom of a problem is often a broken shaft, gear tooth, or coupling. The difficulty of detecting incipient failures in the field makes the performance of a thorough torsional vibration analysis an essential component of the turbomachinery design process. The authors' purpose is to provide users with a practical design procedure that can be used to ensure that their systems will not 189 encounter major difficulties in the field. It has been the authors' experience that most turbomachinery users encounter little difficulty in determining their machine's natural frequencies due to the large number of resources available in that area. However, problems often arise when they must translate this information into an accurate prediction of whether or not their design will experience torsional vibration problems. Accordingly, this presentation concentrates on the steps that should be taken once the natural frequencies have been found. A cursory review is presented of popular procedures, such as Holzer's method, for obtaining the machine's natural frequencies and mode shapes. This area is purposely limited in detail since there are many excellent resources in the literature that may be consulted for a more rigorous treatment. The generation of an interference or Campbell diagram is then treated in far more detail. Of particular interest is generation of the upward sloping lines representing the system's excitation frequen cies. The various excitation sources commonly found in turbomachinery, such as gears, vaned impellers, and electric motors, are discussed along with the excitation frequencies that each introduces into the system. The unique problems associated with the startup of systems driven by synchronous motors are also described. Once the interference points have been generated, the user then generally has two choices for dealing with them. Either design changes, such as alteration of couplings, are implemented to eliminate the interferences or the interference points are subjected to further analysis. Many users automatically opt for the first alter native, since they believe they must avoid resonance conditions at all costs. While this is an admirable and worthy goal under ideal circumstances, the cost of achieving it is often unwieldy. Instead, the procedure provided herein advocates analysis of all interference points prior to the implementation of costly design changes. The analysis might be as simple as inspection of the appropriate mode shape or the unit's torque vs speed curve. Interference points can frequently be eliminated from considera tion based on these inspections revealing that the induced torques are negligible. The resonant points that cannot be thereby removed should be investigated using a damped forced vibration analysis. Detailed guidelines for performing the damped analysis are presented herein. Methods for determining the magnitudes and locations of excitation torques for various machinery classes are given. Procedures are provided for obtaining damping coefficients for typical sources such as impellers, shaft material hysteresis, and couplings. Finally, users are provided with ground rules for utilizing the calculated cyclic torques and stresses to determine their design's adequacy. If the analysis identifies problem areas, practical and relatively simple rectification methods are provided. Lastly, a complete Dyrobes Rotordynamics Software https://dyrobes.com 190 PROCEEDINGS OF THE TWENTY-FIFTH TURBOMACHINERY SYMPOSIUM step-by-step analysis procedure is given that summarizes the entire preceding discussion. This methodology can be utilized in the design of virtually any turbomachinery system the user may encounter.


Nealy v. US Healthcare, 93 N.Y.2d 209, 711 N.E.2d 621, 689 N.Y.S. 2d 406 (New York Court of Appeals, Mar. 25, 1999). In a case of the sort that has been raised in Congress as grounds for passage of legislation to protect HMO patient's rights, New York's highest court has ruled that doctors working for an HMO are not immune from malpractice suits based on state law even where the doctor's services are rendered for an HMO operating pursuant to an employer-provided plant subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). The federal ERISA statute contains a broad preemption clause (see the discussion of the UNUM v. Ward case above) that makes state law inapplicable to ERISA-sponsored employee benefit plans except to the extent that the state law is one regulating insurance. Although a medical malpractice action is not insurance regulation, the New York Court of Appeals still found no bar to the litigation. The plaintiff's suit, which arose out of alleged nontreatment or inferior treatment, was against the physician and not against the insurer or plan administrator. Consequently, even if ERISA's pre-emption clause operated to prevent state law-based suits directly against the an ERISA plan, the preemption clause did not apply to bar suits against agents of the plan, particularly when the doctor/agent was being sued for medical malpractice rather than for implementation of the plan. Plaintiff alleged that her husband sought treatment for coronary artery disease from Dr. Ralph Yung and that as a result of Dr. Yung's failure to provide adequate treatment, including prompt examination by a specialist, her husband died of a massive myocardial infarction nearly six weeks after first approaching Dr. Yung. The decedent patient had a history of heart disease and had previously been treated with angioplasty by a specialist when the decedent had been covered by a Blue Cross plan prior to his switch to an employer-provided HMO. The allegations of negligence against Dr. Yung at least touched upon delays induced by Dr. Yung's following of HMO-mandated procedures governing referral to specialists and use of physicians that were not part of the Aetna/U.S. Healthcare HMO which had designed Dr. Yung as the decedent's primary physician. Notwithstanding this brooding omnipresence of the issue of the HMO's possible negative effect on Dr. Yung's delivery of medical services, the Court characterized the actio n as one sounding in medical malpractice rather than a suit against the HMO for breach of contract, fraud, or bad faith. Here, plaintiff alleges that Dr. Yung, as a direct provider of medical services, violated the duties and standard of care owed to his patient by improperly assessing the nature and extent of his condition and by failing to take reasonable steps to provide for his timely treatment by a specialist. Plaintiff does not allege that Dr. Yung is responsible for delay caused by US Healthcare's decision-making process with respect to coverage or benefits. Her claim against Dr. Yung is that he failed to take timely action to treat her husband. See 93 N.Y.2d at 219-20, 711 N.E.2d at 625. In rendering its decision, which predated by a month the UNUM v. Ward case in the U.S. Supreme Court, the New York Court took a similar approach to interpreting ERISA and arguably focused even more on the purpose of the statute rather than the literal text of the law, which preempts state law that "relates to" an employee benefit plan. Rather, the New York Court read Supreme Court precedent (accurately in light of the Court's subsequent approach and holding in Ward) as moving away from textual literalism (the words "relate to" can be stretched to a near-infinite point) to "a more pragmatic approach" since the Court's decision in New York State Conference of Blue Cross & Blue Shield Plans v. Travelers Ins. Co., 514 U.S. 645, 115 S.Ct. 1671, 131 L.Ed. 2d 695 (1995). Blue Cross v. Travelers found no ERISA preemption of New York's law that exempted Blue Cross and Blue Shield from a surcharge on hospital bills paid by other employee benefit plans to fund state-sponsored insurance coverage goals. …


Abstract:Liberal democracy is experiencing a crisis of confidence, and recent public-opinion research from a variety of sources has added to these anxieties. Using data from Pew Research Center cross-national surveys, this article finds that while democracy is broadly popular, there is nonetheless a surprisingly high degree of openness to nondemocratic modes of governing in many nations. And even though people tend to believe it is important to live in a country where democratic rights are respected, support for these rights is often tepid. In short, liberal democracy is popular among average citizens, but their commitment to this system of government is frequently underwhelming.


The opposition mistook the moral character of the revolution; the ministers mistook its force: and both parties, from pique, resentment, pride, habit, and obstinacy, persisted in acting on these mistakes after they were disabused by experience. --Sir James Mackintosh An early defender of the French Revolution's "Rights of Man," Mackintosh denotes the fundamental tension between things as they are and things as they should be, emblematizing the culture of disillusionment that permeated British radical circles in the 1790s. (1) Indeed, some stalwart British adherents to the principles of the French Revolution maintained their allegiance, finding in the Terror only the moral equivalent of "the premeditated cruelty [that] has been invariably practiced by the present enemies of the French Revolution" (James i). Yet in many ways such persistence simply secured the radicals' reputation for political violence and fueled perceptions that the bloodshed in France was symptomatic of something more pathological than aberrant excesses of an otherwise just movement for change. For many erstwhile supporters, it seemed that the Revolution had replaced an absolute monarchy with an absolute state, one that arbitrarily could bestow--rather than one that would honor--natural rights (Hunt 17). Nevertheless, scholars have often assumed, in some cases rightly, that the Enlightenment program, however distorted by the Revolution, remained for committed reformists the best chance for historical and cultural renewal and a retreat from the superstitions, institutions, and oppressions of the past. In fact, the Revolution's current reputation as a forerunner to modern human rights movements has nourished the idea that competing factions of this time either persisted in their embrace of revolutionary ideals or uncritically rejected even the most innocuous of reform programs. It is less common to examine politically moderate novels of this time as apprehending as much the radical response to systemic injustices as any perceptibly nativist defense of them. This failure to engage the specter of what many erstwhile radicals perceived as a flawed philosophy exhibits what Glenn Burgess has called the "interpretative mood" (64), which serves to transpose current cultural and doctrinal logics onto the era under question. This tendency has hampered insight free from the rigid dichotomy that has historically separated political left and right in postrevolutionary Britain. (2) It may thus be instructive to revisit the work of the feminist Mary Hays, whose novel The Victim of Prejudice (1799) demonstrates the inadequacy of the right/left dichotomy and reflects the author's attempt to fictionalize through metaphor the importance of enacting reform without resorting to the corrosive and ultimately self-defeating violence of revolution. Hays had earlier hinted of such a movement in her "Thoughts on Civil Liberty" (1793): The feeble efforts of prejudice and interest must in the end give way to truth, however gradual may be their declining struggles. Most devoutly do I pray that a wise and peaceful reformation of the gross corruptions and abuses which deform the present system of government in this country, may preclude all dreadful extremities; If there be proper laws existing to prevent these shocking depravities, so destructive to the morals, to the population, to the well-being of a country--Say! why, are they not enforced? (14) By confirming the place of law and constitutional right, Hays rhetorically reminds readers that such laws as they would claim for themselves were neither exclusionary nor discretionary. Hays seemed to recognize the danger of revolution, not for its hopeful effect on the status quo, but its adverse effect on reform movements begun in the years prior to the French Revolution. (3) There is perhaps little dispute that the Terror forestalled reform efforts in England by the magnitude of its violence. …


Our goal is to support the development of more intelligent and more interactive text-based interfaces for general computer use. In order to enable automation of user tasks, we find a new command shell architecture is needed. Our working prototype, Fish, maintains a global, persistent knowledge repository across concurrent interactive sessions. For example, a user can define a shell function in one session and this function is immediately available to the user's other concurrently running sessions, as well as future sessions. Our approach is to centralize knowledge in a persistent way while parallelizing execution. Fish is extensible and customizable, with a fuU programming language. It supports efficient communication between the machine and the user in many ways, most notably by giving the user access to the resuits of previously executed commands. Indexical references into previous results are possible by using a sophisticated command language which contains a suite of syntactic and semantic analysis functions. Significant strides in learning are possible due to the centralization of knowledge and its persistence. We illustrate the possibilities with an example of how learning may be uniquely applied using Fish.


Doctors have been warned against prescribing generic pregabalin for pain control and instead told to prescribe Lyrica (Pfizer, New York) by brand. Failing to do so may leave them open to litigation, both the BMA and NHS England have warned.

The patent for Lyrica that expired in July 2014 only related to its use for epilepsy and generalised anxiety disorder. The manufacturer, Warner-Lambert (a subsidiary of Pfizer), still holds a "second medical use" patent for the use of pregabalin in the treatment of peripheral and central neuropathic pain, which expires in July 2017. A second medical use patent is one that relates to a new medical use for a known compound.

So despite being the same as the branded version, generic versions of pregabalin have been …


Considerable effort is being expended to assess the effectiveness of urban Best Management Practices (BMP) for stormwater quality enhancement. The effectiveness of structural BMP's is typically evaluated based on a limited amount of test data, which has lead some state organizations established programs requiring mandatory testing for these devices. One such program is the Technology Acceptance and Reciprocity Partnership (TARP), which is a group of state environment agencies including New Jersey, California, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia. The group has formally agreed to a common strategy of evaluating, approving or permitting environmental technologies. To facilitate the implementation, they have created a third party technical group called the New Jersey Corporation for Advanced Technology (NJCAT) to evaluate manufacturer performance claims. The program has two levels, Tier 1 which is an interim approval given with the understanding that a full scale field test (Tier 2) will be conducted in the State of New Jersey. This paper was prepared for evaluation of total suspended solids (TSS) removal efficiency for a Stormceptor Model STC 900 in accordance with the NJDEP particle size distribution prescribed in their revised laboratory protocol titled "Total Suspended Solids Laboratory Testing Procedure", dated December 23, 2003 for approval in Tier 1 of the TARP program. Full scale laboratory testing was performed on a Stormceptor Model STC 900. The first objective of the testing was to determine the percent TSS removal at various operating rates (i.e. 25%, 50%, 75%, 100%, and 125%) and the overall annual TSS removal once the NJDEP weight factors were applied. TSS tests were performed with an initial sediment loading of 50% of the sediment capacity in the lower chamber. The second objective was to determine if scouring occurs at 125% of the operating rate when the lower chamber is filled to 50% and 100% of the sediment capacity.


Background: Inadvertent dural puncture is the most significant complication associated with epidural anaesthesia. These spinal taps can result in severe and prolonged headaches for the patient and, in rare cases, serious neurological complications. The current gold standard in epidural administration involves blindly passing a needle through the spinous processes of the vertebra until loss-of-resistance (LOR) is achieved on reaching the epidural space, resulting in a subtle and sudden pressure drop at the needle tip. The LOR technique relies exclusively on subjective haptic feedback on the syringe plunger and requires significant training until a reasonable proficiency is achieved. ProDural is a novel visual syringe for signalling needle entry into the epidural space. ProDural provides both visual and haptic feedback of probe entry into the epidural space by rapid and immediate collapse of an inflatable diaphragm whilst retaining haptic feedback. Methods: ProDural was designed based on criteria established through end user surveys, ethnographic feedback and existing technology assessment. The resulting solution was evaluated through physical benchtop experiments and analytical modelling prior to a preclinical cadaver trial. Conclusion: These initial trials indicate that ProDural may represent a promising approach to improving the accuracy of epidural needle placement and may reduce the steep learning curve associated with epidural administration.


Wind turbine incorporates a gear box which aids the transmission of torque for the generation of wind energy, industry professionals have streamlined the gearbox design to suite this purpose. Despite the advancement in the gear box design, most wind turbine downtime is attributed to gearbox-related problems. In this study, Finite Element Method through ANSYS R15.0 software was employed in modelling and analysis of a 2-stage planetary gear train for modular horizontal wind turbine. The ring gear was considered as statically constrained member because it is practically fixed to the gearbox housing while the dynamics of the planet gear, planet carrier and the sun pinion were considered as rotating members. Using Factor of Safety (FOS) ranging from 10-15, the gear model was simulated to determine the equivalent stresses, strains and total deformation. The simulation which was conducted for five (5) steps at 2.5 seconds each yielded minimum and maximum Von-mises stress of 10.168 Pa and 5.9889e+009 Pa for the 5th step, minimum and maximum equivalent elastic strain of 5.0839e-011 and 2.9944e-002 for the 5th step and maximum total deformation of 1.7318e-003 m at the 5th step. The findings revealed that the higher the design FOS, the lower the stress-strain deformations, indicating longevity and optimum performance of the gear system. It was observed that increase in contact forces between the meshing gear teeth may cause larger elastic deformations, increasing tooth bending deformation as well as larger backlash on the gear teeth while continuously varying gear mesh stiffness with time can result in excessive vibration and noise.


Many phenomena of practical importance, such as water movement in soils and the recovery of oil and gas from subterranean reservoirs, involve capillary pressure hysteresis in natural porous materials. Experimental capillary pressure–saturation relationships provide important information on pore systems and multiphase displacements. Data, at various levels of detail, are available for strongly wetted soils and sphere packs, but very few detailed hysteresis data have been reported for consolidated porous media, such as rocks, at equivalent wetting conditions. A new porous plate apparatus and procedure have been used to give extensive capillary pressure hysteresis relationships within a few days, a significant improvement on previous methods. Air–brine data are presented for three types of consolidated sandstones. Rate of outflow and inflow were recorded for each data point. Imbibition scanning curves have been obtained starting from the primary and secondary drainage curves. Drainage scanning curves that branch from imbibition curves starting at different levels of initial water saturation have also been measured. The data met a stringent test of quality in that all hysteresis loops exhibited closure as predicted by theory and as usually reported for unconsolidated media. The overall form of the hysteresis curves is related to fluid distributions, percolation effects, and trapping. Initial wetting phase (WP) saturation versus residual nonwetting phase (NWP) relationships provide detailed information on the extent of trapping for imbibition starting at different initial saturations, a parameter of particular interest in carbon dioxide sequestration. Features of the dynamic outflow–inflow data provided indication of the differences in flow rates for drainage and imbibition.


This presentation and paper describes the capacity of natural and nature-based features (NNBF) to reduce coastal storm hazards. Through a synthesis of existing literature and studies, as well as meta-analysis and traditional data analysis where possible, the salient characteristics and capabilities of NNBF at reducing storm surge, wave action, and erosion are characterized. The research specifically focuses on the capacity of aquatic vegetation, oyster and coral reefs, beaches, dunes, maritime forests, and barrier islands to reduce and/or mitigate these coastal hazards.


How are the rise of design and neoliberalism connected? How does design change the way we operate as economic beings? What is the economic significance of design?Historically, design has been promoted for itsfor its capacity to add valueto products and services. In contemporary capitalism, however, it assumes a more central and more complex role. Design today is both influenced by, and actively shapes, our economic systems. This ground-breaking bookshines a spotlight onhow design has become embedded in political economies. Itreveals the multiple ways in which design has emerged as a vital feature of neoliberal economic systems, from urban strategies to commercial processes to government policy-making. Drawing on a range of global examples, Guy Julier: explains theeconomic processes of design explores therelationship between design and intellectual property discusses therole of design in the public sector highlights theimpact of design in informal and alternative economies brings theory to life withcase studies on home improvements, fast fashion, shopping centresand more. Economies of Designprovides a thought-provoking new way of understanding and talking about the meanings of design in contemporary capitalism. It is an essential companion for students of design and the creative industries across the arts, humanities and social sciences.


This paper deals with the issues related to embedded applications when they are implemented in internet. There are various attacks in embedded systems when implemented in the internet. These attacks have a negligible effect in the operating system which results in the decrease in the system performance. But in embedded system case, it has life and death consequence attached to it. Many of these embedded systems work in hazardous environment where a system failure results to catastrophic effects. Here a study of various attacks are discussed and a new architecture has been proposed to secure Web based embedded systems from the attacks.


Copepods may remotely detect predators from the velocity gradients these generate in the ambient water. Each of the different components and characteristics of a velocity gradient (acceleration, vorticity, longitudinal and shear deformation) can cause a velocity difference between the copepod and the ambient water and may, therefore, be perceived by mechanoreceptory setae. We hypothesised that the threshold value for escape response to a particular component depends solely on the magnitude of the velocity difference (= signal strength) it generates. In experiments we isolated the different components and noted the minimum intensities to which the copepod Acartia tonsa responded. As hypothesised, threshold signal strengths due to longitudinal and shear deformation were similar, ∼0.015 cm s -1 , and were invariant with developmental stage. The latter implies that the threshold deformation rate for response scales inversely with size, i.e. that large stages respond to lower fluid deformation rates than small stages and, hence, may detect predators at longer distances. Signals due to vorticity and acceleration did not elicit escape responses, even though their magnitude exceeded threshold signal strength due to deformation. We suggest that A. tonsa cannot distinguish such signals from those due to their own behaviour (sinking, swimming, passive reorientation due to gravity) because they cause a similar spatial distributions of the signal across the body. Reinterpretation of data from the literature revealed that threshold signal strength due to deformation varies by ca 2 orders of magnitude between copepods and exceeds the neurophysiological response threshold by more than a factor of 10. In contrast, threshold deformation rates vary much less, ∼ 0.5 to 5 s -1 . Model calculations suggest that such threshold deformation rates are just sufficient to allow efficient predator detection while at the same time just below maximum turbulent deformation rates, thus preventing inordinate escapes.


The aim of this study was to compare the efficacy of estrus induction and fertility by using subcutaneous melatonin (MEL, T1) and short-term intravaginal medroxyprogesteronacetate plus pregnant mare serum gonadotropin treatments (sMAP+eCG, T2) in ewes on seasonaly anestrus. In this study, 105 mature clinically healthy Kivircik ewes in anestrus season and 4 rams were used. After synchronization applications, ewes exhibiting estrus signs were hand-mated with rams known to be fertile. Blood samples were collected at different times in order to determine progesterone (P4) concentrations. Results showed that estrus manipulation protocols induced significant improvement in pregnancy rate. All the fertility results obtained with the sMAP+eCG or MEL groups were similar, in seasonal anestrus. The efficacy duration of P4 in the MEL group was longer than that in short-term progestagen group. Plasma P4 concentrations was significantly different between the first (I) and last (III) measurement days (p0.01). Increase in P4 concentration in T2 group was faster than that in T1 group, and blood P4 concentrations at higher levels could successfully be achieved by using any of the protocols in this study during the seasonal anestrus. In conclusion, according to the results obtained, the hormone application groups received very high estrus response. In addition, the twin ratio was found to be higher in T1 group compared to those determined in the other groups (T2 and Control group). Furthermore, plasma P4 concentrations and high birth rates were obtained in ewes in T1 and T2 groups. These procedures can be considered a good alternative to traditional procedures due to its flexibility under field conditions.


Identifying sources of individual variation in reproductive success has been a longstanding challenge for evolutionary ecologists. Reproductive success among individuals can be due to several factors such as competition between conspecifics for nest sites and mating partners, mate choice, or by the physical environment. Reproductive success, particularly among males, can be extremely diverse both within and between species and determining which components contribute to success can be particularly challenging. In this thesis, I investigated patterns and drivers of reproductive success in a temperate marine reef fish, Forsterygion lapillum (the common triplefin). Specifically, I examined how male quality, nest quality, and female choice influence male reproductive success. Additionally, I quantified male reproductive success during the winter and summer of the breeding season to examine the temporal dynamics of breeding success in F. lapillum.   Selection of mates by females can be driven by the quality and behavioural attributes of the male or by the quality of resources offered. In Chapter 2, using field-based observations, combined with a lab-based study, I evaluated the effects of different male traits and nest characteristics on female choice and male reproductive success. Specifically, I observed egg guarding males in the field during the breeding season and recorded their phenotypic traits, behaviours, and nest characteristics. I then examined their influence on 3 different components of male reproductive success (brood size, individual egg size, and mate attraction). Additionally, I conducted dichotomous choice tests in the laboratory to evaluate female preference for different sized males, holding different sized nests. In the field, I did not detect a significant relationship between male mating success and male total length or nest size. Brood size and individual egg size were highly variable among sampled males, however, further factors such as courtship frequency, and the number of interactions with potential predators did not explain any additional variation. The number of agonistic displays performed by egg guarding males was the only factor to influence egg size, however, it had no direct impact on brood size or mate attraction. On the contrary, results from the laboratory experiment suggested that male total length and nest size were important during female choice. Females were attracted to and spawned more frequently with larger males holding larger nests. Additionally, females showed a particular preference towards males that displayed intense courtship behaviours. These results suggest that variation in reproductive success among individuals is not random in the common triplefin (F. lapillum) and may be due to a range of complex factors.  In natural systems, individual variation in mating success is known to be highly dynamic and vary over time. In Chapter 3, I addressed 3 questions related to reproductive success in male common triplefin: 1) Does the operational sex ratio (OSR) and the density of individuals change predictably within the breeding season? 2) Does male reproductive success change within the breeding season? And 3) Does the age and growth rate of successful males change within the breeding season? To address these questions, I sampled a population of F. lapillum during two periods of the breeding season and quantified a set of morphological and physical traits. Furthermore, I reconstructed individual life histories from the otoliths of egg guarding males. My results show that the density of individuals in the population increased during the summer months, but the operational sex ratio (OSR) remained male-biased. Male reproductive success in terms of brood size and average egg size did not fluctuate during the sampling period. However, the size of males and the size of the nest (cobblestone) held by males was significantly larger in summer compared to winter. Interestingly, successful males sampled in the winter had hatched significantly earlier than successful males sampled in the summer, but their average growth rate remained similar. These findings indicate that variation in male traits across the breeding season plays an important role in female mate choice. The mating system and pool of mating individuals in the common triplefin (F. lapillum) is highly dynamic over the year and has the potential to shape the success of individuals.   Overall, this study emphasizes the importance of considering multiple cues and temporal dynamics when disentangling the determinants of individual reproductive success. These findings suggest that male-male competition and female mate choice have a significant influence on male reproductive success. The reproductive ecology of F. lapillum is highly complex and my research has provided valuable insight into its dynamic nature. These results may apply to other species with male parental care and provides an important contribution towards understanding sexual selection and the evolution of mating systems with male parental care.


The objective of this work is to study the nature of the relationship between income inequality and economic growth in Tunisia. To do this, we started with a review of the literature. Then we conducted an empirical study on the Tunisian case over the period 1984-2011. The main results show that economic growth and openness exchange constituted aggravating factors of inequalities and that these effects are accentuated with the accelerated process of trade liberalization in the country. However, human capital and financial development appears to have contributed to the alleviation of this problem.The second result shows that inequality had a negative effect on economic growth and that this effect appeared more after the acceleration of the process of opening exchange. This result can be explained by the fact that the country has reached an "unbearable" level of inequality. Similarly, it can be explained by the failure of redistribution policies.


Confocal microscopy was used to directly observe the structural coarsening of the first layer of short colloidal rods sedimented onto a flat wall. Based on an image analysis algorithm we devised, quantitative information on the location, orientation and length of each particle can be extracted with high precision. At high density the system undergoes structural arrest, and becomes trapped in a disordered state of randomly arranged filaments that are composed of side-by-side aligned rods. The frustration of structural order is signalled by a new peak that emerges in the radial distribution function. Configuration analysis shows that the peak is primarily due to pairs of particles that are arranged in a "T" shape, a configuration that is compatible with neither crystallization nor filament growth. Our results point to a self-poisoning mechanism for the frustration of structural order, and highlight the importance of particle shape in controlling colloidal assembly thus materials properties.


The Shoemaker-McLean-Pratt (SMP) buffer used for determining lime requirement of soil contains chromium and p-nitrophenol, which classifies the solution as a hazardous waste. A buffer without hazardous chemicals producing the same pH as SMP buffer would eliminate hazardous waste and have no effect on agronomic interpretation. Chemicals chosen to replace chromium and p-nitrophenol were 2-(N-morpholino)ethanesulfonic acid monohydrate (MES) and imidazole. Add titrations of SMP buffer and various mixtures of a new buffer were performed to duplicate the acid-base characteristics of the SMP buffer. The new buffer is adjusted to pH 7.70 and contains 69.6, 13.7, 31.4, 89.3, and 2000 mM of triethanolamine, imidazole, MES monohydrate, acetic acid, and KCI, respectively. Coefficients of determination (r 2 ) for linear regressions of soil-buffer pH with the new buffer versus SMP buffer on 255 Kentucky and 87 North American Proficiency Testing (NAPT) soils were 0.974 and 0.967, respectively. The linear regression equation for new buffer versus SMP buffer lime recommendations in Mg ha -1 was y = 0.226 + 0.994x with an r 2 of 0.935 for 158 Kentucky soils requiring lime and y = 1.42 + 0.876x with an r 2 of 0.876 for 27 NAPT soils requiring lime. Repeated soil-buffer pH measurements were made using 10 Kentucky soils and 11 NAPT soils over 150 d. Only one of the soil samples showed a significant drift in soil-buffer pH with time using the new buffer, and the drift was also observed using SMP buffer. With 88 measurements of soil-buffer pH using the new buffer on 11 NAPT soils, 2 measurements fell outside NAPT warning limits for SMP soil-buffer pH. The new buffer without hazardous chemicals mimicked the soil-buffer pH obtained with SMP buffer, provided lime recommendations similar to that with SMP buffer, and had a laboratory shelf life of at least 150 d.


This article explores the discourse of commercial consumer advertising in the written and visual media of Egypt. After setting advertisements in the context of genres and schemas, it focuses mainly on the relationship between language and cultural representation within the discourse of advertising. The paper places special emphasis on the role of intertextuality within the advertising framework. It also assesses the effectiveness of using different language levels in a given advertisement or commercial, and looks at the deployment of rhetorical devices to reinforce the advertising message.


Analysis of Transaction Throughput in P2P Environments Arun Chokkalingam Mentor: Gregory D. Speegle, Ph.D. In recent years P2P systems have gained tremendous popularity. Support of a transaction processing facility in P2P systems would provide databases at a low cost. Extending distributed database algorithms such as 2PC and ROWA to P2P environments might not provide the best performance because the P2P systems are characterized by high site failure rates and an unpredictable network topology. The choice of algorithms in building P2PDB is difficult because of the lack of information about the performance of database algorithms in P2P environments. This thesis analyzes the performance of one such algorithm, the epidemic algorithm against the performance of traditional database algorithms in simulated P2P environments.


This thesis is a socio-legal study of police and prosecutorial decision-making in the context of special measures support for child witnesses in criminal proceedings. It presents the findings of an empirical research project conducted with the Crown Prosecution Service which examined the implementation of Part II of the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999. Under that Act children may be assisted to testify in criminal proceedings though any feasible combination of: video-recorded evidence; live television link; screens; communication aids; intermediaries; and giving evidence in private. Using a small-scale, primarily qualitative, study involving semi-structured interviews with Crown Prosecutors, this thesis investigates how the attitudes, beliefs, motivations and work practices of the police and prosecutors affect the provision of special measures to children. It does so in the context of a highly directive legal framework which purports to curtail prosecutorial and judicial discretion. The thesis explores the problems that child witnesses encounter within the criminal justice system and the legislative and policy response to their difficulties. It then presents the findings of the current research study in relation to, first, the video-interviewing patterns of police officers and, second, the rate of prosecutors' applications for special measures. In addition to the statistical data, the thesis explores prosecutors' own reflective accounts of the factors which shape police and prosecutors' decision-making. The thesis concludes that where the rules on special measures are highly prescriptive, we have witnessed a radical expansion in their use for children, but that the rigid system has drawbacks which raise pressure for reform. Reform proposals must be carefully considered in the light of infrastructural weaknesses in inter-agency liaison and information-management identified in this thesis. We might also be wary that reform will undermine the criminal justice system's recently consolidated cultural acceptance of special measures for child witnesses.


Historically social studies curriculum in Australia has been specifically responsible for producing morally correct citizens who desire an appreciation of their duties and responsibilities to the state. This article examines the shifting discourses of citizenship education in social studies since the end of the Second World War. It begins by examining three dominant traditions – patriotism and loyalty, social-scientific inquiry, and active citizenship – before considering the discourse of critical democracy founded on the principles of self-fulfilment, self-determination and equality. Although each perspective begins with a different set of assumptions, values and methodology, all share a common goal of preparing children as future citizens. The question becomes, then, what kind of citizen?


Proteins of the secretin family form large macromolecular complexes, which assemble in the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria. Secretins are major components of type II and III secretion systems and are linked to extrusion of type IV pili (T4P) and to DNA uptake. By electron cryo-tomography of whole Thermus thermophilus cells, we determined the in situ structure of a T4P molecular machine in the open and the closed state. Comparison reveals a major conformational change whereby the N-terminal domains of the central secretin PilQ shift by ∼30 Å, and two periplasmic gates open to make way for pilus extrusion. Furthermore, we determine the structure of the assembled pilus. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.07380.001


Making predictions and quantifying their uncertainty when the input data is sequential is a fundamental learning challenge, recently attracting increasing attention. We develop SigGPDE, a new scalable sparse variational inference framework for Gaussian Processes (GPs) on sequential data. Our contribution is twofold. First, we construct inducing variables underpinning the sparse approximation so that the resulting evidence lower bound (ELBO) does not require any matrix inversion. Second, we show that the gradients of the GP signature kernel are solutions of a hyperbolic partial differential equation (PDE). This theoretical insight allows us to build an efficient back-propagation algorithm to optimize the ELBO. We showcase the significant computational gains of SigGPDE compared to existing methods, while achieving state-of-the-art performance for classification tasks on large datasets of up to 1 million multivariate time series.


Youth Business International (YBI) has helped a significant number of young entrepreneurs through its network of business programmes worldwide. It provides young people, who have little more than a bright idea and the determination to succeed, with a start-up loan and the services of a volunteer mentor. However, what is less well known is the true nature of the mentor-client relationship and the impact this has on a young person's personal and business success. This study takes as its sample two distinct groups of mentors, young entrepreneurs and programme managers from two different countries and using a case study method explores what leads to success. The emerging themes show the nature of the relationship is affected at three critical phases: start-up, midpoint and endpoint. The results also show that mentors are required to use an approach towards entrepreneurs that reduces dependency and increases self-confidence. The findings indicate a style of mentoring which is less directive and more empowering as the client's business starts to grow.


This article compares the development of labour productivity in the Swedish and the Finnish business sectors and the role of the information and communication technology (ICT) sector in this process. The results show that the Finnish productivity level has been converging towards the Swedish level, but that there is still a significant difference. This trend has coincided with the growing importance of the ICT sector, especially since the mid 1990s. Due to higher productivity and employment growth, the Finnish ICT sector has contributed to this convergence. This is explained by the electrical engineering industry. The Nokia effect has been stronger than the Ericsson effect.


The present article analyses the qualitative and quantitative parameters of the execution of foreign policy in the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania. It should be noted that the matters of foreign policy were on the brink of constitutional regulation for a long time. The powers of institutions of the state in the field of foreign relations were established laconically by the Constitutions of first and second "waves" of establishment of constitutionalism. It was argued that the choices of decisions and the execution of foreign policy were determined by political reasons and the law could only fix the results of that policy. That is why these constitutions should be seen as establishing quantitative characteristics of action of the state institutions in the field of foreign policy. As a result of the changes in the concept of the Constitution and the general recognition of the relevance of constitutional regulation from the middle of the twentieth century the constitutional acts began to define not only the powers of certain state institutions in the field of the foreign policy but also the objectives and principles of this policy. These objectives and principles are qualitative parameters of the action of state institutions, which are mandatory constitutional requirements to all subjects engaged in foreign policy. From a qualitative standpoint, the powers of the state institutions can be exercised only by taking the constitutional objectives into account and by respecting the Constitution. The Constitution establishing both qualitative and quantitative characteristics of the execution of foreign policy becomes an actual basis of this policy. It is unlawful to execute foreign policy without complying with its objectives and constitutional principles. The institutions of constitutional review have the powers to determine the constitutionality of legal acts related to the execution of foreign policy. Constitutional regulations previous to the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania of 1992 only defined the powers of state institutions, i.e. the quantitative parameters of their action. The Lithuanian Constitution of 1992 also established the constitutional objectives and principles of foreign policy. This area of constitutional regulation has been enhanced by the participation of the Republic of Lithuania in the European Union. The author suggests analysing this matter as an autonomous constitutional principle and not only as a case of participation in international organisations or an integral element of the principle of geopolitical orientation. Constitutional objectives and principles of foreign policy, as well as the other provisions of the Constitution regarding the exercise of foreign policy, are interpreted in constitutional jurisprudence. In cases concerning the constitutionality of international treaties, laws and other legislative acts directly related to the exercise of foreign policy, the Constitutional Court reveals the content and meaning of the qualitative and quantitative constitutional parameters of foreign policy. Despite the fragmented nature of the case law one can see the precise contours of the foreign policy system.


In recent years, issues associated with natural rubber production have gained visibility and a number of industry stakeholders across a range of rubber submarkets have started to adopt forms of eco-certification and labeling in response to a growing market for certified rubber products. While encouraging, the disparate nature of rubber certification efforts across an already highly fragmented industry makes it difficult to determine the alignment between claims to address environmental and social concerns and actual performance. This thesis contrasts the environmental and social impacts of natural rubber production with the range of emerging natural rubber certification efforts to assess the alignment between certification needs and certification outcomes. In addition, this thesis seeks to understand the processes that give rise to particular forms of eco-certification that may or may not serve to address actual issues associated with current production practices. By examining the nature and contexts of the relationships between certification stakeholders along the rubber commodity chain, this paper illuminates the ecological and social processes that have given rise to the demand, supply and adoption of natural rubber eco-certification as a particular form of private environmental regulation.