This study aimed to compare the personality traits and attribution styles of runaway and normal girls. This is a comparative causal study. The population of the study involve 30 cases of runaway girls residing in the crisis intervention center of Nawab, affiliated to State Welfare of Tehran at autumn of 2015, they and were selected based on convenience. Normal girls who were matched counterpart for runaway girls are selected by clustering sampling and then systematic sampling from first and high school first and second degree. To assess personality traits, a NEOFFI.60 Personality Inventory short form was used and for attribution styles, Seligman and Peterson ASQ attribution style questionnaire was used. In order to analyze the data, we applied multivariate and univariate statistical variance analysis. The results of the study showed that there is difference between personality traits and attribution styles of runaway girls and normal girls that means in comparison to normal girls, runaway girls significantly suffer from a higher state of neurosis. Moreover, runaway girls tend to apply more pessimistic attribution styles in dealing with life events, in comparison with their normal counterpart girls, which means runaway girls attribute pleasant life events to external, unstable and specific factors, and attribute unpleasant life events to internal, stable and general. These indicate a cynical attribution styles. Therefore, understanding the personality and behavioral traits, as well as recognizing the type of adopted attribution style of runaway girls and normal girls in face of life events, is an effective step to prevent them from running away by identifying and screening individual girls at risk and providing treatment and adopting appropriate attribution style for these individuals.


The automotive industry is faced with an increasing severe competition. Time is an important factor at the footrace of product and process innovations. Efficient production strategies are helpful tools to react flexibly to future developments and tendencies. Proactive control with foresighted and target-oriented action can help to face up to these challenges. The sooner future developments are identified, the faster one can respond to them. Simulation-based Early Warning Systems provide opportunities to control and analyze complex systems like material flow systems by forecasting future system states. This article presents design aspects and functionalities of Simulation-based Early Warning Systems. The definition of SEWS will be discussed as well as the architecture, requirements for the design of SEWS, the consideration of simulator independency and applications.


We present the properties of magnetic fields (B fields) in two clumps (clump 1 and clump 2), located at the waist of the bipolar H ii region Sh 2-201, based on James Clerk Maxwell Telescope SCUBA-2/POL-2 observations of 850 μm polarized dust emission. We find that B fields in the direction of the clumps are bent and compressed, showing bow-like morphologies, which we attribute to the feedback effect of the H ii region on the surface of the clumps. Using the modified Davis–Chandrasekhar–Fermi method, we estimate B-field strengths of 266 and 65 μG for clump 1 and clump 2, respectively. From virial analyses and critical mass ratio estimates, we argue that clump 1 is gravitationally bound and could be undergoing collapse, whereas clump 2 is unbound and stable. We hypothesize that the interplay of the thermal pressure imparted by the H ii region, the B-field morphologies, and the various internal pressures of the clumps (such as magnetic, turbulent, and gas thermal pressures) has the following consequences: (a) formation of clumps at the waist of the H ii region; (b) progressive compression and enhancement of the B fields in the clumps; (c) stronger B fields that will shield the clumps from erosion by the H ii region and cause pressure equilibrium between the clumps and the H ii region, thereby allowing expanding ionization fronts to blow away from the filament ridge, forming bipolar H ii regions; and (d) stronger B fields and turbulence that will be able to stabilize the clumps. A study of a larger sample of bipolar H ii regions would help to determine whether our hypotheses are widely applicable.


SNOPT is a general-purpose system for solving optimization problems involving many variables and constraints. It minimizes a linear or nonlinear function subject to bounds on the variables and sparse linear or nonlinear constraints. It is suitable for large-scale linear and quadratic programming and for linearly constrained optimization, as well as for general nonlinear programs. SNOPT finds solutions that are locally optimal, and ideally any nonlinear functions should be smooth and users should provide gradients. It is often more widely useful. For example, local optima are often global solutions, and discontinuities in the function gradients can often be tolerated if they are not too close to an optimum. Unknown gradients are estimated by finite differences. SNOPT uses a sequential quadratic programming (SQP) algorithm that obtains search directions from a sequence of quadratic programming subproblems. Each QP subproblem minimizes a quadratic model of a certain Lagrangian function subject to a linearization of the constraints. An augmented Lagrangian merit function is reduced along each search direction to ensure convergence from any starting point. SNOPT is most efficient if only some of the variables enter nonlinearly, or if the number of active constraints (including simple bounds) is nearly as large as the number of variables. SNOPT requires relatively few evaluations of the problem functions. Hence it is especially effective if the objective or constraint functions (and their gradients) are expensive to evaluate. The source code for SNOPT is suitable for any machine with a Fortran compiler. SNOPT may be called from a driver program (typically in Fortran, C or MATLAB). SNOPT can also be used as a stand-alone package, reading data in the MPS format used by commercial mathematical programming systems.


Two organizations emerged in 1969 that successfully brought together a wide variety of public and private entities and government agencies with the goal of reversing the decline of the salmon resource in Humboldt Bay. These organizations (the City of Arcata and the Humboldt Fish Action Council) have used ideas and expertise from Humboldt State University and College of the Redwoods, with the guidance and funding from the California Department of Fish and Game to develop three trapping stations, two hatcheries and three rearing pond facilities for the specific purpose of restoring the Humboldt Bay salmon populations. These efforts are showing success in that the percentage of adults returning to the streams of their release is now approximately the same as several state hatcheries on other rivers in the region. Run sizes have also increased.


This article reinterprets the post-Suez British role in the Middle East through a comparison of the military interventions in Jordan in 1958 and Kuwait in 1961. Moreover, it places these operations in the broader context of the debate about British decline. It is argued that in addition to the familiar constraints on British action imposed by limited resources and the changing international climate, the projection of power in the region proved to be a great test of nerve for British ministers and officials. Paradoxically, this proved to be true as much of the successful interventions in Jordan and Kuwait as of the earlier failure over Suez. Utilizing very recently released documents from British and American archives, the article aims to shed light on the dynamics of decline at the microcosmic level, in the belief that insights gleaned here may well be of value in revising macrocosmic theories of the process.


The cavity resonant properties of planar metal-dielectric layered structures with optically dense dielectric media are studied with the aim of realizing omnidirectional and polarization-insensitive operation. The angle-dependent coupling between free-space and cavity modes are revealed to be a key leverage factor in realizing nearly perfect absorbers well-matched to a wide range of incidence angles. We establish comprehensive analyses of the relationship between the structural and optical properties by means of theoretical modeling with numerical simulation results. The presented work is expected to provide a simple and cost-effective solution for light absorption and detection applications that exploit planar metal-dielectric optical devices.


Atmosphere-ocean interactions play an important role for understanding processes and feedbacks in the Southern Ocean (SO) and are relevant for changes in Antarctic ice-sheets and atmospheric CO2 concentrations. The most important atmospheric forcing at high and mid-latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere is the westerly wind belt (SWW), which strongly affects the strength and extension of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC), upwelling of deep-water masses, and controls the back-flow of intermediate waters to the tropics. In order to address orbital and millennial-scale changes of the SWW and the ACC, we present sediment proxy records from the Pacific SO including the Chilean Margin and the Drake Passage.
The Drake Passage (DP) represents the most important oceanic gateway along the ACC. Based on grain-size and geochemical properties of sediment records from the southernmost continental margin of South America, we reconstruct changes in DP throughflow dynamics over the past 65,000 years. In combination with published sediment records from the Scotia Sea and preliminary sediment records from the central Drake Passage (Polarstern cruise PS97, 2016), we argue for a considerable total reduction of DP transport and reveal an up to ~40% decrease in flow speed along the northernmost ACC pathway entering the DP during glacial times. Superimposed on this long-term decrease are high-amplitude millennial-scale variations, which parallel Southern Ocean and Antarctic temperature patterns. The glacial intervals of strong weakening of the ACC entering the DP imply a reduced Pacific-Atlantic exchange via the DP ("cold-water route").
The reduced Drake Passage glacial throughflow was accompanied by a pronounced northward extension of the Antarctic cold-water sphere in the Southeast Pacific sector and stronger export of northern ACC water into the South Pacific gyre. These oceanographic changes are consistent with reduced SWW within the modern maximum wind strength zone over the subantarctic ACC and reduced wind forcing due to extended sea-ice further south. Despite this reduction in winds in the core of the westerlies, we observe 3-fold higher dust deposition during glacial periods in
Past Antarctic Ice Sheet Dynamics (PAIS) Conference September 10-15th 2017, Trieste - Italy
the Pacific Southern Ocean (SO). This observation may be explained by a combination of factors including more expanded arid dust source areas in Australia and a northward extent or enhancement of the SWW over Southeast Australia during glacials that would plausibly increase the dust uptake and export into the Pacific SO. Such scenario would imply stronger SWW at the present northernmost margin of the wind belt coeval with weaker core westerlies in the south and reduced ACC strength, including Drake Passage throughflow during glacials.
We conclude that changes in DP throughflow play a critical role for the global meridional overturning circulation and interbasin exchange in the Southern Ocean, most likely regulated by variations in the westerly wind field and changes in Antarctic sea-ice extent.
Keywords: Pelagic Southern Ocean, Antarctic Circumpolar Current, Southern Westerlies, Teleconnections.


We empirically assess the determinants of India's FDI outflows across a large sample of host countries in the 1996-2009 period. Based on gravity model specifications, we employ Poisson pseudo maximum likelihood (PPML) estimators. Major findings include: India's outward FDI is hardly affected by motives to access raw materials or superior technologies. Market-related factors appear to have dominated the location choices of Indian direct investors. A larger Indian diaspora in the host countries attracts more FDI. Finally, it seems that Indian direct investors are relatively resilient to weak institutions and economic instability in the host countries. However, we do not find robust evidence that India provides an alternative source of FDI for countries that traditional investors tend to avoid.


Building on a crossdisciplinary interest in how religion works materially, we examine the triangulated relationship between Korean shamans (mansin), the paintings of gods that hang in their shrines, and the animating presences that empower both mansin and paintings, drawing inspiration from Alfred Gell's notion of "object agency." The gods who inspire a mansin to manifest them in ritual and who animate the paintings in her shrine perform inspiration (of the shaman) and animation (of the paintings) in analogous and complementary ways through relationships that are variable, contingent, and often ambiguous. By contrast, the Buddha images that also inhabit the mansin's shrine are a different kind of animated thing. Our study argues for more fine-grained discussions of numinous paraphernalia and the ways that the efficacy of sacred objects and bodies is realized (or not). We also offer a caution against the presumptions of generalizing terminologies such as "animated images" where different images might be qualitatively different kinds of animated thing, even within the same lived religious world.


Populations of many vulture species have undergone substantial declines. In Africa, 82% are threatened and although research on vultures has increased, the biology and ecology of several species is still poorly known. The Palm-nut Vulture Gypohierax angolensis has peculiar ecological characteristics, feeding on palm fruits, associated with the aquatic environment and taking a wide variety of prey. It has been over 40 years since the last thorough study on the ecology of the species was undertaken. This study investigated several ecological and behavioural aspects of Palm-nut Vultures, using a combination of direct observations, stable isotope analysis and Bayesian mixing models. The population of this species within the João Vieira and Poilão Marine National Park is estimated to be 21–30 birds km−2. Egg laying started in November (early dry season) and some chicks were still growing in early May. A minimum of 54% of nests produced a fledgling. Observations suggest that Palm-nut Vultures moult all flight feathers annually, between January and November. Their foraging behaviour is described and cafeteria trials showed their preference for fish over oil palm fruits. However, it is estimated that oil palm fruits account for almost 50% of the assimilated diet, followed by fish, crabs and Green Turtle hatchlings or eggs, as revealed by stable isotopes and Bayesian mixing models.


Four new [C6F5Xe]+ salts, namely [C6F5Xe][B(CN)4], [C6F5Xe][B(CF3)4], [C6F5Xe][B(OTeF5)4], and [C6F5Xe][B(C6F5)4] were prepared by metathesis reactions of [C6F5Xe][BF4] and the corresponding salts, M[BY4] (Y = CN, CF3, OTeF5, and C6F5; M = K, Cs), in CH3CN at ambient temperature and isolated as pale yellow solids. Complete characterizations were accomplished in solution (NMR) and in the solid state (Raman and crystallography). The vibrational assignments for [C6F5Xe]+, [C6F5Xe•NCCH3]+, C6F5I, CH3CN were made with the assistance of quantum mechanical calculations carried out at the HF and DFT ((SDB-)cc-pVTZ) levels of theory.
The thermal stability of all salts were examined in the solid state by Thermo-analytical DSC measurements and in CH3CN and, if possible, in CH2Cl2 solution by NMR spectroscopy. The parameters influencing the decomposition are shown and a mechanism is proposed.
The ability of [C6F5Xe]+ salts to arylate aromatics was examined in detail on fluorobenzene. The parameters influencing the rate of reaction and the product distribution are shown and a mechanism is proposed.
With access to CH2Cl2 soluble [C6F5Xe]+ salts, the rate of formation of C6F5XeF was fastened from 2 d to 1 h in comparable quality.
The preparation of the unique organoxenon(IV) compound, [C6F5XeF2][BF4], was analyzed and the parameters influencing the synthesis were optimized. The salt was isolated as ochre yellow solid and fully characterized in solution and the solid state (NMR, Raman und X-Ray). The vibrational assignments for [C6F5XeF2]+, [C6F5XeF2∙NCCH3]+, [C6F5XeF2∙(NCCH3)2]+ and C6F5IF2 were made with the assistance of quantum mechanical calculations carried out at the HF and DFT ((SDB-)cc-pVTZ) levels of theory. It was able to prepare a second example of an organoxenon(IV) compound, [C6F5XeF2][B(CF3)4], whose instability in CH3CN solution prohibited it isolation as pure solid.
The decomposition pathways of [C6F5XeF2]+ were analyzed and the factors that influenced the decomposition were studied.
The evaluation of the oxidation strength of [C6F5XeF2]+ was investigated in systematic studies with Pn(C6F5)3 compounds (Pn = P, As, Bi) and C6F5Hal (Hal = Br, I) in CH3CN and aHF solution. The formation of (C6F5)3PnF2 (Pn = P, As und Bi) and C6F5IF2, respectively, was obtained.


While most research on website has focused on functional tasks, the Internet offers many leisure as well as experiential opportunities. Because of the evolution of the society towards an experience economy, analyzing the role of technologies in experiential contexts makes sense. User experience (UX) refers to research that "goes beyond the purely cognitive and task-oriented perspective" that is generally assumed when studying information systems (Hassenzahl and Tractinsky 2006, p. 92). This research aims at identifying the variables that play a role and influence online behaviors in a specific experiential environment, namely museum website. In fact, museums are among the most valued cultural institutions in the world and their attendance has been growing since the end of the 80's. Museum attendance generates the highest participation rates, just after cinema, reading and sports (Schuster 2007). In order to assess website design, we rely on the conceptualization of usability developed by Agarwal and Venkatesh (2002) and adapted from Microsoft Usability Guidelines. However, our conceptualization of website usability for museums takes the position that aesthetics is missing from MUG scales. Relying on the literature on experience, we propose a research model that was tested by means of a free simulation experiment (Fromkin and Streufert 1976). Two museum websites were selected for the free simulations: the website of the Quai Branly Museum (France), and the other interface was the Atlanta History Center (USA). The sample of this study consisted of 230 college students from two different countries. The results of the free simulation experiments indicate that 1) aesthetics is the most important design criteria for experiential interfaces and 2) that website design influences intentions to visit a physical place. Subjective norms and facilitating conditions appear to be two additional predictors of intentions to visit the museum. But national culture plays a minor role in our research model.


The Antarctic digital topographic database is the outcome of a truly international collaborative project between 11 nations. Data capture was co-ordinated in the UK, under the auspices of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR), during a two-year period. Over 200 maps, at scales ranging from 1:200 000 to 15 000 000, were digitized for the project and reference was made to a similar number of satellite images (mostly Landsat photographic products). Editing and harmonization of the data derived from the different sources has produced a seamless map of Antarctica which has the most up-to-date coastline now available. The topographic database created, to be published on one CD-ROM, will form the foundation for future GIS needs in Antarctic research. Products already derived from the database include digital elevation models and customized maps; the latter can be reproduced by research groups to meet their own mapping needs.


Parasites can shape population, community, and ecosystem dynamics, especially if their hosts play a key role in the ecosystem. Multiple parasites frequently co-infect hosts that alter disease dynamics via a variety of mechanisms. Further, abiotic and biotic factors often differentially affect hosts and their associated parasites, with direct and/or indirect effects on disease prevalence and intensity. We conducted a field survey of eastern oyster Crassostrea virginica populations in the northern Gulf of Mexico to examine spatial patterns in parasite species richness of this foundation species. We assessed whether environmental factors and/or host characteristics best predicted prevalence and intensity of the most common micro(Perkinsus marinus; Dermo) and macro-parasites (boring sponges Cliona spp., mud blister worms Polydora websteri) in the region. The number of parasite species infecting each host (i.e. species richness) was spatially homogeneous due to variation in the predominant factors underlying the prevalence and intensity of each species. These factors were host density, tidal elevation, and temperature for Dermo; tidal elevation and host size for boring sponges; and salinity for mud blister worms. Host condition depended on abiotic and biotic factors, including tidal elevation (intertidal > subtidal) and prevalence of both Dermo (positive relationship) and boring sponges (negative relationship). Abiotic influences on oysters and parasites, and multiple parasite effects, produced an unexpected positive correlation between host condition and Dermo prevalence. Thus, predicting the likelihood of disease outbreaks and assessing the long-term health of host populations requires consideration of the combined effects of multiple parasites, abiotic conditions, and biotic factors.


This thesis explores the nature, cause and dynamics of the conflict in the oil-rich Niger Delta region of Nigeria. The region has become a hot spot for increased oil insurgency and well-organized criminal activity in the wake of the 1999 transition to democratic rule. The main contribution of this study lies in its use of the political economy theory of the state and the post-colonial characterization of the Nigerian state to analyse and explore specific role of the Nigerian state in the oil conflict. The research critiques past studies in the field as "grand narratives" based on assumptions of international political economy of resource conflicts not least the rentier state and resource curse theses. Through a case study of the state-owned oil industry the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and Vanguard Newspaper representing a section of the media the thesis problematized the oil conflict in the Niger Delta to failure of democratization to address decades of conflict, politicization of ethnicity, descent to terminal spoils via oil bunkering and flaws in the country's federalism. The study critically interrogates the legal/institutional as well as militaristic response of the state to the conflict as state-centric and factors spurring the conflict.

The findings reveal that the conflict is rooted in factors affecting the control, management and distribution of oil resources by a centralized federal structure characterized by a failure of governance. In other words, the conflict dynamics of the Delta is explained by total failure of oil-wealth to foster development. Instead, it impedes political development, generates conflict over resource distribution, fuels ethnic conflict and fragmentation, and institutionalized corruption all spawned by rise in government oil largesse. Since the return of democracy in 1999, lack of genuine democratization in Nigeria, has crippled even nascent attempts at reform resulting to socio-economic stagnation, which relates directly to the rising trend of violence in the region. One of the key contributions of the study also is through an analysis of "illegal oil bunkering" as an empirical case of how legal/institutional failure of the state to response to the crisis and a reflection of descent to terminal spoil in the Nigerian oil industry led to spoils of oil violence. The research critically examines how oil bunkering has damaged the environment through oil spillage and contributes to proliferation of small arms and light weapons in the region. Finally, the thesis also suggests that, the potential solution to the Niger Delta crisis lies in governance and constitutional reform that focuses on correcting the structural imbalances embedded in the nature of Nigerian fiscal federalism, its revenue allocation formula and to effectively fight corruption at all levels of governance. The Nigerian state should also abrogate or review specific oil-related laws that serve as a fault-line of conflict with the oil producing communities. Failure to tackle this problem will allow the self-destructive cycle of violence to continue to undermine reform initiatives and perpetuate the region's instability.


This dissertation addresses dimensionality-induced magneto-optic effects in liquid-phaseepitaxy magnetic garnet thin films. It is found that the Faraday rotation (FR) per unit length evinces a marked and steady enhancement as the film thickness is reduced below ~100 nm in Bi0.8Gd0.2Lu2Fe5O12, although it remains constant in the micronand most of the submicron-regime. The reported specific FR change in such reduced dimensions is due to sizedependent modifications in diamagnetic transition processes in the garnet film. These processes correspond to the electronic transitions from the singlet 6S ground state to spinorbit split excited states of the Fe3+ ions in the garnet. A measurable reduction in the corresponding ferrimagnetic resonance linewidths is found, thus pointing to an increase in electronic relaxation times and longer lived excitations at reduced thicknesses than in the bulk. These changes together with a shift in vibrational frequency of the Bi-O bonds in the garnet at reduced thicknesses result in magneto-optical enhancement in ultra-thin garnet films. This dissertation also studies optical transmittance control through multimode elliptically birefringent waveguides achieved by one-dimensional magneto-photonic crystals (MPCs) and the tuning of longitudinal magnetic bias in such waveguides, together with the tuning of the helicity of the input elliptical beam. Magnetization reversal is found to strongly reconfigure the stop band spectrum, through hybridization of the ellipticallypolarized states due to normal mode symmetry breaking.


Buruli ulcer (BU) is a slow progressing disease of the skin and subcutaneous tissue caused by Mycobacterium ulcerans. It presents in different clinical forms ranging from small non-ulcerative nodules to large ulcers and sometimes multiple ulcerations. The highest prevalence of the focally occurring disease is found in rural areas of West African countries. Both the mode of transmission as well as the potential environmental reservoir of M. ulcerans remain unidentified to date. In Cameroon, the remote Mape dam region has recently been identified as a new BU endemic area. To assess the age-adjusted prevalence and local geographic distribution of BU, a house-by-house survey in the Bankim health district was conducted. Results showed that children between the age of five to 15 and elderly people were over proportionally affected by BU. To confirm the clinical diagnosis of BU during and after the health survey in Bankim, fine needle aspirates and swabs from undermined ulcer edges were transported to the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute for laboratory confirmation by quantitative real time PCR. In parallel we developed a protocol for primary culture initiation of M. ulcerans from patient lesions after a long time span between sampling and processing in a BSL3 culture laboratory. The established two sets of Cameroonian patient isolates from the Mape and the Nyong river valleys were used for a comparative genome sequencing study revealing the presence of two distinct phylogenetic clonal complexes in Cameroon. Despite the fact that BU can be treated with antibiotics, the socioeconomic impact of the disease on affected populations remains devastating. As long as it is not clearly known how the disease is contracted, interruption of transmission is not an option. A vaccine against M. ulcerans on the other hand could be used both as preventive measure and therapeutically. While sero-epidemiological studies imply the presence of protective immunity in some individuals, no vaccine is available to date. Within the framework of the EU funded collaborative project BuruliVac we investigated the potential for developing a protein subunit vaccine against M. ulcerans by delivering vaccine candidate antigens with three different systems: i. as recombinant proteins with an adjuvant, ii. as vesicular stomatitis virus replicon and iii. incorporated into a genetically modified mouse malaria parasite (Plasmodium berghei) in an infection - treatment - approach. All three formulations were assessed for their immunogenicity and their protective potential in a mouse model of BU. Although all three vaccination approaches elicited strong humoral immune responses, no full protection was observed for any of the formulations. However a slight partial protection was seen for a replicon - prime / recombinant protein boost regimen with a vesicular stomatitis virus replicon incorporating an expression cassette for the M. ulcerans protein MUL2232. Additionally, a transient delay of foot pad swelling was observed in mice receiving infection - treatment - vaccination with P. berghei expressing MUL4987. Despite the mainly extracellular nature of M. ulcerans in infected tissue, antibody production against the protein vaccine candidates thus does not seem to be sufficient for protection. Considering marked differences between the mouse footpad model of BU and the disease in humans, we aimed at developing an animal model that better reflects local pathogenesis and host-pathogen interactions in the human BU lesions. Hence, we developed the pig as novel animal model for BU and showed that the observed histopathological changes in the infected pig skin closely represent those of human BU. Therefore the pig model has great potential for the validation of new therapeutic and prophylactic interventions.


With the increasing popularity of machine learning techniques, it has become common to see prediction algorithms operating within some larger process. However, the criteria by which we train these algorithms often differ from the ultimate criteria on which we evaluate them. This paper proposes an end-to-end approach for learning probabilistic machine learning models in a manner that directly captures the ultimate task-based objective for which they will be used, within the context of stochastic programming. We present three experimental evaluations of the proposed approach: a classical inventory stock problem, a real-world electrical grid scheduling task, and a real-world energy storage arbitrage task. We show that the proposed approach can outperform both traditional modeling and purely black-box policy optimization approaches in these applications.


Apex echocardiography has been chosen as an approach to detect and quantify acute myocardial infarction because the usual parasternal acoustic windows are often occluded. Fifty-three patients were studied, all within 12 hours after the onset of symptoms of their first myocardial infarction. Three apical long axis views were obtained, that is the two and four chamber views, and the right anterior oblique equivalent or three chamber view. Satisfactory echocardiograms were obtained in 48 patients (91%). The individual apical views were divided into equal segments and the area of asynergy was estimated in each view. Left ventricular asynergy was present in all 48 patients. In 46 patients a positive correlation between the electrocardiogram and the echocardiogram was obtained, as far as infarct localisation was concerned. The estimated asynergic area correlated well with the peak value of the isoenzyme of creatine kinase (CK MB). Apex echocardiography is a reliable alternative method of detecting and quantifying myocardial infarction soon after the onset of symptoms.


ABSTRACT The paramagnetic clay mineral illite can have important controls on fluid permeability and microporosity in sedimentary rocks. Increases in illite content of a few percent can reduce permeability by several orders of magnitude. Traditional X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques for quantifying illite content can be very time consuming, requiring significant sample preparation, and generally examine only a relatively small sample volume. In contrast, a technique based on magnetic susceptibility described here is very rapid, cheap, sensitive, nondestructive, and requires no extra preparation of the sample. It is representative of a much larger sample volume, and in the present paper utilizes standard 1 inch diameter cylindrical core plugs, but it can be applied to other sample shapes and volumes. The magnetic-susceptibility-derived estimates of illite content from core plugs correspond well with XRD results from small powdered samples of the same material, in terms of both absolute values and overall trends with depth. However, neither the magnetic method nor XRD should be regarded as definitive. Each technique has merits and limitations, and these help to explain some observed differences in the illite determinations by each method. XRD may underestimate the illite content, particularly in muddy rocks, whereas the magnetic method theoretically provides an upper limit for the illite content. The magnetic method is also capable of simultaneously estimating the quartz content in the present samples. Changes in the concentration and distribution of illite during core cleaning or core flooding experiments can also be potentially quantified by the magnetic technique. The development of portable field sensors potentially allows the magnetic method to provide high-resolution illite profiles on slabbed cores, outcrops, and unconsolidated samples without the need to cut core plugs. The method could also be applied to whole-core measurements and to downhole magnetic susceptibility data. The processing of the magnetic susceptibility signal can also be extended to quantify other minerals in simple systems.


Aim: This study evaluated the distortion and fracture mode of ProTaper and Mtwo rotary instruments following their use in severely curved root canals in extracted human teeth. Materials and Methods: A total of 30 mesial canals of mandibular molars were allocated into two groups that were balanced in terms of angle and radius of curvature. Canals were prepared by either ProTaper or Mtwo systems. Each set of instruments was changed after the third canal. Longitudinal and fractographic examinations of the instruments were carried out by scanning electron microscopy. Images were evaluated according to distortion and mode of fracture. Chi-square analysis and Fisher′s exact test were carried out at a significance level of P < 0.05. Results: No significant difference was found between fracture and distortion percentage of ProTaper and Mtwo rotary instruments (P > 0.05). Fractographic analysis revealed that all of the Mtwo instruments demonstrated torsional failure and all but one of the ProTaper instruments (S1) showed torsional failure. Conclusion: Fractographic examination of the fractured surface revealed shear fracture was the predominant mode of failure. Root canal curvature was an essential parameter influencing the susceptibility of instruments to fracture.


In this work, we propose a new technique for modeling light propagation in photonic crystal fibers where the electric field is evaluated from a purely transverse linearly polarized vector potential. The vector potential in a nonuniform dielectric obeys a wave equation coupled to the scalar potential, but it can be reduced to a scalar wave equation when the coupling term is ignored to the lowest order approximation. We show that this method gives reliable results for photonic crystal fibers when the scalar analysis is improved by a perturbational correction.


Purpose: To develop an improved nuclear halo dose model of a pencil beam algorithm (PBA) for dose calculation of proton beams in heterogeneous media. Methods: The proton PBA consisted of a central axis term and an off axis term. The central axis term was determined from a central axis depth dose of a proton beam in water and was scaled by the mass stopping power ratio to account for other materials. The off axis term was determined from Fermi‐Eyges scattering theory with material‐dependent scattering powers to calculate the spread of the proton beam in heterogeneous media. The nuclear halo dose arising from large angle and non‐elastic scatter was modeled using two terms: a Gaussian and a Cauchy‐Lorentz distribution. Depth‐dependent widths and amplitudes of each distribution were determined by fitting a simulated 1‐mm × 1‐mm pencil beam in water. The PBA was evaluated in approximately 30 test phantoms containing bone and/or air heterogeneities for 4 energies and 2 field sizes. Agreement between PBA and Monte Carlo simulations of the test conditions was quantified by computing the percentage of points within 2 percent dose difference or 1 mm distance to agreement. Results: With the improved nuclear halo model, PBA calculations showed better than of 97% of dose points within 2%/1 mm of MC distributions for all geometries examined. For phantoms containing laterally infinite heterogeneities, agreement between PBA and MC distributions was 100% at 2%/1mm. For phantoms containing laterally finite heterogeneities, agreement was at least 97%. The points failing were due to the central axis approximation of the PBA in regions not influenced by the nuclear halo model. Conclusions: The halo model developed in this work improves the agreement of the PBA with MC simulations in heterogeneous phantoms, particularly in low‐dose regions that can be important for scanned‐beam proton therapy. "This research was supported by contract W81XWH‐10‐1‐0005 awarded by The U.S. Army Research Acquisition Activity, 820 Chandler Street, Fort Detrick, MD 21702‐5014. This report does not necessarily reflect the position or policy of the Government, and no official endorsement should be inferred."


The quest for transparency in the relationships between life sciences companies and healthcare professionals is quickly becoming a global movement. Reporting requirements for financial interactions have been prevalent in the United States for many years, but the movement is spreading throughout the world to places like Japan, Australia, and Europe. In France, the government passed a law that imposes burdensome reporting requirements. Industry groups across Europe, most notably the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations, are acting aggressively to try to forestall more government laws by adopting industry-developed disclosure systems. These activities will affect many different segments of the European healthcare system.


Regime theory has become an increasingly influential approach to the analysis of international relations, particularly in the areas of international political economy and international environmental politics. The conceptual appeal of the idea of "governance without government"--in which a combination of different organizations and institutions supply governance to address specific problems--reflects a world in which the demand for governance is great but the familiar mechanisms for supplying it are weak. Most research on international regimes employs qualitative methods, often using case studies to develop larger theoretical arguments; but a lack of standardization makes comparative analysis difficult. Analyzing International Environmental Regimes introduces the International Regimes Database (IRD), an important methodological innovation that allows scholars to adopt a quantitative approach to the study of international regimes.The IRD is a relational database that makes it possible to compare records on specific aspects of a number of international environmental regimes that are coded using a single, well-defined set of concepts, definitions, and scales. The book first describes the database and discusses a number of methodological, technical, and architectural issues. It then illustrates the use of the IRD as an analytic tool, drawing on the database for descriptive statistics to evaluate theoretical ideas about compliance, decision rules, and the role of knowledge. A CD containing the full IRD data protocol and all the data currently in the database accompanies the book.


The absorption characteristics of p-aminobenzoic acid (PABA) from the rat intestine was investigated comparing with that of p-acetamidobenzoic acid (Ac-PABA). The ionized form of PABA was well absorbed from the small intestine and the pH-profile of the absorption rate of PABA was inconsistent with the pH-partition theory. This phenomenon was not observed in the large intestine. In contrast, the absorption of Ac-PABA was consistent with the pH-partition theory in both small and large intestine. The transfer rate of PABA from mucosal side to serosal side was markedly faster than that in the opposite direction. This directional difference in the transfer rate was not observed with Ac-PABA. The uptake against a concentration gradient was found during the absorption process of PABA. This phenomenon disappeared in the presence of 2, 4-dinitrophenol, p-chloromercuribenzene sulfonate or by the pretreatment of the intestine with HgCl2. These findings indicate the anomalous aspects of the absorption of PABA from the rat small intestine at pH 6.5. Furthermore, the absorption of PABA was inhibited by the mercurial modification of the brush border membrane. This suggests that protein and sulfhydryl groups within the brush border membrane are involved in the absorption process of PABA.


When building priors over trees for Bayesian hierarchical models, there is a tension between maintaining desirable theoretical properties such as infinite exchangeability and important practical properties such as the ability to increase the depth of the tree to accommodate new data. We resolve this tension by presenting a family of infinitely exchangeable priors over discrete tree structures that allows the depth of the tree to grow with the data, and then showing that our family contains all hierarchical models with certain mild symmetry properties. We also show that deep hierarchical models are in general intimately tied to a process called a martingale, and use Doob's martingale convergence theorem to demonstrate some unexpected properties of deep hierarchies.


People are relying upon oil for primary energy and this for a few more decades. Other conventional sources may be more enduring, but are not without serious disadvantages. The renewable energy resources are particularly suited for the provision of rural power supplies and a major advantage is that equipment such as flat plate solar driers, wind machines, etc., can be constructed using local resources and without the advantage results from the feasibility of local maintenance and the general encouragement such local manufacture gives to the build up of small-scale rural based industry. This chapter comprises a comprehensive review of energy sources, the environment and sustainable development. It includes the renewable energy technologies, energy efficiency systems, energy conservation scenarios, energy savings in greenhouses environment and other mitigation measures necessary to reduce climate change. This study gives some examples of small-scale energy converters, nevertheless it should be noted that small conventional, i.e., engines are currently the major source of power in rural areas and will continue to be so for a long time to come. There is a need for some further development to suit local conditions, to minimise spares holdings, to maximise interchangeability both of engine parts and of the engine application. Emphasis should be placed on full local manufacture. It is concluded that renewable environmentally friendly energy must be encouraged, promoted, implemented and demonstrated by full-scale plant (device) especially for use in remote rural areas.


Vietnam on Its Way to High Performance Computing In March 2007 I had the pleasure to participate in the International Workshop on Advanced Computing and Applications (ACOMP 2007) held in Ho Chi Minh City, the former Saigon in Vietnam. Neither was it the first workshop there nor was it my first visit to Ho Chi Minh City. The workshop series started in 2001 with follow-ups in 2002, 2004, and 2005. In the years 2003 and 2006 our Vietnamese colleagues organised a conference held in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam. While this conference was more focused on mathematical optimization, the Spring workshops have always concentrating on parallel and distributed computing. These conferences are a results from a cooperation between the Interdisciplinary Centre of Scientific Computing (IWR) at the University Heidelberg, Germany, and colleagues in Hanoi and Saigon. For more than a decade Prof. Georg Bock at the IWR and Prof. Hoang Xuan Phu (Hanoi) and Prof. Nguyen Thanh Son (HCMC) have been the driving force behind this fruitful cooperation. While attending the workshops in 2001 and 2002 I was impressed by the creativity and focused hard work of the researchers in Vietnam.  This year's contributions to the workshop highlight a new trend in Vietnamese computer science, i.e. its orientation of research towards Grid Computing. Remember, it is only since 1975 that the country lives in peace after the Vietnam war. In 1986 the governing Communist Party made a shift to an open market and installed the so-called Doi Moi (renovation) politics. The country developed rapidly, making Vietnam one of the fastest growing economies world-wide. In the 1980's gifted scientists studied in foreign countries and conducted research there in order to later go back and build up their home country. Many of them went to socialist brother countries, in particular also to the former German Democratic Republic. The faculty for computer science at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (HCMUT) was established in 1986. The university itself has its foundation in the 50s however was named after Ho Chi Minh only after the end of the war. It is now the leading university in teaching and research activities of Vietnam. However, Southern HCMC University after the end of the war received a high number of teaching and management staff from the Northern Hanoi University of Technology. Remember that the communist North Vietnam won the war and the South was reunified with the North in 1976. Being German I see parallels to our academic life after the reunification of West and East Germany in 1990. Although Hanoi University of Technology also conducts education and research in computer science, the focus on high performance computing is a speciality of the HCMC University. Having 25.000 students in total, the computer science faculty with its 1.500 students plays an important role on the campus. It embraces 7 research groups on different fields like e.g. chip design and data mining. Parallel processing and network computing is headed by Dr. Nguyen Thanh Son, who is now the Vice Rector of the University of Technology and Dr. Nam Thoai. At the workshop they presented their work in Grid computing in five talks. This was complemented by about the same number of invited keynote talks given by speakers who play an important role in this field like Satoshi Sekiguchi, Dieter Kranzlmueller and others. Under the guidance of HCMUT and with financial support by the Vietnamese Ministery for Science and Technology, the Vietnamese researchers plan to set up a national Grid infrastructure (VN-Grid Initiative). The EDAGrid-project at HCMUT aims at providing the necessary software components and organizational concepts. Based on the Globus Toolkit 4.x it defines a middleware for service-centric applications. As the telecommunication infrastructure of Vietnam is not yet that powerful as in other countries, the first step will be to define so-called fat Grid nodes at the major universities of Vietnam. HCMUT contributes the Supernode II cluster, which comprises 64 nodes with two processors each. The software is well-known to us: GT 4.x, PBS, LSF and others. Grid based projects at HCMUT focus on data management and on data mining. They run cooperations with researchers from e.g. civil engineering, chemistry and aerospace technology. So Vietnam is quickly catching up with the international Grid community—and not only with this one. We are looking forward to fruitful discussions and cooperations with our Vietnamese colleagues and of course also hope to see submissions to SCPE. http://www.hcmut.edu.vn/ http://www.cse.hcmut.edu.vn/ http://www.cse.hcmut.edu.vn/ACOMP2007/ Thomas Ludwig Universitat Heidelberg.


Objective: To describe the incidence of 30 day healthcare encounters following an index hospitalization in an uninsured and insured population.

Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study conducted at an urban, tertiary care hospital. Patients admitted between 7/1/2010 - 6/30/2011 that were between the ages of 18-64 were included if they had a financial code for no insurance or commercial insurance provider. The primary outcome assessed between groups was incidence of 30 day healthcare encounter following hospital disharge to either the emergency department or hospital.

Results: 5,489 patients were admitted over the study period 2,093 uninsured and 3,396 insured. The number of 30 day healthcare encounters for the uninsured and insured groups were 348 (16.6%) and 566 (16.7%), respectively (p = 0.99). The uninsured population was more likely to be have a 30 day healthcare encounter in the emergency department 237 (11.3%) vs 246 (7.2%), p <0.001. The uninsured group with a 30 day healthcare encounter were younger and more likely reside in a urban zip code. Conditions most frequently cited in 30 day healthcare encounter in the uninsured were abdominal pain, infections, diabetes, chronic pain and angina.

Conclusion: This analysis demonstrated no difference in incidence of 30 day healthcare encounters between an insured and uninsured population. However, the uninsured population was more likely to be seen in the emergency department at 30 days.


Case‐base maintenance is an important emerging issue for case‐base reasoners as they scale up to handle real‐world problems in unstable environments. Over time, the contents of a case base may become out of date or inconsistent with the target problem space, and maintenance strategies must be devised to help recognize and repair these problems by deleting, adding, or modifying cases, for example. In this article we describe a maintenance framework called collaborative maintenance (CM), which has been designed to facilitate, monitor, and control the incremental update of live, dynamic case bases. Our approach is novel in that it automatically supports a distributed, interactive maintenance process—users are permitted to recommend case updates, and the collaborative maintenance process ensures that these recommendations are properly reviewed and actioned.


It was an early blow to my self-confidence. I was attending my first group meeting in the lab where I had just started as a postdoc, and I was pleased that I had managed to follow most of the discussion. Then, in front of everyone, my supervisor turned to me and asked about my previous accomplishments. I froze. As a Ph.D. student, I had achieved lots to be proud of. But all of that was in my home country of Brazil. Now I was in Washington, D.C.—and I didn't know what the word "accomplishment" meant. When I looked it up later in my English-Portuguese dictionary, I realized what I should have said: presenting my research at international conferences, publishing, teaching, and more. But at the time, all I could utter in response was "I don't know."

![Figure][1]

ILLUSTRATION: ROBERT NEUBECKER

> "Could I only be successful in my own country?"

I had decided to do a postdoc abroad because I thought the training would help me secure a faculty position. I applied for and received a Brazilian government fellowship to spend 18 months working abroad. A professor I had met at a conference agreed to give me a position in his lab. It all seemed so easy—until I actually started.

In a new lab and a new country, I struggled. After the mortifying lab meeting incident, my confidence took another hit when some of my experiments and analyses didn't work. The paper I intended to publish did not materialize. I used to be invited to give talks; now, I was asked to speak more slowly because of my accent. My confidence was shattered. Could I only be successful in my own country?

After months of self-doubt, I reminded myself that I had potential. I needed to do something to regain my lost confidence.

I saw that many of the Latin American scientists I had connected with were thriving at large institutions that had more resources to support training and development. Although I liked my lab and had a good relationship with my supervisor, my institution didn't offer enough of these opportunities. I thought a change of environment might be what I needed.

I contacted a principal investigator at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He said that, if my current supervisor approved, I could join his lab for a 6-month trial period, which would take me to the end of my fellowship. My original supervisor agreed that changing institutions would be best for me, and I made the move.

Once again in an unfamiliar environment, I still felt insecure. I was certain that my new supervisor didn't actually think I was good. I thought he was just being generous and giving me a chance to get some training. I doubted that he would renew my contract when it expired. Nonetheless, I was determined to make the most of the time I had.

I started to see the benefits of my new environment surprisingly quickly. There were more opportunities to interact with others—for example, in meetings, in the hallways, and in chats with administrative staff—which forced me to talk more. It was intimidating at first, but with practice I began to feel more confident in my English. The many training programs that NIH offers—covering topics such as leadership and writing as well as cutting-edge science—helped, too. I proposed new projects and collaborations, including one with my original supervisor. I began to receive positive feedback on my presentations. My accent is still the same, so I assume that this is due to my restored confidence.

I've now been in the lab for a little more than 2 years, and I'm so proud of how far I've come. I've presented my research at international conferences, sometimes winning travel awards to attend them. I review and edit manuscripts for journals, and I've published my own papers. My confidence is back. I feel a little bit like Wonder Woman. She was a strong warrior in her homeland. When she left, she experienced obstacles and failures—only to become even stronger than before.

 [1]: pending:yes


SUMMARY 1. The food web of the central Amazon basin displays one of the largest discrepancies in food source utilisation versus availability for consumers. While C4 macrophytes dominate the primary producing biomass in floodplains, the food web is dominated by the use of C3 carbon sources. Amazon fish species have wide-ranging diets and show feeding flexibility in response to spatial and temporal patterns in food source availability. Fish are therefore expected to use a range of available resources. Fatty acids and stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic compositions were studied to investigate their trophic behaviour and provide a better assessment of food source utilisation by nine fish species from two Amazon floodplains. 2. Although nitrogen stable isotopes positioned detritivores at the base of the food chain, their large proportions of polyunsaturated fatty acids (FAs) suggest selection of a high-quality food source, such as microalgae. Omnivores and insectivores displayed a wide range of food source utilisation, indicating opportunist feeding behaviour. Piscivores displayed the most 15 N-enriched signature (up to 10.6&), concomitant with their predator position in the studied food web. 3. C3 carbon was the dominant source for most species, which is a finding consistent with current classical knowledge. However, consumption of C4 macrophytes was detected for the herbivore Schizodon fasciatus, in line with the spatial availability of this food source in the floodplain system. Large amounts of polyunsaturated and essential FAs in these C4 macrophytes indicate their high nutritive value. Our results suggest that this food source is rather neglected by fish due to low digestibility, with the exception of the herbivore that may possess modification of its digestive system that allows the use of C4 plants.


This paper introduces three algorithms which are essential for the practical, real-time implementation of continuum robots. Continuum robots lack the joints and links which compose traditional and high-degree-of-freedom robots, instead relying on finite actuation mechanisms to shape the robot into a smooth curve. Actuator length limits shape the configuration or joint space of continuum manipulators, introducing couplings analyzed in this paper which must be understood to make effective use of continuum robot hardware. Based on the new understanding of the configuration space uncovered, this paper then derives the workspace of continuum robots when constrained by actuator length limits. Finally, a tangle/untangle algorithm correctly computes the shape of the distal segments of multisection tendon-actuated continuum robots. These contributions are essential for effective use of a wide range of continuum robots, and have been implemented and tested on two different types of continuum robots. Results and insight gained from this implementation are presented


This volume presents the complex evolutionary history of an ancient town, Tepe Gawra, located in present-day northeastern Iraq, over a thousand-year period, from the Terminal Ubaid period to the Late Chalcolithic or Uruk period, during the fourth millennium B.C. The site itself is a linchpin for the chronology and study of evolutionary trends. In examining Gawra's transformation, Mitchell S. Rothman analyzes local processes of change and the connection between changes at this small town and transformations of the general Mesopotamian region-southwestern Iran, the western Zagros, the northern Jazirah, and the upper Euphrates. He also carefully documents the raw data from the site and includes previously unpublished excavation records in the University of Pennsylvania Museum's archives (the excavation began in 1927 in cooperation with the Baghdad School of the American School of Oriental Studies), making major additions to our understanding of the stratigraphy of the site and the findspots of artifacts. Using this newly collated data and newly discovered stratigraphic notes from the original excavators, Rothman analyzes the economic, social, and political activities of the ancient residents by mapping artifact distributions onto the architectural and open spaces of each of the living towns and the graves of the dead, presenting an unusually complete picture. Anthropologists and historians will find these analyses of great interest because the levels analyzed here represent the beginning of a process that led to the formation of the earliest states in the world. An appendix by Brian Peasnall, on burials from Tepe Gawra, completes the analysis. University Museum Monograph, 112


This book offers information on all the common disorders that a general practitioner will see from day to day. You will not find the very rare syndromes in this text but it does cover a wide variety of subjects, from the bread and butter diabetes mellitus to chapters on evidence based medicine and complementary and alternative medicine.


Biofilm is characterized by a bacterial population firmly adhered to a surface involved by a self-produced matrix of extracellular polymeric substance. These communities provide longer survival and resistance to adverse conditions such as presence of antibiotics and disinfectants. Various foodborne microorganisms are capable of forming such structures, including Salmonella and Campylobacter, which are the major contaminants at the poultry industry. This biomass can affect the water transport system and pipes, and once the agent is established at the industry, it can form biofilms in any processing area. There are intrinsic and extrinsic mechanisms, and also molecular aspects involved in the biofilm formation. The adoption of several strategies may exhibit effectiveness to prevent the cell adhesion, such as the use of surfaces resistant to biofilm formation. In case of preexisting biofilms, there are physical, chemical, and biological methods used to control and eliminate them. Nanotechnology has emerged as another effective measure as nanometals affect the essential activities of microorganisms. These findings highlight the difficulty in controlling biofilms, due to the strategies used by these agents to adapt and survive in sessile form, causing recurring contamination throughout the poultry chain production, deterioration in the final product and infections in the human host.


High prevalence of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori), the leading cause of gastric cancer, and low levels of micronutrients have been observed in many developing countries, and the question remains as to the whether an association between the 2 exists. The present study seeks to further our understanding of this potential connection in the Southern Community Cohort Study, representing a low-income population in the United States. Blood levels of antibodies to H. pylori proteins were assessed by multiplex serology for a sample of 310 African American and white participants, ages 40 to 79 years. Blood collected at baseline was also assayed for levels of carotenoids, tocopherols, retinol, and folate. Multivariate linear regression was used to calculate least-squares mean micronutrient levels within groups defined by H. pylori status. The mean serum levels of all micronutrients assayed were lower among H. pylori + individuals than H. pylori − individuals, significantly for β-carotene, folate, and retinol (decreases of 27.6%, 18.6%, and 9.7%, respectively). Individuals who were seropositive to the virulent CagA+ H. pylori strains had even lower mean levels of micronutrients, particularly β-carotene, folate, total carotenoids, and retinol (decreases of 38.9%, 19.1%, 17.0%, and 11.7%, respectively, compared with H. pylori − individuals). However, dietary micronutrient levels as derived from a food frequency questionnaire did not vary between groups defined by H. pylori status. These results provide support for the hypothesis that H. pylori infection impairs nutrient absorption and suggest a need for future studies to explore the role of H. pylori infection on nutrition and gastric cancer risk in this high-risk population. Cancer Prev Res; 4(6); 871–8. ©2011 AACR.


Previous research using event-related potentials (ERPs) has shown that the N170 component is enhanced when experts categorize objects in their domain of expertise relative to when they categorize objects outside of their domain (Tanaka & Curran, 2001). Here, we replicated Tanaka and Curran's study on bird and dog experts with medical experts in reading electrocardiography (ECG) and chest X-ray (CXR) images. 16 physicians (8 cardiologists, 8 pulmonologists) participated in the ERP study. On a scale of 1 (zero expertise) to 9 (much expertise), cardiologists and pulmonologists rated their expertise with ECG images as 8.50 and 5.75, respectively, and with CXR images as 5.00 and 7.63, respectively. On each of 520 trials, participants viewed one of 7 ECG or CXR patterns. The pattern image was preceded by a correct or incorrect label either at the basic ("ECG", "CXR") or subordinate (e.g., "attrial flutter", "pneumonia") level. Participants were asked to indicate with a key press whether the label and diagnostic image matched or not. A mixed ANOVA on the accuracy data from both groups showed a significant interaction between stimulus type and expertise-participants were better at categorizing ECG than CXR images, particularly the Cardiologists (F = 5.8, p < .05). Closely reflecting the behavioural results, a mixed ANOVA on the N170 mean amplitudes from correct trials showed a significant interaction between stimulus type, expertise, and hemisphere. The N170 was larger to ECG than CXR images, especially for Cardiologists, and in the right hemisphere (F = 6.97, p < .05). In contrast, no significant effects were found for the P100. These findings indicate that the N170 amplitude not only reflects object expertise but can also be modulated by expertise in pattern recognition. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015.


In the past, systems that present digitized archival materials were often created with limited knowledge of their audiences' needs and greater focus on the materials. Organizations must ask whether digital delivery systems are sufficiently effective to merit financial support. As part of the planning process for a digital delivery system at the Orbis Cascade Alliance, the Northwest Digital Archives (NWDA) consortium conducted a study of its core researchers' needs for the selection and presentation of archival materials online. With the assistance of NWDA members, 19 subjects were recruited for hour-long interviews. Although the number of subjects meant that the conclusions should be regarded as preliminary rather than definitive, we were able to draw conclusions about these researchers' needs and desires that will shape the development of elements of the Alliance's digital delivery systems for unique locally held content.


Evidence-centered assessment design (ECD) is an approach to constructing educational assessments in terms of evidentiary arguments. This paper provides an introduction to the basic ideas of ECD, as well as some of the terminology and models that have been developed to implement the approach. In particular, it presents the high-level models of the Conceptual Assessment Framework (CAF) and the Four-process Delivery Architecture for assessment delivery systems. Special attention is given to the role of probability-based reasoning in accumulating evidence across task performances, in terms of belief about unobservable variables that characterize the knowledge, skills, and/or abilities of students. This is the role traditionally associated with psychometric models, such as those of item response theory (IRT) and latent class models. To unify the ideas and to provide a foundation for extending probability-based reasoning in assessment applications more broadly, however, a more general expression in terms of graphical models is indicated. This brief overview of evidence-centered design provides the reader with a feel for where and how graphical models fit into the larger enterprise of educational and psychological assessment. A simple example based on familiar large-scale standardized tests such as the Graduate Record Examinations® (GRE®) is used to fix ideas.


While the impact of technology on production is widely researched, this study explores the economic implications of technology through the channel of enhancing leisure experience on the consumer side. We develop a theoretical model which allows for habit formation for a technology good purchased to enhance leisure activities. In contrast, for the normal consumption good, habits are irrelevant. A persistent fall in the relative price of the technology good and increased addiction to technology are shown to have significant macroeconomic consequences. For example, we show that these perturbations can drive the real interest rate below the rate of time preference and depress consumption growth of non technology goods. Modelling the framework with US data illustrates that model predictions of falling interest rates and consumption growth are consistent with the recent observations of declining technology's relative prices and increases in technology good purchases. | T H E A U S T R A L I A N N A T I O N A L U N I V E R S I T Y


Presents Cramer-Rao (CR) bounds on error covariance for 2D and 3D parametric shape estimation. The motivation for this paper is ECT image reconstruction and uptake estimation with side information corresponding to organ boundaries extracted from high resolution MRI or CT. It is important to understand the fundamental limitations on boundary estimation error covariance so as to gauge the utility of such side information. The authors present asymptotic forms of the Fisher information matrix for estimating 2D and 3D boundaries under a B-spline polar shape parameterization. They show that circular (2D) and spherical (3D) shapes are the easiest to estimate in the sense of yielding maximum Fisher information. They also study the worst case shapes under near circularity and near sphericity constraints. Finally, a simulation is presented to illustrate the tightness of the CR bound for a simple 3D shape estimator utilizing edge filtering.


The objective of Aquarius project was to test the applicability of a food chain analysis on Atlantic salmon farmed in Norway to identify and monitor vulnerabilities and drivers of change for the identification of emerging risks. To this end, a comprehensive literature review was conducted complemented with expert views collected by on-line questionnaires and in-depth interviews. This review provided an overview of the various stages in the supply chain from farm to consumer and the identification of i) existing and emerging human and animal health hazards, ii) vulnerabilities, iii) control measures, iv) drivers of change, and v) related indicators. Next step in the study was to i) complement the list of vulnerabilities followed by a prioritisation using focus group discussions and Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) method and ii) link drivers of change acting upon the (prioritised) vulnerabilities and identification of associated indicators and data sources by means of a Delphi method. Based on the experiences obtained with the different methodologies during this project, the Aquarius team considers literature review, and a direct face-to-face interaction with experts (in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and FMEA in a workshop setting) as being most effective regarding output and effort. The comprehensive information collected formed the basis for the methodology to baseline key indicators of the selected vulnerabilities. The methodology proposed comprised a Bayesian Network (BN) that links data sources for indicators and drivers of change to the prioritised vulnerabilities and was demonstrated for salmon health. A Decision Support System (DSS) with such BN integrated was designed. The current BN and DSS could flag an increased exposure of known hazards that may occur due to changes in indicators but new hazards are not identified. The proposed methodology could be used instead to show trends in vulnerabilities, indicators, increased exposure of known hazards and for scenario studies.


Over-parametrization is an important technique in training neural networks. In both theory and practice, training a larger network allows the optimization algorithm to avoid bad local optimal solutions. In this paper we study a closely related tensor decomposition problem: given an $l$-th order tensor in $(R^d)^{\otimes l}$ of rank $r$ (where $r\ll d$), can variants of gradient descent find a rank $m$ decomposition where $m > r$? We show that in a lazy training regime (similar to the NTK regime for neural networks) one needs at least $m = \Omega(d^{l-1})$, while a variant of gradient descent can find an approximate tensor when $m = O^*(r^{2.5l}\log d)$. Our results show that gradient descent on over-parametrized objective could go beyond the lazy training regime and utilize certain low-rank structure in the data.


The University of Hawaii9s continuously cored borehole through the Midway Atoll coral cap provides a record of post–early Miocene eustasy. Subaerial exposure horizons are identified by light carbon isotope signatures and, in some instances, by lithologic criteria. Sea-level highstands are recorded by aggradational units of reef sediment that are bounded by these subaerial exposure horizons. Sea-level lowstands are constrained to fall no farther than a meteoric-marine diagenetic boundary observed in the core. This diagenetic boundary is defined by an offset in both oxygen and carbon isotope data, light isotopic composition being indicative of intermittent meteoric diagenesis. These data constrain the amplitudes of three post–early Miocene glacio-eustatic sea-level falls to be no more than 32, 43, and 52 m. Absolute sea-level elevations are estimated by constructing a subsidence model for Midway Atoll. Application of this analytic approach may provide amplitude constraints on eustasy elsewhere in the geologic record.


Perilous Pedagogies: Female Education Questioned in the Epistolary Novels of Rousseau, Laclos, Sade, and Charrière Sarah-Louise Raillard This dissertation looks at the thematic and narrative tensions that emerge when certain prominent late eighteenth-century French epistolary novels deal with the issue of women's education and the possibility of its reform. The debate of the latter half of the century is firmly centered on Rousseau, who wrote both a best-selling epistolary novel dealing with the position of women in society (Julie, ou la Nouvelle Héloïse) and a controversial pedagogical treatise that suggests sweeping changes to male education but decisively anchors women within a limited domestic sphere (Émile). More specifically, I have examined how Rousseau's contradictory and problematic discussion of female pedagogy enacts narrative structures of tension and hesitation within both the treatise and the epistolary novel. Both texts, as well as the unfinished epistolary sequel Émile et Sophie, ou Les solitaires are destabilized by the fraught question of how to educate women. The contradictions engendered by attempts to maintain strict gender difference also plague Laclos' pedagogical treatises and his epistolary novel Les Liaisons dangereuses, which simultaneously offer revolution, reform, and a total impasse concerning female education. The Marquis de Sade subsequently approaches this topic with humor, choosing to imitate the excesses of Enlightenment discourse on female pedagogy, in turn creating a potentially instructive parody of his own. Finally, Isabelle de Charrière ponders the topic of women's education in a variety of non-fiction and literary works, which all reveal her cautious strategies of disguise and ambivalence when addressing such a hotly debated issue, especially from the point of view of a woman writer. Examining both the theoretical and fictional works of Rousseau, Laclos, Sade, and Charrière, I show that the convergence of epistolarity and female pedagogy was far from accidental, and that the tensions inherent in Enlightenment thought on gender are in fact reflected in the narrative permutations and problematics of the epistolary novel.


We present a content-driven reputation system for Wikipedia authors. In our system, authors gain reputation when the edits they perform to Wikipedia articles are preserved by subsequent authors, and they lose reputation when their edits are rolled back or undone in short order. Thus, author reputation is computed solely on the basis of content evolution; user-to-user comments or ratings are not used. The author reputation we compute could be used to flag new contributions from low-reputation authors, or it could be used to allow only authors with high reputation to contribute to controversialor critical pages. A reputation system for the Wikipedia could also provide an incentive for high-quality contributions. We have implemented the proposed system, and we have used it to analyze the entire Italian and French Wikipedias, consisting of a total of 691, 551 pages and 5, 587, 523 revisions. Our results show that our notion of reputation has good predictive value: changes performed by low-reputation authors have a significantly larger than average probability of having poor quality, as judged by human observers, and of being later undone, as measured by our algorithms.


"Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children" is the story of the landmark research study that uncovered the widely cited "word gap" between children from low-income homes and their more economically advantaged peers. This groundbreaking research has spurred hundreds of studies and programs, including the White Housea s "Bridging the Word Gap" campaign and "Too Small to Fail," a joint initiative of the Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton foundation. Betty Hart and Todd Risley wanted to know why, despite best efforts in preschool programs to equalize opportunity, children from low-income homes remain well behind their more economically advantaged peers years later in school. Each month, they recorded one full hour of every word spoken at home between parent and child in 42 families, categorized as professional, working class, or welfare families. Two and a half years of coding and analyzing every utterance in 1,318 transcripts followed. By age 3, the recorded spoken vocabularies of the children from the professional families were larger than those of the parents in the welfare families. Between professional and welfare parents, there was a difference of almost 300 words spoken per hour. Extrapolating this verbal interaction to four years, a child in a professional family would accumulate experience with almost 45 million words, while an average child in a welfare family would hear just 13 million coining the phrase "the 30 million word gap." The implications of this painstaking study are staggering: Hart and Risley's follow-up studies at age 9 show that the large differences in children's language experience were tightly linked to large differences in child outcomes. As the authors note in their preface to the 2002 printing of "Meaningful Differences," "the most important aspect to evaluate in child care settings for very young children is the amount of talk actually going on, moment by moment, between children and their caregivers." By giving children positive interactions and experiences with adults who take the time to teach vocabulary, oral language concepts, and emergent literacy concepts, children should have a better chance to succeed at school and in the workplace. Learn more about how parent and children's language interactions affect learning to talk in Hart & Risley's companion book The Social World of Children Learning to Talk."


Greenland's melting glaciers were in the news this past summer. In its State of the Climate report for July 2012, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported a near-record low (second only to 2011) in Northern Hemisphere sea ice extent and a new record low for the Greenland ice sheet. In fact, the July 2012 Arctic sea ice volume was 65% below its maximum value in 1979 (see "On the web"). NOAA's Climatewatch website has a video of compiled satellite images that shows visible melting along the Greenland ice sheet near the Jakobshavn Glacier each August between 2000 and 2011. Additionally, the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (UN IPCC) plots glacial coverage over time for several large glaciers around the world, and you can watch near real-time change in Arctic sea ice from NOAA (see "On the web"). Despite these data and images, it remains difficult to make predictions about future glacial melting. For example, in April 2012, National Public Radio reported confusion amongst scientists about whether Himalayan glaciers are melting or growing. "Right now, the glaciers that are currently melting are losing one or two feet of thickness every year. ... Some of those glaciers could disappear by the end of the century. But that's too simple a way to look at the problem. That's because our climate is also expected to get wetter as it gets warmer" (see "On the web"). Unfortunately, how much wetter is difficult to predict. Few scientists agree on the future of individual glaciers, but there is agreement that overall trends indicate a general global glacier retreat (UN Environment Programme 2010). Classroom activities Participating in data analysis and activities in class will enhance your students' understanding of melting glaciers. First, by accessing glacial data from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Benchmark Glacier program, students can graph and discover trends for various United States glaciers (see "On the web"). Second, the Changing Planet: Melting Glaciers activity from Windows to the Universe directs students to sort photographs of glaciers and measure glacial retreat to observe how alpine glaciers have retreated over the past century (see "On the web"). Third, take the "Climate Change Tour of Cold Places" with your students using Google Earth. This presentation from the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) enables you or your students to overlay images on a virtual globe (see "On the web"). …


Cicer milkvetch (Astragalus cicer L.) is a potentially valuable forage crop for irrigated pastures, but little information is available concerning the effects of management practices on forage production. Therefore, the objective of this field study was to evaluate the effect of six harvest treatments on yield, forage quality, weed invasion, and persistence of stand. The study was conducted under irrigation on a Nunn clay loam soil (aridic Argiustoll). The treatments consisted of clipping the forage two, three, four, five, six, and seven times annually for 3 years to a height of 7.5 cm. Forage yields and weed counts were taken for 3 years, and seven quality factors and four mineral elements were evaluated for 2 years. Total nonstructural carbohydrates in the rhizomes were measured at the end of the 3rd harvest year. There were significant differences in yield among harvest treatments in 2 of 3 years and for the 3-year average. In general, the two- and three-cut treatments were the most productive with 3-year average yields of 10.5 and 10.7 metric tons/ha, respectively. Considerably more weeds were present in the five-, six-, and seven-cut treatments than in the two-, three-, and four-cut treatments. Annual weeds were most prevalent during the first 2 years, but by the 3rd year dandeloins (Taraxacum spp.) were the most common. Although there were significant differences among treatments for total nonstructural carbohydrates in the rhizomes, the differences were not associated with persistence because persistence of stands was excellent for all treatments. In vitro dry matter digestibility (IVDMD) and all chemical constituents evaluated, with the exception of magnesium and potassium, differed significantly among treatments each year. In general, cell wall constituents (CWC) and cellulose decreased with an increase in the frequency of cutting. Protein, IVDMD, and phosphorus increased as the number of cuttings increased. Lignin, hemicellulose, silica, calcium, magnesium, and potassium varied among cutting treatments. The quality of cicer milkvetch forage was high for all cutting treatments. Based on yield, quality, and stand persistence cicer milkvetch has the attributes of a desirable forage species.


Defining and reliably finding a canonical orientation for 3D surfaces is key to many Computer Vision and Robotics applications. This task is commonly addressed by handcrafted algorithms exploiting geometric cues deemed as distinctive and robust by the designer. Yet, one might conjecture that humans learn the notion of the inherent orientation of 3D objects from experience and that machines may do so alike. In this work, we show the feasibility of learning a robust canonical orientation for surfaces represented as point clouds. Based on the observation that the quintessential property of a canonical orientation is equivariance to 3D rotations, we propose to employ Spherical CNNs, a recently introduced machinery that can learn equivariant representations defined on the Special Orthogonal group SO(3). Specifically, spherical correlations compute feature maps whose elements define 3D rotations. Our method learns such feature maps from raw data by a self-supervised training procedure and robustly selects a rotation to transform the input point cloud into a learned canonical orientation. Thereby, we realize the first end-to-end learning approach to define and extract the canonical orientation of 3D shapes, which we aptly dub Compass. Experiments on several public datasets prove its effectiveness at orienting local surface patches as well as whole objects.


The main purpose of this chapter is to develop useful analytical frameworks for translation studies. The new analytical frameworks proposed will integrate quantitative and qualitative analysis of textual and contextual events and phenomena of translation. Three sets of relationship are highlighted to illustrate the usefulness of these new analytical schemes which are (1) the dependence relation between the source and the target text at various linguistic levels such as lexical, syntactic, grammatical and phraseological; (2) the dependence relation between translation and the target societal and cultural background; and (3) the dependence relation between the language of individual translations and the linguistic evolution of the target language at a general level. To illustrate the use of the new model of quantitative and qualitative analysis, this chapter offers a case study which compares the stylistic profile of Cervantes's Don Quijote de La Mancha (1605) and its two modern Chinese versions by Yang Jiang in 1978 and by Liu Jingsheng in 1995.


3TU Saving Energy Battle (sEB) aimed at charting post-war neighbourhoods in energy saving rankings, and take a first step in a global monitoring tool on resource efficiency. We also tested the new process of energy performance certification, in three post-war neighbourhoods of major Dutch cities: Westelijke Tuinsteden, Amsterdam; Ommoord, Rotterdam; and Mariahoeve, Den Haag. This monitoring tool and online short courses were developed online. Further, we organized an live event on 28 February 2015, where students and volunteers teamed up to assist building owners with the upload of requested information and photos. The sEB event was a great experience! Den Haag won first place (127), followed by Amsterdam (118) and Rotterdam (62)! All building owners who succeeded in uploading all needed information have obtained a definitive Energy label issued by Atriensis, free of charge. The research team has their data, to answer their research questions. Public officers and owners can inform transformation decisions on their energy savings. Ministries can compare and determine the contribution of measures as the energy performance certification to boost energy efficiency.


Social media provide a more natural context to communicate organizational emotions as expressing emotions can increase the perception that the organization speaks with a conversational human voice, leading to more acceptance of the message. However, limited research has been conducted to test how emotional framing can be used in a social mediated channel. In three empirical chapters, the dissertation has been conducted to deepen and expand insights on how positive emotions (e.g., humor, hope) and mixed valence emotions (expressing both positive and negative emotions) can be used in a social mediated context. this dissertation shows that organizations should not only focus on the crisis response strategy but should highlight the importance of emotional framing in communicating the crisis. A crisis should not only be perceived as a negative event but can also be an opportunity for the organization to learn from the crisis and grow. Organizations should also notice the negative and positive aspects of a crisis and select appropriate emotions (positive/negative/mixed) to communicate the crisis, therefore maximize the effectiveness of an organizational response in reputational repair.


The reaction of thiocarbonyl ylide 1, generated in situ by thermolysis of the corresponding 2,5-dihydro-1,3,4-thiadiazole, with a twofold excess of thiouracil (4) yielded a mixture of the 1:2 adduct 5 and the 1:1 adduct 6 in a ratio of ca. 1:1.These interception products are formed by protonation of 1 and nucleophilic addition via the S- or O-atom. The structure of 5 has been established by X-ray crystallography.


This paper is a study of the design of a ROV with high pull force. The focus is the hydrodynamic design, but several other aspects had to be included to set feasible boundaries for the hydrodynamic design. The work is divided in three parts. The first focuses on general design, setting limits for power supply and pull force and discussing general arrangements and stability. The second part focuses on propeller design, describing different applicable methods and starts the design of a propeller for a high pull ROV. The third part puts the results together and presents a temporary ROV design and presents the solutions. This part also includes discussion of the work and suggestions for further work. The first part, General design, completes a feasibility study by concluding that a reasonable maximum pull force for a high pull ROV is approximately 82 tonnes at a maximum operational depth of 800 meters. Here estimations of power-thrust relations are made and limitations regarding power flow and physical size are discussed. A ducted contra-rotating propeller is considered suitable considering the ROV's main goal. Further two systems for manoeuvring are suggested. One system for manoeuvring in loaded condition and one for manoeuvring in unloaded condition is presented and assumed feasible and adequate. The general arrangement, including positioning and weights of the main components of the ROV, has been proposed with a solution resulting in neutral buoyancy and a stable submerged ROV. External shape and resistance have been discussed. The total resistance of a streamlined ROV is estimated to approximately 4 tonnes. Issues concerning practical handling of the ROV have been mentioned. The second part, Propeller design, attempts a design of a ducted contra-rotating propeller. First different aspects considering propeller design is described and special concerns regarding design of a ducted contra-rotating propeller are discussed. A thorough review of the program AKPA which is used for the propeller design is given. The process of making the propeller design of a ducte contra-rotating propeller has been started, but due to some difficulties it has not been completed. The third part of the paper presents the work done and the ROV design made. The result is a ROV with a pull force of 77.8 tonnes, a total dry weight of 114 tonnes, an overall length of 18.8 meters and a propeller diameter of 5 meters. The necessary power supply is 2.2 MW delivered to the ROV. Several aspects of this design are still uncertain and needs further exploration. The propeller design should be completed and especially structural concerns and power supply should be taken into account. Stability and external shape could be explored further, particularly stability in floating condition and during surface operations.


This paper deals with System Dynamics education at Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands. It focuses more specifically on the quadruple jump approach towards dealing with real-world dynamic complexity. The paper starts with an overview of the System Dynamics courses, situated within the broader curriculum. Then recent innovations in the Introductory System Dynamics course are discussed. Finally, some of the lessons learned are distilled. The rationale behind this paper are the beliefs that (higher) education determines to a large extent the quality of (the next generation) professional System Dynamics modellers, and hence, the field of System Dynamics as a whole, and that sharing (innovative and/or proven) educational practices, and exchanging actual and challenging (teaching and testing) cases may lead to further improving the quality of System Dynamics education.


Hedgehog proteins are important cell–cell signalling proteins utilized during the development of multicellular animals. Members of the hedgehog gene family have not been detected outside the Metazoa, raising unanswered questions about their evolutionary origin. Here we report a highly unusual hedgehog-related gene from a choanoflagellate, a close unicellular relative of the animals. The deduced C-terminal domain, Hoglet-C, is homologous to the autocatalytic domain of Hedgehog proteins and is predicted to function in autocatalytic cleavage of the precursor peptide. In contrast, the N-terminal Hoglet-N peptide has no similarity to the signalling peptide of Hedgehog (Hh-N). Instead, Hoglet-N is deduced to be a secreted protein with an enormous threonine-rich domain of unprecedented size and purity (over 200 threonine residues) and two polysaccharide-binding domains. Structural modelling reveals that these domains have a novel combination of features found in cellulose-binding domains (CBD) of types IIa and IIb, and are expected to bind cellulose. We propose that the two CBD domains enable Hoglet-N to bind to plant matter, tethering an amorphous nucleophilic anchor, facilitating transient adhesion of the choanoflagellate cell. Since Hh-C and Hoglet-C are homologous, but Hh-N and Hoglet-N are not, we argue that metazoan hedgehog genes evolved by fusion of two distinct genes.


This article tests the workability of the principle of relevance at the heart of relevance theory by evaluating a corpus of eighteen English and French translations of verse 33 of the Mu'allaqa of Imru' al-Qays. This verse embodies a conventional metaphor reflecting a stereotyped image in Arabic poetry, which communicates its ground to the source language (SL) reader by means of inference. The verse challenges the translator to render the metaphor into an equivalent trope and to reflect the ground of the comparison, either by inference or by reference. By comparing the translations in the corpus to the source text (ST) and to each other, this study draws conclusions as to the translatability of a conventional metaphor. Chronology and mode of discourse are taken into account in the evaluation process so as to categorize the translations and the shifts exercised in them. This evaluative yardstick is used to measure resemblance and relevance by taking into account both the ST and the target text (TT) contexts


Abstract Structural optimization is usually handled by iterative methods requiring repeated samples of a physics-based model, but this process can be computationally demanding. Given a set of previously optimized structures of the same topology, this paper uses inductive learning to replace this optimization process entirely by deriving a function that directly maps any given load to an optimal geometry. A support vector machine is trained to determine the optimal geometry of individual modules of a space frame structure given a specified load condition. Structures produced by learning are compared against those found by a standard gradient descent optimization, both as individual modules and then as a composite structure. The primary motivation for this is speed, and results show the process is highly efficient for cases in which similar optimizations must be performed repeatedly. The function learned by the algorithm can approximate the result of optimization very closely after sufficient training, and has also been found effective at generalizing the underlying optima to produce structures that perform better than those found by standard iterative methods.


The aim of this thesis is to contribute to the existing empirical financial literature on the determinants of capital structure and adjustment process, cost of debt determinants and the affect of capital structure on profitability in the context of non-financial Small and Medium size Enterprises (SME) in the UK. In order to formulate the testable hypothesis different capital structure theories are reviewed.

A firm can choose equity, debt or both to finance its operations. The selection of optimal debt equity mix is a crucial issue in finance. The Generalized Method of Moment (GMM) is considered to control for simultaneous equation bias employing both firm specific and macroeconomic variables. For entire population of non-financial SMEs in the UK using Two Stage Least Square (TSLS) methodology, we focused on determinants of the cost of debt capital and the impact of capital structure on profitability.

Results indicate that findings are consistent with the pecking order theory, trade-off theory and agency theory. Our results show that short term debt plays an important role in capital structure, cost of debt and profitability of SMEs in the UK. Moreover, the short term debt is appeared to be more expensive for the manufacturing sector and more profitable for service sector whilst size and macroeconomic variables have a significant impact on leverage.