In this work, we experimentally studied the influence of photoexcitation energy
influence on the charge transport in organic semiconductors. Organic semiconductors
were small molecules like corannulene, perylene and pentacene derivatives, polymers
such as polythiophene and benzothiophene derivatives, and graphene, along with
combinations of these materials in heterojunctions or composites.
The first part of this study is focused on the photoexcitation energy influence on
the transient photoconductivity of non-crystalline curved π-conjugated corannulene
layers. The enhanced photoconductivity, in the energy range where optical absorption
is absent, is deduced from theoretical predictions of corannulene gas-phase excited
state spectra. Theoretical analysis reveals a consistent contribution involving
transitions to Super Atomic Molecular Orbitals (SAMOs), a unique set of diffuse
orbitals typical of curved π-conjugated molecules. More, the photoconductivity of the
curved corannulene was compared to the π-conjugated planar N,N′-1H,1H-
perfluorobutyldicyanoperylene-carboxydi-imide
(PDIF-CN2),
where
the
photoexcitation energy dependence of photocurrent closely follows the optical
absorption spectrum.
We next characterized charge transport in poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) layers
deposited from solution. Our results indicate that time-of-flight (TOF) mobility
depends on the photoexcitation energy. It is 0.4× 10 −3 cm 2 /Vs at 2.3 eV (530 nm) and
doubles at 4.8 eV (260 nm). TOF mobility was compared to field-effect (FET) mobility
of P3HT field-effect transistors (OFETs). The FET mobility was similar to the 2.3 eV
excitation TOF mobility. In order to improve charge mobility, graphene nanoparticles
were blended within a P3HT solution before the deposition. We found that the mobility
significantly improves upon the addition of graphene nanoparticles of a weight ratio
as low as 0.2 %. FET mobility increases with graphene concentration up to a value of
2.3× 10 −2 cm 2 /Vs at 3.2 %. The results demonstrate that phase segregation starts to
influence charge transport at graphene concentration of 0.8 % and above. Hence, the
graphene cannot form a bridged conduction channel between electrodes, which would
cancel the semiconducting effect of the polymer composite.
An alternative approach to enhance mobility is to optimize the molecular ordering
of organic semiconductors. For that purpose, we studied an innovative nanomesh
device. Free-standing nanomesh devices were used to form nanojunctions of N,N′-
iiDioctyl-3,4,9,10-perylenedicarboximide (PTCDI-C8) nanowires and crystalline
bis(triisopropylsilylethinyl)pentacene (TIPS-PEN). We characterized the photocurrent
response time of this novel nanomesh scaffold device. The photoresponse time
depends on the photon energy. It is between 4.5 − 5.6 ns at 500 nm excitation
wavelength and between 6.7 − 7.7 ns at 700 nm excitation wavelength. In addition, we
found that thermal annealing reduces charge carrier trapping in crystalline nanowires.
This confirms that the structural defects are crucial to obtaining high photon-to-charge
conversion efficiency and subsequent transport from pn junction in heterostructured
materials.
Structural defects also influence the power conversion efficiency of organic
heterostructured photovoltaics (OPVs). Anticipating that polymers with different
backbone lengths produce different level of structural defects, we examined charge
transport
dependence
on
the
molecular
weight
of
poly[4,8-bis(5-(2-
ethylhexyl)thiophen-2-yl)benzo[1,2-b;4,5-b']dithiophene-2,6-diyl-alt-(4-(2-
ethylhexyl)-3-fluorothieno[3,4-b]thiophene-)-2-carboxylate-2-6-diyl]
(PTB7-Th)
from 50 kDa to 300 kDa. We found p-type hopping transport in PTB7-Th,
characterized by 0.1 – 3× 10 −2 cm 2 /Vs mobility, which increases with temperature and
electric field. The polymer molecular weight exhibits a non-trivial influence on charge
transport. FET mobility in the saturation regime increases with molecular weight. A
similar trend is observed in TOF mobility and FET mobility in the linear regime,
except for the 100kDa polymer, which manifests in the highest mobility due to reduced
charge trapping. The lowest trapping at the dielectric interface of OFET is observed at
200 kDa. In addition, the 200 kDa polymer exhibits the lowest activation energy of the
charge transport. Although the 100 kDa polymer indicates the highest mobility, OPVs
using the 200 kDa polymer exhibit the best performance in terms of power conversion
efficiency.


Landsat data are invaluable for numerous remote sensing applications. Presently, NASA and USGS are soliciting input from user communities about future Landsat missions on topics such as data needs and their applications. Americaview (www.americaview.org) has organized a panel discussion during the 2014 ASPRS Annual Conference that will focus on remotely sensed data needs at local, state and possibly regional levels. This panel will include AmericaView and USGS scientists. Following brief presentations from the panelists, we will solicit input from those present about future Landsat data needs. Our goal is to collect input from diverse sources and present them to NASA and USGS.


Many pay-as-you-go pension systems have increased or plan to increase their legal retirement age (LRA) to address the financial consequences of ageing. Although the success of these policies is ultimately determined at the labour market, little is known about the effects of higher LRAs at the firm level. Here, we identify this effect by considering a legislative reform introduced in Portugal in 1994: women's LRA was gradually increased from 62 to 65 years while men's LRA stayed unchanged at 65. Using detailed matched employer-employee panel data and difference-in-differences matching methods, we analyse the effects of the reform in terms of a number of worker- and firm-level outcomes. After providing evidence of compliance with the law, we find that the wages and hours worked of older women (those required to work longer) were virtually unchanged. However, firms employing older female workers significantly reduced their hirings, especially of younger female workers. Those firms also lowered their output although not their output per worker.


Bio-energetic
models of livestock require geometrical properties (e.g., surface area) of animals. Currently, the surface area of
animals is estimated from empirical equations based on body weight or assuming the
animal as cylinders or spheres. These approximations do not accurately characterize
the true geometry of the animal. Similarly, skin-surface temperature predictions
from bio-energetic models are validated by taking spot measurements, which neglects
the spatial variability of this parameter. In this study, an accurate approach of
measuring these parameters is proposed. Based on preliminary results (more data
analysis is ongoing), the advantages and disadvantages of various 3-D scanning
technologies (photogrammetry, Kinect V1, Kinect V2, Intel® RealSense™ SR300,
and Intel® RealSense™ R200) as well as two different procedures for obtaining 3-D
surface temperature (thermal projection and thermal photogrammetry) are
discussed. Kinect (V1 or V2) is recommended for 3-D scanning of livestock because
the sensors are cheap and easy to use. Sense from 3-D Systems (Intel®
RealSense™ SR300) does not support large scanning volumes but it is recommended
for scanning small animals (or parts of an animal) because it is handheld and
the software is easy to use. To scan large animals (e.g., a whole cow) and for advanced users, Intel® RealSense™ R200
is suitable. For 3-D surface temperature, thermal photogrammetry is recommended
because it is less error prone than thermal projection.


ABSTRACT In this research, we seek to provide effective message strategies to communicate stigma associated health issues such as the human papillomavirus (HPV), by exploring the roles of humor, STD information, and objective HPV knowledge. Conducted with a 2 (Humor: no vs. yes) x 2 (STD information: no vs. yes) between-subjects experiment with objective HPV knowledge as a measured moderator, findings suggested that for the lower HPV knowledge subjects, the humor ads produced higher attention to the ad, more favorable ad attitudes (Aad), and greater behavioral intention to seek HPV prevention and treatment than the no-humor ads when there is no STD information. However, when STD information was present, for the lower HPV knowledge individuals, the no-humor ads produced greater attention and more positive Aad than the humor ads. Humor and STD information in the ads did not affect higher HPV knowledge individuals. Implications for theory as well as practice are discussed.


Everyone has a favourite character from Dickens, whether it's a selfless hero like David Copperfield, a rapacious villain like Fagin, or a half crazed eccentric like Miss Havisham. But anyone with great expectations of finding a likeable medical character in Dickens's novels will be sorely disappointed.⇑

Dickens depicted about 50 doctors in his books. But, with one or two exceptions, his medical men range from bumbling fools to negligent crooks. At best, Dickens's doctors stand by helplessly and mop a clammy brow as a patient expires from fever or consumption. At worst, they conspire in insurance swindles and abet murder. His antipathy to the medical profession is hardly surprising.

Born 200 years ago into modest origins, Dickens experienced at first …


Glass fibre reinforced composites (GFRP) are recently very popular in many industrial branches like: marine, wind energy or civil engineering. From the Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) point of view it is very important to know behaviour of elements during their exploitation. One of recently investigated monitoring techniques are methods based on fibre optic sensors (e.g. fibre Bragg grating sensors) embedded into composite elements during their manufacturing process or into adhesive layer in composite joints. It is possible due to fibre optic advantages like: small size, weight and high corrosion resistance. The sensors can be used for monitoring both internal strain due to mechanical loading as well as strain induced e.g. by moisture influence. One of the problems is that embedding results in local discontinuities due to fibre optic occurrence that can leads to a damage origin. One of the non-destructive methods allow to observe and evaluate the internal structure of non-conductive materials is terahertz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS). The technique can be used for detection and localisation of different damage types like voids, delaminations or mechanical damage. It can be also used for determination of the arrangement of fibre optics embedded into material. The THz method allows detection and localisation of material structural disintegration which occurrence influences on absorption or refractive index of examined material. The paper presents an application of THz spectroscopy for observation and evaluation of the internal structure of thin composite samples with embedded fibre Bragg grating (FBG) sensors and with inclusions (e.g. water intrusion, dust) that were introduced during their manufacturing process as well as a complex composite sample with honeycomb filler.


Teaching children with autism is a challenging task for educators and parents, as the children display marked deficits in language and social behaviors. One of the major goals of an intervention program for children with autism is to provide them a method of functional communication and ample opportunities to practice these skills. For some children with autism, a communication system that uses alternative and augmentative forms of expression may be necessary. Children with autism (N = 8) between the ages of 9 and 12 years were selected from special schools in Mumbai for this experimental research. The study aimed to determine the effectiveness of Makaton vocabulary language program, a system of alternative and augmentative communication (AAC), on development of language and social behavior of children with autism. The subjects received 12 sessions of language intervention using AAC. language assessment tool for autistic children (LATCA) and social behavior rating scale (SBRS) were used as instruments for measurement. While the researcher administered LATCA, the classroom teachers used the SBRS as a checklist for social behavior. The comparison of their pre and post test mean scores showed a significant change in language and social behavior. Use of AAC had a positive effect on development of receptive and expressive language. AAC usage was also found effective in enhancing social behavior of children with autism.

 Key words: Autism, AAC, language and social behavior, Makaton vocabulary language programme


The corporate social and environmental responsibility movement, known more generally as corporate responsibility (CR), shows little sign of waning. Almost all large corporations now run some form of corporate responsibility program. Despite this widespread belief that CR can simultaneously improve societal welfare and corporate performance, most companies are largely in the dark when it comes to understanding how their stakeholders think and feel about these programs. This book argues that all companies must understand how and why stakeholders react to such information about companies and their actions. It examines the two most important stakeholder groups to companies - consumers and employees - to comprehend why, when and how they react to CR. Armed with this insight, it shows how companies can maximize the value of their CR initiatives by fostering strong stakeholder relationships to develop, implement and evaluate compelling social responsibility programs that generate value for both the company and its stakeholders.


Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia, now the leading cause of death in the UK, which affects more than 35 million people worldwide. Genome-wide association studies identified 20 genetic loci associated with disease susceptibility, however these only exerted small effects on risk. Next-generation sequencing is now being employed to identify more of the missing heritability. This project utilised whole-exome sequencing to explore genetic variation using the Brains for Dementia Research (BDR) resource, a well-characterised cohort of neuropathologically confirmed samples. Exome-wide and candidate gene approaches were employed to assess coding variants for association with AD, using single-variant and burden tests. Coding variants in other neurodegenerative disease genes were also analysed as potential susceptibility factors for AD. Furthermore, polygenic risk scores (PRS) were generated to explore the ability to classify case and control individuals based on their genetic profiles. A synonymous variant in PILRA (rs2405442) was nominally associated with 3-fold increased risk of AD, also contributing strongly to PILRA burden. It was previously linked to AD through risk gene ZCWPW1; however, it has not been directly associated until now. Additional variants in GWAS gene ABCA7 (rs3764645, rs3752234, rs3752237, rs4147915) and rare variants in CLU were also implicated, further supporting their roles in AD susceptibility. A variant in PD gene LRRK2 (rs35303786) inferred protection against AD, implicating potential pleiotropy across the two diseases. PRS could distinguish AD cases from controls with 85.3% accuracy and also identified controls with high PRS but no cognitive impairments. This could be useful for identifying individuals at risk of developing AD in the future. We have uncovered tentative associations both in established and newly identified loci; highlighting several interesting candidates for further investigation. Although there remains a large amount of missing heritability, we hope that as the BDR resource grows, we will achieve increased power to detect significant associations with AD.


Secretory and biosynthetic responses of adenomatous, carcinomatous, and hyperplastic parathyroid tissues to variable concentrations of extracellular calcium were assessed in vitro. Tissues, obtained at the time of parathyroidectomy, were incubated for 4 h in media containing radioactive amino acids and varying (0.5-5.0 mM) concentrations of calcium. Amounts of newly synthesized and total parathyroid hormone and proparathyroid hormone in extracts of tissues and media were measured by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and by radioimmunoassay, respectively. All tissues studied (six adenomas, two specimens of chief-cell hyperplasia, one carcinoma, and normal bovine and human glands) responded to changes in calcium concentrations; decreasing concentrations of calcium stimulated release and decreased tissue storage of hormone. Six of the abnormal tissues required greater than normal concentrations of calcium (1.8-2.4 mM for 50% of effect) to elicit secretory responses comparable with those of normal glands (1.4 mM). Maximum effects of calcium on release of hormone varied from 2- to 10-fold among different tissues. Release of some hormone persisted even in concentrations of calcium as high as 5.0 mM. Relative amounts of hormone released from and retained in the tissues varied greatly among the tissues, as did the absolute amounts of hormone produced; newly synthesized, labeled hormone ranged between 0.6 and 12% of total labeled protein, and immunoreactive hormone ranged between 0.015 and 0.9% of total tissue protein. Effects of calcium on hormone biosynthesis, as determined by analyses of amounts of proparathyroid hormone in the tissues, were variable among tissues and in many cases were negligible. These results indicate that neoplastic and hyperplastic parathyroid tissues retain secretory responsiveness to changes in extracellular concentrations of calcium. Responses, however, are highly variable among different tissues, and in many instances are abnormal, inasmuch as greater than normal concentrations of calcium are required to alter release and synthesis of hormone. A combination of both increased mass of glandular tissue and abnormal regulations of hormone secretion appear to contribute to the hypersecretion of hyperparathyroidism.


Large databases of scanned newspapers open new avenues for studying linguistic evolution. By studying a two-billion-word corpus corresponding to 200 years of newspapers, we compare several methods in order to assess how fast language is changing. After critically evaluating an initial set of methods for assessing textual distance between subsets corresponding to consecutive years, we introduce the notion of a lexical kernel, the set of unique words that maintain themselves over long periods of time. Focusing on linguistic stability instead of linguistic change allows building more robust measures to assess long term phenomena such as word resilience. By systematically comparing the results obtained on two subsets of the corpus corresponding to two independent newspapers, we argue that the results obtained are independent of the specificity of the chosen corpus, and are likely to be the results of more general linguistic phenomena.


Tourism TV commercials (TVCs) are one of the channels (or agents) used to form destination images, yet this channel is rarely researched.The objectives of this article are to identify the relations among visual elements,TVC effects, and destination image formation. University students who have never visited New Zealand nor watched New Zealand's latest tourism TVCs were recruited to participate in a TVC recall test. The audience found video frames of snow and water, dolphins, and hongi (a traditional Maori greeting) to be most memorable and impressive. Findings suggest that something old (i.e., something familiar to viewers), something new (i.e., something that cannot be seen or done in the viewer's immediate environment), and something white and something blue (i.e., clean and pristine) should be included when developing promotional tourism videos. Video frames showing people's interaction among themselves and with the environment were positively related to audience desires to visit the depicted destination.


The IRS Tea Party controversy erupted when the Treasury Inspector General issued a report finding that IRS employees in the Cincinnati office had targeted certain organizations' applications for tax exempt status for heightened scrutiny, in particular singling out groups with "Tea Party" or "Patriot" in their names. A media firestorm ensued, with fevered speculation about a hidden political agenda extending all the way to the White House. A complete picture of the controversy has yet to emerge, but as of the writing of this Essay, it appears that the worst suspicions about political bias are unfounded. Nonetheless, the IRS has suffered reputational damage that undermines its legitimacy and impairs its ability to perform its central function of collecting taxes to fund the government. This Essay explores the Tea Party controversy as a case study in which to examine the IRS's exercise of discretion and observe the operation of oversight mechanisms. It first explains how legal and factual circumstances led to an administrative nightmare for the IRS, one that was almost certain to result in allegations of political bias. It then considers whether the controversy could have been averted through mechanisms designed to control administrative discretion. It assesses a variety of these control mechanisms, including congressional and judicial review and bureaucratic management practices, with a view toward formulating general policy prescriptions and future research questions regarding IRS administrative discretion.


Some recent attention has been given to the so called 'Laffer Curve'. This analysis begins from the observation that tax rates of zero and tax rates of one hundred per cent can both be expected to yield no government revenue. There is therefore a function relating tax revenue and tax rate-the Laffer curve-and if this function is continuous it achieves a maximum at a tax rate which is positive but less than 100 per cent. This observation is somewhat trite, and it has practical significance only if it can be shown that real economies are, or might be, close to the point at which increases in tax rates produce reductions rather than increases in the revenue obtained. The tax rate which yields maximum revenue-which we will call the maximum average tax rate- is certainly less than 100 per cent and the corresponding figure for the UK is 36 per cent. OECD statistics show only one country-Sweden-in which the average tax rate reaches 50 per cent and the corresponding figure for the UK is 36 per cent. This paper examines whether evidence gives any support to the proposition that the maximum average tax rate might be found in this range. Could disincentives to effort now be so great that tax cuts would lead to only modest reductions, or even increases, in the tax revenue obtained?


Hersch Lauterpacht is widely celebrated as a pioneering figure in the cosmopolitan revival of international law during the mid-20th century. This article is a first in-depth analysis of an overlooked episode in his life's work: his secret involvement in drafting Israel's Declaration of Independence. The article analyzes Lauterpacht's draft of this declaration, from its original manuscript form, in light of its historic circumstances and his general jurisprudence.This article contributes to international legal theory by analyzing unexplored tensions in Lauterpacht's work – tensions that have reached their boiling point in his draft declaration. Their incidence, and his attempts to resolve them, are telling not only regarding Lauterpacht's jurisprudence, but also revealing of the nature (and limitations) of international legal argument at large. Namely, they reflect the inherent tension in international legal discourse between cosmopolitanism and sovereignty, universalism and particularism.We argue that by participating in a national project, Lauterpacht's cosmopolitanism was compromised. His attempt to reconcile, in the Draft, between cosmopolitanism and national sovereignty – an attempt so common in the argumentation of international lawyers – ultimately led not only to the Draft's rejection by the nascent Israeli establishment, but also, perhaps, to its downplaying by those that have reconstructed Lauterpacht's cosmopolitan legacy.


As more and more applications produce streaming data, clustering data streams has become an important technique for data and knowledge engineering. A typical approach is to summarize the data stream in real-time with an online process into a large number of so called micro-clusters. Micro-clusters represent local density estimates by aggregating the information of many data points in a defined area. On demand, a (modified) conventional clustering algorithm is used in a second offline step to recluster the micro-clusters into larger final clusters. For reclustering, the centers of the micro-clusters are used as pseudo points with the density estimates used as their weights. However, information about density in the area between micro-clusters is not preserved in the online process and reclustering is based on possibly inaccurate assumptions about the distribution of data within and between micro-clusters (e.g., uniform or Gaussian). This paper describes DBSTREAM, the first micro-cluster-based online clustering component that explicitly captures the density between micro-clusters via a shared density graph. The density information in this graph is then exploited for reclustering based on actual density between adjacent micro-clusters. We discuss the space and time complexity of maintaining the shared density graph. Experiments on a wide range of synthetic and real data sets highlight that using shared density improves clustering quality over other popular data stream clustering methods which require the creation of a larger number of smaller micro-clusters to achieve comparable results.


A dithienylethene (DTE) photochromic compound functionalized by ureidopyrimidinone (UPy) quadruple hydrogen bonding blocks was synthesized by Takeshita and coworkers [Takeshita et al., Chem. Commun., 2005, 761] in order to form a light-responsive supramolecular self-assembling system. In solution, the formation of supramolecular assemblies was only observed for one DTE isomer, namely the closed-form isomer. To rationalize this experimental finding, with the help of Molecular Dynamics (MD) and (time-dependent) DFT calculations, the behaviour of open-form and closed-form monomers, dimers, hexamers and π-stacked dimers in solution is investigated. Our simulations show that, for the open-form oligomers, the progression of the supramolecular assembly is hindered due to (i) the possible formation of a very stable cyclic dimer for the open-form parallel isomer, (ii) the relative flexibility of the open-form oligomers compared to their closed-form counterparts, and (iii) the possible existence of π-stacked dimers that constitute bottlenecks blocking the progression of the supramolecular self-assembly.


It is often said that the world is at a nuclear tipping point. By this, analysts mean that the policy choices we make over the next few years may determine if we tip over into nuclear catastrophe or pull back from the various brinks on which we now teeter. Those who thought talk of nuclear disasters was a thing of the past, that the end of the Cold War ended nuclear threats, might want to pay attention to this debate. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Today, there is deep, growing concern about four categories of nuclear threats. The first is the possibility of a terrorist group getting a nuclear weapon and detonating it in a major city. The second is the danger of an accidental, unauthorized or international use of one of the existing 25,000 nuclear weapons held by nine nations today. Third is the emergence of new nuclear-armed nations: North Korea today, perhaps Iran tomorrow, and others to follow. Last is the possible collapse of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty regime, the interlocking network of treaties and controls that has effectively slowed, if not altogether prevented, the spread of nuclear weapons. US President Barack Obama has the most detailed, comprehensive, and transformative nuclear policy agenda any candidate has ever carried into the White House. As elaborated during his campaign and described on the president's web site, it is a plan to "set a goal of a world without nuclear weapons and pursue it." Obama has promised to thwart nuclear terrorism by securing all loose nuclear materials in the world within four years; to reduce nuclear threats by cutting US, Russian and other states' nuclear and missile arsenals; and to prevent any new nuclear weapons, new nuclear explosive tests and new production of fissile material for weapons. Can he do it? Well, yes, he can. The failure of the Bush Doctrine, the intensification of nuclear threats, and the developing bipartisan, transnational consensus for deep reductions in nuclear arsenals create a unique convergent moment in which Obama could realize his desired transformation of global nuclear policy. Obama's plan to "secure, reduce, and prevent" demonstrates his commitment to seize this opportunity, but those wedded to the nuclear status quo threaten to delay or deny real progress towards nuclear threat reduction and disarmament. Nuclear Dangers The Obama plan recognizes that today's threats are interrelated. Developments in one area affect other areas. For example, a weakening of export controls and treaty restraints increases the probability of additional states developing nuclear weapons, which increases the number of sites from which terrorists might acquire those weapons. The reverse is also true. Dramatic decreases in global nuclear arsenals could help generate the international cooperation needed to secure and eliminate stocks of nuclear weapons materials, making it less likely terrorists could steal or build a bomb. Currently, each of these threats is growing. If unchecked, one or more nuclear nightmares are likely to be realized: Pakistan, a nation with enough material for perhaps 100 nuclear weapons and strong Islamic fundamentalist influences in its military and intelligence services, could destabilize. If it does, al Qaeda, now securely based in Pakistan, could gain control of nuclear materials for a bomb or the weapons themselves. Pakistan could go from a major non-NATO ally to our worst nuclear nightmare overnight. One or more of the approximately 3,000 nuclear warheads Russia and the United States maintain on high-alert status, ready to launch within 15 minutes, could be fired through accident, miscalculation, or unauthorized use. Last year, the US Air Force lost track of 6 nuclear weapons--each ten times the size of the Hiroshima bomb--for 36 hours as they flew across country on a bomber no one realized had live weapons aboard. This year, a British and a French submarine collided in the middle of the second largest ocean on earth; together they carried 100 warheads. …


Using an impact evaluation methodology for interrupted time-series and the IDB Pension Projection Model, this study estimates that the COVID-19 pandemic could have notably effects on the private pension system in El Salvador as a consequence of the relaxation of requirements to repay early withdrawals that was established in the context of the pandemic. This fact could negatively affect passive coverage rate, system incomes, short-run system surplus and replacement rates, generating an increase in the fiscal cost. The problems of the Salvadoran pension system are structural, and the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated them. Consequently, although it is possible to discuss policies to reduce these effects, it is necessary to frame this discussion in the context of a comprehensive reform of the system.


This paper proposes a Hidden Markov Model (HMM)-based algorithm for automatic decision of piano fingering. We represent the positions and forms of hands and fingers as HMM states and model the resulted sequence of performed notes as emissions associated with HMM transitions. Optimal fingering decision is thus formulated as Viterbi search to find the most likely sequence of state transitions. The proposed algorithm models the required efforts in pressing a key with a finger followed by another key with another finger, and in two-dimensional positioning of fingers on the piano keyboard with diatonic and chromatic keys. Fundamental functionality of the algorithm was verified through experiments with real piano pieces. This framework can be extended to polyphonic music containing chords.


One option for particle and power handling in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) is the creation of a low-pressure ({approx} 10-mTorr) gaseous divertor. The divertor would have a long channel over which energy would be removed from the plasma by radiation, and the plasma pressure would be balanced by a change in flow velocities and neutral pressures entering the sides of the channel. This combination should substantially reduce the ion energy and ion flux that impact the eventual end of the divertor channel. For this concept to work, momentum must be removed from the plasma by the neutral atoms and molecules. Plasma parameters were taken from a DDC83 code solution. A Monte Carlo treatment of the plasma-neutral interactions has been obtained using DEGAS, which includes charge-exchange, recombination, ion-neutral, and neutral-neutral elastic collisions. Results show that the momentum transferred to the side walls is insufficient by two orders of magnitude to achieve the pressure reduction needed. Each molecule that enters the plasma makes hundreds of elastic and inelastic collisions in the plasma and then is more likely to be ionized (transferring the momentum back to the plasma) than to travel to a wall. 9 refs., 5 figs., 2 tabs.


We offer a model of currency carry trades in which carry traders earn positive excess returns if they successfully coordinate on supplying excessive capital to a target economy. The interest-rate differential between their funding currency and the target currency is their coordination device. We solve for a unique equilibrium that exhibits the classic pattern of the carry-trade recipient currency appreciating for extended periods, punctuated by sharp falls.


In society and school today there is a major focus on assessment, and this can for example be seen in an increased research on assessment over the last ten years. But one research topic still quite unexplored is how students perceive assessment. The main purpose with this study is to explore students' experiences of assessment, how assessment interferes with their volition and if the extent of the impact on the motivation varies depending on how the assessment is performed. In order to answer these questions a quantitative investigation was performed at first. 83 students answered a questionnaire about what kind of assessment they experience in school, if they receive feedback, what is important for being successful in school, if they know on what grounds they are assessed, what impact failure and/or success has on their motivation, if they are stressed by school etc. From the questionnaire three areas where detected for further investigation. The students indicated that they got feedback but how was this performed, why did the motivation decrease in case of failure and why did so many students feel stress? To answer these questions a quantitative investigation was performed, in which five students participated, in the form of a semi-structured interview. The results from the two studies, were interpreted from a cognitive as well as a socio-cultural perspective. Students believe that learning primarily occurs in a socio-cultural context and that knowledge is mediated from teachers and other students. The learning process is collective and school success does not depend on innate talent but on hard work and skilled teachers. Most students are motivated by external factors as grades and praise rather than interest and curiosity. This entails that the motivation is affected in a positive direction if the student experiences high grades or positive feedback, or a negative direction if the student receives experienced low grades or negative feedback. A majority of students state that they are stressed by school and that this stress comes from many tests at the same time but also from not knowing on what grounds they are assessed and how to get better, this meaning not getting clear and useful feedback. If the student feels negative stress the result may be less work and a decrease in knowledge acquisition. Sökord: bedömning, betyg, elevperspektiv, feedback, formativ, gymnasieskola motivation, stress, summativ Innehållsförteckning


Immigration scholarship has begun to explore the prominence of shadow removals–deportations that are executed by front-line agency officials acting outside the presence of an immigration judge—which now constitute the majority of all reported removals. This Article explores two of the most common forms of shadow removals, expedited removal and reinstatement of removal, and the collision of the two. Expedited removal has typically been perceived as a border enforcement tool, used against persons with limited ties to the U.S. Reinstatement of removal exists for persons who enter the US following a prior removal. The rising use of each streamlined procedure is, on its own, troubling from a fairness, accuracy and rule of law perspective. But like chemical compounds mixing and creating new substances, expedited removal and reinstatement interact to produce unique sites in which the law renders people forever subject to immediate deportation based primarily on the existence of a brief encounter at some point in the past with a border official. These sites are akin to legal black holes in immigration law, and have not been examined in any of the scholarly literature to date.

This Article is the first to consider the interplay of expedited removal and reinstatement. It traces the operation of the two removal processes, both independently and in combination with each other. It emphasizes the harsh statutory bars on judicial and habeas review, and the resulting inability of the federal judiciary to ameliorate the harshness of removal in this context. The Article then suggests that the use of reinstatement based on prior expedited removal orders fails the basic administrative law requirement that federal agencies demonstrate reasoned decisionmaking and avoid arbitrary or capricious action. Relying on the Supreme Court's decision in Judulang v. Holder, which applied arbitrary & capricious review in the deportation context, the Article encourages courts to more closely scrutinize the use of reinstatement based on expedited removal.


This article presents considerations for marriage and family counselors assisting children and adolescent clients who have witnessed or survived an isolated traumatic event or who have family members who have witnessed or survived an isolated traumatic event. Direct emotional outcomes in children and teens related to isolated traumatic events, such as separation anxiety disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder, also are presented. In addition, specific clinical interventions—including the use of play therapy, psychoeducational groups, and cognitive-behavioral therapy—are presented as specific methods for assisting children and teenagers coping with traumatic events in a variety of settings.


Introduction Organizations within and outside of academe have become increasingly interested in the training and socialization of successful professionals. Interest has been fueled by growing evidence that the socialization process exercises important effects on a host of work-related variables, for example, work commitment, motivation, performance, productivity, stress, satisfaction, and turnover |for example, 11, 15, 16, 23, 24, 26~. Schein and others have identified a "success spiral syndrome," according to which early career successes generate both the opportunities and the desire for later success |34~. Work on organizational demography has suggested that early socialization experiences are important because of the heightened receptivity of the individual to the norms and values of the organization and profession and the lasting effects of socialization over the course of a career (cohort effects) |31~. Various arguments for the importance of early adaptation and achievement can be found in the literature on higher education as well |for example, 3, 4, 10~. Moreover, scholarly arguments appear to be buttressed by the first-hand impressions of both faculty and administrators who perceive faculty's ability to "hit the ground running" as critical to later success and satisfaction within academe |36, 39~. The faculty development literature shows that the early years of a faculty appointment, in particular, the first three years, are a period of intense socialization |4, 18~. Retrospectively, faculty report the early years to be the most difficult period of an academic career, a time of high stress and low satisfaction |3~. Yet, it remains unclear precisely what lessons faculty learn during their first years, what professional hurdles remain, and what issues pose the most significant threat to future satisfaction and success |4, 18~. We know a fair amount about the kinds of satisfactions, dissatisfactions and stresses faculty experience overall, but have little understanding of the specific sources of stress and satisfaction that shape faculty development at different career stages or how these stresses and satisfactions interact. Given evidence in the literature of a "perceptibly weakened morale" among faculty and a declining pool of faculty applicants, the question of how junior faculty successfully adapt and even manage to excel in the first years of appointment would seem to be particularly critical at the present time |6~. Intrinsic and Extrinsic Rewards of a Faculty Career The intrinsic rewards of an academic career have traditionally been viewed as central to faculty satisfaction |1, 5, 6, 18, 30~. Intrinsic rewards have been variously defined but, in general, pertain to the nature of the work itself |1~. Hackman and Lawler cite as examples of intrinsic rewards, the opportunity for independent thought and action, feelings of worthwhile accomplishment, opportunities for personal growth and development, and job-related self-esteem |20~. Internal rewards are particularly salient for professionals, like academics, who experience higher order need satisfaction (e.g., needs for personal growth and development or for feelings of worthwhile accomplishment) on a continuing basis without the strength of desire for additional satisfaction of these needs diminishing. Indeed, it may be that additional satisfaction of higher order needs actually increases their strength (Alderfer, 1969). This is an important possibility since it suggests that the opportunity for the development of continuing (and even increasing) motivation is much more a reality when higher order needs are engaged than is the case for more easily satisfied lower order needs |20, p. 262~. Empirical work indicates that "new recruits" to a profession may actually experience substantial dissatisfaction and higher rates of turnover when their work fails to provide them with a sense of opportunity, challenge, and accomplishment |14~. …


This thesis presents original work contributing to the understanding of coherent control of wave packet dynamics in atomic and molecular systems excited by sequences of ultrafast laser pulses. An introduction to coherent control and a review of the literature is presented in chapter 1. Different approaches to coherent control are considered from the perspective of the phase complexity of the light fields used to achieve them, starting with a single transform-limited pulse, advancing through two-colour and multi-pulse schemes to chirped pulses, and finally arbitrarily shaped pulses. The purpose of this literature review is to position the work described in this thesis within the context of contemporary coherent control. In particular, our approach is seen to be in line with the current trend towards understanding the physics underlying coherent control processes. In chapter 2, development of a sodium atom and dimer beam source for use in optical coherent control experiments is described. The concepts of molecular beams are introduced along with a brief review of the literature on sodium atom and dimer beams. The beam source is considered in two parts. Firstly the sodium oven and nozzle are described in detail, along with the vacuum chamber that houses them. This is followed by a description of the experimental chamber, which contains a time-of-flight mass spectrometer. Finally a number of potential improvements to the system are discussed. Experiments to control the angular momentum composition of Rydberg electronic wave packets in atomic sodium are reported in chapter 3. The control scheme uses phase-locked pairs of transform-limited picosecond laser pulses to create pairs of identical radial wave packets in the Rydberg states. Quantum interference between the wave packets, or the excitation pathways to them, is manipulated to control the total angular composition of the resultant wave packet, which is detected either by the optical Ramsey method or by state-selective field ionisation. The results are interpreted both from the perspective of time evolution of the wave packet and the frequency content of the laser fields. The control strategy is then extended theoretically by the inclusion of linear chirp in one of the laser pulses. Chapter 4 describes progress towards a novel experiment for optical coherent control of vibrational wave packet dynamics in the sodium dimer. A coherent superposition of high-lying Rydberg states of the Na2 is excited by the broad bandwidth of a femtosecond laser pulse. The Rydberg states converge to several vibrational ionisation limits of the dimer, so the excitation effectively forms a vibrational wave packet in the X+ 22g+ ionic potential. Excitation of several wave packets by a series of phase-locked transform-limited pulses allows control over the composition and dynamics of the wave packet, and its detection using a combination of the optical Ramsey method and pulsed-field ionisation techniques adapted from ZEKE spectroscopy. A simple genetic algorithm is presented in chapter 5. It has been implemented to investigate the suitably of this type of optimisation procedure in simulations of Rydberg electronic wave packet coherent control in atomic sodium. The operation of the algorithm is described in detail. It is then tested against known solutions for two experimental scenarios: coherent control based on pairs of transform-limited laser pulses and transform-limited first pulse followed by a chirped second pulse. The behaviour of the algorithm is discussed in detail for each of these cases. Finally, the potential for application of the algorithm to unknown problems is briefly discussed.


So far, many technological solutions, like precision agriculture, offered to solve environmental challenges. But nowadays, ethical dimension has been added to other dimensions to protection of environment which shows the importance of attention to soft dimension beside hard dimensions in protection of environment. This research implemented for investigation of environmental moral norms among farmers in Shiraz County. In this study, survey technique and questionnaire instrument have been used to collect data from 272 farmers as a sample. Questionnaire validity was confirmed by agricultural extension and education experts, and its' reliability was confirmed by pilot study and Cronbach's Alpha. In this research, based on virtue theory, four types of environmental moral norms such as profit-centered orientation, water saving, taking responsibility and forecasting were investigated among farmers community. Results showed many farmers in spite of incidental acceptation of taking responsibility for consumers health, other organisms and biosphere, are following only their profits by excessive use of fertilizers and chemical pesticides and burning residuals. In other hand, many farmers in spite of incidental acceptation of future generation rights to use natural resources have a little forethought and practice unsustainable behaviors that can decrease future generation ability to use these resources. At the end, some suggestions recommended for farmers' practical commitment to environmental moral norms.


In this study, a series of numerical direct shear tests is carried out by the three-dimensional discrete element method. The box is filled by either spherical or elongated particles of mono-size. Particles of three different aspect ratios (defined as length/width of a particle), 1 (i.e., spherical), 1.5 and 2, are modeled. Elongated particles are created by joining primary spherical balls together, and no particle breakage is allowed. The granular specimen is prepared by either depositional method or by random generation of particles inside the box. By controlling the interparticle friction coefficient, number of particles and deposited direction, particle assemblies with very close initial density but different packing or microstructure can be obtained. Various measurement spheres are defined at different locations of the box to reveal the local stresses by considering interparticle interaction forces. The results show a significant spatial variations of the stresses, which deviate noticeably from the global measurements recorded at the box boundaries. Furthermore, global measurements appreciably conclude higher ultimate strength of the assemblage as compared to the local ones from the measurement spheres, regardless the particles' aspect ratio and packing. The ultimate shear strength increases with particles' aspect ratio. Initial fabric affects the ultimate shear strength such that the assemblage having more particles aligning parallel to the shear direction (Dep⊥S) yields the lowest strength. On the other hand, randomly packed assemblage exhibits the highest strength. Furthermore, Dep⊥S specimen shows the least amount of dilation. Particle orientation is described by a tensorial parameter, and its evolution during shear is discussed. Analysis shows that only particles close to the shear plane exhibit significant rotation and thus a noticeable change in the fabric. It is found that the evolution of fabric tensor is closely linked to the macroscopic response of an assemblage. Fabric analysis helps to explain the macroscopic responses from a microscopic particle rearrangement perspective.


(TYPE=abstract)The LaCoste & Romberg gravity meter S124b and its associated system environment were installed and tested in conjunction with a strap-down gravity meter system (SAGS) of the Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften in Munich on a Cessna Grand Caravan of the DLR in Oberpfaffenhofen. This report describes the design and instrumentation of the aerogravimetry system, it documents the installation on the aircraft and it discusses some of the results of the test flights performed within AGFA (Airborne Gravity Flight Approach).
 Beyond the documentation of the system this report gives a short introduction to the basics of the instruments including a short theory of their operation and data processing. The intention is to give readers from disciplines other than aero-gravimetry and aero-altimetry a technical insight into how the system works and what it is capable of. This should help the reader to evaluate the systems usefulness in other geo-scientific projects. The experiences from the test flights are briefly summarized and an update of the current status and future plans for the individual instruments is given. The aerogravimetry system consists of two major instrument blocks: the gravimetry sensing system and the positioning system. The gravimetry sensors are the LaCoste & Romberg S124b and the SAGS-2.2 systems. The navigation block holds GPS receivers, an inertial navigation system and a laser altimeter.
 The aircraft used for the primary tests was a Cessna Grand Caravan of the DLR in Oberpfaffenhofen. It offers superb conditions for scientific installations and is widely used in geophysical exploration all over the world.
 The test flights were flown from Oberpfaffenhofen airport. One profile covers the Bavarian Alps to map short wavelength, topography induced gravity disturbances, and another flight crosses the Rhine Graben to map long wavelength structures of the deeper crust.
 The software for data processing for navigation, gravimetry and geoid calculations is briefly summarized.


Sustainable tourism and related policies have been an understudied topic within a Mediterranean context despite an increasing number of studies published during the last few years on Mediterranean tourism. This paper explores policies for sustainable tourism development and potential interrelationships between policy considerations. Such policies have been characterised as ad hoc and incremental, lacking a clear orientation towards sustainable development, and the complex relationships underpinning them have rarely been considered in decision-making for sustainable tourism. The paper highlights the need to understand and improve tourism policies in the world's leading destination.


In the story of the Penitents (ar. Tawwābūn) we are told about a group of men in early Islam, who deeply regret that they did not support Husayn b. 'Alī, the grandson of the Prophet, when he was killed at Karbala in 680 CE. In their remorse, they first discuss the option of committing collective suicide. As this is prohibited in the Qur'ān, however, they decide to seek revenge by going against the Umayyad army. This will certainly lead to their death, and they accept this as martyrdom for true Islam which will cleanse them from their sin.As the story most likely is written down as early as the middle of the 8:th century, and probably has earlier roots, it is remarkable that very little attention has been paid to it in academic research. In spite of its old age, it incorporates many elements that later came to be basic in Shi'ite Islam. At the same time, however, other components in later Shi'ite theology and ritual, such as the Shi'ite imamology, that began to develop around the mid-8:th century, are lacking in the story. Thus, it is an important link to the understanding of the development of early Shi'ism.In this paper I will introduce a research project concerning the story of the Penitents that is financed from the Swedish Research Council. In the project, the story will be studied from three perspectives. First, the history of tradition will be focused, and three different versions of the story, i.e. the versions by Ibn A'tham al-Kūfī, al-Balādhurī and al-Tabarī, will be compared and the relations between them will be analyzed. Second, special attention will be paid to the theological ideas expressed in the text in relation to those that developed later in Shi'ism. Third, the rituals performed in the story will be studied in connection with rituals in the surrounding culture as well as in later Shi´ism.


Lead concentrations in cheese varieties were determined against aqueous standards using high-resolution continuum source graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry with direct solid sampling. Cheese samples were dried at 110 °C, chipped finely, and mixed thoroughly; portions of only a few milligrams were weighed automatically on a balance and introduced into the furnace by means of a solid autosampler. Since the samples were not digested, the method was fast, economic and environmentally friendly. The risks of analyte loss or contamination were minimized. The pyrolysis/atomization temperatures were 800/2000 °C. The limit of detection and characteristic mass of the method were 12.0 pg and 6.6 pg of lead, respectively. The lead concentrations in standard reference milk powder were found to be within the uncertainty limits of the certified value. The concentrations of lead in cheese varieties consumed in Turkey ranged from 0.051 to 0.42 mg kg−1. In addition, the same samples were analyzed after digestion using H2O2 : HNO3 (1 : 3). Finally, micro-scale distributions of lead in cheese samples separated for analysis were determined.


International Transport Services (ITS) play an important role in influencing international trade flows. This paper develops an analytical framework in which ITS costs are endogenously determined. It shows that ITS sector liberalization foster international trade very much the same way tariff liberalization does. From a political economy viewpoint, a unilateral liberalization of the sector may not always be politically feasible, and a multilateral agreement can help prop up support for reform. It is further argued that deregulation and competition policy reform are more likely to be feasible if undertaken jointly.


We present Chandra X-ray observations of the powerful radio galaxy 3C 171, which reveal an extended region of X-ray emission spatially associated with the well-known 10-kpc scale optical emission-line region around the radio jets. We argue that the X-ray emission comes from collisionally ionized material, originally cold gas that has been shock heated by the passage of the radio jet, rather than being photoionized by nuclear radiation. This hot plasma is also responsible for the depolarization at low frequencies of the radio emission from the jet and hotspots, which allows us to estimate the magnetic field strength in the external medium. We show that it is likely that both the cold emission-line gas and the hot plasma in which it is embedded are being driven out of the host galaxy of 3C 171 at supersonic speeds. A significant fraction of the total energy budget of the central active galactic nuclei must have been expended in driving this massive outflow. We argue that 3C 171, with its unusual radio morphology and the strong relation between the jet and large amounts of outflowing material, is a member of a class of radio galaxies in which there is strong interaction between the radio jets and cold material in the host galaxy; such objects may have been very much more common in the early Universe.


Wetting of a substance has been widely investigated since it has many applications to many different fields. Wetting principles can be applied to better select cleans for front end of line (FEOL) and back end of line (BEOL) cleaning processes. These principles can also be used to help determine processes that best repel water from a semiconductor device. It is known that the value of the dielectric constant in an insulator increases when water is absorbed. These contact angle experiments will determine which processes can eliminate water absorption. Wetting is measured by the contact angle between a solid and a liquid. It is known that roughness plays a crucial role on the wetting of a substance. Different surface groups also affect the wetting of a surface. In this work, it was investigated how wetting was affected by different solid surfaces with different chemistries and different roughness. Four different materials were used: silicon; thermally grown silicon dioxide on silicon; chemically vapor deposited (CVD) silicon dioxide on silicon made from tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS); and organosilicate glass (OSG) on silicon. The contact angle of each of the samples was measured using a goniometer. The roughness of the samples was measured by atomic force microscopy (AFM). The chemistry of each of the samples were characterized by using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and grazing angle total attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR/GATR). Also, the contact angle was measured at the micro scale by using an environmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM).


Teaching materials and students with mental retardationFrom a socio-cultural perspective, teaching materials can be regarded as mediating tools for transferring culturally based knowledge, norms, values and traditions. While literature on teaching materials in general is substantial, few investigations have been conducted on teaching materials for students with mental retardation. In this paper I will present parts of an ongoing project in which this issue is focused. The study includes about twenty students in two training school classes and one class for students with mild mental retardation, covering the grades 7 10 in the compulsory school.Teaching materials in this study are defined as cultural tools used in education and serving a pedagogical function in programs for students with mental retardation (sarskolan). My preliminary findings indicate predominance for everyday skills in teaching material activities. Reading or mathematical development in teaching material activities are of low priority. The activities often imply dilemmas the teacher have to master.


One fundamental difficulty in robotic learning is the sim-real gap problem. In this work, we propose to use segmentation as the interface between perception and control, as a domain-invariant state representation. We identify two sources of sim-real gap, one is dynamics sim-real gap, the other is visual sim-real gap. To close dynamics sim-real gap, we propose to use closed-loop control. For complex task with segmentation mask input, we further propose to learn a closed-loop model-free control policy with deep neural network using imitation learning. To close visual sim-real gap, we propose to learn a perception model in real environment using simulated target plus real background image, without using any real world supervision.
We demonstrate this methodology in eye-in-hand grasping task. We train a closed-loop control policy model that taking the segmentation as input using simulation. We show that this control policy is able to transfer from simulation to real environment. The closed-loop control policy is not only robust with respect to discrepancies between the dynamic model of the simulated and real robot, but also is able to generalize to unseen scenarios where the target is moving and even learns to recover from failures. We train the perception segmentation model using training data generated by composing real background images with simulated images of the target. Combining the control policy learned from simulation with the perception model, we achieve an impressive $\bf{88\%}$ success rate in grasping a tiny sphere with a real robot.


A program implementing the Finite-Difference Time-Domain method in two dimensional TMz case was created to simulate the transmission properties of polymer based metamaterials in the THz regime. The polymer modeled in this work was acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS). The 4.8mm x 4.8mm metamaterial slabs tested were of ABS-air combinations with a checkerboard configuration of varying square cell size d, whose values (60 µm to 480 µm) were chosen according to the resolution of a 3D printer such that the metamaterial slabs can be replicated. The transmittance spectrum of each configuration between 0.2THz to 1.0THz were obtained. We have shown that resonant frequencies and peaks in transmittance appear after a minimum frequency for each d. We have observed that these resonance shift to the left with increasing d. These behaviours of the presented metamaterial structure can be utilized for applications in THz components such as filtering.


The Chiang Mai basin is the largest of a zone of rift basins that define the Northern Thailand Basin and Range Province. This province lies within the Shan Thai block of NW Indochina that extruded out of the India–Asia collision. The Mae Rim Formation crops out along the western side of the Chiang Mai basin. Detachment faults border the Mae Rim Formation on the west and north and juxtapose it against the high-grade Western Ranges metamorphic complex and its low-grade cover of Palaeozoic Shan-Thai rocks. Understanding the age and tectonic relationships between rifting, detachment faulting, ductile shear, uplift and exhumation of the Western Ranges metamorphic complex is critical to understanding the underlying deformational mechanisms that accompanied Indochina's extrusion. To better understand the palaeogeography of the Chiang Mai basin and its relationship to the Western Ranges metamorphic complex, several partial sections were measured, and palaeocurrent and clast-composition data from the Mae Rim Formation were collected. Poorly organized, immature conglomerates of the Mae Rim Formation probably represent alternating debris flows, sheet-flood, and braided channel deposits. The Mae Rim Formation probably accumulated in range-front alluvial fans, and graded rapidly into lacustrine deposits within the buried central part of the Chiang Mai basin. Except for the youngest strata, where gneissic clasts predominate, virtually all clasts in the Mae Rim Formation came from the low-grade metasedimentary rocks that form the cover of the Western Ranges metamorphic complex. Imbricated clasts indicate eastward palaeocurrents away from the metamorphic complex. Most of the Mae Rim Formation accumulated during the uplift of the Western Ranges but before erosion had breached the detachment fault. These new data suggest a tectonic history for the Chiang Mai basin that involved distinct phases of extension from late Oligocene to Quaternary, with at least two intervening periods of basin inversion.


Chapter 11 was a monumental achievement when it was enacted as part of the Bankruptcy Code in 1978. Reflecting the financial world of the times, chapter 11 and related provisions effected a carefully calibrated balance between the rights and powers of competing stakeholders. A core component of that delicate balance was to protect the right of secured creditors to "credit bid" if their collateral was being sold, whether during the pendency of the case or in a cram down reorganization plan. Some high-profile recent cases have denied secured creditors the right to credit bid in a sale under a cram down plan, concluding that alternative protection may be afforded through invocation of the "indubitable equivalent" option. The Supreme Court will settle this dispute in the RadLAX case.After a detailed examination of the nature of secured credit and the historical evolution of the treatment of secured claims in bankruptcy, this paper first explains why, on the statute as written in 1978, Congress intended for secured creditors to have the right to credit bid in a sale under a cram down plan, and did not intend for that right to be supplanted by an alternative indubitable equivalent treatment. However, the paper then demonstrates how the financial world for which the 1978 Code was written has fundamentally changed, with the rise of dominant secured creditors. That change has upset the balance of power, rendering the Code's scheme obsolete as regards secured creditors in this context.The paper then asks what can and should be done, either judicially or legislatively, to address the problem of chapter 11's obsolescence. As a matter of statutory interpretation, a "faithful" Court should be bound to uphold the secured creditor's right to credit bid, although a dynamic interpretation might counsel otherwise. Legislatively, the time has come to amend the Bankruptcy Code to reverse the default rule on credit bidding; suggested Code amendments are offered. Contrary to the virtually unanimous body of scholarly opinion, the paper argues that credit bidding should not presumptively be required. Instead, a secured creditor should be permitted to credit bid only if it makes a specific showing of "cause" to the court, demonstrating how denial of that right would prejudice the secured creditor in the particular case.


Both steering angle and sideslip angle are important states for vehicle handling and stability control. Instead of directly measuring these angles, indirect estimation of these states will provide a cost-effective way for the implementation of vehicle control systems. In the past, model-based methods have been proposed to estimate the sideslip angle with the measured steering angle. In this paper, a novel observer design is presented for simultaneous estimation of vehicle steering angle and sideslip angle so that the estimation of sideslip angle does not require the measurement of steering angle and the estimate of steering angle can also be used for other purposes, such as automatic steering control, steering system fault diagnosis, and driving performance monitoring. To enable this observer design, the Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy modeling technique is applied to represent the vehicle lateral dynamics model with nonlinear Dugoff tyre model and time-varying vehicle speed. A T-S observer is then designed to simultaneously estimate the steering angle and sideslip angle with the measurements of yaw rate and vehicle speed, and is designed to be robust against parameter uncertainties and unknown inputs. The conditions for designing such an observer are derived in terms of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). Experimental results are used to validate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. The results show that the designed observer can effectively estimate steering angle and sideslip angle despite the variation of vehicle longitudinal speed.


By 1907, the first of the three years embraced by Volume 4, Dewey had abandoned thoughts of a possible career in the administration of higher education and was firmly established as a leading member of the Department of Philosophy at Columbia. As Lewis Hahn points out in his Introduction, these were very productive years for Dewey. In addition to numerous lectures and speaking engagements and participation in professional meetings, he published fifteen or so substantial articles, almost as many shorter things, a syllabus on "The Pragmatic Movement of Contemporary Thought, "a monograph on "Moral Principles in Education, "and, with J. H. Tufts, the first edition of a very popular textbook, "Ethics." "


OBJECTIVE
To estimate the risk of ovarian cancer after a primary diagnosis of breast cancer among women with a BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation and to identify host and treatment-related factors that might modify the risk.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Patients were 491 women with stage I or stage II breast cancer, diagnosed from 1975 to 2000 and for whom a BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation had been identified. Patients were followed from the initial diagnosis of breast cancer until either ovarian cancer, prophylactic oophorectomy, death, or 2002. The medical treatment records and pathology documents were reviewed. Information that was abstracted from the medical charts included date of breast cancer diagnosis, stage of disease, use of chemotherapy, use of radiation therapy, usage of tamoxifen, oophorectomy, recurrence, second malignancy, and vital status.

RESULTS
The 10-year actuarial risk of ovarian cancer after breast cancer was 12.7% for BRCA1 carriers and 6.8% for BRCA2 carriers (P = 0.03). The use of tamoxifen (OR = 1.79; P = 0.16) and chemotherapy (OR = 0.59; P = 0.15) did not significantly impact on the risk of subsequent ovarian cancer. Twenty-five percent of the deaths in women with stage I breast cancer were due to a subsequent ovarian cancer.

CONCLUSIONS
The high incidence of ovarian cancer suggests that oophorectomy should be recommended in female BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers with a diagnosis of breast cancer, especially those with stage I disease. Breast cancer systemic therapy did not significantly alter the risk of ovarian cancer.


The paper takes a tour de horizon regarding: (a) the philosophical and conceptual issues of governance and democratization globally and in Pakistan, (b) the universal aspects of good governance objectives and processes applied in Pakistan, and (c) the governance priorities that emerged during stakeholder consultations that served as background to the launching of the Pakistan 20 I 0 program. At the very outset. most of the presentation is focused on 'how to reform' issues to instill a good govenance process and evolve credible mechanisms to implement reform measures.


BACKGROUND AND AIM OF THE STUDY
Elevated serum serotonin is associated with carcinoid heart disease, the hallmark of which is valvular thickening. Yet, the mechanistic role of serotonin in carcinoid heart disease is poorly understood. We postulated that serotonin has a direct mitogenic effect on cardiac valvular subendocardial cells, and that this effect is mediated by serotonin receptors.

METHODS
The dose-dependent proliferative effects of serotonin (10(-8) to 10(-4)M) on cultured porcine aortic valve cells via a [3H]thymidine assay were determined in vitro. Serotonin receptor antagonist studies in culture were also performed using methiotepin, a 5HT1b antagonist, and ketanserin, a 5HT2 receptor antagonist, to determine the mechanism of serotonin action. The ex-vivo proliferation level in human carcinoid (n = 26) and normal valves (n = 10) was compared using proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) staining, a marker for proliferation. Identification and localization of specific 5HT receptor was assessed by immunostaining for serotonin receptors in the valves.

RESULTS
Serotonin increased valvular proliferation in vitro in a dose-dependent manner (10-fold increase) (p <0.001), and this mitogenic effect was inhibited by methiotepin but not ketanserin. In human carcinoid heart valves the level of proliferation was 35-fold higher than in normal human valves (p <0.001). 5HT1b receptors were found only in the carcinoid valves, and not in the normal valves.

CONCLUSION
Serotonin is a powerful mitogen for valvular subendocardial cells. The mitogenic effect is at least partly mediated via 5HT1b receptors. Subendothelial cell proliferation is significantly elevated in human carcinoid valves in vivo. The data suggest a mechanism whereby serotonin may contribute to valvular proliferation in carcinoid heart disease.


A sandpile model having a probability to target the most susceptible site in the grid was observed to recover the spatial, temporal, and magnitude distributions of earthquakes events from Japan (JP), Philippines (PH), and southern California (SC) at a targeted triggering probability value of p = 0.004. Avalanches from a granular pile set-up with triggering done to the top-most location of the pile also captures the spatio-temporal statistics of earthquake events. The results were validated by a recurrent network analysis that sets spatial and magnitude criteria for temporally-directed links between events of the entire record, signifying that the model is adept at capturing even the underlying mechanisms of seismicity. By introducing the targeted triggering probability, we simultaneously recovered the following power-law exponents like those obtained for the earthquake data. We therefore believe that the targeted triggering probability is the parameterization of the memory inherent in the crust that results in the strong spatio-temporal clustering of earthquake events.


A Multi-Layered Immune Inspired Approach to Data Mining. Thomas Knight and Jon Timmis Computing Laboratory University of Kent at Canterbury. CT2 7NF. UK e-mail: tpk1, email@example.com Keywords: Machine Learning, Artificial Immune Systems, Data Mining. Abstract Soft computing has been described as computational systems that exploit tolerance for imprecision, uncertainty, partial truth and approximation [1]. Examples of which include artificial neural networks, fuzzy systems, evolutionary algorithms and probabilistic reasoning. Artificial immune systems have recently been proposed as an additional soft computing paradigm [2]. In that paper, the authors argue that artificial immune systems exhibit similar characteristics to other soft computing paradigms which can be used to complement and augment existing soft computing techniques. Artificial Immune Systems are adaptive systems, inspired by theoretical immunology and observed immune functions, principles, and models, which are applied to problem solving [3]. An immune inspired data mining algorithm was proposed in [4], called RAIN (Resource-limited Artificial Immune Network). The motivation behind this algorithm was to abstract processes and characteristics from the immune system, more specifically the immune network theory [5] to develop a novel unsupervised machine learning algorithm. RAIN's artificial immune networks were applied to unsupervised machine learning benchmark data and was reported to perform well. It was anticipated that this algorithm would be suitable for continuous learning with initial work showing that stable populations within the networks could be achieved. However, more recent work has since shown that these networks suffer strong evolutionary pressure and converge to the strongest class represented in the data [6]. Whilst this is not perceived as a major problem from a data mining perspective, for use in continuous learning, however, it would be more desirable if the networks converged to a stable population that is representative of all of the classes in the data and these patterns then remained in the absence of antigenic stimulation (training data). These observations prompted a step back from the existing work to re-evaluate the approaches taken. It was noted that a more holistic approach may provide a better solution in the search for an immune inspired data mining algorithm capable of continuous learning. Rather than focusing on the immune network theory, we have adopted aspects of the primary and secondary responses seen in the adaptive immune system. A multi-layered approach has been devised that incorporates interactions between free-antibodies, b-cells, and memory cells using clonal-selection processes as the core element of the algorithm. This three-layered approach consists of: a free-antibody layer, a b-cell layer and a memory layer. The free-antibody layer provides a general search and pattern recognition function. The b-cell layer provides a more refined pattern recognition function, with the memory layer providing a stable memory structure that is no longer influenced by strong evolutionary pressure. Central to the algorithm is feedback that occurs between the b-cell layer and the free-antibody layer: this produces co-stimulation between b-cells and is part of the secondary immune response in the algorithm. Novel data are incorporated into the b-cell layer and is given a chance to thrive, thus providing a primary immune response. Although the algorithm has been designed for continuous learning, initial testing has highlighted good performance at static clustering and is thus reported in this paper. Initial studies of the algorithm suggests that the performance compares favorably to the nearest immune inspired competitor, a combined clonal selection and immune network based algorithm called aiNet [7]. Although the algorithm itself is very simple, it achieves good representation of data (Figure 1), and compression ratios. (a) (b) Figure 1 (a) shows the 3-circle training set (600 items), and (b) shows the patterns in the memory layer evolved by the new algorithm after 5 iterations (58 items) Preliminary results are encouraging and it is thought the proposed algorithm can be adapted for continuous learning. It is also proposed that this algorithm augments the framework for AIS proposed in [2] with the addition of a new immune inspired algorithm. Citations [1] Y. Jin, ''What is Soft Computing,'' in A Definition Of Soft Computing - adapted from L.A. Zadeh, vol. 2002, 2002. [2] L. N. de Castro and J. I. Timmis, ''Artificial Immune Systems as a Novel Soft Computing Paradigm,'' Soft Computing, vol. In Press, 2002. [3] J. Timmis and L. N. De Castro, ''A Framework for Engineering Artificial Immune Systems,'' in Artificial Immune Systems: A New Computational Intelligence Approach: Springer Verlag, 2002, pp. 53-108. [4] J. Timmis and M. Neal, ''A resource limited artificial immune system for data analysis,'' Knowledge Based Systems, vol. 14, pp. 121-130, 2001. [5] N. K. Jerne, ''Towards a Network theory of the Immune System,'' Annals of Immunology, vol. 125C, pp. 373-389, 1974. [6] T. P. Knight and J. I. Timmis, ''AINE: An immunological approach to data mining,'' presented at IEEE International Conference on Data Mining, San Jose, CA. USA, 2001. [7] L. N. de Castro and F. N. Von Zuben, ''An Evolutionary Immune Network for Data Clustering,'' Proceedings of the IEEE Computer Society Press, SBRN'00, vol. 1, pp. 84-89, 2000. Acknowledgements Thomas Knight would like to thank the SUN(tm) Microsystems for their continued financial support for his PhD Studies.


We study the impact on visa restrictions of institutions and social norms in a sending country. To this purpose, we unbundle institutions into "institutions-services", which complement productive activities and serve as public production inputs, and "institutions-rules", which strengthen the rule of law and constrain unproductive behavior. We propose a theoretical model which incorporates spillover effects of domestic institutional changes and shows that while stronger institutions-services reduce visa barriers, stronger institutions-rules have the opposite effect. Furthermore, visa barriers are affected by norms and values, which complement formal institutions as factors of visa regimes. We use various empirical models to test and confirm the above conjectures


Globally, tea is the second most consumed beverage after water. Habitual tea intake has been associated with higher bone mineral density, particularly in postmenopausal women. This association may be due to its polyphenols and resulting protective antioxidant effects. While in vivo studies have shown improved bone outcomes with a consumption of individual purified tea polyphenols, it is unclear if a particular tea - due to its different profiles of polyphenols - is more beneficial than others. Therefore, we compared three different types of commercially available teas on osteoblasts: green, black and rooibos tea. Tea was normalized to 1 or 10 μg per mL gallic acid equivalents to assess differences in outcomes based on tea profiles rather than the quantity of polyphenol naturally present. The lower level of polyphenols (1 μg per mL gallic acid equivalents) - regardless of tea type and thus polyphenol profile - resulted in greater mineral content as well as cellular and alkaline phosphatase activity in Saos2 cells. Moreover, this was associated with higher markers of differentiation (osteopontin, sclerostin) and reduced cellular toxicity and pro-inflammatory markers (IL6, TNFα). Green, black and rooibos tea improved osteoblast activity at the low level and support epidemiological evidence suggesting tea consumption may benefit bone heath.


Nicknamed the International Express, the New York City Transit Authority 7 subway line runs through a highly diverse series of ethnic and immigrant neighborhoods in Queens. People from Andean South America, Central America, China, India, Italy, Korea, Mexico, Pakistan, Poland, Romania, and Vietnam, as well as residents of a number of gentrifying blue-collar and industrial neighborhoods, fill the busy streets around the stations. The 7 train is a microcosm of a specifically urban, New York experience, in which individuals from a variety of cultures and social classes are forced to interact and get along with one another. For newcomers to the city, mastery of life in the subway space is a step toward assimilation into their new home.In International Express, the French ethnographer Stephane Tonnelat and his collaborator William Kornblum, a native New Yorker, ride the 7 subway line to better understand the intricacies of this phenomenon. They also ask a group of students with immigrant backgrounds to keep diaries of their daily rides on the 7 train. What develops over time, they find, is a set of shared subway competences leading to a practical cosmopolitanism among riders, including immigrants and their children, that changes their personal values and attitudes toward others in small, subtle ways. This growing civility helps newcomers feel at home in an alien city and builds what the authors call a "situational community in transit." Yet riding the subway can be problematic, especially for women and teenagers. Tonnelat and Kornblum pay particular attention to gender and age relations on the 7 train. Their portrait of integrated mass transit, including a discussion of the relationship between urban density and diversity, is invaluable for social scientists and urban planners eager to enhance the cooperative experience of city living for immigrants and ease the process of cultural transition.


A Case Study of Factors Influencing Health Benefit Offerings by Small Businesses by Richard J. Dahlkemper Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Health Services Walden University February 2009 ABSTRACT If the United States is turning to consumer-driven health plans to control costs andIf the United States is turning to consumer-driven health plans to control costs and improve access, research is needed regarding the perception of such plans among small businesses. Nearly half of Americans are employed by small businesses where access to health insurance has declined most rapidly. Reviews of the literature revealed solid theoretical bases for high expectations regarding the diffusion of consumer-driven health plans among small businesses, but relatively little information was found regarding the attitudes of small businesses toward emerging health plan models. Qualitative case studies of 6 small employers in the Ogden, Utah, area were conducted to address this problem. Data were collected from documents, archival records, and participant interviews and analyzed using memoing, coding, and iterative pattern matching. Key findings were that leaders of these firms did not believe employees could or would find adequate information about the quality and cost of health care services and alternative providers that would allow them to make effective choices. As a result of this belief, all firms maintained managed care controls on available providers and access to expensive services. The results imply that despite policy assumptions about the attractiveness of consumer-driven plans for small business, such plans may in actuality not be offered by small businesses as an alternative or replacement for managed care. Rather, high deductibles may simply be layered on top of managed care controls without a corresponding expansion of choice for employees. Some employees of participating firms engaged in both passive and active resistance to the imposition of high deductibles. Policy and plan designers will benefit from enhanced understanding of ways to diffuse consumer-driven plans in small businesses that will reduce employee resistance. A Case Study of Factors Influencing Health Benefit Offerings by Small Businesses by Richard J. Dahlkemper Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Health Services Walden University February 2009


In this paper, we propose two extensions of SDPL (Speed and Direction Prediction-based Localization) method. The first is called MA-SDPL (Multiple Anchors SDPL) which uses multiple mobile anchors instead of only one. Each anchor has its own trajectory and its own departure point. The goal is to ensure a total coverage of the sensor field and to multiply the chance of receiving anchor beacons. Anchor Beacons help localizing mobile sensors. As a consequence, the location estimation will be enhanced. The second method deals with one mobile anchor but with the ability of multi-hoping, that is, when a sensor estimates that it is well enough localized, it sends beacons to its h-neighborhood about its current location, hence, it plays the role of an additional anchor. This solution reduces the cost comparing to when using multiple anchors and allows rapid location propagation. Simulation results show that the two extensions improve better the ratio of localized sensors and reduce the location error compared to the basic SDPL. We have also tested them in a noisy environment to be closer to a real deployment.


The release of 4.3BSD in April of 1986 addressed many of the performance problems and unfinished interfaces present in 4.2BSD [Leffler84] [McKusick85]. The Computer Systems Research Group at Berkeley has now embarked on a new dev elopment phase to update other major components of the system, as well as to offer new functionality. There are five major ongoing projects. The first is to develop an OSI network protocol suite and to integrate existing ISO applications into Berkeley UNIX. The second is to develop and support an interface compliant with the P1003.1 POSIX standard recently approved by the IEEE. The third is to refine the TCP/IP networking to impr ove its performance and limit congestion on slow and/or lossy networks. The fourth is to provide a standard interface to file systems so that multiple local and remote file systems can be supported, much as multiple networking protocols are supported by 4.3BSD. The fifth is to evaluate alternate access control mechanisms and audit the existing security features of the system, particularly with respect to network services. Other areas of work include multi-architecture support, a general purpose kernel memory allocator, disk labels, and extensions to the 4.2BSD fast filesystem.


Smart gardeners know that soil is anything but an inert substance. Healthy soil is teeming with life not just earthworms and insects, but a staggering multitude of bacteria, fungi, and other microorganisms. When we use chemical fertilizers, we injure the microbial life that sustains healthy plants, and thus become increasingly dependent on an arsenal of artificial, often toxic, substances. But there is an alternative to this vicious cycle. We can garden in a way that strengthens the soil food web the complex world of soil-dwelling organisms whose interactions create a nurturing environment for plants. "Teaming with Microbes" extols the benefits of cultivating the soil food web. First, it clearly explains the activities and organisms that make up the web. Next, it explains how gardeners can cultivate the life of the soil through the use of compost, mulches, and compost tea. The revised edition updates the original text and includes two completely new chapters on mycorrhizae (beneficial associations fungi form with green-leaved plants) and archaea (single-celled organisms once thought to be allied to bacteria). With Jeff Lowenfels' help, everyone from devotees of organic gardening techniques to weekend gardeners who simply want to grow healthy, vigorous plants without resorting to chemicals can create rich, nurturing, living soil.


Firms and other institutions frequently evaluate their employees. Some firms ask for their employees to complete self-evaluation reports (SERs). The consensus in the business literature is that SERs are not credible and should only be used as a developmental tool. I discuss when SERs are useful and when they are not for a firm that wishes to reward only its good workers: SERs are useful when the job requires multidimensional skills or when the employees have private information about the quality of their evaluators; they are not useful when the job description is unidimensional.


Although the Sydney Catchment Authority (SCA) largely controls the quality of water entering the Sydney catchments, it has limited jurisdiction over the majority of activities undertaken on private land, where much of the non-point source pollution originates. The current governance model reflects a traditional 'command and control', government-centred philosophy limiting the economic opportunities for landholders. Using six case studies from other jurisdictions we explore the potential for market-based schemes to better enable the SCA to meet its statutory objectives. A contemporary payments for watershed services scheme could better address issues of non-point pollution in more efficient and fairer ways than the present model. Under such a scheme, the SCA would rely more upon negotiated service arrangements pursuing a 'least cost of supply' for a defined water quality output, with the costs of these arrangements being reflected in the price of water to consumers. Funds are likely to be applied more strategically to secure water quality outcomes at the least public and private cost while maximizing the value of non-water ecological services from the same lands. These findings are relevant and can be applied to many other drinking water catchments within Australian and other jurisdictions.


The adaptation of software technology to distributed environments is an important challenge today. In this work we combine parallel and distributed search. By this way we add the potential speed-up of a parallel exploration in the processing of distributed problems. This paper extends DIBT a distributed search procedure operating in distributed constraint networks. The extension is twofold. First the procedure is updated to face delayed information problems upcoming in heterogeneous systems. Second, the search is extended to simultaneously explore independent parts of a distributed search tree. By this way we introduce parallelism into distributed search, which brings to interleaved distributed intelligent backtracking (IDIBT). Our results show that 1) insoluble problems do not greatly degrade performance over DIBT and 2) superlinear speed-up can be achieved when the distribution of solution is nonuniform.


Phoma medicaginis is a fungal pathogen of the order Pleosporales that causes black spot of Medicago sativa (alfalfa, lucerne) and the related legume Medicago truncatula. This study presents a genomic analysis of the isolate OMT5 (PmedOMT5) and the pathogenicity mechanisms it employs during infection of M. truncatula. The genome assembly of ~31Mb covers an estimated 99% of the gene space and analysis outlines the location of repetitive and non-coding RNA, as well as the separately assembled and annotated complete mitochondrial genome. This is the first genome assembly from the genus Phoma, which encodes 11,879 manually-annotated protein-coding genes with biological support from proteogenomic and transcriptomic analysis.

Culture filtrate produced by PmedOMT5 grown in a variety of media, produced a chlorotic and necrotic response when infiltrated into plants from Medicago species and selected other plant species. The phytotoxic component was localised to a fraction containing molecules greater than 10 kDa, indicating that the active molecule is likely to have a proteinaceous component. The active compound or compounds have high thermal and chemical stability, are able to resist heat and pronase degradation and still produce a consistent response in planta after storage for 6 weeks at 4 °C on ice. Unexpectedly, the activity of compounds in the culture filtrate showed little correlation between sensitivity and susceptibility to foliar infection with P. medicaginis. Proteogenomic analysis of the PmedOMT5 culture filtrate yielded a list of bioinformatically predicted effector candidates for future testing.

Transcripts were sequenced via RNA-seq from four life-cycle stages of the pathogen: during in vitro growth, at vegetative (4d) and sporulating (16d) phases, during production of phytotoxic culture filtrate (4w) and during the early stages of plant invasion (1-5 dpi) on M. truncatula leaves. The variation in expression between the conditions was used in a preliminary investigation to identify genes that may play a role in pathogenicity, including prediction of effector candidates. Bioinformatic analysis suggests that PmedOMT5 is able to both detoxify and expel host phytoalexin compounds, which may contribute to its virulence. PmedOMT5 also produces a wide range of cell-wall-degrading enzymes with species-specific expansion of several pectin degrading families when compared to other Pleosporales pathogens.


Stable isotope analyses of nitrogen (δ15N) and carbon (δ13C) were conducted on individual chironomid taxa from low arctic lakes to investigate the range in trophic levels covered by this diverse insect group. Five lakes were sampled, including two freshwater, two oligosaline, and one glacier influenced lake, representing the major lake types in southwest Greenland. There was a large difference in the offset of isotopic values among the different lake types. In the oligosaline lakes, we ascribe low δ13C values to the use of recycled CO2, while the high δ15N signal is possibly controlled by microbial processes. In order to compare among lakes, the δ15N signal of the chironomid taxa was normalized to common primary consumers (Psectrocladius sordidellus group and Psectrocladius limbatellus groups) that show consistently low δ15N values and belong to the subfamily Orthocladiinae. Normalized δ15N values spanned more than 5‰, indicating that the chironomid community covered at least two trophic levels in these low arctic lakes. The δ15N values of different chironomid taxa within a single habitat differed by 1‰ to 5‰. The results suggest that chironomids should not be considered as one group in food web studies. Even interpretation of trophic position on subfamily level can be problematic as a result of the large differences observed in their δ15N values. The level of detailed trophic information on individual chironomid taxa presented here has not previously been reported. Chironomids are an abundant and important group of organisms in arctic lakes, and the observed variation in their trophic level indicates a high complexity of the food web structure of arctic lakes.