Can the 'invisible hand' handle money? George Selgin challenges the view that government regulation creates monetary order and stability, and instead shows it to be the main source of monetary crisis. The volume is divided into three sections: * Part I refutes conventional wisdom holding that any monetary system lacking government regulation is 'inherently unstable', and looks at the workings of market forces in an otherwise unregulated banking system. * Part II draws on both theory and historical experience to show how various kinds of government interference undermine the inherent efficiency, safety, and stability of a free monetary system. * Part III completes the argument by addressing the popular misconception that a monetary system is unsound unless it delivers a stable output price-level.


Question

Which functional diversity indices have the power to reveal changes in community assembly processes along abiotic stress gradients? Is their power affected by stochastic processes and variations in species richness along stress gradients?

Methods

We used a simple community assembly model to explore the power of functional diversity indices across a wide range of ecological contexts. The model assumes that with declining stress the influence of niche complementarity on species fitness increases while that of environmental filtering decreases. We separately incorporated two trait-independent stochastic processes – mass and priority effects – in simulating species occurrences and abundances along a hypothetical stress gradient. We ran simulations where species richness was constant along the gradient, or increased, decreased or varied randomly with declining stress. We compared observed values for two indices of functional richness – total functional dendrogram length (FD) and convex hull volume (FRic) – with a matrix-swap null model (yielding indices SESFD and SESFRic) to remove any trivial effects of species richness. We also compared two indices that measure both functional richness and functional divergence – Rao quadratic entropy (Rao) and functional dispersion (FDis) – with a null model that randomizes abundances across species but within communities. This converts them to pure measures of functional divergence (SESRao and SESFDis).

Results

When mass effects operated, only SESRao and SESFDis gave reasonable power, irrespective of how species richness varied along the stress gradient. FD, FRic, Rao and FDis had low power when species richness was constant, and variation in species richness greatly influenced their power. SESFRic and SESFD were unaffected by variation in species richness. When priority effects operated, FRic, SESFRic, Rao and FDis had good power and were unaffected by variation in species richness. Variation in species richness greatly affected FD and SESFD. SESRao and SESFDis had low power in the priority effects model but were unaffected by variation in species richness.

Conclusions

Our results demonstrate that a reliable test for changes in assembly processes along stress gradients requires functional diversity indices measuring either functional richness or functional divergence. We recommend using SESFRic as a measure of functional richness and either SESRao or SESFDis (which are very closely related mathematically) as a measure of functional divergence. Used together, these indices of functional richness and functional divergence provide good power to test for increasing niche complementarity with declining stress across a broad range of ecological contexts.


This text explores the diversity of social care provision for older people in six contrasting European countries. Using a common descriptive and analytical framework, the book examines how the organization and delivery of care are shaped by the wider welfare regime. This is discussed at the level of both practice and policy, including detailed case studies illustrating key features of social care in each country. The authors conclude by showing how the concept of social exclusion can inform service development.


In the present work, we characterized H+ and HCO 3 − transport mechanisms in the submandibular salivary gland (SMG) ducts of wild type, NHE2−/−, NHE3−/−, and NHE2−/−;NHE3−/− double knock-out mice. The bulk of recovery from an acid load across the luminal membrane (LM) of the duct was mediated by a Na+-dependent HOE and ethyl-isopropyl-amiloride (EIPA)-inhibitable and 4,4′-diisothiocyanostilbene-2,2′-disulfonic acid (DIDS)-insensitive mechanism. HCO 3 − increased the rate of luminal Na+-dependent pH i recovery but did not change inhibition by HOE and EIPA or the insensitivity to DIDS. Despite expression of NHE2 and NHE3 in the LM of the duct, the same activity was observed in ducts from wild type and all mutant mice. Measurements of Na+-dependent OH−and/or HCO 3 − cotransport (NBC) activities in SMG acinar and duct cells showed separate DIDS-sensitive/EIPA-insensitive and DIDS-insensitive/EIPA-sensitive NBC activities in both cell types. Functional and immunocytochemical localization of these activities in the perfused duct indicated that pNBC1 probably mediates the DIDS-sensitive/EIPA-insensitive transport in the basolateral membrane, and splice variants of NBC3 probably mediate the DIDS-insensitive/EIPA-sensitive NBC activity in the LM of duct and acinar cells. Notably, the acinar cell NBC3 variants transported HCO 3 − but not OH−. By contrast, duct cell NBC3 transported both OH− and HCO 3 − . Accordingly, reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction analysis revealed that both cell types expressed mRNA for pNBC1. However, the acini expressed mRNA for the NBC3 splice variants NBCn1C and NBCn1D, whereas the ducts expressed mRNA for NCBn1B. Based on these findings we propose that the luminal NBCs in the HCO 3 − secreting SMG acinar and duct cells function as HCO 3 − salvage mechanisms at the resting state. These studies emphasize the complexity but also begin to clarify the mechanism of HCO 3 − homeostasis in secretory epithelia.


The year 2004 marked the fiftieth anniversary of the Merrill-Palmer Quarterly: A Journal of Developmental Psychology, providing an occasion to celebrate the journal's heritage and its long history of scholarly contributions to its field. This volume celebrates this milestone by bringing together twenty-three distinguished essays that showcase past accomplishments, current progress, and future challenges in the human developmental sciences. The essays presented in this volume offer perspectives on many of the research domains and specialty areas that have been prominent in MPQ's history. Accordingly, chapters are organized around ten conceptual themes, including methodological and interpretive considerations, cognitive development and learning, temperament and emotional development, children's social development and peer relations, family relations, moral development, the nature-nurture debate and behavioral genetics, cultural psychology, early child care and school-readiness, and evidence-based programming and public policy. In addition, an introductory chapter provides a historical overview of MPQ, examining the events, persons, institutional forces, and publication trends that brought the journal into existence and have contributed to its success and longevity. These commentaries are accessible and of interest to all who work with infants, children, adolescents, and families. As a result, this volume will appeal to researchers and professionals alike.


In this paper, a multi-parameterized proximal point algorithm combining with a relaxation step is developed for solving convex minimization problem subject to linear constraints. We show its global convergence and sublinear convergence rate from the prospective of variational inequality. Preliminary numerical experiments on testing a sparse minimization problem from signal processing indicate that the proposed algorithm performs better than some well-established methods.


Smallholder beef subsector can potentially contribute to the nation's development. The paper presents the results of the value chain analysis of the beef sub sector in Zimbabwe. Data was gathered through cross sectional household survey of 380 beef farmers, six community focus group discussions, key informant interviews and interviews of value chain actors. Empirical results showed that profitability of beef marketing by farmers is constrained by low productivity caused by longer calving intervals, poor animal husbandry practices and lack of market information .Three existing beef cattle value chains were identified. A total of 91% of the producers sold cattle to the informal livestock market and only 9% through formal market. Body condition, health of animal and age were reported as major factors used in setting cattle prices. The study recommends setting up breeding programs, improved husbandry practices, improving farmer access to market information and collective action among farmers.


Background. Evidence suggests some overlap between the pathological use of food and drugs, yet how impulsivity compares across these different clinical disorders remains unclear. Substance use disorders are commonly characterized by elevated impulsivity, and impulsivity subtypes may show commonalities and differences in various conditions. We hypothesized that obese subjects with binge-eating disorder (BED) and abstinent alcohol-dependent cohorts would have relatively more impulsive profiles compared to obese subjects without BED. We also predicted decision impulsivity impairment in obesity with and without BED. Method. Thirty obese subjects with BED, 30 without BED and 30 abstinent alcohol-dependent subjects and age- and gender-matched controls were tested on delay discounting (preference for a smaller immediate reward over a larger delayed reward), reflection impulsivity (rapid decision making prior to evidence accumulation) and motor response inhibition (action cancellation of a prepotent response). Results. All three groups had greater delay discounting relative to healthy volunteers. Both obese subjects without BED and alcohol-dependent subjects had impaired motor response inhibition. Only obese subjects without BED had impaired integration of available information to optimize outcomes over later trials with a cost condition. Conclusions. Delay discounting appears to be a common core impairment across disorders of food and drug intake. Unexpectedly, obese subjects without BED showed greater impulsivity than obese subjects with BED. We highlight the dissociability and heterogeneity of impulsivity subtypes and add to the understanding of neurocognitive profiles across disorders involving food and drugs. Our results have therapeutic implications suggesting that disorder-specific patterns of impulsivity could be targeted.


Pure red cell aplasia (PRCA) is a rare haematological syndrome characterised by anaemia, reticulocytopenia and severe erythroid hypoplasia without alteration in megakaryocytic and myeloid maturation. Immune system irregularity can be mediated by the presence of autoantibodies against erythroid cells or against erythropoietin (Epo), or by hyperactivity of large granular lymphocytes with enhanced T cell or natural killer cell cytotoxicity.1–3 The association between PRCA and other autoimmune diseases such as autoimmune polyglandular syndrome (APS) I is rare.4

The second autoimmune disease, named APS I or autoimmune polyendocrinopathy-candidiasis-ectodermal dystrophy (APECED), is a rare hereditary autosomal recessive disorder. It is characterised by the presence of chronic mucocutaneous candidiasis, multiple endocrinopathies (hypoparathyroidism, adrenocortical failure, hypergonadotropic hypogonadism, type I diabetes mellitus and pan-hypopituitarism), and various ectodermal manifestations (enamel dysplasia, nail dystrophy, alopecia, vitiligo and keratopathy).5,6 Clinically, APECED can be confirmed by appearances of at least two of the three features: candidiasis, hypoparathyroidism and adrenocortical failure.5–7 This is the first multiple autoimmune disorder shown to be caused by mutations of a single gene—the autoimmune regulator gene (AIRE).8 This gene was mapped at 22q22.3 and consisted of 14 exons.8 It is expressed in immune-related organs, such as thymus, lymph nodes and fetal liver, indicating that it has a pivotal role in the immune function. Its main role is to act as a transcriptional factor. Over 40 different mutations of the AIRE gene have been identified (point mutations, insertions and deletions).8,9

A 33-year-old woman was admitted to the Institute of Haematology, Belgrade, Serbia, in April 2001 for blood transfusion for the treatment of anaemia. The diagnosis of idiopathic hypoparathyroidism was made at age 7 years. At age 14 years, she developed idiopathic adrenal insufficiency and 2 years later, she developed mucocutaneous candidiasis. Since early infancy, she had …


[1] We use data collected aboard the NASA DC-8 aircraft during the summer 2004, Intercontinental Transport and Chemical Evolution Experiment over North America (INTEX-NA) field campaign to examine the origin, composition, physical and optical properties of aerosols within air masses sampled over and downwind of the northeastern U.S. We note that aerosol concentrations within the region exhibited steep vertical gradients and significant variability in both time and space. An examination of air mass chemical signatures and backward trajectories indicates that transport from four, significantly different source regions contributed to the variability: the subtropical Atlantic Ocean (AO); the U.S. west coast and eastern Pacific (WCP); the U.S. east coast and Midwestern states (EC); and northwest Canada and Alaska (CA). AO air masses were typically confined to below 2 km altitude, exhibited low pollutant contents, contained enhanced levels of sea salt, and were typically observed when the Bermuda High strengthened. The most common air mass present in the upper troposphere, WCP air often contained weak dust and aged pollution enhances from convective input occurring over the central part of the continent. CA air exhibited enhancements in anthropogenic pollution tracers below 2 km and contained some black-carbon rich haze layers between 3 and 5 km that could be traced to forest fires burning in western Canada and Alaska. EC air was prevalent at lower elevations throughout the study area and exhibited enhanced scattering along with elevated levels of sulfate aerosols and combustion tracers. There is an overall balance between the observed cations and anions for all cases, except EC air mass below 4 km.


In this thesis we demonstrate how important the existence of a pool of qualified workers within the local labour market is for the process of job creation and the location of economic activity. In chapter 1 the basic theoretical model is developed. Using a matching model it is shown that Job Creation will be higher if firms have a larger pool of qualified workers from which to fill their vacancies, since their expected profits per vacancy opened will be greater. At the same time, individuals have a higher incentive to invest in education if job creation is higher. The interaction between these two forces generates a pecuniary externality in the labour market. In chapter 2, we extend the theoretical model by considering two regions and the possibility of migration. In equilibrium, areas where the pool of qualified workers is larger attract more jobs and skilled workers. Job Creation will be higher in such areas since firms located there are able to find a more qualified worker with greater ease. At the same time, given the sunk cost of moving, only the most skilled workers will find migration to these areas worthwhile. The interaction between these two forces generates a pecuniary externality that encourages concentration of economic activity in areas with a larger pool of qualified workers. In chapter 3 we estimate the effect of the pecuniary education externality on the process of matching in the UK regional labour market in the 1990s. We find a significant effect of the average level of education in a region on the conditional probability of finding a job in that region using a duration model. This effect is positive for skilled occupations and negative for unskilled ones. Finally, in Chapter 4 we estimate the effect of the education externality on the individual decision to stay-on in education. We find that the share of the region's working age population with degree has a positive and significant effect on the education decisions of sixteen and eighteen year-olds, while the share with high vocational has a similar effect for seventeen year-olds.


Compact and lightweight sensors with a high-frequency resolution are required for the passive observation of atmospheric water and oxygen emission lines at a reduced cost and power consumption. A molecular assessment high-resolution observation spectrometer (MAHOS) is developed as a compact, low power, digital fast Fourier transform spectrometer to be installed on a microsatellite. MAHOS has a compact design with dimensions of $0.154\times 0.125\times0.040$ m3 and mass of 0.7 kg. It uses only a few materials including a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) module with a lightweight aluminum alloy box. The highly stable spectrometer exhibits a sampling speed of 2.6624 GS/s and 16 384 frequency channels. The stability of the spectrometer is longer than 1200 s within the 1-GHz bandwidth. Thermal dissipation is achieved through a heat conductive gel filled in the gap between the most heat-generating component, the FPGA, and the aluminum alloy case. Results of a finite element analysis indicate that the design is stiff and stable enough to survive in the launch environment. Thermal analysis indicates the durability of the system during operation. Even in space where heat dissipation is not possible, self-heating temperatures are not a problem for the FPGA. In the future, the performance of the spectrometer will be verified by conducting environmental tests.


Cnidocyst nomenclature is based on the structure of the tubule and its armature as viewed in the light microscopy (LM). Investigations utilising optically improved LM and scanning electron microscopy have revealed some errors in the interpretation of the fine structure of tubules and armature of nematocysts. Categories of nematocyst have been modified, therefore, to incorporate observations made with new visualising techniques. Isorhizas are defined as nematocysts whose tubule is of uniform or nearly uniform thickness proximal to the midpoint, while b-mastigophores are nematocysts with a rod-shaped encapsulated shaft and a prominent armature on the everted shaft. The category of amastigophores is retained but redefined as p-amastigophores for the V-shaped notch at the base of encapsulated shaft. The trirhopaloids are found to be similar to the birhopaloids. Mesobasic is redefined as an intermediate length of discharged shafts between micro- and macrobasic. Astomocnidae is redefined as entangling nematocysts and stomocnidae as penetrants.


The temperature of the hydrogen cylinder needs to be carefully controlled during fueling process. The maximum temperature should be less than 85°C according to the ISO draft code. If the fueling period is reduced, the maximum temperature should increase. In this study, temperature change of a Type IV cylinder was measured during the hydrogen fueling process up to 35 MPa. Fueling period was 3 to 5 minutes. Twelve thermocouples were installed to measure inside gas temperature and seven were attached on the outside of the cylinder. An infrared camera was also used for measuring temperature distribution of outside of cylinder. The maximum gas temperature was higher than 85°C inside of the cylinder. Significant temperature difference between the upper and lower part of the vessel was observed. Temperature near the plug and the valve was quickly increased and maintained higher than that of the other region. Temperature increases for the partial refueling process were also discussed.


Introduction: Potentially pathogenic microorganisms (PPMs) frequently colonize lungs of bronchiectatic patients, often leading to pulmonary exacerbations. This phase II, randomized, double-blind study assessed the safety and efficacy of ciprofloxacin dry powder for inhalation (DPI) – a formulation (PulmoSphere™) using the T-326 inhaler – over 28 days in patients with sputum culture positive for predefined PPMs. Objective: To test the effect of ciprofloxacin DPI on bacterial load and health status in non-cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis (non-CF BE) patients. Methods: 124 adult, non-CF BE patients (mean baseline characteristics: age 63, 34% male, FEV1 56% of predicted) received 32.5mg ciprofloxacin (50 mg ciprofloxacin DPI) or matching placebo twice daily for 28 days with a 56-day follow-up. In addition to the primary endpoint (reduction in total bacterial load in sputum at end of treatment [EOT]), patient-reported health status was assessed with the St George9s Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ). Results: Ciprofloxacin DPI reduced bacterial load at EOT (–3.6 vs –0.3 logs, p p =0.059, 95% confidence interval –7.3 to 0.1), close to a clinically relevant (–4) improvement. The trend lasted for 4 weeks after EOT (difference –3.0) but was not maintained at 8 weeks after EOT (difference –0.83). SGRQ domain scores, responder and per-protocol analyses confirmed the trend. Conclusions: Ciprofloxacin DPI clearly trended towards improving patient-reported health status in non-CF BE measured with the SGRQ, which lasted for 4 weeks after treatment finished. Further study is required to confirm the results.


The diversity and distribution of the Trentepohliales have been investigated in detail in several regions of Europe and Asia. However, the information available for other continents is relatively limited and very little is known for these algae in Africa. New records of Trentepohliales for Africa were obtained in the course of surveys conducted in 2005 in South Africa, Namibia and Tanzania. For Phycopeltis epiphyton, Trentepohlia abietina and Trentepohlia flava, these are the first documented records for the continent. A species of Printzina, probably an undescribed taxon, was collected from trees in Tanzania. The new collections allowed the rediscovery and characterization of some poorly known species, of dubious taxonomic validity, such as Trentepohlia afra and T. chinensis. Additional records of widespread species, such as Phycopeltis arundinacea and Trentepohlia umbrina, were also obtained. The morphology and distribution of the species collected are described and the taxonomic and biogeographical implications of the new records are discussed.


The present paper analyses speech level shifts in Japanese from a different perspective. By applying Symbolic Interactionist Role Theory, speech level shifts are categorised as the linguistic realisation of an interactional role, or 'dissociative role' I call in this paper. Dissociative roles are improvised identities, which occur when the speaker perceives a psychological change in relation to the other participant in the on-going interaction. Plus-level shifts (shifts from plain to polite forms, masu/desu) are triggered when the speaker experiences cautious, attentive, thoughtful and/or grateful feelings at a certain time of interaction, which conforms to the original nature of honorifics. This prompts a dissociative role which creates a certain psychological distance between this role and the other interactant. On the other hand, minus-level shifts (shifts from masu/desu forms to plain forms) are the implementation of the speaker's another dissociative role, which is assimilated with the other interactant, giving rise to empathy or drawing the other into the speaker's world. Whether plus or minus level shifts occur, the interactants' social roles, i.e., their original roles when the situation is defined, continue to exist throughout the discourse. The interactants are fully aware of their social roles such as teacher and student, friends, family members, and senior and junior in company (= Institutional Roles in this paper). However, when an Improvised Role is created, it is forwarded to the on-going interaction and linguistically implemented as a speech level shift. This paper also clarifies that both speech level shifts and the so-called 'conventional' honorifics are situationally determined, and that they are not separate entities but the two ends of continuum by examining the features they share from the viewpoint of 'roles'.


On September 11, 1857, some 120 men, women, and children from the Arkansas hills were murdered in the remote desert valley of Mountain Meadows, Utah. This notorious massacre was, in fact, a mass execution: having surrendered their weapons, the victims were bludgeoned to death or shot at point-blank range. The perpetrators were local Mormon militiamen whose motives have been fiercely debated for 150 years.In "House of Mourning," Shannon A. Novak goes beyond the question of motive to the question of loss. Who were the victims at Mountain Meadows? How had they settled and raised their families in the American South, and why were they moving west once again? What were they hoping to find or make for themselves at the end of the trail? By integrating archival records and oral histories with the first analysis of skeletal remains from the massacre site, Novak offers a detailed and sensitive portrait of the victims as individuals, family members, cultural beings, and living bodies.The history of the massacre has often been treated as a morality tale whose chief purpose was to vilify (or to glorify) some collective body. Resisting this tendency to oversimplify the past, Novak explores Mountain Meadows as a busy and dangerous intersection of cultural and material forces in antebellum America. "House of Mourning "is a bold experiment in a new kind of history, the biocultural analysis of complex events."


This conference was at least eighteen years overdue. It had first been proposed by our Russian colleagues in 1991, but they had been rebuffed. In 2007 they approached us again, and Western contacts were arranged for them. The Gorky Institute is in a leafy enclave in central Moscow, with a comfortable, friendly atmosphere. The first plenary session of the conference, on 1 July, consisted of four speeches of welcome in English and a talk by me on the principles of my internet Byron edition. I thanked Professor Anne Barton and Mr Geoffrey Bond for their funding, without which I could not have been there, and gave the Institute library five books. After an afternoon of papers in Russian, the conference moved, via an overnight train to Pskov, to Mikhailovskoye. We arrived at Pskov at 7.30 am on Thursday 2 July, and were at our Mikhailovoskoye hotel by 11.00 am. That afternoon we had our first and most important excursion - to the family estate where Pushkin was exiled, and where he wrote much of Eugene Onegin. The contrast with Newstead Abbey was striking: at Mikhailovskoye, everything is either authentic or in authentic copy; at Newstead, eighty per cent is the work not of Byron at all, but of Colonel Wildman and Nottingham City Council. One thing Newstead lacks, however, is mosquitoes. Mikhailovskoye has plenty of them. Nevertheless it was quickly evident that Byron does not have the same significance for English culture that Pushkin has for Russia. At dinner Professor N. A. Solovyova (Moscow State University) explained the ambition to found a Russian Byron Society. She said that the Russian State Scientific Foundation would back such a move. Many Western dignitaries would, she was assured, be happy to write in support if it was thought helpful. The Friday schedule had an English-language-only session in the morning, and a 'production' of The Vision of Judgement in the afternoon. It all took place at Mikhailovskoye's Pushkin Conference Centre, a new building with state-of-theart facilities. The eight English-language papers (two given by Russians) were very lucid. The afternoon 'production' of The Vision of Judgement took place at one end of the library, and featured witty performances by English, American, Italian, Irish and Russian colleagues. I started with an introduction about George III, Southey and why Byron hated the latter. There was an illuminating debate afterwards about the poem's dramatic qualities. There were then two parallel Russian-language sessions. After dinner that night the delegates adjourned to a cafe for convivial activity, with much recitation and singing - neither of them common in Western Byron conferences. A little impatient with the non-stop repertoire of lachrymose Russian love-songs, I insisted on finishing the day with 'It was a Lover and his Lass'. The next morning began with a four-session, Russian-language panel. Dr Svetlana Klimova, from Nizhni Novgorod, opened the event by singing a Pushkin setting. Next occurred the inaugural meeting of the Russian Byron Society. Professor Solovyova was elected Chairman/President, with Dr Klimova as her second-in-command, and me as Patron. Two afternoon excursions followed, to the estates of Petrovskoye and Trigorskoye, after which the delegates returned on the overnight train to Moscow and dispersed. …


The major Italian filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini was also a poet, novelist, essayist, and iconoclastic political commentator. Naomi Greene reveals to English-speaking readers the diverse talents that made him one of the most controversial European intellectuals of the postwar era, at the center of political and cultural debates still vital to our time. Greene presents Pasolini's films to the English-speaking world in full detail and in a rich critical context, using them to trace the evolution of his ideas and the details of his troubled personal life from 1950, when he settled in Rome, to 1975, the year of his brutal murder, apparently at the hands of a young male prostitute. "In her concise and sympathetic book, Greene intelligently explicates the political and social context within which Pasolini became both a leading figure and a significant heretic. He was an atheist who directed one of the few genuinely profound biblical films in the cinema, a communist who severely criticized many of the radical movements of modern Italy. Though he publicly acknowledged his homosexuality, he privately referred to it as his "sickness." As the book well documents, Pasolini was not a rebel but rather an authentic heretic who worked in contradiction to both his medium and milieu."--Choice


As COVID-19 lockdowns force most sport leagues into hiatus, engaging fans has emerged as a key challenge confronting the sport industry. While navigating social distancing protocols, athletes are experimenting with new ways to connect with their fans. Alongside established social media platforms (e.g., Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram), TikTok, a short-form video-sharing platform, has gained prominence in terms of registered users and shared content. Yet, little is known about the utility of TikTok as an athlete branding tool. This study uses a netnographic approach to explore the use of TikTok among athletes (N = 10) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings reveal that athlete-generated TikTok videos are characterized as playful and authentic. While athletes are recent adopters of TikTok, this emerging social media platform can be profitably integrated into their online branding strategies. Communicating via TikTok presents opportunities for athletes to foster existing fan relationships, promote branded content, and appeal to new fan segments. Overall, athletes and sport practitioners can leverage these findings to create content for an audience that is attracted to novelty and the activities of athletes extending beyond game highlights or interviews.


Lymphocyte entry into the spleen is initiated by their binding to Clever-1–expressing vessels in the red pulp. Splenic portal for lymphocyte entry Lymphocytes traveling through the body alternate between periods of residence in lymphoid organs and periods of circulation in blood and lymphatic vessels. Tadayon et al. used adoptive transfer of labeled lymphocytes to investigate where circulating lymphocytes first exit the vasculature of the mouse spleen to gain access to the lymphocyte-rich splenic white pulp. A majority of lymphocytes were found in the red pulp zone of the spleen 10 min after transfer. The Clever-1 adhesion and scavenger receptor on endothelial cells was identified as an important facilitator of initial entry of B cells and CD8+ T cells into the red pulp. These findings point to the existence of distinct molecular mechanisms governing how lymphocytes traffic into the spleen compared with the lymph nodes. Lymphocytes recirculate continuously between the blood and lymphoid organs, a process that is of fundamental importance for proper functioning of the immune system. The molecular mechanisms underlying lymphocyte trafficking to the spleen remain an enigma. Here, we show that lymphocytes enter the spleen preferentially from vessels in the red pulp rather than the marginal sinus or the vasculature in the white pulp. Ex vivo adhesion assays in mice and humans, together with genetic ablation of Clever-1 in mice, indicate that CD8+ T cell and B220+ B cell homing to the spleen via the red pulp is Clever-1 dependent. Moreover, absence of Clever-1 leads to down-regulation of the B cell attractant chemokine, CXCL13, on spleen endothelium. CXCL13 is known to guide B cell trafficking to lymphoid organs, and its lack may contribute to the observed decrease in B cell trafficking into the spleen as well. In summary, this study identifies Clever-1 as an important molecule controlling lymphocyte entry into the spleen, along with a critical role for the splenic red pulp in this regulated trafficking. Furthermore, the results demonstrate that location-specific homing-associated molecules guide lymphocyte entry into the spleen.


Larviposition is widespread in blowflies, but among Calliphora species this behavior has seldom been described. The evidence of larviposition in C. loewi is here reported for the first time and discussed in relation with other blowfly species exhibiting the same behavior. The blowfly C. loewi is considered oviparous but surprisingly, female specimens from Madeira Island (Portugal) were found to carry few large larvae (one to three larvae up to 5.1 mm in size) in the ovipositor and abdomen. The finding of larviposition behavior in C. loewi from Madeira Island is at present enigmatic and further studies are needed to clarify the reproductive biology of this species.


This paper explores the possibility of using the Hierarchical Temporal Memory (HTM) machine learning technology to create a profitable software agent for trading financial markets. Technical indicators, derived from intraday tick data for the E-mini S&P 500 futures market (ES), were used as features vectors to the HTM models. All models were configured as binary classifiers, using a simple buy-and-hold trading strategy, and followed a supervised training scheme. The data set was divided into a training set, a validation set and three test sets; bearish, bullish and horizontal. The best performing model on the validation set was tested on the three test sets. Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) were subjected to the same data sets in order to benchmark HTM performance. The results suggest that the HTM technology can be used together with a feature vector of technical indicators to create a profitable trading algorithm for financial markets. Results also suggest that HTM performance is, at the very least, comparable to commonly applied neural network models.


Mechanical properties of lattice structures produced by Selective Laser Melting (SLM) are hardly predictable using a numerical simulation. It is caused by procedural inaccuracies of the SLM, such as shape and dimension deviations which are usually not included in a simulation. In order to quantify their influence, lattice structure specimens were produced by SLM and digitized in the whole volume using μCT. The shape and dimensional analyses were performed in each strut of lattice structure using the developed script in GOM Inspect software. Based on statistical analysis, the global dimension parameters of lattice structures were obtained and used in FEA models. The shape analysis showed large deviations in diameters of inscribed and circumscribed cylinders which implied the elliptic shape of the lattice structure. It makes the lattice structure significantly stiffer mainly under compression loading which was confirmed by FEA comparison of circular and elliptical geometry of the lattice structure.


Abstract Basic features of a microcomputer package, BCDP, which is an auto-tutorial designed to teach the Simplex algorithm are described. The package may be used to augment lecture and text materials in introductory linear programming courses or as a review for advanced math programming courses. Preliminary evaluations of the effectiveness of the program to augment classroom instruction are very positive.


Many
studies have been devoted to bilingualism but issue of subjective representations about
bilingualism has been little explored. The present study examined the results
of the psychosemantic research of men's and
women's subjective representations
about people associated with the foreign language (FL) learning process, in
other words, artificial bilingual (AB) development. The original method of Specific
semantic differential was used to study and reconstruct the system of meanings
that underlie the interpersonal perception of people included in the FL
learning process. Results showed that the semantic spaces of subjective representations about people
associated with the FL learning process, have the same dimension, but differ
in content: semantic space for males is based on factors "authority –
ordinariness", "unpleasant – agreeable" and "courage – caution"; for females –
"enthusiasm – apathy", "unpleasant – agreeable" and "modesty – arrogance". The
novelty of the study lies in the use of the pool data method as a method for
comparing factors of the structures of two samples, which allows us to identify
gender differences in interpersonal perception: males perceive people included
in the FL learning process as more active, responsible, mobile and hardworking,
females - as more level-headed, indifferent and distant.


In The Netherlands Cormorants reached a minimum number of breeding pairs in the mid-1960s. Since the end of the 1970s the population is increasing again, and many new and rapidly expanding colonies have been settled. However, in a colony in Dordtse Biesbosch, situated in the centre of the sedimentation area of the rivers Rhine and Meuse, breeding success was very poor during 1987-1989. In order to establish the factors responsible, a study of breeding biology was carried out in 7 colonies, representing a wide range of contamination levels in surrounding feeding areas. Because literature on breeding biology of the species is relatively scarce, this paper firstly presents data on the breeding biology from a colony of Cormorants in a relatively clean area, producing average numbers of fledglings. Secondly, the different stages of breeding are compared for all colonies studied, together with several other parameters. From these data, possible factors causing the large differences in reproductive success between the colonies are evaluated. The low breeding success in Dordtse Biesbosch (c. 0.5 fledged young/pair) and, to a lesser extent, in some colonies upstream along the river (c. 1.2-1.7 fledged young/pair) can be considered the cumulative effect of (1) a later onset of egg-laying and a related decrease in clutch size, (2) a reduction of eggshell thickness, probably to a level low enough to cause breaking of part of the eggs, (3) a high embryomortality, resulting in a reduced hatching success and (4) a high mortality of young, especially in their first weeks. It is concluded that organochlorine contaminants are the most likely cause: p,p' -DDE (through eggshell thinning) and PCBs (through direct toxic effects on the embryo). lBureau Ecoland, Hoofdstraat 178, NL-2351 AR Leiderdorp, The Netherlands. 2Present address and correspondence: Bureau Waardenburg bv, P.O. Box 365, NL-4100 AI Culemborg, The Netherlands


The influence of a single application of fertiliser N (0, 50, 100 and 150 kg N ha−1) applied in either autumn, early winter, late winter, early spring or late spring on the grass-clover balance in a perennial ryegrass-white clover pasture was studied over a three-year period. Responses were measured over two regrowth cycles five and ten weeks after the application of N treatments. Increased fertiliser N rates of up to 100 kg N ha−1 resulted in increasingly lower clover percentages. No differences in clover content were recorded between the 100 and 150 kg N ha−1 application rates five weeks after fertiliser N application. The effect of season of application was inconsistent due mainly to different initial clover contents and differences in environmental conditions amongst years. Partial recovery of clover content was noted at the second regrowth cycle but not to the same levels as at the 0 kg ha−1 treatment combinations. Fertiliser N did not reduce (P>0.05) total clover DM production (kg clover ha−1) over 10 weeks when applied in autumn and early winter. Clover DM yields were, however, reduced (P=0.05) when fertiliser N was applied during early and late spring, excluding 50 kg N ha−1 applied during early spring 2000. The application of 50 kg N ha−1 during the relatively normal rainfall years in 2000 and 2002 did not cause the clover content to drop below 30 %. The application of 150 kg N ha−1 resulted in numerous treatment combinations where the clover percentage was less than 30 %, the recommended minimum for the pasture to benefit from the clover component.


PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES
To explore patterns of symptoms over time and the relationships between selected demographic and clinical characteristics.

DESIGN
Secondary analysis of longitudinal data.

SETTING
A hospital and comprehensive cancer center in the northeastern United States.

SAMPLE
66 women with gynecologic cancers, postsurgical, and scheduled to receive chemotherapy.

METHODS
A secondary analysis using descriptive and general estimating equation statistical procedures was conducted on symptom and disease data in a subset of a larger nursing intervention study.

MAIN RESEARCH VARIABLES
Demographic and clinical variables including cancer site, new diagnosis or recurrence, stage, treatment, comorbidities, emotional distress, use of a symptom management tool kit, and 10 symptoms over time.

FINDINGS
Two patterns of symptoms were identified. The first pattern (pain, bowel dysfunction, disturbed sleep, depression, nausea, and lack of appetite) decreased, and the second pattern (fatigue, anxiety, hair loss, and numbness) remained constant over time. The total number of symptoms decreased over time. Factors associated with symptoms, such as the use of a tool kit and emotional distress, were identified.

CONCLUSIONS
Tool kit use by women who experienced fatigue, bowel dysfunction, and anxiety suggests its usefulness as a self-care guide. Explanations for the two patterns of symptoms are discussed.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING
Postsurgical management should include management and monitoring of symptoms associated with treatment. Screening for emotional distress is recommended in this population. Use of the tool kit could be an effective postsurgical management strategy for women with gynecologic cancers.


The potential of digital games to support learning has been well documented, and yet the empirical evidence on the impacts of digital games on student learning finds varied effects. This paper explores an issue that we believe is central to realizing the potential of digital games for influencing learning: the relationship between games and the transfer of knowledge, and specifically the need to support the meaningful integration of games into instruction. We examine the theoretical and empirical literature on how middle-grade students can transfer knowledge and skills gained from digital gameplay to develop new conceptual models of the science concepts that the games target, focusing on the research on the use of analogical reasoning in science. Finally, we illustrate this approach with an example of using analogies with digital games in middle school science classes.


This Bachelor thesis was part of a broader project on the European Parliament elections
2009. Central in this project was a survey that was carried out around the EP elections. Due
to practicalities, the focus lies only on one country, namely Germany.
The main question of the thesis is Why is turnout lower among young voters (18-24 years)
compared to the rest of the population?
Thus, it is about differences between age groups in electoral participation. Individual
characteristics, especially psychological explanations for lower youth voter turnout, hence the
micro-level, is the main focus of attention.
The research was conducted in two steps: a theoretical part looking at the existing research
on electoral participation and a statistical analysis of survey data. Based on the theoretical
part, a model has been developed which is tested during the empirical analysis. It includes
six hypotheses, involving the following factors: political interest, internal political efficacy,
sense of civic duty, other forms of political participation, party identification and external
political efficacy. In a first step, the relationship between age and the six factors is explored,
followed by the examination of the relation between the six factors and electoral
participation. During the last phase the relationship between age and electoral participation
when controlled for the several factors is tested.
Especially the expectations relating to the first step in the analysis, could not be confirmed.
Only the hypothesis regarding lower political interest among young people was approved.
However, the link between the several factors and electoral participation has been almost
perfectly approved, except other forms of political participation. In regard to the mediation
effect, it can be stated that partial mediation is dominant, meaning that the relationship
between age and electoral participation is partly mediated through the factors mentioned.
Moreover, the study showed that there is not much European about the explanation of
electoral participation and that the sources of low turnout are complex. Further research on
determinants of low youth voter turnout and subsequent studies are reasonable.


In The Developers Guide to Social Programming, Mark Hawker shows developers how to build applications that integrate with the major social networking sites. Unlike competitive books that focus on a single social media platform, this book covers all three leading platforms: Facebook, OpenSocial, and Twitter. Hawker identifies the characteristics of superior, highly engaging social media applications, and shows how to use the Facebook platform, Google Friend Connect, and the Twitter API to create them. Youll find practical solutions and code for addressing many common social programming challenges, from site registration to search, blog commenting to creating location-based applications. Hawker concludes by walking you through building a complete, integrated social application: one that works seamlessly across all leading platforms, and draws on powerful features from each. Coverage includes Working with the Twitter API, including the Search API, Lists API, and Retweets API Authenticating users with Twitter OAuth Mastering the Facebook API, FQL, and XFBML Utilizing the Facebook JavaScript Library for creating dynamic content, and animation Exploring the Google Friend Connect JavaScript API, and integrating with the OpenSocial API Using Facebooks tools for sharing, social commenting, stream publishing, and live conversation Using the PHP OpenSocial Client Library with Google Friend Connect Creating, testing, and submitting Google Friend Connect gadgets


War, Politics, and Society in Afghanistan: 1978-1992, by Antonio Giustozzi. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2000. xiv + 250 pages. Tables to p. 296. Bibl. to p. 311. Index to p. 320. $55. Reviewed by Anwar-ul-Haq Ahady War, Politics, and Society in Afghanistan deals with what is commonly known as the communist regime in Afghanistan. The author, Antonio Giustozzi, rightly believes that the regime that was established by the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) in 1978 and that collapsed in 1992 has not been adequately studied. Giustozzi aims at filling this gap. He has organized his book into four parts. Part One deals with the major socio-economic changes (e.g., "land reform," "women's emancipation," and the "literacy campaign") that the Popular Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) regime introduced. These measures caused rebellions throughout the country which, ironically, resulted in worse socio-economic conditions for the people. Part One also discusses the efforts of the PDPA regime to expand the social basis of its support. However, the communist regime failed to achieve this objective. Part Two focuses on the PDPA regime's efforts to build its armed forces. In 1978, Afghanistan had a 100,000-strong military which disintegrated quickly after the PDPA coup d'etat in April of that year. By 1989, with massive material support from the Soviet Union, the PDPA regime was able to build a military force of 190,000. However, according to Giustozzi, despite its quantitative superiority, the PDPA military suffered from poor morale and could not win the war against the resistance. Part Three deals with the political measures adopted by the PDPA to pacify the people. Regarding this subject, Giustozzi discusses the efforts of the PDPA regime to gain legitimacy by convening a number of jirgas (traditional assembly of Afghan notables), by forming the National Fatherland Front (a non-PDPA political organization), and by adopting the policy of National Reconciliation. However, none of these efforts was sincere, and none of them was successful. In Part Four, Giustozzi discusses the rise of the militias, which totaled 100,000 in 1989. Giustozzi believes that although, in the short run, the militias helped the PDPA regime's pacification efforts in the western, northern, and southeastern parts of the country, in the long run the militias were instrumental in the downfall of the PDPA regime. Giustozzi has gathered an impressive amount of data regarding the PDPA regime, based on PDPA, Soviet, and European sources. In addition to a long description of the data, Giustozzi presents 45 pages of tables regarding various aspects of the PDPA regime. Although some of this data may not be reliable (especially where the author has relied heavily on interviews with the former officials in the PDPA regime), collecting it in one volume is, itself, a valuable contribution. …


In two experiments, we investigated whether body posture influences people's estimation of quantities. According to the mental-number-line theory, people mentally represent numbers along a line with smaller numbers on the left and larger numbers on the right. We hypothesized that surreptitiously making people lean to the right or to the left would affect their quantitative estimates. Participants answered estimation questions while standing on a Wii Balance Board. Posture was manipulated within subjects so that participants answered some questions while they leaned slightly to the left, some questions while they leaned slightly to the right, and some questions while they stood upright. Crucially, participants were not aware of this manipulation. Estimates were significantly smaller when participants leaned to the left than when they leaned to the right.


This concise and clear introduction to the topic requires only basic knowledge of calculus and linear algebraall other concepts and ideas are developed in the course of the book. Lucidly written so as to appeal to undergraduates and practitioners alike, it enables readers to set up simple mathematical models on their own and to interpret their results and those of others critically. To achieve this, many examples have been chosen from various fields, such as biology, ecology, economics, medicine, agricultural, chemical, electrical, mechanical and process engineering, which are subsequently discussed in detail. Based on the author's modeling and simulation experience in science and engineering and as a consultant, the book answers such basic questions as: What is a mathematical model? What types of models do exist? Which model is appropriate for a particular problem? What are simulation, parameter estimation, and validation? The book relies exclusively upon open-source software which is available to everybody free of charge. The entire book softwareincluding 3D CFD and structural mechanics simulation softwarecan be used based on a free CAELinux-Live-DVD that is available in the Internet (works on most machines and operating systems).


Spoken Language Understanding (SLU) typically comprises of an automatic speech recognition (ASR) followed by a natural language understanding (NLU) module. The two modules process signals in a blocking sequential fashion, i.e., the NLU often has to wait for the ASR to finish processing on an utterance basis, potentially leading to high latencies that render the spoken interaction less natural. In this paper, we propose recurrent neural network (RNN) based incremental processing towards the SLU task of intent detection. The proposed methodology offers lower latencies than a typical SLU system, without any significant reduction in system accuracy. We introduce and analyze different recurrent neural network architectures for incremental and online processing of the ASR transcripts and compare it to the existing offline systems. A lexical End-of-Sentence (EOS) detector is proposed for segmenting the stream of transcript into sentences for intent classification. Intent detection experiments are conducted on benchmark ATIS, Snips and Facebook's multilingual task oriented dialog datasets modified to emulate a continuous incremental stream of words with no utterance demarcation. We also analyze the prospects of early intent detection, before EOS, with our proposed system.


SPECIAL EDUCATION TEACHERS' PERSPECTIVES ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF FUNCTIONAL BEHAVIOR ASSESSMENT IN SCHOOLS By Joy Nichole Engstrom, Ph.D. A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Virginia Commonwealth University. Virginia Commonwealth University, 2013 Major Director: John Kregel, Ed.D, Professor Department of Special Education and Disability Policy School of Education The presence of challenging and violent behaviors that pose risks to the overall safety and the educational learning experience in the public education setting have been on the rise in recent years. Traditional reactive, coercive, and punitive measures to address these behaviors have been futile. Congress responded to the national increase in violent behaviors by implementing several acts, including zero tolerance policies, in an effort to diminish the rise in violent behaviors. Of significance to this study was the inclusion of Functional Behavior Assessment in the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in 1997. Unfortunately, FBA has the least legal grounding of all the disciplinary provisions of IDEA and has been questioned by experts in the field if sufficient empirical support exists for the generalization of the technology to all students and whether or not school personnel have the skills required to conduct FBA with integrity (Drasgow, Yell, Bradley, & Shriner 1999; Quinn, 2000; Scott et al., 2005; Skiba, 2002). The purpose of this research study was to obtain and analyze information regarding the perceptions of special education teachers in the Commonwealth of Virginia on the use of Functional Behavior Assessment with students with high incidence disabilities in public schools. A nonexperimental survey design using an online self-report survey was conducted with special education teachers in the eight superintendent regions in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The study examined the behaviors that most frequently prompt a FBA, if a relationship exists between the type and frequency of training and the perceived effectiveness of FBA, the relationship between teacher attributes of beliefs and self-efficacy and the overall perceived effectiveness of FBA, and how teachers perceive the overall FBA/BIP process in public schools. The survey was distributed electronically to special education teachers through the office of the special education director in each of the 132 school divisions in Virginia. A total of 373 special education teachers responded to the survey. Respondents perceive the extent to which FBA contributes to the effectiveness of interventions that reduce challenging behaviors of students and the effectiveness of current FBA methods in increasing positive replacement behaviors and improving learning/academic achievement in public schools moderately effective. Congruent with the literature, special education teachers reported that chronic problem behaviors and physically aggressive behaviors were most likely to prompt an FBA. Respondents indicated their knowledge base, training experiences, and background in FBA. Overall, the majority of special education teachers reported that the training that they have received in FBA was moderately to very effective. Respondents indicated that further training in all areas of FBA was needed using a dynamic team based process with post training support. The most frequently reported area of FBA that requires more training was developing function-based interventions while the least reported area of need was developing hypotheses about the functions of the behavior. Teacher beliefs and self-efficacy were examined to determine if these attributes predict a special educator's perceived effectiveness of FBA. High levels of teacher self-efficacy were associated with increased views of perceived effectiveness of FBA in public schools. Two belief items were found to correlate with the perceived effectiveness of FBA. The results of this study have important implications for personnel development and training for future and current special educators as well as information that can be applied to the exploration of a standardized process for conducting FBA in public schools in Virginia.


Please visit the Southern Forest Futures Project website for more information. The Southern Forest Futures Project provides a science-based "futuring" analysis of the forests of the 13 States of the Southeastern United States. With findings organized in a set of scenarios and using a combination of computer models and science synthesis, the authors of the Southern Forest Futures Project examine a variety of possible futures that could shape forests and the many ecosystem services and values that forests provide. The science findings and modeling results could inform management and policy analysis of the South's forests. In the chapters of this technical report, the authors provide detailed findings and results as well as sets of key findings and implications. An HTML version of the report can be found at www.srs.fs.usda.gov/futures/technical-report


Roads and the powerful sense of mobility that they promise carry us back and forth between the sweeping narratives of globalisation, and the specific, tangible materialities of particular times and places. Indeed, despite the fact that roads might, by comparison with the sparkling agility of virtual technologies, appear to be grounded in twentieth century industrial political economy they could arguably be taken as the paradigmatic material infrastructure of the twenty-first century, supporting both the information society (in the ever increasing circulation of commoditized goods and labour), and the extractive economies of developing countries on which the production and reproduction of such goods and labour depends. Roads and Anthropology is the first collection of road ethnographies, edited by two pioneers in the anthropological explorations of infrastructures, the essays published in the book aim to pave the way for this rising field of anthropological research. This book was published as a special issue of Mobilities.


The survival of the human race and all life on planet earth is endangered by the technological advancements of modern civilization such as weapons of mass destruction and the global climate crisis. In the 1960's and 1970's movements began in the academic field of psychology that radically opposed the paradigm believed to have created this dire situation. Tranpersonal Psychology is an integrated field that approaches the future of humanity with hope as it explores the highest evolutionary potentials of our race as conveyed by comparative religious scholarship, psychological literature, scientific investigations, psychosomatic analysis, and case studies. The problem identified in the old paradigm is a disconnected duality of the reductive model that promotes separation, fear, and conflict. Universal unconditional love (agape) is the proposed trait that when implemented into the new paradigm of integration will dissolve the duality into the unity of a spiritual and physical evolution of humanity. The research herein suggests not only a continuity to this proposition that can be found amongst the world's religious and spiritual traditions, but also a physiological exploration into a scientific understanding of extraordinary levels of human functionality. The suggested physiological transformation of the human body, as understood in the Taoist tradition through studies with a Tai Chi Chuan master, renders an individual invincible to any survival threat. The agape trait in conjunction with the transpersonal movement promotes attitudes of selflessness, compassion, and empathy in order to facilitate an initiative to insure collective survival. Universal unconditional love aligns the collective survival interests with the individual survival interests, and may present an opportunity for humanity to evolve spiritually and physically beyond the threats of our modern day.


This paper is the introductory chapter to the book Dental Law in Canada. It gives an overview of the Canadian legal system, aimed specifically at dentists in its use of examples, but more generally useful to anyone in the health care system looking to obtain a general knowledge of the structural aspects of the legal system. The chapter discusses the sources of law in Canada, the forms that law can take, and the parties who are primarily responsible for creating and shaping the law. In particular it is structured around the discussion of four things: constitutional law (both the division of powers between provinces and the federal government, and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms), non-constitutional law (statutes, regulations, common law and civil law), decision-makers in the legal system (courts and administrative bodies) and, finally, a case study illustrating those features in action.


High‐angle gas hydrate filled fracture planes were identified along a 31 m interval in logging while drilling images in two holes located ∼11 m apart drilled during the Indian National Gas Hydrate Program Expedition 01, offshore India. Using Monte Carlo simulations to account for uncertainty in hole location, hole deviation, strike and dip, we assert with 95% confidence that the fracture planes in the two holes are not the same. The gas hydrate filled fracture planes likely only extend a few meters laterally from each borehole and occur in an isolated interval in the middle of the gas hydrate stability zone. This suggests gas generated microbially within in the gas hydrate stability zone may have supplied the gas hydrate‐filled fracture interval. Production of methane from these reservoirs using conventional methods may be quite challenging.


Collaborating with humans requires rapidly adapting to their individual strengths, weaknesses, and preferences. Unfortunately, most standard multi-agent reinforcement learning techniques, such as self-play (SP) or population play (PP), produce agents that overfit to their training partners and do not generalize well to humans. Alternatively, researchers can collect human data, train a human model using behavioral cloning, and then use that model to train"human-aware"agents ("behavioral cloning play", or BCP). While such an approach can improve the generalization of agents to new human co-players, it involves the onerous and expensive step of collecting large amounts of human data first. Here, we study the problem of how to train agents that collaborate well with human partners without using human data. We argue that the crux of the problem is to produce a diverse set of training partners. Drawing inspiration from successful multi-agent approaches in competitive domains, we find that a surprisingly simple approach is highly effective. We train our agent partner as the best response to a population of self-play agents and their past checkpoints taken throughout training, a method we call Fictitious Co-Play (FCP). Our experiments focus on a two-player collaborative cooking simulator that has recently been proposed as a challenge problem for coordination with humans. We find that FCP agents score significantly higher than SP, PP, and BCP when paired with novel agent and human partners. Furthermore, humans also report a strong subjective preference to partnering with FCP agents over all baselines.


Cancer: growth caused by uncontrolled and abnormal cell division, resulting in a non-structured mass or tumor, serving no beneficial purpose to the body. Even though cancer is one of the leading fatal diseases of today's world, with no distinction for age, sex, or organ, it can be fought and cured. Prevention, early diagnosis, correct treatment and optimal rehabilitation are key factors that will allow to surpass such a difficult moment. The aim of a Swiss Cancer Center is to unite these different elements. Away from the noise and stress of the city, but still at mid point between two major scientific poles, Gland offers an ideal site. By completely integrating the building into the nature of the south facing lakeside site with the view of the mountains, the Swiss Cancer Center tries to become one with its surroundings. Its architecture plays a major role in the well being of patients and doctors. It attempts to humanize the medical world. The creation of parks, green areas, lounges, and the use of natural light and fresh air are only some of the steps undertaken that limit the stress factors plaguing hospitals. The calm and beauty of the site can thus flow through the building, infusing it with its inherent serenity. The goal is to take the human as a starting point and to rethink the medical institution from there. It is by striking a balance between functionality, efficiency, ecology, health, and humanity that this goal can be achieved.


This paper performs three empirical exercises to determine the patterns and properties of fiscal flows and mechanisms in the Indian federation as they affect subnational state governments, who carry the major public expenditure responsibility for education and health. Statutory flows from national level to states, defined in both aggregate and distribution between states, were exceeded or equaled in magnitude by non-statutory Plan flows that were variable in aggregate quantum and degree of subordination to distribution by formula. The non-formulaic bargaining margin within these flows is quantified for each year of the period 1951-2007, and estimated to have varied inversely with an index of political fractionalization in the federation. This uncertainty in the predictability of annual transfers provided an unfavourable fiscal environment for enhancing steady expenditure commitments of the kind required for provision of primary education and health. The consolidated fiscal imbalance aggregating across national and state levels is shown to have responded to the national (distinct from the non-synchronous sub-national) electoral cycle, in contrast to the imbalance at national level which did not. Thus, the control constitutionally vested at national level over aggregate state borrowing from financial markets was subject to opportunistic temporal distortions. Finally, the paper examines the major debt dismantling initiative starting 2005 with fiscal correction conditionalities, to reduce the large stock of debt owed by states to national government consequent upon the high loan content of the non-statutory flow. The paper quantifies the extreme variation across states in the fiscal adjustment distance required, as a result of imposing uniform targets on states with widely varying initial conditions. States lacked control over their fiscal environment in the absence of a standing platform whereby the de facto functioning of fiscal arrangements might have been open for continual examination and monitoring by all partners to the federation.


OBJECTIVE
The use of implantable cardiac defibrillators (ICDs) to prevent sudden cardiac death (SCD) in patients resuscitated from cardiac arrest or documented dangerous ventricular arrhythmias (secondary prevention of SCD) is an insured service. In 2003 (before the establishment of the Ontario Health Technology Advisory Committee), the Medical Advisory Secretariat conducted a health technology policy assessment on the prophylactic use (primary prevention of SCD) of ICDs for patients at high risk of SCD. The Medical Advisory Secretariat concluded that ICDs are effective for the primary prevention of SCD. Moreover, it found that a more clearly defined target population at risk for SCD that would be likely to benefit from ICDs is needed, given that the number needed to treat (NNT) from recent studies is 13 to 18, and given that the per-unit cost of ICDs is $32,000, which means that the projected cost to Ontario is $770 million (Cdn). Accordingly, as part of an annual review and publication of more recent articles, the Medical Advisory Secretariat updated its health technology policy assessment of ICDs.

CLINICAL NEED
SUDDEN CARDIAC DEATH IS CAUSED BY THE SUDDEN ONSET OF FATAL ARRHYTHMIAS, OR ABNORMAL HEART RHYTHMS: ventricular tachycardia (VT), a rhythm abnormality in which the ventricles cause the heart to beat too fast, and ventricular fibrillation (VF), an abnormal, rapid and erratic heart rhythm. About 80% of fatal arrhythmias are associated with ischemic heart disease, which is caused by insufficient blood flow to the heart. Management of VT and VF with antiarrhythmic drugs is not very effective; for this reason, nonpharmacological treatments have been explored. One such treatment is the ICD.

THE TECHNOLOGY
An ICD is a battery-powered device that, once implanted, monitors heart rhythm and can deliver an electric shock to restore normal rhythm when potentially fatal arrhythmias are detected. The use of ICDs to prevent SCD in patients resuscitated from cardiac arrest or documented dangerous ventricular arrhythmias (secondary prevention) is an insured service in Ontario. Primary prevention of SCD involves identification of and preventive therapy for patients who are at high risk for SCD. Most of the studies in the literature that have examined the prevention of fatal ventricular arrhythmias have focused on patients with ischemic heart disease, in particular, those with heart failure (HF), which has been shown to increase the risk of SCD. The risk of HF is determined by left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF); most studies have focused on patients with an LVEF under 0.35 or 0.30. While most studies have found ICDs to reduce significantly the risk for SCD in patients with an LVEF less than 0.35, a more recent study (Sudden Cardiac Death in Heart Failure Trial [SCD-HeFT]) reported that patients with HF with nonischemic heart disease could also benefit from this technology. Based on the generalization of the SCD-HeFT study, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid in the United States recently announced that it would allocate $10 billion (US) annually toward the primary prevention of SCD for patients with ischemic and nonischemic heart disease and an LVEF under 0.35.

REVIEW STRATEGY
The aim of this literature review was to assess the effectiveness, safety, and cost effectiveness of ICDs for the primary prevention of SCD. The standard search strategy used by the Medical Advisory Secretariat was used. This included a search of all international health technology assessments as well as a search of the medical literature from January 2003-May 2005. A modification of the GRADE approach (1) was used to make judgments about the quality of evidence and strength of recommendations systematically and explicitly. GRADE provides a framework for structured reflection and can help to ensure that appropriate judgments are made. GRADE takes into account a study's design, quality, consistency, and directness in judging the quality of evidence for each outcome. The balance between benefits and harms, quality of evidence, applicability, and the certainty of the baseline risks are considered in judgments about the strength of recommendations.

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
Overall, ICDs are effective for the primary prevention of SCD. Three studies - the Multicentre Automatic Defibrillator Implantation Trial I (MADIT I), the Multicentre Automatic Defibrillator Implantation Trial II (MADIT II), and SCD-HeFT - showed there was a statistically significant decrease in total mortality for patients who prophylactically received an ICD compared with those who received conventional therapy (Table 1). Table 1:Results of Key Studies on the Use of Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators for the Primary Prevention of Sudden Cardiac Death - All-Cause MortalityStudy, * YearPopulationNFollow-up, MonthsMortality, ICD† Group, %Mortality, Control Group, %Hazard Ratio (95% CI)PNNT†MADIT, 1996 (2)Ischemic1962715.838.60.46 (0.26-0.82).0094PriormyocardialinfarctionConventional therapy54% relative reductionEjection fraction ≤ 0.35NSVT†EP† +MADIT II, 2002 (3)Ischemic12322014.219.80.69(0.51-0.93).01618PriormyocardialinfarctionConventional therapy31% relative reductionEjection fraction ≤ 0.30SCD-HeFT, 2005 (4)Ischemic & Nonischemic25216022290.77 (0.62-0.96).00713Optimal therapyEjection fraction < 0.3523% relative reduction*MADIT I: Multicentre Automatic Defibrillator Implantation Trial I; MADIT II: Multicentre Automatic Defibrillator Implantation Trial II; SCD-HeFT: Sudden Cardiac Death in Heart Failure Trial.†EP indicates electrophysiology; ICD, implantable cardioverter defibrillator; NNT, number needed to treat; NSVT, nonsustained ventricular tachycardia. The NNT will appear higher if follow-up is short. For ICDs, the absolute benefit increases over time for at least a 5-year period; the NNT declines, often substantially, in studies with a longer follow-up. When the NNT are equalized for a similar period as the SCD-HeFT duration (5 years), the NNT for MADIT-I is 2.2; for MADIT-II, it is 6.3.

GRADE QUALITY OF THE EVIDENCE
Using the GRADE Working Group criteria, the quality of these 3 trials was examined (Table 2). Quality refers to the criteria such as the adequacy of allocation concealment, blinding and follow-up. Consistency refers to the similarity of estimates of effect across studies. If there is important unexplained inconsistency in the results, our confidence in the estimate of effect for that outcome decreases. Differences in the direction of effect, the size of the differences in effect, and the significance of the differences guide the decision about whether important inconsistency exists. Directness refers to the extent to which the people interventions and outcome measures are similar to those of interest. For example, there may be uncertainty about the directness of the evidence if the people of interest are older, sicker or have more comorbidity than those in the studies. As stated by the GRADE Working Group, the following definitions were used to grade the quality of the evidence: HIGH: Further research is very unlikely to change our confidence n the estimate of effect.MODERATE: Further research is likely to have an important impact on our confidence in the estimate of effect and may change the estimate.LOW: Further research is very likely to have an important impact on our confidence in the estimate of effect and is likely to change the estimate.VERY LOW: Any estimate of effect is very uncertain.Table 2:Quality of Evidence - MADIT I, MADIT II, and SCD-HeFT*TrialDesignQualityConsistencyDirectness†Quality GradeMADIT IRCTImbalance in β-blocker usage between study arms.The overall number of patients from which the study was drawn was not reported.Selection bias may have occurred since patients were selected for randomization if they did not respond to procainamide, thereby introducing a potential bias into the medication arm.Specific details regarding allocation concealment and blinding procedures were not provided.Single-chamber ICD used in study.Trial started with transthoracic implants, and then switched to nontransthoracic implants.Ischemic cardiomyopathy only.5-year NNT = 2.The overall number of Moderate patients from which the study was drawn was not reported.Selection bias may have occurred since patients were selected for randomization if they did not respond to procainamide, thereby introducing a potential bias into the medication arm.ModerateMADIT IIRCT~ 90% of patients were recruited ≥6 months post-MI; 20% of control group died after mean 20-month follow-up.How and where patients recruited?Specific details regarding allocation concealment/blinding procedures not provided.Subset had MADIT I criteria; post hoc analysis of incomplete data suggested "weak-moderate evidence that ICD effect greater in inducible than noninducible patients in MADIT II." (5;6)First study to assess both single- and dual-chamber ICD devices for primary prevention.Programming of device and medications left to the discretion of the patients' physician.Higher rate of hospitalization for new or worsened heart failure in the group receiving the ICDs compared to conventional therapy (19.9% versus 14.9% respectively).Ischemic cardiomyopathy only.5-year NNT = 6.How and where patients Weak recruited?Subset had MADIT I criteria.WeakSCD-HeFTRCTStatistically significant difference in β-blocker usage between treatment groups at last follow-up.Drug arms double-blinded.Shock-only single-lead device. Antitachycardia pacing not permitted.Ischemic and nonischemic cardiomyopathy.There was a statistically significant difference in terms of the NYHA prespecified subgroups analysis. The NYHA subgroups were prespecified a priori and the results of the interaction tests were significant. Yet, ICD treatment had a significant benefit in patients in NYHA class II but not in those in NYHA class III. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED)


Questioning Consciousness brings together neuroscientific, psychological and phenomenological research, combining in a readable format recent developments in image research and neurology. It reassesses the mind-body relation and research on 'mental models', abstract concept formation, and acquisition of logical and apparently 'imageless' inference skills. It is argued that to be conscious of an object is essentially to imagine in a habituated way what would happen if we were to perform certain actions in relation to the object; and that mental images fit together to build up abstract concepts. This analysis shows why conscious information processing is so structurally different from — yet interrelated with — non-conscious processing, and how mind and body interrelate as a process to its substratum in the way that a sound wave relates to the medium through which it passes. (Series A)


Summary: Recogito is an open source tool for the semi-automatic annotation of place references in maps and texts. It was developed as part of the Pelagios 3 research project, which aims to build up a comprehensive directory of places referred to in early maps and geographic writing predating the year 1492. Pelagios 3 focuses specifically on sources from the Classical Latin, Greek and Byzantine periods; on Mappae Mundi and narrative texts from the European Medieval period; on Late Medieval Portolans; and on maps and texts from the early Islamic and early Chinese traditions. Since the start of the project in September 2013, the team has harvested more than 120,000 toponyms, manually verifying almost 60,000 of them. Furthermore, the team held two public annotation workshops supported through the Open Humanities Awards 2014. In these workshops, a mixed audience of students and academics of different backgrounds used Recogito to add several thousand contributions on each workshop day. A number of benefits arise out of this work: on the one hand, the digital identification of places – and the names used for them – makes the documents' contents amenable to information retrieval technology, i.e. documents become more easily search- and discoverable to users than through conventional metadata-based search alone. On the other hand, the documents are opened up to new forms of re-use. For example, it becomes possible to "map" and compare the narrative of texts, and the contents of maps with modern day tools like Web maps and GIS; or to analyze and contrast documents' geographic properties, toponymy and spatial relationships. Seen in a wider context, we argue that initiatives such as ours contribute to the growing ecosystem of the "Graph of Humanities Data" that is gathering pace in the Digital Humanities (linking data about people, places, events, canonical references, etc.), which has the potential to open up new avenues for computational and quantitative research in a variety of fields including History, Geography, Archaeology, Classics, Genealogy and Modern Languages.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the access to and quality of health care administered to infants based on postmortem data.

METHODS
A descriptive cross-sectional census-based study was carried out to assess the infant deaths that occurred in the town of Bom Conselho, state of Pernambuco, between January 1st 1999 and December 31st 1999. Home interviews and inspection of medical records were used for data collection. Deaths were identified by consulting the Mortality Information System, health centers, public notary services, cemeteries, health workers, and midwives.

RESULTS
Seventy-one of 72 deaths were investigated, with a loss of 1.4%. The majority (69.4%) of deaths occurred in the postneonatal period and 67.6% of them occurred at home. In 77.5% of the cases medical help was sought at least once, most frequently at emergency units (65.1%). However, 22.5% of the patients were not taken to any kind of health care service. Most health care services (90.9%) were less than one hour away from the patient's home, 78.5% were located in the town of residence and 97% of the consultations were carried out by doctors. Of 88 consultations, 39.8% resulted in hospitalization and 27.3% in discharge without arrangement of a follow-up appointment. In 84% of the cases the medication was provided free of charge.

CONCLUSIONS
Death surveillance revealed restricted access to medical care and poor quality of health care administered to infants living in the referred town. The high rate of home deaths is related to access, whilst the journeys made by some of the mothers to health care units, during the illness that caused the death of their infants, points to the precarious organization of those services.


Geological records from Tertiary and Quaternary terrestrial and oceanic sections have documented the presence of ice caps and sea ice covers both in the Southern and the Northern hemispheres since Eocene times, approximately since 45 Ma. In this paper focussing on Greenland we mainly use the occurrences of coarse ice-rafted debris (IRD) in Quaternary and Tertiary ocean sediment cores to conclude on age and origin of the glaciers/ice sheets, which once produced the icebergs transporting this material into the adjacent ocean. Deep-sea sediment cores with their records of ice-rafting from off NE Greenland, Fram Strait and to the south of Greenland suggest the more or less continuous existence of the Greenland ice sheet since 18 Ma, maybe much longer, and hence far beyond the stratigraphic extent of the Greenland ice cores. The timing of onset of glaciation on Greenland and whether it has been glaciated continuously since, are wide open questions of its long-term history. We also urgently need new scientific drilling programs in the waters around Greenland, in particular in the segment of the Arctic Ocean to the north of Greenland.


Plasticity in organ and muscle size and function allows individuals to respond to changes in food quality or foraging behaviour, in accordance with cost-benefit hypotheses. Lesser Snow Geese Anser caerulescens caerulescens (hereafter Snow Geese) winter in rice-prairie and coastal-marsh habitats in southwest Louisiana, where the time that the birds spend foraging and walking, their composite diets, and associated fibre and energy contents, differ between these two habitats. We therefore hypothesised that: 1) Snow Geese that feed primarily in coastal marshes during winter would have larger digestive organs than those in rice-prairies, to adapt to the higher fibre content of their marsh vegetation diet; and 2) that leg muscles of Snow Geese feeding in rice-prairies would undergo greater hypertrophy and thus be larger than those in coastal marshes, because individuals in rice-prairie habitat spend more time walking while foraging. The first hypothesis applied to adults and juveniles alike, whereas under the second hypothesis, we knew from concurrent studies that juveniles walk more than adults and therefore predicted that they would have relatively larger leg muscles, after adjusting for body size. Seventy juvenile and 40 adult Snow Geese were dissected to test these two hypotheses about plasticity and hypertrophy with respect to habitat and foraging behaviour. Caeca and gizzard lengths were found to be larger for Snow Geese feeding in coastal marshes, where the food ingested is relatively high in fibre compared with the birds' diet in the rice-prairies. Conversely, leg muscles were larger for Snow Geese foraging in rice-prairies, where the juvenile geese spend relatively more time walking. Although not fully grown, juvenile Snow Geese also varied in the length of their digestive system and hypertrophy in muscles in relation to habitat, reinforcing the view that the birds' morphology adapts to different feeding habitats and diets.


Footbriges are often prone to vibrations induced by pedestrian loading. They are long and slender and their weight is moderate. One of the classical and famous examples is the transverse vibrations encountered on the millennium bridge in London. Horizontal vibration problems have received considerable attention due to millennium bridge vibration problem, but potential problems relating to vertical vibrations are more common. Vibrations from pedestrian loads are mostly limited to vibration frequencies below 5Hz. Most pedestrian bridges have several vibration modes below the above mentioned frequency. Increasing the stiffness could be a remedy to this vibration problem. And for a slender structure, increasing the stiffness often implies a corresponding increas in mass of the structure, whereby the desired effect is notachieved. Instead damping is often used to reduce the excessive vibration problem of footbridges by attaching additional dampers to the structre. London Millennium bridge was modelled inthis thesis in order to show the effect of tuned mass damper. There was a substantial reduction of the displacement of the bridge when tuned mass dampers were added to the bridge model.


_____________________________ Development of foam cutting machines for rapid prototyping and manufacturing purposes began shortly after the first additive manufacturing machines became commercialised in the late 1980s. Increased computer power, the development and adoption of CAD/CAM software and rising demand for customisation has caused the rapid prototyping industry to grow swiftly in recent decades. While conventional rapid prototyping technologies are continuing to improve in speed and accuracy the ability to produce large (> 1m3) prototypes, moulds or parts it is still expensive, time consuming and often impossible. Foam cutting rapid prototyping and manufacturing machines are ideally suited to fulfil this niche because of their high speed, large working volumes and inexpensive working materials. Few foam cutting rapid prototyping machines have been commercialised to-date leaving significant opportunities for research and development in this area. Thermal plastic foam cutting is the material removal process most commonly used in foam cutting rapid prototyping to shape or sculpt the plastic foam into desired shapes and sizes. The process is achieved by introducing a heat source (generally a wire or ribbon) which alters the physical properties of the plastic foam and allows low cutting forces to be achieved. In thermal plastic foam cutting the heat source is generated via Joule (electrical) heating. This study investigates the plastic foam cutting process using experimental cutting trials and finite element analysis. The first part of this thesis presents an introduction to conventional foam cutting machines and rapid prototyping machines. It is suggested that a market opportunity lies out of reach of both of ii these groups of machines. By combining attributes from each, foam cutting rapid prototyping machines can be developed to fill the gap. The second part of this thesis introduces the state-of-the-art in foam cutting rapid prototyping and investigates previous research into plastic foam cutting mechanics. The third part of this thesis describes cutting trials used to determine important factors which influence plastic foam cutting. Collectively over 800 individual cutting tests were made. The cutting trials included two main material sets, expanded polystyrene and extruded polystyrene, three different wire diameters, two hot-ribbon configurations and a wide range of feed rates and power inputs. For each cut the cutting force, wire temperature and kerf width was measured as well as observations of the surface texture. The data was then analysed and empirical relationships were identified. An excel spreadsheet is established which allows the calculation of important outcomes, such as kerf width, based on chosen inputs. Quantitative measurements of the surface roughness and form, of cuts made with hot-tools, will not be addressed in this thesis. This body of work is currently under investigation by a colleague within the FAST group. The fourth part of this thesis describes the formation of a nonlinear transient two-dimensional heat transfer finite element model, which is developed for plastic foam cutting simulations. The conclusion is that the cutting trials contributed to a better understanding of plastic foam cutting mechanics. A new parameter was identified called the mass specific effective heat input, which is a function of the foam material and the cutting tool, it allows the prediction of cutting conditions with given cutting parameters and hence provides the necessary relationships needed for adaptive automated foam sculpting. Simulation results were validated by comparison with experimental data and provide a strong base for further developments including optimisation processes with adaptive control for kerf width (cut error) minimization. This study has added considerably to the pool of knowledge for foam cutting with a hot-tool. In general, much of the work reported herein has not been previously published. This work provides the most advanced study of foam sculpting work available to date.


The removal of chemical species from seawater during the precipitation of authigenic minerals is difficult to constrain but may play a major role in the global biogeochemical cycles of some elements, including silicon (Si) and germanium (Ge). Here, we present Ge/Si, δ74Ge, and supporting chemical data of pore waters and core incubations at three continental margin sites in California and the Gulf of Mexico. We used these data to partition Ge release and uptake by the various allogenic (delivered via sedimentation) and authigenic (formed in situ) phases in these sediments. About half of the pore water Ge (δ74Gepw = 1.3-2.4‰) is supplied by biogenic silica dissolution (δ74Ge ~3‰), with the other half contributed by lithogenic particulates (δ74Ge ~0.6‰). The highest Ge/Si (~ 3µmol/mol) and lowest δ74Ge (1.3-1.9‰) are observed at the Fe redox horizon, suggesting a supply from detrital Ge-rich Fe oxides. The precipitation of authigenic phases (most likely aluminosilicate clays) in deeper sediments preferentially incorporates Ge over Si, resulting in low pore water Ge/Si (~ 0.3µmol/mol). The lack of corresponding δ74Gepw trend indicates negligible Ge isotope fractionation during this process. Ge fluxes measured via core incubations were variable and appeared strongly controlled by Fe redox behavior near the sediment-water interface. In some cases, reductive Fe oxide dissolution appeared to enhance the benthic Ge flux by over 100% and released fractionated low δ74Ge of ~–0.7‰, resulting in overall benthic δ74Geinc between -0.2 and 3.6‰, depending on Fe oxide contribution to Ge flux. We estimate that detrital inputs supply 19±15% of total dissolved Ge to continental margin pore fluids globally, resulting in an average dissolved δ74Ge of 2.5±0.4‰. Assuming 10-60% of pore water Ge is captured by the authigenic aluminosilicate sink, the dissolved Ge flux to the ocean derived from terrigenous inputs should be roughly 2.4-6.4 Mmol/y, much higher than previously estimated. Our results imply that authigenic Si burial in continental margins should be in the range of 0.9-8.1Tmol/y (best estimate 3.1 Tmol/y), sufficient to close the global marine Si budget.


With the increasing development of autonomous vehicles, being able to detect driveable paths in arbitrary environments has become a prevalent problem in multiple industries. This project explores a technique which utilizes a discretized output map that is used to color an image based on the confidence that each block is a driveable path. This was done using a generalized convolutional neural network that was trained on a set of 3000 images taken from the perspective of a robot along with matching masks marking which portion of the image was a driveable path. The techniques used allowed for a labeling accuracy of over 95%.


We report the detection of quasi-periodic oscillation (QPO) at ~41 mHz in the transient high-mass Be/X-ray binary pulsar 4U~0115+634 using data from the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) observatory. The observations used in the present work were carried out during X-ray outbursts in 1999 March-April, 2004 September-October and 2008 March-April. This frequency of the newly detected QPO was found to vary in 27-46 mHz range. This ~41 mHz QPO was detected in four of the 36 pointed RXTE Proportional Counter Array (PCA) observations during 1999 outburst where as during 2004 and 2008 outbursts, it was detected in four and three times out of 33 and 26 observations, respectively. Though QPOs at ~2 mHz, and ~62 mHz were reported earlier, the ~41 mHz QPO and its first harmonic were detected for the first time in this pulsar. There are three RXTE/PCA observations where multiple QPOs were detected in the power density spectrum of 4U~0115+634. Simultaneous presence of multiple QPOs is rarely seen in accretion powered X-ray pulsars. Spectral analysis of all the pointed RXTE/PCA observations revealed that the 3-30 keV energy spectrum was well described by Negative and Positive Power-law with EXponential cutoff (NPEX) continuum model along with interstellar absorption and cyclotron absorption components. During the three X-ray outbursts, however, no systematic variation in any of the spectral parameters other than the earlier reported anti-correlation between cyclotron absorption energy and luminosity was seen. Presence of any systematic variation of QPO frequency and rms of QPO with source flux were also investigated yielding negative results.


Many security protocols rely on the assumptions on the physical properties in which its protocol sessions will be carried out. For instance, Distance Bounding Protocols take into account the round trip time of messages and the transmission velocity to infer an upper bound of the distance between two agents. We classify such security protocols as Cyber-Physical. Time plays a key role in design and analysis of many of these protocols. This paper investigates the foundational differences and the impacts on the analysis when using models with discrete time and models with dense time. We show that there are attacks that can be found by models using dense time, but not when using discrete time. We illustrate this with a novel attack that can be carried out on most Distance Bounding Protocols. In this attack, one exploits the execution delay of instructions during one clock cycle to convince a verifier that he is in a location different from his actual position. We additionally present a probabilistic analysis of this novel attack. As a formal model for representing and analyzing Cyber-Physical properties, we propose a Multiset Rewriting model with dense time suitable for specifying cyber-physical security protocols. We introduce Circle-Configurations and show that they can be used to symbolically solve the reachability problem for our model, and show that for the important class of balanced theories the reachability problem is PSPACE-complete. We also show how our model can be implemented using the computational rewriting tool Maude, the machinery that automatically searches for such attacks.