The general area of geophysical fluid mechanics is truly interdisciplinary. Now ideas from statistical physics are being applied in novel ways to inhomogeneous complex systems such as atmospheres and oceans. In this book, the basic ideas of geophysics, probability theory, information theory, nonlinear dynamics and equilibrium statistical mechanics are introduced and applied to large time-selective decay, the effect of large scale forcing, nonlinear stability, fluid flow on a sphere and Jupiter's Great Red Spot. The book is the first to adopt this approach and it contains many recent ideas and results. Its audience ranges from graduate students and researchers in both applied mathematics and the geophysical sciences. It illustrates the richness of the interplay of mathematical analysis, qualitative models and numerical simulations which combine in the emerging area of computational science.


Rust (Uromyces appendiculatus) is a major foliar disease that reduces yield and pod quality in beans. The field trial of French beans was established at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT). Single plant extracts and combinations of Boscia angustifolia, Zanthoxylum chalybeum and Melea volkensii were used to evaluate their effect on U. appendiculatus in the field. During the growing period, beans were infected with rust from natural inoculum at the field. Physiological responses such as carbon dioxide assimilation, transpiration (E), stomatal conductance (gs), and photosynthetic rate (Pn) of French beans treatments were examined after extracts of three antifungal plants were sprayed. B. angustifolia - Z. chalybeum combination and single plant treatment M. volkensii had positive effects on enhancing the rate of photosynthesis in bean plants. The high regressions between stomatal conductance and rate of transpiration in the treatments indicated that stomatal conductance and rate of transpiration were interdependent and it was interpreted to mean that stomatal conductance enhanced rate of transpiration at different times of the day. These plant extracts however caused an increase in the rate of transpiration of the bean plants, which resulted in loss of water. Results reveal bioactive potential of the flora from M. volkensii and a combination of B. angustifolia and Z. chalybeum to produce metabolites with potential applications as botanical pesticides.

 Key words: Antifungal, beans, physiological responses, rust.


While 3.3 billion people flew worldwide in 2014 a large number of these were from developed countries. It is emerging countries which offer the greatest potential for future air traffic growth, with forecasts suggesting that 7.3 billion people will fly by 2034. The greatest proportion of this traffic will be in the Asia-Pacific region where there is already high low-cost carrier penetration. Given increasing price-based competition within short-haul markets, there are many significant challenges in terms of how Asian network airlines respond to LCC competition, and a popular response is the use of low-cost subsidiaries. Thus, the aims of this research are to establish the sources of competitive advantage of Asian airlines generally, and to examine the competitive responses of Asian network airlines and the strategic capabilities of them in competing with low-cost carriers, with a particular focus upon the use of low-cost subsidiaries.

This research is underpinned with competitive advantage theory, particularly the resource-based view which concerns the internal environment of firms where each firm possesses a collection of unique resources and capabilities that provide the foundation for competitive strategy. For this research, data were collected from 49 senior airline management personnel using questionnaire surveys, resource surveys, and semi-structured interviews. The data were then analysed using VRIN analysis, the importance and difficulty of 37 competitive responses, strategic capability analysis, and the product and organisational architecture model.

The results found that both a strong strategy and stable leadership are crucial. The strategies of Asian network airlines must be flexible to respond appropriately to competitive threats as they materialise, with this responsiveness contributing to the attainment of competitive advantage. Out of an analysed 36 intangible resources, the top resources for competitive advantage and responding to competitive threats for Asian airlines generally are slots, brand, and product and service reputation, with the importance of these based more on being hard to copy than valuable. Each analysed airline business model has a relatively distinct core bundle of intangible resources which explains the internal sources of their competitive advantage.

The need for Asian network airlines to strengthen their competitive advantage and their ability to compete is because low-cost carriers impact them in many ways, most notably through a reduction in market share and reduced yields given the key motivation of customers within short-haul markets and economy class is now price and value-for-money. Asian network airlines are most likely to respond to low-cost carriers if they focus upon their core markets, grow their market share, and target the core higher-yielding passengers on which network airlines rely. In such instances, Asian network airlines should respond by focusing more on their brands and meeting the needs of their core targeted market segments.

There is a strong positive correlation between profit margin and the strategic capability to compete with low-cost carriers. Yet, Asian network airlines have relatively weak capabilities overall. While Vietnam Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, and Garuda Indonesia are reasonably well placed to compete, network airlines from Northeast Asia, in particular, must strengthen their capabilities especially as Japan, China, and Taiwan are witnessing fast low-cost carrier growth. However, the possession of a strong capability does not mean it is fully or properly leveraged.
To compete more effectively with low-cost carriers, the most important competitive responses, based upon analysis of 37 responses, are the ability of management to quickly introduce changes, leveraging brand strength, and increasing aircraft utilisation. Based on the relationship between the importance and difficulty of responses, the most crucial responses for competitive advantage of Asian network airlines are reducing costs to within 30% of LCCs and increasing aircraft utilisation. If achieved, these should lead to meaningful sustained advantage.

Low-cost subsidiaries are easier to implement than for network airlines to significantly reduce costs, change to one fleet, or reduce the use of direct distribution, which may explain their popularity within Asia and them being a borderline very essential competitive response. For network airlines, low-cost subsidiaries are a more effective way to compete with low-cost carriers, to participate in the growth of the budget segment, a means of operating uneconomic routes, and to remove unprofitable customers. Network airlines can then focus upon their core market segments and their core competencies. However, their creation is reactive and not proactive which undermines their effectiveness, likewise that low-cost subsidiaries suffer from poor profitability, higher costs, and much smaller size and scale than their key low-cost competitors.

This research recommends that Asian network airlines strengthen their existing and primary sources of competitive advantage while pursuing new sources of advantage. While the strategic capabilities of Asian network airlines have strengthened over time, it is essential that they are further strengthened and fully acted upon given increasing competitiveness. The use of low-cost subsidiaries will continue, but it is crucial for themselves and their parent network airlines that they improve their ability to compete and thereby their performance.


Technological developments, especially the Internet, have changed the
medium "television" profoundly. On the one hand, media convergence means watching television is no longer limited to a singular box with one screen. On the other hand, this is connected to profound changes in programming content. In addition to cheaper formats like daily talks and Reality-TV, complex and expensive television series, rather vaguely referred to as "Quality-TV", have conquered the TV market. They are sold internationally and aimed at an affluent, dedicated audience. The articles in this issue of the Global Media Journal deal with different aspects of what we refer to as "Contemporary Television Series", a less evaluative term. The transnational character of the shows is highlighted in two of the articles, while three authors focus on the perspective of the audience. The final two contributions grapple with the issue of quality as strategies of cultural legitimation and its aesthetic and ideological sides


Salmonella Typhi and Typhimurium diverged only ∼50 000 years ago, yet have very different host ranges and pathogenicity. Despite the availability of multiple whole-genome sequences, the genetic differences that have driven these changes in phenotype are only beginning to be understood. In this study, we use transposon-directed insertion-site sequencing to probe differences in gene requirements for competitive growth in rich media between these two closely related serovars. We identify a conserved core of 281 genes that are required for growth in both serovars, 228 of which are essential in Escherichia coli. We are able to identify active prophage elements through the requirement for their repressors. We also find distinct differences in requirements for genes involved in cell surface structure biogenesis and iron utilization. Finally, we demonstrate that transposon-directed insertion-site sequencing is not only applicable to the protein-coding content of the cell but also has sufficient resolution to generate hypotheses regarding the functions of non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) as well. We are able to assign probable functions to a number of cis-regulatory ncRNA elements, as well as to infer likely differences in trans-acting ncRNA regulatory networks.


This chapter considers means-tested employment and training programs in the United States. We focus in particular on large, means-tested federal programs, including the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA), its successor the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), that program's recent replacement, the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), the long-running Job Corps program, and the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program. The first part of the chapter provides details on program history, organization, expenditures, eligibility rules, services, and participant characteristics. In the second part of the chapter, we discuss the applied econometric methods typically used to evaluate these programs, which in the United States means primarily social experiments and methods such as matching that rely on an assumption of "selection on observed variables." The third part of the chapter reviews the literature evaluating these programs, highlighting both methodological and substantive lessons learned as well as open questions. The fourth part of the chapter considers what lessons the evaluation literature provides on program operation, especially how to best allocate particular services to particular participants. The final section concludes with the big picture lessons from this literature and discussion of promising directions for future research.


This paper presents recent advances at ONERA in simulation engineering. Simulation is used for many purposes, from performance evaluation of algorithms to realistic emulation of the real world, including real components such as humans. To design general and scalable simulation software, a flexible architecture needs to be designed. A component-based architecture approach that allows multilevel capitalization and high collaborative sharing between systems experts and computing experts has been developed at ONERA. This architecture allow hybrid simulation involving real devices in the simulation loop to increase the Technology Readiness Level of novel algorithms by emulating real embedded environment. Human-In-the-Loop simulation is also an important tool to study the human interactions with a system. Some recent research projects are presented to illustrate our simulation platforms.


Background & Objective: Electromagnetic waves with the frequencies of 0 – 300 Hz and the intensity of 0.1 – 100 millitesla can affect several cellular activities. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of prolonged exposure to extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields (ELF) on the adrenergic system in the small intestine . Materials & Methods: 21 adult male rats were divided into three groups. The first group was experimental group which exposed to ELF (50Hz, 1mT) for 75 days in powered on solenoid. The second group was sham group which was kept in similar conditions as the first group but in powered off solenoid. The third group or the control group was kept in animal house condition. The isolated strips of the colon were inserted into organ bath and were linked to power lab A to D system force transducer and their mechanical activity were recorded in response to different doses of Isoproterenol (10 -4 M and10 -5 M) . The data were analyzed using one-way ANOVA test. Result: The results showed a significant increase ( p≤0.05) of ileum basal contractions in experimental group compared to control and sham groups. While the relaxation changes of ileum in response to the different doses of isoproterenol (β 2 adrenergic receptors agonist) in the experimental group compared to the sham and control groups was not statistically significant. Conclusion: It can be concluded that prolonged exposure to extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields may not affect β 2 -adrenergic receptors activity.


Sorghum is an important cereal grain food, grown globally, that is rich in nutrients, dietary fiber, and bioactive components yet is considered of low value to humans and often used as an animal feed. This review provides an overview of key sorghum grain components, including starches, dietary fiber, protein, lipids, and phytochemicals, with functional properties that have potential to impact on health. Though acknowledging the impact of the whole food will reflect the synergy between the components, studies of these components implicate effects on energy balance, glycemic control, lipids, gut microbiota, and cell-mediated immune responses, including antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects. For these to be confirmed as contributory effects from sorghum consumption, evidence from quality randomized controlled trials is required. If proven effective, there may be a role for sorghum grain–based diets to assist in the prevention of chronic diseases such as diabetes, obesity, and heart disease. Future research addressing effects of sorghum consumption may help drive a paradigm shift from sorghum as a low value food to a potentially health-promoting, highly valued human grain food.


Indo-Pacific mangrove swamps and seagrass beds are commonly located in close proximity to each other, often creating complex ecosystems linked by biological and physical processes. Although they are thought to provide important nursery habitats for fish, only limited information exists about their usage by fish outside of estuaries. The present study investigated fish assemblages in non-estuarine intertidal habitats where mangroves and seagrass overlap (the mangrove-seagrass continuum). Three habitats (mangrove, mangrove edge, seagrass) were sampled at 4 sites of the Wakatobi Marine National Park, Indonesia, using underwater visual census. Ninety-one species of fish were observed at a mean density of 130.1 +/- 37.2 ind. 1000 m(-2). Predatory fish (fish that feed on invertebrates and/or fish) were the most dominant feeding groups in the mangroves, whilst omnivores dominated on the mangrove edge and in the seagrass. Although the habitats along the mangrove-seagrass continuum were observed to be important for many fish, only 22 of the 942 coral reef species known within the area utilised mangroves as nursery habitat and only 15 utilised seagrass. Despite finding evidence that nursery grounds in mangroves and seagrass may not directly support high coral reef fish diversity, many of the coral reef nursery species found in this study are likely to be key herbivores or apex predators as adult fish on local coral reefs, and thus highly important to local fisheries. Although mangroves are not permanently inundated by the tide, this study highlights their importance as fish habitats, which at high tide support a greater abundance of fish than seagrass beds. In the light of the high rate of destruction of these habitats, their role in supporting fish assemblages requires consideration in marine resource management programs.


A description is given of specific analog behavioral modeling and mixed-mode simulation techniques using SABER and Verilog. Full-channel simulations have been carried out on a class I partial response maximum likelihood (PRML) read/write channel chip. Complex analog circuits such as an adaptive feed-forward equalizer, an automatic gain control block, and a phase-locked loop are modeled in detail with the SABER MAST mixed-signal behavioral modeling language. A simulation speedup of two orders of magnitude has been achieved compared to SPICE.


In the last few years the Internet has witnessed a tremendous growth in the area of multimedia services. For example YouTube, used for videosharing [1] and Skype, used for Internet telephony [2], enjoy a huge popularity, counting their users in millions. Traditional media services, such as telephony, radio and TV, once upon a time using dedicated networks are now deployed over the Internet at an accelerating pace. The triple play and quadruple play business models, which consist of combined broadband access, (fixed and mobile) telephony and TV over a common access medium, are evidence for this development. Multimedia services often have strict requirements on quality of service (QoS) metrics such as available bandwidth, packet delay, delay jitter and packet loss rate. Existing QoS architectures (e. g. , IntServ and DiffServ) are typically used within the service provider network, but have not seen a wide Internet deployment. Consequently, Internet applications are still forced to rely on the Internet Protocol (IP)'s best-effort service. Furthermore, wide availability of computing resources at the edge of the network has lead to the appearance of services implemented in overlay networks. The overlay networks are typically spawned between end-nodes that share resources with each other in a peer-to-peer (P2P) fashion. Since these services are not relying on dedicated resources provided by a third-party, they can be deployed with little effort and low cost. On the other hand, they require mechanisms for handling resource fluctuations when nodes join and leave the overlay. This dissertation addresses the problem of unicast QoS routing implemented in overlay networks. More precisely, we are investigating methods for providing a QoS-aware service on top of IP's best-effort service, with minimal changes to existing Internet infrastructure. A framework named Overlay Routing Protocol (ORP) was developed for this purpose. The framework is used for handling QoS path discovery and path restoration. ORP's performance was evaluated through a comprehensive simulation study. The study showed that QoS paths can be established and maintained as long as one is willing to accept a protocol overhead of maximum 1.5 % of the network capacity. We studied the Gnutella P2P network as an example of overlay network. An 11-days long Gnutella link-layer packet trace collected at Blekinge Institute of Technology (BTH) was systematically decoded and analyzed. Analysis results include various traffic characteristics and statistical models. The emphasis for the characteristics has been on accuracy and detail, while for the traffic models the emphasis has been on analytical tractability and ease of simulation. To the author's best knowledge this is the first work on Gnutella that presents statistics down to message level. The models for Gnutella's session arrival rate and session duration were further used to generate churn within the ORP simulations. Finally, another important contribution is the evaluation of GNU Linear Programming Toolkit (GLPK)'s performance in solving linear optimization problems for flow allocation with the simplex method and the interior point method, respectively. Based on the results of the evaluation, the simplex method was selected to be integrated with ORP's path restoration capability.


A new multiuser detection scheme based on signal subspace estimation is proposed. It is shown that under this scheme, both the decorrelating detector and the linear minimum-mean-square-error (MMSE) detector can be obtained blindly, i.e., they can be estimated from the received signal with the prior knowledge of only the signature waveform and timing of the user of interest. The consistency and asymptotic variance of the estimates of the two linear detectors are examined. A blind adaptive implementation based on a signal subspace tracking algorithm is also developed. It is seen that compared with the previous minimum-output-energy blind adaptive multiuser detector, the proposed subspace-based blind adaptive detector offers lower computational complexity, better performance, and robustness against signature waveform mismatch. Two extensions are made within the framework of signal subspace estimation. First, a blind adaptive method is developed for estimating the effective user signature waveform in the multipath channel. Secondly, a multiuser detection scheme using spatial diversity in the form of an antenna array is considered. A blind adaptive technique for estimating the array response for diversity combining is proposed. It is seen that under the proposed subspace approach, blind adaptive channel estimation and blind adaptive array response estimation can be integrated with blind adaptive multiuser detection, with little attendant increase in complexity.


Reduction of energy consumption, improving performance and efficiency is one of the most important factors influencing current trends in the development of components used in the transportation and automotive industry. For car producers, one of the possible ways of achieving such a goal is to reduce the weight of individual components while maintaining or improving the material properties during practical application. Therefore, the requirement of weight reduction also applies to car seat cushions. The use of low-density composite foams using fibrous reinforcements is a suitable solution. These materials have strong nonlinear viscoelastic behavior which is time dependent. Due to the synergistic effect of foam reinforcement, it is possible to reduce weight while maintaining the corresponding mechanical properties. In this study numerical simulations were used for analysis and design of the seat cushion with PU foam and composite foam and their results were evaluated. Mechanical properties of PU foam and composite foam are influenced by internal and external structure, shape and size of the cells, volume of the filling material and properties of the used polymer. Mechanical properties e.g. contact pressure, stress distribution and the dependence of stress on the strain rate are investigated.


The crystalline properties of poly-Si films on quartz grown using Al-induced crystallization (AIC) were investigated. The orientation fraction and grain size were controlled by modulating the annealing temperature and sample thickness. The results confirmed the enhancement of (111)-orientation fractions and grain size by lowering the annealing temperature and reducing the thickness. The effects of both parameters, annealing temperature and thickness, on the growth process were investigated, as was the role of the Al layer. We successfully formed (111)-oriented grains up to 384 μm in size at a rate of 99% in a 50 nm-thick sample annealed at 400 °C. Furthermore, the real applications of AIC poly-Si as a growth template were demonstrated through silicon thin-film and nanowire formation.


Abstract The biostratigraphic significance of selected uppermost Famennian (Upper Devonian) and lower Tournaisian (Mississippian) brachiopod genera, belonging to the orders Rhynchonellida (e.g. Araratella), Spiriferida (e.g. Sphenospira, Prospira), Spiriferinida (Syringothyris) and Productida (except Chonetidina), is discussed. Owing to the difficulties of identifying productidine and strophalosiidine genera, in contrast to rhynchonellides and spiriferides, the biostratigraphic potential of the former has generally been overlooked. Brachiopods flourished in neritic environments that were unfavourable for conodonts and ammonoids. In the absence of the latter traditional marker fossils, they are potentially important for locating the Devonian–Carboniferous boundary in shallow water depositional settings in conjunction with rugose corals and foraminifers. On a worldwide scale, further work is required to reach a better assessment of the aftermath of the Hangenberg biological Crisis on brachiopods, notably in revising the faunas from the classical areas of the Famennian and Tournaisian stages in Western Europe.


We generalize the idea of cofinite groups, due to B. Hartley, [2]. First we define cofinite spaces in general. Then, as a special situation, we study cofinite graphs and their uniform completions. The idea of constructing a cofinite graph starts with defining a uniform topological graph $\Gamma$, in an appropriate fashion. We endow abstract graphs with uniformities corresponding to separating filter bases of equivalence relations with finitely many equivalence classes over $\Gamma$. It is established that for any cofinite graph there exists a unique cofinite completion.


Uses and Gratifications (U & G) is a communications theory paradigm developed to understand media-use motivations. This research paradigm has recently been applied to understand motivations for Internet use. Internet U & G typically orient to distinct process-based, content-based, and socially based motivations for use of the network. This study applies U & G to examine the Internet usage motivations of technology students enrolled in an Internet-enabled distance education course and finds that digital content is highly sought after by students in Internet-supported distance education classes. Distance education students are also motivated to use Internet communication resources to offset the lack of social interaction found in normal classrooms. Students' Internet usage process motivations actually diverge into two distinct areas, related generally to searching versus browsing in the support of learning objectives.


An oversupply of composted organics, and imposition of new federal regulations governing stormwater discharges
from construction sites, motivated the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (IDNR), and the Iowa Department of Transportation
(Iowa DOT) to sponsor a study of the potential water quality impacts of using compost to control runoff and erosion on highway
construction sites. Test areas treated with 5 and 10 cm deep blankets (unincorporated) of three types of compost (biosolids, yard
waste, and bio-industrial byproducts) were constructed on a new highway embankment with a 3:1 sideslope and subjected to simulated
rainfall intensity of approximately 100 mm h-1. Concentrations and total masses of N, P, K, and nine metals in runoff from
compost-treated areas were compared to those in runoff from embankment areas receiving two conventional runoff and erosion
control methods typically used by the Iowa DOT (light tillage and seeding of native embankment soil, or application of 15 cm of
imported topsoil followed by seeding). Simulations were replicated six times under both vegetated and unvegetated conditions,
and the first hour of runoff was sampled to determine concentrations and total masses of soluble and adsorbed nutrient and metals.
The applied composts generally contained much greater pollutant concentrations than either of the two soils used in the
conventional treatments, and runoff from unvegetated plots treated with compost also contained significantly greater
concentrations of soluble and adsorbed Zn, P, and K, and adsorbed Cr and Cu, than runoff from the two conventional treatments.
In accordance with previously reported soil erosion research, runoff from all test plots was sampled periodically during the first
hour of runoff. Due to their significantly greater infiltration capacity, however, compost-treated areas required significantly
greater amounts of rainfall than conventionally treated areas to produce 1 h of runoff. In light of this significant difference in the
amount of rain applied, the total mass of pollutants contained in runoff generated by equal amounts of rainfall was judged a more
equitable basis for comparing the treatments. Runoff samples collected during the first 30 min of rainfall (equivalent to a 25-year
return period storm at the applied intensity of 100 mm h-1) were used for this purpose, and the resulting total masses of individual
quantifiable soluble and adsorbed contaminants in runoff from conventionally treated areas were at least 5 and 33 times,
respectively, those in runoff from compost-treated areas. Based on these results, blanket applications of compost can be used to
reduce runoff and erosion from construction sites without increasing nutrients and metals in stormwater runoff.


The transport sector is the second largest and one of the fastest growing energy end-use sectors, representing 24% of global energy-related greenhouse gas emissions. The International Energy Agency has developed scenarios for the transport sector within the overall concept of mitigation pathways that would be required to limit global warming to 2 °C. This paper builds on these scenarios and illustrates various passenger travel-related strategies for achieving a 2° transport scenario, in particular looking at how much technology improvement is needed in the light of different changes in travel and modal shares in OECD and non-OECD countries. It finds that an integrated approach using all feasible policy options is likely to deliver the required emission reductions at least cost, and that stronger travel-related measures result in significantly lower technological requirements.


After six years of debate, several comment periods, and congressional intervention, banks face an April 1, 1996, deadline for implementation of the wire-transfer regulations put out by the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve Board (60 Federal Register 220, Jan. 3, 1995). These rules require enhanced recordkeeping of certain wire transfers by domestic financial institutions as defined under the regulation. In addition, a companion rule published by the Treasury Department on the same day (the "travel rule") requires that institutions include certain information in transmittal and payment orders that will "travel" through the transmittal process. The 1996 deadline is the same for this rule. How did we arrive at this new requirement that Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) argues "will assist law enforcement efforts by preserving significantly more information than is currently available to investigators"? How we got here During the 1980s, Congress frequently considered ways to address the drug and money-laundering problem. After passing legislation that made money laundering a crime, creating recordkeeping requirements for cash purchases of cashiers, checks, and making many other changes, Congress went after the wire-transfer system. Then-Chairman of the House Banking Committee Henry B. Gonzalez (D-Texas) argued that "[w]hether the funds are to pay for cocaine provided by foreign suppliers or these monies are sent overseas to simply avoid detection, the use of electronic transfer systems moves tremendous amounts of money at the speed of light." Rep. Gonzalez proposed legislation in 1990, which was eventually passed in 1992, that required the Treasury and Federal Reserve Board to promulgate recordkeeping procedures for international funds transfers before Jan. 1, 1994. The final law (the Annunzio-Wylie Anti-Money Laundering Act of 1992) also required both agencies to jointly promulgate rules with respect to domestic funds transfers. After Congress became convinced that the way to close the money laundering spigot was to cover funds transfers, the Treasury Department began a rulemaking process. The first proposal was developed in 1989 and drew the wrath of the banking industry. ABA was unalterably opposed to the change because of its reliance on creating a new reporting system that we argued would have dramatically hindered the payment system. Fortunately, the banking industry worked hard to familiarize the government with the complexities of the wire-transfer system. As we approached the possibility of new regulations, government employees were asked to tour wire facilities, discuss the payment system with operations officials, and seek more information on this area of potential reporting. Banking agency officials accepted the invitations and changes to the initial proposal soon followed. The concern over these potentially burdensome requirements and the view that the Treasury Department needed the expertise of the Federal Reserve Board led the banking industry to seek--with success--congressional support for a joint rulemaking process that would enable the Federal Reserve Board, together with the Treasury Department, to cover international funds transfer. The rules cover not only banks, but also check cashers and money-transmitters. What must be emphasized is Congressional concern about the scope of these new requirements. The Annunzio-Wylie law directed the joint rulemaking agencies to consider both the usefulness of regulations and their cost and burden on the payment system. A look back at the 1993 proposal The Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve closed the comment period on the second wire transfer proposal on Oct. 4, 1993. As the Jan. 1, 1994, effective date was fast approaching the industry strenuously argued--again successfully--for more time. In response to comments from many affected groups, the Under Secretary for Enforcement at the Treasury, Ronald Noble, announced that due to the formation of the Bank Secrecy Act Advisory Group and the agency's review of its anti-money laundering programs, the Treasury was delaying the wire-transfer rules until sometime in 1994. …


Rene Descartes was a central figure in the scientific revolution of the seventeenth century. In his Discourse on Method he outlined the contrast between mathematics and experimental sciences, and the extent to which each one can achieve certainty. Drawing on his own work in geometry, optics, astronomy and physiology, Descartes developed the hypothetical method that characterizes modern science, and this soon came to replace the traditional techniques derived from Aristotle. Many of Descartes' most radical ideas such as the disparity between our perceptions and the realities that cause them have been highly influential in the development of modern philosophy.


The fifteenth-century Florentine world that George Eliot studied and recreated in Romola (Cornhill Magazine, July 1862–August 1863) was characterized by the idea of love between males and the practice of sex between males. Same sex desire took various forms from the love of the older teacher for his pupil to the illegal but common practice of penetrating adolescent boys, for which many fifteenth-century Florentine men were prosecuted, particularly under the regime of the Dominican monk Girolamo Savonarola (1494–98). The monasteries themselves constituted an intense, all-male community of voluntary celibacy. These various sexual behaviors co-existed with more visible heterosexual institutions and practices, from the often politicized arranged marriages of the wealthy elite to the casual coupling of the peasant classes.


Biomass product 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (5-HMF) can be used to synthesize a broad range of value added compounds currently derived from petroleum. Thus, the effective conversion of glucose or cellulose (the major components of biomass) into fuels and chemical commodities has been capturing increasing attention. Previous studies have been extensively focused on a two-step process for producing 5-HMF from glucose or cellulose, i.e., the isomerization of glucose into fructose and then the dehydration of fructose. We herein discovered that heterogeneous sulfonated poly(phenylene sulfide) (SPPS) containing strong Bronsted acid sites is able to convert glucose and cellulose into 5-HMF with a high yield in ionic liquids (ILs). The optimal activity of glucose conversion to 5-HMF achieves a yield of 87.2% after 4 h reaction at 140 °C. For direct cellulose conversion, a 5-HMF yield of 68.2% can be achieved. The reaction mechanism over the SPPS catalyst in ILs was studied by DFT calculations, and the results indicated that the SO3H group of SPPS plays a crucial role in glucose conversion into 5-HMF, and it acts as a proton donor as a Bronsted acid and functions as a proton acceptor as the conjugate base. Furthermore, the anions and cations of ILs together with SO3H-SPPS helped in stabilizing the reaction intermediates and transition states, which also resulted in glucose facile conversion into 5-HMF. The new catalyst system highlights new opportunities offered by optimizing the production of 5-HMF directly from glucose and cellulose.


The objectives of this work were to evaluate the potential of the avirulent delta race of Colletotrichum lindemuthianum as a protector against virulent races of this fungus and induce systemic resistance to anthracnose in common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris). Four common bean cultivars were evaluated for changes in the activities of beta-1,3-glucanase and chitinase at two common bean developmental stages, V2 and R6, three days after the infection with delta race of C. lindemuthianum, in comparison with control applications of water and salicylic acid. The plants were then infected with a spore suspension of 33/95, a virulent C. lindemuthianum patotype and reevaluated five days later for the enzyme activities. Significant increases in the activities of both beta-1,3-glucanase and chitinase were observed after inoculation of inductive fungus at the two evaluation periods, at both plant development stages. The activities of both beta-1,3-glucanase and chitinase varied among cultivars and among plant development stages. A significant correlation was observed between the disease severity and the enzyme activity. The avirulent delta race of C. lindemuthianum reduced the severity of anthracnose on common bean and may have the potential to control the disease.


UK-68,798 increased the duration and effective refractory period of cardiac action potentials recorded in vitro from canine ventricular muscle and Purkinje fibers in a concentration dependent manner from 5 nM to 1 microM. The resting membrane potential, amplitude and maximum upstroke velocity of action potentials were unaffected by UK-68,798, indicating the selective class III antiarrhythmic properties of this agent. UK-68,798 (5 nM-1 microM) increased the effective refractory period of isolated guinea pig papillary muscles at stimulation frequencies of 1 Hz and 5 Hz without influencing the conduction velocity, further confirming that UK-68,798 is devoid of class I antiarrhythmic activity including block of the sodium channel. Studies using single voltage clamped guinea pig ventricular myocytes indicated that UK-68,798 at concentrations of 50 nM and 2 microM blocks a time-dependent K+ current, with no appreciable effects on the time-independent K+ current or the inward calcium current. UK-68,798 is therefore a highly selective K+ channel blocking agent with class III antiarrhythmic properties, a profile that holds considerable promise for the therapy of life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias.


This article estimates the water demand of households using (1) municipal water exclusively and (2) municipal water and household well water in the capital city of Dak Lak Province in Vietnam. Household water demands are estimated using a panel data set formed by pooling household records of metered municipal water consumption and their stated preferences for water consumption contingent on hypothetical water prices. Estimates show that households using municipal water exclusively have very price inelastic demand. Households using municipal and household well water have more price elastic, but still inelastic, simultaneous water demand and treat municipal water and household well water as substitutes. Household water consumption is influenced by household water storage and supply infrastructure, income, and socioeconomic attributes. The demand estimates are used to forecast municipal water consumption by households in Buon Ma Thuot following an increase to the municipal water tariff to forecast the municipal water supply company's revenue stream following a tariff increase and to estimate the consumer surplus loss resulting from municipal water supply shortages.


Molecular biology increasingly relies on large screens where enormous numbers of specimens are systematically assayed in the search for a particular, rare outcome. These screens include the systematic testing of small molecules for potential drugs and testing the association between genetic variation and a phenotype of interest. While these screens are "hypothesis-free," they can be wasteful; pooling the specimens and then testing the pools is more efficient. We articulate in precise mathematical ways the type of structures useful in combinatorial pooling designs so as to eliminate waste, to provide light weight, flexible, and modular designs. We show that Reed-Solomon codes, and more generally linear codes, satisfy all of these mathematical properties. We further demonstrate the power of this technique with Reed-Solomonbased biological experiments. We provide general purpose tools for experimentalists to construct and carry out practical pooling designs with rigorous guarantees for large screens.


The successful conclusion of the Presidential election in January 2019 represents a historic window of opportunity for Madagascar to break cycles of political instability that abruptly interrupted its development in the past and to leapfrog its economic and social revitalization. Following a prolonged period of economic stagnation, growth accelerated over the last five years to reach 5.1 percent in 2018, its fastest pace in over a decade. The return to constitutional order in 2014 was instrumental to this economic revival, as it contributed to restore investor confidence, re-open access to key export markets, reinstate flows of concessional financing, and encourage structural reforms. Growth continued apace in 2019, although moderating slightly to an estimated 4.7 percent, amid weakening external demand and a slow execution of public spending following the presidential and parliamentary elections. A post-election rebound in public and private investments is expected to result in growth averaging 5.4 percent in 2020-21. This Economic Update suggests however that the country remains vulnerable to shocks. International risks include the possible intensification of the trade war between main trading partners, or the rise in international oil prices in a context of geopolitical tensions. The risk of natural disasters or of a sharp drop in the price of vanilla also need due consideration. The government must take advantage of the successful political transition to accelerate growth-enhancing reforms and develop the necessary fiscal buffers to support priority investments and be ready to face unexpected circumstances.


Due to our ageing population, emergency departments (ED) in acute care facilities are dealing with increased transfers of residents from Residential Aged Care Facilities (RACF). These patients are at risk of acts of provision of unwanted treatments, omission of care, and adverse outcomes including increased mortality directly associated with gaps in transfer information. For at least 30 years, research has attempted to address this frequency of information gaps, which in general are thought to be stemming from RACFs. Research to date has largely focused on identifying and quantifying gaps to highlight the magnitude of the problem, and on developing localised transitional minimum datasets. Further attempts have been made to define the appropriateness of transfer and the subsequent impacts of transfer on ED length of stay. As a result, numerous paper and electronic information transfer tools have been introduced. New transfer forms and formats have led to some success in improving the amount of documentation transferred with residents to ED. However, this has not been sustained over time, and there has been little agreement toward developing a uniform mandated transitional minimum dataset. Despite the focus on transfer documents and information gaps there is a dearth of research looking at clinician authorship or clinician documentation practices during transfer, and few studies include ambulance services and their role in information transfer. The aim of this study is to identify practice contributing to the stubbornness of information gaps in the transfer of aged residents from RACF to ED via ambulance. This study examined documents and clinician documentation practices as implemented across transfer from RACF via ambulance to emergency.
A pragmatic approach guided the research design. Retrospective document review was used to examine the connection between documents, document content, the sites of practice and the practices of clinicians undertaking transfer of RACF residents. This approach acknowledged documents as collectively social products that represent organisations and users, and therefore also organisational work and work-practice complexities. Electronically scanned documents used across transfer by RACFs, the ambulance service and emergency triage were accessed via the study hospital's digital medical record system. The digital medical record provided easy access to information from all three groups of interest. Collection of transfer documents and transfer narratives from the same sources and transfer episodes facilitated examination of the relationship of documents to documentation and vice versa, as well as of the trackability of episodic transfer information across organisations.
Samples were drawn from 89 transfers undertaken between 1 December 2013 and 31 January 2014. Eighty of these cases met the selection criteria. Data samples collected were: all transfer document types sent from RACFs, all electronic ambulance case records, and all ED triage documents, resulting in 240 cross-facility transfer episodes. From these, 199 verbatim free-text narratives authored by clinicians facilitating each transfer were collected. In addition, 48 yellow transfer envelopes used for transfer by RACFs (not available in the digital medical record) were also collected.
A mixed method convergent parallel study design was employed in which quantitative and qualitative data are collected in parallel, analysed separately and then brought together in discussion. Practice Theory was selected as the primary lens for qualitative analysis, applying the concepts of doings, sayings and teleoaffectivity with the concepts of zooming in and zooming out to the overall interconnected web of transfer. Transfer narratives were quantitatively examined for standardisation of salient information using a common handover mnemonic, SBAR (Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation or Request). Results identified the foci of information and the presence or absence of salient information in transfer narratives, enabling theorisation of how information is cued by the design of tools and situational context in each of the three groups of interest.
The findings showed that consistency, availability and predictability of information were negatively affected by a lack of standardisation of RACF transfer information, despite ambulance and ED triage documents being reasonably standardised. The different contextual perspectives of the three organisations gave rise to different information foci: RACF staff focused on access to resources; ambulance staff focused on identifying a primary physiological concern; and ED triage staff focused on aligning physiological issues with numerical scales of urgency.
This thesis makes a novel contribution to understanding why information gaps from RACF to ED persist. All of the transfer tools in use were found to be predominately designed as records of care/event, rather than as information sharing tools that accommodate complex information. The results also show that socio-contextual practices narrowly focus narratives on the activities of the author, or on the context of the situation, to the exclusion of other relevant information. Information intended to avert risk is reliant on experiential prediction and subsequent experiential interpretation of the narrative.
Transfers fitting the popular expectations of acute ED services are carried out with surprisingly little transfer information, often relying on implicit mutuality. However, resourcerelated transfers that have limited mutual consensus or underlying agreement pre-condition extensive justifications from RACFs to legitimise transfer, because the usual accepted services of the ED are pre-emptively broadened or strained. The detail of the narrative has little bearing on the type, completeness or availability of additional documents sent by RACF in transfer. Because each of these practices (mutuality and extensive narration and argument) work (i.e. the goal of transfer is successfully enacted) there is little incentive for RACFs to standardise practice. Ambulance case narratives implied on-site verbal exchanges between RACFs and paramedics, and generated content capable of filling some information gaps. This finding substantiated the value of the ambulance document and narrative and suggests that it may be a starting point on which to base an interdisciplinary information bridging tool.
This study concludes that current transfer tools used by RACF, ambulance services and ED triage generate site-oriented information with little incentive for collaboration or social exchange. The results of this study have the potential to reduce information gaps common across transfer at the clinical, policy and system design levels. More importantly, these findings have the potential to improve continuity and safety for RACF residents transferred to ED.


This paper investigates the problem of dynamic protected lightpath services provisioning in optical mesh networks employing wavelength division multiplexing (WDM). A variety of schemes for dynamic protected services provisioning have been proposed, supporting a range of tradeoffs among restoration speed, capacity efficiency, and scalability. In this paper, we propose a novel scheme, called p-cycles-based maximum protected working capacity envelope (PC-MPWCE), which can offer an attractive combination of features: ring-like speed, mesh-like capacity efficiency, and good scalability. To evaluate the performance of PC-MPWCE, we compare it via simulation with 1+1 automatic protection switching (APS) and two well-known shared backup path protection (SBPP) on NSFNET. Our simulation results show that PC-MPWCE can achieve much better blocking performance than 1+1 APS, and perform the similar blocking performance and capacity efficiency as SBPP.


Professionalisation forms an important domain in the accounting history arena. The geographical spread of professional organisations occurred via the relay of empire and the movement of international capital. Outcomes of professionalisation endeavours are strongly connected to the social and political context in which they occur. The mineral discoveries towards the end of the 19th century established South Africa's first industrial community. As the country's economy expanded, the virtues of simple living and conduct of business passed and there was a growing need for the services of individuals who had knowledge of accounting and of commerce. Most of the skilled accountants who migrated were of British descent. These accountants contributed to the development of the profession in South Africa. The Transvaal, Cape Colony, Natal and Orange River Colony (ORC) each established accounting societies around this time in response to the new industries and business. The Society of Accountants in the Orange River Colony was established in November 1907, five years after the conclusion of the South African War, by seven English gentlemen practising as accountants in Bloemfontein. This was the smallest society in comparison to the other colonies in Southern Africa at the time, and had grown from merely 16 foundation members in 1907 to 60 in 1927 with the passing of the Chartered Accountants Designation Act. The Society of Accountants and Auditors in the Orange River Colony (SAAORC) was a voluntary body, unlike the Transvaal and Natal societies. Accountants in the ORC could conduct their business as accountants and auditors and advertise themselves as such, whether they were members of the SAAORC or not. This article investigates the formation years of the accountants' society in the Free State and explains the difference between this development path and that of the earlier preceding societies. The article explains the establishment of a British profession in a former Boer Republic and the mechanisms of professional closure implemented to safeguard the status of the profession.


Mesopotamia was one of the earliest regions to produce writing, literature and the fine arts, as well as being one of the first areas to construct states. This comprehensive and detailed survey of the region's prehistory and protohistory shows how these fascinating developments were possible. Petr Charvat explores the economic, social and spiritual spheres in Mesopotamia from the Palaeolithic to the time of the early states, c. 100,000 BC to 2334 BC. The narrative is supplemented by numerous descriptions of the principal archaeological sites for each phase, and by conclusions outlining the most important developments and changes.


Federalism, neo-functionalism and realism-intergovernmentalism offer different
visions of European unity, evident in different European organizations such as the Council
of Europe to the ECSC, EEC/EC/EU, and EFTA. The paper develops two heuristic
schemes that help explain the success of the ECSC, EEC/EC/EU over other European
organizations. The neo-functionalist initial success deeply influenced and shaped following
developments.


The antitumor activities of immunotoxins (ITs) constructed with deglycosylated ricin A chain (dgA) and either anti-CD19 (HD37) or anti-CD22 (RFB4) monoclonal antibodies were compared in SCID mice with disseminated human Daudi lymphoma (SCID/Daudi). As reported previously, after intravenous injection with Daudi cells, SCID mice develop disseminated lymphoma, which infiltrates the vertebral column and causes paralysis of the hind legs before death. The mean paralysis time (MPT) has been taken as an end point in this tumor model. We have previously reported that early treatment of SCID/Daudi mice with RFB4 coupled to dgA prolongs the MPT in a manner consistent with the killing of 4 logs of tumor cells. In the present study, we show that HD37-dgA kills 2 logs of tumor cells. The lower potency of the HD37-dgA is consistent with its lower IC50 on Daudi cells in vitro. We further show that the antitumor activity of a mixture of HD37-dgA and RFB4-dgA is significantly enhanced in SCID/Daudi mice and is consistent with the killing in excess of 5 logs of tumor cells. However, identical enhancement was observed when a mixture of the RFB4-dgA and the HD37 antibody was administered. In contrast, enhancement was not observed when mice were injected with a mixture of the RFB4 antibody and the HD37-dgA. The results indicate that a "cocktail" of HD37 antibody and RFB4-dgA immunotoxin can have significant antitumor activity in this mouse model of lymphoma and suggest that combinations of particular antibodies and ITs may have cooperative antitumor activity.


This research compares the use of computer-assisted learning (CAL) with the traditional learning methods in the teaching of permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSMs). The present study was performed on an experimental group consisting of 16 students and a control group consisting of 15 students. In order to measure the students' success, a multiple-choice test of 23 items was used as the pretest and the posttest. The results show that the CAL method was more effective in increasing student success than the traditional method. An attitude scale of 17 items was applied to measure the attitudes of the experimental group students and a positive attitude towards CAL was found.


The post-Soviet republics, outside the EU, have a comparatively poor record on women's parliamentary representation. This has been blamed on the negative legacy of the Soviet system on contemporary gender relations, the complex relationship between the electoral and party systems and on-going political instability. An aspect of this instability is the emergence of de facto states within the internationally recognised boundaries of the former Soviet republics. Research on this region has also underlined the importance of in-depth studies of women representation in the form of single country case studies that have the capacity to tease out these sets of relationships. In this context examining both the 'parent' and the 'de facto' state allows the trajectory of the gender dimension of the political system to be examined comparatively in two political entities that share a recent political, economic and social history. As a contribution to this debate this paper examines the gender dimensions of two parliamentary contests in 2012 , one in the de facto state of Abkhazia and the other in its parent state of Georgia , as a means of analysing the factors that explain the level of women's formal political representation in these states.


In arid and semi-arid regions of the world where water scarcity is a fact of life, the search for water punctuates the history of communities and mediates their political relations. Fresh water is vital for human survival, yet its availability is uneven and substitutes do not exist. The struggle for access to, and control over, water supplies has consistently provoked tensions and conflict between communities and nations. However, if the parties involved in the struggle for access to scarce water were to perceive a mutual benefit in sharing the resource, then perhaps that resource could become the vehicle for cementing cooperative relations among them. In part this is what political functionalists during and following the Second World War were suggesting as a solution to international conflict: Peace could be achieved if ways were found for adversarial states to collaborate in technical and other non-political matters.(1) Over time, continuous cooperation in technical areas would bind states together in such a way that their political differences would recede in importance and eventually disappear. The former adversaries would come to realize that there was far more to gain from peaceful relations. Unfortunately, the record of technical collaboration among adversarial states spilling over into political cooperation is far more sobering than the idealists of mid-century would have us believe.(2) Furthermore, political conflicts are sometimes so visceral and primordial that they simply cannot be ignored; over the course of their duration, they become an inextricable part of the identities of the parties involved. Under such circumstances, technical collaboration cannot be facilitated; rather it must await political settlement. The Middle East is the most water-poor region of the globe, with the world's lowest per capita consumption of water. The problem attendant to water scarcity is particularly acute in the Middle East, as the region has one of the fastest growing populations. In addition, there are a number of rivers in this region that traverse international boundaries established during the 20th century, and that have become a focus of interstate tensions. Per Capita Surface Water Availability in the Jordan and Euphrates Basins, 1990(3) Total Per Capita Water/year Population Water (bcm) (millions) (cubic meters) Iraq 91.20 17.0 5364 Israel 1.95 4.6 424 Jordan 0.77 3.3 233 Lebanon 4.80 2.7 1600 Syria 23.00 13.0 1769 Turkey 100.00 55.0 1818 West Bank/ Gaza 0.20 1.8 111 In this article, I discuss two transboundary river basins in the Middle East: the Jordan River basin, which includes Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank; and the Euphrates River Basin, which includes Iraq, Syria and Turkey. In these basins, no binding arrangements for sharing the waters exist, yet some form of cooperation is imperative in order to meet the immediate and long-term needs of the states and peoples in question. The article is divided into four sections. I begin by outlining the prevailing views regarding how best to develop and manage the waters of a transboundary river basin. I explain why unitary basin-wide development under some form of supranational authority is considered optimal, and I describe the record to date in achieving this goal. In the second section, I focus on the Jordan and Euphrates River basins; I describe their geopolitical settings, outline the history of efforts to achieve cooperative solutions to water development and management, and analyze outcomes. I then summarize the obstacles to cooperation, emphasizing the preferences of the riparian states in each basin. …


Almost universally, females from indigenous populations walk long distances carrying heavy loads; these loads include infants and toddlers, as well as food, water, firewood, and household belongings. The purpose of our research was to determine how different levels of load carried in an indigenous pack basket affect the speeds selected by free-walking reproductive age women given qualitative speed directives. The study involved 14 women between 18 and 30 y who were in the luteal phase of their menstrual cycle or taking oral contraceptives. Subjects carried three different load amounts in an indigenous style pack basket -0 kg (an empty pack), 10 kg, and 20 kg -while walking around a gym perimeter at four different walking speed directives ("slow walk", "walk all day", "brisk walk", "fast walk"). During each of two testing days, 12 trials (all combinations of 3 loads, 4 speed directives) were performed in a random order. Each trial consisted of six minutes walking followed by four minutes resting. Average selected walking speed for each trial was determined from video tape recordings on each side of the gym. Actual walking speed increased curvilinearly with speed directive. For a given speed directive, selected speeds dropped significantly from 0 to 20 kg loads at all but the "slow walk" directive, with the amount of the speed drop increasing at faster speed directives. Such load-related modulation of walking speed could limit daily foraging range, as well as increase the frequency of camp moves, potentially influencing the mobility of the entire population.


Frank Herbert's Dune, a thematically rich and varied work of science fiction, is the first novel in a trilogy about the desert planet Arrakis, or Dune, and the rise to power of Paul Atreides, its messianic leader. Herbert initially conceived of writing one long novel about "the messianic convulsions that periodically overtake us. Demagogues, fanatics, con-game artists, the innocent and the not-so-innocent bystanders - all were to have a part" ("Dune Genesis" p.72). Ultimately, Herbert produced six novels about Dune comprising what has become known as The Dune Chronicles. The intricate ecology of the planet, encompassing the Fremen natives' desire to turn Dune into a "green and fertile world" and the need of the Empire for the indigenous spice melange to facilitate space travel, forms the backdrop for Paul's struggle to overcome his enemies, control the planet, and fulfill his personal destiny. Throughout the novel Paul must meet and overcome challenges that serve to confirm him in the minds of the Fremen as being their messiah. Paul does not seek this position but is instead caught up in the events that lead to his deposing of the Emperor and control of the throne. Herbert's decision to examine the messianic superhero against a backdrop of ecological concerns was no accident. Drawing on his experience in journalism, he noted: I had already written several pieces about ecological matters, but my superhero concept filled me with a concern that ecology might be the next banner for demagogues and would-be heroes, for the power seekers and others ready to find an "adrenaline high" in the launching of a new crusade. I could begin to see the shape of a global problem, no part of it separated from any other - social ecology, political ecology, economic ecology. I find fresh nuances in religions, psychoanalytic theories, linguistics, economics, philosophy, theories of history, geology, anthropology, plant research, soil chemistry, and the metalanguages of pheromones. A new field of study arises out of this like a spirit rising from a witch's caldron: the psychology of planetary societies. ("Dune Genesis" p.74) It seems, therefore, evident that a central theme of the novel is not only ecology, but ecology examined in many different contexts. In addition to exploring environmental ecology, the study of the relationship and interaction between organisms and their environment, Dune explores social, political, economic, and language ecologies as well (Touponce pp.13-14). Herbert compared these variations on a central theme to a musical fugue: Sometimes there are free voices that do fanciful dances around the interplay. There can be secondary themes and contrasts in harmony, rhythm, and melody. From the moment when a single voice introduces the primary theme, however, the whole is woven into a single fabric. What were my instruments in this ecological fugue? Images, conflicts, things that turn upon themselves and become something quite different, myth figures and strange creatures from the depths of our common heritage. ("Dune Genesis" p.74) These various ecologies evolve out of their respective relationships and interactions with the planetary environment of Arrakis. Specifically, Herbert believed language mirrors the ecosystem from which life evolves: (Touponce p.2) ... we commonly believe meaning is found - in printed words (such as these), in the noises of a speaker, in the reader's or listener's awareness, or in some imaginary thought-land between these. We tend to forget that we human animals evolved in an ecosystem that has demanded constant improvisation from us. In a mirror sense, we reflect this history of mutual influences in all our systems and processes. ("Listening" pp.98, 100) Another major theme of the novel is that of power, and the nature of the superhero or leader who emerges to discover that he or she must wage war to gain and maintain that power. Herbert strongly believed war to be the logical consequence of any struggle to gain and maintain power whether political or economic. …


I had just started as a new medical house officer in an eminent teaching hospital on the south coast of England, having recently completed my surgical job. Like all new doctors, I spent the first few days finding my way around the wards and getting to know the routine. I was booming with enthusiasm and confidence and was somewhat arrogant. The job certainly was not easy. A typical day consisted of an endless ward round, and during on-calls we would be lucky to have a few minutes to ourselves. On a typical post-take ward round we saw more than 20 new admissions, and, with an on-call commitment of one in four, we were always on the go.

I was initially taken aback by the enormity of the workload in …


The more than two dozen Rai languages in eastern Nepal, which make up the larger part of the Kiranti language family, are linguistically highly varied. Due to this, intergroup solidarity has been relatively weak, and Rai ethnicity must be seen as constructed in recent history. However, it is striking how the mythological narratives of these different Rai 'subtribes' - oral stories about the origins of culture and the deeds of the ancestors - form a strong and coherent tradition in which the different variants of episodes possess an obvious 'family resemblance'. This mythological tradition is clearly distinct from those of the neighboring Limbu, the other major Kiranti group. This volume, which includes introductory chapters to Rai mythology and Rai grammar, for the first time brings together different variants of myths from various Rai languages, presenting them with linguistic glossings in interlinear translations. This makes it possible not only to study the myths and their cultural meanings as oral texts but also to compare narrative structures across different grammars. The book is of special interest for linguists, anthropologists, and folklorists with a focus on the Himalayas.


The balance between computational complexity and the architecture bottlenecks the development of Neural Networks (NNs). An architecture that is too large or too small will influence the performance to a large extent in terms of generalization and computational cost. In the past, saliency analysis has been employed to determine the most suitable structure, however, it is time-consuming and the performance is not robust. In this paper, a family of new algorithms for pruning elements (weighs and hidden neurons) in Neural Networks is presented based on Compressive Sampling (CS) theory. The proposed framework makes it possible to locate the significant elements, and hence find a sparse structure, without computing their saliency. Experiment results are presented which demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.


This paper explores feminism and public relations through the diverse perspectives of three public relations scholars seeking to understand what a critical-feminist research agenda might offer. It acknowledges that feminist public relations scholarship – at least until recently – is underdeveloped. Drawing on bell hooks' (1989) notion of talking back, this paper offers a conversation to explore tensions and debates around a feminist agenda for public relations. The discussion is structured around three broad themes: provocations, transgressions and resistance, and points to how feminist intelligences and modalities, in challenging gendered hegemonies, may open public relations scholarship and practices to


textabstractUncertainties are omni-present in wind energy applications, both in external
conditions (such as wind and waves) as well as in the models
that are used to predict key quantities such as costs, energy yield, and
fatigue loads. This report summarizes and reviews the application of
uncertainty quantification techniques to wind energy problems. In the
wind industry, including uncertainties in predictions has classically been
done by using Monte Carlo methods. Recently, more advanced methods
have been considered (e.g. polynomial chaos expansion, stochastic collocation,
and Gaussian process regression), which are based on smartly
sampling the model (e.g. a complex aerodynamic blade model). These
methods generally have a greater efficiency compared to Monte Carlo
(depending on model properties) and additionally yield computationally
cheap surrogate models. Furthermore, surrogate models purely based on
data (e.g. via proper orthogonal decomposition) have received significant
interest, especially for the representation of turbulent wind turbine
wakes. Both model-driven and data-driven surrogate models play a crucial
role in making control and optimization studies feasible. In the
near future, we expect that recent trends in uncertainty quantification,
namely Bayesian model calibration and optimization under uncertainty,
will become increasingly popular in wind energy applications.


Deconvolutional layers have been widely used in a variety of deep models for up-sampling, including encoder-decoder networks for semantic segmentation and deep generative models for unsupervised learning. One of the key limitations of deconvolutional operations is that they result in the so-called checkerboard problem. This is caused by the fact that no direct relationship exists among adjacent pixels on the output feature map. To address this problem, we propose the pixel deconvolutional layer (PixelDCL) to establish direct relationships among adjacent pixels on the up-sampled feature map. Our method is based on a fresh interpretation of the regular deconvolution operation. The resulting PixelDCL can be used to replace any deconvolutional layer in a plug-and-play manner without compromising the fully trainable capabilities of original models. The proposed PixelDCL may result in slight decrease in efficiency, but this can be overcome by an implementation trick. Experimental results on semantic segmentation demonstrate that PixelDCL can consider spatial features such as edges and shapes and yields more accurate segmentation outputs than deconvolutional layers. When used in image generation tasks, our PixelDCL can largely overcome the checkerboard problem suffered by regular deconvolution operations.


This study investigated the diversity of carotenoids and phenolics in germplasm from three Capsicum (chile pepper) species, Capsicum annuum, Capsicum baccatum, and Capsicum chinense. Lutein, a yellow-pigmented carotenoid, and phenolics, a group of secondary metabolites, are reported to have health-promoting properties. The germplasm studied matured to a yellow color. The hypothesis was that all yellow fruits would contain either the carotenoid lutein, a yellow pigment, or a large amount of phenolics, a group of secondary metabolites that may be yellow among other colors. Thirty-one Capsicum accessions were grown in the field over a period of two seasons. On a dry weight (DW) basis, lutein ranged from 0.14 to 94.2 μg·g−1, and total phenolics ranged from 5.79 to 15.01 mg·g−1. No lutein was detected in one accession and β-carotene, another health-promoting compound, was lacking in four accessions. Accessions were grouped into four groups according to a principal component analysis plot. Results from this study indicate that in only nine accessions, lutein represented at least 50% of the total carotenoid amounts in each accession. These accessions are desirable not only as a source of dietary lutein, a natural yellow pigment, but also as genetic material that can be used to breed for higher lutein Capsicum. Therefore, yellow color is not a good indicator of lutein content and phytochemical analysis is required to determine the content of health-promoting compounds.


Background: An unbuffered pocket of highly acidic juice is observed at the gastric cardia after a meal in healthy subjects. Aims: To compare the postprandial acid pocket in healthy subjects and patients with severe reflux disease and define its position relative to anatomical and manometric landmarks. Methods: 12 healthy subjects and 16 patients with severe reflux disease were studied. While fasted, a station pull-through was performed using a combined dual pH and manometry catheter. Position was confirmed by radiological visualisation of endoscopically placed radio-opaque clips. The pull-through study was repeated 15 min after a standardised fatty meal. Barium meal examination was performed before and following the meal. Results: A region of unbuffered acid (pH ⩽2) immediately distal to the proximal gastric folds was more frequent in reflux patients (23/32 studies) than in healthy subjects (11/24) (p<0.05). This unbuffered acid pocket was longer in the reflux patients than in the healthy subjects (median length 3 cm (range 1–15) vs 2 cm (range 1–5); p<0.05). The acid pocket extended proximally as far as the proximal gastric folds in the patients but stopped a median of 1.1 cm distal in healthy subjects (p = 0.005). In healthy subjects the acid pocket occupied the distal portion of the sphincter which opened postprandially, whereas in reflux patients it corresponded to the proximal displacement of the gastric folds—that is, hiatus hernia. Conclusion: This enlarged region of unbuffered postprandial acidic juice observed in the patients just below the gastro-oesophageal junction may contribute to the aetiology of severe reflux disease.


The taxation of the digital economy is confronting tax and transfer pricing professionals with fundamental challenges. While an intense debate on the concept of value creation for transfer pricing is required to address these challenges, the prevailing political pressures stifle this debate. In 2020 the OECD has published final reform proposals (so-called Pillar 1) that would drastically change the existing international regulatory framework, by introducing elements of formulary apportionment. This development reflects an eroding consensus on the prevailing transfer pricing paradigm, the so-called arm's length principle.

In this working paper I analyze how unjustified claims regarding alleged shortcomings of the arm's length principles contribute to these developments. Specifically, I will debunk five respective popular claims directed against the arm's length principle. The focal point of the analysis is a recent paper published by Arthur J. Cockfield.

The objective of this working paper is not to present a coherent argument on the conceptual advantages of the arm's length principle vis-a-vis global formulary apportionment. The objective is rather to facilitate a discussion on reforms for taxing the digital economy that is not framed by myths about tax avoidance and respective scapegoating of the arm's length principle.


The microbiological quality of milk is important not only for food safety, but it can also influence the quality of dairy products. In this study, our aim was to assess the microbiological status of the bulk milk of a milk-producing farm, and some natural and flavored (garlic, dill, onion) gomolya cheeses made from pasteurized milk produced by their own processing plant. We determined the number of coliform bacteria, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, and molds of three milk and eight cheese samples. The tests were conducted between July and September, 2017.
In bulk milk, the mean coliform count was 3.83±0.17 log10 CFU/ml; the mean E. coli count was 1.38±0.14 log10 CFU/ml; the mean mold count was 3.74±1.30 log10 CFU/ml; and the S. aureus count was <1.00 log10 CFU/ml, respectively. The mean coliform count in gomolya cheeses was 3.69±1.00 log10 CFU/g; the mean E. coli count was 2.63±0.58 log10 CFU/g; the mean S. aureus count was 3.69±1.35 log10 CFU/g and the mean mold count was 1.74±0.37 log10 CFU/g. The amount of coliforms detected in different flavored gomolya cheeses were significantly different (P<0.05). More than 10 CFU/g of E. coli was found only in the dill flavored cheeses, and S. aureus was found only in dill (3.66±1.86 log10 CFU/g) and onion (3.71±0.52 log10 CFU/g) flavored gomolya cheeses. Based on the obtained results, it was found that the amount of coliform bacteria and E. coli in bulk milk exceeded the limit set in regulation of the Hungarian Ministry of Health (MoH) 4/1998 (XI. 11.) and the amount of S. aureus was below the limit. For gomolya cheeses, the S. aureus count exceeded the limit. The amount of coliform bacteria remained above the limit in cheeses, except for the garlic flavored gomolya cheese. In cheeses, a larger E. coli count was detected than in the bulk milk, but there is no specific limit for cheeses in the regulation. The mold count exceeded the limit specified in the regulation in cheeses, but a lower value was detected relative to milk.
The results show that, in the case of bulk milk and gomolya cheeses, certain detected quantities exceeded the limit values set forth in regulation of MoH 4/1998 (XI. 11.). The results indicate an inadequate microbiological state of the raw material and the finished products. The reasons for these are due to reduced technological hygiene or the inappropriate handling of raw material and finished products. In this study, we have summarized the results of our preliminary studies, which can provide a basis for further hygiene studies.


We present Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) images of 20 TeV blazars not previously well studied on the parsec scale. All 20 of these sources are high-frequency peaked BL Lac objects (HBLs). Observations were made between August and December of 2013 at a frequency of 8.4 GHz. These observations represent the first epoch of a VLBA monitoring campaign on these blazars, and they significantly increase the fraction of TeV HBLs studied with high-resolution imaging. The peak very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) flux densities of these sources range from ∼10 to ∼100 mJy bm−1, and parsec-scale jet structure is detected in all sources. About half of the VLBI cores are resolved, with brightness temperature upper limits of a few times 1010 K, and we find that a brightness temperature of ∼2 × 1010 K is consistent with the VLBI data for all but one of the sources. Such brightness temperatures do not require any relativistic beaming to reduce the observed value below commonly invoked intrinsic limits; however, the lack of detection of counterjets does place a modest limit on the bulk Lorentz factor of γ ≳ 2. These data are thus consistent with a picture where weak-jet sources like the TeV HBLs develop significant velocity structures on parsec scales. We also extend consideration to the full sample of TeV HBLs by combining the new VLBI data with VLBI and gamma-ray data from the literature. By comparing measured VLBI and TeV fluxes to samples with intrinsically uncorrelated luminosities generated by Monte Carlo simulations, we find a marginally significant correlation between the VLBI and TeV fluxes for the full TeV HBL sample.


This study examines the relationship between work-related basic need satisfaction and work engagement. Data were obtained from a total of 203 academics who are employed in various universities of Turkey. In this research Work-Related Basic Need Satisfaction Scale and The Turkish Form of Utrecht Work Engagement Scale were utilized. The data were analysed through multiple regression and Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient analysis methods. The findings revealed that the sub-dimensions of work-related basic need satisfaction significantly predicted work engagement. Upper management should improve work conditions of their personnel, which are  related with competency, autonomy, and relatedness needs of academics. This way, academic staff will have better efficiency in terms of work engagement, which will also result in higher work adaptation and participation. Keywords : academic staff, basic need satisfaction, work engagement


Myasthenia Gravis is autoimmune disorder of neuromuscular transmission. In some cases, psychiatric complications aggravate its course. Myasthenia gravis (MG) has always been a challenge for anesthesiologists and psychiatrists when the use of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is required, especially when succinylcholine is used together with acetylcholinesterase inhibitors. We describe a 76 years old patient with treatment resistant major depressive disorder, without neurological symptoms of MG, under long-term acetylcholinesterase inhibitors treatment. ECT was administered in one successful, uneventful series of 7 treatments within 28 days with bilateral electrode placement. Although highest dosage of succinylcholine-1.5 mg/kg was used, the restart of breathing was without any problems after ECT sedation.


Depression is a serious mental disorder that affects millions of people all over the world. Traditional clinical diagnosis methods are subjective, complicated and need extensive participation of experts. Audio-visual automatic depression analysis systems predominantly base their predictions on very brief sequential segments, sometimes as little as one frame. Such data contains much redundant information, causes a high computational load, and negatively affects the detection accuracy. Final decision making at the sequence level is then based on the fusion of frame or segment level predictions. However, this approach loses longer term behavioural correlations, as the behaviours themselves are abstracted away by the frame-level predictions. We propose to on the one hand use automatically detected human behaviour primitives such as Gaze directions, Facial action units (AU), etc. as low-dimensional multi-channel time series data, which can then be used to create two sequence descriptors. The first calculates the sequence-level statistics of the behaviour primitives and the second casts the problem as a Convolutional Neural Network problem operating on a spectral representation of the multichannel behaviour signals. The results of depression detection (binary classification) and severity estimation (regression) experiments conducted on the AVEC 2016 DAIC-WOZ database show that both methods achieved significant improvement compared to the previous state of the art in terms of the depression severity estimation.


Nicholas Steno (1638–1686) compiled a notebook in 1659 when he was a student at the University of Copenhagen. Titled Chaos by Steno, it remains unstudied in English-speaking countries, despite having been translated in 1997. Chaos adds important insight into geology9s place in the Scientific Revolution. It shows Steno disengaging from speculations about the cosmos based on the ruling paradigms of Aristotelian metaphysics and Cartesian misconceptions in favor of an empirical model based on the new mathematics of geometry applied to all of nature, from what we now would consider the atomic level, to the human body, and to the planet. Steno thereby earns heretofore unacknowledged credit for helping to establish the geometric definition of form that makes it possible to understand the evolution of the structure of organisms as well as of the planet.


ABSTRACT Objectives Budget Impact Analyses (BIA) of medicines helps managers in promoting health systems' sustainability when assessing the role and value of new medicines. However, it is not clear whether BIAs typically underestimate or overestimate the impact on real-world budgets. This retroactive analysis seeks to compare estimated values obtained by a BIA and Real-World Evidence (RWE) to guide discussions. Methods The estimated values were obtained through a BIA concerning the incorporation of adalimumab for the treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis into the Brazilian Unified Health System (SUS) carried out retroactively and per international guidelines. RWE data was extracted from SUS computerized systems. We subsequently compared the number of treatments, costs, and Incremental Budget Impact (IBI). Results – The total number of treatments was underestimated by 10% (6,243) and the total expenditure was overestimated by 463% (US$ 4.7 billion). In five years, the total difference between the estimated values and real IBI reached US$ 1.1 billion. A current expenditure of US$ 1.0 was observed for every US$ 5.60 of estimated expenditure. Conclusion – The higher estimates from the BIA might cause decision makers to be more cautious with the introduction of a new medicine to reduce the opportunity costs for other interventions.


Background: A systematic literature review shows there is a need to study how professionals work with multiple-birth families in different kinds of nursing contexts. Objective: The aim is to describe public-health nurses' (n = 8) experiences of supporting multiple-birth families and to contribute to the understanding of working with such families. Methodology: The qualitative research study is guided by the phenomenological hermeneutic and van Manen's methods have been used. The phenomenon was described through the concept of lifeworld: time, body, relations, and space. The data include participants' interviews and written documents, as well as the researcher's notes. Results: The phenomena of supporting multiple-birth families, as described by public-health nurses, can be expressed by "Recognizing the strain", "Lightening the load of daily life" and "Targeting special needs". Conclusions: The social-and health-care professionals met challenges in supporting multiple-birth families, and disclosed their need for training and education. There is a need for more understanding of the unique relevant needs and life situations of such families. Wellbeing and caring involves giving guidance and providing the parents with the special knowledge they need. Further research could concentrate on how evidence-based research guides the work of professionals in multi-professional teams.


Drawing upon in-depth qualitative research with refugees and host populations in Kenya, this article offers a diverging viewpoint towards refugees' economic impacts within a hosting area and sheds light on the complexity and variability of such impacts perceived by different members of a host community. Due to the unprecedented numbers of refugees worldwide, assessing the impacts of hosting refugees is currently a 'hot topic' in the international community. However, the primary complication for studies that attempt to measure economic impacts are the complex patterns of economic interactions that refugees have with host communities. This means that refugees' economic impacts may be viewed, experienced and distributed unequally amongst the members of receiving society. Through a case-study in Nairobi's outskirts, this article demonstrates different patterns of engagement between refugees and the local population in the context of a labour market, and reveals contrasting views towards refugees' economic impacts within the host community.


ABSTRACT In this paper, we report findings from the second year of a three-year research and professional development program designed to help elementary school teachers engage in dialogic teaching to support the development of students' argument literacy. We define argument literacy as the ability to comprehend and formulate arguments through speaking, listening, reading, and writing. The professional development program was focused on promoting teachers' use of a specific type of talk called 'inquiry dialogue' to achieve the goal of developing students' argument literacy. We used a single-group pretest-posttest design to assess the impact of the professional development on teachers' epistemological beliefs and their enactment of inquiry dialogue in text-based discussions. Our analyses of videotaped discussions at the beginning and end of the year showed that there were substantial improvements in teachers' facilitation of inquiry dialogue and in the quality of students' argumentation during discussions. Contrary to expectations, however, there were no changes in teachers' epistemology; teachers' beliefs about knowledge and knowledge justification remained at a relativist stage throughout the course of the program, suggesting that teachers continued to view all opinions as equally valid and regard arguments and the use of reasons and evidence as idiosyncratic.


Abstract: Medicinal plants are an important local resource for the Washambaa of the Western Usambara Mountains in Tanzania. In this study the Washambaa medicinal plants are inventoried. It is based on ethnobotanical fieldwork carried out over 15 months. This study presents for the first time an analysis of medicinal plants used in Africa with a ranking of these taxa by the frequency of their reported use. A total of 328 taxa were collected and yielded 2260 individual use reports. The most popular species are Myrica salicifolia and Toddalia asiatica. Subsequently, the use reports were arranged into 9 groups of medicinal uses based on the types of illness treated. The Factor of Informant Consensus (FIC) is used in order to evaluate the ethnobotanical importance of the plants. The largest number of plants and of use reports are in the group of gastrointestinal disorders. For the most commonly used taxa, an ethnopharmacological evaluation was performed. Studies to evaluate the Washambaa therapeutic claims as well as toxicological data are still lacking for many of the species. This study will form the basis for pharmacological and phytochemical research on selected Washambaa medicinal plants.


Sequential recommender systems (SRS) have become a research hotspot in recent studies. Because of the requirement in capturing user's dynamic interests, sequential neural network based recommender models often need to be stacked with more hidden layers (e.g., up to 100 layers) compared with standard collaborative filtering methods. However, the high network latency has become the main obstacle when deploying very deep recommender models into a production environment. In this paper, we argue that the typical prediction framework that treats all users equally during the inference phase is inefficient in running time, as well as sub-optimal in accuracy. To resolve such an issue, we present SkipRec, an adaptive inference framework by learning to skip inactive hidden layers on a per-user basis. Specifically, we devise a policy network to automatically determine which layers should be retained and which layers are allowed to be skipped, so as to achieve user-specific decisions. To derive the optimal skipping policy, we propose using gumbel softmax and reinforcement learning to solve the non-differentiable problem during backpropagation.
We perform extensive experiments on three real-world recommendation datasets, and demonstrate that SkipRec attains comparable or better accuracy with much less inference time.


We present the first algorithm for designing volumetric Michell Trusses. Our method uses a parametrization approach to generate trusses made of structural elements aligned with the primary direction of an objects stress field. Such trusses exhibit high strength-toweight ratio while also being aesthetically pleasing. Unlike traditional approaches to structural optimization, our method produces trusses that can be edited as a post process but retain structural optimality. We also demonstrate the structural robustness of our designs via mechanical testing. Our algorithm permits an exciting combination of control and structural soundness which we believe serves as an important compliment to existing structural optimization tools and as a novel standalone design tool itself.


Common cold is one of the most frequent human inflammatory diseases caused by viruses and can facilitate bacterial super-infections resulting in sinusitis or pneumonia. The active ingredient of the drug Soledum, 1,8-cineole, is commonly applied for treating inflammatory diseases of the respiratory tract. However, the potential of 1,8-cineole for treating primary viral infections of the respiratory tract remains unclear. In the present study, we demonstrate for the first time that 1,8-cineole potentiates Poly(I:C)- induced activity of the anti-viral transcription factor Interferon Regulatory Factor 3, while simultaneously reducing pro-inflammatory NF-κB-activity in human cell lines, inferior turbinate stem cells (ITSCs) and ex vivo cultivated human nasal mucosa. Co-treatment of cell lines with Poly(I:C) and 1,8-cineole resulted in significantly increased IRF3 reporter gene activity compared to Poly(I:C) alone, whereas NF-κB-activity was reduced. Accordingly, 1,8- cineole-and Poly(I:C)-treatment led to increased nuclear translocation of IRF3 in ITSCs and a human ex vivo model of rhinosinusitis compared to the Poly(I:C)-treated approach. Nuclear translocation of IRF3 was significantly increased in ITSCs and slice cultures treated with LPS and 1,8-cineole compared to the LPS-treated cells mimicking bacterial infection. Our findings strongly suggest that 1,8-cineole potentiates the antiviral activity of IRF3 in addition to its inhibitory effect on pro-inflammatory NF-κB-signalling and may thus broaden its field of application.


With NGS development, bioinformatics has become central in plant breeding laboratories, and researchers are in need of some autonomy in its use. The Southgreen platform (CIRAD, IRD, INRA) performs bioinformatics analyses for many plant breeding research teams in Montpellier (France), and offers many systems to users: for example GNPAnnot (automatic genomic sequence annotation), Greenphyl (phylogenetic orthology prediction), ESTtik (EST annotation) or the Bacchus analysis pipeline. Most of these systems have been translated into Galaxy workflows. As for the Bacchus pipeline, it has been created at INRA Montpellier (France) to investigate clonal diversity in grapevine genomes. For this task, many softwares have been wrapped in the Galaxy framework. Bacchus can be decomposed in three steps: i) Genome reconstruction, ii) test of reconstruction results, and iii) diversity analysis. This last step is done using SNP's and structural variations. To detect SNP's, the latest Freebayes version was used, while the IDfixe software was developped for structural variation detection. Some of the softwares developped for this pipeline are now used in the international project Grapereseq. Today, the Galaxy framework is widely used by Southgreen plateform users as an alternative to the command line system. In this context, dozens of users have already been trained in Galaxy-using bioinformatics. During weekly collective pair-programming sessions, platform engineers and interested scientists integrate new tools and functionalities.Thus, Galaxy is now a core component of the plant breeding community around the Southgreen platform, and the main access portal for non- bioinformatics specialists to our computing clusters. (Resume d'auteur)


In previous studies, the effectiveness of the Half-Sweep Geometric Mean (HSGM) iterative method has been shown in solving first and second kind linear Fredholm integral equations using repeated trapezoidal (RT) discretization scheme. In this work, we investigate the efficiency of the HSGM method to solve dense linear system generated from the discretization of the second kind linear Fredholm integral equations by using repeated Simpson's 1/3(RS1) scheme. The formulation and implementation ofthe proposed method are also presented. In addition, several numerical simulations and computational complexity analysis were also included to verify the efficiency of the proposed method.