In this paper we have discussed everything about light fidelity (Li-Fi) like working principle, application, advantages, limitation etc. The comparison with Wi-Fi has also been discussed in latter part of paper. The fifth generation mobile communication technology (5G) has already being launched in different countries. The speculative study towards 6G technology has been started by many researchers. After 10 years or more than 10 years, we could assume that 6G might be the reason of the drastic change in the field of data speeds and mobile networks. For the successful deployment of 6g, LIFI technology will be come out as an effective solution for many industries. In the era of 6G technology, we will have more IoT devices, driverless car which enable road safety and new ways of health monitoring, here LIFI act as fundamental in 6G. LEDs bulbs of LIFI will help to serve thousands of applications in enabling smart cities and smart homes. In this paper we have studies how LIFI technology will help and support the 6th generation mobile communication technology.


Spatial planning, as stated in the 1983 Torremolinos Charter, should give a geographical expressionto the economic, social, cultural and ecological policies of society. As such, planning is animportant interdisciplinary action with which to shape the future of different communities andplaces. Spatial planning of today needs to take into account the current values of our society,which are expressed in many different documents and charters, both on international and nationallevel. One of such values is the understanding that development cannot happen at the expense ofhistory and culture. While the identification of valuable architecture in Estonia is relatively welldocumented, the same cannot be said about different cultural values present in landscapes. This isespecially evident in historic rural areas, where the architecture is but a small portion of whatmight make the area valuable. In many cases Estonian rural countryside still holds plan structureelements (e.g roads, the shape and size of the plots, placement of agricultural land in relation tothe farmyards) that can be traced back hundreds of years, thus playing an important role indetermining the character and milieu of the area. Unfortunately, since at the moment there is nocomprehensive overview on how to spot these elements, they are mostly left unnoticed. This isturn means that spatial planning and development carried out in the countryside mightunwittingly destroy important historic cultural layers. To bridge this evident gap in knowledge, thisarticle provides an example on how to use retrospective qualitative map analysis of historic mapsto determine how Estonian rural settlements have evolved and how their historic plan structureelements have survived into present day. The article summarises the types of historic maps thatare available in Estonia, giving overview of the reasoning behind their compilation and of theelements depicted. As a practical example this article uses the village of Hageri in Estonia to depictthe implementation of the method, pointing out how the different plan structure elements innowadays village have formed.


The irrational control of Dermanyssus gallinae ectoparasites (De Geer, 1778) in intensive livestock can cause health problems, economic damage, and can also toxicologically harm the health of humans and the environment. Formulation P 547/17 (Pulcap) is a new generation of inert matter (an oil). In Pulcap formulation and technology, the fulfilment of rigorous criteria for rational control of D. gallinae were tested and present in this paper. Those criteria are the following: the safety of the preparation (i.e. the preparation is non-toxic); the feasibility of application of the preparation in facilities, for handling transport cages, on used cages and equipment, as well as in inhabited buildings; the method of application - the preparation is applied by spray method (external application). The aim of the application was also considered. It is to make the control effective, on the condition that eradication is feasible. Then, the conditionality, which imply that the application of this preparation requires fulfilling hygienic conditions, break of production in facilities, a certain temperature and professional approach to it. The efficacy of the preparation is another important criterion. It implies that the clinical results of the application have been monitored in different conditions at different time intervals. It has been proven that there is no resistance to this preparation. The disadvantages of the preparations were also observed. It is the absence of prolonged action on absorbent surfaces, the delay in starting the egg bar and discharging, which increases contamination. The whole program / plan of long-term control has been developed. The cost-effectiveness of the product is the ratio of price and efficiency on an annual level. Eradication is the most economical method of controlling D. gallinae, which relieved farmers from all further costs. There is a great challenge for each type of D. gallinae control, especially the rational one. Reconsidering and further development of the approach of rational control is a way to improve the control of D. gallinae, which we want to encourage.


Current storage technologies can no longer keep pace with exponentially growing amounts of data. 1 Synthetic DNA offers an attractive alternative due to its potential information density of ~ 1018 B/mm3, 107 times denser than magnetic tape, and potential durability of thousands of years.2 Recent advances in DNA data storage have highlighted technical challenges, in particular, coding and random access, but have stored only modest amounts of data in synthetic DNA. 3,4,5 This paper demonstrates an end-to-end approach toward the viability of DNA data storage with large-scale random access. We encoded and stored 35 distinct files, totaling 200MB of data, in more than 13 million DNA oligonucleotides (about 2 billion nucleotides in total) and fully recovered the data with no bit errors, representing an advance of almost an order of magnitude compared to prior work. 6 Our data curation focused on technologically advanced data types and historical relevance, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in over 100 languages,7 a high-definition music video of the band OK Go,8 and a CropTrust database of the seeds stored in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.9 We developed a random access methodology based on selective amplification, for which we designed and validated a large library of primers, and successfully retrieved arbitrarily chosen items from a subset of our pool containing 10.3 million DNA sequences. Moreover, we developed a novel coding scheme that dramatically reduces the physical redundancy (sequencing read coverage) required for error-free decoding to a median of 5x, while maintaining levels of logical redundancy comparable to the best prior codes. We further stress-tested our coding approach by successfully decoding a file using the more error-prone nanopore-based sequencing. We provide a detailed analysis of errors in the process of writing, storing, and reading data from synthetic DNA at a large scale, which helps characterize DNA as a storage medium and justify our coding approach. Thus, we have demonstrated a significant improvement in data volume, random access, and encoding/decoding schemes that contribute to a whole-system vision for DNA data storage.


Biochar was used to replace inorganic fertilizers. Biochar was synthesized by the process of pyrolysis using horse dung (5kg) and dry grass (25kg) to check its effect on the growth of some local vegetables i.e. okra, beans, coriander and mint. These plants were kept in three different environments i.e. outdoor, indoor and greenhouse conditions. In each condition three replications were made for each plant and biochar was applied on them. Control plants (without biochar) were also grown in each condition. Parameters studied were pH, water holding capacity, ammonia, nitrates, chlorophyll content, fertility analysis, temperature and humidity, number of leaves, plant height and length of leaves. It was found that biochar showed positive result in growth of plants. Thus, it can be used as fertilizer.


This thesis presents the first critical edition of the Lay Folks' Catechism using the previously unpublished Oxford, Bodleian MS Don.c.13 as the base text. The list of extant witnesses is revised and includes the newly discovered Chetham Library fragment. The edition presents detailed manuscript descriptions, variants from all 26 witnesses, notes on the text and a comprehensive glossary. The introduction considers the roles of Archbishop Thoresby and the Benedictine John de Gaitrik in commissioning and composing the Catechism, and its sources and orthodoxy are confirmed. Scribal presentation of the text as verse or prose is re-examined in conjunction with Gaitrik's use of punctuation and various literary devices, and a new conclusion reached concerning the text's construction. The Catechism's distribution and circulation, its effectiveness as a didactic text, and the transition from northern clergy to non-secular ownership are discussed. The edition establishes the importance of the Catechism in late medieval vernacular pastoralia aimed at a pious lay audience


Selective Estrogen Receptor Modulators (SERMs) such as tamoxifen and raloxifene can reduce the occurrence of breast cancer in high risk women by approximately 50%. This presentation will describe the use of a genome-wide association study (GWAS) to identify novel genes associated with breast cancer risk during SERM prevention therapy. Those results were pursued by functional genomic experiments that defined mechanisms responsible for the associations observed during the GWAS. These observations not only moved "beyond biomarkers" to function and underlying mechanism, but they also provided novel insight into mechanisms responsible for individual variation in SERM response phenotypes. Citation Format: Richard Weinshilboum. SERM breast cancer pharmaco-genomics: Beyond biomarkers. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Eleventh Annual AACR International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research; 2012 Oct 16-19; Anaheim, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Prev Res 2012;5(11 Suppl):Abstract nr PL04-03.


One of the most pressing issues confronting antitrust in 2013 (and beyond) involves patent assertion entities ("PAEs"), previously known as patent trolls. Supporters proclaim PAEs' benefits to "invention markets." Critics lament extortion-like demands. Into this debate tiptoes antitrust, wondering if it can play any meaningful role. In this article, I offer six actions the antitrust agencies can take to address PAEs: (1) Offer guidance about potential harms from patent aggregation, (2) Promote transparency, (3) Prohibit transfers to PAEs that refuse to adhere to previous standards-based licensing promises, (4) Use PAEs' distinct incentives to employ Clayton Act Section 7 when "plus" factors are met, (5) Monitor collusive activity, and (6) Consider the use of FTC Section 5. Antitrust enforcement is crucial to the protection of consumers and a competitive marketplace. Even if certain PAEs can justify some of their conduct, that does not mean that all PAE activity is immune from antitrust scrutiny. For if it was so protected, then the most aggressive and unjustified behavior, undertaken by PAEs with the greatest market power and largest portfolios, and inflicting the greatest harm on rivals and consumers, would fall through the antitrust cracks. The novelty of PAE behavior ensures that the framework must be applied flexibly. But antitrust enforcement cannot automatically be shunned in a context that presents new and powerful opportunities to inflict anticompetitive harm.


Calculi with disjoint intersection types and a merge operator provide general mechanisms that can subsume various other features. Such calculi can also encode highly dynamic forms of object composition, which capture common programming patterns in dynamically typed languages (such as JavaScript) in a fully statically typed manner. Unfortunately, unlike many other foundational calculi (such as System F , System F<: or Featherweight Java), recent calculi with the merge operator lack a (direct) operational semantics with standard and expected properties such as determinism and subject-reduction. Furthermore the metatheory for such calculi can only account for terminating programs, which is a significant restriction in practice. This paper proposes a type-directed operational semantics (TDOS) for λi: a calculus with intersection types and a merge operator. The calculus is inspired by two closely related calculi by Dunfield (2014) and Oliveira et al. (2016). Although Dunfield proposes a direct small-step semantics for her calculus, her semantics lacks both determinism and subject-reduction. Using our TDOS we obtain a direct semantics for λi that has both properties. To fully obtain determinism, the λi calculus employs a disjointness restriction proposed in Oliveira et al.'s λi calculus. As an added benefit the TDOS approach deals with recursion in a straightforward way, unlike λi and subsequent calculi where recursion is problematic. To further relate λi to the calculi by Dunfield and Oliveira et al. we show two results. Firstly, the semantics of λi is sound with respect to Dunfield's small-step semantics. Secondly, we show that the type system of λi is complete with respect to the λi type system. All results have been fully formalized in the Coq theorem prover. 2012 ACM Subject Classification Theory of computation → Type theory; Software and its engineering → Object oriented languages; Software and its engineering → Polymorphism


This study presents a statistical and dimensional approach as a simple and efficient means to characterise the effects of individual mixture variables on the performance behaviour resulting from the laboratory tests of hot-mix asphalt (HMA) mixtures. The approach is to find the material and/or mixture variables that significantly affect the performance test results and to further assess the level of significance of variables, with the goal of improving the current understanding of HMA performance tests and their practical applications. To demonstrate the approach, two sets of asphalt pavement analyser (APA) test data from Nebraska and one set of data from Kentucky are statistically analysed based on the multiple linear regression technique. A dimensional analysis based on the Buckingham π-theorem is also performed, and the analysis results are compared with the statistical analysis results. Both analyses present comparable results in that the binder stiffness of HMA mixtures is the most significant variable affecting APA performance test results when the mixtures meet volumetric requirements.


SOMMARIO: 1. Cento anni di codificazione - 2. Il bisogno di flessibilita - 3. Varieta degli strumenti di flessibilizzazione - 4. I motivi della flessibilita - 5. Necessita - 6. Utilita - 7. Motivi teologici - 8. Flessibilita e codificazione - 9. La codificazione porta all'irrigidimento? - 10. La codificazione agevola i cambiamenti? - 11. Varie funzioni della flessibilizzazione - 12. Piano interpretativo, applicativo o legislativo? Does the Codification of Law affect its Flexibility? The Catholic Canon Law compared to other Religious Laws ABSTRACT: Epieikeia in Greek philosophy and aequitas in Roman law are ethical principles, which are open to a religious as well as a secular justification. They are part of the instruments of flexibility that make any legal tradition smooth and adaptable. Jewish and Islamic law as well as Catholic and Orthodox Canon Law apply different kinds of such instruments. A comparison of these legal systems leads to multiple observations: Some scholars, such as Max Weber, considered religious laws to be immutable. In fact, however, they ascribe great significance to flexibility, since they give priority to the spiritual development of individuals. Since many religions are unfamiliar with changes of law by means of legislation, they depend on methods of flexibility to adapt to new social situations. Even those religions, which do have legislation and even codifications, put particular emphasis on instruments of flexibility in order to apply general and abstract norms to individual cases in an appropriate manner.


Abstract:This study will consider the colonization process during the twelfth century in a new, previously undiscussed context. A frontier movement, involving expansion into and colonization of Wendish territories that had been little developed in terms of infrastructure in earlier times was accompanied by an intensification of crusading ideas from much more developed regions. This study deals with the German eastward expansion and colonization (in both theory and practice) across the Elbe in the twelfth century under the shadow of crusading ideology, as reflected in the so-called Magdeburg Letter of 1108. It also emphasizes lay colonization as one of the main factors in the process of the Europeanization of the Wends.


In Introduction to Mortgages & Mortgage Backed Securities, author Richard Green combines current practices in real estate capital markets with financial theory so readers can make intelligent business decisions. After a behavioral economics chapter on the nature of real estate decisions, he explores mortgage products, processes, derivatives, and international practices. By focusing on debt, his book presents a different view of the mortgage market than is commonly available, and his primer on fixed-income tools and concepts ensures that readers understand the rich content he covers. Including commercial and residential real estate, this book explains how the markets work, why they collapsed in 2008, and what countries are doing to protect themselves from future bubbles. Green's expertise illuminates both the fundamentals of mortgage analysis and the international paradigms of products, models, and regulatory environments. It is written for buyers of real estate, not mortgage lenders. It balances theory with increasingly complex practices of commercial and residential mortgage lending. It emphasizes international practices, changes caused by the 2008-11 financial crisis, and the behavioral aspects of mortgage decision making.


Abstract The recovery of tritium, T, from neutron-irradiated Li by a Y plate was experimentally investigated, and a Y hot trap was designed to remove T from a flowing Li target loop of IFMIF. T generated in Li ranging from 0.01 to 0.05ppm in molar fraction was successfully removed by a Y plate at 300-500°. The ratio of recovered T to generated one increased with temperature and immersion time. HT was the main chemical species of T that was released from Li, while HTO was the main one without Y absorption. SEM-EDX analysis revealed the transfer of not only T but also O originally included in Li as an impurity. Treatment of Y by HF was effective to remove oxides formed on the as-received Y plate and enhanced its hydrogenating rate. Conditions of a Y hot trap designed for the flowing Li target loop of IFMIF are given in the present paper.


Soil and groundwater samples in areas of oil spill in Ubeji settlement, Warri metropolis, Nigeria, were collected in order to determine the
 oil and grease, total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) and some related heavy metals in the samples. Control samples were taken from a low
 density residential area in Delta State (Ekrejeta in Abraka) which is relatively free from petroleum activities. The parameters were
 evaluated in order to determine the quality of the soil and groundwater of Ubeji settlement, as a follow up on an earlier research
 conducted on the surface water and sediment of the settlement's river. This research is so important because the local population uses the
 soil and water resources for agricultural and domestic purposes. Measurements of oil and grease and TPH in samples were done gravimetrically,
 while atomic absorption spectrophotometry was used for determination of heavy metals. For oil and grease and TPH, the soil had mean concentrations of 1064.90 ± 7.70 and 579.10 ± 9.30 mg kg-1, respectively, while groundwater had 315.15 ± 11.60 and 28.70 ± 1.30 mg L-1, respectively. Mean heavy metal concentration of the soil and groundwater varied between 0.30 ± 0.01 to 215.49 ± 25.33 mg kg-1 and 0.03 ± 0.01 to 3.05 ± 0.07 mg L-1, respectively. These values reveal that the investigated samples had higher levels of oil and grease, TPH and heavy metals than the control samples and regulatory standard limits. This however, is an indication of pollution of soil and groundwater of the settlement by petroleum hydrocarbons.


IMPORTANCE
Informal caregivers often receive limited training and support, especially in providing assistance with toileting, a physically and emotionally demanding activity of daily living. This increases caregivers' risk for physical injury and burnout and jeopardizes older adults' ability to age in place.

OBJECTIVE
To assess the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of a toileting intervention using an automated bidet to reduce the amount of physical assistance required from caregivers.

DESIGN
Randomized wait-list control feasibility study.

SETTING
Caregiver's home.

PARTICIPANTS
Ten informal caregivers.

INTERVENTION
An occupational therapy intervention to educate and train caregiving dyads to use an automated bidet system. Outcomes and Measures: Feasibility was measured in terms of recruitment and retention, bidet installation, ability to operate the bidet, acceptability (a process evaluation), preliminary efficacy (physical barriers and impact on caregiver outcomes of performance, satisfaction, and self-efficacy), and adverse events.

RESULTS
All bidets were installed successfully. All caregivers reported that the intervention made toileting easier and increased their confidence. Physical barriers decreased for the treatment group. The bidet had a large effect on self-efficacy for the treatment group.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE
The results suggest that the automated bidet intervention is feasible and acceptable and can have a positive impact on caregiver outcomes when assisting with toileting. What This Article Adds: A toileting intervention using an automated bidet is feasible and acceptable for caregivers of older adults and can reduce the amount of physical assistance required from caregivers.


The classic approach to image matching consists in the detection, description and matching of keypoints. In the description, the local information surrounding the keypoint is encoded. This locality enables affine invariant methods. Indeed, smooth deformations caused by viewpoint changes are well approximated by affine maps. Despite numerous efforts, affine invariant descriptors have remained elusive. This has led to the development of IMAS (Image Matching by Affine Simulation) methods that simulate viewpoint changes to attain the desired invariance. Yet, recent CNN-based methods seem to provide a way to learn affine invariant descriptors. Still, as a first contribution, we show that current CNN-based methods are far from the state-of-the-art performance provided by IMAS. This confirms that there is still room for improvement for learned methods. Second, we show that recent advances in affine patch normalization can be used to create adaptive IMAS methods that select their affine simulations depending on query and target images. The proposed methods are shown to attain a good compromise: on the one hand, they reach the performance of state-of-the-art IMAS methods but are faster; on the other hand, they perform significantly better than non-simulating methods, including recent ones. Source codes are available at https://rdguez-mariano.github.io/pages/adimas.


Subject of research is to study the performance of the employee. The performance, namely the relationship between time spent on performance and achievement, helps to define the fulfilment of employee's obligation: the work is not likely to satisfy the interest of the employer if it does not produce an utility. The majority doctrine denies that performance has a significance of its own in employer-employee relationship: according to the majority orientation performance is part of the obligation to diligence as defined in article 2104 of the Civil Code. Instead, examining the cause of the employment contract and the relationship between diligence and performance, research has led to the conclusion that the performance is one of the elements of opinion as to the accuracy of the service that finds its legal basis, not in the obligation to diligence, but in the obligation to collaboration, enshrined in article 2094 of the Civil Code that requires the employee must cooperate by carrying out a profit.
Starting from the study of case law on a lack of performance I have examined its consequences in the employer-employee relationship.
Finally, research has deepened the study of performance as a parameter for determining pay in order to reward the employee who stands out for its productivity.


Transportation systems are designed to help people participate in activities distributed over space and time. Accessibility indicates the collective performance of land use and transportation systems and determines how well that complex system serves its residents. This research project comprises three main tasks. The first task reviews the literature on accessibility and its performance measures with an emphasis on measures that planners and decision makers can understand and replicate. The second task identifies the appropriate measures of accessibility, where accessibility measures are evaluated in terms of ease of understanding, accuracy and complexity, while the third task illustrates these accessibility measures. During this process a new accessibility measure named "Place Rank" is introduced as an accurate measure of accessibility. In addition, several previously-defined accessibility measures are reviewed and demonstrated in this report including "cumulative opportunity" and "gravity-based" measures. The "gravity-based" measure is widely used in the literature yet "cumulative opportunity" tends to be easier to understand and interpret by the public, planners, and administrators. A major contribution of this research is the comparison of accessibility measures over time and among various modes. Effects of accessibility on home sales are also tested. Homebuyers pay a premium to live near jobs and away from competing workers. Accessibility promises to be a useful tool for monitoring the land use and transportation system, and assessing and valuing the benefits of proposed changes to either land use or networks.


We demonstrate a simple method for achieving high-performance subphthalocyanine (SubPc)/C70 bi-layer organic photovoltaic (OPV) devices through the changing of the C70 thickness. The optical and electrical properties of the OPV devices were decoupled and could be individually manipulated to obtain a significantly increased short-circuit current density (JSC) without reducing the open-circuit voltage and the fill factor. The thickness-independent electrical property of the C70 layer was systematically studied in terms of the dark currents of the OPV devices and the carrier mobilities of the organic layers; the results indicate that the considerable difference in mobility between SubPc and C70 is not detrimental, while the optical-field distribution can be optimized by tuning the C70 thickness. The power conversion efficiency was improved from 2.7 to 4.2% by optimizing the C70 thickness. The optical effect upon the change in the C70 thickness was thoroughly investigated by calculating the optical-field profile and the power dissipation inside the OPV devices on the basis of the transfer matrix method. The calculated results suggest that the optical-field intensity is insufficient in predicting the trend in JSC. Instead, the power dissipation involving the absorption properties of materials and the optical-field distribution of OPV devices can provide deeper insight into the optical condition and indicates the importance of optimizing the film thickness in bi-layer OPV devices.


Current and upcoming demand-response systems provide increasingly detailed power-consumption data to utilities and a growing array of players angling to assist consumers in understanding and managing their energy use. The granularity of this data, as well as new players' entry into the energy market, creates new privacy concerns. The detailed per-household consumption data that advanced metering systems generate reveals information about in-home activities that such players can mine and combine with other readily available information to discover more about occupants' activities. The authors explore the technological aspects of this claim, focusing on the ways in which personally identifying information can be collected and repurposed. Their results show that, even with relatively unsophisticated hardware and data-extraction algorithms, some information about occupant behavior can be estimated with a high degree of accuracy. The authors propose a disclosure metric to aid in quantifying the impact of data collection on in-home privacy and construct an example metric for their experiment.


The support vector machine (SVM) algorithm is well known to the computer learning community for its very good practical results. The goal of the present paper is to study this algorithm from a statistical perspective, using tools of concentration theory and empirical processes. Our main result builds on the observation made by other authors that the SVM can be viewed as a statistical regularization procedure. From this point of view, it can also be interpreted as a model selection principle using a penalized criterion. It is then possible to adapt general methods related to model selection in this framework to study two important points: (1) what is the minimum penalty and how does it compare to the penalty actually used in the SVM algorithm; (2) is it possible to obtain ``oracle inequalities'' in that setting, for the specific loss function used in the SVM algorithm? We show that the answer to the latter question is positive and provides relevant insight to the former. Our result shows that it is possible to obtain fast rates of convergence for SVMs.


Importance
Women experience worse ischemic and bleeding outcomes after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).

Objectives
To assess the association of sex with patient outcomes at 2 years after contemporary PCI and with the efficacy and safety of 2 antiplatelet strategies.

Design, Setting, and Analysis
This study is a prespecified subgroup analysis of the investigator-initiated, prospective, randomized GLOBAL LEADERS study evaluating 2 strategies of antiplatelet therapy after PCI in an unselected population including 130 secondary/tertiary care hospitals in different countries. The main study enrolled 15 991 unselected patients undergoing PCI between July 2013 and November 2015. Patients had an outpatient clinic visit at 30 days and 3, 6, 12, 18, and 24 months after the index procedure. Data were analyzed between January 1, 2019, and March 31, 2019.

Interventions
Eligible patients were randomized to either the experimental or reference antiplatelet strategy. Experimental strategy consisted of 1 month of dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) followed by 23 months of ticagrelor monotherapy, while the reference strategy comprised of 12 months of DAPT followed by 12 months of aspirin monotherapy.

Main Outcomes and Measures
The primary efficacy end point was the composite of all-cause mortality and new Q-wave myocardial infarction at 2 years. The secondary safety end point was Bleeding Academic Research Consortium type 3 or 5 bleeding.

Results
Of the 15 968 patients included in this study, 3714 (23.3%) were women. The risk of the primary end point at 2 years was similar between women and men (adjusted hazard ratio [HR], 1.00; 95% CI, 0.83-1.20). Compared with men, women had higher risk of Bleeding Academic Research Consortium type 3 or 5 bleeding (adjusted HR, 1.32; 95% CI, 1.04-1.67) and hemorrhagic stroke at 2 years (adjusted HR, 4.76; 95% CI, 1.92-11.81). At 2 years, there was no between-sex difference in the efficacy and safety of the 2 antiplatelet strategies. At 1 year, compared with DAPT, ticagrelor monotherapy was associated with a lower risk of bleeding in men (HR, 0.72; 95% CI, 0.53-0.98) but not in women (HR, 1.23; 95% CI, 0.80-1.89; P for interaction = .045).

Conclusions and Relevance
Compared with men, women experienced a higher risk of bleeding and hemorrhagic stroke after PCI. The effect of 2 antiplatelet strategies on death and Q-wave myocardial infarction following PCI did not differ between the sexes at 2 years.

Trial Registration
ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01813435.


This paper presents a data hiding scheme that hides the data in the compression domain of a digital image. The pattern-based compression algorithm used for hiding the information, compresses the image according to the visual activity of individual image blocks. The key point of the proposed scheme is to first identify the smooth area of the host image and then embed the data in these areas. Experimental results confirm that the proposed scheme can embed a large amount of data in the compressed file while maintaining satisfactory image quality.


OBJECTIVES: For singletons with cerebral palsy (CP) who were born at term, the goals were (1) to determine the proportion not admitted to a Special Care Unit/NICU (NICU), (2) to compare clinical descriptions of those admitted to NICUs and those not admitted, and (3) to identify neonatal predictors of CP among those not admitted to a NICU. METHODS: A total-population case- (N = 442) control (N = 468) study of, singleton, term-born infants with CP, as ascertained from the Western Australian Cerebral Palsy Register, was performed. RESULTS: All types of CP were represented among the 67% of term infants with CP (N = 295) who were not admitted to a NICU, which also included 54% of the subjects with the most severe impairments. Independent neonatal predictors were abnormalities of tone (odds ratio [OR]: 7.3 [95% confidence interval [CI]: 2–26.8]), temperature regulation (OR: 4.1 [95% CI: 1.2–14]), consciousness (OR: 3.7 [95% CI: 2–7]), and fontanelles (OR: 4.4 [95% CI: 0.8–23]), requirement for resuscitation (OR: 2.9 [95% CI: 2.2–12.9]), and birth defects (OR: 5.1 [95% CI: 2.4–10]). The risk of CP increased with the number of factors, but 58% of subjects who were not admitted to a NICU exhibited none of these factors. CONCLUSIONS: Neonatal predictors of CP among term infants not admitted to a NICU were identified. However, 39% of all term singletons with CP were not admitted to a NICU and exhibited none of these predictors.


Wine grape must deal with serious problems due to the unfavorable climatic conditions resulted from global warming. High temperatures result in oxidative damages to grape vines. The excessive elevated temperatures are critical for grapevine productivity and survival and contribute to degradation of grape and wine quality and yield. Elevated temperature can negatively affect anthocyanin accumulation in red grape. Particularly, cv. Sangiovese was identified to be very sensitive to such condition. The quantitative real-time PCR analysis showed that flavonoid biosynthetic genes were slightly repressed by high temperature. Also, the heat stress repressed the expression of the transcription factor "VvMYBA1" that activates the expression of UFGT. Moreover, high temperatures had repressing effects on the activity of the flavonoids biosynthetic enzymes "PAL" and "UFGT".Anthocyanin accumulation in berry skin is due to the balance between its synthesis and oxidation. In grape cv. Sangiovese, the gene transcription and activity of peroxidases enzyme was elevated by heat stress as a defensive mechanism of ROS-scavenging. Among many isoforms of peroxidases genes, one gene (POD 1) was induced in Sangiovese under thermal stress condition. This gene was isolated and evaluated via the technique of genes transformation from grape to Petunia. Reduction in anthocyanins concentration and higher enzymatic activity of peroxidase was observed in POD 1 transformed Petunia after heat shock compared to untrasformed control. Moreover, in wine producing regions, it is inevitable for the grape growers to adopt some adaptive strategies to alleviate grape damages to abiotic stresses. Therefore, in this thesis, the technique of post veraison trimming was done to improve the coupling of phenolic and sugar ripening in Vitis vinifera L. cultivar Sangiovese. Trimming after veraison showed to be executable to slow down the rate of sugar accumulation in grape (to decrease the alcohol potential in wines) without evolution of the main berry flavonoids compounds.


Loss of an exclusive government contract may bring short-term pain, but the bank has an otherwise enviable position smack in the middle of increased card usage by corporations and government agencies Under the hood of U.S. Bancorp hums a formidable bank card franchise. This $74 billion banking corporation headquartered in Minneapolis is the largest issuer of purchasing cards, the biggest provider of Visa travel and entertainment cards, and a hefty issuer of Visa credit cards. To these product lines it adds an owned-and-operated merchant processing unit, plus nearly 5,000 automated teller machines. The result is an $800 million-a-year payment systems business, currently yielding a 22.5% net margin and a 2.4% return on assets. Millions of digital payments flow daily through its electronic networking technologies on behalf of corporations, retailers, and government agencies. In fact, much of U.S. Bancorp's purchasing card business has come from federal agencies, where it had a monopoly. But this year, Washington introduced something new: competition, and the bank saw its share reduced to 24% of a bigger pie. Despite this setback, the bank is positioned enviably--and at a particularly auspicious time. Use of cards by employees of companies and government agencies to buy supplies and pay expenses is growing fast. Their allure to the organizational buyer is chiefly the efficient electronic remittance and expense record that cards provide. Virtually paperless, cards eliminate purchase orders, invoices, payment vouchers, and checks. A purchasing card system also has the potential to connect with other electronic treasury, accounting, and purchasing systems. Naturally, banks want to be part of this and purchasing cards are a way in. Allure of purchasing cards To end users, a purchasing card works like a credit card, but without the revolving credit (beyond a one-month "float"). A company or government agency gives an employee a purchasing card to pay for travel expenses or purchase supplies and other low-ticket items. Most of these card charges are under $2,500. The card issuer authorizes each transaction at point of purchase. That is when the card-using organization's limits are enforced for characteristics such as price, type of item purchased, and, often, which "authorized" supplier is used. Purchase card pricing follows credit card practice except that because purchasing cards are nonrevolving, issuers make money from annual cardholder fees and from interchange fees. On the merchant side, the merchant's bank--often in combination with a technology company like First Data Corp, Total Processing Systems, or U.S. Bancorp's own merchant processing unit--earns revenue from the merchant discount. Over time, credit card transaction fees have shrunk as competition has increased and technology and volume have driven unit costs down. When the first credit card, Diners Club, was introduced in 1949, transaction costs were between 5% to 10% of the purchase price. Restaurateurs paid it all, and waited a month to receive payment. A raw deal? Perhaps. But once restaurateurs discovered that Diners Club was more than a customer service, that it could be a powerful marketing mechanism, they caught on. Purchasing cards reach maturity American Express, a legendary marketer, for years rode this concept, and still does on its charge cards-positioning itself as a service-oriented company for upscale, status-conscious, card holders. The company has traditionally charged merchants twice as much in transaction fees as Visa or Mastercard. In corporate purchasing and travel cards, American Express has long led-- in fact created--this market. Because of its merchant relationships, American Express had a socalled "closed-loop" of information--a closed warehouse of data between sellers and buyers. With that information, American Express was in a position to help its corporate or government card holders make volume deals with special, "authorized" suppliers, thus giving American Express an edge. …


The purposes of this paper are to describe some conceptual and empirical foundations of "healthy-time" measures of health outcomes or healthcare quality, and to explore how to expand the empirical opportunities for measuring such outcomes using U.S. national survey data. To these ends, the paper provides an overview of Grossman's seminal health production framework, surveys some of the healthy-time outcome/quality measures in use across a variety of contexts and applications, explores how data from the U.S. Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) might be used to develop ongoing healthy-time measures for U.S. samples, describes an econometric strategy for studying such outcomes, and presents estimates of regression models describing two sets of healthy-time outcome measures obtained from 2011 and 2012 MEPS data.


Northern Hemisphere (NH) temperature records from a palaeoclimate reconstruction and a number of millennium-long climate model experiments are investigated for long-range memory (LRM). The models are two Earth system models and two atmosphere–ocean general circulation models. The periodogram, detrended fluctuation analysis and wavelet variance analysis are applied to examine scaling properties and to estimate a scaling exponent of the temperature records. A simple linear model for the climate response to external forcing is also applied to the reconstruction and the forced climate model runs, and then compared to unforced control runs to extract the LRM generated by internal dynamics of the climate system. The climate models show strong persistent scaling with power spectral densities of the form S(f ) ⇠ f with 0.8< < 1 on timescales from years to several centuries. This is somewhat stronger persistence than found in the reconstruction ( ⇡ 0.7). We find no indication that LRM found in these model runs is induced by external forcing, which suggests that LRM on sub-decadal to century time scales in NH mean temperatures is a property of the internal dynamics of the climate system. Reconstructed and instrumental sea surface temperature records for a local site, Reykjanes Ridge, are also studied, showing that strong persistence is found also for local ocean temperature.


1. Airways resistance and lung volume were measured in twenty-five patients with chronic bronchitis and fifteen patients without chest disease before and after the inhalation of isoprenaline. Similar measurements were made on fourteen of these patients with chronic bronchitis and twelve other patients without chest disease before and after the intravenous injection of atropine sulphate. 2. There were significant decreases in airways resistance after isoprenaline inhalation and intravenous atropine both in patients with bronchitis and normal subjects but the decreases were greater in the patients with chronic bronchitis. 3. The decrease in resistance was proportional to the degree of initial airways resistance. 4. The results are considered to indicate that bronchial muscle contraction increases the airways resistance of patients with chronic bronchitis and contributes to the airways obstruction; its contribution increases with increasing severity of the condition. A significant part of the increased airways resistance in these patients is potentially reversible and nervously mediated.


Background : The Slovak Republic joined the European Union (EU) on May 1st 2004. The public health system of the country is under continuous transition including public health education and training. The aim of the presented paper is to describe and discuss how far the transition of public health education of the country went during last time period. Methods : Web site review, documentation search and curriculum content analysis were the main methods employed within presented paper. Results : There are 7 universities offering public health education on bachelor, master and doctoral level. Among them 6 could be found in list of accredited universities of the Ministry of Education by Accreditation Committee of the Government of the Slovak Republic. The three levels of education are fully harmonized with the Bologna principles. The Accreditation Committee of the Government of the Slovak Republic describes very detailed aims of a public health education program including recommended study subjects. Universities add to additional, mostly clinical medicine or hygiene subjects to recommend study subjects leaving likely very little time for research at universities. Conclusions : Despite large progress further effort is needed to clarify what is public health, what kind of subject should be included in curricula and on introduction of public health research at universities.


A study of human urine taken from the subjects living in the impact zone of Beloyarskaya Nuclear Power Station (the town Zarechny) was carried out. In all the cases the dependence of tritium concentration in the urine on the tritium concentration in the drinking water was revealed. A highly valid correlation relationship was established between the parameters under study (the correlation coefficient was 0.98, with the significance level being 0.007). The values of individual doses for the population were calculated. The values for the doses varied in the range of 0.32-1.2, taking into account the fresh water consumption of 100 l/month (according to the norms of the drinking water consumption for the region under study), which amounted to 0.032- 0.12% of the dose limit for the population (1 mSv/year). The radionuclide entering the organism of the people living in the given region was established to predominantly originate from the drinking water. The obtained values were considerably lower than the action level for tritium given in the Radiation Safety Standards-99/2009, its value being 7600 Bq/l.


The aim of this paper is to review current research on materials and methods that can be incorporated within local environment and building design concepts to mitigate noise due to deliveries. The use of innovative materials, design and master planning to minimise noise are presented in three main areas: a) The source of the noise issues, informed by complaints and looking into which stages of delivery and aspects of delivery lead to noise issues; b) Existing good practice guidance; and c) Current technologies and innovative solutions. Quiet technologies and equipment used for the reduction of vehicle noise are outside the scope of this review. Suggestions on
the applicability of the various solutions to the control of impacts from delivery noise are offered. A summary of the generic solutions is included, together with a discussion of case studies where available. The findings indicate that fundamental research and development is required to create specific technologies to generate options for embedding noise reduction materials and processes into street and building design for the mitigation of impacts of noise from deliveries.


Inspiring, outrageous...A thundering paradox of a man. Douglas MacArthur, one of only five men in history to have achieved the rank of General of the United States Army. He served in World Wars I, II, and the Korean War, and is famous for stating that "in war, there is no substitute for victory." AMERICAN CAESAR exaines the exemplary army career, the stunning successes (and lapses) on the battlefield, and the turbulent private life of the soldier-hero whose mystery and appeal created a uniquely American legend.


In this study I examine a translation of the oral Ant Songs from �Akimel �O�odham (Pima) to English, emphasizing the way obstacles to translation transfigure how they are rendered as literary works. An analysis of their performance, language, cultural codes, and orality illuminate a highly ambiguous territory. The study of this and other translations of orature, including the difficulties they give rise to, can enrich our understanding of literature as well as translation


Climate change has the potential to impact groundwater availability in several ways. For example, it may cause farmers to change the crops they plant or the amount of water they apply, both of which have implications for water availability. Climate change also affect water availability directly by changes in precipitation and evapotranspiration patterns. In this paper, we analyze the effects of changes in temperature, precipitation, and humidity on groundwater extraction for agriculture using an econometric model of a farmer's irrigation water pumping decision that accounts for both the intensive (water use) and extensive margins (crop acreage). Our research focuses on the groundwater used for agriculture in the High Plains (Ogallala) Aquifer system of the Midwestern United States. We find that changes in climate variables will influence crop selection decisions, crop acreage allocation decisions, technology adoption, and the demand for water by farmers. We also find that such changes in behavior can affect the diversity of crops planted, potentially impacting agricultural biodiversity.


Background: the primary site of injury in glaucoma is likely to be at the lamina cribrosa (LC),
deep within the optic nerve head (ONH). Optical coherence tomography (OCT) in glaucoma has,
to date, focused on the detection of nerve fibre loss. Spectral domain OCT (SDOCT) has
improved speed and axial resolution, allowing acquisition of three-dimensional ONH volumes and
may capture targets deep within the ONH. This thesis explores the capabilities and potential of
deep SDOCT imaging in the monkey ONH.
Plan of research: an investigation was conducted into the detection of key landmarks that would
be necessary for future quantification strategies. In particular, detection of the neural canal
opening (NCO) was assessed and how the NCO relates to what is clinically identified as the disc
margin. The next phase involved clarifying the anatomical and histological basis of ONH
structures observed within SDCOT volumes, by comparison with histological sections and disc
photographs. Finally, quantification strategies for novel parameters based on deep targets were
developed and used to detect chronic longitudinal changes in experimental glaucoma and acute
changes following IOP manipulation.
Results: SDOCT reliably detects the NCO, which can be used as an anchoring structure for
reference planes. Usually the NCO equates to the disc margin but disc margin architecture can
be complex and highly variable. SDOCT captures the prelaminar tissue and anterior LC surface.
Prelaminar thinning and posterior LC displacement were both detected longitudinally in
experimental glaucoma. Prelaminar thinning was observed with acute IOP elevation; posterior LC
movement was rare.
Significance: deep ONH structures, including the LC, are realistic targets for clinical imaging.
These imaging targets may be useful in the detection of glaucoma progression and in the
verification of ex-vivo models of ONH biomechanical behaviour.


This thesis deals with the perception and reaction of people on low frequency noise (LFN) and
the correlation with the objective and subjective measurements. LFN is a common noise type in the
normal life, it has been studied a lot and researchers found physiological and psychological
effects on people. There are many national standards and methods to measure and evaluate LFN, but
the LFN complainants and problems are still increasing and many aspects about LFN are still not
clear.
Firstly, the indirect method is introduced and proves the feasibility of using additional
components to reduce the annoyance caused by LFN. A pilot EEG test indicates that EEG is a useful
tool to observe the brain reaction to LFN. After that several subjective listening tests are made
for LFN sufferers and subjects with different personality traits, such as noise sensitivity, mental
performance, and stress situation and so on, to find out whether they have different perceptions
and reactions on LFN related signals. And EEG is recorded during these listening tests to observe
the corresponding brain reactions . The analysis results show that pink noise (PN) is a suitable
component to combine with LFN to reduce the annoyance for subjects with high general noise
sensitivity. Adding extra PN is found as a loudness decreasing effect for LFN sufferers and
subjects with relative high stress levels.
The calculation of the listening test results and EEG data reveal the relations between subjective
annoyance value (SAV) and the power change of EEG bands in different brain function areas. When
there is only LFN related auditory stimulus, SAV shows a positive correlation with the relative
power spectral density (RPSD) of Theta band at the brain function area of dealing with auditory
stimuli, and a negative relation with RPSD of Beta band at the area for emotional content and
auditory imagery. There are signals comprised of both visual information and auditory stimuli in
the wind turbines test, besides the above relationships, a positive correlation between SAV and
RPSD of Thetal band at the position related to the function of processing emotional stimuli is also
found.
The other part of this thesis is to use psychoacoustic parameters as the variables to simulate and
predict the subjective feelings caused by LFN related signals. The linear regression and curve
estimation calculation in SPSS shows that the evaluated loudness caused by LFN related signals can
be predicted well with the psychoacoustic Loudness in linear or quadratic form. And the predicting
results for SAV are various and depend on the type of the LFN signals. Psychoacoustic annoyance and
the maximum value of the Fluctuation Strength are found more suitable to predict the annoyance
reaction. Different personality traits show certain degrees of effects on the form and variable of
the prediction. There is no significant result found for LFN sufferers in my tests, however,
experiment with larger amount of this special subject group should be investigated in the future.


Coordinated interplay of the microtubule and actin cytoskeletons has long been known to be crucial for many cellular processes including cell migration and cytokinesis. However, interactions between these two systems have been difficult to document by conventional approaches, for a variety of technical reasons. Here the distribution of f-actin and microtubules were analyzed in the absence of fixation using Xenopus egg extracts as an in vitro source of microtubules and f-actin, demembranated Xenopus sperm to nucleate microtubule asters, fluorescent phalloidin as a probe for f-actin, and fluorescent tubulin as a probe for microtubules. F-actin consistently colocalized in a lengthwise manner with microtubules of asters subjected to extensive washing in flow chambers. F-actin-microtubule association was heterogenous within a given aster, such that f-actin is most abundant toward the distal (plus) ends of microtubules, and microtubules heavily labeled with f-actin are found in close proximity to microtubules devoid of f-actin. However, this distribution changed over time, in that 5 minute asters had more f-actin in their interiors than did 15 minute asters. Microtubule association with f-actin was correlated with microtubule bending and kinking, while elimination of f-actin resulted in straighter microtubules, indicating that the in vitro interaction between f-actin and microtubules is functionally significant. F-actin was also found to associate in a lengthwise fashion with microtubules in asters centrifuged through 30% sucrose, and microtubules alone (i.e. microtubules not seeded from demembranated sperm) centrifuged through sucrose, indicating that the association cannot be explained by flow-induced trapping and alignment of f-actin by aster microtubules. Further, cosedimentation analysis revealed that microtubule-f-actin association could be reconstituted from microtubules assembled from purified brain tubulin and f-actin assembled from purified muscle actin in the presence, but not the absence, of Xenopus oocyte microtubule binding proteins. The results provide direct evidence for an association between microtubules and f-actin in vitro, indicate that this interaction is mediated by one or more microtubule binding proteins, and suggest that this interaction may be responsible for the mutual regulation of the microtubule and actomyosin cytoskeletons observed in vivo.


Metabolic engineering was formally defined more than two decades ago (Bailey, 1991) and it is now an established discipline. Metabolic engineering is generally defined as the directed improvement of product formation or cellular properties through the modification of specific biochemical reactions or the introduction of new ones with the use of recombinant DNA technology (Bailey, 1991; Stephanopoulos, 1998). Therefore, the analysis and engineering/synthesis of metabolic pathways is of central importance to metabolic engineering. The analytical part uses a number of experimental and modeling techniques for the systematic study of cellular responses (in terms of RNA, protein and metabolite levels, metabolic fluxes, etc.) to genetic and environmental perturbations. This facilitates a rational design of metabolic modifications, which are implemented using recombinant DNA technology. Both, the analysis and the synthesis of metabolic pathways will be covered in this review. Recent efforts on the engineering of fermentative and biosynthetic pathways for biofuel production in Escherichia coli , as well as those enabling the utilization of novel feedstocks, will be highlighted.


: Plants are rich source of therapeutic phytochemicals used for treating variousvailments. In specific, spices are used in Indian and Chinese system of medicine. Although spices are traditionally used as food preservatives besides food color and flavor, their medicinal values remain unrecognized. This paper discusses the antibacterial activities of essential oil samples extracted from selected
spices (cardamom, ginger and turmeric) belonging to Zingiberaceae, the ginger family. Methods: The essential oils from rhizomes of ginger (Zingiber officinale R.) and turmeric (Curcuma longa L.) as well as capsules of cardamom (Elettaria cardamom M.) were extracted by hydrodistillation.
The oil samples were analyzed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). The chemical composition was identified based on the retention index, and also by co-injection with authentic standards. The oil samples were also evaluated for their antibacterial activities.
Results: The major composition of cardamom is 1,8-cineole (40.11%) and α-terpinyl acetate (39.24%). In the case of ginger, it is dominated by zingiberene (32.01%) followed by β–sesquiphellandrene (16.25%) and farnesene (12.52%). In turmeric, the major composition is found to be turmerone
(32.55%) followed by ar-turmerone (23.15%) and curlone (23%). Besides other compounds such as 1,8-cineole, α-curcumene, α-terpinene, α-thujene, β-myrcene, β-sesquiphellandrene, γ-terpinene, limonene,
linalool, terpinolene, (Z)-citral and zingiberene were present in varying levels. Conclusion: The spice oil samples were more effective against Gram positive than Gram negative bacteria. The constituents of cardamom oil are highly antibacterial than ginger and turmeric oils. It
was found to inhibit Lactobacillus sp., a probiotic Gram positive bacterium. The probiotic inhibitory potential of essential oils is in the following order: ginger > cardamom > turmeric. Although essential oils are generally recognized as safe, it may potentially inhibit probiotic bacteria. Hence, more research is required in this direction.


The central goal of the current thesis is to understand the experience of crime committed by various types of offenders and, in so doing to examine its psycho-social and criminal background correlates. This is explored by drawing on a narrative approach. This approach includes both the episodic roles criminals play during the crime as well as broader aspects of their understanding of their life story. A consequent research question is the relationship between their life narratives and their conceptualisation of their roles when committing their crimes.

This perspective views the immediate components of the criminal experience as emotional and cognitive, essentially subjective in nature, thus self-report measures are used to uncover these internal processes. In the current thesis, the Narrative Roles Questionnaire (NRQ) was used. This is a standardized, quantitative method designed to reveal an offender's crime narratives. In addition to the NRQ an offender's general view of self/world and life was measured with the Life Narrative Questionnaire which is composed of positive and negative life narrative themes. The offenders' history of offending was measured by the D-60 (History of Offending Questionnaire) which consists of three distinct offending styles, namely Instrumental, Sensory and Power. All these measures, along with a demographic information were completed by 468 Turkish prison inmates.

Each questionnaire was translated into Turkish. Reliability and validity analyses revealed more than satisfactory results, which indicated the applicability of these scales in Turkish culture. Results indicated a consistency between life and offence narratives in terms of strength. This suggests that independent of the direction (negative vs positive), offenders
who have a strong attitude towards themselves/life/world have a stronger commitment to the roles they enact during the offence.

There was also a significant relationship between history of offending styles and offence roles. This showed that except for the Victim role, all offence roles are associated with aspects of the history of offending. This differentiates the Victim role from others as being more circumstantial and not associated with previous criminal behaviour. These results are relevant to developing different rehabilitation strategies for offenders based on the roles they enact during the offence. In addition, the results show that, while life outside of crime has more predictive power for the Victim and Hero NRQ roles, for others history of offending behaviour has more predictive power.

The results of the third relationship, between the life narrative themes and history of offending styles, show that a negative life narrative theme is associated with a history of Instrumental and Sensory offending styles. Whereas a positive life narrative is associated with the Power offending style. Also, offenders with a strong attitude towards
life/world/themselves score higher on the Power offending style. These results uncover the relationship between criminal history and how offenders see themselves/life and world outside of crime.

There is evidence supporting specialisation in offending because distinct factors emerged in the history of offending scale. Each offending style is shown to be associated with different psycho-social and criminal background characteristics. The results show that the effects of an offender's attitude towards a) their lives outside of crime, b) their history of criminal behaviour, and c) their experience of crime, vary based on the narrative roles they
enact during the offence.

Furthermore, the results show that life narrative themes moderate the relationship between history of offending styles and offence roles, which indicates that one's view of self/life/world (which is accepted as a dynamic, changing and unfolding factor) has an impact on how history of offending (which is a static, unchanging factor) affects the offence role choice which is an immediate experiential aspect of crime.

The major methodological contribution is the adaptation of the three primary measures to the Turkish context and the work shows the high ecological validity of these scales in a novel cultural context. Along with presenting an understanding of the experiential aspects of criminality, the major theoretical contribution of the current thesis is to provide
empirical evidence for the theory that there is consistency in an offender's behaviours in crime and outside of crime, and that this consistency is effectively revealed through the application of narrative theory.

The theory and results open paths to the development of rehabilitation and crime prevention strategies by targeting life narratives of offenders. They point to the potential development of interview techniques based on offence roles. Furthermore, there are applications of the history of offending and offence role relationships to police investigations; understanding the revealed associations would help investigators to infer offender characteristics.


Weibel, Marguerite Crowley. Adult Learners Welcome Here: A Handbook for Librarians and Literacy Teachers. New York, NY: Neal-Schuman Publishers, 2007. 306 p. 75.00 USD. ISBN -13:978-1-55570-578-7. ISBN -10:1-55570-578-2.∞ Adult Learners Welcome Here: A Handbook for Librarians and Literacy Teachers is Marguerite Crowley Weibel's third book and updates and expands on her earlier works Choosing and Using Books with New Adult Readers (1996) and The Library as a Literacy Classroom (1992). Weibel states she is writing for two primary audiences: librarians and literacy teachers/tutors. A medical librarian with a Master's Degree in adult education, Weibel is an obviously gifted literacy tutor with a passion for books. She is convinced of the power of reading and knows how books can inspire, inform, and comfort people - even people who struggle with reading. This, then, is primarily a book about readers' advisory for a special group of readers, namely adults with reading difficulties. Adult Learners Welcome Here: A Handbook for Librarians and Literacy Teachers is divided into three sections. Part I outlines the role of the library as a "literacy classroom" and describes the state of literacy in the United States. Although Weibel quotes U.S. statistics, the situation in Canada is very similar, so her message is relevant to librarians in Canada. The profile of adult literacy students is similarly reflective of the Canadian experience. She also briefly describes the main educational theories and techniques for teaching adults basic reading and writing skills. This provides useful background for the sample lesson plans in the following chapters. Part II Literacy, Lessons, and Libraries is the heart of the book. Each of the five chapters looks at a specific type of book or resource: art and photography; poetry; literature; non-fiction; print and electronic reference. A rationale for using that type of book/resource with adult new readers is given along with sample lesson plans and an annotated bibliography of recommended titles. These are "regular" mainstream books selected from the adult and children's sections of the library. They are titles that most libraries, even Canadian libraries, would likely have in their collections. The bibliographies would need to be culled for titles that would suit the Canadian context and also augmented with additional Canadian titles. However, Weibel's inspired selections give the reader a good sense of the types of titles that would work well with adult literacy students. …


The data discussed in this paper come from a larger project designed to address the neglected area of failed humor. A corpus of 207 elicited responses to failed humor was collected. The focus here is on the 44% that were coded as impolite. Findings show that most responses attacked the speaker using offensive, positive impoliteness strategies. Given that failing at humor is already humiliating, why might these interlocutors have opted to further punish the tellers with aggravated face attacks? Four somewhat overlapping reasons are suggested: the disruptive nature of humor, the expectations hearers held of the teller's behavior, the characteristics of the study participants, and the identity concerns or face claims of the hearer.


This dissertation explore young peoples will to become artists. A group of artstudents have been interviewed and severel questions are raised. How do the students perceive their artistry and their role as artists? In what way is artistic creation meaningful to them? What does the relationship between the individual project of becoming an artist and their societal participation look like? As artists they examine different phenomena subjectively and they sometimes exceed personal and social boundaries. What may this look like and how may it be understod? In order to understand and interpret the art students' work and reasons to become artists sociologically, I use Anthony Giddens analysis of the late-modern society and and the late-modern identity. Giddens creates a sociological understanding of the individual in society rather than an understanding of specific social groups. An understanding, which is well suited to highlight, the frequently individual life projects, created by the art students. However, Giddens theory is broad and opens for critisism. The art students, give their views of society and of themselves, which are not always in agreement with Giddens' theory and therefore create different thoughts about the late-modern identity. When I develop Giddens' theory, it is through an interaction between Giddens, the artstudents and other theories, between which I create a dialogue about identity, the exceedeing of social boundaries and the role of subjecticity in the late modern society.


It is often claimed that reducing population size would be advantageous for climate change mitigation, on the grounds that lower population would naturally correspond to lower emissions. This apparently obvious claim is in fact seriously misleading. Reducing population size would indeed, other suitable things being equal, reduce the emissions rate. But it is well recognised that the primary determinant of the eventual amount of climate change is not the emissions rate, but rather cumulative emissions. It is far less clear whether reducing population size would reduce cumulative emissions, or would in any other way prove an advantage for reasons related to climate change. This paper identifies and briefly discusses the issues relevant to assessing that less clear question.


Title of Document: Metabolic Acid Transport in Human Retinal Pigment Epithelium Jeffrey Adijanto, Doctor of Philosophy, 2010 Directed By: Associate Professor Nam Sun Wang, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering At the back of our eyes, photoreceptors capture light and convert it into electrical signals that we perceive in our brain as vision. Photoreceptor function is energy expensive, even more so than many other processes in the body. Furthermore, photoreceptor metabolism increases in the dark and releases more metabolic by-products (CO2, lactic acid, and H2O) into the photoreceptor extracellular space (SRS). The retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) maintains photoreceptor health by transporting these metabolic acids from the SRS to the choroidal blood supply. By using native and cultured fetal human RPE, we show that the apical membrane is significantly more permeable to CO2 than the basolateral membrane. This feature traps CO2 in the cell and drives carbonic anhydrase (CA)mediated hydration of CO2 into HCO3, which is subsequently transported out of the basolateral membrane by a Na-linked HCO3 co-transporter (NBC). This process increases net steady-state fluid absorption, thus maintaining retinal adhesion to the RPE. Oxidative metabolism generates significantly more ATP than glycolysis, but photoreceptors derive ≈ 50% of their total ATP consumed from glycolysis due to the low oxygen level at the photoreceptor inner segment. Furthermore, lactic acid production and release into the SRS almost doubles in the dark. We show that the RPE transports lactic acid from the SRS via a proton-linked monocarboxylate transporter (MCT1), and this process activates pHi-regulatory mechanisms at the RPE apical membrane: Na/H exchanger (NHE) and Na-linked HCO3 transporters (NBC1 & NBC3). These mechanisms also facilitate MCT1-mediated lactic acid transport by preventing buildup of a proton-gradient across the RPE apical membrane. We show that an increase in SRS CO2 or lactic acid level causes RPE cell swelling. The RPE alleviates swell-induced osmotic stress by activating apical membrane K-channel (Kir 7.1) and basolateral membrane Cl-channel (ClC-2), which drives KCl (and fluid) out of the cell to decrease cell volume. In this study, we identified the cellular mechanisms in RPE that prevent acidosis and fluid accumulation in the SRS caused by increased photoreceptor metabolism in the dark. These homeostatic processes maintain the close anatomical relationship between photoreceptors and RPE, thus protecting photoreceptor health and preserving visual function. METABOLIC ACID TRANSPORT IN HUMAN RETINAL PIGMENT EPITHELIUM


Pressure sensitive buttons are appealing for reducing repetitive tasks such as text entry on mobile phone keypads, where multiple key presses are currently necessary to record an action. We present PressureText, a text-entry technique for a pressure augmented mobile phone. In a study comparing PressureText to MultiTap, we found that despite limited visual feedfback for pressure input, users overall performed equally well with PressureText as with MultiTap. Expertise was a determining factor for improved performance with PressureText. Expert users showed a 33.6% performance gain over novices. Additionally, expert users were 5% faster on average with PressureText than MultiTap, suggesting that pressure input is a valuable augmentation to mobile phone keypads.


Image retrieval makes an emphasis role in this digital world. This work is a review of several references from various image retrieval methods. However, searching the digital image with its visual content is mandatory for searching and fetching images from the dataset. The Process of image retrieval becomes tough when it has to search huge number of images per seconds is very complicated than the searching fewer images. There are different efficient image retrieval techniques are available, here contentbased image retrieval is the vital role with its visual contents in lesser time with more accuracy. It has proposed effective and resourceful intelligent techniques. The research work gives new dynamics of decent attention and performance of image retrieval with machine learning algorithm with balance training set and best classification of it. The large collection of images and retrieval with its semantic features of texture, shape, color, is measured. The essential reduction of semantic gap is main goal between user and CBIR system. Our research proposes the novel outlooks for various image retrieval techniques in intelligent way and its potential applications and future directions.


In this paper we make explicit the connection between projected dynamical systems on Hilbert spaces and evolutionary variational inequalities. We give a novel formulation that unifies the underlying constraint sets for such inequalities, which arise in time-dependent traffic network, spatial price, and a variety of financial equilibrium problems. We emphasize the importance of the results in applications and provide a traffic network numerical example in which we compute the curve of equilibria.


Police officers make life-or-death shooting decisions in complex situations under extreme time pressure. If officers make a mistake, there are dire consequences—they could kill an innocent or be killed themselves. In contrast to prior work's near-exclusive focus on suspect race, the present study examined features of methodology, officers, suspects, and neighborhoods that may affect officers' shooting decisions. Empirical exploration of officers' shooting decisions and mistakes is still in its infancy, and given the seriousness and importance of this phenomenon—and the potential for this research to inform policy decisions—additional research is needed.


Since 1914, incumbent U.S. senators running for reelection have won almost 80% of the time. We investigate why incumbents win so often. We allow for three potential explanations for the incumbency advantage: selection, tenure, and challenger quality, which are separately identified using histories of election outcomes following an open seat election. We specify a dynamic model of voter behavior that allows for these three effects, and structurally estimate the parameters of the model using U.S. Senate data. We find that tenure effects are negative or small. We also find that incumbents face weaker challengers than candidates running for open seats. If incumbents faced challengers as strong as candidates for open seats, the incumbency advantage would be cut in half.


This thesis deals with the diffusion of ions in compactedbentonite clay. Laboratory experiments were performed toexamine in detail different processes that affect thediffusion. To demonstrate that the results obtained from thelaboratory investigations are valid under in situ conditions,two different kinds of in situ experiments were performed. Laboratory experiments were performed to better understandthe impact of ionic strength on the diffusion of Sr2+ and Cs+ions, which sorb to mineral surfaces primarily by ion exchange.Furthermore, surface related diffusion was examined anddemonstrated to take place for Sr2+ and Cs+ but not for Co2+,which sorbs on mineral surfaces by complexation. The diffusion of anions in bentonite clay compacted todifferent dry densities was also investigated. The resultsindicate that anion diffusion in bentonite clay consists of twoprocesses, one fast and another slower. We ascribe the fastdiffusive process to intralayer diffusion and the slow processto diffusion in interparticle water, where anions are to someextent sorbed to edge sites of the montmorillonite. Two different types of in situ experiments were performed,CHEMLAB and LOT. CHEMLAB is a borehole laboratory, where cation(Cs+, Sr2+ and Co2+) and anion (I- and TcO4-) diffusionexperiments were performed using groundwater from a fracture inthe borehole. In the LOT experiments cylindrical bentoniteblocks surrounding a central copper rod were placed in a 4 mdeep vertical borehole. The borehole was then sealed and theblocks are left for 1, 5 or>>5 years. When the bentonitewas water saturated the central copper rod is heated tosimulate the temperature increase due to radioactive decay ofthe spent fuel. Bentonite doped with radioactive Cs and Co wasplaced in one of the lower blocks. Interestingly, the redox-sensitive pertechnetate ion (TcO4-)which thermodynamically should be reduced and precipitate asTcO2·nH2O, travelled unreduced through the bentonite.However, at some spots in the clay, the Tc activity wasconsiderably higher. We ascribe these activity peaks toiron-containing minerals in the bentonite, by which Tc(VII) hasbeen reduced to Tc(IV) and precipitated. The cations Sr2+, Cs+and Co2+, as well as the anion I-, behaved in the CHEMLABexperiments as expected from laboratory studies. Three experiments in the LOT series are completed. The firsttwo diffusion experiments in LOT were less successful, thefirst due to the fact that saturation of the bentonite was notobtained during the experimental period and the radionuclidesdid not move at all. In the second, the uptake of the bentoniteparcel was less successful. Water from the drilling flushedaway large pieces of the top part of the bentonite and thelower part of the test parcel was super-saturated with waterand expanded when released from the rock. The activity distribution in the second experiment wasanalysed. The Co2+ profile looked as we had expected, while Cs+had spread more than our calculations indicated. However, thethird experiment was successful from emplacement, watersaturation and heating to uptake. The activity distribution forboth cations was as expected from laboratory studies. Altogether the three different types of experiments give auniform picture of radionuclide diffusion in bentonite clay forthe ions investigated.


This paper is a linguistic phonetic description of the syllabic constituents of Lengshuijiang dialect in middle Hunan Province. There are 24 initials, 35 finals, and 7 tones in Lengshuijiang phonology. Emphasis is placed on two issues characteristics of the three types of plosive initial and the phenomenon of Ci qing-conditioned tonal split in Lengshuijiang dialect. There are three sets of plosives classified by phonation type in Lengshuijiang phonology, the 'fortis' voiceless unaspirated plosive with relatively short VOT (around 10 ms), the voiceless aspirated plosive with large VOT (usually longer than 50 ms), and 'lenis' voiceless plosive with slack voice and moderate VOT (40-50 ms). Spectral slope (subtraction of the intensity of the second harmonic, the first and second amplitude from that of the first harmonic) and electroglottograph analysis suggests that the voiceless unaspirated plosive is tense with large negative spectral slope values and high closing quotient, the voiceless aspirated plosive is produced with small positive spectral slope values and moderate closing quotient, and the slack voiced plosive has large positive spectral slope values and low closing quotient. The acoustic property and timing of the slack voiced plosive varies in different contexts and across the speakers. Acoustic and statistical analysis of fundamental frequency in seven tones shows that F0 after aspirated obstruent is significantly lower than after its unaspirated counterpart in Ping sheng 平聲 and Qu sheng 去聲 in all the speakers, but no systematic difference in Shang sheng 上聲 and Ru sheng 入聲. The Pearson's Chi-square test shows that there is a minor significant correlation between F0 and closing quotient (p-value = 0.05549) over time, that is to say, lower F0 after aspirated initial is related to the lower closing quotient. Keyword: Lengshuijiang dialect, syllabic constituents, phonation type, Ci qing-conditioned tonal split


The authors discuss the average bit error probability of constant envelope quadrature pulse-overlapping modulation and maximum likelihood Viterbi decoding in a Rayleigh fading channel. The quadrature pulse-overlapping modulation is first decomposed into a linear encoder followed by a memoryless modulator. An upper bound on the average bit error probability as a function of the transfer function of the linear encoder is then developed under the assumption of using the Viterbi decoder with perfect fading amplitude measurement. Tightness of the bound was examined by means of computer simulation. A performance comparison with conventional quadrature phase shift keying is also provided.<<ETX>>


Multi-core on one chip becomes the current main trend of micro processors' architecture, and simulation plays an important role in evaluating new processor architectures. Traditional ways of sequential simulation for chip-multiprocessor (CMP) require lots of simulation time which can't be afford during processor design phase. Therefore, exploiting parallelism is necessary for speeding up the multi-core processor simulation.

In this paper, we present a parallel CMP simulator, which is implemented by using POSIX threads, and also present the programming methodology for converting a sequential single core simulator to a parallel CMP simulator. Furthermore, the tradeoffs in parallel simulator implementation are also discussed. The experiments are carried out on a four-CPU dual core Xeon server. Under weak consistence order model, the parallel simulator achieves a speedup of 7.2X comparing with the sequential one.


Many previous graph-based methods perform dimensionality reduction on a pre-defined graph. However, due to the noise and redundant information in the original data, the pre-defined graph has no clear structure and may not be appropriate for the subsequent task. To overcome the drawbacks, in this paper, we propose a novel approach called linear manifold regularization with adaptive graph (LMRAG) for semi-supervised dimensionality reduction. LMRAG directly incorporates the graph construction into the objective function, thus the projection matrix and the adaptive graph can be simultaneously optimized. Due to the structure constraint, the learned graph is sparse and has clear structure. Extensive experiments on several benchmark datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.


Levesque introduced the notion of only-knowing to precisely capture the beliefs of a knowledge base. He also showed how only-knowing can be used to formalize non-monotonic behavior within a monotonic logic. Despite its appeal, all attempts to extend only-knowing to the many agent case have undesirable properties. A belief model by Halpern and Lakemeyer, for instance, appeals to proof-theoretic constructs in the semantics and needs to axiomatize validity as part of the logic. It is also not clear how to generalize their ideas to a first-order case. In this paper, we propose a new account of multi-agent only-knowing which, for the first time, has a natural possible-world semantics for a quantified language with equality. We then provide, for the propositional fragment, a sound and complete axiomatization that faithfully lifts Levesque's proof theory to the many agent case. We also discuss comparisons to the earlier approach by Halpern and Lakemeyer.


Superconductors for the ITER Poloidal Field Coils are large cable-in-conduit conductors (CICC) made of NbTi strands encased in a round-in-square stainless steel jacket. Three prototype conductor sections for poloidal field coils PF1/6, PF2/3/4 and PF5 have been fabricated in collaboration of the domestic RF, CN and EU agencies and tested in SULTAN Test Facility at the nominal operating conditions. The test aimed to characterize the DC and AC behavior of the conductors. The DC test was focused on the current sharing temperature (Tcs) at the nominal operating current and nominal operating background field. The take-off electric field at the nominal Helium mass flow rate was investigated versus the cable current density over a broad range of field and temperature. The AC loss measurement was performed before any electromagnetic loading and after a number of load cycles in order to define the impact of cyclic loads on the coupling currents constant of the cable. From the test results in SULTAN test facility, the margins in normal operation and the limits of the operation range of the ITER PF conductors are assessed.


INTRODUCTION TO MATERNAL-CHILD HEALTH NURSING * Foundations of Maternity, Women's Health, and Child Health Nursing * The Nurse's Role in Maternity, Women's Health, and Pediatric Nursing * The Childbearing and Child-Rearing Family * Communicating with Children and Families * Health Promotion for the Developing Child * Health Promotion for the Infant * Health Promotion During Early Childhood * Health Promotion for the School-Age Child * Health Promotion for the Adolescent * Heredity and Environmental Influences on Development MATERNITY NURSING CARE * Reproductive Anatomy and Physiology * Conception and Prenatal Development * Adaptations to Pregnancy * Nutrition for Childbearing * Prenatal Diagnostic Tests * Giving Birth * Intrapartum Fetal Surveillance * Pain Management for Childbirth * Nursing Care During Obstetric Procedures * Postpartum Adaptations * The Normal Newborn: Adaptation and Assessment * The Normal Newborn: Nursing Care * Newborn Feeding * The Childbearing Family with Special Needs * Pregnancy-Related Complications * Concurrent Disorders During Pregnancy * The Woman with an Intrapartum Complication * The Woman with a Postpartum Complication * The High-Risk Newborn: Problems Related to Gestational Age and Development * The High-Risk Newborn: Acquired and Congenital Conditions * Management of Fertility and Infertility * Women's Health Care PEDIATRIC NURSING CARE * Physical Assessment of Children * Emergency Care of the Child * The Ill Child in the Hospital and Other Care Settings * The Child with a Chronic Condition or Terminal Illness * Principles and Procedures for Nursing Care of Children * Medication Administration and Safety for Infants and Children * Pain Management for Children * The Child with a Fluid and Electrolyte Alteration * The Child with an Infectious Disease * The Child with an Immunologic Alteration * The Child with a Gastrointestinal Alteration * The Child with a Genitourinary Alteration * The Child with a Respiratory Alteration * The Child with a Cardiovascular Alteration * The Child with a Hematologic Alteration * The Child with Cancer * The Child with an Alteration in Tissue Integrity * The Child with a Musculoskeletal Alteration * The Child with an Endocrine or Metabolic Alteration * The Child with a Neurologic Alteration * Psychosocial Problems in Children and Families * The Child with a Developmental Disability * The Child with a Sensory Alteration Glossary


While many technology assessments (TAs) formally conducted by TA organizations in Europe and the USA have examined the implications of new technologies for 'quantifiable risks' regarding safety, health or the environment, they have largely ignored the ethical implications of those technologies. Recently, ethicists and philosophers have tried to fill this gap by introducing tools for ethical technology assessment (eTA). The predominant approaches in eTA typically rely on a checklist approach, narrowing down the moral assessment of new technologies to evaluating a list of pre-defined ethical issues. In doing so, they often remain external to processes of technology development. In order to connect the ethics of technology more closely with processes of technology development, this paper introduces a set of principles for an ethical-constructive technology assessment approach (eCTA), reflecting on insights developed in the philosophy of technology and Science and Technology Studies, and drawing on examples of telecare technologies. This approach bases itself on an analysis of the implications of technology processes at the micro-level, particularly for human–technology relations. The eCTA approach augments the current approach of the ethics of new and emerging science and technology at the meso- and macro-levels of institutional practices


OBJECTIVES
To explore the induction of a proangiogenic phenotype in endothelial cells in the thyroid tumor microenvironment by estrogen-treated thyroid cancer cells and to define the role of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in this interaction.

DESIGN
Cell-based in vitro systems analysis.

SUBJECTS
Thyroid tumor cell lines (BCPAP [papillary thyroid cancer] and ML-1 [follicular thyroid cancer]) were cultured with estradiol with and without an estrogen receptor (ER) inhibitor (fulvestrant or ICI) and used to treat human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs).

INTERVENTIONS
Immunofluorescence was used to confirm the presence of ERα and ERβ in BCPAP cells. Conditioned medium was then used to evaluate the induction of HUVEC tubulogenesis and migration. Secretion of VEGF in this medium was evaluated by Western blot analysis. The expression of phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K), the initiator of a proangiogenic pathway, was evaluated with Western blot analysis of HUVEC lysates. The subsequent effects of an ER inhibitor (fulvestrant/ICI) and a neutralizing VEGF antibody were also observed.

RESULTS
Estrogen receptor α and ERβ are expressed in thyroid cancer cells. Estrogen-stimulated ML-1 cells secreted an increased amount of VEGF likely as a result of ER signaling. In contact with this environment, HUVECs demonstrate enhanced tubulogenesis and migration. Western blot analysis documented estrogen-mediated upregulation of PI3K in HUVECs. These effects were mitigated by an ER inhibitor (fulvestrant/ICI) and a neutralizing VEGF antibody.

CONCLUSIONS
Our data provide evidence that estrogen can induce a proangiogenic endothelial cell phenotype in the thyroid tumor microenvironment through ER and VEGF signaling. Our findings suggest that the effect of antiestrogenic therapy targeting tumor angiogenesis can be enhanced through VEGF inhibition.


A postal survey identified 114 infants with biliary atresia (roughly one in 21 000 live births). Biliary operations were performed on 107. Of the 105 infants who were followed up, 35 were free of jaundice at 10 months to 3 1/2 years. Good results occurred most often in those operated on by 12 weeks and were also related to the number of cases operated on in each centre. Only two of 18 infants treated in centres dealing with one case a year were free of jaundice compared with 11 of 38 at centres treating two to five cases a year and 22 of 49 in a centre treating more than five cases a year. Jaundice in an infant of more than 2 weeks associated with yellow urine or pale stools is never physiological and requires urgent investigation to identify causes for which effective treatment may be possible. Identification of suspected cases by 4 weeks of age and a greater concentration of investigative and surgical skills should improve the short term results of surgery and the long term prognosis of biliary atresia.


The long‐term effects of elevated (ambient plus 350 μmol mol−1) atmospheric CO2 concentration (Ca) on the leaf senescence of Quercus myrtifolia Willd was studied in a scrub‐oak community during the transition from autumn (December 1997) to spring (April 1998). Plants were grown in large open‐top chambers at the Smithsonian CO2 Research Site, Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge, Cape Canaveral, Florida. Chlorophyll (a + b) concentration, Rubisco activity and N concentration decreased by 75%, 82%, and 52%, respectively, from December (1997) to April (1998) in the leaves grown at ambient Ca. In contrast, the leaves of plants grown at elevated Ca showed no significant decrease in chlorophyll (a + b) concentration or Rubisco activity, and only a 25% reduction in nitrogen. These results indicate that leaf senescence was delayed during this period at elevated Ca. Delayed leaf senescence in elevated Ca had important consequences for leaf photosynthesis. In elevated Ca the net photosynthetic rate of leaves that flushed in Spring 1997 (last year's leaves) and were 13 months old was not different from fully‐expanded leaves that flushed in 1998, and were approximately 1 month old (current year's leaves). In ambient Ca the net photosynthetic rate of last year's leaves was 54% lower than for current year's leaves. When leaves were fully senesced, nitrogen concentration decreased to about 40% of the concentration in non‐senesced leaves, in both CO2 treatments. In April, net photosynthesis was 97% greater in leaves grown in elevated Ca than in those grown at ambient. During the period when elevated Ca delayed leaf senescence, more leaves operating at higher photosynthetic rate would allow the ecosystem dominated by Q. myrtifolia to gain more carbon at elevated Ca than at ambient Ca.


This paper investigates the effect of choices of model structure and scale in development viability appraisal. The paper addresses two questions concerning the application of development appraisal techniques to viability modelling within the UK planning system. The first relates to the extent to which, given intrinsic input uncertainty, the choice of model structure significantly affects model outputs. The second concerns the extent to which, given intrinsic input uncertainty, the level of model complexity significantly affects model outputs. Monte Carlo simulation procedures are applied to a hypothetical development scheme in order to measure the effects of model aggregation and structure on model output variance. It is concluded that, given the particular scheme modelled and unavoidably subjective assumptions of input variance, simple and simplistic models may produce similar outputs to more robust and disaggregated models.


For many, 2020 was a year of abrupt professional and personal change. For the aquatic sciences community, many were adapting to virtual formats for conducting and sharing science, while simultaneously learning to live in a socially distanced world. Understandably, the aquatic sciences community postponed or canceled most in‐person scientific meetings. Still, many scientific communities either transitioned annual meetings to a virtual format or inaugurated new virtual meetings. Fortunately, increased use of video conferencing platforms, networking and communication applications, and a general comfort with conducting science virtually helped bring the in‐person meeting experience to scientists worldwide. Yet, the transition to conducting science virtually revealed new barriers to participation whereas others were lowered. The combined lessons learned from organizing a meeting constitute a necessary knowledge base that will prove useful, as virtual conferences are likely to continue in some form. To concentrate and synthesize these experiences, we showcase how six scientific societies and communities planned, organized, and conducted virtual meetings in 2020. With this consolidated information in hand, we look forward to a future, where scientific meetings embrace a virtual component, so to as help make science more inclusive and global.


The reconstruction of a phase surface from the observed principal values is required for a number of applications, including synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). However, the process of reconstruction, called "phase unwrapping", is an ill-posed problem. One class of phase-unwrapping algorithms uses smoothness prior models to remedy this situation. We categorize this class of algorithms according to the type of prior model used. Motivated by this categorization, we propose that phase-unwrapping algorithms be tested by generating phase surfaces from the prior models, and then quantifying the deviation of each reconstructed surface from the corresponding original surface. Finally, we present results of the new testing method on a selection of phase-unwrapping algorithms, including a new algorithm.