The scarcity of water compared with the abundance of land constitutes the main drawback within agricultural production. Besides the improvement of irrigation techniques a task of primary importance is solving the problem of intra-seasonal irrigation scheduling under limited seasonal water supply. An efficient scheduling algorithm has to take into account the crops9 response to water stress at different stages throughout the growing season. Furthermore, for large-scale planning tools compact presentations of the relationship between irrigation practices and grain yield, such as crop water production functions, are often used which also rely on an optimal scheduling of the considered irrigation systems. In this study, two new optimization algorithms for single-crop intra-seasonal scheduling of deficit irrigation systems are introduced which are able to operate with general crop growth simulation models. First, a tailored evolutionary optimization technique (EA) searches for optimal schedules over a whole growing season within an open-loop optimization framework. Second, a neuro-dynamic programming technique (NDP) is used for determining optimal irrigation policy. In this paper, different management schemes are considered and crop-yield functions generated with both the EA and the NDP optimization algorithms compared.


Quantification of the spatial distribution of sector‐specific fossil fuel CO2 emissions provides strategic information to public and private decision makers on climate change mitigation options and can provide critical constraints to carbon budget studies being performed at the national to urban scales. This study analyzes the spatial distribution and spatial drivers of total and sectoral fossil fuel CO2 emissions at the state and county levels in the United States. The spatial patterns of absolute versus per capita fossil fuel CO2 emissions differ substantially and these differences are sector‐specific. Area‐based sources such as those in the residential and commercial sectors are driven by a combination of population and surface temperature with per capita emissions largest in the northern latitudes and continental interior. Emission sources associated with large individual manufacturing or electricity producing facilities are heterogeneously distributed in both absolute and per capita metrics. The relationship between surface temperature and sectoral emissions suggests that the increased electricity consumption due to space cooling requirements under a warmer climate may outweigh the savings generated by lessened space heating. Spatial cluster analysis of fossil fuel CO2 emissions confirms that counties with high (low) CO2 emissions tend to be clustered close to other counties with high (low) CO2 emissions and some of the spatial clustering extends to multistate spatial domains. This is particularly true for the residential and transportation sectors, suggesting that emissions mitigation policy might best be approached from the regional or multistate perspective. Our findings underscore the potential for geographically focused, sector‐specific emissions mitigation strategies and the importance of accurate spatial distribution of emitting sources when combined with atmospheric monitoring via aircraft, satellite and in situ measurements.


Background and Aims: High level of caries was reported in pre-school children at the national level. Due to importance of focusing on high-risk children, this study was carried out to evaluate an oral health promotion program designed for Ameneh orphan center. Materials and Methods: Two centers were chosen and assigned to intervention (Ameneh orphan center) and comparison (Shobeir orphan center). Dental examination has been carried out using dental mirror and blunt probe under artificial light and dmfs index was recorded. Health promotion program including topical fluoride application after dental treatment as well as power point education session for caregivers was delivered in intervention group. Children in the other center were only received routine dental treatment. Data were analyzed using Mann-Whitney and regression tests. Results: 79 children in the intervention group and 51 children in comparison group were evaluated in the study. The mean age of children in the intervention group was 4.7 (SD=1.6) and in the comparison group was 4.6 (SD=1.2). The dmfs index in the intervention and comparison groups was 6.86±10.23 and 8.75±12.42 (NS), respectively. The mean dmfs after intervention in the intervention group was 7.93±11.21 and in the control group was 9.88±12.51, which showed no significant difference (P>0.05). Comparison in subgroups showed that the mean dmfs in the group received fluoride varnish in addition to complete dental treatment was significantly less than the comparison group (P<0.05). Controlling the effect of baseline caries and age on the outcome variable with regression analysis showed that the effect of baseline caries should be considered when comparing two groups. Conclusion: Oral health promotion programs including topical fluoride application can be used in high-risk groups of children.


This study found that corporate blogging could be beneficial throughout the company and will remain a prominent competence for companies in the future. The long-form nature of blogs provides a unique opportunity for companies to discuss topics in-depth and to establish an online content hub, for which blogs are considered to be the critical backbone of a company's Social Media strategy. This provides an ideal communication platform for knowledge-intensive companies to discuss their expertise and gather thought leadership, while bypassing the traditional media.
Communicating through the new, social, media is becoming an increasingly important competence for companies, since customers are turning away from the traditional media and are seeking for a more personal and authentic approach. This radical change in the communication paradigm is a direct result of the developing internet, which can be defined as the defining technological revolution of our age. Right now, almost two billion people have Internet access and use the web to gather, create, revamp and distribute information around the world. The possibility for people to contribute to the web directly (a development dubbed 'Web 2.0') has opened up new channels, leading to an unimaginable wealth of knowledge. The internet empowers humanity by promising people an equal voice and potential. Hence, it poses a particular challenge to our notions of hierarchical power, ownership and creativity, which makes it increasingly meaningful for companies to enhance their understanding of Web 2.0 in order to optimally cope with the Web 2.0 environment.
This study examined the effect the blogosphere has on the organizational environment and the values a company could reap through a corporate blog. In order to carry out this study and answer the research question, the research approach of this study is mainly explorative. However, a literature study has been conducted in order to examine prevalent theories and to identify the relevant list of themes for further research. This list of themes served as a rationale for conducting the primary data collection. The data collection method that was applied during the empirical part of this research is semi-structured interviews. For these in-depth interviews, a nonprobability sample of 5 experts within this field of research was identified and selected. Due to the complexity of the research topic, these interviews were focused on getting an understanding of the predefined list of themes (deductive), but also to seek and identify new insights with regard to the research topic.
This study found that although the whole "hype" around corporate blogging has vanished, corporate blogging has an important function for companies in their Social Media strategy. The reason why the hype passed and some companies tend to ignore blogs and to prefer short-tools such as Facebook and Twitter, is directly related to the current unawareness of corporate blogging and its true potential for companies. Companies are expected to become increasingly aware of this true potential in the near future, which will lead to a higher adoption rate.
This study aims to contribute to this state of awareness. First of all, this study examines the different natures of blogs and how these natures enable certain business competences. The main finding here is that blogs are considered to be a sender-oriented publishing platform, allowing companies to become publisher and to spread a real-time message themselves. This is considered a very valuable communication practice, since it is a low-cost solution, has a very wide range and can be utilized without any interference of the traditional media. It is therefore considered to be particularly suitable for SMEs, who often have but a limited PR and marketing budget.
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Secondly, this study has founded a comprehensive corporate classification model, that classifies four different genres of corporate blogs based on two dimensions, namely: the corporate blogs' topic and the number of authors. In short, the four founded corporate blog genres are:
1. Employee blog. Internal or external blog, maintained by a single employee and focused on a company-driven topic.
2. Expert blog. External blog, maintained by a single employee and focused on a subject-driven topic.
3. Company blog. Internal or external blog, maintained by multiple employees and focused on a company-driven topic.
4. Topic blog. External blog, maintained by multiple employees and focused on a subject-driven topic.
Lastly, this study found that although the values of corporate blogging can be numerous, a company should not engage unprepared. Over the years, the absence of a clear plan of approach has been a pitfall for many. Corporate blogging is a long-form publication platform and should be applied with a long-term perspective. It therefore requires patience and commitment, in which a clear plan of approach would be very beneficial and supportive. This study found that the following aspects should be elaborated on in the company's blogging plan of approach:
1. The goal of the blog
2. The authors and the responsible of the blog
3. The value that the blog is going to add to the blogosphere/the topics to discuss
4. The metrics to determine the blogs´ ROI.
5. Blog policies and ethics.
6. The required competences and resources of the company, to be able to live up to this predefined plan of approach.
In conclusion, this research has found that the blogosphere still holds many untapped opportunities for companies, because companies are insufficiently aware of the true potential of corporate blogging and the ethics and resources needed to succeed. However, the long-form nature of blogs provides a value that, especially with regard to the future, is considered to be of great importance within a company's Social Media strategy. It is therefore to be expected that companies will pick up on this in the future and that corporate blogging will remain an important Social Media tool, or even grow in popularity, over the years. Based on these results, suggestions and recommendations for further research are outlined.


The market oriented economic reform direction has been officially affirmed since the VI Congress of the Vietnamese Communist Party (1986) with the approval of the economic reform plan towards doi moi. This direction was then legalized in the Constitution (1992) and further developed in official documents of Communist Party Congresses and legal documents of the Government of Vietnam . In the past years, to specify this political direction, the Government and people of Vietnam have made endless efforts to establish a new economic institution system called the socialist oriented market economy.


This thesis explores the use of computer vision to facilitate three different processes of a quarry's operation. The first is the blasting process. This is where operators determine where to drill in order to execute an efficient and safe blast. Having an operator manually determine the drilling angles and positions can lead to inefficient and dangerous blasts. By using two cameras, oriented vertically, and separated by a fixed baseline, Structure from Motion techniques can be used to create a scaled 3D model of a bench. This can then be analyzed to provide operators with borehole locations and drilling angles in relation to fixed reference targets. The second process explored is the crushing process, where the rocks pass through different crushers that reduce the rocks into smaller sizes. The crushed rocks are then dropped onto a moving conveyor belt. The maximum dimension of the rocks exiting the crushers should not exceed size thresholds that are specific to each crusher. This thesis presents a 2D vision system capable of estimating the size distribution of the rocks by attempting to segment the rocks in each image. The size distribution, based on the maximum dimension of each rock, is estimated by finding the maximum dimension in the image in pixels and converting that to inches. The third process of the quarry operations explored is where the final product is piled up to form stockpiles. For inventory purposes, operators often carry out a manual estimation of the size of a the stockpile. This thesis presents a vision system capable of providing a more accurate estimate for the size of the stockpile by using Structure from Motion techniques to create a 3D reconstruction. User interaction helps to find the points that are relevant to the stockpile in the resulting point cloud, which are then used to estimate the volume.


Petrocodon retroflexus Q. Zhang & J. Guo, a new species of Gesneriaceae from Guizhou, China, is described and illustrated. The new species is morphologically similar to Petrocodon viridescens W. H. Chen, Mich. Moller & Y. M. Shui, but differs by its leaf blade being ovate, broadly ovate to elliptic, 8–20 × 5–15 cm and densely pilose on both surfaces, narrowly triangular, 9 mm long, densely pilose bracts, white corolla that is decurved near the middle, with adaxial lip shallowly 4‐partitioned and retroflexed, and pistil ca 1.3 cm long and densely pilose and glandular‐pilose.


Up till now, no researches have been done on consumers' acceptability of new technical supporters of traceability, especially for traditional food products. Therefore, in the framework of the EU research project TRACE, we carried out focus group discussions, individual laddering interviews (with hierarchical value maps) and a choice-based conjoint experiment. Traceability is a fashionable word with different meanings whether it comes to producers or to consumers. The formers link it to technical aspects while the latter see in it a path for safe and good quality food products. How to intersect these two dimensions when advertising trend and consumer expectations are focusing on traditional food products? In France, consumers are familiar with the word traceability, however, they are not aware of the new supports of food traceability. They are still not ready for sophisticated systems and prefer the labeling ones. The more abstract the traceability support is, the more complex traceability seems to be perceived by them. Interestingly, we questioned consumers on traceability supports, they mainly responded on origin and label of origin as a simple way to track food products. This indicates that traditional origin labeled food products are considered as naturally tracked, while industrial products are perceived to come from a less identifiable source, and are better accepted with the guarantee of brand.


For the first time a remarkably exact match was achieved of the results from modelling of CW-pumped SC in a highly non-linear fibre with experiment (A.K. Abeeluck et al. Opt. Lett. 29, 2163-2165 (2004)) where a wide-band SC in the 1200-1780-nm range was reported. Our simulation results show that decay of CW pump radiation into a train of sub-picosecond pulses induced by the modulation instability leads to formation of optical solitons. Energy and carrier frequency of the solitons are random parameters because of quantum noise in the pump radiation. We found that a relatively smooth SC spectrum obtained by us from modelling and observed experimentally comes from averaging of a large number of soliton spectra and the spectrum of short-wavelength non-soliton radiation that is generated because of resonant pumping of energy from solitons.


The life sciences deal with a vast array of problems at different spatial, temporal, and organizational scales. The mathematics necessary to describe, model, and analyze these problems is similarly diverse, incorporating quantitative techniques that are rarely taught in standard undergraduate courses. This textbook provides an accessible introduction to these critical mathematical concepts, linking them to biological observation and theory while also presenting the computational tools needed to address problems not readily investigated using mathematics alone. Proven in the classroom and requiring only a background in high school math, Mathematics for the Life Sciences doesn't just focus on calculus as do most other textbooks on the subject. It covers deterministic methods and those that incorporate uncertainty, problems in discrete and continuous time, probability, graphing and data analysis, matrix modeling, difference equations, differential equations, and much more. The book uses MATLAB throughout, explaining how to use it, write code, and connect models to data in examples chosen from across the life sciences. * Provides undergraduate life science students with a succinct overview of major mathematical concepts that are essential for modern biology* Covers all the major quantitative concepts that national reports have identified as the ideal components of an entry-level course for life science students* Provides good background for the MCAT, which now includes data-based and statistical reasoning* Explicitly links data and math modeling* Includes end-of-chapter homework problems, end-of-unit student projects, and select answers to homework problems* Uses MATLAB throughout, and MATLAB m-files with an R supplement are available online* Prepares students to read with comprehension the growing quantitative literature across the life sciences* Forthcoming online answer key, solution guide, and illustration package (available to professors)


Teachers who do not integrate technology are often labelled as 'resistant' to change. Yet, considerable uncertainties remain about appropriate uses and actual value of technology in teaching and learning, which can make integration and change seem risky. The purpose of this article is to explore the nature of teachers' analytical and affective risk perceptions, and how these influence decisions to integrate technology in their teaching practice. These ideas are explored through an in-depth qualitative analysis of teacher interviews focusing on experiences with, and beliefs about, technology and teaching. Results suggest decisions to integrate technology in teaching are influenced by negative affective responses to technology, general risk-aversion in teaching, and the perceived value of technology in teaching. The risk analysis framework and findings presented in this paper can be used to support communication with teachers to minimise perceived risks and, where appropriate, help support future technology use.


As may be seen from a study of the scholarly literature, the contemporary success of the
notion of "risk-taking behavior" is largely due to use of the epidemiology paradigm for studying
human behavior. The paradigm gives primacy to prediction over understanding, and in general to
an individual-focused multifactor causality model. This in turn produces a proliferation of behaviors labelled "risky", raises methodological and discrimination problems, and makes it extremely difficult to bring scientific controversies to a close. From a sociological perspective, the
disadvantage of the epidemiological approach to studying risk-taking behaviors is that it
evacuates the social dimension of human behavior, especially since, in trying to resolve ongoing
controversies, epidemiology-paradigm studies tend to favor approaches that subject risk-taking
behavior to pharmacological or genetic determinism.


Information technology has transformed library and information services. Distinctive features of the electronic library include the shift towards self-service modes of delivery, with distributed access to networked resources, and a focus on the end user and tailored provision to meet particular client needs. Implicit in this model is a switch from print-based materials to new multimedia sources. The role of information specialists is changing from searcher/information provider to facilitator, adviser, or consultant in information management. User education trends reflect these developments with the integration of information skills instruction into the teaching/learning process associated with project work and specific assignments. The impact of the convergence of computing and telecommunications technologies extends beyond information systems and service strategies. New patterns of service require new styles of provision, necessitating new imperatives for staff development and training, as well as a review of organizational structures that may no longer be relevant. Management styles are changing alongside service developments, typically featuring flatter, more flexible structures; wider participation in policy-making and decision-taking; the use of task forces to review and develop services; devolved financial responsibility and improved planning and performance measurement. Total Quality Management is a philosophy ideally suited to the library of the future.


Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a growing clinical problem, which manifests itself particularly in obese subjects who may have the metabolic syndrome. A two-hit hypothesis for the pathogenesis of the disease has been proposed. The first hit is the devel- opment of insulin resistance leading to fat accumulation specifically in the liver. The second hit involves oxidative damage to the liver when intracellular triglyceride is metabolized by beta-oxidation in the mitochondria to produce harmful reactive oxygen species (ROS) and their hydroperoxide by-products. An in vitro model for NAFLD along with a method to detect the levels of oxidative stress would be useful for testing this hypothesis. Such a model would also allow investigation of the ability of antioxidants such as selenium to prevent oxidative damage. This study aimed to develop a method for assessing the levels of oxidative stress in cultured fat-loaded human hepatocytes (C3A cells) and hepatic stellate cells (LX-2 cells) using electron spin resonance with the spin trap 1-hydroxy- 2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-4-oxopiperidine (TEMPONE-H). Cells were fat-loaded with either LPON (lactate, pyruvate, octanoate and NH4 )o r oleate. Initial experiments showed that the culture media alone generated free radicals but this was minimal when Dulbecco's phosphate-buffered saline was used as the TEMPONE-H carrier. It proved difficult to detect the free radical production by cells cultured in the basal state; however, when marked oxidative stress was induced in the cells by adding tertiary butyl hydroperoxide (t-BuOOH), free radical production by cells could be identified. Pre-treating cells with selenium, to induce the synthesis of selenoenzymes with antioxidant action, protected cells from the harmful effects of t-BuOOH. This supported selenium's role as an antioxidant, which may have the potential to prevent the onset of non-alcoholic steato-hepatitis. The human vascular endothelial cell line EAhy926 also accumulates lipid as triglyceride when pre-treated with oleate but not with LPON. This suggests that the use of LPON rather than oleate may be a more appropriate model of NAFLD.


Depending on different load characteristics, various power quality disturbances such as sag-swell, harmonics, inter-harmonics, and flicker, appear in electric power systems. Among these power quality disturbances, the flicker is one of the critical power quality phenomenon due to the lack of source detection and disturbance responsibility sharing method. The measurement of the flicker level is defined in the IEC 61000-4-15 standard by a flicker meter. This meter deals only with voltage signals and is not sufficient to understand the contribution of the load and background power systems separately. Thus, this paper proposes new approaches to the evaluation of flicker characteristics using the real on-site measurements taken from two different iron and steel factories. The novelty of this paper is investigating the flicker characteristics in light of statistical methods, spectral and multi-resolution wavelet analysis, and the information theory based wavelet energy entropy analysis together, and proposing a new index to interpret the flicker responsibility of load and power system. This proposed index is called Flicker Contribution Ratio (FCR) and represents the percentage flicker disturbance responsibility of both load and power system. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.eie.24.2.20631


I analyze whether reducing geographic distance to high-wage jobs increases access to those employment opportunities. I collect office locations and campus recruiting strategies for over 70 prestigious banking and consulting firms, from 2000 to 2013. Using an event-study framework, I find firms are 2 times more likely to recruit at local universities after opening a nearby office, and 6 times more likely outside industry clusters. New target campuses outside industry clusters are less academically selective. The results suggest place-based policies may improve access to high-wage firms, and also suggest the importance of a university's local labor market for post-graduation outcomes.


A key issue in the fabrication of Terfenol-D 2-2 composites with internal magnetic field biasing is the selection of appropriate constituent materials to obtain high magnetostriction while keeping optimum magnetomechanical properties. The fabrication process is costly and time consuming and, therefore, numerical methods to predict their properties are useful. In this paper, finite element analysis (FEA) of the magnetostriction of such composites has been carried out using the commercial package ABAQUS. It has been shown that composites fabricated using Nd2Fe14B for the permanent magnetic material layers possess the highest internal fields within the Terfenol-D layers, although the overall strain of these composites is limited to approximately 800 times 10-6 due to the high elastic modulus of Nd2Fe14B. Simulations showed that the strain can be enhanced by choosing a different material with a lower elastic modulus for the permanent magnetic layer even though the internal field is lower. The simulations showed that the strain can increase by 12% if the Nd2Fe14B layer is substituted by SmCo5; by 23 % if it is substituted by Sm2Co17; and by 35 % if it is substituted by Alnico.


Following a workshop held in Paris in 2015, the purpose of this special issue is to start from the Sri Lankan case to study how Hinduism and Hindus define others and interact with them, and what these interactions reveal about Hinduism in general and about Sri Lankan Hinduism in particular, especially regarding religious, social, political and territorial issues. By addressing such relations to the Other from the Hindu point of view, the volume proposes more broadly to develop a critical conception of Hinduism, which considers this religion as a point of contact between various social and religious groups. Indeed, we argue that questioning the importance of these multiple realities of contact, whether they are recognized or denied, also helps renewing the debate about the delicate definition of Hinduism, articulated by both Hindus and scholars.


This study explores nonverbal behaviors in the form of gestures and touch during elite handball matches. Based on a coding scheme, 616 postshot periods following a goal, stemming from 18 matches, were analyzed. Results revealed that, on average, 2.77 nonverbal behaviors were displayed after scoring. Play-off matches resulted in a higher average of nonverbal behaviors than league matches. The more a team was leading by, the higher the overall number of nonverbal behaviors; meanwhile, the overall amount of nonverbal behaviors declined over the course of a match. The results pinpoint to the situation specificity of nonverbal behaviors during ongoing matches.


Non-employment income (NEI), including investment income from sources such as stock dividends and transfer income from government programs such as Social Security, represents as much as Forty percent of total income in U.S. counties yet receives considerably less attention than earnings. Prior studies have used varying combinations of NEI types and geographies such as rural counties and retirement income. This research study is the first to consider all NEI types and to analyze them strictly within America's major job and population centers: metropolitan counties. 99 metropolitan counties in the Upper Great Plains (Minnesota, Iowa, the Dakotas, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Nebraska) were studied during the Great Recession's beginning in 2007-2008 for patterns of NEI and its sub-types. Important economic, socio-demographic and health variables were analyzed via principal component analysis regression measures to evaluate potential effects on the distribution of NEI among counties. Key variables combined into a principal component indicating sub-optimal socio-economic conditions had statistically significant impacts on lowering a county's investment income while a component with conditions that track with diversity (e.g., percentage of non-whites and renters) had statistically significant impacts on increasing a county's investment income. Further research will improve our understanding of NEI's impacts and influences in its growth or decline.


This paper presents a divide‐and‐conquer approach towards obtaining solution structures of G protein‐coupled receptors. The human Y4 receptor was dissected into two to three transmembrane helix fragments, which were individually studied by solution NMR. We systematically compared various biosynthetic routes for the expression of the fragments in Escherichia coli and discuss purification strategies. In particular, we have compared the production of transmembrane (TM) fragments as inclusion bodies by using the ΔTrp leader sequence, with membrane‐directed expression by using Mistic as the fusion partner, and developed methods for enzymatic cleavage. In addition, direct expression of two‐TM fragments into inclusion bodies is a successful route in some cases. With the exception of TM13, we could produce all fragments in isotope‐labeled form in quantities sufficient for NMR studies. Almost complete backbone resonance assignment was obtained for the first two helices, as well as for helices 5 and 7, and a high degree was obtained for TM6, while conformational exchange processes resulted in the disappearance of many signals from TM4. In addition, complete assignments were obtained for all residues of the N‐terminal domain, as well as the extracellular and cytosolic loops (with the exception of an undecapeptide segment in the second extracellular loop, EC2) and for the complete cytosolic C‐terminal tail. In total, backbone resonances of 78 % of all residues were assigned for the Y4 receptor. Predictions of secondary structure based on backbone chemical shifts indicate that most residues from the TM regions adopt helical conformations, with exception of those around polar residues or prolines. However, the domain boundaries differ slightly from those predicted for homology models. We suggest that the obtained chemical shifts might be useful in assigning the full‐length receptor.


As the HIV/AIDS pandemic matures increasingly more women are infected than men. The heightened prevalence amongst women suggests that they are at particular risk of infection. Although the gendered dimensions of HIV/AIDS have been recognised, this is not fully understood and the tendency is to respond at a surface level only. This research provides a critique of the current response to HIV/AIDS in Malawi and a theoretically informed analysis of why women are vulnerable. It is argued that the response is limited because it fails to engage with the gendered dimensions; and that gendered structures of power underscore the vulnerability of women to infection. This research makes an important contribution to the feminist task of radically challenging the conventional boundaries of international relations, which typically draws upon a masculine form of knowledge. It also challenges the dominance of the scientific discourse that governs the way HIV/AIDS is conceived and makes an important contribution to the literature on understanding the gender context. A 'feminist interprevist' approach is employed and the methodology is a combination of a case study analysis, semi-structured key informant interviews, documentary analysis and data analysis. Feminist critical theory and post-structuralist understandings of how power operates through gendered structures provide the theoretical basis for the empirical analysis. The critique of the response to HIV/AIDS in Malawi reveals how it fails to engage with the gender power relations because of pervasive gendered structures. Three aspects of women's vulnerability to HIV infection are explored: the majority of women are not in the position to negotiate for safer sex; many women do not have the power to leave a marriage if it puts them at risk of infection; and the biological susceptibility of women to infection. It is argued that gendered structures underscore this vulnerability. The gendered structures are deeply embedded and hard to discern. However, where HIV/AIDS travels along the fault lines of society it reveals these deeper structures of power and provides the opportunity to challenge them. It reveals the importance of empowering women across their lives in order for a sustainable and effective response to HIV/AIDS.


Binding of ligand or antibody to certain cell-surface proteins that are anchored to the membrane by glycophosphatidylinositol (GPI) can cause activation of leukocytes. However, it is not known how these molecules, which lack intracellular domains, can transduce signals. The GPI-linked human molecules CD59, CD55, CD48, CD24, and CD14 as well as the mouse molecules Thy-1 and Ly-6 were found to associate with protein tyrosine kinases, key regulators of cell activation and signal transduction. A protein tyrosine kinase associated with the GPI-linked proteins CD59, CD55, and CD48 in human T cells, and with Thy-1 in mouse T cells was identified as p56lck, a protein tyrosine kinase related to Src. This interaction of GPI-linked molecules with protein tyrosine kinases suggests a potential mechanism of signal transduction in cells.


The essential question behind this thesis is: How can we respond to the pastoral needs of Christian Indians in Northdale/Raisethorpe, with regards to the HIV/AIDS pandemic, when there is this silence among those that are infected and affected and the lack of concern from the church? This topic desires to research the silence among the Christian Indians of Northdale/Raisethorpe to look into the possibility that it is a myth that HIV/AIDS is not a threat to the Christian Indians of Northdale/Raisethorpe. Certain aspects of this problem need to be investigated to prove the myth and to open an avenue for pastoral counselling and care. In this investigation I intend to revisit and open a new dialogue with the clergy to set up combined structures that will alleviate the suffering in the Northdale/Raisethorpe community in regards to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The interview collections and research findings support the hypothesis that it is a myth that HIV/AIDS is not a threat to Christian Indians of Northdale/Raisethorpe.


This paper presents an efficient method for collision design of prestressed concrete pontoon walls. High fidelity finite element models of a container ship bow and a prestressed concrete pontoon wall are first established. Integrated numerical simulations are conducted to study the structural deformation of the pontoon wall during the collision. Parametric studies are also carried out to investigate the effect of the pontoon wall thickness. Based on the failure mode of the pontoon wall, a punching shear check procedure is proposed. This method yields a good accuracy while significantly reduces computational efforts. Hence, the proposed approach can be used for collision analysis in the preliminary design phase of floating pontoons.


Abstract. This paper applies the methods of historical climatology to present a climate reconstruction for the area of the Burgundian Low Countries during the 15th century. The results are based on documentary evidence that has been handled very carefully, especially with regard to the distinction between contemporary and non-contemporary sources. Approximately 3000 written records derived from about 100 different sources were examined and converted into seasonal seven-degree indices for temperature and precipitation. For the Late Middle Ages only a few climate reconstructions exist. There are even fewer reconstructions which include spring and autumn temperature or any precipitation information at all. This paper therefore constitutes a useful contribution to the understanding of climate and weather conditions in the less well researched but highly interesting 15th century. The extremely cold winter temperatures during the 1430s and an extremely cold winter in 1407/1408 are striking. Moreover, no other year in this century was as hot and dry as 1473. At the beginning and the end of the 1480s and at the beginning of the 1490s summers were considerably wetter than average.


A negative shift in the calcium isotopic composition of marine carbonate rocks spanning the end-Permian extinction horizon in South China has been used to argue for an ocean acidification event coincident with mass extinction. This interpretation has proven controversial, both because the excursion has not been demonstrated across multiple, widely separated localities, and because modeling results of coupled carbon and calcium isotope records illustrate that calcium cycle imbalances alone cannot account for the full magnitude of the isotope excursion. Here, we further test potential controls on the Permian-Triassic calcium isotope record by measuring calcium isotope ratios from shallow-marine carbonate successions spanning the Permian-Triassic boundary in Turkey, Italy, and Oman. All measured sections display negative shifts in δ44/40Ca of up to 0.6‰. Consistency in the direction, magnitude, and timing of the calcium isotope excursion across these widely separated localities implies a primary and global δ44/40Ca signature. Based on the results of a coupled box model of the geological carbon and calcium cycles, we interpret the excursion to reflect a series of consequences arising from volcanic CO2 release, including a temporary decrease in seawater δ44/40Ca due to short-lived ocean acidification and a more protracted increase in calcium isotope fractionation associated with a shift toward more primary aragonite in the sediment and, potentially, subsequently elevated carbonate saturation states caused by the persistence of elevated CO2 delivery from volcanism. Locally, changing balances between aragonite and calcite production are sufficient to account for the calcium isotope excursions, but this effect alone does not explain the globally observed negative excursion in the δ13C values of carbonate sediments and organic matter as well. Only a carbon release event and related geochemical consequences are consistent both with calcium and carbon isotope data. The carbon release scenario can also account for oxygen isotope evidence for dramatic and protracted global warming as well as paleontological evidence for the preferential extinction of marine animals most susceptible to acidification, warming, and anoxia.


The co-evolution of galaxies and the intergalactic medium as a function of environment is studied using hydrodynamic simulations of the ACDM cosmogony. It is demonstrated with non-radiative calculations that, in the absence of non-gravitational mechanisms, dark matter haloes accrete a near-universal fraction (~ 0.9Ω(_b)/ Ω (_m))of baryons. The absence of a mass or redshift dependence of this fraction augurs well for parameter tests that use X-ray clusters as cosmological probes. Moreover, this result indicates that non- gravitational processes must efficiently regulate the formation of stars in dark matter haloes if the halo mass function is to be reconciled with the observed galaxy luminosity function. Simulations featuring stellar evolution and non-gravitational feedback mechanisms (photo-heating by the ultraviolet background, and thermal and kinetic supemovae feedback) are used to follow the evolution of star formation, and the thermo- and chemo- dynamical evolution of baryons. The observed star formation history of the Universe is reproduced, except at low redshift where it is overestimated by a factor of a few, possibly indicating the need for feedback from active galactic nuclei to quench cooling flows around massive galaxies. The simulations more accurately reproduce the observed abundance of galaxies with late-type morphologies than has been reported elsewhere. The unique initial conditions of these simulations, based on the Millennium Simulation, allow an unprecedented study of the role of large-scale environment to be conducted. The cosmic star formation rate density is found to vary by an order of magnitude across the extremes of environment expected in the local Universe. The mass fraction of baryons in the observationally elusive warm-hot intergalactic medium (WHIM), and the volume filling factor that this gas occupies, is also shown to vary by a factor of a few across such environments. This variation is attributed to differences in the halo mass functions of the environments. Finally, we compare the X-ray properties of haloes from the simulations with the predictions of the White and Frenk (1991) analytic galaxy formation model, and demonstrate that deviations from the analytic prediction arise from the assumptions i) that haloes retain their cosmic share of baryons, and ii) their gas follows an isothermal density profile. The simulations indicate that a significant fraction of gas is ejected from low mass haloes by galactic superwinds, leading to a significant increase in their cooling time profiles and an associated drop in their soft X-ray luminosities, relative to the analytic model. Simulated X-ray luminosities remain greater than present observational upper limits, but it is argued that the observations provide only weak constraints and may suffer from a systematic bias, such that the mass of the halo hosting a given galaxy is overestimated. This bias also follows from the assumption that haloes exhibit isothermal density profiles.


Two new reliability indices, ordinal coefficient alpha and ordinal coefficient theta, are introduced. A simulation study was conducted in order to compare the new ordinal reliability estimates to each other and to coefficient alpha with Likert data. Results indicate that ordinal coefficients alpha and theta are consistently suitable estimates of the theoretical reliability, regardless of the magnitude of the theoretical reliability, the number of scale points, and the skewness of the scale point distributions. In contrast, coefficient alpha is in general a negatively biased estimate of reliability. The use of ordinal coefficients alpha and theta as alternatives to coefficient alpha when estimating the reliability based on Likert response items are recommended. The choice between the two ordinal coefficients depends on whether one is assuming a factor analysis model (ordinal coefficient alpha) or a principal components analysis model (ordinal coefficient theta).


Title of Dissertation: A DISSIDENT BLUE BLOOD: REVEREND WILLIAM SLOANE COFFIN AND THE VIETNAM ANTIWAR MOVEMENT Benjamin Charles Krueger, Doctor of Philosophy, 2014 Dissertation Directed By: Professor Robert N. Gaines Department of Communication A long and bloody conflict, United States military action in Vietnam tore the fabric of American political and social life during the 1960s and 1970s. A wide coalition of activists opposed the war on political and religious grounds, arguing the American military campaign and the conscription of soldiers to be immoral. The Reverend William Sloane Coffin Jr., an ordained Presbyterian minister and chaplain at Yale University, emerged as a leader of religious antiwar activists. This project explores the evolution of Coffin's antiwar rhetoric between the years 1962 and 1973. I argue that Coffin relied on three modes of rhetoric to justify his opposition to the war. In the prophetic mode, which dominated Coffin's discourse in 1966, Coffin relied on the tradition of Hebraic prophecy to warn that the United States was straying from its values and that undesirable consequences would occur as a result. After seeing little change to the direction of U.S. foreign policy, Coffin shifted to an existential mode of rhetoric in early 1967. The existential mode urged draft-age men to not cooperate with the Federal Selective Service System, and to accept any consequences that occurred as a result. Federal prosecutors indicted Coffin and four other antiwar activists in January 1968 for conspiracy aid and abet draft resister in violation of the Selective Service Act. Chastened by his prosecution and subsequent conviction, Coffin adopted a reconciling mode of discourse that sought to reintegrate antiwar protesters into American society by advocating for amnesty. A DISSIDENT BLUE BLOOD: REVEREND WILLIAM SLOANE COFFIN AND THE VIETNAM ANTIWAR MOVEMENT


The Ca2+-permeable cation channel transient receptor potential melastatin 2 (TRPM2) plays a key role in pathogen-evoked phagocyte activation, postischemic neuronal apoptosis, and glucose-evoked insulin secretion, by linking these cellular responses to oxidative stress. TRPM2 channels are coactivated by binding of intracellular ADP ribose and Ca2+ to distinct cytosolically accessible sites on the channels. These ligands likely regulate the activation gate, conserved in the voltage-gated cation channel superfamily, that comprises a helix bundle formed by the intracellular ends of transmembrane helix six of each subunit. For several K+ and TRPM family channels, activation gate opening requires the presence of phosphatidylinositol-bisphosphate (PIP2) in the inner membrane leaflet. Most TRPM family channels inactivate upon prolonged stimulation in inside-out patches; this "rundown" is due to PIP2 depletion. TRPM2 currents also run down within minutes, but the molecular mechanism of this process is unknown. Here we report that high-affinity PIP2 binding regulates Ca2+ sensitivity of TRPM2 activation. Nevertheless, TRPM2 inactivation is not due to PIP2 depletion; rather, it is state dependent, sensitive to permeating ions, and can be completely prevented by mutations in the extracellular selectivity filter. Introduction of two negative charges plus a single-residue insertion, to mimic the filter sequence of TRPM5, results in TRPM2 channels that maintain unabated maximal activity for over 1 h, and display altered permeation properties but intact ADP ribose/Ca2+-dependent gating. Thus, upon prolonged stimulation, the TRPM2 selectivity filter undergoes a conformational change reminiscent of that accompanying C-type inactivation of voltage-gated K+ channels. The noninactivating TRPM2 variant will be invaluable for gating studies.


The foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) structural protein precursor, P1-2A, is cleaved by the virus-encoded 3C protease (3C(pro)) into the capsid proteins VP0, VP1 and VP3 (and 2A). In some systems, it is difficult to produce large amounts of these processed capsid proteins since 3C(pro) can be toxic for cells. The expression level of 3C(pro) activity has now been reduced relative to the P1-2A, and the effect on the yield of processed capsid proteins and their assembly into empty capsid particles within mammalian cells has been determined. Using a vaccinia-virus-based transient expression system, P1-2A (from serotypes O and A) and 3C(pro) were expressed from monocistronic cDNA cassettes as P1-2A-3C, or from dicistronic cassettes with the 3C(pro) expression dependent on a mutant FMDV internal ribosome entry site (IRES) (designated P1-2A-mIRES-3C). The effects of using a mutant 3C(pro) with reduced catalytic activity or using two different mutant IRES elements (the wt GNRA tetraloop sequence GCGA converted, in the cDNA, to GAGA or GTTA) were analysed. For both serotypes, the P1-2A-mIRES-3C construct containing the inefficient GTTA mutant IRES produced the highest amount of processed capsid proteins. These products self-assembled to form FMDV empty capsid particles, which have a related, but distinct, morphology (as determined by electron microscopy and reconstruction) from that determined previously by X-ray crystallography. The assembled empty capsids bind, in a divalent cation-dependent manner, to the RGD-dependent integrin αvβ6, a cellular receptor for FMDV, and are recognized appropriately in serotype-specific antigen ELISAs.


This two-part article explores two central themes – student motivation and critical thinking – as they relate to teaching law students how to write like lawyers. The article examines these two themes through the lens of a case study on a legal writing programme, the "Write it Like a Lawyer" (WiLL) programme implemented at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban in 2019. The design of the programme draws upon three distinct teaching principles – constructive alignment, learner participation and conversations in feedback. This article argues that by applying these principles when teaching legal writing, law students are motivated to engage critically with legal materials, thereby enabling them to produce persuasive, logical, coherent legal writing, containing well-substantiated arguments. The article is in two parts. Part 1 began by focusing on the theoretical underpinnings of the main themes of the article as well as the teaching principles applied in the WiLL programme. It then went on to describe the significance of the central themes to a legal writing programme such as WiLL. Part 2 of this article moves on to a discussion of the three teaching principles – constructive alignment, learner participation (including blended-learning techniques) and conversations in feedback – and the manner in which these principles were used to achieve the desired outcomes in the WiLL programme. Finally, the second part of the article evaluates the relative success of employing the three principles in order to further student motivation and critical thinking in the programme. The article concludes with recommendations for improvements that could be implemented in future such programmes.


Progressive heterotopic ossification leads to ankylosis of the major joints in patients who have fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva. Joint subluxation has not been recognized widely in patients with this disease. The clinical records and radiographs of 79 patients with fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva were reviewed and, it was found that humeral to chest wall synostosis and subluxation of the glenohumeral joint had occurred in 21% of skeletally immature patients and in 74% of skeletally mature patients. In fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva, synostosis of the humeral shaft to the chest wall commonly occurs by 7 years of age, well before the age of proximal physeal closure. The continued growth of the proximal humeral physis in the presence of a humeral to chest wall synostosis causes the humeral head to migrate superiorly, thus promoting growth related subluxation. The clinical significance of this finding for patients who have fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva is unknown, but this unique model will be useful in the study of shoulder biomechanics and growth plate physiology.


Palladium (Pd), due to its unique catalytic properties, is an industrially important heavy metal especially in the form of nanoparticles. It has a wide range of applications from automobile catalytic converters to the pharmaceutical production of morphine. Bacteria have been used to biologically produce Pd nanoparticles as a new environmentally friendly alternative to the currently used energy-intensive and toxic physicochemical methods. Heavy metals, including Pd, are toxic to bacterial cells and cause general and oxidative stress that hinders the use of bacteria to produce Pd nanoparticles efficiently. In this study, we show in detail the Pd stress-related effects on E. coli. Pd stress effects were measured as changes in the transcriptome through RNA-Seq after 10 min of exposure to 100 μM sodium tetrachloropalladate (II). We found that 709 out of 3,898 genes were differentially expressed, with 58% of them being up-regulated and 42% of them being down-regulated. Pd was found to induce several common heavy metal stress-related effects but interestingly, Pd causes unique effects too. Our data suggests that Pd disrupts the homeostasis of Fe, Zn, and Cu cellular pools. In addition, the expression of inorganic ion transporters in E. coli was found to be massively modulated due to Pd intoxication, with 17 out of 31 systems being affected. Moreover, the expression of several carbohydrate, amino acid, and nucleotide transport and metabolism genes was vastly changed. These results bring us one step closer to the generation of genetically engineered E. coli strains with enhanced capabilities for Pd nanoparticles synthesis.


Forest landscape models (FLMs) have increasingly become important tools for exploring forest landscape changes by predicting forest vegetation dynamics over large spatial scales. However, two challenges confronting FLMs have persisted: how to simulate fine, site-scale processes while making large-scale (landscape and regional) simulation feasible, and how to fully take advantage of extensive U.S. Forest Service Inventory and Analysis (FIA) data to initialize and constraint model parameters. In this dissertation, first, a new FLM, LANDIS PRO was developed. In LANDIS PRO, forest succession and dynamics are simulated by incorporating species-, stand-, and landscape-scale processes by tracking number of trees by species age cohort. Because stand-scale resource competition is achieved by implementing rather than simulating the emergent properties of stand development, LANDIS PRO is computationally efficient, which makes large-scale simulation feasible. Since model parameters and simulation results are comparatively straightforward to forest inventory data, current intensive forest inventory data can be directly applied for model initialization and to constrain model parameters. Validation of FLMs is essential to ensure users' confidence in model predictions and achieve reliable management decision making. To date, validation of FLMs has been limited due to lack of suitable data. However, recent advances in FLMs, together with increasingly available spatiotemporal data make FLM validation feasible. In this dissertation, second, I proposed a framework for validating forest landscape projections from LANDIS PRO using Forest Inventory Analysis (FIA) data. The proposed framework incorporated data assimilation techniques to constrain model parameters and the initial state of the landscape by verifying the initialized landscape and iteratively calibrating the model parameters. The model predictions were rigorously validated against independent FIA data at multiple scales, and the long-term natural successional pattern was also verified against empirical studies. Results showed model predictions were able to capture much of the variation overtime in species basal area and tree density at stand-, landtype, and landscape-scales. Subsequent long-term predictions of natural succession patterns were consistent with expected changes in tree species density of oakdominated forests in the absence of disturbance. Lastly, I used LANDIS PRO, a forest landscape model that includes stand-scale species density and basal area to evaluate the potential landscape-scale effects of alternative harvest methods (thinning, clearcutting and group selection) on oak decline mitigation. Projections indicated that forest harvesting can be effective in mitigating oak decline. The effectiveness of forest harvesting varied among the three harvest methods. Group selection and clearcutting were the most effective methods in the management of oak decline in the short-term (20 years) and mid-term (50 years), respectively. However, in the long-run (100 years), there was no significant difference predicted among the three methods.


The purpose of this paper is to present general algebraic methods for describing quantum networks. These methods are motivated by new imperatives of quantum network analysis and design, in particular, feedback control. The basic tools in our methodology are a matrix representation of open quantum systems, and the concatenation and series products of two such systems. We show how these methods can be used to efficiently model open quantum systems, or networks of such systems. We also explain how quantum feedback networks can be designed using these methods.


We have developed a quantitative assay to monitor the oxidative burst (H2O2 production) of polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNL) using single cell analysis by flow cytometry, and have examined whether PMNL respond to membrane stimulation with an all-or-none oxidative burst. During incubation with normal neutrophils, dichlorofluorescin diacetate diffused into the cells, was hydrolyzed to 2',7'-dichlorofluorescin (DCFH) and was thereby trapped within the cells. The intracellular DCFH, a nonfluorescent fluorescein analogue, was oxidized to highly fluorescent 2',7'-dichlorofluorescein (DCF) by PMNL stimulated by phorbol myristate acetate (PMA). That the oxidative product was DCF was shown by excitation/emission spectra and by mass spectrometry of the product from PMA-stimulated PMNL. Normal resting and PMA-stimulated PMNL oxidized 6.9 +/- 0.7 and 160 +/- 13 attomoles DCF per cell, respectively, in 15 min. Absence of calcium and magnesium ions and/or addition of 2 mM EDTA did not inhibit DCF formation by PMNL stimulated by 100 ng/ml PMA. Since EDTA prevented aggregation of PMNL (even when stimulated by 100 ng/ml PMA), which would prevent accurate flow cytometric analysis, further experiments were performed with EDTA in the medium. A close correlation between average DCFH oxidation and hexose monophosphate shunt stimulation was demonstrated using cells from patients whose PMNL had oxidative metabolic defects of varying severity. Intracellular DCFH was also oxidized by reagent H2O2 or oxygen derivatives generated by glucose oxidase + glucose or by xanthine oxidase + acetaldehyde; DCFH oxidation by these systems was inhibited by catalase but unchanged by superoxide dismutase. The data indicate that the DCFH oxidation assay is quantitatively related to the oxidative metabolic burst of PMNL, and they strongly suggest that the reaction is mediated by H2O2 generated by the PMNL. Incubation of PMNL with varying concentrations of PMA caused graded responses by all PMNL present; i.e., 1 ng/ml PMA caused a mean response of 34% maximal with a single population of responding PMNL (rather than 66% resting and 34% fully stimulated as predicted by the all-or-none hypothesis). Thus, with these assay conditions, oxidative product formation by PMNL occurs as a graded response to membrane stimulation by PMA.


Detrital zircon U–Pb geochronology is a rapidly expanding and useful technique for addressing the sedimentary rock record. However, because of difficulties in evaluating discordant analyses, common in most datasets, a high proportion of results may be discarded. These analyses, if interpreted correctly, can provide valuable information regarding the deformation, alteration or metamorphism of the zircon population, as these events are all capable of producing U–Pb discordance. A novel modelling procedure permits analysis of probabilistic relationships within U–Pb datasets to deconvolve the age information present within discordant analyses by assessing the relative likelihood of potential discordia lines. Additionally, because we retrieve useful information from discordant data, a stricter filter can be used to assess concordance, increasing confidence in those distributions. The validity of this modelling method is demonstrated using two previously published cases from the Caledonide orogen where clearly discordant analyses exist. In the Southern Uplands of Scotland, these analyses indicate resetting of the U–Pb systematics in metasedimentary rocks in the Grampian orogen prior to Ordovician erosion and redeposition. In the second case, from the Greenland Caledonides, discordant data provide additional constraints on previously proposed in situ resetting during Scandian deformation and fluid flow events. Supplementary material: The code used for writing the model, along with an instruction guide, is available at http://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.2182197.


Domain-specific modelling is increasingly adopted in the software development industry. While open source metamodels like Ecore have a wide impact, they still have some problems. The independent storage of nodes (classes) and edges (references) is currently only possible with complex, specific solutions. Furthermore the developed models are stored in the extensible markup language (XML) data format, which leads to problems with large models in terms of scaling. In this paper we describe an approach that solves the problem of independent classes and references in metamodels and we store the models in the JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) data format to support high scalability. First results of our tests show that the developed approach works and classes and references can be defined independently. In addition, our approach reduces the amount of characters per model by a factor of approximately two compared to Ecore. The entire project is made available as open source under the name MoDiGen. This paper focuses on the description of the metamodel definition in terms of scaling.


The probability distribution of daily precipitation intensities, especially the probability of extremes, impacts a wide range of applications. In most regions this distribution decays slowly with size at first, approximately as a power law with an exponent between 0 and −1, and then more sharply, for values larger than a characteristic cutoff scale. This cutoff is important because it limits the probability of extreme daily precipitation occurrences in current climate. There is a long history of representing daily precipitation using a gamma distribution—here we present theory for how daily precipitation distributions get their shape. Processes shaping daily precipitation distributions can be separated into nonprecipitating and precipitating regime effects, the former partially controlling how many times in a day it rains, and the latter set by single-storm accumulations. Using previously developed theory for precipitation accumulation distributions—which follow a sharper power-law range (exponent < −1) with a physically derived cutoff for large sizes—analytical expressions for daily precipitation distribution power-law exponent and cutoff are calculated as a function of key physical parameters. Precipitating and nonprecipitating regime processes both contribute to reducing the power-law range exponent for the daily precipitation distribution relative to the fundamental exponent set by accumulations. The daily precipitation distribution cutoff is set by the precipitating regime and scales with moisture availability, with important consequences for future distribution shifts under global warming. Similar results extend to different averaging periods, providing insight into how the precipitation intensity distribution evolves as a function of both underlying physical climate conditions and averaging time.


We demonstrate that the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method can be used to study the formation of laser-induced periodic surface structures (LIPSSs) under oblique incidence and arbitrary polarization states. The inhomogeneous energy absorption below a rough surface at oblique incident angle is studied by the FDTD method and compared to the analytical efficacy theory developed by Sipe et al. [Phys. Rev. B 27, 1141 (1983)10.1103/PhysRevB.27.1141]. The two approaches show excellent agreement. The surface topographies of both low-spatial-frequency LIPSSs (LSFLs) and high-spatial-frequency LIPSSs (HSFLs) at oblique incidence and various polarization states (linear, circular, radial, and azimuthal) are simulated by taking into account topography-driven interpulse feedback effects. For s- and mixed s- and p-polarized beams at large incident angles, the simulated LSFLs show orientations that are neither perpendicular nor parallel to the laser polarization. Their physical origin is explained by a nonzero angle between the in-plane wave vector of the incident light and the scattered light. By using circularly-polarized beams, the simulated surface topographies are further shown to be in excellent agreement with the triangular LSFLs and the fine-dot nanoscaled structures reported in the literature. In addition, the simulation of HSFLs suggests that their periods have almost no dependence on the incident angle nor the polarization angle, while their surface topographies resemble that of blazed gratings at large incident angles for p-polarized and mixed s- and p-polarized beams. The origin is explained by the appearance of asymmetry in the scattered near-field light. The extension to oblique incidence and arbitrary polarization states demonstrates that the FDTD approach on LIPSSs is a highly versatile and powerful technique which has the potential to be one of the foundations for a complete modeling and understanding of LIPSSs under various irradiation conditions.


The Borexino experiment, located in the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso in Italy and widely known for its rich Solar Neutrino physics program, has recently celebrated the 10 years of data taking. Among the achievements of the Borexino experiment solar program are: a precision measurement of 7Be neutrino flux with uncertainty of 3%, limit on its day/night asymmetry, first spectral measurement of pp-neutrinos, first evidence of monoenergetic pep neutrinos at 5 sigma, 8B neutrinos detection with the lowest visible energy threshold of 3 MeV, observation of season modulation of the 7Be solar neutrino rate at 3.8 sigma and the best current limit on CNO neutrino flux. Borexino is now in its high-purity Phase II data taking, thanks to intense purification campaigns of scintillator in 2010-11 that were very successful in further reducing the already low backgrounds. The advanced tecniques of data analysis were improved, allowing to maximize the signal/noise ratio. The detector was thermally insulated in order to improve the fluid stability. As an outcome, quality of the data has significantly increased leading to new levels of sensitivity to all solar neutrino fluxes. This allows a more sensitive probe for CNO neutrinos relevant to the solar metallicity problem.


About eighty percent of all physical forestry work is executed by contractors. The total number of formal contractors in South Africa is about 300 of which all must be selected to execute activities. This article offers a method for selecting contractors in an objective, transparent and participative way. The use of the Decision Analysis System (DAS), also referred to as decision-making by objectives, makes it possible that a large number of objectives can be taken into account to select the best amongst a wide range of alternatives, while still ensuring that rational decision-making takes place


This paper centres around two research questions: first, the identification of five types of networks that manufacturing firms located in the metropolitan region of Vienna may have created for different purposes and second, the question to what extent the likelihood of interfirm cooperation is conditioned by the general profile of manufacturing establishments and their technological resources. Although this paper focuses on the manufacturing sector, a special emphasis is placed on the electronics industry. The study utilises a recent postal survey providing data on size and organisation, products and markets, research and development, innovation and interfirm relationships. The analysis of the first question finds that first, networking does not yet seem to be a popular managerial and organisational concept for manufacturing firms located in the metropolitan region of Vienna; second, networking activities are primarily based on vertical relationships (customer, manufacturer supplier and producer service provider networks) rather than on horizontal linkages (producer networks, industry-university linkages); third, networks focusing on the later stages of the innovation process are less common than those focusing on the earlier stages; fourth, firms tend to rely on sources of technology from national and - especially - international networks. It appears that metropolitan networking is less common than has been thought. For technical advance spatial proximity does not seem to be very important. Turning to the second research question of the study, focusing on the adoption of the managerial and organisational concept of networking, the results are bolstering the argument that establishment traits and technology related-capabilities do play a role. The results achieved reveal, for example, that in-house research skills are a very good predictor for industry-university relationships.


With the aim at investigating the relationship between the anomalous decrease in Tc, the development of the Cu-spin correlation and the inhomogeneity of superconductivity at x ∼ 0.21 in the overdoped regime of La2-xSrxCuO4, we have performed the in-plane electrical-resistivity, ρab and magnetization measurements. Measurements of the temperature dependence of ρab in magnetic fields have revealed that the superconducting (SC) transition curve shifts to the low-temperature side almost in parallel with increasing field above ∼ 9 T at x ∼ 0.21, which is similar to that observed for stripe-ordered La-214 systems with the hole concentration of ∼ 1/8 per Cu. On the other hand, it has been found that the magnetization curve shows the so-called second peak in the SC state at x ∼ 0.21, which is due to the strong vortex pinning in normal-state regions in the nano-scale inhomogeneous SC state. Accordingly, it is likely that the stripe correlations are developed in the nano-scale inhomogeneous SC state at x ∼ 0.21.


Benjamin Harrison Willier is considered one of the most versatile embryologists to have ever practiced in the US. His research spanned most of the twentieth century, a time when the field of embryology [4] evolved from being a purely descriptive pursuit to one of experimental research, to that of incorporating molecular biology into the research lab. Willier was born on 2 November 1890 near Weston, Ohio to Mary Alice Ricard. He spent his childhood doing farming chores and running the farm while his father, David Willier worked as a banker. Willier graduated from high school with no immediate desire to attend college; his goal was to become a public school teacher. After a year of special study he was certified to teach. But this desire took a turn when his cousin and public school teacher, Alice Ricard, convinced him to attend a six-week summer session of the State Normal College of Miami University (Ohio). It was here that Willier was introduced to nature study and where he made his decision to pursue a scholarly life.


In an attempt to discriminate between organic matter sources and reconstruct further the paleoenvironment of the southwestern coastal plain of Taiwan, organic carbon and nitrogen content (C/N) ratios and isotope composition (δ13C and δ15N) are measured for sedimentary core samples collected from San-liao-wan, Zai-kang and Yihju in the southwestern coastal plain of Taiwan. Heavy δ13C values (up to -14.3‰) and high C/N ratios (average 9.3) with good correlation indicate that this area underwent a period of relative aridity from early Marine Isotopic Stage (MIS) 2 to the early MIS 1. In MIS 1, the δ13C and C/N ratio both vary initially before later steadying, indicating that the environment became progressively more stable, with C3 plants becoming dominant again. The Zai-kang core appears to have come from a shallow lagoon system that potentially preserved the record of δ15N from autochthonous primary producers. Regional organic source variation is revealed through the high δ15N values and constant C/N ratios in MIS 1 of the Zai-kang core. This may suggest that man- groves and macrophytes were the main aquatic organic matter source in the Zai-kang area during MIS 1.


Milk supply response was estimated for Pennsylvania using three different levels of structural aggregation. The base level involved the estimation of milk production in a single equation. Under the second method, production was the product of two equations: milk per cow and number of milk cows. The third method factored production into three equations: milk per cow, number of dairy farms, and number of cows per farm. As expected, the greater the degree of disaggregation the more was learned about the structural aspects of milk production. At the same time, predictive accuracy generally decreased, but the differences among models was slight.


Disturbance of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) proteostasis is a common feature of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Protein disulfide isomerases (PDIs) are ER foldases identified as possible ALS biomarkers, as well as neuroprotective factors. However, no functional studies have addressed their impact on the disease process. Here, we functionally characterized four ALS‐linked mutations recently identified in two major PDI genes, PDIA1 and PDIA3/ERp57. Phenotypic screening in zebrafish revealed that the expression of these PDI variants induce motor defects associated with a disruption of motoneuron connectivity. Similarly, the expression of mutant PDIs impaired dendritic outgrowth in motoneuron cell culture models. Cellular and biochemical studies identified distinct molecular defects underlying the pathogenicity of these PDI mutants. Finally, targeting ERp57 in the nervous system led to severe motor dysfunction in mice associated with a loss of neuromuscular synapses. This study identifies ER proteostasis imbalance as a risk factor for ALS, driving initial stages of the disease.


Contrary to previous understanding, recent evidence indicates that synonymous codon changes may sometimes face strong selection. However, it remains difficult to generalize the nature, strength, and mechanism(s) of such selection. Previously, we showed that synonymous variants of a key enzyme-coding gene (fae) of Methylobacterium extorquens AM1 decreased enzyme production and reduced fitness dramatically. We now show that during laboratory evolution, these variants rapidly regained fitness via parallel yet variant-specific, highly beneficial point mutations in the N-terminal region of fae. These mutations (including four synonymous mutations) had weak but consistently positive impacts on transcript levels, enzyme production, or enzyme activity. However, none of the proposed mechanisms (including internal ribosome pause sites or mRNA structure) predicted the fitness impact of evolved or additional, engineered point mutations. This study shows that synonymous mutations can be fixed through strong positive selection, but the mechanism for their benefit varies depending on the local sequence context.


Abstract This paper reviews the incentive structure of concession contracts in several Latin American transit reforms. It also presents a conceptual analysis of the optimal design of concession contracts. The conceptual discussion and case studies reviewed indicate that payment to operators should be linked to operational variables and that some demand risk should optimally be transferred to operators. Performance standards linked to fines and penalties are not sufficient to guarantee good quality of service, particularly in citywide reforms and where institutional capacity ― in terms of size, experience and expertise of staff ― is lacking and regulatory processes are slow, bureaucratic and cumbersome. This review may be useful for policy-makers designing transit reforms in other countries. The policy lessons of the paper are particularly relevant to cities in the developing world but they are also important for reforms in other countries.


American schools of education get little respect. They are portrayed as intellectual wastelands, as impractical and irrelevant, as the root cause of bad teaching and inadequate learning. In this book a sociologist and historian of education examines the historical developments and contemporary factors that have resulted in the unenviable status of ed schools, offering valuable insights into the problems of these beleaguered institutions. David F. Labaree explains how the poor reputation of the ed school has had important repercussions, shaping the quality of its programmes, its recruitment, and the public response to the knowledge it offers. He notes the special problems faced by ed schools as they prepare teachers and produce research and researchers. And he looks at the consequences of the ed school's attachment to educational progressivism. Throughout these discussions, Labaree maintains an ambivalent position about education schools, admiring their dedication and critiquing their mediocrity, their romantic rhetoric, and their compliant attitudes.


Operation and Maintenance (O&M) costs in buildings represent a significant part of the total building life cycle cost. However, project delivery methods in the Architectural, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry are often focused on the capital delivery stage and associated costs ranging from planning, through design, to construction and handover. Open data standards such as the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) and specifications such as the Construction Operations Building information exchange (COBie) provide the capability to capture Facilities Management (FM) data requirements in a structured manner from the early stages of project development. We aim to investigate how and whether IFC and COBie can deliver the data and information about assets required by facility managers within a whole life cycle perspective. We focus on specific use cases including the creation of asset registers and service life planning. However, the methodology adopted can be generalised and applied to any other FM use case. The results show that IFC, COBie and the tested supporting tools exhibited some shortcomings in delivering some of the data entities, types and parameters required for the selected FM use cases. We discuss these shortcomings and propose them as areas for improvement to domain researchers, standardisation bodies and technology providers. Finally, we instigate domain researchers to adopt the proposed methodology and conduct further FM use cases.


A family history of prostate cancer has been associated with prostate cancer risk in most prior studies, and more limited data suggest that a family history of breast cancer may also be important; however, there are no data from a population-based cohort study of prostate cancer incidence that adjusts for major confounders. We conducted follow-up through 1995 on 1557 men, ages 40-86 years, who were randomly selected (81% response rate) as cancer-free controls for a population-based case-control study conducted in Iowa from 1987-1989. Family history of cancer in parents and siblings was obtained using a mailed questionnaire. Incident cancers and deaths were ascertained through linkages to state and national databases; 101 incident cases of prostate cancer were identified. At baseline, 4.6% of the cohort reported a family history of prostate cancer in a brother or father, and this was positively associated with prostate cancer risk after adjustment for age [relative risk (RR) = 3.2; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.8-5.7] or after multivariate adjustment for age, alcohol, and dietary factors (RR = 3.7; 95% CI, 1.9-7.2). Risk was greater if a brother had prostate cancer (RR = 4.5; 95% CI, 2.1-9.7) than if a father had prostate cancer (RR = 2.3; 95% CI, 1.0-5.3). Also at baseline, 9.6% of the cohort had a family history of breast and/or ovarian cancer in a mother or sister, and this was positively associated with prostate cancer risk (age-adjusted RR = 1.7; 95% CI, 1.0-3.0; multivariate RR = 1.7; 95% CI, 0.9-3.2). Men with a family history of both prostate and breast/ovarian cancer were also at increased risk of prostate cancer (RR = 5.8; 95% CI, 2.4-14). There was no association with a family history of colon cancer. Exclusion of well-differentiated, localized tumors did not alter these findings. These data from an incidence study confirm that a family history of prostate cancer is a strong prostate cancer risk factor after adjustment for dietary and other risk factors, and suggest that selection and recall bias have not had an important influence on most case-control study results. These data also support the idea that a family history of breast cancer may also be a prostate cancer risk factor.


This discussion paper has the following objectives: 1) Review and discuss the Bank's programmatic approach to operations in solid waste management (and in other similar operations) and the impacts that approach has on environmental, social and health, and safety (ESHS) aspects. 2) Highlight and discuss the need to strengthen capacity in ESHS aspects of solid waste management among local agencies in light of the Bank's programmatic approach. 3) Summarize the current situation in the solid waste sector, as well as the ESHS aspects of solid waste management, and provide insights in the context of Argentina. 4) Provide recommendations to improve ESHS aspects in solid waste management.


Popular mainstream music (hereafter, rock) employs the basic set of chords built on the diatonic scale but also many others (de Clercq & Temperley, 2011; Stephenson, 2002). In an initial investigation of listeners' perception of rock harmony, we adapted a rating task developed by Krumhansl (1990) in her pioneering studies of the common-practice harmonic hierarchy. Participants provided surprise and liking ratings for 35 (major, minor, dominant 7, and control) target chords that followed short key-establishing musical passages (a major scale + tonic major triad, or a major pentatonic scale + tonic major triad) or white noise. Liking ratings for targets that followed a musical passage indicated that listeners prefer some chords that are common in rock, but that lie outside the basic diatonic set, to atypical chords; this effect depended on chord quality and was clearest for major target chords. The findings provide an impetus for further research exploring the harmonic hierarchy in listeners with varying musical backgrounds; it appears to be more inclusive and less differentiated than is commonly thought.


The volume of urban water used in Japan has been gradually declining in recent years because of the increase in water saving appliances and water saving behaviours. Changes in household water consumption characteristics affect the extent of the adverse effects caused when water supply restrictions are imposed. These changes must be reflected in reservoir operation plans in times of drought and when developing long-term water resource management plans or water conservation policies. The objective of this study is to quantify the adverse effects of drought associated with changes in consumption characteristics and utilize this in water resource management plans. We use a water consumption model that accounts for changes in household water consumption characteristics, and we apply this model to several droughts in different periods and cities in Japan. Results indicate that reductions in water consumption because of water supply restrictions tend to decrease over time. We concluded that imposing water supply restrictions during droughts has become less effective for maintaining reservoir storage. In designing water resource management plans, it is important to simultaneously evaluate changes in probability of supply-shortage events and the impact of water supply restrictions.


The paper reviews the use of the Hadoop platform in Structural Bioinformatics applications. Specifically, we review a number of implementations using Hadoop of high-throughput analyses, e.g. ligand-protein docking and structural alignment, and their scalability in comparison with other batch schedulers and MPI. We find that these deployments for the most part use known executables called from MapReduce rather than rewriting the algorithms. The scalability exhibits a variable behaviour in comparison with other batch schedulers, particularly as direct comparisons on the same platform are generally not available. We do note there is some evidence that MPI implementations scale better than Hadoop. A significant barrier to the use of the Hadoop ecosystem is the difficulty of the interface and configuration of a resource to use Hadoop. This will improve over time as interfaces to Hadoop e.g. Spark improve, usage of cloud platforms (e.g. Azure and AWS) increases and approaches such as the Workflow Definition Language are taken up.


The traditionally forbidding visage of law mimics the constructed face of the "God of our Fathers." The punitive 'Father God' and the harsh letter of the law are connected in both their errors and their promises for transformation. Both the 'Father' and 'His Law' primarily impose their wills through "authority" and "force."

Jewish feminist theologian Judith Plaskow questions whether the law is a female form. Plaskow contrasts the law's constrictions and abstraction with traditional femeie characteristics of openness and fluidity. Plaskow hopes to redeem her tradition through a God of relationship and love, affirming both law and a new feminine authority. Perhaps only such a law, with masculine and feminine in correct relation, can save law from falling victim to economic interest that seem more viable than a decrepit legal system. Such a supple law may let women practice law without giving up an essential thread of themselves. It may also free men to acknowledge their feminine sides, and to integrate this other aspect of themselves into their lives as lawyers.

The daughter or female imagines that law is available to all, especially those oppressed by masters. The daughter envisions law beyond the system of domination, law once again sacred, inviting rather than forbidding through spirit — blessed, belonging to us all, holy, whole. It calls for a lawfulness so intense that it dances outside the "law."


In this study, a new innovative fibro-granular composite was prepared as a natural acoustic material by combining fibrous and granular materials. Delany–Bazley model and Biot–Allard techniques were utilized to estimate the absorption coefficient of the developed composite material. The predicted values were validated through an analytical outcome employing Johnson–Champoux–Allard technique and an experimentally measured value which were conducted in an impedance tube. The outcomes showed the reflection of the good agreement between the analytical and experimental methods. The current research concluded that the introduction of granular materials provides significant contribution in enhancing the surface area within the composite, thereby achieving a promising acoustic absorption in the low-frequency region which is below 1 kHz. In addition, the current research also reports that, like Johnson–Champoux–Allard model, Delany–Bazley and Biot–Allard models are also two efficient analytical tools for predicting the significant low-frequency acoustic absorption performance of a fibro-granular composite.


Key Points Decisions on the next phase of strategic force reductions and how to achieve them will have to await the resolution of larger issues related to the future of the U.S. strategic force posture and national missile defense. Once the Bush administration completes its Nuclear Posture Review, however, it will need to decide whether to continue the Cold War-style strategic arms reduction process or explore alternatives for reducing nuclear threats to national security and transforming the U.S.-Russian strategic relationship. The traditional arms control process of negotiating legally binding treaties that both codify numerical parity and contain extensive verification measures has reached an impasse and outlived its utility. Moreover, new U.S. strategic priorities will require changes in the ends and means of arms control policy. The United States and Russia should embrace a radically new framework to achieve deeper reductions in strategic nuclear forces. The centerpiece of such a reform agenda should be arms control through unilateral and parallel unilateral measures. To jump-start this process, the administration should give top priority to repealing legislation that prohibits the Nation from unilaterally reducing strategic forces until START II enters into force. Unless the United States embraces a more flexible and innovative approach to strategic arms control, progress will be stymied in developing a nuclear weapons posture for the new security environment. ********** There has been a tectonic shift in the strategic landscape since the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) negotiations concluded in the early 1990s. The Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact are defunct. America and Russia are no longer enemies and the nuclear arms race between the two countries is, for all intents and purposes, over. The threat of a surprise nuclear attack has all but vanished along with any plausible scenario between the two countries that could escalate to a nuclear war. The strategic warning time for reconstitution of a credible conventional military threat to Europe can now be measured in years. The likelihood that Russia could marshal the economic resources for clandestine production of new nuclear weapon systems on a militarily significant scale is extremely remote. The most serious security threats emanating from Russia today--poorly safeguarded nuclear warheads and materials and the potential proliferation of such material and expertise to states of concern--reflect profound weakness. Simply put, the proliferation risks attendant to a Russia in the throes of a long-term structural crisis are a far more serious security threat than SS-18 heavy missiles destroying U.S. intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) in a preemptive first strike. Consideration of future nuclear arms control options must also take into account long-term trends in Russian strategic force levels. With or without arms control agreements with the United States, Russia will not command the necessary resources over the next 10-15 years to sustain the number of deployed warheads (1,500) it proposed for START III. Moreover, economic constraints, combined with growing obsolescence, will also lead to a steep decline in its nonstrategic nuclear weapons. Russian production of strategic weapon systems has fallen dramatically over the last decade. Moscow currently produces a negligible number of ICBMs per year and will not be able to produce these systems fast enough to offset the growing obsolescence of its ICBM forces. Further, infrastructure and resources are lacking to sustain these decaying missile systems indefinitely or to support significant increases in force structure. The other two legs of the Russian strategic triad are in even worse shape. Since 1990, the last year that Russia produced any new ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs), the number of SSBNs has dropped precipitously and will decline even further as older submarines are retired. …


The 2005 bankruptcy legislation makes a number of changes in the treatment of collateral in individuals' bankruptcies in chapters 7 and 13. In a case study of what can go wrong when an interest group (here the credit industry) blocks an expert drafting process, this article takes a close look at the actual statutory language in two areas and in both finds some good remaining arguments for debtors, despite certain creditors' best-laid plans. Specifically, when it comes to valuation of collateral, the 2005 Act leaves room for the argument that chapter 13 cramdown to wholesale value is appropriate for recently acquired cars and other collateral. On the question of ride-through of collateral in chapter 7 (meaning the debtor continues to pay the debt, without redeeming or reaffirming), the 2005 legislation strengthens the case for ride-through of cars and other personal property by creditor acquiescence and, as to homes, arguably adopts the majority approach of the circuits in favor of court-protected ride-through. In both of the areas examined, as on other matters, the 2005 Act increases the complexity and lack of clarity of bankruptcy law. When Congress again gets around to reforming bankruptcy law, the lesson of the 2005 Act should be that simplification is key to achieving policy goals predictably.


As increased access to employment and educational opportunities brought dramatic changes to women's lives, sociologists began to look at the effect of women's changing roles on their children and families. Based on empirical investigations and personal experience, the studies included here set out to establish patterns and regularities in social behaviour, and to understand the social roles of kinship groups, mothers, wives, children and the elderly. This set contains classic works by Parsons and Myrdal.


This Article re-examines the fairness opinion, as well as its role and necessity in corporate control transactions. This Article argues that today's fairness opinion regime is deeply flawed and, as a consequence, a fairness opinion has little meaning. The reasons are primarily this: the financial analyses underlying fairness opinions, as currently prepared by investment banks, are prone to excessive subjectivity and are frequently the product of valuation techniques that are not in accord with best practices. These defects are exacerbated by the recurring problem of these same investment banks who are conflicted in their provision of these opinions. Meanwhile, SEC and FINRA regulation of fairness opinions does not adequately address these fundamental issues while the Delaware courts continue to periodically reassert, without question, Smith v. Van Gorkom's implicit fairness opinion requirement, thereby bestowing excessive significance to the fairness opinion. This Article, though, does not call for the fairness opinion's death. Rather, I argue that the fairness opinion regime should be reformed through a quasi-public, standard-setting body. Creation of this body and its adoption of standards and guidelines for preparation of a fairness opinion and its undergirding financial analyses, as well as heightened disclosure requirements, should enhance the economics and usefulness of the fairness opinion by reducing subjectivity in valuation, ensuring proper grounding and permitting increased market scrutiny. Implementation of these reforms would also do more to alleviate the related and repeatedly cited problem of investment bank conflicts of interest than prior disclosure-based and other proposals. If these reforms are adopted, the fairness opinion, in and of itself, is still not a panacea. It will always be an inferior substitute for a market-based approach to determine the fairness of the consideration in a corporate control transaction. However, a valuation conducted with rigor and in accordance with disclosed standards and guidelines can inform materially as to value when a market-based price is unavailable or unobtainable. In such a context, a fairness opinion can have meaning. Even in such situations, though, the inherent limitations of state-of-the-art valuation should be recognized; a fairness opinion should only be one of many tools to assist a board in gauging what is a fair price. The Delaware courts should recognize this, repudiating Van Gorkom's wholesale, implicit fairness opinion requirement when the agreed price is a market-based one. In other circumstances, a fairness opinion should not be required, but if received, should be considered by the Delaware courts as only one indicative factor to be utilized in assessing a board's satisfaction of its duty of care.


Multimedia data with associated semantics is omnipresent in today's social online platforms in the form of keywords, user comments, and so forth. This article presents a statistical framework designed to infer knowledge in the imaging domain from the semantic domain. Note that this is the reverse direction of common computer vision applications. The framework relates keywords to image characteristics using a statistical significance test. It scales to millions of images and hundreds of thousands of keywords. We demonstrate the usefulness of the statistical framework with three color imaging applications: 1) semantic image enhancement: re-render an image in order to adapt it to its semantic context; 2) color naming: find the color triplet for a given color name; and 3) color palettes: find a palette of colors that best represents a given arbitrary semantic context and that satisfies established harmony constraints.


We re-evaluate the abundances of the elements in the Sun from copper (Z = 29) to thorium (Z = 90). Our results are mostly based on neutral and singly-ionised lines in the solar spectrum. We use the latest 3D hydrodynamic solar model atmosphere, and in a few cases also correct for departures from local thermodynamic equilibrium (NLTE). In order to minimise statistical and systematic uncertainties, we make stringent line selections, employ the highest-quality observational data and carefully assess oscillator strengths, hyperfine constants and isotopic separations available in the literature, for every line included in our analysis. Our results are typically in good agreement with the abundances in the most pristine meteorites, but there are some interesting exceptions. This analysis constitutes both a full exposition and a slight update of the relevant parts of the preliminary results we presented in Asplund, Grevesse, Sauval & Scott (2009), including full line lists and details of all input data that we have employed.