Objectives:  One limitation of Resuscitative Endovascular Balloon Occlusion of the Aorta (REBOA) is hemodynamic instability upon balloon deflation due to distal hyperemia and washout of ischemic metabolites.  We sought to determine whether stepwise reperfusion after supraceliac (Zone-1) REBOA by transitioning to infrarenal (Zone-3) occlusion would mitigate the physiologic consequences of balloon deflation and decrease hemodynamic instability.
Methods:  Twelve anesthetized swine underwent controlled hemorrhage of 25% blood volume, 45 minutes of Zone-1 REBOA, then resuscitation with shed blood.  Standardized critical care began with deflation of the Zone-1 balloon in all animals, and continued for six hours. Half of the animals were randomly assigned to Zone-3 REBOA for an additional 45 minutes following Zone-1 balloon deflation.
Results: There were no differences in physiology at baseline, during the initial 30 minutes of hypotension, or during the 45 minutes of Zone-1 occlusion.  After Zone-1 balloon deflation, there was no difference in proximal mean arterial pressure (pMAP) with or without Zone-3 occlusion, or percentage of critical care time spent within the target pMAP range between 65 and 75 mm Hg.  There were also no significant differences in peak lactate concentration or resuscitation requirements.
Conclusions:  In an animal model of hemorrhagic shock and Zone-1 REBOA, subsequent Zone-3 aortic occlusion did not add significant ischemic burden, but it also did not provide significant hemodynamic support.  The effect of this strategy on functional outcomes warrants further study.  Continued investigation is necessary to determine optimal resuscitative support strategies during reperfusion following Zone-1 REBOA.


We investigate the effects of carrier capture and re-emission on the electrical impedance, equivalent circuit, and modulation response of quantum-well (QW) laser diodes. The electrical impedance is shown to be a sensitive function of the time constants associated with carrier capture/transport and carrier re-emission. We compare the theoretical results with measured values of the electrical impedance of high-speed InGaAs-GaAs multiple-quantum-well lasers fabricated using different epilayer structures with a common lateral structure. The experimental results agree well with the theoretical model, allowing us to extract the effective carrier escape time and the effective carrier lifetime in the QWs, and to estimate the effective carrier capture/transport time.


OBJECTIVES--To compare the performance of a disease specific and a general health questionnaire in assessing changes resulting from total hip replacement. DESIGN--Two stage prospective study of patients undergoing total hip replacement surgery involving an assessment at a clinic before and six months after surgery. 60(32%) patients were followed up by post. SETTING--Outpatient departments at a specialist orthopaedic hospital and peripheral clinics within Oxfordshire. PATIENTS--188 patients admitted for unilateral total hip replacement between February and mid-August 1994. MAIN MEASURES--Patients' self assessed scores with the 12 item Oxford hip score and SF-36 general health questionnaire together with surgeons' assessment with Charnley hip score obtained before and again at six months after surgery. RESULTS--186 patients were followed up six months after total hip replacement; a subsample (n=60) by post. Of the 60 postal patients, 59(98.3%) fully completed the Oxford hip score compared with 44(73.3%) who fully completed the SF-36. For the followup sample as a whole, post operative changes in scores produced a large effect size of 2.75 on the Oxford hip score, compared with -1.89 physical function (SF-36), -2.13 pain (SF-36). With the exception of physical function and role (physical), postoperative SF-36 scores were shown to be similar to or better than those found by two population surveys on patients of comparable age. The responsiveness of a disease specific questionnaire, the Oxford hip score, and relevant sections of a general questionnaire, SF-36, were found to be similar as assessed by three different criteria. CONCLUSIONS--A disease specific questionnaire, the Oxford hip score, and a general state of health questionnaire, SF-36, performed similarly in assessing outcomes of total hip replacement except that the disease specific questionnaire resulted in a higher completion rate and greater responsiveness in some sections. On the other hand the general health questionnaire drew attention to broader problems of physical function not considered by the Oxford hip score. The health questionnaires examined here offer a valid and practical means of monitoring outcomes of hip replacement surgery.


1942, at the Eastern Front. Soldiers crouch in horrible holes in the ground, mingling with corpses. Tunneled beneath a radio mast, German soldiers await the order to blow themselves up. Russian tanks, struggling to break through enemy lines, bog down in a swamp, while a German runner, bearing messages from headquarters to the front, scrambles desperately from shelter to shelter as he tries to avoid getting caught in the action. Through it all, Russian artillery-the crude but devastatingly effective multiple rocket launcher known to the Germans as the Stalin Organ and to the Russians as Katyusha-rains death upon the struggling troops. Comparable to such masterpieces of war literature as Ernst Junger's Storm of Steel and Erich Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, The Stalin Front, which was originally published under the title The Stalin Organ, is a harrowing, almost photographic, description of violence and devastation, one that brings home the unforgiving reality of total war.


The future of natural gas security in the V4 countries. A scenario analysis and the EU dimension By Filip Cernoch, Bretislav Dancak, Jana Kovacovska, Petr Ocelik, Jan Osicka, Tomas Vlcek, Veronika Zapletalova. Brno: Muni Press, International Institute of Political Science of Masaryk University, 2011, 312 p. ISBN 978-80-210-5650-3.Since 2009, energy security - the issue of gas especially - has been the sexiest topic discussed in the area of political science and international relations, particularly in Central Europe. Gas supplies have been flowing to the post-Soviet countries of the Eastern block for a long time now without any interruptions. Eventually, however, new sources (such as LNG and shale gas) as well as new routings and projects, may really change the gas pipeline map of Central Europe and the rest of Europe. At the same time, it is important for these countries to be aware both of their own energy demands and of the politics of Russia's dominant supplier - the company Gazprom.The above mentioned team of authors has brought a new publication to the expert market, a collection of studies compiled over eight months which is unique in its narrow focus - gas and V4 - and includes a wide range of descriptive components of the topic. It also includes an unusual applied mathematicalanalytical model, loaded with data, and last but not least a SWOT analysis which ends with some recommendations. In the introductory section the authors have identified precisely the research questions they were seeking to answer (p.19). For example: How could particular gas pipelines and LNG terminals influence an economically rational distribution of gas flow within the V4 countries? They have also clearly described the goals of the study (p. 21 ): e.g., "to facilitate the comparison of projects according to selected criteria," supported by a large pool of data from various credible sources. They identified the mathematical model MEGS as the key feature of the research, which includes a system of four indexes. An important piece of information for the reader is their explanation that the book is intended as an assignment for the Czech Foreign Ministry.The second chapter explains the principle and structure of the SWOT analysis, which comprises eight evaluation frameworks and basic data covered by the reference framework for 2008. These data are further developed in more detail in the individual subchapters on V4 countries. In the first of these the Czech Republic is introduced and basic information provided on the gas sector, including characteristics of the suppliers and information regarding the conditions of the gas sector within the country (individual companies, gas storage, the position of the country within the EU's gas transit system, and a description of any individual infrastructural projects, whether under construction or still in the planning stage]. This is followed by a description of state policy in this area (regulatory framework], in the form of an analysis - whether of a document called the "State Energy Policy," or of energy legislation focused on gas. The country case study finishes with a forecast of demand up to 2020, together with a conclusion which includes a global evaluation of the country's gas sector. The SWOT analysis is provided at the end in short table form.Each of the V4 countries is introduced in this way. These chapters bring together for the reader an incredible amount of available information, as provided by various representatives of the public and private sectors.However, as 2008 is the reference data year and the book was published in 2012, it must be stated at the outset that many changes have occurred in the meantime that need to be taken into consideration, which the authors were not able analyze because of the editorial schedule.The situation in the gas market, infrastructure scenarios and trends, together with perspectives for regions other than the main suppliers of LNG and PNG (Russia , North Africa or Central Asia], are described in the first part of the third chapter. …


A fully digitized servo-control system, coupled with the automatic data acquisition facility, has been developed for a hollow cylinder apparatus (HCA). The closed-loop servo-control is based on a computer through which four individual stresses acting on the hollow cylindrical specimen can be independently changed using pneumaic regulators driven by stepper motors. The range of tests that can be performed in the HCA is considerably expanded to include boundary displacement controlled tests, as well as genuine stress controlled tests under generalized stress conditions involving principal stress rotation. This paper describes the detailed features both of the hardware and software of the servo-system. The experimenal capabilities of the servo-system, together with its limitations, are discussed using test results that deal with particular aspects of the stress and strain paths associated with in-situ and laboratory loading.


Many are the court opinions stating that attorneys are agents of their clients. Traditional agency law allows principals to be responsible for actually and apparently authorized acts of an agent. Thus, one would expect courts to hold client principals responsible for authorized acts of agent attorneys. This article illustrates that some courts have exhibited significant reluctance to so hold, however. In the context of liability for torts such as abuse of process committed by attorney agents, some courts do not recognize traditional agency bases of client liability. Also, in the context of settlement, many courts do not apply traditional agency law in a traditional manner. Finally, in the context of waiver of the attorney-client privilege, some courts do not apply traditional agency principles. In each of these situations the courts deviate from traditional law to protect the client principal from liability that might otherwise occur as a result of the agency relationship. Courts appear troubled by viewing the relationship of lawyers and clients as a run-of-the-mill agency relationship. At the very least courts appear reluctant, in a paternalistic or maternalistic way, to hold a client responsible for an attorney's actions. This article concludes that such additional protection for clients is unnecessary in today's world of empowered clients. While there is no doubt that the relationship of attorney and client is a unique agency relationship, this relationship requires no special rules; the client neither deserves nor requires to be treated differently. Such a stance is more appropriate in today's environment in which user's of legal services are, in general, more sophisticated about the services provided by attorneys, and in many situations, intimately involved in the decisions made regarding the legal representation.


This chapter turns to the forms of government that cover specific areas within the UK. These territories fall into two general categories: devolved and local government. The chapter introduces the general roles of these tiers of government, their powers, their responsibilities and how they function. It introduces a number of theoretical perspectives to these subjects. It looks at the balance of power between the various systems that exist. It offers examples as to how that balance of power works in reality. The chapter also considers the mechanisms for regulating interventions by the UK Parliament into devolved spheres of operation; the process of expansion of Welsh devolution over time; the devolution of responsibility for police and justice in Northern Ireland; devolution to local government in England; and innovatory approaches in Scotland. The chapter provides an assessment of devolution and local government and gives some historical context as well. Finally, the chapter looks at the relationship between Brexit and devolution.


This paper presents an analysis of pre-filtered clutter VHF SAR images. The image data are reorganized into sub-vectors based on the observation of the image-pair magnitude samples. Based on this approach, we present a statistical description of the SAR clutter obtained by the subtraction between two real SAR images. The statistical analysis based on bivariate distribution data organized into different intervals of magnitude can be an important tool to further understand the properties of the backscattered signal, which can be a valuable premise for change detection processing.


To date most Augmented Reality (AR) design guidelines that can be found in the literature are rather narrow suggestions derived from specific problems by researchers. Applying general HCI principles to AR systems has only been partially explored. In this paper we investigate how such general guidelines may relate to the emerging domain of AR application design. CR


Abstract When refugees flee war and persecution, protection and assistance are usually provided by United Nations organisations and their NGO implementing partners. In parallel is a largely neglected story: refugees themselves frequently mobilise to provide protection and assistance to other refugees. At a global level, there has been a shift in international policy rhetoric towards 'localisation' and inclusion of refugees, which potentially provides an opportunity to engage with refugee-led community organisations (RLOs). However, RLOs rarely receive access to international recognition or funding despite often being regarded by refugees as an important source of assistance. In this paper we draw upon ethnographic research on the interactions between international institutions and RLOs in Kampala, Uganda, to explore how 'localisation' unfolds in practice within humanitarian governance. In the absence of a clear policy framework for localisation at the global level, national level representatives have considerable discretion in whether and how they partner with RLOs, leading largely to their exclusion – and the development of alternative support strategies by RLOs. We suggest that an effective localisation agenda will require much more attention to the role of power and interests at the local level if RLOs are to be engaged as meaningful actors in humanitarian assistance.


The zona incerta (ZI) is a small gray matter region of the deep brain first identified in the 19th century, yet direct in vivo visualization and characterization has remained elusive. Noninvasive detection of the ZI and surrounding region could be critical to further our understanding of this widely connected but poorly understood deep brain region and could contribute to the development and optimization of neuromodulatory therapies. We demonstrate that high resolution (submillimetric) longitudinal (T1) relaxometry measurements at high magnetic field strength (7 Tesla) can be used to delineate the ZI from surrounding white matter structures, specifically the fasciculus cerebellothalamicus, fields of Forel (fasciculus lenticularis, fasciculus thalamicus, field H), and medial lemniscus. Using this approach, we successfully derived in vivo estimates of the size, shape, location, and tissue characteristics of substructures in the ZI region, confirming observations only previously possible through histological evaluation that this region is not just a space between structures but contains distinct morphological entities that should be considered separately. Our findings pave the way for increasingly detailed in vivo study and provide a structural foundation for precise functional and neuromodulatory investigation.


Asymmetrical disruptions may occur during ITER operation and they may be accompanied by large sideways forces and rotation of the asymmetry. This is of particular concern because resonance of the rotating asymmetry with the natural frequencies of the vacuum vessel (and other in-vessel components) could lead to large dynamic amplification of the forces. A significant fraction of non-mitigated JET disruptions have toroidally asymmetric currents that flow partially inside the plasma and partially inside the surrounding vacuum vessel ('wall'). The toroidal asymmetries (otherwise known as the appearance of 3D structures) are clearly visible in the plasma current (Ip) and the first plasma current moments. For the first time we present here the asymmetries in toroidal flux measured by the diamagnetic loops and also propose a physical interpretation. The presented data covers the period of JET operation with a C-wall (JET-C from 2005 until late 2009) and with an ITER-like wall (JET-ILW from 2011 until late 2014), during which pick-up coil and saddle loop data at four toroidally orthogonal locations were routinely recorded. The observed rotations of the Ip asymmetries are in the range from  −5 turns to  +10 turns (a negative value is counted to the negative plasma current). Initial observations on COMPASS of asymmetric disruptions are presented, which are in line with JET data. The whole of the JET-ILW disruption database and the limited number of COMPASS disruptions examined confirm that the development of the toroidal asymmetry precedes the drop to unity of q95. It is shown that massive gas injection (MGI), which is routinely used to mitigate disruptions, significantly reduces the Ip asymmetries in JET. However, MGI produces fast plasma current quench and consequently high vessel eddy currents, which expose the machine to additional stresses. The effect of the large gas quantity used during the injection is of particular concern as well.


The study examines the influence of the respondents' socio-economic characteristics on their adoption of crop insurance schemes. Discriminant analysis based on the criteria values of standardized canonical coefficient, correlation matrix identified that educational level, farm size, satisfaction level, awareness and institutional source of credit were positive discriminators while negative coefficients were obtained for age, income level and number of earning members. Awareness about crop insurance scheme, satisfaction level of farmer respondent with respect to the insurance scheme and provision of credit wise institutional source were the highest discriminant variables. The study made it amply clear that socio-economic characteristics of farmers exert a significant influence on their adoption of crop insurance schemes. Taking into cognizance the findings of the discriminant analysis it can be concluded that awareness about the schemes and their benefits have to be created among the farmers in order to motivate them to go for insurance of their crops.


Through the collection of related literature, we point out the six major factors influencing China's forestry enterprises' financing: insufficient national support; regulations and institutional environmental factors; narrow channels of financing; inappropriate existing mortgage-backed approach; forestry production characteristics; forestry enterprises' defects. Then, we use interpretive structural modeling (ISM) from System Engineering to analyze the structure of the six factors and set up ladder-type structure. We put three factors including forestry production characteristics, shortcomings of forestry enterprises and regulatory, institutional and environmental factors as basic factors and put other three factors as important factors. From the perspective of the government and enterprises, we put forward some personal advices and ideas based on the basic factors and important factors to ease the financing difficulties of forestry enterprises.


While the modern world has largely dismissed the figure of the saint as a throwback, we remain fascinated by excess, marginality, transgression, and porous subjectivity - categories that define the saint. In this collection, Francoise Meltzer and Jas Elsner bring together top scholars from across the humanities to reconsider our denial of saintliness and examine how modernity returns to the lure of saintly grace, energy, and charisma. Addressing such problems as how saints are made, the use of saints by political and secular orders, and how holiness is personified, "Saints" takes us on a photo tour of Graceland and the cult of Elvis and explores the changing political takes on Joan of Arc in France. It shows us the self-fashioning of culture through the reevaluation of saints in late-antique Judaism and Counter-Reformation Rome, and it questions the political intent of underlying claims to spiritual attainment of a Muslim sheikh in Morocco and of Sephardism in Israel. Populated with the likes of Francis of Assisi, Teresa of Avila, and Padre Pio, this book is a fascinating inquiry into the status of saints in the modern world.


The automotive industry is one of the largest polluters, affecting air quality in urban areas. For this reason, the effect of the public policies on the sector is very important in economic and social terms. In this sense, one of the policies has been the subsidies for efficient vehicles where the plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) are included. Subsidies are very important for some of these vehicles, with a real price which is not competitive in comparison with internal combustion (IC) cars. As an example, the sales have dropped in Denmark in 2016 after the incentive reduction. However, in some cases, policies designed to regulate the situation can create some perverse effects due to the complexity of this issue. This type of vehicle is powered by an IC engine in combination with one or more electric motors using energy stored in battery packs. The real efficiency of this kind of vehicle depends strongly on the responsibility of the owner. Only if the car has been plugged in, their batteries have been fully charged and also the car is driven under "efficient mode", the emissions will reduce significantly. Considering the fuel consumption gap between manufacturer declaration and real drive test and the emissions in different pollutants of the PHEVs in comparison with IC cars, the aim of this article is to show a new possible perverse effect generated by them. This has happened recently with diesel cars, favoured by policies focused in CO 2 emission, generating NO x high level in the urban area air quality. Finally, we highlight the main result and conclude emission cost implemented in fuel tax as 'the first best' in environmental policies.


GOVT 2107 (GOVT 2107) Federal and Texas Constitutions (1 semester credit hour) Includes consideration of the Constitution of the United States and the constitutions of the states, with special emphasis on that of Texas. Enrollment limited to students who have already completed a minimum of 6 semester credit hours of GOVT courses but have not satisfied the statutory requirement for study of the federal and state constitutions. Prerequisites: GOVT 2305 and GOVT 2306. (1-0) S


A 58-year-old man has chest pain at 9:30 a.m.; 3 hours later, he calls for an ambulance. Paramedics arrive, provide standard treatment, and transport him to the nearest emergency department. On his arrival at a small hospital at 1 p.m., the findings are diagnostic of a myocardial infarction with ST-segment elevation. The emergency department physician recommends immediate transfer to a hospital 1 hour away for primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).


ArAndjelovic, M., G. drAzic, j. MilovAnovic and S. AlekSic, 2014. Miloproduction of viable Miscanthus gigantheus rhizomes at fertile and degraded soil. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 20: 1189-1194 expanding supplies of home grown biomass and facilitation of the development and competitiveness of a supply chain in an sustainable manner, presents a core of government's strategy, for energy development in republic of Serbia. Growing agroenergy corps may be one of the solutions according to analysis that were carried out. one of these corps that was found to be especially amenable due to its potentially high productivity and cultivation on degraded terrain is Miscanthus giganteus. The possibility of producing after mentioned plant for the biomass supply chain, at very low cost is the main aim of this study. due to its sterility Miscanthus giganteus can only by propagated by vegetative division. Potential of production of viable rhizome on terrains with different rate of fertility was followed by method of experiments on the field. 6 parameters that were following growth of the rhizome and planting survival rate were monitored. According to the results, main factors that affect production of viable rhizomes are age of mother plants, and biotic effects of weed vegetation. Size of rhizomes and nursery fertilization shoved significantly smaller effect. This study concentrates on available data regarding the potential directions by which Miscanthus material could achieve maximum production, by high density planting.


Abstract Excavation of Classical cities in Western Asia yields large quantities of marble, much of which must survive unprotected in an open-air environment for the foreseeable future. Accumulating bacteria, lichen and higher plants disfigure surfaces and threaten integrity. Illustrated by work at two sites in Turkey, the Harvard/Cornell Sardis Excavations and the New York University (NYU) Aphrodisias Excavations, control of biocolonization on marble surfaces through cleaning techniques such as low-pressure water washing in conjunction with biocides is presented. Reburial techniques that provide both protection and accessibility as a preservation option are also described.


As the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) continues to move forward with implementing the use of corrosion-resistant reinforcing (CRR) bars, it is important for VDOT to have a means of characterizing the candidate bars as well as ensuring that the quality of approved CRR bars is preserved. This is vital to ensure the bars respond physically in a manner that is consistent with VDOT's expectations. The purpose of this study was to provide VDOT's Materials Division with a method/specification for evaluating CRR bars. The study determined that visual assessment cannot be relied on to determine bar type. Further, steel fabricator markings cannot be relied on to identify the type of steel. However, when questions arise regarding the identification of bars, magnetic sorting provides a quick and easy method for differentiating between magnetic and nonmagnetic alloys. If more quantitative results are required, X-ray fluorescence provides a practical and much-needed method for positively identifying bars. Physically, the bars differ among producers. Relative rib area should be monitored as it also varies among producers. Further, alloying changes not only the corrosion resistance but also other important properties. The results of uniaxial tensile tests showed that the stress-strain behavior, elongation, and reduction in cross-section upon fracture could vary significantly for different CRR alloys. Therefore, mechanical testing, in addition to corrosion testing, of CRR is necessary to identify the most cost-effective bars with acceptable properties. Finally, the study determined that quality control measures need to be established to ensure VDOT receives the corrosion protection it needs. Further, care should be taken when relying upon international standards for acceptance criteria. The report recommends that VDOT's Materials Division implement the set of test methods provided in the appendices of this report as Virginia Test Methods for CRR acceptance criteria. To simplify the implementation of CRR in Virginia and elsewhere, VDOT's Materials Division should work with the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials to develop a single specification for the testing and acceptance of CRR. VDOT's Materials Division should also investigate retrofitting the uniaxial tensile test equipment with a non-contact extensometer to guarantee that stress vs. strain measurements of CRR can be made and ensure the yield strength is determined.


Abstract. Simulations of past climates require altered boundary conditions to account for known shifts in the Earth system. For the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and subsequent deglaciation, the existence of large Northern Hemisphere ice sheets caused profound changes in surface topography and albedo. While ice-sheet extent is fairly well known, numerous conflicting reconstructions of ice-sheet topography suggest that precision in this boundary condition is lacking. Here we use a high-resolution and oxygen-isotope-enabled fully coupled global circulation model (GCM) (GISS ModelE2-R), along with two different reconstructions of the Laurentide Ice Sheet (LIS) that provide maximum and minimum estimates of LIS elevation, to assess the range of climate variability in response to uncertainty in this boundary condition. We present this comparison at two equilibrium time slices: the LGM, when differences in ice-sheet topography are maximized, and 14 ka, when differences in maximum ice-sheet height are smaller but still exist. Overall, we find significant differences in the climate response to LIS topography, with the larger LIS resulting in enhanced Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation and warmer surface air temperatures, particularly over northeastern Asia and the North Pacific. These up- and downstream effects are associated with differences in the development of planetary waves in the upper atmosphere, with the larger LIS resulting in a weaker trough over northeastern Asia that leads to the warmer temperatures and decreased albedo from snow and sea-ice cover. Differences between the 14 ka simulations are similar in spatial extent but smaller in magnitude, suggesting that climate is responding primarily to the larger difference in maximum LIS elevation in the LGM simulations. These results suggest that such uncertainty in ice-sheet boundary conditions alone may significantly impact the results of paleoclimate simulations and their ability to successfully simulate past climates, with implications for estimating climate sensitivity to greenhouse gas forcing utilizing past climate states.


Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to enhance the adoption decision of farmers and observe the factors that affect the adoption decision of sustainable agriculture practices (SAP) which is the major motivating force of Malaysian economy. The idea behind this study is to transfer knowledge to paddy farmers within regional areas of Malaysia and to comprehend their understanding of social innovation and sustainable agriculture engineering and their overall significance. The outcome of this research will suggest a strategic extensive plan to encourage the use of SAP and also help to develop SAP helping toward building a sustainable society.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper encompasses three phases: analyzing the process of SAP among Malaysian Paddy farmers, to agricultural industrialization, until the stage of SAP led by farmer's co-operatives, discussing the relevant practice together with literature and historically evidencing that there is no better way to promote SAP among regional paddy farmers within Malaysia.

Findings

Initial objective of this paper is to establish a thoughtful approach to enable the society to bridge a gap between embracing sustainability. The second objective investigates the misconception among farmers about social innovation. Furthermore, the study builds the conceptual framework and examines the relationship among the relevant constructs, this framework is critically examining the literature within paddy farming context. Harmoniously, there has been limited empirical research performed on the decision of adoption toward SAP usage among paddy farmers in Malaysia.

Originality/value

The clear worth of this research paper is the illustration from past reviews and practices to endorse SAP usage among paddy farmers in Malaysia. Another literature review suggests that these countermeasures comprehensively, historically, and theoretically are proven result oriented. The information about SAP will be beneficial for farmers and policy maker who are interested in the advancement. This learning delivers a comparative summary of knowledge transfer influencing farmer's intention and behavior of sustainable agriculture engineering to adopt green technology. In a future study, these construct will be empirically tested.


Increasing effort is being directed to understanding the personality profiles of highly engaged information systems (IS) developers and the impact of such profiles on development outcomes. However, there has been a lesser degree of attention paid to studying attitudes at a fine-grained level, and relating such attitudes to developers' in-process activities, in spite of the fact that social motivation theory notes the importance of such a relationship in general group work. We have therefore applied linguistic analysis, text mining and visualization, and statistical analysis techniques to artefacts developed by 474 developers to study these issues. Our results indicate that our sample of IS developers conveyed a range of attitudes while working to deliver systems features, and those practitioners who communicated the most were also the most engaged. Additionally, of eight linguistic dimensions considered, expressions regarding work and achievement, as well as insightful attitudes, were most closely related to developers' engagement. Accordingly, team diversity and the provision of active support for outcome-driven developers may contribute positively to maintaining team balance and performance.


Climate policies in developing countries—called nationally appropriate mitigation actions (NAMAs) in negotiation jargon—are likely to generate greenhouse gas emissions credits after 2013. To guarantee credibility of the international climate policy regime, robust measurement, reporting and verification procedures are required. Compared to concrete emission reduction projects, assessment of the additionality of NAMAs is difficult. As only a subset of policy options leads to directly quantifiable emission reductions, the challenge is to define procedures that are conservative and still provide incentives to embark on policies with long-term and indirect effects. This requires a combination of an approach using default parameters and monitoring of key factors. Experience from methodologies used under the Clean Development Mechanism should be taken into account. Analysis of a renewable energy feed-in tariff in Korea and a nationwide demand-side management programme in Thailand shows that for the former, additionality and emission impacts of policies can be assessed, but require centralized, transparent data collection systems, an effective sector organization. The latter is probably not suitable for NAMA crediting under a stringent approach. To provide incentives for a greater number of developing countries, more standardized approaches would be required to allow covering policies that are more difficult to quantify.


In this paper, we quantify the impact of globalization (i.e., integration of global capital markets) on intergenerational transfers mediated through Pay As You Go (PAYG) public pension systems in more developed countries (MDCs), as well as impacts on the intergenerational distribution of income and wealth. Our basic finding is that, while globalization is likely to erode the pension income of older persons, it will enhance their wealth, leaving their overall spending power little changed. The working age population, which earns lower wages, is an unambiguous loser from the globalization process, at least to the extent that we limit ourselves to a neoclassical analysis of the phenomenon. The main impact of globalization is unlikely, however, to be captured by economy-wide averages such as those presented in this paper. This is the redistribution from lifetime non-savers, especially the poor, who depend on labor income while young and wage-based intergenerational transfers when old, to lifetime savers, who are able to take advantage of improved capital returns. While we concentrate on MDCs in this paper, we make the point that economic impacts of globalization in less developed countries (LDCs) are opposite in sign and greater in relative magnitude. The latter is the case because reallocation of capital gives rise to a greater proportional change in the capital-output ratio in LDCs than in MDCs.


PURPOSE
To investigate the impact of combining image-based measurements related to alterations of vascular and cellularity properties of brain metastases for early prediction of tumor response to radiation therapy (RT).

METHODS
24 patients undergoing treatment for metastases had perfusion (DCE) and diffusion MRI scans. Tumor subvolumes with high regional cerebral blood volume (rCBV) and high Gd-DTAP transfer constant (Ktrans) were extracted. The apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) histograms of the tumor volume were categorized into low, normal and high ADC subvolumes. Changes in different tumor subvolumes and their combination from pre-RT to week 2 after start of radiation were evaluated in differentiation of responsive, stable and progressive tumors for patients treated by either whole brain radiation therapy (WBRT, 28 lesions) alone or combined with Bortezomib as a radiation sensitizer (39 lesions). Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analysis compared a combined perfusion/diffusion prediction model with changes in gross tumor volume (GTV) within the same time interval.

RESULTS
For lesions treated with WBRT alone, a decrease in both high cellularity and edema subvolumes were associated with response. A decrease in the tumor subvolumes with high cellularity and vascularity was associated with response in lesions treated with RT combined with Bortezomib. In ROC analysis, areas under curve (AUCs) of 0.96 (WBRT alone) and 0.96 (WBRT + Bortezomib) were seen in prediction of non-responsive lesions when changes in different subvolumes were combined. Also, GTV changes could predict the non-responsive lesions treated with WBRT alone (AUC = 0.91) but failed to predict the response in lesions treated with WBRT combined with Bortezomib (AUC = 0.57).

CONCLUSION
Combining the changes in tumor cellularity and vascularity could be used for early prediction of brain metastases response to RT and perform better than the GTV changes, suggesting that physiological changes could occur earlier than the morphological changes. (Support: NIH RO1NS064973) NIH grant ROl NS064973.


As the number of multicultural students in South Korean schools continues to grow, activists and educators argue that South Korean schools are not meeting the needs of both multicultural and mono-cultural students and advocate for multicultural education. While educational literature looks at the meaning of multicultural education and how it can be implemented in the South Korean context, relatively little attention has been given to pre-service teachers' understanding of cultural diversity and multicultural education. This paper explores how South Korean pre-service teachers understand the increasing ethnic and cultural diversity in South Korean society and multicultural education in South Korean schools. The responses suggest that multicultural education for pre-service teachers should facilitate a critical examination of South Korean identity as a political construct. Furthermore it should empower them to actively define multicultural education in their own contexts as a way to politically engage multiculturalism in and out of school.


Background: A mass gathering (MG) is defined as a collection of at least 1000 people at a single location over one to several days or weeks1. Potential sites for a disaster include festivals, sporting events, conventions, refugee camps, globalization by travel, and might involve a wide range of age groups. The potential number of patients and illnesses or injuries is affected by environmental, biochemical, and psychological factors. Identified issues: Children are vulnerable to higher rates of illnesses or injuries due to multiple factors such as their anatomical and physiological differences in comparison to adults2, lower motor and cognitive skills, and inability to know how and when to escape from danger. Children emergency cases are challenging and difficult to handle for healthcare providers in MG incidents due to some factors such as lack of pediatric cases, lack of training and experience in dealing with children, unfamiliarity with using the special equipment for treating children, communication barriers, the absence of a caregiver or personal identification card, inability to provide medical and allergic histories. The use of personal protective equipment can also complicate the assessment and treatment process as it may frighten children. In preparation for the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar the figures to take into consideration are presented in Table 1. We aim to propose strategies to enhance the safety and care of children involved in MGs. Results: Although they represent a very small proportion of the population in Qatar, children need special strategies from an emergency management viewpoint3 which we are proposing in Table 2. Adequate preparation is the responsibility of pre-hospital and emergency department healthcare providers, children healthcare agencies, and emergency managers. Conclusion: Several factors make children more vulnerable in mass gatherings incidents and this needs to be considered in emergency preparedness. A multi-disciplinary management team approach should be emphasized, developed, and disseminated through continuing professional development courses.


The College of Agricultural Sciences at The Pennsylvania State University has a rich tradition of excellence in agricultural education and research; in 1861 we conferred the first baccalaureate degrees in agriculture by a United States university. As a land-grant university, Penn State was charged with teaching agricultural sciences and engineering to the "industrial classes," particularly to rural farming communities. Through time, enrollment in the College has remained strong, but declined in recent years. With less than two percent of the population directly engaged in food production, fewer people understand their connection to agriculture, even though they eat daily, and students found it hard to identify with professional opportunities in agriculture. In response, we engaged in a college-wide initiative to help prospective students understand the relevance of our programs and the wealth of career opportunities in the agricultural sciences. The starting point was a college-wide commitment to this strategic effort. A Communications and Marketing Group was established develop a plan that would serve as a guide to enhance college communication and marketing efforts and to engage marketing experts from across the University level at all levels. Our "Think Again" campaign emerged from this yearlong process. The campaign targets 15-18 year-old students and their families. Our message conveyed the diversity and excitement of our "hands-on" educational programs and the career opportunities for students with degrees in these programs. We engaged our faculty, staff, county extension educators, current students, alumni, and industry partners in delivering this message. The net result has been outstanding - an increase in college enrollments approaching 25% over the first three years of the campaign. This campaign is a work in progress, and we continue to emphasize new angles, update our materials and strategies, and develop new and exciting curriculum to keep students engaged and prepare them for the challenges of the global food system. We set a goal that in the next ten years 50% of our students will study abroad, participate in an internship or service-learning project, or conduct research. In this way, we are bringing the curriculum alive by showing our students how what they learn in the classroom can make a difference in the lives of others. We have also made international partnerships a cornerstone of our new curriculum offerings, believing that our best research, teaching, and outreach will be done through the exchanges of knowledge gained by working, learning and growing together.


The increasing consumer interest in high quality foods – especially fruits and vegetables with high antioxidant phytochemicals – has led to interest in determining the effects of cropping system practices on phytochemicals over the last decade. Appropriate fertility management is critical to optimize agricultural production, both for yield and crop nutritive value, and minimize losses to the environment. In organic production systems, fertility management generally relies on soil microbial processes to decompose organic matter. To better understand the dynamics of mulch decomposition and the resulting effects on soil fertility and crop yield, a three-year randomized strip-plot experiment was implemented on the Montana State University Horticulture Research Farm. Two mulch inputs with varying carbon to nitrogen ratio (C:N), decomposition rates and microbial responses were contrasted with two non-mulched treatments, urea N fertilizer and a notreatment control. Spinach biomass, yield, total phenolics and antioxidant capacity were measured as plant response variables to changes in soil fertility and biology due to the different inputs over three years. Water-extractable organic matter (WEOM), available nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K), carbon (C) respiration, N mineralization, soil enzyme activity, microbial biomass and mycorrhizal infectivity potential were measured to assess soil fertility and biology. The hay mulch treatment increased nutrient availability and soil biological responses, and produced high spinach yields. The straw mulched treatment had a delayed effect on N availability and lower spinach yields initially, but in subsequent years both yield and biological parameters increased in the straw mulched treatments. Both mulch treatments produced cumulative spinach yields comparable to or exceeding the Nfertilizer plots. Only slight differences in total phenolic concentration and antioxidant capacity were measured among treatments indicating that other factors likely influence spinach phytochemicals more strongly than SOM. Measuring biological responses can be a sensitive measure of soil function and an important addition to farm management to better estimate how different management practices will affect soil processes, yields and the environment.


ABSTRACT From 2004 to 2012 a study of the flora and floral communities at Cabin Creek Raised Bog (Cabin Creek) was conducted. Cabin Creek, designated a National Natural Landmark by the National Park Service in December, 1974, is privately owned. It is located in west-central Randolph County, Indiana. An inventory of the vascular flora revealed 478 taxa representing 282 genera and 91 families. The 12 families containing approximately 62% of the documented species (in order by number of species) were Asteraceae, Cyperaceae, Poaceae, Rosaceae, Liliaceae, Lamiaceae, Scrophulariaceae, Apiaceae, Fabaceae, Ranunculaceae, Brassicaceae, and Polygonaceae. Of the 478 documented species, 400 were native, 78 were exotics, and 118 represented new Randolph County records. There were three species with Indiana Rare-Threatened-Endangered status, including Veratrum virginicum (endangered), Triantha glutinosa (rare), and Melica nitens (threatened). A physiognomic analysis (i.e., summary of plant form or habit) is presented. The floristic quality index (FQI) for native species is 85.6 (78.3 for all species) and the mean coefficient of conservatism (mean C) for native species is 4.3 (3.6 for all species). These numbers clearly signify the "paramount importance" of the floral natural heritage of the approximately 7 ha Cabin Creek site and indicate that it is among the highest floristic quality sites in the state. The flora occurring in the major community types (wetland border/marshes, sedge meadow–calcareous fen complex, moist prairie, mesic to dry woodland, moist woodland and hardwood swamp) is described.


There are numerous, distributed Earth observations that are in principle available and useful for societal benefit applications such as analysis of air quality events or renewable energy. Currently, Earth observation providers face challenges efficiently disseminating data to users in needed formats. Data users also face hurdles in finding, accessing, and using the right Earth observations for their needs. GEOSS is designed to reduce the burden on both the provider and the user, by providing easier data discovery and access to distributed resources through standard protocols and open architecture. The GEOSS Architecture Implementation Pilot-II (AIP-II) was organized with workgroups for societal benefit areas (SBAs) and transverse technologies (TTs). The SBA workgroups used their domain expertise to test end-to-end flow of data and metadata from data providers to data users with specific application needs. GEOSS mandates that metadata and data are registered using standard protocols such as WMS and WCS for data access and ISO 19115 and 19119 for metadata. These standards allowed the data being registered in community catalogs to be findable in the GEOSS Clearinghouse and automatically accessible through WMS viewers and other tools. The TT workgroups tied the diverse SBAs together by helping the SBAs implement standards for data access and metadata and develop common tools and methods that could be used by the SBAs. The TT workgroups laid out a set of use cases which provide a framework for different groups to add components that aided the end-to-end flow of data to the user. Collaboratively, the workgroups implemented the use cases and developed and refined the processes of deploying, documenting, and registering data through the GEOSS Common Infrastructure (GCI) for use in societal benefit area applications. The SBA and TT workgroups were connected through weekly discussions, and the work was captured using an online collaborative workspace. This allowed SBA workgroups to be aware of each other's work, allowed the transverse technology work groups to provide resources for each use case step, and exposed issues with implementation of a particular standard or process in the GCI. The completion of AIP-II resulted in data access services being found and accessed through the GCI by users. However, this is just the first step and a focus for the next phase of AIP is for scientists and other end-users to use data available through GEOSS for scientific exploration and understanding.


This paper describes recent work on high-occupancy effects in semiconductor microcavities, with emphasis on the variety of new physics and the potential for applications that has been demonstrated recently. It is shown that the ability to manipulate both exciton and photon properties, and how they interact together to form strongly coupled exciton-photon coupled modes, exciton polaritons, leads to a number of very interesting phenomena, which are either difficult or impossible to achieve in bulk semiconductors or quantum wells. The very low polariton density of states enables state occupancies greater than one to be easily achieved, and hence stimulation phenomena to be realized under conditions of resonant excitation. The particular form of the lower polariton dispersion curve in microcavities allows energy and momentum conserving polariton-polariton scattering under resonant excitation. Stimulated scattering of the bosonic quasi-particles occurs to the emitting state at the center of the Brillouin zone, and to a companion state at high wave vector. The stimulation phenomena lead to the formation of highly occupied states with macroscopic coherence in two specific regions of k space. The results are contrasted with phenomena that occur under conditions of nonresonant excitation. Prospects to achieve "polariton lasing" under nonresonant excitation, and high-gain, room-temperature ultrafast amplifiers and low-threshold optical parametric oscillator under resonant excitation conditions are discussed.


Human plasma melatonin concentrations can be measured accurately and sensitively by gas chromatography-negative chemical ionization mass spectrometry. With this assay, we have shown that: in rats and in humans, plasma melatonin is exclusively derived from the pineal gland; propranolol and clonidine reduce melatonin levels in human; some blind people appear to have free-running melatonin secretory circadian rhythms; bright light can acutely suppress human melatonin production according to a linear fluence-response relationship; manic-depressive patients appear to be supersensitive to light, even when they are well; melatonin levels are greater in manic patients than in depressed patients; in experiments to test the clock-gate model and the hypothesized phase-response curve, two different effects of light appear to present in humans: an acute suppressant effect (mainly in the evening during long photoperiods) and an entrainment effect (particularly during the morning but also in the evening). When blood is sampled for measuring melatonin levels as a marker for circadian phase position, bright light should be avoided after 5 p.m. (the dim light melatonin onset). Bright-light exposure in the morning appears to advance circadian rhythms, whereas bright-light exposure in the evening appears to delay them. Once a patient has been 'phase typed' (phase-advanced vs. phase-delayed), predictions can be made about whether morning or evening light would be more effective in treating the sleep or mood disorder.


Hyponatraemia is common in African children with severe malaria, but the cause is unknown. We measured plasma sodium (p[Na]) and arginine vasopressin concentrations (p[AVP]) in 30 consecutive children with severe malaria (19 had cerebral malaria), on admission, at 48 and 96 h after admission. Hyponatraemia (p[Na] < 130 mmol/l) occurred in 53 per cent of the children and was unrelated to peripheral parasite density, dehydration or abnormal renal function. The highest p[AVP] were seen in patients with cerebral malaria. Overall, p[AVP] declined 96 h after treatment. In children with hyponatraemia (cerebral and non-cerebral), p[AVP] levels were not suppressed and in 67 per cent of cases they were deemed inappropriate. Inappropriate AVP secretion is common in children with severe malaria and may influence fluid therapy after correction of initial dehydration.


The principles characterizing the traditional revenue-expense approach to accounting have never been "invented." They are an institution that is the result of social evolution, not of human design. Therefore, the efforts to defend them against the balance sheet approach endorsed by standard-setters have encountered severe difficulties. The latter is based on a coherent model of the economy, namely neoclassical economics. This paper argues that a solid basis for explaining the rationale of the traditional accounting principles can be found in behavioral economics, especially in Prospect Theory. If one combines this result with a market process view of the economy, the revenue-expense approach turns out to be congenial to the organization of the market economy.


IMPORTANCE
Reports on the integration of 3D printing in occupational therapy education and changes in student acceptance of technology over time are lacking.

OBJECTIVE
3D printing technology applications may offer effective solutions to increase client participation in occupations. However, the use of these applications in occupational therapy practice requires attention to occupational therapy students' perception of the technology's usefulness and ease of use. Students' perception of technology potentially influences their perceptions of technology use in future practice.

DESIGN
This was an exploratory one-group, pretest-posttest, repeated-measures study over 12 wk to examine whether an assignment that integrated 3D printing improved students' perceptions of technology acceptance. The study used a modified questionnaire based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM).

SETTING
Academic educational institution.

PARTICIPANTS
Second-year entry-level occupational therapy students (N = 58).

RESULTS
Paired t tests showed significant differences for all categories of the TAM questionnaire, including perceived usefulness (p = .001), perceived ease of use (p < .001), attitude toward using (p = .014), and intention to use (p < .001).

CONCLUSION
The experiential learning assignment increased students' acceptance of 3D printing technology; however, future studies should include an exploration of clients' acceptance and perception of technology.

WHAT THIS ARTICLE ADDS
This study provides evidence for the use of instructional strategies for "maker" technologies by educators when integrating experiential and interactive approaches.


The general aim of Estonian environmental law is reduction of environmental nuisances to the greatest extent possible, so as to protect the environment and human health, well-being, property, and cultural heritage. Hence, Estonian environmental law is not radically 'green': the aim is not to fully and unconditionally avoid environmental nuisances, since the functioning of human society and increasing of our prosperity are not possible without certain negative impacts on the environment. A fairly clear differentiation between environmental risks and hazards, in combination with the corresponding legal principles (of precaution and prevention), is characteristic of Estonian law. One of the main concerns with respect to plans and activities with a likely adverse environmental impact is whether the activity planned could cause environmental hazards in addition to environmental risks and, consequently, whether the precautionary principle or instead the preventive principle should be applied. Proven or assumed environmental nuisances caused by the activity in question do not necessarily need to be reduced or prevented; this duty applies only when a higher threshold is crossed – that is, when the environmental risk and/or hazard limit is exceeded. Hence, for plans and projects it has to be established whether the proposed activity actually would cause environmental risks and/or hazards. In the case of environmental risks (i.e., in situations wherein it is possible for an environmental nuisance that must be reduced to occur), the goal is not a priori prohibition of the activity but the application of measures that reduce the risk proportionally, where those measures might be carried out by such means as attaching additional conditions to environmental permits. Once the measures are set forth, it is up to the operator to decide whether meeting the prescribed conditions is feasible or, instead, the planned activity would be economically unreasonable under those conditions. When the probability of pollution occurring is considered great enough, there is deemed to be an environmental hazard, which must be prevented. Whether a hazard exists or not must be revealed in the course of further (scientific) research. Another important consideration is that an environmental hazard or a significant environmental nuisance needs to be tolerated in cases wherein all three of the following conditions are fulfilled: the activity is rendered necessary on account of compelling interest, there are no reasonable alternatives for safeguarding this interest, and the necessary measures have been taken to reduce the environmental hazard or significant environmental nuisance.


Epoxy resin nanocomposites were prepared by curing bisphenol-F with an aliphatic amine in the presence of SiO2 and ZrO2 nanoparticles as inorganic fillers. Both types of particles were prepared with diameters of around 10 nm and 70 nm to study size effects in the nanocomposites. The nanoparticles showed a different constitution: while silica was amorphous and spherical in nature, zirconia was crystalline and non-spherical. Both nanoparticles were surface-functionalized with novel diethylene-glycol-based capping agents to increase the compatibility with the epoxy matrix. The organic functionalities were attached to the nanoparticle surface via phosphonic acid (zirconia) and trialkoxysilane (silica) anchor groups. The homogeneity of the distribution of surface-modified inorganic nano-sized fillers in the matrix up to 5.8 vol% in case of silica and 2.34 vol% in case of zirconia was determined by small-angle X-ray scattering and transmission electron microscopy. Mechanical properties such as hardness and storage modulus were increased with increasing filler content while thermal stability of the obtained materials was nearly unaffected after incorporation of nanoparticles. Copyright © 2011 Society of Chemical Industry


This paper uses a unique database from a French university to analyze gender biases in student evaluations of teachers (SETs). The results of generalized ordered logit regressions and fixed-effects models suggest that male teachers tend to receive higher SET scores because of students' gender biases. Male students in particular express a strong bias in their favor: male students are approximately 30% more likely to give an excellent overall satisfaction score to male teachers compared to female teachers. The different teaching dimensions that students value in men and women tend to correspond to gender stereotypes. The teaching dimensions for which students perceive a comparative advantage for women (such as course preparation and organization) tend to be more time-consuming for the teacher, compared to the teaching dimensions that students value more in men (such as class leadership skills). Men are perceived as being more knowledgeable (male gender stereotype) and obtain higher SET scores than women, but students appear to learn as much from women as from men, suggesting that female teachers are as knowledgeable as men. Finally, I find that if women increased students' continuous assessment grades by 7.5% compared to the grades given by their male colleagues, they could obtain similar overall satisfaction scores as men. Yet, women do not act on this incentive (men and women give similar continuous assessment grades), suggesting that female teachers are unaware of students' gender biases. These biases have strong negative consequences for female academics, who may spend more time on teaching to try to obtain high SET scores, reducing time available for research. The results suggest that better teaching is not necessarily measured by SETs.


Abstract. In this paper we investigate the potential of melt pond fraction retrieval from X-band polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (SAR) on drifting first-year sea ice. Melt pond fractions retrieved from a helicopter-borne camera system were compared to polarimetric features extracted from four dual-polarimetric X-band SAR scenes, revealing significant relationships. The correlations were strongly dependent on wind speed and SAR incidence angle. Co-polarisation ratio was found to be the most promising SAR feature for melt pond fraction estimation at intermediate wind speeds (6. 2 m s−1), with a Spearman's correlation coefficient of 0. 46. At low wind speeds (0. 6 m s−1), this relation disappeared due to low backscatter from the melt ponds, and backscatter VV-polarisation intensity had the strongest relationship to melt pond fraction with a correlation coefficient of −0. 53. To further investigate these relations, regression fits were made both for the intermediate (R2fit = 0. 21) and low (R2fit = 0. 26) wind case, and the fits were tested on the satellite scenes in the study. The regression fits gave good estimates of mean melt pond fraction for the full satellite scenes, with less than 4 % from a similar statistics derived from analysis of low-altitude imagery captured during helicopter ice-survey flights in the study area. A smoothing window of 51 × 51 pixels gave the best reproduction of the width of the melt pond fraction distribution. A considerable part of the backscatter signal was below the noise floor at SAR incidence angles above  ∼  40°, restricting the information gain from polarimetric features above this threshold. Compared to previous studies in C-band, limitations concerning wind speed and noise floor set stricter constraints on melt pond fraction retrieval in X-band. Despite this, our findings suggest new possibilities in melt pond fraction estimation from X-band SAR, opening for expanded monitoring of melt ponds during melt season in the future.


Russia's position on Syria's civil war has been criticized so devastatingly in the Western media and proven wrong by so many political analyses so convincingly that it might appear useless and impolitic to re-open the issue. Yet Russia's allegedly self-defeating position has turned out to be remarkably defensible. By adopting a contrarian stance, Russia has managed to score more than a few points in the complex diplomatic maneuvering around this protracted humanitarian disaster. It may, therefore, be useful to re-examine the combination of interests and ambitions that shapes the Russian course in order to gain some foresight on its change following the probable collapse of the alAssad regime. This is without any intention to wax lyrical about President Vladimir Putin's wisdom in charting this course—but with the aim of assessing the impact of this discord on the presently indeterminate fate of Russian-U.S. relations.


Abstract When tools like the stethoscope and electrocardiogram are appropriated for use beyond their intended purpose – for example in music and dance performance – how does the training of foreign users shift the framing of sound, and therefore what types of sounds from the body and apparatus come to be analysed or considered? Can we qualify the difference between a doctor and a composer listening to the heart through a stethoscope? How do the motives and methods of practitioners inform what they hear, and how they touch – to the exclusion of sensory processes beyond their frame of reference? As a choreographer and composer working with heart rate sensors, we do not seek to reveal or represent the invisible workings of the heart. Rather, in our performances and installations, the sonification and haptification of heart rhythms – along with the noise produced by the apparatus and its use – are a means to compose a context for intimate listening and touch between performers and visitors at the edges of appropriateness.


Internet is that the center of all style of social and monetary activities. It's enabled organizations to supply their services on-line. Customers feel easier to avail on-line services like ebanking services rather than ancient banking services. They will gain these services twenty four hours each day from their homes. It saves their time and cash and conjointly provides them a lot of open marketplace for comparison. However at same time, security is that the biggest challenge in electronic atmosphere. In past few years, electronic banking has suffered from many malicious attacks like phishing scams, man within the middle attacks and malicious computer code attacks. To beat these issues the Mobile phones square measure ordinarily employed by net servers to validate user's identification and authentication. It enhances user's trust in on-line transactions and empowers him to use his mobile network as a further layer of security. This mechanism is understood as Mobile group action Authentication system of numeration (mTAN) that is employed by e-banks and social media sites. This technique has some weakness and users square measure still susceptible to serious security risks. Unauthorized people will notice their ways that to urge unauthorized access in ancient mTAN system. During this project, we've got explored weaknesses in current mTAN system and planned an answer for reliable and secure use of 2 layer security.


Abstract The genebank at ICRISAT, India that serves as a world repository for sorghum germplasm conserves 39,234 accessions from 93 countries, including 6249 from seven South Asian countries: Afghanistan (6), Bangladesh (9), India (6101), the Maldives (10), Nepal (8), Pakistan (90) and Sri Lanka (25). A total of 5340 georeferenced accessions were used to identify gaps, and 5322 accessions that were characterized at ICRISAT were used to assess the diversity in the collection. Accessions of basic races varied widely than those of intermediate races for flowering in the postrainy season, plant height in both rainy and postrainy seasons, panicle exsertion, panicle length and width, seed size and 100 seed weight. Landraces from India were late flowering, tall and produced stout panicles and larger seeds. Landraces from Pakistan flowered early in both seasons and produced stout panicles and those from Sri Lanka were late flowering and tall in both seasons, produced more basal tillers and stout panicles. A total of 110 districts in 20 provinces of India, 13 districts in three provinces of Pakistan, three districts in Bangladesh and five districts in four provinces of Sri Lanka were identified as geographical gaps. Sorghum bicolor subsp. verticilliflorum, S. halepense and S. propinquum were identified as taxonomic gaps in the collection. Therefore, it is suggested to explore the districts identified as gaps to enrich the variability in the world collection of sorghum at ICRISAT.


MEDIA ECOLOGY ASSOCIATION CONVENTION NEW YORK, NEW YORK JUNE 22-26, 2005 From June 22-26, 2005, scholars from around the globe gathered at Ford-ham University in New York City for the Media Ecology Association's sixth annual convention with the theme of "The Biases of Media." The expression "Media Ecology" is the term Neil Postman used in 1970 to designate the then newly formed PhD program at New York University. This program began to study media and communication technologies from a broad-based, multidisciplinary, and socio-historical perspective. Seven years ago, the Media Ecology Association (MEA) was founded to bring together the New York, Toronto, and St. Louis schools, along with others who shared an interest in the media ecology intellectual tradition. This year's convention--larger than ever, including the addition of an extra day of workshops and lectures--was a high-power event of scholarly presentations, engaging discussions, and artistic productions. Convention participants met and interacted with scholars, artists, and activists from the fields of anthropology, graphic arts, philosophy, physics, theology, sociology, media, and communications. They also attended a wide range of events spanning political, theological, economic, philosophical, scientific, and artistic dimensions. Featured presentations focused on the works of Walter J. Ong, Harold A. Innis, Postman, and of course, Marshall McLuhan. Among the featured speakers were noted scholars such as James Carey, Frank E. X. Dance, Paul Levinson, Eric McLuhan, Paul Soukup, and Sarah van den Berg. Smaller break-out sessions addressed a wide range of media ecology interests: the dimensions of faith and the sacred in communication, the study of visual communication, the relations between communication and culture, ancient and modern rhetoric, the relevance of general semantics, digital technologies, and the implications of new and emerging media. There were also more directed workshops including one on mime and McLuhan by Wayne Constantineau, a workshop on general semantics-based media literacy given by Gregg Hoffmann, and a media ethnography workshop by John Carey. Mary Ann Allison, this year's winner of the Harold A. Innis Award for Outstanding Thesis or Dissertation in the Field, offered a workshop on virtual community, Mark Dery led another on the sexual grotesque online, and Paul Guzzardo from the MediaARTS Alliance presented on art and surveillance. Patricia Keeler helped to demonstrate the labyrinth as sacred space. The convention was bookended by sessions on media authorship and creativity featuring such writers and video artists as Marleen Barr, Leslie Carroll, Michael Joyce, Andrew Postman, Meir Z. Ribalow, Douglas Rushkoff, Katie Salen, David Shenk, and Marina Zurkow. The conference also featured a few performative events, including a screening of this year's winner of the John Culkin award, a video documentary entitled A Conversation with Neil Postman (2003), and a wonderfully amusing live musical performance entitled "Media Ecology Unplugged" by Bill Bly and John McDaid. …


An ASIC wafer test system has been developed to provide comprehensive production screening of the ATLAS Semiconductor Tracker front-end chip (ABCD3T). The ABCD3T features a 128-channel analog front-end, a digital pipeline, and communication circuitry, clocked at 40 MHz, which is the bunch crossing frequency at the LHC (Large Hadron Collider). The tester measures values and tolerance ranges of all critical IC parameters, including DC parameters, electronic noise, time resolution, clock levels and clock timing. The tester is controlled by an FPGA (ORCA3T) programmed to issue the input commands to the IC and to interpret the output data. This allows the high-speed wafer-level IC testing necessary to meet the production schedule. To characterize signal amplitudes and phase margins, the tester utilizes pin-driver, delay, and DAC chips, which control the amplitudes and delays of signals sent to the IC under test. Output signals from the IC under test go through window comparator chips to measure their levels. A probe card has been designed specifically to reduce pick-up noise that can affect the measurements. The system can operate at frequencies up to 100 MHz to study the speed limits of the digital circuitry before and after radiation damage. Testing requirements and design solutions are presented.


In Multi-agent System (MAS), all agents communicate with each other by sending messages to each other in an expressive agent communication language. Agent communication language (ACL) [12], defines type of messages and their meaning that agents can exchange. Messages that agents communicate have semantic meanings which can be proposition, rules or actions [27]. In other words, multi-agent system is an association of synchronized, autonomous agents, which interact with each other in achieving common goals (objectives). On the other hand, Web services are the services in the shape of software components accessible on the internet, which provide useful information to users, businesses and organizations. The Web service model uses WSDL, an XML format responsible for the service interfaces description along with the binding details to specific protocols. UDDI, a protocol responsible for publishing and finding services, services details and descriptions etc. SOAP, an XML message based envelop format which has the bindings to specific protocols (e.g. HTTP, SMTP etc). These services are invoked over the www (World Wide Web) using the SOAP/XMLP protocol. A Workflow can be defined as "The automation of a business process, in whole or part, during which documents, information or tasks are passed from one participant to another for action, according to a set of procedural rules" [21]. It has many advantages like improved efficiency, better process control, improved customer service, flexibility and business process improvement [7]. Due to rapid advancements in technology and growing needs of business environment, there is a need of adaptive workflow, which could accommodate itself with the changes that occur in the business processes. Traditionally, workflow management systems have not been designed for dynamic environments requiring adaptive response. Currently, the need for adaptive workflow is being driven by the demands of e-commerce in both B2B and B2C space. Adaptive workflows respond to changing conditions through adaptive change. The aim of this thesis is to suggest an adaptive work flow model that can help in eliminating problems in e-commerce domain by using agent based approach. In e-commerce there is always a problem of searching the right item (e.g.construction material) in less time without involving the contractors etc who search for the items with the specifications told by the customers, as the current system does not support the good search. The customers search each time for the required items (e.g. construction material) and stop their search when they have found the desired item according to their budget, cost and quality attributes with up to date market cost about the required items to purchase (construction material). In e-commerce workflow system, in purchasing the required items (construction material), there are processes involved (Order Capture, Order Process, Order Fulfillment) which do not address the adaptability attribute in case of exception [38] or when there is a change in business environment which make changes in the business processes, consequences of which can be in the shape of failure of business objective (unsuccessful business transaction). The proposed approach somehow can eliminate the problem described above and suggests an adaptive workflow system by introducing agents with each of the processes (Order Capture, Order, Process, and Order Fulfillment). A proposed way to design adaptive work flow is explained with the help of agents. Some work is done to relate this framework with web services to provide refined search and purchasing in order to take care of user needs. But still there is need of more research to explore this area of e-commerce workflow system.


Policies aimed at reducing emissions from fossil fuels may increase climate damages. This 'Green Paradox' emerges if resource owners increase near-term extraction in fear of stricter future policy measures. Hans-Werner Sinn (2008) showed that the paradox occurs when increasing resource taxes are applied within a basic exhaustible resource model. This article highlights that the emergence of the Green Paradox within this framework relies on the non-existence of a backstop technology and fixed fossil fuel resources. In doing this, it initially presents a basic exhaustible resource model which includes a backstop technology and shows that the implementation of a specific sales tax path is effective in mitigating global warming. Secondly, it considers the case of costly exploration activities being introduced within the basic model and accounts for the real world condition that the location of fossil fuels is unknown. Under this condition, an increasing cash flow tax is effective in dealing with climate change if policy makers commit to a high initial tax level and to a specific range of growth rates.


This study presents a new electrochemical sensor based on a molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) modified boron doped diamond (BDD) electrode (MIP/BDD electrode) for the quantitative determination of sulfamethoxazole (SMX). This MIP/BDD electrode is prepared by in situ electro-polymerization of pyrrole (Py) on the BDD electrode in the presence of SMX. This sensor based on the MIP/BDD electrode performs a linear response for SMX from 0.1–100 μM with a limit of detection of 24.1 nM (S/N = 3) and a highly reproducible response (2.32%). The detection of SMX in surface water samples spiked at different concentration levels performs satisfactorily at a recovery of 96.0–106.2%. Furthermore, this sensor exhibits a superior selectivity to recognize SMX molecules even compared with other structural analogues (SDM, SD and SIZ). This high-selectivity determination originates from the imprinted sites of the MIP film which have the advantages of appropriate cavity size and homologous functional groups for the specific recognition of SMX molecules. This specially designed sensor offers a simple, selective, sensitive, reliable, stable and environmentally friendly approach for SMX determination, providing a responsible strategy for effective SMX analysis in environmental water.


This special issue of META: Middle East, Topics and Arguments, engages with the methodology of iconography, an area that was originally developed in the study traditions, iconography is used to reconstruct the meaning of depictions, buildings and other material artifacts, and it does so by integrating the elements of a given representation into its broader historical and cultural context. Ideally, iconography thereby becomes a means of reconstructing both the original aims of the producer of a message, and the ways in which that message was received by its original audience.In this volume of META, we argue that this approach can and should be adapted to fields transcending the frame of art history and material culture in order to allow greater field of Social and Cultural Studies as a whole. We see iconography, or the synchronistic study of the combination of discrete elements in spatially and temporally bounded areas, as a powerful tool in reconstructing the relationship between the sender and the receiver of a message by focusing on the semiotic context, or Language of Forms (Formensprache), in which communication takes place. By focusing especially on the permeability between different repertoires, the performativity inherent in any act of social communication and the technology underlying the mobilization of semantically charged elements, we aim to explore some of the most promising dimensions in which we believe iconographical approaches can be fruitfully employed in Social and Cultural Studies.


Public health is intrinsically related to food animal production. Antibiotic residues in the food of animal origin and antibiotic resistant bacteria threaten human
health. There is an increase in population and the demand for chicken meat in Malaysia is also increasing. Not much data is available on antibiotic residues and antibiotic resistant E. coli from chickens and foods of animal origin in Malaysia. In this study, a total of 400 chicken meat samples were subjected to antibiotic residues screening tests. The prevalence of antibiotics residues in chicken
meat was between 111% to 217%, using three microbial growth inhibition tests; namely, fast antimicrobial screening test (FAST), Baedlus stearothermophdus disc assay (BSDA) and a commercial test kit (TAT) with reference to four plate test
(FPT) The test performances were evaluated on sensitivity, specificity, positive predtcnve value and negative predictive value. The sensitivity of these tests ranged
from 55.6 to 65% and specificity, from 82 to 90.6%. Kappa agreement was between 0.5 to 0.8. Based on the above performance parameters, as well as the cost, simplicity and incubation period, BSDA is a screening test of choice. A total of 182 E. coli isolates from these chicken meat samples were found resistant to twelve antibiotics; vancomycin (99.4%), trimethoprim (98.9%), nalidixic acid (97.2%), tetracycline and cephradine (96.7%), ampicillin (94.5%), enrofloxacin (83.5%), erythromycin (82.9%), ciprofloxacin (81.3%), cefoperazone (80.2%), chloramphenicol (74.4%) and kanamycin (68.6%). Forty-six antibiotypes and nine antibiogroups were observed. Escherichia coli isolated from antibiotic residues positive samples and antibiotic residues negative samples were tested for antibiotic susceptibility to twelve antibiotics. A higher percentage of antibiotic resistance was observed in E. coli isolates from antibiotic residues positive samples compared to those from antibiotic residues negative samples. 58.3% and 29.2% of E. coli isolates from antibiotic residues positive samples and 25% and 17.1% of E. coli isolates from antibiotic residues negative samples were resistant to 12 and 11 antibiotics, respectively.
Plasmid isolation was conducted in 132 of the E. coli isolated. Plasmid occurrence rate of 81.8% were observed in this study with high diversity of plasmids profiles among E. cob isolates from different sources. The number of plasmids ranged from 0 to 8 and the sizes of plasmids ranged from 1.2 MDa to 118.6 MDa. Forty-five different plasmid profiles were observed. No apparent correlation was
found between the plasmid profiles of the strains and their antibiotic resistance patterns. In another study, the occurrence of antibiotic resistant E. coil was determined
in four flocks where in three flocks, chickens were given commercial feed containing antibiotics and in one flock the feed given were without antibiotics. Escherichia colt isolates from chickens given feed without antibiotics showed low resistance to all antibiotics even at one day old. The screening of antibiotic residues was done in 20 of these chickens at the age of 42 days old. The occurrence of
antibiotic residues was 10% in chickens given feed containing antibiotics. It was observed that E. coli isolates from the antibiotic residues positive samples were also resistant to 12 antibiotics while those from antibiotic residues negative samples were resistant to 2-8 antibiotics. This observation requires further investigation. Klebseilla spp., Pseudomonas spp. and E. coil were isolated from the feeds and water of the flock where chickens given feed without antibiotics. All these
bacteria were resistant to 4-10 antibiotics. Antibiotic resistant E. coli was observed in day-old chicks without any selective pressure, such as even when no antibiotic
was added to the ration. Thus, proliferation of antibiotic resistant E. colt is less dependent on the use of antibiotics/antimicrobials in poultry farms and most likely
that chickens obtain antibiotic resistant E. colt from the environment.


In public discourse, literacy has long been associated with schooling. Talk about literacy crises is often accompanied by calls for better schools and more rigorous curricula, and images of reading and writing are closely connected to school-based or essayist forms of literacy. However, when we widen the lens of what we consider literacy and literate activities, homes, communities, and workplaces become sites for literacy use. It was in fact in these out-of-school contexts, rather than in school-based ones, that many of the major theoretical advances in the study of literacy have been made in the past 25 years. Studies of literacy out-ofschool have been pivotal in shaping the field. Indeed, to talk about literacy these days, both in school and out, is to speak of events, practices, activities, ideologies, discourses, and identities, and at times to do so almost unreflectively, since these categories and terminology have become so much a part of our customary ways of thinking in academic domains. Through an exploration of three major theoretical traditions that have launched numerous studies of literacy, we show that in large part this new theoretical vocabulary sprang from examinations of the uses and functions of literacy in contexts other than school. Comments Reprinted by permission of the Publisher. From Glynda Hull and Katherine Schultz, School's Out! : Bridging Out-of-School Literacies with Classroom Practice, New York: Teachers College Press, © 2001 by Teacher's College, Columbia University. All rights reserved. This book chapter is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/gse_pubs/170


Scholars of the madrigal have often emphasized Torquato Tasso's role in the emergence of a serious musical manner that differed sharply from the widespread canzonetta style of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. This emphasis is grounded in Tasso's endorsement of musical gravitas in the dialogue La Cavaletta from the mid-1580s, as well as in some settings of Gerusalemme liberata , the musical style of which matched the heroic tone of the poetry. Tasso, however, produced many poems that were suitable to lighter musical styles. In particular, he wrote several short strophic compositions of light tone, that is, canzonetta poems. Numerous composers set these as such or as canzonetta madrigals, the hybrid genre that became popular in the late sixteenth century. This poetic-musical repertoire counters Tasso's and scholars' emphasis on gravitas and prompts a reconsideration of his impact on music that takes into greater account his substantial contribution to lighter genres.


Diffuse correlation spectroscopy (DCS) is an emerging optical technique for noninvasive measurement of hemodynamics of living tissues. Using emitter and detector optical probes attached to the body surface, DCS estimates the mean speed of blood ow in the tissue, through which the emitted near-infrared light propagates (blood ow index: BFI). The advantage of DCS is that the mean blood ow in deeper tissues such as muscle layers can be measured noninvasively. To investigate the sensitivity of DCS in detecting the physiological changes of blood ow in deep and shallow tissues, we measured the blood ow speed in 14 healthy participants during a reactive hyperemia test and skin temperature changes. In the reactive hyperemia test, blood ow returned to the steady state faster in deep tissues than in shallow tissues, and temperature-dependent reallocation of local blood ow in shallow and deep tissues was clearly observed. These results demonstrate that DCS can measure the differences in physiological blood ow dynamics in deep and shallow tissues, suggesting the potential use of DCS to noninvasively quantify changes at microcirculation level in both shallow and deep tissue layers.


Despite the uncertainty in future climate-change impacts, it is often assumed that humans would be able to adapt to any possible warming. Here we argue that heat stress imposes a robust upper limit to such adaptation. Peak heat stress, quantified by the wet-bulb temperature TW, is surprisingly similar across diverse climates today. TW never exceeds 31 °C. Any exceedence of 35 °C for extended periods should induce hyperthermia in humans and other mammals, as dissipation of metabolic heat becomes impossible. While this never happens now, it would begin to occur with global-mean warming of about 7 °C, calling the habitability of some regions into question. With 11–12 °C warming, such regions would spread to encompass the majority of the human population as currently distributed. Eventual warmings of 12 °C are possible from fossil fuel burning. One implication is that recent estimates of the costs of unmitigated climate change are too low unless the range of possible warming can somehow be narrowed. Heat stress also may help explain trends in the mammalian fossil record.


Operation regimes of a two section monolithic quantum dot (QD) mode-locked laser are studied experimentally with InGaAs lasers and theoretically, using a model that takes into account carrier exchange between QD ground state and two-dimensional reservoir of a QD-in-a-well structure. It is shown analytically and numerically that, when the absorber section is long enough, the laser exhibits bistability between laser off state and different mode-locking regimes. The Q-switching instability leading to slow modulation of the mode-locked pulse peak intensity is completely eliminated in this case. When, on the contrary, the absorber length is rather short, in addition to usual Q-switched mode-locking, pure Q-switching regimes are predicted theoretically and observed experimentally.


We studied the 1941 diversion of Furnace Creek Wash (drainage area 439 km 2 ) into Gower Gulch (5.8 km 2 ) as an experiment in the transient response of a channel to a large change in water and sediment discharge. We measured sequential changes in valley width using a time series of aerial photographs (1948–1995), airborne laser elevation data from 2005, and a field survey. We found that the response of the system varied depending on the prediversion channel morphology and bedrock geology. In two steep knickzone segments, narrowing, knickpoint retreat and bedrock incision dominated, indicating a detachment-limited response. In the relatively low-gradient main part of Gower Gulch, widening dominated as the coarse postdiversion sediment load covered the channel bed. This transport-limited part of the system has undergone only modest incision and adjustments in gradient. Over long periods, the lowering rate of Gower Gulch probably depends on knickpoint retreat, but the present-day response of this non–steady-state system is a hybrid of incision and narrowing in detachment-limited reaches and widening in transport-limited reaches. This system demonstrates the importance of evolving channel geometry in setting the transient response of rivers to changes in forcing parameters.


Advanced persistent threats (APTs) are a major threat to cyber-security, causing significant financial and privacy losses each year. In this paper, cumulative prospect theory (CPT) is applied to study the interactions between a cyber system and an APT attacker when each of them makes subjective decisions to choose their scan interval and attack interval, respectively. Both the probability distortion effect and the framing effect are applied to model the deviation of subjective decisions of end-users from the objective decisions governed by expected utility theory, under uncertain attack durations in a pure-strategy game and scan interval in a mixed-strategy game. The CPT-based APT detection game incorporates both the probability weighting distortion and the framing effect of the subjective attacker and security agent of the cyber system, rather than discrete decision weights, as in earlier prospect theoretic study of APT detection. The Nash equilibria of the APT detection game are derived, showing that a subjective attacker becomes risk-seeking if the frame of reference for evaluating the utility is large, and becomes risk-averse if the frame of reference for evaluating the utility is small. A policy hill-climbing (PHC) based detection scheme is proposed to increase the policy uncertainty to fool the attacker in the dynamic game, and a "hotbooting" technique that exploits experiences in similar scenarios to initialize the quality values is developed to accelerate the learning speed of PHC-based detection. A practical example of a mobile network is presented to evaluate the performance of the proposed detection strategy. Simulation results show that the proposed strategy can improve detection performance with a higher data protection level and utilities of the cloud in the presence of an attacker compared with a standard Q-learning strategy.


SEVEN RIVERS WEST chronicles the adventures of Cecil Roop, an easterner drawn to the West in the 1880s in search of a grizzly cub to bring back east to show on the Vaudeville circuit. During his quest--which evolves into a hunt for a bigfoot--he picks up eccentric companions: Sutton, a circus performer in search of gold; Charley, a wily old frontiersman; Roy, a one-armed, toothless gold hunter; Margaret, a serene Indian woman; and a pack of loyal dogs. Full of high drama, bear attacks, run-ins with displaced Indians, and set against the stunning backdrop of the natural wonders of the West at the turn of the century, this novel is at once a picaresque adventure and the exuberant story of an unprecedented quest.


The development of robust software is a difficult undertaking and is becoming increasingly more important as applications grow larger and more complex. Although modern programming languages such as C++ and Java provide sophisticated exception handling mechanisms to detect and correct runtime error conditions, exception handling code must still be programmed with care to preserve application consistency. In particular, exception handling is only effective if the premature termination of a method due to an exception does not leave an object in an inconsistent state. We address this issue by introducing the notion of failure atomicity in the context of exceptions. We propose practical techniques to automatically detect and mask the nonatomic exception handling situations encountered during program execution. These techniques can be applied to applications written in various programming languages that support exceptions. We perform experimental evaluation on both C++ and Java applications to demonstrate the effectiveness of our techniques and measure the overhead that they introduce.


ABSTRACT We have shown previously that when the Escherichia coli chromosomal lacZ gene is put under the control of an extended Shine-Dalgarno (SD) sequence (10 or 6 nucleotides in length), the translation efficiency can be highly variable, depending on the presence of AU-rich targets for ribosomal protein S1 in the mRNA leader. Here, the same strains have been used to examine the question of how strong ribosome binding to extended SD sequences affects the stability of lacZ mRNAs translated with different efficiencies. The steady-state concentration of the lacZ transcripts has been found to vary over a broad range, directly correlating with translation efficiency but not with the SD duplex stability. The observed strain-to-strain variations in lacZ mRNA level became far less marked in the presence of the rne-1 mutation, which partially inactivates RNase E. Together, the results show that (i) an SD sequence, even one that is very long, cannot stabilize the lacZ mRNA in E. coli if translation is inefficient; (ii) inefficiently translated lacZ transcripts are sensitive to RNase E; and (iii) AU-rich elements inserted upstream of a long SD sequence enhance translation and stabilize mRNA, despite the fact that they constitute potential RNase E sites. These data strongly support the idea that the lacZ mRNA in E. coli can be stabilized only by translating, and not by stalling, ribosomes.