The empirical finding of an inverse U-shaped relationship between per capita income and pollution, the so-called Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC), suggests that as countries experience economic growth, environmental deterioration decelerates and thus becomes less of an issue. Focusing on the prime example of carbon emissions, the present article provides a critical review of the new econometric techniques that have questioned the baseline polynomial specification in the EKC literature. We discuss issues related to the functional form, heterogeneity, "spurious" regressions and spatial dependence to address whether and to what extent the EKC can be observed. Despite these new approaches, there is still no clear-cut evidence supporting the existence of the EKC for carbon emissions.


Damage caused by the fruit fly Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel) (syn. B. invadens Drew, Tsuruta & White) (Diptera: Tephritidae) on mangoes in Senegal leads to production losses. A potential biological control agent against this pest is the weaver ant Oecophylla longinoda Latreille (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Senegalese mango-based orchards present a diversity in design and management practices that can influence the abundance of these two species in orchards. In this study we evaluated i) the ability of the O. longinoda ant to limit B. dorsalis damage in Senegalese orchards, and ii) variations in population abundance for these two species depending on orchard design and management practices. The study was conducted in Senegal in the Niayes area and the Thiès plateau. Fifteen orchards were sampled among three out of four kinds of orchards identified in this area: (1) 'No-input mango diversified orchards', (3) 'Medium-input citrus-predominant orchards' and (4) 'Medium-input large mango- or citrus-predominant orchards'. In one of the orchards we measured infestation rates and numbers of fly pupae that developed from mangoes collected from trees (cv. Kent) 'with' and 'without' O. longinoda colonies over three harvesting periods (May, July and August) in 2013. The abundance of O. longinoda and B. dorsalis was measured for two months in the dry season and two others in the rainy season in the 15 orchards in 2012. The presence of O. longinoda on trees reduced the proportion of mangoes attacked by B. dorsalis as well as the number of pupae that developed from infested mangoes. The abundance of O. longinoda and B. dorsalis was negatively correlated. The abundance varied depending on the orchard design and management practices. O. longinoda abundance was greater in orchard types 1 and 3 than in type 4. Conversely, B. dorsalis abundance in the rainy season tended to be greater in orchard type 4 than in types 1 and 3. This study showed that O. longinoda is effective in limiting mango infestations by B. dorsalis. It also showed that the abundance of these two species was influenced by the orchard design and management practices. Therefore, using O. longinoda to control fruit flies is possible in Senegalese mango-based orchards by promoting weaver ant preservation.


The purpose of this paper is to present factual elements concerning the rise (decline) of French mega-suppliers. The study will focus on France's three main mega-suppliers, all actors that have had a stake in carmakers' modularisation strategies: Faurecia, Plastic Omnium and Valeo. Section 1 returns to the late 1980s and shows that the emergence of today's megasuppliers is rooted in this era and was piloted by French carmakers. Section 2 positions French mega-suppliers in a global hierarchy and distinguishes between two varieties: suppliers of simple parts; and module suppliers, with the latter constituting the focus for the rest of this text. Section 3 shows how module suppliers' rise is rooted in their aggressive mergers and acquisitions (M&A) strategies. It also demonstrates differences between suppliers in terms of the two leading acquisition strategies that were observed. Section 4 explains why these companies' profitability continues to disappoint, developing the idea that modular strategies imply a big rise in fixed costs, something that suppliers cannot knock onto sales prices. Finally, section 5 returns to companies' internationalisation strategies and offers a typology for the different entities that mega-suppliers consolidate


We present significant differences in the simulated atmospheric flow for warm, tidally locked small Neptunes and super Earths (based on a nominal GJ 1214b) when solving the simplified, and commonly used, primitive dynamical equations or the full Navier–Stokes equations. The dominant prograde, superrotating zonal jet is markedly different between the simulations, which are performed using practically identical numerical setups, within the same model. The differences arise due to the breakdown of the so-called "shallow-fluid" and traditional approximations, which worsens when rotation rates are slowed, and day–night temperature contrasts are increased. The changes in the zonal advection between simulations solving the full and simplified equations, give rise to significant differences in the atmospheric redistribution of heat, altering the position of the hottest part of the atmosphere and temperature contrast between the daysides and nightsides. The implications for the atmospheric chemistry, and therefore, observations need to be studied with a model including a more detailed treatment of the radiative transfer and chemistry. Small Neptunes and super Earths are extremely abundant and important, potentially bridging the structural properties (mass, radius, and composition) of terrestrial and gas giant planets. Our results indicate care is required when interpreting the output of models solving the primitive equations of motion for such planets.


We present empirical downscaling of 5 state-of-the-art AOGCMs (Atmosphere-Ocean General Circulation Models) to investigate potential changes in wind speeds and energy density in northern Europe. The approach is based on downscaling the Weibull parameters of wind speed prob- ability distributions from AOGCM-derived 500 hPa relative vorticity and sea-level pressure gradi- ents, and is demonstrated to generate accurate depictions of the wind climate during the transfer function conditioning period. Bootstrapping is used to develop 100 realizations for each downscaling period and these are used to assess the uncertainty in the results due to stochastic effects in the AOGCM-derived downscaling predictors. Projected changes in the wind speed probability distribu- tion vary with the AOGCMs from which the predictors are derived, but generally it is shown that mean wind speeds, 90th percentile wind speeds and energy density are slightly lower in the 2081-2100 climate projection period than during 1961-1990 at the majority of the 46 stations studied. Conversely it is found that there is no significant difference between conditions during 2046-2065 and 1961-1990 based on the ensemble of downscaling results. Equally, the winter time of 2046-2065 is largely indistinguishable from 1961-1990 for the majority of stations, while the winters of 2081-2100 appear to be associated with lower mean and 90th percentile wind speeds and energy density.


The headwaters of the Rocky Mountains contribute considerable water resources to the growing populations of the western United States. Hydroclimatic variations of the past provide context for the potential ranges of moisture availability in the future. For example, paleoclimatic reconstructions from lake levels and pollen data indicate extremes in moisture availability (both wet and dry periods) in the Rocky Mountains over the past 6,000 years. The concept of a north–south dipole to describe variations of past precipitation within the Rocky Mountains may not capture the range of synoptic processes that can lead to extreme wet or dry conditions. Modern precipitation data are used to identify recent anomalously wet and dry periods in the Rocky Mountains for use as modern climate analogs for past extreme hydrologic conditions. Using the North American Regional Reanalysis data set (32-km resolution), the surface and atmospheric climatic controls of extreme wet and dry periods can be assessed to provide context on the first-order precipitation dynamics that may have contributed to changes in past moisture availability during the Holocene. A hierarchy of controls led to extremes in moisture availability in the region. Large-scale atmospheric anomalies associated with the shape and position of the jet stream influence secondary atmospheric mechanisms like rising (leading to wet conditions) and sinking motions (leading to dry conditions). Simultaneously, small-scale controls such as topography and soil moisture anomalies also influence such extremes. The various scales of climatic controls during modern extreme wet and dry periods can be used as analogs for past extremes to contextualize the range of variability for such events in the past as well as for potential extremes in the future.


The 6th workshop of the IIASA joint research project "Challenges and Opportunities of Economic Integration within a wider European and Eurasian Space" held on April 13 – 14, 2016 in Laxenburg, Austria, discussed the impacts of migration flows on the sustainable development of the Eurasian region, the labor market challenges, and the potential for harmonization of education systems between the European Union (EU) and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU).
In particular the workshop analyzed the possible scenarios of cross-border migration (both labor migration and refugee flows), the changing structure of the labor force, as well as their economic and social implications for the labor markets and the economic growth of both the source and host countries in the EU, the EAEU and the countries in their joint neighborhood. It also considered such practical aspects as the prospects of introducing a visa-free regime between the EU and the EAEU, enhancing the mobility of pensions, fostering educational and academic exchanges, and the mutual recognition of diplomas.
The workshop was attended by over 50 well-established academics and policy-makers from Europe, the United States, Turkey, Korea and the post-Soviet space.
A new element of the workshop was the introduction of a high-level panel session. This session reflected on the long-term prospects of economic cooperation between the enlarged EU, the EAEU and their neighbors, including the key Asian players, such as China, Korea, and Japan, as well as the USA, focusing also on the labor market challenges and the impacts of migration flows on the sustainable development of the Greater Eurasian region. The session was chaired by Pavel Kabat and included talks by Tatyana Valovaya, Vaclav Klaus, Jeffrey D. Sachs and Peter Balas, as well as Evgeny Vinokurov, Peter Havlik and Jesus Crespo Cuaresma.

Seminar Focus Areas:

During the workshop the participants concentrated on three focus points:

1. The labor market and migration in the EU
2. The labor market and migration in the EAEU
3. Challenges and opportunities for a common EU-EAEU labor market


Contextual bandit learning is a reinforcement learning problem where the learner repeatedly receives a set of features (context), takes an action and receives a reward based on the action and context. We consider this problem under a realizability assumption: there exists a function in a (known) function class, always capable of predicting the expected reward, given the action and context. Under this assumption, we show three things. We present a new algorithm—Regressor Elimination— with a regret similar to the agnostic setting (i.e. in the absence of realizability assumption). We prove a new lower bound showing no algorithm can achieve superior performance in the worst case even with the realizability assumption. However, we do show that for any set of policies (mapping contexts to actions), there is a distribution over rewards (given context) such that our new algorithm has constant regret unlike the previous approaches.


This article highlights the main methodological problems and solutions encountered while researching violent young men in the marginalised north-eastern area of Medellin, Colombia. Using ethnographic methods, the research investigated how violent behaviour may be inherited, and its relationship to masculinities and youth. It asked how violence is transmitted to young men in both domestic and social spaces, and evaluated the relationship between marginalisation and social violence. Little has been written about how researchers can access violent actors who are reluctant to come forward or tell the truth, nor the ethical issues that arise when researching violent subjects in conflict contexts. This article explains how dangers were dealt with, but also how problems of accessing violent actors were overcome, and considers the ethical dilemmas.


The efficient use of energy is a major issue nowadays. Environmental and economic purposes push various investigations to focus on the performances of energy systems and equipment. In the context of the coming energy transition, Heat, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems will certainly take an increasing and worldwide importance. In this work, energy and exergy analysis are used to assess the performances of each component of an air treatment station. Results of energy and exergy analysis for each process are presented. The most important result is that simple heating and cooling processes with deshumidification have the worst exergy efficiencies; and that both processes represent almost all the exergy losses of the studied HVAC system.


The discovery of the earliest known stone tools at Lomekwi 3 (LOM3) from West Turkana, Kenya, dated to 3.3 Ma, raises new questions about the mode and tempo of key adaptations in the hominin lineage. The LOM3 tools date to before the earliest known fossils attributed to Homo at 2.8 Ma. They were made and deposited in a more C3 environment than were the earliest Oldowan tools at 2.6 Ma. Their discovery leads to renewed investigation on the timing of the emergence of human-like manipulative capabilities in early hominins and implications for reconstructing cognition. The LOM3 artefacts form part of an emerging paradigm shift in palaeoanthropology, in which: tool-use and tool-making behaviours are not limited to the genus Homo; cranial, post-cranial and behavioural diversity in early Homo is much wider than previously thought; and these evolutionary changes may not have been direct adaptations to living in savannah grassland environments. This article is part of the themed issue 'Major transitions in human evolution'.


We report a series of CBP-derivatives with superior thermal and electronic properties for the use as host materials for blue electrophosphorescent organic light emitting diodes. We applied a systematic variation of the substitution pattern in the 2- and 2′-position of the biphenyl unit and the 3- and 6-position of the carbazole moieties. In contrast to the crystalline parent compound CBP, all methyl and trifluoromethyl substituted derivatives show amorphous behaviour. Substitution in the 2- and 2′-position of the biphenyl causes a twisting of the phenyl rings. Hence, the degree of conjugation of the molecules is limited which leads to enlarged triplet energies of approximately 2.95 eV compared to 2.58 eV for CBP. The methyl substitution at the active 3- and 6-position of the pendant carbazole units yields materials with an electrochemically stable behaviour against oxidation.


Purpose: To estimate and correct for the x‐ray scatter on the flat panel detector on kV cone beam CT(CBCT)image acquisition, assisted by the original 3D volumetric image set acquired using multislice (MS) CT scanner. Method and Materials: Flood field from the CBCT flat panel detector is stored on the On Board Imager (OBI) workstation. Using the flood field together with the image acquired from MSCT scanner (GE LightSpeed PET/CT) prior to any treatment, the scatter‐free cone beam projection at each projection angle is estimated. Subtracting this estimated scatter‐free projection data from the cone beam CT projection at the same angle gives us the x‐ray scatter fluence plus uncertainties due to patient positioning and organ motion. Note that scatter has majority of low frequency components with high magnitude and patient positioning and organ motion has mainly high frequency components with very small magnitude. The calculated fluence is smoothed out using a low pass filter for eliminating high frequency signals to get pure scatter fluence. For the rest of CBCT scans during treatment, subtracting the estimated scatter fluence from CBCT projections in each scan yields an estimate of scatter‐free projections for image reconstruction. Simulations were performed on mathematical phantoms. Scatter and organ motion were introduced into the projections. After applying the above algorithm, the images were reconstructed using FDK algorithm. These images were compared to the uncorrected images and percentage decrease in variance in the images was tabulated. Image quality at various aspects was analyzed. Results and Conclusion: Filtering techniques are sufficient to extract the low‐frequency components from the subtracted signal to estimate the scatter fluence. This scatter correction strategy is patient specific and provides considerable improvements in image quality, especially for correcting the cupping artifact.


BACKGROUND
In aviation, vestibular-induced spatial disorientation is a significant cause of accidents. Recreating flight-like vestibular stimuli in simulators might be a means for training pilots to respond adequately in disorienting situations. Due to the physical constraints of land-based simulators, the question arises whether a given illusion may be created in different ways. For instance, is it possible to induce sensations of tilt by rotary stimuli? The present study concerns the relationship between sensations of rotation and tilt during complex vestibular stimulation.

METHODS
The visual sensation of roll rotation was quantified by means of a velocity-matching procedure. In a large gondola centrifuge eight subjects underwent four runs (2 G, 2 min) with different heading positions (forward, backward, centripetally, and centrifugally). The inclination of the gondola persistently corresponded with the vector sum of the Earth gravity force and the centrifugal force (60 degrees at 2 G). Thus, the semicircular canal stimulus in roll was combined in different ways with stimuli in yaw and pitch, as well as with an increasing or decreasing G vector.

RESULTS
The magnitude of the responses was only dependent on the roll component of the stimulus. The gain, defined as the ratio between the response and the roll stimulus, was 7-10%. The responses decayed with a time constant ranging from 4 to 5.5 s.

CONCLUSION
The visual sensation of roll rotation reflects the roll plane canal velocity stimulus independently of other stimulus components. This is in contrast to earlier findings on the sensation of changes in position (roll tilt).


Sodium, potassium-adenosine triphosphatase (Na+, K+-ATPase) is hypothesized to be involved in systemic vascular hypertension through its effects on smooth muscle reactivity and myocardial contractility. By means of RNA blot analyses of cardiac, aortic, and skeletal muscle RNAs in two rat hypertensive models, Na+,K+-ATPase alpha-subunit messenger RNA isoforms (alpha 2 and alpha 3) were shown to be deinduced in response to increased intravascular pressure. The changes were observed after 48 hours or more of experimental hypertension. Under these conditions, there is coordinate induction of another alpha isoform (alpha 1) and of beta-subunit messenger RNAs, probably in response to alterations in sodium flux rather than to elevated blood pressure.


The study analyzed the patterns of emergency shelter stays of single persons in three Canadian cities of different sizes (i.e., Toronto, Ottawa, and Guelph). Similar to findings of previous research conducted in large American cities in the early 1990s, cluster analyses defined three clusters with distinct patterns of shelter stays (temporary, episodic, and long stay). A temporary cluster (88–94 per cent) experienced a small number of homeless episodes for relatively short periods of time. An episodic cluster (3–11 per cent) experienced multiple homeless episodes also for short periods of time. A long-stay cluster (2–4 per cent) had a relatively small number of homeless episodes but for long periods of time. Despite their relatively small size, the episodic and long-stay clusters used a disproportionately large number of total shelter beds. The study extends findings from previous American research to a Canadian context and to small- and medium-size cities. Implications of the findings for program and policy development are discussed.


* Divas on Screen: Black Women in American Film. Mia Mask. Champagne, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2009. 306 pp. $25 pbk. Mia Mask's scholarly work, Divas on Screen: Black Women in American Film, clearly "pushes the discussion of African American celebrities" and the debate on their representation in film into a new dimension. The author examines how African American celebrity functions as a social phenomenon. She peels and reassembles the layers of charisma in her study of five African American film divas: Dorothy Dandridge, Pam Grier, Whoopie Goldberg, Oprah Winfrey, and Halle Berry. Mask, who teaches film and drama at Vassar College, uses a historical and theoretical approach to examine each heroine's struggles and triumphs. She goes beyond previous theoretical models that evaluated the "good, politically progressive against the bad, regressive black stereotypes." Mask integrates the skepticism of the Frankfurt School social theorists with what she describes as the more balanced feminist film theory of sociologist Max Weber. She also acknowledges the work of film historian Donald Bogle, novelist James Baldwin, English film professor Richard Dyer, and P. David Marshall in their critical examination of Hollywood films. Additionally, the author credits the work of sociologists Christopher Lasch, David Riesman, and others for their research on celebrity and stardom. But Mask is the maestro in this public discourse. She poses important questions about the effects of popular culture and helps readers understand how the power of charisma transcends time. Acknowledging the legacy of previous artistic trailblazers who paved the way for the five divas, the book explores the popular and early film works of each celebrity. Mask explains the how and why of the "film industry's social manufacturing of African American beauty" and its contribution to black identity. For example, Divas discusses Dorothy Dandridge's struggle to break Hollywood's racial barrier, along with her exploitation and success during the postWorld War II and Jim Crow eras. This occurred against the backdrop of African American women fighting for social justice. Despite the physical, sexual, and emotional abuses Dandridge suffered, she became a celebrity and "phenomenon of consumption," Mask observes. The author contrasts Dandridge's wholesome film character in the movie Bright Road, for example, with the fallen women in the movies Carmen Jones and Porgy and Bess. Dandridge the person and the actress transcend time, and the author shows how the star's persona lives on in current day celebrities. Enter the 1970s and the sexual revolution, where Pam Grier emerges as a crossover film star with what Mask calls phallic or psycho-sexual charisma. …


To discuss science, I choose to focus attention on the doings of its practitioners. Many choose to focus on the root scio, translated as 'I know', but
that choice of a first-person form ignores an essential social aspect of the practice of science, namely the custom that failure to disconfirm by one's
peers plays a major role in deciding what we will accept as 'scientific'.
To address the topic of cybernetics, I paraphrase Wiener to speak of the art and science of designing purposeful, goal-directed––self-steering––
systems. He also considered the field to extend to such learning phenomena as gestalt-formation.
Though we sometimes speak of a teacher or mentor as imparting 'knowledge', I lodge here an objection to the arrogance of that terminology.
Anyone's claim to 'know' any asserted 'fact' carries with it––states directly, rather than implies––a degree of god-like certainty that, I maintain,
should arouse profound doubt and suspicion in the wise or prudent reader or listener. In the present paper, I shall address each of these areas in
more detail.


Dick Netzer, a leading public finance economist specializing in state and local issues and urban government, brings together in this comprehensive volume essays by top scholars connecting the property tax with land use. They explore the idea that the property tax is used as a partial substitute for land use regulation and other policies designed to affect how land is utilized. Like many economists, the contributors see some type of property taxation as the more efficient means of helping to shape land use. Some of the essays analyze a conventional property tax, while others consider radically different systems of property taxation.


In this article, our ethnographic focus is a human trafficking "reality tour" of Thailand, a one-week tour of purported trafficking-related sites that the authors jointly attended. This tour was part of a growing number of trips around the world that offer alternatives to mass tourism, taking issues of social justice and humanitarian intervention as their focal orientation. As scholars with an interest in trafficking, labor exploitation, and sex workers' rights, we chose to take not human trafficking itself, but rather the "reality tour" that claimed to represent it as our ethnographic object, to critically interrogate the reality of the "realities of the global trade in humans" that it endeavored to convey. What do commercially packaged "anti-trafficking" tours reveal about global panics around sexuality and sex work, as well as about the politics of tourism and development in Thailand? Transnationally, how does the notion of "NGOs as experts" interact with local expertise around trafficking, labor, and sex workers' rights? And how do moral and political economies of authenticity circulate in the "reality tourist" experience? We situate our interrogation of these issues within the expanding literatures on tourism and authenticity as well as the critical literatures on sex tourism and sex trafficking, two terrains of scholarship that have infrequently been juxtaposed.


Background: Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) as an autoimmune disorder is associated with other autoimmune diseases such as autoimmune thyroid (AIT) disease. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of AIT in children who were referred to Amirkola Endocrine Clinic (north of Iran). Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out on 100 diabetic children aged 1-15 years during 2008-2013, who were referred to the pediatric endocrine clinic. Serum levels of anti-thyroid peroxidase (Anti-TPO) and anti-thyroglobulin (antiTg) antibodies and Thyrotropin Stimulating Hormone (TSH) were measured by Immune Chemiluminescence assay, and demographic information was obtained from patients'medical records. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS 18. Results: AIT was found in 13% of patients (8% female and 5% male). Significant levels were found for Anti-TPO (3%), anti-Tg (2%), and both antibodies (8%) in patients with AIT. Thyroid dysfunction was observed in 8 of 13 patients with AIT versus 2 of 87 patients without AIT (P<0.001). AIT was seen in 9% of diabetic children who had diabetes for less than one year versus 4% of the rest of diabetic children with duration more than one year (p<0 .0001). Conclusion: Because the majority of diabetic children with significant titers of antibodies developed thyroid disease, so thyroid function tests are necessary to reduce the risk of undiagnosed hypothyroidism in these patients.


We present the first application of the median of means in a PAC exploration algorithm for MDPs. Using the median of means allows us to significantly reduce the dependence of our bounds on the range of values that the value function can take, while introducing a dependence on the (potentially much smaller) variance of the Bellman operator. Additionally, our algorithm is the first algorithm with PAC bounds that can be applied to MDPs with unbounded rewards.


The regulation of PGE2 (prostaglandin E2) and PGI2 (prostaglandin I2; prostacyclin) formation was investigated in isolated adipocytes. The formation of both PGs was stimulated by various lipolytic agents such as isoproterenol, adrenaline and dibutyryl cyclic AMP. During maximal stimulation the production of PGE2 and PGI2 (measured as 6-oxo-PGF1 alpha) was 0.51 +/- 0.04 and 1.21 +/- 0.09 ng/2 h per 10(6) cells respectively. Thus PGI2 was produced in excess of PGE2 in rat adipocytes. The production of the PGs was inhibited by indomethacin and acetylsalicylic acid in a concentration-dependent manner. The half-maximal effective concentration of indomethacin was 328 +/- 38 nM and that of acetylsalicylic acid was 38.5 +/- 5.3 microM. The PGs were maximally inhibited by 70-75% after incubation for 2 h. In contrast with their effect on PG production, the two agents had a small potentiating effect on the stimulated lipolysis (P less than 0.05). The phospholipase inhibitors mepacrine and chloroquine inhibited both PG production and triacylglycerol lipolysis and were therefore unable to indicate whether the PG precursor, arachidonic acid, originates from phospholipids or triacylglycerols in adipocytes. Angiotensin II significantly (P less than 0.05) stimulated both PGE2 and PGI2 production in rat adipocytes without affecting triacylglycerol lipolysis. Finally, it was shown that PGE2 and PGI2 were also produced in human adipocytes, although in smaller quantities than in rat adipocytes. It is concluded that the production of PGs in isolated adipocytes is regulated by various hormones. Moreover, at least two separate mechanisms for PG production may exist in adipocytes: (1) a mechanism that is activated concomitantly with triacylglycerol lipolysis (and cyclic AMP) and (2) an angiotensin II-sensitive, but lipolysis (and cyclic AMP)-independent mechanism.


Purpose

Literature suggests that mentally disordered offenders are considerably more difficult to treat and slower to respond to psychological treatment. Less is known about the particular factors that can contribute to this resistance. A more comprehensive understanding of the factors that treating psychologists feel can promote or inhibit progression through rehabilitative treatment may increase the likelihood of positive clinical outcomes. This paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

Four practising psychologists employed within a male medium- and low-secure forensic unit in the North East of England took part in a semi-structured interview. Their views, opinions and experiences regarding patient progression through treatment pathways were recorded, transcribed and analysed.

Findings

This thematic analysis identified that numerous patient-specific parameters influenced perceived progression, and environmental and external factors had a significant impact on the patients' expressed attitude towards treatment.

Practical implications

Alongside issues of motivation and engagement, participants identified external factors that influence perceived treatment success with their forensic patients.

Originality/value

Additional research is needed to identify the factors that are the most influential in promoting or inhibiting perceived and actual progress. This will hopefully optimise treatment engagement and the motivation to change problematic behaviours in mentally disordered offenders.


Dr R. A. Chadwick writes: In a recent paper, Beach (1984) describes aspects of the structural evolution of the Witch Ground Graben. Figure 2 of his paper illustrates a structural section across the graben, the eseential features of which are reproduced here (Fig. la). Beach's section is constrained in the shallower part by seismic reflection data, but beneath the base of Permian strata, the geometry of the basin-controlling faults has been deduced using balanced section criteria. It is here suggested that, barring strike-slip movements of implausible geometry, the section is not viable. A family of late faults labelled L1–L7 on Fig. la, have southwesterly apparent dips, and cut and displace the Upper Cretaceous sequence. Beach shows them terminating, at depth, against a group of earlier faults (labelled E2–E4) which show northeasterly apparent dips. Beach suggests that the two groups of faults have a synthetic-antithetic relationship. This is unlikely. Since the faults labelled E do not displace the highest Cretaceous beds, any post-Cretaceous movement must have been restricted to the deeper segments of their fault-planes, below the intersections with the faults labelled L. This situation is mechanically implausible and is, moreover, refuted by Beach's original section which shows an early fault (here labelled E3) to have the same throw both above and below the intersection with a late fault (here labelled L3). Therefore, it is here concluded that the faults labelled E must be cut and displaced by the later faults labelled L. I have constructed an alternative section


The results of a comprehensive study of the crystal and electronic structures, kinetic and energetic performances of the semiconductor thermometric material Er1-xScxNiSb, (x=0–0.1) are presented. Microprobe analysis of the concentration of atoms on the surface of Er1-xScxNiSb samples established their correspondence to the initial compositions of the charge, and the diffractograms of the samples are indexed in the structural type of MgAgAs. Because the atomic radius Sc (rSc=0.164 nm) is smaller than that of Er (rEr=0.176 nm), it is logical to reduce the values of the unit cell's period a(x) Er1-xScxNiSb, which correlate with the results of mathematical modeling. The temperature dependences of the resistivity ln(ρ(1/T)) contain high- and low-temperature activation regions, which are specific for semiconductors and indicate the location of the Fermi level in the bandgap, and positive values of the thermopower coefficient a(x, T) specify its position – near the valence band . This result does not agree with the results of modeling the electronic structure for its ordered version. The presence of a low-temperature activation region on the ln(ρ(1/T)) p-ErNiSb dependence with an activation energy =0.4 meV indicates the compensation of the sample provided by acceptors and donors of unknown origin. A decrease in the values of the resistivity ρ(x, T) and the thermopower coefficient a(x, T) points to an increase in the concentration of holes in p-Er1- xScxNiSb in the area of concentrations x=0–0.03. This is possible in a p-type semiconductor only by increasing the concentration of the main current carriers, which are holes. The fact of increasing the concentration of acceptors in Er1-xScxNiSb at insignificant concentrations of impurity atoms is also indicated by the nature of the change in the values of the activation energy of holes from the Fermi level to the valence band . Consequently, if in p-ErNiSb the Fermi level was at a distance of 45.4 meV from the level of the valence band , then at the concentration Er1-xScxNiSb, x=0.01, the Fermi level shifted towards the valence band and was located at a distance of 13.6. Since the Fermi level reflects the ratio of ionized acceptors and donors in the semiconductor, its movement by x=0.01 to the valence band is possible either with an increase in the number of acceptors or a rapid decrease in the concentration of ionized donors. At even higher concentrations of Sc impurity in p-Er1-xScxNiSb, x≥0.03, low-temperature activation sites appear on the ln(ρ(1/T)) dependences, which is a sign of compensation and evidence of the simultaneous generation of acceptor and donor structural defects in the crystal nature. This is also indicated by the change in the position of the Fermi level in the bandgap of the semiconductor Er1-xScxNiSb, which is almost linearly removed from the level of the valence band : (x=0.05)=58.6 meV and (x=0.10)=88.1 meV. Such a movement of the Fermi level during doping of a p-type semiconductor is possible only if donors of unknown origin are generated. For a p-type semiconductor, this is possible only if the concentration of the main current carriers, which are free holes, is reduced, and donors are generated that compensate for the acceptor states. This conclusion is also confirmed by the behavior of the thermopower coefficient a(x, T) at concentrations x≥0.03. The results of structural, kinetic, and energy studies of the thermometric material Er1-xScxNiSb allow us to speak about a complex mechanism of simultaneous generation of structural defects of acceptor and donor nature. However, the obtained array of experimental information does not allow us to unambiguously prove the existence of a mechanism for generating donors and acceptors. The research article offers a solution to this problem. Having the experimental results of the drift rate of the Fermi level as the activation energy (x) from the Fermi level to the valence band by calculating the distribution of the density of electronic states (DOS) sought the degree of compensation, which sets the direction and velocity of the Fermi level as close as possible to the experimental results. DOS calculations are performed for all variants of the location of atoms in the nodes of the unit cell, and the degree of occupancy of all positions by their own and/or foreign atoms. It turned out that for ErNiSb the most acceptable option is one that assumes the presence of vacancies in positions 4a and 4c of the Er and Ni atoms, respectively. Moreover, the number of vacancies in the position Er (4a) is twice less than the number of vacancies in the position Ni (4c). This proportion is maintained for Er1-xScxNiSb. Vacancies in the positions of Er (4a) and Ni (4c) atoms Er1-xScxNiSb are structural defects of acceptor nature, which generate two acceptor zones and in the semiconductor. The introduction of impurity Sc atoms into the ErNiSb structure by substituting Er atoms in position 4a is also accompanied by the occupation of vacancies by Sc atoms and a reduction in their number. Occupying a vacancy, the Sc atom participates in the formation of the valence band and the conduction band of the semiconductor Er1-xScxNiSb, acting as a source of free electrons. We can also assume that the introduction of Sc atoms into the structure of the compound ErNiSb is accompanied by a process of ordering the structure of Er1-xScxNiSb and Ni atoms occupy vacancies in position 4c. This process also, however, 2 times slower, leads to a decrease in the concentration of structural defects of acceptor nature. In this case, Ni, giving valence electrons, now act as donors.


Background/aim Exercise imparts a load on tendon tissue that leads to changes in tendon properties. Studies suggest that loading immediately reduces tendon thickness, with a loss of this response in symptomatic tendinopathy. No studies investigating the response of tendon dimensions to load for the rotator cuff tendons exist. This study aimed to examine the short-term effect of loading on the thickness of the supraspinatus tendon and acromiohumeral distance those with and without rotator cuff tendinopathy. Methods Participants were 20 painfree controls, and 23 people with painful rotator cuff tendinopathy. Supraspinatus tendon thickness and acromiohumeral distance were measured using ultrasound scans before, and at three time points after loading (1, 6 and 24 hours). Loading involved isokinetic eccentric and concentric external rotation and abduction. Results There was a significant increase in supraspinatus tendon thickness in the pain group at 1 (7%, ∆=0.38, 95% CI 0.19 to 0.57) and 6 hours (11%, ∆=0.53, 95% CI 0.34 to 0.71), although only the 6 hours difference exceeded minimal detectable difference. In contrast, there was a small non-significant reduction in thickness in controls. The acromiohumeral distance reduced significantly in both groups at 1 hour (controls: ∆=0.64, 95% CI 0.38 to 0.90; pain: ∆=1.1, 95% CI 0.85 to 1.33), with a larger change from baseline in the pain group. Conclusion Those diagnosed with painful supraspinatus tendinopathy demonstrated increased thickening with delayed return to baseline following loading. Rehabilitation professionals may need to take into account the impact of loading to fatigue when planning rehabilitation programmes.


Cotton fabric (100% cotton) and synthetic fabric (65% polyester and 35% cotton) were exposed at five selected sites in urban and industrial districts in Cairo city for a period of 15 months. The changes in the physical properties of the exposed textiles were investigated. The results indicated that the tensile strength of all the exposed samples was decreased, for warp and weft directions by different ratios, at all sites as a function of time of exposure. The highest deterioration in tensile strength was 86.2%, detected for cotton samples exposed in the industrial area. The lowest percentage loss of tensile strength was 58%, detected in the purely residential area of low population density. The loss in tensile strength of synthetic textile samples ranged from 54 to 73%. The difference between the tensile strength for sheltered and unsheltered textile samples increased with increasing time of exposure, especially with increasing solar radiation intensity in the summer. The cotton fabric lost about 25% of its tensile strength, and the synthetic fabric lost about 19.5% of its tensile strength after 15 months exposure to direct solar radiation. The percentage loss of elongation (elasticity) for cotton and synthetic fabric ranged from 72% to 89% and from 67.2% to 88.2%, respectively. Several conclusions and recommendations are also given.


Objective: Forests worldwide are experiencing die-offs on an unprecedented scale. So too is the endangered Torrey Pine, Pinus torreyana. Just as the global toxicity from acid rain was recognized and abatement measures taken, a new undisclosed source of atmospheric toxins from geoengineering rapidly escalated to near-global scale. Published forensic evidence is consistent with coal fly ash (CFA), the toxic waste-product of coal-burning, being the main particulate used for geoengineering. The objective of this paper is to disclose unrecognized primary factors arising from geoengineering which underlie the demise of Torrey Pines and global forest die-offs. Original Research Article Herndon et al.; JGEESI, 16(4): 1-14, 2018; Article no.JGEESI.42301 2 Methods: Snow and fog water samples collected after aerial spraying were analyzed by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and interpreted in light of extensive field observations. Results: Atmospheric moisture extracts many elements in water-soluble form from aerosolized CFA, including aluminum, which is hazardous to many biota, especially trees. Needles and leaves trap toxin-laden atmospheric moisture, and concentrate it by evaporation. Additionally, toxinconcentrate evaporates on needles and leaves, adversely affecting respiration. Eventually, the resolubilized toxin-concentrate falls to the ground and enters the root system. This is one of the primary factors which underlie the demise of Torrey Pines and forest die-offs worldwide. Another primary factor is enhanced solar ultraviolet radiation, which is caused, we posit, in part by disruption of atmospheric ozone by aerosolized CFA, which contains ozone-killing chlorine in variable amounts ranging as high as 25,000 μg/g. Together, these primary debilitating factors weaken trees' natural defenses and make them vulnerable to insects, such as bark beetles, fungal infections, and other biotic factors. Conclusion: We disclose a natural mechanism whereby trees' needles and leaves concentrate toxins extracted by moisture from aerosolized coal fly ash used for intentional, man-made weather and climate change. This form of deliberate air pollution must be halted to preserve Earth's forests.


From the preface:

To learn to apply the methods of wave mechanics in a practical way seems to involve a quantum-like transition with a relatively low transition probability. Chemistry students by the thousands are exposed to the principles and jargon of wave mechanics and are able to talk in a most knowing way about orbitals, overlap, spin, etc. But very few of these students can set about to make any sort of an actual calculation of resonance energies of conjugated systems or the energy levels of nuclear spin systems, and this despite the fact that the mathematics involved, although perhaps tedious, usually does not require more than college algebra.

I lay the blame for this situation just as much on the writers in the field and the students themselves as on the intrinsic difficulties of the subject. Many writers seem sincerely anxious to impart their knowledge to novices but may have forgotten, or never really knew, how difficult it is for the average chemist to make the transition between knowing and not knowing. Certainly, it is a long and tedious job to try to make clear in writing step by step what is involved, particularly when exciting prospects of discussing applications and new developments beckon. Students in their turn make things hard for themselves by their failure to work problems or to work through even simple derivations.

Although it may seem presumptuous to some readers for a synthetic organic chemist to write an introduction to the quantum mechanical formulation of nuclear spin states and transitions, I have pointed out elsewhere [J. Am. Chem. Soc., 82, 5767 (1960)] that I believe all chemists can use nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy with greater interest, skill, and understanding by having at least a rudimentary knowledge of the quantitative theory of spin-spin splitting. The purpose of this book is to show that the path to making practical calculations of spin-spin splittings is not really difficult. No prior knowledge of quantum mechanics or the mathematics thereof will be assumed. Familiarity with the elements of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy at the level of Roberts, "Nuclear Magnetic Resonance," McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., New York, 1959, and Jackman, "Applications of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy in Organic Chemistry," Pergamon Press, New York, 1959, will be particularly important. Since in my opinion it is very difficult to gain mastery of the material presented without a great deal of practice, exercises have been interspersed at appropriate places in the text. It is strongly recommended that these be worked through as encountered.

The coverage throughout is intended to be illustrative rather than comprehensive. The AX and AB cases are discussed in considerable detail to show how the nuclear spin states are formulated, their energies computed, and the probabilities of transitions between them calculated. Then AX2 and AB2 are compared in sufficient detail to make clear how more lines can appear than would be expected from a simple counting of the number of interactions involved. Some discussion is presented of ABX to illustrate the important point that a nucleus such as X can often appear to be coupled to A even when J AX is zero. The effect of changing the relative signs of coupling constants is also considered in connection with ABX. Finally the A2X2 systems with JAX [does not equal] J'AX are covered to show that it is possible to have spectra influenced by JAA and JXX even when (v A - v X ) >> JAA or JXX.

No discussion will be presented of the many advantages of applying group theory to the problem of simplifying the formulation of complex spin states having some degree of symmetry. There are several reasons for this: First, many less-familiar mathematical operations would have had to be introduced and explained. Second, the use of group theory is most important as a mathematical shortcut and does not contribute in itself in an important way to an understanding of the principles of spin-spin splitting. Finally, the need for mathematical shortcuts has been much reduced by the availability of computer programs for calculation of transition energies and intensities for even quite complex spin systems.

I am deeply indebted to Professor Harden M. McConnell for helping me through his very important contribution to the field [H. M. McConnell, A. D. McLean, and C. A. Reilly, J. Chern. Phys., 23, 1152 (1955)]; this book is very largely based on an impromptu private lecture that Professor McConnell delivered on July 4, 1956. I am also much indebted to Dr. V. Schomaker for many hours of patient explanation of quantum mechanical principles. The success (if any) of the treatment is largely due to these gentlemen; the shortcomings and errors are all my own.

Many helpful suggestions regarding the manuscript were received from Dr. Marjorie C. Caserio, Professor Max T. Rogers, and Dr. Thomas H. Regan. The NMR spectra were obtained with skill and patience by Mr. Donald R. Davis, and the manuscript was prepared by Mrs. Allene Luke and Miss Joy Matsumoto.

The heretofore unpublished research described in this book was supported by the Office of Naval Research.

JOHN D. ROBERTS


Adults can decide rapidly if a string of letters is a word or not. However, the exact time course of this discrimination is still an open question. Here we sought to track the time course of this discrimination and to determine how orthographic informationletter position and letter identityis computed during reading. We used a go/no-go lexical decision task while recording event-related potentials (ERPs). Subjects were presented with single words (go trials) and pseudowords (no-go trials), which varied in orthographic conformation, presenting either a double consonant frequently doubled (i.e., ss) or never doubled (i.e., zz) (identity factor); and a position of the double consonant was which either legal or illegal (position factor), in a 2 2 factorial design. Words and pseudowords clearly differed as early as 230 msec. At this latency, ERP waveforms were modulated both by the identity and by the position of letters: The fronto-central no-go N2 was the smallest in amplitude and peaked the earliest to pseudowords presenting both an illegal double-letter position and an identity never encountered. At this stage, the two factors showed additive effects, suggesting an independent coding. The factors of identity and position of double letters interacted much later in the process, at the P3 level, around 300400 msec on frontal and central sites, in line with the lexical decision data obtained in the behavioral study. Overall, these results show that the speed of lexical decision may depend on orthographic information coded independently by the identity and position of letters in a word.


In order to characterize the spin-reorientation transition (SRT), i. e. the change of the easy axis of the magnetization, of ultrathin Ni/Cu(100)- and Fe/Ni/Cu(100)-films the magnetic domain structure was imaged as a function of the Ni and Fe layer thickness, respectively, by using spin-polarized low energy electron microscopy (SPLEEM) during the film growth in ultrahigh vacuum at 300 K. Whereas the size of the domains at the SRT of Ni/Cu(100) is some micrometers, the domain structure of the Fe/Ni-films breaks up into a pattern of 180 nm wide stripe domains. It was shown that the SRT of both Ni/Cu(100) and Fe/Ni/Cu(100) proceeds via a spiral-like rotation of the magnetization within the domains. A discontinuous SRT via coexisting in-plane and out-of-plane magnetized stripe domains is not observed for the film systems.


The homogeneous surface diffusion model (HSDM) is widely used for adsorption modeling of aqueous solutions. The Biot number is usually used to characterize model behavior. However, some limitations of this characterization have been reported recently, and the Stanton number has been proposed as a complement to be considered. In this work, a detailed dimensionless analysis of HSDM is presented and limit behaviors of the model are characterized, confirming but extending previous results. An accurate and efficient numerical solver is used for these purposes. The intraparticle diffusion equation is reduced to a system of two ordinary differential equations, the transport-reaction equation is discretized by using a discontinuous Galerkin method, and the overall system evolution is integrated with a time-marching scheme. This approach facilitates the simulation of HSDM with a wide range of dimensionless numbers and with a correct treatment of shocks, which appear with nonlinear adsorption isotherms and with large Biot numbers and small surface diffusivity modulus. The approach is applied to simulate the breakthrough curves of granular ferric hydroxide. Published experimental data is adequately simulated.


Between 1982 and 1984, 893 Black-headed and 117 Common Gulls were trapped outside the breeding season in northeast England, and individually marked with wingtags or colour-rings. About 40% of marked adult Black-headed and Common Gulls returned to the study area in subsequent years, although adult Black-headed Gulls marked at the coast in the 1982-83 season returned in considerably higher proportions. Proportionately fewer second-year and first-year birds returned than adults. These percentages are considerably lower than the estimated annual survival rate for Black-headed Gulls, showing that some of the birds probably spent subsequent winters outside the study area. Some of the birds which did not return to the study area were recovered or seen elsewhere, mainly in eastern parts of Britain: few moved to the west coast. Foreign Black-headed Gulls which overwintered in the British Isles were most numerous compared to British birds in the south and east of the British Isles. A small proportion of Continental Black-headed Gulls remained in Britain during the breeding season: the consequences of these birds joining the British breeding population are discussed. Overwintering Black-headed Gulls in the study area were observed feeding inland on fields and refuse tips, and at the coast. First-years were uncommon compared to adults at the coast, less so on tips, and were relatively most common on fields. Females made up similar proportions of flocks at the coast and on inland fields, but were excluded to some extent from tips. Neither the survival rates of adult and ■ first-year British Black-headed Gulls, nor the weights of adult Black-headed Gulls caught in northeast England, were usually affected by the severity of weather in winter. The migrations and movements of Black-headed Gulls are discussed and compared to those of other species.


We report an experimental demonstration of optical coherence tomography for transmissive objects utilizing second-order correlation ghost imaging with thermal light. To evaluate the longitudinal resolution of our system, the concept of the imaging longitudinal coherence length is introduced, which is more accurate for judging the image quality of ghost imaging with unequal optical paths than the conventional point-to-point longitudinal coherence length. Our work should help clarify our understanding of the longitudinal coherence of thermal light, as well as provide a scheme for performing optical coherence tomography on objects that are not highly reflective.


In enacting the antitrust laws, Congress sought to prevent big businesses from maintaining and augmenting their power through collusion, mergers, and exclusionary and predatory practices and also aimed to preserve the ability of workers to act in concert. At times, the antitrust laws have significantly benefited ordinary Americans. Antitrust achievements include the restructuring of the oil industry in 1911, the creation of competitive market structures in the mid-twentieth century, and the termination of AT&T's telecommunications monopoly in 1984.

Yet, the history of antitrust in the United States is not one of uninterrupted successes. Over two multi-decade periods, the executive branch and federal courts, in enforcing and interpreting the antitrust laws, have failed to advance Congress' vision and indeed inverted Congressional intent. During the original and current Gilded Ages, the antitrust laws were and have been used to protect the power of large-scale business and also to limit the autonomy of workers to organize and seek higher wages and better working conditions. Through this anti-labor application, the federal government has employed antitrust to aid big business, rather than restrain its power.

Despite this history of accommodating capital and policing labor, the antitrust laws can still be reinterpreted and redeemed. Executive and judicial action can remake these laws to control the power of large corporations through competitive market structures and also protect the freedom of all workers to organize for higher wages and better working conditions. A renewal of antitrust, in accordance with the expressed purposes of Congress, would help remedy the inequities of the New Gilded Age and create a more just society.


We propose a novel light field acquisition method based on a planar catadioptric system. Only one camera with a large field-of-view (FOV) is required, and multiple virtual cameras can be created via an array of planar mirrors to acquire the light field from different views. The spatial distribution of the virtual cameras can be configured flexibly to acquire particular light rays, which can be controlled by simply changing the positions of the mirrors. Compared with previous systems, no aberration or reduction in light transmittance is introduced by the planar mirrors, which ensures image quality. In this study, the design method of the planar catadioptric system is provided and a calibration procedure of its computational model is analyzed in detail. The method is verified by a prototype system, with which the correct digital refocusing results are achieved using the acquired, calibrated light field.


This project was a case study with a Local Authority (Charnwood Borough Council, Leicestershire) to research the options in response to the challenges of managing household waste. This research focused on establishing and analysing methods of improving the sustainability of household waste management operation within a Waste Collection Authority, where the interaction with a variety of external and internal stakeholders meant a holistic approach was needed.

Waste management practices and performances in Charnwood were evaluated and benchmarked against national standards and the demography of a semi-rural Borough. Waste management practices nationally were also reviewed. The performance of the LA was quantitatively compared with other UK LAs where higher recycling performances are achieved. Differences were separate food waste collection and treatment; a larger proportion of urban housing and the university with a transient population. Other differences included strategy and operational practices for garden waste, the storage, collection, transportation and treatment of waste.

A time series statistical model was modified and applied to investigate long term waste generation trends from the Boroughs official waste data returns to Defra. These were used to assess the success of interventions undertaken. This statistical model was able to differentiate interventions that were able to achieve lasting improvements in either waste minimisation or recycling.

The declaration of a Zero Waste Strategy was to capture the public imagination. A series of focus groups and public consultations were held to judge public reaction and develop and refine the strategy. These were used to adapt the Zero Waste idea to suit the local conditions. A major conclusion was that householder involvement would be crucial for successful implementation of the further separation of waste that would be required.


The objective of this study is to attempt to characterize the apparent influence and impact of IFPRI in relation to evaluation of conditional cash transfers (CCT) and non-conditional cash transfers (NCCT) programs, in both cases including both programs in which IFPRI was involved in the evaluations and programs in which IFPRI was not involved in the evaluations. This effort is a broader effort related to a previous study on the IFPRI influence on one particular influential CCT program, the Mexican PROGRESA / Oportunidades program, which concluded that IFPRI had substantial impact with a high benefit-to-cost ratio. The greater breadth in this study comes at the cost of less depth. The paper first discusses some preliminaries: (1) definitions of CCT and NCCT programs, and (2) the challenges in assessing the influence and impact of IFPRI on and through such programs. It then presents a tabulated database of CCT and NCCT programs that includes 17 characteristics for 41 CCT and 36 NCCT programs worldwide. Next, it presents the meta-description of IFPRIi?½s role in international learning about these programs based on (1) Google Scholar searches and (2) e-mail interviews with selected key informants for all of the CCT and NCCT programs included in the data base. Six groups of e-mails similar in spirit were written to: (1) key informants in CCT programs for which IFPRI was involved in the evaluation, (2) key informants in CCT programs for which IFPRI was not involved in the evaluation, (3) key informants for NCCT programs in which IFPRI was involved in evaluations, (4) key informants for NCCT programs in which IFPRI was not involved in evaluations, (5) key informants for the PROGRESA / Oportunidades CCT program who had provided responses for the Behrman (2007) study of that program, and (6) a small group of i?½expertsi?½ on cash transfer programs. In some cases, the same informant was knowledgeable about more than one program; therefore we constructed informant-program data. A total of 627 key informant-program combinations were identified from which we obtained 497 (79.2 percent) valid email addresses. We received 369 (58.9 percent) original responses and we were able to conduct 220 (35.1 percent) interviews. The typical questions were structured as indicated below for a key informant who was involved with the CCT program in which IFPRI was involved in the evaluation.


We have formulated a 3D finite-difference method (FDM) using discontinuous grids, which is a kind of multigrid method. As long as uniform grids are used, the grid size is determined by the shortest wavelength to be calculated, and this constitutes a significant constraint on the introduction of low-velocity layers. We use staggered grids that consist of, on one hand, grids with fine spacing near the surface where the wave velocity is low, and on the other hand, grids whose spacing is three times coarser in the deeper region. In each region, we calculated the wavefield using a velocity-stress formulation of second-order accuracy and connected these two regions with linear interpolations. The second-order finite-difference (FD) approximation was used for updating. Since we did not use interpolations for updating, the time increments were the same in both regions. The use of discontinuous grids adapted to the velocity structure resulted in a significant reduction of computational requirements, which is model dependent but typically one-fifth to one-tenth, without a marked loss of accuracy.


'You know those people who always radiate cheerful optimism? Nauseating aren't they? I want to become one of those. I want to find out how to live life completely, abundantly, joyfully, stupidly. This is my quest. Enlightenment.' So proclaims Isabel Losada, Starbucks addict, exercise allergic and self-confessed sceptic as she sets out on the road to enlightenment. Beginning with an Insight seminar where hundred people with name badges discuss their 'inner beauty', Isabel journeyed through a gruelling course of 'Rolfing' nude Goddess workshops, a weekend of tantric sex ('Yes! Yes! Yes!') and a reincarnation session, not to mention a spot of colonic irrigation. Irreverent yet open-minded, funny and always honest, "The Battersea Park Road to Enlightenment" is also moving and ultimately illuminating. For anyone who has ever been tempted to dip a toe in the waters of self-discovery, Isabel Losada plunges you straight in.


Research during the past decades has outlined the importance of biogenic isoprene emission in tropospheric chemistry and regional ozone photo-oxidant pollution. The first part of this article focuses on the development and validation of a simple biogenic emission scheme designed for regional studies. Experimental data sets relative to Boreal, Tropical, Temperate and Mediterranean ecosystems are used to estimate the robustness of the scheme at the canopy scale, and over contrasted climatic and ecological conditions. A good agreement is generally found when comparing field measurements and simulated emission fluxes, encouraging us to consider the model suitable for regional application. Limitations of the scheme are nevertheless outlined as well as further on-going improvements. In the second part of the article, the emission scheme is used on line in the broader context of a meso-scale atmospheric chemistry model. Dynamically idealized simulations are carried out to study the chemical interactions of pollutant plumes with realistic isoprene emissions coming from a Mediterranean oak forest. Two types of anthropogenic sources, respectively representative of the Marseille (urban) and Martigues (industrial) French Mediterranean sites, and both characterized by different VOC/NOx are considered. For the Marseille scenario, the impact of biogenic emission on ozone production is larger when the forest is situated in a sub-urban configuration (i.e. downwind distance TOWN-FOREST <30km, considering an advection velocity of 4.2 m.s-1). In this case the enhancement of ozone production due to isoprene can reach +37% in term of maximum surface concentrations and +11% in term of total ozone production. The impact of biogenic emission decreases quite rapidly when the TOWN-FOREST distance increases. For the Martigues scenario, the biogenic impact on the plume is significant up to TOWN-FOREST distance of 90km where the ozone maximum surface concentration enhancement can still reach +30%. For both cases, the importance of the VOC/NOx ratio in the anthropogenic plume and its evolution when interacting with the forest emission are outlined. In complement to real case studies, this idealized approach can be particularly useful for process and sensitivity studies and constitutes a valuable tool to build regional ozone control strategies.


Background: The purchase of local food is often argued to stimulate local economies through multiplier effects; this argument is questioned in this paper. Methods: The ScienceDirect, Wiley Online Library, Taylor and Francis Online, SpringerLink, AgECON, and Emerald databases were searched systematically. A complementary search in Google Scholar was also carried out. Peer-reviewed studies published between 2000 and 2019 were identified using multiple search terms. Data about four types of multipliers (output, employment, income, and value-added multipliers) were extracted. Results: Twenty-four papers fit the criteria, allowing for a qualitative assessment only. Sixteen papers found unambiguously that an increase in demand for local food had a directly positive impact on local economies in some way; one paper found no impact at all. The papers were classified into three groups based on their focal areas: marketing channel-focused, farm enterprise-focused, and scenario/impact analysis-focused studies. In terms of the methods of analysis, three major approaches were identified: input–output models, assessments of descriptive statistics, and econometric analyses. Considerations related to the potential overestimation of current approaches are presented. Conclusions: The existence of employment and income multipliers seems to be more evident, while the impacts of output- and value-added multipliers depend more on the actual context. Research gaps are also identified.


Due to the complex nature of urban space and the multitude of interests vested in it, urban design can be described as a complex system. Various disciplines are involved in the analysis and development of urban space. In this respect, collaboration is key in creating socially and physically sustainable urban design. This paper, using a student workshop as a point of departure, discusses the potentials of parametric design as a methodological approach in collaborative urban design between disciplines and with non-professionals.


This article offers a critical discourse analysis of the Israeli television series In Treatment. The series unfolds the therapy sessions of a 40-year-old single female attorney with her therapist. The main objective of the study was to identify the scripted tactics or narrative strategies that establish and maintain singlehood. The findings indicate that the therapeutic discourse plays a central role in the construction and interpretation of single women's subjectivities, prompting a narrative that encourages the 'discarding' of singlehood as well as therapeutic work slanted towards a more familial and maternally oriented subjectivity. This narrative unfolds through two dominant scripted tactics: the symbolic annihilation of singlehood and the construction of feminine identity hierarchies (what the authors term 'hierarchies of happy endings'). Moreover, it is also prompted by the discursive alliance between the therapeutic discourse and the postfeminist discourse. Consequently, long-term singlehood is portrayed as an unnatural and pathological life script characterized by its lack and deficiency. Furthermore, as opposed to childless singlehood, single motherhood by choice emerges as a preferred and desirable life option. The category of single motherhood is endowed with new forms of legitimacy, reinforcing new-old patriarchal and postfeminist conceptions of women's reproductive potential and what is considered to be women's primary life purpose.


We examined clinicians' and researchers' experiences from participation in collaborative research on the introduction of Internet and mobile information systems (mHealth systems) in psychotherapeutic routines. The study used grounded theory methodology and was set in a collaboration that aimed to develop and evaluate mHealth support of psychotherapy provided to young people. Soundness of the central objects developed in the design phase (the collaboration contract, the trial protocol, and the system technology) was a necessary foundation for successful collaborative mHealth research; neglect of unanticipated organizational influences during the trial phase was a factor in collaboration failure. The experiences gained in this study can be used in settings where collaborative research on mHealth systems in mental health is planned.


Understanding the motivation of adults and children expressions during different sensations as hunger, pain, etc., is not a hard task. This is due to their ability to communicate their feelings using sound expressions that are commonly used among human beings and are easily understood by them. Infants, on the other hand, lack the knowledge to show their feelings, which makes them express themselves through crying and by making facial expressions that can differ depending on the baby's age or even on the birth condition. Having that in mind, this paper aims to automatically identify whether an infant's cry is motivated by the feeling of pain. To accomplish this goal, features extracted from the spectrogram generated from audio samples of crying babies are classified using a novel dataset, which is carefully designed, curated and made available to the research community for the development of classifiers in this field of research.


During recent decades, large-scale effects of pollution on marine estuaries and even entire enclosed coastal seas have become apparent. One of the first regions where this was observed is the Baltic Sea, whereby the appearance of anoxic deep basins, extensive algal blooms and elimination of top predators like eagles and seals indicated effects of both increased nutrient inputs and toxic substances.This book describes the physical, biochemical and ecological processes that govern inputs, distribution and ecological effects of nutrients and toxic substances in the Baltic Sea. Extensive reviews are supplemented by budgets and dynamic simulation models.This book is highly interdisciplinary and uses a systems approach for analyzing and describing a marine ecosystem. It gives an overview of the Baltic Sea, but is useful for any marine scientist studying large marine ecosystems.


Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a major cause of chronic hepatitis worldwide. Present estimates predict that between 120-130 million people worldwide are infected with HCV with the majority of all infections progressing to chronicity, ultimately leading to fibrosis, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. The virus, which belongs to the family Flaviviridae, has a single-stranded RNA genome of positive polarity that codes for a unique polyprotein of
approximately 3000 amino acids. The structural proteins E1 and E2 constitute the viral envelope glycoproteins. These glycoproteins have multiple functions in the viral life cycle such as promoting viral entry and fusion, assembly of infectious virions and aid in viral persistence through immune escape. Numerous cell culture-adaptive mutations have been reported within the HCV glycoproteins. The value of such mutations in understanding the virus interaction(s) with cellular receptors and neutralizing antibodies was first recognised from studies characterizing the E2 cell culture adaptive mutation G451R. This single mutation altered the affinity of HCV to the cell surface receptors CD81 and SRB1 as well as increasing its sensitivity to neutralizing antibodies targeting the viral glycoproteins. A
striking observation from previously reported E2 cell culture adaptive mutations is their frequent occurrence within a highly conserved region of E2, spanning residues 412-423. Indeed, the long-term passaging of JFH1 infected cells here in this study also created an adapted virus with a substitution at residue 415. The aim of this study was to determine the phenotypic changes to viral entry caused by mutations in this region. To do this, four JFH1
viruses containing the mutations N415D, T416A, N417S and I422L were constructed and characterized. These mutant viruses were found to have very similar phenotypes to the
G451R virus, suggesting all E2 adaptive mutations are selected to alter a specific function
in viral entry. Residues 412-423 of HCV E2 also constitute the epitope of the in-house generated broadly neutralizing antibody AP33. ELISA binding and virus infection
inhibition assays using AP33 with the E2 mutant viruses provided important information regarding the E2 contact residues of this antibody. In a separate study, intergenotypic chimeric JFH1 viruses were generated and
characterised. Viable intra- and intergenotypic JFH1 chimeric viruses have previously been generated by different research groups by replacing the core to NS2 genes of JFH1 with those from different genotypes. Many of these chimeric viruses required numerous cell culture adaptive mutations to permit efficient infectious virus production. In the present study, 5 intergenotypic viruses were constructed by replacing the JFH1 envelope genes
with those from other HCV genotypes. Despite these chimeric genomes replicating efficiently, none were capable of producing infectious virus. These viral genomes also
failed to acquire infectivity during pro-longed cell passaging, suggesting that replacing the JFH1 envelope glycoproteins with those from other genotypes may confer total incompatibility for virus assembly. In addition to this work, the infectivity of a previously generated genotype 4a/JFH1 chimera was improved by repeatedly passaging the virus infected cells. The chimeric virus contained the core to NS2 genes of a genotype 4a strain
in place of the those from the original JFH1 sequence. A total of six-adaptive mutations were identified throughout the adapted genome that enhanced infectivity by more than
100-fold. Achieving higher titers with this chimera permitted studies on its viral entry properties as well as its sensitivity to neutralizing antibodies. The ability of the adapted virus 4a/JFH1 virus to spread during multiple rounds of infection was greatly reduced compared to WT/JFH1 due to its inefficient cell-to-cell spread. The 4a/JFH1 virions were also highly sensitive to neutralizing antibodies targeting both linear and conformational E2
epitopes, suggesting that the glycoproteins are more exposed on the surface of this virus. In its totality, this study has provided key insights into the viral entry and antibodymediated neutralization properties of cell-culture adapted and intergenotypic chimeric forms of the JFH1 virus.


Over 40 species of North American waterfowl use wetland habitats throughout their annual cycles. Survival, reproduction, and growth are dependent on the availability of foods that meet nutritional requirements for recurring biological events. These requirements occur among a wide variety of environmental conditions that also influence nutritional demands. Recent work on nesting waterfowl has identified the female's general nutrient needs for egg laying and incubation. Far less is known about nutritional requirements for molt and other portions of the life cycle, particularly those during the nonbreeding season. Although information on specific requirements for amino acids and micronutrients of wild birds is meager, the available information on waterfowl requirements can be used to develop waterfowl management strategies. For example, nutrient content of foods, nutritional requirements of waterfowl, and the cues waterfowl use in locating and selecting foods are all kinds of information that managers need to encourage use of habitats by feeding waterfowl. Waterfowl nutritional needs during the annual cycle and the nutritional values of natural foods and crops will be discussed below.


Local refugee resettlement sites are often overlooked as hotspots of conflict because of the unstated assumption that resettlement and escape from militarized conflict automatically mean peace. However, refugees are resettled in local communities into which old conflicts are imported, and where new ones emerge as refugees and locals need to find ways of coexisting despite cultural differences. This research was developed in response to calls by the US Office of Refugee Resettlement and the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations for grassroots-level data on the challenges faced by residents of resettlement communities and for the development of strategies for promoting intercultural understanding. This dissertation delineates the development of the Comprehensive Conflict Engagement Model, based on which the imageand dialogue-based Photovoice methodology was modified and applied as a practical conflict intervention. This work bridges the gap between conflict theory and practice by collecting bottom-up information about the dynamics that shape people's lives in Clarkston, a refugee resettlement hub in Georgia, and exploring the utility of the CCEM applied through Photovoice as a comprehensive conflict engagement strategy that concurrently targets the internal, relational, and structural bases of conflict. The results suggest that the participants were generally satisfied with aspects of their environment on which they had an impact and dissatisfied when they were impacted unidirectionally, without reciprocal relationships and the power to actively shape their experiences. The results further demonstrate that a CCEM-based adaptation of Photovoice is a suitable comprehensive conflict engagement strategy for practitioners operating at the community level.


Electric field and plasma density instrumentation on board a sounding rocket launched from Punta Lobos, Peru, detected intense electrostatic waves indicative of plasma instabilities in the daytime equatorial electrojet. Simultaneous measurements taken by the Jicamarca radar showed strong 3-m type 1 electrojet echoes as well as evidence of kilometer scale horizontally propagating waves. The in situ electric field wave spectra displayed three markedly different height regions within the unstable layer: (1) a two-stream region on the topside between 103 and 111 km where the electron current was considered to be strongest, (2) a gradient drift region between 90 and 106.5 km where the upward directed, zero-order electron density gradient was unstable, and (3) an "interaction" region between 103 and 106.5 km where both of these instabilities were linearly unstable. The unstable altitudes and differentiation showed good agreement with the simultaneous 3-m Jicamarca backscatter radar observations. In the region where the density gradient was unstable, large-amplitude waves with large scale sizes (wavelengths of roughly 1–2 km) were observed. These kilometer scale waves dominated the observed in situ spectrum despite the fact that the peak in the linear gradient drift growth rate occurred at wavelengths of only a few hundred meters. Comparisons of the measured δE and δn/n components of the large-scale waves verify the basic process inherent to the gradient drift instability: density enhancements were observed coincident with westward electric fields, and density depletions were associated with eastward fields. The amplitudes (10–15 mV/m) of these horizontal waves were strong enough to drive vertical two-stream secondary waves. In the region where these waves existed and the electrojet current was strongest, evidence of wave steepening was seen, and the resulting waveforms of the large structures displayed a "flat-topped" nature. In the lower region of the electrojet the irregularity power occurred over a broad range of wavelengths, estimated to be in the range of tens of meters to kilometers, and fell off rapidly for the shorter wavelengths. Throughout the gradient drift region, shorter-scale waves often occurred in bursts which appeared controlled by the larger electric field structures.


For massive and heterogeneous modern datasets, it is of fundamental interest to provide guarantees on the accuracy of estimation when computational resources are limited. In the application of learning to rank, we provide a hierarchy of rank-breaking mechanisms ordered by the complexity in thus generated sketch of the data. This allows the number of data points collected to be gracefully traded off against computational resources available, while guaranteeing the desired level of accuracy. Theoretical guarantees on the proposed generalized rank-breaking implicitly provide such trade-offs, which can be explicitly characterized under certain canonical scenarios on the structure of the data.


Ion implantation for selective doping of SiC is problematic due to damage generation during the process and low activation of dopants. In SiC bipolar junction transistor (BJT) the junction termination extension (JTE) can be formed without ion implantation using instead a controlled etching into the epitaxial base. This etched JTE is advantageous because it eliminates ion implantation induced damage and the need for high temperature annealing. However, the dose, which is controlled by the etched base thickness and doping concentration, plays a crucial role. In order to find the optimum parameters, device simulations of different etched base thicknesses have been performed using the software Sentaurus Device. A surface passivation layer consisting of silicon dioxide, considering interface traps and fixed trapped charge, has been included in the analysis by simulations. Moreover a comparison with measured data for fabricated SiC BJTs has been performed.


The recent spate of severe financial crises has provoked an interest in international monetary reform not seen since the breakdown of the fixed exchange rate system 30 years ago. Indeed, the crises have forced both academic economists and policymakers to question some of their most basic assumptions about the appropriate design of the international monetary system. This article was the introductory paper at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston's conference on "Rethinking the International Monetary System," held in June 1999. The article reviews recent changes in the economic environment that have provoked the interest in reform. It goes on to explore how policy choices concerning four key aspects of the international monetary system-exchange rate regimes, treatment of capital flows, international lender of last resort facilities, and policy coordination-interact to support or undermine national efforts to achieve stable economic growth. The authors posit that current arrangements create unpalatable policy choices for many nations and that inadequate surveillance and policy coordination and the ambiguities surrounding international rescue programs contributed to recent crises. While widely advocated improvements in transparency and governance and the market forces they engender should encourage more mature financial systems and better macro policies, the authors suggest that the ongoing struggle to achieve stable growth points to the need for more fundamental reform.


Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and mass spectrometry (MS) are the principal methods of metabolomics, the branch of '-omics' that deals with small molecules. Although MS is gaining popularity in metabolomics, NMR enjoys a number of key advantages because it is nondestructive, unbiased, quantitative, does not require separation or derivatization, and is amenable to compounds that are difficult to analyze by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). There are two general approaches to the use of NMR for profiling studies: an untargeted approach, which uses chemometric analysis; and a targeted approach, which aims to quantify known compounds in the extract. These approaches, however, are not mutually exclusive and will likely converge in the future. This paper will describe the basic theoretical principles that should be considered to develop NMR into a standard quantitative method. Although 1H NMR is more sensitive, 13C NMR spectra are simpler with less overlapping signals and are less affected by different magnetic field strengths. Various applications of 1H and 13C NMR for the profiling of natural products are described. The use of two-dimensional 1H NMR has been used to overcome problems of spectral overlap. The standardization of the NMR protocol will make it a more useful tool for the profiling of natural products extracts.


Settlement is an inevitability of human presence in a landscape; a collection of houses indicates settlement, but so too does a field system - the farmers must live somewhere. Wherever there are people there will be settlement, from large concrete and glass urban centres to the tented impermanence of a nomads' camp.
Settlement is a result of the human presence, but remains a sterile idea without some discussion of the community. Certainly settlement can be studied without community, but it remains an abstract assembly of parts unless the people that constructed or occupied it are taken into account. A single settlement is home to numerous communities that continuously form, divide and reform in response to the changing practical and social situations that everyday life presents.
Before any settlement is established a series of decisions has to be made with due consideration of an area's topography and natural resources, as well as existing settlements in the landscape and any established social, economic or political systems. Physical considerations such as a settlement's location and extent, or the definition of its boundaries, can be viewed individually, but are more usefully considered in conjunction with one another so that a settlement is treated as a working unit that is part of a wider system, rather than an abstract collection of components.
This thesis approaches questions of settlement and community in historic Cyprus - from the late Roman period to the end of the Ottoman period - through a presentation of the experience and results of fieldwork I carried out in 2003. The fieldwork comprised a survey project specifically conceived, planned and executed by myself for my PhD research. It focused on three discrete areas of Cyprus: Akrotiri, a low-lying area salt marsh, batha and cirtus groves in the south of the Island; an area of agriculture and coastal maquis on the west coast, north of Peyia; and the Nikitari village territory, which stretches from the southern margins of the Mesaoria up into the lower reaches of the Troodos mountains. The topographical cross section evident in my chosen areas gave me the opportunity to study the diversity of settlement across most of the range of habitats of the island, from the coast, through the plains, scrub and foot hills, to all but the highest reaches of the Troodos mountains.
My experiences in the landscape undoubtedly influenced my observation, recording and interpretation of material evidence in the field, and are a vital, if elusive element of my data. I have exploited their influence to make my presentation the landscape I perceived coherent and vivid. Whilst they could not give me a complete understanding of the experiences of erstwhile occupants of the settlements I have studied, my own experiences do lead me toward it through and appreciation of the landscape and the considerations necessary for anyone living, working or travelling in it.
Through my data I examine the location of settlements in the landscape and their changing distribution over time, before endeavouring to identify evidence for community amongst the physical remains in the landscape.


A B S T R A C T Key agreement protocols are essential for secure communications in open and distributed environments. Recently, identity-based key agreement protocols have been increasingly researched because of the simplicity of public key management. The basic idea behind an identity-based cryptosystem is that a public key is the identity (an arbitrary string) of a user, and the corresponding private key is generated by a trusted Private Key Generator (PKG). However, it is unrealistic to assume that a single PKG will be responsible for issuing private keys to members of dierent organizations or a large-scale nation. Hence, it is needed to consider multiple PKG environments with dierent system parameters. In this paper, we propose an identity-based key agreement protocol among users of dierent networks with independent PKGs, which makes use of elliptic curves. We prove the security of the proposed protocol in the random oracle model and show that all security attributes are satised. We also demonstrate a comparison between our protocol and some related protocols in terms of the communication costs and the execution time. The results show that the execution time of our protocol is less than 10%, and its communication costs are about 50% of the competitor protocols.


U-Pb geochronological data from the northern and western extensions of the Oudalan-Gorouol volcano-sedimentary belt (OGB) on 3 samples of granodiorite gneiss (sample BF\_1144), migmatitic gneiss (sample BF\_1299), and granite clast from a metaconglomerate (sample BF_1147) gave the oldest U-Pb crystallisation ages for outcropping Palaeoproterozoic rocks yet identified in the West African Craton (WAC).

The U-Pb concordant crystallisation ages of 2253 ± 9 Ma and 2253 ± 15 Ma for samples BF\_1144 and BF\_1299, respectively, likely represent the age of crystallisation of parent granodiorite gneiss and may constrain the age of a gneissic protolith on which the OGB basin was deposited, or an early group of granitoids that was emplaced in the hinterland during formation of the OGB basin.

A concordant age of 2255 ± 26 Ma for sample BF_1147 is interpreted as the age of crystallisation of a granite pluton that was eroded from a site nearby before becoming part of the Dembam Member, and constrains the maximum age of the Birimian Supergroup in the OGB.

The older Pb-Pb ages on zircons from the granodiorite gneiss, migmatitic gneiss and granite clast are in the range ~2.34 to ~2.27 Ga, and are interpreted as inherited from pre-existing zircon cores. They are similar to Pb-Pb ages reported as inherited zircon ages from the Dabakala tonalitic gneiss (in Cote d'Ivoire).


New samples collected from a transect across the summit limestone of Mount Everest (Qomolangma Formation) show that multiple distinct deformational events are discretely partitioned across this formation. Samples from the highest exposures of the Qomolangma Formation (Everest summit) preserve a well-developed mylonitic foliation and microstructures consistent with deformation temperatures of ≥250 °C. Thermochronologic and microstructural results indicate these fabrics were ingrained during initial contractile phases of Himalayan orogenesis, when crustal thickening was accommodated by folding and thrusting of the Tethyan Sedimentary Sequence. In contrast, samples from near the base of the Qomolangma Formation (South Summit) preserve extensional shear deformation, indicate metasomatism at temperatures of ∼500 °C, and contain a synkinematic secondary mineral assemblage of muscovite + chlorite + biotite + tourmaline + rutile. Shear fabrics preserved in South Summit samples are associated with activity on the Qomolangma detachment, while the crystallization of secondary phases was the result of reactions between the limestone protolith and a volatile, boron-rich fluid that infiltrated the base of the Qomolangma Formation, resulting in metasomatism. The 40 Ar/ 39 Ar dating of synkinematic muscovite indicates the secondary assemblage crystallized at ca. 28 Ma and that shear fabrics were ingrained at ≥18 Ma. This paper presents the first evidence that Everest's summit limestone records multiple phases of deformation associated with discrete stages in Himalayan orogenesis, and that the structurally highest strand of the South Tibetan detachment on Everest was initially active as a distributed shear zone before it manifested as a discrete brittle detachment at the base of the Qomolangma Formation.


Although it is well established that severe chronic hyperglycemia is associated with microvascular disease, it is not known whether transient hyperglycemia similar to that observed with impaired glucose tolerance or early Type 2 diabetes contributes to this pathology by altering microvascular function. To test the hypothesis that acute hyperglycemia decreases microvascular vasodilator responsiveness in human skin, we measured the cutaneous vasodilator response to local warming. This response can be divided into two phases, an initial peak that relies predominantly on local sensory nerves and a second slower phase that is largely dependent on endothelial nitric oxide. We reasoned that a change in one or both phases would indicate a change in the corresponding mechanism(s) with hyperglycemia. Twenty-eight healthy volunteers (14 women, 14 men) were randomly divided into three groups, corresponding to 6 h of euglycemia (n = 8), 6 h when glucose was clamped at approximately 7 mmol/l (n = 10), or 6 h when glucose was varied to mimic a postprandial pattern (i.e., peak glucose approximately 11.1 mmol/l) commonly observed in individuals with impaired glucose tolerance (n = 10). Insulin concentrations in all instances were maintained at approximately 65 pmol/l by means of continuous infusions of somatostatin and insulin. Glucagon and growth hormone were also continuously infused to maintain their basal concentrations. Despite substantial differences in both the level and pattern of glucose concentrations, neither maximum cutaneous vasodilation nor the pattern of the vasodilator response to local warming differed over the 6 h of study. We conclude that acute hyperglycemia similar to levels commonly observed in people with either early Type 2 diabetes or impaired glucose tolerance does not alter the vasodilator response to local warming of the skin in humans.