High-performance, non-target, high-resolution organic structural spectroscopy was applied to solid phase extracted marine dissolved organic matter (SPE-DOM) isolated from four different depths in the open South Atlantic Ocean off the Angola coast (3° E, 18° S; Angola Basin) and provided molecular level information with extraordinary coverage and resolution. Sampling was performed at depths of 5 m (Angola Current; near-surface photic zone), 48 m (Angola Current; fluorescence maximum), 200 m (still above Antarctic Intermediate Water, AAIW; upper mesopelagic zone) and 5446 m (North Atlantic Deep Water, NADW; abyssopelagic, ~30 m above seafloor) and produced SPE-DOM with near 40% carbon yield and beneficial nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) relaxation properties, a crucial prerequisite for the acquisition of NMR spectra with excellent resolution. 1 H and 13 C NMR spectra of all four marine SPE-DOM showed smooth bulk envelopes, reflecting intrinsic averaging from massive signal overlap, with a few percent of visibly resolved signatures and variable abundances for all major chemical environments. The abundance of singly oxygenated aliphatics and acetate derivatives in 1 H NMR spectra declined from surface to deep marine SPE-DOM, whereas C-based aliphatics and carboxyl-rich alicyclic molecules (CRAM) increased in abundance. Surface SPE-DOM contained fewer methyl esters than all other samples, likely a consequence of direct exposure to sunlight. Integration of 13 C NMR spectra revealed continual increase of carboxylic acids and ketones from surface to depth, reflecting a progressive oxygenation, with concomitant decline of carbohydrate-related substructures. Aliphatic branching increased with depth, whereas the fraction of oxygenated aliphatics declined for methine, methylene and methyl carbon. Lipids in the oldest SPE-DOM at 5446 m showed a larger share of ethyl groups and methylene carbon than observed in the other samples. Two-dimensional NMR spectra showed exceptional resolution and depicted resolved molecular signatures in excess of a certain minimum abundance. Classical methyl groups terminating aliphatic chains represented ~15% of total methyl in all samples investigated. A noticeable fraction of methyl (~2%) was bound to olefinic carbon. Methyl ethers were abundant in surface marine SPE-DOM, and the chemical diversity of carbohydrates was larger than that of freshwater and soil DOM. In all samples, we identified sp 2 -hybridized carbon chemical environments with discrimination of isolated and conjugated olefins and α , β -unsaturated double bonds. Olefinic proton and carbon atoms were more abundant than aromatic ones; olefinic unsaturation in marine SPE-DOM will be more directly traceable to ultimate biogenic precursors than aromatic unsaturation. The abundance of furan, pyrrol and thiophene derivatives was marginal, whereas benzene derivatives, phenols and six-membered nitrogen heterocycles were prominent; a yet unassigned set of six-membered N-heterocycles with likely more than one single nitrogen occurred in all samples. Various key polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon substructures suggested the presence of thermogenic organic matter at all water depths. Progressive NMR cross-peak attenuation from surface to deep marine SPE-DOM was particularly strong in COSY NMR spectra and indicated a continual disappearance of biosignatures as well as entropy gain from an ever increased molecular diversity. Nevertheless, a specific near-seafloor SPE-DOM signature of unsaturated molecules recognized in both NMR and Fourier transform ion cyclotron mass spectrometry (FTICR/MS) possibly originated from sediment leaching. The conformity of key NMR and FTICR/MS signatures suggested the presence of a large set of identical molecules throughout the entire ocean column even though the investigated water masses belonged to different oceanic regimes and currents. FTICR/MS showed abundant CHO, CHNO, CHOS and CHNOS molecular series with slightly increasing numbers of mass peaks and average mass from surface to bottom SPE-DOM. The proportion of CHO and CHNO negative ions increased from surface to depth, whereas CHOS and especially CHNOS molecular series markedly declined. While certain rather aliphatic CHOS and CHNOS ions were observed solely in the surface, deep marine SPE-DOM was enriched in unique unsaturated and rather oxygenated CHO and CHNO molecular series. With the exception of abyssopelagic SPE-DOM at 5446 m, which showed a peculiar CHOS chemistry of unsaturated carbon and reduced sulphur (black sulphur), CHO and CHNO molecular series contributed ~87% to total positive electrospray ionization FTICR mass peak integral, with a near constant ratio of CHNO / CHO molecular compositions near 1.13 ± 0.05. In case of all four marine SPE-DOM, remarkably disparate average elemental compositions as determined from either MS and NMR spectra were observed, caused by a pronounced ionization selectivity in electrospray ionization FTICR/MS. The study demonstrates that the exhaustive characterization of complex unknowns in marine DOM will enable a meaningful classification of individual marine biogeosignatures. Future in-depth functional biodiversity studies with a clear understanding of DOM structure and function might eventually lead to a novel, unified perception of biodiversity and biogeochemistry.


Models that describe the spread of invading organisms often assume that the dispersal distances of propagules are normally distributed. In contrast, measured dispersal curves are typically leptokurtic, not normal. In this paper, we consider a class of models, integrodifference equations, that directly incorporate detailed dispersal data as well as population growth dynamics. We provide explicit formulas for the speed of invasion for compensatory growth and for different choices of the propagule redistribution kernel and apply these formulas to the spread of D. pseudoobscura. We observe that: (1) the speed of invasion of a spreading population is extremely sensitive to the precise shape of the redistribution kernel and, in particular, to the tail of the distribution; (2) fat-tailed kernels can generate accelerating invasions rather than constant-speed travelling waves; (3) normal redistribution kernels (and by inference, many reaction-diffusion models) may grossly underestimate rates of spread of invading populations in comparison with models that incorporate more realistic leptokurtic distributions; and (4) the relative superiority of different redistribution kernels depends, in general, on the precise magnitude of the net reproductive rate. The addition of an Allee effect to an integrodifference equation may decrease the overall rate of spread. An Allee effect may also introduce a critical range; the population must surpass this spatial thresh-old in order to invade successfully. Fat-tailed kernels and Allee effects provide alternative explanations for the accelerating rates of spread observed for many invasions.


Introduction : Diarrhea remains the second leading cause of death among children under five years globally. Nearly one in five child deaths, about 1.5 million each year, are due to diarrhea. It kills more young children than Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS), malaria and measles combined. World Health Organization has accordingly underlined the need for epidemiological surveys of infantile diarrhea in all geographical areas. The main research objectives were to estimate the prevalence of diarrhea and identify factors associated with diarrheal diseases in Tiko city in Cameroon. Method : The present study was a cross-sectional community household survey which was conducted in Tiko town from 1st to 31st of August 2012. With the use of a questionnaire, a total of 602 households that had at least one child under five years of age were interviewed. Mothers/caregivers were questioned on the morbidity of diarrhea and the logistic regression model was employed to examine the determinants of childhood diarrhea. Both univariable and multivariable data analysis was performed using SPSS version 16.0. Results : The results of this study showed that the prevalence of diarrhea was 23.8% and children under 24 months were highly affected. We found children using the main toilet and other types of toilet facilities such as bushes, diaper, and streams (OR: 0.194; p < 0.001, 95% CI) and usage of narrow-mouth container for storage of drinking water (OR: 0.492; p < 0.001, 95% CI) less likely to suffer from diarrhea. In contrast, higher rates of diarrhea prevalence were seen in children from households with two or more siblings (OR: 1.222; p < 0.001, 95% CI) and whose mothers/caregivers never had the knowledge of safe sources of drinking water (OR: 1.849; p < 0.01, 95% CI). Conclusion : Childhood diarrhea is a public health problem in Tiko city. Hence, interventions aimed at reducing the prevalence should take into consideration the integration of family planning activities in the prevention of childhood diarrhea and the deployed of health personals to educate the community to adopt a hygienic behavior. Future research on the topic should be qualitative inquiry to complement the quantitative nature of this study.


Permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) has been widely used with the characteristic of high torque at low speed. But the torque ripple is the main factor that limits the usage of PMSM. For torque ripple reduction, a rotation coordinate system of the motor model is established, and then the factors that cause torque ripple and the characteristic of torque ripple are analyzed. According to the characteristics of the torque ripple, the iterative learning control algorithm is proposed to reduce the torque ripple of motor. The effect of sampling time on torque ripple reduction performance is discussed. Finally, the performance of the proposed algorithm is validated by simulation in the Matlab/simulink environment.


Shapley values are today extensively used as a model-agnostic explanation framework to explain complex predictive machine learning models. Shapley values have desirable theoretical properties and a sound mathematical foundation in the field of cooperative game theory. Precise Shapley value estimates for dependent data rely on accurate modeling of the dependencies between all feature combinations. In this paper, we use a variational autoencoder with arbitrary conditioning (VAEAC) to model all feature dependencies simultaneously. We demonstrate through comprehensive simulation studies that our VAEAC approach to Shapley value estimation outperforms the state-of-the-art methods for a wide range of settings for both continuous and mixed dependent features. For high-dimensional settings, our VAEAC approach with a non-uniform masking scheme significantly outperforms competing methods. Finally, we apply our VAEAC approach to estimate Shapley value explanations for the Abalone data set from the UCI Machine Learning Repository.


Round Lake, Hillsborough County, Florida (U.S.A.) has been augmented with 226Ra‐rich (6.2 dpm L−1) groundwater from the Floridan aquifer for more than 30 years. Water column 226Ra activity in Round Lake is 3.4 dpm L−1, about one third of the U.S. drinking water standard value. Radionuclide measurements in biota and sediment cores from the lake indicate high 226Ra activities in plants, mollusc shells and tissues, fish bones, and recent sediments. Unionid mussels bioaccumulate 226Ra and display very high activities in soft tissues (219.9–454.8 dpm g−1 dry). Throughout Florida, groundwaters are increasingly pumped for agricultural irrigation, as well as residential and industrial use. Biological accumulation of 226Ra by filter‐feeding pelecypods in aquatic ecosystems is an important pathway for transfer of the radionuclide to higher trophic levels of both aquatic and terrestrial food webs. Radionuclide analysis of soft tissues from aquatic bivalves provides a rapid means of identifying waterbodies that receive substantial inputs of dissolved 226Ra.


This paper presents a brief insight into the nanostructure preparation and material modification performed mainly by plasma which is an inexpensive and effective method for the treatment of even highly resistant materials. Besides, this method is used to increase the cytocompatibility for tissue engineering applications. An integral part of the issue is the characterization of material changes caused by modification. Currently, many different characterization techniques are used. For detailed description we have chosen several basic methods including the measurement of contact angle and zeta potential, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and infrared spectroscopy with Fourier transformation (FTIR).


Objectives: Various positive psychology interventions have been experimentally tested, but only few studies addressed the effects of such activities in participants aged 50 and above. Method: We tested the impact of four self-administered positive psychology interventions in an online setting (i.e., gratitude visit, three good things, three funny things, and using signature strengths in a new way) on happiness and depressive symptoms in comparison with a placebo control exercise (i.e., early memories). A total of 163 females aged 50–79 tried the assigned interventions or the placebo control exercise for one week and completed measures on happiness and depressive symptoms at five times (pre- and post-test, 1, 3, and 6 months). Results: Three out of the four interventions (i.e., gratitude visit, three good things, and using signature strengths in a new way) increased happiness, whereas two interventions (three funny things and using signature strengths in a new way) led to a reduction of depressive symptoms on at one post-measure. Conclusion: Positive psychology interventions yield similar results for people aged 50 and above as for younger people. The dissemination of such interventions via the Internet offers a valuable opportunity for older age groups as well.


In this thesis we propose a new device structure-the graded injector-for short-wavelength
LEDs and laser diodes, and describe the growth, fabrication and characterization
of green LEDs based on this structure. We also discuss the first growth
by MBE of Mg_xCd_(1-x)Se alloys, which are used for the graded injection region of
the LEDs. In spite of the important technological applications for short-wavelength LEDs
and diode lasers, and in spite of over three decades of work on fabrication of light
emitters from II-VI compounds, no II-VI LEDs or laser diodes are commercially
available, and the demand for short-wavelength devices remains largely unfilled.
This is due primarily to the difficulty of obtaining both p- and n-type doping in a
II-VI with a bandgap large enough to emit green or blue light. In recent years modern crystal growth techniques have contributed to substant
ial progress on- and a revival of interest in- II-VI compounds. This progress
has occurred mainly on two fronts: metastable doping during low-temperature
growth; and heterojunction approaches made possible by the increased control
over the growth process afforded by new techniques such as MBE. We have pursued
the latter approach, developing a novel heterojunction structure to avoid
difficult doping. In Chapter 1 we discuss applications of short-wavelength light emitters and the
history of II-VI light emitter research, including current work by other groups. We
examine the role of heterojunctions in LEDs and diode lasers in Chapter 2, and
graphically display theoretical and experimental values for band offsets among a
variety of semiconductors using "McCaldin Diagrams." These diagrams help to
clarify the problem, allow us to draw general conclusions about what we can and
cannot hope to do, and lead to the device proposal of Chapter 3. In Chapter 3 we first propose a new kind of heterojunction structure for widebandgap
light emitters, then discuss the growth, fabrication and characterization
of devices based on this proposal. The experiments demonstrate that the graded Mg_xCd_(1_
x)Se structure allows injection of electrons into p-type ZnTe in spite of the
unfavorable band offset between CdSe and ZnTe. II-VI MBE has been studied much less than III-V MBE, and many aspects of
the growth are different due to differences in the material systems. Furthermore,
there had been little previous research on II-VI compounds containing Mg, and
none using modern crystal growth techniques. Thus in Chapter 4 we discuss IIVI
MBE and some of the difficulties encountered in growing graded-Mg_xCd_(1_x)Se
devices.


This paper investigates the impact of labour-market attachment on first births of foreign-born women in Sweden. The study uses a longitudinal, register-based dataset consisting of the entire population of immigrants from ten nations and a 5-per-cent random sample of natives. The effects of earned income are evident, with increased income levels increasing the probability of becoming a mother for all observed nationalities. The effects of various forms of participation and non-participation in the labour force do not vary greatly between immigrants and the Swedish-born. Among all subgroups, we find a higher propensity to begin childbearing among those who are established in the labour market. Contrary to popular belief, receiving welfare benefits clearly reduces first-birth intensity for immigrants but not for natives. The similarity in patterns across widely different national groups supports the notion that various institutional factors affecting all subgroups are crucial in influencing childbearing behaviour.


Fitts' law is a well known empirically-based relation which predicts aimed-movement time ( MT ) from target distance ( D ) and target width ( W ). Fitts' demonstration that MT , within limits, depends essentially on the ratio D / W implies a scale invariance that reduces the paradigm from three dimensions ( MT , D , and W ) to two ( MT and D / W ). This reduction, however, is legitimate only for narrow ranges of scale variations, a limitation that appears to have been overlooked so far. This paper advocates an explicit three-dimensional construal of Fitts' paradigm involving not only the speed ( MT ) and the relative amplitude ( D / W ), but also the absolute amplitude ( D ), or scale of movements. Not only is this three-dimensional description of Fitts' paradigm a technical necessity for the classic study of Fitts' law, but it paves the way for a more complete modeling of aimed-movement performance and suggests a promising adaptation of Fitts' paradigm to the recently emerged problem of target selection in zooming interfaces.


This paper focuses on the simulation of the impregnation stage of the Resin Transfer Moulding (RTM) process. RTM is a method of producing composite structures by binding the fiber preform with resin within a closed mould. A fiber layup consists of layers of textiles, which may have different material properties. As a result of placing the fiber layup into the mold, the textile layers get deformed and distorted. A key influencing parameter for the resin flow is the textile permeability, which is coupled to the fiber volume ratio (FVR) and is anisotropic in general. Affected by the deformation and distortion, the FVR can vary from nearly zero to a value of approximately 0.6. Therefore volume-averaged Navier–Stokes equations with variable FVR are developed. The resistance to the flow through the fiber materials, which are modeled as a porous media, is given by Darcy's law. For predicting the macroscopic permeability, a unit-cell impregnation model is introduced. This model takes into account the mesoscopic structure of the porous media, i.e. the roving layout. Since the permeability of a fiber preform is direction-dependent, a transformation with respect to the local fiber orientations of the considered technical component is performed. This implementation allows a three-dimensional simulation of the impregnation stage of the RTM process taking into account the modification of the fiber layup caused by placing it into the mold. The required input will be provided by an external drape simulation, which is however not part of this work. Results will be presented for a eninge bonnet like geometry.


We discuss four general topics. First, there are various referents for the term "recovery." We note that what seems a simple enough term or word, namely "recovery" covers a variety of very complex activities that need to be addressed in any practical and/or theoretical discussion about the issue. What a process is called, can make a significant difference in consequences. Second, we consider the policy implications of what might constitute success or failure in disaster recovery. These are related to the goals and levels of recovery, the size of the recovering unit, different perspectives on the process, the secondary or ripple effects of disasters on recovery, and differences in recovery in disasters compared to catastrophes. Third, we highlight and summarize ten general themes from the research literature about what is known about those individuals and households who are assisted in the recovery effort after disasters. There are substantial differences regarding, for instance, the sources of aid, the kinds of help provided, and the effects of the assistance given to victims in the recovery process. Fourth, we discuss what the research literature says about those who give or provide disaster assistance to individuals and households in the aftermath of a disaster. The givers or providers, usually organizations, have more complex problems than usually is recognized.


Abstract. Hydraulic bankfull geometry or regional curves are a useful metric for evaluating stream stability and planning stream restoration projects. Streams and tributaries within the Middle Pee Dee River Basin (MPDRB) in South Carolina drain an agrarian and forested landscape characterized by water conveyance structures, such as active and historical ditches which support forestry and agriculture. While streams in the region are generally stable, pockets of this landscape are beginning to face increasing pressure from development with signs of stream instability apparent in several locations as evidenced by streams in and around the urbanizing areas around Darlington and Florence, SC. In order to provide a foundation for potential stream restoration projects in the area, 15 sites in the MPDRB were selected on the basis of catchment area, in categories of small (<50 km2), small-medium (50-500 km2), medium (500-1000 km2), and large (>1000 km2). Bankfull geometries, channel substrate, flow and water temperature were measured at all the sites and a set of regional hydraulic geometry curves developed. The frequency of bankfull flows that occurred over the period of sampling were also estimated to document floodplain connectivity. Results suggest that bankfull dimensions in the MPDRB were well correlated with bankfull discharge and drainage area. The results showed that hydraulic geometry in the region were similar to those measured in a similar physiographic region in North Carolina. The study also shows that streams in the MPDRB experience bankfull exceeding flows much more frequently than streams in other parts of the country, but at a frequency that is comparable to streams in the coastal plains of North Carolina.


Nearly half of people at the end of life will receive hospice care, but few psychologists, nurses, physicians, chaplains, and hospice workers have been trained specifically to recognize and address the psychological, social, and emotional issues that may arise in patients who are dying. Patients in the midst of advanced terminal illness may experience a variety of distressing emotions, and may feel anxious, frightened, regretful, or desperate. This guide was created specifically to guide helping professionals of all kinds through the process of working through patients' psychological issues to allow them peace and comfort in their final moments. The Helping Professional's Guide to End of Life Care clarifies the spiritual and emotional care that patients need and presents an evidence based approach integrating cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), transpersonal psychotherapy, hypnosis, mindfulness, and guided imagery to help patients manage emotional distress at the end of life. Through case conceptualizations and detailed treatment planning guidance, readers learn to formulate comprehensive assessment and treatment plans for patients and gain skills that will help them manage the emotional intensity of this work. This secular, professional treatment model can be applied to patients of any religious or spiritual background. The book also addresses integrating the patient's therapeutic team with the medical team, addressing the emotional needs of friends and family of the dying, crisis intervention for suicidal patients, working with clients on psychotropic medications, and how helping professionals can manage their own emotions to become more effective clinicians.


This thesis initiated a long term project that uses the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii to identify new mechanisms of defence to toxic trace metals and pathways that regulate these responses. Strains of C. reinhardtii that express reporter genes under the control of alga's metal response were generated and analysed. The reporter gene, an Arg7 cDNA minigene, restores arginine prototrophy following its insertion into random sites of the C. reinhardtii genome where it is expressed from resident regulatory sequences. Cells were selected and screened by for rare insertions that express the reporter gene only in the presence of bioavailable metal. For all eight transformants induction of the arg+ phenotype is not specific to particular metal ions. Southern analysis showed that two strains, Ni70 and Cd3600, have only one insertion of the reporter gene. Northern analysis showed that Ni70 and Cd3600 activate expression of the introduced Arg7 cDNA, at the RNA level by nickel and cadmium. Initial results, from a real time RT-PCR assay on strain Ni70, demonstrated that increasing concentrations of nickel or cadmium results in an increase of the reporter gene expression. Therefore, Ni70 indeed appears to have the reporter gene inserted under the influence of promoter/enhancer which is activated by metal exposure.


B.R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) pursued a scathing critique against the dominant nationalist discourse that Gandhi shaped, to a significant extent. Unlike Gandhi who insisted on village swaraj, Babasaheb preferred liberal democracy of the Western variety in which an individual remained the basic unit of governance. What he established in the 1950 Constitution of India had its beginning in Ambedkar's witness before the 1919 Southborough Committee and the 1930–32 Round Table Conference. This was a political battle that he had waged against the Mahatma to substantiate his arguments in favour of liberalism. There was also another battle that he was engaged in while challenging 'the archaic social values' supportive of caste discrimination. On the basis of his thorough research, he reinvented the idea of social justice in tune with his firm commitment to liberalism. True that he did not always succeed in his mission; nonetheless, the debate between the Mahatma and Babasaheb testifies several new dimensions of India's nationalist thought that did not, so far, receive adequate scholarly attention. By drawing on a rather neglected aspect of the nationalist debate, the article seeks to fill up in our understanding of the ideas of Gandhi and Ambedkar which were definitely context driven. This is also a textual study that also makes the point that Ambedkar's ideas did not appear to be as significant as they later became in independent India presumably because of the hegemonic influence of Gandhi in the nationalist universe probably due to contextual reasons.


In this paper I discuss the notion of multiple levels of emergence, and motivate its usefulness as a conceptual tool. I argue that a multi agent system containing emergent properties can be divided into i) Axiomatic behaviour ii) Emergent behaviour and iii) World rules. I show how to use this division as an informal design tool, when designing and analysing emergent properties. Specifically I discuss where and why to place the axiomatic level, given the goal of the model. Further I present an ant model, called Aintz. I show that the very simple basic behavior of the individual agents cause complicated emergent behaviors of multiple levels. I use the Aintz model to exemplify the notion of multiple levels of emergence.


The existing social stratification studies show that social inequalities in educational and occupational opportunities are still a feature of our societies. This paper aims to study country differences in the extent to which social origin affects young people's educational and occupational outcomes. Twelve countries covering different geographical, economic and social contexts in Europe are analysed in the paper. The data are drawn from the EU LFS 2000 ad hoc module data which collected information on school-to-work transitions. In agreement with other research findings, the results show that parental education still affects young people's educational and early occupational attainment in all countries under examination. However, as expected, there are significant country variations. Thus, the relative advantage of having more educated parents emerges as stronger in the Eastern European countries and weaker in the Nordic European countries. The other Western European countries are in an intermediate position between these two groups of countries, with the Southern European countries more similar to each other. Moreover, in most countries the effect of parental education on their children's occupational status appears to be mediated mainly by education (i.e. indirect effect). This is particularly true in those countries where the association between children's education and parents' education is strongest. The conclusions outline that more universalistic Welfare State policies in the Nordic countries and the increasing social and economic disparities in the Eastern European countries, during the transition period towards a capitalist economy, may have played an important part in the polarisation of these two groups of countries at the two extremes


The Schuylkill River in Southeastern Pennsylvania once supported massive spring runs of anadromous fishes until the construction of dams in the early 1800's. American shad (Alosa sapidissima), striped bass (Morone saxatilis), and river herring (alewife Alosa pseudoharengus and blueback herring A. aestivalis) ascended the Schuylkill River as far upstream as Pottsville (160 rkm), but have not done so since 1820, when Fairmount Dam (13.6 rkm) was built. The dam served as a physical barrier to migratory fishes, completely blocking upstream movement and access to critical spawning grounds. In 1979, a vertical slot fish passage facility was constructed on the west side of Fairmount Dam, however, very few anadromous species were utilizing the passage and the fishway was abandoned by 1984. No fish counts were conducted from 1984 to 2004, until Philadelphia Water Department biologists took responsibility for maintenance and operation of the fishway and developed a digital video monitoring system to record fish passage. An underwater viewing room and window allows direct observation of fishes swimming through the fishway and is the primary means for evaluating fish passage. In 2004, there were 6,438 fish of 23 species that ascended Fairmount fishway, including 91 American shad, 161 striped bass, and 2 river herring. A total of 8,017 fishes representing 25 species were counted passing through the fishway in 2005, including 41 American shad, 127 striped bass, and 5 river herring. In 2006, a total of 16,850 fishes representing 26 species were counted passing through the fishway including 345 American shad, 9 hickory shad, 61 striped bass, and 7 river herring, marking an astonishing 279% increase in American shad passage from 2004 to 2006. The interannual trend in relative abundance of American shad below Fairmount Dam increased, as did overall shad passage trends in the fishway. Continued monitoring of fish passage will be a critical component in assessing anadromous fish restoration efforts on the


Objective A risk of tumor seeding after percutaneous needle biopsy has been reported in various organs, including the lung. This study retrospectively evaluated the proportion of ipsilateral pleural recurrence after computed tomography-guided needle biopsy (CTNB) in p-stage I lung cancer patients. Methods Of the 321 patients diagnosed with p-stage I lung cancer, 124 underwent CTNB before surgery, while 197 underwent non-CTNB procedures, including bronchoscopic biopsy in 188 patients and thoracoscopic wedge resection in 9. These patients were retrospectively analyzed. Results While the tumor size was significantly larger in the non-CTNB group (25±9 mm) in comparison to the CTNB group (19±9 mm) (p<0.001), percentage of pleural, vascular, or lymphatic invasions were comparable between the two groups. Eight patients developed ipsilateral pleural recurrences, one (1%) in the CTNB group, and 7 (4%) in the non-CTNB group. Of these, 3 patients developed pleural recurrence only at first, 1 (1%) in the CTNB group, and 2 (1%) in the non-CTNB group. The differences in the proportions of these pleural recurrences between the 2 groups were not significant. Subgroup analyses by baseline characteristics such as tumor size, pT stage, or microscopic pleural invasion, showed that proportions of pleural recurrences in CTNB group were not high compared with non-CTNB group in each subgroup. Analysis of progression-free survival showed that recurrences in CTNB were not high compared with non-CTNB. Conclusions The pleural recurrence was not significantly increased after CTNB in p-stage I lung cancer patients in this particular study.


Objective: Only rare data exist comparing cross-cultural aspects of civilian traumatization. We compared prevalence rates of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in German and Chinese crime victims, and investigated the cross-cultural effect of 2 interpersonal predictors. Method: German (n = 151) and Chinese (n = 144) adult crime victims were assessed several months postcrime. The parallel questionnaire set assessed PTSD symptom severity, disclosure attitudes, social acknowledgement, and demographic and crime characteristics. Results: German and Chinese participants differed significantly in their PTSD symptom severity. However, in both samples, disclosure attitudes and social acknowledgement predicted PTSD symptom severity with a similar strength, in addition to the effects of other PTSD predictors. Conclusions: The results suggest that interpersonal variables are predictors of PTSD symptom severity in both cultures and should be included in etiologic models of PTSD.


In this paper, we position the correct way of using graphical models for enhancing cyber security analysis in enterprise networks. Graphical models can be powerful in representation, analysis and visualization. We describe the need of introducing "intelligence" in security analysis, followed by a critical review of state-of-the-art attack graph approaches. Such review leads to the lessons learned during attack graph research and motivates our unique vision of how we should use graphical models for effective and efficient security anal-


Image-based screening is a powerful technique to reveal how chemical, genetic, and environmental perturbations affect cellular state. Its potential is restricted by the current analysis algorithms that target a small number of cellular phenotypes and rely on expert-engineered image features. Newer algorithms that learn how to represent an image are limited by the small amount of labeled data for ground-truth, a common problem for scientific projects. We demonstrate a sensitive and robust method for distinguishing cellular phenotypes that requires no additional ground-truth data or training. It achieves state-of-the-art performance classifying drugs by similar molecular mechanism, using a Deep Metric Network that has been pre-trained on consumer images and a transformation that improves sensitivity to biological variation. However, our method is not limited to classification into predefined categories. It provides a continuous measure of the similarity between cellular phenotypes that can also detect subtle differences such as from increasing dose. The rich, biologically-meaningful image representation that our method provides can help therapy development by supporting high-throughput investigations, even exploratory ones, with more sophisticated and disease-relevant models.


In this paper, we present a new approach relevant to the discovery of correlated patterns, based on the use of multicore architectures. Our work rests on a full KDD system and allows one to extract Decision Correlation Rules based on the Chi-squared criterion that include a target column from any database. To achieve this objective, we use a levelwise algorithm as well as contingency vectors, an alternate and more powerful representation of contingency tables, in order to prune the search space. The goal is to parallelize the processing associated with the extraction of relevant rules. The parallelization invokes the PPL (Parallel Patterns Library), which allows a simultaneous access to the whole available cores / processors on modern computers. We finally present first results on the reached performance gains.


We examined the diel feeding pattern, gastric evacuation and
daily ration of a lentic, endemic Tasmanian galaxiid fish, Galaxias auratus. Analysis of stomach contents and consumption estimates based on collections of fish every 3 h over three 24-h periods in summer 2002/2003 revealed that feeding always occurred during both day and night, with no obvious peaks. We also estimated the gastric evacuation rate of G. auratus in a laboratory experiment using the two prey species found to be dominant in stomachs of field-sampled fish. The relationship was best described by an exponential model, with rate parameters (R) of 0.104 and 0.081 for the evacuation of the amphipod, Austrochiltonia australis, and the cladoceran, Daphnia carinata, at water temperatures of 11.5 and 16.5 C, respectively. Daily ration of G. auratus in summer was estimated to be approximately 3% (dry body weight) using the models of Elliot & Persson and Eggers. Galaxias auratus appears to be unusual in that its feeding pattern cannot be classified as nocturnal, diurnal or crepuscular, but its gastric evacuation and daily ration estimates are still similar to other comparable Northern Hemisphere freshwater fishes.


ABSTRACT An understanding of the mechanism(s) by which some individuals spontaneously control human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/simian immunodeficiency virus replication may aid vaccine design. Approximately 50% of Indian rhesus macaques that express the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I allele Mamu-B*08 become elite controllers after infection with simian immunodeficiency virus SIVmac239. Mamu-B*08 has a binding motif that is very similar to that of HLA-B27, a human MHC class I allele associated with the elite control of HIV, suggesting that SIVmac239-infected Mamu-B*08-positive (Mamu-B*08+) animals may be a good model for the elite control of HIV. The association with MHC class I alleles implicates CD8+ T cells and/or natural killer cells in the control of viral replication. We therefore introduced point mutations into eight Mamu-B*08-restricted CD8+ T-cell epitopes to investigate the contribution of epitope-specific CD8+ T-cell responses to the development of the control of viral replication. Ten Mamu-B*08+ macaques were infected with this mutant virus, 8X-SIVmac239. We compared immune responses and viral loads of these animals to those of wild-type SIVmac239-infected Mamu-B*08+ macaques. The five most immunodominant Mamu-B*08-restricted CD8+ T-cell responses were barely detectable in 8X-SIVmac239-infected animals. By 48 weeks postinfection, 2 of 10 8X-SIVmac239-infected Mamu-B*08+ animals controlled viral replication to <20,000 viral RNA (vRNA) copy equivalents (eq)/ml plasma, while 10 of 15 wild-type-infected Mamu-B*08+ animals had viral loads of <20,000 vRNA copy eq/ml (P = 0.04). Our results suggest that these epitope-specific CD8+ T-cell responses may play a role in establishing the control of viral replication in Mamu-B*08+ macaques.


Abstract. Indoor furniture is of great relevance to building occupants in everyday life. Furniture occupies space in the building, gives comfort, establishes order in rooms and locates services and activities. Furniture is not always static; the rooms can be reorganized according to the needs. Keeping the building models up to date with the current furniture is key to work with indoor environments. Laser scanning technology can acquire indoor environments in a fast and precise way, and recent artificial intelligence techniques can classify correctly the objects that contain. The objective of this work is to study how to minimize the use of point cloud samples in Neural Network training, tedious to label, and replace them with images obtained from online sources. For this, point clouds are converted to images by means of rotations and projections. The conversion of a 3D vector data to a 2D raster allows the use of Convolutional Neural Networks, the achievement of several images for each acquired point cloud object and the combination with images obtained from online sources, such as Google Images. The images have been distributed among the validation and testing training sets following different percentages. The results show that, although point cloud images cannot be completely dispensed within the training set, only 10% of these achieve high accuracy in the classification.


We model a two-sided market with heterogeneous customers and two heterogeneous network effects. In our model, customers on each market side care differently about both the number and the type of customers on the other side. Examples of two-sided markets are online platforms or daily newspapers. In the latter case, for instance, readership demand depends on the amount and the type of advertisements. Also, advertising demand depends on the number of readers and the distribution of readers across demographic groups. There are feedback loops because advertising demand depends on the numbers of readers, which again depends on the amount of advertising, and so on. Due to the difficulty in dealing with such feedback loops when publishers set prices on both sides of the market, most of the literature has avoided models with Bertrand competition on both sides or has resorted to simplifying assumptions such as linear demands or the presence of only one network effect. We address this issue by first presenting intuitive sufficient conditions for demand on each side to be unique given prices on both sides. We then derive sufficient conditions for the existence and uniqueness of an equilibrium in prices. For merger analysis, or any other policy simulation in the context of competition policy, it is important that equilibria exist and are unique. Otherwise, one cannot predict prices or welfare effects after a merger or a policy change. The conditions are related to the ownand cross-price effects, as well as the strength of the own and cross network effects. We show that most functional forms used in empirical work, such as logit type demand functions, tend to satisfy these conditions for realistic values of the respective parameters. Finally, using data on the Dutch daily newspaper industry, we estimate a flexible model of demand which satisfies the above conditions and evaluate the effects of a hypothetical merger and study the effects of a shrinking market for offline newspapers. JEL Classification: L13, L40, L82.


Early hypermedia systems are now referred to as closed systems due to their reliance upon proprietary document formats, embedded links, monolithic designs and their inability to integrate with the desktop environment. Advances from the research community gave rise to a new generation of open hypermedia systems. Open hypermedia systems tend to have modular architectures and can offer an extensible hypermedia link service integrated with the desktop environment. One explanation for the unmitigated success of the World Wide Web (WWW) is the way in which common Internet services have been integrated. Although the WWW is open in terms of the platforms and protocols supported, it has several limitations in common with closed hypermedia systems. Described in this thesis is Microcosm TNG, a framework for distributed open hypermedia, able to integrate with both the desktop and the Internet. The abstraction of a hypermedia application is introduced for improving the organisation and the encapsulation of related documents and link services. Such a resource can then be made available to remote users via the Microcosm TNG framework. Architectural extensions to the system are described which enable the hierarchical composition of hypermedia applications to construct rich distributed information spaces.


Although many first-year students enter college believing they have strong information literacy skills because they regularly navigate the internet, they often are not critical of the credibility of their sources nor of the material found therein.   In real life situations as well as in academic and professional scenarios, students will be asked to make reasoned arguments, backing their ideas with information they have not only found but also evaluated for credibility and relevance.  This classroom activity is designed for use in a first-year composition course, and its goal is to introduce students to the concept of evaluating source material by giving students a plausible scenario and writing assignment based on evidence taken from given source material, some of which is not credible nor relevant.  This activity forms the foundation for future application of the concept as students later evaluate sources found in their own research.


Objectives We aimed to investigate demographic, lifestyle, socioeconomic and clinical risk factors for COVID-19, and compared them to risk factors for pneumonia and influenza in UK Biobank. Design Cohort study. Setting UK Biobank. Participants 49–83 year olds (in 2020) from a general population study. Main outcome measures Confirmed COVID-19 infection (positive SARS-CoV-2 test). Incident influenza and pneumonia were obtained from primary care data. Poisson regression was used to study the association of exposure variables with outcomes. Results Among 235 928 participants, 397 had confirmed COVID-19. After multivariable adjustment, modifiable risk factors were higher body mass index and higher glycated haemoglobin (HbA1C) (RR 1.28 and RR 1.14 per SD increase, respectively), smoking (RR 1.39), slow walking pace as a proxy for physical fitness (RR 1.53), and use of blood pressure medications as a proxy for hypertension (RR 1.33). Higher forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol were both associated with lower risk (RR 0.84 and RR 0.83 per SD increase, respectively). Non-modifiable risk factors included male sex (RR 1.72), black ethnicity (RR 2.00), socioeconomic deprivation (RR 1.17 per SD increase in Townsend Index), and high cystatin C (RR 1.13 per SD increase). The risk factors overlapped with pneumonia somewhat, less so for influenza. The associations with modifiable risk factors were generally stronger for COVID-19, than pneumonia or influenza. Conclusion These findings suggest that modification of lifestyle may help to reduce the risk of COVID-19 and could be a useful adjunct to other interventions, such as social distancing and shielding of high risk.


The article considers influence of terrorist threat as an international challenge to the Lithuanian national security towards management of law enforcement institutions and possible changes in their legal status. A thesis is raised stating that due to fight against terrorism and other threats to national security, the trend for centralisation and strengthening of law enforcement emerges, activities related to intelligence and counter-intelligence are getting increasingly active. Trend of centralisation conditions the strengthening of the so-called "power structures", their legal development, enables greater influence towards the political structures and weakens possibilities for their parliamentary control. In turn, it can raise a greater danger of infringements of human rights and freedoms (in particular the right to private life and family life). Opportunities and conditions for centralisation and decentralisation of the system of law enforcement institutions are being analysed. Appropriate conclusions and recommendations are being presented. It is stated in the conclusions that law enforcement institutions have a specific role in preventing terrorist threats. The institutions in question carry out measures of anti-terrorism and intelligence, guard objects of potential terrorist threat, investigate terrorist acts, seek to disclose organisers and perpetrators. In such case the state has to undertake to strike balance between measures that law enforcement and military forces employ to combat threats and dangers to the national security, and standards for protection of human rights. If the legislation is being drafted hastily and in bad quality, a number of irreversible mistakes is usually made. Moreover, legislation is usually drafted and adopted on the basis of expedience, while paying little attention to legitimacy and other Constitutional principles. However, such a tradition of legislature should not be applied to the legislation that is related to enforcement and protection of human rights, since human rights are to be treated as one of the fundamental Constitutional virtues related to the aims of the State and to its existential purpose. A conclusion is also drawn that Lithuania as a small unitary state should favour a model of centralised management of law enforcement, where law enforcement (except for courts and prosecutors) is coordinated and administered in a centralised way, i.e. all the system of law enforcement is managed from a unified centre. However, such model should be developed by integrating law enforcement institutions. It is also proposed in the conclusions that the Code on Law Enforcement should be adopted encompassing not only the issues of establishment of law enforcement institutions and their national administration but also issues of their administrative and operative action.


A need exists for localisation algorithms in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) that are scalable, energy efficient and able to function in easy to deploy sensor networks. This paper proposes a beaconless Cluster-based Radial Coordinate Establishment (CRCE) positioning algorithm to locate sensor nodes relative to a local coordinate system. The system does not make use of Global Positioning System (GPS) or any other method to provide a-priori positioning information for a set of nodes prior to the CRCE process.
The objective is to reduce energy consumption while providing a scalable coordinate establishment method by focussing on the minimisation of message exchanges in a WSN. This is achieved by implementing a cluster-based network topology and utilising the processing potential of geographically distributed sensor processors together with radial coordinate propagation.
Three other localisation algorithms are investigated and compared to CRCE to identify the one best suited for coordinate establishment in WSNs. The results show a significant decrease in the number of messages that is necessary to establish a network-wide coordinate system successfully, ultimately proving the CRCE method to be more scalable and energy efficient.


Non-Boolean computing based on emerging postCMOS technologies can potentially pave the way for low-power neural computing platforms. However, existing work on such emerging neuromorphic architectures have either focused on solely mimicking the neuron, or the synapse functionality. While memristive devices have been proposed to emulate biological synapses, spintronic devices have proved to be efficient at performing the thresholding operation of the neuron at ultra-low currents. In this work, we propose an All-Spin Artificial Neural Network where a single spintronic device acts as the basic building block of the system. The device offers a direct mapping to synapse and neuron functionalities in the brain while inter-layer network communication is accomplished via CMOS transistors. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of a neural architecture where a single nanoelectronic device is able to mimic both neurons and synapses. The ultra-low voltage operation of low resistance magneto-metallic neurons enables the low-voltage operation of the array of spintronic synapses, thereby leading to ultra-low power neural architectures. Device-level simulations, calibrated to experimental results, was used to drive the circuit and system level simulations of the neural network for a standard pattern recognition problem. Simulation studies indicate energy savings by ~400× in comparison to a corresponding digital/ analog CMOS neuron implementation.


Micronization and nanoparticle production of poorly water-soluble drugs was investigated using single wet milling equipment operating in the attritor and stirred media modes. The drug particles in the median size range of 0.2–2 µm were prepared by changing the milling mode and operating conditions of a Micros mill with a purpose of elucidating the dynamics of the wet milling process. It was determined that particle breakage due to mechanical stresses and aggregation due to insufficient stabilization are two competing mechanisms which together control the wet milling dynamics of the poorly water-soluble drugs. The study in the attritor mode using four different classes of stabilizers with six drugs indicated that steric stabilization worked better than electrostatic stabilization for the drugs studied. In addition, the existence of different minimum polymer concentrations for the stabilization of microsuspensions and nanosuspensions was indicated. The major role of a non-ionic polymer during the production of fine particles is its stabilization action through steric effects, and no experimental evidence was found to support the so-called Rehbinder effect. Periodic addition of the polymer as opposed to the addition of the polymer at the start of milling process was introduced as a novel processing method. This novel method of polymer addition provided effective stabilization and breakage of drug particles leading to a narrower and finer particle size distribution. Alternatively, it may allow shorter processing time and lower overall power consumption of the milling process for a desired particle size.


The idea of the nation has been considered to have delivered political modernity from its native Europe to the rest of the world. The same applies, though more implicitly, to those paradoxes inherent to the nationalist ideology – that between universalism and national particularity and that between liberal nationalism and imperialism. This article seeks to complicate these theses by looking at the interpretations of nationalism, imperialism, and cosmopolitanism provided by Liang Qichao, one of the most influential Chinese intellectuals in early twentieth century, during his exile in Japan when increasingly exposed to the encounter between worlds. This reading also engages with the wider debates on modernity/modernities in non-Western societies through showing that neither the "consumers of modernity" approach nor the "creative adaptations" approach can be easily applied here. I argue that the various tensions, contingencies and historical situatedness in Liang's accounts of the nation-state structure represent and constitute the paradox of the structure itself. They also shed light on contemporary debates about the limits of our political imagination in the misnamed "global politics" beyond the false opposition between nationalism and cosmopolitanism.


Larvae and pupae of Chaoborus edulis may be the most important food resource of some deep-water demersal fish species in southern Lake Malawi. C. edulis feed on crustacean zooplankton, which in turn feed on phytoplankton. Hence, demersal fish production is supported directly by planktonic primary production, rather than through a detrital food chain. © 1996 The Fisheries Society of the British Isles.


Religion in general view is the side that transcendental for people who believe so in practice it as a sacred and in spite of all the contradictions that enveloped it. although the development there who say religion as the opium of the people who later in exploitation by capitalists to dampen the activity of the frontal of its workers as recorded in history of karl max who want to liberate the workers from the snare of religion which he said as the weak side of the workers, not to mention the terrorism issues is always associated with religion, such as the emergence of ISIS and other radical religious sect that it would weaken both sides of the religion itself. Although some say that the phenomenon of content is a conspiracy of a handful of Americans to propagate Islam but nonetheless always been associated with Islam, it is quite reasonable because ISIS carry religious symbols such as we often see in the media. then as a critical questions of religion is; whether religion is really the holy presence? and whether human notions about religion as the result of a mind of its own, which then adopted and its run out by followers of religion as an ideal principle in religion?. then a deeper understanding of religion is needed to provide a clear picture of it.
In an effort to the theory that Soroush created is that Contraction and Expansion as an urgent reply. In this theory raises the basic assumptions that must be understood that religion and religious knowledge are differences. Religion is sacred and in spite of all opposition, while religious knowledge is a human insights that were presented to interpret the religion. So in a process, the man doomed to trial and error. So any man's view of religion was included as a part of the human knowledge about the religion. Contraction and expansion theory is an interesting side of an intellectual figure of Iran as like Soroush. interesting side is a theory that gives a diffrent understanding of other contemporary figure such as Nasr Hamid Abu Zaid, Fazlur Rahman and other. In that theory, provides an understanding of the differentiate between religion and religious knowledge. Soroush think that religion is sacred and silent but religious knowledge beyond religion always experience by the dynamics process of human understanding, with the times and bound by tradition and local culture that occupied, it will be aparent how the interpretation of each other is always different.


Summary In this paper the evolution of slopes subjected to weathering has been studied by the limit analysis upper bound method. Slopes subjected to weathering undergo a series of landslides, occurring at successive times, which cause the progressive retrogression of the slope front. The discrete succession of failures has been modelled taking into account the different geometry assumed by slopes after each landslide. Soil has been modelled as a Coulomb material (c, φ). Weathering has been modelled by assuming a uniform cohesion decrease within slopes whereas the friction angle remains constant. An analytical solution was obtained which gives the geometry of the failure surface and the soil mechanics properties at the onset of each landslide.


This paper explores the inconspicuous but increasingly important role of Chinese courts in handling the often conflicting goals of promoting government transparency and maintaining social stability within the Party-state context. The Regulation on Open Government Information created an unprecedented right of access to information with the potential for improving administrative accountability, but established a peculiar exemption of social stability. "Stability maintenance" has long been an overwhelming political task for Chinese state organs, and has profoundly affected legal practices, posing a challenge to judicial control of abuse of the aforementioned discretionary exemption. Added to the challenge is the obscurity in the standards for judicial review of discretion.The paper reviews how the courts respond to this challenge by focusing on representative cases concerning government claims that disclosure would endanger social stability. It finds that in referential cases adopted in official publications, the courts have developed creative approaches to scrutiny. However, other sources indicate that meaningful review is largely absent from cases involving appropriations of private properties and those concerning large-scale maladministration. It argues that the judicial inaction can be attributed to two concerns underlying the common practice of the stability maintenance system, i.e. containing collective mobilization and inhibiting expression of public mistrust in governance. The courts demonstrate their ability in judicializing the political concept of social stability in the context of right to information, and thus assume more than a deferential role in the politics of stability maintenance. Nevertheless, they remain captive to the imperative of securing core regime interests. The liberalization implications of transparency reform are hence minimized through the judicial process.


In this paper, we explore an econometric model of the dependence of the number of employees working in the tourism sector in Azerbaijan, on the investments in the tourism sector. Based on the results, it has been established that investment in the tourism sector has a significant impact on the increase in the number of workers in the tourism sector for the following year. Also, if annually the tourism sector attracts investments in the amount of one billion manat, this will lead to an increase in the number of employees in this sector by 7.471 people, for the following year.


Background and objective: The aim was to train artificial neural nets to predict the recovery of a neuromuscular block during general anaesthesia. It was assumed that the initial/early neuromuscular recovery data with the simultaneously measured physical variables as inputs into a well-trained back-propagation neural net would enable the net to predict a rough estimate of the remaining recovery time. Methods: Spontaneous recovery from neuromuscular block (electrically evoked electromyographic train-of-four responses) were recorded with the following variables known to affect the block: multiple minimum alveolar concentration, end-tidal CO2 concentration, and peripheral and central temperature. Results: The mean prediction errors, mean absolute prediction errors, root-mean-squared prediction errors and correlation coefficients of all the nets were significantly better than those of average-based predictions used in the study. The root-mean-squared prediction error of the net - employing minimum alveolar concentrations from the whole recovery period (the recovery time from E2/E1 = 0.30 to E4/E1 = 0.75; E1 = first response of train-of-four, E2 = second response of train-of-four, etc.) - were significantly smaller than those of other nets, or the same net employing minimum alveolar concentrations only from the initial recovery period (from E2/E1 = 0.30 to E4/E1 = 0.25). Conclusions: Neural nets could predict individual recovery times from the neuromuscular block significantly better than the average-based method used here, which was supposed to be more accurate than guesses by any clinician. The minimum alveolar concentration was the only monitored variable that influenced the recovery rate, but it did not aid neural net prediction.


The trailing margin of the stable African continent is the depositional environment of several heavy mineral placer deposits of which seven have developed into viable world class operations producing titanium feedstock (ilmenite, rutile, leucoxene) and zircon. At least 30 other deposits are marginal under the present global economic climate but have the potential to be turned into account in the medium term with an increase in demand and higher commodity prices. Combined, the seven operating mines are the biggest single producer of titanium feedstock in the world and the second largest producer of zircon after Australia. Mineral resources are vast and the extensive African coastline offers significant exploration potential and possibly is the largest depository of valuable heavy minerals (VHM) on the planet. Generally, Pliocene to Holocene unconsolidated, siliciclastic sands of predominantly marine-aeolian, but locally fluvial origin host the heavy mineral suite and deposits are large coast-parallel dune fields with or without minor strandlines. Tonnages of these deposits are large and in several instances exceed a billion tons with grades between 2 and 12 percent total heavy minerals (THM). Deposit characteristics are influenced by continental tectonics, coastal morphology, sea level changes, tides, climate and the altered, eroded nature and composition of the provenance. The formation of an economically viable deposit requires the juxtaposition of most, if not all of these conditions to favour heavy mineral concentration with a high VHM content. Mining is by open cast using either dry mechanized, hydraulic monitoring, or floating dredge and wet concentrator methodologies. Mineral separation uses physical properties such as density, magnetic susceptibility and electrical conductivity to produce high quality concentrates for the international market. Only three of the mines, all located in South Africa, have their own smelters that convert ilmenite into titanium slag and pig iron. Coastal environments are all eco-sensitive and mine site rehabilitation is employed throughout, including effective disposal of radiogenic tailings associated with high U+Th zircon and monazite. The most effective exploration methods for these deposits include identification of trailing continental margins with Neogene to Quaternary coastal strandlines and dune fields spatially related to geomorphological features such as headlands and significant fluvial systems. High-resolution ground and aeromagnetic surveys reflecting ilmenite and traces of magnetite, coupled with radiometric surveys related to monazite and high U+Th zircon content have been the most effective geophysical methods for these deposits. Reconnaissance followed by detailed infill drilling of anomalous areas by truck mounted rotary drill to collect samples for THM and VHM determinations is the industry standard.


In this paper, we measure how the fixed-interest market in Australia assesses and responds to new economic information. We use high-frequency data, precise announcement times and market-based forecasts to measure the reaction of bill and bond yields to news. The period covered is from January 1994 to September 1997. We find that announcements about US economic news have had a large impact on yields in Australia – especially bond yields. Of the domestic announcements, the market responds to: monetary policy announcements, the CPI, the labour force and AWOTE, as well as a range of other economic statistics. We also find that the fixed-interest market seems to distinguish between the information contained in different economic announcements and that traders systematically respond to the size and direction of any unanticipated component of these announcements. The results suggest that the market perceives that information on prices, employment and wages is more important in the Reserve Bank's decisions about monetary policy than are other indicators of economic activity. Taken in sum, the results also suggest some consistency of response to news in the fixed-interest market in Australia.


Recent debate on Irish foreign policy has often been framed by the presumed influence of the EU Common Foreign and Security Policy and the dependence of the Irish economy on Foreign Direct Investment from the US. More broadly, small states are generally assumed to have little significant influence on world events. Empirical research on these issues is difficult in the Irish context given the often guarded nature of Irish foreign policy pronouncements. Ireland's term on the UN Security Council in 2001 and 2002 offers an opportunity both to examine Irish foreign policy decision-making at the highest international level and to look at the capacity of a small state to have influence. The results of this study suggest that contrary to common perceptions, Irish diplomats on the Council did regularly disagree with the US on foreign-policy decisions and that the influence of EU membership was very limited—primarily because there was often no common European policy on the most controversial issues. Ireland can, however, be seen to have influenced a number of key decisions made by the Council during its most recent term as an elected member.


This paper studies the recursive robust principal components analysis problem. If the outlier is the signal-of-interest, this problem can be interpreted as one of recursively recovering a time sequence of sparse vectors, St, in the presence of large but structured noise, Lt. The structure that we assume on Lt is that Lt is dense and lies in a low-dimensional subspace that is either fixed or changes slowly enough. A key application where this problem occurs is in video surveillance where the goal is to separate a slowly changing background (Lt) from moving foreground objects (St) on-the-fly. To solve the above problem, in recent work, we introduced a novel solution called recursive projected CS (ReProCS). In this paper, we develop a simple modification of the original ReProCS idea and analyze it. This modification assumes knowledge of a subspace change model on the Lt's. Under mild assumptions and a denseness assumption on the unestimated part of the subspace of Lt at various times, we show that, with high probability, the proposed approach can exactly recover the support set of St at all times, and the reconstruction errors of both St and Lt are upper bounded by a time-invariant and small value. In simulation experiments, we observe that the last assumption holds as long as there is some support change of St every few frames.


The construction and effectual application of eco-theology must seriously engage the shadowlands, the places where borders have created inequities and injustice. In this liminal space, many aboriginal peoples have lived as mere shadows in their ancestral lands, marginalised by the nations that have colonized them. When the place of Christianity in a society's public sphere is in flux, and it finds itself, at times, within the shadowlands, its relationship to other religious traditions, including Aboriginal worldviews, also encourages changes. What happens to Christianity, particularly eco-theology, when it engages mostly earth-based traditions in this context? These encounters bring to the fore porous borders that have operated consciously or unconsciously in the past and point the way to a new kind of dialogue in the present. We contend that the answer to the above question is a key component in a meaningful eco-theology which finds its context in a pluralist nation. Other key components to be explored extend beyond theology to broader issues: one, of coming to terms with the effects of colonialism and the need to pay attention to trust in order to become effective allies effecting real ecological change; and two, the very practical need Christianity has to find an effective voice if it is not to be completely marginalised in a pluralist, post-colonial context. This article focuses on Christian engagement with Canada's First Nations and Christian theology. Consideration of the following themes attempts to further a conversation regarding the future of Christian Eco-theology in a post-Colonial, pluralist context where Christianity often finds itself in much the same shadowlands as those who it colonized: the theoretic understandings of porous borders, a metaphor grounded in the porous non-containment of ecosystems themselves, the complex history of Christianity in the Othering of aboriginal peoples legally and geo-politically within Canada, and the contemporary theological implications – particularly in terms of salvation – for Christianity as it attempts to listen respectfully to the ecological insights of a people seeking agency within its own primal traditions, which are at the same time Christian-influenced.


OBJECTIVE
To examine serial changes in serum anti-topoisomerase I (anti-topo I) antibody levels in patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc), as well as associations with clinical features and the in vivo activation status of circulating topo I-reactive T and B cells.

METHODS
Serum anti-topo I antibody levels were serially measured at different time points in 28 SSc patients who were positive for anti-topo I antibody at their first visit (range of followup 6-29 years). The patients were subgrouped according to the disappearance (group 1) or persistence (group 2) of anti-topo I antibody. Clinical findings as well as T and B cell responses to topo I were compared between these 2 groups.

RESULTS
Serum anti-topo I antibody disappeared during the period of followup in 6 patients (group 1), but persisted in 22 patients (group 2). Loss of anti-topo I antibody occurred within 10 years after the first visit and independently of treatment. Group 1 patients had less extensive skin and lung involvement and better survival rates than did group 2 patients. Complete loss of anti-topo I antibody followed a reduction in isotype expression and epitope reactivities. The kinetics of in vitro T cell proliferation induced by topo I were delayed and circulating topo I-reactive T cells were less frequently detected in group 1 versus group 2 patients, suggesting that the disappearance of anti-topo I antibody was due to loss of activation of topo I-reactive T cells. In vitro production of anti-topo I antibody in peripheral blood mononuclear cell cultures in response to antigenic stimulation in both group 1 and group 2 patients indicated persistence of anti-topo I antibody-producing "memory" B cells even after the loss of serum anti-topo I antibody.

CONCLUSION
Our results indicate that there is a distinct subset of anti-topo I-positive SSc patients who lose anti-topo I antibody during the disease course and have a favorable outcome. In vivo production of anti-topo I autoantibody may require antigenic stimulation that activates topo I-reactive T and B cells.


Clinical Gastroenterology is a series of concise monographs on diseases commonly encountered in the clinical practice of Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology. Particular emphasis is placed on areas in which knowledge is advancing rapidly.Each volume is concise, concentrating on "clinical pearls," and new advances in diagnostic and therapeutic technology.   Volumes in the series include practical information of companies or laboratories that perform specialized testing, relative costs of diagnostic and therapeutic options. An emphasis is placed on illustrations, especially diagrams and diagnostic/therapeutic algorithms to permit rapid acquisition of practical information that is not readily available in the major texts.Additional unique features include summaries of key points, recommendations, and indications for requesting GI subspecialty consultation.   The series is of great value to Gastroenterologists and Hepatologists interested in the latest practical developments in the field as well as Internists who have particular interests or large numbers of patients with particular diseases in the field of GastroenterologyHepatology.


The field of education in the Ottoman era is one of the most contentious historical fields, as it is directly related to the development of the Arab society in the Ottoman era. The Ottoman Empire was accused of not paying attention to the educational aspect and of not making the necessary effort to deploy educational institutions in the Arab states, thus bearing responsibility for the ignorance spread between them during the Ottoman era. At the beginning of the reforms, the Ottoman Empire worked to develop the educational process, paying great attention to education and undertaking a large educational movement in its states and subordinate countries in order to keep pace with the educational modernity that has spread in European countries. Since the subject of education raises a lot of questions, especially for those who seek to demonstrate the realities of underdevelopment or lack thereof to the Ottoman Empire. This study highlights the reality of education in the state of Beirut. education, focusing on the role of missionary schools in education, especially since this type of school was a reason for the Ottoman Empire to pay attention to education and to open Islamic and Ottoman schools to preserve Muslim youth from the proselytizing exercised by these schools, especially in the Levant, which included a large number of Muslims and Christians. We also touched on Islamic, Christian and Jewish education, and also on Ottoman government education. This allows for the formation of a brilliant image of the Ottoman Empire that reflects the tolerance the state has adopted in its relationship with Jews and Christians, as well as the quality of government education, which negates the idea of a backward state that spreads ignorance


Current TCP-friendly congestion control mechanisms adjust the packet rate in order to adapt to network conditions and obtain a throughput not exceeding that of a TCP connection operating under the same conditions. In an environment where the bottleneck resource is packet processing, this is the correct behavior. However, if the bottleneck resource is bandwidth, and flows may use packets of different size, resource sharing depends on packet size and is no longer fair. For some applications, such as Internet telephony, it is more natural to adjust the packet size, while keeping the packet rate as constant as possible. In this paper we study the impact of variations in packet size on equation-based congestion control and propose methods to remove the resulting throughput bias. We investigate the design space in detail and propose a number of possible designs. We evaluate these designs through simulation and conclude with some concrete proposals. Our findings can be used to design a TCP-friendly congestion control mechanism for applications that adjust packet size rather than packet rate, or applications that are forced to use a small packet size.


A digital object is not usable without a computing environment in which it can be rendered or executed. If we want to ensure the long-term usability of digital objects, so that they can be used in the face of changing formats, software, and hardware, it is necessary to either preserve their computing environments or to, at least, gather enough information, so that the computing environment can be reconstructed or adapted to a changed world. Digital preservation metadata is the information that is needed in order to preserve digital objects successfully in the long-term so that they can be deployed in some form in the future. Information that describes the sufficient components of the digital object's computing environment has to be part of its preservation metadata. Although there are semantic units for recording environment information in the de-facto standard for digital preservation metadata, PREMIS, these semantic units have rarely, if ever, been used. Prompted by increasing interest in the description of computing environments, this article describes requirements and solution proposals for defining an improved metadata description for computing environments.


The paper examines the existing quasi-legal means by which international labour standards may be protected. The paper considers the nature of the challenge that global capital creates for labour, the development of the ILO's labour standards and the consequences of its shift towards promotional principles, the growth of corporate voluntary initiatives by multinational corporations and finally the associated debates around the inclusion of social clauses in trade agreements. The analysis suggests that the ILO's shift to 'promotional principles' and the formal acceptance of voluntary self-regulation from the late-1990s has not significantly improved the situation for workers, but was a pragmatic response driven in part by US policy and the increasing marginalization of the ILO within the global system of economic governance. It is argued that even if the many political obstacles could be overcome, the result of including social clauses in WTO trade agreements may not be straightforward. In conclusion it is argued that in some respects the existing system has 'privatised' labour rights.


This paper reports results from an experimental study on low-temperature oxidation of a bituminous coal in an isothermal flow reactor. The rates of consumption of oxygen and the formation of carbon oxides were quantified by an on-line oxygen analyzer and a dual-column micro GC. Water produced during oxidation was measured using a drierite absorber. This allowed detailed calculations of mass balance during the oxidation experiments. It is observed that the rates of oxygen consumption and the formation of carbon oxides decreased with time, as opposed to the mass of coal sample, which tended to increase during the experiments. The integral amounts of gaseous products evolved in each experiment indicate that CO2 production is far larger than that of CO and the molar ratio among H2O, CO2, and CO production is about 21:3:1 at the present experimental conditions. It is proposed that the molar ratio of produced CO to consumed O2 be applied as an index for ranking coal propensity to self-heating and for determinin...


Microbes generally find it difficult to seek shelter from the Sun and must be able to sense and adjust to varying illumination conditions to protect themselves from light-induced damage. Sensory rhodopsins are a subset of the large family of archaeal and eubacterial rhodopsins. Unlike their ion-pumping brethren, they use an integral chromophore, a retinal derivative, to sense the wavelength of incident light and communicate this information through protein-protein interactions. Vogeley et al. describe the crystal structure of a cyanobacterial (Anabaena) sensory rhodopsin that has the unusual property of existing in two photoactive stable states; most rhodopsins are stable in a dark-adapted state and cycle through a sequence of conformational changes upon illumination. These orange- and blue-sensitive states would enable Anabaena to assess the quality (color composition) of ambient light and to adjust its repertoire of light-harvesting complexes. L. Vogeley, O. A. Sineshchekov, V. D. Trivedi, J. Sasaki, J. L. Spudich, H. Luecke, Anabaena sensory rhodopsin: A photochromic color sensor at 2.0 Å. Science 306, 1390-1393 (2004). [Abstract] [Full Text]


Drying is a technique that involves removal of
moisture using heat energy. This heat affects the protein components in foods
especially the thiosulphide groups, which causes hydrophobic bond break that
has been attributed greatly to denaturation during drying. Safe moisture
content (SMC) is the extent to which moisture can be withdrawn from food crops
during drying that such crops can be considered safe for storage with minimal
loss of nutritional qualities. Several reported minimum moisture contents, and
bulk nutrients' levels of crops were
collected for the purpose of this review, and scattered plot graph was employed
to determine the levels of bond interaction between moisture content and each
bulk nutrients in the various dried food categories. The moisture contents in
grains, root and tuber crops, fruits and vegetables, and cash crops formed a SMC threshold boundary within the 6% - 14%; 0% - 10%; 0% - 22%; and 0% - 30% respectively.
Crude fibre and most especially the ash content played the most crucial role by
providing the strongest bond interaction with migrating moisture during drying
of all the food crops' categories, and are of
utmost important in the determination of SMC.


The purpose of this report is to detail the development process for a phase change material window shading system, which stores solar thermal energy and later releases it indoors to provide nighttime space heating. To do this, wax-filled louvers with thermally absorptive front faces were developed and outfitted with a control system, which utilized historical weather data to orient the louvers to specific solar azimuthal angles, thus maximizing the thermal absorption. The system was tested against other common window treatments in a pair of thermally comparable testing structures, and was found to provide energy savings as high as 50%.


A literature review was performed to assess the state of knowledge of the effects of railcar interior finish materials on fire growth and fully developed fires from railcars. An overview is provided on standards and requirements currently used to regulate interior finish materials. Following this review, an overview of experimental and computational research is provided on railcar interior finish flammability and its impact on fire growth. A survey of the research on fully developed fires and the potential heat release rates of railcars is then presented. This includes scaling laws, experimental research, and model development. Future research recommendations are then presented.


In November 2012, the leaders of the ASEAN+6 countries agreed to launch a new FTA negotiation called the "Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership" (RCEP). In this paper, we conduct stocktaking studies of ASEAN's own FTA and five existing FTAs with 6 dialogue partner countries, to identify the possible benefits and challenges of RCEP. We find that the five "ASEAN+1 FTAs" provide an insufficient level of liberalization, both in tariffs and services trade. The coexistence of five FTAs with different rules of origin (ROOs) creates a potential "noodle-bowl" situation which impedes the effective use of the FTAs. Also, the China-Japan-Korea FTA and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) pose challenges to the "ASEAN Centrality". We recommend that RCEP negotiation should address those challenges by (a) concluding a comprehensive and high-level RCEP by 2015; (b) setting the target of 95% percent tariff elimination with a "common concession" approach; (c) introducing the "core non-tariff measures (NTMs)" concept and removing them; (d) allowing co-equal rules in the ROOs, setting a general rule of "RVC(40) or CTH" and developing consolidated operational certification procedures; (e) introducing concrete and tangible trade facilitation programs and addressing FTA utilization issues; and (f) liberalizing trade in services at a high level.


Featuring an international slate of artists, the festival focuses on the ceaseless flow of people, information, and substances, through expanding urban areas, the virtual realm of cyberspace, and endangered natural landscapes. In the face of worldwide streams of refugees and migrants, an overload of manipulable digital information, and injurious amounts of harmful particles suspended in the atmosphere and discharged into waterways, those in power look the other way. And all the while they withdraw and intensify control to protect what they have. Short-term success is favoured over having a sustained vision of the future.

The programme derives its thematic approach from the concept of the "space of flows", as set forth by the Spanish sociologist Manuel Castells in his seminal 1996 volume The Rise of the Network Society. "The space of flows", explained Castells, "dissolves time by disordering the sequence of events and making them simultaneous, thus installing society in eternal ephemerality". Two decades later, one could say that we exist in exactly such a society: a networked one, defined as an open, borderless, and intangible entity, in constant flux and an ever shifting shape. It is our shared experience that we are all part of an enmeshed whole that provokes and confronts us on a near-daily basis with events unfolding in faraway locales. As we take note of them via our screens in the form of a tweet, an image, or a video they evade traditional geographic boundaries and notions of localness. And the speed with which people, goods, information, and pollutants are distributed and disseminated is so rapid that it is sometimes impossible to distinguish between catalyst and consequence. Moreover, how should we judge a message on our screen? Can we really see and understand what is going on?

Through the rise of the network society, a real virtuality became visible, making us aware that we are no longer only living in a "space of places". Castells explains this as a space in which we were familiar with every nook and cranny of our village and acquainted with all our neighbours, and in which we could trace in our minds the jigsaw configurations of the horizon-bound fields. A new layer was created, and this "space of flows" catapulted us into a fluid ecosystem that requires a substantial shift in our perspective on humanity and the planet. On that note, Rebecca Solnit, author of River of Shadows, describes the ascents of Hollywood and, somewhat later, Silicon Valley as those of industries which have reshaped "a world of places and materials [into] a world of representations and information, a world of vastly greater reach and less solid grounding". And it is precisely the industries of Hollywood and Silicon Valley that by and large define the frames through which we perceive and see the world.Solnit interweaves her biography of Eadweard Muybridge, the photographer and innovator of early motion-picture studies and technologies, with meditations on the concept of "the annihilation of time and space". "The annihilation of time and space" is an expression from the Industrial Revolution used to describe the groundbreaking, time-altering technologies of the day, such as rail travel and the telegraph, both of which aimed to accelerate lines of transportation and communication.In this respect, each new technology functions as yet another medium that enhances our experience of time and space. But do they bring us a clearer vision? Or do they blur our minds instead?

The artists selected for this year's Photomonth present projects that encourage us to develop ways of thinking that refuse to be hemmed in by boundaries and led by prejudices. The works provoke a more informed, flexible, and empathetic response to the most pressing issues that we, as humans, face today. As such, the festival focuses on the tension between the impulse to delimit a space with walls and to fearfully exclude the unknown, and the impossibility to regulate processes of moving enormous quantities of people, information, and substances within and across physical and virtual spaces. Envisioned as one overarching group show, the festival blends stories and images in an attempt to examine the "space of flows" that we currently inhabit, and grapple with its implications.

To distinguish between the myriad focuses of the artists' projects, they have been divided into three chapters: migration to and within contemporary Europe; the invisibility and intangibility of digital data; and urgent environmental issues. The exhibited works address multiple topics, including: societal anxieties stirred by ignorance and mistrust, as well as political fearmongering; consequences of human interventions for the climate; stories of forced displacement; and the growing threat of cyberwarfare.

Conflicts, unemployment and lack of prospects have forced untold thousands of people to leave behind their homes, belongings, and loved ones. Refugee or migrant, they undertake an often perilous journey to promised lands where they find themselves at risk of being detained and targeted by the rhetoric of populist political movements.Europe finds itself divided between the liberal values of tolerance and the nostalgia of those who crave a return to a fantasised past in which "everything was known".

Meanwhile, in an etheric elsewhere, our data hover invisibly in an artificial "cloud", or else whizz in the blink of an eye through cables snaking underground and undersea. In truth, the vast majority of us don't have a clue what happens to our data after their transformation into bits and cascading scrolls of zeroes and ones. Computer programmers, cryptocurrency experts, and bitcoin speculators have little interest in making their shadowy realm more transparent or comprehensible to the layperson. The rest of us are left in the dark as to what exactly happens to the digitised facsimiles of ourselves, once rendered and uploaded. What subcutaneous layer, for example, do we unwittingly expose when we pass through an airport's body scanner?

And although "wild nature" has been reduced in many latitudes to a contradiction in terms, it is still a quality we seek out and yearn to experience. In some regions of the world in which a highly cultivated natural environment is mistaken for its original state, we have been disrupting natural processes for ages. Heavy industries such as mining, the presence of nuclear power plants, and what goes under the name of forest management have had a profound, and in many cases irreversibly deleterious effect on the well-being, and long-term vitality of both human and animal habitats.

Even if statistically calculable, it remains difficult, if not impossible, to visualise and truly comprehend the vast movement of migrant populations, the frictionless transfer of encoded data and its ciphered binary digits, and the large-scale release of contaminants into our air, soils, and water. Nevertheless, all the selected artists attempt to do just that: with their lens-based art, they make the "space of flows" more fathomable by humanising its statistics, personalising and particularising its abstractions, and demystifying its technophilic enigmas. Their art stimulates and resonates with the intellect, imagination, and conscience of the viewer.

Work shown by Edmund Clark: 'Negative Publicity: Artefacts of Extraordinary Rendition'

https://www.edmundclark.com/works/negative-publicity/#text

Exhibition also includes: Esther Hovers, Rune Peitersen, Armand Quetsch, Agnieszka Rayss, Katja Stuke & Oliver Sieber


The fast and easy way to get up and running on Android wearables Written by an expert author team with years of hands-on experience in designing and building wearables, Professional Android Wearables covers how to use the Android Wear platform and other techniques to build real-world apps for a variety of wearables including smartbands, smartwatches, and smart glasses. In no time, you'll grasp how wearables can connect us to the Internet in more pervasive ways than with PCs, tablets, or mobile devices; how to build code using Google's Wear SDK for Android-enabled hardware devices; how Android Wear and other Android development techniques are capable of building several presented example projects; and much more. Wearables are the next generation of smart mobile devices, it's no wonder you will want to master Android Wear SDK to build smart wearable apps for a multitude of form factors and applications. * Shows you how to navigate Android Wear SDK * Clearly explains how to use the Android Wear platform to build real-world apps * The companion website includes source code for all of the projects described in the book If you're an experienced Android developer looking to master Android Wear SDK to build wearable apps, you've come to the right place.


Archive Editions in association with the Palestine Exploration Fund present the re-publication of one of the great standard works of reference for Middle East studies the Survey of Western Palestine carried out between 1871 and 1877 by C. R. Condor and H. H. Kitchener, later Lord Kitchener. We have added the one volume of the Survey of Eastern Palestine to comply with the intention of the original surveyors. The dates 1882-1888 are relevant to the original publication of the volumes rather than the dates of the survey itself.