Various treatment methods have been used for the management of subchondral cystic lesions (SCLs) in horses. Filling the defect with parathyroid hormone fragment peptide 1-34 (PTH1-34) in a fibrin matrix represents a relatively new approach that requires further investigation. For this reason fifteen horses with clinical and radiographic evidence of a total of sixteen SCLs (one horse bilaterally affected) were treated surgically with debridement of the cystic contents and injection of PTH1-34 in a fibrin hydrogel into the cyst cavity. Objectives of the study were to determine the clinical and radiographic outcome of SCLs treated locally with PTH1-34 and to identify factors that may predict outcome. Clinical and radiographic follow-up examinations were carried out at two, four, six and 12 months postoperatively and a telephone inquiry was carried out five to seven years later. The mean age of the horses was 4.9 years. Six SCLs were in the medial condyle of the femur, three in the distal metacarpus, three in the proximal sesamoid bone, two in the first phalanx, one in the patella and one in the calcaneus. Treatment was considered successful in 11 of the 15 cases (73%) because the horses were sound and returned to full work. In the remaining patients, there was improvement in one and no change in three others after treatment. Based on the outcome of this study, PTH1-34 in a fibrin matrix administered directly into the cyst after surgical debridement appears to be a promising treatment option for treating SCLs at various anatomic sites in horses.


The project's main features are: a 7 ft high, 240 ft long cast-in-place concrete overflow weir; bell mouth entrance concrete intake structure with trashrack and trashrake; 15 ft wide by 18 ft high slide gate and an adjacent rock excavated open channel ice sluice; 15.25 ft diameter unlined power tunnel which is approximately 4,500 ft long and which was excavated by a tunnel boring machine (TBM); a 30 ft diameter by 74 ft high below ground concrete lined air pressurized surge chamber located at the downstream end of the unlined power tunnel and approximately 450 ft upstream of the powerhouse; This paper discusses the design and construction of the project's main features including the unique application of the air tight high density polyethylene (HDPE) lining in the air pressurized surge chamber. The procedures developed for filling and operating the tunnel and pressurizing the air chamber are also discussed.


This chapter focuses on the prospects for using a fundamental molecular approach to identification of novel lead compounds for new drug development. A section reviews existing and potential drug targets in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The chapter then discusses distinctive features of mycobacteria relevant to drug design, and considers experimental approaches applicable to rational drug discovery programs. Most antibacterial agents inhibit biosynthetic pathways involved in the production of macromolecules. Streptomycin, the first antibiotic available for widespread use in treatment of tuberculosis, is a member of the aminoglycoside family that disrupts bacterial protein synthesis. An important strategy for enhancing the activity of sulfonamides against some bacteria has been their use in combination with trimethoprim, a drug that inhibits a subsequent step in the tetrahydrofolate pathway catalyzed by the enzyme dihydrofolate reductase. Rifampin is a key drug in mycobacterial therapy that has a broad antibacterial spectrum and a well-defined target. Ethambutol has a polyamine-like structure and was originally thought to interfere with RNA synthesis. M. tuberculosis isolates with defects in the katG gene encoding a catalase-peroxidase enzyme develop resistance to isoniazid (INH), indicating a possible role for the enzyme in intracellular activation of the drug. The recent development of molecular genetic systems for mycobacteria opens a range of novel opportunities for drug discovery.


OBJECTIVE
The authors systematically reviewed current evidence for the utility of mean arterial pressure (MAP), intraspinal pressure (ISP), and spinal cord perfusion pressure (SCPP) as predictors of outcomes after traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI).

METHODS
PubMed, Cochrane Reviews Library, EMBASE, and Scopus databases were queried in December 2020. Two independent reviewers screened articles using Covidence software. Disagreements were resolved by a third reviewer. The inclusion criteria for articles were 1) available in English; 2) full text; 3) clinical studies on traumatic SCI interventions; 4) involved only human participants; and 5) focused on MAP, ISP, or SCPP. Exclusion criteria were 1) only available in non-English languages; 2) focused only on the brain; 3) described spinal diseases other than SCI; 4) interventions altering parameters other than MAP, ISP, or SCPP; and 5) animal studies. Studies were analyzed qualitatively and grouped into two categories: interventions increasing MAP or interventions decreasing ISP. The Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network level of evidence was used to assess bias and the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation approach was used to rate confidence in the anticipated effects of each outcome.

RESULTS
A total of 2540 unique articles were identified, of which 72 proceeded to full-text review and 24 were included in analysis. One additional study was included retrospectively. Articles that went through full-text review were excluded if they were a review paper (n = 12), not a full article (n = 12), a duplicate paper (n = 9), not a human study (n = 3), not in English (n = 3), not pertaining to traumatic SCI (n = 3), an improper intervention (n = 3), without intervention (n = 2), and without analysis of intervention (n = 1). Although maintaining optimal MAP levels is the current recommendation for SCI management, the published literature supports maintenance of SCPP as a stronger indicator of favorable outcomes. Studies also suggest that laminectomy and durotomy may provide better outcomes than laminectomy alone, although higher-level studies are needed. Current evidence is inconclusive on the effectiveness of CSF drainage for reducing ISP.

CONCLUSIONS
This review demonstrates the importance of assessing how different interventions may vary in their ability to optimize SCPP.


Can neural networks learn to solve partial differential equations (PDEs)? We investigate this question for two (systems of) PDEs, namely, the Poisson equation and the steady Navier--Stokes equations. The contributions of this paper are five-fold. (1) Numerical experiments show that small neural networks (< 500 learnable parameters) are able to accurately learn complex solutions for systems of partial differential equations. (2) It investigates the influence of random weight initialization on the quality of the neural network approximate solution and demonstrates how one can take advantage of this non-determinism using ensemble learning. (3) It investigates the suitability of the loss function used in this work. (4) It studies the benefits and drawbacks of solving (systems of) PDEs with neural networks compared to classical numerical methods. (5) It proposes an exhaustive list of possible directions of future work.


Sn-Sb composites are of great interest for high capacity sodium ion batteries due to their high stability, but because multiple phases and alloyed compositions are formed during cycling, the roles of each are challenging to deduce. In this work, two approaches were taken to investigate the importance of β-SnSb formation on the cycling stability of Sn-rich Sn-Sb composite sodium-ion battery (SIB) anodes. First, to tease out the role of each component, thin layers of amorphous silicon with thicknesses ranging from 0.5 to 10 nm, were incorporated between Sn and Sb layers, of equal thicknesses. Silicon has low solubility in both tin and antimony, and thus acts as a barrier layer that can interfere with the formation of Sn-Sb alloys. The equivalent composition of this sandwich structure was Sn53Sb47. Upon electrochemical cycling, a clear correlation between capacity retention and Si thickness was observed, and it was found that a 1 nm thick Si layer was sufficient to inhibit the formation of the β-SnSb intermetallic, resulting in loss of the capacity of the tin layer after a few tens of cycles. The second approach involved capping a Sn film with increasingly thicker Sb layers. Thicker antimony layers were found to have a large positive influence on cycling stability with a marked drop-off in the capacity retention when there is not enough Sb to fully convert the bilayer into β-SnSb. These results point to the necessity of the Sn and Sb being in intimate contact prior to cycling for the β-SnSb phase to form in-operando, which is necessary for the excellent capacity retention of the Sn-Sb system.


In certain scenarios, there may be a need to combine several
Generalized Multiprotocol Label Switching (GMPLS) Label Switched Paths
(LSPs) such that a single end-to-end (e2e) LSP is realized and all
traffic from one constituent LSP is switched onto the next LSP. We
will refer to this as "LSP stitching", the key requirement being that
a constituent LSP not be allocated to more than one e2e LSP. The
constituent LSPs will be referred to as "LSP segments" (S-LSPs). This
document describes extensions to the existing GMPLS signaling protocol
(Resource Reservation Protocol-Traffic Engineering (RSVP-TE)) to
establish e2e LSPs created from S-LSPs, and describes how the LSPs can
be managed using the GMPLS signaling and routing protocols. It may be
possible to configure a GMPLS node to switch the traffic from an LSP
for which it is the egress, to another LSP for which it is the
ingress, without requiring any signaling or routing extensions
whatsoever and such that the operation is completely transparent to
other nodes. This will also result in LSP stitching in the data plane.
However, this document does not cover this scenario of LSP stitching.
[STANDARDS-TRACK]


Abstract : This thesis develops a state estimation algorithm for the Centrifuge Rotor (CR) system where only relative measurements are available with limited knowledge of both rotor imbalance disturbances and International Space Station (ISS) thruster disturbances. A Kalman filter is applied to a plant model augmented with sinusoidal disturbance states used to model both the effect of the rotor imbalance and the 155 thrusters on the CR relative motion measurement. The sinusoidal disturbance states compensate for the lack of the availability of plant inputs for use in the Kalman filter. Testing confirms that complete disturbance modeling is necessary to ensure reliable estimation. Further testing goes on to show that increased estimator operational bandwidth can be achieved through the expansion of the disturbance model within the filter dynamics. In addition, Monte Carlo analysis shows the varying levels of robustness against defined plant/filter uncertainty variations.


The taxation of foreign dividends was introduced into the South African tax system in 2000 by s 9E of the Income Tax Act 58 of 1962 (the Act). However, when the Revenue Laws Amendment Act 45 of 2003 was promulgated on 22 December 2003 it repealed s 9E. That was not, however, an immediate farewell bid to the taxation of foreign dividends. The amended tax treatment of foreign dividends is now incorporated into various other sections of the Act.


Understanding why and how certain neural networks outperform others is key to guiding future development of network architectures and optimization methods. To this end, we introduce a novel visualization algorithm that reveals the internal geometry of such networks: Multislice PHATE (M-PHATE), the first method designed explicitly to visualize how a neural network's hidden representations of data evolve throughout the course of training. We demonstrate that our visualization provides intuitive, detailed summaries of the learning dynamics beyond simple global measures (i.e., validation loss and accuracy), without the need to access validation data. Furthermore, M-PHATE better captures both the dynamics and community structure of the hidden units as compared to visualization based on standard dimensionality reduction methods (e.g., ISOMAP, t-SNE). We demonstrate M-PHATE with two vignettes: continual learning and generalization. In the former, the M-PHATE visualizations display the mechanism of "catastrophic forgetting" which is a major challenge for learning in task-switching contexts. In the latter, our visualizations reveal how increased heterogeneity among hidden units correlates with improved generalization performance. An implementation of M-PHATE, along with scripts to reproduce the figures in this paper, is available at this https URL.


The paper describes and analyses fiscal operations at the local level in order to improve understanding of fiscal federalism in Nigeria. The paper also tries to ascertain whether fiscal imbalances observed at both federal and state arms of government also exist at the local government level. The study is based on an analysis of primary data derived from administered questionnaires to randomly selected local governments. The results show that some local governments experienced surpluses during the period of structural adjustment. Deficits were financed through guaranteed state loans, state grants and commercial bank loans. The paper suggests that local government financial behaviour should be monitored in order to ensure accountability and financial discipline.


This article evaluates the role of the Brazilian federal Conditional Cash Transfer programs (CCTs) such as Bolsa Família and Bolsa Escola during the past recent years and discusses their future. Based on previous empirical evidence based on my own work, I propose an integrated framework with two complementary perspectives. The first perspective is a goal approach based on the short term aggregated influences exerted by these programs, organized under four headings, namely: equality, prosperity, stability and sensibility. The emphasis here is to compare the results of Bolsa Família with other official programs such as BPC and Social Security benefits. The second perspective follows a means approach inspecting the microeconomic mechanisms through which CCTs operate, comparing the impacts on CCTs beneficiaries versus non-beneficiaries. Such perspective helps in dialoguing about the relevance of different CCTs attributes, and to discuss possible desirable upgrades.


Vegetation management is not a new concept to many Aboriginal people. Traditional vegetation management practices such as patch burning required a thorough understanding of the ecology of vegetation communities, vegetation succession, and the associated fauna. Burning was not carried out indiscriminately but rather, informed decisions were mage in response to the vegetation type, season and the time since the last burning (Walsh 1989). It has even been said that the traditional Australian landscape was an Aboriginal artefact, maintained in its pristine form by conscious Aboriginal management (Coombs 1989).

However, with European contact and the establishment of permanent Aboriginal settlements, the pattern of vegetation use by Aboriginal people living in remote settlements in the arid and semi-arid regions of Australia has undoubtedly changed.

Permanent settlements of Aboriginal people have brought about an increase in the people-pressure exerted on the land and vegetation surrounding those settlements. Whereas in the times before European contact people would move on when their impact on the local vegetation and fauna became detrimental to the environment and themselves, the advent of permanent settlements with regular supplies of food and water have provided very strong incentives for Aboriginal people to remain in a degraded environment, even though the environmental impact of a concentrated population on a relatively small area is clearly severe.

The practice of living a community lifestyle that degrades the local vegetation and subsequently creates health problems for the members of that community is of course not unique to Aboriginal communities. It is a problem that faces not only other users of the arid and semi-arid lands of Australia but most other communities in the world today. Nevertheless, the link between community health and the vegetation status of the surrounding environment is much more direct in remote Aboriginal commumtIes than in other communities in the arid and semi-arid regions of Australia.

Aboriginal people living in remote commUnIties in the arid and semi-arid regions of Australia often have a high dependance on local resources for food and firewood (Walsh 1989). Furthermore, Aboriginal people also spend a great deal of time outside their houses and are therefore very susceptable to dust borne diseases. In a significant report upon the health and lifestyle of Aboriginal people in Central Australia, it was observed that 80% of Aboriginal people spent 80% of their time outside the house in their back yards (Nganampa Health Council Inc. et. al 1987). The people of remote Aboriginal settlements thus experience a much greater degree of ill-health and discomfort than other people in arid and semi-arid Australia as result of vegetation denudation.


Low-frequency glow discharge for the deposition of hydrogenated amorphous carbon has been investigated by using time- and space-resolved emission spectroscopy as the parameters of pressure (0.3<p<3.0 Torr) and gas mixture ratio between CH4 and H2 at 100 kHz and 10 SCCM. The authors ascertain the temporal structure of the discharge. The CH(B2 Sigma -; v'=0 to X2 Pi ; v=0) band head in CH4/H2 is selected as a probe for monitoring the dynamics of the electron transport. The Ar I (3p55p:3p1 to 3p54s:1s2) line in pure Ar is also observed for comparison with the discharge structure in CH4/H2. The glow discharge property changes significantly with total gas pressure in the CH4/H2 mixture under investigation. Considerable variation is observed between the sustaining voltage and the emission profile of the discharge with the increase of mixture ratio of CH4 to H2 at constant power. Remarkable differences in the emission profile exist between CH4/H2 and Ar. The authors show that the drift velocity of the dominant ions plays an important role in deciding the structure of the discharge especially at low frequency, and that the plasma bulk potential in Ar is higher than that in H2 at the same applied voltage.


Our primary goal has been to elucidate a model of pitch memory by examining the brain activity of musicians with and without absolute pitch during listening tasks. Subjects, screened for both absolute and
 relative pitch abilities, were presented with two auditory tasks and one visual task that served as a control. In the first auditory task (pitch memory task), subjects were asked to differentiate between
 diatonic and nondiatonic tones within a tonal framework. In the second auditory task (contour task), subjects were presented with the same pitch sequences but instead asked to differentiate between tones
 moving upward or downward. For the visual control task, subjects were presented again with the same pitch sequences and asked to determine whether each pitch was diatonic or nondiatonic, only this time
 the note names appeared visually on the computer screen. Our findings strongly suggest that there are various levels of absolute pitch ability. Some absolute pitch subjects have, in addition to this skill,
 strong relative pitch abilities, and these differences are reflected quite consistently by the behavior of the P300 component of the event-related potential. Our research also strengthens the idea that
 the memory system for pitch and interval distances is distinct from the memory system for contour (W. J. Dowling, 1978). Our results are discussed within the context of the current absolute pitch literature.


In many countries welfare services that traditionally have been provided by the public sector are increasingly being contracted out to private providers. But are private contractors better at providing these services? We use a randomized experiment to empirically assess the effectiveness of contacting out employment services to private placement agencies. Our results show that unemployed at private placement agencies have a much closer interaction with their placement worker than unemployed at the Public Employment Service (PES). In particular, unemployed at private agencies receive more assistance in improving their job search technology. We do not find any overall difference in the probability of employment between private placement agencies and the PES), but this hides important heterogeneities across different types of unemployed. We find evidence that private providers are better at providing em¬ployment services to immigrants, and also indications that they may be worse for adolescents. Any effects tend to fade away over time.


This report discusses the rapid advancements North Korea has made in its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs since 2012. Despite the absence of any missile launch activity or nuclear tests in 2018 to date, previous tests and official North Korean statements suggest that North Korea is striving to build a credible regional nuclear warfighting capability that might evade regional ballistic missile defenses. Such an approach likely reinforces their deterrent and coercive diplomacy strategy--lending more credibility as it demonstrates capability--but it also raises serious questions about crisis stability and escalation control. Congress may further examine these advances' possible effects on U.S. policy.


Investigated the mechanisms of interfacial interactions in composite materials based on thermoplastic matrices modified with dispersed particles of silicon and carbon-containing compounds with high energy activity. It was found that the laser treatment of particulate and fibrous particles occurs comprehensive modification of the surface layer, which consists in shaping the development of the morphology of the surface layer and increase its energy. For the modification of thermoplastic matrix including high-viscosity (polyamides, PTFE) prospectively the use of dispersed fragments of carbon fiber (CF) fraction 50-150 microns, subjected to the effects of a short pulse laser, having developed the morphology of the surface layer and the presence of defects through thermal degradation. When using this modifier in an amount of 5-30 wt.% for filling PA6, PA66, PTFE provides increased of parameters deformation and strength characteristics due to the increased mechanical component adhesive interaction at the interface of "matrix-filler". An additional effect is realized in the processing of the surface layer of CF fluoride compounds oligomeric or polymer-oligomeric structure. The modified fluorinated hydrocarbon components fragments CF when laser pulse processing are exposed to the active low molecular weight products ablation, so that the surface layers are formed with a high affinity to the matrix polytetrafluoroethylene. The complex method of modifying CF is effective for highly filled fluoro composites containing 25-35 wt.% of carbon fillers due to the decrease in the probability of formation of cluster structures of the filler particles. Dispersed particles silicate (clay, tripoli, talc) and carbon (graphite, carbon black, shungite) when exposed to laser radiation susceptible to degradation with the formation of nanoscale fragments in a moving layer, thus increasing their activity in the processes of the interfacial interaction in the formation of composites based on oligomeric and polymeric matrices.


In 1969 Roberta Price received a grant and traveled west to explore and photograph the communes that had begun to spring up in New Mexico and Colorado. Over the next eight years she took more than 3,000 photos of commune life, and now she has selected 121 images for publication in a visual memoir that reflects on her experiences and invites us to contemplate the rural counterculture of her youth. Unlike most photographers of the back to the land movement, Price "went native," joining a Colorado community and living there for seven years. Her photo documentation of her years at Libre provides a unique view of commune life through the eyes of a participant. We see residents building homes, raising families, and celebrating community. Price's photographs of Drop City, New Buffalo, Reality Construction Company, Libre, the Red Rockers, and other southwestern communes capture long-haired men, women in self-made peasant attire, psychedelic art, sheaves of marijuana, cast-iron stoves, and preindustrial agricultural practices--visual evidence of the great divide that separated Price, her friends, and associates from the families and neighbors among whom they had grown up. The photos also reveal the presence of record players, amplifiers, and electric guitars, along with a staggering array of architectural and interior design, and visits by such iconoclasts as Ken Kesey, Peter Orlovsky, and Allen Ginsberg. The most famous clich about the era is that if you can remember it, you weren't there. Price was there with her camera, and her images help us see it more clearly now. Gold Medal Winner for Photography, "ForeWord Reviews" 2010 Book of the Year Awards


Whether they are used to describe fitness, genome architecture or the spatial distribution of environmental variables, the concept of a landscape has figured prominently in our collective reasoning. The tradition of landscapes in evolutionary biology is one of fitness mapped onto axes defined by phenotypes or molecular sequence states. The characteristics of these landscapes depend on natural selection, which is structured across both genomic and environmental landscapes, and thus, the bridge among differing uses of the landscape concept (i.e. metaphorically or literally) is that of an adaptive phenotype and its distribution across geographical landscapes in relation to selective pressures. One of the ultimate goals of evolutionary biology should thus be to construct fitness landscapes in geographical space. Natural plant populations are ideal systems with which to explore the feasibility of attaining this goal, because much is known about the quantitative genetic architecture of complex traits for many different plant species. What is less known are the molecular components of this architecture. In this issue of Molecular Ecology, Parchman et al. (2012) pioneer one of the first truly genome‐wide association studies in a tree that moves us closer to this form of mechanistic understanding for an adaptive phenotype in natural populations of lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta Dougl. ex Loud.).


Background Limited data are available on the current status of cytology practices in Korea. This nationwide study presents Korean cytology statistics from 2015. Methods A nationwide survey was conducted in 2016 as a part of the mandatory quality-control program by the Korean Society for Cytopathology. The questionnaire was sent to 208 medical institutions performing cytopathologic examinations in Korea. Individual institutions were asked to submit their annual cytology statistical reports and gynecologic cytology-histology correlation data for 2015. Results Responses were obtained from 206 medical institutions including 83 university hospitals, 87 general hospitals, and 36 commercial laboratories. A total of 8,284,952 cytologic examinations were performed in 2015, primarily in commercial laboratories (74.9%). The most common cytology specimens were gynecologic samples (81.3%). Conventional smears and liquid-based cytology were performed in 6,190,526 (74.7%) and 2,094,426 (25.3%) cases, respectively. The overall diagnostic concordance rate between cytologic and histologic diagnoses of uterine cervical samples was 70.5%. Discordant cases were classified into three categories: category A (minimal clinical impact, 17.4%), category B (moderate clinical impact, 10.2%), and category C (major clinical impact, 1.9%). The ratio of atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance to squamous intraepithelial lesion was 1.6 in university hospitals, 2.9 in general hospitals, and 4.9 in commercial laboratories. Conclusions This survey reveals the current status and trend of cytology practices in Korea. The results of this study can serve as basic data for the establishment of nationwide cytopathology policies and quality improvement guidelines in Korean medical institutions.


Tracker fusion i.e. the fusion of the outputs of different tracking methods is an interesting new concept. Thus it should also be considered in the VOT challenges. In this paper we evaluate the performance of tracker fusion on the VOT2013 and VOT2014 datasets. Furthermore, we utilize the fusion concept to create novel fusion based measures for evaluating trackers. Fusion based evaluation is interesting as it does not evaluate trackers independently but in the context of all other trackers. It allows us for example to identify trackers that could despite poor average performance be interesting for research in object tracking. We found e.g. that all state-of-the-art trackers lack some strengths of a simple NCC tracker. Tracker fusion can exploit this and profit from an additional NCC tracker. We raise the question: Can this also be exploited in a more direct way i.e. can we e.g. combine NCC concepts with a state-of-the-art tracker?


The Neoproterozoic succession in the Outjo District of northern Namibia is a mainly sedimentary sequence that was deposited in the time-interval of approximately 800 to 600 Ma ago and was deformed and suffered mild greenschist facies regional metamorphism during Damaran times ca. 550 Ma ago. The map area occupies the lithofacies and tectonic transition from the highly deformed more eugeoclinal Swakop Group sequence to the south to the coeval, uniformly southward-dipping, miogeoclinal Otavi Group of the Fransfontein Ridge to the north. The oldest unit is a largely sandstone and biotite-muscovite phyllite succession tentatively equated with the volcanogenic Naauwpoort Formation (Nosib Group) that pre-dates the Swakop Group in the Summas Mountains to the southwest. The overlying Saturn Formation comprises two distinct but coeval lateral carbonate facies: a 300 m thick sequence of bedded dolomite with a 20 m thick median limestone; and massive biohermal dolomite of undetermined thickness. The conformably overlying Landeck Formation comprises a lower succession of interbedded sandstone, phyllite and local carbonate rocks, a distinctive middle iron formation marker horizon with rather rare overlying dolomite, followed by a siliciclastic-carbonate sequence. The combined succession is up to 450 m in thickness, and glacial diamictite is recorded at 30+ localities sited below, within and above the iron formation. However, in the more distal parts of the Landeck Formation in the Saturn Dome, glacial diamictictite has not been identified, the iron formation is overlain by a distinctive dolomite, and the uppermost 200 to 300 m of the Landeck Formation is characterized by four horizons of siliciclastic sediments with three intervening horizons of blue limestone that reflect the concordant transition to the overlying Bergfriede Formation. New chemical analyses are reported for graphitic dolomite, magnetite-calcite schist, iron formation, ferruginous limestone, dolomitic sandstone and biotite-muscovite phyllite of the Landeck Formation. The Bergfriede Formation consists almost entirely of limestone and dolomite and is characterized by major changes in facies and thickness, and five lateral facies end-members are recognized: I. Hankow Facies, a five-fold succession of limestone, dolomite and calcarenite up to 500 m thick; II. Tsuwandes-Zuwitsaub Facies, a three-fold sequence of limestone-dolomite-limestone >300 m thick; III. Uranus Facies, entirely dolomite generally 150 m thick; IV. Belina-Sophienhof Facies, a limestone-dolomite sequence, with a distinctive arenaceous limestone at the top, 100 to 400 m thick; and V. Mooilagte-Mooihoek Facies, largely dolomite-chert-limestone ≥1500 m thick, that is transitional to the dolomite-dominated upper Otavi Tsumeb Subgroup of the Fransfontein Ridge to the north. The overlying Okaua Formation is composed of a >3000 m thick sequence of muscovite-chlorite phyllite and calcareous sandstone that occupy, inter alia , the troughs of the regional Ugab and Uranus-Neuland Synclines; it is most likely correlative with the Mulden Group of the Otavi Mountainland. The Damaran regional structure of area is characterized by: D 1 an early phase of southward-directed gravity nappes ; D 2 the regionally dominant northeast-southwest to east-west trending tight compressional upright or northward-verging folds, and local thrusts; and D 3 late strike-slip faulting.


Limited information exists on the direct link between the intensity of soil reduction or anaerobiosis and gas exchange in rice (Oryza sativa L.). A laboratory experiment was conducted to determine the extent to which specific levels of soil redox potential (Eh) could influence aerenchyma formation, O₂ transport, and CH₄ production and emission. Plants were grown in a Crowley silt loam (fine, montmorillonitic, thermic Typic Albaqualf) under controlled Eh values of 200, -200, and −300 mV. Radial O₂ loss (ROL) from plant roots was estimated colorimetrically by using Ti³⁺-citrate solution, a reduced compound. Methane production and its emission increased with decrease in soil Eh; CH₄ production increased 10-fold while its emission was enhanced 17-fold when soil Eh dropped from -200 to −300 mV. A positive relationship was established between the intensity of soil anaerobiosis and both aerenchyma formation and ROL. Root and shoot dry weights and root length decreased with decrease in soil Eh. Results of this study demonstrate that soil Eh influences net CH₄ flux from rice in two ways: (i) it directly determines the amount and rate of CH₄ production in the soil, and (ii) it initiates morphological and physiological changes in the rice plant that affect gas exchange between the soil and the atmosphere. Although the results may not necessarily reflect actual conditions in the field, they provide a theoretical basis for understanding the influence of soil Eh on rice growth, CH₄ production, and gas exchange.


There is a clear role for inflammation in the development of type 2 diabetes and its associated co-morbidities. Circulating inflammatory markers such as C-reactive protein, sialic acid, and interleukin- 6 are all significant independent predictors of disease. A number of nutritional components are hypothesized to modulate inflammation, and hence impact on disease risk. The most extensively studied nutrients are the long-chain n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. However, evidence is also emerging with respect to whole grain or low glycemic index foods and antioxidant vitamins. Obesity, resulting from long-term dietary energy excess, is also strongly linked to raised inflammatory status and type 2 diabetes. To date, much of the evidence for the effect of nutrients or foods on disease risk has been based on epidemiological associations. However, the links among diet, inflammation, and type 2 diabetes are supported by some data from human dietary intervention trials and/or mechanistic studies in animals. Further research is required to quantify the precise role and refine the evidence base. However, the proposed "anti-inflammatory" strategies to tackle type 2 diabetes are broadly consistent with current public health nutrition guidelines: to achieve and maintain a healthy weight, to reduce saturated fat, to increase the proportion of less refined forms of carbohydrate, and to increase intake of fruits and vegetables.


In recent years, many different types of intelligent mobile robots have been developed in research and industrial labs. Although there are significant differences in both hardware and software over these robots, many of them share a common set of AI capabilities, e.g., planning, learning, vision and natural language processing. At the same time, almost all of them are equipped with traditional robotic capabilities such as mapping, localization, and navigation. However, to date it has been difficult to compare and contrast their capabilities in any controlled way. The main goal of the Robot Scavenger Hunt is to provide a standardized framework that includes a set of standardized tasks for evaluating the AI and robotic capabilities of medium-sized intelligent mobile robots. Compared to existing benchmarks, e.g., RoboCup@Home1, Robot Scavenger Hunt aims at evaluations in larger spaces (multi-floor buildings vs. rooms) over longer periods of time (hours vs. minutes) while interacting with real human residents.


ABSTRACT This study investigates whether individuals' attitudes towards democracy and secular politics have any influence on voting behaviour in Egypt. Based on data from survey conducted immediately after the Egyptian parliamentary elections in January 2012, this study finds that Egyptians' attitudes towards democratic governance were quite negative around the parliamentary elections, yet Egyptians still endorsed democracy as the ideal political system for their country. However, empirical findings suggest that support for democracy has a limited impact on electoral results. On the other hand, the main division in Egyptian society around the first free and fair parliamentary elections was the religious–secular cleavage. As people support secular politics more, they become significantly less likely to vote for Islamist parties. These results illustrate that preferences in regard to the type of the democracy – either a liberal and secular or a religious democracy – were the main determinant of the historic 2012 elections in Egypt.


Research was conducted on decomposition and insect succession in the Prairie Ecozone of Saskatchewan. Twenty-four domestic pig carcasses were employed as human models for applications to future homicide investigations in this region. Several variables were considered including the effect of season, habitat (sun versus shade), and clothing. Research was conducted over three seasons: spring summer and fall. Ambient temperature, internal carcass temperature, faunistic succession over time, and the rate of decay were all compared for each experimental variable. Results indicated that habitat was only a factor in the decompositional rate of carrion in the spring season. The ambient temperature was the chief factor determining the seasonal variations in decay rate. Patterns of insect succession occurred in a predictable sequence that was unique in different habitats and different seasons. Clothing was shown to decelerate decay, but not to alter the arrival times of major taxa.


Activated B lymphocytes in peripheral lymphoid organs undergo class switch recombination and somatic hypermutation of antibody genes to produce antibodies with higher antigen-binding affinity. These processes are initiated by the DNA mutator enzyme activation–induced cytidine deaminase (AID) which mutates cytidine to uridine at Immunoglobulin loci. AID activity also results in mutations across the genome which in turn causes and exacerbates cancers. In vitro, AID mutates single stranded but not double-stranded oligonucleotide DNA substrates whereas in vivo, it acts preferentially on loci that are robustly transcribed or contain unusual transcriptional features. Taken together, AID is thought to target single stranded DNA liberated during transcription. In addition, AID has been shown to interact with factors associated with transcription, including the RNA exosome and spliceosome components, and with non-coding RNA itself. Here, we examined the behavior of purified AID on DNA/RNA hybrid substrates designed to simulate structures found at Immunoglobulin loci. We found that when composed of Immunoglobulin switch sequences, DNA/RNA hybrids significantly boost the catalytic activity of AID. We also identified numerous AID mutants which are catalytically inactive on DNA, whose activity is restored by proximity to RNA. Given the prevalence of RNA:DNA hybrids at Immunoglobulin switch sequences, our finding that RNA directly enhances the catalytic activity of AID on DNA suggest a novel role for RNA in regulating AID activity.


Background: Understanding patients' perspective towards HIV screening in Malaysia is pivotal to explore challenges faced by these individuals. This would be beneficial for developing local plans to improve the health-seeking behaviours among population at risk of HIV/AIDS. Methods: A qualitative research methodology was adopted to explore HIV/AIDS patients' views about disease screening. A semi-structured interview guide was used for in-depth patient interviews. All interviews were audio-recorded and were subjected to a standard content analysis framework for data analysis. Results: Most patients were positive about screening and the value of knowing about their status early. However, fear of social stigma, discrimination, lack of support system and lack of public understanding were identified as major concerns affecting their willingness to be screened. They were concerned about mandatory screening being implemented without improvement in support system and public education. Conclusions: Reluctance to seek HIV screening is an important factor contributing to transmission in developing countries. In the Malaysian context, efforts should be made to strengthen screening strategies especially in the most-at-risk populations to monitor the epidemic and target prevention strategies. Practice implications: In a multicultural context, HIV preventive strategies must include disease awareness, including measure to tackle barriers towards screening.


This book provides a complete approach to the economics of financing medicines and policy implications for the efficiency and equity of health systems. In all health systems with majority public financing, pharmaceutical reimbursement is one of the key factors in policies of change and transformation of health services in order to face the future with guarantees of financial sustainability.


There is an ongoing debate as to the optimal protein intake in older adults. An increasing body of experimental studies on skeletal muscle protein metabolism as well as epidemiological data suggest that protein requirements with ageing might be greater than many current dietary recommendations. Importantly, none of the intervention studies in this context specifically investigated very old individuals. Data on the fastest growing age group of the oldest old (aged 85 years and older) is very limited. In this review, we examine the current evidence on protein intake for preserving muscle mass, strength and function in older individuals, with emphasis on data in the very old. Available observational data suggest beneficial effects of a higher protein intake with physical function in the oldest old. Whilst, studies estimating protein requirements in old and very old individuals based on whole-body measurements, show no differences between these sub-populations of elderly. However, small sample sizes preclude drawing firm conclusions. Experimental studies that compared muscle protein synthetic (MPS) responses to protein ingestion in young and old adults suggest that a higher relative protein intake is required to maximally stimulate skeletal muscle MPS in the aged. Although, data on MPS responses to protein ingestion in the oldest old are currently lacking. Collectively, the data reviewed for this article support the concept that there is a close interaction of physical activity, diet, function and ageing. An attractive hypothesis is that regular physical activity may preserve and even enhance the responsiveness of ageing skeletal muscle to protein intake, until very advanced age. More research involving study participants particularly aged ≥85 years is warranted to better investigate and determine protein requirements in this specific growing population group.


Hanna Diskin. The Seeds of Triumph: Church and State in Gomulka's Poland. Budapest and New York: Central European University Press, 2001 . 3 1 7 pp. Bibliography. Interviews (1977-1997). Index. Cloth.In The Seeds of Triumph, Hanna Diskin has conducted an impressive amount of research into the turbulent, dynamic, and inter-personal relationship between the Roman Catholic Church and the Communist government in the People's Republic of Poland, tracing this conflict from its origins in the immediate post-War period to the beginning of the twentyfirst century. Although she discusses both the Stalinist repressions under Bolestaw Bierut and the transformative changes of the 1980s and 1990s, she focuses much of her attention on the two periods of rule under Wladyslaw Gomutka (1945-1948 and 1956-1970).Diskin utilizes what she terms a "scientific," "policy environment" approach. She examines both internal political, economic and cultural factors, including the attitudes and actions of ruling elites, leaders and policy makers, balances of power, "environmental influences" (including popular politics, interactions with the Vatican, the USSR, and the West), and "external factors," such as the impact of international developments. Diskin draws upon an impressive array of sources, including emigre journals and archives, pastoral letters, radio broadcasts, surveys, press reports, speeches, and interviews. She examines the progression of the interplay between the different "systems" of compromise, demand, regression, reward, and concession, which were largely based upon a sense of pragmatism, compromise, and co-existence. Despite the irreconcilable ideological differences between them, both church and state shared the goal of a strong, revitalized Poland, maintaining an uneasy relationship in attempting to achieve it.The state rarely attempted a physical destruction of the church, instead targeting it psychologically. This included the "implantation" of government-trained priests into the hierarchy, attempts to isolate it from the Vatican, the banning of charities, and numerous propaganda, slander, and censorship campaigns against particular priests and their supporters. Attempts were made to secularize many aspects of social life, including marriage and the restriction of religious instruction and symbolism in schools. The system of rewards, however, was one without parallel in the Bloc. For example, Communist figures attended religious ceremonies and received Catholic funerals (p. 52), government funds were regularly allocated towards church building (pp. 102, 109-110, 174) and pilgrimages (p. 1 02), and ongoing permission was extended to seminaries and the Catholic University of Lublin to operate (p. 105). Sermons and pastoral letters regularly criticized me regime. Communist leaders from Bierut to Wojciech Jaruzelski were forced to acknowledge the important social, cultural, and historic role played by the Church, being regularly criticized and embarrassed by the leaders of other Bloc nations for their extensive concessions (p. …


The biophysical properties of cells such as their compressibility have been found to be closely related to disease progression such as cancer development and metastasis. As cancer cells are heterogeneous, rapid and high-throughput evaluation of cell biophysical properties at single-cell resolution is needed to assess their potential as biomarkers for cancer staging and prognosis. Acoustofluidics has shown promise as a contactless method for accurately measuring cell biophysical properties; however, previously reported methods had relatively low throughput due to their requirement of no-flow conditions. This work presents a high-throughput continuous flow-based acoustofluidic cell mechanotyping method at single-cell resolution that retains the advantage of simplicity and low-cost.


BACKGROUND
Clinical diagnosis of pneumonia is a concern when a patient presents with recent cough--new or worsened--together with fever as the chief complaint. Given this presentation, the doctor would benefit from having access to software that specifies, first, what diagnostic indicators experts typically use in that diagnosis; then, upon entry of those facts, what experts' typical probability of pneumonia is in such a case; and finally, how much this probability might change upon adding the facts from chest radiography.

METHODS
We specified a set of 36 hypothetical presentations of this type by patients 20-70 years of age, involving a comprehensive set of clinical-diagnostic indicators. Members of three separate expert panels independently set the probability of pneumonia in each of these cases, and also the range of possible post-radiography probabilities. A logistic function of the diagnostic indicators was fitted to the medians of the probabilities.

RESULTS
The median probability of pneumonia was a joint function of the patient's age and current rate of cigarette smoking; history as to the cough's duration, the fever's maximum, dyspnea (including whether on effort only) and rigors; and physical examination as to temperature, signs of upper respiratory infection, prolongation of expiration, dullness on percussion and some auscultation findings. Non-contributory were history of wheezing, pain on inspiration, type of sputum and signs of cold or influenza. This probability function, and the post-radiography functions based on the same indicators, are accessible at http://www.evimed.ch/pneumonia.

INTERPRETATION
The expert inputs to clinical diagnosis that were derived and made readily accessible provide for expertly clinical diagnosis of pneumonia, relevant for decisions about radiography and treatment without it.


The tongue of Gornergletscher, Valais, Switzerland, is supplied by ice originating from the highest regions of the Monte Rosa massif.Substantial portions of this ice are still below the pressure melting point in the glacier tongue.To map the distribution of the cold-temperate transition surface (CTS), extensive field campaigns have been carried out over the last years. As has been demonstrated for other glaciers, the position of the cold-temperate transition surface is a long-term integrating indicator of changing climatic conditions.Ice-penetrating radar surveys were used to map ice thickness and determine bedrock topography at 3 and 40 MHz. The 40 MHz data displays a thick layer of low backscatter in the center of the glacier.This zone is clearly present in all seven cross profiles over a along-glacier distance of several kilometers.Based on data sets of borehole temperature measurements and glacier dynamics, we interpret this zone of low backscatter as a core of cold ice, advected from the accumulation region of Grenzgletscher into the tongue of Gornergletscher.On Gornergletscher, along our profiles the CTS can be found in a maximum depth of about 180 m and extends laterally about 300-400 m, about 1/3 of the whole width. The migration of the CTS depends on surface ablation, heat flow related to temperature gradients, and advection of cold ice from upstream regions.We analyse the current state of the CTS, laying the baseline for future observations, and provide estimates for the expected future development.


Anger in all the ways is harmful socially, physically and psychologically. As the life style is changing and everybody is so occupied therefore the level tolerance has reduced. Especially in young adults patience has reduced and they are less worried about the consequence also. Anger has become a prominent cause of accidents these days and also turns in to driving anger. Mindfulness can be taken as a solution to help in reducing the level of anger. This paper is specially focusing on whether there is and relation between mindfulness and driving anger among young adults. The sample of this study includes 50 boys and 50 girls of age between 1825 years. The data is generated through Deffenbacher Driving Anger Scale (Deffenbacher, Oetting & Lynch, 1994) and Mindful Attention Awareness Scale Brown, K.W. & Ryan, R.M. (2003). It was found that mindfulness effects driving anger in young adults. There is also an impact of mindfulness on driving anger based on gender.


SUMMARY: The increased interest in using Building Information Modeling (BIM) in detailed construction cost estimates calls for methodologies to evaluate the effectiveness of BIM-Assisted Detailed Estimating (BADE) tools in generating detailed construction cost estimates. The focus of this study is on developing a quantified evaluation method to measure the impact of these BADE tools. Further, in order to understand the cognitive details of the estimator, this study also tested and evaluated the impact of the visualization factor and the compound impact of the visualization factor and aggregated calculation factor on the construction cost-estimating process. Two types of BADE tools were tested in this study in order to differentiate the impact of the visualization factor on estimating performance from the compounded impact of both visualization and aggregation functions. A set of test cases with different levels of estimate complexity was designed and tested on entry-level estimators using both traditional manual estimating and BADE approaches. Results obtained from the test cases at several complexity levels helped to reinforce the reliability of the observations and the evaluation. Four parameters were used to evaluate the performance results individually in the first step: generality, flexibility, efficiency, and accuracy. Then a multiattribute utility model, which took into account the four individual parameters, was developed and used to evaluate the overall performance of BIM-assisted estimating versus the performance of the traditional estimating method on quantity takeoffs. The study concluded that the BIM-assisted estimate demonstrated better performance over traditional estimating methods for the entry-level user. Both the visualization and aggregation functions of the BADE tool had significant impact on the performance of the detailed estimate. The study further indicated that the more complex the estimating tasks, the clearer the advantages were of using BADE tools instead of traditional estimating methods. The limitations of the test cases and the test subjects will affect the extrapolation of the conclusions of this research to the broad construction industry. Further study on industry-level cases and subjects is needed to obtain more conclusive findings.


This essay's central concern is the need for a new, practical dimension in the humanities, emphasizing their constructive rather than purely scholarly aspects. An analysis is offered of various types of inventions in the fields of linguistics, philosophy, art, and literature, such as new disciplines, genres, cultural practices, and intellectual movements. An invention is not the production of a given work, however great, but rather a principle or technique that can be applied to the production of many works by others. Following Francis Bacon's call for the invention of new arts and sciences, the essay outlines new disciplines: technohumanities, which would study humans as a part of the technosphere; pathohumanities, which would investigate the self-destructive mechanisms of civilization; and scriptorics, which would focus on Homo scriptor, who has survived "the death of the author." A research and educational program, uniting major fields of the humanities, is proposed: PILLAR (the acronym of philosophy, information, language, literature, art, religion) would be a transdisciplinary strategy complementary to STEM, integrating scholarship and inventorship.


Slope movements (e.g. landslides) are dynamic systems that are complex in time and space and closely linked to both inherited and current preparatory and triggering controls. It is not yet possible to assess in all cases conditions for failure, reactivation and rapid surges and successfully simulate their transient and multi-dimensional behaviour and development, although considerable progress has been made in isolating many of the key variables and elementary mechanisms and to include them in physically-based models for landslide hazard assessments. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to review the state-of-the-art in the understanding of landslide processes and to identify some pressing challenges for the development of our modelling capabilities in the forthcoming years for hazard assessment. This paper focuses on the special nature of slope movements and the difficulties related to simulating their complex time-dependent behaviour in mathematical, physically-based models. It analyses successively the research frontiers in the recognition of first-time failures (pre-failure and failure stages), reactivation and the catastrophic transition to rapid gravitational processes (post-failure stage). Subsequently, the paper discusses avenues to transfer local knowledge on landslide activity to landslide hazard forecasts on regional scales and ends with an outline how geomorphological investigations and supporting monitoring techniques could be applied to improve the theoretical concepts and the modelling performance of physically-based landslide models at different spatial and temporal scales.


We propose a practical application of wearable computing and augmented reality which enhances the game of billiards. A vision algorithm is implemented which operates in interactive-time with the user to assist planning and aiming. Probabilistic color models and symmetry operations are used to localize the table, pockets and balls through a video camera near the user's eye. Classification of the objects of interest is performed and each possible shot is ranked in order to determine its relative usefulness. The system allows the user to proceed through a regular pool game while it automatically determines strategic shots. The resulting trajectories are rendered as graphical overlays on a head mounted live video display. The wearable video output and the computer vision system provide an integration of real and virtual environments which enhances the experience of playing and learning the game of billiards without encumbering the player.


We observe that the classical maximum flow problem in any directed planar graph G can be reformulated as a parametric shortest path problem in the oriented dual graph G*. This reformulation immediately suggests an algorithm to compute maximum flows, which runs in O(n log n) time. As we continuously increase the parameter, each change in the shortest path tree can be effected in O(log n) time using standard dynamic tree data structures, and the special structure of the parametrization implies that each directed edge enters the evolving shortest path tree at most once. The resulting maximum-flow algorithm is identical to the recent algorithm of Borradaile and Klein [J. ACM 2009], but our new formulation allows a simpler presentation and analysis. On the other hand, we demonstrate that for a similarly structured parametric shortest path problem on the torus, the shortest path tree can change Ω(n2) times in the worst case, suggesting that a different method may be required to efficiently compute maximum flows in higher-genus graphs.


Robust design is one of the most effective design methodologies for minimising the variability of product performance, thereby improving the quality of a product. Although robust design principles have been widely implemented in many industries and a number of new robust design models have been reported in the literature of Design for Six Sigma, there is still ample room for improvement. Firstly, most robust design models consider a single quality characteristic. In reality, however, the judgmental basis of a product from the perspective of the customer is characterised by the assessment of multiple characteristics. Secondly, previous models may have ignored customer and designer preferences in modelling and optimisation phases. To rectify these shortcomings, this paper proposes a systematic weight assessment method to establish the combined preference structure embedding customer and designer preferences. Finally, this paper proposes a model for synthesising Pareto solutions using the weighted Tchebycheff metric that represents compromised trade-offs between multiple quality characteristics based on a combined preference structure.


This study explores disciplinary literacy instruction integrated within an elementary engineering unit in an urban classroom. A multidisciplinary team of university literacy and engineering educators and classroom teachers served as the research team for this case study. A social semiotic language theory (systemic functional linguistics) and a framework of mechanistic reasoning informed the instruction and analysis of classroom discourse and student writing. The study illustrates how a flexible set of disciplinary language choices functioned to support students' evolving reasoning as part of the engineering design process. These findings provide insights into synergy between language and reasoning as a habit of design. These findings also inform calls to align science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) literacy and core disciplinary practices within both Common Core State Standards for (English language arts) ELA and Next Generation Science Standards.


Communication-and-resolution programs (CRPs) in health care organizations seek to identify medical injuries promptly; ensure that they are disclosed to patients compassionately; pursue timely resolution through patient engagement, explanation, and, where appropriate, apology and compensation; and use lessons learned to improve patient safety. CRPs have existed for years, but they are being tested in new settings and primed for broad implementation through grants from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. These projects do not require changing laws. However, grantees' experiences suggest that the path to successful dissemination of CRPs would be smoother if the legal environment supported them. State and federal policy makers should try to allay potential defendants' fears of litigation (for example, by protecting apologies from use in court), facilitate patient participation (for example, by ensuring access to legal representation), and address the reputational and economic concerns of health care providers (for example, by clarifying practices governing National Practitioner Data Bank reporting and payers' financial recourse following medical error).


Sustainable development most prominently entered the global political arena in 1987 in a report from the United Nations Commission on Environment and Development, also known as the Brundtland report. In response to the concept of sustainable development, a vast array of ideas, concepts, methods and tools to aid organizations and governments in addressing the socio-ecological problems has been developed. Though helpful in many contexts, the multitude of such support also risks creating confusion, not the least since there is no generally endorsed overriding and operational definition of sustainability. Thus, there is a growing need for such a definition and for an understanding of how these ideas, concepts, methods and tools relate to sustainability and to each other. A framework for strategic sustainable development (FSSD) has been developed over the last 20 years to create such a unifying structure. The aim of this research is to contribute specifically to the social sustainability definition of this framework. The research follows the Design Research Methodology. First, the social dimension of the FSSD as it stands currently was examined and described as was the general field of social sustainability. Then, a new approach to the social side of the FSSD was created. The studies revealed that the field of social sustainability, in general, is vastly under-theorized and under-developed, and that a clear framework is important and desired. They also laid out in which ways specifically the structure of the FSSD could be used to further develop the social dimension of strategic planning and innovation, and that currently this aspect of the FSSD is relatively under-developed. This assessment was followed by a first attempt at a clearer definition of social sustainability. Based on these explorations, this research suggests five principles as a hypothesis to be used as a definition of social sustainability, the key-terms of which being 'integrity', 'influence', 'competence', 'impartiality' and 'meaning'. For validity purposes the results were cross-checked with other approaches and theories. The validity check shows that similar key-terms have been found by other researchers. In conclusion, this research contributes with a hypothesis for a clearer definition of social sustainability, which is general enough to be applied irrespective of spatial and temporal constraints, but concrete enough to guide decision-making. This is a contribution to systems science in the sustainability field and it is a step to creating an enhanced support for strategic planning and innovation for sustainability. Further testing and refinement of this theoretical foundation, and bringing it into practical use, will be the subject of the continued studies.


Rematerialization and offloading are two well known strategies to save memory during the training phase of deep neural networks, allowing data scientists to consider larger models, batch sizes or higher resolution data. Rematerialization trades memory for computation time, whereas Offloading trades memory for data movements. As these two resources are independent, it is appealing to consider the simultaneous combination of both strategies to save even more memory. We precisely model the costs and constraints corresponding to Deep Learning frameworks such as PyTorch or Tensorflow, we propose optimal algorithms to find a valid sequence of memory-constrained operations and finally, we evaluate the performance of proposed algorithms on realistic networks and computation platforms. Our experiments show that the possibility to offload can remove one third of the overhead of rematerialization, and that together they can reduce the memory used for activations by a factor 4 to 6, with an overhead below 20%.


Negotiating nursing explores how the Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service (Q.A.s) salvaged men within the sensitive gender negotiations of what should and could constitute nursing work and where that work could occur. The book argues that the Q.A.s, an entirely female force during the Second World War, were essential to recovering men physically, emotionally and spiritually from the battlefield and for the war, despite concerns about their presence on the frontline. The book maps the developments in nurses' work as the Q.A.s created a legitimate space for themselves in war zones and established nurses' position as the expert at the bedside. Using a range of personal testimony the book demonstrates how the exigencies of war demanded nurses alter the methods of nursing practice and the professional boundaries in which they had traditionally worked, in order to care for their soldier-patients in the challenging environments of a war zone. Although they may have transformed practice, their position in war was highly gendered and it was gender in the post-war era that prevented their considerable skills from being transferred to the new welfare state, as the women of Britain were returned to the home and hearth. The aftermath of war may therefore have augured professional disappointment for some nursing sisters, yet their contribution to nursing knowledge and practice was, and remains, significant.


Abstract Background: Lymphadenopathy is a rather common clinical finding in a primary healthcare setting, and may be due to inflammatory lesions and tumours. Correlation between clinical findings and laboratory data is essential in arriving at a diagnosis. This study was undertaken to study the histopathology of generalised lymphadenopathy in India, as well as the demographics of the study population. Method: This study was conducted for a period of 10 years (August 1997-July 2007), of which eight years were retrospective, from August 1997-July 2005, and two years were prospective, from August 2005-July 2007. The source of data for this study was patients seeking medical attention, who, on clinical examination, were found to have generalised lymphadenopathy. A representative node was excised for histopathology. Tissues were routinely processed, stained with haematoxylin and eosin, and examined by means of light microscopy. Results: Of the 244 lymph node biopsies analysed in this study, 75 cases (30.73%) were reactive lymphadenitis, 142 cases (58.19%) showed granulomatous lymphadenitis, one case (0.40%) was Hodgkin's lymphoma, eight cases (3.27%) were non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and 18 cases (7.37%) were metastatic malignancy. Conclusion: In this study, the most common cause of generalised lymphadenopathy was granulomatous lymphadenitis, followed by reactive lymphadenitis. Among the neoplastic lesions, metastatic malignancy accounted for most cases.


Observations of the initial lithiation of NiO electrodes demonstrate how to seed conversion reactions using interfaces in a thin film Ni/NiO bilayer architecture. Operando X-ray reflectivity (XRR) reveals that structural changes in a NiO film begin at potentials near the theoretical reduction potential (1.8-2.0 V) with detectable lithiation of both the buried Ni/NiO interface and the outer NiO surface that occur prior to the reaction of the NiO film. This initial conversion reaction is most pronounced in ultrathin NiO films (∼20 Å) with only small changes to the NiO film surface for thicker films (∼67 Å). The limited reactivity of thicker NiO films probed using operando grazing incidence small-angle X-ray scattering (GISAXS) shows the growth of nanoparticles at the electrode/electrolyte interface during initial lithium ion insertion, with a 16-20 Å average radius. Ex situ X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS), and scanning transmission electron microscopy/electron energy loss spectroscopy (STEM/EELS) confirm our conclusions about the morphological changes accompanying initial stage of lithiation in these conversion reaction electrodes. The present study reveals the interconnected challenges of solid-solid transitions, overpotentials, interfacial nucleation and kinetics, and transition metal dissolution in conversion-type electrodes that are critical for their use as electrodes in lithium-ion batteries.


PURPOSE
Smoking cessation is strongly recommended for every smoker after ischemic stroke, but many patients fail to quit smoking. An improved smoking cessation rate has been reported with intensive behavioral therapy during hospitalization and supportive contact after discharge. The aim of this study was to demonstrate the usefulness of the timely interventions for smoking cessation in men with acute ischemic stroke.

METHODS
Patients who participated in the timely interventions strategy (TI group) were compared with those who received conventional counseling (CC group). In the TI group, a certified nurse provided comprehensive education during admission and additional counseling after discharge. Outcome was measured by point smoking success rate and sustained smoking cessation rate for 12 months.

RESULTS
Participants, 157 men (86 of the TI group and 71 of the CC group), were enrolled. Mean age was 58.25 ± 11.23 years and mean initial National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score was 4.68 ± 5.46. The TI group showed a higher point smoking success rate compared with the CC group (p= .003). Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that the TI group was 2.96-fold (95% CI, 1.43~6.13) more likely to sustain smoking cessation for 12 months than the CC group.

CONCLUSION
Findings indicate that multiple interventions initiated during hospital stay and regular follow-up after discharge are more effective than conventional smoking cessation counseling in men with acute ischemic stroke.


PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyze the innovation process of organizations representing the main sectors of Brazilian economic activity.Design/methodology/approachThe literature review focuses on analyzing the innovation process characteristics regarding the innovation types. The authors carried out interviews with executives and managers in charge of innovation at the leading large companies in the respective sectors analyzed. The data analysis of this qualitative research was structured in three steps. The first step is the analysis of data collected for encoding, the second step, the summarization of the common points presented by the companies in each sector and, finally, the interpretation of these data, aided by triangulation from secondary data that support the analysis of the collected primary data.FindingsThe main contribution of this study is to characterize the innovation process of organizations representing the main sectors of the Brazilian economy, with a classification regarding the sectoral innovation standard.Practical implicationsThe authors' intent is that the paper can contribute with a comparative analysis among companies of the same sector and, subsequently, among companies of the different surveyed sectors. Thus, the characterization aims to present the companies' innovation process and the comparative analysis aims to verify the innovation sectoral patterns. In addition, as implications for management practice, some strategies for better knowledge management in the organization are suggested for each type of innovation.Originality/valueThe main theoretical contribution focuses on the development of a conceptual model that structures the analyzed variables of the constructs "innovation process" and "innovation sectoral patterns", allowing not only the characterization but also the comparative analysis of the representative organizations present in the sample.


This volume addresses the limitations of an instrumental perspective on collaboration and explores why stakeholders in higher education should refocus attention on collaboration as a source of faculty learning. The chapters establish a theoretical basis for thinking about faculty learning and then use case studies to explore this topic in the context of service or outreach, research, and teaching. Included as well are a meta-analysis of the cases to demonstrate what they teach about contexts that promote faculty learning and a discussion of the implications of the analysis for higher education policy and practice, including the evaluation of collaboratively produced work. The framework and cases are useful to an audience of academic leaders committed to faculty development and to creating hiring, promotion, and tenure policies that reward the full range of scholarly pursuits. They should also prove instructive to faculty embarking on interdisciplinary teaching, research, or outreach activities. This is the 102nd issue of the Jossey-Bass quarterly report series "New Directions for Teaching and Learning".


In over 70 years since its independence, Indonesia has been transformed by urbanization, and within the next quarter of a century, its transition to an urban society will be almost complete. While urbanization has produced considerable benefits for Indonesians, urbanization has the potential to deliver more prosperity, inclusiveness and livability. Time to ACT: Realizing Indonesia's Urban Potential explores the extent to which urbanization in Indonesia has delivered in terms of prosperity, inclusiveness, and livability, and the fundamental reforms that can help the country realize its urban potential. In doing so, the report introduces a new policy framework - the ACT framework - to guide policymaking. This framework emphasizes three policy principles - the need to Augment the provision and quality of infrastructure and basic services across urban and rural locations; the need to better Connect places and people with jobs and opportunities; and the need to Target lagging areas and marginalized groups through well-designed place-based policies, as well as thoughtful urban planning and design. Using this framework, the report provides policy recommendations differentiated by types of place, grounded in solid empirical evidence


We develop a methodology to estimate dynamic factor loadings using cross-sectional risk characteristics, which is especially useful when factor loadings significantly vary over time. In comparison, standard regression approaches assume the factor loadings are constant over a particular window. Applying the methodology to a dataset of U.S.-domiciled mutual funds we distinguish the components of active returns attributable to (1) constant factor exposures, for example, a tilt to value stocks; (2) time-varying factor exposures; and (3) security selection. The decomposition of active returns into these three components yields valuable insight into how managers generate excess returns. We show that there is diversity in factor concentration across managers and styles. For example, large-cap growth funds show the greatest concentration in two factors, momentum and quality, whereas large-cap blend funds have the most factor diversity. Finally, common measures to gauge manager skill may be misleading. For example, we find no evidence that active share is associated with larger active returns; rather the opposite is true across the whole sample when controlling for factors such as fund size and fees.


Muscle function after exercise-induced muscle damage has traditionally been
evaluated by measures of isometric strength at a single joint angle or muscle
length. The thesis investigates the effect of muscle damage on other muscle
function parameters such as, isometric strength as a function of muscle length,
concentric strength as a function of angular velocity, strength across muscle
actions, the stretch-shortening cycle, power output, and fatigability.
Study 1
The first part of this study aimed to determine how the muscle length at which
strength is measured affects reductions in isometric strength following eccentric
exercise-induced muscle damage. The damaging exercise protocol consisted of
100 maximal voluntary eccentric actions of the knee extensors, performed in the
prone position through a range of motion from 40° to 140° (0° = full extension)
at an angular velocity of 90 deg's-1. Isometric strength of the knee extensors was
measured at short muscle length (10° knee flexion) and optimal length (80°). A
significantly greater relative loss of strength was observed at short versus optimal
muscle length (76.3 ± 2.5% vs. 82.1 ± 2.7% of pre-exercise values, P<0.05)
over the seven day testing period following eccentric exercise. The second part
of the study investigated isometric strength at optimal length and concentric
strength at slow (30 deg's 1) and fast (180 deg's 1) angular velocities of
movement. No differences were apparent in the magnitude and rate of recovery
of strength across isometric (82.1 ± 2.7%) and slow (86.6 ± 2.0%) and fast (84.3
± 1.5%) concentric muscle actions. Both the popping sarcomere hypothesis of
2
muscle damage and a failure in excitation-contraction coupling are possible
explanations for the reduction in strength being affected by the muscle length at
which it is measured. Both would be expected to affect strength to a greater
extent at short versus optimal muscle lengths.
Study 2
The second study investigated knee extensor muscle strength during isometric,
concentric and eccentric muscle actions and vertical jump performance under
conditions of squat jump (SJ), countermovement jump (CMJ) and drop jump
(DJ). These measures were taken before, 1 hour after, and on days 1,2,3,4 and
7 following a damaging exercise protocol consisting of 100 barbell squats (10
sets x 10 reps @ 70% body mass load). Strength was significantly reduced for
four days, however, no differences were observed in the magnitude or rate of
recovery of isometric strength at 80° knee flexion and concentric and eccentric
strength at 90 deg's'. Vertical jump performance was significantly reduced for
three days and was dependent on the type of jump being performed. The relative
decline in SJ performance was significantly greater than that in CMJ
performance (91.6 ± 1.1% vs. 95.2 ± 1.3% of pre-exercise values, P<0.05) and
the relative decline in SJ was significantly greater than that in DJ performance
(91.6 ± 1.1% vs. 95.2 ± 1.4%, P<0.05). No differences were observed in the
relative decline in CMJ and DJ performance (95.2 ± 1.3% vs. 95.2 ± 1.4%, P>
0.05). The stretch-shortening cycle (SSC) of muscle function is utilised in CMJ
and DJ but not in SJ. The SSC has a clear purpose: to allow the final phase
(concentric action) to take place with greater force or power output, as compared
to the condition where the movement is initiated by a concentric action alone.
3
Utilisation of the SSC in performance seems to attenuate the detrimental
performance effects of exercise-induced muscle damage.
Study 3
The third and final study investigated the effects of exercise-induced muscle
damage on maximal power output and knee extensor fatigability under isometric
and dynamic conditions. Under isometric conditions, strength was assessed at
40° and 80° knee flexion and fatigability was assessed by a sustained 60s
maximum voluntary contraction (MVC) at each joint angle. For dynamic
conditions, maximum power output and fatigue were assessed during a maximal
30s cycle ergometer test. These measures were taken before, 1 hour after, and on
days 1,2,3, and 7 following a damaging exercise protocol consisting of 100
eccentric squats (10 sets x 10 reps @ 80% concentric 1 RM). Isometric strength
was significantly reduced (P < 0.05) for seven days but no significant differences
were observed in the magnitude of strength loss and the pattern of recovery
between the two joint angles.
Fatigability was quantified as the slope (b) of a linear regression line fitted to the
torque and power decay during the 60s MVC and the 30s cycle test, respectively.
Prior to muscle damage, subjects were significantly less fatigable (P < 0.05) at
40° (b = -2.39 ± 0.26) versus 80° (b = -5.50 ± 0.72). After muscle damage,
subjects became significantly less fatigable at both 40° and 80° with recovery
taking three days at 401 and seven days at 80°. Before damaging exercise, a
greater rate of fatigue was observed under dynamic (b = -12.75 ± 2.3) versus
isometric (80°) conditions (b = -5.50 ± 0.72). Isometric and dynamic fatigue
4
followed a similar temporal pattern after damaging exercise. When the effects of
muscle damage on strength at 801 and maximal power output were compared,
differences in the extent of performance loss and the time course of recovery
were observed. At 1 hour post-exercise, strength was affected to a greater extent
(30% reduction) than power (13% reduction) and whereas strength followed a
linear recovery pattern, power suffered further decrements at day 1 (18%) and
day 2 (16%) before starting to recover. The results indicate that under conditions
of voluntary activation muscle becomes weaker but less fatigable under isometric
and dynamic conditions following exercise-induced muscle damage.
The lower starting torque / power output and the slower rate of decline in torque /
power output observed in post-damage fatigue curves may be a phenomenon of
selective type II fibre damage. Evidence suggests that type II fibres are
selectively damaged during eccentric exercise and therefore post-damage fatigue
curves may be missing their contribution to performance. The different recovery
patterns observed for isometric and dynamic performance may indicate an
inability to maintain central motor drive during complex dynamic tasks when
damage is present.


Abstract An association of diverse hollow spines and dermal denticles (ichthyoliths) from the Carboniferous (Westphalian) of Todmorden, Yorkshire, England are attributed to a new genus of enigmatic shark that may lie close to Listracanthus Newberry & Worthen, 1870. Scanning electron microscopy shows that denticle morphology is highly variable, but forms a morphocline including elongate multi-spined elements as well as robust dome-like stellate denticles and recurved spinose elements. Histological analysis suggests an absence of enameloid. Continuous variation of form between elongate multi-cusped spines to boss-like circular denticles shows that all previously described Palaeozoic species of Listracanthus are probably junior synonyms of the type species L. hystrix Newberry & Worthen, 1870. The status of Listracanthus as a surviving 'Lilliputian' taxon after the Permian extinction is questioned. Although the new specimen has affinities with Listracanthus, significant differences in the form of the posterior spines on elongate denticles warrants its placement in the new genus Acanthorhachis gen. nov. The family Listracanthidae is erected to accommodate Listracanthus and Acanthorhachis.


Conventional contrast enhancement methods have four shortcomings. First, most of them need transformation functions and parameters which are specified manually. Second, most of them are application-oriented methods. Third, most of them are performed on gray level images. Fourth, the histogram equalization (HE) based enhancement methods use non-linear transform function. Thus, this paper proposes an automatic and parameter-free contrast enhancement algorithm for color images. This method includes following steps: First, RGB color space is transformed to HSV color space. Second, image content analysis is used to analyze the image illumination distribution. Third, the original image is enhanced by piecewise linear based enhancement method. Finally, the enhancement image is transformed back to RGB color space. This novel enhancement is automatic and parameter-free. Our experiments included various color images with low and high contrast. Experiment results show that the performance of the proposed method is better than histogram equalization (HE) and its six variations in non-over enhancement and natural clearly revealed. Moreover, the proposed algorithm can be run on an embedded environment (such as mobile device, digital camera, or other consumer products) and processed in real-time system due to its simplicity and efficiently.


The design of offshore subsea pipelines is facing new challenges as the pipeline industry is moving into environments requiring high pressure design. Conventional pipeline design codes such as ASME B31.4 and B31.8 establish pressure limits based on percentage of the pipe material's minimum specified yield strength. While this has traditionally worked for relatively thin-walled pipe at moderate pressures, there are concerns that full utilization of the material's capacity is not being realized when designing for high pressure conditions. Additionally, there are concerns regarding the ability to achieve high quality manufacturing and consistently fabricate welds in thick-wall pipes. This paper presents details on a testing program that incorporated full-scale burst testing to qualify the design pressure for an 18-inch × 0.75-inch, Grade X65 subsea gas pipeline using the methodology of API RP 1111. A lower bound burst pressure was established based on the recorded burst pressures to which a design margin of 0.72 was applied to determine a design pressure. Had the pipeline been conventionally-designed using ASME B31.8, the design pressure would have been 3,900 psi. However, using the experimentally-based design option in API RP 1111 the resulting design pressure was 4,448 psi. This results in a net increase in the design pressure of 14 percent. When one considers either the potential cost savings in material requirements at construction or the additional throughput associated with higher design pressures for a given pipeline system, it is not difficult to demonstrate the economic benefits derived in performing a more rigorous material qualification and limit state design process based on experimental methods as presented in API RP 1111.Copyright © 2010 by ASME


The utility-maximizing consumption and investment strategy of an individual investor receiving an unspanned labor income stream seems impossible to find in closed form and very difficult to find using numerical solution techniques. We suggest an easy procedure for finding a specific, simple, and admissible consumption and investment strategy, which is near-optimal in the sense that the wealthequivalent loss compared to the unknown optimal strategy is very small. We first explain and implement the strategy in a simple setting with constant interest rates, a single risky asset, and an exogenously given income stream, but we also show that the success of the strategy is robust to changes in parameter values, to the introduction of stochastic interest rates, and to endogenous labor supply decisions.


Gels of semi-flexible polymers, network glasses made of low valence elements, softly compressed ellipsoid particles and dense suspensions under flow are examples of floppy materials. These systems present collective motions with almost no restoring force. To study theoretically and numerically the frequency-dependence of the response of these materials and the length scales that characterize their elasticity, we use a model of isotropic floppy elastic networks. We show that such networks present a phonon gap for frequencies smaller than a frequency ω* governed by coordination, and that the elastic response is characterized, and in some cases localized, on a length scale that diverges as the phonon gap vanishes (with a logarithmic correction in the two dimensional case). lc also characterizes velocity correlations under shear, whereas another length scale l* ∼ 1/ω* controls the effect of pinning boundaries on elasticity. We discuss the implications of our findings for suspension flows, and the correspondence between floppy materials and amorphous solids near unjamming, where lc and l* have also been identified but where their roles are not fully understood.


The ambitious concept of the safe system approach to improving road safety evolved from the Vision Zero and Sustainable Safety concepts introduced in the mid-1990s, and was adopted by political leaders of all Australian jurisdictions in 2004. If Australia aspires to be a global road safety leader, it is instructive to learn from the achievements and shortcomings of its approach to the task. This paper reviews the experience of the Swedish Vision Zero and Dutch Sustainable Safety strategies as well as the United Kingdom's road safety experience. A review of practices and outcomes in these three top road safety-performing countries has revealed that all of them had similarly good achievements despite the fact that only two countries have formally adopted a safe system model. The United Kingdom does not appear to have adopted safe system principles in its road safety strategy but has a comprehensive policy to lMaking roads saferr. While the safe system framework calls specifically for road traffic systems that may be better managed taking into account human factors and physical tolerances, there are important socio-political challenges that must also be managed in order to optimise safety outcomes. In order to assure that the targeted reductions in road injury are achieved by the current Australian road safety strategy, it is imperative that any weaknesses in road safety efforts are identified and addressed. Australia has the potential to be a global leader in road safety but is held back by some important and persistent shortcomings in its commitment to the endeavour. Lessons from northern Europe can be helpful.


Groundwater is essential for human activities and is sometimes referred to as a non-renewable resource in the same way as oil and gas. During the past century, precious groundwater reserves worldwide have been threatened by anthropogenic release of chemical compounds. Among these, chlorinated ethenes (CEs) such as tetrachloroethene (PCE) and trichloroethene (TCE) belong to the most common class of groundwater contaminants. In oxic conditions, PCE and TCE are recalcitrant to any form of degradation and constitute a long-term source of groundwater contamination. It has been reported that CEs can be degraded biologically in anoxic conditions, serving as electron acceptors of an anaerobic respiratory process called organohalide respiration (OHR). In this process, PCE is sequentially reduced to TCE, cis-dichloroethene (cDCE), vinyl chloride (VC), and finally to harmless ethene (Eth). Engineering strategies based on reductive dechlorination, such as monitored natural attenuation (MNA), have been designed for the bioremediation of aquifers contaminated with CEs. However, stalling of the sequence of dechlorination has often been observed, resulting from incomplete or impeded biodegradation of the highly toxic daughter molecules (cDCE and VC) and leading to their accumulation in situ. It was shown in laboratory experiments that OHR of CEs is more efficient in mixed cultures and that organohalide-respiring bacteria (OHRB) live in association with other microorganisms in microbial consortia. In the aquifer ecosystem, OHRB rely on complex interactions between members of bacterial communities for their electron donors and carbon supplies. On the other hand, they are in competition for these resources with other terminal electron-accepting processes (TEAPs). These complex interactions together with the intrinsic structural heterogeneity of aquifers make it difficult to understand the reasons for lower CEs accumulation, to predict the fate of OHR, and to design bioremediation strategies. This thesis aimed at elucidating the reasons for lower CEs accumulation in situ. An ecological approach considering the aquifer ecosystem in its whole complexity was developed and applied to the specific cases of two contaminated sites showing accumulation of lower CEs. The proposed methodology relies on the precise depiction of both aquifer habitat and microbial communities interacting therein. However, the potential impact of the first technical step, namely the impact of the pumping parameters on groundwater samples used for the description of the bacterial communities, was not known at the start of this thesis work. Results of investigations addressing this topic showed that parameters related to the tubing characteristics did not impact the apparent bacterial community structures (BCS) in a laboratory experiment. However, the study revealed a significant impact of the pumping flow rate on apparent BCS extracted from the aquifer. Terminal-restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP), coupled with an appropriate groundwater sampling strategy, enabled an accurate profiling of the BCS. However no indication was provided concerning the identities of the community members. A bioinformatics tool called PyroTRF-ID was developed to overcome this obstacle. The software enabled affiliating terminal-restriction fragments (T-RFs) to precise phylotypes by coupling T-RFLP and pyrosequencing data. An additional function enables in silico assessment of restriction enzymes for designing appropriate T-RFLP procedures. The developed methodology was applied all along the thesis work. Optimized tools and procedures were used to investigate the reasons for the accumulation of VC, and to a lesser extent cDCE, in the first aquifer showing relatively homogeneous lithological composition and slow groundwater fluxes. Statistical findings indicated that VC reduction was outcompeted by Fe(III) reduction in some sections of the aquifer. T-RFs showing significant correlations with VC reduction variables were identified by sequencing and with PyroTRF-ID. Results showed sequences closely affiliated to uncultured bacteria of the "Lahn Cluster" (LC) within the class Dehalococcoidetes, previously reported as PCE-to-cDCE dechlorinating microorganisms, and to the genus "Dehalococcoides". According to present knowledge, only members of this genus are able to reduce cDCE and VC. A major T-RF negatively correlated with the LC T-RF affiliated to the genus Rhodoferax, containing iron-reducing bacteria (IRB). Furthermore, indications were obtained of a mutualistic interaction between IRB and sulfate-reducing bacteria, potentially playing an important role by reducing the Fe(III) contents locally. The importance of the aquifer hydrogeological structure and functioning was exemplified in the study of the second aquifer ecosystem, where discrepancies in the fate of OHR were observed. In the immediate vicinity of the source zone, complete OHR was occurring, with production of Eth, whereas cDCE was accumulating further downstream, in apparent similar redox conditions. The profiling and metagenomic techniques revealed drastically different bacterial communities in the zones displaying different OHR fate. The source zone displayed bacterial populations typically found in highly reduced environments and involved in OHR, such as Dehalococcoides sp. In contrast, the downstream zone showing an accumulation of cDCE displayed bacterial populations typically found in more oxidized environments, such as aerobic bacteria, nitrifiers, and denitrifiers. In this zone, the conditions were probably slightly oxidized periodically by the combination of aquifer recharge, a specific lithological configuration, and lower organic matter content. Finally, and based on these considerations, a methodology for the investigation of the reasons for lower CEs accumulation in contaminated aquifers is proposed and discussed. This methodology follows on a multidisciplinary ecological approach for the description of the functioning of the aquifer ecosystem, and enables formulating scenarii of the reasons for lower CEs accumulation.