We propose a vision based 3D object recognition and tracking system, which provides high level scene descriptions such as object identification and 3D pose information. The system is composed of object recognition part and real-time tracking part. In object recognition, we propose a feature which is robust to scale, rotation, illumination change and background clutter. A probabilistic voting scheme maximizes the conditional probability defined by the features in correspondence to recognize an object of interest. As a result of object recognition, we obtain the homography between the model image and the input scene. In tracking, a Lie group formalism is used to cast the motion computation problem into simple geometric terms so that tracking becomes a simple optimization problem. An initial object pose is estimated using correspondences between the model image and the 3D CAD model which are predefined and the homography which relates the model image to the input scene. Results from the experiments show the robustness of the proposed system.


Since business model innovation became a major source of competitive advantage, the topic is becoming increasingly important both for practice and science. New business conditions require companies to change their whole way of doing business as it becomes more and more difficult to differentiate on services and products alone.

Cases of successful business model innovation such as Amazon.com, Hilti or IKEA reveal how the implementation of a significantly new business model helped companies to outperform their competitors. Despite these benefits, explicit and systematic business model innovation does not appear to be a common approach in practice so far. Research on business model innovation is still in its infancy. To date a mutual consensus has not been found and consistent definitions are still lacking. Process models depicting the process steps and providing practical guidance, as they can be found in related research fields (e.g. innovation management) do not yet exist. In brief, missing theory and guidelines hinder business model innovation in practice and its scientific evaluation alike.

The main objective of this work is therefore to investigate how business model innovation can be improved through a structured approach. This structured approach is developed in the form of a process model following the principles of applied research. The proposed process model is constructed based on the state-of-the-art in business models, innovation management, and business model innovation. It is built in a way that supports a broad range of different environments and industries and thus enables a broad field of application. Since the theoretical foundation in the area of business model innovation is not in the desired state, a series of short case studies are analyzed to gain further insights. The analysis is based on the application and transfer of findings from the field of innovation management.

For the empirical evaluation of the applicability of the model in practice, it is tested within a series of workshops with different companies. Guidelines are derived based on the presentation and discussion of the results. The major contribution of this work is the construction of a theoretically substantiated and practically applicable model that helps companies to master threads and leverage opportunities, while advancing the field of business model innovation research.


An approach based on a linear rate of increase in harvest index (HI) with time after anthesis has been used as a simple means to predict grain growth and yield in many crop simulation models. When applied to diverse situations, however, this approach has been found to introduce significant error in grain yield predictions. Accordingly, this study was undertaken to examine the stability of the HI approach for yield prediction in sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench]. Four field experiments were conducted under nonlimiting water and N conditions. The experiments were sown at times that ensured a broad range in temperature and radiation conditions. Treatments consisted of two population densities and three genotypes varying in maturity. Frequent sequential harvests were used to monitor crop growth, yield, and the dynamics of HI. Experiments varied greatly in yield and final HI. There was also a tendency for lower HI with later maturity. Harvest index dynamics also varied among experiments and, to a lesser extent, among treatments within experiments. The variation was associated mostly with the linear rate of increase in HI and timing of cessation of that increase. The average rate of HIM increase was 0.0198 d-', but this was reduced considerably (0.0147) in one experiment that matured in cool conditions. The variations found in HI dynamics could be largely explained by differences in assimilation during grain filling and remobilization of preanthesis assimilate. We concluded that this level of variation in HI dynamics limited the general applicability of the HI approach in yield prediction and suggested a potential alternative for testing.


Advanced biomass feedstocks tend to provide more non-fuel ecosystem goods and services (ES) than 1st- generation alternatives. We explore the idea that payment for non-fuel ES could facilitate market penetration of advanced biofuels by closing the pro fi tability gap. As a speci fi c example, we discuss the Mississippi-Atchafalaya River Basin (MARB), where 1st-generation bioenergy feedstocks (e.g., corn-grain) have been integrated into the agricultural landscape. Downstream, the MARB drains to the Gulf of Mexico, where the most-valuable fi shery in the US is impacted by annual formation of a large hypoxic " Dead zone. " We suggest that advanced biomass production systems in the MARB can increase and stabilize the provision of ES derived from the coastal and marine ecosystems of the Gulf-of-Mexico. Upstream, we suggest that choosing feedstocks based on their resistance or resilience to disturbance (e.g., perennials, diverse feedstocks) can increase reliability in ES provision over time. Direct feedbacks to incentivize producers of advanced feedstocks are currently lacking. Perhaps a shift from fi rst-generation biofuels to perennial-based fuels and other advanced bioenergy systems (e.g., algal diesel, biogas from animal wastes) can be encouraged by bringing downstream environmental externalities into the market for upstream producers. In future, we can create such feedbacks through payments for ES, but signi fi cant research is needed to pave the way.


Part I - The Theoretical Constructs of Dyslexia. Differential Diagnosis fo Reading Disabilities, P.G. Aaron. Visual Deficit Models of Dyslexia, Gorodn Stanley. Part II - The Specific Nature of Dyslexia. Neurobiological Patterns in dyslexia, Drake D. Duane. Dyslexia and Skill - Theoretical Studies, Roderick I. Nicolson and Angela J. Fawcett. The Cognitive Psychology of Developmental dyslexia, Nick Ellis. Elementary Symbol Processing in Less Skilled Readers in a componential Frmework, Che Kan Leong. Part III - The Identification of Dyslexia. Diagnosing Dyslexia in The Classroom - a Three Stage Model, Peter Gardner. Towards a Rationale for Diagnosois, T.R. Miles. Quantifying Exceptionality - issues in Psychogical Assessment of Dyslexia, Martin Turner. Part IV - Education management of The Dyslexic Child. How Dyslexics Respond to Specialised Teaching - Some Practical and Theoretical Issues, Michael Thomson. Whole School provision for The Whole Child, Steve Chinn. Early Help Means a Better Future, Jean Augur. Part V Diverse Routes to a Wider Understanding. Unconventional treatments for Dyslexia, C.R. Wilsher. The Human Aspects of Dyslexia, Gerald Hales. Musical Problems? - Reflections and Suggestions, Margaret Hubicki.


Fixed priority scheduling is used in many real-time systems, however, both preemptive and non-preemptive variants (FP-P and FP-NP) are known to be sub-optimal when compared to an optimal uniprocessor scheduling algorithm such as preemptive Earliest Deadline First (EDF-P). In this paper, we investigate the sub-optimality of fixed priority non-preemptive scheduling. Specifically, we derive the exact processor speed-up factor required to guarantee the feasibility under FP-NP (i.e. schedulablability assuming an optimal priority assignment) of any task set that is feasible under EDF-P. As a consequence of this work, we also derive a lower bound on the sub-optimality of non-preemptive EDF (EDF-NP), which since it matches a recently published upper bound gives the exact sub-optimality for EDF-NP. It is known that neither preemptive, nor non-preemptive fixed priority scheduling dominates the other, i.e., there are task sets that are feasible on a processor of unit speed under FP-P that are not feasible under FP-NP and vice-versa. Hence comparing these two algorithms, there are non-trivial speedup factors in both directions. We derive the exact speed-up factor required to guarantee the FP-NP feasibility of any FP-P feasible task set. Further, we derive upper and lower bounds on the speed-up factor required to guarantee FP-P feasibility of any FP-NP feasible task set. Empirical evidence suggests that the lower bound may be tight, and hence equate to the exact speed-up factor in this case.


Effect of bitter leaves extract on bacteria isolated from soils of some mechanic and non- mechanic site in Makurdi metropolis was investigated. Forty (40) soil samples (20g each) were collected at the depth of 8-10cm from different mechanic shops in Makurdi metropolis (New garage, Kanshio and North bank) and soil from non-mechanic site. Fresh leaves of Vernonia amygdalina (bitter leaves) were purchased at Wadata market and identified at the Department of Plant Science, Federal University of Agriculture (FUAM). Serial dilution and pour plate technique was used for microbial analysis. Bacteria present were identified using cultural, morphological and biochemical techniques. Ethanol and methanol solvents were used to extract the bioactive constituents. Qualitative and quantitative phytochemical analyses were carried out on the bioactive components in the bitter leaves extracts. Susceptibility pattern of isolates were determined using Agar well diffusion assays. The genera Pseudomonas, Staphylococcus, Proteus and Escherichia were the predominant petroleum hydrocarbon degrading bacteria.  Analysis from phytochemical screening showed that compounds such as alkaloids, tannins, saponins, flavanoids, terpenes, anthraquinones, reducing sugars, cardiac glycosides and phlobatannins were present. Alkaloids in the bitter leaves extract was more in quantity and quality as compared to other phytochemical components. Zones of inhibition of the plant extracts ranged between 20.00± 0.89mm - 32.78± 1.72mm for Methanol and 21.00± 2.37mm - 31.22± 2.05mm for Ethanol at 100mg/ml. The Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) of both solvents ranged between 23.83± 3.23m/l and 50.00± 0.00m/l.The MBC values ranged from 50.00± 0.00mg/l to 100.00± 0.00 mg/l. Bacteria from the control site which had no hydrocarbon products contamination were more susceptible than those from the mechanic sites. Results from findings have shown that Vernonia amygdalina (bitter leaves) has potentials to be used as an alternative source of antibacterial agents in the ever increasing menace of Multi-Drug Resistance.
Int. J. Appl. Sci. Biotechnol. Vol 7(1): 81-87


Abstract Grain shape is useful as a depositional, environmental, diagenetic, and provenance proxy. Here we conduct the first study of down-core grain-shape variation in Antarctica. This study further examines the utility of grain shape as a depositional proxy, namely of glacial influence, in the James Ross Basin and Joinville Plateau of the Antarctic Peninsula from the Eocene to the present. Fourier grain-shape analysis was used to quantify the grain shape of 31 samples spanning the glacial history of the Antarctic Peninsula Ice Sheet. A total of 6,442 quartz grain peripheries were digitized and described through the twenty-first Fourier harmonic. Sediment provenance has a greater influence on grain roughness than glacial activity in the study area. However, provided a similar sedimentary source, secondary changes in roughness correlate with changes in the extent of the Antarctic Peninsula Ice Sheet since the late Oligocene. Grain roughness increased with increased glacial influence during the middle Miocene, after an early Pliocene warm period, and just above a Pliocene regional glacial unconformity. Conversely, grain roughness decreased with less glacial influence during the late Oligocene and during an early Pliocene warm period. This study further illustrates the usefulness of grain shape in distinguishing sediment provenance and environmental conditions in Antarctic settings.


Abstract  Over the past 25 years, discoveries of Early Cretaceous fossil flowers, often associated with pollen and sometimes with vegetative parts, have revolutionized our understanding of the morphology and diversity of early angiosperms. However, few of these fossils have been integrated into the increasingly robust phylogeny of living angiosperms based primarily on molecular data. To remedy this situation, we have used a morphological dataset for living basal angiosperms (including basal eudicots and monocots) to assess the most parsimonious positions of early angiosperm fossils on cladograms of Recent plants, using constraint trees that represent the current range of hypotheses on higher‐level relationships, and concentrating on Magnoliidae (the clade including Magnoliales, Laurales, Canellales, and Piperales) and eudicots. In magnoliids, our results confirm proposed relationships of Archaeanthus (latest Albian?) to Magnoliaceae, Endressinia (late Aptian) to Magnoliales (the clade comprising Degeneria, Galbulimima, Eupomatia, and Annonaceae), and Walkeripollis pollen tetrads (late Barremian?) to Winteraceae, but they indicate that Mauldinia (early Cenomanian) was sister to both Lauraceae and Hernandiaceae rather than to Lauraceae alone. Among middle Albian to early Cenomanian eudicots, we confirm relationships of Nelumbites to Nelumbo, platanoid inflorescences and Sapindopsis to Platanaceae, and Spanomera to Buxaceae. With the possible exception of Archaeanthus, these fossils are apparently not crown group members of living families but rather stem relatives of one or more families.


Rainfall remains the crucial component of the weather elements for improving agricultural yield in Ethiopia. Rainfall occurrence analysis is extremely helpful in planning of water resources and agricultural development. A study was conducted to asses the potential of sufficient rainfall occurrences and precipitation surplus and deficits in the central highland of Ethiopia for a selected district based on thirty three years of weather record data.   The FAO(1978) and Reddy (1990) models were employed to set the threshold  limits and the Weilbul frequency formula was used to calculate the probability of occurrences during the two growing seasons,  belg(shorter) and  kiremt (main). The results showed that the probability of occurrences of the sufficient amount of rainfall during the decades of main rainy season is promisingly stable while belg is observed to suffer from fewer occurrences of the sufficient amount even at the lower probability levels (25% probability of occurrences). Thus rainfall water harvesting during the main rainy season (Kiremt) is promising either for double cropping practices or other domestic uses. Key words: Frequency, Weibull, belg, kiremt


The potential value of xylitol in calcium therapy was evaluated by comparing the effect of dietary xylitol (50 g/kg diet) + calcium carbonate with the effects of calcium carbonate, calcium lactate and calcium citrate on bone repair of young male rats after the rats consumed for 3 wk a calcium-deficient diet (0.2 g Ca/kg diet). After this calcium-depletion period, the rats were fed for 2 wk one of four diets, each containing 5 g Ca/kg diet as one of the four dietary calcium sources. The diet of the control animals was supplemented with CaCO3 (5 g Ca/kg diet) throughout the study. The Ca-deficient rats showed low bone mass, low serum calcium and high serum 1,25-dihydroxycholecalciferol, parathyroid hormone (1-34 fraction) and osteocalcin concentrations. They also excreted magnesium, phosphate and hydroxyproline in the urine in high concentrations, and had high bone alkaline phosphatase and tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase activities. Most of these changes were reversed by the administered of the calcium salts. The highest recoveries of femoral dry weight, calcium, magnesium and phosphate were observed in the groups receiving xylitol+CaCO3 and calcium lactate. Calcium lactate and calcium citrate caused low serum phosphate concentration compared with rats receiving CaCO3 and with the age-matched Ca-replete controls. Xylitol-treated rats excreted more calcium and magnesium in urine than did the other rats, probably due to increased absorption of these minerals from the gut. These results suggest that dietary xylitol improves the bioavailability of calcium salts.


Justice Reinvestment (JR) has been promoted by the Justice Committee and advocates of progressive reform as a way of delivering social justice, a more cost effective criminal justice system and better outcomes for society. To date, the development of JR in the UK has been patchy. The devolution of justice provides an opportunity for local and regional agencies to adopt a JR approach to the way in which justice services are locally commissioned and locally managed. In this free seminar, Kevin Wong will examine the challenges of devolution and present a framework for commissioning and delivering JR at a local level. He will be drawing on lessons from JR in the United States and his experience of evaluating the Ministry of Justice Local Justice Reinvestment Pilots and Youth Justice Custody Reinvestment Pathfinders.


A method is presented to study the life cycle of a SSW using infrasonic ambient noise observations. The potential of infrasound is shown to provide the missing observations required by numerical weather prediction to better resolve the upper atmosphere. The 2009 major SSW is reanalyzed using the Evers and Siegmund (2009) data set. Microbarom observations are evaluated to identify detections that cannot be explained by the analysis of the European Centre for Medium‐Range Weather Forecasts. Identified differences can be related to either the altitude limit of the analysis, not resolving thermospheric ducts, or to an actual error in the analysis. Therefore, a first‐order model is used to relate observations with the analysis, existing of the Waxler et al. (2007) microbarom source model, including bathymetry to allow column resonances, and an atmospheric propagation model using 3‐D ray tracing. Daily normalized spectral powers are proposed to distinguish stratospheric from thermospheric return height, based on the different signature of solar tidal amplitude fluctuations. It is shown that a SSW is not a smooth event as following from the analysis but a series of abrupt changes with a period of 10 to 16 days, increasing in intensity and duration. This is in agreement with the wave period of Rossby waves, interacting with the stratospheric circumpolar vortex. The type of vortex disturbance, split or reversal, can be deduced from the combined effect of the change in back‐azimuth direction, solar tidal signature type, and/or phase variation of the amplitude variation of the observed microbaroms.


Sum-Product Networks (SPNs) are probabilistic inference machines that admit exact inference in linear time in the size of the network. Existing parameter learning approaches for SPNs are largely based on the maximum likelihood principle and are subject to overfitting compared to more Bayesian approaches. Exact Bayesian posterior inference for SPNs is computationally intractable. Even approximation techniques such as standard variational inference and posterior sampling for SPNs are computationally infeasible even for networks of moderate size due to the large number of local latent variables per instance. In this work, we propose a novel deterministic collapsed variational inference algorithm for SPNs that is computationally efficient, easy to implement and at the same time allows us to incorporate prior information into the optimization formulation. Extensive experiments show a significant improvement in accuracy compared with a maximum likelihood based approach.


In this paper we present a case study in which Visual Analytic methods for interactive data exploration are applied to the study of historical linguistics. We discuss why diachronic linguistic data poses special challenges for Visual Analytics and show how these are handled in a collaboratively developed web-based tool: HistoBankVis. HistoBankVis allows an immediate and efficient interaction with underlying diachronic data and we go through an investigation of the interplay between case marking and word order in Icelandic and Old Saxon to illustrate its features. We then discuss challenges posed by the lack of annotation standardization across different corpora as well as the problems we encountered with respect to errors, uncertainty and issues of data provenance. Overall we conclude that the integration of Visual Analytics methodology into the study of language change has an immense potential but that the full realization of its potential will depend on whether issues of data interoperability and annotation standards can be resolved.


Objective. To investigate two professional groups (doctors and teachers) with regard to symptoms of anxiety and depression as a measure of psychological distress, as well as perceptions regarding job satisfaction, workload and adequacy of remuneration. To assess health care behaviour as evidenced by substance use, psychotropic medication use, self-prescribing habits (in doctors), help-seeking behaviour as well as negative coping strategies as indicated by the intention to emigrate and/or leave the profession. Design. Data were collected from randomly distributed questionnaires which included a validated objective screening instrument, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Subjects and setting. Questionnaires were distributed among 260 physicians at Tygerberg Academic Hospital and 200 teachers from five different schools in the northern suburbs of metropolitan Cape Town. Results. We found high levels of job dissatisfaction and symptoms of anxiety and depression in both groups, with teachers more affected than doctors. A large proportion of respondents with clinically significant levels of anxiety and depression remain untreated. Many respondents displayed a passive attitude with regard to seeking help. A significant proportion of doctors self-prescribed antidepressant and benzodiazepine medications. Only a small minority of doctors had a general practitioner whom they would consult when ill. Twenty-nine per cent of doctors indicated their intention to emigrate and 40% of teachers were planning to leave their profession. Conclusion. Our results suggest that doctors and teachers in South Africa are two professional groups at high risk for developing serious mental health problems, with low levels of recognition and intervention at present.


Dendritic cells (DCs) play an important role in immune homeostasis through their ability to present Ags at steady state and mediate T cell tolerance. This characteristic renders DCs an attractive therapeutic target for the induction of tolerance against auto-antigens or allergens. Accordingly, Ag-conjugated DC–specific Abs have been proposed to be an excellent vehicle to deliver Ags to DCs for presentation and tolerance induction. However, this approach requires laborious reagent generation procedures and entails unpredictable side effects resulting from Ab-induced crosslinking of DC surface molecules. In this study, we examined whether IgE, a high-affinity, non–cross-linking natural ligand of FcεRI, could be used to target Ags to DCs and to induce Ag-specific T cell tolerance. We found that Ag-conjugated human IgE Fc domain (Fcε) effectively delivered Ags to DCs and enhanced Ag presentation by 1000- to 2500-fold in human FcεRIα-transgenic mice. Importantly, this presentation resulted in a systemic deletion of Ag-specific T cells and prevented these mice from developing delayed-type hypersensitivity, which is critically dependent on Ag-specific T cell immunity. Thus, targeting FcεRI on DCs via Ag-Fcε fusion protein may serve an alternative method to induce Ag-specific T cell tolerance in humans.


The evolution of free anthocyanins during the five different fermentation temperatures (control treatment at 22 °C, 5 days prefermentative cryomaceration at 5 °C followed by maceration at 25 °C, maceration at 25 °C, maceration at 30 °C and maceration at 25 °C + heated post-fermentation maceration to 35-40 °C after finished alcoholic fermentation) of Teran wine was studied. Sampling was made at day 5, 10, 15 and three months after the end of maceration during storage time. Anthocyanins were determined by high performance liquid chromatography method coupled with photodiode array detection (HPLC-PDA). The results showed that the modification of the temperature conditions during maceration increased the anthocyanin concentration for pre-fermentative cryomaceration and maceration at 25 °C, while the maceration at higher temperatures showed a decrease in the anthocyanin concentration in young Teran wine. Quantitatively, malvidin derivatives were the most abundant anthocyanin compounds in all studied wines. Malvidin-3-glucoside was the major anthocyanin in Teran wine, with concentrations up to 138.59±1.22 mg/L and 76.93±0.36 mg/L for C treatment in 2008 and 2009 vintage, respectively. Results of this study indicate that five days pre-fermentative cryomaceration at 5 °C followed by maceration at 25 °C is most appropriate in order to achieve maximum anthocyanin concentration in Teran wines.


The availability and robustness of methods to analyze phosphorylated proteins has greatly expanded our knowledge of phosphorylation based cell signaling. A key ingredient to the success of these studies is the ability to enrich phosphopeptides using antibodies or other chemical approaches. Most other post-translational modifications, such as lysine acetylation, are still poorly characterized because of the lack of availability of such enrichment methods. Recently, some groups have reported identification of acetylation sites in a global fashion by enriching acetylated peptides with a polyclonal antibody from a single source that was raised against pan-acetylated lysine. Instead of the use of this polyclonal antibody, we used a cocktail of monoclonal antibodies where each was directed against acetylated lysine in different contexts. Using high resolution Fourier transform mass spectrometry, we observed that the majority of acetylated lysine residues identified using the monoclonal antibody cocktail were distinct from those enriched by the polyclonal antibody used by the other groups. Our study demonstrates that immunoaffinity enrichment of acetylated peptides is somewhat limited by substrate specificity and that an optimal yield of enrichment can be achieved by employing a broader array of affinity reagents.


Objective
Patient notes in electronic health records (EHRs) may contain critical information for medical investigations. However, the vast majority of medical investigators can only access de-identified notes, in order to protect the confidentiality of patients. In the United States, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) defines 18 types of protected health information that needs to be removed to de-identify patient notes. Manual de-identification is impractical given the size of electronic health record databases, the limited number of researchers with access to non-de-identified notes, and the frequent mistakes of human annotators. A reliable automated de-identification system would consequently be of high value.

Materials and Methods
We introduce the first de-identification system based on artificial neural networks (ANNs), which requires no handcrafted features or rules, unlike existing systems. We compare the performance of the system with state-of-the-art systems on two datasets: the i2b2 2014 de-identification challenge dataset, which is the largest publicly available de-identification dataset, and the MIMIC de-identification dataset, which we assembled and is twice as large as the i2b2 2014 dataset.

Results
Our ANN model outperforms the state-of-the-art systems. It yields an F1-score of 97.85 on the i2b2 2014 dataset, with a recall of 97.38 and a precision of 98.32, and an F1-score of 99.23 on the MIMIC de-identification dataset, with a recall of 99.25 and a precision of 99.21.

Conclusion
Our findings support the use of ANNs for de-identification of patient notes, as they show better performance than previously published systems while requiring no manual feature engineering.


A reader of a news article would often be interested in the comments of other readers on an article, because comments give insight into popular opinions or feelings toward a given piece of news. In recent years, social media platforms, such as Twitter, have become a social hub for users to communicate and express their thoughts. This includes sharing news articles and commenting on them. In this paper, we propose an approach for identifying "comment-tweets" that comment on news articles. We discuss the nature of comment-tweets and compare them to subjective tweets. We utilize a machine learning-based classification approach for distinguishing between comment-tweets and others that only report the news. Our approach is evaluated on the TREC-2011 Microblog track data after applying additional annotations to tweets containing comments. Results show the effectiveness of our classification approach. Furthermore, we demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach on live news articles.


In this paper, we present a flexible new technique for single viewpoint omnidirectional camera calibration. The proposed method only requires the camera to observe a planar pattern shown at a few different orientations. Either the camera or the planar pattern can be freely moved. No a priori knowledge of the motion is required, nor a specific model of the omnidirectional sensor. The only assumption is that the image projection function can be described by a Taylor series expansion whose coefficients are estimated by solving a two-step least-squares linear minimization problem. To test the proposed technique, we calibrated a panoramic camera having a field of view greater than 200 in the vertical direction, and we obtained very good results. To investigate the accuracy of the calibration, we also used the estimated omni-camera model in a structure from motion experiment. We obtained a 3D metric reconstruction of a scene from two highly distorted omnidirectional images by using image correspondences only. Compared with classical techniques, which rely on a specific parametric model of the omnidirectional camera, the proposed procedure is independent of the sensor, easy to use, and flexible.


This article identifies a moral anomaly the Supreme Court has created in recent cases interpreting Congress's remedial powers under the Fourteenth Amendment. It shows that the Court has unwittingly decided that the Constitution today does not authorize as much federal protection for constitutional rights and equality as it provided in the nineteenth century to protect the property rights of slave owners in their slaves. Before the Civil War, Congress enacted two statutes that enforced slave owners' constitutionally secured property rights with civil remedies, including a civil fine and tort damages, and criminal penalties applicable to anyone who interfered with the slave owner's constitutional right to recover fugitive slaves. Congress also created an elaborate federal enforcement structure. The United States Supreme Court upheld these statutes and Congress's plenary power to enact them before slavery was abolished by the Thirteenth Amendment. This article shows that the framers of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and Fourteenth Amendment used these legislative and judicial precedents to insist that Congress had to possess plenary power to enforce the fundamental rights and equality of all Americans. It also shows that the framers acted on this presumption and exercised this plenary power by enacting the Civil Rights Act of 1866, by which they enforced the civil rights of United States citizens with the civil and criminal remedies and enforcement provisions of the Fugitive Slave Acts. To ensure the constitutionality of the Civil Rights Act, the framers expressly incorporated it into the Fourteenth Amendment. However, the Supreme Court's recent decisions hold that Congress does not possess the power to enforce the substantive rights secured by the Fourteenth Amendment that earlier Congresses exercised, with the Supreme Court's approval, to enforce the constitutionally secured property rights of slaveholders. The Supreme Court has thereby placed itself in the morally untenable position of affirming greater constitutional protection for the property rights of slave owners before the Civil War than it is willing to affirm for the protection of the fundamental rights and equality of all Americans today.


This bibliography on "Education and Training in Grenada" has been specifically prepared for the UWI School of Continuing Studies' Grenada Conference. An attempt has been made to be as comprehensive as possible, but the compiler recognizes that because of the weak bibliographical coverage of the literature of the region, important items may have been omitted. This is especially true for policy documents emanating from official sources, since many of these do not reach library and documentation centres. This publication contributes to the development of content for a computerized database developed by the Caribbean Educational Research Information Service (CERIS) at the School of Education, UWI, St. Augustine.


The results of liberalization studies can be influenced decisively by the methodology of import tariff aggregation. This article deals with different measures used to aggregate import tariffs. Therefore, the advantages and disadvantages of different aggregation measures are discussed theoretically. In the empirical part of the paper, the simple average and the trade-weighted average of bound and applied tariffs are calculated for different agricultural products of the EU. The analysis considers ad valorem and specific tariffs as well as tariff rate quotas. Additionally, for the applied tariffs, a distinction is made between MFN-tariffs and bilateral preferential tariff rates. Using the same data base, the product specific Trade Restrictiveness Index (TRI) and the Mercantilist Trade Restrictiveness Index (MTRI) are calculated. Because of the poor data availability at the detailed tariff-line level, a simple partial equilibrium application of these indices is implemented, which can be extended to the whole import tariff data base of an economic trade model. The results show a strong correlation between all aggregation methods, but the size of the import tariffs differs highly, depending on the aggregation measure used. Furthermore, high differences between bound and applied tariffs for some EU agricultural products are calculated.


Aim: To assess the role of sequential treatment of paracentesis followed by laser peripheral iridotomy in acute primary angle closure. Methods: This was a prospective interventional study of acute primary angle closure in Indonesian patients. All eyes underwent paracentesis immediately after admission to reduce the intraocular pressure, followed by laser peripheral iridotomy on the following day to relieve pupillary blockade. A comprehensive eye examination was performed. The criterion for success was intraocular pressure <21 mm Hg with or without glaucoma medication. Risk factors assessed were age, duration of acute symptoms, presenting intraocular pressure, intraocular pressure response to paracentesis and to laser peripheral iridotomy, anterior chamber depth, and extent of peripheral anterior synechiae. Results: Forty five eyes of 45 patients with acute primary angle closure were recruited, of whom 38 were women. The duration of symptoms ranged from 2 to 30 days (median, 14 days). The mean extent of peripheral anterior synechiae was 7.7 clock hours (SD, 3.1 clock hours) and the mean presenting intraocular pressure was 55.9 mm Hg (SD, 13.4 mm Hg; range, 30.0-78.0 mm Hg). After paracentesis, the mean intraocular pressure decreased to 27.0 (SD, 12.8 mm Hg; range, 15.0-54.0 mm Hg). After laser peripheral iridotomy, the mean intraocular pressure was 24.0 mm Hg (SD, 15.2 mm Hg; range 8.0-40.0 mm Hg). Success was achieved in 21 eyes and the variable risk factor influencing success was extent of peripheral anterior synechiae. Conclusion: The success rate for sequential treatment was 47% of affected eyes and was determined mostly by the extent of peripheral anterior synechiae.


We have developed a rapid, sensitive, and quantitative method for identification of microRNA (miRNA) sequences in multicomponent mixtures using surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS). The method uses Ag nanorod array substrates prepared by oblique angle vapor deposition as the SERS platform. We show that Ag nanorod-based SERS spectra are uniquely characteristic for each miRNA sequence studied, and that the spectral reproducibility is sufficient for quantitative analysis of miRNA profiles in multicomponent mixtures using partial least squares (PLS) regression analysis. This method was applied to individual sample mixtures consisting of two, three, and five miRNAs. Separate PLS models were generated for the two-, three-, and five-component mixtures from >150 calibration spectra covering a concentration range of 6 to 150 μM for each miRNA. The PLS models were externally validated with independent test samples resulting in root mean square errors of prediction (RMSEP) of 7.4, <7.4, and <10 μM for the two-, three-, and five-component models, respectively. These results demonstrate the applicability of SERS for quantitative detection and profiling of miRNAs and suggest that SERS may prove to be a novel, label-free method for identification of disease biomarkers.


We predict by first-principles calculations that p-doped graphane is an electron-phonon superconductor with a critical temperature above the boiling point of liquid nitrogen. The unique strength of the chemical bonds between carbon atoms and the large density of electronic states at the Fermi energy arising from the reduced dimensionality give rise to a giant Kohn anomaly in the optical phonon dispersions and push the superconducting critical temperature above 90 K. As evidence of graphane was recently reported, and doping of related materials such as graphene, diamond, and carbon nanostructures is well established, superconducting graphane may be feasible.


As more aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) systems are employed for management of water resources, the skillful operation of multiwell ASR systems has become very important to improve their performance. In this study, we developed MODFLOW and MT3DMS models to simulate a multiwell ASR system in a synthetic aquifer to assess effects of hydrogeological and operational factors on the performance of the multiwell ASR system. We evaluated a simplified (dual well) ASR system in comparison with complex system (three‐, four‐, five‐, and seven‐well systems). Recovery and energy efficiencies were calculated using the model simulations. Factors such as higher hydraulic conductivity and longitudinal dispersivity significantly reduced the recovery and energy efficiencies of the system. In contrast, increasing the volume of recharged water increased the recovery efficiency; however, the energy efficiency was reduced. Recovery and energy efficiencies also plummet when there is an increase in the underlying regional gradient and the designed storage duration. Operating the system multiple times can yield higher volume of potable water, but the energy efficiency may not vary significantly after the second operating cycle. Single‐well systems and multiwell systems exhibit similar responses to changes in physical factors, although operational factors have a more pronounced effect on the multiwell systems. One of the major findings was that fewer wells in a multiwell ASR system can yield higher volume of potable water and better output with respect to the electrical power being consumed. The results provide design engineers with guidelines for optimizing performance of the multiwell ASR systems.


The world of lipids does not always gets its due. Their oleaginous charm is not always appreciated. For example, have you heard of hopanoids? They are made by some bacteria and are an unusual kind of polycyclic lipids that resemble steroids, but with an extra ring. Just like cholesterol in eukaryotic membranes, they insert in bacterial membranes where they contribute to their stability. Both hopanoid and steroid molecules are almost planar, thus can intercalate into the lipid bilayers with relative ease and there interact with the adjacent fatty acid chains to enhance stiffness. That hopanoids and steroids play analogous roles can be readily shown in mycoplasma, the bacteria that have the unusual ability to incorporate exogenous steroids in their membranes. Mycoplasma mycoides, it turns out, can grow without steroids if provided with hopanoids. Not all bacteria make hopanoids, but they play a vital role in the ones that do. How do we know? Inhibitors that stop their synthesis also inhibit the growth of the organisms that make them. Hopanoids are found in trace amounts in some plants and not at all in the Archaea. For a review, see here (1.usa.gov/1H96TT8), and for previous appearances in this blog, here for a piece (bit.ly/1MrGNCg) by Tanja Bosak and here (bit.ly/1MrH4VO) for one by Paula Welander.


We report the first demonstration of the use of an RF spectrum analyser with multi-terahertz bandwidth to measure the properties of femtosecond optical pulses. A low distortion and broad measurement bandwidth of 2.78 THz (nearly two orders of magnitude greater than conventional opto-electronic analyzers) was achieved by using a 6 cm long As(2)S(3) chalcogenide waveguide designed for high Kerr nonlinearity and near zero dispersion. Measurements of pulses as short as 260 fs produced from a soliton-effect compressor reveal features not evident from the pulse's optical spectrum. We also applied an inverse Fourier transform numerically to the captured data to re-construct a time-domain waveform that resembled pulse measurement obtained from intensity autocorrelation.


Introduction There is no consensus regarding modality or timing for postoperative surveillance in patients undergoing surgery with curative intent for early stage NSCLC. Some suggest that preoperative PET/CT Standard Uptake Variable (SUV) scores may identify patients at higher risk of poor outcomes 1 . We aimed to assess if preoperative FDG uptake highlights subgroups likely to benefit from more intensive postsurgical surveillance. Methods We retrospectively reviewed 82 patients with stage 1-2 NSCLC undergoing surgery with curative intent between 2011 and 2015. Analysis was performed in quartiles defined by preoperative PET SUVmax scores. Results Median time to first postoperative imaging was 3 months, with CT the chosen modality in 56%. Adenocarcinoma accounted for 62% of surgical resections and 69% of recurrences. 57% of patients with recurrent disease had undergone lobectomy. Overall recurrence rate was 17% (64% pulmonary) with mortality of 71%. The highest quartile group (SUVmax 13-26) showed a recurrence rate of 25% with a median time to recurrence of 9 months (interquartile range 4-12). The second group showed an identical median time to recurrence of 9 months (IQR 6-22), the third group 18 months (IQR 8–30) and the lowest quartile group (SUVmax 0-2.4) had one recurrence at 13 months. Conclusion Our results suggest that preoperative FDG uptake may have a role in identifying patients who require more intensive postoperative cancer recurrence surveillance with CT in the first year. It remains to be established if this would be associated with a survival benefit. 1 Liu J, Dong M, Sun X, Li W, Xing L, Yu J. PLoS One . 2016; 11(1): e0146195.


We investigate the limitations on the ability to detect when a target has changed, using Gabor targets as simple quantifiable stimuli. Using a partial report technique to equalize response variables, we show that the log of the Weber fraction for detecting a spatial frequency change is proportional to the log of the number of targets, with a set-size effect that is greater than that reported for visual search. This is not a simple perceptual limitation, because pre-cueing a single target out of four restores performance to the level found when only one target is present. It is argued that the primary limitation on performance is the division of attention across multiple targets, rather than decay within visual memory. However in a simplified change detection experiment without cueing, where only one target of the set changed, not only was the set-size effect still larger, but it was greater at 2000 msec ISI than at 250 msec ISI, indicating a possible memory component. The steepness of the set-size effects obtained suggests that even moderate complexity of a stimulus in terms of number of component objects can overload attentional processes, suggesting a possible low-level mechanism for change blindness.


As a hotspot of species diversity and fishing pressure, Indonesia is a global priority for the conservation of sharks, rays and their cartilaginous relatives (herein "sharks"). The high value marine tourism industry in Indonesia can create economic incentives for protecting and sustainably managing marine ecosystems and species, including sharks. This study estimates the economic value of shark and ray tourism in Indonesia and explores tourist preferences and local community perceptions of the tourism industry to understand the current and potential future role of this industry in shark and ray conservation. We identified 24 shark tourism hotspots across 14 provinces, with primary data collected from 365 tourists and 84 local community members over six case study sites. We use Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) and travel efforts to extrapolate expenditures to other tourism sites. We estimate that at least 188,931 dedicated or partially dedicated shark tourists visit Indonesia each year. The median annual expenditures of these shark tourists is estimated at USD 22 million (for 2017), accounting for at least 7% of the total USD 1 billion marine tourism revenue in Indonesia in 2017 and 1.45× the value of annual shark exports in the country (inflation-adjusted to 2017 values). If sharks were absent from the surveyed sites, Indonesia's tourism industry could lose ∼25% of these dive tourist expenditures. Despite this considerable value, our study indicates a mismatch between the absolute economic value of shark and ray tourism and its role in providing an incentive for conservation. Results from interviews with local communities in or near shark and ray tourism sites indicate that shark fishers are not well placed to receive direct economic benefits from shark and ray tourism. Since overfishing is the primary threat to shark populations, failure to engage with and appropriately incentivize these stakeholders will be detrimental to the success of Indonesia's shark conservation efforts. If shark populations continue to decline due to insufficient conservation actions, the tourism industry could suffer economic losses from shark and ray tourism of more than USD 121 million per annum by 2027, as well as detrimental impacts on species, marine ecosystems, fisheries and people.


Invasive aspergillosis caused by medical triazole-resistant Aspergillus fumigatus is described in two patients. A 31-year-old male with chronic granulomatous disease developed pulmonary aspergillosis despite itraconazole prophylaxis. A. fumigatus was cultured from the lung and was found to be azole-resistant. The patient was successfully treated with caspofungin. The second patient was a 13-year-old boy with acute lymphoid leukaemia. He developed pulmonary aspergillosis that failed to respond to voriconazole therapy. The infection spread to the brain and an azole-resistant isolate was cultured from a lung biopsy. Despite a switch to liposomal amphotericin B in combination with caspofungin, the infection progressed and the patient died. Azole-resistance has emerged in A. fumigatus and may develop through the treatment of patients. However, there is evidence that in the Netherlands, resistance might be emerging through fungal exposure to azole fungicides. Azole resistance further complicates the management of invasive aspergillosis and should be considered as cause for treatment failure.


Accurate estimates of water losses by evaporation from shallow water tables are important for hydrological, agricultural, and climatic purposes. An experiment was conducted in a weighing lysimeter to characterize the diurnal dynamics of evaporation under natural conditions. Sampling revealed a completely dry surface sand layer after 5 days of evaporation. Its thickness was <1 cm early in the morning, increasing to reach 4–5 cm in the evening. This evidence points out fundamental limitations of the approaches that assume hydraulic connectivity from the water table up to the surface, as well as those that suppose monotonic drying when unsteady conditions prevail. The computed vapor phase diffusion rates from the apparent drying front based on Fick's law failed to reproduce the measured cumulative evaporation during the sampling day. We propose that two processes rule natural evaporation resulting from daily fluctuations of climatic variables: (i) evaporation of water, stored during nighttime due to redistribution and vapor condensation, directly into the atmosphere from the soil surface during the early morning hours, that could be simulated using a mass transfer approach and (ii) subsurface evaporation limited by Fickian diffusion, afterward. For the conditions prevailing during the sampling day, the amount of water stored at the vicinity of the soil surface was 0.3 mm and was depleted before 11:00. Combining evaporation from the surface before 11:00 and subsurface evaporation limited by Fickian diffusion after that time, the agreement between the estimated and measured cumulative evaporation was significantly improved.


FOREST CITY ENTERPRISES, INC., which grew to own some $2 billion in real estate in 1993, was founded in 1922 by Jewish Polish immigrant Charles Ratner who opened the Forest City Materials Co. to sell lumber and building materials at E. 93rd St. and Harvard Ave. After incorporation in 1924, Ratner's 2 brothers, LEONARD and MAX, joined the business in 1925 and by 1928 Charles had sold out to them. Selling primarily to professional builders, Forest City thrived and moved into the building business itself, constructing garages, cottages, and unfinished furniture. In 1941 the company became one of the nation's first firms to manufacture prefabricated homes. Forest City profited from the post-World War II boom as a pioneer in the "do-it-yourself" home improvement market when it opened its first retail store in 1955. Two years later, the company built a large lumberyard and building materials center on Brookpark Rd. in Brooklyn, which became its headquarters in 1965. In 1960 the Ratner family consolidated its interests in the lumber and building materials field and the management of commercial properties into a new firm, Forest City Enterprises, Inc. By 1983 it had 20 home-center retail stores, 7 of them in the Cleveland area. After its 1960 reorganization, Forest City's greatest growth occurred in real estate, as it built, owned, and managed shopping malls, office and industrial buildings, hotels, and apartment complexes across the nation. Its acquisition of Thomas J. Dillon & Co. in 1968 provided the firm with modular units that Dillon had developed, which allowed for a fast and efficient building system for mass-produced housing and Forest City became Cleveland's largest apartment and home builder. Forest City Rental Properties, formed as a separate company in 1969 for its real estate enterprises, concentrated on larger urban developments, such as Cleveland's Halle Bldg. (see HALLE BROS. CO.), purchased in 1982, and the Tower City project, which was begun in 1980 and opened in March 1990. In 1991 Forest City entered into the first U.S.-Mexico joint transportation ventures with Burlington Northern, Inc., to facilitate trade by integrating rail and barge services between interior points in Mexico and the U.S. In 1993 Forest City became part of a partnership to build 3,000 residential units in Las Vegas. In 1993 Forest City's revenues topped $500 million.


Materials with large nonlinear optical (NLO) response have the ability to manipulate the frequency and phase of incident light and exhibit phenomena that form the basis of modern telecommunication systems. In molecule-based materials, the second- and third-order NLO performance is related to the hyperpolarizability (β) and second hyperpolarizability (γ) of the constituent molecules. The search for higher β materials is driven by the desire to keep pace with expanding demand for high speed data transmission, while discovery of high γ chromophores is crucial for the development of emergent photonic technologies reliant on manipulation of "light-with-light". For decades, it was believed that for highest performance, organic NLO materials must be composed of planar π-system chromophores, and much exploratory research focused on subtle molecular modifications, which generally yielded incremental increases in μβ, where μ is the molecular dipole moment. The surprising recent discovery that twisted π-system chromophores can exhibit dramatically higher β values than their planar analogues has revealed a new design paradigm and stimulated the development of high performance twisted intramolecular charge transfer (TICT) chromophores, which are composed of electron-donating and electron-accepting π-substituents joined by a sterically constrained twisted biaryl fragment. In such chromophores, the twisting of the π-system enforces charge separation in the electronic ground state, leading to large dipole moments and low-lying charge-transfer excitations. This unique electronic structure forms the basis for enhanced NLO response, with an archetypal TICT chromophore, TMC-2, exhibiting very large second- ( μβ = 24 000 × 10-48 esu) and third-order (γ = 1.4 × 10-33 esu) metrics in dilute low-polarity solutions. This Account summarizes several approaches to enhance μβ in various environments, including (1) manipulating the biaryl torsional angle, (2) modifying the electron accepting fragment, (3) extending conjugation, (4) adding multiple twisted fragments, (5) modifying chromophore side chains, and (6) tuning the chromophore environment. Another set of modifications is explored to enhance γ, including (1) coupling to a cyanine dye to hybridize the cyanine and TICT orbitals, (2) manipulating the donor and acceptor group identity. The extensive modifications described above yield a detailed understanding of TICT chromophore molecular NLO response and unambiguous evidence that such chromophores have the potential to revolutionize organic electro-optics.


Quantitative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was used to assess global and regional cerebral volumes in patients with a clinical diagnosis of subcortical vascular dementia (VD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD). Whole brain volume, cerebrospinal fluid volume, volumes of the temporal, frontal and parietal lobes, the cerebellum and the amygdala-hippocampus complex were determined using a personal computer-based software. Seventeen patients with VD, 22 patients with AD and 13 healthy controls were included. Analysis of covariance using age as covariate demonstrated significant mean differences between controls and dementia groups with respect to all morphological parameters. However, apart from the volume of the cerebellum no significant volumetric differences were found between VD and AD. These results indicate that MRI-based volumetry allows differentiation between AD or VD from normal controls and that measurement of cerebellar volume may be of use to separate vascular and degenerative dementia. However, since the distribution of cerebral atrophy in both dementia groups is very similar, it is suggested that the atrophic changes are not specific to the underlying cause but rather reflect the selective vulnerability of neuronal structures.


This study was undertaken to investigate school excellence models and their applicability to education in the Arab world in general, and in Kuwait in particular . The researcher reviewed and analyzed the literature regarding excellence models and the role they can play in educational institutions. Based on this review, a school excellence model is proposed to improve the status and qualifications of teachers, establish systems of good governance at both the local and central levels, adopt a transformational leadership style, and encourage transparency among all stakeholders. Kuwaiti schools must conduct continuous evaluations to balance the expectations and demands of the local and global environments, students, and all stakeholders on one side with the actual resources that exist within the school environment on the other side. Achieving school excellence in Kuwait will require a culture that encourages creativity, innovation, and thinking outside the box. Keywords: Kuwait, transformational leadership, learning organization, school improvement, teacher learning


In this article, we explore the role of film in educational settings and argue that testimony and narrative are dependent upon each other for developing ethical judgments. We use the film 12 Angry Men to enhance our thesis that the emotional response that sometimes is intended in using film as testimonies in classrooms requires a specific listening; a listening that puts pupils at risk when they relate testimonies to their own life narratives. The article raises the importance of listening in training narrative ethos in relation to violence witnessed in film. The article contributes by enhancing an understanding of a relational dimension to testimony and narrative, which, in an Arendtian sense, is also put forward as a political relation.


Introduction. In order to develop strategies to prevent delay in diagnosis, it is important to gain knowledge of symptoms and healthcare-seeking processes in the population. This paper describes a combined survey and register-based study with (1) focus on development of a questionnaire concerning experience of symptoms and subsequent consequences and (2) feasibility of the study. Methods. The study is a nationwide cohort study of 100 000 individuals randomly selected from the Danish general population. A comprehensive questionnaire concerning experience of symptoms and subsequent consequences was developed. The methodological framework for the development included defining the domains to be measured, identification of previous items, scales and questionnaires in the literature, and pilot and field testing. Results. A total of five domains and 16 subdomains were defined covering the area of symptom experience, symptom characteristics, reaction in response to symptom experience, external factors, and personality characteristics with potential influence on the symptom experience. In total, 49 706 questionnaires were completed, yielding a response rate of 52.2%. Conclusion. We developed a comprehensive questionnaire used in a large combined survey and register-based study concerning experience of symptoms and subsequent consequences of symptom experiences. We succeeded in conducting a large survey providing the groundwork for The Danish Symptom Cohort.


An optically partitioned backlight system consisting of tandem wedge-shaped light-guides (LGs) with micro-line-prism arrays was developed for scanning field-sequential-color (FSC) liquid crystal display (LCD) in large size. The unit of wedge-shaped LG combined with a light-emitting diode (LED) light-bar was designed and fabricated to collimate the extraction light within a narrow angular extent. Based on the edge lighting approach, the volume of backlight system can be reduced down to 25 mm without sacrifice of the optical behavior. As a result, 2750 nits average luminance subject to 50% duty cycle and 83% uniformity can be achieved. The leakages into the consecutive adjacent blocks were well suppressed to 11.86%.


In situ amendments are a promising approach to enhance removal of metal contaminants from diverse environments including soil, groundwater and sediments. Apatite and chitin were selected and tested for copper, chromium, and zinc metal removal in marine sediment samples. Microbiological, molecular biological and chemical analyses were applied to investigate the role of these amendments in metal immobilization processes. Both apatite and chitin promoted microbial growth. These amendments induced corresponding bacterial groups including sulfide producers, iron reducers, and phosphate solubilizers; all that facilitated heavy metal immobilization and removal from marine sediments. Molecular biological approaches showed chitin greatly induced microbial population shifts in sediments and overlying water: chitin only, or chitin with apatite induced growth of bacterial groups such as Acidobacteria, Betaproteobacteria, Epsilonproteobacteria, Firmicutes, Planctomycetes, Rhodospirillaceae, Spirochaetes, and Verrucomicrobia; whereas these bacteria were not present in the control. Community structures were also altered under treatments with increase of relative abundance of Deltaproteobacteria and decrease of Actinobacteria, Alphaproteobacteria, and Nitrospirae. Many  of these groups of bacteria have been shown to be involved in metal reduction and immobilization. Chemical analysis  of pore and overlying water also demonstrated metal immobilization primarily under chitin treatments. X-Ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) spectra showed more sorbed Zn occurred over time in both apatite and chitin treatments (from 9% - 27%). The amendments improved zinc immobilization in marine sediments that led to significant changes in   the mineralogy: easily mobile Zn hydroxide phase was converted to an immobile Zn phosphate (hopeite). In-situ amendment of apatite and chitin offers a great bioremediation potential for marine sediments contaminated with heavy metals.


We studied the effects on the performance and intestinal health of broiler chickens who were given Macleaya cordata (M. cordata) extract alone and those given a newly developed plant extract mixture (PEM) as a natural feed additive in the diet. Total 240 Ross 308 male chicks were used in this study and divided into 4 groups of 60 chicks each. For the experimental groups, 100 ppm PEM was added to the diet of group I (PEM 100); 200 ppm PEM was added for group II (PEM 200), and 18 ppm M. cordata extract (MCE) was added for group III. Although there were no significant differences in the feed conversion ratio, carcass weight, and carcass yield, other performance variables, including body weight, body weight gain, and feed intake were significantly affected. An analysis of the data from this study showed that specified feed additives decreased the ileal inflammation score without changing the villus height in the duodenum of the chickens. In conclusion, dietary supplementation of MCE supplement alone and the effects of newly developed PEM improved the performance parameters. Moreover, it can be said that it has an intestinal inflammation-reducing effect. Thus, this supplementation may have the potential to improve intestinal health.


Cybercrime is a primary example of cross-border crime, and so, it raises the issue of jurisdiction. This is a tricky issue. Acts on the Internet that are legal in the state where they are initiated may be illegal in other states, even though the act is not particularly targeted at that state. Jurisdiction conflicts abound, both negative (no state claims jurisdiction) and positive (several states claim jurisdiction at the same time). Above all, it is unclear just what constitutes jurisdiction: is it the place of the act, the country of residence of the perpetrator, the location of the effect, or the nationality of the owner of the computer that is under attack? Or all of these at once? It turns out that countries think quite differently on this issue. The cybercrime statutes of numerous countries show varying and diverging jurisdiction clauses. In this article, these varying approaches are outlined, by indicating when states claim jurisdiction and which factors influence that claim. The survey of jurisdiction provisions includes several US states and federal US law, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Malaysia, Singapore, and the Australian state of Tasmania, as well as the Council of Europe's Cybercrime Convention. This - eclectic - collection of states is chosen for having interesting jurisdiction clauses with respect to cybercrime. The article starts with a general description of jurisdiction (Section 2). Then, jurisdiction clauses in cybercrime statutes are surveyed, based on territorial claims (Section 3), on personality claims (Section 4), or on other claims, such as the protection principle and universality (Section 5). Jurisdiction does not only require a connection with the crime; it also demands that this connection be sufficiently close to warrant the exercise of jurisdiction - the reasonableness standard (Section 6). Particularly with cybercrimes connected with many countries, the various jurisdiction clauses will clash, resulting in positive or negative jurisdiction conflicts (Section 7). The articles concludes with summarizing the various approaches in cybercrime jurisdiction and the problems that this variation poses, and indicates issues that merit further study (Section 8).


In the spring of 1900, British archaeologist Arthur Evans began to excavate the palace of Knossos on Crete, bringing ancient Greek legends to life just as a new century dawned amid far-reaching questions about human history, art, and culture. With Knossos and the Prophets of Modernism, Cathy Gere relates the fascinating story of Evans' excavation and its long-term effects on Western culture. After World War I left the Enlightenment dream in tatters, the lost paradise that Evans offered in the concrete labyrinth - pacifist and matriarchal, pagan and cosmic - seemed to offer a new way forward for writers, artists, and thinkers such as Sigmund Freud, James Joyce, Giorgio de Chirico, Robert Graves, and Hilda Doolittle. Assembling a brilliant, talented, and eccentric cast at a moment of tremendous intellectual vitality and wrenching change, Gere paints an unforgettable portrait of the age of concrete and the birth of modernism.


Cardiovascular diseases remain America's primary killer by a large margin, claiming the lives of more Americans than the next two main causes of death combined (cancer and pulmonary complications). In particular, coronary artery disease (CAD) is by far the most lethal, causing 17% of all (cardiac related or not) deaths every year. One of the main reasons for this high death toll is the severe lack of effective and accessible imaging tools upon anomaly detected on the electrocardiogram, especially at the early stages when CAD can be stabilized with appropriate pharmacological regimen. On the other hand, arrhythmias refer to the disruption of the natural heart rhythm. Cardiac arrhythmias lead to a significant number of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. This irregular heart rhythm causes the heart to suddenly stop pumping blood. Atrial pathologies are the most common arrhythmias with atrial fibrillation and atrial flutter being the most prevalent.


This study takes a soft scientific cut to talks about rumors, hoaxes and urban legends. Social psychology, more elegantly, uses the latin word rumor (rumour in British English), which means sound, voice, or gossip. In social, economical, political, cultural and scientific communication, rumors indicate news that is presumed true, that circulates without being confirmed or made evident. The scientific history of rumors is briefly described starting from the period of ancient Rome, throughout the Second World War and the Internet era, up to today. We will try to answer some questions that can be useful to scientists today. What are rumors? How are they born? How do they spread? By which laws are they regulated? How do we need to fight them? A final question regards the collocation of rumors into modern science. Science today is divided into 'hard' and 'soft' science (the latter of which generally lacks a basic mathematical structure); these terms, respectively, indicate the natural sciences, which investigate Nature, and the social/human sciences, which investigate man in all his facets. Maybe rumors can be thought of as a bridge suspended between two banks: those of 'scientific truth' and 'human truth'.


The photocurrent in a selenium photovoltaic cell varies with time even if constant conditions be maintained. This variation consists either in a decrease or an increase of current, the current approaching a constant value in the course of about ten minutes. Whether the initial change of current is a decrease or an increase seems to be independent of the particular type of cell but is determined by the wave-length of the incident radiation and possibly also in certain cases by the temperature of the cell. If the cell is exposed to light from incandescent lamps, the effect is dependent on the temperature and will vanish at a certain temperature. The phenomenon is not an effect of fatigue; a more suitable name for it would be "initial effect."


The purpose of this study is to examine whether participation in robotics provides opportunities for educational and professional skill development, significant enough to merit the recommendation of robotics courses as a part of mainstream curriculum offerings in K-12 schools. This non-experimental, mixed methods study examined current junior high and high school robotics learning environments for educational value. Triangulation of three data sources (an online survey and two case studies) was conducted using related survey instruments. Robotics curriculum was found to be accessible and inexpensive for undergraduate students. Robotics programming was found to be an educationally viable tool at the undergraduate level, which could be used to develop student's skills in science, technology, education, and mathematics, as well as skills in professional areas such as time management, problem solving, communication, and teamwork. This study additionally looks at how robotics participation can be used to encourage more students to pursue Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) careers.


Barley is physiologically mature at 30% to 40% moisture; 3 to 4 weeks before traditional harvest time. Acid/formaldehyde additives have been found to reduce rumen degradation of the grain protein and starch, giving a number of advantages in animal production. The effects of a range of additives on the preservation, rumen degradability and feeding value of High Moisture Barley (HMB) were investigated in three experiments; 1. HMB (Atem variety), harvested at 451 g/kg moisture was crimped (bruised, cracked or kibbled) and ensiled without additive or simultaneously treated with one of three additives at various application rates. The treatments and application rates used were: 'Graintona Plus' (8 1/t & 4 1/t) , 'Sylade 2' (8 1/t & 4 1/t) and Cane Molasses (6.4 1/t). Each of these treatments was ensiled in triplicate 4 kg laboratory pot silos and five small (0.3 kg) pH pots. Duplicate 150 kg silos were used for all ensilations apart from the untreated grain. The untreated grain, the majority of which was not ensiled, was frozen until required. Treatments involving molasses, 'Forager' Innoculant, 'Add-Safe' and amylase were prepared from the untreated grain and ensiled in triplicate 4 kg pot silos only. Graintona and Sylade reduced fermentation in the silo, producing low levels of lactic and acetic acids, together with the highest pH values. Unlike the other additive treatments, they allowed a greater mould development. Sylade, together with the molasses treatments, gave high ethanol contents. 2. Graintona, Sylade and molasses were used for in saccc degradability studies. The rumen degradability of barley nitrogen, organic matter and protein-free organic matter (mostly starch), was measured using the nylon bag technique in three mature, rumen fistulated sheep. Graintona and Sylade, used at 8 1/t, significantly reduced (P < 0.05) the degradability of barley nitrogen, organic matter and protein-free organic matter. The instantaneous loss from the bags was most affected and the reduction diminished with increasing incubation time. 3. A feeding trial of incomplete block design, using ten individually penned yearling sheep, was used to determine the effect on hay intake and diet digestibility of formaldehyde-treated grain. The trial involved three 20-day periods. During days 1-10, the sheep (average live weight 34.5 kg) received hay ad libitum and 700 g/day (fresh weight) of HMB. Both treatment levels of Graintona and Sylade were used for the individual meals, together with molasses or thawed, untreated HMB. The six meals were distributed according to the experimental design and fed once per day at 08:45. A mineral supplement of 15 g/day was added to each meal. Hay and water were always available. During days 10-20, hay was restricted to 500 g/day (fresh weight) and a total faecal collection was made during the last three days. The HMB meals were consumed rapidly, in all cases within one hour. The sheep remained healthy throughout the trial, no incidence of acidosis occurred and each one made live weight gains. Under the conditions used in this experiment, there was no significant effect of treatment on hay intake or whole diet organic matter digestibility. It is suggested that with moderate barley intakes, rumen conditions on the control diet cannot have changed significantly from normal and in this growing, fattening trial, an effect of formaldehyde protection of barley nitrogen and protein-free organic matter on hay intake was not observed. The overall results of the experiments suggest that HMB can be ensiled successfully and can be used as a valuable source of 'home-grown' feed. Modifications of the rumen environment by formaldehyde treatment of barley would be most beneficial for animals in commercial, high production systems.


Earlier studies of broadband adoption have focused on Internet use in the home. This article suggests that Internet use outside the home can provide a context in which meaningful measures of broadband adoption can be developed. Findings are presented from a study of the Free Library of Philadelphia Hot Spots, which used an innovative community engagement strategy to bring broadband technology and library services to underserved neighborhoods. The study shows that the sense of comfort (i.e., support, trust, safety, and respect) at the Hot Spots was important to residents as a precursor to technology access and use, and it suggests that these factors be considered in broadband policies to support sustainable broadband adoption in low-income communities.


OBJECTIVE

To characterize immune checkpoint inhibitor-associated diabetes
mellitus (ICI-DM) in a single-institution case series.

DESIGN AND METHODS

Retrospective
chart review of 18 patients with new-onset ICI-DM following anti-PD-1/anti-PD-L1
therapy for advanced carcinomas.

RESULTS

9/18 patients had diabetic ketoacidosis (median glucose: 27.92mmol/L;
median glucose before presentation: 6.35mmol/L). Median C-peptide at ICI-DM
diagnosis was low, and declined during follow-up. Median anti-PD-1/anti-PD-L1
duration before ICI-DM was 3.65
months (range 0.56-12.23).
Time to ICI-DM onset was a
median 1.4 months/3 ICI cycles and 6 months/10
cycles in those positive and negative for GAD65 autoantibodies, respectively. Time to ICI-DM onset was a median 2.5 months/3 ICI cycles and 4.8
months/8 cycles after anti-PD-L1 or anti-PD-1 therapy, respectively. Significant
pancreatic atrophy was seen radiographically.

CONCLUSIONS

ICI-DM presents abruptly, appears irreversible, is characterized
by pancreatic atrophy, and may occur both earlier following
PD-L1 blockade compared to PD-1 inhibition and in those who have positive
GAD65 autoantibodies.


Thinning of forested lands and timber stands in the Pacific Northwest have taken place for centuries with a limited understanding of how the alterations may affect ecosystem functions. The goal of this study was to examine the soil climate and microbial activity on a seasonal timescale of thinning practices examined at different stages of succession. Two timber stands in Southwestern Oregon within the Grayback Creek Watershed had identical forest management techniques separated by a 10-year treatment interval (40% variable density thinning). Field methods and equipment measured canopy coverage, soil moisture and temperature at 3 depths (5, 15, 30 cm), as well as snow and precipitation events. Laboratory analysis included particle size analysis (PSA), determination of total %C and %N, and CO2 respiration. The least diurnal flux occurred at the deepest (30cm) and the greatest temperature flux near the surface (5cm). The covered stand showed a smaller magnitude of diurnal flux compared to the thinned stand (±3°C and ±7°C respectively). The thinned stand had twice as much (10.8%) water by volume at the 5cm level compared to the covered stand (5.2%). The thinned stand reached 40% water content (θs) throughout the profile after the first snowmelt, the covered stand rarely approached that level at any depth and time. CO2 respiration, total carbon, and total nitrogen were significantly less on the thinned site compared to the covered site (12 v 45 ppm CO2 at the surface, 2 v 5% carbon, 7 v 20% total nitrogen respectively). The lack of vegetation density (therefore decreased transpiration demands) on the thinned site may account for the differences between (1) water content differences at the peak of the dry season, (2) differences in the magnitude of diurnal flux, (3) and amount of precipitation required to reach θs. The CO2 respiration differences can be attributed to the covered understory vegetation significantly adding more organic matter for microbe decomposition compared to the relatively bare ground on the thinned stand.


Avian Influenza virus (AIV) still plays as a major cause of the death in poultry in Indonesia and around the world. The aim of this research was to determine the pathogenicity and to analyze the phylogenetic and genetic distances of hemagglutinin gene of isolated AI viruses in Indonesia in 2012-2013 particularly from West Java, Central Java, and North Sumatra. Samples were obtained from poultry farms that suffered from AI outbreaks, were inoculated and propagated in ten days old specific pathogen free (SPF) embryonated chicken eggs. Harvested allantoic fluids at 5 days after inoculation were tested for hemagglutination activity. Positive allantoic fluids were further tested to determine the hemagglutinin and neuraminidase subtype using real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RRT-PCR) and to be prepared for sequencing using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The sequence of hemagglutinin genes were analyzed for the amino acid pattern of the cleavage site region and the genetic distances and relationships of those viruses. The result indicated that all of the isolates are classified as HPAI with the pattern of cleavage site regions are QRESRRKKR and QRERRRKR. Six isolates are classified as H5N1 and 3 isolates are H5Nx. All of the isolates have close genetic relationship with the genetic distances less than 0.3 between one to another and also with several AI viruses that caused previous outbreaks in Indonesia.


Thermomagnetic energy conversion promises to be an energy efficient way of converting sources of energy needed in our modern society. For this purpose three different magnetocaloric material classes
namely iron and manganese base monoborides, Co2B and Fe2P based materials are discussed in terms of their structural, magnetic and thermomagnetic properties and evaluated for their viability in a thermomagnetic power conversion device.

The class of transition metal monoborides based on Fe and Mn is proposed for potential use in a thermomagnetic generator based on experimental and theoretical findings. Especially the system MnB exhibits a sharp, hysteresis-free, second-order magnetic phase transition resulting in a large isothermal entropy
change ΔSt in moderate magnetic fields. The second-order nature of the phase transition in MnB and FeB was validated by temperature dependent neutron diffraction. The tunability of the transition temperature Tt was demonstrated by gradual doping of Co and Fe in the system Mn1−xFe/CoxB. The high magnetization change in a small temperature interval together with the hysteresis free second-order magnetic phase transition makes MnB a very interesting candidate for thermomagnetic power conversion.

The magnetic properties of Co2B, including spin reorientation and magnetocrystalline anisotropy, are discussed based on measurements on high quality single crystals. Additionally, the negative impact of magnetocrystalline anisotropy is studied by means of calculations of ΔSt and measurements of the adi-
abatic temperature change ΔTad; then a simple phenomenological model is proposed. The structural and magnetic properties of Co2−xMnxB are studied and it was found that both magnetization Ms and Curie temperature TC rise with doping small amounts of Mn and eventually drop with increasing the Mn content above x=0.3 allowing for tuning of T C to room temperature. The possible non-magnetic Mn-Mn interaction with increasing Mn content leads to a lowering of Ms rendering the system Co2−xMnxB impractical for magnetocaloric energy conversion both due to a low performance and the criticality and high price of Co.

Microstructural and thermomagnetic properties of Mn-Fe-P-Si, Fe2P-type alloys, revealed that the cubic Heusler-like secondary phase occurring in the system has a large influence on the magnetic and thermomagnetic properties as it alters the composition of the main phase significantly. The origin of the secondary phase could be traced by EBSD measurements and is ascribed to a cubic high temperature Fe2P-phase. Furthermore, the effect of the metal to non-metal (M/NM) ratio on the sharpness of the phase transition is discussed by comparing different single-phase samples with different M/NM ratios. It could also be shown that all samples are highly porous and brittle when prepared with the powder-metallurgical method commonly proposed in literature, making them unsuitable for a direct application in a magnetocaloric heat exchanger. Additionally, by temperature dependent light microscopy the embrittlement of the sample while passing through the virgin effect could directly be observed which is related to internal stresses accumulating in the material when being cooled down through the structural magnetic phase transition for the first time after preparation. This observation is supported by measurements of single particles revealing that the virgin effect vanishes if particles are as small as the single grain size. By measuring ΔTad under different field application rates it could be shown that the phase transformation in these types of alloys is field-rate dependent, contrary to the literature, resulting in a growing field-hysteresis. Furthermore, it could be demonstrated that hydrostatic pressure only has little effect on the transition temperature due the anisotropic lattice change resulting in small volume change of the material. Overall it could be shown that the Fe2P-type alloys are comparable in thermomagnetic performance
to La-Fe-Si-based magnetocaloric alloys and can be considered as one of the most commercially viable materials.

In summary MnB was proposed as a new and promising material for thermomagnetic power conversion. Additionally, a method of improving the efficiency of thermomagnetic materials by orienting them with their magnetic easy axis parallel to the applied field was demonstrated. Furthermore, a pathway for preparing Fe2P alloys of highest quality was established.


This paper explores varieties and examples of discourses of consumption, focusing primarily on US-American cultural discourses. The international community has in recent years developed an extremely valuable body of literature examining strategies for facilitating sustainable consumption; economic ramifications of varying consumption behaviors; attitudes and social structures that encourage or discourage sustainable consumption; approaches to consumption as a component of a sustainable or "green" lifestyle; and considerations of consumption practices in relation to inequities between North and South. The United States has made relatively few contributions to this body of literature thus far. But although the U.S. has not been one of the primary sources of academic literature on sustainable consumption, several types of discourses on consumption have become prominent in U.S. popular culture. These types of discourses include examinations of the moral status of consumption; investigations of the environmental or health consequences of modern consumption behaviors; explorations and critiques of green consumerism; and discourses that either construct or critique the commodification of the nonhuman world to produce objects for consumption. Throughout this paper I outline and offer examples of these strains of popular discourse, drawing on a newly-emerging body of U.S. literature and critically analyzing instances of discourse about sustainable consumption in film, television, internet, and print media. I conclude by examining new perspectives on sustainable coexistence that offer transformative possibilities for establishing relationships with the more-than-human world that are not based primarily on consumption.


This paper is a comparative account and analysis of three mobile Web 2.0 projects instigated within a tertiary learning environment during 2008. Following the successful instigation of a mobile Web 2.0 project in the third year of a Bachelor of Product Design course during semester one, similar projects were initiated in semester two within the first-year and second-year Bachelor of Product Design courses. A common methodology for supporting and facilitating mobile Web 2.0 projects was used for all three projects. The projects were designed to explore the potential of mobile Web 2.0 tools to enhance both the formal and informal teaching and learning environments with a focus upon mobile blogging (moblogging). A comparison of student and teaching staff feedback from each of the three projects provided a basis for identifying and illustrating critical success factors within similar m-learning scenarios. Critical success factors identified include: the importance of the pedagogical integration of the technology into the course assessment, lecturer modelling of the pedagogical use of the tools, the need for regular formative feedback from lecturers to students, and the appropriate choice of mobile devices and software to support the pedagogical model underlying the course. Keywords: mobile learning; Web 2.0; moblogging; social constructivism; action research DOI: 10.1080/09687769.2010.494718


The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is designed to collide two proton beams with unprecedented particle energy of 7 TeV. Each beam comprises 2808 bunches and the separation between two neighboring bunches is 25 ns. The energy stored in each beam is 362 MJ, sufficient to melt 500 kg copper. Safety of operation is very important when working with such powerful beams. An accidental release of even a very small fraction of the beam energy can result in severe damage to the equipment. The machine protection system is essential to handle all types of possible accidental hazards; however, it is important to know about possible consequences of failures. One of the critical failure scenarios is when the entire beam is lost at a single point. In this paper we present detailed numerical simulations of the full impact of one LHC beam on a cylindrical solid carbon target. First, the energy deposition by the protons is calculated with the FLUKA code and this energy deposition is used in the BIG2 code to study the corresponding thermodynamic and the hydrodynamic response of the target that leads to a reduction in the density. The modified density distribution is used in FLUKA to calculate new energy loss distribution and the two codes are thus run iteratively. A suitable iteration step is considered to be the time interval during which the target density along the axis decreases by 15%-20%. Our simulations suggest that the full LHC proton beam penetrates up to 25 m in solid carbon whereas the range of the shower from a single proton in solid carbon is just about 3 m (hydrodynamic tunneling effect). It is planned to perform experiments at the experimental facility HiRadMat (High Radiation Materials) at CERN using the proton beam from the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS), to compare experimental results with the theoretical predictions. Therefore simulations of the response of a solid copper cylindrical target hit by the SPS beam were performed. The particle energy in the SPS beam is 440 GeV while it has the same bunch structure as the LHC beam, except that it has only up to 288 bunches. Beam focal spot sizes of sigma = 0.1, 0.2, and 0.5 mm have been considered. The phenomenon of significant hydrodynamic tunneling due to the hydrodynamic effects is also expected for the experiments.


Asian soybean rust is an aggressive foliar disease caused by the obligate biotrophic fungus Phakopsora pachyrhizi. On susceptible plants, the pathogen penetrates and colonizes leaf tissue, resulting in the formation of necrotic lesions and the development of numerous uredinia. The soybean Rpp2 gene confers resistance to specific isolates of P. pachyrhizi. Rpp2-mediated resistance limits the growth of the pathogen and is characterized by the formation of reddish-brown lesions and few uredinia. Using virus-induced gene silencing, we screened 140 candidate genes to identify those that play a role in Rpp2 resistance toward P. pachyrhizi. Candidate genes included putative orthologs to known defense-signaling genes, transcription factors, and genes previously found to be upregulated during the Rpp2 resistance response. We identified 11 genes that compromised Rpp2-mediated resistance when silenced, including GmEDS1, GmNPR1, GmPAD4, GmPAL1, five predicted transcription factors, an O-methyl transferase, and a cytochrome P450 monooxygenase. Together, our results provide new insight into the signaling and biochemical pathways required for resistance against P. pachyrhizi.


Background. Preoperative blood transfusion has had a significant historic impact on graft outcome in clinical kidney transplantation, and the effect has been widely replicated in many experimental transplant models. Although the mechanisms underlying the blood-transfusion effect are poorly understood, one possibility is that preexposure to alloantigen results in the induction of regulatory cells with the capacity to control the effector arm of the immune response. Methods. Recent studies in autoimmune models have shown that T cells with regulatory function can be isolated from unmanipulated animals on the basis of CD25 expression, and we have recently shown that pretreatment of recipient mice with donor alloantigen combined with anti-CD4 antibody therapy generates CD25+CD4+ T cells that can prevent graft rejection. We therefore used this sensitive adoptive transfer mouse model to ask whether blood transfusion in the absence of any other treatment can also lead to the generation of alloreactive CD25+CD4+ regulatory T cells. Results. Although a single donor-specific transfusion (DST) fails to induce dominant regulation, we demonstrate that pretreatment with multiple DSTs generates CD25+CD4+ T cells that are as effective as those that result from blood transfusion under anti-CD4 antibody cover. More importantly, our results show that these cells also develop following multiple transfusions of unrelated (random) blood. Conclusion. These results provide a basis for understanding the blood-transfusion effect in transplantation and, by providing a link between naturally occurring regulatory cells and those induced by alloantigen, may shed new light on the fundamental basis of the effect itself.


Japanese: A Comprehensive Grammar is a complete reference guide to modern Japanese grammar. It explores the complexities of the language thoroughly, filling many gaps left by previous textbooks. Clear grammar points are put in context by examples from a range of Japanese media. The emphasis is firmly on contemporary Japanese as spoken and written by native speakers. Features of the book include: * coverage of colloquial and standard Japanese * clear alphabetical organization * extensive cross-referencing * detailed index of Japanese and English terms Written by experts in their fields, this will prove a lasting and reliable resource for all learners of Japanese.


Non Destructive Testing (NDT) based on magnetic technique for the investigation of surface and sub-surface material properties is carried out using a room-temperature sample Scanning Magnetic Microscope. The performances of such instrument are well suited in the field of non destructive evaluation, thanks to the good combination of the spatial resolution and the magnetic field sensitivity of its own superconducting magnetic sensor.
The aim of this work is to show the capability and the advantages of the NDT technique based on Superconducting Quantum Interference Device (SQUID) sensors. We start by describing our Scanning SQUID Microscope in terms of its performances, the different non destructive techniques we can apply to perform the measurements, and the efforts we have done to improve its capability to detect weak magnetic field variations.
Two main applications are presented. On of this is based on the high magnetic field sensitivity of the SQUID sensor at low frequencies, and it consists to excite the sample with an alternating magnetic field (AC). This technique is applied to detect subsurface flaws in paramagnetic samples, for instance, in multilayer structures of aeronautical interest. The other field of application concerns the capability of the sensor to detect, with high spatial resolution, the direct magnetic field (DC) distribution on ferromagnetic samples, due to their residual magnetization. In this way, we can visualize magnetic domain structures of ferromagnetic particles. This capability is also exploited to evaluate the changing of magnetic field distribution in proximity of crack initialization on structural steels, subjected to fatigue cycles.


We analytically investigate the Wigner function (WF) and the optical tomography for the two-variable Hermite polynomial state (THPS) and the effect of decoherence on the THPS via the entangled-state representations. The nonclassicality of the THPS is investigated in terms of the partial negativity of the WF, which depends much on the polynomial orders m, n and the squeezing parameter r. We also extend recent theoretical studies of optical tomography and introduce the radon transformation between the Wigner operator and the projection operator of the entangled state |η,τ1,τ2〉 to derive the tomogram of the THPS. Furthermore, we investigate how the WF for the THPS evolves undergoing the thermal channel. The results show that quantum dissipation in the decoherence channel can thoroughly deteriorate the nonclassicality of the THPS, and thermal noise leads to much quicker decoherence than amplitude damping.


Zero defect single crystal silicon (Single-Crystal Si), with its diamond cubic crystal structure, is completely isotropic in most properties important for advanced aerospace systems. This paper will identify behavior of the three most dominant planes of the Single-Crystal Si cube (110), (100) and (111). For example, thermal and optical properties are completely isotropic for any given plane. The elastic and mechanical properties however are direction dependent. But we show through finite element analysis that in spite of this, near-isotropic behavior can be achieved with component designs that utilize the optimum elastic modulus in directions with the highest loads. Using glass frit bonding to assemble these planes is the only bonding agent that doesn't degrade the performance of Single-Crystal Si. The most significant anisotropic property of Single-Crystal Si is the Young's modulus of elasticity. Literature values vary substantially around a value of 145 GPa. The truth is that while the maximum modulus is 185 GPa, the most useful <110< crystallographic direction has a high 169 GPa, still higher than that of many materials such as aluminum and invar. And since Poisson's ratio in this direction is an extremely low 0.064, distortion in the plane normal to the load is insignificant. While the minimum modulus is 130 GPa, a calculated average value is close to the optimum at approximately 160 GPa. The minimum modulus is therefore almost irrelevant. The (111) plane, referred to as the natural cleave plane survives impact that would overload the (110) and/or (100) plane due to its superior density. While mechanical properties vary from plane to plane each plane is uniform and response is predictable. Understanding the Single-Crystal Si diamond cube provides a design and manufacture path for building lightweight Single-Crystal Si systems with near-isotropic response to loads. It is clear then that near-isotropic elastic behavior is achievable in Single-Crystal Si components and will provide subsecond thermal equilibrium and sub-micron creep.