This chapter provides an overview of wood in rivers, focusing on wood stability in rivers and design considerations for the reintroduction of wood to larger alluvial channels.Wood debris is a common component of the particulate matter in streams and rivers and has been recognized throughout most forested portions of the globe as an important factor influencing stream geomorphology and ecology. The stability and preservation of wood in large channels is primarily a function of its embedment in the streambed. The ecological benefits of wood are evident at several scales ranging from the wood surface to the complex interstitial space of wood accumulations (logjams), to the role of wood on altering bed textures and bed forms, to the influence of wood on channel planform, particularly creating multichannel systems. A logjam can increase available surface area for invertebrates and cover for fish by more than four orders of magnitude. A logjam can split flow and increase edge habitat severalfold. Logjams create pools and bars and raise water elevations to increase floodplain connectivity and have been placed in rivers with basal shear stress values of 166 Pa. Regardless of whether wood is included in a restoration design, as long as riparian trees grow along a stream, wood will end up in the channel; hence, it is also important to understand how naturally recruited wood behaves in rivers. Reintroducing wood to rivers brings up many other issues, from flood conveyance to public safety, all of which should be considered in the design process.


As a general rule, accused persons on trial in Anglo––North American criminal legal systems are not allowed to introduce into evidence exculpatory statements they have made out of court. There is no coherent rationale for this rule, which is difficult to defend as a matter of principle and pragmatism. Yet this "anomalous" rule 1 remains alive and well, at least in the U.S.A. and Canada, and invariably becomes the focus of pretrial or midtrial argument in those cases where such statements have been made. When an accused person fails to convince a trial judge to hear or receive evidence that he or she made exculpatory statements out of court, trial fairness is typically jeopardized. This article contends that at least three overarching principles of criminal justice——the inclusionary principle of evidence, trial fairness, and the presumption of innocence——require the rule itself to be abandoned. It should also be rejected as a matter of practicality.


Abnormal amyloid-β (Aβ) aggregates are a striking feature of Alzheimer's disease (AD), and Aβ oligomers have been proven to be crucial in the pathology of AD. Any intervention targeting the generation or aggregation of Aβ can be expected to be useful in AD treatment. Oxidative stress and inflammation are common pathological changes in AD that are involved in the generation and aggregation of Aβ. In the present study, 6-month-old PS1V97L transgenic (Tg) mice were treated with sulforaphane, an antioxidant, for 4 months, and this treatment significantly inhibited the generation and aggregation of Aβ. Sulforaphane also alleviated several downstream pathological changes that including tau hyperphosphorylation, oxidative stress, and neuroinflammation. Most importantly, the cognition of the sulforaphane-treated PS1V97L Tg mice remained normal compared to that of wild-type mice at 10 months of age, when dementia typically emerges in PS1V97L Tg mice. Pretreating cultured cortical neurons with sulforaphane also protected against neuronal injury caused by Aβ oligomers in vitro. These findings suggest that sulforaphane may be a potential compound that can inhibit Aβ oligomer production in AD.


To date, U.S. cross-border operations from Afghanistan into Pakistan have taken three forms: the use of Predator drones to target Al Qaeda fighters (although such drones may be launched solely from within Pakistan); the "hot pursuit" of militants who engaged in raids from Pakistan against U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan, as well as the Afghan government; and the deployment of special operations forces into Pakistan as a means of striking at Al Qaeda. These types of cross-border operations clearly implicate the jus ad bellum, in that they entail one state projecting highly coercive military force into another state. Arguably Pakistan has consented to at least some of these types of cross-border operations, but that consent is poorly documented, suffers from the conflicting and diffuse sources of authority within the Pakistani government, and ultimately may not endure given the vicissitudes of Pakistani domestic politics. As such, though consent is a powerful and useful basis for supporting the legality of U.S. cross-border operations, other justifications should be considered as well. Assuming Pakistani consent is lacking, other justifications for U.S. cross-border operations must be considered. The U.N. Security Council has on several occasions addressed the legality of foreign forces in Afghanistan. Yet the Security Council's Chapter VII resolutions are best seen as either authorizing the presence of a multinational force designed to stabilize Afghanistan (without having as its mission counter-terrorism operations, let alone operations outside Afghanistan), or simply recognizing the inherent right of self-defense of the United States and its allies. The inherent right of self-defense (individual and collective) does justify U.S. cross-border operations that respond to raids by militants from Pakistan into Afghanistan, so long as the U.S. operations remain necessary and proportionate to the threat of those raids, and so long as the Afghan government consents to the presence of U.S. forces. Such self-defense would also support unilateral uses of U.S. force against Al Qaeda in Pakistan, either in the form of covert operations by special forces units or the launching of Predators from Afghanistan to strike at targets in Pakistan, so long as it can be shown that those Al Qaeda targets are ones that are supporting the cross-border raids into Pakistan, and so long as Pakistan is unwilling or unable to prevent Al Qaeda's support for those raids. A broader right of self-defense against Al Qaeda targets in Pakistan based on the attacks of 9/11, however, is far more problematic, since the requirements of necessity and proportionality likely preclude unilateral uses of force against a third state that was not implicated in those attacks.


This article provides an overview of an ongoing study that explores farm management practices by Australian women cotton growers using farm management software, most particularly agricultural decision support systems (DSS). The research methodology is interpretive with multiple case studies of women cotton growers and industry professionals. Participants were selected on the basis of indicating an awareness of environmentally responsible and high technology farming practices. Data collection was principally by semi-structured in-depth interviews. The study is informed through a theoretical framework of structuration theory as a metatheory for probing the recursiveness of farm management and technology usage, and diffusion of innovations theory as a lower-level theory for analysing the characteristics of the software. Evidence from the study suggests that farm women intentionally select specific software modules for implementation depending on the attributes of the software. Further, while computer-based farm management systems, including agricultural DSS, are recognised media for technology transfer of industry research to farms, the study found the cooperation of farming partners to be essential in influencing effective reconstruction of farm management practices and software usage. The study also explores gender homophily, in particular the relationship between husband and wife as partners in a cotton farm business. It is apparent that gender differences and inequalities are still prevalent and indicative of "gender heterophily." Nevertheless, in the main, communication between parties is harmonious, empathetic, and by definition homophilous, thus ensuring effective information exchange. A notable benefit of using decision support software is an enhanced critical awareness of existing farm management practices. Further, the women are empowered by increasing confidence to contribute in enterprising ways to a greater range of farm management tasks and to more innovative applications of computer-based farm management tools.


WINNER OF THE 2014 SEYMOUR MEDAL sponsored by the Society for American Baseball Research and finalist for 2014 SABR Larry Ritter Award Though his pitching career lasted only a few seasons, Howard Ellsworth "Smoky Joe" Wood was one of the most dominating figures in baseball history-a man many consider the best baseball player who is not in the Hall of Fame. About his fastball, Hall of Fame pitcher Walter Johnson once said: "Listen, mister, no man alive can throw harder than Smoky Joe Wood." Smoky Joe Wood chronicles the singular life befitting such a baseball legend. Wood got his start impersonating a female on the National Bloomer Girls team. A natural athlete, he pitched for the Boston Red Sox at eighteen, won twenty-one games and threw a no-hitter at twenty-one, and had a 34-5 record plus three wins in the 1912 World Series, for a 1.91 ERA, when he was just twenty-two. Then in 1913 Wood suffered devastating injuries to his right hand and shoulder that forced him to pitch in pain for two more years. After sitting out the 1916 season, he came back as a converted outfielder and played another five years for the Cleveland Indians before retiring to coach the Yale University baseball team. With details culled from interviews and family archives, this biography, the first of this rugged player of the Deadball Era, brings to life one of the genuine characters of baseball history.


Get started using Cisco technologies quickly and easily

Here is a fully updated edition of the bestselling introductory guide to Cisco products and technologies. Cisco: A Beginner's Guide, Fourth Edition provides you with a practical hands-on resource for successfully designing and managing a Cisco network. Learn to work with Cisco routers and switches, wireless technologies, and storage tools. You'll also get full details on network security, including firewalls, as well as communications solutions such as VoIP. This is a must-have resource for anyone interested in internetworking and Cisco technologies.

Work with Cisco's Internet technologies
Configure Cisco routers and networks
Understand Cisco internetworking technologies including LAN switches, multilayered switching, and VLANs
Secure your network using CiscoSecure ACS, Cisco PIX firewall, IOS Firewall, and other methods
Enable wireless internetworking using the Cisco Aironet and Airespace products
Deploy VoIP via Cisco Unified Communications
Implement Cisco storage area network (SAN) and content delivery network (CDN) solutions
Use both open standard routing protocols (RIP, OSPF, BGP) and Cisco-proprietary protocols (IGRP and EIGRP)
Design, manage, and troubleshoot a robust Cisco network

Table of contents

Part I: Cisco Overview
Ch. 1: Cisco and the Internet
Ch. 2: Network Primer
Part II: Cisco Internetworking Tools
Ch. 3: Router Overview
Ch. 4: Configuring Routers
Ch. 5: Switches
Ch. 6: Security Overview
Ch. 7: Security Building Blocks
Ch. 8: Cisco Wireless Solutions
Part III: Cisco Business Solutions
Ch. 9: Cisco Unified Contact Center
Ch. 10: Storage Tools
Ch. 11: Cisco Content Networking and Video Solutions
Part IV: Designing Cisco Networks
Ch. 12: Routing Protocols
Ch. 13: Network Management
Ch. 14: Network Design Process
Ch. 15: Troubleshooting Cisco Networks
INDEX


Abstract. The interaction of the solar wind with a planetary magnetic field causes electrical currents that modify the magnetic field distribution around the planet. We present an approach to estimating the planetary magnetic field from in situ spacecraft data using a magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulation approach. The method is developed with respect to the upcoming BepiColombo mission to planet Mercury aimed at determining the planet's magnetic field and its interior electrical conductivity distribution. In contrast to the widely used empirical models, global MHD simulations allow the calculation of the strongly time-dependent interaction process of the solar wind with the planet. As a first approach, we use a simple MHD simulation code that includes time-dependent solar wind and magnetic field parameters. The planetary parameters are estimated by minimizing the misfit of spacecraft data and simulation results with a gradient-based optimization. As the calculation of gradients with respect to many parameters is usually very time-consuming, we investigate the application of an adjoint MHD model. This adjoint MHD model is generated by an automatic differentiation tool to compute the gradients efficiently. The computational cost for determining the gradient with an adjoint approach is nearly independent of the number of parameters. Our method is validated by application to THEMIS (Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms) magnetosheath data to estimate Earth's dipole moment.


EMPIRICAL ESSAYS IN THE ENTERTAINMENT AND HOSPITALITY INDUSTRIES Fangyun Tom Tan Lorin Hitt In the first part of the dissertation, we empirically examine the impact of expanded product variety due to the adoption of the Internet on demand concentration, taking endogeneity into consideration. We analyze two large data sets from the movie rental industry at both movie-level and consumer-level. We find that product variety diversifies the demand for niches more significantly than for hits in absolute terms (e.g., the top/bottom 1,000 titles). However, using relative terms (e.g., the top/bottom 10% of titles) to dynamically adjust for the changing product variety, we find that product variety increases the demand for the hits and reduces the demand for the niches. We further find that product variety increases monthly Gini Coefficients, a measure of demand concentration. We propose that new products appear much faster than consumers discover them. Finally, we find no evidence that niche titles satisfy consumer tastes any better than popular titles and that a small number of heavy users are more likely to venture into niches than light users. In the second part of the dissertation, we analyze a large, detailed operational data set from a restaurant chain to shed new light on how workload (defined as the hourly average number of diners assigned to a server) affects servers' performance (measured as hourly sales). We use an exogenous shock implementation of a labor scheduling software to disentangle the endogeneity between demand and supply in this setting. We find that when the overall workload is low, an increase in the workload leads to higher server performance. However, there is a saturation point after which any further increase in the workload leads to degradation of performance. In the focal restaurant chain we find that this saturation point is generally not reached and, counter-intuitively, the chain can reduce the staffing level and achieve both significantly higher sales (an estimated 35% increase) and lower labor costs (an estimated 20% decrease).


Background: Inpatient rehabilitation for cancer patients has been demonstrated to improve patients' health related quality of life (HRQoL) effectively. The purpose of this study was to compare changes in general health and HRQoL of cancer patients who were referred to inpatient rehabilitation (IR) with those in two control groups who underwent outpatient management either with advice for inpatient rehabilitation (A+) or without (A-). Methods: In this naturalistic, longitudinal, controlled cohort study, changes in general health and HRQoL were assessed at either discharge of acute hospital or start of rehabilitation (baseline) and at the follow-up 3 weeks later or end of rehabilitation. Outcome variables included general health and HRQoL assessed by the Short Form 36 (SF-36) and the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy (FACT), and fatigue (FACT-F), depression and anxiety by the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Changes on the scores were compared with bivariate and multivariate analyses using standardized mean differences (SMD). Results: IR patients (n=133) were on average older, reported lower HRQoL and health, and suffered more frequently from carcinoma than patients of the A+ (n=30) and the A- (n=82) groups. In the IR patients, pain, physical functioning, mental health, vitality, and fatigue improved significantly compared to the A+ controls. Compared to the A- group, the bivariate effects were lower but still statistically significant on many scales. Conclusions: IR showed moderate, statistically significant superior effects over outpatient management of cancer patients after acute treatment. Findings indicate that inpatient cancer rehabilitation can be recommended as an effective management after acute treatment. As today, referrals to inpatient rehabilitation for cancer patients are still not based on structured standardized procedures, the implementation of such screening is needed to address patients' needs and to render the potential for rehabilitation more reliable.


Recent developments in tiling theory, primarily in the study of anisohedral shapes, have been the product of exhaustive computer searches through various classes of polygons. I present a brief background of tiling theory and past work, with particular emphasis on isohedral numbers, aperiodicity, Heesch numbers, criteria to characterize isohedral tilings, and various details that have arisen in past computer searches.

I then develop and implement a new ``boundary-based'' technique, characterizing shapes as a sequence of characters representing unit length steps taken from a finite language of directions, to replace the ``area-based'' approaches of past work, which treated the Euclidean plane as a regular lattice of cells manipulated like a bitmap. The new technique allows me to reproduce and verify past results on polyforms (edge-to-edge assemblies of unit squares, regular hexagons, or equilateral triangles) and then generalize to a new class of shapes dubbed polysnakes, which past approaches could not describe. My implementation enumerates polyforms using Redelmeier's recursive generation algorithm, and enumerates polysnakes using a novel approach. The shapes produced by the enumeration are subjected to tests to either determine their isohedral number or prove they are non-tiling.

My results include the description of this novel approach to testing tiling properties, a correction to previous descriptions of the criteria for characterizing isohedral tilings, the verification of some previous results on polyforms, and the discovery of two new 4-anisohedral polysnakes.


Ocular Microtremor (OMT) is a continual, high frequency physiological tremor of the eye present in all subjects even when the eye is apparently at rest. OMT causes a peak to peak displacement of around 150nm-2500nm with a broadband frequency spectrum between 30Hz to 120Hz; with a peak at about 83Hz. OMT carries useful clinical information on depth of consciousness and on some neurological disorders. Nearly all quantitative clinical investigations have been based on OMT measurements using an eye contacting piezoelectric probe which has low clinical acceptability. Laser speckle metrology is a candidate for a high resolution, non-contacting, compact, portable OMT measurement technique. However, tear flow and biospeckle might be expected to interfere with the displacement information carried by the speckle. The paper investigates the properties of the scattered speckle of laser light (λ = 632.8nm) from the eye sclera to assess the feasibility of using speckle techniques to measure OMT such as the speckle correlation. The investigation is carried using a high speed CMOS video camera adequate to capture the high frequency of the tremor. The investigation is supported by studies using an eye movement simulator (a bovine sclera driven by piezoelectric bimorphs). The speckle contrast and the frame to frame spatiotemporal variations are analyzed to determine if the OMT characteristics are detectable within speckle changes induced by the biospeckle or other movements.


The shrinkage limit is one of the Atterberg limits and is a fundamental geotechnical parameter used to assess the settlement of engineering soils containing clays, yet is rarely tested for as part of ground investigation. This paper describes shrinkage limit test results on a variety of soils from Britain and overseas obtained using an improved laboratory testing procedure developed at the British Geological Survey. The co-relationships with the other Atterberg limits and with density are explored. In particular, the coincidence of the shrinkage limit with the water content at the peak bulk density achieved in the test is examined. The shrinkage behaviour for undisturbed and remoulded states and a three-way relationship between water content, density and suction are demonstrated. Some tropical residual and highly smectitic soils show a very wide range of shrinkage behaviour, albeit for a small dataset, when compared with the larger dataset of temperate soils tested. Consideration is given to limitations of the new and existing test methods.


This article introduces knowledge of the rhetorical genre of epideictic to design. The aim is to provide designers with concepts that stimulate their ability to deliberate about design choices and explore the arguments they may be making about the human-made world. The article begins with explorations of how to perceive the situations that designers may address, then rhetorical perspectives that may be useful when creating design arguments, and finally examples of how to use these rhetorical perspectives in design. Based on analyzed examples and theories on design problems, situational perspectives, and rhetorical genres, the article concludes that designers can benefit from perceiving their design as value celebration rather than problem solving.


Abstract. The mechanisms of litter decomposition, translocation and stabilization into soil layers are fundamental processes in the functioning of the ecosystem, as they regulate the cycle of soil organic matter (SOM) and CO2 emission into the atmosphere. In this study the contribution of litters of different stages of Mediterranean secondary succession on carbon sequestration was investigated, analyzing the role of earthworms in the translocation of SOM into the soil profile. For this purpose the δ13C difference between meadow C4-C soil and C3-C litter was used in a field experiment. Four undisturbed litters of different stages of succession (45, 70, 100 and 120 since agriculture abandon) were collected and placed on the top of isolated C4 soil cores. The litter contribution to C stock was affected by plant species and it increased with the age of the stage of secondary succession. One year after the litter position, the soil organic carbon increased up to 40% in comparison to soils not treated with litter after 120 years of abandon. The new carbon derived from C3 litter was decomposed and transferred into soil profile thanks to earthworms and the leaching of dissolved organic carbon. After 1 year the carbon increase attributed to earthworm activity was 6 and 13% in the soils under litter of fields abandoned for 120 and 45 years, respectively.


The study describes types, absolute and relative numbers of implant failures in flexible bridging osteosynthesis using a six-hole 3.5 mm titanium Locking Compression Plate (n = 9) or a fivehole LCP 4.5 mm titanium (n = 40) selected for the fixation of segmental ostectomy of femoral diaphysis in the miniature pig used as an in vivo model in a study on the healing of a critically sized bone defect using transplantation of mesenchymal stem cells combined with biocompatible scaffolds within a broader research project. Occasional implant failure was evaluated based on radiographic examination of femurs of animals 2, 4, 8, 12 and 16 weeks after surgery. When bone defect was stabilized using 3.5 mm LCP, in 6 cases (66.7%) the screw was broken/lost in the proximal fragment of the femur 2 weeks after implantation (n = 4) and 4 weeks after implantation (n = 2). In 4 cases of these, the implant failure was accompanied also by loosening of the screw in position 3 in the proximal fragment of the femur. During ostectomy stabilization with 4.5 mm LCP, in 3 cases (7.5%) LCP was broken at the place of the empty central plate hole (without inserted screw) at the level of the segmental bone defect. Compared to the six-hole 3.5 mm LCP, the five-hole titanium 4.5 mm LCP is more suitable implant for flexible bridging osteosynthesis of a critically sized segmental defect of femoral diaphysis in the miniature pig. The results of this study will allow reducing implant failures in time- and cost-demanding transplantation experiments focused on bone healing.


OBJECTIVE
The sitting or semisitting position in neurosurgery allows for several technical advantages, including improved visualization of the surgical field. However, it has also been associated with an increased risk of venous air embolisms and positioning-related complications that limit its commonplace adoption. The authors report a large, single-center series of cervical spine procedures performed with patients in the sitting or prone position in order to assess the perceived risk of intraoperative and postoperative complications associated with the sitting position.

METHODS
Noninstrumented, single-level posterior cervical spine procedures performed with patients in the sitting/semisitting or prone position from 2000 to 2016 at a single institution were reviewed. Institutional abstraction tools (DataMart and Chart Plus) were used to collect data from the medical records. The two positions were compared with regard to preoperative factors, intraoperative variables, and postoperative outcomes. Multivariable logistic regression models were fitted for 30-day readmission, 30-day return to the operating room, and complication rates.

RESULTS
A total of 750 patients (sitting, n = 480; prone, n = 270) were analyzed. The median age was 53 years for those who underwent surgery in the prone position and 50 years for those who underwent surgery in the sitting position (IQRs 45-62 years and 43-60 years, respectively), and 35% of the patients were female. Sitting cases were associated with significantly longer anesthetic times (221 minutes [range 199-252 minutes] vs 205 minutes [range 179-254 minutes]) and operative times (126 minutes [range 101-163 minutes] vs 149 minutes [120-181 minutes]). Cardiorespiratory events in the postanesthesia care unit (PACU) were comparable between the two groups, with the exception of episodes of apnea (2.6% vs 0.6%, p = 0.041) and hypoventilation (4.4% vs 0.8%, p < 0.003), which were more frequent in the prone-position cohort. On multivariable analysis, the effect of the sitting versus the prone position was not significant for 30-day readmission (OR 0.77, 95% CI 0.34-1.71, p = 0.52) or reoperation (OR 0.71, 95% CI 0.31-1.60, p = 0.40). The sitting position was associated with lower odds of developing any complication (OR 0.31, 95% CI 0.16-0.62, p < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS
Based on the intraoperative and postoperative complications chosen in this study, the sitting position confers a similar safety profile to the prone position. This can be explained by a more anatomic positioning accounting for reduced temporary neurological deficits and reduced PACU-associated hypoventilation noted in this series. Nevertheless, the findings may also reflect institutional familiarity, experience, and mastery of this position type, and outcomes may not reflect practices in general.


This thesis concerns with Banjarese clitics. Conducting this study, the writer is curious to know the particular Banjarese clitics that the Banjarese students use among Banjarese friends (inner- group communication) and non- Banjarese friends (outergroup communication). Here, the writer investigates the influence of role relationship of participants of the conversation on Petra Christian University students of Banjarese-speaking background and also the frequency of occurrence in using the particular Banjarese clitics. Thus, this study is supported by sociolinguistics theories of Fishman?s theory of social situation and speech marker theory by Scherer. Since this study is focused on the Banjarese clitics, the writer uses the theory of clitics in Bahasa Indonesia in order to provide some insight to find out what clitics may be found in the conversation of students of Banjarese-speaking background and to be her stepping point of departure to guide her research in exploring the existence of Banjarese clitics in both inner- and outer- group communication. Furthermore, the study uses descriptive approach as it is designed to obtain conclusion dealing with the use of Banjarese clitics in relation with the role relationship. Finally, the writer finds that the PCU Banjarese students tend to use clitics [-kah], [-lah], [-nah], [-jar], [- pang], [-ja], [-kam], [-kan], [-loh] and [-bah] in their inner-group communication. Meanwhile, they tend to use clitic [-kah], [-nah], [-loh], [-lah], [-ni] and [-ai] in their outer-group communication. Even more interesting, the writer finds out that clitic [-ai] and [-ni] are used in outer-group communication but those are not used in inner-group communication. Last of all, the writer concludes that the use of Banjarese clitics is influenced by the role relationship of the participants of the conversation.


Type 1 interferons (IFN-α and IFN-β) help defend against viruses through the activation of various protective innate immune pathways. A more controversial idea is that these cytokines also regulate IFN-γ, the type 2 interferon responsible for directing the cell-mediated arm of the adaptive immune response. Nguyen et al. now provide direct evidence that, IFN-α, as well as interleukin 12 (IL-12), can activate the IFN-γ-dependent response to viral infection in mice. However, this process required activation of the signal transducer and activator of transcription 4 (STAT4), which is also the primary target of IL-12. This finding refocuses the role of type-1 IFNs in controlling adaptive, as well as innate, immune responses to pathogens. For information about the canonical signaling pathways activated by interferons, see the Connections Maps [Interferon γ Pathway and the Type 1 Interferon (α/β) Pathway] by Aaronson and Horvath. K. B. Nguyen, W. T. Watford, R. Salomon, S. R. Hofmann, G. C. Pien, A. Morinobu, M. Gadina, J. J. O'Shea, C. A. Biron, Critical role for STAT4 activation by type 1 interferons in the interferon-γ response to viral infection. Science 297, 2063-2066 (2002). [Abstract] [Full Text] D. Aaronson, C. M. Horvath, Interferon γ Pathway. Science's STKE (Connections Map as seen September 2002), http://stke.sciencemag.org/cgi/cm/CMP_9590. [Pathway] D. Aaronson, C. M. Horvath, Type 1 Interferon (α/β) Pathway. Science's STKE (Connections Map as seen September 2002), http://stke.sciencemag.org/cgi/cm/CMP_8390. [Pathway]


Education for sustainable development (ESD), a UN initiative, is an emerging field and a movement advocating for a reorientation of education. Integration of ESD has been slow, especially in higher education. The most notable progress is marked by campus greening and research initiatives, while pedagogical innovation, the topic of this paper, has been much slower to develop. Reid (2002) posits that the implementation challenge may be complicated by ESD's lack of concrete direction, however, the possibilities of adopting time-honored educational practices for this purpose as well as allowing ESD to extend educational practice is compelling. The purpose of this paper is to explore some of those time-honored educational practices which may be highly symbiotic to ESD's intent, specifically, those characteristic of the Progressive Era of Education (PEE) in the 1930's. It could be easily argued that ESD is simply a second chapter in PEE. More importantly, since the two movements embody great kinship, the pedagogical predilections of ESD may be better understood by exploring those of PEE; namely, constructivism, and especially dialectical constructivism; learning characterized by active engagement and social interaction. The following discussion first explores pedagogical theories and strategies associated with ESD and then correlates those with that of PEE. Finally, a repertoire of practical action using constructivist teaching methods that may be taken into the classroom to implement ESD is outlined.


I It is unusual to be able to date the start of a literary field of study, let alone locate the origin of a literary form. Yet, in the case of the Gothic drama, it is possible to do both. Horace Walpole, whose Castle of Otranto (1764) is said to be the first Gothic novel, also wrote the first Gothic drama, The Mysterious Mother (1768). While surely one can find elements of the Gothic in earlier plays and precursor texts for Walpole's drama, this play first brings together in a comprehensive way the tactics and themes that will mark the Gothic in the theater. Again, while the Gothic did not have a major presence in the theater until the 1790s, with another major spurt of Gothic plays occurring in the post-Waterloo years, playwrights, perhaps most famously Byron, continued to look back to Walpole's example. Byron wrote in the preface to Marino Faliero, Doge of Venice, that Walpole was "the father of the first romance, and the last tragedy of our language, and surely worthy of a higher place than any living writer, be he who he may" (xx). We can also date very precisely the arrival of the study of Gothic drama as a scholarly endeavor. While there were obviously contemporary views and reviews of Gothic drama, and while there were glances at the dramatic version of the Gothic more often studied in the novel, it was not until 1947 with the publication of Bertrand Evans's landmark Gothic Drama from Walpole to Shelley that the field was laid out, a canon of texts identified, and key issues set forth. It would take another forty years and more before a large body of work would be created around the Gothic drama, but Evans's work still gives impetus and shape to the study of Gothic plays. We were reminded of the importance of Evans's book by another founder of the field of Gothic studies, Frederick S. Frank. Frank did the essential bibliographic work needed to define any field of study within the Gothic. In The First Gothics: A Critical Guide to the English Gothic Novel (1987), Gothic Writers: A Critical and Bibliographical Guide (2002), and in his three versions of Guides to the Gothic (1984, 1995, 2005), he literally outlined the field. In 2006, he reissued Evan's seminal study, correcting the earlier book, expanding his bibliography, and supplying an essay on "The Origins of the Modern Study of Gothic Drama." Having helped bring the field of Gothic Studies to maturity through his encyclopedic bibliographic work, Frank returned us to the starting point for anyone interested in the Gothic drama. Since Frank was also deeply interested in and edited Walpole's Mysterious Mother, the starting point for Gothic dramatists, this collection of essays devoted to Frank provides an opportunity to think about that play as the origin of Gothic drama, a play which itself is concerned with origins, both issues of birth clouded by incest and of a modern sensibility and sexuality. II The history of the printed text of Walpole's Mysterious Mother is almost as mysterious as the history of its heroine. Walpole wrote the play from 1766-68. Upon its completion, he decided against having it submitted for performance, as he indicated that he feared the incest theme would create too great a scandal. Instead, he printed the play on his own press at Strawberry Hill. This first private edition of the play included an interesting postscript, to which we will return. Walpole did not write a preface for the play until he decided to release the drama in an edition to be printed by Dodsley in 1781, when Walpole wished to block a pirated edition, but the preface did not in fact appear then, but only in 1791 in a Dublin printing where the publishers include an advertisement (Frank ed., 171-74). He had also contemplated a 1770 edition, and various friends hoped to see the play published or planned to extract from it. Two key frames for the play, the prologue and epilogue, though almost both surely written in 1768, were not printed until 1798 in The Works of Horatio Walpole, Earl of Orford. …


Abstract. In this study estimation of tree damage from a windthrow event using feature detection on RGB high resolution imagery is assessed. An accurate quantitative assessment of the damage in terms of volume is important and can be done by ground sampling, which is notably expensive and time-consuming, or by manual interpretation and analyses of aerial images. This latter manual method also requires an expert operator investing time to manually detect damaged trees and apply relation functions between measures and volume which are also error-prone. In the proposed method RGB images with 0.2 m ground sample distance are analysed using an adaptive template matching method. Ten images corresponding to ten separate study areas are tested. A 13x13 pixels kernel with a simplified linear-feature representation of a cylinder is applied at different rotation angles (from 0° to 170° at 10° steps). The higher values of the normalized cross-correlation (NCC) of all angles are recorded for each pixel for each image. Several features are tested: percentiles (75, 80, 85, 90, 95, 99, max) and sum and number of pixels with NCC above 0.55. Three regression methods are tested, multiple regression (mr), support vector machines (svm) with linear kernel and random forests. The first two methods gave the best results. The ground-truth was acquired by ground sampling, and total volumes of damaged trees are estimated for each of the 10 areas. Damaged volumes in the ten areas range from ~1.8 x102 m3 to ~1.2x104 m3. Regression results show that smv regression method over the sum gives an R-squared of 0.92, a mean of absolute errors (MAE) of 255 m3 and a relative absolute error (RAE) of 34% using leave-one-out cross validation from the 10 observations. These initial results are encouraging and support further investigations on more finely tuned kernel template metrics to define an unsupervised image analysis process to automatically assess forest damage from windthrow.


The requirements of computing literacy for business students who are not majoring in Management Information Systems (MIS) are changing. A survey was conducted to explore the impact of MIS courses on the perceived computing literacy of the business students in a regional university. The findings suggest that on a broader scale MIS courses provided the basis for the students to become computing literate. The majority of students applied their computer skills to other courses and of those who worked, more than half utilized their computer skills in their current job. However, students' self-reported knowledge of software such as data communications and programming languages was quite low, an indication that the MIS curriculum is modeled after the conventional system emphasizing microcomputer applications packages, a system which is rapidly becoming obsolete. In addition, the contradiction observed in the responses of students regarding their perception of computing literacy and their reported knowledge levels warrants attention. Specifically, while over 70% of the students evaluated themselves as being computing literate, their confidence of their knowledge of hardware and software was quite low. Regional universities may need to re-examine their curriculum offerings in accordance with the demands of industry and changing needs of the workforce, in order to prepare graduates to meet those demands. This need is emphasized in the light of the role these universities play in providing educational opportunities for the communities surrounding them.


This article discusses the addition of an energy parameter to the shortest path execution process; namely, the energy expenditure by a character during execution of the path. Given a simple environment in which a character has the ability to perform actions related to locomotion, such as walking and stair stepping, current techniques execute the shortest path based on the length of the extracted root trajectory. However, actual humans acting in constrained environments do not plan only according to shortest path criterion, they conceptually measure the path that minimizes the amount of energy expenditure. On this basis, it seems that virtual characters should also execute their paths according to the minimization of actual energy expenditure as well. In this article, a simple method that uses a formula for computing vanadium dioxide ($VO_2$) levels, which is a proxy for the energy expenditure by humans during various activities, is presented. The presented solution could be beneficial in any situation requiring a sophisticated perspective of the path-execution process. Moreover, it can be implemented in almost every path-planning method that has the ability to measure stepping actions or other actions of a virtual character.


This thesis describes work on fusing data from multiple sources of information, and focuses on two main areas: adaptive detection and adaptive object tracking in automated vision scenarios. The work on adaptive object detection explores a new paradigm in dynamic parameter selection, by selecting thresholds for object detection to maximise agreement between pairs of sources. Object tracking, a complementary technique to object detection, is also explored in a multi-source context and an efficient framework for robust tracking, termed the Spatiogram Bank tracker, is proposed as a means to overcome the difficulties of traditional histogram tracking. As well as performing theoretical analysis of the proposed methods, specific example applications are given for both the detection and the tracking aspects, using thermal infrared and visible spectrum video data, as well as other multi-modal information sources.


Fusion reactions of cupola half-fullerenes C16, C18, C24, C30 and C36 with each other are considered on the basis of Arrhenius's postulate. It means that at first there forms an intermediate compound and only afterwards a usual chemical reaction is going on. The final structure of fullerenes is obtained with the help of geometric modeling and is optimized through the use of Avogadro package. In general, the fullerenes which tend to take the appearance of a perfect spheroid have lesser formation energy. The energy of fullerenes C32, C36, C48, C60 and C72 obtained is calculated. The periodic system of basic perfect fullerenes is suggested.


Data from existing literature examining the influence of floor space allowance on the growth of finishing pigs were used to develop prediction equations for ADG, ADFI, and G:F. Two sets of databases were used. The first database included information from studies examining the influence of floor space allowance. The second database included the aforementioned literature, along with papers examining the impact of floor space after pigs were removed from the pen (topping). The first database included 27, 25, and 25 papers for ADG, ADFI, and G:F, respectively. The second database included 30, 28, and 28 papers for ADG, ADFI, and G:F, respectively. The predictor variables tested were floor space (m2/pig), k (floor space, m2/final BW, kg0.67), initial BW (kg), final BW (kg), feeder space (pigs per feeder hole), water space (pigs per waterer), group size (pigs per pen), gender, floor type, and study length (d). A mixed linear model approach was used for model development, and floor space treatments within each experiment were the experimental units. Evaluations of models with significant terms were conducted using the Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC). The optimum equations to predict finishing ADG, ADFI, and G:F for the first database were: ADG, g =395.57+(15,727 × k)-(221,705 × k2)-(3.6478 × Initial BW, kg)+ (2.209 × Final BW, kg)+(67.6294 × k × Initial BW, kg) ADFI, g =802.07+(20,121× k)-(301,210 × k2)-(1.5985 × Initial BW, kg)+ (11.8907 × Final BW, kg )+(159.79 × k × Initial BW, kg) G:F =Predicted ADG/Predicted ADFI The optimum equations to predict ADG, ADFI, and G:F for the second database were: ADG, g =337.57+(16,468 × k)-(237,350 × k2)-(3.1209 × Initial BW, kg)+ (2.569 × Final BW, kg)+(71.6918 × k × Initial BW, kg) ADFI, g = 833.41+(24,785 × k)-(388,998 × k2)-(3.0027 × Initial BW, kg)+ (11.246 × Final BW, kg)+(187.61 × k × Initial BW, kg) G:F =Predicted ADG/Predicted ADFI All multi-term models reduced the BIC values compared to individual term models. Data from 3 separate experiments examining the effects of floor space allowance on growth performance were used to evaluate the accuracy of the prediction equations herein and also previously developed prediction equations (Kornegay and Notter, 1984; Powell et al., 1993; and Gonyou et al., 2006). Predicted values from equations reported herein improved model evaluation statistics compared to Kornegay and Notter (1984), and Powell (1993), and were comparable to predicted values by Gonyou et al. (2006), with improved root mean square error calculations that suggest more accurate predictions of growth rate. Between the equations developed from the databases, those from the second database more accurately predict growth performance at heavier BW ranges as well as the growth performance of finishing pigs remaining in a pen after pigs are removed.


We propose a fast method with statistical guarantees for learning an exponential family density model where the natural parameter is in a reproducing kernel Hilbert space, and may be infinite-dimensional. The model is learned by fitting the derivative of the log density, the score, thus avoiding the need to compute a normalization constant. Our approach improves the computational efficiency of an earlier solution by using a low-rank, Nystrom-like solution. The new solution retains the consistency and convergence rates of the full-rank solution (exactly in Fisher distance, and nearly in other distances), with guarantees on the degree of cost and storage reduction. We evaluate the method in experiments on density estimation and in the construction of an adaptive Hamiltonian Monte Carlo sampler. Compared to an existing score learning approach using a denoising autoencoder, our estimator is empirically more data-efficient when estimating the score, runs faster, and has fewer parameters (which can be tuned in a principled and interpretable way), in addition to providing statistical guarantees.


The Institute of Medicine (2001) describes the United States' healthcare system as poorly organized and difficult for patients to navigate. Patients are often lost during the transition between providers, failing to establish subsequent care (Thomas, 2015). Gaps in care lead to worsening conditions that result in billions of dollars in healthcare costs (National Quality Forum, 2016). Following discharge from the care of the obstetrician, postpartum women should establish care with a primary care provider (American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 2016). The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology recommends that postpartum women transition to a primary care provider within the year following childbirth (Pai-jong, Nakashima, Yamamoto, Ngo, & Kaneshiro, 2011). Less than 33% of women nationally adhere to this recommendation (John Hopkins Medicine, 2014); less than 5% of women within the host clinic transitioned to a primary care provider. This project aimed to improve the transition of postpartum women, ages 18 to 44, to a primary care provider. The primary objective was to increase the number of postpartum women who scheduled and attended a primary care provider appointment within 2 months of delivery. The intervention included patient information material, staff training, and a process for establishing care with a primary care provider. Between June 12, 2016, and August 15, 2016, 27 women met the inclusion criteria. Following the intervention, 23 women (82%) scheduled a primary care provider appointment, and 12 women (44%) attended the appointment. Results suggest that a combination of provider counseling, patient education, and assistance with the transition process can influence patient adherence to expert recommendations for establishing subsequent care.


In this paper we assess the effects of multipath propagation on the link performance of a short-range wireless device, like the Bluetooth, in an indoor office environment. Specifically, we analyze the non line of sight (NLOS) propagation scenario and confirm the theoretical statistics of the fading using real measurements and finite element method (FEM) simulations of the environment. The simulations are also used for assessing the impact of multipath propagation when doors are opened or closed. In addition, we also investigate the improvement in performance resulting from receive diversity gain of a system employing multiple receive antennas with various combining techniques.


Some viruses evade detection by encoding enzymes that modify the structures of their coding RNAs to match those of their hosts. Hosts and their pathogens exist in a constant struggle, with the host evolving mechanisms to avoid or eliminate infection and the pathogens evolving mechanisms to subvert these processes and survive and reproduce (see García-Sastre). One strategy used by the virus is host mimicry, which compromises the ability of the cell to tell self from nonself. Züst et al. provide insight into a mechanism by which the host cell distinguishes self mRNA from viral RNA and finds that some viruses can modify their RNAs to resemble those of the host and thus evade induction of the antiviral response. Eukaryotic mRNAs are modified by a 5′ "cap" that includes ribose-2′-O-methylation, among other modifications. Many cytoplasmic viruses encode enzymes that add similar modifications to the viral RNAs. Züst et al. showed that viruses engineered to be deficient in 2′-O-methyltransferase caused a greatly increased induction of the interferon response from infected cells and were inhibited from replicating in cells treated with interferon relative to cells infected with the parent viral strains. Cytoplasmic viruses are detected by host sensor proteins of the RIG-1 family, including RIG-1 and MDA5, which recognize viral RNA products, and the induction of interferon by the response to the ribose-2′-O-methylation–deficient viruses required MDA5. Nuclear translocation of a transcription factor that induces genes encoding interferons in response to the ribose-2′-O-methylation–deficient viral infection was also MDA5-dependent. In vivo, mice infected with the parent mouse hepatitis virus (MHV-A59) exhibited persistent infection in the spleen and liver, whereas the ribose-2′-O-methylation–deficient viruses were not detectable 48 hours after infection. Using two different mutations in the ribose-2′-O-methyltransferase, one that completely abrogated activity (MHV-D130A) and one that had reduced activity (MHV-Y15A), the authors showed that, both in vivo (mouse infection) and in vitro (infection of cultured cells), replication of the MHV-D130A mutant was more effectively inhibited, and the data suggested that there were two mechanisms by which loss of ribose-2′-O-methylation triggered antiviral signaling, one that depended on the initial induction of type 1 interferon and one that depended on the responsiveness to interferon signaling. Indeed, translation of RNAs lacking ribose-2′-O-methylation is inhibited by proteins of the IFIT family, which are encoded by interferon target genes, and cells deficient in IFIT-1 exhibited robust replication of the MHV-D130A mutant. Thus, ribose-2′-O-methylation allows viral RNAs both to escape detection by MDA5 and to avoid translation inhibition. R. Züst, L. Cervantes-Barragan, M. Habjan, R. Maier, B. W. Neuman, J. Ziebuhr, K. J. Szretter, S. C. Baker, W. Barchet, M. S. Diamond, S. G. Siddell, B. Ludewig, V. Thiel, Ribose-2′-O-methylation provides a molecular signature for the distinction of self and non-self mRNA dependent on the RNA sensor Mda5. Nat. Immunol. 12, 137–143 (2011). [PubMed] A. García-Sastre, 2 methylate or not 2 methylate: Viral evasion of the type 1 interferon response. Nat. Immunol. 12, 114–115 (2011). [PubMed]


Robust and effective real-time visual tracking is realized by combining the first order differential invariants with stochastic filtering. The Kalman filter as an optimal stochastic filter is used to estimate the motion parameters, namely the plant state vector of the moving object with the unknown dynamics in successive image frames. Using the fact that the relative motion between the moving object and the moving observer causes the deformation, we compute the first differential invariants of the image velocity field. The surface orientation and the depth estimate between the observer and the object are computed based on these first order differential invariants. We demonstrate the robustness and feasibility of the proposed tracking algorithm through real experiments in which an X-Y Cartesian robot tracks a toy vehicle moving along 3D rails.


To learn a new visual category from few examples, prior knowledge from unlabeled data as well as previous related categories may be useful. We develop a new method for transfer learning which exploits available unlabeled data and an arbitrary kernel function; we form a representation based on kernel distances to a large set of unlabeled data points. To transfer knowledge from previous related problems we observe that a category might be learnable using only a small subset of reference prototypes. Related problems may share a significant number of relevant prototypes; we find such a concise representation by performing a joint loss minimization over the training sets of related problems with a shared regularization penalty that minimizes the total number of prototypes involved in the approximation. This optimization problem can be formulated as a linear program that can be solved efficiently. We conduct experiments on a news-topic prediction task where the goal is to predict whether an image belongs to a particular news topic. Our results show that when only few examples are available for training a target topic, leveraging knowledge learnt from other topics can significantly improve performance.


Certain behavioral features of buprenorphine, including a bell-shaped curve for antinociception and attenuation of alcohol consumption, are thought to be mediated by activation of nociceptin/orphanin FQ peptide (NOP) receptors, despite moderate affinity and low efficacy at NOP receptors. We hypothesized that ligands with buprenorphine's physical properties, but possessing increased NOP receptor affinity and efficacy, would improve the profile as a drug abuse medication and reduce addiction liability. Using this strategy, we designed several compounds with universally high affinity, i.e., less than 10 nM at μ, δ, κ, and NOP receptors. Among these, (2S)-2-[(5R,6R,7R,14S)-N-cyclopropylmethyl-4,5-epoxy-6,14-ethano-3-hydroxy-6-methoxymorphinan-7-yl]-3,3-dimethylpentan-2-ol (BU08028) has high affinity at all opioid receptors and increased NOP receptor efficacy in vitro in the [35S]GTPγS binding assay, however, while still being a partial agonist. In vivo, BU08028 was evaluated in an acute thermal antinociception assay, for its ability to induce conditioned place preference (CPP), and for its effect on cocaine-induced CPP. BU08028 is a very potent long-lasting analgesic. It produces an increase in locomotor activity and a significant CPP. As a pretreatment to cocaine, BU08028 does not alter cocaine CPP but causes a further increase in cocaine-induced locomotor activity. The analgesic, rewarding, and stimulant effects are probably caused by μ receptor stimulation. It is likely that with BU08028, a partial agonist at both NOP and μ receptors, μ-mediated activity overpowers NOP-mediated effects. Thus, it is possible that a different buprenorphine analog that is a universal high-affinity opioid ligand but with "full agonist" activity at NOP may counteract traditional opioid-mediated effects such as antinociception and reward.


Economic models of tort law evaluate the efficiency of liability rules in terms of care and activity levels. A liability regime is optimal when it creates incentives to maximize the value of risky activities net of accident and precaution costs. The allocation of primary and residual liability allows policy makers to induce parties to undertake socially desirable care and activity levels. Traditionally, tort law systems have assigned residual liability either entirely on the tortfeasor or entirely on the victim. In this paper, we unpack the cheapest-cost-avoider principle to consider the virtues and limits of loss-sharing rules in generating optimal (second-best) incentives and allocations of risk. We find that loss sharing may be optimal in the presence of countervailing policy objectives, homogeneous risk avoiders, and subadditive risk, which potentially offers a valuable tool for policy makers and courts in awarding damages in a large number of real-world accident cases.


The advent of high-precision gravity missions presents the opportunity to accurately measure variations in the distribution of mass in the ocean. Such a data source will prove valuable in state estimation and constraining general circulation models (GCMs) in general. However, conventional GCMs make the Boussinesq approximations, a consequence of which is that mass is not conserved. By use of the height‐pressure coordinate isomorphism implemented in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology general circulation model (MITGCM), the impact of non-Boussinesq effects can be evaluated. Although implementing a non-Boussinesq model in pressure coordinates is relatively straightforward, making a direct comparison between height and pressure coordinate (i.e., Boussinesq and non-Boussinesq) models is not simple. However, a careful comparison of the height coordinate and the pressure coordinate solutions ensures that only non-Boussinesq effects can be responsible for the observed differences. As a yardstick, these differences are also compared with those between the Boussinesq hydrostatic and models in which the hydrostatic approximation has been relaxed, another approximation commonly made in GCMs. Model errors (differences) caused by the Boussinesq and hydrostatic approximations are demonstrated to be of comparable magnitude. Differences induced by small changes in subgrid-scale parameterizations are at least as large. Therefore, non-Boussinesq and nonhydrostatic effects are most likely negligible with respect to other model uncertainties. However, because there is no additional cost incurred in using a pressure coordinate model, it is argued that non-Boussinesq modeling is preferable simply for tidiness. It is also concluded that even coarse-resolution GCMs can be sensitive to small perturbations in the dynamical equations.


Tax expenditure analysis is like a hardy plant with shallow roots that spreads widely, resisting the occasional effort to extirpate it, and yet has little if any effect on the soils in which it sprouts. At least sixteen countries release tax expenditure data pertaining to various taxes. However, public acceptance of tax expenditure analysis has been compromised by concern that it requires undue consensus as to the proper "reference tax base," or else that it implies regarding all money as the government's. A more valid concern is that its treatment of certain tax rules as "really" spending mistakenly presupposes that the distinction between "taxes" and "spending" is economically meaningful to begin with. The prevalence of objections, including mistaken ones, to tax expenditure analysis is in part attributable to Stanley Surrey's over-reaching when he initially proposed it with respect to the United States income tax. A measure that he presented as merely a neutral budgetary tool was widely and accurately recognized as also a tool for promoting his particular policy aims with regard to tax reform and progressivity. Fiscal language inevitably has a dual character, as a weapon of political combat in addition to a tool of purportedly objective description, and proponents on both sides of fiscal language debates rarely sort out the two functions very scrupulously. While also exploring fiscal language issues more generally, the article attempts to put tax expenditure analysis on a more fundamental basis, by relating it to Richard Musgrave's famous distinction between the allocation and distribution branches of government. Tax expenditures are most usefully defined as provisions in the tax rules that seem to reflect the operations of the allocation branch rather than the distribution branch. It is important to distinguish, however (as tax expenditure analysis heretofore has not) between (1) tax rules that seem clearly allocative rather than distributional, such as weapons appropriations that are accomplished through tax credits, (2) tax rules whose distributional merits are reasonably debatable, such as medical deductions, and (3) tax rules that seem to reflect the administrative needs of the distribution branch rather than the direct aims of distribution policy. In addition, it is reasonable, as the Treasury Department proposed in 2003, to estimate negative as well as positive tax expenditures (i.e., penalties as well as subsidies), and to prepare estimates from a consumption tax as well as an income tax perspective.


We propose a scheme for robust writing and storage of optical phase information in populations of metastable states of the atoms with a tripod structure of levels by using frequency-chirped laser pulses. The method provides much longer storage times compared with the schemes based on the collective atomic spin coherences. A negligible excitation of the atom provides immunity to decoherence induced by decay of the excited states. The method is robust against small-to-medium variations in the laser pulse intensity and speed of the chirp and, being insensitive to resonance conditions, it is effective both in homogeneously and inhomogeneously broadened media.


This essay concludes a study of how the international community has approached the security sector in six countries where there has been severe conflict leading to significant international engagement. Various factors are identified as being critical in shaping the outcome of (re)construction efforts, and they are evaluated from several perspectives. External actors have tended to take a limited and unbalanced approach to the security sector, focusing on building the efficiency of statutory security actors, and neglecting the development of managerial and governance capacity. While programmes tended to become more effective after the first major post-Cold War effort was undertaken in Haiti in 1994, the situation in Afghanistan may point to a reversal of this trend.


Inventories of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from wildfire provide essential information to the state of California, USA, and other governments that have enacted emission reductions. Wildfires can release a substantial amount of GHGs and other compounds to the atmosphere, so recent increases in fire activity may be increasing GHG emissions. Quantifying wildfire emissions however can be difficult due to inherent variability in fuel loads and consumption and a lack of field data of fuel consumption by wildfire. We compare a unique set of fuel data collected immediately before and after six wildfires in coniferous forests of California to fuel consumption predictions of the first‐order fire effects model (FOFEM), based on two different available fuel characterizations. We found strong regional differences in the performance of different fuel characterizations, with FOFEM overestimating the fuel consumption to a greater extent in the Klamath Mountains than in the Sierra Nevada. Inaccurate fuel load inputs caused the largest differences between predicted and observed fuel consumption. Fuel classifications tended to overestimate duff load and underestimate litter load, leading to differences in predicted emissions for some pollutants. When considering total ground and surface fuels, modeled consumption was fairly accurate on average, although the range of error in estimates of plot level consumption was very large. These results highlight the importance of fuel load input to the accuracy of modeled fuel consumption and GHG emissions from wildfires in coniferous forests.


A system relating to sample analyzers, and more particular, to sample analyzers that are simple to operate and have a reduced risk of providing an erroneous result to a user. In some cases, the sample analyzer may be a portable sample analyzer that includes a disposable fluidic cartridge. The operators of the analyzers need not be trained.


Aims. We perform an extensive characterization of the broadband emission of Mrk 421, as well as its temporal evolution, during the non-flaring (low) state. The high brightness and nearby location (z = 0.031) of Mrk 421 make it an excellent laboratory to study blazar emission. The goal is to learn about the physical processes responsible for the typical emission of Mrk 421, which might also be extended to other blazars that are located farther away and hence are more difficult to study.

Methods. We performed a 4.5-month multi-instrument campaign on Mrk 421 between January 2009 and June 2009, which included VLBA, F-GAMMA, GASP-WEBT, Swift, RXTE, Fermi-LAT, MAGIC, and Whipple, among other instruments and collaborations. This extensive radio to very-high-energy (VHE; E> 100 GeV) γ-ray dataset provides excellent temporal and energy coverage, which allows detailed studies of the evolution of the broadband spectral energy distribution.

Results. Mrk421 was found in its typical (non-flaring) activity state, with a VHE flux of about half that of the Crab Nebula, yet the light curves show significant variability at all wavelengths, the highest variability being in the X-rays. We determined the power spectral densities (PSD) at most wavelengths and found that all PSDs can be described by power-laws without a break, and with indices consistent with pink/red-noise behavior. We observed a harder-when-brighter behavior in the X-ray spectra and measured a positive correlation between VHE and X-ray fluxes with zero time lag. Such characteristics have been reported many times during flaring activity, but here they are reported for the first time in the non-flaring state. We also observed an overall anti-correlation between optical/UV and X-rays extending over the duration of the campaign.

Conclusions. The harder-when-brighter behavior in the X-ray spectra and the measured positive X-ray/VHE correlation during the 2009 multi-wavelength campaign suggests that the physical processes dominating the emission during non-flaring states have similarities with those occurring during flaring activity. In particular, this observation supports leptonic scenarios as being responsible for the emission of Mrk 421 during non-flaring activity. Such a temporally extended X-ray/VHE correlation is not driven by any single flaring event, and hence is difficult to explain within the standard hadronic scenarios. The highest variability is observed in the X-ray band, which, within the one-zone synchrotron self-Compton scenario, indicates that the electron energy distribution is most variable at the highest energies.


The increasing adoption of remote laboratories in education along with the shift from eLearning 2.0 towards eLearning 3.0, have demanded several considerations in their implementation and delivery format. In response to these needs, this contribution introduces a novel model, Laboratory as a Service (LaaS), for developing remote laboratories as independent component modules and implementing them as a set of loosely-coupled services to be consumed with a high level of abstraction and virtualization. LaaS aims to tackle the common concurrent challenges in remote laboratories developing and implementation such as inter-institutional sharing, interoperability with other heterogeneous systems, coupling with heterogeneous services and learning objects, difficulty of developing, and standardization. Beyond the academic context, LaaS will facilitate the incorporation of remote laboratories in the ecosystem of the ubiquitous smart things surrounding us, which increases everyday with the approaching Web of Things (WoT) and artificial intelligence era. This, in turn, will create a breeding ground for online control, experimentation, and discovery—in either formal or informal context and with neither temporal nor geographical constraints.


This article examines the role of economic inequality in influencing the risk of armed conflict between communal groups in Sub-Saharan Africa. We argue that socioeconomic inequality can generate intergroup grievances, which, due to the exclusionary legitimacy of the African state and elite incentives to engage in competitive mobilization of communal groups, precipitate violent communal conflict. To examine this argument, we rely on a series of household surveys to construct subnational inequality measures. For each region, we calculate measures of inequality in terms of household welfare and education between individuals (vertical inequality) and between ethnic groups (horizontal inequality). Combining the inequality data with new georeferenced data on communal conflict in Sub-Saharan Africa for the period 1990–2008, we find that regions with strong socioeconomic inequalities—both vertical and horizontal—are significantly more exposed to violent communal conflicts. More specifically, regions in which the largest ethnic group is severely disadvantaged compared to other groups are particularly prone to experience communal conflict.


In this thesis, we present a systematic investigation of the static and dynamic response properties of low-dimensional systems, using a variety of theoretical techniques ranging from time dependent density functional theory to the recursive Green's function method. As typical low-dimensional systems, metal nanostructures can strongly interact with an electric field to support surface plasmons, making their optical properties extremely attractive in both fundamental and applied aspects. We have investigated the energy broadening of surface plasmons in metal structures of reduced dimensionality, where Landau damping is the dominant dissipation channel and presents an intrinsic limitation to plasmonics technology. We show that for every prototype class of systems considered, including nanoshells, coaxial nanotubes, and ultrathin films, Landau damping can be drastically tuned due to energy quantization of the individual electron levels and e-h pairs. Both the generic trend and oscillatory nature of the tunability are in stark contrast with the expectations of the semiclassical surface scattering picture. For a more realistic environment of low-dimensional systems, the effect of a dielectric substrate is considered to mimic the experimental setup. We have studied the dispersion of various plasmon excitations in metal thin films with growth substrates. Our results qualitatively reproduce the experimentally observed plasmon spectra of the Mg/Si systems. The underlying physics for the formation of various absorption peaks can be understood with a simple hybridization concept. Based on


Studying the dynamics of filaments at the pre-eruption phase can shed light on the precursor of eruptive events. Such high-resolution studies (of the order of 0.″1) are highly desirable yet very rare. In this work, we present a detailed observation of a pre-eruption evolution of a filament obtained by the 1.6 m New Solar Telescope (NST) at the Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO). One end of the filament is anchored at the sunspot in the NOAA active region (AR) 11515, which is well observed by NST Hα off-bands from four hours before to one hour after the filament eruption. A M1.6 flare is associated with the eruption. We observed persistent downflowing materials along the Hα multi-threaded component of the loop toward the AR end during the pre-eruption phase. We traced the trajectories of plasma blobs along the Hα threads and obtained a plane-of-sky velocity of 45 km s−1 on average. Furthermore, we estimated the real velocities of the downflows and the altitude of the filament by matching the observed Hα threads with magnetic field lines extrapolated from a nonlinear force-free field model. Observations of chromospheric brightenings at the footpoints of the falling plasma blobs are also presented. The lower limit of the kinetic energy per second of the downflows through the brightenings is found to be ∼1021 erg. Larger FOV observations from BBSO full-disk Hα images show that the AR end of the filament started ascending four hours before the flare. We attribute the observed downflows at the AR end of the filament to the draining effect of the filament rising prior to its eruption. During the slow-rise phase, the downflows continuously drained away ∼1015g mass from the filament over a few hours, which is believed to be essential for the instability, and could be an important precursor of eruptive events.


This paper addresses the question of whether the expression of surprise or unexpectedness in spoken Italian (specifically the variety spoken in Florence) correlates with a late F0 peak alignment with the segmental string in prenuclear position, as has already been attested for some languages Kohler (2006) and colleagues for German; Chen, Gussenhoven and Rietveld (2004) for English and Dutch; Arvaniti and Garding (2007) for some variants of English). Corpus analysis of Italian spontaneous speech has shown a negative match between expressions that inherently express surprise, so called exclamatives, and a late peak alignment (i.e. realised after the onset of the following unaccented syllable) in the prenuclear position. Next, two experiments investigated the question of whether listeners systematically interpret surprise or unexpectedness by means of intonation alone. The results show that recognition effects due to intonation are significantly lower than the recognition effects due to context. The last section of this paper discusses the different uses of the term "surprise" and proposes a shift in the investigation from meaning to the psycho-physiological state of surprise and its correlation with some prosodic parameters (hyperarticulation, wider excursion of the pitch movement, voice quality, and so on) (cf. Scherer 1981; Banziger & Scherer 2005).


Vector-borne diseases cause more than one million deaths each year. Diseases spread by vectors kill a million people every year and more than half of the world's population is at risk. Malaria is the biggest killer among vector-borne diseases. Each year, around half a million patients with severe dengue require hospitalization. Japanese encephalitis can permanently damage the central nervous system. Around 120 million people are currently infected with lymphatic filariasis, and about 40 million of them are disfigured and disabled. Another concern is that these vectors in several countries are developing resistance to highly effective class of insecticides. Hence all the countries must appreciate the urgent need to act before an alarming situation deteriorates any further. Vector control programmes need to adapt to match the changing epidemiological patterns of new emerging threats. The emergence of vector-borne diseases in new parts of the world – clearly highlight the increasing threat of these diseases to global public health.


"As he was dying, Abba Benjamin taught his sons this: Do this, and you'll be saved: Rejoice always, pray constantly, and in all circumstances give thanks". Each Christian who seeks God through prayer is continuing a tradition that began with the desert fathers and mothers of the fourth and fifth century -- simple peasants whose spiritual progress was marked by inner peace, self-control, poverty, patience, humility, and hospitality. Desert Wisdom contains some hundred "sayings" of the desert fathers, each accompanied by playful illustrations by Japanese artist Yushi Nomura. Bridging East and West, the simple truths of Desert Wisdom remain as fresh and vital to Christians today as they were to the disciples who first heard and recorded them.


Abstract The species-level taxonomy of the genus Graphis sensu Staiger was revised using numerical taxonomy and cladistic techniques. In its current circumscription, Graphis includes more than 300 species and is characterized by lirellae with well-developed, carbonized labia usually concealing the disc and usually hyaline, I+ blue-violet, transversely septate to muriform ascospores. The study analyzed the importance of morphological, anatomical, and chemical characters for taxonomic purposes in the genus, both at species level and at the level of species groups and lineages. A phenotype-based cladistic analysis, combined with a novel method to estimate the degree of character state homoplasies prior to a cladogram, as well as a species ordination using non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMS), was performed to assess the delimitation of potentially natural groups within the genus. Contrary to previous views, the most important character complex characterizing potentially natural groups in the genus Graphis is lirellae morphology, whereas labia striation, excipulum carbonization, ascospore features, and secondary chemistry, vary greatly even in closely related species. Based on these findings, Wirth and Hale's concept of 'sporomorphs' is emended to generally characterize morphologically similar species that differ in a single character, such as labia striation ('labiomorph'), excipulum carbonization ('excipulomorph'), hymenium inspersion ('inspersomorph'), ascospore size and septation ('sporomorph') and secondary chemistry ('chemomorph').


The Scotland Act 2016 devolved powers over eleven social security benefits (including Carer's Allowance) providing Scotland with some, albeit limited, opportunity to differentiate itself in terms of welfare policy progressivity. The Carers (Scotland) Act 2016 set out the strategy for supporting those who limit their employment or educational enrolment due to the responsibility of caring for an adult or child with a health condition. Using a microsimulation of Scottish data from the Family Resource Survey, this article explores the potential impact, on income and poverty rates of carer households, of raising the level of CA by various amounts and by changing the eligibility criteria. It concludes that, while the Scottish Government's ambitions are too modest to fully support their progressive rhetoric, or to change the overall income inequality landscape, the reforms in targeted policy do make a substantial difference to the lived experience to carers in poverty and, by extension, to the receipt of that care.


Ultisol have low fertility, the sub soil of ultisol have fertility and organic matter content are very low. Compost of oil palm empty fruit bunches (OPEFB) and humic acid are useful improving fertility and organic matter content so that it can support growth of the plant. The research aims to study the effect of application of compost OPEFB and humic acid on sub soil ultisol to growth of the oil palm seedling's in the main nursery. The experiment was conducted at the Experimental Farm of the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Riau, Pekanbaru. The experiment were carried out in the form of factorial with a completely randomized design. The first factor is compost of OPEFB that consists of 4 levels (0, 25, 50 and 75 g/polybag) and as the second factor is the humic acid that consists of 3 level (0, 25 and 50 g/polybag). The parameters observed were statistically analyzed using analysis of variance, followed by Duncan's multiple range test at 5%.The parameters measured were plant height, in the number of leaves, the increase in diameter stump, root crown ratio, dry seedling weight. The results slowed that the application of compost of OPEFB 25-75 g/polybag followed by humic acid 25, 50 g/polybag significantly increased plant height, in the number of leaves, the increase in diameter stump, root crown ratio, dry seedling weight composed than without compost OPEFB and humic acid, but now significantly with the other combination action.


Health Minister Sussan Ley is considering applications from private health insurers to increase premiums by 6-7% in 2016, four times higher than the rate of inflation. Rising premiums and better value for consumers are on the agenda at Ley's private health insurance reform consultations this month.

But while health-care costs are growing – due to an ageing population with higher rates of chronic diseases and greater use of health technologies – rising premiums are also the consequence of structural system design flaws.

To make the system sustainable in the long term, our report, released this week by Victoria University's Australian Health Policy Collaboration, proposes a model that integrates public and private health expenditure into a universal, mandatory health insurance scheme.

Consumers would have the choice between private health insurers and at least one government-run provider (which could be a version of Medicare or an insurer as was Medibank). All insurers would have to provide a comprehensive set of health services to their customers, covering all essential aspects of their health care.

Everybody would pay a (regulated) premium and also receive a government subsidy, based on their health status and ability to pay. This would ensure all residents would access the scheme.


Access to water in equitable manner and the improved management of water are imperative to sustainable development, poverty alleviation and biodiversity preservation. Despite much research on gender and natural resources management, there have been only a handful of studies on gender and water, especially those trying to link the two with poverty issues. This paper seeks to fill this gap specifically by looking at the linkages among gender, water and poverty in terms of gender participation in irrigated agriculture and irrigation institutions. The main objective of the study is to examine gender participation in irrigated agriculture and irrigation institutions and to analyze the impact of irrigation projects on men and women. The study approach has been a qualitative and quantitative analysis of primary and secondary data. Key findings reveal a considerable degree of gender inequalities, especially in terms of participation in irrigation institutions. Despite a high level of female involvement in irrigated agriculture, their participation in irrigation institutions is much lower. Furthermore, water projects with gender equality interventions have enhanced women9s status in particular by raising their abilities to participate. The results suggest that the incorporation of gendersensitive policies and programs in irrigation schemes could have significant positive impacts both on gender equality and poverty.


Computational Fluid Dynamics was applied to early hydrodynamics research, and the name CFD originated here. CFD has been developed, applied, and highly effective in the fields of fluid mechanics and deformation and elastic environments. CFDs are widely applied in advanced sciences and high technology as well as maritime sciences. In recent years, many scientists have effectively exploited and applied CFD and numerical methods for calculating and simulating the hydrodynamics of ocean current on ships. Simulating studies on the effect of ocean current on the tension of anchor-cable by CFD are becoming more and more popular. In this paper, from the theoretical basis related to the tension problem of mooring cables, the authors have proposed a simulation model that applies CFD to research and develop simulation model and calculate tension of cables in mooring ship. The goal of this study is to build a simulation model that is closest to reality so that we can study assumptions of different situations. Also, the achieved results will be the basis for proposing warnings to minimize marine accidents at the mooring area at the ports in Vung Tau, especially for tanker fleets. The authors have developed general implementation procedures, and specific calculations for several different input cases on a ship hull based on data of wind and flow characteristics at Vung Tau anchorage area, namely the oil tanker M/T AULAC JUPITER of Au Lac Joint Stock Company.


Mitsuokella jalaludinii, a gram-negative, non-motile, non-spore-forming and rodshaped
bacterium from rumen of cattle was used in this study. The bacterium
showed the ability to produce phytase enzyme indicated by with the formation of a
halo when it was grown on MF1 medium containing calcium phytate after
incubation at 39oC for three days. The growth patterns of this bacterium in MF1 and
MF1 + 0.5% Na-phytate media were similar, where the exponential phase was
achieved after 6 h of incubation. The pH of the MF1 growth medium decreased
from 7 to 4.96 while for MF1 + 0.5% Na-phytate medium, the pH decreased from 7
to 5.07. The phytase activity of M. jalaludinii was mainly present in the cell-bound
fraction. The phytase activity was 4-fold higher when the bacterium was grown in
MF1 + 0.5% Na-phytate medium compared to that of culture grown in MF1
medium. The phytase activity of the cell-bound fraction of culture grown in the
MF1 + 0.5% Na-phytate medium was 3.1 U/ml but it was only 0.8 U/ml for the
MF1 medium. The total inorganic phosphorus concentration in the MF1 + 0.5%
Na-phytate medium did not inhibit phytase activity of M. jalaludinii. Four pairs of PCR primers were generated based on Selenomonas ruminantium's
phytase gene sequence. A partial phytase gene of M. jalaludinii with size 736 bp
was successfully isolated using PCR amplification using its genomic DNA as
template. Southern hybridization showed positive signals of genomic PstI fragment
at sizes approximately 1.5 kb and between 4 to 5 kb by using the 736 bp clone as a
probe. A size-selected genomic library at 1 to 2 kb was successfully generated.
However, the phytase gene of M. jalaludinii was not successfully screened from the
library using colony hybridization method.
DNA walking approach was used to clone the 5' end and 3'end of the phytase gene
of M. jalaludinii. With a series of three steps of PCR amplifications, a 1.1 kb
fragment was cloned and sequence. The Blastn results showed that the sequence
contained part of the 5' end sequence of the phytase gene. The 3'end sequence was
also successfully obtained by using the same method where a 310 bp fragment was
cloned and sequenced. Primers were generated based on the sequence information
of 5' end and 3' end and a 1047 bp phytase gene was isolated from M. jalaludinii
using PCR amplification method. Phylogenetic tree study indicated that M.
jalaludinii phytase gene was not similar to other microbial phytase genes except to
that of S. ruminantium JY35 phytase gene and they are indeed a novel phytase


It is already 20 years since the collapse of communism in central and east eastern Europe. Changes that began in Poland with the Solidarity movement led to the fall of the Berlin Wall. Events signalled not only the collapse of communism, but also the start of the transition from a centrally planned economy to a market economy, as well as the opening of new markets for retailing. I grew up in Gdansk, Poland, near the gate to the Gdansk Shipyard renowned, for the Solidarity strikes in the 1980s. It was during the final decade of the communist system. A reader from western Europe may not be aware of the conditions behind the Iron Curtain, and so in this short article I would like to share some of my shopping experiences from that period. I must confess that nowadays some of the issues described below appear quite curious, even to me. Nevertheless, this fairly recent past is likely to influence current Polish consumers who remember that time, even though now they are able to shop in an environment not much different from the rest of western Europe. Today, while visiting the shopping malls that are mushrooming across the cities, the supermarkets, small chain shops and grocery markets, it is hard to believe how differently everything looked just over 20 years ago.


The availability of data is not evenly distributed. Some organizations, agencies, and sectors are better equipped to gather, use, and analyze data than others. If data is transformative, what are the consequences of defense and security agencies having greater capacity to leverage data than, say, education or social services? Financial wherewithal, technical capacity, and political determinants all affect where data is employed. As data and analytics emerge, who benefits and who doesn't, both at the individual level and the institutional level? What about the asymmetries between those who provide the data and those who collect it? How does uneven data access affect broader issues of inequality? In what ways does data magnify or combat asymmetries in power?


The increase of greenhouse gases (GHG) generated by the burning of fossil fuels has been recognized as one of the main causes of climate change (CC). Different countries of the world have developed new policies on national energy security directed to the use of renewable energies mainly, ocean energy being one of them. The implementation of ocean energy is increasing worldwide. However, the use of these technologies is not exempt from the generation of potential environmental impacts throughout their life cycle. In this context, life cycle assessment (LCA) is a holistic approach used to evaluate the environmental impacts of a product or system throughout its entire life cycle. LCA studies need to be conducted to foster the development of ocean energy technologies (OET) in sustainable management. In this paper, a systematic review was conducted and 18 LCA studies of OET were analyzed. Most of the LCA studies are focused on wave and tidal energy. CC is the most relevant impact category evaluated, which is generated mostly by raw material extraction, manufacturing stage and shipping operations. Finally, the critical stages of the systems evaluated were identified, together with, the opportunity areas to promote an environmental management for ocean energy developers.


We give a general proof of aging for trap models using the arcsine law for stable subordinators. This proof is based on abstract conditions on the potential theory of the underlying graph and on the randomness of the trapping landscape. We apply this proof to aging for trap models on large, two‐dimensional tori and for trap dynamics of the random energy model on a broad range of time scales. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


Comparative genomic studies are revealing that, in sharp contrast with the strong stability found in birds and mammals, sex determination mechanisms are surprisingly labile in cold‐blooded vertebrates, with frequent transitions between different pairs of sex chromosomes. It was recently suggested that, in context of this high turnover, some chromosome pairs might be more likely than others to be co‐opted as sex chromosomes. Empirical support, however, is still very limited. Here we show that sex‐linked markers from three highly divergent groups of anurans map to Xenopus tropicalis scaffold 1, a large part of which is homologous to the avian sex chromosome. Accordingly, the bird sex determination gene DMRT1, known to play a key role in sex differentiation across many animal lineages, is sex linked in all three groups. Our data provide strong support for the idea that some chromosome pairs are more likely than others to be co‐opted as sex chromosomes because they harbor key genes from the sex determination pathway.


In this work, fluorescent unmodified carbon nanodots (CDs) were used as a biocompatible, sensitive, selective and reversible intracellular pH nanosensor. This sensor showed a linear response towards pH changes in the physiological pH range of 6.1–7.8 and could resolve pH differences of 0.1 units. The pH of a commercial solution of Roswell Park Memorial Institute medium (RPMI 1640) was determined by using fluorescent pH sensitive CDs. This indicates that the proposed pH nanosensor can monitor pH changes in complex media. An MTT (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-Yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) assay on HeLa and HS-5 cell lines confirmed cell viability and biocompatibility of these unmodified carbon nanomaterials. A distinct fluorescence intensity change in confocal imaging supported the high pH sensitivity of CDs in living cells.


This thesis addresses the problems of evaluating a water harvesting catchment system in the arid environment of the Negev Desert, Israel. A general interpretation of arid hillslope hydrological response is developed called Contiguous Area Contribution. Whilst agreeing with humid area concepts of partial area contribution, it focusses on the different nature of arid slope contributions to stormflow where frequent and rapid overland flow generation intercepts channels by downslope expansion and extension of flow-lines. The physical system at Avdat is geometrically represented as a flow net of hillslope and channel cascades for kinematic routing. A survey of the micro-morphology and surface materials enables hillslope areas to be classified into six broad units on the basis of their textural characteristics. These units are used to quasi-distribute process data sampled at locations within them. The process of infiltration is discussed and different mathematical models examined using results from a limited number of field measurements with runon/runoff apparatus. The best-fit is provided by the storage model of Green and Ampt and not the Hortonian models of Philip and Kostiakov. Initial infiltration rates vary from 85 to 18 mm hr-1 and steady- state rates from 60 to 6 mm hr-1. The inclusion of detention storage in early time period observations is shown to be a significant problem in modelling. For flow routing, an alternative approach to assuming sheetflow is presented using cross-slope microtopographic profiles to provide an estimate of surface geometry for flow across micro-rough surfaces. Measurements of flow velocity for different discharges are made using the runon/runoff apparatus. By assuming sheetflow, a lower value of Manning's n is predicted if velocity and flow dimensions are known. For a given n, the assumption of sheetflow predicts a lower velocity for a given discharge. The values of n derived at Avdat range from 0.18 to 1.36 with a mean of 0.64 when a micro-rough surface is retained, and 0.12 to 0.62 with a mean of 0.36 if sheetflow is assumed, values considerably higher than those usually adopted from channel studies. A distributed model is developed to handle surface runoff processes at a range of scales from the small plot to the complete catchment. In a detailed sensitivity analysis, the range of physical and process parameters derived for Avdat show sensitivity of the runoff processes to particular parameters and their combination. For the selected range, flow boundary shape is the most significant influence on the shape of flow hydrographs resulting in quicker, higher peaks if a micro-rough flow geometry is assumed. The model is used at the plot scale to examine the problem of including detention storage in infiltration model parameters, at the cascade scale to show the effect of runoff production enhancing and inhibiting slope areas, and at the sub-catchment scale to assess the predictive ability of the model using the limited process parameter data-set. With three sub-catchments, prediction errors were good volumetrically ranging from 6% to 14% for the high intensity, short duration rainstorm, but deteriorated for the long duration, varied intensity storm with predicting high overestimates. Three sub-catchments consistently under-predicted and one over-predicted. In most, the rising and falling limbs were lagged relative to the observed hydrographs.


With rapid progress in Internet and digital imaging technology, there are more and more ways to easily create, publish, and distribute images. Considered the first book to focus on the relationship between digital imaging and privacy protection, Visual Cryptography and Secret Image Sharing is a complete introduction to novel security methods and sharing-control mechanisms used to protect against unauthorized data access and secure dissemination of sensitive information. Image data protection and image-based authentication techniques offer efficient solutions for controlling how private data and images are made available only to select people. Essential to the design of systems used to manage images that contain sensitive datasuch as medical records, financial transactions, and electronic voting systemsthe methods presented in this book are useful to counter traditional encryption techniques, which do not scale well and are less efficient when applied directly to image files. An exploration of the most prominent topics in digital imaging security, this book discusses: Potential for sharing multiple secrets Visual cryptography schemesbased either on the probabilistic reconstruction of the secret image, or on different logical operations for combining shared images Inclusion of pictures in the distributed shares Contrast enhancement techniques Color-image visual cryptography Cheating prevention Alignment problems for image shares Steganography and authentication In the continually evolving world of secure image sharing, a growing number of people are becoming involved as new applications and business models are being developed all the time. This contributed volume gives academicians, researchers, and professionals the insight of well-known experts on key concepts, issues, trends, and technologies in this emerging field.