Scattering noises in four kinds of lithium niobate crystals with the same double doping system, which are LiNbO3:Fe:Mn, LiNbO3:Ce:Mn, LiNbO3:Ce:Cu, and LiNbO3:Fe:Cu, are observed and compared experimentally. The results show that nonvolatile holographic recording can effectively suppress scattering noise, which mainly depends on recombination coefficients of both the shallower centers and the deeper centers. The small recombination coefficients of the shallower centers and the large recombination coefficients of the deeper centers benefit the amplification of the signal gratings and the suppression of the noise gratings. In addition, the initial seed scattering also impacts the recorded scattering noise, and the little seed scattering results in low scattering noise. The theoretical simulations are performed for confirmation. Among the four kinds of doubly doped crystals, in LiNbO2:Ce:Cu the performances of nonvolatile recording are the best with low scattering noise and high diffraction efficiency.


Specially designed experiments were carried out in the temperature range 950-1100 °C at 800 MPa to grow coexisting sapphirine and spinel-bearing metapelitic assemblages in the KFMASH system. Equilibrium phase assemblages contain these two phases with stoichiometric compositions. Compositional data obtained from the two coexisting phases indicate a strong dependence of the Mg-Fe distribution coefficient on temperature. An empirical thermometric expression has been formulated from the experimentally constrained relationship, lnKD = -6277/T(°K) + 6.4202, where KD = (XMg/XFe)Spr.(XFe/XMg)Spl. Application of this thermometer to natural mineral pairs indicate that earlier temperature estimates based on sapphirine-spinel need to be revised upward by 120-160 °C.


This thesis comprises three essays on systemic risk using a computational approach for the first two chapters and statistical analysis for the third. Chapter 1 uses an agent-based model to determine whether the stability of a financial system can be improved by incorporating BCVA into the pricing of OTC derivative contracts. The results illustrate that the adjustments of financial institutions credit can not only improve the stability of financial counter-parties in credit events but can also reduce systemic risk in the entire network. The scale of the benefit is dependent upon the leverage of institutions and is significantly affected by connectivity and the premium of derivative contracts. Chapter 2 investigates systemic risk in an agent-based model with collateral commitments. Market prices of collateral are calculated by optimisation functions of financial institutions' efficiency. The experiments indicate that the value adjustments (xVA) is more effective at eliminating financial systemic risk than by incorporating only BCVA. However, this effect is unclear in systems of weak infrastructure. The benefit of xVA is also reduced by large exogenous shocks. Similarly, the market prices of collateral decline under high leverage or large premiums because there serves for value adjustments limit financial funding of counter-parties. Asset traders can only offer lower bid-ask prices. Chapter 3 tests the effectiveness of Basel III liquidity standards to enhance the stability of the banking sector. The analyses provide significant evidence that the long-term liquidity regulation of NSFR exacerbates bank profitability and fragility, especially for large banks. Short-term liquidity standard, also known as LCR, has a positive influence on ROAA but a negative impact on bank risk-taking. Nonetheless, these effects are economically insignificant. The Basel III regulations are therefore ineffective at improving bank strength; indeed they reduce bank performance.


In astronomy, high-contrast imaging is a rapidly developing field focussing on the observation of faint targets in close proximity to very bright ones. This can be applied to the direct observation of exoplanets, but also for observations of disks or dust shells surrounding stars. The brightness of the planet Jupiter, if observed from a nearby star, is 10-9 times that of the Sun. The contrast required to observe extended circumstellar sources is however several orders of magnitude less. On current 8-m class telescopes with modern adaptive-optics systems, coronagraphic imagers achieve a contrast of 10-5 at 1 arcsecond from the star. As a result, only a handful of very bright exoplanets at fairly large angular separations from their parent stars have been observed directly. Polarimetry offers an attractive alternative to coronagraphy: Starlight scattered by circumstellar material will become linearly polarized to some degree, allowing us to distinguish it from the unpolarized starlight. Polarimetry has additional benefits: The degree of polarization at a given wavelength depends on both the scattering particle size and the scattering angle. Multi-wavelength polarimetry therefore allows us to study both the composition and the structure of the scattering medium. Moreover, polarimetry does not exclude coronagraphy. The two techniques can be combined to achieve very high contrasts. This thesis documents the design, performance and first science results of ExPo, a sensitive imaging polarimeter. ExPo has been developed by the Utrecht University Astronomical Institute and operates at visible wavelengths with a field of view of 20 arcseconds. ExPo does not include an adaptive optics system and the resolution is therefore seeing-limited. The pixel scale is 0.08 arcseconds per pixel. ExPo is implemented as a modulated dual-beam polarimeter to reduce systematic errors. The modulation frequency, limited by the maximum frame rate of the camera, is 35Hz. This is sufficient to minimize the effect of atmospheric seeing change during individual exposures. ExPo has been used on the William Herschel Telescope for a number of successful observing runs targeting young (Herbig Ae/Be) stars known or suspected to harbour protoplanetary disks. A separate observing run was dedicated to observing dust shells around evolved (post-AGB) stars. On sky, a sensitivity of 10-4 is achieved for a MV = 7.7 star in a 10 minute accumulated exposure. The contrast at 1 arcsecond separation is 10-6. The performance is photon-limited. By using longer exposure times the sensitivity, and thus contrast, can be increased. The calibrated polarimetric accuracy of the observations is usually better than 1%. First science results include high-contrast observations of the disk around AB Aurigae, in which several spiral arms are detected. Analysis of our polarimetric imaging of the dust envelope surrounding Mira indicates that it is highly bipolar in shape and consists of silicate-rich dust with an upper particle size limit of 0.05 μm. In a laboratory experiment simulating the use of ExPo in combination with an adaptive optics system and a coronagraph, we achieve a contrast of 10-8 at 1 arcsecond from the star, approaching the contrast needed to directly observe Jupiter-like exoplanets.


The presence of workers who reciprocate higher wages with greater effort can have important consequences for firms and labor markets. Knowledge about the extent and determinants of reciprocal effort choices is, however, incomplete. We investigate the role of fairness perceptions and social preferences in a field experiment in which workers were hired for a one-time job. We show that workers who perceive being underpaid at the base wage increase their performance if the hourly wage increases, whereas those who feel adequately paid or overpaid at the base wage do not change their performance. Moreover, we find that only the workers who display reciprocity in a choice experiment show reciprocal effort responses in the field. The workers who lack reciprocity in the choice experiment do not respond to the wage increase, even if they feel underpaid at the base wage. Our findings suggest that fairness perceptions and social preferences are key in workers' performance response to wage increases. In our study, the wage increase affects effort mainly through the removal of perceived unfairness, i.e., the elimination of negative reciprocity toward the firm, rather than positive reciprocity. These results are the first direct evidence of the fair-wage effort hypothesis in the field and also help interpret previous contradictory findings in the literature.


Life history theory predicts selection for higher reproductive investment in response to increased mortality among mature individuals. We tested this prediction over the period from 1978 to 2013 for three populations of Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) off Newfoundland. These populations were heavily fished for a long period. We considered changes in standardized gonad weight as a proxy for changes in gonadal investment. We accounted for the allometry between gonad and body weight, individual body condition, water temperature, and potential spatial and density-dependent effects. Males display significant temporal trends in gonadal investment in all populations; in agreement with theoretical predictions, these trends show increased gonadal investments during the earlier part of the time series when mortality was high, with the trends leveling off or reversing after the later imposition of fishing moratoria. In contrast, females display patterns that are less consistent and expected; significant trends are detected only when accounting for density-dependent effects, with females in two populations unexpectedly showing a long-term decline in gonadal investment. Our results support the hypothesis that fisheries-induced evolution has occurred in gonadal investment in males, but not in females, and suggest that gonadal investment is more important for male reproductive success than expected in this lekking species.


A Professor of Medical Ethics and a theatre director, also mother and daughter, talk about health, illness, suffering, performance and practice. Using the lenses of ethical and performance theory, they explore what it means to be a patient, a spectator and a practitioner and cover many plays, texts and productions: Samuel Beckett's Not I and All That Fall, Sarah Kane's Crave, Tim Crouch's An Oak Tree, Enda Walsh's Ballyturk, Annie Ryan's adaptation of Eimear McBride's novel A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing, Duncan MacMillan's People, Place and Things and Henrik Ibsen's Hedda Gabler. These were selected because first we have seen, studied or worked with each and they have continued to inspire us. Second, they offer rich and revealing insights into the ways in which meaning(s) is/are both negotiated and contested in relation to health and illness. It is the iterative negotiation of meaning(s) that, it is argued, is the essence of narrative practice, be it in medicine or in the theatre. The difference and divergence of perception, response and interpretation to dramatic performance can test relationships, be they professional, creative or familial. Yet, the capacity to understand, and embrace, disagreement and uncertainty is vital; fundamental to a flourishing life. For it is by recognising our part in creating narratives, broken and otherwise, that we can begin to recognise the necessary interactionism and humanity of both medicine and theatre.


Introduction In a religion that preaches the nothingness of things and the absence of self, is there any ground for an active social advocacy for human rights? This question arises in response to a thought-provoking piece written by Professor Kim Bongjin (University of Kitakyushu) entitled "Reception and Change of the Idea of 'Right(s)' in Nishi Amane: Comparison with Yu Kilchun," which was presented in the Philippines on March 2009 at a conference held by the Ateneo Center for Asian Studies. In his essay, Kim illustrated the changes a particular notion undergoes as it is transplanted from one culture to another. In particular, he showed how the Western notion of human rights was appropriated and hybridized differently in Japan and Korea. He showed that despite the fact that the notion of human rights was appropriated through Confucianism in both countries, different prevailing understandings of Confucianism and the central concept of principle (J. ri, [??]) resulted in different hybridized notions of rights; in the Japanese context, the notion of rights lost its characteristics of universality and equality. This journey into the history of ideas lead to an inescapable ethical concern: Japan is a major player in world politics, and itself has been deeply embroiled in issues of war and human rights. Given limitations in the Japanese Confucian grounding of human rights, might there be another culturally relevant avenue wherein we might properly found the notion of human rights within Japanese intellectual history? In response to this question, I turn to my own field of study, Buddhism. How might rights be justified and founded within Buddhist philosophy in general? Specifically in the case of Japanese Zen Buddhism, whose social ethics has recently come into intense scrutiny (due to Zen complicity in the Pacific War), might there be a central concept that can solidly ground the notion of human rights? In this paper, I will begin with a review of attempts for founding the notion of rights within Buddhism. I will focus on two Buddhist notions--the Four Noble Truths and compassion--and show how these can serve as a foundation for human rights. I shall proceed to examine the possibility of using the notion of Buddha-nature to fuse together the two aforementioned bases for human rights. Finally, I shall explore Dogen's view of Buddhist spiritual practice and Buddha-nature to see how human rights might find a solid ground within a key Japanese Buddhist concept, and what Zen Buddhism might have to contribute to the discourse on human rights. The Foundation and Justification of Human Rights One of the key points of Kim Bongjin's presentation is that Japanese thought (especially that of Nishi Amane) is not deeply grounded in the Confucian notion of principle ([??]). Briefly, the Confucian notion of principle is a notion that nature (or heaven) operates through certain principles--a rhythm, reason, or logic that guides and orders existence. This natural principle bestows upon each creature a specific nature; in the case of humans, it bestows a human-nature that is present equally in all human beings (See Fung 302). Hence, the idea of human nature can serve as the basis for a notion of natural rights (J. kenri,[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]). However, Kim's central point was that without a deep grounding in this idea of principle, the notion of natural rights tends to degenerate into a notion of "power/property is rights" (J. kenri,[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) as seen in the political philosophy of Nishi. By "power/property is rights" he is referring to the view of rights as things that are owed to people who have power and property such as the obligations of a fief to his landlord and of the masses to the ruling class, but not vice-versa. Clearly, this is a matter of ethical concern. Universal rights have a clear importance in preventing the ossification of unfair power structures that marginalize certain groups. …


ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to examine at a descriptive level the reporting compliance by private U.S. colleges and universities with Statements of Financial Accounting Standards (SFAS) No. 124 - Accounting for Certain Investments Held by Not-for-Profit Organizations. Using content analysis, the annual reports, financial statements and notes to the financial statements of 61 colleges and universities were examined. The study concluded that compliance across schools was inconsistent. Based on the current level of compliance as observed in this study, both within the letter and spirit of the new standard, quality of financial reporting by colleges and universities could be improved. INTRODUCTION Not-for-profit organizations, including privately funded institutions of higher education, report financial information under the standards promulgated by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB). The focus of reporting for not-for-profit organizations, including private colleges and universities, is on disclosing information that can help providers make rational decisions about resource allocations to the institutions (FASB, 1980). Prior to the release of FASB Statement of Financial Accounting Standards (SFAS) No. 116, 117 and 124, however, not-for- profit organizations followed different accounting principles depending on AICPA audit guides for hospitals, higher education, health and welfare, and "other" nonprofit entities as well as other industry-specific guidelines. The FASB's goal was to resolve the many inconsistencies and to improve the accounting and reporting of not-for-profit entities. Prior to December 31, 1996, all colleges and universities reported under rules prescribed by the AICPA's 1973 Audits of Colleges and Universities for reporting the financial results of colleges and universities. Beginning with fiscal 1996, nongovernmental not-for-profit institutions are required to implement several new standards, including SFAS No. 124. These new standards constitute generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) for private, not-for-profit colleges and universities (C&Us) and differ from earlier GAAP in several important respects. SFAS No. 124, Accounting for Certain Investments Held by Not-for-Profit Organizations (FASB 1995) requires most investments to be reported at fair values with unrealized gains and losses included in the statement of activities and several new mandatory and discretionary disclosures. Prior to SFAS No. 124, nonprofit entities could report investments at cost, lower of cost or market, or market. SFAS No. 124 extends to not-for-profit entities the basic concepts that were applied to for-profit entities SFAS No. 115, Accounting for Certain Investments in Debt and Equity Securities (Stevens, 1996.) However, SFAS No. 124 makes no distinction between trading, available for sale, or held-to-maturity securities. Therefore, all marketable securities must be reported at fair value, instead of some debt securities accounted for at amortized cost as required by SFAS No. 115. Unlike SFAS No. 115, SFAS No. 124 requires that all gains and losses on investments resulting from their measurement at fair value are to be reported in the statement of activities and closed to net assets at year end. Therefore some gains and losses are not reported in an equity holding account. In addition, SFAS No. 124 mandates certain disclosures related to the statement of activities (i.e., the composition of investment return) and information related to the statement of financial position (i.e., the aggregate carrying amount of investments by major type), which are not required by SFAS No. 115. As with many implementations, SFAS No. 124 have created confusion among preparers and resulted in reporting practices with potentially disparate results (Locklear, 1997). This study investigates the extent to which 61 private colleges and universities complied with new standard in their 1997 annual reports. …


An environmental impact study is the significant part of any transportation project development. In general, environmental assessment is a process to find out the possible impact on environments due to the effects of proposed initiatives before they are carried out. In [the] transportation sector, construction of new roads or highways may minimize congestion and reduce travel path and time but may also have an effect on [the] environment. So it is necessary to develop the best alternative routes so that natural, cultural, [and] social environmental impacts are minimized. In recent years geographic information systems (GIS) have become increasing[ly] popular for environmental studies. GIS can play a vital role for analysis and in formulating the quick mitigation plans for high-risk environments. This study articulates what environmental impacts need to be assessed in transportation corridor planning, what geospatial data are needed to support these identified impact assessment activities, and how and what GIS tools are required to facilitate the corresponding assessment activities. The Mid-Peninsula Transportation Corridor (MPTC) planning project is analyzed as a case study.


A topic of interest in demographic and biostatistical analysis as well as in actuarial practice , is the graduation of the age-specific mortality pattern. A classical graduation technique is to fit parametric models. Recently, particular emphasis has been given to graduation using nonparametric techniques. Support Vector Machines (SVM) is an innovative methodology that could be utilized for mortality graduation purposes. This paper evaluates SVM techniques as tools for graduating mortality rates. We apply SVM to empirical death rates from a variety of populations and time periods. For comparison, we also apply standard graduation techniques to the same data.


Summary form only given. In this paper, a comprehensive open-source three-dimensional (3D) FEM is proposed to model the dynamic behavior of liquid crystal (LC) directors in complex structures. This dynamic model is based on interactively iterating the vector representation of director profile and potential distribution. The director update formulations are derived in detail from the Galerkin's approach of FEM, including the weak form approach to simplify the highly nonlinear iteration equation. The potential update formulations are derived from the Ritz's approach of FEM. A 2D in-plane switching (IPS) structure is used as an example to compare our approach with the FEM based commercial software (2dimMOS). The results from both programs show an excellent agreement. Furthermore, our method also agrees well with the finite difference method (FDM) in studying a 3D super IPS LC cell with zigzag electrodes


Choline is a dietary component essential for normal function of all cells. In 1998 the National Academy of Sciences, USA, issued a report identifying choline as a required nutrient for humans and recommended daily intake amounts. In ongoing studies we are finding that men have a higher requirement than do postmenopausal women, who in turn need more than premenopausal women. Pregnancy and lactation are periods when maternal reserves of choline are depleted. At the same time, the availability of choline for normal development of brain is critical. When rat pups received choline supplements (in utero or during the second week of life), their brain function is changed, resulting in lifelong memory enhancement. This change in memory function appears to be due to changes in the development of the memory center (hippocampus) in brain. These changes are so important that investigators can pick out the groups of animals whose mothers had extra choline even when these animals are elderly. Thus, memory function in the aged is, in part, determined by what mother ate. Foods highest in total choline concentrations per 100g were beef liver (418 mg), chicken liver (290 mg), and eggs (251 mg). We suggest that choline-rich foods are an important component of the diet and that especially during pregnancy it would be prudent to include them as part of a healthy diet.


Different chitosan carboxylic salts were successfully prepared via a simple way using chitosan and oxalic, fumaric, salicylic acid for the first time. The characterizations of the salts were evaluated by FT-IR, 13C NMR, 1H NMR, elemental analysis, XRD. The solution properties and moisture absorption-retention abilities of the salts were compared with chitosan. The result indicated that chitosan and carboxylic acid were combined with salt bond. The properties of the salts were related to the type of carboxylic acid added and the formation of salt bond. The water-solubility, wetting effect and moisture-retention absorption abilities of the salts were better than chitosan. They therefore have the potential to substitute for chitosan for easy use as coating in food preservation.


Nalaila, S. M., Stothard, P., Moore, S. S., Wang, Z. and Li, C. 2011. Whole genome fine mapping of quantitative trait loci for ultrasound and carcass merit traits in beef cattle. Can. J. Anim. Sci. 91: 61-73. Quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapped to large chromosomal regions have limited utility as DNA markers for marker-assisted selection (MAS) and are less informative as a reference for the identification of the underlying causative quantitative trait nucleotides (QTN). The objective of this study was to conduct a whole genome fine mapping of QTL for ultrasound and carcass merit traits in beef cattle using a greater density of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers, and to identify SNP markers within the QTL regions that are associated with the traits. A total of 418 steers from 28 sires were used in this study with nine ultrasound and seven carcass merit traits that were collected as part of a feedlot trial conducted from 2003 to 2005 at the University of Alberta Kinsella ranch. Sires and their progeny were genotyped for a total of 4592 SNP markers distributed across all 29 bovine autosomes (BTA). Across-family analyses detected 12 QTL for five ultrasound traits on nine chromosomes and 18 QTL for six carcass merit traits on 10 chromosomes (P<0.05). Within-family analyses identified 78 significant QTL for nine ultrasound and seven carcass merit traits (P<0.01). The use of a denser panel of SNP markers allowed fine mapping of QTL to smaller chromosomal regions ranging from 0.6 to 11 cM compared with relatively larger QTL regions of 4 to 24 cM reported in previous studies. Furthermore, single SNP marker association analyses identified 22 SNPs that were significantly associated with three ultrasound and four carcass merit traits under 12 QTL regions (P<0.05). These identified SNP markers significantly associated with the traits under the fine mapped QTL regions provide genomic tools for potential application of MAS and a reference to assist with the identification of QTN causing variations in ultrasound and carcass merit traits in beef cattle.


This report, commissioned by the Mayor of London, follows on from a major piece of research also commissioned by the Mayor through the London Development Agency to examine the educational experiences of black boys in London, 2000-03 (2004). That report considered in great detail the reasons for the continuing underachievement of black boys in schools when compared to their peers. This report seeks to build on that research by seeking the views of black teachers about their contribution in raising achievement for black children, and also to consider what steps are necessary to address the problems of recruiting and retaining a representative teaching workforce for London.
This study was commissioned with three main aims. These were to examine:
• the factors with the greatest impact on the recruitment, development, progression and retention of black teachers in London
• the views of black teachers and parents as to the factors affecting the educational achievement of black pupils
• the views of black teachers and parents as to the effect that the presence of black teachers in the classroom has on raising black pupil performance.
The intention was also to consider more broadly:
• whether black teachers consider themselves as role models, and if so, for whom
• if there is anything distinctive about being a black teacher and what this means in practice
• black teachers' relationships with parents
• the educational needs of black children and the concerns/priorities of black parents with regard to the education of their children
• black parental involvement in the education of their children.

In addition to the above, the report provides an update on the numbers and distribution of black teachers in London, with comparative data on the distribution of pupils and the general population. The report also includes a review of relevant literature and policy issues involved in the recruitment, retention and promotion of (black) teachers.


The paper discusses four contemporary processes that pose new challenges to the quest for equality: first, the rise of the ecological concern; second, the disentanglement of nation and state; third, the redefinition of civil society and solidarity; and fourth, the quest for complementarity between equality and difference. These four aspects are explored as components of an encompassing cultural change that evokes the idea of a new great transformation, to recall Polanyi's thesis. The major argument is that in this new scenario the ways of perceiving social differences and inequalities are profoundly affected, while conventional policies to tackle poverty and inequality call for revision.


A temperature-concentration dependent surface fit for the relative viscosity of a urea-water-solution (UWS) is calculated based on experimental and literature data. For the surface fit, a 2D Lorenzian function was used, where the xaxis was assigned to a urea mass fraction and the y-axis to the solution temperature and the rest of the parameters were optimized based on the experimental and literature data. The surface model describes the relative viscosity of undersaturated urea-water-solution (UWS). The experimental data for the kinematic viscosity was measured with an Ubbelohde capillary viscometer whose temperature was controlled with a thermostat. The temperature and concentration range was from 293.15 to 353.15 K in 10 K increments and for urea mass fractions from 0.325 to 0.7. The kinematic viscosity values from the experiment were converted to relative viscosity by calculating the density of the UWS. An exponential fit was calculated to describe the specific gravity of the UWS based on literature data. Additionally, the surface tension of the UWS was measured at room temperature (293.15 K) in a mass fraction range from 0.302 to 0.596. As a result, simple models describing UWS properties were obtained and these models can be implemented into computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations.


BACKGROUND
To identify profiles of family needs of families of children and youth with cerebral palsy (CP), and determine whether profile membership is related to child, family and service characteristics.

METHODS
Participants were mostly mothers (80%) of 579 children and youth with CP. A family member completed modified version of the Family Needs Survey and questionnaires about their child, family and services. Research assistants determined the Gross Motor Function Classification System levels. K-means cluster analysis identified profiles of needs. Cluster membership was analysed to examine differences in clusters based on selected characteristics.

RESULTS
Four profiles of needs were identified: Low needs, Needs related to community and financial resources, Needs related to child health condition and High needs. Profile membership was differentiated based on child/youth gross motor function, adaptive behaviour, family relationships, family income, access and effort to co-ordinate services.

CONCLUSION
Despite heterogeneity among individuals with CP and their families, four profiles of family needs were identified. In total, 51% of families had low needs suggesting that they are effectively managing their children's health conditions while 11% of families had high needs that may require high levels of services and supports. Service providers are encouraged to partner with families, provide anticipatory guidance and co-ordinate services.


A phylogenetic analysis of selected anomuran, thalassinidean, and other decapod crustacean taxa, based on spermatozoal ultrastructural characters and spermatophore morphological characters, was performed and the following relationships of the taxa are elucidated from the trees produced. The Anomura are not a monophyletic assemblage, with the lomoid Lomis being exclusive of the remainder of the anomuran taxa, and the thalassinid Thalassina included in the anomuran clade. The synapomorphy joining the majority of the conventional anomuran taxa ( Lomis excluded) is the cytoplasmic origin of the microtubular arms. When the palinurid and thalassinoid representatives are separately designated as outgroups, the Astacidea and Brachyura jointly formed a sister group to the Anomura. The superfamilies Thalassinoidea, Paguroidea, and Galatheoidea are not monophyletic groups. In all analyses the anomuran families Coenobitidae and Porcellanidae each form a monophyletic group. The paguroid family Diogenidae is paraphyletic, with the genera Clibanarius and Cancellus separate from a single clade containing the remaining diogenid genera. The families Paguridae and Parapaguridae form a monophyletic clade with the exception of Porcellanopagurus. The two representatives of the family Chirostylidae ( Eumunida Uroptychus) and fail to associate with the other species in the Galatheoidea. The taxa in the family Galatheidae are not a monophyletic assemblage. The only investigated hippoid Hippa is portrayed as the sister group to the remainder of the anomuran taxa (with the exception of Lomis).


Shallow Foundations: Discussions and Problem Solving is written for civil engineers and all civil engineering students taking courses in soil mechanics and geotechnical engineering. It covers the analysis, design and application of shallow foundations, with a primary focus on the interface between the structural elements and underlying soil. Topics such as site investigation, foundation contact pressure and settlement, vertical stresses in soils due to foundation loads, settlements, and bearing capacity are all fully covered, and a chapter is devoted to the structural design of different types of shallow foundations. It provides essential data for the design of shallow foundations under normal circumstances, considering both the American (ACI) and the European (EN) Standard Building Code Requirements, with each chapter being a concise discussion of critical and practical aspects. Applications are highlighted through solving a relatively large number of realistic problems. A total of 180 problems, all with full solutions, consolidate understanding of the fundamental principles and illustrate the design and application of shallow foundations.


Environmentally sound waste management is an area of Semarang city government efforts to manage the waste. The existence of good waste management, will make a sustainable environment in accordance with Act No. 18 Of 2008 on Waste Management. Research methodssociological jurisdiction is law as the law in action, described as an empirical social phenomena. The findings of the study (1) Implementationwaste management in the city of Semarang has been carried out by means of environmentally sound The program concept of 3R (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle), in cooperation with PT. Narpati Agung Lestari Karya Persada (2) Barriers to the realization of environmentally sound waste management systems, barriers: factors of population, The quality and quantity of human resources (HR) is still inadequate, operational factors. Solution: Conduct a training program, the training of human resources, increase its fleet of waste management. Keywords :Waste Management; Act No. 18 In 2008; A Sustainable City.


In concentrically rotating double cylinders consisting of a stationary outer cylinder a rotating inner cylinder, Taylor vortex flow appears. Taylor vortex flow occurs in journal bearings, various fluid machineries, containers for chemical reaction, and other rotating components. Therefore, the analysis of the flow structure of Taylor vortex flow is highly effective for its control. The main parameters that determine the modes of Taylor vortex flow of a finite length are the aspect ratio, Reynolds number Re. Aspect ratio is defined as the ratio of the cylinder length to the gap length between cylinders, and Re is determined on the basis of the angular speed of the inner cylinder. Aspect ratio was set to be 4.0, and Re to be values in the range from 100 to 1000 at intervals of 100. Thus far, a large number of studies on Taylor vortex flow have been carried out; however, the effects of the differences in initial conditions have not yet been sufficiently clarified. In this study, we changed the acceleration time of the inner cylinder in a numerical analysis, and examined the resulting changes in the mode formation and bifurcation processes. The acceleration time was changed from 1.0 s to 10.0 s. As a result, a difference was observed in the final mode depending on the difference in the acceleration time. From this finding, non-uniqueness, which is a major characteristic of Taylor vortex flow, was confirmed. However, no regularities regarding the difference in mode formation were found and the tendency of the mode formation process was not specified. Moreover, the processes of developing the vortex resulting in different final modes were monitored over time by visual observation. Similar flow behaviors were initially observed after the start of the calculation. Then, a bifurcation point, at which the flow changed to a mode depending on the acceleration time observed, and finally the flow became steady. In addition, there was also a difference in the time taken for the well-developed flow to reach the steady state. Both EFD (Experimental Fluid Dynamics) and CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) results show good agreement qualitatively.


Local food initiatives create a niche market in many developed countries where consumer choice is being met with an expanding offering in both conventional as well as complementary retail outlets. Supermarkets in conjunction with the food service sector currently dominate food sales and consumption, and are likely to do so for the foreseeable future. However, the local food sector offers an opportunity for implementing niche marketing strategies for many businesses. Local food activities tend to be relatively independent activities and a clearer definition for "local" food would assist in consolidating this important component of the food system. Related to this, consumers would benefit from the establishment of some form of assurance system for the 'localness' of food. In the UK, with its well established local food market, farmers' markets, farm shops and box schemes are currently having the largest impact in terms of total sales. Hence further research is required to confirm that support for similar business ventures in Australia would be a viable strategy for strengthening its local food systems.


We present the first measurements of the iron L2/3-edge of the compounds FeO, Fe2O3, and Fe3O4 at ambient pressure and of FeCO3 at high pressures of 2.4 and 40 GPa using a diamond anvil cell by X-ray Raman scattering spectroscopy, a bulk sensitive probe of soft X-ray absorption edges making use of hard X-rays. We show that the spectral shape of the Fe L2/3-edge can be analyzed quantitatively to reveal the oxidation state of iron in matter. Consequently, in situ X-ray Raman scattering spectroscopy at the iron L-edge at high pressure and temperature opens exciting perspectives to characterize the local coordination, oxidation, and spin state of iron at high pressure and temperature, conditions that are of relevance for e.g. geological sciences or chemical processing.


One purpose of asset pricing models is to explain empirical differences in the time-averaged returns among risky assets. Of interest is whether differences in risk exposure can explain differences in average returns. In the framework of asset return regression systems, the problem is to test equality of parameter values across equations. We examine the performance of Wald and score tests of cross-equation restrictions, with robustness to empirically documented residual heteroskedasticity and autocorrelation. The tests display distortions, but in simulation they perform well when applied parsimoniously. We use the tests to examine the risk exposure of stocks sorted by firm size.


Background: Previous systematic reviews of evidence of the (cost) effectiveness of palliative care day services (PCDS) have been limited due to a lack of primary research and self-imposed limitations on included studies. Furthermore, the last reviews were published in 2011. As the sustained growth in PCDS was likely to have an associated research output, another review was timely to update the evidence base.Aims & Methods To evaluate the effectiveness of clinical, psychological, social and spiritual interventions offered to adults attending PCDS, we adopted a fully systematic approach, involving independent review within a research team. We included primary and review level evidence; published and grey literature; papers in languages other than English, and studies that focus on adults with both malignant and non-malignant disease. We searched a comprehensive range of electronic databases, as well as hand-search other sources and contacted relevant authors and content experts. Included studies were quality-appraised and the certainty of evidence assessed. We used expert advice to synthesise quantitative data; the framework approach to synthesise qualitative data; a narrative synthesis for cost-effectiveness data, and; an overarching narrative synthesis to bring together the quantitative and qualitative evidence in the form of a logic model.Results: Our logic model identifies relevant components of the intervention and context in which it is implemented, and links these to specific impacts or outcomes through the identification of moderators and/or short-term outcomes. This process enables the development of theoretical propositions concerning which factors, and mechanisms of interaction, are likely to lead to which outcomes.Conclusions The review represents an innovative integration of quantitative and qualitative data that provides a rigorous, systematically derived evidence base concerning the effectiveness of interventions currently offered within PCDS, including evidence concerning the circumstances in which effectiveness is (not) achieved.


The pervasive computing vision introduced by Mark Weiser in the early 90's, results from the convergence of powerful, small, affordable computing devices with networking technologies that tie them all together. Still, the development of software systems for pervasive computing environments requires dealing with numerous challenges that are primarily due to the dynamics, mobility and heterogeneity inherent to these environments. Middleware technologies that deal with the dynamics and homogenize the diversity of technologies appear as a major enabler for the development of pervasive computing software systems. Further, service-oriented middleware (SOM) where functional and non- functional capabilities provided by pervasive networked resources are abstracted as services appear to be the most appropriate for pervasive computing environments. However, the dynamic discovery and composition of networked services by applications, which constitute two of the main functionalities of a SOM, require service requesters and providers to agree on both the functional and non-functional semantics of service capabilities. This, cannot be achieved on a syntactic basis in open pervasive computing environments. A promising approach then, relies on the semantic modelling of services functional and non-functional capabilities. In the above direction, this thesis introduces a semantic, service-oriented middleware for pervasive computing. The most significant contributions are: (1) an extensible semantic service model and its associated conformance relations; (2) an efficient semantic service registry for highly interactive pervasive environments; and (3) the support for adaptive QoS-aware service composition that allows taking full advantage of the diverse capabilities of each pervasive environment.


I studied the breeding biology of the three-toed woodpecker Picoides tridactylus in order to determine factors that influence annual and seasonal variations. Data from 37 pairs showed that 79% of nests produced at least one fledgling. The median laying date was not affected by elevation, and annual clutch and brood sizes did not differ significantly across the years. Seasonal trends supported the advantage of early breeding. More than 70% of clutches were laid within the span of 9 calendar days. Clutch and brood sizes declined with later laying dates and earlier breeders were more successful. Females paired with older males laid eggs earlier than those that were paired with younger males. Woodpeckers showed nest site fidelity across the years. Laying date relative to the rest of the local population, rather than the absolute laying date, should be regarded as an important determinant for breeding success in three-toed woodpeckers.


Purpose: Beliefs about communication disability vary according to the cultural context, and influence people's attitudes and help-seeking behaviour. Little is known about Fijians with communication disability or the communities in which they live, and specialist services for people with communication disability are yet to be established in Fiji. An understanding of Fijian beliefs about the causes of communication disability and attitudes towards people with communication disability may inform future service development. Method: An interpretivist qualitative research paradigm and the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) framework informed this project's design. Scenarios of adults and children with communication disability were presented to 144 participants, randomly sampled across multiple public spaces in two Fiji cities. Thematic analysis of responses to 15 survey questions revealed participant beliefs about the causes and attitudes towards people with communication disability. Results: Three clusters describing perceived causes emerged from the analysis - internal, external, and supernatural. Major clusters across child and adult scenarios were similar; however, response categories within the scenarios differed. Community attitudes to people with communication disability were predominantly negative. These community attitudes influenced individual participants' beliefs about educational and employment opportunities for Fijians with communication disability. Conclusion: Determination and acknowledgement of individuals' belief systems informs development of culturally appropriate intervention programmes and health promotion activities. Implications: Speech-language pathologists and other professionals working with Fijian communities should acknowledge community belief systems and develop culturally-specific health promotion activities, assessments, and interventions.


We tested whether clones of Daphnia pulex in a mesotrophic lake differ with respect to overwintering strategies: either surviving the winter as parthenogenetic females with reduced metabolism in pelagic waters, or as sexually produced dormant embryos in ephippia. During winter 2007, we established two groups of clonal laboratory lines from females collected in the lake and neonates hatched from ephippia. Genetic relatedness and differentiation of the two clonal groups were studied with microsatellite markers, and compared to the genetic structure of a field reference population. Flow‐through experiments designed to measure the specific juvenile growth rate (gj) of individual clones (a good proxy of fitness) at low and at high food concentrations show that differences in gj indicate physiological adaptation of the different starting populations to improving food conditions in spring. Although gj differed significantly among individual clones, both below and above the incipient limiting food concentration, we found no significant differences between the clonal groups. There was considerable clonal variation for reaction norms of gj, but neither the group means of the slopes of reaction norms nor of the threshold food concentrations for growth differed significantly. The lack of differences in group means so far does not support the hypothesis that clones are specialized for either parthenogenetic or for dormant overwintering. It rather suggests a mixed strategy of individual females producing resting stages as insurance and then trying to survive the winter in an active state.


As the project of modernity has come to take the shape of a distinct civilizational paradigm based on a secular metaphysics it would be beyond my reach in tackling all aspects of it briefly as it is the case in this work. Because a civilization is not only composed of thoughts but deeds too and the manifestations of these two are not only displayed in ideas but discernible in actualized forms such as architectures, films, sculptures, paintings, arts, and so on and so forth, not mentioning the commons customs and habits of people which may reflect in their cuisines, dressings, forms of social behaviours and interactions and so on. At times I have tried to go beyond the formal understanding of sociology as a discipline among many others by resorting to a larger definition of sociology, i.e. the secular worldview of modern man about his place in what is called the social order. I have, in other words, attempted to approach sociology as the epitome of modern worldview which is disconnected from the Holy and not concerned with the question of Transcendence in relation to ontology, epistemology and existentialogy.


EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
1. The purpose of this project was to review possible inputs to UK headwater streams of steroid hormones originating from livestock, to investigate
hormone contamination in some streams in which concentrations were expected to be maximal, and to draw conclusions about possible risks that these hormones may pose to aquatic organisms.

2. The review concluded that although livestock in the UK excretes more steroid sex hormones (oestradiol and testosterone) than the human population, almost all of the material deposited on soil by livestock and by manure/slurry spreading is likely to be adsorbed and/or degraded in soil before reaching surface waters. Concentrations of oestrogens in field drains are unlikely to exceed 1 ng/l (expressed as 17β-oestradiol equivalents), a concentration that is probably harmless. However, it is possible that direct excretion by livestock into unfenced streams, and direct run-off to surface waters from slurry stores and hard-standing in livestock farms, may contribute higher concentrations. In other words, poor farming practice may lead to significant steroid hormone pollution.

3. The review also concluded that surface waters in some other countries are contaminated with oestrogens at potentially active concentrations, so it was
considered that a survey of UK headwater streams for hormonal activity was justified. The literature search clearly showed that pregnant cattle are the single most important source of natural oestrogens on livestock farms.

4. The chosen sampling strategy was to focus on a limited number of predominantly dairy farms that were considered to represent worst-case conditions for hormone translocation to small headwater streams. Criteria that contributed towards the choice of field sites included stocking type and density, soil type and slope, access of livestock to the stream, application of manure or slurry to the land, possible direct drainage to the stream of waste from leaking slurry stores and hard-standing areas used by livestock, and
access permission from the land-owner. Confounding factors such as upstream inputs of hormonally active material from sewage treatment works, septic tank
soak-aways, and industrial discharges, were excluded as far as possible from the study.

5. In order to obtain semi-quantitative, time-integrated samples of hormones in water, locations up- and downstream of livestock activity were sampled on 10
farms using a passive, solid-phase device known as a Polar Organic Chemical Integrative Sampler (POCIS). These were deployed between November 2004 and January 2005 for 3 to 10 weeks (mean = 39 days). At an eleventh site, a field drain issuing from an experimental plot of cracking clay soil treated solely with dairy cow slurry was also sampled with POCIS. At one site, an
automatic flow-driven water sampler was deployed alongside the POCIS to capture water soon after heavy rainfall.

6. POCIS and water extracts were assayed for estrogenic and androgenic activity using the in vitro yeast estrogen screen (YES) and yeast androgen screen (YAS), respectively. As part of a separate project, POCIS extracts were also analysed chemically for oestrone (E1), 17β-oestradiol (E2) and 17α-ethinylestradiol (EE2) by the Environment Agency.

7. The flow from only one rainfall event was captured in its entirety by the autosampler, but this revealed a background concentration (E2 equivalents) of 0-0.3 ng/l, rising to a transient peak of 9.4 ng/l. Average E2 activity at this site as determined from the POCIS samplers was 1.8-2.7 ng E2 equiv./litre, which provides confidence that the POCIS results are reliable.

8. Estimated oestrogenic activity across all sites (with one exception) lay in the range zero-26.5 ng E2 equiv./litre (mean = 2.0 ng/l; standard deviation = 5.1), based on the POCIS samples. The outlier was 292 ng/l, but this could not be specifically linked with intensive livestock rearing. 92% of monitoring stations
(at least one on each farm) contained some oestrogenic activity.

9. In 5 of 9 livestock farms where upstream/downstream comparisons were possible, the downstream oestrogenic activity was higher than upstream, implying inputs from the farms under study. There was one case (Farm 3)
where there were no known confounding factors whatever, with very little upstream contamination, and the farm increased activity by a factor of 7.

10. However, upstream activity was sometimes higher than downstream, suggesting possible inputs from phyto-oestrogens and scattered septic tank overflows, and in-stream adsorption and/or degradation. There was a low
background level of oestrogenic activity in all but two locations.

11. The data did not generally permit discrimination between different potential sources on the farms, but it seems likely that the observed oestrogenic activity
was mainly caused by a combination of slurry spreading and farmyard runoff, with direct excretion to pasture by livestock probably contributing less. In one
case (Farm 7 slurry application experiment), activity in the field drain was directly attributable to dairy slurry alone.

12. On 8 of the 11 surveyed farms, oestrogenic activity in the stream (or field drain in one case) exceeded the Predicted-No-Effect-Concentration for E2 of 1 ng/l. In two cases, activity was probably high enough to damage reproduction in fish, although in neither case was livestock itself likely to have been the primary cause.

13. Although no EE2 was detected analytically in any stream, E1 and E2 were ubiquitous, with E2 equivalents ranging from 0.04 to 3.62 ng/l across all but two sites. Furthermore, concentrations downstream of livestock were generally higher than upstream, more markedly so than for the YES data. The oestrogen concentrations agree well with the YES data and these observations suggest that most of the detected activity was attributable to E1 and E2 derived from livestock. However, the low levels of oestrogenic activity detected by the YES upstream at several stations, and the much higher upstream levels at Farms 11 and 13, could not be explained by E1 or E2, and it is postulated that phytooestrogens may have contributed to this signal.

14. Although all streams were assayed with the YAS for androgenic activity, this was only detectable in two cases, and at levels which are unlikely to pose a
threat to fish. However, it should be noted that uptake of testosterone by the POCIS has not yet been calibrated.

15. On the basis of this survey, the possibility that natural oestrogens (from both livestock and other sources) in headwater streams are causing adverse effects in fish cannot be excluded.

16. Recommendations are made for further research to discriminate between sources, and to evaluate the risks to fish.


Abstract. Obtaining accurate image interior and exterior orientations is the key to improve 3D measurement accuracy besides reliable and accurate image matching. A majority of cameras used for those tasks are non-metric cameras. Non-metric cameras commonly suffer various distortions. Generally, there are two ways to remove these distortions: 1) conducting prior camera calibration in a controlled environment; 2) applying self-calibrating bundle adjustment in the application environment. Both approaches have their advantages and disadvantages but one thing is common that there is no universal calibration model available so far which can remove all sorts of distortions on images and systemic errors of image orientations. Instead of developing additional calibration models for camera calibration and self-calibrating adjustment, this paper presents a novel approach which applies self-calibrating bundle adjustment in an iterative fashion: after performing a conventional self-calibrating bundle adjustment, the image coordinates of tie points are re-calculated using the newly obtained self-calibration model coefficients, and the self-calibrating bundle adjustment is applied again in the hope that the remaining distortions and systematic errors will be reduced further within next a few iterations. Using a "virtual image" concept this iterative approach does not require to resample images or/and re-measure tie points during iterations, only costs a few additional iterations computational resource. Several trails under various application environments are conducted using this proposed iterative approach and the results indicate that not only the distortions can be reduced further but also image orientations become much stable after a few iterations.


The low take-up of cost-effective and highly subsidised preventive health technologies in low-income countries remains a puzzle. One under-studied reason is that the design of subsidy schemes is such that households remain financially constrained. This paper analyses whether, and how, micro-finance supports a large public health subsidy program in the developing world -- the Swachh Bharat Mission -- in achieving its aim of increasing uptake of individual household latrines. Exploiting a cluster randomised controlled experiment of a sanitation micro-finance program that coincided with the launch of the SBM program, and unique survey data matched to administrative data, findings reveal that the complementarity runs on two levels: First, micro-credit allows households officially ineligible for the subsidy to invest in sanitation by alleviating credit constraints. Second, micro-credit also helps subsidy eligible households to overcome short-term liquidity constraints induced by the remuneration-post-verification subsidy design to invest in sanitation. Subsidy eligible households living in areas experiencing large delays in subsidy disbursement, or high toilet costs, are more likely to take a sanitation loan, but less likely to use the loan to construct a toilet.


Modern chip multiprocessor (CMP) systems employ multiple memory controllers to control access to main memory. The scheduling algorithm employed by these memory controllers has a significant effect on system throughput, so choosing an efficient scheduling algorithm is important. The scheduling algorithm also needs to be scalable — as the number of cores increases, the number of memory controllers shared by the cores should also increase to provide sufficient bandwidth to feed the cores. Unfortunately, previous memory scheduling algorithms are inefficient with respect to system throughput and/or are designed for a single memory controller and do not scale well to multiple memory controllers, requiring significant finegrained coordination among controllers. This paper proposes ATLAS (Adaptive per-Thread Least-Attained-Service memory scheduling), a fundamentally new memory scheduling technique that improves system throughput without requiring significant coordination among memory controllers. The key idea is to periodically order threads based on the service they have attained from the memory controllers so far, and prioritize those threads that have attained the least service over others in each period. The idea of favoring threads with least-attained-service is borrowed from the queueing theory literature, where, in the context of a single-server queue it is known that least-attained-service optimally schedules jobs, assuming a Pareto (or any decreasing hazard rate) workload distribution. After verifying that our workloads have this characteristic, we show that our implementation of least-attained-service thread prioritization reduces the time the cores spend stalling and significantly improves system throughput. Furthermore, since the periods over which we accumulate the attained service are long, the controllers coordinate very infrequently to form the ordering of threads, thereby making ATLAS scalable to many controllers. We evaluate ATLAS on a wide variety of multiprogrammed SPEC 2006 workloads and systems with 4–32 cores and 1–16 memory controllers, and compare its performance to five previously proposed scheduling algorithms. Averaged over 32 workloads on a 24-core system with 4 controllers, ATLAS improves instruction throughput by 10.8%, and system throughput by 8.4%, compared to PAR-BS, the best previous CMP memory scheduling algorithm. ATLAS's performance benefit increases as the number of cores increases.


This article explores how translation students and professionals coordinate source language comprehension and target language production processes. Using a combination of eye tracking and keyboard logging technologies, user activity data on reading and writing processes in translation were collected and analyzed, focusing on pre-translation, visual attention on source and target text, transitions between reading and production mode, eye-key span, and pauses. Analysis of our data suggests a distinction between integrated and sequential coordination, with the former characterizing professional performance and the latter student performance. Although there are still interruptions in the processing data stream (i.e., pauses) which are difficult to explain, comprehensive eye tracking data enables us to account more precisely for these and other indicators of cognitive processing in translation.


Abstract
Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease of large elastic and muscular arteries in which lesions are characterized by the deposition of cholesterol, leukocyte influx, smooth muscle cell proliferation, cell debris and collagen accumulation in the intima. Inflammatory cells of the innate and adaptive immune systems contribute to lesion development and progression. Cardiovascular diseases such as heart attacks and strokes are the leading causes of death globally with underlying of atherosclerosis. Their current treatment is restricted to lipid-lowering statins which are not sufficient in preventing and remitting atherosclerosis. Therefore new additional anti-inflammatory therapeutic strategy is required in the management of atherosclerosis. Earlier studies showed a protective role for total B cells; however further studies by our group and others showed a pro-atherogenic role for B2 cells and atheroprotective role for B1a cells. B cells have been shown to accumulate in atherosclerotic lesions in very low numbers. Understanding the role of B cells in atherosclerosis is rather complex as there are two main subsets of B cells, B1 and B2 B cells, each with differing origin, development, differentiation, localization and effector functions. B1a cells mainly produce Natural IgM antibodies while B2 cells mainly produce IgG antibodies. Splenectomy of Apolipoprotein E knockout mice (ApoE-/-) resulted in a preferential depletion in peritoneal B1a cell population and enhanced atherosclerosis. Our group showed that reconstitution of B1a cells by adoptive transfer rescued the aggravated atherosclerosis in splenectomised ApoE-/- mice. In another study we showed that B2 cells are atherogenic as adoptive transfer of B2 cells into lymphocyte-deficient ApoE-/-Rag2-/-c-/- mice and in B cell-deficient ApoE-/-MT mice exacerbated atherosclerosis. These studies established opposing roles of B cell subsets in atherosclerosis development in ApoE-/- atherogenic mouse model. B2 cells were identified as atherogenic whereas B1 cells were atheroprotective. Atherogenicity of B2 cells was confirmed by further studies from our laboratory on BAFF-R deficient ApoE-/- mice that are selectively deficient in B2 but not B1 cells. BAFF-R knockouts were selected for study because BAFF is a growth and maturation factor for B2 cells but not B1 cells. Additional confirmation was provided when we used monoclonal antibody to BAFF-R to selectively deplete B2 cells and spare B1a cell. This antibody not only attenuated the development of atherosclerosis but also suppressed the established atherosclerosis.
To further extend these observations the studies presented in this thesis explores therapeutic strategies to expand B1a cells to suppress atherosclerosis development. These findings may have potential for clinical translation.
Firstly I investigated the role of toll-like receptors (TLRs) and CD40 in activating atheroprotective B1a cells. Peritoneal B1a cells were depleted by splenectomy from ApoE-/- mice, then mice adoptively received B1a cells from C57Bl/6 wild type (WT), TLR2-/-, TLR4-/-, TLR9-/-, MyD88-/- and CD40-/- mice and fed a high fat (HFD) diet for 8 weeks. B1a cells from WT, TLR2-/-, TLR9-/- and CD40-/- mice suppressed atherosclerosis whilst B1a cells from TLR4-/- or MyD88-/- were without affect. Adoptively transferred B1a cells from WT but not TLR4-/- or MyD88-/- mice elevated IgM in plasma and atherosclerotic lesions. This was associated with reductions in lesion oxLDL, macrophages, T cells and proinflammatory cytokines. Also lesion apoptotic cell numbers were reduced by B1a cells from WT but not TLR4-/- or MyD88-/- mice and lesion anti-inflammatory cytokines IL-10 and TGF-β1 were increased. Polyclonal natural IgM produced by TLR-stimulated B1a cells during development of atherosclerosis not only neutralised oxLDL and facilitated removal of lesion apoptotic cells but also bound to leukocytes, CD3 and CD4 T cells and reduced local inflammation in atherosclerotic lesions.
Next, I examined whether activating B1a cells with apoptotic cells (AC) as well as phosphatidylserine liposomes (PSL) could enhance their protective actions during atherosclerosis. Intraperitoneally administration of both ACs and PSL attenuated atherosclerosis in ApoE-/- mice and the effect was dependent on B1a cells as splenectomy abrogated these effects. Atheroprotection was associated with reductions in lesion macrophages and CD4+ and CD8+ T cell accumulation was well as reductions in proinflammatory cytokines and increases in anti-inflammatory cytokines. ACs and PSLs also increased B1a cell numbers including TIM-1+ B1a cells without affecting other lymphocyte populations. Total plasma IgM, anti-leukocyte, anti-CD3, anti-CD4 and anti-oxLDL IgM were also significantly elevated. The elevated IgM in developing atherosclerotic lesions were associated with reductions in lesion MDA-LDL (oxLDL), apoptotic cell numbers and lesion necrotic core size.
Thirdly I explored the role of TIM-1 receptor, a receptor for phosphatidylserine (PS) expressed on regulatory B cells. I examined the capacity of anti-TIM-1 RMT1-10 low affinity agonist monoclonal antibody (mAb) to expand B1a cells to inhibit progression and development of established atherosclerosis. Six-week old male ApoE-/- mice were treated with anti-TIM-1 RMT1-10 mAb and fed a HFD for 8 weeks. B1a TIM-1+IgM+ B cells and B1a TIM-1+IgM+IL-10+ B cells were selectively expanded. These effects reduced lesion size and markedly increased plasma and lesion IgM and decreased lesion oxidatively modified LDL (oxLDL). This was associated with reduction of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, macrophages and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1), proinflammatory cytokines expression, apoptotic cell numbers and necrotic cores in atherosclerotic lesions. Splenectomy indicated that these effects were B1a cell-dependent. B1a cell stimulation in-vitro with the anti-TIM-1 mAb promoted dose-response B1a cell proliferation and IgM production. In an intervention study to determine whether anti-TIM-1 mAb treatment could attenuate developed atherosclerosis progression, 6 week-old ApoE-/- mice were fed a HFD for 6 weeks, and treated with anti-TIM-1 mAb for another 8 weeks while continuing the HFD. Treatment also increased B1a TIM-1+IgM+ B cells, B1a TIM-1+IgM+IL-10+ B cells and IgM levels and greatly attenuated atherosclerosis progression.
Taken together, my findings provide persuasive data for the expansion of atheroprotective B1a B cells in the prevention of atherosclerosis development and the suppression of already established atherosclerosis. The latter finding suggests potential for clinical translation.


OBJECTIVE: To test the hypothesis that high concentrations of extracellular inorganic pyrophosphate (PPi), which associate with increased cell synthesis and turnover in cartilage, may act as a marker for structural outcome in knee osteoarthritis (OA). METHOD: One hundred and thirty five consecutive patients referred to hospital with knee OA (59 men, 76 women; mean age 71 years, range 41-88) were followed prospectively for a median of 2.5 years (interquartile range 1.75-3.0). Synovial fluid (SF) aspirated at presentation (202 OA knees: 68 bilateral, 66 unilateral) was assessed for PPi content by radiometric assay. Knee radiographs at presentation and at final review were assessed for change in global (Kellgren) and individual features (narrowing, osteophyte, sclerosis, cyst, attrition) of OA. RESULTS: The median SF PPi level was 10.5 mumol (range 0.07-72.4). At baseline, high PPi was significantly associated with presence of calcium pyrophosphate crystals, chondrocalcinosis, and bone attrition. Radiographic change was observed in 164 knees. High PPi levels were negatively associated with change in Kellgren and Lawrence grade, further narrowing, and increase in osteophyte, but positively associated with development of attrition. In the 68 patients from whom bilateral data were obtained, there was correlation between right and left knees for PPi levels, all baseline radiographic scores, and changes in radiographic features. Multiple logistic regression analysis for PPi as a continuous variable (age, gender, and patient number included in model) showed a negative correlation with change in global Kellgren and Lawrence grade (odds ratio (OR) 0.97, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.95 to 0.99) and a positive correlation with attrition (OR 1.04, 95% CI 1.02 to 1.07). CONCLUSION: High SF levels of PPi are associated with favourable radiographic outcome in terms of progressive change in Kellgren grade. Such elevated PPi levels, however, may inhibit new bone formation and remodelling in knee OA.


A total of 204 chickpea samples with symptoms typical of virus infection including stunting, yellowing, necrosis, reddening, and tip wilting were collected during February 2013 and March 2015 from 14 chickpea fields located in Gizera, middle Gizera, Barbar, Shendi and Hudiba, Sudan. All samples were tested using tissue-blot immunoassay (TBIA) (Makkouk and Kumari, 1996) against a battery of legume virus antibodies including a broad-spectrum legume luteovirus monoclonal antibody (McAb) (5G4; Katul, 1992). To identify the luteoviruses affecting chickpea in Sudan, 41 chickpea samples that gave positive reaction to 5G4 McAb were tested using generic reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) Luteovirus primer pairs (Asaad et al. 2009; Abraham et al. 2009). Direct sequencing of these products indicated that 12 samples were related to Cucurbit aphid-borne yellows virus (CABYV). To confirm this data, all samples were tested again by RT-PCR using CABYV-specific primer CABYV3635F (5'-GAAACCGCCGACGCCCTAAT-3'; this study) and primer AS3 (Abraham et al. 2009). Results showed that 12 of the 41 samples that gave positive reactions to 5G4 McAb generated RT-PCR amplicons of the partial coat protein gene of the expected size (481 bp) and were considered positive for CABYV. Amplicons from two chickpea samples (isolates SuCp106-13 and SuCp122-13) were directly sequenced in both directions. After removal of primers, the resulting sequences were 435 nucleotides in length (GenBank accessions numbers MG933685 and MG933686). The two isolates shared 100% nt identity with each other and 96% nt identity with the type reference sequence for CABYV, NC_003688. Moreover, we confirmed the presence of CABYV in RT-PCR positive samples serologically with TBIA using polyclonal antisera (provided by Lecoq, INRA, France). The observed symptoms in CABYV-infected chickpea plants were stunting, accompanied by leaf yellowing and necrosis and is likely to reduce yield similar to other Luteoviruses. Of the 204 virus-symptomatic plants we tested in this study, 12 were positive for CABYV (6% of the samples tested). Chickpea is an economically important crop in many countries of the world and knowing the exact identity of a virus affecting this crop in a region is essential for breeding for resistance and crop management purposes. CABYV and its aphid vector (Aphis gossypii Glover) were reported on cucurbit crops in many countries of the world with high yield loss. Further disease surveillance will be needed to determine if CABYV continues to impact chickpea production in Sudan and if it is also present in other chickpea production regions of the world. CABYV was reported recently on broad bean (Vicia faba L.) in Turkey (Buzkan et al. 2017), but based on our knowledge this is the first report of CABYV on chickpea in Sudan and worldwide.


This paper is a desk-top exploratory literature review examining the historical, military, cultural, political, economic and social push factors that explain the current conditions and movement of people within and without the Karamoja region of Uganda. The Karamoja sub region is located in the northeastern part of Uganda bordering the Republic of Kenya and Sudan.Karamoja is one of the most conflict-prone zones of Uganda because it experiences recurrent widespread cattle rustling, lawlessness, criminality, banditry and generalized insecurity. The area is characterized by bad roads, lack of water, telecommunications and electricity, poor sanitation, access to basic social services such as education and health and virtually no employment opportunities. The zone also suffers from absence of or weak presence of the state and its institutions. Political instability, economic weakness, food insecurity and marginalization are leading to a situation of women and children trafficking from the Karamoja region. Livelihood insecurity, food insecurity, increased social tension, less access to useable water, decreased trade, decline in human health, increased poverty, decreased physical security, and increased migration.Forced displacement from Karamoja has clearly increased in the last couple of years because for over a decade now, Karimojong women and children have inundated the streets of major urban areas in Eastern Uganda and the capital city Kampala as beggars. According to United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and Kampala City Council (KCC) about 80 per cent of Kampala's street beggars come from Karamoja. In many instances, women, particularly mothers have been found to be the key decision makers regarding out-migration. Women often made the decision to leave Karamoja with or without children, often because they were neglected or abused by a male relative or husband. To women, some of the immediate factors that compel them to move are: loss of livestock, poor harvests, abandonment or death of breadwinners or key family members, and the weakening or collapse of social safety nets. Those who are abandoned believe that they have no other recourse than to beg in Kampala. Many women become angry when their husband takes a new wife and take themselves and their children away. Others leave the region to escape arranged marriages. Female genital mutilation (FGM) is on the increase in Karamoja according to a report by UNFPA which states that thousands of girls aged 10-15 are being circumcised and forcefully married off. About 100% of the Pokot girls have undergone FGM exposing them to risks of HIV/AIDS, excessive bleeding and death.


The Marquis de Sade is famous for his forbidden novels like Justine, Juliette, and the 120 Days of Sodom. Yet, despite Sade's immense influence on philosophy and literature, his work remains relatively unknown. His novels are too long, repetitive, and violent. At last in The Philosophy of the Marquis de Sade, a distinguished philosopher provides a theoretical reading of Sade. Airaksinen examines Sade's claim that in order to be happy and free we must do evil things. He discusses the motivations of the typical Sadean hero, who leads a life filled with perverted and extreme pleasures, such as stealing, murder, rape, and blasphemy. Secondary sources on Sade, such as Hobbes, Erasmusm, and Brillat-Savarin are analyzed, and modern studies are evaluated. The Philosophy of the Marquis de Sade greatly enhances our understanding of Sade and his philosophy of pain and perversion.


The Indian egg-eater ( Elachistodon westermanni ) is a monotypic species of the Genus Elachistodon distributed across the Indian sub-continent. In Africa, there are 13 species of egg-eating snakes of the Genus Dasypeltis . These two genera, Elachistodon and Dasypeltis were thought to be closely related due to similar diet specialization, and shared biogeographic history between the Indian sub-continent and the continent of Africa. In our study, we amplified three mitochondrial genes and one nuclear gene from E. westermanni and reconstructed molecular phylogeny utilizing published sequences to understand the evolutionary relationships between the African, and the Indian egg-eating snakes. We used morphological characters to reinforce our inferences on phylogenetic relationships. We show that the Indian egg-eater is sister to cat snakes of the Genus Boiga , and it does not share recent ancestry with the African egg-eating snakes. Morphological character states point at similarities between Elachistodon and Dasypeltis only in characters associated with their feeding behaviour. Elachistodon westermanni was similar to the Boiga spp. in several other morphological characters, and we provisionally assign E. westermanni under the genus Boiga . Compilation of records of E. westermanni across the Indian sub-continent over the years revealed a positive "Lazarus" effect. We conclude that, the egg-eating behaviour and the associated morphological characters in the snake genera Dasypeltis and Elachistodon are a result of convergent evolution. Based on the conservation status of E. westermanni , it could serve as a flagship species to conserve important wildlife habitats that are being lost rapidly in India.


Abstract
Hereditary multiple exostoses (HME) is a dominantly inherited skeletal disorder which alters enchondral bone during growth and is characterized by exostoses of the juxta-epiphyseal regions. These exostoses are benign cartilaginous neoplasms that consist of a pedicle of normal bone covered with proliferating cartilage cells. Pathologic, clinical, and radiographic findings are discussed and a case of a nine-year-old male is reviewed.


Encroachment of sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) shrublands by pinyon (Pinus spp.) and juniper (Juniperus spp.) conifers (woodland encroachment) induces a shift from biotic‐controlled resource retention to abiotic‐driven loss of soil resources. This shift is driven by a coarsening of the vegetation structure with increasing dominance of site resources by trees. Competition between the encroaching trees and understory vegetation for limited soil and water resources facilitates extensive bare intercanopy area between trees and concomitant increases in run‐off and erosion that, over time, propagate persistence of the shrubland‐to‐woodland conversion. We evaluated whether tree removal by burning can decrease late‐succession woodland ecohydrologic resilience by increasing vegetation and ground cover over a 9‐year period after fire and whether the soil erosion feedback on late‐succession woodlands is reversible by burning. To address these questions, we employed a suite of vegetation and soil measurements and rainfall simulation and concentrated overland flow experiments across multiple plot scales on unburned and burned areas at two sagebrush sites in the later stages of woodland succession. Prior to burning, tree cover was approximately 28% at the sites, and more than 70% of the area at the sites was intercanopy with depauperate understory vegetation and extensive bare ground (52–60% bare soil and rock). Burning initially increased bare ground across fine (<1 m2) to patch (tens of metres) scales, resulting in enhanced sediment availability at the fine scale, sustained high run‐off and erosion within degraded intercanopies, amplified run‐off and erosion from tree canopy areas, and amplified sediment delivery across fine to patch scales. However, fire‐induced increases in grass cover over nine growing seasons improved infiltration, limited run‐off and sediment delivery from the fine scale, and reduced intercanopy run‐off and erosion at the patch scale. These changes reflect a switch in vegetation structure, triggered by burning and subsequent vegetation re‐establishment, and a shift to biotic control on run‐off and erosion across spatial scales. The responses and persistence over the 9‐year period postfire at the two sites demonstrate that fire can decrease woodland ecohydrologic resilience by altering plant community physiognomy and thereby can reverse the soil erosion feedback on sagebrush shrublands in the later stages of woodland encroachment.


Although defibrillation has been in clinical use for more than 50 years, the complete current flow distribution inside the body during a defibrillation procedure has never been directly measured. This is due to the lack of appropriate imaging technology to noninvasively monitor the current flow inside the body. The current density imaging (CDI) technique, using a magnetic resonance (MR) imager, provides a new approach to this problem [Scott et al. (1991)]. CDI measures the local magnetic field generated by the current and calculates the current density by computing its curl. In this study, CDI was used to measure current density at all points within a postmortem pig torso during an electrical current application through defibrillation electrodes. Furthermore, current flow information was visualized along the chest wall and within the chest cavity using streamline analysis. As expected, some of the highest current densities were observed in the chest wall. However, current density distribution varied significantly from one region to another, possibly reflecting underlying heterogeneous tissue conductivity and anisotropy. Moreover, the current flow analysis revealed many complex and unexpected current flow patterns that have never been observed before. This study has, for the first time, noninvasively measured the volume current measurement inside the pig torso.


Urticarial vasculitis is an uncommon from of cutaneous vasculitis and is extremely rare to present during childhood, especially in boys. It typically presents with multiple systemic inflammatory manifestations. Skin biopsy is needed to confirm the diagnosis. In this report a 10 years old Saudi boy with prolonged urticarial rash, fever, and arthritis is presented. His skin biopsy was consistent with leukocytoclastic vasculitis. His treatment course with several anti-inflammatory agents is described.


Macitentan is an oral medication, being used for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. The present study describes the development of HPLC method and subsequent validation for the analysis of Macitentan, an active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) using a quality by design approach.Analysis of macitentan and its related substances was very interesting and challenging due to co-elution of critical pair 1 (impurity C and unknown impurity) and critical pair 2 (impurity D and macitentan). Objective of this study was to develop a robust high performance liquid chromatographic method for the separation of critical pair 1 and 2. An attempt was made to develop HPLC method using QbD principles. A qualityby-design (QbD) based method development can potentially lead to a more rugged method. The optimized HPLC method details: buffer consisting of sodium perchlorate (pH adjusted to 2.0 using perchloric acid) as mobile phase A and acetonitrile-buffer (8:2) v/v as mobile phase B using the column Purosphere RP 18e 100 mm × 4.6 mm ID, 3.0 µm(Make: Merck) maintained at 45 oC with a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min in a gradient mode of elution and the UV detection was set as 220 nm.


The vastness of the research on earthworm assemblages in agricultural lands focus on the comparison of agricultural treatments of different intensity. Consequently, spatial complexity of the landscape is less emphasised. Our study addresses this knowledge gap. The field study taken in West Pomeranian Lake District in Poland during four campaigns (spring and autumn) revealed that the mosaic of fields (MF) supported higher earthworm abundance than the similarly managed but homogeneous field (HF). Number and biomass of earthworm individuals both reflect the relationships with electrical conductivity, pH and in some situations also soil organic carbon and soil moisture effectively. We argue that autumn sampling is more preferable for biomonitoring.


The purpose of the present investigation was to explore the mediating role of self-compassion on the relation between goal orientation and sport-confidence, as well as exploring whether these factors differed between male and female student-athletes. To that end, a total of 418 National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I student-athletes (M = 20.19, SD = 1.30) completed the Self-Compassion Scale (athlete version), the Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire, and the Trait Sport-Confidence Inventory. Structural equation models suggest that task orientation has both a direct effect on sport-confidence and an indirect one through self-compassion. Furthermore, while there was no direct effect between ego orientation and sport-confidence, the results indicated an indirect effect through self-compassion. Moreover, a multigroup analysis indicated that the paths in the mediation model were moderated by gender. Based on these findings, it is recommended that coaches, sport psychologists, and other practitioners consider self-compassion training to enhance confidence among both ego-oriented and female athletes.


Abstract. The composition of planktonic foraminiferal (PF) calcite is routinely used to reconstruct climate variability. However, PF ecology leaves a large imprint on the proxy signal: seasonal and vertical habitats of PF species vary spatially, causing variable offsets from annual mean surface conditions recorded by sedimentary assemblages. PF seasonality changes with temperature in a way that minimises the environmental change that individual species experience and it is not unlikely that changes in depth habitat also result from such habitat tracking. While this behaviour could lead to an underestimation of spatial or temporal trends as well as of variability in proxy records, most palaeoceanographic studies are (implicitly) based on the assumption of a constant habitat. Up to now, the effect of habitat tracking on foraminifera proxy records has not yet been formally quantified on a global scale. Here we attempt to characterise this effect on the amplitude of environmental change recorded in sedimentary PF using core top δ18O data from six species. We find that the offset from mean annual near-surface δ18O values varies with temperature, with PF δ18O indicating warmer than mean conditions in colder waters (on average by −0.1 ‰ (equivalent to 0.4 °C) per °C), thus providing a first-order quantification of the degree of underestimation due to habitat tracking. We use an empirical model to estimate the contribution of seasonality to the observed difference between PF and annual mean δ18O and use the residual Δδ18O to assess trends in calcification depth. Our analysis indicates that given an observation-based model parametrisation calcification depth increases with temperature in all species and sensitivity analysis suggests that a temperature-related seasonal habitat adjustment is essential to explain the observed isotope signal. Habitat tracking can thus lead to a significant reduction in the amplitude of recorded environmental change. However, we show that this behaviour is predictable. This allows accounting for habitat tracking, enabling more meaningful reconstructions and improved data–model comparison.


The goals for most of today´s receiver system are sampling at high-speed, with high resolution and with as few errors as possible. This master thesis describes the design of a high-speed sampling system with �state-of-the-art� components available on the market. The system is designed with a parallel Analog-to-digital converter (ADC) architecture, also called time interleaving. It aims to increase the sampling speed of the system. The system described in this report uses four 12-bits ADCs in parallel. Each ADC can sample at 125 MHz and the total sampling speed will then theoretically become 500 Ms/s. The system has been implemented and manufactured on a printed circuit board (PCB). Up to four boards can be connected in parallel to get 2 Gs/s theoretically. In an approach to increase the systems performance even further, a timing error estimation algorithm will be used on the sampled data. This algorithm estimates the timing errors that occur when sampling with non-uniform time interval between samples. After the estimations, the sampling clocks can be adjusted to correct the errors. This thesis is concerning some ADC theory, system design and PCB implementation. It also describes how to test and measure the system�s performance. No measurement results are presented in this thesis because measurements will be done after this project. The last part of the thesis discusses future improvements to achieve even higher performance.


Full life histories of fourteen coexisting species of caddis in an Irish stream are described. The study is based on growth patterns and distribution of larval head-capsule width through time. It also notes adult flight periods. Most species had simple life histories and were univoltine (Agapetus fuscipes, Hydropsyche siltalai, H. instabilis, Philopotamus montanus, Ecclisopteryx guttulata, Glossosoma conformis, Drusus annulatus, Potamophylax cingulatus and Halesus radiatus). In the latter four species the occurrence of instar-1 larvae indicated that egg hatching was delayed or prolonged over several months. Complex univoltine life histories were found in three species (Sericostoma personatum, Plectrocnemia conspersa and Silo pallipes) where, generally, a one-year life cycle occurred, although some individuals required more than one year to emerge. Data for two species (Rhyacophila dorsalis, Odontocerum albicorne) suggested the possibility of bivoltine life histories. Both types of complex life history led to overlapping generations. This is the most comprehensive information to date on the life histories of most of the species. Intraspecific variation in development rates, the wide range of size classes present at one time, the ability to overwinter in different larval stages and the asynchronous extended flight periods may be evidence of a spreading of risk within life histories. Without knowledge of whether the variations in development rates are genetically determined, it is difficult to advance a hypothesis based on an adaptive strategy to explain such variation as opposed to attribution to environmentally-controlled variation in growth, influenced by such factors as temperature and food.


Long before Germany's blitzkrieg swept the West, European leaders had received many signals of its imminence. Stalin, too, had abundant warning of German designs on Russia but believed that by avoiding "provocative" defensive measures he could avert the attack that finally came in June 1941. And the stories of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the Korean War, and three Arab-Israeli conflicts are replete with missed opportunities to react to unmistakable warnings. Richad K. Betts analyzes surprise attacks during the mid-twentieth century to illustrate his thesis: surprise attacks occur, not because intelligence services fail to warn, but because of the disbelief of political leaders."Although the probability is low that the United States will fail to deter direct attack by the Soviet Union," Betts says, "the intensity of the threat warrants painstaking analysis of how to cope with it." His own investigation of the historical, psychological, political, diplomatic, and military aspects of his subject heightens understanding of why surprise attacks succeed and why victim nations fail to respond to warnings. In discussing current policy he focuses on the defense of Western Europe and applies the lessons of history to U.S. defense planning, offering detailed recommendations for changes in strategy. Obviously some of the potential dangers of military surprise cannot be prevented. The important thing, he emphasizes, is that "without forces that exceed requirements (the solution Moscow appears to have chosen), it is vital to ensure that what forces exist can be brought to bear when needed.


Hard cider and apple wine offer new value-added marketing opportunities to the apple industry. Both products are situated in rapidly growing categories of the beverage industry. The development of effective marketing strategies for these products requires an understanding of the forces driving competition in these markets. This paper provides background information to support competitive analysis and strategy development. Development of these markets will be positive for the apple industry, but the effect is likely to be limited in volume. This paper is issued as a part of a larger project focused on the processing apple industry. The purpose of the paper is to provide apple growers and processors with preliminary information on the markets for hard cider and apple wine to support the analysis of marketing opportunities and the development of effective competitive strategies. This paper will be updated with additional consumer marketing research findings that will be included in the final report for this project.


Neurogenesis and Pattern Integration The adult hippocampus continuously produces new neurons that integrate into the dentate gyrus network and contribute to information processing. What features of adult-born neurons are important for information processing in the dentate gyrus? Marín-Burgin et al. (p. 1238, published online 26 January; see the Perspective by Kempermann) labeled newborn neurons and used sophisticated electrophysiological and imaging techniques to show that immature neurons integrated a broader variety of synaptic inputs from different origins compared with mature neurons, which were highly input specific. Thus, immature neurons may represent a population of integrators that are broadly tuned during a transient period and may encode most features of incoming information. After maturation, new granule cells display a high activation threshold and input specificity to become good pattern separators. A specific set of functional properties can be attributed to immature granule cells developing in the hippocampus. The adult dentate gyrus generates new granule cells (GCs) that develop over several weeks and integrate into the preexisting network. Although adult hippocampal neurogenesis has been implicated in learning and memory, the specific role of new GCs remains unclear. We examined whether immature adult-born neurons contribute to information encoding. By combining calcium imaging and electrophysiology in acute slices, we found that weak afferent activity recruits few mature GCs while activating a substantial proportion of the immature neurons. These different activation thresholds are dictated by an enhanced excitation/inhibition balance transiently expressed in immature GCs. Immature GCs exhibit low input specificity that switches with time toward a highly specific responsiveness. Therefore, activity patterns entering the dentate gyrus can undergo differential decoding by a heterogeneous population of GCs originated at different times.


An increasing amount of cities are trying to increase civic engagement by using digital tools and platforms which gather data in a variety of ways on relevant topics within the city. Tools and platforms that focus on handling easy to fix issues on a local scale such as broken streetlights have been successfully implemented in cities already. In this paper a case study is described which aimed to retrieve data from citizens about a more complex local challenge in a neighborhood in Amsterdam. Furthermore, it has been investigated how the municipality could use the collected data as input for policy making. By making a participatory mapping mobile phone application available in a neighborhood, data was collected about places in the neighborhoods public space in which the citizens took pride and places that needed attention. This data is to be used as input for the area plan of the neighborhood. A first case-study with the application showed that even though there was low participation from the neighborhood, due to the high quality of the added data it was still valuable for the municipality.