The history of war has been marked by the efforts of strategists to devise new weapons and new methods to secure rapid victory. However, technical ingenuity and arms superiority are not necessarily decisive on the battlefield. Methods of warfare have played, and often still play, a more critical role than means of warfare. This is particularly true in the present theatres of conflict, which are often characterized by asymmetry between the opponents in terms of means, power, organization and time. The greatest atrocities in recent years have been committed using technically primitive means. Machetes, machine guns and starvation have killed or maimed many more than sophisticated weaponry. The Cambodian mallet and the Rwandan machete have become well-recognized symbols of how internal wars can be fought. The most spectacular acts of terror have been perpetrated using mere box cutters. Technology influences warfare, but it does not determine moral or morality in warfare.


Transforming economies such as the BRIC countries – Ex-Soviet Republics, or Eastern European countries – share national aspirations of becoming innovation economies. These aspirations have stimulated a push for entrepreneurship and experimentation with new ways of doing things. This has created a fascinating context for research on business model innovation, relating to the way incumbent firms adapt their business models or come up with entirely new models. Similarly, new business models may be originated by start-up companies that often are challenging and leapfrogging the 'tired' old business models or simply invent new ones. However, research that specifically explores indigenous business model innovation in the context of these transforming economies is still in its early stages. The MOR special issue on ' Business Model Innovation in Transforming Economies ' aims to address this gap by soliciting research uncovering successful new business models that is indigenous to these economies, as they transition to becoming innovation economies themselves and contribute to strategy and management theory development.


SUMMARY A large alkaline tide (up to 20 mmol l–1 increase in bicarbonate concentration [HCO3–] with an accompanied increase in blood pH) has previously been reported for some carnivorous reptiles within 24 h after ingesting a large meal. This phenomenon has been attributed to the secretion of large amounts of H+ ions into the stomach, which is required for digestion of large prey items. To test the generality of this phenomenon in carnivorous reptiles, this study quantified the metabolic and acid–base status of the Savannah monitor lizard, Varanus exanthematicus, during digestion at 35°C. Following a meal of approximately 10% of body mass, V̇O2 and V̇CO2 were measured continuously and arterial pH, blood gases and strong ions were measured every 8 h for 5 days. During peak digestion (24 h post feeding), V̇O2 and V̇CO2 increased to approximately threefold fasting values (V̇O2, 0.95–2.57 ml min–1 kg–1; V̇CO2 0.53–1.63 ml min–1 kg–1) while respiratory exchange ratio (R) remained constant (0.62–0.73). During digestion, arterial PCO2 increased (from 4.6 kPa to 5.8 kPa), and [HCO3–] also increased (from 24.1 mmol l–1 to 40.3 mmol l–1). In contrast to early studies on crocodilians, arterial pH in V. exanthematicus remained relatively stable during digestion (7.43–7.56). Strong ions contributed little to the acid–base compensation during the alkalosis. Collectively the data indicate that the metabolic alkalosis associated with H+ secretion (as indicated by increased plasma bicarbonate) is partially compensated by a respiratory acidosis.


Abstract The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) recognized the need to balance growth of industrial development with consideration of its effect on the environment. One of the major factors under NEPA consideration is appropriate technology with respect to use of appropriate energy resources for large-scale generation of electricity and transportation fuel. To reduce dependence on petroleum-based transportation fuels, some combination of renewable and nuclear energy will be required for a sustainable electricity and fuel supply. Specific energy of available fuels is a useful parameter for selecting the appropriate technologies for large-scale applications. At least three methods are available for producing hydrogen fuel with nuclear technology.


There is a clear correlation between the text of L'Étranger of Camus and Meursault, contre-enquête of Kamel Daoud, fertility is sure. Daoud, living in a previously colonised minority context, manipulates Camus' memorised coded speech to make himself heard. Is it a confrontation or a duplication of speech? The writing attempts to find points of instability and mobility likely to ruin the 'temple' of a monumental literary building. Emphasis will be placed on this gesture of appropriation and the polyphony of the text sited between recovery and transgression. This play of intertextuality creates a discursiveness that destabilizes the reader. The reading follows a retroactive investigation that goes beyond an experience of negativity by traversing a path between myth and fantasy that visualises a peaceful relationship between East and West.


Age of Obama: A Reporter's Journey with Clinton, McCain and Obama in The Making of the President 2008. Mark Curtis. Ann Arbor, MI: Nimble Books, 2009. 228 pp. $20.51 pbk. Mark Curtis is a seasoned radio and television anchor /reporter and blogger who spends more than 200 pages offering his impressions and memories of the 2008 presidential election. Curtis recounts what he saw on the campaign trail, the everyday Americans he interviewed, how his position as a freelancer assisted and hampered his reporting, and how so-called new media allowed him to report in ways he could not have in years past. Curtis also was pursuing a doctorate in 2008, and he attempts to incorporate lessons from the classroom into his book It is because of Curtis' professional and academic background that this reviewer expected much more than this book delivered. There are at least two shortcomings to Age of Obama that educators need to consider in determining whether to use it in their classrooms: (1) An unexpected number of factual and typographical errors, and (2) a lack of substantive analysis of Curtis' experiences on the campaign trail. Given that Curtis has spent almost three decades in journalism, and that he is pursuing a terminal degree, the number of factual errors and the overall quality of the writing were disappointing. Curtis references Iowa (not Idaho) when he discusses "the Potato State [and] the home of Sun Valley." At one point, he indicates Iowa is 97% Caucasian; three pages later that figure is reduced to 95%. Later, the first name of boxer Muhammed Ali is misspelled. He also repeatedly states that Barack Obama delivered his Democratic National Convention address at Mile High Stadium. That facility was replaced earlier in this decade by a new stadium called Invesco Field at Mile High. In addition, far too many typos mar this book. Curtis also seems infatuated with exclamation points. They are found in every chapter, and they are a distraction! This is not a breaking-news account with still-fresh emotions highlighted in the reporting. Rather, Curtis should have replaced his emotional reactions to the campaign trail with thoughtful and sober analysis. It is in that critical area of analysis that Curtis' work also comes up short. The media were quick to point out in 2008 that former President Bill Clinton could be an asset to or a drain on his wife's presidential aspirations. Curtis' travels ensured that he covered events at which the former president was in attendance, but he fails to evaluate fully what role, if any, Mr. Clinton ultimately played in how the Democratic race turned out. This book was published early this year, meaning Curtis had time to offer important insights that would have enhanced its value. …


The aim of the study was to find the optimum combination of materials and thicknesses to provide a tough, damage resistant multi-layer system with numerical methods to restore the damaged teeth. Extended Finite Element Method (XFEM) was used to assess the critical loads for the onset of damage modes such as radial cracks and plastic deformation in dental prostheses, which consist of a brittle outerlayer (porcelain)/ metal (Au, Pd, Co)-core/ substrate (dentin) trilayer system. XFEM not only has the ability to model crack initiation process, but also could solve crack propagation problems. Generally speaking, porcelain layer shouldn't be thinner than 0.5 mm, as the stresses due to bending become tensile critically in porcelain undersurfaces and radial cracks would occur in low loads. Also, it could be concluded that XFEM in axisymmetric model could properly estimate crack initiation and propagation path. Yielding of metal core makes additional flexural stress at overlaying brittle surface and consequently, facilitates radial cracks. In dental applications, the optimum porcelain thickness would be between 0.75 and 1.25 mm. Furthermore, yield strength and stiffness of metal is better to be high sufficiently to prevent it from plastic deformation and ensuing radial cracks.


American cranberries (Vaccinium macrocarpon L.) contain significant quantities of various phenolic compounds. Most of these compounds are recovered when berry juice is produced. However, a considerable part of polyphenols remain in berry press residues and are discarded as food industry waste. The aim of the study was to compare the methods of extraction of polyphenols (ultrasound, microwave-assisted, Soxhlet) from press residues of American cranberry. The impact of main extraction parameters (e.g., extraction time, solid/solvent ratio, solvent type) on the yield of extracted polyphenols. Ultrasound-assisted extraction showed the highest potential from all studied methods, given its fast, convenient use and low cost. Aqueous ethanol and methanol in the presence of acid (anthocyanin extractions should be assisted with trifluoroacetic acid, polyphenol extractions – with HCl) were assessed as the best solvents for extraction. The obtained extracts were characterised using the Folin-Ciocaulteu method for determination of total phenolics and the pH-differential method for determination of total anthocyanins, and UPLC–PDA was used to determine the content of individual anthocyanins. Cyanidin-3-O-arabinoside, peonidin-3-O-galactoside, peonidin-3-O-glucoside and peonidin-3O-arabinoside were identified as the main anthocyanins in cranberry press residue extracts.


BACKGROUND
Congenital heart diseases are commonly associated with other extra cardiac congenital malformations.

OBJECTIVE
To identify congenital heart diseases associated with identified syndromes and other extra cardiac congenital malformations in children in our hospital.

METHODS
A prospective descriptive study done on children with congenital malformations referred to the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Nigeria (LUTH) for echocardiographic evaluation. A thorough 2D assessment of the chambers, septa, heart vessels and concordance of the atrium and ventricle and the great vessels was made. Echo-cardiographic data obtained included M mode direct measurements of dimensions of left atrium, aortic root, right ventricular outflow tract, left ventricle in diastole/systole, wall thicknesses--right ventricular wall, interventricular septum, left ventricular posterior wall. Fractional shortening was derived from M mode data. Final diagnosis of the congenital heart disease was recorded.

RESULTS
A total of 101 children with congenital malformations had echocardiography studies done as part of their clinical evaluation, 15 (14.9%) were neonates, 53 (52.5%) infants 25 (24.8%) were aged one to five years and 8 (7.9%) were above five years of age. Recognised syndromes were seen in 69 (68%) cases. Down syndrome with 54 children contributed 78.3% of those with known syndromes. Other identified syndromes and associations were Marfan's, Noonan's, Edwards, Prune Belly, Apert, Ellis-van Creveld syndrome and congenital rubella syndrome. Congenital heart diseases were detected in 73 (72.3%) patients while 28 (27.7%) had no heart defect. The commonest identified congenital heart disease was ventricular septal defect affecting 30 (29.7%) patients.

CONCLUSION
Congenital heart diseases are common in children with congenital malformations. Down syndrome was the most common malformation and the congenital heart disease most associated with the congenital malformations was ventricular septal defect. This study emphasizes the need for cardiac assessment of children with congenital malformations.


IL28B host genetic make-up is known to play a critical role in the outcome of genotype 1 hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in the context of both primary infection and therapy. However, the role of IL28B in subtype 3a infection remains unclear, and has not yet been assessed in the UK population where subtype 3a is dominant. In this study, we evaluated the role of the IL28B single-nucleotide polymorphism rs8099917 in 201 patients recruited from two well-defined cohorts (from Nottingham and Oxford), treated with the standard-of-care therapy of pegylated interferon and ribavirin for 24 weeks. We showed that the 'favourable' IL28B gene was associated with a rapid virological response to therapy at 4 weeks (P<0.0001), but not with a sustained virological response to therapy. The median viral load at baseline, before therapy, was markedly increased in people with the 'favourable' IL28B genotype [median viral load for the TT allele, 925,961 IU ml(-1) (range 2200-21,116,965 IU ml(-1)), and for the GT or GG allele, 260,284 IU ml(-1) (range 740-7,560,000 IU ml(-1)); P = 0.0010]. Our results suggest that the host genetic response plays an important role in early viral clearance of subtype 3a virus from the blood. However, significant reservoirs of infection must persist, as viral relapse is common, even in those with the favourable host genotype.


Background: Anecdotal evidence suggests that a vertical small-needle injection method enters the caudal epidural space with com- parable ecacy to cephalad-directed methods, with less intravascular injection. Objectives: Assess the success rate of vertical caudal epidural injection using epidurography and the frequency of intravascular injection using a vertical small-needle approach. Patients and Methods: Participants had chronic generalized non-surgical low back pain and either gluteal and/or leg pain and were enrolled in a simultaneous clinical trial assessing the analgesic eect of 5% dextrose epidural injection. A 25 gauge 3.7 cm hy- podermic needle was placed at the sacral hiatus using a fingertip-guided vertical technique without imaging assistance, followed by fluoroscopic epidurography. Minimal needle redirection was allowed up to 10 degrees from the vertical plane if the initial epiduro- gram showed an extradural pattern, followed by repeat epidurography. Results: First needle placement without imaging resulted in blood return in 1/199 participants and positive epidurography in 179/199 (90%). Minimal needle repositioning resulted in a positive epidurogram in the remaining 19 attempts. No intravascular injection patterns were observed. Conclusions: This compares favorably to published success rates of fluoroscopically-guided technique and was well tolerated. Ver- tical caudal epidural injection may be suitable for combination with ultrasound-guided methods with Doppler flow monitoring.


Chronic liver disease at initial stages often occurs with no symptoms or with very non-specific symptoms, so timely diagnosis of chronic liver disease is of great importance, and there are significant difficulties involved therein. Not being able to diagnose the hepatic disease early, difficulties with the management of the disease and treatment arise. Different aspects of the clinical and laboratory evaluation may be of assistance in providing an early diagnosis, ranging from laboratory tests, to ultrasound, to EGD, and to rheohepatography (not used that frequently) among others. Stages of hepatitis affect the hepatic and general symptoms, and morphological changes in liver tissue are presented and discussed, followed by a section devoted to hepatic encephalopathy (HE) and how it is influenced by cerebral hemodynamics and state of liver cirrhosis (LC).


In 2006, an intra-institutional partnership was formed between the William and Anita Newman Library at Baruch College, City University of New York (CUNY) and the CUNY School of Professional Studies (SPS) for the provision of library services to the university's first entirely online degree program in the fall of 2006, the CUNY Online BA in Communication and Culture. Since 2006, SPS has grown exponentially. Currently, SPS offers 10 undergraduate degrees, including a BS in nursing and six masters' degrees, including MS degrees in urban studies, data analytics, and an MA in applied theatre. Integrating a new and growing school with its own unique practical and programmatic needs into an existing college library posed unique challenges and opportunities in an effort to provide the same suite of services to the externally based SPS distance community as those offered to traditional Baruch students and faculty. The experience of launching such services is examined through the lens of the current literature for the purposes of highlighting examples of lessons learned for the benefit to librarians currently supporting or considering support for an influx distance learners at their institutions. This paper describes the author's experiences as the library's liaison to the school in planning, launching, and providing highly used library services for this unique urban population while at the same time establishing a foundation for providing similar services for our home institution.


This article deconstructs previous notions of pregnancy. Using empirical data from French women's experience with RU486 for medical abortion, I demonstrate that very early and unwanted conceptions have an ambiguous quality. I illustrate an understanding of pregnancy as a reproductive continuum: these women understand pregnancy to include a stage where "eggs," and not fetuses, are present. I discuss how the use of RU486 creates new ways of knowing about the fetus, and I compare an understanding of the fetus by women using RU486 with previous understandings from ultrasound images, in utero photography, and the imagination. I demonstrate that women's embodied knowledge can expand the parameters of fetal discourse. [RU486, fetal discourse, embodied knowledge, abortion, reproductive technology]


Abstract The paper develops a model of firm´s investment under uncertainty with financial market imperfections and analyzes the effects of financial constraints on firm´s investment. Firm´s investment is an increasing function of the firm´s marginal q, however the investment function is characterized by an upper bound that depends on the firm´s borrowing capabilities. The firm´s marginal q is the sum of the expected value of the marginal profitability of the physical capital stock and of a positive external finance premium. In the presence of financial market imperfections the firm forms expectations about future financial conditions and these expectations raise the firm´s current marginal q. Similarly, the shadow price of firm´s debt is the sum of the interest cost of debt repayment and of a provision for external finance that depends on the firm´s expectations over future financial conditions.


Interactive medical devices such as infusion pumps, monitors and diagnostic devices help save lives. However, they are also safety critical in that they may fail in use and patient harm or death ensue. It is not just that the software and hardware should meet their specification. The design should help ensure users do not make mistakes. Safety factors become more important as medical devices become mobile and are used by patients as part of their everyday life rather than by trained professionals in well-defined hospital environments. Regulators are increasingly taking home-use seriously as a result of device recalls due to devices that have caused patient harm. We give insights from the research on the CHI+MED project (www.chi-med.ac.uk). It has focussed on understanding how the design of interactive medical devices can support safety. CHI+MED also developed practical tools and guidance that we review.


ABSTRACT What characterises strategic communication aimed at building the reputation of an entire public subsector? This is the main question for this study, pursued through content analysis of one-stop web portals for national higher education from the 21 countries listed in the Times Higher Education's Top 150 Universities ranking. Findings show that strategic communication is formed by national governments to depict their higher education sector as a coherent whole without letting prominent universities "represent" the higher education sector. The tension between similarity and difference that often occurs in public sector reputation-building is handled partly by emphasising similarity concerns in the structure and format of the presentations, and partly by emphasising differentiation concerns in the contents of the presentations. Furthermore, in contrast to previous studies addressing either the reputation management and branding efforts of single institutions, specific public sector entities, or those of nations, this study shows how higher education reputation-building integrates these different levels through strategic communication.


In energy systems, the transition from traditional, centralized architecture and controllable generation to an ever more decentralized and volatile generation due to an increasing use of renewable energy sources arises new challenges for the management and balancing of the electricity grid. These can be met through energy management systems (EMS) that enable flexible consumption and production of energy on the demand side of the grid. The EMS for smart buildings that is used within this paper allows for the integration of a multitude of devices through an architectural approach which is similar to "plug-and-play". These devices can then be optimized to a flexible load shape by an Evolutionary Algorithm (EA). The differentiated optimization capabilities of the devices require adequate encoding schemes. Such schemes are the major contribution of this paper. The aptitude of these encodings is shown and validated through the simulation of smart buildings with different configurations, both concerning quantitative and qualitative benefits to be achieved according to energy systems' transition and users' objectives.


Current major road mapping efforts, such as ManuFuture, FutMan and EUPASS, have all clearly underlined that true industrial sustainability will require far higher levels of systems' autonomy and adaptability. In accordance with these recommendations, the Evolvable Production Systems (EPS) has aimed at developing such technological solutions and support mechanisms. Since its inception in 2002 (Onori, M., 2002. In: ISR2002 – 33rd International Symposium on Robotics, Stockholm, 617–621) as a next generation of production systems, the concept is being further developed and tested to emerge as a production system paradigm. The essence of evolvability resides not only in the ability of system components to adapt to the changing conditions of operation but also to assist in the evolution of these components in time such that processes may become self-X, X standing for one or more desirable properties of a system subjected to a variable operation condition such as self-evolvable, self-reconfigurable, self-tuning, self-diagnosing, and so on. Characteristically, evolvable systems have distributed control and are composed of integrated intelligent modules. To assist the development and life cycle issues, comprehensive methodological framework is being developed. A concerted effort is being exerted through European research projects in collaboration with European manufacturers, technology/equipment suppliers and universities. After briefly stating the fundamental concepts of EPS, this article presents current developments and applications.


Background: Education planning requires accurate and efficient projection models. Current projection models either do not make use of all available information and are reliant on idiosyncratic expert judgement, or are too complex to be maintained and explained.
Aims: To test whether a multiregional projection model performs better than current methodology in explaining and projecting school enrolments in a school system with student mobility.
Data and methods: A multiregional cohort model was developed for projecting enrolments for multiple schools or districts simultaneously. For illustration, data were obtained for all government schools in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) for the years 2008–2016. Multiregional projections were compared with a cohort transition model and the ACT Education Directorate's own projections.
Results: (i) There is great diversity in the sources of school enrolment growth that need to be accommodated in enrolment projections; and (ii) multiregional projections perform slightly better than traditional methods with less effort and more transparency.
Conclusion: A sources of growth approach guides the understanding of enrolment change, which is critical for making informed projections.


Different real-world applications of multilabel classification often demand different evaluation criteria. We formalize this demand with a general setup, cost-sensitive multi-label classification (CSMLC), which takes the evaluation criteria into account during learning. Nevertheless, most existing algorithms can only focus on optimizing a few specific evaluation criteria, and cannot systematically deal with different ones. In this paper, we propose a novel algorithm, called condensed filter tree (CFT), for optimizing any criteria in CSMLC. CFT is derived from reducing CSMLC to the famous filter tree algorithm for cost-sensitive multi-class classification via constructing the label powerset. We successfully cope with the difficulty of having exponentially many extended-classes within the powerset for representation, training and prediction by carefully designing the tree structure and focusing on the key nodes. Experimental results across many real-world datasets validate that CFT is competitive with special purpose algorithms on special criteria and reaches better performance on general criteria.


OBJECTIVES
To describe an artefact, termed the fish scale artefact, present on an intraoral imaging receptor.

METHODS
Thirty brand new DIGORA Optime photostimulable phosphor (PSP) plates (Soredex/Orion Corp., Helsinki, Finland) were imaged using the dental digital quality assurance radiographic phantom (Dental Imaging Consultants LLC, San Antonio, TX). All PSP plates were scanned at the same spatial resolution (dpi) using the high resolution mode. Two evaluators assessed all 30 plates. Each evaluator assessed the 30 PSP plates separately for purposes of establishing interrater reliability, and then together in order to obtain the gold standard result.

RESULTS
The fish scale artefact was detected on 46.7% of the PSP plates. The kappa coefficient for interrater reliability was 0.86 [95% CI (0.69-1.00)], indicating excellent interrater reliability. For Evaluator 1, sensitivity was 0.85 [95% CI (0.55-0.98)]; specificity was 0.94 [CI (0.71-1.00)] and overall accuracy was 0.90 [95% CI (0.73-0.98)]. For Evaluator 2, sensitivity was 1.00 [95% CI (0.75-1.00)]; specificity was 0.94 [CI (0.71-1.00)] and overall accuracy was 0.97 [95% CI (0.83-1.00)]. These results indicate excellent agreement with the gold standard for both evaluators.

CONCLUSIONS
Utilizing a comprehensive quality assurance protocol, we identified a fish scale artefact inherent to the image receptor. Additional research is needed to determine if the artefact remains static over time or if it increases over time. Likewise, research to determine the potential sources contributing to an increase in the artefact is needed.


Online child pornography is an unintended aspect of the widespread adoption of information and communications technologies. Child pornography involves the sexual abuse of children on a global basis. It appears that a once limited trade has seen remarkable growth, with the potential to intrude into the homes and workplaces of all those connected to the internet. Occasionally, exposure to this form of pornography may be unintended, but in most cases it is deliberately sought out, retained and traded worldwide. There have been many instances of law enforcement action, both locally and internationally, targeting those involved in the possession or distribution of online child pornography, some of which have involved thousands of suspects. This paper looks at 31 well-publicised operations and considers the law enforcement implications of these for future operations. It starts to fill a significant gap in our understanding of online child pornography. Toni Makkai Director The amount of media attention given to the issue of child pornography has risen dramatically. A search of a global English-language newspaper archive showed that between 1976 and 1989 there were 2,095 articles that referred to child pornography, between 1990 and 1994 there were 4,573 articles, between 1995 and 1999 there were 21,507 articles and between 2000 and September 2004 there were 51 ,270 articles (Factiva 2004). To some extent, the results of the search are affected by changes to database recording practices overtime. The dramatic increase in media coverage also reflects a number of other developments: the proliferation of material through the use of digital information and communications technologies; the introduction in many countries of specific offences of possessing child pornography; increased police activity in response to new laws; and a fascination with the aspects of international networking and the numbers of persons involved. There has been a steady stream of reports of various police operations that have led to the identification of tens, hundreds and even hundreds of thousands of possible suspects, involving a confusing array of individuals, networks and police operation code-names. This paper analyses major operations that have been reported since the early 1990s following the advent of the internet and the widespread enactment of child pornography possession offences. Methodology The following English-language sources were searched for reports of police operations against online child pornography: * the Factiva database of English-language newspapers from 1976 to 2004; * an Australian media digesting service, a Google media alert service, the Cybercrime-alerts service and the Computer Crime Research Center alert service (to collect reports in the period from August 2003 to September 2004); and * governmental and non-governmental agency reports on the policing of online child pornography. Because this research was based on English-language searches, the material derived is principally from Australian, Canadian, United States and United Kingdom sources. The research does not seek to provide a comprehensive global survey or a representative sample of police operations against online child pornography. This study provides a basis for analysis at least for those police operations that have been reported on. The reports considered are not exhaustive, Media reports must be treated with caution, as they may be incomplete or misleading. The details of the matters considered here are therefore drawn from a variety of sources wherever possible. Information, such as the number of persons involved as suspects, persons arrested and persons convicted, should be treated as indicative only. Other limitations of the material presented are: many networks are international and span differing laws against child pornography; media attention is directed to major cases; and there are too many police stings to catalogue here. …


Cycle Space is the first book to view the city through the lens--or rearview mirror--of the bicycle. It features portraits of eight major cities and their respective cycling cultures: New York, Chicago, Portland, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Budapest, Sao Paolo, Singapore and Sydney. Each of these cities has seen a groundswell of cyclists taking to its streets in recent years. From death-defying bike messengers to hipsters with a taste for cycle chic to commuters simply riding to work, cycling is now being viewed as more than just an alternative: it's practical; it's cool; it's green. In Cycle Space , architecture professor and cycling enthusiast Steven Fleming (or Dr. Behooving, as he is known to those who follow his blog, Behooving Moving) suggests new ways of designing better cities, thereby reducing emissions, commute times, ill health and sprawl in the process. Not only can architecture and urban design begin to optimize conditions for cycling; they can also take inspiration from the aesthetics and ethics of cycling as well. Fleming argues that understanding why more and more people are choosing bikes is key for discovering the full potential of the bicycle as a transformative force in the design of our cities. Cycle Space is a must-read for anyone interested in the nexus of architecture, cycling and urban design.


Climate change and permafrost thaw have been suggested to increase high latitude methane emissions that could potentially represent a strong feedback to the climate system. Using an integrated earth-system model framework, we examine the degradation of near-surface permafrost, temporal dynamics of inundation (lakes and wetlands) induced by hydro-climatic change, subsequent methane emission, and potential climate feedback. We find that increases in atmospheric CH4 and its radiative forcing, which result from the thawed, inundated emission sources, are small, particularly when weighed against human emissions. The additional warming, across the range of climate policy and uncertainties in the climate-system response, would be no greater than 0.1 ° C by 2100. Further, for this temperature feedback to be doubled (to approximately 0.2 ° C) by 2100, at least a 25-fold increase in the methane emission that results from the estimated permafrost degradation would be required. Overall, this biogeochemical global climate-warming feedback is relatively small whether or not humans choose to constrain global emissions.


Haemophilus influenzae type b is a common cause of systemic bacterial disease in children, and the serotype b capsule is a major determinant of virulence. Nevertheless, as a consequence of the genetic configuration of the capb locus, type b strains become capsule deficient at a high frequency. To investigate the potential biological relevance of the predisposition to capsule loss, we compared the adherent and invasive abilities of several strains of H. influenzae type b and their isogenic capsule-deficient mutants by using cultured human epithelial cells. In all cases the capsule-deficient mutant demonstrated significantly greater adherence and invasion than the encapsulated parent. Transformation of one capsule-deficient mutant to restore encapsulation resulted in a marked decrease in adherence and invasion. All strains were capable of adherence and invasion by a pilus-independent mechanism. We conclude that capsule loss by H. influenzae type b results in enhanced in vitro adherence and invasion, properties that may be relevant to colonization of the nasopharynx and persistence within the respiratory tract. These observations suggest an explanation for the evolution of the capb locus as directly repeated segments of DNA with a consequent predisposition to recombination resulting in capsule loss.


Hepatosteatosis is characterized by an aberrant accumulation of triglycerides in the liver; however, the factors that drive obesity-induced fatty liver remain largely unknown. Here, we demonstrated that the secreted cell adhesion protein periostin is markedly upregulated in livers of obese rodents and humans. Notably, overexpression of periostin in the livers of WT mice promoted hepatic steatosis and hypertriglyceridemia. Conversely, both genetic ablation of periostin and administration of a periostin-neutralizing antibody dramatically improved hepatosteatosis and hypertriglyceridemia in obese mice. Overexpression of periostin resulted in reduced expression of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor α (PPARα), a master regulator of fatty acid oxidation, and activation of the JNK signaling pathway. In mouse primary hepatocytes, inhibition of α6β4 integrin prevented activation of JNK and suppression of PPARα in response to periostin. Periostin-dependent activation of JNK resulted in activation of c-Jun, which prevented RORα binding and transactional activation at the Ppara promoter. Together, these results identify a periostin-dependent pathway that mediates obesity-induced hepatosteatosis.


This document presents an applicability of existing MPLS protection
mechanisms, both local and end-to-end, to the MPLS Transport Profile
(MPLS-TP) in ring topologies. This document does not propose any new
mechanisms or protocols. Requirements for MPLS-TP protection
especially for protection in ring topologies are discussed in
"Requirements of an MPLS Transport Profile" (RFC 5654) and "MPLS
Transport Profile (MPLS-TP) Survivability Framework" (RFC 6372). This
document discusses how most of the requirements are met by applying
linear protection as defined in RFC 6378 in a ring topology.


The Companies Act 71 of 2008 (the Companies Act) was promulgated in April 2009 and came into effect on 1 April. The purpose of this Act is, among other things, to promote compliance with the Bill of Rights as provided for in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 (the Constitution), in the application of company law. This gives recognition to the constitutional imperative to bring company law within the South African constitutional law framework. This article argues that by including the promotion of compliance with the Bill of Rights as provided for in the Constitution in the application of company law, the Companies Act effectively reinforces a duty for companies to ensure that they should always seek to prevent violations of human rights, particularly those human rights that are directly linked to their operations. This article looks at certain provisions in the Companies Act and argues that the inclusion of these provisions if interpreted in a certain manner will reconcile the values and practices of company law with the related human rights concerns. It argues that the inclusion of the Bill of Rights in the application of company law ensures that human rights concerns are also considered within the functioning of the company. The article then looks at the various provisions in the Act which have the potential to ensure that this position is achieved in the application of company law.


Although the long-introduced Industrialized Building System (IBS) has promised to solve and improve the current construction method and scenario in our country, but the IBS method has not gained enough popularity. One of the reasons is due to lack of research works done to quantifying the benefit of IBS especially in construction time saving. In lieu with such scenario, this study conducted to quantify evidence of time saving in IBS application. The methodology adopted for this study is by modelling the construction process for high-rise residential building for both conventional and IBS with shared more a less the same nature and size of the structure. The model was developed using Primavera (P3) project planning software. The comparison was made by comparing selective building components for both method of construction. Different high-rise residential projects have been selected for this study. The result of the study clearly indicated that sufficient time saving can be archived. Also from this study shown not all IBS components can improved to the overall construction duration, however by adopting IBS components can improve and expedite the construction of 18 stories residential building from the point of departure of the project throughout of the whole of project's with a total 405 days or 42% the time saving.


After Copenhagen and Cancun, fragmentation of carbon markets is in full swing, with the EU and Japan actively dismantling the role of the CDM as "gold standard" currency of the global carbon market. While some political cientists argue that fragmentation could be advantageous for the climate negotiations, economists see it negatively, as it drives mitigation costs upwards and leads to a hodgepodge of rules with high transaction costs. The voluntary market as a laboratory for fragmentation has shown that high-quality credits are restricted to a tiny share, prices vary by several orders of magnitude and registries as well as verification standards have proliferated. Thus fragmentation should be resisted as far as possible.


The third world countries have had simultaneous focus of growth and development in industrial and social sector. In the third world countries both men and women are confronted with juxtaposition of the old and the new, the modern and the traditional and simultaneous new roles and systems. As such both get pulled and pushed between culturally determined responses of relationship and social structures and the new structures of tasks of formal organizations and functional relationships. This paper explores the issue of training with specific focus on women of Africa. Training programmes have focussed on traditional modes of training, viz. knowledge, attitudes and skills. However, there is need in training programmes to generate dynamicity, new action responses and new interfaces with people structure and the environment. It is also important that women look beyond the horizon for new role definitions of their social roles and systems and their formal managerial roles in organizations. New methodologies, management tools and techniques need to be evolved so that women learn to empower themselves to take active role in policies, influence strategies and be part of structure. This is possible by arriving at relevant definitions of organizations, structures, systems and the legitimacy of their roles in it.


SUMMARY 1. The effects of phosphorus enrichment and grazing snails on a benthic microbial community that builds stromatolic oncolites were examined in an experiment at Rio Mesquites, Cuatro Cienegas, Mexico. Chemical analyses of stream water samples indicated that overall atomic ratios of total nitrogen (N) to total phosphorus (P) were approximately 110, indicating a strong potential for P-limitation of microbial growth. 2. Phosphorus enrichment involved addition of 5 lmol Na2HPO4 L )1 to streamside microcosms receiving intermittent inputs of stream water while grazer manipulation involved removal of the dominant grazer, the snail Mexithauma quadripaludium. After 7 weeks, we examined responses in organic matter content, C : N : P ratios, metabolism (P removal, primary production, dark respiration, and calcification), and microbial commu- nity structure using molecular fingerprinting of 16S rRNA genes. 3. Manipulation of snails did not affect response variables measured in these treatments (organic matter, C : P ratio, P removal rate). However, P enrichment significantly decreased the C : P and N : P ratios of surficial materials in the oncolites (organic matter content was unchanged), increased net and gross photosynthesis (oxygen consumption in the dark was unchanged), increased rates of calcification, and increased diatoms relative to cyanobacteria. Heterotrophic Eubacteria and Archaea were only modestly affected. Thus, our results indicate weak grazing effects but strong impacts of P in this benthic system. 4. We hypothesise that a state of severe P-limitation is imposed on autotrophic production in this food web due, at least in part, to co-precipitation of phosphate during calcite deposition. This produces severe P-limitation of the benthic algae and cyanobacteria, resulting in high C : P ratio of microbial mats relative to the biomass of photoautotrophs (phytoplankton, terrestrial foliage) in other ecosystems. In turn, this high C : P ratio is likely to generate severe stoichiometric constraints on the herbivores, thus limiting their populations and resulting in weak overall grazing impacts.


ABSTRACT Systematic variations in compositional maturity of first-cycle fluvial sandstones are found in the Cutler Formation (Permian) and Fountain Formation (Permian-Pennsylvanian) in Colorado and in the Gondwana Supergroup (Permian-Triassic) of Peninsular India. These variations reflect changing climate during deposition. Climate is considered to be the critical factor affecting maturity because source rocks (granite, granite gneiss) and tectono-environmental setting (alluvial systems associated with basement-cored block uplifts) were similar and remained relatively unchanged throughout deposition of all three of the units. The roughly 3,200-m-thick Gondwana succession, consisting of five sandstone petrofacies, is characterized by the following sequence of change (oldest to youngest) in compositional maturity expressed in Q/F/R percentages: 54:42:4 88:10:2 62:34:4 82:16:2 99:1:0. This sequence is a function of the changing paleoclimate (glacial arid temperate humid warm semiarid warm semihumid warm humid) associated with the overall global limatic change and the changing latitudinal location of India as it moved from a location close to the South Pole northward during the interval of time represented by Gondwana deposition. Lithologic and fossil evidence indicates that, during deposition of the Fountain Formation, climate gradually changed from relatively wet and warm to at least semiarid and warm. This climatic change is the main factor responsible for the difference in compositional maturity of the older Fountain sandstone (Q:F:R-65:26:9) relative to the younger (Q:F:R-54:36:10). Cutler sandstone was deposited in an arid climate and has maximum compositional immaturity (Q:F:R-49:44:7). A log/log plot of the ratio of total quartz to total feldspar plus rock fragments against the ratio of total polycrystalline quartz to to al feldspar plus rock fragments is a sensitive discriminator of first-cycle sandstones with differing climatic heritage. Bulk chemical composition data support interpretation of climate from framework mineralogy, but by themselves are not sensitive enough to be unequivocal indicators. The same is true for the ZTR index and observations of degree and abundance of solution pits/embayments on detrital quartz. Results of this study support the conclusion of earlier empirical and theoretical analyses which suggest that the optimum conditions for the production and preservation of a distinctive climatic signature on sand composition are met in extensional plate-tectonic settings. Such settings are characterized by coarse-grained crystalline parent rocks, short transport distances in low-order streams, deposition in nonroutine environments, and shallow-burial diagenesis. However, even in such optimum settings, only rarely will climate be a more important determinant of sandstone composition than the tectonic setting itself.


The Coral Triangle Marine Protected Area System aspires to become a region-wide, comprehensive, ecologically representative and well-managed system of marine protected areas (MPAs) and MPA networks. The development of this system will proceed primarily through the implementation of ecological, social, and governance MPA networks at the sub-national scale. We describe six case studies that exemplify different approaches taken to develop MPA networks in the Coral Triangle region at different scales: Nusa Penida in Indonesia; Tun Mustapha Park in Malaysia; Kimbe Bay in Papua New Guinea; Verde Island Passage in the Philippines; The Lauru Ridges to Reefs Protected Area Network in Choiseul, Solomon Islands; and Nino Konis Santana Park in Timor Leste. Through synthesis of these case studies, we identify five common themes that contributed to successful outcomes: (1) the need for multi-stakeholder and cross-level management institutions; (2) the value of integrating cutting-edge science with local knowledge and community-based management; (3) the importance of building local capacity; (4) using multiple-use zoning to balance competing objectives; and (5) participation in learning and governance networks. These lessons will be invaluable in guiding future efforts to expand the Coral Triangle Marine Protected Area System, and provide important insights for MPA practitioners elsewhere.


Mental health problems are inseparable from the environment. With virtual reality (VR), computer-generated interactive environments, individuals can repeatedly experience their problematic situations and be taught, via evidence-based psychological treatments, how to overcome difficulties. VR is moving out of specialist laboratories. Our central aim was to describe the potential of VR in mental health, including a consideration of the first 20 years of applications. A systematic review of empirical studies was conducted. In all, 285 studies were identified, with 86 concerning assessment, 45 theory development, and 154 treatment. The main disorders researched were anxiety (n = 192), schizophrenia (n = 44), substance-related disorders (n = 22) and eating disorders (n = 18). There are pioneering early studies, but the methodological quality of studies was generally low. The gaps in meaningful applications to mental health are extensive. The most established finding is that VR exposure-based treatments can reduce anxiety disorders, but there are numerous research and treatment avenues of promise. VR was found to be a much-misused term, often applied to non-interactive and non-immersive technologies. We conclude that VR has the potential to transform the assessment, understanding and treatment of mental health problems. The treatment possibilities will only be realized if – with the user experience at the heart of design – the best immersive VR technology is combined with targeted translational interventions. The capability of VR to simulate reality could greatly increase access to psychological therapies, while treatment outcomes could be enhanced by the technology's ability to create new realities. VR may merit the level of attention given to neuroimaging.


This project addresses the successful nitrogen and phosphorus removal technologies being implemented at existing wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), some key challenges and knowledge gaps in implementing technologies, research needs to improve the existing methods and technologies to achieve low total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) effluents (TN <5 mg/L and TP< 0.5 mg/L). Technology and cost assessment of successful technologies for TN and TP removal on a sustainable basis was accomplished by using a "threshold limit" approach to categorize technologies for different effluent TN and TP limits based on desired criteria.

Membrane-based process applications were selected among advanced treatment processes for N and P removal from wastewater at pilot and lab scale technology demonstration studies. The investigations included membrane bioreactor application for N and P removal from wastewater, centrate treatment, and to achieve simultaneous nitrification and denitrification. The results indicated membrane based applications are attractive methods for achieving low TN and TP effluents, but supplementary chemical addition is needed depending on the wastewater characteristics. Full scale implementation of step feed BNR with chemical P removal was demonstrated as a successful technology transfer application at John Egan Wastewater Reclamation Plant of Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRDGC).

This title belongs to WERF Research Report Series .

ISBN: 9781843397892 (eBook)


PATIENT-CENTERED OUTCOMES RESEARCH, WHICH AIMS to assist clinicians and patients in making informed decisions regarding prevention, diagnosis, and treatment, is essential for improving the delivery of quality health care. Much of patient-centered outcomes research relies on observational and quasi-experimental methods applied to data generated as a byproduct of providing care. While existing data sources have improved, there remain important data-related barriers to rapid, efficient research. Recent changes in the policy environment, coupled with significant technological progress, provide an opportunity to surmount some of these obstacles.


The Tura-Masara limestone quarries, near Cairo, supplied stone to the Old and Middle Kingdom pyramid complexes of the Memphite necropolis and also for many temples of the Middle Kingdom and later at sites throughout the Nile Valley and Delta. These underground quarries, commonly referred to as galleries, were previously known primarily from their many inscriptions. Maps with detailed plans of about 70 of the galleries were recently discovered in the British Library. These were prepared at the beginning of the Second World War for the British military in order to facilitate its occupation of the bomb-proof galleries. The maps, which also report the surface area of each gallery, not only provide much-needed cartographical documentation of one of ancient Egypt's most important quarry complexes but also new insights into the quarrying process and use of the Tura-Masara limestone.


Background: The stability of omeprazole (OMZ) decreases in acidic medium. In this investigation, attempts have been made to develop oral tablet containing antacids/buffers to increase the pH of dissolution media for certain time. Materials and Methods: Tablet formulations were prepared by the direct compression technique. For the selection of superdisintegrant, Croscarmellose sodium, used initially was replaced with other superdisintegrants. The prepared tablets were evaluated for hardness, weight variation, thickness, friability, drug content, disintegration time and in vitro drug release studies. During the in vitro drug release studies, the pH of dissolution media was measured. Results and Discussion: All batches showed very short disintegration time, within 0.5-2 min except F1 and S5. Batch F7 was able to provide the immediate drug release. The study showed that the incorporation of antacid improved the pH of dissolution media, but failed to maintain it. Even though the high quantities of antacids were incorporated; the stability of drug in media was not improved. Other superdisintegrants did not show any significant changes in drug release or disintegration time. Bath F7 was stable for the period of 6 months at 40 o C / 75 %RH. Conclusions: Incorporation of higher quantities of antacids failed to retain the stability of OMZ in acidic media.


Quorum replication is an important technique for building distributed systems because it can simultaneously improve both the integrity and availability of computation and storage. Information flow control is a well-known method for enforcing the confidentiality and integrity of information. This paper demonstrates that these two techniques can be integrated to simultaneously enforce all three major security properties: confidentiality, integrity and availability. It presents a security-typed language with explicit language constructs for supporting secure quorum replication. The dependency analysis performed by the type system of the language provides a way to formally verify the end-to-end security assurance of complex replication schemes. We also contribute a new multilevel timestamp mechanism for synchronizing code and data replicas while controlling previously ignored side channels introduced by such synchronization.


Prolonged exposure to elevated levels of ozone (O3) has been proven to adversely affect human health, agricultural crops and building materials. Therefore, ground level O3 is currently regarded as one of the most harmful air pollutants, and identified as a priority pollutant in almost all national and international air quality legislations. Historically, O3 has been regarded as a rural issue because relatively high levels of O3-depleting species like NO from traffic and other combustion sources have helped to reduce its impact in urban area. However, more recently, and most likely as the result of increasingly more aggressive and effective management of NOx, urban O3 levels have begun to rise much more rapidly than 'background O3' in rural areas. As a result O3 pollution is becoming an increasing important urban issue.
Therefore, the main aim of this PhD project is to characterise the temporal - spatial variability of ground level ozone. As in other studies, rural time-series of O3 and meteorological data and spatial parameters are considered as part of the analysis. However, here the analysis is extended using recently collected urban data, most notably co-located O3 and traffic related pollutant time-series and road traffic characteristics (from double loop counters), to provide more insight into the mechanisms driving traffic-related O3 trends. Traditionally, many researchers have used linear, mean-centred (and parametric) statistical methods to ozone. However, here, in light of the non-linear association between ozone and its potential covariates, the focus has been on non-parametric methods. In particular two methods have been extensively used, namely Quantile Regression and Generalised Additive Modelling. Such approaches provide a much more comprehensive description of O3 trends because they are better able to represent the distinctly different behaviour of O3 at concentration extremes.
Statistical analysis shows that on average ozone concentrations are about 26 % higher in rural areas than in urban areas. The urban decrement varies at different quantiles of ozone concentrations and ranges from 10.5 μg/m3 (25%) to 21.56 μg/m3 (30%) at quantile 0.1 and 0.99, respectively. The results of quantile regression model show that up to 90 % of ozone variations between rural and urban sites can be explained with the help of road traffic characteristics. It is shown that the strength and nature (positive or negative) of the association between ozone and its covariates change at different levels of ozone. The model result shows that ozone levels increase towards north and decrease towards east in the UK. Ozone concentration appears to be negatively correlated with the distance from the coast within a range of 0 to 60 km, a trend associated with relatively less dry deposition of ozone molecules on water surfaces. Furthermore, there is a positive association between the altitude of monitoring site and ozone level, most likely due to local topographical effects. Ozone temporal trends show significant variability at different statistical metrics (e.g., mean, median, maximum and selected quantiles). Urban and rural trends have different rates and indicate that urban decrement has been decreasing over the period. Ozone trends during 1993 to 2011 and 2004 to 2011 showed different patterns, i.e., average ozone trends at both urban and rural sites are positive for the former and negative for the latter case. NOx trends have been stabilised during the last 8 years in urban areas and could have caused the ozone trends to change from positive to negative.


This lecture explores the various uses of surface electromyography in the field of biomechanics. Three groups of applications are considered: those involving the activation timing of muscles, the force/EMG signal relationship, and the use of the EMG signal as a fatigue index. Technical considerations for recording the EMG signal with maximal fidelity are reviewed, and a compendium of all known factors that affect the information contained in the EMG signal is presented. Questions are posed to guide the practitioner in the proper use of surface electromyography. Sixteen recommendations are made regarding the proper detection, analysis, and interpretation of the EMG signal and measured force. Sixteen outstanding problems that present the greatest challenges to the advancement of surface electromyography are put forward for consideration. Finally, a plea is made for arriving at an international agreement on procedures commonly used in electromyography and biomechanics.


The present study focuses on judicial officers coming from Constantinople to Thessalonike in the 11 th century. The judge of the theme of Thessalonike was in charge of trying cases in the region. From the second fifth of the 11 th century, however, his jurisdiction was extended to the greater financial and judicial unit of Boleron, Strymon and Thessalonike as well. Lead seals and documents from the archives of the monasteries of Athos prove that many of the krites of Boleron, Strymon and Thessalonike had been previously krites of the velum and judges of the hippodrome who performed their duties in the capital and belonged to the ranks of the "small judges". These judicial officers tried cases that were referred to them, while they could also function as assessors of the "great" or superior judges of Constantinople , i.e. the droungarios of the vigla , the dikaiodotes , the protoasecretis , the eparchos of the city , the koiaistor and the epi ton kriseon . The latter could delegate the authority to try cases to the "small" or inferior judges. Consequently, the judges of the velum and the judges of the hippodrome could also be sent from Constantinople to the themes by the emperor or other officials, in order to examine some cases and then return to the capital. This is confirmed by the primary sources, which mention for example the case of judge of the hippodrome Michael Rhodios, who was sent by Alexios I Komnenos in 1084 from Constantinople to the region of Thessalonike, in order to examine a dispute between the Lavra monastery and the brother of the emperor, Adrian. Some years later Michael Rhodios was sent again to try cases in Thessalonike, but this time as krites of Boleron, Strymon and Thessalonike . Consequently, apart from the judge of Boleron, Strymon and Thessalonike , other judges delegated by the emperor or by high officers could also examine cases there, as happened in other themes . F rom the 14 th century on, as Macedonia developed its own law schools, a person who had acquired legal training and judicial experience in Thessalonike could continue his judicial career in Constantinople .


Image labeling and parcellation (i.e., assigning structure to a collection of voxels) are critical tasks for the assessment of volumetric and morphometric features in medical imaging data. The process of image labeling is inherently error prone as images are corrupted by noise and artifacts. Even expert interpretations are subject to subjectivity and the precision of the individual raters. Hence, all labels must be considered imperfect with some degree of inherent variability. One may seek multiple independent assessments to both reduce this variability and quantify the degree of uncertainty. Existing techniques have exploited maximum a posteriori statistics to combine data from multiple raters and simultaneously estimate rater reliabilities. Although quite successful, wide-scale application has been hampered by unstable estimation with practical datasets, for example, with label sets with small or thin objects to be labeled or with partial or limited datasets. As well, these approaches have required each rater to generate a complete dataset, which is often impossible given both human foibles and the typical turnover rate of raters in a research or clinical environment. Herein, we propose a robust approach to improve estimation performance with small anatomical structures, allow for missing data, account for repeated label sets, and utilize training/catch trial data. With this approach, numerous raters can label small, overlapping portions of a large dataset, and rater heterogeneity can be robustly controlled while simultaneously estimating a single, reliable label set and characterizing uncertainty. The proposed approach enables many individuals to collaborate in the construction of large datasets for labeling tasks (e.g., human parallel processing) and reduces the otherwise detrimental impact of rater unavailability


Abstract A pilot study evaluating the Second Step, Middle School/Junior High®program was conducted to determine its effect on students' attitudes regarding aggression and perceived difficulty of performing social skills. Sixth-through eighth-grade students (N = 714) were surveyed before and after the program was implemented by teachers in intervention classrooms. Second Step students were taught curricular modules corresponding to their year in middle/junior high school. Program effects were tested using a repeated measures design. Relative to nonparticipants, Second Step students in their second year of school decreased in their overall endorsement of aggression and perceived difficulty of performing social skills. Program effects were less consistent for those in their first year of middle/junior high school. Additional research is needed to investigate program effects under varying conditions (e.g., lesson quality, pacing of lessons) and with long-term exposure.


The increase in public concern for the environment has been reflected in recent legislative changes, such as the implementation of provisions of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and more recently with the introduction of the Environment Act 1995, which includes provision for the fomiation of the Environment Agency predominantly from the National Rivers Authority, Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Pollution and Local Government waste regulation authorities.
The Agency, once formed, will be the largest single body regulating the environment in Europe and appears as such to hold the hopes of environmental pressure groups and the public in terms of its ability to improve the quality of the environment. The Government has gone about providing the Agency with support in achieving sound environmental protection by providing it with powers to prevent pollution and requiring it to perform duties, such as enforcing the conditions of the authorisations and licences it issues and monitoring its performance.
The Government has also given the Agency principal aims and objectives and one of them is to work towards achieving sustainable development. The appropriate carrying out of its duties and working towards this goal will be fundamental task for Agency managers and good policy will be required to provide them with the tools to perform well. This dissertation aims to determine the most appropriate strategy for the Agency's policy makers to consider using in enforcing pollution control legislation and carrying out its duties in order to work towards achieving sustainable development.
The research looks at how the Agency can decide what environmental indicators it should use so that progress towards sustainable development can be measured and how it can influence resource usage. It also aims to identi' how the Agency can provide charging incentives to polluting activities which afford better pollution abatement and more cost effective regulation.
Finally, since the Agency's decision making processes need to be transparent, also included are suggested areas of policies on enforcement and examples of good regulatory practice currently in use by those regulatory bodies coming together to
form the Agency.


Abstract In this paper we study the self-propulsion of a dumbbell micro-robot submerged in a viscous fluid. The micro-robot consists of two rigid spherical beads connected by a rod or a spring; the rod/spring length changes periodically. The constant density of each sphere differs from the density of the fluid, while the whole micro-robot has neutral buoyancy. An effective oscillating gravity field is created via rigid-body oscillations of the fluid. Our calculations show that the micro-robot undertakes both translational and rotational motion. Using an asymptotic procedure containing a two-time method and a distinguished limit, we obtain analytic expressions for the averaged self-propulsion velocity and averaged angular velocity. The important special case of zero angular velocity represents rectilinear self-propulsion with constant velocity. In particular, we have shown that: (a) no unidirectional oscillations of a fluid result in self-propulsion; and (b) for the oscillations of a fluid in two directions rectilinear motion of a micro-robot can be achieved.


When "Innocence of Muslims" first appeared online, the video provoked outrage among millions of Muslims around the world. Now the consternation has spread to many copyright experts, internet firms, news organisations, and entertainment companies, who assert that a recent 9th Circuit decision about the movie makes a major change in US copyright law, with terrible consequences for the internet, media, and free speech. Others state that the ruling makes no change at all in US law.


Unlike passive Brownian particles, active Brownian particles, also known as microswimmers, propel themselves with directed motion and thus drive themselves out of equilibrium. Understanding their motion can provide insight into out-of-equilibrium phenomena associated with biological examples such as bacteria, as well as with artificial microswimmers. We discuss how to mathematically model their motion using a set of stochastic differential equations and how to numerically simulate it using the corresponding set of finite difference equations both in homogenous and complex environments. In particular, we show how active Brownian particles do not follow the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution—a clear signature of their out-of-equilibrium nature—and how, unlike passive Brownian particles, microswimmers can be funneled, trapped, and sorted.


The immunomodulatory role of type I IFNs (IFN-α/β) in shaping T cell responses has been demonstrated, but the direct effects of IFN on T cells are still poorly characterized. Particularly, because IFN exert an antiproliferative activity, it remains elusive how the clonal expansion of effector T cells can paradoxically occur in the event of an infection when large amounts of IFN are produced. To address this issue, we have studied the effects of type I IFN in an in vitro differentiation model of human primary CD4+ T cells. We found that IFN-α treatment of resting naive T cells delayed their entry into the cell cycle after TCR triggering. Conversely, the ongoing expansion of effector T cells was not inhibited by the presence of IFN. Moreover, activated T cells showed a significantly reduced induction of IFN-sensitive genes, as compared with naive precursors, and this decline occurred independently of subset-specific polarization. The residual type I IFN response measured in activated T cells was found sufficient to inhibit replication of the vesicular stomatitis virus. Our data suggest that the activation of T lymphocytes includes regulatory processes that restrain the transcriptional response to IFN and allow the proliferation of effector cells in the presence of this cytokine.


This paper details an analysis of BBC reporting of the proposed links between MMR and autism. The study aimed to identify main issues arising from the media reports into the link between MMR and the development of autism, and how these contribute to common understandings about people with autism. The study employed a form of discourse analysis to discuss how the media debates represent people with autism and perceived risks from the MMR vaccination. Sources were collected from the BBC website, and comprised of both Internet pages and reports from radio programmes broadcast by the BBC. The analysis focuses on reports around the time of the British Prime Minister's (and his family's) decision to not disclose whether their youngest son was given the disputed triple vaccine. A key issue arising from the analysis is the ways in which science is used to argue for both the safeness of the vaccine and also the dangerousness of it. Within the media debate of the safeness/dangerousness of the vaccine priority is accorded to the experiences of families who feel directly affected by the dangerousness of the vaccine. Thus whilst scientific explanation retains its powerful position in validating and legitimating the 'truth' in this instance experiential knowledge takes priority. The reports draw on parental fear of 'damage' to their children, where 'damage' is constituted as the onset of autism following vaccination. Implicit within the debate is the notion that an autistic child/adult is less acceptable than a (supposedly) 'normal' child. The issues emerging from the analysis are in sharp contrast to our previous research with adults with autism. While the development of an autistic identity is often seen as a problem for parents and 'experts' researching autism, such identities can be highly valued by those so labelled.


We introduce and demonstrate an all-optical clock recovery scheme for return-to-zero transmission systems based on the buffering property of the temporal Talbot effect. This linear, dispersive, and, in principle, lossless phenomenon allows us to generate a regular pulse train from a pseudorandom (aperiodic) input train. Proof-of-principle operation at one and two simultaneous wavelengths is demonstrated using the single-mode fiber as the dispersive medium to implement the temporal Talbot effect. We examine both the limitations and the tolerance of our approach.


Hybrid slab systems combining fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites with concrete are promising load-bearing structures, and an increasing number of applications has demonstrated their high potential in terms of structural performance and durability. Hybrid slabs are currently manufactured mainly on site however, which limits their economic advantages. The aims of this research are to develop a novel concept for a lightweight hybrid FRP-concrete sandwich slab system, which can be prefabricated and easily installed on site, and provide a corresponding engineering-adapted design method. The proposed system uses three layers of different materials: an FRP sheet with T-upstands for the bottom skin, which also serves as formwork, lightweight concrete (LC) for the core material and ultra-high performance fiber-reinforced concrete (UHPFRC) for the top skin. No additional shear reinforcements are used, resulting in a simple and cost-effective slab manufacturing process. Analytical and experimental investigations on the proposed system indicate that one of the governing failure mechanisms is shear failure of the LC core. A fracture mechanics-based model to predict the shear resistance of the hybrid sandwich slab is presented. To verify the modeling, experiments were performed on twelve hybrid beams comprising two different types of LC materials for the core: sand lightweight aggregate concrete (SLWAC) and all lightweight aggregate concrete (ALWAC). The proposed model demonstrates good agreement with experimental results and highlights the importance of considering not only the LC static strength, but also fracture mechanics properties such as characteristic length. Furthermore, a continuous direct load transmission model is developed to model the behavior of the sandwich slab with loads next to the support. The model consists of a diagonal bottle-shaped strut with an infinite number of transverse ties and is based on the principles of strut-and-tie models for direct load transmission. The statically indeterminate system allows the stress redistribution resulting from post-peak material softening after concrete cracking to be taken into account. This leads to an accurate modeling of the varying experimental responses of eight hybrid short-span beams. Again, the considerable influence of LC brittleness on load-bearing behavior is demonstrated, something which is not taken into consideration in classic strut-and-tie models. In a final step, design examples demonstrate the feasibility of the hybrid FRP-concrete sandwich slab and illustrate an appropriate selection of material properties in accordance with the proposed design method.


Introduction: Increasing the usage of hearts from marginal donors and from donors after circulatory death (DCD) has the potential to expand the donor pool. Such hearts may be resuscitated when subjected to ex vivo perfusion. In addition, this may provide an opportunity for viability testing prior to transplant. We describe a novel ex vivo perfusion system designed to reanimate porcine DCD hearts. The same system was subsequently tested using a human heart from a marginal brainstem-dead donor.

Method: In the first phase of the study 23 porcine hearts were procured following circulatory death. All hearts were subjected to a period of primary warm ischemia followed by 120 minutes of hypothermic preservation. The period of hypothermic preservation was initially static cold storage (SCS); then oxygenated machine perfusion and finally a combination of static cold storage and oxygen persufflation via the coronary sinus. Ex vivo perfusion of the hearts was performed with a normothermic, oxygenated blood-based solution in our Langendorff system. In the second phase of the study the same system was used to perfuse a human heart from a marginal brainstem-dead donor. This donor had not met criteria for consideration of heart donation.

Results: 15 of the 23 (65.2%) DCD porcine hearts reanimated following reperfusion on the ex vivo system. Reanimation was achieved with 63.6% (7/11) in the SCS group; 33.3% (2/6) in the machine perfusion group and 100% (6/6) in the persuffl ation group. The human heart was placed in the system after a cold ischemic period of 7 hours 4 minutes and perfused with a mid-thermic temperature solution for a further 2 hours 40 minutes to allow for correction of hyperkalemia before warming. The heart started to work after a further hour and then maintained until the experiment was terminated after a further two hours.

Conclusion: The ex vivo perfusion system described can potentially resuscitate marginal hearts including those from DCD. The system devised in this study could also be used as a platform to functionally assess marginal human hearts. This mode of viability testing would be an essential step to determine suitability for transplant.


A greatest challenge for society in the 21 st century is to meet energy demand, where biomass is subjected for pre-treatment and converted into biofuel (alcohol). Aquatic weeds are potential bio resources which are easily available for biofuel production. Aquatic weeds like Alternanthera sessilis, Typha latifolia , Eichhornia crassipes, Baccopa monnieri , Ipomoea aquatica and Pistia stratiotes are estimated for carbohydrates content. Highest content of reducing sugar was observed in Alternanthera sessilis (296.8µg/ml), total sugar in Ipomoea aquatic (880.00mg/ml), starch in Alternanthera sessilis (57.13mg/ml), cellulose in Pistia stratiotes and Typha latifolia (280.00mg/ml), hemicellulose in Typha latifolia (26.85mg/ml); high cellulosic aquatic weeds were subjected to pre-treatment methods like physical, chemical and enzymatic method. Meanwhile different yeast strains from the fruits of Manilkara zapota, Cucumis melo, Musa paradisiaca, Citrullus lanatus, Punica granatum and Ananas comosus were isolated yeast of Citrullus lanatus shows highest amount of alcohol production (307µg/ml), which is inoculated to pre-treated hydrolysate, where Alternanthera sessilis and Typha latifolia shows high amount of alcohol in physical method (160.5 and 115.4µg/ml). In chemical method in acid hydrolysis it shows 387.1 and  69.63µg/ml  and  in alkali hydrolysis  62 and  170µg/ml, so these two weeds were taken for enzymatic method for alcohol production, on seventh day Alternanthera sessilis shows highest alcohol production (113.33µg/ml), hence among  six weeds Alternanthera sessilis and the yeast of Citrullus lanatus produces more amount of  alcohol than others and it also shows that enzymatic method of pre-treatment is best in hydrolysis of biomass than physical and chemical method. The study revealed the possibility of producing alcohol from locally available fruits using simple, cheap and adaptable technology with biochemically characterized yeast strains. Int J Appl Sci Biotechnol, Vol 3(3): 446-451


[ Three theories—the expansion theory, the environmental democracy theory and the genesis theory—encapsulate the recent academic debates and controversies around the various human rights approaches to environmental issues. The expansion theory makes use of existing substantive rights to defend environmental interests. While several global, regional and national courts have adopted this approach in adjudicating environmental cases, the expansion theory is of limited use for three reasons. First, it is particularly difficult for plaintiffs to show a causal connection between environmental harm and human life, health or an adequate standard of living. Second, existing human rights cannot easily be invoked to defend the rights of future generations, or even more problematically, the non-anthropocentric interests such as the preservation of species and ecosystems. Third, reliance on existing rights lacks the consistency necessary to the recognition of new rights, which impedes the transformation of this practice into a principle of customary international law. Keywords:environmental democracy theory; expansion theory; genesis theory; human rights , This is the introductory chapter of the book, which seeks to achieve three main objectives. First, it examines the genesis and development of environmental rights (or the Right to Environment) in international law and discusses their philosophical, theoretical and legal underpinnings. Second, it attempts to determine the scope and content of the 'Right to Environment' in the context of sustainable development and the notion of solidarity rights. Third, and most important, it explores the potential impact of emerging environmental rights on the international human rights system. In doing so, the author considers two sets of concepts: first, the possibility of a rapprochement between environmental ethics and the human rights doctrine and, second, the theoretical and practical links among the concepts of development, democracy, environment and sustainable development. Keywords:environmental ethics; environmental rights; human rights; international human rightssystem; international law ]


This thesis explores important aspects of the debates and practices that since the First World War have both extended the meaning of museums and museology, and renovated what was seen by many as a stagnated 19th century model of museum policy and communication. For the purpose of illustrating the manifold nature of these debates this thesis examines the life and work of French museologist and innovator of modern French ethnographical practice, Georges Henri Riviere (1897 – 1985).

It draws on the conceptual distinction made in some international museum literature between museology and museums. This distinction stems from the different assumptions introduced by two long term projects of cultural development: the 18th century projects of enlightenment and the 20th century promotion of an anthropological conception of culture. The former is closely related to the European system of fine art understood as a system of promotion and popularization of the arts. The latter is part of the efforts of the human and social sciences to insert museums in the society they serve and/or to give a democratic representation to the variety of cultures existing in a society at large.

The consequence was the development, in the course of the 20th Century, of two often opposing managerial policies and cultures, one inwards looking, aiming at modernization and professionalization of internal museum functions, the other focusing on closing the relationship of museology and its natural and social environment. The first was essentially administrative and scholar-based, and has thrived with the adoption of a culture of mass consumption and multiplied its functions according to an ever-dominant division of labour. The second is proactive and externally driven, a policy and managerial culture aiming at the management of processes and resources, and at the identifications and development of the living cultures existing in a society.

In this line of thought this research explores the museology of Rivet-Riviere's Musee-Laboratoire as part of a national project of cultural development aiming at changing the relationship of French citizens to their material culture and heritage. As the museological embodiment of the myth of primitivism, Rivet-Riviere's 'structural museology' was shaped by the convergence of avant-garde movements in contemporary arts with the object-based ethnology of Marcel Mauss. It eventually led not only to Riviere's most famous concept, the Ecomusee, but also to a 'museology without walls' and to the diversification and multiplication of local museological practices by which every activity existing in a territory could be given museographical expression.

As cultural activist, Riviere was at the crossroads of major events and personalities of his time, and his museological talent was placed at the service of their concerns and expectations, particularly through his long involvement with the UNESCO-linked International Council of Museums (ICOM). Furthermore, his privileged positions in the culture of its time made him a significant witness, not just of the debate about museums, but of 20th century French cultural life.


Star and Ruhleder's (1996) influential "relational view" of infrastructure is usually understood as a relation between technologies and organizational practices. However, a significant part of Star and Ruhleder's original proposal has been overlooked—that infrastructure becomes a home for somebody. In this paper, we give an alternative interpretation of this relational view by focusing on the relation between a person and their infrastructure, rather than on the relation between technologies and practices. We use Heidegger's (1927/1962) phenomenology in Being and Time to theorize what such a home might entail and a novel data collection method to study infrastructuring empirically from the perspective of a person. On this basis, we offer new theoretically grounded interpretations of infrastructure and infrastructuring. Empirically, we identify two modes of infrastructuring not previously distinguished. The perspective sheds new light on a number of key themes and debates in the literature and on infrastructuring in practice.


This study furthers game-based learning for circular business model innovation (CBMI), the complex, dynamic process of designing business models according to the circular economy principles. The study explores how game-play in an educational setting affects learning progress on the level of business model elements and from the perspective of six learning categories. We experimented with two student groups using our game education package Re-Organise. All students first studied a reader and a game role description and then filled out a circular business model canvas and a learning reflection. The first group, i.e., the game group, updated the canvas and the reflection in an interactive tutorial after gameplay. The control group submitted their updated canvas and reflection directly after the interactive tutorial without playing the game. The results were analyzed using text-mining and qualitative methods such as word co-occurrence and sentiment polarity. The game group created richer business models (using more waste processing technologies) and reflections with stronger sentiments toward the learning experience. Our detailed study results (i.e., per business model element and learning category) enhance understanding of game-based learning for circular business model innovation while providing directions for improving serious games and accompanying educational packages.


Cassava (Manihot esculenta, Crantz) is an important perennial tropical crop for millions of people around the world particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. It is preferred due to its agronomical attributes such as ability to grow in poor soils and drought resistance. Cassava storage roots are also a good source of starch. In addition, cassava leaves and tender shoots are eaten as vegetables in many parts of Africa, Kenya included and are an excellent source of vitamins, minerals and protein. Although most cassava is used for food, it is also used in the production of ethanol for fuel, for animal feed, and as a raw material for the starch industry. Cassava has high photosynthetic rates and its roots can persist in the soil for 8-24 months without decaying, thereby making it an ideal food security crop. In Kenya cassava is a major source of subsistence and cash income to farmers in agroclimatically-disadvantaged regions and high potential areas of Coast, Central and Western regions of Kenya. Sadly, cassava leaves and roots contain potentially toxic levels of cyanogenic glycosides, a demerit that generated interest in this study. Cassava is largely propagated clonally making it an ideal plant for improvement through genetic engineering. The objective of this study was to develop and optimize regeneration protocol for Kenyan cassava varieties and produce transgenic acyanogenic cassava plants in which the expression of the cytochrome P450 genes (CYP79D1/D2) is knocked down through RNAi. Three Kenyan cassava genotypes; Adhiambo lera, Kibanda meno and Serere along with an exotic model cultivar TMS 60444 were used. As a prerequisite for transformation, a reproducible in vitro regeneration protocol was optimized for Kenyan cassava lines using immature leaf lobes as explants. The transformable lines were then taken through Agrobacterium-mediated transformation with an RNAi cassette harbouring cytochrome P450 genes (CYP92D1) to down regulate production of cyanoglycosides. Molecular analysis by PCR and RT-PCR confirmed transformation of the putative transformants. Analysis of cyanide content of the transgenic Kenyan cassava lines corroborated with the molecular analysis data that transformation had indeed occurred. From this study, an optimized and reproducible transformation protocol for Kenyan cassava varieties has been developed. In addition, transgenic cassava lines with cyanide content three folds less than the cyanide content of the wild type relatives were produced. The results of this study disapproves the view that African cassava genotypes are recalcitrant to in vitro manipulations. Production of transgenic lines with greatly reduced cyanide contents will further add value to cassava utilization. This, therefore, is an impetus for further genetic manipulations on Kenyan cassava cultivars to mitigate the various genetic demerits associated with cassava in order to ultimately maximise on the numerous benefits of cassava.


Orbitofrontal Cortex (OFC) structural abnormality in schizophrenia has not been well characterized, probably due to marked anatomical variability and lack of consistent definitions. We previously reported OFC sulcogyral pattern alteration and its associations with social disturbance in schizophrenia, but OFC volume associations with psychopathology and cognition have not been investigated. We compared chronically treated schizophrenia patients with healthy control (HC) subjects, using a novel, reliable parcellation of OFC subregions and their association with cognition, especially the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), and with schizophrenic psychopathology including thought disorder. Twenty-four patients with schizophrenia and 25 age-matched HC subjects underwent MRI. OFC Regions of Interest (ROI) were manually delineated according to anatomical boundaries: Gyrus Rectus (GR); Middle Orbital Gyrus (MiOG); and Lateral Orbital Gyrus (LOG). The OFC sulcogyral pattern was also classified. Additionally, MiOG probability maps were created and compared between groups in a voxel-wise manner. Both groups underwent cognitive evaluations using the IGT, Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, and Trail Making Test (TMT). An 11% bilaterally smaller MiOG volume was observed in schizophrenia, compared with HC (F(1,47) = 17.4, P = 0.0001). GR and LOG did not differ, although GR showed a rightward asymmetry in both groups (F(1,47) = 19.2, P < 0.0001). The smaller MiOG volume was independent of the OFC sulcogyral pattern, which differed in schizophrenia and HC (chi2 = 12.49, P = 0.002). A comparison of MiOG probability maps suggested that the anterior heteromodal region was more affected in the schizophrenia group than the posterior paralimbic region. In the schizophrenia group, a smaller left MiOG was strongly associated with worse 'positive formal thought disorder' (r = -0.638, P = 0.001), and a smaller right MiOG with a longer duration of the illness (r = -0.618, P = 0.002). While schizophrenics showed poorer performance than HC in the IGT, performance was not correlated with OFC volume. However, within the HC group, the larger the right hemisphere MiOG volume, the better the performance in the IGT (r = 0.541, P = 0.005), and the larger the left hemisphere volume, the faster the switching attention performance for the TMT, Trails B (r = -0.608, P = 0.003). The present study, applying a new anatomical parcellation method, demonstrated a subregion-specific OFC grey matter volume deficit in patients with schizophrenia, which was independent of OFC sulcogyral pattern. This volume deficit was associated with a longer duration of illness and greater formal thought disorder. In HC the finding of a quantitative association between OFC volume and IGT performance constitutes, to our knowledge, the first report of this association.


The aggregation behavior, critical micelle concentration (cmc) and micelle aggregation number (N), of dodecyl maltoside (DM), octyl glucoside (OG), and Hecameg has been investigated in water and in water plus one of the three water-soluble polymers, polyoxyethylene (POE), polyoxypropylene (POP), and polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP), by means of florescence probing and time-resolved fluorescence quenching. The cmc of DM in water increased with temperature and showed a slight increase in the presence of POE. The aggregation number N of DM micelles was nearly independent of concentration (0.25-1 wt %) and temperature (16-60 degreesC). It remained invariant upon addition of 2 wt % POE or PVP but decreased slightly upon addition of the more hydrophobic POP. With increasing temperature, the cmc of OG decreased, went through a shallow minimum at around 35 degreesC, and increased. Addition of POE slightly increased the cmc in the whole temperature range. The aggregation number of OG micelles showed a fairly flat maximum at around 30 degreesC, and was unaffected by the presence of 2 wt % POE or PVP. However, N showed a complex dependence on temperature in the presence of POP, with lower values than in pure water below 15 degreesC, and rapidly increasing quencher-dependent values above this temperature. Hecameg was characterized by N-values nearly independent of temperature and concentration. Intermicellar exchanges of probe and/or quencher were observed with OG and Hecameg, but not with DM. The above results are compared to those for the nonionic ethoxylated surfactants. The effect of various parameters on the micelle aggregation number, the micelle polydispersity, the occurrence of sugar surfactant/nonionic polymer interactions, and the mechanisms responsible for the observed intermicellar exchanges are discussed. Copyright 1998 Academic Press.


Medical wastes are wastes released during healthcare. The institutions with the highest medical waste generation are hospitals. However, medical wastes are generated at many points, such as health cabins, pharmacies and infirmary facilities that employ more than 50 workers. Although 75-90% of these wastes fall under the general waste category, the rest fall into hazardous waste. Medical wastes are beginning to form in large volumes today due to the developing technology, increasing welfare level and widespread health services. Especially, the increase in the use of disposable devices and consumables used to provide hygiene are the most important factors that increase the formation of medical waste. In addition to being infected, medical wastes contain hazardous chemicals, drugs, toxins, radioactive substances, etc. Medical wastes are in hazardous / risky waste group that threatens human and environmental health. The separation, temporary storage, transportation and disposal of medical wastes in hospitals is critical for the environment and human health. In this study, investigation of waste incineration processes, one of the methods of disposal of medical wastes threatening the environment and human health, and examination of emissions released after incineration will be carried out.


The doublet system that consisting of injection and production wells is utilized for heat extracting from the aquifer. This work presents the doublet calculator using the ThermoGIS analysis. It is an analytical calculator software for subsurface flows. It contains a large variety of potential aquifer maps. The geothermal aquifer groups were determined. The relevant data were imported from the geological maps. Recently, the compiled geothermal location maps are collected in one framework. An example map and location have been used to show some parameters for geothermal extraction. The uncertainties of the hydro-geological properties could be also considered in term of standard deviations. ThermoGIS software has the abilities to describe the aquifer performance. The users can change the required data according to their measurements and desired performance. By using hydro-geotechnical and drilling parameters, the performance can be determined accordingly.