This week, the Commencement Archive is pleased to publish Dr. Donald Berwick's address to the Dartmouth School of Medicine Class of 2017, titled Cat's Feet. Donald M. Berwick, MD, MPP, FRCP,  is President Emeritus and Senior Fellow of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. A pediatrician by background, Dr. Berwick has served on the faculty of the Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health, and on the staffs of Boston's Children's Hospital Medical Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, and the Brigham and Women's Hospital. He has also served as Vice Chair of the US Preventive Services Task Force, the first "Independent Member" of the American Hospital Association Board of Trustees, and Chair of the National Advisory Council of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. He additionally served two terms on the Institute of Medicine's (IOM's) Governing Council, was a member of the IOM's Global Health Board, and served on President Clinton's Advisory Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality in the Healthcare Industry. Recognized as a leading authority on health care quality and improvement, Dr. Berwick has received numerous awards for his contributions. In 2005, he was appointed "Honorary Knight Commander of the British Empire" by Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, in recognition of his work with the British National Health Service. Dr. Berwick is the author of over 160 scientific articles and six books. He currently serves as Lecturer in the Department of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Berwick delivers a powerful speech covering historic writings, poetry, and personal anecdotes.  The ultimate message he conveys is choice, and our preparedness to make a decision. The title of Dr. Berwick's speech is Cat's Feet, a phrase which he introduces in a poem by Carl Sandburg The fog comes on little cat feet. It sits looking over harbor and city on silent haunches and then moves on. He continues to discuss the poem and its portrayal of the unexpected choices we are faced with throughout our careers. "The fog comes on little cat's feet. Maybe you think of ethical choices as arriving with a brass band: Carton at the guillotine, Joan of Arc at the stake, or Martin Luther King and John Lewis on the Edmond Pettis Bridge. Moments of fame and drama "Here I am: Ethics." Forget that. For you, me, most of us, the choices that matter come in unannounced, on little cat's feet, silent in arrival and gone almost before we notice.  You will have the same choice…Whether it will come tomorrow or next week or next year, I cannot say; but it will come. And it won't come once. It will come again, and again, and again, always on cat's feet, suddenly, too suddenly for you wing it. So, don't wing it. Get prepared. Decide in advance. As Dr. Berwick continues, he addresses an important question: what will be your self-identity as a doctor?  Physicians must balance personal heroism with interdependency.  In other words, we will have opportunities to be heroic, to act, and to take matters into our own hands. Dr. Berwick argues that we cannot and should not act alone.  Rather, there is a greater "need for teamwork, generosity, and deference to others."  Dr. Berwick recommends to "not ask what you do; ask what you are part of. Ask, "Who depends on me, and how am I doing in their eyes?" Dr. Berwick reflects on the evolution of ethical values appreciated in healthcare. Now more than ever, physicians have an immense ethical duty. "If we be healers, then the time has ended when the tasks we shoulder stop at the door of an office, the threshold of an operating room, or the front gate of a hospital. We must engage in the rescue of a society, and of a political context, that has forgotten to heal. That has become our job too. Professional silence in the face of social injustice is wrong." Unlike some of the other pieces in this commencement archive issue, Dr. Berwick's is marked with a tone of gravity and weightiness.  He goes beyond our duty as physicians and calls on our responsibilities as individuals in society.  The message is serious, sincere, and thought-provoking.  I encourage all to consider his words closely.


The theoretical literature gives conflicting predictions on how bank competition should affect financial stability, and dozens of researchers have attempted to evaluate the relationship empirically. We collect 598 estimates of the competition-stability nexus reported in 31 studies and analyze the literature using meta-analysis methods. We control for 35 aspects of study design and employ Bayesian model averaging to tackle the resulting model uncertainty. Our findings suggest that the definition of financial stability and bank competition used by researchers influences their results in a systematic way. The choice of data, estimation methodology, and control variables also affects the reported coefficient. We find evidence for moderate publication bias. Taken together, the estimates reported in the literature suggest little interplay between competition and stability, especially in developing and transition countries, even when corrected for publication bias and potential misspecifications.


The assessment of crown rot (F. pseudograminearum) infections in winter cereals was explored using a quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) approach. A range of cereal genotypes of varying resistance to crown rot were monitored during seedling and adult growth stages. A histopathological investigation of F. pseudograminearum (Fp) growth during pathogenesis in seedling and adult growth stages was also performed across a range of cereal genotypes. This utilised a novel staining method developed during this project.

Visual assessment of crown rot symptoms in wheat seedlings is commonly conducted in order to rapidly identify resistant genotypes. Ratings rely heavily on discolouration of seedling tissues, predominantly the leaf sheaths. This study is the first to explore the relationship between seedling tissue discolouration and Fp DNA content in wheat genotypes of differing resistance. The partially resistant wheat 2-49 exhibited lower visual and qPCR values than the susceptible wheat Puseas. The rate of disease development and Fp growth in seedling leaf sheaths was slower in 2-49 than Puseas. The rates of symptom development in intermediate genotypes EGA Wylie and EGA Gregory were not significantly different from that recorded in 2-49. A comparison of visual ratings and qPCR values of Fp DNA indicated a strong correlation (r = 0.89, p < 0.01) between these characters at 14 days after inoculation across all genotypes. The correlation weakened over time. Furthermore, qPCR revealed differences between partially resistant and susceptible genotypes to a much greater extent than possible using visual discolouration.

Crown rot infections of adult cereal stems are typically rated at maturity by recording the amount of discolouration on individual internodes. A comparison was performed between visual ratings and Fp DNA content of four cereal genotypes (two bread wheats, one durum wheat and one barley) at anthesis (16 weeks after planting) and maturity (22 weeks after planting). At anthesis a strong correlation (r = 0.86, p < 0.01) was present between visual and qPCR values. At maturity this relationship was modest (r = 0.58, p < 0.01). Furthermore, differences between partially resistant and susceptible genotypes were greatest at anthesis.

The strong correlations between visual discolouration and fungal DNA content indicate that visual discolouration is a useful measure of fungal load in seedling and adult cereal tissues. However, the degree to which these two parameters correlate varies with the time elapsed since tissue infection.

Fluorescence microscopy revealed no major differences between fungal growth patterns or structural characteristics in the host genotypes assessed. Leaf sheaths were most frequently penetrated via stomata, indicated by initial lesions forming at the guard cells. Leaf sheath tissues became extensively colonised in most cell types, except for the vascular bundles and abaxial silica cells. Colonisation of leaf sheaths resulted in the re-emergence of hyphae and occasionally conidiophores from stomata.

Colonisation of culm tissues frequently originated in the parenchymatous hypoderm, which became greatly discoloured, resulting in the visual discolouration used for disease rating. Early infection of pith parenchyma cells was also frequent. Infections typically spread from the culm base upwards through the tissues, typically only to internode three, with a much slower lateral spread of hyphae. Colonisation of sclerified cells occurred later in the infection process. Vascular tissues were frequently colonised by anthesis. This was more rapid in susceptible genotypes. Occlusion of large xylem vessels was rare during moderate infections.

The ability of quantitative PCR to accurately describe the extent of crown rot infection suggests that it could be utilised as a powerful technique for detecting new resistance sources or for identifying quantitative trait loci for resistance. This method, along with further microscopic and biochemical assessments of partially resistant and susceptible genotypes, may provide new information on the pathogenesis of crown rot and the nature of host resistance responses.


Scalable database management systems (DBMS)—both for update intensive application workloads as well as decision support systems for descriptive and deep analytics—are a critical part of the cloud infrastructure and play an important role in ensuring the smooth transition of applications from the traditional enterprise infrastructures to next generation cloud infrastructures. Though scalable data management has been a vision for more than three decades and much research has focussed on large scale data management in traditional enterprise setting, cloud computing brings its own set of novel challenges that must be addressed to ensure the success of data management solutions in the cloud environment. This paper presents an organized picture of the challenges faced by application developers and DBMS designers in developing and deploying internet scale applications. Our background study encompasses both classes of systems: (i) for supporting update heavy applications, and (it) for ad-hoc analytics and decision support. We then focus on providing an in-depth analysis of systems for supporting update intensive web-applications and provide a survey of the state-of-the-art in this domain. We crystallize the design choices made by some successful systems large scale database management systems, analyze the application Demands and access patterns, and enumerate the desiderata for a cloud-bound DBMS.


This article provides an accessible orientation to the seventeenth-century France in which the Lasallian Educational Movement has its origins. Careful introductions are given to the vocabulary, influential persons and sociopolitical movements of the time and place in which John Baptist de La Salle and the first De La Salle Christian Brothers found what is now known as an international body of ministries responding to the needs of poor children and their communities. The era was characterized by rapid changes in relations between church, state, economies and social classes. In this context, De La Salle, a Canon and a member of the bourgoisie, is moved to establish an order of consecrated laymen who respond to the needs of the poor by providing a human and Christian education gratuitously to sons of artisans and the poor living in urban areas. This examiniation of his life and times illuminates the apparent paradox of this pragmatic and radical endeavor.


Issues connected with motivation, ethnicity, and identity among adolescent and young adult heritage language learners are the subject of a growing amount of research in diaspora communities. However, until recently, this research has tended to be quantitative, and the constructs were theorized and operationalized in a categorical or essentialist manner. This chapter aims to (1) describe some of the changes in theory that are relevant to Chinese heritage language (CHL) learning, seeing it as a much more dynamic, multilingual, nonlinear, and contingent process; (2) review recent research examining these socio-affective factors among CHL learners; (3) present a study on the longitudinal trajectories, motivations, and identities of four individuals learning CHL in a Western Canadian university program; and (4) consider implications of this work for improving curriculum, pedagogy, learning materials, and policies.


Today's college students are the most technology-savvy, computer-oriented generation of college students in history: Twenty percent have been using computers since the primary grades; more than 70% check their e-mail at least daily; and most (85%) own their own computers (Jones, 2002). One recent study found that 94% of campus residents had access to computers in their residence hall rooms (Knerr & Woosley, 2004). College students expect that they will have near-ubiquitous, high-speed computer access wherever they are on campus (Barran, 2003). To the coveted title of "most wired campus" we now must add "most unwired campus," which recognizes the migration to wireless Internet service (http://www.intel.com/pressroom/kits/centrino/unwired_colleges-04.pdf).
Although easy access to computers and high-speed networks may contribute positively to students' academic experiences in significant ways, this technology also has had adverse impacts on campus (Barratt, 2003). One area that has received considerable media attention in the past few years is downloading and file-sharing of copyrighted material, such as music and movies. Under the No Electronic Theft Law (NET Act), these activities are a violation of copyright, and individual violators may face both imprisonment and fines.


The effect of isovolemic hemodilution on red blood cell flow distribution was studied in complete self-contained microvessel networks of the rat mesentery. Hematocrit, diameter, and length of all vessel segments as well as the topological structure were determined in control networks (systemic hematocrit, 0.54) and after hemodilution (systemic hematocrit, 0.30). Hemodilution was performed by exchanging blood with hydroxyethyl starch (MW 450,000; 6%) or homologous plasma. With hemodilution, the decrease of microvessel hematocrit exceeded that of systemic hematocrit. The average discharge hematocrit in capillaries was 79% of systemic hematocrit in the control group and 73% with hemodilution (p less than 0.001). The heterogeneity of capillary hematocrit within the network, expressed by the coefficient of variation, increased from 0.4 to 0.7. By using the morphological and topological data of four networks, the distribution of hematocrits was also calculated using a hydrodynamic flow model. The modeling results were found to be in close agreement with the experimental data. This indicates that the observed changes can be deduced from established rheological phenomena, most of all phase separation at arteriolar bifurcations. The changes in hematocrit distribution after hemodilution are accompanied by a redistribution of red blood cell flow within the network: relative to total red blood cell flow, red blood cell flow in the distal capillaries of the network increases by about 40% at the expense of the proximal capillaries that are close to the feeding arteriole and that exhibit the highest red blood cell flow under control conditions.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


Theoretical analysis supported by laboratory investigations and verified by field studies and observations has shown that defects caused by rolling compaction are the main contributors to early deterioration of asphalt surfaces. The conventional and widely used steel drum roller induces hairline cracks, which permit moisture to infiltrate pavement structure, causing the phenomenon known as stripping. In addition to inducing cracks, steel drums do not provide the desired uniformity in terms of density across the compacted width of the asphalt mat. Drummed rollers also produce poor compaction at unsupported edges of paved lanes. The asphalt multi-integrated roller (AMIR), an innovative compaction technology, offers a more effective alternative for overcoming problems of steel drum rollers by reducing permeability and, in turn, improving long-term performance of flexible pavements. A multistaged laboratory and field-testing program that measures permeability in terms of hydraulic conductivity was performed on pavement sections constructed using an AMIR side by side with a conventional steel roller. Asphalt concrete layers compacted by steel drum rollers were found, on average, to be up to 20 times more permeable than those compacted by the AMIR immediately after construction and as much as 10 times more permeable after 1 year. The major steps leading to the understanding of how rolling affects the permeability of asphalt layers and, consequently, the long-term performance of newly compacted pavements are discussed and presented.


This article takes stock of where the field of behavioral science applied to education policy seems to be at, which avenues seem promising and which ones seem like dead ends. I present a curated set of studies rather than an exhaustive literature review, categorizing interventions by whether they nudge (keep options intact) or "shove" (restrict choice), and whether they apply a high or low touch (whether they use face-to-face interaction or not). Many recent attempts to test large-scale low touch nudges find precisely estimated null effects, suggesting we should not expect letters, text messages, and online exercises to serve as panaceas for addressing education policy's key challenges. Programs that impose more choice-limiting structure to a youth's routine, like mandated tutoring, or programs that nudge parents, appear more promising.


Postpartum Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (PHUS) is a rare disease characterized by spontaneous renal failure occurring immediately after delivery to 10 weeks postpartum. The clinical manifestation associated with PHUS includes acute microangiopathic hemolytic anemia, low platelet levels, and acute renal failure. Here, we report a case of a 29-year-old woman with PHUS after the delivery by caesarean section.


In this paper we introduce a control policy which we refer to as the iterated approximate value function policy. The generation of this policy requires two stages, the first one carried out off-line, and the second stage carried out on-line. In the first stage we simultaneously compute a trajectory of moments of the state and action and a sequence of approximate value functions optimized to that trajectory. The next stage is to perform control using the generated sequence of approximate value functions. This yields a time-varying policy, even in the case where the optimal policy is time-invariant. We restrict our attention to the case with linear dynamics and quadratically representable stage cost function. In this case the pre-computation stage requires the solution of a semidefinite program (SDP). Finding the control action at each time-period requires solving a small convex optimization problem which can be carried out quickly. We conclude with some examples.


The lateral direction of traffic, introduced into modelling during the last decade, is a matter of growing interest. If properly developed, 2D traffic models may allow more accurate reproduction of traffic, thus enhancing the effectiveness and application field of traffic simulation, as well as the understanding of driver behaviour. A more complete knowledge of human driving, in turn, is an important requirement for human-friendly autonomous vehicles sharing streets with human drivers. This paper addresses a tendency of drivers we call collateral anomaly (CA), by which they tend to choose different lateral positions depending on whether they are accompanied side by side by another vehicle or not. Although intuitive, it has never been measured before. In this work we characterise it by statistical means starting from three real trajectory datasets belonging to the Next-Generation Simulation project. We found evidence that the lateral position of vehicles follows a slightly different distribution when they have another vehicle vis-à-vis, deviating from the expected distribution by more than 50 mm on average. The effect is correlated to but cannot be explained alone by lane-changes, and seems to increase with speed. This kind of measure is a necessary step towards analysing 2D traffic model performance. Understanding CA might help understand other lateral position-related phenomena, like the relaxation phenomenon, or the influence of lane and vehicle width in traffic.


Rapid diagnosis is critical for the treatment and prevention of diseases. In this research, we report sensing of antibodies specific to SARS-CoV-2 virus in seconds via an electrochemical platform consisting of gold micropillar array electrodes decorated with reduced graphene oxide and functionalized with recombinant viral antigens. The array electrodes are fabricated by Aerosol Jet (AJ) nanoparticle 3D printing, where gold nanoparticles (3-5nm) are assembled in 3D space, sintered, and integrated with a microfluidic device. The device is shown to detect antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 spike S1 protein and its receptor-binding-domain (RBD) at concentrations down to 1pM via electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and read by a smartphone-based user interface. In addition, the sensor can be regenerated within a minute by introducing a low-pH chemistry that elutes the antibodies from the antigens, allowing successive testing of multiple antibody samples using the same sensor. The detection time for the two antibodies tested in this work is 11.5 seconds. S1 protein sensing of its antibodies is specific, which cross-reacts neither with other antibodies nor with proteins such as Nucleocapsid antibody and Interleukin-6 protein. The proposed sensing platform is generic and can also be used for the rapid detection of biomarkers for other infectious agents such as Ebola, HIV, and Zika, which will benefit the public health.


Cellular mobile radio systems will be of increasing importance in the future. This thesis describes research work concerned with the teletraffic capacity and the canputer control requirements of such systems. The work involves theoretical analysis and experimental investigations using digital computer simulation. New formulas are derived for the congestion in single-cell systems in which there are both land-to-mobile and mobile-to-mobile calls and in which mobile-to-mobile calls go via the base station. Two approaches are used, the first yields modified forms of the familiar Erlang and Engset formulas, while the second gives more complicated but more accurate formulas. The results of computer simulations to establish the accuracy of the formulas are described. New teletraffic formulas are also derived for the congestion in multi -cell systems. Fixed, dynamic and hybrid channel assignments are considered. The formulas agree with previously published simulation results. Simulation programs are described for the evaluation of the speech traffic of mobiles and for the investigation of a possible computer network for the control of the speech traffic. The programs were developed according to the structured progranming approach leading to programs of modular construction. Two simulation methods are used for the speech traffic: the roulette method and the time-true method. The first is economical but has some restriction, while the second is expensive but gives comprehensive answers. The proposed control network operates at three hierarchical levels performing various control functions which include: the setting-up and clearing-down of calls, the hand-over of calls between cells and the address-changing of mobiles travelling between cities. The results demonstrate the feasibility of the control netwvork and indicate that small mini -computers inter-connected via voice grade data channels would be capable of providing satisfactory control


The ability to digitally draw is ingrained within contemporary visual design practices. Drawing is a way of recording, representing and communicating that reveals the identity and voice of the creator as they design for a communication purpose. This paper presents a case of how a group of young Indigenous students re-interpret traditional culture through the act of drawing, as they move from analogue to digital technologies. Through a series of design workshops, the drawing styles of participants from remote Central Australia were recorded and analyzed. Workshops were based within Youth Participatory Action Research methodologies and embedded within Indigenous pedagogies. Results show the ancestral essence of country, connectedness and story remain ingrained within these new digital forms. Initial findings reveal three core themes; drawing as research practice, drawing as cultural practice and drawing through technology. The ability to draw in a new, digital way can create numerous benefits to developing the creative practices of young Indigenous people, as well as social and economic benefits within remote Australia.


extract] At the trial, the only evidence before the Court consisted of the description given by customs officers of the tobacco found in the respondent's truck. The respondent (who was not legally represented) did not challenge any of the evidence. In the result, Customs submitted that in the absence of contradictory evidence, it had proved its case in reliance on the averments to the requisite legal standard of proof, relying on s 144 of the Act which relevantly provides that: (1) In any Excise prosecution the averment of the prosecutor or plaintiff contained in the information, complaint, declaration or claim shall be prima facie evidence of the matter averred. (2) This section shall apply to any matter so averred although:... (3) the matter averred is a mixed question of law and fact but in that case the averment shall be prima facie evidence of the fact only The respondent was duly convicted of an offence against s 117 of the Act, the cut tobacco was condemned as forfeit to the Crown, and the respondent ordered to pay the amounts of excise duty allegedly evaded.


The Science Education Alliance (SEA) Phage Hunters Advancing Genomics and Evolutionary Science, or PHAGES, is a national initiative in the United States, funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) and led by Professor Graham Hatfull from the University of Pittsburgh. This project is built around the discovery and analysis of mycobacteriophages in the biodiversity of the United States. For the first time, this research is being done in Qatar at Carnegie Mellon University to discover the possible existence of bacteriophages within the soil and sand of this Gulf State. The aim was to isolate and purify the phages present within the local ecology to be used as subjects of phage related medicinal therapy. Mycobacterium smegmatis (M.smeg) was used as the host bacteria strain in order to identify the presence of its phages within the sand and soil. This host was chosen due to its non pathogenic nature, fast growing ability and for being a universal host. M.Smeg also has physiological similarities with pathogenic species from the same family; M.tuberculosis causes tuberculosis, and M.leprae causes leprosy. Such efforts are intended to allow us to better understand the mechanisms by which to treat such bacterial diseases using phage therapy as opposed to using increasingly ineffective drugs. Although M.smeg failed to act as a host for the isolated phages from local environmental samples, future works to identify the suitability of other bacterial hosts such as Arthrobacter sp. for these phages will be carried out. Furthermore, analysis of the microbial composition of environmental samples will be conducted to identify specific bacteria hosts that exist in Qatar's ecology.


Enterprise Architecture (EA) is a holistic approach that not only limited to Information Technology (IT) but also align with the business. EA is not just a tool to be used in a financially competitive world; it is a tool that can help to improve the efficiency of organisation and serves as an instrument for exposing the need for transformation. Consequently, interest in EA in the public sector is increasing in receiving attention. However, to success in EA practices in an organisation yet a concern. The primary aim of this research is to explore the readiness factors that influence the successful EA establishment in Malaysian Public Sector (MPS). Using qualitative approach, the exploration has been made through systematic review and semi-structured interview in with EA experts and practitioners. The data from purposeful and emergent sampling strategies have been analysed using Deductive Qualitative Analysis (DQA). The findings highlighted 17 readiness factors that can be categorised into four main s elements which are Enterprise Environment, Process, People and Technology. In the future, these readiness factors will be analysed on its suitability to be set of readiness assessment criteria towards successful EA establishment in MPS.


American public schools are increasingly separate and unequal. By every measure public schools are more becoming more racially segregated. The Supreme Court deserves a great deal of the blame for this. There has not been a single Supreme Court decision since Rodriguez in 1973 that has furthered desegregation or enhanced the equality of American public education. The Supreme Court's major cases on equal educational opportunity – including Rodriguez, Milliken, Dowell, – have limited the ability of courts to create equal educational opportunity. But many schools boards on their own implemented plans to enhance racial diversity and desegregate their schools. In 2007, Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School Dist. No. 1, imposed significant, new limits on the ability of school systems to adopt such voluntary desegregation programs. Part I of this essay describes the Court's decision in Parents Involved. Part II describes the effects of the decision on American public education. Part III explains why the decision is fundamentally flawed in its premises and its conclusions. Parents Involved must be understood in the context of now 40 years of Supreme Court decisions that have contributed to their being increasingly separate and unequal schools.


Aims. We derive for the first time the size-frequency distribution of boulders on a comet, 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (67P), computed from the images taken by the Rosetta/OSIRIS imaging system. We highlight the possible physical processes that lead to these boulder size distributions. Methods. We used images acquired by the OSIRIS Narrow Angle Camera, NAC, on 5 and 6 August 2014. The scale of these images (2.44−2.03 m/px) is such that boulders ≥7 m can be identified and manually extracted from the datasets with the software ArcGIS. We derived both global and localized size-frequency distributions. The three-pixel sampling detection, coupled with the favorable shadowing of the surface (observation phase angle ranging from 48◦ to 53◦), enables unequivocally detecting boulders scattered all over the illuminated side of 67P. Results. We identify 3546 boulders larger than 7 m on the imaged surface (36.4 km2), with a global number density of nearly 100/km2 and a cumulative size-frequency distribution represented by a power-law with index of −3.6 +0.2/−0.3. The two lobes of 67P appear to have slightly different distributions, with an index of −3.5 +0.2/−0.3 for the main lobe (body) and −4.0 +0.3/−0.2 for the small lobe (head). The steeper distribution of the small lobe might be due to a more pervasive fracturing. The difference of the distribution for the connecting region (neck) is much more significant, with an index value of −2.2 +0.2/−0.2. We propose that the boulder field located in the neck area is the result of blocks falling from the contiguous Hathor cliff. The lower slope of the size-frequency distribution we see today in the neck area might be due to the concurrent processes acting on the smallest boulders, such as i) disintegration or fragmentation and vanishing through sublimation; ii) uplifting by gas drag and consequent redistribution; and iii) burial beneath a debris blanket. We also derived the cumulative size-frequency distribution per km2 of localized areas on 67P. By comparing the cumulative size-frequency distributions of similar geomorphological settings, we derived similar power-law index values. This suggests that despite the selected locations on different and often opposite sides of the comet, similar sublimation or activity processes, pit formation or collapses, as well as thermal stresses or fracturing events occurred on multiple areas of the comet, shaping its surface into the appearance we see today.


The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) provides streamflow and other related information needed by water-resource managers responsible for protecting people and property from floods, planning and managing water-resource activities, and protecting water quality. Streamflow statistics provided by the USGS, such as the 1-percent annual exceedance probability (100-year flood) and the 7-day 10-year low flow, are frequently used by engineers, flood forecasters, land managers, biologists, and others to guide their everyday decisions. Additionally, resource managers often need to know basin characteristics, the physical and climatic characteristics of a drainage basin, to help understand the mechanisms that control water availability, water quality, and aquatic habitats at various locations. Users of streamflow information often require streamflow statistics and basin characteristics at various locations along a stream. The USGS periodically calculates and publishes streamflow statistics and basin characteristics for streamflowgaging stations and partial-record stations, but these data commonly are scattered among many reports that may or may not be readily available to the public. The USGS also provides and periodically updates regional analyses of streamflow statistics that include regression equations and other prediction methods for estimating statistics for ungaged and unregulated streams across the State. Use of these regional predictions for a stream can be complex and often requires the user to determine a number of basin characteristics that may require interpretation. Basin characteristics may include drainage area, classifiers for physical properties, climatic characteristics, and other inputs. Obtaining these input values for gaged and ungaged locations traditionally has been time consuming, subjective, and can lead to inconsistent results. Description of StreamStats


This study evaluates the performances of three Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model v5.0 simulations that utilise meteorological input data from the 5th-generation Mesoscale Model (MM5), the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model and WRF with Four-Dimensional Data Assimilation (WRF/FDDA). Three sets of CMAQ model simulations were performed for a high air pollution episode from October 9 to October 12, 2004 over the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region, which was caused by a high-pressure system. The observations at Guangzhou urban site (113.26°E, 23.13°N) were used to evaluate the results of meteorological models and air quality models. In all three experiments, the simulated pollutants were distributed mainly in the western part of PRD, but there was still a difference of horizontal distribution among them. The predicted wind fields, relative humidity and planetary boundary layer (PBL) height in meteorological simulations were the major factors contributing to this difference.


In today's business world, ethics and responsibility appear as vital value. Globalization of markets, free access to information, and increasing social and environmental problems have an impact on global ethics, and urge the integration of ethical issues into everyday business practice. In this article, we present the results of our qualitative investigation of business ethics at network level. Our research involves experts from the Hungarian metal industry and machinery supply chains as well as corporate executives; we ask them on the role of ethics and ethical behaviour in renewing their contracts, in their relationship-specific investments or business relationships in general. According to our experience, it is common for buyers to compete even a long-lasting business relationship through tender. Although machine building is a technology-intensive area, we see that the relationship-specific investments do not play important role in this sphere. We think that the companies feel the network effects in their supply chain but still manage their dyadic business relationships much more actively.


Stay Ahead of the CurveLearn to Glow ! You know them at first sight: teammates or colleagues, direct reports or bosses who radiate enthusiasm, positive energy, and inspiration. Even in difficult circumstances they Glow with an attitude that inspires others, fosters a great working experience for everyone, and creates empowering relationships. And Lynda Gratton can make sure you're one of them. Drawing on years of original research, Gratton identifies three principles that people who Glow live by, and three actions for putting each principle into practice. Lynda Gratton is one of the world's leading experts on how pockets of energy and innovation are created in organizations. Now she zeroes in on how you can become a source of energy and innovation yourself.


Abstract The role played by gas compressibility in gas-cushioned liquid–solid impacts is investigated within a viscous gas and inviscid liquid regime. A full analysis of the energy conservation in the gas is conducted for the first time, which indicates that both thermal diffusion across the gas film and viscous dissipation play an important role in gas cushioning once gas compression becomes significant. Consequently existing models of gas compressibility based on either an isothermal or an adiabatic equation of state for the gas do not fully reflect the physics associated with this phenomenon. Models incorporating thermal diffusion and viscous dissipation are presented, which are appropriate for length scales consistent with droplet impacts, and for larger scale liquid–solid impacts. The evolution of the free surface is calculated alongside the corresponding pressure, temperature and density profiles. These profiles indicate that a pocket of gas can become trapped during an impact. Differences between the new model and older models based on isothermal and adiabatic equations of state are discussed, along with predictions of the size of the trapped gas pocket.


The Cretaceous thermal maximum was a major turning point in the history of Earth's climate. This interval of peak warmth in the Turonian has been attributed to very high atmospheric pCO2 resulting from rapid outgassing rates, although crustal cycling rates peaked in the Aptian‐Albian interval. On the basis of coupled ocean-atmosphere model simulations of the middle Cretaceous, we hypothesize that the formation of an Atlantic gateway could have contributed to the Cretaceous thermal maximum. Differences between prerifting and postrifting climate experiments demonstrate substantial regional oceanographic changes in the North and South Atlantic Basins that are consistent with oxygen isotopic evidence used to infer a Cretaceous thermal maximum. The model results help reconcile the paleoclimate record inferred from foraminiferal d 18 O with our understanding of climate dynamics and Cretaceous tectonism.


Understanding the factors that define a given interaction is important in agricultural, agronomic, and plant breeding research, where agronomic treatments or genotypes are evaluated under several environmental conditions and where interactions usually complicate a researcher's decisions. We give examples of how interactions, in common agricultural experiments, can be examined and studied to make use of the rich information available on the interaction term of the model. Examples with different levels of interaction complexity are used to illustrate how to analyze and interpret interactions and how interaction components can be partitioned into comparisons with sensible biological interpretations. It will offer researchers a greater understanding of how to exploit interaction information beyond the standard statistical tests performed in the usual analysis of variance. Simple SAS codes for performing standard interaction contrasts and defining interaction covariables are provided.


In this paper, we report a teaching experiment regarding the theory of polynomial approximations at the university mathematics teaching in Sweden. The experiment was designed by applying Variation theory and by using the free dynamic mathematics software GeoGebra. The aim of this study was to investigate if the technology-assisted teaching of Taylor polynomials compared with traditional way of work at the university level can support the teaching and learning of mathematical concepts and ideas. An engineering student group (n = 19) was taught Taylor polynomials with the assistance of GeoGebra while a control group (n = 18) was taught in a traditional way. The data were gathered by video recording of the lectures, by doing a post-test concerning Taylor polynomials in both groups and by giving one question regarding Taylor polynomials at the final exam for the course in Real Analysis in one variable. In the analysis of the lectures, we found Variation theory combined with GeoGebra to be a potentially powerful tool for revealing some critical aspects of Taylor Polynomials. Furthermore, the research results indicated that applying Variation theory, when planning the technology-assisted teaching, supported and enriched students' learning opportunities in the study group compared with the control group.


Today, the processes of decentralization and democratization are fundamental aspects of sustainable human development in Mali, and have a considerable impact on all strategies and policies involved in agricultural development. The role and responsibilities of the state are limited to missions of protection and of public administration. Most activities related to economic management and development programs have been transferred to civil society and local populations. The aims of the new Plan for Rural Land Development are to encourage greater flexibility and to make the related strategies and policies more consistent. Of particular interest are the following: · National environmental protection policy · Strategy for poverty reduction and accelerated growth · National strategy for irrigation development The institutions responsible for implementing these policies are handicapped by lack of skilled and experienced personnel, uncertainty, and financial constraints. All of these problems must be urgently dealt with. Inappropriate land law and weakened traditional management regimes also make it particularly difficult to solve the numerous land conflicts that arise. This problem poses a significant threat to attempts to establish sustainable natural resource management and land tenure security in irrigated areas. The authors assess these problems and recommend strategies for addressing them.


Channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus) were collected in all of the major watersheds in Nebraska during the summer of 1964. Individual fat samples and composite blood samples obtained from these {ish were analyzed to determine the concentrations of residues of DDT and its metabolites (o,P'DDT, p,p'-DDT, p,p'-DDD, and DDE) and dieldrin. A total of 178 fish, collected from 18 sites, were analyzed. As expected, the fat samples contained higher concentrations of the pesticides than did the blood samples. DDT residues were found in all fat samples, and average levels from 10 fish sampled at each site ranged from a low of 2.2 ppm in the sandhills region to a high of 92.2 ppm in Salt Creek below Lincoln, Nebr. Average dieldrin residues in fat samples ranged from 0.1 to 6.7 ppm. All values are expressed as ppm (p.glg) of residue detected in each sample of fat. The composite blood samples were found to contain DDT residue concentrations ranging from a low of less than 0.01 ppm to a high of 0.16 ppm. Dieldrin residue concentrations ranged from a low of less than 0.01 ppm to a high of 0.07 ppm.


Lichen planus is a chronic recurrent inflammatory disease affecting both skin and mucosa, mainly in oral and/or genital regions. Keratinocytes go through a well-regulated process of proliferation and differentiation, alterations in which may result in defects in the protective epithelial barrier. Long-term barrier impairment might lead to chronic inflammation. In order to broaden our understanding of the differentiation process in mucosal lichen planus, we mapped the expression of 4 factors known to be involved in differentiation. Biopsies were collected from oral and genital lichen planus lesions and normal controls. Altered expression of all 4 factors in epithelium from lichen planus lesions was found, clearly indicating disturbed epithelial differentiation in lichen planus lesions.


Questions
Do composition and richness of woody plants differ between gaps and closed canopy in subtropical forests, and does this difference vary across life stages of tree species? Is tree species richness in gaps a function of regeneration density?

Location
Subtropical Shorea robusta Gaertn (Sal) forest, central Nepal.

Methods
We collected vegetation data from two old-growth S. robusta forest stands. We sampled 128 plots of 100 m2 equally spread between the two habitats: gap and closed canopy. In each plot, we recorded the total number of woody species, number of individuals of seedlings and saplings of tree species and measured the DBH of all saplings. We compared species richness and composition of total woody species, seedlings and saplings between the two habitats. We used ordination to analyse species composition, and an individual-based species accumulation curves to illustrate the effect of density on species richness.

Results
The species composition of total woody species and seedlings was similar in both habitats, but species composition of saplings differed between habitats. Total woody and seedling richness were similar between habitats at one site, but were richer under closed canopy at the other site. Sapling richness was higher in gaps at both sites and was a function of stem density at one site, but not at the other site.

Conclusions
Gaps are not always areas of higher woody species richness and therefore may be less important than expected for the overall species richness of woody plants. Instead, they are potentially important for enhancing local tree richness by increasing sapling richness. Gap disturbance is the primary driver of structural heterogeneity in forests where topographic and edaphic gradients are negligible.


I. INTRODUCTION CellPro, a biotechnology company in Seattle, Washington, developed an extraordinary device. (1) Its Ceprate system separates stem cells from blood and enables the reintroduction of healthy stem cells into patients who have undergone debilitating radiation treatment. (2) This device was so effective that it cured CellPro's own CEO, Rick Murdock, of his deadly form of cancer. (3) The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved CellPro's Ceprate system for sale in the United States, (4) but it is not on the market. (5) The Ceprate system is not for sale because the United States District Court for the District of Delaware found that CellPro willfully infringed four patents in the creation of the Ceprate device. (6) Those four patents were initially found to be invalid in a jury trial. (7) However, the district court overturned the jury's decision by granting the patents, assignees and licensees, motion for judgment as a matter of law ("JMOL") using de novo review. (8) After its own de novo claim construction, the district court remanded the case to another jury. (9) That jury trial found CellPro had willfully infringed the patents. (10) That decision was upheld on appeal (11) and as a result CellPro dissolved, along with its Ceprate system. (12) This cancer-curing device was shelved. (13) Rick Murdock comments on his experience with CellPro, Ceprate, and the district court in his book, Patient Number One. (14) He describes the entire process as "a sham, a kangaroo court ... about as real as pro wrestling." (15) Rightfully upset, Murdock was on the losing side of the case that destroyed the very technology that saved his life. (16) Stem cells continue to help biomedical research gain significant ground in the fight against cancer and other life-threatening diseases. (17) Yet the rush by scientists to patent their discoveries creates tension between open scientific research, and exclusivity and profit protection. This tension is all the more evident when life-saving technology is at stake because it is difficult to morally justify restricting technology that could eradicate debilitating diseases for the sake of exclusive intellectual property rights. Is Murdock right? Was his experience with the justice system a sham? Is the district court's review of jury verdicts too powerful? Maybe Markman (18) has changed the patent review system too much. The opinion in Markman anticipated the possibility of "certainty in claim construction ... early settlements, reduced litigation costs, and increased judicial efficiency." (19) In practice however, it has had the opposite effect. (20) The Federal Circuit now reverses approximately forty percent of the claim constructions it reviews on appeal. (21) Litigation is not reduced as anticipated, since "[p]arties are much less willing to settle knowing that there exists a forty percent chance that the Federal Circuit will reverse the claim construction and remand the case for trial under a new construction." (22) If reality after Markman is a system fraught with uncertainty and added expense, (23) one cannot help but agree with Murdock. After all, the patent system was created to "promote the progress of science and useful arts" by protecting rights of inventors. (24) Congress created the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit as a court with exclusive jurisdiction over patent-related appeals. (25) Congress hoped to avoid forum shopping and create certainty in patent cases. (26) Further adding to the confusion is that the United States Constitution protects the right to a trial by jury. (27) Unless Congress takes the Federal Circuit one step further by creating an even more highly-specialized patent court system, a jury should be allowed to continue its fact-finding function in patent claim construction without the threat of de novo review by the Federal Circuit. II. PATENT PROTECTION AND BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH The Constitution attributed to Congress the role of promoting "the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries. …


This paper discusses an approach to assess Video Streaming (VS) performance over live UMTS networks. The suggested methodology can be used to evaluate the service performance of Release 99 (Rel'99) or HSDPA network implementations. In this paper, measurement and analysis results of VS performance in a deployed Rel'99 UMTS network are presented. The measurements were carried out through field tests in an unloaded network cluster. RTP statistics and video quality metrics are shown for single-user VS tests in both stationary and mobile environments. The results indicate that RTP performance metrics are a good means to correlate RF conditions and protocol observations with terminal and network related behaviors, whereas the suggested set of video quality metrics can be used to evaluate the corresponding user perception.


Differences in performance among the areas of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland can provide some insight into the resilience of UK milk supplies from forage-based dairy herds. This study used a Markov Chain approach to model the average herd in each region between the years 2010 to 2015. The effect of a single unit change in milk production (milk volume, fat yield and protein yield), fitness (survival, somatic cell count, mastitis and calving interval) and efficiency (methane) traits on the economic value and GHG emissions intensity (expressed as carbon dioxide equivalents per cow and per kg milk solids) were assessed. Production data were obtained from a total of about half a million milk recorded dairy cows in the UK and the Farm Business Surveys for each region. Across the UK improving the health (SCC and mastitis), fertility (calving intervals) and survival of cows will increase profitability and reduce emissions intensity of milk production. In Scotland, herds had higher milk yields but poorer survival, which potentially could be due to poor fertility indicated by a longer calving interval compared to other regions. Herds in Northern Ireland had the shortest average calving interval but the highest somatic cell counts (SCC), and thus greater estimated mastitis incidence and wasted milk. Notably, England had considerably higher economic values (between 10 and 30%) and emission intensity values (between 11 and 37%) for SCC and mastitis incidence than other regions, due to lost milk production and the higher gross margin. This study provides a framework that can be customised for individual herds to allow assessment of resilience and resource efficiency of milk production not only in the UK but for comparison with international dairy systems.


This studies is about recommending food for the anemia patient by using rule base. Anemia is a blood disorder diseases which is having low iron level in the blood. The rule base technique is applied in this studies to recommend suitable food for the anemia patient, as the anemia patient having problem to consume food that can help to increase the iron level in the blood. The aim of this studies is to develop the prototype for recommending food for the anemia patient by using rule base. The first objective of this studies is to gathered food information from the dietician, an interview is being held in order to get further information and a better understanding about Malaysian foods. The second objective of this studies is to analyse the relationship between the suitable food and the preferences of the animatic user by using rule based. The third objective is to create and embedded the rules to the prototype to recommends foods to the animatic users. This studies consists of four phases for methodology, which is data gathering, data analysis, design and implementation. In the first phases, which are data gathering, interview with the dietician is conducted to gather the information regarding the food information as well as the iron level needed daily for the anemia patient. Data analysis is the second phases of methodology in this studies, the gathered data is being analyse and preprocess to produce cleaned data. The third phases is design, the design of the database, interface of the prototype is being done in this phase. The last phases is implementation which are implementing the generated rule base for recommending food to the anemia patient to the prototype. The phases of this methodology is to achieve the objective of this studies and fulfilled the aim of this studies. The final result of this studies is the developed system prototype is able to recommend suitable food for the anemia patient base on the animatic preferences.


High-throughput genotyping arrays provide a standardized resource for plant breeding communities that are useful for a breadth of applications including high-density genetic mapping, genome-wide association studies (GWAS), genomic selection (GS), complex trait dissection, and studying patterns of genomic diversity among cultivars and wild accessions. We have developed the CottonSNP63K, an Illumina Infinium array containing assays for 45,104 putative intraspecific single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers for use within the cultivated cotton species Gossypium hirsutum L. and 17,954 putative interspecific SNP markers for use with crosses of other cotton species with G. hirsutum. The SNPs on the array were developed from 13 different discovery sets that represent a diverse range of G. hirsutum germplasm and five other species: G. barbadense L., G. tomentosum Nuttal × Seemann, G. mustelinum Miers × Watt, G. armourianum Kearny, and G. longicalyx J.B. Hutchinson and Lee. The array was validated with 1,156 samples to generate cluster positions to facilitate automated analysis of 38,822 polymorphic markers. Two high-density genetic maps containing a total of 22,829 SNPs were generated for two F2 mapping populations, one intraspecific and one interspecific, and 3,533 SNP markers were co-occurring in both maps. The produced intraspecific genetic map is the first saturated map that associates into 26 linkage groups corresponding to the number of cotton chromosomes for a cross between two G. hirsutum lines. The linkage maps were shown to have high levels of collinearity to the JGI G. raimondii Ulbrich reference genome sequence. The CottonSNP63K array, cluster file and associated marker sequences constitute a major new resource for the global cotton research community.


. We propose an alternative approach for the currently used biogeographic global vegetation classifications. A hierarchical vegetation classification system is proposed for consistent and routine monitoring of global vegetation. Global vegetation is first defined into six classes based on plant canopy structure and dynamics observable by remote sensing from satellites. Additional biome variability is then represented through a remote sensing derived leaf area index map, and direct climate data sets driving an ecosystem model to compute and map net primary production and evapotranspiration. Simulation results from an ecosystem function model suggest that the six canopy structure-based classes are sufficient to represent global variability in these parameters, provided the spatio-temporal variations in Leaf Area Index and climate are characterized accurately.

If a bioclimatically based classification is needed for other purposes, our six class approach can be expanded to a possible 21 classes using archived climatic zones. For example, tropical, subtropical, temperate and boreal labels are defined by absolute minimum temperature. Further separation in each class is possible through changes in water availability defined by precipitation and/or soils. The resulting vegetation classes correspond to many of the existing, conventional global vegetation schemes, yet retain the measure of actual vegetation possible because remote sensing first defines the six biome classes in our classification.

Vegetation classifications are no longer an end product but a source of initializing data for global ecosystem function models. Remote sensing with biosphere models directly calculates the ecological functions previously inferred from vegetation classifications, but with higher spatial and temporal accuracy.


Image matting is an ill-posed problem. It requires a user input trimap or some strokes to obtain an alpha matte of the foreground object. A fine user input is essential to obtain a good result, which is either time consuming or suitable for experienced users who know where to place the strokes. In this paper, we explore the intrinsic relationship between the user input and the matting algorithm to address the problem of where and when the user should provide the input. Our aim is to discover the most informative sequence of regions for user input in order to produce a good alpha matte with minimum labeling efforts. To this end, we propose an active matting method with recurrent reinforcement learning. The proposed framework involves human in the loop by sequentially detecting informative regions for trivial human judgement. Comparing to traditional matting algorithms, the proposed framework requires much less efforts, and can produce satisfactory results with just 10 regions. Through extensive experiments, we show that the proposed model reduces user efforts significantly and achieves comparable performance to dense trimaps in a user-friendly manner. We further show that the learned informative knowledge can be generalized across different matting algorithms.


We examined root morphological and functional differences caused by restrictions imposed to vertical growth in the root system of holm oak (Quercus ilex L.) seedlings to assess the consequences of using nursery containers in the development of a confined root system for this species. Thus, root morphological, topological and functional parameters, including hydraulic conductance per leaf unit surface area (K $_{\rm RL})$, were investigated in one-year seedlings cultivated in three PVC tubes differing in length (20, 60 and 100 cm). Longer tubes showed greater projected root area, root volume, total and fine root lengths, specific root length (SRL) and K$_{\rm RL}$ values than did shorter tubes. On the other hand, the length of coarse roots (diameter > 4.5 mm) and the average root diameter were greater in shorter tubes. The strong positive correlation found between K$_{\rm RL}$ and SRL (r=+0.69; P<0.001) indicated that root thickness was inversely related to water flow through the root system. We concluded that root systems developed in longer tubes are more efficient for plant water uptake and, therefore, changes in root pattern produced in standard forest containers (i.e. about 20 cm length) may in fact prevent a proper establishment of the holm oak in the field, particularly in xeric environments.


In recent years, there have been a number of studies regarding mathematics instruction. Specifically, efforts to address the achievement gap across the United States have been discussed and still the contributing factors and possible solutions have either been unacknowledged or partly recognized. Hence, the need for such research is critical and imperative to educating persons of the matter that exists within mathematics education today. This study was conducted in a natural setting in which cognitive and cultural characteristics were explored in order to identify how such differences amongst students influence their exhibition of mathematical abilities. In particular, literature regarding cognitive style, culture in the classroom, and teacher preparation were consulted in order to establish a foundation for this study. The research conducted and the implications that follow are significant to the discipline of mathematics and perhaps more importantly to teachers seeking to educate today's diverse group of students of mathematical concepts. Hence, the implications of this study are of great value and necessary for improving education at the national level as well as individual practices for mathematics instructors as well.


Kato et al. report that mice lacking the ability to signal through the Toll-like receptor (TLR) pathway still stimulated expression of genes encoding interferons (IFNs) in fibroblasts in response to infection with RNA virus. In contrast, mouse embryo fibroblasts (MEFs) from mice deficient for retinoic acid-induced gene 1 (RIG-1) did not show increased expression of genes encoding IFN or genes regulated by IFN in response to infection with several different RNA viruses. In RIG-1-deficient MEFs, RNA virus infection failed to stimulate phosphorylation of signal transducer and activator of transcription 1 (STAT1) and dimerization of IFN regulatory factor 3 (IRF3), which are upstream events in the pathway that leads to increased IFN gene expression. Overexpression of TANK-binding kinase 1 (TBK1) and IKK-i [inhibitor of NF-κB (IκB) kinase (IKK)-related kinase] resulted in stimulation of an IFN-β reporter gene in the RIG-1–/– MEFs, which suggests that the RIG-1 pathway involves these two kinases. Stimulation of both IFN-α and IFN-β production was impaired in one type of dendritic cell, conventional dendritic cells (cDCs), in the absence of RIG-1 but was not impaired by absence of TLR signaling (MyD88–/–, TRIF–/– cells). In contrast, IFN and interleukin-6 (IL-6) production was not impaired by deficiency of RIG-1, but was impaired by loss of TLR signaling in plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs). Thus, there are two mechanisms for mounting an antiviral response to RNA viruses, a RIG-1 pathway that is active in fibroblasts and cDCs and a TLR pathway in other cells, including pDCs. H. Kato, S. Sato, M. Yoneyama, M. Yamamoto, S. Uematsu, K. Matsui, T. Tsujimura, K. Takeda, T. Fujita, O. Takeuchi, S. Akira, Cell type-specific involvement of RIG-1 in antiviral response. Immunity 23, 19-28 (2005). [PubMed]


A reliable prediction of cutting forces is the aim of many researchers. In this study cutting forces prediction was modeled using back propagation (BP) neural network with an enhancement by differential evolution (DE) algorithm. Experimental machining data is used in this study to train and evaluate the model. The data includes speed, feed rate, depth of cut, nose wear, flank wear, notch wear, feed force, vertical force, and radial force. A graphical study of the data reveals high non-linearity and early experiments carried out in this study using simple back propagation network gave marginally acceptable results. The results have shown an obvious improvement in the reliability of predicting the cutting forces over the previous work.


The Great War in Natal was chiefly the concern of the British community. The war effort in the province was entirely in the hands of English-speaking settler elite, which, as we shall see, displayed great diligence and zeal in the imperial cause. This is the thesis of this article on the Natal home front during the First World War. The article is also an assay of published sources on the topic. It is not a work of original research, but a survey of primary and secondary literature, which is remarkably sparse and fragmentary (as the notes will indicate) in spite of the significance of the subject, and therefore it marks a starting point for further research in the field on the eve of the centenary.


The Russian air attacks on Aleppo have diverted attention from Moscow's intervention intended to secure Bashar al-Assad's position in Damascus. Extending beyond northern Syria, Moscow's direct military involvement has instilled fear in the countries backing the non-Jihadist rebel units in the south. Known as the Southern Front, they are based in the area stretching from south of the capital to the Jordanian border and close to the Israeli border. Hardline Islamist rebels, as well as so-called Islamic State (IS), are poised to gain as moderates are undermined. A rethink on ways to empower the Southern Front and once more put pressure on Assad is overdue if the region and its civil structures are to escape capture by the regime and further penetration by the Jihadists is to be prevented – scenarios that could create a new wave of refugees towards Jordan. Due to the south's strategic importance, Israel has emerged as a veto player in the neighborhood, helping to curb Russian bombing as Moscow acts with different interests in the south and the north.


The process of designing the Green Climate Fund (GCF) will reshape the global architecture of climate change financing over the coming months. Yet the promise of the GCF is imperilled by its embrace of 20th century state-centric approaches to governance that fail to engage the resources and energies of non-state actors. Designers of the GCF - as well as the Adaptation Fund and other funds - should instead learn from the successes of the new generation of global health institutions, which integrate the capacities of stakeholders through direct participation in governance.


It is increasingly argued that there is a single unified constitutive norm of both assertion and practical reasoning. The most common suggestion is that knowledge is this norm. If this is correct, then we would expect that a diagnosis of problematic assertions should manifest as problematic reasons for acting. Jennifer Lackey has recently argued that assertions epistemically grounded in isolated second-hand knowledge (ISHK) are unwarranted. I argue that decisions epistemically grounded in premises based on ISHK also seem inappropriate. I finish by suggesting that this finding has important implications for the debates regarding the norms of assertion and practical reasoning.


Aims: To assess the changes in ocular surface abnormalities and meibomian fatty acid composition in patients suffering from meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD) after treatment with oral minocycline associated with lid hygiene versus lid hygiene only. Methods: We evaluated the break-up time, corneal staining and quality of meibomian excreta, and collected meibomian oil in 20 individuals suffering from MGD before and after 8 weeks of minocycline associated with lid hygiene (n = 10) or lid hygiene only (n = 10). Meibomian fatty acids were directly transmethylated and analysed by gas chromatography (GC) and GC mass spectrometry. Results: The meibomian fatty acid composition was slightly modified after 8 weeks in both groups. The decrease in a branched-chain fatty acid (isoC20) was greater after minocycline treatment than after lid hygiene only (–65% and –25%, respectively; p<0.05). Other fatty acids were unchanged. A significant improvement in the BUT was observed after minocycline treatment (p = 0.03). Conclusion: This study showed better tear film stability after minocycline treatment and a biological effect on meibomian fatty acid composition in MGD patients. Minocycline was more effective than lid hygiene alone. Both interventions partly corrected fatty acid composition abnormalities. Among the fatty acids, isoC20 could be a biological marker of MGD.


In the Middle East and North Africa, illicit drugs have long been tackled through drug policies mainly focusing on tough law enforcement. As a result, few efforts have been made to assess the nature and the scope of drug use and dependence, and drug users have become increasingly stigmatised. In recent years, some MENA countries have started to recognise that a law enforcement approach to illicit drugs had not addressed drug-related harms and drug dependence and are considering new options of intervention. In an effort to support this new development, IDPC organised a seminar in collaboration with its local partner, the National Rehabilitation Centre in Abu Dhabi (NRC), in order to generate constructive discussions and share experience on drug policy, in the region and beyond. The seminar was attended by over 150 participants from 12 different countries, including Afghanistan, Egypt, Gaza, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, the West Bank and Yemen. The seminar benefited from the participation of policy makers, representatives of international governmental and non-governmental organisations, local NGOs, healthcare providers and law enforcement officers. The goals of the seminar were twofold – to share experience and perspectives on drug policy to get a better understanding of the main issues in MENA, and to discuss possibilities for networking activities in the region. The main sessions focused on four themes, drug prevention, drug dependence treatment, harm reduction and drug laws and enforcement. Each session started with a short presentation on global evidence, followed by presentations on regional examples of good practice, and ended with discussions and a Q&A from the audience. This report highlights the main discussions that took place at the meeting.


Abstract. Size distribution data of major aerosol constituents are essential in source apportioning of visibility degradation, testing and verification of air quality models incorporating aerosols. We report here 1-year observations of mass size distributions of major inorganic ions (sulfate, nitrate, chloride, ammonium, sodium, potassium, magnesium and calcium) and oxalate at a coastal suburban receptor site in Hong Kong, China. A total of 43 sets of size-segregated samples in the size range of 0.056–18 μm were collected from March 2011 to February 2012. The size distributions of sulfate, ammonium, potassium and oxalate were characterized by a dominant droplet mode with a mass mean aerodynamic diameter (MMAD) in the range of ~ 0.7–0.9 μm. Oxalate had a slightly larger MMAD than sulfate on days with temperatures above 22 °C as a result of the process of volatilization and repartitioning. Nitrate was mostly dominated by the coarse mode but enhanced presence in fine mode was detected on winter days with lower temperature and lower concentrations of sea salt and soil particles. This data set reveals an inversely proportional relationship between the fraction of nitrate in the fine mode and product of the sum of sodium and calcium in equivalent concentrations and the dissociation constant of ammonium nitrate (i.e., (1/([Na+] + 2[Ca2+]) × (1/Ke')) when Pn_fine is significant (> 10%). The seasonal variation observed for sea salt aerosol abundance, with lower values in summer and winter, is possibly linked with the lower marine salinities in these two seasons. Positive matrix factorization was applied to estimate the relative contributions of local formation and transport to the observed ambient sulfate level through the use of the combined data sets of size-segregated sulfate and select gaseous air pollutants. On average, the regional/super-regional transport of air pollutants was the dominant source at this receptor site, especially on high-sulfate days while local formation processes contributed approximately 30% of the total sulfate. This work provides field-measurement-based evidence important for understanding both local photochemistry and regional/super-regional transport in order to properly simulate sulfate aerosols in air quality models.


The second edition of this book is a self-contained introduction to computational fluid dynamics (CFD). It covers the fundamentals of the subject and is ideal as a text or a comprehensive reference to CFD theory and practice. Features: new approach takes readers seamlessly from first principles to more advanced and applied topics; presents the essential components of a simulation system at a level suitable for those coming into contact with CFD for the first time, and is ideal for those who need a comprehensive refresher on the fundamentals of CFD; enhanced pedagogy features chapter objectives, hands-on practice examples and end of chapter exercises; extended coverage of finite difference, finite volume and finite element methods; new chapters include an introduction to grid properties and the use of grids in practice; includes material on 2-D inviscid, potential and Euler flows, 2-D viscous flows and Navier-Stokes flows to enable the reader to develop basic CFD simulations; and includes best practice guidelines for applying existing commercial or shareware CFD tools.


Abstract Recent studies have found that Gopher Tortoise, Gopherus polyphemus, populations in southern Mississippi exhibit low recruitment, due in part to very low hatching success of their eggs. We sought to determine if the cause(s) of this low hatching success was related to egg quality (intrinsic factors), unsuitability of the nest environment (extrinsic factors), or a combination of the two. In 2003, hatching success was monitored simultaneously for eggs from the same clutches that were incubated in the laboratory and left to incubate in nests. A subset of randomly chosen eggs from each clutch was incubated in the laboratory under physical conditions that were known to be conducive to successful hatching to estimate the proportion of eggs that were capable of hatching in a controlled setting. Hatching success in the laboratory was compared with that of eggs incubated in natural nests to estimate the proportion of eggs that failed to hatch presumably from extrinsic factors. Laboratory hatching success was 58.8%, suggesting that roughly 40% of the eggs were intrinsically incapable of hatching even when incubated under controlled conditions. Hatching success in natural nests, 16.7%, was significantly lower than hatching success in the laboratory, suggesting that approximately 42.1% of eggs were capable of hatching but failed to hatch due to some extrinsic aspect(s) of the nest environment. Thus, the low hatching success of Gopher Tortoise eggs in southern Mississippi appears to be attributable to a combination of intrinsic (egg quality) and extrinsic (nest environment) factors.


Abstract : The lock Performance Monitoring System is a part of the Inland Navigation Systems Analysis program and encompasses the collection, editing, maintenance and analysis of data collected at all Corps-owned and operated locks. The data have been collected since March of 1975 and consist of information describing the traffic through the locks as well as the physical aspects of lockages. The quarterly summary of selected statistics presented in the appendix provides an overview of the traffic and operation at each lock. The quarterly report is presented as a set of three tables for each Corps District. Information reported for each lock and chamber includes: (1) A listing providing the name of the lock, the river on which the lock is and its dimensions. In those areas where there is no quarterly information, this table will be the only display for the district; (2) A table providing, by direction and total, the number of tows, commercial vessels other than tows, recreational vessels, barges (empty and loaded), commercial lockages, recreational lockages and tonnage; and (3) A summary of approach, entry chambering and exit times (maximum, minimum and average) and the number of delays, total delay time, maximum delay time and average delay time.


ABSTRACT Introduction: Immunotherapy has long been considered a potential therapy for malignant mesothelioma and is currently being pursued as such. Some of the early phase clinical trials involving immunomodulators have demonstrated encouraging results and numerous clinical trials are underway to further investigate this treatment approach in various treatment settings and larger patient cohorts. Areas covered: This review summarizes the current and emerging clinical evidence for checkpoint blockade and other immunotherapeutic strategies in mesothelioma. The mesothelioma tumor immune microenvironment and mutational landscape are also discussed, including their impact on treatment strategies. We also provide an evaluation of the current evidence for neoantigen targeted personalized immunotherapy. Expert opinion: Immune checkpoint inhibitors work by unleashing the host immune response against probable neoantigens. Despite impressive activity in a small subset of patients and the potential for prolonged responses, most patients experience treatment failure. Neoantigen vaccines provide a potential complementary therapeutic strategy by increasing the immunogenic antigen load, which can lead to an increased tumor specific immune response. Further research is needed explore this treatment option in mesothelioma and technological advances are required to translate this concept into clinical practice.


This thesis presents a body of original research describing the synthesis, characterisation and biological properties of novel arsonium- and phosphonium- alkylthiosulfate zwitterions and thioacetate salts and gold nanoparticles functionalized with triphenylarsoniumpropylthiolate ligands.
Chapter 1 presents a systematic literature review of the preparation of functionalized gold nanoparticles, their biomedical properties, the biological applications of phosphonium and arsonium ions and phosphonium-functionalized nanomaterials. Details of the analytical methods employed to characterize all the compounds produced in this study are outlined in chapter 2.
Chapter 3 reports the synthesis of the triphenylarsoniopropylthiosulfate zwitterion and ω-
thioacetylpropyl(triphenyl)arsonium bromide salt. Both compounds have been characterized spectroscopically and by single crystal X-ray diffraction. The thiosulfate group
of the triphenylarsoniopropylthiosulfate zwitterion and the thioacetate group of the ω- thioacetylpropyl(triphenyl)arsonium salt undergo reductive cleavage, forming the
corresponding triphenylarsoniumpropylthiolate ions that attach to the surface of gold in a modification of the established Brust-Schiffrin method for preparing gold nanoparticles. TEM studies show the triphenylarsonium-functionalized gold nanoparticles to be spherical
with diameters of c.a. 3nm. The presence of the triphenylarsonium groups has been confirmed by Raman and XPS spectroscopy and mass spectrometry. It also describes the synthesis, characterisation and biological properties of a family of phosphoniopropylthiosulfate zwitterions and ω-thioacetylpropyl(triaryl)phosphonium salts derived from tri(4-methoxyphenyl)phosphine, tri(2,6-dimethoxyphenyl)phosphine and tri(2,4,6-trimethoxyphenyl)phosphine.
The IC50 values of the triphenylarsoniopropylthiosulfate zwitterion, ω-thioacetylpropyl- (triphenyl)arsonium bromide salt, triphenylarsonium-functionalized gold nanoparticles and family of phosphoniopropylthiosulfate zwitterions and ω-
thioacetylpropyl(triaryl)phosphonium salts derived from tri(4-methoxyphenyl)phosphine, tri(2,6-dimethoxyphenyl)phosphine and tri(2,4,6-trimethoxyphenyl)phosphine have been
determined against PC3 prostate cancer cells using MTT and CellTiter-Glo assays and are reported in Chapter 4. The uptake of the triphenylarsonium-functionalized gold
nanoparticles by PC3 and Human Fibroblast cells has also been determined by ICP-OES spectroscopy.


In an effort to improve performance of congested gateways, a new Active Queue Management (AQM) algorithm, Adaptive Virtual Queue Random Early Detection (AVQRED), was developed by feeding virtual queue size to the RED algorithm. The objective of the new algorithm is to improve overall performance by keeping link utilization high, link utilization stable, queueing delay low and consecutive packet drop rate low. This paper shows the objective is met by comparing AVQRED with six other well known AQM methods in a realistic emulation environment. To provide fair comparisons, the AQM parameters are fine-tuned by exploring many different parameter settings via emulations. The emulation results conclude that AVQRED improves overall performance by 8 to 25%. To provide intuitive properties and validate the emulation results, a mathematical model is proposed and fed to MATLAB, and the results from MATLAB and emulations are compared.


Toronto is a changing city that has been a source of reflection and inspiration to writers and artists whose work focuses on the conditions and prospects of human life. A city on the move, it demands policies and regulation, and it offers the pleasures and perils of the massive and the anonymous. As a site of study, the city is inherently multidisciplinary, with natural ties to history, geography, sociology, architecture, art history, literature, and many other fields. World Film Locations: Toronto explores and reveals the relationship between the city and cinema using a predominately visual approach. The juxtaposition of the images used in combination with insightful essays helps to demonstrate the role that the city has played in a number of hit films, including Cinderella Man, American Psycho, and X-Men and encourages the reader to frame an understanding of Toronto and the world around us. The contributors trace Toronto's emergence as an international city and demonstrate the narrative interests that it has continued to inspire among filmmakers, both Canadian and international. With support from experts in Canadian studies, the book's selection of films successfully shows the many facets of Toronto and also provides insider's access to a number of sites that are often left out of scholarship on Toronto in films, such as the Toronto International Film Festival. The 2014 release of this attractive volume will be a particularly welcome addition to the international celebrations of the city's 180th anniversary.


The CRISPR-Cas is the prokaryotic adaptive immunity system that stores memory of past encounters with foreign DNA in spacers that are inserted between direct repeats in CRISPR arrays 1,2. Only for a small fraction of the spacers, homologous sequences, termed protospacers, are detectable in viral, plasmid or microbial genomes 3,4. The rest of the spacers remain the CRISPR "dark matter". We performed a comprehensive analysis of the spacers from all CRISPR-cas loci identified in bacterial and archaeal genomes, and found that, depending on the CRISPR-Cas subtype and the prokaryotic phylum, protospacers were detectable for 1 to about 19% of the spacers (∼7% global average). Among the detected protospacers, the majority, typically, 80 to 90%, originate from viral genomes, and among the rest, the most common source are genes integrated in microbial chromosomes but involved in plasmid conjugation or replication. Thus, almost all spacers with identifiable protospacers target mobile genetic elements (MGE). The GC-content, as well as dinucleotide and tetranucleotide compositions, of microbial genomes, their spacer complements, and the cognate viral genomes show a nearly perfect correlation and are almost identical. Given the near absence of self-targeting spacers, these findings are best compatible with the possibility that the spacers, including the dark matter, are derived almost completely from the species-specific microbial mobilomes.


The wide range of disasters that has recently hit third countries has shown that not
even the Member States with the widest network of consular and diplomatic representation
can ensure on their own the protection of their nationals located in the affected areas. The
present paper addresses the question of whether the EU citizenship confers to the citizens
of the Member States real benefits when they find themselves in distress outside of the
Union's borders. It critically assesses the legal nature, content and effects in the domestic
legal orders of the least developed right recognised to the EU citizen: the right to
protection abroad (Art. 20(2)(c) TFEU). The paper will demonstrate that the EU citizen
has a clear, individual and directly effective right to receive non-discriminatory protection
in third countries abroad from any of the Member States that is represented in loco.
Nevertheless, since for the moment, the right to protection abroad is limited to an
application of the principle of non-discrimination based on nationality, the paper will show
that in practice, the effectiveness of the EU citizen's right to protection abroad is hindered
by the divergent regulatory frameworks of the Member States on consular and diplomatic
protection of nationals, frameworks which have not, so far, been harmonised by a EU
measure. The paper concludes by describing the new roles acquired by the Union after the
Lisbon Treaty in the field of consular and diplomatic protection of citizens abroad and
how this change influences the role of the Member States in a traditional State-like activity.


Benthic macroinvertebrates are a crucial component of estuarine ecosystems as they play an important role in nutrient cycling and also provide a food source for fish and birds. The limited mobility of these species and their predictable responses to natural and anthropogenic stressors has led to their extensive use in biotic indices of estuarine health and in other studies aimed at assessing the levels of degradation. Anoxic events have been known to occur periodically within the Swan-Canning Estuary and, as a result, the Department of Water in partnership with the Swan River Trust built an oxygenation plant at Guildford in 2008 to artificially oxygenate the water column in this area and thus prevent low oxygen events. While the supersaturation of the water column has resulted in increased oxygen uptake by the sediment, when the plant is running, the effects of the artificial oxygenation on the composition of the benthic macroinvertebrate fauna remained unquantified. This study will present one year of seasonal data on the composition of the benthic macroinvertebrate fauna at five locations along the Upper Swan, including sites in the direct vicinity of the Guildford oxygen plant, to determine whether the artificial oxygenation has had any positive effect on benthic macroinvertebrate diversity and community composition.


: Breast carcinoma is the most commonly diagnosed cancer and the leading cause of cancer death. Breast cancer also produces and is influenced by ectopic hormones. Beta Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (hCG) is one such hormone and is encoded by chorionic gonadotropin beta (CGB) genes. The aim of this study was to determine the CGB gene methylation in breast cancer tissues and compare them with normal tissues. Materials and methods: After approval from Institutional Ethical Committee (IEC), consent from patients were obtained. Normal and tumour tissues from breast cancer patients were taken. DNA was isolated from normal and tumour tissues. Post bisulfate conversion samples were processed for qPCR using methylation specific primers for the set of selected CGB genes and SYBR green. Results: 1-2M was found to be significantly higher among the normal tissues (50.22). 3-9M was found to be 65.93 in tumour tissues and 5.05 in normal tissues and this was significant. Conclusion: 3-9 M is significantly higher in tumour tissues compared to normal tissues and 1-2 M is significantly higher in normal tissues. This suggests that there are 2 different types of beta hCG secreted by two different types of genes and this can be used for further analysis as a part of future projects. This may help in formulating a new treatment process and may also be used as a tumour marker in high risk patients.


The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the scaling up of the Schoolwide Enrichment Model in Reading (SEM-R) in 11 elementary and middle schools in geographically diverse sites across the country. Qualitative comparative analysis was used in this study, with multiple data sources compiled into11 in-depth school case studies summarizing findings from researcher observations of the SEM-R and comparison classrooms. Teachers were assigned to implement either the SEM-R for 3 hours each week as part of their reading program or to continue teaching their regular reading curriculum during their reading block. Three core student categories emerged across all schools, beginning with increased student enjoyment in reading for students using SEM-R. The second most dominant student finding related to how SEM-R was effectively used to challenge talented readers, and the third related to increased selfregulation in students as observed by teachers, coaches, and principals. Teacher findings that emerged across all schools focused on the perceived benefits of SEM-R for both students and teachers, teachers use of differentiated reading instructional practices and how they were enhanced after the SEM-R was implemented, and the professional benefits and challenges experienced during their successful implementation of the SEMR. Over 90% of the teachers implemented the SEM-R with high fidelity, and this approach was considered beneficial to all students, including those who achieved at very high and very low levels of reading comprehension by teachers, principals, and literacy coaches.


When constructing a Cellular Automata (CA) model of a natural process one meets a problem of determining scaling relations, i.e. the quantitative relationships between the CA dimensionless parameters and corresponding values characterizing the prototype process given in terms of a physical system of units. The problem has no general solution. Moreover, till now there is no strict statement and detailed investigation of the problem despite the fact that for some classes of CA models certain approaches have been proposed. The most formalized and substantiated approach is based on the similitude theory, which studies dimensionless characteristics of natural processes that are equal both for a model and its prototype. Certain attempts have been made to use the approach when developing and investigating particular CA models of natural phenomena, but no systematic methods have been created. In this paper the problem is discussed, and basic principles of finding scaling relations are formulated and shown at work for two most advanced classes of CA models: Lattice–Gas CA simulating viscous flows and stochastic CA models of Reaction–Diffusion processes.


The complexity of the central nervous system and existence of the blood-brain barrier often causes difficulties for traditional pharmacological treatments of neurological diseases. This thesis explores the feasibility and potential for novel gene and cell therapy approaches, which hold better promise for neurological disorders, while particularly targeting epilepsy. Epilepsy is a multifactorial neurological disorder affecting 1% of the population. Available pharmacological therapies are merely symptomatic, and have severe side effects, while failing to adequately control seizures in one third of the patients, predominately in those with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). Targeted silencing of the pathological circuits by expressing therapeutic genes, or increasing the inhibition by introducing new populations of GABA-releasing neurons, might prove therapeutic for epilepsy, by counteracting seizures and even modifying the disease. Gene therapy offers localized, cell-type specific alteration of neuronal excitability, but on-demand seizure suppression can only be achieved by tools allowing external temporal control. One such recently developed chemogenetic technology is based on viral expression of modified muscarinic G-protein coupled receptors, specifically activated by otherwise inert clozapine-N-oxide (CNO). In paper I, we explored if such modified receptor, hM4Di, which selectively activates Gi pathway, thereby causing neuronal inhibition, could suppress epileptiform activity upon CNO application. This approach proved effective for localized suppression of neuronal excitability and seizure-like events in an in vitro model of TLE, organotypic hippocampal slice cultures (OHSC), without altering intrinsic properties of the hM4Di-expressing neurons, demonstrating the therapeutic potential of this technology. In papers II and III we characterized two different cell sources with the prospect of cell replacement therapy: induced Pluripotent Stem cells (iPS) and induced Neurons (iN). These two patient specific alternative cell sources offer a solution to ethical and immunogenicity issues, related to embryonic stem cell use. Already six weeks after grafting in OHSCs, iPS-derived neuroepitelial-like stem cells (lt-NES), predominately differentiating to GABA-ergic neurons, displayed functional neuronal properties and certain rate of synaptic integration. In vivo studies showed that longer differentiation time (up to 24 weeks) was needed for the grafts to fully mature and extensively integrate into the host synaptic network. The grafted cells still retained some of the distinct electrophysiological features, however, such as high input resistance. Next, we studied long-term survival of human foetal fibroblast-derived induced neurons (iN) in rodent hippocampus. Human iNs survive and maintain neuronal profile up to six months post-grafting, developing more elaborate neuronal morphology and complex dendritic arborisation over time. Graft-derived neurons with mature neuronal properties could be observed at six months, although a portion of non-converted fibroblasts, as well as asynchronous neuronal conversion was apparent among the grafts. Improvements in conversion, survival and integration rate of iN cells are required before these cells can offer a better alternative to iPS or stem cells. While showing potential as candidates for cell replacement therapy, both characterised cell types have to be further tested in relevant epilepsy model systems to demonstrate their therapeutic effect. In summary, this thesis adds new knowledge and experimental basis for development of gene- and cell-based therapies for neurological disorders. (Less)


Second-harmonic conversion efficiencies of 80% for type I KDP crystals and 70% for type II have been demonstrated with 500-fs, 1.053-μm laser pulses at intensities as high as 400 GW/cm2. The results are generally in good agreement with simulations and indicate that self-phase modulation and cross-phase modulation may be significant. For type II conversion with a predelay between the input o and e waves, some evidence is obtained of pulse shortening to ~100 fs.


Percutaneous intervention of coronary bifurcation lesions continues to challenge interventional cardiologists. Nonetheless, the past decade has seen an explosion in the development of clinical novel techniques and well-conducted trials validating the relative efficacy and safety of these techniques. For the most part, consensus has emerged regarding the preferred technique, that being provisional stenting of the side-branch (SB), based on the results of several randomised trials that, with the exception of one, have shown no benefit of a two-stent approach, utilising any one of several techniques, including the crush, culotte, or other modifications. Only the double-kiss (DK) crush appears to confer better clinical outcomes, possibly because of the superiority of the technique in optimising access to the SB. Trial data are still pending regarding the efficacy of two-stent techniques in patients with complex SB lesions and with large-calibre SBs. The use of second-generation drug-eluting stents is associated with better results compared to historical data. Preliminary data from studies utilising dedicated bifurcation stents similarly shows favourable results. Bifurcation stenting using bioresorbable vascular scaffolds is at an early stage, with prospective trial data needed to validate this technology for the use in this subset of patients. Modern imaging tools such as intravascular ultrasound and optical coherence tomography, as well as physiological assessment of SB lesions, are now utilised in decision-making regarding stent strategy, though trial data showing better outcomes with routine use of these tools are lacking.