The Kv3.1 potassium channel is expressed at high levels in auditory nuclei and contributes to the ability of auditory neurons to fire at high frequencies. We have tested the effects of streptomycin, an agent that produces progressive hearing loss, on the firing properties of inferior colliculus neurons and on Kv3.1 currents in transfected cells. We found that in inferior colliculus neurons, intracellular streptomycin decreased the current density of a high threshold, noninactivating outward current and reduced the rate of repolarization of action potentials and the ability of these neurons to fire at high frequencies. Furthermore, potassium current in CHO cells transfected with the Kv3.1 gene was reduced by 50% when cells were cultured in the presence of streptomycin or when streptomycin was introduced intracellularly in the pipette solution. In the presence of intracellular streptomycin, the activation rate of Kv3.1 current increased and inhibition by extracellular TEA become voltage-dependent. The data indicate that streptomycin inhibits Kv3.1 currents by inducing a conformational change in the Kv3.1 channel. The hearing loss caused by aminoglycoside antibiotics may be partially mediated by their inhibition of Kv3.1 current in auditory neurons.


The Rayleigh–Taylor instability (RTI) is a fundamental fluid instability that occurs when a light fluid is accelerated into a heavier one. While techniques for observing the RTI in classical fluids continue to improve, the instability has not been demonstrated in quantum fluids. Here, we exploit the formal equivalence between condensed matter and coherent nonlinear optics to observe the superfluid-like instability directly in the optical system. For the RTI, an initial refractive index gradient sets the acceleration, while self-induced nonlinear interactions lead to velocity differences and shear. The experimental observations show that density fingering is always accompanied by vortex generation, with perturbation modes following a hybrid dynamics: horizontal modes (along the interface) propagate as an incompressible fluid, but the vertical length scale (mixing length) is set by compressible shock dynamics. The growth rate, obtained analytically, shows that inhibition due to diffraction has the same spectral form as viscosity and diffusion, despite the fact that the system is dispersive rather than dissipative. This gives rigorous support for the observation that turbulence in quantum fluids has the same scaling as turbulence in normal fluids. The results hold for any Schrödinger flow, e.g. superfluids and quantum plasma, and introduce a new class of fluid-inspired instabilities in nonlinear optics.


The Byzantine-Slav liturgical tradition emerged as an aggregate rite from the diverse liturgical practices of the Eastern Mediterranean from the early 4th century. This tradition developed around the city of Constantinople but was also influenced by the liturgical traditions of Jerusalem and the monasteries surrounding Jerusalem. While Constantinople remained the center of this tradition, it also found its home and developed in unique ways throughout the Mediterranean and the Balkan Peninsula, into Ukraine and Russia, and eventually throughout the world.
 The liturgical tradition itself weaves together the diverse practices of monastic and urban worship, creating very much a hybrid rite. The daily office, primarily drawn from monastic practices, utilizes a mix of invariable texts, prayers, psalmody, and composed hymns of ancient provenance as well as a wide array of variable hymns of different origins and genre. Throughout these services, the monastic elements stand side by side with remnants of the urban cathedral worship. The Divine Liturgy, the Eucharist service, has at its core prayers that go back to the classic patristic age of the church, the 4th and 5th centuries. The entire service, however, betrays multiple layers of influence on its development, ranging from practices of the imperial cult of late antiquity to popular piety.
 All these elements have come together through organic development and, at times, directed reform to form a vast liturgical tradition with rich textures and complex nuances of meaning.


Chirita tribracteata W. T. Wang var. zhuana Z. Y. Li, Q. Xing & Y. B. Li, a new variety of the Gesneriaceae from Guangxi, China, is described. The variety is different from the typical one by having larger and thicker leaves with crenate or dentate margin, broadly winged petioles, broad-obovate or oblanceolate and serrate bracts, and lilac corollas with longitudinal yellow stripes in the throat.


This study introduces issue decision salience as a mechanism for understanding how issue ownership processes impact vote choice, using panel data from the 2006 Swedish national elections. A model is developed probing the multiple influences of news attention and discussion on issue decision salience, party evaluation, candidate evaluation, and vote decision. The results suggest that a synthesis of agenda setting and priming with issue ownership offers a valuable framework for documenting how issue salience might affect ballot choice.


Motivated by a sampling problem basic to computational statistical inference, we develop a toolset based on spectral sparsification for a family of fundamental problems involving Gaussian sampling, matrix functionals, and reversible Markov chains. Drawing on the connection between Gaussian graphical models and the recent breakthroughs in spectral graph theory, we give the first nearly linear time algorithm for the following basic matrix problem: Given an n× n Laplacian matrix M and a constant −1 ≤ p ≤ 1, provide efficient access to a sparse n× n linear operator C such that M ≈ CC>, where ≈ denotes spectral similarity. When p is set to −1, this gives the first parallel sampling algorithm that is essentially optimal both in total work and randomness for Gaussian random fields with symmetric diagonally dominant (SDD) precision matrices. It only requires nearly linear work and 2n i.i.d. random univariate Gaussian samples to generate an n-dimensional i.i.d. Gaussian random sample in polylogarithmic depth. The key ingredient of our approach is an integration of spectral sparsification with multilevel method: Our algorithms are based on factoring M into a product of well-conditioned matrices, then introducing powers and replacing dense matrices with sparse approximations. We give two sparsification methods for this approach that may be of independent interest. The first invokes Maclaurin series on the factors, while the second builds on our new nearly linear time spectral sparsification algorithm for random-walk matrix polynomials. We expect these algorithmic advances will also help to strengthen the connection between machine learning and spectral graph theory, two of the most active fields in understanding large data and networks.


Molecular modeling computations were utilized to generate pharmaceutical grade CYP3A4-enzyme inhibitors. In vitro metabolism of felodipine in human intestinal and liver microsomes (HLM and HIM) was optimized yielding a Michaelis-Menten plot from where the K(m) and V(max) values were estimated by nonlinear regression. The flavonoids, naringin, naringenin, and quercetin, were subsequently incubated with felodipine at the determined K(m) value in HLM. Comparing results obtained from a known CYP3A4 inhibitor, verapamil, the flavonoids inhibited felodipine metabolism. In-depth computational analysis of these flavonoids in terms of CYP3A4 binding, sequencing, and affinity, computational biomimetism was employed to validate the potential CYP3A4 inhibitors. The modeled compounds were comparatively evaluated by incubation with felodipine in both HLM and HIM. Results showed that the polymers 8-arm-PEG, o-(2-aminoethyl)-o-methyl-PEG, 4-arm-PEG (molecular weight = 10,000 g/mol and 20,000 g/mol, respectively), and poly(l-lysine) were able to inhibit the felodipine metabolism with the half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC(50)) values ranging from 7.22 to 30.0 μM (HLM) and 5.78 to 41.03 μM (HIM). Molecular docking confirmed drug-enzyme interactions by computing the free energies of binding (ΔE) and inhibition constants (K(i)) of the docked compounds utilizing a Lamarckian Genetic Algorithm. Comparative correlations between the computed and experimental K(i) values were obtained. Computational modeling of CYP3A4 inhibitors provided a suitable strategy to screen pharmaceutical grade compounds that may potentially inhibit presystemic CYP3A4-dependent drug metabolism with the prospect of improving oral drug bioavailability.


To date, all of the proposals for low-power designs of RAMs essentially focus on circuit-level solutions. What we propose here is a novel architecture (high) level solution. Our methodology provides a systematic tradeoff between power and area. Also, it allows tradeoff between test time and power consumed in test mode. Significantly, too, the proposed design has the potential to achieve performance improvements while simultaneously reducing power. In this respect, it stands apart from other approaches where power reduction results in speed reduction. The basic approach here divides the RAM into modules, interconnecting these modules in a binary tree where the tree can be reconfigured dynamically during normal operation and during test mode. Furthermore, during test mode, most of the RAM can be switched off, which provides major power reduction, while test-application time is reduced. The aspect ratio of the modules is allowed to vary as a design parameter. The chosen aspect ratio for module impacts power/access time/area tradeoffs. Such novel features make the proposed methodology of potential practical significance. Also, a design tool is developed which inputs various parameters, such as desired power/performance, giving outputs basic design parameters, such as the needed number of modules, area overhead, and resulting test speed-up.


Lower limb strength ratios are important in assessing muscular imbalances. Typically, these ratios are derived from assessment of explosive, maximum effort activities. Such assessment can be functional or isokinetic. The single-effort nature of these assessments does not provide information on imbalance changes after muscular contractions. Any such change could indicate an increased risk of injury after a period of activity, thus raising questions as to the correct procedure of muscle imbalance assessment. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to assess muscle imbalances over maximum effort repeated cycling sprints. Seventeen healthy, physically active young adults (females: n=4, height 1.62±0.03 m, body mass 68.0±6.5 kg; males: n=13, height 1.80±0.06 m, body mass 80.5±13.8 kg) performed five 6-s sprints with 24-s rest interval on a Lode Excalibur bike with torque and power data recorded for each leg. Average, average maximum (average of maximum from each sprint) and peak torque (TAv, TAvM and TP respectively) and power (PAv, PAvM and PP respectively) were obtained for each leg. Ratios of these variables were calculated as [Stronger leg−Weaker legAverage of two legs×100]. Wilcoxon's test revealed a significantly stronger leg (p<0.05) for all torque and power variables. Friedman's test indicated a significant ratio increase between TAv (11.7±6.8%) and TAvM (4.6±3.0%, p=0.001) and TP (4.1±3.5%, p=0.001), as well as between PAv (8.8±5.0%) and PAvM (4.5±2.9%, p=0.003) and PP (4.2±2.6, p=0.003%) but not between TAvM and TP (p=0.421) or PAvM and PP (p=0.981). The results indicate that high-intensity activity increases lower limb strength imbalance, resulting in different ratios. The authors posit that muscle imbalance assessment activities conducted at rested state may not accurately reflect the true strength difference between limbs, leading to inaccurate training or rehabilitation advice.


A main developmental switch in the life cycle of a flowering plant is the transition from vegetative to reproductive growth. To maximize reproductive success, the timing of the floral transition must be precisely controlled. In Arabidopsis, at least four genetic pathways, the photoperiod, the autonomous, the vernalization, and the gibberellin (GA) pathways, which integrate endogenous and environmental signals, regulate the timing of this transition. A genetic screen was performed to identify additional components in the flowering-regulating network. This resulted in the isolation of two alleles of bri1 as enhancers of the late-flowering phenotype of the autonomous mutant luminidependens (ld). BRI1 encodes an LRR-RLK (leucine-rich repeats receptor-like kinase) that functions as a receptor for brassinosteroids (BRs), thus the result of the screen indicated that BRI1 or BRs could play a role in the floral timing. The aim of this thesis was to define and compare the roles of BRI1 and BRs in floral transition. The studies were extended with examination of potential genetic interactions between BRs, GAs, and abscisic acid (ABA) in the control of the transition to the reproductive phase in Arabidopsis. To place BRI1 in the flowering-genetic network, genetic and molecular-genetic approaches were used. Based on the analyses of various double mutants, which included combinations between bri1 and known flowering-time mutants, it was concluded that the BRI1 pathway has only a limited interaction with the photoperiod and the gibberellin pathways, and functions independently from vernalization. BRI1 functions in part through the autonomous pathway. Synergistic interaction between the BRI1 and the autonomous pathways was further confirmed by gene-expression studies. The bri1 autonomous/FRI lines exhibited enhanced expression of the potent floral repressor FLC, which is known to be regulated by the autonomous and FRI pathways. The increased levels of FLC was accompanied by reduced expression of the downstream targets, FT, SOC1, LFY, whose expression is important for the floral transition to occur. Moreover, specific reduction of FLC via RNAi accelerated flowering of the bri1 ld double mutant. Based on the presented results, a model was proposed that describes the BRI1 role in flowering-time control, where BRI1 promotes flowering by genetically interacting with the autonomous pathway to repress the potent floral repressor FLC. To define the relationship between BRI1 and BRs, the flowering-time phenotypes of the bri1 mutant and a BR-biosynthesis mutant cpd were compared. It could be inferred from these studies that the BR pathway also interacts with the autonomous pathway, and the bri1 phenotype could be partly explained by the BR-deficiency. However, due to differences in the flowering behavior of cpd and bri1, it was proposed that BRI1 also exerts its function through unknown BRI1-specific factors. The plausible mechanisms explaining additional flowering phenotypes of the bri1 were discussed. The role of BRs in the control of flowering time was also studied in the context of its possible interactions with the GA- and ABA-regulated pathways. The analyses of flowering phenotypes of double mutant combination deficient in BRs, ABA, GA did not reveal strong genetic interactions. The expression studies of key flowering-time genes in single and double hormone mutant combinations supported the model where the balance in the levels of these three hormones is necessary for appropriate timing of floral transition. Furthermore, based on the mild phenotype of the BR/ABA-deficient mutants, and the flowering behaviors of transgenic lines that overexpress DWF4, NCED3, and GA5, leading to BR-, ABA- and GA- overproducing phenotypes, respectively, it has been concluded that GA has a limiting, and BR, ABA have the supporting function in the control of flowering time in Arabidopsis. Attempts were made to verify whether the BR-pathway converge on the promoter of LFY, which is one of the floral-pathways integrators. For this purpose, the LFY::LUC+ reporter system was constructed, validated, and tested for BR-induction. No clear activation of the LFY promoter in the BR-overproducing lines was observed. In summary, the results described here provide evidence that both the BR-receptor BRI1 and brassinosteroids are important factors of floral-regulating network in Arabidopsis. Surprisingly, however, BRI1 exerts its effects on flowering only partially through the BR-regulated pathway. The nature of BRI1-specific effects on flowering time remains to be investigated.


Much of the success of single agent deep reinforcement learning (DRL) in recent years can be attributed to the use of experience replay memories (ERM), which allow Deep Q-Networks (DQNs) to be trained efficiently through sampling stored state transitions. However, care is required when using ERMs for multi-agent deep reinforcement learning (MA-DRL), as stored transitions can become outdated because agents update their policies in parallel [11]. In this work we apply leniency [23] to MA-DRL. Lenient agents map state-action pairs to decaying temperature values that control the amount of leniency applied towards negative policy updates that are sampled from the ERM. This introduces optimism in the value-function update, and has been shown to facilitate cooperation in tabular fully-cooperative multi-agent reinforcement learning problems. We evaluate our Lenient-DQN (LDQN) empirically against the related Hysteretic-DQN (HDQN) algorithm [22] as well as a modified version we call scheduled-HDQN, that uses average reward learning near terminal states. Evaluations take place in extended variations of the Coordinated Multi-Agent Object Transportation Problem (CMOTP) [8] which include fully-cooperative sub-tasks and stochastic rewards. We find that LDQN agents are more likely to converge to the optimal policy in a stochastic reward CMOTP compared to standard and scheduled-HDQN agents.


The leucyl-tRNA synthetase acts as a leucine sensor for mTOR complex 1. The mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) complex 1 (mTORC1), which contains the kinase mTOR and the regulatory component Raptor, couples the availability of nutrients, such as amino acids, with signaling pathways that mediate cellular growth and proliferation. Amino acids trigger the translocation of mTORC1 to the lysosome, where it interacts with the Rag family of guanosine triphosphatases (GTPases) through an association between RagC and Raptor. Han et al. and Bonfils et al. now show that leucyl-transfer RNA (tRNA) synthetase (LRS), which catalyzes the "charging" or aminoacylation of leucine to tRNA and also edits or proofreads amino acids, acts as a leucine sensor for mTORC1. However, these groups proposed different underlying mechanisms (see commentary by Segev and Hay). Han et al. found that LRS immunoprecipitated with mTOR and Raptor in a leucine-dependent manner. An siRNA directed against LRS reduced the activation of mTORC1 in response to amino acids, leucine, and isoleucine (to a lesser extent) and reduced the lysosomal translocation of mTOR and Raptor in response to amino acid stimulation. In transfected cells, LRS interacted with RagD, but not with RagA, RagB, or RagC, and the association of endogenous LRS with ectopically expressed RagD increased after leucine treatment. In addition, the amino acid–induced interaction of RagD with Raptor was increased by overexpression of LRS and decreased by knockdown of LRS. Phe50 and Tyr52 in LRS form the hydrophobic pocket that accommodates the side chain of leucine, and a form of LRS containing alanine substitutions at these sites (Phe50→Ala/Tyr52→Ala; F50A/Y52A) did not interact with RagD. More LRS interacted with wild-type RagD or a mutant that mimicked the GTP-bound form (Gln121→Leu; Q121L) than with a RagD mutant that mimicked the GDP-bound form (Ser77→Leu; S77L), and LRS colocalized with RagD Q121L but not with RagD S77L. In vitro assays demonstrated that a C-terminal fragment of LRS (which interacts with RagD but not with leucine or ATP) increased GTP hydrolysis by RagD, indicating that LRS acts as a GTPase-activating protein (GAP) for RagD. Leucine-stimulated GTP hydrolysis by RagD was increased in transfected cells expressing wild-type LRS but not the F50A/Y25A mutant. Furthermore, leucine-stimulated activation of mTORC1 was increased in cells expressing wild-type LRS but not a form of LRS with mutations in a putative GAP motif. Using mass spectrometry and biochemical assays, Bonfils et al. independently showed that Cdc60, the yeast homolog of LRS, interacted with Gtr1, the yeast homolog of RagA and RagB, but not Gtr2, the yeast homolog of RagC and RagD, a result that differs from the findings of Han et al. Bonfils et al. found that the ability of Cdc60 to increase TORC1 activity did not require its aminoacylation activity (a finding also reported by Han et al.) but rather its amino acid–editing activity, because treatment with DHBB, a compound that traps uncharged tRNALeu in the editing active site, suppressed TORC1 activity in wild-type cells. DHBB also reduced the amount of GTP-loaded Gtr1. Norvaline inhibits the editing activity of LRS, and treating cells with norvaline inhibited TORC1. The CP1 domain, which mediates the editing activity of LRS, interacted with Gtr1 but not with Gtr2, the yeast homolog of RagC and RagD. Bonfils et al. propose that leucine deprivation causes LRS to mischarge tRNALeu, triggering conformational changes in the CP1 domain that enable a GAP to access Gtr1 and induce GTP hydrolysis, thereby decreasing TORC1 activity. The reasons for the different LRS binding partners reported by Han et al. and Bonfils et al. and for the distinct mechanisms proposed by the two groups are unclear. J. M. Han, S. J. Jeong, M. C. Park, G. Kim, N. H. Kwon, H. K. Kim, S. H. Ha, S. H. Ryu, S. Kim, Leucyl-tRNA synthetase is an intracellular leucine sensor for the mTORC1-signaling pathway. Cell 149, 410–424 (2012). [PubMed] G. Bonfils, M. Jaquenoud, S. Bontron, C. Ostrowicz, C. Ungermann, C. De Virgilio, Leucyl-tRNA synthetase controls TORC1 via the EGO complex. Mol. Cell 46, 105–110 (2012). [PubMed] N. Segev, N. Hay, Hijacking leucyl-tRNA synthetase for amino acid-dependent regulation of TORC1. Mol. Cell 46, 4–6 (2012). [PubMed]


Over the last century quantum field theory has made a significant impact on the formulation and solution of mathematical problems and inspired powerful advances in pure mathematics. However, most accounts are written by physicists, and mathematicians struggle to find clear definitions and statements of the concepts involved. This graduate-level introduction presents the basic ideas and tools from quantum field theory to a mathematical audience. Topics include classical and quantum mechanics, classical field theory, quantization of classical fields, perturbative quantum field theory, renormalization, and the standard model. The material is also accessible to physicists seeking a better understanding of the mathematical background, providing the necessary tools from differential geometry on such topics as connections and gauge fields, vector and spinor bundles, symmetries and group representations.


This paper explores the transitions between "my-time" and "your-time," between different social roles, and between different technological contexts. We used shadowing, voice-mail diaries and semi-structured group interviews to investigate the limits of seamless mobility. We identified an interesting behavior we call a "peek": a quick look ahead in order to prepare for transitions. We also found that people are able to able to infer a lot from very little contextual information, and we argue that technologies designed for the above transitions therefore should rely on a few, well-chosen pieces of presence/awareness data, rather than exhaustive information. As a guide to invention and design, this study underlines the need to recognize our users' intelligence. Instead of making applications that anticipate what users wants to do, we suggest providing information that is relevant and clear enough that users can take a glance at it and decide for themselves how to proceed.


This research builds on the related Phase 1 project. In this second phase, the authors continue to study neighborhood and housing preferences that shape the residential location decision process. An online experimental survey tool is developed to investigate lifestyle preferences and tradeoffs that households make in their location decisions. This computer-aided experimental survey draws upon stated preference methods to engage participants in questions about residential location and transportation options. The survey infrastructure was extensively piloted (6-10% response rate). The 10-minute survey can be deployed for future investigations. This infrastructure is a contribution for the integration of visualized neighborhood typologies, or concepts, which were objectively defined using data from 25 of the most populous metropolitan regions from around the United States. The construct of neighborhoods is based upon national data to account for potential options not currently available in Oregon. These visualizations help ground the survey respondents in the same reality and were carefully crafted to convey various attributes of the built and transportation environment. The initial analysis of the preference data collected in this survey (N=1,035) indicates that the preferences for neighborhood, housing, and transportation characteristics have a greater influence on the preferred neighborhood concept than the more typically used socioeconomic characteristics (income, household size, age). Another interesting preliminary finding is that 27% of respondents would prefer to live in a more urban neighborhood than they currently reside. These "urban seeking" respondents had no particular demographic trend, providing little evidence that specific socioeconomic markets had specific preferences for the built environment.


Summary

The severity and persistence of symptoms of mosaic virus disease were monitored during the first six months of two growing seasons in cassava of the African cassava mosaic virus (ACMV)-resistant cv. TMS 30572 either inoculated by grafting with a mild or severe strain or infected from the planted cutting. Symptomless shoots developed between January and March 1995 in two field trials differing in age by c. 6 months; this recovery occurred during particularly hot weather. Recovery was often only temporary in the plants inoculated with the severe strain and occurred later compared with those inoculated with the mild. In 1996, the weather was cooler and recovery that year was delayed until flowering, c. 7 months after planting, when recovered shoots were often produced from buds in the axils of symptomless leaves produced amongst diseased leaves. Most cuttings taken from the upper parts of diseased plants produced symptomless (reverted) progenies whereas most cuttings taken from the base of diseased plants produced diseased progenies. Reversion seemed to be associated with the recovery that had already occurred in the upper stems of the parent plants.


Background Few studies have investigated the relationship of anthropometric measurements with computed tomography (CT) body fat composition, and even fewer determined if these relationships differ by sex and race. Methods CT scans from 1,851 participants in the population based Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis were assessed for visceral and subcutaneous fat areas by semi-automated segmentation of body compartments. Regression models were used to investigate relationships for anthropometry with visceral and subcutaneous fat separately by sex and race/ethnicity. Results Participants were 50% female, 41% Caucasian, 13% Asian, 21% African American, and 25% Hispanic. For visceral fat, the positive relationship with weight (p = 0.028), waist circumference (p<0.001), waist to hip ratio (p<0.001), and waist to height ratio (p = 0.05) differed by sex, with a steeper slope for men. That is, across the range of these anthropometric measures the rise in visceral fat is faster for men than for women. Additionally, there were differences by race/ethnicity in the relationship with height (p<0.001), weight (p<0.001), waist circumference (p<0.001), hip circumference (p = 0.006), and waist to hip ratio (p = 0.001) with the Hispanic group having shallower slopes. For subcutaneous fat, interaction by sex was found for all anthropometric indices at p<0.05, but not for race/ethnicity. Conclusion The relationship between anthropometry and underlying adiposity differs by sex and race/ethnicity. When anthropometry is used as a proxy for visceral fat in research, sex-specific models should be used.


We introduce a surface-tension driven heterogeneous integration of thin film photonic devices using a surface wetting modification. In this process, the combination of a micro-contact printing method and plasma surface modification is used to selectively form a binding liquid on an integration host substrate. With predefined integration areas using the binding liquid, thin film GaAs photodetectors (PDs) are successfully integrated. We have demonstrated the implementation of this integration method by presenting a multi-material photonic integrated structure with integrated GaAs based thin film PDs and a polymer waveguide on a silicon substrate. The measured average misalignment of the integrated PDs was 2.8 μ m from the predefined integration locations. Stable electrical contact between the PDs and the host substrate has been confirmed with dark and photocurrent measurements. The proposed process has the potential towards a low-cost, parallel heterogeneous integration of III-V photonic devices on a silicon platform.


Falck et al. have made progress in defining the molecular mechanism underlying the S-phase checkpoint activated by ionizing radiation (IR). IR caused rapid, transient degradation of the phosphatase Cdc25A (which dephosphorylates and activates cyclin-dependent kinase 2) in mammalian cells by a mechanism dependent on the catalytic activity and the ability of the kinase Chk2 to interact with and phosphorylate Cdc25A. Furthermore, the degradation of Cdc25A in response to IR occurred in cells with normal and mutated versions of the tumor suppressor p53, confirming the independence of this S-phase checkpoint on the p53 pathway. However, in cells from patients with ataxia telangiectasia with mutations in the ATM gene, Cdc25A persisted after IR, and the cells exhibited radioresistant DNA synthesis. Thus, IR appears to activate a pathway from ATM to Chk2, which then phosphorylates Cdc25A leading to its destruction and a transient block in the progress of the S phase of the cell cycle. J. Falck, N. Mailand, R. G. Syljuåsen, J. Bartek, J. Lukas, The ATM-Chk2-Cdc25A checkpoint pathway guards against radioresistant DNA synthesis. Nature 410, 842-847 (2001). [Online Journal]


BACKGROUND
Patients with cervical spine injury may require both anterior cervical spine fusion and tracheostomy, particularly in the setting of associated cervical spinal cord injury (SCI). Despite the close proximity of the two surgical incisions, we postulated that tracheostomy could be safely performed after anterior spine fixation. In addition, we postulated that the severity of motor deficits in patients with cervical spine injury would correlate with the need for tracheostomy.

METHODS
A retrospective review was undertaken of all adult trauma patients diagnosed with cervical spine fractures or cervical SCI admitted between June 1996 and June 2001 at our university Level I trauma center. Demographic data, severity of neurologic injury based on the classification of the American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA), complications, and use and type of tracheostomy were collected. In the subgroup of patients with unstable cervical spine injury that underwent anterior stabilization and tracheostomy, data regarding timing and technique of these procedures and wound outcomes were also collected. Categorical data were analyzed using chi analysis using Yates correction when appropriate, with p <0.05 considered significant.

RESULTS
During this time period, 275 adult survivors were diagnosed with cervical spinal cord or bony injury. Forty-five percent of patients with SCI (27 of 60) and 14% of patients without SCI (30 of 215) underwent tracheostomy (p <0.001). Moreover, on the basis of the ASIA classification system, 76% of ASIA A and B patients, 38% of ASIA C patients, 23% of ASIA D patients, and 14% of ASIA E patients were treated with tracheostomy (p <0.001). In the subgroup that underwent both anterior spine fixation and tracheostomy (n=17), the median time interval from spine fixation to airway placement was 7 days (interquartile range, 6-10 days), with 71% of these tracheostomies performed percutaneously. No patient developed a wound infection or nonunion as a consequence of tracheostomy placement, and there were no deaths because of complications of either procedure.

CONCLUSION
These data support the safety of tracheostomy insertion 6 to 10 days after anterior cervical spine fixation, particularly in the presence of cervical SCI. The presence of severe motor neurologic deficits was strongly associated with the use of tracheostomy in patients with cervical spine injury. Percutaneous tracheostomy, which is our technique of choice, may be advantageous in this setting by virtue of creating only a small wound. The optimal timing and use of tracheostomy in patients with cervical spine injury requires further study.


Mammalian receptors of the T1r family have been implicated in taste detection. The heterodimers T1r2-T1r3 and T1r1-T1r3 are thought to sense sweet and umami (glutamate), respectively. However, analysis of mice lacking T1r3 by Damak et al. indicates that the molecular mechanisms underlying taste responsiveness are more complicated. T1r3-null mice could still detect sugars and glutamate, but the mice no longer responded to artificial sweeteners. This observation points to the existence of other receptors in taste cells that are required to sample sweet and umami compounds. S. Damak, M. Rong, K. Yasumatsu, Z. Kokrashvili, V. Varadarajan, S. Zou, P. Jiang, Y. Ninomiya, R. F. Margolskee, Detection of sweet and umami taste in the absence of taste receptor T1r3. Science 301, 850-853 (2003). [Abstract] [Full Text]


This paper analyzes the normative role for civil liability in aligning terrorism precaution incentives, when the perpetrators of terrorism are unreachable by courts or regulators. We consider the strategic interaction among targets, subsidiary victims, and terrorists within a sequential, game-theoretic model. The model reveals that, while an "optimal" liability regime indeed exists, its features appear at odds with conventional legal templates. For example, it frequently prescribes damages payments from seemingly unlikely defendants, directing them to seemingly unlikely plaintiffs. The challenge of introducing such a regime using existing tort law doctrines, therefore, is likely to be prohibitive. Instead, we argue, efficient precaution incentives may be best provided by alternative policy mechanisms, such as a mutual public insurance pool for potential targets of terrorism, coupled with direct compensation to victims of terrorist attacks.


Ethnic Nationalism and the Fall of Empires is a wide-ranging comparative study of the origins of today's ethnic politics in East Central Europe, the former Russian empire and the Middle East. Centred on the First World War Era, Ethnic Nationalism highlights the roles of historical contingency and the ordeal of total war in shaping the states and institutions that supplanted the great multinational empires after 1918. It explores how the fixing of new political boundaries and the complex interplay of nationalist elites and popular forces set in motion bitter ethnic conflicts and political disputes, many of which are still with us today. Topics discussed include: * the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian empire * the ethnic dimension of the Russian Revolution and Soviet state building * Nationality issues in the late Ottoman empire * the origins of Arab nationalism * ethnic politics in zones of military occupation * the construction of Czechoslovak and Yugoslav identities Ethnic Nationalism is an invaluable survey of the origins of twentieth-century ethnic politics. It is essential reading for those interested in the politics of ethnicity and nationalism in modern European and Middle Eastern history.


Powder metallurgy (P/M) has the distinction of being at the same time one of the oldest and one of the most modem methods know for the fabrication of the metal articles. In prehistoric times, powder metallurgy techniques were' used to process metals with melting point above those attainable ( or, in some instances, practical) by means of the technology which then exited. Development of these techniques probably began with iron in the from of sponge produced by reduction of iron oxide in charcoal furnaces. This material was subsequently forged into solid iron or steel. The ancients produced some rather extraordinary materials by utilizing these methods. Powder materials were first press-bonded in the early 1800's in a manner similar to that employed today. It was in the 1920's that the process was really first used commercially with the development of the porous bronze bushing and the related techniques for mass production. Powder metallurgy, as it is practiced today, has expanded to become a very pervasive technology. While not large in the sense of tons of materials processed when compared with casting or forging, for instance, P/M is nonetheless an extremely important industrial technique. An automobile, for instance, may employ upward of 50 P/M components can be found in washing machines, bicycles and lawnmower. Farm machinery and industrial hydraulic equipment are large users. Data processing equipment, office copiers, postage meters and similar machines may actually have more that a hundred P/M parts designed into them. For the outdoorsman, the fishing reel and the firearm both are possible applications of powder metallurgy. The watch you wear may have a P/M case. Tape deck and phonograph turntables, as well as TV sets also utilize components made by powder metallurgy. In addition, air crafty engines depend on P/M for several of the high-performance alloys which allow them to operate safely and more efficiently. Tool steels have also seen significant improvements made possible though P/M. we could continue to extend this catalog of usage, but the point has been made: P/M has become an important technology to a large segment of industry.


Second-tier Diplomacy: Hans von Gagern and William I in their Quest for an Alternative European Order, 1813–1818 This article supplements Anglo- or Prussian dominated readings of the Vienna Conference by focusing more on its beginnings, on alternative scenarios of a Dutch-German union and on the process of diplomatic bargaining by secondary agents. Based on new archival material, German-Dutch cooperation in Vienna is traced and placed in a wider context. Vienna did not restore the «conservative order» but negotiated a new outlook on peace and security rooted in the notion of «political equilibrium » and an incipient sense of a Pax Europeana. While the great powers deliberated, two secondary agents in the field of transnational diplomacy and security, the «free-lancing» nobleman Hans von Gagern and the hereditary Prince of Orange, William Frederick, pursued their own alternative version for Europe, both geographically and politically. By analysing their efforts, which in the end proved only partly successful, this paper adds more insight to the dynamic and contested process of creating a new European order and an accompanying security culture.


Planning a visit to Expo Milano 2015 or simply touring in Milan are activities that require a certain amount of a priori knowledge of the city. In this paper, we present the process of building such comprehensive knowledge bases that contain descriptions of events and activities, places and sights, transportation facilities as well as social activities, collected from numerous static, near- and real-time local and global data providers, including hyper local sources such as the Expo Milano 2015 official services and several social media platforms. Entities in the 3cixty KB are deduplicated, interlinked and enriched using semantic technologies. The 3cixty KB is empowering the ExplorMI 360 multi-device application, which has been officially endorsed by the E015 Technical Management Board and has gained the patronage of Expo Milano in 2015, thus has offered a unique testing scenario for the 20 million visitors along the 6 months of the exhibit. In 2016-2017, new knowledge bases have been created for the cities of London, Madeira and Singapore, as well as for the entire French Cote d'Azur area. The 3cixty KB is accessible at https: //kb.3cixty.com/sparql while ExplorMI 360 at https://www.3cixty.com and in the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. smart city, parallel faceted browser interface, exploratory search engine, knowledge base, instance matching


This work focuses on compiler and run-time techniques for improving the productivity and the performance portability of general-purpose parallel programming. More specifically, we focus on shared-memory task-parallel languages , where the programmer explicitly exposes parallelism in the form of short tasks that may outnumber the cores by orders of magnitude. The compiler, the run-time, and the platform (henceforth the system) are responsible for harnessing this unpredictable amount of parallelism, which can vary from none to excessive, towards efficient execution. The challenge arises from the aspiration to support fine-grained irregular computations and nested parallelism. This work is even more ambitious by also aspiring to lay the foundations to efficiently support declarative code, where the programmer exposes all available parallelism, using high-level language constructs such as parallel loops, reducers or futures. The appeal of declarative code is twofold for general-purpose programming: it is often easier for the programmer who does not have to worry about the granularity of the exposed parallelism, and it achieves better performance portability by avoiding overfitting to a small range of platforms and inputs for which the programmer is coarsening. Furthermore, PRAM algorithms, an important class of parallel algorithms, naturally lend themselves to declarative programming, so supporting it is a necessary condition for capitalizing on the wealth of the PRAM theory. Unfortunately, declarative codes often expose such an overwhelming number of fine-grained tasks that existing systems fail to deliver performance.
Our contributions can be partitioned into three components. First, we tackle the issue of coarsening, which declarative code leaves to the system. We identify two goals of coarsening and advocate tackling them separately, using static compiler transformations for one and dynamic run-time approaches for the other. Additionally, we present evidence that the current practice of burdening the programmer with coarsening either leads to codes with poor performance-portability, or to a significantly increased programming effort. This is a ``show-stopper'' for general-purpose programming. To compare the performance portability among approaches, we define an experimental framework and two metrics, and we demonstrate that our approaches are preferable. We close the chapter on coarsening by presenting compiler transformations that automatically coarsen some types of very fine-grained codes.
Second, we propose Lazy Scheduling, an innovative run-time scheduling technique that infers the platform load at run-time, using information already maintained. Based on the inferred load, Lazy Scheduling adapts the amount of available parallelism it exposes for parallel execution and, thus, saves parallelism overheads that existing approaches pay. We implement Lazy Scheduling and present experimental results on four different platforms. The results show that Lazy Scheduling is vastly superior for declarative codes and competitive, if not better, for coarsened codes. Moreover, Lazy Scheduling is also superior in terms of performance-portability, supporting our thesis that it is possible to achieve reasonable efficiency and performance portability with declarative codes.
Finally, we also implement Lazy Scheduling on XMT, an experimental manycore platform developed at the University of Maryland, which was designed to support codes derived from PRAM algorithms. On XMT, we manage to harness the existing hardware support for scheduling flat parallelism to compose it with Lazy Scheduling, which supports nested parallelism. In the resulting hybrid scheduler , the hardware and software work in synergy to overcome each other's weaknesses. We show the performance composability of the hardware and software schedulers, both in an abstract cost model and experimentally, as the hybrid always performs better than the software scheduler alone. Furthermore, the cost model is validated by using it to predict if it is preferable to execute a code sequentially, with outer parallelism, or with nested parallelism, depending on the input, the available hardware parallelism and the calling context of the parallel code.


Since the mid-1980s resistance training has become an accepted part of the exercise rehabilitation process for patients eligible for traditional cardiac rehabilitation programs. A growing number of studies have demonstrated the safety of resistance training in Phase III/IV programs (Phase III--community based, beginning 6-12 wk posthospital discharge; a typical patient would be clinically stable with a functional capacity of > or = 5 METs; Phase IV--long-term maintenance) and more recently in Phase II (beginning within 3 wk posthospital discharge and lasting up to 3 months). Evidence is consistent that this form of training provokes fewer signs and symptoms of myocardial ischemia than aerobic testing and training, perhaps because of a lower heart rate (HR) and higher diastolic pressure combining to produce improved coronary artery filling. The major role of resistance training in heart disease patients is to promote increased dynamic muscle strength. Increases in muscular strength have been associated with increased peak exercise performance, improved submaximal endurance, and reduced ratings of perceived leg effort. Two studies show that resistance training may result in improved self-efficacy for strength and exercise tasks and improved quality of life parameters such as total mood disturbance, depression/dejection, fatigue/inertia, and emotional health domain scores. The data on risk factor modification are somewhat equivocal. Studies on blood lipid profiles have mostly been contaminated by confounders, and the effects on blood pressure (BP) are inconsistent. There are encouraging reports that resistance training may increase glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity, independent of changes in body fat or aerobic capacity. Future studies are needed in patients with congestive heart failure and orthotopic heart transplantation; muscle weakness is common in these groups and makes them excellent candidates to benefit from this form of exercise.


A vast growth of advanced information technology systems and tools nowadays is opening new ways to collect accurate as-built data. Since the turn of the millennium, new technology developments enable for the first time to gather accurate as-built information. Accurate as-built data will be of great usage to construction management as well as to designers and engineers. Given that most of the planned data are already digitally available, as-built data remains on paper forms. Information technology developments are opening new ways to digitize construction field data in order to develop intelligent tools for construction management allowing design engineers to update as-planned data. 3D Laser scanning, digital close-range photogrammetry and mobile computing are among the promising data collection technologies, which are auspicious to create new opportunities to develop advanced construction management and engineering tools. Primarily, accurate collected as-built data will be highly beneficial for the process of updating as-planned data.


Shansisuchus shansisuchus Young, 1964 was restudied on the basis of a new specimen. Some anatomical features that were either briefly or not described at all in the original study were detailed. The new specimen not only provides further information on the skull anatomy and the vertebral column but also expands the range of the geographical distribution of the taxon. With new information, the diagnosis of S. shansisuchus was emended and its phylogenetic relationships were further analyzed. S. shansisuchus differs from other archosauriforms primarily in the presence of a large subnarial fenestra anterior to the antorbital fenestra, tongue‐in‐groove articulations between the ascending process of the premaxilla and nasal and between the premaxilla and maxilla, a tall and posterodorsally directed ascending process of the maxilla, a knee‐shaped process of the postorbital projecting into the orbit, a broad descending process of squamosal distally well forked and a large, deeply bow‐shaped intercentrum tightly anchoring/capping the sharp ventral edges of two neighboring centra together in cervical and at least first eight dorsal vertebrae. With additional information derived from the new specimen, the phylogenetic relationships of S. shansisuchus were reanalyzed; it is closely related to Erythrosuchus‐Vjushkovia clade.


Physical computing covers the design and realization of interactive objects and installations and allows students to develop concrete, tangible products of the real world, which arise from the learners' imagination. This can be used in computer science education to provide students with interesting and motivating access to the different topic areas of the subject in constructionist and creative learning environments. The aim of the doctoral thesis is to analyze the phenomenon of physical computing in order to situate possible new contents within the field of computer science education. It will be analyzed what effects physical computing has on student's motivation, creativity, learning success, growth in competences and their understanding of computer science and computing systems.


Internet of things is the collection of gadgets and embedded objects to gather and exchange data by the usage of internet. The internet of things with intelligent transport system (ITS) has become the elucidation for the navigation of vehicles, traffic signal control systems, and automatic number plate identification. It has been evolved in applications for providing contemporaneous data and feedback from diverse sources such as weather information, parking guidance and also the gentrify traffic information from time to time. The proposed system focuses on dynamic traffic light sequence based on the traffic density in order to decrease the rate of accidents at intersection of roads. The obstacles that may or may not occur at intersection are recognized and warned by usage of an alert system and a notification is generated. The traffic management is used to supervise and retrieve current status of traffic and violators are discovered. This is mainly done to evacuate the traffic congestion and accidents at peak hours.


Betulinic acid (BA), a potential anticancer compound, could induce apoptosis in human cervical cancer (HeLa) cells, but its mechanism has yet to be fully elucidated. The present study was focused on deciphering the detailed molecular mechanism of BA-induced apoptosis. In the present study, results indicated that BA was highly effective against HeLa cells via induction of time-dependent apoptosis, and the authors demonstrated that the BA treatment acted through downregulating a phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) subunit and suppressing the Akt phosphorylation at Thr308 and Ser473 after increasing the generation of intracellular reactive oxygen species. Then, BA induced cell cycle arrest at the G0/G1 phase, which was consistent with the cell cycle-related protein results in which BA significantly enhanced the expression of p27Kip and p21Waf1/Cip1 in HeLa cells. This target-specific inhibition was associated with mitochondrial apoptosis, as reflected by the increased expression of Bad and caspase-9, the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and the decline in mitochondrial membrane potential. Moreover, preincubation of the cells with glutathione (antioxidant) blocked the process of apoptosis, prevented the phosphorylation of downstream substrates. These results established that ROS acted as a key factor to effect apoptosis by BA treatment in HeLa cells. Therefore, these findings demonstrated that BA induced apoptosis in HeLa cells by downregulating the expression of PI3K/Akt signaling molecules via ROS, and triggering a mitochondrial pathway.


David Skoupil, Michal Andrýsek, Michal Dobeš ABSTRACT This paper describes the Seismic Internet Monitoring Application 2 (SIMA2) project and explains its use for teaching geology, physics, and computer science at the elementary, high school, and college levels. Earthquakes give us important knowledge about the movements of the continental plates and about the structure of our Earth. Shockwaves of any major earthquake propagate through the Earth's interior as well as the surface and can be recorded anywhere in the world. Being able to witness, record, and analyze earthquakes in real time substantially enriches courses of geology and geography. In cooperation between the USA and the Czech Republic, we have built a growing network of simple home made seismic stations that can be located in classrooms and are capable of detecting quakes globally. The seismometer design demonstrates the physical principles of pendulum movement, inertial momentum, magnetism, induction, and voltage amplification. Signals from the seismographs are digitalized by an embedded Java board and transmitted over the Internet to one of our servers. Once stored in a database, students and teachers worldwide can use our free computer application to receive and display both realtime and historical data from any number of servers. Even schools that do not participate in the physical part of the system can have a global seismic monitoring network in their classrooms. This project provides an excellent integrated workbench for teaching elementary and high school geology, physics, and computer science. It stimulates students' intellectual curiosity by showing the close connection of individual subjects and turning learning into adventure.


Today, Photography and visual arts are very important in our modern life. Especially for the mass communication, the visual images and visual arts have very big importance. In modern societies, people must have knowledge about the visual things, such as photographs, cartoons, drawings, typography, etc. Briefly, the people need education on visual literacy. In today's world, most of the people in the world have a digital camera for photography or video image. But it is not possible to give people, visual literacy education in classic school system. But the camera users need a teaching medium for using their cameras effectively. So they are trying to use internet opportunities, some internet websites and pages as an information source. But as the well known problem, not all the websites give the correct learning or know-how on internet. There are a lot of mistakes and false information. Because of the reasons given above, Anadolu University Open Education Faculty is starting a new education system to educate people as a digital photographer and camera person in 2009. This program has very importance as a case study. The language of photography and digital technology is in English. Of course, not all the camera users understand English language. So, owing to this program, most of the camera users and especially people who is working as an operator in studios will learn a lot of things on photography, digital technology and camera systems. On the other hand, these people will learn about composition, visual image's history etc. Because of these reasons, this program is very important especially for developing countries. This paper will try to discuss this subject.


Dread and enchantment haunt twentieth-century Dutch Indies and Indonesian literature, but Laurie Sears suggests that these literary works can bring ine able experiences of trauma into narrative form. Sears sees certain literary works as situated testimonies, and they o er a method of reading the traces that elude archival constructions—emotional traces which historians may fail to record or witness. Sears's use of Donna Haraway's notion of "situatedness" reiterates the idea that all of us speak from somewhere. Testimony, especially eyewitness testimony, is a gold standard in historical methodology. The authors of literary works are eyewitnesses of their time, but literary works are rst of all written as literature. Literary or formal aspects cannot be ignored in the attempt to unravel the secrets and mysteries of the past. Those literary works that become situated testimonies can take their place in historical archives. As shown by various scholars, political factors in uence processes of shaping and preserving archival materials, and Sears looks at Indies and Indonesian archival constructions under colonial conditions and in the face of postcolonial state repression. Indonesia's famous author Pramoedya Ananta Toer knew how colonial and postcolonial literary works in uenced the way the past has been narrated in Indonesian archives. This way of reading follows French psychoanalyst and philosopher Jean Laplanche's retranslation of Nachträglichkeit as "afterwardsness," where memories, like literature, can move us back and forth in time. In her research on 20th century literary archives, Sears found psychoanalytic theory moving back and forth between Europe and the Indies/Indonesia throughout the 20th century and beyond. She concludes that far from being a Jewish or European discourse, psychoanalysis is a transnational discourse of desire that has in uenced Indies and Indonesian writers for over a century. These ideas inspire Sears's thinking about historical archives, literature, and trauma. The cover ofSituated Testimonies features a photograph of Soekarno, Indonesia's rst president and nationalist leader from 1925-1965.


Building on a growing body of contract-based privacy scholarship, Professor Patricia Sanchez Abril has advanced a creative, concededly ambitious proposal for people to privately order their online interpersonal privacy: a system of standardized click-wrap-type confidentiality agreements in which social network users would be required to accept a content provider's personal privacy preferences to access their online information. The contracts would be legally binding, enforceable through traditional means, although Abril suggests that most breaches would be minor and could be addressed by a self-policed online complaint and perhaps eBay-type rating system administered by the social network host. This reply to Abril's article imagines how her proposal might function, or be adapted to function, in a real-world context, using Facebook as an example. Abril's proposal is not limited to Facebook, but it is focused on online social networks. The omnipresent force that is Facebook comes readily to mind when reading her article. With more than 500 million members as of 2010, Facebook is the undisputed heavyweight world champion of personal information-sharing. If any single entity holds the power to change the context of online social network privacy, it's Facebook. Thinking about how Abril's proposal might work with Facebook highlights some obstacles to it, but also illustrates the great potential of her ideas. In the end, using Abril's idea, the author suggests that Facebook could significantly alter the context of online privacy even without binding contracts, through a system of simple non-binding user-privacy preference icons (linked to short descriptions) that would run with all posted content.


Interorganizational relationships connect people affiliated with organizations rather than corporate actors themselves. The managers and owners of organizations therefore do not always control these connections and consequently often cannot profit from them. We discuss the circumstances under which individuals (versus organizations) own these relationships (and therefore also the social capital generated by them). Three factors increase the odds of individual ownership: (a) the extent to which the resources valued by alters belong to the individual (rather than the organization), (b) the degree to which alters feel greater indebtedness to the individual than to the organization, and (c) the extent to which relationships involve emotional attachment. We discuss the implications of the locus of ownership, argue that these distinctions can help explain many results that appear inconsistent on the surface, and call for future research to pay closer attention to these issues.


A B S T R A C T Sugar snap peas (Pisum sativum L.) are edible-podded peas that, unlike snow (Chinese) peas, have thick pod walls. They are the result of the combination of at least six recessive genes controlling pod and grain traits, and two others are being incorporated in modern cultivars. Sugar snap peas may be consumed fresh or frozen, and are highly appreciated in the United States and other countries. Six genotypes from the USA were evaluated at two locations in La Araucania Region in southern Chile in 2004 and 2005. Most sugar snap varieties showed yields similar to a freezable cultivar used as a check. Yield differences among sugar snap varieties were small and inconsistent; however, cv. Sweet Ann performed relatively well and showed the best freezing quality. Over 15 t ha -1 of pods were obtained under favorable conditions, suggesting that yields around 10 t ha -1 are quite achievable commercially. All varieties presented, at variable levels, suture on both dorsal and ventral sides of the pods. A mild frost (-2 °C), harmless to the plant, may also deteriorate the appearance of the pods. Sugar snap peas are a delicate produce and, if well managed, can be a sound option to diversify Chilean horticultural offer.


China's average household saving rate is one of the highest in the world. One popular view attributes the high saving rate to fast rising housing prices and other costs of living in China. This article uses simple economic logic to show that rising housing prices and living costs per se cannot explain China's high household saving rate. Although borrowing constraints and demographic changes can help translate housing prices to the aggregate saving rate, quantitative simulations using Chinese data on household income, housing prices, and demographics indicate that rising mortgage costs contribute at most 5 percentage points to the Chinese aggregate household saving rate, given the down-payment structure of China's mortgage markets.


Rural and agricultural banks, among them state-owned agricultural development banks (AgDBs) and cooperative banks, have a wide outreach in Asian countries. Their potential as retailers and wholesalers (through cooperatives, rural banks, NGOs) for providing sustainable savings deposit and credit services to the rural poor is enormous. Some examples: (a) The quantative and qualitative outreach BRI Microbanking Division, with 25.1 million microsavings accounts and 2.6 million current microcredit accounts (at a profit!), surpasses that of some 10,000 formal and semiformal MFIs in Indonesia. (b) BAAC provides near-total coverage in terms of rural saver and agricultural borrower outreach in Thailand. (c) The outreach of NABARD in India through rural banks, financial cooperatives and self-help groups (SHGs) exceeds a hundred million. With regard to outreach to the very poor, NABARD has achieved spectacular success through its program Linking Banks and SHGs, expecting an outreach of a hundred million rural poor by 2008. (d) In Nepal, IFAD and AsDB helped ADB/Nepal to build up a rural financial infrastructure of small farmer groups. With assistance from GTZ, 101 subproject offices have been transformed into autonomous savings and credit cooperatives (SFCLs), with an astonishing ratio of financial self-sufficiency of 117%. The success of the SFCLs in the fertile plains and the marginal hill areas is living proof of the compatability of outreach to the poorest and institutional sustainability even in a most difficult environment. Yet, the large majority of AgDBs in Asia and elsewhere are grossly underperforming and are a major drain on public resources. Therefore, they have been ignored by most donors in recent years. However, experience in Asia shows that there is an enormous potential for reform. There is little chance that the small MFIs donors have been focussing on will even remotely come close to the Summit?s quantitative aims of outreach. Rural and agricultural banks must be included in our joint campaign to combat poverty, and every effort should be made to convince governments to transform rural and agricultural banks into viable and sustainable financial intermediaries with wide outreach to the rural poor. IFAD?s new initiative with CGAP, the World Bank, FAO, GTZ, regional development banks and the RACAs (Afraca, Apraca, Nenaraca) has focused on the potential as well as reform needs of AgDBs and increasingly attracted international attention. By including rural and agricultural banks in the Summit?s agenda, it is expected that synergies will be mobilized with the objective of substantially increasing access of the poor and very poor to sustainable financial services throughout Asia and the Pacific. The Microcredit Summit Campaign may play an important role in generating the necessary political will.


Increasing women's participation in computer science is a critical workforce and equity concern. The technology industry has committed to reversing negative trends for women in computer science as well as engineering and information technology "computing" fields. Building on previously published research, this paper identifies factors that influence young women's decisions to pursue computer science-related degrees and the ways in which these factors differ for young men. It is based on a survey of 1,739 high school students and recent college graduates. Results identified encouragement and exposure as the leading factors influencing this critical choice for women, while the influence of these factors is different for men. In particular, the influence of family is found to play a critical role in encouragement and exposure, and outreach efforts should focus on ways to engage parents.


Since the release in 2002 of his book The Rise of the Creative Class, Richard Florida has given conferences in the U.S., Canada and elsewhere in the world expounding on the blessings of the creative class (a theory of his own yet noticeably inspired by Jane Jacobs and Claude Fischer). The conferences were attended by Chambers of Commerce and other audiences seeking political strategies or competitive approaches applicable to economic development and growth in large urban and metropolitan areas. According to this theory, the new development process is fuelled by a set of three T's: technology, talent and tolerance. Researchers in the United States and Europe have scrutinised the creative class theory, its methodology and related statistics; empirical results demonstrate that there is no generalizable rule through which talent leads urban growth and urban or regional competitiveness, at least in Canada. The creative class model is in effect a predictor that does not account for the performance of British cities, yet it remains adaptable. For example, sociologist Robert Lang (2006) berates Florida's creative class theory as a vague metatheory. The theory proposes a causal bond between the location of talent and regional economic development: "Regional economic growth is powered by creative people, who prefer places that are diverse, tolerant and open to new ideas. [...] Greater and more diverse concentrations of creative capital in turn lead to higher rates of innovation, high technology business formation, job generation and economic growth" (Stolarick et al 2005). In order to assess and classify urban centres' or population clusters' competitiveness and vitality in the dynamic context of globalisation involving both commerce and knowledge, this regional economic development theory is governed by a trio of truisms--technology, talent and tolerance. In fact, the parameters used by the author are: (i) talents (including the ratio of university graduates), (ii) bohemia (jobs in the creative arts--authors and writers, producers and directors, choreographers, orchestra conductors and music composers, musicians and singers, dancers, actors, painters and sculptors, visual artists, photographers, graphic designers and illustrators, decorators, occupations connected with the performing arts, with fashion, with art shows or exhibitions, and with handicraft and traditional fine crafts), (iii) ethnic and social diversity (more on this below), and (iv) technologies (export of hi-tech goods and services--aeronautics, electronics, pharmaceutical et medical, scientific equipment, telecommunications, computing and computers, architecture and engineering, laboratories, and TV, movie and audio-visual production). For anyone wishing to take advantage of the theory in the competitive urban arena, the first hurdle lies in the fuzziness of its key concepts, and chiefly that of creative class. In the U.S., the creative class would bring together more than 30 % of the active population, i.e. approximately 38 million individuals. Furthermore, the theory is partial to a certain professional elite--young, unmarried, mobile citizens of the world (cosmopolitan) who have an appetite for technology. Florida's prospective theory of the avant-garde metropolisis confronted by objections concerning the use he makes of a secondary indicator that is intended to assess the tolerance of cities, i.e. his Gay Index based on data on unmarried partner households available in the U.S. 2000 Census. Levine's analysis (2004) of this question is pertinent; he informs us that "in the largest metropolitan areas in the country, San Francisco accounted for the largest percentage of gay households (1.8 %) and Buffalo the lowest (0.4 %) in 2000." Although Florida's idea seems disproportionate with respect to its economic scale, the statement uncovers a unique evolution in American culture and values, namely the organisation of groups that have always been marginalised, more or less tolerated, brought into disrepute or otherwise stigrnatised (alcoholics, compulsive gamblers, dug dependent persons, homosexuals, cross-dressers and transvestites, transsexuals, inmates and ex-convicts, dwarfs, psychiatric patients or mentally disturbed persons, blind, deaf and mute persons including left-handers whose special feature is deemed socially unimportant today) : "When one recalls that [homosexuals] never wanted for educated and intellectual adherents, it is all the more puzzling that no homophile organization appeared in America until after the Second World War" (Sagarin 1969: 79). …


The deployment of distributed generations(DGs) poses increasing burden to sensing and communication in centralized voltage control. To address this issue, a distributed voltage control method is proposed in this paper. In the proposed method, the whole distribution network is separated into several areas and each area is equipped with a sub-controller. The idea of alternating direction method of multipliers(ADMM) is used for the distributed voltage control design by exchanging information of boundary variables between two adjacent areas. In this way, the requirements for data collection and communication is reduced. Case studies on a modified IEEE 33 bus system with three area partition demonstrate the performance of the proposed distributed voltage control method.


The flux of energetic light ions at low altitude is both an important input and output for self-consistent calculations of albedo particles resulting from the interaction of trapped and cosmic ray particles, with the upper atmosphere. In addition, data on the flux of light ions are needed to evaluate radiation damages on space-bome instruments and on space mission crews. In spite of that, sources of data on the flux of energetic ions at LEO are roughly limited to the AP-8 model, CREME/CREME96 codes and the SAMPEX, NOAA/TIROS satellites. The existing and operational European SAC-C/ICARE and PROBA-I/SREM instruments could also be potential sources for proton data at LEO. Although AP-8 and SAMPEX/PSB97 may be publicly accessed through the SPENVIS, they exhibit an order of magnitude difference in low altitude proton fluxes and they do not contain helium fluxes. Therefore, improved light ion radiation models are still needed. In this paper we present a procedure to identify and measure the energy of ions that are not stopped in the NINA-2 instrument. Moreover, problems related to particles that cross the instrument in the opposite direction are addressed and shown to be a possible cause of particle misidentification. Measuring fluxes of low abundance elements like energetic helium ions requires a good characterisation of all possible sources of backgrounds in the detector. Hints to determine the several contributions to the background are presented herein and may be applied to extract an order of magnitude of energetic ions fluxes from existing data sets, while waiting for dedicated high performance instruments.


The deformation electron density has been studied in LiOH.H 2O at 295K using a combination of X-ray and neutron diffraction data. Notoriously high extinction was present in the neutron data. Despite an attempt to reduce this by shock-cooling, the subsequent refinement of an extinction correction met with only partial success. Limited use was thus made of the neutron data in the determination of static multipole deformation density maps. The resulting peak maximum in the O-H bonds of the water molecule is 0.66 e Aring -3, and of the OH - ion 0.49 e Aring -3. Lower peaks are observed in the lone-pair regions: 0.22 e Aring -3 for H 2O and 0.27 e Aring -3 for OH -. These are to be compared with the results of theoretical ab initio calculations given by Hermansson and Lunnell (1982).


Present study was conducted to know the influence of family environment on social competence of an children is of great importance. Family environment affects the social competence during a more crucial period in life, i.e. adolescence. Adolescence is often considered as a period of "storm & stress". Any negligence of the individual at this stage leads to serious problems in later life which is bad not only for the individual but also for all those who come in contact with him and for the society in which they live. Study was carried out on 100 children's (50 boys and 50 girls)from Meerut city. The results show gender differences in perception of the family environment and social competence which proves that in Indian culture especially that of small cities .the parents still give differential treatment to their sons and daughters and the society has certain gender biases still prevailing. Key Wordsfamily environment, social competence.


N-Nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) is a disinfection by-product of concern in water reuse applications due to its potential human carcinogenicity. NDMA forms via the reaction of organic amine precursors with chloramines during water treatment. Advanced treatment for potable reuse reduces NDMA to non-detectable levels and removes most precursors. However, historical data from a full-scale potable reuse facility indicates NDMA can form after advanced treatment due to the presence of residual chloramine and NDMA precursors that are not removed during advanced treatment. This study used non-target high-resolution mass spectrometry to identify NDMA precursors and other trace organic compounds during advanced treatment for reuse. Inspection of the total ion chromatograms indicated that there was a substantial reduction of total ionizable compounds by reverse osmosis (RO). The RO feed water contained approximately 22 putative identifications of NDMA precursors across two sampling events. Only one of these precursors was found post-RO and none were found in the subsequent UV/advanced oxidation process (AOP) product water. In addition to the 22 NDMA precursors, the RO feed water contained 41 pharmaceuticals and pesticides that are not likely to be NDMA precursors. Similarly, these compounds were generally well removed by RO. Two compounds with unknown NDMA formation potential, one a suspected benzotriazole trimer with chemical formula C18H16N6O3 and the other with an unassigned formula, were identified in the UV/AOP product water that were not present prior to UV/AOP (after RO), indicating they may be transformation products. Overall, this research demonstrates the utility of non-target analysis for water quality investigations.


: The aim of this work it was to validate the 3D
modeling to obtain the body surface area of animals, and determine the impact
on the rate of heat transfer by convection in Corriedale sheep when include
legs and head in the standard cylindrical model. Five shorn Corriedale sheep weighing
between 29 and 105 kg (two breeders, one young male and two young females) were
used. A regression equation, standard cylindrical model, hand instrument and 3D
modeling were used to obtain surface area. Data were analyzed by least-squares
methods and a non-linear regression was applied with geometric adjust in a
power function. Pearson correlation was tested. Coefficients were highly significant (p<0.01). Body
surface area and weight presented high (r = 0.99) correlation. From the power function (allometric equation)
adjusted in the regression equation, the coefficient "b" assumed the following
values 0.5025, 0.6122 and 0.6391 and the coefficient "a" 0.171, 0.1117 and
0.1045 for Bennett's equation, 3D modeling's and instrument's equation,
respectively. Coefficients differences between the present investigation and
Bennett's work can be explained by the intraspecific relationship and range of
body weight considered, once he used Merino sheep from 23 to 63 kg and we
worked with corriedale sheep from 29 to 105 kg. Considering an animal of 63 kg,
Bennet's equation presented an underestimate value to the body surface area over
the 7.3 % and 8 % when compared with hand
instrument's and 3D Model's, respectively. Furthermore, this error increases at
least 3% if we considered a 100 Kg Corriedale sheep. At this condition, 3D model with hand
instrument presented less than 1% of the difference. The use of simple
horizontal cylinder causes an underestimated on the rate of heat flow by
convection because legs and head can represent 35 %, on average, of the total body
surface area in a Corriedale sheep of 100 Kg. Thus, 3D modelling seems to be
the best way to obtain the animal surface area, and certainly, appears as a
tool to improve research involving heat and mass transfer and animal breeding.


The adoption of cloud computing is increasing and its use is becoming widespread in many sectors. As the proportion of services provided using cloud computing increases, legal and regulatory issues are becoming more significant. In this paper we explore how an Information Flow Audit (IFA) mechanism, that provides key data regarding provenance, can be used to verify compliance with regulatory and contractual duty, and survey potential extensions. We explore the use of IFA for such a purpose through a smart electricity metering use case derived from a French Data Protection Agency recommendation.


A typical way to schedule a set of jobs is to evaluate and optimize different job sequences and then process them in the best found order. This global optimization approach can be applied for any set of jobs. Unfortunately, optimizing a subset of these jobs requires a new optimization run for this particular subsequence. In this paper we show the generation of dispatching rules that aid job sequencing in single machine environments using genetic programming and delta features. The rules are applied to sets of jobs and yield priorities depending on certain characteristics. These priorities are then used to create job orders dynamically depending on the last executed job. Once generated for specific scenarios, the rules provide on-the-fly sequence generation capability for queued subsets of jobs. Finally, we compare the performance and robustness of the generated rules against the scheduling approach.


The Protestant Reformation in the early 16th century challenged the monopoly of the Catholic Church. The printing press helped the new movement spread its ideas well beyond the cradle of the Reformation in Luther's city of Wittenberg. The Catholic Church reacted by issuing indexes of forbidden books which blacklisted not only Protestant authors but all authors whose ideas were considered to be in conflict with Catholic doctrine. We use newly digitized data on the universe of books censored by the Catholic Church during the Counter-Reformation, containing information on titles, authors, printers and printing locations. We classify censored books by topic (religion, sciences, social sciences and arts) and language and record when and where books were indexed. Our results show that Catholic censorship did reduce printing of forbidden authors, as intended, but also negatively impacted on the diffusion of knowledge, and city growth.


This paper considers market neutral portfolio selection, which is an advanced investment topic. It draws on an idea in the investment literature that short selling a stock in practice is like investing in an artificially constructed security. Such an idea allows this paper to extend textbook coverage of portfolio selection without short sales to a realistic long-short setting. Spreadsheet illustrations are provided, with and without using the derived analytical results. Thus, the pedagogic materials as covered in this paper can accommodate investment courses with different levels of analytical rigor.


What does the city's form actually mean to the people who live there? What can the city planner do to make the city's image more vivid and memorable to the city dweller? To answer these questions, Mr. Lynch, supported by studies of Los Angeles, Boston, and Jersey City, formulates a new criterion -- imageability -- and shows its potential value as a guide for the building and rebuilding of cities. The wide scope of this study leads to an original and vital method for the evaluation of city form. The architect, the planner, and certainly the city dweller will all want to read this book.


The quality and quantity of information disclosed by companies in their annual reports in a particular country depends heavily on the country's level of economic development, the development of the accounting profession, the legislation in force, and the existence of a sophisticated financial market. In this vein, following the recent changes and reforms of both the Libyan economy and the legislation around financial reporting, government legislation and laws have played a major role in shaping the current financial reporting practices in Libya. This thesis aims to empirically examine the quality as well as the quantity of the information disclosed in the annual reports of Libyan companies. In particular, by using an integrated research design framework, the study seeks to: (i) assess the perceptions of the preparers and users of Libyan Corporate Annual Reports (CARs) regarding the use and usefulness of the information disclosed; and (ii) investigate the comprehensiveness of disclosure among Libyan listed and non-listed firms, and examine the association between a number of corporate governance mechanisms, the ownership structure, and corporate specific characteristics and the corporate disclosure behavior of Libyan listed and non-listed firms. This study consists of two stages. The first stage uses a questionnaire survey as a research instrument. The second stage uses a content analysis of real secondary data collected from companies' annual reports and analyzed using various regression models.
 The findings of the questionnaire survey suggest that both preparers and users consider CARs to be the most important source of corporate information for their decision-making process.
Furthermore, the delay in publishing CARs and the lack of unified accounting and reporting standards were viewed as the prime factors restricting their use in Libya. Generally speaking, the respondents considered the information disclosed in the annual reports of Libyan firms as adequate.
With regard to the factors affecting corporate reporting practices in Libya, as expected, the Libyan Commercial Code (LCC) and Income Tax Law (ITL) were viewed by the vast majority of respondents as the prime factors affecting corporate reporting practices in Libya. In addition, a lack of reporting standards and accepted accounting principles, in line with the lack of knowledge of external users' needs were perceived as the prime obstacles restricting the extent of disclosure. The findings also indicated that there were statistically significant differences in perceptions among the user groups, and between users and preparers regarding the use and usefulness of CARs in Libya.
 With regard to the findings of the content analysis of the annual reports of Libyan listed and non-listed companies, the results suggest that, firstly, board size, the frequency of board meetings and the presence of an audit committee have an impact on the level of corporate disclosure. On the other hand, the findings indicate that duality in the position of the CEO and board composition are not related to the extent of disclosure. Secondly, regarding ownership structure variables, no evidence was found that director ownership, foreign ownership, government ownership and institutional ownership were significant in explaining the extent of disclosure. Finally, the results from the content analysis are robust, controlling for a number of potential endogeneity and non-linearity issues.


Microbial fuel cell (MFC) are potential sources to generate electricity directly by using bacteria and their mechanism of breakdown of organic matter. MFCs can also be used in wastewater treatment facilities to breakdown organic matters. They have also been studied for applications as biosensors such as sensors for biological oxygen demand monitoring. A prototype of MFC using marine sediment making up the anaerobic anode compartment with overlying cathode chamber containing continuously aerated water. The anodic chamber was fed with 200 mM sodium acetate as substrate for the microbial consortium in the sea sediment. Graphite electrodes were used in both the chambers to study the generation of power. A maximum of 0.574V was observed in MFC1 & 2 with distilled water in the cathode chamber and 0.3V was detected in MFC filled with seawater in the cathode compartment. The DNA extracted from the bio films on the electrodes was studied using agarose gel electrophoresis and UV spectroscopy to study the purity and quantity respectively. The amount of DNA obtained from the anode was quantified as 0.510 mg/mL and no bio film was observed on the cathode. Therefore, the commercialization of marine MFC with a complete understanding of microbial community involved in power generation can pave the way for a potential power source in India, a country with vast coastlines.


Systems for vegetable production in the dry tropics of North Queensland, Australia, have been dominated by intensive tillage and extensive use of nonrenewable polyethylene inputs. A field trial was established to investigate agronomic practices and soil health changes in capsicum and zucchini crops grown with intensive tillage and permanent bed systems. In 2011, conventional intensive tillage with 'plasticulture' was compared to a permanent bed system with subsurface drip irrigation, no soil disturbance and organic mulch produced from a summer sorghum crop. Soil compaction was a major production constraint in the permanent beds in 2011, along with water and nutrient management. Compared to intensive tillage, marketable yield in permanent beds had reductions of 70 and 30%, respectively in capsicum and zucchini. In 2012, the same intensive tillage system was compared to a permanent bed system where minimal soil disturbance had been produced by zone tillage in 10% of the cropped area. It was also compared to a modified system which had permanent beds and zone till but, in addition, had a polyethylene film mulch over the planting beds. The zone tillage and improved fertigation management in 2012 led to marketable yields that were not significantly different among the three tillage systems. In 2013, crops in permanent beds covered with a biodegradable film instead of polyethylene film, had marketable yields that were comparable to the intensive tillage system. Results from the first three years of this study gave indication that minimum tillage has the potential to provide acceptable marketable yields with less dependence on polyethylene use.


This thesis explores the lives and work of the women who worked for the Railway Mission during the last two decades of the nineteenth century. The Railway Mission was established in 1881 with the aim of evangelising the large railway workforce of the late-Victorian period. Significant numbers of women worked for the Mission: they have, to date, been hidden from history. This thesis combines Mission records with census and related data to give an unprecedented insight into their lives and work.
The thesis adds a new dimension to the study of women's religious and philanthropic work. Whereas previous research has focused mainly on women's work with other women and with children, this thesis explores women's work within the male-dominated environment of the Victorian railway industry. The study contributes to current debates about the flexibility of 'separate spheres' in its examination of the ways in which women moved fluidly between the home and the industrialised spaces of Victorian railway infrastructure. Moreover, it questions the adequacy of a class conflict model for interpreting the working relationships which developed between middle-class women and working-class railwaymen.
Previous research has emphasised the extent to which women, as both employees and as passengers, were marginalised in Victorian railway culture. This thesis shows how women, as religious workers, were, in contrast, able to gain legitimate access to railway spaces denied to other women. Finally, while there has been a significant amount of research into the synergies and tensions between aspects of Victorian railway and religious cultures, this has centred around the railway as a corporate entity and religion as an institutionalised cultural force. The thesis provides an alternative focus in its discussion of the ways in which religious women and railwaymen worked together as individuals to create areas of commonality.


The study shows that the exceptional drop in volume of Finlands GDP in 2009 as much as 8 per cent was to a large extent due to huge decline in exports and production of one industry, ICT. The contribution of ICT (or electronics and electro-technical industry) to GDP decline was close to two percentage points. The reduction of the industrys value added resulted, again, from the dramatic deterioration of profits (capital income). Nokia is by far the biggest player in the industry (more than half of the value added), and the decline of profits is mainly due to Nokia. Since 80-90 per cent of Nokias shares is owned by foreigners, the consequences of profit and value added decline are felt mainly outside Finland. Similarly, when the values added and profits grew in the early 2000s, the contribution to GDP growth was overestimated. The reason is that national accounting does not take into account the ownership structure of accumulated retained profits. However, as a result of the crisis the Finnish economy has experienced a permanent decline in its potential production.


Objective The objective of this study was to investigate the preoperative diagnostic value of 18F-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (FDG) positron emission tomography and computed tomography (PET/CT) in patients with ovarian cancer. Methods One hundred sixty patients suspected of having malignant ovarian tumors were included in this study. All patients underwent FDG-PET/CT scans before operation, and the maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) of the primary tumor was measured. We evaluated the diagnostic accuracy of SUVmax for detecting malignancy and its relationship with histological findings. Results Postoperative pathological diagnoses showed that 67 were malignant, 14 were borderline malignant, and 79 were benign tumors. With the use of a cutoff SUVmax of 2.9 obtained from the receiver operating characteristic curve analysis, the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value for detecting malignancy were 80.6%, 94.6%, 91.5%, and 87.1%, respectively. Positive FDG accumulation (SUVmax ≥ 2.9) was shown in 89.5% of serous adenocarcinoma and in 92.3% of endometrioid adenocarcinoma. In contrast, lower frequencies of positive FDG accumulation were shown in clear cell adenocarcinoma (54.5%), mucinous adenocarcinoma (66.7%), and metastatic carcinoma (66.7%), and the median SUVmax of these 3 histological types were significantly lower than those of serous and endometrioid types. In addition, a positive FDG accumulation was shown in all patients with malignant transformation of mature cystic teratoma. Finally, of the 14 borderline malignant tumors, only 2 (14.3%) showed positive FDG accumulation. Conclusions The SUVmax on FDG-PET/CT is useful for differentiating ovarian cancer from borderline or benign tumor with a high specificity and positive predictive value. However, our data also demonstrated a lower FDG uptake value in clear cell or mucinous histological finding, suggesting that SUVmax may vary depending on the tumor histological subtype.


Foreign relations law presents a particularly fertile field in which to explore constitutional dynamics. This article uses the recent debate over the constitutional interchangeability of Article II treaties (requiring supermajority approval of the Senate) and congressional-executive agreements (approved with a bicameral majority) as a case study in constitutional method. The article first critiques arguments by Laurence Tribe, who on a textual basis argues the constitutional illegitimacy of the North American Free Trade Agreement and the World Trade Organization Uruguay Round, both approved as congressional-executive agreements; and by Bruce Ackerman and David Golove, who assert their constitutionality in all cases as grounded in a constitutional moment following World War II. This article argues that the constitutionality of congressional-executive agreements can be established, but only at the end of an accretive historical practice and only in a narrow range of substantive contexts. In contrast to Tribe, the article demonstrates the constitutionality of congressional-executive agreements; in contrast to Ackerman and Golove, it denies the full interchangeability of congressional-executive agreements with treaties. The article uses post-war developments to show that the congressional-executive agreement form is acceptable in some contexts (with respect to trade agreements, where it may in fact be mandatory) and not in others (most notably with respect to arms control agreements, where the Senate has maintained an institutional opposition to submitting such agreement via any route other than Article II). The article uses this case study to pose a model of constitutional increments. In contrast to the moments approach, the increments model accepts the evolutionary, episodic development of constitutional norms. The model offers four metrics for assessing the constitutional significance of any particular constitutional episode: acceptance by relevant actors, including non-judicial and, in some cases, non-governmental actors; the degree of contestedness evidenced in an episode (the more contested a principle, the greater significance afforded the resolution of that contest); the age of the episode (older episodes being less significant, at least as unsupported by more recent practice); and the pedigree of the principle for which the episode is offered. This model, the article asserts, offers greater constitutional determinacy than competing models of constitutional development. The model also better advances the central normative virtue of constitutionalism, namely of facilitating recognition of long-term community aspirations through the constraint of shorter-term continuity.


This paper presents the implementation details of a coded structured light system for rapid shape acquisition of unknown surfaces. Such techniques are based on the projection of patterns onto a measuring surface and grabbing images of every projection with a camera. Analyzing the pattern deformations that appear in the images, 3D information of the surface can be calculated. The implemented technique projects a unique pattern so that it can be used to measure moving surfaces. The structure of the pattern is a grid where the color of the slits are selected using a De Bruijn sequence. Moreover, since both axis of the pattern are coded, the cross points of the grid have two codewords (which permits to reconstruct them very precisely), while pixels belonging to horizontal and vertical slits have also a codeword. Different sets of colors are used for horizontal and vertical slits, so the resulting pattern is invariant to rotation. Therefore, the alignment constraint between camera and projector considered by a lot of authors is not necessary.