This article revisits Jürgen Habermas's long-lasting engagement with the tradition of natural law and argues that his work is unique in the contemporary context because it takes place without seeking to sever all possible connections to natural law. Its goals are then twofold: on the one hand, the article reconstructs what Habermas understands by natural law in order to account for its wider relevance as an intellectual resource in modern social theory; on the other, it reassesses the natural law elements that still reside in Habermas's own thinking. In terms of structure, the article starts by revisiting Habermas's definition of natural law and its role in modernity's claim to normative self-foundation. The second section focuses on the role Habermas gives to sociology as the discipline through which the theory of communicative action was systematically elaborated. Being simultaneously an empirical approach and a normative theory of modern society, the sociological tradition is reconstructed in connection rather than in opposition to natural law. The last part turns to the universalistic foundations of Habermas's social theory as way of recovering its moment of 'unconditionality'. As they centre on the question of universalism, all three sections come together in the idea that Habermas's social theory be depicted as postmetaphysical natural law.


This paper continues the introduction to minimum encoding inference given by Oliver and Hand. This series of papers were written with the objective of providing an introduction to this area for statisticians. We examine the relationship between Bayesianism and Minimum Message Length (MML) inference. We argue that MML augments Bayesian methods by providing a sound Bayesian method for point estimation which is invariant under non-linear transformations. We explore the issues of invariance of estimators under non-linear transformations, the role of the Fisher Information matrix in MML inference, and the apparent similarity between MML and the adoption of a Jeereys' Prior. We then compare MML to an approximate method of Bayesian Model Class Selection. Despite apparent similarities in their expressions, the properties of the two approaches can be diierent.


While agriculture accounts for an estimated 10 to 14 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions, its role as a mitigating force is receiving increasing attention. This discussion paper provides a quick overview of the literature on the climate change mitigation potential of agriculture, the regulatory and voluntary frameworks under which such a contribution could be rewarded, and the economic literature that focuses on agriculture's participation in climate change mitigation efforts. While there is general agreement on the potential for mitigation, several barriers have prevented farmers from entering the so-called carbon markets. The paper reviews the main challenges faced by smallholder farmers in accessing such markets.


Radio frequency interference (RFI) can be a detrimental effect on the positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) elements of the Global Positioning System (GPS). This
can range from a degradation of performance to a loss of tracking signals due to a weak GPS power levels. In this study, the concern is on two major RFI scenarios;
intentional RFI where someone intended to jam the GPS signals, and unintentional RFI of other systems using the same, near, or out of GPS frequency bands. For intentional RFI, several tests were conducted in static relative positioning method between long and short baselines via single and dual frequency receivers within three (3) hours. All data were processed via kinematic post-processing at one (1) second interval and their trends or patterns of 3D position residuals, GDOPs, and ambiguity resolution were reviewed and analyzed in order to investigate their positional accuracy and precision degradations towards different levels of noise interference power. A laboratory environment using GPS simulator in semi-anechoic chamber was utilized instead of field evaluations which are usually infected with various GPS error parameters. For unintentional RFI, several tests were conducted in the vicinity of satellite broadcasting dish and power lines for detecting any positional precision and accuracy degradations using similar steps like intentional RFI test but limited to field evaluations at short baseline via dual frequency receiver only. Findings were showed that the intentional RFI degrade the received GPS signals with the effect at the threshold of until hundred meters, and at the highest power level (i.e., -80dBm) the GPS receiver can lose signal lock. It was shown that the short baseline (10km)
produces better results than long baseline (30km) whenever an observation was corrupted with RFI. The dual frequency GPS receiver is seen to resist the effect of
RFI better than single frequency receiver through the differencing method between LI and L2 frequencies. It was also shown the feasibility of laboratory test for controlling various error parameters as opposed to field environment. Meanwhile, results on unintentional RFI were showed the disturbance of GPS signals when operating too close with RFI sources below than five (5) meter. Based on the findings, GPS users, especially land surveyors, GPS suppliers, geomatic students, and local researchers should be aware of the effect of RFI on the positional accuracy and precision specifically on the survey-grade GPS receivers.


Courts and scholars have long struggled to harmonize the Federal Arbitration Act and other federal statutes. Currently, judges invalidate arbitration clauses that prevent a plaintiff from vindicating her public law rights. This principle, the vindication of rights doctrine, is an arbitration-specific application of the statutory waiver rule: the idea that parties cannot prospectively waive congressionally-created entitlements. However, because the policy basis of the statutory waiver rule has never been clear, jurisdictions disagree about how to implement the vindication of rights doctrine. In this contribution to the Kansas Law Review's Perspectives on the Current State of Arbitration Law Symposium, I seek to understand the statutory waiver rule and the vindication of rights doctrine by situating them within a larger context: the debate over inalienability. Infants, sexual services, body parts, and basic civic duties cannot be exchanged for consideration. I consider whether common justifications for these fissures in the market — concern about information failures, externalities, and commodification — can explain why future federal statutory claims are immune from freedom of contract. I conclude that, to some degree, each rationale for inalienability also underlies the statutory waiver rule and the vindication of rights doctrine. Nevertheless, I argue that these principles are best explained as an attempt to preserve the distinctive qualities of congressional lawmaking in an era where private parties exercise legislative-like power. I claim that courts can further this goal by nullifying one-sided arbitration clauses that do not serve arbitration-related purposes and thus are blatant attempts to rewrite the public laws.


Objectives & Background The Edinburgh 3RU paramedics have some advanced training in cardiac arrest (CA) management The PUCA study aimed to see whether pre-hospital paramedics can ▸ be trained to perform and [2] interpret pre-hospital ELS ▸ retain ELS performance and interpretation skills ▸ perform satisfactory pre-hospital ELS ▸ perform pre-hospital ELS without impacting CA care Methods Phase 1 – Testing/purchasing a suitable ultrasound machine Phase 2 – Formal classroom based training: one-day training course with practical and moulage sessions. Phase 3 – Field based training. Phase 4 – Prospective observational study of pre-hospital paramedic ELS using saved ultrasound clips and wearable camera videos. Results During classroom based training, all paramedics could obtain parasternal (PS) and subxiphoid (SX) images. ▸ 88% of attempts in both views were successful in the pulse check window. ▸ Theoretical knowledge improved (mean pre vs post course score 54% vs 89%; p<0.001) and at 10 weeks was non-significantly reduced (82%; p=0.13) but less so than practical performance (75% SX success, 25% PS success). ▸ By Sep 2015, 8 of 11 paramedics who attended initial training, had passed a triggered competency assessment and were practicing pre-hospital ELS independently. ▸ Between 23rd June 2014 and 31st Jan 2016, seven 3RU paramedics attended 45 patients suffering out-of-hospital CA where resuscitation was attempted and the Venue 40 ultrasound machine was available and used. ▸ 80% of first paramedic ELS attempts produced an adequate view which was excellent/good/satisfactory in 68%. ▸ 44% of views were obtained within the pulse check window with a median time off the chest of 17 seconds (IQR 13–20). ▸ A decision to perform ELS was communicated in 67% and the pulse check counted aloud in 60%. ▸ A manual pulse check was seen to be performed in a quarter of patients and the monitor rhythm checked in 38%. ▸ All decision changing scans involved a decision to stop resuscitation. Conclusion Paramedics can perform focussed ELS in the classroom, integrate attempts into simulated CA scenarios and retain some of this knowledge. ▸ They obtain good ELS views in the pre-hospital environment but with longer hands off the chest times. ▸ The quality of life support may be reduced with less obvious pulse and monitor checking. ▸ Paramedic pre-hospital ELS is more likely to be performed in patients where discontinuation of resuscitation is being considered. ▸ Further training should focus on improving ELS situational awareness.


Janette Oke's Animal Friends Introduce...Mittens the Cat Mittens is sure there is no other cat as wonderful as she. She's smart, beautiful, and very proud of herself. So it's no surprise when Mittens decides she can manage just fine on her own. But without a caring family to take care of her, Mittens learns the hard way she can't do everything herself. What will it take for Mittens to realize it's okay to depend on others? Can she humble herself and learn to let others help her? Now with Full Color Interior Pages!


This report explores export competitiveness of soybeans and corn in Argentina, Brazil, and the United States by comparing farm-level production costs, the cost of internal transportation and handling, and the cost of shipping to a common export destination. In addition, prices received by farmers and average yields for each crop in each country are analyzed to calculate producer returns. Errata: This report was revised in July 2016 by correcting table 5, which now corresponds with the text. The table includes two Brazilian regions for each commodity, additional rows that show two components of the farm price, and the correct transportation costs for Brazil.


Like humans or animals, robots with compliant joints are capable of performing explosive or cyclic motions by making systematic use of energy storage and release, and it has been shown that they can outperform their rigid counterparts in terms of peak velocity. For rigid joint robots, there exist well-established, computationally inexpensive tools to compute the maximum achievable Cartesian endpoint velocity, which is an important performance and safety characteristic for robot designs. For elastic joint robots, optimal control is usually employed to determine the maximum possible link velocity together with the associated trajectory, which is time consuming and computationally costly for most systems. In this letter, we propose methods to obtain estimates of the maximum achievable Cartesian endpoint velocities of gravity-free elastic joint robots that have computational requirements close to the rigid joint robot case. We formulate an optimal control problem to verify the methods and provide results for a planar 3R robot. Furthermore, we compare the results of our approach with those from real-world throwing experiments which were previously conducted on the elastic DLR David system. Finally, we apply the methods to derive and quantitatively compare the safety properties of DLR David and a hypothetically rigid version of this robot in terms of the Safety Map framework proposed in our previous work.


East Carolina University's Joyner Library acquires ebooks through several different methods including packages firm orders and most recently a Demand-Driven Acquisition (DDA) program. Because we expect our volume of ebook business to increase substantially in the next few years we are interested in evaluating efficiencies in our acquisitions expenditures on ebooks and the workflows each purchase type requires. Currently each acquisition method requires a different workflow raising the question of whether any transformation in workflows might further streamline operations. In order to assess the efficiencies of acquisitions dollars expended we compare use of our ebooks by acquisition method and set those briefly against the use of firm order print titles. The big picture rendered by these comparisons will influence how we focus our purchasing in the future and any changes will directly impact workflows to support these changes. To make comparisons of ebook use we examine the percent of titles used and the intensity of use measured as the total number of uses of the books divided by the total number of books in the group studied. Future directions for purchasing and potential impacts on staffing and workflows are briefly explored.


Abstract The aim of this study was to determine the frequency of thyroid autoimmunity in second grade primary school students and to examine the relationship between iodine and Hashimoto thyroiditis (HT). This was a cohort study performed with 1000 students. Urinary iodine levels, antithyroid peroxidase (anti-TPO) and antithyroglobulin (anti-Tg) antibodies were determined in all children. Children with anti-TPO or anti-Tg antibody positivity or with goiter were summoned for detailed examinations. In total, 36 cases (3.6%) were diagnosed as HT. The goiter frequency was found in 17.5% of the whole cohort. Additionally, iodine deficiency was found in 64.2% of all children. The median urinary iodine excretion was determined as 132 μg/L (range 382 μg/L) in the HT group, whereas it was 73 μg/L (range 390 μg/L) in children with goiter but without HT and 81 μg/L (range 394 μg/L) in normal children. The urinary iodine level of HT cases was significantly higher than the other two groups (p<0.001). HT was also determined in 2% of patients with low urinary iodine levels, in 6.2% of patients with normal urinary iodine levels, and in 7.5% of patients with high urinary iodine levels. Our data demonstrates the close relationship between excessive iodine levels and autoimmunity.


It has been speculated that during periods of water deficit, roots may shrink and lose contact with the soil, with a consequent reduction in root water uptake. Due to the opaque nature of soil, however, this process has never been observed in situ for living plants. Through x‐ray tomography and image analysis, we have demonstrated the formation and dynamics of air gaps around roots. The high spatial resolution required to image the soil–root gaps was achieved by combining tomography of the entire sample (field of view of 16 by 16 cm, pixel side 0.32 mm) with local tomography of the soil region around the roots (field of view of 5 by 5 cm, pixel side 0.09 mm). For a sandy soil, we found that when the soil dries to a water content of 0.025 m3 m−3, gaps occur around the taproot and the lateral roots of lupin (Lupinus albus L.). Gaps were larger for the taproot than the laterals and were caused primarily by root shrinkage rather than by soil shrinkage. When the soil was irrigated again, the roots swelled, partially refilling the gaps; however, large gaps persisted in the more proximal, older part of the taproot. Gaps are expected to reduce water transfers between soil and roots. Opening and closing of gaps may help plants to prevent water loss when the soil dries, and to restore the soil–root continuity when water becomes available. The persistence of gaps in the more proximal parts is one reason why roots preferentially take up water from their more distal parts.


Using recent debates within socio-cultural theory around subjectivity, this research offers an analysis of a policy-driven curriculum initiative in the UK dependent on successful, local interagency working. The research uses Activity Theory to frame the analysis of the emerging partnership, and interventionist research instruments associated with this - in particular Development Work Methodology. It initially identifies partners' (subjects') positions, and subsequent motivation and positioning on the 'object' of the collaborative activity, and analyses contested critical sites between the partners over a two year period of curriculum development and implementation. It links partners' positioning to issues of roles and perspective and contested discursive practices in the emerging activity to trace the dynamics and impact of decision making in collective workshops, or 'boundary crossing' sessions. This gives access to the formal, discursive outcomes of these collective sessions, which are then traced through processes of implementation, or re-contextualisation, throughout the differential affordances of the partnership. Such an approach gives access to issues of power, formal and dispersed, and involves an analysis of the development of the activity system over both time and locality. The curriculum is a Government inspired drive to widen participation in higher education, and is simultaneously targeted at expanding the higher level skills base of the UK economy. Called Foundation Degrees, they require collective development ideally by a university, a series of colleges delivering the curriculum and employers, who provide the students for the programmes. The data for the research was collected through a sequenced series of individual subject interviews interspersed with boundary crossing workshops over two intakes of students for the developing programme. The data demonstrates a degree of 'expansive' development within the activity system around the contested sites linked particularly to issues of pedagogy and assessment. However, the formal, collective accommodations at the boundaries are framed within the prevailing discursive practices of the dominant partner. Actual practice in the localities of the distributed activity system was subsequently shaped to varying degrees by local affordances and partners' priorities, and these impacted differentially on subsequent trajectories of collective development. The thesis reformulates a notion of 'expansiveness' that is differentiated and decentred throughout the Activity System, and therefore one that impacts on collective development differentially. It concludes by modelling the process, based on this research, to accommodate issues of locality and time and the relational nature of partner activity systems with collective 'knotworking'. In doing this it critically analyses Activity Theory and Development Work Methodology as tools of analysis and investigation in this case, and uses the data to provide an elaboration of both based on this research.


Seismic imaging is a key step in seismic exploration to retrieve the earth properties from seismic measurements at the surface. One needs to properly model the response of the earth by solving the wave equation. We present how curvelets can be used in that respect. Curvelets can be seen from the geophysical point of view as the representation of local plane waves. The unknown pressure, solution of the wave equation, is decomposed in the curvelet domain. We derive the new associated equation for the curvelet coefficients and show how to solve it. In this paper, we focus on a simple homogeneous model to illustrate the feasibility of the curvelet-based method. This is a first step towards the modeling in more complex models. In particular, we express the derivative of the wave field in the curvelet domain. The simulation results show that our algorithm can give a multi-scale and multi-directional view of the wave propagation. A potential application is to model the wave motion in some specific directions. We also discuss the current limitations of this approach, in particular the extension to more complex models. © 2009 Geophysical Press Ltd.


Poly-/oligofluorenes are promising luminescent materials applicable in organic light emitting diodes, lasers, etc. In particular, the β-phase structure, in which the fluorene main chain adopts a planar conformation with extended conjugation, shows characteristic optical properties. In this study, we have synthesized oligo(9,9′-dioctylfluorenes) whose chain lengths (n) are n = 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24 and 27 mers. Interestingly, the β-phase formation of the oligofluorenes is observed remarkably for oligofluorenes with n > 15, which is confirmed by the UV/vis and fluorescence spectroscopy. This study elucidates the structure–property relationship required to design high performance fluorene-based materials. Such a chain-length-dependent optical property provides useful information for utilizing the materials in many applications.


To the Editor.— In view of the up-to-date methods now readily available for the quantitative determinations of various immunoglobulins, Dr. J. I. Spector's article, "Juvenile Achlorhydric Pernicious Anemia With IgA Deficiency" (228:334, 1974), contains data that are somewhat confusing and perhaps misleading. Serum immunoelectrophoresis is primarily a qualitative test, at best only semiquantitative. Further, his data on the immunoglobulin values are not in conformity with those that are known more widely in the field of immunochemistry. It is unfortunate that immunoglobulins were not measured by more sensitive and precise methods such as single radial immunodiffusion or more preferably a nephelometric method, reporting their values in relation to more widely accepted and acknowledged normal ranges. In view of the fact that there is an international effort to standardize our expression of immunoglobulin levels based upon the assays performed with international reference preparation (WHO Expert Committee on Biological Standardization, WHO Tech Rep


Estimates of S-wave velocity with depth from Rayleigh-wave dispersion data are limited by the accuracy of fundamental and/or higher mode signal identification. In many scenarios, the fundamental mode propagates in retrograde motion, whereas higher modes propagate in prograde motion. This difference in particle motion (or polarity) can be used by joint analysis of vertical and horizontal inline recordings. We have developed a novel method that isolates modes by sepa-rating prograde and retrograde motions; we call this a polarity mute. Applying this polarity mute prior to traditional multi-channel analysis of surface wave (MASW) analysis improves phase velocity estimation for fundamental and higher mode dispersion. This approach, in turn, should lead to improvement of S-wave velocity estimates with depth. With two simple models and a field example, we have highlighted the complexity of the Rayleigh-wave particle motions and determined improved MASW dispersion images using the polarity mute. Our results show that we can separate prograde and retrograde signals to independently process fundamental and higher mode signals, in turn allowing us to identify lower frequency dispersion when compared with single component data. These examples demonstrate that the polarity mute approach can improve estimates of S-wave velocities with depth.


The benthonic foraminiferid Osangularia schloenbachi (Reuss, 1863) is an established index taxon for Albian to Aptian age sediments worldwide. It is a very useful marker species commonly encountered in cuttings sampled from offshore boreholes on the north-west European continental shelf. However, despite its biostratigraphical utility there is no known holotype for this species. This short article rectifies this taxonomic point of order by erecting a neotype for the species.


I. Introduction and Conceptual Overview 1. Introduction 2. Models of Resilience II. Studies of Individual Resilience 3. Resilience in a Community Sample: The Project Competence Longitudinal Study 4. Overcoming Disadvantage and Economic Crisis: Homeless Children 5. Mass Trauma and Extreme Adversities: Resilience in War, Terrorism, and Disaster III. Adaptive Systems in Resilience 6. The Short List and Implicated Protective Systems 7. The Neurobiology of Resilience 8. Resilience in the Context of Families 9. Resilience in the Context of Schools 10. Resilience in the Context of Culture IV. Moving Forward: Implications for Action and Future Research 11. A Resilience Framework for Action 12. Conclusions and Future Directions Appendix A. Glossary Appendix B. Abbreviations Appendix C. Recommended Readings by Topic


The commonest caligid copepod infesting commercial salmonid netpen systems in southern Chile is described as a new species, Caligus rogercresseyi. This species belongs to the macarovigroup of species within the genus. It differs from Caligus flexispina Lewis 1964, with which it has previously been confused, in several important characters. These include the relatively elongate caudal rami, the proportions of the female genital complex and of the male abdomen, and the armature and ornamentation of the antenna in both sexes. The form of the sensillae associated with the postantennal process and the form of the male maxilliped are identified as possible additional diagnostic characters of the macarovi-group.


Vector fields occur in many of the problems in science and engineering. In combustion processes, for instance, vector fields describe the flow of the gas. This process can be enhanced using vector field visualization techniques. Also, wind tunnel experiments can be analyzed. An example is the design of an air wing. The wing can be optimized to create a smoother flow around it. To analyze such kind of datasets topological methods that clearly show the whole structure of the vector field in one picture are a very good tool. During the last years, many extensions were proposed for this method. In addition to standard topological methods we also detect closed streamlines since they are a topological feature that completes the topological analysis. To accelerate the computation of such a topological analysis we developed a parallel method to reduce computational time. Therefore, we spread the computation of the separatrices of the topological skeleton to clients of a computer cluster. To test our implementation we use a numerical simulation of a swirling jet with an inflow into a steady medium. We built two different Linux clusters as parallel test systems where we check the performance increase when adding more processors to the cluster. We show that we have a very low parallel overhead due to the neglectable communication expense of our implementation.


Cardiovascular Medicine - as only Harrison's can cover it. A Doody's Core Title for 2015. Featuring a superb compilation of chapters related to cardiovascular disorders that appear in Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine, Eighteenth Edition, this concise, full-color clinical companion delivers the latest knowledge in the field backed by the scientific rigor and authority that have defined Harrison's. You will find content from renowned editors and contributors in a carry-anywhere presentation that is ideal for the classroom, clinic, ward, or exam/certification preparation. Features: current, complete coverage of essential cardiovascular medicine topics, including Diagnosis of Cardiovascular Disorders, Heart Rhythm Disturbances, Disorders of the Heart, and Disorders of the Vasculature; an important opening section "Introduction to Cardiovascular Disorders" that provides a systems overview, beginning with the basic biology of the cardiovascular system, followed by epidemiology of cardiovascular diseases, and approach to the patient; integration of pathophysiology with clinical management 108 high-yield questions and answers drawn from Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine Self-Assessment and Board Review, 18e; content updates and new developments since the publication of Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine, 18e; 44 chapters written by physicians who are recognized experts in the field of cardiovascular medicine; and, helpful appendix of laboratory values of clinical importance.


Abstract Patient-specific physiological models of respiratory mechanics can offer insight into patient state and pulmonary dynamics that are not directly measurable. Thus, significant potential exists to evaluate and guide patient-specific lung protective ventilator strategies for Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) patients. To assure bedside-applicability, the physiological model must be computationally efficient and identifiable from the limited available data, while also capturing dominant dynamics and trends observed in ARDS patients. In this work, an existing static recruitment model is enhanced by considering alveolar distension and implemented in a novel time-continuous dynamic respiratory mechanics model. A hierarchical gradient descent approach is used to fit the model to low-flow test responses of 12 ARDS patients. Identified parameter values were physiologically plausible and capable of reproducing the measured pressure responses with very high accuracy (Overall median percentage fitting error: MPE = 1.84% [IQR: 1.77% to 2.18%]). Structural identifiability of the model is proven, but a practical identifiability analysis of the results shows a lack of convexity on the error-surface for some patients due to reduced information content within the measured data set. Overall, the model presented is physiologically and clinically relevant, captures ARDS dynamics, and uses clinically descriptive parameters. The patient-specific models show their ability to capture pulmonary dynamics directly relevant to patient condition and clinical guidance. These characteristics cannot be directly measured without such a validated model.


This thesis presents the development of an experimental apparatus to produce Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) with tunable interparticle interactions. The ability to precisely control the strength of these interactions, and even to switch them from repulsive to attractive, allows one to probe novel regimes of condensate physics, from the collapse of attractively interacting BECs and the formation of solitary matter-waves to the observation of beyond mean-field effects in strongly repulsive condensates.

The construction and characterisation of both a single and crossed beam optical dipole trap is presented. In the single beam case we develop a technique allowing the guided transport of atoms along the beam and up to a room-temperature surface; a technique which can be used to evaporatively cool the trapped atomic cloud. We produce Bose-Einstein condensates of 87Rb in the F=1, mF=-1 state in this trap, comparing the effect of beam waist on the evaporation trajectory. In the crossed beam trap Bose-Einstein condensation of 87Rb is realised in three distinct trapping configurations, along with a 1D optical lattice formed by changing the polarisation of the beams.

A method of direct cooling of 85Rb atoms in the crossed trap is developed using a magnetic Feshbach resonance to precisely tune both the elastic and inelastic scattering properties of the atoms. The resonance used for this work occurs at 155G in collisions between atoms in the F=2, mF=-2 state of 85Rb. Bose-Einstein condensates of up to 40,000 85Rb atoms are formed in this trap and we demonstrate the presence of tunable interatomic interactions, exploring the collapse phenomenon associated with attractive condensates.

By loading the 85Rb condensate into a quasi-1D waveguide we show that stable attractive condensates can be created, taking the form of bright solitary matter-waves. We observe a solitary wave of ~2,000 atoms which propagates, without dispersion, along the waveguide over a distance of ~1.1mm. The particle-like nature of the solitary wave is demonstrated by classical reflection of the wavepacket from a repulsive Gaussian barrier.


This paper discusses how social disparities and inequalities affect access to ICTs. It analyzes the historical and social contexts of the current state of inequalities in South Africa, and locates access to ICTs within this framework. It then explores how the South African government, through public policies, has attempted to tackle the issue of access to ICTs. The study of some of these policies reveals the shortfall of many access programs. While the intentions of the policies may be proclaimed as reflecting public interests and social good, the tendency to lean toward a neoliberal free market strategy often hampers access programs in many instances. This paper argues that other social forces, such as poverty and social inequalities, confront most of the access programs, and render these programs ineffective. It affirms that while access policies are of good intentions, aggressively pursuing policies that address social inequalities which work in tandem with access programs, are equally essential.


This study was undertaken to investigate and quantify the interactive effects of flooding and straw incorporation on key microbial processes, principally stabilization of fertilizer N into various soil organic matter (SOM) pools. The fate of fertilizer 15 N in a paddy soil was examined at 5, 15, and 25°C, with and without rice (Oryza sativa L.) straw added, and under flooded and nonflooded conditions. After a 160-d incubation, three fractions of the SOM were separated and defined as directly alkali-extractable humic substances (DAEHS), reducible metal-bound humic substances (RMBHS), and non-alkali-extractable organic matter (NAEDOM). The DAEHS had the highest percentage, up to 50%, of fertilizer 15 N recovered at 160 d, indicating that this SOM fraction was the most dynamic fraction of the SOM. On the other hand, the RMBHS is considered the least dynamic pool, containing up to 12% fertilizer 15 N after 160 d. The NAEOM was surprisingly highly enriched, up to 28% fertilizer 15 N, and showed a significant treatment effect, suggesting that some active components of N cycling were present in this SOM fraction. The addition of rice straw increased the recovery of fertilizer 15 N in the above SOM fractions. Flooding significantly reduced the stabilization of fertilizer N compared with the nonflooded treatment. Indices of recalcitrance of the stabilized N confirm that the soil N supply capacity does not decrease with flooding. The total alkali-extractable organic matter (AEOM = DAEHS + RMBHS), as the NAEOM, appears to be a complex and dynamic mixture of potentially mineralizable and recalcitrant forms of N. Our data show that long-term N availability and stabilization into humic fractions is a function of rice residue input and temperature; however, the effects of residue and temperature are inversely related. With increase in temperature of incubation, less fertilizer N becomes stabilized into humic fractions, presumably from increased microbial activity, microbial consumption of potential humic precursors (N-containing precursors of humic substances turned over faster at higher temperatures), and/or formation of different end-products with less humification potential.


Local governments are increasingly granting preference to local residents and employees when selecting occupants for affordable housing set-asides. These preferences risk being invalidated for three reasons. First, courts could view the preferences as a penalty on non-residents' fundamental right to travel and migration. Second, preferences implemented with the intention of excluding protected classes of persons could violate the Equal Protection Clause. Finally, preferences could violate the Federal Fair Housing Act by creating or perpetuating discriminatory racial impacts. In order to avoid these legal risks, this Note proposes that local governments should structure their affordable housing selection programs as broadly and inclusively as possible. Specifically, local governments should: (1) offer multiple ways for an applicant to receive preference; (2) base the preferences on an expanded geographic area beyond the local government's particular jurisdictional boundaries; and (3) limit the scope and duration of the preferences.


We revisit the relative merits of employee-based versus employer-based labor market subsidies. While conventional analyses stress the equivalence of these approaches, we find a modest preference for employee-based approaches. Because the population of low-wage workers overlaps, but is not identical to, the populations of low-skill or low-income workers, simple employer-based approaches are likely to be poorly targeted. Targeting may be improved by identification of eligible workers, but identification itself raises the possibility of detrimental stigma associated with the program. When combined with lower participation rates among firms than among households, the size of employer-based subsidies needed to match the outcome of an employee-based subsidy becomes quite large. We review the empirical performance of major subsidy programs. We find that employer-based programs have been characterized by low participation rates and relatively little success. In contrast, the Earned Income Tax Credit appears relatively successful in targeting the desired population, inducing additional labor market participation, and raising incomes.


Kenneth Schultz explores the effects of democratic politics on the use and success of coercive diplomacy. He argues that open political competition between the government and opposition parties influences the decision to use threats in international crises, how rival states interpret those threats, and whether or not crises can be settled short of war. The relative transparency of their political processes means that, while democratic governments cannot easily conceal domestic constraints against using force, they can credibly demonstrate resolve when their threats enjoy strong domestic support. As a result, compared to their nondemocratic counterparts, democracies are more selective about making threats, but those they do make are more likely to be successful – that is, to gain a favorable outcome without resort to war. Schultz develops his argument through a series of game–theoretic models and tests the resulting hypotheses using both statistical analyses and historical case studies.


The eastern Adirondack Highlands of northern New York host dozens of iron oxide-apatite (IOA) deposits containing magnetite and rare earth element (REE)-bearing apatite. We use new aeromagnetic, aeroradiometric, ground gravity, and sample petrophysical and geochemical data to image and understand these deposits and their geologic framework. Aeromagnetic total field data reflect highly magnetic leucogranite host rock and major structures that likely served as fluid conduits for the hydrothermal system. Band-pass filtering of the aeromagnetic data reveals locations of individual deposits that were verified in the field or from historical records. A 3D inversion for magnetic susceptibility images these deposits at depth, allowing the inference of plunge directions and relative size. Radiometric data highlight variations in the surface geology and several large tailings piles that contain REE-bearing apatite. Within the host rock, eTh (equivalent Th), K, and the eTh/K ratio are variable with high eTh/K near several of the IOA deposits. Areas with elevated K or low eTh/K representing potassic alteration appear to be rare; instead, elevated eTh/K ratios likely reflect widespread sodic alteration that overprinted potassic alteration. Bouguer gravity anomalies show limited correspondence to the surface geology, radiometric data, or magnetic data, but they do exhibit approximately 10 km wide highs in areas where deposits are observed. Some 2D forward models of the gravity and magnetic data show that deeper dense material beneath the leucogranite is quantitatively feasible. If these dense rocks represent intrusions that were emplaced or still cooling at the time of mineralization, they may have served as a heat source that helped to drive the hydrothermal system. Combining data sets, we find that deposits occur toward the distal ends of major structures within the host leucogranite and mostly above gravity highs. The geophysical modeling thus suggests that IOA deposits formed in structural, thermal, and chemical traps near the distal ends of the hydrothermal system.


The relevance of employing a network perspective in understanding different economic actions has been widely acknowledged (Granovetter, 1985). Influential ideas such social capital (Nan Lin, 2001; Coleman, 1990), structural holes (Burt, 1992), strong and weak ties (Granovetter, 1973; Granovetter, 1983) have therefore been used to predict organizational and individual performance. At the organizational level, for example, structural properties of a network have been found to be strongly associated with innovation (e.g. Ahuja, 2000), start-up (Walker, Kogut and Shan, 1997) and profitability (Powell, Koput, Smith-Doerr, & Owen-Smith, 1999), while at the individual level they have been found to predict career advancement (Burt, 1992) and access to new job opportunities (Granovetter, 1973). A number of radical changes, mainly associated with technological development, is however questioning the traditional functioning of networks, creating new opportunities but also challenges to organizations and individuals. The development of the so called "Web 2.0″ led to the birth of online platforms that make personal networks visible and searchable online. Such platforms attracted a large interest from different organizations: some of them, indeed, are specifically used for professional purposes (e.g. Linkedin), while others, used mainly for pure social networking activities, are however attracting the interests of several businesses (e.g. Facebook). Such changes have dramatic implications for people and organizations. Firstly, career path, previously mainly based on internal growth, now take place in a dynamic open labor market, where firms compete to acquire talents. As a consequence traditional tools used to study social capital within organizations lost their relevance and new methodologies need to be employed. At the same time entrepreneurial individuals intentionally pursue strategies to change their own position in professional networks and increase their own social capital. All these changes led to the emergence of several 'intentional organisations' aimed at building, making visible and maintaining social networks: the business social network services. These associations are set up to facilitate the exchange and meetings between professionals by arranging settings aimed at building trust relationships based on reputation.
The proliferation of social network services, however, creates a challenging dilemma. Organisations aiming at leveraging online platforms to strengthen the social capital of their members have to choose between a multitude of different services. Such organisations often do not have the tools to make an informed decision about which platform to use to achieve their objectives. The idea at the base of this research is that users employ different online platforms in different ways, with consequent impact on the effectiveness of adopting one or another technology to foster social capital between organisational members. In other words this research aims at answering the following question: to what do extent members of an organization employ competing social networking sites in different ways?
Answering this question is of paramount managerial importance. Organisations could indeed face the decision of whether or not to use more than one technological platform at the same time (e.g. creating multiple groups on Facebook and Linkedin), or of which one to invest in to promote members' interaction online. In this paper we try to address these research issues by presenting the findings of a study of a business social network service. The selected case study is Milan IN, an Italian non profit association set up in 2005 to facilitate the interaction of members of LinkedIn living or working in the Milan area. The main objective of Milan IN when joining this study was to understand the desire of professional growth of its members and their use of internet to achieve this objective. Milan IN registers more than 5,300 members, 4311 of them using a LinkedIn group and 1359 active on a Facebook group. Social Network Analysis (SNA) was used to describe the connections of those 505 members registered both in the Facebook and LikedIn group. Both structural and composition variables were used to measure and discuss global and local properties of the networks within the two groups. Comparing the two networks it clearly emerges that the involvement of actors in the two groups is different, leading to relational structures showing different properties at the local and global level. Such a comparative approach represents an original contribution with respect to similar studies. Results have been presented and discussed with the association. Stefano Tazzi, a member of the management team of Milan IN, at the end of the presentation reported that: "Those who manage an association using a social network site have more tools than those who manage organizations in the traditional way. SNA is an optimal way to complement the natural use of social network for interactive communication. SNA can be considered a support system for decision-making in association context". And again, entering more in details, he reported that "SNA is useful in understanding the dynamics of the organization for those who have to keep the association alive ". Combining the research results with the critical reflections of the management team of Milan IN, also in the light of the increasing importance of online networking sites to many organizations, further implications for the managerial practice are developed


Picea abies seedlings were given three different fertilization treatments in the nutrient solution by varying the potassium:nitrogen (K:N) ratios (2.5, 3.0 or 3.9 g g–1). All fertilization treatments were combined with short-day (SD) treatment or no such treatment (control). Aboveand belowground growth responses in the seedlings were analyzed. The SD treatment resulted in significantly reduced shoot height, compared to untreated control, irrespective of K:N ratio. No combination of photoperiod treatment or fertilization treatment affected the root collar diameter. In the current year root fraction with diameter < 0.5 mm, the highest K:N ratio led to significantly increased root length in control plants. In each 0.1 mm root diameter class up to 0.5 mm, the highest K:N ratio significantly stimulated root growth in control plants, while the effect was less evident for SD plants. SD treatment stimulated length growth in some fine root diameter classes. We conclude that SD treatment is a good and sufficient measure to reduce height growth without compromising fine root growth of P. abies seedlings. Fertilization treatment did not significantly improve aboveground growth in SD treated seedlings, and only limited effects on root growth was seen on control plants.


Larry Lynn's piece, "The Myth of the Bureaucratic Paradigm," is provocative to say the least. I come to this admission not because of the overwhelming popularity of Lynn's work or my enduring "affection for the author or ... the prestige [this] author confers on the field" (Lynn, 145; see also Karl 1976), but because of the intellectual merit the essay demonstrates. I couldn't agree more with Lynn's overall premise and his conclusion that the traditional bureaucratic paradigm of public administration has proven to be much more responsive to democratic values than has the revisionists' new, customer-oriented managerialism. And, not to be overlooked, for an "outsider," Lynn (152) provides a respectable and comprehensive review of the intellectual heritage of the field of public administration. That said, I fundamentally disagree with many of Lynn's assertions. In particular, I disagree with one of his central theses: that students of public administration have failed to adequately challenge the New Public Management. I also take issue with another theme that runs, perhaps more obliquely, throughout Lynn's piece: the methodological claims and interests of the New Public Management as compared with those of the "old" public management. Here, Lynn seems to suggest that, due to a tradition of being "unduly careless," not only the New Public Management but the broader field of public administration itself "seems to have let lapse [its] moral and intellectual authority" (145, 155). Let me begin by parting company with Lynn's assertions that traditional public administration was unable to mount a sound, meaningful challenge to revisionist thought advanced by the New Public Management. On the contrary, a number of public administrationists virulently attacked the New Public Management, particularly its reinventing government or National Performance Review (NPR) manifestations. For example, there were many attacks against the NPR on the grounds that it failed to account for the realpolitik of government (see, for example, Carroll 1995; Frederickson 1996; Moe 1994; Rosenbloom 1993). In particular, many challenged the theoretical and philosophical underpinnings of the NPR, which, they argued, confute the fundamental principles of democracy and constitutional rule. Central to their argument was that the NPR's call for a shift from administrative bureaucracy to entrepreneurial organizations ignores the very nature of democratic government and how it evolved in the United States (Goodsell 1993). Moe (1994) points out that the NPR fails to account for critical differences between the government and private sectors, and, in particular, ignores the constitutional premise that government is based on a rule of law and not market-driven mechanisms. He states that "the government of the United States is a government of laws passed by the representatives of the people assembled in Congress. It is the constitutional responsibility of the President and his duly appointed and approved subordinates to see that these laws, wise and unwise, are implemented" (112). The "subordinates" would, in turn, be accountable to the president, not customers of government agencies, for the execution of the laws of the land. For Moe, the bottom line is the supremacy of an institutional presidency, where the president relies on the constitutional powers granted to the executive office in governing the country. This contrasts with what Nathan (1983) called the administrative presidency, where the president exerts control over the bureaucracy by administrative fiat, and, as some have argued, by circumventing rules, regulations, the law, and Congress's constitutional jurisdiction over the bureaucracy. Similarly, Carroll (1995) sees the political objective of the NPR as changing the balance of power, control, and authority over the federal bureaucracy. A presumption of power would rest in the executive branch, and Congress would have little or no role in executive administration. …


O'NIONS, R. K., MoRTON, R. D. & BAADSGAARD, H.: Potassium-argon ages from the Bamble sector of the Fennoscandian Shield in South Norway. Norsk Geologisk Tidsskrift, Vol. 49, pp. 17I-190. Oslo I969. Systematic K-Ar dating has been carried out on micas and amphiboles from upper amphibolite facies rocks in the Bamble sector of the Fermo seandian Shield in South Norway. Interpretation of fifty-one new K-Ar ages is made in terms of a cooling history. A spread of apparent ages from II25 (± 30) m.y. to 975 (± 30) m.y. is related to differing argon retentivities of the dated minerals. Apparent ages of amphiboles cover the whole time span. Selection of amphiboles of appropriate composi tion and micas of appropriate grain size has made possible the definition of the thermal maximum of a regional metamorphic event at -I100 m.y. Medium-grained biotites from metasediments and metavolcanics range from-I040 m.y. to -970 m. y. Apparent ages of micas from concordant plagioclase pegmatites suggest they are broadly synkinematic. Emplace ment of late-kinematic gabbroic rocks and associated apatite deposits (Odegardens Verk) at -1040 m.y. is suggested by apparent ages of Mg-rich amphiboles and phlogopites. Coarse-grained micas from dis cordant K-feldspar pegmatites at Odegarden are thought to yield ages near the true age of the pegmatites i.e. -1000 m.y.


In this paper, we propose new dominance relations that can speed up significantly the solution process of planning problems formulated as nonlinear constrained dynamic optimization in discrete time and space. We first show that path dominance in dynamic programming cannot be applied when there are general constraints that span across multiple stages, and that node dominance, in the form of Euler-Lagrange conditions developed in optimal control theory in continuous space, cannot be extended to that in discrete space. This paper is the first to propose efficient node-dominance relations, in the form of local saddle-point conditions in each stage of a discrete-space planning problem, for pruning states that will not lead to locally optimal paths. By utilizing these dominance relations, we present efficient search algorithms whose complexity, despite exponential, has a much smaller base as compared to that without using the relations. Finally, we demonstrate the performance of our approach by integrating it in the ASPEN planner and show significant improvements in CPU time and solution quality on some spacecraft scheduling and planning benchmarks.


Objectives: Our goal was to analyze the post-operative outcome of myringoplasty. Materiel and methods: This is a prospective and descriptive study conducted in the Otorhinolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery Department of the Gabriel Toure University Hospital Center from January 2012 to December 2015. We included all patients over six years of age who had myringoplasty. Choleatomatous otitis, traumatic perforations, and children under six, patients with nasopharyngeal infections, patients with immunosuppression and incomplete files were excluded. Operative technique was the classic one with the microscope under general anesthesia. Results: During this study period, 84 patients were identified. The young age group of 06-25 was the most represented with 52% and the average age was 28 years old. The satisfactory anatomic result was obtained (tympanic membrane closure) in 95.2% and the reperforation and graft drop in 4.8%. An improvement of 11 to 30 dB was observed in 49.9% postoperatively. Conclusion:The anatomical result is an imperative for any otology surgeon. This result can be successful by looking for factors that can influence the outcome. The permeatal route with removal of the perichondrium and cartilage with control of the anterior angle gives good results.


Throughout the twentieth century, the U.S. government willingly deployed power, hard and soft, to protect American investments all around the globe. Why did the United States get into the business of defending its citizens' property rights abroad? The Empire Trap looks at how modern U.S. involvement in the empire business began, how American foreign policy became increasingly tied to the sway of private financial interests, and how postwar administrations finally extricated the United States from economic interventionism, even though the government had the will and power to continue. Noel Maurer examines the ways that American investors initially influenced their government to intercede to protect investments in locations such as Central America and the Caribbean. Costs were small--at least at the outset--but with each incremental step, American policy became increasingly entangled with the goals of those they were backing, making disengagement more difficult. Maurer discusses how, all the way through the 1970s, the United States not only failed to resist pressure to defend American investments, but also remained unsuccessful at altering internal institutions of other countries in order to make property rights secure in the absence of active American involvement. Foreign nations expropriated American investments, but in almost every case the U.S. government's employment of economic sanctions or covert action obtained market value or more in compensation--despite the growing strategic risks. The advent of institutions focusing on international arbitration finally gave the executive branch a credible political excuse not to act. Maurer cautions that these institutions are now under strain and that a collapse might open the empire trap once more. With shrewd and timely analysis, this book considers American patterns of foreign intervention and the nation's changing role as an imperial power.


Physiological controls on cell adhesion mediated by E-cadherin have been frequently focused in the proliferation restraining. This can be given both by contact inhibition via the regulation of homotypic cadherin expression, by the control of adhesive strength, or even for the activation of proliferation mediated by growing factors. However, few studies have been conducted to evaluate the possible effects of hormones on the cell-cell adhesion mechanisms, during animal development and the maintenance of adult tissues and organs. Thus, the analysis of thyroid hormone influence on E-cadherin adhesive potential result highly challenging and promising field of research in cell biology.


To better grasp the visuomotor control system underlying insects' height and speed control (Srinivasan et al. 1996, Portelli et al. 2010a), we attempted to interfere with this system by producing a major perturbation on the free flying insect and observing the effect of this
perturbation. Honeybees were trained to fly along a high-roofed tunnel, part of which was equipped with a moving floor. The bees followed the stationary part of the floor at a given height. On encountering the moving part of the floor, which moved in the same direction as their flight, honeybees descended and flew at a lower height (See Fig. 1 E-F). In so doing, bees gradually restored their ventral optic flow (OF) to a similar optic flow value to that they had perceived when flying over the stationary part of the floor. OF restoration therefore relied on lowering the groundheight rather than increasing the groundspeed (Portelli, Ruffier, Franceschini 2010b).
This result can be accounted for by a control system called an optic flow regulator, that is, a feedback control system based on an OF sensor, which strives to maintain the ventrally perceived OF at a constant set point by adjusting the vertical lift (See Fig. 1 A-D) (Ruffier, Franceschini 2005;
Franceschini, Ruffier, Serres 2007). This visuo-motor control scheme may not only explain how honeybees land at a constant descent angle (Srinivasan et al. 2000) but also how they navigate safely along surfaces on the sole basis of OF measurements, without any need to measure either their speed or their distance from the ground, the ceiling or the surrounding walls (Serres et al. 2008, Portelli et al. 2010a), that is, without relying on any of the conventional avionic sensors such as velocimeters or rangefinders. Results obtained in neurophysiological, behavioural, and biorobotic studies on insect flight control were used to safely land a spacecraft on the Moon in a simulated environment. The optic flow
regulator for automatic landing was tested in a realistic simulated Lunar environment (Valette et al. 2010). Visual information was provided using the ESA's PANGU software program and used to regulate the optic flow sensed during the descent of a 2-DOF spacecraft. The results of the
simulation showed that a single 2-pixel optic flow sensor coupled to an optic flow regulator was able to robustly control the autonomous descent of the simulated lunar lander (See Fig. 2). "Low gate" located approximately 10 m above the ground was reached with reduced vertical and
horizontal speeds of 4m/s and 5m/s, respectively. It was also established that optic flow sensing methods can be used successfully to cope with temporary sensor blinding and poor lighting conditions (Valette et al. 2010), as typically occurs at the Moon south pole that the 2018 Next ESA
mission is planning to explore.


A Chicago scientist plans to open a human cloning clinic within the year and hopes to produce the first human clone within 18 months.

The scientist, Richard Seed, wants to offer the procedure to infertile couples. Dr Seed holds a doctorate in physics and is not medically qualified. He does, however, have experience in reproductive genetics and was involved in introducing the process of in vitro embryo transfer from farm animals to humans.

Dr Seed's announcement has rekindled debate on the feasibility as well as on the ethical, moral, and legal consequences of human cloning. After the successful cloning of Dolly the sheep in Scotland last year, President Clinton banned federal funding for research into human cloning and proposed a law forcing a five year moratorium on such work. Acknowledging that the federal ban would not affect private research, President Clinton urged the private sector to adhere to the moratorium as well. 'Any discovery that touches upon human creation is not simply a matter of scientific inquiry. It is a matter of morality and spirituality as well. That is why I'm urging …


Geometries and infrared (IR) spectra in the mid-IR region of phenol-(ammonia)n (PhOH-(NH3)n) (n = 0-10) clusters have been studied using density functional theory (DFT) to investigate the critical number of solvent molecules necessary to promote ground-state proton transfer (GSPT). For n ≤ 8 clusters, the most stable isomer is a non-proton-transferred (non-PT) structure, and all isomers found within 1.5 kcal mol-1 from it are also non-PT structures. For n = 9, the most stable isomer is also a non-PT structure; however, the second stable isomer is a PT structure, whose relative energy is within the experimental criterion of population (0.7 kcal mol-1). For n = 10, the PT structure is the most stable one. We can therefore estimate that the critical size of GSPT is n = 9. This is confirmed by the fact that these calculated IR spectra are in good accordance with our previous experimental results of mid-IR spectra. It is demonstrated that characteristic changes of the ν9a and ν12 bands in the skeletal vibrational region provide clear information that the GSPT reaction has occurred. It was also found that the shortest distance between the π-ring and the solvent moiety is a good indicator of the PT reaction.

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The objective of this study was to explore the improvement in accuracy of estimates for evapotranspiration (ET) over complete growing seasons and monthly periods, when more frequent Landsat imagery is made available. Conversely, we explored the reduction in accuracy in ET estimates when frequency of Landsat imagery was reduced. The study was implemented by conducting a series of METRIC applications for two Landsat WRS path overlap areas, one in southern Idaho (paths 39 and 40) during 2000, and a second one in Nebraska (paths 29 and 30) during 2002, years when two fully functioning satellites, Landsat 5 and Landsat 7, were in orbit. The results indicated that high frequency imagery provided by two satellites covering a WRS path overlap was more able to capture the impacts of rapid crop development and harvest, and evaporation associated by wetting events. That data set simulated a nominal four-day revisit time. Three-simulated 16-day revisit data sets created using a single Landsat series for a single path were unable to produce monthly and growing season ET due to the lack of sufficient number of images to even begin the time-integration process. This emphasizes the need to maintain two Landsat satellites in orbit and the high value of four-day revisit times. Limiting the data set to one path and two satellites (eight-day revisit) underestimated growing season ET accordingly by about 8% on average. Error in monthly ET was relatively high when image availability was limited to that for an eight-day revisit. This is due to the importance of timing of images to identify key inflection points in the ETrF curves and to capture special events such as wetting events from irrigation and rain or from water stress or cuttings, as in the case of forage crops. Results suggest that a four-day revisit time as represented by the full-run (run 1) of our analysis provides robustness in the development of time-integrated ET estimates over months and growing seasons, and is a valuable backstop for mitigation of clouded images over extended periods.


Outlook for Commercial Aircraft 1982-1996. Advanced Market Planning (18-68), Douglas Aircraft Co., 3855 Lakewood Boulevard, Long Beach, California 90846. July 1982. 75p. This report summarizes the results of Douglas Aircraft Company's 1982 commercial air transportation 15-year forecast. The result for the passenger sector represents detailed forecasts for traffic, capacity and fleet. A detailed traffic and fleet forecast for the cargo sector are also discussed. Appendices provide definitions, summary data, forecast data, a list of airlines studied and a description of the econometric approach used for traffic forecasting.


Modern society requires large amounts of materials which lead to emissions of greenhouse gases. Effective climate policy should focus on not just energy efficiency but material efficiency as well. Exergy analysis is a powerful metric used to identify opportunities for efficiency improvement in industrial resource flow systems. Exergy offers a single unified measure of energy and material resources and indicates the real thermodynamic value of these resources, but the method suffers from a lack of comprehensive specific material chemical exergy datasets. The variety of different materials used in the global resource supply chain necessitates a combination of exergy calculation approaches. These approaches are combined into a single exergy calculator tool with over 1400 substances in the dataset. The chemical exergy values computed for key materials typically differ by less than 10% from values estimated in literature. The calculator is used in a case study of the upstream global material supply chain in 2013. The exergy resource map is visualized in a Sankey diagram and is found to be 72% resource efficient with 170 EJ of combined exergy losses and destruction. Further analysis is conducted on the refining, utilities, and industry sectors which are found to be 72%, 44%, and 50% resource efficient, respectively. Their combined losses and destruction are 15, 101, and 54 EJ, respectively. This study and the calculator developed provide a comprehensive dataset of chemical exergy values for a wide range of materials and can be applied in a variety of studies using exergy analysis.


Biliary tract cancer is a heterogenous group. Gemcitabine plus cisplatin has been the standard chemotherapy for advanced biliary tract cancer, but there is lack of evidence on treatment in patients with intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (IHC). We analyzed 29 patients with only IHC who received gemcitabine plus cisplatin between June 2010 and February 2013. The median age was 63 years (range, 40–78 years), and Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status of all patients was <2. The median progression-free survival and median overall survival (OS) were 4.3 and 7.3 months, respectively. Multivariate analysis showed that platelet count (⩽180 × 109 per liter), metastatic site of more than 2, and albumin level (⩽3.5 g/dL) were independent prognostic factors for decreased OS. OS was estimated based on the number of adverse prognostic factors: zero or 1 (good prognostic group), 2 (intermediate group), or 3 (poor prognostic group). The median OS for good (n = 15), intermediate (n = 10), and poor (n = 4) prognostic group was 10.5, 6.1, and 1.6 months, respectively (P < 0.005). Relatively better prognosis of the good prognosis group comparing to other prognosis groups can be expected from the prognostic model established in this study by analyzing patients with IHC treated with gemcitabine.


The milk yield has been the most selected trait in dairy cattle breeding programs. However various studies have shown a decline in adaptive and longevity traits in herds that are under selection for improving production, especially in taurine breeds, as the Holstein, who was highly selected for milk production. The aim of this study was to estimate genetic parameters for first lactation 305-day milk yield (Y305) and for longevity traits and to verify the association among them, in high production Holstein cows. The data sets used were from Agrindus Farm, with calving occurring between 1989 and 2005. The traits analyzed were Y305, productive life (PL), calculated as the length of lactation days from the first day of lactation until the culling, and age at culling (AC). Variance components were estimated by Restricted Maximum Likelihood, applying multi-trait animal model. Heritability estimates for Y305, PL and AC were, respectively, 0.35, 0.07 and 0.10. Heritability estimates for PL and AC suggest small genetic variability to get genetic gains by direct selection for these traits, because they are influenced by decisions of voluntary and involuntary culling, being largely affected by factors related to the environment. It is difficult to measure these traits because it is necessary to evaluate culling of animals and causes of culling. The magnitude of the heritability estimate for Y305 evidences the existence of reasonable additive genetic variability, which allows efficiency by selecting for this trait. The genetic correlations between Y305 and PL was 0.02 and between Y305 and AC was 0.01, suggesting small genetic association between Y305 and longevity traits. In this case, the selection for Y305 is viable due to high heritability estimate and the favorable and almost null genetic correlation between Y305 and the longevity traits. Some studies have used to analyze longevity traits as threshold and since this trait has great economic importance, it has been included as selection criteria in most animal breeding programs.


I. Introduction In the year 1913 I received from a former student of mine, Mr. P. H. S. De Wet, a consignment of rock-specimens from the neighbourhood of Parijs (O.F.S.). Among these were many pieces of a dense black rock, which, I was informed, occurs very abundantly in veins and networks in the granite. The characters of this rock seemed so remarkable that I took an early opportunity of visiting Parijs myself, in order to study the phenomena in the field. As a result of my observations, I formed the opinion that the black veins were intrusions of basic magma which had entered the granite by a process of stoping, accompanied by corrosion and solution; and a paper embodying this conclusion was communicated to the Geological Society in November 1914, an abstract of it appearing in the Proceedings of the Society for that month (No. 964). After the manuscript had left my hands, I became aware for the first time of the work of Sir Thomas Holland and his colleagues of the Geological Survey of India on the 'trap-shotten gneiss' of Salem, Madras, and I could not fail to be struck by the resemblance between some of the phenomena there described and those observed by me. My attention was next turned to the 'flinty crush-rocks' of the Cheviot Hills and other parts of Scotland, which were also at one time held to be of igneous origin. By the kindness of Dr. Flett, the late Dr. Clough, and Mr. E. B.


While the analysis is not the first to investigate empirically the effects of different individual or household factors on school access and completion of Ghanaians, it extends previous work by simultaneously incorporating individual, household, community, regional and national characteristics and also illustrates the latest evidence by applying international data sources and unusually detailed household survey data for a sub-Saharan country. Its focus is threefold: (i) gaining a richer understanding of which external influences hinder educational access and attainment in Ghana, (ii) how to better tackle these challenges and (iii) analyzing how educational development affects the country's overall development. An interview with the Minister of Education helps guide the policy orientation of the analysis by identifying several critical challenges and areas of needed policy attention. Findings from the data analysis indicate that the geographic divide between the North and South, increased economic growth, demographic pressure and a number of individual, household and community factors especially children's nutritional and labour status are the most important challenges in increasing levels of education among Ghanaians in years to come. Finally, the analysis pilots a new and comprehensive results- and capacity-focused policy matrix to help the Government of Ghana realign policy priorities and reform existing programs. To this end, respective policy levers on the demand- and supply-side are discussed, with particular reference to external and demand-side interventions which have not received the necessary attention at the policy-level to improve educational opportunities and outcomes at all levels.


The popularity of instant messaging (IM) services has recently attracted the interest of attackers that try to send malicious URLs or files to the contact lists of compromised instant messaging accounts or clients. This work focuses on a systematic characterization of IM threats based on the information collected by HoneyBuddy, a honeypot-like infrastructure for detecting malicious activities in IM networks. HoneyBuddy finds and adds contacts to its honeypot messengers by querying popular search engines for IM contacts or by advertising its accounts on contact finder sites. Our deployment has shown that with over six thousand contacts we can gather between 50 and 110 malicious URLs per day as well as executables. Our experiments show that 21% of our collected executable samples were not gathered by other malware collection infrastructures, while 93% of the identified IM phishing domains were not recorded by popular blacklist mechanisms. Furthermore, our findings show that the malicious domains are hosted by a limited number of hosts that remain practically unchanged throughout time.


The EU and the United States are following divergent paths with regard to their respective trade policies. While the new administration of the United States has made some notably strong statements against further trade liberalisation, the EU continues to favour responsible globalisation. The EU has recently signed a series of free trade agreements (FTAs) as well as plurilateral agreements with its partners (especially, but not only, in East Asia). Consequently, the EU is strengthening its status as a global leader in the debate on economic openness. Conversely, the US has interrupted major negotiations with its trading partners and has renounced trade agreements, such as TPP and TTIP (at least for the time being). This paper provides some empirical economic and social guidance behind the recent policy divergence on globalisation between the US and the EU in general and vis-a-vis China in particular.


Haapsalu Bay is a very shallow area consisting of semiclosed regions partly separated by peninsulas in the coastal zone of West Estonia. The main inflow of fresh water, 33.875.436 m3/year, from some small rivers (Ungru, Taebla, Vonnu, Asukula) falls into the eastern part of Haapsalu Bay, with the Nitrogen load 72.331 Kg/year and Phosphorus load 2.327,88 Kg/year. The central part of the Bay receives municipal and industrial sewage waters from the town of Haapsalu with a discharge of nutrients 28.591,6 Kg N/year and 4.34,17 Kg P/year . In addition, atmospheric deposition constitutes an important part of the nutrients load with 40.936 Kg N/year and 183 Kg P/year. As a consequence, intensive production of organic matter and accumulation of nutrients lead to a constant eutrophication process. In order to understand biochemical processes occurring in the marine ecosystem where the turnover of both phosphorus and nitrogen is included a conceptual model has been built up. Haapsalu Model, implemented in Stella Software, illustrates the phosphorus and nitrogen cycles and the concentration of nutrients in their different stages in Haapsalu Bay. Moreover, how various reduction strategies will affect the environment in the bay and in the Baltic proper may be simulated. The model tests nowadays the bay acts a giant waste stabilization pond resulting in the fact that the amount of nutrients carried by flowing water out to Baltic Sea should be small.


A theoretical model of coffee consumption in the U.K. is proposed, which is estimated and used to examine the influence of habit formation and advertising in the period 1957-80. This work challenges both the assumption of symmetrical consumer response and the statistical source for measuring coffee consumption. The model allows for asymmetrical consumer reactions. Explanatory variables are: price of coffee and of tea, income, advertising and the strength of the coffee drinking habit. This work is original in terms of interpreting and quantifying product field advertising and habit formation; and for allowing a minimal threshold level of predictors.

Mistakes, repeated printing errors and unpublished changes in definitions were found in the statistics of domestic coffee supplies 0 Household coffee purchases estimated by the National Food Survey (N.F.S.) are consistently over-reported. Causes investigated provide grounds for correcting estimates by pooling N.F.S. with Family Expenditure Survey; the result is consistent with adjusted supplies. Advertising effect on demand is separated into two aspects. The first action increases sales by attracting new buyers, while protecting consumers from competitors' propaganda. The second action increases sales to habitual customers, while manufacturers are competing through advertising for a larger brand share. The transmission medium is a factor in both effects. The strength of the habit shifts market demand function. A routine way of thinking prevails under stationary conditions; yet shifts in the function occur in a non-stationary situation which initiates the problem-solving way of thinking. In the model, addiction can be either absolute or relative to changes in other factors.

All the evidence supports the general model proposed, which shows that a non-symmetrical functional effect prevails and demonstrates the existence of an adjustment period. Irrefutably, coffee consumption depends on former consumption levels, coffee price, price-ratio tea to coffee, income and advertising.


Software evolution and reuse is more likely to receive higher payoff if high-level artifacts--such as architectures and designs--can be reused and can guide low-level component reuse. In practice, however, high-level artifacts are often not appropriately captured. This paper presents an approach to capturing and assessing software architectures for evolution and reuse. The approach consists of a framework for modeling various types of relevant information and a set of architectural views for reengineering, analyzing, and comparing software architectures. We have applied this approach to large-scale telecommunications systems, where the approach is useful to reveal areas for improvement and the potential for reuse.


Abstract

Spatial mobility in later life has received much attention by researchers and policy makers in recent years as part of discourses around active ageing and ageing independently. Here mobility is predominantly conceptualised in terms of its function for ensuring older people's well-being and quality of life. It is therefore often seen as a "means to an end", for instance in providing the individual with the capability to carry out independent activities of daily living. In this study, mobility was initially understood as movement through time and space. The data collection and analysis was based on the life course approach to environmental gerontology which allowed for the inclusion of temporal and spatial aspects of mobility in later life. This broad analysis is further expanded upon by participants' own meanings of mobility which were elicited during focus group discussions and interviews to include physical and psychological aspects of mobility. As a result, in this participatory research project, older people's discussions contributed to the expansion of the conceptualisation of mobility as fundamental to living, and consequently a broadening of the understanding of mobility in terms of a physical, social, psychological and spiritual engagement with the world. The nature of this engagement with the world is further analysed in terms of connectivities. These connectivities are developed over the life course and influence the way in which the older individual is able to relate to her or his social, structural and physical environment, and the resources that are available to the individual for coping with changes associated with ageing. I argue that changes in mobility and in the relationship between the ageing individual and the world are part of a dynamic interplay which supports continuity of identity and the self. But I also point to the limitations of current "decline" discourses of ageing which restrict the extent to which the ageing individual is able to make sense of the embodied experience of ageing and the continuity of the self in a coherent manner. This study shows that the inclusion of a transcendental or spiritual perspective into the life course approach would enable researchers and practitioners to emphasise the ageing individual's resources for a positive future.


Medical education is mostly based on a reflexive bio-reductionist paradigm, characterized by a technical language that is abstracted from the social materiality of the body and the disease. This linguistic code learnt during lectures is reproduced during the apprenticeships, in which a deceptive restoration of iconic and indexical links with the patient is integrated and exploited by the main symbolic modality of education. In this case, the implementation of multiple semiotic modes of meanings, such as visual and/or gestural, consolidates a rituality aimed to the embodiment of the medical role by the students (hidden curriculum) and to a further objectification of the patient. In Italy, groups of medical students and young doctors have been trying to experiment alternative multimodal practices of education and implementation of their competence. The aim of these experiences is to shift the focus from the pathology as a mere object of medical abstracted knowledge (and power) to the patient's incorporated experience of illness and to the entire social and material process that determines health and disease. In these cases, multimodality is conceived as a strategy to restore a fair exchange of knowledge and practices with the patient, recognized as an active social subject in the whole care process. Through the comparison of these two medical educational approaches, the aim of this study is to demonstrate that an alternative medical education method should overcome the bio-reductionism paradigm. To this purpose, we will identify multimodality and its effectiveness not merely in the implementation of different tools (other than the linguistic ones) in educational practices, but in the adoption of multiple modes of sign relation beyond the hegemonic symbolical one.


Abstract. Using the Swedish icebreaker Oden as a platform, continuous measurements of airborne mercury (gaseous elemental mercury (Hg0), divalent gaseous mercury species HgIIX2(g) (acronym RGM) and mercury attached to particles (PHg)) and some long-lived trace gases (carbon monoxide CO and ozone O3) were performed over the North Atlantic and the Arctic Ocean. The measurements were performed for nearly three months (July–September 2005) during the Beringia 2005 expedition (from Goteborg, Sweden via the proper Northwest Passage to the Beringia region Alaska – Chukchi Penninsula – Wrangel Island and in-turn via a north-polar transect to Longyearbyen, Spitsbergen). The Beringia 2005 expedition was the first time that these species have been measured during summer over the Arctic Ocean going from 60° to 90° N. During the North Atlantic transect, concentration levels of Hg0, CO and O3 were measured comparable to typical levels for the ambient mid-hemispheric average. However, a rapid increase of Hg0 in air and surface water was observed when entering the ice-covered waters of the Canadian Arctic archipelago. Large parts of the measured waters were supersaturated with respect to Hg0, reflecting a strong disequilibrium. Heading through the sea ice of the Arctic Ocean, a fraction of the strong Hg0 pulse in the water was transferred with some time-delay into the air samples collected ~20 m above sea level. Several episodes of elevated Hg0 in air were encountered along the sea ice route with higher mean concentration (1.81±0.43 ng m−3) compared to the marine boundary layer over ice-free Arctic oceanic waters (1.55±0.21 ng m−3). In addition, the bulk of the variance in the temporal series of Hg0 concentrations was observed during July. The Oden Hg0 observations compare in this aspect very favourably with those at the coastal station Alert. Atmospheric boundary layer O3 mixing ratios decreased when initially sailing northward. In the Arctic, an O3 minimum around 15–20 ppbV was observed during summer (July–August). Alongside the polar transect during the beginning of autumn, a steady trend of increasing O3 mixing ratios was measured returning to initial levels of the expedition (>30 ppbV). Ambient CO was fairly stable (84±12 ppbV) during the expedition. However, from the Beaufort Sea and moving onwards steadily increasing CO mixing ratios were observed (0.3 ppbV day−1). On a comparison with coeval archived CO and O3 data from the Arctic coastal strip monitoring sites Barrow and Alert, the observations from Oden indicate these species to be homogeneously distributed over the Arctic Ocean. Neither correlated low ozone and Hg0 events nor elevated concentrations of RGM and PHg were at any extent sampled, suggesting that atmospheric mercury deposition to the Arctic basin is low during the Polar summer and autumn.


Abstract: Cyclic‐AMP‐binding proteins in membrane and soluble fractions from rat forebrain were compared; membrane fractions included smooth and rough microsomes and a plasma membrane fraction enriched in synaptic membranes. Protein fractions were treated with 8‐azido‐[32P]cyclic AMP and ultraviolet irradiation to covalently tag cyclic‐AMP‐binding proteins. Labeled proteins were then analyzed by two‐dimensional gel electrophoresis (2DGE) and fluorography. The soluble CNS proteins contained two major cyclic‐AMP‐binding species at 48K (48K 5.5 and 48K 5.45), differing slightly in their isoelectric points. Another protein was seen at 54K (54K 5.3) adjacent to the β‐tubulin subunits in the 2D electrophoretogram. The analysis of the smooth microsome and plasma membrane fractions differed from the soluble fraction in that there were two cyclic‐AMP‐binding proteins adjacent to the β‐tubulin region (54K 5.3 and 52K 5.3) differing slightly in apparent molecular weight. The membrane fractions also contained a cyclic‐AMP‐binding protein at 54K 5.8. The 52K 5.3 and 54K 5.8 species were unique to the membrane fractions. The rough microsomes did not contain detectable amounts of cyclic‐AMP‐binding proteins. Free polysomes were isolated from brain tissue, and translation products were analyzed by cyclic AMP affinity chromatography and immunopurification with antibodies to the brain specific type II regulatory subunit. The translation products that were found to bind cyclic AMP Sepharose are as follows: 48K 5.5, 48K 5.45, 52K 5.3, and 54K 5.8. These species comigrated with proteins that were photoaffmity‐labeled in cytosol and membrane fractions. A translation product at 54K 5.3 was not detected, and, therefore, the possibility exists that this protein may result from posttranslational modification of another protein. The translation product at 52K 5.3 was precipitated with antibodies against the brain specific type II regulatory subunit of cyclic‐AMP‐dependent protein kinase.


Sir William Gull coined the name 'anorexia nervosa'. Examples of self-starvation appeared in the Hellenistic era. Holy anorexics abused their bodies, rejected marriage and sought religious asylum where many perished and became saints. The condition then paled into obscurity until the 19th century. Louis-Victor Marce (1828–1864) described such a patient in 1859, but Richard Morton is generally credited with the first medical description of anorexia nervosa in 1689. Two neurologists in 1873 separately described anorexia nervosa. Ernest Charles Lasègue, a student friend of Claude Bernard, and a favourite pupil of Trousseau wrote of a refusal of food that may be indefinitely prolonged. Historical precedence is explored and citations included.


Objectives: The knee joint osteoarthritis is one of the important causes of disability and is more frequent in menopausal women. Phonophoresis is a therapeutic method using ultrasound to enhance percutaneous absorption of drugs. This study was aimed at evaluating the therapeutic efficacy of dexamethasone phonophoresis in the management of knee osteoarthritis in elderly women. Materials and Methods: 55 women aged 56.03±5.7 years who had mild or moderate knee osteoarthritis were randomly allocated into 3 groups. First group (n=18) received ultrasound (as control group), second group (n=18) received phonophoresis of 4mg dexamethasone ampoule and third group (n=19) received phonophoresis of 0.4% dexamethason gel. All groups were treated with an ultrasound program using stroking technique, pulse mode, 1.5 W/cm2, 5 minutes per session for 10 sessions. Visual Analog Scale (VAS) for pain severity and Western Ontario and McMaster universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) and the time up and go test (TUG) were evaluated before and after treatment in all groups. Results: The VAS, total WOMAC and TUG scores were significantly improved after treatment in all groups (P<0.001). The group receiving phonophoresis of dexamethasone ampoule showed more significant effects in reducing pain and improving function and mobility among three groups. Conclusion: Our results indicated that both ultrasound and phonophoresis of dexamethasone are effective methods in pain relief and improving function in mild and moderate knee osteoarthritis but phonophoresis of dexamethasone ampoule is better than the other treatments and it is suggested as an available method for treatment of knee osteoarthritis symptoms.


Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) erupt and expand in a magnetically structured solar corona. Various indirect observational pieces of evidence have shown that the magnetic field of CMEs reconnects with surrounding magnetic fields, forming, e.g., dimming regions distant from the CME source regions. Analyzing Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) observations of the eruption from AR 11226 on 2011 June 7, we present the first direct evidence of coronal magnetic reconnection between the fields of two adjacent active regions during a CME. The observations are presented jointly with a data-constrained numerical simulation, demonstrating the formation/intensification of current sheets along a hyperbolic flux tube at the interface between the CME and the neighboring AR 11227. Reconnection resulted in the formation of new magnetic connections between the erupting magnetic structure from AR 11226 and the neighboring active region AR 11227 about 200 Mm from the eruption site. The onset of reconnection first becomes apparent in the SDO/AIA images when filament plasma, originally contained within the erupting flux rope, is redirected toward remote areas in AR 11227, tracing the change of large-scale magnetic connectivity. The location of the coronal reconnection region becomes bright and directly observable at SDO/AIA wavelengths, owing to the presence of down-flowing cool, dense (1010 cm−3) filament plasma in its vicinity. The high-density plasma around the reconnection region is heated to coronal temperatures, presumably by slow-mode shocks and Coulomb collisions. These results provide the first direct observational evidence that CMEs reconnect with surrounding magnetic structures, leading to a large-scale reconfiguration of the coronal magnetic field.


Agricultural Intensification in the Midwest: Impacts on Regional Surface Humidity By: Andrew C Hill Department of Geography Minnesota State University, Mankato 2018 An overwhelming majority of anthropogenic climate change studies have placed emphasis on biogeochemical agents, chiefly carbon dioxide emissions, which operate on a global scale. Fewer studies focus on biophysical factors such as land use/ land cover which operate on a regional or local scale. The impact from biophysical factors will continue to be reinforced with a growing human population and expanding resource demands. Of these factors, agricultural land use represents one of the largest, most extensive, and vital land use allocations. The U.S. Midwest, dominated by rain-fed corn and soybean agriculture, is a key agricultural region which is lacking in studies exploring climate impacts. Potential increases in soil moisture availability combined with modern agricultural practices has resulted in the anthropogenic elevation of surface humidity and dew point temperature within this region. Commensurate with this change is a modification of surface energy balances resulting in decreased daily temperature ranges from diurnal cooling and elevated nocturnal minimums. Increased atmospheric moisture also has a direct effect on human comfort through a decrease in evaporative cooling capacity. An updated 61-year regional growing season climatology from 59 NWS first order stations of dew point temperature, minimum/maximum temperature, and vapor pressure deficit provides evidence of land use impacts on regional and local climate factors. Significant increases in dew point (1-2°F), focusing on the Midwest, have been identified. Further, these increases have not been found in the U.S. South which is the typical source region for advected atmospheric moisture into the Midwest, thus indicative of a localized moisture source. Examination of historic USDA agricultural statistics aids in the understanding of potential contributions from land use on surface humidity. Further, 2017 field work provides a current multi-level canopy model of transpiration rates for regionally grown corn and soybeans with considerations for several controlling environmental variables. This has allowed accurate up-scaling to field levels allowing prediction of overall atmospheric moisture contributions at determined mid-day transpiration maximums over the course of the 2017 growing season.


Detailed 40Ar/39Ar laser step-heating analyses of mineral separates from five volcanic units in Namibia and Angola and five intrusions in Namibia yield important geochronological data for the Etendeka igneous province. Ten plateau dates on plagioclase, hornblende, and biotite between 131.7 ± 0.7 and 132.3 ± 0.7 Ma were obtained, and a late syenite from the Messum intrusive complex yielded a slightly younger hornblende plateau date of 129.3 ± 0.7 Ma. Magnetostratigraphy of the volcanic rocks in three sections up to 700 m thick, laterally spanning more than 100 km, suggests that the flows record only two geomagnetic polarity reversals. Precise temporal coincidence with the Parana flood volcanic province in South America indicates that Etendeka volcanism does not represent a significantly younger phase of magmatism that migrated from northwest to southeast over 10 m.y., as has recently been proposed. The duration of intrusive activity was at least 2–3 m.y. longer than recorded by volcanism, and its total duration awaits further constraints.


The present paper investigated the extent of the flood propagation in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta under different projected flood hydrographs, considering the 2000 flood event (the 20-yr return period event, T. V. H. Le et al., 2007) as the basis for computation. The analysis herein was done to demonstrate the particular complexity of the flood dynamics, which was simulated by the 1-D modelling system ISIS used by the Mekong River Commission. The floods of the year 2050 are simulated using a projected sea level rise of +30 cm. The future flood hydrograph changes at Kratie, Cambodia, were also applied for the upstream boundary condition by using an adjusted regional climate model. Two future flood hydrographs were applied at the upstream part of the delta, the first one in a scenario of climate change without considering developments in the Mekong Basin,and the second one in a scenario of climate change taking into account future development of the delta. Analyses were done to identify the areas sensitive to floods, considering the uncertainty of the projection of both the upstream and downstream boundary conditions. In addition, due to the rice-dominated culture in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta, possible impacts of floods on the rice-based farming systems were also analysed.