To estimate production behaviors of inclined well in multilayer heterogeneous carbonate gas reservoir, two semi-analytical models for different formation distribution patterns are proposed, which are named as model I and model II. For model I, the inner region of each layer is fractured-vuggy porous medium, while the outer region only contains matrix. Whereas for model I, the inner and outer regions are consisted of matrix and fractured-vuggy porous mediums, respectively. To solve the model, Laplace transformation, Fourier transformation and inversion, Duhamel convolution and Stehfest numerical inverse are applied. The validities of these models are verified through the comparisons with the published datum, which include well bottom-hole pressure (BHP) and gas production rate of individual layer for vertical and inclined wells in multilayer homogenous gas reservoir. Furthermore, by matching well BHP data collected from a field case, the applicability of model is validated. The influences of prevailing factors, such as the radius ratio between inner and outer regions, horizontal-vertical permeability ratio, and inclination angle, on production behaviors are analyzed. The results show that influenced by the diverse formation distribution patterns, the variation of radius ratio between inner and outer regions has opposite effect on the well BHP for models I and II. Formation anisotropy and inclination angle have minimal effects on the well BHP of model I, but have significant impacts on model II. To keep the well BHP with a relatively high value, for model I and model II, the penetrate inclination angles should be greater than 50°and 55°, respectively.


We propose a polarization-controlled-NOT (P-CNOT) gate and an orbital-angular-momentum-controlled-NOT (OAM-CNOT) gate for single-photon two-qubit quantum logic. Both of the controlled-NOT (CNOT) gates are simple and deterministic. Moreover the entanglement swap between polarization and orbital angular momentum (OAM) can be realized using the P-CNOT gate and the OAM-CNOT gate.


Sea ice is a major obstacle for developing oil and gas industries in Arctic regions. To ensure safe and efficient exploration and exploitation of resources in the Arctic Basin, knowledge of the type, thickness, strength and concentration of sea ice is required, especially in areas in which developments are planned. In addition, data on the physical properties (e.g., the temperature, salinity and density) would greatly facilitate the prediction of ice loads because these properties influence ice strength. A special feature of the ice cover is the sea ice ridges, which are considered to be the design loads for offshore structures in ice-infested waters in the absence of icebergs. This thesis consists of 6 papers and is composed of 2 separate but nevertheless very close parts. The first part presents and analyzes field measurements of different properties of level ice, whereas the second part covers the spatial and temporal evolution of the morphology as well as the physical and mechanical properties of sea ice ridges.Fieldwork investigating the mechanical and physical properties of land-fast level ice in the frozen fjords of Spitsbergen commenced in 2003. With the design of a transportable uniaxial compressive rig in 2005, uniaxial compressive strength tests were performed directly on-site. An intensive field campaign was performed in the winter of 2010 on Van Mijenfjorden, Spitsbergen, to study the spatial and temporal distribution of the properties of level ice, namely, uniaxial compressive strength, temperature and salinity. Sampling matrices were established, and 310 samples were extracted for immediate compression, considering the load direction. Additional samples were collected in the vicinity of these boreholes to measure the temperature, density and salinity profiles and to produce a structural profile using thin sections. The variability in strength correlated with the variability in salinity, the brine fraction and possibly the sample spacing. The drainage and the localization of the brine channels may have been important for the spatial variability of the strength.Because uniaxial compressive tests were performed on site with the same rig from 2005 to 2011, the data were sufficient for a statistical analysis of the uniaxial compressive strength of sea ice. Over 7 years, 1237 samples were collected and used to determine a statistical distribution that explained the uniaxial compressive strength of sea ice. Seven groups were defined: "horizontal", "vertical", "early", "late", "horizontal early/late", "vertical early/late" and "ridge", to determine the impact of the loading direction and the season on the best fitting statistical distribution. Key statistics were calculated. The vertical samples were stronger than the horizontal samples with an average value of the strength of 4.2 MPa and 2 MPa, respectively. The early or "cold" samples were stronger than the late or "warm" samples, with an average value of the strength of 3.7 MPa and 2.1 MPa, respectively. The key statistics were visualized using box plots. The gamma, Weibull and lognormal distributions were examined. The least squares combined with QQ-Plots enabled the observation and the quantification of the fit between the data distribution and the hypothesized theoretical distribution. The Weibull parameters (scale and shape) were estimated using the maximum likelihood method, the method of the moments and the least squares method. The optimum pair (scale and shape) was obtained through a combination of the least squares method (for the scale parameter) and the maximum likelihood method or the method of the moments (for the shape parameter). The fit between the data distribution and the theoretical distribution was good. Neither the sample orientation nor the season influenced the statistical distribution determination, even though the defining parameters varied between the groups. The gamma distribution was the best candidate for the statistical distribution of the field data with a coefficient of correlation of 0.986.Finally, a new experimental setup was established in May 2008 to measure the propagation of stresses in the ice. This setup consisted of freezing 6 stress sensors in the ice. The sensors were placed at a depth of 0.2 m and every 0.6 m along a line. A borehole jack was used to trigger the stresses that propagated to the sensors. The borehole jack was placed along the same line at 8, 5, 2, 1 and 0.6 m from the first stress sensor. A 98% decreased pressure was recorded by the sensors within the first 60 cm, and the pressure was 0 after 4 m. The stresses decreased for increasing distances between the triggering source and the measurement point, following an inverse exponential law.The second focus of this thesis was on sea ice ridges. For a better understanding and overview of the current knowledge of ridges, an extensive analysis of their morphological properties was performed. Over 300 full-scale, floating first-year ridges were examined from the Bering and Chukchi Seas, Beaufort Sea, Svalbard waters, Barents Sea and the Russian Arctic Ocean for the Arctic regions; from the Canadian east coasts, the Baltic Sea and Gulf of Bothnia, Sea of Azov, Caspian Sea and Offshore Sakhalin for the Subarctic regions. A catalogue of all the available dimensions of the ridges, their macroporosities and the dimensions of the blocks constituting the sail was also provided. The maximum sail height was 8 m (offshore Sakhalin), and the mean peak sail height was 2.0 m based on 356 profiles. The mean peak keel depth was 8.0 m based on 321 profiles. The correlation between the internal dimensions such as the sail height and the keel depth as well as or the sail width and the keel depth were hk = 5.11hs 0.69 and wk = 7.19hk 0.72. The statistical distribution of keel-tosail ratios is best represented by a lognormal distribution. Ridge cross-sectional geometry can vary greatly along the length of a ridge, even over a short distance. The block thicknesses were very different from the surrounding level ice thicknesses and they correlate well with the sail height with a square root model: hs=3.73hb 0.5. The consolidated layer tended to grow evenly with time over the width of the ridge cross section. A statistical analysis based on 377 measurements of the consolidated layer of ridges in the Barents Sea showed that the gamma distribution well described the distribution of the consolidated layer thickness in that area.When prospecting for sea ice ridges in Van Mijenfjorden in February 2009, only a small first-year ridge feature was found. The ridge was visited 6 times between February 14 and May 14. The thickness of the consolidated layer was measured by drilling along two lines across the ridge. It grew as fast as the surrounding level ice (approximately 25 cm in 3 months). The block thickness of the sail was relatively constant until May, after which the block thickness decreased rapidly due to solar radiation. In addition, temperature, density and salinity profiles were constructed. The salinity of the consolidated layer was relatively constant for increasing porosities, mostly because of increasing air temperatures. Samples were extracted for in field compressive tests during two visits. The average strength, porosity and temperature for the first date was 3.0 MPa, 11% and -11.3°C, respectively, and for the second date 2.6 MPa, 11% and -10.6°C, respectively. The data fit reasonably well with the empirical formulae established for level ice. The rubble was soft and eroded, even more than in previous ridge studies in Van Mijenfjorden because of the small size of the ridge and the increased contribution of oceanic fluxes.In early September 2009, six medium-sized sea ice ridges were investigated in the Fram Strait as part of the fourth year of a field study of multi-year ice ridges. The geometry and macroporosity were examined by cross-sectional drillings. The largest depth recorded was 7.8 m, and the highest sail measured was 1.9 m. In addition, a profile of the physical properties of each ridge was established. The average density, salinity and porosity of the keel were respectively 945 kg/m3, 2.05 psu and 14%, respectively. For the first time in that area, uniaxial compression tests were performed at three stations, and the average strength of the keel was 1.8 MPa.


Vaccination of five baboons with an anti-idiotypic vaccine to irradiated Schistosoma mansoni cercariae resulted in nearly 19% protection compared to 39% protection conferred to five baboons vaccinated with an irradiated vaccine. Vaccination with the anti-idiotypic antibodies resulted in a significant reduction of pathology and granuloma size following challenge with live unattenuated cercariae. Results presented in this work are considered highly significant because the anti-idiotypic vaccine markedly influenced schistosomiasis morbidity which is the main consideration in this disease.


Objective Evidence collected in many parts of the world suggests that, compared to older students, students who are relatively younger at school entry tend to have worse academic performance and lower levels of income. This study examined how relative age in a grade affects suicide rates of adolescents and young adults between 15 and 25 years of age using data from Japan. Method We examined individual death records in the Vital Statistics of Japan from 1989 to 2010. In contrast to other countries, late entry to primary school is not allowed in Japan. We took advantage of the school entry cutoff date to implement a regression discontinuity (RD) design, assuming that the timing of births around the school entry cutoff date was randomly determined and therefore that individuals who were born just before and after the cutoff date have similar baseline characteristics. Results We found that those who were born right before the school cutoff day and thus youngest in their cohort have higher mortality rates by suicide, compared to their peers who were born right after the cutoff date and thus older. We also found that those with relative age disadvantage tend to follow a different career path than those with relative age advantage, which may explain their higher suicide mortality rates. Conclusion Relative age effects have broader consequences than was previously supposed. This study suggests that policy intervention that alleviates the relative age effect can be important.


This paper examines perspectives on language diversity that surfaced prior to, during, and immediately following the implementation of a two-way immersion program in a public school district in Iowa. Using a social constructionist paradigm, combined with Habermas' understanding of the public sphere, the paper explores local and regional media coverage of the two-way immersion program alongside coverage of emerging language legislation on Official English in Iowa, spanning the last years of the 20th century into the beginning of the 21st. The analysis reveals a variety of postures within the public discourse related to the presence and use of languages other than English in this Midwestern context. The paper argues that it is precisely this interface of varying perspectives that will potentially facilitate a more lasting receptive social environment towards language diversity in the state.


Attention bias for alcohol has proved useful to distinguish people with a pathological consumption of people who do not, and dependents who are more likely to fall in consumption. The aim of this study was to validate the Spanish version of the Alcohol Stroop test, designed to evaluate attention biases for alcohol in alcohol-dependent patients. The sample was composed by 173 participants divided into 2 groups: 1) "Patients" (n = 88) meeting criteria for alcohol dependence; and 2) "Control" (n = 85) having a low risk for alcohol consumption, that completed the Stroop color naming Task (Classic Stroop), the Neutral Stroop test and the alcohol Stroop test. Statistically significant differences were found in the interference effects calculated for the Classic and Alcohol Stroop tests. Patients compared to control participants showed a higher interference effect for alcohol-related stimuli than for neutral stimuli. These effects were accounted by an attention bias for alcohol-related information in patients. ROC curves were calculated for the three interference effects, showing an area under the curve statistically significant in the Classic Stroop interference and the Alcohol Stroop interference. This study provides the validation of the Spanish version of the Alcohol Stroop test that allows to evaluate attention biases for alcohol stimuli in individuals with both pathologic alcohol consumption and alcohol dependence.


The primary objective of this article was to critically evaluate the routine use of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) for representing an individual's performance across a battery of executive function tasks. A conceptual review and statistical reanalysis of N = 10 studies that used CFA methods of EF tasks was undertaken. Despite evidence of excellent global model fit for CFA models, studies were uniformly characterized by weak correlations among EF tasks and weak to moderate levels of maximal reliability of latent EF constructs. Vanishing tetrad tests raised the possibility that individual tasks may be better conceptualized as causal rather than as effect indicators of the latent construct of EF. The use of CFA methods with EF tasks that are weakly correlated results in latent variables that have poor to modest maximal reliability. This undermines efforts to use latent variables of EF as predictors or outcomes in empirical studies and has implications for theory development. Greater attention to and resolution of the discrepancies between conceptual definitions and statistical approaches that are used to model EF has implications for the long-term value of using EF in research and clinical settings.


Abstract Against the background of neoliberal conservation and green grabbing, this paper investigates an ecotourism initiative through the notion of 'multiple environmentalities' (neoliberal, disciplinary, sovereign and truth), which concerns the governance of people for environmental causes. We apply this to the inhabitants of Batu Katak, Sumatra, Indonesia, where the Green Life Project has been established next to Gunung Leuser National Park as a Private Protected Area. An important governance strategy for Green Life is the establishment of volunteer ecotourism to generate funds and to include the local community. We argue that ecotourism can play a crucial role in legitimising the activities and increasing the power of nature conservation organisations, which, in the case of Green Life, is visible in the growth of coercive means to secure protected areas. If ecotourism is the kernel of neoliberal environmentality at Green Life, the core issue is the prevalence of truth environmentality, in which nature is often valued higher than people. This valuation led to the strengthening of disciplinary and sovereign environmentality. Arguably, ecotourism at Green Life will not establish the intended sustainable relations with the community, and this paper functions as an important lesson for practitioners to scrutinise the consequences of their governance strategies.


The selected garlic varieties/lines viz., BARI Roshun-1, BARI Roshun-2, GC0018, GC0024, GC0027, GC0034 and one local cultivar wereevaluated under zero tillage mulched condition to find out the suitable varieties/lines. There were significant differences among genotypes forall studied characters except number of leaves per plant. The advanced lines GC0018, GC0027 and GC0034 were graded as the highest bulbyield and it was more than 10 t/ha. But numerically the highest bulb yield (10.89 t/ha) was produced in GC0034 line while the local varietyproduced only 6.82 t/ha. GC0027 genotype was produce the longest plant (60.53 cm) and largest bulb diameter (3.94 cm), while local cultivarwas the minimum. Simple correlation analysis showed that there were positive and significant correlation among bulb yields with all theparameters except plant height and leaves per plant. Highest water use efficiency 44.63 kg ha-1 mm-1 was obtained from GC0034 line. In respectof monetary return GC0034 produced the maximum gross return (Tk. 653400/ha), gross margin (Tk. 515125/ha) and benefit cost ratio (4.73).The finding of this study could be useful for improving garlic production after transplant aman rice harvest under zero tillage mulched condition. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/ijasbt.v3i1.11216 Int J Appl Sci Biotechnol, Vol. 3(1): 26-30


A summary of the evidence for a contribution of genetic variability to physical activity–related traits is presented. The availability of a reference human DNA sequence has made it possible to screen individuals and populations for the presence of genomic differences. Even though more than 100 million DNA variants have been identified, human beings share a genomic sequence, which is more than 99% identical. Four major lessons can be derived from ongoing genomic and genetic studies. First, the connection between a genotype and a phenotype is highly complex. Second, the expression of genes is regulated via multiple interacting mechanisms. Third, redundancy and compensatory mechanisms are ubiquitous. Fourth, complex, multifactorial traits are influenced by polygenic systems defined by hundreds and thousands of loci with most alleles characterized by very small effect sizes. The contribution of genetic variability is briefly summarized for human longevity, common chronic diseases, physical activity level, cardiorespiratory fitness in the sedentary state, and in response to exercise programs.


In the mouse model of Fragile X syndrome, the Fmr1 knock-out, local excitation of layer 4 fast-spiking (FS) inhibitory neurons is robustly decreased by 50%, but the mechanisms mediating this change are unknown. Here, we performed recordings in acutely prepared slices obtained from Fmr1 "mosaic" mice, where Fmr1 is deleted in about half of all neurons, and we found that loss of presynaptic, but not postsynaptic, Fmr1 fully recapitulates the deficit. The change in connection strength is primarily due to a decrease in release probability indicating that FMRP normally positively regulates these processes. This change in presynaptic neurotransmitter release is observed both in the mosaic mice and in the constitutive Fmr1 knock-out mice. Manipulations in release probability enabled both the mimic and rescue of the impaired function in this synaptic pathway. Loss of presynaptic Fmr1 has no effect on excitatory synapses onto excitatory neurons, indicating a target cell-specific function for presynaptic FMRP. Finally, we demonstrate that the excitation decrement onto FS neurons also exists in layer 5 of the Fmr1 knock-out, suggesting a widespread role for presynaptic Fmr1 in the excitation of inhibitory neurons. In summary, we identify a novel function for presynaptic FMRP in promoting presynaptic neurotransmitter release, and we show that loss of this function accounts for impaired excitation of neocortical FS inhibitory neurons. These changes may contribute to the cognitive dysfunction and circuit hyperexcitability associated with Fragile X syndrome, including patients with complete deletion of FMRP and those with mosaic expression of FMRP.


Silent Data Corruption (SDC) is a serious reliability issue in many domains, including embedded systems. However, current protection techniques are brittle, and do not allow programmers to trade off performance for SDC coverage. Further, many of them require tens of thousands of fault injection experiments, which are highly time-intensive. In this paper, we propose an empirical model to predict the SDC proneness of a program's data called SDCTune. SDCTune is based on static and dynamic features of the program alone, and does not require fault injections to be performed. We then develop an algorithm using SDCTune to selectively protect the most SDC-prone data in the program subject to a given performance overhead bound. Our results show that our technique is highly accurate at predicting the relative SDC rate of an application, and outperforms full duplication by a factor of 0.83 to 1.87x in efficiency of detection (i.e., ratio of SDC coverage provided to performance overhead).


This report is a terminal evaluation of a UN Environment project implemented by the Division of Technology, Industry and Economics. The project's overall development goal was to reduce the anthropogenic uses of lead and cadmium in key products and industry sectors that give rise to particular exposure concerns. The evaluation sought to assess project performance (in terms of relevance, effectiveness and efficiency), and determine outcomes and impacts (actual and potential) stemming from the project, including their sustainability. The evaluation has two primary purposes: (i) to provide evidence of results to meet accountability requirements, and (ii) to promote learning, feedback, and knowledge sharing through results and lessons learned among UN Environment and their implementing partners including the relevant agencies in the project participating countries.


Invasion of the New-Zealand wheat bug Nysius huttoni in the Netherlands (Heteroptera: Lygaeidae) In 2006 the European Invertebrate Survey - Netherlands, by order of the National Plant Protection Organisation, conducted a survey of the distribution and population characteristics of the true bug Nysius huttoni White, 1878. This is originally an endemic species of New Zealand, which was first discovered in the Netherlands in 2002 (Aukema et al. 2005). Presumably this species has been introduced to Europe through the harbour of Antwerp. In New Zealand this species is an economically important pest species, known as the wheat bug (Schaefer & Panizzi 2000). They feed on the seeds of wheat and enzymes in the saliva degrade the gluten giving rise to runny dough that is unsuitable for baking (Schaefer & Panizzi 2000). The goal of the survey conducted in the Netherlands, and partially in Belgium, was to reveal the distribution, the population characteristics such as the phenology and the frequency of the different wing morphs within the populations, and the possible damage to crops. A survey of potential sites was carried out, as well as a standardised monitoring of, first two, and later three, populations. Nysius huttoni occurs throughout the south-western part of the Netherlands (fig. 8, 9), suggesting that the adults are capable of flying over large waterways like the Westerschelde and the Oosterschelde. Nysius can be found on all kinds of waste grounds, even of the smallest size. The only condition is the presence of acrocarpous mosses. The animals do not feed on these mosses, but merely use them as a shelter and as a place to hibernate. During the entire survey period (from April 14 - October 26) adults of Nysius huttoni could be observed in the field. However, the nymphs were first found on April 25. Therefore, in the Netherlands this species apparently hibernates as an adult, as it does in New Zealand. During the monitoring of the populations there were two periods, June 2 - July 31 and September 1 - October 11, in which teneral specimens were found. These are specimens that recently moulted to adult. These two periods, combined with the fact that this species hibernates as an adult, indicates that there are at least two generations per year, presumably more. On average 25% of the individuals of the monitored populations were macropterous. Macropterous individuals have fully developed wings and flight muscles. They can contribute to dispersal over longer distances. There were significantly more macropterous individuals among the females (31.8%) than among the males (20.3%) (p = 0.0001). There were no significant differences between the three populations. No damage to crops could be established. Not one specimen was found inside a crop field, nor among the crops. Besides, no damage to other vegetation could be established at places where N. huttoni was present. Even after a long period of drought no damage could be established. Nysius huttoni is a recent introduction into Belgium and the Netherlands, not known prior to 2002. There are still numerous places with suitable habitat. Waterways pose no barrier for the spread of N. huttoni. Around 25% of the population is macropterous and thus capable of long distance dispersal. Therefore it is expected that this species may spread over the major part of the Netherlands, and probably other parts of north-western Europe.


Abstract Medication adherence is a crucial contributor to effective chronic diseases management. On the contrary, poor adherence leads to significant worsening of disease, death, and increased healthcare costs.  Moreover, patient non-adherence is not limited to medications only. It can also take other forms, such as the failure to keep appointments, to follow recommended dietary or other lifestyle changes, and to follow recommended preventive health practices. According to the most recent report of the World Health Organization the global adherence among patients with chronic diseases averages 50 % in developed countries, with rates decreasing as the co-morbidities increase. The rates are lower in developing countries. Over the last decade, extensive research on the efficacy of adherence-enhancing strategies has been done. However, the rates of nonadherence have not changed significantly. One of the most significant improvements has been achieved with the inclusion of the patient in the process of determination of therapy. As a consequence, the term "compliance" was replaced with the term "adherence" seeming to indicate a greater involvement of the patient in the therapy decision making process.  The World Health Organization identified five sets of factors that are important for patients to adhere to the long-term therapeutic regimens. These include: the social and economic factors, the health care team and system, the characteristics of the disease (for example, mental or physical disability), the characteristics of the treatment (for example, number of the medicines prescribed, the frequency of administration and side effects), and patient-related factors. In general, medical adherence is better for drugs that provide symptom relief, as opposed to ones used to treat a generally asymptomatic condition. For example, chronic conditions (such as high blood pressure, hyperlipidemia, diabetes, osteoporosis, and depression) are common diseases characterized with few symptoms and poor adherence, consequently. Additionally, studies have shown that compliance rates decrease when the treatment is long-term, involves multiple medications taken concurrently, several times daily. This problem can be overcome by simplifying the therapeutic regime (for example, use of extended-release formulations and / or fixed-dose combination finished pharmaceutical products). Furthermore, medication side effects remain a significant issue. However, the clinical pharmacists can reduce non-adherence suggesting ways to manage minor side effects or identifying alternative treatments with fewer side effects. Educating patients about disease, importance of treatment or prevention, and consequences if not treated, could be successful strategy in enhancing patient adherence. Finally, the frequent follow-up appointments provide an opportunity to discontinue the medication, change the prescription (e.g., dose, frequency) if needed, and overcome barriers responsible for poor adherence. In conclusion, we should emphasize that a coordinated action from health professionals, researchers and policy makers is needed to achieve progress in this area. Keywords Medication adherence; compliance; chronic disease; comorbidity


Hackers leverage software vulnerabilities to disclose, tamper with, or destroy sensitive
data. To protect sensitive data, programmers can adhere to the principle of
least-privilege, which entails giving software the minimal privilege it needs to operate,
which ensures that sensitive data is only available to software components on a
strictly need-to-know basis. Unfortunately, applying this principle in practice is dif-
�cult, as current operating systems tend to provide coarse-grained mechanisms for
limiting privilege. Thus, most applications today run with greater-than-necessary
privileges. We propose sthreads, a set of operating system primitives that allows
�ne-grained isolation of software to approximate the least-privilege ideal. sthreads
enforce a default-deny model, where software components have no privileges by default,
so all privileges must be explicitly granted by the programmer.
Experience introducing sthreads into previously monolithic applications|thus,
partitioning them|reveals that enumerating privileges for sthreads is di�cult in
practice. To ease the introduction of sthreads into existing code, we include Crowbar,
a tool that can be used to learn the privileges required by a compartment. We
show that only a few changes are necessary to existing code in order to partition
applications with sthreads, and that Crowbar can guide the programmer through
these changes. We show that applying sthreads to applications successfully narrows
the attack surface by reducing the amount of code that can access sensitive data.
Finally, we show that applications using sthreads pay only a small performance
overhead. We applied sthreads to a range of applications. Most notably, an SSL
web server, where we show that sthreads are powerful enough to protect sensitive
data even against a strong adversary that can act as a man-in-the-middle in the
network, and also exploit most code in the web server; a threat model not addressed
to date.


Previous research has shown that neural responses to words during sentence comprehension are sensitive to both lexical repetition and a word's predictability in context. While previous research has often contrasted the effects of these variables (e.g. by looking at cases in which word repetition violates sentence-level constraints), little is known about how they work in tandem. In the current study we examine how recent exposure to a word and its predictability in context combine to impact lexical semantic processing. We devise a novel paradigm that combines reading comprehension with a recognition memory task, allowing for an orthogonal manipulation of a word's predictability and its repetition status. Using event-related brain potentials (ERPs), we show that word repetition and predictability have qualitatively similar and additive effects on the N400 amplitude. We propose that prior exposure to a word and predictability impact lexical semantic processing in an additive and independent fashion.


Digital protection is based on the use of computers in power line relaying. Since the late 1960s, digital devices and techniques have been applied to almost all new protection schemes. Today the technology is moving towards standardised hardware platforms; at the software level, however, there remains a huge variety in approaches and protection algorithms. This book gives a fairly detailed understanding of the principles and techniques underlying the application of digital technology and algorithms to protection. It avoids going into detail of specific products: up-to-date information on these is available from the manufacturers. Instead it aims to give the reader a thorough understanding of the generic problems of digital protection. The text covers the mathematical basis of numerical techniques and relay algorithms, the basic elements of digital protection and the fundamentals underlying the commonest algorithmic forms, particularly as applied to line protection. It deals with the fundamentals of travelling-wave techniques and their application to transmission lines, and with digital differential protection of transformers and lines.


Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) beams of various higher-order radial modes are generated by using a reflective phase-only liquid crystal on silicon (LCOS) spatial light modulator (SLM). Because of the LCOS SLM's phase-modulation characteristic of a wide spatial bandwidth, a phase modulation scheme effectively generates higher-order LG beams of up to the fifth-order radial mode. We also perform correlation analyses between the observed and the theoretical two-dimensional mode profiles to universally obtain correlation coefficients of more than 0.946, which suggest mode generations of high quality.


Southern Illinois: An Illustrated History. By Bill Nunes. (Glen Carbon, Illinois: Bill Nunes, 2001. Pp. 286. Illustrations, maps. Paper, $20.95). This book defies the old adage that claims you can't judge a book by its cover. Given its 8 x 12 inch size and eye-catching photo display, the cover suggests a book more appropriate for the coffee table than the dusty shelf. A photo of Charlie Birger and his gang decorates the front, along with a list of enticing contents that includes hangings, gangsters, Klan wars, massacres, and other hair-raising matter. The back cover presents colored photos of majestic natural sites and a flimsier fast-food spot. Thus even before opening the book, one expects a fun and informative rather than a laborious read, and the expectation is met from first page to last. Nunes reinforces these expectations in the Foreword when he says that the book is "not a scholarly tome." He goes on to describe the work as "a loose collection of materials, mostly from secondary sources ... a history scrapbook, not a serious study." The scrapbook approach makes the book encyclopedic, and thus best read casually by dipping in here and there. The reader will find a balance between discussions of the sensational aspects of Southern Illinois history and those about ordinary people engaging in daily life routines. Photos, adverts, drawings, maps, or cartoons illustrate every page, helping to make the text come alive. Taken together, the information and images presented here are designed to depict Southern Illinois as a "unique region," though Nunes leaves the reader to decide what the components of that uniqueness might be. To those accustomed to thinking of Northern Illinois as the bustling, headline-making part of the state, this book will be not only delightful but also surprising. For they will discover that what is now the relatively quiet part of the state was once home to the Illinois capital, the state's financial center, and the fastest growing city in America. In the early 19th century, the old town of Kaskaskia that is now under water was Illinois's first capital. On the Eastern-most side of Southern Illinois, merchant and trader John Marshall chartered Illinois's first bank in Shawneetown in 1816. This now nearly deserted town was known then as the financial center of Illinois. When developers from Chicago tried to obtain a loan from this bank, they were refused, because Chicago was thought of as a distant, risky place that would not be worth an investment. From 1890 to 1920, East St. Louis was America's fastest growing city and the second largest railway center in the country. These facts and many others will be eye opening to those unfamiliar with Illinois history, and will undoubtedly make readers want to know more about why the state's history has unfolded as it has. Although described as a "loose collection," there is some logic to the book's organization, in that it starts with a section on geology and minerals, the most enduring part of a region. …


OF DISSERTATION DECISION-MAKING PROCESSES, DRIVING PERFORMANCE, AND ACUTE RESPONSES TO ALCOHOL IN DUI OFFENDERS Alcohol-impaired driving is a major cause of motor vehicle accident and death in the United States. People who are arrested for DUI (Driving under the Influence) are at high risk to reoffend; approximately one in three of these individuals will commit another DUI offense in the three years following their first conviction (Nochajski & Stasiewicz, 2006). This high risk for recidivism in these individuals suggests that cognitive characteristics may contribute to a pattern of pathological decision making leading to impaired driving. Indeed, individuals with a history of DUI report higher rates of impulsiveness and behavioral dysregulation compared to their nonoffending peers. Relatively little research, however, has used laboratory methods to identify the specific behavioral characteristics, such as poor inhibitory control or heightened sensitivity to immediate reward, which may differentiate DUI offenders from nonoffenders. Further, little is known about how individuals with a history of DUI respond following an acute dose of alcohol. Study 1 examined impulsivity in 20 adults with a recent DUI conviction and 20 adults with no history of DUI using self-report and behavioral measures of impulsivity. This study also used a novel decision-making paradigm to examine how different levels of risk and reward influenced the decision to drive after drinking in both groups. Results of this study found that DUI offenders did not differ from controls in their performance on behavioral measures of impulsivity. They did, however, report higher levels of impulsivity and demonstrated a greater willingness to tolerate higher levels of risk for more modest rewards. Study 2 examined the acute effects of alcohol and expectancy manipulation on driving performance and decision making in the same group of participants. Neither alcohol nor expectancy manipulation exerted a systematic effect on decision making in either group. Alcohol impaired driving performance equally in both groups, but the DUI group perceived themselves as less impaired by alcohol. Expectancy manipulation eliminated this group difference in perceived driving ability. Taken together, these findings identify processes that risk of impaired driving in DUI offenders. They may perceive themselves as less impaired by alcohol, leading to risky decision making when drinking. Expectancy manipulation may be a viable method of reducing risky decision making in DUI offenders.


Small heat shock protein16.3 (sHSP16.3) is a crucial protein for survival of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) in its host. Besides, this protein acts as a molecular chaperone during stress and is indispensable for MTB's growth, virulence and cell-wall thickening. sHSP16.3 is also a promising candidate for vaccine, serodiagnosis and drug design as well. In the present study, we have targeted sHSP16.3 with two phytochemicals, namely ursolic acid and carvacrol using in silico approach. Molecular docking analysis showed that both phytochemicals (ursolic acid and carvacrol) have docked with sHSP16.3 and shown tendency to inhibit the function of this vital protein of MTB. In addition, both compounds have exhibited strong compatibility with sHSP16.3 during whole 60 ns duration of molecular dynamics simulation. Further, the molecular mechanic/generalized Born/Poisson–Boltzmann surface area (MM/G/P/BSA) free energies were calculated which showed that both phytocompounds have stable and favourable binding energies causing strong binding with binding site of sHSP16.3. Taking together, the data of present study suggest that both phytocompounds may be potential inhibitor of sHSP16.3 of MTB and a best alternative to standard anti-tuberculosis drugs.


Modern semiconductor devices have reached the sub-20nm regime. Before long, it will be practically impossible to further scale down the size of Si-based MOSFETs due to short channel effects. Novel device geometries (e.g. tri-gate and gate-all-around), device concepts (e.g. TFET and NCFET) and channel materials (e.g. III-Vs and TMDs) have been proposed to achieve lower power dissipation and faster speed, allowing for higher transistor density on a chip. In the past decade, quantum transport methods (e.g. NEGF) have become the standard approaches for modeling such nanoscale devices.In state-of-the-art quantum transport models, the dielectric constant is typically set to the material's constant, neglecting the spatial variation of the screening effects in the nanodevice structure. When applied to TFETs, hybrid states that enable band-to-band tunneling are subject to interpolation that yields model dependent charge contributions. In this work, it is exemplified that the use of different charge interpretation models brings large variability when applied to ultra-thin body transistor performance predictions. To solve these modeling challenges, an electron-only band structure model is extended to atomistic quantum transport. Performance predictions of MOSFETs and TFETs confirm the generality of the new model and its independence of additional screening models.Secondly, as devices become smaller, their thermal resistances increase because of the reduced area under the device and thinner silicon layer in the horizontal direction. Thus, despite lower power per device, self-heating effects in digital circuits are actually increasing which compromise both the performance and the reliability of the device. Therefore, for future electronics, an increasingly important role of energy dissipation necessitates electro-thermal co-design. As a first step, seeking to include anharmonicity in phonon related NEGF, the NEGF method with Buttiker probe scattering self-energies is proposed and its accuracy is assessed by comparing its predictions for the thermal boundary resistance with molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. For simplicity, the interface of Si/heavy-Si is considered. With Buttiker probe scattering parameters tuned against MD in homogeneous Si, the NEGF-predicted thermal boundary resistance quantitatively agrees with MD for wide mass ratios, proving that the proposed method provides an efficient and reliable way to include anharmonicity in phonon related NEGF. An algorithm to couple the electron and phonon transport in the NEGF formalism via Buttiker probes is also proposed.Thirdly, NEGF with self-consistent Born approximation is introduced for modeling band tail and bandgap narrowing driven by LO phonons and charged impurities in III-V semiconductors. Extracted scattering rates are benchmarked against Fermi's golden rule. Urbach tail and band gap narrowing calculated in bulk III-V materials agree well with experimental results for a range of temperature and doping concentration. Predictions are made for band-tail and bandgap narrowing in confined structures. Next, the performance of 5nm gate length GaN nMOS nanowire field effect transistor (GaN-NW-nFET) of various geometrical shapes is investigated, around the limits of cross-sectional scalability, using atomistic quantum transport simulations. Benchmarking results with simulated Si-NW-nFET reveal large enhancement in GaN drive current in both Low Standby Power (LP) and High Performance (HP) applications. Further performance enhancement is observed with the use of non-square geometries that are akin to GaN's wurtzite crystal structure. Particularly, it is found that triangular cross-section GaN-NW-nFETs exhibit the smallest subthreshold swing, excellent drive current and superior energy-delay product compared to simulated Si-NW-nFET.Furthermore, quantum transport simulation is applied to design of complementary van der Waal TFETs based on the monolayer p-WTe2/n-ZrS2 vertical heterojunction. Non-idealities such as electron-phonon and electron-electron interactions are included via a phenomenological scattering model. Through band structure engineering and design of the electrostatics, both n- and p-type TFETs are realized with the same device configuration.Transfer and output characteristics, suitable for VLSI applications, are observed. 3D views of energy resolved local density of states (LDOS) illustrate device operating principles and identify three different tunneling paths in the device. It is found that in order to improve the electron collection at drain (source) of the n-type (p-type) TFET, efforts are needed to seek alternative material combinations with similar values of LDOS in the conduction and the valence band of the n- and the p-type materials, respectively. Circuit level simulation of the designed n- and the p-type TFETs is performed on a 25-stage ring oscillator which demonstrates the promise of the proposed designs for low-power digital VLSI applications.Lastly, a finite element Landau-Khalatnikov equation solver is implemented in NEMO5, as a preparation to enable NCFET modeling.


Background: Immunotherapy for Alzheimer's disease(AD) has gained momentum in recent years. One of the concerns over its application pertains to Cost-Effectiveness Analysis (CEA) from population average and specific subgroup differences, as such a therapy is imperative for health decision-makers to allocate limited resources. However, this sort of CEA model considering heterogeneous population with risk factors adjustment has been rarely addressed. Methods: We aimed to show the heterogeneity of CEA in immunotherapy for AD in comparison with the comparator without intervention. Economic evaluation was performed via incremental Cost-Effectiveness Ratio (ICER) and Cost-Effectiveness Acceptability Curve (CEAC) in terms of the Quality-Adjusted Life Years (QALY). First, population-average CEA was performed with and without adjustment for age and gender. Secondly, sub-group CEA was performed with the stratification of gender and age based on Markov process.
Results: Given the threshold of $20,000 of willingness to pay, the results of ICER without and with adjustment for age and gender revealed similar results ($14,691/QALY and $17,604/QALY). The sub-group ICER results by different age groups and gender showed substantial differences. The CEAC showed that the probability of being cost-effective was only 48.8%-53.3% in terms of QALY at population level but varied from 83.5% in women aged 50-64 years, following women aged 65-74 years and decreased to 0.2% in men≥ 75 years.
Conclusion: There were considerable heterogeneities observed in the CEA of vaccination for AD. As with the development of personalized medicine, the CEA results assessed by health decision-maker should not only be considered by population-average level but also specific sub-group levels.


Invariant coordinate selection (ICS) has recently been introduced as a method for exploring multivariate data. It includes as a special case a method for recovering the unmixing matrix in independent components analysis (ICA). It also serves as a basis for classes of multivariate nonparametric tests, and as a tool in cluster analysis or blind discrimination. The aim of this paper is to briefly explain the (ICS) method and to illustrate how various applications can be implemented using the R package ICS. Several examples are used to show how the ICS method and ICS package can be used in analyzing a multivariate data set.


Our previously reported ultrasonic motors with poly phenylene sulfide (PPS)/lead zirconate titanate (PZT) double-layered vibrators were capable of providing high rotation speeds and light weight, but their output torques and power were limited owing to the low stiffness of PPS vibrating bodies. In this study, we constructed a triple-layered vibrator by sandwiching a thin alumina disk between the PPS vibrating body and PZT disk to compensate the stiffness. First, their fundamental vibration characteristics were investigated as some of key dimensions were varied. The force factor of the PPS/alumina/PZT triple-layered vibrator reached the maximal value when the neutral axis located at the boundary between the PZT and alumina disks. In contrast, the neutral axes existed in the PZT disks for the PPS/PZT double-layered vibrators; this caused the relatively low force factors compared to the triple-layered vibrators. Subsequently, lumina oly phenylene sulfide the load characteristics of the PPS/alumina/PZT triple-layered motors were experimentally assessed. The maximum output torque and power of the triple-layered motors were 5 and 13 times the values of the double-layered motors, respectively, owing to the enhanced force factor and electromechanical coupling factor. Besides, the optimal thickness was lower for the triplethan for the double-layered motor. These advantages indicate the potential of our newly designed triple-layered motors for practical applications. © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.


When Francisco I. Madero ousted the long-time Mexican dictator Porfirio Diaz in 1911, he set into motion a series of events that we have come to know collectively as the Mexican Revolution. This revolution, with its relatively small beginnings, would soon grow and shake the Mexican nation to its roots. The United States, Mexico's overbearing northern neighbor, was not immune to the tremors emanating from south of the Rio Grande. For a significant part of the population of the United States, this revolution presented a challenge to something at their very soul-their Catholicity. Most Catholics in the United States, from the hierarchy's leadership in the National Catholic Welfare Conference (NCWC)1 to devout lay men and women, viewed the challenge that faced the Mexican Church as one that struck at the heart of some of their most deeply held assumptions as American Catholics, i.e., that the freedom of religious expression was an inalienable and universal liberty. To meet this challenge arising from the Mexican Revolution, activist American Catholics-particularly the Knights of Columbus-- struggled to force the United States government to alter its diplomatic relations with that country. This essay will examine the work of the Knights of Columbus to aid their Mexican co-religionists within the context of the Mexican Revolution's assault on the Catholic Church. In this effort, the Knights of Columbus assumed a leadership position within a special interest group comprised of American Catholic hierarchy and laymen, striving to exert some degree of influence over public policy.2 The history of the Knights of Columbus has been a topic of inquiry for a number of scholars. By far the most important work on examining the history of the order is that of Christopher J. Kauffman. In works ranging from journal articles and a coffee-table-book illustrated history to the definitive monograph, Kauffman has traced the development of the Knights of Columbus as a lay group which responded to some of the most important movements of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries: advocacy of fraternalism and Americanism, and opposition to the anti-Catholicism of the period.3 Others have portrayed the growth of the Knights of Columbus as typical of the attraction secret societies-such as the Masons, the Odd Fellows, the Ancient Order of Hibernians, and the Order of Foresters-had for men in the late 1800's.(4) Kauffman notes that unlike these other organizations, the Knights represented"a unique blend of popular fraternalism,American Catholic patriotism, and traditional Catholicism."5 None of these scholars, however, have emphasized the Knights of Columbus as an organization active in the effort to influence United States foreign policy, as does this study. For most American Catholics, the anticlericalism of the Mexican Revolution must have taken them by complete surprise, since most Catholics in the United States assumed that Mexico was one of the most solidly Catholic nations on earth. The Roman Catholic Church, from the earliest days of the colonial period in the sixteenth century, had been a major force in the history of Mexico. Catholic missionaries served the conquistadores on their voyages of exploration and exploitation, not only in their capacity as evangelizers of the "heathen" natives but also as agents of royal control of the colony itself. Serving in this capacity was incredibly lucrative for the Church. Such institutions as tithes on agricultural produce and perpetual liens on land earned for the Church vast wealth. This wealth was contingent, of course, on maintenance of the colonial status quo. It was because of this traditional position in colonial society that the church hierarchy remained loyal to the Spanish crown, bringing all church resources, including its vast wealth, its control of the press, and even the dreaded Inquisition, to bear against the revolutionaries in 1808 in the wars for independence. Because of internal political intrigues in Spain, the independence movement in Mexico was co-opted by such royalists as pro-clerical Colonel Agustin de Iturbide, former officer of the Spanish army in Mexico and future emperor of independent Mexico. …


Digital health technology utilizing wearables, IoT and mobile devices has been successfully applied in the monitoring of numerous diseases and conditions. However, intervention, in response to monitored data, is yet to benefit from technological support and continues to follow a traditional point-of-care delivery model by providers and health professionals. Mental health is an example of a critical health area in dire need for technology solutions to enable timely, effective and scalable interventions. This is especially the case with an increasing prevalence of mental health conditions and a declining capacity of the healthcare professional workforce. Numerous studies reveal the potential for peer support groups as an effective, scalable, cost-effective, first-line of response in mental health interventions. Peer support helps participants, at low and moderate risk, better understand their diseases or conditions and empowers them to take control of their own health. Peer support interactions also seems to inform health professionals with insights and intricate knowledge, making it effectively a learning health system. This paper proposes a software architecture to better enable "peer-sourcing". We present related work and show how the proposed architecture might draw similarity to and differences from crowd-sourcing architectures. We also present a study in which we interacted with service users (mental health patients) and mental healthcare professionals to better understand and elicit the key requirements for the software architecture.


Infections with the parasitic flagellate Ichthyobodo necator (Henneguy, 1883) cause severe skin and gill disease in rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss (Walbaum, 1792) juveniles. The epidermal disturbances including hyperplasia and mucous cell exhaustion caused by parasitization are known, but no details on specific cellular and humoral reactions have been presented. By applying gene expression methods and immunohistochemical techniques, further details of immune processes in the affected skin can be presented. A population of I. necator was established in the laboratory and used to induce an experimental infection of juvenile rainbow trout. The course of infection was followed by sampling for parasite enumeration, immunohistochemistry (IHC) and quantitative PCR (qPCR) on days 0, 5, 9 and 14 post-infection. IHC showed a significant increase in the occurrence of IgM-positive cells in the skin of the infected fish, whereas IgT-positive cells were eliminated and the number of CD8-positive cells declined. qPCR studies supported the IHC findings showing a significant increase in IgM and a decrease in the CD8 gene expression. In addition, genes encoding innate immune genes such as lysozyme, SAA and cathelicidin 2 were up-regulated. Expression of cytokines (IL-1β, IL-4/13A, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10), the cell marker CD4 and the transcription factor GATA3 showed a significant increase after infection. Cytokine profiling including up-regulation of IL-4/13A and IL-10 genes and transcription factor GATA3 connected to the proliferation of IgM producing lymphocytes suggests a partial shift towards a Th2 response associated with the I. necator infection.


We present a scheme for joint remote state preparation (JRSP) of three-particle state via three tripartite Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) entangled states as the quantum channel linking the parties. We use eight-qubit mutually orthogonal basis vector as measurement point of departure. The likelihood of success for this scheme has been found to be $1/8$. However, by putting some special cases into consideration, the chances can be ameliorated to $1/4$ and $1$. The effects of amplitude-damping noise, phase-damping noise and depolarizing noise on this scheme have been scrutinized and the analytical derivations of fidelities for the quantum noisy channels have been presented. We found that for $0.55\leq\eta\leq1$, the states conveyed through depolarizing channel lose more information than phase-damping channel while the information loss through amplitude damping channel is most minimal.


In 1979 an Accident Black Spot Program was initiated in Victoria. The program aims to reduce the incidence and severity of casualty accidents at locations with a bad accident record through the use of low cost, highly effective crash countermeasures. The primary purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of particular types of treatments at various types of locations, with a range of accident types. Effectiveness is measured in terms of both changes in reported casualty accident frequencies and economic worth of the treatments implemented. An efficient, computer-based method for evaluation has been developed as part of this study. The results provide practical and objective information for the refinement of the methods for selection of sites and treatments and, ultimately, to intelligently set directions and establish appropriate emphases for the program. The accident evaluation indicates that the intersections component reduced casualty accident occurrence by 33% overall. Substantial casualty accident savings were derived from new roundabouts (81% reduction), new intersection signals (53%) and remodelled intersection signals (33%), with fully controlled right-turn phases seeming to contribute the bulk of the savings for remodelled signals. The treatment of intersections outside of the Melbourne Metropolitan area produced a 69% reduction, compared to a 30% reduction in the Metropolitan area. The main findings of the economic evaluation are that the intersections component of the Program resulted in BCR values of 8.8 overall, 7.1 for intersections in Metropolitan Melbourne and 19.1 for intersections outside of the Metropolitan area. BCR values of 7.5 for new roundabouts, 8.2 for new intersection signals, and 22.1 for the remodelling of existing signals were achieved. The evaluation found average NPW values per treatment of $0.72 million overall, $1.25 million for new roundabouts, $1.06 for new intersection signals and $0.85 million for remodelled intersection signals. The treatment of midblock locations was unsuccessful overall in reducing casualty accident frequency at treated sites. This aspect warrants more detailed study.


Carnivorous predators are difficult to detect using conventional survey methods, especially at low levels of abundance. The introduced red fox (Vulpes vulpes) in Australia is monitored to determine the effectiveness of control programs, but assessing population parameters such as abundance and recruitment is difficult. We carried out a feasibility study to determine the effectiveness of using faecal DNA analysis methods to identify individual foxes and to assess abundance before and after lethal control. Fox faeces were collected in two sampling periods over four separate transects, and genotyped at five microsatellite loci. Two transects were subject to lethal control between collection periods. DNA was extracted from 170 fox faeces and, in total, 54 unique genotypes were identified. Fifteen biopsy genotypes from 30 foxes killed during lethal control were detected among the faecal genotypes. Overall, a similar number of genotypes were detected in both sampling periods. The number of individuals sampled in both periods was low (n = 6) and new individuals (n = 24) were detected in the second collection period. We were also able to detect animals that avoided lethal control, and movement of individuals between transects. The ability to identify individual foxes using these DNA techniques highlighted the shortcomings of the sample design, in particular the spatial scale and distances between transects. This study shows that non-invasive DNA sampling can provide valuable insight into pre and post fox abundance in relation to lethal control, individual behaviour and movement, as well as sample design. The information gained from this study will contribute to the design of future studies and, ultimately, control strategies.


Abstract Background Ammopiptanthus nanus is a rare broad-leaved shrub that is found in the desert and arid regions of Central Asia. This plant species exhibits extremely high tolerance to drought and freezing and has been used in abiotic tolerance research in plants. As a relic of the tertiary period, A. nanus is of great significance to plant biogeographic research in the ancient Mediterranean region. Here, we report a draft genome assembly using the Pacific Biosciences (PacBio) platform and gene annotation for A. nanus. Findings A total of 64.72 Gb of raw PacBio sequel reads were generated from four 20-kb libraries. After filtering, 64.53 Gb of clean reads were obtained, giving 72.59× coverage depth. Assembly using Canu gave an assembly length of 823.74 Mb, with a contig N50 of 2.76 Mb. The final size of the assembled A. nanus genome was close to the 889 Mb estimated by k-mer analysis. The gene annotation completeness was evaluated using Benchmarking Universal Single-Copy Orthologs; 1,327 of the 1,440 conserved genes (92.15%) could be found in the A. nanus assembly. Genome annotation revealed that 74.08% of the A. nanus genome is composed of repetitive elements and 53.44% is composed of long terminal repeat elements. We predicted  37,188 protein-coding genes, of which 96.53% were functionally annotated. Conclusions The genomic sequences of A. nanus could be a valuable source for comparative genomic analysis in the legume family and will be useful for understanding the phylogenetic relationships of the Thermopsideae and the evolutionary response of plant species to the Qinghai Tibetan Plateau uplift.


I. INTRODUCTION On June 26, 1997, the United States Supreme Court considered a constitutional challenge to a Washington statute that criminalized acts of deliberate assistance of another in committing suicide. (1) The Court ruled that an asserted right to physician assisted suicide was not a fundamental liberty interest protected by the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. (2) Chief Justice Rehnquist, writing for the Court, concluded the influential decision with a strong statement: "the opinion should not restrict the continuation of the open debate in our society about all aspects of physician assisted suicide." (3) The issue of how to care for the terminally ill patient, whether by use of palliative care techniques, a medical treatment process placing the relief of pain as the primary care goal, or by allowing the patient to voluntarily end their life, has been enriched by the far-reaching implications of the court's decision. (4) Timothy Quill, M.D., published an influential article in the New England Journal of Medicine which frames the issue of physician assisted suicide. (5) Dr. Quill wrote about his patient Diane who had recovered from several difficult life circumstances only to discover that she had acute myelomonocytic leukemia(6) Dr. Quill described the woman as an "incredibly clear, at times brutally honest thinker and communicator" who had finally taken complete control of her life with a strong sense of independence and self-esteem. (7) Faced with the prospect of a fifty percent survival rate involving extensive chemotherapy treatments and other considerably intrusive and complicated medical care, Diane, with the support of her family, decided not to undergo the recommended therapy. (8) Dr. Quill stated that she wanted to live her remaining time with her family outside of the hospital. (9) After considerable discussions between Dr. Quill and Diane about her care, Diane expressed the importance of the need and value of maintaining control of herself and her dignity over the upcoming months. (10) Dr. Quill wrote "that Diane expressed that when the time came, she wanted to take her life in the least painful way possible." (11) A short time later, Dr. Quill prescribed barbiturates after carefully considering the brief conversation between the two about Diane's trouble sleeping. (12) Dr. Quill noted that it was evident to him that Diane then felt secure knowing that if the time came she would be able to voluntarily end the suffering at her moment of choice. (13) Diane did take the medications and quietly passed away at home with her family one hour after ingesting the drugs. (14) Dr. Quill wrote: "[s]uffering can be lessened to some extent, but in no way eliminated or made benign, by careful intervention of a competent, caring physician, given current social constraints." (15) This Note will examine current issues pertaining to the medical care of the terminally ill individual, particularly with respect to palliative care and how the continuum of medical care incorporates the voluntary termination of a patient's life. Part II of this Note will look at the decision reached in Washington v. Glucksberg and how the Supreme Court has contributed to the molding of care for the terminally ill. Part III will review relevant aspects of end of life care concepts and their relationship and impact upon the assisted suicide alternative. Any analysis of physician assisted suicide must include the evolution of Oregon's legislative approach to the topic. (16) Oregon is the only state which provides terminally ill citizens the option of assisted suicide by legislative initiative, viz., the Death with Dignity Act. (17) The Act will be reviewed at length in Part IV. The final portion of this note will take a hard look at how the United States Congress has addressed the issue of care of the terminally ill with such initiatives as the Lethal Drug Abuse Prevention Act of 1998. …


This paper explores the complementary use of system dynamics and case study research methodology for process theory development. The rationale for this is provided on the grounds of the limitations of human cognition, particularly in understanding the evolution of complex non linear systems and processes in time. This poses difficulties when attempting to arrive at causal mechanisms for phenomena of interest with some confidence. Viewing research as an evolutionary process where better explanations are continuously sought, generated, selected and retained, simulation can be of use both in increasing the range of alternatives considered and serving as a concrete background against which the selection process takes place, thus facilitating the attainment of a satisfactory level of system understanding. Modelling and simulation has the added benefit of providing a documented artifact through which conclusions are reached and consequently it allows for replication or at least a thorough review.


By arguing that the surface pressure field over the Arctic Ocean can be treated as an isotropic, stationary, homogeneous, Gaussian random field, Thorndike estimated a number of covariance functions from two years of data (1979 and 1980). Given the active interest in changes of general circulation quantities and indices in the polar regions during the recent few decades, the spatial correlations in sea ice velocity fields are of particular interest. It is thus natural to ask; "how persistent are these correlations?" To this end, a multi-fractal stochastic treatment is developed to analyze observed Arctic sea ice velocity fields from satellites and buoys for the period 1978 - 2015. Having previously found that the Arctic Equivalent Ice Extent (EIE) has a white noise structure on annual to bi-annual time scales, the connection between EIE and ice motion is assessed. The long-term stationarity of the spatial correlation structure of the velocity fields, and the robustness of their white noise structure on multiple time scales is demonstrated, which (a) combine to explain the white noise characteristics of the EIE on annual to biannual time scales, and (b) explain why the fluctuations in the ice velocity are proportional to fluctuations in the geostrophic winds on time scales of days to months. Moreover, it is shown that the statistical structure of these two quantities is commensurate from days up to years, which may be related to the increasing prevalence of free drift in the ice pack.


The provision of second language education in New Zealand primary schools has been, until recently, a rare addition to programmes. Its wider implementation in New Zealand primary schools has always been limited by low numbers of fluent bilingual teachers, and a perception that in a predominantly English speaking country such as New Zealand there is no need to teach additional languages in primary schools. The New Zealand Curriculum (Ministry of Education, 2007) provides the first opportunity to formally include second language education in primary schools, and to establish the learning of second languages as a worthwhile pursuit in New Zealand. However, the success of such a policy change will depend on the ability of the Ministry of Education and course providers to upskill teachers in their ability to speak additional languages and teach them. This article reports on the outcomes of a Ministry-funded project designed to strengthen the second language teaching approaches of upper primary school teachers who teach te reo Māori. It provides case studies of two of the teachers who completed this course, and finds that while there are clear benefits to be derived from such teacher professional development courses, these courses need to focus on long-term objectives and be channelled to those teachers and students who stand to benefit the most from professional development courses.


A novel experimental apparatus to study the dynamics of photodissociation and photoionization processes in the interior or at the surface of helium droplets by means of imaging techniques has been designed, built and characterized. This molecular beam machine combines a versatile cryogenic cluster source with a cross beam scattering stage to introduce impurities into the droplets and a velocity map imaging instrument as the principal analysis tool. In a first series of experiments we have used this apparatus to examine the 266 nm A band photolysis of CH3I and CF3I embedded in liquid 4He clusters with selected mean sizes in the range from ≈ 2000 to ≈ 20000 atoms. The in-situ creation of photofragments in the droplet interior constitutes an original approach to studying the translational dynamics of neutral microscopic particles in the quantum liquid, which until now were poorly characterized. For all mean droplet sizes under investigation we observe that fragments of every studied species can escape from the droplets. A predominantly thermally driven fragment release clearly is not compatible with the three-dimensional velocity distributions of the products. Accordingly, the vast majority of departing photofragments is thought to escape from the clusters simply by pushing away helium atoms, an escape process which we designate "direct". It is found that the translational and angular relaxation of the escaping products generally increases both with decreasing fragment mass and increasing mean droplet size. We furthermore show that droplet angular momenta can at most have a minor effect on the measured angular product distributions which therefore are thought to mainly reveal deflections of the fragment trajectories inside the droplets. Accompanying classical Monte Carlo simulations based on independent pairwise hard-sphere scattering can reproduce qualitative and quantitative properties of the observed speed and angular distributions and suggest strongly that binary fragment–helium collisions are at the origin of the translational and angular relaxation of the escaping products. By state-specifically detecting methyl fragments in the vibrational ground and in the first umbrella mode (ν2) excited state we show that vibrational cooling in the course of the fragment escape is not complete and that the mean relative kinetic energy loss of departing molecular fragments does not depend significantly on the level of vibrational excitation. Departing iodine and CH3 fragments are found to leave the helium droplets as fragment–Hen complexes with sizes n of up to 15 and more helium atoms. These partially solvated fragments exhibit characteristic droplet frame speeds that strongly correlate with the complex size n: Larger structures escape with lower speeds from the helium clusters. The velocity map images of size-selected IHen products show furthermore that the characteristic complex speeds depend little on the initial kinetic energy of the nascent iodine fragments or on the helium droplet size. Instead, the variation of the latter parameters is shown to profoundly affect the size distribution of the escaping IHen products. We present evidence that these complexes build up already in the droplet interior and argue that their formation should be regarded as the dynamical development of helium solvation shells around the translationally relaxing radicals. It is proposed that both the speed of a moving fragment relative to the helium bath and the strength of the fragment–He interaction determine the instantaneous size of a forming complex structure to a good degree of approximation. By velocity mapping bare parent molecules we furthermore demonstrate the occurence of CH3–I fragment recombination in helium droplets with mean sizes of more than ≈ 3000 atoms. The (CH3I)+ ion signal appears with a time constant of ≈ 5 ns and shows a finite kinetic energy release which is thought to arise from a complete evaporation of the solvent atoms as a result of the internal cooling of the recombined molecules. For CF3I no recombination signal is observed. This effect is attributed to the different fragment masses and the dissimilar partitioning of the total kinetic energy in the CF3I photolysis reaction.


Binary multirelations associate elements of a set with its subsets; hence they are binary relations of type A × 2. Applications include alternating automata, models and logics for games, program semantics with dual demonic and angelic nondeterministic choices and concurrent dynamic logics. This proof document supports an arXiv article that formalises the basic algebra of multirelations and proposes axiom systems for them, ranging from weak bi-monoids to weak bi-quantales.


Near the end of his Euboean Discourse, Dio attacks prostitution because it encourages men to seek sexual pleasure from other sources as well, including youths from noble households. While some scholars find no evidence in this diatribe for Dio9s revulsion against male-male sexual relations per se, others conclude that it does indeed reflect Dio9s contempt for all sexual relations between men. This study considers afresh Dio9s treatments of sexual relations between men in his Discourses, and concludes that Dio may endorse both male-male and male-female sexual relations when the agent initiating sexual contact pursues philia and eunoia. On the other hand, Dio expresses his disgust when the agent uses sexual relations self-indulgently for pleasure. The content and form of his arguments illustrate his familiarity with both Stoic doctrine and the forms of popular moralizing discourse. The paper first examines Dio9s remarks in the third Discourse on Kingship, where he praises sexual relations in a measured way, indicating his familiarity with Stoic teachings on eros. Second, it considers Dio9s remarks in the Euboean Discourse and supports John Winkler9s argument that Dio objects to prostitution because it is rooted in self-indulgent pleasure-seeking. Dio9s rhetorical approach reflects his awareness of popular teachings against self-indulgence typical of Cynic-Stoic diatribe. Third, the essay argues that Dio9s remarks in the First Tarsian oration condemn adult male sexual passivity, not all aspects of sexual relations between males. Fourth, brief remarks in his Borystheniticus are not to be taken as evidence for Dio9s hostility to sexual relations between men, though they possibly indicate his discomfort with how he imagines non-Greeks engage in sex.


I arrived at my current place of work in February 2010, a new graduate grateful for my first job in the profession, nervous about working full time after many years of part time work and with the brief of "get more students into the library" to guide me. And there was only me, this is a one person library. Defining 'library' to mean much more than just get the students in the door of the physical library, the first thing I decided to do was create a library website. This would enable me to connect with both students and our (largely sessional) teaching staff. Let me be up front here, I have no formal training or qualifications in IT, but armed with a keen personal interest, a reasonably tech-savvy background and a very limited budget that had to be kept solely for acquisitions. I was soon searching for inexpensive (read free) options.


The delinkage of productivity and real wages is the underlying cause of the 2007 economic crisis. As a result of this delinking, consumer income lagged output GDP, and the gap was funded by consumer credit and increased deficit-financed welfare payments. This proved unsustainable, and so led to current austerity policy and GDP cuts. An alternative paradigm is needed in which the financial sector is re-engineered and financial instruments redefined to serve the real economy. Deficient demand and financial deficit are inevitable in advanced technology economies. The only ultimate solution is a basic income funded by QE in proportion to output GDP and not counted as deficit.


This paper is a supplementary article on counting metamers to one presented earlier in this journal. Whereas in the previous study the basic collection of object-color stimuli contained "jagged" spectral reflectance curves, including a great many that exhibit extreme reflectance variations within small spectral ranges, the present paper makes use of basic collections which contain "smooth" spectral reflectance curves generated by frequency-limited functions. The results obtained in the present study are similar to those obtained previously, particularly when the limiting frequency of the spectral reflectance functions is set at ω = 1/50. Such a limiting frequency leads to spectral reflectance curves of typically four oscillations within the visible spectrum, making them resemble practical spectral reflectance curves.


Domestic violence is ubiquitous across eras, cultures, religions and political systems. Feminist responses to domestic violence seek to free women from gender subjugation, but such movement inevitably challenges moral and natural claims about marriage and family in traditional society. These traditions often claim religious and moral authority, while reformers often have overreacted by abandoning established moral thought in favor of relativistic, individual moral discernment. This tension is manifest in the struggle at common law to adjust moral language to the gradual, radical evolution of gender status and marriage. The plight of women and girls in the developing world is the preeminent human rights issue of our age, and it coincides with remarkable, quick shifts in the legal and cultural definitions of marriage and family in America. In this milieu, we witness the rise of originalism and a resurgence of "new" natural law in jurisprudence and moral philosophy, pushing against feminist lawmaking and the rapid development of domestic violence law within a generation. My article takes stock of the moral ground at the intersection of these forces and measures them against a metric of neighbor-love and charity. I examine the history of domestic violence in the common law at the Supreme Court to illuminate the challenge to liberating, empowering reform and the defensive resistance of traditional moral claims. I propose to revive an ancient idea, the Golden Rule, as the core moral, natural underpinning for marriage and family law, especially as it implicates domestic violence. The old common law of marriage made stark and bold claims to nature and morality but did not accommodate the deeper principle of intentional, disciplined love. Likewise, the Court's contemporary moral metric, sharply deferential to individual conscience, ignores the fundamental moral rule, upon which Western jurisprudence must and ought to hang. This moment generates a divide that alienates traditional claims to morality from feminist claims to human dignity, when both might share constructive space within a rigorous Golden Rule. The immoral roots of the common law survive to this day in generations of victims and perpetrators. If the common law's old claims to morality and nature had grappled with love and the Golden Rule, courts could not have ignored the ugly, violent effects of subjugation in traditional marriage. Thus, I offer a caution for our age, first suggesting that courts and lawmakers should be wary of importing the bad moral reasoning of the founding era as it relates to families and marriage, and then suggesting that an ethic of love is a sounder foundation than blind genuflection to individual sovereignty and autonomous moral discernment. Rather than discarding established moral and religious ideas, courts should sound the law in the superior, antecedent Golden Rule.


Objective: The aims of this study are to identify the molecular interactions and the pharmacophore-fit of of α mangostin and its derivatives with estrogen receptor α (ERα) using computational simulation approaches to obtain new potent of anti-breast cancer. Material and Methods: Molecular docking simulation and 3D structure-based pharmacophore models were employed to identify the molecular interactions of α-mangostin and its derivatives against estrogen receptor α (ERα) (PDB ID: 3ERT). Results: The results showed that the binding energy of α-mangostin and its best derivative (AMD10) were −9.05 kcal/mol and −11.89 kcal/mol, respectively. These compounds also interacted with Thr347, Asp351, Met388, Met528, Ile424, Arg394, and Glu353. The pharmacophore-fit scores of α-mangostin and AMD10 were 83.06% and 86.46%, respectively. In addition, the absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion (ADME) properties were predicted. Conclusion: These results showed that α-mangostin and AMD10 are promising candidates of novel anti-breast-cancer agents with antagonistic activity to ERα. Key words: α-mangostin, Estrogen receptor alpha, Molecular docking, Pharmacophore.


Three types of major process-induced damage which hampers the realization of FRAM (ferroelectric random access memory) device are investigated; dry etching induced damage, hydrogen-induced degradation, and stress effect. Since ferroelectric capacitors utilize the movement of body-centered atoms in perovskite structure, Ti or Zr in the case of Pb(ZrxTi1-x)O3 (PZT), the movement can be suppressed or inhibited by many factors such as space charges, defects, chemical reactions, and stress of stacked layers. Unlike conventional silicon processes, the integration of ferroelectric capacitor module requires high density plasma to pattern their shapes because of a low volatility of etched byproducts, therefore the degradation of ferroelectric capacitor performance could occur by the collision of high energetic particles. The damage of PZT thin film due to dry etching process was characterized in terms of the microstructure and electrical properties. The damaged layer seems to be amorphous and the thickness is about 10 nm. The existence of such a layer in Pt/ PZT/Pt ferroelectric capacitor tends to increase the coercive voltage and the leakage current. The damaged layer was not fully reverted to perovskite phase by the thermal annealing, even at PZT formation temperature. For the elimination of this damaged layer, a novel wet cleaning solution was designed. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) pictures clearly show that treatment with the cleaning solution completely removed the etching damaged layer. With the cleaning solution, a sidewall cleaning process and a surface cleaning process were proposed to eliminate nonferroelectric phases such as pyrochlore, PbO, and etching damaged layer. After removing the non-ferroelectric phases, ferroelectric properties such as remnant polarization, coercive voltage, and leakage current were remarkably improved. In addition, the wet cleaned ferroelectric capacitors yielded superior endurance against hydrogen-induced damage compared to those of the non-cleaned capacitors. Several parameters such as Zr/Ti compositional ratios, excess amounts of Pb, the domain poling state, and electrode structures (Pt/PZT/Pt and Ir/IrO2/PZT/Pt/IrO2) were investigated in terms of hydrogen-induce degradation. It was found that the hydrogeninduce degradation is enhanced when PZT films have high compositions of Ti and Pb, and can be suppressed by domain poling prior to the hydrogen anneal. From the SIMS analysis and hysteresis loop shifts, it can be concluded that the hydrogen damage occurs mainly at the PZT/electrode interface and results in the development of negative charge buildup. To reduce the hydrogen-induced damage, an electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) oxygen plasma treatment of the Pt/PZT/Pt capacitor was attempted. It was found that oxygen plasma treatment modifies the surface of Pt electrodes. Surface modification alleviates catalytic activity of Pt electrodes, thereby significantly improving ferroelectric properties such as remnant polarization and leakage current. It seems that highly reactive oxygen radicals in ECR plasma play an important role in suppressing the catalytic activity of Pt electrodes. The cause of the blister formation on the PECVD (plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition) SiO2/Pt/PZT/Pt capacitor was studied by means of annealing in various ambient. The blisters were observed at a temperature of 325oC in an O2 atmosphere, while in a N2 and an Ar atmosphere blisters were not produced even at 500oC. Hydrogen evolution analysis from PECVD SiO2 layer showed a sharp peak near 320oC. The results indicate that the accumulation of water vapor pressure, developed via a chemical reaction between oxygen and hydrogen could be the dominant factor for blister formation in PECVD SiO2/Pt/PZT/Pt capacitors. The effect of stress was investigated with two different interlayer dielectric (ILD) materials, ECR CVD Oxide and PECVD TEOS Oxide (PE-TEOS). Since the stress of PZT capacitor strongly depends on the ILD deposition temperature, the PZT capacitor with PETEOS showed more compressive stress than that with ECR oxide, which results in severe remnant polarization (Pr) degradation of PZT capacitor with PE-TEOS. This large stress effect of PE-TEOS was confirmed by measuring d-spacing values of (111) PZT films with XRD technique. These results suggest that the low ILD deposition temperature is a key parameter for achieving an ILD integration with a minimal Pr degradation.


ABSTRACT NorM is a member of the multidrug and toxic compound extrusion (MATE) family and functions as a Na+/multidrug antiporter in Vibrio parahaemolyticus, although the underlying mechanism of the Na+/multidrug antiport is unknown. Acidic amino acid residues Asp32, Glu251, and Asp367 in the transmembrane region of NorM are conserved in one of the clusters of the MATE family. In this study, we investigated the role(s) of acidic amino acid residues Asp32, Glu251, and Asp367 in the transmembrane region of NorM by site-directed mutagenesis. Wild-type NorM and mutant proteins with amino acid replacements D32E (D32 to E), D32N, D32K, E251D, E251Q, D367A, D367E, D367N, and D367K were expressed and localized in the inner membrane of Escherichia coli KAM32 cells, while the mutant proteins with D32A, E251A, and E251K were not. Compared to cells with wild-type NorM, cells with the mutant NorM protein exhibited reduced resistance to kanamycin, norfloxacin, and ethidium bromide, but the NorM D367E mutant was more resistant to ethidium bromide. The NorM mutant D32E, D32N, D32K, D367A, and D367K cells lost the ability to extrude ethidium ions, which was Na+ dependent, and the ability to move Na+, which was evoked by ethidium bromide. Both E251D and D367N mutants decreased Na+-dependent extrusion of ethidium ions, but ethidium bromide-evoked movement of Na+ was retained. In contrast, D367E caused increased transport of ethidium ions and Na+. These results suggest that Asp32, Glu251, and Asp367 are involved in the Na+-dependent drug transport process.


Herbivorous zooplankton production is often constrained by algal food quality, and variation in algal food quality has been attributed to its phosphorus (P) content. To test the hypothesis that mineral P limitation is an important constraint on freshwater herbivorous zooplankton production, we conducted a quantitative analysis of published data on lake seston carbon to phosphorus (C:P) ratios and daphnid growth responses to P‐limited algal diets. Our summary of 276 observations of mean lake seston C:P ratios showed 38% exceeded a critical threshold of 300, above which daphnid production is often predicted to be limited by algal P content. Our analysis of 91 observations of daphnid growth responses to nutrient‐limited algal diets indicates the true daphnid critical threshold lies within the range of 225–375. Algal food quality is consistently reduced at algal C:P ratios above 300; however, the predicted reduction in algal food quality with P limitation is greater than the observed reduction at critical thresholds <390. Mineral P limitation of Daphnia production may be quite strong in some lakes; however, the production of most zooplankton taxa would not be expected to be limited by mineral P in a large proportion of lakes. After correcting for the algal C:P ratio, large differences in food quality were found between the major algal taxa, with diatoms and cryptophytes high food quality, chlorophytes intermediate food quality, and small ingestible cyanophytes very low food quality. A Monte Carlo simulation indicated that shifts in algal community composition similar to those seen during seasonal succession or across lake trophic state gradients explained four times more variability in daphnid growth rates across a range of seston C:P ratios representative of natural lakes. Overall these results tend to support the mineral P limitation hypothesis for daphnids, but they also suggest other factors will be the primary determinants of algal food quality for most zooplankters in most lakes.


Summary

Vertebral body compression is a common problem in commercial farming of Atlantic salmon. Although risk factors, such as vaccination and malnutrition, have been identified, the etiology is largely unknown. Histological studies of Atlantic salmon have shown that in a compressed deformity (platyspondyly) the length of the compact bone is reduced while the notochord start to form atypical chrondrogenic structures. In mammals, similar remodeling activities have been linked to inflammatory processes in the tissue. Hence, we wanted to investigate whether the compressed vertebrae in Atlantic salmon showed presence of local (IL-1β, TNF-α1), systemic (IgM) and chronic (MMP-13, MMP-9) immune responses (measured with quantitative PCR). Unvaccinated groups of Atlantic salmon that would later develop high or low prevalence of vertebral compression during on-growth in seawater were sampled at seawater transfer, and 3 and 6 weeks after seawater transfer. In addition, compressed and normal vertebrae from the high deformity prevalence group were sampled 44 weeks after transfer to seawater. MMP-13 was significantly up-regulated in the group that developed a high prevalence of deformity, and also significantly up-regulated in compressed vertebrae, 44 weeks after seawater transfer. In compressed vertebrae, MMP-13 was equally up-regulated in the notochord, compact bone and trabecular bone. The results of the present study suggest that MMP-13 may serve as an early indicator for bone remodeling which may lead to vertebral compression, and that there is a relationship between the development of vertebral compression and increased remodeling activities in farmed Atlantic salmon.


Background: In 2012, food insecurity affected 14.5% of the households in the U.S and 20% in the state of Georgia. Individuals who are food-insecure can experience malnutrition, and social and physical problems. The purpose of this study was to assess food access and security concerns in two counties of the North Central Health District 5-2 (NCHD 5-2) in Georgia and to aid in devising interventions to increase food access and reduce food insecurity. Methods: Data collection involved surveying 399 public housing residents within two NCHD 5-2 counties using the Household Food Security Survey developed by the US Department of Agriculture. The survey contained 24 questions focusing on demographics and household food status and on the severity and prevalence of food access and security. Results: Of the 399 participants, 91.9% reported annual household incomes less than $30,000; 61% (n = 244) reported receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP/food stamps) benefits, 11% (n = 46) received Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) benefits, and 3.3% (n = 13) received Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). Results for food security status (whether or not families have access to food at all times) showed that 7.3% (n = 29) were classified as high food secure, 22.8% (n = 91) as marginally food secure, 30.6% (n = 122) as low food secure, and 39.3% (n = 157) as very low food secure. Conclusions: Most of the residents with some form of food insecurity received government food assistance, yet still identified as being unable to feed themselves or their families for the month. Recommendations to evaluate this problem include additional research and implementation of public health efforts to address food access and insecurity through policy changes and implementation of programs.


The fiscal consolidation efforts of Spain, Italy, and Portugal from 2010 to 2014 did not achieve their goal of reducing the debt-to-GDP ratio in any of the three countries. This Economic Bulletin examines why the spending cuts and tax increases, at times drastic, were unsuccessful and perceptibly contributed to sending the three countries back into recession. The sharp decrease in private household debt played a key role, especially in Spain. It weakened private consumption, and subsequent reductions in public spending amplified the slowdown with negative consequences on growth and tax revenues. The austerity policy also appears to have had a negative impact on productivity, neutralizing the beneficial effects of structural reforms. Contrary to widespread opinion, the lack of structural reforms was not the key reason for the austerity policy's failure. The goal of reducing the debt-to-GDP ratio can only be achieved with a balanced policy mix of structural reforms, mild austerity measures, and if possible, budget reallocation in favor of investment.


Since the launch of new economic geography by Paul Krugman there have been intensive debates between geographical economists and economic geographers both about the ways they differ from each other as well as about potential complementarities. Overman's (2004) provocative article, titled "can we learning anything from economic geography proper?" has been not very helpful in developing the latter. By responding to his core critiques we provide a much more positive answer to his question, do justice to economic geography and show more complementarities between geographical economics and economic geography.