One problem of data-driven answer extraction in open-domain factoid question answering is that the class distribution of labeled training data is fairly imbalanced. In an ordinary training set, there are far more incorrect answers than correct answers. The class-imbalance is, thus, inherent to the classification task. It has a deteriorating effect on the performance of classifiers trained by standard machine learning algorithms. They usually have a heavy bias towards the majority class, i.e. the class which occurs most often in the training set. In this paper, we propose a method to tackle class imbalance by applying some form of cost-sensitive learning which is preferable to sampling. We present a simple but effective way of estimating the misclassification costs on the basis of class distribution. This approach offers three benefits. Firstly, it maintains the distribution of the classes of the labeled training data. Secondly, this form of meta-learning can be applied to a wide range of common learning algorithms. Thirdly, this approach can be easily implemented with the help of state-of-the-art machine learning software.


Initial teacher education (ITE) in Singapore is shifting towards evidence-based practice. Despite a clear policy orientation, ITE in Singapore has not yet produced the evidence base that it is anticipating. This paper presents an analytical review of previous research into ITE in Singapore and makes comparisons to the larger international context. The review begins with a brief overview of some of the main characteristics of the research over the last decade (1999-2010). Our analysis suggests that the field of ITE research in Singapore is relatively new and still struggling to be a focus of educational research. Current published studies are typically small- scale with a large number of one-off studies. Quantitative and qualitative studies are largely carried out in parallel with little dialogue between them. This paper seeks to propose a research agenda for ITE in Singapore that overcomes the limitations from previous research as evident from the literature review. Additionally, this paper discusses the conditions needed to support the successful implementation of the research agenda. This review is the first essential step towards building an evidence-base for ITE in Singapore.


Health insurance is potentially subject to risk selection, i.e. adverse selection on the part of consumers and cream skimming on the part of insurers. Adverse selection models predict that competitive health insurers can eschew high-risk individuals by o¤ering contracts with low deductibles or copayment rates, while attracting low-risk individuals with higher copayments, resulting in a separating equilibrium. This contribution seeks to determine whether in competitive Swiss social health insurance, policies with deductibles in excess of the legal minimum do indeed serve as an instrument of risk selection. In a discrete choice experiment, e¤ected in 2003, some 1,000 individuals were given the hypothetical choice of alternative insurance contracts that differed both in terms of deductibles and copayments and in bene…ts covered. Results suggest that healthy individuals, i.e. those not having consulted medical services during the past six months and stating their subjective health as being good, were more likely to select a policy with a high deductible. Compensation demanded for voluntarily accepting an increase in the annual deductible also varies with socioeconomic characteristics and increases on the current level of deductible, as predicted by theory and constituting evidence in favor of the risk selection hypothesis. The experiment allows to compute premium reductions necessary, giving implications for the pricing policy of insurers when o¤ering di¤erentiated products.


Modern cranes built for the handling of containers should work efficiently concerning the energy consumption, and should also decrease the time of the handling process by using high trolley velocities. On the other hand these cranes should be able to reach the target positions precisely and without residual vibrations. Especially, the trolley accelerations needed to shorten the operating cycles excite the load as well as the crane structure, leading to vibrations, which should be reduced by suitable control methods. This Dissertation develops energy and time optimal control methods on the basis of suitable models of container handling systems for transferring a load unit. Based on the Pontryagin maximum principle the optimal control methods are determined. Their disadvantage, however, is that they react very sensitively on the inaccuracies of the system parameters. Especially, the data of the containers is very often not known exactly. That is why the input shaping method is taken as an alternative to the optimal solution based on the maximum principle. The corresponding suboptimal solutions are very robust concerning the inaccuracies of the system parameters and the initial conditions. The mechanical modelling takes into account the pendulum like motion of the load as well as the vibration of the crane structure.


CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVE
In the northern region of Brazil, cervical cancer is the most important cause of cancer-related deaths among women. There is considerable likelihood, however, that official incidence and mortality figures are greatly underestimated. The aim of this study was to estimate the repercussions from improvement in cervical cancer screening programs on the incidence of pre-invasive and invasive cervical lesions in a municipality in this region.

DESIGN AND SETTING
This was a quasi-experimental study that assessed process dimensions relevant to the program objectives. The study comprised a sample of 2,226 women seen at primary healthcare units in Cruzeiro do Sul, a small city in the Brazilian Amazon region, from April 2003 to July 2004.

METHODS
Women were recruited through local radio advertisements and by oral communication from the investigators. The women answered a structured questionnaire and underwent pelvic examination, which included Papanicolaou (Pap) smears and naked-eye inspection of the cervix after applying diluted acetic acid. Women with positive Pap smears or abnormal gynecological examination were referred for colposcopy and possible biopsy, diathermic large loop excision of the transformation zone or conization.

RESULTS
The results obtained were compared with historical official data retrieved from the Brazilian Ministry of Health's database. Intervention resulted in a 40% increase in positive Pap smears and detection of cancer was nine times higher than had been observed in routine screening.

CONCLUSIONS
Detection of pre-invasive and invasive cervical lesions in the intervention group was remarkably higher than among women seen during routine screening.


Johann Sebastian Bach. Bach Edition: Complete Works. Various performers. Brilliant Classics 93102, 2007. The contents of this massive, 155-disc boxed set were originally issued as a series of twenty-three smaller sets in observance (one hates to say "celebration") of the 250th anniversary of Bach's death. For the one-box version, Brilliant Classics chose to replace nine of the original discs with period-instrument performances by Musica Amphion, Jaap ter Linden, La Stravaganza Koln (under Andrew Manze), and the Sixteen Choir and Orchestra. In addition, the complete box includes new recordings of all the sacred cantatas by the Netherlands Bach Collegium, a period-instrument ensemble featuring a boys' choir and the smaller forces favored by such groups. It is worth noting that while the focus of this boxed set is on period-instrument recordings, many of which are new and some of which are licensed from other labels, there still remain some modern-instrument performances, notably the secular cantatas (recorded in the late 1970s and early 1980s by the Berliner Solisten and Kammerorchester Berlin), and the double concerto (by the Lodz Chamber Orchestra). In order to keep the physical size of the package manageable, the label chose to place each disc in a thin cardboard sleeve rather than a plastic jewel case, and texts and other performance notes are encoded on a CD-ROM rather than printed in what would have been a very thick paper book. (Performer credits and brief notes on recording dates and locations are printed on the back of each cardboard sleeve.) As a result, the entire box measures roughly fifteen inches by five inches by five inches; a combination of color codes and a schematic map of the discs' thematic distribution printed on the inside of the box lid make it fairly easy to zero in quickly on a desired disc. At a list price of $139.98, this boxed set is a truly remarkable bargain--assuming, of course, that the performances and sound quality are high enough to justify the investment of money, staff time, and shelf space, however modest those investments may be. Alert buyers may be particularly skeptical of the new cantata recordings by the Netherlands Bach Collegium, which were made with remarkable speed--all reportedly recorded within a period of fifteen months. Skeptics should prepare to be surprised, however. While there are quibbles to be made here and there (not everyone will prefer the sound of the boys' choir on the cantatas, and Musica Amphion sounds just a bit dry and brittle on the Brandenburg Concertos), for the most part these are top-notch performances by world-class players and singers; particular mention should be made of the wonderful 1994 performance of the St. Matthew Passion by the Brandenburg Consort and Choirs of King's College and Jesus College, Cambridge, and of Musica Pacifica's delightful rendering of the trio sonatas. Does this box represent a sufficient Bach collection for most libraries? Of course not. But no single collection of Bach recordings can ever be considered definitive, given the ongoing scholarly discussion regarding Bach's own intentions and the performance practices of the baroque period in general. The Bach Edition is an inexpensive, compact, and convenient addition to any classical collection, and for that reason should be considered an essential purchase for most libraries. Franz Joseph Haydn. DeLirium: Concerto, notturno per lire organizzate; Divertimenti per baryton. Christopher Coin; Ensemble Baroque de Limoges; Quatuor Mosaiques. Laborie LC03, 2006. The lira organizzata is a strange and rather fascinating instrument, a hybrid created by blending the function and design of an organ with those of a hurdy-gurdy. The latter is a bowed stringed instrument in which the strings are vibrated by means of a rosined wheel, which is turned by a hand crank; the player uses external keys to stop the strings at different pitches. The hurdy-gurdy has been a mainstay of vernacular European music since the Middle Ages, but for various reasons--not least of them its often raucous tone and difficulties of tuning and temperament--it has never found much of a place in the art music tradition. …


We use lasso methods to shrink, select and estimate the network linking the publicly-traded subset of the world's top 150 banks, 2003-2014. We characterize static network connectedness using full-sample estimation and dynamic network connectedness using rolling-window estimation. Statistically, we find that global banking connectedness is clearly linked to bank location, not bank assets. Dynamically, we find that global banking connectedness displays both secular and cyclical variation. The secular variation corresponds to gradual increases/decreases during episodes of gradual increases/decreases in global market integration. The cyclical variation corresponds to sharp increases during crises, involving mostly cross-country, as opposed to within-country, bank linkages.


I report on close encounters of stars to the Sun found in the first Gaia data release (GDR1). Combining Gaia astrometry with radial velocities of around 320 000 stars drawn from various catalogues, I integrate orbits in a Galactic potential to identify those stars which pass within a few parsecs. Such encounters could influence the solar system, for example through gravitational perturbations of the Oort cloud. 16 stars are found to come within 2 pc (although a few of these have dubious data). This is fewer than were found in a similar study based on Hipparcos data, even though the present study has many more candidates. This is partly because I reject stars with large radial velocity uncertainties (>10 km/s), and partly because of missing stars in GDR1 (especially at the bright end). The closest encounter found is Gl 710, a K dwarf long-known to come close to the Sun in about 1.3 Myr. The Gaia astrometry predict a much closer passage than pre-Gaia estimates, however: just 16 000 AU (90% confidence interval: 10 000 to 21 000 AU), which will bring this star well within the Oort cloud. Using a simple model for the spatial, velocity, and luminosity distributions of stars, together with an approximation of the observational selection function, I model the incompleteness of this Gaia-based search as a function of the time and distance of closest approach. Applying this to a subset of the observed encounters (excluding duplicates and stars with implausibly large velocities), I estimate the rate of stellar encounters within 5 pc averaged over the past and future 5 Myr to be 545 +/- 59 per Myr. Assuming a quadratic scaling of the rate within some encounter distance (which my model predicts), this corresponds to 87 +/- 9 per My within 2 pc. A more accurate analysis and assessment will be possible with future Gaia data releases.


Objective Despite the burden of rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (RMDs), these conditions probably deserve more attention from public health authorities in several countries including developed ones. We assessed their contribution to disability. Methods Data on disabilities associated with RMDs were extracted from the national 2008–2009 Disability-Health Survey of 29,931 subjects representative of the population in France. We used the core set of disability categories for RMDs of the World Health Organization's International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health for analysis. Diagnosis and disabilities were self-reported. We assessed the risk of disability associated with RMDs using odds ratios (ORs) and the societal impact of RMDs using the average attributable fraction (AAF). Results Overall 27.7% (about 17.3 million people) (95% CI 26.9–28.4%) of the population reported having RMDs. The most prevalent RMDs were low back pain (12.5%, 12.1–13.1) and osteoarthritis (12.3%, 11.8–12.7). People reporting osteoarthritis were more disabled in walking (adjusted OR 1.9, 1.7–2.2) than those without. People reporting inflammatory arthritis were more limited in activities of daily living (from 1.4, 1.2–1.8 for walking to 2.1, 1.5–2.9 for moving around). From a societal perspective, osteoarthritis was the main contributor to activity limitations (AAF 22% for walking difficulties). Changing jobs was mainly attributed to neck pain (AAF 13%) and low back pain (11.5%). Conclusion RMDs are highly prevalent and significantly affect activity limitations and participation restrictions. More effort is needed to improve care and research in this field.


The Institutional Brokers Estimate System (I/B/E/S) maintains a database of earnings forecasts from over 2,375 security analysts affiliated with 170 institutional research and brokerage firms, following 4,212 companies. According to the December data, analysts are expecting operating earnings growth for the U.S. I/B/E/S universe of 19.4% for 1993 and 20.9% for 1994. Although the growth rates for the major market indexes are lower, there are many positive signs in the data. Analysts expect 1993 earnings for the S&P 500 to expand 16.2% to $27.08, while it is predicted that 1994 earnings will to grow 17.7% to $3 1.86. If these estimates eventually come to pass, S&P 500 earnings would be above the all time record of $25.39 set in 1988. Earnings for the S&P 400 are expected to grow 14.3% to %2X.43 for 1993 and 19.7% to $34.02 for ]994. For the Dow Jones Industrial average, the growth rates are 19% ($205.00) for 1993 and 20.6% ($247.28) for 1994. Estimate Revision Trends-Major Market Indexes: Since September, the estimates for the major market indexes have all declined. The aggregate I/B/E/S universe has posted three month mean estimate declines of 1.7% for 1993 and 2.0% for 1994. Over the same time period, the S&P 500 (used most often as a proxy for the market) recorded estimate declines of 0.8% for 1993 and 1.9% for 1994. These reductions are not as severe as the historical estimate declines of about 1.0% a month. Interestingly, the S&P 500 1993 earnings forecast actually increased 0.1% during the month of November, which was the first monthly increase in over four years. Earnings projections for the S&P 400 were cut 0.5% and 3.1% for 1993 and 1994, respectively, over the past three months. Lastly, the estimates for the Dow Jones index fell 1.2% (1993) and 3.1n(1994)over the same time period. THE ECONOMIC SECTORS 1993 Sector Growth Outlook: Looking at the individual sectors in terms of projected earnings growth, the Consumer Durables sector possesses the highest growth rate, as composite 1993 earnings are predicted to rise 175.7% above the level reported in 1992. This can be primarily explained by the fact that Consumer Durables is dominated by the highly cyclical Automobile Manufacturing industry. The second and third highest growth rates were posted by the Transportation and Financial Services sectors, with estimated earnings increases of 56.6% and 32.3%, respectively. Consensus earnings forecasts for Transportation are being compared to a very low base and Financial Services has been helped by the continued low interest rate environment and improving bank asset quality. At the other end of the spectrum, the sectors with the lowest 1993 earnings growth rates are Health Care (7.5%), Basic Industries (3.9%) and Consumer Non-durables (0.6%). Sector specific factors are at the root of the declining profitability of each of these economic groupings. For example, the uncertainly over President Clinton's impending health care plan and its potential impact an the future earnings of the Drug industry have dimmed the earnings outlook for the Health Care sector. Lower commodity prices and decreasing consumer loyalty in the Tobacco industry have contributed to the poor estimate performance of Basic Industries and Consumer Nondurables, respectively. 1993 Sector Estimate Revision Trends: Securities analysts have increased their earnings projections for two of the 11 sectors over the past quarter. Consumer Durables can boast the highest 1993 mean increase of 6.1%, while the Financial Services sector placed second as consensus earnings forecasts rose 1.1%. Mean earnings for the Public Utilities sector remained unchanged for the quarter. The remainder of the sectors suffered declines in estimated earnings over the past three months. Most severely affected was Consumer Non-durables, Basic Industries and Transportation. The deterioration of the earnings outlook for the Airlines industry has led the Transportation sector to post the largest three month estimate decline of -11. …


Abstract River deposits are rich in sedimentological patterns that determine their petrophysical properties and industrial value (e.g. hydrocarbon reservoirs and aquifers), as well as providing each deposit with individual characteristics. Great variability in characteristics exists in modern river systems; their behaviour is expected to further diverge under environmental and climate change scenarios, and much greater variation exists when we consider all of geological time. In view of this diversity in sedimentological patterns, a series of fundamental questions arise. Have we recognized all significant patterns? And, are all patterns that we recognize significant? These questions underpin both our ability to characterize river deposits and to interpret the singular dynamics that gave rise to individual deposits. Machine learning provides a means of re-analysing data to understand bias and uncertainty within our data domains, and can therefore be used to improve our understanding of ancient and modern rivers from existing datasets. Herein, we apply machine learning techniques to classify sediment core data taken from one of the world's largest rivers: the Río Paraná, Argentina. We apply self-organizing maps for unsupervised clustering of sedimentary structures in the cores. The methods are suited to the analysis of different types of data, including core, borehole geophysics, and outcrops of varying size and quality. Early results illustrate that machine learning classification can: (1) recognize depositional units based on sedimentary structures and their location; and (2) simplify complex patterns of primary sedimentary structures, and present them as sedimentary facies with varying abundance, similarity and degrees of certainty. The success of these initial experiments opens up new opportunities for, for example: (i) automated distinction of depositional environments; (ii) the quantification of vertical and lateral trends in sedimentary deposits; and (iii) an improved interpretation of the generic and singular dynamics that give rise to river deposits. Thus, the results illustrate that machine-learning methods can identify significant patterns from sedimentary cores, including patterns that reveal areas which require further systematic research. Being able to classify sedimentological information in such a semi-automatic way opens new avenues for the analysis of much larger data domains, the interpretation of which would otherwise require vast manual expert effort. Automated detection of sedimentological features from data also enables the quantification of levels of uncertainty within the data domain. As such, machine learning provides a rigorous pathway to integrate uncertainty information into data-driven predictive models, and allows identification of 'poorly understood' aspects of river systems.


ABSTRACT In a single intensive nursery case study, using in depth interviews, group discussion and self completed daily diaries, this article reports on staff accounts of the emotional aspects of their interactions with young children. The findings show how much the staff achieved through their empathy for children and families and the establishment of warm, responsive and individual relationships. However, they also reveal how vulnerable these interactions were to discontinuity and disturbance and how much the work was based on an intuitive approach. There was little specification about nursery attachments in theoretical or practical terms to guide staff critical reflection and judgement about managing these close relationships. The findings also indicate the emotional demands on staff of sustaining such emotionally close interactions with very young children. The article concludes acknowledging the logistical and emotional complexity of facilitating consistent, accountable and reflective attachment interactions with young children. It highlights the importance of developing sophisticated management attention to the emotional experience of attachment based pedagogy so that feelings evoked in staff by attachment work can be better understood.


In the research field of image processing, mean squared error (MSE) and peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) are extensively adopted as the objective visual quality metrics, mainly because of their simplicity for calculation and optimization. However, it has been well recognized that these pixel-based difference measures correlate poorly with the human perception. Inspired by existing works , in this paper we propose a novel algorithm which separately evaluates detail losses and additive impairments for image quality assessment. The detail loss refers to the loss of useful visual information which affects the content visibility, and the additive impairment represents the redundant visual information whose appearance in the test image will distract viewer's attention from the useful contents causing unpleasant viewing experience. To separate detail losses and additive impairments, a wavelet-domain decoupling algorithm is developed which can be used for a host of distortion types. Two HVS characteristics, i.e., the contrast sensitivity function and the contrast masking effect, are taken into account to approximate the HVS sensitivities. We propose two simple quality measures to correlate detail losses and additive impairments with visual quality, respectively. Based on the findings in that observers judge low-quality images in terms of the ability to interpret the content, the outputs of the two quality measures are adaptively combined to yield the overall quality index. By conducting experiments based on five subjectively-rated image databases, we demonstrate that the proposed metric has a better or similar performance in matching subjective ratings when compared with the state-of-the-art image quality metrics.


In recent years, scholars have called into question the often-heard policy statements that link a stronger single voice of the European Union (EU) to more European influence in international negotiations. This article examines this challenge in an area where the EU has a particularly long tradition of establishing common policies: agriculture. By comparing in particular the international agricultural negotiations that have taken place in the framework of the Uruguay and the Doha Development Rounds (up until Cancún), it argues that internal coherence is actually not a sufficient condition for EU influence in these negotiations. On the contrary, by building on different strands of literature - International Relations, EU studies and trade policy - it shows that the EU's ability to influence outcomes has been increasingly affected by external developments. More specifically, the article draws on three crucial external processes in this regard: First, emerging powers have gained substantial commercial weight. Second, key countries, especially Brazil, have played an increasingly active role in the negotiations. Third, these countries have strengthened their positions through successful coalition-building. Consequently, if European policy-makers want to increase the EU's influence in agricultural trade negotiations, they have to more consciously adapt its negotiation approaches to the changing external negotiation environment.


Activities and resources. The nation's leading aging organizations have committed themselves to the vision of promoting purposeful lives for greater good in the form of civic engagement. The American Society on Aging (asa), the National Council on Aging (ncoa), and the Gerontological Society of America (gsa) recognize and respect the social capital of an aging America. With the generous support of the Atlantic Philanthropies, each organization has made strategic commitments to achieve this vision. This article highlights their work and lists available resources related to it. ASA Civic Engagement Programs In one of the five goals in its five-year strategic plan, the American Society on Aging commits itself to strength-based approaches to aging. These approaches affirm what all older adults have to offer in contributing to the quality of life for themselves and their communities, asa's civic engagement efforts are based in the commitment to strength-based approaches to aging. To promote asa's civic engagement efforts, the Atlantic Philanthropies has provided funding to ASA for a three-year effort to infuse the concept and practice of civic engagement into the full range of asa's activities- and, by extension, into the broader field of aging, asa highlights civic engagement in its publications, including Generations, asa's national newspaper, Aging Today, and its constituent group newsletters. Other means by which asa is focusing on civic engagement include the following: Educational sessions. The asa-ncoa Joint Conference, held annually, provides three civic engagement opportunities. This year, one of these is a daylong program, "Rethinking Civic Engagement: Broadening Our Vision." Participants will discuss effective ways that the non-profit, government, and corporate sectors can tap the volunteer potential of an aging America; identify effective ways to advocate in Washington for policy that will enhance civic engagement for elders; identify examples of programs that are expanding the availability of meaningful volunteer opportunities for older adults; and discuss a variety of approaches or models for building community partnerships and training older adult volunteers. Also on the Joint Conference program are thirty-two civic engagement sessions and a peergroup session focusing on the topic. Civic engagement offerings are also planned for asa's upcoming annual Autumn Series on Aging in San Francisco and Philadelphia. Promotion of diversity and cultural competence. New Ventures in Leadership, asa's pioneering program to develop leadership skills among professionals in aging who are people of color and to enhance their involvement in the national aging arena, plays a critical role in asa's promotion of diversity and cultural competence in civic engagement. For example, each year at least five nvl participants choose civic engagement of older people as the subject of their mandatory research and practice. The projects, featured each year at the Joint Conference, highlight the presence and value of civic engagement in a diverse range of communities, and provide models and examples for a wide variety of activities in the field of aging. Civic engagement website. ASA has established a website to help its members and others in the field to become better informed and gain access to the latest civic engagement resources. The site is at www.asaging.org/civiceng. It features promising practices and upcoming educational opportunities as well as current reports and other resources. In the "What's Happening" section, people in the field can share their civic engagement activities with others. Assistance for journalists covering the age beat. Through the Journalists Exchange on Aging (jeoa), a network established with the support of ASA, journalists can gain access to sources and , background about civic engagement. For example, papers on civic engagement policy and social issues, story ideas, and resource lists are available ^www. …


Abstract : In the 1970's and 198O's Hughes Helicopters, now McDonnell Douglas Helicopters, in conjunction with the U. S. Army and NASA developed and flight tested the first successful Higher Harmonic Control system for the purpose of reducing helicopter vibration levels. In addition to the reduced vibration levels interesting benefits were also noticed in the areas of acoustic signature and helicopter power requirements. For many years the reduced power requirements could not be explained and therefore were downplayed and not publicized. In the past three years research at the Naval Postgraduate School has been conducted regarding this phenomena and it has been sufficiently explained. The next step in the process is to mount a full scale OH-6A main rotor system on a test stand and conduct testing in order to validate the earlier documented power savings. This thesis documents efforts that have been made in 1994 and 1995 towards accomplishing that goal.


Stormwater managers use infiltration to promote groundwater recharge in urban areas and to reduce the volume and flow rate of stormwater runoff created by post development conditions. However, the potential for groundwater contamination exists. Studies have shown that some areas are more prone to groundwater contamination than others. As a result, methods for easily predicting contamination potential beneath infiltration devices are being developed. One such method involves the use of computer programs, such as SESOIL — a one-dimensional vadose zone model. SESOIL was selected because of the multitude of processes available in the program for predicting pollutant removal. SESOIL was first evaluated using a full factorial design, considering six potential factors that were thought to influence the predictions (rainfall, concentration, vadose zone thickness, intrinsic permeability, soil pH, and soil organic matter). The results showed that, at the concentrations typical of urban stormwater runoff, only rainfall, concentration and intrinsic permeability were important. Difficulties of application were encountered due to a lack of available input values and data sets. Therefore, laboratory research on partitioning factors between the water and the soil were undertaken. The results showed that the partitioning coefficients calculated from the removal of pollutants from a multicomponent mix at typical stormwater concentrations were similar to the low range found in the literature. However, the literature did not have values for sparingly-sorbable compounds such as the nutrients. This research is using a vadose zone model, such as SESOIL which incorporates these numerous chemical reactions in the calculations, as a design tool for infiltration devices with both engineered and natural soils. This research will support the development of guidance for protecting groundwater from unintentional contamination by stormwater runoff passing through an infiltration structure.


Notch signaling is a conserved cell-to-cell communication pathway essential in the development and maintenance of various tissues. Upon ligand binding, Notch receptors on the cell surface are proteolytically cleaved, generating the intracellular domain of Notch (NICD) which acts as a transcriptional regulator. Signaling through Notch1 is essential for normal T cell development, and de-regulated Notch1 signaling leads to the development of acute lymphoblastic T cell leukemia (T-ALL). Mouse models of retroviral overexpression of N1ICD in hematopoietic progenitors in bone-marrow (BM) chimeric mice clearly show that Notch1 in T-ALL acts as an oncogene. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small RNA molecules that function as post-transcriptional negative regulators of gene expression. They have been described to play either oncogenic or tumor suppressive roles in Notch1-driven T-ALL. However, it is currently unknown whether miRNAs are essential in Notch1-driven leukemogenesis or in T-ALL maintenance. Dicer1 is an essential enzyme for the generation of mature, functional miRNAs. In this study, the global requirement for miRNAs in T-ALL was assessed via conditional ablation of Dicer1 during early N1ICD-mediated leukemogenesis and in later stages of established T-ALL in vivo. Interestingly, both T-ALL development and maintenance in N1ICD overexpressing BM chimeras were dependent on Dicer1. This was found to be due to induction of apoptosis in Dicer1-deficient T-ALL cells. Microarray-based expression analysis demonstrated that potentially oncogenic miRNAs were up-regulated in both mouse and human T-ALL samples compared with normal T cell progenitors. Among the abundantly expressed miRNAs, candidates previously linked to T-ALL were detected as well as novel candidates. Among them, miR-21, which has previously been linked to tumor biology in a variety of solid tumors, was found to be the most differentially regulated in T-ALL and early and late T cell progenitors. It was also found to be abundantly expressed in primary mouse T-ALL specimens as well as human T-ALL cell lines and primary patient T-ALL samples. Using a novel lentivirus-based miRNA activity reporter system, I demonstrated that miR-21 is active in T-ALL cell lines both in vitro and in vivo. In addition, KD of miR-21 led to apoptosis in T-ALL cells with high miR-21 activity, consistent with miR-21 target gene de-repression. Taken together, these findings demonstrate for the first time that miR-21, in the context of Notch1-driven T-ALL, acts in an oncogenic fashion. It does so by facilitating T-ALL cell survival, which is, at least in part, due to repression of programmed cell-death protein 4 (Pdcd4), a miR-21 target gene and potential novel tumor suppressor in T-ALL. In summary, this study shows that in Notch1-driven T-ALL, miRNAs play an essential role by facilitating T-ALL cell survival, and that miR-21 is a novel oncogenic miRNA in this disease.


This research proposes new methods to generate rapidly complex folded plate structures that can be built with cross laminated timber panels. Composition and dimensions of these panels as well as the possibility to mill them by Computer Numerically Controlled machines show a great potential for surface structures. The aim of this research is to reveal this potential in the domain of folded plate structures. An interdisciplinary team investigates architectural, structural and mathematical aspects of folded plate structures built from cross laminated timber panels. The main concern of the architectural part is the form finding process which is inspired by Origami, the Japanese art of paper folding. Based on a simple technique, Origami gives birth to an astonishing formal richness and variability. Complex geometries are generated in an economic way and this research aims at transposing these principles to construction with timber panels We present a method that generates folded plate structures by two polygonal lines. The corrugation line defines the characteristics of the main folds and the cross section line outlines the general form of the folded plate structure. This allows representing rapidly complex folded plate structures in space as well as unfolded. A great variety of forms can be generated. General shape and corrugation can be adapted to specific boundary conditions of a project. For example, amplitude of corrugation can be increased at the edge to reinforce the border of the folded plate structure. This variability is very attractive because it allows the engineer as well as the architect to react on project specific conditions by modifying different parameters of the folded plate structure without alerting its expressive character. A broad range of applications can be foreseen. To illustrate the method we present the geometry generation of the chapel of St.Loup.


The relationship of the Church to the religions of humankind - to which the Author already dedicated a previous study on these pages (in Antonianum LXXXI, 2007, p.89-121) - plays a particularly significant role in the teaching of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council and in the post-Conciliar Papal Magisterium. Seen within the larger context of the Church's renewed openness to dialogue with the world around her, so to speak, this relationship has required constant balancing of the goods involved: Genuine and respectful openness to dialogue, on the one hand, and authentic fidelity to the Gospel, on the other. This article examines how the proper balance was being sought and proposed, successively, in the Conciliar teaching and in that of the Pontiffs that have followed the Council.


Analytical expressions describing the propagation of surface waves for both transverse-electric and transverse-magnetic fields in semi-infinite superlattice structures are obtained. The modes are characterized by electric fields that decay exponentially in the region of lower refractive index while being oscillatory in the region of greater refractive index, and both are modulated by an envelope function that decays exponentially away from the end of the truncated superlattice. A criterion for the existence of the surface modes is developed. Numerical results are presented for several illustrative cases.


Flighted rotary dryers are flexible unit operations capable of handling wet sticky material such as mineral ores and sugar. This paper outlines the experimental characterisation of one of the BHP Billiton Yabulu nickel refinery's industrial flighted rotating mineral ore dryers. The ore dryer examined in this work processes approximately 150 t/h of laterite ore from 27% to 3% moisture by direct contact with hot combustion gases. Experimental data are utilised to calculate the magnitude of the heat losses from the dryer shell. Process instrumentation data collected over a steady period of operation were combined with a range of operational and material properties to solve for
unknown heat losses in a system of steady state mass and energy balance equations. Heat loss from the dryer was determined to be 5.8 GJ/h, which represents 3.5% of the combustion fuel as lost waste heat. Accounting for measurement error in the experimental data, heat loss may be as high as 31 GJ/h. Model sensitivity to measurement errors is discussed in terms of impact on determination of
the overall heat losses. Inlet combustion gas temperature and wet ore feed rate were identified as the most sensitive system measurements. Measurement of the dryer surface temperature, via infrared thermal imaging, was also undertaken. This data was utilised within an alternative fundamental steady state thermal resistance analysis to determine heat losses from the dryer shell. Resistance
terms included convection from the hot gas, conduction through the shell and convection and radiation from the surface to the atmosphere. Heat transfer coefficients were taken from standard empirical correlations describing free and forced convection as well as radiation. Heat losses
determined in this manner were comparable to the systems analysis: 3 GJ/h. Comparison between the alternative methods of calculation are made and integration of the thermal resistance analysis into more complex rotary dryer models as well as the use of the resistance analysis to model insulation effects is discussed.


This book covers financial sector stability issues in the following areas: risk management and governance in financial institutions; financial crises and contagion; domestic monetary and financial policies; and international cooperation. The papers were presented at the IMF's eighth Central Banking Seminar by authors from academia, investment banks, government, and international institutions. The papers discuss such subjects as bank soundness, systemic bank restructuring, and the safety and efficiency of systemically important payment systems and their interaction with the macroeconomic environment.


It was possibly in a rash moment that the French philosopher Comte once remarked: "There are some things of which the human race must remain forever in ignorance; for example, the chemical composition of the heavenly bodies". Today it is possible to detect iron in the flames of the sun with just as much certainty as one can detect common salt in sea water. Analysis, one of a number of important phases of chemical investigation, involves finding the answer to two questions : What are the constituents present in the substance under investigation, and how much of each! For example, you might say to an analyst, here is a piece of beef steak ; does it contain sodium sulphite, and if so, how much! It is a relatively simple matter to carry out tests for the presence of sodium sulphite, i.e. to make a qualitative analysis.


The Alert Notification System Router (ANSR) software provides satellite operators with notifications of key events through pagers, cell phones, and e-mail. Written in Java, this application is specifically designed to meet the mission-critical standards for mission operations while operating on a variety of hardware environments. ANSR is a software component that runs inside the Mission Operations Center (MOC). It connects to the mission's message bus using the GMSEC [Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) Mission Services Evolution Center (GMSEC)] standard. Other components, such as automation and monitoring components, can use ANSR to send directives to notify users or groups. The ANSR system, in addition to notifying users, can check for message acknowledgements from a user and escalate the notification to another user if there is no acknowledgement. When a firewall prevents ANSR from accessing the Internet directly, proxies can be run on the other side of the wall. These proxies can be configured to access the Internet, notify users, and poll for their responses. Multiple ANSRs can be run in parallel, providing a seamless failover capability in the event that one ANSR system becomes incapacitated.


INTRODUCTION Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADD/ADHD) is a multifactorial and clinically heterogeneous disorder that is associated with tremendous financial burden, stress to families and adverse academic and vocational outcomes (Bierderman, 2005). ADD/ADHD is currently one of the most researched childhood conditions, yet there is still much controversy and misunderstanding surrounding it. It is also one of the most commonly diagnosed disorders of childhood development (Picton, 2005) and the prevalence of this disorder in adults is increasingly recognized (Bierderman, 2005). Parents are seeking alternatives, as they are concerned with the side effects of Methylphenidate hydrochloride and other conventional medication used to treat the symptoms of ADD/ADHD. AIM The aim of this research was to document the current practices of registered homoeopathic practitioners, with regard to ADD/ADHD. In addition, their perceptions regarding aetiology, treatment, management and success rate was investigated. This research took the form of a qualitative survey targeting homoeopaths practicing within the KwaZulu- Natal region. METHOD A total of 42 practitioners were contacted, 35 practitioners initially agreed to participate in the study, and the questionnaires were electronically sent to them via email. Of these 35 homoeopaths, 22 participated in the survey, i.e. giving an overall response rate of 62 percent. The questionnaires were electronically distributed and collected via email. The raw data was coded and captured by Google docs and the results were analysed by utilizing the SPSS for Windows version 18 SPSS/PASW 2009. RESULTS The majority of the responding homoeopaths practiced in the more urban areas of KwaZulu-Natal, more specifically within the eThekwini Durban area. The majority of these homoeopaths had qualified from the Durban University of Technology, were English speaking females and were between the ages of 25-35 years old. The homoeopaths within this study found that most patients who present with ADD/ADHD symptoms are previously diagnosed by paediatrician's neurologists or psychologists. According to the homoeopaths participating in the study, the general consensus is that the diagnosis of ADD/ADHD is given far too easily, and without proper assessment, 86 percent of the homoeopaths are of the opinion that ADD/ADHD is misdiagnosed, and ninety one percent stated that ADD/ADHD is over diagnosed. The majority of the practitioners prescribe a simplex remedy, or the Simillimum, whereas only a few practitioners prescribe a complex remedy. It was found that the most common complex prescribed is Nervoheel®. Some practitioners prefer to make up their own complexes, which would be patient specific. In this study it was found that 68 percent of the practitioners reported the sycotic miasm to be most common, and 54 percent of the practitioners reported the tubercular miasm to be the second most common presenting miasm. The homoeopaths in this study stated that they prefer to use a holistic approach to obtain optimal well being, thus advice, lifestyle adjustments, education and counselling all form part of the treatment and management of a patient with ADD/ADHD, making it unique and specific to each case. Of the adjunctive therapies, Vitamins, supplements, and nutritional changes are recommended, especially if a deficiency has been identified. The most commonly prescribed supplements for ADD/ADHD are the Essential Fatty Acids (EFA's) followed by Vitamin B Complexes, Multi-vitamins and Magnesium, Zinc, and Calcium. CONCLUSION The majority of the homoeopaths in this study reported that they are having a moderate to great success in treating and managing patients with ADD/ADHD. Many of these practitioners thought there to be no single cause for ADD/ADHD, however many of them found there to be a few significant contributing factors to the development or aetiology of ADD/ADHD. These factors include; genetics, environment, diet, vaccinations and family dynamics. The majority of the practitioners believe that ADD/ADHD is far too easily diagnosed and that further assessment of the mental, emotional, and physical symptoms of the patient need to be taken into consideration. The majority of the homoeopaths in this study prefer to use Simplex treatment, and consider diet, lifestyle changes, and phytotherapy the most successful adjunctive therapies when treating and managing a patient with ADD/ADHD. Many of the practitioners within this study reported that homoeopathy should be considered a primary treatment option for patients with ADD/ADHD, as the focus of the treatment is on determining the cause of the symptoms, and then managing the patient as a whole, focusing on changing the diet, altering the lifestyle, and treating the totality of the mental, emotional and physical symptoms.


According to realist premises, the United States has an interest in remaining the world's only superpower, thus creating the need to manage and maintain unipolarity. The pursuit of this grand strategy, however, required the U.S. to adapt its various strategies to individual states. Poland, Ukraine, and Belarus have played very different roles. While Poland was labeled "America's best friend" by President George W. Bush, Belarus was by no means seeking alignment with the U.S., whereas Ukraine-U.S. relations were subject to many ups and downs. These attitudes towards Washington led to very different policy approaches from a U.S. vantage point. As this study thus shows, the U.S. did not have an overall strategy for the region. Rather, Washington managed its relations with European states through a set of mainly bilateral relations. Madeleine Albright once described the tools of foreign policy as including "everything from kind words to cruise missiles." This book is a comparative case study of the U.S. use of these tools in its approaches toward Poland, Ukraine, and Belarus after the end of the Cold War. As the "only remaining superpower," Washington played a key role in Central and Eastern Europe. Yet, its actions and policies have received comparatively little attention. This book contributes to filling that gap by providing three in-depth case studies.


A plethora of life-threatening diseases found within humans are thought to result from malformed cilia. The genetic origins of such malformations can be analyzed by testing genes within C. elegans that are similar to human cilial genes. In C. elegans, chemotaxis and movement toward food are enabled by cilia. Wild-type C. elegans were expected to gravitate towards butanone, 2,3-pentanedione, and diacetyl, due to their association with to food, but were expected to move away from 2-nonanone. Chemotaxis assays were used to determine whether mutations in the cilia of two additional strains of nematodes (daf-11 and daf-25 mutant C. elegans) would alter the chemotaxis indices for these four odorants. Each of the three strains of C. elegans were placed on plates with sodium azide and one of the four odorants on either side. Both mutant strains were expected to display difficulty in making an association between the odorants and food due to their malformed cilia; however, we hypothesized that the daf-25 mutants would be less effective at chemotaxis than the daf-11 mutants. Our findings partially support this hypothesis. The wild-type C. elegans sensed and moved towards the odorants as expected more so than both of the mutant worms, and generally the daf-11 mutant nematodes appeared to sense and move towards stimulants better than the daf-25 mutants. There was no statistically significant difference between the senses of the two mutant strains while in the presence of this odorant.


This book centers on Popkin's crucial role in bringing together scholars from around the world in a long series of academic conferences and learned meetings which helped transform the field from one of solitary endeavour into a 'Republic of Letters'.


The temperature-dependent free energies, entropies, and enthalpies for the formation of anion Frenkel pairs in In2O3 are reported, as calculated within the Mott-Littleton embedded-cluster approach, by exploiting the relationship between isobaric and isochoric thermodynamic processes. Our model for In2O3 proves particularly successful in the reproduction and prediction of the thermoelastic properties, including heat capacity, compressibility, and thermal expansion in the high-temperature regime. We employ this model to predict the thermal behavior of oxygen vacancy and oxygen interstitial defects. Aggregation of the point defects is energetically favorable and dampens the temperature dependence of defect formation, with a decreased free volume of defect formation. The results highlight the contribution of point defects to the high-temperature thermal expansion of indium sesquioxide, as well as the appreciable temperature dependence of the thermodynamic potentials, including enthalpy and free energy, associated with defect formation in general. A transferable procedure for calculating such thermodynamic parameters is presented.


Session 1

The rapid technological developments in biology, in particular of DNA sequencing technologies, allow us to collect large amounts of molecular data about the genome of each individual, and opens the possibility to predict drug response or evaluate the risk of various diseases from one's molecular identity. In this talk I will discuss some regularization-based approaches we have developed to estimate complex, high-dimensional predictive models from relatively few samples, in particular in cancer prognosis and toxicogenetics.


Self-adaptation is a first class concern for cloud applications, which should be able to withstand diverse runtime changes. Variations are simultaneously happening both at the cloud infrastructure level - for example hardware failures - and at the user workload level - flash crowds. However, robustly withstanding extreme variability, requires costly hardware over-provisioning. In this paper, we introduce a self-adaptation programming paradigm called brownout. Using this paradigm, applications can be designed to robustly withstand unpredictable runtime variations, without over-provisioning. The paradigm is based on optional code that can be dynamically deactivated through decisions based on control theory. We modified two popular web application prototypes - RUBiS and RUBBoS - with less than 170 lines of code, to make them brownout-compliant. Experiments show that brownout self-adaptation dramatically improves the ability to withstand flash-crowds and hardware failures.


Abstract We use aggregate data to estimate supply, price, land-use, and greenhouse gas impacts of genetically engineered (GE) seed adoption due both to increased yield per hectare (intensive margin) and increased planted area (extensive margin). An adoption model with profitability and risk considerations distinguishes between the two margins, where the intensive margin results from direct 'gene' impacts and higher complimentary input use, and the extensive margin reflects the growing range of lands that become profitable with the GE technology. We identify yield increases from cross-country time series variation in GE adoption share within the main GE crops – cotton, corn and soybeans. We find that GE increased yields 34 per cent for cotton, 12 per cent for corn and 3 per cent for soybeans. We then estimate the quantity of extensive margin lands from year-to-year changes in traditional and GE planted area. If all production on the extensive margin is attributed to GE technology, the supply effect of GE increases from 5 per cent to 12 per cent for corn, 15 per cent to 20 per cent for cotton, and 2 per cent to 40 per cent for soybeans, generating significant downward pressure on prices. Finally, we compute 'saved' lands and greenhouse gases as the difference between observed hectarage per crop and counterfactual hectarage needed to generate the same output without the yield boost from GE. We find that altogether, GE saved 13 million hectares of land from conversion to agriculture in 2010, and averted emissions are equivalent to roughly one-eighth of the annual emissions from automobiles in the US.


Objective: To elucidate the correlation between two disease-specific severity measures (CPI, composite physiologic index; GAP, gender, age, lung physiology variables) and health-related quality of life in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF).
Methods: We used data from a previously reported observational cohort study using the Medical Outcome Study Short Form 36 (SF-36) for measuring health-related quality of life. Of the 44 patients with IPF who participated in the initial cross-sectional study, 32 patients participated in the follow-up study. The CPI and the GAP index were calculated at baseline and follow-up.
Results: In the cross-sectional study, the CPI only correlated with one SF-36 domain and the GAP index did not correlate with any of the SF-36 domains. In the current longitudinal study (the median follow-up; 14 months), there was a significant increase in both indices: ΔCPI = 11.5 (95% confidence interval; 6.8, 16.1) and ΔGAP index = 0.59 (95% confidence interval; 0.25, 0.93). Within-subject changes in the CPI and the GAP index were significantly correlated with those of 5 and 3 subscales of the SF-36, respectively. Declines in 4 subscales of the SF-36 were significantly more severe in subjects whose CPI increased by ≥ 5 than in subjects whose CPI did not. Similarly, declines in 3 subscales were significantly more severe in subjects whose GAP stage increased than in subjects whose GAP stage did not.
Conclusion: Serial changes in the CPI and the GAP index may be useful to predict changes in the healthrelated quality of life of IPF patients.


AIM
To evaluate the efficacy of the rehabilitation protocol on patients with lumbar degenerative disc disease after posterior transpedicular dynamic stabilization (PTDS) surgery.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
Patients (n=50) with single level lumbar degenerative disc disease were recruited for this study. Patients had PTDS surgery with hinged screws. A rehabilitation program was applied for all patients. Phase 1 was the preoperative evaluation phase. Phase 2 (active rest phase) was the first 6 weeks after surgery. During phase 3 (minimal movement phase, 6-12 weeks) pelvic tilt exercises initiated. In phase 4 (dynamic phase, 3-6 months) dynamic lumbar stabilization exercises were started. Phase 5 (return to sports phase) began after the 6th month. The primary outcome criteria were the Visual Analogue Pain Score (VAS) and the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI). Patients were evaluated preoperatively, postoperative 3rd, 12th and 24th months.

RESULTS
The mean preoperative VAS and ODI scores were 7.52±0.97 and 60.96±8.74, respectively. During the 3rd month, VAS and ODI scores decreased to 2.62±1.05 and 26.2±7.93, respectively. VAS and ODI scores continued to decrease during the 12th month after surgery to 1.4±0.81 and 13.72±6.68, respectively. At the last follow-up (mean 34.1 months) the VAS and ODI scores were found to be 0.68±0.62 and 7.88±3.32, respectively. (p=0.0001).

CONCLUSION
The protocol was designed for a postoperative rehabilitation program after PTDS surgery for patients with lumbar degenerative disc disease. The good outcomes are the result of a combination of very careful and restrictive patient selection, surgical technique, and the presented rehabilitation program.


The evolution of the Antarctic ice sheet during the mid-Pliocene warm period (MPWP) remains uncertain and has important implications for our understanding of ice sheet response to modern global warming. The extent to which marine-based sectors of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) retreated during the MPWP is particularly contentious, with geological observations and geochemical analyses being cited to argue for either a relatively minor or a significant ice sheet retreat in response to mid-Pliocene warming. The stability of marine-based ice sheets is intimately linked to bedrock elevation at their grounding lines, and previous ice sheet modeling assumed that Antarctic bedrock elevation during the MPWP was the same as today with the exception of a correction for the crustal response to ice loading. However, various processes may have perturbed bedrock elevation over the past 3 m.y., most notably vertical deflections of the crust driven by mantle convective flow, or dynamic topography. Here we present simulations of mantle convective flow that are consistent with a wide range of present-day observables and use them to predict changes in dynamic topography and reconstruct bedrock elevations during the MPWP. We incorporate these elevations into a simulation of the Antarctic ice sheet during the MPWP and find that the correction for dynamic topography change has a significant effect on the stability of the EAIS within the marine-based Wilkes Basin, with the ice margin in that sector retreating considerably further inland (200–560 km) relative to simulations that do not include this correction for bedrock elevation.


Theoretical calculations indicate that bubble clouds with void fraction of O(1%) and size of O(20 cm) produce large scatter due to collective oscillations. It is suggested that artificial bubble cloud targets can be used for acoustical remote sensing of ocean environment. The flow following property of such targets is excellent because the target density is quasineutral buoyant. The void fraction, bubble size distribution, and cloud geometry can be controlled. A technique using polymer solutions to stabilize bubble clouds was developed. Resonant tube measurements indicated that the acoustic velocity and attenuation of artificial clouds are similar to bubble clouds in water. This technique can be applied to the designs of underwater acoustic targets for sonar calibration, simulation of wave breaking, and neutral buoyant tracers for tracking ocean currents. The use of artificial bubble clouds targets is specially valuable for low wind condition and applications in deeper regions where bubbles generated at the surface rarely survive. Larger bubbles can also be transported into deeper regions by artificial clouds. [Work supported by ARPA.]


Computational models of liver metabolism are gaining an increasing importance within the research community. Moreover, their first clinical applications have been reported in recent years in the context of personalised and systems medicine. Herein, we survey selected experimental models together with the computational modelling approaches that are used to describe the metabolic processes of the liver in silico. We also review the recent developments in the large-scale hepatic computational models where we focus on object-oriented models as a part of our research. The object-oriented modelling approach is beneficial in efforts to describe the interactions between the tissues, such as how metabolism of the liver interacts with metabolism of other tissues via blood. Importantly, this modelling approach can account as well for transcriptional and post-translational regulation of metabolic reactions which is a difficult task to achieve. The current and potential clinical applications of large-scale hepatic models are also discussed. We conclude with the future perspectives within the systems and translational medicine research community.


The construction of timelines of computer activity is a part of many digital investigations. These timelines of events are composed of traces of historical activity drawn from system logs and potentially from evidence of events found in the computer file system. A potential problem with the use of such information is that some of it may be inconsistent and contradictory thus compromising its value. This work introduces a software tool (CAT Detect) for the detection of inconsistency within timelines of computer activity. We examine the impact of deliberate tampering through experiments conducted with our prototype software tool. Based on the results of these experiments, we discuss techniques which can be employed to deal with such temporal inconsistencies.


GIS for Science: Maps for Saving the Planet, Volume 3, highlights real-world examples of scientists creating maps about saving life on Earth and preserving biodiversity. With Earth and the natural world at risk from various forces, geographic information system (GIS) mapping is essential for driving scientifically conscious decision-making about how to protect life on Earth. In volume 3 of GIS for Science, explore a collection of maps from scientists working to save the planet through documenting and protecting its biodiversity. In this volume, learn how GIS and data mapping are used in tandem with: global satellite observation forestry marine policy artificial intelligence conservation biology, and environmental education to help preserve and chronicle life on Earth. This volume also spotlights important global action initiatives incorporating conservation, including Half-Earth, 30 x 30, AI for Earth, the Blue Nature Alliance, and the Sustainable Development Solutions Network. The stories presented in this third volume are ideal for the professional scientist and conservationist and anyone interested in the intersection of technology and the conservation of nature. The book's contributors include scientists who are applying geographic data gathered from the full spectrum of remote sensing and on-site technologies. The maps and data are brought to life using ArcGIS® software and other spatial data science tools that support research, collaboration, spatial analysis, and science communication across many locations and within diverse communities. The stories shared in this book and its companion website present inspirational ideas so that GIS users and scientists can work toward preserving biodiversity and saving planet Earth before time runs out.


Abstract. This study analyses the impact of vertical model discretisation on modelling snow covered area and the consequential effects on runoff formation of the semi-distributed water balance model HQsim. Therefore, the parameters relevant for snow modelling are varied within the frame of a uniformly distributed Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS). Since the model is based on the hydrological response unit (HRU) approach, the effect of building the HRUs with different elevation steps (250 m and 500 m) is tested for two alpine catchments. In total 5000 parameter combinations were generated for simulation. The results of modelled snow covered area were compared with thirty MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) snow cover maps for the melting periods in 2003–2011. Based on a contingency table the comparisons were evaluated by different skill measures. Finally, the pareto optimal parameter settings of each skill measure were detected. Evaluation of runoff variability within the MCS and their pareto optimal runs show reduced variances of model output resulting from an improved simulation of the snow covered area.


This paper describes a study of the effects of variation of synaptic connectivity in a thalamo-cortical circuitry using a neural mass model. The oscillatory behaviour of the model output is assessed within the alpha frequency band. The model presented here is a modification of an existing model involving the introduction of biologically plausible synaptic connectivities as well as synaptic structure. Our goal is to study altered event related desynchronisation/synchronisation (ERD/ERS) patterns within the alpha band in Alzheimers disease as observed in experimental studies. ERD is an amplitude attenuation of certain EEG rhythms when an event is initiated or while a certain event is taking place in the brain. ERS is an amplitude enhancement of a certain EEG rhythm when cortical areas are not specifically engaged in a given mode of activity at a certain instant of time. EEG desynchronisation normally blocks alpha rhythms in the EEG due to sensory processing or behaviour. The results show that a decrease in synaptic connectivity induces a time lag in both ERD and ERS peaks in the model output. Furthermore, a deficiency induced in the inhibitory cholinergic pathway results in a distinct effect on time to peak in the ERD/ERS response. These observations are consistent with experimental findings in AD. Variation of the level of interconnectivity has a pronounced effect on the ERS behaviour of the model while the excitatory connectivity in the retino-geniculate pathway during the resting state is more influential on the ERD behaviour.


D.H. Lawrence's novel The Rainbow follows three generations of the Brangwen family as they experience problems of identity while trying to navigate a changing world. The identity issues in the novel can be understood as symptomatic of what clinical psychologists term Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Each generation embodies narcissistic traits that prevent them from living happy, full lives. The thesis focuses on the generational aspect of the novel and how the repeated narcissistic issues found in each generation build on and reflect one another, culminating in the character of Ursula. With this character Lawrence portrays the struggles necessary to transcend the narcissistic state. 3


The linear programming approach to approximate dynamic programming has received considerable attention in the recent network revenue management (RM) literature. A major challenge of the approach lies in solving the resulting approximate linear programs (ALPs), which often have a huge number of constraints and/or variables. Starting from a recently developed compact affine ALP for network RM, we develop a novel dynamic disaggregation algorithm to solve the problem, which combines column and constraint generation and exploits the structure of the underlying problem. We show that the formulation can be further tightened by considering structural properties satisfied by an optimal solution. We prove that the sum of dynamic bid-prices across resources is concave over time. We also give a counterexample to demonstrate that the dynamic bid-prices of individual resources are not concave in general. Numerical experiments demonstrate that dynamic disaggregation is often orders of magnitude faster than existing algorithms in the literature for problem instances with and without choice. In addition, adding the concavity constraints can further speed up the algorithm, often by an order of magnitude, for problem instances with choice.


Whyte et al. now show how dynein gets to and from the kinetochore at mitosis. Their findings also suggest an unexpected role for dynein as a metaphase checkpoint regulator.

Figure 1

Phosphorylated kinetochore dynein (red) at late prometaphase.

The molecular motor, dynein, is important for mitosis and is present at the spindle poles, cell cortex, and kinetochores. How it is targeted to these sites has been something of a mystery.

The authors looked for mitosis-specific post-translational modifications that might affect dynein's targeting. They found a threonine residue in dynein's intermediate chain (T89) that was phosphorylated from the onset of mitosis until metaphase. The authors made an antibody specific for the phospho-T89 form of dynein and showed that it located exclusively to kinetochores.

When the kinetochores were stretched as chromosomes aligned at the metaphase plate, T89 was dephosphorylated by the phosphatase PP1γ. As a result, dynein lost its association with the kinetochore and headed out along metaphase microtubules toward the spindle poles. Fluorescence colocalization studies showed that poleward-streaming dynein took with it metaphase checkpoint proteins like BubR1.

Kinetochore dynein was thought to be involved in the poleward movement of chromosomes during anaphase. But, the stripping away of metaphase checkpoint proteins from the kinetochore might actually be the main role of kinetochore dynein in mitosis, says author Kevin Vaughan.

Whyte, J., et al. 2008. J. Cell Biol. .10.1083/jcb.200804114 [PubMed] [Cross Ref]


Mining the genome of the food-spoiling bacterium Burkholderia gladioli pv. cocovenenans revealed five non-ribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) gene clusters, including an orphan gene locus (bol). Gene inactivation and metabolic profiling linked the bol gene cluster to novel bolaamphiphilic lipopeptides with antimycobacterial activity. A combination of chemical analyses and bioinformatics elucidated the structures of bolagladin A and B, lipocyclopeptides featuring an unusual dehydro-β-alanine enamide linker fused to an unprecedented tricarboxylic fatty acid tail. Through a series of targeted gene deletions we proved the involvement of a designated citrate synthase (CS), priming ketosynthases (KS III), a type II NRPS including a novel desaturase for enamide formation, and a multimodular NRPS generating the cyclopeptide. Network analyses revealed the evolutionary origin of the CS and identified cryptic CS/NRPS gene loci in various bacterial genomes.


In tissue engineering, the ultimate goal of the development of degradable porous scaffolds integrated with cells is the regeneration of new living tissue to repair biological defects. Scaffolds have certain requirements depending on the application, since they have to provide cells physiological conditions for specific tissue regeneration. In vitro analysis of scaffolds efficiency for tissue engineering is normally very expensive and it is generally difficult to control the processes that occur within the scaffolds. In this thesis numerical simulation were used in order to understand the influence of the morphology of scaffolds and culture conditions on different cellular processes, simulating in vitro experiments. Due to the need to optimize some of those cellular processes such as, cell seeding and cell culture different methodologies and scaffolds pores design were proposed to control the cellular responses.Physic-chemical culture conditions can be reproduced using bioreactor systems since testing these factors using the dynamic environment of bioreactors has been proved to be more efficient that testing the same factors experimentally under static conditions. Also testes done under static conditions uses small scaffolds but some tissue defects happen in a larger scale. Thus, in this thesis a method to analyze a perfusion bioreactor at a larger scale is proposed. The goal is to apply the results from an experimental level to a clinical application, where a larger graft is necessary. This methodology can be used to create an articular cartilage capable to fully cover the knee (diameter = 50 mm). One method that ensures the implementation of the macroscopic properties (permeability) of the biomaterial was developed. Using fluid dynamics simulations, the bioreactor design to provide better distribution of cells in the scaffold (seeded) and the right amount of stimulus (culture) was determined. Briefly, simulation predictions for the articular cartilage formation showed that cartilage growth is more uniform for a more homogeneous fluid-flow distribution.Different pores morphologies from rapid-prototyping fabrication were numerically evaluated. Two scaffold designs were proposed, one with gyroid morphology and the other with hexagonal prism shape. For both designs porosities of 55% and 70% were tested. In addition, different mechanical stimuli were computed to study the effect on cell adhesion. Mechanical stimuli are known to determine cell differentiation through a mechano-regulation theory. According to this theory, optimization of external conditions for cell differentiation were discussed comparing the effect of fluid-flow and axial compression. Fluid-flow was demonstrated to be more effective for cell differentiation on scaffolds that axial compression. The gyroid architectures lead to a better accessibility of the fluid into the scaffold, which can be related with higher efficiency during cell seeding.Based on the fact that the gyroid structure leads to a most effective distribution of the fluid, a system to control cell seeding was developed. The parameters of the system were: 1) the prediction of mechanical stimuli (numerically), 2) the distribution of gyroid pore (fabrication) and 3) the experimental verification. The scaffolds were reconstructed based on micro CT images. Two type of scaffold were studied; one with isotropic pore size distribution (412 ± 13 µm) and another with a gradual variation of pore size (250-500 µm). The results showed that on the isotropic scaffolds, the stimuli calculated were more uniform (15s-1 y 24 s-1)and varied gradually (12s-1 -38 s-1) in the second type of scaffold. The distribution of the seeded cells also follows the pattern of distribution of stimuli and pores.Finally, a new methodology to evaluate cell seeding under perfusion conditions was proposed. The entire process for cell seeding was simulated using a Lagrangian multiphase model.


Introduction From ancient times, the phenomenon of the migration of human persons from settled homelands to, from the point of view of the migrants, new and strange parts of the world has raised questions about the place, position and treatment of newcomers into an existing, self-defined human community. "The United Nations (UN) defines as an international migrant a person who stays outside their usual country of residence for at least one year. According to that definition, the UN estimated that in 2005 there were about 200 million international migrants worldwide ..." (1) Koser summarizes the importance of migration to public policy and the close connection between migration and human rights: Migration is inextricably linked with other important global issues, including development, poverty, and human rights. Migrants are often the most entrepreneurial and dynamic members of society; historically migration has underpinned economic growth and nation-building and enriched cultures. Migration also presents significant challenges. Some migrants are exploited and their human rights abused; integration in destination countries can be difficult; and migration can deprive origin countries of important skills. For all these reasons and more, migration matters. (2) While it is certainly true that in many historical situations migration may have been welcomed, encouraged, or forced (e.g., slavery) due to the needs and economic circumstances of the societies to which the migrants travelled, it would seem just as often if not more so that the opposite sort of attitude towards migrants has prevailed. Immigrants have been routinely portrayed as having a negative impact on the receiving nation or community by raising fears about employment for native workers, increasing the burden on social and economic resources, and threats people from other places may pose to the health and safety of community members. The backlash that occurs in the wake of such fears often takes the form of either direct violence aimed at immigrant individuals or communities or through exploitation of the relatively powerless position of immigrants by way of low pay, poor housing conditions, and threats of deportation. In all of these experiences, the question of human rights becomes particularly cogent as immigrants are often seen as being guests, invited or not invited, into a country and, as such are not necessarily deserving of the same protections by the community as those who are considered citizens and/or native. And yet, if human rights exist, they adhere to the individual human person as a member of the human race irrespective of their membership or lack of membership in any other subordinate societies. Human rights ought to "trump," so to speak, any other laws, regulations, restrictions, or policies that are contingent upon the accidents of time or place as they appear in the history of local communities or nations. Without this priority of place in regards to human rights the term itself seems to be vacuous. The human rights of immigrants then, particularly those who have entered another country without the required documentation, may be seen as something of a test case for this priority of human rights: the extent to which such rights would be honored or respected or recognized for a given resident of a society regardless of the legal standing of that person within the official polity would testify to the actualized priority of those rights that adhere to the person as a member of the human community. The difficulty with this form of reasoning is that it seems to beg the question of the existence of human rights as such: in a very real way the discussion is getting ahead of itself because the case for human rights has not been established. We tend today, perhaps more so in Western cultures than other places in the world, to assume the given-ness of human rights as part of the conceptual framework related to discussions of law, politics, policies and international relations. …


In a letter to Eduard Bertz dated 2 June 1893, Gissing wrote that he was "driven frantic by the crass imbecility of the typical woman. That type must disappear-or at all events become altogether subordinate" (Letters 5: 113). Gissing's tone is not easily reconciled with the general mood of the novel that is the occasion of his letter: The Odd Women (1893) is justly regarded as a key novel of the women's rights movement. Nor can there be any doubt that Gissing's emphasis on the term "imbecility" and a specific "type" is deliberate. "The average woman," he insists, "pretty closely resembles, in all intellectual considerations, the average male idiot-I speak medically" (Letters 5: 113). My aim is to resolve, as far as .possible, the conflict between what Herbert Spencer called the "comparative psychology of the sexes" and Gissing's unquestionable concern for the plight of the "odd women," destined never to marry because women vastly outnumbered men. As I hope to show, this conflict is best understood in the light of successive phases of liberal reform. I am thinking especially of Gissing's father, whose views on liberal reform broadly accorded with those expressed in journals such as Dickens's Household Words and All the Year Round. Gissing embraced many of his father's firmly held beliefs, but was also keenly aware that they were coming under intense pressure as Darwinian natural selection extended its reach beyond natural history to issues such as penal reform and provisions for the poor. The confidence of earlier liberal reformers was fast ebbing away. Gissing's use and critical treatment of Dickens will provide an important point of reference here. John Goode has suggested that"the distance between Dickens and Gissing is marked by Darwin" (6). He is certainly right in asserting that evolutionary science played an important part in the transition from Dickens's London to Gissing's "muddy whirlpool" of "social disease" (The Whirlpool 216). Gissing, as will become clear, never quite abandons either the values that he inherits from his father's generation or those associated with the emerging discourses of social and mental science. Consider, first of all, the following comments on Dickens's "poor unfortunates": "It is an obvious fault of his [Dickens's] work, when he exhibits victims of social wrong, that it takes no due account of the effect of conditions upon character." Oliver Twist and Little Dorrit are given as examples of characters who "must be good in spite of everything." The problem is that, "in a day of sociology, such ideals are uninteresting." If Oliver Twist (1837-38) and Little Dorrit (1855-57) betray an imperfect grasp of "sociology," Barnaby Rudge (1840-41) lacks a convincing "psychology": "Of psychology-a word unknown to Dickens-we, of course, have nothing; to ask for it is out of place" (Critical Study 248-49, 127). Before moving on to analyze Gissing's attack on "female imbecility" in his letter to Bertz, it is worth asking what exactly he meant by "sociology" and "psychology." Gissing himself provides the useful context of "advanced thought." In a letter to his youngest brother Algernon (19 January 1878), he states with regret that "we have no thorough-going weekly," by which he means one that is "bold enough to advocate principles at all worthy of advanced thinkers" (Letters 1: 141). He suggests that Algernon read Auguste Comte and Spencer, the latter of whom may well have prompted his interest in "principles." In a later letter to Algernon (16 May 1880), he observes that not enough people "keep a keen eye on contemporary matters of science, literature & art." "To whom," he asks, "could you go if you wanted to talk reasonably of the modern theory of Evolution, in all its applications?" (Letters 1: 273). Gissing's preoccupation with "contemporary matters of science" was not lost on his middle brother, William, who, in a letter written on 4 December 1878, mocks those who hold "so-called advanced views resulting from the exercise of their mighty minds in deep thought. …


Policymakers around the world, including in Europe, increasingly display a tendency to embed risk management into law, for example by mandating risk governance best practices or by requiring firms to have risk management functions in place. Most recently, the European Commission issued a proposal to increase disclosure by listed and large firms on their management of risks, which will indirectly imply greater attention to risk management procedures on their part. This paper, after documenting the phenomenon of Risk Management 'Juridification' (RMJ) with specific reference to developments in EU legislation, highlights the numerous shortcomings of such a policy: we first highlight the intrinsic limits of risk management and, even more, risk measurement techniques. Failure to understand such limits may lead to market participants' over-reliance ex ante and to enforcers' over-reaction ex post. Next we show how risk management can hardly be distinguished from management and argue that RMJ may well lead to courts' excessive ex post-review of managerial decisions. We then focus on the intensified perils of standardization, proceduralization, and acritical box-ticking that RMJ implies. After clarifying that RMJ can do little to alleviate systemic risk, we further show that risk management requirements may serve managers' interests vis-a-vis shareholders and are hard to justify for companies with controlling shareholders. Finally, we highlight their anticompetitive effects due to their higher relative burden on small companies. We conclude that absent special, industry-specific circumstances, RMJ is, if not an even dangerous exercise, a less effective and efficient regulatory tool than policymakers tend to think.


Because Medicaid is absorbing a large and growing share of government spending in every state, policymakers are under intense pressure to control the cost of this budget-breaking program. In search of clues concerning Medicaid cost containment, this article examines state data on per-recipient Medicaid spending by type of service. This effort suggests focusing on nursing homes, because per-recipient payments to these institutions are highly variable across states. Indeed, the article concludes that a key explanation for cross-state differences in per-recipient Medicaid expenses is the reimbursement rate for the nursing homes. ; The article then explores why nursing home reimbursement rates differ widely across states, when personal health care costs show more limited variation. It suggests that the industry's costs may come to reflect the states' reimbursement rates in an interactive cycle. The article recommends that regulators reexamine their nursing home reimbursement policies from the ground up. Finally, the article tries to draw lessons for the rest of the U.S. health care system. In particular, it suggests that the Medicaid dollar has lost its ability to serve as a standard of value; the U.S. health care dollar is in danger of following suit.


Effective June 2017, Canada formalized its new resolution regime for "domestic systemically important banks". This article examines the new resolution regime in the context of the early intervention program by the financial services regulator. The system offers a complex but integrated set of mechanisms to monitor the financial health of financial institutions, to intervene at an early stage of financial distress, and to resolve the financially distressed bank in a timely manner. Resolution is the restructuring of a financially distressed or insolvent bank by a designated authority. To "resolve" a bank is to use a series of tools under banking and insolvency legislation to address its financial distress in a manner that safeguards the public interest, including continuity of the bank's critical functions. Resolution can provide for an orderly winding-up of the bank or restructuring to restore the viability of all or part of the institution to allow it to continue operating, called open bank resolution. The Canadian regime uses "bridge banks" as a resolution tool, where part or all of the assets, liabilities and/or shares are transferred to a temporary entity until they can be sold to a private-sector third party. It also implements "bail-in", which allows preferred shares and debt to be converted into equity, placing part of the burden of bank failure on shareholders and creditors of the bank, minimizing costs to taxpayers. Given that banks have a critical intermediary role in the economy, financial difficulties need to be resolved in an orderly and efficient manner, avoiding undue disruption to the bank's activities and instability of the financial system. However, there remain important issues in the Canadian resolution system in respect of financial conglomerate insolvency, in terms of oversight and coordination.


BACKGROUND
The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) sponsored a randomized clinical trial comparing six versus three times per week in-center hemodialysis (the Frequent Hemodialysis Network [FHN] Daily Trial), to test the effects of frequent hemodialysis on an array of intermediate outcomes. Herein we report challenges to enrollment and randomization into the trial.

METHODS
Screening and enrollment was tracked at all participating dialysis clinics and specific reasons for dropout after baseline assessment were recorded for all enrolled subjects. Reasons for consent refusal were recorded in a subset of (10 out of 65) sites.

RESULTS
The trial screened 6276 hemodialysis patients on three times weekly hemodialysis in 65 hemodialysis clinics, 3481 (55%) were considered eligible for enrollment, and 3124 (90%) were approached for consent; 378 (12%) consented and 245 were randomized (65% of those enrolled). Prospective subjects chose not to participate primarily because of the anticipated time required for three extra treatments per week and the difficulties in following the protocol.

CONCLUSIONS
Recruitment into the FHN Daily Trial proved challenging but the goal of 250 randomized subjects was almost met.


OBJECT
Malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors (MPNSTs) are aggressive sarcomas that often arise from major peripheral nerves. Approximately half of MPNSTs arise in patients with neurofibromatosis Type 1 (NF1) who, in comparison with patients without NF1, present at younger ages and with larger tumors that are commonly associated with extensive plexiform neurofibromas. These tumors therefore pose a particularly difficult treatment challenge because of the morbidity often associated with attempted gross-total resection (GTR). Here, the authors aim to examine what role the extent of resection and other covariates play in the long-term survival of patients with NF1 in the setting of MPNST.

METHODS
The authors retrospectively reviewed the records of 23 adult patients with NF1 who underwent surgery for MPNSTs at their institution between 1991 and 2008. The primary end points of the study were mortality, local recurrence, and metastasis. Kaplan-Meier survival curves were evaluated for all patients. Differences for each of the primary end points were evaluated based on cause-specific covariates, which included tiered tumor size, tumor location, grade, resection margin status, postoperative weakness, and use of chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Multivariate analysis was performed using Cox proportional hazards models.

RESULTS
Gross-total resection (p = 0.01) and surgical margin status (p = 0.034) had a statistically important role in prolonging overall survival in patients with NF1 by univariate analysis. When tumor size, location, grade, postoperative weakness, and radiation therapy were also taken into account using multivariate analysis, GTR continued to be a significant prognostic factor (p = 0.035).

CONCLUSIONS
These findings suggest that GTR offers significant long-term benefit on survival in patients with NF1. Benefit on survival occurred independently of all other covariates, suggesting that complete resection should be the principal goal of treatment in this patient population.


Many Web design and usability problems have a tendency to recur in various projects. Web designers often try to reinvent solutions from scratch, because the current Web design guidelines are hard to remember, and difficult to use effectively by novice Web designers or software engineers who are not familiar with user interfaces and Web design principles. Furthermore, current Web authoring tools have long been available to assist developers in integrating many aspects of Web applications, although the majority of these environments do not provide a mechanism for explicitly ensuring the usability of the developed Web user interfaces. For our research, we will describe a pattern language supported by an innovative tool for Web applications design. Using this tool, the patterns are shown to be more than an alternative design tool to current Web design guidelines and tools. We perceive them as an ideal vehicle for gathering best design practices, and transferring by means of Web authoring tools the knowledge of usability experts to software engineers unfamiliar with usability engineering.