The association between maternal work and child malnutrition is a long studied topic that has been revisited in developed countries due to the concern with the increasing rates of childhood overweight alongside increased female labour force participation (FLFP). Emerging countries, such as Brazil and India, have experienced pronounced economic growth, with different outcomes in terms of work opportunities for women, social development, and child nutrition. However, there is a lack of information about how maternal work relates to child nutrition in these contexts. This thesis explores changes in FLFP in Brazil and India and investigates the effects of maternal work on child stunting and overweight. Two waves of the Demographic and Health Surveys were used for each country, allowing comparisons of associations over time, using a sample of mothers and their children younger than 60 months. Multilevel models were estimated to examine child stunting, followed by separate analysis for each country. In India, a matching procedure was used to eliminate selection bias between working and non-working mothers; in Brazil, structural equation modelling was used to understand the mechanisms linking maternal work to child's BMI. Given the different contexts of Brazil and India, the effect of FLFP went in opposite directions by year and in its effect on child nutrition. In India, the increased likelihood of child stunting when the mother worked was related to poverty. In Brazil, maternal work was associated with increased food availability, which reduced stunting, but also increased child BMI. Stratified analysis highlighted the importance of maternal education for better work opportunities, the importance of the partner and family members in dividing childcare responsibilities, and the importance of policies that provide employment rights and support childcare for working mothers. These can minimize the negative effects of the constraints on maternal-child time experienced by working mothers, while at the same time contributing to economic growth and social development, of which FLFP and child's health are direct contributors.


Research on human–wildlife interactions has largely focused on the magnitude of wildlife‐caused damage, and the patterns and correlates of human attitudes and behaviors. We assessed the role of five pathways through which various correlates potentially influence human responses toward wild animals, namely, value orientation, social interactions (i.e. social cohesion and support), dependence on resources such as agriculture and livestock, risk perception and nature of interaction with the wild animal. We specifically evaluated their influence on people's responses toward two large carnivores, the snow leopard Panthera uncia and the wolf Canis lupus in an agropastoral landscape in the Indian Trans‐Himalaya. We found that the nature of the interaction (location, impact and length of time since an encounter or depredation event), and risk perception (cognitive and affective evaluation of the threat posed by the animal) had a significant influence on attitudes and behaviors toward the snow leopard. For wolves, risk perception and social interactions (the relationship of people with local institutions and inter‐community dynamics) were significant. Our findings underscore the importance of interventions that reduce people's threat perceptions from carnivores, improve their connection with nature and strengthen the conservation capacity of local institutions especially in the context of wolves.


We studied glucose metabolism in non-insulin-dependent diabetic (NIDDM) men with and without glycogendepleting cycle exercise 12 h beforehand and have compared the results to our previous data in lean and obese subjects. Rates of total glucose utilization, glucose oxidation, nonoxidative glucose disposal (NOGD), glucose metabolic clearance rate (MCR), and endogenous glucose production (EGP) were determined with a "two-level" insulin-clamp technique (100-min infusions at 40 and 400 mU · m−2 · min−1) combined with indirect calorimetry and D-3-[3H]glucose infusion. Muscle biopsy specimens from vastus lateralis were analyzed for glycogen content and glycogen synthase activity before and after insulin infusions. After exercise, NIDDM subjects had muscle glycogen concentrations comparable with those of lean and obese subjects. The activation of glycogen synthase both by prior exercise and insulin infusion was similar to lean controls. After exercise, total glucose disposal was significantly increased during the 40-mU · m−2 · min−1 infusion (P < .05), but the increase observed during the 400-mU · m−2 · min−1 infusion was not significant. These increases after exercise were the result of significantly higher NOGD duringboth levels of insulin infusion. The MCR of glucose during both insulin infusions was reduced in NIDDM compared with lean subjects but was very similar to that in obese nondiabetics. Basal EGP was significantly reduced on the morning after exercise (4.03 ± 0.27 vs. 3.21 ± 0.21 mg · kg−1 fat-free mass · min−1) (P < .05) and associated with significant reductions of fasting plasma glucose (197 ± 12 vs. 164 ± 9 mg/dl). Suppression of EGP by the 40-mU · m−2 · min−1 infusion was also greater on the morning after exercise (54 vs. 90% of basal) (P < .05). This study demonstrates that a single bout of glycogen-depleting exercise significantly increases periph-eral and splanchnic insulin sensitivity 12–16 h later in NIDDM men. Increased peripheral glucose utilization after exercise is the result of increased NOGD, presumably reflecting increased glucose storage as glycogen. Insulin-stimulated rates of glucose oxidation are decreased after exercise. The lower fasting glucose concentration after exercise is due to decreased EGP rather than increased glucose utilization.


We combined patterned TMS with EMG in several sessions of a within-subject design to assess and characterize intraindividual reliability and interindividual variability of TMS-induced neuroplasticity mechanisms in the healthy brain. Intermittent theta burst stimulation (iTBS) was applied over M1 to induce long-term potentiation-like mechanisms as assessed by changes in corticospinal excitability. Furthermore, we investigated the association between the observed iTBS effects and individual differences in prolonged measures of corticospinal excitability. Our results show that iTBS-induced measures of neuroplasticity suffer from high variability between individuals within a single assessment visit and from low reliability within individuals across two assessment visits. This indicates that both group and individual effects of iTBS on corticospinal excitability cannot be assumed to be reliable and therefore need to be interpreted with caution, at least when measured by changes in the amplitudes of motor-evoked potentials.


Dying tumor cells release potassium ions that suppress the activity of tumor-infiltrating T cells. Tumors are adept at thwarting an attack from the immune system by releasing immunosuppressive molecules into the tumor microenvironment. Patients with tumors that have areas of cell death called necrosis typically have poor prognosis. Eil et al. found that necrotic sections from melanoma tumors release potassium ions (K+) that shut off activating signals within T cells. The concentration of K+ was greater in the interstitial fluid of mouse or human melanoma tumors than in that of healthy tissues, and the concentration was greatest in areas of dying cells. Inducing cell death with high temperature or freeze-thaw cycles stimulated K+ release from cultured melanoma cells. Adding K+ to cultured CD8+ T cells suppressed the activation of the T cell receptor (TCR); the phosphorylation of a serine-threonine protein kinase (AKT), and mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR), which are activated by TCR signaling; and the production of the cytokine interferon-γ (IFN-γ), which is encoded by a gene target of the TCR-AKT–mTOR pathway. Exogenous K+ also restricted the polarization of CD4+ T cells to generate effector T cells but promoted the generation of regulatory T cells. Pharmacologic screening and various follow-up cell culture assays revealed that increased intracellular K+ suppressed AKT-mTOR–mediated T cell activation by stimulating the phosphatase PP2A. Overexpressing the voltage-gated potassium pump Kv1.3 (encoded by KCNA3) in T cells injected into mice promoted K+ efflux and prevented tumor-induced suppression of AKT–mTOR activation and IFN-γ production. Tumor growth was reduced, and survival was extended in mice injected with KCNA3-overexpressing T cells. Although the mechanism between K+ influx and PP2A activation is currently unknown, the findings suggest that immunotherapies engineered to block excessive K+ accumulation in T cells may improve survival in melanoma patients and potentially others (see commentary by Chandy and Norton). R. Eil, S. K. Vodnala, D. Clever, C. A. Klebanoff, M. Sukumar, J. H. Pan, D. C. Palmer, A. Gros, T. N. Yamamoto, S. J. Patel, G. C. Guittard, Z. Yu, V. Carbonaro, K. Okkenhaug, D. S. Schrump, W. M. Linehan, R. Roychoudhuri, N. P. Restifo, Ionic immune suppression within the tumour microenvironment limits T cell effector function. Nature 537, 539–543 (2016). [PubMed] K. G. Chandy, R. S. Norton, Immunology: Channelling potassium to fight cancer. Nature 537, 497–499 (2016). [PubMed]


Study Design: This is a retrospective observational single-center study. Objectives: To compare anterior decompression and fusion (ADF) and laminoplasty (LAMP) for the treatment of cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM) patients with large anterior compression in terms of clinical and radiologic outcomes. Summary of Background Data: We have reported that insufficient posterior decompression could be often seen after laminoplasty for CSM patients with preoperative anterior clearance of the spinal cord, defined as an interval <4 mm between the preoperative the modified K-line and anterior structure of the spinal canal at most compressive segment on sagittal T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging. Here we conduct a study comparing ADF and LAMP for the treatment of CSM patients with such a risk factor. Materials and Methods: Of the 221 consecutive CSM patients treated with either ADF or LAMP between 2008 and 2012 at our hospital, 79 patients in whom the interval was <4 mm with age ranged from 50 to 79 years were enrolled. Patients with myelopathy caused by single-level disk herniation, tumor or ossification of posterior longitudinal ligament, or patients with a history of cervical spine injury were excluded. The Japanese Orthopedic Association (JOA) scoring system for cervical myelopathy, recovery rate of the JOA score at the time of 2 years after surgery were investigated as clinical outcomes to compare these 2 groups. Results: Demographics were almost similar between ADF and LAMP groups. The mean preoperative and postoperative JOA scores were 10.9 and 13.8 points for ADF group and 10.1 and 12.4 points for LAMP group, indicating that the recovery rate of JOA score was significantly greater in ADF group (49.6%) than that in LAMP group (38.2%; P=0.047). In LAMP group, spinal cord deformity was a significant predictive factor for unsatisfactory clinical outcome. Conclusion: ADF provided better surgical treatment for the patients with absence of preoperative anterior clearance of the spinal cord.


As with e-Business, e-Government requires major business process change and this paper examines this process in the context of an e-Government initiative utilising the Internet to provide extended services. The study looks at an online strategy project at Legal Aid in Western Australia. This paper begins with an overview of e-Government and the WA Government context, and then discusses the research model and methodology. It gives a background to the case and analyses the change management process against a comprehensive model of business process change. The paper concludes with some lessons learned and future directions for research in this area.


Near-perfect IR light absorption at multiple wavelengths has been experimentally demonstrated by using multiplexed metal square plasmonic resonance structures. Optical power absorption over 95% has been observed in dual-band metamaterial absorbers at two separate wavelengths, and optical power absorption over 92.5% has been observed in triple-band metamaterial absorbers at three separate wavelengths. The peak absorption wavelengths are primarily determined by the sizes of the metal squares in the multiplexed structures. Electrical field distributions in the middle of the dielectric spacer layer were calculated at the peak absorption wavelengths. It is found that the strong light absorption corresponds to local quadrupole plasmon resonance modes in the metamaterial structures.


Barbara Kruger explores feminist theory through artistic expression. Her continued use of black and white imagery combined with red blocks of text derive from her background in art and design and her previous careers designing and editing magazines such as Mademoiselle and House and Garden. Kruger voices her concerns over feminist issues through bold images and text and in consequence, she is able to gain the viewer's attention in a manner that differs from that of many other artists. This paper discusses patriarchal values, discourses of the gaze, and the crises in consumerism in relation to Kruger's work. The problematic social norms that arise from patriarchy are exposed through her designs. In much of Kruger's work, she reveals concepts with such an impact that the viewer is forced to further consider her or his own opinions and perceptions in relation to these issues. Kruger also works with the subject of the gaze and its relation to male power. Through the gaze, men are able to gain control over the bodies of women, creating a tension between the two sexes. Kruger ties this to a critique of consumerism, in that everything in Euro-American culture can be bought, sold, and owned. This ideology extends to relationships amongst individuals further causing struggles over control and power.


UNLABELLED

PREMISE OF THE STUDY
Gene flow from crops to wild relatives has received considerable attention since the advent of genetically modified crops. Numerous researchers have found wild-crop hybrids to be nearly as fit as their wild parents, which suggests that crop genes may persist in wild populations. Components of the ecological fitness of cultivated sorghum, its wild relative, shattercane, and their hybrids have not been studied. •

METHODS
To assess the potential for gene introgression into shattercane, we crossed cultivated sorghum to a single inbred shattercane line to produce F(1) hybrids and measured growth and several components of ecological fitness in relation to both parents in Nebraska, USA. •

KEY RESULTS
Germination of F(1) seeds was similar to that of its shattercane parent except at high temperatures, where it was as sensitive as the sorghum parent. The F(1) grew taller and produced more biomass than either parent, but the F(1) leaf area index was intermediate. Fecundity of the F(1) plant was similar to that of shattercane and much greater than that of cultivated sorghum. •

CONCLUSIONS
Considering all data, the ecological fitness of shattercane × cultivated sorghum F(1) hybrids may be equivalent to the wild shattercane parent, which suggests that crop genes that are either neutral or beneficial to shattercane would persist in populations within agroecosystems.


ABSTRACT Twitter's hashtag functionality is now used for a very wide variety of purposes, from covering crises and other breaking news events through gathering an instant community around shared media texts (such as sporting events and TV broadcasts) to signalling emotive states from amusement to despair. These divergent uses of the hashtag are increasingly recognised in the literature, with attention paid especially to the ability for hashtags to facilitate the creation of ad hoc or hashtag publics. A more comprehensive understanding of these different uses of hashtags has yet to be developed, however. Previous research has explored the potential for a systematic analysis of the quantitative metrics that could be generated from processing a series of hashtag datasets. Such research found, for example, that crisis-related hashtags exhibited a significantly larger incidence of retweets and tweets containing URLs than hashtags relating to televised events, and on this basis hypothesised that the information-seeking and -sharing behaviours of Twitter users in such different contexts were substantially divergent. This article updates such study and their methodology by examining the communicative metrics of a considerably larger and more diverse number of hashtag datasets, compiled over the past five years. This provides an opportunity both to confirm earlier findings, as well as to explore whether hashtag use practices may have shifted subsequently as Twitter's userbase has developed further; it also enables the identification of further hashtag types beyond the "crisis" and "mainstream media event" types outlined to date. The article also explores the presence of such patterns beyond recognised hashtags, by incorporating an analysis of a number of keyword-based datasets. This large-scale, comparative approach contributes towards the establishment of a more comprehensive typology of hashtags and their publics, and the metrics it describes will also be able to be used to classify new hashtags emerging in the future. In turn, this may enable researchers to develop systems for automatically distinguishing newly trending topics into a number of event types, which may be useful for example for the automatic detection of acute crises and other breaking news events.


Two generations of high-temperature silicate mineral assemblage occur in vesuvianite- and amphibolite-bearing calcitemarbles in the leucogneiss core of the Miocene M2 metamorphic complex of Naxos, Greece. The first ( 1p ) generation formed during prograde metamorphism, whereas the second retrograde ( 2r ) generation developed along contacts between prograde amphibolites and calcite marbles, in veins that crosscut pure marbles, and at the contacts between pegmatite-aplite bodies and calcite marble, and clearly grew during the infiltration of an external fluid into the marbles. Phase equilibrium calculations indicate a water-rich fluid. The oxygen isotope composition of 2r silicate minerals shows a significant decrease relative to the 1p composition in prograde marbles. The calculated δ 18 O values of water in isotopic equilibrium with the 2r silicate minerals (δ 18 O garnet = 9.0 to 9.6 ‰; δ 18 O clinopyroxene = 10.3 to 11.0 ‰; δ 18 O hornblende = 10.8 to 11.2 ‰) match those of water in equilibrium with the minerals of the pegmatite-aplite bodies, which formed during late-stage crystallization of peak-metamorphic anatectic melts. The volatiles exsolved during the pegmatite-aplite crystallization are thus indicated to be the source of the infiltrating fluid. Recrystallized calcite marble adjacent to 2r silicate minerals shows isotopic evidence for limited water-rock interaction and indicates that fluid infiltration was strongly localized in the metasomatic zones. The study confirms that high-temperature metamorphism occurs as the result of volatile release during the crystallization of anatectic partial melts and that peak metamorphism in such terrains is a continuum spanning both prograde heating and retrograde cooling.


This paper reports on an experiment looking at differences in students' learning style preferences and the relationship with observed work related practices and recent findings from the ongoing research. Three questionnaires to measure learning and cognitive style preferences; Honey & Mumford, Grasha and Reichmann and an English translation of Antonietti's questionnaire on visual and verbal strategies (QSVV) were made available and distributed via the web in electronic format to 60 volunteers prior to their taking the Open University's distance learning course M206 "An Object Orientated Approach". An additional questionnaire gathering demographic information, perceived level of comfort with computing and other related measures was also published electronically. A significant gender difference was found on the Honey & Mumford measures of pragmatism and theorist, with significant difference between genders and from published normal values. The Grasha–Reichmann scales showed no differences between genders but the sample studied had higher than expected scores on both the independent and collaborative scales compared to published norms. Further investigation resolved the possible presence of two types of student, an independent type and a collaborative/participant type.


Norway and Sweden have agreed on a joint green certificate market applicable from January 1 2012. This has caused debate. Scientists, politicians, environmentalists and others have expressed their concerns and issues related to the market regulation, where arguments have been inconsistent and conflicting. This study aims to make it clearer what these presented arguments, issues and concerns are, what they are based on and whether they can be supported by economic theory. The study has analyzed six topics, and conclusions have been drawn for every topic. Producer and end-user prices will decrease. Security of supply will increase, which will have a positive effect on the net energy balance. Volatility in the certificate prices will be reduced with the opportunity of certificate banking. The certificate measure will have marginal impact on CO2emissions. The measure will be cost-efficient and cause increased predictability of investment subsidies for RES seeking investors.


Modern neural networks excel at image classification, yet they remain vulnerable to common image corruptions such as blur, speckle noise or fog. Recent methods that focus on this problem, such as AugMix and DeepAugment, introduce defenses that operate in expectation over a distribution of image corruptions. In contrast, the literature on $\ell_p$-norm bounded perturbations focuses on defenses against worst-case corruptions. In this work, we reconcile both approaches by proposing AdversarialAugment, a technique which optimizes the parameters of image-to-image models to generate adversarially corrupted augmented images. We theoretically motivate our method and give sufficient conditions for the consistency of its idealized version as well as that of DeepAugment. Our classifiers improve upon the state-of-the-art on common image corruption benchmarks conducted in expectation on CIFAR-10-C and improve worst-case performance against $\ell_p$-norm bounded perturbations on both CIFAR-10 and ImageNet.


In the last quarter-century many scientific, environmental, and popular publications have used a metaphor comparing species extinction and the loss of biodiversity in the modern era to the destruction of the ancient Library of Alexandria in Egypt more than 1,500 years ago. The rhetorical figure is characteristic of the environmental humanities, for it invokes the value of cultural and literary treasures to reinforce the importance of biological diversity. This article traces the origins of the metaphor to related figures of The Book of Life and to the figure of genetic information as a textual code. The Alexandrian Library of Life caught hold in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when concern about biodiversity and the destruction of tropical rainforests coincided with developments in gene sequencing, the Human Genome Project, and the growth of Internet communications and electronic library collections. Scientists and environmentalists at that time sensed both the promise of unprecedented access to bio-information and the threat of lost knowledge through species extinction. The popularity of the metaphor conceals several weaknesses, however. Living species, even using the methods of gene sequencing, cannot be archived or copied like texts, and the impulse to do so reflects imperialist efforts to appropriate and control knowledge, as several empires attempted to do at Alexandria during the library's long history. The metaphor of a species as a book, represented in the library by one specimen or copy, obscures the fact that the Alexandrian library consisted of manuscripts, not print books. In essence, species may be more like manuscripts than books after all.


Abstract. Stable isotopic analyses of soil-emitted N2O (δ15Nbulk, δ18O and δ15Nsp = 15N site preference within the linear N2O molecule) may help to quantify N2O reduction to N2, an important but rarely quantified process in the soil nitrogen cycle. The N2O residual fraction (remaining unreduced N2O, rN2O) can be theoretically calculated from the measured isotopic enrichment of the residual N2O. However, various N2O-producing pathways may also influence the N2O isotopic signatures, and hence complicate the application of this isotopic fractionation approach. Here this approach was tested based on laboratory soil incubations with two different soil types, applying two reference methods for quantification of rN2O: helium incubation with direct measurement of N2 flux and the 15N gas flux method. This allowed a comparison of the measured rN2O values with the ones calculated based on isotopic enrichment of residual N2O. The results indicate that the performance of the N2O isotopic fractionation approach is related to the accompanying N2O and N2 source processes and the most critical is the determination of the initial isotopic signature of N2O before reduction (δ0). We show that δ0 can be well determined experimentally if stable in time and then successfully applied for determination of rN2O based on δ15Nsp values. Much more problematic to deal with are temporal changes of δ0 values leading to failure of the approach based on δ15Nsp values only. For this case, we propose here a dual N2O isotopocule mapping approach, where calculations are based on the relation between δ18O and δ15Nsp values. This allows for the simultaneous estimation of the N2O-producing pathways' contribution and the rN2O value.


Intracerebral hemorrhage is the deadliest, most disabling and least treatable form of stroke despite progression in medical science. The aim of the study was to analyze the frequency, risk factors, localization and 30-day prognosis in patients with intracerebral hemorrhage. We analyzed 352 patients with intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) hospitalized at the Department of Neurology Tuzla during a three-year follow up. The following data were collected for all patients in a computerized database: age, sex, risk factors (hypertension, heart diseases, diabetes and smoking) and CT findings. Stroke severity was estimated with Scandinavian Stroke Scale, ICH topography was specified by CT, and outcome at 1st month after onset included information on vital status and disability (modified Rankin Scale, mRS). The most frequent risk factors were hypertension (84%), heart diseases (31%), cigarette smoking (28%) and diabetes mellitus (14%). The most frequent localization of ICH was multilobar (38%), internal capsule/basal ganglia region (36%) and lobar (17%). Within first month died 147 patients (42%). The highest mortality rate was in patients with brain stem (83%) and multilobar hemorrhage (64%). Factors independently associated with mortality were age (odds ratio 1,05 (95% confidence interval 1,02 to 1,08); p=0,001), stroke severity (OR 0,93 (0,92 to 0,95); p<0,0001), multilobar hemorrhage (OR 5,4 (3,0 to 9,6); p<0,0001) and intraventricular hemorrhage (OR 3,9 (2,2 to 7,1); p<0,0001). Favorable outcome at first month (mRS < or = 2) had 45% of the surviving patients with ICH. The best outcome was for the patients with cerebellar hemorrhage (63%), while only 40% of the patients with hemorrhage in internal capsule/basal ganglia region had Rankin scale 2 or less. Hypertension is the most frequent risk factor in patients with ICH. ICHs are mainly localized in lobar and internal capsule/basal ganglia regions. Independent predictors of mortality following ICH are age, hypertension, intraventricular blood extension and stroke severity. Mortality, as well as good outcome at 1 month, is related to the localization of bleeding.


Objective Diets rich in fermentable fibres provide an array of health benefits; however, many patients with IBD report poor tolerance to fermentable fibre-rich foods. Intervention studies with dietary fibres in murine models of colonic inflammation have yielded conflicting results on whether fibres ameliorate or exacerbate IBD. Herein, we examined how replacing the insoluble fibre, cellulose, with the fermentable fibres, inulin or pectin, impacted murine colitis resulting from immune dysregulation via inhibition of interleukin (IL)-10 signalling and/or innate immune deficiency (Tlr5KO). Design Mice were fed with diet containing either cellulose, inulin or pectin and subjected to weekly injections of an IL-10 receptor (αIL-10R) neutralising antibody. Colitis development was examined by serological, biochemical, histological and immunological parameters. Results Inulin potentiated the severity of αIL10R-induced colitis, while pectin ameliorated the disease. Such exacerbation of colitis following inulin feeding was associated with enrichment of butyrate-producing bacteria and elevated levels of caecal butyrate. Blockade of butyrate production by either metronidazole or hops β-acids ameliorated colitis severity in inulin-fed mice, whereas augmenting caecal butyrate via tributyrin increased colitis severity in cellulose containing diet-fed mice. Elevated butyrate levels were associated with increased IL-1β activity, while inhibition of the NOD-like receptor protein 3 by genetic, pharmacologic or dietary means markedly reduced colitis. Conclusion These results not only support the notion that fermentable fibres have the potential to ameliorate colitis but also caution that, in some contexts, prebiotic fibres can lead to gut dysbiosis and surfeit colonic butyrate that might exacerbate IBD.


INTRODUCTION There are only two ways an ordinary citizen acting in a private capacity can violate the United States Constitution. One is to enslave someone, violating the Thirteenth Amendment, and the other is to bring a bottle of wine into a state in violation of its alcoholic beverage control laws. (1) In reaction to what many consider to be senseless and out-of-date prohibitions against the direct shipment of wine from out-of-state wineries to consumers, (2) wine connoisseurs and their legal advocates have mounted a campaign across the country to overturn direct-shipment laws. (3) According to Tracy Genesen, Legal Director for the Coalition for Free Trade ("CFT"), a winery backed advocacy group, the overall strategy is to "target the states with the most punitive direct-shipping statutes, to get a definitive decision from the Supreme Court to clear up the question of whether the Commerce Clause takes precedence over the Twenty-first Amendment or vice versa." (4) The CFT's strategy is to facilitate a split between at least two circuit courts that will have to be resolved in the nation's highest court. (5) Whether the strategy succeeds in getting the Supreme Court's attention remains to be seen, but one element appears to be working: lawsuits seeking to overturn direct-shipment statutes are generating conflicting opinions in federal district courts across the country and in at least two federal appellate courts. (6) Although not a party to the lawsuit, the CFT probably joined the celebration on December 10, 2002, when Judge Richard M. Berman of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York ordered New York State to allow wineries from the rest of the country to ship wine directly to New York consumers. (7) Judge Berman's order followed up on his opinion earlier that year holding New York's direct-shipping laws unconstitutional. (8) Clint Bolick, the attorney for the plaintiffs, called Judge Berman's initial ruling "the crest of a tidal wave that is washing away protectionist barriers to the direct shipment of wine." (9) Marc Violette, a spokesman for New York State Attorney General, Eliot Spitzer, said simply: "We are going to appeal." (10) If New York does appeal, it will have significant ammunition--despite the trend in recent cases where direct-shipment wine advocates appear to be prevailing. For example, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals recently upheld an Indiana statute with similar prohibitions against out-of-state shipments. (11) Nevertheless, New York will face a difficult legal battle. On April 8, 2003, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals handed down its decision, affirming a federal district court decision last year declaring North Carolina's direct-shipment laws unconstitutional. (12) With this clear circuit split, the CFT may well be getting its wish; ultimately, the Supreme Court may have to settle the issue once and for all. The nation's highest court, however, appears willing to let the conflict age a bit longer. (13) This Note examines the tension between the Twenty-First Amendment to the United States Constitution and the Dormant Commerce Clause, with respect to state regulations governing of out-of-state direct shipment of wine to consumers. When Judge Melinda Harmon, sitting in the Federal District Court, Southern District Texas, considered this issue in a recent case she noted that, "The question of the constitutionality of state bans on direct importation of wine by in-state consumers from out-of-state wineries has become increasingly controversial, yet thus far there is minimal case law dealing with the question." (14) One side of the debate is emobidied in Section Two of the Twenty-First Amendment, which provides: "The transportation or importation into any State, Territory, or possession of the United States for delivery or use therein of intoxicating liquors, in violation of the laws thereof, is hereby prohibited." The weight of this provision stems from early Supreme Court cases that gave states wide latitude in exercising this power. …


: Threat assessments continue to conclude that terrorist groups and individuals as well as those wanting to cause harm to society have the ambition and increasing means to acquire unconventional weapons such as improvised nuclear explosive devices and radiological disposal devices. Such assessments are given credence by public statements of intent by such groups / persons, by reports of attempts to acquire radioactive material and by law enforcement actions which have interdicted, apprehended or prevented attempts to acquire such material. As a mechanism through which to identify radioactive materials being transported on an individual's person, this work sought to develop a detection system that is of lower-cost, reduced form-factor and more covert than existing infrastructure, while maintaining adequate sensitivity and being retrofittable into an industry standard and widely utilised Gunnebo Speed Gate system. The system developed comprised an array of six o ff -set Geiger–Muller detectors positioned around the gate, alongside a single scintillator detector for spectroscopy, triggered by the systems inbuilt existing IR proximity sensor. This configuration served to not only reduce the cost for such a system but also allowed for source localisation and identification to be performed. Utilising the current setup, it was possible to detect a 1 µ Sv / h source carried into the Speed Gate in all test scenarios, alongside locating and spectrally analysing the material in a significant number.


The device characteristics of Er/sup 3+/,Yb/sup 3+/ single frequency fiber lasers are reported. A 5-cm long 1550-nm distributed feedback fiber laser with 4 mW output power is shown to have excellent specifications in terms of optical linewidth, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), relative intensity noise, side-mode suppression and polarization purity. For higher power applications, a 1.5 cm single frequency Er/sup 3+/,Yb/sup 3+/ grating-based fiber laser with 60 mW output power and a net efficiency of 12% is demonstrated.


Measurements of aerosol size distribution, chemical composition, and cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) concentration were performed during the Chemical Emission, Loss, Transformation, and Interactions with Canopies (CELTIC) field program at Duke Forest in North Carolina. A kinetic model of the cloud activation of ambient aerosol in the chamber of the CCN instrument was used to perform an aerosol–CCN closure study. This study advances prior investigations by employing a novel fitting algorithm that was used to integrate scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS) measurements of aerosol number size distribution and aerosol mass spectrometer (AMS) measurements of the mass size distribution for sulfate, nitrate, ammonium, and organics into a single, coherent description of the ambient aerosol in the size range critical to aerosol activation (around 100-nm diameter). Three lognormal aerosol size modes, each with a unique internally mixed composition, were used as input into the kinetic model. For the two smaller size modes, which control CCN number concentration, organic aerosol mass fractions for the defined cases were between 58% and 77%. This study is also unique in that the water vapor accommodation coefficient was estimated based on comparing the initial timing for CCN activation in the instrument chamber with the activation predicted by the kinetic model. The kinetic model overestimated measured CCN concentrations, especially under polluted conditions. Prior studies have attributed a positive model bias to an incomplete understanding of the aerosol composition, especially the role of organics in the activation process. This study shows that including measured organic mass fractions with an assumed organic aerosol speciation profile (pinic acid, fulvic acid, and levoglucosan) and an assumed organic aerosol solubility of 0.02 kg kg 1 still resulted in a significant model positive bias for polluted case study periods. The slope and y intercept for the CCN predicted versus CCN observed regression was found to be 1.9 and 180 cm , respectively. The overprediction generally does not exceed uncertainty limits but is indicative that a bias exists in the measurements or application of model. From this study, uncertainties in the particle number and mass size distributions as the cause for the model bias can be ruled out. The authors are also confident that the model is including the effects of growth kinetics on predicted activated number. However, one cannot rule out uncertainties associated with poorly characterized CCN measurement biases, uncertainties in assumed organic solubility, and uncertainties in aerosol mixing state. Sensitivity simulations suggest that assuming either an insoluble organic fraction or external aerosol mixing were both sufficient to reconcile the model bias. ** Current affiliation: Air Quality Research Division, Environment Canada, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Current affiliation: Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. ## Current affiliation: Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, California. Corresponding author address: Craig A. Stroud, 4905 Dufferin Street, Toronto, ON M3H 5T4, Canada. E-mail: email@example.com FEBRUARY 2007 S T R O U D E T A L . 441 DOI: 10.1175/JAS3843.1 © 2007 American Meteorological Society


Following trends to enhance learning and teaching environments with computer-assisted language learning (CALL) tools, this chapter aims to determine the efficacy of an interactive animation tool, known as a Computer Animated Production Task (CAPT) for assessing and improving the spoken communication skills of English as a Second Language (ESL) students during their UK study abroad experience. Since many ESL students do not take advantage of the opportunities for language practice with native speakers in an ESL environment, focussed language practice in the classroom is still required. Given the trends for many learners to be involved in virtual worlds as a social activity outside of the classroom and calls for practitioners to embrace digital technologies inside it, the aim of the CAPT materials was to enhance learner engagement which focused on the productive practice of apologies. The data were captured from 40 undergraduate Chinese learners of English studying at a British Higher Education institution and linguistically analysed to determine instructional effects. A pre-, post- and delayed post-test-test design was employed to evaluate the CAPT as a learning tool to facilitate productive practice, measured against a control group who received no instruction. Results show that explicit instruction which included productive practice was effective and the CAPT was viewed as a positive and motivating learning tool by the students on the post-instruction questionnaire.


With its striking gridded facade and amoeba-shaped internal cavities, Steven Holl's new dormitory for MIT, Simmons Hall, is without question one of the most original and idiosyncratic architectural statements of recent memory. A veritable catalog of ideas -- from the use of color to experimentation with form and materials -- Simmons Hall is an essay in architectural imagination by one of the professions' most celebrated practitioners. This detailed monograph will allow readers to deconstruct this complex marvel of modern design and construction. "Steven Holl Architects/Simmons Hall" is documented with sketches, models, renderings, working drawings, and photographs at a level of detail that allow complete and careful study of the project. Commentary by the architect and design critics explores both the technical aspects and cultural contexts of the building.


I. ARE STATE COURTS MINOR FORMS OF UNITED STATES COURTS? What is common to state and federal courts is easy to see--so easy that many lawyers, judges, and academics assume that federal formulas for review of official actions equally apply to state law. (1) The point of federalism, however, lies in the scope it leaves for differences. Our common commitment is to the rule of law, not to one common rule of law. The states' civil, criminal, and public laws diverge even though officials and citizens affirm common values like "freedom," "equality," "fairness," and "democracy." (2) The commonalities are important, but so are the differences, which are more interesting. We should not assume one common analysis in the face of legal differences that are truly constitutional--that is to say, "constitutive" of government--and for which state courts take on responsibilities that federal courts decline. State courts also copy terms like "standing," "ripeness," and "justiciability" that are used in federal courts and taught in law schools, though they are not the words of statutes or constitutions. Here, however, the practice in the state and the federal courts is even less identical. Consider only a few recent examples. The Nevada Supreme Court ordered the Nevada legislature to fund constitutionally mandated schools, without the required two-thirds majority vote for new taxes, if necessary. (3) In Massachusetts, the Supreme Judicial Court required the state legislature to choose either to appropriate election campaign funds required by law or to repeal the law. (4) The Illinois Supreme Court reportedly ordered the state comptroller general to resume paying judges cost-of-living increases without awaiting actual litigation. (5) The Oregon Supreme Court has "assumed" that it may, by writ of mandamus, order the legislature to fund the courts--the required adequate level presumably to be set by the court. (6) It is hard to think of a federal court issuing similar orders to Congress or its members. About a dozen states--by constitution or statute--authorize governors or legislators to obtain advisory opinions of state court justices. (7) The Indiana Supreme Court is assigned a role in reviewing whether the governor has suffered an inability to discharge official duties. (8) More often, state courts entertain and decide disputes between state or local officials when federal courts would dismiss comparable cases for lack of "standing" or "ripeness" or some other shibboleth. Although the Supreme Court rejects taxpayer standing, state courts routinely allow individual taxpayers to challenge official acts with trivial fiscal impacts. (9) A claim that state officials spend unappropriated funds or do not publish proper accounts may find a way into a state, but not a federal, court. (10) Also, many state cases decide disputes between governors and legislators directly, often involving their respective powers, without needing a discharged official like Federal Trade Commissioner Humphrey to sue for his salary, (11) or an immigrant like Chadha to resist deportation. (12) The legality of executive vetoes is often litigated between legislators and governors, (13) as is delegation to agencies that includes legislators. (14) Let me briefly examine three questions. What explains why state and local officials often seek court decisions on issues of governance against which federal case law has erected many doctrinal hurdles? Do the same doctrines also apply to the position of state courts? And is a difference between state and federal views of litigable issues likely to cause conflicts? II. DISTINCTIVE ROLES OF STATE COURTS The simplest reason why state courts are often called upon to resolve conflicts among public officials is that no one else has final authority to do it. Can we imagine a lawsuit by a president against an attorney general, like Governor Kirk Fordice's petition to the Mississippi Supreme Court to order the state's attorney general, Mike Moore, not to litigate certain claims involving Medicaid funds? …


You are now beginning what should be a very rewarding study of the Hindi
language. Unlike the other major Asian languages, Hindi can be learned with little more
effort than required for many European languages. The major reason for this ease of
learning is the writing system, which is ideally suited for Hindi and almost perfectly
represents the sound system of the language. You can learn to write in Hindi in just a
few weeks, although complete mastery of the Devanagari script wil take somewhat
longer.
Knowledge of Hindi is the key to the Indian subcontinent and its immense variety
of religions, cultures, and landscapes; Hindi is spoken by almost as many people in
India as all other languages combined, and the Encyclopedia Britannica has listed Hindi
as the most spoken language in the world (after Chinese) with 685 million speakers of
which 413 million speak Hindi as their native language. For activities from tourism to
scholarly research, you will find Hindi in the spoken form, which is very similar to
Urdu, indispensable. Written Hindi is more limited in scope, but learning how to read
and write the Devanagari script is the best way to start learning other Hindi language
skills, and Devanagari is also used for other languages, including Sanskrit, Nepali, and
Marathi. This book has the limited goal of teaching the writing system and beginning
conversation in preparation for a formal course of instruction. Throughout this book a
Roman transcription is used along with Devanagari; after mastering the material in this
book, you should be able to work with standard Hindi textbooks.
As you go through this book, you should do the exercises and then compare your
answers with the keys provided. Two tapes accompany this book and will be very
useful to you in relating the sounds of the language to the Devanagari characters. The
characters are taught in the traditional order with which you need to be familiar when
you use a Hindi-English dictionary later.
Enjoy this trip to proficiency in Hindi, which will take you to the fascinating culture
of South Asia.


Abstract The effect of vacuum assistance, mould temperature and ram velocity on the void transport and flow behaviour for sheet moulding compound (SMC) have been investigated with a design of experiment approach of the compression moulding phase. The relative amount of voids has been quantified with a high voltage insulation test and the flow behaviour has been quantified with image analysis of samples moulded with coloured SMC. In conclusion, the setting of high vacuum, low ram velocity and low mould temperature creates a homogeneous flow and minimises the amount of voids.


The Castle of La Vilavella (Castellon). Surveys and first conservation actions The castle of La Vilavella (Castellon) stands on the slopes of San Sebastian, and its various constructions follow the craggy relief of the hill, on the outskirts of the town to the west. The castle is currently an imposing ruin on top of a hill, a landmark which dominates the inland landscape as well as the plains to the sea. Part of the castle's walled complex, which stretches along 230 m of the local topography with a maximum width of 60 m, is conserved. The walled complex incorporates a sequence of towers of different types, forms, and constructive techniques which reflect the different periods in which the complex was built. This article aims to present the conservation project carried out in the castle, as well as the prior analyses and completed work based on these. The starting point for this conservation project was that the actions on a major heritage asset such as this constitute another phase for learning about its material history. They also make it possible to continue research into its material and constructive history through new archaeological excavations such as the study of its constructive elements. The interventions carried out aim to respect the construction of the castle at both a material and aesthetic level, returning it to a physical condition which honours its history and helps prolong its useful life. The conservation work carried out, necessary to ensure consolidation, has focused mostly on the walls of the different structures and adaptation and musealisation actions of the castle complex.


Our digital memories are threatened by archival hubris, technical misdirection, and simplistic application of rules to protect privacy rights. The obsession with the technical challenge of digital preservation has blinded much of the archival community to the challenges, created by the digital transition, to the other core principles of archival science - namely, appraisal (what to keep), sensitivity review (identifying material that cannot yet be disclosed for ethical or legal reasons) and access. The essay will draw on the considerations of appraisal and sensitivity review to project a vision of some aspects of access to the Digital Archive. This essay will argue that only by careful scrutiny of these three challenges and the introduction of appropriate practices and procedures will it be possible to prevent the precautionary closure of digital memories for long periods or, worse still, their destruction. We must ensure that our digital memories can be captured, kept, recalled and remain faithful to the events and circumstances that created them.


Three-dimensional (3D) wavelet-based scalable video coding provides a viable alternative to standard MC-DCT coding. However, many current 3D wavelet coders experience severe boundary effects across group of pictures (GOP) boundaries. This paper proposes a memory-efficient transform technique via lifting that effectively computes wavelet transforms of a video sequence continuously on the fly, thus eliminating the boundary effects due to limited length of individual GOPs. Coding results show that the proposed scheme completely eliminates the boundary effects and gives superb video playback quality.


In recent years, interest in comtemporary conceptions and self-understandings of the social order has grown among historians, yet the field of an "intellectual history of society" is little expJored for modern Germany. This paper surveys the field and asks how Germans from the early modern era up to the present time of German reunification conceived of the social order they were building and living in, and it provides an overview of the developments of such major concepts as "estate" and "class," "community" and "society," "individual" and "mass," "state" and "nation." Three major points emerge as persistent and distinctive features of German social self-conception in the nineteenth cand twentieth centuries: the intellectual construction of dilemmas between social conformity and social fragmentation; the difficulties of conceiving of society as a plitical society; and the "futurization" of an idealized, utopian social roder of harmony that was hoped would one day replace the perceived social disintegration.


We review the modifications and implications of the effect of light forces on atoms when the field is enclosed in an optical resonator of high finesse. The systems considered range from a single atom strongly coupled to a single mode of a high-Q microcavity to a large ensemble of atoms in a highly degenerate quasi-confocal resonator. We set up general models that allow us to obtain analytic expressions for the optical potential, friction, and diffusion. In the bad-cavity limit the modified cooling properties can be attributed to the spectral modifications of light absorption and spontaneous emission in a form of generalized and enhanced Doppler cooling. For the strong coupling regime in a good cavity, we identify the dynamical coupling between the light field intensity and the atomic motion as the central mechanism underlying the cavity-induced cooling. The dynamical cavity cooling, which does not rely on spontaneous emission, can be enhanced by multimode cavity geometries because of the effect of coherent photon redistribution between different modes. The model is then generalized to include several distinct frequencies to account for more general trap geometries. Finally we show that the field-induced buildup of correlations between the motion of different particles plays a central role in the scaling behavior of the system. Depending on the geometry and parameters, its effect ranges from strong destructive interference, slowing down the cooling process, to self-organized crystallization, implying atomic self-trapping and faster cooling to lower temperatures by cooperative coherent scattering.


Abstract. Discrete in situ atmospheric measurements of molecular iodine (I2) were carried out at Mace Head and Mweenish Bay on the west coast of Ireland using diffusion denuders in combination with a gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) method. I2, IO and OIO were also measured by long-path differential optical absorption spectroscopy (LP-DOAS). The simultaneous denuder and LP-DOAS I2 measurements were well correlated (R2=0.80) but the denuder method recorded much higher concentrations. This can be attributed to the fact that the in situ measurements were made near to macroalgal sources of I2 in the intertidal zone, whereas the LP-DOAS technique provides distance-averaged mixing ratios of an inhomogeneous distribution along the light-path. The observed mixing ratios of I2 at Mweenish Bay were significantly higher than that at Mace Head, which is consistent with differences in local algal biomass density and algal species composition. Above algal beds, levels of I2 were found to correlate inversely with tidal height and positively with the concentrations of O3 in the surrounding air, indicating a role for O3 in the production of I2 from macroalgae, as has been previously suggested from laboratory studies. However, measurements made ~150 m away from the algal beds showed a negative correlation between O3 and I2 during both day and night. We interpret these results to indicate that the released I2 can also lead to O3 destruction via the reaction of O3 with I atoms that are formed by the photolysis of I2 during the day and via the reaction of I2 with NO3 radicals at night. The results show that the concentrations of daytime IO are correlated with the mixing ratios of I2, and suggest that the local algae sources dominate the inorganic iodine chemistry at Mace Head and Mweenish Bay.


Importance as impetus or impediment? The case of 19th century chartered surveyors. Definitions and theories professions and professionalization have long been tailored on a set of professions established in England during the 19th century. Chartered surveyors belong in that group, but have not received the attention afforded to other members of the core set – notably medicine, law, theology, and engineering. This paper argues, however, that chartered surveyors present an interesting deviant case in the history of professionalization, on account of their peculiar links to state and market. The argument proceeds in two steps. In a first section, we show how chartered surveyors have entered the profession literature, and how their early emergence is explained in these accounts. Next we focus on a hitherto neglected aspect of that emergence: the peculiar importance of a subset of those tasks that were within chartered surveyors' jurisdictional turf. We show that chartered surveyors were endowed with the task of determining house values, and how this linked the professional group to the state both (a) via taxation and the control of the local government tax-base and (b) via the electoral system in the period from 1867 to 1918.


Background:
Emergency medicine clerkships are a required element of medical school programs. The optimal rotation structure is unknown, and in particular the number of clinical shifts required to achieve basic competency is unknown. In this analysis of one year of evaluations at an academic center, we assess the marginal utility of clinical shifts on competency, as assessed by historical preceptor milestone-based competency evaluations.
The goal of the experiment is to observe the trend of passing rates throughout the course of an EM rotation using competencies including medical knowledge, data interpretation, and clinical judgement. The null hypothesis is that the percentage of students meeting the developmental milestones does not increase throughout the length of the clerkship.
Methods:
Clerkship evaluations of 200 students were retrospectively examined. A short form grading rubric was used to score students across eight developmental milestones. The average percentage of students meeting the developmental milestones were calculated and analyzed over the course of 14 shifts. A one-way ANOVA was used to compare the mean passing rates at different times of the clerkship.
Results:
The average percent of students achieving basic competency increased throughout the length of the clerkship, e.g. medical knowledge competency passing rates increased from 44.2% to 56.0%, first to last shifts respectively. Similar trends were observed in other competencies. The one-way ANOVA gave a p-value of less than 0.05; the null hypothesis was rejected.
Conclusion/Potential Impact:
The results can aid clerkship directors improve current grading rubrics to better assess student competency in their EM clerkships.


Virtual worlds such as Second Life may offer a new environment to deliver simulation-based safety training to clinicians. The objective of this study was to design and implement a simulation of inpatient transfers in the virtual world of Second Life, and to undertake a preliminary evaluation of its usability as an educational tool. A simulation of inpatient transfer was developed using the Linden Scripting Language in Second Life. A virtual hospital was built and four scenarios of inpatient transfer varying in mode of transport (bed, trolley or wheelchair) and infection control precautions (no-infection, droplet, contact or airborne infection) were implemented. System usability was assessed using a "think aloud" protocol in combination with surveys and interviews with 15 participants who found the simulation environment easy to use, and fit for purpose. The novelty of using a virtual world was regarded as an advantage over other training methods, as was the opportunity to learn and practice inpatient transfers while receiving instant feedback during the process. Participants agreed that simulation has potential to improve awareness about hand hygiene and prevent errors. Second Life was able to support the development of a virtual environment for patient safety training. Results from preliminary usability tests indicate acceptance of the simulation environment. Further investigation is required to evaluate usability with a representative group and determine if training porters in a virtual world will reduce errors in the real world.


Molybdenum is an emerging pollutant worldwide. The objective of this study is to isolate molybdenum-reducing bacterium with the ability to grow on phenolic compounds (phenol and catechol). The screening process was carried out on a microplate. The bacterium reduced molybdenum in the form of sodium molybdate to molybdenum blue (Mo-blue). The bacterium required a narrow pH range for optimal reduction of molybdenum, i.e. between pH 6.3 and 6.8, with temperature between 34 and 37 oC. Molybdate reduction to Mo-blue was best supported by glucose as the carbon source. However, both phenol and catechol could not support molybdate reduction. Other requirements for molybdate reduction included sodium molybdate concentrations between 15 and 30 mM, and phosphate concentration of 5.0 mM. The bacterium exhibited a Mo-blue absorption spectrum with a shoulder at 700 nm and a maximum peak near the infrared region at 865 nm. The Mo-reducing bacterium was partially identified as Enterobacter sp. strain Saw-2. The capability of this bacterium to grow on toxic phenolic compounds and to detoxify molybdenum made it a significant agent for bioremediation.


Since these last years, the application of the European Energy Performance Building Directive (EPBD) has led to a higher interest in summer comfort issue. In this context, the design of glazing complexes (glazing and solar shading) is a key issue since it directly influences the thermal and visual perception of interior spaces. Glazing complex determine the view and the opening to the outside, determining solar gains and penetration of natural light, but is also responsible for heat loss and can cause overheating and glare. The choice of an adequate glazing complex should therefore be done considering all of these aspects. This paper presents a free web tool realised within the frame of the PROSOLIS research project. Based on a set of results obtained by the advanced use of BSDF functions for optical properties description of solar shading in specific thermal and daylight simulation software's (WINDOW 7, EnergyPlus 8, Light-tools 8.0), the PROSOLIS web tool helps to evaluate the impact of the glazing complex choice on both thermal and visual comforts in residential and office buildings. This web tool, dedicated to building designers, proposes a multi-criteria approach for comparing accurately the most current types of glazing complexes. It considers internal and external screen fabrics and venetian blinds, combined with five different types of glazing and informs designers on energy and light performance levels of the selected combinations. From this information, designer should be able to easily choose glazing complexes fitting with their needs.


Background The majority of sporting injuries are clinically diagnosed using history and physical examination as the cornerstone. There are no studies supporting the reliability of making a clinical diagnosis of medial tibial stress syndrome (MTSS). Aim Our aim was to assess if MTSS can be diagnosed reliably, using history and physical examination. We also investigated if clinicians were able to reliably identify concurrent lower leg injuries. Methods A clinical reliability study was performed at multiple sports medicine sites in The Netherlands. Athletes with non-traumatic lower leg pain were assessed for having MTSS by two clinicians, who were blinded to each others' diagnoses. We calculated the prevalence, percentage of agreement, observed percentage of positive agreement (Ppos), observed percentage of negative agreement (Pneg) and Kappa-statistic with 95%CI. Results Forty-nine athletes participated in this study, of whom 46 completed both assessments. The prevalence of MTSS was 74%. The percentage of agreement was 96%, with Ppos and Pneg of 97% and 92%, respectively. The inter-rater reliability was almost perfect; k=0.89 (95% CI 0.74 to 1.00), p<0.000001. Of the 34 athletes with MTSS, 11 (32%) had a concurrent lower leg injury, which was reliably noted by our clinicians, k=0.73, 95% CI 0.48 to 0.98, p<0.0001. Conclusion Our findings show that MTSS can be reliably diagnosed clinically using history and physical examination, in clinical practice and research settings. We also found that concurrent lower leg injuries are common in athletes with MTSS.


Abstract
This brief essay considers the use of antitrust's rule of reason in assessing challenges to rule-making by the NCAA. In particular, it looks at the O'Bannon case, which involved challenges to NCAA rules that limit the compensation of student athletes under the NCAA rubric that protects the "amateur" status of collegiate athletes. Within that rubric, the Ninth Circuit got the right answer. That outcome leads to a broader question, however: Should the NCAA's long held goal, frequently supported by the courts, of preserving athletic amateurism be jettisoned? Given the dual role that colleges play, that is a complex question, which raises issues that are not only commercial but also educational. More important for the purpose at hand, is whether jettisoning amateurism in NCAA athletics is a suitable task for an antitrust tribunal. This paper argues that antitrust law is not an appropriate vehicle for addressing that issue. This does not mean that antitrust has no role to play in policing athlete compensation in NCAA schools. But it does suggest that that role be limited to addressing restraints on trade that occur within the rubric of amateur status—at least until such time as a more competent body decides whether amateurism in collegiate athletics is worth preserving.


Background: To determ ine the frequency of m ild cognitive im pairm ent (M CI) of Parkinson's disease (PD, PDMCI ) and its subtypes among non-dement ed PD patients, and to identify the influence of the age and presenting sym ptom on the development of PDMCI. Methods: A total 141 non-demented PD patients underwent a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment including attention, language, visuospatial, memory and frontal functions. PDMCI was defined by neuropsychological testing and was classified into five subtypes. Patients were divided into two groups (tremor vs. akinetic-rigid type) for presenting symptom and three groups according to the age. Neuropsychological performance of patients was compared with normative data. Results: Almost half (49.6%) of non-demented PD patients had impairment in at least one domain and can be considered as having PDMCI. Executive type of PDMCI was the most frequent and amnestic, visuospatial, linguistic and attention types followed in the order of frequency. The population of PDMCI was increasing as the age of disease onset was higher. Whereas the frequency of executive and amnestic types of PDMCI was comparable in younger group, executive type was the most frequent in older group. The patients with tremor dominant type performed worse on tests, particularly on attention test. Conclusions: MCI was common even in the early stage of PD and the subtype was diverse. Unlike MCI developing Alzheimer's disease later, executive type of PDMCI was the most common. Age was an important risk factor for development of MCI in PD. The concept of MCI should be introduced in PD.


What will electricity and heat demand look like in a low-carbon world? Ambitious environmental targets will modify the shape of the electricity sector in the twenty-first century. 'Smart' technologies and demand-side management will be some of the key features of the future of electricity systems in a low-carbon world. Meanwhile, the social and behavioural dimensions will complement and interact with new technologies and policies. Electricity demand in the future will increasingly be tied up with the demand for heat and for transport. The Future of Electricity Demand looks into the features of the future electricity demand in light of the challenges posed by climate change. Written by a team of leading academics and industry experts, the book investigates the economics, technology, social aspects, and policies and regulations which are likely to characterize energy demand in a low-carbon world. It provides a comprehensive and analytical perspective on the future of electricity demand.


It all started in 1965 with a guy riding a whale. The guy was Flip Nicklin's father, Chuck, and the whale was an unlucky Bryde's Whale that had gotten caught up in some anchor line. Hoping to free the whale, Chuck and some friends took their boat as near as they could, and, just before they cut it loose, Chuck posed astride it for a photo. That image, carried on wire services nationwide, became a sensation and ultimately changed the life of Chuck's young son, Flip. In the decades since that day, Flip Nicklin has made himself into the world's premier cetacean photographer. It's no exaggeration to say that his photos, published in such venues as National Geographic and distributed worldwide, have virtually defined these graceful, powerful creatures in the mind of the general public - even as they helped open new ground in the field of marine mammalogy. "Among Giants" tells the story of Nicklin's life and career on the high seas, from his first ill-equipped shoots in the mid-1970s through his long association with the National Geographic Society to the present, when he is one of the founders of Whale Trust, a nonprofit conservation and research group. Nicklin is equal parts photographer, adventurer, self-trained scientist, and raconteur, and "Among Giants" reflects all those sides, matching breathtaking images to firsthand accounts of their making and highlighting throughout the importance of conservation and new advances in our understanding of whale behavior. With Nicklin as our guide, we see not just whales but also our slowly growing understanding of their hidden lives, as well as the evolution of underwater photography - and the stunning clarity and drama that can be captured when a determined, daring diver is behind the lens. Humpbacks, narwhals, sperm whales, orcas - these and countless other giants of the ocean parade through these pages, spouting, breaching, singing, and raising their young. Nicklin's photographs bring us so completely into the underwater world of whales that we can't help but feel awe, while winning, personal accounts of his adventures show us what it's like to be a lone diver sharing their sea. For anyone who has marveled at the majesty of whales in the wild, "Among Giants" is guaranteed to be inspiring, even moving-its unmatched images of these glorious beings an inescapable reminder of our responsibility as stewards of the ocean.


We propose a new framework for multiuser detec- tion in fast-fading channels that are encountered in many mobile communication scenarios. Existing multiuser RAKE receivers, developed to combat multipath fading and multiuser interference in slow fading, suffer substantial degradation in performance under fast fading due to errors in channel state estimation. The detectors proposed in this paper employ a novel receiver structure based on time-frequency (TF) processing that is dictated by a canonical representation of the wide-sense stationary uncorre- lated scatterer (WSSUS) channel model. The workhorse of the framework is a TF generalization of the RAKE receiver that ex- ploits joint multipath-Doppler diversity. Analytical and simulated results based on realistic fast-fading assumptions demonstrate that the proposed multiuser detectors promise substantially im- proved performance compared to existing systems due to the inherently higher level of diversity afforded by multipath-Doppler processing.


STS is a generic term that refers to a heterogeneous group of rare neoplastic diseases. The aim of this review is to discuss the role of pathology in the multidisciplinary management of STS patients. This will be done: (I) illustrating the framework for the current classification; (II) examining the characteristics that allows an expert diagnosis; (III) describing the role of the sarcoma pathologist in patient management; and (IV) discussing some of the most frequent diagnosis and their criticalities.


The geochemistry of pyroclasts sampled from four volcanoes along the Kermadec arc in the SW Pacific is used to investigate the genesis of silicic magmas in a young (<2 Myr), archetypical intra-oceanic arc setting. Raoul, Macauley and Raoul SW volcanoes in the northern Kermadec arc, and Healy volcano in the southern Kermadec arc have all recently erupted dacitic to rhyolitic crystal-poor pumice. In addition to whole-rock analyses, we present a detailed study of mineral and glass chemistries to highlight the complex structure of the Kermadec magmatic systems. Major and trace element bulk-rock compositions mostly fall into relatively narrow compositional ranges, forming discrete groups by eruption for Raoul, and varying with relative crystal contents for Healy. In contrast, pumices from Macauley cover a wide range of compositions, between 66 and 72·5 wt % SiO2. At all four volcanoes the trace element patterns of pumice are subparallel to both those of previously erupted basalts and/or whole mafic blebs found both as discrete pyroclasts and as inclusions within pumices. Pb and Sr isotopic compositions have limited ranges within single volcanoes, but vary considerably along the arc, being more radiogenic in the southern volcanoes. Distinctive crystal populations and zonation patterns in pumices, mafic blebs and plutonic xenoliths indicate that many crystals did not grow in the evolved magmas, but are instead mixed from other sources including gabbros and hydrothermally altered tonalites. Such open-system mixing is ubiquitous at the four volcanoes. Oxygen isotope compositions of both phenocrysts (silicic origin) and xenocrysts or antecrysts (mafic origin) are typical for mantle-derived melts. Whole-rock, glass and mineral chemistries are consistent with evolved magmas being generated at each volcano through ∼70–80% crystal fractionation of a basaltic parent. Our results are not consistent with silicic magma generation via crustal anatexis, as previously suggested for these Kermadec arc volcanoes. Although crystallization is the dominant process driving melt evolution in the Kermadec volcanoes, we show that the magmatic systems are open to contributions from both newly arriving melts and wholly crystalline plutonic bodies. Such processes occur in variable proportions between magma batches, and are largely reflected in small-scale chemical variations between eruption units.


Focusing on failures to detect false confessions, this article addresses the issue of police contamination, which has been explored in previous work by the authors as well as in Brandon Garrett's recent book, Convicting the Innocent: Where Criminal Prosecutions Go Wrong. The authors review some of Garrett's most important findings, considering them in light of the authors' own model of seven pathways from false confession to wrongful conviction. The authors review these pathways (the biasing effects of confession evidence; tunnel vision and confirmation biases; motivational biases; emotional influences on thinking and behavior; institutional influences on evidence production and decision-making; incorrect relevant knowledge; and progressively constricting relevant evidence), which they argue have the effect of providing incomplete and/or inaccurate contextual information for evaluating the validity of confessions and thus interfere with the rational analysis of the information that is available. The authors conclude by arguing that the judicial system must take more care in evaluating defendants' claims of contamination in false confessions.


Nested data structures are ubiquitous in the study of ecology and evolution, and such structures need to be modelled appropriately. Mixed‐effects models offer a powerful framework to do so. Nested effects can usually be fitted using the syntax for crossed effects in mixed models, provided that the coding reflects implicit nesting. But the experimental design (either nested or crossed) affects the interpretation of the results. The key difference between nested and crossed effects in mixed models is the estimation and interpretation of the interaction variance. With nested data structures, the interaction variance is pooled with the main effect variance of the nested factor. Crossed designs are required to separate the two components. This difference between nested and crossed data is determined by the experimental design (thus by the nature of data sets) and not by the coding of the statistical model. Data can be nested by design in the sense that it would have been technically feasible and biologically relevant to collect the data in a crossed design. In such cases, the pooling of the variances needs to be clearly acknowledged. In other situations, it might be impractical or even irrelevant to apply a crossed design. We call such situations naturally nested, a case in which the pooling of the interaction variance will be less of an issue. The interpretation of results should reflect the fact that the interaction variance inflates the main effect variance when dealing with nested data structures. Whether or not this distinction is critical depends on the research question and the system under study. We present mixed models as a particularly useful tool for analysing nested designs, and we highlight the value of the estimated random variance as a quantity of biological interest. Important insights can be gained if random‐effect variances are appropriately interpreted. We hope that our paper facilitates the transition from classical anovas to mixed models in dealing with categorical data.


Unlike the right to food and housing, the right to water was not expressly acknowledged in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights ('UDHR') or the subsequent International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights ('ICESCR'). This omission generated debate about whether a human right to water exists at international law.Because a right to water was not expressly mentioned in ICESCR, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights ('ESC Committee'), in 2003, published General Comment 15 which recognised the existence of a right to water as part of the right to an adequate standard of living (Article 11), and the right to the highest attainable standard of health (Article 12). However, this General Comment generated significant criticism, with some scholars arguing that the ESC Committee, in inferring the right to water, had exceeded its authority, was acting on its own revisionist views, and had done so without sound legal basis.However, the debate about the existence of a human right to water is now at an end. In a landmark resolution, the UN General Assembly, unanimously adopted the Declaration on the Human Right to Water and Sanitation on 26 July 2010. That this resolution was passed without any votes against it, strongly suggests that the existence of a right to water is now recognised as being part of the body of international human rights law albeit in the form of a non-binding declaration.This article briefly examines the history of the right to water before undertaking a detailed analysis of this new UN Declaration, and the circumstances in which it was proclaimed. The authors conclude that the tide has turned for the human right to water: it is now recognised as part of international human rights law. However, the challenge of defining the precise content of the right remains.


Provision of efficient services to the user anywhere at anytime is being a centre of research and development in Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPAN) and Wireless Body Area Networks (WBAN). Antenna is the essential part of WPAN/WBAN applications that got affected by two major factors: human body presence and nature of the surrounding environment. The presence of the human body in the proximity of the antenna causes electromagnetic (EM) reflections from the body surface and absorptions in the lossy body tissues resulting in antenna detuning, radiation pattern degradations and impedance mismatch. On the other hand, incident radio waves undergo reflections, diffractions and scattering from the surrounding environment objects including buildings, trees, vehicles and ground, causing multipath fading. The thesis gives an overview of the main investigations, results and analyses accomplished in a study concerning the commercially available Bluetooth and GPS antennas working in the vicinity of the human body. Detailed numerical modelling process is adopted followed by measurements for validation. The thesis highlights the role of surface waves as a potential transmission medium in an on-body Bluetooth wireless communication link taking into account the effects of antenna-body separations and presence of the surrounding objects blocking the direct communication path. The thesis also presents a novel statistical model to evaluate the performance of GPS mobile terminal antennas in the multipath environment. This model characterises the antenna performance and identifies the key factors that can be used to enhance it, in a real working environment outside an anechoic chamber. The study also deals with presence of the human body in the multipath environment and its effects on the operation of the GPS antennas.


New piezoresistive silicon cantilevers designed specifically for torque magnetometry on microscopic samples have been microfabricated and tested. These levers have been optimized to detect the torque in two directions corresponding to flexion and torsion. Torque resolution of ∼10−14 N m can be achieved depending on the operating mode. In one version an integrated loop allows an absolute calibration of the device with an accuracy of ∼1%. This loop can also be used to excite the lever mechanically. One application is the determination of the mass of nanogram samples by measuring the resonance frequency shift (nanobalance).


This study was conducted to characterize some inland depression soils in Southeastern Nigeria and recommend management option for sustainable crop production. Eight profile pits were sited at Ekpene Ukpa (Ek1), Nung Obong (NO3 and NO4), Ikot Obong (KS2), Ibiaku Ikot Obong (TU16), Ikot Eto (ND15), Awa Ntong (AU17) and Ikot Okobo (AU18) depressions. Results showed that soil texture ranged from sand through sandy loam to sandy clay loam. Soil reaction varied from very strongly to moderately acid (3.0 - 6.0) with pH value averaged 5.0 ± 0.4. Organic matter content was high in the surface soils (23.22 - 51.43gkg -1 ) while total N level was low (0.1 – 1.3gkg -1 ). Available P (4.26 253mgkg -1 ) ranged from low to very high. Cation exchange capacity (CEC) was low while percentage base saturation ranged from moderate to high (33 - 83%). The main constraints to sustainable crop production in these soils are low chemical fertility (moderate to high exchange acidity, low CEC, total N level, high percent Al saturation, 20 - 98%) and rapid weed growth. Slash and mulch system along with crop residues return and application of green leaf manures to the soil could affect several restorative processes in addition to suppressing weed growth. Mineral fertilizers, if available could have the desired effect on the soil by increasing biomass production for use as residue mulch and yield of crops.


In the thesis I give a multi-sided account of the impact of tourism-oriented migration on the resident community of Kalkan, a small coastal town in south-western Turkey. In 2001 Kalkan attracted migrants, from all over Turkey, to run or work in its seasonal tourism-oriented enterprises, which reproduced the town as the idyllic village (re)presented in international tour operator's marketing materials, and therefore expected by its predominantly British visitors. These in-migrants arrived as local residents out-migrated to work the summer pastures in Bezirgan. The migratory flow of the two groups meant that Kalkan's resident community changed with the season producing two shifting but inter-linked communities, a Turkish town (winter) and a tourist destination (summer). I focus on the ways in which the collective adapted existing social conventions based on obligation and respect such as the family, friendship and place of origin (memlekei) to ensure community stability. I examined how these conventions extended to include expatriates and tourists living in and visiting Kalkan. I re-evaluate the flexibility of conventions, where the majority of in-migrants lacked any connection to the collective. I illustrate the importance of shared regions, professional ties and property relations in establishing locality, where social relations, accessible from residents' life-styles and property investments, make relatives of migrants and friends of expatriates. I argue that local social conventions based on the overarching ideology of the family do adapt to cope with seasonal transition and local social change. I argue that the division of the community into sub-communities, which contain potential rivalries, while at the same time obliging them to interact, serves as an example of adaptability. The finding that individuals experienced migration in particular ways requires that anthropologists reconsider each place as multi-sited: neither socially constructed nor experiential but inherently multiple and extremely complex.


In this paper the rocking response of slender/rigid structures stepping on a viscoelastic foundation is revisited. The study examines in depth the motion of the system with a non‐linear analysis that complements the linear analysis presented in the past by other investigators. The non‐linear formulation combines the fully non‐linear equations of motion together with the impulse‐momentum equations during impacts. The study shows that the response of the rocking block depends on the size, shape and slenderness of the block, the stiffness and damping of the foundation and the energy loss during impact. The effect of the stiffness and damping of the foundation system along with the influence of the coefficient of restitution during impact is presented in rocking spectra in which the peak values of the response are compared with those of the rigid block rocking on a monolithic base. Various trends of the response are identified. For instance, less slender and smaller blocks have a tendency to separate easier, whereas the smaller the angle of slenderness, the less sensitive the response to the flexibility, damping and coefficient of restitution of the foundation. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Mapping the transcription network is integral to our understanding of the transcriptional regulation in cells. Recently, ChIP-Seq experiments have become popular to determine the regulatory relationships between transcription factors (TF) and its target genes by detecting physical binding. However, these experiments are noisy and many binding events are not actually functional. Instead of doing further laboratory experiments which are expensive and not realistic for humans, we propose to estimate a sparse Bayesian network structure of the TFs and target genes, and detect SNPs that perturb the network. These SNP perturbations provide evidence of functional bindings. To learn the sparse Bayesian network, we present A* lasso, a single stage method that recovers the optimal sparse Bayesian network structure by solving a single optimization problem with A* search algorithm that uses lasso in its scoring system. Our approach substantially improves the computational efficiency of the well-known exact methods based on dynamic programming. In addition, to make the method more practical for settings that have a large number of variables, we suggest a heuristic scheme that dramatically reduces computational time without substantially compromising the quality of solutions. We apply our method to integrate SNP, expression and ChIP-Seq data. We detect several influential SNPs in our network, and are able to provide evidence for TF binding and characterize the effect on the surrounding network.


IvaNova, N., Z. StoyaNova and P. MIShev, 2012. estimation of optimal tax level on pesticides use and its impact on agriculture. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 18: 641-650 the optimal tax level on pesticides use is estimated based on the approach suggested by Kalaitzidakis, Mamuneas, Nicholas, Stefanou, Stengos (2010) as some amendments in the proposed model are done. the period in the analysis is 2002 – 2008, and the optimal tax for each case study is estimated as an average for the period. the optimal tax level is estimated for Bulgaria, Portugal, France, Germany, Poland and hungary. the optimal tax levels on pesticides use obtained in all analysed cases are generally low, less than 50%, and are highly dependent on the assumption of the effect of pesticide use on the final consumption of agricultural good and not so much dependent on the assumption of the effect of the consumption of the agricultural good on overall utility and to the effect of environmental quality on overall utility. this practically means that consumers would value much more the effect of reduction of pesticides use on final consumption of agricultural goods than other external effects of pest use. the optimal tax level estimated is used to evaluate the impact of tax introduction on farm level in Bulgaria and Portugal. In both cases, the highest level of the effect on consumption is used. this means that in case of Bulgaria the tax level is established at 14% thus leading to an increase in price of pesticides used by 14% and in Portugal – at 31% leading to an increase in prices of pesticides by 31%. the impact at farm level is evaluated based on the model developed by Skevas, Stefanou, Lansink (2011) and some amendments are done in model due to data availability in both countries. The study shows that the effect of introduction of tax at farm level is relatively insignificant if the level of the tax is less than 50% in both countries, Bulgaria and Portugal. Impact that is more substantial could be expected in respect to the cost of pesticides in case of tax higher than 50%. The high taxes are needed to achieve significant reduction in use of pesticides. The impact of tax introduction depends on specialization of the farms. It is higher in the cases for farms with orchards and vineyard specialization than on average for all farms. having in mind that generally the use of pesticides is relatively inelastic to the price of pesticides which has been proven by the two case studies performed imposing tax less than 50% for Bulgaria and Portugal would not lead to substantial reduction of pest use and as the share of costs for pesticides in total cost on production (8 – 10% though the period 2002 – 2008 on average for agriculture) this increase in price of pest would lead to relatively low increase (less than 2% in case of Bulgaria and less than 3% in case of Portugal) in the total cost of production and that will not lead to a substantial reduction in pest use. therefore, in two case study regions the effect of the introduction of tax on pesticides use even at highest socially optimal level is doubtful.


The effects of bismuth doping content and temperature on the absorption property and near-infrared (NIR) luminescence of Bi-doped La2O3-Al2O3-SiO2 (LAS) glasses are presented. The emission intensity reaches the maximum when the Bi2O3 content in 3.0Bi-LAS is 1.83%. The emission spectra reach their peaks at 1 190 and 1 117 nm, with full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) values of 330 and 228 nm under 500 and 700-nm excitations, respectively. As the Bi2O3 content increases, the peak wavelengths and FWHMs of emission bands increase, but their lifetimes decrease. The lifetime of 2.0Bi-LAS is 460 ?s at 9 K, and is almost temperature independent until 350 K. The NIR emission of Bi in the system has strong resistance to thermal quenching from 9 to 350 K.


This study developed from technical research and development of an ablutions facility for remote Aboriginal communities by the author. The poor state of environmental health and essential services in these communities were the inspiration for the study and are described in the context of current and emerging approaches to service delivery in Western Australia. The fieldwork associated with the deployment of the ablutions facility provided the opportunity to conduct research into these approaches by technologists and has resulted in both the evaluation of the ablutions facility and formulation of Appropriate Technology approaches to service delivery using grounded theory methodology.

Contained within the ablutions facility, known as the Remote Area Hygiene Facility (RAHF), were several discrete technologies also under development by the author and associates: a plastic solar water heater, a pour-flush toilet and an evapotranspiration wastewater disposal system. The technical appropriateness of these artefacts was assessed through action research trials in Aboriginal town camps and there were both successes and failures in this dimension of technology-practice. The structural design of the RAHF changed considerably over the period to meet the requirements of the users. The trials found that the solar water heater was able to function as required in the short term, but further development was required to provide suitable plastic components for continuous operation at high temperatures and under ultraviolet irradiation. The pour-flush toilet met all of its technical objectives, but further development was required to produce a durable, low-flush cistern. The evapotranspiration trench performed entirely satisfactorily and was thereafter implemented at other sites throughout Western Australia.

The fieldwork combined with a review of Appropriate Technology, community development and aid projects in developing countries inspired a concept to address the social and cultural dimensions of technology-practice: Community-building Technology. Community-building Technology is a simultaneous process of service delivery and empowerment which introduces technology to a community by means of training programs, community participation in construction projects, or cultural activities. One RAHF project was able to validate this concept. As a result of the fieldwork becoming an exercise in service delivery the establishment of regional, Appropriate Technology, training and manufacturing centres was attempted. One centre was established, but the attempt was unsuccessful at the other two sites. Additional fieldwork was conducted by the author to determine the requirements for regional technology information services. This ongoing work with remote Aboriginal communities motivated the development of two further concepts complementary to the first: Community Technology and Regional Technology. The former required the establishment of an ensemble of integrated technologies within a community and could not be validated within the scope of the study. However, some legitimacy could be shown for the latter through a review of approaches in central Australia, the aspirations of some regional organisations in WA, and the successful establishment of the Remote Area Technology Centre as a regional Appropriate Technology agency. Finally, the strength of these three concepts was found to be as components of an integrated framework for sustainable service delivery, management, and maintenance in remote Aboriginal communities which combined the resources of a number of communities in a region. This improved mode of technology-practice, the integrated framework, is termed Regional Technology.


Our research group at Indiana University is investigating a formalization of digital system design that is based on functional algebra. We have developed a transformation system called DDD to facilitate this study. DDD stands for digital design derivation; the system is used interactively to translate higher level speci cations into hierarchical boolean systems, to which logic synthesis tools are then applied. In this paper, we take a detailed look at how the system is used. In two examples, we examine the sequence of intermediate expressions produced as an implementation is derived. We discuss how these expressions are used at strategic levels of thinking. We illustrate how the choice of target technology in uences the tactical course of derivation. Throughout, we try to give a sense of how functional abstractions are manipulated in the engineering process.


The total length of federal highways in Russia is 50,749.2 km, which is only 5% of all the roads of the country, but they form the basic road network of Russia's two-thirds road freight turnover. Nearly 80% of these roads are overloaded, which leads to intensive destruction of the roads, and, hence, the apparent increase of vehicle fuel consumption and energy demand related to roadway maintenance works, traffic safety and users' comfort. The work purpose is a scientific substantiation of actions needed to improve energy efficiency of Russian road facilities up to the level of advanced countries of the world. The authors have developed the methodology to allow the quantitative determination of increasing energy efficiency for the public road system in the following basic directions: substantiation of design choices based on a minimization of energy costs during the whole life cycle of a road; normalization of energy consumption of the manufacturers producing road-building materials; use of the best accessible energy-saving technologies and replacement of power inputs from nonrenewable resources by renewable, which are related to traffic safety, users' comfort; development of recycling technologies for energycontaining waste, for example, mill culls and brush wood; adaptation of "green standards" of the real estate objects (LEED, BREEM) for linear road constructions, primarily, the object of road service. The results of statistical, settlement and experimental research which are useful both for scientific purposes and also represent a practical interest for the investors involved in the realization of mechanisms of public-private partnership in design, construction and maintenance of roads are represented in this paper.