Can Switzerland still be seen as an extreme case of federal consensus democracy, as illustrated by Arend Lijphart (1999)? A reanalysis of Lijphart's study of the Swiss political system from 1997 to 2007 clearly demonstrates that a consensus democracy has emerged that bears strong tendencies toward adjustment and normalization of the original exceptional Swiss case to the rest of the continental European consensus democracies. Switzerland can be considered a typical, rather than extreme, case of consensus democracy.


Medicinal mushroom Ganoderma lucidum is one of the most esteemed natural products that have been used in the traditional Chinese medicine. In this article, we demonstrate that G. lucidum triterpene extract (GLT) suppresses proliferation of human colon cancer cells HT-29 and inhibits tumor growth in a xenograft model of colon cancer. These effects of GLT are associated with the cell cycle arrest at G0/G1 and the induction of the programmed cell death Type II–autophagy in colon cancer cells. Here, we show that GLT induces formation of autophagic vacuoles and upregulates expression of Beclin-1 (1.3-fold increase) and LC-3 (7.3-fold increase) proteins in colon cancer cells and in tumors in a xenograft model (Beclin-1, 3.9-fold increase; LC-3, 1.9-fold increase). Autophagy is mediated through the inhibition of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (p38 MAPK) because p38 MAPK inhibitor, SB202190, induces autophagy and expression of Beclin-1 (1.2-fold increase) and LC-3 (7.4-fold increase), and GLT suppresses phosphorylation of p38 MAPK (≈60% inhibition) in colon cancer cells. Taken together, our data demonstrate a novel mechanism responsible for the inhibition of colon cancer cells by G. lucidum and suggest GLT as natural product for the treatment of colon cancer.


We extend the classical "martingale-plus-noise" model for high-frequency prices by an error correction mechanism originating from prevailing mispricing. The speed of price reversal is a natural measure for informational efficiency. The strength of the price reversal relative to the signal-to-noise ratio determines the signs of the return serial correlation and the bias in standard realized variance estimates. We derive the model's properties and locally estimate it based on mid-quote returns of the NASDAQ 100 constituents. There is evidence of mildly persistent local regimes of positive and negative serial correlation, arising from lagged feedback effects and sluggish price adjustments. The model performance is decidedly superior to existing stylized microstructure models. Finally, we document intraday periodicities in the speed of price reversion and noise-to-signal ratios.


Despite bleeding concerns, other non-bleeding events can also occur from warfarin therapy. These non-bleeding events, occurring in less than 1%, include but are not limit to skin necrosis, "purple toe syndrome," and dermatologic hypersensitivity reactions. Dermatologic adverse reactions from warfarin are uncommon and rarely reported in the literature. In this article, a rare case is described of warfarin induced generalized dermatitis in a 73-year-old female patient who was admitted for COPD exacerbation but later had paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (CHADS2 score of 2) and experienced an acute dermatological reaction during the initial and subsequent re-challenge of warfarin therapy. Both episodes of hypersensitivity reaction were managed by standard support care. The purpose of this communication is to increase awareness of this adverse event, review prior case studies, and address alternative anticoagulation agents in the event of a similar dermatologic reaction. To our knowledge, this is the first report of warfarin induced generalized dermatitis.


Poet, painter, self-described funny guy, idiot, failure, pickpocket, and anti-artist par excellence, Francis Picabia was a defining figure in the Dada movement; indeed, Andre Breton called Picabia one of the only "true" Dadas. Yet very little of Picabia's poetry and prose has been translated into English, and his literary experiments have never been the subject of close critical study. I Am a Beautiful Monster is the first definitive edition in English of Picabia's writings, gathering a sizable array of Picabia's poetry and prose and, most importantly, providing a critical context for it with an extensive introduction and detailed notes by the translator. Picabia's poetry and prose is belligerent, abstract, polemical, radical, and sometimes simply baffling. For too long, Picabia's writings have been presented as raw events, rule-breaking manifestations of inspirational carpe diem. This book reveals them to be something entirely different: maddening in their resistance to meaning, full of outrageous posturing, and hiding a frail, confused, and fitful personality behind egoistic bravura. I Am a Beautiful Monster provides the texts of of Picabia's significant publications, all presented complete, many of them accompanied by their original illustrations.


BACKGROUND
The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) requires residency programs to meet and demonstrate outcomes across 6 competencies. Measuring residents' competency in practice-based learning and improvement (PBLI) is particularly challenging.

PURPOSE
We developed an educational tool to meet ACGME requirements for PBLI. The PBLI template helped programs document quality improvement (QI) projects and supported increased scholarly activity surrounding PBLI learning.

METHODS
We reviewed program requirements for 43 residency and fellowship programs and identified specific PBLI requirements for QI activities. We also examined ACGME Program Information Form responses on PBLI core competency questions surrounding QI projects for program sites visited in 2008-2009. Data were integrated by a multidisciplinary committee to develop a peer-protected PBLI template guiding programs through process, documentation, and evaluation of QI projects. All steps were reviewed and approved through our GME Committee structure.

RESULTS
An electronic template, companion checklist, and evaluation form were developed using identified project characteristics to guide programs through the PBLI process and facilitate documentation and evaluation of the process. During a 24 month period, 27 programs have completed PBLI projects, and 15 have reviewed the template with their education committees, but have not initiated projects using the template.

DISCUSSION
The development of the tool generated program leaders' support because the tool enhanced the ability to meet program-specific objectives. The peer-protected status of this document for confidentiality and from discovery has been beneficial for program usage. The document aggregates data on PBLI and QI initiatives, offers opportunities to increase scholarship in QI, and meets the ACGME goal of linking measures to outcomes important to meeting accreditation requirements at the program and institutional level.


This paper describes a Virtual Design Studio exercise involving three academic institutions-University of Hong Kong, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Z¸rich, and University of Washington in Seattle-whereby teachers and students, obviously on three different continents and in three different time zones, roughly eight hours apart, tried to "multiply time". Students were asked to design a house for a Chinese painter and a Swiss writer on a small island in Puget Sound near Seattle. In a short and intensive design charrette, students explored in five different phases various dualities associated with the given design problem. In each phase students were asked to select someone else's design, thus implicitly forming design teams. The paper describes the structure and goals of the studio exercise, the methodologies applied, the resulting design processes, and the lessons learned.


This article provides an overview of the major findings from the "Understanding Race and Education Study," a 5-year research project conducted by the authors at Teachers College-Columbia University and UCLA. The central theme to emerge from the 5-year historical case study of six racially diverse high schools and their graduates from the late 1970s was that school desegregation faced enormous political obstacles in local communities, which compromised its effect. At the same time, this fairly radical policy fundamentally changed the people who lived through it but had a more limited impact on the society as a whole. This article presents data from this study of 540 interviews and document collection from these six sites, which show that in the 1970s racially diverse public schools were challenged because educators either tried to or were forced to facilitate racial integration amid a society that remained segregated in terms of housing and other social institutions. This context compromised many of the goals of desegregation as politically powerful Whites resisted meaningful equality within desegregated schools and Blacks and Latinos were often angered and frustrated by this resistance. Nonetheless, desegregation made the vast majority of the students who attended these schools less racially prejudiced and more comfortable around people of different backgrounds. After high school, however, their lives, mirroring the larger society, have been far more segregated. They lament that school desegregation was supposed to prepare them for the "real world," but that world is far more segregated than their schools.


William H. Welch and William T. Sedgwick, two of the founding fathers of American public health, were both early generation "Hopkins Men." Sedgwick was part of the first group of graduate students to attend Johns Hopkins University, and Welch was part of the initial faculty at the University's medical school. While they never worked together as colleagues at Hopkins, both became interested in the exciting new discoveries of the microbial nature of human disease and developed similar public health programs based on this information. Sedgwick expanded upon these investigations in the new sanitary science program at MIT, where academic public health first emerged in the United States following Sedgwick's appointment in 1883. Welch, who had been exposed to European research in microbiology, promoted microbial research in pathology in Baltimore in 1884. His laboratory-based investigations expanded until they led to the formation of the country's first school of public health in 1916. Thus, a "Hopkins Model" for hygiene and public health emerged from the efforts of both Welch and Sedgwick.


The goal of this work is to improve the performance of a neural named entity recognition system by adding input features that indicate a word is part of a name included in a gazetteer. This article describes how to generate gazetteers from the Wikidata knowledge graph as well as how to integrate the information into a neural NER system. Experiments reveal that the approach yields performance gains in two distinct languages: a high-resource, word-based language, English and a high-resource, character-based language, Chinese. Experiments were also performed in a low-resource language, Russian on a newly annotated Russian NER corpus from Reddit tagged with four core types and twelve extended types. This article reports a baseline score. It is a longer version of a paper in the 33rd FLAIRS conference (Song et al. 2020).


Abstract The present contribution deals with the taxonomy of seven species of perisphinctoid ammonite from the Štramberk Limestone (Outer Western Carpathians, Czech Republic) deposited in Moravian-Silesian museums. The age of these studied ammonites is compared with that of index microfossils contained in the matrix adhering to or infilling the studied specimens. The ammonites document a stratigraphic range from earliest Tithonian to early Berriasian. In addition to taxonomy and new ontogenetic data on some species, we also present data on their palaeogeographic distribution. The occurrence of Subboreal himalayitids in the Štramberk Limestone of an early Berriasian age is determined by both the microfauna and accompanying ammonites, which indicate connection of the Silesian-part of the Tethyan Carpathian area with the Subboreal Russian Platform Basin. These records also suggest an early Berriasian age (Jacobi Chron) for the lowermost part of the Ryazanian stage in its type area.


Abstract The development of a fast multipole method accelerated iterative solution of the boundary element equations for large problems involving hundreds of thousands elements for the Helmholtz equations in 3D is described. The BEM requires several approximate computations (numerical quadrature, approximations of the boundary shapes using elements) and the convergence criterion for iterative computation. When accelerated using the FMM, these different errors must all be chosen in a way that on the one hand excess work is not done and on the other that the error achieved by the overall computation is acceptable. Details of translation operators used, choices of representations, and boundary element integration consistent with these approximations are described. A novel preconditioner for accelerating convergence, using a low accuracy FMM accelerated solver as a right preconditioner is also desceibed. Results of the developed and tested solvers for boundary value problems for the Helmholtz equations using the solver are presented for the number of unknowns N 10 and product of wavenumber k times domain size D, kD 200 and show good performance close to theoretical expectations.


Product pages on e-commerce websites often overwhelm their customers with a wealth of data, making discovery of relevant information a challenge. Motivated by this, here, we present a novel framework to answer both factoid and non-factoid user questions on product pages. We propose several question-answer matching models leveraging both deep learned distributional semantics and semantics imposed by a structured resource like a domain specific ontology. The proposed framework supports the use of a combination of these models and we show, through empirical evaluation, that a cascade of these models does much better in meeting the high precision requirements of such a question-answering system. Evaluation on user asked questions shows that the proposed system achieves 66% higher precision1 as compared to IDF-weighted average of word vectors baseline [1].


As an emerging power, China hopes to reconstruct the existing international system in East Asia and create better conditions to support its national interests without adopting an aggressive posture at the same time. Taking the initiative to start the six-party talks in 2003 to negotiate North Korea's nuclear programme, Beijing wished to become the leader of a new chapter in East Asia's history. On the one hand, China hoped to take control over the process of North Korea's denuclearisation; on the other hand, it wanted to use the momentum to build its positive image and reputation in the international arena. The Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence have been used as the guide for China's foreign policy since the 1950s. Since the 1980s, Chinese foreign policy has aimed to promote a peaceful international and regional environment for its domestic economic development. This article puts across the argument that, contrary to the desired goals of these principles, China has unintentionally contributed to the deterioration of the situation on the Korean peninsula. As a result, it may need to adjust its approach to better deal with this difficult foreign policy challenge in the years ahead. Major factors that have jeopardised the Chinese initiative in the peace process are analysed here: China's peaceful but inflexible foreign policy principles, North Korea's independent policy, the nuclear crisis and the United States' role in East Asia. The argument posited is that although Chinese policymakers and scholars took an optimistic approach by claiming that China's Korean peninsula policy serves the interests of China and others involved, the problem has now become more serious than ever. (1) China's Foreign Policy Principles The peaceful principles of Chinese foreign policy are rooted in the Middle Kingdom's pre-Opium War tributary system and trade-oriented foreign relations, and reflect the Chinese traditional virtues of being passive and self-oriented. China has claimed that only by upholding the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence can international problems, such as the Korean peninsula nuclear issue, be resolved. In various Chinese Communist Party's documents published in the early 1950s, especially after the Bandung Conference in 1955, the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence--mutual respect for each other's territorial integrity and sovereignty, mutual non-aggression, non-interference in each other's internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit and peaceful coexistence--had become the flagship of the New China's diplomacy. (2) Since then, Chinese diplomats and policymakers have used these principles as guidelines for Chinese diplomacy. In Chinese culture, the notion of an ideal order under heaven differs from the Western understanding. In China, the solid basis for being moral is found in the Confucian school. First of all, the moral order stems from the family hierarchical order. Next, this order constitutes the basis for social order. Moral leadership is exemplified by enlightened rulers, who live in accordance with the norms and spread them through wise measures of education and social control. The values embodied include harmony, stability and hierarchy. From the Confucius tradition, only individuals with moral forces are capable of building relationships with others. Such cultural values also apply to nation-states. Although China joined the "non-Chinese world" after its forced opening in the mid-19th century, it hoped to build and maintain its unique and superior character. In the late 1990s, along with "national studies fever" (guo xue re), the Chinese authorities started to revive the Confucian traditions in order to present China as a positive and peaceful power. The Confucian rhetoric reached its peak in the "harmonious world" and "harmonious society" concepts of Hu Jintao. In Hu's opinion, there are four major parts to "upholding a lasting peace" (chijiu heping). …


The bestselling CCNA prep guide with the field's leading Cisco authority CCNA Routing and Switching Complete Deluxe Study Guide, 2nd Edition is a leading resource for those taking the Cisco Certified Network Associate exams. Whether you're taking the CCNA Composite exam or the ICND-1 and ICND-2, this Deluxe Study Guide has you covered with clear, expert guidance and plenty of hands-on labs. Networking expert Todd Lammle guides you through 100% of the exam objectives with detailed discussion and real-world insight on routing and switching, IP data networks, troubleshooting, security, and more. Examples, exercises, and the included network simulator help you gain practical experience in critical skills. The Sybex interactive online learning environment includes hundreds of sample questions, over 100 electronic flashcards, a pre-assessment test, and bonus practice exams to help you test your understanding and gauge your readiness along the way. In this Deluxe edition, you will also get 20% off a year subscription and free access to a premium Cisco Switch Lab from the experts at ITProTV. As 80% of the Internet's routers are Cisco, the CCNA certification is an important start for any networking career. Make sure you're fully prepared for the exam with this comprehensive Deluxe Study Guide. Master 100% of the objectives for all three exams Gain practical experience with dozens of hands-on labs Test your knowledge with bonus practice exams 20% off a year membership and free access to Cisco premium labs from ITProTV When it comes to networking technologies, there's no substitute for hands-on experience. Reading best practices is one thing, but it's not enough to pass the examor do the job. CCNA Routing and Switching Complete Deluxe Study Guide, 2nd Edition gives you everything you need to understand networking concepts, and demonstrate those skills on exam day and beyond.


As societies become increasingly inter-connected, communities that do not bridge the digital divide find themselves at a disadvantage in the global market economy. Numerous telecenter initiatives in developing nations aim to foster prosperity through the adoption of information communication technologies (ICTs). This study documents how rural communities at varying levels of development in ten developing nations in Latin America and the Arab World create virtual community and reflect their identity through this new medium. Based on the premise that active participation improves the learning process, as suggested by constructionism theory, this study examined telecenter portals for evidence of user participation in digital literacy initiatives. Findings indicate that most telecenter portals offer few interactive applications, therefore limiting the opportunities for users to practice digital literacy skills and create virtual community.


Introduction Even though some risk factors for breast cancer are well-established (reproductive history or lifestyle), they explain no more than 50% of cases. Occupational exposures, including farming, have been seldom studied and were based on small-scale studies. Our aim was to assess the association between farming activities and breast cancer in the AGRICAN cohort. Methods AGRICAN consisted of 181,842 participants affiliated to the French agricultural health insurance. Data on lifetime agricultural exposures (18 farming activities, up to 5 tasks) and living in a farm during first year of life were collected from the enrollment questionnaire (2005–2007). Hazard ratios were estimated using Cox regression analysis with age as time scale. Results From enrolment to 2011, 743 incident breast cancers were identified among 55,558 postmenopausal women (555 ductal and 99 lobular carcinoma) through linkage with cancer registries. We found an overall lower breast cancer risk among farmers (HR 0.81, 95% CI: 0.65–1.01) and cattle breeders, with a linear inverse relationship with duration (≥40 years HR 0.71, 95% CI: 0.52–0.95; p-trend < 0.05), mainly for those performing care, milking or insecticide treatment. Peas growers had a significant increased risk (HR 1.52), mainly those involved for at least 30 years and those performing harvest. Elevated risks were also suggested for women involved on vegetables, beets and greenhouses. No association was observed with pesticide use but elevated risks were suggested for re-entry tasks or harvesting in potato, tobacco or fruit growing. Living in a farm during first year of life when the main activity was market gardening also increased risk (HR 1.44). Results remained unchanged with adjustment for reproductive history and lifestyle. Conclusion This work provides new results on associations between farming activities and breast cancer among postmenopausal women. It also emphasises the need to consider pesticide exposures during other tasks than application.


Fiber-wireless networks employing an optical backbone provide a cost-effective and flexible approach for last-mile access networks for a great number of users. We propose a broadband hybrid fiber-wireless wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) network that uses a reliable optical backbone. This architecture can perform the self-healing function under link failure. In addition, we implement our study by using computer simulations of the optical channel model and the radio fading channel model for estimations of carrier-to-noise ratio (CNR) and bit-error rate (BER), respectively. Finally, we set up an experimental broadband fiber-wireless WDM network to demonstrate its performance for reliable and economic wireless-access units.


CHEMISTRY
Encapsulation of proteins is desirable for their use in applications such as sensors. Many proteins have been encapsulated in sol gels, but the ultraporous nature of aerogels would provide faster response times. However, the high pressures and temperatures of aerogel processing have limited aerogel encapsulation to enzymes such as lipases that readily withstand extreme conditions. Wallace et al . show how the introduction of colloidal gold allows cytochrome c (cyt c) to be assembled into an aerogel and retain activity. Without colloidal gold, supercritical processing of cyt c-silica gels destroys even the metal-porphyrin coordination. Incubation of cyt c with colloidal gold appears to nucleate a multilayer protein shell. Transmission electron microscopy suggests that the outer layer of protein is damaged in the aerogel but that the majority of the cyt c molecules are preserved intact; absorption of gas-phase NO leads to characteristic changes in the intensity of the Soret band at 410 nm. The superstructure formed protects the undamaged proteins even against strong denaturants such as guanidinium hydrochloride. — PDS

Nano Lett . 10.1021/nl03646b (2003).


The relationship between data breaches and identity crime has been scarcely explored in current literature. However, there is an important relationship between the misuse of personal identification information and identity crime as the former is in many respects the catalyst for the latter. Data breaches are one of the ways in which this personal identification information is obtained by identity criminals, and thereby any response to data breaches is likely to impact the incidence of identity crime. Initiatives around data breach notification have become increasingly prevalent and are now seen in many State legislatures in the United States and overseas. The Australian Government is currently in the process of introducing mandatory data breach notification laws. This paper explores the introduction of mandatory data breach notification in Australia, and lessons learned from the experience in the US, particularly noting the link between data breaches and identity crime. The paper proposes that through the introduction of such laws, identity crimes are likely to be reduced. Keywords—identity crime; data breaches; mandatory breach reporting; privacy


Mulch and ridge-furrow are effective techniques to improve water harvest, reduce evaporation and increase crop productivity in dry rainfed areas. We collected grain yield data of maize (Zea mays L.) across the precipitation gradient on the Loess Plateau under three treatments: (1) CK, flat plot without mulch; (2) HM, half-mulch flat plot, i.e. alternating mulched row and bare row without ridge-furrow; and (3) DRM, double ridges and the furrow fully mulched with plastic film. Maize grain yields were highest in the DRM treatment and lowest in the CK treatment. Mulch or ridge-furrow with mulch have increased maize grain yield significantly. The highest increase was found in low growing season precipitation regimes. Grain yields of the three treatments trended to converge in high growing season precipitation regimes. Regressions between grain yields and growing season precipitation for the three treatments showed that maize yields increased linearly with precipitation for CK; statistically significant quadratic models were found for HM and DRM treatments. The economic net incomes were calculated based on yields and inputs of capital and labor for the three treatments. Considering both water resource and economic outcome, we recommend that a precipitation range of 196-532 mm is most suitable for mulch and ridge-furrow techniques for maize on the Loess Plateau. Spatially, CK and HM treatment were most suitable for small parts of the southeast part of the plateau and DRM was suitable for most of (87%) the plateau.


Complex Adaptive Systems have been of interest to academic observers for approximately 60 years as a specialised area within complexity. Whilst some attention has been given specifically to Social Complex Adaptive Systems (SCAS), this area is not as well understood, with less attention and focus on both the adaptability of communities within SCAS and how they establish sustainable communities. Using case studies and paying attention to Communities of Practice (CoP) this paper will investigate specifically the use of CoPs to enhance an understanding of organisational dynamics and economic indicators for sustainable community development. This paper summarises some key elements regarding social complex systems and poses question for discussion; what are the fundamental relationship elements for socially adaptability of communities within social complex adaptive systems? To understand this question, elements from several case studies were highlighted and discussed, as a basis for identifying instances and their methodological approach that resulted in exposing interesting emergent properties that displayed through the following: 1.     A CoP developing sustainable areas of importance through mutual mixtures of interest and consensus on several levels, individual, group and external interaction with the group. 2.     Learning of the dynamics of interest and consensus interactive layers via a case of SME interacting with a larger organization for mutual sustainable business and economic development


Sustained viral response (SVR) rates to first-line Direct Acting Antiviral (DAA) therapy for hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection routinely exceed 95%. However, a small number of patients require retreatment. Sofosbuvir, velpatasvir and voxilaprevir (SOF/VEL/VOX) is a potent DAA combination primarily used for the retreatment of patients failed by first line DAA therapies. Here we evaluate retreatment outcomes and the effects of resistance associated substitutions (RAS) in a real-world cohort, including the largest number of genotype (GT)3 infected patients, to date. 144 patients from the UK were retreated with SOF/VEL/VOX following virologic failure with first-line DAA treatment regimens. Full-length HCV genome, next-generation sequencing was performed prior to retreatment with SOF/VEL/VOX. HCV subtypes were assigned and RAS relevant to each genotype were identified (15% read cut-off). GT1a and GT3a were the two most common subtypes in the cohort, each making up 38% (GT1a n=55, GT3a n=54) of the cohort. 40% (n=58) of patients had liver cirrhosis of whom 7% (n=4) were decompensated, 10% (n=14) had hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and 8% (n=12) had received a liver transplant prior to retreatment. The overall re-treatment SVR12 rate was 90% (129/144). On univariate analysis, GT3 infection (50/62; SVR=81%, p=0.009), cirrhosis (47/58; SVR=81% , p=0.01) and prior treatment with SOF/VEL(12/17; SVR=71%, p=0.02) or SOF + DCV (14/19; SVR=74%, p=0.012) were all significantly associated with retreatment failure, but existence of pre retreatment RAS was not when the genotype of the virus is taken into account. The lower SVR rates achieved in patients retreated with SOF/VEL/VOX for patients with GT3 infection, cirrhosis and prior treatment with SOF/VEL or SOF/DCV has important implications for both patients and HCV elimination strategies.


In discussing fifteenth century book structures the thesis describes those
collections from which it's survey (of over three hundred bindings) was
drawn. It explores the physical archaeology of the book, and considers the
context of book production in the late medieval period. The technical
skills of the bookbinder are considered in detail, as are the tools, materials
and technologies used.
The demise of the wooden boarded medieval book is compared with the
great age of Romanesque bookbinding. In focusing on the collections held
by Cambridge libraries, it was inevitable that there should be a strong
concentration on the work of bookbinders from that city, but those from
Oxford and London are well represented. The work of a number of
provincial binders is also given attention.
Many of the books studied were undergoing conservation work whilst
being surveyed, and this has provided much information which would
otherwise have never been revealed. In particular it was possible to make
a detailed study of sewing techniques, and of the changing materials used
in the making of sewings.
Utilising a microcomputer with a powerful spreadsheet programme, the
survey of three hundred books explores all aspects of English fifteenth
century binding in wooden boards. Each book was catalogued in terms of
nearly three hundred questions in computerised format, and the results
were turned into graphs for percentage interpretation. In addition every
book was recorded on a detailed survey form, supported by photographs,
drawings and diagrams to provide as full a set of details as possible. The
results were scrutinised to consider the impact of the growing use of paper
and of the invention of printing with movable type.
The cultural, social and economic demands of the medieval age are
brought together as aspects which influenced the development of the book
structure. The way in which books were made and used is considered in
depth. The impact of mainstream historical developments in politics,
religion and education are also factors which played a vital role in the
history of the book during this period. The codex (in original condition) is
a "time capsule", to quote Christopher Clarkson, and this research seeks to
explore book production in one of the most vital centuries of its history.


BACKGROUND AND OVERVIEW
Community water fluoridation is an important public health intervention that reduces oral health disparities and increases the health of the population. Promotion of its safety and effectiveness is critical to maintaining its widespread acceptance and ensuring its continued use. Dentists are a potentially important source of knowledge regarding the oral health benefits and safety of water fluoridation. However, few dentists regularly discuss fluorides, and water fluoridation in particular, with patients. The authors aim to describe and discuss the role and importance of dentists' promotion of public water fluoridation, barriers to dentists' involvement and some approaches that might influence dentists to promote water fluoridation more actively.

CONCLUSIONS AND PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS
Ongoing promotion of fluoridation by dentists is a key factor in ensuring sustained municipal water fluoridation. However, current undergraduate dental curricula do not adequately prepare dentists for this role, and continuing dental education may be insufficient to change clinical practice. Although smoking-cessation literature can shed some light on how to proceed, changing dentists' practice behavior remains a largely unstudied topic. Dental associations are a key resource for dentists, providing information that can assist them in becoming advocates for water fluoridation.


We study the algorithmic and structural properties of very large, realistic social contact networks. We consider the social network for the city of Portland, Oregon, USA, developed as a part of the TRANSIMS/EpiSims project at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The most expressive social contact network is a bipartite graph, with two types of nodes: people and locations; edges represent people visiting locations on a typical day. Three types of results are presented. (i) Our empirical results show that many basic characteristics of the dataset are well-modeled by a random graph approach suggested by Fan Chung Graham and Lincoln Lu (the CL-model), with a power-law degree distribution. (ii) We obtain fast approximation algorithms for computing basic structural properties such as clustering coefficients and shortest paths distribution. We also study the dominating set problem for such networks; this problem arose in connection with optimal sensor-placement for disease-detection. We present a fast approximation algorithm for computing near-optimal dominating sets. (iii) Given the close approximations provided by the CL-model to our original dataset and the large data-volume, we investigate fast methods for generating such random graphs. We present methods that can generate such a random network in near-linear time, and show that these variants asymptotically share many key features of the CL-model, and also match the Portland social network.The structural results have been used to study the impact of policy decisions for controlling large-scale epidemics in urban environments.


This article tackles a highly debated topic in Egyptian arbitration circles – the "deemed internationalisation of institutional arbitration." The article provides a succinct theoretical overview of the notion of "internationalisation" in a comparative context and offers an in-depth analysis and critique of the "actual" vs. "deemed" internationalisation under Egyptian Arbitration Law No. 27 of 1994. It also explains the relevant criteria under Article 3 of the Egyptian Arbitration Law and discusses the ramifications of characterising an arbitration as "international" as opposed to "domestic" in cases where the Egyptian Arbitration Law is the lex loci arbitri.


Four different methods were used to make visible the nuclei of Escherichia coli strains B and WP 2, and Bacillus subtilis. They were: (1) Giemsa staining after acid hydrolysis ; (2) fluorescence microscopy after acridine orange treatment ; (3) acriflavine staining and phase-contrast microscopy ; (4) phase-contrast observations with high refractive index mounting medium (polyvinylpyrrolidone). Statistical analyses showed small but significant differences in nuclear counts between the methods. Methods 1 and 2 were somewhat preferable to methods 3 and 4 in that 1 and 2 were easier to score and there was less difference between observers. It was calculated that a single mean nuclear count, by any observer or method, based on 200 scored bacteria should 19 times out of 20 estimate the 'true ' mean nuclear number of E . coli WP 2 to within about k7.5 yo and of B. subtilis and E. coli B to within about & 12 yo. By increasing the number of bacteria counted and the number of methods used these limits could be appreciably decreased.


Abstract In this study, the tensile shear and bending tests of adhesively bonded single lap joints with the acrylic adhesive was evaluated experimentally and numerically. In the previous paper, the traction-separation laws in mode 1 and mode 2 for an acrylic adhesive were directly obtained from the observation of failure process using Arcan type adhesively bonded specimens: simultaneous measurements of the J-integral and the opening displacements in the directions normal, δn and tangential to the adhesive layer, δs respectively. The experimental results were compared with numerical simulations conducted in ABAQUS including cohesive damage model. The cohesive laws obtained in the previous paper were simplified to trapezoidal shape from the experimentally obtained ones which were indicated in the previous paper. A good agreement was found between the experimental and numerical results. Then, to investigate the damage evolution in the adhesive layer for some lap joints, microscopic video observation was conducted near the end of the adhesive layer, and the video image have been compared with the contours of damage variable obtained by FEM corresponding to the video images. The observed damage evolution also agrees with the trend of damage variable.


We live in an ageing society. From dementia and depression, to the everyday changes that affect our capacity to make decisions, psychologists are tackling the daily challenges faced by individuals and society as a whole. What types of questions are being investigated by psychologists today? What are the emerging areas that will be explored by researchers tomorrow?

The Psychology of Ageing
- Guides you through the latest theories and research in ageing, covering both biological and cognitive changes
- Discusses neuropsychological assessment
- Provides a detailed account of neurodevelopmental disorders
- Considers the role psychological research can play in attempting to address cognitive decline
- Features topical issues and examples which apply theory to real life

Providing an authoritative account of how age influences the way we think and behave as we grow older, this is essential reading for all those studying lifespan development, cognitive psychology and health psychology.


Recording of a student critique from -

http://process.arts.ac.uk/content/dirty-little-girl-book-signing-performance-and-studio-critique -

Video studio critique showing foundation student at Wimbledon College of Art going on to BA Fine Art at Chelsea in September.

This is performance piece based on tragic life books (1min) followed by a studio critique (19min).

Student "I am exploring the concept of Child abuse chic, also known as grief porn; by using my own 'tragic life' I am making a satirical comment on this type of literature as well as looking at the glamorization of child abuse whilst questioning the morality of the misery memoir."


This paper compares different solution methods for computing the equilibrium of dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) models with rare disasters along the line of those proposed by Rietz (1988), Barro (2006}, Gabaix (2012), and Gourio (2012). DSGE models with rare disasters require solution methods that can handle the large non-linearities triggered by low-probability, high-impact events with sufficient accuracy and speed. We solve a standard New Keynesian model with Epstein-Zin preferences and time-varying disaster risk with perturbation, Taylor projection, and Smolyak collocation. Our main finding is that Taylor projection delivers the best accuracy/speed tradeoff among the tested solutions. We also document that even third-order perturbations may generate solutions that suffer from accuracy problems and that Smolyak collocation can be costly in terms of run time and memory requirements.


The implementation of magnetic random access memory (MRAM) hinges on complex magnetic film stacks and several critical steps in back-end-of-line (BEOL) processing. Although intended for use in conjunction with silicon CMOS front-end device drivers, MRAM performance is not limited by CMOS technology. We report here on a novel test site design and an associated thin-film process integration scheme which permit relatively inexpensive, rapid characterization of the critical elements in MRAM device fabrication. The test site design incorporates circuitry consistent with the use of a large-area planar base electrode to enable a processing scheme with only two photomask levels. The thin-film process integration scheme is a modification of standard BEOL processing to accommodate temperature-sensitive magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) and poor-shear-strength magnetic film interfaces. Completed test site wafers are testable with high-speed probing techniques, permitting characterization of large numbers of MTJs for statistically significant analyses. The approach described in this paper provides an inexpensive means for rapidly iterating on MRAM development alternatives to converage on an implementation suitable for a production environment.


Healthcare is the largest industry in the United States and 60 percent of its 14 million workers are in allied health jobs. The need to attract and retain allied health faculty is critical to preparing a competent workforce in healthcare. This study reports the results of a survey of 259 faculty members working in diagnostic radiologic technology, nuclear medicine technology, and radiation therapy allied health programs in hospital, community college, proprietary schools, colleges, and universities in the United States and Puerto Rico. The analysis tested the value of seven intrinsic variables, six extrinsic variables, and eight personal and job characteristics for predicting the overall job satisfaction based on a survey created by Smerek and Peterson (2007). The analysis also tested Herzberg, Mausner, and Snyderman's (1959) well-known, duality theory of motivators and hygiene factors. The results suggested that Herzberg's theory may not be of value as a measure of job satisfaction in this population due to a strong correlation between extrinsic (hygiene) factors and overall job satisfaction, which according to Herzberg et al.'s (1959) theory should have little to neutral correlation. In addition, the results of this study revealed that the intrinsic variables of responsibility (p = .001), clarity of mission (p = .042), and the work itself (p = .001); and the extrinsic variables of effective supervision (p = .000), good relationships with co-workers (p = .003), and satisfaction with benefits (p = .001); as well as the personal characteristic of age (p = .020) and the job characteristic of number of employees (p = .039) are significant predictors of overall job satisfaction.


Previous evidence suggests that less liquid stocks entail higher average returns. Using NYSE data, we present evidence that both the sensitivity of returns to liquidity and liquidity premia have significantly declined over the past four decades to levels that we cannot statistically distinguish from zero. Furthermore, the profitability of trading strategies based on buying illiquid stocks and selling illiquid stocks has declined over the past four decades, rendering such strategies virtually unprofitable. Our results are robust to several conventional liquidity measures related to volume. When using liquidity measure that is not related to volume, we find just weak evidence of a liquidity premium even in the early periods of our sample. The gradual introduction and proliferation of index funds and exchange traded funds is a possible explanation for these results. JEL Classification: G12, G14


AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE POTENTIAL BENEFITS OF DISTRIBUTED ELECTRIC PROPULSION ON SMALL UAVs AT LOW REYNOLDS NUMBERS Engin Baris Old Dominion University, 2017 Director: Dr. Drew Landman Distributed electric propulsion systems benefit from the inherent scale independence of electric propulsion. This property allows the designer to place multiple small electric motors along the wing of an aircraft instead of using a single or several internal combustion motors with gear boxes or other power train components. Aircraft operating at low Reynolds numbers are ideal candidates for benefiting from increased local flow velocities as provided by distributed propulsion systems. In this study, a distributed electric propulsion system made up of eight motor/propellers was integrated into the leading edge of a small fixed wing-body model to investigate the expected improvements on the aerodynamics available to small UAVs operating at low Reynolds numbers. Wind tunnel tests featuring a Design of Experiments (DOE) methodology were used for aerodynamic characterization. Experiments were performed in four modes: all-propellers-on, wing-tip-propellers-alone-on, wing-alone mode, and two-inboard-propellers-on-alone mode. In addition, the all-propeller-on, wing-alone, and a single-tractor configuration were analyzed using VSPAERO, a vortex lattice code, to make comparisons between these different configurations. Results show that the distributed propulsion system has higher normal force, endurance, and range features, despite a potential weight penalty.


Recent diving with the JAMSTEC Shinkai 6500 manned submersible in the Mariana fore arc southeast of Guam has discovered that MORB‐like tholeiitic basalts crop out over large areas. These "fore‐arc basalts" (FAB) underlie boninites and overlie diabasic and gabbroic rocks. Potential origins include eruption at a spreading center before subduction began or eruption during near‐trench spreading after subduction began. FAB trace element patterns are similar to those of MORB and most Izu‐Bonin‐Mariana (IBM) back‐arc lavas. However, Ti/V and Yb/V ratios are lower in FAB reflecting a stronger prior depletion of their mantle source compared to the source of basalts from mid‐ocean ridges and back‐arc basins. Some FAB also have higher concentrations of fluid‐soluble elements than do spreading center lavas. Thus, the most likely origin of FAB is that they were the first lavas to erupt when the Pacific Plate began sinking beneath the Philippine Plate at about 51 Ma. The magmas were generated by mantle decompression during near‐trench spreading with little or no mass transfer from the subducting plate. Boninites were generated later when the residual, highly depleted mantle melted at shallow levels after fluxing by a water‐rich fluid derived from the sinking Pacific Plate. This magmatic stratigraphy of FAB overlain by transitional lavas and boninites is similar to that found in many ophiolites, suggesting that ophiolitic assemblages might commonly originate from near‐trench volcanism caused by subduction initiation. Indeed, the widely dispersed Jurassic and Cretaceous Tethyan ophiolites could represent two such significant subduction initiation events.


Industrialization has been embraced by many developing countries as a means of achieving structural transformation of the economies. In Kenya, the goal to industrialize has long been held as a strategy for economic development. It has received emphasis as the main strategy for addressing the principal challenges of development in Kenya; employment creation and poverty eradication. While Kenya inherited a relatively well established manufacturing sector at independence in 1963, the sector's overall performance has been rather dismal. The share of the manufacturing sector in GDP, which accounts for over 70 percent of the industry, has changed little over the last three decades. At the same time, the sector which was expected to play a leading role in the country's development and growth process has not been dynamic enough to effectively play this role. The study examined Kenya's manufacturing sector to empirically analyze the total factor productivity change. The study used the latest World Bank's Regional Programme on Enterprise Development firm level data for the period 2000-2003 to form a panel over the three year period 2000, 2001 and 2002. The total factor productivity change over the period was measured and decomposed into efficiency change and technical change. The study used data envelopment analysis (DEA) to derive Malmquist productivity indices. The study revealed an overall decline in Total Factor Productivity (TFP) of about 8.3 percent. The decline resulted mainly from declining efficiency which dropped by about 17.8 percent over the period despite an overall technical progress of about 11.5 percent. In as far as the sub-sectors were concerned, the study revealed that only the chemicals and pharmaceuticals sub-sectors recorded a TFP growth of about 7.9 percent. The textile and wood and furniture sub-sectors recorded an efficiency improvement of about 11.8 and 6 percent, respectively. Efficiency change was revealed to be the major source of TFP changes. The vision 2030 envisages the development of a robust, diversified and competitive manufacturing sector. The overall goal for the sector for the next five years is to increase its contributions to GDP by at least 10 percent per annum and moving Kenya to a middle income country by year 2030. The study concluded that, for the manufacturing sector to play the crucial role in employment creation and poverty eradication, the infrastructural and institutional bottlenecks bedevilling the sector must be addressed. These include; low capacity utilization, poor infrastructure, lack of innovation, licensing and security.


Urban areas are increasing globally, providing opportunities for biodiversity researchers to study the process in which species become established in novel, highly disturbed habitats. This ecological process can be understood through analyses of morphological and genetic variation, which can shed light on patterns of neutral and adaptive evolution. Previous studies have shown that urban populations often diverge genetically from non-urban source populations. This could occur due to neutral genetic drift, but an alternative is that selection could lead to allele frequency changes in urban populations. The development of genome scan methods provides an opportunity to investigate these outcomes from samples of genetic variation taken along an urbanization gradient. Here we examine morphological variation in wing size and diversity at neutral amplified fragment length polymorphisms in the butterfly Pieris rapae L. (Lepidoptera, Pieridae) sampled from the center to the periphery of Marseille. We utilize established and novel environmental correlation approaches to scan genetic variation for evidence of selection. We find significant morphological differences in urban populations, as well as weak genetic structure and decreased genetic diversity in urban versus non-urban sites. However, environmental correlation tests provide little support for selection in our dataset. Our comparison of different methods and allele frequency clines suggests that loci identified as significant are false positives. Although there is some indication that selection may be acting on wing size in urban butterflies, genetic analyses suggest P. rapae are undergoing neutral drift.


Weaver is a hybrid planning algorithm that can create plans in domains that include uncertainty, modelled either as incomplete knowledge of the initial state of the world, of the effects of plan steps or of the possible external events. The plans are guaranteed to exceed some given threshold probability of success. Weaver creates a Bayesian network representation of a plan to evaluate it, in which links corresponding to sequences of events are computed with Markov models. As well as the probability of success, evaluation produces a set of flaws in the candidate plan, which are used by the planner to improve it. We describe a learning method that generates control knowledge compiled from this probabilistic evaluation of plans. The output of the learner is search control knowledge for the planning domain that helps the planner select alternatives that have previously lead to plans with high probability of success. The learned control knowledge is incrementally refined by a combined deductive and inductive mechanism.


In the $k$-set agreement problem, each processor starts with a private input value and eventually decides on an output value. At most $k$ distinct output values may be chosen, and every processor's output value must be one of the proposed values. We consider a synchronous message passing system, and we prove a tight bound of $\lfloor f/k\rfloor+2$ rounds of communication for all processors to decide in every run in which at most $f$ processors fail. The lower bound proof proceeds through a simulation of a synchronous solution to $k$-set agreement in message passing, in an asynchronous shared memory system in which $k-1$ processors may fail, and which was proven to be impossible using topological approaches. In contrast to past complexity results on set agreement, our lower bound proof is purely algorithmic. It does not use any direct topological argument but uses instead the impossibility of asynchronous set agreement to encapsulate the needed topology. We thus derive an adaptive complexity lower bound for a message passing system from a static impossibility in a shared memory system.


The objective of this study is to analyse the antimycotic activity of pepper on the clinical isolates of Candida. The extracts were prepared in the following concentrations in sterile water. 5mg/ml and 10mg/ml and 20mg/ml. 100µl of an extract of different concentrations were loaded on sterile filter paper discs measuring 6mm in diameter, so that the concentration of the extract on each disc was 500µg, 1000 µg and 2000µg respectively. The discs were dried and kept aseptically. Screening of antifungal activity [dis diffusion technique] The ethanolic extract of Piper nigrum was screened for antifungal activity by the disc diffusion method. Effect of three different concentrations (2000, 1000, 500,µg /disc) of the ethanolic extract Of Piper nigrum was tested against Candida albicans using disc diffusion technique. All the concentrations of the test solution inhibited the fungal species with varying degree of sensitivity. The inhibitory zone was measured with respect to the different concentration of the extracts which include 2000 µg/disc and 500 µg/disc at both room temperature and cold temperature (4-8°c). The inhibition zones were evaluated at 24 and 48 hrs. The result of this study revealed that the pepper oil has pronounced inhibitory activities against Candida albicans. This result is comparable with studies which have shown that Piper nigrum has a broad antibacterial activity. Since Piper nigrum is easily available and well-tolerated, it can be incorporated into medication for topical antifungal therapy as well.


Integrated Systems Health Management includes as key elements fault detection, fault diagnostics, and failure prognostics. Whereas fault detection and diagnostics have been the subject of considerable emphasis in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) community in the past, prognostics has not enjoyed the same attention. The reason for this lack of attention is in part because prognostics as a discipline has only recently been recognized as a game-changing technology that can push the boundary of systems health management. This paper provides a survey of AI techniques applied to prognostics. The paper is an update to our previously published survey of data-driven prognostics.


Since the 1970s, at approximately 10-year intervals, 4 national-scale freshwater conservation plans have been developed for South Africa. These 4 plans reflect different but broadly advancing approaches to conservation planning. We provide an overview of 3 historical plans and a more detailed discussion of the most recent plan which is based on a systematic approach. The main principles of systematic conservation planning, namely, to achieve representation, persistence and efficiency, are introduced. We then describe how these principles were used to develop National Freshwater Ecosystem Priority Areas (FEPAs) for the whole of South Africa. A strong implementation orientation influenced the development of FEPAs. End users were engaged throughout the planning process and map products were designed with user needs as well as relevant policy and legal contexts in mind. We believe that the process that was followed in developing FEPAs marks a new level of implementation-driven planning. Remaining constraints to effective implementation now lie mainly on the side of the receiving environment – i.e. the operating environments of those agencies with mandates to manage and conserve freshwater ecosystems. To this end we highlight 4 potential catalysts for effective implementation in the receiving environment, namely, absorptive capacity, multi-party cooperation, science extension and adaptive management. We conclude by calling for a new and broad research initiative linked to implementing FEPAs. Keywords: absorptive capacity, biodiversity surrogates, cooperation, efficiency, persistence, representation


This paper presents an investigation of three communication schemes which may be used in a distributed robotic system, two based on implicit forms of communication (mechanical interaction and vision) and one on an explicit form of communication (infrared signaling). To support the discussion, we have chosen a concrete case study concerned with locating and pulling sticks out of an arena floor, a task successfully achieved only through collaboration between two robots. Communication schemes, among other system features, heavily influence the rate of successful collaborations, the metric adopted to evaluate the performance of the robotic team. Results collected using an embodied simulator show that, as a function of the system constraints (e.g., number of robots, hardware and behavioral parameters,) solutions based on more complex individuals do not necessarily lead to an improved team performance. Although the stick pulling is a simple case study without any practical application, it presents all the main difficulties of designing and controlling scalable, distributed robotic systems, characterized by subtle, nested effects between individual and group behavior or hardware and software parameters. We believe that embodied simulations are a key level of implementation in helping us understand these subtle mechanisms, achieve further abstraction, and optimize the system before any real hardware solution is implemented.


This article analyzes the ways that Korean Chinese migrants are exploited aesthetically in their ancestral homeland by focusing on their mass-media refiguration. These return migrants, or the Chosŏnjok, have been received by their South Korean co-ethnics into what may be called a "hierarchical nationhood." The strategies of temporal displacement, this article contends, are employed in South Korean cinema and television dramas in order to contain the uncanny cultural difference embodied by these ethnic returnees. As a result, a certain sense of belatedness is inscribed on the bodies of these migrants. If this temporal refiguration wards off the psychological discomfort of dealing with difference in the midst of sameness, it may be said at the same time to fetishize its object within an archaic constellation that South Koreans find endearing, yet disturbingly absent, from their highly consumerist contemporary society. In attempting to delineate the "nostalgia politics," the article aims to shed light on the function of certain mass media representations, including Hongjin Na's movie The Yellow Sea, in the context of the socioeconomic realities of South Korea.


Context. Classical novae are the product of thermonuclear runaway-initiated explosions occurring on accreting white dwarfs. Aims. V339 Del (Nova Delphinus 2013) was one of the brightest classical novae of the last hundred years. Spectroscopy and photometry are available from γ -rays through infrared at stages that have frequently not been observed well. The complete data set is intended to provide a benchmark for comparison with modeling and for understanding more sparsely monitored historical classical and recurrent novae. This paper is the first in the series of reports on the development of the nova. We report here on the early stages of the outburst, through the X-ray active stage. Methods. A time sequence of optical, flux calibrated high resolution spectra was obtained with the Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT) using FIES simultaneously, or contemporaneously, with the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) aboard the Hubble Space Telescope during the early stages of the outburst. These were supplemented with Mercator /HERMES optical spectra. High resolution IUE ultraviolet spectra of OS And 1986, taken during the Fe curtain phase, served as a template for the distance determination. We used standard plasma diagnostics (e.g., [O III] and [N II] line ratios, and the H β line flux) to constrain electron densities and temperatures of the ejecta. Using Monte Carlo modeling of the ejecta, we derived the structure, filling factor, and mass from comparisons of the optical and ultraviolet line profiles. Results. We derive an extinction of E ( B − V ) = 0.23 ± 0.05 from the spectral energy distribution, the interstellar absorption, and H I emission lines. The distance, about 4−4.5 kpc, is in agreement with the inferred distance from near infrared interferometry. The maximum velocity was about 2500 km s -1 , measured from the UV resonance and optical profiles. The ejecta showed considerable fine structure in all transitions, much of which persisted as emission knots. The line profiles were modeled using a bipolar conical structure for the ejecta within a relatively restricted range of parameters. For V339 Del, we find that an inclination to the line of sight of about 35°−55°, an opening angle of 60°−80°, and an inner radius Δ R / R ( t ) ≈ 0.3 based on v rad,max matches the permitted and intercombination lines. The filling factor is f ≈ 0.1, and the derived range in the ejecta mass is (2−3) × 10 -5 M ⊙ .


The collective control programmes (CPs) that exist for many infectious diseases of farm animals rely on the application of diagnostic testing at regular time intervals for the identification of infected animals or herds. The diversity of these CPs complicates the trade of animals between regions or countries because the definition of freedom from infection differs from one CP to another. In this paper, we describe a statistical model for the prediction of herd-level probabilities of infection from longitudinal data collected as part of CPs against infectious diseases of cattle. The model was applied to data collected as part of a CP against bovine viral diarrhoea virus (BVDV) infection in Loire-Atlantique, France. The model represents infection as a herd latent status with a monthly dynamics. This latent status determines test results through test sensitivity and test specificity. The probability of becoming status positive between consecutive months is modelled as a function of risk factors (when available) using logistic regression. Modelling is performed in a Bayesian framework, using either Stan or JAGS. Prior distributions need to be provided for the sensitivities and specificities of the different tests used, for the probability of remaining status positive between months as well as for the probability of becoming positive between months. When risk factors are available, prior distributions need to be provided for the coefficients of the logistic regression, replacing the prior for the probability of becoming positive. From these prior distributions and from the longitudinal data, the model returns posterior probability distributions for being status positive for all herds on the current month. Data from the previous months are used for parameter estimation. The impact of using different prior distributions and model implementations on parameter estimation was evaluated. The main advantage of this model is its ability to predict a probability of being status positive in a month from inputs that can vary in terms of nature of test, frequency of testing and risk factor availability/presence. The main challenge in applying the model to the BVDV CP data was in identifying prior distributions, especially for test characteristics, that corresponded to the latent status of interest, i.e. herds with at least one persistently infected (PI) animal. The model is available on Github as an R package (https://github.com/AurMad/STOCfree) and can be used to carry out output-based evaluation of disease CPs.


Seventy local and exotic wheat genotypes grown in Faisalabad, Pakistan during the Rabi season of 2005/2006 were evaluated for variability parameters, correlations and path coefficients for eight metric traits i.e., plant height, number of productive tillers per plant, number of spikelets per spike, spike length, number of grains per spike, fertility %, 1000 grain weight and yield per plant. Significant genotypic differences were observed for all the traits studied indicating considerable amount of variation among genotypes for each character. The estimates of genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) and phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) were high for yield per plant, number of productive tillers per plant and number of grains per spike. The remaining traits recorded moderate to low PCV and GCV estimates. Moderate heritability was observed for number of productive tillers per plant and fertility %. High heritability estimates were recorded for plant height, number of spikelets per spike, spike length, number of grains per spike, 1000 grain weight and yield per plant. These traits also indicated high genetic advance (except fertility %). Grain yield per plant showed highly significant positive correlation with number of productive tillers per plant, number of spikelets per spike and number of grains per spike and significant positive correlation with spike length. Path coefficient analysis revealed that number of productive tillers per plant and number of grains per spike had the highest direct effect on grain yield per plant and each must be given preference in selection along with optimum plant height to select superior wheat genotypes. The cluster analysis grouped 70 wheat genotypes into 4 different clusters. Five genotypes of China were grouped in cluster I that showed the maximum diversity. Genetic diversity was partially related to the geographic origin. From the cluster mean values, Chinese genotypes deserve consideration for their direct release as a variety(s) or as parents in hybridization programmes to develop high-yielding wheat varieties. The genotypes in cluster II may be used for the improvement of plant height and 1000 grain weight in wheat.


The PROMISE model has been developed to supply a tool for probabilistic analysis of the dispersion of produced water in the marine environment. This paper describes the formulation of the composite model: 1) near field model; 2) wave effect model; 3) upstream intrusion and downstream control model; and 4) buoyant spreading and turbulent diffusion model. The simulation strategy using the model is presented together with results from a hypothetical case study.


Modern baggage handling systems transport the baggage at high speeds, on a network of tracks, using destination coded vehicles (DCV). In order to ensure the optimal routing of DCVs, in this paper we propose a hierarchical control framework. In this framework switch controllers provide position instructions for each switch in the network. The switch controllers are then supervised by a so-called network controller that mainly takes care of flows of DCVs. The routing control problem for the network controller is a nonlinear, mixed integer optimization problem, with high computational requirements, which makes it intractable in practice. Therefore, we present an alternative approach for reducing the complexity of the computations by approximating the nonlinear optimization problem and rewriting it as a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) problem. The advantage is that for MILP problems solvers are available that allow us to efficiently compute the global optimal solution. The solution of the MILP problem is then used for computing optimal switch control actions. For a benchmark case study we compare the hierarchical route control with switch control approaches that have been developed previously. Results indicate that the proposed hierarchical control offers a balanced trade-off between optimality and computational efficiency.


Abstract. This paper discusses the extension of established Lagrangian mixing measures to make them applicable to data extracted from a 2-D axisymmetric hurricane simulation. Because of the non-steady and unbounded characteristics of the simulation, the previous measures are extended to a moving frame approach to create time-dependent mixing rates that are dependent upon the initial time of particle integration, and are computed for nonlocal regions. The global measures of mixing derived from finite-time Lyapunov exponents, relative dispersion, and a measured mixing rate are applied to distinct regions representing different characteristic feautures within the model. It is shown that these time-dependent mixing rates exhibit correlations with maximal tangential winds during a quasi-steady state, establishing a connection between mixing and hurricane intensity.


Though he spent much of his career in his native France, Paul Cezanne (1839-1906)--a stylistic innovator who constantly struggled to perfect his art--played a hugely influential role in modernism worldwide. This handsome book is the first to focus on Cezanne's works and reputation in Britain, where he was a key figure in the great debate about modernism that took place in the early years of the 20th century. Published on the centenary of his death, Cezanne in Britain features beautiful reproductions of forty works that cover the full range of his oeuvre--paintings, drawings, watercolors, and prints--along with accompanying descriptive entries. Essays trace his artistic development from its beginnings in the 1860s until his death, providing a chronological overview of his career and stylistic evolution. They also address the fascinating role British dealers, collectors, museums, and critics played in establishing his reputation domestically and abroad. A chronology and full list of Cezanne's works in British collections complete this important survey.


ABSTRACT This study of monogenean species of Ligophorus Euzet & Suriano, 1977 from Liza spp. (Mugilidae) from the Northwestern African coast identifies the occurrence of four new species. Ligophorus gabrioni n. sp. on Liza falcipinnis (Valenciennes, 1836) is characterized by a small antero-median protuberance and two lateral and symmetrical expansions on the ventral transverse bar; a tubular accessory piece distally expanded; and a vagina that is not sclerotised (not visible). Ligophorus benhoussai n. sp. on Liza grandisquamis (Valenciennes, 1836) is characterized by a very long sickle-shaped accessory piece, which is wide at the base and tapering at the end, and a &agr;-shaped vagina. Also found on Liza grandisquamis were Ligophorus bazairii n. sp. and Ligophorus hamzati n. sp. The former is characterized by a tubular bottle-opener shaped accessory piece; whereas the latter is characterized by a tubular accessory piece with a bifurcated distal extremity whose branches are also bifurcated. No Monogenea were found on the endemic Liza bandialensis Diouf, 1991. In our opinion, the differences in monogenean species richness that exist among the various hosts may be due to fluctuations of host populations as the result of bottleneck or vicariant events.


In this compelling book, the authors present an innovative therapeutic model for understanding and treating adults from emotionally abusive or neglectful families? families the authors call narcissistic. Narcissistic families have a parental system that is, for whatever reason (job stress, alcoholism, drug abuse, mental illness, physical disability, lack of parenting skills, self-centered immaturity), primarily involved in getting its own needs met. The children in such narcissistic family systems try to earn love, attention and approval by satisfying their parents' needs, thus never developing the ability to recognize their own needs or create strategies for getting them met. By outlining the theoretical framework of their model and using dozens of illustrative clinical examples, the authors clearly illuminate specific practice guidelines for treating these individuals. Stephanie Donaldson-Pressman is a therapist, consultant, and trainer. She is known for her work with dysfunctional families, particularly with survivors of incest. Robert M. Pressman is the editor-in-chief and president of the Joint Commission for the Development of the Treatment and Statistical Manual for Behavioral and Mental Disorders.


The year 2013 featured unprecedented strides for gay rights in some parts of the world, particularly in Western Europe and the Americas, but also startling setbacks elsewhere, as in Russia and some countries in Africa. Wealth and religion are the most discussed factors behind this so-called global divide on homosexuality. Less studied and therefore less understood, however, is the effect of the political regime, especially whether the country is democratic or not. Although gay rights are not found in all democracies, gay rights are virtually nonexistent in nondemocracies. Among the many factors that make democracy an apparent prerequisite for gay rights are the opportunities that it provides for advocacy—including access to the courts, the party system, and the legislature—as well as a social environment that permits gay people to live their lives openly and honestly, a critical but often overlooked factor in advancing societal acceptance of homosexuality.


This paper analyzes culinary remembrances by Asian Canadian, Latina, and Caribbean writers, investigating the multivalent meaning of food in literary texts. In ethnic literature, food figures as a powerful symbol of ethnicity, becoming a significant site where identity construction, community building and social critique can take place. Descriptions of culinary practices set in motion thoughts on belonging and national identity, offering affective encounters with the past. Culinary nostalgia, this paper argues, allows ethnic subjects to identify as ethnic via their relationship to food, opening up ways of engaging the politics of identity. Using a language through which to imagine alterity, these narratives provide a space for reflections on the complex interplay of "here" and "there," of "home" and "away."


Dosvox and Virtual Vision accessibility software are screen reader programs that allow reading of the information presented on computer screens through speech output using voice synthesis technology, making their use possible by people with blindness. The objective of this study was to implement and evaluate the effectiveness of a teaching program for the use of accessibility software Dosvox and Virtual Vision by students with blindness of elementary and middle school. To this end, we developed a quasiexperimental study with an AB design, attended by two students with blindness, 18 and 19 years old, who were attending the sixth grade of elementary school and the third year of middle school, respectively. Both attended the same Resource Room facility featured by a public school located within the countryside of the State of São Paulo. The Education Program was 30 hours long, with one hour weekly classes. The following tools have been used to collect data: a) A semi-structured interview, applied preintervention to check the suitability of participants to the inclusion criteria of the study and characterize them. b) The tasks protocol has been used to measure participants' knowledge at two different times: 1) before the education program had been applied (pre-intervention) and 2) after the education program was implemented (postintervention). c) Questionnaire to measure participants' satisfaction. d) Field diary to record the development of the education program. The analysis and interpretation of data was quantitative and qualitative: a) Quantitative evaluation of data from protocol tasks. b) Qualitative evaluation of data from semi-structured interview, from questionnaire and from the field diary. The results obtained in quantitative evaluation showed that performance of the first participant was better than that of the second participant. The qualitative evaluation has shown that the education program was effective for developing flexible teaching strategies that allowed participant 1, who had no computer and had no prior knowledge about the software, a great level of knowledge acquisition. Participant 2, who had a computer and prior knowledge about the software, was enabled to improve his technique so that now he performs numerous tasks with excellence. By making both of them able to use Microsoft Word and access the virtual environments with a computer equipped with Dosvox or Virtual Vision, the new pedagogical strategies arising from the use of computers in the classroom promoted the transition of the educational process of participant 2, previously marked by the demerit of his intellectual capacity, failure and assistance, to a new reality guided by equality and sharing with his peers. No considerations were made about the educational process of participant 1 due to the absence of a computer in the classroom where he had been studying.


Franklin Delano Roosevelt's court-packing plan of 1937 and the "switch in time that saved nine" animate central questions of law, politics, and history. Did Supreme Court Justice Roberts abruptly switch votes in 1937 to avert a showdown with Roosevelt? Scholars disagree vigorously about whether Roberts's transformation was gradual and anticipated or abrupt and unexpected. Using newly collected data of votes from the 1931–1940 terms, we contribute to the historical understanding of this episode by providing the fi rst quantitative evidence of Roberts's transformation. Applying modern measurement methods, we show that Roberts shifted sharply to the left in the 1936 term. The shift appears sudden and temporary. The duration of Roberts's shift, however, is in many ways irrelevant, as the long-term transformation of the Court is overwhelmingly attributable to Roosevelt's appointees.


The possibility of nuclear destruction in the modern world has created a secular eschatology which, unlike religious eschatologies, creates nihilism and apathy rather than ultimate meaning. The Japanese film Dreams, by Akira Kurosawa, depicts this secularized eschatology as well as a counter-apocalyptic utopia. However, Kurosawa does not merely repeat the Western visions of nuclear apocalypse, but uses Japanese folk religion as a lens through which this apocalypse can be viewed. By doing so, Kurosawa creates a specifically Eastern response to nuclear destruction: a "religious secular" eschatology. Despite its lack of critical success, Dreams provides a valuable alternative for Western theologians in a nuclear age.


The Mars Orbiter Camera onboard the Mars Global Surveyor has obtained several images of polygonal features in the southern polar region. In images taken during the end of the southern spring, when the surrounding surface is free of the seasonal frost, CO2 ice still appears to be present within the polygonal troughs. In Earth's polar regions, polygons such as these are indicative of water ice in the ground below. We analyzed the seasonal evolution of the thermal state and the CO2 content of these features. Our 2-D model includes condensation and sublimation of the CO2 ice, a self consistent treatment of the variations of the thermal properties of the regolith, and the seasonal variations of the local atmospheric pressure which we take from the results of a general circulation model. We find that the residence time of seasonal CO2 ice in troughs depends not only on atmospheric opacity and albedo of the CO2 ice, but also and most significantly on the distribution of water ice in the regolith. Optical properties of the atmosphere and surface CO2 ice can be independently obtained from observations. To date this is not true about the distribution of water ice below the surface. Our analysis quantifies the dependence of the seasonal cycle of the CO2 ice within the troughs on the assumed distribution of the water ice below the surface. We show that presence of water ice in the ground at a depth smaller than the depth of the troughs reduces winter condensation rate of CO2 ice. This is due to higher heat flux conducted from the water ice rich regolith toward the facets of the troughs.


Thermal interface materials (TIMs) based on vertically aligned carbon nanotube (VACNT) films promise the unusual combination of high thermal conductance and low elastic modulus, properties that are critical for TIM performance and reliability. This paper reports through-plane thermal conductivity, heat capacity, and boundary resistances measured using frequency domain thermoreflectance for seven VACNT films. The films are composed of single-walled carbon nanotubes grown using chemical vapor deposition on Si substrates and have thicknesses from 5.3 to 81 μm. The top surfaces of the films are coated with 100-nm Ti and 100-nm Ag as a transducer layer for the thermoreflectance measurement. The roughness of the top surface of each sample is measured using atomic force microscopy. The average thermal conductivity of the films ranges from 2.1 to 3.5 W m-1 K-1 and the average heat capacity ranges from 5.5 to 9.3 J cm-3 K-1. The heat capacity of the films is used to calculate the volume fraction of tubes that contributes to thermal conduction. The CNT-metal boundary resistances are below 1 m2 K MW-1 and the CNT-substrate resistance ranges from 3 to 80 m2 K MW-1. Variations of the nanotube alignment and morphology throughout the film are also examined using scanning electron micrographs to provide a comprehensive analysis of these films.


Linear velocity transducers offer a portable and cost-effective means for quantifying peak ground reaction force (GRF) during a countermovement vertical jump (CMJ) test; however, their ability to provide valid vertical jump GRF measurements similar to those of a force plate ("gold standard") remains unclear. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine the differences and relationship between force plate and linear velocity transducer measurements of peak GRF during a CMJ test. METHODS: Seventeen healthy, young females (age = 22 ± 3 years; mass = 61 ± 8 kg; height = 163 ± 7 cm) performed three CMJ assessments on an elevated platform where peak GRF was measured simultaneously from a force plate and a linear velocity transducer. The linear velocity transducer was attached to the posterior portion of a belt fastened around the participants' waist. During the CMJs, participants stood on the force plate with feet shoulder width apart and hands positioned on the hips. Participants were not allowed to take any steps before performing the CMJ and a quick descending quarter-squat countermovement was allowed before the ascending take-off phase. For all CMJs, participants were verbally instructed to jump up as explosively as possible with both feet at the same time and land on the force plate in the starting position. Peak GRF from the force plate was determined as the highest value from the force-time curve. To calculate peak GRF using the linear velocity transducer, each participant's body mass was entered into the transducer's microcomputer. Estimated peak GRF was calculated and displayed by the microcomputer at the conclusion of each assessment. A Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient (r) was used to assess the relationship between the force plate and linear velocity transducer peak GRF values. The difference in peak GRF between the force plate and linear velocity transducer was analyzed by a paired samples t-test. RESULTS: Peak GRF values (mean ± SD) were 1309.93 ± 238.06 N for the force plate and 1338.24 ± 244.98 N for the linear velocity transducer. There was a significant positive relationship between the force plate and linear velocity transducer peak GRF values (r = 0.849, P < 0.001). No significant difference in peak GRF was observed between devices (P = 0.392). CONCLUSION: These findings provide support that the linear velocity transducer may be a valid device for measuring peak GRF during a CMJ assessment in healthy, young females. Vertical jump GRF has been shown to be a significant predictor of explosive-type performances and thus, may be of vital importance for determining athletic ability. The linear velocity transducer used in the present study may provide researchers and practitioners with a relatively accurate, cost-effective, and portable measurement tool capable of enhancing the practicality and utility of these (typically lab based) measurements when analyzing vertical jump performance capacities of athletes in the field.


Here we are reporting rare case series of capecitabine induced marrow aplasia in patients of colorectal cancer during adjuvant treatment. First patient is 51 year old male with locally advanced rectal cancer, developed persistent pancytopenia after 5th cycle of chemotherapy. His bone marrow showed marked hypocellularity (3%). Second patient was 73 year old male with stage III adenocarcinoma of cecum & he developed asymptomatic bicytopenia. Bone marrow aspiration & trephine biopsy showed moderate hypo cellular marrow with bicytopenia. Third patient is 65 year old diabetic female with stage III periampullary adenocarcinoma. Initially started with CAPOX, but later in the 6th cycle of capecitabine, she developed pancytopenia. Bone marrow aspiration & biopsy showed pancytopenia with moderate to severe hypo cellular marrow. From the above three cases, it is evident that capecitabine causes hypocellular marrow, which we are using as adjuvant or palliative chemotherapy in colorectal cancer.


The alternative solvents poly(ethyleneglycol)s (PEGs) with various molar masses and room temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) AMMOENG100 and 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium dicyanamide (bmimDCA) were studied for the purpose of extraction of linoleic acid from soybean oil. Liquid-liquid phase equilibrium was measured for binary (PEG + soybean oil), (RTIL + soybean oil) as well as ternary (PEG + soybean oil + linoleic acid), (RTIL + soybean oil + linoleic acid) mixtures, as a function of temperature and composition. The influence on distribution coefficients and separation factor of temperature, initial acid content of the oil and solvent to oil ratio were studied. The effect of molar mass in the case of the PEGs was also examined. The experimental results were modeled using the Peng-Robinson cubic equation of state coupled with the Mathias-Klotz-Prausnitz mixing rule, with good results. (C) 2010 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 57: 1344-1355, 2011


The 'Evolving Norms of British Housing' publication took the form of a book to accompany a jointly curated an exhibition of the 'Evolving Norms of British Housing', as part of the London Festival of Architecture 2008. Co-curators were Michael Howe of mae architects, Matthew Lloyd of Matthew Lloyd Architects, Sam Price of Price and Myers, and urban designer Mandar Puranik.

The premise of the exhibition being that the best homes and communities arise from a regular, some might say ordinary, pattern of urban or sub-urban residential development based on a logical and disciplined scale, often laid out in traditional street patterns, with highly considered plans and functional elevations.

The exhibition featured representative schemes from 16 British practices, and explored fresh models for contextual 21st century housing that built on lessons from the past.


Post-transcriptional control is one of many layers of regulation of gene expression within the cell. Within this, RNA stability is known to play a critical role in determining the period of time an RNA species is able to elicit its function; such as an mRNA to be translated into protein or a miRNA to bind and repress its targets. The stability of a cytoplasmic RNA is dependent upon its degradation which can occur from either the 5' end by Pacman or from the 3' end by a family of related exoribonucleases; the Dis3 family.
The aim of this thesis was to investigate the role 3'-5' exoribonucleases play in post-transcriptional control of gene expression and how these relate to the development of a model tissue. Drosophila melanogaster have two highly conserved members of the Dis3 family, Dis3 and Dis3L2, both of which have been implicated in human disease. Dis3 has been recurrently mutated in multiple myeloma and acute myeloid leukaemia whilst Dis3L2 has been shown to be mutant in the human overgrowth syndrome, Perlman syndrome.
Due to their role in developmental diseases the function of both enzymes was investigated in the growth and development of the wing imaginal disc. A reverse genetics approach was used by driving RNA interference specifically in the wing imaginal disc which was directed by the highly specific GAL4-UAS system. The results within this thesis show that Dis3 is critical for organism viability together with the correct development of the wing with its loss resulting in large scale apoptosis. Using miRNA-sequencing has allowed the identification of a novel role for Dis3 in the regulation miRNA stability with miR-252-5p presenting as a specific target of Dis3.
Unlike, Dis3, Dis3L2 was shown to be dispensable for organism viability and the development of the adult wing identifying a more specific function. This was identified to be in the control of developmental proliferation. Loss of dis3L2 within the wing imaginal disc resulted in increased proliferation of the wing imaginal discs cells resulting in the overgrowth of the wings and the wing imaginal discs by 20% compared to parental controls. The observed overgrowth was consistent with the human disease of Perlman syndrome which itself is characterised by foetal overgrowth thus identifying a conserved function for Dis3L2 in the control of tissue growth.
RNA sequencing was performed in a global, unbiased, approach in order to identify targets of Dis3L2 which become misregulated following its knockdown and may therefore drive the overgrowth phenotype. This revealed 2 potential targets of Dis3L2, pyrexia and CG2678 which were shown to significantly increase in expression at the post-transcriptional level. Neither of these targets are known to be involved in proliferation, however, further investigation would be required to elucidate the mechanism by which Dis3L2 regulates proliferation within a developing tissue.
The role identified for Dis3L2 in regulating proliferation is in stark contrast to that of the 5'-3' exoribonuclease Pacman which has previously been shown to regulate apoptosis. Work in this thesis has built upon the relationship between Dis3L2 and Pacman and shown that they indeed function to regulate distinct pathways through the regulation of largely discrete sets of transcripts.


We present a simple approximate model for studying general aspects of vortex interactions in a rotating stably-stratified fluid. The model idealizes vortices by ellipsoidal volumes of uniform potential vorticity, a materially conserved quantity in an inviscid, adiabatic fluid. Each vortex thus possesses 9 degrees of freedom, 3 for the centroid and 6 for the shape and orientation. Here, we develop equations for the time evolution of these quantities for a general system of interacting vortices. An isolated ellipsoidal vortex is well known to remain ellipsoidal in a fluid with constant background rotation and uniform stratification, as considered here. However, the interaction between any two ellipsoids in general induces weak non-ellipsoidal perturbations. We develop a unique projection method, which follows directly from the Hamiltonian structure of the system, that effectively retains just the part of the interaction which preserves ellipsoidal shapes. This method does not use a moment expansion, e.g. local expansions of the flow in a Taylor series. It is in fact more general, and consequently more accurate. Comparisons of the new model with the full equations of motion prove remarkably close.