This paper and the associate conference presentation review the initial findings of a PhD study in Professional Education, a mixed method, interdisciplinary project which aims to contribute to research on interdisciplinary pedagogy related to both teaching and enabling creativity. The research focuses on Creativity and the Creative Industries, the final module of City University London's Masters in Innovation, Creativity and Leadership (MICL), an interdisciplinary Higher Education (HE) Masters designed for mature students with managerial experience. The module's teaching includes collaborative, experiential arts workshops (eg drama, classical music, improvisation and art) to support the students' group and individual artistic projects and final reflective journal and report.
The paper outlines these theoretical propositions which inform the study's data analysis (Yin, 2008, p.18):
1) That the module's learning processes are artistic, unfamiliar, disruptive, embodied experiences
2) That the students create an applied understanding of their learning through reflection and personal narrative
3) That critical incidents in the students' personal narratives will be expressed through metaphors of personal and professional identity
4) That both narrative (eg James and Brookfield, 2014, p.106, citing Kűbler-Ross's (1997) Change Curve) and personal change models (eg Heron, 1992, p. 122) will usefully inform the analysis.

The study's primary analytical methodologies include content analysis (eg Charmaz, 2006), narrative analysis (Gregerson, 2013), thematic analysis (Van Manen, 2014) and critical incident analysis (Shiu, 2014) (Argyris, 1982; Bolton, 2014; Dewey, 1933; Downey & Clandinin, 2010; Dreyfus, 1996; James & Brookfield, 2014; King & Kitchener, 1994; McEwen et al., 2009; Merleau-Ponty, 1962/2002; Ricoeur, 2007; Schon, 1983, 1987). The research approach is consistent with work on threshold concepts (Meyer & Land, 2003), theory which links identity and narrative (eg Bruner, 2002; Boyd, 2009; Downey& Clandinin, 2010; Gottschall, 2012; Herman, 2013; McGilchrist, 2009) and arts-based and creativity research (eg Amabile, 1983; Bateson & Martin, 2015; Gregerson et al., 2013; Shiu, 2014; Sayer, 2012).

The paper acknowledges the need for a reflexive approach, especially in HE and artistic contexts (eg Brookfield, 2010; Fleming, 2012; Foucault, 1980; Freire, 1970; Mezirow, 1998, 2000), as well as the risks of drawing broader lessons from a case study (Cohen, 2010; Yin, 2013). Consistent with this Track's theme of 'rattling' HE and organisational development through the application of arts-based initiatives, I conclude by discussing whether shifts in the students' narratives through the MICL programme and this might can be related to their personal and professional identities; and the degree to which these might in turn promote sustained impacts on their inter- and intrapersonal competence and self-efficacy.


The language of 'reality' would require incredible strength and trained skill on the part of the handler and would perhaps also require an audience equally well trained in what is known. (Agee and Evans 236) This paper has been prompted by the current revival of interest in Joan Littlewood's 'Theatre Workshop' which flourished in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s (Littlewood; Goorney; Leach; Holdsworth). Having been a member of her company in the late 1950s, I have always been interested, and felt involved, in anything which concerns Joan herself; and, being an actor, I share the occupational concern for everything to do with actors and their actuality, that is, as distinct from the image they carry in the eyes of the public--although I realise that the two things are not entirely separate from each other. I mean by this that an actor's own view of him- or herself is greatly affected by other people's attitudes. Obviously, this is true of all professions, jobs or trades. However, it is notably the case with actors, whose milieu calls for a higher level of self-consciousness, conscious self-consciousness that is. Joan Littlewood's importance within the area of theatrical professionalism came home to me on one particular occasion when, several years after leaving Theatre Workshop, I called on her at the theatre in Stratford East in order to ask her advice. It was in the 1960s. Joan was in the habit of allowing the local children into the Theatre Royal at times when the stage was not currently in use, so that they could enjoy themselves with any costumes or props which they could find. She called these their "mucking about sessions". So that I could hitch a lift down to London I had taken the precaution of wearing my clerical collar and one of the children noticed this. "Ooh, look! It's a vicar", he said to Joan pointing at the collar. "No, he's not", she said. "He's only an actor". It was not that Joan objected to actors as such of course (Littlewood)--only to actors who gave her the impression that they thought being an actor was in any way special, or made them particularly skilled or clever; in other words, that they thought or at least seemed to think that doing this particular job set them apart from the general run of folk. Actors earned their living one way, market traders another. This, or something very like it, is something which I myself heard her say more than once. It is significant for any accurate understanding of Theatre Workshop and its creator because it concerns Joan's fundamental conception of what theatre did or, at least, what Joan herself believed it should do. For Joan Littlewood, theatre ought to be a language used by workers to communicate with one another about the things which mattered to them. This at least was the way she set out to use it. From this point of view Joan's theatre was political like Bertolt Brecht's with a commitment no less profound for being less immediately obvious--a strong personal belief in the integrity of working class life and the need to strip away the hypocrisy surrounding the attempts made by other sections of society to avoid drawing attention to the realities confronting their less fortunate neighbours. Life was to be disclosed--rather than mimicked, which made it hard for actors who had been trained as mimics. Some members of the cast were enlisted from the streets around the theatre, which presented them with the opportunity to act without being actors. From her point of view these people were real, being both working class and un-trained. It was this training which resulted in the theatre she deplored, where actors stood apart from the reality they were supposed to be embodying, instead of making every effort to immerse themselves in it and see if they survived. West End actors, she was known to say, were assured of their own survival, with the result that all they actually managed to do was demonstrate their skill in order to impress their audiences. …


1. Diseases that infect wildlife populations pose a significant threat to public health, agriculture, and conservation efforts. The spread of these diseases can be influenced by the social structure of the population, and, therefore, often need to be accounted for in disease models. 2. In this thesis I use high-resolution contact data to explore the social structure of a high-density population of European badgers (Meles meles). I explore how this structure might influence the spread of bovine tuberculosis (bTB), a debilitating disease of cattle for which badgers are a wildlife reservoir. Denning and home range data collected using radio tracking is also used to determine how this social structure is related to badger space use. 3. I use social network analysis to identify the community structure of the badger population, revealing that badgers interact in fewer, more distinct groups than previously assumed. This is likely to inhibit the spread of disease through the population, given that the probability of infection entering a new social group will be reduced. However, among-group contact is still found to occur even between the most isolated groups. 4. I show that this among-group contact is more likely to occur between less related individuals, possibly suggesting that breeding behaviour may drive among-group contact as a mechanism for inbreeding avoidance. 5. To gain additional insight into this among-group contact, I determine how badger spatial behaviours are related. I show that the use of dens (setts) away from the social group's main sett (outlier setts) in the spring is associated with extra-territorial ranging. I also show that this extra-territorial ranging is associated with more central network positions. The seasonality of this behaviour further suggests that this may be related to breeding activity. 6. These findings suggest that behaviours associated with extra-group ranging may increase the risk of acquiring and transmitting infection. Therefore, use of outlier setts in the spring could act as a spatial proxy to identify high-risk individuals for disease spread, offering potential targets for disease control. 7. Finally, I discuss the implications of these findings in regard to what they reveal about badger behaviour, disease transmission, and the design of effective disease control strategies. The importance of understanding population social structure for the study of wildlife disease in general is also discussed.


The CFT30 is a continuously variable automatic transmission with a chain driven variator. It will be used in the Ford 500, the Ford Freestyle and the Mercury Montego that go on sale in 2004. The CFT30 is the first CVT that uses a chain drive in a front-transverse installation combined with a torque converter for better launch performance. The transmission is capable of handling the 310 Nm engine torque of modern 6-cylinder engines. It employs fully electronic controls and achieves better performance and fuel economy results than today's 4-speed automatic transmissions and even newly developed 6-speeds in the same vehicle. Perfect shift-feel is increasing the driving comfort. The paper describes transmission system, design and main components. The contribution of the CFT30 specific design solutions to fuel economy, performance and comfort are explained. Most important test results of component and vehicle testing are shown.


Diversity between building projects and construction methods is such that it is not possible to evoke a single phrase, commissioning, directly or conceptually and assume all building performance problems are solved. Commissioning has been defined as everything from a testing phase that concludes construction, to a quality management technique applied to a project from concept to turnover and beyond. Therefore, simply purchasing commissioning may not yield desired performance. A link is needed that ties managing performance to the process that verifies achievement of defined performance goals. That link may be certification. TQM (total quality management) was developed by W. Edwards Deming to assist in creating a management environment that would yield consistent performance. International Standards Organization (ISO) applies discipline to that concept requiring a structured well-documented management environment capable of withstanding an audit. One could quickly build a library in the study of management techniques devoted to achieving performance: Peter Drucker (Management by Objectives), Tom Peters (In Search of Excellence) and Stephen Covey (7 Habits) just to name a few. This may be the path to certification. This presentation is intended to provide an overview of the relationship between recognized quality management techniques and commissioning. Specifically it will deal with tying the quality certification process defined by ISO to commissioning as defined in ASHRAE GPC11996. Questions that will be raised are: • Is it possible to certify a construction project to ISO standards? • Is it practical to certify a construction project to ISO standards? • Will a fully commissioned, ISO certified facility guarantee desired performance? It is the belief of this author that design-build projects are gaining momentum in the industry, battling only barriers of price versus performance. Imagine the power of an ISO certified Design-build Corporation that guaranteed not only price and schedule but also performance; specifically performance that exceeds traditional codes or standards.


Abstract Many equity markets combine continuous trading and call auctions. Oftentimes designated market makers (DMMs) supply additional liquidity. Whereas prior research has focused on their role in continuous trading, we provide a detailed analysis of their activity in call auctions. Using data from Germany's Xetra system, we find that DMMs are most active when they can provide the greatest benefits to the market, i.e., in relatively illiquid stocks and at times of elevated volatility. Their trades stabilize prices and they trade profitably.


Noninvasive monitoring of deep-tissue pH has been demonstrated with the use of near-infrared spectroscopic measurements and the partial least-squares (PLS) multivariate calibration technique. The near-infrared reflectance spectra (700 to 1100 nm) of the teres major muscle in five New Zealand rabbits were obtained in vivo, along with reference pH values in the muscle measured by microelectrodes. The muscle pH was varied by controlling the blood supply to the muscle. PLS analysis with cross-validation techniques, along with several data preprocessing methods, was used to relate the tissue pH to spectra. When multi-subject PLS calibration models were used to predict a new independent subject, a subject-dependent offset was observed. Several strategies for minimizing the subject-dependent offset were discussed. With a baseline subtraction procedure, the subject-dependent offset was minimized to less than 0.1 pH units while the average standard error of prediction (SEP) was close to 0.05 pH units. This result suggests that it is possible to build a single robust calibration model for all new independent subjects. Tissue chemistry during ischemia (blood flow reduction) is different from the chemistry of reperfusion (blood flow restoration), and it was found that separate calibration models permit more accurate prediction of pH.


Cropland soils may be sources or sinks for atmospheric CO2. In general, it is assumed that C input into the soil and soil organic matter (SOM) levels are linearly related. This gives rise to environmental concerns regarding the removal of crop residue. In recent years, it has been shown that residue incorporation increases SOM levels to only a small extent, and high C input is not directly beneficial for SOM stabilization. Similar observations have been reported from a well-documented long-term field experiment at Puch, Germany, which contradicted the predicted (linear) relationship between C inputs (1-5 Mg C ha-1 y-1) and SOM changes. Several factors have been suggested to explain the relationship between high C inputs and small observed increases of SOM: (i) alteration of soil physical properties, affecting residue mineralization and protection; (ii) differences in residue input quality, recalcitrant belowground versus labile aboveground inputs; (iii) decomposition of native SOM through priming effects of incorporated residues; (iv) partitioning of residue C between protected and less protected SOM fraction; and (v) translocation of part of the unprotected C to the subsoil. The aim of this thesis was to ascertain whether these factors can really explain the limited increases of SOM often observed in the context of increasing crop residue inputs.
In order to quantify the effect of crop residue quality and quantity on soil physical structure and SOM stabilization, 13C-labeled wheat residues with variable quality (leaves, stems, roots) and quantity were added to the soil and incubated for 2 months. Soil aggregation generally increased with higher residue additions, but the proportion of residue C protected within aggregates decreased. The protection of aboveground biomass residues (leaves and stems) was more reduced than belowground (root) residues at high additions. However, regardless of residue type, SOM decomposition increased with higher crop residue addition. The decrease of residue protection within aggregates and the increase of SOM mineralization led to a decrease in the rate of C stabilization within SOM by higher residue additions.
To explore the mechanisms how crop residue quality (leaves, stems, roots) and quantity effect residue and SOM mineralization, with a special focus on the priming effect, an incubation study was conducted over a period of 4 months. The added C was traced in CO2 and in microbial biomass, and enzyme activities were measured. Roots were least decomposed and the mineralization of aboveground biomass residue disproportionally increased with higher residue additions. However, roots caused much higher SOM priming than leaves and stems. The C source partitioning and enzyme activities revealed that SOM priming was mainly controlled by residue-feeding microorganisms. To quantify the relationship between residue decomposition (i.e. quality effect), input levels, and priming, a new unifying model (logistic & power functions) was proposed. The model enabled the estimation of threshold values for mineralization of low and high residue additions above which incremental priming was maximal: i.e. ca. 20% for roots, 29-44% for stems and 39-51% for leaves. SOM priming depended on residue quality and decreased with increasing C additions. Nonetheless, priming was a power function of residue mineralization, whereby the threshold for strong increases in priming was lower for root decomposition than for aboveground residues.
In order to determine the effect of long-term C inputs (straw- or root-dominated) on changes in SOM contents and partitioning of added C between SOM fractions, the soil was sampled (top- and subsoil) from a field experiment started in 1983. Where, five organic amendments (either with straw or root dominated C inputs) were combined with different N fertilization rates. C input driven by straw incorporation was highest and increased with N fertilization. The density fractionation approach was used to separate topsoil SOM fractions. Total SOM content showed an increase with C inputs, which was mainly explained by the free light fraction of SOM. Despite high inputs, straw contributed little to the free light fraction, but prevented C losses from the mineral-associated SOM fraction (ρ >1.6 g cm-3), which were observed in the absence of straw addition. In contrast to topsoil, subsoil SOM contents decreased with N fertilization, thus also with C input. Above- (straw) and belowground (root) residues showed opposite effects on SOM fractions. Root C remained longer in the light fractions and was responsible for topsoil SOM increase with N fertilization. Straw decomposed rapidly (from light fractions), and sustained the most stable mineral-associated SOM fraction.
Overall, results from incubation studies and the field experiment reveal that increasing amounts of aboveground residue addition improve soil aggregation. However, low physical protection and disproportionally increased residue mineralization decreases residue stabilization in SOM. Roots are recalcitrant to decomposition, but cause stronger and higher priming effects than aboveground residues. Nevertheless, high aboveground residue mineralization protects C in the most stable mineral-associated SOM fraction. Low root mineralization indicates that root litter can mainly stay in the unprotected free light SOM fraction, but roots can increase SOM losses through priming effects. The often described minor increase of SOM after organic matter input reflects the opposing behaviors of root and aboveground residues in SOM stabilization.


Educational Achievement and Black-White Inequality By Jonathan Jacobsen, Cara Olsen, Jennifer Kinq Rice, Stephen Sweetland, and John Ralph National Center for Education Statistics, July 2001. Through the 1960s, African-Americans earned much less than whites--even when their cognitive abilities (as measured by test scores) were similar. By the end of the century, however, many believed that employment discrimination had attenuated to such a degree that the gap in labor-market outcomes could be explained almost entirely by differences in test scores. Consequently, reducing the well-known gap between the test scores of black and white students is now seen as an important way to reduce economic and other forms of inequality. In response, the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics commissioned Mathemarica Policy Research, a contract research firm, to find out whether 1) employers are now playing fair and 2) schools are doing their part in narrowing the black-white testscore gap. Accepting the challenge, Jonathan Jacobsen and his colleagues discovered that the answer to the first of these questions was both more hopeful and much easier to provide. Few dispute the dreadful state of affairs that existed in the 1960s. One study found that the black-white gap in scores on the Armed Forces Qualifying Test in 1964 could account for only a quarter of the difference in wages between black men and white men. Quite clearly, widespread racial discrimination helped create a labor market that yielded fewer rewards for blacks than for whites of similar ability. In addition, many jobs did not require a high level of cognitive skill. Today, cognitive skills and educational credentials are more valuable for workers in part because of changes in production technologies that demand more highly skilled employees. Moreover, the civil-rights legislation of the 1960s and 1970s seems to have caused discrimination in employment to decline. As a result, the black-white gap in academic achievement now seems to account for a sizable share of the black-white gap in wages. Whether the gap in labor-market outcomes has virtually disappeared depends on how it is measured. In a widely cited 1996 study, economists Derek Neal and William Johnson showed that if test scores are not taken into account, white men's wages are 24 to 28 percent higher than those of black men. But these raw differences narrow substantially when differences in test scores are accounted for. Neal and Johnson, using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth begun in 1979, showed that white men earned hourly wages that are only 7 to 10 percent more than black men with similar scores on the Armed Forces Qualifying Test. However, the gap in annual earnings between white men and black men with similar scores was about three times as large (roughly 30 percent), This is because white men are less likely to be unemployed, work longer hours on average, and are on the job more days of the year. Among women, wages and earnings were actually somewhat higher for blacks than for whites with similar test scores. Confirmation Using data from a variety of sources, including the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, the High School and Beyond study, and the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972, Jacobsen and his colleagues at Mathematica essentially confirm Neal and Johnson's findings, providing additional evidence that most of the remaining wage gap is due to differences in cognitive skills, as measured by test scores. In the Jacobsen study, the hourly wages, employment rates, and annual earnings of black women were at least as high as those of white women with similar test scores and family backgrounds. The researchers also found that black and white men with similar scores and family backgrounds had similar wages and, contrary to the findings of Neal and Johnson, generally experienced similar employment rates and annual earnings as well. …


Metal-halide perovskites are outstanding materials for photovoltaics. Their long carrier lifetimes and diffusion lengths favor efficient charge collection, leading to efficiencies competing with established photovoltaics. These observations suggest an apparently low density of traps in the prototype methylammonium lead iodide (MAPbI3) contrary to the expected high defect density of a low-temperature, solution-processed material. Combining first-principles calculations and spectroscopic measurements we identify less abundant iodine defects as the source of photochemically active deep electron and hole traps in MAPbI3. The peculiar iodine redox chemistry leads, however, to kinetic deactivation of filled electron traps, leaving only short-living hole traps as potentially harmful defects. Under mild oxidizing conditions the amphoteric hole traps can be converted into kinetically inactive electron traps, providing a rationale for the defect tolerance of metal-halide perovskites. Bromine and chlorine doping of MAPbI3 also inactivate hole traps, possibly explaining the superior optoelectronic properties of mixed-halide perovskites.


At least 17 spherule layers are presently known within stratigraphic units deposited
between ca. 3.47 and 2.49 Ga. The spherule layers contain varying amounts of formerly
molten, millimeter-sized and smaller spherules. The aggregate thickness of spherules in
these layers commonly ranges from ∼1 cm to as much as a few decimeters. Several lines of
evidence support the interpretation that the spherule layers represent distal impact ejecta
layers. Previously, only one shock-metamorphosed grain (quartz) had been documented
from the spherule layers. Therefore, a key diagnostic criterion for the impact origin of these
layers has remained elusive for 30 years. We report the discovery, using micro-Raman spectroscopy,
of shock-induced TiO 2 -II, a high-pressure polymorph of TiO 2 , in 34 grains from
four Neoarchean spherule layers deposited between ca. 2.65 and 2.54 Ga. As all the TiO 2 -II-bearing
grains contain rutile, we interpret them as shock-metamorphosed rutile grains.
Shock-metamorphosed rutile grains, which may be more abundant in the upper parts of
three of the layers, provide unambiguous physical evidence to further support an impact
origin for these four layers. Our results demonstrate that TiO 2 -II can survive for >2.5 b.y. in
supracrustal successions that have undergone low-grade metamorphism. Because TiO 2 -II
transforms to rutile at a temperature ≥440 °C, TiO 2 -II in impact ejecta layers is a potential
geothermometer. To our knowledge, this is the first report of a shock-induced, high-pressure
polymorph formed by an Archean impact.


Youth-focused electronic monitoring (EM) programs were initially implemented in the late 1980s in the United States. The growing popularity of these programs can be noted by their development throughout the world, such as the recent establishment of the first youth EM program in Canada (the Youth Electronic Monitoring Pilot Program). With its increasing use, a number of issues pertaining to the EM of youth have become evident in the literature. Specifically, the following matters related to EM of youth have been discussed: program implementation, positive and negative consequences, recidivism rates, and cost-effectiveness. In addition, the increasing use of youth-focused EM programs has prompted the need for clear guidelines in the use of this sanction. This article provides "best practice" procedures for the EM of youth, which are founded upon empirically supported principles of effective young offender programs (i.e., selection of suitable offenders, program characteristics, and treatment integrity). In addition, the literature suggests that effective youth-focused EM programs are those that plan daily face-to-face contact, incorporate off-site random alcohol/ drug testing, identify indices of effectiveness and are evaluated regularly. The roots of electronic monitoring (EM) can be traced back to biblical times, when the apostle Paul was placed under house arrest by the Romans (Gibbs & King, 2003). More recently, in the 1960's Harvard psychologist Robert Schwitzgebel developed the first electronic device that he believed would provide a humane and inexpensive alternative to incarceration (Gomme, 1995). The initial implementation of EM occurred in the early 1980s in the United States with adults (Bonta, Wallace-Capretta & Rooney, 1999). The popularity of EM programs is noted in many regions around the world (i.e., United States, Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand) (Gibbs & King, 2003), including Canada. Currently, EM programs are in operation in four of the Canadian provinces (Goff, 2004). Following the use of EM with low-risk adult offenders, this approach was extended to American juvenile populations in 1986 (Roy, 1997). In comparison with adults, youth EM programs have been implemented on a smaller scale; programs currently exist in the United States, the United Kingdom and more recently in Canada. The utilization of youth EM programs can be attributed to a combination of factors, many of which are derived from adult EM programs. The expectations of EM as being a cost-effective, community-based alternative to incarceration with adult offenders lead to its use with juvenile populations. Specifically, it has been suggested that decreased per diem costs as compared to institutional programs and reduction of personnel costs associated with residential programs would be applied from adult to youth populations (Charles, 1989). The EM of youth is also perceived to offer a humanistic form of rehabilitation in the home and in the community, in addition to decreasing negative family consequences (Vaughn, 1989). With the many purposes and goals of EM, one of the difficulties with this sanction has been the attempt to fulfill too many functions without the designation of a clear goal and purpose (Gibbs & King, 2003). EM technology consists of an electronic device worn by the offender which emits a signal indicating both the offender's whereabouts and also any instance in which the offender leaves his or her place of residence (Bonta, Wallace-Capretta & Rooney, 2000). There are two major forms of EM equipment--continuously signalling and programmed contact equipment (Goff, 2004). Although both of the current devices can confirm whether or not an individual is at an approved place at a specific time, they are unable to track an offender's movement (John Howard Society, 2000). The technological advancement of Global Positioning Systems (GPS) allows offenders' precise location to be monitored (John Howard Society, 2000). …


Security sanitizers have long been known to be very difficult to implement correctly. Moreover, with the rise of the web, developers need string manipulating functions in both "server" and "client" languages. Hand-writing these functions separately is an open invitation to bugs. At the same time, auto-generated code will not be accepted unless it is significantly faster than previous hand-written code. We address this problem with two complementary approaches centered around bek, a domain-specific language for writing complex string manipulation routines. First, bek compiles the input domain-specific program into an intermediate format consisting of symbolic finite state transducers, which extend classical transducers with symbolic predicates. In this paper, we present a novel algorithm that we call "exploration" which performs a symbolic partial evaluation of these transducers to obtain simplified, stateless versions of the original program. These simplified versions can be lifted back to bek, and from there compiled to C#, C, or JavaScript. Second, we explore how SIMD instructions can be combined with bek compilation to C and C++, enabling developers to access parallel features of modern architectures without needing to tweak the C compiler or hand-write assembly. We have implemented our code generation pipeline for bek code corresponding to several real string sanitizers. We use an automatic testing approach to compare our generated code to the original C# implementations and found no semantic deviations. Our generated C# code outperforms the previous hand-tuned code by a factor of up to 2.5. For C code with SIMD, we see speedups of 2.5 times compared to native C code for the same sanitizer.


Anomalous right coronary artery origin from contralateral sinus is a rare but lethal variant that may mimic like acute coronary syndrome and is a potential cause of sudden cardiac death. This needs early diagnosis with prompt treatment which may be conservative or interventional depending upon the exact anatomy and route of the vessel. Here we present a unique case of combination of anomalous right coronary artery origin from opposite sinus causing ischemia, with left ventricle (LV) non-compaction ending in non-hemorrhagic stroke. J Med Cases. 2018;9(11):375-378 doi: https://doi.org/10.14740/jmc3183


Inductive wire grids with square-shaped holes on a thin finitely conducting metal screen are examined by rigorous three-dimensional electromagnetic diffraction theory in the region where the optical wavelength is comparable with the grid period. Spectral transmittance and reflectance curves are computed, considering the selection of the metal, the properties of the grid (metal-layer thicknesses, fill factor, aperture shape), and the angle of incidence. High-performance polarization-independent short-wavelength pass filters are designed for near-infrared and visible light. The importance of finite conductivity is demonstrated, and Al appears to be the best metal in this spectral region.


Mountain biking began for me as an escape from the commotion of urban society. I was looking for a way to get out of life's normal grind and take advantage of my love for being active and outside. Mountain biking was the perfect sport to meet my desires. I have become an advocate for mountain biking early on. I am now taking this opportunity to teach people about the sport I have come to love. The objectives of this book are two fold. Part I serves as a comprehensive guide to cross-country mountain biking that will provide new comers with the information they need to "slingshot" themselves into mountain biking. Part II will provide tips and knowledge that can help everyone improve their performance. For some, the transition from the road to the dirt is a simple task, but for others the process can be much more difficult. This book is designed for those beginners who are having a tough time adapting to the new challenges of offroad riding. It is also a book for those recreational riders who wish to gain an edge or enhance their skill level. When using the information provided in Part II, it is important to put theory into practice. After reading this section, take one of the key points into mind and hit the trails. Ride the same as before, with the exception of the key point you chose to work on. With practice, the skill becomes automatic. A rider who practices often will develop a schema, or automatic path of action for each skill. Continue working on other key points, one or two at a time, until they too become automatic. I hope that all new mountain bikers will enjoy being closer to nature, take pride in being active, and fall in love with the amazing adventure waiting on every trail. I encourage all new riders to "take on" cross-country mountain biking. Degree Type Open Access Senior Honors Thesis Department Health Promotion and Human Performance


Abstract. Ice nucleating particles (INPs) influence cloud properties and can affect the overall precipitation efficiency. Developing a parameterization of INPs in global climate models has proven challenging. More INP measurements – including studies of their spatial distribution, sources and sinks, and fundamental freezing mechanisms – must be conducted in order to further improve INP parameterizations. In this paper, an immersion mode INP measurement technique is modified and automated using a software-controlled, real-time image stream designed to leverage optical changes of water droplets to detect freezing events. For the first time, heat transfer properties of the INP measurement technique are characterized using a finite-element-analysis-based heat transfer simulation to improve accuracy of INP freezing temperature measurement. The heat transfer simulation is proposed as a tool that could be used to explain the sources of bias in temperature measurements in INP measurement techniques and ultimately explain the observed discrepancies in measured INP freezing temperatures between different instruments. The simulation results show that a difference of +8.4 °C between the well base temperature and the headspace gas results in an up to 0.6 °C stratification of the aliquot, whereas a difference of +4.2 °C or less results in a thermally homogenous water volume within the error of the thermal probe, ±0.2 °C. The results also show that there is a strong temperature gradient in the immediate vicinity of the aliquot, such that without careful placement of temperature probes, or characterization of heat transfer properties of the water and cooling environment, INP measurements can be biased toward colder temperatures. Based on a modified immersion mode technique, the Automated Ice Spectrometer (AIS), measurements of the standard test dust illite NX are reported and compared against six other immersion mode droplet assay techniques featured in Hiranuma et al. (2015) that used wet suspensions. AIS measurements of illite NX INP freezing temperatures compare reasonably with others, falling within the 5 °C spread in reported spectra. The AIS as well as its characterization of heat transfer properties allows higher confidence in accuracy of freezing temperature measurement, allows higher throughput of sample analysis, and enables disentanglement of the effects of heat transfer rates on sample volumes from time dependence of ice nucleation.


In mid-1993, representatives of Rhone-Poulenc, a leading nationalized French firm, worked with the French government to plan the imminent privatization of the firm. One aspect of the privatization was to create incentives for employees to buy and hold shares in the firm. A partial privatization earlier in 1993 proved that workers were reluctant to hold equities, even after receiving discounts and subsidized financing. The key financial officers of the firm received a proposal from Bankers Trust that would offer employees a unique investment in the firm, which might increase employee participation in the share offering. This alternative would guarantee employees a minimum rate of return yet allow them to enjoy appreciation of the firm's shares. The financial officers have to decide whether to propose this employee stock ownership alternative to the French government and to Rhone-Poulenc's board for inclusion in the forthcoming privatization.


We report on the paleopathological analysis of the partial skeleton of the late Pliocene hominin species Australopithecus africanus Stw 431 from Sterkfontein, South Africa. A previous study noted the presence of lesions on vertebral bodies diagnosed as spondylosis deformans due to trauma. Instead, we suggest that these lesions are pathological changes due to the initial phases of an infectious disease, brucellosis. The macroscopic, microscopic and radiological appearance of the lytic lesions of the lumbar vertebrae is consistent with brucellosis. The hypothesis of brucellosis (most often associated with the consumption of animal proteins) in a 2.4 to 2.8 million year old hominid has a host of important implications for human evolution. The consumption of meat has been regarded an important factor in supporting, directing or altering human evolution. Perhaps the earliest (up to 2.5 million years ago) paleontological evidence for meat eating consists of cut marks on animal remains and stone tools that could have made these marks. Now with the hypothesis of brucellosis in A. africanus, we may have evidence of occasional meat eating directly linked to a fossil hominin.


One of the central problems in auction design is developing an incentive-compatible mechanism that maximizes the auctioneer's expected revenue. While theoretical approaches have encountered bottlenecks in multi-item auctions, recently, there has been much progress on finding the optimal mechanism through deep learning. However, these works either focus on a fixed set of bidders and items, or restrict the auction to be symmetric. In this work, we overcome such limitations by factoring \emph{public} contextual information of bidders and items into the auction learning framework. We propose $\mathtt{CITransNet}$, a context-integrated transformer-based neural network for optimal auction design, which maintains permutation-equivariance over bids and contexts while being able to find asymmetric solutions. We show by extensive experiments that $\mathtt{CITransNet}$ can recover the known optimal solutions in single-item settings, outperform strong baselines in multi-item auctions, and generalize well to cases other than those in training.


ABSTRACT Introduction: Decreased fasting and oral glucose-stimulated incretin hormone concentrations following moderate-intensity continuous endurance training interventions have been reported in glucose-tolerant people, however results are conflicting. The effect of more time-efficient, very low-volume, high-intensity interval training (HIT) on circulating incretin hormone levels has never been studied. Materials and methods: Ten sedentary and overweight-to-obese participants (4 women and 6 men; age 43 ± 6 years (mean ± SD); BMI 30.2 ± 3.2 kg∙m−2; HbA1c 35 ± 5.1 mmol∙mol−1 (5.3 ± 0.3%); VO2max 30 ± 5 ml∙min−1∙kg−1) from the Copenhagen cohort of the METAPREDICT trial underwent 6 weeks of supervised low-volume HIT (3 sessions per week: 7 × 1 min at ∼100% VO2max separated by 1 min of active recovery). We measured glucose, insulin, C-peptide, glucagon, GLP-1 and GIP concentrations during a frequently sampled 75 g oral glucose tolerance test as well as VO2max and body composition before and after the intervention. Results: Training compliance was 100%. Relative VO2max improved after the intervention (median 2.69 ml∙min−1∙kg−1, IQR [0.43; 3.14], p = 0.037) while there were no significant effects on body weight and composition. No significant effects on oral glucose-stimulated glucose and hormone responses or estimates of insulin sensitivity and β-cell function were observed. Conclusion: Low-volume HIT improved aerobic fitness, but neither affected glucose tolerance nor oral glucose-stimulated incretin hormone responses in sedentary and overweight-to-obese people. Highlights Ten sedentary, overweight-to-obese, glucose-tolerant participants underwent 6 weeks of supervised, very low-volume HIT. Aerobic fitness improved. Fasting and oral glucose-stimulated incretin hormone concentrations were not affected.


Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) is susceptible from hazardous radiation that leads to be in error state. In order to avoid that condition, we apply a fault tolerance technique. Most of the fault tolerances today are only using one mode, mean the fault tolerance that is applied will run all of the time without any changing its design. It is neglect about the condition, when the hazard radiation will occur more frequently or not. As researches have shown that in the orbit, the radiation hazard, which is happening frequently in the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA). Therefore, in this project creates a new methodology in implementation of fault tolerance by using dual mode, when radiation is happened frequent we apply more robust fault tolerance, if not frequent we apply by simple fault tolerance. A robust fault tolerance will use more resources and simple fault tolerance will use less resources. Configuration in FPGA is done by Dynamic Partial Reconfiguration (DPR) means the transition from robust to simple fault tolerance or vice versa is done while the system is running. In this paper will talk about the technical implementation of dual mode fault tolerance, by presenting systematically order and important aspect to get success in implementing the design. The paper shows a result that dual mode fault tolerance can be configured in FPGA successfully


PURPOSE
Residual patient setup shifts such as 1 mm or 1 degree are commonly observed during online treatment setups of hypofractionated radiosurgery (HRS) of spine and intracranial lesions. To effectively guide patient-specific setups, a prospective treatment planning approach was developed for such treatments.

METHODS
For a cohort of intracranial and spinal HRS treatments, individualized setup guidelines were prospectively determined via the following approach: (1) systematically shift and rotate 3D patient image data in incremental small steps. (2) For each step such as 0.1 mm or 0.1 degree, dose distributions from original treatment plan were recalculated. (3) Each resulting dose distributions were then iteratively checked against a set of preset dosimetric criteria for compliance. (4) From step 3, maximum tolerable shift levels along the major axes were then determined. Finally, we tested such an approached on a cohort of treatment cases performed at our institutions.

RESULTS
For studied treatment sessions (n=63), the mean maximum tolerable shift levels including rotations projected unto the major axes were determined to be 2.0±0.7mm, 2.1±0.9 mm and 1.9±0.8 mm along the lateral, longitudinal, and vertical axis, respectively. Such tolerance levels were significantly (p=0.02) larger than the machine preset tolerance level of 1.0 mm that commonly enforced for all treatment sessions. However, more than 50% of the treatment sessions exhibited sub-millimeter tolerance level along certain directions to meet critical structure constraints. For example, a 0.6-mm anterior maximum shift could incur 36% increase in the maximum dose to the brainstem for one patient case.

CONCLUSION
Patient specific online setup guidelines for HRS has been demonstrated to prevent potential deleterious effects from residual shifts while facilitating online setups by providing more room of larger acceptable shifts for a majority of treatment cases.


Daily values of global solar radiation are important inputs for pasture growth models which are often run for rural locations (e.g. where detailed pasture growth data have been collected). However, it is possible that the nearest climate station with daily solar radiation data is located tens of kilometres away from these pasture measurement sites. This paper describes a method of interpolating daily global solar radiation data recorded or estimated at climate stations throughout New Zealand onto a regular 0.05° latitude / longitude (approximately 4 km) grid using a thin plate smoothing spline model. An analysis of the mean annual solar radiation prediction standard error from several spline model runs shows that the lowest prediction error is obtained using two positional variables and a satellite data-derived cloud cover surface. For the daily interpolations, maximum use is made of observational data by combining daily solar radiation and sunshine measurements collected over the period 1972 – 2006. An analysis of the daily solar radiation interpolation error at 20 validation sites shows that the average root mean square error varies between about 4.1 MJ/m/day in the summer months to about 1.5 MJ/m/day in winter (average relative error of between 20 and 30%). Time series data derived from the daily gridded solar radiation data are currently being used in a pasture growth model for New Zealand.


Questions: What are the long-term patterns of wildfire occurrence and gap dynamics in an old-growth deciduous forest? Are there temporal patterns in fire and gap dynamics over the last ca. 300 yrs? How is drought related to fire occurrence? Are there temporal interactions between gap dynamics and fire? Location: Lilley Cornett Woods Appalachian Research Station, Southeastern Kentucky, USA. LCW; 37°05′ N, 83°00′ W. Methods: We cross-dated and analysed annually-resolved tree-ring data from 35 tree cross-sections in an old-growth deciduous forest to reconstruct historical fire and canopy disturbance and explore connections among these processes. Canopy disturbance patterns as indicated by tree growth release within this collection [fire history collection: (FHC)] were compared to cores from 26 trees collected in 1983 for the purposes of climate reconstruction [climate collection: (CC)]. Results: Initiation dates in the FHC ranged from ca. 1670 to 1925. Thirty-three fire scars were identified from 1678 to 1956. The mean interval between fire events was 9.3 yrs, and there were many more fires after 1800 than before that date. Gap dynamics, as reconstructed through growth release detection, were relatively constant through the FHC record and were supported by a similar result in the CC. The mean number of years between detected release events was 5.2 yrs. Many individual trees, and the mean growth chronology for the FHC, indicate that many oak trees exhibit growth release after long periods of suppression and, after a final release, exhibit a step-change in growth rate suggesting canopy accession. Conclusions: Fire and gap dynamics occurred through much of the last ca. 350 yrs in this old-growth forest. There was not evidence to support that these two processes were temporally linked – gap dynamics were ostensibly independent of fire occurrence. Even so, we posit that these two processes may have a synergistic effect on long-term dynamics, wherein fire 'filters' the seedling pool and gap openings provide canopy accession opportunities. We also note several instances where release events are associated with stand-wide growth increases suggesting large-scale canopy accession. These events could influence the overstorey composition of the forest for centuries.


We introduce Slender PUF protocol, an efficient and secure method to authenticate the responses generated from a Strong Physical Unclonable Function (PUF). The new method is lightweight, and suitable for energy constrained platforms such as ultra-low power embedded systems for use in identification and authentication applications. The proposed protocol does not follow the classic paradigm of exposing the full PUF responses (or a transformation of the full string of responses) on the communication channel. Instead, random subsets of the responses are revealed and sent for authentication. The response patterns are used for authenticating the prover device with a very high probability. We perform a thorough analysis of the method's resiliency to various attacks which guides adjustment of our protocol parameters for an efficient and secure implementation. We demonstrate that Slender PUF protocol, if carefully designed, will be resilient against all known machine learning attacks. In addition, it has the great advantage of an inbuilt PUF error tolerance. Thus, Slender PUF protocol is lightweight and does not require costly additional error correction, fuzzy extractors, and hash modules suggested in most previously known PUF-based robust authentication techniques. The low overhead and practicality of the protocol are confirmed by a set of hardware implementation and evaluations.


Cloud computing offers benefits of sharing computing and network resources among multiple mobile network operators. To utilize such benefits, in earlier paper we proposed a platform called telecommunication network as a service (TaaS). Sharing of such resources in cloud technology affects security of whole mobile network in general and software defined network (SDN) & network functions virtualization (NFV) in particular. In this paper, we have analyzed open platform for network functions virtualization (OPNFV) activities and compared them with TaaS concept to find commonalities and see how well it addresses security concerns outlined for TaaS. Through a comparison we show OPNFV security doesn't cover application security at all, however it partially covers data security and considerably covers hypervisor, SDN & NFV security. Therefore, OPNFV security needs to be revised in areas of data and application domain specially to meet the security requirements for TaaS. Furthermore, we conclude that our proposed TaaS platform implements at least current security requirements outlined in OPNFV specification.


Paper persists as an integral component of active reading and other knowledge-worker tasks because it provides ease of use unmatched by digital alternatives. Paper documents are light to carry, easy to annotate, rapid to navigate, flexible to manipulate, and robust to use in varied environments. Interactions with paper documents create rich webs of annotation, cross reference, and spatial organization. Unfortunately, the resulting webs are confined to the physical world of paper and, as they accumulate, become increasingly difficult to store, search, and access. XLibris [Schilit et al. 1998] and similar systems address these difficulties by simulating paper with tablet PCs. While this approach is promising, it suffers not only from limitations of current tablet computers (e.g., limited screen space) but also from loss of invaluable paper affordances.
 In this article, we describe PapierCraft, a gesture-based command system that allows users to manipulate digital documents using paper printouts as proxies. Using an Anoto [Anoto 2002] digital pen, users can draw command gestures on paper to tag a paragraph, e-mail a selected area, copy selections to a notepad, or create links to related documents. Upon pen synchronization, PapierCraft executes the commands and presents the results in a digital document viewer. Users can then search the tagged information and navigate the web of annotated digital documents resulting from interactions with the paper proxies. PapierCraft also supports real time interactions across mix-media, for example, letting users copy information from paper to a Tablet PC screen. This article presents the design and implementation of the PapierCraft system and describes user feedback from initial use.


A variety of tasks could benefit from the availability of direction cues that do not rely on vision or sound. Skin stretch has been found to be a reliable means of communicating direction and has potential to be rendered by a compact device. We have conducted experiments exploring the use of lateral skin stretch at the fingertip to communicate direction. A small rubber cylinder was pressed against a subject's fingertip and moved at constant speed to stretch the skin of the fingerpad. The skin was stretched with a range of displacements (0.05 mm–1 mm) and speeds (0.5 mm/s-4 mm/s). Subjects were asked to respond with the direction of the skin stretch, choosing from 4 directions, each separated by 90 degrees. It was found that subjects could perceive skin stretch direction with as little as 0.05 mm of stretch. Direction detection accuracy was found to be dependent upon both the speed and total displacement of the skin stretch. Higher speeds and larger displacements resulted in greater accuracy. High accuracy rates, greater than 95%, were observed with as little as 0.2 mm of skin stretch and at speeds as slow as 2 mm/s. Accuracy was also found to vary with the direction of the stimulus. This preliminary information will be used to inform the design of a miniature tactile display suitable for use in hand-held electronics.


First, the general history of the different regions must be considered, to the degree that explains innate qualities of specific regions. This can assist in understanding the roots of regional variation. Second, the situation of regional governance in the UK is important as it is the vehicle by which the current situation has risen and progress and change can be made. Third, it is best to look at both the history and current situation of economic statistics with special regard to regional differences in GDP per capita and the unemployment rate. Also to be considered is the idea of a "regional problem" and the criteria that collectively determine what qualifies as a problem. And fourth, I will explain the differences and hypothesize as to why they exist and what will happen in the future. I will look at the theoretical imbalance in the government through population and social analysis, and the practical imbalances through economic analysis. Through this, I intend to show the inevitability of regional imbalance in the UK. Moreover, the UK government must recognize these issues as regional and move to set up regional governments to aid the situation and improve each region. Inequity is inevitable, but when a large inequity is present, the government must intercede to diminish it. This article is available in The Park Place Economist: http://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/parkplace/vol13/iss1/18


Using the properties of Hermite polynomials, a simple first-order matrix differential equation is developed which describes the propagation of an arbitrary field through an inhomogeneous medium and which can be solved exactly. This method handles both spatially varying refractive index and linear absorption and diffraction. As examples, it is applied to an etalon and a graded index optical fiber.


Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer related death worldwide with 1.4 million cases in 2008.
Thus, there is an unmet need to identify novel treatment options for lung cancer patients in the clinic and foster the understanding of tumor biology. The Ph.D. thesis presented here focuses on the identification and characterization of novel oncogenes that play a role in the onset of lung tumor development as well as on the characterization of signaling pathway recruitment downstream of oncogenic receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs).
In this regard, we were able to identify two genes encoding for protein kinases being causative for tumor development and furthermore we were able to functionally validate both genes as being the relevant target of the respective inhibitor in-vitro. In detail, we identified:
- amplifications of the human version of v-src avian sarcoma (Schmidt-Ruppin A-2) viral oncogene (cSRC) as being causative and predictive for the sensitivity towards the clinical approved Src-Abl inhibitor dasatinib
- amplifications of the fibroblast growth factor receptor 1 (FGFR1) as being causative and predictive for the sensitivity towards the FGFR protein family inhibitor PD173074
- frequent amplifications of FGFR1 in squamous cell but no other type of NSCLC cells. Hence, we strongly suggest to treat patients suffering from FGFR1 amplified squamous cell lung tumors with FGFR1 inhibitors.
Furthermore, we utilized in-vitro chemical-genomic approaches and genetic engineering to functionally validate both, cSRC and FGFR1, as the relevant targets of the respective inhibitors in amplified cell lines.
And finally, we extended our already established high-throughput screening platform to be able to screen up to 1500 compounds as well as combinations of various signaling pathway inhibitors. To this end, we have screened 136 inhibitor combinations on 105 genetically defined cell lines to identify novel treatment options as well as specific signaling pathway recruitments within defined genetic conditions.
 Thus, amplifications of cSRC as well as FGFR1 lead to responsiveness towards small molecule inhibitors in NSCLC cells harboring amplification of either gene. We show that high throughput cell based screening of inhibitor combinations can be utilized to shed light into the complex recruitment of signaling pathways downstream of RTKs and lead to novel treatment strategies for patients suffering from lung cancer. And finally, we identified FGFR1 amplifications in up to 20% primary squamous cell lung cancer specimens, strongly suggesting to treat these patients with FGFR1 inhibitors.


The Agricultural Nonpoint Source model (AGNPS) is a single-event grid-based model used for simulating runoff, sediment and nutrients from agricultural areas. This study involved using geographic information system (GIS) spatial data and functionality to improve the spatial and temporal assignment of parameter values for the AGNPS 5.0 model and incorporated methods for representing urban fringe land uses and their nonpoint source (NPS) pollution contributions in model inputs. Auxiliary procedures for modeling with AGNPS were developed both for enhancing input into the model and for enhancing modeled output. On an event basis, one procedure automated the creation of complex-formatted AGNPS 5.0 model input files using GIS as a spatial data manager. One pair of alternative procedures were developed to automate the assignment of parameter values on an event basis. One procedure used typical average annual parameter values, and the second assigned parameter values using adaptations of existing time-dependent relationships. On a monthly basis, a sequencing procedure was created to perform multiple runs with the model for a list of storms while updating parameters for each event and aggregating monthly modeled spatial output. Another pair of alternative procedures were developed to facilitate the simulation of monthly output from AGNPS modeled events. The first of these aggregated event output for all storms in each month, while the second supplemented the aggregated output with baseflow and septic system loads. The study area was the 6,500 ha urbanizing Bull Run watershed in northern Virginia, which was modeled as 14,621 cells. Databases were assembled and 109 selected storm events within a 16-year period were modeled using the above procedures. Event data were added together, where necessary, to correspond with observed data from composite-sampled intervals. Output from the two event parameterization procedures were compared with monitored loads calculated for 89 composite periods, while output from the two monthly simulation procedures were compared with monthly monitored data for 23 complete months. The monitored-modeled comparisons were considered inconclusive. Evidence strongly suggested that the rainfall records from a rain gauge outside the watershed did not correspond well with monitored runoff. The average runoff produced with the AGNPS model from the 109 selected storms amounted to 40.7% of rainfall, consistent with the calculated long-term average of 38% for the Bull Run watershed. A nonpoint source pollution index was developed to utilize monthly modeled total nitrogen, total phosphorus, and suspended sediment. Individual rating curves were developed to separately transform loads and concentrations …


Abstract Benchmarks provide context and are a critical element of all ecological assessments. Over the last 25 y, hundreds of papers have been published on various aspects of ecological assessments, and most of the analyses described in these papers depend on specifying an ecological benchmark for context. Freshwater scientists and managers usually use reference sites (typically sites in natural or least-disturbed condition) to assess the ecological conditions at other sites. Accurate and precise assessments require that assessed sites be matched with appropriate reference conditions. Two general types of approaches have been proposed to predict reference conditions: classifications based on natural environmental settings and models that use continuously variable environmental attributes as inputs. Two types of classifications have been examined: geographic-dependent regionalizations based on general landscape features and geographic-independent typologies that are typically based on combinations of regional and channel features. We examined >1000 papers that addressed some aspect of predicting the reference condition in freshwater ecosystems. We focused on 5 types of benchmarks: ecological, thermal, hydrologic, geomorphic, and chemical. Our review showed that over the last 25 y, researchers have developed increasingly sophisticated methods that can be used to predict reference conditions. Most disciplines have increasingly moved toward site-specific modeling approaches as a way to improve both accuracy and precision of predictions, although typological approaches dominate geomorphic characterizations. Papers published in J-NABS have been especially important in advancing and refining methods for predicting ecological benchmarks. Much of the progress made in the science of ecological assessment emerged from research that advanced our understanding of how the spatial and temporal distributions of freshwater biota are related to naturally occurring environmental features and how those relationships can be most accurately and precisely described and predicted. Thus, the performance of ecological assessments is critically linked to how well we characterize freshwater environments, and research in the watershed sciences that addresses predicting thermal, hydrologic, geomorphic, and chemical attributes of freshwater ecosystems has paralleled research focused on predicting biota. We anticipate that knowledge produced from future collaborations between ecologists and watershed scientists coupled with the application of modern modeling techniques will largely determine progress in characterizing and predicting biota–environment relationships and, thus, the accuracy and precision of future ecological assessments.


This paper investigates the theoretical impact of including two empirically-grounded innovations in a lifecycle portfolio choice model. The first innovation is a portfolio adjustment cost which employees face when managing their financial wealth rather than delegating the task to a professional money manager. When jobspecific human capital is accumulated through learningby-doing, investing time in financial management imposes opportunity costs in terms of current and future human capital accumulation. The second innovation is the incorporation of agedependent efficiency patterns in financial decision making. These two innovations replicate observed inactivity in portfolio adjustment patterns, especially for younger and older employees. This framework also allows an analysis of the choice between managing one's own money and delegating the task to a financial advisor. The calibrated model quantifies welfare gains that the delegation option can bring to the lifecycle setting. Disciplines Economics This working paper is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/prc_papers/168 Costly Portfolio Adjustment and the Delegation of Money Management


Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) is a chronic pain condition that may occur after injury or trauma to a limb. The underlying pathophysiology of CRPS is largely undetermined, although CRPS patients commonly present with a persisting inflammatory response in the early stage of the condition and overexpress the α-1 adrenergic receptor (α-1AR) on nociceptors and keratinocytes in the affected limb. In other chronic inflammatory conditions, increased α-1AR mRNA expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) has been shown, and is thought to contribute to persisting inflammation. The α-1AR are expressed on a range of cells, including nerve, smooth muscle, skin and immune cells, and bind to adrenaline and noradrenaline released after activation of the sympathetic nervous system. The aims of this project were to examine the mRNA expression of α-1AR subtypes (α-1A, α-1B and α-1D) by qPCR in PBMCs isolated from fractionated blood of CRPS patients, and to quantify the percentages of various PBMC subpopulations compared to healthy controls. Subpopulations of PBMCs were determined by flow cytometry using a panel of fluorescent antibodies that identified CD4+ T cells, CD8+ T cells, CD4+ CD8+ T cells, CD4+ CD25+ T cells, CD8+ CD25+ T cells, B cells, natural killer (NK) cells, NKT cells, and subsets of monocytes. No differences in expression of α- 1AR subtypes in PBMCs of CRPS patients were found when compared to healthy controls. However, a significant increase in the concentration of total PBMCs isolated per mL of blood in CRPS patients and a shift from CD16- to CD16+ monocyte subpopulations was identified when compared to healthy controls. These results show there is an inflammatory component to CRPS and provide preliminary evidence that the persisting inflammation in CRPS patients may originate from over-proliferation of PBMC progenitors in the bone marrow, which is sympathetically modulated by α-1AR, and/or an expansion of other PBMC cell types that were not examined in this project.


Interior layered deposits within an embayment in the northern as well as near the southern wall of Coprates Chasma in the Valles Marineris, Mars are studied using HRSC, CTX, HiRISE and CRISM data. In the northern embayment, layered deposits outcrop in three separate locations (a western deposit, a central deposit and an eastern deposit). The central layered deposit in the north has a stratigraphic thickness of 2 km. The western layered deposit abuts against the chasma wall appearing to have a relatively un-eroded depositional surface. The eastern deposit is near a landslide scar which appears to have exposed basement layering showing downward displacement. This northern embayment is suggested to have been an ancestral basin. The triangular edged deposit near the southern wall of Coprates Chasma has an elongated mound protruding from the central edge and is suggested to be the outer limits of a fault block which is back rotated 6° south. The rotation may be the result of the Valles Marineris opening.


Production and use of hydrocarbon energy result in enormous release of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere, eventually causing the global climate change. Furthermore, the world is now facing a dual energy challenge, which is to minimize use of fossil fuels to decrease the impact of CO2 on climate change while meeting the growing global energy demand. To solve these challenges, development of an innovative technology capable of reducing or reusing CO2 as well as producing environmental-benign and sustainable energy using renewable energy sources is urgently required. As such, a technology that can produce solar fuel energy using water oxidation and CO2 reduction that mimics natural photosynthesis has been attracting extensive interest (Figure 1). Many approaches for solar-driven fuel production using artificial photosynthesis have been suggested and developed. Among them, a promising one is to use semiconductor-based photoelectrochemistry (PEC) because there are much potential to meet the requirement for sustainable, selective, and efficient production of solar-driven fuels and the proton-coupled electron transfer to CO2 by enhancing light absorption, charge generation, and separation through construction of a junction between semiconductors. For CO2 reduction, bare and Cu-electrodeposited p-Si electrodes were immersed in 0.1 M borate (pH 9.2) or 0.1 M bicarbonate (pH 7.2) electrolytes, to which AM 1.5 light of 100 mW/cm2 (1 Sun) was irradiated. Chopped linear sweep voltammograms showed that the onset potential is anodically shifted by 0.5 V and the photocurrent is significantly enhanced by Cu deposition. To examine the competitive reaction between water reduction (hydrogen evolution) and CO2 reduction occurring on p-Si/Cu, three different gases (O2, N2, CO2) were purged into the bicarbonate electrolyte solution. The purged gases change little the onset potentials. A high photocurrent with N2 compared to O2 indicates that water reduction becomes a primary electron-quenching process in the absence of dissolved oxygen. At low potential range, CO2 is most effective whereas N2 becomes more effective with increasing the negative potentials. Because the two-electron reduction potentials of H2O (H2 evolution) and CO2 (CO evolution) are very similar (only ~100 mV difference), the high photocurrent with CO2 at low potential range implies that the CO evolution may be the primary process. Instead of p-Si, a novel photocathode, p-CuFeO2 was also synthesized and its PEC performance was tested. The onset potential was around -0.2 V vs. SCE and the photocurrent increased with increasing the film thickness. Due to its transparency, this photocathode can be coupled with other transparent photoanodes for CO2 conversion.


MARITIME LAW. The Constitution of the U.S. asserts that the federal judicial power extends to all "cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction." Since we inherited our concepts of maritime law, like our common law, from Great Britain, it was assumed during the early years of the Republic that the boundary separating admiralty from other jurisdictions was, as it had been in England, coterminous with the high seas and the rivers of the country, so far as the saltwater tide reached. With that concept, it appeared that controversies regarding maritime matters on inland rivers and lakes (fresh water) fell to state, not federal, control. All this changed with a landmark decision by Chief Justice Roger Taney in 1851. Two vessels, the Cuba and the Genessee Chief, had collided on Lake Ontario about 40 miles below Niagara. When the Supreme Court was asked to settle the issue of proper jurisdiction for such a case, the Court ruled that, unlike England, admiralty (maritime) jurisdiction in the U.S. extended to all public navigable rivers and lakes where commerce is carried on between different states or with a foreign nation. With that ruling, federal courts in inland states became principal arenas for litigation of maritime matters. Those matters extended through a wide array of possible concerns: breaches of charter parties and contracts, collisions, demurrage, forfeitures, general averages, insurance, personal injuries, property damage, seamen's wages, salvage rights, maritime torts and negligent towage. By the time of Taney's ruling in the Genessee Chief case, Cleveland's future as a principal commercial center seemed quite assured. Its Lake Erie harbor offered connections eastward, by way of the Erie Canal, or southward, by way of the Ohio Canal (opened in 1832) to the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Lake and river traffic increased and so, too, did disputes for the federal district court to resolve. In 1855 that court was divided into Northern and Southern districts; it was inevitable that the Northern court, which sat in Cleveland, would become an active arena for determining maritime cases. And so it was: Judge HIRAM V. WILLSON, who presided over the court during its first decade, became a highly respected interpreter of admiralty law. As one historian has explained, in those years "there was an immediate influx of a great number of admiralty cases." This would continue for some decades; by 1875 the court was pronouncing decrees in almost 100 cases a year. Near the end of the century Sixth Circuit Court Judge William H. Taft explained that the Circuit "with its extensive shore line on four of the great lakes" (the Circuit included Michigan) recorded "admiralty business . . . second only to that of the Second or New York Circuit." By 1910 a second Northern Ohio judge was authorized and the district split into eastern (Cleveland) and western (Toledo) divisions. By that time the volume of admiralty cases in the court had begun to stabilize.Where judges sat to determine maritime matters, there too attorneys with skill in admiralty law might flourish. As commerce and the disputes it generated increased, it is not surprising to find that admiralty law became a distinct specialty within the Cleveland Bar. One of the early law firms focusing on maritime law was founded in 1843 by George Willey and John E. Cary. The firm was a predecessor of ARTER & HADDEN, a present-day firm that continues to practice in the maritime field. The preeminent Cleveland admiralty attorney during the formative years of Great Lakes maritime law--the last decades of the 19th and the first decades of the 20th century--was HARVEY GOULDER. Born in Cleveland in 1852, he was the son of a shipmaster and worked on his father's lake vessels during summers while he was still in school. He read law with John E. Cary and others, and was admitted to the bar in 1875. He formed a partnership with ALEXANDER HADDEN, the father of JOHN A. HADDEN who would become a founding partner of Arter & Hadden. Goulder is said to have handled more maritime trials throughout the Great Lakes region than any other lawyer of his time; he participated in at least 5 cases that were appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. From 1892 until 1925, when NEWTON D. BAKER succeeded him, he served as counsel for the LAKE CARRIERS ASSN., an organization of lake shipping owners from various Great Lakes' ports, headquartered in Cleveland, and he advocated the association's interests before federal agencies in Washington. He also was a founder of the CLEVELAND & BUFFALO TRANSIT CO., a combination of port tug companies. In his long career, Goulder worked with other attorneys who also enjoyed considerable reputations as admiralty lawyers. These men included (in various firm combinations) William McAlister, Hermon Kelley, Robert McCreary, Henry S. Sherman, Neil Beall, Carl Schipfer, and Blake Woman. Kelley's firm (Kelley and Cottrell in 1921) was one Cleveland firm openly pronouncing admiralty law as its sole specialty. Goulder's firm, through merger, became the present-day SPIETH, BELL, MCCURDY & NEWELL CO. In the 1940s, Gilbert R. Johnson, who then was counsel for the Lake Carriers Assn., formed a partnership with Robert Branand and John Jaeger and it, in turn, eventually merged with the current firm of THOMPSON, HINE & FLORY. Two additional names should be noted. S. Eldridge Sampliner, a native Clevelander, became legendary as a courtroom advocate for seamen in wage and other disputes falling within admiralty jurisdiction. And Roger Miller Lee, a Goulder partner and active proctor, taught the first admiralty law classes (or as the 1894-95 catalog titled it: "the Law of Shipping and Admiralty and Common Carriers") in the Western Reserve Univ. School ofLaw. Carl Ubbelohde Case Western Reserve Univ. Kennedy, James Harrison and Wilson M. Day. The Bench and Bar of Cleveland (1889). Marshall, Carrington T., ed. A History of the Courts and Lawyers of Ohio (1934). Neff, William B. Bench and Bar of Northern Ohio (1921). Reed, George Irving. Bench and Bar of Ohio (1897). Links: Maritime Law


Background: Surgery rapidly induces remission in Crohn's disease (CD) but patterns of clinical recurrence and healthcare utilization beyond 1 year have not been well characterized. CD is one of the most significant chronic gastrointestinal condition, that is associated with high morbidity and decreased quality of life. From a 2002 population based study Crohn's disease was found to affect about 400,000- 600,000 people in North America causing a significant public health burden and associated healthcare cost. Methods: Retrospective observational study of CD patients undergoing resection/anastomosis stratified by patterns of healthcare utilization during the two year follow-up: High Utilizer (HU) group who require CD related emergency department visit (ED), hospital admission (HA) or repeat bowel surgery (RS) in the 2 year post-operative period and Low Utilizer (LU) group who have none of these events. Results: There were 45 CD patients with resection and side-to-side anastomosis (49% males, age 40.5 years, 24.4% smokers, 33.3% previous resection, 62.2% laparoscopic). Within 2 years of surgery, 46.7% required abdominal CT scan (78 scans, 21 patients), 33.3% required ED evaluation (70 ED visits, 15 patients), 29% had HA (40 HA, 13 patients) and 6.7% had RS (3 surgeries, 3 patients). There were differences between the LU (N=30) and HU groups (N=15) in the rate of smoking (13% vs. 26%; p=0.02), presence of > 2 co-morbid medical conditions (3.3% vs. 46.7%; p=0.001), biologic use before surgery (23% vs. 60%; p=0.009), biologic use after surgery (13% vs. 47%; p=0.026) and post-operative steroid use ( 10% vs. 53%;p= 0.003). Inflammation on post-operative colonoscopy was identified in 24 % of patients (20% vs. 33%; p=0.4). Conclusions: In the 2 year post-operative period, 33% of patients required ED visit, 47% of patients warranted CT imaging for evaluation of abdominal pain, suggesting increased health care utilization in a subgroup of post-op patients with side-to-side anastomosis. In this era of increasing health care costs, from a public health standpoint, this study implies the need for effective treatment strategies to reduce IBD complications and related healthcare expenditure.


BACKGROUND
At the turn of the 20th century, women commonly died in childbirth due to rachitic pelvis. Although rickets virtually disappeared with the discovery of the hormone vitamin D, recent reports suggest vitamin D deficiency is widespread in industrialized nations. Poor muscular performance is an established symptom of vitamin D deficiency. The current U.S. cesarean birth rate is at an all-time high of 30.2%. We analyzed the relationship between maternal serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] status, and prevalence of primary cesarean section.

METHODS
Between 2005 and 2007, we measured maternal and infant serum 25(OH)D at birth and abstracted demographic and medical data from the maternal medical record at an urban teaching hospital (Boston, MA) with 2500 births per year. We enrolled 253 women, of whom 43 (17%) had a primary cesarean.

RESULTS
There was an inverse association with having a cesarean section and serum 25(OH)D levels. We found that 28% of women with serum 25(OH)D less than 37.5 nmol/liter had a cesarean section, compared with only 14% of women with 25(OH)D 37.5nmol/liter or greater (P = 0.012). In multivariable logistic regression analysis controlling for race, age, education level, insurance status, and alcohol use, women with 25(OH)D less than 37.5 nmol/liter were almost 4 times as likely to have a cesarean than women with 25(OH)D 37.5 nmol/liter or greater (adjusted odds ratio 3.84; 95% confidence interval 1.71 to 8.62).

CONCLUSION
Vitamin D deficiency was associated with increased odds of primary cesarean section.


PURPOSE
A phase I/II study of cixutumumab (IMC-A12) in children with refractory solid tumors was conducted. This study was designed to assess the toxicities, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics of cixutumumab in children to determine a recommended phase II dose and to assess antitumor activity in Ewing sarcoma (ES).

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Pediatric patients with relapsed or refractory solid tumors were treated with cixutumumab as a 1-hour intravenous infusion once per week. Two dose levels-6 and 9 mg/kg-were evaluated using a standard three-plus-three cohort design. Patients with refractory ES were treated in an expanded phase II cohort at each dose level.

RESULTS
Forty-seven eligible patients with a median age of 15 years (range, 4 to 28 years) were enrolled. Twelve patients were treated in the dose-finding phase. Hematologic and nonhematologic toxicities were generally mild and infrequent. Dose-limiting toxicities included grade 4 thrombocytopenia at 6 mg/kg and grade 3 dehydration at 9 mg/kg. Mean trough concentration (± standard deviation) at 9 mg/kg was 106 ± 57 μg/mL, which exceeded the effective trough concentration of 60 μg/mL observed in xenograft models. Three patients with ES had confirmed partial responses: one of 10 at 6 mg/kg and two of 20 at 9 mg/kg. Serum insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) levels consistently increased after one dose of cixutumumab. Tumor IGF-I receptor expression by immunohistochemistry did not correlate with response in patients with ES.

CONCLUSION
Cixutumumab is well tolerated in children with refractory solid tumors. The recommended phase II dose is 9 mg/kg. Limited single-agent activity of cixutumumab was seen in ES.


This research explores the impact of a three day Artist Residency Program at a K-8th public school on a Native American Reservation. The program is evaluated through a lens of Social Action Art Therapy and aims to uncover how this program impacted a community— including teachers, students, and parents, and facilitators. The researcher examined social action literature, social action art literature, social action art therapy literature, as well as social action with Native Americans literature. The researcher used a qualitative approach, specifically an Inquisitive Case study, in which data was collected through the researchers notes. These notes then informed the creation of a survey that was given to teachers as well as the Artist Residency program facilitators. Next, the researcher conducted interviews for further examination of the impact. All the data was placed into an organizing table in which four main themes and three minor themes emerged. The resulting data themes include: 1) Art illuminated the students Native American Hoopa identity and culture, 2) art increased student participation, facilitated storytelling, and conversations about the student's feelings and art provided a sense of agency, 3) art created and strengthened bonds among the students, teachers, parents and facilitators and facilitators were seen as role models for the students, and 4) the facilitator's desire to be involved in similar art therapy social action projects increased as they were personally and professionally impacted by the Artist Residency Program. Three minor themes include: a) Some teachers found new ways to integrate art in their classroom, b) the foreign art medium choice increased risk taking, engagement, creativity as well as provided students with new skills, c) some changes noted, more time needed to see larger change. These themes were then examined in the context of art therapy social action literature and findings suggested positive impacts of the social action art therapy informed Artist Residency program.


The scalability of optimal sequential planning can be improved by using external-memory graph search. State-of-the-art external-memory graph search algorithms rely on a state-space projection function, or hash function, that partitions the stored nodes of the state-space search graph into groups of nodes that are stored as separate files on disk. Search performance depends on properties of the partition; whether the number of unique nodes in a file always fits in RAM, the number of files into which the nodes of the state-space graph are partitioned, and how well the partition captures local structure in the graph. Previous work relies on a static partition of the state space, but it can be difficult for a static partition to simultaneously satisfy all of these criteria. We introduce a method for dynamic partitioning and show that it leads to improved search performance in solving STRIPS planning problems.


We have determined the sequences constituting the minimal promoter of mouse rDNA. A very small region immediately upstream of the transcription start site (from -1 to -39) is sufficient to direct correct transcription initiation. Sequences immediately downstream of the transcription start site (+1 to +11) increase the efficiency of transcription initiation. Point mutations within the core promoter have been generated and assayed for their effects on template activity and on interaction with the pol I specific transcription factor TIF-IB. The core promoter element appears to consist of two functionally different domains. The distal sequence motif from position -22 to -16 is recognized by factor TIF-IB. Mutations within this region lead to similar changes of both template activity and binding of TIF-IB. Two point mutations within the proximal sequence motif from -15 to -1 do not affect TIF-IB binding although they severely impair transcription initiation. It is suggested, that this proximal region plays a role in the assembly of functional transcription initiation complexes rather than in the primary binding of TIF-IB.


Secondhand smoke (SHS) has been well established as one of risk factor
for many diseases. Although exposure to SHS has been associated with
various medical conditions, the evidence on the effect of it on health-
related quality of life (HRQoL) is still limited. Therefore, the objective of this study is to examine the association between SHS with HRQoL. Terms and keywords relevant to secondhand smoking behaviors and HRQoL were used in a search of the electronic database. Three electronic databases (PubMed, Science Direct, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews) and Google Scholar were used. Searches were limited to English language, included papers: a) had clearly defined measures of SHS exposure and b) had clearly defined measures of outcome variables related to HRQoL. A total of 42 studies were initially retrieved and reviewed. After further review of references from the retrieved studies, 8 studies were finally selected that met all eligibility criteria. The reviewed studies consisted of three cross-sectional study analyses, two cohort studies, one longitudinal analysis and one study using bivariable and multivariable analysis. Those
findings consisted of varied number of population and conducted from
different countries. Exposure to SHS was associated with generally lower HRQoL, suggesting that detrimental effects of SHS exposure on HRQoL are not limited to patients with diseases (chronic disease, COPD, or heart failure) but also in healthy never smoking children and adult, both in man and woman. Our review study showed that SHS exposure towards healthy
or people with disease, children, adult, both in man and woman were
associated with decreased HRQoL. It can provide new evidence for stronger
smoke-free policies on public places and promoting smoke-free homes.


More than one billion people in the world are without access to safe drinking water. International health organizations promote boiling water as an effective household water treatment method in areas lacking expensive water treatment systems. However, the boiling point of water is well above the temperature required to inactivate the microbes that cause diarrheal disease and other waterborne illnesses, exacerbating problems such as resource scarcity and indoor air pollution. The Water Pasteurization Indicator (WAPI), a simple and inexpensive appropriate technology, is designed to minimize wasted time and resources, yet few studies document its use in the field. During a one-week philanthropic project in rural Hunan, China, community response to the introduction of WAPIs was measured through surveys and participant observation. Our results indicate that WAPI use in China may require not just minor adaptations to behavior, but a more comprehensive approach to increase cultural utility, as boiling water is a deep-seated tradition. This has implications both for future projects in China and for organizations worldwide involved in the dissemination of water treatment information.


Obsessive-compulsive disorder is a prevalent, disabling and chronic illness. Serotonin reuptake inhibitors are the first-line of treatment; however a large proportion of patients will have either a partial or nonresponse. This review outlines the strategies for treatment-resistant OCD, including augmentation agents, alternative monotherapies, intravenous strategies and newer nonpharmacologic somatic treatments under development.


The Maghreb region (North Africa) constitutes a major component of the Mediterranean Basin biodiversity hotspot. During the last centuries, a consistent human population growth has led to an unprecedented rate of habitat transformation and loss in the region and thus, threatening its biodiversity. The Western Mediterranean viper Vipera latastei-monticola inhabits humid and subhumid areas in the main mountain ranges of the Maghreb, facing such threatening factors; however, its elusive character and rarity hindered data collection for distinct biological purposes. Here, we study the biogeographical patterns and conservation status of the Maghrebian V. latastei-monticola resulting from recent sampling campaigns in Morocco and Tunisia. We update species distribution, and integrate phylogeographic and ecological niche modelling analyses at both species and lineage level to identify suitable areas, and to evaluate the impact of anthropogenic transformation and level of protection of their suitable space. We identified four highly divergent mitochondrial lineages, including a new lineage endemic to the Western High Atlas, with allopatric distributions and restricted to mountain ranges, supporting the role of mountains as past climatic refugia. Despite the remoteness of suitable areas, we report widespread habitat degradation and identify the low effectiveness of the current protected areas system in preserving the species and lineages range. Our study shows the urgent need to apply management actions for the long-term conservation of this vulnerable species and suggests a revaluation of the specific status of V. monticola , as these populations likely represent an ecotype of V. latastei .


This paper is aimed at evaluating the incidence of measurement error on the main variables collected in the Bank of Italyi?½s Survey of Household Income and Wealth (SHIW). The results are especially relevant to researchers using the data for economic analysis, since they need to take data quality into account. Moreover, a thorough knowledge of the problems affecting the survey gives indications for improvements in its design and implementation. Where time-invariant variables are concerned, measurement error is studied by assessing the degree of inconsistency of answers given by panel households in subsequent survey waves. In the case of quantities that have an actual variation in time, such as income or wealth, the Heise (1969) model is applied; if data from at least three waves are available, we can separate the true dynamics from the noise of measurement error, under assumptions that are fairly mild. The essay also touches upon the role of fieldwork conditions, interviewer and respondent features in the determination of data quality.


Over the past decade functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) has emerged as a powerful technique to locate activity of human brain while engaged in a particular task or cognitive state. We consider the inverse problem of detecting the cognitive state of a human subject based on the fMRI data. We have explored classification techniques such as Gaussian Naive Bayes, k-Nearest Neighbour and Support Vector Machines. In order to reduce the very high dimensional fMRI data, we have used three feature selection strategies. Discriminating features and activity based features were used to select features for the problem of identifying the instantaneous cognitive state given a single fMRI scan and correlation based features were used when fMRI data from a single time interval was given. A case study of visuo-motor sequence learning is presented. The set of cognitive states we are interested in detecting are whether the subject has learnt a sequence, and if the subject is paying attention only towards the position or towards both the color and position of the visual stimuli. We have successfully used correlation based features to detect position-color related cognitive states with 80% accuracy and the cognitive states related to learning with 62.5% accuracy.


Quantifying soil water storage, mixing, and release via recharge, transpiration, and evaporation is essential for a better understanding of critical zone processes. Here, we integrate stable isotope (2H and 18O of soil water, precipitation, and groundwater) and hydrometric (soil moisture) data from 5 long‐term experimental catchments along a hydroclimatic gradient across northern latitudes: Dry Creek (USA), Bruntland Burn (Scotland), Dorset (Canada), Krycklan (Sweden), and Wolf Creek (Canada). Within each catchment, 6 to 11 isotope sampling campaigns occurred at 2 to 4 sampling locations over at least 1 year. Analysis for 2H and 18O in the bulk pore water was done for >2,500 soil samples either by cryogenic extraction (Dry Creek) or by direct equilibration (other sites). The results showed a similar general pattern that soil water isotope variability reflected the seasonality of the precipitation input signal. However, pronounced differences among sampling locations occurred regarding the isotopic fractionation due to evaporation. We found that antecedent precipitation volumes mainly governed the fractionation signal, temperature and evaporation rates were of secondary importance, and soil moisture played only a minor role in the variability of soil water evaporation fractionation across the hydroclimatic gradient. We further observed that soil waters beneath conifer trees were more fractionated than beneath heather shrubs or red oak trees, indicating higher soil evaporation rates in coniferous forests. Sampling locations closer to streams were more damped and depleted in their stable isotopic composition than hillslope sites, revealing increased subsurface mixing towards the saturated zone and a preferential recharge of winter precipitation. Bulk soil waters generally comprised a high share of waters older than 14 days, which indicates that the water in soil pores are usually not fully replaced by recent infiltration events. The presented stable isotope data of soil water were, thus, a useful tool to track the spatial variability of water fluxes within and from the critical zone. Such data provide invaluable information to improve the representation of critical zone processes in spatially distributed hydrological models.


This white paper examines the technology behind Web Services, how the system is made available to the user, and the way connections are made to back-end (and therefore sensitive) data. These different elements come together to make Web Services a portal for users to access data, but also provide different entry points which may be exploited for illegitimate purposes. These security flaws bring about the need for an added security-assessing component in the Acunetix WVS solution. Support for Web Services vulnerability scanning is now provided by a dedicated component which is specifically designed to detect exploitable entry-points in a Web Services system.


Feature Issue on Passive Optical Network Architectures and TechnologiesFiber-to-the-home (FTTH) development in Japan is described. Although the title says Japan, the descriptions are primarily from the standpoint of NTT with overviews of the latest Japanese FTTH market trends and discussion of the driving force behind FTTH growth. Also introduced are technologies used to realize the massive FTTH rollout such as FTTH system architecture and easy construction schemes for prompt and massive FTTH service offerings.