Traditional microphone array speech recognition systems simply recognise the enhanced output of the array. As the level of signal enhancement depends on the number of microphones, such systems do not achieve acceptable speech recognition performance for arrays having only a few microphones. For small microphone arrays, we instead propose using the enhanced output to estimate a reliability mask, which is then used in missing data speech recognition. In missing data speech recognition, the decoded sequence depends on the reliability of each input feature. This reliability is usually based on the signal to noise ratio in each frequency band. In this paper, we use the energy difference between the noisy input and the enhanced output of a small microphone array to determine the frequency band reliability. Recognition experiments with a small array demonstrate the effectiveness of the technique, compared to both traditional microphone array enhancement and a baseline missing data system.


Plastic pollution originates from various sources. While many industries are taking steps to reduce their dependence on plastic, there is currently no reliable methodology to forecast specifically the extent of the marine plastic leakage from an industry or a country and map potential leakage hotspots throughout the value chain. This report offers, for the first time, a comprehensive framework to measure the inventory of marine plastic leakage, step-by-step and using a life-cycle perspective. It also offers generic data that can be used to calculate marine plastic leakage for a defined list of identified sources, including plastic waste, textile fibres, tyre dust, micro beads in cosmetics, and fishing nets. The approach discussed in this report focuses on inventorying plastic flows into the marine environment only. It does not look at plastic releases into the terrestrial environment, or any ecosystem or human health impacts that may result from marine plastic leakage.


Only energy analysis is not enough to define the best efficiencies of any system, so exergy analysis uses to understand and improve the actual efficiencies of the whole system. Energy analysis identified the energy losses but could neither identify the irreversible losses nor their location. These are, however, could be clearly explained with the application of exergy analysis. In this study both energy and exergy analyses were performed in a single–cylinder, 4–stroke, 7 bhp, water cooled diesel engine fuelled with petrodiesel as a base fuel and palm biodeisel. The objectives of the analyses are to determine whether the fuel made any significant difference on the efficiencies of the engine. The fuel exergy, exergy loss due to exhaust gases, exergy loss due to cooling water, exergy destruction, and exergetic efficiency of the engine are obtained by using the experimental data at steady–state condition. The results of tested biodiesel showed a similar type energetic performance as petrodiesel fuel.


Today system design methods seem to presuppose the system design process as problem solving, i.e. as repair of a malfunctioning reality. Another assumption underlying these methods is the irrationality of system designers practice. This paper challenges this, often naive, view of rationality underlying system design methods by searching for the hidden rationality of practice. Twenty system designers were interviewed about their view on design skill, design methods, quality and the 'nature' of system design. The answers of the designers in many cases contradicts basic assumptions underlying many of today's design methods, especially assumptions about the nature and rationality of the design process. One conclusion of the study is that a general understanding of the existing design practice is of crucial importance to all method development, at least if the purpose is to create methods that will be accepted and understood by practitioners.


We report a 10 year old girl who was detected to have a sinus venosus a trial septal defect with complex partial pulmonary venous connections. Left pulmonary veins were draining into right superior vena cava via the innominate and vertical vein, and right upper pulmonary vein was draining directly into superior vena cava. Only the right lower pulmonary vein was connected to the left atrium. Though any combinations of pulmonary venous drainage are reported in literature, current reported type of pulmonary venous connections is one of the rarest type with only few cases previously reported. Through this report we also want to emphasize the need for screening for all pulmonary veins every case of atrial septal defect especially in sinus venosus type defect and when there is discrepancy between size of atrial septal defect and haemodynamic disturbance.


Epidote minerals—the monoclinic epidote group minerals together with the orthorhombic polymorph zoisite—are important Ca-Al-silicates in many metabasites, metapelites and metacherts that are characterized by high P / T ratios. Such high P / T ratios are typical for subduction zones and the high-pressure (HP) and ultrahigh-pressure (UHP) metamorphism during continent-continent collisions (e.g., Liou 1973, 1993). All of these P-T conditions can be described by geothermal gradients between 5 and 20°C/km, that therefore provide a rough framework for the P-T conditions covered by this review (Fig. 1⇓). Depending on the actual thermal structure of a subduction zone, the subducting plate will encounter subgreenschist, greenschist, blueschist, epidote-amphibolite, amphibolite, HP granulite, and/or eclogite facies conditions during its travel down into the mantle (Fig. 1⇓). The P-T regime of the eclogite facies can further be subdivided into amphibole eclogite, epidote eclogite, lawsonite eclogite, and dry eclogite facies (Fig. 1⇓). HP metamorphism refers to metamorphic pressure in excess of ~1.0 GPa and includes parts of the blueschist, epidote-amphibolite, and HP granulite facies as well as the eclogite facies (Fig. 1⇓). UHP refers to the metamorphism of crustal rocks (both continental and oceanic) at P high enough to crystallize the index minerals coesite and/or diamond. HP and UHP metamorphism are separated conveniently by the quartz-coesite equilibrium which implies a minimum P > 2.7 GPa at T > 600°C for UHP metamorphism (Fig. 1⇓). The equilibrium boundary for the graphite-diamond transition can be used to further subdivide the UHP region into diamond-grade and coesite-grade. The stability of coesite and other UHP minerals in a metamorphic regime requires abnormally low temperatures at depths greater than 100 km. Such environments can be attained only by the subduction of cold oceanic crust-capped lithosphere ± pelagic sediments or of continental crust.

 Figure 1.
P-T regimes of UHP …


Due to the risks that nest parasitism by brown-headed cowbirds (Molothrus ater) pose to breeding Kirtland's Warblers (Dendroica kirtlandii) and other songbirds, refinement of existing cowbird trapping techniques and development of new techniques are needed to improve the efficiency of cowbird removal. We conducted experiments during 1999-2002 to determine if the use of male and female decoys affected capture rates of cowbirds, and to determine if clipping primaries on one wing of female decoys to prevent escapes affected cowbird capture success. These experiments were conducted using 6 permanently placed modified Australian crow traps (decoy traps) measuring 3.6 x 3.6 x 2 m in Erie County, Ohio. Cowbirds were lured to the traps using a white millet/sunflower seed bait mixture and captive cowbirds used as decoys. To answer each question, we compared the number of male and female cowbirds captured for each trapping period among treatments at each trap using Analysis of Variance in a repeated measures design. We found no statistical effects of decoy gender or wing clipping on capture success for brown headed cowbirds. We proposed future research on trapping techniques to benefit endangered species management, management of blackbird damage in agricultural and airport situations.


ISIS, the pulsed neutron and muon spallation source located at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (UK), currently delivers a mean beam power of 0.2 MW to target. A 70 MeV H − linear accelerator feeds into a 50 Hz, 800 MeV proton synchrotron (through a 0.3 µm aluminium oxide stripping foil), accelerating up to 3×10 13 protons per pulse. Potential injection scheme upgrades, aiming to raise average beam power towards 0.5 MW with a new 180 MeV linear accelerator, are being studied. Detailed consideration of the injection stripping foil forms a key element of this study: scattering, stripping efficiency and foil lifetime are significant factors in determining loss levels, which consequently limit operational intensity. This paper describes the identification of a suitable stripping foil specification for successful 180 MeV H − charge exchange injection into the ISIS synchrotron. A simulation code was developed to investigate electron stripping, scattering events and temperature rises, in order to witness their subsequent effect on foil lifetime. ANSYS models were also used to investigate the heat transfer and temperature distribution within thin foils.


Possessing the ability to noninvasively elicit brain circuit activity yields immense experimental and therapeutic power. Most currently employed neurostimulation methods rely on the somewhat invasive use of stimulating electrodes or photon-emitting devices. Due to its ability to noninvasively propagate through bone and other tissues in a focused manner, the implementation of ultrasound (US) represents a compelling alternative approach to current neuromodulation strategies. Here, we investigated the influence of low-intensity, low-frequency ultrasound (LILFU) on neuronal activity. By transmitting US waveforms through hippocampal slice cultures and ex vivo mouse brains, we determined LILFU is capable of remotely and noninvasively exciting neurons and network activity. Our results illustrate that LILFU can stimulate electrical activity in neurons by activating voltage-gated sodium channels, as well as voltage-gated calcium channels. The LILFU-induced changes in neuronal activity were sufficient to trigger SNARE-mediated exocytosis and synaptic transmission in hippocampal circuits. Because LILFU can stimulate electrical activity and calcium signaling in neurons as well as central synaptic transmission we conclude US provides a powerful tool for remotely modulating brain circuit activity.


Whether discussing hexaflexagons or number theory, Klein bottles or the essence of "nothing," Martin Gardner has single-handedly created the field of "recreational mathematics." The Colossal Book of Mathematics collects together Gardner's most popular pieces from his legendary "Mathematical Games" column, which ran in Scientific American for twenty-five years. Gardner's array of absorbing puzzles and mind-twisting paradoxes opens mathematics up to the world at large, inspiring people to see past numbers and formulas and experience the application of mathematical principles to the mysterious world around them. With articles on topics ranging from simple algebra to the twisting surfaces of Mobius strips, from an endless game of Bulgarian solitaire to the unreachable dream of time travel, this volume comprises a substantial and definitive monument to Gardner's influence on mathematics, science, and culture. In its twelve sections, The Colossal Book of Math explores a wide range of areas, each startlingly illuminated by Gardner's incisive expertise. Beginning with seemingly simple topics, Gardner expertly guides us through complicated and wondrous worlds: by way of basic algebra we contemplate the mesmerizing, often hilarious, linguistic and numerical possibilities of palindromes; using simple geometry, he dissects the principles of symmetry upon which the renowned mathematical artist M. C. Escher constructs his unique, dizzying universe. Gardner, like few thinkers today, melds a rigorous scientific skepticism with a profound artistic and imaginative impulse. His stunning exploration of "The Church of the Fourth Dimension," for example, bridges the disparate worlds of religion and science by brilliantly imagining the spatial possibility of God's presence in the world as a fourth dimension, at once "everywhere and nowhere." With boundless wisdom and his trademark wit, Gardner allows the reader to further engage challenging topics like probability and game theory which have plagued clever gamblers, and famous mathematicians, for centuries. Whether debunking Pascal's wager with basic probability, making visual music with fractals, or uncoiling a "knotted doughnut" with introductory topology, Gardner continuously displays his fierce intelligence and gentle humor. His articles confront both the comfortingly mundane-"Generalized Ticktacktoe" and "Sprouts and Brussel Sprouts"-and the quakingly abstract-"Hexaflexagons," "Nothing," and "Everything." He navigates these staggeringly obscure topics with a deft intelligence and, with addendums and suggested reading lists, he informs these classic articles with new insight. Admired by scientists and mathematicians, writers and readers alike, Gardner's vast knowledge and burning curiosity reveal themselves on every page. The culmination of a lifelong devotion to the wonders of mathematics, The Colossal Book of Mathematics is the largest and most comprehensive math book ever assembled by Gardner and remains an indispensable volume for the amateur and expert alike.


G. Panduranga, P.Sukumar Assistant Professor, Pragati Engineering College, Andhra Pradesh, India Associate Professor, Pragati Engineering College, Andhra Pradesh, India Abstract— In this paper the buckling analysis of a 4140 alloy steel with different cross sections like I-section, C-section and T-section is done in a fixed free conditions. Columns are the basic parts of a many engineering structures, they may be aero structures or civil structure or any other mechanical load carrying structures. The columns majorly take the axial loads and try to resist the bending caused due to the applied axial loads. It is to show that the actual application of the axial loading governs the buckling behavior of the column. The critical buckling load is calculated for the three columns with different cross sections according to theoretical formulation. From the critical buckling load calculations, it is observed that the critical buckling load values are different for different cross sections. Conservatively it is taken the minimum load value to do the safe analysis. In this paper the maximum deflections and maximum stresses are compared with the three columns with different channel sections made of same material subjected to same load. The solid models are designed in CATIA V5 tool and the buckling analysis is carried out in ANSYS software. Keywords—Critical buckling load; CATIA V5 and ANSYS, Channel sections;


Movies provide us with a mass of visual content as well as attracting stories. Existing methods have illustrated that understanding movie stories through only visual content is still a hard problem. In this paper, for answering questions about movies, we put forward a Layered Memory Network (LMN) that represents frame-level and clip-level movie content by the Static Word Memory module and the Dynamic Subtitle Memory module, respectively. Particularly, we firstly extract words and sentences from the training movie subtitles. Then the hierarchically formed movie representations, which are learned from LMN, not only encode the correspondence between words and visual content inside frames, but also encode the temporal alignment between sentences and frames inside movie clips. We also extend our LMN model into three variant frameworks to illustrate the good extendable capabilities. We conduct extensive experiments on the MovieQA dataset. With only visual content as inputs, LMN with frame-level representation obtains a large performance improvement. When incorporating subtitles into LMN to form the clip-level representation, we achieve the state-of-the-art performance on the online evaluation task of 'Video+Subtitles'. The good performance successfully demonstrates that the proposed framework of LMN is effective and the hierarchically formed movie representations have good potential for the applications of movie question answering.


An overly simplistic view of evolution would say that it consists only of competition between individuals to survive. However, in actuality ecosystems are often characterized by partial common interest, that is at least some of the time it is in individuals' best interest to cooperate. Most obviously this occurs in the case of close kin, who share a large portion of common genes and thus will be at least partially successful at passing on their genes to the next generation should their actions ensure the survival of their kin at their own expense. Less obvious but still worth mentioning is that partial common interest can arise between species, even ones with an antagonistic relationship. Consider a predator species A and its prey species B. Members of A can only catch the weaker members of B, if they attempt to catch a strong member of B both will expend resources in the chase and A will get no dinner from it. This is an outcome that neither the strong member of B nor the member of A would like, and so it is in their best interest to develop some way in which the members of B can indicate if they are strong. However, weak members of B who will be eaten if they are chased, have it in their best interest to mimic the "strong signal." Thus there is only partial common interest, for some individuals it is best to cooperate with the enemy and for others it is best to deceive them.


The mouse Wnt-1 gene plays an essential role in fetal brain development and can contribute to tumorigenesis when activated aberrantly in the mammary gland. The gene encodes secretory glycoproteins associated with the extracellular or pericellular matrix, and it has been proposed that Wnt-1, as well as its Drosophila homolog wingless, may function in intercellular signalling. We show here that fibroblasts expressing Wnt-1 protein, although not transformed themselves, are able to elicit morphological transformation of neighboring C57MG mammary epithelial cells in coculture experiments. Heparin inhibits this effect, possibly by displacing Wnt-1 protein from its normal site of action. Our results indicate that the Wnt-1 gene can act via a paracrine mechanism in cell culture and strongly support the notion that in vivo the gene may function in cell-to-cell communication.


Since the mid-1970s, stable carbon isotopes have been used extensively to address diverse questions related to estuarine carbon cycling. Initially, the isotopic approach was used to identify sources of organic matter and to determine their fate in estuarine food webs. Results obtained with this technique were qualitative; however, more recent attempts to quantify sources or processes have typically relied on simple 2 or at most 3 end-member mixing models. The key assumption is that sources can be defined by a discrete value. This assumption often does not hold and, more impor- tantly, the isotopic variation observed within sources contains significant information. In contrast, inverse-modeling of estuarine carbon cycling has the advantage that ranges of field and laboratory measurements and historical information can be utilized by this method. We used the inverse approach to revisit the issue of a headwater delta's contributions to an estuarine food-web under con- ditions of low freshwater inflow and after a flood-induced inundation of the delta (Rincon Delta, dis- charging into Nueces Bay, Texas, USA). We illustrate how isotopic constraints enhance results obtained with more traditional constraint systems. The results suggest that although benthic infauna production is stimulated by increased water flow and delta freshwater inundations, most of the allochthonous carbon is exported from Nueces Bay.


Abstract. Submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) has been implicated as a significant source of nutrients and potentially harmful substances to the coastal sea. Although the number of reported SGD sites has increased recently, their stratigraphical architecture and aquifer geometry are rarely investigated in detail. This study analyses a multifaceted dataset of offshore seismic sub-bottom profiles, multibeam and side-scan sonar images of the seafloor, radon measurements of seawater and groundwater, and onshore ground-penetrating radar and refraction seismic profiles in order to establish the detailed stratigraphical architecture of a high-latitude SGD site, which is connected to the Late-Pleistocene First Salpausselkä ice-marginal formation on the Hanko Peninsula in Finland. The studied location is characterized by a sandy beach, a sandy shore platform that extends 100–250 m seaward sloping gently to ca. 4 m water depth, and a steep slope to ca. 17 m water depth within ca. 50 m distance. The onshore radar and offshore seismic profiles are correlated based on unconformities, following the allostratigraphical approach. The aquifer is hosted in the distal sand-dominated part of a subaqueous ice-contact fan. It is interpreted that coarse sand interbeds and lenses in the distal fan deposits, and, potentially, sandy couplet layers in the overlying glaciolacustrine rhythmite, provide conduits for localized groundwater flow. The SGD takes place predominantly through pockmarks on the seafloor, which are documented on the shore platform slope by multibeam and side-scan sonar images. Elevated radon-222 activity concentrations measured 1 m above seafloor confirm SGD from two pockmarks in fine sand sediments, whereas there was no discharge from a third pockmark that was covered with a thin organic-rich mud layer. The thorough understanding of the local stratigraphy and the geometry and composition of the aquifer that have been acquired in this study are crucial for successful hydrogeological modelling and flux studies at the SGD site.


This thesis studies the presentation of Indigenous and non-Indigenous archaeological/heritage sites in Australia, exploring the ideology and management practices behind their presentation. The aim of the thesis is to critically examine, by means of comparison, the proposition that there may be discordance in the public understanding of the material fabric of Indigenous and settler sites in Australia. Two sites are used as case studies: Port Arthur Historic Site on the Tasman Peninsula in Tasmania, and Anbangbang Rockshelter situated in Nourlangie Rock in Kakadu National Park, Northern Territory. These sites were specifically chosen for the dissimilarity in the approach taken to their presentation, a presentation which hinges on the culturally based management of the site. Port Arthur Historic Site is a well preserved penal colony which acts as a reminder of Australia's history from the time of European colonisation of Van Diemen's Land in the early nineteenth century. The changing nature of the interpretation of the Historic Site as a tourist venture, ranging from the cessation of transportation to present times, is considered in conjunction with the extent to which the social moods and memories of the so-called "hated stain" have dictated past styles of presentation. Anbangbang Rockshelter dates back some 20,000 years and contains an extensive gallery of rock art. Although the site has been archaeologically excavated with stone artefacts indicating the prehistoric use of the shelter, this aspect is minimised for public presentation. The unifying theme running through the thesis is the exploration of the culturallybased reasons for the disparate presentations of the two sites and their changes over time. In the case of the Indigenous site, it particularly looks at whether the constrained style of presentation precludes or enhances a deeper understanding of the Aboriginal heritage.


The German female writer Charlotte Kerner has created a series of works on the theme of science and technology to explore the relationship between people and technology and nature. One of the most striking features of his work is the frequent appearance of the "double" motive. This phenomenon is most evident in the book Blueprint. This article explores the "double" motive in the novel Blueprint from the perspectives of "mother-daughter doubles" and "person-painting doubles". This paper analyzes the aesthetic effect of its performance, and then studies the relationship among the motive, the author's aesthetic strategy and the theme of the work. In addition, it is concluded that "double" is full of dialectical philosophy of opposition and unity. It not only highlights the author's aesthetic strategy of paying attention to the dual combination of character and dialectical movement in character shaping, which makes the character of the character more full and contradictory conflict more intense, but also endues the work with the depth of human nature.


The regional integration process in Africa is increasingly becoming an indispensable instrument in the promotion of domestic and foreign direct investment (FDI), and as a means for the legitimization of the fragile nascent democratic government, which are slowly and painfully being put in place all over the continent. The achievement of these policy objectives for sub-Saharan African countries requires the identification and formation of clear priorities and strategies whose implementation should be feasible, effective, and supported by strong political will, if the regional integration failures of the past fifty years of African independence have to be avoided. The key strategies and priorities seem to be based on a belief that the harmonization of regional policies and infrastructures projects of all kinds constitutes the very foundation of a regional integration. According to this belief, these projects are considered to be instrumental and conducive to increased market openness and capital inflows, which in turn could act to stimulate trade among states, the movement of workers and the intermingling of people and cultures. As a result, peace and harmony is maintained within the integrated region. It therefore suggest that the effective implementation of these strategies and priorities, combined with domestic policy reforms would necessarily attract increased regional and foreign direct investment given the continent's rich endowment in natural and human resources. The paper examines this basic tenet of regional integration process in Africa and argues that the African political leaders most threatened by integration will be very unwilling to face a successful integration outcome. Hence, it will be up to the international community to support the reforms efforts of these leaders and to help overcome their resistance. Furthermore, the author suggests that the conciliation between the suppression of trade obstacles (economic reforms) and democratization in these countries (political reforms) is the most significant action which bilateral and multilateral financial backers can do to support the recovery of the continent.

 Key words: Regionalism, trade-democratization, foreign investment, development, sub-saharan Africa.


Never before published in Kerouac's lifetime, this 1955 biography of the founder of Buddhism is a clear and powerful study of Siddartha Gautama's life and works. "Wake Up" recounts the story of Prince Siddhartha's royal upbringing and his father's wish to protect him from all human suffering, despite a prediction that he would become a great holy man in later life. Departing from his father's palace, Siddhartha adopts a homeless life, struggles with his meditations, and eventually finds Enlightenment. Written at the end of Kerouac's career, when he became increasingly interested in Buddhist teachings, and collected for the first time in one book, this fresh and accessible biography is both an important addition to Kerouac's work and a valuable introduction to the world of Buddhism itself.


Information visualization (info vis) deals with how to increase the bandwidth of effective communication between computer and human, enabling us to see more, understand more, and accomplish more. Traditionally, it deals with interaction and display techniques of visualizing often abstract data on the two-dimensional desktop. Immersive virtual environments (VEs) offer new, exciting possibilities for information visualization. Immersion gives an enhanced realistic effect, and can improve spatial understanding and orientation. By identifying or developing useful interaction techniques (ITs), we can develop VE systems for better information visualization. This thesis has two different experiments that were related to two different sides of the study of use of immersion for VEs. One of the experiments is related to abstract data visualization in an immersive VE. The other one was motivated by the need for enhancing a realistic VE with additional data. In our first experiment, our focus is on implementing overview+detail techniques in VEs. Our hypothesis is that VE-specific ITs should borrow from, but not copy existing 2D IT technique for overview +detail. We develop ITs for use in VEs and show that they are easy to use and useful using task-based usability evaluation. We develop the "jump" technique for use in this application, which can be generalized to numerous other applications. The tangible contribution of this research is Wizard, an application for infovis in VEs. Our second hypothesis is that if the data to be visualized has inherent spatial attributes, it can be visualized well in immersive virtual environments. We investigate the trends using an experiment that tests people's understanding of spatial attributes under immersive and desktop conditions. Although not statistically significant, we observed a moderate trend indicating that immersion decreases the time needed to perform a spatial informationgathering task. We believe that this area of research can be applied immediately to the applications currently being developed.


—We update an earlier review (Mertens 1959) of the monitor lizards of Southeast Asia and the IndoAustralian Archipelago, emphasizing the importance of this island region as a center of varanid diversity and endemism. Currently, 44 monitor lizard species (i.e., 60% of the known global varanid diversity) are recognized from this vast study region. New Guinea and the surrounding offshore islands harbor the highest diversity in terms of species (15) and subgenera (four). We provide a detailed identification key to all monitor lizards found in the study area. Moreover, we critically review the conservation status of all monitor lizard species involved as needed in light of urgent conservation issues. Major threats to monitor lizards include: (1) habitat destruction; (2) the international trade in reptile skins and in monitors as pets; and (3) human consumption. Current export figures of seven focal monitor species (i.e., Varanus beccarii, V. boehmei, V. macraei, V. melinus, V. prasinus, V. salvator, and V. yuwonoi) of the commercial skin and pet trade reflect export allowances that are not based on sound information from population studies, meaning that current harvest levels may be unsustainable and could threaten the viability of these Indonesian island endemics. Therefore, these monitor lizard species require special attention by the relevant authorities and conservationists of both the source and the consuming countries. The conservation status of all monitor lizard species and their assessment in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List is in need of a critical update and we strongly recommend the establishment of an IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) Monitor Specialist Group. Therefore, this review of distribution, threats, and conservation status of Southeast Asian and Indo-Australian monitor lizards is intended to support customs officers and other government agents in: (1) more strictly enforcing the regulations of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES); (2) monitoring trade activities, annual harvest levels, and export quotas; (3) in reducing current unsustainable harvest levels; and, (4) in reducing over-exploitation and extinction risks of Varanus spp. in the wild.


We numerically investigate the morphology and disclination line dynamics of active nematic droplets in three dimensions. Although our model only incorporates the simplest possible form of achiral active stress, active nematic droplets display an unprecedented range of complex morphologies. For extensile activity finger-like protrusions grow at points where disclination lines intersect the droplet surface. For contractile activity, however, the activity field drives cup-shaped droplet invagination, run-and-tumble motion or the formation of surface wrinkles. This diversity of behaviour is explained in terms of an interplay between active anchoring, active flows and the dynamics of the motile dislocation lines. We discuss our findings in the light of biological processes such as morphogenesis, collective cancer invasion and the shape control of biomembranes, suggesting that some biological systems may share the same underlying mechanisms as active nematic droplets.


Considerable evidence suggests that the episodic memory system operates abnormally in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) whereas the functions of the semantic memory system are relatively preserved. Here we show that the same dissociation also applies to the domain of order memory. We asked adult participants to order the names of famous historical figures either according to their chronological order in history (probing semantic memory) or according to a random sequence shown once on a screen (probing episodic memory). As predicted, adults with ASD performed less well than age- and IQ-matched comparison individuals only on the episodic task. This observation is of considerable importance in the context of developmental theory because semantic and episodic order memory abilities can be dissociated in typically developing infants before they reach the age at which the behavioural markers associated with ASD are first apparent. This raises the possibility that early emerging memory abnormalities play a role in shaping the developmental trajectory of the disorder. We discuss the broader implications of this possibility and highlight the urgent need for greater scrutiny of memory competences in ASD early in development.


Abstract. Tethered balloon-borne aerosol measurements were conducted at Syowa Station, Antarctica during the 46th Japanese Antarctic expedition (2005–2006). The CN concentration reached a maximum in the summer, although the number concentrations of fine particles ( D p >0.3 μm) and coarse particles ( D p >2.0 μm) increased during the winter–spring. The CN concentration was 30–2200 cm −3 near the surface (surface – 500 m) and 7–7250 cm −3 in the lower free troposphere (>1500 m). During the austral summer, higher CN concentration was often observed in the lower free troposphere, where the number concentrations in fine and coarse modes were remarkably lower. The frequent appearance of higher CN concentrations in the free troposphere relative to continuous aerosol measurements at the ground strongly suggests that new particle formation is more likely to occur in the lower free troposphere in Antarctic regions. Seasonal variations of size distribution of fine-coarse particles show that the contribution of the coarse mode was greater in the winter–spring than in summer because of the dominance of sea-salt particles in the winter–spring. The number concentrations of fine and coarse particles were high in air masses from the ocean and mid-latitudes. Particularly, aerosol enhancement was observed not only in the boundary layer, but also in the lower free troposphere during and immediately after Antarctic haze events occurring in May, July and September.


In the 1960s, Lois Kathryn Herr left her job as a seventh-grade English teacher and entered the ranks of AT&T, where in unprecedented ways she helped awaken the corporate giant to its injustices against women. What she and others accomplished by the early seventies would raise the standard of treatment of women in corporations throughout the United States. Yet in the beginning, Herr knew little of the burgeoning women's movement. Here she tells about her growing feminist awareness and her career as an activist who remained loyal to her company while effecting positive change. When Lois Herr began her career at AT&T, it seemed that a world of opportunity had opened up. The company, which employed one million people nationwide, was respected for unparalleled operations management. Herr earned better pay than a teacher, found fulfilling work, and saw opportunities for furthering her education. But after inquiring about a career move, and finding herself shut out for no logical reason, Herr began to look closer at the fairness of company policies. What started as a personal conflict soon prompted Herr to hook up with other women in the company. Senseless dress codes for women, the "stag picnic," the practice of indicating women's marital status in the company directory-as well as unequal benefits and career opportunities-all emerged as issues to be pursued with management. The collegial atmosphere in the research and development area where Herr worked made it easy to openly discuss the issues, but changing the culture of a nationwide company required stronger resources. Describing the growing feminist consciousness throughout the sixties and seventies, the important links of information provided by the National Organization for Women {NOW}, and the impact of NOW's public protests against AT&T, Herr explains how the interests of AT&T women converged with the challenge of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), a fledgling government agency seeking a large target. She thoroughly examines the genesis and development of the EEOC's case, which ultimately resulted in the landmark 1973 EEOC-AT&T Consent Decree, an agreement that set a precedent for groundbreaking changes in how women and minority employees were treated in the workplace. Engagingly written, Herr's insiders' view of women's life in the corporate world is an invaluable case study of how reform really happens.


This thesis describes a study of the aggregational behaviour of egg yolk lecithin (EYL), a natural lecithin, and bile salt mixtures especially with respect to an increase of the ionic strength of the solvent. Mixtures of two amphiphiles with very different spontaneous curvature as EYL lecithin and bile salt form mixed micelles and vesicles in aqueous solution. Their properties have been well-studied under physiological conditions, i.e. 150 mM electrolyte concentration and pH 78, while other conditions are still hardly explored. Upon increasing ionic strength the formed structures and the transitional pathways (micelles, coexistence of micelles and vesicles, and vesicles) change the generated structures completely from those observed under physiological conditions. We quantitatively determined these structures formed in a broad range of electrolyte concentrations with various scattering techniques, x-ray, light and neutron scattering and calorimetry. With calorimetry, phase diagrams in the EYL and bile salt concentration phase plane were determined at various ionic strength ranging from physiological salt concentration to up to 1000 mM. Additionally a new electrochemical approach using functionalised electrodes, i.e. sensitive and selective to bile salt, and thus to control the bile salt concentration in solution (concentrations below the critical micellar concentration (cmc) was attempted, since bile salt removal or injection drives the micelle-to-vesicle or the vesicle-to-micelle transition, respectively, of the mixed aggregational system of EYL/bile salt. Although this control was not achieved within the framework of this thesis, promising results show directions for future experiments.


The hand with which one starts to count has been shown repeatedly to influence numerical performance. However, methods vary greatly in how researchers determine starting hand. As such, it is impossible to say whether starting hand reflects one construct that is being differently measured, or if these methods reflect different constructs. To investigate these possibilities, we employed a binary magnitude comparison task known to elicit spatial-numerical biases and embodied number magnitude effects, as well as both cardinal and ordinal assessments of starting hand. In addition to this, we further examined whether being made aware of one's finger-counting habits prior to the numerical task (through a finger-counting inventory) may alter performance during a spatial-numerical reaction-time task. Ordinal and cardinal starting hand classifications disagreed significantly in their classification of left vs. right-starters and predicted different aspects of numerical performance, which further interacted with procedure-order. The pattern of results suggest that 1) ordinal and cardinal aspects of finger-counting are dissociable and predict differing aspects of embodied numerosity, and 2) that assessing finger counting habits before performing a numerical task may affect performance on that task. Therefore, these methodological variations have important theoretical ramifications and need to be reported in greater detail in future work.


Constraint propagation is one of the key techniques in constraint programming, and a large body of work has built up around it. Special-purpose constraint propagation algorithms frequently make implicit use of short supports -- by examining a subset of the variables, they can infer support (a justification that a variable-value pair still forms part of a solution to the constraint) for all other variables and values and save substantial work. Recently short supports have been used in general purpose propagators, and (when the constraint is amenable to short supports) speed ups of more than three orders of magnitude have been demonstrated.

In this paper we present SHORTSTR2, a development of the Simple Tabular Reduction algorithm STR2+. We show that SHORTSTR2 is complementary to the existing algorithms SHORTGAC and HAGGISGAC that exploit short supports, while being much simpler. When a constraint is amenable to short supports, the short support set can be exponentially smaller than the full-length support set. Therefore SHORTSTR2 can efficiently propagate many constraints that STR2+ cannot even load into memory. We also show that SHORTSTR2 can be combined with a simple algorithm to identify short supports from full-length supports, to provide a superior drop-in replacement for STR2+.


Memory access is becoming an increasingly significant impediment to extracting performance out of multi-core systems. More than ever, the effectiveness of memory system use by an application is becoming a critical determinant of performance. In previous work, we demonstrated how explicit consideration of memory concurrency provides a better model for memory performance on multi-socket, multi-core systems than just using best case latency and bandwidth. This paper investigates some of the implications of this on application structure and compiler optimization. We developed a methodology to use hardware performance counters in a performance reflection tool, RCRTool, to measure achieved memory concurrency. We applied this to several important memory-bound scientific applications and kernels compiled with varying levels of optimization. We convolve the observed application concurrency with available system memory concurrency to derive insights for compilers and application tuners. The models provide compilers and runtimes with information about how load on the memory sub-system changes the effectiveness of various optimizations. As the number of hardware cores/threads increases, and as off-chip memory bandwidth per core remains constant or decreases, these measurements and analysis can provide insights to compiler and application writers. For example, on highly-threaded systems the system can be saturated if each software thread offers only 2 or 3 concurrent memory references. The implication is that optimizations to improve cache usage are more important than ever, while program transformations designed to increase memory concurrency may lose their utility.


FOLLOW ING THE LENGTHY PERIOD during which their past perspectives and tradition have been examined, the CPA has emerged with a detailed analysis of Australian society as it sees it. It is not my intention to analyse these documents, rather I wish to comment on the issues raised by Eric Aarons in his statement "The Congress and After" (Australian Left Review No. 25). The question concerns the CPA attitude to the ALP. Eric Aarons goes to considerable effort to establish that the Trotskyist concept of entrism "remains unexplained, while its failure to produce significant results over a period of over thirty years is not analysed." As one who has upheld the validity in the past of "entrism sui generis* , it seems necessary that I should spell out in clear terms what is entailed by the above term.


Employer-based health insurance (insurance that is purchased by employers for their employees and financed through employer or joint employer-employee contributions) is currently subsidized in part by the federal government through tax exclusions for employer contributions to employee health insurance plans. This subsidization costs the federal government close to 10 billion dollars a year in lost revenues. Many proposed national health insurance plans assign a key role to employer-based health insurance as a vehicle for financing health care. Federal subsidization of employer-based health insurance and plans that assign employers a key role in the administration of a national health insurance plan both assume that private industry acts to realize federal health policy goals-- particularly cost containment--in administering health insurance plans. Little is known, however, about how employers go about selecting the plans they offer their employees or about the incentives and disincentives regarding cost of care than are created by employer-based health insurance. Existing evidence suggests that rather than helping to contain health care costs, employer-based health insurance may be partly responsible for their present escalation. In addition, employer-based health insurance may not be the most equitable way to implement a national health insurance plan.


This paper shows that endogenous cycles can arise when contracts between firms and their customers are incomplete and when products are experience goods. Then firms invest in the quality of their output in order to establish a good reputation. Cycles arise because investment in reputation causes self-fulfilling changes in the discount factor. Cycles are more likely to occur when information diffuses slowly and consumers exhibit high risk aversion. A rise in idiosyncratic uncertainty is of two kinds that work in opposite ways: Noise in observing effort is contractionary as it generally is in agency models. But a rise in the variance of the distribution of abilities is expansionary. A calibrated version produces realistic fluctuations in terms of peak-to-trough movements in consumption and the spacing of time between recessions.


Agrarian distress in India, built-up over time, has further deteriorated recently. At the height of the farm output, Indian farmers are a disappointed lot. Despite spectacular rise in agricultural production, they continue to languish in poverty. The underlying reasons for agrarian distress in India are: a) unviable agriculture; b) ineffective Minimum Support Prices (MSP) system; c) adverse terms of trade; d) rural indebtedness; and e) inefficient value chain in agriculture. There is a need to provide medium term solutions to the problem so that sub-optimal solution like loan waiver can be avoided. Among available solutions, government procurement operation covering all major crops may not be feasible, while price-hedging mechanism through derivative instruments like forward/future trading in farm products is yet to be popular among farmers. There is a great potential to protect farmers from distress sale through a composite insurance scheme, which can cover risks arising out of both crop failure and market failure. The value chain of agricultural products needs to be completely revamped to integrate farmers directly to the ultimate consumers. Long-term solution of the agrarian distress lies in improving farm productivity by a series of measures like mass irrigation programme through inter-linking of rivers, diversification of agriculture, smart farming by using latest technology. A scheme of exit route for distress farmers may go a long way in alleviating the situation.


ABSTRACT The sea ice microbial community plays a key role in the productivity of the Southern Ocean. Exopolysaccharide (EPS) is a major component of the exopolymer secreted by many marine bacteria to enhance survival and is abundant in sea ice brine channels, but little is known about its function there. This study investigated the effects of temperature on EPS production in batch culture by CAM025, a marine bacterium isolated from sea ice sampled from the Southern Ocean. Previous studies have shown that CAM025 is a member of the genus Pseudoalteromonas and therefore belongs to a group found to be abundant in sea ice by culture-dependent and -independent techniques. Batch cultures were grown at −2°C, 10°C, and 20°C, and cell number, optical density, pH, glucose concentration, and viscosity were monitored. The yield of EPS at −2°C and 10°C was 30 times higher than at 20°C, which is the optimum growth temperature for many psychrotolerant strains. EPS may have a cryoprotective role in brine channels of sea ice, where extremes of high salinity and low temperature impose pressures on microbial growth and survival. The EPS produced at −2°C and 10°C had a higher uronic acid content than that produced at 20°C. The availability of iron as a trace metal is of critical importance in the Southern Ocean, where it is known to limit primary production. EPS from strain CAM025 is polyanionic and may bind dissolved cations such at trace metals, and therefore the presence of bacterial EPS in the Antarctic marine environment may have important ecological implications.


Abstract : American forces entered a seemingly dangerous and very foreign world following the surrender of Japan. A nation-building mission unlike any other previously in U.S. history ensued. Insight into Japanese sentiment and ways of conducting business would be paramount to the success of General Douglas MacArthur in demilitarizing and democratizing Japan. Two complementary but rival organizations within MacArthur's Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP) staff were created and charged with understanding Japanese thought patterns and culture to assist with successful reform. The Research and Analysis Branch (R&A), subordinate to the Civil Intelligence Section (CIS), was responsible for turning out quality anecdotal intelligence analysis. It produced weekly "Occupational Trends" reports critical to monitoring Japanese sentiment on issues of seminal importance to demilitarization, such as Japanese popular opinion concerning the maintenance of the Emperor. The other organization, the Public Opinion and Sociological Research Division (PO&SR) under the Civil Information and Education Section (CI&E), employed social scientists who worked closely with Japanese nationals on democratization. For perhaps the first time in history, sociological research supplemented traditional intelligence analysis in informing occupational leaders. PO&SR prepared scientific socio-cultural reports that served various sections across MacArthur's government. While rivalries existed between the R&A and PO&SR over methods and utility of services, the framework established under the occupation serves as a model of how to process and produce foreign socio-cultural intelligence and research during nation building. Analytic lessons learned include encouraging close cooperation between intelligence professionals and more specialized sociologists, incorporating diverse collection sources, working closely with host nationals, and formally documenting social science project findings.


BACKGROUND: The performances of 2 noninvasive CPAP systems (high flow and low flow air-entrainment masks) were compared to the Boussignac valve in 3 different scenarios. METHODS: Scenario 1: pneumatic lung simulator with a tachypnea pattern (tidal volume 800 mL at 40 breaths/min). Scenario 2: Ten healthy subjects studied during tidal breaths and tachypnea. Scenario 3: Twenty ICU subjects enrolled for a noninvasive CPAP session. Differences between set and effective CPAP level and FIO2, as well as the lowest airway pressure and the pressure swing around the imposed CPAP level, were analyzed. The lowest airway pressure and swing were correlated to the pressure-time product (area of the airway pressure curve below the CPAP level) measured with the simulator. PaO2 was a subject's further performance index. RESULTS: Lung simulator: Boussignac FIO2 was 0.54, even if supplied with pure oxygen. The air-entrainment masks had higher swing than the Boussignac (P = .007). Pressure-time product correlated better with pressure swing (Spearman correlation coefficient [ρ] = 0.97) than with lowest airway pressure (ρ = 0.92). In healthy subjects, the high-flow air-entrainment mask showed lower difference between set and effective FIO2 (P < .001), and lowest airway pressure (P < .001), compared to the Boussignac valve. In all measurements the Boussignac valve showed higher than imposed CPAP level (P < .001). In ICU subjects the high-flow mask had lower swing than the Boussignac valve (P = .03) with similar PaO2 increase. CONCLUSIONS: High-flow air-entrainment mask showed the best performance in human subjects. During high flow demand, the Boussignac valve delivered lower than expected FIO2 and showed higher dynamic hyper-pressurization than the air-entrainment masks.


OBJECTIVE
The present study was designed to test the hypotheses that response expectancies and emotional distress mediate the effects of an empirically validated presurgical hypnosis intervention on postsurgical side effects (i.e., pain, nausea, and fatigue).

METHOD
Women (n = 200) undergoing breast-conserving surgery (mean age = 48.50 years; 63% White, 15% Hispanic, 13% African American, and 9% other) were randomized to a hypnosis or to an attention control group. Prior to surgery, patients completed assessments of hypothesized mediators (response expectancies and emotional distress), and following surgery, patients completed assessments of outcome variables (pain, nausea, and fatigue).

RESULTS
Structural equation modeling revealed the following: (a) Hypnotic effects on postsurgical pain were partially mediated by pain expectancy (p < .0001) but not by distress (p = .12); (b) hypnotic effects on postsurgical nausea were partially mediated by presurgical distress (p = .02) but not by nausea expectancy (p = .10); and (c) hypnotic effects on postsurgical fatigue were partially mediated by both fatigue expectancy (p = .0001) and presurgical distress (p = .02).

CONCLUSIONS
The results demonstrate the mediational roles of response expectancies and emotional distress in clinical benefits associated with a hypnotic intervention for breast cancer surgical patients. More broadly, the results improve understanding of the underlying mechanisms responsible for hypnotic phenomena and suggest that future hypnotic interventions target patient expectancies and distress to improve postsurgical recovery.


Synopsis Most clast lithologies within the basal conglomerate of the Iona Group, exposed on Iona, Inner Hebrides, SW Scotland, resemble the adjacent Archaean–Palaeoproterozoic Lewisian Gneiss Complex, supporting the hypothesis that the Iona Group unconformably overlies Lewisian gneisses on Iona. Moreover, a whole-rock Sm–Nd tDM age of 2512 Ma from one of these clasts supports its lithological correlation with granitic pegmatites in the underlying gneisses, while a second quartz-rich paragneiss clast with a Sm–Nd tDM age of 2745 Ma, is similar to Lewisian paragneisses on Coll. However, whole-rock tDM ages of 1755–2060 Ma and pronounced c. 1780–1800 Ma peaks in U–Pb detrital zircon and titanite data for Iona Group metasediments suggest additional distal sources of Laurentian affinity including the Rhinns Complex as well as Labradorian, Pinwarian and Archaean detritus. The Iona Group was deposited and deformed after c. 1490 Ma and before c. 422 Ma, constrained by the youngest detrital zircon and titanite and the intrusion of the Ross of Mull Granite, respectively. The detrital data permit correlation of the Iona Group with the Colonsay Group and the Glenshirra Subgroup of the Dalradian Grampian Group, although correlation with parts of the Torridonian cannot be excluded. Supplementary material: Full analytical results areavailable at http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/SUP18768.


We learn a joint multilingual sentence embedding and use the distance between sentences in different languages to filter noisy parallel data and to mine for parallel data in large news collections. We are able to improve a competitive baseline on the WMT'14 English to German task by 0.3 BLEU by filtering out 25% of the training data. The same approach is used to mine additional bitexts for the WMT'14 system and to obtain competitive results on the BUCC shared task to identify parallel sentences in comparable corpora. The approach is generic, it can be applied to many language pairs and it is independent of the architecture of the machine translation system.


Principles of equitable and reasonable use underpin international water agreements. Despite the potential for hydrologic information to enhance resilience to extreme events, comparable application of just principles to the distribution of hydrometeorological data is poorly established. Within the Ganges–Brahmaputra–Meghna (GBM) river basin, we find that water allocation agreements are codified into treaties or Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs). Analogous decisions regarding hydrometeorological data sharing are often internalized at the level of river basin organizations and are not upheld as MoUs. This institutional structure provides extremely limited data to the most downstream nation of Bangladesh. Available precipitation and discharge stations are well below the minimum densities recommended by the World Meteorological Organization. Forecasters in Bangladesh therefore contend with vast areas of geopolitically ungauged catchment, precluding the application of basin-wide modelling approaches driven by observed data. Thus, capacity for increasing resilience to extreme events within Bangladesh is obstructed, demonstrating the potential for perceived injustice related to distribution of hydrometeorological data. Consensus that water is a human right warrants the application of equity to water allocation. But is security from water-related disasters also a human right? As hydrometeorological data can be a powerful resource with potential to profoundly affect lives and livelihoods, enhanced awareness of justice related to data sharing is needed.


Throughout the course of their collaboration, Peter Fischli and David Weiss celebrated the sheer triviality of everyday existence, observing the world with bemused detachment. As this book shows, their often humorous work offers a sustained reflection on the intertwined strands of leisure, productivity and playful absurdity that shape our lives. With its deliberately mundane subject matter and quotidian source material, their work explores the poetics of banality in a wide range of mediums, including photography, videos, slide projections, films, books, sculptures and multimedia installations. This retrospective volume features an in-depth, illustrated survey of the artists' long history of collaboration, from the early Sausage Series (1979)-staged vignettes created in miniature using deli meats and various household items-to their last work, the large-scale public installation Rock on Top of Another Rock (2010-13), augmented by archival images, notes on process and interview excerpts culled from the artists' Zurich-based archives.A series of probing essays on their practice and thematic concerns rounds out this definitive account of Fischli and Weiss's vital contribution to contemporary art.


100 Japanese Gardens is an ambitious attempt to profile the finest gardens in Japan, while also highlighting lesser known, but equally accomplished landscapes in less-visited parts of the country. A celebration of Japanese landscape design, this book features gardens from Kyoto and Tokyo, as well as from the sub-arctic island of Hokkaido and the semi-tropical islands of Okinawa. Author Stephen Mansfield travelled the length and breadth of Japan on a quest to identify the most impressive gardens in this vast and culturally varied archipelago. His erudition and love of the Japanese garden shines through on every page, making this the perfect primer for travel to Japan or an enjoyable armchair read for gardening enthusiasts. Mansfield's insightful descriptions of each garden examine design concepts and principles, space management, compositional elements, and the iconographic and metaphysical role of Shinto and Buddhist influences. Through his exquisite visuals and engaging stories, we experience Japanese garden designs not merely as landscapes, but as large-scale art installations.


ABSTRACT Children involved in bullying are vulnerable to social, physiological, psychological, educational, behavioural, and adjustment problems which can persist into adulthood. In Australia, formal education about bullying is not introduced until year four (age 9), making pastoral care and addressing bullying in junior primary (ages 4–8) the responsibility of early childhood teachers. This study employed a participatory co-design framework with 12 South Australian early childhood teachers to co-design and implement a tailored bullying education/prevention program, informed by students' understanding of bullying. Co-design methods included small group interviews, discussion, and modified Q sort techniques to support teachers in identifying and defining the magnitude of the problem; determining why it occurs and; designing a contextualised intervention. A test–retest quasi experimental design/evaluation framework was developed to explore the co-design and program implementation processes. All teachers (N=12) reported the co-design process was enjoyable, energizing, and engaging/informative and would use their new skills to modify and implement their program with future classes. Teachers reported children were highly engaged during implementation. Children's responses (N=99) post-intervention showed significant improvement in their understanding when describing bullying. Strengths and limitations of employing co-design processes to develop tailored educational programs are discussed.


By the author of the acclaimed The Complete Bushfire Safety Book , this third edition of Joan Webster OAM's Essential Bushfire Safety Tips deals with people's fears and concerns about wildfires in general, and the maze of official safety policies. Its concise and straightforward style clears a path of understanding through the tangle of conflicting opinions and misconceptions.

It identifies the shortcomings and likely adverse repercussions of some of these policies, defines the actions necessary for people to stay safe during a bushfire – and their homes to remain intact – and sets out safe procedures.

Essential Bushfire Safety Tips reveals the scientific post-wildfire research into why people who stayed with their homes died during the 2009 Black Saturday fires, and shows that, despite the almost universal media reports that 'nothing could be done to save homes on such a day', many householders did, in fact, save their homes.

Included are chapters on township protection; shelters, refuges and bunkers; as well as information on choices of home bushfire safety strategies; protective house design, furnishings and gardens; protection of animals; and first aid.

This book fills the gap between bushfire authority brochures and long, in-depth books. Backed by scientific facts, it brings a message of hope and empowerment: that with appropriate knowledge, preparation and awareness, towns, homes and people can survive wildfires.

Set out in easy-to-access dot-point one-liners, it demystifies bushfire behaviour, explains how to prevent a bushfire from destroying houses, details wildfire safety at each stage of threat, describes weather factors and safe burning-off, details the benefits and hazards of staying, non-defensive sheltering, and evacuating, and how to make the decision on which course is best for you.


Abstract Acoustic oscillations in nuclear steam supplies have caused structural vibration leading to plant modifications in both pressurized water reactor and boiling water reactor (BWR) systems. Power increases (i.e., uprates) in some BWR designs have resulted in acoustic oscillations in the steam supply that have caused fatigue failures in steam dryer assemblies. Standing waves in side branch lines are identified as one important acoustic source for waves in the main lines. The side branch standing waves are driven by vortex shedding across the branch opening. The side branch lines couple acoustically with standing waves in the main line, extending the range of physical behavior beyond that normally considered in the literature. There are many side branches mounted where there is flow in the main steam line, creating multiple acoustic sources, many of nearly the same frequency. These multiple sources cause time variation in the acoustic performance that may extend over many seconds, and these attributes must be considered during data acquisition, component load simulation, and stress simulation. Wet steam sound speed models appropriate to BWR steam supply conditions are also presented.


Serum amyloid A1 (SAA1), a major isoform of acute-phase SAA, is a well-known precursor of amyloid A (AA) that contributes to secondary amyloidosis with its tissue deposition. Acute-phase SAA is also a biomarker of inflammation. Recent studies have focused on the roles for acute-phase SAA in the regulation of immunity and inflammation. In vitro characterization of recombinant human SAA identified its chemotactic and cytokine-like properties, whereas the use of SAA isoform-spe-cific transgenic and knockout mice has led to the discovery of new functions of SAA proteins in host defense and tissue homeostasis. Characterization of SAA-derived peptides has shown that fragments of SAA, generated through proteolysis, are bioactive and may contribute to a growing list of functions related to inflammation. This chapter summarizes recent progress in the studies of acute-phase SAA and its fragments in inflammation and immunomodulation.


Non-communicable diseases like metabolic syndrome can be prevented and controlled by practicing healthy lifestyle.
 Although health literacy is a critical factor in lifestyle modification to prevent non-communicable diseases and its complications, its role on metabolic syndrome prevention is still understudied.

 The main aim of this study was to identify the determinants of health literacy and healthy lifestyle practice against metabolic syndrome among multi-ethnic group of Sarawak based on health literacy skills framework.

 Using a stratified multistage sampling, a total of 1006 respondents were recruited to represent the major ethnic groups in Sarawak, Malaysia. Moderator variables, mediator variables and outcome variable (healthy lifestyle practice) were tested using path analysis to examine multiple and interrelated dependence relationships. Multi-group analysis was performed to compare structural models between major ethnic groups in Sarawak, namely Malay/Melanau, Native groups and Chinese.

 Female respondents and those with higher education status were more likely to have better healthy lifestyle practice. Greater level of health literacy was positively significant with both disease knowledge and healthy lifestyle practice. Participants with good understanding of disease knowledge can directly influence healthy lifestyle. Simultaneously, health literacy and metabolic syndrome knowledge can mediate the relationship between sociodemographic variables, service accessibility, medical and family history with practice of healthy lifestyle. Multi-group path analysis indicated differences in causal pathway leading to healthy lifestyle practice among the ethnic groups.

 Health programs or interventions to increase health literacy skills and better understanding of metabolic syndrome will improve practice of healthy lifestyle. Culturally sensitive multidimensional approaches are needed to ensure health-related information can be delivered effectively across the state.


We conducted high‐resolution, underway sampling in April, July, and October for 6 yr (1995–2000) in the large estuary, Chesapeake Bay. This period included climatological extremes in freshwater inputs that strongly influenced both the overall stocks and spatial distribution of phytoplankton and zooplankton. Higher biomass of both phytoplankton and zooplankton occurred in springs, when freshwater input into Chesapeake Bay was above the average discharge. While whole‐Bay productivity appears to be influenced by freshwater flow variability, mesoscale patterns in plankton biomass are driven by freshwater inputs, circulation, and bathymetry. Persistent maxima in plankton biomass occurred in areas of physical and topographic discontinuities such as the upper‐Bay salt front, plume fronts, the hydraulic control region, tidal fronts, and near a topographically induced eddy. Although the contribution of these hot spots to the whole‐Bay standing stock of plankton may vary due to changes in the background levels of plankton, controlled in part by freshwater discharge, they nevertheless represent predictable areas of higher forage for planktivorous fish. Enhanced trophic coupling between plankton and fish at these physical discontinuities may be one reason why estuaries have higher fisheries yields in relation to their primary production than lakes and other marine systems.


A descriptive-correlational study was recently conducted in a four county metropolitan area in the southeast United States (US) as part of a collaborative effort between nursing and environmental engineering researchers. The purpose of the study was to assess attitudes, knowledge and information sources concerning wastewater reuse and evaluate the results with respect to population demographics. The study indicated that both men and women unfavorably view the use of wastewater for possible consumption (released into potable surface or groundwater supplies) or applications involving close, personal contact (laundry). Women were especially concerned about pumping wastewater into the groundwater for subsequent potable use. Both genders felt that wastewater reuse for applications not involving close personal contact (such as firefighting, car washing, lawn irrigation and agricultural uses) was acceptable. General knowledge concerning wastewater reuse was mixed. Those with lower incomes, less education, and 65 years of age or older had significantly less knowledge of this issue than younger, more educated, higher income individuals. Primary sources of information for most demographic groups included newspaper and television, although the Internet was identified as a frequent source for selected groups.


Background— Endothelial injury is considered critical for progression of atherosclerosis and its complications in coronary artery disease (CAD). The endothelial-supportive effects of bradykinin have mainly been attributed to activation of the resident endothelium. Here we newly investigate the role of bradykinin and its B2 receptor for the recruitment and functional activation of circulating mononuclear cell subsets with endothelial-repair promoting capacity, such as CD34+CXCR4+cells, at sites of arterial injury. Methods and Results— Bradykinin-B2-receptor (B2R) blockade by icatibant substantially impaired recruitment of circulating CD34+CXCR4+ mononuclear cells (expressing high levels of B2R) to endothelial cells in vitro and to injured arterial wall in vivo, whereas recruitment of CD14hi monocytes (expressing low levels of B2R) was unchanged. Moreover, the capacity of genetically B2R-deficient bone marrow cells to promote endothelial repair in vivo was markedly impaired as compared with wild-type bone marrow cells. B2R expression was reduced on CD34+CXCR4+mononuclear cells and endothelial repair–promoting early outgrowth cells, but not on CD14himonocytes, from CAD patients as compared with healthy subjects. B2R stimulation induced CD18 activation in early outgrowth cells of healthy subjects, but not in early outgrowth cells of CAD patients. Adenoviral B2R overexpression enhanced in vivo vascular recruitment and rescued impaired endothelial repair capacity of early outgrowth cells from CAD patients. Conclusions— We newly report that bradykinin/B2R signaling may promote endothelial repair after arterial injury by selective recruitment and functional activation of B2R-expressing circulating mononuclear cell subsets. In CAD patients, B2R downregulation on endothelial repair–promoting circulating mononuclear cells substantially impairs the bradykinin-dependent endothelial repair, representing a novel mechanism promoting endothelial injury in CAD patients.


The dynamics of a fractionalized semi-linear scalar differential equation is
considered with a Caputo fractional derivative. By using a symbolic operational
method, a fractional order initial value problem is converted into an
equivalent Volterra integral equation of second kind. A brief discussion is included
to show that the fractional order derivatives and integrals incorporate
a fading memory (also known as long memory) and that the order of the fractional
derivative can be considered to be an index of memory. A variation of
constants formula is established for the fractionalized version and it is shown
by using the Fourier integral theorem that this formula reduces to that of the
integer order differential equation as the fractional order approaches an integer.
The global existence of a unique solution and the global Mittag-Leffler
stability of an equilibrium are established by exploiting the complete monotonicity
of one and two parameter Mittag-Leffler functions. The method and the
analysis employed in this article can be used for the study of more general
systems of fractional order differential equations.


When German artist Christoph Schlingensief died in 2010 he had amassed an impressive body of work spanning a diverse range of fields, including film, television, theatre, art, radio, activism, and opera. Although he gained a certain notoriety for his early film and performance work, it was through his politically engaged re-enactment of a series of reality television programs that his public profile in Germany was cemented. This article focuses on the pilot episode of Quiz 3000 that was staged at the Volksbuhne in 2002 and that was modelled closely on the popular reality format Who Wants to be a Millionaire? As Schlingensief has made clear in an interview with Alexander Kluge, his interest in re-enactment as a critical strategy is not driven by a desire for total verisimilitude, but by the inconsistencies that are generated in the re-enactment process that serve as catalysts for reflection and debate. In Quiz 3000 it is the nature of the questions posed to the contestants (such as: 'The rape of members of which minority group is, according to the German criminal code, less heavily penalized?' and 'How many conscientious objectors from Kurdistan have, since 2001, been tortured to death in Turkey after being deported by Germany?') that generates the inconsistency in question. Drawing on Walter Benjamin and Theodor Adorno's writings on information and experience, I argue that Quiz 3000 transforms the information-driven focus of television quiz shows into a source of experience for viewers and contestants alike by encouraging them to reflect on political issues and debates in an autonomous, affective, and meaningful way.


Computable general equilibrium (CGE) models are used widely in policy analysis. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to and facilitate the use of CGE models. The paper includes a detailed presentation of a "standard" CGE model (an equation-by-equation description) and its required database. It incorporates features developed in recent years in research projects conducted at IFPRI. These features, which are of particular importance in developing countries, include household consumption of non-marketed (or "home") commodities, explicit treatment of transaction costs for commodities that enter the market sphere, and a separation between producing activities and commodities that permits any activity to produce multiple commodities and any commodity to be produced by multiple activities. The paper discusses the implementation of the model in GAMS (the General Algebraic Modeling System) and is accompanied by a self-extracting zip file, which includes the GAMS files for the model, sample databases, simulations, solution reports, and a SAM aggregation program. Although the paper provides a standardized framework for analysis, the analyst is not forced to make "one-size-fits-all" assumptions. The GAMS code is written in a manner that gives the analyst considerable flexibility in model specification.


Since 1938, the Supreme Court has supervised the development of procedural rules for the federal courts by a system of committees that now operate under the Judicial Conference of the United States. In 1993, for the first time in the history of that process, the Court promulgated several new rules proposed by the committee system without endorsing the content of the rules. One of the 1993 amendments seeks to reduce the costs of "satellite" litigation under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11, which governs the imposition of sanctions for filing frivolous suits in the federal courts. Using a game-theoretic model, Professors Kobayashi and Parker show that the new Rule 11 is likely both to increase the rate of frivolous filings, and perhaps more importantly, to increase the rate at which litigants invoke Rule 11 to challenge their adversaries' pleadings. As a result, both the volume and cost of "satellite" Rule 11 litigation is likely to increase, rather than decrease, contrary to the expressed intention of the Amendment's drafters. The authors argue that this outcome suggests the need for more rigorous supervision of the rulemaking process by the Supreme Court.


The United Kingdom's Leveson Inquiry has been the hottest free show in town since it began taking evidence in November 2011 until the first phase of the Inquiry concluded on 24 July 2012. During that time, the general public has been exposed to a tsunami of information from the great and the good in Britain, which raised questions not only about journalism practices and ethics but the separation of powers and the rule of law. The importance to any democracy of an independent judiciary cannot be overestimated. Sir Brian Leveson began the inquiry by posing the question: Who guards the guardians? He stressed that the concept of the freedom of the press was a fundamental part of any democracy and that he had no desire to stifle freedom of speech in Britain. This article reflects on missed opportunities and considers the future for press regulation in Britain. It also makes the point that irrespective of whatever new regime is established, it is time for proprietors, editors and journalists to stand up for responsible, public interest journalism and only then will there be an outside chance that the public's faith in mainstream journalism will be restored.


Title of dissertation: I GET HIGH WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS (AND FAMILY): CLOSE RELATIONSHIPS, DISTRESS TOLERANCE, AND RISK TAKING IN ADOLESCENCE Katherine Babcock Ehrlich, Doctor of Philosophy, 2012 Dissertation directed by: Professor Jude Cassidy Department of Psychology Despite substantial efforts to educate adolescents about the consequences of their risky decisions, adolescent risk behavior remains a significant social and public health problem. The goal of this research was to examine the role of individual and contextual predictors of adolescent health risk behavior and risk-taking measured in the laboratory. Specifically, I examined parent-adolescent relationships and friendships as two contextual predictors of risk, and I measured adolescent distress tolerance as an individual predictor of risk behavior in a longitudinal study of adolescents and their families. In Aim 1, I used a variable-centered approach to examine concurrent and prospective predictors of adolescent risk-taking. In Aim 2, I took a person-oriented statistical approach to the study of adolescent risk-taking by examining whether there are particular groups of adolescents with particular relationship characteristics who were most likely to engage in risky behavior, and whether these groups of adolescents would be more likely to take risks if they had low distress tolerance. Aim 1 analyses revealed that adolescents were most likely to engage in health risk behaviors when they had negative parent-adolescent relationships or positive friendships, but distress tolerance was unrelated to risk-taking. None of the predictors was related to laboratory risk behavior. Aim 2 analyses revealed that the influence of adolescents' relationships on their risktaking behaviors depended on their ability to tolerate and manage their emotions. Among adolescents with high levels of friendship conflict, distress tolerance served as a protective factor against health risk behavior. Among high distress tolerant adolescents, those who had high parent-adolescent conflict engaged in greater risk-taking than adolescents who had high friendship conflict. Across all analyses, none of the predictors accounted for Time 2 risk behavior after accounting for Time 1 risk-taking in the models. Overall, these findings suggest that adolescents' relationship experiences and distress tolerance relate to risk-taking behaviors, even at an age when adolescents are engaging in relatively low levels of risk behavior. Future research should continue investigating predictors of risk behavior across multiple levels of analysis, with an emphasis on biological, individual, relational, and environmental factors that contribute to risk-taking. I GET HIGH WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS (AND FAMILY): CLOSE RELATIONSHIPS, DISTRESS TOLERANCE, AND RISK TAKING IN ADOLESCENCE


The "precautionary principle" is one of the most contested principles in the debate on the new EU chemicals legislation. The purpose of this paper is to operationalise the principle and to investigate the consequences of its application. Five core elements of precautionary management of chemicals are derived and traced in Swedish policy and legislation through history. It is shown that precautionary measures were required as early as the eighteenth century. The conclusion is drawn that these measures in Sweden seem to have promoted sustainable development from both an environmental and a socio‐economic point of view.


ABSTRACT Objective: The aim of the study is evaluation of toxicity assessment of biosynthesized silver nanoparticles from Solanum villosum (Mill.) using in vitro and in vivo study. Materials and Methods: Biologically synthesized silver nanoparticles are characterized by UV, SEM, EDAX, XRD analysis and its cytotoxicity effect against HepG2cell lines was performed. Further toxicity was confirmed by in vivo studies using wistar albino rats. Various hematological, liver function marker enzymes and liver histopathology are investigated. The cytotoxic effect of Solanum villosum silver nanoparticles (SV-AgNPs) was also concentration dependent and did not produce any toxicity to tested animals. The histopathological evidence are supported to biochemical observations. Conclusion: So biologically synthesized silver nanoparticles are toxic only to cancer cells but not in animals were proved by present study. Key Words: SV-AgNPs ( Solanum villosum silver nanoparticles), HepG2  cell lines, Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDAX), X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD).


Acupuncture is widely used by people with chronic conditions, whether they have self-referred or been referred by medical practitioners. According to a national survey in the UK reported by Hopton et al , psychological problems are the third most common reason for patients to seek acupuncture after musculoskeletal and neurological conditions.1 According to an earlier UK survey of general practitioners (GPs), respondents identified depression as an area where there is an 'effectiveness gap' in primary care2; depression was identified as the second most problematic condition to treat after musculoskeletal conditions. Moreover, depression is a growing problem which is set to become the second leading cause of disease burden worldwide by 2020, according to the Global Burden of Disease Study.3 So it is highly concerning that up to 60% of patients do not respond adequately to pharmacological antidepressant treatment4 and …


New long read sequencing technologies offer huge potential for effective recovery of complete, closed genomes. While much progress has been made on cultured isolates, the ability of these methods to recover genomes of member taxa in complex microbial communities is less clear. Here we examine the ability of long read data to recover genomes from enrichment reactor metagenomes. Such modified communities offer a moderate level of complexity compared to the source communities and so are realistic, yet tractable, systems to use for this problem. We sampled an enrichment bioreactor designed to target anaerobic ammonium-oxidising bacteria (AnAOB) and sequenced genomic DNA using both short read (Illumina 301bp PE) and long read data (MinION Mk1B) from the same extraction aliquot. The community contained 23 members, of which 16 had genome bins defined from an assembly of the short read data. Two distinct AnAOB species from genus Candidatus Brocadia were present and had complete genomes, of which one was the most abundant member species in the community. We can recover a 4Mb genome, in 2 contigs, of long read assembled sequence that is unambiguously associated with the most abundant AnAOB member genome. We conclude that obtaining near closed, complete genomes of members of low-medium microbial communities using MinION long read sequence is feasible.


Uterine fibroids are common tumors that can cause heavy menstrual bleeding, pelvic pressure symptoms, and reproductive disorders. The incidence of fibroids peaks in the fifth decade of age and they are more common in African American women. Often, fibroids are asymptomatic and require no treatment. However, the case of Ms P, a 41-year-old woman with recurrent uterine fibroids, menorrhagia, anemia, and fatigue who wishes to retain fertility, illustrates the symptoms that require treatment. Evaluation usually begins with a pelvic examination and an ultrasound to determine both the size and location of the fibroids within the uterus. Standard treatment of symptomatic fibroids is surgical removal by myomectomy or hysterectomy, depending in part on the desire for future fertility; new treatment options include uterine artery embolization via interventional radiologic techniques as well as various medical interventions. Several new therapies show promise but are still experimental at this time. The evidence for treatment options for Ms P and symptomatic patients with fibroids in general is discussed.


Caspar Bowden, Director of the Foundation for Information Policy Research (FIPR), explains the technical and legal context of unprecedented new surveillance capabilities, with particular reference to the UK's Regulation of Investigatory Powers (RIP) Act 2000. He discusses why these powers are unlikely to be effective in detecting or disrupting the communications of terrorist cells or organized crime, but present significant new threats to the security, privacy, and freedom of expression of the lawabiding.


Linkages between emissions trading systems (ETSs) have an important role to play in the successful, cost-effective implementation of the Paris Agreement. While the theory of bilateral linkages is well established, we know relatively little about the gains from trade in a multilaterally linked system, and less still about how they are shared among jurisdictions participating in the system. We characterize these gains for an arbitrary linkage coalition, show how they can be decomposed into gains in the coalition's internal bilateral linkages, and prove that linkage is superadditive. Our theoretical results imply the global market may not emerge endogenously and a quantitative exercise shows that this concern may have some validity in practice.


This thesis analyzes the suitability of radar satellite images for monitoring small reservoir surfaces, the suitability of remotely sensed time series of their surface areas to calibrate hydrological models, and small reservoir evaporation losses. Radar remote sensing of small reservoirs is suitable especially during the rainy season, but is affected by wind and lack of vegetation context during the dry season. Reservoirs could be extracted from the radar images most often with a quasi-manual classification approach, as stringent classification rules often failed under less than optimal conditions. Failure to extract reservoirs was due to the backscattered radar signal that occurred above wind speeds of 2.6 m s exp(-1) (Bragg scattering). Due to lower wind speeds, the use of night time acquisitions was more effective than the use of daytime images. As optical systems perform well under low vegetation contrast, and independent of wind conditions, radar and optical systems can be used complimentary. Time series of remotely sensed small reservoir surface areas, translated into storage volume changes, were successfully used to calibrate hydrological rainfall-runoff models. Eight small reservoirs in the Upper East Region of Ghana, and Togo, were monitored to calibrate modified Thornthwaite-Mather models, in which increasing precipitation leads to exponentially increasing contributing areas. The model results indicate that the overall impact of the reservoirs largely depends on the ratios of reservoir and watershed areas. For this two year study, the reservoirs captured on the average 34% of quick flow, and 15% of overall watershed runoff. Reservoir evaporation losses were measured directly with a floating evaporation pan (E sub(o) ) and were compared to evaporation rates determined from the reservoir?s energy budget (E sub(B) ) and Penman's equation (E sub(t) ). The direct E sub(o) measurements were generally lower than E sub(t) and E sub(B) . Compared to land based E sub(t) Land , the reservoir evaporation E sub(t) was not excessive. Regional wind patterns influence evaporation dynamics from the reservoir. Northeast winds with a high saturation deficit lead to significant evaporation losses, while the evaporation losses under moister, more prevalent southwest winds were moderate.


In his concise autobiography in the dedication to the Psalms commentary Calvin made it plain that his role was primarily as a pastor; he compared his role in the church to that of King David in Israel: "And yet, as he [David] was elevated from the sheepfolds to the highest position of authority, so God took me [Calvin] also from obscure and small beginnings and honored me with the office of herald and minister of the gospel." (Calvin, 1958:51.) Beza (1564:9), Calvin's contemporary biographer, in Life of John Calvin also described Calvin as primarily engaged in pastoral ministry. This paper will investigate and analyse the theological acumen and the pastoral tone in Calvin's treatise, Reply by John Calvin to the Letter by Cardinal Sadolet to the Senate and People of Geneva . This reply to Sadolet exudes outstanding intellectual brilliance and an unwavering pastoral concern that characterised Calvin's entire ministry and literature. A study of this treatise reveals that even in this theological work, Calvin was practising his pastoral ministry. https://doi.org/10.19108/KOERS.82.2.2346


The introductory article proposes to offer a general frame for the special issue, discussing the emergence of semiotics of history as a new discipline or approach in the humanities. It presents an overview on the attempts of joining the history and semiotics in the Western world since the early 1980s, with a special focus on the United States, and examines the contribution of the Tartu-Moscow School of Semiotics to the semiotic study of history, paying the main attention to the work of Juri Lotman and Boris Uspenskij. Finally, a survey of the articles that make up the special issue dedicated to the 80th anniversary of Boris Uspenskij is presented.


This paper describes the development of a model that could be used in practice to improve Site Investigation (SI) procedures and reduce risk associated with uncertain site conditions. The developed model Project and Site Investigation Risk Evaluation Model (PSIREM) ultimately provides a reliable means of presenting both the SI data and the complexity of the project relative to SI information, thereby providing the
opportunity to assess the risk associated with a specific project and the inadequacy of
available SI information. Despite the wealth of knowledge and information available, the UK construction industry seems to be failing in the use of these existing models and systems to improve decision making for site investigation work. A questionnaire survey of over 1,000 construction practitioners revealed that less than 1% used any form of risk assessment method specific to site and ground conditions. Whilst 23%
admitted that their only attempt to carry out any kind of risk assessment was to satisfy the requirements of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations (CDM 1994).The work described in this paper is based upon data and information collected from a literature search, questionnaire survey, and semi/structured interviews. This research has been used to develop a model (PSIREM) for the appraisal of risk associated with site investigation. Case studies of 36 selected construction projects within the UK have been carried out. The developed PSIREM has been used, together with the findings of the case studies, to objectively measure the level of risk and to develop a mapping risk index associated with an inadequate site investigation.
This provides a concise appraisal of risk associated with uncertain site investigation
information, which clients/practitioners can map against to establish a prediction of he risk they are exposed to for any given project.


The utility model relates to a magnetic resonance wireless charging device based on a strong coupling magnetic resonance principle. The utility model provides a wireless charging device, and particularly relates to a magnetic resonance wireless charging device capable of wirelessly charging an electronic product under the situation of a larger distance, which comprises a transmitting device and a receiving device; the transmitting device comprises an alternative-current/direct-current (AC/DC) conversion circuit, an energy signal generating circuit, an energy exciting coil and an energy transmitting coil; and the receiving device comprises an energy receiving coil, an energy restoration coil, an energy restoration circuit and a charging circuit. The magnetic resonance wireless charging device can be used for wireless charging the electronic products under the situation of the larger distance, so compared with a traditional electromagnetic sensing method, the wireless charging distance can be remarkably increased, and the utilization efficiency of the electric energy can be greatly improved.


Speech is a hugely efficient means of communication: a reduced capacity in listening or speaking creates a significant barrier to social inclusion at all points through the lifespan, in education, work and at home. Hearing devices and speech synthesis can help address this reduced capacity but their use imposes greater listener effort. The goal of the EU-funded ENRICH project is to modify or augment speech with additional information to make it easier to process. Enrichment reduces listening burden by minimising cognitive load, while maintaining or improving intelligibility. ENRICH investigates the relationship between cognitive effort and natural and synthetic speech. Non-intrusive metrics for listening effort will be developed and used to design modification techniques which result in low-burden speech. The value of various enrichment approaches will be evaluated with individuals and cohorts with typically sub-optimal communication ability, such as children, hearingor speech-impaired adults, non-native listeners and individuals engaged in simultaneous tasks.