Conservation auctions are increasingly being used to procure public environmental goods on private land. In the absence of demand-side price information, the majority of conservation auctions in Australia have been designed without a reserve price. In these instances bids have been accepted in order of cost-effectiveness until the budget constraint binds. It is widely recognised that in situations where auctions are run repeatedly a reserve price strategy could allow for a more efficient allocation of funds across multiple rounds, both spatially and temporally. This paper provides a brief overview of methods for determining a reserve price for application in conservation auctions. It is concluded that information deficiencies and the high transaction costs involved in the application of these methods to conservation auctions often render them unsuitable for application to real-world auctions. This paper presents an empirical approach to determining a reserve price using data obtained during an auction - the supply curve. The approach stems from the C4.5 algorithm, developed in the field of data mining to construct decision trees from training data using the concept of information entropy. The algorithm establishes a reserve price by determining the cut-off price that results in the "best fit" of two normal distributions to the frequency distribution of bid-price per unit environmental benefit. Empirical data from conservation auctions in Victoria is used to demonstrate the algorithm and compare auction results obtained using the algorithm and traditional "budget" methods. The paper presents a discussion on the situations where the algorithm could be appropriately used, and advantages and limitations of the approach are identified. The paper concludes that the use of the algorithm can result in efficiency gains over the traditional budget method in situations where alternative reserve price strategies are impractical.


'In a place like this: Phase 1', is a Residency Project resulting from an ongoing research dialogue between Duncan Higgins (Research Professor, Bergen Academy of Art & Design, Norway) and Susan Brind (Reader, SoFA, Glasgow School of Art), initiated in 2012. Their research, emerging from a series of dialogues undertaken during exchange visits between Bergen and Glasgow, has been focused upon whether art can plan a significant part in questioning modes of understanding and the representation of place identity. Building upon this earlier research, 'In a place like this: Phase 1' aimed also to question the accepted mode of the artist 'residency' and to use the concept of journeying between centres and margins instead to prompt further research into the role of art in relation to landscape, and the impact of both on our understanding of place. The overall objective of the research was to open a space for dialogue between historical fact, rational thought, embodied knowledge and the poetic space of language and imagining. The project took the form of a journey (by air, bus, boat and train) made over the course of 8 days between Bergen, Odda, Orkney and Glasgow. Brind and Higgins were joined in Phase 1 by Shauna McMullan (GSA). Research material used or generated included the shared reading of texts, the collection of images, sound, and written notes, and a series of themes were also identified for possible development along with the scope for future shared outcomes.


Undergraduate psychology majors and other students interested in majoring or minoring in Psychological Sciences should visit an Academic Advisor in the Psychology Academic Advising Office (Stadler 322) to receive specific information on degree requirements and course offerings, discuss questions about career options, and receive information about graduate work in Psychology. All students are encouraged to see a Psychology Academic Advisor regularly throughout their collegiate careers. It is especially important for all students who are within one calendar year of graduation to meet with a Psychology Academic Advisor. Students will minimize waiting time and will be assured one-toone attention from an Academic Advisor by calling (314) 516-4561 to schedule an appointment. Office hours for Psychology Academic Advising can be obtained by e-mailing: email@example.com.


DNA replication initiation is co-ordinated with progression through the cell cycle via a two-step mechanism. The first step, termed origin licensing, involves the assembly of a pre-replicative complex (pre-RC) at origins of replication, in which the Mcm2-7 replicative helicase is loaded onto DNA in an inactive form. Origin unwinding and DNA synthesis is only initiated during the second step of this process, origin firing, which requires the recruitment of multiple 'firing factors', such as Sld3/7 and Cdc45, as well as the activity of two essential cell cycle regulated kinases, cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) and Dbf4-dependent kinase (DDK). Whilst studies of the mechanism of origin licensing have been greatly furthered by the availability of an in vitro pre-RC assembly assay, the subsequent activation of the replicative helicase has not been well characterised, and how the firing factor proteins catalyse the complex topological changes required for Mcm2-7 helicase activation is unknown. In this study, I used an in vitro biochemical approach to investigate the function of DDK and Sld3/7 in origin firing. I reconstituted the recruitment of Sld3/7 to the pre- RC in vitro, which is thought to be the first step during Mcm2-7 helicase activation. I observed recruitment of Sld3/7 to be dependent on phosphorylation of the loaded Mcm2-7 complex by DDK, and was subsequently able to map the Mcm2-7 binding activity of Sld3/7 to a central domain of Sld3. By isolating a number of point mutants in Sld3 that were specifically defective in Mcm2-7 binding, I showed that the Sld3-Mcm2-7 interaction is essential for replicative helicase activation. Furthermore, I showed that the central portion of Sld3 contains a Cdc45 interacting site, which is also required for efficient replication initiation. Subsequently, I showed that Sld3 can interact with both Mcm6 and Mcm4 in a phosphorylation-dependent manner. Sld3 itself was shown to contain a novel phosphopeptide binding activity, and can interact with numerous phosphorylated residues throughout the N-terminal half of Mcm6. Elimination of these phosphorylation sites resulted in defects in both Sld3/7 recruitment to the pre-RC and replicative helicase activation. Thus, the novel DDK-dependent Sld3-Mcm2-7 interaction described in this study helps to explain the function of DDK during the early stages of origin firing. Additionally, the observation that Sld3 can interact directly with phosphorylated residues on Mcm2-7 indicates that Sld3 is a reader of DDK activity. As both an essential CDK substrate and a DDK reader, Sld3 thus functions as a point of intersection for the activities of CDK and DDK during Mcm2-7 helicase activation.


Abstract. Spectral nudging allows forcing a selected part of the spectrum of a model's solution with the equivalent part in a reference dataset, such as an analysis, reanalysis or another model. This constrains the evolution in certain scales, typically the synoptic ones, while allowing the others to evolve freely. In a limited area model (LAM) setting, spectral nudging is commonly used to impose the large-scale circulation in the interior of the domain, so that the high resolution features in the LAM's forecast are consistent with the global circulation patterns. In a previous study developed over a Mid-Latitude domain, we investigated two parameters of spectral nudging that are often overlooked despite having a significant impact on the model solution. First, the cut-off wave number, which is the parameter determining the scales that are nudged and has a critical impact on the spatial structure of the model solution. Second, the spin-up time, which is the time required to balance the nudging force with the model internal climate and roughly indicates the starting point from when the results of the simulation contain useful information. The question remains if our conclusions for Mid-Latitudes are applicable to other areas of the planet. Tropical Latitudes offer an interesting testbed as its atmospheric dynamics has unique characteristics with respect to that further North and yet it is the result of the same underlying physical principles. We study the impact of these two parameters in a domain centred in the Gulf of Mexico, with a particular aim to evaluate their performance related to hurricane modelling. We perform 4-day simulations along 6 monthly periods between 2010 and 2015, testing several spectral nudging configurations. Our results indicate that the optimal cut off wavenumber lies between 1000 Km and 1500 Km depending on the studied variable and that the spin-up time required is at least 72 h to 96 h, which is consistent with our previous work. We evaluate our findings in four hurricane cases, allowing for at least 96 h of spin-up time before the system becomes a tropical storm. Results confirm that the experiments with cut-off wavenumbers near the Rossby Radius of Deformation perform best. We also propose a novel approach in which a different cut-off wavenumber is used for each variable. Our tests in the hurricane cases show that the latter set up is able to outperform all of the other spectral nudging experiments when compared to observations.


Continuous-wave 90-W output power is reported from 400-μm thick Yb:YAG/YAG composite structure with 10-at.% Yb:YAG core of 2ղ-mm2 area. The slope efficiency and optical-to-optical efficiency with respect to the pump power were 40% and 28%, respectively. Optical phase distortions measurement gives focus shift bellow 0.05 m and shows the absence of astigmatism. Gold-Tin and Indium soldering techniques for bonding the laser crystal to the microchannel cooling system were evaluated.


This paper will investigate whether or not the law school enrollment trends reflect economically responsive supply behavior according to factors such as salary and other market indicators. Specifically, this paper will determine whether or not the supply trends of law students reflect "cobweb-like" labor market adjustments due to the time lag associated with entering the labor market. The second section will review the relevant literature and provide a theoretical framework in which to analyze enrollment trends. In the third section, the empirical model will be discussed and an explanation of the data will be given. The fourth section will provide the results and conclusions of the paper. This article is available in The Park Place Economist: http://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/parkplace/vol11/iss1/11


The Heartside area is located in the central city of Grand Rapids and is bounded by the streets of Fulton, Wealthy, Ionia and Lafayette. The neighborhood has seen a number of developmental changes in the last seven years. These changes include structural changes in buildings and a change in the clientele who visit and live in the area. The development of the VanAndel Arena, in 1995, brought many new restaurants and stores into the neighborhood. An area occupied by vacant buildings, homeless shelters, and limited growth, Heartside has seen a rapid, intense period of redevelopment. The current residents in the Heartside area are confronted by this new development. They are witnessing new changes, and new faces in the neighborhood. The neighborhood which was once considered by some to be "too risky" to drive by, is now being inhabited by those individuals. The neighborhood is seeing more activity, aew development and a new future. The residents have been affected by the change in the neighborhood. They are aware of the changes that are happening in the neighborhood and are aware of the concerns about their place in the neighborhood. Many of the locals view the structural renewal as a positive improvement, but are unsure of its impact on them as residents. Urban planners and other experts hope to see continued developmental changes take place in the Grand Rapids area, but few have asked the important questions concerning the residents and their place in the Heartside neighborhood.


Plastic pollution in soils pose a major threat to soil health and soil fertility that are directly linked to food security and human health. In contrast to marine plastic pollution, this ubiquitous problem is thus far scientifically poorly understood and policy approaches that tackle plastic pollution in soils comprehensively do not exist. In this article, we apply a qualitative governance analysis to assess the effectiveness of existing policy instruments to avoid harmful plastic pollution in (agricultural) soils against the background of international environmental agreements. In particular, environmental and fertiliser legislation relevant to soil protection in the European Union and in Germany are assessed. Regulatory weaknesses and gaps of the respective legislation are identified, and proposals for enhanced command-and-control provisions developed. However, the legal analysis furthermore shows that plastic pollution ecologically is also a problem of quantity, which is difficult to solve exclusively through command-and-control legislation. Instead, comprehensive quantity-control instruments to phase out fossil fuels (worldwide and in all sectors) as required by climate protection law can be effective approaches to tackle plastic pollution in environmental media like agricultural soils as well.


University libraries offer services that generate data about how students and faculty use knowledge sources and engage with teaching and learning. In an era of Big Data there is mounting pressure to use these data, something that challenges the professional ethics of librarians. This paper explores how Norwegian librarians position themselves in relation to the new phenomenon of learning analytics, which would like to process library data to help improve learning and its contexts. A literature review shows that librarians in general are highly sceptical to let any information that is not anonymised out of their hands to be used by other professions. However, library data is increasingly being shared with third parties as part of development of library systems and practices.  In a survey presented in this paper Norwegian librarians were asked about their willingness to take part in analytics and data sharing. The findings show that even if librarians in general do not want to share data that reveals personal information, their resistance will depend on the consent of the students, and to which degree librarians themselves are involved in processing and analysis of the data. This study identifies learning analytics as a field the library community should engage with, and the authors give their advice on what should be focussed to sustain librarians' professional ethics related to use of library data.


An econometric model is used to explain inter-stat migration in Peninsular Malaysia using the 1957 population census data. The determinants of interstate migration are the size of employment in the secondary and tertiary industries at the destination, the size of the population at the origin, distance between the two points, and a dummy variable indicating whether states share a common boundary and traversed by a road or railway.


The digital economy has been termed a data-driven economy. Many digital business models are based on the collection and the processing of various types of data. Whereas the protection of personal data falls under the EU legal framework, and first and foremost the General Data Protection Regulation, the protection of data that goes beyond personal data may seem to be not protected at all. The latter circumstance is important in light of the EU Commission's considerations on the introduction of rights related to the protection of non-personal data. Indeed, the question of whether there is a need for the protection of such data – called "industrial data" - and the issue of access to such data have also been at the center of a recent academic debate. Yet, whereas the protection of different types of data is highly relevant when it comes to the transfer and the processing of data, for the question of "access to data" data has to be considered more broadly, i.e. as a digital resource. Since in the digital economy it is no longer individual pieces of data (personal and/or non-personal) that play a role, but rather collections of data, digital data sets (which may consist of both personal and non-personal data) have become a digital asset of companies. The value of such digital data sets derives from the analysis of data – importantly though, the analysis of real-time data. Due to this feature of data, i.e. the fact that data is constantly changing, the question that arises as regards access to data in the digital economy relates not so much to access to data as such, but rather to access to the sources of data. After all, it is only in this case that access can be provided to real-time data. In light of this, the current debate on so-called "industrial data" may appear too static and, besides, it considers only part of the data that is relevant for the companies operating in the digital economy. The question is what the legal framework for an optimal allocation of such a digital resource as data should be and whether the question of access can be solved with the currently available legal tools.


Background: Obesity is a disorder of lipid metabolism and the enzyme involved in this process could be selectively targeted to develop anti obesity drugs. Inhibition of digestive enzymes is one of the most widely studies mechanisms used to determine the hypolipidemic and hypoglycemic agent of natural products for anti-obesity agent screening. Aims: To evaluate the inhibitory potential of G. mangostana extract, xanthone and α-mangosteen compound toward pancreatic lipase and α-amylase enzyme as once of anti-obesity mechanism. Material and Methods: The IC50 value of the mangosteen pericarp extract, xanthone, and α-mangosteen toward pancreatic lipase and α-amylase were determined in vitro compared to orlistat and acarbose as standard drugs. Results: Mangosteen pericarp extract contains phenol, terpenoid, saponin, flavonoid and tannin. Mangosteen pericarp extract is a more active compound in inhibiting the PPL activity compared to α-mangosteen, and xanthone. Mangosteen pericarp extract shows the higher activity compared to xanthone but still lower activity compared to α-mangosteen. However, its activity is still lower than standard drugs. Conclusions: Our in vitro, confirmed that the mangosteen pericarp extract has the phytochemical bioactive content that possesses anti-obesity potential through pancreatic lipase and α-amylase inhibitory activity.


This study examines the experiences of two social justice school superintendents who are known for rejecting deficit views of traditionally marginalized groups, questioning and resisting oppressive and exploitative social relations, and critically articulating, conceptualizing, and creating more equitable educational arrangements. The study was carried out in the Lakeside School District, a suburban district adjacent to a large mid-western city. This phenomenolgical study shares the stories of Paula and Marsha, the current and former superintendents of Lakeside School District. Marsha and Paula served as leaders in the district during a period of rapid demographic change. A state level policy know as Schools of Choice was passed in the late 1990s allowed parents to send their children to school districts other than those in which they resided. Over time one result of this was that significant numbers of African American students from the neighboring city began transferring into the district. Marsha and Paula's efforts to deal proactively with these changes met with a great deal of resistance from both staff and community members. Themes that emerged included Deficit Thinking, Policy Effects, Resistance to Change, Cultural Disconnects, Networks of Support, Working Through Campus Administrators, Identity Conflicts, Evolving Leadership, and Personal Costs. The study also shares three critical incidents that illustrate these themes and offer a glimpse into the life and work of these leaders. In the final chapter of the study Valencia's (1997) Deficit Thinking Model, Bourdieu's (1992) concept of doxa, and Mezirow's (1990, 2000) Transformative Learning Theory are used as lenses for interpreting selected data from the study.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the extent to which care received by Australian children presenting with croup is in agreement with Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPGs).

DESIGN
Retrospective population-based sample survey. Croup clinical indicators were derived from CPGs.

DATA SOURCES/STUDY SETTING
Medical records from three healthcare settings were sampled for selected visits in 2012 and 2013 in three Australian states.

DATA COLLECTION
Data were collected by nine experienced paediatric nurses, trained to assess eligibility for indicator assessment and adherence to CPGs. Surveyors undertook criterion-based medical record reviews using an electronic data collection tool.

RESULTS
Documented guideline adherence was lower for general practitioners (65.9%; 95% CI: 60.8-70.6) than emergency departments (91.1%; 95% CI: 89.5-92.5) and inpatient admissions (91.3%; 95% CI: 88.1-93.9). Overall adherence was very low for a bundle of 10 indicators related to assessment (4.5%; 95% CI: 2.4-7.6) but higher for a bundle of four indicators relating to the avoidance of inappropriate therapy (83.1%; 95% CI: 59.5-96.0).

CONCLUSIONS
Most visits for croup were characterized by appropriate treatment in all healthcare settings. However, most children had limited documented clinical assessments, and some had unnecessary tests or inappropriate therapy, which has potential quality and cost implications. Universal CPG and clinical assessment tools may increase clinical consistency.


BACKGROUND
Trials of endovascular therapy for ischemic stroke have produced variable results. We conducted this study to test whether more advanced imaging selection, recently developed devices, and earlier intervention improve outcomes.

METHODS
We randomly assigned patients with ischemic stroke who were receiving 0.9 mg of alteplase per kilogram of body weight less than 4.5 hours after the onset of ischemic stroke either to undergo endovascular thrombectomy with the Solitaire FR (Flow Restoration) stent retriever or to continue receiving alteplase alone. All the patients had occlusion of the internal carotid or middle cerebral artery and evidence of salvageable brain tissue and ischemic core of less than 70 ml on computed tomographic (CT) perfusion imaging. The coprimary outcomes were reperfusion at 24 hours and early neurologic improvement (≥8-point reduction on the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale or a score of 0 or 1 at day 3). Secondary outcomes included the functional score on the modified Rankin scale at 90 days.

RESULTS
The trial was stopped early because of efficacy after 70 patients had undergone randomization (35 patients in each group). The percentage of ischemic territory that had undergone reperfusion at 24 hours was greater in the endovascular-therapy group than in the alteplase-only group (median, 100% vs. 37%; P<0.001). Endovascular therapy, initiated at a median of 210 minutes after the onset of stroke, increased early neurologic improvement at 3 days (80% vs. 37%, P=0.002) and improved the functional outcome at 90 days, with more patients achieving functional independence (score of 0 to 2 on the modified Rankin scale, 71% vs. 40%; P=0.01). There were no significant differences in rates of death or symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage.

CONCLUSIONS
In patients with ischemic stroke with a proximal cerebral arterial occlusion and salvageable tissue on CT perfusion imaging, early thrombectomy with the Solitaire FR stent retriever, as compared with alteplase alone, improved reperfusion, early neurologic recovery, and functional outcome. (Funded by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council and others; EXTEND-IA ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01492725, and Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry number, ACTRN12611000969965.).


Industry cluster identification has become an important research topic in regional science, partly as a response to the growing demand by policymakers for analytical tools that provide a better understanding of a regional economy. The main objective of this paper is to provide a detailed description of a new approach to identify industry clusters and interindustry networks, based on input-output tables. The goal is to outline and efficient algorithm using readily available data so that the method can be replicated in any region, thereby allowing for comparative studies of industrial clusters over space and time. This new method draws on concepts from network analysis theory. It can be divided into two main block: data reduction and network partitioning. Data reduction begins by representing industries and products/services flows as a directed graph, where the links are represented as arrows indicating the direction of the flows. Based on several assumptions about how industries are related into a supply chain, the initial graph is then concerted into an undirected graph by transforming products/services flows into relative weights. The second reduction is formulated as a minimization problem, resulting in a minimum spanning tree (MST) for a subset of the initial graph edges. The final clusters are obtained by selectively deleting edges in the MST, such that each cluster contains a core industry.


Environmental factors influence species and habitats on multiple scales creating a mosaic of distribution patterns. Studying factors shaping these patterns are central to our understanding of population dynamics and ultimately ecosystem functioning. Information on the distribution of resources and conservation values are also highly needed in marine management as coastal areas are increasingly influenced by human activities. In this thesis, large-scale field data is used to explore how strong environmental gradients found on multiple scales in the coastal areas of the Baltic Sea influence fish habitats. The underlying concepts are based in the field of species distribution modelling, whereby habitat maps can be produced using environmental layers in a geographic information system. Distribution modelling is further used to address both ecological and applied questions by examining effects of habitat limitation on fish population sizes and to evaluate management actions aimed at habitat conservation. I show that specific habitat requirements for fish species of both freshwater and marine origin can be described using environmental variables and that species-environment relationships can be used to predict the distribution of early life-stages of fish in the Baltic Sea archipelagos. Further, predicted habitat availability of a specific life-stage was directly related to adult population size of Eurasian perch Perca fluviatilis, signifying that the abundance of large predatory fish can be limited by specific recruitment habitats. Lastly, by predicting the distribution of an assemblage of coastal fish species and their associated habitats, an assessment of a network of marine protected areas was performed. Results revealed large gaps in the current network and identified areas suitable for future protection. By demonstrating how current habitat protection can be improved by including critical habitats for coastal fish population sizes this thesis points to the benefits of integrating nature conservation and fisheries management. Based on these findings I conclude that species distribution modelling provides a suitable analytical framework for assessing the habitat requirements of organisms. An increased understanding of habitat-population relationships and an ability to accurately map ecologically important features will be of great value for an ecosystem-based marine management.


While financial literacy is important for an audit committee in discharging its duties there is no authoritative guidance or definition and limited empirical research as to what constitutes financial literacy of audit committees and business students. Coates et al. conducted a study that examined the financial literacy of corporate board members and MBA students at the University of Chicago using an instrument developed by Schipper and Weil. Their findings suggest that both groups lack the appropriate level of financial literacy. This paper extends that research by using the same instrument to examine the financial literacy of undergraduate accounting finance students at a private Midwestern university. Our findings indicate the undergraduate students also lack financial literacy. Caution should be used in interpreting these results since there is no consensus definition of financial literacy within the accounting profession.


Cretaceous ichthyosaurs have typically been considered a small, homogeneous assemblage sharing a common Late Jurassic ancestor. Their low diversity and disparity have been interpreted as indicative of a decline leading to their Cenomanian extinction. We describe the first post-Triassic ichthyosaur from the Middle East, Malawania anachronus gen. et sp. nov. from the Early Cretaceous of Iraq, and re-evaluate the evolutionary history of parvipelvian ichthyosaurs via phylogenetic and cladogenesis rate analyses. Malawania represents a basal grade in thunnosaurian evolution that arose during a major Late Triassic radiation event and was previously thought to have gone extinct during the Early Jurassic. Its pectoral morphology appears surprisingly archaic, retaining a forefin architecture similar to that of its Early Jurassic relatives. After the initial latest Triassic radiation of early thunnosaurians, two subsequent large radiations produced lineages with Cretaceous representatives, but the radiation events themselves are pre-Cretaceous. Cretaceous ichthyosaurs therefore include distantly related lineages, with contrasting evolutionary histories, and appear more diverse and disparate than previously supposed.


More than ten years ago, a first image digitisation product was published by the National Library of the Czech Republic in co-operation with an almost unknown small software company. It was a CD-ROM requested by UNESCO for its Memory of the World programme. After that there were many tests concerning digitisation devices and another two CD-ROM projects were completed to present two interesting manuscripts with rich description metadata related to all the structural levels of the book, including full text. In 1995 - 1996, our first digitisation centre was built to process manuscripts and old printed books. Later, it was upgraded several times with additional devices such as scanners, book cradles for careful document fixation, sophisticated camera stands, microclimate control units, etc. Simultaneously, many software tools were developed to assist the digitisation production. The co-operation with the company became crucial for further development of this activity and both the library and the company grew thanks to each other. In 1999, another project started to output digital data: it was based on the idea of safeguarding acid-paper library materials through preservation microfilming combined with digitisation of microfilm for access purposes. In order to be able to store large amounts of image data produced by this second programme, a mass storage facility was plugged into the digitisation production line. It was based on robotic library using magnetic tapes as storage medium. Successively, the digitisation programmes began to be used also by other Czech institutions holding rare collections of documents: other libraries, museums, archives, and even castle libraries and church institutions. Today, from all the digitised documents almost half of them are from other institutions than the National Library. This is an important success that has taken place thanks to support of the Ministry of Culture through specific grant programmes. Interested institutions can ask the Ministry for up to 70% of the total digitisation cost for their projects with which they apply in calls for proposals.


Abstract. This paper represents the overview of hydrographic surveying and different types of modern and traditional surveying equipment, and data acquisition using the traditional single beam sonar system and a modern fully autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) IVER3. During the study, the data sets were collected using the vehicles of the Great Lake Research Center at Michigan Technological University. This paper presents how to process and edit the bathymetric data on SonarWiz5. Lastly, it compares the accuracy of the two different sonar systems in the different missions and creates 3D models to display and understand the elevations changes. Moreover, the 3D models were created after importing the data sets in the same coordinate system. In this study, the data sets were recorded by two different sensors in the two study locations in the Keweenaw Waterway in Michigan, U.S. between the cities of Houghton and Hancock. The first one equipment is the Lowrance HDS-7 sonar on the surveying boat, and other one is the EdgeTech 2205 sonar on the fully AUV of IVER3. One of the purposes of this study is to explore the sonar post processing programs, which are very important to interpret sonar and bathymetric data, and obtained the same coordinate system of the study areas. During the project, three main processing programs were used. The first one is UnderSee Explorer 2.6, which has been used to process the data sets of Polar SV boat. Secondly, EdgeTech Discover 4600 bathymetric software used EdgeTech 2205 sonar data sets to create bathymetric files that were used in SonarWiz5. Lastly, SonarWiz5 sonar processing software can be used to process the data sets. After the data acquisition and the data process, six profiles from the first study area and the five profiles from the second study are created to compare the data sets and elevations difference. It is shown that single beam sonar might miss some details, such as pipeline and quick elevation changes on seabed when we compare to the side scan sonar of IVER3 because the single side scan sonar can acquire better resolutions to understand the 3D features, such as pipelines, reliefs etc.


Published data show strong, but indirect, evidence for the role of psychological factors in fatal road accidents in both parts of Ireland. Males are much more often killed in accidents than females, and this remains the case when only vehicle drivers are considered. In both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, male deaths are strongly linked to age, with those of 18-24 years being most at risk. If drivers only are considered, then the Northern Ireland statistics again show a pronounced peak in the 18-24 years range, but this is less evident in the Republic of Ireland. These data replicate the young driver problem, previously documented in studies in many countries. The second part of this paper presents data from a study conducted by an advertising agency evaluating a film to be used as part of a televised campaign to reduce speeding in Northern Ireland. Participants (17-24 years old) produced second-by-second ratings of films as they watched them. The anti-speeding film was rated as more interesting, but no more relevant to them than comparison films with different content. In post-viewing questionnaires, the anti-speeding film was again rated as more interesting but no more relevant than the other films. Content analysis of other questions showed that participants liked the fact that the film showed the dangers and the consequences of speeding, and participants either disliked nothing about the film or disliked the distressing accident shown in the film. Implications for health promotion strategies and their evaluation are discussed.


This study examines the relationship between product/service and promotion adaptation and International Joint Venture (IJV) marketing performance in Thailand. The primary data for the study were collected from a self-administered mail survey of 1047 Thai-Foreign IJVs in Thailand. The sample consisted of 203 firms that were primarily engaged in agricultural, metal-working, electrical and chemical industries. From the application of the exploratory factor analysis, multiple regression analysis and the discriminant analysis it was concluded that product/service adaptation had a significant impact on IJV marketing performance.


Two different methods are presented for efficient computation of two-dimensional wave fields in focal regions. Both methods are valid for arbitrarily large relative apertures. One method is based on the impulse-response integral and the other on the angular-spectrum representation. The latter method is used to analyze the discrepancy between applying the Kirchhoff or the Debye assumption to obtain an approximation for the field in the aperture. Two cases of idealized incident waves are analyzed in detail. First, we treat the case of a perfect incident wave, i.e., a wave that, in the limit of an infinitely large aperture, would produce a δ-function field distribution on the focal line if account were taken of evanescent waves. Second, the incident wave is taken to be the field radiated by a point source and subsequently focused by a lens that delays the phase of the incoming wave in a perfect manner without influencing its amplitude. The latter wave has the same phase distribution over the aperture as the perfect wave, but a different amplitude distribution.


Recent research from electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) studies appears to indicate that some patients diagnosed in a vegetative state may have some level of awareness and should instead be understood to be in a minimally conscious state (MCS). These results further suggest that, with the help of neuroimaging, at least once the technology has been developed further, we may be able to communicate with some MCS patients. This article addresses ethical implications of the possibility of communication with minimally conscious patients. First, I discuss these patients' level of awareness and communicative capacities discovered by recent neuroscientific findings. I then consider whether we are capable of formulating the right questions to communicate with an MCS patient, whether we are capable of understanding the patient's response, and whether it is necessary to obtain informed consent or assent from an MCS patient regarding future treatment.


N individuals must choose between two collective alternatives. Under Quadratic Voting (QV), individuals buy vote in favor of their preferred alternative from a clearing house, paying the square of the number of votes purchased, and the sum of all votes purchased determines the outcome. Heuristic arguments and experimental results have suggested that this simple, detail-free mechanism is utilitarian efficient. In an independent private-values environment, we rigorously prove that for any value distribution all symmetric Bayes-Nash equilibria of QV converge toward efficiency in large populations, with waste decaying generically as 1/N .


The works of the Buntains in Calcutta, India from the 1950s among the poor, marginalized, sick, hungry, and abandoned represents the Pentecostal holistic approach to Christian mission. With the establishment of hospitals and schools, in addition to the relief programs, their ministries exemplify an important area of Pentecostal mission, along with evangelism and church planting through the emphasis on supernatural work of the Holy Spirit, e.g., healing and miracles. A Pentecostal characteristic of this ministry was prayer and faith as the spiritual foundation of the work, often when faced with financial pressures. In the process, many were converted to Christianity. This type of Pentecostal mission has been widely practiced but with little theological reflection.


To provide a complete portrayal of the multiple factors negatively impacting insects in agricultural landscapes it is necessary to assess the concurrent incidence, magnitude, and interactions among multiple stressors over substantial biogeographical scales. Trans-national ecological field investigations with wide-ranging stakeholders typically encounter numerous challenges during the design planning stages, not least that the scientific soundness of a spatially replicated study design must account for the substantial geographic and climatic variation among distant sites. 'PoshBee' (Pan-European assessment, monitoring, and mitigation of Stressors on the Health of Bees) is a multi-partner transdisciplinary agroecological project established to investigate the suite of stressors typically encountered by pollinating insects in European agricultural landscapes. To do this, PoshBee established a network of 128 study sites across eight European countries and collected over 50 measurements and samples relating to the nutritional, toxicological, pathogenic, and landscape components of the bees' environment. This paper describes the development process, rationale, and end-result of each aspect of the of the PoshBee field investigation. We describe the main issues and challenges encountered during the design stages and highlight a number of actions or processes that may benefit other multi-partner research consortia planning similar large-scale studies. It was soon identified that in a multi-component study design process, the development of interaction and communication networks involving all collaborators and stakeholders requires considerable time and resources. It was also necessary at each planning stage to be mindful of the needs and objectives of all stakeholders and partners, and further challenges inevitably arose when practical limitations, such as time restrictions and labour constraints, were superimposed upon prototype study designs. To promote clarity for all stakeholders, for each sub-component of the study, there should be a clear record of the rationale and reasoning that outlines how the final design transpired, what compromises were made, and how the requirements of different stakeholders were accomplished. Ultimately, multi-national agroecological field studies such as PoshBee benefit greatly from the involvement of diverse stakeholders and partners, ranging from field ecologists, project managers, policy legislators, mathematical modelers, and farmer organisations. While the execution of the study highlighted the advantages and benefits of large-scale transdisciplinary projects, the long planning period emphasized the need to formally describe a design framework that could facilitate the design process of future multi-partner collaborations.


—Continuous Kernels have been a recent development in convolutional neural networks. Such kernels are used to process data sampled at different resolutions as well as irregularly and inconsistently sampled data. Convolutional neural networks have the property of translational invariance (e.g., features are detected regardless of their position in the measurement domain), which is unsuitable for certain types of data, where the position of detected features is relevant. However, the capabilities of continuous kernels to process irregularly sampled data are still desired. This article introduces a novel method utilizing continuous kernels for detecting global features at absolute positions in the data domain. Through a use case in processing multiple spatially resolved reflection spectroscopy data, which is sampled irregularly and inconsistently, we show that the proposed method is capable of processing such data natively without additional preprocessing as is needed using comparable methods. In addition, we show that the proposed method is able to achieve a higher prediction accuracy than a comparable network on a dataset with position-dependent features. Furthermore, a higher robustness to missing data compared to a benchmark network using data interpolation is observed, which allows the network to adapt to sensors with individual failed components without the need for retraining.


The VLBA's high angular resolution at 22 and 43 GHz allows the nuclei of nearby radio galaxies to be imaged with very high linear resolution (a few hundred Schwarzschild radii or less for central black hole masses of about 10(exp 8) - 10(exp 9) solar mass). This is the scale on which absorption by the dense ionized inner regions of nuclear accretion disk should be detected. We present 8, 22, and 43 GHz VLBA images of the two-sided radio jets in NGC 4261 (2C370) with sub-parsec resolution, and derive constraints on the physical properties of the inner accretion disk. In addition, preliminary results from multi-epoch VLBA observations to detect proper motions in the jet and counterjet, and thus determine the orientation of the radio axis to our line of sight, may be available. Our multi-frequency images show apparent absorption by a nearly edge-on disk at 8 GHz, but not evidence for absorption at 22 or 43 GHz. Assuming that this is due to a lower optical depth for free-free absorption at 22 and 43 GHz, we find an upper limit for the electron density of approximately 10(exp 8)* Square root of(0.1/L)/cubic cm, where L is the path length through the disk in pc. The disk inclination, and therefore the likely path length, will be better determined by the ongoing VLBA proper motions measurements. This research was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.


The experiences of women who have been charged with welfare fraud in the years following the passage of the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act cast a shadow over the claim that welfare reform has been an unequivocal success. This article addresses this under-explored issue by considering the face ofwelfare fraud in San Diego, California after the change to federal welfare law. After a brief discussion of the socio-historical context of welfare fraud prosecution and a summary of the scholarly findings related to welfare fraud post-PRWORA, the article details a new "poverty knowledge" about welfare fraud drawn from the experiences of women. This is followed by a discussion of how this knowledge has been used to help inspire the creation of a welfare fraud diversion program that serves as an alternative to felony prosecution for first-time, low-level welfare fraud defendants in San Diego County.


It is well settled that independent courts play a vital role in promoting rule-of-law and separation-of-powers norms. At the same time, judicial independence must be reconciled with other values that we also wish to recognize as foundational. Professor Brudney addresses two areas of controversy that are associated with the celebration of judicial autonomy in our legal culture. He first discusses the role of political and personal background factors in shaping judicial selection and influencing judicial outcomes. He explains why both the President and Congress have come to rely increasingly on such background factors when seeking to anticipate the broad contours of judicial performance. While critical of occasional excesses in that monitoring effort, Brudney argues for greater awareness of—and sophistication about—the ways in which such pre-judicial background and experiences contribute to the development of legal doctrine. Brudney then turns to the realm of statutory interpretation, exploring the relationship between the norm of legislative supremacy and the professed aspiration for a more dependent judiciary. In examining three major theories of statutory construction, Brudney suggests that two of them—textualism and dynamic interpretation—are more likely to view independent courts as acceptable if not preferred agents of social progress, while the third theory—intentionalism—is inclined to be more respectful of Congress's authority and perhaps also more skeptical about the role of courts as independent players in this particular policymaking arena.


To enhance the distribution power quality and maintains the voltage stability is a challenging tasks in the complex distribution network. This can be achieved through the distributed generation (DG). In this paper, a hybrid technique has been proposed which improves the distribution stability by allocating the DG at the optimal place. This technique uses the artificial neural network (ANN) and particle swarm optimisation (PSO) to find the optimal location and optimal rating of DGs. In this technique ANN used in two stages, in the first stage, bus data is determined, then the PSO technique is used to find the best fitness of the input and the optimal location of the DGs, and in the second stage of ANN the optimal rating of DGs is determined. The ANN is trained with the bus data. The effectiveness of the proposed technique is tested and verified using MATLAB on IEEE 30 bus system.


The metaphorical route maps I shall be offering will be highly selective, and sometimes personal. But I shall try to raise fundamental issues that I believe are relevant for all map libraries. Given the mixed nature of this audience, I hope that what I have to say may have some interest for those who are deprived of the enjoyment of handling maps. Much of what I say will relate to the Internet. 'Maps and the Internet' is the focus for a growing number of symposia. Recently, the British Ordnance Survey hosted a three-day meeting of 25 European countries on just this subject. We have, quite rightly, talked a lot about the Web this week.


ABSTRACT Carsharing (or short-term auto use) provides a flexible alternative that meets diverse transportation needs across the globe, while reducing the negative impacts of private vehicle ownership. More than 65 years ago, carsharing began appearing in Europe. It has expanded to approximately 1,100 cities worldwide, in 26 nations on five continents. This article provides a global perspective of carsharing growth and future developments from 2006 through 2015, employing data from three surveys conducted in 2006, 2008, and 2010. The authors explore the interview findings of 25 carsharing experts worldwide representing 25 of 26 nations, collected in 2010.


The accreditation form of the study program is the reference used for the process of quality assessment and feasibility study program conducted by the National Accreditation Board of Higher Education (BAN PT). To be able to assess the study program will arrange an accreditation form which contains questions about the process that runs in the study program. Filling in the form according to the criteria specified by BAN PT in seven standards. In the study only on standard data management 6 on financing, facilities and infrastructure and 7 on research and community service. Because it involves interrelated data, then the system created will integrate the data scattered and web-based. This form of filling system can also make an automatic assessment of quantitative form fields. As for the content that is normative then made the field of assessment based on the criteria set in book 6 on the assessment matrix.

Keywords: Borang, Accreditation, BAN PT, Information System


The significance of the trinity archetype and the number three is recurrent in religions and myths around the world. Within the trinity archetype, each element is both distinct from and symbiotic with the other elements—that is to say, each stands apart from the others, but none can truly function alone. This can be seen throughout Greek mythology, for example, The Moirae and The Musai, and of course, through the Christian Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. While the archetype of the trinity appears numerous times throughout the Potter series, at its very heart, the series is centrally focused on a triad of trinities: the Trio (Harry, Ron, and Hermione), the three Unforgivable Curses, and the three Deathly Hallows. It is the intersection of this triad of trinities—this "supertrinity"—that not only drive the Potter narrative, but connect the work so readily to the psyche of readers and fans; it is how we are harmonically programmed, in terms of understanding stories.


Multiyear emission inventories of anthropogenic NMVOCs in China for 1980–2005 were established based on time-varying statistical data, literature surveyed and model calculated emission factors, which were further gridded at a high spatial resolution of 40 km×40 km using the GIS methodology. Results show a continuous growth trend of China's historical NMVOCs emissions during the period of 1980–2005, with the emission increasing by 4.2 times at an annual average rate of 10.6% from 3.91 Tg in 1980 to 16.49 Tg in 2005. Vehicles, biomass burning, industrial processes, fossil fuel combustion, solvent utilization, and storage and transport generated 5.50 Tg, 3.84 Tg, 2.76 Tg, 1.98 Tg, 1.87 Tg, and 0.55 Tg of NMVOCs, respectively, in 2005. Motorcycles, biofuel burning, heavy duty vans, synthetic fibre production, biomass open burning, and industrial and commercial consumption were primary emission sources. Besides, source contributions of NMVOCs emissions showed remarkable annual variation. However, emissions of these sources had been continuously increasing, which coincided well with China's economic growth. Spatial distribution of NMVOCs emissions illustrates that high emissions mainly concentrates in developed regions of northern, eastern and southern coastal areas, which produced more emissions than the relatively underdeveloped western and inland regions. Particularly, southeastern, northern, and central China covering 35.2% of China's territory, generated 59.4% of the total emissions, while the populous capital cities covering merely 4.5% of China's territory, accounted for 24.9% of the national emissions. Annual variation of regional emission intensity shows that emissions concentrating in urban areas tended to transfer to rural areas year by year. Moreover, eastern, southern, central, and northeastern China were typical areas of high emission intensity and had a tendency of expanding to the northwestern China, which revealed the transfer of emission-intensive plants to these areas, together with the increase of biomass open burning.


Over the past decade, tension at the US-Mexican border has heightened as an enormous influx of Mexicans has entered the southwestern United States. According to a study conducted by Mexico's National Population Council (CONAPO) in 2001, an estimated 3.5 to 5 million Mexican immigrants enter the United States each decade. Approximately 400,000 Mexicans cross the border annually, of which 175,000 are legal. The remaining 200,000 to 300,000 enter the United States illegally, primarily seeking employment and higher wage rates. This movement of Mexican workers into the southwestern United States has affected US-Mexican relations, particularly in Mexico. In 2000, the recently inaugurated US President George W. Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox began negotiating the immigration issue, weighing the costs and benefits of demographic changes. Initiating an illegal-alien amnesty was a priority on the United States' agenda until September 11, when the United States abandoned the talks with Mexico and redirected its attention to combating terrorists. As Mexico presented no immediate threat to national security, the United States had larger external issues to address than Mexican immigration. Massive emigration to the United States, however, remains an issue on the Mexican government's mind. Mexico is experiencing rapid population growth, which contributes to tightening economic and social conditions. CONAPO estimates the Mexican fertility rate will reach 2.1 percent by 2005 and the population will reach approximately 115 million by 2010. As a result, the unemployment and underemployment rates have risen as fewer job opportunities have emerged in the market. The Mexican government loosely defines an employed person as someone who is at least 12 years old and who works at least one hour per week; unemployment rates in 2003 reached approximately 3.5 percent, which is phenomenally high considering the definition of an employed person. Mexican underemployment, which encompasses employees earning less than minimum wage or those unable to find more than 35 hours of paid work a week, reached a staggering 9.03 percent in 2003. The US recession after September 11 partially contributed to this unemployment increase for Mexico, but exponential birth rates have been known to stunt economic growth as well. Even during a recession, the United States, with higher wage rates and a relatively higher standard of living, is an extremely attractive alternative for impoverished Mexicans. However slow the economy is in the United States, it remains considerably slower in Mexico at any given time. After the peso devaluation between the years 2001 to 2002, an increased number of Mexicans, despite a sluggish economy in the United States, crossed the border to escape Mexico's recession, which was anticipated to worsen in the following year. Fox's concern for the migration flow persisted after September 11. …


Abstract : An IDA research team designed the Operational Effectiveness Analysis (OEA) methodology to estimate a military unit s operational effectiveness on the battlefield following a chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) event. As part of the OEA effort, the team developed the Operational Effectiveness Loss Multiplier (OELM) methodology to examine the collateral effects of CBRN events on operational effectiveness. Within the OELM methodology, combat stress is viewed as a collateral effect arising from the conditions and experience of CBRN events. The potential of combat stress to degrade individual and unit operational effectiveness makes it an important aspect of the OEA and OELM research and methodologies. This document discusses combat stress and its implications on operational effectiveness; combat and operational stress reaction (COSR) in service members; and civilian psychological casualties (CPC) and combat stress casualties (CSC) as a result of CBRN and non-CBRN events. It establishes clear and formal definitions of terms relevant to combat stress; discusses the current data available to model and estimate CPC and CSC resulting from CBRN and non-CBRN events; and proposes further research to aid in the estimation of CSC and CPC in the future.


We present a novel method for the identification of abnormal episodes in gas-turbine vibration data, in which we show 1) how a model of normal engine behaviour is constructed using signatures of "normal" engine vibration response; 2) how extreme value theory (EVT), a branch of statistics used to determine the expected value of extreme values drawn from a distribution, can be used to set novelty thresholds in the model, which, if exceeded, indicate an "abnormal" episode; 3) application to large data sets of modern gas-turbine flight data, which shows successful novelty detection results with low false-positive alarm rates. The advantages of this approach over previous work are 1) a very low false-positive alarm rate, while maintaining sufficient sensitivity to detect known abnormal events; 2) the use of a Bayesian framework such that uncertainty in the distribution of "normal" data is modelled, giving a principled, probabilistic interpretation of results; 3) an implementation that is sufficiently "lightweight" in processing and memory resources that real-time, on-line novelty detection is possible in an "on-wing" engine health-monitoring system.


Antigenic variation in the glycoprotein of rabies (CVS-11) virus was studied. Neutralization-resistant variant viruses were isolated in vitro at high frequency (10(-4) to 10(-5)) in the presence of anti-glycoprotein monoclonal antibody. Analysis of these variants identified at least three functionally independent antigenic sites, based on the grouping of variants that were no longer neutralized by one or more of a panel of 24 monoclonal antibodies. Competition radioimmunoassay suggested that one of these three antigenic sites was topologically distinct, with the other two in close proximity. In addition, it was shown that most (but not all) neutralization-resistant variants failed to bind the relevant monoclonal antibody. Viruses with altered antigenicity were shown to accumulate in virus stocks following several passages in vitro in the absence of antibody. In addition, variants were isolated in vivo following treatment of mice with monoclonal antibody.


The purpose of this paper is not to repeat a discussion of sequence-of-return risk, but rather to introduce academic research suggesting ways to manage this risk via an "existing resource," the house.2 This review will lead to an evolving discussion of housing wealth used as what Wade Pfau, Ph.D., CFA, Professor of Retirement at the American College, terms an "alternative buffer asset."3 It is hoped that this introduction will spur further papers on the synergistic potential the home asset can provide in preserving TPV and net residual wealth inclusive of home equity. To use the house as an alternative asset the researchers depend on accessing its value by establishing a Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) early in retirement. This program is more attractive for financial planning due to changes initiated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to improve consumer safeguards as well as to reduce set-up costs. Research demonstrates that delaying HECM use until portfolio ruin occurs may jeopardize a retiree's ability to access their home equity later in retirement. In addition, putting a HECM in place at the outset of retirement may prevent portfolio withdrawals that could subject it to dangerous sequence-of-return risk. Finally, the growing HECM Line of Credit option (RMLOC) ensures that the housing wealth will continue to grow regardless of what the real estate market returns are over the course of retirement.


OBJECTIVE
To assess the effect of Maryland's 2010 Total Patient Revenue (TPR) global budget reform in eight rural hospitals on population-level hospital rates of utilization three years after implementation.

DATA SOURCES/STUDY SETTING
Data on all inpatient discharges and outpatient department visits from the Health Services Cost Review Commission, population data from Claritas Demographic Reports, and county-level data from the Area Health Resource File.

STUDY DESIGN
We use a difference-in-differences approach to compare changes in utilization rates over time in the reform areas comprising 125 Zip Code Tabulation Areas (ZCTAs) and in two control hospital areas (66 ZCTAs and 327 ZCTAs, respectively). We examine several inpatient and outpatient measures and distinguish between relatively discretionary and nondiscretionary utilization.

DATA COLLECTION
Admissions data are hospital-reported discharge abstracts of all encounters in Maryland during 2008-2013. Population data are derived from the US Census.

PRINCIPAL FINDINGS
We find no statistically significant changes in admissions, either overall or discretionary. We find a statistically significant 8.9 percent (95%CI = [1.8, 16.0]) reduction in outpatient visits, with a statistically significant reduction of 14.8 percent (95%CI = [5.3, 24.3]) visits not to the Emergency Department.

CONCLUSIONS
We find that the TPR reform decreased outpatient utilization but did not affect inpatient utilization.


Classroom management is one of the greatest obstacles for educators. There are many theories and state mandates about the proper way a teacher should handle student misbehavior. The most common forms of classroom management are assertive discipline and cooperative discipline. Assertive discipline is the most commonly used management style in the United States, but it is unknown if it is the most effective. This study will compare and contrast assertive and cooperative discipline through literary research and through observations in a second grade classroom. This research focuses on three sample students with various levels of behavioral issues ranging from mild, moderate and severe. Students were observed and recorded using an assertive discipline approach for 1 week and a cooperative discipline approach for 1 week.


Not a book about what "Beowulf "means but how it means, and how the reader participates in the process of meaning construction.Overing s primary aim is to address the poem on its own terms, to trace and develop an interpretive strategy consonant with the extent of its difference. "Beowulf s "arcane structure describes cyclical repetitions and patterned intersections of themes which baffle a linear perspective, and suggest instead the irresolution and dynamism of the deconstructionist free play of textual elements.Chapter 1 posits the self/reader as a function of the text/language, examining the ways in which the text "speaks" the reader. Chapter 2 develops an interactive semiotic strategy in an attempt to describe an isomorphic relation between poem and reader, between text and self. Chapter 3 addresses the notions of text and self as more complex functions or formulations of desire, and thus complicates and expands the arguments of the two preceding chapters. The final chapter examines the issue of desire in the poem, and, to a lesser extent, desire in the reader (insofar as these may legitimately be viewed as distinct from each other)."


ABSTRACT This article analyzes the repercussions of marriage migration for Vietnamese communities of origin in two ways. Firstly, it argues that a life-course perspective and the concept of "care circulation" expand understandings of the implications of marriage migration for reproduction and care in countries of origin. Secondly, it documents how marriage migration unsettles reproduction and care patterns primarily because sending communities face difficulties in marrying their own sons to village women. The article is based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork conducted in 2012 in two regions of Vietnam particularly affected by international marriage migration and is informed by other projects conducted since the mid-2000s. Results suggest that migration among young women who migrate without the intention of return bears a different significance for gender and development than migration among women who have moved further along in their life course. Marriage migration in Vietnam takes place at a critical juncture of the life course when gender power relations may be reconfigured in the country of origin. A focus on men and their families in migrants' communities of origin provides new insight. In sum, a life-course perspective broadens the scope of the relationship between migration, gender inequalities, reproduction, and care.


There is standard statement that radiation-induced genomic instability (RIGI) can induced by any doses of any radiation irrespective of LET. To this phenomenon the role of unique mechanism of carcinogenesis induction by X- and γ-rays in low doses is attributed. In the review is analysed more 260 sources concerned to the induction of RIGI by X- and γ-rays at all levels of biological organisation and at all methodical approaches including the bystander effect and hereditary effects. Except for irradiation in utero is not found out any unequivocally treated facts of RIGI induction at irradiation in low doses (up to 0.2 Gy). It was revealed six 'apparent exceptions', but in all cases defective or unusual objects took place. The data of Dubrova et al. for germline mutations at DNA minisatellites loci for the people living on polluted after Chernobyl incident territories are difficult for correct interpretation. Connected with RIGI mechanism of virtual carcinogenesis for low doses of radiation with low LET has appeared a mythical mechanism.


This study aimed to evaluate benthic macroinvertebrates assemblages using the application of ecological indices in the Rawang sub-basin of the Selangor River with reference to determining the impacts of aquaculture practices on benthic macroinvertebrates. In total, seven sampling sites were selected, namely Guntong (SR1), Guntong's tributaries (SR2, control site), Kuang (SR3 and SR7), Gong (SR4), Buaya (SR5) and Serendah (SR6) Rivers. Sites were selected using a random sampling technique and the accessibility and proximity to aquaculture farms. Macroinvertebrates were sampled from April 2019 to March 2020 using an aquatic kick net, a hand spade, and a D-frame dip net. Water samples were also taken. Twenty-seven families belonging to the Annelida, Mollusca and Athropoda phyla were identified using taxonomic keys. Tubificidae was found to be the most dominant family (36.79%) followed by Chironomidae (28.84%). The highest number of individuals from family Tubificidae was recorded in Gong River, where effluent was discharged from an aquaculture farm. The total abundance of benthic macroinvertebrates increased with increased proximity to the aquaculture farm. Based on Biological Monitoring Working Party score value, the water quality of sampling sites in close proximity to the aquaculture farm was polluted as compared to the control location. Family Biotic Index score showed that all sites were substantially polluted with organic pollution, with the control site being much less polluted. In conclusion, benthic macroinvertebrates assemblage was affected by effluent originating from aquaculture farm outlets. It is therefore necessary to conduct aquaculture farming using methods that are deemed to be environmentally friendly.


Replication (single-turnover) of pyranosyl-RNA (p-RNA) sequences can be accomplished reliably by template-directed ligation of 2',3'-cyclophosphates of short oligomers. The ligation process was studied using (mostly) octamers as templates and tetramers as ligands. The transcription of the sequence pr(GGGCGGGC) into the (antiparallel) complementary sequence pr(GCCCGCCC) by ligation of 2 mols. of pr(GCCC)-2',3'-cp was investigated in detail. In aq. 1.5 M LiCl soln. of pH 8.5 at room temp. (0.45 mM ligand, 0.15 mM template), the reaction proceeds in up to 60% yield within a week. It is limited by concomitant hydrolysis of cyclophosphate groups of both reactant and ligation product as the only efficient side reaction, the latter occurring .apprx.3 times more slowly than ligation. No ligation at all is obsd. in the absence of template. The reaction is highly regioselective: the (4'->2') phosphodiester junction is formed exclusively; no isomeric (4'->3') junctions are found. For ligation to occur, template and ligand must be homochiral and must have the same sense of chirality; with chiro-diastereoisomeric tetramer-2',3'-cyclophosphates contg. a single enantio-ribopyranosyl unit, no ligation is obsd., except to a minor extent in the case of the diastereoisomer that has that unit at the 4'-end. Observations made in expts. involving 6 different octamer templates contg. isomeric base sequences indicate that the ligation process does not tolerate a mismatch at ligation sites. However, ligation still takes place when a mismatch occurs at either end of the (octamer) template. Ligation efficiencies differ widely, depending on the nature, as well as the sequence, of participating bases. These differences can be understood qual. by considering the relative stability of ternary pre-ligation complexes, together with the differences in interstrand base stacking at ligation sites. Dominance of the latter over intrastrand base stacking is the feature of the p-RNA structure that appears to det. most of the characteristic properties of p-RNA. As regards the etiol. context of this work on nucleic-acid alternatives, it is essential that the chem. properties found for p-RNA be compared with the corresponding properties of RNA. In the RNA series, the 2 ligations of the replicative cycle r(GGGCGGGC) .tautm. r(GCCCGCCC) using the corresponding ribofuranosyl-tetramer 2',3'-cyclophosphates as ligands are found to proceed also, though somewhat less efficiently than in the p-RNA series; however, the ligation step produces exclusively the unnatural (5'->2') phosphodiester junctions instead of the natural (5'->3') junctions. This is in sharp contrast to p-RNA, where template-controlled 2',3'-cyclophosphate ligations produce the 'correct' phosphodiester junctions. [on SciFinder (R)]


Changes in gene expression and regulation--due in particular to the evolution of cis-regulatory DNA sequences--may underlie many evolutionary changes in phenotypes, yet little is known about the distribution of such variation in populations. We present in this study the first survey of experimentally validated functional cis-regulatory polymorphism. These data are derived from more than 140 polymorphisms involved in the regulation of 107 genes in Homo sapiens, the eukaryote species with the most available data. We find that functional cis-regulatory variation is widespread in the human genome and that the consequent variation in gene expression is twofold or greater for 63% of the genes surveyed. Transcription factor-DNA interactions are highly polymorphic, and regulatory interactions have been gained and lost within human populations. On average, humans are heterozygous at more functional cis-regulatory sites (>16,000) than at amino acid positions (<13,000), in part because of an overrepresentation among the former in multiallelic tandem repeat variation, especially (AC)(n) dinucleotide microsatellites. The role of microsatellites in gene expression variation may provide a larger store of heritable phenotypic variation, and a more rapid mutational input of such variation, than has been realized. Finally, we outline the distinctive consequences of cis-regulatory variation for the genotype-phenotype relationship, including ubiquitous epistasis and genotype-by-environment interactions, as well as underappreciated modes of pleiotropy and overdominance. Ordinary small-scale mutations contribute to pervasive variation in transcription rates and consequently to patterns of human phenotypic variation.


Researchers in the field of biocomputing have, for many years, successfully used the natural world as inspiration for developing systems that are robust, adaptable and capable of generating novel and even "creative" solutions to human-defined problems. However, in this position paper we argue that the time has now come for a reassessment of how we exploit biology to generate new omputational systems. Previous solutions (the "first generation " of biocomputing techniques), whilst reasonably effective, are crude analogues of actual biological systems. We believe that a new, inherently inter-disciplinary approach is needed for the development of the emerging "second generation " of bio-inspired methods. This new modus operandi will require much closer interaction between the engineering and life sciences communities, as well as a bidirectional flow of concepts, applications and expertise.We support our argument by examining, in this new light, three existing areas of biocomputing (genetic programming, artificial immune systems and evolvable hardware), as well as an emerging area (natural genetic engineering) which may provide useful pointers as to the way forward.


This article focuses on the news coverage given to the CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) announcement that neutrinos might exceed the speed of light, flying in the face of Albert Einstein's theory. By studying 140 cartoons about the news item published between the CERN's announcement at the end of September 2011 up until its refutation in February 2012, we selected 33 devoted to Albert Einstein. We study the iconographic use of Einstein's figure, and how the suggestion he might have been wrong stirred up greater interest among the cartoonists than when it was proven his ideas are still fully in force.


Wood is an interesting alternative to fossil fuels. It is CO2-neutral and widely available. However it is a difficult fuel to handle which features a low energy content. Thus technologies for wood thermal conversion need to be improved. This work concerns the development of a comprehensive two-dimensional mathematical model describing the pyrolysis of large wood particles and its implementation in a Fortran program. The model has been continuously tested and improved by experimental results obtained in a reactor for single particle pyrolysis (SPAR) at the Division of Physical Chemistry at Goteborg University. The first part of the thesis (Paper I) presents a kinetic study of the pyrolysis of large wood particles, based on experiments carried out in the SPAR. Three pyrolysis kinetic schemes were selected for later inclusion in a model featuring heat and mass transfer. Paper II concerns the addition of a sub-model for heat and mass transfer to the three kinetic schemes. The resulting model for large wood particles has been tested against experiments in the SPAR. A scheme based on two competing reactions developed from experiments at low temperature pyrolysis in the SPAR was found to perform well but its empirical nature limits its validity to the experimental conditions of the SPAR. A scheme from the literature based on TGA experiments appeared promising, especially when planning to enhance it with secondary reactions. Paper III deals with the development of shrinkage models for 2D cylindrical particles. The predicted mass loss, size variation and surface temperature were tested against experiments carried out in the SPAR. The shrinkage does not a?ect the pyrolysis rate or the surface temperature in the conditions prevailing in the SPAR. Paper IV investigates the influence of different shrinkage models and the geometry on the heating rate of a shrinking particle. Shrinkage influences the heating rate positively by increasing the conductive heat flow and negatively by decreasing the surface area of the particle. Therefore the net effect of shrinkage on the heating rate depends on the particle geometry and the location of shrinkage. Paper V studies three di?erent models for wood drying under pyrolysis conditions. The predicted surface temperature and global drying rate were compared with experimental results from pyrolysis experiments of wet particles in the SPAR. A model based on a first order kinetic evaporation rate was found to be the most interesting because of the quality of the prediction of the drying rate and the ease of implementation.


Biological impacts of climate warming are predicted to increase with latitude, paralleling increases in warming. However, the magnitude of impacts depends not only on the degree of warming but also on the number of species at risk, their physiological sensitivity to warming and their options for behavioural and physiological compensation. Lizards are useful for evaluating risks of warming because their thermal biology is well studied. We conducted macrophysiological analyses of diurnal lizards from diverse latitudes plus focal species analyses of Puerto Rican Anolis and Sphaerodactyus. Although tropical lowland lizards live in environments that are warm all year, macrophysiological analyses indicate that some tropical lineages (thermoconformers that live in forests) are active at low body temperature and are intolerant of warm temperatures. Focal species analyses show that some tropical forest lizards were already experiencing stressful body temperatures in summer when studied several decades ago. Simulations suggest that warming will not only further depress their physiological performance in summer, but will also enable warm-adapted, open-habitat competitors and predators to invade forests. Forest lizards are key components of tropical ecosystems, but appear vulnerable to the cascading physiological and ecological effects of climate warming, even though rates of tropical warming may be relatively low.


Additional work hours may lead to weight gain by decreasing exercise, causing substitution from meals prepared at home to fast food and pre-prepared processed food, or reducing sleep. Substitution toward unhealthy convenience foods could also influence the weight of one's spouse and children, while longer work hours for adults may further impact child weight by reducing parental supervision. I examine the effects of adult work hours on the body mass index (BMI) and obesity status of adults as well as the overweight status of children. Longer hours increase one's own BMI and probability of being obese, but have a smaller and statistically insignificant effect on these outcomes for one's spouse. Mothers', but not mother's spouse's, work hours affect children's probability of being overweight. My estimates imply that changes in labor force participation account for only 1.4% of the rise in adult obesity in recent decades, but a more substantial 10.4% of the growth in childhood overweight.


Passive optical networks (PONs) are regarded as a promising solution for the broadband bandwidth bottleneck problem. However, due to their passive nature, legacy TDM-PONs are limited by their inflexible power distribution, while future WDM-PONs are restricted by their static wavelength allocation. To mitigate these limitations, we propose QPAR, a Quasi-Passive Reconfigurable node, which provides flexible power and bandwidth allocation, and enables a graceful upgrade from TDM-PON to WDM-PON. Due to its quasi-passive nature, QPAR only consumes power during reconfiguration. Simulation results show that QPAR can increase the number of users, extend the reach, and balance the traffic load in the network compared with legacy PONs. QPAR can be implemented using either discrete or integrated components. We demonstrate an experimental QPAR using two different optical latching switches based on micro-electro-mechanical systems and magneto-optic materials. Lastly, we experimentally investigate QPAR performances.


William Robinson's original material is both descriptive and analytical. His work describes a new fractionation within the class system and analyses its location, its purpose and its interests in relation to both national and global circuits of capital (see inter alia: Marx, 1956 [1867]: 357; Palloix, 1977: 5; Thompson, 1983). Transnational capital is a hegemonic fraction of capital that uses its newly configured economic advantage to impose its direction and character on every other class fraction. This elite class configuration is new because of the changed nature of capital experienced from the 1970s until today. But the new elites defined are rooted in capitalist history and they have always been subject to sociological scrutiny and debate. Robinson's key points about this fractionation follow first; then his description of the globalized world that has been created is reviewed; and then we look at some of the relevant criticisms that are made of Robinson's thinking. My argument is that Robinson is a major theorist who is making a powerful contribution to our understanding of the changing structure and dynamics of the fractionation of the capitalist class and in the process provokes us to think more deeply about Marxist theory.


This dissertation aimed to investigate symbolic and non-symbolic number sense in relation to each other, to working memory, and to mathematics performance through the testing of (longitudinal) associations and training effects. These aims were achieved through a series of eight studies, with four different methodologies: meta-analyses aggregated previously reported associations between constructs and explored sources of variation. Short studies indexed the factor structure of number sense and the predictive role of working memory for number sense. Longitudinal studies were used to model development of number sense and mathematics performance, and explore the dynamic pattern of reciprocal associations. Training studies, finally, were used to investigate which assets of number sense and working memory could be trained, and how this impacted related constructs. The dissertation allows three main conclusions to be drawn. First, working memory capacity can be used to predict both number sense and formal mathematical skill, as evident from the reported meta-analyses, but the contribution of various working memory components differs depending on the domain of numerical skills assessed, the way in which working memory is assessed, and various other methodological decisions. Second, number sense can be divided into symbolic number sense (working with verbal and written number symbols) and non-symbolic number sense (working with quantities such as dots and line lengths), both of which are predictive of skill growth in number sense at a later age. Both factors can be predicted using concurrent working memory measures, but not by the same sets of working memory components. Symbolic and non-symbolic number sense are affected by training activities in discordant ways: symbolic number sense can be trained effectively in kindergarten, but there is only limited support for the notion that non-symbolic number sense van be trained in a similar way. Third, number sense is a consistent predictor of mathematical skill, but this relation is bidirectional: although number sense measures at one point in time can predict mathematics performance at a later point in time, mathematics performance can also predict number sense longitudinally. This indicated that insights associated with mathematics performance can be used to fine-tune a child's understanding of number. Recommendations for future research include in increased focus on the dynamic relations between number sense, mathematics achievement, and working memory, more specific scrutiny of the roles of non-symbolic and symbolic number sense as latent constructs, and investigation of the relative merits of training specific assets of number sense, rather than the overarching skill. In sum, this dissertation contributes in an important way to current understandings of children's number sense, its relations to mathematics and working memory, and the possibilities to facilitate these skills at an early age.


Although an extensive biological time series data set of phytoplankton and zooplankton standing stocks has been collected over a 30 yr period in the NE subarctic Pacific at Ocean Station Papa (OSP), the majority of these data were obtained before recent advances in our understanding of the structure and functioning of the manne microbial food web. In addition, recent studies did not obtain data during the winter penod. This paper provides the first contemporary biological description of the NE subarctic Pacific dunng winter Data from 2 winter cruises in the vicinity of OSP indicate that the abundance and composition of the autotrophic and heterotroph~c assemblage at these times are similar to those observed during late spring and summer by others. In contrast, winter mesozooplankton standing stocks are considerably less than observed In summer. These findings confirm the hypothesis that the relatively shallow winter mixed layer permits relatively high standing stocks of phytoplankton (20 mg C m-3) and consequently of microheterotrophs (7.1 to 13.1 mg C m-7 to subsist over the winter period. An assessment of autotrophic and heterotrophic biomass suggests that the requirements of the mesozooplankton (Stages IV to VI), microzooplankton and heterotrophic nanoflagellates may potentially be balanced by the standlng stocks of microplankton, nanoplankton/picophytoplankton, and picoplankton, respectively. However, the carbon requirements of heterotrophic bacteria cannot be balanced without invoking slower turnover times for thls pool relative to the turnover times for the dissolved organic carbon (DOC) pool.


In recent times, China's role in the clothing industry has been threatened. China's ability to compete on a cost basis is diminishing and urges the country to find a new means of competition. The aim of this study is to assess China's future role in the industry with special regards to European apparel manufactures. This is done by taking a closer look at several factors that have an impact on the industry. The analysis of published data, conducted studies and expert opinions brought to light how the government is actively involved in the pursue of maintaining China's leading role in the textile and clothing industries as these are important contributors to China's economic well-being. Two strategies have been emphasized. Firstly, the upgrading of the industry as a means of differentiation that allows China's clothing industry to compete on other factors than costs. Secondly, the boost of China's domestic market in order to mitigate against the risk arising from the volatility of markets and increased need for speed in the industry. While China's role is undoubtedly changing, it seems like the country has found opportunities to maintain an important position in the future of the clothing industry.


Background India has a high prevalence of tuberculosis (TB) as well as diabetes mellitus (DM). DM is a chronic disease caused by deficiency of insulin production by the pancreas. The risk of TB amongst DM patients is three times higher than those without. The estimated national prevalence of DM is 7.3%. Despite the growing burden of DM, there are limited studies describing the prevalence of TB-DM in India. Objective Our study estimated the prevalence of DM amongst adult hospitalized TB patients at Kasturba Hospital, Manipal and determined factors associated with the likelihood of DM-TB co-prevalence. Methods We conducted a retrospective cohort study at Kasturba Hospital, Manipal Academy of Higher Education. All hospitalized adult patients diagnosed with pulmonary TB (PTB) and extrapulmonary TB (EPTB) between June 1st 2015 and June 30th 2016 were eligible for inclusion. Pediatric and pregnant TB patients were excluded from our study. Data were extracted from medical charts. Descriptive and multivariate analyses were performed in R. Multivariate analysis adjusted for age, gender, type of TB, history of TB, and nutrition (body mass index (BMI)) status. Results A total of 728 patients met the eligibility criteria, 517 (71%) were male, 210 (29%) female, 406 (56%) had PTB and 322 (44%) had EPTB. Amongst those with a nutritional status, 36 (30%) patients were underweight (BMI <18.4 kg/m2), 73 (40%) had a normal BMI (18.5kg/m2–24.9 kg/m2), 15 (8%) were overweight (BMI 25.0 kg/m2–29.9 kg/m2) and 9 (5%) were obese (BMI >30.0 kg/m2). A total of 720 (98.9%) of TB patients had at least one blood sugar test result. The overall prevalence of DM (n = 184) amongst TB patients was 25.3% (95% CI 22.2%, 28.6%). When stratified, it was 35.0% (30.4%, 39.9%) and 13.0% (9.7%, 17.3%) amongst PTB and EPTB patients respectively. TB patients aged 41–60 years had 3.51 times higher odds (aOR 3.51 (2.08, 6.07)) of having DM than patients 40 years or younger. Patients aged 60 years or older had 2.49 times higher odds (aOR 2.49 (1.28, 4.85)) of having DM than younger patients (<40 years). Females had lower odds (aOR 0.80 (0.46, 1.37)) of developing DM than male TB patients and patients with a history of TB had lower odds (aOR 0.73 (0.39, 1.32)) than newly diagnosed TB patients. Additionally, EPTB patients had significantly lower odds (aOR 0.26 (0.15, 0.43)) compared to PTB patients. Underweight patients also had significantly lower odds (aOR 0.25 (0.14, 0.42)) of having DM than normal weight patients. Conclusion Our study found a higher prevalence of TB-DM than the national average. TB-DM co-prevalence was significantly associated with age, type of TB and undernutrition. As India's DM prevalence is expected to rise, TB-DM will become an increasingly important part of the TB epidemic requiring specialized study and care.


Studies on bank profitability vis-à-vis market power and efficiency span a number of years, many countries, regions and methods. Yet, the experiences of the Pacific's small states – where foreign banks are widespread and bank profits relatively high – remain unknown, leaving policy-makers ill-informed regarding relevant policy development. This study fills a huge gap in literature by providing some evidence on the issue in a Pacific Island context. Two market power hypotheses – the structure-conduct-performance (SCP) and the relative market power (RMP) hypotheses together with two measures of the efficient structure (ES) hypothesis – X and scale efficiencies are estimated. The nonparametric data envelopment analysis (DEA) technique is used to estimate efficiency scores for banks in Fiji over the period 2000 to 2010 and the dynamic GMM to estimate the relationships between market power and efficiency vis-à-vis profitability. Results show that the RMP and ES hypotheses might hold, but not the SCP. Profits appear to persist over time. Policy implications are considerable including that any suggestions to limit further mergers and acquisitions of banks in the region may have to be properly debated.


This paper considers whether in the 'war against terrorism' national security is eroded or strengthened by weakening or removing the human rights of the individuals who constitute the polity. It starts with the view that national security is, at its most fundamental, founded upon the security and liberty of the person from criminal and violent acts, including terrorist attacks. Such attacks, and the individuals and groups who perpetrate them, constitute a grave threat to the peace and security of nations the world over and thus endanger the security and liberty of the individuals who make up their populations. Governments are therefore compelled to use the machinery of the state to protect the nation and the individual from these attacks. However, the paper is based on another, equally important, assumption. This is that the defence of national security requires individuals to be protected from the arbitrary exercise of state power even in situations where the state claims to be acting to protect national security and individual security against grave threats such as terrorist acts. The rule of law not only protects individuals from such an exercise of state power by protecting their human rights, in so doing it also protects the peace and security of the nation from excessive and unchecked state power. But what happens when the rule of law is overturned by governments declaring that they are protecting national security from the terrorist threat? Who or what is then able to protect the individual and the nation from the state? This paper will take up these important questions by considering the implications of the anti-terrorism legislation that has been introduced in Australia since September 2001. It will also consider whether Australia's national security has been enhanced or damaged by this legislation.


Objective Anxiety trait, anxiety and depression states have all been reported to increase risks for cardiovascular disease (CVD), possibly through altering cardiac autonomic regulation. Our aim was to investigate whether the relationship between harm avoidance (HA, an anxiety-related personality trait) and cardiac autonomic regulation is independent of anxiety and depression states in healthy adults. Methods We recruited 535 physically and mentally healthy volunteers. Participants completed the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and Tri-dimensional Personality Questionnaire. Participants were divided into high or low HA groups as discriminated by the quartile value. Cardiac autonomic function was evaluated by measuring heart rate variability (HRV). We obtained the time and frequency-domain indices of HRV including variance (total HRV), the low-frequency power (LF; 0.05–0.15 Hz), which may reflect baroreflex function, the high-frequency power (HF; 0.15–0.40 Hz), which reflects cardiac parasympathetic activity, as well as the LF/HF ratio. Results The BDI and HA scores showed associations with HRV parameters. After adjustment for the BDI scores and other control variables, HA is still associated with reduced variance, LF and HF power. Compared with the participants with low HA, those with high HA displayed significant reductions in variance, LF and HF power and a significant increase in their LF/HF ratio. Conclusion This study highlights the independent role of HA in contributing to decreased autonomic cardiac regulation in healthy adults and provides a potential underlying mechanism for anxiety trait to confer increased risk for CVD.


The aim of the thesis is to produce high grade silicon from off-grade materials like sculls and process slags from Elkem Thamshavn. The methods investigated are dense medium separation, optical separation, flotation and metallurgical separation by remelting. Dense medium separation trials are conducted using magnetite suspended in water and aim to find the suspension density where only one phase will float. Optical separation experiments are done to identify light intensity thresholds between refractories, silicon and slag. The viability of flotation without surface activators and at neutral pH are investigated by measuring the zeta potential of each phase. Remelting experiments are done, building on previous work by the author, with the aim of investigating whether adding CaO or MgO to the slag will increase the settling efficiency. No results were obtained in the DMS experiments, because the viscosity of the suspension increased to infinity before the density of either slag or silicon was reached. The flotation experiments showed that flotation is not viable at neutral pH without surface activators, as the zeta potential of slag and silicon is nearly identical. The optical separation experiments were a success. The product fraction had an average silicon content of 74 wt%, compared to 52 wt% in the original off-grade material, while the waste fraction contained 7.5 wt% silicon. The separation efficiency was best for coarser grains, which is the expected result based on theory. The remelting experiments concluded that adding CaO or MgO to the slag will increase the settling efficiency. This was established both by chemical analysis and by surface area analysis of slag samples from each experiment. MgO seemed to contribute more to the settling efficiency than CaO, but because of the large variance between samples, this is not conclusive. The quality of the produced silicon was unaffected or improved by adding CaO, but additions of MgO increased the magnesium content slightly.