Current nanoscale designs are highly interconnect dominated, taking about 70% of the chip
area. Interconnects also consume a significant part of the dynamic power and are responsible
of about the 60% of signal delays. It is, thus, important to be able to synthesize much lower
interconnect-complexity designs than are possible with current high-level synthesis (HLS) tools
and algorithms. Towards that end, we have developed the following new paradigms in the
scheduling, binding and general architecture synthesis problems of HLS:
• Flexibly-structured that connect a few neighborhood functional units (FUs) instead of
dedicated interconnects between pairs of FUs, thereby sharing interconnects among a
number of FU pairs that need to communicate.
• Communication scheduling (followed by standard operation scheduling that respects the
communication schedules) in which communications between FUs are scheduled at ap-
propriate times to minimize the number of buslets needed, subject to buslet cardinality
constraints (for the purpose of upper bounding signal delay).
• Buslet binding techniques, aiming to respect both buslet cardinality constraint and a con-
straint on maximum fanin and fanout for the functional units. These techniques will range
from simple but effective approaches like chronological binding (CB) to more sophisticated
ones, like the use of lookahead approaches and simultaneous binding of iso-scheduled com-
munications (communications scheduled in the same clock cycle). Furthermore, in this
direction, similar solutions detection mechanism was developed, in order to improve the final quality of the result. Finally, also a force directed approach was used to solve the
binding problem (FDB). All these techniques were implemented and compared in terms
of both performance and complexity.
• Buslet power modeling. A number of configurations with multiple tri-state buffers for
interconnecting FUs through a buslet were implemented, aiming to minimize the total
power consumed using buslets. These range from techniques using minimum spanning
trees to more sophisticated structures with constraints on maximum graph distance be-
tween connected FUs to hierarchical partitioning.
Using the aforementioned techniques, we obtain significant wirelength (WL) reduction, ranging
between 35% and 71%, compared to conventional designs with dedicated interconnects between
communicating FU-pairs. The total chip area, including total FU area, also reduces in our
designs compared to conventional designs. The power, on the other side of the coin, will
increase with buslet size, but sublinearly. Empirical results show that we are able to limit
the increment of power consumed by buslets compared to dedicated-interconnect designs, to a
logarithmic function of the maximum buslet cardinality.


Today, Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) has gained international recognition and is widely used to complement the conventional methods of resolving disputes through courts of law. ADR simply entails all modes of dispute settlement/resolution other than the traditional approaches of dispute settlement through courts of law. Mainly, these modes are: negotiation, mediation, [re]conciliation, and arbitration. The modern ADR movement began in the United States as a result of two main concerns for reforming the American justice system: the need for better-quality processes and outcomes in the judicial system; and the need for efficiency of justice. ADR was transplanted into the African legal systems in the 1980s and 1990s as a result of the liberalization of the African economies, which was accompanied by such conditionalities as reform of the justice and legal sectors, under the Structural Adjustment Programmes. However, most of the methods of ADR that are promoted for inclusion in African justice systems are similar to pre-colonial African dispute settlement mechanisms that encouraged restoration of harmony and social bonds in the justice system. In Tanzania ADR was introduced in 1994 through Government Notice No. 422, which amended the First Schedule to the Civil Procedure Code Act (1966), and it is now an inherent component of the country's legal system. In recognition of its importance in civil litigation in Tanzania, ADR has been made a compulsory subject in higher learning/training institutions for lawyers. This handbook provides theories, principles, examples of practice, and materials relating to ADR in Tanzania and is therefore an essential resource for practicing lawyers as well as law students with an interest in Tanzania. It also contains additional information on evolving standards in international commercial arbitration, which are very useful to legal practitioners and law students.


Polychelidan lobsters (Decapoda: Polychelida) are crustaceans with extant species which are restricted to deep water environments. Fossil species, however, used to live in more varied palaeoenvironments, from shallow water to deep water, and were more diverse morphologically. We redescribe two species of polychelidan lobsters, the Late Triassic Rosenfeldia triasica Garassino, Teruzzi & Dalla Vecchia, 1996 and the Late Jurassic Eryon oppeli Woodward, 1866, recently assigned to the same genus, Rosenfeldia , based upon only a few characters. Our investigation of all available material of both species leads us to distinguish these two species and to erect Rogeryon gen. nov. to accommodate Eryon oppeli . The palaeobiology of both species is interpreted for the first time. Rosenfeldia triasica with its stout first pereiopods and mandibles with both incisor and molar processes (documented for the first time in Polychelida) was benthic and probably fed either on slow-moving sedentary preys or was a scavenger. Rogeryon oppeli gen. et comb. nov. was benthic, visually adapted to shallow water palaeoenvironments, and possibly had a diet similar to that of slipper lobsters and horseshoe crabs. The redescription of these two species highlights the palaeobiological diversity of fossil polychelidans.


An investigation is reported into the story comprehension abilities of four groups of children: those with typical specific language impairment (SLI-T), those with pragmatic language impairments who were not autistic (PLI), those with high-functioning autism (HFA) and typically developing controls. The story comprehension task required children to answer questions about the literal content of the story, as well as questions involving two types of inferences: text-connecting and gap-filling. The control children outscored the three clinical groups on story comprehension, but the group means of the clinical groups did not differ. However, categorical examination of the data revealed that children with pragmatic difficulties related to HFA were more likely to have specific inferencing deficits. Error analysis suggested that all children could make inferences, but these were not always relevant to the story context. This supports the notion of weak central coherence underlying deficits in inferencing. There were no group differences on story recall. However, there was a strong relationship between story comprehension and recall, in that those who had better comprehension tended to have better recall. It is concluded that comprehension aids recall by enabling the listener to build a more stable mental representation of the story. The pragmatic deficits seen in autism compromise this process.


We present a systematic theoretical study of atmospheric mineral dust radiative properties, focusing on implications for multiangle and multispectral remote sensing. We model optical properties of complex, nonspherical mineral dust mixtures in three visible-near-infrared satellite channels: 0.550, 0.672, and 0.866 μm, accounting for recent field and laboratory data on mineral dust morphology and mineralogy. To model the optical properties of mineral dust, we employ the discrete dipole approximation technique for particles up to 2 μm diameter and the T matrix method for particles up to 12 μm. We investigate the impact of particle irregularity, composition, and size distribution on particle optical properties, and we develop optical models for representative natural mineral dust composition-size-shape types. Sensitivity studies with these models indicate that Multiangle Imaging Spectroradiometer (MISR) data should be able to distinguish plate-like from grain-like dust particles, weakly from strongly absorbing compositional types, and monomodal from bimodal size distributions. Models containing grain-like, weakly absorbing, bimodal distributions of dust particles were favored for optically thick Saharan and Asian dust plume examples, whereas strongly absorbing and plate-like particles were rejected. We will present detailed, systematic MISR sensitivity studies and analysis of more complex field cases using the optical models derived here in a future paper.


Social drama in France in the new subsidised theatres, 1945-1968, with special reference to the work of Gabriel Cousin: by D . W . Jeffery____________________ _________________ A fresh impetus was given to the development of provincial theatre in France immediately after the Second World War by the establishment of* five subsidised Centres Dramatiques Nationaux in Colmar, Saint-Étienne, Toulouse, Rennes, and Aix-en-Provence. Largely influenced by the proposals of the prewar Cartel group of theatre directors for decentralising and democratising French theatre, the directors of these new Centres set about capturing audiences hitherto unfamiliar with the theatre in the culturally barren provinces. During the nineteen-fifties, more experimental forms of theatre, frequently based on the recently-experienced Brechtian epic drama, were gradually introduced into the otherwise traditional repertoires of the new companies. With the creation of a Ministère des Affaires Culturelles under the Fifth Republic in 1958, a further expansion of the decentralisation programme was planned. In the following decade, four new Centres Dramatiques, eleven Troupes Permanentes, and nine Maisons de la Culture were set up, thus bringing the majority of the French population within reach of some form of theatrical activity for the first time. A corresponding increase in the output of plays by a new generation of young dramatists led to a spate of works dealing predominantly with socio-political themes. Typical of this new generation is Gabriel Cousin, whose career as a dramatist began with an intense love of sport and an interest in the art of movement. Like many of his contemporaries. Cousin became inspired by both the theoretical writings and the practical theatre of Artaud, Copeau, and Brecht. His own plays on such themes as racism, Third World famine, the nuclear threat, and the alienation of Man by his work show him to be a key figure among the group of social dramatists who sought to arouse in their audiences a 'prise de conscience' of contemporary social ills. Cousin's theatre is thus characteristic of much of the work produced in the new subsidised provincial theatres of France in the postwar era,


Background and objective There is an urgent need for robust data on the trajectories and outcomes of pregnancies in women with inflammatory rheumatic diseases (IRD). In particular when rare outcomes or rare diseases are to be investigated, collaborative approaches are required. However, joint data analyses are often limited by the heterogeneity of the different data sources. To facilitate future research collaboration, a European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) Task Force defined a core data set with a minimum of items to be collected by pregnancy registries in rheumatology covering the period of pregnancy and the 28-day neonatal phase in women with any underlying IRD. Methods A stepwise process included a two-round Delphi survey and a face-to-face meeting to achieve consensus about relevant items. Results A total of 64 multidisciplinary stakeholders from 14 different countries participated in the two rounds of the Delphi process. During the following face-to-face meeting of the EULAR Task Force, consensus was reached on 51 main items covering 'maternal information', 'pregnancy' and 'treatment'. Generic instruments for assessment are recommended for every item. Furthermore, for the five most frequent IRDs rheumatoid arthritis, spondyloarthritis, juvenile idiopathic arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus and other connective tissue diseases, disease-specific laboratory markers and disease activity measurements are proposed. Conclusion This is the first consensus-based core data set for prospective pregnancy registries in rheumatology. Its purpose is to stimulate and facilitate multinational collaborations that aim to increase the knowledge about pregnancy course and safety of treatment in women with IRDs during pregnancy.


Is the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change destined to succeed or doomed to fail? If all the pledges embedded in the intended nationally determined contributions (INDCs) are implemented fully, temperatures at the Earth's surface are predicted to rise by 3–4 °C, far above the agreement's goal of limiting increases to 1.5 °C. This means that the fate of the agreement will be determined by the success of efforts to strengthen or ratchet up the commitments contained in the national pledges over time. The first substantive section of this essay provides a general account of mechanisms for ratcheting up commitments and conditions determining the use of these mechanisms in international environmental agreements. The second section applies this analysis to the specific case of the Paris Agreement. The conclusion is mixed. There are plenty of reasons to doubt whether the Paris Agreement will succeed in moving from strength to strength in a fashion resembling experience with the Montreal Protocol on ozone depleting substances. Nevertheless, there is more room for hope in this regard than those who see the climate problem as unusually malign, wicked, or even diabolical are willing to acknowledge.


A study has been made on the correlation between ultrasonic attenuation and mechanical properties with different prior austenite grain size. It was found that ultrasonic attenuation is increased with increasing grain size, decreasing yield strength and increasing charpy impact energy value for ALSI 4140 steel.


A country may benefit from foreign immigration because of the increased unavailability of cheap labor, but encounter problems from xenophobia and social unrest. The end result depends on demographic characteristics, qualifications and immigrant skills and the capacity of the host country to absorb foreign labour and benefit from it. Migrants in Greece comprise about 9% of the population and 12-13% of the labour force. Their influx occurred in a relatively short time, the overwhelming majority entered Greece illegally but after two regularisations, one in 1998 and another one in 2001, about 700,000 have been granted a legal status. Their average age is considerably lower that that of the rapidly aging national population, in hundreds of primary schools their children make up over 10% of the total school population and in some over 30%. About 8 out of 10 are econ omic immigrants but to a very small extent does their labour appear to substitute for national labour; for many jobs in construction, agriculture, tourism and domestic service their labour tends to become indispensable and as their depended younger family members who joint them come to age they form a continuous flow of young foreign entrants into the labour force. This paper investigates the main facets of the economic and social development in Greece and benefits and costs of the influx of large numbers of migrants since the late-1980s for the Greek economy and society. The emergence of xenophobia and racisms and the impact of discrimination on migrants' inclusion into the host country will also be looked at, alongside policy responses.


The Hippo and PCP signaling activities of the atypical cadherin Fat rely on different regions of the Fat intracellular domain. Fat is an atypical cadherin that participates in both the Hippo growth control pathway and the planar cell polarity (PCP) pathway. Studies in flies indicated that many inputs can activate Hippo signaling at the level of the kinase Warts (Wts), which phosphorylates the transcription factor Yorkie to exclude it from the nucleus. Fat impinges on Hippo signaling through modulation of the distribution of Dachs, a myosin that represses Wts activity. Signaling through the PCP pathway is activated when Fat molecules on one cell bind to the atypical cadherin Dachsous (Ds) from a neighboring cell. Fat is uniformly distributed across the tissue, but Ds is distributed in a gradient across the tissue. Polarized activation of Fat is required for the proper membrane localization and polarization of Dachs. It has been proposed that the effects of Dachs and Fat on Hippo signaling are determined by the amount of these proteins present at the membrane, whereas their effects on PCP signaling are determined by the direction in which their distribution is polarized. Pan et al. have identified distinct regions of the intracellular domain of Fat that are specifically involved in Hippo and PCP signaling. Mutant forms of Fat lacking various regions of the intracellular domain were tested for their ability to rescue growth (Hippo) and patterning (PCP) defects in Drosophila melanogaster fat mutant wing discs. Inhibiting Hippo signaling in wing discs produces wings that are larger than wild-type wings, whereas inhibiting PCP signaling produces wings that are less elongated than wild-type and show disrupted wing hair polarization. The four C-terminal amino acids of Fat were required for optimal Fat-PCP signaling but dispensable for Fat-Hippo signaling. This motif is conserved in mouse Fat4, which contributes to PCP, but not Hippo, signaling. A separate motif in the central portion of the intracellular domain was required for Fat-Hippo signaling but had little effect on Fat-PCP signaling. This domain overlapped with a potential site for phosphorylation by Discs overgrown (Dco), the Drosophila homolog of casein kinase 1ε, which is required for Fat-Hippo signaling. Although precise details of the mechanisms differentiating Fat activity in the Hippo and PCP signaling pathways remain unclear, Fat activity in the two pathways relies on molecular differences in signal transduction, not just on its abundance or distribution. G. Pan, Y. Feng, A. A. Ambegaonkar, G. Sun, M. Huff, C. Rauskolb, K. D. Irvine, Signal transduction by the Fat cytoplasmic domain. Development 140, 831–842 (2013). [Abstract] [Full Text]


Objectives: We aimed to analyze bone mineralization and the effect of different risk factors for osteoporosis in postmenopausal women. Methods: We found 4909 postmenopausal subjects within ≥10,000 records from the ROIS/EMEROS (Ionian and Salento Osteoporosis Registry/Euro Mediterranean Registry of Osteoporosis) registry, a population study carried out in an area characterized by heavy environmental pressure between Brindisi and Taranto from 2009 to 2016. All subjects were assessed via phalangeal quantitative ultrasound (QUS) to evaluate their bone mineralization (assessed via amplitude dependent speed of sound (AD-SoS)) and the association between demineralization and the presence of other conditions or risk factors. Results: Mean age was 64 ± 9.5 years and mean body mass index (BMI) was 28.7 ± 3.5 kg/m2. Pearson correlation analyses revealed a negative association between bone mineralization (AD-SoS) and BMI (p < 0.001). By using multivariate logistic regression analysis, we observed significant values of odds ratios (ORs) of osteoporosis (adjusted for age, physical activity, and the use of drugs known to increase the risk of fractures) in subjects with diabetes and obesity: 1.39 (confidence interval (CI): 1.05–1.83) and 1.46 (CI: 1.20–1.78), respectively. A statistically significant linear trend of higher ORs of osteoporosis was found for increasing values of BMI. Conclusions: Our study confirmed the high impact of obesity and type 1 and type 2 diabetes on osteoporosis.


Recently there has been an interest in asymptotic expansions of the tail probabilities of a variety of processes that are ubiquitous in statistics. However, little to no work has been done when the AR(1) process is built upon extreme value random variables. This process appears when the distribution of the current maximum is dependent on the previous. The goal of this dissertation is to explore asymptotic expansions of tail probabilities on this topic, in particular using the Gumbel distribution. In each of the theoretical projects we build second-order expansions, many of which are improvements over the already known first-order ones. We also examine exactly when each of the expansions should and should not be used through simulation studies. Finally, we perform a data analysis in the extreme value theory setting on riverflow data, and as much as possible connect this same data set to the theoretical results.


We test if we can distinguish the works of two impressionist painters using features derived only from the background of their paintings. The background area is said to bear the unconscious habitual movements of the artist compared to areas where there is fine detail (foreground). We derive Gray Level Co-occurrence Matrix (GLCM) features from sky and cloud elements of Claude Monet and Edouard Manet's paintings and apply neural networks on duplets and triplets of features. From 6-fold validation the neural network was able to separate the works of these artists to an accuracy of 86% for the duplet of features and 84% for the triplet of features.


BACKGROUND
 Alopecia areata (AA) has features of both autoimmune and atopic pathogenesis, but information on the risk of people with AA developing autoimmune and atopic conditions is limited.

OBJECTIVE
 To assess the prevalence and incidence of atopic and autoimmune conditions in people with AA.

METHODS
 This was a population-based cohort study of 8051 adults with newly diagnosed AA (AA group) and 32 204 adults in the matched control group, using the UK Oxford-Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) Research and Surveillance Centre (RSC) network primary care database, 2009-2018 (trial registration number: NCT04239521). Baseline prevalence of common atopic and autoimmune conditions, and risk of new-onset atopic and autoimmune disease, were estimated.

RESULTS
 Atopic and autoimmune conditions were more prevalent in the AA group than the control group (atopic 37.2% vs. 26.7%, autoimmune 11.5% vs. 7.9%). The AA group were 43% more likely to develop any new-onset atopic condition [adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) 1.43. 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.28-1.61] and 45% more likely to develop any autoimmune condition (aHR 1.45, 95% CI 1.28-1.66) compared with the control group. When examining individual conditions, the AA group were at increased risk of atopic dermatitis (aHR 1.91, 95% CI 1.67-2.19), allergic rhinitis (aHR 1.32, 95% CI 1.14-1.54), autoimmune hypothyroidism (aHR 1.65, 95% CI 1.35-2.02), systemic lupus erythematosus (aHR 4.51, 95% CI 1.88-10.82) and vitiligo (aHR 2.39, 95% CI 1.49-3.82). There was no evidence for a higher incidence of other conditions examined.

CONCLUSION
 People with AA have an increased burden of atopic and autoimmune comorbidity. This supports previous work suggesting that both T helper cell (Th)1 and Th2 immune responses may be implicated in the pathogenesis of AA.


The purpose of this research was threefold: 1) to study peer interactions at the computer; 2) to study the interactions of the teachers with the children and analyse the impact of those interactions on the children's social behaviour; 3) to explore teacher's beliefs, views and knowledge about computers use in four Malaysian pre-schools.  Qualitative research was employed using a multiple case study approach based on constructivism.  Data were obtained primarily through non-participant observations, interviews with principals, teachers and children and documentations.  The results indicated that children exhibited a considerable amount of positive social interaction behaviour while playing with the computer.  For the purpose of the study the researcher only concentrated on a specific set of behaviour using the Children Social Interactions Behaviour checklist.

This study indicates that computer activities with teacher facilitation helped promote social interaction between children.  Teachers who observe carefully are likely to see that children who may seem to be minimally and only superficially involved with their peers at the computer are actually learning by carefully observing their peers' success navigating developmentally appropriate software.  Computer experts are valuable assets to the classroom.  Computer centres that encourage collaboration and cooperation make important contributions to the development of a community of learners and children growing cognitive, fine motor, and social competencies.  However, this will not necessarily happen just because the computer is present in the early childhood education setting.  Teachers must be conscious of the kinds of learning interactions they would like to occur in the context of computer use (including between adults and children, or between children), and adopt pedagogical strategies to support these situations.

From the case studies, it is also clear that the role of adults is vital in the computer centre and two types of teacher behaviour occurred.  One was a passive role in which the teacher was only involved in computer use when she was asked by the children.  The other type of teacher behaviour was in an active role that included being a technical helper, a conflict mediator and a tutor.

This study also carries several serious implications for teachers and parents.  First and most important, it highlights the rich social environment offered by computer usage.  Second, gender variation was seen in the frequency of computer use, with boys using the computer more than girls.  Third, given the right directions, children are capable of resolving their own conflicts. Teachers, therefore, need to be careful about when they intervene and how much help they offer.


A novel photoinitiation approach for Lewis acid-catalyzed cationic polymerization of vinyl ethers, based on in situ formation of zinc halide, has been developed. The proposed mechanism of photoinitiation involves photoinduced generation of vinyl cations from subtituted vinyl halide, 1-bromo-1,2,2-tris(p-methoxyphenyl)ethene, by electron transfer and subsequent reaction with the monomer to form an adduct. In the process, zinc bromide, which plays central role in propagation step, was generated simultaneously by the reaction of metallic zinc with the photochemically produced bromine radicals. The living nature of the polymerization was studied by the investigation of time dependence of logarithmic conversion and molecular weights. The capability of the photoinitating system to induce cross-linking was also demonstrated using various difunctional monomers.


Just a short trip away, approximately 150km east of Johannesburg, is the strategic town of Secunda. It is not strategic because it is the heart and administrative capital of the Govan Mbeki Municipality, but rather it is the petrochemical capital of South Africa, with its SASOL II and SASOL III complexes. By design, the Govan Mbeki Municipality has the largest underground coal mining complex in the world. Over and above this, the municipality boasts a number of significant gold mines, and has 75% of Eskom's base-load power stations situated within its borders. Perhaps the word strategic is an understatement.


Aim: Fine granular clay, the so-called "peloids," allowed to ripen for several months in contact with mineral thermal water and the organic substances derived from metabolic activities, represents the basis of thermal mud therapy. A complex microalgal community (Cyanophyceae, Chlorophyceae and Bacillariophyceae) is responsible for the therapeutic effects of thermal muds. Biological components of peloids produce bioactives, possessing anti-inflammatory, antirheumatic and antioxidant properties; for this reason, such matrix is widely used in thermal spas. The research reports results of a preliminary study aimed to characterize the microflora biodiversity of mature and nonmature thermal mud. Algal components were further extracted in order to test the antimicrobial activity of produced bioactive compounds. Materials and Methods: Microscopic, microbiological and molecular techniques were employed (DNA extraction, polymerase chain reaction and sequencing). For antimicrobial activity of algal extracts, Kirby–Bauer disck method was employed. Results: Results show a significant microfloral diversity in samples and a great number of taxa belonging to widely diffused genera such as Leptolyngbya sp., Nostoc sp., Scenedesmus sp., Navicula sp., and Amphora sp. Microbial communities indicate an absolute prevalence of a nonpathogenic flora, mostly composed of Bacillaceae. Conclusion: The association between the microbial and algal composition and the different maturation stages of thermal clay could represent an essential tool to identify markers of proper ripening. This ensures the best product quality and its beneficial properties. The extension of the study, characterizing the components of mud at different ripening times, consents the standardization of ripening process. Antimicrobial activity assay represents a preliminary step for subsequent analysis for the isolation of single component, employing analytical chemistry techniques, characterizing and identifying bioactive compounds of interest.


Norwegian oils are generally considered sourced primarily from the Kimmeridge Clay equivalent shales such as the Draupne, Mandal, Spekk and Hekkingen formations, with secondary contributions from the mid–lower Jurassic, and also from the Triassic in the Barents Sea (Botneheia Formation). Still, as most of our age inferences concerning source-oil correlation are based on facies-specific biomarkers, a number of proposed correlations have been questioned. Thus, source to oil correlations were frequently made on the basis of facies parameters, and rightfully so, but facies-specific signatures in oils will transgress age – and, in principle, not correlate with the phylogenetic evolution. This means that one could, in principle assign an oil to 'the wrong' age – when one is, in fact, linking it to a known source rock signature. A series of 40 oil samples and core extracts, which cover a wide range both stratigraphically and geographically, have been analysed. In this paper, we present for the first time a Norwegian oil-age map based on age-specific biomarkers among the nordiacholestanes and triaromatic steroids parameters, and delineate also where we find Cretaceous- and Palaeozoic-derived oils. The reasons for this distribution pattern, compared to that of Mesozoic oils on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS), are discussed.


Lithogenic particles, such as desert dust, have been postulated to influence particulate organic carbon (POC) export to the deep ocean by acting as mineral ballasts. However, an accurate understanding and quantification of the POC–dust association that occurs within the upper ocean is required in order to refine the "ballast hypothesis". In the framework of the DUNE (a DUst experiment in a low-Nutrient, low-chlorophyll Ecosystem) project, two artificial seedings were performed seven days apart within large mesocosms. A suite of optical and biogeochemical measurements were used to quantify surface POC export following simulated dust events within a low-nutrient, low-chlorophyll ecosystem. The two successive seedings led to a 2.3–6.7-fold higher POC flux than the POC flux observed in controlled mesocosms. A simple linear regression analysis revealed that the lithogenic fluxes explained more than 85% of the variance in POC fluxes. On the scale of a dust-deposition event, we estimated that 42–50% of POC fluxes were strictly associated with lithogenic particles (through aggregation and most probably sorption processes). Lithogenic ballasting also likely impacted the remaining POC fraction which resulted from the fertilization effect. The observations support the "ballast hypothesis" and provide a quantitative estimation of the surface POC export abiotically triggered by dust deposition. In this work, we demonstrate that the strength of such a "lithogenic carbon pump" depends on the biogeochemical conditions of the water column at the time of deposition. Based on these observations, we suggest that this lithogenic carbon pump could represent a major component of the biological pump in oceanic areas subjected to intense atmospheric forcing.


OBJECTIVE
Video laryngoscopy was developed to facilitate tracheal intubation of difficult airways. We aimed to compare the efficacy of CTrach™ (CT) and Direct Coupled Interface-Videolaryngoscope (DCI-VL) in patients with normal airways.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
Sixty ASA I-II (American Society of Anesthesiologists) adult patients admitted for elective surgery were enrolled in this prospective study. The patients were randomly assigned to two groups, where intubation was performed via CT or DCI-VL. Time to obtain a good glottic view, total intubation time, success rates and the number of patients who required maneuvers for a good glottic view were recorded.

RESULTS
The mean time to obtaining a good glottic view was significantly longer with CT than with DCI-VL (29.4±20.3 seconds vs. 12.8±1.9 seconds, respectively; p=0.01). Intubation was achieved on the first attempt in 28 patients in the CT group (93.3%) and in 24 in the DCI-VL group (80%) (p=0.77). The total intubation time for CT was significantly longer compared to DCI-VL (99.9±36.0 seconds vs. 39.2±21.4 seconds, respectively; p=0.01). Optimization maneuvers were required in eight and two patients in the CT and DCI-VL groups, respectively (p=0.03).

CONCLUSION
Although the normal airway endotracheal intubation success rates were similar in both groups, the time to obtain a good glottic view and the total intubation time were significantly shorter with DCI-VL.


The metaphysical nature of fictional characters is a matter of extensive philosophical debate. The related positions come in various flavours and are accompanied by more or less controversial analyses. Possible worlds, or possibilia, are a matter of equally extensive debate, and (controversial) theories about their nature abound. I present an approach to fictional characters which takes advantage of an already-developed approach to so-called alien individuals. I argue that fictional characters and alien individuals instantiate the same properties and they should receive the same analysis. First, I present the theory of linguistic ersatzism. Second, I point out the limitations of the theory. Third, I present the so-called ersatz pluriverse hypothesis, which squares linguistic ersatzism with the possibility of distinct alien individuals. Fourth, I generalise the argument.


" The experience of flow is still one of the least understood phenomena in sport. And yet it is one of the richest, most memorable experiences an athlete will ever know.Some call it a natural ""high."" Others refer to it as being ""in a zone."" Whatever it's called, flow is an elusive and very sought-after psychological state that athletes, coaches, and sport psychologists have tried to understand, harness, and employ to their benefit since Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi first coined the term back in the early 1970s. Now, in the first book devoted exclusively to flow in sports, the pioneering legend Csikszentmihalyi and sport psychology researcher Susan Jackson attempt not only to explain the phenomenon but also to identify the key conditions associated with its occurrence.The book begins with a description of what flow is and is not. Flow is defined as a person's total absorption into an activity. While it is always a peak, satisfying experience, it is not necessarily associated with peak performance on every occasion. Most of the book delves deeply into the key factors leading up to and accompanying the flow experience. The authors also recommend certain actions on the part of the athlete or coach to optimize the conditions in training and performance that allow flow to occur. The book is full of vivid examples, captivating quotes, and revealing research findings that enhance the authors' clear and insightful text. The sport setting is rife with opportunities to experience flow-be it in pick-up games or the Olympics. But until now, flow has been an infrequent, accidental, and even mysterious phenomenon to most athletes. With "Flow in Sports," this optimal experience becomes both more familiar and more achievable. Get to know flow, and get into it. Find out what you've been missing. "


This project is the first sustained study of the posthumous reputation of Mary I in the early modern period. It examines how the late queen regnant of England, who ruled from 1553 to 1558, was remembered during the reigns of her two successors, Elizabeth I (1558-1603) and James I (1603-25). Because of her notorious reputation as the Catholic queen connected to the burning of the Protestant martyrs, men and women whom she considered heretics, she is often called "Bloody Mary." This epithet, however, obscures the complexity of her posthumous representations. While her religious zeal is usually her most recognizable characteristic, she is also associated with foreign Catholic powers, specifically those of Spain, the homeland of her husband, and of Rome. Even constructions of her as persecutor are complex. Sometimes she is presented as both cruel and vindictive, but not uniformly. Involved in the martyrdoms by her position as queen, she is frequently distanced from complete and primary guilt for them by the institutional responsibility of the Catholic Church and by the sheer number of people who are blamed. Her unsatisfactory marriage and her inability to produce an heir are also preoccupations of her posthumous representations, and these topics facilitate the fashioning of her as a failed and unhappy woman and as the object of divine retribution. -- Mary's generally negative posthumous reputation has tended to overshadow more positive figurations of her, which are explored in Chapter 1. Correlating with favourable images of the living queen, these Catholic ones present a virtuous Mary Tudor, committed to the faith in which she lived and died. Chapter 2 discusses the text which many commentators credit with the blackening of Mary's reputation, the Acts and Monuments of John Foxe, in which she is presented, at various times, as disloyal, stubborn, unhappy, disappointed, and misguided. His construction of Mary is inevitably shaped by his concern to show the sufferings of the godly martyrs and to prove that the true and invisible Church is Protestant. The queen, consequently, is implicated in a Protestant-Catholic dialectic, and so the descriptions of her deathbed and domestic life are contrasted with those of the martyrs. Mary's putative pregnancy is, for Foxe, a symbol of a corrupt Catholic regime. In terms of the Protestant persecutions, she facilitates the conditions under which they occur, and she is actively involved in the death of Thomas Cranmer and the torment of her sister, Elizabeth. In many ways, her representation corresponds with aspects of Foxe's characterization of an earlier English monarch, Richard HI. The final chapter explores six Jacobean history plays based on Foxe's Acts and Monuments. These reflect and propagate the construction of Mary in the martyrology. In these plays, Mary remains a powerful symbol of the danger of international Catholicism and becomes a means to interrogate religious and political issues in the past and in the present.


Sports psychology has a great deal of potential for interpreting and interpreter training, as stress seems to be one of the major psychological factors influencing an interpreter's professional behaviour. A competitive sports situation is similar to an interpreting assignment, as both are characterized by the need of the performers, the athlete or the interpreter to achieve. They cannot escape from the situation, and they need to achieve what they have undertaken to do. Their performance on the day depends on external and internal factors that they need to control efficiently. Stress is and has for some time been a widely-researched topic in interpreting studies, as it seems to be a fact of life for interpreters. Stress research in interpreting has, however, focused mainly on the external factors influencing an interpreter's performance. This paper presents an outline of sports psychology and reviews the literature on the psychology of stress. It then presents research conducted on stress in the context of interpreting. Finally, it examines how we can help our students cope with stress and control the internal factors influencing their performance as interpreters.


The financial crisis has revealed fatal institutional and structural deficits at the finance market. Politics has reacted to the financial crisis with a sea of legal bills and regulations. But all regulating efforts are merely system-imminent reparation measures and do not solve the core problems. For this, a fundamental financial reform is needed. This article analyzes the finance system's shortcomings, documents the reform approaches from the past three years, and designs a base structure for modern finance architecture without banks.


We engineer mechanical gain (loss) in system formed by two optomechanical cavities (OMCs), that are mechanically coupled. The gain (loss) is controlled by driving the resonator with laser that is blue (red) detuned. We predict analytically the existence of multiple exceptional points (EPs), a form of degeneracy where the eigenvalues of the system coalesce. At each EP, phase transition occurs, and the system switches from weak to strong coupling regimes and vice versa. In the weak coupling regime, the system locks on an intermediate frequency, resulting from coalescence at the EP. In strong coupling regime, however, two or several mechanical modes are excited depending on system parameters. The mechanical resonators exhibit Rabi-oscillations when two mechanical modes are involved, otherwise the interaction triggers chaos in strong coupling regime. This chaos is bounded by EPs, making it easily controllable by tuning these degeneracies. Moreover, this chaotic attractor shows up for low driving power, compared to what happens when the coupled OMCs are both drived in blue sidebands. This works opens up promising avenues to use EPs as a new tool to study collective phenomena (synchronization, locking effects) in nonlinear systems, and to control chaos.


The study aims at identifying the role of technical education and training in meeting the labor market's needs in the field of modern technology. It is an applied study on the technical colleges in Gaza Strip. The researchers used the descriptive analytical approach on five technical colleges in Gaza by applying the questionnaire as the data collection tool. The stratified random sampling method was applied and the sample of the study included 324 respondents with a recovery rate of 76%. The data was analyzed using SPSS statistical program. One of the most important results was a statistically significant correlation between the dimensions of education and technical training: Technical trainee skill, technical trainer skill, the efficiency of the training curriculum, the modernity of the applied means used; and meeting the labor market needs in the field of modern technology in Gaza Strip technical colleges


Objectives To determine the association of self-reported traumatic brain injury (TBI) with loss of consciousness (LOC) with late-life re-injury, dementia diagnosis and mortality. Design Ongoing longitudinal population-based prospective cohort study. Setting Seattle-area integrated health system. Participants 4225 dementia-free individuals age 65 and older were randomly selected and enrolled between 1994 and 2010. Participants were seen every 2 years, with mean (range) follow-up of 7.4 (0–16) years. 606 (14%) participants reported a lifetime history of TBI with LOC at enrolment. 3466 participants provided information regarding lifetime history of TBI and completed at least one follow-up visit. Main outcome measures Self-reported TBI with LOC after study entry, incident all-cause dementia and Alzheimer's disease (AD), and all-cause mortality. Results There were 25 567 person-years of follow-up. History of TBI with LOC reported at study enrolment was associated with increased risk for TBI with LOC during follow-up, with adjusted HRs ranging from 2.54 (95% CI 1.42 to 4.52) for those reporting first injury before age 25 to 3.79 (95% CI 1.89 to 7.61) for those with first injury after age 55. History of TBI with LOC was not associated with elevated risk for developing dementia or AD. There was no association between baseline history of TBI with LOC and mortality, though TBI with LOC since the previous study visit ('recent TBI') was associated with increased mortality (HR 2.12, 95% CI 1.62 to 2.78). Conclusions Individuals aged 65 or older who reported a history of TBI with LOC at any time in their lives were at elevated risk of subsequent re-injury. Recent TBI with LOC sustained in older adulthood was associated with increased risk for mortality. Findings support the need for close clinical monitoring of older adults who sustain a TBI with LOC.


The serious threat that human beings face in near future will be shortage of fossil fuel reserves and abrupt changes in global climate. To prepare for these serious concerns, raised due to climate change and shortage of fuels, conversion of excessive atmospheric CO2 into valuable chemicals and fuels and production of hydrogen from water splitting is seen most promising solutions to combat the rising CO2 levels and energy crises. Amoung the various techniques that have been employed electrocatalytic conversion of CO2 into fuels and hydrogen production from water has gained tremendous interest. Hydrogen is a zero carbon-emitting fuel, can be an alternative to traditional fossil fuels. Therefore, researchers working in these areas are constantly trying to find new electrocatalysts that can be applied on a real scale to deal with environmental issues. Recently, colloidal nanocrystals (C-NCs)-based electrocatalysts have gained tremendous attention due to their superior catalytic selectivity/activity and durability compared to existing bulk electrodes. In this chapter, the authors discuss the colloidal synthesis of NCs and the effect of their physiochemical properties such as shape, size and chemical composition on the electrocatalytic performance and durability towards electrocatalytic H2 evolution reaction (EH2ER) and electrocatalytic CO2 reduction reactions (ECO2RR). The last portion of this chapter presents a brief perspective of the challenges ahead.


BACKGROUND
The dizziness handicap inventory (DHI) has become a well accepted method for specifically assessing the quality of life among dizzy patients and in evaluating the results of different types of therapy, especially of vestibular rehabilitation programs.

OBJECTIVE
To assess the reliability of a translated Hebrew version of the DHI (HDHI) on a cohort of patients attending a tertiary dizziness clinic.

METHODS
A double translation method was applied on the original DHI. Consecutive patients with symptoms of dizziness lasting at least six months were included. HDHI questionnaires were completed by patients on three occasions: while waiting to be examined, after the examination and one week later. Internal consistency reliability of each questionnaire and test- retest reliability between the questionnaires were analyzed on the total score and for each of the emotional, functional and physical subgroups of the questionnaires.

RESULTS
Thirty-one patients completed all three questionnaires. Internal consistency reliability of the three subgroups of questions: physical, emotional and functional in each of the three questionnaires were all high (Cronbach's Alpha coefficient 0.83-0.96). The test- retest reliability, the correlation between the total DHI scores of the first and second questionnaire (same day) showed a correlation coefficient of 0.96, and between the first and third questionnaire (7 days apart) was 0.94, with P values of < 0.01. The correlation coefficient of the subgroups ranged from 0.93 to 0.97.

CONCLUSION
The HDHI is a reliable test of dizzy patients' symptoms and may be applied in patient care and for reporting on their follow-up.


Abstract Endotracheal tube obstruction by a mucus plug causing a ball-valve effect is a rare but significant complication. The inability to pass a suction catheter through the endotracheal tube with high peak and plateau pressure differences are classical features of an endotracheal tube obstruction. A case is described of endotracheal tube obstruction from a mucus plug that compounded severe respiratory acidosis and hypotension in a patient who simultaneously had abdominal compartment syndrome. The mucus plug was not identified until a bronchoscopic assessment of the airway was performed. Due to the absence of classical signs, the delayed identification of the obstructing mucus plug exacerbated diagnostic confusion. It resulted in various treatments being trialed whilst the patient continued to deteriorate from the evasive offending culprit. We suggest that earlier and more routine use of bronchoscopy should be employed in an intensive care unit, especially as a definitive way to rule out endotracheal obstruction.


The possibility of radiatively generated fermion masses arising from chiral flavor violation in soft supersymmetry-breaking terms is explored. Vacuum stability constraints are considered in various classes of models, and allow in principle all of the firstand second-generation quarks and leptons and the b-quark to obtain masses radiatively. Radiatively induced Higgs–fermion couplings have non-trivial momentum-dependent form factors, which at low momentum are enhanced with respect to the case of tree-level Yukawa couplings. These form factors may be probed by various sum rules and relations among Higgs boson decay widths and branching ratios to fermion final states. An apparent, large, hard violation of supersymmetry also results for Higgsino couplings. Mixing between leftand right-handed scalar superpartners is enhanced. A radiative muon mass is shown to lead to a relatively large and potentially measurable contribution to the muon anomalous magnetic moment. If the light-quark masses arise radiatively, the neutron electric dipole moment is suppressed by a natural phase alignment between the masses and dipole moment, and is below the current experimental bound. The possibility of neutrino masses arising from softly broken lepton number, and concomitant enhanced sneutrino–antisneutrino oscillations, is briefly discussed.


This study examines the formal and functional aspects of code-switching in a Swiss-German SMS (text messages) corpus of 10,706 messages. We investigate the types of codes used by the writers, the grammatical properties of the code-switched elements, and the potential functions of code-switching under the medium-specific conditions of SMS communication. We conclude that classical formal categories of code-switching and their usual functional interpretation need to be revised when it comes to analysing SMS data. It is necessary to broaden our understanding of the notion of a code in favor of other communicative codes, to extend classical formal code-switching categories in terms of isolated items, and to conduct multifactorial analyses when approaching functional aspects of code-switching.


This clear and concise volume provides a timely overview of Cambodia, a small but increasingly visible Southeast Asian nation. Hailed by the "Journal of Asian Studies" as an "original contribution, superior to any other existing work," the first edition ended in 1953 with Cambodia's independence from France; the second carries the narrative forward to the present. In the new material, Chandler focuses especially on the unstable but influential career of Prince Norodom Sihanouk, the bloody reign of Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge, and the relative calm that followed the Vietnamese invasion of 1979. This comprehensive general description and analysis of Cambodia will illuminate--for specialists and general readers alike--the history and contemporary politics of a country long misunderstood.


Abstract Festuca L. is one of the most complicated genera in Poaceae. Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis was used to study the isoenzyme variation of glutamate-oxaloacetate transaminase, malate dehydrogenase, glutamate dehydrogenase, isocitrate dehydrogenase and 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase in natural populations of F. valesiaca Schleich. ex Gaud., F. rupicola Heuff., F. dalmatica (Hack.) K. Richt. and F. stojanovii (Acht.) Kozuharov ex Foggi & Petrova. The aim of the present study was to assess isoenzyme variation and genetic affinities among the four species of the genus Festuca. Genetic identities (I) and distances (D) were calculated to evaluate qualitative genetic affinities and systematic relationships among the species. Considering the patterns of isoenzyme variation in the studied group, it is evident that F. dalmatica and F. stojanovii are closely related species. The species F. valesiaca and F. rupicola are isoenzymatically well characterized as distinct genetic entities. The obtained results generally support recent narrow species concept in the genus Festuca.


Background: Fishy Clouds, a 45-minute non-verbal touring puppet theatre show, was created with the objectives of (1) raising awareness of antimicrobial overuse and misuse (the fact that there simply is a problem), (2) raising awareness of the importance of research with children – including those involving antimicrobials, and (3) producing a science-themed performance of entertainment value and high artistic quality. The show used visual storytelling to bring the research and behaviour around antimicrobial resistance (AMR) to life for a broad range of audiences across different ages, locations, levels of education, and language. Methods: In order to understand the effectiveness of Fishy Clouds, we used a realist-informed evaluation approach. A combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches (semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions and field notes) were used for data collection. Results: We received a total of 880 quantitative feedback forms, conducted 22 semi-structured interviews and three focus group discussions. Our data showed that Fishy Clouds was an enjoyable performance to all audience groups and stakeholders and was generally viewed with artistic integrity. However, its effectiveness was primarily in raising existing awareness about medicine use and health more broadly, rather than specific health messaging concerning AMR and research with children. We found that those with limited background on AMR or research with children, such as school children and Karen ethnic migrants exhibited a wide range of interpretations. A science-themed theatre would function better if it is focussed on a single theme, embedded within a programme of activities and conducted at closed venues. Conclusions: Fishy Clouds showed that science theatre events have the potential to support public health programmes and engage local communities in science research.


The authorized guide to the latest edition of the #1 business intelligence software product - Crystal Reports. More than 16 million licenses of Crystal Reports have been shipped to date.i¾ This book is a reference designed to provide hands-on guidance for the latest release of the product suite. The latest version of Crystal Reports and the Business Objects enterprise reporting suite delivers vast product enhancements and a tighter integration that will drive upgrades from licensees. Brand new features (e.g. Dynamic and Cascading Parameter Generation) will also appeal to new audiences. Over 1 million new Business Intelligence licensees will be migrating to the Crystal Enterprise Reporting platform, as this is the first release of the software with the existing Business Objects (BO) products being integrated into the Crystal infrastructure. As Business Objects insiders, the authors bring unique and valuable real-world perspectives on implementations and uses of the Crystal Reports product. The book also includes content, tutorials and samples for reporting within the Microsoft Visual Studio.NET and J2EE development environments and also on top of the SAP Business Information Warehouse (BW) and the Peoplesoft platform. Advanced content on report distribution and integration into the secured managed reporting solution known as Business Objects Enterprise XI, is also now included in this definitive user guide with coverage on the new Web Services SDK.


The increases in Greenhouse Gas (GHG) concentrations and depletion of hydrocarbon based fuels have become global concerns. As a result, a number of methods are being developed which aim to restrict GHG and to develop alternative fuels from sustainable sources. Photocatalysis has shown potential to restrict GHG through CO2 recycling and convert solar energy to alternative fuels through solar H2 production. This thesis describes the development of photo reactors to reduce CO2 emissions and to provide a novel method of producing H2 as a fuel source. A number of photo reactors were developed including three fluidised design concepts and a thin film system. The preliminary evaluation of the reactors was performed using methyl orange (MO) as a model compound and utilising TiO2 and ZnO. The reduction of CO2 and H2 evolution was performed over a range of novel catalysts in the optimised system developed, referred to as the propeller fluidised photo reactor (PFPR). A MO photodegradation efficiency of > 95 % was achieved in all the photo reactors using illumination from a low power 36 W lamp. The reduction of CO2 was performed in the PFPR under varying illumination sources including UV, simulated and natural solar exposure. CO2 reduction was not achieved in the unit under any experimental conditions. However, the evolution of H2 was achieved under both simulated and natural solar irradiation. The results demonstrated that reactor properties such as propeller rotational speed were found to enhance the photo activity of the system through the elimination of mass transport limitations and increasing light penetration. The optimum conditions for H2 evolution were found to be a propeller rotational speed of 1035 rpm and 144 W of simulated solar irradiation, which produced a rate of 109 I¼mol h-1 g-1 over Pt-C3N4. Under solar irradiation 8 I¼mol h-1 g-1 was evolved over NaTaO3.La. The rate of H2 evolution over Pt-C3N4 increased from 27 to 109 I¼mol h-1 g-1, upon increasing the rotational speed of the propeller from 0 to 1035 rpm. Furthermore, the use of the PFPR with solar irradiation displayed the potential for solar photocatalysis applications.


Clear cell odontogenic carcinoma (CCOC) is a uncommon aggressive neoplasm of variable performance, which is primarily located in the mandibular anterior region, to a lesser extent in the maxilla, with prevalence in women between the fifth and seventh decades of life. Histologically it is constituted by networks of cells with clear cytoplasm mixed with cells containing eosinophilic cytoplasm rich in glycogen, surrounded by bands of collagen, you can make the local or distant metastases, highly recurrent, so it should include long-term follow-up patient and differentiated from other conditions with clear cell. The case of a male patient aged 52, with a mixed injury unusual presentation covering maxilla, zygomatic, orbital and right nasal cavity, without involvement of regional lymph nodes, no apparent metastases is reported.


OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of different intracoronal bleaching methods on the shear bond strength and site of failure of ceramic brackets. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Sixty freshly extracted human maxillary incisors were randomly divided into four groups (n = 15). Endodontic access cavity was prepared and root canals were filled, root fillings were removed 2mm apical to the cementoenamel junction, and a 2-mmthick layer of glass ionomer cement base was applied. Group 1 served as the control. Intracoronal bleaching was performed with 35% carbamide peroxide in group 2, sodium perborate in group 3, and 37.5% hydrogen peroxide in group 4. The teeth were immersed in artificial saliva for 4 weeks before bracket bonding. Ceramic brackets were bonded with composite resin and cured with LED light. After bonding, the shear bond strength of the brackets was tested with a universal testing machine. The site of bond failure was determined by modified ARI (Adhesive Remnant Index). RESULTS: The highest value of shear bond strength was measured in control group (18.67 ± 1.59 MPa), which was statistically significant from groups 2,3, and 4. There was no significant difference between groups 2 and 4. The lowest shear bond strength was measured in group 3. ARI scores were not significant from each other. CONCLUSIONS: Intracoronal bleaching significantly affected the shear bond strength of ceramic brackets even after 4 weeks of bleaching. Bleaching with sodium perborate affects shear bond strength more adversely than does bleaching with other agents like hydrogen peroxide and carbamide peroxide.


Sub-Saharan Africa is believed to possess more human genetic diversity than any other region of the world, a likely consequence of it being the probable place of origin of anatomically modern man. Despite its evolutionary importance studies into the distribution of this genetic variation have been somewhat limited in comparison to Europe, Asia and the Americas, especially with respect to fine-scale studies that would help elucidate local histories and the consequences of ethnic and linguistic interactions. Another possible consequence of knowledge of genetic diversity is that much information of functionally important genetic variants that are potentially relevant to pharmacogenetic research is not available. This lack of information can add to an already prevalent Eurocentric ascertainment bias in current knowledge of genetic variation, depriving sub-Saharan Africa communities of the potential medical benefits pharmacogenetics has to offer. This thesis describes three case studies that form part of an investigation into human genetic variation in sub-Saharan Africa.

Chapter 2 uses sex-specific genetic systems to successfully differentiate between two alternative oral histories of the ethnogenesis of the Nso' people of Cameroon. Chapter 3 establishes that substantial male and female gene flow has occurred among the peoples of the Cross River region of Nigeria, a region that includes multiple ethnic groups speaking distinct languages that appear to have separated hundreds and thousands of years ago. Chapter 3 demonstrates that the drug metabolising enzyme Flavin-containing Monooxygenase 2, which has been shown to be non-functional in all Europeans and Asian individuals collected to date, has a putative functional allele in approximately one third of sub-Saharan Africans, a finding that may have important implications for therapeutic intervention strategies and xenobiotic exposure. This thesis demonstrates inter alia the value of conducting genetic studies in sub-Saharan Africa using large datasets of well known provenance.


Adherence behaviour to medication for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is frequently suboptimal. Parents have several beliefs and experiences about ADHD medication and they going to make their decisions based on that background. This study aims to investigate qualitatively the parental experiences regarding using medication of ADHD for their children with ADHD. A qualitative approach was chosen to gain an in-depth insight into the experiences and beliefs. The investigations approached more than 60 parents during their follow-up. And the final sample included 44 parents. Parents generally were reluctant to medicate their children. Some parents revealed positive experiences about ADHD's medication, mainly when that medication associated with positive performance at their schools. Parents described their hesitancy to continue the medication as a result of having uncertain assessments, side-effects of that medication and stigma. It was rare to hear from parents that behavioural or educational intervention could be used to manage ADHD, mainly when they decide to discontinue medication. There is a need to develop intervention program that educate, encourage, and support parents in following behaviour and pharmacological recommendations.


In many real-world scenarios, decision makers seek to efficiently optimize multiple competing objectives in a sample-efficient fashion. Multi-objective Bayesian optimization (BO) is a common approach, but many existing acquisition functions do not have known analytic gradients and suffer from high computational overhead. We leverage recent advances in programming models and hardware acceleration for multi-objective BO using Expected Hypervolume Improvement (EHVI)---an algorithm notorious for its high computational complexity. We derive a novel formulation of $q$-Expected Hypervolume Improvement ($q$EHVI), an acquisition function that extends EHVI to the parallel, constrained evaluation setting. $q$EHVI is an exact computation of the joint EHVI of $q$ new candidate points (up to Monte-Carlo (MC) integration error). Whereas previous EHVI formulations rely on gradient-free acquisition optimization or approximated gradients, we compute exact gradients of the MC estimator via auto-differentiation, thereby enabling efficient and effective optimization using first-order and quasi-second-order methods. Lastly, our empirical evaluation demonstrates that $q$EHVI is computationally tractable in many practical scenarios and outperforms state-of-the-art multi-objective BO algorithms at a fraction of their wall time.


This study uses a longitudinal data source to study the effects of conflict-induced displacement on labour market outcomes for Bosnians in post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina. To account for endogeneity in the displacement status, I exploit the fact that the level of violence in the pre-war residence likely affected the displacement decision for Bosnians and yet is not associated to economic performance. I find evidence of positive selection into displacement, i.e. more "able" individuals in terms of labour market outcomes are more likely to be displaced, and that displaced Bosnians men and women are less likely to be in work relative to stayers. Interestingly, whereas this translates into higher unemployment for men, it decreases women's participation with no effect on unemployment once selection is accounted for. The informality of the labour market in BiH and the destruction of networks are not only the most plausible candidates to explain the high cost of displacement in terms of labour market outcomes, but they also help rationalise the lack of an effect on participation for displaced men. However, differences in selection suggest that the experience of war was highly contrasted along gender lines and that sociological and cultural factors may also play a significant role.


Since its formation the European Union (EU) has employed a rather complicated policy to ensure high prices to domestic sugar growers and trade preferences to certain sugar exporting countries, e.g. the African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group. One result of this policy is that the EU has been both the second largest importer and second largest exporter in the world market. Under pressure from the World Trade Organization (WTO), the EU agreed to reform its policies toward sugar in 2001, with the full effect of the reforms being fully implemented in 2006. In this paper, the impact of the sugar reform on EU production, consumption, imports, and exports is examined especially with regard to how it all affects the ACP countries who receive preferential treatment regarding access to EU sugar markets. Preliminary analysis indicates that lowering domestic EU prices, while quotas requirements for ACP countries remain intact might have negative revenue implications for poor sugar producers.


Increased difficulty in stand establishment of tall fescue (Schreb.) has been reported by producers since the introduction of endophyte (Morgan-Jones and Gams)-free tall fescue seed into the market place. This has encouraged the use of higher seeding rates for endophyte-free tall fescue without scientific basis. The objective of this study was to determine whether 'AU Triumph', and endophyte-free cultivar, and endophyte-infected 'Kentucky 31' differ in minimum seeding rates for successful establishment. Experiments were established at two locations in each of two years, using a randomized complete block with four replications. Soils at the two locations were Cahaba fine sandy loam (fine-loamy, siliceous, thermic Typic Hapludult) and Sumter clay (fine-silty, carbonatic, thermic Rendollic Eutrochreps). For a period of 17–19 mo after planting, dry matter yields were determined whenever forage reached approximately 6 in. in height. Each location × year combination was analyzed independently. Linear and quadratic effects of seeding rate were tested at each harvest date, and single degree of freedom comparisons were made for cultivar effects and their interactions with the linear and quadratic effects. At harvest dates when significant linear or quadratic effects were detected for seeding rate, response curves were fitted. In some juvenile stands (first or second post planting harvests), dry matter yields increased with increasing seeding rates, or increased with increasing seeding rates to approximately 20 lb seed/acre and then leveled off. Seeding rates did not affect tall fescue yields at later harvests. Lack of cultivar interactions with seeding rate indicates there is no basis for recommending higher seeding rates of AU Triumph than for endophyte-infected Kentucky 31 under these conditions.


Accountants spend too much time moving data from one financial reporting spreadsheet to another, leaving less time for analyzing information to enhance reporting integrity and improve management's decision making. The extensible business reporting language (XBRL) can reduce time spent manually finding and preparing information and improve data quality through fully automated information exchanges among disparate software applications. Once CPAs can electronically receive, validate and send standardized information, they can more quickly analyze and confidently redistribute it to managers, stakeholders and others for use in better informed decision making. This article describes how XBRL-enabled data standardization maximizes speed and accuracy as information moves between one or more organizations' accounting or analytical software. While these programs may be flexible and convenient, they often can't detect or prevent transcription errors that commonly occur in manual data transfers. A PROACTIVE APPROACH The accounting profession and those it serves benefit from standards governing reporting and auditing. It follows that standardizing information formats would help CPAs gather, manage and report information more quickly, efficiently and accurately. Consider how much CPAs could enhance their analysis and recommendations if the information they need was transferred automatically from its respective sources into company spreadsheets without the hands-on validation and manual transfer accountants and others commonly perform. Imagine further that data sources could automatically export new information to a range of designated spreadsheets as soon as it was created. In such a scenario, CPAs routinely would nave me latest version of available data from all sources and thus be able to expand the scope of their analyses and to report more frequently for little or no added cost. Improvements like this are possible with the help of standardized data formats, XBRL-compliant software and reengineered corporate reporting and analytical processes. XBRL-enabled standardization makes it possible to use the same data seamlessly on any computer hardware, operating system or application. This simplifies the information transfer process, or "supply chain," by making it easier to automate the procedures that shuttle data among spreadsheets, databases and publishing programs. It's easier to design such programs when the data elements they process are clearly defined in terms of their meaning, currency, period and type, and that's exactly what XBRL does. But such advances won't happen without active support for the widespread adoption of XBRL, which CPAs can provide by working to * Understand XBRL. Accountants should expand their knowledge of XBRL and other information and Internet standards that improve reporting processes. * Make XBRL tools more accessible. CPAs should encourage software vendors to embed XBRL capabilities as standard features in their products. * Move XBRL into the supply chain. CPAs must understand the extent of human intervention in the data access, validation and analysis aspects of their clients' and companies' reporting processes so they can make informed recommendations on deploying XBRL in accounting software and information processing systems. TAKE A CLOSER LOOK Ask the following questions to assess your organization's dependence on manual steps in reporting processes: * How many spreadsheets are involved in company reporting processes? …


Leading high ability scholars have proposed theories that suggest a purpose in life may be particularly prevalent among high ability youth; however, the prevalence of purpose has not been empirically assessed among this population. Therefore using in‐depth interviews the present study established the prevalence of purpose among a sample of high ability adolescents and compared it to the prevalence of purpose among a sample of typical youth (N= 203). Results revealed that purpose was present among high ability early and late adolescents at roughly the same rate as among more typical youth. However, high ability youth reported embracing self‐oriented life goals earlier than more typical youth, and they identified different types of inspiring life purposes. Implications, including steps practitioners can take to foster purpose among high ability youth, are addressed.


The objective of this study is to offer a broad understanding of how end of course evaluations can be used to improve the academic outcomes of a higher education institute. This paper presents the key findings from a study conducted using twenty-three academic degree-programs, regarding their use of end of course evaluation technology. Data was collected from an online survey instrument, in-depth interviews with academic administrators, and two case studies, one in the US and another in the UAE. The study reveals that while historically end of course evaluations were primarily used to gauge the performance of instructors in the classroom, there are several new trends in the use of end of course evaluations that can help higher education institutions improve academic assessment, teaching and learning, and academic administration decision making. Those trends include sectioning and categorization; questions standardization and benchmarking; alignment with key performance indicators and key learning outcomes; and grouping by course, program outcome, program, college, etc. in addition to those vertical structures, higher education institutions are vertically examining a specific question(s) across. End of course evaluations are now poised as an integral tool and a key health indicators of academic programs.


The Silk Road Journey with Xuanzang tells the saga of the seventh-century Chinese monk Xuanzang, one of China's great heroes, who completed an epic sixteen-year-long journey to discover the heart of Buddhism at its source in India. Eight centuries before Columbus, this intrepid pilgrim traveled 10,000 miles on the Silk Road, meeting most of Asia's important leaders at that time. In this revised and updated edition, Sally Hovey Wriggins, the first Westerner to walk in Xuanzang's footsteps, brings to life a courageous explorer and devoutly religious man. Through Wriggins's telling of Xuanzang's fascinating and extensive journey, the reader comes to know the contours of the Silk Road, Buddhist art and archaeology, the principles of Buddhism, as well as the geography and history of China, Central Asia, and India. The Silk Road Journey with Xuanzang is an inspiring story of human struggle and triumph, and a touchstone for understanding the religions, art, and culture of Asia.


From the Renaissance onwards, European scholars began to collect and study the various languages of the Old and the New Worlds. The recognition of language diversity encouraged them to explain how differences between languages emerged, why languages kept changing, and in what language families they could be classified. The present volume brings together the papers of the late George J. Metcalf (1908–1994) that discuss the search for possible genetic language relationships, and the study of language developments and origins, in Early Modern Europe. Two general chapters, surveying the period between the 16th and 18th century, are followed by detailed case studies of the contributions of Swiss, Dutch, and German scholars such as Theodor Bibliander (1504–1564), Konrad Gesner (1516–1565), Philippus Cluverius (1580–1623), Hugo Grotius (1583–1645), and Justus Georg Schottelius (1612–1676). This collection of important studies, a number of which have become very hard to find, has been framed by a detailed Editors' Introduction, a biographical sketch of the author, a master list of references, and indexes of biographical names and of subjects, terms, and languages.


MATLAB for Engineers is intended for use in the first-year or introductory course in Engineering and Computer Science departments. It is also suitable for readers interested in learning MATLAB. With a hands-on approach and focus on problem solving, this introduction to the powerful MATLAB computing language is designed for students with only a basic college algebra background. Numerous examples are drawn from a range of engineering disciplines, demonstrating MATLABs applications to a broad variety of problems. Teaching and Learning Experience This program will provide a better teaching and learning experiencefor you and your students. Customize your Course with ESource: Instructors can adopt this title as is, or use the ESource website to select the chapters they need, in the sequence they want. Introduce MATLAB Clearly: Three well-organized sections gets students started with MATLAB, introduce students to programming, and demonstrate more advanced programming techniques. Reinforce Core Concepts with Hands-on Activities: Examples and exercises demonstrate how MATLABcan be used to solve a variety of engineering problems. Keep Your Course Current: Significant changes were introduced in version MATLAB 2012b, including the introduction of MATLAB 8 which has a redesigned user-interface. The changes in this edition reflect these software updates. Support Learning with Instructor Resources: A variety of resources are available to help to enhance your course.


[1] Measurements of snow using a high-resolution micropenetrometer can be used to discriminate between different snow types; in lower-density snow the signal is sensitive to microstructure, and micromechanical properties can be estimated. Although a physics-based snow penetration theory was first developed almost a decade ago, since that time the majority of studies using snow micropenetrometers have focused on using direct hardness measurements in statistical relationships. We use Monte-Carlo simulations to rigorously test the existing physics-based snow micropenetration theories over a wide range of parameters. These tests revealed four major sources of error in the inversion, which are corrected in this analysis. It is shown that this improved inversion algorithm can recover micromechanical parameters in synthetic data with much greater accuracy over the entire range of micromechanical properties observed in natural snow. Detailed examples of the inversion results are shown for eight different snow types, collected in both Alaskan and alpine snowpacks. The resulting micromechanical properties are distinctly different, indicating that a snow characterization from snow micropenetrometer estimates of micromechanical properties is likely possible. Estimates of the microscale elastic modulus, microscale strength, and structural element length make sense physically when compared to the qualitative descriptions of the different snow types. Microscale strength estimates are used to estimate macroscale strength values, and results from 33 different snow samples, covering a wide range of densities and snow types, are consistent with previously reported values from macroscale tests.


The aim of this research was identify the correlation between implementation of character education with social behavior of students. The design of the study was correlation research with cross sectional approach. The sampling technique was consecutive sampling with 94 students who attend school in Vocational High School Pekanbaru State 2 were selected based on inclusion criteria. Instrument used the study was a questionnaire consisted of 20 question to asses implementation of character education and 26 question to asses social behavior of students which was valid and reliable. Data analyses used in the study were univariate analysis to know distribution of frequency and bivariate analyses by using chi square. The result showed that p value (0,054) < alpha (0,10). It meant that there was a correlation between implementation of character education with social behavior of students. Educational institutions are expected to be able to optimize the implementation of character education efforts in schools to increase student achievement and to minimize deviant behavior of students.


A global U-Pb and δ18O zircon database shows temporal changes in the magmatic record related to changes in the degree of crustal reworking. The δ18O composition of bulk sediment remains relatively constant through geologic time, with a mean value of 14.9‰. In contrast, the δ18O values in magmatic zircons vary from relatively low values averaging ∼6‰ in the Archean to increasingly higher and scattered values defining a series of peaks and troughs in post-Archean data. The degree of crustal reworking increases at times of supercontinent assembly. Therefore we attribute the pattern of post-Archean δ18O values recorded by magmatic zircons to a significant increase in the incorporation of high δ18O sediment in response to enhanced crustal thickening and reworking associated with the onset of collisional tectonics, especially during formation of supercontinents.


The transition of additive printed electronics into high-volume production requires process consistency to allow quality control of the manufactured product. Process recipes are needed for multilayer substrates with z-axis interconnects in order to enable complex systems. In this paper, process recipes have been developed through fundamental studies of the interactions between the process parameters and the mechanical-electrical performance achieved for multilayer substrates. The study reported in this paper focuses on printed vias also known as donut vias. Aerosol jet process parameters studied include carrier mass flow rate, sheath mass flow rate, exhaust mass flow rate, print speed, number of passes, sintering time and temperature, UV-intensity for UV-cure, and standoff height. The electrical performance has been quantified through the measurements of resistance. The mechanical performance has been quantified through measurement of shear load-to-failure. The effect of sequential build-up on the mechanical-electrical properties vs process parameters have been quantified for up to 8-layers designs. The performance of 5-layer and 8-layer additively printed substrate designs and effect of multiple vias has been compared to assess process consistency.


The primary objective of this study was to determine whether brief exposure to a stressor would provoke relapse to cocaine-trained behaviour and, if so, whether such an effect could be blocked pharmacologically. Rats were initially trained to self-administer cocaine HCl (1.0 mg/kg/infusion, IV; one 3-hour session/day; 9-12 days). Subsequently, extinction conditions were introduced in which lever-pressing resulted in IV infusions of saline rather than of cocaine. Extinction conditions were maintained until animals made 15 or fewer responses in the 3-hour session, after which they received saline infusions at the start of each session until they made 10 or fewer responses in 3 hours. Subsequently, animals were tested for reinstatement of responding for saline infusions following a non-contingent injection of cocaine (2.0 mg/kg, IV) and exposure to intermittent footshock (10 min, 0.5 mA, 0.5 sec on, mean off period of 40 sec). In Experiment 1, footshock stress induced reinstatement of cocaine-trained behaviour after prolonged extinction and after a 4- to 6-week drug-free period; an effect comparable to that induced by a priming injection of cocaine. In Experiment 2, animals were given saline, cocaine, and footshock tests for reinstatement 20 min after pretreatment with saline and diazepam (0.75 or 1.5 mg/kg, IP). In this experiment, diazepam attenuated footshock- but not cocaine-induced reinstatement of cocaine-trained behaviour. These findings suggest that the neurochemical events mediating footshock- and cocaine-induced reinstatement of cocaine-trained behaviour are pharmacologically dissociable.


An image of a scene depends on both the physical attributes of the surfaces it depicts and the characteristics of the lens used to capture it. The visual system can often tell when an image has been captured using a shallow depth of field or a specific focal length, and variation in image 'defocus' blur has been studied extensively as depth cue. The tilt-shift effect demonstrates how depth of field manipulations can induce strong differences in perceived scene scale, but the image features used by the visual system to differentiate defocus from other sources of image blur are unknown. Here, we show that misinterpretation of image blur can cause depth of field manipulations to induce illusory distortions in perceived shape and material, and reveal the conditions that produce this effect. We manipulated the depth of field and focal length used to render images of 3D surfaces varying in relief height and specularity, and measured differences in perceived surface gloss and depth of field (using paired comparison tasks) and perceived 3D shape (using the gauge figure task). We found that depth of field manipulations that preserved the sharpness of a surface's occluding edge led to larger changes in perceived gloss and shape, and smaller changes in perceived depth of field, than conditions where the occluding edge was blurred by defocus. These differences were also larger for more specular surfaces. Our results reveal that changes in the occluding edges of surfaces are important cues in the perception of shallow depth of field, and that defocus blur can be misattributed to changes in specular roughness or shading gradients when these cues are absent. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015.


In biomedical application study using phase contrast X-ray, both sample thickness or density and absorption difference are very important factors in aspects of contrast enhancement. We present experimental evidence that synchrotron hard X-ray are suitable for radiological imaging of biological samples down to the cellular level. We investigated the potential of refractive index radiology using un-monochromatized synchrotron hard X-rays for the imaging of cell and tissue in various diseases. Material had been adopted various medical field, such as apoE knockout mouse in cardiologic field, specimen from renal and prostatic carcinoma patient in urology, basal cell epithelioma in dermatology, brain tissue from autosy sample of pakinson's disease, artificially induced artilrtis tissue from rabbits and extracted tooth from patients of crack tooth syndrome. Formalin and paraffin fixed tissue blocks were cut in 3 mm thickness for the X-ray radiographic imaging. From adjacent areas, 4 μm thickness sections were also prepared for hematoxylin-eosin staining. Radiographic images of dissected tissues were obtained using the hard X-rays from the 7B2 beamline of the Pohang Light Source (PLS). The technique used for the study was the phase contrast images were compared with the optical microscopic images of corresponding histological slides. Radiographic images of various diseased tissues showed clear histological details of organelles in normal tissues. Most of cancerous lesions were well differentiated from adjacent normal tissues and detailed histological features of each tumor were clearly identified. Also normal microstructures were identifiable by the phase contrast imaging. Tissue in cancer or other disease showed clearly different findings from those of surrounding normal tissue. For the first time we successfully demonstrated that synchrotron hard X-rays can be used for radiological imaging of relatively thick tissue samples with great histological details.


The continuing rise in the cost of fuel oils has highlighted
the need to place more emphasis on improving the fuel economy
of fishing vessels. Factors which influence fuel consumption
of fishing vessels are (a) hull design (b) the resistance of
appendages, such as keel, cooling and other protuberances on
the outside of the hull, (c) fouling of the hull (d) machinery
(e) the propeller design and (f) the fishing gear and methods
of fishing.
Fishing is hard hit by the rise in fuel prices. This is
especially true of trawlers. Because of high fuel consumption
of trawlers, there has been considerable development in the
use of large diameter propellers and nozzles and large reduction
gears to improve efficiency. In a fishing vessel eg: trawler,
between 80% and 90% of the total energy input is in the form
of fuel for the propulsion machinery.


The equations derived help to evaluate semi-analytically (mostly for k=1,2 or 3) the important Coulomb integrals Int rho(r1)…rho(rk) W(r1,…,rk) dr1…drk, where the one-electron density, rho(r1), is a linear combination (LC) of Gaussian functions of position vector variable r1. It is capable to describe the electron clouds in molecules, solids or any media/ensemble of materials, weight W is the distance operator indicated in the title. R stands for nucleus-electron and r for electron-electron distances. The n=m=0 case is trivial, the (n,m)=(1,0) and (0,1) cases, for which analytical expressions are well known, are widely used in the practice of computation chemistry (CC) or physics, and analytical expressions are also known for the cases n,m=0,1,2. The rest of the cases – mainly with any real (integer, non-integer, positive or negative) n and m - needs evaluation. We base this on the Gaussian expansion of |r|^-u, of which only the u=1 is the physical Coulomb potential, but the u≠1 cases are useful for (certain series based) correction for (the different) approximate solutions of Schrödinger equation, for example, in its wave-function corrections or correlation calculations. Solving the related linear equation system (LES), the expansion |r|^-u about equal SUM(k=0toL)SUM(i=1toM) Cik r^2k exp(-Aik r^2) is analyzed for |r| = r12 or RC1 with least square fit (LSF) and modified Taylor expansion. These evaluated analytic expressions for Coulomb integrals (up to Gaussian function integrand and the Gaussian expansion of |r|^-u) are useful for the manipulation with higher moments of inter-electronic distances via W, even for approximating Hamiltonian.


This work aims to integrate the technical designs of Future Internet (FI) Architecture of the European Community (FIWARE) with state-of-the-art Internet of Things (IoT) technologies and the platform's business requirements and specifications for realizing efficient, small-scale qualitative, farming. An innovative business model is introduced through a set of offered services that are based on networking `things' and passing contextual data (information) to business entities to further process, distribute and monetise the derived knowledge to their organisations (farmers, agronomists/mentors, Quality Certification Bodies). All these follow, technologically, the IoT concept. A FIWARE-enabled platform exploits Future Intelligence's end-to-end standardised modern wireless sensor network (Future Intelligence's Internet of Things (FINoT)) that performs tedious tasks and makes field-data available anytime and `everywhere'. Everywhere currently means within the under-development community or for public use only under farmers' (on a per demand case) permissions. The platform enables access to the sensor data and facilitates process automation, resource management and data handling. The main target of the solution is to establish an ecosystem of technology services that lead to very specific business opportunities: a data consolidation mechanism acquiring data from different sensor controllers bought from various vendors. In that sense, the platform aims to continue the integration of FI-enabled software tools with emergent technologies, architectures and business concepts. Creativity and quality of usage of the Generic Enablers and FIWARE's Technology chapters is profound: the proposed solution takes advantage of the already built-in application programming interfaces and tools provided by the FIWARE platform, like the IoT/context chapter smoothly integrated with FINoT platform and co-developing outstanding B2B Marketplace opportunities (Business Framework) consumed through an ideal User Experience Web Environment. Overall, the agriculture marketplace and community's (QUalitative HOrticulture Marketplace) vision is to promote and reward quality and sustainable farming in fruit and vegetables' production by bringing together Internet of People with the IoT; a bridge realised by a proper business model.


To talk about books can be a metaphoric operation. Because books have always been conceptualized as metaphors for the texts they carry, it is easy to see them as both 'real' and 'symbolic' objects of a complex semiotic nature. This article shows several ways in which the book is exposed as a material object used for the production of manifold semantic layers. Apart from metaphors, the codex itself can be worked on like in Queneau's Cent mille milliards de poèmes or altered like in Tom Phillips' A Humument. The effects of alteration and destruction on books can be shown on the book's body or in artwork or comment surrounding the (invisible) book as in Gérard Wajcman's L'interdit or Keri Smith's This is not a Book.


We study a compound plasmonic system composed of a periodic Au grating array placed close to a thin Au film. The study is not limited to normal incidence and dispersion diagrams are computed for a broad variety of parameters. In addition to identifying localized and propagating modes and the coupling/hybridization interactions between them, we go further and identify modes of compound nature, i.e. those exhibiting both localized and propagating characteristics, and discuss which plasmon modes can exhibit such a behavior in the system at hand and how structural parameters play a central part in the spectral response of such modes.


A new method, grey-encoded hybrid accelerating genetic algorithm, is presented for the parameter optimisation of environmental models. With the shrinking of searching range, the method gradually directs to optimal result with the excellent individuals obtained by grey genetic algorithm embedding Nelder-Mead simplex searching operator. The convergence theorem is given for guaranteeing the global convergence of the new genetic algorithm. The global optimisation of the new genetic algorithm is analysed. Its efficiency is verified by application of ten test functions. The comparison of our algorithm with six other algorithms is presented. This algorithm overcomes any Hamming cliff phenomena in existing genetic algorithms, and it is good for the parameter optimisation for the practical O'Connor water quality model and rainfall-runoff model.


The mouse In(15)2Rl (hairy ears, Eh) mutation is a paracentric inversion of the distal half of chromosome 15 (Chr 15). Heterozygous Eh/+ mice display misshaped and hairy ears that have more and longer hair than the ears of their wild-type littermates. We mapped, cloned and sequenced both inversion breakpoints. No protein-coding transcript was disrupted by either breakpoint. The proximal breakpoint is located between syntrophin basic 1 (Sntb1) and hyaluronan synthase 2 (Has2), and the distal breakpoint maps between homeobox C4 (Hoxc4) and single-strand selective monofunctional uracil DNA glycosylase (Smug1), near the middle and the telomere ends of Chr 15, respectively. The inversion spans ~47 megabases. Our genetic analysis suggests that the hairy-ear phenotype is caused by the proximal breakpoint of the inversion-bearing Chr 15. Quantitative RNA analysis by real-time polymerase chain reaction for the genes flanking the breakpoint indicated no changes in expression levels except for some homeobox C (Hoxc) genes whose expression was elevated in developing and mature skin of the ears but not of other body regions. The increased hair length on the ears of Eh/+ mice was due to an extension of the anagen stage in the hair cycle, as determined by histological analysis. Our data indicate that the Eh phenotype arises from mis-expression of Hoxc genes.