Cloud Computing, nowadays used for saving cost, space, computer hardware and software, can be implemented on a newly designed system with cloud computing approach is a solution for remote districts, villages in hilarious regions where mobile network exists. First it can be implemented on animals and then if successful can be implemented on human beings. It provides better solution for the patients admitted in a veterinary hospital first and then hospital or primary health center for humans. The developing countries are still fighting with less number of doctors in those areas and sometime in town or big cities are also searching for certain specialist medical practitioners opinion. The situation is already worst for poor and illiterate people in terms of finding a doctor in such area. So it is easily understandable for animals, it's horrible. Existing system in major parts are based on manual paper work and independent standalone applications in some districts'/ small towns' hospitals and primary health centers which results in waste of resources, high construction and maintenance costs and difficult to manage and maintain. The main objective of proposing cloud based solution is to reduce the cost (construction and maintenance), to reduce data loss risk, to gather all the hospitals on one platform to better access patients' medical information for easy management and maintenance. The proposed cloud computing solution is intended to be used by hospitals and primary health centers of third world countries; however the solution is generic and can be used by hospitals of any country and the community based hospitals. This approach also saves a massive amount of paper works and be able to save trees to fulfill one step ahead to the greener world. In future the proposed system will have a huge impact on saving animal and human life and we will feel goodness by dedicating this system for humankind. Some people will laugh at using clouds for animals but we do strongly believe in the fact that all the creations are made by the godfather for all and each of them have equal rights to get facilities in this new era of cloud technologies.


In this paper, in the context of the quasi-magnetostatic approximation, we examine incremental motions superimposed on a static finite deformation of a magneto-elastic material in the presence of an applied magnetic field. Explicit expressions are obtained for the associated magneto-acoustic (or magneto-elastic moduli) tensors in the case of an incompressible isotropic magneto-elastic material, and these are then used to study the propagation of incremental plane waves. The propagation condition is derived in terms of a generalized acoustic tensor and the results are illustrated by obtaining explicit formulas in two special cases: first, when the material is undeformed but subject to a uniform bias field and, second for a prototype model of magneto-elastic interactions in the finite deformation regime. The results provide a basis for the experimental determination of the material parameters of a magneto-sensitive elastomer from measurements of the speed of incremental waves for different pre-strains, bias magnetic fields, and directions of propagation.


Uterine leiomyosarcoma (LMS) is rare malignant neoplasm. Approximately 2% to 5% of all uterine malignancies [1]. Uterine leiomyosarcoma usually occur with vaginal bleeding, in the less frequently seen pelvic pain, pelvic mass, and uterine enlargement. Surgery is the primary treatment for uterine leiomyosarcoma. A 56 year old woman presented at vaginal bleeding. On admission, CT scan revealed lung and breast metastatic nodules. First she underwent surgery and then received chemotherapy. After 2 years than surgery she underwent total mastectomy. Histopathology report showed metastasis of leiomyosarcoma. In this report we describe an unusual case of uterine leiomyosarcoma with metastases to the breast.


Religious Bodies Politic examines the complex relationship between transnational religion and politics through the lens of one cosmopolitan community in Siberia: Buryats, who live in a semiautonomous republic within Russia with a large Buddhist population. Looking at religious transformation among Buryats across changing political economies, Anya Bernstein argues that under conditions of rapid social change - such as those that accompanied the Russian Revolution, the Cold War, and the fall of the Soviet Union - Buryats have used Buddhist "body politics" to articulate their relationship not only with the Russian state, but also with the larger Buddhist world. During these periods, Bernstein shows, certain people and their bodies became key sites through which Buryats conformed to or challenged Russian political rule. She presents particular cases of these emblematic bodies - dead bodies of famous monks, temporary bodies of reincarnated lamas, ascetic and celibate bodies of Buddhist monastics, and dismembered bodies of lay disciples given as imaginary gifts to spirits - to investigate the specific ways in which religion and politics have intersected. Contributing to the growing literature on postsocialism and studies of sovereignty that focus on the body, Religious Bodies Politic is a fascinating illustration of how this community employed Buddhism to adapt to key moments of political change.


Nepal's lackluster economic performance during the post-conflict period (that is, after November 2006) has been driven by remittances from the export of labor services and the improved performance of the agricultural sector, which is still very much weather dependent. The authors make the case for a connectivity-driven development strategy for the country. They argue that improved connectivity within Nepal and cross-border connectivity with its neighbors in South Asia, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and the People's Republic of China (PRC) that are converting Nepal from a landlocked into a land-linked state, could be important "engines of growth" for the country. It is argued that such a development strategy is not a new one for Nepal as in the past the country was strategically located on the Southwestern Silk Road (SSR). A number of factors have revived the case for making Nepal a land-linked state in Asia. Nepal has adopted a multi-track approach to promoting regional cooperation and integration in connectivity with its neighbors. But a lot more needs to be done, especially in the context of the difficult political situation in the country, and donors have an important role to play in this regard. Ten priority projects to convert Nepal into a land-linked state are identified, but a detailed impact analysis of these projects is beyond the scope of this paper.


The return on assets depends on the joint behavior of all savers; if all sell the asset simultaneously, then there will be a financial "Armageddon." We assume that risk-neutral savers' information about aggregate investment is too vague to form precise probability estimates, so they have Knightian uncertainty, and thus act to maximize their minimum payoff. Savers invest in a risky asset (economy-wide production) and in a riskless asset (government bonds). In times of high uncertainty, savers hold too many government bonds, lowering output. A monetary policy of lowering the risk-free rate causes savers to save less in total but to invest more in the risky asset, and the policy is shown to be Pareto-improving; but the policy is unable to recapture the optimal allocations. To restore investment and total savings to their optimal levels, the government must also use a fiscal policy of distortionary taxes to discourage current consumption and leisure.


Six months after the 4 September 2010 Mw 7.1 Darfield (Canterbury) earthquake, a Mw 6.2 Christchurch (Lyttelton) aftershock struck Christchurch on the 22 February 2011. This earthquake was centred approximately 10km south-east of the Christchurch CBD at a shallow depth of 5km, resulting in intense seismic shaking within the Christchurch central business district (CBD). Unlike the 4 Sept earthquake when limited-to-moderate damage was observed in engineered reinforced concrete (RC) buildings [35], in the 22 February event a high number of RC Buildings in the Christchurch CBD (16.2 % out of 833) were severely damaged. There were 182 fatalities, 135 of which were the unfortunate consequences of the complete collapse of two mid-rise RC buildings.
This paper describes immediate observations of damage to RC buildings in the 22 February 2011 Christchurch earthquake. Some preliminary lessons are highlighted and discussed in light of the observed performance of the RC building stock. Damage statistics and typical damage patterns are presented for various configurations and lateral resisting systems. Data was collated predominantly from first-hand post-earthquake reconnaissance observations by the authors, complemented with detailed assessment of the structural drawings of critical buildings and the observed behaviour.
Overall, the 22 February 2011 Mw 6.2 Christchurch earthquake was a particularly severe test for both modern seismically-designed and existing non-ductile RC buildings. The sequence of earthquakes since the 4 Sept 2010, particularly the 22 Feb event has confirmed old lessons and brought to life new critical ones, highlighting some urgent action required to remedy structural deficiencies in both existing and "modern" buildings. Given the major social and economic impact of the earthquakes to a country with strong seismic engineering tradition, no doubt some aspects of the seismic design will be improved based on the lessons from Christchurch. The bar needs to and can be raised, starting with a strong endorsement of new damage-resisting, whilst cost-efficient, technologies as well as the strict enforcement, including financial incentives, of active policies for the seismic retrofit of existing buildings at a national scale.


The notion of communities as informal social networks based on shared interests or common practices has been increasingly used as an important unit of analysis when considering the processes of cooperative creation and sharing of knowledge. While knowledge exchange within communities has been extensively researched, different studies observed the importance of cross-community knowledge exchange for the creation of new knowledge and innovation in knowledge-intensive organizations. Especially in knowledge management a critical problem has become the need to support the cooperation and exchange of knowledge between different communities with highly specialized expertise and activities. Though several studies discuss the importance and difficulties of knowledge sharing across community boundaries, the development of technological support incorporating these findings has been little addressed.

This work presents an approach to supporting cross-community knowledge exchange based on using knowledge visualisation for facilitating information access in unfamiliar community domains. The theoretical grounding and practical relevance of the proposed approach are ensured by defining a requirements model that integrates theoretical frameworks for cross-community knowledge exchange with practical needs of typical knowledge management processes and sensemaking tasks in information access in unfamiliar domains. This synthesis suggests that visualising knowledge structures of communities and supporting the discovery of relationships between them during access to community spaces, could provide valuable support for cross-community discovery and sharing of knowledge. This is the main hypothesis investigated in this thesis.

Accordingly, a novel method is developed for eliciting and visualising implicit knowledge structures of individuals and communities in form of dynamic knowledge maps that make the elicited knowledge usable for semantic exploration and navigation of community spaces. The method allows unobtrusive construction of personal and community knowledge maps based on user interaction with information and their use for dynamic classification of information from a specific point of view. The visualisation model combines Document Maps presenting main topics, document clusters and relationships between knowledge reflected in community spaces with Concept Maps visualising personal and shared conceptual structures of community members. The technical realization integrates Kohonen's self-organizing maps with extraction of word categories from texts, collaborative indexing and personalised classification based on user-induced templates. This is accompanied by intuitive visualisation and interaction with complex information spaces based on multi-view navigation of document landscapes and concept networks.

The developed method is prototypically implemented in form of an application framework, a concrete system and a visual information interface for multi-perspective access to community information spaces, the Knowledge Explorer. The application framework implements services for generating and using personal and community knowledge maps to support explicit and implicit knowledge exchange between members of different communities. The Knowledge Explorer allows simultaneous visualisation of different personal and community knowledge structures and enables their use for structuring, exploring and navigating community information spaces from different points of view.

The empirical evaluation in a comparative laboratory study confirms the adequacy of the developed solutions with respect to specific requirements of the cross-community problem and demonstrates much better quality of knowledge access compared to a standard information seeking reference system. The developed evaluation framework and operative measures for quality of knowledge access in cross-community contexts also provide a theoretically grounded and practically feasible method for further developing and evaluating new solutions addressing this important but little investigated problem.


The purpose of the research was detection of markers of systemic inflammatory response syndrome together with levels of markers of gram-negative endotoxinemia in HIV-patients for evaluation of role of endotoxin in immune system hyperactivation and progression of disease. Material and methods. Evaluation of levels of endotoxin, sCD14, interleu-kin 1(3, TNF-a and C-reactive protein was done in 232 HIV-positive patients. LAL-test, ELISA and biochemical tests were used. Results. The statistically significant increase of levels of all markers of systemic inflammatory response which were investigated was detected in the group of HIV-positive patients, comparing to group of healthy individuals. Direct correlation of sCD14 level with most of markers of systemic inflammatory response was found. Increased level of sCD14 was associated with more prominent clinical and laboratory signs of immunosupression. Conclusion. These results confirm a role of endotoxin which is a marker of microbial translocation and highly active biological substance in pathogenesis of immune system hyperactivation and progression of HIV-infection.


It is commonly recognized that parties often do not read or understand contract boilerplate they agree to, and that such parties might not intend all the terms in it. Less often noticed are decisions that favor boilerplate over evidence of the parties' contrary intent for the very reason that it is boilerplate. This article discusses that phenomenon. It identifies decisions in which courts favor boilerplate terms over other evidence the parties' intent because it is boilerplate, discusses the rules that explain those outcomes, and examines the reasons behind the rules.

A contractual writing, whether individually negotiated and drafted or boilerplate, often displaces other evidence of the parties' agreement. Plain meaning rules, the parol evidence rule, and the use of formalities can all operate to limit extrinsic evidence of the parties' intent. But each rule also has special application to boilerplate. Plain meaning rules can serve to generate uniform construction of standard terms or adhesive contracts across multiple transactions. Some authorities suggest that standard terms and adhesive contracts are presumptively integrated, avoiding the standard inquiry into the parties intent to integrate under the parol evidence rule. And the judicial construction of boilerplate language sometimes transforms it into something like a legal formality—words whose legal effect depends on their form rather than their meaning.

In addition to these special applications of general rules to boilerplate writings, boilerplate is sometimes subject to more specific rules that limit evidence of the parties' contrary intent. When the law mandates that boilerplate language be included in a contractual writing, the government's understanding of that language should, ceteris paribus, control, even if the parties understood it differently. In markets that benefit from uniform contract terms and where a large portion of market participants employ a standard form to achieve those benefits, courts should seek to construe forms uniformly, with limited regard for individual parties' understandings of them. Courts have at their disposal a number of tools to achieve such uniform construction. Courts sometimes defer to the non-binding construction other courts have put on the same language. Depending on the circumstances, they might also restrict their interpretation to the standard form's plain meaning, defer to the form author's interpretation of it, defer to regulators' interpretation of it, or deploy a stringent contra proferentem rule. Finally, section 211(2) of the Restatement (Second) of Contracts suggests that it is sometimes reasonable to construe adhesive contracts at the expense of non-drafting parties' understandings of them, although the Restatement leaves it unclear just when that is. Although there is not much judicial support for section 211(2), courts certifying consumer class actions have recently begun citing the provision for the proposition that boilerplate terms in consumer contracts should be construed without considering evidence of individual consumers' understandings of them.


1. Studies of diel feeding periodicity, rates of food consumption and diet composition of pelagic fish were undertaken to resolve the dispute regarding the existence of a vacant niche for a pelagic zooplanktivore in Lake Malawi. 2. Six species of zooplanktivore were abundant in the offshore pelagic zone, these were: Diplotaxodon limnothrissa, D. 'bigeye', Rhamphochromis longiceps and Copadichromis quadrimaculatus (all haplochromine cichlids), Synodontis njassae (Mochokidae) and Engraulicypris sardella (Cyprinidae). The main piscivores were cichlids of the genus Rhamphochromis. 3. All cichlids were daytime feeders; some showed peaks in feeding activity at dawn and dusk that were related to vertical migration patterns of their prey. Synodontis njassae was able to feed throughout the day, but fed most actively at night. 4. Food consumption: biomass ratios (Q/B yr-1) calculated from diel stomach contents data were 5.87-7.13 for D. limnothrissa, 12.79 for D. 'bigeye', 4.20-24.7 for R. longiceps and 6.45 for S. njassae. Annual Q/B ratios for other species, which ranged from 4.74 to 9.28, were obtained from an empirical model relating food consumption to fish morphology. Published estimates were used for E. sardella and Opsaridium microcephalum (Cyprinidae). An estimate of total prey consumption by the pelagic fish population was obtained from Q/B ratios and fish biomass estimates from acoustic surveys covering the entire offshore pelagic zone of the lake (24 000 km2). 5. Diplotaxodon limnothrissa, R. longiceps and C. quadrimaculatus had a broad range of diets, with the ability to switch from crustacean zooplankton to larvae and pupae of Chaoborus edulis (Diptera) or larval and juvenile E. sardella. Diplotaxodon 'bigeye' and S. njassae fed almost exclusively on fourth-instar larvae and pupae of C. edulis. Engraulicypris sardella fed mainly on crustacean zooplankton. The main prey of the large piscivorous Rhamphochromis species were Diplotaxodon spp. and E. sardella. 6. The fish community consumed only 3% of estimated crustacean zooplankton production directly. Predation pressure was intense (> 80% of estimated production consumed by predators) on late instars of the zooplanktivorous C. edulis larvae and on E. sardella larvae. Rhamphochomis spp. consumed 22-43% of estimated production of the zooplankton-eating fishes. 7. Although many members of the fish community do not feed directly on crustacean zooplankton, so that the food-chain supporting fish production involves an extra trophic level, it is considered that the endemic fish community is well adapted to feeding on the low-density prey in the pelagic zone, and that there is no vacant feeding niche.


Launched in the late 1980s at the University of Oxford, Oxford International Review (OIR) has long been distributed only among those featured in the journal and the scholars who populated its staff. OIR was originally founded as a vehicle for mentorship between two generations of change agents--those established and those emerging. Through their involvement in OIR, current Rhodes, Marshall, Fulbright, and Truman Scholars in residence at the University of Oxford are brought into conversation with leaders representing diverse fields of endeavor. The product has been an annual volume that explicates a theme of global geopolitical significance in-depth through the juxtaposition of candid interviews with key intellectuals and decision makers (both well-established and lesser known) relative to contemporary speeches and articles that have shaped the parameters of debate on the chosen topic. OIR constitutes what Editor-in-Chief Rachel Yould calls "a seminar on a theme," a nuanced and well-developed compilation of perspectives alongside incisive analysis of their importance and implications. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In the course of its nearly two decades of production, OIR has evolved into a robust channel for communication and dialogue among a widening circle of participating world leaders representing fields ranging from politics and academia to science and industry. The heightening interest in and influence of the journal led its editors to decide last year that its circulation should no longer be circumscribed. The release of the 2005 edition of Oxford International Review marks the first to be made available in the public domain. It was well worth the wait. The topic engaged by the 2005 edition of OIR is "What is America's Role?" What strikes one first about the volume is the breadth of its thematic treatment. The US political perspectives one would anticipate are certainly well-represented. After all, Colin Powell did grant OIR his first print interview after leaving office as United States Secretary of State, and similarly heavy-hitting US policymakers and intellectuals appear in large number and to good effect. But the scope of the edition's content is limited neither to the US frame of reference nor the usual slate of political and academic figures often associated with coverage of this topic. It is the comments of heads of state and Cabinet-level policy-makers from around the globe that place the views of their US counterparts in appropriate perspective. The text also benefits from the incorporation of non-political views, whether hailing from the scientist who oversaw the decoding of the human genome or the founder of America Online. OIR deploys its diverse contributor base to situate current policy issues in broader global and historical context. While there are sound reasons for the current preoccupation of foreign policy analysts with US involvement in the Middle East, often sacrificed in this dialectic is the development of substantive analogies and identification of transferable models between dynamics in that region and peace and democratization efforts that have transpired elsewhere in the world. There has been no shortage of discussion of historical precedents native to the Middle East and their potential salience for current circumstances, whether cast in terms of socio-cultural traditions, Islam, tribal dynamics, or the politico-military tactics adopted in previous regional initiatives. Unfortunately, this tendency to isolate analysis of Middle Eastern strategy has culminated in a conception of the region as singular which has, in turn, deterred sustained consideration of potentially fruitful cross-regional correlations. Historian Bernard Lewis's treatment of the situation in the Middle East, past and present, in this issue of OIR assumes greater consequence for being situated relative to thoughtful treatment of US involvement in post-Soviet Eastern Europe democratization efforts. …


We combined the use of knock-out mice and subtype-selective antagonists [2-methyl-6-(phenylethynyl)pyridine (MPEP) and (E)-2-methyl-6-(2-phenylethenyl)-pyridine (SIB1893)] to examine whether endogenous activation of mGlu5 metabotropic glutamate receptors contributes to the pathophysiology of nigro-striatal damage in the 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP) model of parkinsonism. High doses of MPTP (four injections of 20 mg/kg, i.p., every 2 hr) induced a high mortality rate and a nearly total degeneration of the nigro-striatal pathway in wild-type mice. mGlu5 knock-out mice were less sensitive to MPTP toxicity, as shown by a higher survival and a milder nigro-striatal damage. Protection against MPTP (80 mg/kg) toxicity was also observed after MPEP injections (four injections of 5 mg/kg, i.p., 30 min before each MPTP injection). MPEP treatment did not further increase neuroprotection against 80 mg/kg of MPTP in mGlu5 knock-out mice, indicating that the drug acted by inhibiting mGlu5 receptors. In wild-type mice, MPEP was also neuroprotective when challenged against lower doses of MPTP (either 30 mg/kg, single injection, or four of 10 mg/kg injections). The action of MPEP was mimicked by SIB1893 but not by the mGlu1 receptor antagonist 7-hydroxyiminocyclopropan[b]chromen-1a-carboxylic acid ethyl ester. MPEP did not change the kinetics of 1-methyl-4-phenylpyridinium ion formation in the striatum of mice injected with MPTP. We conclude that mGlu5 receptors act as amplifiers of MPTP toxicity and that mGlu5 receptor antagonists may limit the extent of nigro-striatal damage in experimental models of parkinsonism.


We consider a model of the shape of a growing polymer introduced by Durrett and Rogers (Probab. Theory Related Fields 92 (1992) 337-349). We prove their conjecture about the asymptotic behavior of the underlying continuous process X-t (corresponding to the location of the end of the polymer at time t) for a particular type of repelling interaction function without compact support.


Deep learning well demonstrates its potential in learning latent feature representations. Recent years have witnessed an increasing enthusiasm for regularizing deep neural networks by incorporating various side information, such as user-provided labels or pairwise constraints. However, the effectiveness and parameter sensitivity of such algorithms have been major obstacles for putting them into practice. The major contribution of our work is the exposition of a novel supervised deep learning algorithm, which distinguishes from two unique traits. First, it regularizes the network construction by utilizing similarity or dissimilarity constraints between data pairs, rather than sample-specific annotations. Such kind of side information is more flexible and greatly mitigates the workload of annotators. Secondly, unlike prior works, our proposed algorithm decouples the supervision information and intrinsic data structure. We design two heterogeneous networks, each of which encodes either supervision or unsupervised data structure respectively. Specifically, we term the supervision-oriented network as "auxiliary network" since it is principally used for facilitating the parameter learning of the other one and will be removed when handling out-of-sample data. The two networks are complementary to each other and bridged by enforcing the correlation of their parameters. We name the proposed algorithm SUpervision-Guided AutoencodeR (SUGAR). Comparing prior works on unsupervised deep networks and supervised learning, SUGAR better balances numerical tractability and the flexible utilization of supervision information. The classification performance on MNIST digits and eight benchmark datasets demonstrates that SUGAR can effectively improve the performance by using the auxiliary networks, on both shallow and deep architectures. Particularly, when multiple SUGARs are stacked, the performance is significantly boosted. On the selected benchmarks, ours achieve up to 11.35% relative accuracy improvement compared to the state-of-the-art models.


Copyright © 2019, Tamie Santiago. This article is published under a Creative Commons BY-NC license. Permission is granted to copy and distribute this article for non-commercial purposes, in both printed and electronic formats By 2020, the AI market is expected to grow by $47 billion, with the international big data analytics industry expected to grow by $203 billion. The vast majority of AI development is conducted by a modest number of techno-giants (Twitter, IBM, Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Apple...). There are over 7 billion people worldwide, yet all of the code is being written by a mere 10,000 people in seven countries. Therefore, the pathway of AI algorithms is deemed compromised, by being in the hands of a few. The purpose of this study is to systematically gather and review evidence which addresses AI, its inherent biases, and its effect on the executive function, which is the brain's command post, of business leaders. The review is carried out through the chaos and complexity theory lens. The amalgamation of data and codes have seeded the evolution of barely discernible algorithms that rewrite their own code, creating their own rules, and their own truth. This phenomenon rapidly detaches AI algorithms from human control. While AI algorithms remain unregulated and uncontested, leaders are overwhelmed with big data and precipitously surrendering, rejecting or suppressing their own cognitive instincts regarding AI and its bias, without question. This study supports the notion that decision-making using AI must be interrogated by leaders' sound elevated executive functioning and collective judgment, using standards and laws, to mitigate bias and to ensure human leaders have the last say in decision-making. Are Business Leaders Losing Their Minds? "When humans abandon curiosity to the power of AI, the inherent cognitive functions and authority will rapidly weaken to the surrender of the narrated reality created by AI."


To scale the knowledge base of a Biology textbook from 50 pages to 300 pages in the context of Project Halo, we have formulated a knowledge factory process [1]. The process involves a sentence-based encoding strategy under which a domain expert examines each sentence in the text-book [2] and represents it in a knowledge base (KB) as best as it can be represented. While encoding each sentence, at least two hard problems must be addressed: defining what it means to represent a sentence and defining the necessary ontology primitives that should be used in that representation. The purpose of this poster presentation is to explain these problems in more detail, and discuss the operational solutions that we have adopted for solving them.


A growing body of evidence proposes that the aerosol indirect forcing, particularly due to the cloud lifetime effect or the second indirect effect, may be substantially smaller than what has been considered. This is largely influenced by uncertainty of the cloud water response to aerosol perturbations, which varies even in sigh as reported by recent studies. Given that the cloud water response is largely dictated by the rain formation process and its modulation induced by aerosols, this study investigates how the precipitation onset responds to aerosol perturbations with a combined use of a global cloud-resolving model (NICAM), a global climate model (MIROC) and satellite observations (CloudSat and MODIS). Methodologies recently proposed to diagnose the rain formation process are applied to both the model output and satellite observations to quantify how the precipitation onset is susceptible to aerosol perturbations in the models and the real atmosphere. The methodologies construct the global statistics of the probability of precipitation (POP) as a function of liquid water path (LWP) to demonstrate how the POP tends to monotonically increase with increasing LWP in the manner that varies systematically with droplet number concentration. This variation is then used to quantify the susceptibility of precipitation onset to perturbed aerosols. The susceptibility thus obtained is compared between the two global models and satellite observations to show that NICAM reproduces the susceptibility well close to what is obtained from satellite observations, in contrast to MIROC that exerts significantly larger susceptibility. This proposes that NICAM represents the aerosol effect on rain formation more realistically than MIROC and other traditional climate models that have been reported to overestimate the susceptibility. Further analysis exploring the microphysical process representations in the two models reveals that the cloud-rain water composition is a key factor that controls the precipitation onset susceptibility and is qualitatively different between the two models. The cloud-rain composition varies in response to aerosol perturbations through auto-conversion and accretion processes, whose relative contributions are in turn largely influenced by the cloud-rain composition. This mutual interplay between the cloud-rain water composition and the process proportion plays a key role in determining the precipitation susceptibility and modulation of cloud water budget in response to aerosol perturbation. This presentation highlights a stark contrast between the two models in representations of these fundamental aspects of the aerosol indirect effect in comparison to satellite observations that provide key constraint on some of these aspects.


High-explosive containment vessels are often designed for repeated use, implying predominately elastic material behavior. Each explosive test imparts an impulse to the vessel wall. The vessel subsequently vibrates as a result of the internal blast loading, with amplitude diminishing exponentially in time after a few cycles due to structural damping. Flaws present in the vessel, as well as new flaws induced by fragment impact during testing, could potentially grow by fatigue during these vibrations. Subsequent explosive tests result in new sequences of vibrations, providing further opportunity for flaws to grow by fatigue. The obvious question is, How many explosive experiments can be performed before flaws potentially grow to unsafe limits? Because ASME Code Case 2564-5 (Impulsively Loaded Pressure Vessels) has just been incorporated in Section VIII, Division 3 of the 2019 ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code, evaluation of remaining life and fitness-for-service of explosive containment vessels now draws upon two interrelated codes and standards: ASME Section VIII-3 and API-579/ASME FFS-1. This paper discusses their implementation in determining the remaining life of dynamically loaded vessels that have seen service and are potentially damaged. Results of a representative explosive containment vessel are presented using actual flaw data for both embedded weld flaws and fragment damage. Because of the potentially large number of flaws that can be detected by modern nondestructive inspection methods, three simplifying assumptions and a procedure are presented for conservatively eliminating from further consideration the vast majority of the flaws that possess considerable remaining life.


Background—Patients with low HDL cholesterol (HDL-C) and elevated triglyceride had an increased risk for coronary heart disease (CHD) events and received the greatest benefit with fibrate therapy in substudy analyses of the Helsinki Heart Study and the Bezafibrate Infarction Prevention Study. Methods and Results—In this post hoc analysis of the Scandinavian Simvastatin Survival Study, which enrolled patients with elevated LDL cholesterol (LDL-C) and CHD, subgroups defined by HDL-C and triglyceride quartiles were compared to examine the influence of HDL-C and triglyceride on CHD events and response to therapy. Patients in the lowest HDL-C (<1.00 mmol/L [39 mg/dL]) and highest triglyceride (>1.80 mmol/L [159 mg/dL]) quartiles (lipid triad; n=458) had increased proportions of other features of the metabolic syndrome (increased body mass index, hypertension, diabetes), men, prior myocardial infarction, prior revascularization, and &bgr;-blocker use than patients in the highest HDL-C (>1.34 mmol/L [52 mg/dL]) and lowest triglyceride (<1.11 mmol/L [98 mg/dL]) quartiles (isolated LDL-C elevation; n=545). The major coronary event rate was highest in lipid triad patients on placebo (35.9%), and this subgroup had the greatest event reduction (relative risk 0.48, 95% CI 0.33 to 0.69); a significant treatment-by-subgroup interaction (P =0.03) indicated a greater treatment effect in the lipid triad subgroup than the isolated LDL-C elevation subgroup. Conclusions—Patients with elevated LDL-C, low HDL-C, and elevated triglycerides were more likely than patients with isolated LDL-C elevation to have other characteristics of the metabolic syndrome, had increased risk for CHD events on placebo, and received greater benefit with simvastatin therapy.


The marine biodiversity of the Kimberley is poorly known. The Western Australian Museum (WAM) commenced its multidisciplinary marine biodiversity survey program for this region in 1976, with further surveys occurring in the 1980s and 1990s. The vouchered specimens, published and unpublished reports of the WAM, and relevant collections housed in other museums and herbaria with a tropical interest, constitute the main biodiversity knowledge-base for this marine bioregion. In 2006, the WAM undertook a quantitative, multidisciplinary, marine survey of the north western atolls situated off the Kimberley continental shelf edge. This was later followed in 2008 by a biodiversity program, titled the Woodside Collection Project–Kimberley (Woodside 4), which will be finalised in 2011. The intent of this project was to examine the marine biodiversity of the Kimberley inshore region using both historic survey data (reports and collections) from the WAM and partner institutions, as well as new survey data from two field expeditions undertaken in 2009 to Adele Island and Montgomery Reef and in 2010 to Cassini Island and Long Reef. A new biodiversity program, the Woodside Collection Project–Kimberley (Woodside 5), is now underway with the intent of increasing the scope and resolution of the field data collected during the Woodside 4 field program. Woodside 5 (2011 – 2015) will include four separate surveys to targeted Kimberley coastal reefs and islands, and Browse Island on the mid-continental shelf, to provide latitudinal and longitudinal gradients of marine biodiversity data for the Kimberley Bioregion. Here we present an overview of this research to date.


According to fire safety engineering, the present study analyzes fire design settings for simulation of fire in a nursery and proposes to compare simulations developed with a natural fire curve and nominal fire curve. Comparative analysis was developed according to thermo-fluid dynamic parameters that are relevant to the safety of the exposed and for the representative period of the danger flow to the exposed, which are mainly children between 0 and 3 years of age, helpless under ordinary conditions and even more so in case of emergency. Defined conditions of structure and ventilation, Two fire simulations, differentiated by fire curve, have been implemented: First simulation: the parameters have been derived from the simulation of a fire, characterized by analytic function of Heat Release Rate (HRR) Second simulation: the HRR function was obtained ex post by making a simulation of natural fire in realistically furnished room by imposing a minimum effective primer. The simulated HRR curve, appropriately linearized, allows to estimate a Likely Fire Curve (LFC). The simulations have been developed for a time of about 15 min, starting from the ignition of fire whereas the flow of the danger is serious for exposed mainly in this first phase of fire. The comparison between the parameters of fire involved the Temperature-Time Curve and HRR-Time Curve of both simulations and the ISO 834 Curve, which is a consolidated benchmark in Fire Safety Engineering (FSE). The nominal curves have been introduced for the purpose of checking whether the structural strength and integrity: the adoption of these curves in the fire safety engineering was made by analogy, on the assumption that the phenomena of major intensity, that these curves represent, ensure a safe approach on the choice of the fire design. The study showed indeed that the analytical curve, adopted in order to verify the structural strength, produces fields of both temperature and toxic concentrations lower than those obtained with the full simulation of the natural fire in order to the phases of ignition and growth, that is, in the step that requires activation of self rescue and emergency management. This result shows that taking compliance criterion, implicitly included in the analytical curves of fire, does not have the safe requirement typical of a protection approach. The advantage in taking natural fire simulations is evident in order to derive a Likely Fire Curve that for the purposes of both Thermo-Fluid Dynamics (TFD) and exodus simulation constitutes, as shown in the specific case study of nursery, a thermo-chemical stress more appropriate for the study of the safety of exposed and in the case of fire more serious.


Within the framework of the relativistic distorted wave impulse approximation (DWIA), we investigate the sensitivity of the analyzing power - for exclusive proton knockout from the 3s$_{1/2}$, 2d$_{3/2}$ and 2d$_{5/2}$ states in $^{208}$Pb, at an incident laboratory kinetic energy of 202 MeV, and for coincident coplanar scattering angles ($28.0^{\circ}$, $-54.6^{\circ}$) - to different distorting optical potentials, finite-range (FR) versus zero-range (ZR) approximations to the DWIA, as well as medium-modified coupling constants and meson masses. Results are also compared to the nonrelativistic DWIA predictions based on the Schr\"{o}dinger equation. Whereas the nonrelativistic model fails severely, both ZR and FR relativistic DWIA models provide an excellent description of the data. For the FR predictions, it is necessary to invoke a 20% reduction of sigma-nucleon and omega-nucleon coupling constants as well as for $\sigma$-, $\rho$- and $\omega$-meson masses, by the nuclear medium. On the other hand, the ZR predictions suggest that the strong interaction in the nuclear medium is adequately represented by the free nucleon-nucleon interaction associated with the impulse approximation. We also demonstrate that, although the analyzing power is relatively insensitive to the use different relativistic global optical potential parameter sets, the prominent oscillatory behavior of this observable is largely attributed to distortion of the scattering wave functions relative to their plane wave values.


Recent years have witnessed a surge in augmented reality (AR) applications in various markets and verticals, together with emerging toolkits and platforms to support new developments. However, the vision of a pervasive augmented reality held by many still seems a distance away. Notwithstanding the many ongoing efforts to tackle AR performance challenges, we argue that much attention is needed to other research areas including network architecture, security, privacy, and the development of business cases. Similar to the Web, existing AR applications are built upon TCP/IP protocol stack and rely on cloud computation. To enable pervasive AR applications, we believe that new computing paradigms, new approaches to network communications, and new business models need to be explored. Edge computing paradigms, which utilize performance advantage of server class hardware within physical vicinity, could achieve the required low latency while protecting user privacy. We further argue that Named Data Networking (NDN), a proposed new internet architecture, can be an enabler for pervasive AR by supporting local resource discovery, offering built-in communication security, and enabling experimentation with new business models. We hope that this position paper spurs greater thinking beyond performance improvements to push AR forward.


A bidirectional three-band lightwave transport system is proposed and experimentally demonstrated for both fiber-to-the-X (FTTX) and radio-over-fiber (RoF) networks. By cascading a phase modulator (PM) and a Mach-Zehnder modulator (MZM) to generate multiple coherent lightwaves, hybrid 1.25 Gbps baseband (BB), 1.25 Gbps/20 GHz microwave (MW), and 1.25 Gbps/40 GHz millimeter-wave (MMW) downstream signals and a 1.25 Gbps BB upstream signal are simultaneously transmitted. Furthermore, with an assistance of an optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) enhancement circuit, sufficient low bit error rate (BER) values are experimentally achieved for both down-link BB/MW/MMW and up-link BB signals. No additional high-frequency local oscillator, mixers and upstream laser diode are required in both transmitter and receiver sites. Under this architecture, both wire-lined and wireless clients can be simultaneously served without using any extra device/equipment to convert the downstream signals among BB, MW and MMW formats.


The major role of membrane-associated guanylate kinases (MAGUKs) such as CASK is thought to be assembling protein complexes at sites of cell-cell contact. However, Hseuh et al. now report that CASK may be a coactivator of Tbr-1, a transcription factor that is highly expressed in rat embryonic brain. The two proteins interact through the guanylate kinase-like domain of CASK and are found in a complex in both transfected cells and in embryonic rat brain cells. About 20% of CASK colocalized with Tbr-1 in nuclei during brain development. CASK also stimulated Tbr-1 activity in cultured neurons, and the authors propose that reelin may be an endogenous target gene of Tbr-1-CASK, because its 5' upstream region contains a T-element DNA sequence that is recognized by Tbr-1. Dynamic interaction of CASK with its various binding partners may regulate its subcellular distribution because the presence of CASK-binding proteins at the cell surface inhibited nuclear localization. Hsueh, Y-P., Wang, T-F., Yang, F-C., and Sheng, M. (2000) Nuclear translocation and transcription regulation by the membrane-associated guanylate kinase CASK/LIN-2. Nature 404: 298-302. [Online Journal]


Quality aspects of food crops have globally important market economic and health repercussions in the current climate of food security. Grain legumes have high potential for the nutritional quality improvement of foods, but limited data on manipulating seed quality is available as the primary focus has been hitherto on phenotypic and agronomic trait improvement. This has resulted in a lack of innovation and low attractiveness of legume food products that, with the emergence of novel food habits, have together contributed to reduced legume food consumption. This trend now needs to be challenged and circumvented. In this review we have assessed the key factors affecting the nutritional quality of legume seeds such as protein, starch, dietary fiber, natural antioxidant compounds and anti-nutritional factors. All have been reviewed with emphasis on how these components might influence consumer acceptance and functional properties of legume based food products. Biofortification approaches and technological processing are discussed as ways in which the nutritional value of legumes and their consumption might be enhanced. In order to increase consumption of grain legumes, we propose that efforts should concentrate on identifying nutritionally enhanced and genetically diverse germplasm, and on linking genetics with sensorial and processing quality. This will assist the development of breeding/selection tools for traits that determine consumer demand, facilitating the implementation of quality breeding objectives in legume breeding programs. Equally important, efforts should focus on developing attractive, convenient ready-to-eat and tasty legume-based food formulations, contributing to the diversification of healthier and more nutritional diets. As a result of such a targeted effort, legume cultivation and consumption could be enhanced leading to a reduction in both the global economic burden caused by malnutrition and associated chronic diseases, and the environmental impact of agriculture.


Most of the discussion of retirement security focuses on declining Social Security replacement rates, modest 401(k) balances, the low level of saving, and longer life expectancy. Rising health care costs, which seem too amorphous to incorporate into numerical examples, are often characterized as a "wildcard" that could undermine the best laid plans. This brief focuses on just one component of retiree health care costs & the Medicare program. It discusses the impact on future retirees of both rising out-of-pocket payments and higher taxes that will be needed to cover future health care expenditures. The numbers come directly from the 2007 Annual Report issued by the Medicare Trustees. The conclusion is sobering. The growing cost and tax burdens associated with Medicare alone suggest that even the most conservative target replacement rates may be inadequate.


The present study was undertaken with a serious concern over vast environmental degradation being caused by the metal pollutants emanating from local tannery effluents. The chief tanning industries of Pakistan located in Kasur, Mian Channun, Peshawar and Multan were selected for the analysis of effluent, relevant groundwater and soil samples, all collected in triplicate, from thirty eight tanneries of Kasur, six tanneries of Mian Channun, ten tanneries of Multan and fifteen tanneries of Peshawar. The effluent samples were grab sampled from the main discharge outlets of the tanneries, while the soil samples were collected from peripheral distances of 50, 100 and 150m from the effluent discharge point to conduct a distance based metal distribution study. The water sampling was undertaken from relevant industries, and the background samples were collected from remotely located sites around the tanneries.

Flame atomic absorption spectrophotometry, coupled with automatic background compensation facility, was used for the estimation of Na, Ca, K, Mg, Fe, Mn, Cr, Co, Cd, Ni, Pb and Zn in the three media. The estimation of physico-chemical parameters such as pH, temperature, conductivity, alkalinity, chloride, sulphate and sulphide was also included in the domain of the study. The metal data obtained were subjected to univariate and multivariate statistical analysis pertaining to basic statistical parameters, linear correlations and regression analysis, while multivariate analysis was included for source identification through Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Cluster Analysis (CA).

In the case of Kasur tanneries the following mean metal levels were recorded, respectively for effluent, groundwater and soil samples: Cr (391 mg/L, 2.12 mg/L and 16.7 mg/kg) and Na (25519 mg/L, 211 mg/L and 33683 mg/kg). Overall, the decreasing metal concentration order in various samples was: Na> Cr > Mg> Ca> K in effluents; Na> Ca> K > Mg > Cr in soil and Na > Ca> Mg > K> Fe > Cr in groundwater. A number of strong positive correlations were identified between the pairs of various metals in the three media. In groundwater, both Na and Mg were strongly correlated with Cr, at r = 0.553 and 0.535, respectively. The screening of effluent versus soil metal content relationship confirmed that chromium in effluent was strongly correlated with chromium in soil indicating the probable contamination of the soil in the area by the metals being flushed out in tannery effluents. The study revealed that the Cr, Pb and Fe levels were 21-42 fold higher than those recommended by international agencies as safe levels.

For Mian Channun tanneries, Na, Ca, K and Mg emerged as the dominant metals In effluent, ground water and soil samples. The effluents contained highest mean concentration for Na, at 627 mg/L, followed by 304 mg/L K, 247 mg/L Ca and 82.7 mg/L Mg. Since the Mian Channun tanneries have traditionally adopted the vegetable tanning process, low Cr concentrations (0.387 mg/L) were encountered in effluents. However, in the groundwater samples the levels of the metals Na, Ca, Mg and K were several times higher than safe permissible levels and background levels. The' estimated concentrations stood at 275 mg/L Na, 79.8 mg/L Ca, 51.4 mg/L Mg and 35.9 mg/L K. The decreasing concentration order for these metals in the Mian Channun tanneries soil samples was K > Na> Ca> Mg. Moreover, Cr and Fe showed enhanced concentrations in the relevant soil samples over those of the background samples. The noted high metal levels in groundwater and soil samples evidenced a significant buildup in the metal concentration arising from the interaction with effluents - a situation not different for Multan tanneries as well, where Na, Ca, K, Cr and Mg were present at dominant levels in the three media. The overall distribution of the metals in effluent from various industries was found to be non-Gaussian as suggested by high standard deviation values and enhanced skewness and kurtosis parameters marking random distribution.

The Peshawar tanning industry was a parallel case in that it exhibited again a divergent and non-normal distribution of metals in the three media, with Na at the highest mean concentration of 1277 mg/L, 882 mg/L, and 11347 mg/kg in the effluent, groundwater and soil samples, respectively. Among other metals Cr and Ca were notable: the former exhibited 51.7 mg/L, 0.089 mg/L and 12.3 mg/kg and the latter 103 mg/L, 43.9 mg/L and 814 mg/kg in effluent, groundwater and soil samples, respectively. For samples from this industry, some significant correlations were observed between effluent and soil samples in terms of Na, Cr, Ni, Co and Pb. The groundwater-soil interrelationship suggested that Na levels in the soil and groundwater were significantly correlated (r = 0.486, p< 0.001); similarly Cr in the soil was strongly correlated with Ca in groundwater at r = 0.486, at p< 0.01.

The overall scenario of trace metal distribution in effluents projected Cr, Fe, Co Ni, Pb and Zn as dominant metals contributing considerable adverse toxic effects on the environment in the vicinity of the tanneries investigated. The PCA and CA identified a heavy toxic metal burden in the effluents being discharged from the tanneries terminating into gross pollution of groundwater and soil by Cr and other metals at levels far exceeding the safe limits laid down for the safe discharge of tannery effluents by world health bodies. The study on distance based metal distribution arising from effluents also revealed that the soil adjacent to the tannery units was being badly contaminated by the effluents. The chromium pollution situation caused by Multan tanneries, the oldest tannery. cluster in Pakistan, was more severe than observed for other tanneries. The chromium pollution was meager in case of Mian Channun tanneries due to adoption of vegetable tanning process. Keeping in view the state of gross environmental pollution arising from this industrial sector, the present study presents deliberations on policy issues related to metal pollution control.


This is a nuanced biography of Oliver Cromwell, breaking down Cromwell's life into different parts: fenland farmer and humble backbencher; stalwart of the good old cause and the New Model Army; key figure of the Commonwealth; and, finally Lord Protector. Hill leads the reader unsentimentally through Cromwell's life from his beginnings in Huntingdonshire to his brutal end. Hill brings all his considerable knowledge of the period to bear on the relationships God's Englishman had with God and England. Such a detailed understanding of the workings of providence is vital to understanding Cromwell.


Although a lysosomal, cathepsin B-dependent (Ctsb-dependent) pathway of apoptosis has been described, the contribution of this pathway to tissue damage remains unclear. Our aim was to ascertain if Ctsb inactivation attenuates liver injury, inflammation, and fibrogenesis after bile duct ligation (BDL). In 3-day BDL mice, hepatocyte apoptosis, mitochondrial cytochrome c release, and serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) values were reduced in Ctsb-/- versus Ctsb+/+ animals. Likewise, R-3032 (a Ctsb inhibitor) also reduced these parameters in BDL WT mice. Both genetic and pharmacologic inhibition of Ctsb in the BDL mouse reduced (a). hepatic inflammation, as assessed by transcripts for CXC chemokines and neutrophil infiltration, and (b). fibrogenesis, as assessed by transcripts for stellate cell activation and sirius red staining for hepatic collagen deposition. These differences could not be ascribed to alterations in cholestasis. These findings support a prominent role for the lysosomal pathway of apoptosis in tissue injury and link apoptosis to inflammation and fibrogenesis. Ctsb inhibition may be therapeutic in liver diseases.


We present an optical system which integrates a plasmonic sensing surface and an angular tracking system to enable a compact refractive index measurement. A refractive index change at the surface of the sensing membrane causes a change in the angle at which monochromatic light is transmitted through the membrane. This transmission angle is measured by the angular tracking system. We show good theoretical and experimental agreement of the transmission of the plasmonic sensing surface at different angular illumination of the membranes. Using this compact optical setup the embedded angular tracking system has an accuracy of <10-4 deg. This corresponds to a sensitivity <10-5 refractive index units. Finally we demonstrate this measurement technique using different concentrations of saline solution.


In this paper we present a routing scheme for on-demand construction of multiple non-interfering paths in wireless sensor networks. One usage of this multipath scheme is to provide a source the ability to increase the likelihood that its data reaches the sink by sending a copy of a packet on more than one path. The routing scheme is based on the assumption that the sensor nodes are aware of their geographic position.


Intimate partner violence directed towards females by male partners is a common significant global public health problem. Most victims of physical aggression such as women and children are subjected to multiple acts of violence over extended periods of time, suffering from more than one type of abuse, for example physical which is more symbolic and evidenced by scars. The purpose of this study is to increase understanding of the symbols of physical violence as experienced by women who live with intimate partners in the Vhembe district of the Limpopo Province. The research design of this study was qualitative, exploratory and descriptive in nature. The accessible population was those participants who used the trauma unit A in a particular hospital. Seven women comprised the sample of the study. In-depth individual interviews were conducted exploring the women's experiences in the context of physical violence. From the data collected all seven participants experienced some form of physical violence which resulted in permanent deformity. They experienced some form of battering such as kicking, stabbing, burning, fracturing, strangling and choking. Recommendations were made that health care providers are encouraged to implement screening for physical violence, to provide appropriate interventions if assault is identified and to provide appropriate education regarding, employment opportunities, legal literacy, and rights to inheritance. Human rights education and information regarding domestic violence should be provided to them because this is their absolute right (UNICEF, 2000:14).


Selective process modifications were considered among the possible process variations for carbon dioxide separation in natural gas fired combined gas and steam turbine power plants that differ greatly among themselves in terms of additional expense (efficiency losses, costs). The modifications considered effect an enrichment of the carbon dioxide content in the flue gas and a separation made easier (with various sorption media such as ammonia) instead of with amines (monoethanol amine (MEA), diethanolamine (DEA), and methyldiethanolamine (MDEA). A carbon dioxide enrichment through exhaust gas recirculation coupled with a reduction of the oxygen content provides the challenge, to guarantee the combustion also under conditions with greater dilution (with "inert" gas components such as carbon dioxide and water) and low amounts of free oxygen and make the emissions of undesired byproducts such as NOx and CO extremely low (< 10 ppm). Through catalytic supported processes (in-situ partial catalytic oxidation) and through oxygen enrichment the stability of the release of heat at the same time can be maintained. It is to be expected that power plants running on, for example, natural gas will increase in efficiency and decrease in carbon dioxide emissions. The additional measures are to be made with little additional energy expense (efficiency loss of < 5%) and moderate additional costs of < 30 euros per tonne of separated carbon dioxide.


Park Guell is one of the most visited and characteristic monuments in the city of Barcelona designed by the modernist architect Antoni Gaudi. Park Guell was designed as a real estate project but due to economic reasons the project failed and opened as a public park in 1922. The main purpose of the thesis is the analysis of the stability of the lower viaduct of the three main viaducts of the Park Guell that can be found at the south-east side of the park.
Since the lower viaduct is a masonry structure it is important the presentation of all the methods used historically for the analysis of the stability of historic masonry structures. Among them the method of graphic statics and the method of funicular analysis are applied for the calculation of the thrust line of the structure in order to investigate its stability.
The general information regarding the historic and artistic significance of Park Guell is important in order to understand the significance of the whole structure where the viaduct is contained. Also reporting the architectural arrangement of the viaduct, its structural characteristics and its materials is necessary for a deeper understanding of the function of the structure before its stability analysis. Also a previous structural study by BIS architects offers conclusions on the structural capacity of the viaduct.
The three-dimensional model of the structure in AutoCAD 3D allows the better understanding of the geometry of the structure and uses for the application of the graphic statics method. The graphic statics method is applied in two dimensions and is taking into account all the loads applied on the structure in order to investigate its stability. The results of the graphic statics method is the thrust line of the viaduct that must fit inside the limits of the geometry of the structure in order to consider that the structure is stable according to safe theorem.
The application of the funicular analysis with the MASONRISK application of program GID for a characteristic part of the viaduct is another method for the investigation of the stability of the viaduct. The objective of the method is to create a catenary net that its deformed shape due to its loading is contained within the limits of the structure in order to prove that the structure is stable according to safe theorem. The solution obtained is a three dimensional catenary network.
Finally some general conclusions regarding the two methods are made presenting their advantages and disadvantages for the analysis of the stability of historic masonry structures and also some recommendations for the improvement of the methods.


: My argument in this paper is that humility is implied in the concept of teaching, if teaching is construed in a strong sense. Teaching in a strong sense is a view of teaching as linked to students' embodied experiences (including cognitive and moral-social dimensions), in particular students' experiences of limitation, whereas a weak sense of teaching refers to teaching as narrowly focused on student cognitive development. In addition to detailing the relation between humility and strong sense teaching, I will also argue that humility is acquired through the practice of teaching. My discussion connects to the growing interest, especially in virtue epistemology discourse, in the idea that teachers should educate for virtues. Drawing upon John Dewey and contemporary virtue epistemology discourse, I discuss humility, paying particular attention to an overlooked aspect of humility that I refer to as the educative dimension of humility. I then connect this concept of humility to the notion of teaching in a strong sense. In the final section, I discuss how humility in teaching is learned in the practice of teaching by listening to students in particular ways. In addition, I make connections between my concept of teaching and the practice of cultivating students' virtues. I conclude with a critique of common practices of evaluating good teaching, which I situate within the context of international educational policy on teacher evaluation.


The Supreme Court has looked to the rights of corporate shareholders in determining the rights of union members and non-members to control political spending, and vice versa. The Court sometimes assumes that if shareholders disapprove of corporate political expression, they can easily sell their shares or exercise control over corporate spending. This assumption is mistaken. Because of how capital is saved and invested, most individual shareholders cannot obtain full information about corporate political activities, even after the fact, nor can they prevent their savings from being used to speak in ways with which they disagree. Individual shareholders have no "opt out" rights or practical ability to avoid subsidizing corporate political expression with which they disagree. Nor do individuals have the practical option to refrain from putting their savings into equity investments, as doing so would impose damaging economic penalties and ignore conventional financial guidance for individual investors.Most individual shareholders cannot obtain full information about a corporation's speech or political activities, even after the fact, nor can most shareholders prevent their savings from being used for political activity with which they disagree. More generally, the Court's focus on whether union non-members are effectively forced to fund political speech or activity with which they disagree should reflect the fact that most Americans must routinely fund speech with which they disagree. While some of this compulsion is from practical reality rather than law there are numerous examples outside the union context of laws that require individuals to fund expressive activities. There is, simply put, very little way for most individuals in modern America to avoid subsidizing speech with which they disagree.


Time is affected significantly by the spread of the Internet throughout the world. On the one hand, the new communication technologies provide for "round-the-clock" operation, threatening to obliterate time as a function of a culture's sense of identity. On the other hand, the Internet enables local cultures to resist the globalizing and homogenizing tide. The situation points to a dilemma. Local cultures find it hard to resist integrating itself with the world through the Internet, but at the same time they feel a real need to protect and to promote their identities. This article tries to show that local cultures find the medium an appropriate and effective one in putting forward their agenda. As the globalizing force signified by the Internet tends to occur at a superficial level, different conceptions of time can coexist at the same time. The emerging conception of time is thus characterized neither by the premodern one of identification of time with nature, nor by the modern one of an abstract entity pointing forward, but by a "web" allowing for different strands to go their own way while weaved together to create a coherent pattern, and this is how the dilemma is resolved. A case study of the Thai conceptions of time and the current debate on changing the time standard is presented in order to illustrate the point.


Over the past decade, drug makers have settled patent litigation by making large payments to potential rivals who, in turn, abandon suits that (if successful) would increase competition. Because such "pay-for-delay" settlements postpone the possibility of competitive entry, they have attracted the attention of antitrust enforcement authorities, courts, and commentators. Pay-for-delay settlements not only constitute a problem of immense practical importance in antitrust enforcement, but also pose a general dilemma about the proper balance between innovation and consumer access.This Article examines the pay-for-delay dilemma as a problem in regulatory design. A full analysis of the relevant industry-specific regulatory statute, the Hatch-Waxman Act, yields two conclusions. First, certain features of the Act widen, often by subtle means, the potential for anticompetitive harm from pay-for-delay settlements. Second, the Act reflects a congressional judgment favoring litigated challenges, contrary to arguments employed to justify these settlements. These results support the further conclusion that pay-for-delay settlements are properly condemned as unreasonable restraints of trade. This analysis illustrates two mechanisms by which an industry-specific regulatory regime shapes the scope of antitrust liability: by creating (or limiting) opportunities for anticompetitive conduct as a practical economic matter, and by guiding as a legal matter the vigor of antitrust enforcement in addressing that conduct.


Lecithin:cholesterol acyltransferase (LCAT) is a key enzyme in the reverse cholesterol pathway but its role in lipid metabolism is still unclear. We have generated mice transgenic for a 7-kb genomic DNA fragment comprising the 6 exons and 5 introns of the LCAT gene with 1932 bp of 5' flanking and 908 bp of 3' flanking sequences. One line had integrated about 30 copies and expressed about 40-fold increased LCAT activity in a human test system. The expression showed correct tissue specificity of the human LCAT gene. Increased LCAT activity resulted in a decrease of plasma triacylglycerols below 50% of fasting controls. This reduction was seen in all lipoprotein fractions. Lipoprotein lipase activity did not change significantly, whereas hepatic triacylglycerol lipase increased markedly. Plasma total cholesterol was similar in fasting transgenic and control mice, but low-density lipoprotein and very low-density lipoprotein cholesterol were reduced to about 50%. High-density lipoprotein cholesterol increased about 20%, accompanied by a correspondingly increased size and a higher cholesterol efflux-stimulating activity of transgenic LCAT high-density lipoprotein. Both apolipoprotein A-I and A-II plasma concentrations increased in transgenic mice. Plasma triacylglycerol and cholesteryl ester fatty acid distribution showed an increased proportion of palmitic acid, whereas oleic, linoleic and arachidonic acid decreased, thus resembling more closely the human situation. Overexpression of the human LCAT gene provokes major changes in plasma lipoprotein and apolipoprotein concentrations, resulting in a less atherogenic plasma lipoprotein profile through a reduction in atherogenic and an increase in anti-atherogenic lipoproteins.


ABSTRACT The rapid spread of herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) in mucosal epithelia and neuronal tissue depends primarily on the ability of the virus to navigate within polarized cells and the tissues they constitute. To understand HSV entry and the spread of virus across cell junctions, we have previously characterized a human keratinocyte cell line, HaCaT. These cells appear to reflect cells infected in vivo more accurately than many of the cultured cells used to propagate HSV. HSV mutants lacking gE/gI are highly compromised in spread within epithelial and neuronal tissues and also show defects in cell-to-cell spread in HaCaT cells, but not in other, nonpolarized cells. HSV gD is normally considered absolutely essential for entry and cell-to-cell spread, both in cultured cells and in vivo. Here, an HSV-1 gD mutant virus, F-US6kan, was found to efficiently enter HaCaT cells and normal human keratinocytes and could spread from cell to cell without gD provided by complementing cells. By contrast, entry and spread into other cells, especially highly transformed cells commonly used to propagate HSV, were extremely inefficient. Further analyses of F-US6kan indicated that this mutant expressed extraordinarily low (1/500 wild-type) levels of gD. Neutralizing anti-gD monoclonal antibodies inhibited entry of F-US6kan, suggesting F-US6kan utilized this small amount of gD to enter cells. HaCaT cells expressed high levels of an HSV gD receptor, HveC, and entry of F-US6kan into HaCaT cells could also be inhibited with antibodies specific for HveC. Interestingly, anti-HveC antibodies were not fully able to inhibit entry of wild-type HSV-1 into HaCaT cells. These results help to uncover important properties of HSV and human keratinocytes. HSV, with exceedingly low levels of a crucial receptor-binding glycoprotein, can enter cells expressing high levels of receptor. In this case, surplus gD may be useful to avoid neutralization by anti-gD antibodies.


The adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) tumor suppressor protein binds to β-catenin, a protein recently shown to interact with Tcf and Lef transcription factors. The gene encoding hTcf-4, a Tcf family member that is expressed in colonic epithelium, was cloned and characterized. hTcf-4 transactivates transcription only when associated with β-catenin. Nuclei of APC−/− colon carcinoma cells were found to contain a stable β-catenin-hTcf-4 complex that was constitutively active, as measured by transcription of a Tcf reporter gene. Reintroduction of APC removed β-catenin from hTcf-4 and abrogated the transcriptional transactivation. Constitutive transcription of Tcf target genes, caused by loss of APC function, may be a crucial event in the early transformation of colonic epithelium.


In her paper "Patriarchy in Post-1989 Poland and Tokarczuk's Dom Dzienny, Dom Nocny (The Day House, the Night House)" Justyna Sempruch analyzes Tokarczuk's 1998 narrative in the context of the post-communist revival of patriarchy in Poland as well as the parallel Western feminist impact on women's writing in Poland. These two distinct socio-cultural developments, as reflected in Tokarczuk's novel, expand the concept of a subversive household into a transnational dis/order that abolishes borders between domestic (national) and foreign structures: an increasing masculinization of the power structures (political arena and "scientific" practices) impacts the management of the social and the most private aspects of women's lives in post-1989 Poland while the growing popularity of "intellectual" feminism, borrowed from U.S. and French second-wave feminist positions, encourages a local "digging into" a collective "feminist" past. Tokarczuk's narrative belongs to a category which draws on Irigaray's theories and displays preoccupations with the failure of the sexual revolution. Sempruch argues that Tokarczuk's narrative reflects on the Western feminist formulations of Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalysis as a discourse normalising patriarchy, as well as on re-evaluations of hysteria as the unheard voice of the woman whose language is reduced to psychosomatic symptoms. Justyna Sempruch, "Patriarchy in Post-1989 Poland and Tokarczuk's Dom Dzienny, Dom Nocny" page 2 of 9 CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 10.3 (2008):


Objectives: In reviewing the literature on sports injuries, few studies could be found in which exposure related incidences of injury in different types of sport were compared. These studies indicated that ice hockey, handball, basketball, soccer, and rugby are popular team sports with a relatively high risk of injury. The aim of the study was to compare the characteristics and incidence of injuries in male youth amateur soccer and rugby players. Methods: This prospective cohort study comprised an initial baseline examination to ascertain the characteristics of the players and their level of performance, and a one season observation period during which a physician visited the team weekly and documented all occurring injuries. Twelve soccer and 10 rugby school teams with male amateur players aged 14–18 years were selected for the study. 145 soccer and 123 rugby players could be followed up over one season. Results: Comparison of the incidence of soccer and rugby injuries indicated that rugby union football was associated with a significantly higher rate of injury than soccer. The differences were pronounced for contact injuries, injuries of the head, neck, shoulder, and upper extremity, as well as for concussion, fractures, dislocations, and strains. Rugby players incurred 1.5 times more overuse and training injuries in relation to exposure time, and 2.7 times more match injuries than soccer players. Three rugby players but no soccer players had to stop their participation in sport because of severe injury. Conclusion: The incidence of injury in New Zealand school teams playing soccer or rugby union is high, probably in part because of the low ratio of hours spent in training relative to hours spent playing matches. The development and implementation of preventive interventions to reduce the rate and severity of injury is recommended.


The major limitations in building large software have always been (a) its brittleness when confronted by problems that were not foreseen by its builders, and (by the amount of manpower required. The recent history of expert systems, for example highlights how constricting the brittleness and knowledge acquisition bottlenecks are. Moreover, standard software methodology (e.g., working from a detailed "spec") has proven of little use in AI, a field which by definition tackles ill- structured problems. How can these bottlenecks be widened? Attractive, elegant answers have included machine learning, automatic programming, and natural language understanding. But decades of work on such systems have convinced us that each of these approaches has difficulty "scaling up" for want a substantial base of real world knowledge.


This work compared ball grid array (BGA) lead-free solder joint strengths to eutectic lead (Sn–Pb) solder joint strengths under monotonic bend load at room temperature. Flexural test methodologies for evaluating solder joint strength are presented. Various effects on solder joint strength were summarized systematically into three parts. The first part focused on the effect of solder joint geometries. BGAs with Sn-4Ag-0.5Cu and 63Sn-37Pb solders were tested, respectively. The effects of package side solder resist opening sizes, solder ball diameters, and board side metal defined/solder mask defined pads were investigated with 0.062 in printed circuit board (PCB). The results showed that the solder joint strength of Sn–Ag–Cu solder is lower than that of the traditional Sn–Pb solder under room temperature board flexural load and similar dynamic load. The second part investigated the effects of type of package (plastic BGA (PBGA) versus ceramic BGA (CBGA)), board thickness (0.093 in. versus 0.135 in.), and the effect of rework (reworked versus non-reworked) with Sn-3.9Ag-0.7Cu and 63Sn-37Pb solders. The joint strength of Sn–Ag–Cu solder is consistently lower than that of eutectic Sn–Pb solder for both board thicknesses, both CBGA and PBGA packages, and both non-reworked and reworked packages. The third part explored the feasibility of alternative low temperature solders as board-level interconnects. In addition to the traditional 63Sn-37Pb solder and the lead-free Sn-4Ag-0.5Cu solder, four other lead-free solders (Sn-52In, Sn-58Bi, Sn-57Bi-1Ag, and Sn-9Zn-0.006Al) were tested with 0.044 in PCB. Effects of board surface finishes with immersion silver (ImAg) or organic solderability preservatives, and pads with via-in-pad (VIP) or non-VIP pads were investigated. Test results showed that most of the BGAs with non-VIP pads performed better than those with VIP pads, except Sn–In solder with ImAg surface finish. The Sn–In solder showed the lowest performance, while Sn–Bi and Sn–Bi–Ag solder compositions showed better performance. Sn–Zn–Al solder joint strength performs better than others.


Previous model investigations suggested that changes in orbital forcing and feedbacks associated with northward expansion of the boreal forest were both required to explain the full magnitude of enhanced high-latitude Northern Hemisphere summer warming at 6 ka, thus implying that biospheric feedbacks (decreased planetary albedo associated with forest expansion) may be large in the future [Foley et al., 1994; TEMPO (Testing Earth System Models with Paleo-Observations), 1996]. Before the magnitude of past biospheric and other feedbacks can be estimated with confidence, however, the role of realistic high-latitude oceanic forcing (i.e., sea surface temperature (SST) increases and sea ice reductions) should also be considered. Here we review existing paleoceanographic observations that suggest portions of the North Atlantic were up to 4°C warmer than today at 6 ka. We then combine our estimates of mid-Holocene North Atlantic SST and sea ice conditions with new climate model simulations to suggest that a significant portion of high-latitude summer warming at 6 ka in the Northern Hemisphere can be accounted for by altered orbital forcing, SSTs, and sea ice relative to today. Our results underscore the importance of incorporating realistic boundary conditions when using paleoenvironmental data to evaluate the climate system's sensitivity to altered forcing and suggest that high-latitude oceanic feedbacks were major contributors to enhanced high-latitude summer warming in the Northern Hemisphere at 6 ka.


This chapter examines how, in video-recorded public house service encounters between customers and bartenders, different objects emerge and are constituted as essential resources in accomplishing the service encounter at the bar. The objects of interest are the cash till and the tables in the bar, as well as the bar environment itself. Using ethnomethodology and conversation analysis, we show how the bartenders and customers recruit and index these objects at particular junctions in the ordering sequence, and how they work collaboratively with spoken talk to progress the activity of ordering. This chapter aims to expand thinking on how embodied conduct may be analysed in conjunction with talk, and highlights the integral nature of objects to the progression of social life.


In animal communication, signal loudness is often ignored and seldom measured. We used a playback experiment to examine the role of vocal loudness (i.e., sound pressure level) in sibling to sibling communication of nestling barn owls Tyto alba. In this species, siblings vocally negotiate among each other for priority access to parental food resources. Call rate and call duration play key roles in this vocal communication system, with the most vocal nestlings deterring their siblings from competing for access to the food item next delivered by parents. Here, we broadcast calls at different loudness levels and call rate to live nestlings. The loudness of playback calls did not affect owlets' investment in call rate, call duration or call loudness. The rate at which playback calls were broadcast affected owlets' call rate but did not influence their response in terms of loudness. This suggests that selection for producing loud signals may be weak in this species, as loud calls may attract predators. Moreover, given that owlets do not overlap their calls and that they communicate to nearby siblings in the silence of the night, loud signals may not be necessary to convey reliable information about food need.


This paper is based on a study about the Setubal region, included in the internacional project "The Future of Industry in Europe" for the programme FAST-MONITOR of the European Community (1992-94). There were some information on the project VW/Ford for this region and those that are connected with research networks on industrial sectors (specially, on the automobile industry), and the network on the spatial and regional factors of regional development. Those studies allowed the scenario development on evolution trends of European industry and, specifically, on the automobile sector, and on the Setubal region that was studied by the Portuguese team.


One of the tenants of lean construction states that achieving reliable workflow is possible when sources of variability are controlled. Under a lean paradigm, the effects of variability are buffered through excess inventory, flexible capacity, and/or work-ready backlogs. The common element between these three approaches to tackle production process variability is that they are all attempts to combat the effects of variability and not to reduce or eliminate variability altogether. Reducing or eliminating the variability that plague production processes requires the removal of the root causes of variability –a difficult but not impossible task. Six Sigma is a statistical-based methodology that provides a structured framework to organize and implement strategic process improvement initiatives to attain reductions in process variability. In this paper, the origin of Six Sigma is reviewed with a brief discussion of its methods and metrics. The application of the Six Sigma rolled throughput yield and sigma quality level metrics to the Last Planner System is demonstrated. Using the Lean Project Delivery System as a foundation, the paper suggests Six Sigma applications and research opportunities in Lean Construction.


The current world wide economy situation has impacts on many aspect of hypermarket profitability includes lifetime value of their 'free customer'. Although the hypermarket have putting hard efforts on strengthening the customer relationship management to making more financially accountable, however most of them still have problem in sustaining their lifetime value of 'free customer'. Theoretically, customer lifetime value (CLV) is a model for measure contribution of customer to the business, as long as their doing of his/her transaction with the business. In practice, there are different models may be used for estimates CLV where potentially to create different impacts on future prospects of the business. Most of CLV model are modelled base on database customer, as opposite of less attention on 'free customer'. Critically, this segment of customer is non database customer, free from assessed, and their particular has no available to any hypermarket database. As implication, most of CLV model has risky where there are disobey the assessed of free customer profitability. The objective of paper is to investigate the different method of CLV model used by the supermarket and hypermarkets specifically on ability for estimate lifetime value of 'free customers'. An interview approach will be applied to 18 key persons of the supermarket and hypermarkets. This is for gathering some information regarding the CLV model and approach that have been applied by them. The Seberang Perai of Penang of Malaysia has selected as a study setting for this study where involved 4 Hypermarkets and 14 Supermarkets. At the end, suggestions will be made for strengthening the usability of CLV model for estimate lifetime value of 'free customer' with specific attention on the potential used of spatial information.


Abstract. Global warming is widely regarded as one of the most critical environmental issue in the 21st century. It is known to exacerbate urban heat island effects, a phenomenon that could affect the livability of cities and the lives and comfort of more than half of the world population who are now living in urban areas. The issue on how to mitigate the impacts of this phenomenon and help urban dwellers adapt to it, has been, and continues to be, an important topic in the context of landscape design and urban planning. This study sought to examine the cooling effects of different land cover types from the perspectives of landscape composition and configuration. Landsat-8 OLI/TIRS data was employed to derive both landscape composition and land surface temperature (Figure 1). The objectives of this study are to: (1) detect the spatial pattern of LST in Hangzhou; (2) examine the cooling effect of land cover resources; and (3) understand the correlation between LST and land cover from the perspectives of composition and configuration. Its goal is to reflect on optimal landscape patterns from the perspective of mitigating UHI effects and building more comfortable and livable urban environments. Various spatial and statistical approaches, including urban-rural gradient, grid-based, landscape metrics, and scatter plot, were employed to analyze the derived land cover and land surface temperature (LST) maps. An urban-rural gradient analysis was performed to examine the difference in LST between the urban and rural areas. First, we created a multiple ring buffer zone from the city center of Hangzhou with a distance interval of 1 km. Second, we determined the mean LST and the density of all the land cover types (LCTs) in each ring buffer zone. Finally, the results were plotted along the urban-rural gradient for analysis (Figure 2). The results showed that forest and water were the cooling land cover types in Hangzhou during daytime. The heat core in Hangzhou was situated close to the central business district and the variance in LST in urban and rural recorded at 2.94 °C. The correlation of forest density with mean LST could be detected in both large (690 m) and small (210 m) grids, whereas the correlation of water density with mean LST was only observed in small grids. In general, forest with high aggregation and complex shape behave best in cooling LST while huge and complete water bodies had better cooling effect than scattered water patches. Besides, the minimum cooling scale of forest and water were 150 m and 120 m, respectively. The findings were considered valuable for urban planners to spatially and architecturally build and arrange the cooling land cover resources, eventually to fulfill the Chinese government's new plan of building "livable cities".


It is shown that polarized neutron reflectometry can determine in a model-free way not only the mean magnetization of a ferromagnetic thin film at any point of a hysteresis cycle, but also the mean-square dispersion of the magnetization vectors of its lateral domains. This technique is applied to elucidate the mechanism of magnetization reversal of an exchange-biased Co/CoO bilayer. The reversal process above the blocking temperature ${T}_{b}$ is governed by uniaxial domain switching, while below ${T}_{b}$ the reversal of magnetization for the trained sample takes place with substantial domain rotation.


Water-discharge, velocity, and slope variations for a 3.7-mile-long tidal reach of the Willamette River at Portland, Oreg., were defined from discharge measurements and river stage data collected between July 1962 and January 1965. Observed water discharge during tide-affected flows, during floods, and during backwater from the Columbia River and recorded stages at each end of the river reach were used to determine water discharge from two mathematical models. These models use a finite-difference method to solve the equations of moderately unsteady open-channel streamflow, and discharges are computed by an electronic digital computer. Discharges computed by using the mathematical models compare satisfactorily with observed discharges, except during the period of backwater from the annual flood of the Columbia River. The flow resistance coefficients used in the models vary with discharge; for one model, the coefficients for discharges above 30,000 cfs (cubic feet per second) are 12 and 24 percent less than the coefficient used for discharges below 30,000 cfs. Daily mean discharges were determined by use of one mathematical model for approximately two-thirds of the water year, October 1963 through September 1964. Agreement of computed with routed daily mean discharges is fair; above 30,000 cfs, average differences between the two discharges are about 10 percent, and below 30,000 cfs, computed daily discarges are consistently greater (by as much as 25 percent) than routed discharges. The other model was used to compute discharges for the unusually high flood flows of December 1964.


Although workshop attendance appears to be as high as participation in training, this paper is the first study in the educational science, human resource management and labour economics literature that explores the drivers of workshop attendance among the working population. In our analysis of the Dutch Adult Education Survey, we find that workshop attendance is highest among managers and professionals, in contrast to their participation in training. These results confirm our expectation that workshop attendance is important in acquiring state-of-the art knowledge on external developments as a dominant source of competitive advantage for the organization. Furthermore, workshop attendance is positively related to individuals' level of education. Particularly in workers' mid-career years, attending workshops appears to be an important mode of learning: Workshop attendance is peaking at the age of 47. Moreover, we find that workshop attendance is complementary to training participation instead of a substitute. Our results show that there are interesting differences between the drivers of workshop attendance and those of participation in training and informal learning.


This Article offers the first legal analysis of desalination, the process of converting saltwater into freshwater. Desalination represents a key climate change adaptation measure because the United States has exploited nearly all of its freshwater resources, freshwater demands continue to grow, and climate change threatens to diminish significantly existing freshwater supplies. However, scholarship has yet to address the legal ambiguities that desalination raises in the context of property, water law, and coastal resource doctrines. This Article addresses these ambiguities and suggests the legal adaptations necessary to accommodate desalination as a climate change adaptation. Under current legal doctrines, the chain of title for desalination is uncertain. Emerging desalination projects face questions about the entity with proprietary authority over seawater, the nature of the right to intake seawater, the nature of a desalinator's interest in desalinated water, and the nature of the interest that a utility, upon receiving water from a desalinator, holds in the desalinated water. This Article argues that legislation is necessary to clarify this chain of title both because existing common law doctrines are insufficient to resolve these issues and because development of new common law cannot keep pace with emerging desalination projects. Thus, the Article proposes legislation that (1) clarifies federal sovereignty over saltwater; (2) considers the public trust doctrine in creating a permit scheme for the intake of saltwater; (3) recognizes desalinators as service providers rather than holders of private property in desalinated water; and (4) recognizes municipal utilities as holding vested property rights in desalinated water. Finally, the Article proposed that this clarified chain of title for desalination can serve as a model for developing ecosystem service markets, public trust doctrine applications, and property theories aimed at adapting other resource doctrines to cope with climate change.


Resulting from the technological revolution from the last decades, we observed many software startup ecosystems emerging around the globe. Having tech entrepreneurs as their main agents, some ecosystems exist for more than 50 years, while others are newly born. This difference in terms of evolution and maturity makes the task of comparing different tech hubs a challenge. Moreover, nascent ecosystems need a clear vision of how to develop their community to evolve towards a fruitful and sustainable ecosystem. This paper proposes a maturity model for software startup ecosystems based on a multiple case study of two existing ecosystems. By determining the maturity level for each ecosystem, it is possible not only to compare different realities, but mainly to identify gaps and propose customized practical actions that can lead to real improvements in the existing ecosystems, taking it to the next level of development.