In this research, we have conducted a numerical simulation to obtain the seismic source, coseismic deformation field and the tsunami propagation of the great 1940 Lima-Peru earthquake and tsunami, based on macroseismic information and focal mechanism from the literature. The seismic dimensions of our preferred model were set at 162 km×71 km according to VIII isoseismal intensity. The slip distribution is homogeneous with a mean value of 2.7 m. The fault plane orientation was set at strike=330°, dip=20° and rake=90°. The maximum simulated uplift was 1.27 m and the maximum subsidence was 0.36 m. Due to the proximity of the seismic source to the coast, the city of Huacho was uplifted around 11 cm. The fault plane of the 1940 earthquake was located in the updip near the coast. The maximum tsunami height simulated in Huacho was 1.80 m. We suggest that there is a high tsunamigenic potential near the trench to generate a shallow earthquake.


Freedom's Gardener: James F. Brown, Horticulture, and the Hudson Valley in Antebellum America. By Myra B. Young Armstead New York University Press, 2012. 209 pp. $35. Horticulture in its myriad forms---from cultivating crops to creating pleasure gardens---has played a central role in American history. The continent's vast quantities of space and natural resources provided unprecedented opportunities for Euro-Americans to cultivate, classify, learn, produce, and expand in both material and ideological ways. Far from a merely natural occupation, gardening was infused with the national and transnational politics of labor, gender, race, and empire. Gardens played significant roles in both the exploitation and the survival of African Americans, whether they were free or enslaved. Many black gardeners were locally recognized for their extraordinary expertise, but most of what historians can glean about their lives and work comes from cursory references in documents authored by the white elite. Thus a diary written by an African American gardener over forty years (1826-1866) is an invaluable treasure trove, as Myra B. Young Armstead, Professor of History at Bard College, recognized when she first encountered James F. Brown's diary on display at Mount Gulian, a National Historic Landmark and museum in upstate New York. Brown (1793-1868) was born as a slave in Maryland, probably in Fredericktown, and he escaped from slavery in 1826. In 1827 he was hired by the Verplanck family of New York, a prominent, wealthy clan of Dutch descent and antislavery sentiments. He quickly proved to be a skillful, reliable employee. When a dinner guest recognized Brown as a runaway, the Verplancks helped arrange for him to buy his freedom from his legal owner, Susan Williams of Baltimore. Brown spent most of the rest of his life working for the Verplancks, rising from a menial laborer to the position of head gardener at their country estate, Mount Gulian, which is located at Fishkill Landing in the Hudson Valley. He attained a level of prosperity sufficient to buy the freedom of his wife Julia, who had stayed behind in Maryland, and to purchase a house complete with his own gardens (both for pleasure and for agriculture) and the other features of a middle-class lifestyle. Freedom's Gardener is divided into three parts. Part I focuses on Brown's life as a slave. Because little about Brown's early life can be documented, Armstead interweaves an overview of slavery in Maryland with a great deal of conjecture about who Brown might have been and what he might have done. He apparently used at least three names or aliases: Anthony Chase, Anthony Fisher, and James Brown. His success at self-concealment helped to enable his survival and escape at the time, but continues to render his early life elusive to history. Armstead has uncovered one extraordinary document that he authored during this period: a letter of August 8, 1827 addressed to a wealthy white man explaining and justifying his decision to run away from slavery. In lengthy, eloquent paragraphs, Brown reveals that he thought long and hard about this decision. In the end, he was willing to risk everything not merely "because I wish to be free but because I want to do justice to myself and to others and also to procure a living for a family." (25) Part II provides a fascinating, well-researched account of James Brown's achievements as a master gardener at Mount Gulian along with fresh, original insights into nineteenth-century New York society. …


Unlike conventional weapons or remotely operated drones, autonomous weapon systems can independently select and engage targets. As a result, they may take actions that look like war crimes — the sinking of a cruise ship, the destruction of a village, the downing of a passenger jet — without any individual acting intentionally or recklessly. Absent such willful action, no one can be held criminally liable under existing international law.Criminal law aims to prohibit certain actions, and individual criminal liability allows for the evaluation of whether someone is guilty of a moral wrong. Given that a successful ban on autonomous weapon systems is unlikely (and possibly even detrimental), what is needed is a complementary legal regime that holds states accountable for the injurious wrongs that are the side effects of employing these uniquely effective but inherently unpredictable and dangerous weapons. Just as the Industrial Revolution fostered the development of modern tort law, autonomous weapon systems highlight the need for "war torts": serious violations of international humanitarian law that give rise to state responsibility.


Background: Music can elicit strong emotions and can be remembered in connection with these emotions even decades later. Yet, the brain correlates of episodic memory for highly emotional music compared with less emotional music have not been examined. We therefore used fMRI to investigate brain structures activated by emotional processing of short excerpts of film music successfully retrieved from episodic long-term memory. Methods: Eighteen non-musicians volunteers were exposed to 60 structurally similar pieces of film music of 10 s length with high arousal ratings and either less positive or very positive valence ratings. Two similar sets of 30 pieces were created. Each of these was presented to half of the participants during the encoding session outside of the scanner, while all stimuli were used during the second recognition session inside the MRI-scanner. During fMRI each stimulation period (10 s) was followed by a 20 s resting period during which participants pressed either the "old" or the "new" button to indicate whether they had heard the piece before. Results: Musical stimuli vs. silence activated the bilateral superior temporal gyrus, right insula, right middle frontal gyrus, bilateral medial frontal gyrus and the left anterior cerebellum. Old pieces led to activation in the left medial dorsal thalamus and left midbrain compared to new pieces. For recognized vs. not recognized old pieces a focused activation in the right inferior frontal gyrus and the left cerebellum was found. Positive pieces activated the left medial frontal gyrus, the left precuneus, the right superior frontal gyrus, the left posterior cingulate, the bilateral middle temporal gyrus, and the left thalamus compared to less positive pieces. Conclusion: Specific brain networks related to memory retrieval and emotional processing of symphonic film music were identified. The results imply that the valence of a music piece is important for memory performance and is recognized very fast.


Process engineering provides a wealth of applications for dynamic optimization problems. This problem is usually solved by transforming it to a nonlinear programming (NLP) problem with either sequential or simultaneous approaches. However, both approaches can still be inefficient to tackle large problems. In addition, many problems in chemical engineering arc naturally boundary value problems (BVP) which suffer from instability if we utilize a decomposition based on single shooting solvers. In this paper, we will introduce a simple extension to the simultaneous approach that will alleviate the dimensionality problem as well as ensure stability for BVP's. Many numerical aspects of the problem will be discussed, especially the discretization of the differential equations and the index problem. By using Radau collocation, the algorithm has favorable stability properties for high index problems and by exploiting the structure of the resulting system, a stable and efficient decomposition algorithm results. Here solution of this NLP formulation is considered through a reduced Hessian Successive Quadratic Programming (SQP) approach, where linearized state variables are eliminated and reduced quadratic programming (QP) subproblems update the control variables. Although this study primarily addresses fixed element problems, another key aspect of the success of the DAE optimization is the element placement. In order to enforce accuracy in the solution profiles, highly nonlinear constraints have to be added and these further complicate the solution formulation. As a result, the formulation turns out to be very sensitive to initializations. To address these problems, we will introduce a new framework that will decouple the element placement from the optimal control procedure. This framework consists of two layers of optimization, the inner and outer problems. The inner problem is a traditional optimal control problem with fixed element sizes and the outer problem is then used to update them solely via error control criteria and optimality conditions. We will also present an example to illustrate the element placement via bilevel optimization. Key Words, Dynamic Optimization, Optimal Control, Successive Quadratic Programming, Finite Difference, Multiple Shooting


Aim: The main aim of this study is to determine peripheral artery disease (PAD) using ankle-brachial index (ABI) who is having the risk factors for developing PAD and also determine additional risk factors which are responsible for vascular risk leading to PAD in future and to assess the patients who are at high risk for developing complications such as stroke and coronary artery disease (CAD). Materials and Methods: A total number of 500 patients who met the study criteria were included in the study. The required data were collected by measuring ankle, brachial pressures for the patients and some data related to the patients were collected through patient's case sheets and medical records. The collected data were analyzed statistically. Results and Discussion: It was observed that smoking is the major contributing risk factor for PAD. Diabetes is the second most contributing risk factor for PAD, followed by CAD, obesity, hypertension, dyslipidemia, and alcohol. The risk for PAD was observed to be more in males compared to females. PAD patients have remained asymptomatic even at severe risk. Moreover, the majority of the patients are at moderate risk for PAD. The patients with age group of 51–60 years were at a higher risk for PAD and testing the people with ABI of age above 50 years having PAD risk factors might be beneficial. Conclusion: Finally, the use of ABI as a screening test in all primary health-care settings could be useful to detect the risk for PAD at an early stage and can prevent further complications.


NUMEROUS DEFINITIONS OF ETHNOBOTANY exist. The widely employed and simplest definition explains it as the study of the knowledge and use of plants in primitive societies in the past and present. In view of the many fast-developing specific subdivisions of this interdisciplinary field, it seems necessary to adopt a wider definition. A more inclusive definition might be: the study of the uses, technological manipulation, classification, agricultural systems, magico-religious concepts, conservation techniques and general economic and sociological importance of plants in primitive or pre-literate societies. Ethnobotany is certainly not new. The earliest humans must have been incipient ethnobotanists. It began when man first of necessity classified plants: those of little or no utility; those which were useful in many practical ways; those alleviating pain or otherwise ameliorating illness; and those that made him ill or killed him. He must have wondered at the unworldly effects of the few psychoactive species, and he could explain their extraordinary properties only by assuming that they were endowed with spiritual power from supernatural sources. It has been proposed that man's early experiences with hallucinogens was a principal factor leading to the origin of religious concepts. It was not long before the knowledge and manipulation of the properties of plants became associated with certain individuals, and these early medicine men or shamans ultimately acquired great powers. This endowment continues to-day in most, if not all, primitive societies where this specialist is the repository of vast knowledge of plants and their properties and is privy to the secret and superstitious rituals connected with their use. However, many members of the general population in primitive societies are conversant with the properties of their food, medicinal and other plants of daily use. Many indigenous groups around the world--the Indians of the Amazonian regions, for example--are literally masters of their ambient vegetation as a result of inherited knowledge. This knowledge--of great potential value to humanity as a whole--is unfortunately doomed to extinction with the rapid acculturation and westernisation in many parts of the globe where indigenous peoples can still live peacefully without disruption, from road-building, airstrips, missionary pressure, warfare, tourism, industrial penetration, dam-building, local greed on the part of settlers or various efforts to "civilise" the natives. The loss of this knowledge, and of the natives themselves, will be a grave hindrance to progress in many aspects of environmental conservation. Realization of the seriousness of this impending loss has given rise in recent years to the need for ethnobotanical conservation. One example of the value to conservation of ethnobotanical knowledge of the natives lies in the study of their acquaintance with the properties of bioactive plants and their numerous subspecific variants or ecotypes. Although techniques of ethnobotanical research will differ according to the kind and condition of culture of the aboriginal people and the type of ecology in which they live, there seems to exist an underlying similarity in the relationship of ethnobotany to environmental conservation. I shall use examples from my work in the past 47 years in the Colombian Amazonia, since this relationship is clearly manifest in my studies of the medicinal, toxic and rubber yielding plants of this northwestern corner of the great Amazon Valley. The Amazon basin supports the world's largest rain forest, 2,700,000 square miles, with an estimated 50,000 to 80,000 species of higher plants or perhaps 15% of the world's flora. The number or species and their diversity increases towards the westernmost part of the hylaea. The Colombian sector, protected from easy penetration by rapids and waterfall in most of its rivers, has not suffered the extensive acculturation and wanton environmental devastation that many other parts of the basin have had and are experiencing. …


 Citation: Emami R, Arani MH, Ghadiri SK, Harasi E, Fazeli AA, Tazik M. Study of the Reasons for Tendency to Use Desalination Systems in the Households of Bandar Lengeh, Hormozgan, Iran. Journal of Health Research in Community. Spring 2017;3(1): 29-37. ABSTRACT Introduction and purpose: The need to access and produce clean water is currently felt more than ever by the communities due to the pollution of drinking water sources and the consumers' growing concern and awareness about the absence of healthy drinking water. As a result, in the recent years, the use of water purification systems has been widely increased in the urban and rural regions of Iran. Regarding this, the aim of the present study was to investigate the causes of the tendency to use home desalination systems in the households of Bandar Lengeh, Hormozgan, Iran. Methods: This descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted on 140 households in the fall of 2014. The study population was selected through simple random sampling technique. The data were collected using a questionnaire enquiring the cause of using home desalination systems among the people living in Bandar Lengeh. Data analysis was performed in SPSS, version 24 using Chi-square test. Results: According to the results of the present study, none of the investigated households directly used the water distributed in the city for drinking. Only 12.9% of the households used this water for cooking. Therefore, the water distributed in the urban network was mostly used for irrigation as well as washing dishes and clothes. Furthermore, the most frequently reported reasons for the non-use of the water were discoloration of tea and slowing down the cooking of food. Conclusion: As the findings of the present study indicated, it is not essential to use the domestic purification systems. Accordingly, the tendency to use these systems are mainly raised by incorrect beliefs about this issue. This highlights the necessity of implementing educational programs targeting toward the improvement of the households' awareness regarding the health issues.


Between 1997-1998, mass migrations entitled a 'Roma exodus' from the Czech and Slovak Republics to Canada and the United Kingdom occurred. The host countries were presented, mainly through the media, as 'welcoming' asylum seekers. Roma had decided to join the migratory journey to ease the discrimination experienced in the Czech and Slovak lands, seeking protection of their rights under the label of 'political asylum seekers'. This thesis uses the anthropology sub-disciplines of migration and economics to explore the 'asylum' lives of Roma from the former Czechoslovakia in the Northeast of England during the years 2001-2003. It focuses on the way in which old identities are reawakened and new ones created. From a population of 150 in the Northeast of England, 26 Roma asylum seekers from both the Czech and Slovak Republics were interviewed between October 2001 to early February 2003. Nine of these became key informants and were informally interviewed in their temporary homes. Many Roma asylum seekers were subsequently deported. Only one family was granted asylum. From these informants, data on understanding and circumventing governmental control, restrictions and restraints, perceptions of the UK as 'Paradise', comprehension of the voucher scheme for refugees as a means of payment (legalised in April 2000), stigmatization and development of social and cultural relations, and information on economic networks, were obtained. Roma asylum seekers conducted their migratory journey imagining that it would lead to a happier life. Instead, they experienced racial discrimination, humiliation, fear, and they were constantly threatened with deportation. Thus, the migration journey led not to a contented integration, but to a frightening alienation. This thesis shows how the Roma responded differently to this process of alienation, producing a range of identities that varied from one individual to another. It demonstrates how attempts to apply a single identity to this group produce false stereotypes.


As you can see from the lectures so far, although Einstein's theory of special relativity solves the problem posed by the Michelson-Morley experiment—the nonexistence of an ether—it is at a price. The simple assertion that the speed of a flash of light is always c in any inertial frame leads to consequences that defy common sense. When this was pointed out somewhat forcefully to Einstein, his response was that common sense is the layer of prejudices put down before the age of eighteen. All our intuition about space, time and motion is based on childhood observation of a world in which no objects move at speeds comparable to that of light. Perhaps if we had been raised in a civilization zipping around the universe in spaceships moving at relativistic speeds, Einstein's assertions about space and time would just seem to be common sense. The real question, from a scientific point of view, is not whether special relativity defies common sense, but whether it can be shown to lead to a contradiction. If that is so, common sense wins. Ever since the theory was published, people have been writing papers claiming it does lead to contradictions. The previous lecture, the worked example on time dilation, shows how careful analysis of an apparent contradiction leads to the conclusion that in fact there was no contradiction after all. In this lecture, we shall consider other apparent contradictions and think about how to resolve them. This is the best way to build up an understanding of relativity.


Ternary mixture of Cu, Mg, and Ni with the nominal composition of nanocrystalline Cu 50 Mg 25 Ni 25 (in at.%) was milled for 25 hours. Analysis of an X‐ray diffraction pattern (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was used to characterize the chemi‐ cal phases and microstructure of the final product, which is shown to consist of ternary alloy of Cu‐Mg‐Ni with FCC structure along with small amounts of FCC MgO and Mg 0.85 Cu 0.15 . The good agreement between the size values obtained by XRD and TEM is attributed to the formation of defect‐free grains with no substructure during ball milling. Dynamic recrystallization may be a possible mechanism for the emergence of such small grains (<20 nm). The particle size distribution and morphological changes of Cu–Mg–Ni powders were also analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). According to the SEM results, the particle size of the powders decreased with increasing milling time. Lattice parameter of the Cu‐Mg‐Ni ternary FCC alloy formed during mechanical alloying increased with increase in milling time from 3.61 to 3.65 Å after 20 hours milling.


One work of mine in this exhibition.
This exhibition features work by artists made over the last 20 years who have all been influenced by the rapid development of technology. The approach of each of the 26 artists and collectives to their practice is different, resulting in a rich and contrasting view of the world and the culture that surrounds us.
The artists have used computer animation, video, computer graphics, audio, photography, drawing and gaming technology to create films, moving image, sculptures, paintings, interactive games and small and large scale drawings. The artworks themselves tackle a range of themes such as human relationships and behaviour, surveillance and the habits of modern society.

The title is inspired by 'I Want! I Want!', an etching created by the artist William Blake over two hundred years ago. It depicts a tiny figure standing before a celestial ladder that leads up to the crescent moon. The image acts as a metaphor for humankind's ability to dream and turn ideas into reality.

Works selected date from the mid-1990s to the present day and are drawn from the Arts Council Collection, Birmingham's museum collection and other public and private collections.

Artists and collectives include: Daria Martin; Dryden Goodwin; Rachel Maclean; Julian Opie; Brian Griffiths; Stefan Gec; Michael Fullerton; Thomson and Craighead; Cao Fei; John Gerrard; Paul Pfeiffer; Aleksandra Mir; Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard; Edwin Li; Ryan Gander; William Blake; Ed Atkins; Shezad Dawood; Toby Ziegler; Fiona Rae; Eddy Kamauango Ilunga; Rose Finn-Kelcey; Gary Perkins; Massinissa Selmani; Alan Currall; Marcus Coates; and Clare Strand.


We study odd-membered chains of spin- 1 impurities, with each end connected to its own metallic lead. For antiferromagnetic exchange coupling, universal two-channel Kondo (2CK) physics is shown to arise at low energies. Two overscreening mechanisms are found to occur depending on coupling strength, with distinct signatures in physical properties. For strong interimpurity coupling, a residual chain spin- 1 moment experiences a renormalized effective coupling to the leads, while in the weak-coupling regime, Kondo coupling is mediated via incipient single-channel Kondo singlet formation. We also investigate models in which the leads are tunnelcoupled to the impurity chain, permitting variable dot filling under applied gate voltages. Effective low-energy models for each regime of filling are derived, and for even fillings where the chain ground state is a spin singlet, an orbital 2CK effect is found to be operative. Provided mirror symmetry is preserved, 2CK physics is shown to be wholly robust to variable dot filling; in particular, the single-particle spectrum at the Fermi level, and hence the low-temperature zero-bias conductance, is always pinned to half-unitarity. We derive a Friedel-Luttinger sum rule and from it show that, in contrast to a Fermi liquid, the Luttinger integral is nonzero and determined solely by the "excess" dot charge as controlled by gate voltage. The relevance of the work to real quantum dot devices, where interlead charge-transfer processes fatal to 2CK physics are present, is also discussed. Physical arguments and numerical renormalization-group techniques are used to obtain a detailed understanding of these problems.


Domain decomposition methods are divide and conquer computational methods for the parallel solution of partial differential equations of elliptic or parabolic type. The methodology includes iterative algorithms, and techniques for non-matching grid discretizations and heterogeneous approximations. This book serves as a matrix oriented introduction to domain decomposition methodology. The topics discussed include hybrid formulations, Schwarz, substructuring and Lagrange multiplier methods for elliptic equations, computational issues, least squares-control methods, multilevel methods, non-self adjoint problems, parabolic equations, saddle point applications (Stokes, porous media and optimal control), non-matching grid discretizations, heterogeneous models, fictitious domain methods, variational inequalities, maximum norm theory, eigenvalue problems, optimization problems and the Helmholtz scattering problem. Selected convergence theory is also included.


Ensuring women's economic empowerment and access to and control over resources requires an integrated approach to growth and development, focused on gender-responsive employment promotion and informed by the interdependency between economic and social development. Social objectives need to be incorporated into economic policies. Economic growth strategies should give attention to the real economy and focus on creating a gender-sensitive macroeconomic environment, full employment and decent work, access to land, property and other productive resources as well as financial services, and full coverage of social protection measures. The Survey outlines a number of concrete recommendations in these critical areas, which if adopted, will facilitate women's equitable access to and control over economic and financial resources.


The New Horizons spacecraft will achieve a wide range of measurement objectives at the Pluto system, including color and panchromatic maps, 1.25–2.50 micron spectral images for studying surface compositions, and measurements of Pluto's atmosphere (temperatures, composition, hazes, and the escape rate). Additional measurement objectives include topography, surface temperatures, and the solar wind interaction. The fulfillment of these measurement objectives will broaden our understanding of the Pluto system, such as the origin of the Pluto system, the processes operating on the surface, the volatile transport cycle, and the energetics and chemistry of the atmosphere. The mission, payload, and strawman observing sequences have been designed to achieve the NASA-specified measurement objectives and maximize the science return. The planned observations at the Pluto system will extend our knowledge of other objects formed by giant impact (such as the Earth– moon), other objects formed in the outer solar system (such as comets and other icy dwarf planets), other bodies with surfaces in vapor-pressure equilibrium (such as Triton and Mars), and other bodies with N2:CH4 atmospheres (such as Titan, Triton, and the early Earth).


We report on acoustic phase imaging of objects using terahertz radiation. The sensitivity of the technique is sufficient to detect objects at oscillation amplitudes down to about 300 nm. Such acoustic amplitudes are comparable to the human physiological perception level, which offers novel opportunities in security imaging.


Few South American macrofloras of Paleocene age are known, and this limits our knowledge of diversity and composition between the end-Cretaceous event and the Eocene appearance of high floral diversity. We report new, unbiased collections of 2516 compression specimens from the Paleocene Salamanca Formation (ca. 61.7 Ma) from two localities in the Palacio de los Loros exposures in southern Chubut, Patagonia, Argentina. Our samples reveal considerably greater richness than was previously known from the Paleocene of Patagonia, including 36 species of angiosperm leaves as well as angiosperm fruits, flowers, and seeds; ferns; and conifer leaves, cones, and seeds. The floras, which are from siltstone and sandstone channel-fills deposited on low-relief floodplain landscapes in a humid, warm temperate climate, are climatically and paleoenvironmentally comparable to many quantitatively collected Paleocene floras from the Western Interior of North America. Adjusted for sample size, there are >50% more species at each Palacio de los Loros quarry than in any comparable U.S. Paleocene sample. These results indicate more vibrant terrestrial ecosystems in Patagonian than in North American floodplain environments ∼4 m.y. after the end-Cretaceous extinction, and they push back the time line 10 m.y. for the evolution of high floral diversity in South America. The cause of the dis parity is unknown but could involve reduced impact effects because of greater distance from the Chicxulub site, higher latest Cretaceous diversity, or faster recovery or immigration rates.


Objective: HIV-1-infection infers an increased cardiovascular risk where gut dysbiosis and microbial translocation may contribute. We assessed TMAO, a microbial metabolite with atherosclerotic properties, in plasma of HIV-1-infected individuals at different clinical stages in relation to inflammatory markers, cardiovascular events and gut microbiota. Methods: Primary HIV-1-infected (n = 17) and chronic HIV-1-infected individuals (n = 22) were sampled before and after ART-initiation. In the chronic HIV-1-cohort, repeated faecal samples were analysed by 16SrRNA gene sequencing. HIV-1-infected individuals on longstanding ART (n = 101) and healthy HIV-1-negative individuals (n = 60), served as controls. TMAO and markers of immune activation were analysed by LC/MS/MS and immune assays, respectively. Results: TMAO levels were lower in untreated HIV-1-infected individuals, increased significantly after ART-initiation (P = 0.040 and P < 0.001) but remained similar to healthy controls. TMAO levels were not affected by ART, immune status or degree of systemic inflammation. Higher TMAO in HIV-1-infected individuals on longstanding ART was not significantly associated with cardiovascular risk (P = 0.38). Additionally, TMAO levels correlated inversely with Bacteroidetes (Rho: −0.62, P = 0.002), and positively with Firmicutes (Rho: 0.65, P = 0.001) but held no correlation to TMA-producing genera. Notably gut dysbiosis at follow-up was more pronounced in patients without increase in TMAO levels after ART characterized by loss of Bacteroidetes (P = 0.023) and significantly elevated LPS levels (P = 0.01). Conclusion: Our data does not support that TMAO is a significant link between gut dysbiosis and inflammation in HIV-1-infection. We propose that HIV-1, microbial composition and ART disparately confound TMAO levels, thus limiting its role as a cardiovascular risk marker in HIV-1-infected individuals.


IntroductionRespiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) causes considerable morbidity in children. RSV vaccines are in development, but the only current preventive measure is immunoprophylaxis with monoclonal antibody, palivizumab. Australia has no uniform palivizumab guidelines. In Western Australia palivizumab is licensed for use in high risk children but compliance and effectiveness is unknown.
Objectives and ApproachWe conducted a retrospective cohort study using palivizumab data from multiple pharmacy dispensing datasets which had been linked with routine laboratory, hospital morbidity, emergency department presentations, deaths and perinatal data for a cohort of infants admitted to Level 3 Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU) between 2002 and 2013. We identified palivizumab eligible infants as those who were extremely premature (<28 weeks gestation) with bronchopulmonary dysplasia and/or who identified as Indigenous and were NICU inpatients during the annual winter RSV season (May-October). We describe the use of palivizumab in infants that did and did not fit the eligibility criteria.
ResultsThe NICU cohort included 24,367 infants, of which 1754 had at least 1 RSV-confirmed infection before age 5 years. A total of 686 (2.8%) cohort infants were eligible for palivizumab. Palivizumab dispensing data were amalgamated from 5 pharmacy datasets. Overall, 173 of the palivizumab eligible infants (25.2%) had at least 1 palivizumab dose (27% 1 dose, 34% 2 doses, 28% 3 doses and 11% 4 or more doses). From 2011 when palivizumab guidelines were formalised, 143 (75%) had at least 1 dose. Compliance with at least 1 palivizumab dose was highest in 2011 (84.9%). From 2002-2013, 98 infants were given palivizumab outside eligibility criteria (33% 1 dose, 33% 2 doses, 34% 3 or more doses) with annual use increasing since 2008.
Conclusion/ImplicationsThis is the first time pharmacy dispensing data have been linked to other datasets to measure use and effectiveness. Compliance with palivizumab guidelines was high from 2011. These data will be used to measure the effectiveness of palivizumab against RSV-confirmed infections and respiratory infection-related hospitalisations up to age 5 years.


To face the challenges of the 21st century, institutions need to address problems experienced by the modern world. The nature of modern work is changing and continually increasing, with knowledge, information and education. As we move further into the information and knowledge age, the workforce will require sophisticated education and training to sustain competitiveness and responsible development. In response to this challenge the DOE restructured Higher Education to make it relevant to the needs of society and industry. In terms of the National Plan Higher Education (2001) many Technikons were either converted to Universities of Technology (UOT) or merged into universities and became Comprehensive Universities. The Traditional University made up the third type of university. As a result three distinct types of institutions emerged, namely UOTs, Comprehensive Universities and Traditional Universities. In this configuration previous Technikons were reclassified as a UOTs and were able to offer degrees also. This research studied the development of UoTs and its evolution to "University" status. After being classified as Universities of Technology, it soon became clear that these universities lacked a philosophy. Its attributes were not clearly formulated by the DOE. It was left largely to the UoTs in South Africa to develop a set of attributes. This study developed an underlying philosophy, attributes, and performance indicators to guide the strategic direction and development of UoTs in creating a unique personality for itself. Five universities were studied in UK, Germany and Switzerland to develop a set of characteristics/attributes and performance indicators that can be adopted in South Africa. Five local UoTs were also studied, together with the South African Technological Network in building a set of common attributes. A Balanced Score Card was designed as a management model. Each attribute was linked to drivers and each driver was linked to performance indicators. The model included the various perspectives and components, which illustrated the interaction and cause and effect relationships. The philosophy of a Learning Organisation was adopted and its principals underpinned the interaction and relationships. This model will ensure that South African UoTs are able to comply with both national and international benchmarks. UoTs pride themselves by ensuring that they produce and apply knowledge to solve real world problems. These universities see themselves as part of the greater society and therefore partnerships are critical to its functioning. Technology transfer and leadership in technology is a key strategic goal in determining its unique position in the Higher Education landscape. The Balanced Score Card was used to develop a management model which is a tool in establishing a UoT with benchmarks, performance indicators and drivers.


Using Cloud Storage, users can remotely store their data and enjoy the on-demand high quality applications and services from a shared pool of configurable computing resources, without the burden of local data storage and maintenance. However, the fact that users no longer have physical possession of the outsourced data makes the data integrity protection in Cloud Computing a formidable task, especially for users with constrained computing resources. Moreover, users should be able to just use the cloud storage as if it is local, without worrying about the need to verify its integrity. Thus, enabling public auditability for cloud storage is of critical importance so that users can resort to a third party auditor (TPA) to check the integrity of outsourced data and be worry-free. To securely introduce an effective TPA, the auditing process should bring in no new vulnerabilities towards user data privacy, and introduce no additional online burden to user. In this paper, we propose a secure cloud storage system supporting privacy-preserving public auditing. We further extend our result to enable the TPA to perform audits for multiple users simultaneously and efficiently. Extensive security and performance analysis show the proposed schemes are provably secure and highly efficient.


Copepods have the mechanoreceptive abilities to detect velocity gradients generated by approaching predators and the ability to respond to these predators within milliseconds. Ctenophores produce a low-velocity feeding current to entrain slow-swimming and non-motile prey. Since cope- pod species vary in their sensitivity to hydrodynamic disturbances, it is possible that species will dif- fer in their ability to distinguish flow-generating ctenophores from the surrounding fluid. Predator- prey interactions were recorded between the ctenophore Mnemiopsis leidyi and 3 copepod species, Acartia tonsa, Paracalanus parvus and Temora turbinata. Although A. tonsa is more sensitive to hydrodynamic disturbances, T. turbinata was most successful in escaping the ctenophore predator. T. turbinata entered the inner lobe area (capture surfaces) of the ctenophore significantly less than either A. tonsa or P. parvus and were better able to escape both encounters and contacts with the inner lobes. These results suggest that sensitivity to velocity gradients may play only a minor role in determining escape success and an intermittent swimming pattern may increase susceptibility to capture by flow-generating predators.


In the American constitutional system the sovereign has the power to enact regulations which are necessary to the common good and general welfare. But the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution proscribes that: No person shall be. . .deprived of. . .property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation. And the question of whether a sovereign regulation has taken private property without just compensation has puzzled the United States Supreme Court for over two hundred years in over four hundred cases. This paper chronicles the leading cases and finds that the Court's present interpretation of regulatory takings sits upon a shaky foundation of split decisions; the Court's construction of the constitutional property remains a work in progress. It finds today's Supreme Court is fundamentally split into two blocs. This Great Divide is sometimes attributed to a difference in judicial philosophy. Those in the Court's conservative wing are typically described as practitioners of judicial restraint. Those in the Court's liberal wing are said to be judicial activists who are intent on reconstructing the Constitution's language to meet the exigencies of the times. The Court's constitutional property jurisprudence belies this stereotype. Its right wing is seeking to define the Takings Clause, beyond its original meaning, so as to discourage government activity. Conversely the left wing is more than willing to give wide discretion to legislative bodies to impose regulations without paying compensation to disappointed property owners.


Rusal Aughinish operates an alumina refinery situated on Aughinish Island on the south side of the Shannon estuary. The company submitted an application to extend the Bauxite Residue Disposal Area (B.R.D.A.) by another 80 hectares in 2006. Space to store residue was estimated to run out in 2011, thus requiring the construction of the extra 80 hectares which needed planning permission and an extension of the licence. It was vital to get planning permission and licence extension. There is a large volume of residual alkalinity, held in a soluble and solid phase, retained in the bauxite. The E.P.A. has requested a Residuals Management Plan which included, as a minimum, a scope statement for the plan. The criteria, which defines the successful decommissioning of the activity or part thereof, ensures minimum impact to the environment. However, this is subject to: the provision of a sustainable vegetation cover; and demonstration of leachate attenuation to below pH 9.0 within 5 years. Residue neutralisation methods were also investigated. Rusal Aughinish has determined that the restoration of the B.R.D.A. surface will support a "nature conservation" end-use (AAL, 2005d). Therefore, sustainable re-vegetation of the B.R.D.A. was required to support this goal. Small plot trials (2m x1m) and larger plot trials (10m x 2m) were established, which were amended with gypsum, process sand, and spent mushroom compost which lowered the pH, exchangeable sodium percentage (ESP) and the availability of Al and Fe in the residue. The newly created soil (bauxite residue mixed with process sand, gypsum and organic waste) was seeded. Results show that the establishment of vegetation was achievable. Additionally, investigations were carried out into the use of machinery on the residue. Two Demonstration Cells were constructed within the confines of the B.R.D.A. (0.6ha). The sides and floor of the cells were lined and a leachate collection system was installed on the floor of the cells. Monitoring of pH, electrical conductivity, and soda was conducted in run-off and leachate before and after vegetation growth on the residue in the cell. No reduction was noted in leachate or run-off pH since monitoring commenced in 2007. Following research into neutralization methods the use of sulphuric acid was the best option, but only partial neutralization was achieved, due to the large volume of acid required for full neutralization. There was also the likelihood of creating pH conditions that would lead to H2S odour problems. Carbonation would also be possible, but would require the construction of a plant or the importation of liquid CO2. Seawater neutralisation using water from the Shannon estuary is prohibited by costs. An initial modelling project looked at groundwater flow within the B.R.D.A. in two dimensions and assumptions were made as to the physical stratification and structure of the B.R.D.A. Mud-farming commenced and was evaluated. In conclusion, direct vegetation was found to be feasible, and so avoiding the high cost of topsoil. Soil construction and plant establishment was demonstrated. Demonstration Cells were constructed as per design and monitoring for pH, conductivity and soda of the leachate and run-off was conducted before and after vegetation growth. This monitoring is still ongoing. Filling of the cell with residue was determined by the stacking angle of the residue. Controlling percentage solids of the residue is very important in order to achieve proper stacking of the residue, Leachate pH may take years to drop from 13 to 9.0 or below. Recommendations to the company include further monitoring of Demonstration Cell leachate, run-off, and the vegetation cover on the residue. Finally, it is recommended to continue investigation into residue neutralisation methods.


List of Figures ix List of Tables xiii Contributors xv Acknowledgments xix CHAPTER 1: Introduction by John D. Castello and Scott O. Rogers 1 CHAPTER 2: Recommendations for Elimination of Contaminants and Authentication of Isolates in Ancient Ice Cores by Scott O. Rogers, Li-Jun Ma, Yinghao Zhao, Vincent Theraisnathan, Seung-Geuk Shin, Gang Zhang, Catherine M. Catranis, William T. Starmer, and John D. Castello 5 CHAPTER 3: Perennial Antarctic Lake Ice: A Refuge for Cyanobacteria in an Extreme Environment by John C. Priscu, Edward E. Adams, Hans W. Paerl, Christian H. Fritsen, John E. Dore, John T. Lisle, Craig F. Wolf, and Jill A. Mikucki 22 CHAPTER 4: The Growth of Prokaryotes in Antarctic Sea Ice: Implications for Ancient Ice Communities by David S. Nichols 50 CHAPTER 5: Frozen in Time: The Diatom Record in Ice Cores from Remote Drilling Sites on the Antarctic Ice Sheets by Davida E. Kellogg and Thomas B. Kellogg 69 CHAPTER 6: The Nature and Likely Sources of Biogenic Particles Found in Ancient Ice from Antarctica by Raymond Sambrotto and Lloyd Burckle 94 CHAPTER 7: Microbial Life below the Freezing Point within Permafrost by Elizaveta Rivkina, Kayastas Laurinavichyus, and David A. Gilichinsky 106 CHAPTER 8: Yeasts Isolated from Ancient Permafrost 118 by Rushaniya N. Faizutdinova, Nataliya E. Suzina, Vitalyi I. Duda, Lada E. Petrovskaya, and David A. Gilichinsky 118 CHAPTER 9: Fungi in Ancient Permafrost Sediments of the Arctic and Antarctic Regions by Nataliya E. Ivanushkina, Galina A. Kochkina, and Svetlana M. Ozerskaya 127 CHAPTER 10: Viable Phototrophs: Cyanobacteria and Green Algae from the Permafrost Darkness by Tatiana A. Vishnivetskaya, Ludmila G. Erokhina, Elena V. Spirina, Anastasia V. Shatilovich, Elena A. Vorobyova, Alexander I. Tsapin, and David A. Gilichinsky 140 CHAPTER 11: The Significance and Implications of the Discovery of Filamentous Fungi in Glacial Ice by Li-Jun Ma, Catherine M. Catranis, William T. Starmer, and Scott O. Rogers 159 CHAPTER 12: Yeasts in the Genus Rhodotorula Recovered from the Greenland Ice Sheet by William T. Starmer, Jack W. Fell, Catherine M. Catranis, Virginia Aberdeen, Li-Jun Ma, Shuang Zhou, and Scott O. Rogers 181 CHAPTER 13: Plant and Bacterial Viruses in the Greenland Ice Sheet by John D. Castello, Scott O. Rogers, James E. Smith, William T. Starmer, and Yinghao Zhao 196 CHAPTER 14: Viral Pathogens of Humans Likely to Be Preserved in Natural Ice by Dany Shoham 208 CHAPTER 15: Classification of Bacteria from Polar and Nonpolar Glacial Ice by Brent C. Christner, Ellen Mosley-Thompson, Lonnie G. Thompson, and John N. Reeve 227 CHAPTER 16: Common Features of Microorganisms in Ancient Layers of the Antarctic Ice Sheet by S.S. Abyzov, M.N. Poglazova, J.N. Mitskevich, and M.V. Ivanov 240 CHAPTER 17: Comparative Biological Analyses of Accretion Ice from Subglacial Lake Vostok by Robin Bell, Michael Studinger, Anahita Tikku, and John D. Castello 251 CHAPTER 18: Search for Microbes and Biogenic Compounds in Polar Ice Using Fluorescence by Ryan Bay, Nathan Bramall, and P. Buford Price 268 CHAPTER 19: Living Cells in Permafrost as Models for Astrobiology Research by Elena A. Vorobyova, V.S. Soina, A.G. Mamukelashvili, A. Bolshakova, I.V. Yaminsky, and A.L. Mulyukin 277 CHAPTER 20: A Synopsis of the Past, an Evaluation of the Current, and a Glance toward the Future by John D. Castello and Scott O. Rogers 289 Index 301


Given a large group of cooperative agents, selecting the right coordination or conflict resolution strategy can have a significant impact on their performance (e.g., speed of convergence). While performance models of such coordination or conflict resolution strategies could aid in selecting the right strategy for a given domain, such models remain largely uninvestigated in the multiagent literature. This paper takes a step towards applying the recently emerging distributed POMDP (partially observable markov decision process) frameworks, such as the MTDP (markov team decision process) in service of creating such performance models. To address issues of scale-up, we use small-scale models, called building blocks that represent the local interaction among a small group of agents. We discuss several ways to combine building blocks for performance prediction of a larger-scale multiagent system. Our approach is presented in the context of DCSP (distributed constraint satisfaction problem), where we are able to predict the performance of five different DCSP strategies in different domain settings by modeling and combining building blocks. Our approach points the way to new tools based on building blocks for performance analysis in multiagent systems.


Hispanics represent the fastest growing population with cultural, demographic, and geographic diversity. This makes it difficult to successfully deliver homogeneous programs. Therefore, it is essential to better understand and have awareness of Hispanic American community needs. Such an understanding will allow 4-H Youth Development educators to deliver programs that engage Latinos as volunteers to benefit their community. This study surveyed 85 Hispanics to describe their participation in volunteerism and activities they would like to be involved in. The results provided information and recommendations that enabled 4-H Youth Development professionals to develop strategies for programs focused on recruiting Hispanics as volunteers.


OBJECTIVES
The purpose of this study is to develop the gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric method (GC-MS) for screening and semiquantification of drugs and drugs of abuse in human serum.

METHOD
GC-MS method after liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) and derivatization with N-methyl-N-trimethylsilyltrifluoroacetamide (MSTFA) is presented for screening as well as identification and semiquantification of the most frequently used drugs and drugs of abuse in human serum.

RESULTS
Bovine serum spiked with ephedrine (EPHE), 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), guaifenesin (GUAIF), tramadol (TRAM), phenobarbital (PHENO), amitriptyline (AMITR), cocaine (COCA), mirtazapine (MIRTA), dothiepin (DOTH), citalopram (CITAL), clomipramine (CLOMI), bromazepam (BMZPM), diazepam (DZPM), codeine (COD), morphine (MORPH), levomepromazine (LEVO), zolpidem (ZOLP), clozapine (CLOZP), alprazolam (ALPZM) was used for the recovery and repeatability study and for preparation of calibration curves of individual compounds or their TMS derivatives. Recoveries were tested on concentration levels 0.05, 0.1 and 0.5 microg/mL (n=6) and established in range 72.0-98.0%. Repeatabilities expressed as relative standard deviations (RSDs) measured at concentration levels 0.05, 0.1 and 0.5 microg/ mL (n=6) were lower than 10.0%. The calibration curves for analytes or their TMS derivatives were linear in concentration range 0.025-2.000 microg/mL (except of EPHE 2TMS, MDMA TMS, MORPH 2TMS, BMZPM TMS, ALPZM) with correlation coefficients exceeding 0.99. The limit of quantification (LOQ) for analytes used for evaluation study was 0.025 microg/mL (except analytes mentioned above).

CONCLUSIONS
The GC-MS method presented here is allowing screening, identification and semiquantification of the most commonly encountered drugs and drugs of abuse in human serum and can be successfully applied to analysis of real samples from clinical and forensic toxicology cases.


Introduction: perceived class evaluation is one of the most important factors of self-directed learning in student. Class evaluation is an important part of class climate. The purpose of this study was to examine relationship between structure of perceived class evaluation and self-direction in learning for nursing and midwifery students. Method: The population of this study consisted of nursing and midwifery student of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences who enrolled during 2011-12 semesters. A sample size of 220 was selected based on the stratified proportional sampling on the basis of gender. The sample was completed perceived class evaluation survey and self-direction in learning surveys. Result: The results indicated that there was a significant correlation between structures of perceived class evaluation (erudition oriented) and structures of perceived class evaluation (performance oriented) (p<0.01). Also, the results showed that there was a positive and significant correlation between structure of perceived class evaluation (erudition oriented) and self-direction in learning (P<0.01).There was no significant correlation between structures of perceived class evaluation (performance oriented) and self-direction in learning. Conclusion: Based on these conclusions, it is suggested to change structure of evaluation in basic programs of education and also higher education system to convert score oriented and performance oriented approach to process oriented and erudition oriented approach. This way, there will be a positive relationship between selected functions and constructive evaluation structure learners will be more pleased to study.


Despite Congress's important role in upholding U.S. international law obligations, the relevant existing literature largely ignores the branch. This omission may stem partly from the belief, common among both academics and lawyers, that Congress is generally unsympathetic to or ignorant of international law. Under this conventional wisdom, members of Congress would rarely if ever imply that international law norms should impact otherwise desirable domestic legislation. Using an original dataset comprising thirty years of legislative histories of pertinent federal statutes, this Article questions and tests that view. The evidence refutes the conventional wisdom. It shows instead that, in legislative debates over bills whose enactment arguably triggers international law violations, members of Congress urge international law compliance relatively often, using rhetorical framing devices similar to those that members use for comparable constitutionally problematic bills. The arguments are overwhelmingly supportive of international law and often phrased in legalistic terms. The evidence suggests, moreover, that such international law invocation may be partially motivated by political self-interest. These findings, together with existing literature and qualitative evidence from former policymakers, imply that members of Congress may be incentivized to take public pro-international law positions by international law-minded executive officials. In this way, the executive may use the legislature to reinforce the national commitment to international law obligations. Through this interbranch bargaining, the president might use congressional international law discourse to boost the country's international credibility and strengthen her office's own hand in making and enforcing future commitments.


In this work we define a modified SEIR model that accounts for the spread of infection during the latent period, infections from asymptomatic or pauci-symptomatic infected individuals, potential loss of acquired immunity, people's increasing awareness of social distancing and the use of vaccination as well as non-pharmaceutical interventions like social confinement. We estimate model parameters in three different scenarios - in Italy, where there is a growing number of cases and re-emergence of the epidemic, in India, where there are significant number of cases post confinement period and in Victoria, Australia where a re-emergence has been controlled with severe social confinement program. Our result shows the benefit of long-term confinement of 50% or above population and extensive testing. With respect to loss of acquired immunity, our model suggests higher impact for Italy. We also show that a reasonably effective vaccine with mass vaccination program can be successful in significantly controlling the size of infected population. We show that for India, a reduction in contact rate by 50% compared to a reduction of 10% in the current stage can reduce death from 0.0268% to 0.0141% of population. Similarly, for Italy we show that reducing contact rate by half can reduce a potential peak infection of 15% population to less than 1.5% of population, and potential deaths from 0.48% to 0.04%. With respect to vaccination, we show that even a 75% efficient vaccine administered to 50% population can reduce the peak number of infected populations by nearly 50% in Italy. Similarly, for India, a 0.056% of population would die without vaccination, while 93.75% efficient vaccine given to 30% population would bring this down to 0.036% of population, and 93.75% efficient vaccine given to 70% population would bring this down to 0.034%.


Quantitative replacement of methionine with its non-natural amino acid analogues, norleucine, selenomethionine and telluro-methionine in human recombinant annexin V, is applied to study conformational and folding properties in solution. This procedure replaces each methionine sulphur atom with Se, Te or -CH2-, providing single-atom exchanges, or >>atomic mutations<<. Using guanidine chloride as denaturant, the estimated stabilities of protein variants are not significantly changed. The denaturation midpoints are shifted towards lower values owing to the increase in the hydrophobicity of exchanged residues. Co-operativity expressed in terms of m-values is also affected by such exchanges and is highly correlated with the physical properties of methionine and its analogues in solution. This approach can contribute to a detailed understanding of interactions of particular amino acids and their implications on protein folding and protein-ligand interactions.


Cenozoic deposits comprising the fluvial sediments of Payogastilla Group (Middle Eocene-Late Miocene) were studied in the southern portion of the Calchaqui Valley, Salta province. The strata are well-exposed on both banks of the Calchaqui river and comprise 5,400 m of clastic deposits, defined, from base to top, by Los Colorados, Angastaco, Palo Pintado and San Felipe formations. Mineralogic, petrographic, geochemical and X-ray diffraction analyses of the constituent facies of Los Colorados, Angastaco and Palo Pintado formations are described, including their provenance, derived from paleocurrent studies. The main sandstone facies component is characterized by quartz grains; other detrital components are potassium feldspar, altered plagioclase, perthite and abundant mica. The compacted and matrix supported conglomerate deposists exhibit clasts mostly of pegmatite, granite, quartz, slate-clay, gneiss and migmatite. These data are associated with the results of major and trace elements with a similar affiliation to the rocks of the eastern edge of the Puna (Eruptivo Oire Complex) and Sierras Pampeanas. X-ray difracction analysis of clay samples from the Palo Pintado formation reveal illite and montmorillonite, which are interpreted to be of detrital origin, while the saponite has been generated by weathering in a humid-temperate climate. Compositional characteristics and paleocurrent data suggest primary sediment contribution from the cumbres de Luracatao and sierra de Vazquez, as well as from the Runo and Durazno ranges, sierra de Quilmes and Cumbres Calchaquies and, to a lesser extent, from the cerro Colorado, throughout the middle Eocene to late Miocene.


A theoretical quantum teleportation protocol is suggested to teleport accelerated and nonaccelerated information over different classes of accelerated quantum channels. For the accelerated information, it is shown that the fidelity of the teleported state increases as the entanglement of the initial quantum channel increases. However, as the difference between the accelerations of the channel and the teleported state decreases, the fidelity of the teleported information increases. The fidelity of the nonaccelerated information increases as the entanglement of the initial quantum channel increases, while the accelerations of the quantum channel have a little effect. The possibility of sending quantum information over accelerated quantum channels is much better than sending classical information.


Virtual laboratories (VLs) have to overcome important challenges to improve student knowledge, understanding and motivation. This research aims to test the hypothesis that, through adding features of serious games to VLs and integrating artificial intelligence (AI) techniques, an enhancement of student motivation, knowledge and understanding can be attained. This work introduces the Olympia architecture, which is based on a previous architecture that combines VLs and intelligent tutoring systems (ITSs). In addition, Olympia enables the combination of serious games with ITSs, resulting in an educational game virtual laboratory (GVL). The GVL provides affective feedback through sound, a more engaging look-and-feel and defines student actions through the game mechanics module. Olympia was tested in a case study on teaching linear momentum in an undergraduate Physics course. For the first evaluation, a VL and a GVL were implemented. The results showed that students were motivated and learned in a similar way with both the GVL and VL environments. Later, several additions were integrated in both environments: the probabilistic student model was improved, tutorial videos were added, and the feedback was refined. For the second evaluation the results suggest that using the GVL resulted in higher learning gains than using VL.


We study the role of privacy in the market for mobile applications. For such programs used with smartphones and tablet PCs a very important market has emerged. Yet, neither the role of privacy on that market is well understood, nor do we have empirical evidence regarding its role therein. We exploit data on 300,000 mobile applications and almost 600 "applications-pairs" to analyze both sides of this market: First, we analyze the price that application suppliers charge for more privacy. Second, we study how users' installations are related to the "personal data greediness" of mobile applications. We provide the first empirical evidence on the main assumptions of recent early models on suppliers' and consumers' strategies in this market. Our results show that (1) consumers take it into account when applications request rights to collect private information and (2) suppliers ask for more rights if they offer an app for free than if they offer it for a fee.


New media provides new sources of information and communication that are crucial for participatory behaviors. Therefore, scholars conceptualize new media literacy (NML) that citizens should have to function successfully in this digital era. This study proposed and tested a structural model that examines multiple relationships among NML, communication skills (CS), and democratic tendency (DT). Data were collected from 1047 Turkish university students and analyzed through structural equation modeling. Using a comprehensive theoretical framework from the literature, NML was operationalized through four factors: functional consuming (FC), critical consuming (CC), functional prosuming (FP), and critical prosuming (CP). The results showed that FC and FP had a positive effect on CC, CP, and CS; CC had a positive effect on CP and DT; and CS had a positive effect on CC and DT. Findings of indirect effects revealed that CC and CS played mediation roles in the relationship of FC and FP with DT.


Likelihood-based generative models are a promising resource to detect out-of-distribution (OOD) inputs which could compromise the robustness or reliability of a machine learning system. However, likelihoods derived from such models have been shown to be problematic for detecting certain types of inputs that significantly differ from training data. In this paper, we pose that this problem is due to the excessive influence that input complexity has in generative models' likelihoods. We report a set of experiments supporting this hypothesis, and use an estimate of input complexity to derive an efficient and parameter-free OOD score, which can be seen as a likelihood-ratio, akin to Bayesian model comparison. We find such score to perform comparably to, or even better than, existing OOD detection approaches under a wide range of data sets, models, model sizes, and complexity estimates.


We describe Context Broker Architecture (CoBrA) – a new architecture for supporting context-aware systems in smart spaces. Our architecture explores the use of Semantic Web languages for defining and publishing a context ontology, for sharing information about a context and for reasoning over such information. Central to our architecture is a broker agent that maintains a shared model of the context for all computing entities in the space and enforces the privacy policies defined by the users and devices. We also describe the use of CoBrA in prototyping an intelligent meeting room.


Blood products are critical to the success of both routine healthcare delivery and emergency response efforts. Ensuring the safety and availability of blood products presents nations with considerable collection, screening, and distribution challenges that are often exacerbated by public health crises, particularly mass-casualty events involving traumatic injuries. However, recent outbreaks of Ebola and Zika virus disease have also illustrated the importance of securing blood product supplies during ongoing infectious disease emergencies. The United States and other nations should consider enhancing existing mechanisms for sharing medical countermeasures by creating formal agreements for sharing blood products during public health emergencies.


Theoretical ideas for deriving singularities of thermodynamical functions at the second-order phase transitions in spin systems with weak quenched disorder are considered. In particular, p-component vector magnets and the two-dimensional Ising model with disorder in spin-spin interactions are studied. Generalisation of the traditional renormalisation-group scheme, which takes into account non-perturbative spin-glass degrees of freedom, is proposed. Low-temperature properties and the phase transition in the Ising systems with quenched random fields are also considered.


Nucleosomes form the fundamental building blocks of chromatin. Subtle modifications of the constituent histone tails mediate chromatin stability and regulate gene expression. For this reason, it is important to understand structural dynamics of nucleosomes at atomic levels. We report a novel multiscale model of the fundamental chromatin unit, a nucleosome, using a simplified model for rapid discrete molecular dynamics simulations and an all-atom model for detailed structural investigation. Using a simplified structural model, we perform equilibrium simulations of a single nucleosome at various temperatures. We further reconstruct all-atom nucleosome structures from simulation trajectories. We find that histone tails bind to nucleosomal DNA via strong salt-bridge interactions over a wide range of temperatures, suggesting a mechanism of chromatin structural organization whereby histone tails regulate inter- and intranucleosomal assemblies via binding with nucleosomal DNA. We identify specific regions of the histone core H2A/H2B-H4/H3-H3/H4-H2B/H2A, termed "cold sites", which retain a significant fraction of contacts with adjoining residues throughout the simulation, indicating their functional role in nucleosome organization. Cold sites are clustered around H3-H3, H2A-H4 and H4-H2A interhistone interfaces, indicating the necessity of these contacts for nucleosome stability. Essential dynamics analysis of simulation trajectories shows that bending across the H3-H3 is a prominent mode of intranucleosomal dynamics. We postulate that effects of salts on mononucleosomes can be modeled in discrete molecular dynamics by modulating histone-DNA interaction potentials. Local fluctuations in nucleosomal DNA vary significantly along the DNA sequence, suggesting that only a fraction of histone-DNA contacts make strong interactions dominating mononucleosomal dynamics. Our findings suggest that histone tails have a direct functional role in stabilizing higher-order chromatin structure, mediated by salt-bridge interactions with adjacent DNA.


The mammalian neocortex is characterised by precise patterns of synaptic connections, which dictate how information flows through cortical circuits. The degree of convergence and divergence of excitatory information results from highly non-random, short-range and long-range glutamatergic synaptic connections (1-11). Previous seminal work has shown that connections across cortical layers can form preferentially between sister neurons born from the same individual progenitor cell (12). However, cortical neurons also form synaptic connections with many neurons within the same layer (1-6) and this intralaminar connectivity has been shown to reflect specific patterns of longer-range connectivity (1-3, 9-10). Given that neurons within the same cortical layer can be derived from a heterogeneous population of embryonic progenitor cells (13-18), we examined how defined progenitor pools influence local excitatory synaptic connectivity in mouse primary somatosensory cortex. We find that upper layer neurons derived from a subpopulation of progenitors, called short neural precursors, connect out-of-class, such that they preferentially form intralaminar connections with neurons derived from other types of progenitor. Similar local connectivity rules have been associated with differential long-range connectivity (1). Indeed, while we find no differences in basic intrinsic or morphological properties, optogenetic circuit mapping reveals that progenitor pool predicts the long-range thalamic input a neuron receives, as well as a neuron's output to deeper layers of cortex. Neurons derived from short neural precursors receive more input from a higher-order thalamic nucleus and provide stronger output to layer 5a, which is associated with cortico-cortical projections. In contrast, adjacent neurons derived from other progenitors receive more input from a first-order thalamic nucleus and provide stronger output to layer 5b, which is associated with subcortical projections. These data suggest that the emergence of progenitor pools has enabled the cortex to generate distinct local and long-range subnetworks for the differential routing of excitatory information.


In order to gain insight into the role of substructure in complex systems we investigate attractor neural network models with substructure. Partially subdivided neural networks enable the storage of highly correlated states, and may also be useful as a model for brain function. Two possible biological examples are the separation of color, shape and motion in visual processing, and the use of parts of speech in language. With this motivation we analyze the ability of partially subdivided attractor networks to store both imprinted neural states and composite states formed out of combinations of imprinted subnetwork states. As the strength of intersubnetwork synapses are reduced more combinations of imprinted substates are recalled by the network. We perform a mean field analysis of the stability of composite patterns. Analytic solution of the equations at zero temperature show how stability of a particular composite pattern is controlled by the number of subdivisions that represent each imprinted pattern. Numerical minimization of the free energy is used to obtain the phase transition diagrams for networks with 2, 3 or 4 subdivisions.


Delivering high quality dietary protein at an affordable
price is a major aim of the EU-funded CHANCE project. Foods have been
formulated with this aim and as part of their nutritional assessment; the
bioaccessbility of nutrients
following simulated gastroduodenal digestion is being investigated. Nutrimetabolomics approaches can
be used to comprehensively and quantitatively analyse nutrients and
metabolites. They have been applied to monitor nutrient
release from ham, formulated in the CHANCE project, during in vitro digestion. SDS-PAGE analysis shows that constituent
ham proteins were broken down to lower molecular weight polypeptides (Mr ≤ 10 kDa) after 120 min simulated gastric digestion
which was digested further by
subsequent duodenal digestion. Digestion of
porteins resulted in the appearance of coalesced lipid droplets associated with the loss of the muscle protein matrix of the ham. Important nutrients, such
as choline, creatine, carnosine, sucrose, cholesterol, triacylglyceride and fatty acids (saturated and
unsaturated) were identified using 1H NMR. Chance ham is a good source of dietary protein and
the combined approach can provide representative data on the bioaccessibility
of all detectable nutrients contained in CHANCE ham
to human digestive system.


This paper studies the resource allocation problem for the relay-assisted orthogonal frequency-division multiple-access (OFDMA)-based multiuser system. A new transmission protocol, named hierarchical OFDMA, is proposed to support two-way communications between the base station (BS) and each mobile user (MU) with or without an assisting relay station (RS) in ldquorelayrdquo or ldquodirectrdquo mode, respectively. In particular, the recently discovered two-way relaying technology, based on the principle of network coding, is applied to MUs in relay mode with two possible relay-operations, namely, decode-and-forward (DF) and amplify-and-forward (AF). By applying convex optimization techniques, efficient algorithms are developed for optimal allocation of transmit resources such as power levels, bit rates, and OFDM subcarriers at the BS, RSs, and MUs. Simulation results show that substantial system throughput gains are achievable by the proposed two-way relaying and optimal resource allocation schemes over the traditional one-way relaying and fixed resource allocation schemes for relay-assisted OFDMA-based wireless networks.


Climate change and sea level rise are not just mere words for the Maldivian people; they are a grim reality that is consuming their nation. Sea level rise presents one of the gravest dangers for the Maldives because of its already low-lying characteristics. As the levels continue to rise, the nation is sinking into extinction. Some 300,000 people of the Maldives are on the brink of losing their homes and becoming climate change refugees. The existing international laws are not only ill-equipped to provide protections or the much-needed relief, they also make no mention of climate change refugees. Therefore, as the Maldivians await the result of the 2015 Paris Convention whose purpose is to achieve a binding universal agreement on climate change, they continue to face numerous human rights violations. Additionally, the loss of a nation does not only mean the loss of a home, it also means the loss of sovereignty at the international level. However, at the present time, finding a safe haven for its people is at the top of the Maldives agenda. The former president of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed, fought vigorously to bring the issue of sea level rise and climate change to the forefront. Knowing that such a day where he would have to move his people was not far in the distance, he also made plans to relocate. India and Australia have both been considered possible new homes; however, are both countries willing to take in such a large infiltration of refugees? What are the repercussions of moving to these countries? Would an artificial island possibly be the home the Maldivians are looking for? This article examines the options the Maldives has for relocation and why perhaps an artificial island may be a better solution. Keywords : Maldives, climate change, refugees, justice, protection, international law.


This thesis utilises Ariella Azoulay's proposition of the 'event of photography' as
a critical research method and curatorial framework to explore the affective
meanings of photographs in the context of the aftermath of the Troubles signalled
by the Good Friday Agreement. It examines the implications of staging the 'event
of photography' as a curated research process and dramaturgical methodology in
order to explore the political temporality of post Agreement through a discussion
of the affective meanings of the work of six photographers - John Duncan, Kai
Olaf Hesse, Mary McIntyre, David Farrell, Paul Seawright and Malcolm Craig
Gilbert.


This article introduces three topics which were the focus of an Albany Law Review symposium devoted to current issues facing the judiciary: judicial selection methods, the free speech rights of judges, and judicial activism. Professor Vincent M. Bonventre concentrates on the latter, the perennial question cum assertion that judges and courts - and most specifically the Supreme Court and other high courts - ought simply to apply the law strictly, defer to the choices of the democratic/majoritarian branches, and restrain themselves from applying their own views. Bonventre maintains that such contentions are largely nonsensical, and shows through historical examples that the appropriate dichotomy is not between judicial activism and judicial restraint, but between judicial wisdom and foolhardiness - both of which sometimes involve restraint and sometimes activism.


The main motivation of this research is to gain a better understanding of the power of feedback loops by finding the zone somewhere between passively offering information and aggressively pumping out data that gets ignored along with all the other media noise. The answer we believe lies in creating compelling, aesthetic solutions that appeal to our senses and fuse seamlessly with our everyday lives. This poster discusses the power of feedback loops in environments where human and wearable computers are intertwined and explores their application as tools for self-modification and sustainable change. In order to explore feedback loops in these environments, we propose Blinklifier, a wearable computer that amplifies human blinking and minimizes the use of intrusive devices on the face such as heavy glasses and electromyography. Here we investigate the communication possibilities by exposing blinking through wearable computers. Author Keywords


Coaching supervision is a prerequisite for accreditation of executive coaches by coaching associations in the UK. However, there is still considerable skepticism, caution, even ignorance about the nature and purpose of coaching supervision and many coaches do not engage. The aim of this action research was to explore what happens in the coaching supervision process with a view to establishing its relevance and value. The project involved two groups of participants (a) six executive coaches and (b) five coaching supervisors who engaged in their own regular supervision sessions. The findings affirmed that one-to-one reflection on practice with a qualified supervisor is a vital factor. However, there is surprising new evidence about what else is useful that includes a range of support for coaches to contribute to their continued professional and personal wellbeing.


The study shows how the evolution of two-way traffic flows on a local highway network can be predicted over time using a network-level traffic flow model (NTFM) to model both urban and motorway road networks. After a brief review of the main principles of the NTFM and its associated sub-models, the paper describes how a maintenance worksite can be modelled using a roadwork-node sub-model and a network solution routine in the NTFM. In order to model the two-way traffic flow in the road network, an iterative simulation method is used to generate the evolution of dependent traffic flows and queues. The NTFM has been applied to model the traffic characteristics and the effects of maintenance activities on the local Loughborough–Nottingham highway network. The study has demonstrated that the methodology is useful in selecting various worksite arrangements in order to reduce the effects of maintenance on road users.


The traditional approach to legal ethics often is characterized to mean that lawyers must zealously advocate for their clients' objectives tempered only by the bounds of the law. In contrast to the traditional approach, the public interest approach to legal ethics extends a government lawyer's professional ethical duties from the agency client to the public at large to further the public interest. Commentators, in advocating either the traditional approach or the public interest approach to government lawyering, disagree about whether a government lawyer owes some sort of duty to the public and if so, the nature and scope of that duty. My article proposes that the traditional approach and the public interest approach are not mutually exclusive. Rather, this article describes an approach to legal ethics that simultaneously serves the agency client's interest and the public interest by exploring the ethical responsibilities of lawyers of the Internal Revenue Service Office of Chief Counsel, the in-house law firm for the IRS, in the context of the following four hypothetical situations: (1) remaining silent in the face of an expired statute of limitations; (2) affirmatively raising a defense to defeat a taxpayer's meritorious claim; (3) continuing to litigate a losing case; and (4) conceding a winning case. An approach that melds the traditional and public interest approaches resembles in some respects the Contextual View of lawyering developed by Professor William Simon of Columbia Law School. According to Professor Simon, a lawyer following his Contextual View should "take those actions that, considering the relevant circumstances of the particular case, seem likely to promote justice," where justice is synonymous with "legal merit". Getting the correct legal answer is paramount under Professor Simon's Contextual View, although a lawyer applying the Contextual View can still be a zealous advocate for the client if the client's position is consistent with the underlying legal merits of the case.


This session will be based on three presentations that focus on the relationship between liberal education, effective practice and diversity from different perspectives. George Kuh will present data indicating that the educational benefits of "high impact" learning experiences (such as experiential education and undergraduate research), which are significant for all students, are often greater for students from underserved and minority backgrounds than for their majority counterparts. Armando Bengochea will discuss the ways in which an emphasis on effective practice can enhance the educational experiences of students of color within a liberal arts curriculum. Steve Stemler will report on research showing that including practice-oriented criteria in assessments of student achievements and capabilities can assist colleges and universities in identifying and educating minority students with high potential to succeed both in college and beyond college.


Sensitivity diagnostics has recently been put high on the agenda of methodological research into Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA). Existing studies in this area rely on the technique of exhaustive enumeration, and the majority of works examine the reactivity of QCA either only to alterations in discretionary parameter values or only to data quality. In this article, we introduce the technique of combinatorial computation for evaluating the interaction effects between two problems afflicting data quality and two discretionary parameters on the stability of QCA reference solutions. In this connection, we challenge a hitherto unstated assumption intrinsic to exhaustive enumeration, show that combinatorial computation permits the formulation of general laws of sensitivity in QCA, and demonstrate that our technique is most efficient.


This paper describes a novel 2D programmable dendritic neuron array consisting of a 3×32 dendritic compartment array and a 1×32 somatic compartment array. Each dendritic compartment contains two types of regenerative nonlinearities: an NMDA nonlinearity and a dendritic spike nonlinearity. The chip supports the programmability of local synaptic weights and the configuration of dendritic morphology for individual neurons through the address-event representation protocol. With a novel local cable circuit between neighboring compartments, different dendritic morphologies can be constructed. From results measured on a chip fabricated in a 4-metal, 2-poly, 0.35µm CMOS technology, we show one instance of how dendritic nonlinearities can contribute to neuronal computation: the dendritic spike mechanism dynamically reduces the mismatch-induced coefficient of variation of the somatic response amplitude from approximately 40% to 3.5%.


Optimization of the femur prosthesis is a key issue in femur replacement surgeries that provide a viable option for limb salvage rather than amputation. To overcome the drawback of the conventional techniques that do not support topology optimization of the prosthesis design, a parameterized level set method (LSM) topology optimization with arbitrary geometric constraints is presented. A predefined narrow band along the complex profile of the original femur is preserved by applying the contour method to construct the level set function, while the topology optimization is carried out inside the cavity. The Boolean R-function is adopted to combine the free boundary and geometric constraint level set functions to describe the composite level set function of the design domain. Based on the minimum compliance goal, three different designs of 2D femur prostheses subject to the target cavity fill ratios 34%, 54%, and 74%, respectively, are illustrated.


Protein phosphorylation is one of the most abundant post-translational modifications. Phosphorylation is important for the function of the protein, for example it regulates enzyme activity, signal transduction and cell division. Protein phosphorylation plays a central role in virtually all crucial cellular processes. Therefore methods have been developed to determine which proteins are phosphorylated, that is to unravel the phosphoproteome. One approach relies on beta-elimination of Ser-/Thr-phosphorylated peptides under basic conditions. This method for the identification of phosphorylated peptides is, however, not completely selective since O-glycosylated peptides are also modified and thus yielding false positives. Therefore, a reliable method for the selective analysis of phosphorylated peptides in the presence of O-glycosylated peptides had to be developed. In this thesis a model system is described containing both phosphorylated- and O-glycosylated peptides to investigate the optimal conditions for selective beta-elimination. By tuning the basic reaction conditions, selective beta-elimination was achieved and the phosphorylated peptide was selectively enriched in the presence of an O-glycosylated peptide. The enzymes responsible for creating the phosphoproteome are protein kinases. The protein kinase family comprise over 500 members and form another subproteome, the so called kinome. A subclass within this group is the Protein Kinase C (PKC) family which consists of 12 isozymes that are highly homologous at the amino acid level. PKC enzymes are involved in a wide range of cellular processes including gene expression and cell growth. Therefore, uncontrolled activation of PKC is related to several serious diseases like cancer and diabetes. With the realization of the importance of protein kinases in cellular processes, this class of enzymes has become a major drug target. However, the synthesis of selective kinase inhibitors has been proven to be difficult since these enzymes show high sequence homology, especially with respect to their catalytic domains. For inhibition of kinases in the catalytic domain several strategies can be used. This thesis describes the design and synthesis of bisubstrate-based inhibitors. These bisubstrate-based inhibitors target both the ATP-binding site and the peptide substrate binding site of the kinase. The ATP-binding site inhibitors were known ATP-competitive kinase inhibitors described in literature and modified with an acetylene functionality for bisubstrate formation. Peptide substrate binding site inhibitors were selected using dynamic microarray technology, developed by Pamgene B.V. ('s-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands). A peptide sequence that was selectively phosphorylated by one of the kinases tested, was synthesized using solid phase peptide synthesis and functionalized with an azide functionality. Next, the azide-functionalized peptides were chemoselectively coupled to acetylene-functionalized ATP-competitive inhibitors by a Cu(I)-mediated click-reaction to give in total nine bisubstrate-based inhibitors. All synthesized compounds were biologically evaluated for their activity against PKC using flow-through microarrays. The best result obtained was a bisubstrate based inhibitor, that showed selective inhibition of PKC theta with an increased affinity in the low nanomolar concentrations (0.6 – 0.9 nM).


Blood, Sweat, and Cheers looks at the contribution of sport to the making of the Canadian nation, focusing on the gradual transition from rural sporting practices to the emphasis on contemporary team sports that accompanied the industrial and urban transition. The book also analyzes sport's pre-eminent place in our contemporary consumer-oriented culture, and the sometimes ambivalent contribution of sport to a sense of Canadian identity. Intended as an introduction to the way in which social historians approach the history of sport, rather than as an exhaustive narrative of our sporting heritage, Colin Howell introduces readers to a number of important issues, including amateurism and professionalism, race and ethnicity, regionalism and nationalism, the impact of British and American sporting traditions upon Canadian sporting life, and the contemporary meaning of sport in a globalizing capitalist economy. He also investigates discourses about respectability and the display of the body, gender construction and sexual identities, the changing nature of the sporting marketplace over time, as well as the involvement of spectators, the media, and the state in the production of our national sporting life. While theoretical in approach, Blood, Sweat and Cheers also looks at the accomplishments of individual athletes, including Ned Hanlan, Maurice Richard, Barbara Ann Scott, Wayne Gretzky, and Donovan Bailey, as well as major sports teams, and covers a wide array of activities from hunting, rodeo, and native sporting traditions to those associated with the Olympic Games.


RESEARCH WAS CONCERNED WITH DEVELOPING ALTERNATIVE METHODS OF WASTEWATER DISPOSAL IN HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT SAFETY REST AREAS. EXISTING AND PLANNED REST AREA INSTALLATIONS WERE STUDIED TO ESTABLISH CRITICAL OPERATING PARAMETERS AND RELATIVE EFFECTIVENESS OF EXISTING WASTE DISPOSAL SYSTEMS. STATE-OF-THE-ART SYSTEMS AND VARIOUS ADDITIVES WERE EXAMINED AND TESTED TO DETERMINE IF SYSTEM EFFICIENCY CAN BE INCREASED. RECOMMENDATIONS WERE MADE AS TO DISPOSAL SYSTEMS WHICH ARE SUITED TO THE CONDITIONS EXISTING IN REST AREAS, INCLUDING THE DESIRABLE AND UNDESIRABLE FEATURES OF EACH SYSTEM CONSIDERED. /FHWA/


European consumer law has become a vital part of both legal education and practice. This Casebook details the most fundamental judgments of the Court of Justice on consumer law to date and their effect on national legal systems. It contains twenty leading European cases and is then followed by concise analyses of the effect of these decisions on some of the national legal systems of the Member States,and how national legislatures and national courts have reacted to this ever burgeoning area of European law. The focus of the book is private law, including consumer contracts, advertisement law, European product liability and consumer dispute resolutions. The Casebook is an essential guide for students and practitioners alike. It provides the reader with an overview of the most important cases and analyses in the area of European consumer law on both European and national levels. The editors and contributors to the country reports are members of the EU- funded research network 'Common Principles of European Private Law'.


Argumentation is often seen as a mechanism to support different forms of reasoning such that decision-making and persuasion, but all these approaches assume a purely rational behavior of the involved actors. However, humans are proved to behave differently, mixing rational and emotional attitudes to guide their actions, and it has been claimed that there exists a strong connection between the argumentation process and the emotions felt by people involved in such process. In this paper, we assess this claim by means of an experiment: during several debates people's argumentation in plain English is connected and compared to the emotions automatically detected from the participants. Our results show a correspondence between emotions and argumentation elements, e.g., when in the argumentation two opposite opinions are conflicting this is reflected in a negative way on the debaters' emotions.


We study entanglement and squeezing properties of a spin system of 4 qubits under the influence of the two-axis counter twisting Hamiltonian. Our initial spin state is a coherent one in the z-direction, which evolves in time. We choose the squeezing parameters given by Wineland and Kitagawa as the criteria of spin squeezing. The criterion of pairwise entanglement is chosen to be the concurrence and that of the bipartite entanglement, the linear entropy. We will study and plot the time dependence of the squeezing and entanglement parameters and also determine the time domains in which squeezing and entanglement properties can or can not exist simultaneously.


Context: Poor compliance to antihypertensive therapies has been linked to a variety of problems, including poor blood pressure control, rehospitalisation, and increased healthcare resource utilization.
Setting and Design: Considering this, a cross-sectional survey of health care physicians (HCPs) treating hypertension from government or private practice across the India was conducted.
Aims: The purpose of the survey was to capture clinician viewpoint on the therapy compliance in the management of hypertension.
Methods and Materials: This was a paper-based survey where all HCPs were asked to respond to survey questionnaire during a personal meeting with the study interviewer.
Results: Total 2746 clinicians from more than 150 cities across the India were involved in this survey. Approximately 69% of clinicians believed that more than 1/4th of patients are not controlled for their hypertension. Out of all responders, 93.5% expressed that non-compliance to the medicine is one of the major reasons for the uncontrolled hypertension. Around 94% of responders expressed that patient compliance program can improve the compliance to the medicine in hypertension management.
Conclusions: Indian clinicians feel that uncontrolled hypertension is still be a widely prevalent problem in spite of availability of effective antihypertensive drugs and non-compliance to the medication is one of the major modifiable risk factor for this.


ABSTRACT Jails bring inmates into proximity with one another and separate them from the community. Because inmates' connectedness to one another and to the community influences post-release functioning, understanding risk factors for maladaptive shifts in connectedness may inform interventions. The current study examined changes in jail inmates' (N = 203) connectedness to the community at large and to the criminal community, and predictors of individual differences in changes over time. Connectedness to both communities did not change on average during incarceration, but younger and less guilt-prone inmates increased more in connectedness to the criminal community than older and more guilt-prone inmates, suggesting connectedness interventions should target individuals exhibiting this constellation of attributes.