Objective To determine the contribution of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) to the subsequent development of severe asthma in different subgroups of children at risk of severe RSV disease. Settings The study was conducted in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. Participants The study comprised all children born in NSW between 2000 and 2010 with complete follow-up till 31 December 2011. The cohort was divided into three subgroups: (1) non-Indigenous high-risk children: non-Indigenous children born preterm or born with a low birth weight; (2) Indigenous children: children of mothers whose Indigenous status was recorded as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander and (3) non-Indigenous standard risk children: all other non-Indigenous term children. Primary outcome measure Risk of development of severe asthma in different subgroups of children who had RSV hospitalisation in the first 2 years of life compared with those who did not. Design We performed a retrospective cohort analysis using population-based linked administrative data. Extended Cox model was used to determine HR and 95% CI around the HR for first asthma hospitalisation in different subgroups of children. Results The cohort comprised 847 516 children born between 2000 and 2010. In the adjusted Cox model, the HR of first asthma hospitalisation was higher and comparable across all subgroups of children who had RSV hospitalisation compared with those who did not. The HR (95% CI) was highest in children aged 2–3 years; 4.3 (95% CI 3.8 to 4.9) for high-risk, 4.0 (95% CI 3.3 to 4.8) for Indigenous and 3.9 (95% CI 3.7 to 4.1) for non-Indigenous standard risk children. This risk persisted beyond 7 years of age. Conclusion This large study confirms a comparable increased risk of first asthma hospitalisation following RSV disease in the first 2 years of life across different subgroups children at risk.


Most of the cameras used in computer vision, computer graphics, and image processing applications are designed to capture images that are similar to the images we see with our eyes. This enables an easy interpretation of the visual information by a human observer. Nowadays though, more and more processing of visual information is done by computers. Thus, it is worth questioning if these human inspired "eyes" are the optimal choice for processing visual information using a machine.
In this thesis I will describe how one can study problems in computer vision without reference to a specific camera model by studying the geometry and statistics of the space of light rays that surrounds us. The study of the geometry will allow us to deter mine all the possible constraints that exist in the visual input and could be utilized if we had a perfect sensor. Since no perfect sensor exists we use signal processing techniques to examine how well the constraints between different sets of light rays can be exploited given a specific camera model. A camera is modeled as a spatio-temporal filter in the space of light rays which lets us express the image formation process in a function approximation framework. This framework then allows us to relate the geometry of the imaging camera to the performance of the vision system with regard to the given task. In this thesis I apply this framework to problem of camera motion estimation. I show how by choosing the right camera design we can solve for the camera motion using linear, scene-independent constraints that allow for robust solutions. This is compared to motion estimation using conventional cameras. In addition we show how we can extract spatio-temporal models from multiple video sequences using multi-resolution subdivision surfaces.


Media containing aligned rotationally symmetrical inclusions show transverse isotropy with respect to elastic wave propagation. The characteristics of this type of anisotropy have been investigated in the first part of this thesis (chapters 2, 3, and 4) while its implications on Vertical Seismic Profiling have been investigated in the second part of this thesis (chapters 5, 6, and 7). Transverse isotropy due to aligned inclusions has been studied for inclusions ranging from flat cracks (very small aspect ratio a.) up to spheres (a. = 1) using Nishizawa's model (chapter 2). The resultant anisotropy as described by this model (which is based on a static approach) is identical to the anisotropy described by Hudson's crack model (based on the scattering of elastic waves) for inclusions with aspect ratios up to 0.3. This result, which is surprising because Hudson's model has been derived for small aspect ratios (a. < 1), implies (assuming the validity of Nishizawa's model) that Hudson's model which is often used to interpret anisotropy observations can be applied to much larger aspect ratios than the aspect ratios for which it has been derived. Another characteristic of the anisotropy as described by Nishizawa's model is that almost spherical inclusions (a. =:: 1) result in elliptical anisotropy, which is a type of anisotropy that can never be due to sequences of thin isotropic layers. Sequences of isotropic layers and systems of large aligned fractures are just like aligned inclusions possible causes of transverse isotropy. Although these fractures and sequences of isotropic layers have a geometry that is different from the geometry of aligned inclusions they may result in the same anisotropy as aligned inclusions (chapters 3 and 4). The model describing the anisotropy due to large aligned fractures turns out to be identical to Hudson's crack model, whereas the model describing the anisotropy due to fine layering is identical to Hudson's model for ranges of aspect ratios that strongly depend on the fluid inside the inclusions. For the situations that these models are similar observed anisotropy can only be interpreted in terms of crack distributions if additional information shows the existence of cracks. However, for the situations where the similarity does not hold it is possible to distinguish between the causes of transverse isotropy (chapter 4). It should be realized, however, that other causes of transverse isotropy exist. Therefore, the 'separation' method described in this thesis should only be considered as a first step towards distinguishing between the causes of transverse isotropy. Because the 'representability' of cracked media by finely layered media strongly depends on the fluid inside the cracks, this 'representability' might not only be an interesting way to distinguish between the causes of transverse isotropy, but might also be an useful tool to investigate the nature of the fluid. Considering an uniformly cracked medium monitoring the nature of the fluid as a function of time or space could be very important for earthquake prediction or gas exploration, respectively. Studying anisotropy observations is a powerful way to obtain information about the internal structures of the rocks (such as aligned inclusions, thin layering) which have dimensions much smaller than the seismic wavelength used. Studying crack-induced anisotropy offers the possibility to monitor the stress-field that aligns the cracks. There is evidence that a changing stress strongly affects the aspect ratio of the cracks. The results of the first part of this thesis on the effect of a changing aspect ratio on crack-induced anisotropy have been used to develop methods to interpret anisotropy observations in multi-offset shear-wave VSPs in terms of a changing aspect ratio. Changes in the aspect ratio can be monitored in such VSPs (chapter 6) by studying the changes in the direction of wave propagation at which there is no shear-wave splitting. This technique which has been applied to synthetic shear-wave VSPs could become important if repeated VSPs are carried out to analyze temporal changes in anisotropy in terms of a changing stress-field. Although shear-wave splitting is often used as a key identifier of anisotropy one should be aware that shear-wave splitting can also be caused by transmission effects at interfaces in isotropic media (chapter 5). This effect should be taken into account first before shear-wave splitting is interpreted in terms of anisotropy. Anisotropy may give valuable information about the internal structures of rocks, but it may also lead to erroneous interpretations, when it is not properly taken into account. In chapter 7 this has been shown for an isotropic traveltime inversion scheme which, when applied to multi-offset VSP traveltime data in layered transversely isotropic media, may introduce errors in the depths of the interfaces separating the layers. Therefore, anisotropy should be included in inversion schemes. In a first attempt to develop inversion schemes that do take anisotropy into account a transversely isotropic traveltime inversion scheme has been developed and successfully applied to synthetic multi-offset VSP-data. The method developed is a robust method and further research is necessary to develop more elegant methods. Despite the robustness of the method the results of the transversely isotropic traveltime inversion scheme show, when compared with the results of the isotropic inversion scheme, that both an isotropic and a transversely isotropic model can explain the same traveltime data set (consisting of the arrival times of P- and first arriving S-waves). To attack this problem of non-uniqueness additional information (such as polarization, shear-wave splitting) should be incorporated in the inversion.


Using the non‐equilibrium Green's function method and the Keldysh formalism, we study the effects of spin–orbit interactions and time‐reversal symmetry breaking exchange fields on non‐equilibrium quantum transport in graphene armchair nanoribbons. We identify signatures of the quantum spin Hall (QSH) and the quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) phases in non‐equilibrium edge transport by calculating the spin‐resolved real space charge density and local currents at the nanoribbon edges. We find that the QSH phase, which is realized in a system with intrinsic spin–orbit coupling, is characterized by chiral counter‐propagating local spin currents summing up to a net charge flow with opposite spin polarization at the edges. In the QAH phase, emerging in the presence of Rashba spin–orbit coupling and a ferromagnetic exchange field, two chiral edge channels with opposite spins propagate in the same direction at each edge, generating an unpolarized charge current and a quantized Hall conductance G = 2e2/h. Increasing the intrinsic spin–orbit coupling causes a transition from the QAH to the QSH phase, evinced by characteristic changes in the non‐equilibrium edge transport. In contrast, an antiferromagnetic exchange field can coexist with a QSH phase, but can never induce a QAH phase due to a symmetry that combines time‐reversal and sublattice translational symmetry.


ABSTRACT Objective: PREDICTIVE 303 was a 26-week, prospective, randomized, open-label, multi-center study in patients with type 2 diabetes that investigated whether patient-driven adjustments of insulin detemir doses using the 303 Algorithm achieved similar glycemic control compared to standard-of-care, physician-driven adjustments in doses. This post hoc sub-analysis evaluates insulin naïve patients on oral anti-diabetic drugs (OADs) who were directed to start on once-daily insulin detemir as add-on therapy to any other glucose-lowering regimens. Methods: Patients in the 303 Algorithm group were instructed to adjust their detemir dose every 3 days based on mean fasting plasma glucose (FPG) values using a simple algorithm: mean FPG < 80mg/dL, reduce dose by 3 units; between 80–110 mg/dL, no change; >110 mg/dL, increase by 3 units. Physicians adjusted the detemir dose for patients in the Standard-of-care group according to their usual practice. No control insulin was used for comparison to insulin detemir. Results: Reductions in glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) from baseline were similar between those patients in the 303 Algorithm and Standard-of-care groups (−1.1 and −1.0%, respectively; between group p = 0.0933); patients in the 303 Algorithm group achieved a greater reduction in FPG. Patients in both groups experienced a similar, low rate of hypoglycemia. Over 95% and 92% of patients, respectively, used detemir once daily. Conclusion: These data indicate that patients with type 2 diabetes naïve to insulin can effectively implement the 303 Algorithm to initiate and adjust a once-daily dose of insulin detemir to achieve improvements in glycemic control.


Plastic anisotropy can affect the strains measured by neutron diffraction. If this is not properly accounted for significant errors can result in the calculated stresses. This paper illustrates addresses this issue using measurements of the residual strain field around a 60 mm long single weld bead deposited on the surface of a 17 mm thick stainless steel plate. Measurements were made on ENGIN-X, the engineering spectrometer at the ISIS facility of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (UK). Diffraction spectra from these measurements have been fitted using both single and multi-peak fitting approaches. Both residual strain and stress results have been presented for (111) and (200) single peak fits and compared to a multi-peak fit (Rietveld) analysis. Results from these analyses have revealed significant anisotropy in the response of the individual lattice planes. This effect is most severe in measurements carried out in the normal direction and is shown to be predicted using an elasto-plastic self-consistent model.


Political ecology has expanded in multiple new directions since Piers Blaikie's explanation of the manifestations of political economy and ecology in the "problem" of soil erosion in the 1980s. In this article, I try to extend political ecology to engage with ethnic studies literature on coloniality, and indigenous perspectives on intergenerational trauma and healing. Drawing on historic and contemporary examples of Maidu governance and resource development in the Maidu homeland, California, USA, I extend the concept of intergenerational trauma in Native American communities from the individual and ethnic group levels to include the community's relationship with the land, and the concept of itself as a sovereign civic, governing body. I place specific manifestations of trauma, de-colonizing, and healing, as exemplified by Maidu natural resource activism, in dialogue with political ecology approaches to better understand the relationships between historically colonized people, governance, and land. I argue that the relationships between people and resources that political ecology focuses on cannot be adequately understood in historically colonized communities dealing with neo-colonial resource and political policies, without attention to perspectives on coloniality/de-coloniality, and trauma/healing. These perspectives come from both survivors of colonialism, and from ethnic studies and indigeneity scholars. Key words: political ecology, coloniality, Maidu, trauma, healing, Native American


Background Corrective surgery for congenital heart disease may be life-saving, but its utilisation depends upon several social and economic factors. Girls with cardiac defects may not receive equitable care in India, but this has not been systematically studied. Methods In this prospective study, parents or guardians of 405 consecutive children aged up to 12 years (mean±SD age 3.43±3.44 years; 271 boys) who had been advised to undergo elective paediatric cardiac surgery were interviewed using a validated questionnaire. The status of the patients was reviewed after a year and the factors associated with non-compliance with treatment were analysed. In a qualitative sub-study the parents of 20 children who had not undergone surgery were interviewed. Qualitative data were analysed using an inductive analytical approach. Results Of the 405 patients studied, 44% (59/134) of girls had undergone surgery at 1 year compared with 70% (189/271) of boys (χ2=24.97; p<0.001). Independent predictors for non-compliance with surgery included female gender (OR 3.46, 95% CI −2.06 to 5.80; p<0.0001), lower socioeconomic classes (lower-middle: OR 18.62, 95% CI −2.14 to 161.8, p=0.008; upper-lower: OR 34.27, 95% CI −3.72 to 316.0, p=0.002) and higher cost of surgery (OR 1.92, 95% CI −1.06 to 3.47, p=0.03). In the in-depth interviews, apprehensions about future matrimonial prospects of girls and lack of social support emerged as the major factors responsible for delays in undergoing surgery. Conclusions Female gender is an important determinant of non-compliance with paediatric cardiac surgery. Deep-seated social factors underlie this gender bias.


The tomato Mi-1 gene confers resistance to three species of root-knot nematode and potato aphid. We studied changes in expression of jasmonic acid (JA)- and salicylic acid (SA)-dependent defense genes in response to potato and green peach aphids. We determined changes in three PR proteins, lipoxygenase and proteinase inhibitors I and II transcripts, locally and systemically in both compatible and incompatible interactions in tomato. Transcripts for PR-1 were detected earlier and accumulated to higher levels in the incompatible than in the compatible potato aphid/tomato interactions. The transcript profiles of the other genes were similar in compatible compared with incompatible interactions. Pin1 and Pin2 RNAs were detected early and transiently in both compatible and incompatible interactions. In tomato plants containing Mi-1, systemic expression of PR-1 and GluB was detected in both compatible and incompatible interactions at 48 h after infestations with either aphid. These results suggest that aphid feeding involves both SA and JA/ethylene plant defense signaling pathways and that Mi-1-mediated resistance might involve a SA-dependent signaling pathway. Potato aphid feeding generated reactive oxygen species in both compatible and incompatible interactions. However, a hypersensitive response was absent in the Mi-1-mediated resistance response to potato aphids. Reciprocal grafting experiments revealed that resistance is cell autonomous, and local expression of Mi-1 is required for Mi-1-mediated resistance against the potato aphid.


Laparoscopic peritoneal lavage for acute diverticulitis Background: The usual surgical management of acute diverticulitis is Hartmann operation that is asso- ciated with high rates of complications and mortality. Recently, less invasive procedures, that avoid ostomies have been proposed as treatment. Aim: To analyze the results of laparoscopic peritoneal lavage in patients with acute diverticulitis. Material and Methods: Prospective analysis of seven patients age 25 to 61 years (four males) admitted for a first episode of acute diverticulitis classified as Hinchey II or III, in whom a per - cutaneous drainage of collections was not possible. All were subjected to a laparoscopic peritoneal lavage and debridement. Results: The mean body mass index of patients was 30.3 kg/m 2 . Operative time was 55 ± 28 min and there was no need for ostomies or conversion to open surgery. Two patients had complications. One required a percutaneous drainage of a collection and other required an open surgical procedure for peritoneal lavage. Patients stayed with nil per os for 2 ± 1 days, required antimicrobials for 14 ± 4 days and stayed in the hospital for 8 ± 4 days. Conclusions: Laparoscopic peritoneal lavage is a good alternative surgical procedure for the treatment of acute diverticulitis.


The concepts of motivation and job satisfaction are currently being re-discovered by both academia and commercial market research. This article reviews recent developments in this area and gives an assessment of the main results. Although the research tradition in the field of motivation and job satisfaction is an exceptionally strong one, it has until recently been in a deep crisis. The postulated causal relationship between job satisfaction and performance, which was at the heart of the crisis, is again pivotal to the current debate. This article reviews different forms of causal explanations in relation to empirical results. In all, results seem to justify the new emphasis on job satisfaction. However, this article also reviews a relatively recent study that, in stark contrast to earlier research, unreflectingly assumes the concept's external validity and puts forward a simplistic view of one-directional causality. It is argued that two approaches are particularly suitable to increase the explanatory value of the concept: Identifying separate facets of job satisfaction, and recognising its emotional implications.


The dynamics and connectivity of neural circuits continuously change during an animal's lifetime on timescales ranging from milliseconds to days. Therefore, to investigate how biological networks accomplish remarkable cognitive and behavioral tasks, minimally invasive methods are needed to perform repeated measurements, or perturbations of neural circuits in behaving animals across time. Such tools have been developed to investigate the brain but similar approaches are lacking for comprehensively and repeatedly recording motor circuits in behaving animals. Here we describe a suite of microfabricated technologies that enable long-term, minimally invasive optical recordings of the adult Drosophila melanogaster ventral nerve cord (VNC)—neural tissues that are functionally equivalent to the vertebrate spinal cord. These tools consist of (i) a manipulator arm that permits the insertion of (ii) a compliant implant into the thorax to expose the imaging region of interest; (iii) a numbered, transparent polymer window that encloses and provides optical access to the inside of the thorax, and (iv) a hinged remounting stage that allows gentle and repeated tethering of an implanted animal for two-photon imaging. We validate and illustrate the utility of our toolkit in several ways. First, we show that the thoracic implant and window have minimal impact on animal behavior and survival while also enabling neural recordings from individual animals across at least one month. Second, we follow the degradation of chordotonal organ mechanosensory nerve terminals in the VNC over weeks after leg amputation. Third, because our tools allow recordings of the VNC with the gut intact, we discover waves of neural population activity following ingestion of a high-concentration caffeine solution. In summary, our microfabricated toolkit makes it possible to longitudinally monitor anatomical and functional changes in premotor and motor neural circuits, and more generally opens up the long-term investigation of thoracic tissues.


BACKGROUND
Oxandrolone is a potent synthetic testosterone analogue that possesses strong anabolic property and weak androgenic activity. Apart of their clinical implicances, oral oxandrolone can potentially promote several adverse effects. It is known that the transdermal delivery of drugs may represent a means to avoid or minimize oral adverse effects Thus, the objective of this study was to evaluate the permeability of oxandrolone in human skin on a preliminary basis for possible future determination of the transdermal route as an alternative to oral treatments.

METHODS
We used a percutaneous absorption assay in Franz diffusion cells coupled with freshly excised human skin. The drug release kinetics were determined to predict the efficiency of this alternative route for the drug.

RESULTS
Nearly 236 μg (86.7%, in terms of applied dose) of the product was prevented to permeate due to the barrier function of the stratum corneum (SC); 21.6% reached the receptor medium (RM), and the remaining 4.3% were quantified within viable layers of the skin (in vivo, dermis is vascularized). The total amount of drug able to exert effect is the sum of the drug quantified within remained skin (RS) and RM: then, a total of 247.6 μg of oxandrolone (25.9% of the applied dose) would be able to permeate through a non damaged skin. The accuracy of the data is demonstrated by the calculated mass balance (average recovery = 112.6%).

CONCLUSION
Transdermal oxandrolone could be a viable alternative for traditional oral form, once clinical studies are conducted to prove this hypothesis.


Article history: Received June 6, 2014 Accepted 17 June 2014 Available online 19 July 2014 The fatigue failure around rail-end-bolt holes is particularly dangerous since it leads to derailment of trains and consequently to inevitable accidents. It is well-known that the fatigue life of structural holed components, subjected to cyclic load, can be increased by generating compressive hoop stresses around the holes. These beneficial residual compressive stresses significantly reduce the maximum values of the operating tensile stresses arising at the critical points of the components and thus impede the formation of first mode cracks. A new approach to enhancement of fatigue life of rail-end-bolt holes has been developed. The approach involves sequential drilling and reaming through a new combined tool and then slide diamond burnishing by a new device. The technology implementation was carried out on machine tool. The process of creating residual stresses has been studied both experimentally and numerically. The experimental study was conducted by means of a modified split ring method. A reliable finite element modeling approach to the slide diamond burnishing process was developed. On this basis, the process was optimized by means of a genetic algorithm. As a result, the optimal combination of the governing process parameters is established, which ensures both maximum depth of the compressive zone and maximum absolute values of the residual stresses. © 2014 Growing Science Ltd. All rights reserved.


Healing an Ailing Model E factor analysis (EFA) is a statistical tool for digging out hidden factors which give rise to the diversity of manifest objectives in psychology, medicine and other sciences. EFA had its heyday as psychologist Leon Thurstone (1935 and 1948) based EFA on what he called the "principle of simple structure" (SS). This principle, however, was erroneous from the beginning what remained unrecognized despite subsequent inventions of more sophisticated statistical tools such as confirmatory analysis and structural equation modeling. These methods are highly recommended today as tolerable routes to model complexities of observation. But they did not remove the harmful errors that SS had left behind. Five chapters in this book demonstrate and explain the trouble. In chapter 2 the ailment of SS is healed by introducing an unconventional factor rotation, called Varimin. Varimin gives variables of an analysis an optimal opportunity to manifest functional interrelations underlying correlational observations. Ten applications of Varimin (in chpter 2) show that its results are superior to results obtained by the conventional Varimax procedure. Further applications are presented for sports achievements (chapter 3), intelligence (chapter 4), and personality (chapter 5). If Varimin keeps on standing the tests new theoretical building blocks will arise together with conceptual networks promoting a better understanding of the domains under study. Readers may check this prognosis by themselves using the statistical tool (Varimin) which is provided by open access in the internet.


IMPORTANCE
Worsening chronic heart failure (HF) is a major public health problem.

OBJECTIVE
To determine the optimal dose and tolerability of vericiguat, a soluble guanylate cyclase stimulator, in patients with worsening chronic HF and reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF).

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS
Dose-finding phase 2 study that randomized 456 patients across Europe, North America, and Asia between November 2013 and January 2015, with follow-up ending June 2015. Patients were clinically stable with LVEF less than 45% within 4 weeks of a worsening chronic HF event, defined as worsening signs and symptoms of congestion and elevated natriuretic peptide level requiring hospitalization or outpatient intravenous diuretic.

INTERVENTIONS
Placebo (n = 92) or 1 of 4 daily target doses of oral vericiguat (1.25 mg [n = 91], 2.5 mg [n = 91], 5 mg [n = 91], 10 mg [n = 91]) for 12 weeks.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES
The primary end point was change from baseline to week 12 in log-transformed level of N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP). The primary analysis specified pooled comparison of the 3 highest-dose vericiguat groups with placebo, and secondary analysis evaluated a dose-response relationship with vericiguat and the primary end point.

RESULTS
Overall, 351 patients (77.0%) completed treatment with the study drug with valid 12-week NT-proBNP levels and no major protocol deviation and were eligible for primary end point evaluation. In primary analysis, change in log-transformed NT-proBNP levels from baseline to week 12 was not significantly different between the pooled vericiguat group (log-transformed: baseline, 7.969; 12 weeks, 7.567; difference, -0.402; geometric means: baseline, 2890 pg/mL; 12 weeks, 1932 pg/mL) and placebo (log-transformed: baseline, 8.283; 12 weeks, 8.002; difference, -0.280; geometric means: baseline, 3955 pg/mL; 12 weeks, 2988 pg/mL) (difference of means, -0.122; 90% CI, -0.32 to 0.07; ratio of geometric means, 0.885, 90% CI, 0.73-1.08; P = .15). The exploratory secondary analysis suggested a dose-response relationship whereby higher vericiguat doses were associated with greater reductions in NT-proBNP level (P < .02). Rates of any adverse event were 77.2% and 71.4% among the placebo and 10-mg vericiguat groups, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE
Among patients with worsening chronic HF and reduced LVEF, compared with placebo, vericiguat did not have a statistically significant effect on change in NT-proBNP level at 12 weeks but was well-tolerated. Further clinical trials of vericiguat based on the dose-response relationship in this study are needed to determine the potential role of this drug for patients with worsening chronic HF.

TRIAL REGISTRATION
clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT01951625.


This Essay examines both the U.S. law and the EU law through the window of a recent U.S. case: New York Mercantile Exchange v. Intercontinental Exchange ("NYMEX"). The NYMEX facts are similar in concept to the facts in IMS but present a stronger case for liability. The Essay argues that the opinion in NYMEX, along with a growing set of U.S. cases, interprets Trinko to impose rigid requirements on a Section 2 plaintiff, not all of which are inherent in Trinko. It argues that the formalistic post-Trinko analysis, which would require dismissal of cases that do not fit within one of two "black boxes," immunizes some conduct that is anticompetitive in both purpose and effect, while the EU rule (although itself not perfect) can recognize and remedy a broader set of problems. A TALE OF TWO JURISDICTIONS AND AN ORPHAN CASE: ANTITRUST, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, AND REFUSALS TO DEAL


© Graph -Based Path -Planning for Titan Balloons A document describes a graph-based path-planning algorithm for balloons with vertical control authority and little or no horizontal control authority. The balloons are designed to explore celestial bodies with atmospheres, such as Titan, a moon of Saturn. The algorithm discussed enables the balloon to achieve horizontal motion using the local horizontal winds. The approach is novel because it enables the balloons to use arbitrary wind field models. This is in contrast to prior approaches that used highly simplified wind field models, such as linear, or binary, winds. This new approach works by discretizing the space in which the balloon operates, and representing the possible states of the balloon as a graph whose arcs represent the time taken to move from one node to another. The approach works with arbitrary wind fields, by looking up the wind strength and direction at every node in the graph from an arbitrary wind model. Having generated the graph, search techniques such as Dijkstra's algorithm are then used to find the set of vertical actuation commands that takes the balloon from the start to the goal in minimum time. In addition, the set of reachable locations on the moon or planet can be determined. This work was done by Lars James Blackmore, Nanaz Fathpour, and Alberto Elfes of Caltech for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Further information is contained in a TSP (see page 1). NPO-46607


The appearance of fringes in the infrared spectroscopy of thin films seriously hinders the interpretation of chemical bands because fringes change the relative peak heights of chemical spectral bands. Thus, for the correct interpretation of chemical absorption bands, physical properties need to be separated from chemical characteristics. In the paper at hand we revisit the theory of the scattering of infrared radiation at thin absorbing films. Although, in general, scattering and absorption are connected by a complex refractive index, we show that for the scattering of infrared radiation at thin biological films, fringes and chemical absorbance can in good approximation be treated as additive. We further introduce a model-based pre-processing technique for separating fringes from chemical absorbance by extended multiplicative signal correction (EMSC). The technique is validated by simulated and experimental FTIR spectra. It is further shown that EMSC, as opposed to other suggested filtering methods for the removal of fringes, does not remove information related to chemical absorption.


Marketing Channel means distribution. The distribution system covers the whole range of operations and movement of goods between the producers and the consumers. Distribution contributes no profit to a company; however without satisfactory distribution there is unlikely to be an income from sales. In order to be an effective marketing channel, distribution must be viewed as a whole before it can be recognized into specific duties which can be fitted into a management structure that will help to determine their true relationship. In this research, an investigation towards FAMA as marketing channel in distributing AgroMas products has been conducted. The objective of the study are: (1) To identify the effectiveness of FAMA in distributing private brand AgroMas products, (2) To identify whether FAMA widely distributes its AgroMas brand products accurately, and (3) To identify level of customer awareness towards AgroMas brand. The output from questionnaires had been conducted helps in find main variables that effect FAMA channel distribution. Results indicate that prompt service and advertising does play an important role to make sure products be known and thus creates demand.


This paper describes the use of an a posteriori error estimator to control anisotropic mesh adaptation for computing inviscid compressible flows. The a posteriori error estimator and the coupling strategy with an anisotropic remesher are first introduced. The mesh adaptation is controlled by a single‐parameter tolerance (TOL) in regions where the solution is regular, whereas a condition on the minimal element size hmin is enforced across solution discontinuities. This hmin condition is justified on the basis of an asymptotic analysis. The efficiency of the approach is tested with a supersonic flow over an aircraft. The evolution of a mesh adaptation/flow solution loop is shown, together with the influence of the parameters TOL and hmin. We verify numerically that the effect of varying hmin is concordant with the conclusions of the asymptotic analysis, giving hints on the selection of hmin with respect to TOL. Finally, we check that the results obtained with the a posteriori error estimator are at least as accurate as those obtained with anisotropic a priori error estimators. All the results presented can be obtained using a standard desktop computer, showing the efficiency of these adaptative methods. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


This article examine the various legal justifications that might be offered to justify a US strike against Syria in response to its use of chemical weapons. They include Security Council authorization, self-defense, collective defense, assistance to the "new" government, maintaining accountability for a violation of the prohibition on using chemical weapons, and humanitarian intervention. It suggest that only the last provides a colorable basis for attacking Syria.


ISSUE ADDRESSED
Given the increasing prevalence of cancer, there is a growing need for health interventions educating individuals about the disease and its impacts, risk reduction strategies, and how to support others who are affected. School-based programs are a promising medium addressing these issues in adolescents, yet no comprehensive cancer education program exists in Australia. This paper reports on the piloting of a cancer awareness program for Australian students.

METHODS
When Cancer Comes Along is a 90-minute interactive presentation covering cancer's impacts, risk-reduction strategies, and how to support those affected. The program was piloted in four Australian secondary schools, with students (N=113, 13-16 years) and teachers (N=2) providing feedback via post-program survey.

RESULTS
Participants reported high satisfaction overall (92-97%) and with each program component (71-95%), and agreed that the program achieved learning outcomes (72-95%).

CONCLUSIONS
Results indicate that When Cancer Comes Along is relevant, engaging and age-appropriate. Participants reported improved understandings of cancer, its impacts, risk-reduction strategies, and how to support those affected. A larger-scale evaluation is underway to more comprehensively evaluate program outcomes. SO WHAT?: The program has potential in educating students about various aspects of the cancer experience. It further demonstrates the feasibility and value of addressing psychosocial impacts and support strategies as well as information about cancer risks, elements which have not previously been combined in educational interventions. Equipping adolescents with the knowledge and skills to reduce their cancer risk and support others who are affected has significant health promotion implications for cancer prevention and support provision.


Small firms continue to experience difficulty accessing adequate finance from formal external sources, notwithstanding many and varied institutional and policy initiatives introduced to address this seemingly perennial problem. Underpinning research indicates that information asymmetry is the principal reason for the finance gap, particularly for young firms. The aim of legislation introduced in the UK in 2012 is to utilise the credit union sector to increase the amount of new lending to SMEs. The rationale for this legislative change arises because credit unions typically operate within a defined geographic region wherefrom they can compile detailed local knowledge of small businesses and be therefore uniquely placed to minimise information asymmetries thereby reducing the funding gap for small firms. Despite this perceived advantage, credit unions have been reluctant to take advantage of this legislative, and therefore lending by credit unions to SMEs has been negligent to date. We investigate the reasons for this lack of engagement in SME lending by interviewing the chief executives of five credit unions in Scotland. Our findings reveal that the CEOs of the credit unions are reluctant to lend to SMEs at present as they are uncomfortable with the level of risk associated with lending to a sector of which they have little experience or expertise. Furthermore, credit unions will need to offer attractive interest rates to compete with high street banks and an increasing number of microcredit providers. Policy makers need to better understand the structure and function of credit unions before assigning a greater role in SME lending. It is too early to say whether credit unions can play a significant role in SME lending, and our evidence suggests that structural issues must first be resolved before they become an established presence in the SME lending ecosystem.


The rapid growth of interest and research activity in ion channels is indicative of their fundamental importance in the maintenance of the living state. This volume was prepared with a view toward providing a sampling of the range of molecular and physical methods that are significant for the study of ion channels. As part of the Reliable Lab Solutions series, Essential Ion Channel Methods brings together chapters from volumes 293 and 294 of Methods in Enzymology. The chapters have been selected by the editor and updated, when possible, by their original authors to include new research and references. The result is a set of chapters which make use of graphics, comparisons to other methods, and provide tricks and approaches that make it possible to adapt methods to other systems. Methods are presented in a fashion that allows their replication by individuals new to the field, yet providing valuable information for seasoned investigators. * Highlights top downloaded and cited chapters, authored by pioneers in the field and enhanced with graphics and easy to follow methods * Loaded with detailed protocols developed and used by leaders in the field. *Refines, organizes and updates popular methods from one of our top selling series, Methods in Enzymology


In this remarkable new study, the renowned historian and theorist of early cinema turns his attention to the work of Fritz Lang, proposing new readings of the entire output of one of cinema's foremost directors. Gunning examines the films not only as a stylistically coherent body of work, but as an attempt to portray the modern world through cinema. The world of modernity in which systems replace individuals is conveyed by Lange's mastery of cinematic set design, composition, and editing. Lang presents not only a decades-long vision of cinematic narrative that can be compared to that of Alfred Hitchcock or Jean Renoir, but a view of modernity that relates strongly to the ideas of Adorno, Brecht, Benjamin, and Kracauer. From the sweeping allegorical films of the '20s to the chilly and abstract thrillers of the '50s, Fritz Lang's films, Gunning claims, are among the most precious records of the twentieth century. "The Films of Fritz Lang" immeasurably enriches our understanding of a great artist who fades away even in being recognized and interpreted, an enigmatic figure at the junction of aesthetics, history, biography and theory.


The aim of this article is to examine Bible reading in the African context and the willingness and enthusiasm to embrace prosperity gospel in Africa. To achieve this objective, a discussion on the developments in biblical interpretation in Africa will first be presented. This will be done by examining three historical periods: colonial, independence and democratisation periods. This will be followed by an outline of migrations that have taken place from traditional religions to different versions of Christianity in different times in Africa. These migrations will be examined in connection with Bible translation. The relationship between prosperity gospel and African people in Africa will be discussed by considering the tools prosperity gospel uses to appeal to African people, namely the religio-cultural and socio-economic factors. The article will then provide its assessment of contextual reading in the prosperity gospel and a conclusion will follow.


We studied the use of multiple Raman pumps to assist fiber optical parametric amplifiers (FOPAs). We derived a theoretical model to describe the performance of multiple Raman pump assisted FOPAs. We demonstrated that the over 40 nm flat gain bandwidth provided by the multiple Raman pumps can be used to support the parametric gain bandwidth of Raman-assisted FOPAs (RA-FOPAs). We also found that if indirect Raman gain contribution dominates, by using dispersion-flattened highly nonlinear fiber with small dispersion slope and polarization-mode dispersion effect, broadband FOPA with broad parametric pump wavelength tuning range can be obtained by using multiple Raman pump assistance. On the other hand, if direct Raman gain contribution dominates, the parameters of the multiple Raman pumps have to be chosen carefully to ensure that the Raman gain bandwidth matches the parametric gain bandwidth in order to achieve a flat gain with broad gain bandwidth in the RA-FOPAs.


This paper reports on the increasing practice of developing and promoting artificial reefs as sites for scuba diving tourism and recreation. A comprehensive definition of artificial reefs is presented that encapsulates the diversity of structures used by marine recreationists, particularly scuba divers, followed by a review of existing literature that specifically examines artificial reefs as a resource for the conduct of recreational scuba diving. Three main thematic areas were identified in the existing literature: social dimensions, socioeconomic impacts and environmental engineering. A typology of artificial reefs is offered to better describe and categorise artificial reef structures according to unit characteristics that may influence recreational use such as material used, appearance, complexity and cost. The paper presents a conceptual model that identifies the components of an artificial reef scuba diving experience and discusses the potential of artificial reefs to act as tourism resources and management tools to redistribute scuba diver numbers away from natural reefs. Directions for future research are suggested, emphasising collection of data on aspects of the artificial reef scuba diving experience to better inform marine resource management.


The start of the 2008 growing season was extremely difficult for planting and crop establishment, however, environmental conditions since have been fairly good. What type of yields should we expect from this turbulent season? What will it take to obtain high yields from this point in the growing season forward? And, the other side of that question – what don't we want to see happen?


U–Pb geochronology has its roots in a spectacular decade of discovery. Within about ten years of the discovery of radioactivity in 1896, old ideas about the nature of matter were overthrown and the seeds of geochronology were planted. After giants of physics like Ernest Rutherford moved on to other research, Arthur Holmes nurtured the new field of geochronology, combining physics, chemistry, and geology to produce the earliest quantitative geologic timescale. Over the following decades, geochronology experienced a series of revolutionary and evolutionary advances, and became a vital part of almost all fields of geology.


We have previously introduced a "compound ring resonator circuit," in which several ring resonator (RR) cavities are coupled in a loop, and analyzed the resulting configuration with the coupling of modes in space (CMS) technique. In this work we compare the accuracy, simplicity and calculation time of three standard procedures, namely the FDTD, and the methods of coupling of modes in time (CMT) and CMS in the context of a two-dimensional (2D) complex ring resonator circuit. This provides a far more effective benchmark of the relative advantages of the methods than the analysis of far simpler structures performed by other authors. As part of these calculations, we further discuss the relationship between the power loss coefficients in the CMS and the CMT models. We verify that the CMT yields accurate and rapid results for small coupling coefficients and losses even for large waveguide circuits containing multiple rings.


For anyone who must engage in the tedious measurements of many line deflections with a non-recording microphotometer, saving of time is worth considering. Most photometers require several hand manipulations per reading—location of the line, correction for parallelism, reading traverse, etc.—plus the recording of each item of data. We suggest that the recording step may be efficiently accomplished by speaking into a tape recorder rather than by writing the data down. The hand and eye are thus relieved of one assignment and the reading rate improved.


The nature of conflict is evolving, with current warfare being associated with an initial "shock and awe" phase followed by protracted periods of counter-insurgency and peace support missions. As conflict has changed, so have the munitions deployed and the resulting patterns of injury. Improvised Explosive Devices have become the preferred weapon of the insurgent and the resultant explosive and fragmentation injuries are the hallmark of modern military wounding. These injuries pose a significant challenge to deployed medical forces, requiring a well-defined, seamless approach from injury to rehabilitation. Traditionally, military medical services demonstrate a poor 'institutional memory' in the maintenance of combat surgical skills. Numerous publications detail the re-learning of key tenets of war surgery by generations of surgeons deploying onto the field of battle. While the maintenance of military surgical capability in trained surgeons may be addressed through combat surgical courses, concern exists as to the generic competency of those currently in training and their ability to deal with the burden of injury associated with modern conflict. The training of junior doctors in the United Kingdom and further afield is in a state of flux. New curriculum development, streamlined and run-through training programmes have combined with the legal requirements of the European Working Time Directive to produce a training landscape almost unrecognisable with that of previous years. This article investigates the development of current military wounding patterns and modern surgical training programmes. It describes processes already in place to address the unique training needs of military surgeons and proposes a framework for enabling appropriate training opportunities in the future.


AbstractThis Comment discusses the influence of international legal norm development on the advancement of sexual orientation rights. Case studies of Argentina and Brazil demonstrate that progress in this area of human rights law has been "outward-looking": the countries that are most progressive in terms of sexual orientation rights are at once substantially influenced by and seeking to actively influence the development of international legal norms. To demonstrate this "outward-looking" character, this Comment analyzes nongovernmental organization activity, legislative enactments, judicial opinions, and proposed resolutions in international and regional governmental bodies in both Argentina and Brazil. It then argues that sexual orientation rights development in these two countries is a manifestation of the significant impact that international law has had upon this area of human rights law. Ultimately, this Comment suggests that international law can provide a means to progress sexual orientation rights in countries that have not yet recognized them to the same degree as Argentina and Brazil.Table of ContentsI. Introduction 260II. The Status of Sexual Orientation Rights in International Law 265A. Terminology 266B. An Historical Overview of Sexual Orientation and International Human Rights Law 2671. Interpretations of global and regional treaties by courts and treatymonitoring bodies 2672. Domestic state practices and the development of customary international law 2693. Non-governmental organizations and other sources of "soft" international law 270III. Argentina and Brazil: Case Studies of Outward-Looking Sexual Orientation Rights Development 271A. Introduction: Why Look at Argentina and Brazil? 271B. Argentina: A Country Influenced by Developing International Legal Norms 272C. Brazil: A Country Influenced by and Influencing Developing International Legal Norms 278IV. Developing International Legal Norms and Sexual Orientation Rights: Providing a Pathway for Further Progress 285V. Conclusion 288I. IntroductionIn the past twenty years, "concern with discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation" has gained sufficient recognition worldwide such that it is "realistic to say that this issue [has] come onto the international human rights agenda."1 Two countries in particular, Argentina and Brazil, have been at the forefront of this change, the former substantially influenced by, and the latter substantially influencing, the developing international legal norm recognizing sexual orientation rights. Despite academic commentary implying the contrary, these two countries not only illustrate the importance of international law in efforts to advance sexual orientation rights, but also suggest the promise that international law offers to eradicate sexual orientation discrimination globally.In July 2010, Argentina became the first country in Latin America, and only the tenth in the world, to authorize same-sex marriage.2 Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner sponsored the marriage law, promoting it as a manifestation of the increasingly liberal and less discriminatory social atmosphere of the country.3 The same-sex marriage bill, however, only narrowly passed in the Senate of the Argentine National Congress (


Aero-structural optimization of gas turbine blades is a very challenging task, given e.g. three dimensional nature of the flow, stringent performance requirements, structural and manufacturing considerations, etc. The current research work addresses this challenge by development and implementation of structural shape optimization module and integrating it with an aerodynamic shape optimization module to form an automated aero-structural optimization procedure. The optimizer combines a Multi-Objective Genetic Algorithm (MOGA), with a Response Surface Approximation (RSA) of the Artificial Neural Network (ANN) type. During the optimization process, each objective function and constraint is approximated by an individual ANN, which is trained and tested using an aerodynamic as well as a structure database composed of a few high fidelity flow simulations (CFD) and structure analysis (CSD) that are obtained using ANSYS Workbench 11.0. Addition of this multiple ANN technique to the optimizer greatly improves the accuracy of the RSA, provides control over handling different design variables and disciplines. The described methodology is then applied to the aero-structural optimization of the E/TU-3 turbine blade row and stage at design conditions to improve the aerodynamic and structural performance of the turbomachinery blades by optimizing the stacking curve. The proposed methodology proved quite successful, flexible and practical with significant increase in stage efficiency and decrease in equivalent stress.


Solid-state photon upconversion based on triplet–triplet annihilation (TTA-UC) has attracted much interest because of its potential to circumvent the loss of sub-bandgap photons in photovoltaic cells. There are two important long-standing questions for TTA-UC in solid crystals. Why is the UC efficiency often low in crystalline systems? What is the rational strategy to construct efficient upconverting crystals? In this work, these issues are addressed by employing a simple model system where ionic interactions play a key role. When crystals of an anthracene-based ionic acceptor (emitter) are grown in the presence of anionic donor (sensitizer) molecules, the donor molecules are spontaneously taken up and dispersed homogeneously in acceptor crystals without aggregation. Highly efficient UC is achieved as a consequence of quantitative triplet energy transfer (TET) from the incorporated donor to the surrounding acceptor. It is found that the mechanical grinding of the donor-doped single crystals leads to a significant decrease in UC efficiency, suggesting that trap sites formed in the crystals have a significant negative impact on the UC performance. The important fundamental knowledge obtained from the current ionic crystal system offers rational design guidelines towards the development of efficient TTA-UC systems in the solid-state.


El-Koofy N, Mahmoud AM, Fattaouh AM. Nutritional rehabilitation for children with congenital heart disease with left to right shunt. Turk J Pediatr 2017; 59: 442-451. Children with congenital heart disease (CHD) are prone to malnutrition. We aimed to assess the nutritional status of infants with CHD and evaluate the role of nutritional counseling. A cohort study included 50 patients with acyanotic CHD causing increased pulmonary blood flow consecutively enrolled from the cardiology clinic in Cairo University Children Hospital. The patients were subjected to clinical evaluation, nutritional assessment with detailed nutritional history, anthropometric measurements and subjective global assessment (SGA) score and complete blood count, serum albumin and total protein assessment. Degree of failure to thrive (FTT) was assessed and nutritional counselling was offered to those patients; followed up for 3 months then re-evaluated. The mean age was (8.6±4.8 months) with male: female ratio 1:1. The overall prevalence of malnutrition was 62%. Fourteen patients had mild FTT and 17 patients had severe FTT [47.1% with mild heart failure (HF) and 47.1% had moderate or severe HF]. All patients with moderate to severe HF had severe FTT and 80% of those with mild HF had severe FTT. Anemia was present in 96% of the patients. Patients with moderate or severe FTT had more severe degree of HF (p < 0.001), more complications (p < 0.001), more frequent hospital admission (p < 0.001) and less optimum breast feeding (p < 0.001). It was found that 76.5% of those with moderate to severe FTT were formula fed (p 0.002) and significantly lower rate of optimum weaning among (p 0.037). There was significant improvement in the anthropometry, the SGA and degree of FTT, level of albumin with decrease in the percent of anemia among the included patients after nutritional rehabilitation. Malnutrition represents serious problem to children with CHD. Nutritional assessment and proper counseling help to improve the nutritional status of those patients.


Abstract The phase composition of partially dehydroxylated specimens of two Clay Mineral Society standards, named KGa-1 and KGa-2 samples, were studied by powder X-ray diffraction patterns (XRD), infrared (IR) spectroscopy, and thermogravimetric (TG) data. Each specimen was preheated for 6 h in isothermal conditions, and the heating temperatures were selected to cover the entire range of dehydroxylation for both kaolinites (380–550 °C for KGa-2 and 400–600 °C for KGa-1). Products preheated at 550 and 600 °C are named metakaolinite, as their XRD patterns showed no traces of kaolinite reflections. The contribution of metakaolinite to the experimental XRD pattern and IR spectrum of each preheated specimen (including 3550–3750 and 500–1300 cm–1 ranges) was determined by the simulation of the experimental pattern with a sum of the XRD patterns or IR spectra corresponding to the untreated sample and metakaolinite. This procedure showed that the contents of metakaolinite determined independently by diffraction and spectroscopic methods for each of the preheated specimen have almost identical values. Although the modeled and experimental XRD and IR spectra generally match, they contain particular ranges where the intensity differences are particularly significant. The misfits suggest the presence of a third phase forming in partially dehydroxylated kaolinite. To reveal the diffraction and spectroscopic features of the kaolinite and possible intermediate phase (or phases), the contribution of metakaolinite was subtracted from the experimental XRD pattern and diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform (DRIFT) spectrum of each preheated specimen. Analysis of the metakaolinite-free XRD patterns and DRIFT spectra supports the idea that each preheated specimen, along with metakaolinite and initial kaolinite, contains a kaolinite-like component termed the intermediate phase. To determine the contents and specific diffraction features of the intermediate phases, the contribution of initial, untreated kaolinite was subtracted from the metakaolinite-free XRD patterns for each preheated specimen. In both samples, the content of the intermediate phase, Cinter, decreases with the growth of metakaolinite from 23–25% at the beginning of dehydroxylation to 2% when the XRD-determined content of metakaolinite is 98%. The analysis of the diffraction features of the intermediate phases formed during partial dehydroxylation of the KGa-1 and KGa-2 samples indicates that they represent a new type of defective kaolinite-like structure, in which, along with the one-dimensional periodicity along the c* axis and the layer displacement vectors typical for natural kaolinite samples, the octahedral sheets of the individual layers of the structure are partially dehydroxylated.


Counterterrorism has never been a convincing Russian strategy for Central Asia. At the start of Vladimir Putin's presidency, attempts to impress upon the leaders of the five Central Asian states that only Russia could provide security in the face of this rising threat were undermined by a clear inability to offer any assistance in repelling incursions into Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan by the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU). The threat to deliver air strikes against the Taliban forces in Afghanistan rang quite hollow. In autumn 2001, when Putin, rejecting the opinion of his closest aides, raised no objections against the deployment of U.S. forces in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, his readiness to join the U.S.led anti-terrorist coalition was still in doubt. Indeed, Russia has never so much as hinted at the possibility of contributing something meaningful to the international efforts at rebuilding Afghanistan, preferring to criticize the shortcomings in North Atlantic Treaty Organization operations. In 2002-2004, attempts to counterbalance the U.S. military presence invariably fell short of the target, since the composite squadron at the new Russian air base in Kant, Kyrgyzstan was a poor match to NATO's air assets, while the large-scale military exercises in the Caspian Sea in mid2002 have not been replayed.


In theory, X-factor regulation provides better incentives for cost reduction than previously widely-used rate-of-return regulation. However, a deeper look into how this factor is effectively estimated shows the regulator enjoys a great deal of discretion, especially when selecting the methodologies used to estimate its components. This paper describes how the X-factor is estimated in Peru and analyzes the main controversies (both theoretical al practical) that arose when the X factor for the country's main airport was estimated. Conclusions are the following: i) careful planning of the concession process reduces the probability of unnecessary controversies when the X factor is estimated retrospectively, since this methodology requires data that needs to be collected at the time of the concession; ii) cost of capital estimation is a main source of controversies due to the subjective criteria used in its calculation and its impact in the final result; and, iii) transparent procedures improve the legitimacy of regulatory decisions, especially in contexts of limited public resources and weak institutions, typical of developing countries.


AIm: To investigate the size and variations of the foramen transversarium (TF). In addition, to study the anatomical variations of the vertebral artery entering the transverse foramen of the cervical vertebrae. mATERIAl and mEThODS: The images of 141 (90 males, 51 females) patients aged 18-79 years (mean: 52.7 years) were analyzed. As a result, 987 cervical spines (C1-C7) and 1974 foramina transversaria were individually evaluated. Each TF's anterior-posterior (AP) and transverse diameter (T) was measured bilaterally from multidetector computed tomography (CT) images. The absence of TF was considered as agenesis and a diameter of less than 2 mm as hypoplastic. Double foramina and incomplete double foramina were also noted. We evaluated the levels at which the vertebral arteries entered the transverse foramina. RESulTS: The most frequent variation was duplication of TF, which was noted in a total of 88 (8.91%) cervical vertebrae. Agenesis of TF was seen in 37 (3.74%), and hypoplasia of TF in 26 (2.63%) cervical vertebrae. The vertebral artery entered into the transverse foramen of the 5th cervical vertebra from both sides in 4 (1.84%) patients. The vertebral artery entered into the transverse foramen of the 7th cervical vertebra in 4 (1.84%) patients. The vertebral artery entered into the transverse foramen of the 4th cervical vertebra in only 1 (0.45%) patient. COnCluSIOn: We believe that the determination of foraminal variations could be an important guide for neurosurgeons and radiologists in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases in this area. KEywORDS: Anatomic variation, Foramen transversarium, Radiological imaging Original Investigation


Written but never published during his lifetime, this memoir of the founding father of computing is an indispensable primary source of information about Babbage's personal character and work. It brings to light his astonishingly wide range of interests, from mathematics to political economy and social reform, and dispels the myth of an "irascible" and "eccentric" personality, helping to clarify Babbage's position in the history of science.Buxton's memoir was written between 1872 and 1880 and is volume 13 in the Charles Babbage Institute Reprint Series for the History of Computing.


Development of linear modulation schemes has opened the way for spectrally efficient,high speed digital communication systems for voice and data applications. A trend has been to develop utra wide and wide bandwidth modulation formats, which has meant feedback linearisation schemes (both analogue and digital) are no longer effective. This has in turn lead to a number of approaches that involve predistorting the signal prior to amplification, with a characteristic that is the inverse to that of the power amplifier (PA). This paper presents a polynomial based predistortion for linearisation of an RF PA. The predistortion characteristic is adaptive, using the LMS algorithm to minimise the mean squared error between output of the PA, and a scaled version of the baseband signal. The simulation of this system indicate that this system can provide 40 dB decrease in ACPR by reducing the 3rd and 5th order IMD products.


Under conventional notions about rational expectations and market efficiency, expected returns differ from the actual expost returns by a forecast error that is uncorrelated with current information. In this paper, we describe how small departures from conventional notions of rational expectations and market efficiency can produce trends in excess returns. These trends are in addition to the trends typically found in the level of asset prices themselves. We report strong evidence for the presence of additional trends in excess foreign exchange and bond returns. We also estimate the additional trend component in excess returns on foreign exchange and find that it varied between -.8% and 1% for one month returns and between -6% and 8% for three month returns.


Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are hybrid porous materials with many potential applications, which intimately depend on the presence of chemical functionality either at the organic linkers and/or at the metal nodes. Functionality that cannot be introduced into MOFs directly via de novo syntheses can be accessed through post-synthesis modification (PSM) on the reactive moieties of the linkers and/or nodes without disrupting the metal-linker bonds. Even more intriguing methods that go beyond PSM are herein termed building block replacement (BBR) which encompasses (i) solvent-assisted linker exchange (SALE), (ii) non-bridging ligand replacement, and (iii) transmetalation. These one-step or tandem BBR processes involve exchanging key structural components of the MOF, which in turn should allow for the evolution of protoMOF structures (i.e., the utilization of a parent MOF as a template) to design MOFs composed of completely new components, presumably via single crystal to single crystal transformations. The influence of building block replacement on the stability and properties of MOFs will be discussed, and some insights into their mechanistic aspects are provided. Future perspectives providing a glimpse into how these techniques can lead to various unexplored areas of MOF chemistry are also presented.


Objectives In this pandemic situation caused by a novel coronavirus disease in 2019 (COVID-19), an electronic support system that can rapidly and accurately perform epidemic investigations, is needed. It would systematically secure and analyze patients' data (who have been confirmed to have the infection), location information, and credit card usage. Methods The "Infectious Disease Prevention and Control Act" in South Korea, established a legal basis for the securement, handling procedure, and disclosure of information required for epidemic investigations. The Epidemic Investigation Support System (EISS) was developed as an application platform on the Smart City data platform. Results The EISS performed the function of inter-institutional communication which reduced the processing period of patients' data in comparison to other methods. This system automatically marked confirmed cases' tracking data on a map and hot-spot analysis which lead to the prediction of areas where people may be vulnerable to infection. Conclusion The EISS was designed and implemented for use during an epidemic investigation to prevent the spread of an infectious disease, by specifically tracking confirmed cases of infection.


Urban mobility poses some sustainability and design practice challenges. Mobility components such as vehicles, urban infrastructure, mobility services or other services delivered along a mobility experience are often designed separately. The performance of a global urban mobility system, at a city scale for instance, is therefore parceled out into components' ones that are not integrated from the perspective of a user who interacts with them in a door-to-door journey. This paper starts with relating different perspectives of urban mobility including, in crescendo, the human in the production of a global design solution. Through the examination of design and transport literature as well as practical examples, the paper highlights complexity factors of urban mobility that challenges engineering design. A second contribution is to identify relevant design objects aiming at providing a language for designing urban mobility.


Abstract This paper integrates interpretations of modern long-offset seismic datasets with potential field anomalies derived from dense grids of 2D gravity and magnetic data to present a regional-scale synthesis of Devonian, Carboniferous and Early Permian basin development beneath the UK Central North Sea. The 95 000 km 2 study area has had little modern exploration for petroleum systems beneath the Upper Permian. Seismic interpretation and potential field modelling confirm that along the southern fringe of the Central North Sea, as in northern England, Lower Carboniferous basin development was strongly influenced by the disposition of granite-cored Lower Palaeozoic basement blocks – Farne Block, Dogger Block and Devil9s Hole High. This study adds a previously unidentified WNW–ESE trending pre-Devonian basement block, the Auk–Flora Ridge, that exerted a profound control on Late Devonian to Mesozoic structural evolution of the south-Central North Sea. From the Flora Field, where it is overlain by relatively thick mid-Devonian to earliest Permian strata, the sub-Permian relief of this block becomes progressively shallower towards the NW. On its southern flank lies a parallel half-graben, akin to the Stainmore Trough in northern England, and interpreted as also containing several thousand feet of Lower Carboniferous strata. As indicated by the coal measures section in well 39/7-1, these strata are likely to include prolific source rocks, which have been modelled as being fully mature for oil generation in Quadrant 29. Potential field modelling extends this interpretation beyond the current seismic coverage, and suggests that Carboniferous to earliest Permian basin development in the Central North Sea was strongly influenced by an underlying Scottish–Norwegian SW–NE trending Caledonoid structural fabric. An earliest Permian, Lower Rotliegend unit thickens southwards towards the Auk–Flora Ridge, and rests unconformably on one or more undrilled NE–SW trending Carboniferous basins. Red-bed fluvial facies akin to those at Flora are likely to dominate the substantial post-Dinantian fill of these basins, but significant thicknesses of Westphalian coal-measure source rocks may also be present locally. As in central Scotland, the Dinantian strata underlying a widespread mid-Carboniferous unconformity in these basins are likely to contain further coal-measure intervals and local developments of oil-shale source rocks. These Westphalian and Dinantian source rocks are key elements of a Carboniferous petroleum system that remains largely untested across large areas of the Central North Sea.


The Institute of Medicine (IOM) created a report "To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System" in 1999, bringing to light the scope of Adverse Drug Events (ADE). Ranked one of the most common types of medical error, medication administration errors harm at least 1.5 million people every year, while only 2% of ADEs are caught before reaching the patient. Thirty-eight percent of ADEs occurred during medication administration by nurses that could have been prevented. Bar Code Medication Administration (BCMA) is considered the gold standard, adding an additional layer of security, ensuring quality and safety during the process of medication administration. A microsystem assessment was conducted and the perception of BCMA by the nurses was a process that "worked well", however many workarounds occurred during BCMA, which increased the risk for ADEs. The purpose of this project was to improve awareness of BCMA workarounds amongst the nursing staff on the medical floor. The global aim of this project was to engage the direct care nursing staff in a root cause analysis (RCA) to identify reasons why workarounds occur on the unit during BCMA. The specific aims were to improve overall nursing compliance rates for medication and patient scanning by at least 1% and overall knowledge of BCMA policy and procedures by 20%. Background and rationales for BCMA, agency policy and procedures governing the process, and flowcharts depicting the workarounds observed during the assessment were reviewed prior to engaging the staff in a root cause analysis. The RCA focused on finding out the cause(s) of the observed workarounds. The results included meeting the specific aims with a 31% increase in overall nursing knowledge of the policy and procedures for BCMA, as well as having greater than 1% increase in scanning compliance. Feedback from the RCA resulted in a new awareness from nursing staff in how thinking in a problem solving fashion forces them to evaluate how and why they manage their workflow in the manner in which they do.


This paper reports on a measurement and modeling study of session and message characteristics of BitTorrent traffic. BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer (P2P) replication and distribution system developed as an alternative to the classical client-server model to reduce the load on content servers and networks. Results are reported on measurement, modeling and analysis of application and link layer traces collected at the Blekinge Institute of Technology (BTH) and a local ISP in Sweden. Link layer traces and application logs were collected, modeled and analyzed using a dedicated measurement infrastructure developed at BTH to collect P2P traffic. New results are reported on important session and message characteristics of BitTorrent, i.e., session inter arrivals, sizes and durations, request rates and response times. Our results show that session interarrivals can be accurately modeled by a second-order hyper-exponential distribution while session durations and sizes can be reasonably well modeled by various mixtures of the log-normal and Weibull distributions. Response times have been observed to be modeled by a dual log-normal mixture, while request rates are modeled as dual Gaussian distributions


This essay uses the concept of desire to reinfuse existing conversations about the postcolonial condition and its relationship with globalization. The essay uses the Indian uptake of the seemingly alien cultural practice of rock music to understand the confluence of vestigial structures of colonialism and a globalizing subjectivity that challenge unified notions of a national identity in India. By exploring media coverage of rock and testimony from musicians, the essay unravels the liminal spaces of destabilized identities and fragmented subjectivities that mark the global postcolonial condition. In doing so, it illuminates the role of structures, past and present, in shaping cultural desire and determining affective responses to global culture.


The longnose stingray ( Dasyatis guttata ) is a target species in the artisanal fisheries of the southern Gulf of Venezuela. Despite its economic importance, nowadays, studies about its status are lacking. During six continuous months (18 working days in total), we followed the artisanal fishery activities from Zapara Island, and evaluated morphometric characteristics, sex ratio, and the capture per unit effort (CPUE/ind/1000 hooks) of D. guttata . Biological sampling included: disc widths (AD), body mass total (PT), and sex. Using statistical analysis we assessed: a) the length-weight relationships by sex, b) monthly body condition, using the Fulton Index (K), and c) the CPUE. We evaluated 210 individuals of D. guttata . The mean values of our results were: AD = 64.14 ± 13.18cm (range 32-95 cm); PT = 8.36 ± 4.87 kg (range 0.80- 24.50 kg). The sexual proportion was (2.26♀: 1♂) ( X 2 = 31.716, P < 0.05); hence we presume a spatial segregation occurred between females and males in the studied area. Length-weight relationship was statistically significant (P < 0.0001), and also varied according to the sex ♀: PT(kg) = [(0.00027)×(AD(cm) 2.46 )]; ♂: PT(kg) = [(0.00035)×(AD(cm) 2.34 )]. The K value showed differences between sexes during November and December. We obtained a CPUE of 4.88 individuals/1000 hooks. We compared our findings with previous research carried out in the southern Caribbean. Further research about this species in the area is recommended.


For a quarter century, Tim Miller has worked at the intersection of performance, politics, and identity, using his personal experiences to create entertaining but pointed explorations of life as a gay American man–from the perils and joys of sex and relationships to the struggles of political disenfranchisement and artistic censorship. This intimate autobiographical collage of Miller's professional and personal life reveals one of the celebrated creators of a crucial contemporary art form and a tireless advocate for the American dream of political equality for all citizens. Here we have the most complete Miller yet–a raucous collection of his performance scripts, essays, interviews, journal entries, and photographs, as well as his most recent stage piece Us. This volume brings together the personal, communal, and national political strands that interweave through his work from its beginnings and ultimately define Miller's place as a contemporary artist, activist, and gay man.


A mosaic of six H I line observations with the Australia Telescope Compact Array is used to search for intergalactic gas in the NGC 1808 group of galaxies. Within the eld of view of about 1:4 1:2 no emission from intergalactic H I gas is detected, either in the form of tidal plumes or tails, intergalactic H I clouds, or as gas associated with tidal dwarf galaxies, with a 5 limiting sensitivity of about 3 10 18 cm 2 (or 1:4 10 7 M at a distance of 10.9 Mpc, for the given beam size of 127: 00 9 77: 00 3). The H I data of NGC 1792 and NGC 1808, with a velocity resolution of 6.6 km s 1 , conrm the results of earlier VLA observations. Simultaneous wide-band 1.34 GHz continuum observations also corroborate the results of earlier studies. However, the continuum flux of NGC 1808 measured by us is almost 20% higher than reported previously. No radio continuum emission was detected from the type Ia supernova SN1993af in the north-eastern spiral arm of NGC 1808. A comparison of NGC 1792 and NGC 1808 shows that it is not primarily the total energy input that makes the big dierence between the starburst-related outflow in NGC 1808 and the absence of such extraplanar features in NGC 1792, but the area over which the energy released by stellar winds and supernovae is injected into the ISM.


Preservation of genetic diversity of orchids for con- servation and restoration purposes is now a feasible practice after the ecological studies of seed bank dynamics made by several investigators (Batty et al. 2001, Whigham et al. 2006). However, few studies have demonstrated the reliability of reintroduction of several species into their natural habitat and less, managing symbiotic fungus (Ramsay and Dixon 2003, Zettler et al. 2003).


Homelessness is a perennial problem in the United States and has been analyzed using many theoretical frameworks. The issue has also been a contentious one for courts and continues to be the subject of numerous suits today. Many jurisdictions in the United States have enacted laws that prevent homeless people from legally existing within those jurisdictions; these laws effectively criminalize being homeless. These statutes have spawned lawsuits alleging violations of homeless people's rights. This Comment examines homelessness and its interaction with the law through the lens of citizenship. It argues that the legal paradigm in the United States denies homeless people full citizenship and membership in communities. Court decisions that rule on rights-based challenges to these laws reinforce the exclusion of the homeless from the public, even when they ostensibly rule for homeless plaintiffs, by restricting homeless people's ability to take advantage of these decisions and denying homeless people the same menu of rights that exist for people with residences.


Abstract Context. A previous study reported major declines for native mammal species from Kakadu National Park, over the period 2001–09. The extent to which this result may be symptomatic of more pervasive biodiversity decline was unknown. Aims. Our primary aim was to describe trends in the abundance of birds in Kakadu over the period 2001–09. We assessed whether any change in bird abundance was related to the arrival of invading cane toads (Rhinella marina), and to fire regimes. Methods. Birds were monitored at 136 1-ha plots in Kakadu, during the period 2001–04 and again in 2007–09. This program complemented sampling of the same plots over the same period for native mammals. Key results. In contrast to the decline reported for native mammals, the richness and total abundance of birds increased over this period, and far more individual bird species increased than decreased. Fire history in the between-sampling period had little influence on trends for individual species. Interpretation of the overall positive trends for bird species in Kakadu over this period should be tempered by recognition that most of the threatened bird species present in Kakadu were unrecorded in this monitoring program, and the two threatened species for which there were sufficient records to assess trends – partridge pigeon (Geophaps smithii) and white-throated grass-wren (Amytornis woodwardi) – both declined significantly. Conclusions.The current decline of the mammal fauna in this region is not reflected in trends for the region's bird fauna. Some of the observed changes (mostly increases) in the abundance of bird species may be due to the arrival of cane toads, and some may be due to local or regional-scale climatic variation or variation in the amount of flowering. The present study provides no assurance about threatened bird species, given that most were inadequately recorded in the study (perhaps because their decline pre-dated the present study). Implications. These contrasting trends between mammals and birds demonstrate the need for biodiversity monitoring programs to be broadly based. The declines of two threatened bird species over this period indicate the need for more management focus for these species.


Exploration for platinum-group elements along the southeastern sector of the eastern Bushveld Complex has led to the discovery of Transitional Unit and Upper Critical Zone lithologies which contain the important Merensky Reef and UG 2 layers on farms Kliprivier, Klipbankspruit, Houtenbek and Mapochsgronde, and Platreef-style mineralization near the base of the intrusion south of the Lagersdrift fault. The area, located in the Mpumalanga Province, constitutes one of the least-explored portions of the intrusion. Since the drilling programmes during 1967 to 1987 in the Kliprivier area and those in the vicinity of Bethal in 1970, this sector has received little attention, and its characteristics have gone largely undocumented because it was mined only for and considered a source of vanadiferous magnetite and dimension stone.

The results of drilling in the Kliprivier area suggest that the UG 2 chromitite appears atypical, and grades are of low to medium quality with values up to 5.43 g/t 3PGE + Au over 2.17 metres. Most Merensky Reef intersections in this area are also atypical of those seen to the north. Intersections of sulphide-mineralized units in the Bethal area, that are believed to belong to the Upper and Lower Zones, were in the past not considered to be economically significant.

The increased demand for platinum has led to renewed interest in the southern extensions of the eastern Bushveld Complex. This interest has probably also been triggered by the discoveries on the Everest South property (UG 2), just north of Kliprivier. Eurasia was the first of a group of middle-tier companies to obtain permission to investigate the area and to secure mineral rights on Kliprivier.

This study presents new field, soil-geochemical, chemical, strontium-isotope, electron microprobe and geophysical data, which reveal the presence of the Upper Critical Zone along the basal contact of the mafic rocks with the Transvaal Supergroup. The geology of the area also shows some analogies to portions of the northern limb. A brief review of the estimates of inferred resources for the area is presented.


There is a general consensus that EIA is limited in its scope. The main concern in this regard is that EIA generally fails to handle cumulative impacts effectively, due to its focus on individual projects. Cumulative effects are changes to the environment that are caused by an action in combination with other past, present and future human actions. The evaluation of cumulative effects generally focuses on potential pervasive, regional environmental problems. Due to its strong focus on sustainable development, Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), by definition, should address cumulative effects. EIAs in South Africa traditionally only considered the "footprint" or area covered by each project component. However, in recent years the cumulative nature of environmental impacts of human actions has increasingly become a visible concern to the South African public, which has led to the need to infuse cumulative effects concepts into environmental assessments. In theory, a SEA is aimed at improving the way in which cumulative effects are dealt with in environmental assessments. This raises the question of whether past and present South African SEA approaches have effectively addressed the issue of cumulative effects. This thesis provides a critical reappraisal of recent experience in SEA with particular reference to its application in South Africa. It is in this context, of the opportunities and constraints of current SEA application, that this study attempts to determine how best to infuse cumulative effects methodology and philosophy into the emerging South African SEA process. This study evaluates three SEA case studies undertaken in South African, in order to assess how effectively cumulative effects are addressed within the current South African SEA process. The analysis focuses on both innovative approaches used in each study, as well as the limitations and deficiencies of each approach. A generic framework was developed in order to provide broad guidelines for practitioners and reviewers. These guidelines focus on how best to infuse cumulative effects philosophy and methodology into the current SEA process. It is envisaged that this methodology will enhance the current SEA process, in order to ensure that environmental issues are placed on the same level as economic and social considerations in future decision making, to achieve sustainable development. Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za


During the medieval period (AD. 1050-1600) hospitals in England were founded and governed by religious orders and established as either general infirmaries, leper hospitals, or alms houses (Orme, 2001). Pregnancy and childbirth were dangerous for women in the medieval period due to the increased risks of malnutrition and infection (Orme, 2001). Medieval hospitals were the only public source of potential aid for pregnant women and new born infants who did not have the family or the means to support themselves (Orme, 2001). Attitudes towards unmarried pregnant women were governed not only by hospital finances but also religious and social beliefs. During this period, the Christian Church considered pregnancy out of wedlock a sin and unmarried pregnant women were deemed to be unclean and shunned from society.

Historical records can provide an insight into hospital inhabitants and the treatment of pregnant women. St John's hospital, Cambridge, received a Papal bull in 1250 which stated: "We strictly ordain … that sick and weak people should be admitted kindly and mercifully, except for pregnant women, lepers, the wounded, cripples and the insane" (Salzman, 1948: 305). Even at St John the Baptist hospital, Oxford, which received donations from King Henry III (c.1230) towards the cost of a chamber specifically for women in labour (Orme, 2001), entry for "lewd pregnant women" was not permitted (Salter, 1917: 7). However, at least three hospitals in London are known to have admitted pregnant women: St Thomas, Southwark and two others, St Mary without Bishops Gate and St Bartholomew, which also maintained the orphans of women who died in childbirth until the age of seven when they could become oblates or apprentices (Orme, 2001).


The legitimacy of investor-State arbitration is a much-debated topic, with arbitrators' independence and impartiality being one of the core concerns. In The Independence and Impartiality of ICSID Arbitrators, Maria Nicole Cleis explores how unbiased decision-making is ensured under the ICSID Convention. Juxtaposing existing disqualification decisions in the ICSID system against corresponding requirements in related dispute settlement systems, the book convincingly argues that the current approach to disqualification requests against ICSID arbitrators is too exacting in light of the high stakes of investor-State disputes. The author's nuanced analysis of the status quo is followed by novel suggestions for reforms (including a proposal for ICSID-specific guidelines on conflict of interest), making the book a valuable source of ideas on constructive paths forward.


The theoretical development of four computer models of resistojet nozzle performance is reported. Five main energy loss processes are accounted for; these are (i) frozen chemical rate processes, (ii) finite rate vibrational relaxation, (iii) incomplete expansion, (iv) viscous flow and (v) radial flow. The nozzle flow is assumed to be composed of an inviscid core and a viscous boundary layer, where the boundary layer is represented by the patching together of similar solutions of the laminar boundary layer equations. General similar boundary layer equations have been developed which include the radial dependences accounting for transverse curvature. Four simplified classes of similar equations are identified, and extensive solutions have been obtained for the Falkner-Skan equation and a modified Falkner-Skan equation which includes the effects of transverse curvature, over the range of pressure gradient parameter, g, from 0. to 10. Vibrational relaxation is modelled by using an approximate sudden freezing criterion. Performance predictions are presented for H2, CH4, CO2 and NH3 for plenum temperatures extending from 300 to 3000°K and plenum pressures from 200 to 10 kNm-2. A wide variety of nozzle geometries is also considered. The results are compared with the predictions of the slender channel model of Rae and with experimental measurements.


Our work was inspired by recent advances in image segmentation where fluxbased functionals significantly improved alignment of obje ct boundaries. We propose a novel photoflux functional for multi-view 3D reconstruction that is closely related to properties of photohulls. Our photohull prior can be combined with regularization. Thus, this work unifies two ma jor groups of multiview stereo techniques: "space carving" and "deformable models". Our approach combines benefits of both groups and allows to recov er fine shape details without oversmoothing while robustly handling noise. Photoflux provides an intelligent ballooning force helping to segment thin structures or holes. We propose a number of different versions of photoflux based on global, local, or non-deterministic visibility models. So me forms of photoflux can be easily added into standard regularization techniques. For other forms we propose new optimization methods. We also show that photoflux maximizing shapes can be seen as regularized Laplacian zero-crossings.


The results of experiments on small populations of Dictyostelium discoideum, directed towards the measurement of the development in time of the competence of the cells to signal autonomously, are reported. This competence is quantified by X3, the intrinsic probability that a given cell may turn autonomous. The data show an early exponential growth in time of X3, followed by saturation. The saturation value depends on the population size suggesting that the differentiation is a co-operative phenomenon. The differentiation of autonomous cells starts roughly 7 h after the removal of food and saturates within 21 h.


The Absent Sense is a spatial audio installation and wine-tasting all-in-one. When we drink wine, we can see, smell, taste and touch it – what happens to that experience when we can hear it too?
You are invited to explore the hidden symphonies present in a vintage of wine as it makes its journey from vine to glass. Macpherson's series of field recordings were taken over 48 hours (in the critically short period of fermentation of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Riesling) at Felton Road winery in Bannockburn, Central Otago.

Join us, and Felton Road, at the opening preview to experience first-hand 'the absent sense', which in this case, is the 'sound' of wines in their first fermentation stages. The Absent Sense is an extension of Macpherson's previous work, looking at the connection and manipulation of spatial elements and sound as an immersive event. In this exhibition the sound elements are presented within a spatial installation by interior designer Sean Dunne and with the highly acclaimed vintage from Felton Road.
Kent Macpherson (b.1967, Hawkes Bay) studied at La Trobe University and The Australian Film Television & Radio School, Melbourne. He also has a Master of Arts in Music (with distinction) from Wintec, New Zealand. He operates in the fields of contemporary music and sonic art, bridging composition, installation and music production. His performances and installations are sound documentaries that explore notions of time and space. He invites audiences to experience depth, resonance and shifting contexts, and to discover the sonorities inherent in our environment.


The ability to improvise can be regarded as the core in innovative and creative behaviour regardless of field and domain. Improvisation involves a readiness to deal with the unexpected and to create novelty as well as an ability to initiate similar events. Yet, our immediate understanding of improvisation as mainly a part of a performance might cause us to disregard how improvisation could be a crucial part in the process of enhancing the artistic potential. As the professional singing voice has many different meanings and uses for the singers (Sandgren, 2010), and one of the central meanings is the voice as means to maintain a high singing ability, therefore it would be valuable to investigate the activity of improvisation as means or consistent approach to create new perspectives and ideas. The focus of this theoretical paper is on improvisation as a certain mindset that can be developed through training. The line of thought draws on research on creativity and improvisation in cognition and neuroscience (Dietrich, 2004; Kaufman & Sternberg, 2010). Findings on improvisation in domains such as music (Berliner, 1994; MacDonald et al., 2006; Sandgren, 2005), psychotherapy (Stern et al, 1998) and organisations (Weick, 1995; 1998) will be compared.