Climate change mitigation poses significant challenges for South Africa and its energy development, historically highly energy intensive. At the same time, the country faces a host of daunting development challenges, exacerbated by the legacy of apartheid. Examining both challenges, this paper considers how alternative conceptions of a development path can be achieved. In the short term, energy efficiency provides large potential for mitigation—and energy savings at the same time. Changing South Africa's fuel mix, dependent to three-quarters on coal, is at least a medium-term challenge. The minerals—energy complex is so central to the economy that it is likely to take decades to change dramatically. The most transformative change is to an alteration in economic structure, likely to take long to achieve. The article examines specific policy instruments that might be implemented to achieve such a transformation. A transition to a low-carbon economy will require a paradigm shift in industrial policy. It will require considered provision for sectors sensitive to changes in energy prices. Building up new, climate-friendly industries will be needed to sustain employment and investment. To enable a just transition, provision will have to be made for emissions-intensive sectors, if they are to be phased out over time. South African government has adopted a vision, strategic direction and framework for climate policy. Policymakers have begun to understand that the future will be carbon constrained and that South Africa's emission will have to stop growing, stabilize and decline before mid-century. The challenge of climate change is a long-term challenge, requiring immediate action. This article examines actions at near-, medium- and long-term timescales. Its focus is on the most transformative change, that of seeking to shift development paths.


PURPOSE
To investigate morphologic alterations in the limbal palisades of Vogt in a progressive form of limbal stem cell deficiency.

METHODS
Twenty Norwegian subjects (40 eyes) with congenital aniridia and 9 healthy family members (18 eyes) without aniridia were examined. Clinical grade of aniridia-related keratopathy (ARK) was assessed by slit-lamp biomicroscopy, and tear production and quality, corneal thickness, and sensitivity were additionally measured. The superior and inferior limbal palisades of Vogt and central cornea were examined by laser scanning in vivo confocal microscopy (IVCM).

RESULTS
In an aniridia patient with grade 0 ARK, a transparent cornea and normal limbal palisade morphology were found. In grade 1 ARK, 5 of 12 eyes had degraded palisade structures. In the remaining grade 1 eyes and in all 20 eyes with stage 2, 3, and 4 ARK, palisade structures were absent by IVCM. Increasing ARK grade significantly correlated with reduced visual acuity and corneal sensitivity, increased corneal thickness, degree of degradation of superior and inferior palisade structures, reduced peripheral nerves, increased inflammatory cell invasion, and reduced density of basal epithelial cells and central subbasal nerves. Moreover, limbal basal epithelial cell density and central corneal subbasal nerve density were both significantly reduced in aniridia compared to healthy corneas (P = 0.002 and 0.003, respectively).

CONCLUSIONS
Progression of limbal stem cell deficiency in aniridia correlates with degradation of palisade structures, gradual transformation of epithelial phenotype, onset of inflammation, and a corneal nerve deficit. IVCM can be useful in monitoring early- to late-stage degenerative changes in stem cell-deficient patients.


In random network coding so-called constant dimension codes (CDCs) are used for error correction and detection. Most of the largest known codes contain a lifted maximum rank distance (LMRD) code as a subset. For some special cases, Etzion and Silberstein have demonstrated that one can obtain tighter upper bounds on the maximum possible cardinality of CDCs if we assume that an LMRD code is contained. The range of applicable parameters was partially extended by Heinlein. Here we fully generalize those bounds, which also sheds some light on recent constructions.


Executive branch agencies typically use a process of "notice-and-comment" to permit the public to respond to the proposed text of rules. The legal literature has not considered whether a similar process would be helpful for the judicial branch. In this Article, Professors Abramowicz and Colby argue that it would be. Neither the parties to a litigation nor third parties generally have an opportunity to comment on judicial opinions after they are drafted but before they are made final. As a result, judicial opinions often contain errors and frequently have far-ranging and unanticipated negative consequences. A notice-and-comment system could mitigate these concerns, and could also help to constrain judges to follow the rule of law and to improve the legitimacy of the judicial process.


This study explores die educational value of using duree-dimension (3D) interactive technology in a virtual reality (VR) environment to augment the learning of engineering students at the polytechnic level in Temasek Polytechnic, Singapore. The virtual environment (VE) consists of a factory floor with different planning tools and machines which students need to interact with to achieve an optimum production rate. Forty second- year engineering students opting for the Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) third year elective were used as subjects. They were separated into two groups of twenty students. The second-year examination results from these two groups of students showed that there was no statistical difference between them, implying that both groups of students had similar initial knowledge. The VR augmentation group used a combined lecture/tutorial format to cover theories of the subject and used die VE as a learning tool to further improve their understanding by solving problems. The traditional instruction group used course notes, tutorial work sheets and teacher-led discussions. The instruments used include a post-test to measure performance, a survey questionnaire consisting of thirty-three 4-point Likert Scale questions, three essay questions, one ranking question and a final concept map type of question. This was followed by an interview to provide a deeper understanding of the use of VR in augmenting the learning process by probing for further details. Results in die post-test indicated that there was no significant difference in the score obtained by students undergoing VR augmentation and the traditional group (p=0.167, d=0.44). However, it was noted that the mean for every question was consistently higher for the VR augmented group. A more detailed analysis showed that for questions relating to problem solving, there was statistical significance (p=0.038, d=0.68) between the scores from the VR augmented group scores and the traditional group. Analysis of inputs from the survey questionnaire and the interview led to a further understanding of the learning aspects of VR, namely the features, learner characteristics, interactive experience, learning experience and the learning itself. This consequently led to an enhanced model of learning in VR.


Regime change in Iraq has opened the door to the return of hundreds of thousands of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs), the majority of whom were expelled from Kirkuk and other areas in northern Iraq. The Iraqi case presents three broad, readily identifiable categories of displaced persons: refugees in Iraq's neighbouring states, internally displaced persons, and refugees and migrants in third countries further afield. The first two categories include the largest numbers of displaced people as well as the majority of those with a great desire or pressing need to return to their homelands in Iraq. Although some of those displaced have succeeded in making a good life for themselves in their new new homes, those who did not manage well after their displacement generally long to return to their original towns and homes. However, the following general problems, in order of gravity, impede the success and sustainability of returns to northern Iraq: (i) sectarian competition over political structures and power distributions in post-Saddam Iraq; (ii) increasing lack of security in Iraq; (iii) insufficient preparations and slow policy implementation by the former CPA and Coalition Forces; (iv) insufficient financial resources to deal with the full magnitude of the displacement problem in Iraq; and (v) high expectations of returnees vis-a-vis continuing lack of opportunities and the slow rate of positive developments in the social, economic and political situation in Iraq. However, the emerging political contests over the future of the new Iraq greatly complicate effective and comprehensive return programs; the ultimate test of success and sustainability of return to Iraq will depend on the future of post-Saddam Iraq itself.


Hans Baron was one of the many great German emigre scholars whose work Princeton brought into the Anglo-American world. His Crisis of the Early Italian Renaissance has provoked more discussion and inspired more research than any other twentieth-century study of the Italian Renaissance. Baron's book was the first historical synthesis of politics and humanism at that momentous critical juncture when Italy passed from medievalism to the thought of the Renaissance. Baron, unlike his peers, married culture and politics; he contended that to truly understand the Renaissance one must understand the rise of humanism within the political context of the day. This marked a significant departure for the field and one that changed the direction of Renaissance studies. Moreover, Baron's book was one of the first major attempts of any sort to ground intellectual history in a fully realized historical context and thus stands at the very origins of the interdisciplinary approach that is now the core of Renaissance studies. Baron's analysis of the forces that changed life and thought in fifteenth-century Italy was widely reviewed domestically and internationally, and scholars quickly noted that the book "will henceforth be the starting point for any general discussion of the early Renaissance." The Times Literary Supplement called it "a model of the kind of intensive study on which all understanding of cultural process must rest." First published in 1955 in two volumes, the work was reissued in a one-volume Princeton edition in 1966.


The purpose of this study is to observe what modifying the surface of cellulose nanofibrils may imply for their interactions with a surrounding saline aqueous solution. This will be studied by using GROMACS, a molecular dynamic simulation software. In particular, we will analyse the modified surfaces hydrophilicity compared to native nanocellulose. This will subsequently have an impact on the nanofibrils readiness to aggregate to one another and disperse in the solution.Specifically two types of surface modifications will be studied, sulfonation and carboxy- lation. The hydrophilicity of the surfaces will be determined by analysing the density profiles of the systems wherein the modified surfaces interacts with the aqueous solutions. Also, the energies from the interactions of the simulated systems will be studied.We concluded that both modifications increases the surfaces interactions with the sur- rounding solution. Modifying the surface of the cellulose nanofibril with sulfonate will increase the surfaces attraction towards water and may provide the best rate of dispersion in aqueous solutions and best prohibit aggregation. Carboxylation of the surface provides similar hydrophilic results as the sulfonation but not as prevalent.


Container crane inspection is a very important task to maintain their uninterrupted operation. Nevertheless, this is a costly and timeconsuming activity if performed manually. Recently, image-based detection of surface damages or changes using drones has gained increasing interest in industry; especially when objects of interest have a complex structure like container cranes. One main aim of this paper is a single-epoch image analysis which will also serve later for multi-epoch processing. It provides reliable information about current defects that may lead to big damages if not inspected by experts. Naïve Bayes classifier is employed to classify the images in different classes of which critical defects and especially rust is important. The preliminary results show that the precision on the target class reached about 99%. However, 87% percent recall in this class is not enough and it should be improved for this application. Having a large dataset requires an efficient data management system to provide users and decision makers with the information needed. In addition, in order to foster full automation, the aforementioned image analysis component should have a direct connection to the database and thus is able to query image and semantic information. We therefore introduce the second aim of our research, that is a concept for database design. Here, not only the raw data and the final results are integrated but also the intermediate results. At the same time, the database concept is connected to an integrated client interface that allows retrieving data of interest in a virtual globe.


1. Ecosystems are shaped by a range of drivers including human and natural dis turbances. They also may be subject to interactions between disturbances which can affect ecological processes, biodiversity and ecosystem condition; yet few ecosystems have been subject to multiple studies of the effects of interacting disturbances. This limits the understanding of ways to mitigate the impacts of interacting disturbances. 2. Over the past 37 years, we have completed a range of studies of interacting ef fects in the Mountain Ash Eucalyptus regnans forests of south-eastern Australia. Here we summarize evidence for interacting disturbances in this ecosystem. This includes evidence of linked or coupled disturbances (termed interaction chains; sensu Foster et al., Global Change Biology , 22, 2016, 1325) between logging and subsequent fire severity. We also describe effects of other interacting disturbances such as those resulting from post-fire (salvage) logging as well as landscape-level, spatio-temporal changes in forest cover associated with logging and wildfires. 3. Policy implications . Insights from research in Mountain Ash forests provide broader lessons for managing interacting disturbances in forest ecosystems. These include the importance of cataloguing and mapping multiple disturbances in both space and time and developing conceptual models of ecosystem dynamics and


Background: The shortage of professional workers in rural and regional Australia continues as a major policy challenge. There has been substantially more strategy investment for the medical general practitioner (GP) profession than for other professions, particularly at the start of their careers.
Aims: To examine differences between domestic migration patterns of GPs and other professionals to rural and regional zones in Australia for younger, mid-life and older workers.
Data and methods: Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) 2011 Census were used to examine five-year migration rates for professionals in five ABS occupational classifications: generalist medical practitioners (GPs); engineering professionals; legal professionals; education professionals; and other health professionals. Migration volumes were benchmarked for GPs and compared both for other professions and career stage.
Results: GPs were less likely than other professionals to migrate from major urban to rural zones, regional to rural zones, or rural to regional zones. Younger GPs had the highest rural migration rates, while mid-life and older GPs were least likely to migrate to rural and regional zones. In contrast, increasingly age was associated positively with migration to rural zones for those in the other four professions.
Conclusions: Despite concerted policy efforts to encourage more GPs to move to rural areas, overall rural migration rates for GPs are lower than for other professionals, especially for older workers. Further investigation of the links between GP migration patterns and workforce policies needs to be undertaken to inform the application or otherwise of workforce strategies used by other professions.


The optimum profiles of right-angle-face anisotropically etched silicon surface-relief gratings illuminated at normal incidence for substrate-mode optical interconnects are determined for TE, TM, and random linear (RL) polarizations. A simulated annealing algorithm in conjunction with the rigorous coupled-wave analysis is used. The optimum diffraction efficiencies of the -1 forward-diffracted order are 37.3%, 67.1%, and 51.2% for TE-, TM-, and RL-polarization-optimized profiles, respectively. Also, the sensitivities to grating thickness, slant angle, and incident angle of the optimized profiles are presented.


This article is based on the author's involvement in preparing a Draft Statute for a future World Court of Human Rights. The proposal seeks to modify the traditional vertical structure of human rights norms by introducing a mechanism for adjudicating claims about human rights violations by actors other than states, including by international organizations (IO) or transnational corporations (TNC). The jurisdiction of the World Court would require acceptance by the IO or TNC, making the mechanism similar to the effects of an international treaty, i.e. being legally binding but at the same time based on consent to be bound. When accepting the jurisdiction of the World Court, each IO or TNC could also specify under what substantive human rights norms the right of complaint will apply, and what internal procedures need to be exhausted before an alleged victim can have resort to it.


The Assembly Systems Unit at the Royal Institute of Technology and IVF Stockholm has developed several Flexible Automatic Assembly (FAA) cell solutions over the years (Mark I, Mark II, Mark IIF and Mark III). The industrial reality, however, clearly points out that the basic notions of flexibility must be extended and be enhanced without increasing the complexity. This has led our research team to revise the ideas and solutions available for manual and automatic assembly, resulting in the Hyper Flexible Automatic Assembly (HFAA) project. The paper describes the driving factors behind the needs and objectives for the HFAA project, as well as how it will present a standardised set of assembly process‐oriented system components. The paper also describes the new Mark IV application. This industrial HFAA system is being developed in order to test the concept's industrial viability. The HFAA concept will allow the user to start from a manual assembly station and gradually add assembly equipment. The basic concepts of stepwise automation, standard assembly machine and sub‐batch principle emanate from our previous research.


Identification of key regulatory mechanisms of higher plant gametes advances our understanding of fertilization. A new generation in eukaryotes begins with fusion between sperm and egg, but we know little about the mechanisms involved. Sperm-egg interactions have been studied most thoroughly in animals, but on page 1093 of this issue, Sprunck et al. (1) have pushed our understanding of gamete interactions in plants to the head of the model organisms class. They discovered that plants do the fertilization dance similarly to animals, but with a twist. In animals, the egg remains quiescent until fused with the sperm, but in Arabidopsis the egg leads. The egg cell responds to sperm discharged from a newly arrived pollen tube by secreting a cloud of sperm-activating proteins. The aroused sperm redistributes a previously cryptic putative membrane fusogen to its plasma membrane to prepare for fusion.


We describe an experimental packet header anomaly detector (PHAD) that learns the normal range of values for 33 fields of the Ethernet, IP, TCP, UDP, and ICMP protocols. On the 1999 DARPA off-line intrusion detection evaluation data set (Lippmann et al. 2000), PHAD detects 72 of 201 instances (29 of 59 types) of attacks, including all but 3 types that exploit the protocols examined, at a rate of 10 false alarms per day after training on 7 days of attack-free internal network traffic. In contrast to most other network intrusion detectors and firewalls, only 8 attacks (6 types) are detected based on anomalous IP addresses, and none by their port numbers. A number of variations of PHAD were studied, and the best results were obtained by examining packets and fields in isolation, and by using simple nonstationary models that estimate probabilities based on the time since the last event rather than the average rate of events.


Objective: Individuals who stalk strangers and acquaintances are under-studied, although there is some evidence suggesting a greater prevalence of psychopathology than is present in those who stalk former partners. This study investigated the nature and prevalence of psychopathology in a sample of stranger and acquaintance stalkers and whether psychopathology was associated with increased duration or serial stalking in this group. It was hypothesised that mental illness, and specifically psychosis, would be more prevalent among strangers and acquaintances than among ex-intimate stalkers. Method: Two hundred and eleven stalkers (10% female; mean age = 35, SD = 10.8; 71 ex-intimates) were recruited between 2002 and 2007 from a specialist service in Melbourne, Australia. Each underwent psychiatric and psychological assessment and disorders were diagnosed according to DMS-IV-TR criteria. Non-parametric independent sample tests were used to examine associations between relationship type and psychopathology, and to identify individual and stalking-related characteristics associated with increased duration and serial stalking. Results: Axis I disorders were significantly more prevalent among strangers and acquaintances than ex-intimates (71% vs 48%, OR = 2.6, 95% CI = 1.4 to 4.7), as were psychotic disorders (29% vs 9%, OR = 4.4, 95% CI = 1.8 to 10.9). Psychosis was significantly associated with increased duration of stalking behaviour (U = 3043, p < 0.001). Those with a personality disorder were twice as likely to have stalked multiple times (OR = 2.4, 95% CI = 1.2 to 5.0). Conclusions: Those who stalk strangers and acquaintances are often mentally ill and psychopathology is associated with more persistent and recurrent stalking behaviour. Although limited by the use of clinical interview rather than structured assessment, these findings strongly support the argument for routine mental health assessment of stranger and acquaintance stalkers who become involved with the criminal justice system.


This article outlines some of the key indicators the Reserve Bank uses to help inform macro -prudential policy decisions. Macro-prudential indicators (MPIs) play an important role in the identification of financial system risk; the assessment of the banking system's capacity to weather periods of financial stress; and in signalling periods of financial stress. The indicators inform decisions to both deploy and remove macro-prudential instruments. The article explains how the MPI framework helped to frame the recent decision to impose residential mortgage loan-to-value (LVR) restrictions. Data-file for MPIs (XLS 1.1MB) discussed in the main text of this article.


Background: Currently food malpractices are increasing in various metro cities of India and all the measures taken by agencies are failed to detect rapidly and many times it becomes late when the adulteration is detected. Worst scenario is the adulteration of some branded items of the children's and in the women's use such as milk cheese, ghee and oils. Therefore, Study for food practices and safety measures was done in selected area of Varanasi which was also validated by the wetlab methods. Methods: For this objective, questionnaire was prepared and distributed among selected people depending on their age group, sex and educational background. Statistical test were carried out on the basis of frequency of male and female respondents obtained in total respondents (n = 300). Chi square test were done and the calculated value were compared with value of t test (0.05) and on this basis, conclusion were drawn. Results: Result shows that regardless of the age income and religion, all of the groups are well aware the food adulteration and educated people are less prone to the effect. In terms of adulteration any how all the stores contains adulterated food however branded items contains less %age of adulteration than local item. This may be caused due to inactive agencies or longer process of legal system Conclusions: Study show that there is lag in following the food practices by all the ages in spite of having good media awareness program and knowledge of food practices.


Singapore offers clues as to how languages of lesser power may thrive in contexts where there is a multiplicity of languages and metropolitan languages dominate. Under colonial rule the position of Tamil in both society and schooling was marginal. The community lacked numbers and economic power and many Indian children were sent to English medium schools. A multiplicity of Indian languages further complicated the situation. In 1956, an emergent multilingual elite committed itself to equal treatment for the four official languages – English, Chinese (Mandarin), Tamil and Malay. We provide some insights as to how this commitment has resulted in various initiatives sustaining Tamil in Singapore despite its declining functional value in the larger community.


The document describes a proxy-based mechanism allowing the use of
Duplicate Address Detection (DAD) by IPv6 nodes in a point-to-
multipoint architecture with a "split-horizon" forwarding scheme,
primarily deployed for Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) and Fiber access
architectures. Based on the DAD signaling, the first-hop router stores
in a Binding Table all known IPv6 addresses used on a point-to-
multipoint domain (e.g., VLAN). When a node performs DAD for an
address already used by another node, the first-hop router defends the
address rather than the device using the address.


In 1803, Robert Southey settled in Keswick after a visit to the Coleridge family at Greta Hall became a more permanent arrangement. For the previous ten years he had moved between London, Oxford, Dublin, and Bristol, and had spent a significant period in Spain and Portugal. He would visit the Continent several times more, including his "Pilgrimage" to the battlefields near Waterloo in 1815, and in 1819 he undertook a tour of engineering works in the Scottish Highlands with Thomas Telford. Ironically, though, the end of the most peripatetic phase of Southey's life actually made travel more necessary, both for himself and his friends. With many of his personal and professional connections in Bristol or London, Southey had taken himself almost as far away as was possible whilst still being in England. As a result, a large number of letters written from Keswick detail Southey's plans for trips to London and elsewhere in the south, and urge his friends to visit him. The letters also describe the difficulties of having books sent from London, and occasionally other parts of Europe too, books which Southey in Keswick could not acquire for himself. For Southey, then, travel was an essential part of maintaining both personal and professional relationships, and indeed of continuing his literary career. Without constant communication between London and Keswick in the form of letters, parcels, and visits, Southey would have been isolated from his friends, and could not have maintained himself as a writer. In this paper I explore the ways in which Southey engages with the idea and the reality of travel, and his own distaste for it, in his personal correspondence. I also suggest some ways in which we might use Southey's writing to gain an understanding of the importance of travel both imaginatively and practically to writers of Romantic period.


Facilitating research and enhancing community research capacity through a partnered approach in Inuit Nunangat (the Inuit homeland of Canada, located in Arctic Canada) presents learning opportunities and challenges for southern-based, non-Inuit researchers and community members alike. This article outlines lessons learned through the Arctic Corridors and Northern Voices (AC-NV) project, which involved 14 communities across Inuit Nunangat. The AC-NV focused on understanding community-identified impacts and potential management options of increased shipping in Inuit Nunangat due to sea ice reductions and a changing climate. The approach used to conduct the research involved visiting researchers and community partners working together with local organizations, and training and hiring northern youth as cultural liaisons and workshop co-facilitators. We strove to develop a model of collaborative partnership and strong north-south research relationships. In this paper, we draw on our broad learning experiences from four community case studies conducted as part of the AC-NV project: Arviat, Cambridge Bay, Gjoa Haven, and Pond Inlet, Nunavut. Close partnerships were formed in each of these communities, and 32 youth were trained in participatory mapping and workshop facilitation. For our diverse team of Inuit, northern- (i.e., non-Inuit, living in Inuit Nunangat), and southern-based non-Inuit researchers, our efforts to engage in partnered research were a critical component of the research and learning experience. In this article we share methodological reflections and lessons learned from what collaborative-partnered research means in practice. In so doing, we aim to contribute to the increasing dialogue and efforts around knowledge co-production and Inuit self-determination in research. Key conclusions of this reflective exercise include the importance of 1) conducting research that is relevant to local needs and interests, 2) visiting researchers and local organizations partnering together, 3) co-creating and refining knowledge documentation tools, 4) including youth cultural liaisons as co-facilitators, 5) conducting results validation and sharing exercises, and 6) being open to forming personal friendships. For the AC-NV, this community-based partnership approach resulted in more robust research results, strengthened north-south relations, and enhanced local capacity for community-led projects.


Earnest, awkward and painfully shy, sixteen-year-old Assaf is having the worst summer of his life. With his big sister gone and his best friend suddenly the most popular kid in their class, Assaf spends his days at a lowly summer job in Jerusalem City Hall and his evenings alone, watching television and playing games on the Internet. One morning, Assaf's routine is interrupted by an absurd assignment: to find the owner of a stray yellow labrador. Meanwhile on the other side of the city, Tamar, a talented singer with a lonely, tempestuous soul, undertakes an equally unpromising mission: to rescue a young drug addict from the Jerusalem underworld and, eventually, to find her dog.


Many New Zealanders, even in politically aware circles, have a limited understanding of West Papua and frequently confuse the Indonesian-controlled territory with its neighbour Papua New Guinea. This reflects the limited mainstream media coverage of the territory and of the ongoing conflict that is taking place there. However, in 1962 and again in 1969, the New Zealand media gave considerable attention to the crises that enveloped West Papua and determined its subsequent destiny. The territory's Pacific location was often highlighted and the statements of West Papuan leaders were reported. The year 1962 saw escalating Indonesian military intervention in the territory and subsequently the signing of the controversial US-brokered New York Agreement between the Netherlands and Indonesia. In 1969 Indonesia conducted an 'Act of Free Choice' which was widely seen by external observers as a fraudulent act of self-determination. This article gives examples of this historic coverage and considers what might be done to bring about change and to bring West Papua back into the frame as a Pacific neighbour.


The project Entangled Histories used early modern printed normative texts. The computer used to have significant problems being able to read Dutch Gothic print, which is used in the vast majority of the sources. Using the Handwritten Text Recognition suite Transkribus (v.1.07-v.1.10), we reprocessed the original scans that had poor quality OCR, obtaining a Character Error Rate (CER) much lower than our initial expectations of <5% CER. This result is a significant improvement that enables the searching through 75,000 pages of printed normative texts from the seventeen provinces, also known as the Low Countries. The books of ordinances are compilations; thus, segmentation is essential to retrace the individual norms. We have applied – and compared – four different methods: ABBYY, P2PaLA, NLE Document Recognition and a custom rule-based tool that combines lexical features with font recognition. Each text (norm) in the books concerns one or more topics or categories. A selection of normative texts was manually labelled with internationally used (hierarchical) categories. Using Annif, a tool for automatic subject indexing, the computer was trained to apply the categories by itself. Automatic metadata makes it easier to search relevant texts and allows further analysis. Text recognition, segmentation and categorisation of norms together constitute the datafication of the Early Modern Ordinances. Our experiments for automating these steps have resulted in a provisional process for datafication of this and similar collections.


Based on the ab initio quantum chemical methods, we have determined fragmentation channels, ionization energies, and the Coulomb explosion of multicharged boron clusters B(n) (n = 2-13), where n is the cluster size. The electron-deficient boron clusters sustain more stability and hardly fragment when they are negatively charged. Stability of boron clusters decreases with increasing ionization. Only by the first ionization the odd-size clusters are more stable than the even-size clusters. Further ionizations cause the repulsive Coulomb force between the constituent atoms to get stronger, and lead first to metastable states, then to the Coulomb explosion of clusters. None of the cationic boron clusters studied remain stable after six times ionization. The critical charge for metastability is estimated as Q(m) <= n/2 for even-size clusters, and Q(m) <= 1/2 (n - 1) for odd-size clusters. In addition, the critical charge for the Coulomb explosion is found to be Q(c) = n/2 + 1 for even-size clusters, and Q(c) = 1/2(n + 1) for odd-size clusters. Relative stability of clusters with respect to their nearest neighbors is determined from the analysis of their second energy difference data. Several dissociation channels of B(n)(+) and B(13)(Q) isomers with the lowest fragmentation energies are presented. All of the vibrational frequencies are found positive indicating that no transition state is possible for the clusters studied. Reliability of our data is verified with a good agreement with experimental results.


This paper uses a new cross-country cross-industry dataset on investment in tangible and intangible assets for 18 European countries and the US.  We set out a framework for measuring intangible investment and capital stocks and their effect on output, inputs and total factor productivity. The analysis provides evidence on the diffusion of intangible investment across Europe and the US over the years 2000-2013 and offers growth accounting evidence before and after the Great Recession in 2008-2009. Our major findings are the following. First, tangible investment fell massively during the Great Recession and has hardly recovered, whereas intangible investment has been relatively resilient and recovered fast in the US but lagged behind in the EU. Second, the sources of growth analysis including only national account intangibles (software, R&D, mineral exploration and artistic originals), suggest that capital deepening is the main driver of growth, with tangibles and intangibles accounting for 80% and 20% in the EU while both account for 50% in the US, over 2000-2013. Extending the asset boundary to the intangible assets not included in the national accounts (Corrado, Hulten and Sichel (2005)) makes capital deepening increase. The contribution of tangibles is reduced both in the EU and the US (60% and 40% respectively) while intangibles account for a larger share (40% in EU and 60% in the US). Then, our analysis shows that since the Great Recession, the slowdown in labour productivity growth has been driven by a decline in TFP growth with relatively a minor role for tangible and intangible capital. Finally, we document a significant correlation between stricter employment protection rules and less government investment in R&D, and a lower ratio of intangible to tangible investment.


Although studies have addressed psychosocial factors associated with obtaining follow-up care for an abnormal Pap test, none have explored the effect of stressful life events in predicting the receipt of follow-up care for an abnormal Pap test. Data from a program (1995-2001) that provided free follow-up care for women with low-grade cervical lesions (n = 601) was used to determine whether life stressors increased risk of study discontinuation. Women were interviewed at baseline and offered follow-up at 4- to 6-month intervals for up to 24 months. Of the 556 women recruited and interviewed (92% response rate), 53 were referred out because they had high-grade cervical lesions and 33 had a health condition precluding follow-up. Among 470 women who began follow-up, 175 (37.2%) discontinued before completing three visits. Women who discontinued were significantly more likely to report more stressful life events in the past year [age-adjusted relative risk (aRR), 1.19; 95% confidence interval (95% CI), 1.08-1.30; 17-item scale]. Events most strongly associated with discontinuation included having a problem with a boss (aRR, 1.9; 95% CI, 1.5-2.4), severe physical partner violence (aRR, 1.7; 95% CI, 1.3-2.2), being homeless (aRR, 2.1; 95% CI, 1.6-2.8), and having an unplanned pregnancy (aRR, 1.5, 95% CI, 1.2-2.1). Life stressors may be important predictors of discontinuation of free follow-up care among women in need of immediate follow-up care to prevent lesion progression. (Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2006;15(2):321–5)


NoC(network On Chip) is an efficient approach to design the communication subsystem between IP Cores in SoC(System On Chip). In this paper a CDMA(code division multiple access )bus is proposed as a communication interconnect for different IP cores. CDMA has been proposed as an alternative way for interconnect of IP cores in a SoC design, or as a solution for interconnecting modules within a system realized in several PCBs. Compared to a conventional TDMA-based bus this paper present how a multiprocessor system can benefit from the use of concurrent data transfers. The simulation of the system using VHDL code is carried out. The performance of the system and is evaluated.


The rate allocation tradeoff between motion vectors and transform coefficients has a major importance when it comes to efficient video compression. This paper introduces a new coding mode for an H.264/AVC-like video coder, which improves the management of this resource allocation. The proposed technique can be used within any hybrid video encoder allowing a different coding mode for any macroblock. The key tool of the new mode is the lossy coding of motion vectors, obtained via quantization: while the transformed motion-compensated residual is computed with a high-precision motion vector, the motion vector itself is quantized before being sent to the decoder, in a rate/distortion optimized way. Several problems have to be faced with in order to get an efficient implementation of the coding mode, especially the coding and prediction of the quantized motion vectors, and the selection and encoding of the quantization steps. This new coding mode improves the performance of the hybrid video encoder over several sequences at different resolutions.


Tax compliance takes place in the scope of the efficiency of the tax implementation. Tax income operations are heavily dependent on tax compliance, while the fairness of the allocation of tax burden affects the tax payers ' compliance. The situation has been studied here by dealing with university students in regard to whether or not a perception of tax compliance develops in highly educated people who are not tax payers yet and to what degree. The findings of the study briefly states that students agree that paying taxes completes the concept of being a good citizen, perceive the sensitivity submitting declarations on time and showing care in paying tax debts, and have negative perceptions on the tax administration being transparent, correct, and trustable. So for, an achievement of a proper tax policy design should be primarily considered as the perception of tax compliance of the people, who being the tax payers of any country.


SUMMARY Velocity and mass fields from a constant-density, near-global ocean model, driven with observed twice-daily surface wind stresses and atmospheric pressures for the period October 1992-September 1993, are used to calculate oceanic excitation functions for the length of day (LOD) and for polar motion (PM), and results are analysed as a function of the frequency band. Variable currents and mass redistributions are both important in determining oceanic excitation functions. For bands with periods longer than one month, wind-driven variability is the primary cause of oceanic excitation signals. At higher frequency bands, larger deviations from the inverted barometer response occur, and pressure-driven signals contribute more significantly to the variance in the excitation functions. Oceanic LOD excitation is generally small compared to that of the atmosphere, except for the 2-10 day band. At these scales, adding oceanic to atmospheric excitation series does not lead to better agreement with the observed LOD, although this result may be related to data quality issues. With regard to the excitation of PM, the ocean is in general as important as the atmosphere at most time scales. Combined oceanic and atmospheric excitation series compare visibly better with geodetic series than do atmospheric series alone, pointing to the ocean as a source of measurable signals in PM.


Healthcare targeted for home activity is playing an important role in our daily lives as the number of elderly person is increasing sharply. Researches pointed out that one third of 65and-over aged person fall per-year. Some detection related work made use of accelerometers or gyroscopes, some use passive infrared or acoustic sensors. But there were some false alarms. Falls can be an unpredicted and dangerous event. A system based on wireless sensor networks to detect the falls for old and resident was proposed in this paper. We provided a method to minimize the false alarm rate of fall detection as well. Besides, we can detect falls that did not trigger the alarm which was intervened by outside forces.


A detailed study of the spatial distribution of precisely located hypocenters of South American earthquakes that occurred between lat 0° and 45°S shows that the data can be explained by the simple model of a descending oceanic plate beneath a continental plate and that the following conditions obtain: (1) The hypocenters clearly define five segments of inclined seismic zones, in each of which the zones have relatively uniform dips. The segments beneath northern and central Peru (about lat 2° to 15° S) and beneath central Chile (about lat 27° to 33° S) have very small dips (about 10°), whereas the three segments beneath southern Ecuador (about lat 0° to 2°S), beneath southern Peru and northern Chile (about lat 15° to 27°S), and beneath southern Chile (about lat 33° to 45°S) have steeper dips (25° to 30°). No clear evidence exists for further segmentation of the descending Nazca plate beneath South America. If the two flat segments are in contact with the lower boundary of the continental plate, the thickness of that plate is less than approximately 130 km. This is in marked contrast to the reports of thicknesses exceeding 300 km for the South American continental plate. (2) There is considerable seismic activity within the upper 50 km of the overriding South American plate. This seismic activity is well separated from the inclined seismic zones and probably occurs in the crustal part of the South American plate. Thus, hypocenters in South America are not evenly distributed through about a 300-km-thick zone as previously described. (3) A remarkable correlation exists between the two flat segments of the subducted Nazca plate and the absence of Quaternary volcanism on the South American plate. (4) The transition from the flat Peru segment to the steeper Chile segment is abrupt and is interpreted as a tear in the descending Nazca plate. The tear is located approximately beneath the northern limit of the Altiplano (a high plateau in the Andes), and about 200 km south of the projection of the oceanic Nazca ridge down the subduction zone. (5) A gap in seismic activity exists between depths of 320 and 525 km.


In the late 1980s, the Government accepted the changes in nurse education demanded by nurses through their statutory bodies, such as United Kingdom Central Council and the English National Board by implementing Project 2000. Coincidentally, the 1980's saw increased Government involvement in the management of the public sector. The Conservative administration, first elected in 1979, has proved to be probably the most radical of the century. It perceived the public sector as inefficient in its use of scarce resources and was determined to address the problem.
Initial emphasis appeared to be that the government with the acceptance of Project 2000, was determined to tackle the problem of shortfall in 18 year. olds available for the job market and particularly for nurse training. The review of NHS was launched by Mrs. Thatcher as a result of a public outcry about the shortage of specialised children's nurses in Birmingham. This presented the government with a unique opportunity by approving the implementation of Project 2000 in stages, it would ultimately achieve complete central control of the nurse workforce.
The NHS had suffered from the financial policies of successive governments and its managerial effectiveness was suspect. Forecast environmental changes indicated that both would deteriorate unless governmental action was taken. The radical action taken by the government is still ongoing and continues to cause public concern. This thesis refers to the perception of professionally qualified nurses towards the Health Care Support Workers within the North West region, and compares and
contrasts two different district health authorities' attitudes towards management and the implementation of support workers' training.
It outlines the change in the strategies adopted by the government and, through the use of selected reference in the fields of organisation and strategic change, considers whether the means chosen were appropriate.
It considers the introduction of Health Care Support Workers' educational objectives, professional competence and vocational training, various resource issues and demonstrates how styles of management have influenced the implementation and its effect on patient care.


We evaluated a hypothesis derived from the metabolic theory of ecology (MTE) that the ratio of microzooplankton herbivory (m) to phytoplankton growth (μ) will arise in a warming ocean because of the different temperature dependencies of autotrophic and heterotrophic organisms. Using community‐level growth and grazing data from dilution experiments, generalized additive models (GAMs) were constructed to describe the effects of temperature and chlorophyll on m : μ. At low chlorophyll levels, m : μ decreases with increasing temperature, whereas at high chlorophyll levels, m : μ increases initially with temperature before reaching a peak and then declines. These complex responses of m : μ result from mixed effects of temperature and chlorophyll on microzooplankton biomass (Bz), biomass‐specific microzooplankton grazing rate (m : Bz), and phytoplankton growth rate (μ). Bz decreases with rising temperature and increases with rising chlorophyll. m : Bz increases with temperature and decreases with chlorophyll. Nutrient‐enriched growth rate of phytoplankton (μn) and μ increase with increasing temperature and chlorophyll. Holding chlorophyll constant, the calculated activation energies of m : Bz and μn are 0.67 ± 0.05 and 0.36 ± 0.05 eV, respectively, both consistent with previous MTE estimates for heterotrophs and autotrophs. Our study indicates that warming may enhance phytoplankton losses to microzooplankton herbivory in eutrophic but not in oligotrophic waters. The GAM analysis also provides important insights into underlying system relationships and reasons why community‐level responses in natural systems may depart from theory based on laboratory data and individual species.


The interest in this topic is determined, on one hand, by the way of interpreting the provisions which regulate the contractual liability in general and of those regarding the penalty clause in particular, and, on the other hand, by the formulation of certain proposals de lege ferenda. By stipulating the penalty clause, the law seeks to execute the contractual obligations, and not to collect penalties. The legal base of the ancillary character of the penalty clause is article 1538, paragraph 3 of the Civil Code.


This article interrogates the contemporary emergence of affect as critical object and perspective through which to understand the social world and our place within it. Emphasising the unexpected, the singular or the quirky over the generally applicable, the turn to affect builds on important work in cultural studies on the pitfalls of writing the body out of theory. More importantly for this article, the contemporary interest in affect evidences a dissatisfaction with poststructuralist approaches to power, framed as hegemonic in their negativity and insistence of social structures rather than interpersonal relationships as formative of the subject. The article focuses on the recent contributions of Brain Massumi and Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick in particular, unpacking their celebration of the difference that affect makes. The author's critique of the affective turn focuses on both the illusion of choice that it offers the cultural critic, and its rewriting of the recent history of cultural theory to position affect as 'the new cutting edge'. While affect may constitute a valuable critical focus in context, it frequently emerges through a circular logic designed to persuade 'paranoid theorists' into a more productive frame of mind / for who would not prefer affective freedom to social determinism? Yet it remains unclear what role affect may have once this rhetoric has worked its persuasive magic. In addition, and more worryingly, affective rewriting flattens out poststructuralist inquiry by ignoring the counter-hegemonic contributions of postcolonial and feminist theorists, only thereby positioning affect as 'the answer' to contemporary problems of cultural theory.


Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) are now central to the way we interact, both socially and commercially. Inevitably, some people will use ICTs in the commission or facilitation of crime; so-called 'cybercrimes'. The interconnected nature of modern technology makes this a global problem, and for decades there has been international awareness of the need for coordinated action. The Council of Europe's Convention on Cybercrime ('Convention') was the first multilateral binding instrument to regulate cybercrime. Having recently passed the 10th anniversary of its coming into force, it is timely to reflect on the Convention's role in the harmonisation of cybercrime laws and its place amongst other international efforts to combat cybercrime. This article begins with a discussion of the importance of harmonisation in combatting cybercrime. There is then a general overview of the Convention, followed by an analysis of three key aspects of harmonisation — the extent to which it is: (1) comprehensive; (2) protective of rights; and (3) representative. Consideration is then given to the desirability and likelihood of an international convention on cybercrime. Although the Convention remains the most significant instrument in this area, it is now accompanied by a range of international, regional and national initiatives. In an environment where an international agreement may be some way off, the Convention provides an important touchstone against which national efforts may be measured. More broadly, the international focus is appropriately moving toward the more pressing issue of capacity building.


In this paper, we develop a multi-sector dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model with a simple commodity sector and assess whether forecasts from this model can be improved by using it as a prior for an empirical Bayesian vector autoregression (BVAR). We treat the world economy as being observed and exogenous to the small economy, rather than unobserved, as has been done in some previous studies, such as Hodge, Robinson and Stuart (2008) and Lees, Matheson and Smith (2011). We find that the forecasts from a BVAR that uses this DSGE model as a prior are generally more accurate than those from the DSGE model alone. Nevertheless, these forecasts do not outperform a small open economy VAR estimated using other standard priors or simple univariate benchmarks.


Right now, governments around the world are spending record amounts of money to kick- start their economies in response to the financial crisis. Fortunately, a great opportunity exists for this fiscal stimulus to be directed towards green economic growth, which can not only provide the new markets and jobs needed immediately for alleviating poverty, but also address the challenges of global warming. Working models already exist, proving that sustainable growth is possible. To achieve this will require social, technical and structural changes, as well as appropriate policies conducive to eco-innovation. For developing countries, there are lessons that can be learned from countries that have already gone through that process. The aim of this paper is to show what lessons can be learnt from the Japanese case. As the world's second largest economy, Japan is not only one of the most energy-efficient economies in the world; it also produces some of the world's leading green technologies. This paper focuses on current trends in the green product market and consumer behavior in Japan, which have been influenced by recent government policies, particularly the 15.4 trillion (more than US$100 billion) stimulus package. The aim of this paper is to provide some insight on, and present a repository of selected government policies promoting sustainable development. The scope of this paper will cover areas such as hybrid vehicles, renewable energy, energy efficient home appliances, and green certification schemes. It also provides a brief discussion on the environmental policies of the new Japanese government that came into power on 16 September 2009. The paper attempts to use the most recent data, from June to August 2009, however given the quickly- evolving global environment, these statistics may change drastically by the time this paper is presented.


We present the fractional distribution of spectroscopic subtypes, range and distribution of surface temperatures, and kinematical properties of the white dwarfs (WDs) within 25 pc of the Sun. There is no convincing evidence of halo WDs in the total 25 pc sample of 224 WDs. There is also little to suggest the presence of genuine thick disk subcomponent members within 25 pc. It appears that the entire 25 pc sample likely belongs to the thin disk. We also find no significant kinematic differences with respect to spectroscopic subtypes. The total DA to non-DA ratio of the 25 pc sample is 1.8, a manifestation of deepening envelope convection, which transforms DA stars with sufficiently thin H surface layers into non-DAs. We compare this ratio with the results of other studies. We find that at least 11% of the WDs within 25 pc of the Sun (the DAZ and DZ stars) have photospheric metals that likely originate from accretion of circumstellar material (debris disks) around them. If this interpretation is correct, then it suggests the possibility that a similar percentage have planets, asteroid-like bodies, or debris disks orbiting them. Our volume-limited sample reveals a pileup of DC WDs at the well-known cutoff in DQ WDs at Teff ∼ 6000 K. Mindful of small number statistics, we speculate on its possible evolutionary significance. We find that the incidence of magnetic WDs in the 25 pc sample is at least 8% in our volume-limited sample, dominated by cool WDs. We derive approximate formation rates of DB and DQ degenerates and present a preliminary test of the evolutionary scenario that all cooling DB stars become DQ WDs via helium convective dredge-up with the diffusion tail of carbon extending upward from their cores.


In May 2004, the enforcement of the EC competition rules changed radically. Under Regulation 1/2003, the national competition authorities (NCAs) of all 27 Member States are called upon to actively participate, together with the European Commission, in the enforcement of Articles 81 and 82 EC. In order to ensure the efficient and consistent application of the law, Regulation 1/2003 provides for a number of co-operation mechanisms at the heart of which lies the European Competition Network (ECN). The ECN acts as a common forum for information exchange, co-ordination and discussion. This book provides an in-depth analysis of the rules governing co-operation within the ECN. It is a valuable source for all working in the field of EC competition law: practitioners, company lawyers, competition authority officials and academics. The author focuses on horizontal co-operation between the NCAs of different Member States. She starts by looking at the arrangements for case allocation, discusses the rules on information exchange and also deals with the consultation procedure prior to the adoption of final NCA decisions. The existing rules are assessed not only in the light of their purpose, ensuring efficiency and consistency in the application of the law, but also reviewed against the requirements of the EU Charter and the European Convention on Human Rights. Particular attention is devoted to issues arising in the event of parallel procedures by several NCAs. This includes the applicability of the ne bis in idem principle and the question which duties of the NCAs result from the loyalty obligation enshrined in Article 10 EC. Finally, the author explores whether the ECN concept of co-operation and networking could be applied more broadly in the context of European integration.


Dear Readers, I am pleased to mention that during the year 2019, all issues of volume 2 were published online well within the time and the print issues were also brought out and dispatched within 30 days of publishing the issue online. In 2019, a total of 14 articles were published. Among them most of them were from foreign Authors. A total of 5 research scientists from India and abroad reviewed the articles published in volume 2. Average publication lag time of an article was further reduced to 6-8 weeks. ACTS Published 1 Research Article, 5 Case reports, 1 Commentary and 6 Editorials in 2019. In 2018 ACTS Published 6 Research Article, 2 Review Article, 3 short Communication, 3 Commentary, 3 Case reports and 1 image Article. During the calendar year 2019, ACTS received a total of 14 papers, out of which 7 articles (50%) were rejected in the preliminary screening due to plagiarism or being out of the format. During 2019 around 7 articles were subjected to the peer-review process and all of those were accepted. I take this opportunity to acknowledge the contribution of Shigenori Ito (Editor-in-chief) during the final editing of articles published and the support rendered by the editorial assistant, Isabella Gomez bringing out issues of ACTS on time. I would also like to express my gratitude to all the authors, reviewers, the publisher, the advisory and the editorial board of ACTS, the office bearers and staff of IPA secretariat for their support in bringing out yet another volume of ACTS and look forward to their unrelenting support to bring out the Volume 3 of ACTS in scheduled time.


Michael Lappert was one of the giants of twentieth-century organometallic chemistry. His research, carried out over six decades and leading to about 800 publications, had a profound and influential effect on the field, and his contributions covered almost every block of the Periodic Table. His early reputation was established by his extensive studies in boron chemistry exemplified by the reports of BCl4−, BN cyclobutadiene analogues, triborylamines, BCl3-catalysed ortho-Claisen rearrangements and evidence for restricted rotation about the B–N bond in aminoboranes. He had a lifelong interest in amides, including those of carbon, and especially electron-rich olefins, which remarkably were the ready source of numerous transition-metal carbene complexes. The last could also be obtained directly from the Vilsmeier reagent. He was the first to show that a carbene complex may act as an initiator of olefin metathesis. Later interests concerned the syntheses of new types of compound from all blocks of the Periodic Table driven by his imaginative use of new types of ligand (either sterically crowded or having no β-hydrogen atoms, often including SiMe3 or But substituents to confer lipophilicity). The use of CHnSiMe(3−n) (n = 0, 1 or 2) to stabilize transition-metal alkyl compounds was a major advance, because at the time stable homoleptic (a term he introduced) transition-metal alkyl compounds were unknown. He showed that the −CH(SiMe3)2 ligand could stabilize both low-coordinate transition metal and lanthanide compounds. Similarly, carbene analogues of the Main Group 14 elements germanium, tin and lead were obtained. Surprisingly in the solid state, these species were weakly dimerized (for example R2Sn=SnR2), and unexpectedly exhibited a pyramidalized geometry at the heavy element. The latter had very significant bonding implications, because it differed fundamentally from the well-known planar structure of the corresponding alkenes. The first persistent or stable paramagnetic heavier Main Group element species MR2 (M = P or As) and MR3 (M = Ge or Sn) were also obtained while parallel work using −N(SiMe3)2 resulted in the corresponding Main Group amido derivatives. Other lipophilic ligands, such as β-diketiminates, were also widely used, as were bulky aryloxo and thiolato ligands, to obtain stable low-coordinate Main Group species. The first examples of d- and f-block species containing bridging alkyl groups were described. Those who worked with him cited his vast knowledge and supportive low-key advisory style, which ensured a contented and productive laboratory atmosphere. In addition to his scientific work, he was deeply interested in opera, literature and the theatre, about which he could talk knowledgeably.


The omnipresence of noise in natural systems is a fact that has led to controversial discussions over the last decades, the question being whether natural system actively make use of ambient fluctuations in synchronization or pattern forming processes. One possibility for a system to make use of noise in a constructive way is the notion of Spatiotemporal Stochastic Resonance, a phenomenon wherein noise induces and/or sustains spatiotemporal patterns, which has been confirmed to exist in chemical and biological systems. Noise in natural systems usually has finite spatiotemporal correlations, it is then said to be `colored'. With the eye on biological systems, the present work investigates the influence of colored noise on the effect of Spatiotemporal Stochastic Resonance and synchronization in excitable and oscillatory media, respectively. In particular, two different types of noise are considered, which are commonly encountered in natural systems. The first type shows short-range, exponentially decaying correlations both in time and space, whereas the second type is power-law noise, having long-range correlations due to the power-law shape of its spatiotemporal power spectral density. First, numerical algorithms for the efficient modeling of spatiotemporal correlated noise are developed and different analysis tools for the detection and extraction of coherent structures from a noisy, spatially extended system are introduced and evaluated. These tools are used to investigate the effect of additive, spatiotemporal correlated noise on a two-dimensional network of biologically motivated elements in its respective noise-sustained pattern forming, its excitable and its oscillatory regime.The results of this thesis lead to the following conclusions: Noise-induced pattern formation is a robust phenomenon with respect to a wide range of spatiotemporal noise correlations. It is seen that a moderate temporal, and in the case of power-law noise also spatial, noise correlation is beneficial to the effect of Spatiotemporal Stochastic Resonance. The effect of spatial amplitude desynchronization in an oscillatory system is enhanced by both intermediate short- and long-range correlated noise for moderate temporal and spatial noise color. The above findings are reproduced analytically by a linear response analysis, which views the respective media in terms of their spatiotemporal frequency filter characteristics. The results are in good agreement with the simulations for any temporally correlated noise, but generally disagree for large spatial noise color due to finite size effects of the system. The analysis shows that the influence of colored noise on the pattern forming and synchronization processes is a consequence of the impact of the noise color on the energy transfer from the noise to the medium. The analytical results deviate from the numerical simulations in the case of spatial power-law noise not only due to finite-size effects, but also due to the particular self-affine properties of the noise, which the theory does not account for. The results put the phenomenon of Spatiotemporal Stochastic Resonance on a broader theoretical and numerical footing. Its robustness to spatiotemporal noise color makes this effect a candidate for noise-induced phenomena in nature. It is to be expected, that noise in neuro-physiological systems can have indeed favorable effects.


Abstract Extensive trapping surveys across the historical range of Pituophis ruthveni (Louisiana Pine Snake) suggest that extant populations are extremely small and limited to remnant patches of suitable habitat in a highly fragmented landscape. Evaluation of habitat at all known historical localities of P. ruthveni documents the widespread degradation of the fire-maintained pine ecosystem throughout the historical range of the species. The primary factors leading to degradation of P. ruthveni habitat are intensive pine silviculture and alteration of the pre-European fire regime. Habitat restoration on public lands is feasible and could potentially restore populations of this critically rare species.


Biodegradable polymers such as PLA, PGA, PLGA etc., inside the human body often pose a tough challenge for the orthopedic doctors and material scientists. Unlike metallic or ceramic implants, where deterioration of the mechanical properties has never been an issue, biodegradable polymeric implants, used for Osteosynthesis, deteriorate while the fractured bone is subjected to kinesiological stress during healing process. To understand how biodegradable materials lose its mechanical properties, an investigation into the influence of degradation process on Mode-I fracture toughness of poly (lactide-co-glycolide), PLGA 85:15 material was initiated. The objective of this study was to build an improved understanding of the deterioration of biodegradable polymers mechanical properties during in-vitro degradation and how this change may affect long term in-vivo performance of the implants. A simple mathematical relationship was established to understand the change in the Young's modulus during the degradation process. Compact tension specimens were designed and molded for mode-I fracture criterion and then put in 3% concentrated Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) to study the degradation process. FEA (Finite Element Analysis) was used to study the change in mechanical properties and then the results were compared with the physical test. Mode-I fracture toughness, KIC was measured and the behavior of the polymer was also identified. It was seen that the fracture toughness, KIC of PLGA 85:15 decreased with the progression of degradation. Finally, it was concluded that an increase in the Young's modulus made PLGA 85:15 very brittle and hence resulted in reduced fracture toughness.


Abstract Molecular phylogenetic and traditional morphometric methods were applied to examine six Palaearctic taxa of the taxonomically difficult tachinid fly genus Dinera Robineau-Desvoidy (Diptera: Tachinidae), with particular reference to D. carinifrons (Fallén) and D. fuscata Zhang and Shima. Results of a phylogenetic analysis based on the mitochondrial markers 12S and 16S rDNA and multivariate statistical analyses of 19 morphometric characters were used to delimit both species. A lectotype was designated for D. carinifrons to stabilize the nomenclature in the group. Dinera carinifrons has a transpalaearctic distribution and is present in Central Europe, especially in high altitudes of the Alps. It differs from the similar and closely related D. fuscata in that it has a slightly larger body size, a dense greyish microtrichosity on the body, and different head proportions. Dinera fuscata, as delimited here, is widespread in the Palaearctic region, including Europe. Slight differences in both molecular and morphometric characters were found between western (Europe and Iran) and eastern (China and Japan) populations of D. fuscata, which are interpreted as an intraspecific variation. Differential diagnosis between D. carinifrons and D. fuscata is provided in the form of a revised portion of the determination key to the Palaearctic Dinera by Zhang and Shima (2006).


A 30-year-old man presented with acute generalised urticaria (Figure, A) 6 hours after ingestion of raw fish. While most adult food allergies occur within 1–2 hours of ingestion, allergy to the live fish parasite Anisakis simplex which has penetrated the gastrointestinal mucosa manifests 1 hour to a few days after ingestion.1 Emergency upper endoscopy detected the live larva in the stomach (Figure, B) and disinfestation resolved his symptoms. Allergy to A. simplex can be confirmed by testing for allergen-specific IgE or skin prick testing with Anisakis extract. Gastrointestinal anisakidosis can be an unexpected cause of urticaria owing to delay between the ingestion of fish and the appearance of symptoms. While most cases of anisakidosis currently occur in Japan, this may become an increasing problem in Australia due to increasing consumption of sushi and sashimi.2 


Link prediction can be used to extract missing information, identify spurious interactions as well as forecast network evolution. Network embedding is a methodology to assign coordinates to nodes in a lowdimensional vector space. By embedding nodes into vectors, the link prediction problem can be converted into a similarity comparison task. Nodes with similar embedding vectors are more likely to be connected. Classic network embedding algorithms are random-walk-based. They sample trajectory paths via random walks and generate node pairs from the trajectory paths. The node pair set is further used as the input for a Skip-Gram model, a representative language model that embeds nodes (which are regarded as words) into vectors. In the present study, we propose to replace random walk processes by a spreading process, namely the susceptible-infected (SI) model, to sample paths. Specifically, we propose two SI-spreadingbased algorithms, SINE and TSINE, to embed static and temporal networks, respectively. The performance of our algorithms is evaluated by the missing link prediction task in comparison with state-of-the-art static and temporal network embedding algorithms. Results show that SINE and TSINE outperform the baselines across all six empirical datasets. We further find that the performance of SINE is mostly better than TSINE, suggesting that temporal information does not necessarily improve the embedding for missing link prediction. Moreover, we study the effect of the sampling size, quantified as the total length of the trajectory paths, on the performance of the embedding algorithms. The better performance of SINE and TSINE requires a smaller sampling size in comparison with the baseline algorithms. Hence, SI-spreading-based embedding tends to be more applicable to large-scale networks. 1 ar X iv :2 00 4. 06 75 0v 1 [ cs .S I] 1 4 A pr 2 02 0


BACKGROUND
Once a disease of developed countries, type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) has become widespread worldwide. For people with T2DM, achievement of therapeutic outcomes demands the rational and quality use of medicine.

AIMS
The primary aim of this study was to examine the prevalence of diabetes and prescribing patterns of anti-diabetic medications in Australia and Malaysia.

METHODS
The most recent, publicly available, statistical reports (2004-2008) on the use of medicines published in Australia and in Malaysia were evaluated. Defined daily doses (DDDs/1,000 population/day) were derived from the reports and used to rank and compare individual drug use.

RESULTS
There was an increasing trend in the prevalence of diabetes in Australia, although there is a greater predicted increase in prevalence for Malaysia. While drugs used for the treatment of diabetes were not the most highly used drugs in Australia, their use increased during the study period, from 42.64 to 48.61 DDD/1,000/day. Anti-diabetic drugs were the most frequently dispensed class of drugs in Malaysia. Although the total consumption of anti-diabetic drugs in Malaysia decreased between 2006 and 2007 (from 40.30 to 39.72), this was followed by a marked increase to 46.69 in 2008. There was a marked reduction in the dispensing of insulin in Malaysia from 2004 to 2007 (7.77 to 3.23).

CONCLUSION
The use of drugs to treat diabetes does not reflect the usage patterns found in Australia. Effective drug use reviews are required to ensure impartial access in middle- and low-income countries.


Epidemiological evidence supports a role for the insulin-like growth factors (IGFs) and their binding proteins (IGFBPs) in the induction and progression of various cancers. Estrogen, which plays a role in the etiology of breast cancer, both regulates and is influenced by the IGF family. Risk of breast cancer associated with serum levels of IGF-I and/or IGFBPs may therefore depend upon menopausal status. A nested, case-control study was conducted on 66 women who were premenopausal and 60 who were postmenopausal at the time of diagnosis of primary breast cancer; they were selected from a cohort of 95,000 women who underwent multiphasic health check-ups > 30 years ago when enrolled in the Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program. For each case, one control who matched by age, date of examination, and length of follow-up was chosen. Concentrations of IGF-I, insulin, glucose, and IGFBP-1, IGFBP-2, and IGFBP-3 in serum drawn at least 2 years before diagnosis (mean times of 10.5 and 15.8 years for pre- and postmenopausal cases, respectively) were compared using conditional logistic regression analysis. All statistical tests were two-sided. Serum IGF-I, adjusted for insulin, glucose, and body mass index, was weakly associated with breast cancer risk across quartiles for premenopausal women only (P for trend = 0.05). Serum IGFBP-3 was higher in premenopausal cases versus controls (P = 0.04) and showed a positive trend in risk for increasing quartiles (P for trend = 0.033). After adjusting for insulin, glucose, body mass index, and IGF-I, premenopausal women in the highest quartile of IGFBP-3 had an elevated risk of breast cancer [odds ratio (OR) = 5.28, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.13-24.7]. Conversely, IGFBP-3 was lower in postmenopausal cases versus controls (P = 0.04) but showed no significant trend in risk. Postmenopausal women with glucose levels in the diabetic range were at increased risk for developing breast cancer (OR = 2.06, 95% CI = 0.87-4.91), whereas those in the highest quartile of IGFBP-2 had a substantial reduction (71%) in risk relative to those in the lowest quartile (OR = 0.29, 95% CI = 0.09-0.92). Serum IGFBP-1 was not associated with breast cancer risk in either pre- or postmenopausal women. In premenopausal women, elevated serum IGF-I and IGFBP-3 are associated with increased breast cancer risk, whereas elevated serum IGFBP-2 is inversely associated with risk of postmenopausal breast cancer.


Drawn from a wider-ranging piece of research into radicalisation processes, this research note presents findings about the backgrounds of British jihadists travelling to fight in Syria. The research identifies biographical factors that are salient to two theories of radicalisation - Social Movement Theory (SMT) and Olivier Roy's 'youth revolt' theory and presents a short discussion on the validity of these theories in regard to British jihadists.


Abstract We have previously documented multiple, independent origins of placentas in the fish family Poeciliidae. Here we summarize similar analyses of fishes in the family Zenarchopteridae. This family includes three live-bearing genera. Earlier studies documented the presence of superfetation, or the ability to carry multiple litters of young in different stages of development in the same ovary, in some species in all three genera. There is also one earlier report of matrotrophy, or extensive postfertilization maternal provisioning, in two of these genera. We present detailed life-history data for approximately half of the species in all three genera and combine them with the best available phylogeny to make inferences about the pattern of life-history evolution within this family. Three species of Hemirhamphodon have superfetation but lack matrotrophy. Most species in Nomorhamphus and Dermogenys either lack superfetation and matrotrophy or have both superfetation and matrotrophy. Our phylogenetic analysis shows that matrotrophy may have evolved independently in each genus. In Dermogenys, matrotrophic species produce fewer, larger offspring than nonmatrotrophic species. In Nomorhamphus; matrotrophic species instead produce more and smaller offspring than lecithotrophic species. However, the matrotrophic species in both genera have significantly smaller masses of reproductive tissue relative to their body sizes. All aspects of these results are duplicated in the fish family Poeciliidae. We discuss the possible adaptive significance of matrotrophy in the light of these new results. The two families together present a remarkable opportunity to study the evolution of a complex trait because they contain multiple, independent origins of the trait that often include close relatives that vary in either the presence or absence of the matrotrophy or in the degree to which matrotrophy is developed. These are the raw materials that are required for either an analysis of the adaptive significance of the trait or for studies of the genetic mechanisms that underlie the evolution of the trait.


Three new anionic metal organic frameworks, [Zn1.5(FDA)2(Me2NH2)]·xG (1), [Zn3(FDA)4(Me2NH2)2]·xG (2), and [Zn1.5(FDA)2(Me2NH2)]·xG (3) (FDAH2 = 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid, G = guest), were synthesized solvothermally via a temperature tuning strategy. Compound 1, synthesized at 90 °C, has a two-dimensional (2D) sheet structure, while 2 and 3, synthesized at 120 and 160 °C, respectively, have three-dimensional (3D) structures. Compound 2 has alternating hydrophobic and hydrophilic channels with pore dimensions ∼4.3 × 4.4 A2 and ∼5.6 × 6.2 A2, respectively. Compound 3 has only one type of pore with dimensions of ∼5.3 × 6.2 A2. All three compounds have eight connected Zn3(RCOO)8 nodes as building units and are anionic, with dimethyl ammonium cations present inside the channels to balance charge. Compounds 1, 2, and 3 are supramolecular isomers with general formula [Zn1.5(FDA)2(Me2NH2)]n.


To follow is a critical narrative on the intersection between identity production and transformations in the indigenous herding systems of the Babirwa of pre-colonial Botswana. The production of the Babirwa's pastoralist identity rested on the adaptability of their cultural practices, language and social systems to socio-ecological influences. This emerging pastoralist identity was embedded in organic or loan words and concepts, which were continually reconstituted to negotiate social and environmental change. From the 1850s, the Babirwa of the eastern Botswana gradually transformed into cattle herders. The assimilation of cattle led to a symbolic shift in the Babirwa's social identity from the Banareng (people of the buffalo) to the Bakgomong (people of the cow). This shift was crucial in the production of a cattle-based identity in an area where crop production, hunting and the herding of caprines (goats and sheep) had been the primary ways of life since the first settlement of the Babirwa in the eastern Botswana a century earlier.


Abstract This is a call for the prohibition of autonomous lethal targeting by free-ranging robots. This article will first point out the three main international humanitarian law (IHL)/ethical issues with armed autonomous robots and then move on to discuss a major stumbling block to their evitability: misunderstandings about the limitations of robotic systems and artificial intelligence. This is partly due to a mythical narrative from science fiction and the media, but the real danger is in the language being used by military researchers and others to describe robots and what they can do. The article will look at some anthropomorphic ways that robots have been discussed by the military and then go on to provide a robotics case study in which the language used obfuscates the IHL issues. Finally, the article will look at problems with some of the current legal instruments and suggest a way forward to prohibition.


Sounds originate from object motions and vibrations of surrounding air. Inspired by the fact that humans is capable of interpreting sound sources from how objects move visually, we propose a novel system that explicitly captures such motion cues for the task of sound localization and separation. Our system is composed of an end-to-end learnable model called Deep Dense Trajectory (DDT), and a curriculum learning scheme. It exploits the inherent coherence of audio-visual signals from a large quantities of unlabeled videos. Quantitative and qualitative evaluations show that comparing to previous models that rely on visual appearance cues, our motion based system improves performance in separating musical instrument sounds. Furthermore, it separates sound components from duets of the same category of instruments, a challenging problem that has not been addressed before.


The expression of short hairpin RNAs in several organisms silences gene expression by targeted mRNA degradation. This RNA interference (RNAi) pathway can also affect the genome, as DNA methylation arises at loci homologous to the target RNA in plants. We demonstrate in fission yeast that expression of a synthetic hairpin RNA is sufficient to silence the homologous locus in trans and causes the assembly of a patch of silent Swi6 chromatin with cohesin. This requires components of the RNAi machinery and Clr4 histone methyltransferase for small interfering RNA generation. A similar process represses several meiotic genes through nearby retrotransposon long terminal repeats (LTRs). These analyses directly implicate interspersed LTRs in regulating gene expression during cellular differentiation.


The development of methods to construct new chemical bonds efficiently and selectively whilst minimising energy usage and waste production is of high importance in organic chemistry. Many current methods employ inefficient, costly and often toxic multi step protocols to generate new chemical bonds. The hydroacylation reaction is one method of reducing such inefficiencies. The development of an aerobic hydroacylation protocol in the Caddick group has recently allowed the functionalisation of aldehydes with a wide array of electron deficient alkenes. This process relies on trapping an acyl radical intermediate, from the auto-oxidation of aldehydes to acids, with a suitable alkene. Since aldehyde auto-oxidation takes place readily in the presence of atmospheric oxygen, the aerobic hydroacylation reaction can be conducted in aqueous media in the absence of any additional reagents. Following on from previous work in the group, this thesis describes studies towards expanding the scope of this novel methodology in the formation of C-N bonds. It also assesses the scalability of this reaction in order to make acyl hydrazides for further chemical transformations; as such, the development of protocols for the conversion of acyl hydrazides to carboxylic acid derivatives and to ketones will also be described. Chapter 1 provides an introduction to and a general overview of current methods of hydroacylation and acid derivative syntheses. Chapter 2 describes the development of conditions for, and application of aerobic hydroacylation towards C N bond formation, and the scalability of the hydroacylation reaction. Chapter 3 will focus on solving the failures of previous attempts for the conversion of acyl hydrazides to tertiary amides. Chapter 4 will demonstrate the applicability of acyl hydrazides to the synthesis of carboxylic esters and describe some of its limitations. Finally, chapter 5 will reveal acyl hydrazides as a new class of precursors for the chemoselective synthesis of ketones.


The sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam), is a perennial tuber, on which, several studies and experiments have been conducted to analyze its adaptability and use in different agro ecosystems, in order to potentialize its production in Colombia. This work refers to the results from qualitative and quantitative investigations on its adaptability to the Piedemonte Llanero, considering the variables of mortality and production, the latter evaluated in terms of yield in t ha -1 . The study was carried out in 2008, using statistical analysis to establish the crop's mortality situation. Production was evaluated in the time of harvest, considering the marginal effect caused in the stages of the crop, and the pertinent statistical procedures. The conclusion was that the clones with the best adaptability, best dual-purpose yield, resistance to the attack from various microorganisms and typical edaphoclimatic effects of the agroecosystem are: 440286, 440287 and 440396. According to the above, is possible to incorporate the sweet potato as an option to help diversify agricultural production systems in the Piedemonte Llanero.


Introduction This paper is an extension of our previous findings presented in Christozov, Chukova, and Mateev (2006, 2007). We address an open problem posted earlier related to the evaluation of, so called, degree of acceptance of a product by a client. Here, we propose an approach and illustrate a useful procedure for evaluating this degree of acceptance. So, in this paper we provide a detailed outline of an approach for quantifying the risk caused by information asymmetry by briefly summarizing the ideas shared in Christozov, Chukova, and Mateev (2006, 2007) and elaborating on the evaluation of the degree of acceptance. The phenomenon of information asymmetry between two parties occurs when one of the parties has better understanding and is better informed on the subject of communication than the other one. There are several aspects of information asymmetry that have attracted the interest of researchers. The concept of information misbalance originates in Arrow (1963). His ideas were further developed by Akerlof (1970) in his paper "The Market for 'Lemon's", where the term "information asymmetry" was firstly introduced. Akerlof investigated the influence of asymmetric information on the market value of a commodity and his ideas initiated studies on the impact and usage of the information asymmetry to improve the influence in business relationships. Slovac (1993) studied the asymmetric impact of negative and positive information on the social trust, known as principle of Information Asymmetry or Trust Asymmetry. White and Eiser, 2005 continue this line of research. The role of information asymmetry as a source of misinterpretation, which results in misinforming and/or misleading in a sales/purchase process and might lead to wrong purchase decisions has never been studied at the level it deserves. Some authors (Hseih, Lai, & Shi, 2006) consider the impact of information asymmetry on the success in business transactions, but they do not go beyond recommendations on how to improve the information process. Christozov, Chukova, and Mateev (2006, 2007) proposed a model to quantify the risk of misinforming, caused by information asymmetry and the current paper extends their study. The outline of this paper is as follows. The next section provides a brief description of the model for quantifying and evaluating the risk of misinforming. It emphasizes on the new approach of collecting data and evaluating the degree of acceptance. Following that we provide an illustrative example. We conclude with a few ideas for further research. Quantitative Measure of the Risk of Misinforming Next, we extend the model for quantifying the risk of misinforming, proposed in Christozov, Chukova, and Mateev (2007) study. One of the main difficulties in quantifying the risk of misinforming is that the risk is subjective, i.e., one and the same message containing information on the product of interest, may convey correct information to some customers and misinform others. This misinformation can have different degrees and consequences for the individual customers within a given group of customers. A message describing the product may inform some of the customers correctly regarding several properties or features of the product, as well as abilities of the product to solve for a particular task or category of tasks, and at the same time, it can misinform them regarding some other features or tasks. Our model aims to allow measuring the risk of misinforming at the task level. In order to simplify the model, we will model only the risk of misinforming between a single producer/seller to a group of customers/buyers regarding a single product. In order to quantify the risk of misinforming, caused by the information asymmetry, we need to identify and measure the factors, which influence this risk Description of the Product We denote the product by D. …


Undiagnosed pleural effusions present an increasing diagnostic burden upon healthcare providers internationally. The investigation of pleural effusions often requires the acquisition of tissue for histological analysis and diagnosis. Historically there were two options for tissue biopsy: a 'gold standard' surgical biopsy or a "blind" closed pleural biopsy. Over the last decade however, image-guided Tru-cut biopsies and local anaesthetic thoracoscopic (local anaesthetic thoracoscopy) biopsies have become more widespread. Image-guided techniques acquire samples under ultrasound (US) or computed tomography (CT) guidance whereas LAT involves the direct visualisation and biopsy of the pleura with pleuroscopy. Both techniques have been shown to be superior to 'blind' closed pleural biopsy for the diagnosis of pleural or metastatic malignancy. However, closed biopsy remains a viable method of investigation in areas of high incidence of tuberculosis (TB). Beyond this, each investigative technique has its own advantages and disadvantages. Image-guided biopsy is less invasive, usually carried out as an outpatient procedure, and enables tissue biopsy in frail patients and those with pleural thickening but no pleural fluid. Local anaesthetic thoracoscopy (LAT) provides diagnostic and therapeutic capabilities in one procedure. Large volume thoracentesis, multiple pleural biopsies and talc poudrage can be carried out in a single procedure. The overall diagnostic yield is similar for both techniques, although there are no large-scale direct comparisons. Both techniques share low complication rates.


Abstract Lower Cretaceous clay minerals suites of the Alava Block, analysed by XRD, are dominated either by illite or kaolinite. These assemblages are mainly inherited in origin, although textural evidence (SEM) indicates some diagenetic clay. Precipitation of blocky kaolinite took place in sandstones from the southern domain of the Block, characterized by low sedimentation and subsidence rates and by low vitrinite reflectance values (%Rr <0.8). In the northern domain, where sedimentation and subsidence rates were high (% Rr >3.3), illitization of kaolinite and smectitic clays and precipitation of authigenic chlorite occurred. Some chemical aspects of these reactions are discussed.


Objective : The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of ozonized oil (OZ) on the oral levels of Candida spp. in patients with denture stomatitis. Material and Methods : In vitro tests were performed to validate antifungal activity and to standardize OZ conditions. Antifungal activity was screened against C. albicans and five non- albicans species ( C. tropicalis, C. dubliniensis, C. krusei, C. guilliermondii, and C. parapsilosis ). Also, the effects on C. albicans planktonic and biofilm were evaluated. After validation, OZ was included in a therapeutic protocol of denture stomatitis in vivo. Thirty patients used OZ and 20 used sodium bicarbonate (SB) for 14 days. After 7 and 14 days, clinical evaluation, isolation and identification of yeasts were performed. Isolates were identified by phenotypic and genotypic tests. Ozonized oil showed in vitro antifungal activity against all species of Candida . Ozonized oil reduced the number of viable cells in C. albicans biofilms. Oral candidal levels were lower in relation to baseline both after after 14 days of treatment with SB and OZ. Results : A total of 493 Candida spp. isolates was obtained and 80% were identified as C. albicans . Remission of denture stomatitis was observed in all patients after 7 days of treatment in both groups. Conclusion : Within the limits of the study we can conclude that ozonized olive oil can be a new alternative for the control of biofilm in patients with denture stomatitis. Keywords Ozone; Candida ; Antifungal Agents; Stomatitis; Denture.


Music therapists often use music to facilitate changes in physiological functioning. In order to better inform the selection and creation of such music, this study explored the influence of tempo and dynamic range on heart rate variability. Two guitar improvisations were digitally recomposed to create fast and slow (90 and 60 beats per minute) as well as narrow and wide dynamic range conditions, while all other elements of the recordings were held constant. It was hypothesized that faster tempo and wider dynamic ranges would cause an increase in physiological arousal, indicated by decreased heart rate variability. It was also predicted that participants (N = 32) would perceive selections with slower tempos and smaller dynamic range as more relaxing. No significant differences were found in heart rate variability for either condition. The narrow dynamic range condition produced an elevation in average heart rate, contrary to expectations based upon previous clinical recommendations. Participants did not perceive any condition as more relaxing, but perception of relaxation level weakly correlated to increased heart rate variability. The results from this study suggest that wider dynamic range is not necessarily contraindicated for music for relaxation, and that participant input is important in choosing music for relaxation.