Post-mortem blood drug concentrations vary greatly and as a consequence of post-mortem change and redistribution may not reflect the concentration at the time of death. Tissues that are located away from central drug reservoirs and that lack esterase activity, e.g. muscle and vitreous humour (VH), have the potential to provide more reliable post-mortem toxicological specimens. In the absence of a blood sample the toxicologist may have to rely on such tissues yet few studies have been undertaken to examine the relationship between drugs in blood and less conventional tissues at the time of death.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the distribution of opiates (heroin specific compounds) and cocaine and their respective metabolites in VH and muscle with a view to elucidating the interpretive value of these tissues. Analytical methods were developed and validated to measure drug concentrations in blood, VH and muscle, including throughout the rectus femoris thigh muscle, in cases of drug related death. To assist with interpretation of drug concentrations measured in post-mortem tissues the in vitro stability of cocaine and 6-acetylmorphine (6AM) was examined during the putrefactive process and under different storage conditions. Relationships between blood and tissue drug concentrations were assessed in relation to case circumstances with particular focus on the approximation of survival time.
In contrast to a report previously published in the literature, this study found the concentration of cocaine, and its metabolites, benzoylecgonine (BZE) and cocaethylene (COET), to be uniformly distributed throughout the thigh muscle (n = 7). Concentrations of cocaine in muscle were markedly higher than in blood and correlated well with the blood. The stability of cocaine in muscle tissue was found to greatly exceed that in blood and VH. These preliminary results also indicated that the cocaine to BZE ratio measured in both muscle and VH may be of value in the assessment of survival time. These findings promote the use of muscle as a toxicological specimen for cocaine determinations. Further work is required to validate these findings and to examine the distribution of opiates in muscle, which could not be assessed in this study. The relationship between femoral blood and vitreous humour morphine concentration (n = 70) was found to be dependent on survival time and possibly influenced by accumulation of morphine in the VH. These findings demonstrate that the concentration of morphine in blood cannot be inferred from that measured in the VH. The VH provided a useful adjunct to interpretation owing to the prolonged detection of 6AM in this matrix. The addition of 1.5% sodium fluoride to VH was found to be essential for 6AM stability during storage. The utility of rapidly metabolised heroin specific compounds in blood as indicators of survival period following heroin intake and the role of concomitant drug consumption in heroin fatalities was also discussed in this thesis.


Ti-6Al-4V (wt%) alloy rods were prepared successfully using a low-cost method that combines mixing elemental and master alloy powders and powder compact extrusion. The microstructure and mechanical properties of the rods and the effects of extrusion temperature on them were investigated. The results showed that the microstructure and mechanical properties of the extruded rods were strongly affected by the extrusion temperature. With increasing extrusion temperature from 1200°C to 1300°C and keeping the powder compact holding time unchanged at 2 minutes, the fraction of undissolved V rich particles in the microstructure of the extruded rod decreased substantially to zero, the level of composition homogenization increased dramatically to the highest level, and the UTS and elongation of the extruded rods increased significantly from 886MPa and 1.2% to 1300MPa and 7.1%, respectively. The tensile properties of the Ti-6Al-4V alloy rods produced by powder compact extrusion of the powder mixture are comparable to those of Ti-6Al-4V alloy produced by ingot metallurgy and thermomechanical processing.


Learn Linux Administration and Supercharge Your Career! If you're looking to make the jump from being a Linux user to being a Linux administrator, this book is for you! If you're in windows administration and want to learn the ins and outs of Linux administration, start here. This book is also great for Unix administrators switching to Linux administration. Here is what you will learn by reading this Linux System Administration book: How the the boot process works on Linux servers and what you can do to control it. The various types of messages generated by a Linux system, where they're stored, and how to automatically prevent them from filling up your disks. Disk management, partitioning, and file system creation. Managing Linux users and groups. Exactly how permissions work and how to decipher the most cryptic Linux permissions with ease. Networking concepts that apply to system administration and specifically how to configure Linux network interfaces. How to use the nano, vi, and emacs editors. How to schedule and automate jobs using cron. How to switch users and run processes as others. How to configure sudo. How to find and install software. Managing process and jobs. How to make the most out of the Linux command line Several Linux commands you'll need to know Linux shell scripting What you learn in book applies to any Linux system including Ubuntu Linux, Debian, Linux Mint, RedHat Linux, CentOS, Fedora, SUSE Linux, Arch Linux, Kali Linux and more. Real Advice from a Real, Professional Linux Administrator Jason Cannon is the author of Linux for Beginners, the founder of the Linux Training Academy, and an instructor to over 40,000 satisfied students. He started his IT career in the late 1990's as a Unix and Linux System Engineer and he'll be sharing his real-world Linux experience with you throughout this book. By the end of this book you will fully understand the most important and fundamental concepts of Linux server administration. More importantly, you will be able to put those concepts to use in practical real-world situations. You'll be able to configure, maintain, and support a variety of Linux systems. You can even use the skills you learned to become a Linux System Engineer or Linux System Administrator.


Title of Document: IMPROVEMENT OF DYNAMIC PROPERTIES AND SEISMIC RESPONSE OF CLAY USING FIBER REINFORCEMENT Behzad Amir Faryar, Doctor of Philosophy, 2012 Directed By: Professor M. Sherif Aggour, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering In recent years, earthquakes have caused heavy damage to buildings and infrastructure. One of the causes of heavy damage due to earthquake motions is the role of soft clay in amplifying bedrock ground motions. Improving the soil conditions at a site in order to mitigate earthquake damage can be one of the methods of modifying site conditions and thus reduce its effects on the seismic site response. The inclusion of randomly distributed short virgin polypropylene fibers (C3H6) in clay has proven to significantly improve the static geotechnical properties of clay such as shear, compression, tensile strengths, and so on. These improvements have triggered great interest in the possibility of mixing fibers with clay to improve the clay's dynamic properties. Because the percentage of fibers is currently arbitrarily chosen by users, a procedure was set up in this study to determine the optimum fiber content for a fiber-clay composite. Experimental testing was performed using the Resonant Column Method to obtain both the shear modulus and the material damping for a clay and the fiber-clay composite to determine the effect of fiber inclusion on the dynamic properties of clayey soil. The research showed that the inclusion of fiber at optimum fiber content as a ground improvement technique can improve the dynamic properties of soft clayey soils at low shear strain. Test results indicated that both the shear modulus and damping increased. Hence, the inclusion of fiber in clay can provide a double benefit for the dynamic response of a site by increasing the stiffness of the site and reducing its amplitude of vibration. General formulas for shear modulus and damping were developed as functions of the shear strain amplitude for the clay and for fiber reinforced clay. The effect of fiber inclusion on the seismic site response using two different earthquake motions was also studied. One-dimensional wave propagation analysis was performed to investigate the effect of the modification of the clay dynamic properties using fibrillated fiber reinforcements on the site response. The results indicated that by modifying the clayey soil using fiber, the seismic site response can be improved. IMPROVEMENT OF DYNAMIC PROPERTIES AND SEISMIC RESPONSE OF CLAY USING FIBER REINFORCEMENT By Behzad Amir Faryar Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2012


Recent progress in language model pre-training has achieved a great success via leveraging large-scale unstructured textual data. However, it is still a challenge to apply pre-training on structured tabular data due to the absence of large-scale high-quality tabular data. In this paper, we propose TAPEX to show that table pre-training can be achieved by learning a neural SQL executor over a synthetic corpus, which is obtained by automatically synthesizing executable SQL queries and their execution outputs. TAPEX addresses the data scarcity challenge via guiding the language model to mimic a SQL executor on the diverse, large-scale and high-quality synthetic corpus. We evaluate TAPEX on four benchmark datasets. Experimental results demonstrate that TAPEX outperforms previous table pre-training approaches by a large margin and achieves new state-of-the-art results on all of them. This includes the improvements on the weakly-supervised WikiSQL denotation accuracy to 89.5% (+2.3%), the WikiTableQuestions denotation accuracy to 57.5% (+4.8%), the SQA denotation accuracy to 74.5% (+3.5%), and the TabFact accuracy to 84.2% (+3.2%). To our knowledge, this is the first work to exploit table pre-training via synthetic executable programs and to achieve new state-of-the-art results on various downstream tasks. Our code can be found at https://github.com/microsoft/Table-Pretraining.


A model for the coherent transport of excitons along linear, one-dimensional arrays of quantum dots accounting for spontaneous emission is presented. The interdot coupling is made by means of the coherent emission and reabsorption of photons. The long-range nature of the coupling leads to nontrivial dynamics in the polarization and in the exciton population with qualitatively different behaviors for chains with periods just less than or just greater than integer multiples of half the wavelength of the optical transition. Biexponential radiative decay of an initially well-localized population is predicted.


A factor(s) present in supernatants from lectin-stimulated peripheral blood mononuclear cells promoted the production of basophil-like cells in liquid cultures of normal human bone marrow cells. The cultured basophil-like cells had lobulated or round nuclei, and the cytoplasmic granules stained metachromatically with toluidine blue and azurophilic with Giemsa. 20% of the metachromatically staining cells were peroxidase positive but not positive for nonspecific esterase. The histamine content was 0.5-2 pg/cell. The basophil-like cells released histamine upon challenge with calcium ionophore A23187 but not with compound 48/80. They also released histamine with anti-IgE when passively sensitized with human myeloma IgE. The development of basophil-like cells was promoted in a dose-dependent fashion by a factor(s) in the conditioned medium. Blocking of cell proliferation with hydroxyurea or X irradiation inhibited the development of basophil- like cells. The production of the factor was dependent on the presence of T cells. The factor was different from interleukin 2 and its molecular weight was estimated to be 25,000-40,000 by gel filtration on a Sephacryl S-200 column. Thus, human basophil-like cells derived from normal bone marrow cells can grow and differentiate in vitro under the regulation of T cells.


Sample marriage certificate (called a Ketubah) presented to couples married at the Congregation Ahavath Sholom in Fort Worth, Texas as of 1990. The certificate includes three panels. On the far left, text primarily in English describes the vows of marriage. In the center, the main text of the certificate is in Hebrew with blanks for specific information; the text is surrounded by illustrations of plants and crops. On the far right there are lines for names and signatures of participants and witnesses. This form was designed by the Rabbinical Assembly (an organization of American Conservative rabbis).


Aqueous solutions of a copolymer derivative of a polyacrylamide showed very interesting behavior, that in which the system evolves from one kind of double criticality (pressure-hypercritical point) to another (temperature-hypercritical point) as polymer molecular weight decreases. While in the neighboring region of the former point one expects a change from contraction to expansion upon mixing with increasing pressure; in the latter, mixing should be accompanied by a change in the sign of the excess enthalpy as temperature increases. L-L equilibria studies were performed in a wide range of (T, p) experimental conditions (300 <T/K <460, 0 <p/bar <700). Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide), usually called PNIPAAM, and its copolymer derivative poly(N-isopropylacrylamide/1-deoxy-1-methacrylamido-D-glucitol), herein referred to as CP, were investigated for several chain lengths and compositions. An He/Ne laser light scattering technique was used for the determination of cloud-point (T, p, x) conditions. The experimental results were used to assist in the determination of computed values at temperatures beyond experimental accessibility, which are obtained by the application of a modified Flory-Huggins model. The model also estimates the excess properties of these solutions. Because of the intrinsic self-associating nature of these systems, all studied solutions show a lower critical solution temperature (LCST). Both modeling results and H/D isotope substitution effects suggest also the existence of upper critical solution temperatures (UCST) and therefore closed-loop-type phase diagrams. However, these upper-temperature branches are experimentally inaccessible. Pressure effects are particularly interesting. For a low-MW CP, experimental data display a tendency toward a reentrant T-p locus, which supports the conjecture that these systems are inherently of the closed-loop type. In the cases of PNIPAAMs and high-MW CPs, the T-p isopleths show extrema. The copolymer aqueous solutions under study in this work model a single chemical system where pressure-hypercritical behavior evolves to a temperature-hypercritical one as the chain length decreases.


Perfluorocarbons (PFCs) are amongst the most potent greenhouse gases listed under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). With atmospheric lifetimes on the order of thousands to tens of thousands of years, PFC emissions represent a permanent alteration to the global atmosphere on human timescales. While the industries responsible for the vast majority of these emissions – aluminium smelting and semi-conductor manufacturing – have made efficiency improvements and introduced abatement measures, the global mean mole fractions of three PFCs, namely tetrafluoromethane (CF4, PFC-14), hexafluoroethane (C2F6, PFC-116) and octafluoropropane (C3F8, PFC-218), continue to grow. In this study, we update baseline growth rates using in situ high-frequency measurements from the Advanced Global Atmospheric Gases Experiment (AGAGE) and, using data from four European stations, estimate PFC emissions for northwest Europe. The global growth rate of CF4 decreased from 1.3 ppt yr−1 in 1979 to 0.6 ppt yr−1 around 2010 followed by a renewed steady increase to 0.9 ppt yr−1 in 2019. For C2F6, the growth rate grew to a maximum of 0.125 ppt yr−1 around 1999, followed by a decline to a minimum of 0.075 ppt yr−1 in 2009, followed by weak growth thereafter. The C3F8 growth rate was around 0.007 ppt yr−1 until the early 1990s and then quickly grew to a maximum of 0.03 ppt yr−1 in 2003–2004. Following a period of decline until 2012 to 0.015 ppt yr−1, the growth rate slowly increased again to ∼ 0.017 ppt yr−1 in 2019. We used an inverse modelling framework to infer PFC emissions for northwest Europe. No statistically significant trend in regional emissions was observed for any of the PFCs assessed. For CF4, European emissions in early years were linked predominantly to the aluminium industry. However, we link large emissions in recent years to a chemical manufacturer in northwest Italy. Emissions of C2F6 are linked to a range of sources, including a semi-conductor manufacturer in Ireland and a cluster of smelters in Germany's Ruhr valley. In contrast, northwest European emissions of C3F8 are dominated by a single source in northwest England, raising the possibility of using emissions from this site for a tracer release experiment. Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union. 2150 D. Say et al.: European emissions of CF4, C2F6 and C3F8


This report details some of the key findings of a sociological survey that was undertaken in rural Makondo Parish, Lwengo District in Uganda. The cross-sectional survey was carried out between September and November 2011 and covered all the 15 villages in the Parish. The broad aim of the survey was to assess the livelihoods, health, gender and water governance issues in Makondo Parish. Prior to the survey, several preliminary visits were made to the study area, which were then followed by a rigorous literature review on rural water governance, health and livelihoods in Uganda and globally so as to identify the major themes and variables. These themes were then used to develop a quantitative or structured questionnaire. The questionnaire was structured under the following headings: household and interviewer identification; respondents' characteristics; household livelihoods and well-being, particularly poverty indicators like main source of income, money earned, dwelling type, and number of meals eaten; knowledge of the importance of safe water; access to safe water, such as type of water sources used, access to improved water sources, transportation of water; health issues like water-related diseases suffered, cost to the household of these diseases, steps taken to mitigate against the diseases; knowledge of hand-pump functionality; household water use and management, such as satisfaction with use, conflicts if any and decision-making on use; perceptions of safe water services and systems such as rating of safe water service delivery and why; knowledge of community-based water management systems and capacity building for sustainable utilisation of safe water. The final version was translated into Luganda, the local vernacular so as not to distort the meaning of the questions. This exercise was carried out by the Makerere University Institute of Languages, and the Luganda version was then used to train the Community Health Workers on how to administer and record standardised interviews, such as mastering the intended meaning of each and every question in the questionnaire, the expected data, recording and editing among others. The CHWs were also trained on how to use a GPS (Global Positioning System) unit so as to capture the necessary data for mapping the household locations. After training the CHWs, the questionnaire was piloted in one of the villages in a neighbouring Parish (called Nanywa) and again revised. The actual field work or data collection started with Misaana village in the North-Eastern part of Makondo Parish, then moved on to Luyiiyi-Kate, Luyiiyi-Protazio and ended with Kiguluka, the last village in the Parish on 14th November 2011. It took between three to four days on average to complete the survey in each village, and the first day of work in each village involved meeting the Village Chairpersons, explaining to then about the WIL Project, objectives of the survey and seeking their support in locating selected households for interviews. After every two-three days of data collection, meetings were held with the interviewers/CHWs to share fieldwork experiences as well as edit field questionnaires. A total of six hundred and six (606) households selected proportionately across the 15 villages in Makondo Parish were covered in the survey. Despite several challenges that were met during the survey, such as failure by interviewers/CHWs to complete their assigned households in time; heavy rains that made driving on the village roads quite difficult especially in Kiteredde, Kiyumbakimu and Kiguluka villages, the survey was a success and data collection ended quite successfully, as the originally targeted sample was attained.


Modern assemblers provide powerful macro facilities to enable programmers to create their own high level constructs. In contrast, many high level languages have at best very limited macro capabilities. The macro facility provided by the C preprocessor has been almost universally derided. We examine the limitations imposed by the lack of macro facilities for pattern programming, object persistence and object communication. We propose a metacompiler (a translator from a superset C++ language) that provides macros integrated into the language as meta-functions and meta-variables of meta-classes. We show how a variety of simple facilities provided at the meta-level can allow patterns to be expressed directly, substantially reduce the lexical size of C++ programs and their consequent maintenance cost, offer a more versatile programming environment, and provide facilities needed to support persistence and communication of objects.


This paper studies the possibility of using the broad monetary aggregate M2 to target the quarterly rate of growth of nominal GDP. Our findings indicate that the Federal Reserve could probably guide M2 in a way that reduces not only the long-term average rate of inflation but also the variance of the annual rate of growth of nominal GDP. An optimal M2 rule, derived from a simple VAR, reduces the mean ten-year standard deviation of annual GDP growth by over 20 percent. Although there is uncertainty about this value because of both parameter uncertainty and stochastic shocks to the economy, we estimate that the probability that the annual variance would be reduced over a ten year period exceeds 85 percent. A much simpler policy based on a single equation linking M2 and GDP is shown to be almost as successful in reducing this annual GDP variance. Additional statistical tests indicate that M2 is a useful predictor of nominal GDP. Moreover, a battery of recently developed tests for parameter stability fails to reject the hypothesis that the M2 - GDP link is stable, but the MI - GDP and monetary base - GDP relations are found to be highly unstable. This evidence contradicts those who have argued that the M2 - GDP relation is so unstable in the short run that it cannot be used to reduce the variance of nominal GDP growth.


Because of the decreasing cost and high digital resolution, next-generation sequencing (NGS) is expected to replace the traditional hybridization-based microarray technology. For genetics study, the first-step analysis of NGS data is often to identify genomic variants among sequenced samples. Several statistical models and tests have been developed for variant calling in NGS study. The existing approaches, however, are based on either conventional Bayesian or frequentist methods, which are unable to address the multiplicity and testing efficiency issues simultaneously. In this paper, we derive an optimal empirical Bayes testing procedure to detect variants for NGS study. We utilize the empirical Bayes technique to exploit the across-site information among many testing sites in NGS data. We prove that our testing procedure is valid and optimal in the sense of rejecting the maximum number of nonnulls while the Bayesian false discovery rate is controlled at a given nominal level. We show by both simulation studies and real data analysis that our testing efficiency can be greatly enhanced over the existing frequentist approaches that fail to pool and utilize information across the multiple testing sites.


"This book examines the growing trend of recognition and practices of CSR in private enterprises in developing countries. It identifies the challenges and deficiencies in these practices and proposes means for improvement. Based on a sound theoretical foundation, this book focusses on the case of Bangladesh and the ready-made garment industry to exemplify the described developments. After a brief introduction the book outlines the standards of Corporate Social Responsibility. It compares the trends in CSR practices both in developed and developing countries and then embarks on CSR practices in the private sector in Bangladesh to finally present a detailed analysis of CSR and its practices in the ready-made garment industry. The book not only compares developing countries with developed, but as well provides an assessment and analysis of different stages of CSR within the South Asian area."--published website


Background: We were interested in comparing the performance of Linear Array (LA; Roche Molecular Systems) to Hybrid Capture 2 (hc2; Digene) for the detection of carcinogenic human papillomavirus (HPV) and cervical precancer. Methods: LA and hc2 results were compared on baseline specimens collected from women with an atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASCUS) Pap referred into ASCUS and Low-Grade Squamous Intraepithelial Lesion Triage Study (n = 3,488). hc2 was conducted at the time of the study on liquid cytology specimens. LA was conducted retrospectively on aliquots from a second, stored cervical specimen masked to the hc2 results and clinical data. Paired LA and hc2 results (n = 3,289; 94%) were compared for the detection of carcinogenic HPV (HPV 16, 18, 31, 33, 35, 39, 45, 51, 52, 56, 58, 59, 66, and 68) and 2-year cumulative cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) grade ≥3 as diagnosed by the quality-control pathology review. Results: LA was more likely to test positive for carcinogenic HPV than hc2 (55% versus 53%; P = 0.001). For 2-year cumulative ≥CIN3, LA and hc2 had similar sensitivities (93.3% versus 92.6%, respectively; P = 1), and LA was marginally less specific than hc2 (48.1% versus 50.6%, respectively; P = 0.05). LA and hc2 had similar negative predictive values (98.70% versus 98.64% respectively; P = 0.4), and LA had a slightly lower positive predictive value than hc2 (14.6% versus 15.1%, respectively; P < 0.0001). Conclusion: We observed that LA and hc2 performed similarly in the detection of carcinogenic HPV and identification of CIN3 among women with an ASCUS Pap. (Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2008;17(5):1248–54)


Inventory investment is an important component of the Canadian business cycle. Despite its small average size – less than 1 per cent of output -- it exhibits volatile procyclical fluctuations, accounting for almost one-third of output variance. Procyclicality of inventories is somewhat smaller than that of sales, resulting in a counter-cyclical aggregate inventory-sales ratio. These salient inventory facts are matched in a partialequilibrium version of Kryvtsov and Midrigan's (2010) model in which firms hold stocks of goods to buffer against stockouts. In booms, firms boost their inventories to avoid stocking out due to the rise in demand. The model combines the real marginal cost estimated by ToTEM with the convex cost of adjusting inventories to match the dynamics of the inventory-sales ratio in the data.


With the numbers of women imprisoned increasing across Western jurisdictions over the last 15 or so years, so too have the numbers of women returning to the community following a period in custody. Despite increasing policy attention in the UK and elsewhere to prisoner resettlement, women's experiences on release from prison have received limited empirical and policy attention. Drawing upon interviews with women leaving prison in Victoria, Australia, this article discusses the resettlement challenges faced by the women and highlights their similarity to the experiences of women leaving prison in other jurisdictions. Women had mixed (and predominantly negative) experiences and views of accessing services and supports following release, though experiences of parole supervision by community corrections officers were often positive, especially if women felt valued and supported by workers who demonstrated genuine concern. Analysis of factors associated with further offending and with desistance, points to the critical role of flexible, tailored and women-centred post-release support building, and, where possible, upon relationships established with women while they are still in prison.


The notion of markedness has been prevalent in phonology since its use by one of the founders of the Prague school of phonology, Trubetzkoy (1939). In contemporary writing it is most often used as a measure of the relative naturalness of linguistic elements. In this paper I explore the use of markedness in phonology literature and argue that it is an ill-defined notion that relies on circular reasoning and, quite often, leads to conflicting or vacuous predictions. Specifically, I question the generative theory-internal notion that markedness is encoded in the grammar. I focus on the multi-dimensional aspect of markedness in phonology and the various criteria used as diagnostics for the assignment of markedness values. I conclude that the predictive and descriptive powers of the dimensions of markedness, when taken individually, are far superior to those of markedness used as a cover term.


The Altona Formation represents the oldest Cambrian sedimentary unit in northern New York, recording cyclic deposition in shallow marine and fluvial environments under both fair-weather and storm conditions. Five outcrops and one well log were measured and described at the centimeter scale and the top and bottom contacts of the Altona were identified. Based on the recognition of sedimentary structures such as hummocky cross stratification, oscillatory ripples, graded bedding, trough and tabular cross stratification, and bioturbation, as well as subtle lithologic changes, six lithofacies representing non-marine, middle to upper shoreface, offshore, and carbonate ramp environments were identified. The top contact with the overlying Ausable Formation is characterized by inter-tonguing marine to non-marine siltstones and cross stratified medium sandstones. The lowermost Altona is found to lie only one meter above Precambrian basement and is interpreted to be the only non-marine facies in this unit. Throughout the 84-meter thick section, stratigraphy records a transition from upper/middle shoreface to carbonate ramp deposition and offshore muds before cycling between upper shoreface, carbonate ramp and non-marine deposits. Based on parasequence architecture, this section of rock is interpreted to represent the transition from the transgressive systems tract to the highstand systems tract. Thin sections analysis from each lithofacies quantified grain size and composition and identified a provenance. Modal analysis data from clastic lithofacies reveals subarkose to arkose sandstones with an accessory mineral suite including ilmenite, apatite, rutile, and zircon. Integrating the compositional data, particularly the accessory mineral suite, with detrital zircon dates of 1000 – 1300 Ma (Chiarenzelli et al., 2010) suggests that the Grenville Adirondacks in particular the AMCG suit and Lyon Mountain Granite are a likely source rock. Comparison with the Monkton Formations of Vermont suggest that these two units were deposited under similar sea level conditions and are therefore correlative. Provenance study suggests that they were both sourced form the Adirondack Mountains. The major difference is in their depositional environments as the Monkton represents deposition of predominantly tidally influenced deltaic environment. The environmental processes acting on the two units suggests that the paleogeography of the Iapetus margin in this area was an embayed coastline.


We describe the experience of a sample of US state child welfare organizations that are implementing, or deciding to transition, to a new model of information system, now explicitly recommended by the Department of Health and Human Services of the US Federal Government. The new Comprehensive Child Welfare Information System was intended to replace an older problematic model of information management and draws inspiration from enterprise-level data intensive thinking. It promises to enable states to design systems that meet federal reporting requirements and improve case-related and policy decision making.


In reinforcement learning, an agent attempts to learn high-performing behaviors through interacting with the environment, such behaviors are often quantified in the form of a reward function. However some aspects of behavior-such as ones which are deemed unsafe and to be avoided-are best captured through constraints. We propose a novel approach called First Order Constrained Optimization in Policy Space (FOCOPS) which maximizes an agent's overall reward while ensuring the agent satisfies a set of cost constraints. Using data generated from the current policy, FOCOPS first finds the optimal update policy by solving a constrained optimization problem in the nonparameterized policy space. FOCOPS then projects the update policy back into the parametric policy space. Our approach has an approximate upper bound for worst-case constraint violation throughout training and is first-order in nature therefore simple to implement. We provide empirical evidence that our simple approach achieves better performance on a set of constrained robotics locomotive tasks.


Reassessment of faunal discoveries in the Fleurieu Peninsula, South Australia, shows that the Sellick Hill tuff is late Atdabanian or early Botomian in age and is preceded by Tommotian to Atdabanian equivalents. Previous and new sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe (SHRIMP) zircon ages from the tuff have been adjusted for Pb loss in the reference zircon, and mixture-modelling has been applied to resolve inheritance and Pb loss. The revised tuff age is now 522.0 ± 2.0 Ma (σ), 0.7% younger than the original estimate. Undocumented SHRIMP ages for zircons from a middle to upper Botomian tuff near Cymbric Vale were cited in 1994 as a single 525 ± 4 Ma population, but reprocessing using the present approach shows instead that the correct age of volcanism is 517.8 ± 2.1 Ma (σ). Reprocessed and new SHRIMP ages for zircons from tuff within Bed 5 of the Lower Cambrian Meishucun section, South China, give a revised age for the earlier Tommotian of 538.2 ± 1.5 Ma (σ). We agree with US workers that the stratotypic lowest Cambrian sequence of Newfoundland correlates within the Nemakit–Daldynian of Siberia. These results agree broadly with the Early Cambrian time scale based on zircon U–Pb isotope dilution data, but differences remain that arise more from interpretations of biostratigraphy and from the preservation and origin of the sampled zircon grains than from instrumental accuracy. In particular, the increased duration for the Tommotian indicated by our results supports notions of a more gradualistic evolution attending the origins of animal skeletons.


This paper describes a study of urban flooding in downtown Kunming, China, simulating a major flood event that occurred in July 2008 using an improved two-dimensional (2D) hydraulic model enhanced with courtyard-level sewer data (CLSD). Although municipal authorities are not responsible for 'private' courtyard sewers, available records were specifically added to this model, enhancing its accuracy and usefulness. Geographic information system (GIS) flood maps, a mapping overlay approach and statistical method compared both predicted results and the recorded flood area. A statistical method also provided a measure of the correlation between the extent of the predicted flood areas and recorded flood areas (parameter ' F '). Results of the improved 2D/CLSD model showed a correlation value for F of 51, 32.6% higher than the basic one-dimensional municipal-level sewer data (1D/MLSD) model; 26.2% higher than an interim version of the model that included a 2D ground surface (2D/MLSD). The 2D/CLSD model predicted flooding in 10 of the 12 courtyards with observed flooding. This was a major improvement over the 1D/MLSD model (three out of 12) and the 2D/MLSD model (five out of 12). Thus a CLSD-enhanced 2D hydraulic model potentially improves accuracy in predicting, mapping and understanding flood risk in urban areas.


The deictic ad fulfills many functions in Mauritanian Berber (demonstrative, copula, connector, injunctive particle, etc.). Most of these uses are found more or less in all Berber languages. However, Zenaga differs markedly on several points: ad is not used as a preverb to express future; on the contrary, it is used as a conditional and quotative particle. The author analyses these divergent evolutions and proposes explanations for the various grammaticalization phenomena involved by conjointly studying the TAM (tense-aspect-mood) markers and sentence structure. The polygrammaticalization of the deictic is partly linked to the semantic indetermination of the Aorist and to some specific conditions which bear on fronted verbs.


"Reforms in agriculture have become an integral part in policymaker's agenda. Research on past reforms in various sectors showed their effect on farmer's decision making regarding the continuum of farm work. This research objective is to expand and predict implications of emerging policy reforms on eggs branch farmers economics' viability. The theory presented here aims to analyze the farmer's decision
making on income diversification by accounting for socio-demographics, wealth, and peripherality. The study of income diversification that is presented here can throw light on how risky the reforms are for farmers that their income is exclusively based on agriculture. Logistic regression and classification tree were employed in analyzing a sample of eggs producers in Israeli's periphery. The main findings signify that the younger, educated, and wealthier farmers who are more peripheral, prone towards diversifying income. Policymakers should acknowledge this variability in potential risks
while designing agricultural reforms."


The Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) developed the EBRI HSA Database to analyze the state of and individual behavior in health savings accounts (HSAs). The HSA database contained 5.5 million accounts with total assets of $11.3 billion as of Dec. 31, 2016. This Issue Brief is the fourth annual report drawing on cross-sectional data from the EBRI HSA Database. It examines account balances, individual and employer contributions, distributions, invested assets and account-owner demographics in 2016. Here are the key findings and insights: HSAs are a significant part of employment-based health benefit programs. Enrollment in high-deductible, HSA-eligible health plans was estimated to be between 20.2–22.6 million policyholders and their dependents, and covered nearly 3 in 10 employees in 2016. The HSA market did not exist until 2004. Similarly, there were an estimated 20 million HSAs as of the end of 2016. Most HSAs in the EBRI HSA Database are relatively new; more than 3 in 4 HSAs (77 percent) have been opened since 2013. HSA balances increased in 2016. Two-thirds of account holders ended 2016 with positive net contributions, meaning annual contributions were higher than annual distributions. Over 90 percent of HSAs with individual or employer contributions in 2016 ended the year with funds to roll over for future expenses. As of the end of 2016, the average HSA balance among account holders with individual or employer contributions in 2016 was $2,532, up from $1,604 at the beginning of the year. Only 3 percent of HSAs had invested assets (beyond cash). Contributions and distributions drive account balances. On average, individuals who made contributions in 2016 contributed $1,986 over the year and HSAs receiving employer contributions in 2016 received $935. But only 13 percent of account holders contributed the fully allowable annual amount. Three-fourths of HSAs with a 2016 contribution also had a distribution during 2016. Of the HSAs with distributions, the average amount distributed was $1,766, less than the average contribution, resulting in balance increases. The presence of individual or employer contributions were associated with an increase in account balances in 2016—even if account holders took a distribution. Investing does not maximize longer-term savings. Investors (beyond cash) had much higher account balances than non-investors. While it might be expected that individuals who invested their account balance were using the account solely as a long-term savings vehicle, the opposite appears to have been true. Both investors and non-investors used the HSA to self-fund current uninsured medical expenses. Investors were more likely than non-investors to take a distribution (69 percent and 63 percent, respectively). In fact, when distributions were taken, investors took larger distributions ($2,451) than non-investors ($1,740) during 2016. However, the larger distributions may have been because they had larger account balances.


We consider the problem of system identification of helicopter dynamics. Helicopters are complex systems, coupling rigid body dynamics with aerodynamics, engine dynamics, vibration, and other phenomena. Resultantly, they pose a challenging system identification problem, especially when considering non-stationary flight regimes. We pose the dynamics modeling problem as direct high-dimensional regression, and take inspiration from recent results in Deep Learning to represent the helicopter dynamics with a Rectified Linear Unit (ReLU) Network Model, a hierarchical neural network model. We provide a simple method for initializing the parameters of the model, and optimization details for training. We describe three baseline models and show that they are significantly outperformed by the ReLU Network Model in experiments on real data, indicating the power of the model to capture useful structure in system dynamics across a rich array of aerobatic maneuvers. Specifically, the ReLU Network Model improves 58% overall in RMS acceleration prediction over state-of-the-art methods. Predicting acceleration along the helicopter's up-down axis is empirically found to be the most difficult, and the ReLU Network Model improves by 60% over the prior state-of-the-art. We discuss explanations of these performance gains, and also investigate the impact of hyperparameters in the novel model.


ABSTRACT One of the main implications of the push for transition from the monoculture of Eurocentric scientific knowledge towards the ecology of knowledge is to force us to pose the question: what does a decolonial turn in International Relations (IR) entail? This article grapples with this question in light of growing demands for a decolonial turn in knowledge and power. The aim is to meditate on this question with a view to open up new avenues for a structured conversation on decolonising IR and its theory. This imperative to decolonise is linked to the question of epistemic justice with implications for the epistemological structure underpinning IR, methodological frameworks for the study of IR, theoretical outlines and the teaching of the discipline. Epistemic justice is a necessity alongside historical justice for those on the margins of a world system constructed with the help of imperialism, systematic enslavement and colonialism. This article discusses the question of the decolonial turn in IR in the hope of stimulating debates on the views of the margins regarding the present state and the future of this area of knowledge, and thus move us closer to an ecology of knowledge and power.


Background. Primo vascular system is a new anatomical structure whose research results have reported the possibility of a new circulatory system similar to the blood vascular system and cells. Electrophysiology, which measures and analyzes bioelectrical signals tissues and cells, is an important research area for investigating the function of tissues and cells. The bioelectrical study of the primo vascular system has been reported by using modern techniques since the early 1960s by Bonghan Kim. This paper reviews the research result of the electrophysiological study of the primo vascular system for the discussion of the circulatory function. We hope it would help to study the electrophysiology of the primo vascular system for researchers. This paper will use the following exchangeable expressions: Kyungrak system = Bonghan system = Bonghan circulatory system = primo vascular system = primo system; Bonghan corpuscle = primo node; Bonghan duct = primo vessel. We think that objective descriptions of reviewed papers are more important than unified expressions when citing the papers. That said, this paper will unify the expressions of the primo vascular system.


Hybrid models development by combining the data-driven method of artificial neural network (ANN) and wavelet decomposition for disaggregation of rainfall time series is the purpose of this paper. In this study, for disaggregating the Tabriz and Sahand rain-gauges time series, according to nonlinear characteristics of observed time scales, a wavelet-artificial neural network (WANN) hybrid model was suggested. For this purpose, 17 years of daily data of four rain-gauges and monthly data of six rain-gauges from the mountainous basin of Urmia Lake were decomposed with wavelet transform and then using mutual information and correlation coefficient criteria, the sub-series were ranked and superior sub-series were used as input data of ANN model for disaggregating the monthly rainfall time series to the daily time series. Results obtained by the WANN disaggregation model were compared with the results of ANN and classic multiple linear regression (MLR) models. The efficiency of the WANN model compared with the ANN and MLR models at validation stage in the optimized case for Tabriz rain-gauge showed up to a 22 and 41.2% increase and in the optimized case for Sahand rain-gauge it showed up to a 21.1 and 40.8% increase, respectively.


This study evaluates whether a recent decline in snowcover extent for circumpolar regions is matched by changes in the seasonal streamflow regime of several small hillslope catchments on Bathurst and Melville Islands. This includes shifts in the timing of initiation, peak discharge and impacts on the spring–summer water budgets. Paired catchments (West and East) at the Cape Bounty Arctic Watershed Observatory (CBAWO) on Melville Island (74.9°N, 109.5°W) have been studied from the pre-snowmelt season to early August since 2003. They are low-rolling tundra catchments between 8.0 and 11.6 km2 in area. Likewise, within the Polar Bear Pass (PBP) watershed, Bathurst Island (75.7°N 98.7°W), two hillslope basins, Windy Creek (4.2 km2) and Landing Strip Creek (0.2 km2) have been investigated since 2007. Detailed snow surveys were conducted each spring and streamflow estimates were made using the mid-section velocity method. Nival regimes continue to dominate in these basins but runoff ratios are variable between catchments, across islands, and from year-to-year. In comparison to earlier streamflow studies across the Queen Elizabeth Islands (QEIs), an earlier response to peak discharge and start of flow for these hillslope streams is confirmed. Water budgets for PBP, CBAWO differ from other small Arctic watersheds.


Sustainable methods are required in developing regions to treat and recover value from pit latrine sludge. One strategy is to pyrolyse pit latrine contents and generate char and bio-oil, which can then be used as a soil enhancer and fuel, respectively. Despite the many benefits associated with the process, there is very limited relevant literature available. This study examines its feasibility. Initially, the energy balance for the pyrolysis of sewage sludge was calculated using data from 14 literature studies. The average net energy recovery from pyrolysis of dewatered and dried sewage sludge followed by use of bio-oil as fuel was calculated as 4.95 ± 0.61 MJ kg−1. For dewatered sewage sludge, an average net energy input of 2.23 ± 0.31 MJ kg−1 was required. Parallel calculations were undertaken where pit latrine sludge with 0–100% water content was the hypothetical feedstock. On average, net energy recovery from produced bio-oil was achievable when pit latrine sludge with a water content of ≤∼55% was the feedstock. When both bio-oil and char were utilised, net energy recovery was feasible at a water content value of ≤∼65%. Char production is more favourable from stabilised pit latrine sludge with lower moisture and volatile solids content. Barriers to the pyrolysis of pit latrine sludge include its heterogeneous composition and the difficulty of collecting high-viscosity sludge. Overall, this study demonstrates the potential of pyrolysis as a disposal and value addition method for pit latrine sludge. Innovative methods for sludge drying and pit emptying will expedite the process becoming a reality.


This study explored the relationship between malocclusion and signs and symptoms of temporomandibular disorders (TMD) in 124 patients with severe Class II malocclusion, before and 2 years after bilateral sagittal split osteotomy (BSSO). Patients were evaluated with the Craniomandibular Index (CMI), the Peer Assessment Rating Index (PAR Index, to assess gross changes in the occlusion), and symptom questionnaires. The results showed a significant improvement in occlusion; PAR Index scores dropped from a mean of 18.1 before surgery to a mean of 6.1 at 2 years postsurgery (P < 0.001). The CMI and masticatory index (MI) for muscle pain indicated clinically small but statistically significant improvement (P = 0.0001) from before surgery (mean CMI = 0.14, mean MI = 0.15) to after surgery (mean CMI = 0.10, mean MI = 0.08). The number of patients with clicking upon opening decreased significantly from 33 (26.6%) to 13 (10.5%) (P = 0.001). However, the number of patients with fine crepitus increased from 5 (4.0%) before surgery to 16 (12.9%) at 2 years postsurgery (P = 0.005). Significant reductions in subjective pain and discomfort were also found 2 years after surgery. The magnitude of change in muscular pain was not related to the severity of the pretreatment malocclusion, a finding that suggests that factors other than malocclusion may be responsible for the change in TMD.


The Song of Songs, eight chapters of love lyrics found in the collection of wisdom literature attributed to Solomon, is the most enigmatic book of the Bible. For thousands of years Jews and Christians alike have preserved it in the canon of scripture and used it in liturgy. Exegetes saw it as a central text for allegorical interpretations, and so the Song of Songs has exerted an enormous influence on spirituality and mysticism in the Western tradition. In the Voice of My Beloved, E. Ann Matter focuses on the most fertile moment of Song of Songs interpretation: the Middle Ages. At least eighty Latin commentaries on the text survive from the period. In tracing the evolution of these commentaries, Matter reveals them to be a vehicle for expressing changing medieval ideas about the church, the relationship between body and soul, and human and divine love. She shows that the commentaries constitute a well-defined genre of medieval Latin literature. And in discussing the exegesis of the Song of Songs, she takes into account the modern exegesis of the book and feminist critiques of the theology embodied in the text.


Candida albicans is an opportunistic and polymorphic fungal pathogen that causes mucosal, disseminated and invasive infections in humans. Transition from the yeast form to the hyphal form is one of the key virulence factors in C. albicans contributing to macrophage evasion, tissue invasion and biofilm formation. Nontoxic small molecules that inhibit C. albicans yeast-to-hypha conversion and hyphal growth could represent a valuable source for understanding pathogenic fungal morphogenesis, identifying drug targets and serving as templates for the development of novel antifungal agents. Here, we have identified the triterpenoid saponin family of gymnemic acids (GAs) as inhibitor of C. albicans morphogenesis. GAs were isolated and purified from Gymnema sylvestre leaves, the Ayurvedic traditional medicinal plant used to treat diabetes. Purified GAs had no effect on the growth and viability of C. albicans yeast cells but inhibited its yeast-to-hypha conversion under several hypha-inducing conditions, including the presence of serum. Moreover, GAs promoted the conversion of C. albicans hyphae into yeast cells under hypha inducing conditions. They also inhibited conidial germination and hyphal growth of Aspergillus sp. Finally, GAs inhibited the formation of invasive hyphae from C. albicans-infected Caenorhabditis elegans worms and rescued them from killing by C. albicans. Hence, GAs could be useful for various antifungal applications due to their traditional use in herbal medicine.


The social science disciplines tend to view the self as a contaminant. The unique, inner life of the observer, the researcher, is to be separated, neutralized, standardized, and controlled. At the same time, the observer is expected to use the self in understanding the world. Susan Krieger, a sociologist trained in traditional social science, argues in this controversial book that this view of the self needs to be altered. Social scientists should develop their individual perspectives in their work and ought to acknowledge, more honestly than they do, the extent to which their studies reflect their inner lives.The argument in this book is based in the author's own experience, reflecting her own need to speak more directly through her social science. This book is also about that struggle with standard forms and traditional styles of expression. It is about a social science that is more subjective, idiosyncratic, ambivalent, conflicted--about the inner life and experiences that cannot be measured, tested, or fully shared.Beginning with a discussion of her own training, Susan Krieger proceeds to consider both personal and general issues that arise in writing social science. She compares the work of a mystery writer and an anthropologist, investigates the writings of Georgia O'Keeffe, and examines ideas of self and community among Pueblo Indian potters. In concluding chapters, she returns to her own teaching and research experiences--and the experiences of her colleagues, other women wrestling with similar issues. The voices of eight other feminist scholars complete the book with their various and yet harmonious reflections on the relationship between self and form in their work.


Sepsis is a complex condition that is initiated by infection. The incidence of sepsis and its severity are higher at an older age (mean age of approximately 65 years). Clinical manifestations of sepsis are derived from systemic inflammatory response syndrome. Age‐related defects in immunity are shown by changes in cellular and humoral immu‐ nity. Recent studies have shown significant changes in the innate response (e.g., changes in toll‐like receptor expression, abnormal activation of mitogen‐activated protein kinases, and production of reactive oxygen species) in older people. Transcriptomic analysis on a large scale has provided interesting information showing that specific groups of patients actually have singular profiles for inflammatory responses. Findings from our research group have identified major molecular pathways that are particularly affected in older people during sepsis. Oxidative phosphorylation pathways and mitochondrial dysfunc‐ tion are altered the most in older people with sepsis compared with younger patients with sepsis. These pathways might have a pivotal role in worsening clinical outcomes compared with younger people with sepsis. The mechanisms leading to specific dysfunc ‐ tion of several signaling pathways in the immune response of older people are complex and appear to involve multiple factors, including environmental factors, microRNAs, and epigenetic changes.


This chapter examines codeswitching (CS) behaviors among African-American English, Spanish and Standard English by Puerto Rican Return Migrant (PRRM) students as they develop academic writing in Spanish and English and use their writing to create websites. The students exchange e-mail messages which highlight the covert manner in which racialized discourses are negotiated. The chapter investigates the extent to which computer-mediated discourse (through e-mail messages) shapes PRRM students' negotiations of identities in CS. In doing so, the chapter analyzes CS in naturally occurring discourses to show how PRRMs enact the notion of resistance/solidarity by creating social boundaries between the prestige accorded the dominant code of whiteness, i.e., Standard English and resistance/solidarity accorded African-American English and Spanish in urban America and Puerto Rico.


Since Sociology was established in 1967, the journal has assumed a significant role in shaping the discipline. In the interim years it is often said that the very practice of sociology has now 'spun out' beyond the dedicated departments that were once the centres of sociological practice. This raises questions as to the relationship between sociology and other disciplines, questions that are compelling and arguably distinct from a welcome recognition of sociology's undoubted intellectual hybridity. The extent to which this is a productive tension or one that requires a resolution is an ongoing conversation to which this special issue speaks. In this introductory article we take what we consider to be an innovative route that is guided by the theme of 'Bringing Sociology Home' whilst simultaneously recognising the enormous strengths brought by the multidisciplinary developments of the last 50 volumes. We set out the terrain before introducing a mixture of short and substantive papers from contributors, as well as interviews, with scholars who have made a contribution to the study of the discipline of sociology both inside and beyond the pages of the journal.


Purpose: Human Organotypic Retinal Cultures (HORCs) have been shown to be a
useful experimental model to investigate retinal ganglion cell (RGC) fate in short term
models of glaucomatous stress. The aim of the current work was to investigate the
long-term fate of RGCs in HORCs and to develop culture conditions to promote the
RGC survival. The potential neurotrophic effect of mesenchymal stem cell derived
growth factors on the RGC survival was studied and the role of epigenetic regulation
of retinal cell gene expression was examined.
Methods: Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (QRT-PCR) was used
for assessment of retinal cell marker genes expression, immunohistochemistry and
terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdT)-mediated dUTP nick-end labelling
(TUNEL) for quantitative assessment of apoptotic RGCs. LDH activity in culture
media was used to assess total cell death in HORCs.
Results: Serum-free (SF) DMEM/HamF12 with no added antibiotics was found to
be the medium of choice for the human retina culture. A statistically significant loss of
NeuN-labelled RGCs was documented after 2 weeks in culture using SF DMEM/Ham
F12, whereas with Neurobasal medium, the loss was detected after week 1. The
numbers of apoptotic RGCs were high under all culture conditions after 1 week.
Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and platelet derived growth factors
(PDGFs) conferred a protective effect on RGC survival in long-term HORCs, whereas
leukaemia inhibitory factor (LIF) failed to exert this effect. The loss of RGC-derived
gene markers expression was selectively altered by the histone deacetylase inhibitor
(HDACI) trichostatin A (TSA).
Conclusions: The timing for long-term HORCs use ex vivo is dependent on
culture conditions. Long-term HORCs can be used for up to 2 weeks in order to
prevent detectable RGC loss. Both VEGF and PDGF possess an ability to prolong
RGC survival in long-term HORCs. HDAC inhibitor TSA selectively reverses the
down-regulation of RGC-derived gene markers expression.


This study assessed the temporal and spatial drought regimes in Kasungu Agricultural Development Division from 1977 to 2017. The previous studies in Malawi only used the Percentile Index such that other indices including the timescale standardized precipitation index were not considered for drought analysis. This study bridged this gap by using 3-month and 6-month Standardized Precipitation Indices in Drought Monitoring and Prediction software. This study found that the rainfall patterns are highly variable with decreasing trends as determined by high coefficient of variation values (> 0.5). These variations have subjected the region to frequent mild and moderate meteorological droughts. Based on driest years, the respective maximum drought severities were 5,358 in 1994, 3,638 in 1999, 3,492 in 2005 and 3,112 in 2015. Results suggest that drought severity is highly correlated to the rainfall variations in the corresponding districts. This study recommends usage of timescale indices to aid drought monitoring.


Single-species toxicity studies have been criticised for their inability to test for the effects of pollution on interacting species in field conditions. Pollution may have indirect effects on organisms due to changes in the abundance of competitors, predators or species that act as habitat. In marine hard substrate assemblages, pollution from the heavy metal copper causes predictable changes in the composition of sessile organisms in field conditions. The effects on mobile invertebrates associated with these habitats, however, are unknown. We tested the effects of copper on the entire assemblage of mobile and sessile invertebrates that colonise fouling plates, and demonstrated strong changes in the composition of mobile taxa due to the presence of copper. Manipulative field experiments parti- tioned the direct effects of water-borne copper from possible indirect effects mediated through changes to their habitat. Sessile assemblages were selectively gardened in the absence of copper to create habitats typical of polluted and unpolluted habitats, and then exposed to copper. The assem- blages of mobile invertebrates varied between manipulated habitats, indicating that copper can indi- rectly affect mobile fauna via habitat change. The mechanisms of these effects were then examined with artificial habitats that mimicked the physical structure of polluted and unpolluted habitats. The composition of the mobile fauna was again dependent on habitat. In both experiments, there were interactions between the effect of habitat and the presence of copper, demonstrating the need for multi-species, field experiments to fully identify the effects of pollutants in natural conditions.


The solutions or states of optimization problems or simulations are evaluated by using objective functions. The weights for these objective functions usually have to be estimated from experts' evaluations, which are likely to be qualitative and somewhat subjective. Although such estimation tasks are normally regarded as quite suitable for machine learning, we propose a mathematical programming-based method for better estimation. The key idea of our method is to use an ordinal scale for measuring paired differences of the objective values as well as the paired objective values. By using an ordinal scale, experts' qualitative and subjective evaluations can be appropriately expressed with simultaneous linear inequalities, and which can be handled by a mathematical programming solver. This allows us to extract more information from experts' evaluations compared to machine-learning-based algorithms, which increases the accuracy of our estimation. We show that our method outperforms machine-learning-based algorithms in a test of finding appropriate weights for an objective function.


Objective This review summarizes published findings concerning the Baerveldt-350 glaucoma drainage device (GDD). Most studies focus on the comparison between different treatments; in this review, the primary focus is efficacy, safety, and place in therapy for the Baerveldt implant. Methods A systematic review was performed using the PubMed database for literature on March 13th, 2020. Efficacy was estimated by performing multiple meta-analyses to calculate the weighted mean difference in intraocular pressure (IOP) and IOP-lowering medication after surgery. In order to get an indication of the safety of the Baerveldt implant, all recorded peri- and postoperative complication were summarized. Results A total of 21 studies, including 12 randomized controlled trials, were included with a follow-up up to 5 years, covering a mix of glaucoma types. At the last follow-up point, at 5 years postoperative, the mean (95% confidence interval) reduction in IOP was 15.57 mmHg (14.43–16.71) and the mean (95% confidence interval) reduction in IOP-lowering medication after surgery was 1.81 (1.61–2.01). Most frequently observed postoperative complications were corneal edema (2–34%) and tube complications (4–33%). Rates of required re-intervention ranged from 0% to 51% across all included studies. Conclusion The efficacy of the Baerveldt implant is a significant reduction in IOP in the long term. The safety profile of the Baerveldt implant in terms of complication incidence is similar to those reported for other GDD's. For treatment of secondary glaucoma, we suggest the Baerveldt (or any other similar GDD) as the choice of treatment in patients where highest IOP reduction is desired.


A modified version of Monopoly has long been used as a simulation exercise to teach inequality. Versions of Modified Monopoly (MM) have touched on minority status relative to inequality but without an exploration of the complex interaction between minority status and class. This article introduces Gender Stratified Monopoly (GSM), an adaptation that can be added to existing versions of MM as a step toward such a conversation. I draw on written student reflections and observations from five test courses over two years to demonstrate the effectiveness of GSM. Data indicate student recognition of the female status as more economically challenging and less "fair" relative to the male status, with real-world consequences.


Background Consumption of free sugars in the UK greatly exceeds dietary recommendations. Public Health England (PHE) has set voluntary targets for industry to reduce the sales-weighted mean sugar content of key food categories contributing to sugar intake by 5% by 2018 and 20% by 2020. The aim of this study was to assess changes in the sales-weighted mean sugar content and total volume sales of sugar in selected food categories among UK companies between 2015 and 2018. Methods and findings We used sales data from Euromonitor, which estimates total annual retail sales of packaged foods, for 5 categories—biscuits and cereal bars, breakfast cereals, chocolate confectionery, sugar confectionery, and yoghurts—for 4 consecutive years (2015–2018). This analysis includes 353 brands (groups of products with the same name) sold by 99 different companies. These data were linked with nutrient composition data collected online from supermarket websites over 2015–2018 by Edge by Ascential. The main outcome measures were sales volume, sales-weighted mean sugar content, and total volume of sugar sold by category and company. Our results show that between 2015 and 2018 the sales-weighted mean sugar content of all included foods fell by 5.2% (95% CI −9.4%, −1.4%), from 28.7 g/100 g (95% CI 27.2, 30.4) to 27.2 g/100 g (95% CI 25.8, 28.4). The greatest change seen was in yoghurts (−17.0% [95% CI −26.8%, −7.1%]) and breakfast cereals (−13.3% [95% CI −19.2%, −7.4%]), with only small reductions in sugar confectionery (−2.4% [95% CI −4.2%, −0.6%]) and chocolate confectionery (−1.0% [95% CI −3.1, 1.2]). Our results show that total volume of sugars sold per capita fell from 21.4 g/d (95% CI 20.3, 22.7) to 19.7 g/d (95% CI 18.8, 20.7), a reduction of 7.5% (95% CI −13.1%, −2.8%). Of the 50 companies representing the top 10 companies in each category, 24 met the 5% reduction target set by PHE for 2018. The key limitations of this study are that it does not encompass the whole food market and is limited by its use of brand-level sales data, rather than individual product sales data. Conclusions Our findings show there has been a small reduction in total volume sales of sugar in the included categories, primarily due to reductions in the sugar content of yoghurts and breakfast cereals. Additional policy measures may be needed to accelerate progress in categories such as sugar confectionery and chocolate confectionery if the 2020 PHE voluntary sugar reduction targets are to be met.


OBJECTIVE Weight loss reduces abdominal and intrahepatic fat, thereby improving metabolic and cardiovascular risk. Yet, many patients regain weight after successful diet-induced weight loss. Long-term changes in abdominal and liver fat, along with liver test results and insulin resistance, are not known. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We analyzed 50 overweight to obese subjects (46 ± 9 years of age; BMI, 32.5 ± 3.3 kg/m2; women, 77%) who had participated in a 6-month hypocaloric diet and were randomized to either reduced carbohydrates or reduced fat content. Before, directly after diet, and at an average of 24 (range, 17–36) months follow-up, we assessed body fat distribution by magnetic resonance imaging and markers of liver function and insulin resistance. RESULTS Body weight decreased with diet but had increased again at follow-up. Subjects also partially regained abdominal subcutaneous and visceral adipose tissue. In contrast, intrahepatic fat decreased with diet and remained reduced at follow-up (7.8 ± 9.8% [baseline], 4.5 ± 5.9% [6 months], and 4.7 ± 5.9% [follow-up]). Similar patterns were observed for markers of liver function, whole-body insulin sensitivity, and hepatic insulin resistance. Changes in intrahepatic fat und intrahepatic function were independent of macronutrient composition during intervention and were most effective in subjects with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease at baseline. CONCLUSIONS A 6-month hypocaloric diet induced improvements in hepatic fat, liver test results, and insulin resistance despite regaining of weight up to 2 years after the active intervention. Body weight and adiposity measurements may underestimate beneficial long-term effects of dietary interventions.


Planning - the ability to analyze the structure of a problem in the large and decompose it into interrelated subproblems - is a hallmark of human intelligence. While deep reinforcement learning (RL) has shown great promise for solving relatively straightforward control tasks, it remains an open problem how to best incorporate planning into existing deep RL paradigms to handle increasingly complex environments. One prominent framework, Model-Based RL, learns a world model and plans using step-by-step virtual rollouts. This type of world model quickly diverges from reality when the planning horizon increases, thus struggling at long-horizon planning. How can we learn world models that endow agents with the ability to do temporally extended reasoning? In this work, we propose to learn graph-structured world models composed of sparse, multi-step transitions. We devise a novel algorithm to learn latent landmarks that are scattered (in terms of reachability) across the goal space as the nodes on the graph. In this same graph, the edges are the reachability estimates distilled from Q-functions. On a variety of high-dimensional continuous control tasks ranging from robotic manipulation to navigation, we demonstrate that our method, named L3P, significantly outperforms prior work, and is oftentimes the only method capable of leveraging both the robustness of model-free RL and generalization of graph-search algorithms. We believe our work is an important step towards scalable planning in reinforcement learning.


A Higher-Order Multilevel Fast Multipole Method (HO MLFMM) is presented for the efficient calculation of waveguide scattering parameters in cases where several reflector feeds are mounted on electrically large satellite platforms. The efficiency is obtained by: 1) using a Block Krylov method for solving the HO MLFMM problem for the required large number of right-hand sides and 2) implementing an out-of-core solution, taking into account the fact that the memory distribution of HO MLFMM is different from the standard low-order MLFMM.


The foot and mouth disease (FMD) is still a major issue in the world of animal health. To date, not many countries are free from FMD; Indonesia is a country that has been FMD-free since 1986 and has been acknowledged by the World Animal Health Organization (OIE) from 1990.  This success was not easily obtained, as a huge amount of energy, funds, and thoughts were expended over a period of nearly one hundred years. The regional situation in Asia at present is still a huge threat to the potential of FMD entry. Malaysia, Thailand, and India are risks for the re-entry of the disease to Indonesia.There are constant efforts to smuggle meat in from regional Asian countries. The eastern coast of Sumatra is still a favorite area for importing meat illegally from countries not yet FMD-free. Moreover, the import of frozen boneless meat from FMD-free zones in India is still a threat and could potentially spread FMD to our country. Therefore, there need to be anticipation efforts and an early detection ability to identify the FMD virus which might be carried by imported meat. The meat that enters illegally and comes from FMD-free zones in India has the potential for bringing and spreading FMD; The lack of a specific method to be used as a tool for detection of FMD through imported or illegal meat.The purpose of this method development activity is to acquire a suitable, quick, and highly accurate method in detection of FMD which might be carried by imported or illegal meat; one of these methods is assessment using Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR). This method is expected to become a standard method in FMD testing in the Agricultural Quarantine Agency.


Characterization of in situ coconut (Cocos nucifera L.) genotypes using morphological descriptors is of primary importance for genetic resources. Variations in five traits were recorded on 48 selected coconut palms located at 0 to 177 m above sea level in the Coastal Lowlands of Kenya. The objective of our study was to characterize coconut palms in the coastal Kenya using morphological markers. Data was recorded on palms that included tall, dwarf and hybrid varieties. Data was analyzed using Genstat Ver 14.2 software. Phylogenetic tree construction, using the neighbour joining method, revealed that the germplasm fell into three major clusters comprising of 2, 25 and 21 genotypes, respectively. Principal component analysis (PCA) showed that the first component (CP1) accounted for 65.54% of the total variation and was associated with the number of green leaves. The second component (PC2) explained 19.71% of the total variation and was associated with stem height. The results from this study indicate that morphological variation for coconut germplasm at the Kenyan coast exists for both qualitative and quantitative characters. Coconut palms did not cluster on the basis of their origin based on the counties grown.

 Key words: Morphological characterization, Cocos nucifera L., variation, genetic resources, genetic diversity, cluster analysis.


When the risk premium in the US stock market fell far below its historic level, Shiller (2000) attributed this to a bubble driven by psychological factors. As an alternative explanation, we point out that the observed risk premium may be reduced by one-sided intervention policy on the part of the Federal Reserve, which leads investors into the erroneous belief that they are insured against downside risk. By allowing for partial credibility and state dependent risk aversion, we show that this "insurance" - referred to as the Greenspan put - is consistent with the observation that implied volatility rises as the market falls. Our bubble, like Shiller's, involves market psychology, but what we describe is not so much "irrational exuberance" as exaggerated faith in the stabilizing power of Mr. Greenspan.


The use of private welfare services in the UK has risen. But relatively little is known about the patterns of use of private welfare services. This article investigates whether there is a private welfare class, and how attitudes to welfare state spending are linked to use of private services. It finds that there is considerable use of the private sector, but the size of the group consistently using a range of private welfare services is small. Changes in attitudes to public financing of welfare spending do not appear to be directly linked to use of private services.


The photoresponses of Calanopia americana involved in diel vertical migration (DVM) were tested after exposure of copepods to the following predator kairomones: (1) crude body mucus from fish (Fundulus heteroclitus), (2) crude body mucus from ctenophores (Mnemiopsis leidyi), and (3) <10‐kDa F. heteroclitus odor. Crude mucus (10% v/v) from fish and ctenophores and <10‐kDa fish odor at several concentrations (0.01–10% v/v) either shifted or removed the ascent response of C. americana to relative rates of irradiance decrease that occur at sunset. The estimated concentrations of uronic acids and sulfated glycosaminoglycans in the test solutions are consistent with bioactive kairomone molecules being modified amino sugars. The phenotypic plasticity of photoresponses underlying DVM in this marine copepod species indicates that vertical migration in some marine crustacean zooplankton is likely an inducible defense, as reported for crustacean zooplankton from other habitats.


Amyloid fibrils are misfolded proteins, which are often associated with various neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's. The amount of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is known to be reduced in the brain tissue of people diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease relative to that of healthy individuals. Hen Egg-White Lysozyme (HEWL) forms typical β-sheet-rich fibrils during 70 minutes at low pH and high temperatures. These results are consistent with the ThT findings that β-sheets structure is also present in myoglobin (Mb), and hemoglobin (Hb) in the presence of 45% TFE. The addition of H2S in the process completely inhibits the formation of amyloid fibrils in HEWL, Mb, and Hb as revealed by several spectroscopic techniques. Non-resonance Raman bands corresponding to disulfide (RSSR) vibrational modes in the 550-500 cm spectral range decreases in intensity and is accompanied by the appearance of a new 490 cm band assigned to the trisulfide group (RSSSR). Intrinsic tryptophan fluorescence shows a partial denaturation of HEWL containing trisulfide bonds. Overall, the Mb and Hb result ties excellent with the HEWL data showing that the presence of H2S during these proteins fibrillation processes protects the α-helical protein structures, preventing the formation of amyloids in these different proteins moieties.


Semiconductor nanocrystal quantum dots are utilized in numerous applications in nano- and biotechnology. In device applications, where several different material components are involved, quantum dots typically need to be assembled at explicit locations for enhanced functionality. Conventional approaches cannot meet these requirements where assembly of nanocrystals is usually material-nonspecific, thereby limiting the control of their spatial distribution. Here we demonstrate directed self-assembly of quantum dot emitters at material-specific locations in a color-conversion LED containing several material components including a metal, a dielectric, and a semiconductor. We achieve a spatially selective immobilization of quantum dot emitters by using the unique material selectivity characteristics provided by the engineered solid-binding peptides as smart linkers. Peptide-decorated quantum dots exhibited several orders of magnitude higher photoluminescence compared to the control groups, thus, potentially opening up novel ways to advance these photonic platforms in applications ranging from chemical to biodetection.


This handbook provides detailed information for a wide range of legal instruments relevant to fisheries and fishworkers. It covers 114 legal instruments, categorized into the following seven themes:

Theme I. Human Rights, Food Security, Women and Development.
Theme II. Environment and Sustainable Development.
Theme III. Oceans and Fisheries Management.
Theme IV. Environmental Pollution
Theme V. Fishing Vessels and Safety at Sea
Theme VI. Labour
Theme VII. Trade
The handbook also includes the working of the instruments (decision-making bodies, monitoring and implementation agencies, periodicity of meetings, rules for participation in meetings of the decision-making bodies and implementation agencies for States and non-governmental organizations), regional instrument and agencies. Apart from being a ready reckoner to the instruments, it highlights the important sections of relevance to fisheries or small-scale fisheries and fishworkers.

The companion CD-ROM provides the full texts of the instruments in a searchable database. The handbook will be useful for fishworker and non-governmental organizations, and also for researchers and others interested in fisheries issues.


Slavic languages feature negative imperative constructions (NI) with a genuine verbal imperative inflection. Bulgarian constitutes a partial exception, prohibiting NIs with perfective verbs, even in preventive NIs, for which Slavic languages utilise perfective verbs. In this article we argue that Bulgarian NIs present a case of aspectual coercion (Moens & Steedman 1988). The overt coercion is due to the morpho-syntactic properties of the Bulgarian aspectual system, promoting secondary imperfectivization. The reasoning follows the cognitive approach of time categorisation (Klein 1994) and shows that the aspectual construal in NIs yields the temporal configuration of imperfective present in prohibitives, but a future interpretation in preventives. The aspectual restriction in Bulgarian arises from the inability of bare perfective verbs to express tense in the main clause, in contrast to other Slavic languages. The TAM system in Bulgarian converges towards analytic markings of distinct aspectual-temporal configurations minimising the functional load of perfective verbs


When purporting to account for translational behavior and supply it with explanations concerning reasons and results, many scholars are still prone to take too many things for granted. Thus, we often purport to know "for a fact," even adopt as a framework for our very study, claims which should have been put to the test themselves. In so doing we put superfluous obstacles in our own scholarly way and our colleagues'. A more rewarding approach and a better research strategy would be a measure of assumed naivety: we should engage in research, especially of the empirical brand, with as few assumptions as possible that might be difficult to maintain, in the face of real-world evidence. To be sure, there is no real point in conducting research into translation to begin with, whether observational or experimental, unless it stems from a genuine "wish to understand," whereby all previously-"known" facts are reformulated as questions to be answered during research and on the basis of the available data.


WRITING OF TENNYSON'S "MORTE D'ARTHUR," THE FIRST OF THE BOOKS that later became Idylls of the King, Leigh Hunt remarked that the poem "treats the modes and feelings of one generation in the style of another, always a thing fatal, unless it be reconciled with something of self-banter in the course of the poem itself. ... The impossibility of a thorough earnestness must, somehow or other, be self-acknowledged." (1) On the other hand, Gerard Manley Hopkins, who dedicated his life to the most Christian of the ideals in Malory in all its Catholicism, thought that Tennyson had not taken his model seriously enough. In the Idylls, Hopkins asserted, Malory's Morte d'Arthur had become simply "Charades from the Middle Ages." (2) Although the treatment of medieval legend and the uses to which it could be put are well known factors in the Victorian encounter with the Middle Ages, I would like to suggest that Tennyson's place in this debate is slightly different from that which has been understood. Tennyson began to work on the Arthurian legends in the early 1830s, when he wrote "The Lady of Shalott," "Sir Lancelot and Queen Guinevere," and "Sir Galahad." The first version of the "Morte d'Arthur" was added in 1842. But he was also experimenting with a larger allegorical framework for the material, either as an epic or a musical masque. Tennyson knew all three of the English editions of Malory's Le Morte DArthur published in the Romantic period by Wilks, Walker, and Southey. As he worked on into the second half of the century there were more editions: Thomas Wright's of 1858 and James Knowles' popular modernized version of 1862 that went through seven printings by the time of Tennyson's death. Malory was Tennyson's main source because it is the most complete and ordered collection of the legends. However, a fissure runs through Le Morte d'Arthur deriving from the amalgamation of two traditions: a British chanson de geste strain emphasizing military courage, Christianity, and group loyalty centered on Art hur, and a French roman courtois strand focused on Lancelot. In the latter, women's approval motivates the knights to daring deeds, and individual personal qualities are more important. There are also more magical elements. Tennyson knew a number of these earlier English and French versions, and their differences, perhaps unintentionally, remain embedded in his Idylls of the King. He also knew an Italian version of the story of Elaine, which he used for "The Lady of Shalott" and, travelling extensively in Wales, he collected local fables. As he used the material more and more, he came increasingly to introduce his own emphasis and even to invent incidents. "Enid and Nimue" (Nimue was later called Vivien) was set up in print but not published in 1857 because of an objection made privately to Tennyson about the explicitness of Nimue's seduction of Merlin. (3) Gustave Dore, in illustrations to the poem in 1868, pictures Vivien as an exotic swarthy gypsy--middle-eastern in dress and appearance--recalling the epithets applied in Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra to Cleopatra. A group of four Idylls of the King--Enid, Vivien, Elaine, and Guinevere--appeared in 1859, and it was not till 1885 that the full twelve books were complete. So Tennyson worked on the legends for over fifty years. When Tennyson began his work in the 1830s, the medieval period was already being used for contemporary debate. A.W.N. Pugin's book Contrasts: A Parallel Between the Noble Edifices of the Middle Ages and the Corresponding Buildings of the Present Day, Showing the Present Decay of Taste (1836) was not just a scholarly and aesthetic comparison. Pugin showed in contrasting plates, for example, a medieval monastery and a Victorian workhouse as examples of the degradation in charity to the poor. Made two years after the introduction of the widely unpopular law instituting workhouses, this was very much a political statement. …


OBJECTIVE
To elucidate the clinical and radiological features of Pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), compared with methotrexate (MTX) pneumonitis in RA and Pneumocystis pneumonia in acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).

SUBJECTS AND METHODS
Retrospective analysis of 14 PCP cases in RA (RA-PCP), 10 MTX pneumonitis cases in RA (MTX-P) and 11 PCP cases in AIDS (AIDS-PCP) from 9 centers in the Kanto area in the last 6 years.

RESULTS
Compared with AIDS-PCP, both RA-PCP and MTX-P developed more rapidly, showing higher serum CRP and lower plasma beta-D-glucan levels, and more severe oxygenation impairment. In most of the RA-PCP cases, a high dose of corticosteroid was administered as adjunctive therapy, resulting in a favorable outcome. The mortality was 14% in RA-PCP, 0% in AIDS-PCP and 0% in MTX-P cases. In RA-PCP patients the CD4 cell count showed only mild suppression, not reaching the predisposing level for PCP in HIV infection, suggesting that there are risk factors for RA-PCP other than immunosuppression. Radiologic analysis revealed some characteristic patterns of each disease. In MTX-P, diffuse homogeneous ground glass opacity (GGO) with sharp demarcation by interlobular septa (type A GGO) was found in 70%, while in AIDS-PCP diffuse, homogeneous or nonhomogeneous GGO without interlobular septal boundaries (type B GGO) was predominant (91%). In RA-PCP, type A GGO was found in 6 cases and type B GGO in 5 cases, showing the complex nature of this disease.

CONCLUSION
RA-PCP differed considerably from AIDS-PCP clinically and radiologically. Clinically it occurred without severe immunosuppression, and showed characteristic aspects, with more intense inflammation and less parasite burden. Radiologically it mimicked MTX-P in some cases sharing the conspicuous CT features of MTX-P, rendering the distinction of these two disorders difficult.


Offshore northern California, the Gorda plate is subducting obliquely beneath North America; the resulting complicated tectonic setting forms the southern end of the Cascadia subduction zone. The southern Cascadia subduction zone and overlying Eel River forearc basin lie just north of the unstable Mendocino triple junction. The Neogene strata of the Eel River basin record structural deformation caused by the underthrusting of the Gorda plate as well as deformation generated by northward migration and encroachment of the Mendocino triple junction. Three distinct deformation regimes are present in the Eel River forearc basin. (1) Along the western margin of the forearc basin and within the foreslope of the accretionary prism, thrust faults and anticlines record Pliocene– Pleistocene shortening caused by subduction of the Gorda plate. (2) The southern part of the basin rotated counterclockwise in the late Pleistocene, resulting in modern transpressional deformation offshore Humboldt Bay. The rotation and deformation are caused by north-south convergence across the boundary between the Pacific plate and the southernmost part of the forearc basin at the triple junction. (3) The northeastern margin of the Eel River basin is deformed by high-angle faults with a component of strike-slip motion that may represent the incipient northward propagation of the Pacific–North American transform system north of the triple junction.


Heavy-duty centrifugal fans require high reliability and first-class performance. Besides, extreme conditions and harsh environments are often encountered, such as in the papermaking process, in steel or cement plants or the chemical and petrochemical industry. Therefore, the design of high performance heavy-duty industrial fans requires robust yet efficient solutions. Previous work indicates a high aerodynamic and aeroacoustic sensitivity concerning the specific position of the volute cut-off (tongue). This effect will be further investigated, not by directly changing the orientation of the cutoff, but by varying the position of the impeller relative to a fixed volute casing. The initial evaluation is done through a numerical study of three influencing parameters, which allows the aerodynamic dependencies to be modelled using low-layer artificial networks. Subsequently, extensive experimental studies were carried out to validate the aerodynamic dependencies and also to incorporate information on the aeroacoustic performance. The obtained results show that the operating point represents the key factor in determining the optimal positioning, with qualitatively comparable dependencies found for both tested fans. From an aeroacoustic point of view, the determined optimal configuration does not necessarily coincide with the observed aerodynamic desires, so careful analysis and a reasonable compromise are required, motivating for a multi-objective optimisation process.


Currently, there are no living platyrrhine primates inhabiting the main Caribbean islands. Nevertheless, the fossil record of this area has provided outstanding findings of different New World monkeys that were part of a diverse radiation exhibiting remarkably unusual morphologies. Among these, the Cuban genus Paralouatta corresponds to one of the most enigmatic primates ever found in the Greater Antilles. Some researchers have argued that Paralouatta's post-cranium shows evidence of semi-terrestriality, a locomotor adaptation that is unusual, if not unique, in platyrrhine evolutionary history. Whether or not Paralouatta was truly semi-terrestrial remains uncertain, however, due to a lack of more sophisticated functional analyses on its morphology. Using novel virtual morpho-functional techniques on a comparative sample of 3D talar models belonging to diverse primate species representing three substrate preferences, this study aims to further evaluate whether Paralouatta was a semi-terrestrial genus or not. Geometric morphometrics and finite element analysis were used to empirically assess shape and biomechanical performance, respectively, and then several machine-learning (ML) classification algorithms were trained using both morphometric and biomechanical data to elucidate the substrate preference of the fossils. The ML algorithms categorized the Paralouatta specimens as either arboreal or as species commonly active on both ground and in trees. These mixed results are suggestive of some level of semi-terrestriality, thus representing the only known example of this locomotor behavior in platyrrhine evolutionary history.


Abstract Children are at times asked by clinicians or researchers to rate their pain associated with their past, future, or hypothetical experiences. However, little consideration is typically given to the cognitive-developmental requirements of such pain reports. Consequently, these pain assessment tasks may exceed the abilities of some children, potentially resulting in biased or random responses. This could lead to the over- or under-treatment of children's pain. This review provides an overview of factors, and specifically the cognitive-developmental prerequisites, that may affect a child's ability to report on nonpresent pain states, such as past, future, or hypothetical pain experiences. Children's ability to report on past pains may be influenced by developmental (age, cognitive ability), contextual (mood state, language used by significant others), affective and pain-related factors. The ability to mentally construct and report on future painful experiences may be shaped by memory of past experiences, information provision and learning, contextual factors, knowledge about oneself, cognitive coping style, and cognitive development. Hypothetical pain reports are sometimes used in the development and validation of pain assessment scales, as a tool in assessing cognitive-developmental and social-developmental aspects of children's reports of pain, and for the purposes of training children to use self-report scales. Rating pain associated with hypothetical pain scenarios requires the ability to recognize pain in another person and depends on the child's experience with pain. Enhanced understanding of cognitive-developmental requirements of young children's pain reports could lead to improved understanding, assessment, and treatment of pediatric pain.