Background The contribution of bone marrow-derived cells to epithelial tissues in the inflamed gut remains controversial. Recent reports have suggested that cell fusion between bone marrow-derived cells and the intestinal epithelium takes place in inflammatory conditions. Methods In attempts to confirm this, we have undertaken gender mis-matched bone marrow (BM) transplants from male Swiss Webster (SWR) mice to B and T cell-deficient female Rag2 KO mice which, 4 weeks later, were given 5% dextran sodium sulphate in drinking water to induce acute colitis. A further BM-treated group of animals with a graft versus host-like condition was also studied. We developed a new method to combine up to three brightfield or fluorescent lectin- or immuno-histochemical signals with fluorescent in situ hybridisation for the Y and X chromosomes to enable us unequivocally to identify BM-derived male cells which presented as different cell types in the gastrointestinal tract. Principal Findings In rolled preparations of whole intestines we scanned around 1.5 million crypts at many tissue levels. In no instance did we see a Y chromosome-positive cell in the epithelial compartment, which was not also CD45-positive. We saw no evidence of cell fusion, based on combined X and Y chromosome analysis. Levels of CD45-positive stromal and lymphoid cells and pericryptal myfibroblasts (positive for α-smooth muscle actin) increased with time up to a plateau, which resembled the level seen in untreated control grafted animals. We saw very few Y chromosome-positive endothelial cells in intestinal stromal vessels. Conclusions We conclude that whole BM transplantation does not result in intestinal epithelial engraftment in this model. Our new methods can usefully assist in multi-signal analyses of cell phenotypes following BM transplant and in models of chimaerism and regenerative medicine.


Interactive computing notebooks, such as Jupyter notebooks, have become a popular tool for developing and improving data-driven models. Such notebooks tend to be executed either in the user's own machine or in a cloud environment, having drawbacks and benefits in both approaches. This paper presents a solution developed as a Jupyter extension that automatically selects which cells, as well as in which scenarios, such cells should be migrated to a more suitable platform for execution. We describe how we reduce the execution state of the notebook to decrease migration time and we explore the knowledge of user interactivity patterns with the notebook to determine which blocks of cells should be migrated. Using notebooks from Earth science (remote sensing), image recognition, and hand written digit identification (machine learning), our experiments show notebook state reductions of up to 55× and migration decisions leading to performance gains of up to 3.25× when the user interactivity with the notebook is taken into consideration.


Multiple sclerosis (MS) as the most common autoimmune disorder in the central nervous system is a major health problem. MS is a complex disease with multiple environmental and genetic factors participating in it. In the present study, we evaluated the expression of 3 genes named BCL2, CASP2 and CASP8 in peripheral blood of 50 MS patients and 50 healthy controls to investigate the role of apoptosis, necroptosis and DNA damage signaling pathways in MS. Statistical analysis showed a significant increase in BCL2 and CASP2 expressions while a significant decrease in CASP8 expression in patients compared with the control group. The over-expression of the pro-apoptotic BCL2 is anticipated to induce accumulation of auto-reactive T cells which are involved in MS pathogenesis. Since caspase 8 is vital for the suppression of necroptotic pathway, defective activation of caspase 8 can cause inflammation and may be involved in the pathogenesis of MS disease. In brief, we have demonstrated altered levels of BCL2, CASP2 and CASP8 in MS patients compared with healthy subjects which potentiates these genes as biomarkers or therapeutic targets in MS. Further researchers are needed to evaluate the clinical relevance of these markers.


Cryptosporidium is a genus of protozoa that infects swimming pools causing diarrhoea and other illnesses. In this study, the removal of Cryptosporidium-size microspheres from a 10 000 l swimming pool was evaluated under varying conditions to provide a reliable and efficient water treatment technique. The baseline condition without coagulation (widely practised in swimming pools today) showed that treating a pool with microspheres at a density of 4000 microspheres per litre through a 33 cm diameter sand filter at 30 m/h flow rate removes 25% of Cryptosporidiumsize microspheres. The filtration followed by polyaluminium FeCl3 (PAFC) coagulation results in 99% microsphere removal over the 168 h experimental period with filter backwashing every 48 h. Additionally, the impact of the flow rate and filter cross-sectional area was also examined.


Coastal landscape change represents aggregated sediment transport gradients from spatially and temporally variable marine and aeolian forces. Numerous tools exist that independently simulate subaqueous and subaerial coastal profile change in response to these physical forces on a range of time scales. In this capacity, coastal foredunes have been treated primarily as wind-driven features. However, there are several marine controls on coastal foredune growth, such as sediment supply and moisture effects on aeolian processes. To improve understanding of interactions across the land-sea interface, here the development of the new Windsurf-coupled numerical modeling framework is presented. Windsurf couples standalone subaqueous and subaerial coastal change models to simulate the co-evolution of the coastal zone in response to both marine and aeolian processes. Windsurf is applied to a progradational, dissipative coastal system in Washington, USA, demonstrating the ability of the model framework to simulate sediment exchanges between the nearshore, beach, and dune for a one-year period. Windsurf simulations generally reproduce observed cycles of seasonal beach progradation and retreat, as well as dune growth, with reasonable skill. Exploratory model simulations are used to further explore the implications of environmental forcing variability on annual-scale coastal profile evolution. The findings of this work support the hypothesis that there are both direct and indirect oceanographic and meteorological controls on coastal foredune progradation, with this new modeling tool providing a new means of exploring complex morphodynamic feedback mechanisms.


This paper undertakes a critique of the quality of Singapore's public economic data in the context of the claim that one of the island's sovereign wealth funds, Temasek Holdings, reports that it has earned since inception in 1974 an average annualized rate of return of 16%. Over a similar time period the Singapore stock market earned 4.99% implying that Temasek on average outperformed the local stock market in which it was heavily invested, by a factor of more than three times every year. The paper replicates Temasek's portfolio and analyses Singapore's public finances and finds that irregularities may exist within Temasek financials. It concludes that if there are as of yet unknown financial weaknesses within Singaporean public finances that have yet to be realized then given the importance of the island in Asia's financial markets, this should raise concerns over the quality of financial statements produced by government linked corporations and the public sector.


Abstract Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors are a class of drugs commonly used in the management of hypertension, congestive heart failure, cerebrovascular disease, stable coronary heart disease and diabetes-associated nephropathy. ACE inhibitors are divided into three classes, namely sulphydryl-containing ACE inhibitors structurally related to captopril, carboxyl-containing ACE inhibitors structurally related to enalapril, and phosphorus-containing ACE inhibitors structurally related to fosinopril. Though these classes of drugs are important in the treatment of the above conditions, they are not without side-effects. It is very important for clinicians to be aware of these side-effects so that patients can be warned, and compliance can be improved.


Abstract. Resumen. Received 17 February 2009; accepted 24 June 2009.Recibido 17 de febrero 2009; aceptado 24 de junio 2009.In Chiapas, at the south of Mexico, have been developed some studies about the relation between mushrooms and the mayan people. However, the way that people in the Lacandona Rainforest are related with the mushrooms, their local mycological knowledge, and the mushroom´s uses, are points that have been given little attention. In this paper we focus on describing and analyzing aspects related with the mushroom´s uses and cultural practices in Playon de la Gloria (PG), a recent mestizo community, and Lacanja-Chansayab (LC), a lacandon community whose ancestors have at least 300 years living in the forest. Through a qualitative approach, we constructed a ethnomycography through different techniques like participant observation, ethnomycological forays and interviews with several informants. In both communities, although they have different histories, have as many similarities as: the number and the composition of edible species (10 in PG, 11 in LC) the vast majority of them are lignicolous; consumption is occasional, there is a total absence of accidental poisoning, and in general, similar patterns of resource management.


The term 'Expanded Cinema' encompasses film, video, performance and multiple-projection. While video in the gallery has received much attention recently, "Expanded Cinema" looks at many kinds of experiment beyond the gallery space. Leading scholars from Europe and North America trace expanded and multi-screen cinema from its origins in early abstract cinema and the Bauhaus era to post-war happenings and live events in Europe and the US, the first video and multi-media experiments of the 1960s, the fusion of multi-screen art with sonic art and music from the 1970s onwards, right up to the digital age. The book brings new perspectives to bear on the work of established American pioneers such as Carolee Schneemann and Stan Vanderbeek as well as exploring expanded cinema in Western and Central Europe, the influence of video art on new media technologies, and the role of British expanded cinema from the 1970s to the present day. Uniquely, it situates expanded cinema in the context of the radical arts. It shows how artists challenged the conventions of spectatorship, the viewing space and the audience, to explore a new participatory and performative cinema beyond the single screen. It includes interviews with key artists as well as previously unpublished artists' texts. Well informed and rigorously researched, the book is lively and inclusive in tone and diverse in content. It will appeal to students, artists and lecturers involved in the study and practice of video, film and media art, as well as interested general readers.

Steven Ball co-edited the volume in which this essay appears with David Curtis, A.L. Rees, Duncan White.


Cotton is one of the principal commercial crops of the country. More than seventy countries in the world cultivate cotton. Cotton production is crucial as the whole spectrum of textile sector depends on it. Further, the export performance of textile sector is also depends on the quality of cotton produced. To put it straight cotton plays an important role in terms of generating direct and indirect employment as well as earning foreign exchange. Over the years, the production of cotton in India has been reduced due to the pest attack. The main pest is cotton bollworm. To control the pest incidence, the farmers have applied more than recommended levels of pesticides. This has escalated the cost of cultivation and many farmers fell in to the debt trap. This has led to suicides of cotton farmers in the states like Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Orissa. In this context, it is advocated that Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is the best tool for minimizing the risk and problems in cotton cultivation. Further, inventions of cotton varieties that resist pest attach. One such technological breakthrough has been Bt cotton. The innovation in biotechnology in the form of Bt cotton controls the bollworms which has now occupied the centre stage.


Participatory methods aim to democratize and critique societies. However, their understanding of democracy has never been questioned. It is crucial to undertake such an analysis in order to fullyrecognize the critical potential of research  employing a participatory approach. Looking at participatory research we raise the following questions: Who are the real "stars" within participatory research and why? Who is participating and for what reasons, to what extent of time and at which phase of the research process? We argue that participatory research can only reach its full potential if one applies for example insights of democracy theory to it. In our approach we reject conceptions of democracy that are based on one-sided majorities and polarizations of power. We see the essential indicator for participatory research of high quality in its capability to question power relations and power distributions within the socialarena. This implies that participatory research maintains a critical watch on the reciprocity between researchers and research participants.. It further calls for a transparent method and the possibility for different parties to contribute in order to render the research productive for everybody involved. URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs120140


This article examines the choice between rules and standards as a choice between precision and vagueness of a limit. The distinctive feature of limits is that they influence the conduct only of those individuals who would violate the limit. Vague limits allow a gradual transition from undeterred conducts to fully deterred conducts and, thus, provide customized compliance. The vagueness of a limit does not so much matter for the deterrence of a single individual, who can be driven to the same conduct with a variety of limit, precision, and penalty combinations, but for the overall distribution of conducts in a society. Unless the law seeks to concentrate or correlate conducts, limits should be vague in order to preserve the distribution of individuals? preferences. This conclusion directly supports vagueness which, despite its frequency, has been considered undesirable. In addition to misplaced limits, three phenomena are identified that frustrate the concentrating role of limits: Fixed penalties, whether partially or completely fixed; imprecisely enforced limits; and procedure (trials with multiple steps). Increased uncertainty mitigates the dispersing effects of these everyday phenomena providing further justification for the frequency of vagueness.


Changes in technology have an impact on standard practice, materials, and equipment. The traffic signal industry is constantly producing more energy-efficient and durable equipment, better communications, and more sophisticated detection and monitoring capabilities. Accordingly, this project provides an update to the traffic signal content within the Statewide Urban Design and Specifications (SUDAS) Design Manual and Standard Specifications. This work was completed through a technical advisory committee with a variety of participants representing contractors, the Iowa Department of Transportation, cities, consultants, vendors, and university research and support staff.


Author(s): Xue, Yongkang; Ma, Yaoming; Li, Qian | Abstract: The Tibetan Plateau (TP) is the largest and highest plateau on Earth. Due to its elevation, it receives much more downward shortwave radiation than other areas, which results in very strong diurnal and seasonal changes of the surface energy components and other meteorological variables, such as surface temperature and the convective atmospheric boundary layer. With such unique land process conditions on a distinct geomorphic unit, the TP has been identified as having the strongest land/atmosphere interactions in the mid-latitudes.Three major TP land/atmosphere interaction issues are presented in this article: (1) Scientists have long been aware of the role of the TP in atmospheric circulation. The view that the TP's thermal and dynamic forcing drives the Asian monsoon has been prevalent in the literature for decades. In addition to the TP's topographic effect, diagnostic and modeling studies have shown that the TP provides a huge, elevated heat source to the middle troposphere, and that the sensible heat pump plays a major role in the regional climate and in the formation of the Asian monsoon. Recent modeling studies, however, suggest that the south and west slopes of the Himalayas produce a strong monsoon by insulating warm and moist tropical air from the cold and dry extratropics, so the TP heat source cannot be considered as a factor for driving the Indian monsoon. The climate models' shortcomings have been speculated to cause the discrepancies/controversies in the modeling results in this aspect. (2) The TP snow cover and Asian monsoon relationship is considered as another hot topic in TP land/atmosphere interaction studies and was proposed as early as 1884. Using ground measurements and remote sensing data available since the 1970s, a number of studies have confirmed the empirical relationship between TP snow cover and the Asian monsoon, albeit sometimes with different signs. Sensitivity studies using numerical modeling have also demonstrated the effects of snow on the monsoon but were normally tested with specified extreme snow cover conditions. There are also controversies regarding the possible mechanisms through which snow affects the monsoon. Currently, snow is no longer a factor in the statistic prediction model for the Indian monsoon prediction in the Indian Meteorological Department. These controversial issues indicate the necessity of having measurements that are more comprehensive over the TP to better understand the nature of the TP land/atmosphere interactions and evaluate the model-produced results. (3) The TP is one of the major areas in China greatly affected by land degradation due to both natural processes and anthropogenic activities. Preliminary modeling studies have been conducted to assess its possible impact on climate and regional hydrology. Assessments using global and regional models with more realistic TP land degradation data are imperative.Due to high elevation and harsh climate conditions, measurements over the TP used to be sparse. Fortunately, since the 1990s, state-of-the-art observational long-term station networks in the TP and neighboring regions have been established. Four large field experiments since 1996, among many observational activities, are presented in this article. These experiments should greatly help further research on TP land/atmosphere interactions.


The Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) has defined stage 1 chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) as forced expiratory volume in one second/forced vital capacity (FEV1/FVC)% <70% and a FEV1% predicted of >80%. Stage 2 has been defined as FEV1/FVC <70% and a FEV1% pred of <80%. The authors examined the extent of COPD misdiagnosis using this definition in healthy, never-smoker, asymptomatic adults aged >70 yrs in Bergen, Norway. A respiratory questionnaire was mailed to a random sample of 2,871 persons aged>70 yrs. In a random, well-defined subgroup of 208 never-smoker respondents with no current respiratory disease and significant dyspnoea or heart disease/hypertension complicated with dyspnoea, 71 were able to perform an acceptable spirometry. Approximately 35% of these healthy, elderly never-smokers had an FEV1/FVC% of <70% and would be classified as having at least a stage 1 COPD. This percentage increased with age and in those aged >80 yrs ∼50% would be classified as having COPD and approximately one-third would have an FEV1 of <80% pred (stage 2 COPD). The estimated 5th percentile of FEV1 was consistently <80% pred. The Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease criteria will probably lead to a significant degree of over-diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in those aged >70 yrs. The criteria used to define the various stages of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease need to be age-specific.


PRECIS The utility of the Virgin Mary as a theme for Muslim-Catholic understanding has often been overstressed. Islam has no doctrine of original sin that might facilitate a recognition of Roman Catholic teachings concerning the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption; neither does it recognize virginity as a privileged state. Mary thus competes with several married archetypes of Muslim female piety. However, the symbolic language of the two faiths in their devotional and mystical modes reveals striking convergences in their exploration of a gendered dynamic by which heaven and earth are reconciled. Thus, symbolism, rather than founding historical figures, must be considered the basis for any dialogue that hopes to avoid both the dangers of reductionism and the sterility of a simple acknowledgement of difference. May: A Theme for Dialogue? The figure of the Blessed Virgin Mary has long formed a barrier to Christian ecumenism that has been both doctrinal and affective. [1] Even in the comparatively irenic conditions of the twentieth century, Karl Barth did not hesitate to view Mariology as the defining error of the Roman Church. [2] What hopes, then, are there for constructing an appropriate understanding of the Virgin, as a discrepantly shared symbol, for dialogue between Christianity and Islam? Fundamental issues touching on the nature of the two religions are raised by this question, and the following discussion will necessarily lead the reader over a diverse and contested landscape. I hope to show that, while the Virgin Mary has been overestimated as a potential shared theme for dialogue, images of the feminine, for which she frequently becomes the preeminent figure, can be read to show that the two religions are much closer in their mystical and devotional practices than their theologies might suggest. It should be noted at the outset that the Muslim-Protestant conversation has been relatively untroubled by mariological concerns, since neither Islam nor Protestantism concedes any significant role to Mary in the economy of salvation, nor do they acknowledge the characteristic Roman Catholic doctrines of the Immaculate Conception, the Assumption, and Mary's perpetual postpartum virginity. [3] The Orthodox churches also, inasmuch as their views can be summarized in the absence of a definitive magisterial teaching, have been reluctant to accept the grander roles accorded to Mary by Catholicism, including the all-important dogma of the Immaculate Conception, [4] despite the significance of Mary as God-bearer (theotokos) and her concomitant prominence in iconography and the ecclesiastical calendar. However, any comparative theology attempted between Islam and Catholicism runs up against the figure of the Virgin almost at once. Cheikh Bouamrane has identified four areas of dogmatic difference between the two traditions: the definition of God's unity, the locus of revelation (Bible or Qur'an), the legitimacy of Muhammad's ministry, and Mariology. [5] Present-day petitions to the Holy See urging Mary's further elevation to the status of co-redemptrix with Christ would, if successful, further exacerbate the Marian problem in dialogue. In this way the Virgin Mary has conventionally appeared as an emblem of what Islam and Catholicism find superficially recognizable in each other but which investigation discloses as alienating. Confronted with this precious but differently appropriated woman, the mutual consideration of the two faiths has in consequence been very hesitant. Should Catholics rejoice to find Mary venerated in the Qur'an, even though she is stripped of her glory as Mother of God? Should Muslims regard what in their eyes is the risky hyperdulia accorded her by Catholicism as on balance preferable to a Christianity that hardly acknowledges Maryam at all? The dilemma has medieval roots: hence Ramon Lull's conviction, against Islam, that "the dishonour done to Christ's mother by robbing her Son of His divinity outweighed the possible value of direct praise of her. …


Abstract Background Pregnant women with HIV (PWWH) have high postpartum morbidity and mortality from infections like tuberculosis. Immunologic changes during pregnancy and postpartum periods may contribute to these risks, particularly the immunoregulatory kynurenine pathway of tryptophan catabolism, which contributes to both HIV and tuberculosis pathogenesis and increases in the early postpartum period. Methods Women with HIV initiating antiretroviral therapy (ART) in the Uganda AIDS Rural Treatment Outcomes (UARTO) cohort who were pregnant at enrollment or became pregnant during observation were studied (n = 54). Plasma kynurenine/tryptophan (KT) ratio, soluble CD14 (sCD14), sCD163, sCD27, interferon-inducible protein 10 (IP-10), D-dimer, interleukin-6, and intestinal fatty-acid binding protein levels were assessed through the first year of ART and at 3-month intervals throughout pregnancy and 1 year postpartum. Biomarker changes were assessed with linear mixed models adjusted for ART duration. Hemoglobin concentration changes were used to estimate pregnancy-related changes in plasma volume. Results The median pre-ART CD4 count was 134. D-dimer increased through the third trimester before returning to baseline postpartum, while most other biomarkers declined significantly during pregnancy, beyond what would be expected from pregnancy-associated plasma volume expansion. IP-10 and sCD14 remained suppressed for at least 12 months postpartum. KT ratio was the only biomarker that increased above prepregnancy baseline postpartum (mean + 30%; P < .001) and remained higher than baseline for ≥9 months (P ≤ .045 for all time points). Conclusions Several immune activation markers decline during pregnancy and remain suppressed postpartum, but the kynurenine pathway of tryptophan catabolism increases above baseline for ≥9 months postpartum. The mechanisms underlying postpartum kynurenine pathway activity are incompletely understood but may contribute to increased tuberculosis risk in this setting.


Fashion handbags are products that occupy the third position of the 11 types of products most often hijacked. According to the United States Customs and Border Protection and European Commission, Indonesia is a country that ranked the 8th largest country after Hong Kong with the highest levels of product piracy in Asia in 2006. This study investigate the effect of product cues factors, including extrinsic cues and intrinsic cues, Attitudes towards counterfeits, religiosity, lawfulness attitudes, status of consumption on purchase intentions. This study aims to explain the process of forming an intention to buy pirated bag products that rest on the primary relationship of independent variables like attitudes towards counterfeit, lawfulness attitudes and consumption status of the intention to buy pirated products as well as test patterns bag relationship between variables. The data was collected by using a questionnaire enclosed with the statement that based on the Likert scale. The respondents were all employed women who are in the area of Yogyakarta with 200 respondents. These results show that intrinsic factors had positive influence on consumer attitudes towards pirated handbags addition, a more positive attitude of consumers towards pirated bags will further strengthen the purchasing intentions and conversely the higher the status of a consumer's consumption will only further weaken the intention of purchasing the product bag pirated.


Professional communicators and lawyers traditionally have been at odds in handling information regarding court cases. While communicators yearn to get the word out, lawyers typically prefer to divulge little or nothing until a case is fully resolved. Communicators opt for simple prose; lawyers feel more comfortable within the coils of their usual legal language. Nowhere are these differences more glaring than in a bankruptcy case, where a troubled company's very survival depends on both its legal actions and its communications with key constituencies--including lenders, vendors, customers and employees. The lawyers need to negotiate with these constituencies in order to develop a plan for the company's reorganization. But the legal logistics, in turn, rely upon non-legal communications that reassure key players about the company's future and help to ensure their cooperation as the company tries to reorganize. Despite their differences, a team approach between professional communicators and bankruptcy lawyers can contribute significantly to the successful outcome of a bankruptcy case. Working as a team, public relations professionals and attorneys can implement an effective communications plan that supports a bankrupt company's legal strategy by demonstrating that the company's management knows what it's doing and has a viable plan. A bankrupt company's need for effective communications is especially acute because doubts about the organization's future can thwart its chances to emerge from bankruptcy. While there now is greater awareness that companies do survive bankruptcy proceedings, bankruptcy remains a somewhat alarming and uncertain proposition that may cause people to believe the worst--and act accordingly--unless convinced otherwise. To avoid an exodus of employees, vendors or customers, a bankrupt company must take steps to counteract the natural anxiety and uncertainty of these groups. This uncertainty may be exacerbated by competitors, who typically seize on any negative news to distort perceptions about the company. While specific strategies vary from case to case, the goal of effective communications is to maintain credibility with all key audiences while assuring them that the company has a future. The communications always should include the following elements: * a straightforward acknowledgment of the company's problems and how they came about, with a forthright discussion of what management is doing to address the problems; * an appeal to work with the company in a team effort; * an indication of when further communications will be forthcoming; and * an invitation encouraging communication of any concerns to company management. A financially troubled company can lose credibility quickly. To maintain credibility, it's crucial to be accurate and scrupulously honest. Diverging from what is factual, or failing to follow through on promises, assures that credibility will be seriously damaged, if not lost forever. For example, it's better to promise vendors quarterly updates, and stick to that promise, than to create more ambitious expectations that cannot be met. Credibility also can collapse if a company's communications fail to reflect the reality of its situation. Realistically, a company can't predict the outcome of matters before a court, and it shouldn't presume to do so. At the same time, a bankrupt company's communications should mirror its overall sensitivity to cost controls. While an organization's communications should be designed to fully meet the information needs of all intended audiences, glitz or anything else that might be construed by the court or creditors as a waste of money should be avoided. Structuring communications Another key to maintaining credibility is the content and style of organizational communications. This is the point at which a team approach between the lawyers and the communicators is especially important. …


Defence forces have always invested a great deal of their resources in training. In recent times, changes in the complexity and intensity of operations have reaffirmed the importance of ensuring that warfighters are adequately prepared for the environments in which they are required to work. The emergence of new operational drivers such as asymmetric threats, urban operations, joint and coalition operations and the widespread use of military communications and information technology networks has highlighted the importance of providing warfighters with the competencies required to act in a coordinated, adaptable fashion, and to make effective decisions in environments characterised by large amounts of sometimes ambiguous information. While investment in new technologies can make available new opportunities for action, it is only through effective training that personnel can be made ready to apply their tools in the most decisive and discriminating fashion, and by doing so transform military technology into defence capability.There are many factors which can have an impact on the efficacy of training, and there are therefore many issues to consider when designing and implementing training strategies. These issues are often complex and nuanced, and in order to grasp them fully a significant investment of time and energy is required. However, the requirement to respond quickly to ever-changing technology, a high operational tempo and minimal staffing may preclude many in today's defence forces from seeking out all such resources on their own.This edited collection provides brief, easy-to-understand summaries of the key issues in defence training and simulation, as well as guidance for further reading. It consists of a collection of short essays and frequently asked questions, each of which addresses a fundamental issue in defence training and simulation, and features an up-to-date reference list to enable the reader to undertake further investigation of the issues that are addressed. In essence, this book provides the optimum starting point, or first resource, for readers to come to terms with the important issues associated with defence training and simulation. The contributions are written by leading scholars from military research institutions in the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand as well as selected researchers from academic and private sector research institutions.


Due to the rising recognition of sustainable development, various industrial sectors, including the building and construction sector, are facing increasing pressures to improve their environmental performance. The lean concept has proven to be effective in reducing waste streams and increase productivity. Many studies have therefore been conducted to link waste reduction and environmental performance improvement. A comprehensive literature review is conducted to investigate the development of integrating lean to achieve green benefits. The comprehensive literature review covers all journal articles in Scopus that have "green" and "lean" in their titles. It appears that majority of the studies within the area of lean and green focus on the conceptual framework. Very limited studies focus on the implementation of lean and green to address specific problems and provide measurable benefits. It should be noted that whether or not measurable benefits can be achieved affects the degree of implementation of lean and green at the industry level. As such, it is proposed that future studies on lean and green should be conducted and measurable benefits should be clearly articulated.


As parallel and distributed computers become more widely available and used, the already important process of understanding and debugging concurrent programs will rake on even greater importance. We believe that visualization can help in the process. We discuss heretofore unaddressed issues in the visualization of concurrent programs, and present the Animation Choreographer. The Animation Choreographer allows users to view, manipulate, and explore the set of alternate feasible orderings of the program execution under study, both through the Choreographer interface and in the context of the selected visualizations, thus providing the user with a variety of temporal perspectives on the computation.<<ETX>>


SUMMARY A stepwise-selection multivariate discriminate analysis was performed using forewing angles to discriminate the honey bee (Apis mellifera) samples that were collected from six different regions in Turkey. Eleven angles of forewing venation, A4, B4, D7, E9, G18, J10, J16, K19, L13, N23 and O23 were measured biometrically. Discriminant analysis showed that A4, O26, B4, D7, L13, N23 and E9 angles sufficiently discriminated the samples from different subspecies of Turkish honey bees. The first three-subset out of five canonical discriminant functions explained 96.1% of total variations. All samples collected from central and north-east Anatolia regions were 100% correctly classified into their original regions. The samples of other regions were overlapped with each other. The overall percentage of cases classified correctly was 88.9% (32 out of 36 cases). In conclusion, there are high biometrical variations between different regions of Turkey in terms of forewing angles of honey bees and forewing angles can be used for discrimination of Turkish honey bees.


Highlighting an enduring interest in natural history from the 16th century to the present, this book explores depictions of the natural world, from centuries-old manuscripts to contemporary artists' books. It examines the scientific pursuits in the 18th and 19th centuries that resulted in the collecting and cataloguing of the natural world. It also investigates the aesthetically oriented activities of self-taught naturalists in the 19th century, who gathered flowers, ferns, seaweed, feathers, and other naturalia into albums. Examples of 20th- and 21st-century artists' books, including those of Eileen Hogan, Mandy Bonnell, and Tracey Bush, broaden the vision of the natural world to incorporate its interaction with consumer culture and with modern technologies. Including 250 illustrations, the book itself is designed to evoke a fieldwork notebook, and features a collection pocket and ribbon markers.


Microfinance has played a key role in including the poor in financial markets. This paper uses microfinance data to approximate financial inclusion in the poorer segments of the population and proposes a quantile regression approach to study the development of microfinance markets. Our approach accounts for the dynamic and heterogeneous impacts that key drivers may have across different stages of market development. It also allows us to go beyond correlations and gets us closer to identifying causal relationships. Our key findings indicate that: i) Microfinance markets are more responsive to the needs of the bottom of the pyramid than to potential growth opportunities. ii) Enabling institutions that provide credit information become increasingly important with higher market complexity. iii) Formal financial development is a complement of microfinance development. iv) Technologies can help to overcome market entry barriers, and to enable a higher inclusion in markets with a high degree of complexity. Our results could help policymakers and investors better understand and influence financial inclusion at the bottom of the pyramid across different stages of market development.


of poster presentation at Bird Strike Committee USA/Canada Meeting, Lake Mary and Sanford, Florida, August 18–21, 2008. Green Roofs in the Airport Environment: Pleasant Dreams or Nightmares? Ryan M. Swearingin, Craig K. Pullins, and Travis Guerrant USDA Wildlife Services, O'Hare International Airport, AMC Bldg., Room 241, P.O. Box 66142, Chicago, IL 60666 USA Brian E. Washburn USDA Wildlife Services, National Wildlife Research Center, 6100 Columbus Avenue, Sandusky, OH 44870 USA Green roofs on buildings are becoming very popular in urban areas of the United States. Public benefits of green roof projects include stormwater runoff reduction, improved water quality, reduced urban heat island effects, and aesthetic values. Several green roofs have been constructed in downtown Chicago and large-scale green roofs are currently being planned and implemented at O'Hare International Airport (ORD). Similar to any airport landscaping, green roofs on buildings in the airport environment might attract wildlife hazardous to aviation and could increase the risk of bird-aircraft collisions. No information currently exists in regard to this potential problem. During 2007–2008, we conducted a study to evaluate the wildlife use of a newly constructed green roof on the Airfield Rescue and Fire Fighting building at ORD. This green roof was approximately 320 m2 in area and consisted of Sedum spp. for vegetation. Wildlife surveys were conducted on the green roof each week from January 2007 to March 2008. During the 13-month study, a total of 157 birds were observed flying over or using the green roof; 34% were using the green roof itself, whereas 66% were flying by the green roof and did not exhibit any perceived interest. Of the birds actually using the green roof, 72%, 13%, and 9% were killdeer, European starlings, and mourning doves, respectively. Killdeer nested on green roof, whereas the other species were perched or loafing. Birds used the green roof only between May and October. Overall, wildlife use of the green roof was minimal and appeared to be similar to use of adjacent buildings with traditional roofs. Although green roofs with vegetation types that offer forage and/or cover to birds might be attractive, the Sedum spp.-vegetated green roof in this study did not attract wildlife hazardous to aviation or increase the risk of bird strikes.


Migrant youth have different social and educational needs from those of their parents. However, young migrants are often included in 'mixed-age' language programs either because institutions lack the numbers to create youth-specific classes or because such classes are deemed unnecessary. In this article, we investigate the provisions made for migrant youth in the Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP). Data is collected, first, through a survey of AMEP providers. Then, the opinions of young migrants themselves are ascertained through focus group interviews, which are further supplemented by interviews with teachers and program directors. Finally, based on the information gathered from learners and educators, we outline a number of future directions for addressing the needs of this group.


Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the interplay between environmental management initiatives and environmental management accounting practices in the Sri Lankan hotel industry. Design/methodology/approach – The study was based on the case study approach. The primary data were collected by conducting unstructured interviews and the facts gathered were fortified by direct observation. The secondary data were gathered through analyzing records such as Green Directories, technical diagrams on sustainability initiatives, records maintained on waste management and water consumption, online resources and various other articles. Several measures were undertaken to improve the reliability and validity. Explanation building approach was used to analyze the data gathered. Findings – The hotel has emboldened itself to adopt and nurture environmental management initiatives through the sustainability philosophy permeated over the hotel chain. This philosophy has been stimulated by mutually interacting focal catalysts, such as cultivating a shared vision conflated with sustainability, training and awareness building, integrating stakeholders' interests and organizational learning. The initiatives have are further enhanced by the compatible environmental management accounting practices adopted by the Hotel. Research limitations/implications –The findings of the study will be difficult to generalize due to the contextual factors associated with the research site, but will be more relevant to the hotel sector organizations with similar characteristics. Originality/value - This report contributes to fieldwork research within the environmental accounting literature pertaining to the hotel industry in developing countries. The findings of the study can be constructively used as a guide to establish and sustain environmental management accounting practices in business organizations operating in the hospitality industry. Keywords – Environmental management accounting (EMA); hotel industry; waste management; water management; Sri Lanka. Paper type - Case Study.


One of the most pressing issues in contemporary European societies is the need to promote integration and social inclusion in the context of rapidly increasing migration. A particular challenge confronting national governments is how to accommodate speakers of an ever-increasing number of languages within what in most cases are still perceived as monolingual indigenous populations. This has given rise to public debates in many countries on controversial policies imposing a requirement of competence in a 'national' language and culture as a condition for acquiring citizenship. However, these debates are frequently conducted almost entirely at a national level within each state, with little if any attention paid to the broader European context. At the same time, further EU enlargement and the ongoing rise in the rate of migration into and across Europe suggest that the salience of these issues is likely to continue to grow. This volume offers a critical analysis of these debates and emerging discourses on integration and challenges the assumptions underlying the new 'language testing regimes'.


Abstract This article examines the efforts of the Obama administration and many other actors-ranging from non-governmental organizations, municipalities, and state governments to some Congressional representatives-to put the United States back on track towards international climate leadership. Efforts to shift policy direction, however, still face many hurdles. Over the course of the better part of a decade or more, climate skeptics and policy change opponents were able to seed doubt about the urgency of the issue in the public's mind, establish new organizations and strategies to fight against climate action, and institutionalize serious obstacles to meaningful policy change.


A dual-processor, distributed-intelligence approach toward the computerization of a direct-reading polychromator for atomic emission spectrometry is described. Emphasis is placed on a "zero based design" of the PMT current integration electronics of a direct-reader channel using microprocessor bus architectures, programmable support chips, data domain conversion integrated circuits, and inexpensive single-board microcomputers. Traditional analog integration of the current signal is replaced by domain conversion of the current to a frequency, and integration/digitization is achieved with the use of single chip software programmable counters. Each channel can be independently addressed, configured, cleared, preset, and read, as the channels are autonomous units on the bus of the data acquisition and control microcomputer.


Objective To examine the direct and indirect effects of demographical factors on speech perception and vocabulary outcomes of Mandarin-speaking children with cochlear implants (CIs). Methods 115 participants implanted before the age of 5 and who had used CI before 1 to 3 years were evaluated using a battery of speech perception and vocabulary tests. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses proposed. Results Early implantation significantly contributed to speech perception outcomes while having undergone a hearing aid trial (HAT) before implantation, maternal educational level (MEL), and having undergone universal newborn hearing screening (UNHS) before implantation had indirect effects on speech perception outcomes via their effects on age at implantation. In addition, both age at implantation and MEL had direct and indirect effects on vocabulary skills, while UNHS and HAT had indirect effects on vocabulary outcomes via their effects on age at implantation. Conclusion A number of factors had indirect and direct effects on speech perception and vocabulary outcomes in Mandarin-speaking children with CIs and these factors were not necessarily identical to those reported among their English-speaking counterparts.


Centre for Environmental Design of Renewable Energy (CEDREN) is a research centre focusing on hydropower production and environmental impacts of hydropower. The main objective of CEDREN is to develop and communicate design solutions for renewable energy production that address environmental and societal challenges at local, regional, national and global levels. Environmental design means that planning, building and operation have to include technical, economic, environmental and socio-political aspects throughout the whole life-span of the project. Methods and tools to ensure environmental design are developed in CEDREN and applied to case studies in Norway and internationally. These methods and tools focus on finding physical and biological bottlenecks for affected species and ecosystems by mapping, modelling and analysis of both physical conditions and ecological status. CEDREN proposes different measures, tools and methods to improve the environmental conditions as well as how to maintain or increase the power production. In addition, a strong focus must be made on political governance to ensure more representative participation of relevant stakeholders in the process of finding the best technical, economic and political solutions for power production, the environment and the society. Key research findings used to develop relationships between physical factors like flow, flow fluctuations, water temperature, water velocity, water depth and water-covered area and biological response will be shown. Examples of improved methods for better planning procedures with stakeholder engagement will be proposed. Examples of methods and tools for environmental design of hydropower will be given for several regulated rivers in Norway and abroad.


This paper investigates when users create profiles in different social networks, whether they are redundant expressions of the same persona, or they are adapted to each platform. Using the personal webpages of 116,998 users on About.me, we identify and extract matched user profiles on several major social networks including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. We find evidence for distinct site-specific norms, such as differences in the language used in the text of the profile self-description, and the kind of picture used as profile image. By learning a model that robustly identifies the platform given a user's profile image (0.657–0.829 AUC) or self-description (0.608–0.847 AUC), we confirm that users do adapt their behaviour to individual platforms in an identifiable and learnable manner. However, different genders and age groups adapt their behaviour differently from each other, and these differences are, in general, consistent across different platforms. We show that differences in social profile construction correspond to differences in how formal or informal the platform is.


BACKGROUND
Several studies have investigated the effect of socioeconomic deprivation on cardiovascular disease (CVD) and diabetes; less is known about its effect on chronic kidney disease (CKD). We aimed to measure the association between deprivation, CKD Stages 4-5 and end-stage renal disease (ESRD) in a general population sample.

METHODS
This observational study examined 1 405 016 participants from the English Clinical Practice Research Datalink (2000-14), linked to hospital discharge data and death certification. Deprivation was assessed according to the participant's postcode. Cox models were used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) for CKD Stages 4-5 and ESRD, adjusting for age and sex, and additionally for smoking status, body mass index, diabetes, systolic blood pressure, prior CVD and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) at baseline.

RESULTS
During 7.5 years of median follow-up, 11 490 individuals developed CKD Stages 4-5 and 1068 initiated ESRD. After adjustment for age and sex, the HRs and confidence interval (CI) comparing those in the 20% most deprived of the population to the 20% least deprived were 1.76 (95% CI 1.68-1.84) and 1.82 (95% CI 1.56-2.12) for CKD Stages 4-5 and ESRD, respectively. Further adjustment for known risk factors and eGFR substantially attenuated these HRs. Adding our results to all known cohort studies produced a pooled relative risk of 1.61 (95% CI 1.42-1.83) for ESRD, for comparisons between highest to lowest categories of deprivation.

CONCLUSION
Socioeconomic deprivation is independently associated with an increased hazard of CKD Stages 4-5 and ESRD, but in large part may be mediated by known risk factors.


Capacitive deionization (CDI) is a promising water treatment technology that is proposed to solve water scarcity. In this study, sandwich-like nitrogen-doped graphene composites were designed and produced as high-performance CDI electrodes via a self-assembling strategy. Nitrogen-doped mesoporous carbon was directly created and assembled onto the graphene surface using dopamine hydrochloride as a carbon and nitrogen source and nano-silica as a hard template. This unique sandwich architecture provides a large accessible surface area and lower electronic resistivity, resulting from creating a "plane-to-porous plane" conducting network for increased adsorption sites and rapid electron transportation pathways. The specific surface area (918 m2 g−1) and excellent wettability of sandwich-like nitrogen-doped graphene were further improved by incorporating nitrogen in surface texture and chemistry. The material was tested for the CDI application in NaCl aqueous solution. The sandwich-like nitrogen-doped graphene electrodes demonstrated a high salt adsorption capacity of up to 18.4 mg g−1 in a 500 mg L−1 NaCl aqueous solution with a larger charge efficiency and an ideal recycling performance. These enhanced capacitive deionization performances of the sandwich-like nitrogen-doped graphene electrodes are attributed to the unique "plane-to-porous plane" internetworked architecture. This study offers a promising solution to develop high-performance electrode materials for removal of ions from saline water.


AIM OF THE STUDY
to explore the skill mix requirements for the potential role of an unqualified midwifery assistant in the clinical setting. Using results from the study we report the difference between student midwives' and qualified midwives' perceptions of what constitute non-midwifery duties.

DESIGN
a two-round Delphi survey.

SETTING
large maternity hospital in Ireland.

PARTICIPANTS
population of midwives (n=194) and midwifery students (n=79).

FINDINGS
the non-midwifery duties identified were wide ranging and could be categorised under the headings of clerical, stock, porter, domestic and other basic-care-related duties.

CONCLUSION
although no agreed definition of non-midwifery duty exists it can be seen that, through the process undertaken in this study, a definition is created. This suggests that the values and beliefs that qualified midwives and students hold regarding their role shapes the role of the care assistant.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE
the inclusion of perceptions from student and staff midwives enabled the researchers to compare and contrast similarities and differences regarding how these different parties constitute a non-midwifery duty. The process also gave respondents a sense of ownership and involvement in the development of the midwifery assistant role. In addition, this study has demonstrated the need for further clarification of how midwives perceive and understand their role.


Ciprofloxacin (CfH, C17H18FN3O3) crystallizes with 2-thiobarbituric (H2tba) and barbituric acid (H2ba) in the aqueous solution to yield salt CfH2(Htba)·3H2O (1), salt cocrystal CfH2(Hba)(H2ba)·3H2O (2), and salt CfH2(Hba)·H2O (3). The compounds are structurally characterized by the X-ray single-crystal diffraction. The numerous intermolecular hydrogen bonds N–H⋯O and O–H⋯O formed by water molecules, Htba−/Hba− and CfH2+ ions, and H2ba molecules stabilize the crystal structures of 1 to 3. Hydrogen bonds form a 2D plane network in the salts of 1 and 3 and a 3D network in the salt cocrystal of 2. There are different π-π interactions in 1 to 3. The compounds have been characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetry/differential scanning calorimetry, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The compounds dehydration ends at 130°C to 150°C, and their oxidative decomposition is observed in the range of 250°C to 275°C.


The multinational effort to sequence the human genome generated vast quantities of data about the genetic make-up of humans and other organisms. But, in some respects, even more remarkable than the impressive quantity of data generated by the human genome project (HGP) is the speed at which that data has been released to the public. At a 1996 summit in Bermuda, leaders of the scientific community agreed on a groundbreaking set of principles requiring that all DNA sequence data be released in publicly-accessible databases within twenty-four hours after generation. These "Bermuda Principles" contravened the typical practice in the sciences of making experimental data available only after publication. These principles represent a significant achievement of private ordering in shaping the practices of an entire industry and have established rapid pre-publication data release as the norm in genomics and other fields. In this paper, I offer the first systematic analysis of the social, legal and political factors that led to the adoption of the Bermuda Principles and the evolution of genomic data release policies over the past two decades. Using the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework pioneered by Elinor Ostrom and others, I analyze the stakeholder communities associated with the development of the "genome commons" as well as the five principal policy relevant to their decisionmaking: (1) project coordination, (2) scientific advancement, (3) minimizing patent and other encumbrances, (4) protecting human subject data, and (5) preserving publication priority rights for data generators. Based on this analysis, I draw conclusions regarding the application of these principles to other areas of study as well as the future evolution of the genome commons.


Transformation of fairy tales patterns in children's literature available on the contemporary publishing marketWhat the contemporary publishing market offers the youngest readers are texts that make various forms of fairy tale characters — a  strongly representative group among them consists of texts that are transformations of fairy tale patterns that are deeply rooted in the mass imaginations including children's imagination, which promote a  new version of a  well-known story: fairy tale renarrations. Such texts not only constitute evidence of changes in the fairy tale genre, but also prove the continuous updates on fairy tales. The aim of the article is to present and discuss how the authors modify specific characteristics of the fairy tale and play with its tradition. The examples of recognizable fairy tale patterns that are deeply rooted in the culture Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White, Hansel and Gretel, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella were used to present the primary mechanisms of use and modification of fairy tales in children's literature on the post-2000 Polish publishing market.The description of intertextual relationships between the fairy tale patterns and their renarrations renarration mechanisms has been supplemented with an analysis of influence of popular culture on children's literature interpenetrating of cultural and literary circulations and the fashion for fairy tales. The studied works include those that have been written with gender education in mind, promotion of knowledge on rights of a  child or the environment and those primary aim of which is to entertain the young audience through reading. The article is also an encouragement to reflection on the genealogy of contemporary fairy tales and the shape, in which the "children's fabulous fairy-tale-sphere" functions, and the factors that influence it.


Two reports have shown a Japanese preparation of botulinum toxin type F (BTX-F) to be an effective alternative for patients with torticollis who develop clinical resistance to botulinum toxin type A (BTX-A). A group of patients with torticollis, comprising five secondary non-responders and one primary non-responder, were treated with a preparation of BTX-F produced in the UK (Speywood Pharmaceuticals). A low dose of BTX-F (220 mouse units (MU) in total) was given into clinically affected neck muscles, followed six weeks later by an injection of a total of 520 MU. Antibodies to BTX-A (mouse protection assay) were present in all secondary non-responders but not in the primary non-responder. No patients developed atrophy after injection of Dysport BTX-A (40 MU) into the left extensor digitorum brevis muscle whereas pronounced atrophy occurred in all patients after injection of 40 MU of BTX-F into the right extensor digitorum brevis muscle. Three patients improved subjectively after treatment with 220 MU BTX-F and five (all secondary non-responders) after the subsequent dose of 520 MU (two considerably), with reduced Tsui scores, but group scores were only significantly changed after the higher dose. The primary non-responder remained unchanged after both doses of BTX-F. One patient reported mild dysphagia with 520 MU BTX-F. Mean duration of improvement with 520 MU BTX-F was five (range 4-6)weeks. Thus BTX-F provides benefit for BTX-A non-responders with few side effects but for a shorter period than BTX-A, possibly due to relative underdosing. As with BTX-A, biological sensitivity to BTX-F does not necessarily predict a clinical response.


Introduction Tuberculosis in children may be difficult to diagnose and is often not reported to routine surveillance systems. Understanding and addressing the tuberculosis (TB) case detection and reporting gaps strengthens national routine TB surveillance systems. Objective The present study aimed to measure the percentage of childhood TB cases that are diagnosed but not reported to the national surveillance system in Pakistan. Design The study design was cross sectional. The study was nationwide in 12 selected districts across Pakistan, each representing a cluster. Health facilities that diagnose and treat childhood TB from all sectors were mapped and invited to participate. Lists of child TB cases were created for the study period (April-June 2016) from all study facilities and compared against the list of child TB cases notified to the national TB surveillance system for the same districts and the same period. Results All public and private health facilities were mapped across 12 sampled districts in Pakistan and those providing health services to child TB cases were included in the study. From all private health facilities, 7,125 children were found with presumptive TB during the study period. Of them, 5,258 were diagnosed with tuberculosis: 11% were bacteriologically-confirmed and 89% clinically-diagnosed; only 4% were notified to National TB Control Program. An additional 1,267 children with TB were also registered in the National TB Control Program. Underreporting was measured to be 78%. Conclusion This is the first nationwide childhood TB inventory study globally and confirmed that childhood TB underreporting is very high in Pakistan. TB surveillance in the country must be strengthened to address this, with particular attention to guiding and supporting general practitioners and pediatricians to notify their TB cases.


We consider the problem of carrier-phase differential GPS positioning for an land vehicle navigation system (LVNS), tightly coupled with an inertial measurement unit (IMU) and a speedometer. The primary focus is to apply Bayesian network to an IMU-aided GPS positioning system based on carrier-phase differential GPS. We describe the implementation details of the positioning system that integrates GPS measurements (i.e., pseudo-range, carrier-phase and doppler), IMU measurements, and speedometer measurements. We derive the linearized state process equation and the measurement equation for GPS and speedometer. To account for constraints of land vehicle, we add two more pseudo measurements to ensure the perpendicular velocities close to zero.


From the perspective of industry association, this paper examines the impact mechanism of co-agglomeration of distributive trades and manufacturing industry on the consumer goods manufacturers' export decisions, and makes an empirical test using industry and enterprise data of 17 eastern cities in China for 2005-2009. The results show that the coagglomeration of distribution trades and manufacturing industry is an significantly positive determinant of consumer goods manufacturers' export decisions. The tests of subsamples divided by manufacturing sub-sectors and enterprise scales also support the above conclusions. In its policy meaning, to facilitate consumer goods export of small and medium enterprises, we should strengthen the co-agglomeration of distributive trades and manufacturing industry.


ABSTRACT Plant nutrient stoichiometry, which regulates carbon fixation and plant growth, is often strongly affected by soil nutrient availability. Disturbances such as fire can affect the absolute and relative availability of soil nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P), as well as biotic constraints on plant nutrient uptake and allocation. In these ways, disturbances can have strong legacy effects on plant growth by altering nutrient stoichiometry. Florida scrubby flatwoods are pyrogenic ecosystems where fires are frequent and intense, and the dominant species resprout after fire. We measured foliar N and P concentrations, nutrient ratios, and δ15N of ten species in scrubby flatwoods 1 yr, 3 yr, and 12 yr after fire to determine how fire affects nutrient stoichiometry. Across all species, foliar %N and %P decreased then increased with time after fire, and were positively correlated with each other. In contrast, foliar N:P ratios increased then decreased with time after fire. The effects of time after fire on nutrient concentrations and ratios, however, were not consistent among species. For example, %P of palmettos was highest 1 yr after fire, while %P of ericaceous shrubs was highest 12 yr after fire. Our study suggests that scrubby flatwoods may be colimited by N and P, species may be differentially limited by N and P, and species may experience greater N or P limitation depending on time after fire.


This paper investigates conceptual framework and empirical bases of career counseling to enhance students' entrepreneurship skills among secondary vocational school students. By comprehensive services through self-help intervention might help guidance and counselling teachers in delivering entrepreneurship attitude beyond of entrepreneurship competences. For developing esnterpreneurship's students by comprehensive intervention model, preliminary study conducted as a basis for the model. In this study, 200 Vocational school students participated in the survey which involved 5 schools in DKI Jakarta by using Stage Random Sampling. The result will shows the effectiveness based on the findings, recommendations were made for model development.


Abstract. Over glaciers in the outer tropics, during the dry winter season, turbulent fluxes are an important sink of melt energy due to high sublimation rates, but measurements in stable surface layers in remote and complex terrains remain challenging. Eddy-covariance (EC) and bulk-aerodynamic (BA) methods were used to estimate surface turbulent heat fluxes of sensible (H) and latent heat (LE) in the ablation zone of the tropical Zongo Glacier, Bolivia (16° S, 5080 m a.s.l.), from 22 July to 1 September 2007. We studied the turbulent fluxes and their associated random and systematic measurement errors under the three most frequent wind regimes. For nightly, density-driven katabatic flows, and for strong downslope flows related to large-scale forcing, H generally heats the surface (i.e. is positive), while LE cools it down (i.e. is negative). On average, both fluxes exhibit similar magnitudes and cancel each other out. Most energy losses through turbulence occur for daytime upslope flows, when H is weak due to small temperature gradients and LE is strongly negative due to very dry air. Mean random errors of the BA method (6 % on net H + LE fluxes) originated mainly from large uncertainties in roughness lengths. For EC fluxes, mean random errors were due mainly to poor statistical sampling of large-scale outer-layer eddies (12 %). The BA method is highly sensitive to the method used to derive surface temperature from longwave radiation measurements and underestimates fluxes due to vertical flux divergence at low heights and nonstationarity of turbulent flow. The EC method also probably underestimates the fluxes, albeit to a lesser extent, due to underestimation of vertical wind speed and to vertical flux divergence. For both methods, when H and LE compensate each other in downslope fluxes, biases tend to cancel each other out or remain small. When the net turbulent fluxes (H + LE) are the largest in upslope flows, nonstationarity effects and underestimations of the vertical wind speed do not compensate, and surface temperature errors are important, so that large biases on H + LE are expected when using both the EC and the BA method.


It has been proposed that the speed of a photographic emulsion be specified upon the basis of the exposure value at which the gradient of the H and D characteristic becomes equal to a definite fraction of the average gradient throughout the tonal range used in making the camera exposure. The adoption of such a criterion necessitates the use of easily applied methods and special instruments for the determination of gradients and gradient ratios. In this paper a number of such methods and instruments are discussed under the following headings: (1) The graphical method. (2) A device for reading speed directly from the plotted characteristic curve. (3) A direct visual photometric method (using a wedged sensitometric strip). (4) An alternative direct visual method (using a triple sensitometric wedge and a special photometric field). (5) A direct photoelectric method of measuring gradient (which reduces the error in gradient determination occurring in visual photometry). (6) A photoelectric method incorporating a constant gradient ratio device (which eliminates the need of mental calculation). (7) Making automatic the determination of speed (pointing out means for automatic recording of results). Errors introduced by non-uniformity of coating and processing and means for minimizing these errors are discussed.


Inherent soil properties and anthropogenic activities on slope faces are considered potential recipes for landslide occurrence. The objectives of this study were to physically characterise unconsolidated soils and identify on-going anthropogenic activities on selected slopes in Dzanani in order to appraise their role as contributory factors in enhancing landslide susceptibility. Methods employed for this study comprised mapping, description of soil profile, identification of anthropogenic activities, as well as experimental determination of soil colour, particle size distribution and Atterberg limits. Geologically, the study area comprised rocks of the Fundudzi, Sibasa and Tshifhefhe Formations, ascribed to the Soutpansberg Group. Digging of foundations for construction purposes and subsistence agriculture were identified as the main anthropogenic activities. The soils were predominantly reddish-yellow in colour, texturally variable (silty clay – clayey – silty clay loam and clay loam) and of medium plasticity. Compared to soils from other parts of the world developed on volcanic cones or associated with a landslide event, those from Dzanani were qualified as generally inactive and not prone to landslides. Although the physical attributes suggested the soils were not at a critical state, on-going anthropogenic activities may enhance deep weathering and ultimately alter current soil physical characteristics to a critical state.


A force-field model for the local electric field as a linear response to a frequency-dependent external electric field is presented based on a combined charge-transfer and point–dipole interaction (CT-PDI) force-field model for frequencies through the first absorption maximum. The local electric field provides a measure of the mutual interactions of the molecules with each other, as is important in problems ranging from dielectric breakdown to solvent polarization and energy transfer. It also indicates how resonant excitation of these molecules can perturb Raman scattering by a third molecule located nearby through an intensity borrowing mechanism. The CT-PDI model is a combination of a modified electronegativity equalization model including non-metallic behaviour and a point–dipole interaction model described by atomic polarizabilities which also includes the time-dependence of the atomic charges and atomic dipole moments. A parametrization of frequency-dependent polarizabilities through the first absorption maximum calculated by time-dependent density-functional theory has been extended for a set of hydrocarbon and azobenzene molecules to provide atom-type parameters for the CT-PDI model. As initial model systems, results are presented for the benzene and azobenzene dimers for the local electric field response at points between the molecules and at the atoms in the molecules. As expected, the response depends critically on the intermolecular distance between the monomers. The azobenzene dimer shows a larger local field response at the atoms in the phenyl rings compared to the benzene dimer and the response at the nitrogen atoms is larger than at the hydrogen and carbon atoms in the azobenzene dimer, which can be rationalized qualitatively by the charge and dipole contributions to the local field factor either adding up or to a large extent cancelling each other. At the absorption frequency, the largest local field factor of the benzene dimer is around 6 and for the azobenzene dimer it is around 12, respectively, at typical distances, indicating that the response may be significant.


Despite the availability of the detailed knowledge about the chemical, electrochemical and transport processes associated with the formation of ferrous carbonate during CO2- corrosion of mild steel, information available about the mechanism of early nucleation stages of FeCO3 (siderite) film formation was only speculative. In depth knowledge related to the early stage nucleation of siderite scale and its subsequent development and gradual growth were revealed only recently by judicious exploration of in-situ synchrotron based experimentation. Moreover, application of in-situ synchrotron x-ray diffraction technique rendered ability to monitor the gradual real time growth of FeCO3 scale with the efficacy of simultaneous controllability of the corrosion conditions electrochemically. This work shades light on how in-situ synchrotron study revealed apparent mysteries related to formation & growth of siderite scale during CO2- corrosion of mild steel. Keywords: In-situ synchrotron, CO2-Corrosion of mild steel, Nucleation mechanism during CO2- corrosion. Figure 1 (a) and (b) illustrate the photograph and schematic of experimental set up for in-situ synchrotron X-ray diffraction experiments using the powder diffraction Australian beam line. Figure 2 shows the anodic current as a function of time in a potentiostatic test in the NaCl solution at pH 6.3 (pCO2 = 1bar) and an applied potential of − 500 mV (vs SCE), together with the intensities of the Fe and FeCO3 signals from the in-situ synchrotron XRD [1]. There is a clear peak in the current transient, with the XRD results showing FeCO3 formation during the increasing portion of this transient and then a rapidly decreasing rate of FeCO3 formation as the anodic current decreases towards the end of the test, indicating the growth of a protective surface scale. In these studies, it is shown that siderite only forms once the critical super-saturation is exceeded within a defined boundary layer and that the steel microstructure has critical role in developing a surface texture within which the critical super-saturation could develop. This idea of siderite nucleation in solution with a critically saturated boundary layer close to the metal surface is unlike the heterogeneous nucleation and growth phenomenon which occurs directly on the surface via solid state formation [1]. Establishment of this ideology was able to resolve the apparent thermodynamic anomaly observed in practice. One of the apparent thermodynamic anomalies in CO2- H2S mixed system is couched on the fact that in spite of the higher (∼3 time) aqueous solubility of H2S compared to CO2 under similar temperature and pressure conditions, the formation of iron sulfide has been observed to be faster and predominant over iron carbonate under most parametric conditions even at a trace level of H2S concentration in CO2-H2S system. This fact indicates the formation of iron sulfide and iron carbonate films to be regulated by different mechanisms. In-situ synchrotron study revealed the early stage nucleation of iron carbonate (siderite) film and indicated that to be a gradual process giving rise to the formation of crystalline siderite phase only after the critical supersaturation stage is reached. Given that, there is significant time lag between the start of supersaturation and critical supersaturation limit, there is a possibility for iron sulfide formation during that time lag, as it forms by solid state formation mechanism which is a faster process. It is the in-situ synchrotron study which made it possible to illustrate the appreciable time lag between the start of supersaturation and critical supersaturation limit. Ingham et al. [2] used in-situ synchrotron small- and wide-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS and WAXS) to demonstrate that the formation of crystalline siderite (FeCO3) during the corrosion of steel in CO2-saturated brine is actually preceded by the formation of a colloidal precipitate and an amorphous surface layer, both assumed to be amorphous ferrous carbonate. Grazing incidence SAXS showed that upon the application of an anodic potential, film forms instantaneously and then a separate population of particles develops in the later stage followed by the formation of the ultimate crystalline FeCO3, observed by WAXS. Ingham et al. [2] interpreted these observations in terms of crystal nucleation within the amorphous surface layer. This observation was speculated to bear a significant consequence on the morphology of the corrosion scale and hence its protectiveness. However, it would be important to understand the effects of local pH change as well as variation in temperature in this gradual formation and development of siderite scale and then to find out a quantitative correlation of this process with the mentioned parameters. The fact of stable, adherent and protective siderite film formation in presence of trace amount Cr3+ was known [3, 4]. However the associated mechanism was not clearly understood until in-situ synchrotron x-ray diffraction study revealed a clearer picture of the mechanistic aspect of the expedited siderite film formation in presence of traces of Cr3+[2, 5]. This recently done in-situ synchrotron study made it clear that traces of Cr3+ in the solution significantly expedites the precipitation rate of the colloidal precursor and thus accelerate the appearance of the crystalline scale through its catalyzing influence on the nucleation process by modulating the local pH level at the steel surface and thus reducing of the critical supersaturation for precipitation. Another interesting and critical factor in developing surface texture within which the critical supersaturation can be developed is steel microstructure. Consequently, steel microstructure must have intimate relationship with the corrosion process and morphology of the scale as microstructure can change the diffusion conditions at the steel surface affecting the local supersaturation of siderite. However, in-depth mechanistic information related microstructural effect on adherent and protective scale formation was hardly available in the literature. It is recommended to perform in-situ synchrotron X-ray diffraction experiment in order to make a detailed investigation of such a phenomena. Ko et al [6] recently conducted such a study in order to investigate the effect of microstructure and boundary layer conditions on CO2 corrosion of low alloy steels. This recent investigation clearly demonstrated that the nucleation of crystalline scales onto the surface of steels under CO2 corrosion at elevated temperature is critically dependent on the initial surface roughness, microstructure-related surface roughness developed during corrosion. This study also indicated the interdependence between microstructure and chromium-enhanced siderite nucleation. However, finding out the quantitative effects of surface roughness on the initial nucleation process (rate) of the scale as well as the stability of the scale would be a good addition to this study. References: [1] B. Ingham, M. Ko, G. Kear, P. Kappen, N. Laycock, J. A. Kimpton and D. E. Williams, "In-situ synchrotron X-ray diffraction study of surface scale formation during CO2 corrosion of carbon steel at temperatures up to 90°C", Corrosion Science, 52 (2010), 3052–3061. [2] Bridget Ingham, Monika Ko, Nick Laycock, Nigel M. Kirby, David E. Williams, "First stages of siderite crystallisation during CO2 corrosion of steel evaluated using in-situ synchrotron small- and wide- angle X-ray Scattering", Faraday Discussion, 2015. [3] M B Kermani, J C Gonzales, G L Turconi, D Emonds, G. Dicken, L Scoppio, "Development of Superior Corrodion Resistance 3% Steels for Downhole Applications", NACE Annual Conference & Exposition, paper 3116, 2003. [4] R M Garrels, C L Christ, "Solution, minerals, and equilibria": San Francisco, California, Freeman, Cooper & Company, 1965, p 450. [5] M Ko, B Ingham, N Laycock, D E Williams, "In-situ synchrotron X-ray diffraction study on the effect of chromium additions to the steel and solution on CO2 corrosion of pipeline steels", Corrosion Science, Vol 80, 2014, pp 237–246. [6] M. Ko, B. Ingham, N. Laycock, D.E. Williams, "In situ synchrotron X-ray diffraction study of the effect of microstructure and boundary layer conditions on CO2 corrosion of pipeline steels", Corrosion Science, Vol 90, 2015, pp 192–201.


Abstract Background The challenge faced by the cancer patient is access to care and for the health system, thenon-availability of qualified personnel. Besides financial issues, patients face challenges of finding a cancer center. Governments are keen to offer universal health coverage but are in need of sustainable systems. A novel healthcare delivery system was designed and has been operational in several states of India. Methods General duty medical officers and nurses from government district hospitals were trained in oncology for one month. Various administrative reforms, restructuring and techno-mentoring (constant, 24x7, mentorship using WhatsAppR, Telephonic communication, regular continuing medical education) were used to create a system of health care delivery in oncology. The drug distribution system was changed to include essential oncology drugs. Results A district cancer care programme has been initiated in six states of India, involving 157 hospitals constituting about 20 % of the nation. The hospital has a nodal cancer unit, with nodal cancer officer and nurse in charge to deliver cancer services, such as counselling at all stages of care, assistance in diagnostics, (which may vary from biopsy to scan to tumor markers), follow up care, palliative care, end of life care and, most importantly, chemotherapy. A patient from the district has a choice of conitnuum of care at local hospital to which he is used. He can visit more frequently with no cost involved. This system change and empowerment has allowed the government to bring care closer to the facility and help patients gain access. A satisfaction survey done amongst patients shows there is a strong willingness to follow in districts.This is saving thousand of families from impoverishment. The creation of a system of cancer care delivery has led to other states following this example. From one state it has gone to six states,(population coverage of around 300 million). Conclusions Primary care physicians can be effectively empowered to offer specialised cancer care in government-run facilities. This duplicable, sustainable model (Pendharkar model) using existing human resources can be used by many countries fighting with shortages of personnel and access issues. Legal entity responsible for the study Dinesh Pendharkar. Funding Has not received any funding. Disclosure The author has declared no conflicts of interest.


Vision transformers (ViT) have demonstrated impressive performance across various machine vision problems. These models are based on multi-head self-attention mechanisms that can flexibly attend to a sequence of image patches to encode contextual cues. An important question is how such flexibility in attending image-wide context conditioned on a given patch can facilitate handling nuisances in natural images e.g., severe occlusions, domain shifts, spatial permutations, adversarial and natural perturbations. We systematically study this question via an extensive set of experiments encompassing three ViT families and comparisons with a high-performing convolutional neural network (CNN). We show and analyze the following intriguing properties of ViT: (a) Transformers are highly robust to severe occlusions, perturbations and domain shifts, e.g., retain as high as 60% top-1 accuracy on ImageNet even after randomly occluding 80% of the image content. (b) The robust performance to occlusions is not due to a bias towards local textures, and ViTs are significantly less biased towards textures compared to CNNs. When properly trained to encode shape-based features, ViTs demonstrate shape recognition capability comparable to that of human visual system, previously unmatched in the literature. (c) Using ViTs to encode shape representation leads to an interesting consequence of accurate semantic segmentation without pixel-level supervision. (d) Off-the-shelf features from a single ViT model can be combined to create a feature ensemble, leading to high accuracy rates across a range of classification datasets in both traditional and few-shot learning paradigms. We show effective features of ViTs are due to flexible and dynamic receptive fields possible via the self-attention mechanism.


To examine if chronic sodium loading on the brain produces sustained increases in blood pressure, water intake, and sodium excretion, hypertonic (0.5 M and 1.5 M) and isotonic (0.15 M) NaCl solutions were infused into the third ventricle of Sprague-Dawley rats at a rate of 5.5 microliters/hr for 7 days. Intracerebroventricular infusion of 1.5 M NaCl significantly increased systolic blood pressure during the entire infusion period (+23 +/- 5 mm Hg on day 1 and +15 +/- 2 mm Hg on day 7, n = 10, mean +/- SEM). Blood pressure rose insignificantly in the 0.5 M NaCl group, whereas it remained at the baseline levels in the 0.15 M NaCl group. The increases in water intake (day 2), positive water balance (day 2), and negative sodium balance (day 3) were observed in the 1.5 M NaCl group. On day 7, the 1.5 M NaCl group showed hyponatremia and low plasma osmolality and had higher plasma norepinephrine but not vasopressin compared with the 0.15 M NaCl group. In another series of study, depressor response to intravenous hexamethonium (20 mg/kg) in the 1.5 M NaCl group was greater than that in the 0.15 M NaCl group on both day 1 and 7. The depressor response to d(CH2)5Tyr(Me)-arginine vasopressin (10 micrograms/kg) in the 1.5 M NaCl group was greater on day 1 but not on day 7. These results indicate that sustained sodium stimulus on the central nervous system causes mild hypertension and alters water and sodium balance. The sympathetic nervous system but not vasopressin may play an important role in the chronic phase of central NaCl-induced hypertension.


Purpose

This study aims to examine the impact of a mega-sporting event "2014 FIFA World Cup" on hotel pricing strategies and performance.

Design/methodology/approach

The present project examines the host regions' response to the 2014 FIFA World Cup which was established by the variance in the main hotel key performance indexes: occupancy, average daily rate, revenue per available room (RevPAR) and supply. Using data gathered from STR, this research distinctly shows how the Brazilian host regions reacted to the World Cup.

Findings

Results suggest that the key performance indicators of Brazil's lodging sector reacted differently to the World Cup. Although all hosting cities experienced significant RevPAR growth because of the increase in hotel room rates during the event, the supply and occupancy performed differed from each city.

Research limitations/implications

Research is limited to the case of hotel performance at the country level for mega-events. The study focused on the reaction of revenue managers in the Latin America context. Other contexts may generate different results.

Practical implications

The study helps revenue managers to examine how the FIFA World Cup travel demand affected pricing strategies and revenue management practices in the Brazilian hotel sector in areas undergoing seasonal growths in overnight tourism. This study serves to inform hoteliers and practitioners about revenue management pricing strategies to improve hotel performance during mega-sporting events.

Social implications

This study reveals that the benefits brought by a mega-event are not always translated into strong hotel revenue performance. This study highlights an important but understudied research area of revenue management pricing strategies and the effect of mega-sporting events in the hotel sector. This study contributes to the literature as one of the few investigations to benefit hotel pricing strategies and overall revenue performance.

Originality/value

This study is one of the few studies about exploring the reaction of revenue managers during the execution of a mega-sporting event. The value of the present study lies in the fact that the authors extend previous studies examining the impact of the most important sporting event in the hotel industry at the country-level perspective. This study serves to inform hoteliers and practitioners about revenue management pricing strategies to improve hotel performance during mega-sporting events.


Building Digital Culture aims to answer a simple question: How can organisations succeed when the environment they operate in is changing so quickly? The last thing businesses need today is a digital strategy. Instead, their strategy needs to be fit for our fast-changing digital world, where businesses have more data than they know what to do with, a media landscape that's exploded in size and complexity, the risk of a new disruption around every corner, and only one certainty: that this change won't let up.

 Building Digital Culture doesn't address whether or not you should advertise on Facebook or invest in virtual reality. It doesn't seek to unearth a silver bullet to make digital investments a sure-thing. It steps back from the hype, and argues that whatever digital might mean for your business, if you don't create a digital culture you'll most likely fail, or at least fall short of what you want to achieve.

 Daniel Rowles and Thomas Brown combine more than 30 years of experience at the forefront of marketing and digital developments to help you to navigate from being a business that tolerates or acts digital, to one that truly is digital.

 Building Digital Culture is based on more than 200 hours of research, candid interviews and contributions from senior leaders at a diverse range of brands including Twitter, Made.com, Tech London Advocates, Deloitte, HSBC, Reckitt Benckiser, Ladbrokes, Direct Line Group, The Metropolitan Police, Zurich Insurance and many more.


The thesis is focused in the new type of claims in international investment law – claims concerning the revocation of incentive schemes in the photovoltaic (PV) solar sector. The general research question of this work is an inquiry why countries succeed and fail in their renewable policies (RE) judging by the amount of investment disputes against them. The interaction between the EU and Member States concerning RE policies has both political and legal dimensions. The political dimension includes several unsuccessful attempts of harmonization of support schemes. The legal dimension helps to achieve this harmonization by indirect means, such as the requirement on permissible state aid. With the introduction of PV solar investment cases, this process attracted a new discussion of the viability of investment treaty arbitration (ITA) within the EU. Member States appear solely responsible for their renewable policies, promoted in the bottom-up regime from supranational level. This situation leads to the gap between supranational governance and control within the EU law, from one side, and responsibility and accountability under international investment law, from the other. The greatest risk for the EU seems to be the independence of investment tribunals, when the Commission has limited means of influence on the arbitral decision-making process. The structure of the thesis will first discuss the EU-level policies relating to the incentivization of RE among its Member States and how these policies relate to the investment treaty regime and the rise in the number of ITAs based on changes to the support schemes in the PV solar sector specifically. Second, this thesis will conduct an empirical analysis of RE policies (abridged for focus on PV solar energy) in selected EU Member States by describing the background of regulation, response to EU Directives, further growth of incentives and the current reduction of support measures. Third, and based on a policy review, the thesis will analyze which national regulatory measures have formed the basis of investment treaty claims and examine what investment protections may be further invoked by specifically concentrating on the fair and equitable treatment (FET) standard due to its universal character and growing popularity in ITA. The final section of the thesis will identify the factors arising from the different number of ITA cases against EU Member States to date and provide insights into how these cases might be resolved and how they will affect future arbitral practice as well as future policy choices on the incentivization of RE among EU Member States.


IMPROVING ACCURACY IN MICROWAVE RADIOMETRY VIA PROBABILITY AND INVERSE PROBLEM THEORY Derek L. Hudson Electrical and Computer Engineering Doctor of Philosophy Three problems at the forefront of microwave radiometry are solved using probability theory and inverse problem formulations which are heavily based in probability theory. Probability theory is able to capture information about random phenomena, while inverse problem theory processes that information. The use of these theories results in more accurate estimates and assessments of estimate error than is possible with previous, non-probabilistic approaches. The benefits of probabilistic approaches are expounded and demonstrated. The first problem to be solved is a derivation of the error that remains after using a method which corrects radiometric measurements for polarization rotation. Yueh [1] proposed a method of using the third Stokes parameter TU to correct brightness temperatures such as Tv and Th for polarization rotation. This work presents an extended error analysis of Yueh's method. In order to carry out the analysis, a forward model of polarization rotation is developed which accounts for the random nature of thermal radiation, receiver noise, and (to first order) calibration. Analytic formulas are then derived and validated for bias, variance, and root-mean-square error (RMSE) as functions of scene and radiometer parameters. Examination of the formulas reveals that: 1) natural TU from planetary surface radiation, of the magnitude expected on Earth at L-band, has a negligible effect on correction for polarization rotation; 2) RMSE is a function of rotation angle Ω, but the value of Ω which minimizes RMSE is not known prior to instrument fabrication; and 3) if residual calibration errors can be sufficiently reduced via postlaunch calibration, then Yueh's method reduces the error incurred by polarization rotation to negligibility. The second problem addressed in this dissertation is optimal estimation of calibration parameters in microwave radiometers. Algebraic methods for internal calibration of a certain class of polarimetric microwave radiometers are presented by Piepmeier [2]. This dissertation demonstrates that Bayesian estimation of the calibration parameters decreases the RMSE of the estimates by a factor of two as compared with algebraic estimation. This improvement is obtained by using knowledge of the noise structure of the measurements and by utilizing all of the information provided by the measurements. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that much significant information is contained in the covariance information between the calibration parameters. This information can be preserved and conveyed by reporting a multidimensional pdf for the parameters rather than merely the means and variances of those parameters. The proposed method is also extended to estimate several hardware parameters of interest in system calibration. The final portion of this dissertation demonstrates the advantages of a probabilistic approach in an empirical situation. A recent inverse problem formulation, sketched in [3], is founded on probability theory and is sufficiently general that it can be applied in empirical situations. This dissertation applies that formulation to the retrieval of Antarctic air temperature from satellite measurements of microwave brightness temperature. The new method is contrasted with the curvefitting approach which is the previous state-of-the-art. The adaptibility of the new method not only results in improved estimation but is also capable of producing useful estimates of air temperature in areas where the previous method fails due to the occurence of melt events.