X-ray spectrometry (XRF) is a versatile instrumental method for elemental analysis in a wide variety of materials. The performance of three different XRF systems will be compared: a high power wavelength dispersive x-ray spectrometer (WDXRF), a low-power WDXRF, and a bench-top energy dispersive instrument (EDXRF). The data obtained show quite clearly the large difference in sensitivities between instruments. This translates into varying lower limits of detection (LLD) or quantification and sample throughput. For quantitative analysis well above the LLD, the accuracy of the results obtained on the different instruments is similar, or — for practical purposes of quality control in many applications — the differences in accuracy between the different instruments can be considered insignificant. Most of the applications and methods developed by a variety of laboratories and regulatory organizations are applicable to specimens of a specified nature and matrix. Some of the more versatile procedures include a method to account for differences in matrix between standard reference materials and unknowns. One of the effects that is usually neglected in this case is the wedge effect, which is caused by the fact that the volume that is excited by the beam and the volume from which characteristic radiation can be observed are not the same and vary (for a given spectrometer system) depending upon the density and the quantity of the sample. This effect will be illustrated and discussed.


Bottlenose dolphins Tursiops truncatus are amongst the best-known cetaceans. In the Mediterranean Sea, however, modern field studies of cetaceans did not start until the late 1980s. Bottlenose dolphins have been studied only in relatively small portions of the basin, and wide areas remain largely unexplored. 2. This paper reviews the ecology, behaviour, interactions with fisheries and conservation status of Mediterranean bottlenose dolphins, and identifies threats likely to have affected them in historical and recent times. 3. Whilst intentional killing was probably the most important cause of mortality until the 1960s, important ongoing threats include incidental mortality in fishing gear and the reduced availability of key prey caused by overfishing and environmental degradation throughout the region. Additional potential or likely threats include the toxic effects of xenobiotic chemicals, epizootic outbreaks, direct disturbance from boating and shipping, noise, and the con- sequences of climate change. 4. The flexible social organization and opportunistic diet and behaviour of bottlenose dol- phins may allow them to withstand at least some of the effects of overfishing and habitat degradation. However, dolphin abundance is thought to have declined considerably in the region and management measures are needed to prevent further decline. 5. Management strategies that could benefit bottlenose dolphins, such as sustainable fishing, curbing marine pollution and protecting biodiversity, are already embedded in legislation and treaties. Compliance with those existing commitments and obligations should be given high priority.


Stochastic And-Or grammars compactly represent both compositionality and re-configurability and have been used to model different types of data such as images and events. We present a unified formalization of stochastic And-Or grammars that is agnostic to the type of the data being modeled, and propose an unsupervised approach to learning the structures as well as the parameters of such grammars. Starting from a trivial initial grammar, our approach iteratively induces compositions and reconfigurations in a unified manner and optimizes the posterior probability of the grammar. In our empirical evaluation, we applied our approach to learning event grammars and image grammars and achieved comparable or better performance than previous approaches.


The work of Alois Riegl (1858-1905) has been highly influential in art history of the modern age. Riegl, the most important member of the so-called Vienna School, developed a refined technique of visual or formal analysis that departed from the iconological method, which emphasized decoding motifs through recourse to texts. Riegl also pioneered understanding of the changing role of the viewer, the significance of non-high art objects (or what would now be called visual or material culture), and theories of art and art history, including his much-debated neologism Kunstwollen (the will of art). His major works include Foundations for a History of Ornament, Late Roman Art Industry, and The Group Portraiture of Holland. Riegl's Historical Grammar of the Visual Arts, which brings together the diverse threads of his thought, is now available to an English-language audience, in a masterful translation by Jacqueline E. Jung. In one of the earliest and perhaps the most brilliant of all art historical surveys, Riegl addresses the different visual arts within a sweeping conception of the history of culture. His account derives from Hegelian models but decisively opens onto alternative pathways that continue to complicate attempts to reduce art merely to the artist's intentions or its social and historical functions.


A momentum management tool was designed for the Dawn low-thrust interplanetary spacecraft en route to the asteroids Vesta and Ceres, in an effort to better understand the early creation of the solar system. Momentum must be managed to ensure the spacecraft has enough control authority to perform necessary turns and hold a fixed inertial attitude against external torques. Along with torques from solar pressure and gravity-gradients, ion-propulsion engines produce a torque about the thrust axis that must be countered by the four reaction wheel assemblies (RWA). MomProf is a ground operations tool built to address these concerns. The momentum management tool was developed during initial checkout and early cruise, and has been refined to accommodate a wide range of momentum-management issues. With every activity or sequence, wheel speeds and momentum state must be checked to avoid undesirable conditions and use of consumables. MomProf was developed to operate in the MATLAB environment. All data are loaded into MATLAB as a structure to provide consistent access to all inputs by individual functions within the tool. Used in its most basic application, the Dawn momentum tool uses the basic principle of angular momentum conservation, computing momentum in the body frame, and RWA wheel speeds, for all given orientations in the input file. MomProf was designed specifically to be able to handle the changing external torques and frequent de - saturations. Incorporating significant external torques adds complexity since there are various external torques that act under different operational modes.


Background/aims Leukodystrophies due to abnormal production of myelin cause extensive morbidity in early life; their genetic background is still largely unknown. We aimed at reaching a molecular diagnosis in Ashkenazi-Jewish patients who suffered from developmental regression at 6–13 months, leukodystrophy and peripheral neuropathy. Methods Exome analysis, determination of alkaline ceramidase activity catalysing the conversion of C18:1-ceramide to sphingosine and D-ribo-C12-N-(7-nitrobenz-2-oxa-1,3-diazol-4-yl) (NBD)-phytoceramide to NBD-C12-fatty acid using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) and thin layer chromatography, respectively, and sphingolipid analysis in patients' blood by LC-MS/MS. Results The patients were homozygous for p.E33G in the ACER3, which encodes a C18:1-alkaline ceramidase and C20:1-alkaline ceramidase. The mutation abolished ACER3 catalytic activity in the patients' cells and failed to restore alkaline ceramidase activity in yeast mutant strain. The levels of ACER3 substrates, C18:1-ceramides and dihydroceramides and C20:1-ceramides and dihydroceramides and other long-chain ceramides and dihydroceramides were markedly increased in the patients' plasma, along with that of complex sphingolipids, including monohexosylceramides and lactosylceramides. Conclusions Homozygosity for the p.E33G mutation in the ACER3 gene results in inactivation of ACER3, leading to the accumulation of various sphingolipids in blood and probably in brain, likely accounting for this new form of childhood leukodystrophy.


This paper uses the notion of algorithmic stability to derive novel generalization bounds for several families of transductive regression algorithms, both by using convexity and closed-form solutions. Our analysis helps compare the stability of these algorithms. It suggests that several existing algorithms might not be stable but prescribes a technique to make them stable. It also reports the results of experiments with local transductive regression demonstrating the benefit of our stability bounds for model selection, in particular for determining the radius of the local neighborhood used by the algorithm.


The River Murray and the Coorong in Australia have been in a state of decline. With the prospect of extended droughts and shifts in inflows due to climate change, difficult choices loom. The options include halting the decline, triage of some assets along the River or staying with the declining river system. To support decision-making, a survey was designed to elicit willingness to pay for improvements in environmental quality. Over 3000 Australians responded to this survey. The study focuses on key River Murray environmental quality indicators: the frequency of bird breeding along the River Murray, increasing native fish populations in the River Murray, increasing the area of healthy vegetation along the River Murray, and restoring water bird habitat in the Coorong. State/Territory models were jointly estimated using a panel multinomial logit error-components model. Willingness to pay estimates for improvements in environmental quality were calculated for the River Murray and the Coorong. Respondents were found to be willing to pay most for the Coorong and to improve waterbird breeding frequency. Respondents from the Australian Capital Territory were found to have significantly higher willingness to pay whereas those in Victoria had a significantly lower willingness to pay than respondents in other states.


This guide is aimed at all built environment educators, showing what the key issues are in terms of improving health
understanding in the built environment professions. It will explain the relevance, show how the built environment impacts on health and its implications for education
and provide examples of good practice in teaching.
By making these connections, graduates should be emerging into the workplace with a good understanding of the health
impacts of their professional work and be equipped with techniques and examples to help them deliver healthier places in the future.
The guide draws on the work of the Education Network for Healthier Settlements, a group of built environment
educators from the UK and beyond who are developing ways to reconnect health and the built environment in the
professions.


Enhancing Undergraduate Learning with Information Technology reports on a meeting of scientists, policy makers, and researchers convened to discuss new approaches to undergraduate science, mathematics, and technology education. The goal of the workshop was to inform workshop participants and the public about issues surrounding the use of information technology in education. To reach this goal, the workshop participants paid particular attention to the following issues: What educational technologies currently exist and how they are being used to transform undergraduate science, engineering, mathematics, and technology education; What is known about the potential future impact of information technology on teaching and learning at the undergraduate level; How to evaluate the impact of information technology on teaching and learning; and What the future might hold.


Central to the DNA damage response (DDR) is the highly conserved Mre11 complex consisting of Mre11, Rad50, and Nbs1. The Mre11 complex acts as a sensor of DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) and regulates the signal transduction cascades that are triggered following damage detection1. Rare human genetic instability syndromes such as Ataxia-telangiectasia (A-T) and Nijmegen Breakage Syndrome (NBS) have underscored the importance of the DSB response in the suppression of tumorigenesis, as well as other severe pathologies affecting the development of both the immune system and the central nervous system. Using murine models of the human diseases, we have investigated the role of the Mre11 complex, and other modulators of the DSB response, in tumor suppression2, 3. We found that the checkpoint kinase Chk2 is crucial for the suppression of a diverse array of tumor types in Mre11 complex mutants and uncovered multiple roles for the Mre11 complex in apoptotic signaling in parallel to Chk24, 5.


Improvements in Fourier Transform Mass Spectrometry (FT-MS) enable increasingly more complex experiments in the field of metabolomics. What is directly detected in FT-MS spectra are spectral features (peaks) that correspond to sets of adducted and charged forms of specific molecules in the sample. The robust assignment of these features is an essential step for MS-based metabolomics experiments, but the sheer complexity of what is detected and a variety of analytically-introduced variance, errors, and artifacts has hindered the systematic analysis of complex patterns of observed peaks with respect to isotope content. We have devel-oped a method called SMIRFE that detect small biomolecules and determines their elemental molecular formula (EMF) using de-tected sets of isotopologue peaks sharing the same EMF. SMIRFE does not use a database of known metabolite formulas, instead a nearly comprehensive search space of all isotopologues within a mass range is constructed and used for assignment. This search space can be tailored for different isotope labeling patterns expected in different stable isotope tracing experiments. Using consumer-level computing equipment, a large search space of 2000 daltons was constructed and assignment performance was evaluated and validated using verified assignments on a pair of peak lists derived from spectra containing unlabeled and 15N-labeled versions of amino acids derivatized using ethylchloroformate. SMIRFE identified 18 of 18 predicted derivatized EMFs and each assignment was evaluated statistically and assigned an e-value representing the probability to occur by chance.


1 Correspondence to: Yahya Aktu, Department of Social Services and Counseling, Siirt University, Eruh, Siirt Turkey. Email: email@example.com 2 Department of Educational Sciences, Faculty of Education, Gaziosmanpaşa University, Tokat Turkey. Email: email@example.com Citation: Aktu, Y., & İlhan, T. (2017). Individuals' life structures in the early adulthood period based on Levinson's theory. Educational Sciences: Theory & Practice, 17, 1383–1403. http://dx.doi.org/10.12738/estp.2017.4.0001 Abstract Early adulthood is one of the important milestones considered within lifelong development in the relevant literature. Adulthood is examined through various theories; however, universality of many of these is still being discussed. One of these theories is Levinson's theory of life structure. Thus, the current research aims to examine the extent to which Levinson's theory of individual life structure is valid in Turkish society. The current study, with a qualitative design, was based on phenomenology approach. Participants were selected through maximum variation sampling among purposive sampling methods. Participants included 28 young adults living in seven geographically different regions. Data collection was conducted with The Form of Individual Life Structure Evaluation developed by researchers. Data were analyzed through content analysis in NVivo8.0 software. Through content analysis, self-representation and social relationships themes were obtained based on life structure category. Current research results showed that participants accomplished the tasks of modifying their life structures in a transitional period (ages 28-33 and 40-45) of their lives and the tasks of preserving their life structures in a building period (ages 34-39) of their lives. The findings indicated that participants in a transitional period built change-oriented metaphors and those in a building period built stability-oriented metaphors.


It is increasingly more interesting to the Companies to understand the relationship existing between perceived importance and performance of information systems within their companies. The purpose of this paper is to explore the perception of the importance of attributes of information systems and whether the performance of information systems met the users' expectations in Azam company in Dar es salaam. Anonymous and self-administered questionnaires were distributed to 217 respondents. A total of 185 usable responses were received, resulting in a response rate of 85.3% which was considered satisfactory for subsequent analysis. Using an end-user satisfaction survey, It was discovered that the end-users were moderately satisfied with the company's IS performance and that there were gaps between importance and performance on all the systems-related attributes studied. The largest gap pertained to the attributes Understanding Systems and Documentation. The contribution of the study is in advancing Importance-Performance Analysis applicable to IS research. Keywords : Information Systems Performance, Information Systems Importance, End-user Satisfaction


This paper reports that the U.S. Bureau of Mines conducted experiments for predicting materials' ease of combustion (smoldering onset, smoldering, flaming, and decomposition rates) by means of submicrometer smoke particle characteristics for the development of a simple test method. The experiments were carried out in an approximately 20-L furnace, with a 10-L/min airflow through the furnace for a 14-min duration, and set furnace temperatures of 150, 250, and 1,000{degrees}C. The variables studied as a function of time were the onset time of smoke particles, time and duration of maximum smoke particle generation, average concentration of smoke particles, and particles' average diameter, mass weight loss, and furnace temperatures. Results show that the onset time of smoke particles is predictive of materials' ease of smoldering, and the time of maximum smoke particle generation and its duration, coupled with mass weight loss, are predictive of materials' ease of smoldering and flaming (depending on the experimental temperatures), and decomposition rates.


Intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) occurs rarely in term infant, since subependymal area is a transient structure in fetal life. IVH in term infant indicates generally that it happened prenatally. Congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is frequent, occurring in 1% of live births. It is a severe infection leading to developmental defects, especially sensorineural deafness. The diagnosis of congenital CMV infection is rarely evoked in term eutrophic newborn. We report a term male neonate born to a 32-year-old mother gravida 2, para 2. Pregnancy was uneventful. Ultrasound follow-up was unmarked. The newborn was eutrophic, birth weight was 3400g, length was 49cm, and head circumference 33cm. Neonatal examination showed no anomalies. On the first day of life, blood cells count performed for suspected materno-fetal infection discovered fortuitous thrombocytopenia at 30 x 109/L. Within the second day of life, platelet level dropped to 20 x 109/L. Management of thrombocytopenia included multiple platelet transfusion. Cranial ultrasound on day one of life showed bilateral subependymal hemorrhage with cysts (A) and hydrocephaly (B), signs of prenatal occurrence. Platelet phenotypage rules out the diagnosis of allo-immune thrombocytopenia. Laboratory testing for rubella was negative. Blood PCR CMV was positive. Liver function tests noted the absence of hepatic cytolysis and cholestasis. The newborn received intravenous Ganciclovir® therapy. Hearing screening before discharge was negative. Bilateral deafness was diagnosed at 3 months of life.


Children who are abused suffer greatly, and a society in which abuse takes place is considerably diminished. Child abuse prevention programs play an important role in crime prevention, because not only is abuse a criminal activity, children who are abused are at greater risk of engaging in antisocial and criminal behaviour later in life. Child abuse prevention is a complex and sensitive policy area involving all three levels of government as well as many different community organisations. Early intervention which results in more positive parent-child interaction has been demonstrated to have significant benefits for vulnerable children and for society as a whole. Benefits may continue as the child matures, and can lead to improved health and better employment opportunities. This paper describes a number of programs that have been shown to work. They range from parenting and anger management programs to multifaceted in-house services. This paper complements Trends and Issues No 146 Child Abuse and Neglect: Part 1 - Redefining the Issues which was published in February 2000. Adam Graycar Director Defining Child Abuse Prevention Prevention of child abuse and neglect involves taking action to stop abuse before it occurs, or intervening after the abuse has occurred to stop the abuse continuing and to help those who have been abused. The prevention of child abuse and neglect has traditionally been approached on three levels. Primary prevention refers to programs targeted at the whole community (both children and adults) with the aim of preventing abuse before it starts. These programs include mass media campaigns or personal safety /protective behaviour programs. Examples include media campaigns such as those conducted in Child Protection Week each year by the National Association for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (NAPCAN) as well as the distribution of information materials and training programs for professionals and community groups. Primary prevention includes programs which target the entire community via universal health and welfare programs. Home visiting programs which provide antenatal care for whole populations are an example. Secondary Prevention also refers to programs designed to prevent abuse, but in this case the programs target specific sections of the child population considered to be more "at risk" of being abused, and specific sections of the adult population considered to be more "at risk" of abusing. Examples of such programs are: home visitation for "at risk" groups, young parent support services, isolated single parent support services and respite services including crisis care. Many of these programs also accept clients referred by statutory child protection services. However, such referrals plus an overall lack of resources in the child welfare systems have led to a reduction in secondary prevention programs (Tomison 1997). Tertiary prevention programs refer to prevention initiatives aimed at preventing the recurrence of abuse in those families where children have already been abused. These range from in-depth parental education (some compulsory) to the protection of children by the provision of out-of-home care for parental respite or the removal of the children from the families. Reconceptualising Child Abuse Prevention It is, however, becoming increasingly difficult to separate child abuse prevention into separate categories. While the classification of programs into primary, secondary and tertiary prevention may be useful for the purpose of research and government administration, artificial distinctions between programs are not reflected in the realities of case management (Rayner 1995; Tomison 1997). As suggested by Calvert (1993, p. 14): If child abuse is viewed as a continuum, the classification of a particular type of intervention as primary, secondary or tertiary prevention depends largely on its timing - on the point along the continuum at which that intervention occurs. …


The main objective of this paper is to carefully study the fields induced in flasks exposed to RF electromagnetic fields. The study focuses on the widely used 60 mm Petri dishes and rectangular T‐75 flasks for the two following cases: 1) cells in homogeneous suspension and 2) cell monolayers. The dependence of the coupling and the homogeneity of the SAR distribution on frequency (0.7 GHz to 2.5 GHz), polarization (E, H and k polarizations) and the amount of medium (1.9 mm to 4.7 mm medium height) is studied. In addition, the effects of the environment, meniscus and field impedance as well as the distortion of the incident field are discussed. Based on these results, advantages and disadvantages of different fundamental designs of apparatus used in the past are compared. These are TEM cells, HF chambers, radial transmission lines (RTL), waveguides and wire patch cells. Furthermore, the major optimization parameters are identified for the development of highly optimized exposure systems, enabling the conduct of high quality experiments. Bioelectromagnetics 22:547–559, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Core strategies for creating a corporate reputation that will provide a competitive advantage in the marketplace: a back-to-basics approach.What does a company have to do to be admired and respected? Why does Apple have a better reputation than, say, Samsung? In Winning the Reputation Game, Grahame Dowling explains. Companies' reputations do not derive from consultant-recommended campaigns to showcase efforts at corporate transparency, environmental sustainability, or social responsibility. Companies are admired and respected because they are ?simply better? than their competitors. Companies that focus on providing outstanding goods and services are rewarded with a strong reputation that helps them gain competitive advantage.Dowling, who has studied corporate reputation?building for thirty years, describes two core strategies for creating a corporate reputation that will provide a competitive advantage: to be known for being Best at Something or for being Best for Somebody. Apple, for example, is best at personal technology products that enhance people's lifestyles. IKEA is best for people who want well-designed furniture at affordable prices. Dowling covers such topics as the commercial value of a strong reputations?including good employees, repeat customers, and strong share price; how corporate reputations are formed; the power of ?being simply better?; the effectiveness of corporate storytelling (for good or ill; Kenneth Lay of Enron was a master storyteller); and keeping out of trouble.Drawing on many real-world examples, Dowling shows how companies that are perceived to be better than their competitors build strong reputations that reflect past success and promise more of the same. Companies that artificially engineer a reputation with irrelevant activities but have stopped providing the best products and services available often wind up with mediocre?or worse?reputations.


Ellen Shore's family is an ordinary American family, and Ellen is six years old when her brother Al is born. Her parents are very pleased to have a son, but Ellen is not pleased, because now baby Al comes first. And when they are adults, Al still comes first. He begins a rock band and makes records. Soon he is rich and famous - very rich, but he gives nothing to his sister Ellen. She has a difficult life, with three young kids and very little money. And she learns to hate her rich, famous, unkind brother ...


This paper addresses the selection of smoothing parameters for estimating the average treatment effect on the treated using matching methods. Because precise estimation of the expected counterfactual is particularly important in regions containing the mass of the treated units, we define and implement weighted cross-validation approaches that improve over conventional methods by considering the location of the treated units in the selection of the smoothing parameters. We also implement a locally varying bandwidth method that uses larger bandwidths in areas where the mass of the treated units is located. A Monte Carlo study compares our proposed methods to the conventional unweighted method and to a related method inspired by BERGEMANN et al. [2005]. The Monte Carlo analysis indicates efficiency gains from all methods that take account of the location of the treated units. We also apply all five methods to bandwidth selection in the context of the data from LALONDE'S [1986] study of the performance of non-experimental estimators using the experimental data from the National Supported Work (NSW) Demonstration program as a benchmark. Overall, both the Monte Carlo analysis and the empirical application show feasible precision gains for the weighted cross-validation and the locally varying bandwidth approaches.


Nucleotide polymorphisms in two North American balsam poplars (Populus trichocarpa Torr. & Gray and P. balsamifera L.; section Tacamahaca), and one Eurasian aspen (P. tremula L.; section Populus) were compared using nine loci involved in defense, stress response, photoperiodism, freezing tolerance, and house- keeping. Nucleotide diversity varied among species and was highest for P. tremula (hw = 0.005, pT = 0.007) as compared to P. balsamifera (hw = 0.004, pT = 0.005) or P. trichocarpa (hw = 0.002, pT = 0.003). Across species, the defense and the stress response loci accounted for the majority of the observed level of nucleotide diversity. In general, the studied loci did not deviate from neutral expectation either at the individual locus (non-significant normalized Fay and Wu's H) or at the multi-locus level (non- significant HKA test). Using molecular clock analysis, sec- tion Tacamahaca probably shared a common ancestor with section Populus approximately 4.5 million year ago. Divergence between the two closely related balsam poplars was about 0.8 million years ago, a pattern consistent with an isolation-with-migration (IM) model. As expected, P. tremula showed a five-fold higher substitution rate (2 9 10 -8 substitution/site/year) compared to the North American species (0.4 9 10 -8 substitution/site/year), probably reflecting its complex demographic history. Link- age disequilibrium (LD) varied among species with a more rapid decay in the North American species (\400 bp) in comparison to P. tremula (� 400 bp). The similarities in nucleotide diversity pattern and LD decay of the two balsam poplar species likely reflects the recent time of their divergence.


A theoretical model of shape-anisometric particles embedded in a cubic lattice is formulated for binary mixtures combining rod-like, plate-like and spherical particles. The model aims at providing a tool for the prediction and interpretation of complex phase behavior in a variety of liquid crystalline colloids, biological and macromolecular systems. Introducing just repulsive interactions among the particles, a rich variety of phase structures and multiphasic equilibria is obtained, including isotropic, nematic, lamellar and columnar phases, demixing into phases of the same or different symmetries and structural microsegregation of the different species of the mixture within the same phase.


In industries like health care, public transport or call centers a shift-based system ensures permanent availability of employees for covering needed services. The resource allocation problem - assigning employees to shifts - is known as personnel scheduling in literature and often aims at minimizing staffing costs. Working in shifts, though, impacts employees' private lives which adds to the problem of increasing staff shortage in recent years. Therefore, more and more effort is spent on incorporating fairness into scheduling approaches in order to increase employees' satisfaction. This paper presents a literature review of approaches for personnel scheduling considering fairness aspects. Since fairness is not a quantitative objective, but can be evaluated from different point of views, a large number of fairness measurements exists in the literature. Furthermore, perspective (group vs individual fairness) or time horizon (short-term vs long-term fairness) are often considered very differently. To conclude, we show that a uniform definition and approach for considering fairness in personnel scheduling is challenging and point out gaps for future research.


Using fluid-gravity correspondence, we determine the (linearized) stress energy tensor of $\mathcal{N}=4$ super-Yang-Mills theory at strong coupling with all orders in derivatives of fluid velocity included. We find that the dissipative effects are fully encoded in the shear term and a new one, which emerges starting from the third order. We derive, for the first time, closed linear holographic renormalization group flow-type equations for (generalized) momenta-dependent viscosity functions. In the hydrodynamic regime, we obtain the stress tensor up to third order in derivative expansion analytically. We then numerically determine the viscosity functions up to large momenta. As a check of our results, we also derive the generalized Navier-Stokes equations from the Einstein equations in the dual gravity.


Drought is defined as inadequate soil moisture to support crop growth and normal yield. The degree of drought for a given location depends on the crop, rainfall and its distribution, soil type, and various management practices. Drought occurs frequently in Tamilnadu—some part of the state experiences drought every year. The state of Tamilnadu is located in the southernmost tip of peninsular India. It lies between 8°5" and 13°35" latitude north and 76°15" and 80°20" longitude east, covering an area of 0.13 million km 2 and including a long coastline (about 1,000 km). The mean annual rainfall is 945 mm, with 45 rainy days. The state benefits from northeast monsoon rains (October– December), unlike other parts of India, where southwest monsoons (June– September) bring more rain. In Tamilnadu, 85% of the total area benefits from the northeast monsoon; only 15% benefits from the southwest monsoon. Potential evaporation always exceeds rainfall in most (8-10) months each year. The severity of drought depends on the type of soil prevalent in a region. It was once thought that farmers, through generations of experience, could learn to live with the limitations of their local climatic conditions through trial and error. That is no longer true. Modern agriculture requires precise information on rainfall and on floodand drought-prone areas. It is now clear that to obtain maximum yields, a proper knowledge of agroclimatic conditions is necessary to plan the most effective cropping system for different areas. With this idea in mind, the state of Tamilnadu has been classified into drought-prone areas, based on precipitation, potential evaporation, and soil type, so that a suitable crop plan may be developed for each area.


The state-of-the-art British-sponsored fasttrack assessment of the global impacts of climate change, a major input to the much-heralded Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change, indicates that through the year 2100, the contribution of climate change to human health and environmental threats will generally be overshadowed by factors not related to climate change. Hence, climate change is unlikely to be the world's most important environmental problem of the 21st century.
Analysis using both the Stern Review and the fast-track assessment reveals that notwithstanding climate change, for the foreseeable future, human and environmental well-being will be highest under the "richest-but-warmest" scenario and lower for the poorer (lower-carbon) scenarios. The developing world's future wellbeing should exceed present levels by several-fold under each scenario, even exceeding present wellbeing in today's developed world under all but the poorest scenario. Accordingly, equity-based arguments, which hold that present generations should divert scarce resources from today's urgent problems to solve potential problems of tomorrow's wealthier generations, are unpersuasive.
Halting climate change would reduce cumulative mortality from various climate-sensitive threats, namely, hunger, malaria, and coastal flooding, by 4-10 percent in 2085, while increasing populations at risk from water stress and possibly worsening matters for biodiversity. But according to cost information from the UN Millennium Program and the IPCC, measures focused specifically on reducing vulnerability to these threats would reduce cumulative mortality from these risks by 50-75 percent at a fraction of the cost of reducing greenhouse gases (GHGs). Simultaneously, such measures would reduce major hurdles to the developing world's sustainable economic development, the lack of which is why it is most vulnerable to climate change.
The world can best combat climate change and advance well-being, particularly of the world's most vulnerable populations, by reducing present-day vulnerabilities to climate-sensitive problems that could be exacerbated by climate change rather than through overly aggressive GHG reductions.


Background. The tackle is an important component of rugby union. The tackle situation carries the  highest risk for injury for both the ball carrier and tackler. Little is known about the epidemiology of tackle injuries in koshuis rugby players. Objectives . To (i) calculate the tackle-related injury rate, (ii) determine if the tackler or ball carrier is more susceptible to injury, and (iii) determine the most common location and type of injury during tackles. Methods . Data were collected by means of injury report forms from the medical centre during koshuis matches of 2012 and 2013. All data collected were captured into an online database. Only data related to tackle injuries were evaluated for this retrospective, descriptive epidemiological study. Results . The tackle led to 61% of all injuries (11.4 injuries/1 000 playing hours). The tackler sustained 23% more injuries than the ball carrier. Injuries to the face (3.1 injuries/1 000 playing hours, 95%  confidence interval (CI) 2.8 - 3.3) were most prevalent. The most common type of injury was lacerations (3.4 injuries/1 000 playing hours, 95% CI 3.2 - 3.7). Conclusion . The tackle contributed to 61% of all injuries, making it the most dangerous phase of play. The tackler is more at risk than the ball carrier, especially for injuries to the face, with lacerations having the highest prevalence. For the ball carrier the location of the most injuries was the head, although joint sprains were the most common type of injury for the ball carrier.


This essay treats the Gothic mode, an ever popular genre of literature. It begins its investigation with Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto. It considers the question of the genre's origin, the reasoning which led to the birth of the Gothic mode. It asks whether the Gothic offered any innovations when it came to be, and whether it is still innovative. It proposes answers to the question of what the Gothic genre is – whether it is a real literary genre – and offers support for the opinion that it is a true and independent genre that offers unique possibilities available in few other genres. It answers the question of what is needed for a narrative to be considered Gothic. It further analyzes and shows how the term "Gothic" is applicable to the genre. The discourse also considers and shows the relevance of the following concepts to the genre: the sublime, abjection, setting, and decay. It shows the central import of the sublime to the Gothic by examples; abjection is shown to be the foundation of the horror of Gothic; the importance of the setting and its execution is treated. It is suggested that decay is inherent in the genre's content and the progression of its narrative. Finally, it attempts to prove that if any of the factors treated are missing in a narrative it does not fulfil the qualifications set here to belong in the Gothic mode.


In this work, the synthesis of iron oxide nanoparticles (NPs) was done by the extract of Ramalina sinensis. Co-precipitation method was usedto synthesize the nano-particles, which is very fast, low cost, and eco-friendly. For the green synthesis of the iron oxide nanoparticles, the distilled extract of Ramalina sinensiswas utilized. Also, to confirm the synthesis of the nanoparticles, some techniques such as UV-Vis spectrophotometry, XRD, FT-IR, and FESEMEDX were used. In addition the antimicrobial activity of biosynthetic magnetite nanoparticles against bacterial strainswas evaluated. The uniform spherical nature of the iron oxide nanoparticles with the particle size 31.74 to 53.91 nm was observed in the FESEM images. In the spectrum obtained from the spectrophotometer, the peak at 310±5 nm indicated the electron transfer from oxygen to the iron. The iron oxide NPs depicted effective antibacterial probably against Gram-positive bacteria Staphylococcus aureusand Gram-negative bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Based on the obtained results, it can be stated that the powerful approach of green synthesis of magnetic iron oxide NPs using Ramalina sinensis has led to producingthe nanoparticles with high antimicrobial potential.


Evaluation of solar energy as a potential substitute for fossil fuels and identification of the time phase in which solar technology may become a significant part of the energy supply mix are constrained by the characteristic uncertainties of solar energy inputs, the developmental status of solar technology, and the evolution of other energy supply alternatives. The numerous variables within the spectrum of attainable solar energy conversion performance allow a variety of approaches to the assessment of its utility. This interim effort identified the options that are now (1978-1979) most viable for solar energy exploitation in Central Europe, and the economic, as well as technical parameters of these options. In spite of the large number of contemporary concepts for the use of solar energy, a correlation with prototype data was made wherever possible to maximize the usefulness of the results. Nevertheless, the rapidly advancing research and development in solar technology, and the possibilities of significant breakthroughs in energy conversion and storage, necessitate the qualification "interim study" as an overall descriptor for this work.


The prospects of a sixteen-year-old West African girl with no money, education, or experience might seem pretty depressing. But if she's got a hell of a lot of nerve and a knack for finding the funny side in even the worst situations, she just might triumph over her circumstances. Our heroine Hawa does, and she did. In the 1970s, John Chernoff recorded the story of her life as an "ashawo," or bar girl, making a living on gifts from men and her own quick wits, and here presents it in "Hustling Is Not Stealing," one of the most remarkable "autobiographies" you will ever encounter. What might have been a sad tale of hardship and exploitation turns instead into a fascinating send-up of life in modern Africa, thanks to Hawa's smarts, savvy, and ear for telling just the right story to make her point. Through her wide-open and knowing eyes, we get an inside view of what life is really like for young people in West Africa. We spy on nightlife scenes of sex and deception; we see how modern-minded youth deal with life in the cities in villages; and we share the sweet and sometimes silly friendships formed in the streets and bars. But mostly we come to know Hawa and how she has navigated a life that few can even imagine. The first of two funny, poignant volumes, "Hustling" starts with an in-depth introduction by Chernoff to Hawa's Africa. From there the book traces her remarkable transformation from a playful warrior struggling against her circumstances to an insightful trickster enjoying and taking advantage of them as best she can. Part coming-of-age story, part ethnography, and all compulsively readable, "Hustling Is Not Stealing" is a rare book that educates as thoroughly as it entertains. "You can see some people outside, and you will think they are enjoying, but they are suffering. Every time in some nightclub, you will see a girl dressed nicely, and she's dancing, she's happy. You will say, 'Ah! This girl!' You don't know what problem she has got. Some people say that this life, it's unto us. It's unto us? Yeah, it's unto me, but sometimes it's not unto me. When I was growing up, I didn't feel like doing all these things. There is not any girl who will wake up as a young girl and say, 'As for me, when I grow up, I want to be ashawo, to go with everybody.' Not any girl will think of this." from the book Winner - 2004 Victor Turner Prize in Ethnographic Writing"


The French produce 80 percent of Europe's oyster crop and eat almost one hundred thousand tons of the delicacy a year, but the country's love affair with this bivalve mollusk is being tested by a recent scientific development. By crossing a natural oyster with a laboratory-produced variety, scientists have created a sterile version known as a tetraploid. As a result, the new oyster does not reproduce which allows it to have the same taste and aspect all year round so defying the old adage that one should eat oysters only during the months that have an r in their names. This break with tradition raises a host of questions concerning how consumers will react to such a development. Those who are against the new, year-round mollusk feel that it sacrifices the noble oyster on the altar of convenience foods while those in favour believe the development could breathe new life into a market that risks stagnating. With this in mind, a research team from Audencia Nantes, one of France's top business schools, set out to gauge French oyster eaters' reaction to the tetraploid. Using an approach involving psychology, marketing, sociology, and anthropology, the researchers carried out in-depth individual interviews and group meetings based on tasting sessions which give an insight into what makes the oyster consumer tick.


We consider the task of enforcing individual fairness in gradient boosting. Gradient boosting is a popular method for machine learning from tabular data, which arise often in applications where algorithmic fairness is a concern. At a high level, our approach is a functional gradient descent on a (distributionally) robust loss function that encodes our intuition of algorithmic fairness for the ML task at hand. Unlike prior approaches to individual fairness that only work with smooth ML models, our approach also works with non-smooth models such as decision trees. We show that our algorithm converges globally and generalizes. We also demonstrate the efficacy of our algorithm on three ML problems susceptible to algorithmic bias.


Using both national-sample and program-level census survey data, we evaluate the distributional power of Mexico's Programa Nacional de Educacion, Salud y Alimentacion (PROGRESA) transfers using the so-called distributional characteristic.These transfers are targeted both geographically at marginal localities and at poor households within these localities. Transfers are also conditioned on household members attending school and health clinics. We show that the program has a relatively high distributional power compared to a range of alternatives considered. Although geographic targeting has a relatively large effect on the distributional power of the program, the demographic structure of transfers is more important than household targeting. However, the gains from household targeting increase as the program expands into less marginal localities. Within the structure of transfers, the education component is distributionally more powerful than the food component, reflecting the fact that the former is based on household demographics, while the latter is uniform across households. Restructuring education grants towards secondary schooling in order to generate higher education impacts does not appear to affect the distributional power of the program. In any case, any adverse impact could be offset by increasing the cap on transfers, which is regressive. Take-up of the program is high but relatively higher among the poorest households, thus increasing distributional power. However, this effect is mitigated by the fact that, conditional on program take-up, the poorest households take up a relatively lower proportion of potential transfers.


The ABC protein P-glycoprotein (Pgp or ABCB1) is a multidrug efflux pump capable of transporting many structurally diverse substrates from within the lipid bilayer. Previous studies have demonstrated the importance of the membrane in modulating Pgp function, but few have quantified these effects. We employed purified Pgp reconstituted into phospholipid bilayers with defined gel to liquid-crystalline melting transitions to investigate the effect of membrane environment on the transporter and three of its substrates. Equilibrium dialysis measurements indicated that Hoechst 33342, LDS-751, and MK-571 partitioned much more readily into liquid-crystalline phase bilayers than into gel phase bilayers. However, drug binding affinities revealed that Pgp bound the three substrates more tightly when the lipid bilayer was in the gel phase. The binding affinity of the transporter for substrates within the bilayer was low, in the millimolar range, suggesting that it interacts with them weakly. Thermodynamic analysis revealed that both drug-Pgp and drug-lipid interactions contribute to binding affinity. The kinetics of LDS-751 and Hoechst 33342 transport by reconstituted Pgp was monitored using a real-time fluorescence-based assay to obtain apparent turnover frequencies. Transport rates were found to be sensitive to both drug structure and lipid environment. Arrhenius and transition state analysis of transport rates suggested that the rate of drug transport depends on both the affinity of Pgp for substrate and protein conformational changes. Transport rates did not appear to be limited exclusively by the rate of ATP hydrolysis and may be partially controlled by the rate of drug dissociation.


The signal processor packaging design (SPPD) general-purpose digital signal processor (DSP) architecture is discussed. SPPD is a highly modular processor architecture that is based on off-the-shelf components and that supports a multichip module (MCM) design implementation that delivers 400 million floating-point operations per second in a 75-g package. The interconnect-substrate design, MCM package assembly, MCM testing, and tradeoffs in size, weight, and cost of the SPPD packaging are described.<<ETX>>


For fixed integers $p$ and $q$, an edge coloring of $K_n$ is called a $(p, q)$-coloring if the edges of $K_n$ in every subset of $p$ vertices are colored with at least $q$ distinct colors. Let $f(n, p, q)$ be the smallest number of colors needed for a $(p, q)$-coloring of $K_n$. In [3] Erdős and Gyarfas studied this function if $p$ and $q$ are fixed and $n$ tends to infinity. They determined for every $p$ the smallest $q$ ($= {p \choose 2} - p + 3$) for which $f(n,p,q)$ is linear in $n$ and the smallest $q$ for which $f(n,p,q)$ is quadratic in $n$. They raised the question whether perhaps this is the only $q$ value which results in a linear $f(n,p,q)$. In this paper we study the behavior of $f(n,p,q)$ between the linear and quadratic orders of magnitude. In particular we show that that we can have at most $\log p$ values of $q$ which give a linear $f(n,p,q)$.


DNS resolvers are vulnerable to many attacks on their network
communication, ranging from blind attacks to full men-in-the-middle.
Although a full man-in-the-middle can only be countered with
cryptography, there are many layers of defenses which apply to less
powerful attackers. Of particular interest are defenses which only
require changing the DNS resolvers, not the authoritative servers or
the DNS protocols. This document begins with a taxonomy of attacker
capabilities and desires, and then discusses defenses against classes
of attackers, including detecting non-disruptive attacks, entropy
budgeting, detecting entropy stripping, semantics of duplication, and
cache policies to eliminate "race-until-win" conditions. Proposed
defenses were evaluated with traces of network behavior.


BACKGROUND
Hereditary haemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT) is a rare disease characterized by a multisystemic vascular dysplasia and epistaxis, that is the most common cause of disability and social impairment. Patient management strictly depends on the severity of this symptom; therefore, it is of paramount importance for the clinicians to effectively grade epistaxis severity. The aim of this report was to validate the Frequency, Intensity and Duration score (FID) for grading epistaxis severity in patients with HHT; we studied repeatability and external validity comparing FID score with Epistaxis Severity Score (ESS).

METHODS
This is a descriptive, observational study that included 264 adult HHT patients with epistaxis. Diagnosis of HHT was established with Curaçao criteria or positivity at genetic testing. Nosebleed severity was evaluated according to the FID score and the ESS. The first 30 patients were included in the validation of the FID score, which was graded on days 0, 1, 3 and 7. In the remaining 234 patients, a comparison between the ESS and FID score was performed.

RESULTS
The statistical analysis performed in order to validate the FID score showed very good agreement between scores calculated on different days; analysis comparing the FID score with the ESS revealed a high correlation between the two grading systems.

CONCLUSIONS
The FID score is a quick, easy and precise tool for evaluating HHT-related epistaxis and could be a possible alternative to the ESS. The FID score meets the need for an intuitive and smart grading system that is easy to manage in clinicians' hands.


The required block length in OFDM schemes (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) can be very high when we have severely time-dispersive channels. This means that the channel variations from block to block or even within a given block can be substantial. In this paper we consider OFDM systems with fast-varying channels where the variations are due to phase/frequency errors between local oscillators at the transmitter and the receiver, as well as the effects associated to non-constant Doppler drifts. The overall phase error can be approximated by a Taylor polynomial with small degree. Suitable training sequences are multiplexed with data blocks and used for estimating the Taylor coefficients of the phase error. These are then used for predicting the evolution of the phase error for subsequent data blocks, which is compensated before detection. Our performance results show that our phase predicting method can lead to significant performance improvements when we have significant, nonlinear phase errors, reducing the required frequency of training blocks.


Throughout the late nineteenth century in France, intellectuals from a variety of disciplines took part in what Foucault has referred to as "la mise en discours du sexe"--the process by which writers, doctors and scientists sought to discern the "truth" of sexuality. (1) Women constituted a privileged object of analysis in this scientific discourse of sex--Foucault's scientia sexualis--written largely by and for men. (2) Even as a growing feminist movement emerged at the turn of the nineteenth century and educational reforms made it possible for women to pursue professional degrees for the first time, female voices remained virtually excluded from scientific fields. (3) The science of sex and its moral implications were determined almost entirely by men. In what follows I would like to consider Lucie Delarue-Mardrus's Marie, fille-mere (1908) as the exception that proves the rule regarding the gendering of the scientific discourse of sex at the turn of the nineteenth century, Fiction-writing was among the most accessible discursive domains open to women during this period, although few women writers are linked to the dominant literary movements of the time. With her remarkable first novel, Delarue-Mardrus takes the unusual step of adopting the male-authorized, positivistic tropes of naturalism in order to construct a female counter-discourse of sexuality. Delarue-Mardrue's novel constitutes a counter-discourse in the sense that Richard Terdiman uses this term: as an adoption of the dominant discourse in order to gain power over it. Her novel is both a rewriting of Zola's La Bete humaine from a female perspective--that is, a naturalist novel ultimately determined by the forces of female sexual desire--and a feminist science of sex. (4) Delarue-Mardrus first entered literary circles with the aid of her husband, Joseph-Charles Mardrus, who was known for having translated 1001 Arabian Nights into French. She began publishing poetry in the Revue Blanche, a radical journal that included Leon Blum and Alfred Jarry as contributing editors, and in which Mirbeau published his Journal d'une femme de chambre. Her first collections of poetry enjoyed only a limited success, despite her connections to Renee Vivien, Colette, Anna de Noailles, and Jean Lorrain. Delarue-Mardrus was far more successful in her fiction writing, and by 1914 was one of the most highly paid and highly sought after female novelists. By the time of her death at age seventy-one she had published twelve collections of poetry and over forty novels, two of which were adapted for film. Marie, fille-mere first appeared in serial form in Le Journal in 1908, and despite rather poor critical reception (Apollinaire and Rachilde accused her of trying to imitate Charles-Henry Hirsch's pastoral fiction) enjoyed great popular success, especially with female readers. (5) Unfortunately, Delarue-Mardrus's originality has eluded modern critics, and current recognition of her work has been almost entirely limited to anthological mention rather than scholarly analysis. (6) Marie, fille-mere recounts how the life of seventeen-year-old Marie, "une fille des campagnes normandes, nee de paysans assez pauvres," is disrupted by her brutal sexual initiation at the hands of a rich neighbor, le fils Budin (10). The novel is in some sense a sexual coming of age story, tracing Marie's life from before her first sexual encounter and the initial awakening of her libido, through her rape, pregnancy, marriage, eventual discovery of sexual pleasure, and the sexual rivalry that leads to her death. Although naturalism as a literary movement had fallen out of use by the time of Delarue-Mardrus's writing, links to it and to Zola's corpus in particular are evident throughout her text, from her depiction of the peasant class to her attention to dialect. In addition, Marie is thought to be based on Delarue-Mardrus's childhood maid, suggesting a relationship with another naturalist text, the Goncourts' Germinie Lacerteux, also modeled upon a family servant. …


The proteasome has been shown to make the proper C-terminal cleavage for the generation of several immunodominant class I-presented peptides whereas aminopeptidases generate their proper N termini. In this study, we show that these two distinct proteolytic processes are also involved in generating a subdominant OVA peptide KVVRFDKL (K-L). Moreover, proteasome inhibitors did not enhance the presentation of any K-L construct, suggesting that destruction of this peptide by proteasomes, if any, does not limit its presentation. We have further examined in intact cells the influence of residues flanking this epitope on these proteolytic processes. When the N-terminal flanking residues of K-L are fused to an immunodominant OVA peptide SIINFEKL (S-L), the presentation of S-L is reduced as compared with a construct with its natural flanking sequence and was not inhibited (or enhanced) by proteasome inhibitors. Similarly, a reduction in presentation was observed when the C-terminal flanking residues of the subdominant epitope were attached to S-L. A detailed analysis revealed that the Pro at the P1′ position of K-L was responsible for this reduction, and presentation of these C-terminally extended constructs was sensitive to proteasome inhibitor. The study suggests that both the N- and C-terminal flanks of the subdominant peptide are suboptimal for Ag presentation. Moreover, three of four C-terminal residues that flank other subdominant or cryptic epitopes in OVA reduced the presentation of S-L. Therefore, the residues that flank the C termini of several subdominant and cryptic epitopes are often suboptimal for cleavage and may contribute to the phenomenon of immunodominance.


This study examines to what extent baseline school climate moderates the effects of a randomized controlled trial of a universal violence prevention intervention. School climate was assessed by teacher ratings of the quality of relationships among school members and the seriousness of school problems. Cluster analysis revealed three climate types: distressed, average, and conducive. Mixed-effects regression models of data from 5,256 students suggested limited overall positive program outcomes for students in schools assigned to the universal intervention versus students in schools assigned to control conditions. There was, however, evidence of differential effects of the universal intervention by climate type. These findings have important implications for identifying school characteristics that researchers and practitioners should consider in planning universal school-based interventions.


OBJECTIVE
We examined the protein anabolic effects of Pro-Stat 64, a high nitrogen-containing, enzyme-hydrolyzed, tryptophan-fortified, collagen protein supplement administrated during hemodialysis, at two different dosing regimens.

DESIGN
This was a randomized, controlled, prospective study with 3 different groups: control, single dose of supplementation, and double dose of supplementation.

SETTING
This study was performed at a clinical research center.

PATIENTS
Six prevalent chronic hemodialysis (HD) patients were enrolled: 5 males, 1 female, 4 African Americans, and 2 Caucasians. Their mean age was 45 +/- 11 years (S.D.). Two patients were diabetic.

METHODS
Protein turnover studies were performed using amino-acid (AA) balance and primed constant infusion of L-(1-(13)C) leucine.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE
Whole-body protein balance was determined according to substrate kinetics.

RESULTS
There were no statistically significant difference at any time point between protocols for blood chemistries and hormonal markers, except for minor variations in plasma glucose. All plasma AA groups displayed decreases during a control study, in which no supplementation was given. Compared with the control group, plasma nonessential AA and total AA concentrations were statistically significantly higher during HD after both single and double doses of supplementation. The forearm arteriovenous AA balance was statistically significantly better for essential, nonessential, and total AA uptake after both single-dose and double-dose supplementation compared with the control group, except for nonessential AA, which was significantly better only after a double dose. Whole-body protein breakdown and net protein balance were statistically significantly better during HD with a double-dose administration in a dose-dependent manner, compared with the control and single-dose groups.

CONCLUSIONS
Oral AA supplementation alone improves whole-body and skeletal muscle protein anabolism in a dose-dependent manner in chronic HD patients. These data should be taken into account during clinical decision-making or when designing clinical trials of nutritional supplementation.


The high correlation of the rain-free surface cross sections at two frequencies suggests that the estimate of differential path-integrated attenuation caused by precipitation along the radar beam can be obtained to a higher degree of accuracy than the path attenuation at either frequency. We explore this potential first analytically and then by examining data from the JPL dual-frequency airborne radar using measurements from the Tropical Composition, Cloud, and Climate Coupling experiment obtained during July-August 2007. Despite an improvement in the accuracy of the differential path attenuation, solving for parameters of the particle size distribution often requires not only this quantity but the single-wavelength path attenuation as well. We investigate a simple method of estimating the single-frequency path attenuation from the differential attenuation and compare this estimate with that derived directly from the surface return.


As the amount of data available from a wide range of domains has increased tremendously in recent years, the demand for data sharing and integration has also risen. The cloud computing paradigm provides great flexibility to data owners with respect to computation and storage capabilities, which makes it a suitable platform for them to share their data. Outsourcing person-specific data to the cloud, however, imposes serious concerns about the confidentiality of the outsourced data, the privacy of the individuals referenced in the data, as well as the confidentiality of the queries processed over the data. Data integration is another form of data sharing, where data owners jointly perform the integration process, and the resulting dataset is shared between them. Integrating related data from different sources enables individuals, businesses, organizations and government agencies to perform better data analysis, make better informed decisions, and provide better services. Designing distributed, secure, and privacy-preserving protocols for integrating person-specific data, however, poses several challenges, including how to prevent each party from inferring sensitive information about individuals during the execution of the protocol, how to guarantee an effective level of privacy on the released data while maintaining utility for data mining, and how to support public auditing such that anyone at any time can verify that the integration was executed correctly and no participants deviated from the protocol.
In this thesis, we address the aforementioned concerns by presenting secure protocols for privacy-preserving data outsourcing, integration and auditing. First, we propose a secure cloud-based data outsourcing and query processing framework that simultaneously preserves the confidentiality of the data and the query requests, while providing differential privacy guarantees on the query results. Second, we propose a publicly verifiable protocol for integrating person-specific data from multiple data owners, while providing differential privacy guarantees and maintaining an effective level of utility on the released data for the purpose of data mining. Next, we propose a privacy-preserving multi-party protocol for high-dimensional data mashup with guaranteed LKC-privacy on the output data.
Finally, we apply the theory to the real world problem of solvency in Bitcoin. More specifically, we propose a privacy-preserving and publicly verifiable cryptographic proof of solvency scheme for Bitcoin exchanges such that no information is revealed about the exchange's customer holdings, the value of the exchange's total holdings is kept secret, and multiple exchanges performing the same proof of solvency can contemporaneously prove they are not colluding.


Abstract The main objective of the research paper is to accomplish a comparative analysis of the energy dependence of the EU member states. This objective is de-composited in several sub-objectives: First, to make a short literature review and a summary of the main ideas concerning energy dependence; Second, to clarify the methodology used for analysis of the energy dependence of the EU. Third, to analyze the nominal energy dependency of the EU, as well as the Union energy dependency by energy types.Fourth, to analyze the energy intensity of the economy of the European Union countries. The research and analytical methods used for the development of the paper involve comparative analysis of the available data on energy security indicators, graphical and table presentation of statistical and empirical data and survey of available legal and analytical research on the topic. Entirely secondary data sources have been used in the research. The research results comprise: - the introduction of two new concepts as a result of the analysis - the nominal energy dependency and the real energy dependency; - the construction of an energy dependency classifying scheme for the European Union member states; - the construction of an classification grid of the energy dependence of the EU member states by energy type. The research results present the author contribution to the research field of energy dependency. They add value not only in analytical terms but also pave the road for formulating further ideas and evidence-based recommendations on policy measures.


Laparoscopic oocyte recovery (LOR) is a valuable tool for obtaining oocytes for in vitro embryo production. When preceded by a treatment of ovarian stimulation, this technique produces an increase in the amount of oocytes recovered. However, a little information has been found to respect the effect of successive hormonal treatments on both oocyte quantity and quality. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to evaluate the ovarian response and quantitative and qualitative COC production. Five adult crossbred goats were hormonally treated with intravaginal sponges containing 60 mg of medroxyprogesterone acetate (MAP, Progespon, Syntex, Buenos Aires, Argentina) for 11 days. In the 8th day of progestagen treatment, 50 μg of prostaglandin F2α analogue (Ciosin, Coopers, Sao Paulo, Brazil) was administered by i.m. injection. At this time, ovarian stimulation was initiated by the administration of 120 mg pFSH (Folltropin-V, Vetrepharm, Canada) distributed in five decreasing doses (30/30, 20/20, 20 mg), at 12-h intervals. The animals were fasted for 24 h before the laparoscopic procedure, which was performed just after the sponge removal. A laparoscopic system connected to a 22-gauge needle (WTA, Watanabe, Brazil) and a vacuum pump (Biovacuum, Biocom, Brazil) providing 30 mm Hg was used. All follicles with a size larger than 2 mm present in both ovaries were counted and aspirated. The collection medium was TCM-199 supplemented with HEPES (10 mM), heparin (20 IU mL-1), and gentamicin (40 μg mL-1). The COCs were graded based on presence of cumulus cells and cytoplasm homogeneity (I to IV). The hormonal treatment and LOR procedures were repeated three times at 14-day intervals. Data were expressed in percentage or mean ± SEM. The differences were analyzed using ANOVA and Tukey's or Fischer's exact test when appropriate, with P 0.05) for the number of follicles obtained in each LOR session: 17.0 ± 3.91, 18.75 ± 2.59, and 18.0 ± 4.73, respectively. Repeated LOR procedures also did not affect (P > 0.05) the number of aspirated follicle (15.0 ± 3.92, 15.5 ± 2.33, and 16.0 ± 4.36), resulting from the three sessions, respectively. Average recovery rates were not statistically different (P > 0.05), resulting in 74.7%, 62.9%, and 64.6% between sessions. With respect to the percentage of viable COCs (GI and GII) were not observed statistical differences (P > 0.05), as verified the follow values at 1st to 3rd sessions: 76.79%, 84.62%, and 74.19%. In conclusion, three successive hormonal stimulation LOR procedures did not cause detrimental effects on quantitative and qualitative oocyte production, suggesting that this protocol can be used for programs of in vitro goat embryo production. This study was supported the following Brazilian agencies: FINEP, CNPq, FUNCAP, and CAPES.


Background The current consensus definition of septic shock requires hypotension after adequate fluid challenge or vasopressor requirement. Some patients with septic shock present with hypotension and hyperlactatemia greater than 2 mmol/L (tissue dysoxic shock), whereas others have hypotension alone with normal lactate (vasoplegic shock). Objective The objective of this study was to determine differences in outcomes of patients with tissue dysoxic versus vasoplegic septic shock. Methods This was a secondary analysis of a large, multicenter randomized controlled trial. Inclusion criteria were suspected infection, two or more systemic inflammatory response criteria, and systolic blood pressure less than 90 mmHg after a fluid bolus. Patients were categorized by presence of vasoplegic or tissue dysoxic shock. Demographics and Sequential Organ Failure Assessment scores were evaluated between the groups. The primary outcome was in-hospital mortality. Results A total of 247 patients were included, 90 patients with vasoplegic shock and 157 with tissue dysoxic shock. There were no significant differences in age, race, or sex between the vasoplegic and tissue dysoxic shock groups. The group with vasoplegic shock had a lower initial Sequential Organ Failure Assessment score than did the group with tissue dysoxic shock (5.5 vs. 7.0 points; P = 0.0002). The primary outcome of in-hospital mortality occurred in 8 (9%) of 90 patients with vasoplegic shock compared with 41 (26%) of 157 in the group with tissue dysoxic shock (proportion difference, 17%; 95% confidence interval, 7%–26%; P < 0.0001; log-rank test P = 0.02). After adjusting for confounders, tissue dysoxic shock remained an independent predictor of in-hospital mortality. Conclusions In this analysis of patients with septic shock, we found a significant difference in in-hospital mortality between patients with vasoplegic versus tissue dysoxic septic shock. These findings suggest a need to consider these differences when designing future studies of septic shock therapies.


We present the design and field validation for the performance of a Semi-spherical Lagrangian Drifter (SELD). The SELD is a low-cost, low-technology, home-made alternative to much more expensive commercial Lagrangian drifters. An analysis of the SELD configuration shows that its drag area ratio is as good as TRISTAR and holey-sock drifters. Field results in a situation of near solid rotation within an oceanic vortex confirm that SELD and holey-sock drifters have an almost identical behavior.


Mental health nursing has moved on from the days of asylum but what is obvious today, is the objective approach adopted by government to allocate resources i.e. payment by result. This is tantamount to limited resources commissioned for meeting the vast unmet needs of service users, bearing in mind the figure spent on yearly basis in addressing physical health conditions. This article is a mental health student nurse's account of the tremendous expectations placed on qualified nurses and the emphasis on the need for genuine promotion of recovery in service users. Through reflection on experiences gained in different clinical settings, as a student nurse, author raised suggestions for the betterment of the nurse education curriculum and highlighted what is expected of qualified nurses in contemporary mental health service delivery.


This paper establishes a connection between duality rotations of the electromagnetic field and the relativistic motion of a charged particle. The connection is a mathematical one, yet it helps to make the physics of charged‐particle motions transparent. Explicit forms for the relativistic velocity and the gyration angle in a constant field are given. The result for the gyration angle in both electric and magnetic constant fields is not widely known, and is discussed at some length.


Authentic assessment has been promoted in teacher education as a means of addressing the challenge that pre-service teachers often face in translating theory into practice. In this article, we outline one approach to authentic assessment that utilises a poster format to present a humanities inquiry sequence. Drawing on a practice-based research project into inquiry learning, we explore the challenges and opportunities of this mode of assessment in meeting our curriculum aims. While we acknowledge limitations in this method, we conclude that posters provide a succinct and engaging means of organising, disseminating and assessing inquiry planning in humanities.


The Sustainable United Nations Facility (SUN) Project was launched July 2008 and, after several extensions of time, finished in June 2014. The SUN facility is a United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) initiative that provides support to the United Nations and other organizations in measuring and reducing their greenhouse gas emissions and improving their overall sustainability performance, promoting climate neutrality and improved resource efficiency in business practices. The objectives of the Terminal Evaluation (TE) of the project were to assess project performance (in terms of relevance, effectiveness and efficiency), and to determine outcomes and impacts (actual and potential) stemming from the project, including their sustainability, and based on this assessment identify lessons of operational relevance for future project formulation and implementation.


Weber famously described formally rational law as the highest form of modern law, where 'definitely fixed legal concepts in the form of highly abstract rules are formulated and applied.' Formally rational law facilitated economic development by providing continuous, predictable, and efficient administration of justice. Modern disputes having to do with 'equality before the law' or 'legal guarantees against arbitrariness' demanded formal and objective decision-making, Weber maintained. Formally rational law also ensured that substantive elements exogenous to the legal system, those 'directed against the dominance of a mere business morality,' were kept at a safe distance. In this paper, I trace how the norm entrepreneurs promoting investment law's disciplines conceive of this regime as exhibiting features of formally rational law. They also are resisting the substantively irrational – pejoratively labeled as 'politics' – from entering into investment law's domains. I argue that keeping substantive justice at bay is impossible, not only because of pressures that are at present being generated by states and citizens alike, but because the system itself is saturated with substance, in much the same way as was Weber's higher form of law.


The projection of 3D scenarios onto 2D surfaces produces distortion on the resulting images that affects the accuracy of low-level motion primitives. Independently of the motion detection algorithm used, post-processing stages that use motion data are dominated by this distortion artefact. Therefore we need to devise a way of reducing the distortion effect in order to improve the post-processing capabilities of a vision system based on motion cues. In this paper we adopt a space-variant mapping strategy, and describe a computing architecture that finely pipelines all the processing operations to achieve high performance reliable processing. We validate the computing architecture in the framework of a real-world application, a vision-based system for assisting overtaking manoeuvres using motion information to segment approaching vehicles. The overtaking scene from the rear-view mirror is distorted due to perspective, therefore a space-variant mapping strategy to correct perspective distortion arterfaces becomes of high interest to arrive at reliable motion cues.


markdownabstractOne of the most important challenges in the field of asset pricing is to understand anomalies: empirical patterns in asset returns that cannot be explained by standard asset pricing models. Currently, there is no consensus in the academic literature on the underlying causes of well-known anomalies, such as the value and momentum anomalies. Anomalies could be the result of data mining, disappear when trading costs are taken into account, be a compensation for a particular form of risk, or have a behavioral explanation. The motivation of this research project is to gain more and better insight into possible explanations for well-known asset pricing anomalies. Understanding asset pricing anomalies is of the utmost importance for investors. It allows them to make better informed investment decisions, and thereby achieve higher return premiums.

The first study in this dissertation shows that the value, momentum and size anomalies are also present in the new emerging equity markets, the so-called frontier emerging markets, which makes data mining as an explanation for these anomalies unlikely. The second study focuses on trading costs as a possible explanation for the short-term reversal anomaly. Focusing on large-cap stocks and applying a more sophisticated portfolio construction algorithm lower trading costs significantly, such that reversal strategies generate profitable results net of trading costs. The third study examines risk as an explanation for the value and size anomalies. Although value and small-cap exposures are typically associated with distress risk, the results indicate that distress risk is not priced and that the small-cap and value premiums are priced beyond distress risk. The fourth and last study examines a behavioral explanation for the low-risk anomaly. Based on a general equilibrium model, tournament behavior causes the returns of low-risk (high-risk) assets to be larger (smaller) than expected according to the Capital Asset Pricing Model. In addition, empirical analyses confirm a positive and significant relation between tournament behavior and the low-risk premium.


As part of an exchange of views on what Jan Zwicky calls "lyric philosophy," this contribution suggests a way of understanding it that brings out affinities between it and the standard discursive model of philosophy with which she is dissatisfied. Good discursive philosophy is based on perplexity and plausibility: on finding that protophilosophical experiences give rise to philosophical puzzlement, and then finding that some ways of responding to such puzzlement are more compelling than others. This philosophical mode involves the same conceptual "gestalt" that Zwicky identifies with lyric philosophy: being struck by how certain combinations of experiences and ideas feel inherently problematic and grasping how certain combinations of ideas that attempt to address these problems hang together while others do not. Moreover, the thought and language in which discursive philosophical reflection is conducted are frequently affective and couched in deeply metaphorical terms. Thus, this essay concludes, the mode of making sense that is supposed to distinguish lyric philosophy from its discursive counterpart is one that is central to the discursive model of philosophy as well.


When planet-hosting stars evolve off the main sequence and go through the red-giant branch, the stars become orders of magnitudes more luminous and, at the same time, lose mass at much higher rates than their main-sequence counterparts. Accordingly, if planetary companions exist around these stars at orbital distances of a few au, they will be heated up to the level of canonical hot Jupiters and also be subjected to a dense stellar wind. Given that magnetized planets interacting with stellar winds emit radio waves, such "Red-Giant Hot Jupiters" (RGHJs) may also be candidate radio emitters. We estimate the spectral auroral radio intensity of RGHJs based on the empirical relation with the stellar wind as well as a proposed scaling for planetary magnetic fields. RGHJs might be intrinsically as bright as or brighter than canonical hot Jupiters and about 100 times brighter than equivalent objects around main-sequence stars. We examine the capabilities of low-frequency radio observatories to detect this emission and find that the signal from an RGHJ may be detectable at distances up to a few hundred parsecs with the Square Kilometer Array.


Volume preservation is usually regarded as a necessary property for the leapfrog transition functions that are used in Hamiltonian Monte Carlo (HMC) and No-U-Turn (NUTS) samplers to guarantee convergence to the target distribution. In this work we rigorously prove that with minimal algorithmic modifications, both HMC and NUTS can be combined with transition functions that are not necessarily volume preserving. In light of these results, we propose a non-volume preserving transition function that conserves the Hamiltonian better than the baseline leapfrog mechanism, on piecewise-continuous distributions. The resulting samplers do not require any assumptions on the geometry of the discontinuity boundaries, and our experimental results show a significant improvement upon traditional HMC and NUTS.


In Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes, 131 S. Ct. 2531 (2011), the Supreme Court held that a proposed class of over a million women that had alleged pay and promotion discrimination against the nation's largest retailer could not be certified. According to the Court, the plaintiffs had failed to establish a common thread in the case sufficient to tie their claims together. The academic response to Wal-Mart was immediate and harsh: the decision will serve as the death knell for mass employment litigation, undermining the workplace protections provided by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII). This Article embraces the view offered by scholars to date, and does not engage the debate over the extent to which Wal-Mart will eviscerate the employment rights of workers.Instead, this Article attempts — for the first time — to find a solution to the problem created by Wal-Mart. The academic literature has yet to explore possible ways to minimize the impact of the Court's decision, and this Article seeks to fill that void in the scholarship. Though the case undoubtedly weakens the ability of Title VII plaintiffs to pursue class-action claims, the decision still leaves substantial room for creative approaches to systemic discrimination. This paper offers three such solutions to the problem created by Wal-Mart: the governmental approach, the procedural response, and revised relief. This Article critiques each approach, and explains how they are useful in pursuing workplace cases that involve company-wide discrimination. This paper also situates these proposals in the context of the existing literature.The thesis of this Article is simple. Taking at face value the argument of scholars that Wal-Mart has created a gaping hole for victims of systemic discrimination, this paper asks what tools are still available for plaintiffs to help fill that hole. Wal-Mart signals a sea change for mass-employment litigation. The challenge now will be to find imaginative ways of pursuing systemic discrimination claims. For the first time in the academic literature, this Article takes on that challenge.


This is the introductory essay for the Ohio State Law Journal Symposium on "The Second Wave of Global Privacy Protection." The essay seeks to provide a readable summary of how information privacy issues have developed since the rise of the Internet in the 1990s. It explains the perspective of one person who has lived through these events, both as a participant and an academic observer.The first wave of global privacy protection coincided with the exponential growth of the Internet during the 1990's. By 2001, the European Union had implemented its Data Protection Directive, the United States had created privacy laws for health care, financial services, and other sectors, and the Safe Harbor was in place to create a legal structure for flows of personal information across the Atlantic. However, during the years following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, legislation and attention to privacy issues cooled as security issues took center stage.We are now in the midst of a second wave of global privacy initiatives. Drivers of change include explosive growth in cloud computing, behavioral advertising, social networks, and mobile computing. The European Union is considering a major overhaul of the 1995 Directive, and comprehensive privacy laws have spread to over 100 countries around the world. In the United States, even before the attention to privacy in the wake of the Snowden leaks, the Obama administration became the first to explicitly support privacy legislation for the Internet, and the Federal Trade Commission has pushed numerous privacy initiatives.The essay observes that it is difficult to predict what lasting legal changes will emerge from the second wave. Obstacles to U.S. privacy legislation continue to appear considerable. It would be risky, however, to assume that most or all new privacy protections will be blocked. The level of privacy debate is intense. The first wave culminated in multiple laws and new practices that have had enduring effect, and so might the second wave.


The yield of "Gogorancah" or gora (dry seeding rice cultivatiorl) system is affected by the availability of soil moisture in the root zone during ils growing season. This paper is subjected to evaluate Jluctuation of soil water condition on gora system based on water balance analysis. Different planting schedule makes variation of the soil water fluctuation. Simulation for the best time seeding scheduling for "gora" was done by using 10 types of schedule and the result showed that yield of time seeding in November 5-th was better yield than yield in October. Throuh field experiment which carried out for this study, it was proved that gora systeni save water at least as much as 250 mm/Ha/season or 2500 m3/Ha/season for the land preparation water demand. The maximum water saving occured when gora syten~ is applied for November planting schedule which rice was cultivated as rainfed method, however, the yield is better than planting in October. Key word: gogorancah system, planting schedule, water saving.


The activities of artificial radionuclides in seawater samples collected off the coast of Miyagi, Fukushima, and Ibaraki Prefectures were measured as part of a monitoring program initiated by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Sports, Science and Technology immediately after the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant accident. The spatial and temporal distributions of those activities are summarized herein. The activities of strontium-90, iodine-131, cesium-134 and -137 (i.e. 90 Sr, 131 I, 134 Cs, and 137 Cs) derived from the accident were detected in seawater samples taken from areas of the coastal ocean adjacent to the power plant. No 131 I was detected in surface waters (≤ 5 m depth) or in intermediate and bottom waters after 30 April 2011. Strontium-90 was found in surface waters collected from a few sampling stations in mid-August 2011 to mid-December 2011. Temporal changes of 90 Sr activity in surface waters were evident, although the 90 Sr activity at a given time varied widely between sampling stations. The activity of 90 Sr in surface waters decreased slowly over time, and by the end of December 2011 had reached background levels recorded before the accident. Radiocesium, 134 Cs and 137 Cs, was found in seawater samples immediately after the accident. There was a remarkable change in radiocesium activities in surface waters during the first 7 months (March through September 2011) after the accident; the activity reached a maximum in the middle of April and thereafter decreased exponentially with time. Qualitatively, the distribution patterns in surface waters suggested that in early May radiocesium-polluted water was advected northward; some of the water then detached and was transported to the south. Two water cores with high 137 Cs activity persisted at least until July 2011. In subsurface waters radiocesium activity was first detected in the beginning of April 2011, and the water masses were characterized by σ t (an indicator of density) values of 25.5–26.5. From 9–14 May to 5–16 December 2011, the depths of the water masses increased with time, an indication that deepening of the isopycnal surfaces with time can be an important mechanism for the transport of radiocesium downward in coastal waters. During 4–21 February 2012, the water column became vertically homogeneous, probably because of convective mixing during the winter; the result was nearly constant values of radiocesium activity throughout the water column from the surface to the bottom (~200 m depth) at each station.


Background: The existing risk of procedure-related miscarriage following invasive sampling for prenatal diagnosis is higher for twin pregnancies and some women are reluctant to test these typically difficultly obtained pregnancies invasively. Therefore, there is a need for noninvasive testing options that can test twin pregnancies at an early gestational age and ideally test the twins individually. Case presentation: A pregnant woman opted for cell-based NIPT at GA 10 + 5. As cell-based NIPT is not established for use in twins, the test was provided in a research setting only, when an ultrasound scan showed that she carried dichorionic twins. Materials and Methods: Fifty mL of peripheral blood was sampled, and circulating fetal cells were enriched and isolated. Individual cells were subject to whole-genome amplification and STR analysis. Three fetal cells were analyzed by chromosomal microarray (aCGH). Results: We identified 20 fetal cells all sharing the same genetic profile, which increased the likelihood of monozygotic twins. aCGH of three fetal cells showed the presence of two X chromosomes and a gain of chromosome Y. CVS from both placentae confirmed the sex chromosomal anomaly, 47,XXY and that both fetuses were affected. Conclusion: NIPT options can provide valuable genetic information to twin pregnancies that help the couples in their decision-making on prenatal testing. Little has been published about the use of cell-based NIPT in twin pregnancies, but the method may offer the possibility to obtain individual cell-based NIPT results in dizygotic twins.


This study was undertaken to provide some of the social values for the non-timber component of the Millar Western-NorSask Forest Mangement Licence Agreement. This study esimates the changes in the value of a recreational hunting experience as one, or a combination of several, of the following items change in the forest environment: i) road acecss; ii) game populations; iii) congestion; and iv) travel distance. There are several unique aspects of this study. It extends traditional contingent valuation analysis by evaluation multiple quality changes at once. A variation on the contingent valuation method, called the contingent behaviour method, was developed to examine these tradeoffs; the payment vehicle used in this model is travel cost. The data used in this study were obtained from two mail surveys if Saskatchewan hunters: one of whitetail deer hunters and one of moose hunters. Using these data, a binary choice random utility model was developed. Using information on logging-wildlife interactions, a simulation of six post-timber harvesting scenarios were created for zone 69 in the Millar Western-NorSask FMLA area and the annual and capitalized welfare impacts on hunters were calculated. The results show that an increase in the welfare of resident Saskatchewan whitetail deer and moose hunters can be expected from the harvesting of timber in the Forest Management License Agreement. The estimated annual increase in welfare ranged from $5799.54 to $18979.72 for whitetail deer hunteres and it ranged from $4247.22 to $19409.98 for moose hunters. The highest welfare impacts were obtained from scenarios where game populations were increased and congestion was decreased, suggesting that people may prefer avoiding areas with forestry operations unless the area offers increased hunting attributes (e.g. game).


Background The diagnosis and management of bipolar disorder are limited by the absence of available biomarkers. Patients with bipolar disorder frequently present with mood instability even during remission, which is likely associated with the risk of relapse, impaired functioning, and suicidal behavior, indicating that the illness is active. Objective This research protocol aimed to investigate the correlations between clinically rated mood symptoms and mood/behavioral data automatically collected using the Toi Même app in patients with bipolar disorder presenting with different mood episodes. This study also aimed to assess the feasibility of this app for self-monitoring subjective and objective mood/behavior parameters in those patients. Methods This open-label, nonrandomized trial will enroll 93 (31 depressive, 31 euthymic, and 31 hypomanic) adults diagnosed with bipolar disorder type I/II (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition criteria) and owning an iPhone. Clinical evaluations will be performed by psychiatrists at the baseline and after 2 weeks, 1 month, 2 months, and 3 months during the follow-up. Rather than only accessing the daily mood symptoms, the Toi Même app also integrates ecological momentary assessments through 2 gamified tests to assess cognition speed (QUiCKBRAIN) and affective responses (PLAYiMOTIONS) in real-life contexts, continuously measures daily motor activities (eg, number of steps, distance) using the smartphone's motion sensors, and performs a comprehensive weekly assessment. Results Recruitment began in April 2018 and the completion of the study is estimated to be in December 2021. As of April 2019, 25 participants were enrolled in the study. The first results are expected to be submitted for publication in 2020. This project has been funded by the Perception and Memory Unit of the Pasteur Institute (Paris) and it has received the final ethical/research approvals in April 2018 (ID-RCB: 2017-A02450-53). Conclusions Our results will add to the evidence of exploring other alternatives toward a more integrated approach in the management of bipolar disorder, including digital phenotyping, to develop an ethical and clinically meaningful framework for investigating, diagnosing, and treating individuals at risk of developing bipolar disorder or currently experiencing bipolar disorder. Further prospective studies on the validity of automatically generated smartphone data are needed for better understanding the longitudinal pattern of mood instability in bipolar disorder as well as to establish the reliability, efficacy, and cost-effectiveness of such an app intervention for patients with bipolar disorder. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03508427; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03508427 International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID) DERR1-10.2196/18818