Knowledge of soil organic carbon (SOC) changes that occur under different agricultural practices is important for policy development, carbon (C) marketing, and sustainable land management. Our objective was to quantify agricultural impacts on SOC sequestration for dryland cropping systems in different agroclimatic zones (ACZs) of the Pacific Northwest (PNW). Data from 131 SOC studies were analyzed to assess land management–induced changes in SOC, including the conversion of native ecosystems to agricultural crops, conversion from conventional tillage (CT) to no-tillage (NT), and alternative crop rotations and management practices. Cumulative probabilities of SOC change were developed for assessing uncertainties inherent in SOC studies and for informing SOC markets. These analyses showed that 75% of converted native land lost at least 0.14 to 0.70 Mg C ha−1 y−1 (0.06 to 0.31 tn C ac−1 yr−1) over an average of 55 to 74 years depending on ACZ. Converting from CT to NT was predicted to increase SOC at least 0.12 to 0.21 Mg C ha−1 y−1 (0.05 to 0.09 tn C ac−1 yr−1) over 10 to 12 years in 75% of studies analyzed and was also ACZ specific. Compared to annual cropping, mixed perennial-annual systems would be expected to gain at least 0.69 Mg C ha−1 y−1 (0.31 tn C ac−1 yr−1) over 12 years in 75% of ACZ 2 sites. Other conclusions were that (1) SOC databases are lacking for low precipitation areas of the PNW, such as the dryland wheat–fallow region; (2) baseline sampling of SOC prior to management change is largely nonexistent for PNW databases except for a few notable cases; (3) soil erosion processes have likely impacted SOC and contributed to large variability among studies; (4) sampling methodologies and analyses for SOC have been inconsistent, thereby contributing to SOC variability; and (5) a validated C model for the PNW would aid evaluation of SOC changes due to management, particularly for specific farms and sites with unique SOC history and circumstances.


increase its R&D-to-GDP ratio to three percent by 2010. This is worrying, not only because Europe seems unable to reach an objective it has publicly set itself, but mainly because in 2006 its R&D intensity was still below two percent, having flatlined for more than two decades. As far as businessfunded R&D is concerned, the Chinese business sector has even outperformed European firms. The Lisbon-inspired national R&D targets are equally overambitious. The European Commission's benchmarking of member states against the headline three percent figure is questionable because such comparisons rarely take into account the effect of industrial specialisation. For most countries, R&D intensity is a by-product of specialisation. However, Swedish and US R&D intensity is higher than their industrial structure would suggest, implying that other factors are at work, such as a large integrated technology market and a superior academic research environment. EUROPE'S R&D: MISSING THE WRONG TARGETS? bruegelpolicybrief ISSUE 2008/03 FEBRUARY 2008


Using a fragment-based docking procedure, several small-molecule inhibitors of caspase-3 were identified and tested and the crystal structures of three inhibitor complexes were determined. The crystal structures revealed that one inhibitor (NSC 18508) occupies only the S1 subsite, while two other inhibitors (NSC 89167 and NSC 251810) bind only to the prime part of the substrate-binding site. One of the major conformational changes observed in all three caspase-3-inhibitor complexes is a rotation of the Tyr204 side chain, which blocks the S2 subsite. In addition, the structural variability of the residues shaping the S1-S4 as well as the S1' subsites supports an induced-fit mechanism for the binding of the inhibitors in the active site. The high-resolution crystal structures reported here provide novel insights into the architecture of the substrate-binding site, which might be useful for the design of more potent caspase inhibitors.


We introduce a new approach to autonomous decentralized shop floor routing. Our system, which we call Ant Colony Control (AC/sup 2/), applies the analogy of a colony of ants foraging for food to the problem of dynamic shop floor routing. In this system, artificial ants use only indirect communication to make all shop routing decisions by altering and reacting to their dynamically changing common environment through the use of simulated pheromone trails. For simple factory layouts, we show that the emergent behavior of the colony is comparable to using the optimal routing strategy. Furthermore, as the complexity of the factory layout is increased, we show that the adaptive behavior of AC/sup 2/ evolves local decision making policies that lead to near-optimal solutions from the standpoint of global performance.


The purpose of this study was to explore by means of Q methodology the possibility that music can serve as a vehicle to understand women's experiences of relationship violence, trauma and the symptoms of related posttraumatic stress. Q sorts prepared by 16 respondents regarding themes in Natalie Merchant's 1995 song I May Know the Word reveal two distinct factor viewpoints. Participants who define the "violence of the night" factor interpret it literally as portraying sexual assault, battery, and rape, while participants who define the other factor view the song as involving an abstract internal struggle or conflict. This Q set cannot be used as a diagnostic tool for relationship violence without additional research to determine whether factor loadings are influenced significantly as a result of empathic association rather than personal experience with violent relationships. However, results in this study illustrate a marked tendency among these respondents for those who reporl abuse histories to identify with the literal interpretation of the "violence of the night" factor.


The objective of the present paper is to develop a methodology that could allow the representation of the analytical hyporheic flux equation model (AHF) in a numerical model done in MODFLOW. Therefore, the scope of the research is to show the viability of the methodology suggested in a real case (Biebrza river, Poland, Europe). Considering that the model requires extensive manipulation in the creation of the packages, a test phase through the seepage package of MODFLOW is carried out with the aim of representing the river package of MODFLOW. FloPy is the tool chosen to develop this implementation due to the versatility of manipulating the packages available in MODFLOW through coding. The obtained results showed a correct implementation of the AHF model using the example of the Biebrza River. The results obtained will enable a better understanding regarding the modelling of the interaction between the river and the aquifer, considering streams with specific geometries where the depth is dimensionally higher than the width.


We study the asymmetric low-rank factorization problem: \[\min_{\mathbf{U} \in \mathbb{R}^{m \times d}, \mathbf{V} \in \mathbb{R}^{n \times d}} \frac{1}{2}\|\mathbf{U}\mathbf{V}^\top -\mathbf{\Sigma}\|_F^2\] where $\mathbf{\Sigma}$ is a given matrix of size $m \times n$ and rank $d$. This is a canonical problem that admits two difficulties in optimization: 1) non-convexity and 2) non-smoothness (due to unbalancedness of $\mathbf{U}$ and $\mathbf{V}$). This is also a prototype for more complex problems such as asymmetric matrix sensing and matrix completion. Despite being non-convex and non-smooth, it has been observed empirically that the randomly initialized gradient descent algorithm can solve this problem in polynomial time. Existing theories to explain this phenomenon all require artificial modifications of the algorithm, such as adding noise in each iteration and adding a balancing regularizer to balance the $\mathbf{U}$ and $\mathbf{V}$. This paper presents the first proof that shows randomly initialized gradient descent converges to a global minimum of the asymmetric low-rank factorization problem with a polynomial rate. For the proof, we develop 1) a new symmetrization technique to capture the magnitudes of the symmetry and asymmetry, and 2) a quantitative perturbation analysis to approximate matrix derivatives. We believe both are useful for other related non-convex problems.


The work of this thesis is to investigate new techniques for Integral Field Spectroscopy (IPS) to make the most efficient use of modem large telescopes. Most of the work described is aimed at the FMOS for the SUBARU 8m telescope. Although this is primarily a system for Multiple Object Spectroscopy (MOS) employing single fibres, there is an option to include a multiple-IFS (MIPS) system. Much of this thesis is therefore aimed at the design and prototyping of critical systems for both the IPS and MOS modes of this instrument. The basic theory of IFU design is discussed first. Some particular problems are described and their soludons presented. The design of the MIPS system is described together with the construction and testing of a prototype deployable IFU. The assembly of the pickoff/fore-optics, microlens array and fibre bundle and their testing are described in detail. The estimated performance of the complete module is presented together with suggestions for improving the system efficiency which is currently limited by the performance of the microlens array. The prototyping of the MIPS system is supported by an extensive programme of testing of candidate microlens arrays. Another critical aspect of the instrument is the ability to disconnect the (IPS and MOS) fibre input which is installed on a removable prime focus top-end ring from the spectrographs which are mounted elsewhere on the telescope. This requires high-performance multiple fibre connectors. The designs of connectors for the MOS and IPS modes are described. Results from the testing of a prototype for the MOS mode are presented. This work is supported by a mathematical model of the coupling efficiency which takes into account optical aberrations and alignment errors. The final critical aspect of FMOS which has been investigated is the design of the spectrographs. The baseline system operates in the near-infrared (NIR) but an additional visible channel is an option. Efficient designs for both the visible and NIR systems are presented. The design of the NIR spectrograph presents challenges in the choice of materials for the doublet and triplet lenses employed. The choice of material and the combinations in which they can be used are described. This thesis shows that all these critical aspects of FMOS have good solutions that will result in good performance of the whole instrument. For the multiple IFU system, the prototype demonstrates acceptable performance which can be made excellent by the use of a better microlens array. The multiple fibre connector prototype already indicates excellent performance. Finally, the spectrograph designs presented should result in high efficiency and good image quality.


The classic debate surrounding the prolific role of the European Union in defining spheres of competence and power relationships has long divided scholarly opinion. However, in recent years, the long-standing acquiescence to the broad powers of the Union has given way to the emerging perception of a competence problem in Europe. For a long period it was taken for granted that the European Community could act whenever its action was justified on the basis of the widely interpreted objectives of the Treaties. However this context has since changed. There is a widespread perception of a competence problem in Europe and the overabundance of provisions limiting the Union's competences is one of the most obvious marks left by the Lisbon Treaty.
This book discusses the extent to which the parameters of power throughout the Union and its Member States have been recast by the recent implementation of the Lisbon Treaty and doctrines developed by the European Court of Justice. Comprised of contributions from a vast array of leading practitioners and academics in the field of EU Law, this volume assesses the debate surrounding the political identity of the European Union, and further illustrates the relevance of the Federal theory of sharing competences for the development of EU Law. Finally, the question of new potential limits to Union's competence is addressed. If anything, this broad reflection on the notion of competence in the EU law context is a way of opening up the question of the nature and contours of the political identity of the European Union. (Publisher's abstract)


OBJECTIVE
Evaluate the efficacy of acupuncture associated with physiotherapy for patients with painful shoulder.

METHODS
In a multicentre controlled randomized study, participants were recruited with a clinical diagnosis of unilateral subacromial syndrome from six rehabilitation medicine departments belonging to the Public Health System in two Spanish regions. All participants received 15 sessions of physiotherapy during the 3 weeks that the treatment lasted and were randomized to additionally receive, once a week, acupuncture or mock TENS (transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation). The primary outcome measure was the change in the Constant-Murley Score (CMS) for functional assessment of the shoulder, at 4 weeks after randomization. This study is registered as an International Standard Randomized Controlled Trial, number ISRCTN28687220.

RESULTS
A total of 425 patients were recruited. The mean score (s.d.) on the CMS had increased by 16.6 (15.6) points among the acupuncture group, compared with 10.6 (13.5) points in the control group, and the mean difference between the two groups was statistically significant (6.0 points; 95% CI 3.2, 8.8 points; P < 0.001). By the end of the treatment, 53% of the patients in the acupuncture group had decreased their consumption of analgesics, compared with a corresponding 30% among the control group (P < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS
Single-point acupuncture in association with physiotherapy improves shoulder function and alleviates pain, compared with physiotherapy as the sole treatment. This improvement is accompanied by a reduction in the consumption of analgesic medicaments.


Collecting Student Data for Accreditation Assessment This paper seeks to identify one of the key problems faced by academic institutions seeking accreditation. The accreditation process requires academic institutions to conduct a self-study analyzing how well a given program is meeting the learning outcomes the accreditation board uses in its assessment. This self-study by schools often contains qualitative or subjective data and does not directly correlate the learning outcomes being measured to student performance. The lack of quantitative measurements at a granular level means that it is difficult for the academic institution to prove that it was effective in meeting a particular outcome. I propose in this paper a tool that is both efficient and effective in capturing quantitative data at the student level. The tool maps specific coursework to learning outcomes and shows how students performed towards that outcome over the duration of a particular course or program. Additionally, the data collected by the tool can be used to assess course and program design.


Abstract Background Diagnostic reasoning skills are essential to the practice of medicine, yet longitudinal curricula to teach residents and evaluate performance in this area is lacking. We describe a longitudinal diagnostic reasoning curriculum implemented in a university-based internal medicine residency program and self-evaluation assessment of the curriculum's effectiveness. Methods A longitudinal diagnostic reasoning curriculum (bolus/booster) was developed and implemented in the fall of 2015 at the University of Iowa. R1, R2, and R3 cohorts were taught the "bolus" curriculum at the beginning of each academic year followed by a "booster" component to maintain and build upon diagnostic reasoning skills taught during the "bolus" phase. Self-administered diagnostic thinking inventory (DTI) scores were collected in the spring of pre-curriculum (baseline, 2014–2015) and post-curriculum (2016–2017). Results The overall DTI scores improved in the R1 cohort, although statistically significant differences were not seen with R2s and R3s. In the original DTI categories, R1s improved in both flexibility of thinking and structure of thinking, the R2s improved in structure of thinking and the R3s did not improve in either category. R1s showed improvement in three of the four subcategories – data acquisition, problem representation, and hypothesis generation. The R2s improved in the subcategory of problem representation. R3s showed no improvement in any of the subcategories. The R3 cohort had higher mean scores in all categories but this did not reach statistical significance. Conclusions Our program created and successfully implemented a longitudinal diagnostic reasoning curriculum. DTI scores improved after implementation of a new diagnostic reasoning curriculum, particularly in R1 cohort.


ABSTRACT Positive behavior support has gained attention in recent years as an effective practice for reducing challenging behaviors in children and youth with a variety of disabilities including autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The goal of positive behavioral interventions for students with ASD is to prevent and reduce the occurrence of interfering behaviors, such as repetitive or disruptive behaviors, through the use of evidence-based practices. To implement specific behavioral methods and strategies, a tiered approach gradually increases the nature and intensity of support for students with ASD as interfering behaviors become more problematic. In this approach, functional behavioral assessment identifies possible causes of interfering behaviors as well as the strategies that are implemented within the context of a comprehensive behavioral intervention plan. This article aims to (a) discuss interfering behaviors in children and youth with ASD, (b) present a model for preventing and reducing these behaviors, and (c) provide a variety of evidence-based practices that can be used to address interfering behaviors in children and youth with ASD.


Lonely Planet: The world's leading travel guide publisher Lonely Planet Dubai & Abu Dhabi is your passport to the most relevant, up-to-date advice on what to see and skip, and what hidden discoveries await you. Learn about Dubai through lifelike dioramas, shop for dazzling jewellery at Deira's Gold Souq, or join a walking tour of the Bastakia Quarter; all with your trusted travel companion. Get to the heart of Dubai and Abu Dhabi and begin your journey now! Inside Lonely Planet Dubai & Abu Dhabi Travel Guide: *Colour maps and images throughout *Highlights and itineraries help you tailor your trip to your personal needs and interests *Insider tips to save time and money and get around like a local, avoiding crowds and trouble spots *Essential info at your fingertips - hours of operation, phone numbers, websites, transit tips, prices *Honest reviews for all budgets - including eating, sleeping, sight-seeing, going out, shopping, and hidden gems that most guidebooks miss *Cultural insights give you a richer and more rewarding travel experience - including customs, history, art, music, dance, architecture, politics, landscapes, wildlife *Free, convenient pull-out Dubai map (included in print version), plus over 22 neighbourhood maps *Covers Deira, Bur Dubai, Sheikh Zayed Road, Jumeirah, New Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and more The Perfect Choice: Lonely Planet Dubai & Abu Dhabi , our most comprehensive guide to Dubai and Abu Dhabi, is perfect for those exploring top sights and taking the roads less travelled. * Looking for just the highlights of Dubai? Check out Lonely Planet Pocket Dubai, a handy-sized guide focused on the can't-miss sights for a quick trip. Authors: Written and researched by Lonely Planet. About Lonely Planet: Since 1973, Lonely Planet has become the world's leading travel media company with guidebooks to every destination, an award-winning website, mobile and digital travel products, and a dedicated traveller community. Lonely Planet covers must-see spots but also enables curious travellers to get off beaten paths to understand more of the culture of the places in which they find themselves.


This chapter explores ideas and arguments about the proliferation and circulation of photographic and digital reproductions of art. The existence of widely circulated reproductions before photography, and the early mingling of photography with painting and printmaking, demonstrates that the distinction between photographic reproduction and handmade original was always blurred. Even so, this distinction has informed thinking about art, reproduction, and museums. In the early twentieth century artists, curators, and art theorists thought that photography and photomechanical reproduction threatened the original work of art. The concepts of originality, aura, facture, and style became key, to distinguish photomechanical prints from valuable artworks, photography from painting. A new way of seeing seemed to be emerging – which treated reproduction as transparent, placed high value on originality and facture, and found new stylistic connections between images in the "museum without walls." Modern forms of attention seemed to challenge the individualistic model of aesthetic contemplation enshrined in museums. Building on these early ideas, and situating them in relation to more recent discussion of digital and electronic media, this chapter argues that new practices of personal photography and image sharing require us to reimagine the museum with and without walls as potentially more "delirious," playful, anarchic, and plural.


Background With the rapid advancement in digital technologies, the use of digital health applications is increasing day by day. Although a large number of digital applications have been developed for rehabilitation of older people, there has been no review of the evidence for effectiveness of these interventions. Methods The aim of our study was to review the evidence of digital rehabilitation interventions on outcomes including pain, function and quality of life in older people. We focused on digital interventions that are designed to improve and restore physical functioning. We searched six electronic bibliographic databases and included randomised controlled trials. Cochrane risk of bias tool and Cochrane's Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation approach was used to evaluate the risk of bias and grade the evidence. Results Eight trials were included. The short-term effects of digital rehabilitation interventions on physical activity, quality of life, vertigo symptoms and falls are uncertain. Quality of trials was rated as very low to moderate evidence. Conclusion More research is needed to estimate effectiveness of these interventions.


This contribution is concerned with the experimental and numerical study of ballistic performance of steel fiber reinforced concrete structures. For this purpose, three different types of panels, made of steel fiber reinforced concrete (SFRC), slurry-infiltrated concrete (SIFCON), and ceramic composite (CC), have been tested under high velocity impact of a rigid projectile. Explicit Finite Element analyses aiming at capturing the experimental residual velocities for the SFRC and SIFCON panels have also been conducted. It was found that the use of ceramic in a layered structure of SFRC and SIFCON mixtures improves the ballistic performance of SFRC structures.


Giant Unilamellar Vesicles (GUVs) are spherical assemblies of natural or synthetic lipids composed of a single lipid bilayer which separates the aqueous interior compartment from the exterior. Because of their "giant" size (5-100 µm) which allows the imaging of the lipid bilayer by optical microscopy, GUVs have been used as a minimal model system of the cellular membrane. Several protocols have been proposed to form GUVs at low salt concentrations; however, the study of biological interactions requires the use of biologically relevant salt concentrations. To tackle this drawback from traditional preparation methods, this thesis presents a new method, based on a chemically crosslinked hydrogel as a substrate for the growth of GUVs at relevant biological salt conditions. Furthermore, the physical chemical properties of this hydrogel network and the characterization of the final GUVs in terms of yield and size distribution are discussed in this work. Finally, GUVs are used as a biophysical platform for studying drug delivery and membrane fusion processes at biological salt concentrations. Overall, this work covers some biophysical aspects and applications of the GUV model applied at relevant biologically salt concentrations.


Enteric methane production from livestock is an important source of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. The aim of the present study was to (1) assess the effect of long-term breeding for kilograms of milk fat plus protein production and (2) investigate the influence of parity, genetic line and diet on predicted enteric methane emissions of Holstein Friesian dairy cows. Analyses were based on 17 years of experimental data for lactating and dry cows, housed and at pasture. Restricted maximum likelihood (REML) was used to assess the effects of parity, genetic line and diet on the predicted enteric methane output of lactating and dry cows. A non-linear equation based on metabolisable energy intake (MEI) was used to predict daily enteric methane output. The present study found that selection for kilograms of milk fat plus protein production, zero-grazing low-forage diets and maintaining persistently high-yielding older cows can reduce a cow's enteric methane emissions per kilogram milk by up to 12%, on average. Comparing the first 5 years to the most recent 5 years of the study period showed that large savings of 19% and 23% in enteric methane per kilogram milk were made in cows selected for milk fat plus protein or selected to remain close to the average genetic merit for milk fat plus protein production for all animals evaluated in the UK, respectively. Additionally, management to minimise the length of the drying-off period can help reduce enteric methane emissions during a cow's lactation period.


BACKGROUND
Violence and threats of violence against personnel at psychiatric wards as well as in the prison service is a major work environment problem. To date results from interventions to prevent violence and threats in these sectors have been inconclusive or of small effect. One of the reasons may be that violence and threats of violence occur as a consequence of a complex interaction between employee-level and management-level factors.

OBJECTIVE
To design a tailored and theory-based intervention program directed at violence prevention in psychiatric wards and prisons that integrates the employee-level and management-level, and development of an evaluation design building on the Context, Process, and Outcome Evaluation Model.

METHODS
The study follows a stepped-wedged design with 16 work units entering the intervention in four groups with differing start dates from September 2017 to January 2019. The context and process evaluation includes: calculating the implementation degree; mapping of contextual factors; interviews with unit-leaders and employees before and after the intervention. The outcome evaluation includes performing multi-level statistical analysis on data from a three-monthly questionnaire to employees at the participating workplaces.

RESULTS
The first results will be available in 2020.

CONCLUSIONS
The comprehensive evaluation of the intervention will give insight into the processes and effects of the intervention.


It is very rare to come across a health policy that directly follows evidence. There are many reasons for this and perhaps the most compelling is that scientists are not elected by the people but politicians are, or at least should be. They therefore choose to introduce policies that can garner public support and this sometimes takes them a long way away from established evidence. In this issue we report an exception. Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) is a UK initiative dating from 2005 that followed directly from evidence from NICE guidelines that the most common mental illnesses, formerly described as the neuroses, could be treated at least as effectively with cognitive–behavioural therapy (CBT) and related time-limited treatments as with antidepressants and anxiolytic medication and, perhaps more relevantly, the cost of this might be recouped from regained employment, with employment advice as a key part of the programme. The results of this initiative, which started at two sites in England, Doncaster and Newham, but has now been implemented in many parts of the UK in the past few years, are beginning to come to fruition. It is perhaps unfortunate that the standard means of evaluating this new initiative, the randomised controlled trial, has not been implemented as part of the evaluation process, but I hope at some point it will be, as even when a programme becomes a statutory one this type of evaluation is possible. As already indicated in the Highlights section of the Journal, the early results reported here (Mukuria et al, pp. 220–227) are disappointing, with the verdict, 'probably cost-effective', appearing somewhat generous after looking at the data, and this is in keeping with other evidence. In particular, there were no employment gains, but of course economic circumstances have changed dramatically in the years since the initiative was introduced. But these are still early days, and we hope to see much more about who wins and who loses in the programme, including the relative merits of CBT and behavioural activation (Moradveisi et al, pp. 204–211), the latter looking to be a strong contender for cost-effectiveness. But we need more answers soon, the vultures are hovering and are currently not short of food. The future of this initiative has worldwide implications. Investing in mental health is never futile; it invariably helps those who suffer from mental disorder but we need to persuade planners and politicians that it pays in other ways too, and this is well illustrated in work carried out in low-income countries where great gains can be achieved with relatively little resources, although much more can be done (Rai et al, pp. 195–203), especially for the most severe mental disorders (Farooq, pp. 168– 169). Most common effective psychological treatments can be given by nurses and psychologists specifically trained for these roles, and there is concern that some of our services in psychiatry might be swallowed up by this generic input. A consequence could be more specialised services such as those described here for bipolar disorder where their resources can be protected (Vieta, pp. 170–171; Kessing et al, pp. 212–219). The overarching message of these findings is a continuous drum roll sounding in the background of all our practice – more research is always needed. Even when policy and evidence seem hunky-dory we must peek behind the curtains and find out exactly what is going on.


Buildings and architectural metaphors occupy an important place in early Christian literature. Heaven was conceived of as a city, Christ is a cornerstone, apostles and prophets are foundations and pillars, the Virgin Mary is a gateway to salvation and believers are living stones. This dissertation studies the equally inventive range of visual architectural symbolism in the art of the late Roman Empire and its successor states. Taking examples from across the Mediterranean basin, from Rome to Syria, it investigates why buildings were so often chosen for illustration and how they functioned as images, often as active protagonists within compositions.
Chapter one deals with late fourth-century funerary monuments; chapter two discusses the early fifth-century apse mosaics of Roman churches; chapter three covers the mosaic floors of Syrian and Jordanian churches from the fourth to seventh centuries, and chapter four moves between the Umayyad eastern Mediterranean and Carolingian and papal Rome, to discuss the renewed enthusiasm for architectural imagery in the eighth and early ninth centuries.
Buildings embodied many positive qualities, such as stability, tradition, authority, civilisation and wealth, and the open-endedness of architectural iconography enabled viewers to read multiple meanings into one image. The flexibility of architectural symbolism, the role of depicted buildings as both agents and mediators, and their effectiveness as embodiments of material splendour all contributed to the impact of architectural imagery. This dissertation shows how images of buildings were inventively deployed, especially at times of heightened social competition, as powerful expressions of institutional and religious identity and personal status.


Abstract The objective of the study was to isolate potential Bacillus cereus sensu lato (B. cereus s.l.) from a range of farm environments. Samples of tap water, milking equipment rinse water, milk sediment filter, grass, soil and bulk tank milk were collected from 63 farms. In addition, milk liners were swabbed at the start and the end of milking, and swabs were taken from cows' teats prior to milking. The samples were plated on mannitol egg yolk polymyxin agar (MYP) and presumptive B. cereus s.l. colonies were isolated and stored in nutrient broth with 20% glycerol and frozen at -80 °C. These isolates were then plated on chromogenic medium (BACARA) and colonies identified as presumptive B. cereus s.l. on this medium were subjected to 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) sequencing. Of the 507 isolates presumed to be B. cereus s.l. on the basis of growth on MYP, only 177 showed growth typical of B. cereus s.l. on BACARA agar. The use of 16S rRNA sequencing to identify isolates that grew on BACARA confirmed that the majority of isolates belonged to B. cereus s.l. A total of 81 of the 98 isolates sequenced were tentatively identified as presumptive B. cereus s.l. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis was carried out on milk and soil isolates from seven farms that were identified as having presumptive B. cereus s.l. No pulsotype was shared by isolates from soil and milk on the same farm. Presumptive B. cereus s.l. was widely distributed within the dairy farm environment.


A field experiment shows that rapid downward migration of solutes and microorganisms can occur in a fractured till. A solute tracer, chloride, and a bacteriophage tracer, PRD-I, were added to groundwater and allowed to infiltrate downwards over a 4 x 4 m area. Chloride was detected in horizontal filters at 2.0 m depth within 3-40 days of the start of the tracer test, and PRD- 1 was detected in the same filters within 0.27 - 27 days. At 2.8 m depth chloride appeared in all the filters, but PRD-1 appeared in only about one-third of the filters. At 4.0 m depth chloride appeared in about one-third of the filters and trace amounts of PRD-1 were detected in only 2 of the 36 filters. Transport rates and peak tracer concentrations decreased with depth, but at each depth there was a high degree of variability. The transport data is generally consistent with expectations based on hydraulic conductivity measurements and on the observed density of fractures and biopores, both of which decrease with depth. Transport of chloride was apparently retarded by diffusion into the fine-grained matrix between fractures, but the rapid transport of PRD-1, with little dispersion, indicates that it was transported mainly through the fractures.


This paper aims to examine what the policy, practice and academic implications are of England becoming a container of diverse social policies as a result of the implementation of policies of localism. Through a case study of Greater Manchester (GM), it addresses the implications for the local voluntary sector. GM is a key example of an ambitious local public sector assemblage that is attempting complex, large-scale policy implementation in the context of greater devolution.


The aims of this study were to investigate the impact of parental divorce on adolescents, and the expectations of teacher trainees with regard to children of divorce. The literature related to children of divorce is reviewed and the results of interviews with a sample of recently divorced custodial parents and their adolescent children, using a structured interview schedule, are described. The semantic differential technique was used to obtain ratings of a sample of teacher trainees' expectations of children of divorce as compared with their ratings of several other categories of children. The results of the interviews with parents and their adolescent children suggested that parental divorce does not necessarily interfere with adolescent development and that for some adolescents the reduction of conflict in the home might enhance normal development. They also suggest that adolescents would prefer to live in a one parent home rather than a two parent home which is fraught with conflict, and that it is preferable for parents who are unable to resolve such conflict in any other way to separate rather than allow it to persist. The ratings of children of divorce by teacher trainees suggest that they hold more negative expectations of such children than of other groups • such as adopted children. The contrast between this finding and the results of the interviews with adolescents and their parents lends some support to the existence of the divorce myth; that is, the cultural belief that divorce has the inherent power to make people unhappy. The implications for policy, practice and further research are discussed.


Most educational institutions have failed in their responsibility of promoting acceptable pro social and sustainability behaviours among students. Consequently, there is a significant decline in the character, moral values and suitability behaviours of students. Perhaps, this can be attributed to status of sustainability integration into the existing school subjects in schools. Thus, this study explores Nigerian Primary School Pupils' level of knowledge about sustainability and their sustainability-related behaviours. 1314 fifth and sixth year primary school pupils served as the sample for the study. Researcher constructed True-False Knowledge Test and Sustainability behavioural scale were used to elicit information from the respondents in a descriptive survey study. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The results of the study revealed that: (1) Nigerian primary school pupils had limited knowledge about sustainability (2) they exhibited favourable behaviours towards sustainability issues and (3) home upbringing, expense reduction, tendency to sustain what they have, convenience and waste reduction are the key factors in stimulating sustainability behaviours in the pupils. Based on the findings of this study, it was recommended that concerted efforts should be made by the elementary school teachers to equip pupils with sustainability knowledge through effective integration of sustainability in the existing school subjects. In addition, school administrators should direct their efforts towards rewarding display of sustainability behaviours by the pupils.


In order to evaluate the effect of priming on some germination and seedling growth characteristics of safflower ( Carthamus tinctorius L.) under drought stress an experiment was conducted base on completely randomized design with four replications at the Seed Technology Laboratory of Yasouj University, in 2011. Treatments were included of five priming levels (control or no prime, hydro priming, potassium nitrate 3% (KNO 3 ), PEG and Urea -4 bar) as the first factor and three levels of drought stress (0, -4 and -8 bar) as the second factor. The results showed that the interactions of drought stress and seed priming on germination percentage and the germination rate was not significant. But the main impact of priming and drought stress on them were so significant at 1% probability. The highest germination percentage and germination rate (75.66% and 3.62 seed.day -1 , respectively) were shown in urea priming and the lowest (52% and 2.31 seed.day -1 respectively) in the control treatment (no prime). Drought stress was caused to significant decrease in germination traits. In general, the results obtained in this study showed that treatment with urea and potassium nitrate compared with PEG improved germination and seedling growth of safflower .


The study site located in the northwestern Mediterranean Sea was visited nine times in 2005–2006 to collect water samples from the epipelagic (5 m), mesopelagic (200 m, 600 m), and bathypelagic (1000 m, 2000 m) zones. The relative abundance of Bacteria, Crenarchaea, and Euryarchaea was determined by catalyzed reporter deposition fluorescence in situ hybridization (CARD‐FISH). Apparent richness (total number of phylotypes detected) and community composition (different phylotypes detected) of Bacteria and Archaea were assessed by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) analysis of polymerase chain reaction (PCR)‐amplified fragments of the 16S ribosomal ribonucleic acid (rRNA) gene followed by sequencing and phylogenetic analysis of selected phylotypes. The relative abundance of Crenarchaea and Euryarchaea in the epipelagic zone increased as stratification decreased. Apparent bacterial richness increased with decreasing stratification in the mesopelagic and bathypelagic zones. Deep vertical mixing at the study site represented the beginning of a seasonal succession. The effects of this succession were detectable throughout the water column and led to distinct prokaryotic communities in different depth layers during the stratified period. The seasonal variability in the relative abundance of Bacteria, as well as apparent prokaryotic richness and community composition, was comparable between the different depth layers. This suggests that prokaryotic communities of the dark ocean can be as dynamic as those found at the surface.


One of the most prized categories of early photography was the reproduction of artworks, a role in which photographs largely replaced engravings in book imagery during the mid-19th century. Photographs of paintings, sculptures, and other works were compiled in albums, ranging from surveys of museum collections and catalogues of works by single artists to illustrated travel guides and archaeological reports. While such albums have often been valued for documentary purposes, their broader role in the institutional development of art has, until now, been overlooked. The first book on the subject, this collection of twelve essays explores topics such as how the acclaim of artists like Rubens grew because their paintings reproduced so well in photographs, how Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel frescoes were given a new public identity by the photographer's choice of striking details never explored in traditional prints, and other important ways in which photographically illustrated publications influenced the experience and the history of art.


An overriding assumption has long directed scholarship in both European and Slavic history: that Kievan Rus' in the tenth through twelfth centuries was part of a Byzantine commonwealth separate from Europe. Christian Raffensperger refutes this conception and offers a new frame for two hundred years of history, one in which Rus' is understood as part of medieval Europe and East is not so neatly divided from West. With the aid of Latin sources, the author brings to light the considerable political, religious, marital, and economic ties among European kingdoms, including Rus', restoring a historical record rendered blank by Russian monastic chroniclers as well as modern scholars ideologically motivated to build barriers between East and West. Further, Raffensperger revises the concept of a Byzantine commonwealth that stood in opposition to Europe - and under which Rus' was subsumed - toward that of a Byzantine Ideal esteemed and emulated by all the states of Europe. In this new context, appropriation of Byzantine customs, law, coinage, art, and architecture in both Rus' and Europe can be understood as an attempt to gain legitimacy and prestige by association with the surviving remnant of the Roman Empire. "Reimagining Europe" initiates an expansion of history that is sure to challenge ideas of Russian exceptionalism and influence the course of European medieval studies.


Post-secondary distance education gives students and their families living in remote and rural regions the option to stay in their communities while they study instead of moving closer to the universities in cities. Post-secondary distance education is an option in many rural and remote First Nation (Indigenous) communities in Canada; however there are many challenges to successful adoption in these communities. There are also many opportunities for post-secondary institutions to expand their abilities and capacity in developing and delivering appropriate content supporting these unique, self-governing environments in Canada. We explore the experiences of students from a rural First Nation in Canada with post-secondary distance education, focusing on how different delivery methods offer both opportunities and challenges for community-based students. The study is situated in the context of contemporary colonialism in Canada.


2018 has been a busy year for the REANNZ team. The new Hawaiki cable system is now
online, the REANNZ core is getting a 100Gbps upgrade, members are migrating their
connections to 100G and much more. Come an hear from REANNZ what has been
happening behind the scenes to ensure that New Zealand has an R&E network that serves
our diverse membership. ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)Wallace Chase
As Technical Engagement Manager Wallace assists the membership to utilize the full
protentional of REANNZ. To this end Wallace leverages his 15 years of experience in higher
education IT operations and supporting research. Wallace most recently comes to REANNZ from his role in the US as the CEO of the Carolina
Research and Education Network. Wallace also worked for Clemson University Computing and
Information Technology as Executive Director. Prior to that, Wallace worked for Washington
State University leading the networking team, The George Washington University as a network
engineer and at Lake Superior State University also as a network engineer.Wallace is active in the broader networking and engineering community, working with Internet2,
the Quilt, Pacific Northwest Gigapop, Pacific Wave, the North American Network Operators
Group as well as on the staff of conferences such as Super Computing (SciNet Network
Research Exhibition team) and INTEROP (Network Operations Center staff). Wallace has been
on several teams funded for multiple National Science Foundation projects in the US, has
served on several NSF funding panels and assists with several experimental networking
research projects.


The Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region is experiencing dynamic growth and requires large investments in electrical infrastructure. Hydropower is a major component of the region's energy supply and will provide a significant proportion of future energy growth. A 2012 high-level workshop co-organized by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) concluded that meeting expectations for growth of the hydropower sector will pose several challenges to governments, developers, financial institutions, civil society and other stakeholders. Many of these challenges concern the need for hydropower projects to meet evolving expectations for sustainability, defined here as energy development that is consistent with maintaining a broad spectrum of benefits and values from river systems. Considerable progress has been made on the sustainability of individual hydropower projects, but this will not be sufficient to address the complex issues posed by multiple hydropower developments across a river basin or region. Sustainable hydropower development also requires system-scale planning, development and management; this is the 'next frontier' in hydropower sustainability. 'System' in this regard can refer to any level beyond individual projects that is the subject of a planning effort, be it a river basin, region, country, or interconnected grid. The document presents an overview of the hydropower planning challenge in Latin America and the Caribbean, and then it presents the elements and experiences of a system planning approach for hydropower and finally, a conceptual basis and broad applications for system optimization.


Mining industries form a significant share of the industrial landscape of many poor countries. At the same time, mining activities have well-documented negative externalities: the air, land, and water pollution associated with mining has large health impacts and the destruction of forest cover can affect livelihoods. Using a comprehensive dataset on mining lease activities for India over the time period 2000 2013, we assess a landmark change in India's environmental clearance process, intended to increase stringency, democratic participation, and effectiveness. The reform induced strategic behavior by mining companies which, in turn, had perverse deforestation impacts. First, the average mine size fell with significant bunching just below 5 hectares, a cutoff below which stringent regulatory requirements were waived. This rise in small mines was environmentally costly – districts with a higher proportion of such mines exhibit significantly greater deforestation per hectare of leased area. Second, in the post-reform period larger mines, i.e. those that have not selected out of the regulated size category, and stayed subject to environmental clearance regulation initiated deforestation earlier compared to the pre-reform period. On the benefits size, the environmental clearance process became faster after the reform, possibly due to an easing of the decision-making process following the increase in stringency and transparency.


ABSTRACT Background: Investigations of mental health literacy are important because the recognition of a mental health problem is the first step in seeking appropriate mental health care. Lack of recognition is a significant barrier to accessing mental health resources. Older Chinese immigrants are at increased risk for depression; however, there is no research investigating their depression literacy, including their beliefs about treatment, etiology, and prognosis. Methods: This study investigated depression literacy among 53 older Chinese immigrants in Canada (aged 55–87 years) and compared their literacy to Canadian-born participants of the same age who were part of a larger population-based survey. Depression literacy was assessed through interviews using a case vignette and included the following indices: rates of correct identification of depression; perceived efficacy of various people, professions and treatments; and perceptions of etiology and prognosis. Results: In the Chinese sample, 11.3% correctly identified depression in the case vignette. In contrast, 74.0% of participants in the population-based survey correctly identified depression. Differences in the perceptions of helpful people and interventions, etiology, and prognosis were also noted between the samples. Both samples strongly endorsed physical activity as helpful in the treatment of depression. Conclusions: In light of these results, it is clear that older Chinese immigrants would benefit from information regarding the symptoms, etiology, and treatment of depression, and that this information may begin to address the serious underutilization of mental health services among this group. Our discussion highlights practice implications and promising interventions.


PURPOSE
Recent studies demonstrate the feasibility of prompt-gamma imaging for pencil beam proton therapy. In contrast to passive-scatter proton radiotherapy, the existence of high background signal from secondary radiation produced by protons in the beam line components makes the detection of prompt-gammas challenging. Our primary goal is to produce a more complete measurement of the prompt-gammas produced in tissue for clinical treatment conditions.

METHODS
The proton treatment facility at iThemba Labs was studied in detail and all the nozzle components that interact with the proton beam were built and positioned at the locations specified by the manufacturer using the Geant4 Monte Carlo toolkit. The treatment nozzle was validated against depth dose and lateral profiles in a water phantom at therapeutic energies. The model included NaI detectors of different dimensions to detect the prompt-gamma spectra, and standard gamma emitting sources in the energy range 0.661 to 4.438 MeV were used to determine the Gaussian broadening parameters of the detectors. Finally, prompt-gamma spectra from the tissue phantom were simulated over a range of energies in order to make comparisons with the experimental spectra currently being measured.

RESULTS
The prompt-gamma energy spectra show prominent peaks caused by collisions of proton with nuclei in the tissue phantom. Single and double escape peaks of 4.44 MeV were clearly seen, while the 6.129 MeV peak was unresolved due to the Doppler broadening effect, peaks at 6.916 and 7.115 MeV were not observed, but the single and double escape peaks of 6.129 MeV were visible.

CONCLUSION
Our study confirms the feasibility of prompt-gamma imaging during passive proton radiotherapy to assist for on-line treatment verification. The energy range from 3.0 MeV to 5.0 MeV is a suitable candidate for further investigation and the presence of background radiation can be minimized by introducing proper shielding and collimation.


Cosmological perturbations of massive higher-spin fields are generated during inflation, but they decay on scales larger than the Hubble radius as a consequence of the Higuchi bound. By introducing suitable couplings to the inflaton field, we show that one can obtain statistical correlators of massive higher-spin fields which remain constant or decay very slowly outside the Hubble radius. This opens up the possibility of new observational signatures from inflation.


The primary objective of this study is to identify the pros and cons of ISO 9000 as the Saudi Export Organisations see it. A cross sectional survey is used to collect the required information. Two hundred questionnaires were distributed randomly, covering 32 companies in the industrial cities on the East Coast of Saudi Arabia. Seventy-eight completed questionnaires were returned, representing 39% response rate. The results indicated that Saudi Export Businesses have experienced similar benefit as found by ISO registered companies abroad. However, there are indications that the main reason to register is not quality improvement but rather customers' requirements. Moreover, Saudi Export Companies were expecting more than ISO can give. They felt frustrated that ISO did not increase their product demand or provide competitive advantages. There were complaints about the level of red tape inherited by the implementation of ISO. Nevertheless, all indications show that Saudi Export Companies are realising the benefits of ISO and consider it the first step in a series of steps towards quality management.


People with severe motor disabilities (spinal cord injury (SCI), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), etc.) but with intact brain functions are somehow prisoners of their own body. They need alternative ways of communication and control to interact with their environment in their everyday life. These new tools are supposed to increase their quality of life by giving these people the opportunity to recover part of their independence. Therefore, these alternative ways have to be reliable and ergonomic to be successfully used by disabled people. Over the past two decades, numerous studies proposed electroencephalogram (EEG) activity for direct brain-computer interaction. EEG-based brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) provide disabled people with new tools for control and communication and are promising alternatives to invasive methods. However, as any other interaction modality based on physiological signals and body channels (muscular activity, speech and gestures, etc.), BCIs are prone to errors in the recognition of subject's intent, and those errors can be frequent. Indeed, even well-trained subjects rarely reach 100 percent of success. In contrast to other interaction modalities, a unique feature of the brain channel is that it conveys both information from which we can derive mental control commands to operate a brain-actuated device as well as information about cognitive states that are crucial for a purposeful interaction, all this on the millisecond range. One of these states is the awareness of erroneous responses, which a number of groups have recently proposed as a way to improve the performance of BCIs. However, most of these studies propose the use of error-related potentials (ErrP) following an error made by the subject himself. This thesis first describes a new kind of ErrP, the so-called interaction ErrP, that are present in the ongoing EEG following an error of the interface and no longer errors of the subject himself. More importantly, these ErrP are satisfactorily detected no more in grand averages but at the level of single trials. Indeed, the classification rates of both error and correct single trials based on error-potentials detection are on average 80 percent. At this level it becomes possible to introduce a kind of automatic verification procedure in the BCI: after translating the subject's intention into a control command, the BCI provides a feedback of that command, but will not transfer it to the device if ErrP follow the feedback. Experimental results presented in this thesis confirm that this new protocol greatly increases the reliability of the BCI. Furthermore, this tool turns out to be of great benefit especially for beginners who normally reach moderate performances. Indeed, filtering out wrong responses increases the user's confidence in the interface and thus accelerates mastering the control of the brainactuated device. The second issue explored in this thesis is the practical integration of ErrP detection in a BCI. Indeed, providing a first feedback of the subject's intent, as recognized by the BCI, before eventually sending the command to the controlled device, induces additional information to process by the subject and may considerably slow down the interaction since the introduction of an automatic response rejection strongly interferes with the BCI. However, this study shows the feasibility of simultaneously and satisfactorily detecting erroneous responses of the interface and classifying motor imagination for device control at the level of single trials. The integration of an automatic error detection procedure leads to great improvements of the BCI performance. Another aspect of this thesis is to investigate the potential benefit of using neurocognitive knowledge to increase the classification rate of ErrP, and more generally the performance of the BCI. Recent findings have uncovered that ErrP are most probably generated in a deep fronto-central brain area called anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). This hypothesis is verified using a well-known inverse model called sLORETA. Indeed, the localization provided for ErrP shows clear foci of activity both in the ACC and the pre-supplementary motor area (pre-SMA). The localization results using the cortical current density (CCD) model are very similar and more importantly, this model outperforms EEG for ErrP classification. Thanks to its stability, this model is likely to be successfully used in a BCI framework. The ELECTRA model for estimating local field potentials is also tested, but classification and localization results using this method are not so encouraging. More generally, the work described here suggests that it could be possible to recognize in real time high-level cognitive and emotional states from EEG (as opposed, and in addition, to motor commands) such as alarm, fatigue, frustration, confusion, or attention that are crucial for an effective and purposeful interaction. Indeed, the rapid recognition of these states will lead to truly adaptive interfaces that customize dynamically in response to changes of the cognitive and emotional/affective states of the user.


Turning to lessons from foreign jurisdictions, this note explores from a copyright perspective the fact that photographs are produced mechanically and more often than not without any effort or mental input. A minute number are taken for anything but personal use and in the digital age photographs tend to have a high degree of mobility and are also ephemeral and without any commercial value. It is accordingly difficult to justify in general terms copyright protection for photographs. Two of the main legal issues in this context are the criteria for originality and the meaning of the reproduction of a photograph.  These two issues form the central point of discussion in this contribution.


In this monograph we develop a mathematical theory for a concurrent language based on angelic and demonic nondeterminism. An underlying model is defined with sets of sets of sequences of synchronization actions. A refinement relation is defined for the model, and equivalence classes under this relation are identified with processes. Processes, together with the refinement relation, form a complete distributive lattice.
We define a language with parallel composition, sequential composition, angelic and demonic nondeterminism, and an operator that connects pairs of synchronization actions into synchronization statements and hides these actions from observation. Also, angelic and demonic iteration are defined. All operators are monotonic with respect to the refinement ordering. Many algebraic properties are proven from these definitions. We study duals of processes and prove that they can be related to the most demonic environment in which a process will not deadlock. We give a simple example to illustrate the use of duals.
We study classes of programs for which angelic choice can be implemented by probing the environment for its next action. To this end specifications of processes are extended with simple conditions on the environment. We give a more elaborate example to illustrate the use of these conditions and the compositionality of the method.
Finally we briefly introduce an operational model that describes implementable processes only. This model mentions probes explicitly. Such a model may form a basis for a language that is less restrictive than ours, but that will also have less attractive algebraic properties.


How do innovation and education policy affect individual career choice and aggregate productivity? This paper analyzes the various layers that connect R&D subsidies and higher education policy to productivity growth. We put the development of scarce talent and career choice at the center of a new endogenous growth framework with individual-level heterogeneity in talent, frictions, and preferences. We link the model to micro-level data from Denmark and uncover a host of facts about the links between talent, higher education, and innovation. We use these facts to calibrate the model and study counterfactual policy exercises. We find that R&D subsidies, while less effective than standard models, can be strengthened when combined with higher education policy that alleviates financial frictions for talented youth. Education and innovation policies not only alleviate different frictions, but also impact innovation at different time horizons. Education policy is also more effective in societies with high income inequality.


The standard conception of executive branch legal review in the scholarship is a quasi-judicial Office of Legal Counsel ("OLC") dispensing formal, written opinions binding on the executive branch. That structure of executive branch legalism did have a brief heyday. But it obscures core characteristics of contemporary practice. A different structure of executive branch legalism—informal, diffuse, and intermingled in its approach to lawyers, policymakers, and political leadership—has gained new prominence. This Article documents, analyzes, and assesses that transformation. Scholars have suggested that the failure of OLC to constrain presidential power in recent publicized episodes means that executive branch legalism should become more court-like. They have mourned what they perceive to be a disappearing external constraint on the presidency. Executive branch legalism has never been an exogenous or external check on presidential power, however. It is a tool of presidential administration itself. Exploring changes in the structure of executive branch legal review sheds light on the shifting needs of the presidency, the role of law and lawyers in its institutional web, and the institutional variants of presidential control.


The hallmark of eukaryotic evolution was the development of the nucleus in
cells. This compartmentalization requires the nucleocytoplasmic transport of
thousands of molecules. The gate into and out of the nucleus is the nuclear pore
complex (NPC). One of the molecules that needs to be exported from the nucleus is
messenger RNA (mRNA). mRNA associates with proteins in the nucleus forming a
messenger ribonucleoprotein particle (mRNP). mRNPs bind to dedicated transport
factors that facilitate movement through the NPC. One protein that associates to
mRNPs is the helicase Dbp5, which belongs to the DEAD-box family of RNA
helicases. Dbp5 is essential for mRNA export in both yeast and humans. It binds
RNA and is concentrated and locally activated at the cytoplasmic side of the nuclear
pore complex, where it interacts with the cytoplasmic nucleoporin Nup214. In my PhD
work, I have determined the crystal structures of human Dbp5 bound to RNA and
AMPPNP, and bound to Nup214. I designed and performed in vitro assays, which
show that binding of Dbp5 to nucleic acid and to Nup214 is mutually exclusive. The
interactions are mediated by conserved residues, implying a conserved recognition
mechanism. These results suggest a framework for the consecutive steps leading to
the release of mRNA at the final stages of nuclear export. More generally, they
provide a paradigm for how binding of regulators can specifically inhibit DEAD-box
proteins.


Efficient market models cannot explain the high level of trading in financial markets in terms of asset portfolio adjustment. It is presumed that much of this excessive trading is irrational 'noise' trading. A corollary is that there must either be irrational traders in the market or rational traders with irrational aberrations. The paper reviews the various attempts to explain noise trading in the finance literature, concluding that the persistence of irrationality is not well explained. Data from a study of 118 traders in four large investment banks are presented to advance reasons why traders might seek to trade more frequently than financial models predict. The argument is advanced that trades do not simply occur in order to generate profit, but it does not follow that such trading is irrational. Trading may generate information, accelerate learning, create commitments and enhance social capital, all of which sustain traders' long term survival in the market. The paper treats noise trading as a form of operational risk facing firms operating in financial markets and discusses approaches to the management of such risk. Copyright Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2006.


Objective: To determine the extent of provision of clinical pharmacy services in Australian hospitals and documentation relating to these. Further, to evaluate the suitability of the information collected to demonstrate the benefits of these services. Method: The National Survey of Clinical Pharmacy Services (NSCPS) was undertaken during October 1995. A questionnaire was sent to 309 public and private hospitals which sought information on a range of clinical pharmacy services in major areas of clinical pharmacy practice. The information requested concerned the frequency of provision of the service and any specific information thought to demonstrate the benefits(s) of the service. Following review of responses to the questionnaire, pharmacy departments were identified for follow-up to obtain more detailed information on the type and extent of documentation available. This information was then used to make recommendations concerning the applicability of the available information within each clinical service for collation and further study. Results: The prevalence of clinical pharmacy services within four broad areas of clinical pharmacy practice based on data from 111 respondents, was: drug therapy monitoring, 96%; provision of drug information and education, 98%; drug utilisation reviews and evaluations, and the promulgation of therapeutic guidelines and protocols, 96%; and community liaison services, 78%. The type and extent of documentation relating to each clinical pharmacy service varied amongst hospitals. Conclusion: The survey demonstrated that clinical pharmacy services are common within Australian hospitals. Furthermore, documentation relating to these services was widespread. The nature of the documentation, however, varied amongst institutions. This variation limits the usefulness of the information for nation-wide collation and further study. There is a need to standardise the type of information collected for each clinical pharmacy service, in order to allow collation of information from multiple centres. (author abstract)


This report gives the description and the use of a specially designed aerodynamic plane table. For the accurate and expeditious geometrical measurement of models in an aerodynamic laboratory, and for miscellaneous truing operations, there is frequent need for a specially equipped plan table. For example, one may have to measure truly to 0.001 inch the offsets of an airfoil at many parts of its surface. Or the offsets of a strut, airship hull, or other carefully formed figure may require exact calipering. Again, a complete airplane model may have to be adjusted for correct incidence at all parts of its surfaces or verified in those parts for conformance to specifications. Such work, if but occasional, may be done on a planing or milling machine; but if frequent, justifies the provision of a special table. For this reason it was found desirable in 1918 to make the table described in this report and to equip it with such gauges and measures as the work should require.


Stream based languages are a popular approach to expressing parallelism in modern applications. The efficient mapping of streaming parallelism to multi-core processors is, however, highly dependent on the program and underlying architecture. We address this by developing a portable and automatic compiler-based approach to partitioning streaming programs using machine learning. Our technique predicts the ideal partition structure for a given streaming application using prior knowledge learned off-line. Using the predictor we rapidly search the program space (without executing any code) to generate and select a good partition. We applied this technique to standard StreamIt applications and compared against existing approaches. On a 4-core platform, our approach achieves 60% of the best performance found by iteratively compiling and executing over 3000 different partitions per program. We obtain, on average, a 1.90x speedup over the already tuned partitioning scheme of the StreamIt compiler. When compared against a state-of-the-art analytical, model-based approach, we achieve, on average, a 1.77x performance improvement. By porting our approach to a 8-core platform, we are able to obtain 1.8x improvement over the StreamIt default scheme, demonstrating the portability of our approach.


Here is a hard truth that many know, but few outside of the legal profession truly appreciate: personal preferences do not dictate constitutional meaning. Of course, there are substantial disagreements among judges over how best to interpret the Constitution, but these disagreements are primarily about process. Instead of arguing about which outcomes are more or less politically desirable, judges debate the analytical methods and types of evidence that should be used to derive meaning from the Constitution's provisions. And although some believe that the debate over methodology is merely a proxy for the debate over judicial outcomes, the decisions of our federal judiciary, viewed as a whole, suggest otherwise.
However, notwithstanding the legitimate methodological disagreements that exist in the judiciary, many of our politicians and talk show hosts often eschew analytical nuance for the "I believe it, so therefore it must be true" approach, treating constitutional interpretation as purely a matter of personal opinion. Trading discussion of interpretive methodology for platitudes such as "judicial activism" or "undemocratic," prominent commentators frequently seek justification for their own preferences rather than providing any substantive constitutional commentary. Not only is it dishonest, but it further entrenches the ideological divide in America and impedes an important discussion about how our Constitution should be interpreted.


Why do farm households inefficiently allocate resources across the plots they cultivate? We explore how these production inefficiencies relate to consumption decisions and information sharing within the household. In a lab-in-the-field experiment, male producers allocate too few inputs to their wife's plot, failing to maximize household aggregate profits. They do transfer more inputs when the returns from that plot are higher. Experimental manipulation of information on these returns triggers heterogeneous responses across households. We provide a theoretical framework that rationalizes these findings and further leads to sharp predictions. Joint contribution to a household public good compels spouses to make efficient production decisions. Only households who are in a separate-sphere regime experience inefficiency in farm production and are unable to effectively communicate on returns to avoid extra losses. Consistent with this framework, when we experimentally offer an ex post information verification mechanism, additional losses due to information asymmetries are prevented.


South African agriculture is a dualist agricultural system with well-developed commercial farmers and resource-poor smallholder farmers. In an effort to address the dualist nature of agriculture, the South African government has developed a strategic plan to assist smallholder farmers in entering commercial markets. The strategic plan aims to advance subsistence and smallholder farmers into commercial production through improved resource management for sustainable food security and
smallholder livelihood. However, the productivity of smallholder farmers continues to be very low compared with that of commercial farmers. Our aim was to compare tomato productivity for commercial and smallholder tomato farmers in the Nkomazi area (Mpumalanga Province) using a metafrontier analysis. We used an output-oriented data envelopment analysis metafrontier approach and the Tobit model to investigate smallholder and commercial farmers' technical efficiencies and related factors
which affect tomato production. Results indicate that smallholder farmers have high levels of technical efficiency compared to the group frontier (0.74), but they are less technically efficient compared to the metafrontier (0.51). The group efficiencies of the smallholder farmers also showed a large variation ranging from 3% to 100%, while commercial farmers have high levels of efficiency compared to both the group frontier (0.89) and the metafrontier (0.88). Results from the Tobit regression indicate that farmers' managerial decisions are an important determinant of their technical efficiency. We conclude that smallholder farmers first need to increase their level of technical efficiency relative to their peers before aiming to compete with commercial farmers.
Significance:
• Smallholder farmers should first improve their resource use efficiency compared to their fellow smallholder
farmers before they consider comparing themselves against the commercial farmers.


: The Kansas v. Hendricks (1997) decision, in which the Supreme Court authorized post-sentence civil commitment for certain sex offenders, appeared to be constitutionally le gitimized by limiting the class of offenders eligible for this special form of civil commitment to those who are "unable to control" their dangerousness. Nowhere in the available record, however, did the Court elucidate what they meant by this notion of volitional impairment. This study sought to examine factors that legal professionals ( n = 43), psychologists ( n = 40), and mock jurors ( n = 76) deem most relevant to a determination of sex offender volitional impair ment. Participants, who were randomly assigned to a sexual predator commitment or an insanity hearing context, read a series of 16 vignettes that described a pedophilic offender and included combinations of variables hypothesized to be related to judgments of volitional impairment. Re sults suggested that participants, who as a group made remarkably high estimates of likelihood of future sexual violence, considered verbalization of control, history of sexual violence, and the context of the hearing as highly relevant to determinations of volitional impairment. Implications for policy and practice are explored.


Many prior works investigated the potential of pervasive technologies and interactive applications to increase access capabilities to digital content for people with disability, particularly Neuro-Developmental Disorders (NDDs). In this paper, we present an exploratory study aimed at understanding if an avatar-based touchless gestural interface is able to foster interest towards digital representations of artworks, e.g. paintings or sculptures usually exhibited in museums, and to make them more accessible for such people. In particular, the study involved three autistic people and a therapist, and allowed us to report the potential of an avatar to communicate the interactivity and stimulate interaction with just a few directions to start, or not at all. We also shortly present and discuss some possible idea for future developments.


This study concerns the polymerization of propylene both in the presence and absence of molecular hydrogen. The percentage of hydrogen used as a terminating agent in the polymerization reactions was varied from 0.1 wt% to 15.0 wt% in order to compare a variety of polymers with different percentages of hydrogen incorporated. Two ansa metallocene catalysts were used: (A) rac-[ethylene bis(indenyl)] zirconium dichloride (rac-Et(Ind)2ZrCl2) and (B) dimethylsilyl-bis(2-methyl benzoindenyl) zirconium dichloride (rac-Me2Si(2-MeBenz[e]Ind)2ZrCl2). Methylaluminoxane (MAO) was used as cocatalyst for both of the two catalysts. Characterization of the polymers included using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) for information concerning the microstructure of the polymers, high temperature gel permeation chromatography (HT-GPC) for molecular weight and molecular weight distributions and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) to investigate the melting point and crystallization behaviour of the polymers. The polypropylenes prepared with the dimethylsilyl-bis(2-methyl benzoindenyl) zirconium dichloride catalyst system were compared to the polypropylenes synthesized with ethylene-bis(indenyl) zirconium dichloride. In particular, the effects of hydrogen on the microstructure, molecular weight, molecular weight distribution, melting point and crystallization behaviour were investigated.


Antagonistically actuated variable stiffness actuators (VSAs) take inspiration from biological muscle structures to control both the stiffness and positioning of a joint. This paper presents the design of an elastic mechanism that utilizes a cable running through a set of three pulleys to displace a linear spring, yielding quadratic spring behavior in each actuator. A joint antagonistically actuated by two such mechanisms yields a linear relationship between force and deflection from a selectable equilibrium position. A quasi-static model is used to optimize the mechanism. Testing of the fabricated prototype yielded a good match to the desired elastic behavior.


Since their discovery in 1991 and 1994 by Iijima, multi walled (MWCNTs) and single walled carbon
nanotubes (SWCNTs) have gained a lot of interest in the research community due to their unique
mechanical (higher tensile strength than stainless steel), optical (multiple excitonic transitions) and
electrical (intrinsic mobility of 105 cm2 V−1 s−1) properties. Being produced as black powder that
contains roughly 1/3 metallic and 2/3 semiconducting nanotubes along with residual catalytic
particles, carbon residues or defected nanotubes, it is important to further purify the raw nanotube
powder to obtain pristine nanotubes only that can be used to exploit these remarkable properties.
In order to incorporate SWCNTs as semiconducting channel material or as electrodes in
transistors, it is of great importance to separate SWCNTs based on their electronic properties.
Whereas, for optoelectronic applications, like photon emitters or solar cells it is necessary to sort
semiconducting SWCNTs into chirality pure fractions with unique absorption features, i.e. the
sorted nanotubes absorb at precise wavelengths (in the infrared, visible and UV). It is this ability to
select SWCNTs with desired optical gaps that make SWCNTs an interesting material that also
offers potential avenues to tailor or extend the light absorption within established solar cells.
Through careful combination of the appropriate chiralities, a close match to the solar spectrum
either in the visible or the infrared is possible.
To realize this vision of tailored light absorption, large amounts of purified, electronic type sorted
and chirality enriched SWCNTs are needed. In this thesis, an automated aqueous based gel
permeation chromatography (GPC) is used to sort milligrams of polymer-free single chirality
enriched nanotube material, where the exciton diffusion length is not limited by a wrapping
polymer. Depending on the temperature, surfactant concentration and eluent differently coloured
solutions are obtained that can be electronic type pure, chirality pure or a mixture of chiralities
and/or electronic types. In order to prevent internal shorts, SWCNTs employed in solar cells need
to obtain as little metallic nanotubes as possible. It is therefore crucial to easily and reliably
characterize the sorted nanotube solutions with respect to the contained chiralities and
semiconducting or metallic purity.
One way of realizing such a characterization is optical absorption spectroscopy. A MATLAB®
based program was developed throughout this thesis that is capable of addressing several issues
involved in optical absorption spectroscopy of solutions: different approaches for background
subtraction, the choice of different line profiles, the individual fit of the first or second transition (in
the infrared and visible, respectively) or both at the same time and the inclusion of metallic
nanotubes that allows for the evaluation of the metallic/semiconducting purity. Based on the
spectral weight of each nanotube species identified in solution, absorbance spectra of carbon
iv
nanotube films can be fitted, where overlapping peaks are decongested into individual nanotube
contributions.
Following the sorting and characterization of single chirality SWCNTs, large-area films of (6,5)
SWCNTs with uniform morphology are prepared using evaporation-driven self-assembly. The
obtained SWCNT films are incorporated in an organic solar via a transfer process developed
throughout this thesis that prevents the decomposition of hygroscopic layers in the solar cell. In
conjunction with C60 a bi-layer organic solar cell with an all carbon donor and acceptor pair is
formed. Transfer matrix calculations (TMCs) are employed to optimize the layer thicknesses of the
solar cell in order to match the light intensity at the nanotubes first optical transition (in the
infrared), their second transition (in the visible) or a combination thereof. The validity of this
approach is verified by a detailed parameter study resulting in cutting edge internal quantum
efficiency (IQE) of 86% through the nanotubes first transition.
Having established a reliable solar cell architecture resulting in large IQE values for small diameter
SWCNTs (large bandgap), the feasibility of preparing transparent organic solar cells from large
diameter SWCNTs (small bandgap) in combination with C60 is tested by preparing organic solar
cells from single chirality large diameter SWCNTs as well as mixtures of nanotubes with varying
diameters. By carefully decongesting film absorption spectra and associated external quantum
efficiency measurements, the nanotube diameter resulting in 0 % IQE is determined. Underlying
mechanisms of this limit are discussed and possible strategies to circumvent this cut-off are
presented in order to extend the absorption range beyond the (8,6) SWCNT with a diameter of
0.95 nm.


The Hindu Kush–Himalayan region is the source of 10 major rivers serving over 1.3 billion people. In spite of this abundance, mountain people have limited access to water for food, households and energy. Climate change is increasing the uncertainty about water availability and the frequency of extreme weather events. To buffer seasonal variations and address growing water demand, properly planned, developed and managed infrastructure and related institutional capacities are required. They should also recognize mountain-specific issues. Priority areas include transboundary water governance, cross-border information systems, an improved knowledge base for mountain regions, and benefit sharing between mountain and downstream communities.


In the last decade, public enforcement of the laws governing the U.S. financial system has received widespread attention, but neither policymakers, academics nor private institutions have produced a comprehensive overview and assessment of the public enforcement system for the U.S. financial system. This Report, Rationalizing Enforcement of the U.S. Financial System (the "Report"), attempts to do just that. While we make recommendations aimed at improving aspects of the enforcement system, the primary purpose of this Report is to lay out a succinct description for the public, policymakers, and others about how the enforcement system works.

The Report is divided into four chapters: Chapter 1: Enhancing the Structure of the U.S. Enforcement System – Improving Coordination and Procedural Fairness; Chapter 2: Rationalizing the Setting of Sanctions; Chapter 3: Ensuring Appropriate Use of Monetary Sanctions; and Chapter 4: Promoting Individual Accountability.

Chapter 1 describes the highly-fragmented structure of the U.S. public enforcement system and the potential for overlapping enforcement actions by multiple agencies resulting from the same underlying misconduct. We also describe the lack of laws and policies mandating coordination, with the DOJ's new anti-"piling on" policy being a recent exception, and separately, the discretion some agencies have to engage in forum shopping by unilaterally selecting the forum in which they bring enforcement actions. The chapter sets forth recommendations to formalize and standardize coordination policies and limit the ability of agencies to engage in forum shopping.

Chapter 2 sets forth the laws, rules and policies that guide and constrain the setting of monetary sanctions in enforcement actions. We explain that agencies generally have vast discretion in setting sanctions because statutes and policies provide limited practical constraints. We recommend that agencies develop core principles or guideposts to avoid arbitrary, inconsistent and disproportionate penalties. We then describe the byzantine approach many agencies take to publicly disclosing information about enforcement action outcomes and present our own data analysis on monetary sanctions over a 17-year period. The chapter concludes with recommendations for enhancing transparency of enforcement action outcomes.

Chapter 3 describes how monetary sanctions collected in enforcement actions are spent. In particular, the chapter describes the lack of public disclosure and sets forth recommendations to increase transparency and appropriately restrict the use of collected monetary sanctions.

Chapter 4 explores the issue of individual accountability. We find that while the government has significant legal and investigative tools to identify and hold culpable individuals and firms accountable, it can face more significant challenges with respect to individuals. We set forth recommendations that we believe will better enable enforcement authorities and firms to work together to identify culpable individuals and build successful cases against them.


Invasive species often encounter environmental conditions well outside those found in their native geographic ranges, and thus provide ideal model systems with which to explore responses to novel abiotic challenges. Within Australia, the invasive cane toad Rhinella marina has colonized areas that are considerably more arid than those found within its native range. Has the colonization of these novel environments been accompanied by shifts in physiology and/or locomotor performance? We measured rates of evaporative water loss, water gain, and effects of desiccation on locomotor performance of cane toads from two invasion fronts: one mesic (the wet-dry tropics) and one arid (the semi-desert). The two populations diverged substantially. Contrary to intuition (but consistent with intra-specific comparisons between other toad populations from mesic vs arid areas), rates of evaporative water loss were lower (not higher) in toads from the mesic population. However, arid-zone toads gained water more rapidly through their ventral surfaces, and rates of water loss and gain were highly correlated within individual toads from the arid-zone population. Rates of water exchange in laboratory-acclimated toads from the semi-arid zone did not differ from those of free-ranging conspecifics from the same population, suggesting that divergences between mesic and semi-arid toads reflect genetic changes that have occurred during the species' Australian invasion. Mesic and semi-arid toads showed similar locomotor performance (endurance, distance per hop) when fully hydrated, but locomotor performance declined much more rapidly with desiccation in the mesic toads. Thus, within the short (decades-long) timespan of the cane toad's Australian invasion, there has been substantial population divergence in the ability to withstand desiccating conditions. If we are to accurately predict the distributions (and hence impacts) of invading organisms, we will need to include adaptation potential in risk assessment schemes.


Prediction of snow drift is of importance for structure design and traffic management on snowy and windy prairie landscapes. The snow redistribution by wind is also regarded as one of the largest sources of error in hydrologic snowmelt models. In this study, a snow movement equation was generalized and customized for horizontal two‐dimensional watershed‐scale applications by incorporating snow transport, wind snow diffusion, and snow gravitational movement. Then, the snow surface diffusion process by wind turbulence was formulated in terms of the autocorrelation functions of the measurable wind velocity field using G.I. Taylor's theorem. However, analysis of the example wind data suggested a delta correlation in wind turbulent component that resulted from subtracting their moving average values from the original wind speed data. The dynamic model based on the proposed formulation was able to effectively reproduce the observed equilibrium snow profiles affected by wind drifting. A two‐dimensional model simulation using a 10 m digital elevation model in Muddy Gap, Wyoming was also presented for qualitative validation of the model in the watershed‐scale applications. Additionally, the theoretical extension for preferential snow accumulation process was presented in Appendix . These modeling results together with the observations on the prairie suggested the importance of the snow surface diffusion process in addition to the snow transport.


Reinforcement learning (RL) is a popular paradigm for addressing sequential decision tasks in which the agent has only limited environmental feedback. Despite many advances over the past three decades, learning in many domains still requires a large amount of interaction with the environment, which can be prohibitively expensive in realistic scenarios. To address this problem, transfer learning has been applied to reinforcement learning such that experience gained in one task can be leveraged when starting to learn the next, harder task. More recently, several lines of research have explored how tasks, or data samples themselves, can be sequenced into a curriculum for the purpose of learning a problem that may otherwise be too difficult to learn from scratch. In this article, we present a framework for curriculum learning (CL) in reinforcement learning, and use it to survey and classify existing CL methods in terms of their assumptions, capabilities, and goals. Finally, we use our framework to find open problems and suggest directions for future RL curriculum learning research.


In May 2019, Collection 2 of the Copernicus Global Land Cover layers was released. Next to a global discrete land cover map at 100 m resolution, a set of cover fraction layers is provided depicting the percentual cover of the main land cover types in a pixel. This additional continuous classification scheme represents areas of heterogeneous land cover better than the standard discrete classification scheme. Overall, 20 layers are provided which allow customization of land cover maps to specific user needs or applications (e.g., forest monitoring, crop monitoring, biodiversity and conservation, climate modeling, etc.). However, Collection 2 was not just a global up-scaling, but also includes major improvements in the map quality, reaching around 80% or more overall accuracy. The processing system went into operational status allowing annual updates on a global scale with an additional implemented training and validation data collection system. In this paper, we provide an overview of the major changes in the production of the land cover maps, that have led to this increased accuracy, including aligning with the Sentinel 2 satellite system in the grid and coordinate system, improving the metric extraction, adding better auxiliary data, improving the biome delineations, as well as enhancing the expert rules. An independent validation exercise confirmed the improved classification results. In addition to the methodological improvements, this paper also provides an overview of where the different resources can be found, including access channels to the product layer as well as the detailed peer-review product documentation.


What explains the rapid and sustained economic rise of Asian countries in high-technology industries, including biomedicals? The biomedical industry, comprised mainly of biopharmaceuticals and medical devices, is among the fastest growing globally and has been an economic-development target of national governments around the world. The book presents a conceptual framework to assess national government management of innovation and entrepreneurship in the fast-growing biomedical industry in Asia, which at current growth rates is on track to become the center of the world economy. Four Asian countries—China, India, Japan, and Singapore—are compared in terms of innovation capacities, government policy, and firm-level strategies underlying competitive advantages in high technology. The book argues that countries that pursue networked technonationalism have been effective in upgrading innovation capacity and also encouraging entrepreneurial activity in targeted industries. The study begins with a global-level analysis of biomedical innovation and entrepreneurship, identifying emerging concentrations of scientific citation, patenting, and firm creation—paying close attention to trends in Asian economies and future prospects. Findings indicate a gradual shift to Asian economies of many biomedical-innovation and new-business-creation activities. The book concludes with implications for innovation policy and entrepreneurship strategy in Asia and elsewhere.


ABSTRACT Current measures used to estimate the risks of toxic chemicals are not relevant to the goals of the environmental protection process, and thus ecological risk assessment (ERA) is not used as extensively as it should be as a basis for cost-effective management of environmental resources. Appropriate population models can provide a powerful basis for expressing ecological risks that better inform the environmental management process and thus that are more likely to be used by managers. Here we provide at least five reasons why population modeling should play an important role in bridging the gap between what we measure and what we want to protect. We then describe six actions needed for its implementation into management-relevant ERA.


This work examines the role and function that the protective principle plays in international criminal law as a whole. It also analyzes the systems of criminal jurisdiction in Sweden and the United States. Shorter analyses are also made of the Danish, Norwegian and British systems.