By Paulina Konarzewska Mentor Dr. Chang-Hui Shen In eukaryotes, V-ATPases play an essential role in cellular pH homeostasis as they transport hydrogen ions into the vacuoles. This assures an acidic vacuolar interior and normal physiological processes associated with this organelle. Studies show that mutations in any of the VMA genes encoding for subunits of the V-ATPase pump result in growth inhibition in the absence of inositol, suggesting that VATPases may play an important role in phospholipid biosynthesis or vice versa. It is not clear how VMA genes affect phospholipid biosynthesis and how the regulators of phospholipid biosynthetic genes may affect ATPase activity. Here, we employ biochemical and genetic analyses to understand the connection. In the first part of the study, we evaluated how VMA3 an indispensable gene required for proper VATPase function affects phospholipid biosynthesis. Using growth analysis, we demonstrated that vma3Δ cells were sensitive to pH conditions in the absence of inositol. This result strongly suggests that VMA3 can influence phospholipid gene expression. Subsequently, we observed that HXK2 gene was downregulated in vma3Δ cells using real-time PCR analysis. Acetic acid sensitivity assay further confirmed reduced expression of HXK2 gene in vma3Δ cells. As such, we have demonstrated that the VMA3 plays an important role in phospholipid biosynthesis through regulation of HXK2 gene expression. Recent studies show that some phospholipid genes play important roles in vacuolar morphology and acidification. Among these genes are transcription factors, INO2 and OPI1. To determine their role on vacuolar function, we first performed CaCl2 sensitivity test which screens for genes important in vacuolar ATPase activity. Our results showed that WT, opi1Δ and ino2Δ cells exhibited similar growth sensitivity at 10 mM CaCl2, whereas at 60 mM CaCl2 both opi1Δ and ino2Δ cells exhibited moderate increase in sensitivity compared to WT. As microscopic analyses did not show any significant differences in vacuolar morphology of opi1Δ or ino2Δ compared to WT, vacuolar pH analyses showed significant increases in vacuolar acidification of opi1Δ but not ino2Δ cells compared to WT. Moreover, we observed that some of the genes that encode for V-ATPases were down-regulated significantly in both opi1Δ and ino2Δ. iv 1 Furthermore, both opi1Δ and ino2Δ cells showed lower ATPase activity than WT cells, suggesting that the transcription factors affecting expression of phospholipid genes play an important role in V-ATPase pump activity and vacuolar homeostasis. It is possible that down-regulation of ATPase activity is to maintain normal H+ concentration in the vacuole and to compensate a pH imbalance caused by the lack Opi1p or Ino2p. Together, our results have provided new insights into the connection between phospholipid biosynthesis and cellular pH homeostasis.


Rationale Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death world–wide. Macrophages are crucial in regulating the plaque environment, especially the lipid content. However, current characterisation of macrophage phenotypes lipoprotein handling capacity is conflicting and incomplete. We hypothesised that lipoprotein handling differed among distinct macrophage phenotypes due to differential gene and protein expression. We tested this using a range of functional, gene and protein expression assays. Methodology Monocytes were isolated from healthy donor blood by gradient centrifugation and magnetic selection, then differentiated into macrophages over 7 days using M–CSF. Macrophages were polarised over 24 hour by IFNγ+LPS, IL–4, IL–10, oxPAPC (oxidised phospholipid) and CXCL4, respectively. Unpolarised macrophages were used as controls. Foam cell formation was determined by Oil–Red–O staining and acLDL uptake was detected by flow cytometry. Cholesterol content and efflux were measured using colorimetric and fluorescent assays. RNA expression was determined by RNA-seq and qRT-PCR and cell surface protein expression was measured by flow cytometry. Results IFNÃ&noentity;³+LPS macrophages did not readily form foam cells (0.23 compared to unpolarised) or process lipoprotein particles, whereas IL–4 and IL–10 polarised macrophages displayed the highest capacity in foam cell formation (1.02 and 1.08 compared to unpolarised) and lipoprotein handling. OxPAPC macrophages exhibited lipoprotein processing capabilities similar to IL–4 and IL–10 macrophages, but did not readily form foam cells (0.22 compared to unpolarised). CXCL4 macrophages displayed intermediate foam cell formation (0.84 compared to unpolarised) and lipoprotein handling capabilities. Differences in foam cell formation and lipoprotein uptake correlated directly to specific scavenger receptor gene and protein expression. Only IFNγ+LPS macrophages had significantly reduced expression of key internal lipoprotein processing genes (q 0.0001). Cholesterol efflux correlated directly to specific ABC transporter protein, but not RNA expression. Conclusions In vitro human macrophage phenotypes differ in foam cell formation and lipoprotein handling capabilities that are associated with differential key gene and protein expression.


Computation as a mechanical reality is young - almost exactly seventy years of age - and yet the spirit of computation can be traced several millennia back. Any moderately advanced civilization depends on calculation (for inventory, taxation, navigation, land partition, among many others) - our civilization is the first one that is conscious of this reliance.

Computation has also been central to science for centuries. This is most immediately apparent in the case of mathematics: the idea of the algorithm as a mathematical object of some significance was pioneered by Euclid in the 4th century BC, and advanced by Archimedes a century later. But computation plays an important role in virtually all sciences: natural, life, or social. Implicit algorithmic processes are present in the great objects of scientific inquiry - the cell, the universe, the market, the brain - as well as in the models developed by scientists over the centuries for studying them. This brings about a very recent - merely a few decades old - mode of scientific inquiry, which is sometime referred to as the lens of computation: When students of computation revisit central problems in science from the computational viewpoint, often unexpected progress results. This has happened in statistical physics through the study of phase transitions in terms of the convergence of Markov chain-Monte Carlo algorithms, and in quantum mechanics through quantum computing.

This talk will focus on three other manifestations of this phenomenon. Almost a decade ago, ideas and methodologies from computational complexity revealed a subtle conceptual flaw in the solution concept of Nash equilibrium, which lies at the foundations of modern economic thought. In the study of evolution, a new understanding of century-old questions has been achieved through surprisingly algorithmic ideas. Finally, current work in theoretical neuroscience suggests that the algorithmic point of view may be invaluable in the central scientific question of our era, namely understanding how behavior and cognition emerge from the structure and activity of neurons and synapses.


Intelligence is nature's answer to the logical and inference type of problems. Intelligence complies with the rules, and is perfectly fit for survival issues of a deterministic character. Within a certain set of premises, one evolves through reasoning from current state to a desired state of a given situation. Creativity, however, deals with problems that are so underdetermined and ill-defined, that reasoning falters, rules should be changed, and risky opportunities are explored. Creativity explores highly probabilistic and chaotic settings through disruptive association rather than reason. In the classical sense, problem solving is a goal-oriented activity and requires a set of strategies and procedures applied in a certain order. It involves cognitive processes to reach a preset goal. The overall goal that is to be achieved should be cut down to smaller sub-goals. Different strategies can be applied such as difference reduction, means-end analysis, or backward and forward reasoning. These strategies are all analytical and rule-based and can hardly deal with so-called 'wicked problems,' which are greatly underdetermined complexes of interacting problems that have no right or wrong answer. Such dilemmas or challenges need to be approached differently. They require intuition, empathy, and creativity, focusing less on specific goals. Which approach is chosen depends on whether a problem is well-defined or not. Because problems may have more answers, decisions should be made about the sort of solutions one wants. To do so, various contextual variables should be taken into account, for which many decision support-systems exist. Which system applies best to a problem depends on problem type (ill vs. well-defined), decision type (structured vs. unstructured), and underlying decision model (deterministic vs. probabilistic).


Since its original publication in 1982, Remington and Russell has become an essential introduction to the work of these artists, and this revision substantially enhances the book's strengths. Every painting in The Sid Richardson Collection has been rephotographed for this edition, including one Russell and five Remington paintings not included previously. Numerous black-and-white illustrations have also been added to give insight into the evolution of the paintings. Brian Dippie has considerably amplified his commentaries on each painting with new information. His revised introduction places Remington and Russell in the historical and cultural contexts of their time and draws intriguing comparisons between the two artists. A work of art in itself, Remington and Russell will delight admirers and collectors of Western art, as well as students of Western history and society.


Gossip-based communication protocols are appealing in large-scale distributed applications such as information dissemination, aggregation, and overlay topology management. This paper factors out a fundamental mechanism at the heart of all these protocols: the peer-sampling service. In short, this service provides every node with peers to gossip with. We promote this service to the level of a first-class abstraction of a large-scale distributed system, similar to a name service being a first-class abstraction of a local-area system. We present a generic framework to implement a peer-sampling service in a decentralized manner by constructing and maintaining dynamic unstructured overlays through gossiping membership information itself. Our framework generalizes existing approaches and makes it easy to discover new ones. We use this framework to empirically explore and compare several implementations of the peer-sampling service. Through extensive simulation experiments we show that---although all protocols provide a good quality uniform random stream of peers to each node locally---traditional theoretical assumptions about the randomness of the unstructured overlays as a whole do not hold in any of the instances. We also show that different design decisions result in severe differences from the point of view of two crucial aspects: load balancing and fault tolerance. Our simulations are validated by means of a wide-area implementation.


The model test on slatic ice pressure was carried out in low temperature laboratory. Through analyzing the thermodynamic model of ice sheet formation, deriving similarity scale of indoor model test, modeling the true field temperature process. It is confirmed that the maximum ice thickness of test value and site observation value is very nearly the same and the laboratory simulation of ice freezing process is according to natural law through the contrast of ice thickness curves of experimental value and site observation value. From slatic ice pressure curves, we can see that the maximum slatic ice pressure occurs in temperature rising period. When the ice sheet is thinner, the rising rate is faster. Conclusions: 1) The test lasted 387.4h, and the maximum ice thickness is 39.8cm. The simulation of ice freezing process corresponds with the order of nature. The simulation of thawing process is too difficult, owing to Solar Radiation. So the temperature control process need to be improved. 2) The maximum slatic ice pressure occurs in temperature rising period, which relating to temperature rising rate. The slatic ice pressure is larger when the rising rate is faster. The slatic ice pressure reaches to maximum value, when the temperature reaches to 0oC, and then evanesces quickly.


Separation logic is a Hoare-style logic for reasoning about programs with heap-allocated mutable data structures. As a step toward extending separation logic to high-level languages with ML-style general (higher-order) storage, we investigate the compatibility of nested Hoare triples with several variations of higher-order frame rules. The interaction of nested triples and frame rules can be subtle, and the inclusion of certain frame rules is in fact unsound. A particular combination of rules can be shown consistent by means of a Kripke model where worlds live in a recursively defined ultrametric space. The resulting logic allows us to elegantly prove programs involving stored code. In particular , it leads to natural specifications and proofs of invariants required for dealing with recursion through the store.


Introduction Preadipocytes constitute up to 50% of adipose tissue-derived stromal vascular fraction (SVF) and have the ability to differentiate into functional adipocytes in response to nutrient excess and metabolic demand. Impairment of the differentiation of SVF-derived preadipocytes in obesity is associated with increased risk of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes (Guilherme et al. 2008). Various factors influence preadipocyte differentiation including inflammatory cytokines such as IL-6 (Lagathu et al. 2003). We have previously shown a negative correlation between IL-6 secretion in subcutaneous tissue-derived preadipocytes and their adipogenic capacity, and have also shown that treatment of subcutaneous-preadipocytes with IL-6 can cause impairment of their differentiation (Almuraikhi et al. 2014). In order to validate the role of IL-6 in preadipocyte differentiation, we tested the effect of IL-6 and two different anti-IL6 antibodies on the proliferation and differentiation of human preadipocytes derived from adipose tissue using preadipocytes derived from bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) as a control. Methods Human adult subcutaneous adipose tissue-derived SVF (n = 9, passage 2–5) were cultured and induced to differentiate into adipocytes as previously described (Lee et al. 2012). Human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs; n = 3, passage 3) were used as controls (Kafienah et al. 2006). Immunophenotyping of preadipocytes was performed using anti-human antibodies: CD31-FITC, NG2-PE, CD166-PerCP-efluor, CD105-APC, CD45-Alexa flour 700, CD11b- Brilliant Violet 421, CD73- Brilliant Violet 605 (all from R&D Systems). Samples were processed using FACSCanto II flow cytometer (BD Bioscience) and analyzed with FlowJo Software (Treestar). The effect of treatment with recombinant IL-6 (20 ng/ml, 206-IL-050, R&D Systems) and anti-IL-6 antibodies (1&10 μg/ml MAB206, 50&100 ng/ml AF-206-NA, R&D Systems) for the entire differentiation period on MSCs and adipose tissue-derived preadipocytes was evaluated as described previously (Almuraikhy and Elrayess 2014). Briefly, total number of nuclei (DAPI, indicator of cell viability) and differentiated adipocytes (Lipidtox positive cells) were scored in 20 fields per well by ArrayScan XTI (Thermo Scientific) using automated spot detection module. Differentiation capacity was assessed by calculating the ratio of Lipidtox positive cells/total number of stained nuclei (% adipogenic capacity). All protocols were approved by Institutional Research Boards of ADLQ and HMC (SCH-ADL-070, SCH-JOINT-111). Results Flow cytometry analysis of preadipocytes derived from human subcutaneous adipose tissue confirmed that the majority of cells expressed MSC markers (80 ± 10%), of which 38 ± 21% co-expressed NG2 (Fig. 1). Treatment of bone marrow MSCs and adipose tissue-derived preadipocytes with IL-6 resulted in a reduction in their differentiation capacity. Anti-IL-6 antibodies targeting soluble secreted IL-6 reduced differentiation capacity of both bone marrow and adipose tissue-derived preadipocytes without affecting cell viability (Fig. 2). Discussion and conclusions Our data show that subcutaneous adipose tissue-derived preadipocytes share similar markers with bone marrow-derived MSCs including a marker of perivascular cells that co-express NG2, potentially derived from small blood vessels present in the SVF (Baer and Geiger 2012). Although previous studies suggested that MSCs in the tissue represent less than 3% of total cellular composition (Baer and Geiger 2012), our data show that the in vitro expansion of these cells for up to 5 passages favored the enrichment of MSCs over other cell types, confirming previous findings (Astori et al. 2007). Our data suggest that chronic treatment of bone marrow-derived and adipose tissue-derived preadipocytes with IL-6 resulted in inhibition of differentiation. The inhibition was even greater when secreted IL-6 was neutralized with anti-IL6 antibodies. This indicates that low levels of IL-6 are necessary for preadipocyte differentiation whereas higher concentrations result in inhibition of adipogenesis, suggesting a dual role of IL-6 in preadipocyte differentiation in both bone marrow and adipose tissue-derived preadipocytes. Acknowledgment This research was sponsored by Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF), Grant number NPRP6-235-1-048. References Almuraikhi S, Kafienah W, Bashah M, Jaganjac M, Abdesselem H, Mazloum N, Elrayess M (2014) Insulin Resistance-associated Impairment Of Preadipocyte Differentiation In Human Abdominal Obesity QScience HBPP0050. doi:10.5339/qfarc.2014.HBPP0050 Almuraikhy S, Elrayess M (2014) Role Of Inflammatory Cells In Insulin Resistance-associated Impairment Of Preadipocytes Differentiation QScience HBPP0194. doi:10.5339/qfarc.2014.HBPP0194 Baer PC, Geiger H (2012) Adipose-derived mesenchymal stromal/stem cells: tissue localization, characterization, and heterogeneity. Stem cells international 2012:812–693.doi:10.1155/2012/812693 Guilherme A, Virbasius JV, Puri V, Czech MP (2008) Adipocyte dysfunctions linking obesity to insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. Nature reviews Molecular cell biology 9:367–377. doi:10.1038/nrm2391 Kafienah W, Mistry S, Williams C, Hollander AP (2006) Nucleostemin is a marker of proliferating stromal stem cells in adult human bone marrow. Stem cells 24:1113-1120. doi:10.1634/stemcells. 2005–0416 Lagathu C, Bastard JP, Auclair M, Maachi M, Capeau J, Caron M (2003) Chronic interleukin-6 (IL-6) treatment increased IL-6 secretion and induced insulin resistance in adipocyte: prevention by rosiglitazone. Biochemical and biophysical research communications 311:372–379. Lee MJ, Wu Y, Fried SK (2012) A modified protocol to maximize differentiation of human preadipocytes and improve metabolic phenotypes. Obesity 20:2334–2340. doi:10.1038/oby.2012.116


Using data from 2018, a number of studies have found that recent U.S tariffs have been passed on entirely to U.S. importers and consumers. These results are surprising given that trade theory has long stressed that tariffs applied by a large country should drive down foreign prices. Using another year of data including significant escalations in the trade war, we find that U.S. tariffs continue to be almost entirely borne by U.S. firms and consumers. We show that the response of import values to the tariffs increases in absolute magnitude over time, consistent with the idea that it takes time for firms to reorganize supply chains. We find heterogeneity in the responses of some sectors, such as steel, where tariffs have caused foreign exporters to drop their prices substantially, enabling them to export relatively more than in sectors where tariff passthrough was complete.


Systems that monitor environments often rely on cumbersome wires to supply power to the sensing equipment or batteries that require monitoring and replacement. As technologies continue to advance, the use of self-sustaining, wireless powering becomes more essential to satisfy challenging requirements that necessitate continuous measurement and general functionality. This paper focuses on the creation of a wireless sensor network with emphasis on the implementation of wirelessly charged sensing nodes by utilizing microwaves. Three subsystems make up this "proof of concept" wireless sensor system: a power transmitting base station, three sensor nodes, and a communication base station. Interfacing and power regulation are of the utmost importance in order to ensure all of the subsystems are able to communicate with one another and power all necessary functions. The power transmitting base station transmits microwaves to the nodes. A rectenna on each node converts the transmitted microwaves into DC power. Each node contains sensors to monitor the temperature and light of the environment. For the communication aspect of the system, Zigbee protocol, which belongs to IEEE 802.15.4 protocol, is used fore wireless communication between the base station and the nodes. Through the combination of power regulation, microwave energy, and radio transmission, users are able to utilize this system to collect environmental sensor data wirelessly.


The cerebellar system for the voluntary control of arm-hand movements involves a large number of different neuron types. These neurons are located both inside the cerebellum but also in extracerebellar brain structures, which provide processed motor and sensory information to the cerebellum. The various different neuron types have different morphology, receive different types, number and patterns of synaptic inputs and have different firing rates and kinetics. However, a common trait for all neurons is that their firing properties have clear stochastic components, which is evident in recordings from the neurons recorded in brain preparations when all synaptic inputs is removed (in vitro). Here, we take advantage of a unique, comprehensive database of the various neuron types present within the cerebellar arm-hand control system, recorded from the brain in vivo, to provide a comparative description of their spike firing patterns. Although the inter-spike intervals for most cell types in this system can be described by a simple type of distribution characteristic for stochastic neurons, it is only for a few exceptional cases that the consecutive inter-spike intervals are independent of each other. We conclude that the spike patterns of these neurons may be the result of multi-factorial sources of variability that include the patterns in the various synaptic inputs that neurons receive in vivo and the inherent stochasticity of spike generation.


The successful transmission of dengue virus from a human host to a mosquito vector requires a complex set of factors to align. It is becoming increasingly important to improve our understanding of the parameters that shape the human to mosquito component of the transmission cycle so that vaccines and therapeutic antivirals can be fully evaluated and epidemiological models refined. Here we describe these factors, and discuss the biological and environmental impacts and demographic changes that are influencing these dynamics. Specifically, we examine features of the human infection required for the mosquito to acquire the virus via natural blood feeding, as well as the biological and environmental factors that influence a mosquito's susceptibility to infection, up to the point that they are capable of transmitting the virus to a new host.


It is well known that fish can learn to avoid angling gear after experiencing a catch‐and‐release event, that is, after a private hooking experience. However, the possible importance of social information cues and their influence on an individual's vulnerability to angling remains largely unexplored, that is, social experience of a conspecific capture. The effects of private and social experience of hooking on the stress response of fish and subsequent catch rates were examined. Hatchery‐reared rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss (Walbaum), were implanted with heart rate loggers and experimentally subjected to private or social experience of hooking. Private and social experience of angling induced an increased heart rate in fish compared with naive control fish. While private experience of hooking explained most of the reduced vulnerability to capture, no clear evidence was found that social experience of hooking affected angling vulnerability in fish that had never been hooked before. While both private and social experiences of angling constitute significant physiological stressors for rainbow trout, only the private experience reduces an individual's vulnerability to angling and in turn affecting population‐level catchability.


Abstract. Seven decades of extractions have dramatically reduced Jordan River flows, lowered the Dead Sea level, opened sink holes, and caused other environmental problems. The fix Jordan, Israel, and the Palestinians propose would build an expensive multipurpose conveyance project from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea that would also generate hydropower and desalinate water. This paper compares the Red-Dead project to alternatives that may also raise the Dead Sea level. Hydro-economic model results for the Jordan-Israel-Palestinian inter-tied water systems show two restoration alternatives are more economically viable than the proposed Red-Dead project. Many decentralized new supply, wastewater reuse, conveyance, conservation, and leak reduction projects and programs in each country can together increase economic benefits and reliably deliver up to 900 MCM yr−1 to the Dead Sea. Similarly, a smaller Red-Dead project that only generates hydropower can deliver large flows to the Dead Sea when the sale price of generated electricity is sufficiently high. However, for all restoration options, net benefits fall and water scarcity rises as flows to the Dead Sea increase. This finding suggests (i) each country has no individual incentive to return water to the Dead Sea, and (ii) outside institutions that seek to raise the Dead must also offer countries direct incentives to deliver water to the Sea besides building the countries new infrastructure.


SPECC1L mutations have been identified in patients with rare atypical orofacial clefts and with syndromic cleft lip and/or palate (CL/P). These mutations cluster in the second coiled-coil and calponin homology domains of SPECC1L and severely affect the ability of SPECC1L to associate with microtubules. We previously showed that gene-trap knockout of Specc1l in mouse results in early embryonic lethality. We now present a truncation mutant mouse allele, Specc1lΔC510, that results in perinatal lethality. Specc1lΔC510/ΔC510 homozygotes showed abnormal palate rugae but did not show cleft palate. However, when crossed with a gene-trap allele, Specc1lcGT/ΔC510 compound heterozygotes showed a palate elevation delay with incompletely penetrant cleft palate. Specc1lcGT/ΔC510 embryos exhibit transient oral epithelial adhesions at E13.5, which may delay shelf elevation. Consistent with oral adhesions, we show periderm layer abnormalities, including ectopic apical expression of adherens junction markers, similar to Irf6 hypomorphic mutants and Arhgap29 heterozygotes. Indeed, SPECC1L expression is drastically reduced in Irf6 mutant palatal shelves. Lastly, we wanted to determine if SPECC1L deficiency also contributed to non-syndromic (ns) CL/P. We sequenced 62 Caucasian, 89 Filipino, 90 Ethiopian, 90 Nigerian and 95 Japanese patients with nsCL/P and identified three rare coding variants (p.Ala86Thr, p.Met91Iso, p.Arg546Gln) in six individuals. These variants reside outside of SPECC1L coiled-coil domains and result in milder functional defects than variants associated with syndromic clefting. Together, our data indicate that palate elevation is sensitive to deficiency of SPECC1L dosage and function, and that SPECC1L cytoskeletal protein functions downstream of IRF6 in palatogenesis.


The study found that experience of disadvantage because of low income and mental health issues had encouraged men to engage in what have been called "communities of practice". These communities emerged within various support groups that were organised around football and mental health, being a father and for people trying to manage on lower incomes. They provide opportunities for men to support each other "informally" outside official, medical and care environments. They also provided opportunities for the men to think as a group about their mental and physical health.


Abstract Snow particle size is an important parameter strongly affecting snow cover broadband albedo from seasonally snow covered areas and ice sheets. It is also important in remote sensing analyses because it influences the reflectance and scattering properties of the snow. We have developed a digital image processing method for the capture and analysis of data of snow particle size and shape. The method is suitable for quick and reliable data capture in the field. Traditional methods based on visual inspection of samples have been used but do not yield quantitative data. Our method provides an alternative to both simpler and more complex methods by providing a tool that limits the subjective effect of the visual analysis and provides a quantitative particle size distribution. The method involves image analysis software and field efficient instrumentation in order to develop a complete process-chain easily implemented under field conditions. The output from the analysis is a two-dimensional analysis of particle size, shape, and distributions for each sample. The results of the segmentation process were validated against manual delineation of snow particles. The developed method improves snow particle analysis because it is quantitative, reproducible, and applicable for different types of field sites.


Abstract As applied to the manufacture of the ITER first wall, a rapidly quenched copper-based filler metal for brazing chromium-zirconium copper alloy (CuCrZr) with beryllium (Be) at temperatures below 720°C has been selected. The composition of the given filler metal has been optimized by varying the concentration of alloying elements, such as Sn, Ni, and P, improving the filler functional properties and quality. Rapidly quenched ribbon-type filler metals with various contents of alloying elements were investigated by differential thermal and X-ray phase analysis, atomic force microscopy, and scanning electron microscopy. To improve the casting performance of the filler metal and obtain high-quality ribbons, the kinematic viscosity of brazing alloys with various contents of Ni, Sn, and P has been investigated. The chromium-zirconium copper alloy has been brazed with Be using the filler metals obtained (by furnace brazing and fast brazing by passing an electric current). Based on the results of complex research, an ultrafast (quenching rate of ∼105°C/s) quenched brazing alloy STEMET 1101M (Cu-9.1Ni-3.6Sn-8.0P, in weight percent) has been selected and manufactured in the form of a ribbon that is 50 mm in width and 50 μm in thickness. An experimental mock-up of the ITER first wall has been made in D.V. Efremov SRIEA by rapid brazing (by passing a current) using the filler metal STEMET 1101M. The brazed joint has withstood 15 000 cycles of thermocycling under a thermal load of 0.5 to 5.9 MW/m2 without breaking.


In this paper we study the structure of local isometries on LX, C(K)). We show that when K is first countable and X is uniformly convex and the group of isometries of X ∗ is algebraically reflexive, the range of a local isometry contains all compact operators. When X is also uniformly smooth and the group of isometries of X ∗ is algebraically reflexive, we show that a local isometry whose adjoint preserves extreme points is a C(K)-module map.


Character animations are a crucial part of many interactive applications, from training simulations to videogames. As these applications have become more sophisticated, the growing number of character animations required has made standard animation techniques like key-framing and motion-capture increasingly expensive and time-consuming. Procedurally generating animations appears to offer a solution. This thesis extends and combines work from several areas of procedural animation to create an end-to-end system for the automatic generation of character animations for interactive applications. Specifically, our architecture pairs Spacetime Control, used to automatically generate new physically-valid clips of character animation, with a data-driven playback technique, used to automatically generate continuous streams of character motion from these clips in real-time. Our approach exploits the natural parameterization present in videogames and character motion to organize and automate the procedural generation of large quantities of character animation. It also supports rapid-prototyping, easily handles animation design changes, and may potentially be operated from start to finish by a single user. We demonstrate this architecture with a working implementation and show results from an example scenario starring a humanoid character capable of dozens of generated motions including standing, walking, running, turning and stepping.


This book is a call to arms to all architects, designers and built environment professionals. To avoid a climate catastrophe and achieve a regenerative built environment, the use of new materials and any excess waste in resources need to be cut out from the very beginning of the design process. This requires far-reaching change in established industry processes. How might this begin? What are the key fundamentals you need to know? How can a more effective model be applied? This book, a much-updated second edition of the author's previous work Building Revolutions, answers all your questions. Inspiring, but never overwhelming, the Handbook to Building a Circular Economy is your must-have companion to helping create a more sustainable future. It explains in simple and practical terms how the principles of a circular economy can be applied to the built environment, thereby reducing the resources required to construct, fit-out, maintain and refurbish buildings. Case studies include:

The Forge, UK, by Landsec
The Bath School of Art, UK, by Grimshaw
Urban Mining and Recycling Experimental Unit, Switzerland, by Werner Sobek
NASA Sustainability Base, USA, by William McDonough + Partners
University of East Anglia Enterprise Centre, UK, by Architype
Park 20|20, The Netherlands, by William McDonough + Partners.


This article reviews Bruce J. Dierenfield's book The Battle over School Prayer: How Engel v. Vitale Changed America. Professor Dierenfield provides thoughtful insights into the often contentious mixture of religion and public education in the United States and puts the 1962 Supreme Court case of Engel v. Vitale in historical context. The book reads both like both a history text and a novel, and therein lies both its uniqueness and strength. The author provides his reader with an understanding not only about the law at issue, but about the people whose personalities and circumstances will largely affect the contours of that law.


Recently, the demand for high speed wireless multimedia services has grown to an unprecedented level. Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) optical wireless communication (OWC) can be an excellent supplemental technology to radio frequency (RF) links to achieve high transmission rates. MIMO OWC has the potential for many applications including secure data communications, mobile advertisements, data exchange in dense high-contention scenarios, and in intelligent transportation systems (ITS). One form of MIMO OWC is a pixelated imaging system which transmits information via a series of pixelated image frames. Such systems have the potential to provide high transmission rates by exploiting spatial diversity at a large scale. For pixelated OWC, a liquid crystal display (LCD) screen or a pixelated grid of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) can be used as a transmitter, while a camera or an imaging lens along with an array of photodiodes can be used as a receiver. In order to be resilient to spatial distortions, pixelated systems can encode data using spatial orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (spatial OFDM) which is an extension of the concept of conventional OFDM to the 2-D spatial domain. Spatial DC biased optical OFDM (SDCO-OFDM) has been described in the literature for pixelated systems. Due to the attractive features mentioned above, spatial OFDM based pixelated systems can be promising candidates for next-generation OWC. However, the technology is still in its infancy and faces a number of challenges including power constraints, linear misalignment error, defocus blur and illumination fall-off known as vignetting. In this research, a novel modulation technique termed spatial asymmetrically clipped optical OFDM (SACO-OFDM) is presented for pixelated OWC. Misalignment, defocus, and vignetting are then modelled and their effects on spatial OFDM are analysed. Different signal processing techniques are applied to reduce the effects of these impairments. The joint impact of misalignment, defocus and vignetting on SACO-OFDM and SDCO-OFDM are then presented analytically and through simulations. The optimum choice of DC bias for SDCO-OFDM for a pixelated system is also presented. For the cases considered and for a given data rate, the proposed SACO-OFDM is shown to be more optically power- efficient than the existing SDCO-OFDM.


The addition of 2 mM bicarbonate to aquaria containing tropical ocean water and branches of Porites porites caused a doubling of the skeletal growth rate of the coral. Nitrate or ammonium addition (20 μM) to oligotrophic seawater caused a significant reduction in coral growth, but when seawater containing the extra bicarbonate was supplemented with combined nitrogen, no depression of the higher growth rate was evident. We infer that (1) the present dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) content of the ocean limits coral growth, (2) this limitation is exacerbated by nitrate and ammonium, and (3) adding DIC increases coral calcification rates and confers protection against nutrient enrichment.


Objectives: To determine the incidence of osteopenia and osteoporosis in the general population using broadband ultrasound bone densitometer.
 Material and Methods: Heel bone mineral densitometry was performed in 1713 patients with the help of a broadband ultrasond bone densitometer. The broadband ultrasound attenuation (BUA) and ultrasonic speed of sound (SOS) of the calcaneus were measured to obtain quantitative ultrasound index (QUI), bone mineral density (BMD), T-score and Z-score. Fracture risk was also estimated.
 Results: Out of the 1713 patients, 685 (39.9%) were found to have osteopenia and 190 (11%) had osteoporosis. The incidence of osteopenia and osteoporosis in women (41.6% and 14.2% respectively) was found to be higher than the values in men (37.1% and 5.5 % respectively). The incidence of osteopenia in the 31-39 years age group was found to be comparable in men and women (30.1% and 26.4% respectively). However, after the age of 40, the incidence of osteopenia and osteoporosis in women rose rapidly and was higher than that in men.
 Discussion: Bone formation is at it's peak in the mid 20's and continues till the age of 30-35 years after which the bone resorption gradually becomes faster than the formation of new bone. Bone density at any age would depend on peak bone density and the subsequent rate of bone loss. It is therefore important to determine the BMD in this age group to prevent osteoporosis and related complications later. Similarly it is important to subject women to assessment of BMD routinely after the age of 40 years as they are definitely at a higher risk of developing osteoporosis with advancing age.


Being-in-the-World is a guide to one of the most influential philosophical works of this century: Division I of Part One of Being and Time, where Martin Heidegger works out an original and powerful account of being-in-the-world which he then uses to ground a profound critique of traditional ontology and epistemology. Hubert Dreyfus's commentary opens the way for a new appreciation of this difficult philosopher, revealing a rigorous and illuminating vocabulary that is indispensable for talking about the phenomenon of world. The publication of Being and Time in 1927 turned the academic world on its head. Since then it has become a touchstone for philosophers as diverse as Marcuse, Sartre, Foucault, and Derrida who seek an alternative to the rationalist Cartesian tradition of western philosophy. But Heidegger's text is notoriously dense, and his language seems to consist of unnecessarily barbaric neologisms; to the neophyte and even to those schooled in Heidegger thought, the result is often incomprehensible. Dreyfus's approach to this daunting book is straightforward and pragmatic. He explains the text by frequent examples drawn from everyday life, and he skillfully relates Heidegger's ideas to the questions about being and mind that have preoccupied a generation of cognitive scientists and philosophers of mind.


When looking at variations in games, the board and the playing pieces provide evidence, but so do the number of dice that are part of play. It is shown that the number of dice being used not only affects the game but that the definition of the values for each throw have significant and game-altering implications. All variations under scrutiny in this study do not appear as radically different games physically or perceptually. It illustrates a situation in which significant changes in strategy and playing length due to changes in randomizing instruments did not necessitate changes in the overall board or the number of playing pieces. In other words, players in history may have experimented with randomizing devices and may have used varying sets of them without any visible repercussion on the remainder of the board game implements. In the history of board games it is shown that games may have varying board sizes and number of playing pieces while at the same time different games may be played on the same board, even using the same playing implements (Finkel, 2004, p. 54) Schädler (1998). Such variation that is found with board games complicates our understanding of their development in history. The attestation of a game board is not sufficient to rule out a set of different games being played on that same board, while variations of board design do not necessarily point at different playing communities (Finkel, 2004, p. 54). In order to understand the historical development of board games it is necessary to document what set of rules, boards and playing instruments were present at a particular point in time. Changes in observable variations can then be traced over time and across geographical regions to map the historical development and distribution of board games de Voogt, A.J., A.-E. Dunn-Vaturi & J.W. Eerkens (2013), (Murray, 1952, p. 133). This is an ongoing effort in archaeology but even descriptions of contemporary board games allow us to understand what variations are common within a players' community. In the following study, we analyze a set of games, which have minor variations in board size and number of playing pieces as well as known variations Board Game Studies Journal online 9, pp. 1–7 bgsj.ludus-opuscula.org 2 The role of the dice in board games history of randomizing implements, in this case cowries and cubic dice. The role of randomizing devices in the history and distribution of board games is not yet informed by a better understanding on how such implements affect a game. For this we looked at both the implications for strategy and playing time, the latter expressed as the average number of moves necessary to complete (part of) a game. While the results of this study do not seem to facilitate conclusions when different types and numbers of dice are attested, they do confirm that players are not bound by these implements and that dice variation should be considered common rather than an unusual phenomenon that requires historical explanation.


Abstract Chlorite is a ubiquitous product of metamorphism, alteration of magmatic rocks and hydrothermal processes owing to its large stability field and wide compositional range. Its composition is governed by several substitutions and has been used as a geothermometer, on the basis of empirical, semi-empirical, and thermodynamic models. As in some other phyllosilicates of petrological interest, the oxidation state of iron in chlorite may differ from the usually assumed divalent state. However, the crystal chemistry of trivalent iron in chlorite remains poorly known, and the thermodynamic properties of ferric chlorite are missing from databases used for petrological modeling. As part of an attempt to fill this gap, we present results from in situ, micrometer-scale measurements of the oxidation state of iron in various chlorite-bearing samples. X-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopy (XANES) was combined with electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) on the same crystals. Results show iron oxidation states varying from ferrous to ferric; iron is in octahedral coordination in all ferromagnesian chlorites but to ~25% tetrahedral in the lithian chlorite cookeite (1.0 wt% Fe2O3(total)). Absolute amounts of ferric iron cover an unprecedented range (0 to ~30 wt% Fe2O3). For highly magnesian, ferric chlorite, Fe concentrations are low and can be accounted for by Al = Fe3+ substitution. In Fe-rich samples, Fe3+ may exceed 2 atoms per formula unit (pfu, 18 oxygen basis). When structural formulas are normalized to 28 charges corresponding to the standard O10(OH)8 anionic basis, these measurements define the exchange vector of a di-trioctahedral-type substitution: 3 VI(Mg, Fe2+) = VI□ + 2 VIFe3+, as described in earlier studies. However, structural formulas calculated on the basis of the oxygen contents actually measured by EPMA show that this trend is an artifact, due to the neglect of variations in the number of protons in the structure. Our measurements indicate increasing hydrogen deficiency with increasing Fe3+ content, up to ~ 2 H+ pfu in the Fe3+-rich chlorite samples, corresponding to a net exchange vector of the type R2+ + H+ = Fe3+. These results do not support substitutions toward di-trioctahedral ferric end-members, and highlight the need for considering substitution toward an "oxychlorite" (i.e., H-deficient) ferric component, close to tri-trioctahedral, with an O12(OH)6 anionic basis, even in green, pristine-looking chlorite. The effects of iron oxidation and H deficiency on chlorite geothermometers were explored. They are deterring if H deficiency is ignored but, given the sensitivity of most thermometers to octahedral vacancy, the assumption Fetotal = Fe2+ is still safer than using high measured Fe3+ contents and the standard 28 charge basis, which artificially increases vacancies. In such ferric chlorites, EPMA measurement of oxygen allows a fair estimate of H content if Fe3+/Fe2+ is known; it should be more systematically implemented. For the same reasons, literature data reporting Fe3+-rich chlorite with vacancy content along the possibly artificial di-trioctahedral-type substitution should be verified. With the help of constraints from thermodynamic models, charge balance, crystal symmetry, and proton loss, a new cation site distribution is proposed for di-tri- to tri-trioctahedral chlorites in the Fe2+-Fe3+-Mg-Al-Si-O-H system, allowing a more realistic thermodynamic handling of their solid solutions.


Background The World Health Organization (WHO) launched a guideline in 2015 for managing Possible Serious Bacterial Infection (PSBI) when referral is not feasible in young infants aged 0–59 days. This guideline was implemented across 303 Basic Health Unit (BHU) Plus primary health care (PHC) facilities in peri-urban and rural settings of Sindh, Pakistan. We evaluated the implementation of PSBI guideline, and the quality of care provided to sick young infants at these facilities. Methods Thirty (10%) out of 303 BHU Plus facilities were randomly selected for evaluation. A survey team visited each facility for one day, assessed the health system support, observed the management of sick young infants by health care providers (HCP), validated their management, interviewed HCPs and caretakers of sick infants. HCPs who were unable to see a young infant on the day of survey were evaluated using pre-prepared case scenarios. Results Thirty (100%) BHU Plus facilities had oral amoxicillin, injectable gentamicin, thermometers, baby weighing scales and respiratory timers available; 29 (97%) had disposable syringes and needles; 28 (93%) had integrated management of childhood illness (IMCI)/PSBI chart booklets and job aids and 18 (60%) had a functional ambulance. Each facility had at least one HCP trained in PSBI, and 21 (70%) facilities had been visited by a supervisor in the preceding six months. Of 42 HCPs, 19 (45.3%) were trained within the preceding 12 months. During the survey, 26 sick young infants were identified in 18 facilities. HCPs asked about history of breastfeeding in 23 (89%) infants, history of vomiting in 17 (65%), and history of convulsions in 14 (54%); weighed 25 (97%) infants; measured respiratory rate in all (100%) and temperature in 24 (92%); assessed 20 (77%) for movement and 14 (54%) for chest indrawing. HCPs identified two infants with fast breathing pneumonia and managed them correctly per IMCI/PSBI protocol. HCPs identified six (23%) infants with clinical severe infection (CSI), two of them were referred to a higher-level facility, only one accepted the referral advice. Only one CSI patient was managed correctly per IMCI/PSBI protocol at the outpatient level. HCPs described the PSBI danger signs to eight (31%) caretakers. Caretakers of five infants with CSI and two with pneumonia were not counselled for PSBI danger signs. Five of the six CSI cases categorized by HCPs were validated as CSI on re-examination, whereas one had pneumonia. Similarly, one of the two pneumonia patients categorized by HCPs had CSI and one identified as local bacterial infection was classified as CSI upon re-examination. Conclusion Health system support was adequate but clinical management and counselling by HCPs was sub-optimal particularly with CSI cases who are at higher risk of adverse outcomes. Scaling up PSBI management is potentially feasible in PHC facilities in Pakistan, provided that HCPs are trained well and mentored, receive refresher training to appropriately manage sick young infants, and have adequate supplies and counselling skills.


Measurement of ionospheric total electron content (TEC) by using ground-based GPS receivers is now widely used, which we refer to as GPS-TEC. In Japan, there is one of the densest network of GPS receivers that is named as GEONET (GNSS Earth observation network system) operated by Geospatial Information Authority of Japan (GSI). We have developed three-dimensional (3D) tomography analysis based on the constrained least-squares fitting method, and applied it to the GPS-TEC data from GEONET. We started the real-time analysis with 15 minutes interval and about five minutes latency since March 2016. In this paper we report that we analyzed most of GEONET data since 1996 by using the supercomputer of Kyoto University. We assign one core of the supercomputer to one-day analysis (15-minute interval from 200 GPS receivers). By utilizing about 2000 core of the supercomputer syste, we achieved that processing time for one-year data was about 30 hours only. The results are statistically validated through comparisons with ionosondes and COSMIC occultation measurements. The maximum density from the 3D tomography showed good agreement with the foF2 parameter from ionosondes. We also found that the F2-peak of the 3D tomography density profile is lower in density, and higher in altitude compared with corresponding parameters from the COSMIC occultation measurements.


Stream metabolism is affected by both natural and human-induced processes. While metabolism has multiple implications for ecological processes, relatively little is known about how metabolic rates are influenced by land use in tropical streams. In this study, we assessed the metabolic characteristics and related environmental factors of six streams located in a transition area from Cerrado to Atlantic Forest (Sao Carlos/Brazil). Three streams were relatively preserved, while three were flowing through more agriculturally and/or urban impacted watersheds. Surface water samples were analyzed for biological and physico-chemical parameters as well as discharge and percentage of canopy cover. Metabolism was determined through the single-station method to estimate gross primary production (GPP), ecosystem respiration (ER) and net ecosystem production (NEP) with BAyesian Single-station Estimation (BASE). Nutrient concentrations tended to be higher in impacted versus preserved streams ( e.g ., average total phosphorus between 0.028-0.042 mg L -1 and 0.009-0.038 mg L -1 , respectively). Average canopy cover varied between 58 and 77%, with no significant spatial or seasonal variation. All streams were net heterotrophic (ER exceeded GPP) in all sampling periods. GPP rates were always lower than 0.7 gO 2 m -2 d -1 in all streams and ER varied from 0.6 to 42.1 gO 2 m -2 d -1 .  Linear Mixed-Effect models showed that depth, discharge, velocity and total phosphorus are the most important predictors for GPP. For ER, depth, velocity and canopy cover are significant potential predictors. Canopy cover was the main light limiting factor and influenced stream metabolism. Our findings reinforced the concepts that shifts in the shading effect provided by vegetation ( e.g ., through deforestation) or changes in discharge ( e.g ., through land use conversion or water abstractions) can impact freshwater metabolism. Our study suggests that human activities in low latitude areas can alter tropical streams' water quality, ecosystem function, and the degree of riparian influence. Our data showed that tropical streams can be especially responsive to increases of organic matter inputs leading to high respiration rates and net heterotrophy, and this should be considered to support management and restoration efforts.


Children are thoroughly, shockingly queer, as Kathryn Bond Stockton explains in The Queer Child , where she examines children's strangeness, even some children's subliminal "gayness," in the twentieth century. Estranging, broadening, darkening forms of children emerge as this book illuminates the child queered by innocence, the child queered by color, the child queered by Freud, the child queered by money, and the grown homosexual metaphorically seen as a child (or as an animal), alongside the gay child. What might the notion of a "gay" child do to conceptions of the child? How might it outline the pain, closets, emotional labors, sexual motives, and sideways movements that attend all children, however we deny it?

Engaging and challenging the work of sociologists, legal theorists, and historians, Stockton coins the term "growing sideways" to describe ways of growing that defy the usual sense of growing "up" in a linear trajectory toward full stature, marriage, reproduction, and the relinquishing of childish ways. Growing sideways is a mode of irregular growth involving odd lingerings, wayward paths, and fertile delays. Contending that children's queerness is rendered and explored best in fictional forms, including literature, film, and television, Stockton offers dazzling readings of works ranging from novels by Henry James, Radclyffe Hall, Virginia Woolf, Djuna Barnes, and Vladimir Nabokov to the movies Guess Who's Coming to Dinner , The Hanging Garden , Heavenly Creatures , Hoop Dreams , and the 2005 remake of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory . The result is a fascinating look at children's masochism, their interactions with pedophiles and animals, their unfathomable, hazy motives (leading them at times into sex, seduction, delinquency, and murder), their interracial appetites, and their love of consumption and destruction through the alluring economy of candy.


Fast food consumption is a dietary factor associated with higher prevalence of childhood obesity in the United States. The association between food prices and consumption of fast food among 5th and 8th graders was examined using individual-level random effects models utilizing consumption data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 (ECLS-K), price data from American Chamber of Commerce Researchers Association (ACCRA), and contextual outlet density data from Dun and Bradstreet (D&B). The results found that contextual factors including the price of fast food, median household income, and fast food restaurant outlet densities were significantly associated with fast food consumption patterns among this age group. Overall, a 10% increase in the price of fast food was associated with 5.7% lower frequency of weekly fast food consumption. These results suggest that public health policy pricing instruments such as taxes may be effective in reducing consumption of energy-dense foods and possibly reducing the prevalence of overweight and obesity among US children and young adolescents.


Line managers who are involved with employees on a daily basis are in a unique position to support their subordinate employees' development. However, organisations have found that achieving the required engagement from line managers is not straightforward. This particular study embraced a framework based on the Job DemandsResources model to help understand what are the factors most influencing line managers' engagement in support of subordinate employees' development. Through a mixed methodology approach, combining a questionnaire instrument and focus group discussions with line managers and other stakeholders within an organisation operating in the Oil and Gas industry, this study identified several findings that have implications on different levels. The results of the study indicated that organisation factors were perceived by line managers as being more important than both opportunity factors and motivation factors and that organisation factors moderate the impact of the ability, opportunity and motivation factors. In addition, it was found that organisation factors can moderate individual/contextual variables and also that certain individual/contextual variables may moderate organisation, opportunity and motivation factors.


Most planning problems have strong structures. They can be decomposed into subdomains with causal dependencies. The idea of exploiting the domain decomposition has motivated previous work such as hierarchical planning and factored planing. However, these algorithms require extensive backtracking and lead to few efficient general-purpose planners. On the other hand, heuristic search has been a successful approach to automated planning. The domain decomposition of planning problems, unfortunately, is not directly and fully exploited by heuristic search.

We propose a novel and general framework to exploit domain decomposition. Based on a structure analysis on the SAS+ planning formalism, we stratify the sub-domains of a planning problem into dependency layers. By recognizing the stratification of a planning structure, we propose a space reduction method that expands only a subset of executable actions at each state. This reduction method can be combined with state-space search, allowing us to simultaneously employ the strength of domain decomposition and high-quality heuristics. We prove that the reduction preserves completeness and optimality of search and experimentally verify its effectiveness in space reduction.


The use of various mineral admixtures, natural or artificial pozzolan as well as any alternative construction material that could partially or fully replace the conventional Portland cement concrete/mortar with quite similar or even improved performances is receiving nowadays more attention and highly encouraging practice. Back to nature and to ancient and traditional materials that are locally available is not a new vision but it is a strategy largely accepted and adopted to lower the environmental impact of construction sector. Using some locally available materials such as natural pozzolana may require an additional activation process such a calcination at relatively high temperature or a chemical activation by some known activators. Sarooj (SRJ) is a popular name given to a locally produced traditional or artificial pozzolana that has been extensively used as traditional construction material in several countries such Oman and some neighbouring countries like Iran. In modern days however; the usage of Sarooj material is limited to the plastering work and restoration of ancient castles and forts. Sarooj has large variety of chemical composition depending on the location from where it has been extracted and thus, the reactivity and the resulted mechanical performances vary to a large extent. This paper investigates the chemical and physical properties of a sample of Sarooj traditionally prepared and extracted from Wadi AL-Mawal region. The chemical analysis and XRD results indicate a great reactivity potential of this material if properly treated and designed. The traditional heat treatment applied seems to be not the appropriate way to reach the full activation of this clayey material. Although traditionally designed, the results of thermal conductivity showed a net decrease compared to normal Portland cement mortar. Combining the use of a locally produced material with an enhanced engineering properties could further promote sustainability in construction industry.


The preliminary results of radiation electric fields produced by long‐duration cloud flashes have been Fourier analyzed to determine the frequency spectrum in the range of 10 kHz–10 MHz. The flashes were recorded within a distance of less than 20 km. The spectrum was normalized to 50 km distance and it shows a f−1 dependence within the entire frequency range.


Background: Muscle mass loss has been a contributing factor to intensive care unit acquired weakness (ICUAW), a common complication in critically ill patients. Although research evidence supports neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) as a means of early mobilization, there are not any data on the effects of different protocols on muscle mass loss. This study aimed to explore the effects of different ΝΜES protocols on muscle mass in ICU patients. Methods and findings: This was a prospective, randomized study conducted in a multidisciplinary ICU. Twenty-one patients were randomized into two intervention NMES groups; these were the medium frequency (MF) group (45 Hz, 400 μsec, 12/6 sec on/off 45 min) and the high frequency (HF) group (75 Hz, 400 μsec, 5/21 sec on/off, 45 min). NMES was applied daily, from admission on vastus lateralis, vastus medialis and peroneus longus of both lower extremities. The contraction strength of the stimulated muscles was evaluated with a scale ranging from 0 (no contraction) to 4 (full extension). Alterations of muscle mass were evaluated with ultrasound measurements, performed on admission and at 10th day after, to quantify the muscle layer thickness of the quadriceps muscle (rectus femoris and vastus intermedius). Values are reported as mean ± SD. Eight patients of the MF group and 4 patients in the HF group were finally evaluated. No difference (p>0.05) between MF and HF groups (respectively) was observed for age (56 ± 16 vs. 65 ± 20 yrs), gender (4/4 vs. 3/1 male/ female), SOFA score (8 ± 3 vs. 7 ± 3), APACHE II score (17 ± 6 vs. 10 ± 5) and SAPS III score (65 ± 11 vs. 53 ± 13) at ICU admission. In relation to right quadriceps, muscle layer thickness decreased in the MF (from 2.7 ± 0.9 to 2.4 ± 0.7 mm, 9.5 ± 7.2%, p=0.04) and the HF (from 2.7 ± 0.6 to 2.5 ± 0.5 mm, 6.7 ± 3.7%, p=0.05) group. In concern to left quadriceps, thickness was also decreased in the MF (from 2.7 ± 0.8 to 2.2 ± 0.6 mm, 20.2 ± 6.2%, p=0.03) and the HF (from 2.7 ± 0.6 to 2.4 ± 0.7 mm, 15.7 ± 10.5%, p=0.06). For right and left legs (respectively), no significant between group differences were found for either absolute (p=0.58 and 0.41) or percentage (p=0.50 and 0.41) decrease. No significant differences between the MF and HF groups (respectively) were also observed for number (8.0 ± 1.1 vs. 7.8 ± 1.3 sessions, p=0.73) and percentage (93 ± 8% vs. 97 ± 6%, p=0.46) of NMES sessions completed and strength of contraction (2.5 ± 0.9 vs. 3.5 ± 0.6, p=0.11). Conclusions: Different NMES protocols applied in critically ill patients resulted in similar effects on muscle layer thickness of the quadriceps. Further studies are needed for the optimal protocol to be established.


ABSTRACT:This essay calls for a reconsideration of what has been termed "the poetry of witness." Typically, discussions of witness poetry have privileged a poet's physical proximity to the events written about. Even after the 9/11 attacks, an event that arguably produced witnesses around the world, a poet's authority has continued to rest on her having physically encountered extremity. This essay looks to the American poet Juliana Spahr's 2005 collection, This Connection of Everyone with Lungs, for the rewards of re-assessing long held conceptions of witnessing and proximity. Spahr responds to the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the subsequent war in Iraq. Her witness position is constructed not through proximity to extremity but through distance—both physical and critical—from it. Spahr's project expands a definition of witness as it suggests that witnessing disaster is an inevitable and inevitably shared part of living in the globalized world.


We propose a goal-driven web navigation as a benchmark task for evaluating an agent with abilities to understand natural language and plan on partially observed environments. In this challenging task, an agent navigates through a website, which is represented as a graph consisting of web pages as nodes and hyperlinks as directed edges, to find a web page in which a query appears. The agent is required to have sophisticated high-level reasoning based on natural languages and efficient sequential decision-making capability to succeed. We release a software tool, called WebNav, that automatically transforms a website into this goal-driven web navigation task, and as an example, we make WikiNav, a dataset constructed from the English Wikipedia. We extensively evaluate different variants of neural net based artificial agents on WikiNav and observe that the proposed goal-driven web navigation well reflects the advances in models, making it a suitable benchmark for evaluating future progress. Furthermore, we extend the WikiNav with question-answer pairs from Jeopardy! and test the proposed agent based on recurrent neural networks against strong inverted index based search engines. The artificial agents trained on WikiNav outperforms the engined based approaches, demonstrating the capability of the proposed goal-driven navigation as a good proxy for measuring the progress in real-world tasks such as focused crawling and question-answering.


Tetrahydrofolate (THF), a biologically active form of the vitamin folate (B9), is an essential cofactor in one-carbon transfer reactions. In bacteria, expression of folate-related genes is controlled by feedback modulation in response to specific binding of THF and related compounds to a riboswitch. Here, we present the X-ray structures of the THF-sensing domain from the Eubacterium siraeum riboswitch in the ligand-bound and unbound states. The structure reveals an "inverted" three-way junctional architecture, most unusual for riboswitches, with the junction located far from the regulatory helix P1 and not directly participating in helix P1 formation. Instead, the three-way junction, stabilized by binding to the ligand, aligns the riboswitch stems for long-range tertiary pseudoknot interactions that contribute to the organization of helix P1 and therefore stipulate the regulatory response of the riboswitch. The pterin moiety of the ligand docks in a semiopen pocket adjacent to the junction, where it forms specific hydrogen bonds with two moderately conserved pyrimidines. The aminobenzoate moiety stacks on a guanine base, whereas the glutamate moiety does not appear to make strong interactions with the RNA. In contrast to other riboswitches, these findings demonstrate that the THF riboswitch uses a limited number of available determinants for ligand recognition. Given that modern antibiotics target folate metabolism, the THF riboswitch structure provides insights on mechanistic aspects of riboswitch function and may help in manipulating THF levels in pathogenic bacteria.


Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effectiveness of implementing unmanned aerial delivery vehicles in delivery networks. We investigate the notion of the reduced overall delivery time, energy, and costs for a truck-drone network by comparing the in-tandem system with a stand-alone delivery effort. The objectives are (1) to investigate the time, energy, and costs associated to a truck-drone delivery network compared to standalone truck or drone, (2) to propose an optimization algorithm that determines the optimal number of launch sites and locations given delivery requirements, and drones per truck, (3) to develop mathematical formulations for closed form estimations for the optimal number of launch locations, optimal total time, as well as the associated cost for the system. Design/methodology/approach: The design of the algorithm herein computes the minimal time of delivery utilizing K-means clustering to find launch locations, as well as a genetic algorithm to solve the truck route as a traveling salesmen problem (TSP). The optimal solution is determined by finding the minimum cost associated to the parabolic convex cost function. The optimal min-cost is determined by finding the most efficient launch locations using K-means algorithms to determine launch locations and a genetic algorithm to determine truck route between those launch locations.  Findings: Results show improvements with in-tandem delivery efforts as opposed to standalone systems. Further, multiple drones per truck are more optimal and contribute to savings in both energy and time. For this, we sampled various initialization variables to derive closed form mathematical solutions for the problem. Originality/value: Ultimately, this provides the necessary analysis of an integrated truck-drone delivery system which could be implemented by a company in order to maximize deliveries while minimizing time and energy. Closed-form mathematical solutions can be used as close estimators for final costs and time.


Optical emission from an electronically coupled pair of nanoemitters is investigated, in a new theoretical development prompted by experimental work on oriented semiconductor polymer nanostructures. Three physically distinct mechanisms for photon emission by such a pair, positioned in the near-field, are identified: emission from a pairdelocalized exciton state, emission that engages electrodynamic coupling through quantum interference, and correlated photon emission from the two components of the pair. Each possibility is investigated, in detail, by examination of the emission signal via explicit coupling of the nanoemitter pair with a photodetector, enabling calculations to give predictive results in a form directly tailored for experiment. The analysis incorporates both near- and far-field properties (determined from the detector-pair displacement), so that the framework is applicable not only to a conventional remote detector, but also a near-field microscope setup. The results prove strongly dependent on geometry and selection rules. This work paves the way for a broader investigation of pairwise coupling effects in the optical emission from structured nanoemitter arrays.


NES (Scotland) Ltd. is an electrical installation & maintenance company (covering all aspects of
 electrical work) based in Paisley, Renfrewshire,
 and operating throughout Scotland.


We conduct a regional analysis of the relationship between market concentration and price dynamics in the grocery retail sector, focusing on a sample of five categories of goods belonging to the 12 COICOP aggregation and on a panel of countries that includes Germany, Spain, Finland, Italy, Austria and Portugal. Using a unique census-type dataset on retailers, we construct Herfindahl-Hirschman indices of concentration at the buying group, parent company and individual shop level for a sample of 118,540 large grocery stores and we study the association between these measures and regional price changes. Our results point to a positive association between retail market concentration and price growth in food and beverages, alcohol and tobacco and miscellaneous goods in the time span 2003-2010 at the buying, parental group and store level for the pooled sample of countries. The relation reverses sign for clothing and footwear and household equipment. This evidence is robust to different specifications of concentration indices.


This book is designed primarily for middle and junior management who deal with financial information without really understanding the content; students who are studying accounting as a non-specialist subject, for example on a business studies or engineering course. The book serves as a basic reference to be used throughout the course. It will also be particularly helpful in providing the basic grounding that is required before moving on to the more technical and in-depth study of the subject that may be required on some courses. Students who are embarking on a course of study to become a professional accountant will also find this book of major benefit.In addition to revisions through out, a new chapter 'Making long-term investment decisions' covering capital investment decisions, extends and rounds out the final part of the book: using Financial Information to Manage a Business. The chapter deals with the investment appraisal process and covers the main investment appraisal techniques from the point of view of a non-specialist: payback periods, accounting rate of return and discounted cash flow methods are just some of the new topics covered. The focus will be on the level of understanding that a non-specialist requires in the work place as such, in keeping with the rest of the book, the chapter includes practical examples and exercises to enhance the reader's understanding.This book is jargon free and easy to understand - no prior knowledge of the subject necessary. It focuses on the principles and use of accounting information. It features review questions to assess progress at each stage and many fully worked exercises and examples.


Table 1. Ornamental traits for three populations of Dalea pupurea grown in field plots at North Platte, Neb., in 1988 (populations 1 and 2) and 1990 (population 3). Dalea pulpurea Vent., formerly designated as Petalostemon purpureus (Vent.) Rydb., is a native herbaceous plant found growing in the United States from North Dakota to Texas and from the Mississippi River to the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains (Great Plains Flora Assn., 1986). Dalea purpurea would likely be more accepted as an ornamental plant if additional selections with improved flowering and foliage traits were available. Two populations of D. purpurea were evaluated for variation in height, stem color, foliage color, flowering time, stem count, and lodging. Population 1 (467 plants) was the cultivar Kaneb (Stock Seed Farm, Murdock, Neb.) and population 2 (278 plants) came from the Nebraska Federated Garden Clubs wildflower distribution program (source unknown). Seeds from the two sources of D. pulpurea were cold-stratified at 2 2 2C for 6 weeks, moved to a greenhouse, germinated, and transplanted to field plots in 1987. Field soil was a Typic haplustoll (Cozad silt loam). Plants were irrigated at transplanting time in the field and then only as needed during the growing season. In 1988, the second year after planting, notes on growth characteristics were recorded 9 and 10 July for height (cm), stem color (1 = green to 5 = red), foliage color (rated as 1 = light green to 5 = dark green), flowering time (1 = early to5 = late), stems per plant and lodging (1 = no lodging to 5 = complete lodging). These traits were selected because they affect the attractiveness of the plant for land-


The molecular signature of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in groundwaters can be used
as a tool when investigating the palaeohydrological response of groundwater systems in relation
to changes in recharge environment, and also for examining groundwater compartmentalisation,
mixing and transport at underground repositories for radioactive waste. The DOM in
groundwaters from two compartmentalised bodies of groundwater of distinctly different origin
within the Aspo Underground Research Laboratory (URL), Sweden and in Baltic seawater has
been isolated using tangential flow ultrafiltration (TUF) and diafiltration. Recoveries of DOM
ranged from 34.7 to 0.1 mg/L with substantial differences in the concentrations of the
groundwaters collected only 120 m apart. Analysis by infrared spectroscopy (IR) and pyrolysisgas
chromatography-mass spectrometry (Py-GC-MS) of the isolated DOM revealed that the
groundwaters contained abundant alkylphenols which may represent heavily decomposed
proteins or lignins originating from biopolymers contained within soils. The difference in the
distribution and relative abundance of major pyrolysis products groups such as alkyphenols
confirmed that the groundwater and Baltic seawater DOM samples were chemically distinct
indicating minimal infiltration of marine groundwater derived by recharge from the Baltic or
earlier Littorina Sea within the two compartmentalised groundwater bodies.


Is it possible to secure the desired policy action 'infusing' gender into existing ways of doing and organising things – and by so doing to incrementally secure real gains for women? Or will transformative policies for women's empowerment only be achieved through discursive and organisational transformation? But can the two be separated so neatly? Are there possibly unpredictable effects when feminist policy actors are on the one hand committed to changing discourse and power relations while on the other hand acting pragmatically to secure small instrumental changes? Taking international development organisations as the field of analysis, this article examines assumptions about policy change as a pathway of women's empowerment and goes on to explore a shift from a focus on institutional capability to one on actors and agency, and on strategies, tactics and manoeuvres.


Centella asiatica or locally known as 'Pegaga' is one of the most common
medicinal plants used by diverse ancient cultures and tribal groups. Its medicinal
values are mainly attributed to the presence of the triterpene constituents. As
there is still no information available on the triterpene production in cultured
tissues, studies were carried out in determining the triterpene distribution
particularly asiatic acid, madecassic acid, asiaticoside and madecassoside in intact
plants of the twelve accessions of C. asiatica collected throughout Malaysia as
well as in the callus and cell suspension cultures.
Results obtained from the studies revealed that twelve accessions of C. asiatica
differed both in their morphologies and their triterpene contents. The triterpenes
constituents were detected at a range of 0.134 to 1.655 mg/g dry weight in the
whole plant intact tissues. Triterpenes were also successfully detected in the callus
(0.014 to 0.773 mg/g dry weight) and cell suspension cultures (0.005 to 0.084
mg/g dry weight), the amount that were lower than that produced in the intact tissues. However, manipulating the physical culture conditions, feeding of
precursor, elicitation as well as amino acid addition managed to increase the
triterpenes content in cultured tissues. Studies on the effects of the medium
composition show that full strength of the basal Murashige and Skoog medium
supplemented with B5 vitamins and sucrose (3-4%) increased the triterpenes
content in both callus and cell suspension cultures. An interaction of auxincytokinin
has observed being important for both callus and cell suspension
cultures in enhancing triterpenes production. Higher triterpenes content was
obtained in callus treated with 2,4-D and kinetin while the combination of kinetin
and dicamba enhanced the triterpenes production in cell suspension cultures. The
precursor-feeding studies revealed that lower concentrations of squalene (0.16
mg/L in callus and 0.8 mg/L in cells) were preferred for triterpenes production.
Squalene at 0.16 mg/L had successfully triggered the production of
madecassoside, asiaticoside and madecassic acid in callus cultures while asiatic
acid and madecassic acid content was increased in cells treated with 0.8 mg/L
squalene. The elicitor studies exhibited that the different elicitors showed
distinctive effects on triterpenes production. Nevertheless, supplementation of
succinic acid at 3 and 4 mg/L was found the best in increasing the triterpenes
production in callus and cell suspension cultures, respectively. Addition of amino
acid into the culture media was also found to promote the triterpenes production in
in vitro cultures. The study further concluded that the combinations of the
optimized factors namely medium composition, precursor feeding, elicitation and
amino acid addition is a very useful strategy in enhancing the triterpenes production particularly the asiatic acid and madecassic acid in in vitro cultures of
C. asiatica.


Human and murine cerebral malaria are associated with elevated levels of cytokines in the brain and adherence of platelets to the microvasculature. Here we demonstrated that the accumulation of platelets in the brain microvasculature can be detected with MRI, using what we believe to be a novel contrast agent, at a time when the pathology is undetectable by conventional MRI. Ligand-induced binding sites (LIBS) on activated platelet glycoprotein IIb/IIIa receptors were detected in the brains of malaria-infected mice 6 days after inoculation with Plasmodium berghei using microparticles of iron oxide (MPIOs) conjugated to a single-chain antibody specific for the LIBS (LIBS-MPIO). No binding of the LIBS-MPIO contrast agent was detected in uninfected animals. A combination of LIBS-MPIO MRI, confocal microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy revealed that the proinflammatory cytokine TNF-alpha, but not IL-1beta or lymphotoxin-alpha (LT-alpha), induced adherence of platelets to cerebrovascular endothelium. Peak platelet adhesion was found 12 h after TNF-alpha injection and was readily detected with LIBS-MPIO contrast-enhanced MRI. Temporal studies revealed that the level of MPIO-induced contrast was proportional to the number of platelets bound. Thus, the LIBS-MPIO contrast agent enabled noninvasive detection of otherwise undetectable cerebral pathology by in vivo MRI before the appearance of clinical disease, highlighting the potential of targeted contrast agents for diagnostic, mechanistic, and therapeutic studies.


Introduction: This article provides an overview of the financial lives of women (n = 204) engaging in sex work in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Methods: This paper presents findings from a computer-based, interviewer-administered baseline assessment administered with women recruited for participation in a randomized controlled trial testing the feasibility of a combined HIV risk reduction and savings-led microfinance intervention for women engaging in sex work in Mongolia. Findings: Findings demonstrate that most women are the primary financial providers for their households, using an array of earning strategies to provide for themselves and other dependents, with sex work often constituting the primary household income source. Financial instability in the lives of people engaging in sex work may increase their risk for HIV and STIs due to a compromised ability to negotiate safer sex with partners in times of economic crisis or need. High levels of financial responsibility for household welfare, when combined with low reported savings, the presence of debt, higher premiums offered for sex without a condom, and high levels of harmful alcohol use, may heighten women's risk for HIV and other STIs. Conclusion: Further research that documents the financial lives of people working in sex work is needed in order to understand the complex relationship between financial stability and engagement in sex work, and to inform the development and testing of structural HIV prevention interventions which target the economic determinants of risk. These findings highlight the importance of economic support programming for women engaged in sex work in Mongolia at a time of rapid economic change in Mongolia.


Adaptive choice-based conjoint (ACBC) analysis is a technique that uses choice data and incorporates it into an adaptive interviewing experience. ACBC analysis has been suggested to provide more accurate information at the individual level, which can lead to better predictions even when using smaller sample sizes. A comparison of a traditional choice-based conjoint (CBC) survey and an ACBC survey was undertaken to compare the overall utility scores and importance values of attributes determined by both techniques using sour cream as the subject. A CBC and an ACBC survey were conducted. More respondents participated in the CBC (n = 777) survey than in the ACBC version (n = 250). Respondents to the ACBC version were from the same pool of respondents to the CBC version. A random sample of 250 respondents from the CBC survey was also analyzed. Results were analyzed by overall utility scores, importance values, landscape segmentation analysis and cluster analysis via latent class. The ACBC and CBC results were similar in overall utility scores for all attributes with similar respondent clusters. Both techniques revealed fat content as the most important attribute, followed by price and followed by brand. The CBC result for 250 respondents overestimated the importance of brand. The ACBC utility scores were not as distinct as CBC results in all categories; however, the direction of the mean utility scores was the same in all categories. Overall, ACBC and CBC revealed similar outcomes for different sour cream product types when price was excluded; however, the CBC results differentiated products to a greater extent than ACBC with the same sample size considered.

Practical Applications
Conjoint analysis is a research technique widely utilized across multiple industries as a way of determining the utility of a product or a product feature. Adaptive choice-based conjoint (ACBC) is a new form of conjoint analysis. Because of the format of ACBC studies, respondents may be more engaged in the survey-taking experience and provide answers that are more in-line with their actual choice behavior. Because of this, ACBC studies may reveal more accurate responses for specific attributes such as brand and/or price. ACBC studies may also require fewer respondents, which is advantageous when the audience is highly selective, or if money and/or time is a concern.


In economics there is presently an almost revolutionary development. The direct measurement of subjective welfare challenges traditional economics, inspires it, and opens new avenues for scientific research. The approaches and possibilities of an economic analysis of happiness are shown and illustrated with two specific applications. The relationship between income and life satisfaction is strongly shaped by the aspiration level serving to evaluate life conditions. The aspiration levels are formed by social comparisons and adaptation processes. The Life Satisfaction Approach is a new method to capture the value of public goods. The short discussion of governmental i?½happiness policyi?½ from a constitutional viewpoint suggests a comparative institutional analysis of subjective well-being. The happiness revolution in economics is only at its beginning. More insights concerning institutions allowing people to pursue their own conception of a good life are to be expected.


Based on the analogue spacetime programme, and many other ideas currently mooted in "quantum gravity", there is considerable ongoing speculation that the usual pseudo-Riemannian (Lorentzian) manifolds of general relativity might eventually be modified at short distances. Two specific modifications that are often advocated are the adoption of Finsler geometries (or more specifically, pseudo-Finsler spacetimes) and the possibility of birefringence (or more generally, multi-refringence). We have investigated the possibility of whether it is possible to usefully and cleanly deal with these two possibilities simultaneously. That is, given two (or more) "signal cones": Is it possible to naturally and intuitively construct a "unified" pseudo-Finsler spacetime such that the pseudo-Finsler metric is null on these "signal cones", but has no other zeros or singularities? Our results are much less encouraging than we had originally hoped, and suggest that while pseudo-Finsler spacetimes are certainly useful constructs, it is physically more appropriate to think of physics as taking place in a single topological manifold that carries several distinct pseudo-Finsler metrics, one for each polarization mode.


Abrasion of metallic materials, especially at elevated temperatures, is a complex process with many influencing factors which ultimately lead to material loss in many applications. This work focus on the investigation of deformation and wear mechanisms present during a single abrasive event. Thereto the scratch behaviour of different steels were studied under variation of different parameters like temperature, which influences microstructural changes and a concomitant hardness drop, and velocity, which strongly affects the hardening mechanisms within the deformed areas. Both parameters influence the resistance against a penetrating abrasive. Therefore a high temperature scratch test (HT-ST) was developed, which enables scratch testing from 1–100 N and temperatures up to 1000°C. Within this study a diamond frustum with a tip radius of 200 μm was chosen as indenter. Scratch tests were performed at room temperature, 500°C and 800°C. Normal load was kept constant at 50 N and sliding velocities were set between 1 mm/s and 1 mm/min. Three steels were chosen for investigation: (i) a ferritic-pearlitic steel, (ii) a ferritic steel with chromium carbides and (iii) an austenitic steel. For the determination of wear mechanisms light microscopy and 3D-confocal white light microscopy were used. High resolution scanning electron microscopy, including electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) measurements, were performed on cross sections, revealing different deformation mechanisms and surface hardening effects. In the EBSD-analyses hardening effects were pointed out, using orientation mapping with inverse pole figures and grain boundary maps in deformed and initial structures. Results indicate a high influence of both temperature and velocity on the scratch behaviour of materials.


Abstract We address this question using an estimated New Keynesian DSGE model of the Euro Area with trend inflation, imperfect indexation, and a lower bound on the nominal interest rate. In this setup, a decrease in the steady-state real interest rate, r ★ , increases the probability of hitting the lower bound constraint, which entails significant welfare costs and warrants an adjustment of the monetary policy strategy. Under an unchanged monetary policy rule, an increase in the inflation target of eight tenths the size of the drop in the real natural rate of interest is warranted. Absent an increase in the inflation target, and assuming the effective lower bound prevents the ECB from implementing more aggressive negative interest rate policies, adjusting the monetary strategy requires considering alternative instruments or policy rules, such as committing to make-up for recent, below-target inflation realizations.


Background Mammalian hearing is refined by amplification of the sound-evoked vibration of the cochlear partition. This amplification is at least partly due to forces produced by protein motors residing in the cylindrical body of the outer hair cell. To transmit power to the cochlear partition, it is required that the outer hair cells dynamically change their length, in addition to generating force. These length changes, which have not previously been measured in vivo, must be correctly timed with the acoustic stimulus to produce amplification. Methodology/Principal Findings Using in vivo optical coherence tomography, we demonstrate that outer hair cells in living guinea pigs have length changes with unexpected timing and magnitudes that depend on the stimulus level in the sensitive cochlea. Conclusions/Significance The level-dependent length change is a necessary condition for directly validating that power is expended by the active process presumed to underlie normal hearing.


The aim of this thesis is to explore a specifi c aspect of the relationship between photography
and tourism, that is, how the democratisation of photography infl uenced the marketing of
tourism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. It focuses on the fi rst fi fty years
of activity of the Polytechnic Touring Association (PTA), an initially philanthropic turned
commercial travel fi rm, whose historical origins coincided with the Kodak-led emergence
of popular photography in 1888. During this period, the travel fi rm moved from using
photography-based images to rely increasingly on mixed media, including drawings and
graphic design. This use of new representational media was certainly a response to new
market demands; if and how a new approach to photography also infl uenced it, however, is
still an unexplored question. By taking as its principal primary source the PTA archive, this
research thus seeks to establish the extent to which such a shift can also be explained by
accounting for the transformed perception engendered by new photographic practices.
The thesis begins with an examination of how practices of photographic production and
consumption might relate to changing understandings of photography and travel, and their
consequent infl uence on the demand for and representation of tourism. It then moves on to
consider this relationship between tourism and tourist practices in the context of the social
and cultural changes that saw the emergence and development of mass photography, tourism,
and tourism marketing from the late nineteenth century. The specifi c representational
choices made by the PTA to promote its tours are then investigated against this historical
background. Specifi cally, these are explored in relation to the changing function of the
tours, and, in a related way, to the perception of tourists as evidenced by their practices, in
particular photographic ones.
Overall, this investigation argues that the multiplicity of photographic perspectives
engendered by the democratisation of photography, and a related transformation of the
value attached to the photograph, resulted in an organisation such as the PTA reconsidering
how best to represent itself in light of a shift from broadly educational concerns to emergent
commercial imperatives.


This artist catalogue has been produced for Lena Simic's solo performance Masha Serghyeevna (Bluecoat, Liverpool 2009) and while it predominantly focuses on this particular work, it also overviews the last five years (2004 – 2009) of Simic's performance making processes and practice:
Medea/Mothers' Clothes (Bluecoat, Liverpool 2004)
Magdalena Makeup (Art Workshop Lazareti, Dubrovnik and Old Police Station Community Centre on Lark Lane, Liverpool 2004)
Joan Trial (Nuffield Theatre, Lancaster 2005)
Contemplation Time (2007-08)
Sid Jonah Anderson by Lena Simic (MAP Live, Source Cafe, Carlisle 2008)
The Institute for the Art and Practice of Dissent at Home (2007-ongoing).
The first part of the catalogue notes Masha Serghyeevna and its processes whilst the second part of the catalogue gathers an array of commissioned critical perspectives, creative responses and affirmative contexts for Simic's previous work from friends, colleagues and herself. These include writing from Imogen Tyler, Abi Lake, Paula McCloskey, Kerstin Bueschges and Cathy Butterworth. Short descriptions of all of the mentioned arts projects, an extract from Joan Trial performance text and full Masha Serghyeevna performance text are also included.


This document specifies how the NetInf information-centric network
service can be used for transport of live video streaming. To
illustrate this it describes a prototype system that was developed to
be used at "events with large crowds", e.g., sports events. The
specification defines how the used video format is mapped to NetInf
named data objects (NDOs). It also describe how NetInf messages are
used to transfer the NDOs.