The puncture resistance of geotextiles in Australia is measured in terms of the G-Rating,
which is the product of CBR and drop cone puncture test results.
CBR and drop cone puncture tests were conducted on 24 geotextiles to provide up-to-
date results, and to evaluate the G-Rating. CBR puncture tests using modified
plungers were also conducted to assess the accuracy of shape factors quoted in the
literature- 3.0 for angular aggregate and 0.8 for rounded aggregate. Wide strip
tensile tests were also conducted to compare with CBR puncture test results.
The results of the testing program show no relationship between wide strip tensile
test results and CBR puncture test results. The modified plunger CBR puncture test
results show that shape factors are not only shape dependent, but are fabric
dependent as well, with the results somewhat different from those commonly
quoted. The exponent used to calculate the G-Rating varies for the same fabric
tested at different drop heights in the drop cone puncture test. Also, the restriction
of elongation in CBR puncture tests to 80 per cent by the G-Rating classification
system, was found unnecessary for all the geotextiles tested, as elongation at failure
in all cases did not exceed 80 per cent.
A Rupture Index classification is proposed, being the product of failure load and
vertical plunger displacement at failure in a CBR puncture test. It is considered to
be simpler than the G-Rating as it relies on the results of only one test. The
Rupture Index calculated for a given fabric will not vary by more than the inherent
variability of the specimens tested. However, G-Rating values were shown to vary
considerably for the same fabric tested at different drop heights in the drop cone
puncture test.


There has been an increasing interest in applying biological principles to the design and control of robots. Unlike industrial robots that are programmed to execute a rather limited number of tasks, the new generation of bio-inspired robots is expected to display a wide range of behaviours in unpredictable environments, as well as to interact safely and smoothly with human co-workers. In this article, we put forward some of the properties that will characterize these new robots: soft materials, flexible and stretchable sensors, modular and efficient actuators, self-organization and distributed control. We introduce a number of design principles; in particular, we try to comprehend the novel design space that now includes soft materials and requires a completely different way of thinking about control. We also introduce a recent case study of developing a complex humanoid robot, discuss the lessons learned and speculate about future challenges and perspectives.


Filter pruning is one of the most effective ways to accelerate and compress convolutional neural networks (CNNs). In this work, we propose a global filter pruning algorithm called Gate Decorator, which transforms a vanilla CNN module by multiplying its output by the channel-wise scaling factors (i.e. gate). When the scaling factor is set to zero, it is equivalent to removing the corresponding filter. We use Taylor expansion to estimate the change in the loss function caused by setting the scaling factor to zero and use the estimation for the global filter importance ranking. Then we prune the network by removing those unimportant filters. After pruning, we merge all the scaling factors into its original module, so no special operations or structures are introduced. Moreover, we propose an iterative pruning framework called Tick-Tock to improve pruning accuracy. The extensive experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of our approaches. For example, we achieve the state-of-the-art pruning ratio on ResNet-56 by reducing 70% FLOPs without noticeable loss in accuracy. For ResNet-50 on ImageNet, our pruned model with 40% FLOPs reduction outperforms the baseline model by 0.31% in top-1 accuracy. Various datasets are used, including CIFAR-10, CIFAR-100, CUB-200, ImageNet ILSVRC-12 and PASCAL VOC 2011.


Given the highly empirical nature of research in cloud computing, networked systems, and related fields, testbeds play an important role in the research ecosystem. In this paper, we cover one such facility, CloudLab, which supports systems research by providing raw access to programmable hardware, enabling research at large scales, and creating a shared platform for repeatable research.

We present our experiences designing CloudLab and operating it for four years, serving nearly 4,000 users who have run over 79,000 experiments on 2,250 servers, switches, and other pieces of datacenter equipment. From this experience, we draw lessons organized around two themes. The first set comes from analysis of data regarding the use of CloudLab: how users interact with it, what they use it for, and the implications for facility design and operation. Our second set of lessons comes from looking at the ways that algorithms used "under the hood," such as resource allocation, have important-- and sometimes unexpected--effects on user experience and behavior. These lessons can be of value to the designers and operators of IaaS facilities in general, systems testbeds in particular, and users who have a stake in understanding how these systems are built.


In this thesis, we explore the relationship between absorptive capacity and alliances, and their influence on firms' competitive advantage in the US and European biopharmaceutical sectors. The study undertaken in this thesis is based on data from a large-scale international survey of over 2,500 biopharmaceutical firms in the US, the UK, Germany, France and Ireland. The thesis advanced a conceptual framework, which integrated the multi-dimensions of absorptive capacity, exploration-exploitation alliances, and competitive advantage, into a biopharmaceutical firm's new product development process. The proposed framework is then tested in the empirical analysis, using truncated models to estimate firms' sales growth, with zero-inflated negative binominal models capturing the number of alliances in which firms engage, and aspects of realised absorptive capacity analysed by ordinal probit models. The empirical results suggest that both skill-based and exploitation-based absorptive capacity play crucial roles in shaping firms' competitive advantage, while neither exploratory nor exploitation alliances contribute to the improvement in firms' competitive position. In terms of the interaction between firms' absorptive capacity and alliance behaviour, the results suggest that engagement with exploratory alliances depends more strongly on firms' assimilation capability (skills levels and continuity of R&D activities), while participation in exploitation alliances is more conditional on firms' relevant knowledge monitoring capability. The results highlight the major differences between the determinants of firms' alliance behaviour, and competitive advantage in the US and Europe – in the US firms' skill levels prove more significant in determining firms' engagement with exploratory alliances, whereas in Europe continuity of R&D proves more important. Correspondingly, while US firms' engagement with exploitation alliances depends on market monitoring capability, that in Europe is more strongly linked to exploitation-based absorptive capacity. In respect of the determinants of firms' competitive advantage – in Europe, market monitoring capability, engagement with exploitation alliances, and continuous R&D activities, prove more important, while in the US, it is firms' market characteristics that matter most.


This study uses met expectations hypothesis, a form of expectancy theory, to develop survey instruments to identify and compare the goals, expectations, and perceived outcomes developers held for the Faculty Development Institute (FDI). Theories including self-perception, and personal recall were also reviewed with regards to how individuals make decisions. The developers had similar expectations for the outcomes during and/or immediately following the initial FDI workshop, but differed in their expectations of the long-term outcomes. The survey instrument can be used within Workforce Development to enhance research efforts with regards to designing and developing evaluation instruments for training programs to successfully achieve the expectations of stakeholders. The use of a training program for faculty on a university campus was a new concept for the institution within this study. The success of the initial program led to continuation of the program.


PROJECT REPORT SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL
FULFILLMENTS OF THE REQUIREMENTS
FOR THE AWARD OF BACHELOR OF ENGINEERING
(B. ENG) DEGREE IN MECHANICAL ENGINEERING,
FEDERAL UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY, MINNA,
NIGER STATE, NIGERIA


While neural machine translation (NMT) is making good progress in the past two years, tens of millions of bilingual sentence pairs are needed for its training. However, human labeling is very costly. To tackle this training data bottleneck, we develop a dual-learning mechanism, which can enable an NMT system to automatically learn from unlabeled data through a dual-learning game. This mechanism is inspired by the following observation: any machine translation task has a dual task, e.g., English-to-French translation (primal) versus French-to-English translation (dual); the primal and dual tasks can form a closed loop, and generate informative feedback signals to train the translation models, even if without the involvement of a human labeler. In the dual-learning mechanism, we use one agent to represent the model for the primal task and the other agent to represent the model for the dual task, then ask them to teach each other through a reinforcement learning process. Based on the feedback signals generated during this process (e.g., the language-model likelihood of the output of a model, and the reconstruction error of the original sentence after the primal and dual translations), we can iteratively update the two models until convergence (e.g., using the policy gradient methods). We call the corresponding approach to neural machine translation dual-NMT. Experiments show that dual-NMT works very well on English ↔ French translation; especially, by learning from monolingual data (with 10% bilingual data for warm start), it achieves a comparable accuracy to NMT trained from the full bilingual data for the French-to-English translation task.


Open-ended evolution is a fundamental issue in artificial life research. We consider biological and social systems as a flux of interacting components that transiently participate in interactions with other system components as part of these systems. This approach and the corresponding reasoning suggest that systems able to deliver open-ended evolution must have a representation equivalent of Turing machines. Here we provide an implementation of a such model of evolving systems using a cellular automata world. We analyze the simulated world using a set of metrics based on criteria of open-ended evolution suggested by Bedau et al. We show that the cellular automata world has significantly more evolutionary activity than a corresponding random shadow world. Our work indicates that the proposed cellular automata worlds have the potential to generate open-ended evolution according to the criteria that we have considered.


This article examines how the editorial and visual content of the Mexican gay magazine Macho Tips (1985–89) reproduced national discourses of race and gender to challenge the exclusion of gay men from the nation. Drawing on archival sources and oral history interviews, the essay demonstrates how the invocation of mestizaje, masculinity, and respectability shaped the production, reception, and content of the magazine—particularly its sexual imagery. The article argues that while Macho Tips appropriated, eroticized, and commodified national values of race and gender to make a profit, the magazine reconceptualized their meanings to debunk stereotypes that marginalized gay men. Macho Tips detached macho aesthetics from heterosexuality and successfully blurred the line between straight and gay Mexican masculinities. As a result, the magazine nationalized homosexuality and appealed to the desires of gay middle classes who sought to consume the Mexican masculine body.


The second edition of this book is unique in that it focuses on methods for making formal statistical inference from all the models in an a priori set (Multi-Model Inference). A philosophy is presented for model-based data analysis and a general strategy outlined for the analysis of empirical data. The book invites increased attention on a priori science hypotheses and modeling. Kullback-Leibler Information represents a fundamental quantity in science and is Hirotugu Akaike's basis for model selection. The maximized log-likelihood function can be bias-corrected as an estimator of expected, relative Kullback-Leibler information. This leads to Akaike's Information Criterion (AIC) and various extensions. These methods are relatively simple and easy to use in practice, but based on deep statistical theory. The information theoretic approaches provide a unified and rigorous theory, an extension of likelihood theory, an important application of information theory, and are objective and practical to employ across a very wide class of empirical problems. The book presents several new ways to incorporate model selection uncertainty into parameter estimates and estimates of precision. An array of challenging examples is given to illustrate various technical issues. This is an applied book written primarily for biologists and statisticians wanting to make inferences from multiple models and is suitable as a graduate text or as a reference for professional analysts.


West Greenland's transition from a cod-fishing to a shrimp-fishing economy, ca. 1960-90, provides a case study in the human dimensions of climatic change. Physical, biological, and social systems interacted in complex ways to affect coastal communities. For this integrated case study, we examine linkages between atmospheric conditions (including the North Atlantic Oscillation), ocean circulation, ecosystem conditions, fishery activities, and the livelihoods and population changes of two West Greenland towns: Sisimiut, south of Disko Bay, and Paamiut, on the southwest coast. Sisimiut prospered as a fishing center through the cod-to-shrimp transition. Paamiut, more specialized in cod fishing, declined. Their stories suggest two general propositions about the human dimensions of climatic change. First, socially important environmental changes result not simply from climatic change, but from interactions between climate, ecosystem, and resource usage. Second, environmental changes affect people differentially and through interactions with social factors. Social networks and cohesion (social capital) are important, in addition to skills (human capital), investments (physical capital), and alternative resources (natural capital): all shape how the benefits and costs are distributed.


When plaintiffs cannot predict the outcome of litigation with certainty, neither the American rule (each litigant bears its own litigation expenses) nor the British rule (the losing litigant pays the attorneys' fees of the winning litigant) would induce optimal decisions to bring suit. Plaintiffs may bring frivolous suits when litigation costs are small relative to the amount at stake; plaintiffs may not bring meritorious suits when litigation costs are large relative to this amount. More general fee-shifting rules are based not only on the identity of the winning party but also on how strong the court perceives the case to be at the end of the trial (the "margin of victory"). We analyze when such a rule can induce plaintiffs to sue if and only if they believe their cases are sufficiently strong. We explore the implications of our analysis for the use of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11.


Various binuclear metal ion clusters and complexes have been reconstituted in crystalline human arginase I by removing the Mn(2+)(2) cluster of the wild-type enzyme with metal chelators and subsequently soaking the crystalline apoenzyme in buffer solutions containing NiCl(2) or ZnCl(2). X-ray crystal structures of these metal ion variants are correlated with catalytic activity measurements that reveal differences resulting from metal ion substitution. Additionally, treatment of crystalline Mn(2+)(2)-human arginase I with Zn(2+) reveals for the first time the structural basis for inhibition by Zn(2+), which forms a carboxylate-histidine-Zn(2+) triad with H141 and E277. The imidazole side chain of H141 is known to be hyper-reactive, and its chemical modification or mutagenesis is known to similarly compromise catalysis. The reactive substrate analogue 2(S)-amino-6-boronohexanoic acid (ABH) binds as a tetrahedral boronate anion to Mn(2+)(2), Co(2+)(2), Ni(2+)(2), and Zn(2+)(2) clusters in human arginase I, and it can be stabilized by a third inhibitory Zn(2+) ion coordinated by H141. Because ABH binds as an analogue of the tetrahedral intermediate and its flanking transition states in catalysis, this implies that the various metallo-substituted enzymes are capable of some level of catalysis with an actual substrate. Accordingly, we establish the following trend for turnover number (k(cat)) and catalytic efficiency (k(cat)/K(M)): Mn(2+) > Ni(2+) ≈ Co(2+) ≫ Zn(2+). Therefore, Mn(2+) is required for optimal catalysis by human arginase I.


Objectives: The purpose of this capstone paper is to gain a broader understanding of the current needs surrounding women's health and to explore if there is a stronger role for occupational therapy in women's healthcare delivery. Method: For this needs assessment, clinical observations of women's healthcare services, particularly those pertaining to pelvic health, were conducted using a detailed observation checklist. In-depth interviews were also conducted with eleven women's health service providers – eight physical therapists and three occupational therapists – in order to gain insight into their opinions and experiences regarding women's health services. Information gathered was analyzed for themes and key points to assist with promoting future research in this realm of healthcare. Results: The current needs presented by women receiving women's healthcare services are complex and varied, with trends surfacing around the topics of education on self-care, access to services, and the need for improved physical and emotional support. Services provider interviews revealed themes associated with current needs of female clients in the areas of physical, mental and emotional support barriers to services such as insurance coverage, lack of patient education and lack of community awareness as well as ideas to expand healthcare services, to meet the needs of women. Conclusions: The findings suggest further research, innovations and expanded services are appropriate responses to improve women's healthcare services. This assessment provides preliminary information suggesting occupational therapy is well-suited to meet many needs within women's healthcare and that its potential roles should be further researched.


This paper shows some product and process developments at the Institute of Forming Technology and Lightweight Construction of the TU Dortmund University supporting the lightweight construction. It presents the manufacturing of lightweight profiles by hot extrusion and their benefits as well as their design, material, and manufacturing potential for lightweight construction. Examples of process extensions in hot extrusion like curved profile extrusion, twisted profile extrusion and manufacturing of functional graded profiles and profiles with variable cross-sections during extrusion are shown. These procedures allow a flexible change of the profile geometry or contour in longitudinal axis and, therefore, support the shape lightweight construction. Other extensions like composite profile extrusion and energy efficient extrusion of profiles from scrap materials like chips support the material lightweight construction. The manufacturing and use of these profiles allow the realisation of diverse lightweight construction principles and promise to become a pillar of lightweight construction in future.


The Angels Won't Help You is a book about the uniqueness and primacy of help, particularly in relation to care, love, and caritas. It relies heavily on psychoanalytic and philosophical accounts of help and care and finds that help requires the establishment of a real relationship between persons, where help is given and received in a transitional space that is collapsed by care, unity, or love, which are mental constellations that, while profound, remain within the individuals involved. It contains reflections, memoir, and prose poetry, with an emphasis on psycho-philosophical examinations of help.
 In trying to understand help, especially in the ways that it is not a synonym for care, Bowker turns to diverse sources and topics, including treatments of children in a helpless world, as featured in the literature of Kathy Acker and Jerzy Kosiński, a first-person account of help in psychiatric hospitals, an analysis of the phenomenon of Japanese hikikomori ("shutting oneself in"), anxiety and helplessness, an exploration of the nature of help and helplessness in Wilfred Bion's "Attacks on Linking," a rethinking of trauma in light of the circuital structure of the self, and more.
 ***
 Put differently, The Angels Won't Help You is a cruel helpless hopeless book raised in Texas roped ridden waddled clowned it developed catastrophic methods of coping. Angels' mama split her tongue and hissed her words like silent / soldier / crisis in the torment of her sunken trailer in the summer where Angels practiced lighting cigarettes with her eyes fetching fireflies making tinctures of dead tissue becoming extraordinarily promiscuous. Angels' nature was to hide in dark places to ride with abandon to sink in the spurs to gnash silver teeth to kick up tipped boots ruining every square dance. Angels, you make me need like a choke rope dream of being sick from head to foot. You are the petaled froth on every steep lapel. You are original and dilapidated depilatory and inflationary ovulary and delusional. O Angels, the scholars will say I failed to know you address you presage you protect you protest you, but we know the truth.


Objective To assess whether three-dimensional imaging of the Achilles tendon by ultrasonographic tissue characterisation (UTC) can differentiate between symptomatic and asymptomatic tendons. Design Case-control study. Setting Sports Medical Department of the Hague Medical Centre. Patients Twenty-six tendons from patients with chronic midportion Achilles tendinopathy were included. The "matched" control group consisted of 26 asymptomatic tendons. Interventions Symptomatic and asymptomatic tendons were scanned using the UTC procedure. One researcher performed the ultrasonographic data collection. These blinded data were randomised, and outcome measures were determined by two independent observers. Main outcome measurements The raw ultrasonographic images were analysed with a customdesigned algorithm that quantifies the three-dimensional stability of echo patterns, qua intensity and distribution over contiguous transverse images. This threedimensional stability was related to tendon structure in previous studies. UTC categorises four different echotypes that represent (I) highly stable; (II) medium stable; (III) highly variable and (IV) constantly low intensity and variable distribution. The percentages of echo-types were calculated, and the maximum tendon thickness was measured. Finally, the inter-observer reliability of UTC was determined. Results Symptomatic tendons showed less pixels in echo-types I and II than asymptomatic tendons (51.5% vs 76.6%, p<0.001), thus less three-dimensional stability of the echo pattern. The mean maximum tendon thickness was 9.2 mm in the symptomatic group and 6.8 mm in the asymptomatic group (p<0.001). The Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) for the interobserver reliability of determining the echo-types I+II was 0.95. The ICC for tendon thickness was 0.84. Conclusion UTC can quantitatively evaluate tendon structure and thereby discriminate symptomatic and asymptomatic tendons. As such, UTC might be useful to monitor treatment protocols.


The seed yield of corn (Zea mays L.) consists of different proportional contributions of the effective factor in all growth stages from emergence to maturity. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of two sowing dates on agronomic and seed quality traits such as oil, protein and starch content of three commercial corn cultivars (31G98, NK-Arma and Aveline). Experiments were carried out at two different sowing dates (30 of April and 26 of May) one month between sowing dates in the Aegean region of Turkey during 2012 and 2013 summer growth periods. The experiment was a randomized block design with three replications. The results of this study showed that sowing date had statistically effected on thousand seed weight, the seed number in corncob, corncob length, seed yield, ash, oil, protein, starch contents of corn seed. In particular, it was revealed that thousand seed weight, the seed number in corncob, corncob length, seed yield, protein, ash and oil contents of seed were decreased with the delaying sowing date due to decreasing the time of growth period and seed filling. On the other hand, starch content of seed was increased by delaying sowing date in both years. The highest seed yield was obtained from Aveline corn cultivar in late sowing date in both years because of having high thousand seed weight. The percentage of decreased in terms of protein was to highest in Aveline cultivar with the delaying sowing date. It was suggested that eventough the Aegean climate has a long growing period and is a suitable environment for second crop corn growth, the selection of cultivar is very important to grown in terms of seed yield in late sowing date because of the fact that plant can be exposed to inappropriate excessive temperature during the vegetative period in late sowing date in Aegean region.


We address a long-standing open problem of reinforcement learning in decentralized partially observable Markov decision processes. Previous attempts focussed on different forms of generalized policy iteration, which at best led to local optima. In this paper, we restrict attention to plans, which are simpler to store and update than policies. We derive, under certain conditions, the first near-optimal cooperative multi-agent reinforcement learning algorithm. To achieve significant scalability gains, we replace the greedy maximization by mixed-integer linear programming. Experiments show our approach can learn to act near-optimally in many finite domains from the literature.


An increasing number of studies are examining the distribution and congruence of ecosystem services, often with the goal of identifying areas that will provide multiple ecosystem service 'hotspots'. However, there is a paucity of data on most ecosystem services, so proxies (e.g. estimates of a service for a particular land cover type) are frequently used to map their distribution. To date, there has been little attempt to quantify the effects of using proxies on distribution maps of ecosystem services, despite the potentially large errors associated with such data sets. 2. Here, we provide the first study examining the effects of using proxies on ecosystem service maps and the degree of spatial congruence of these maps with primary data, using England as a case study. 3. We show that land cover based proxies provide a poor fit to primary data surfaces for biodiversity, recreation and carbon storage, and that correlations between ecosystem services change depending on whether primary or proxy data are used for the analyses. 4. The poor fit of proxies to primary data was also evident when we selected hotspots of single ecosystem services, and consistency between raw and modelled surfaces was extremely low when considering the locations that were coincident hotspots for multiple services. 5. Synthesis and applications. Proxies may be suitable for identifying broad-scale trends in ecosystem services, but even relatively good proxies are likely to be unsuitable for identifying hotspots or priority areas for multiple services


Objective: Several studies have concluded that family members in palliative home care want information about the patient's disease. The aim of this study was to describe family members' perceptions of their motivation for receiving information about the patient's disease. Method: Semistructured tape-recorded interviews were performed with 20 family members of patients with incurable progressive cancer who were admitted to hospital-based home care in Sweden. Data were analyzed using a qualitative phenomenographic method. Results: Family members justified their informational needs by emphasizing that they needed to understand and confirm what would happen when the disease progressed, to be mentally prepared for the future, to organize their daily life, to be a source of information to others, and that receiving information was a natural right. Significance of results: This study has revealed some explanations as to why family members want information. In clinical practice, it is important that palliative care team members are aware of family members' level of knowledge and their need for information, as this mental preparation is important.


This study proposes a probabilistic drought forecasting model to forecast meteorological drought in Southern Taiwan using the El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) index. Meteorological drought is defined by the standardized precipitation index (SPI), and the ENSO index is El Nino sea surface temperature (SST). Two probabilistic forecasting model architectures were constructed based on the transition probabilities from El Nino SSTs to SPIs. Both model architectures forecast a one-month-ahead probability distribution for meteorological drought using different combinations of El Nino SST variables. Forecasting results showed the robustness of the probabilistic drought forecasting models. In addition, this study discussed the selection of El Nino SST variables used in the probabilistic drought forecasting model, and found that models with a single SST input outperformed those with multiple SST inputs.


Initial symptoms include personality changes and the gradual appearance of small involuntary movements. These move- ments progress to frank chorea, ballism, and dystonia. Later in the disease course, a bradykinetic parkinsonian phenotype manifests. It is characterized by rigidity, severe dystonia, and contractures. Falls are common. Dysphagia is common as well and is progressive, becoming severe and often contributing to death from aspiration pneumonia.


Objective This cross sectional study was conducted to determine the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) among government dental personnels in Khon Kaen Province of Thailand. Methods There were 282 dental personnels enrolled into this study. Data were collected by interviews with the modified structural questionnaires. Descriptive statistics were used to describe characteristics and inferential statistics were MSDs prevalence and confidence interval (95%CI). Results The results showed that most participants were female (81.9%), the minimum and maximum age were 20 years and 59 years, respectively (mean = 32.8 ± 9.4 years). Most participants had body mass index at normal level (18.5 - 22.9 kg/m2) for 55.3% Most positions were dental nurses (46.4%), dentists (22.0%) and patient assistants (18.1%), respectively. For the last 7-day and 1 month period the prevalence of MSDs were 61.7% (95% CI = 0.56 - 0.68) and 93.6% (95% CI = 0.91 - 0.96), respectively. The highest prevalence at severe level of pain were found at areas of shoulder (24.6%), lower back (19.3%), and neck (16.7%), respectively. Frequency of MSDs considering everyday occurrence found on areas of shoulder (13.6%), neck (11.7%), lower back (7.6%), respectively. Among 264 MSDs cases of dental personnels, the report of pain impacted to daily activity was 76.1%. The report of work was related-MSDs was 71.2%. Symptoms was occurred at evening time after work (41.3%). The intake of painkillers or treatment by Thai traditional medicine program was 64.6%. Conclusions The results identified neck-shoulder-back pain among dental personnels by showing the severity and the frequency of pain. Therefore there should be the health surveillance program of neck-shoulder-back pain among dental personnels. This findings are useful for the prospective cohortstudy to find out the risk factors for neck-shoulder-back pain among dental personnels.


This paper outlines the research and design development process undertaken to create a user centred sanitation design solution for developing countries as part of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation 'Reinventing the toilet' challenge. The context of the Gates Foundation challenge is outlined as well as the development of the project within the University that led to the formation of a multidisciplinary team from Loughborough Design School and the Water, Engineering and Development Centre (WEDC) within the School of Civil and Building Engineering. This team would not only develop an innovative engineering solution in the form of a hydrothermal carbonisation reactor (HCR) for processing human waste, but also develop the innovative user centred, ergonomic and industrially designed front end toilet solution that is the main focus of this paper. The user centred research methods used both within Loughborough Design School and in the field in developing countries are examined as well as the design development methods that were used for the ideation and development of a range of prototypes that were to be exhibited at the Foundations Reinvent the Toilet Fair in Deli, India in early 2014. The paper concludes with a review of the success of the project so far and the challenges that lie ahead as the project moves from the prototype development phase to real world field testing in China towards the end of 2014.


Introduction: Error is an integral part of human life because most of the errors are derived from natural psychological process (cognitive) and behavioral adaptations which are created by correct skill behaviors. The objective of this study was evolution of medication errors using self-reporting method and its relation with gender and work experience in nurses of one of the educational medical Centers of Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences in the second half of 2014. Research Methods: This is a descriptive-analytical single group and single-stage study. The study population included 540 nurses working in Imam Reza Hospital at the time of the study, and sample was calculated to be n = 225 using Cochran formula based on pilot study considering the average incidence of errors observed. Researcher-made questionnaire was the data gathering tool. Questionnaire was initially distributed in all sections and was then completed by nurses. Content validity and reliability were tested based on the evaluation of opinions of 7 experts and using retest method, respectively, in such a way that questionnaire was given to 20 nurses in 2 steps with an interval of 2 weeks. Reliability was calculated to be averagely 0.69 for these questions using kappa coefficient. Data were analyzed by SPSS 20 software. Results: There was no significant relation between 18 cases of medication errors evaluated using self-reporting method and work experience. From all evaluated errors, there was a significant relation between the error of lack of compliance with the time of prescription of medicine as well as giving a medicine more or less than the prescribed dose and gender. Discussion and Conclusion: Based on the obtained results, we suggest that parallelism and extensive studies be carried out in all hospitals in the province for identified of the highest cases of errors and providing suggestions for reducing those. On the other hand, the possible causes fear or negligence of nurses about reporting of errors is essential, and use of training, control, and close monitoring is necessary in the field of medication errors.


This paper describes the design and characterization of a new family of rectangular-shaped DNA nanostructures (DNA tiles) containing 4, 8, and 12 helices. The self-assembled morphologies of the three tiles were also investigated. The motivation for designing this set of DNA nanostructures originated from the desire to produce DNA lattices containing periodic cavities of programmable dimensions and to investigate the mechanism of DNA tube formation. Nine assembly scenarios have been investigated through the combination of the three different tiles and three sticky end association strategies. Imaging by atomic force microscopy (AFM) revealed self-assembled structures with varied cavity sizes, lattice morphologies, and orientations. Six samples show only tube formation, two samples show both 2D lattices (>2 microm) and tubes, and one sample shows only 2D lattices without tubes. We found that a lower tile dimensional anisotropy, weaker connection, and corrugated design favor the large 2D array formation, while the opposite (higher tile anisotropy, stronger connection, and uncorrugated design) favors tube formation. We discuss these observations in terms of an energy balance at equilibrium and the kinetic competition between diffusion-limited lateral lattice growth versus fluctuation of the lattice to form tubes at an early stage of the assembly. The DNA nanostructures and their self-assembly demonstrated herein not only provide a new repertoire of scaffolds to template the organization of nanoscale materials, but may also provide useful information for investigating other self-assembly systems.


The sequence of the first hypervariable segment (HVS-I) of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) was determined in 251 individuals from three eastern Slavonic populations, two Russian and one Belorussian. Within HVS-I, 78 polymorphic positions were revealed. Within-population diversity of HVS-I varies slightly among three samples; its estimates do not differ strongly from those for European populations. Haplotype diversity for three populations calculated in this study is 0.949; mean pairwise differences estimate is 3.59. To assign mtDNA sequences to major phylogenetic clusters, haplogroup-specific restriction polymorphisms were selectively typed in most samples. The haplogroup distribution in the total Eastern Slavonic sample is similar to that reported for the European sample. However, the separate consideration of three Slavonic samples reveals the complicated structure of the mitochondrial gene pool in the Eastern European area. Data of this study support the proposed model of the origin of modern Eastern Slavs, which implies the admixture of ancient Slavonic tribes with pre-Slavonic populations of Eastern Europe. These data should contribute to general studies of mitochondrial DNA variations in Europe.


Internal and external signaling dependent changes in cell behavior are directly linked to force-generating remodeling of the actin microfilament system which is juxtaposed to the inside of the plasma membrane. This dynamic filament system is involved in many processes in the cytoplasm and the nucleus of eukaryotic cells. This thesis studies profilin, a regulator of actin filament dynamics which functions during incorporation of new actin molecules at growing filament ends at the cell periphery. Profilin is also present in the nucleus but its function is less well understood in this compartment. Here I present results concerning profilin and the activity of the transcription factor SRF, which is known to control the expression of actin and many actin-binding proteins in a process requiring the MRTF-A co-factor. MRTF-A binds monomeric actin and is released upon receptor mediated actin polymerization. Depletion of the two profilin isoforms I and IIa reduced MRTF-A/SRF-dependent transcription, most likely since the lack of profilin enable more MRTF-A to bind actin monomers and thereby prevent SRF-transcription. Interestingly profilin depletion also seemed to affect general transcription in the two cell lines investigated. In a separate study, a close connection between profilin, and possibly also profilin:actin, with microtubules was revealed. Microtubules are important for intracellular trafficking of vesicles as well as directional cell migration and the observation made here suggests the existence of a microtubule-associated platform for actin filaments formation. In congruence, the microtubule-associated actin nucleation promoting factor WHAMM was found to interact with profilin. Finally, the intracellular distribution of profilin was investigated by fluorescence microscopy using different peptide specific antibodies. Since these antibodies showed unique but varying results our work emphasizes common problems connected with this technique.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate a project to implement guidelines on the management of patients with asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonany disease (COPD) in terms of the health outcomes of these patients.

DESIGN
A before-and-after study of 1 year with a non-randomized but comparable reference group.

SETTING
General practices in the Netherlands.

STUDY PARTICIPANTS
Two-hundred and eighty patients from 14 practices in the intervention group and 90 patients from five practices in the reference group (receiving usual care).

INTERVENTION
The project included a comprehensive implementation programme, involving identification of barriers, documentation of the care provided, specific education, feedback on compliance with the guidelines, and peer review. This project has been found to bring the process of care more in agreement with the guidelines.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Mean peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) as a percentage of the predicted value, number of days with a diurnal variation in PEFR > or = 15%, number of days with respiratory symptoms (all recorded by patients for a period of 14 days), and perceived health status (Nottingham Health Profile).

RESULTS
After 1 year, the intervention group showed statistically significant improvements with regard to the mean PEFR, the diurnal variation in PEFR, respiratory symptoms and the pain score of the Nottingham Health Profile. Comparing the changes within the intervention group with the changes within the reference group, only a positive effect of the intervention on the mean PEFR was found.

CONCLUSION
The comprehensive implementation programme improved the lung function and symptoms of asthma and COPD patients in the intervention group. However, in comparison with a reference group, the positive effect on the lung function was only small.


Background: Youth Offending Services (YOS) are responsible for delivering Offending Behaviour Programmes (OBP) for young people charged with anti-social behaviour in England and Wales. There appears to be a tension between the symptom based approach prescribed by court orders and the complexity of problems that young people present with in YOS. YOS are often requested to deliver 'anger management' to a population that have disproportionately higher rates of cognitive difficulties, mental health problems and family functioning issues than the general population (YJB, 2008). Key points: The workshop will review current approaches to managing violent and anti-social behaviour within community settings for young people deemed to be 'high risk' to others, with a focus on a pilot programme developed in collaboration with a specialist YOS CAMHS, the University of Liverpool and YOS colleagues. The proposed model is based on an established Cognitive Behaviour programme titled 'Problem-Solving: Learning Usable Skills' (PLUS+) which has been adapted to include family and individual treatment sessions. This 'Multi-Modal' model involves 16 sessions of offence focused group-work, eight to 16 sessions of individual work and six to eight family sessions for parents/carers. The programme aims to develop young people's repertoire of interpersonal and problem-solving skills in addition to developing offence behaviour analysis skills. These skills are enhanced through parallel sessions with families involved in the intervention programme. Conclusions: Delegates are invited to discuss how we meaningfully respond to working with violence and risk in community settings with treatment approaches that involve both young people and the families/carers who support them.


You've read the classic on win-win negotiating, Getting to Yes ...but so have they, the folks you are now negotiating with. How can you get a leg up ...and win? "Win-win" negotiation is an appealing idea on an intellectual level: Find the best way to convince the other side to accept a mutually beneficial outcome, and then everyone gets their fair share. The reality, though, is that people want more than their fair share; they want to win. Tell your boss that you've concocted a deal that gets your company a piece of the pie, and the reaction is likely to be: "Maybe we need to find someone harder-nosed than you who knows how to win. We want the whole pie, not just a slice." However, to return to an earlier era before "win-win" negotiation was in fashion and seek simply to dominate or bully opponents into submission would be a step in the wrong direction--and a public relations disaster. By showing how to win at win-win negotiating, Lawrence Susskind provides the operational advice you need to satisfy the interests of your back table--the people to whom you report. He also shows you how to deal with irrational people, whose vocabulary seems limited to "no," or with the proverbial 900-pound gorilla. He explains how to find trades that create much more value than either you or your opponent thought possible. His brilliant concept of "the trading zone"--the space where you can create deals that are "good for them but great for you," while still maintaining trust and keeping relationships intact--is a fresh way to re-think your approach to negotiating. The outcome is often the best of both possible worlds: You claim a disproportionate share of the value you've created while your opponents still look good to the people to whom they report. Whether the venue is business, a family dispute, international relations, or a tradeoff that has to be made between the environment and jobs, Susskind provides a breakthrough in how to both think about, and engage in, productive negotiations.


Published data concerning shrinkage rates of low-grade gliomas implanted with 125I seeds have been used to determine the likely influence of such shrinkage on normal tissue doses. It is demonstrated that a tumour volume shrinkage of 50% over 6 months can bring about a 30% increase in the dose delivered to tissues which shrink centripetally towards the implanted volume. The use of radionuclides with a half-life shorter than that of 125I would substantially reduce shrinkage-induced dose increments.


DevOps and Model Driven Engineering (MDE) provide differently skilled IT stakeholders with methodologies and tools for organizing and automating continuous software engineering activities-from development to operations, and using models as key engineering artifacts, respectively. Both DevOps and MDE aim at shortening the development life-cycle, dealing with complexity, and improve software process and product quality. The integration of DevOps and MDE principles and practices in low-code engineering platforms (LCEP) are gaining attention by the research community. However, at the same time, new requirements are upcoming for DevOps and MDE as LCEPs are often used by non-technical users, to deliver fully functional software. This is in particular challenging for current DevOps processes, which are mostly considered on the technological level, and thus, excluding most of the current LCEP users. The systematic use of models and modeling to lowering the learning curve of DevOps processes and platforms seems beneficial to make them also accessible for non-technical users. In this paper, we introduce DevOpsML, a conceptual framework for modeling and combining DevOps processes and platforms. Tools along with their interfaces and capabilities are the building blocks of DevOps platform configurations, which can be mapped to software engineering processes of arbitrary complexity. We show our initial endeavors on DevOpsML and present a research roadmap how to employ the resulting DevOpsML framework for different use cases.


This paper critically analyzes the possibility and structure of First Amendment defenses to actions, both private and public, arising out of sexual misconduct by members of the clergy. Part I traces the expansion of relevant theories of tort and criminal liability, and the waning of immunities, constitutional and statutory, that once applied to such actions. Part II of the paper advances a normative theory of the constitutional distinctiveness of religion, and ties that theory to the possibility of ecclesiastical immunity. Most conceptions of such immunity represent assertions of the liberty of religious organizations, and are grounded in the Constitution's Free Exercise Clause. Our approach, however, is grounded in the Establishment Clause, and proceeds from a vision of jurisdictional limits on civil government. Part III of the paper then brings the lessons of Part II to bear on the particular problems of sexual abuse by clergy, and the criminal and civil liability of secondary actors and enterprises for such misconduct. Woven into the fabric of Part III are three major themes. First, those who perpetrate sexual harms against children, or against others who lack capacity to consent, have no claim of ecclesiastical immunity. Second, the religious status of persons, and the religious character of institutions should not give rise to fiduciary duties as a matter of law. The judicial creation of such duties violates the constitutional prohibition on discrimination against religion as compared with its secular counterparts. Third, adjudication of wrongful acts in the hiring and supervision of clergy must be conducted with sensitivity to constitutional concerns of both substance and process. Borrowing from the law concerning First Amendment limitations on the tort liability of the press, we argue that liability of supervising institutions should be limited to cases involving an intentional failure to supervise, and that processes of adjudication should be tailored to maintain compliance with that standard.


This is a critique of Supreme Court jurisprudence concerning punitive damages. The author claims that the Supreme Court erred in the first of its recent treatments of punitive damages, and that this error has been compounded, resulting in a possibly incoherent state of current law. The various episodes in this jurisprudence are discussed in turn.


Nonlinear methodologies to estimate parameters of deterministic nonlinear models are investigated in the case where experimental observations are available and uncertainty sources are present, e.g. model inadequacy, model error and noise. The problem of parameter estimation is interpreted from a nonlinear dynamical time series analysis perspective; however deterministic and probabilistic techniques originated outside the nonlinear deterministic framework are studied, implemented and discussed. Conceptually, the Thesis is divided in two parts that explore two fundamentally different approaches: (a) Bayesian and (b) Geometrical estimation. Both approaches attempt to estimate parameters and model states in the case where the system and the model used to represent it are identical, i.e. Perfect Model Scenario (PMS), even though the implications of the results obtained are considered for Imperfect Model cases. The performance of the resulting model parameter estimates in control monitoring and forecasting of the corresponding system is assessed in an application-oriented fashion and contrasted where possible with system observations, in order to look for a consistent way to combine probabilistic and deterministic approaches. Given the presence of uncertainty in the model used to represent a system and in the observations available, combined methodologies enable us to best interpret the resulting estimates in a probabilistic framework as well as in the context of a particular application. The first conceptual part relates to the REMIND project, which is to find a way to meld advances in nonlinear dynamics with those in Bayesian estimation for both mathematical systems and real industrial settings, i.e. for control monitoring the UK's electricity grid system efficiently. Bayesian inference is used to estimate model parameters and model states using Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) techniques. For the observations of grid frequency and demand, the operational constraints of the data sets are maintained through the estimation process, for example in the situation where the data are provided at rates that restrict on-line storage and post processing. When MCMC is applied to the Logistic Map, curious behaviour of the convergence of the Markov Chain and in the resulting parameter and states estimates are observed and are suspected to be a consequence of high multimodality in the resulting posterior, which in turn generates estimates with a low dynamical informational content. In the case when the MCMC is applied to a UK's grid frequency dynamical model, the technique is implemented in such a way that gradually transform from the PMS case into a more realistic model representation of the system. Convergence of the MCMC algorithm for the grid frequency models is highly dependent on the quality of operational data, which fails to provide the information required by the tailor-made MCMC implementation. In addition, sanity checks are proposed to establish meaningful convergence of MCMC analyses of time series in general. The second conceptual part explores a new approach to parameter estimation in nonlinear modelling, based on the geometric properties of short term model trajectories, whilst keeping track of the global behaviour of the model. Geometric properties are defined in the context of indistinguishable states theory. Parameter estimates are found for low dimensional chaotic systems by means of Gradient Descent methods (GD) in the PMS. Some of the advances are made possible by means of improving the balance between information extracted from the observations and from the dynamical equations. As a result of this investigation, it is noted that, even with perfect knowledge of system and noise in both models, the uncertainty in the dynamics cannot be distinguished from the uncertainty in the observations. In addition, the Geometric approach and Bayesian approach of the problem of model parameter and state estimation for nonlinear models in the PMS are compared aiming to distinguish them based on dynamical features of the estimates. In the Bayesian formulation there are still fundamental challenges when a perfect model is not available.


BACKGROUND
Arterial endothelium-dependent acetylcholine relaxation is impaired by smoking, and this injury may be mediated by oxygen free radicals. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of ascorbic acid (AA) treatment on this injury.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
New Zealand White rabbits (n = 6, each group) were placed in a 240-ft3 airflow chamber for 3 h per day, 5 days per week over an 8-week period. Animals were divided into four groups and fed rabbit chow and water or rabbit chow and AA (250 ml/kg)-supplemented water. The control-smoke rabbit group and the ascorbic acid-smoke rabbit group were exposed to mainstream cigarette smoke from a robotic smoke generator for the 3-h period, while the control-no smoke rabbit group and ascorbic acid-no smoke rabbit group were similarly placed in the chamber without smoke. At the end of 8 weeks, rabbits were sacrificed and segments of their superficial femoral arteries were suspended from tension transducers and the maximal contraction was determined. The remaining rings were contracted to 50% of the maximum and relaxation was determined by adding acetylcholine. Groups were compared using one-way ANOVA.

RESULTS
Rings from control-smoke (5.13 +/- 0.21 g) and AA-smoke rabbits (6. 24 +/- 0.46 g) exhibited increased mean contraction to KCl (P < 0. 05) compared to control-no smoke rabbits (3.86 +/- 0.40 g). Acetylcholine-dependent relaxation was significantly reduced in the rings from the control-smoke rabbits compared to control-no smoke rabbits (acetylcholine, 5 x 10(-7) M: 24.7 +/- 2.7% versus 55.3 +/- 8.0%; acetylcholine, 7 x 10(-7) M: 27.5 +/- 2.3% versus 56.3 +/- 9. 2%). The AA-smoke group (acetylcholine, 5 x 10(-7) M: 61.8 +/- 12. 4%; 7 x 10(-7) M: 67.9 +/- 11.4%) had significantly increased relaxation compared to the control-smoke group (P < 0.05). There was no statistical difference in the mean percentage ring relaxation between the control-no smoke, AA-no smoke, and AA-smoke groups.

CONCLUSIONS
Ascorbic acid protected the artery from cigarette smoke-induced endothelial injury.


Abstract The conclusions of EFSA following the peer review of the initial risk assessments carried out by the competent authority of the rapporteur Member State, the United Kingdom, for the pesticide active substance asulam and the assessment of applications for maximum residue levels (MRLs) are reported. The context of the peer review was that required by Regulation (EC) No 1107/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council. The conclusions were reached on the basis of the evaluation of the representative use of asulam (variant evaluated asulam‐sodium) as a herbicide on spinach and tulip, hyacinth and lily for bulb production. MRLs were assessed in spinach. The reliable endpoints, appropriate for use in regulatory risk assessment and the proposed MRLs, are presented. Missing information identified as being required by the regulatory framework is listed. Concerns are identified.


ABSTRACT The type species of Costarina, C. plena (O. P.-Cambridge), is redescribed, has an unusually broad distribution (extending from southern Mexico to northern Costa Rica), and is sometimes sympatric with a relatively widespread new sibling species, C. subplena. The same region also houses 26 additional new species with much smaller distribution ranges: C. iviei, C. llama, C. oaxaca, C. mixtepec, C. naja, C. sepultura, and C. bochil from southern Mexico, C. belmopan, C. peten, C. macha, C. cahui, C. morales, and C. izabal from Belize and Guatemala, C. cortes, C. cofradia, C. cusuco, C. tela, C. ceiba, C. branstetteri, C. olancho, C. muralla, C. coma, and C. gracias from Honduras, and C. waspuk, C. musun, and C. blanco from Nicaragua. At least 11 of these highly localized, microdistributed species have been taken in sympatry with C. plena. Because C. plena and C. subplena are the only members of the genus that have been collected in western and southern Guatemala, we suspect that this area represents the original range of one or both of the widespread species. However, five pairs of the microdistributed species have also been taken in sympatry with each other (and in one case together with C. plena as well).


Booming production of oil and gas from shale, enabled by hydraulic fracturing technology, has led to tension between hoped-for economic benefits and feared environmental and other costs, with great associated controversy. Study of how policy can best react to these challenges and how it can balance risk and reward has focused on prescriptive regulatory responses and, to a somewhat lesser extent, voluntary industry best practices. While there is undoubtedly room for improved regulation, innovative tools are relatively understudied. The liability system predates environmental regulation yet still plays an important—and in some senses predominant—role. Changes to that system, including burden-shifting rules and increased bond requirements, might improve outcomes. Similarly, new regulation can and should incorporate modern understanding of the benefits of market-based approaches. Information disclosure requirements can benefit the liability system and have independent benefits of their own. Policymakers faced with a need for policy change in reaction to shale development should carefully consider alternatives to regulation and, when regulation is deemed necessary, consider which tool is best suited.


In this chapter, a special type of recurrent neural networks termed "Zhang neural network" (ZNN) is presented and studied for online solution of time-varying linear (matrix-vector and matrix) inequalities. Specifically, focusing on solving the timevarying linear matrix-vector inequality (LMVI), we develop and investigate two different ZNN models based on two different Zhang functions (ZFs). Then, being an extension, by defining another two different ZFs, another two ZNN models are developed and investigated to solve the time-varying linear matrix inequality (LMI). For such ZNN models, theoretical results and analyses are presented as well to show their computational performances. Simulation results with two illustrative examples further substantiate the efficacy of the presented ZNN models for time-varying LMVI and LMI solving.


The present study aimed to predict conformation and fatness grades in bulls based on data available at slaughter (carcass weight, age and breed proportions) by means of counter-propagation artificial neural networks (ANN). For chemometric analysis, 5893 bull carcasses (n=2948 and n=2945 for calibration and testing of models, respectively) were randomly selected from the initial data set (n≈27000; one abattoir, one classifier, three years period). Different ANN models were developed for conformation and fatness by varying the net size and the number of epochs. Tested net parameters did not have a notable effect on models' quality. Respecting the tolerance of ±1 subclass between the actual and predicted value (as allowed by European Union legislation for on-spot checks), the matching between the classifier and ANN grading was 73.6 and 64.9% for conformation and fatness, respectively. Success rate of prediction was positively related to the frequency of carcasses in the class.


Although they are making gains, by the time they reach high school, girls lag behind boys in math and science; women are still discouraged from going into professional science, and some from actively participating in nature. From Girls in Their Elements to Women in Science asks: How are these generalizations linked to personal experience? Memory-work as research method offers an innovative approach to understanding women's socialization in the natural world, which leads to insights about their relationship to science. Multiple themes emerge from the analysis, which reveals the centrality of family landscapes, metaphor, power, and creativity in connecting our experiences in nature to our professional lives. This book demonstrates how memory-work can interrupt cultural assumptions about socialization, transforming the meaning of our experiences in the natural world.


There has been tremendous amount of effort focused on the development and improvement of genome editing applications over the decades. Particularly, the development of programmable nucleases has revolutionized genome editing with regards to their improvements in mutagenesis efficacy and targeting feasibility. Programmable nucleases are competent for a variety of genome editing applications. There is growing interest in employing the programmable nucleases in therapeutic genome editing applications, such as correcting mutations in genetic disorders. Type II CRISPR-Cas9 bacterial adaptive immunity systems have recently been engineered as RNA-guided programmable nucleases. Native CRISPR-Cas9 nucleases have two stages of sequence-specific target DNA recognition prior to cleavage: the intrinsic binding of the Cas9 nuclease to a short DNA element (the PAM) followed by testing target site complementarity with the programmable guide RNA. The ease of reprogramming CRISPR-Cas9 nucleases for new target sequences makes them favorable genome editing platform for many applications including gene therapy. However, wild-type Cas9 nucleases have limitations: (i) The PAM element requirement restricts the targeting range of Cas9; (ii) despite the presence of two stages of target recognition, wild-type Cas9 can cleave DNA at unintended sites, which is not desired for therapeutic purposes; and (iii) there is a lack of control over the mutagenic editing product that is procuded. In this study, we developed and characterized chimeric Cas9 platforms to provide solutions to these limitations. In these platforms, the DNA-binding affinity of Cas9 protein from S. pyogenes is attenuated such that the target site binding is dependent on a fused


Bias and scale-factor are the major deterministic error parameters of the inertial sensors and these parameters have to be compensated before integrating sensors to a navigation system as the performance degradation of the sensors is undesirable. The fact is that, deterministic error parameters can dramatically change due to aging. Therefore, aging tests play an important role in determining the life cycle of sensors. Accelerated aging tests are commonly used and most time-efficient method to determine the change in the error parameters. There are generally four types of accelerated aging tests: Temperature Cycling, High-Temperature Operating Life, Temperature Humidity Bias and Vibration. As the aim in this paper is to stress the thermo-mechanical mechanisms in the MEMS sensing units, temperature cycling is used for accelerated aging. Temperature cycling tests are applied to various inertial measurement units in order to simulate 3 years life cycle in a controlled storage environment. Moreover, multi position static and dynamic tests are performed using 2 axis rate table and data is collected from the test units after each 6 months period in cycling in order to analyze the effect of each cycle on the error parameters. Throughout this study the test results, especially the change in the error parameters of the commercial MEMS IMUs in the market caused by temperature cycling corresponding to 3 years controlled storage will be given in detail.


Eight new species of marine dolichopodid flies from southern Thailand belonging to the genus Thinophilus Wahlberg, 1844 are described and illustrated: Thinophilus boonrotpongi sp. nov., T. langkawensis sp. nov., T. minutus sp. nov., T. parmatoides sp. nov., T. parvulus sp. nov., T. spinatus sp. nov., T. spinatoides sp. nov. and T. variabilis sp. nov. A key is provided to the species of the Thai-Malay Peninsula.


This article examines Yugoslav national programs of ruling political elites and its concrete implementation in education policy in interwar Yugoslavia. It is argued that at the beginning of the period Yugoslavism was not inherently incompatible with or subordinate to Serbian, Croatian or to a lesser degree Slovenian national ideas. However, the concrete ways in which Yugoslavism was formulated and adopted by ruling elites discredited the Yugoslav national idea and resulted in increasing delineation and polarization in the continuum of national ideas available in Yugoslavia. Throughout the three consecutive periods of political rule under scrutiny, ruling elites failed to reach a wider consensus regarding the Yugoslav national idea or to create a framework within which a constructive elaboration of Yugoslav national identity could take place. By the end of the interwar period, the Yugoslav national idea had become linked exclusively to conservatism, centralism, authoritarianism and, for non-Serbian elites at least, Serbian hegemony. Other national ideas gained significance as ideas providing viable alternatives for the regime's Yugoslavism.


Cancer cells overcome the growth-restrictive activity of the kinase AMPK by reactivating a testis-specific protein that promotes AMPK degradation. In response to energy stress, AMPK (5' adenosine monophosphate–activated protein kinase) suppresses growth-promoting pathways mediated by the kinase mTOR and promotes energy-producing pathways, such as autophagy. Reduced AMPK abundance is associated with tumor growth. Genes encoding melanoma antigens (MAGE) are generally silent in adult tissues except for the testis and are aberrantly expressed in cancer cells. Pineda et al. found that reactivation of a subset of MAGE-encoding genes promotes the degradation of AMPK in various cancers. Expression of genes encoding MAGE-A3 and MAGE-A6 (herein MAGE-A3/6) was restricted to the testis among various tissues in mice and humans, but MAGE-A3/6 were abundant in various human tumors and correlated with poor patient survival. Knocking down MAGE-A3/6 in cancer cell lines decreased cell proliferation and viability. Overexpressing MAGE-A3/6 promoted proliferation in mouse fibroblasts and anchorage-independent growth in colon cancer and nontransformed colonic epithelial cells. MAGE-A3/6 binds to and promotes the activity of the E3 ubiquitin ligase TRIM28. AMPKα1 was a substrate of a MAGE-TRIM28 complex in vitro. Knocking down MAGE-A3/6 or TRIM28 decreased the ubiquitylation of AMPKα1 in HeLa cells and increased the abundance of total and phosphorylated AMPKα1 without affecting its mRNA abundance. However, knocking down TRIM28 in MAGE-A3/6-negative cells had no effect on AMPKα1 abundance, and AMPKα1 bound to GST-tagged MAGE-A3/6 but not GST-TRIM28. Knocking down MAGE-A3/6 or TRIM28 suppressed mTOR activity and increased autophagy in an osteosarcoma cell line, but not in the presence of an AMPK inhibitor. In patient tumor tissues, high abundance of MAGE-A3/6 correlated with low abundance of AMPKα1 protein (but not mRNA) and increased abundance of markers of mTOR activity. The findings suggest that MAGE-A3/6 directs the ubiquitin-mediated degradation of AMPKα1 in tumor cells. C. T. Pineda, S. Ramanathan, K. Fon Tacer, J. L. Weon, M. B. Potts, Y.-H. Ou, M. A. White, P. R. Potts, Degradation of AMPK by a cancer-specific ubiquitin ligase. Cell 160, 715–728. [PubMed]


In 2011, 3.5 billion coupons were redeemed, which is up 6.1% from 2010. Even with coupon redemption on the rise, coupon distribution is down, average coupon values are lower, and average usable time before expiration has been shortened. Coupon users, or couponers, are also fighting a bad reputation and stricter store coupon policies. Despite all the issues facing couponers, couponing has become more popular in recent years. Some of this popularity may be due to the thousands of coupon blogs that aide couponers in matching coupons to available deals. Couponers no longer have to search all sale ads and keep up with all available coupons; the blogs are an easy to use resource that does that work for them. This study examines the ways that couponers use coupon blogs. The major finding from the interviews conducted was that couponers fall into two types: The Smart Family Shopper and The Game Player. These two couponing types have some major differences including how often they use blogs, which blogs they use, and what they look for on the blogs. The Smart Family Shopper shops primarily for her immediate family and tries to save approximately 30% on their grocery purchases. She does major shopping trips every ten days to two weeks and usually shops at one or two stores weekly. She uses blogs to assist her in making grocery lists and to determine available coupons. The Game Player shops for her family, friends, and other groups she donates to, with the goal of saving over 50% on grocery shopping. She shops multiple times a week, shopping at multiple stores in a week in order to get all the best available deals. She visits a variety of blogs daily, keeping up with the latest posts on great deals, coupons and freebies. Marketers looking to promote their products using coupons or pairing up with coupon bloggers should recognize the two types of couponers. Depending on their target audience, different tactics should be used to reach each type of couponer.


In order to meet the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter's strict radar cross-section and weight requirements, stealth coatings must be applied to extremely precise thickness tolerances. To meet these unprecedented tolerances, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company has implemented a unique Robotic Aircraft Finishing System (RAFS). This paper details the capabilities of RAFS hardware for precision coating application as compared to legacy systems. The iterative process of optimizing spray parameters and robot programs for coating thickness control on challenging F-35 geometry is also presented. Finally, results from the first coating of a production aircraft at RAFS are compared with previous hand-spray results. In keeping with Security and International Traffic in Arms Regulations, restricted information on coating materials and tolerances is not presented.


Following a string of controversial police killings, California's S.B. 227 sought to remove what many perceived was a ploy for prosecutors to deflect public scrutiny while deciding not to charge officers with the deaths: the grand jury. The new law forbids prosecutor offices from investigating these crimes before a grand jury, and, instead, requires putting these cases to a preliminary hearing if they are filed. While S.B. 227 eliminates one of several avenues a prosecutor may use to establish probable cause in a criminal case (the grand jury's screening process), it cannot and will not force prosecutors to charge officers with murder. By pursuing a procedural remedy to the problems presented in Ferguson, lawmakers may have "[thrown] the baby out with the bathwater," to quote an elected district attorney in California, by removing an important investigatory tool from the prosecutor's arsenal and eliminating the only a meaningful check on prosecutorial discretion. Furthermore, the legislation fails to reach the goals of accountability and transparency heralded by the author and proponents, but may serve to restore trust between officers and the communities they serve.
This Article explains the role of the grand jury in general, and specifically its use in highly-politicized cases. Next, the Article evaluates S.B. 227, discussing the background of its passage, the policy goals of its author, and detailing how the legislation works in practice. The Article concludes that by taking a procedural approach to the issues presented in Ferguson and Staten Island, the legislation hampers some of the key goals of the law's underlying purpose and perhaps causes lawmakers to ignore alternative approaches that might produce a better outcome.


The pressure gradient in the dual volute radial turbocharger turbines is the primary source of the vortices' formation in rotor passages. The effects of the upstream non-uniform flow conditions on the development of secondary flows are not well known. In this study, the effect of highly skewed and non-uniform mass flow on the secondary vortices in different admission cases in a dual entry turbine was investigated using CFD modeling. The results agree well with the experiment, and show that increasing the inequality of the pressure between the entries leads to a reduction in the turbine's performance. Some useful energy dissipates due to mixing the flows of the entries. Isolating the rotor sectors in the tongues region was applied with the purpose of limiting the mixing. Also, the vortices' behavior in the rotor passages with different surface pressure ratios for the passage sides were investigated for both equal and partial admission. The surface pressure of the airfoil pressure side was more effective on the tip and trailing edge vortex than the suction side, while the leading-edge root vortex did not change by any variation in the surface pressure ratio. The vortices' center location shifted with the pressure variation, and consequently, by decreasing the pressure level, the center of the tip vorticity turned to the upstream sections, and the leading-edge root vortex center moved closer to the pressure side.


In the modeling of overall property of composites, the effect of particle interaction has been either numerically taken into account within a (representative) volume element of a small number of particles or neglected/ignored in order for efficient solution to a large system of particles. In this study, we apply the pointdefect Green's function (GF) to take into account the effect of particle interaction. It is applicable to small volume fractions of particles (within 10 %). The high efficiency of the method enables a simulation of a large system of particles with generally elastic anisotropy, arbitrary shape and composition, and arbitrary spatial distribution. In particular, we apply the method to study the nanoscale graphite platelet reinforced polymers, guided by some preliminary experimental observations. We first verify the method by comparing the prediction with a full-field model in the case of a regular lattice of particles. The comparison has demonstrated that the method is a considerable improvement over the classical Eshelby's method employing the regular GF and thus ignoring the effect of particle interaction. Upon the verification, we apply the method to examine the effect of a number of parameters on the overall composite behavior. The effect of particle interaction is shown to be strongly dependent on particle arrangement due to the strong elastic and geometrical anisotropy in graphite platelets. The strongest effect occurs when the platelets are orientated uniformly and stacked in a simple cubic lattice. However, the (overall) effect becomes trivial when the platelets 1 Corresponding author. Tel: 321-674-7713, Fax: 321-6748813, Email: firstname.lastname@example.com 2 Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL 32901 3 Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Akron, Akron, OH 44325 are randomly orientated, which is expected. The effect of platelet aspect ratio is also studied. Finally, a thin soft layer is inserted between the platelets and the matrix material in order to simulate a partial bonding condition between them. It is shown to play a significant role in determining the overall composite behavior. The present work sets up a base for further large-scale simulations of micro-damages (microcracks, particle debonding, etc.) under interaction, as well as providing insights to further experimentation in graphite platelet nanocomposites. Keyword: composites, graphite platelets, Green's function, micromechanics, microstructure, overall elastic properties, particle arrangement, particle interaction.


This thesis offers an investigation of the indigenous politics of self-determination in the Peruvian Amazon. The starting point of the analysis is the 'Baguazo', a massive indigenous protest (June 2009) against governmental laws that favoured extractive industries within indigenous territories. Studies of indigenous peoples' opposition to extractive industries in Peru have tended to focus on the economic, political or social aspects as if these were discrete dimensions of the conflict. This thesis aims to contribute with an integral and systematic understanding of indigenous resistance to extractive industries through a case study analysis and a multidisciplinary theoretical proposal. The thesis contains 9 chapters: introduction (Chapter 1); theoretical framework (Chapters 2, 3 and 4); methodology (Chapter 5); case study analysis and discussion (Chapters 6, 7, and 8); and conclusion (Chapter 9). The theoretical chapters explain how liberal legality recognises indigenous peoples as ethnic minorities with property entitlements, while self-determination goes a step further to recognise indigenous peoples as 'nations' with 'territorial rights'. The case study chapters explore the struggle of the Awajun indigenous people for self-determination and examine the legal and political consequences of the Baguazo as well as the re-emergence of indigenous politics in Peru. The main argument provided in this thesis is that indigenous territorial defence against extractive industries expresses a politics of self-determination that confronts coloniality as the foundation of the extractive governance. Coloniality denotes that, even though colonial rule ended in formal political terms, power remains distributed according to colonial ontology and epistemology. Consequently, social and economic relationships regarding indigenous peoples still respond to an inclusion/exclusion paradox: indigenous peoples are either excluded from liberal capitalism or included into it under conditions that deny indigenous peoples' principles. Thus, the struggle for self-determination locates many indigenous people beyond the inclusion/exclusion dialectic and promotes an extension of 'the political' with the aim of reconfiguring the state-form and its political economy.


Austerity as Public Mood explores how politicians and the media mobilise nostalgic and socially conservative ideas of work and community in order to justify cuts to public services and create divisions between the deserving and undeserving. It examines the powerful appeal of these concepts as part of a wider public mood marked by guilt, nostalgia and resentment – particularly around the inequalities produced by global capitalism and changes to the nature of work.

In doing so, the book engages with urgent questions about the contemporary political climate. Focusing on the UK, it challenges accounts of neoliberalism which frame it as primarily an individualising force and localist definitions of community as mitigating its damaging effects. Finally, it explores how resistance to austerity can challenge these tendencies by offering a politics of solidarity and hope, and a forum for experimentation with alternative forms of collectivity.


Multiple antenna systems, known as MIMO systems, form an essential part of today's wireless communications standards. This multi-antenna technology efficiently boosts the data throughput without requiring additional bandwidth, and has thus become a key technology. Rohde & Schwarz offers high-performance MIMO test solutions which provide static conditions without fading as well as simulation of complex fading scenarios. This application note explains how to set up 4x4 and 8x8 MIMO systems using the R&SSMBV100A signal generator for measurements under static conditions.


We observe structural recovery after an electric field step by probing the dielectric loss profile near its maximum, which displays a field-induced shift towards lower frequencies. These dynamics display time aging-time superposition (TaTS) for the majority of relaxation modes, thus implying homogeneous recovery dynamics. Although assumed by generally accepted models, the same modes can not be responsible for structural relaxation and for structural recovery, as the former is heterogeneous and the latter is homogeneous regarding the nature of the dynamics. This conflict is resolved by proposing that structural recovery is governed by rate exchange, a process that refers to the homogeneous fluctuations of rate constants in equilibrium and restores ergodicity more slowly than the relaxation observed as a simple correlation decay. This recognition has wide-ranging consequences on how aging and nonlinear dynamics such as scanning calorimetry should be modeled.


During the expedition ANTXXIV-3 (Feb-April 2008, GEOTRACES/IPY, RV Polarstern), Pa and Th isotopes (230Th, 232Th and 234Th) were determined for the first time in seawater and size-fractionated particle samples along the Zero-Meridian, in the Weddell Sea and Drake Passage. Pa and Th distributions in these different environments (shelf, open-ocean, ice formation areas ) are mainly controlled by particle flux and boundary scavenging but also by advection of water masses. Thus, at Drake Passage, using -as a first approach- a simple scavenging-mixing model, we show that the vertical distribution of 230Th is mainly driven by the upwelling of deep water from North to South whereas the 231Pa distribution only reflects this upwelling in the upper 1500 m of the water column. Below this depth, Pa is more influenced than Th by advection of deep water masses with different origins flowing across Drake Passage. Thus, in the northern part of Drake Passage, deep water with high 231Pa concentrations (suggesting reduced Pa scavenging during transport) was inferred to come from the Central Pacific (in agreement with CFC data) while in the southern part of Drake Passage, the observed low Pa concentrations were attributed to deep water coming from a distant source around the opal-rich Antarctic shelf (as inferred also from Hf isotopes) with strong Pa scavenging and a correspondingly low fractionation factor FTh/Pa<<10. In the Central Weddell Sea, enhanced Pa and Th concentrations strengthen the concept of a reduced scavenging of these radionuclides in this area. Hence, accumulated dissolved Pa and Th seem to exit the Weddell Sea to the north either via the Weddell Gyre (30-60 Sv) to be then incorporated into the ACC (140 Sv) toward the Zero-Meridian (as shown in the high radionuclide concentrations found close to Maud Rise), or flow westward with the deep waters along the Antarctic Peninsula through the Drake Passage. Enhanced dissolved 232Th concentrations are typically observed in the vicinity of the Antarctic shelf and Peninsula. Based on 230Th and 234Th in size-fractionated particles and using a reversible scavenging model, particle settling velocities, adsorption/desorption rates and when possible, aggregation/disaggregation rates, were investigated. This study pointed out that in this area, specific scavenging-mixing models should be applied to describe the radionuclide distributions and include advection of water masses from the open ocean toward the Antarctic shelf (which may contribute to boundary scavenging) or advection of water masses with different histories.


A novel phenomenon in stereopsis can be observed when viewing binocularly stabilized retinal images. This phenomenon is particularly impressive for random-dot stereoscopic images in foveal vision. If initially the left and right images are brought within Panum's fusional area (6-min arc alignment), fusion and stereopsis are perceived; the images can then be pulled apart symmetrically by about 2 deg in the horizontal direction without loss of stereopsis or fusion. The images are actually pulled apart on the retinae, since the binocular retinal stabilization compensates for the convergence-divergence motions of the eyes; hence a supra-retinal function must be responsible for this type of fusion. If the pulling proceeds too fast, or exceeds the 2-deg limit, or if the stimulus is occluded briefly, the fusional mechanism fails and the fused image abruptly breaks apart into two separate images which have to be brought within Panum's area again to re-establish fusion. For line stimuli, the maximum disparity without loss of fusion is much less than for random-dot patterns; it is always largest for disparity in the horizontal direction and is less in the vertical direction. These findings indicate that stereopsis and the classically conceived corresponding points greatly depend both on the class of stimulus used and on the recent history of the stimulation.


The federal sentencing system was conceived in one era and delivered in another. When the first bills that culminated in passage of the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 were introduced, they aimed at reducing the worst excesses of indeterminate sentencing and achieving greater fairness, consistency, equality, accountability, and transparency in sentencing federal offenders. The overriding goal was reduction of unwarranted racial and other disparities. In the different political climate of the mid-1980s the federal sentencing commission instead sought to achieve greater rigidity and severity and to respond to the law-and-order policy preferences of the Reagan administration and the Republican-controlled US Senate. Probation, formerly the sentence of half of convicted federal offenders, was nearly eliminated as a stand-alone punishment. Lengths of prison sentences increased enormously. After the federal guidelines took effect, buttressed by a plethora of mandatory minimum sentence laws, the growth of the federal prison population far outpaced that of the states, and the federal system became the extreme example nationally and internationally of the dangers of politicization of crime policy. The political climate may be changing and the federal system may change with it. Only time will tell.


Following a disaster, communities, governments, and organizations are required to make rapid decisions that will govern the path towards long-term recovery. Hazard-resistant shelter designs have long been heralded as necessary for facilitating resilient and sustainable reconstruction; however, there is sparse documentation of designs implemented. We examine the case of design and building material selection for 20 shelter projects following Typhoon Yolanda in the Philippines, using photo documentation, interview data and field observations as a means to document rates of design adoption and choices in material selection. Findings use the shelter cluster '8 Key Messages' as a framework to assess level of improved shelter design. Results highlight improved foundations, roofing, building shape and site selection and identify deficits in structural elements, including connections, bracing, and joints. Findings quantify design features that saw poor uptake by organizations and hold potential to inform future practice that encourages hazard-resistant design in the Philippines and other future international disaster responses.


This article traces some of the historical roots of current debates about secular economic stagnation, involving L. Summers, R. Gordon, and others. We focus on early contributions by Alvin Hansen and John A. Hobson. Although Hansen has been the main influence on the secular stagnation literature, Hobson's suggested link between economic inequality and stagnation is of interest in view of T. Piketty's recent claim about the connection between slower growth and inequality. E. Domar and P. Samuelson, Hansen's students at Harvard, elaborated economic growth and multiplier-accelerator models as follow-ups to Hansen's original treatment. Domar called attention to Hobson's insight about underconsumption, increasing capacity, and deficient aggregate demand. We conclude that the range of positions held today concerning stagnation and inequality is large, as it was earlier in the history of thought.


During most of the period from 1912 to 1936, Guangdong Province was independent from the central government. The local authorities there were facing a dilemma regarding opium, as others were elsewhere in China. On the one hand, opium was considered the symbol of China's weakness, and its suppression was a top priority; on the other hand, opium taxes represented an indispensable source of fiscal income. Some Guangdong power holders were truly committed to a suppression agenda, especially from 1913 to 1924. During this period, with the exception of a brief interlude from 1915 to 1916, opium laws were prohibition laws. Even if these laws were not always enforced with full vigor, the drug remained illegal in Guangdong. After 1924, opium was legalized, and the authorities openly ruled an opium monopoly. They came out with increasingly comprehensive regulations, which proved successful in increasing opium revenues. Yet, as this article makes clear, there was nothing like direct government control: traditional tax-farming arrangements with local opium merchants (though under stricter supervision) remained the backbone of the monopoly. The article also pays attention to the influence of the Six-Year Plan (1935–1940) launched by the Nanking government. As a credible set of suppression laws, it appealed to the Guangdong progressive elites who were hostile to opium. They urged the local autocrat Chen Jitang to take similar action. Chen made attempts to launch his own plans for suppressing opium, but they were unconvincing and nothing concrete came out of them. This article suggests that, in order to obtain a better understanding of how easily Chen Jitang was driven out of power in the summer of 1936, it is necessary to take into account the significant contribution of the Six-Year Plan in undermining his legitimacy.


Background:During the last years, the boom of the Internet has carried along with it new possibilities for communication, in addition, other technological developments of society together act to form a new reality in which companies have to rethink their means for com-municating with consumers.Problem and Purpose:In a new reality where consumers seem to reap all the benefits of the technological changes, how then, should companies adjust to the changing environment? The authors first investigated the modern media environment and found some trends in how it is evolving, and after listening to what some experts within the field think about the future and of what should be done, they them-selves endeavoured to generate some guidance for companies in this matter.Method:This thesis is somewhat of a Delphi study, which means that it heavily relies on the statements of experts. What they have said has played a crucial role in the authors' own formulation of guid-ance. The experts were interviewed either face-to-face, or through the exchange of e-mails.Conclusions:Major trends in how the media environment is transforming are; technology as an enhancer to rather becoming a determinant, segmentation to fragmentation, decreasing- to increasing returns to scale, an opening for entirely new business concepts and an in-creasing value of intangible assets as a complement to traditional, tangible assets. The authors then presented some elements that would be of crucial significance in this new environment, and they also formulated some more specific guidance in how these ele-ments could be instigated in companies. They were; Speed and flexibility, customization and sustainability. Advice in how they could be instigated where then summarized and illustrated in the "New Digital World Market Communication Diamond", which basically emphasizes the need for updating the values and the cor-porate culture, the need for streamlining supply chains, the need of truly finding and using information about consumers, and fi-nally, the need for adaptive experimentation.


The economic literature starting with Borjas (2001) suggests that immigrants are more flexible than natives in responding to changing sectoral, occupational, and spatial shortages in the labor market. In this paper, we study the relative responsiveness to labor shortages by immigrants from various origins, skills and tenure in the country vis-a-vis the natives, and how it varied over the business cycle during the Great Recession. We show that immigrants in general have responded to changing labor shortages across EU member states, occupations and sectors more fluidly than natives. This effect is especially significant for low-skilled immigrants from the new member states or with the medium number of years since immigration, as well as with high-skilled immigrants with relatively few (1-5) or many (11+) years since migration. The relative responsiveness of some immigrant groups declined during the crisis years (those from Europe outside the EU or with eleven or more years since migration), whereas other groups of immigrants became particularly fluid during the Great Recession, such as those from new member states. Our results suggest immigrants may play an important role in labor adjustment during times of asymmetric economic shocks, and support the case for well-designed immigration policy and free movement of workers within the EU. Paper provides new insights into the functioning of the European Single Market and the roles various immigrant groups play for its stabilization through labor adjustment during times of uneven economic development across sectors, occupations, and countries.


In this paper we argue the need to reimagine research ethics frameworks to include notions of environmental sustainability. While there have long been calls for healthcare ethics frameworks and decision-making to include aspects of sustainability, less attention has focused on how research ethics frameworks could address this. To do this, we first describe the traditional approach to research ethics, which often relies on individualised notions of risk. We argue that we need to broaden this notion of individual risk to consider issues associated with environmental sustainability. This is because research is associated with carbon emissions and other environmental impacts, both of which cause climate change health hazards. We introduce how bioethics frameworks have considered notions of environmental sustainability and draw on these to help develop a framework suitable for researchers. We provide a case study of data-driven health research to apply our framework.


Abstract Our partial-current-transport (PCT) approach uses the partial currents through the faces of cells in a spatial grid as the unknowns in a linear algebra problem. Emission and externally incident currents are the knowns. The coefficient matrix is determined by boundary conditions and transport within cells. Adaptive PCT models include within-cell flux-distribution parameters that are found by distribution iteration (DI). Upon convergence, scalar fluxes are computed. We develop the approach in general and derive (in slab geometry) a fixed-coefficient PCT diffusion method and an adaptive PCT discrete ordinates method. A parallelized direct solver is used for the large but very sparse linear algebra problem that couples all the cells. Matrix inversion is used for the dense but small within-cell problems. These direct solvers eliminate scattering source iteration (SI). Though requiring more storage, much or most of the computational effort is pleasingly parallel, making the method attractive for large parallel machines with large memories. In comparing our slab geometry implementation with PARTISN, we observed that DI used as many or fewer iterations than SI and succeeded where SI failed, whether alone or with diffusion synthetic acceleration or transport synthetic acceleration. We conclude that DI for adaptive PCT holds great promise as an alternative to SI and its accelerators.