Conventional computing systems are limited in performance by the well-known von Neumann bottleneck, arising from the physical separation of processor and memory units. The use of electrical signals in such systems also limits computing speeds and introduces significant energy losses. There is thus a pressing need for unconventional computing approaches, ones that can exploit the high bandwidths/speeds and low losses intrinsic to photonics. A promising platform for such a purpose is that offered by integrated phase-change photonics. Here, chalcogenide phase-change materials are incorporated into standard integrated photonics devices to deliver wide-ranging computational functionality, including non-volatile memory and fast, low-energy arithmetic and neuromorphic processing. We report the development of a compact behavioral model for integrated phase-change photonic devices, one which is fast enough to allow system level simulations to be run in a reasonable timescale with basic computing resources, while also being accurate enough to capture the key operating characteristics of real devices. Moreover, our model is readily incorporated with commercially available simulation software for photonic integrated circuits, thereby enabling the design, simulation and optimization of large-scale phase-change photonics systems. We demonstrate such capabilities by exploring the optimization and simulation of the operating characteristics of two important phase-change photonic systems recently reported, namely a spiking neural network system and a matrix-vector photonic crossbar array (photonic tensor core). Results show that use of our behavioral model can significantly facilitate the design and optimization at the system level, as well as expediting exploration of the capabilities of novel phase-change computing architectures.


ABSTRACT Studies of early childhood educators' perceptions of work intensity and complexity have shown that ensuring a good balance between workload and the time needed to complete the work is critical for work quality, work satisfaction, and staff retention. This article explores the possibilities of time-use data for making visible the diversity and complex patterns of early childhood work. Pen-and-paper time-use diaries were completed for one full day by 21 educators working in preschool and child care centers, generating a total of 168 hours of data. Diary entries were coded using the Taxonomy of Early Childhood Work to identify the types of activities performed, the time spent in each activity, and changes in work activities across the day. On average, educators worked an 8-hour day, of which 60% was spent in direct contact with children in intentional teaching, routine care and transition, "being with" children during play, and providing emotional support. Other activities included organizing the indoor/outdoor play areas, administration, planning/evaluation, professional learning, and staff breaks. The findings demonstrate the benefits of time-use methodology as a means of objectively identifying and quantifying the diversity, complexity, and intensity of early childhood educators' work.


Diabetes Mellitus (DM) has become one of the most important metabolic diseases that reduces one's quality of life and doubles the risk of early death. Amongst the major complications linked to DM, diabetic retinopathy (DR) leads to gradual loss of vision and blindness. DR is now the second cause of certifiable blindness among the working age adults in the UK. The lifetime costs to the UK government are calculated to be up to £327,000 per person, with almost 50% of these costs being attributed to loss of productivity caused by visual impairment and blindness. The UK is one of the leading countries in the implementation of DR screening programmes. The latter rely heavily on fundus imaging and grading using trained experts and subsequent referral to hospital for further clinical examination and evaluation depending on the grade of retinopathy. It is now known that subtle, structural changes in the retina that are linked to diabetes can precede detectable vascular changes. The former can affect one's colour vision and this offers the potential of using changes in chromatic sensitivity as an early biomarker of retinal disease.

The first part of this thesis focuses on measuring chromatic sensitivity using the colour assessment and diagnosis (CAD) test in diabetic subjects with varying degrees of retinopathy. The severity of colour vision loss is graded in comparison to other factors that are normally linked to diabetes, such as the type, grade, control methods and duration. The results of this study reveal losses of both red / green and yellow / blue chromatic sensitivity in patients with diabetes, but the correlation with factors, normally associated with high risk of diabetes is low. The results from this study do, however, show that the magnitude of chromatic sensitivity losses correlates with the severity of diabetic retinopathy.

The second, related study examines the effectiveness of intravitreal injection of a dexamethasone implant (Ozurdex) in patients with diabetic macular oedema (DMO) in stabilising and reducing loss of visual function and in particular the reduction in chromatic sensitivity up to 24 weeks. This treatment demonstrated efficacy in the treatment of chronic DMO and DMO which is resistant to anti-VEGF treatment. The results show that intravitreal treatment with Ozurdex causes improvement is visual acuity, central retinal thickness and significant improvement in red / green chromatic sensitivity.


"Practical Ethics in Clinical Neurology: A Case-Based Learning Approach Practical Ethics in Clinical Neurology" (PECN) is a case-based ethics textbook designed for readers who want a concise, accessible book to help them assess and resolve ethical challenges in everyday practice. With chapter topics and case content that reflect commonly encountered issues in adult and pediatric neurology, "PECN" meets the needs of students, residents, fellows, and practicing neurologists. With easy, web-based access to key guidance documents from the American Academy of Neurology, and references to important sections in Dr. James L. Bernat's "Ethical Issues in Neurology, 3rd ed." (the most highly respected ethics textbook in neurology), "PECN" helps readers focus on the essential ethical and professional considerations in each case. Directors of medical student clerkships and residency programs in neurology will find that "PECN" helps them meet the learning objectives of the AAMC, ACGME, and ABPN. Look inside and explore: case-based approach places key ethical principles into a practical, real-world context to aid in decision-making; an outstanding array of learning features includes the following sections: Learning Objectives, Clinical Vignettes, Questions to guide self-study and group discussions, Key Points, Key Words, Suggestions for Further Reading, and more; and clinical pragmatism model helps readers analyze ethical issues in a clinical context.


BACKGROUND Nigella sativa and its derivatives have been reported to have anti-inflammatory and bronchodilator effects, but the effects have been evaluated in only a few clinical studies. OBJECTIVES To determine the effect of N sativa supplementation on inflammation of the airways and limitation of airflow in partly controlled asthma patients. DESIGN Single-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized study. SETTING Asthma and allergy clinic of a university hospital in eastern Saudi Arabia. PATIENTS AND METHODS Patients were divided into three groups. A control group (n=24) received the placebo, while NS-1 and NS-2 groups (n=26 each) received 1 and 2 g/day of N sativa, respectively, for 3 months along with maintenance inhaled therapy. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S) Asthma control test (ACT) score, fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO), peak expiratory flow (PEF) variability and other pulmonary function tests, IgE, serum cytokines, and frequency of exacerbations. RESULTS FEF25-75% and FEV1 (% predicted) increased significantly (P<.05) at both 6 and 12 weeks in the NS-2 group. PEF variability significantly improved in both NS-1 and NS-2 groups at 6 and 12 weeks as compared with the controls (P<.05). FeNO and serum IgE decreased significantly after 12 weeks in both the NS-1 and NS-2 groups vs baseline (P<.05). Both doses of N sativa produced a significant increase in the serum IFN-γ at 12 weeks vs baseline (P<.05) as well as a significant improvement in the ACT score at 6 and 12 weeks vs baseline (P<.001, <.01). Significantly fewer patients had exacerbations in the NS-1 group (P<.05). CONCLUSION N sativa supplementation with inhaled maintenance therapy improves some measures of pulmonary function and inflammation in partly controlled asthma. LIMITATIONS No bronchoalveolar lavage or sputum samples taken for measurement of asthma markers.


The patient is the lifeblood of the hospital and only win customers can win the future. When choosing a hospital, in addition to the strength of the medical treatment of the hospital itself, patients considering most are the services of the hospital which is the very factor that can influence customer making decision. Clearly, the needs of patients can't be achieved in overcrowded public hospitals. This paper starts from the content of E-Business, analyzes the current situation and problems of private hospital development, points out that development of E-Business to enhance customer relationship management is the only way to solve the practical problems of private hospitals, gives personal attention of private hospitals overall E-Business solutions and development strategies.


In recent years, the construction of accurate geological models and subsequent upscaling for reservoir simulation are commonly built from an integration of subsurface and surface datasets. Surface data can supply additional information on facies variability and small scale heterogeneity needed for a robust reservoir model, yet impossible to attain from subsurface data. This study therefore presents an outcrop characterisation study of the Permian Kookfontein deltaic succession using a combination of detailed sedimentary log, gamma-ray log and photopanel analysis.

Based on texture and sedimentary structures, twelve depofacies are recognised which are broadly grouped into four lithofacies associations i.e. sandstone facies, heterolithic facies, mudstone facies and soft-sediment deformation facies. Following a hierarchical procedure, these depofacies and lithofacies form the basic building blocks for the flooding surface-bounded facies succession (i.e. cycle). Lateral juxtaposition of observed vertical facies variations across each cycle in an inferably basinwards direction exhibits upward change in features, i.e. decrease in gravity effects, increase in waves and decrease in slope gradient of subsequent cycles. This systematic upward transition in features, grading vertically from distal to proximal, represents a deposition of mid-slope to shelf-margin succession exhibiting an overall upward thickening and coarsening with progradational stacking pattern typical of a normal regressive prograding delta. However, in detail, cycles show some anomalies from a purely thickening and coarsening upward succession. Deposition of each cycle is believed to result from:

1. primary deposition by episodic and probably sporadic mouthbar events governed by stream flow dynamics; and

2. secondary remobilisation of sediments under gravity.

The architecture and geometry of the ensuing depo-system is interpreted to have been a river-dominated, gravitationally reworked and wave-influenced shelf edge Gilbert-type delta. Widespread distribution of soft-sediment deformation structures, their growth-style and morphology within the studied succession are empirically related to progradation of Gilbert-type mouthbars over the shelf break as well as the slope gradients of the Kookfontein deltaic clinoformal geometry. Apparently, low-slope gradients may have favoured mostly loading and dewatering structures rather than large-scale slumps.

Although shale content (shaliness) estimation from gamma-ray logs offers a quick and straightforward way for assessing reservoir potentiality of encountered facies in the field, this is rather crude and therefore its reliability requires detailed petrographic characterisation for confirmation. The described internal heterogeneity in this work is below the resolution (i.e. mm-scale) of most conventional well-logs, and therefore could supplement well-log data especially where there is no borehole image and core data. The combination of 'descriptive' facies model and schematic geological model for our specific delta make the results of this study applicable to any other similar ancient depo-system and particularly subsurface reservoir analogue.


As exemplified in this bibliographical essay, that includes about 2000 references, prehispanic ball courts and ballgames in Mesoamerica have been the focus of numerous studies, while the discovery of ball courts and related artifacts is continuous. In the last few weeks before completing this work, the author received information concerning two new discoveries a newly recognized panel depicting a ballgame at the Maya site of Quirigua (Guatemala), and a third ball court within the Tenochtitlan sacred precinct under the National Palace in Mexico. These are just two of the most recent additions to a long list of bibliographical references, on a very controversial theme, that characterizes Mesoamerica and other related areas.


Sartika Swalayan as one of the supermarket and place for the detergent product market has an important role in meeting the needs and desires of consumers, so consumers are satisfied using the detergent product. Therefore, Sartika Supermarkets must do a good marketing strategy and know the products it sells, including the sale of detergent products. To know and analyze the detergent product sales next period can use markov chain analysis, while for consumers to know that many groups use a certain brand of detergent to use biplot analysis is to find out more attributes prioritized by most consumers in choosing a particular brand of detergent. From the research results can be seen that brand switching and the highest sales for October and November are held by Rinso detergent brand that is equal to 26%, 24%, 25% as compared to other brands of detergent such as So-klin (22%, 19%, 17% ), Surf (14%, 17%, 15%), Daia (11%, 10%, 8%), Attack (20%, 21%, 31%), B-29 (4%, 5%, 2% ) and other brand (3%, 4%, 2%), so that the detergent is widely used by consumers are brand Rinso Sartika Supermarkets. Pricing and content of detergents is the first ranking into consideration the consumer into buying detergent.


Context. This is the second paper of a series making use of Herschel/PACS spectroscopy of evolved stars in the THROES catalogue to study the inner warm regions of their circumstellar envelopes (CSEs).
Aims. We analyse the CO emission spectra, including a large number of high-J CO lines (from J = 14–13 to J = 45–44, ν = 0), as a proxy for the warm molecular gas in the CSEs of a sample of bright carbon-rich stars spanning different evolutionary stages from the asymptotic giant branch to the young planetary nebulae phase.
Methods. We used the rotational diagram (RD) technique to derive rotational temperatures (Trot) and masses (MH2) of the envelope layers where the CO transitions observed with PACS arise. Additionally, we obtained a first order estimate of the mass-loss rates and assessed the impact of the opacity correction for a range of envelope characteristic radii. We used multi-epoch spectra for the well-studied C-rich envelope IRC+10216 to investigate the impact of CO flux variability on the values of Trot and MH2.
Results. The sensitivity of PACS allowed for the study of higher rotational numbers than before indicating the presence of a significant amount of warmer gas (∼200 − 900 K) that is not traceable with lower J CO observations at submillimetre/millimetre wavelengths. The masses are in the range MH2 ∼ 10−2 − 10−5 M⊙, anticorrelated with temperature. For some strong CO emitters we infer a double temperature (warm T¯rot ∼ 400 K and hot T¯rot ∼ 820 K) component. From the analysis of IRC+10216, we corroborate that the effect of line variability is perceptible on the Trot of the hot component only, and certainly insignificant on MH2 and, hence, the mass-loss rate. The agreement between our mass-loss rates and the literature across the sample is good. Therefore, the parameters derived from the RD are robust even when strong line flux variability occurs, and the major source of uncertainty in the estimate of the mass-loss rate is the size of the CO-emitting volume.


Study Design. Multicenter, retrospective analysis, prospective database, consecutive case series. Objective. This study examines multicenter variability in patient-level surgical resource use, including implants, biologics, and length of stay (LOS), alongside health-related quality-of-life (HRQoL) improvements after adult spinal deformity (ASD) surgery. Summary of Background Data. Efficiency in surgical resource use is critical to high-value health care. Decision makers and payers are placing increasing scrutiny on the costs and outcomes associated with complex spine surgery. Little is currently known regarding the variation in resources used and associated outcomes in complex spine surgeries. Methods. HRQoL outcomes were calculated from the Oswestry Disability Index, disease-specific 22-item Scoliosis Research Society questionnaire, and Medical Outcomes Study Short Form 36-question health survey domain scores. Changes in HRQoL were estimated as the difference between baseline and 2-year values. Patient-level surgical resources included blood use, bone morphogenetic protein volume, LOS, and implants. Patients were classified by mild, moderate, or severe sagittal modifier and analyzed across centers using analysis of variance and multivariable regression. Results. We analyzed 251 ASD patients, who were predominantly female (n = 207, 85%) with an average of 56 years (range 18–84 years). Significant differences were found in the average 2-year change in HRQoL across centers; however, this difference was found insignificant after controlling for patients within the same modifier groups (P > .05). However, significant differences were found across centers in average resources used per surgery (P < 0.05), with only LOS not reaching significance (P > 0.05). After accounting for clinical, demographic, and regional characteristics at the patient level, variation among centers persisted in resource use with no corresponding statistical differences in HRQoL outcomes. Conclusion. The use of additional surgical resources does not appear to impact 2-year HRQoL outcomes after surgery for ASD. The estimated impact of physician preference on surgical resource utilization highlights the variation in current surgical practice and the opportunity for cost reductions via a more standardized approach. Level of Evidence: 3


Background We characterized associations between smoking, alcohol, and recreational drug use and coronary plaque by HIV serostatus within the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study (MACS). Methods MACS participants (N = 1005, 621 HIV+ and 384 HIV-) underwent non-contrast CT scanning to measure coronary artery calcium; 764 underwent coronary CT angiograms to evaluate plaque type and extent. Self-reported use of alcohol, tobacco, smoked/inhaled cocaine, methamphetamine, ecstasy, marijuana, inhaled nitrites, and erectile dysfunction drugs was obtained at semi-annual visits beginning 10 years prior to CT scanning. Multivariable logistic and linear regression models were performed, stratified by HIV serostatus. Results Among HIV+ men, current smoking, former smoking, and cumulative pack years of smoking were positively associated with multiple coronary plaque measures (coronary artery calcium presence and extent, total plaque presence and extent, calcified plaque presence, and stenosis >50%). Smoking was significantly associated with fewer plaque measures of comparable effect size among HIV- men; current smoking and calcified plaque extent was the only such association. Heavy alcohol use (>14 drinks/week) was associated with stenosis >50% among HIV+ men. Among HIV- men, low/moderate (1–14 drinks/week) and heavy alcohol use were inversely associated with coronary artery calcium and calcified plaque extent. Few significant associations between other recreational drug use and plaque measures were observed. Conclusion Smoking is strongly associated with coronary plaque among HIV+ men, underscoring the value of smoking cessation for HIV+ persons. Alcohol use may protect against coronary artery calcium and calcified plaque progression in HIV- (but not HIV+) men. Few positive associations were observed between recreational drug use and coronary plaque measures.


I recently returned from Kosovo, where I worked with the American Bar Association during an extended leave from my law school. As part of my preparation to train Kosovo defense counsel, I immersed myself in trials for ethnic crimes. I observed several complete trials and segments of a number of other trials. All the defendants were Serbs charged with committing genocide, war crimes, or comparable crimes against Kosovo Albanians. I was fascinated by the frightful swirl of confusion and aggression in these cases, by the tension between justice, politics, and revenge. Although I saw only one full day of trial in the case of Igor Simic, it was this case that fascinated me most. The case is emblematic of the UN's struggle to establish a judicial system for Kosovo. On the day I attended, all the deficiencies of that system presented themselves in stunning array. On March 24, 1999, U.S. planes began bombing Serbia and its province of Kosovo. According to court documents and the accounts of survivors, on April 14, 1999, approximately three weeks after this NATO air campaign began, Serb forces arrived in a mixed Serb-Albanian neighborhood of the city of Mitrovica. The neighborhood had previously been isolated by Serb checkpoints. The Serbs instructed the Kosovo Albanians to remain in their houses and apartments with their identity cards at the ready. If the cards were in order, the Serbs promised, nothing would happen. The Kosovo Albanians complied. Then Serb paramilitaries in ski masks, most carrying firearms, but some brandishing what the indictment in translation termed "cold weapons" (knives and axes), knocked on the Albanian doors of M. Popovic Street and ordered the men to remain inside and the women and children to come out. The Kosovo Albanians did as they were told. Once on the street, the women and children were shoved to one side. The men were then ordered out and instructed to lie on the ground. The scene on the street degenerated into pandemonium. The Serbs, approximately one hundred, including regulars in the army, reservists, and paramilitaries (still in ski masks), milled about, apparently without an officer or leader clearly in charge. Women cried out for their husbands, fathers, and brothers; some of the Serbs barked orders and fired their automatic weapons into the air; children screamed hysterically. Eventually the women and children were herded onto buses, which would wander around western Kosovo before depositing their cargo at the Albanian border. Some of the women reported hearing gunfire coming from their neighborhood as they trudged to the buses. Eight weeks later, Slobodan Milosevic, President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, capitulated to NATO demands by ordering the army of the Federal Republic (now the de facto army of Greater Serbia) to evacuate Kosovo. The bombing had lasted for seventy-eight days, far longer than anyone in the West had anticipated. With the army went the Serb police and paramilitaries, and soon thereafter 150,000 Serb residents of Kosovo and almost as many Roma. These civilians were unwilling to find out firsthand what the returning Kosovo Albanians might have in store for them. The decision by civilian Serbs and Roma to flee was a wise one. The Kosovo Albanians, especially the guerilla fighters of the Kosovo Liberation Army and related factions, were in no mood for nice distinctions. Too many Kosovo Albanians had been massacred (8,000-10,000 according to UN estimates); too many women raped (20,000 according to estimates of the Kosovo Center for the Protection of Women and Children); too many homes burned, bombed, or knocked down manually by brickbat (over 50 percent of all Kosovo Albanian residences according to UN estimates). These atrocities had followed ten years of humiliating apartheid and terrifying suppression of the Kosovo Albanians at the hands of the Serbian government under Milosevic. All Serbs were now regarded as murderers or accessories, and all Roma as their collaborators. …


Multi-wavelength in situ reflectometry at normal incidence has been applied to monitoring metal organic vapour phase epitaxy of GaN films on sapphire (0 0 0 1) substrates. A new quantitative analysis model has been developed to incorporate time-dependent light scattering by a rough surface, and a time-dependent vertical growth rate during growth on a rough surface, into the virtual interface model that has previously been applied to multilayer structures with optically smooth surfaces and interfaces. It is shown that the vertical growth rate increases as the surface roughness decreases in the early stage of high-temperature GaN growth, reaching a limiting value when the surface becomes optically smooth. The time dependence of growth rate is correlated with microscopic crystal growth mechanisms on the rough surface, which involve mass transport on the facets and/or mass exchange between the growing surface and gas-phase ambient. Our optical modelling is supported by direct morphological investigations of films from growths terminated at various stages, using atomic force microscopy. High-temperature optical constants of GaN layers extracted from the simulations are well matched to literature values.


This work is an effort to formalise some quantum algorithms and results in quantum information theory. Formal methods being critical for the safety and security of algorithms and protocols, we foresee their widespread use for quantum computing in the future. We have developed a large library for quantum computing in Isabelle based on a matrix representation for quantum circuits, successfully formalising the no-cloning theorem, quantum teleportation, Deutsch's algorithm, the Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm and the quantum Prisoner's Dilemma.


To understand the impact of competition on organizational service reliability decisions, this study investigates whether firms in the airline industry consider competitors' actions when making their service reliability decisions. Using data from the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics on flight cancellation rates and average length of flight delays, the authors use two complementary approaches, a simultaneous equation model and a discrete game framework, to examine competitive influence on firm decisions on the level of service reliability. The authors find that competitive effects are asymmetric and differ by the type of firm and its competitors—full-service versus low-cost airlines—as well by level of market concentration. The authors show that internal initiatives, such as on-time bonuses, can substantially improve service reliability but require the firm to account for competitive reactions. Ignoring competitive effects leads to an overestimation of the impact of these programs on service reliability levels.


The planning of large scale industrial parks in China began in the 1980s. The circular economy, especially in eco-industrial parks, is supported; thus the need for technique assessment methods for cleaner production measures in such complex production networks. This paper presents the concept of the multi objective pinch analysis (MOPA), which consists of a combination of pinch analyses with different targets (energy consumption, wastewater generation, consumption of solvents, etc.) and a subsequent multi-criteria analysis. The starting point for its development was the fact that pinch analyses are well-established tools for plant layout design in large chemical installations, whereas such support for small and medium sized enterprises (SME) is still lacking. With the proliferation of industry parks (especially in industrialising countries) and the agglomeration of SME in close neighbourhoods, the potential arises for a coupling of by-product streams for reuse, once a critical mass is reached. In such production networks, various kinds of process streams exist, which call for the various types of pinch analysis. The application of MOPA is demonstrated in a case study on bicycle coating.


We investigate a novel Bayesian analysis method, based on the Stochastically Lighting Up Galaxies (slug) code, to derive the masses, ages, and extinctions of star clusters from integrated light photometry. Unlike many analysis methods, slug correctly accounts for incomplete initial mass function (IMF) sampling, and returns full posterior probability distributions rather than simply probability maxima. We apply our technique to 621 visually confirmed clusters in two nearby galaxies, NGC 628 and NGC 7793, that are part of the Legacy Extragalactic UV Survey (LEGUS). LEGUS provides Hubble Space Telescope photometry in the NUV, U, B, V, and I bands. We analyze the sensitivity of the derived cluster properties to choices of prior probability distribution, evolutionary tracks, IMF, metallicity, treatment of nebular emission, and extinction curve. We find that slug's results for individual clusters are insensitive to most of these choices, but that the posterior probability distributions we derive are often quite broad, and sometimes multi-peaked and quite sensitive to the choice of priors. In contrast, the properties of the cluster population as a whole are relatively robust against all of these choices. We also compare our results from slug to those derived with a conventional non-stochastic fitting code, Yggdrasil. We show that slug's stochastic models are generally a better fit to the observations than the deterministic ones used by Yggdrasil. However, the overall properties of the cluster populations recovered by both codes are qualitatively similar.


The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of parental support on college students' academic performance of Asia-Pacific International University (AIU) in Thailand. The research aimed to investigate the relationship between parental support and academic achievement among Thai and International students at AIU in Thailand.   In addition, the study sought to find out the level of parental support among Thai and International students at AIU, and the differences in parental support. Using stratified sampling, ,60 undergraduate students aged between 17 years to 25 years old from five Asia-Pacific International University (AIU) dormitories were selected to participate in this study. A survey instrument for data collection consisted of a demographic questionnaire and a Likert-scale questionnaire.  The data were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) for Windows, Version 21.  An independent samples t-test was used to determine the differences between Thai and International students on parental support. Spearman rho correlation coefficients between parental involvement variables and cumulative grade point averages (CGPA) were reported. The findings revealed that academic performance cannot be adequately explained by parental support. Findings of this study also showed that although there is positive influence on the family relationship between the parents and students at the college level, it does not adequately explain academic performance among students. The present study was an attempt to inform college administrators and educators of the importance of parental support at the university level. Therefore, the main recommendation is that,  college administrators should look into how parents support their college students and establish strategies for encouraging emotional and social parental support to children in college...For further research necessary to consider the varying impacts of parental support within the lives of the children, such as investigating the impact of having little or no parental support.


In meta reinforcement learning (meta RL), an agent learns from a set of training tasks how to quickly solve a new task, drawn from the same task distribution. The optimal meta RL policy, a.k.a. the Bayes-optimal behavior, is well defined, and guarantees optimal reward in expectation, taken with respect to the task distribution. The question we explore in this work is how many training tasks are required to guarantee approximately optimal behavior with high probability. Recent work provided the first such PAC analysis for a model-free setting, where a history-dependent policy was learned from the training tasks. In this work, we propose a different approach: directly learn the task distribution, using density estimation techniques, and then train a policy on the learned task distribution. We show that our approach leads to bounds that depend on the dimension of the task distribution. In particular, in settings where the task distribution lies in a low-dimensional manifold, we extend our analysis to use dimensionality reduction techniques and account for such structure, obtaining significantly better bounds than previous work, which strictly depend on the number of states and actions. The key of our approach is the regularization implied by the kernel density estimation method. We further demonstrate that this regularization is useful in practice, when `plugged in' the state-of-the-art VariBAD meta RL algorithm.


Commonly, kinematic PPP techniques employ un-differenced ionosphere-free linear combination of GPS observations. This, however, may not provide continuous solution in urban areas as a result of limited satellite visibility. In this paper, the traditional un-differenced as well as between-satellite singledifference (BSSD) ionosphere-free linear combinations of GPS and GLONASS measurements are developed. GPS and GLONASS precise clock and orbital products are obtained from the multi-GNSS experiment (MGEX). The effects of ocean loading, earth tide, carrier-phase windup, sagnac, relativity, and satellite antenna phase-center variations are rigorously modeled. Extended Kalman filter (EKF) is developed to process the combined GPS/GLONASS measurements. A comparison is made between three kinematic PPP solutions, namely standalone GPS, standalone GLONASS, and combined GPS/GLONASS solutions. In general, the results indicate that the addition of GLONASS observations improves the kinematic positioning accuracy in comparison with the standalone GPS PPP solution. In addition, BSSD solution is found to be superior to that of the traditional un-differenced model.


A novel spectroscopic technique for the observation of the temporal development of small spatial structures of temperature and major-species mole fractions in turbulent f lames has been developed. It uses two independent lasers and linewise, single-pulse detection systems for Raman-Rayleigh-scattered light. With this technique, all major-species concentrations, temperature, and positions of vortices and f lame fronts, combined with scalar dissipation in two directions or heat release, can be measured, for the first time to our knowledge, as a result of one pair of laser pulses separated either in space or time. This yields, to our knowledge, the highest number of correlated quantities that have been obtained in probing turbulent f lames of simple chemistry.


Hybridization and selection has been one of the methods used to generate turfgrass cultivars in buffalograss improvement. Three half-sib populations were developed by crossing three buffalograss female genotypes, NE 3296, NE 2768, and NE 2769, with NE 2871, a male genotype, to 1) investigate the pattern of genetic variability generated for turfgrass characteristics through hybridization; 2) assess the effect of parental change on the level of genetic variability generated in a buffalograss diploid population; and 3) predict the performance of a progeny generated from two heterozy- gous parents for turfgrass performance. The four parents and 20 random F1 progeny selected from each population were established in 2006 at the John Seaton Anderson Turfgrass Research Facility located near Mead, NE. A randomized complete block design (RCBD) was used with the progeny nested in the crosses. A visual rating scale of 1-9 was used to evaluate the population. Mean population lateral spread, genetic color, density, and turfgrass quality from early summer to fall ranged from 3.5 to 4.5, 7.1 to 7.9, 6.9 to 8.1, and 5.2 and 6.8, respectively. There were significant differences among the crosses and the parents for all the traits studied except quality in June and August. The progeny nested within crosses differed for turfgrass genetic color and quality. Best linear unbiased prediction (BLUP) indicated a high improvement potential for turfgrass lateral spread and spring density in NE 2768 · NE 2871 and for turfgrass genetic color in NE 3296 · NE 2871. From these findings, it can be concluded that hybridization breeding is a worthwhile approach for generating and identifying transgressive segregants for specific buffalograss traits.


Machu Picchu, recently voted one of the New Wonders of the World, is one of the world's most famous archaeological sites, yet it remains a mystery. Even the most basic questions are still unanswered: What was its meaning and why was it built in such a difficult location? Renowned explorer Johan Reinhard attempts to answer such elusive questions from the perspectives of sacred landscape and archaeoastronomy. Using information gathered from historical, archaeological, and ethnographical sources, Reinhard demonstrates how the site is situated in the centre of sacred mountains and associated with a sacred river, which is in turn symbolically linked with the sun's passage. Taken together, these features meant that Machu Picchu formed a cosmological, hydrological, and sacred geological centre for a vast region.


Redefining Trial by Media: Towards a critical-forensic linguistic interface applies a range of linguistic models to recast trial by media not as a sensationalist and infrequent phenomenon, but as a systematic and routine process. Using critical discourse analysis and cognitive linguistic models, this book builds a Spectrum of Trial by Media which views juries in criminal trials as moulded by ideological media-made constructions of crime. The role of these media constructions is enhanced by the isolation levied on jurors by the linguistic composition of trial language, and reinforced by the language strategies of legal professionals in court. Critically deconstructing media portrayals of crime and forensically examining the language of criminal proceedings, this book offers a redefinition of trial by media which casts the role of the press as much more prevalent in the courtroom trial than is presently appreciated.


Multiple global and local stressors threaten populations of the bladderwrack Fucus vesiculosus (Phaeophyceae). Baltic F. vesiculosus populations presumably have a lower genetic diversity compared to other populations. I investigated the adaptive potential under multifactorial environmental change in F. vesiculosus germlings. Effects of warming and acidification were crossed during one year at the two levels "present" and "future" (according to the year 2110) at the "Kiel Outdoor Benthocosms" by applying delta-treatments. Effects of warming varied with season while acidification showed generally weak effects. The two factors "ocean acidification and warming" (OAW) and nutrients were crossed showing that nutrient enrichment mitigated heat stress. Germlings previously treated under the OAW x nutrient experiment were subsequently exposed to a simulated hypoxic upwelling. Sensitivity to hypoxia was enhanced by the previous OAW conditions. Difference in the performance of genetically different sibling groups and diversity level were observed indicating an increased adaptive potential at higher genetic diversity. Different sibling groups were analysed under multiple factors to test correlations of genotypic sensitivities. Sensitivity towards warming, acidification and nutrient enrichment correlated positively while sensitivities towards OAW and hypoxia showed a negative correlation demonstrating that genotypes previously selected under OAW are sensitive to hypoxic upwelling. In a literature review, responses of marine organisms to climate change were analysed through different levels of biological organisation showing that climate change has different effects on each single level of biological organisation. This study highlights that global change research requires an upscaling approach with regard to multiple factors, seasons, natural fluctuations, different developmental stages and levels of biological organisation in the light of the adaptive potential.


Amphibolites typically lacking visual signs of Pb–Zn mineralization are associated with pelitic gneisses at the Cannington and Maramungee 'Broken Hill-type' Pb–Zn–Ag deposits in the eastern Mount Isa Inlier. Within 150 m of the sulphide-rich lodes these have consistently anomalously high chalcophile metal contents. The enrichments broadly mimic the primary distinctions between the two deposits in respect to the relative abundances of Zn, As and Pb. At Maramungee, metal concentrations of thin amphibolites broadly increase towards the mineralized rock body and comparison with data from gneisses illustrates the general superiority of basic rocks as a sample medium due to their inherently low Pb-content and comparatively homogenous primary chemistry. Most amphibolite at Cannington occurs in a single metamorphosed sill that is consistently anomalous, though with irregular chalcophile element distributions. Petrographic and SEM studies show that the metal enrichments are related to sulphides in complex retrograde parageneses which have selectively replaced metamorphic (calcic) plagioclase. Most galena occurs as sub-10 μm grains. Chalcophile elements were dispersed in a hydrous fluid and selectively enriched in the amphibolites during retrograde metamorphism under greenschist to sub-greenschist facies conditions. Routine analysis of basic rocks for Pb (and Zn) might therefore provide a simple proximity indicator for Broken Hill-type deposits, especially in poorly exposed terrains where amphibolites are the most common cause of magnetic anomalies tested by exploration drilling.


[1] The amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere is a function of many interrelated processes in atmospheric, oceanic, hydrological, biological, and human realms. Constraining the contributions of these realms to global carbon budgets hinges on knowledge of the ocean's role in carbon cycling, which in turn depends on the ocean's chemical state and biological activity. Both are dependent on element and nutrient inputs from continental sources—the more elements that reach the ocean in a form readily consumable by life, the more productive micro-organisms that form the foundation of the ocean's food supply can be. Thus, on a fundamental level it is important to know how and where continental inputs reach the ocean. Fluxes traditionally considered in seawater element budgets are dissolved river inputs, dissolution of atmospheric dust, hydrothermal inputs, diffusive fluxes from deep-sea sediments, and submarine groundwater discharge. Interestingly, though most of the marine element budgets include a provision for small contributions from dust dissolution [Jickells et al., 2005], the dissolution of solids deposited along the ocean margins is usually ignored. Yet recent studies show that sediments on continental slopes and shelves contribute significantly to the dissolved elements found in seawater. Tracing and understanding these contributions will help scientists to get a better picture of ocean circulation, biological productivity, and carbon cycling.


This article questions the criminal justice emphasis on filmed confession as the superlative evidentiary proffer that promotes accuracy and minimizes unconstitutional coercion by comparing filmed confessions to autobiographical film. It suggests that analyzing filmed confessions as a kind of autobiographical film exposes helpful tensions between the law's reliance on confession as revealing the inner self and the literary and filmic conception of confession as constituting one self among many. Through a close examination of several filmed confessions along side an examination of the history of autobiographical writing and film, this article shows how filmed confessions do not reveal the truthfulness or honesty of the defendant's statement. To the contrary, close examination of filmed confessions evidences the performative aspect of all confessional acts. Like autobiographical film subjects, filmed defendants perform their criminality, or enact their legal identity as guilty on film. Framing the confession through a film camera (as increasingly police and detectives do) stresses the qualities of confessional speech as always in the process of forming an identity, and therefore as inherently unstable and manifold. Building on an earlier article that criticizes the nationwide trend that requires the filming of criminal confessions by comparing filmed confessions to a form of documentary filmmaking, this article engages the same critique by examining filmed confessions as a form of autobiographical film. Doing so relocates the analysis of the filmed confessions from one of truthfulness and voluntariness of the spoken confession to one of advocacy and persuasion by the speaking subject. Analysis of several filmed confessions shows how filmed confessions are more akin to filmed autobiographies: performances of identity in relation to the constraints of the discursive medium (the interrogation). What we learn from the filmed confession is the limits of film and of law to reveal the truth of the crime. This critical perspective undermines the state's assertion that filmed confessions unambiguously denote the defendant's voluntary recitation of his criminal act.


Karol Maliszewski
Spirituality of Literature. A Case of Antoni Matuszkiewicz
The author in his sketch describes the early lyrics of Antoni Matuszkie- wicz. He emphasizes that what has been modernist in them, the avant- garde shape of the poem, has been marked by a special spiritual fervor, as if Matuszkiewicz tried to reconcile in a single record a revealing metaphor with something eternal, with something what seems like a mystical spir- itual formation. Matuszkiewicz, in a dispute over poetry, is on the side of those who believe in a substantial image of the world and, hence, the metaphysical nature of literature.


Instant electronic access to digital information is the single most distinguishing attribute of the information age. The elaborate retrieval mechanisms that support such access are a product of technology. But technology is not enough. The effectiveness of a system for accessing information is a direct function of the intelligence put into organizing it. Just as the practical field of engineering has theoretical physics as its underlying base, the design of systems for organizing information rests on an intellectual foundation. The subject of this book is the systematized body of knowledge that constitutes this foundation.Integrating the disparate disciplines of descriptive cataloging, subject cataloging, indexing, and classification, the book adopts a conceptual framework that views the process of organizing information as the use of a special language of description called a bibliographic language. The book is divided into two parts. The first part is an analytic discussion of the intellectual foundation of information organization. The second part moves from generalities to particulars, presenting an overview of three bibliographic languages: work languages, document languages, and subject languages. It looks at these languages in terms of their vocabulary, semantics, and syntax. The book is written in an exceptionally clear style, at a level that makes it understandable to those outside the discipline of library and information science.Digital Libraries and Electronic Publishing series


The management of pain differs if pain is self limiting or persistent; for example, if pain is prolonged then treatment will be managed by a multidisciplinary team in a pain clinic. Pain is not just from physical disorders but also from combinations of physiological, pathological, emotional, psychological, cognitive, environmental, and social factors (fig 1). The keys to successful pain control are the mechanisms that initiate and maintain pain. Major advances in neurobiology, from molecular studies to imaging the cortex of the brain, show the complex integration of nerve cell activity and have generated a fundamental change in attitude and expectation about the control of pain.1 Now, the public and health professionals expect to control pain by using preventive and active strategies, including drugs and physical and psychosocial interventions.

Fig 1
Biopsychosocial factors that interact and modulate the experience of pain

The topics we have chosen result from discussions with all grades of staff involved in the management of acute and chronic pain and range from new drug development based on scientific evidence that may impact on future pain management to a holistic approach to patient care. Our searches focused on the key words "pain," "systematic review," "management," and "neuropathic." We searched Medline, the Cochrane Library, and Health Technology Assessments, and we scrutinised the BMJ and the National Institutes of Health websites as well as professionally based websites for pain, such as that of the International Association for the Study of Pain and scientific websites such as that of the National Academy of Sciences. We identified systematic reviews from the past three years from these sources and leading scientific papers.

#### Recent developments

A major change in pain management is a move from empirical therapies to a mechanism based approach

New drug developments are targeting specific receptor subtypes

Pain assessment includes qualitative sensory affective and …


Synchrotron radiation laboratories are large scientific facilities where various scientific experiments are carried out by the use of radiation produced by particle accelerators. Research with synchrotron radiation emerged in the 1960s and 1970s as a peripheral activity at particle physics laboratories. It has since expanded and taken over facilities from particle physics, and developed specialized accelerators of its own, gradually becoming an important resource for a variety of scientific disciplines, foremost for different types of studies of materials on atomic and molecular level. This thesis is a study of the institutionalization of synchrotron radiation – its scientific and technological, but also political and sociological, development. Three case studies, chosen to complement each other, highlight different aspects of this process. The Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource in Menlo Park, California, was a pioneering laboratory in the early days of synchrotron radiation. MAX-lab in Lund, Sweden, originated as a small scale university project and expanded gradually to become a national and international user facility. The European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble, France, is a multinational collaborative European project and one of the world's largest synchrotron radiation laboratories. The analysis is organized around three themes: the changing dynamics of science, changes in science policy, and the identification of scientific entrepreneurs – actors with particularly strong roles in the institutionalization. In recent decades, science has encountered increased demands for accountability and social and economic returns, resulting in disciplinary and organizational restructurings and internal sociological changes. These include the collectivization of scientific research and the sophistication of scientific instrumentation. The thesis identifies synchrotron radiation laboratories as manifestations of these trends; they are a new type of 'big science', sustaining small scale science in various fields – small science on big machines. It is argued that both the laboratories and the scientific activities they host are particularly well adapted to the new social and political conditions.


To develop credibility of synthetic seismograms for engineering applications, there is a need for a quantitative score that can be used to characterize the how well the synthetic matches the statistical characteristics of observed records. Recognizing that strong motion is a very complex time series and any measure that relies on a single parameter for the comparison is seriously incomplete, this paper examines use of a suite of measurements. To be specific, we score seismograms that have been filtered into up to ten narrow pass-bands. Each frequency band is scored on ten different characteristics. The characteristics scored are the peak acceleration, peak velocity, peak displacement, Arias intensity, the integral of velocity squared, Fourier spectrum and acceleration response spectrum on a frequency-by-frequency basis, the shape of the normalized integrals of acceleration and velocity squared, and the cross correlation. Each characteristic is compared on a scale from 0 to 10, with 10 giving perfect agreement. Scores for each parameter are averaged to yield an overall quality of fit. A score below 4 is a poor fit, a score of 4-6 is a fair fit, a score of 6 to 8 is a good fit, and a score over 8 is an excellent fit. One horizontal component of an actual seismogram typically fits the other horizontal component in the "good" range. The method is applied to a blind prediction of ground motions at a station 3 km from the fault in the M7.9 Denali Fault, Alaska, earthquake of November 3, 2002. 1 Nevada Seismological Laboratory and Department of Geological Sciences, Mackay School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, College of Science, University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada 89557. Phone: 775784-4265. Email: email@example.com


Many approaches for testing configurable software systems start from the same assumption: it is impossible to test all configurations. This motivated the definition of variability-aware abstractions and sampling techniques to cope with large configuration spaces. Yet, there is no theoretical barrier that prevents the exhaustive testing of all configurations by simply enumerating them if the effort required to do so remains acceptable. Not only this: we believe there is a lot to be learned by systematically and exhaustively testing a configurable system. In this case study, we report on the first ever endeavour to test all possible configurations of the industry-strength, open source configurable software system: JHipster, a popular code generator for web applications. We built a testing scaffold for the 26,000+ configurations of JHipster using a cluster of 80 machines during 4 nights for a total of 4,376 hours (182 days) CPU time. We find that 35.70% configurations fail and we identify the feature interactions that cause the errors. We show that sampling strategies (like A. Halin, G. Perrouin (FNRS research associate) PReCISE, NaDI, Faculty of Computer Science University of Namur, Belgium E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com A. Nuttinck CETIC, Belgium E-mail: email@example.com M. Acher IRISA, University of Rennes I, France E-mail: email@example.com X. Devroey SERG, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands E-mail: email@example.com B. Baudry KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com dissimilarity and 2-wise): (1) are more effective to find faults than the 12 default configurations used in the JHipster continuous integration; (2) can be too costly and exceed the available testing budget. We cross this quantitative analysis with the qualitative assessment of JHipster's lead developers.


BACKGROUND
Little is known about the health and well-being of the 'hidden majority' of parents with mild intellectual disability (ID), who are less likely to be in contact with disability services.

METHOD
We sought to add to knowledge in this area by examining the health and living conditions of parents with and without intellectual impairment in a large contemporary nationally representative sample of UK parents aged between 16 and 49 years old (n = 14 371).

RESULTS
Our results indicated that, as expected, parents with intellectual impairment were at significantly greater risk than other parents of having poorer self-reported general, mental and physical health. They were also at significantly greater risk of experiencing higher rates of household socio-economic disadvantage and environmental adversities and lower rates of neighbourhood social capital and intergenerational support. Adjusting risk estimates to take account of between group differences in household socio-economic disadvantage eliminated statistically significant differences in health status between parents with and without intellectual impairment on all but one indicator (obesity). Further adjusting risk estimates to take account of between group differences in neighbourhood adversity, neighbourhood social capital and intergenerational support had minimal impact on the results.

CONCLUSIONS
That controlling for between-group differences in exposure to socio-economic disadvantage largely eliminated evidence of poorer health among parents with intellectual impairment is consistent with the view that a significant proportion of the poorer health of people with IDs may be attributable to their poorer living conditions rather than biological factors associated with ID per se.


Background
Evidence from armed conflict settings points to high levels of intimate partner violence (IPV)
against women. Current knowledge on how to prevent IPV is limited – especially within waraffected
settings. This research aims to inform the prevention of IPV in conflict-affected
settings, specifically identifying community exposures to violence and traumatic events and
their consequences among men and women and the impact of an IPV prevention
intervention in Cote d'Ivoire.
Methods
This thesis represents a coordinated programme of research comprised of four studies: (1) a
systematic review of violence against women (VAW) prevention interventions in conflict
settings; (2) a community survey to determine community levels of exposure and
perpetration of IPV, non-partner violence and traumatic events before, during and after a
period of conflict; (3) a cluster randomised controlled trial to determine the added value of
an IPV prevention intervention working with men; and (4) a nested cohort study to assess
the gendered and temporal impact of violence and the intervention on mental health.
Results
The systematic review uncovered an extensive VAW prevention programme but limited
research on its effectiveness. The community survey found high levels of IPV, non-partner
violence and traumatic events among women and men. Women experienced higher overall
levels of violence compared with men. The cluster RCT found significant differences
between men in the intervention and control groups with regard to their ability to manage
conflict and their increased engagement in gender-equitable behaviours. Among women,
the cohort study found that factors significantly associated with post-traumatic stress
disorder (PTSD) included male partner alcohol use and experience of IPV in the past year.
Men were strongly protected from PTSD if they cohabitated with their female partner. A
research commentary further advocates for violence prevention programming in conflict
settings with attention to all forms of violence against women, including IPV.
Conclusion
In conflict-affected settings, policy approaches and interventions that aim to improve the
lives of survivors should work towards programming that promotes gender equality and
protects women and girls from abuse.


The field of organizational storytelling research is productive, vibrant and diverse. Over three decades we have come to understand how organizations are not only full of stories but also how stories are actively making, sustaining and changing organizations. This edited collection contributes to this body of work by paying specific attention to stories that are neglected, edited out, unintentionally omitted or deliberately left silent.

Despite the fact that such stories are not voiced they have a role to play in organizational analysis. The chapters in this volume variously explore how certain realities become excluded or silenced. The stories that remain below the audible range in organizations offer researchers an access to study political practices which marginalise certain organisational realities whilst promoting others. This volume offers a further contribution by paying heed to silence and the processes of silencing. These silences influence the choice of issues on organisational agendas, the choice of audience(s) to which these discourses are addressed and the ways of addressing them.

In exploring these relatively understudied terrains, Untold Stories in Organizations comprises an important contribution to the organizational storytelling space, opening paths for new trajectories in storytelling research.


In the wake of recent tensions in Catholic Jewish relations in the United States, this article examines the implementation of the Second Vatican Council's decision "to evaluate and define in a new way the relationship between the Church and the faith of Israel," as Pope Benedict XVI has described it. Official documents of the Vatican Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews and a body of papal teachings put forth by Pope John Paul have authoritatively delineated the direction according to which the Council is to be interpreted and put into practice. This trajectory of implementation has begun to articulate what could be called a "theology of shalom" concerning the Catholic Church's relationship to Judaism and the Jewish people, which includes a respect for Judaism's continuing covenantal life with God and a commitment to interreligious dialogue for the purpose of mutual understanding. However, this post-conciliar trajectory is challenged by Catholics who fear that the universal salvific mediation of Christ is being threatened. Advancing theological concepts that express a sort of "neo-supersessionist" devaluation of Judaism, these critiques necessarily disregard relevant papal and Vatican teaching. The article ends with an examination of the magisterial weight of the conciliar and post-conciliar implementing documents, concluding that their clear direction must be followed. As John Paul II declared, "It is only a question of studying them carefully, of immersing oneself in their teachings and of putting them into practice."


JPEG-LS is the latest pixel based lossless to near lossless still image coding standard introduced by the Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG). In this standard simple localized edge detection techniques are used in order to determine the predictive value of each pixel. These edge detection techniques only detect horizontal and vertical edges and the corresponding predictors have only been optimized for the accurate prediction of pixels in the locality of diagonal edges. In this paper we propose a low complexity, low cost technique that accurately detects diagonal edges and predicts the value of pixels to be encoded based on the gradients available within the standard predictive template of JPEG-LS. We provide experimental results to show that the proposed technique outperforms JPEG-LS in terms of predicted mean squared error, by a margin of up to 8.51%.


ABSTRACT This article explores food culture and child-feeding practices, focusing on children below five years among the Bena and Luguru ethnic groups located in Njombe and Mvomero rural districts in Tanzania. In these two societies existing cultural norms, and beliefs related to child feeding focusing on breastfeeding and complementary feeding were investigated aiming at understanding how every-day practices on child feeding are socially and culturally constructed by actors including parents or guardians, thus giving cultural meanings that are attached to every-day realities on child feeding. The article is part of a larger research project whose overall purpose was to investigate the outcome of milk-based nutrition interventions involving dairy goat and cattle-keeping with the aim among others to improve health and nutritional status of family members, especially children below five years in societies where prevalence of malnutrition particularly undernutrition is rather high. Methods used included participant observation, in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and semi-structured interviews. Findings show that early after birth, pre-lacteal feeds are commonly introduced in both societies and the most common complementary food includes plain maize porridge. On the other hand, milk consumption among children was rather limited. Existing food habits and feeding practices seem to be informed by widely-shared norms and beliefs. However, these culturally established practices do not always meet the current international recommendations on child feeding. Besides, recommendations and nutritional information on child feeding have largely not been used as suggested. This paper argues that, for the successful introduction and implementation of nutrition-based interventions targeting children, it is important to identify and improve upon the indigenous child-feeding practices, reflecting existing food habits, food-related beliefs, and their meanings.


Spontaneous synaptic vesicle fusion is triggered by soluble proteins that compete with synaptotagmins to induce membrane curvature. Synaptic vesicle release occurs in different phases that can be tightly coupled to action potentials (synchronous), immediately following action potentials (asynchronous), or stochastic events not triggered by action potentials (spontaneous). The vesicle protein synaptotagmin is thought to act as the Ca2+ sensor in the synchronous phase, but for the other two phases, Ca2+ sensors have not been identified. Groffen et al. now show that cytoplasmic proteins known as Doc2 (double C2 domain) proteins are required for spontaneous release. Doc2 proteins promote membrane fusion in response to exceptionally low increases in Ca2+ and are several orders of magnitude more sensitive to Ca2+ than synaptotagmin. Doc2 and synaptotagmin compete for SNARE-complex binding during membrane fusion. A mutation that abolishes the Ca2+ dependence of Doc2b also abolishes the Ca2+ dependence of spontaneous release. Thus, Doc2 is a high-affinity Ca2+ sensor for spontaneous release that competes with synaptotagmin for SNARE complex binding. A. J. Groffen, S. Martens, R. Díez Arazola, L. N. Cornelisse, N. Lozovaya, A. P. H. de Jong, N. A. Goriounova, R. L. P. Habets, Y. Takai, J. G. Borst, N. Brose, H. T. McMahon, M. Verhage, Doc2b is a high-affinity Ca2+ sensor for spontaneous neurotransmitter release. Science 327, 1614–1618 (2010). [Abstract] [Full Text]


It is now known that neutrophils make up a population of complex cells with great plasticity, challenging the old view of neutrophil association with tissue damage and early phases of infection. Here, we discuss different contexts in which these cells can induce anti-inflammatory responses. Although distinct surface markers and cytokines profiles were shown, the most reliable characterization of suppressor neutrophil subtypes relies on their functional characteristics. One important example of inhibitory neutrophils generation comes from in vivo treatment with G-CSF, for 5 days, as for hematopoieticstem-cell-transplantation (HSCT). In this case,donor blood is enriched in degranulated granulocytes harboring a functional regulatory phenotype, characterized by IL-10 production. These cells, when transferred together with HSCT, are able to reduce graft-versus-host-disease, being influenced by Treg cells and influencing them back. Importantly, this protection is long lasting and specific, keeping immunocompetence to other antigens. This regulation is paramount in HSCT, and represents a simple approach to be applied in humans. In summary, we discuss the interaction of neutrophils with other cell types and its consequence in immunomodulation. We believe these features confer an important bridge between innate and adaptive immune system, building a new knowledge for an underestimated cell type.


In an increasingly globalized and multilingual world, contemporary trends in migration have created challenges for the educational systems in destination countries, as children from a variety of linguistic and educational backgrounds join mainstream schools. In the UK, for example, over 1.17 million (1 in 6) current school students study through the medium of English as an Additional Language (EAL), a figure that has increased significantly in recent years.

Although the needs of EAL students are an increasing focus of research and practice, attention in the UK has until now been more directed towards primary rather than secondary-level pupils and schools. This paper therefore reports on the project 'The experiences of secondary school students with English as an Additional Language: perceptions, priorities and pedagogy', contributing to our knowledge of the less explored teenage age-group. The project uncovered the experiences of students living and studying in a reasonably typical urban setting in Britain – Tyneside, that is, the city of Newcastle and its neighbouring urban environment in the north east of England. Tyneside is becoming an increasingly an important centre for immigration and for the teaching of children with EAL, partly as a consequence of the UK government's policy of dispersing asylum seekers around the country, and the challenges surrounding EAL, if not 'new', are often new in scale, while local experiences, perspectives and expertise remain under-researched and shared.

Taking a case-study approach, therefore, this project brought together the perspectives of secondary-level EAL students and their teachers in two Tyneside schools, by collecting qualitative focus group and interview data alongside classroom observation fieldnotes. It sought to answer the key research question 'How do secondary-level school students with English as an Additional Language experience school in the UK?', while additionally exploring whether the perspectives and school experiences of EAL students from differing geographical backgrounds, with differing migration and educational histories, and with differing skills and abilities varied. Consequently, the study aimed to consider the implications of these student experiences for pedagogic practice, practitioners and other stakeholders in the field, not only for those working in this project's particular setting, but for those working with secondary-level EAL students elsewhere in the UK and also internationally, in EMI environments.

The findings offer clear evidence that, while students who speak English as an Additional Language may to some extent face 'a commonality of issues', they are individuals who experience school in differing ways. Coming from a diverse range of backgrounds, EAL students bring with them to school a range of prior experiences and abilities which overlap, inter-relate and combine in complex ways that underpin an individual pupil's school life. Teacher (and institutional) awareness of individuals' backgrounds, prior experiences, skills and repertoires is central to developing a fuller understanding of, and offering support for, any challenges particular students might face both in the classroom and in school more generally.

The study demonstrates that the relationship between language, access to the curriculum and identity is a central issue for EAL students. However, it also suggests that for many, perceived needs and priorities change over time. Students with less English proficiency, who in this study were often Immediate New Arrivals in school, are unsurprisingly very concerned with developing their immediate language and communication skills, in order to access the curriculum, participate more fully in class, and develop social networks in the classroom and beyond. Although their own language and home culture is a central part of their lives and identities, their key focus is the development of the English skills necessary to succeed at school. However, for students who are more proficient in English, perhaps those who have been in the UK for a longer period and who are more familiar with UK school culture(s), the need to maintain their own (i.e., home) identity is prioritised in contexts where differences between their home and the school environment are not widely recognised. From this perspective, therefore, it is possible to conceptualise EAL speakers not only as students who need supporting and resourcing, but also as students who are themselves a multilingual and multicultural resource from whom others can learn and through which schools might celebrate diversity.


A multipurpose beamline for tests and developments in the field of x‐ray optics and synchrotron radiation instrumentation in general is under construction at the Swiss Light Source (SLS) bending magnet X05DA. The beamline uses a newly developed UHV compatible, 100 μm thick, brazed CVD diamond vacuum window. The very compact cryogenically cooled channel cut Si(111) monochromator and bendable 1:1 toroidal focusing mirror at 7.75m from the source point are installed inside the shielding tunnel. The beamline covers a photon energy range of about 6 to 17 keV. We expect 5 ⋅ 1011 photons/s within a 100 μm spot and a resolving power of 1300. The monochromator and focusing mirror can be retracted independently for unfocused monochromatic and focused "white" light operation respectively.


The Facebook API allows web developers to create Facebook applications and access Facebook data from other applications. Facebook API Developers Guide covers the use and implementation of the Facebook APIwhat the key features are and how you can access them. You will learn, through practical examples, the main features of the Facebook API including an introduction to the APIspecific languages FQL and FBML. These examples are further supported by the introduction of other technologies like language libraries, relational database management systems, and XML. Covers all key features of the Facebook API Explains the API languages FQL and FBML Teaches by example, with useful code and tips you can use in your own applications What youll learn Provides real language description of the API thats easy to understand Presents multiple API examples that you can use in your own projects Fills holes in the official documentation Demonstrates integration with other technologies Illustrates how adoption of socialtechnical behavior shapes technology design Shows that Facebook development is fun! Who is this book for? This book is for web developers wanting to learn how to leverage the API in their own applications or how to create bespoke applications in Facebook. It will also appeal to Facebook users who are interested in using the API to develop their own programs. The code in the book is aimed at the beginnertointermediate level, so you dont need to be a pro to use it, but some programming or web development experience is recommended. Related Titles Practical Rails Social Networking Sites Pro Web 2.0 Mashups: Remixing Data and Web Services Creating Mashups with Adobe Flex and AIR


A questionnaire was administered to 231 teacher education students of a university in Hong Kong to examine their epistemological beliefs, conceptions of learning, and learning strategies. The three variables were measured respectively using the Epistemological Beliefs Scale (EBS) (Chan & Elliott, 2002), Conceptions of Learning Inventory (COLI) (Purdie & Hattie, 2002) and Revised Two Factor Study Process Questionnaire (R-SPQ-2F) (Biggs, Kember, & Leung, 2001). Correlation and path analysis showed significant relations between epistemological beliefs and conceptions of learning and learning strategies. The results suggest the significant roles of epistemological beliefs in learning, through their impact on and relations with the conceptions of learning and strategies adopted by the students. Implications were drawn with suggested ways for further research on their relationships and other metacongitive variables in learning such as achievement or motivation goals. The research findings would provide significant and valuable knowledge in this area and enable a better understanding of the nature and process of learning.


An argument against abolishing legal reserve requirements is that money multipliers would become more volatile and unpredictable in the absence of reserve requirements, thus impairing the central bank's effectiveness in controlling money aggregates. This study examines the Canadian experience during 1970-2004, where a zero reserve requirement regime has become fully effective since June 1994. The findings show that all money multipliers, except the M1 multiplier, under this current regime have become less volatile than before. Furthermore, shortand medium-term ex ante forecasts based on the Holt-Winters exponential smoothing model indicate that the money multipliers have not become apparently more unpredictable. Overall, the findings do not lend strong support to the monetary control argument for reserve requirements.


Distribution of potentially harmful microalgae and algal blooms were investigated at monthly and weekly time scales between October 2009 and September 2010 in the Golden Horn, a eutrophic estuary in the Sea of Marmara (Turkey). Several physical and chemical parameters were analysed together with phytoplankton composition and abundance. A total number of 23 potentially harmful and/or bloom-forming microalgae (14 dinoflagellates, 4 diatoms and 5 phytoflagellates) were identified throughout this study period, of which nine taxa have been confirmed to be toxic elsewhere in the world. Most harmful species and algal blooms were observed in late spring and summer particularly in the middle and upper estuaries, and nine taxa formed dense and successive algal blooms causing water discoloration. Nutrient concentrations increased significantly from the lower to the upper estuary. Additionally, high organic matter loads in the upper estuary could also have benefited by mixotrophic species. The increasing number of potentially harmful and bloom-forming species and algal blooms indicated that the GHE is a potential risk area for future HABs.


The Park Grass Experiment (PGE), begun at Rothamsted Experimental Station in 1856 and still running, affords a unique opportunity to test for the influence of species number and soil reaction on biomass variability in a suite of comparable plant communities. Biomass variability was measured by calculating the coefficient of variation ( CV ) over time of annual hay yield in an eleven-year moving window. CV and species number were both strongly negatively correlated with biomass; both relations were affected by time and pH. Multiple regression of CV on species number and mean biomass for nonacidified plots in 42 years between 1862 and 1991 showed a relationship between biomass and CV which was negative in most years and significantly so in nearly three quarters of them (30/42). We are unable to tell how much of this effect is intrinsic to the statistical relation between the mean and CV of biomass. Species number was negatively correlated with CV in 29/42 years, but this was statistically significant on only three occasions. Because this relation was highly significant in the year (1991) for which we have the largest sample size (34 plots), we tentatively conclude that biomass variability may be lower in more species-rich communities, although the effect is possibly a weak one. We suggest that physiological stresses imposed by low pH may explain the greater variability of plots with acidified soil. An increase in the variability of biomass that occurred across plots with time may be due in part to acidification across the whole experiment. Three hypotheses are proposed to explain the relationship between species richness and biomass variability: (i) biomass variability on more species-rich plots is better buffered against climatic variation because species differ in their response to climatic conditions: (ii) there are fewer species on plots with greater biomass variability because species have been lost by competitive exclusion in years when biomass reaches high values; (iii) species richness and variability are both correlated with a third variable, for example soil moisture deficit within a plot. All three hypotheses are susceptible to testing within the PGE.


source coding with side-information, Wyner-Ziv, Laplacian distribution, Gaussian distribution, channel codes, LDPC codes, Turbo codes, arithmetic codes A large number of practical coding scenarios deal with sources, for instance transform coefficients that can be well modeled as Laplacians. In regular practical coding of such sources, samples are often quantized by a family of uniform quantizers possibly with a deadzone, and then entropy coded. For the Wyner-Ziv coding problem when correlated sideinformation is available at the decoder, the side-information can be modeled as obtained by additive Gaussian or Laplacian noise on the source. This paper deals with optimal choice of parameters for practical coding of such sources in presence of side-information, using the same quantizer structure as in the regular codec, assuming that the variances of the source and additive noise are known. We first consider memoryless coding which may be the only option in some coding scenarios, and then follow up by considering coding using powerful channel codes with soft decoding that approach the Slepian Wolfe bound. We show that in the latter case, at practical block lengths and code complexities, not pure channel coding but a hybrid combination of source coding and channel coding provides optimal rate-distortion performance. A good understanding of the optimal parameter choice mechanism is essential for building practical codecs that can be used in a variety of scenarios.


AbstractWhen logging through certain water-wet sand-shale sequences offshore Malaysia, the thermal neutron porosity measurement from an 8-in logging-while-drilling (LWD) tool exhibits an apparent lack of dynamic range in its sandstone porosity response. Petrophysicists using these data to determine sandstone-silt-shale points were finding that the shale points fell too near the sandstone line to be usable. An extensive nuclear Monte Carlo modeling campaign was performed to address this issue, which indicated that the tool response, while unexpected, was accurate. Modeling verified that neutron logs can exhibit a poor dynamic range just by happenstance, but an accurate assessment of the shale volume fraction VSH should still be feasible. Surprisingly, the shale responses for this LWD tool, a smaller LWD tool, and a wireline tool are quite similar, invalidating a common expectation that LWD tools should be noticeably more epithermal in their response, and thus be less sensitive to absorbers in the clays. Mo...


The problem of identifying an unknown pollution source in polluted aquifers, based on known contaminant concentrations measurement, is part of the broader group of issues, called inverse problems. This paper investigates the feasibility of solving the groundwater pollution inverse problem by using artificial neural networks (ANNs). The approach consists first in training an ANN to solve the direct problem, where the pollutant concentration in a set of monitoring wells is calculated for a known pollutant source. Successively, the trained ANN is frozen and it is used to solve the inverse problem, where the pollutant source is calculated which corresponds to a set of concentrations in the monitoring wells. The approach has been applied for a real case which deals with the contamination of the Rhine aquifer by carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) due to a tanker accident. The obtained results are compared with the solution obtained with a different approach retrieved from literature. The results show the suitability of ANNs-based methods for solving inverse non-linear


The purpose of this study is to describe the current state of tidewater glaciers in Svalbard as an extension of the inventory of Hagen et al. (1993). The ice masses of Svalbard cover an area of ca 36 600 km 2 and more than 60% of the glaciated areas are glaciers which terminate in the sea at calving ice−cliffs. Recent data on the geometry of glacier tongues, their flow velocities and front position changes have been extracted from ASTER images acquired from 2000-2006 using automated methods of satellite image analysis. Analyses have shown that 163 Svalbard glaciers are of tidewater type (having contact with the ocean) and the total length of their calving ice−cliffs is 860 km. When compared with the previous inventory, 14 glaciers retreated from the ocean to the land over a 30-40 year period. Eleven formerly land−based glaciers now terminate in the sea. A new method of assessing the dy− namic state of glaciers, based on patterns of frontal crevassing, has been developed. Tide− water glacier termini are divided into four groups on the basis of differences in crevasse pat− terns and flow velocity: (1) very slow or stagnant glaciers, (2) slow−flowing glaciers, (3) fast−flowing glaciers, (4) surging glaciers (in the active phase) and fast ice streams. This classification has enabled us to estimate total calving flux from Svalbard glaciers with an accuracy appreciably higher than that of previous attempts. Mass loss due to calving from the whole archipelago (excluding Kvitoya) is estimated to be 5.0-8.4 km 3 yr −1 (water equiv− alent - w.e.), with a mean value 6.75 ± 1.7 km 3 yr −1 (w.e.). Thus, ablation due to calving con− tributes as much as 17-25% (with a mean value 21%) to the overall mass loss from Svalbard glaciers. By implication, the contribution of Svalbard iceberg flux to sea−level rise amounts to ca 0.02 mm yr −1 . Also calving flux in the Arctic has been considered and the highest an− nual specific mass balance attributable to iceberg calving has been found for Svalbard. Key wor ds: Arctic, Svalbard, tidewater glaciers, calving flux, ASTER.


An approach for synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image de-noising based on independent component analysis (ICA) basis images is proposed. Firstly, the basis images and the code matrix of the original image are obtained using ICA algorithm. Then, pointwise Holder exponent of each basis is computed as a cost criterion for basis enhancement, and then the enhanced basis images are classified into two sets according to a separation rule which separates the clean basis from the original basis. After these key procedures for speckle reduction, the clean image is finally obtained by reconstruction on the clean basis and original code matrix. The reconstructed image shows better visual perception and image quality compared with those obtained by other traditional techniques.


We study dynamic magnetic behavior in the vicinity of the dynamic phase transition (DPT) for a suitable series of samples that have different Curie temperatures T_{C}, which thus enables us to experimentally explore the role of the reduced temperature T/T_{C} in the DPT. For this purpose, we fabricate Co_{1-x}Ru_{x} epitaxial thin films with uniaxial in-plane anisotropy by means of sputter deposition in the concentration range 0.0≤x≤0.26. All samples are ferromagnetic at room temperature, exhibit an abrupt magnetization reversal along their easy axis, and represent a unique T_{C} and thus T/T_{C} ratio according to their Ru concentration. The dynamic magnetic behavior is measured by using an ultrasensitive transverse magneto-optical detection method and the resulting dynamic states are explored as a function of the applied magnetic field amplitude H_{0} and period P, as well as an additional bias field H_{b}, which is the conjugate field of the dynamic order parameter Q. Our experimental results demonstrate that the qualitative behavior of the dynamic phase diagram is independent of the T/T_{C} ratio and that for all T/T_{C} values we observe metamagnetic anomalies in the dynamic paramagnetic state, which do not exist in the corresponding thermodynamic phase diagram. However, quantitatively, these metamagnetic anomalies are very strongly dependent on the T/T_{C} ratio, leading to an about 20-fold increase of large metamagnetic fluctuations in the paramagnetic regime as the T/T_{C} ratio increases from 0.37 to 0.68. Also, the phase space range in which these anomalous metamagnetic fluctuations occur extends closer and closer to the critical point as T/T_{C} increases.


Sedimentary and mineralogical analyses were performed in the Neogene Agost Basin (External Domain, Betic Cordillera) to reconstruct relationships between tectonics and sedimentation, and source areas evolution over time. The sedimentary analysis allowed defining two sedimentary sequences: (1) Lower Stratigraphic Unit, Serravallian p.p. and (2) Upper Stratigraphic Unit, post Lower Tortonian (Upper Miocene p.p.) separated by an angular unconformity. They consist of marine (lithofacies L-1 to L-3) and continental (lithofacies L-5 to L-8) deposits respectively. The analysis of mineralogical assemblages and some XRD parameters of the sedimentary sequences and older formations allowed recognizing a sedimentary evolution controlled by the activation of different source areas over time. In particular, the Ill+Kln±Sme+Chl clay-mineral association characterizes the supply from Triassic formations; the Ill+Kln+Sme association from Albian formations; the Sme+Ill±Kln+(I-S) and Sme+Ill±Kln associations from Upper Cretaceous p.p. formations; and the Sme+Ill±Kln+(I-S) association from Paleogene formations, testifying a tectonic mobility of the basin margins differentiated over time. This reconstruction leads to propose detailed relationships between types of deposits and provenance and not a classic unroofing, as follows: (i) the lithofacies L-1 (lithofacies L-2 and L-3 were not analysed) is characterized by the Ill+Kln+Sme mineralogical association indicating an origin from the Albian formations; (ii) the lithofacies L-4 shows a mixture of Ill+Kln+Sme and Sme+Ill+Kln associations sourced from the Albian and Upper Cretaceous formations; (iii) the lithofacies L-5 is characterized by the Sme+Ill±Kln+(I-S) association indicating a provenance from the Upper Cretaceous and Paleogene formations; (iv) the lithofacies L-6 to L-8 are characterized by the Ill+Kln±Sme+Chl association indicating a supply mainly from Triassic deposits. The evolutionary sedimentary model reconstructed for the Agost Basin, which improves a previous contribution about the same area, has been correlated with those reported in other intramontane Neogene basins in the Betic-Rifian Arc studied with similar resolution, so obtaining useful information for regional reconstructions.


The Pinyon Jay is a highly-social, year-round inhabitant of pinyon-juniper woodlands in the western United States. Range-wide, Pinyon Jays have declined ~ 3 – 4% per year for at least the last half-century. At the same time, large acreages of pinyon-juniper woodland have been removed or thinned to improve habitat for Greater Sage-Grouse or other game species across much of the Great Basin, which is home to nearly half of the global population of Pinyon Jays. Occupancy patterns and habitat use of Pinyon Jays have not been well characterized across much of the species' range, and obtaining this information is necessary for better understanding the causes of ongoing declines and determining useful conservation strategies. Our goal of this study was to identify the characteristics of areas used by Pinyon Jays for several critical life history components and to thereby facilitate the inclusion of Pinyon Jay conservation measures in the design of vegetation management projects. To accomplish this, we studied Pinyon Jays in three widely separated study areas using radio telemetry and direct observation, and measured key attributes of their locations and a separate set of randomly-selected control sites using the U. S. Forest Service's Forest Inventory Analysis protocol. Data visualizations, non-metric dimension scaling ordinations, and logistic regressions of the resulting data indicated that Pinyon Jay occupancy was concentrated in a distinct subset of available pinyon-juniper woodland habitat, and further that Pinyon Jays used different habitats, arrayed along elevational and tree-cover gradients, for seed caching, foraging, and nesting. Caching was concentrated in low-elevation, relatively flat areas with low tree cover; foraging occurred at slightly higher elevations with moderate tree cover, and nesting was concentrated in somewhat higher areas with greater tree cover and higher stand density. All three of these Pinyon Jay behavior types were highly concentrated within the lower-elevation band of pinyon-juniper woodland close to the woodland-shrubland ecotone. Because woodland removal projects in the Great Basin are often concentrated in these same areas, it is critical to incorporate conservation measures informed by Pinyon Jay occupancy patterns into existing woodland management paradigms, protocols, and practices.


Malaysia has periodic problems with air quality reaching hazardous levels because of smoke haze. The heavy haze, described as a pall of smoke caused widespread health problems especially among the elderlies, the young and kids. Haze is an atmospheric phenomenon where dust, smoke and other dry particles obscure the clarity of the sky. This haze pollution has serious implications to health as well as for the whole environment. This paper described a mobile monitoring system developed to detect the level of haze particulates. Data collection was achieved with the use of gas sensor, and mobile alert implementation was developed with Global System Mobile (GSM) connection and Short Messaging System (SMS).


For more than five centuries, paper has been the predominant carrier of information and numerous medieval manuscripts bear witness of its durability. However, increasing demand for paper led to several changes in its production in the 19th century. High quality rag fibres were replaced by inferior wood-originating ones. Acid manufacturing technology was introduced which, due to its simplicity and low cost, continued to be used until the end of the 20th century. Inherently stable paper rapidly degrades in the presence of acids and its decay is further promoted by the poor storage conditions and environmental pollutants. As a result, the amount of degraded paper in libraries, archives and museums is reaching enormous proportions. In order to prolong the usable time of the vast quantities of original materials, paper collections may be deacidified and/or stored at lower temperatures. While preservation options are known, lack of the competent comparative studies leaves collection keepers hesitant of their use. The introductory part of the project is focused on development of analytical methodologies and model materials, representative of historical acid paper. As uniqueness and inherent value of cellulose-based cultural heritage limits the use of analytical methodologies to the non-destructive or micro-destructive ones. A new methodology for determination of the condition of paper was developed. The analytical technique-size exclusion chromatography for the first time allows us to reproducible determine the condition of paper which contains a significant amount of wood derived lignin. A few fibres suffice for the analysis, which renders the methodology suitable for characterisation of historical materials. The results of the research will represent the effect of deacidification processes with use of micro destructive analytical methodologies. As written word is all what we have for our legacy from generation to generation, evaluating preservation strategies for decaying collections, safekeeping and long term access to the endangered written cultural heritage is one of the most important facts.


Any beam may be expressed as a weighted sum of Laguerre-Gauss modes, which is also known as its spiral spectrum. This spectrum is deformed when the beam is partially blocked by an object of a certain geometry. Torner et al. [Opt. Express 13, 873 (2005)] originally proposed this as digital spiral imaging. We propose that the spectrum of a mode may also be expresssed in terms of Hermite-Gauss modes. By following the same original theoretical framework proposed by Torner et al., we explore the possibility of using HG modes to measure the spectra for two different objects. The first is a diagonal knife edge and the second is an off-center circle. We show that the measured spectra are unique to the test object. We also use these spectra to reconstruct the original wavefront. Though our reconstructions do not fully resemble the original beams, they still hold promising insights into future extensions of digital spiral imaging.


Do you know why books such as this are so important? Because they have quality. And what does the word quality mean? To me it means texture. This book has pores. It has features. This book can go under the microscope. You'd find life under the glass, streaming past in infinite profusion. The more pores, the more truthfully recorded details of life per square inch you can get on a sheet of paper, the more "literary" you are. That's my definition anyway. Telling detail. Fresh detail. The good writers touch life often. (Bradbury 1953, 74)