BACKGROUND: To assist clinicians and researchers in choosing outcome measures for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease attending routine outpatient clinics, a comparative assessment was undertaken of four questionnaires designed to reflect the patients' perception of their physical and emotional health in terms of their feasibility, validity, reliability, and responsiveness to health change. METHODS: Two condition specific questionnaires, the St George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) and Guyatt's Chronic Respiratory Questionnaire (CRQ), and two generic questionnaires, the Short Form-36 Health Survey (SF-36) and Euroqol (EQ), were compared for their discriminative and evaluative properties. Spirometric tests and a walking test were also performed. One hundred and fifty six adults who were clinically judged to have COPD and who attended an outpatient chest clinic were assessed at recruitment and six and 12 months later. Patients were also asked whether their health had changed since their last assessment. RESULTS: Completion rates and consistency between items for dimensions of the SGRQ were lower than for dimensions of the other questionnaires. The distributions of responses were skewed for certain dimensions in all questionnaires except the CRQ. Validity was supported for all instruments insofar as patients' scores were associated with differences in disease severity. The generic questionnaires better reflected other health problems. All instruments were reliable over time. The condition specific questionnaires were more responsive between baseline and first follow up visit but this difference did not persist. While certain dimensions of the SF-36 were responsive to patient perceived changes, this did not apply to the derived single index of the EQ. The rating scale of the EQ, however, provided a quick and easy indicator of change. CONCLUSIONS: Evidence from this study supports the CRQ and the SF-36 as comprehensive outcome measures for patients with longstanding COPD.


Background: Triangular fibrocartilage complex (TFCC) tears have been treated with increasing frequency in pediatric and adolescent patients over the past decade. There is little information on these injuries in young athletes and a scarcity of data regarding their ability to return to preinjury levels of athletic participation. The purpose of this study was to review the outcomes of pediatric and adolescent athletes with operatively treated TFCC tears with or without a concurrent ulnar shortening osteotomy and to determine their ability to return to their preoperative level of activity. Methods: A retrospective chart review was performed for all patients who underwent operative treatment of TFCC tears between 2006 and 2012 within one Upper Extremity practice. Patients were included if they were high-level athletes, unable to participate in their sport secondary to wrist pain and desired to return to their sport. All operative patients had imaging studies and clinical findings consistent with TFCC injury as the primary source of their activity-limiting pain and had failed nonoperative management prior to surgery. Patients without at least 3 months of documented postoperative follow up were excluded. Results: In total, 22 patients were included in the chart review with 20 patients willing to participate in a telephone survey and PODCI. Eighty percent of patients returned to their sport following operative treatment of their injury at an average of 4.8 months. Seven of the 22 patients underwent a concurrent ulnar shortening osteotomy for ulnar positive variance. All 20 patients reported satisfaction with the outcomes of their surgery and treatment. Conclusions: Operative treatment of TFCC injuries in adolescent and pediatric athletes after failure of conservative treatment allowed return to sport at the previous level of participation. Concurrent ulnar shortening osteotomy in the setting of ulnar positive variance did not prohibit return to high-level athletic participation. Level of Evidence: Level IV.


OF THE DISSERTATION Adaptive OFDM Radar for Target Detection and Tracking by Satyabrata Sen Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical Engineering Washington University in St. Louis, December 2010 Research Advisor: Dr. Arye Nehorai We develop algorithms to detect and track targets by employing a wideband orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) radar signal. The frequency diversity of the OFDM signal improves the sensing performance since the scattering centers of a target resonate variably at different frequencies. In addition, being a wideband signal, OFDM improves the range resolution and provides spectral efficiency. We first design the spectrum of the OFDM signal to improve the radar's wideband ambiguity function. Our designed waveform enhances the range resolution and motivates us to use adaptive OFDM waveform in specific problems, such as the detection and tracking of targets. We develop methods for detecting a moving target in the presence of multipath, which exist, for example, in urban environments. We exploit the multipath reflections by utilizing different Doppler shifts. We analytically evaluate the asymptotic performance of the detector and adaptively design the OFDM waveform, by maximizing the noncentrality-parameter expression, to further improve the detection performance. ii Next, we transform the detection problem into the task of a sparse-signal estimation by making use of the sparsity of multiple paths. We propose an efficient sparse-recovery algorithm by employing a collection of multiple small Dantzig selectors, and analytically compute the reconstruction performance in terms of the `1-constrained minimal singular value. We solve a constrained multi-objective optimization algorithm to design the OFDM waveform and infer that the resultant signal-energy distribution is in proportion to the distribution of the target energy across different subcarriers. Then, we develop tracking methods for both a single and multiple targets. We propose a tracking method for a low-grazing angle target by realistically modeling different physical and statistical effects, such as the meteorological conditions in the troposphere, curved surface of the earth, and roughness of the sea-surface. To further enhance the tracking performance, we integrate a maximum mutual information based waveform design technique into the tracker. To track multiple targets, we exploit the inherent sparsity on the delay-Doppler plane to develop an computationally efficient procedure. For computational efficiency, we use more prior information to dynamically partition a small portion of the delay-Doppler plane. We utilize the block-sparsity property to propose a block version of the CoSaMP algorithm in the tracking filter.


IPv4 addresses are still running out. Global IPv4 address pool administered by IANA organization is depleted together with IPv4 pool of APNIC Routing Registry. This situation pushes organizations to think about IPv6 transition. Unfortunately IPv4 and IPv6 are incompatible protocols which raise new security issues and problems with user monitoring and accounting. The article shares experiences of deploying IPv6 on the university campus network and describes the most significant troubles that we have been faced with. It describes and compares differences in first hop security in IPv6 and IPv4 networks. Issues connected with user addressing, accounting and monitoring are also discussed. The experience is mainly based on the deployment of IPv6 on the campus network at Brno University of Technology which is one of the biggest universities in the Czech Republic.


Query expansion is an information retrieval technique in which new query terms are selected to improve search performance. Although useful terms can be extracted from documents whose relevance is already known, it is difficult to get enough of such feedback from a user in actual use. We propose a query expansion method that performs well even if a user makes practically minimum effort, that is, chooses only a single relevant document. To improve searches in these conditions, we made two refinements to a well-known query expansion method. One uses transductive learning to obtain pseudorelevant documents, thereby increasing the total number of source documents from which expansion terms can be extracted. The other is a modified parameter estimation method that aggregates the predictions of multiple learning trials to sort candidate terms for expansion by importance. Experimental results show that our method outperforms traditional methods and is comparable to a state-of-the-art method.


We consider a layered approach to source coding with side information received over an uncertain channel that minimizes expected distortion. Specifically, we assume a Gaussian source encoder whereby the decoder receives a compressed version of the symbol at a given rate, as well as an uncompressed version over a separate side-information channel with slow fading and noise. The decoder knows the realization of the slow fading but the encoder knows only its distribution. We consider a layered encoding strategy with a base layer describing the source assuming worst-case fading on the side-information channel, and subsequent layers describing the source under better fading conditions. Optimization of the layering scheme utilizes the Heegard-Berger rate-distortion function that describes the rate required to meet a different distortion constraint for each fading state. When the side-information channel has two discrete fading states, we obtain closed-form expressions for the optimal rate allocation between the fading states and the resulting minimum expected distortion. For multiple fading states, the minimum expected distortion is formulated as the solution of a convex optimization problem. Under discretized Rayleigh fading, we show that the optimal rate allocation puts almost all rate into the base layer associated with the worst-case fading. This implies that uncertain side information yields little performance benefit over no side information. Moreover, as the source coding rate


Tourism is widely perceived as an easy access, low-impact means to achieving economic growth and development. In South Africa, community-based tourism has been promoted as a way of delivering resources and services to historically marginalised areas, and as a means by which rural communities can begin to exercise more control over the decisions and resources that directly affect the quality of their lives. A history of deliberate underdevelopment during apartheid, has left the Wild Coast region with high unemployment, widespread socio-economic poverty, limited infrastructure; and a pristine coastline of 'untapped' tourism potential. Given its incompatibility to other forms of development, tourism has been identified by government as a key sector for driving economic development and poverty alleviation along the Wild Coast. This study reviews four tourism enterprises in operation along the Pondoland Wild Coast in terms of their 'pro-poor' credentials (net benefits to local communities), socio-economic impact, participation and ownership by local communities, institutional establishment, and environmental sustainability. The selected operations exemplify different models of community and private sector involvement in tourism development on communal land. A wide range of investigative methodologies from primary and secondary data analysis, interviews, structured questionnaires, surveys, and quantitative assessment criteria, were employed in this study. The key findings and recommendations from the case studies are then considered in light of the developmental opportunities and constraints pertaining to the region. This study revealed that the Pondoland Wild Coast is faced with numerous socio-economic and environmental challenges. The principal limitations to sustainable tourism development include lack of basic infrastructure and services, prevailing tenure insecurity, unclear legislation and overlapping jurisdictional mandates, direct environmental threats such as a proposed toll road and mining, haphazard/illegal developments, and a poorly defined spatial planning framework. Whilst all four tourism enterprises appeared to be underpinned by sustainable development principles, they differed widely in the nature and size of benefits they provided, and thendegree of institutional, economic and environmental sustainability. The findings and conclusions drawn from this study are intended to contribute towards the theory, practice and sustainability of 'pro-poor,' 'community-based', and 'responsible' tourism development, and assist future tourism development planning in the region.


Despite the increasing use of cashless payment instruments, the notion that cash loses importance over time can be unambiguously refuted. In contrast, we show that cash demand increased steeply over the past 30 years. This is not only true on a global scale, but also for the most important currencies in advanced countries (USD, EUR, CHF, GBP and JPY). In this paper, we focus especially on the role of different crises (technological crises, financial market crises, natural disasters) and analyse the demand for small and large banknote denominations since the 1990s in an international perspective. It is evident that cash demand always increases in times of crises, independent of the nature of the crisis itself. However, largely unaffected from crises we observe a trend increase in global cash aligned with a shift from transaction balances towards more hoarding, especially in the form of large denomination banknotes. JEL: E41, E51, E58


With the recent progress in personal care robots, interest in wearable exoskeletons has been increasing due to the demand for assistive technologies generally and specifically to meet the concerns in the increasing ageing society. Despite this global trend, research focus has been on load augmentation for soldiers/workers, assisting trauma patients, paraplegics, spinal cord injured persons and for rehabilitation purposes. Barring the military-focused activities, most of the work to date has focused on medical applications. However, there is a need to shift attention towards the growing needs of elderly people, that is, by realizing assistive exoskeletons that can help them to stay independent and maintain a good quality of life. Therefore, the present article covers the rapidly evolving area of wearable exoskeletons in a holistic manner, for both medical and non-medical applications, so that relevant current developments and future issues can be addressed; this includes how the physical assistance/rehabilitation/compensation can be provided to supplement capabilities in a natural manner. Regulatory guidelines, important for realizing new markets for these emerging technologies, are also explored in this work. For these, emerging international safety requirements are presented for non-medical and medical exoskeleton applications, so that the central requirement of close human–robot interactions can be adequately addressed for the intended tasks to be carried out. An example case study on developing and commercializing wearable exoskeletons to help support living activities of healthy elderly persons is presented to highlight the main issues in non-medical mobility exoskeletons. This also paves the way for the potential future trends to use exoskeletons as physical assistant robots, as covered by the recently published safety standard ISO 13482, to help elderly people perform their activities of daily living.


This book examines contemporary changes in labor market institutions in the United States, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and the Netherlands, focusing on developments in industrial relations, vocational education and training, and labor market policy. It finds that there are in fact distinct varieties of liberalization associated with very different distributive outcomes. Most scholarship equates liberal capitalism with inequality and coordinated capitalism with higher levels of social solidarity. However, this study explains why the institutions of coordinated capitalism and egalitarian capitalism coincided and complemented one another in the 'Golden Era' of postwar development in the 1950s and 1960s, and why they no longer do so. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, this study reveals that the successful defense of the institutions traditionally associated with coordinated capitalism has often been a recipe for increased inequality due to declining coverage and dualization. Conversely, it argues that some forms of labor market liberalization are perfectly compatible with continued high levels of social solidarity and indeed may be necessary to sustain it.


Understanding the mechanisms that transport pollutants from the surface to the free atmosphere is important for determining the atmosphere's chemical composition. This study quantifies the vertical transport of tropospheric carbon monoxide (CO) by deep mesoscale convective systems and assesses the ability of the satellite-borne Tropo-spheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) to detect the resulting enhanced CO in the upper atmosphere. A squall line that is similar to one occurring during NASA's INTEX-B mission is simulated using a typical environmental wind shear profile and the 2-D Goddard Cumulus Ensemble model. The simulation provides post-convection CO profiles. The structure of the simulated squall line is examined, and its vertical transport of CO is quantified. Then, TES' ability to resolve the convectively modified CO distribution is documented using a " clear-sky " retrieval scheme. Results show that the simulated squall line transports the greatest mass of CO in the upper levels, with a value of 96 t upward and 67 t downward at 300 hPa. Results indicate that TES has sufficient sensitivity to resolve convectively lofted CO, as long as the retrieval scene is cloud-free. TES swaths located immediately down-wind of squall lines have the greatest chance of sensing con-vective transport because the impact of clouds on retrieval quality becomes less. A note of caution is to always analyze TES-derived CO data (or data from any satellite sensor) together with the retrieval averaging kernels that describe the information content of the retrieval.


Different DNA-damaging stimuli can lead to different p53 dynamics that can be explained by features of the underlying networks. The tumor suppressor p53, which is activated by different forms of stress, mediates various cellular outcomes, including cell-cycle arrest, cell senescence, and cell death. Noting that DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) caused by γ-irradiation or the drug neocarzinostatin (NCS) elicit a series of p53 "pulses" whose amplitude, duration, and frequency are independent of the amount of DNA damage, Batchelor et al. investigated the p53 response to ultraviolet (UV) irradiation, which leads to exposure of single-stranded DNA. Using a p53-Venus fusion protein to monitor p53 dynamics in individual cells, the authors determined that, unlike NCS, UV elicited a single pulse of p53 that increased in amplitude and duration with increasing UV dosage. The DNA damage response to DSBs is mediated through the kinase ATM, whereas that to UV is mediated through ATR. Both responses involve transmission of the damage signal to p53 and the consequent activation of negative feedback onto p53 through two loops (one involving the E3 ubiquitin ligase Mdm2, which targets p53 for proteasomal degradation, and one involving the phosphatase Wip1, which dephosphorylates p53, decreasing its stability). Noting that ATR activity doesn't require its phosphorylation, the authors modified a model developed for the response to DSBs, which involved negative feedback from Wip1 to ATM. As modified for ATR (without feedback from Wip1 to ATR), the model predicted a single pulse of p53 with a duration that depended on UV dosage, a prediction that was consistent with Western analysis of ATR activity (based on substrate phosphorylation). Unlike the response to DSB, the p53 response to UV was not excitable, so that a transient input failed to elicit the full response. Noting that excitable behavior can result from rapid loss of an inhibitor, the authors determined that Mdm2 abundance decreased rapidly after γ-irradiation but not UV. Moreover, an Mdm2 mutant that could not be phosphorylated by ATM was not rapidly degraded in response to γ-irradiation, and expression of this mutant decreased the fraction of cells showing an excitable p53 pulse. Thus, different stimuli can lead to different p53 dynamics; these different dynamics can be explained by features of the underlying networks and, as the authors postulate, may contribute to the different cellular outcomes mediated by p53. E. Batchelor, A. Loewer, C. Mock, G. Lahav, Stimulus-dependent dynamics of p53 in single cells. Mol. Syst. Biol. 7, 488 (2011). [PubMed]


A 2.2-Watt continuous wave, continuous tunable, single frequency OPO has been developed in the 3.0-3.8 µm wavelength range to detect molecular trace gasses. The usefulness of the system was demonstrated by determining a detection limit for ethane down to 10 part per trillion for applications within Life Science.


This book takes up the challenge of developing an empirically based foundation for evolutionary economics built upon complex system theory. The authors argue that modern evolutionary economics is at a crossroads. At a theoretical level, modern evolutionary economics is moving away from the traditional focus of the operation of selection mechanisms and towards concepts of 'complex adaptive systems' and self-organisation. On an applied level, new and innovative methods of empirical research are being developed and considered. The contributors take up this challenge and examine aspects of complexity and evolution in applied contexts.


Over the past decades, we have observed the development of a number of Internet-scale distributed systems such as the Domain Name System (DNS) and Content Distribution Networks (CDNs), which support the Internet access of millions of users. Though they have become indispensable infrastructure in the Internet, their operating dynamics have not been well studied so far. This dissertation focuses on the reliability and scalability of such large-scale distributed systems and explores the design principles for highly available and scalable systems.
One key principle for highly reliable services is distributed management of available resources based on autonomous monitoring. We implement CoDeeN, a latency-sensitive public CDN service with purely decentralized control, and demonstrate that its service reliability is greatly improved using careful resource monitoring, even in a highly unreliable environment. CoDeeN has been operating over three years, handling 5.8+ billion successful HTTP requests and serving over 14 million users, and has been one of the most stable long-running services on PlanetLab.
The second principle is that intelligent composition of temporarily unreliable resources can provide better reliability than any of the underlying resources. Using this principle, we build CoDNS, which has failure rates that range from one-tenth to one-hundredth of that of the existing DNS services. By aggregating the unreliable services, CoDNS improves availability by an extra '9', from 99% to over 99.9%, and in some cases achieves over 99.99% or less than 8 seconds of downtime per day. The utility of this service has also been proved in practice by providing more predictable and reliable name lookup service to the CoDeeN CDN service.
Finally, we find that the scalability of a large-scale distributed system can be immensely improved by independent and asynchronous node peering strategy and effective request distribution. CoBlitz, a scalable large-file transfer CDN atop CoDeeN and CoDNS, achieves downloading performance 27-48% higher than BitTorrent, while reducing the origin load by a factor of 7 more than the previously best known research system.


ABSTRACT The Huayquerías Formation (Late Miocene, Huayquerian SALMA) is broadly exposed in west-central Argentina (Mendoza). The target of several major paleontological expeditions in the first half of the 20th century, the Mendozan Huayquerías ("badlands") have recently yielded a significant number of new fossil finds. In this contribution we describe a complete skull (IANIGLA-PV 29) and place it systematically as Huayqueriana cf. H. cristata (Rovereto, 1914) (Litopterna, Macraucheniidae). The specimen shares some nonexclusive features with H. cristata (similar size, rostral border of the orbit almost level with distal border of M3, convergence of maxillary bones at the level of the P3/P4 embrasure, flat snout, very protruding orbits, round outline of premaxillary area in palatal view, and small diastemata between I3/C and C/P1). Other differences (e.g., lack of sagittal crest) may or may not represent intraspecific variation. In addition to other features described here, endocast reconstruction utilizing computer tomography (CT) revealed the presence of a derived position of the orbitotemporal canal running below the rhinal fissure along the lateroventral aspect of the piriform lobe. CT scanning also established that the maxillary nerve (CN V2) leaves the skull through the sphenoorbital fissure, as in all other litopterns, a point previously contested for macraucheniids. The angle between the lateral semicircular canal and the plane of the base of the skull is about 26°, indicating that in life the head was oriented much as in modern horses. Depending on the variables used, estimates of the body mass of IANIGLA-PV 29 produced somewhat conflicting results. Our preferred body mass estimate is 250 kg, based on the centroid size of 36 3D cranial landmarks and accompanying low prediction error. The advanced degree of tooth wear in IANIGLA-PV 29 implies that the individual died well into old age. However, a count of cementum lines on the sectioned left M2 is consistent with an age at death of 10 or 11 years, younger than expected given its body mass. This suggests that the animal had a very abrasive diet. Phylogenetic analysis failed to resolve the position of IANIGLA-PV 29 satisfactorily, a result possibly influenced by intraspecific variation. There is no decisive evidence for the proposition that Huayqueriana, or any other litoptern, were foregut fermenters.


Abstract. This study is about clearcutting sizes, their spatial distribution, and how this affects the structure of the whole landscape when they are assessed over time. We introduced the concept of "extended clearcutting patches" (ECPs), which are formed aggregating adjacent patches harvested in consecutive years. The main purpose of the study was to evaluate the spatiotemporal pattern of clearcutting and ECPs at landscape level. The chosen landscape was the coastal commune of Constitucion, Maule Region, in Chile, dominated by Pinus radiata D. Don plantations with a high land cover dynamic due harvesting activities. We used Landsat 5, 7 and 8 images (Surface Reflectance Tier 1) to produce yearly land cover maps from 1999 to 2016 and the approach proposed by Zhao et al. (2016) to classify them. We used 32,516 control points in the classification step obtaining a mean global accuracy of 0.94. The spatial distribution of the harvested patches is aggregated in single o accumulate years showing the long-term spatiotemporal pattern if this forestry practice. In average, ECPs have double the size than yearly harvested parches but they can be much bigger in same cases. This intensive forestry practices creates some spatiotemporal harvested complex, or extended clearcutting patches, that can have a bigger impact in functional aspects of the landscape and the wildlife present in this type of landscapes.


The debate over the possible interactions between language and thought has been an enduring and controversial one till this day. From a relativistic standpoint, language modulate our perception and understanding of the world; contrarily, universalists advance that language effects have little to no bearing on our cognitive machinery which is deemed to be universal. While previous research has delved into a multitude of lexicogrammatical domains (e.g., grammatical gender), cross-linguistic variations in the differentiation of relative distances between objects remains as one area that has received scant empirical attention. In English, prepositions like above/on and beneath/below are often used to denote distal and proximal relationships (e.g., "the clouds are above the fields" versus "the ball is on the floor"). Conversely, such spatial discriminations are not obligatorily encoded in Mandarin where shang (上) encompasses both above and on, and xia (下) signifies beneath and below. In light of this, we investigated the prospect of such cross-linguistic inconsistencies contributing to cognitive dissimilarities amongst English-Mandarin bilinguals. Participants were assigned to either the English or Mandarin experiment which contained 96 trials each. In every trial for the English experiment, a sentence describing the spatial relationship between two objects using prepositional primes was first presented (see Table 1). Following which, a spatial decision task was attempted where participants were required to click on either a superior or inferior region relative to a blue object in the middle of the computer screen (see Figure 1). The Mandarin experiment was methodologically similar and comprised matched Mandarin sentences. The results revealed that the English primes affected responses on the spatial decision task: Primes conveying proximal (on, beneath) and distal (above, below) relationships induced participants to click on positions closer and further away from the blue object respectively. Contrastingly, such distinctions in spatial decisions were not mirrored for the Mandarin primes (shang, xia). The findings bear several notable implications. First, we argue that the asymmetric results across the English and Mandarin experiments represent an interaction between spatial language and cognition. In considering the results from previous studies (Munnich, Landau, & Dosher, 2001; Suarez, Koh, & Zhang, 2013) with our current findings, we posit that the spatial language-thought relationship is likely to be a dynamic one, where the influence of language on cognition is selective rather than exhaustive. Second, we demonstrated the priming effects of language nonlinguistically. Thus far, only two other studies have explored how prior linguistic exposure can induce conceptual thinking that perseverates even in contexts devoid of language (Boroditsky, Ham, & Ramscar, 2002; Holmes & Wolff, 2010). Third, while the vast majority of the literature illustrates bilinguals' performance resembling those of L1 or L2 monolinguals or falling somewhere in-between, our findings suggest that bilinguals may adopt and rely on distinct L1 and L2 modes of thinking.


Cancer therapeutic regimens are gradually changing from using relatively unspecific cytotoxic agents to selective, pathway-centered approaches. The mechanistic rationale of targeted approaches is to destruct the tumor by blocking aberrant cell signaling, crucial for tumor maintenance and growth, but dispensable for healthy tissues. However, despite impressive initial responses in some patients, resistance to single-agent targeted therapies emerges almost invariably. Abrupt inhibition of an oncogenic signal sustaining tumor survival can cause initial drug responsiveness, but elaborate regulatory mechanisms safeguarding cellular homeostasis are often activated, resulting in drug resistance. Using RNA interference-based functional genetic screen, we investigated resistance mechanisms of cancer to targeted agents against RTK signaling pathways. These mechanistic insights led to the discovery of combinatorial strategies that are particularly powerful in overcoming drug resistance.

We solved a clinical enigma: why is BRAF mutant colorectal cancer (CRC) intrinsically resistant to BRAF inhibitors while melanomas carrying the same mutation are highly responsive? Inhibition of BRAF in colon cancer causes a rapid feedback activation of EGFR. Concomitant targeting EGFR and BRAF synergistically induces apoptosis and suppresses tumor growth in BRAF mutant CRC. The differential responses of CRC and melanoma to BRAF inhibitors can be attributed to the fact that EGFR is highly expressed in many CRC, but rarely in melanoma. However, we found melanoma can upregulate EGFR expression during the development of drug resistance. Mechanistically, we show that SOX10 loss triggers TGF β signaling, which in turn induces EGFR and PDGFRB expression. Surprisingly, upregulation of RTKs in BRAF mutant melanoma induces a state of oncogene-induced senescence in the absence of BRAF or MEK inhibitor treatment, while it confers a growth advantage in the presence of the drug. This notion potentially explains why some BRAF or MEK inhibitor-resistant melanoma patients may regain sensitivity to these drugs after a 'drug holiday'. Increased RTK expression in drug-resistant tumors can be a biomarker to identify patients that may benefit from retreatment after a drug holiday.

Moreover, a different feedback loop is identified in KRAS mutant cancer when the same pathway is targeted as that in BRAF mutant colon cancer. We find intrinsic resistance of KRAS mutant lung and colon cancer to MEK inhibitors results from a MYC-dependent transcriptional upregulation of ERBB3. Drugs targeting both EGFR and ERBB2, each capable of forming heterodimers with ERBB3, can reverse unresponsiveness to MEK inhibition by decreasing inhibitory phosphorylation of the pro-apoptotic proteins BAD and BIM. Moreover, ERBB3 protein level is a biomarker of response to the combinatorial treatment. Besides, we found that RAF1 suppression is also synthetic lethal with MEK inhibitors in KRAS mutant cancer. MEK inhibition induces RAS-dependent BRAF-RAF1 dimerization, which sustains MEK-ERK signaling. Prolonged dual blockade of RAF and MEK leads to persistent ERK suppression and efficiently induces apoptosis.

Besides we also discovered a mechanism by which SWI/SNF complex modulates drug responses in NSCLCs with MET amplification or ALK translocation.

These studies to date have given rise to five clinical studies with combinations of cancer drugs. Some of these studies have already shown promising results.


The simplest type of a Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) facility would be an adiabatic process consisting only of a compressor, a storage and a turbine, compressing air into a container when storing and expanding when producing. This type of CAES would be adiabatic and would if the machines were reversible have a storage efficiency of 100%. However, due to the specific capacity of the storage and the construction materials the air is cooled during and after compression in practice, making the CAES process diabatic. The cooling involves exergy losses and thus lowers the efficiency of the storage significantly. The efficiency of CAES as an electricity storage may be defined in several ways, we discuss these and find that the exergetic efficiency of compression, storage and production together determine the efficiency of CAES. In the paper we find that the efficiency of the practical CAES electricity storage is 25-45% and thus has a quite low efficiency, which is close to the efficiency of the simple diabatic CAES-process. Adiabatic CAES would reach significantly higher storage efficiency about 70-80%.


SUMMARY For the purpose of developing a national system for outbreak surveillance, local outbreak signals were compared in three sources of syndromic data – telephone triage of acute gastroenteritis, web queries about symptoms of gastrointestinal illness, and over-the-counter (OTC) pharmacy sales of antidiarrhoeal medication. The data sources were compared against nine known waterborne and foodborne outbreaks in Sweden in 2007–2011. Outbreak signals were identified for the four largest outbreaks in the telephone triage data and the two largest outbreaks in the data on OTC sales of antidiarrhoeal medication. No signals could be identified in the data on web queries. The signal magnitude for the fourth largest outbreak indicated a tenfold larger outbreak than officially reported, supporting the use of telephone triage data for situational awareness. For the two largest outbreaks, telephone triage data on adult diarrhoea provided outbreak signals at an early stage, weeks and months in advance, respectively, potentially serving the purpose of early event detection. In conclusion, telephone triage data provided the most promising source for surveillance of point-source outbreaks.


Previous digital divide research has studied the Internet for empowerment of marginalized people such as ethnic and sexual minorities. This study focused on the digital divide among another minority group: persons with mental illness in the community. A nonprobability cross-sectional sampling survey was conducted in Poland. Cluster analysis was conducted to segment persons with mental illness into homogeneous clusters based on their Internet usage activities and motivations. Three clusters were identified: leisure-seeking omnivores (44.4%), gamers (18.8%), and passive selective users (36.9%). Leisure-seeking omnivores scored higher on satisfaction with and perception of opportunities to receive social resources (e.g., family activities, employment, community participation, and health services) than passive selective users. Gamers had better physical and mental health than leisure-seeking omnivores and passive selective users. Younger age and better physical health were the predictors for being leisure-seeking omnivores and gamers, respectively. Future predictions of the changes of clusters and future research directions are discussed.


Since the 1950's radioactive wastes from a number of laboratories have been stored below ground at the Hanford site, Washington State, USA, in vertical pipe units (VPUs) made of five 200 litre drums without tops or bottoms, and in caissons, made out of corrugated pipe, or concrete and typically 2,500mm in diameter. The VPU's are buried of the order of 2,100mm below grade, and the caissons are buried of the order of 6,000mm below grade.The waste contains fuel pieces, fission products, and a range of chemicals used in the laboratory processes. This can include various energetic reactants such as un-reacted sodium potassium (NaK), potassium superoxide (KO2), and picric acid, as well as quantities of other liquids. The integrity of the containments is considered to present unacceptable risks from leakage of radioactivity to the environment.This paper describes the successful development and full scale testing of in-ground augering equipment, grouting systems and removal equipment for remediation and removal of the VPUs, and the initial development work to test the utilization of the same basic augering and grouting techniques for the stabilization, size reduction and removal of caissons.Copyright © 2013 by ASME


In this paper, we investigate the feasibility of identifying a small set of privacy profiles as a way of helping users manage their mobile app privacy preferences. Our analysis does not limit itself to looking at permissions people feel comfortable granting to an app. Instead it relies on static code analysis to determine the purpose for which an app requests each of its permissions, distinguishing for instance between apps relying on particular permissions to deliver their core functionality and apps requesting these permissions to share information with advertising networks or social networks. Using privacy preferences that reflect people's comfort with the purpose for which different apps request their permissions, we use clustering techniques to identify privacy profiles. A major contribution of this work is to show that, while people's mobile app privacy preferences are diverse, it is possible to identify a small number of privacy profiles that collectively do a good job at capturing these diverse preferences.


One of the significant results of the multidisciplinary investigations carried out during recent years in the Lower Aptian historical stratotype of the Cassis-La Bedoule region (South-Eastern France) was a proposal to update the local Upper Barremian/Lower Aptian ammonite biozonation in order to be more consistent with the standard Mediterranean zonal subdivisions. So the lower and upper boundaries of the Lower Aptian (= Bedoulian substage of most French authors) as well as the boundaries of four biozones (Paradeshayesites tuarkyricus, P. weissi, Deshayesites deshayesi, Dufrenoyia furcata zones) and two subzones (Roloboceras hambrovi and Paradeshayesites grandis subzones) were identified and formally defined in the stratotype. However, to support this zonal scheme additional descriptions and illustrations of the ammonites collected bed by bed in the several sections studied were still required. In this paper we describe the members of the most significant ammonite family found in the Lower Aptian of Cassis-La Bedoule, i.e. the Deshayesitidae, and delimit precisely their stratigraphic positions. As regards zonation, we have replaced the index ammonite of the earliest Bedoulian Zone, i.e. Paradeshayesites tuarkyricus (Bogdanova, 1983), by Paradeshayesites oglanlensis (Bogdanova, 1983), and re-established the Pseudocrioceras waagenoides Zone as a subzone.


The present study investigated the possible effect of contact time, initial nickel concentration, and adsorbent concentration on removing Ni (II) ion, which is toxic to living organisms, from the aqueous media using nano zero valent iron (nZVI) and nano zero valent iron coated powdered activated carbon. A large portion of the nickel removal was achieved in a contact time of five minutes. A removal efficiency of barely 24% was able to be achieved only using activated carbon, while the nickel removal was achieved by approximately 80% using 200 mg/L nZVI. On the other hand, the efficiency was observed to increase up to 99% even with the particle containing the lowest nZVI in the experimental studies using the AC-nZVI nanoparticles containing AC at a rate of 25%, 50% and 75%. Adsorption capacity was increased from 125 mg/g and 820 mg/g for activated carbon and nZVI, respectively to 1190 mg/g for 50% AC-nZVI. Based on our study results, the effect of nZVI is promoted when nZVI is synthesized together with activated carbon. The Freundlich model was also found the best to represent the isotherm modeling made for nZVI.


A child was brought to the Vivekenanda Mission Hospital with a history of paddy grain entering the left eye. The ophthalmologist could not find any grain inside the eye and the child was given an ordinary antibiotic drop. The symptoms became aggravated and the child was brought to the hospital again after four or five days. After double eversion of the upper lid, the grain was found with a shoot growing inside the eye. Fortunately there was no corneal ulcer and the eye could be saved. This led us to organise campaigns for the use of protective glasses while threshing paddy with electrically operated machines. With the use of electrically operated machines, the grains enter the eyes with greater force and cause much more injury to the cornea. The fine hairs of the paddy grain have a notorious tendency to push the grain up into the upper fornix and hide there. Double eversion is the technique to detect it.

Workers wearing protective glasses while using an electric thresher

Photo: A Kumar Sil

Irritable, discharging left eye. Grain was found under the upper eyelid

Photo: A Kumar Sil


In search of ways to better the foreign language proficiency levels of their citizens, governments frequently announce macro foreign language policies. In Turkey, the latest education reform in 2013 lowered the onset of foreign language learning to the second grade. The piloting of the latest foreign language policy is in progress to transform the fifth grade to an English Language Preparation Program (ELPP). In line with the current changes, this study collects the secondary school English language teachers' opinions at the initial stage of the implementation. This qualitative case study questions the advantages, disadvantages, success and possible challenges of the implementation, and the necessary support mechanisms. The secondary school English language teachers reflect on their past experiences of intensive language programs and hold an overall positive approach to the new ELLP implementation. All in all, to achieve success, the findings highlight the need for teacher training on teaching English to young learners, for a sound integration of communicative language teaching with authentic materials.


Cancer proteomics is the manifestation of relevant biological processes in cancer development. Thus, it reflects the activities of tumor cells, host-tumor interactions, and systemic responses to cancer therapy. To understand the causal effects of tumorigenesis or therapeutic intervention, longitudinal studies are greatly needed. However, most of the conventional mouse experiments are unlikely to accommodate frequent collection of serum samples with a large enough volume for multiple protein assays towards single-object analysis. Here, we present a technique based on magneto-nanosensors to longitudinally monitor the protein profiles in individual mice of lymphoma models using a small volume of a sample for multiplex assays. Methods: Drug-sensitive and -resistant cancer cell lines were used to develop the mouse models that render different outcomes upon the drug treatment. Two groups of mice were inoculated with each cell line, and treated with either cyclophosphamide or vehicle solution. Serum samples taken longitudinally from each mouse in the groups were measured with 6-plex magneto-nanosensor cytokine assays. To find the origin of IL-6, experiments were performed using IL-6 knock-out mice. Results: The differences in serum IL-6 and GCSF levels between the drug-treated and untreated groups were revealed by the magneto-nanosensor measurement on individual mice. Using the multiplex assays and mouse models, we found that IL-6 is secreted by the host in the presence of tumor cells upon the drug treatment. Conclusion: The multiplex magneto-nanosensor assays enable longitudinal proteomic studies on mouse tumor models to understand tumor development and therapy mechanisms more precisely within a single biological object.


Objective To conduct a systematic review of clinical interventions to reduce secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure among non-smoking pregnant women. Data sources We searched 16 databases for publications from 1990 to January 2013, with no language restrictions. Study selection Papers were included if they met the following criteria: (1) the study population included non-smoking pregnant women exposed to SHS, (2) the clinical interventions were intended to reduce SHS exposure at home, (3) the study included a control group and (4) outcomes included either reduced SHS exposure of non-smoking pregnant women at home or quit rates among smoking partners during the pregnancy of the woman. Data extraction Two coders independently reviewed each abstract or full text to identify eligible papers. Two abstractors independently coded papers based on US Preventive Services Task Force criteria for study quality (good, fair, poor), and studies without biochemically-verified outcome measures were considered poor quality. Data synthesis From 4670 papers, we identified five studies that met our inclusion criteria: four focused on reducing SHS exposure among non-smoking pregnant women, and one focused on providing cessation support for smoking partners of pregnant women. All were randomised controlled trials, and all reported positive findings. Three studies were judged poor quality because outcome measures were not biochemically-verified, and two were considered fair quality. Conclusions Clinical interventions delivered in prenatal care settings appear to reduce SHS exposure, but study weaknesses limit our ability to draw firm conclusions. More rigorous studies, using biochemical validation, are needed to identify strategies for reducing SHS exposure in pregnant women.


Abstract This contribution aims at an original comparison of development analysis with Elinor Ostrom and Esther Duflo from a methodological standpoint, scrutinising their relationship to theory and their operative research strategies. Both perspectives are investigated as case studies for a broader discussion about significant trends in economics and social sciences. Duflo and the J-PAL's approach illustrates – in its own way – new trends and some blind alleys in contemporary forms of mainstream economics, whereas Ostrom and the Bloomington school point towards the marked theoretical and methodological reflexivity of institutionalism, its sensitivity to historical diversity and openness towards social sciences. Distinct social philosophies and episteme are at stake displaying a great divide between two brands of realism and pragmatism, two relationships to development, expertise and knowledge. The paper also contrasts Duflo's methodological monism and mechanistic piecemeal analysis with Ostrom's methodological pluralism and adaptive complex systems analysis.


This thesis presents two related investigations, the first is a systematic radio survey
in search of strong (82.7 > 0.34 Jy) gravitational lenses in a complete sample of
flat-spectrum radio sources, the second is a detailed study of the known, southern
gravitational lens/Einstein ring radio source PKS 1830-211.
The motivation for these investigations was the discovery in 1991 that
PKS 1830-211 is a strong gravitational lens. Because of its intensity, very detailed
and sensitive observations can be made, and some of them form the second
part of this thesis. The discovery of such a strong gravitational lens immediately
raises the question of whether there are other strong lenses to be found.
Gravitational lenses provide a powerful astrophysical tool for measuring the
properties of our universe. To date the majority of the known gravitational lenses
have been found in the northern sky due to the concentration of surveys in that
hemisphere. This thesis describes a search of the southern part of the sky for
strong gravitational lenses and involved a study of a complete sample of the 461
strongest southern flat-spectrum radio sources in the Parkes Catalogue.
Flat-spectrum sources were chosen because they typically possess a single high
brightness temperature nucleus of milliarcsecond size. Such sources, if lensed, will
show multiply imaged nuclei with separations that are large compared to their
sizes. All objects in the sample were observed with the Australia Telescope Compact
Array (ATCA) by making at least six short observations (or "cuts") at 4.8
and 8.6 GHz, separated by approximately two hours. In this way, all objects were
imaged over 8 days of telescope time, the dual wavelength observations allowing
spectral index information to be determined for any structural components of the
sources. Data simulations showed that the survey was capable of resolving any
compact double source with component separations and flux densities greater than
1.5 arcsec and 6 mJy respectively.
The data were edited and calibrated within AIPS and imaged using Difmap.
All correlated visibilities were examined and those that revealed signs of structure
were imaged to search for signs of gravitational lensing. The only previously
known lens in the sample, PKS 1830-211, was successfully re-discovered and
the survey was demonstrated to be sensitive to extended ring-like structure by
the detection of the planetary nebula PKS 1350-662. Two new gravitational lens
candidates were found within the sensitivity of the survey, they are PKS 0252-549
and PKS 2321-375. As a check that no lens candidates had been overlooked and
in order to obtain statistical information on the survey, a data processing script
was written for Difmap to image the entire survey dataset. The data analysis
revealed that over 60% of the sources contained at least 95% of their total flux
density in an unresolved core. All survey sources were classified (many for the
first time) according to their structural and spectral characteristics, the point
source component of this catalogue being especially useful in establishing a grid
of potential reference sources for future ATCA calibration observations.
- Many of the sources in the sample had catalogued radio positions with large
errors (up to 30 arcsec). The ATCA survey provided positions with accuracy
better than 1 arcsec for all objects with compact structure and allowed optical
identifications to be made from the COSMOS/UKST Southern Sky Catalogue.
This observational database is a significant contribution to the completion of radio
identifications in the Parkes 1/2 Jy Complete Sample (Drinkwater et al., 1996).
The second part of this thesis describes a detailed study of the properties of
PKS 1830-211, the only known southern radio lens. This source is the strongest by
almost an order of magnitude (Rao and Subrahmanyan, 1988; Jauncey et al., 1991)
and lies in a crowded and heavily obscured field close to the Galactic Centre. So far
all efforts to identify optical or infra-red counterparts either for the lensing galaxy
or the lensed source have been unsuccessful (Djorgovski et al., 1992; Jauncey et al.,
1993). In particular, the failure of optical measurements to furnish any redshifts
has driven the search for these critical parameters into the radio spectrum. This
thesis describes the detection of a new absorption feature towards the lens, due to
Hi at a redshift of 0.19. This discovery, together with that of a second absorption
system at z = 0.89 (Wiklind and Combes, 1996a) indicates that PKS 1830-211
may be a compound gravitational lens.
Total flux density measurements of PKS 1830-211 have been made with the
University of Tasmania's 26 m radiotelescope at 2.3 and 8.4 GHz since 1990. These
observations have revealed dramatic variations in flux density on timescales of
months. More recently, the ATCA has been used to monitor the total flux density
at four wavelengths as well as the flux densities of the two individual compact
components at 8.6 GHz. Large flux density variations in the two components were
detected and analysed, leading to new constraints on the lensing time delay and
the relative magnification ratio of the two compact components.


The dual income tax combines a progressive tax on labor income and a lower flat rate tax on income from capital. Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden adopted dual income taxes to address a set of tax challenges that arose in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Although developing countries face much different economic, political, and tax environments from the Nordic countries, the dual income tax may be the right solution to the different set of challenges facing many developing countries. Providing separate tax rates for labor and capital income allows countries greater flexibility in addressing tax competition while retaining progressive tax rates for labor income. A dual income tax regime may also allow developing countries to rationalize the taxation of income from active business operations under the personal and corporate tax systems and the taxation of passive investment income under the personal tax system. Developing countries could also use the move to a dual income tax system as an opportunity to make broader reforms in their personal, corporate, and payroll tax systems. Finally, recent tax reforms in Russia, Ukraine, and several countries in Central and Eastern Europe have led to flat tax regimes that generally apply a single tax rate to all types of income above some zero-bracket amount. We contend that a dual income tax may provide policymakers in developing countries with an attractive alternative that addresses tax competition concerns while maintaining a progressive tax on labor income.


The present article provides an introduction to classical Chinese logic, a term which refers to ancient discourses that were developed before the arrival of significant external influences and which flourished in China until the first unification of China, during the Qin Dynasty (221 BC). Taking as its premise that logic implies both universal and culturally conditioned elements, the author describes the historical background of Chinese logic, the main schools of Chinese logical thought, the current state of research in this area and the crucial concepts and methods applied in classical Chinese logic. The close link between Chinese logic and the Chinese language is also stressed.


The interactions and structural formation of polyelectrolytes in solution and environmental stimuli-responsive water-soluble polymers are subjects of intense academic research, development, and application. An increasing number of novel materials are being created by synthesizing new molecules but also by assembly of existing molecules via intermolecular interactions. Such materials have found practical applications in cell and drug immobilization, environment protection, or sophisticated analytics and sensors. The reproducible synthesis, well-defined assembly, and full understanding of the molecular impact on the application behaviour require knowledge of structure-property relationships. These needs have motivated the selection of the research performed in this thesis. To establish such relationships and to gain more insight on the molecular level, powerful characterization methods must be employed. In this context, analytical ultracentrifugation was used. On the one hand, conventional analytical ultracentrifugation techniques were applied to complicated molecular characterization. On the other hand, analytical ultracentrifugation principles were extended to problems not studied before with this technique. Specifically, the following problems were addressed with polyelectrolytes as primary polymeric substances: Online study of hydrogel formation by interaction of oppositely charged polyelectrolytes using a modified synthetic boundary experiment Characterization of polydisperse branched high molar mass charged copolymers Molecular assembly of di-block copolymers containing one polyelectrolyte block Temperature-induced concentration dependent phase transition in aqueous solution. Overall, results were obtained from analytical ultracentrifugation experiments which were not accessible by other characterization techniques. Systematic online studies of hydrogel formation at the interface of aqueous solutions of oppositely charged polyelectrolytes revealed the impact of chemical structure, concentration, molar mass, and pH on the network quality of three combinations of polyanions and polycations: sodium alginate/oligochitosan, sodium alginate/poly(L-lysine), and sodium cellulose sulfate/poly(diallyldimethyl ammonium chloride). These combinations are of practical interest. The results are expected to contribute to the optimization of network properties for specific applications in medicine, biotechnology, and pharmacy. High molar mass polyelectrolytes, which were polydispersed with regard to molar mass, charge density, and chain architecture were characterized by hydrodynamic methods, particularly analytical ultracentrifugation. By combining synthetic boundary and sedimentation velocity experiments at various speeds, the degree of homogeneity of the various distributions of the samples were identified. The correlation of molecular characteristics and application properties corresponded to predictions from molecular simulations. Sedimentation velocity studies revealed concentration- and temperature-dependent aggregation of stimuli-responsive pre-associated polymers. The monotonic increase of the sedimentation coefficient with concentration and temperature confirmed pre-association prior to the phase separation. The aggregation process was proven to be completely reversible. Moreover, absorbance concentration profiles identified a temperature-dependent portion of polymer not participating in the aggregation process. Sedimentation equilibrium experiments allowed the estimation of the influence of concentration on the molar mass.


Transparency can empower users to make informed choices about how they use an algorithmic decision-making system and judge its potential consequences. However, transparency is often conceptualized by the outcomes it is intended to bring about, not the specifics of mechanisms to achieve those outcomes. We conducted an online experiment focusing on how different ways of explaining Facebook's News Feed algorithm might affect participants' beliefs and judgments about the News Feed. We found that all explanations caused participants to become more aware of how the system works, and helped them to determine whether the system is biased and if they can control what they see. The explanations were less effective for helping participants evaluate the correctness of the system's output, and form opinions about how sensible and consistent its behavior is. We present implications for the design of transparency mechanisms in algorithmic decision-making systems based on these results.


This paper provides the first causal evidence about how elected local school boards affect student segregation across schools. The key identification challenge is that the composition of a school board is potentially correlated with unobserved determinants of school segregation, such as the pattern of household sorting and the degree to which boards are geographically constrained in defining zones of attendance. We overcome this issue using a regression discontinuity design at the electoral contest level, exploiting quasi-random variation from narrowly-decided elections. Such an approach is made possible by a unique dataset, which combines matched information about North Carolina school board candidates (including vote shares and political affiliation) with time-varying district-level racial and economic segregation outcomes. Focusing on the political composition of school board members, two-stage least squares estimates reveal that (relative to their non-Democrat counterparts) Democrat board members decrease racial segregation across schools. These estimates significantly differ from their ordinary least squares counterparts, indicating that the latter are biased upward (understating the effects). Our findings suggest that school boards realize such reductions in segregation by shifting attendance zones, a novel measure of which we construct without the need for exact geocoded boundaries. While the effect of adjusting boundaries does not appear to be offset by within-district neighborhood re-sorting in the short run, we uncover causal evidence of "white flight" out of public schools in districts in which boards have acted to reduce segregation.


Surface exploration has revealed three additional
karstic streamsinks on the lower slopes of Western
Bluff All appear genetically related to Croesus
Cave, but today discharge their base flow to the
more recently evolved Tailender Cave Spring.
This is despite the fact that one streamsink lies
only 100 m from Croesus Cave. Drainage from
Blue Lake, a sinkhole pond, has been traced into
Rat Hole Cave, and the connection from that cave
to Tailender has been confirmed. Aquaduct
Swallet probably drains directly to Tailender,
345 m lower and 3.6 km distant. A major
extension has also been discovered in Rubbish
Heap Cave, source of the stream that discharges
from Lynds Cave, but from which drainage
connections to Croesus under high discharge
conditions have previously been hypothesised.
These data compound the evidence for the
existence of a major integrated karst drainage
system and a high probability of inter flow between
some of the components under high discharge
conditions. The highest level of protective
management is warranted for this very important
complex.
Introduction


Aromatic plants produce by vapour distillation or other processes essential oils which are products with high commercial value used in the natural product industries such flavour and fragrance, perfumes and cosmetics industries as well as pharmaceutical industry. The aim of this study was to characterise some aromatic plants from Vietnam through the chemical composition of their essential oils. We got interested in essential oils which contained a main component with high to ultra high content, susceptible to find an industrial use. For this study, a dozen of plants have been selected. The composition of their essential oils will be compared with those of the same plants, reported in the literature, from Vietnamese origin or from other countries.


The objective of this project was to promote and facilitate analysis and evaluation of the impacts of road construction activities in Smart Work Zone Deployment Initiative (SWZDI) states. The two primary objectives of this project were to assess urban freeway work-zone impacts through use of remote monitoring devices, such as radar-based traffic sensors, traffic cameras, and traffic signal loop detectors, and evaluate the effectiveness of using these devices for such a purpose. Two high-volume suburban freeway work zones, located on Interstate 35/80 (I-35/I-80) through the Des Moines, Iowa metropolitan area, were evaluated at the request of the Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT).


Abstract Aluminium sulfate (alum) was applied to Lake Okaro, a eutrophic New Zealand lake with recurrent cyanobacterial blooms, to evaluate its suitability for reducing trophic status and bloom frequency. The dose yielded 0.6 g aluminium m‐3in the epilimnion Before dosing, pH exceeded 8 in epilimnetic waters but was optimal for flocculation (6–8) below 4 m depth. After dosing, there was no significant change in water clarity, hypolimnetic pH decreased to 5.5, and soluble aluminium exceeded recommended guidelines for protection of freshwater organisms. Epilimnetic phosphate concentrations decreased from 40 to 5 mg m‐3 and total nitrogen (TN):total phosphorus (TP) mass ratios increased from 7:1 to 37:1. The dominant phytoplankton species changed from Anabaena spp. before dosing, to Ceratium hirudinella, then Staurastrum sp. after dosing. Detection of effectiveness of dosing may have been limited by sampling duration and design, as well as the low alum dose. The decrease in hypolimnetic pH and epilimnetic TP, and increase in Al3+ and chlorophyll a, are attributed to the low alkalinity lake water and coincidence of alum dosing with a cyanobacterial bloom and high pH.


We propose a semiparametric model for regression problems involving multiple response variables. Conditional dependencies between the responses are represented through a linear mixture of Gaussian processes. We propose an efficient approximate inference scheme for this semiparametric model whose complexity is linear in the number of training data points, and show how the mixing matrix and kernel parameters can be learned by empirical Bayesian techniques. Our inference technique exploits conditional independencies between the latent variables and can be seen as a variant of belief propagation with nonparametric messages. We present experimental results on a meteorological task.


We address the modeling of the performance of wireless MIMO terminals while taking into account the intrinsic or extrinsic variability of their properties. The objective is to simplify the modeling method as much as possible, through approximations in the incorporation of antenna pattern gains and in the involvement of joint antenna-channel signal correlations. The methods are tested using synthetic antenna patterns and a simple propagation channel model.


Objectives To identify novel genetic candidates for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in the Korean population, and to validate the risk loci for SLE identified in previous genome-wide association studies (GWAS). Methods We performed a GWAS in 400 Korean female SLE patients and 445 controls. Selected single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) were then replicated in an independent cohort of 385 SLE patients and 583 controls (replication cohort 1), and in a further 811 SLE patients and 1502 controls (replication cohort 2). Results In the GWAS phase, rs9275428 located near HLA-DQB1 showed the strongest association with SLE (OR 0.50, false discovery rate (FDR) p=3.07×10−6). Although no loci reached genome-wide significance outside major histocompatibility complex (MHC), C8orf13-BLK, STAT4, CSMD1, DIAPH3, GLDC and TNFSF4 showed FDR p < 0.05. Our results suggest that STAT4, BLK, IRF5, PTTG1-miR-146a, UBE2L3 and TNFAIP3 are shared susceptibility loci among Caucasians and Asians, while ETS1, IKZF1, SLC15A4 are likely to be Asian-specific loci. In a combined analysis of 1596 SLE patients and 2540 controls for selected 22 candidate SNP, STAT4 and BLK as positive controls showed a strong association with SLE (FDR p=9.85×10−13 and 2.28×10−8, respectively). Of these, 16 candidates (PEX5L, TRAJ50, MYO18B, SOS1, ARHGAP26, SMURF1, CADPS, HAND1, FAM78B, DIAPH3, TBL1XR1, CSMD1, ZBTB20, C3orf21, HIPK1 and AP001042.1) showed only nominal significance (7.05×10−4≤FDR p≤4.38×10−2). Conclusions There are similarities and differences in genetic susceptibility for SLE between Caucasian and Asian ethnic groups. Although 16 putative novel loci for SLE have been suggested in the Korean population, further research on a larger sample is required to discriminate truth from error.


A spectral analysis of the Koopman operator, which is an infinite dimensional linear operator on an observable, gives a (modal) description of the global behavior of a nonlinear dynamical system without any explicit prior knowledge of its governing equations. In this paper, we consider a spectral analysis of the Koopman operator in a reproducing kernel Hilbert space (RKHS). We propose a modal decomposition algorithm to perform the analysis using finite-length data sequences generated from a nonlinear system. The algorithm is in essence reduced to the calculation of a set of orthogonal bases for the Krylov matrix in RKHS and the eigendecomposition of the projection of the Koopman operator onto the subspace spanned by the bases. The algorithm returns a decomposition of the dynamics into a finite number of modes, and thus it can be thought of as a feature extraction procedure for a nonlinear dynamical system. Therefore, we further consider applications in machine learning using extracted features with the presented analysis. We illustrate the method on the applications using synthetic and real-world data.


In this paper, the optimal operation of pumping stations was determined using a genetic algorithm so that the minimum energy cost. The schedule for the operation of the water pump system can be a significant savings in the cost of energy to be achieved. Determine the optimum pump operation schedule an optimization model -simulation-based genetic algorithm was developed. The model integrates GA optimizer and EPANET hydraulic network solver in MATLAB. The proposed model is applied to find the optimal pump operation schedule of Dogonbadan water conveyance system from Kowsar Dam in an ordinary day of the year. The comparison of optimal schedule with ordinary operation strategy shows 26.8 percent reduction in total energy cost. This indicates the high capability of the proposed model .


The term "without day" refers to the "adjournment" of the final sitting of the Scottish Parliament in 1707 to some future but unspecified date, "sine die" - (without day). "Without Day" was an open competition, with information circulated across Scotland and internationally, inviting proposals for artworks, performances and other interventions relating to the new Scottish parliament. 100 contributions are included from writers, artists and architects, whose number include Douglas Gordon, Robert Crawford, David Bellingham, Ian Stephen, Richard Price, herman de vries, Tom Pow, Halla Beloff, Gael Turnbull and Pavel Buchler among others. The fact that these proposals are "without day" and will never be realized has allowed imaginations to take flight, and the resultant provocations, critiques, and utopias provide a springboard into Scotland's postdevolution and postmillennial future. "Without Day" comes with a mini-CD of a new audio work by William Furlong, comprising recordings made around Scotland on May 6, 1999 - the day of the first elections to the new Scottish parliament - in which people discuss their aspirations, hopes and dreams for the future.


Immunogenic peptides have been shown to bind detergent-solubilized class II (Ia) molecules from mice. In this investigation, we report that highly purified HLA-DR (DR) molecules in detergent solution are capable of binding a synthetic peptide (HAp) derived from the influenza hemagglutinin sequence. Although the presentation of this peptide has been demonstrated only to DR1-restricted Th cells, the association rate constants for the formation of HAp-DR1, -DR5, and -DR8 complexes were essentially identical (ka = 1.1 x 10(2) to 1.6 x 10(2) M-1 s-1). By contrast, the value of the rate constants for the dissociation of preformed HAp-DR1, -DR5, and -DR8 complexes varied nearly threefold (kd = 1.6 x 10(6) to 4.4 x 10(-6) s-1). The value of the equilibrium dissociation constants (KD) derived from these rate constants were 13 nM, 24 nM, and 28 nM, for HAp-DR1, -DR5, and -DR8 complexes, respectively. Scatchard analysis demonstrated that the KD obtained from the rate constants for the HAp-DR1 reaction was in excellent agreement with that obtained under equilibrium conditions. SDS-PAGE confirmed that the HAp-DR complexes were remarkably stable, as HAp remained associated with the DR alpha beta heterodimer after treatment of the complexes with SDS and beta-mercaptoethanol. Steady-state binding studies demonstrated that 18% of all DR1 molecules had bound HAp at equilibrium, whereas only 3.8% of all DR8 molecules had bound HAp under identical conditions. The slight differences in the KD for HAp-DR complexes suggest that differences in the affinity of a peptide for DR alleles alone may not always explain the process of MHC restriction.


BAYER A.G. in Germany developed the "HUMID OXIDATION PROCESS" to reduce SO2 emissions which was first implanted industrially in their factory at Uerdingen in 1981. From that time the plant has operated successfully complying to German environmental law requirements. The unit to be installed in TIBRAS consists of six reactors supplied with activated carbon beds which will remove the SO2 (0.11 volume percent) contained in the residual gases (150,000 cubic meters per hour) produced in three rotary calciner kilns. The SO2 reacts with water in the carbon pores forming diluted sulfuric acid. The activated carbon is fabricated from coke from peat. The "Weak Acid" of approximately 10 to 15 per-cent H2SO4 concentration is reused in the titanium dioxide pigment process. The project will be concluded by December 1993 and will start up in January 1994. The realization of this investment of approximately US$8,500,000 (eight and one half million dollars) will reduce TIBRAS SO2 emissions by 50 (fifty) to 85 (eighty-five) per-cent in addition to eliminating two stacks.


The importance of early childhood education programmes has been widely established by researchers, but there has been little research on the outcomes of early childhood Kaupapa Māori educational initiatives in Aotearoa New Zealand. The aim of the research project reported here, He Piki Raukura, was to define Māori child behaviour constructs that may underlie positive Māori child development. We conducted in-depth interviews with two experts and 21 whānau participating in a Kaupapa Māori early years programme in Taranaki. Five themes were identified: local Māori identity; building whānau/ community; commitment to a shared kaupapa; clear and consistent processes; and dealing with issues positively. Through wānanga, four Māori child behaviour constructs were defined: tuakiri (secure local Māori identity); whānauranga (acting as a member of whānau); manawaroa (persisting despite difficulty); and piripono (integrity, commitment and responsibility for a shared kaupapa). These constructs provide novel ways of understanding child development that can be applied to explore how Kaupapa Māori early years initiatives might impact on development.


The aim of this article is to describe and analyse the factors governing the process of diffusion of technological change in the drinks packaging industry which occurred in Spain between 1982 and 1992. This industry is characterised by the presence of four main technological choices: glass bottles, composite cartons, plastic containers, and metal cans. These compete to satisfy the demands of the bottling industry. This brings with it a need to carry out any analysis of the competition among them on two planes on the one hand, competition between different sections of industry, and on the other competition between firms in the same section. Moreover, the processes and results of competition affecting containers will be modified by regulations aimed at protecting the environment. This set of factors, together with the current patterns and tendencies affecting the world of consumers and the presence of major multinational industrial groups both in the supply of containers and as users and distributors of them, leads to a high level of complexity in the chain of production linking basic raw materials to finished goods and to disposal of them after use, affected by environmental concerns.


Young South Africans today face a multitude of critical and demanding challenges - the literature highlights identity conundrums; stresses implicit in academic environments; and numerous and contradictory messages on race, nationality and citizenship in a transforming, post-apartheid context. This article focuses on one key controversy in present-day South Africa - namely, young people's sentiments towards and perceptions of foreign nationals and their place in a democratic South Africa. The attitudes expressed are explained, first, through reference to anomic conditions in South Africa, in which levels of trust have been debilitated and in which negative public discourses of foreigners have been allowed to become hegemonic; and second, through students' suggestions that problematic perceptions of black foreigners stem largely from a lack of substantive knowledge of Africa, its history, and its inhabitants. It is argued that universities need to take seriously the Soudien Report's (2008) position on the necessity for epistemological change in order to better equip students to deal with rapidly diversifying student populations. The article is concluded with two central recommendations for institutional interventions at South African universities.


The formal seed sector only meets a small proportion of farmers' rice seed requirements in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam. To cope with the growing demands, farmers have organized themselves in seed clubs to produce and supply the needed seeds themselves. This study assesses the status of rice seed production and proposes a model of how to ensure adequate seed supply in the Mekong Delta. Data of total seed production, distribution, prices, and used varieties of each crop season was collected from 19 seed stations and 309 seed clubs in all the 13 provinces of the Delta for the whole year of 2008. One hundred sixty none farmers were interviewed about seed demand and supply. Effective demand of seed in the Mekong Delta was about 0.55 million tons/year. The formal seed system met 3.5% and the informal seed system supplied more 16% of needed amounts. The informal system had significantly lower seed prices, but more diversity of rice varieties than the formal seed system. Both seed systems supplied seeds of rice varieties that had not yet been certified by the formal sector. Thus, new varieties were of high demand. Socialization of seed production was recommended to ensure the local seed supply systems for developing sustainable agriculture in the future. Results of this study indicate status of seed demands and supply to improve and link developing among seed systems in the Mekong Delta.


The lamellar grating problem is reformulated through the concept of adaptive spatial resolution. We introduce a new coordinate system such that spatial resolution is increased around the discontinuities of the permittivity function. We derive a new eigenproblem that we solve by using Fourier expansions for both the field and the coefficients of Maxwell's equations. We provide numerical evidence that highly improved convergence rates can be obtained.


Building machine translation (MT) for many minority languages in the world is a serious challenge. For many minor languages there is little machine readable text, few knowledgeable linguists, and little money available for MT development. For these reasons, it becomes very important for an MT system to make best use of its resources, both labeled and unlabeled, in building a quality system. In this paper we argue that traditional active learning setup may not be the right fit for seeking annotations required for building a Syntax Based MT system for minority languages. We posit that a relatively new variant of active learning, Proactive Learning, is more suitable for this task.


This paper demonstrates that there is a distinctive style of presidentialism in Latin American constitutional design. While early constitutions in the region tended to follow the US model of presidency, subsequent constitutions evolved away from this model in favor of giving the president more authority in lawmaking. We demonstrate a substantial amount of convergence over time. This analysis has three important implications. First, it calls attention to geography as an important predictor of constitutional design. Second, our analysis emphasizes change rather than continuity and convergence over time. This approach contrasts with the recent emphasis in comparative law on - legal origins as determinants of contemporary outcomes. Finally, while the legal-origins analysts emphasize the importance of French law in Latin America, we show that at a constitutional level (surely important for economic outcomes), the influence of Spain and the United States was also significant in the early years. But while the legal-origins school argues for long-range consequences of initial choices, we observe a gradual process of constitutional updating in which constitutions within the region grow more similar to each other, and a move away from the models from which they were initially drawn.


Sensornet Protocol (SP) is a link abstraction layer between the network layer and the link layer for sensor networks. SP was proposed as the core of a future-oriented sensor node architecture that allows flexible and optimized combination between multiple coexisting protocols. This thesis implements the SP sensornet protocol on the Contiki operating system in order to: evaluate the effectiveness of the original SP services; explore further requirements and implementation trade-offs uncovered by the original proposal. We analyze the original SP design and the TinyOS implementation of SP to design the Contiki port. We implement the data sending and receiving part of SP using Contiki processes, and the neighbor management part as a group of global routines. The evaluation consists of a single-hop traffic throughput test and a multihop convergecast test. Both tests are conducted using both simulation and experimentation. We conclude from the evaluation results that SP's link-level abstraction effectively improves modularity in protocol construction without sacrificing performance, and our SP implementation on Contiki lays a good foundation for future protocol innovations in wireless sensor networks.


Abstract Leaders in agricultural research institutions in many developing countries want to publish English-language annual reports. They have few editorial and financial resources. Few have ( 1) analyzed their reasons for reporting, (2) set priorities among audiences, or (3) considered a design that would serve the audience(s). This paper proposes three main audiences for such reports: heads of agencies that use agricultural research findings, agricultural scientists, and some persons interested in agricultural science (but not scientists). An audience-friendly approach is suggested for the design and preparation of annual reports that can be more useful than those written in the usual scientific-report form.


To study peripheral tolerance of CD8 T cells to a classically MHC-restricted peptide Ag expressed in hepatocytes, ALB1 transgenic (tg) mice expressing the CTL epitope GP33 of the lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus glycoprotein under control of the mouse albumin promoter were generated. ALB1 mice exclusively expressed the GP33 transgene in the liver and, at a 100- to 1000-fold lower level, in the thymus. TCR-tg mice specific for the GP33 epitope were used to directly follow GP33-specific T cells in vivo. These experiments revealed that 1) thymic expression of the GP33 transgene led to incomplete central deletion of TCR-tg cells; and 2) peripheral TCR-tg cells in ALB1 mice ignored the GP33 transgene expressed in hepatocytes. Ignorance of adoptively transferred TCR-tg cells in ALB1 mice was broken by infection with lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus, leading to induction of hepatitis in ALB1, but not in control, mice. Taken together, we have established a novel model of virus-induced CD8 T cell-mediated autoimmune hepatitis in mice and demonstrate that naive CD8 T cells may ignore Ags expressed in the liver.


Transport fuselage structures are designed to contain pressure following a large penetrating damage event. Applications of composites to fuselage structures require a database and supporting analysis on tension damage tolerance. Tests with 430 fracture specimens were used to accomplish the following: (1) identify critical material and laminate variables affecting notch sensitivity; (2) evaluate composite failure criteria; and (3) recommend a screening test method. Variables studied included fiber type, matrix toughness, lamination manufacturing process, and intraply hybridization. The laminates found to have the lowest notch sensitivity were manufactured using automated tow placement. This suggests a possible relationship between the stress distribution and repeatable levels of material inhomogeneity that are larger than found in traditional tape laminates. Laminates with the highest notch sensitivity consisted of toughened matrix materials that were resistant to a splitting phenomena that reduces stress concentrations in major load bearing plies. Parameters for conventional fracture criteria were found to increase with crack length for the smallest notch sizes studied. Most material and laminate combinations followed less than a square root singularity for the largest crack sizes studied. Specimen geometry, notch type, and notch size were evaluated in developing a screening test procedure. Traitional methods of correcting for specimen finite width were found to be lacking. Results indicate that a range of notch sizes must be tested to determine notch sensitivity. Data for a single small notch size (0.25 in. diameter) was found to give no indication of the sensitivity of a particular material and laminate layup to larger notch sizes.


Energy is needed for economic growth, and access to cheap, reliable energy is an essential development objective. Historically most incremental energy demand has been met through fossil fuels; however, in future that energy will have to be low carbon and ultimately zero‐carbon. Decarbonization can and needs to happen at varying speeds in all countries, depending on national circumstances. This article reviews the implications of a transition to low‐carbon energy on economic growth and development in current low‐income countries. It sets out empirical findings about trajectories for energy intensity and emissions intensity of economic growth; explores pathways to accelerate decarbonization; reviews the theoretical and empirical literature on economic costs and co‐benefits of energy decarbonization; and assesses analytical approaches. It discusses the opportunities that might arise in terms of a cleaner, more dynamic and more sustainable growth model, and the options for developing countries to implement a less‐carbon intensive model of economic development. WIREs Clim Change 2018, 9:e495. doi: 10.1002/wcc.495


Mexican authorities and universities are actively working to improve mathematics teaching and learning across the education system. Thus, efforts are underway to raise the historically low performance in mathematics, which include theoretically grounded pedagogy and curriculum development to raise mathematical knowledge in teacher education programmes. The purpose of this article is twofold. Firstly, I give an overview of the educational system in Mexico by outlining the evolution of the mathematics curriculum and teacher preparation programmes. Secondly, I describe and discuss, from my own practice, a lesson using dynamic tools for helping prospective teachers to understand the relationship between integration and differentiation within the context of the current literature from Mexico and abroad. While Mexico faces distinct issues within its educational system, challenges in how future mathematics teachers understand mathematical content appear universal. Thus, teaching mathematical content while modelling effective mathematical pedagogical practices is of relevance to all of us striving to enhance the quality of future mathematics teachers.


It has long been claimed that spectral envelope features outperform prosodic features on speaker recognition tasks. However, the reasons for such an arrangement are not entirely compelling. In the current work we present some evidence to challenge these claims. We propose that energy found at harmonically related frequencies encodes the acoustic correlates of variables which are typically referred to as prosodic, making harmonic energy summation highly relevant. Its frequent implementation for estimating pitch appears to have gone unnoticed by the speaker recognition community, because pitch estimators quite deliberately discard what they compute, retaining only the abscissa of a maximum. We argue that this latter step renders pitch estimation somewhat ill-suited to speaker recognition tasks. We present the detailed construction of a discrete transform, and a normalization, which are amenable to relatively laconic modeling. With this framework we achieve or exceed the performance of spectral envelope features in nearfield, matched-channel and matched-multisession conditions; performance improves following envelope destruction. We believe these results may have far-reaching consequences. For speech processing in a multitude of applications, they suggest that modeling the harmonic structure in the way we propose is at least as relevant as is modeling other aspects of the signal.


Air entrainment is a common feature of high-velocity free-surface flows. Air-water flow properties inside the flows are typically measured with phase-detection intrusive probes comprising fibre-optical and conductivity probes. Despite their common use, the most-suited phase-detection probe system for high-velocity flows is unknown. Novel comparative analyses of phase-detection probes were conducted in high-velocity air-water flows on a stepped spillway and in a tunnel chute. Experiments were performed with a side-by-side double-tip conductivity probe and several double-tip fibre-optical probes with different inline positioning of the probe tips as well as a fibre-optical side-by-side probe. Experiments were conducted for a range of flow conditions and flow velocities up to 15 m/s using the same acquisition system and post-processing software. While void fraction and interfacial velocities were in close agreement for the side-by-side probes in the tunnel chute and for the two probes used in the stepped spillway configuration, the comparison indicated that the probe tip geometry, especially the orientation of the probe tip to the main flow, can significantly affect the results. Several air-water flow properties showed differences including the bubble count rate, chord times and cluster properties linked with different tip sizes. The results indicate that the side-by-side phase-detection probe tip design has advantages in high-velocity air-water flows because the inline positioning affects the trailing tip data and the calculation of the interfacial velocity. The experiments highlight the need for a sturdy probe design for measurements in high-velocity flows, favoring the conductivity probe for such flow conditions and potential future employment in prototype-scale air-water flows.


The submission begins by demonstrating that the conditions required for consideration under the University's research degrees regulations have been met in full. There then follows a commentary which starts by explaining the origin of the research theme concerned and which continues by discussing the nature and significance of the work. This has been an extensive programme to devise new methods of improving the computational speed and efficiency required for effective implementation of FIR and IIR digital filters and transforms.
The problems are analysed and initial experimental work is described which sought to quantify the performance to be derived from peripheral vector processors. For some classes of computation, especially in real time, it was necessary to tum to pure systolic array hardware engines and a large number of innovations are suggested, both in array architecture and in the creation of a new hybrid opto-electronic adder capable of improving the performance ofprocessing elements for the array. This significant and original research is extended further by including a class of computation involving a bit sliced co-processor. A means of measuring the performance of this system is developed and discussed.
The contribution of the work has been evident in: software innovation for horizontal architecture microprocessors; improved multi-dimensional systolic array designs; the
development of completely new implementations of processing elements in such arrays; and in the details of co-processing architectures for bit sliced microprocessors. The use of Read Only Memory in creating n-dimensional FIR or IIR filters, and in executing the discrete cosine
transform is a further innovative contribution that has enabled researchers to re-examine the case for pre-calculated systems previously using stored squares. The Read Only Memory work has suggested that Read Only Memory chips may be combined in a way architecturally similar
to systolic array processing elements. This led to original concepts of pipelining for memory devices.
The work is entirely coherent in that it covers the application of these contributions to a set of common processes, producing a set of performance graded and scaleable solutions. In order that effective solutions are proposed it was necessary to demonstrate a solid underlying
appreciation of the computational mechanics involved. Whilst the published papers within this submission assume such an understanding , two appendices are provided to demonstrate the essential groundwork necessary to underpin the work resulting in these publications.
The improved results obtained from the programme were threefold: execution time; theoretical clocking speeds and circuit areas; and speed up ratios. In the case of the investigations involving vector signal processors the issue was one of quantifying the performance bounds of the architecture in performing specific combinations
of signal processing functions. An important aspect of this work was the optimisation achieved in the programming of the device. The use of innovative techniques reduced the execution time for the complex combinational algorithms involved to sub 10 milliseconds. Given the real time
constraints for typical applications and the aims for this research the work evolved toward dedicated hardware solutions.
Systolic arrays were thus a significant area of investigation. In such systems meritorious criteria are concerned with achieving: a higher regularity in architectural structure; data exchanges only with nearest neighbour processing elements; minimised global distribution
functions such as power supplies and clock lines; minimised latency; minimisation in the use of latches; the elimination of output adders; and the design of higher speed processing elements.
The programme has made original and significant contributions to the art of effective array
design culminating in systems calculated to clock at 100MHz when using 1 micron CMOS technology, whilst creating reductions in transistor count when compared with contemporary implementations. The improvements vary by specific design but are ofthe order of30-l00%
speed advantage and 20-30% less real estate usage.
The third type of result was obtained when considering operations best executed by dedicated microcode running on bit sliced engines. The main issues for this part of the work were the development of effective interactions between host processors and the bit sliced processors used for computationally intensive and repetitive functions together with the evaluation of the relative performance of new bit sliced microcode solutions. The speed up obtained relative to a range of state of the art microprocessors (68040, 80386, 32032) ranged from 2: 1 to 8: 1. The programme of research is represented by sixteen papers divided into three groups corresponding to the following stages in the work: problem definition and initial responses involving vector processors; the synthesis of higher performance solutions using dedicated hardware; and bit sliced solutions


Abstract Marine reptile remains occur in the Upper Cretaceous (lower Campanian to lower Maastrichtian) Adaffa Formation of NW Saudi Arabia. This is the first detailed report of late Mesozoic marine reptiles from the Arabian Peninsula. The fossils include bothremydid (cf. Taphrosphyini) turtles, dyrosaurid crocodyliforms, elasmosaurid plesiosaurs, mosasaurs (Prognathodon, plioplatecarpines) and an indeterminate small varanoid. The assemblage is compositionally similar to contemporary faunas from elsewhere in the Middle East/North Africa, and comprises taxa that are typical of the southern margin of the Mediterranean Tethys.