Background: Drawing on policy theories, an assessment was made of the perceived political feasibility of scaling-up five evidence-based interventions to curb Pakistan's HIV epidemic: needle and syringe exchange programmes; targeted behaviour change communication; sexual health care for male and transgender sex workers; sexual and reproductive health care for female sex workers; and promoting and protecting the rights of those at greatest risk. Method: A questionnaire was emailed to 40 stakeholders and completed by 22. They expressed their level of agreement with 15 statements for each intervention (related to variables associated with policy success). Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 respondents. Results: The interventions represent considerable change from the status quo, but are perceived to respond to widely acknowledged problems. These perceptions, held by the HIV policy elite, need to be set in the context of the prevailing view that the AIDS response is not warranted given the small and concentrated nature of the epidemic and that the interventions do not resonate closely with values held by society. The interventions were perceived to be evidence-based, supported by at least one donor and subject to little resistance from frontline staff as they will be implemented by contracted non-government organisations. The results were mixed in terms of other factors determining political feasibility, including the extent to which interventions are easy to explain, exhibit simple technical features, require few additional funds, are supported and not opposed by powerful stakeholders. Conclusion: The interventions stand a good chance of being implemented although they depend on donor support. The prospects for scaling them would be improved by ongoing policy analysis and strengthening of domestic constituencies among the target groups.


PurposeTo correlate aqueous humor soluble CD44 (sCD44) concentration, visual field loss, and glaucoma risk factors in primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) patients. MethodsAqueous samples were obtained by paracentesis from normal and glaucoma patients who were undergoing elective surgery and analyzed for sCD44 concentration by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. ResultsIn normal aqueous (n=124) the sCD44 concentration was 5.88±0.27 ng/mL, whereas in POAG aqueous (n=90) the sCD44 concentration was 12.76±0.66 ng/mL, a 2.2-fold increase (P<0.000001). In POAG patients with prior successful filtration surgery (n=13), the sCD44 concentration was decreased by 43% to 7.32±1.44 (P=0.001) in comparison with POAG patients without filtration surgery; however, the sCD44 concentration in the prior successful filtration subgroup with no medications and normal intraocular pressure was 12.62±3.81 (P=0.05) compared with normal. The sCD44 concentration of normal pressure glaucoma patients was 9.19±1.75 ng/mL, a 1.6-fold increase compared with normal (P=0.02). Race and intraocular pressure pulse amplitude were significant POAG risk factors in this cohort of patients. In both normal and POAG patients with mild and moderate visual field loss, sCD44 concentration was greater in African Americans than in whites (P=0.04) ConclusionssCD44 concentration in the aqueous of POAG patients correlated with the severity of visual field loss in all stages in white patients and in mild to moderate stages in African American patients. sCD44 concentration in aqueous is a possible protein biomarker of visual field loss in POAG.


When Afghans started fleeing abroad in the aftermath of the Saur Revolution of April 1978, Pakistan and Iran were the main countries of destination, but some Afghans also fled to India. This article offers new insights into one under-studied aspect of Indo-Afghan relations: population movements. What place have Afghan refugees occupied in Indo-Afghan relations (both formal and informal) from the Saur Revolution to the present? This article examines the specific situation of Afghan refugees in India, the general context of Indo-Afghan relations and India's ad hoc policy towards Afghan refugees, which all help explain the place occupied by Afghan refugees in Indo-Afghan relations.


Abstract. The Lake Chad Basin, located in the center of North Africa, is characterized by strong climate seasonality with a pronounced short annual precipitation period and high potential evapotranspiration. Groundwater is an essential source for drinking water supply as well as for agriculture and groundwater related ecosystems. Thus, assessment of groundwater recharge is very important although difficult, because of the strong effects of evaporation and transpiration as well as limited available data. A simple, generalized approach, which requires only a small number of field data, freely available remote sensing data, and well-established concepts and models, is tested for assessing groundwater recharge in the southern part of the basin. This work uses the FAO-dual Kc concept to estimate E and T coefficients at six locations that differ in soil texture, climate, and vegetation conditions. Measured values of soil water content and chloride concentrations along vertical soil profiles at these locations together with different scenarios for E and T partitioning and a Bayesian calibration approach are used to numerically simulate water flow and chloride transport. Average potential groundwater recharges and the associated model uncertainty at the six locations are assessed for the time-period 2003–2016. Model results show that interannual variability of groundwater recharge is generally higher than the uncertainty of the modelled groundwater recharge. Furthermore, the soil moisture dynamics at all locations are limited by water availability for evaporation in the uppermost part of the soil and by water uptake in the root zone rather than by the reference evapotranspiration.


This title offers everything you ever wanted to know about the biology, rearing and breeding of queen bees. Divided into three major chapters with many sub-sections, "Queen Bee" is a definitive guide to the biology and breeding of queen bees. It includes: Chapter One - Queen Bee Biology, Introduction, Castes, Anatomy & Lifecycle, Reproduction, Castes, Development, Egg Laying, Pheromones, and Diseases; Chapter Two - Queen Bee Rearing Equipment, Grafting & non-Grafting, Capture & Transport, Swarming & Nucleus Hives, and Nutrition; and, Chapter Three - Queen Bee Breeding, Genetics & Reprduction, Stock Selection & Improvement, Breeding Programmes, Instrumental Insemination, and Glossary.


This paper presents a critical study of the mechanical and electrical properties of the PHANToM haptic interface and improvements to overcome its limitations for applications requiring high-performance control. Target applications share the common requirements of low-noise/granularity/latency measurements, an accurate system model, high bandwidth, the need for an open architecture, and the ability to operate for long periods without interruption while exerting significant forces. To satisfy these requirements, the kinematics, dynamics, high-frequency dynamic response, and velocity estimation of the PHANToM system are studied. Furthermore, this paper presents the details of how the unknown subsystems of the stock PHANToM can be replaced with known, high-performance systems and how additional measurement electronics can be interfaced to compensate for some of the PHANToM's shortcomings. With these modifications, it is possible to increase the maximum achievable virtual wall stiffness by 35, active viscous damping by 120, and teleoperation loop gain by 50 over the original system. With the modified system, it is also possible to maintain higher forces for longer periods without causing motor overheating.


Certain species of birds are pests for winegrape growers, including the house finch (Carpodacus mexicanus), American robin (Turdus migratorius), and European starling (Sturnus vulgaris) in California. Our objectives were to evaluate the effectiveness of different alarm and distress calls at hazing these species, to determine a protocol for use of broadcast calls in the field, and to measure the effectiveness of control. Species-specific alarm and distress calls from birds were collected. Based on call testing and bird activity surveys, four starling calls, three finch calls, and one robin call were selected for use with the broadcast units. The units were deployed around veraison at a density of 0.6 ha per broadcast unit, concentrated on the perimeter of the vineyard, and moved weekly in a fixed pattern. Three control strategies were compared: netting, conventional methods (reflective tape, propane cannons, pyrotechnics), and conventional methods supplemented with broadcast alarm and distress calls. Three different regions were selected in the Carneros AVA and three commercial Pinot noir vineyards were chosen in each region to test the control strategies. Damage data were measured over two consecutive seasons, year 1 to evaluate the effect of treatments without broadcast calls and year 2 to determine the effect of broadcast calls. Results indicated that broadcast distress calls added to conventional methods significantly reduced damage compared with conventional control (5.7% vs. 13.0%). Netting yielded the least damage (2.3%).


Cape Town is a unique city. It has a global biodiversity hotspot, in the midst of an urban area. Historically, nature conservation practice excluded and marginalized certain groups of people based on their race and class. This has led to peoples' disconnection from nature. Rapid biodiversity loss is a major concern for conservators. In the last three decades, there has been a paradigm shift in conservation practice in certain parts of the world. The Cape Flats Nature programme based in Cape Town followed suit and aimed to stimulate a bottom-up participatory approach to conservation and replace the traditional top-down management strategy. The programme was tasked to reconcile the challenges of complex and conflicting relationships between urban poverty, unequal access to resources and biodiversity conservation. This study was aimed at investigating the relationships between conservation management, community partners and urban conservation areas. These relationships are vital for the progression of new conservation practice in places where people live and work. In addition, the transformative aspects of conservation in relation to social inclusion and the shift in conservation approaches was investigated. The study was conducted at five of Cape Town's nature reserves, Edith Stephens Wetland Park, Macassar Dunes, Harmony Flats, Wolfgat and Witzands Aquifer Nature Reserves. Data collection included in depth interviews with key informants from various conservation organizations, the Cape Flats Nature Programme team, the managers of the selected reserves and community partners. Others included observational methods and analysis of secondary data. It was found that relationships between conservators and local communities are not easily created and maintained but relationships regardless of its depth are equally beneficial to communities and the conservators. Balancing social needs with conservation needs is a struggle for conservators but many successes came in cases where this balance was realized. In addition, the transformation of conservators' identity has changed community perceptions of conservation practice holistically. Although, many informants feel that transformation continues to remain unequal.


Enzymes are considered to be highly efficient and specific in facilitating a chemical reaction, such that side reactions are negligible. However, due to their relatively high cost and instability in industrial environment, widespread application in industrial processes remain rather limited. Furthermore, in industrial setting, enzymes are used mainly because of their ability to degrade or hydrolyze food components relative to all other types of reaction they can mediate. Microaqueous enzymology has received considerable attention in the last decade or so. Microaqueous system has been defined as those containing very limited amount of water and are typically composed of organic solvents. The fact that enzyme can function in microaqueous system, substantially broadenes the scope of potential enzyme applications in the food and related industries. Not only do many enzymes remain fully active in microaqueous media, they often are observed to exhibit unusual reactivities and spesificity in water-deprived media. In the area of food science, these recent advances have provided new avenues for the application of enzymes to improve and modify foods, synthesize food ingredients, and potentially produce new food ingredients.


In order to find an alternative source for the highly unsaturated fatty acids oil with lower cost, a marine trash fish Odonus niger has been analysed and characterised. The body weight and the corresponding liver weight of the fish were studied and the results showed that for one gram increase in the size of the animal, the liver weight can increase to 0.04 g. The oil yielding capacity of the liver was assessed by four different methods namely Soxhlet, Bligh and Dyer, Direct steaming and Solar extraction. The percentage of oil yield was high in Soxhlet method (67.7%), but it was 54.3% in Bligh and Dyer method, 42.5% in direct steaming method and minimum of 32.0% in solar extraction method. The solidification point of all the extracted oils remained at 29 ± 0.5 o C. The specific gravity (0.95 to 0.96) and refractive index (1.42µ to 1.48µ) of the oil extracted by the four different methods were not varied significantly. The cholesterol contents of the oil extracted by Bligh and Dyer and direct steaming extraction methods were at the highest level (1991.00 and 2059.00mg 100ml -1 ) but it was 50% less in other methods. The percentages of PUFA in the total fatty acid of the oils were 13.78, 20.46, 19.07 and 22.54% (by weight) in solar extraction, direct steaming, Soxhlet and Bligh and Dyer methods, respectively. Thus the physico-chemical properties of liver oil of O. niger were found to be influenced by the extraction adopted methods. Also it is clear that Bligh & Dyer method is the suitable method for the extraction of liver oil from marine fishes without much loss of nutrients.


Variations in dielectric constant and patterns of microwave loss have been imaged in a yttrium-doped LiNbO 3 crystal with periodic ferroelectric domains with the use of a scanning-tip near-field microwave microscope. Periodic profiles of dielectric constant and images of ferroelectric domain boundaries were observed at submicrometer resolution. The combination of these images showed a growth-instability–induced defect of periodic domain structure. Evidence of a lattice-edge dislocation has also been observed through a stress-induced variation in dielectric constant.


How can lawmakers reduce the skyrocketing rate of gun death in the United States? How can they stymie the spread of viral fake news stories designed to undermine our elections? Certain constitutionally-protected activities—like owning a gun or speaking online—can generate social harms. Yet when lawmakers enact regulations to reduce those harms, they are regularly struck down as unconstitutional. Indeed, it is the very laws designed to most aggressively reduce social harms—like total criminal bans—that are the least likely to be upheld. As a result, regulators appear stuck with an unpleasant choice—regulate constitutionally or effectively, but not both.

This article proposes a novel solution: Pigouvian taxation. A Pigouvian tax is an economic tool whereby people are required to bear the social costs of their own activity, rather than forcing others to do so. In important cases, Pigouvian taxes can thread the needle that traditional regulations have not, reducing serious social costs while respecting constitutional protections of individual rights. This is because many constitutional tests—for example, strict scrutiny's "narrow tailoring" requirement—implicitly reflect the very kind of economic thinking on which Pigouvian taxes rely. In short, constitutional doctrines protecting individual activity do not require society to implicitly subsidize such activity by absorbing any and all costs it generates. Legitimate social costs may be regulated. But regulations must maintain a careful proportionality between the constitutional burdens they impose and the social harms they seek to eliminate. Pigouvian taxes, unlike traditional command-and-control rules, are inherently well-suited to such tailoring. Thus, in areas—like guns and speech—where traditional rules have been difficult or impossible to adequately tailor, Pigouvian taxation presents an important new regulatory tool.


The terrestrial record of meteorite impacts is difficult to decipher because unequivocal evidence
of impact is increasingly destroyed with time by erosion, burial, and tectonics. Zircon
survives these processes as a shocked mineral, and above 20 GPa transforms to reidite, a high-pressure
ZrSiO 4 polymorph diagnostic of impact. However, the utility of reidite has been limited
by its occurrence; it has only been reported from three relatively young (<36 Ma) impact
craters globally. Here we report a new occurrence of reidite in brecciated sandstone from the
Ordovician Rock Elm impact crater in Wisconsin, United States. Electron backscatter diffraction
mapping was used to identify reidite and microtwins within shocked zircons smaller
than 50 μm in diameter. Reidite occurs both as 200–500-nm-wide lamellar intergrowths and
as nanoparticulate grains, and not only provides the first diagnostic evidence for ultrahigh-pressure
shock metamorphism at Rock Elm, but is also the oldest reported occurrence of
reidite. Considering its small size, and the ubiquitous presence of detrital zircon in siliciclastic
rocks, reidite may be more common in the rock record than has been reported but has
potentially gone undetected. The recognition that nanoscale reidite can be preserved over deep
time within zircon in shock-metamorphosed sandstone presents new opportunities for investigating
Earth9s impact record, as it could potentially preserve nanoscopic evidence of impact
events much older than the one that formed Rock Elm. Given that shocked zircons have been
shown to survive sedimentary cycling, the identification of reidite within zircons in siliciclastic
rocks could facilitate investigating the impact chronology over much of the geological time
scale, as the oldest terrestrial minerals known are detrital zircons.


Primary obstructed megaureter is a common urological condition in the pediatric age group. It is one of the differentials for congenital anomalies of the kidney and urinary tract that include a myriad of structural anomalies of the urinary tract. The obstructive conditions are usually managed conservatively unless there is deterioration in renal function, repeated urinary tract infection, or any other symptom such as abdominal pain on ipsilateral side and hypertension. Presented here is a case of left lower ureteral valve that was diagnosed as primary obstructed megaureter with pain in abdomen and reduced ipsilateral renal function wherein ureteral valve was detected incidentally intraoperatively. Excision of the valve with end to end uretero-ureteral anastomoses over a D-J stent, without resorting to ureteric reimplantation was successful in relieving the obstruction and hydronephrosis.


Abstract. One of the oldest scientific topics in Equatorial Aeronomy is related to Spread-F. It includes all our efforts to understand the physical mechanisms responsible for the existence of ionospheric F-region irregularities, the spread of the traces in a night-time equatorial ionogram – hence its name – and all other manifestations of the same. It was observed for the first time as an abnormal ionogram in Huancayo, about 70 years ago. But only recently are we coming to understand the physical mechanisms responsible for its occurrence and its capricious day to day variability. Several additional techniques have been used to reveal the spatial and temporal characteristics of the F-region irregularities responsible for the phenomenon. Among them we have, in chronological order, radio star scintillations, trans-equatorial radio propagation, satellite scintillations, radar backscatter, satellite and rocket in situ measurements, airglow, total electron content techniques using the propagation of satellite radio signals and, recently, radar imaging techniques. Theoretical efforts are as old as the observations. Nevertheless, 32 years after their discovery, Jicamarca radar observations showed that none of the theories that had been put forward could explain them completely. The observations showed that irregularities were detected at altitudes that were stable according to the mechanisms proposed. A breakthrough came a few years later, again from Jicamarca, by showing that some of the "stable" regions had become unstable by the non-linear propagation of the irregularities from the unstable to the stable region of the ionosphere in the form of bubbles of low density plasma. A problem remained, however; the primary instability mechanism proposed, an extended (generalized) Rayleigh-Taylor instability, was too slow to explain the rapid development seen by the observations. Gravity waves in the neutral background have been proposed as a seeding mechanism to form irregularities from which the instability would grow, but the former are difficult to observe as a controlling parameter. Their actual role still needs to be determined. More recently, radar observations again have shown the existence of horizontal plasma drift velocities counter streaming the neutral wind at the steep bottom of the F-region which produces a fast growing instability from which a generalized Rayleigh-Taylor instability can grow. The mechanisms proposed would explain the rapid development of the large and medium scale irregularities that have been observed, including some seen only by radars. Nevertheless, a proper quantitative theoretical mechanism that would explain how these irregularities break into the very important meter scale ones, responsible for the radar echoes, needs to be developed. This paper makes a selective historical review of the observations and proposed theories since the phenomenon was discovered to our current understanding.


This keynote paper presents an overview of two classes of time-frequency signal representations. The first class, in which the signal arises linearly, deals with the windowed Fourier transform and its sampled version (also known as the Gabor transform) and the inverse of the latter: Gabor's signal expansion. We will show how Gabor's signal expansion and the windowed Fourier transform are related and how they can benefit from each other. The second class, in which the signal arises quadratically (or bilinearly, as it is often called), is based on the Wigner distribution. We will show some examples of the Wigner distribution and discuss some of its important properties. Being a bilinear signal representation, the Wigner distribution shows artifacts in the case of multi-component signals. To reduce these artifacts, a large class of bilinear signal representations has been constructed, known as the shift-covariant Cohen class. We will consider this class and we will see how all its members can be considered as properly averaged versions of the Wigner distribution.


The data obtained as a result of this research to determine the effect of socio-economic conditions on the consumption of poultry products will affect the shaping of production and contribute to the elimination of the congestion in marketing. This research; The aim of this study was to determine the factors affecting the consumption of organic poultry products in different regions, different age, income, education level and occupational groups. For this purpose, a total of 1350 (Kayseri 500, Sivas 450, Yozgat 400) surveys were conducted face to face in three provinces in Kayseri, Sivas and Yozgat provinces (TR 72 Region). The participants' demographic characteristics such as gender, age group, education level, income status were taken into consideration, the factors affecting the organic product preference and the effect of the analysis on the consumption of the analysis to determine their opinions were examined on the basis of TR72 region. It has been found that it is very important for all occupational groups to have a price, nutritional value, safety, not to be harmful to health and natural and ecological. The difference between the evaluation of occupational groups on the basis of all factors was significant (P


A variety of building labels and norms exist that set evermore-ambitious environmental and energy performance targets. In parallel, a growing number of building performance evaluation tools are adopting the life-cycle assessment (LCA) methodology to allow verifying if a project, based on its detailed description, reaches these targets. However, such norms and tools seem unsuited to the district scale, where environmental impact considerations are often left out of the urban planning and design process. There specifically appears to be a lack of decision-support instruments that can relate urban-scale performance targets to concrete design choices, taking into consideration the project's specificities (e.g., climatic context), but without requesting design information that is not yet available. This paper presents the first phase of a collaborative research and development project, aiming at developing a novel decision-support method to integrate life-cycle objectives from the masterplanning stage. In this first phase, we investigate barriers and requirements from a practiceoriented perspective in the Swiss context by: (i) exploring urban-scale LCA-based methods and tools, and (ii) engaging with key stakeholders who hold complementary roles in a case study district project, which aims to be low-carbon. These exchanges are conducted in the form of a focus group and a questionnaire to gather qualitative and detailed information. Our findings notably highlight the mismatch between the ambitious objectives set by regulations and labels and the (lack of) means available to practitioners to support them in achieving these objectives. Specifications for a novel tool are derived from the practitioner's feedback, as well as information on relevant design parameters and performance indicators.


Both within clinical and wider societal discourses, the term 'schizophrenia' has achieved considerable potency as a signifier, privileging particular conceptual frames for understanding and responding to mental distress. However, its status has been subject to instability, as it has lacked indisputable biological correlates that would anchor its place within the canon of medical diagnosis. Informed by a semiotic perspective, this paper focuses on its recent history: how 'schizophrenia' has been claimed, appropriated and contested—and how this connects with its earlier history of signification. It also explores how the dominance of this signifier has influenced the ways in which people with the diagnosis may find themselves constructed in their interactions with professionals, family and wider society, and hence how they may come to see themselves. It is argued that, from a point in the 1990s when 'schizophrenia' had achieved an almost iconic status, the term is now subject to greater instability, with concerns and challenges being raised from both within and outside psychiatry. On the one hand, this uncertainty has triggered a 'calls to arms' from those within the psychiatric establishment who see diagnoses such as 'schizophrenia' as crucial to their professional identity and status. On the other hand, this has created spaces for new conversations and alliances between elements within neurology, psychiatry, social work and other professions, and between these and service users. Some of these conversations are casting doubt on the validity and utility of 'schizophrenia' as a construct, and are beginning to posit alternative regimes of signification.


The present account explains (i) which elements of the act of nonverbal reference are intersubjective, (ii) which major effects intersubjectivity has on the development of intentional communication and at what stages, and (iii) how intersubjectivity contributes to trigger the general capacity for nonverbal reference in the second year. First, intersubjectivity is analysed in terms of a mutual or individual, dyadic or triadic, sharing of experiences. It is then shown that nonverbal reference presupposes intersubjectivity relative to communicative-intent indicating and referential behaviour, and the modification of previous behaviour in response to communication failure. It is argued that different forms of intersubjectivity entail different types of communicative skills. A comprehensive analysis of data on various gaze-related intersubjective behaviour in young infants shows that interaffectivity and interattentionality enable referential skills early in development and together allow for complex behaviour, but also that early referential skills arise by other mechanisms than in nonverbal reference and their functions do not overlap. Reliable and consistent use of nonverbal reference occurs when interaffectivity and interattentionality coalesce with interintentionality, which affords general cognitive skills, and these capacities together permit a decontextualisation of communicative behaviour. (Less)


Besides providing a more efficient energy use, a large scale application of solar energy technologies in the urban context will be required in the upcoming decades to achieve a drastic reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in the biosphere. Three different urban sites, representative of three of the largest Swiss cities (Basel, Geneva and Lausanne), were examined in order to assess their respective solar potential. Spatial distributions of solar irradiation and daylight fluxes over the overall building facades and roofs were calculated using ray-tracing simulation techniques to determine the appropriate placement of different solar technologies (passive and active solar, photovoltaic and daylighting). Several performance indicators were used to assess the solar utilisation potential of these urban sites (e.g. statistics of sky view factors and daylight factors). A comparison of the results observed for the three urban sites is presented in this paper. It has been observed in the three cases that the building surface areas appropriate to solar technologies are very significant.


Recent work in computer science has shown the power of deep learning driven by the backpropagation algorithm in networks of artificial neurons. But real neurons in the brain are different from most of these artificial ones in at least three crucial ways: they emit spikes rather than graded outputs, their inputs and outputs are related dynamically rather than by piecewise-smooth functions, and they have no known way to coordinate arrays of synapses in separate forward and feedback pathways so that they change simultaneously and identically, as they do in backpropagation. Given these differences, it is unlikely that current deep learning algorithms can operate in the brain, but we that show these problems can be solved by two simple devices: learning rules can approximate dynamic input-output relations with piecewise-smooth functions, and a variation on the feedback alignment algorithm can train deep networks without having to coordinate forward and feedback synapses. Our results also show that deep spiking networks learn much better if each neuron computes an intracellular teaching signal that reflects that cell's nonlinearity. With this mechanism, networks of spiking neurons show useful learning in synapses at least nine layers upstream from the output cells and perform well compared to other spiking networks in the literature on the MNIST digit recognition task.


Importance While systemic therapy for disseminated cancer is often initially successful, malignant cells, using diverse adaptive strategies encoded in the human genome, almost invariably evolve resistance, leading to treatment failure. Thus, the Darwinian dynamics of resistance are formidable barriers to all forms of systemic cancer treatment but rarely integrated into clinical trial design or included within precision oncology initiatives. Observations We investigate cancer treatment as a game theoretic contest between the physician's therapy and the cancer cells' resistance strategies. This game has 2 critical asymmetries: (1) Only the physician can play rationally. Cancer cells, like all evolving organisms, can only adapt to current conditions; they can neither anticipate nor evolve adaptations for treatments that the physician has not yet applied. (2) It has a distinctive leader-follower (or "Stackelberg") dynamics; the "leader" oncologist plays first and the "follower" cancer cells then respond and adapt to therapy. Current treatment protocols for metastatic cancer typically exploit neither asymmetry. By repeatedly administering the same drug(s) until disease progression, the physician "plays" a fixed strategy even as the opposing cancer cells continuously evolve successful adaptive responses. Furthermore, by changing treatment only when the tumor progresses, the physician cedes leadership to the cancer cells and treatment failure becomes nearly inevitable. Without fundamental changes in strategy, standard-of-care cancer therapy typically results in "Nash solutions" in which no unilateral change in treatment can favorably alter the outcome. Conclusions and Relevance Physicians can exploit the advantages inherent in the asymmetries of the cancer treatment game, and likely improve outcomes, by adopting more dynamic treatment protocols that integrate eco-evolutionary dynamics and modulate therapy accordingly. Implementing this approach will require new metrics of tumor response that incorporate both ecological (ie, size) and evolutionary (ie, molecular mechanisms of resistance and relative size of resistant population) changes.


This article considers the applicability of "moral economy" theories to early modern land markets. It asks whether moral norms -- specifically, moral condemnation of land selling -- substantially impeded land alienation in several major early modern economies: China, England, and Japan. Historians and anthropologists have long argued that they did, but a review of recent scholarship fails to unearth any robust evidence in favor of their assertions. The article then considers the theoretical underpinnings of the moral economy thesis, and argues that, at least in theory, early modern land markets are probably some of the least hospitable terrain for the thesis: The enormous socioeconomic importance of land in pre-industrial economies actually makes it much less likely that societies morally condemned land selling.


This essay argues that the medium of graphic illness memoir, or "autopathographics," can work to challenge the master plot of "survival" that has circulated as part of breast cancer culture for the past thirty years. Exploring the emergent genre of breast cancer autopathographics through an analysis of two best-selling memoirs published in 2006—Marisa Acocella Marchetto's Cancer Vixen: A True Story and Miriam Engelberg's Cancer Made Me a Shallower Person: A Memoir in Comics—this essay examines the graphic in two senses: first, it strives to enter an emergent conversation about the uses of the visual-verbal genre of graphic memoir as a means to narrate stories of illness and disability; further, it takes into account the popular usage of the word graphic to note the kind of explicitness or excess for which illness narratives are commonly critiqued. Autopathographics offer new possibilities for women to represent the embodied changes occasioned by cancer in ways that register the uncertainty of the disease's temporality in the face of metastasis and terminal illness—part of breast cancer's epidemiological narrative that is too often ignored.


Directed reachability (or briefly reachability) is the following decision problem: given a directed graph G and two of its vertices s,t, determine whether there is a directed path from s to t in G. Directed reachability is a standard complete problem for the complexity class NL. Planar reachability is an important restricted version of the reachability problem, where the input graph is planar. Planar reachability is hard for L and is contained in NL but is not known to be NL-complete or contained in L. Allender et al. [2009] showed that reachability for graphs embedded on the torus is logspace-reducible to the planar case. We generalize this result to graphs embedded on a fixed surface of arbitrary genus.


Climate change scenarios suggest largely detrimental impacts on agricultural production from a deterioration of renewable natural resources. Over the last 15 years, a new field of research has focused on the interactions between climate and conflict risk, particularly as it relates to competition over natural resources and livelihoods. Within this field, there has been less attention to the potential for resource competition to be managed in ways that yield greater cooperation, local adaptation capacity, social-ecological resilience, and conflict mitigation or prevention. The challenge of increasing social-ecological resilience in small-scale agriculture is particularly acute in the socioeconomically and agroecologically marginalized Western Highlands of Guatemala. Not only is climate change a threat to agriculture in this region, but adaptation strategies are challenged by the context of a society torn apart by decades of violent conflict. Indeed, the largely indigenous population in the Western Highlands has suffered widespread discrimination for centuries. The armed conflict has left a legacy of a deeply divided society, with communities often suspicious of outsider interventions and in many cases with neighbors pitted against each other. We use the example of the Buena Milpa agricultural development project to demonstrate how grassroots approaches to collective action, conflict prevention, and social-ecological resilience, linking local stakeholder dynamics to the broader institutional and governance context, can bear fruit amidst postconflict development challenges. Examples of microwatershed management and conservation of local maize varieties illustrate opportunities to foster community-level climate adaptation strategies within small-scale farming systems even in deeply divided societies.


Investigation by spectral gamma-ray (SGR) and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) geochemical analyses of the Upper Jurassic Arab-D reservoir analogue (central Saudi Arabia) revealed a strong correlation between the SGR response of the outcrop lithofacies and their elemental content. The two units of the reservoir (the Upper Jubaila Member of the Jubaila Formation and the Arab-D Member of the Arab Formation) showed distinctive SGR log profiles controlled mainly by their lithofacies associations. The geochemical analysis revealed four groups of chemical associations. Group 1 includes SiO2, Al3O2, Fe2O3, K2O, TiO2, Zr and Zn. This group has a strong relationship with the radioactive elements U, K and Th (Group 4). The reservoir facies exhibit high concentrations of chemicals from these two clusters. Group 2 includes CaO and Sr. A high concentration of chemicals from this group indicates a tendency towards pure carbonate facies and fewer siliciclastic impurities. A high concentration of MgO, the only chemical included in Group 3, marks dolomitic zones. Group 4 contains the radioactive elements. The boundary between the Upper Jubaila Member and the Arab-D Member is clearly defined from vertical SGR log profiles, vertical geochemical data logging and cross-plots of Group 1 chemicals with the radioactive elements in Group 4. The geochemical data for the Upper Jubaila Member show a very low concentration of U, K and Th. Consequently, the SGR response of the lithofacies was very low. All of the reservoir lithofacies showed high concentration of Group 1 and Group 4 components compared with the non-reservoir lithofacies. The Th/U ratio indicates a general shoaling upwards following the same trend of the outcrop lithofacies. A high Th/U ratio characterizes reservoir lithofacies, whereas a low ratio characterizes non-reservoir lithofacies. The lithofacies and the SGR log motifs were related in the measured sections. This study provides a method for predicting lithofacies from SGR log motifs within a high-resolution stratigraphic framework integrated with the geochemical data analysis. Here, we introduce an exploration guide for subsurface reservoir zonation and the identification of formation tops.


A compact and efficient algorithm for digital envelope detection in white light interferograms is derived from a well-known phase-shifting algorithm. The performance of the new algorithm is compared with that of other schemes currently used. Principal criteria considered are computational efficiency and accuracy in the presence of miscalibration. The new algorithm is shown to be near optimal in terms of computational efficiency and can be represented as a second-order nonlinear filter. In combination with a carefully designed peak detection method the algorithm exhibits exceptionally good performance on simulated interferograms.


Studying protein interactions in whole organisms is fundamental to understanding development. Here, we combine in vivo expressed GFP-tagged proteins with quantitative proteomics to identify protein-protein interactions of selected key proteins involved in early C. elegans embryogenesis. Co-affinity purification of interaction partners for eight bait proteins resulted in a pilot in vivo interaction map of proteins with a focus on early development. Our network reflects known biology and is highly enriched in functionally relevant interactions. To demonstrate the utility of the map, we looked for new regulators of P granule dynamics and found that GEI-12, a novel binding partner of the DYRK family kinase MBK-2, is a key regulator of P granule formation and germline maintenance. Our data corroborate a recently proposed model in which the phosphorylation state of GEI-12 controls P granule dynamics. In addition, we find that GEI-12 also induces granule formation in mammalian cells, suggesting a common regulatory mechanism in worms and humans. Our results show that in vivo interaction proteomics provides unique insights into animal development.


Researchers design scripted supplemental mathematics programs for struggling students, such as students with learning disabilities (LD), to encourage an evidence-based presentation of concepts and use of instructional language in teachers' implementation. In practice, teachers may or may not implement these programs with high fidelity, resulting in slight to substantial curriculum alterations. Yet there is a dearth of studies detailing the nature of changes teachers make during instruction or their perceptions of why the changes were necessary. We present a qualitative analysis of 10 special educators' employment of a Base Ten Numeration and Multiplication/Division Strategies intervention with students with LD. Results show that teachers altered modeled practice and guided practice lesson components more than any other lesson component. Three interrelated themes illustrate reasons for pedagogy, materials, and tasks alterations: (a) scripted tasks/script, (b) connections, and (c) lesson delivery methods.


The general aim of the present research is to identify areas of improvement and propose changes in the current methodologies followed by INDOT for design of axially loaded piles, with special focus on the dynamic analysis of pile driving. Interviews with INDOT geotechnical engineers and private geotechnical consultants frequently involved in INDOT's deep foundation projects provided information on the methods and software currently employed. It was found that geotechnical engineers rely on static unit soil resistance equations that were developed over twenty years ago and that have a relatively large degree of empiricism. Updated and improved static design equations recently proposed in the literature have not yet been implemented in practice. Pile design relies predominantly on SPT data; cone penetration testing is performed only occasionally. Dynamic analysis of pile driving in standard practice is performed using Smith-type soil reaction models. A comprehensive review of existing soil reaction models for 1-dimensional dynamic pile analysis is presented. This review allowed an assessment of the validity of existing models and identification of their limitations. New shaft and base reaction models are developed that overcome shortcomings of existing models and that are consistent with the physics and mechanics of pile driving. The proposed shaft reaction model consists of a soil disk representing the near field soil surrounding the pile shaft, a plastic slider-viscous dashpot system representing the thin shear band forming at the soil-pile interface located at the inner boundary of the soil disk, and far field- consistent boundaries placed at the outer boundary of the soil disk. The soil in the disk is assumed to follow a hyperbolic stress-strain law. The base reaction model consists of a nonlinear spring and a radiation dashpot connected in parallel. The nonlinear spring is formulated in a way that reproduces realistically the base load-settlement response under static conditions. The initial spring stiffness and the radiation dashpot take into account the effect of the high base embedment. Both shaft and base reaction models capture effectively soil nonlinearity, hysteretic damping, viscous damping, and radiation damping. The input parameters of the models consist of standard geotechnical parameters, thus reducing the level of empiricism in calculations to a minimum. Data collected during the driving of full-scale piles in the field and model piles in the laboratory are used for validating the proposed models.


Coupling physical and geochemical processes within one integrated numerical simulator provides a process‐based tool for investigating the mobility of contaminants as affected by changing hydrologic regimes and geochemical conditions. We review interactions between physical and biogeochemical processes in the vadose zone, and then present a case study demonstrating these complex interactions. A hypothetical application is presented of the HP1 multicomponent transport simulator to predict the transport of two major elements (Ca and P) and one trace element (U) applied annually for 200 yr to a field soil in the form of an inorganic P fertilizer. Interactions of Ca, P, and U with the solid phase are described using cation exchange and surface complexation reactions. Simulations assuming steady‐state or transient flow conditions were analyzed in terms of temporal variations of the linear distribution coefficient, Kd, which depends strongly on pH and the composition of the aqueous phase. If the composition of the aqueous phase is constant, adsorption of Ca and U increases with increasing pH. Due to the annual addition of Ca, P, and U, and competition between P and U for sorption sites, the Kd of these elements decreased with time near the soil surface. Deeper in the soil, the Kd of U followed the pH increase because of a lack of competition from P. Because of the combined effects of changing hydrologic and geochemical conditions, the Ca and U distribution coefficients and solute fluxes during the transient simulation exhibited large short‐time variations of up to three orders of magnitude.


In traditional economics and finance the notion of value creation is virtually synonymous with the net present value of cash flows. Such a characterization implies that all of the uses of resource inputs, such as raw material and energy, are known and that their value is priced into commodities markets. It also fails to allow for the opportunity cost associated with the depletion of resources which, with advancing technology, might reasonably have future uses far greater in value than can be achieved at present with current technology. Stated differently, in traditional valuation analysis the option value associated with scarce resources –when new technology or knowledge can be applied to them– is not addressed. In the present work, we define technology leverage as representative of this effect. We then address the problem of sustainability of organizations by stating four propositions and examining their implications for government policy and for firm governance.


What is the secret ingredient to securing better long-term investment outcomes? Investors seldom consider institutional investors from an organizational and strategic perspective. Thinking in terms of investment models highlights a severely under-researched area. The authors propose that this different lens is required to make sense of the dynamics in the investment industry and has a lot to offer to boards that are open to this. Five models dominate the investment industry, and the authors identify an emergent one that has its roots in the existing models but takes a strong societal perspective, which they denote the prudent society investment model. Thinking in terms of investment models, boards and decision makers will be able, far better than today, to determine why, how, and what is needed for investment success. TOPICS: Long-term/retirement investing, pension funds, portfolio theory, financial crises and financial market history Key Findings ▪ Every investor works with an investment model: a unique combination of goals, risk appetite, investment beliefs, and governance of investment implementation. ▪ Making the underlying assumptions and consequences explicit is key; otherwise, achieving long-term success is a struggle. ▪ Investment models evolve slowly. The increased focus on long-term, private assets and the incorporation of societal goals are new elements but do not (yet) form an entirely new model. Thus, we have to keep learning from and adapting the existing ones.


Geochemical and isotopic data are presented for 18 representative samples from the intraoceanic phase of the Kohistan arc. A restricted range of initial 87Sr/86Sr (0.7036–0.7066) and ºNd (+2.8 to +7.4) along with measured 206Pb/204Pb (18.0–18.6) are consistent with formation of the arc complex in an intra-oceanic setting. The isotopic data demonstrate the involvement of enriched, DUPAL-type mantle, suggesting that the Kohistan arc formed at or south of the present equator. Subduction polarity inferred from geochemical and isotopic data indicate that the Chalt Volcanics and Kamila Amphibolites represent a forearc and backarc basin sequence, respectively. These inferences are most simply resolved with a tectonic model whereby the intra-oceanic Kohistan arc evolved over a south-dipping subduction zone, implying that Kohistan and India moved northwards on the same plate, although separated, during much of Cretaceous time. Collision of Kohistan with the Karakorum caused a new, north-dipping subduction zone to form on the south side of Kohistan, leading to collision with India in early Tertiary time.


We present an algorithm and a system for high-quality natural video matting using a camera array. The system uses high frequencies present in natural scenes to compute mattes by creating a synthetic aperture image that is focused on the foreground object, which reduces the variance of pixels reprojected from the foreground while increasing the variance of pixels reprojected from the background. We modify the standard matting equation to work directly with variance measurements and show how these statistics can be used to construct a trimap that is later upgraded to an alpha matte. The entire process is completely automatic, including an automatic method for focusing the synthetic aperture image on the foreground object and an automatic method to compute the trimap and the alpha matte. The proposed algorithm is very efficient and has a per-pixel running time that is linear in the number of cameras. Our current system runs at several frames per second, and we believe that it is the first system capable of computing high-quality alpha mattes at near real-time rates without the use of active illumination or special backgrounds.


We examine the effects of pre-existing organizational attitudes on consumer response to cause-related marketing (CRM) alliances, using a Balance Theory framework. Two experiments demonstrate that balanced attitudes (either both positive or both negative) resulted in perceptions of appropriateness, but did not necessarily lead to positive affect. The positive balance scenario led to a synergistic attitudinal boost when both pre-existing attitudes were positive. Attitudinal contamination was evident when either pre-existing attitude was negative. Fit operated within the balance scenario to enhance perceptions of the strength of the CRM alliance, leading to more positive responses.


As someone with Asperger's Syndrome, Wendy Lawson knows all about the social difficulties that accompany the condition. In this book, she guides others on the autism spectrum through the confusing map of life, tackling the building bricks of social existence one by one with humour, insight and practical suggestions. Exploring what it is like to be an adult in an alien world, she looks at the concepts of 'self' and 'other' and talks about the people in our lives -- how to relate to them, how we can use their support and how we can protect ourselves in the process. Using poetry and illustrations, she goes on to explain the difficult notion of putting on a face, looks at how to assess personal skills in order to develop them into a suitable career and how to deal with unwelcome changes in life. This book is essential reading for all those on the higher-functioning end of the autism spectrum, helping them to get the best out of a world that is often confusing and aiding those close to them to understand their perspective. Book jacket.


This paper investigates the local asymptotic stabilization of a very general class of instable autonomous nonlinear difference equations which are subject to perturbed dynamics which can have a different order than that of the nominal difference equation. In the general case, the controller consists of two combined parts, namely, the feedback nominal controller which stabilizes the nominal (i.e., perturbation-free) difference equation plus an incremental controller which completes the stabilization in the presence of perturbed or unmodeled dynamics in the uncontrolled difference equation. A stabilization variant consists of using a single controller to stabilize both the nominal difference equation and also the perturbed one under a small-type characterization of the perturbed dynamics. The study is based on Banach fixed point principle, and it is also valid with slight modification for the stabilization of unstable oscillatory solutions.


Empirical design methods are commonly used for rock mechanics evaluations. An appropriate method of rock mass classification is required to use these empirical methods. There are limitations for rock mass classification methods when access to the ore zone is restricted.

The Cameco Corporation Eagle Point Mine in northern Saskatchewan, Canada, uses the longhole open stope mining method for the recovery of uranium ore. The Modified Dilution graph is used for the prediction of stope hanging wall dilution. The mine currently uses a rock mass classification based on an estimate of the alteration and strength of a rock mass from geological drift mapping. Since this method is highly subjective, point load testing of diamond drill hole core was completed to attempt to correlate the alteration and strength of different rock types to remove the user subjectivity. The results of the testing indicated a general trend of decreasing rock strength with increasing alteration, albeit with considerable scatter.

A repeatable, standardized method of evaluating the stope geometry and inferred rock mass classification for reconciliation purposes was developed. The standardized stope evaluation method removes significant subjectivity currently involved in estimates of stope geometries and the magnitude of dilution. A new lithology based method for interpreting the mine specific geological alteration and strength classification system was developed based on several sources of rock mass classification observations. This resulted in a correlation linking individual rock mass property descriptions between different classification systems for an improved estimate of the Q' classification value. This improved method of estimating the rock classification Q' value, as well as conventional techniques for linking classification systems, was used in a stope reconciliation process to predict open stope dilution.

Twenty-seven stope reconciliation case histories were documented and used to compare predicted and measured dilution, based on three different approaches for estimating rock mass classification values. The results showed a minor improvement in dilution prediction using the approach developed in this study. The systematic stope reconciliation and rock mass classification approach did highlight areas in the weak pegmatoidal rocks where improved rock classification estimates should be investigated.


Background The use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) derived functional cross-sectional area (FCSA) and intramuscular adipose tissue (IMAT) to define skeletal muscle quality is of fundamental importance in order to understand aging and inactivity-related loss of muscle mass. Objectives This study examined factors associated with lower-extremity skeletal muscle quality in healthy, younger, and middle-aged adults. Design Cross-sectional study. Setting and Participants Ninety-eight participants (53% female) were classified as younger (20–35 years, n=50) or middle-aged (50–65 years, n=48) as well as sedentary (≤1 day per week) or active (≥3 days per week) on self-reported concurrent exercise (aerobic and resistance). Measurements All participants wore an accelerometer for seven days, recorded a three-day food diary, and participated in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the lower limbs. Muscle cross-sectional area (CSA) was determined by tracing the knee extensors (KE) and plantar flexors, while muscle quality was established through the determination of FCSA and IMAT via color thresholding. Results One-way analysis of variance and stepwise regression models were performed to predict FCSA and IMAT. KE-IMAT (cm 2 ) was significantly higher among sedentary (3.74 ± 1.93) vs. active (1.85 ± 0.56) and middle-aged (3.14 ± 2.05) vs. younger (2.74 ± 1.25) (p < 0.05). Protein intake (g•kg•day −1 ) was significantly higher in active (1.63 ± 0.55) vs. sedentary (1.19 ± 0.40) (p < 0.05). Sex, age, concurrent exercise training status, and protein intake were significant predictors of KE FCSA (R 2 = 0.71, p < 0.01), while concurrent exercise training status and light physical activity predicted 33% of the variance in KE IMAT (p < 0.01). Conclusion Concurrent exercise training, dietary protein intake, and light physical activity are significant determinants of skeletal muscle health and require further investigation to mitigate aging and inactivity-related loss of muscle quality.


MPI derived datatypes are an abstraction that simplifies handling of non-contiguous data in MPI applications. These datatypes are recursively constructed at runtime from primitive Named Types defined in the MPI standard. More recently, the development and deployment of CUDA-aware MPI implementations has encouraged the transition of distributed high-performance MPI codes to use GPUs. Such implementations allow MPI functions to directly operate on GPU buffers, easing integration of GPU compute into MPI codes. This work first presents a novel datatype handling strategy for nested strided datatypes, which finds a middle ground between the specialized or generic handling in prior work. This work also shows that the performance characteristics of non-contiguous data handling can be modeled with empirical system measurements, and used to transparently improve MPI_Send/Recv latency. Finally, despite substantial attention to non-contiguous GPU data and CUDA-aware MPI implementations, good performance cannot be taken for granted. This work demonstrates its contributions through an MPI interposer library, TEMPI. TEMPI can be used with existing MPI deployments without system or application changes. Ultimately, the interposed-library model of this work demonstrates MPI_Pack speedup of up to 242000x and MPI_Send speedup of up to 59000x compared to the MPI implementation deployed on a leadership-class supercomputer. This yields speedup of more than 917x in a 3D halo exchange with 3072 processes.


Many compelling video processing effects can be achieved if per-pixel depth information and 3D camera calibrations are known. However, the success of such methods is highly dependent on the accuracy of this "scene-space" information. We present a novel, sampling-based framework for processing video that enables high-quality scene-space video effects in the presence of inevitable errors in depth and camera pose estimation. Instead of trying to improve the explicit 3D scene representation, the key idea of our method is to exploit the high redundancy of approximate scene information that arises due to most scene points being visible multiple times across many frames of video. Based on this observation, we propose a novel pixel gathering and filtering approach. The gathering step is general and collects pixel samples in scene-space, while the filtering step is application-specific and computes a desired output video from the gathered sample sets. Our approach is easily parallelizable and has been implemented on GPU, allowing us to take full advantage of large volumes of video data and facilitating practical runtimes on HD video using a standard desktop computer. Our generic scene-space formulation is able to comprehensively describe a multitude of video processing applications such as denoising, deblurring, super resolution, object removal, computational shutter functions, and other scene-space camera effects. We present results for various casually captured, hand-held, moving, compressed, monocular videos depicting challenging scenes recorded in uncontrolled environments.


Tuia Te Ao Mārama is an oral history project shaped in the recordings of Māori mental health nurses who practised from 1950 to 1990 in Aotearoa (New Zealand). Fifteen Māori mental health nursesfrom various iwi (tribes) in Aotearoa were video interviewed by a team of Māori mental health nurses from Te Ao Māramatanga, New Zealand College of Mental Health Nurses. Qualitative semi-structured oral interviews were completed with a range of participants. The data was abstracted, transcribed and analysed, utilising a kaupapa Māori methodology. In this article we present five narratives from Tuia Te Ao Mārama, a snapshot of experiences of Māori mental health nurses. From these stories we identify cultural themes of importance to Māori mental health nurses relevant to improving Māori mental health outcomes. These are taonga tuku iho (the treasures and teachings passed down from their ancestors), pūkengatanga (expertise), te reo me ona tikanga (Māori language and customary practise), rangatiratanga (leadership), and kaitiakitanga (preservation). We conclude with the key messages in these selected narratives, and consider the potential lessons for the transformation of mental health services that more aptly and effectively meet the needs of Māori. This article is based on a presentation given at the Seventh Gathering: Healing Our Spirit Worldwide, Hamilton New Zealand, 2015.


A study was done which examined one college search committee's criteria for an entry level faculty position and the characteristics of applicants to that position. The position, assistant professor of education, was advertized in the "Chronicle of Higher Education" and included nine criteria. Of the 41 applicants only one-third presented credentials in content and format that encouraged serious search committee consideration. Lack of documented expertise in the advertised area of specialization eliminated over half of the applicants from further scrutiny. Additionally, applicants that met less than half of the advertised criteria were also eliminated from the candidate pool. After this initial screening, applicants' potential for prestige (published research) and previous experience in graduate and undergraduate teaching weighed heavily in selecting candidates to be interviewed. The three candidates selected for interviews marketed themselves well: qualifications for the position were specifically and clearly articulated in the cover letter, vitae, and personalized letters of recommendation. Included are recommendations gleaned from the study including suggesting that candidates apply for positions in which they meet at least half of the criteria requested, demonstrate expertise in the area of concentration, provide good cover letters and recommendations, and offer a professional presentation of credentials. Seventeen references are included. (JB) *********************************************************************** * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * * from the original document. * *********************************************************************** Evaluation of Applicants for Employment in Higher Education: A Search Committee's Screening and Selection Criteria


Interest in the future is not new. Economic constraints and acceptability considerations of today compel decision-makers from industry and authorities to speculate on possible safety risks originating from a hydrogen economy developed in the future. Tools that support thinking about the long-term consequences of today's actions and resulting technical systems are usually prognostic, based on data from past performance of past or current systems. It has become convention to assume that the performance of future systems in future environments can be accommodated in the uncertainties of such prognostic models resulting from sensitivity studies. This paper presents an alternative approach to modeling future systems, based on narratives about the future. Such narratives, based on the actions and interactions of individual "agents", are powerful means for addressing anxiety about engaging the imagination in order to prepare for events that are likely to occur, detect critical conditions and to thus achieve desirable outcomes. This is the methodological base of Agent-Based Models (ABM) and this paper will present the approach, discuss its strengths and weaknesses, and present a preliminary application to modeling safety risks related to energy scenarios in a possible future hydrogen economy.


In 1979, a time of clear downturn in U.S.-Soviet relations over such sensitive issues as SALT, Soviet troops in Cuba, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the Carter Administration moved ahead with a series of measures designed to improve relations with Moscow's major adversary in Asia, the Peoples Republic of China (P.R.C.). The purpose of this report is to provide background for and summarize current developments in U.S. - People's Republic of China (PRC) relations, including current and pending congressional actions involving the PRC.


Considered as the next generation computing model, cloud computing plays an important role in scientific and commercial computing area and draws great attention from both academia and industry fields. Under cloud computing environment, data center consist of a large amount of computers, usually up to millions, and stores petabyte even exabyte of data, which may easily lead to the failure of the computers or data. The large amount of computers composition not only leads to great challenges to the scalability of the data center and its storage system, but also results in high hardware infrastructure cost and power cost. Therefore, fault-tolerance, scalability, and power consumption of the distributed storage for a data center becomes key part in the technology of cloud computing, in order to ensure the data availability and reliability. In this paper, a survey is made on the state of art of the key technologies in cloud computing in the following aspects: Design of data center network, organization and arrangement of data, strategies to improve fault-tolerance, methods to save storage space, and energy. Firstly, many kinds of classical topologies of data center network are introduced and compared. Secondly, kinds of current fault-tolerant storage techniques are discussed, and data replication and erasure code strategies are especially compared. Thirdly, the main current energy saving technology is addressed and analyzed. Finally, challenges in distributed storage are reviewed as well as future research trends are predicted.


In response to Professor Harold Hongju Koh's March 2017 keynote at Washburn University, "The Trump Administration and International Law," this essay examines the diplomatic and political rhetoric deployed by past presidents in support of human rights to argue that such "presidential human rights talk" represented an important element of U.S. human rights policy and promoted the transnational transmission of human rights norms. President Trump's complete abandonment of presidential human rights talk signals an end to what remains of American "human rights exceptionalism." Combined with Trump's "America First" approach to foreign policy, which rejects the value of the international institutions the U.S. helped build and sustain over the past 70 years, the end of presidential human rights talk may also mark the end of U.S. human rights diplomacy.


Sexually reproducing organisms produce germ cells in order to pass on their genetic information to the next generation. These cells require specialization during early development and in addition, the protection by the PIWI pathway: a germline-specific small RNA pathway that silences transposable elements through the recognition of their transcripts by PIWI-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) bound to a PIWI protein. In this thesis, several aspects of these processes are studied in order to broaden our knowledge regarding these matters. Chapter 1 provides a general overview of germline development and the PIWI pathway in different model organisms. Furthermore, I will discuss a process called liquid-liquid phase separation, which plays a role in these processes as well, but also in many other biological phenomena and, when out of control, various disease phenotypes including many neurological illnesses. In chapter 2, we investigate one aspect of piRNA biogenesis in more detail: its 3' end processing. This step is catalyzed by a 3'-to-5' exonuclease, 'Trimmer,' which requires recruitment to the precursor by a Tudor domain-containing protein TdrKH. In some organisms such as mouse, TdrKH is therefore an essential factor for fertility of the animal. Using CRISPR-Cas9, we obtained tdrkh mutant zebrafish and observe that, even though piRNAs are longer, likely reflecting 3' end processing defects, we still see that part of the population remains fertile. We will speculate about the possible reasons for this, including the shift to a different arm of the pathway. In mammals, the PIWI pathway has been studied mostly in the male germline. The reason for this is the absence of an essential PIWI pathway in the female germline of the mouse. It has therefore been assumed that the PIWI pathway is dispensable in the female mammalian germline. The recent discovery of an overly active Dicer variant in the murine ovary and the evolutionary loss of a PIWI paralog, PIWIL3, prompted us to explore a potential role for PIWIL3 and piRNAs in the female germline of other mammalian species. Our results, described in chapter 3, suggest that the PIWI pathway does play a role in female germline of other mammals, including humans. In chapter 4 and 5 we investigate properties of germ cell-specific subcellular aggregates formed through liquid-liquid phase separation. The protein Bucky ball (Buc) contains a prion-like domain and is an essential component of the Balbiani body, an example of such an aggregate in the oocyte. This structure is highly dynamic throughout oogenesis and embryogenesis. One factor that modulates Buc-containing structures is Tdrd6a, which increases the mobility of these structures, which is ultimately required for its normal function in germ cell specification. This is described in chapter 4. In chapter 5 we follow up on a mutated version of Buc, Buc-RtoK, which in the absence of a wild-type copy of Buc, fails to form a Balbiani body. We find that, without the presence of a Balbiani body, Buc-RtoK can still phase-separate during the late vegetal pathway. Furthermore, we identify novel candidates that co-localize and affect Buc-structures in BmN4 cells.


An important, yet poorly understood, influence on the hydrologic behaviour of mountain headwater streams is deep groundwater (DG) flow, which circulates at depth through the bedrock system and discharges to surface water or shallow groundwater at stream valleys. In this study, two- and three-dimensional hydrogeological models were generated for both generic and real topography. DG contribution areas were delineated using groundwater pathline analysis, and the sensitivity of DG discharge at headwater stream valleys due to changes in applied recharge was investigated. For some streams, the 3-D nested nature of topographically-driven DG flow results in groundwater that is recharged within one headwater stream catchment bypassing the associated stream valley and emerging as DG discharge in a different, relatively deeper stream valley. Contributing areas of DG to headwater streams are thus more complex than would be predicted based on catchment boundaries alone. Differences in DG discharge and DG contributing areas in response to changes in applied recharge are a reflection of differences in topography and suggest that headwater streams within the same watershed differ in their sensitivity to changes in recharge. A small, but significant, temporal response of DG discharge to a change in recharge is found to occur within a 1 to 3 year timeframe, highlighting the importance of variations in DG discharge for stream hydrology. The modelling approach used in this study requires only digital elevation model data, and thus can be used in regions of limited data and in ungauged basins to provide a preliminary indication of relative stream sensitivity to long-term changes in recharge as a result of climate change, forest management practices, or groundwater extraction.


Efficient content-based image retrieval (CBIR) of biomedical images is a challenging problem. Feature representation algorithms used in indexing medical images on the pathology of interest have to address conflicting goals of reducing feature dimensionality while retaining important and often subtle biomedical features. In case of the vertebra, its shape effectively describes various pathologies identified by medical experts as being consistently and reliably found in x-rays in the image collection. A suitable shape method must enable retrieval relevant to the pathology in question. An approach to enabling pathology based retrieval is to use partial shape matching techniques. This paper describes our research in the development of such methods and initial retrieval results and related issues. The research is a part of our ongoing effort in developing CBIR for digitized images of a collection of 17,000 cervical and lumbar spine x-rays taken as a part of the second National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES II) at the Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications, an intramural R&D division of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.


The ligand for CD40 has been recently identified as a 39-kd protein, gp39, expressed on the surface of activated CD4+ T helper cells (Th). In vitro, soluble CD40 and anti-gp39 have been shown to block the ability of Th to activate B cells, suggesting that gp39-CD40 interactions are important to T cell-dependent B cell activation. Here it is shown that in vivo administration of anti-gp39 dramatically reduced both primary and secondary humoral immune responses to erythrocytes and soluble protein antigens without altering responses to the T-independent type II antigen, trinitrophenyl-Ficoll. Treatment of mice for 4 d with anti-gp39 inhibited the anti-sheep red blood cell (SRBC) response for at least 3 wk and inhibited the expression of all immunoglobulin isotypes in secondary responses to the protein antigen, keyhole limpet hemocyanin. To examine the direct effect of anti-gp39 on Th function, SRBC-immune Th cells from anti-gp39-treated mice were adoptively transferred and shown to be fully capable of providing help. These results suggest that anti-gp39 treatment does not cause Th deletion or anergy. Anti-gp39 may mediate its profound immunosuppressive effects on humoral immunity by blocking gp39-CD40 interactions. Moreover, these studies establish gp39-CD40 as an important receptor-ligand pair for the targeting of therapeutic antibodies to control thymus-dependent humoral responses.


A growing number of states and local schools across the country have adopted educator evaluation and accountability programs based on the use of student test scores and value-added models (VAM). A wide array of potential legal issues could arise from the implementation of these programs. This article uses legal analysis and social science evidence to discuss potential legal challenges by educators to the use of VAM that should be considered by public policy makers. It also discusses potential ways VAM might be used as evidence in support of legal claims by students concerning access to educational opportunity.


Be Kind Rewind (2008), comedy-drama film written and directed by Michel Gondry, can be considered as an alternative film as it has initiated a novel and subversive cultural practice called "sweding". Sweding, initially a term used by the characters of the film that describes their amateur way of remaking the famous cult films, started to be a marginal phenomena and adopted by crowds as a tactic of subverting dominant ideologies of mass culture. The meaning of sweding cut across its original meaning as a way of producing homemade films and started to be described as any kind of practice of re-creating something from scratch using commonly available, mundane everyday objects and skills. This idea of remaking has a critical and subversive potential. In this sense, this paper aims to engage in a critical analysis of Be Kind Rewind's ability to shift meanings of filmmaking using the criticism of Collin McCabe's "Classical Realist Text'" and trace the subversive and alternative elements of this cultural phenomenon of sweding. It will be argued that the style and amateur film production associated with sweded films recall the techniques of the 20th-century art movement Dadaism that questions art and comments on daily life practices. Departing from this observation, the paper will open up the new "genre" of "Sweded Cinema" to further questioning and suggest that there is a potential in Sweded Cinema in challenging Classical Hollywood Cinema just like the way Dadaism countered high art and dominant ideologies of its time.


Information and communications technologies (ICTs) have enabled the rise of so‐called "Collaborative Consumption" (CC): the peer‐to‐peer‐based activity of obtaining, giving, or sharing the access to goods and services, coordinated through community‐based online services. CC has been expected to alleviate societal problems such as hyper‐consumption, pollution, and poverty by lowering the cost of economic coordination within communities. However, beyond anecdotal evidence, there is a dearth of understanding why people participate in CC. Therefore, in this article we investigate people's motivations to participate in CC. The study employs survey data (N = 168) gathered from people registered onto a CC site. The results show that participation in CC is motivated by many factors such as its sustainability, enjoyment of the activity as well as economic gains. An interesting detail in the result is that sustainability is not directly associated with participation unless it is at the same time also associated with positive attitudes towards CC. This suggests that sustainability might only be an important factor for those people for whom ecological consumption is important. Furthermore, the results suggest that in CC an attitude‐behavior gap might exist; people perceive the activity positively and say good things about it, but this good attitude does not necessary translate into action.


In this paper we explore the use of features derived from multiresolution analysis of speech and the Teager Energy Operator for classiication of drivers' speech under stressed conditions. The potential stress categories are determined by driving speed and the frequency with which the driver has to solve a mental task while driving. We rst use an unsupervised approach to gain some understanding as to whether the discrete stress categories form meaningful clusters in feature space, and use the clustering results to build a user-dependent recognition system which combines local discriminants of 4 discreet stress categories. Recognition results are reported for 4 subjects.


Private pharmacies or shops are the source of 60% of the drugs bought to treat suspected
cases of malaria. At the same time 59% of children fail to be treated within 24 hours of
onset. The private sector is the primary source for antimalarials, but parents and carers are
failing to administer those drugs sufficiently early to minimise morbidity and mortality.
This review focused on the way in which antimalarial drugs reach the patient. It also
examined ways in which the delivery system could be improved and how the private facilities
can become more effective sources of both drugs and advice. It has found that there are
many problems with the way that drugs are distributed. Many unregistered drugs are readily
available, and poor storage conditions are likely to reduce the efficacy of drugs even if they
were of good quality at the time of manufacture. For many people the cost of even the
cheapest antimalarial is an issue and purchase of part doses is common. The knowledge of
the staff in pharmacies is poor and in shops woefully inadequate. Nonetheless most people
use shops and private pharmacies as their source for drugs.
There are two overarching requirements:
• First of all the needs and capabilities of the private sector must always be taken into
account before any decision is made about how to make antimalarials more available.
• Secondly, educating the staff and public will only be achieved through a subtle
communications package regularly repeated and brought up to date. For example we
found that many workers in Part II pharmacies remain in post for no more than one
year. Unlike their counterparts in the public sector, staff in the private sector do not
find incentives in attending training courses. Staff in the public sector spend so much
time on courses that their time to actually implement what they have learned is
limited. To reach the private sector staff will require subtler and more cost effective
methods.
The report is full of detailed recommendations for the improvement of the supply systems
and for educating both staff and public.


Perfect Information Monte Carlo (PIMC) search is a practical technique for playing imperfect information games that are too large to be optimally solved. Although PIMC search has been criticized in the past for its theoretical deficiencies, in practice it has often produced strong results in a variety of domains. In this paper, we set out to resolve this discrepancy. The contributions of the paper are twofold. First, we use synthetic game trees to identify game properties that result in strong or weak performance for PIMC search as compared to an optimal player. Second, we show how these properties can be detected in real games, and demonstrate that they do indeed appear to be good predictors of the strength of PIMC search. Thus, using the tools established in this paper, it should be possible to decide a priori whether PIMC search will be an effective approach to new and unexplored games.


A formalism of solid state physics has been applied to provide an additional tool for the research of cosmological problems. It is demonstrated how this new approach could be useful in the analysis of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) data. After a transformation of the anisotropy spectrum of relict radiation into a special two-fold reciprocal space it was possible to propose a simple and general description of the interaction of relict photons with the matter by a "relict radiation factor". This factor enabled us to process the transformed CMB anisotropy spectrum by a Fourier transform and thus arrive to a radial electron density distribution function (RDF) in a reciprocal space. As a consequence it was possible to estimate distances between Objects of the order of ~102 [m] and the density of the ordinary matter ~10-22 [kg.m-3]. Another analysis based on a direct calculation of the CMB radiation spectrum after its transformation into a simple reciprocal space and combined with appropriate structure modelling confirmed the cluster structure. The internal structure of Objects may be formed by Clusters distant ~10 [cm], whereas the internal structure of a Cluster consisted of particles distant ~0.3 [nm]. The work points in favour of clustering processes and to a cluster-like structure of the matter and thus contributes to the understanding of the structure of density fluctuations. As a consequence it may shed more light on the structure of the universe in the moment when the universe became transparent for photons. On the basis of our quantitative considerations it was possible to derive the number of particles (protons, helium nuclei, electrons and other particles) in Objects and Clusters and the number of Clusters in an Object.


Bantu languages are well-known for having multiple remoteness distinctions in both the past and the future. This paper looks at the 4-way remoteness distinction of Bemba (central Bantu) showing that the system is undergoing change that is resulting in the loss of an intermediate past tense, by merger with the remote past. Two factors are central in driving this change; a merger of forms by tone loss and neutralisation and a shift in the scope of semantic function. Because the Bemba tense-aspect system manifests the so-called conjoint-disjoint alternation, there is also some reconfiguration of the TA system that accompanies the merger. The different factors involved in this change are unified under a cognitive multi-dimensional approach to tense, which is here extended to account for language change in tense systems.


Objective: The purpose of this thesis was to examine existing literature about depression in adolescent mothers by focusing on interventions to decrease depression in the adolescent mother population, and to perform a meta-analysis on those interventions to develop a single conclusion with greater statistical power that showed that depression interventions need to be a part of parenting programs for adolescent mothers. Methods: Research studies for the meta-analysis were identified by searching the PubMed and PsycINFO databases. Data was extracted from nine studies that met the inclusion criteria. These nine studies included thirteen interventions. The variables extracted from these interventions were the mean depression score of the intervention and control or baseline groups, the standard deviations, and the respective sample size. The mean depression score for each intervention was standardized because they were measured using different depression scales and to be able to find effect sizes. Effect sizes measured the strength of an intervention, and can be compared to other standardized studies. Effect sizes for the intervention effects on depression in teen mothers were calculated using Comprehensive Meta-Analysis, a statistics computer software program. Results: Findings from these nine studies indicated an overall positive effect size of 0.207 (95% CI [0.115; 0.299]), with a p-value of 0.000, which proved that depression interventions are statistically significant and should be included in teen parenting programs. Conclusion: The pooled effect size of the meta-analysis showed one statistically significant conclusion from multiple studies, which demonstrated that overall, these interventions work. The meta-analysis also showed that multidisciplinary approaches should be explored as a viable option for interventions or programs. The public health relevance of this research is it can help start a conversation within different organizations that work with adolescent mothers to help them discover ways they can adopt and implement these effective interventions throughout their programs or curriculum to decrease depression in teen mothers. It is of public health significance to reduce depression among teen mothers so that they and their children can grow up to lead happy, healthy, and successful lives.


There have been numerous studies on phosphorus (P) contributions from surface runoff, but studies comparing the contribution of surface versus subsurface P are limited, as subsurface transport is often considered negligible. Previous work has shown that the transport of P in the gravelly subsurface at two sites in northeast Oklahoma can be significant, especially in preferential flow paths (PFPs), hypothesized to be buried gravel bars. The objective of this project was to quantify subsurface P losses based on field data, and compare with surface runoff P losses derived from Pasture Phosphorus Management Calculator (PPM Plus) simulations. Ozark ecoregion study sites adjacent to the Barren Fork Creek and Honey Creek, neither of which have received litter applications or extensive cattle production in the past decade, were instrumented with observation wells. Groundwater levels and P concentrations were monitored for several months. Using a P transport capacity equation and Monte Carlo simulations based on appropriate statistical distributions derived from these data, the mean subsurface P load traveling along with the groundwater through the non-PFP flow domain and a single PFP was estimated to be 0.12 kg yr-1 and 0.02 kg yr-1 for the Barren Fork Creek and Honey Creek field sites, respectively. Monte Carlo simulations for surface loads were performed using PPM Plus based on current site conditions (i.e., no fertilization or cattle grazing), resulting in average total P surface runoff loads of 0.46 kg yr-1 for the Barren Fork Creek site and 0.67 kg yr-1 for the Honey Creek site. Simulations were also performed based on typical intensive pasture management for the region with poultry litter application and cattle grazing. These simulations resulted in average total P surface runoff loads of 14.0 kg yr-1 at the Barren Fork Creek site and 9.8 kg yr-1 at the Honey Creek site, two orders of magnitude greater than the estimated subsurface P transport capacities on low intensity agricultural fields. Subsurface P contributions with a single PFP was significant compared to surface runoff loads for the low intensity agricultural fields. These results indicated that the subsurface P capacity of alluvial floodplains in the Ozark ecoregion was at least 0.01 to 0.10 kg yr-1, although the capacity may be higher in cases with greater numbers of PFPs and where the subsurface is connected to a larger P source. Further work on subsurface P transport should address sites with P application and the factors that influence P leaching through the topsoil.


Objective: There is increasing interest in the use of administrative data for surveillance and research in Australia. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the usefulness of such data for the surveillance of mood and anxiety disorder using databases from the following Canadian provinces: British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia. Method: A population-based record-linkage analysis was done using data from physician billings and hospital discharge abstracts, and community-based clinics using a case definition of ICD-9 diagnoses of 296.0–296.9, 311.0, and 300.0–300.9. Results: The prevalence of treated mood and/or anxiety disorder was similar in Nova Scotia, British Columbia, and Ontario at approximately 10%. The prevalence for Quebec was slightly lower at 8%. Findings from the provinces showed consistency across age and sex despite variations in data coding. Women tended to show a higher prevalence overall of mood and anxiety disorder than men. There was considerably more variation, however, when treated anxiety (300.0–300.9) and mood disorders (296.0–296.9, 311.0) were considered separately. Prevalence increased steadily to middle age, declining in the 50s and 60s, and then increased after 70 years of age. Conclusions: Administrative data can provide a useful, reliable and economical source of information for the surveillance of treated mood and/or anxiety disorder. Due to the lack of specificity, however, in the diagnoses and data capture, it may be difficult to conduct surveillance of mood and anxiety disorders as separate entities. These findings may have implications for the surveillance of mood and anxiety disorders in Australia with the development of a national network for the extraction, linkage and analysis of administrative data.


This study examines a commonly overlooked form of criminal activity in the countryside – the act of illegally dumping piles of waste materials onto public lands. After a visual examination of the various types of debris that are commonly dumped in these areas, consideration is given to the attitudes, motives and rationalizations that lead to the act of dumping. This study attempts to contextualize this activity within the framework of environmental sociology, emphasizing how attitudes about the natural environment, but also how the physical environment itself, can affect the propensity to dump. This study employs the more specific and quantifiable activity of illegal dumping piles of debris onto public lands in order to more clearly distinguish this activity from similar or related criminal enterprises that occur in rural America; however, it is important to note that the deviant element of this activity is central to the investigation. More specifically, the extent to which this criminal activity is viewed (by either the perpetrator or the community) as deviant has bearing on whether the activity is discouraged, whether penalties or alternatives are provided, the extent and frequency of this activity and, arguably, whether or not illegal dumping occurs in the first place. Finally, solutions to the problems posed by illegal dumping are considered in terms of wiser public policy informed by these social scientific findings. The Dump: A Visual Exploration of Illegal Dumping on Public Lands in Rural America Vol. 6, Issue 2 (2011)


Research in Psychology of Programming (PoP) and related fields over the past thirty years has identified many important usability issues for programming languages and tools. However, when new programming languages are designed these findings do not seem to have much impact, so popular modern languages continue to exhibit many of the same old problems. This paper reviews the progress of an ongoing project to elevate the influence of PoP on the design of a new programming language. In the context of designing a new programming language for children, we cataloged and interpreted the prior work, performed new studies where questions remained unanswered, and have focused on usability throughout the design. In addition to producing a system that is easier to learn and use than existing systems, we hope to exemplify a process that could be adopted by other language designers to improve the usability of their systems.


Large-volume paracentesis is the procedure of choice for refractory or symptomatic ascitis. However, there is a risk for Post-paracentesis Circulatory Dysfunction (PCD) leading to hyponatremia, renal failure, or worsening portal hypertension. PCD may be effectively prevented by volume expanders, essentially albumin, administered during and after the procedure, but the data regarding the impact of this treatment on mortality are still limited. For this reason, there is a debate about the true clinical benefit of preventing PCD, explaining some variations among published guidelines. The efficacy of molecules other than albumin is still under study but none has shown real superiority so far.


Abstract A new species of naked amoeba, Platyamoeba pseudovannellida n.sp., is described on the basis of light microscopic and fine structural features. The amoeba was isolated from the Salton Sea, California, from water at a salinity of ca. 44‰. Locomotive amoebae occasionally had a spatulate outline and floating cells had radiating pseudopodia, sometimes with pointed tips. Both these features are reminiscent of the genus Vannella. However, the surface coat (glycocalyx) as revealed by TEM indicates that this is a species of Platyamoeba. Although salinity was not used as a diagnostic feature, this species was found to have remarkable tolerance to fluctuating salinity levels, even when changes were rapid. Amoebae survived over the range 0‰ to 150‰ salt and grew within the range 0‰ to138‰ salt. The generation time of cells averaged 29 h and was not markedly affected by salt concentration. This is longer than expected for an amoeba of this size and suggests a high energetic cost of coping with salinity changes. The morphology of cells changed with increasing salinity: at 0‰ cells were flattened and active and at the other extreme (138‰) amoebae were wrinkled and domed and cell movement was very slow. At the ultrastructural level, the cytoplasm of cells grown at high salinity (98‰) was considerably denser than that of cells reared at 0‰.