Real-world applications of authenticated encryption often require the encryption to be computable online, e.g. to compute the i th block of ciphertext after having processed the first i blocks of plaintext. A significant line of research was dedicated to identifying security notions for online authenticated encryption schemes, that capture various security goals related to real-life scenarios. Fouque, Joux, Martinet and Valette proposed definitions of privacy and integrity against adversaries that can query their oracles in a blockwise-adaptive manner, to model memory-constrained applications. A decade later, Fleischmann, Forler and Lucks proposed the notion of online nonce misuse-resistant authenticated encryption (OAE) to capture the security of online authenticated encryption under nonce-reuse. In this work we investigate the relation between these notions. We first recast the blockwise notions of Fouque et al. to make them compatible with online authenticated encryption schemes that support headers. We then show that OAE and the conjunction of the blockwise notions are "almost" equivalent. We identify the missing property on the side of blockwise notions, and formalize it under the name PR-TAG. With PR-TAG being just an auxiliary definition, the equivalence we finally show suggests that OAE and the blockwise model for online authenticated encryption capture essentially the same notion of security.


The ability to manage change is important in software engineering organizations, where rapid progress in technologies and constantly evolving methodologies create a turbulent environment. Research has identified employees' attitudes towards organizational change as a key factor in the change process. Nonetheless, few studies exist that explore such attitudes in a software engineering context. The nature of change efforts is such that they often do not equally affect the various roles in the organization, which indicates that the roles may hold different attitudes. This study aimed to verify the existence of these presumed differences in attitudes towards organizational change between roles in a software engineering organization and to identify factors that contribute to these differences. The result of a survey (N=51) confirmed that there were significant differences, and that the software developers had a more positive attitude towards change and had deeper knowledge about the intended outcome compared to the line managers. The result of in-depth interviews (N=11) revealed that the software engineers evaluate the planned change in relation to the norms, values and standards of their peer group, meaning that an employee will have a positive attitude towards a change if its result is likely to make, or has made, it easier for him/her to uphold the peer group's norms and values.


Abstract In the last decade, it has been recognized that the Moon contains significant proportions of volatile elements (H, F, Cl), and that they are transported through the lunar crust and across its surface. Here, we document a significant segment of that volatile cycle in lunar granulite breccia 79215: impactinduced remobilization of volatiles, and vapor-phase transport with extreme elemental fractionation. 79215 contains ∼1% volume of fluorapatite, Ca5(PO4)3(F,Cl,OH), in crystals to 1 mm long, which is reflected in its analyzed abundances of F, Cl, and P. The apatite has a molar F/Cl ratio of ∼10, and contains only 25 ppm OH and low abundances of the rare earth elements (REE). The chlorine in the apatite is isotopically heavy, at δ37Cl = +32.7 ± 1.6‰. Hydrogen in the apatite is heavy at δD = +1060 ± 180‰; much of that D came from spallogenic nuclear reactions, and the original δD was lower, between +350‰ and +700‰. Unlike other P-rich lunar rocks (e.g., 65015), 79215 lacks abundant K and REE, and other igneous incompatible elements characteristic of the lunar KREEP component. Here, we show that the P and halogens in 79215 were added to an otherwise "normal" granulite by vapor-phase metasomatism, similar to rock alteration by fumarolic exhalations as observed on Earth. The ultimate source of the P and halogens was most likely KREEP, it being the richest reservoir of P on the Moon, and 79215 having H and Cl isotopic compositions consistent with KREEP. A KREEP-rich rock was heated and devolatilized by an impact event. This vapor was fractionated by interaction with solid phases, including merrillite (a volatile-free phosphate mineral), a Fe-Ti oxide, and a Zr-bearing phase. These solids removed REE, Th, Zr, Hf, etc., from the vapor, and allowed the vapor to transport primarily P, F, and Cl, with lesser proportions of Ba and U into 79215. Vapor-deposited crystals of apatite (to 30 μm) are known in some lunar regolith samples, but lunar vapor has not (before this) been implicated in significant mass transfer. It seems unlikely, however, that phosphate-halogen metasomatism is related to the high-Th/Sm abundance ratios of this and other lunar magnesian granulites. The metasomatism of 79215 emphasizes the importance of impact heating in the lunar volatile cycle, both in mobilizing volatile components into vapor and in generating strong elemental fractionations.


Executive Summary: In an effort to explore the potential for financing environmental innovation, this paper examines different forms of financing and attempts to evaluate their effectiveness. The study considers both public and private forms of funding as well as providing policy suggestions for the support of appropriate financing for eco-innovation. Key Findings: • The literature on the financing of innovation is very limited, and a virtually non-existent literature on the funding of eco-innovation in particular. • R&D spending in the energy sector is relatively quite small, when compared to other industries and sectors. In addition, since fossil fuels receive close to one-quarter of the federal funding it is perhaps not surprising that there is a dearth of research on funding for eco-innovation. • Innovation is inherently risky and uncertain. Moreover, if we are unsure about the rate of innovation, then we have difficulty predicting the pattern of global climate change, which makes it difficult to substantiate the reasons for further research funding. • Public funding occupies a significant and important position in innovation financing. One essential role of government is the funding of basic research, especially technologies that are not in and of themselves commercially viable, but may serve as a springboard for subsequent innovation. Further, of one hundred lines of inquiry only one might merit commercialization by venture capital funding. • Environmental innovation is complicated by both environmental externalities as well as the public good nature of the technology. R&D subsidies address the public good characteristic, but fail to account for the environmental externality, so do not address adoption challenges. Subsidies, either R&D or production subsidies, are an easy target for interest groups, creating a political challenge. As a result, subsidies frequently take less transparent forms such as price controls that reduce prices below full cost. • It is clear that energy and agriculture are two of the most heavily subsidized economic sectors, and both impact directly on the ability of eco-innovation to draw resources and to draw consumers. Global energy subsidies are close to $300 billion per year and the majority of these serve to lower consumer prices in non-OECD nations. Alternatively, in OECD countries, most subsidies go to production in the form of direct payments or as R&D support. Roughly eleven percent of that total supports the distribution of low-carbon energy. • While taxing carbon-intensive fuels may be a more economically efficient mechanism, it is probably politically unfeasible. Moreover, economists cannot even cleanly recommend the elimination of subsidies for fossil fuels due to the complexity of the system. For example, encouraging the use of oil products such as kerosene can curb deforestation. • Most innovation is still funded by private sources, whether internal to the firm itself (e.g. via retained earnings) or through third-party funding sources (e.g. bank loans, venture capital). Moreover, corporate interest in eco-innovation is largely market-driven, so policymakers would do well to ensure that the incentives and abilities to early profits are appropriate and preserved. • It is important to note that there is some evidence that appropriate funding may differ based on the stage of the innovation's life cycle. Current case studies appear to favor technology push factors early in the product cycle, versus market opportunities later in the cycle. • Finally, empirical studies frequently identify the lack of access to credit as a significant barrier to adoption and technological diffusion. For environmental innovators, the challenge is not only attracting sufficient funding, but ensuring that the associated incentives are appropriate to the lifecycle stage. This paper concludes that the challenge to policymakers is one of balance: encouraging financing and removing obstacles to the process while still allowing the wisdom of the market to function and the powers of the invisible hand to best guide investments. While the importance of eco-innovation is increasingly evident, the mechanisms for funding these technologies remain largely unexplored. A rich set of questions remain to be answered, questions that will help reveal the most efficient and effective means of financing environmental innovation.


Vaccines based on mRNA-containing lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) are a promising new platform used by two leading vaccines against coronavirus disease in 2019 (COVID-19). Clinical trials and ongoing vaccinations present with very high protection levels and varying degrees of side effects. However, the nature of the reported side effects remains poorly defined. Here we present evidence that LNPs used in many preclinical studies are highly inflammatory in mice. Intradermal injection of these LNPs led to rapid and robust inflammatory responses, characterized by massive neutrophil infiltration, activation of diverse inflammatory pathways, and production of various inflammatory cytokines and chemokines. The same dose of LNP delivered intranasally led to similar inflammatory responses in the lung and resulted in a high mortality rate. In summary, here we show that the LNPs used for many preclinical studies are highly inflammatory. Thus, their potent adjuvant activity and reported superiority comparing to other adjuvants in supporting the induction of adaptive immune responses could stem from their inflammatory nature. Furthermore, the preclinical LNPs are similar to the ones used for human vaccines, which could also explain the observed side effects in humans using this platform.


Enthusiasts have vigilantly followed Terrence Malick's rather plodding yet stunning career of more than thirty years--from Badlands (1973) on through The Thin Red Line (1998) and further. The excitement just might reach an even higher pitch now with this auteur's latest indelible film, The Tree of Life (2011). To use the brazen words of the young Jack O'Brien, Malick's central protagonist: The Tree of Life indeed feels like such an exuberant "experiment" that tests so many boundaries throughout the loose narrative. However, it likewise (and more often) feels like a carefully wrought plan. Whether that plan succeeds or not perhaps depends upon one's values, aesthetics, and/or simply patience. First, the film forces the viewer to do some heavy critical thinking, associative leaps, and serious interpretive "work." Images and themes are rhymed, riffed on, and paralleled throughout with such surprising intensity that the time spent merely "watching" is nearly equal to that spent in simultaneous contemplation. Ultimately, the active viewer should find the experience a rewarding one--and with a plethora of rich images and meanings to sift through. In short, however, the film follows the childhood of Jack O'Brien (the youth played by a talented, unknown Hunter McCracken, and the adult Jack played by Sean Penn). Like so many childhoods, the feelings and memories are not easily forgotten: the innocence lost; a tyrannical father (Brad Pitt) steeped in the ever-restricting box of conservative Christianity in 1950s, middle-class America; and the bonds of brotherhood forever felt but torn apart by an early death in the family. While the O'Brien family thus remains a narrative centerpiece or grounding point for the film, clearly larger themes are at work here. Certainly the film delivers several stirring performances and poignant moments with regards to the acting talents who represent the O'Brien family: again, Penn, Pitt, Jessica Chastain (who plays Mrs. O'Brien), and especially McCracken. However, Malick frames his entire, seemingly simple American family drama with the powerful complexity of an experimental formalist--also via an agnostic's utterly critical yet awestruck vision of the world, even the universe. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] First, from the angle of a rather cerebral though nonetheless emotionally fulfilling approach to cinema, Malick understands his medium all too well by this juncture in his career. Also, by a likely combination of intuition, study, and experience, Malick knows the very pivotal, inherent strengths of film. As in The Thin Red Line, The Tree of Life demonstrates, too, the very nature of the uniquely epic and fluid canvas that cinema offers. The edges of every shot seem to wrap around in a grand mimicry of peripheral vision as well. Take, for example, the figure of the mother wandering in a salt flat's vast blanket of white--or the inverted play of boys' shadows on the surface of a street in mid-summer. And, surely, these brilliantly crafted images are in no small part thanks to the cinematography of Emmanuel Lubezki (who has worked with Malick before, and with other renowned filmmakers like the Coen brothers and Alfonso Cuarcin). Just as prevalent in Malick and Lubezki's collaboration: hardly, if any, a still shot or moment is to be found in The Tree of Life. What could be more appropriate for a medium whose primary principle is that of motion? Even in the very few instances where the camera or frame is stationary, the filmmakers still place within the shot something utterly constant in its movement and flux. For example, we see a vague but continuously twisting, rainbow-hued cosmic element--something that, again, seems to be "rhymed" with images elsewhere of moving, even entwining, human hands. (Also of special note about the visual intensity, and on a more comparative level: not too long before Malick's film, Werner Herzog recently released his own spectacular Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010), a rare documentary feature shot entirely in 3-D. …


A central idea in the theory of technology cycles is that social and political mechanisms are most important during the selection of a dominant design, and that eras of incremental change are socially uninteresting periods in which innovation is driven by technological momentum and elaboration of the dominant design. In this essay, we overturn the ontological assumption that social order is inherently stable, drawing on Anselm Strauss's concept of negotiated order to analyze the persistence of a dominant design as a social accomplishment: an outcome of ongoing processes that reinforce or challenge a socially negotiated order. Thus, we shift focus from battles over standards to periods of normal innovation. We extend the technology cycles model to explain social dynamics in periods of incremental change, and to make predictions specifying how contextual conditions in standards-setting organizations affect social interaction, leading to reinforcement or challenge to a socio-technical order.


Aunique department which integrates Islamic psychology and values within its curriculum, Department of English Language Education Universitas Islam Indonesia develops Islamic learning activity model from Vygotskyan sociocultural perspective in educational psychology. This paper will elaborate how Vygotskyan sociocultural framework shapes the Islamic character building in English language teaching and learning conducted by the lecturers in the classrooms and extracurricular activities conducted by the students, taking references within educational linguistics that understand language from the perspective of sociocultural theory "on the role of language and other sociocultural artefacts in the mediation of human activity and social practice" (Cross, 2009). The aims of the discussion are to connect the dots of sociocultural perspective in practice in language education, Islamic character building, and educational psychology.


In this provocative yet practical book, Fred Reichheld argues that loyalty provides the acid test for leadership in today's volatile business environment, and that most leaders deserve failing grades. In fact, the author is quick to highlight that less than half of today's employees believe their company deserves their loyalty. Reichheld's 1996 international bestseller, The Loyalty Effect, set out his theory and convincingly established the link between loyalty and bottom-line profits. In Loyalty Rules!, he moves from theory to practice, using vivid stories from many of today's most successful companies to illustrate how superior leaders create networks of mutually beneficial, trust-inspiring partnerships between customers, employees, suppliers, and investors. Reichheld's research demonstrates that effective leaders build relationships upon six bedrock principles of loyalty: Play to win/win: profiting at the expense of partners is a short cut to a dead end; Be picky: membership is a privilege; Keep it simple: complexity is the enemy of speed and flexibility; Reward the right results: worthy partners deserve worthy goals; Listen hard and talk straight: long-term relationships require honest, two-way communication and learning; and Preach what you practice: actions often speak louder than words but together, they are unbeatable.


The objectives of this study were to evaluate the antimicrobial activity of plant essential oils (EOs) against foodborne pathogens and key spoilage bacteria pertinent to ready-to-eat vegetables and to screen the selected EOs for sensory acceptability. The EOs basil, caraway, fennel, lemon balm, marjoram, nutmeg, oregano, parsley, rosemary, sage, and thyme were evaluated. The bacteria evaluated were Listeria spp., Staphylococcus aureus, Lactobacillus spp., Bacillus cereus, Salmonella, Enterobacter spp., Escherichia coli, and Pseudomonas spp. Quantitative antimicrobial analyses were performed using an absorbance-based microplate assay. Efficacy was compared using MIC, the half maximum inhibitory concentration, and the increase in lag phase. Generally, gram-positive bacteria were more sensitive to EOs than were gram-negative bacteria, and Listeria monocytogenes strains were among the most sensitive. Of the spoilage organisms, Pseudomonas spp. were the most resistant. Oregano and thyme EOs had the highest activity against all the tested bacteria. Marjoram and basil EOs had selectively high activity against B. cereus, Enterobacter aerogenes, E. coli, and Salmonella, and lemon balm and sage EOs had adequate activity against L. monocytogenes and S. aureus. Within bacterial species, EO efficacy was dependent on strain and in some cases the origin of the strain. On a carrot model product, basil, lemon balm, marjoram, oregano, and thyme EOs were deemed organoleptically acceptable, but only oregano and marjoram EOs were deemed acceptable for lettuce. Selected EOs may be useful as natural and safe additives for promoting the safety and quality of ready-to-eat vegetables.


Veillonella parvula (Veillon and Zuber 1898) Prévot 1933 is the type species of the genus Veillonella in the family Veillonellaceae within the order Clostridiales. The species V. parvula is of interest because it is frequently isolated from dental plaque in the human oral cavity and can cause opportunistic infections. The species is strictly anaerobic and grows as small cocci which usually occur in pairs. Veillonellae are characterized by their unusual metabolism which is centered on the activity of the enzyme methylmalonyl-CoA decarboxylase. Strain Te3T, the type strain of the species, was isolated from the human intestinal tract. Here we describe the features of this organism, together with the complete genome sequence, and annotation. This is the first complete genome sequence of a member of the large clostridial family Veillonellaceae, and the 2,132,142 bp long single replicon genome with its 1,859 protein-coding and 61 RNA genes is part of the GenomicEncyclopedia ofBacteria andArchaea project.


An old farmer boasts that he has used the same ax his whole life -- he's only had to replace the handle three times and the head twice. In an eclectic, insightful meditation on the powerful impulse to preserve and restore, Howard Mansfield explores the myriad ways in which we attempt to reconnect with and recover the past -- to use the same ax twice. Mansfield's In the Memory House (hailed as a "wise and beautiful book" by the New York Times) explored the complex interconnections of memory and place, showing how the loss of a sense of place in our ever more mobile society has profoundly impoverished our collective memory. Now he tracks our need to reconnect with place and memory. Moving easily between meditative reflection and compelling insights, he offers lively journalistic descriptions of some of the extraordinary people who are imaginatively, lovingly, sometimes obsessively, realizing their own visions of the restorative impulse. Mansfield himself is deeply engaged in the search for restoration. He travels with Civil War reenactors to help recreate the Battle of Antietam; he enrolls in auctioneer school to observe the endless recycling of artifacts, and he compares this process to the sterile preservation of these same objects in displays and museums; he tours 18th-century houses that have been variously restored to their "original" condition or stripped to their essence; he observes the ever-ongoing work of preserving the USS Constitution, "Old Ironsides," a ship that has been replaced over the years board by board. The act of restoration, Mansfield concludes, whether it's rebuilding antique engines or reviving the village model of community organization, must contain an elementof renewal. Rejecting the sentimentality of nostalgia and the superficiality of commercial appropriation, Mansfield argues for an understanding of restoration that is concerned as much with the future as it is with the past, that preserves and communicates a spirit as well as a form.


Like any other dental professional, dental hygienists must practice evidence-based dentistry (EBD) to provide the best care to their patients, whether it be through scaling and root planing, caries prevention, or patient education. This book is intended as a textbook for dental hygienists to learn the importance of EBD in the practice of dental hygiene as well as how to implement EBD practices and share EBD findings among office staff. As the dental knowledge base evolves and scientific discoveries are made, dental hygienists must understand how to seek out and evaluate findings and, if appropriate, apply them in their clinical practice, and this book provides all the necessary tools to do just that.


PURPOSE: Inhibition of insulin-like growth factor (IGF) signaling using the human IGF-I receptor monoclonal antibody A12 is most effective at inducing apoptosis in prostate cancer xenografts in the presence of androgen. We undertook this study to determine mechanisms for increased apoptosis by A12 in the presence of androgens. Experimental Methods: The castrate-resistant human xenograft LuCaP 35 V was implanted into intact or castrate severe combined immunodeficient mice and treated with A12 weekly. After 6 weeks of tumor growth, animals were sacrificed and tumors were removed and analyzed for cell cycle distribution/apoptosis and cDNA arrays were done. RESULTS: In castrate mice, the tumors were delayed in G(2) with no apoptosis; in contrast, tumors from intact mice underwent apoptosis with either G(1) or G(2) delay. Transforming growth factor-beta-stimulated clone-22 (TSC-22) was significantly elevated in tumors from the intact mice compared with castrate mice, especially in those tumors with the highest levels of apoptosis. To further determine the function of TSC-22, we transfected various human prostate cancer cell lines with a plasmid expressing TSC-22. Cell lines overexpressing TSC-22 showed an increase in apoptosis and a delay in G(1). When these cell lines were placed subcutaneously in athymic nude mice, a decreased number of animals formed tumors and the rate of tumor growth was decreased compared with control tumors. CONCLUSIONS: These data indicate that IGF-I receptor inhibition in the presence of androgen has an enhanced effect on decreasing tumor growth, in part, through increased expression of the tumor suppressor gene TSC-22. (Clin Cancer Res 2009;15(24):7634-41).


Since the Watergate-era accreditation standards require that all law students receive some instruction in legal ethics, the question is what type of instruction is optimal. All would agree that legal ethics instruction must include the substantive law of lawyering, including professional rules, civil malpractice standards, disciplinary procedures, and the common law principles, statutes and regulations that apply to lawyers. In many ways, this substantive component is similar to the substantive content of other courses. But in one important respect, it is different. In other law courses, law students learn about the law that will apply to their clients. In legal ethics courses, law students learn the law that will apply to their own conduct. And many students resist acknowledging that the law will limit their freedom of action.In light of this dynamic, this symposium article argues that there are two features that can significantly improve legal ethics instruction. First, it is important for ethics instruction to occur in context. Presenting ethics issues without context means engaging in a somewhat sterile philosophical enterprise. Such an enterprise may be of interest to a few philosophically-oriented students who are interested in role-differentiated morality, but leaves most students puzzled or bored. This means that ethics needs to be integrated into the entire law school curriculum. Second, legal ethics instruction needs to assist students in developing the skills necessary to deal with the moral issues that they will face as professionals working on behalf of clients and within organizations. We need to help students develop a vocabulary that will help them analyze the difficult moral choices they will face in practice, and to develop the interpersonal and organizational skills to deal with difficult situations in the workplace.


This paper presents a comparative analysis of user queries to a web search engine, questions to a Q&A service (answers.com), and questions employed in question answering (QA) evaluations at TREC and CLEF. The analysis shows that user queries to search engines contain mostly content words (i.e. keywords) but lack structure words (i.e. stopwords) and capitalization. Thus, they resemble natural language input after case folding and stopword removal. In contrast, topics for QA evaluation and questions to answers.com mainly
consist of fully capitalized and syntactically well-formed questions. Classification experiments using a na¨ive Bayes classifier show that stopwords play an important role in determining the expected answer type. A classification based on stopwords is considerably more accurate (47.5% accuracy) than a classification based on all query words (40.1% accuracy) or on content words (33.9% accuracy). To
simulate user input, questions are preprocessed by case folding and stopword removal. Additional classification experiments aim at reconstructing the syntactic wh-word frame of a question, i.e. the embedding of the interrogative word. Results indicate that this part of
questions can be reconstructed with moderate accuracy (25.7%), but for a classification problem with a much larger number of classes compared to classifying queries by expected answer type (2096 classes vs. 130 classes). Furthermore, eliminating stopwords can lead to multiple reconstructed questions with a different or with the opposite meaning (e.g. if negations or temporal restrictions are included). In conclusion, question reconstruction from short user queries can be seen as a new realistic evaluation challenge for QA systems.


The shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei, one of the most important species in world aquaculture, has seriously affected by infectious myonecrosis virus (IMNV) that causes up to 70% mortalities. With the aim of improving the development of new strategies for rapid and reliable diagnosis, we isolated IMNV, from L. vannamei farmed in Brazil, through a discontinuous sucrose gradient, and sequenced cDNA fragment encoding the major capsid protein from this virus. Nucleotides sequences corresponding to the viral capsid protein was obtained by RT-PCR and confirmed by automatic sequencing. Comparison with sequences which encode the capsid protein obtained from Indonesia isolates showed a high identity.


The fate of the Naz Foundation decision, until the Supreme Court decides on the appeal before it, rests upon the territorial applicability of the Delhi High Court judgment. This paper argues that at present the question of territorial application of a High Court judgment is unsettled as the existing precedent of the Kusum Ingots case is not decisive on the point. The paper evaluates the merits and demerits of various solutions, such as reintroduction of hitherto repealed Articles 131A and 226A of the Constitution, or intervention by the legislature or the judiciary. The key problems with adopting solutions suggested hitherto would be the possibility of failure on part of the Supreme Court or the legislature to notice a situation where a disparity in the law exists in different states, increased delay in deciding an issue in case of an extra reference being made to the Supreme Court or the legislature for intervention, loss of a stage of appeal or possibly stripping the High Courts of jurisdiction to enforce Fundamental Rights when constitutionality of a Central legislation is in issue. The paper then suggests an interesting solution whereby High Courts, after granting interim relief where necessary, shall submit constitutional questions to Regional Benches of the Supreme Court for decision on the limited issue of constitutionality, and that the problem of delay caused by shuttling between the high court and the Supreme Court would be offset by the benefit of uniformity in the law.


This work relates to the development of a new family of cementitious composites to be used as the material of permanent stencils for the rework (removal, repair, and replacement) of BGA(Ball Grid Array) components that can be found on a PCB (Printed Circuit Board). The rework involves the use of stencils to solder an array of new micro-balls arranged in a grid manner below the BGA. A stencil is a membrane that consists of arrays of perforations arranged in a grid manner. The membrane is produced from a composite that ismade bymixing synthetic rubber latex, cement, and crumb rubber. The thermal conductivity of the composite was measured by a method also developed in this work. The new family of stencils transfers knowledge fromthe field of composites to the field of PCB rework and may uniquely provide the subsequent development of a new, easier, repeatable, predictable, low cost, rework method. Other benefits include increase in thermal conductivity, reinforcementwith crumb rubber, inhibition ofwhisker formation/growth, no cleaning is necessary, and no need to use adhesives.


One of the most pressing issues in contemporary European societies is the need to promote integration and social inclusion in the context of rapidly increasing migration. A particular challenge confronting national governments is how to accommodate speakers of an ever-increasing number of languages within what in most cases are still perceived as monolingual indigenous populations. This has given rise to public debates in many countries on proposals to impose a requirement of competence in a 'national' language and culture as a condition for acquiring citizenship. These debates in turn have revealed an urgent need to develop a fuller conceptual and theoretical basis than is currently available for the widespread public discussion of the linguistic and cultural requirements being proposed as elements in the gate-keeping process leading to the achievement of citizenship in many EU member states. The controversial nature of such policy proposals and their potentially far-reaching consequences are often highlighted in public debates on social inclusion and integration. This however is frequently conducted almost entirely at a national level within each state, with little if any attention paid either to the broader European context or to comparable experience in other parts of the world. At the same time, further EU enlargement and the ongoing rise in the rate of migration into and across Europe suggest that the salience of these issues is likely to continue to grow. This volume focuses on these debates and seeks to problematise many existing definitions regarding language and citizenship and to challenge some of the assumptions underlying the new 'testing regimes'. The introductory chapter constructs a context and a framework for the discussion in the following chapters.


The amount of QT-RR interval hysteresis accumulated during the load and recovery phases of exercise stress test reflects the degree of exercise induced myocardial ischemia. Therefore the evaluation of hysteresis from 12-lead ECG (12-SL) is an important practical modality for the assessment of severity of coronary artery disease. Commercial QT and RR waveform analyzers are regularly subjected to interval detection artifacts which prevent reliable estimation for the magnitude of QT-RR hysteresis in one or multiple leads. We present a new signal processing technique which overcomes this deficiency. It quantifies the level of faulty interval measurements and using a threshold eliminates the need to process potentially corrupt leads.


With the purpose of comparing the main geolectrics arrays used for the realization of vertical electrical sounding, a direct simulation is presented, considering two geologic models. The investigation depth, precision in the determination of the thickness of the layers, the effects of the presence of a superficial layer, the geometric similarity and the sensibility to the mensuration of the potential difference are evaluated. It is considered that the most appropriate arrays for vertical electrical sounding are those of Wenner and of Schlumberger. On the other hand; the pole-pole and the dipole-dipole should be used preferably for geolectrics profiles (constant separation transversing) and electrics pseudosections.


Objectives: The incidence of overuse injury to the elbow in baseball pitchers continues to rise, despite exhaustive efforts at pitch count regulations and emphasis on proper throwing mechanics. The goal of this study was to determine if the medial elbow experiences increased torque levels as the pitcher fatigues through the course of a simulated game. Methods: Competitive baseball pitchers were recruited for this simulated game study. Medial elbow torque was assessed using a validated mobile sensor that recorded medial elbow torque during the throwing motion. A radar gun was used to capture pitch velocity for each recorded pitch. Each pitcher completed a simulated game consisting of 6 innings and a standardized pitching scheme of fastballs, curveballs, and change-ups. Visual analog scores (VAS) measuring fatigue were recorded in between each inning. In total, each pitcher threw 90 pitches. Data was recorded every pitch to include ball velocity, medial elbow torque, arm speed, arm rotation, and arm slot. Results: A total of 11 pitchers (average age 17.6 years; range 15-20 years) completed the study. No adverse outcomes were noted with use of the mobile sensor. VAS scores increased 0.716 points per inning pitched (p<0.001). Medial elbow torque also was found to increase with successive innings, with an increase of 0.836 Nm each inning (p<0.001), while average pitch velocity was found to decrease as the game progressed (0.28 mile per hour decrease per inning; p<0.001). Fastballs generated the highest amount of medial elbow torque. There were no differences found in arm rotation or arm speed as the game progressed. However, the arm slot was found to decrease with each successive inning (0.731 degree decrease per inning; p<0.001). Conclusion: In this simulated game analysis, pitchers were noted to experience increase fatigue after each successive inning. While the average fastball velocity decreased from inning-to-inning, the medial elbow torque was found to increase, signifying a possible risk factor for overuse injury to the medial elbow.


Following the Brexit referendum in the United Kingdom and the Conservative's plans to replace the Human Rights Act with a British Bill of Rights, this article argues that this is an opportunity to re-open the debate on how best to address the current political stalemate on a Northern Ireland Bill of Rights, an unfulfilled element of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement. We argue that at a time when there is so much uncertainty about the protection and safeguarding of rights with a real risk of lesser rights for fewer people in the United Kingdom, more than ever is the need to provide an alternative to progress the Northern Ireland Bill of Rights. This article provides that alternative. The article is supported in its conclusions by a series of semi structured interviews with a range of key players involved in the Northern Ireland process and point to the pressing need for an alternative approach to a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland.


A press conference is an important tool of public relations. The primary role of public relations is to manage a company's reputation and help build public consent for its enterprises. The goal of PR is to develop and maintain goodwill with most, if not all, of its publics. Failure to do so may mean loss of customers and revenues, time lost dealing with complaints or lawsuits, and loss of esteem. A company's publics change constantly. Well-executed public relations is an ongoing process that molds good long-term relationships and plays an important role in relationship marketing and integrated communications. Companies often call press conference when they have significant news to announce, such as the introduction of a new product or advertising campaign. Although used less often by organizations and corporations, this form of delivery can be very effective. The topic must be of major interest to a specific group before it is likely to gain coverage.


The purpose of this paper is to analyse the growth performance of the Cameroonian economy from independence in 1960 to date, and then to use this as a background for the analysis of poverty, inequality, and non-monetary outcomes. The analysis of poverty and inequality uses the microeconomic data from three comparable and nationally representative Cameroonian household surveys that were conducted respectively in 1996, 2001, and 2007. These objectives are complemented by an analysis of the four Demographic Health Surveys conducted in Cameroon by Macro International and the National Institute of Statistics of Cameroon in 1991, 1998, 2004, and 2011. This analysis puts more emphasis on spatial differences. We also provide some policy recommendations which generally focus on poverty reduction, especially in disadvantaged regions of the country and on the promotion of a stronger and sustainable economic growth in Cameroon.


This paper examines the importance of non-monetary dimensions of work in studies of inequality in total returns to work. Relying on the methodological advances in the field of multidimensional inequality and using the representative sample of Ukrainian industrial establishments over the period from 1994 to 2004, the paper shows that the focus on monetary compensation is too narrow. It ignores significant dynamics of inequality in workplaces. Analysis of such workplace conditions as risk of on the job injury, various benefits/amenities, and insecurities with wage payments, shows that the inequalities in these conditions do exacerbate inequalities in hourly wages. Workers in establishments paying highest hourly wages have enjoyed relatively greater reductions in the total workplace injury burden, greater retention of various benefits/ amenities, and relatively larger increases in wage payment security (decreased wage arrears), compared to the workers in the lowest paying establishments. These findings document the degree of an unequal shift away from work-centered provision of social services and highlight the importance of timely policy intervention.


Just as the sinking of the Titanic is embedded in the public consciousness in the English-speaking world, so the crash of JAL flight JL123 is part of the Japanese collective memory. The 1985 crash involved the largest loss of life for any single air crash in the world. 520 people, many of whom had been returning to their ancestral home for the Obon religious festival, were killed; there were only four survivors.

This book tells the story of the crash, discusses the many controversial issues surrounding it, and considers why it has come to have such importance for many Japanese. It shows how the Japanese responded to the disaster: trying to comprehend how a faulty repair may have caused the crash, and the fact that rescue services took such a long time to reach the remote crash site; how the bereaved dealt with their loss; how the media in Japan and in the wider world reported the disaster; and how the disaster is remembered and commemorated. The book highlights the media coverage of anniversary events and the Japanese books and films about the crash; the very particular memorialization process in Japan, alongside Japanese attitudes to death and religion; it points out in what ways this crash both reflects typical Japanese behaviour and in what ways the crash is unique.


Gradient boosting is a machine learning method, that builds one strong classifier from many weak classifiers. In this work, an algorithm based on gradient boosting is presented, that detects event-related potentials in single electroencephalogram (EEG) trials. The algorithm is used to detect the P300 in the human EEG and to build a brain-computer interface (BCI), specifically a spelling device. Important features of the method described here are its high classification accuracy and its conceptual simplicity. The algorithm was tested with datasets recorded in our lab and one benchmark dataset from the BCI Competition 2003. The number of correctly inferred symbols with the P300 speller paradigm varied between 90% and 100%. In particular, all of the inferred symbols were correct for the BCI competition dataset


Despite political and rhetorical pronouncements of a reduction in racism, growing inequity in U.S. society continues to feature race as a prominent fault line with no evidence of reduction on the horizon. Of significant concern is the degree to which inequity among racially identified subgroups of the population link to policies and practices of local, state, and federal government and thereby influence the operation and evaluation of important programs and services. Evaluation as a principal tool of knowledge creation on behalf of government and the public trust must examine its role with respect to these alarming trends and potential vulnerability. The author examines how race and racism (particularly as focused on African American communities) may influence the theories, models, practices, and techniques of evaluation and calls for creation of an ongoing forum in the American Journal of Evaluation where these critical issues can receive thoughtful and continuous attention from the field.


Gaius Marius introduced a new act during his first consulship of the Roman Republic in 107 B.C. with the approval of the Senate. This act allowed him to alter the strategy for managing the Roman army. He permitted every eligible Roman citizen to join the army and thus to pursue the career of a professional soldier. Rome then put soldiers on the payroll. Rome also paid for arms, bodily protection, and other necessities. Marius tasked seasoned soldiers with providing field training to the new recruits on the battlefield. The new recruits learned an important lesson: the bravest was the safest. After expeditions, Marius divided the booty equally among his soldiers as an incentive to encourage victory and reward bravery. These practices stood in stark contrast to the Servian Segregation Decree, which Rome enforced during the reign of King Servius Tullius (578 to 534 B.C.). The Decree prohibited the poorest citizens from becoming Roman soldiers. The drafted soldiers also had to pay for their own arms, bodily protection, and other necessities. At the end of the war, they were discharged to return to their former civilian careers, such as farming and smithing. After the Marius era, the employment rights based on the army administration had evolved and fully developed to cover every step of the Roman soldier employment process: recruitment, enrollment, training and development, employment conditions, performance appraisal, and punishment. This process became one of the Roman army's key success factors for the next several hundred years. Modern management practitioners should incorporate the Roman army administration process into the legal obligations within the company's employment policy. The legality of the policy is a result of the adoption of the United Nations Declarations, Conventions, and Covenant into member states' local laws and regulations. This paper focuses on the documentary research method to analyze and assess the relevant documents.


Fundamental properties of solitons in the recently introduced split-step model (SSM) are investigated. The SSM is a system that consists of periodically alternating dispersive and nonlinear segments, a period being of the same order of magnitude as the soliton's dispersion length. The model including fiber loss and gain can always be reduced to its lossless version. First, we develop a variational approximation that makes it possible to explain the existence of SSM solitons that were originally found solely in numerical form. Overall dynamic behavior of a SSM is described by a phase diagram that identifies an established state (stationary soliton, breather with long-period oscillations, splitting into several pulses, or decay into radiation) depending on the amplitude and the width of the initial pulse. In particular, strong saturation in the dependence of the amplitude of the established soliton on the amplitude of the initial pulse is found. The results clearly show some similarities and drastic differences between the SSM and the ordinary soliton model based on the nonlinear Schrodinger equation. A random version of the SSM is introduced, with the length of the system's cell uniformly distributed in some interval, which is a relevant case for applications to fiber-optic telecommunication networks. It is found that the dynamics of the SSM solitons as well as interactions between them in random systems (both single-channel and multichannel systems) are virtually the same as in their regular counterparts.


Effective techniques for conducting high-pressure and high-temperature single-crystal X-ray diffraction experiments were developed in the 1970s. By the end of that decade a number of papers had been published that defined optimal methods for operating diffractometers, especially for high-pressure experiments. The following decade saw the spread of the techniques from the institutions involved in the original developments into many other, mostly mineralogical, crystallography laboratories around the world. The state of the art of high-pressure diffractometry as it stood in the early 1980s was summarized in Comparative Crystal Chemistry (Hazen and Finger 1982). Since that time, advances in computing capacity and in the mechanical quality of diffractometers have been combined to increase the precision of high-pressure measurements by an order of magnitude. This chapter, while building on the work summarized in Hazen and Finger (1982), extends it on the basis of the experience gained by the authors and others in the intervening years.

The aim of this chapter is to provide a crystallographer with no previous experience in high-pressure or high-temperature crystallography with the information to set up, or to convert, a diffractometer for such work as well as a detailed guide as to how such experiments should be carried out. We hope thereby to answer the questions "How do I modify my diffractometer for high-P,T experiments?" in the next section, and "How do I do the experiment?" in the following one. The last section of this chapter describes the modifications to data reduction procedures that must be made for handling data collected from crystals in diamond-anvil cells (DAC). Issues relating to DAC design and furnace design are addressed in Miletich et al. (this volume) and Yang and Peterson (this volume) respectively. Some basic familiarity with the operation of single-crystal diffractometers for conventional measurements at room conditions is assumed, although …


Robin Lane Fox's "The Classical World: An Epic History of Greece and Rome" is a comprehensive and enthralling introduction to Ancient civilization. The classical civilizations of Greece and Rome dominated the world for centuries and continue to intrigue and enlighten us with their inventions, whether philosophy, politics, theatre, athletics, celebrity, science or the pleasures of horse racing. Robin Lane Fox's spellbinding history, spans almost a thousand years of change from the foundation of the world's first democracy in Athens to the Roman Republic and the Empire under Hadrian. Bringing great figures such as Homer, Socrates, Cicero, Alexander, Antony and Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, Augustus and the first Christian martyrs to life, exploring freedom, justice and luxury, this wonderfully exciting tour brings the turbulent histories of Greece and Rome together in a masterly study. "Epic in the true sense". ("The Times" Books of the Year). "He writes supremely well ...a keen eye for the telling detail and powerful example ...the humanity of the exercise shines through ...compulsory, and compulsive, reading". (Peter Jones, "Sunday Telegraph"). Robin Lane Fox is a Fellow of New College, Oxford, and a University Reader in Ancient History. His other books include "Alexander the Great", "Pagans and Christians" and "The Unauthorized Version". He was historical advisor to Oliver Stone on the making of Stone's film "Alexander", for which he waived all his fees on condition that he could take part in the cavalry charge against elephants which Stone staged in the Moroccan desert.


Germany, Italy, and France are – in that order – the three largest manufacturing powers in Europe. But when we measure things not by «manufacturing value added» but in terms of «knowledge-based investments» (i.e. r&d, human capital), which are an excellent indicator of how well-positioned an industrial system is for moving ahead into the future, France overtakes Italy's second spot. Starting from these rankings, this article sheds light on the new European industrial policy from two different perspectives. First, from the viewpoint of the eu as a whole, presenting a brief summary of the primary eu initiatives that were implemented from 2002 to the present by the European Commission (the so-called «integrated approach» that simultaneously incorporates horizontal measures and vertical applications). Second, from the perspective of the three individual Member States, with particular attention paid to the industrial policy strategies undertaken (or not undertaken) by Germany, France, and Italy within the larger European context. This comparative analysis shows the weaknesses of Italy in terms of policy, with the one exception of the «Piano nazionale Industria 4.0». At a time when it is more and more important to embrace the technological frontier, Italy's position as the second largest European manufacturing powers is not something we can take for granted: in order to preserve it, both a significant increase in knowledge-based investments and an adequate intervention in key enabling technologies would be necessary. This Italian weakness in terms of strategic policy action is in stark contrast with the wide-ranging studies carried out over the past 10 to 15 years in our country by industrial economists, who have contributed notably to the national and international literature on the new industrial policy.


Abstract. In this paper, we analyze the performance of the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI), launched in October 2006 on board METOP-A, for the monitoring of carbon monoxide (CO) during extreme fire events, focusing on the record-breaking fires which devastated thousands of square kilometers of forest in Greece during the last week (23–30) of August 2007. After an assessment of the quality of the profiles retrieved using the Fast Optimal Retrievals on Layers for IASI (FORLI) algorithm, the information provided on fire emissions and subsequent pollution outflow is discussed. Large CO plumes were observed above the Mediterranean Basin and North Africa, with total CO columns exceeding 24×1018 molecules/cm2 and absolute volume mixing ratios up to 4 ppmv on the 25 August. Up to 30×1018 molecules/cm2 and 22 ppmv in the lower troposphere are retrieved close to the fires above the Peloponnese, but with larger uncertainty. The average root-mean-square (RMS) difference between simulated and observed spectra is close to the estimated radiometric noise level, slightly increasing (by ~14%) in the fresh fire plumes. CO profiles are retrieved with a vertical resolution of about 8 km, with ~1.7 pieces of independent information on the vertical in the region considered and a maximum sensitivity in the free troposphere (~4–5 km). Using the integrated total amount, the increase in CO burden due to these fires is estimated to 0.321 Tg, ~40% of the total annual anthropogenic emissions in Greece. The patterns of these CO enhancements are in good agreement with the aerosol optical depth (AOD) retrieved from the MODIS measurements, highlighting a rapid transport of trace gases and aerosols across the Mediterranean Basin (less than one day). While the coarse vertical resolution will not allow the location of the exact plume height, the large CO enhancements observed in the lower troposphere are consistent with the maximum aerosol backscatter coefficient at ~2 km detected by the CALIPSO lidar in space (CALIOP).


Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a progressive, fatal muscle wasting disorder with a predictable course and limited treatment options. Advances in clinical care and management have almost doubled the life expectancy of affected boys over the last 2–3 decades, but do not address the primary etiology of DMD, the loss of dystrophin. Corticosteroids are effective in stabilizing muscle strength and prolonging ambulation, although the exact mechanism by which steroids slow the dystrophic process is unknown. Despite the limited therapeutic value of corticosteroids these drugs represent the best treatment option currently available, and a large proportion of DMD patients are treated with prednisone/prednisolone or deflazacort. Biological therapeutics are becoming available, and it will be important to establish whether these compounds can be safely administered to patients being treated with corticosteroids. Antisense oligomer-mediated splicing manipulation can bypass dystrophin gene lesions and is showing promise as a therapy for DMD. Intramuscular injection of RNA analogues, targeting exon 51, in DMD patients has resulted in specific exon exclusion and dystrophin expression in the treated muscle. We report that concurrent peptide-conjugated phosphorodiamidate morpholino oligomer and prednisolone administration is not contraindicated in mdx mice and that muscle physiology is improved by the combined treatment.


Most research on the associations between organisational performance, employee attitudes and Human Resource Management (HRM) practices has adopted a theoretical framework that proposes that HRM practices lead to HR outcomes (e.g. job satisfaction, skills, etc.) which in turn affect organisational performance. Building on theoretical frameworks and empirical evidence from the fields of organisational psychology-performance and HRM-performance, this paper presents a study that develops and tests an alternative view of the association. This model depicts the influence of organisational performance on employee attitudes and the role of HRM practice as a mediator between the two. It was tested using data collected from employee surveys and management interviews in 32 small firms. The results suggest that employees in firms with better business performance have more positive attitudes towards three attitude measures (overall perceptions of work, job autonomy and the perceived link between reward and performance) and that the association between business performance and employee attitudes is partially mediated by HRM practices. The findings are discussed with respect to the nature of the complex performance-attitude-HRM relationship and their implications for management and future research


Understanding the structure and dynamics of polymers under confinement has been of widespread interest, and one class of polymers that have received comparatively little attention under confinement is that of ring polymers. The properties of non-concatenated ring polymers can also be important in biological fields because ring polymers have been proven to be a good model to study DNA organization in the cell nucleus. From our previous study, linear polymers in a cylindrically confined polymer melt were found to segregate from each other as a result of the strong correlation hole effect that is enhanced by the confining surfaces. By comparison, our subsequent study of linear polymers in confined thin films at similar levels of confinements found only the onset of segregation. In this study, we use molecular dynamics simulation to investigate the chain conformations and dynamics of ring polymers under planar (1D) confinement as a function of film thickness. Our results show that conformations of ring polymers are similar to the linear polymers under planar confinement, except that ring polymers are less compressed in the direction normal to the walls. While we find that the correlation hole effect is enhanced under confinement, it is not as pronounced as the linear polymers under 2D confinement. Finally, we show that chain dynamics far above Tg are primarily affected by the friction from walls based on the monomeric friction coefficient we get from the Rouse mode analysis.


Being "in flow" or "in the zone" is defined as an extremely focused state of consciousness which occurs during intense engagement in an activity. In general, flow has been linked to peak performances (high achievement) and feelings of intense pleasure and happiness. However, empirical research on flow in music performance is scarce, although it may offer novel insights into the question of why musicians engage in musical activities for extensive periods of time. Here, we focused on individual differences in a group of 76 piano performance students and assessed their flow experience in piano performance as well as their trait emotional intelligence. Multiple regression analysis revealed that flow was predicted by the amount of daily practice and trait emotional intelligence. Other background variables (gender, age, duration of piano training and age of first piano training) were not predictive. To predict high achievement in piano performance (i.e., winning a prize in a piano competition), a seven-predictor logistic regression model was fitted to the data, and we found that the odds of winning a prize in a piano competition were predicted by the amount of daily practice and the age at which piano training began. Interestingly, a positive relationship between flow and high achievement was not supported. Further, we explored the role of musical emotions and musical styles in the induction of flow by a self-developed questionnaire. Results suggest that besides individual differences among pianists, specific structural and compositional features of musical pieces and related emotional expressions may facilitate flow experiences. Altogether, these findings highlight the role of emotion in the experience of flow during music performance and call for further experiments addressing emotion in relation to the performer and the music alike.


We conducted a retrospective, multicenter study to compare the efficacy of warfarin with aspirin for the prevention of major vascular events (ischemic stroke, myocardial infarction, or sudden death) in patients with symptomatic stenosis of a major intracranial artery.Patients with 50 to 99% stenosis of an intracranial artery (carotid; anterior, middle, or posterior cerebral; vertebral; or basilar) were identified by reviewing the results of consecutive angiograms performed at participating centers between 1985 and 1991. Only patients with TIA or stroke in the territory of the stenotic artery qualified for inclusion in the study. Patients were prescribed warfarin or aspirin according to local physician preference and were followed by chart review and personal or telephone interview. Seven centers enrolled 151 patients; 88 were treated with warfarin and 63 were treated with aspirin. Median follow-up was 14.7 months (warfarin group) and 19.3 months (aspirin group). Vascular risk factors and mean percent stenosis of the symptomatic artery were similar in the two groups, yet the rates of major vascular events were 18.1 per 100 patient-years of follow-up in the aspirin group (stroke rate, 10.4/100 patient-years; myocardial infarction or sudden death rate, 7.7/100 patient-years) compared with 8.4 per 100 patient-years of follow-up in the warfarin group (stroke rate, 3.6/100 patient-years; myocardial infarction or sudden death rate, 4.8/100 patient-years). Kaplan-Meier analysis showed a significantly higher percentage of patients free of major vascular events among patients treated with warfarin (p equals 0.01). The relative risk of a major vascular event in those treated with warfarin was 0.46 (95% CI, 0.23 to 0.86) compared with patients treated with aspirin. Major hemorrhagic complications occurred in three patients on warfarin (including two deaths) during 166 patient-years of follow-up and in none of the patients on aspirin during 143 patient-years of follow-up. This study suggests a favorable risk/benefit ratio for warfarin compared with aspirin for the prevention of major vascular events in patients with symptomatic intracranial large-artery stenosis. A prospective, randomized study is needed to confirm these findings. NEUROLOGY 1995;45: 1488-1493


The synapse is the fundamental element of neuronal communication. However, how sensory
stimuli are representated at the level of single synapses has to date been difficult to assess
due to poor stimulus control and / or the large number of synapses a typical neuron receives.
Here I have addressed this question by taking advantage of cerebellar granule cells (GCs) as
they provide an ideal model system for two reasons. First, they receive on average only 4
excitatory inputs from mossy fibres (MFs), making it possible to distinguish single synaptic
inputs. Second, GCs in the flocculus receive prominent vestibular input, which constitutes a
well-defined sensory stimulus with a low dimensional stimulus space.
Since whole cell recordings in vivo are typically carried out under general anaesthesia for
recording stability, I first characterised the effects of two commonly used injectable
anaesthetics, pentobarbitone and ketamine, on fast synaptic transmission at the MF-GC
synapse in vitro. While pentobarbitone depressed the EPSC amplitude and speeded the EPSC
decay phase over relevant concentrations, ketamine (in combination with xylazine) did not
impact on (primarily AMPA receptor mediated) fast synaptic transmission and thus qualified as
a suitable anaesthetic to study synaptic signalling at this synapse in vivo.
Under ketamine/xylazine anaesthesia, I performed in vivo whole-cell voltage-clamp recordings
from GCs in the mouse cerebellar flocculus to characterise fast synaptic transmission at the
MF-GC synapse in response to vestibular stimulation. In the absence of vestibular stimulation,
vestibular-sensitive GCs showed spontaneously occuring EPSCs. Vestibular stimulation
around the earth-vertical axis in the dark resulted in a bidirectional modulation of the EPSC
frequency, which correlated linearly with the angular velocity, rather than with position or
acceleration. A lack of synaptic short-term dynamics ensured that velocity was linearly
representated not only in terms of frequency, but also in terms of excitatory charge transfer at
the GC membrane.
In a subset of GCs distinct MF inputs could be reliably distinguished based on their EPSC
amplitude and kinetics. In those cases, only a subset of inputs was modulated by vestibular
stimulation while the remaining inputs were insensitve to horizontal rotation. This suggests that
despite receiving very few inputs GCs can have multidimensional receptive fields.
Using a Bayesian approach we examined the capacity of EPSC trains in GCs to report the
velocity stimulus that evoked them, in order to estimate the size of the population of MF
inputs/GCs required to reach a behaviourally relevant resolution of the velocity representation.
While synaptic activity in a single GC could report the presence and direction of movement, the error in the stimulus reconstruction was large. However, with increasing GC number the
velocity estimate improved in accuracy and reliability in a logarithmic fashion, and an
ensemble of as few as 100 GCs provided an accuracy of 4.8 o/s, approaching the
psychophysical limit. Purkinje cells integrating information from a vast number of GCs
therefore should be able to achieve a high resolution representation of sensory stimuli within a
single cell with capacity to spare for multimodal integration.


URL matching is used in many network applications, including URL blacklisting, URL-based forwarding and URL shortening services. These applications need fast URL queries and updates, thus requiring an efficient updateable data structure. As the processing power of general-purpose multi-core processors increases, software-based approaches are better able to meet the speed requirements of URL matching. In this paper, we present our preliminary performance study of finite-automata- and hash-based URL matching implementations on commodity PCs. The impacts of the cache and memory allocation methods are discussed.


This study analyzes the racialization of the immigrant Other in the American media by exploring the images of Haitians deployed in three different newspapers—Miami Herald, Miami Times, and Haiti-Observateur—that are directed to racially/ethnically distinct readers. I examine the positive and negative images of Haitians in these papers and trace their development over time. Specifically, I examine the reportage of Haitians over three events: the boatlift crisis of 1979, the AIDS epidemic crisis of 1983, and the earthquake of 2010. This study asks, is there an existing hegemonic view of Haitians in which race is a primary signifier in the American media?
My study applies the concept of controlling images, the idea that racialized images are commonly deployed in the American media, to shed light on the production and reproduction of racism toward Haitians. This dissertation therefore sets out to investigate the presence, absence, and degree of racialized illustrations of Haitians among three newspapers in a city where many Haitian immigrants reside.
My analysis reveals that before the 2010 earthquake, the controlling images of Haitians changed from negative to positive. Furthermore, the newspapers constructed and modified the controlling images according to racialized and political journalistic practices, especially after the earthquake because of social media. During the 1979 boatlift crisis and the 1983 AIDS epidemic, the mainstream newspaper, the Herald, offered more negative images of Haitians than the black newspaper, the Times, and the Haitian newspaper, Observateur. However, the Observateur mostly operated outside the racial framework of the American newspapers during these periods preceding the earthquake.
After the 2010 earthquake, in an era of social media, the Herald changed its images of Haitians. The mainstream newspaper offered more positive images of this group than the other newspapers. During this time, the black newspaper reflected a reduced interest in race in the coverage of the Haiti disaster when compared to coverage of earlier crises. The Haitian newspaper was more closely engaged with the earthquake disaster, more than its coverage of the previous crises, though less engaged than the American newspapers.


This chapter provides a systematic account of the causes of economic globalization. Within the global political economy (GPE) literature, economic globalization tends to be more precisely specified as 'the emergence and operation of a single, worldwide economy'. This assists its measurement by reference to the intensity, extensity, and velocity of worldwide economic flows and interconnectedness, from trade, through production and finance, migration to information and data. Understood as a historical process, the concept of economic globalization also infers an evolving transformation or evolution in the organization and operation of the world economy. The chapter then reviews the principal theories of economic globalization, drawing upon the GPE literature. It develops a multi-theoretic account of economic globalization which captures its structural, conjunctural, and contingent causal factors. The chapter also demonstrates how this multi-theoretic framework is relevant to understanding the current crisis of economic globalization. It considers whether, in the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis, this crisis is the precursor to a period of accelerating deglobalization.


My dissertation examines how some nineteenth-century British novels offer a critique of the dominant narrative of sympathy by suggesting that the most ethical encounter will preserve distance between self and other while retaining the ability to exchange sympathy in the face of difference. This distance prevents the problem of assimilation, the unethical practice of turning the other into the same that was a common way of performing sympathy in nineteenth century Britain. I propose that these critiques are best identified through a reading practice that utilizes discourse systems; the discourse systems I include are gossip, gazing, silence, and laughter. In the texts examined here (including Harriet Martineau's Deerbrook (1839), Elizabeth Gaskell's Cranford (1851), George Eliot's Silas Marner (1861) and Daniel Deronda (1876), Charlotte Bronte's Villette (1853), and William Thackeray's Vanity Fair (1848)) one encounters each of the elements listed above as more than just plot devices or character markers. For example, gossip occurs in Martineau's and Gaskell's texts as a communicative act used by characters, as a rhetorical device used by narrators, and as a narrative technique used by the authors. The cumulative effect of gossip's engagement with social relations thus critiques unethical uses of sympathy and illustrates more ethical encounters between self and other, challenging, in some cases, the limits of sympathy as a technique for approaching difference. I elucidate these literary revisions of sympathy by reading them in relation to changes characterizing British society in the Victorian period. During the years from 1830-1870, British life was marked by sweeping technological changes (railroads, printing), paradigm shifts (higher criticism, Darwinism, middle class moral code), and the climax of British imperialism. Writers responding to these tumultuous changes to the structure of nineteenth-century society used sympathy to undermine us/them categories that created unnecessary differences and to reveal the ability to sympathize when faced with difference. However, these texts also reveal ambivalence over sympathy: its reliance on identification and therefore the possible limits to sympathy's ability to negotiate difference. This ambivalence either restricts the extent to which these writers revise the model for using sympathy, or, when pushed passed the limits, revise not only social relationships but also the form of the novel itself. This project thus refocuses realism in the nineteenth century as a form concerned with relationships and not just representations. These authors' treatments of sympathy led to the radical reformation of certain narrative techniques so that the distances modeled through character exchanges of sympathy are emulated in the text itself through narrative gaps. As difference requires characters to revise how they engage with the other, so too must readers revise their reading practices. The novelists addressed in this study attempted to form a different kind of reader in the nineteenth century, one who would not easily elide the difference between self and other by immediately identifying with characters or narrators, and who would understand the import and rhetorical effect of elements (gossip, gazing, silence, laughter) usually disregarded as trivial at best or innately unethical at worst. Such thematic treatments of sympathy necessarily lead to a different understanding of sympathy's trajectory in the nineteenth century as well as in our own time. These authors' unconventional use of gossip, gazing, silence, and laughter asks that we reconsider how these elements can play vital roles in the negotiation of identity and the interactions between self and other, broadening the scope of discourses that define an ethical
encounter.


Abstract. An inverse model using atmospheric CO2 observations from a European network of stations to reconstruct daily CO2 fluxes and their uncertainties over Europe at 50 km resolution has been developed within a Bayesian framework. We use the pseudo-data approach in which we try to recover known fluxes using a range of perturbations to the input. In this study, the focus is put on the sensitivity of flux accuracy to the inverse setup, varying the prior flux errors, the pseudo-data errors and the network of stations. We show that, under a range of assumptions about prior error and data error we can recover fluxes reliably at the scale of 1000 km and 10 days. At smaller scales the performance is highly sensitive to details of the inverse set-up. The use of temporal correlations in the flux domain appears to be of the same importance as the spatial correlations. We also note that the use of simple, isotropic correlations on the prior flux errors is more reliable than the use of apparently physically-based errors. Finally, increasing the European atmospheric network density improves the area with significant error reduction in the flux retrieval.


Migration patterns are changing from large metropolis to rural towns. Rather than temporary migration of male heads of households the patterns are now for families to migrate in various stages. Rural Missouri towns have attracted newcomers. Foreign born Hispanics in non metro Missouri have low income earnings, and education, mobility and being woman have a negative effect on income earnings, as regression results show. The livelihoods of rural newcomers are vulnerable, with low income, multiple adults working in the households and with limited English proficiency. This is consistent with the life stories of women in a small town near a meat processing plant in Missouri.


In this study, tribological properties of Hi-HVOF sprayed WC-Cr-Ni cermet coatings were investigated experimentally under lubricated rolling-sliding contact. Coatings were deposited onto the induction hardened carbon steel and carburized hardened steel materials. Substrate surfaces were prepared by axially grinding, blasting and circumferentially grinding. Under the operating conditions of contact pressure P H =1.4 GPa and slip ratio s=-28.0%, the effects of substrate hardness and substrate surface kind on the tribological properties of the cermet coating were examined. It was found that cermet coating showed a long life and durability was not influenced by the substrate hardness and substrate surface kind. It was also found that during the running-in process, oil film formation was hardly influenced by the substrate hardness and substrate surface kind. On the other hand, surface hardness and surface roughness of the coating were more influenced in the case of circumferentially ground substrate than that in the case of axially ground or blasted substrate. In addition, coating material loss was very high in the case of circumferentially ground substrate when the substrate material was induction hardened carbon steel. Keywords : Tribological Properties, WC-Cr-Ni Cermet, Substrate Hardness, Substrate Surface Kind DOI: 10.3329/diujst.v4i1.4356 Daffodil International University Journal of Science and Technology Vol.4(1) 2009 pp.50-56


Epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) confers migratory and dynamic properties on cells and, as such, plays a pivotal role in the development of metastatic, castration resistant prostate cancer. The amyloid precursor protein (APP), although most closely associated with the neurodegenerative condition Alzheimer's disease, has also been linked to the pathogenesis and prognosis of several cancers including prostate cancer. Aims: To investigate whether over-expression of APP could promote EMT in prostate cancer (PCa) DU145 cells and to determine the molecular prerequisites for this effect. Methodology: A range of APP molecular constructs were stably expressed in DU145 cells and their effects on EMT were monitored by morphological analysis and by immunoblotting for the EMT marker proteins, E-cadherin and vimentin. Results: Our results show that the full-length 695 amino acid isoform (APP695), but not APP751 or APP770, promoted EMT via a mechanism requiring an intact extracellular E1 copper binding domain and tyrosine687 within the cytosolic domain of the protein. Conclusion: Targeting the expression of APP695 or the E1 copper binding domain of the protein may, therefore, contribute to therapeutic strategies for the delay or prevention of prostate cancer metastasis.


Hydrogels are commonly used as extracellular matrix mimetics for applications in tissue engineering and increasingly as cell culture platforms with which to study the influence of biophysical and biochemical cues on cell function in 3D. In recent years, a significant number of studies have focused on linking substrate mechanical properties to cell function using standard methodologies to characterize the bulk mechanical properties of the hydrogel substrates. However, current understanding of the correlations between the microstructural mechanical properties of hydrogels and cell function in 3D is poor, in part because of a lack of appropriate techniques. Here we have utilized a laser tracking system, based on passive optical microrheology instrumentation, to characterize the microstructure of viscoelastic fibrin clots. Trajectories and mean square displacements were observed as bioinert PEGylated (PEG: polyethylene glycol) microspheres (1, 2 or 4.7 µm in diameter) diffused within confined pores created by the protein phase of fibrin hydrogels. Complementary confocal reflection imaging revealed microstructures comprised of a highly heterogeneous fibrin network with a wide range of pore sizes. As the protein concentration of fibrin gels was increased, our quantitative laser tracking measurements showed a corresponding decrease in particle mean square displacements with greater resolution and sensitivity than conventional imaging techniques. This platform-independent method will enable a more complete understanding of how changes in substrate mechanical properties simultaneously influence other microenvironmental parameters in 3D cultures.


BACKGROUND & AIMS
A single nucleotide polymorphism 61*G (rs4444903) in the epidermal growth factor (EGF) gene has been associated, in 2 case-control studies, with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We tested associations between demographic, clinical, and genetic data and development of HCC, and developed a simple predictive model in a cohort of patients with chronic hepatitis C and advanced fibrosis.

METHODS
Black and white subjects from the Hepatitis C Antiviral Long-term Treatment against Cirrhosis (HALT-C) trial (n=816) were followed up prospectively for development of a definite or presumed case of HCC for a median time period of 6.1 years. We used the Cox proportional hazards regression model to determine the hazard ratio for risk of HCC and to develop prediction models.

RESULTS
Subjects with EGF genotype G/G had a higher adjusted risk for HCC than those with genotype A/A (hazard ratio, 2.10; 95% confidence interval, 1.05-4.23; P=.03). After adjusting for EGF genotype, blacks had no increased risk of HCC risk compared with whites. Higher serum levels of EGF were observed among subjects with at least one G allele (P=.08); the subset of subjects with EGF G/G genotype and above-median serum levels of EGF had the highest risk of HCC. We developed a simple prediction model that included the EGF genotype to identify patients at low, intermediate, and high risk for HCC; 6-year cumulative HCC incidences were 2.3%, 10.4%, and 26%, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS
We associated the EGF genotype G/G with increased risk for HCC; differences in its frequency among black and white subjects might account for differences in HCC incidence between these groups. We developed a model that incorporates EGF genotype and demographic and clinical variables to identify patients at low, intermediate, and high risk for HCC.


Abstract. We compare in situ measurements of ozone (O3) and carbon monoxide (CO) profiles from the CARIBIC program with the results from the regional chemistry transport model (WRF-Chem) to investigate the role of local and regional emissions and long-range transport over southern India during the summer monsoon of 2008. WRF-Chem successfully reproduces the general features of O3 and CO distributions over the South Asian region. However, absolute CO concentrations in the lower troposphere are typically underestimated. Here we investigate the influence of local relative to remote emissions through sensitivity simulations. The influence of 50 % increased CO emissions over South Asia leads to a significant enhancement (upto 20 % in July) in upper tropospheric CO in the northern and central Indian regions. Over Chennai in southern India, this causes a 33 % increase in surface CO during June. However, the influence of enhanced local and regional emissions is found to be smaller (5 %) in the free troposphere over Chennai, except during September. Local to regional emissions are therefore suggested to play a minor role in the underestimation of CO by WRF-Chem during June–August. In the lower troposphere, a high pollution (O3: 146.4 ± 12.8, CO: 136.4 ± 12.2 nmol mol−1) event (15 July 2008), not reproduced by the model, is shown to be due to transport of photochemically processed air masses from the boundary layer in southern India. A sensitivity simulation combined with backward trajectories indicates that long-range transport of CO to southern India is significantly underestimated, particularly in air masses from the west, i.e., from Central Africa. This study highlights the need for more aircraft-based measurements over India and adjacent regions and the improvement of global emission inventories.


... Markow expressed to Martin that she was also interested in studying the genetic underpinnings of schizophrenia
among the tribe, but Martin informed her that the tribe would not be interested in participating in that area of study,maintaining that diabetes was to be the primary focus of the research. ... Tilousi shared her discovery with the tribe, and at a special Tribal Council meeting, the council issued a Banishment Order stating: "the Havasupai Tribe has demanded that ASU disclose to the Tribe all of its actions regarding Havasupai blood and stop all unauthorized experimentation on Havasupai blood, but ASU has failed to disclose to the Tribe any information about where ASU distributed the blood and the purposes for all research." ... While the IRB was likely unaware that Markow's research team had been collecting blood for an entire summer prior to any IRB approval and that the subjects provided consent because they believed the ASU team was solely conducting diabetes research, the Hart Report also found several inconsistencies between the research proposal and the actual data collection. ... To assess the risk of these first three harms and understand their significance prior to initiating any new research projects, researchers and institutions must examine the significance of biological materials and the implication that their misuse would have both to the individual subject and the entire tribe, including as the case was here, the misuse of the blood samples. ... Maintaining current legal policy
vis-a-vis ownership of biologic materials will likely continue to result in spiritual harm to Native American individuals and tribes.


How do law and politics intertwine in Supreme Court adjudication? Traditionally, in law schools and political science departments, scholars refused to mix law and politics. Law professors insisted that legal texts and doctrines controlled Supreme Court decision making, while political scientists maintained that political ideologies dictated the justices' votes. In the late twentieth century, some scholars in both disciplines sought to combine law and politics but still conceived of the two as distinct. They attempted to stir law and politics together, but ended with an oil-and-water type of mix; law and politics settled apart. The best approach, as presented in this Article, is an institutional interpretivism, positing that politics is necessarily an integral part of legal interpretation and, therefore, Supreme Court decisions making. Institutional interpretivism has significant ramifications. For scholars, it suggests that future research should explore the law-politics dynamic. The potential of this approach is demonstrated with an analysis of the Affordable Care Act Case. Meanwhile, for Supreme Court justices, institutional interpretivism suggests that the justices will continue to decide cases as before, by sincerely interpreting legal texts and doctrines. Politics is so deeply embedded in the judicial process that, in most instances, the justices do not consciously consider their political ideologies. Yet, institutional interpretivism reveals that the justices naturally decide in accord with their politics. Law and politics are joined so cohesively, in a stable emulsion, that the justices do not even see their politics at work.


15 patients with established diagnosis of ulcerative Colitis are evaluated. Data was gathered in patients of pediatric endoscopy including: 1) patients history and physical examination, 2) endoscopic reports, and 3) pathologic reports of colon biopsies. The results showed that ulcerative Colitis is seen equally in both sexes. The most common age in pediatric group is 11-15 years. The common presentations of ulcerative Colitis in our study were diarrhea (80%) and hematochesia (86%), and abdominal pain (73%). Severe forms of ulcerative Colitis were seen in 26.6% of cases. P-value of correlation of endoscopic and pathologic findings of ulcerative Colitis in our cases was 0.08, which is not statistically significant, although very close to 0.05 (Positive correlation). Except for one case of failure to thrive, extra-intestinal findings were not seen in our study.


The aim of this present paper is to define minimal performance criteria for the separate items comprising signal processing and data handling used to measure respiratory function in infants. These guidelines cover numerous aspects including: signal processing, data handling and subsequent analysis, reporting of results, demographics and handling of reference values. Adherence to these guidelines should ensure that infant lung function measurements can be performed with an acceptable degree of safety, precision, and reproducibility. Furthermore, they will facilitate multicentre collection of data and the performance of clinical investigations.


Identifying optimal inspection and repair strategies for offshore jacket structures is a challenging task. We pre-sent an approach, which is based on recent developments in the field of risk-based operation and maintenance planning at the structural system level. The approach utilizes heuristics to define inspection and repair strate-gies at the system level and to reduce the search space of possible strategies. For each defined strategy, the expected service life cost of inspection, repair and failure is evaluated based on simulated inspection and re-pair histories. Subset simulation is applied to compute the conditional repair and failure probabilities required for this analysis. It also forms the basis for simulating inspection and repair histories. The strategy that mini-mizes the expected service life cost is the optimal one in the set of pre-selected strategies. The underlying condition and performance model accounts for the stochastic dependence among the deterioration states of the different structural elements and the structural redundancy. The approach is demonstrated in a case study considering a jacket-type frame. In this study, we essentially vary the inspection interval, the minimum num-ber of inspected components and the target reliability, and identify the combination that minimizes the ex-pected total service life cost.


Optimization of a previously reported thrombin inhibitor, 9-hydroxy-9-fluorenylcarbonyl-l-prolyl-trans-4-aminocyclohexylmethylamide (1), by replacing the aminocyclohexyl P1 group provided a new lead structure, 9-hydroxy-9-fluorenylcarbonyl-l-prolyl-2-aminomethyl-5-chlorobenzylamide (2), with improved potency (K(i) = 0.49 nM for human thrombin, 2x APTT = 0.37 microM in human plasma) and pharmacokinetic properties (F = 39%, iv T(1/2) = 13 h in dogs). An effective strategy for reducing plasma protein binding of 2 and improving efficacy in an in vivo thrombosis model in rats was to replace the lipophilic fluorenyl group in P3 with an azafluorenyl group. Systematic investigation of all possible azafluorenyl P3 isomers and azafluorenyl-N-oxide analogues of 2 led to the identification of an optimal compound, 3-aza-9-hydroxyfluoren-9(R)-ylcarbonyl-l-prolyl-2-aminomethyl-5-chlorobenzylamide (19b), with high potency (K(i) = 0.40 nM, 2x APTT = 0.18 microM), excellent pharmacokinetic properties (F = 55%, T(1/2) = 14 h in dogs), and complete efficacy in the in vivo thrombosis model in rats (inhibition of FeCl(3)-induced vessel occlusions in six of six rats receiving an intravenous infusion of 10 microg/kg/min of 19b). The stereochemistry of the azafluorenyl group in 19b was determined by X-ray crystallographic analysis of its N-oxide derivative (23b) bound in the active site of human thrombin.


Urbanization is a worldwide process, occurring rapidly with adverse consequences on the environment and people. More exactly, urbanization aggravates natural risks and creates additional articial risks; this is a key issue for urban planning, which can reduce the exposure and negative outcomes if its provisions are properly enforced. This article is based on observations from Bejaia, Algeria. Each year, the city suffers from disasters including oods, forest res and landslides. This situation has led to the question whether urban planning observes the regulations from other domains. In order to answer it, different risks threatening the city were modeled and mapped. The results consist of computing the number of buildings situated within non-aedicandi zones by the type of risk. The results show that 15,832 buildings violate the law. Moreover, natural hazards (78.31%) are a more important threat than the articial ones (21.69%). The most important natural risks are due to forest res (44.82%), and the explosion of the industrial zones (15.24%) is the dominant articial risk. The ndings show that planning can help reducing the risk exposure within the urban areas, if the planning provisions are properly enforced. Moreover, the article makes a signicant contribution to demonstrating the possible consequences of sacricing long-term safety for short-term political interests.


This research deals with the depiction of road accident
scenes using symbols. When cartographic symbols are presented,
there may be situations where they are either too close or
overlapping. Manual intervention is thus needed to rearrange the
symbols to avoid confusing the user. This condition, known as
spatial conflict, is part of the problem in cartography especially in
the process of automated generalization.
When a collision diagram is drawn to show the road user
movements (RUM) that indicate the nature of vehicle maneuver in
road accidents at a particular site, the position of the event is often
re-Iocated because of the type and size of symbols used. The
changes made are always tentative, iterative and subjective. It is also a time consuming process, as the draughtsman need to decide
the right and accurate symbols to be presented. These processes
are needed, as the symbols are usually close or overlapping against
each other. The diagram may not be much helpful to the traffic
engineer if no intervention is being made to re-position the
symbols. A clear and informative diagram is necessary to
determine the predominant type of road accident, and for
proposing the best remedy. Therefore, the procedures in the
creation of Collision Diagram involve an iteration process which are
subjective due to an array of human factors involved in making
decisions. As a result, inaccuracy occurs in presenting the right
position and the right symbols. Hence this work focuses on the
automation process for resolving the spatial conflict.


ObjectiveMindfulness-based interventions can improve quality of life (QoL) in people with multiple sclerosis (PwMS); however, the potential benefits of brief mindfulness group programs delivered in community settings have not been investigated with this population. This pilot study evaluated a brief (five-session) community-based group mindfulness program for PwMS.MethodParticipants were 23 PwMS recruited through Multiple Sclerosis Queensland, Australia. The study had a single intervention condition with pre-intervention, post-intervention and eight-week follow-up assessments. Primary outcomes were QoL, psychological distress and fatigue, and secondary outcomes were mindfulness, self-compassion, and acceptance.ResultsAnalyses revealed improvements in psychological distress, perceived stress, the mental health QoL dimension, mindfulness, self-compassion, and acceptance. All participants agreed they would recommend the program to others with multiple sclerosis and most reported that the program was helpful and enjoyable. Qualitative data showed that participants gained in present moment awareness, coping skills, self-compassion, acceptance, support, and changed perspectives.ConclusionsResults suggest that brief mindfulness interventions may improve psychological wellbeing in PwMS; however, a longer intervention period or programs that incorporate mindful movement activities may be needed to bring about improvements in physical health QoL dimensions and fatigue.


A small guard robot working indoors or outdoors can be used to report various information on its environment to an operator. The guard robot should be small-sized and lightweight to increase its portability. In addition, it should be able to overcome a relatively high obstacle to cope with various situations. To satisfy these requirements, this paper presents a small robot equipped with a novel hybrid wheel and track mechanism that can select wheels or tracks depending on the situation. The robot folds the tracks into the body in the wheel mode and only wheels are active with the tracks immobilized, which results in the fast moving speed. In the track mode, the tracks are extended to keep in contact with the ground. Furthermore, this research proposes the belt length maintenance mechanism by which the belt length is kept constant in either the wheel or track mode. Various experiments demonstrate that the proposed robot can move fast by using wheels on the smooth terrain and overcome obstacles by using tracks on the rough terrain.


We demonstrate a single-mode waveguide in LiNbO3 by use of both prism and end-face coupling methods. The waveguide is formed by multienergy megaelectron-volt O2+ implantation at room temperature. A bright line is observed only when moderate postimplant annealing was performed. The possible index profile of the waveguide is constructed according to the damage profile of the lattice structure caused by the implantation. Although dark-mode measurement shows that the effective extraordinary index of LiNbO3 is raised in the waveguide layer, results of the analysis indicate that the single guiding mode could be supported by a synergetic effect from both the raised index layer and the low-index barrier. The reduced loss of the waveguide can be attributed to the widened low-index barrier from multienergy implantation.