Double difference seismic tomography was performed using travel time data from a carbon sequestration site at the Aneth oil field in southeast Utah as part of a Department of Energy initiative on monitoring, verification, and accounting (MVA) of sequestered CO2. A total of 1211 seismic events were recorded from a borehole array consisting of 23 geophones. Artificial velocity models were created to determine the likelihood of detecting a CO2 plume with an unfavorable event and receiver arrangement. In tests involving artificially modeled ray paths through a velocity model, ideal event and receiver arrangements clearly show velocity reductions. When incorporating the unfavorable event and station locations from the Aneth Unit into synthetic models, the ability to detect velocity reductions is greatly diminished. Using the actual, recorded travel times, the Aneth Unit results show differences between a synthetic baseline model and the travel times obtained in the field, but the differences do not clearly indicate a region of injected CO2. MVA accuracy and precision may be improved through the use of a receiver array that provides more comprehensive ray path coverage, and a more detailed baseline velocity model.


Daucus carota L. ssp. carota (Apiacea, wild carrot, Queen Anne's lace) has been used in folk medicine throughout the world and recently was shown to possess anticancer and antioxidant activities. This study aims to determine the anticancer activity of the pentane fraction (F1) and the 1:1 pentane:diethyl ether fraction (F2) of the Daucus Carota oil extract (DCOE) against human colon adenocarcinoma cell lines (HT-29 and Caco-2). Treatment of cells with various concentrations of F1 or F2 fractions produced a dose-dependent inhibition of cell proliferation. Flow cytometric analysis indicated that both fractions induced sub-G1 phase accumulation and increased apoptotic cell death. Western blot revealed the activation of caspase-3, PARP cleavage, and a considerable increase in Bax and p53 levels, and a decrease in Bcl-2 level. Treatment of HT-29 cells with either fraction markedly decreased the levels of both phosphorylated Erk and Akt. Furthermore, the combined treatment of F1 or F2 with wortmannin showed no added inhibition of cell survival suggesting an effect of F1 or F2 through the phosphatidyl inositol 3-kinase (PI3K) pathway. This study proposes that DCOE fractions (F1 and F2) inhibit cell proliferation by inducing cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in HT-29 cells through the suppression of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK)/Erk and PI3K/Akt pathways.


The development of prescription methods and evaluation of biomechanical performance of bespoke orthoses has been a source of research for the last 40 years. What started as anecdotal and experience–led knowledge has evolved into a more quantifiable paradigm utilising state of the art technologies commonly found in other high-precision industries. The manufacturing challenges associated with such customised products have been driven by the requirement to produce small (often one-off) batches, bespoke for the end user. The introduction of precise scanning equipment and CAD/CAM systems to the podiatry community is enabling the accurate and repeatable manufacture of orthoses that were previously predominantly hand crafted and shaped. Although these traditional production methods are still in use today, the advantages that scanning and CAD/CAM provide mean they are rapidly being adopted. Today, CNC machining and additive manufacture provide state of the art manufacturing methods for bespoke insoles prescribed and modelled in a CAD environment. However, the limitations of both these manufacturing methods relate to the materials that can be processed, which becomes problematic when manufacturing soft or semi-rigid orthoses. Hence an opportunity exists to develop a new and innovative method for processing foamed polymer materials that are typically vacuum formed today. This research explores the prescription and analysis methods attributed to insole design for sporting applications using specific sports shoes. The insole designs encompass material selection to deliver a product that provides control and function whilst also providing a degree of impact attenuation, recognising the dynamic and high-impact nature of the sportsspecific movements. Consideration is also given to the types of activities that function with the device. This research analyses characteristic plantar pressures experienced whilst undertaking sports-specific movements to aid in the prescription of bespoke insoles for the chosen sport. A design methodology encompassing state of the art scanning technologies and anthropometric measurements provides a repeatable and accurate means to produce the required geometry for a bespoke sport and symptom-specific insole. The research also presents the concept of cryogenic machining, a novel manufacturing method for the CNC machining of foamed polymers. The materials are cooled with the use of a liquid cryogen to below their glass transition temperature at which point relative motion at a molecular level is significantly reduced, providing a rigid and machineable form. This, along with a bespoke cryogenic facility encompassing a vertical 3 axis CNC machining centre, a pressurised liquid nitrogen dewar connected to a bespoke-designed fixture by a vacuum jacketed pipe, enables the dual-sided machining of an amorphous material, something which is not possible with conventional processes. The major contributions of this work are the design methodology to prescribe a sport and symptom-specific insole using state of the art scanning and CAM methods, the design and manufacture of a fixture to facilitate the dual-sided machining of a customised insole and the subsequent testing of the designs in a laboratory environment. In addition the research utilises motion analysis, force plate data and pressure measurement to explore the effects of the insoles on the kinetics, kinematics and peak plantar pressures at discrete anatomical regions during sport-specific manoeuvres.


Background: The spontaneous onset of macroscopic arthropathy in the ankle of the particular F1 mice descended from two Fas-deficient strains of mice; a mutant substrain of MRL/Mp.Faslpr (MRL/rpl) and C3H/He.Faslpr (C3H/lpr) was recently observed. Aim: To histopathologically characterise and genetically interpret the unique inheritance mode of disease in this arthropathy model. Methods: MRL/rpl, C3H/lpr, (MRL/rpl × C3H/lpr; MC) F1, (C3H/lpr × MRL/rpl; CM) F1 and MCF2 mice were bred under specific pathogen-free conditions. Histopathological grade of arthropathy was determined at 6 months by examination under a light microscope. To search for a linkage locus to the arthropathy, the whole genome of selected 48 male MCF2 mice with 71 polymorphic microsatellite markers was scanned, followed by quantitative trait locus analysis. Results: The incidence of microscopically defined arthropathy in the male and female MCF1 groups was 100% and 19.4%, respectively. No incidence was observed in the parental strains, MRL/rpl and C3H/lpr, and in CMF1 mice. In the MCF1 mice, the arthropathy mainly affected the ankle joints and was histopathologically characterised by marked entheseal proliferation with chondrocytic differentiation and ossification in the ankle joints, the manifestations similar to ankylosing enthesitis reported previously. An MRL/rpl-derived autosomal dominant susceptibility locus was mapped in the distal of D7Mit68 (60 cM) to the ankylosis onset. Conclusion: The MCF1 mice stably develop spontaneous ankylosing disorders in the ankle, with a male predominance. The unique inheritance mode of ankylosis is possibly interpreted by the genetic interaction between the autosomal dominant locus and a Y-linked locus.


Respiratory rate is a vital parameter of primary importance in medicine, sport/fitness and wellness in general, especially for most vulnerable categories of people like children and elderly people. Contactless determination of breathing activity provides a powerful and essential mean for evaluating this parameter in subjects who cannot accommodate physical sensors on their bodies. In hospital such subjects may be intensive care patients, prematurely born children and hosts of burn units. Moreover, also for long-term measurements of healthy people, for example, an elder living in home alone or in a care centre, invasive systems prove to be uncomfortable and annoying. Even for a night-time diagnosis of respiratory sleep disorders, like apnoea and hypopnoea, they demonstrate to interfere with the sleep regularity. Therefore, in the last decades many electronic devices have been conceived and realized to detect such an important parameter along with different branches of physics: strain gauges, ultrasounds, optics, thermometry, etc. This chapter presents the theoretical studies, the design and realization of a standalone Electromagnetic (EM) system for contactless determination of breathing frequency and subject's activity. Two major EM solutions are already known in the literature, continuous wave (CW) systems, and ultra-wideband (UWB) systems. The first evaluates the Doppler effect caused by the chest displacement during breathing at a single frequency, and the other one is a radar that detects the body motion by measuring the time shifts of sequential pulses.An intermediate solution thatjoins the advantages ofboth and overcomes their drawbacks is proposed. Through the use of a frequency sweep, in fact, it is possible to retrieve the equivalent information that UWB pulses are able to give, yet keeping the same contained hardware complexity of a CW system. At the same time, the proposed system proves to be robust and insensible to environmental changes. The theoretical studies have aimed at the demonstration that the solution under study helps in avoiding the blind frequencies that affect CW systems, because of sensitivity issues that depend on the variability of the reflection coefficient from the frequency and, as proved, from the harmonic content of the monitored motion. Supported by such theoretical studies, the preliminary tests are performed using laboratory instrumentation (a VNA and a commercial double ridge antenna) for a thorough campaign of measurements on assorted frequency bands, both in a controlled environment (anechoic angle) and in a concrete house, that inherently clutter the received signal. The second step involves the design and realization of a custom antenna, to be used in place of the double ridge and operating in a narrower band, which has demonstrated the same reliability of the commercial one. It has been verified in different conditions that the proposed system is able to detect both the position of the subject (i.e. distance from the antenna) and his breathing frequency, without any need for collaboration from the subject under measure. The final activity is the realization of a prototype of the device that implements the algorithms that have been studied. It is worth to highlight that the proposed system can be profitably adopted for Ambient Assisted Living framework, since it is not invasive and does not infringe the privacy of the end user, and yet it provides many valuable information about the subject's health status.


Realism and International Relations provides students with a critical yet sympathetic survey of political realism in international theory. Using six paradigmatic theories - Hans Morgenthau, Kenneth Waltz, the Prisoners' Dilemma, Thucydides, Machiavelli, and Hobbes - the book examines realist accounts of human nature and state motivation, international anarchy, system structure and the balance of power, international institutions, and morality in foreign policy. Donnelly argues that common realist propositions not only fail to stand up to scrutiny but are rejected by many leading realists as well. He argues that rather than a general theory of international relations, realism is best seen as a philosophical orientation or research program that emphasizes - in an insightful yet one-sided way - the constraints imposed by individual and national egoism and international anarchy. Containing chapter-by-chapter guides to further reading and discussion questions for students, this book offers an accessible and lively survey of the dominant theory in International Relations.


This paper presents effective methodologies for reliability assessment of electromagnetic devices and systems. To achieve the goal, the first-order reliability method and the moment method are adopted to deal with probabilistic constraints taking uncertainties of design variables into account. The proposed methods are applied to the TEAM Workshop Problem 22 and the results are compared to those of Monte Carlo simulation in terms of accuracy and efficiency. The robustness of three different designs (initial design, deterministic optimum and robust optimum) is assessed from the reliability point of view. Among them, it is shown that the robust optimum is the best design which has a high reliability to two probabilistic constraints considered.


Context : Stature or body height is one of the most important and useful anthropometric parameter that determine the physical identity of an individual. The study was done to estimate stature from the hand length on one hundred and fifty Bengali adult Muslim females. Study design : descriptive cross sectional study. Place of Study : department of Anatomy, BSMMU, Dhaka. Material : One hundred and fifty Bengali adult Muslim female was collected from BSMMU & some urban region of Dhaka. Method : Measurement of stature and hand length of right and left side was taken with a standard anthropometer and a slide caliper respectively. Result : The present study showed significant (p<0.001) positive correlation between the stature and hand lengths. Key words : anthrpometric measurement, hand length. doi: 10.3329/bja.v7i1.3010 Bangladesh Journal of Anatomy January 2009, Vol. 7 No. 1 pp. 10-13


Ozone measurements using Dobson ozone spectrophotometer have been made in Canada since the late 1950s. These instruments were installed between 1957 and 1964 at five Canadian sites and replaced by the more advanced Brewer instruments in the mid1980s. Ozone measurements have also been made from satellites and in particular the daily global total ozone has been measured by the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) during the period October 1978 through May 1993. Since the 1970s the vertical profile of ozone concentration has also been measured with balloonsondes at several Canadian sites. Recent studies of ozone trends over Canada have shown negative trends in total ozone (WMO, 1994). In this thesis ozone trends in the troposphere and the lower to midstratosphere are examined using the three types of data sets. The purpose has been to investigate the ozone variation pattern in the northern hemisphere and to determine the possible effects of some meteorological factors on this variation during the period from January 1979 to December 1992. A statistical model for a trend analysis of the ozone time series has been used. The model included terms for seasonal variations in mean ozone and seasonal variations in ozone trends as well as the effect of some meteorological factors. An attempt to assess stratospheric temperature and ozone-temperature trends in the troposphere and lower and mid-stratosphere has also been made. It is concluded that while there is clear evidence for a negative trend in the total ozone column, the full coupling is masked by the seasonal variation.


Water resources assessment activities in inadequately gauged basins are often significantly constrained due to the insufficiency or total lack of hydro-meteorological data, resulting in huge uncertainties and ineffectual performance of water management schemes. In this study, a new methodology of rainfall-runoff modelling using the powerful clustering capability of the self-organising map (SOM), unsupervised artificial neural networks, is proposed as a viable approach for harnessing the multivariate correlation between the typically long record rainfall and short record runoff in such basins. The methodology was applied to the inadequately gauged Osun basin in southwest Nigeria for the sole purpose of extending the available runoff records and, through that, reducing water resources planning uncertainty associated with the use of short runoff data records. The extended runoff records were then analysed to determine possible abstractions from the main river source at different exceedance probabilities. This study demonstrates the successful use of emerging tools to overcome practical problems in sparsely gauged basins.


Abstract Objective To estimate the changes in life expectancy and years of life lost in 2020 associated with the covid-19 pandemic. Design Time series analysis. Setting 37 upper-middle and high income countries or regions with reliable and complete mortality data. Participants Annual all cause mortality data from the Human Mortality Database for 2005-20, harmonised and disaggregated by age and sex. Main outcome measures Reduction in life expectancy was estimated as the difference between observed and expected life expectancy in 2020 using the Lee-Carter model. Excess years of life lost were estimated as the difference between the observed and expected years of life lost in 2020 using the World Health Organization standard life table. Results Reduction in life expectancy in men and women was observed in all the countries studied except New Zealand, Taiwan, and Norway, where there was a gain in life expectancy in 2020. No evidence was found of a change in life expectancy in Denmark, Iceland, and South Korea. The highest reduction in life expectancy was observed in Russia (men: −2.33, 95% confidence interval −2.50 to −2.17; women: −2.14, −2.25 to −2.03), the United States (men: −2.27, −2.39 to −2.15; women: −1.61, −1.70 to −1.51), Bulgaria (men: −1.96, −2.11 to −1.81; women: −1.37, −1.74 to −1.01), Lithuania (men: −1.83, −2.07 to −1.59; women: −1.21, −1.36 to −1.05), Chile (men: −1.64, −1.97 to −1.32; women: −0.88, −1.28 to −0.50), and Spain (men: −1.35, −1.53 to −1.18; women: −1.13, −1.37 to −0.90). Years of life lost in 2020 were higher than expected in all countries except Taiwan, New Zealand, Norway, Iceland, Denmark, and South Korea. In the remaining 31 countries, more than 222 million years of life were lost in 2020, which is 28.1 million (95% confidence interval 26.8m to 29.5m) years of life lost more than expected (17.3 million (16.8m to 17.8m) in men and 10.8 million (10.4m to 11.3m) in women). The highest excess years of life lost per 100 000 population were observed in Bulgaria (men: 7260, 95% confidence interval 6820 to 7710; women: 3730, 2740 to 4730), Russia (men: 7020, 6550 to 7480; women: 4760, 4530 to 4990), Lithuania (men: 5430, 4750 to 6070; women: 2640, 2310 to 2980), the US (men: 4350, 4170 to 4530; women: 2430, 2320 to 2550), Poland (men: 3830, 3540 to 4120; women: 1830, 1630 to 2040), and Hungary (men: 2770, 2490 to 3040; women: 1920, 1590 to 2240). The excess years of life lost were relatively low in people younger than 65 years, except in Russia, Bulgaria, Lithuania, and the US where the excess years of life lost was >2000 per 100 000. Conclusion More than 28 million excess years of life were lost in 2020 in 31 countries, with a higher rate in men than women. Excess years of life lost associated with the covid-19 pandemic in 2020 were more than five times higher than those associated with the seasonal influenza epidemic in 2015.


DRAM-based main memories have read operations that destroy the read data, and as a result, must buffer large amounts of data on each array access to keep chip costs low. Unfortunately, system-level trends such as increased memory contention in multi-core architectures and data mapping schemes that improve memory parallelism lead to only a small amount of the buffered data to be accessed. This makes buffering large amounts of data on every memory array access energy-inefficient; yet organizing DRAM chips to buffer small amounts of data is costly, as others have shown [11]. Emerging non-volatile memories (NVMs) such as PCM, STT-RAM, and RRAM, however, do not have destructive read operations, opening up opportunities for employing small row buffers without incurring additional area penalty and/or design complexity. In this work, we discuss and evaluate architectural changes to enable small row buffers at a low cost in NVMs. We find that on a multi-core system, reducing the row buffer size can greatly reduce main memory dynamic energy compared to a DRAM baseline with large row sizes, without greatly affecting endurance, and for some NVM technologies, leads to improved performance.


This Health Alert Network (HAN) Update is to alert public health departments, health care professionals, first responders, and medical examiners and coroners to important new developments in the evolving opioid overdose epidemic, which increasingly involves illicitly manufactured fentanyl and an array of potent fentanyl analogs (i.e., compounds that are chemically related to fentanyl). It is the second update to the original health advisory, HAN 384, issued October 26, 2015, which alerted the public to the increase in unintentional overdose fatalities involving fentanyl in multiple states, primarily driven by illicitly manufactured fentanyl. The first update to this health advisory was released on August 25, 2016 (HAN 395), describing the sharp increase in the availability of counterfeit pills containing varying amounts of fentanyl and fentanyl analogs, the continued increase of overdose deaths involving fentanyl across a growing number of states, and the widening array of fentanyl analogs being mixed with heroin or sold as heroin. The current update includes information on: (1) the continued increase in the supply of fentanyl and fentanyl analogs detected by law enforcement; (2) the sharp rise in overdose deaths involving fentanyl and fentanyl analogs in a growing number of states, in particular the growing number of deaths involving the ultra-high potency fentanyl analog known as carfentanil; (3) the expanding number of poly-drug combinations implicated in opioid overdose deaths, which include non-opioids, such as cocaine; (4) the updated comprehensive guidance available to law enforcement and other emergency responders to prevent occupational exposure to fentanyl and fentanyl analogs; and (5) updated recommendations for public health professionals and health regarding prevention and response efforts.


: This article will demonstrate the functionality of Positive and Transcultural Psychotherapy in different transcultural environments. The article will present the psychodynamic, humanistic and integrative approaches to situations in which transcultural questions are the point at issue. The article will show how a psychotherapist, though deeply-rooted in the Oriental, Ottoman culture, can merge the knowledge and experience garnered from this Oriental environment with the scientific advances of the occident to resolve these problems. Works from both of these cultural traditions will be cited and illustrated. struc-tures. Finally, as: ‹as result of these changes rather than developments, national, ethnic, and cultural groups are beginning to open up to the outside world, i. e., to outside groups. A trend of this kind is accompanied by new possibilities, new transcultural problems›» (Pe-seschkian, 1980, pp. 36f.).


As stressed by the literature on technological change, not only production and logistics activities take place along supply chains, but also innovation processes. It is then surprising that in the extensive research field of socio-technical transitions, the supply chain – and its actors – are seldom considered as a key point of the analysis. This paper aims at filling this gap of the literature by showing that the understanding of the on-going reorganization of supply chains – and the possible conflicts between actors it brings along – is a key to envisage socio-technical transitions and scenarios. A specific attention is given to conflicts between new entrants, that bring along a disrupting innovation, and dominant incumbents that resist to change. Tourism is proposed as a reference case just because the on-going radical change of its supply chain of vertically interrelated industries is currently led by a bunch of internet-based new entrants. Direct interviews to tourism experts and operators are used to build and evaluate three alternative socio-technical scenarios of tourism. Tourism scenarios do not emerge from the different use of the Web, but from a different reorganization of the tourism supply chain, each being led by different actors. Under this light that reorganization of the tourism supply chain is not just one of the effects of the increasing relevance of the Web in tourism, but it is the innovation. This consideration may be relevant for all other sectors whose supply chain is currently disrupted by new entrants that bring along an emerging technology.


This is the fifth edition of a work (first published in 1938) which has become the standard introduction to the subject. The book has grown out of lectures delivered by the authors at Oxford, Cambridge, Aberdeen, and other universities. It is neither a systematic treatise on the theory of numbers nor a 'popular' book for non-mathematical readers. It contains short accounts of the elements of many different sides of the theory, not usually combined in a single volume; and, although it is written for mathematicians, the range of mathematical knowledge presupposed is not greater than that of an intelligent first-year student. In this edition, the main changes are in the notes at the end of each chapter. Sir Edward Wright seeks to provide up-to-date references for the reader who wishes to pursue a particular topic further and to present, both in the notes and in the text, a reasonably accurate account of the present state of knowledge.


Tools allowing for the identification of viral sequences in host-associated and environmental metagenomes allows for a better understanding of the genetics and ecology of viruses and their hosts. Recently, new approaches using machine learning methods to distinguish viral from bacterial signal using k-mer sequence signatures were published for identifying viral contigs in metagenomes. The promise of these content-based approaches is the ability to discover new viruses, with no or few known relatives. In this perspective paper, we examine the use of the content-based machine learning tool VirFinder for the identification of viral sequences in aquatic metagenomes and explore the possibility of using ecosystem-focused models targeted to marine metagenomes. We discuss the impact of the training set composition on the tool performance and the current limitation for the retrieval of low abundance viral sequences in metagenomes. We identify potential biases that could arise from machine learning approaches for viral hunting in real-world datasets and suggest possible avenues to overcome them.


Refuges have been central to UK domestic violence service provision since the 1970s. Early studies focused on the needs of adult women but increasingly, children and teenagers have also become the business of refuges. Much of the existing research regarding users' experiences of refuges has, however, failed to distinguish the needs of teenagers (aged 13 to 18 years) from those of adult women and younger children. This study aims to redress this balance by examining the current service response provided by refuges for teenagers.
Teenagers aged 16 and 17 are now incorporated within the Government definition of domestic violence and abuse in England and Wales (Home Office, 2013). This policy shift requires refuges to ensure appropriate provision for under-18s. The research investigates how teenagers experience refuges and whether refuge provision responds effectively to the needs and rights of teenagers. The findings can be used to inform policy and service development.
This study is influenced by elements of feminist theory and the sociology of childhood which prioritise subjective understandings of experience and children's agency. Data collection took place in refuges across the North West, East and West Midlands of England. It involved telephone interviews with 25 members of staff and face to face repeat interviews using participatory methods with 20 teenagers, resulting in 89 interviews. Originality resides in the detailed exploration of teenagers' experiences across the length of their refuge stay and, in some cases, into their new homes.
Interviews revealed an absence of educational, emotional and social support throughout the period of a teenager's stay, and the picture was similar upon resettlement from the refuge. Difficulties experienced by teenagers during their refuge residence related to specific features of adolescence; refuges' focus on safety and protectionism was particularly problematic for adolescent development. Refuge life was found to have severe negative effects on teenagers' education. This study found that refuges are currently missing opportunities to reduce harm and promote prevention of future domestic violence and abuse by building teenagers' resilience.
This thesis argues for attitudinal change as well as relevant resources. The research highlights the shortcomings of refuges and links them to conceptions of victimhood in refuge policy and the changing nature and reduction of services. These conditions are restricting refuges' ability to respect, protect and meet the rights of teenagers. This thesis advocates for teenagers to have greater visibility and recognition as service users in their own right.


Although oyster culture dates back to First century
B.C., the development of hatchery techniques for the
production of oyster seed on a year round basis is
a recent innovation. Since early 1950s attempts for
large scale production of oyster seed have been initiated.
Loosanoff and Davis (1952), Dupuy et al. (1977)
and AQUACOP (1977) have successfully produced seed
of the oysters Ostrea edulis, Crassostrea virginica and
Crassostrea gigas. Nayar et al. (1984) have successfully
accomplished the production of seed of C. madrasensis
oh a large scale at the molluscan hatchery laboratory
of Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute
at Tuticorin. At this hatchery cultched as well as free
or cultchless spat are produced. The production of
oyster seed by hatchery techniques is accomplished in
six phases of operations viz., (1) Conditioning adult
oysters for maturation of gonads (2) Induced spawning
(3) Larval rearing (4) Culture of algal food (5) Preparation
of spat collectors and (6) Setting of spat. These
six functions although interrelated are independent
phases of operation and easy to follow and implement.


Mode choice modelling in transportation planning is carried out through either traditional statistical techniques or artificial intelligence approach. Mode choice modelling presents a different scenario for researchers when considering border transport due to the inclusion of economic and policy measures such as gross domestic product (GDP). More work has been done for border transport modelling among countries which are politically or geographically connected such as members of the European Union (EU) countries. In spite of the usefulness of artificial intelligence techniques, logit models are more dominantly used for border transport modelling. Use of artificial intelligence (AI) techniques for mode choice modelling has been growing, and this trend is expected to continue in the future for border transport as well. This paper discusses the trends in mode choice modelling for intra-region and border transport, highlights the reasons for adopting different techniques, and suggests the future direction of research in the area of mode choice modelling.


Recent plans for new subdivision development in North Edmonton will significantly increase the burden on the currently stressed Kennedale storm drainage system. In July 1991, the City retained Stanley Associates Engineering Ltd. to re-evaluate the hydraulic and structural performance. of the Kennedale storm trunk. The study was to develop a calibrated stormwater model, to identify the critical storm events, to identify the flood prone areas within the Kennedale storm basin and to define servicing alternatives for both the present and future development areas. The assessment resulted in the recommendation of utilizing real time control to maximize the use of the existing trunk system.


The conventional electric power grid features on a vertical hierarchical up-down design approach consisting of the generation, transmission and the distribution systems. The new forms of markets with diverse consumers, integration and high penetration of renewable energy resources and the distributed generation call for evolutions of the conventional power grid. The next-generation power grid, namely smart grid, is meant to overcome the existing challenges and to improve the quality of the energy service and generation. Enhanced quality, improved controllability, higher reliability and security, demand-side management (DSM), smart appliances and technologies are some motives for the smart grid. Disassembling and reorganising the conventional grid hierarchy, communication, real-time advanced metering infrastructure, grid optimisation and computational intelligence are the main aspects of the smart grid development to achieve the targeted environmental and the economic benefits.


We present a new measurement of the optical quasar luminosity function (QLF), using data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey-III: Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (SDSS-III: BOSS). From the SDSS-III Data Release Nine, a uniform sample of 22,301 i ≲ 21.8 quasars are selected over an area of 2236 deg2, with confirmed spectroscopic redshifts between 2.2 < z < 3.5, filling in a key part of the luminosity–redshift plane for optical quasar studies. The completeness of the survey is derived through simulated quasar photometry, and this completeness estimate is checked using a sample of quasars selected by their photometric variability within the BOSS footprint. We investigate the level of systematics associated with our quasar sample using the simulations, in the process generating color–redshift relations and a new quasar K-correction. We probe the faint end of the QLF to Mi(z = 2.2) ≈ −24.5 and see a clear break in the QLF at all redshifts up to z = 3.5. A log-linear relation (in log Φ* − M*) for a luminosity evolution and density evolution model is found to adequately describe our data within the range 2.2 < z < 3.5; across this interval the break luminosity increases by a factor of ∼2.6 while Φ* declines by a factor of ∼8. At z ≲ 2.2 our data are reasonably well fit by a pure luminosity evolution model, and only a weak signature of "AGN downsizing" is seen, in line with recent studies of the hard X-ray luminosity function. We compare our measured QLF to a number of theoretical models and find that models making a variety of assumptions about quasar triggering and halo occupation can fit our data over a wide range of redshifts and luminosities.


Thesis (M.P.P.)--Georgetown University, 2009.; Includes bibliographical
 references. The end of the Cold War had immense consequences on the shape of the global
 structure of power, leaving America as the world's sole superpower. Countries that had
 previously received aid and weapons from the Soviet Union no longer had a superpower to rely
 on, and the disenfranchised began to direct their frustrations against what they saw as an
 imperialist force. To what extent did this collapse have an effect on terrorism? Some expected
 that in a uni-polar world, people would be more likely to direct the frustration that their
 disenfranchisement engendered against the United States, clearly the most powerful and visible
 symbol of the new order. Others contended that the collapse of a neighboring superpower would
 swamp these effects, leading to a greater increase in terrorism in the Middle East than in the
 West, in the wake of the Cold War order. This paper attempts to measure the effects of this
 collapse on terrorism, focusing specifically on the West and the Middle East. Using data on
 terrorist incidents as well as national demographic and socioeconomic conditions, I find a
 strong and unambiguous increase in terrorist incidents in Middle Eastern countries as compared
 to NATO countries, led by the US, because of the collapse of the Soviet
 Union.


Abstract Large magnetometric surveys have contributed to the detection of an increasing number of magnetic massive stars, and to the recognition of a population of magnetic massive stellar objects with distinct properties. Among these, NGC 1624-2 possesses the largest magnetic field of any O-type star; such a field confines the stellar wind into a circumstellar magnetosphere, which can be probed using observations at different wavelength regimes. Recent optical and X-ray observations suggest that NGC 1624-2's magnetosphere is much larger than that of any other magnetic O star. By modeling the variations of UV resonance lines, we can constrain its velocity structure. Furthermore, recent spectropolarimetric observations raise the possibility of a more complex field topology than previously expected. Putting all of these multi-wavelength constraints together will allow us to paint a consistent picture of NGC 1624-2 and its surprising behavior, giving us valuable insight into the very nature of massive star magnetospheres.


As a result of the U.S deinstitutionalization policy of the 1960's persons with serious mental illness often live with and rely upon family members and friends to serve as informal caregivers. The purpose of this study was to investigate the perspectives of informal caregivers on using in-home technology such as the In-Home Health Monitoring System (IMS) to monitor activities of persons with serious mental illness. Findings revealed that informal caregivers have a positive attitude toward using the IMS for their loved one's mental health recovery, perceive the IMS to be useful, and find the IMS neither easy nor difficult to use. Findings extend the theoretical literature on the technology acceptance model and support the inclusion of informal caregivers in social work research aimed at determining the extent to which the use of IMS results in positive mental health outcomes for persons with serious mental illness.


The optimization of the cloud resources used to power a multi-agent Internet of Things architecture is an important issue which has an important impact on the overall operation cost of the architecture. The resources tenancy is a costly operation, thus their allocation and management should be optimized based on the usage patterns. The infrastructure for the multi-agent system should not be affected by the deployment or maintenance life cycle, operations require parts of the system, or even the entire system to be offline during the execution of scheduled procedures. This paper outlines of the importance of the infrastructure audit, which offers a good insight of how the resources are used, the geographical areas which are heavily used and where the allocation or release of used resources is mandatory. Also, the security audit, in a distributed multi-agent architecture that handles a large number of heterogeneous devices, represents a good mechanism for performance improvement.


The benefits of combining tailings and mine waste in a relatively homogenous manner, in which tailings just fill the voids between the waste rock particles while the waste rock maintains particleto-particle contact, has been the subject of study over the course of several years. Such a combination of materials could be used for a closure cover or as a singular large-scale facility to store both mine waste products. The possible benefits of this combination of materials include the creation of a deposit with the footprint smaller than two dedicated facilities, the shear strength of waste rock, the permeability of tailings, low oxygen diffusion rates, and theoretically a decreased potential to develop and emit acid rock drainage. If properly combined and placed, such a landform may be constructible with steep stacking angles, and it may exhibit a low potential for liquefaction. The authors briefly discuss previous work by others and provide information regarding some recently completed advances in this methodology.


This part of the EJRR hosts reports in which our correspondents keep readers up to date on the most recent developments in different areas of risk regulation. Our aim is to fuel the debate and trigger future research on cutting-edge risk subjects. The Reports are organised under different policy sections. Further sections will be added at regular intervals. If you are interested in contributing to any of the existing sections, please contact the Reports Editor at firstname.lastname@example.com


Studies using routinely collected data (RCD) are common in the urological literature; however, there are important considerations in the creation and review of RCD discoveries. A recent reporting guideline (REporting of studies Conducted using Observational Routinely-collected health Data, RECORD) was developed to improve the reporting of these studies. This narrative review examines important considerations for RCD studies. To assess the current level of reporting in the urological literature, we reviewed all the original research articles published in Journal of Urology and European Urology in 2014, and determined the proportion of the RECORD checklist items that were reported for RCD studies. There were 56 RCD studies identified among the 608 articles. When the RECORD items were considered applicable to the specific study, they were reported in 52.5% of cases. Studies most consistently (>80% of them) reported the names of the data sources, the study time frame, the extent to which the authors could access the database source, the patient selection, and discussed missing data. Few studies (<25%) discussed validation of key coding elements, details on data-linkage, data-cleaning, the impact of changing eligibility over time, or provided the complete list of coding elements used to define key study variables. Reporting factors specifically relevant in RCD studies may serve to increase the quality of these studies in the urological literature. With increased technological integration in healthcare and the proliferation of electronic medical records, RCD will continue to be an important source for urological research.


Introduction: Adolescence is a crucial period with impressive emotional changes. Emotional disorders such as depression, anxiety and stress are high among adolescents worldwide; however the psychosocial changes are often neglected. The aim of the current study was to determine the depression, anxiety and stress symptoms and their associated factors among adolescents. Methods: A cross-sectional study using cluster sampling was carried out among school-going adolescents in 10 secondary schools in Pasir Gudang, Johor, Malaysia. Respondents answered a self-administered questionnaire including socio-demographic, Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment (IPPA), Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21) and Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Using SPSS-21, chi-square test and binomial logistic regression were conducted to examine the associations between dependent and independent variables. Results: Respondents (52.6% female and 53.9% Malay) had 46.0% prevalence of depression symptoms, 59.1% anxiety, 38.1% stress and 45.6% psychosocial status (internalizing and externalizing problems). Age, father occupation and parental bonding were significantly predicted having moderate to extremely severe depression symptom (p<0.05). Younger adolescents (13-14 years old) were 1.42 times more likely to have anxiety symptom. In addition, respondents with insecure father attachment were 1.5 times more likely to have stress symptom (p<0.05). Respondents with insecure parental attachment were more likely to have psychosocial problem (p<0.05). Conclusions: Depression, anxiety and stress of adolescents were influenced by the sociodemographic of adolescents and their parents. Age, gender and parental attachment were the significant predictors in the current study which should be the center of attention for the future studies to reduce the psychological disorders among adolescents.


With the emergence of a new generation of strong and empowered female student leaders on college campuses, a special type of female leader, the Alpha Female, has developed. This study examines the essence of having an Alpha Female identity for 13 undergraduate women at a Midwestern university. Extensive interviews were conducted; transcripts were generated; emergent themes were derived; horizonalization and cross-case analysis was conducted; and, constant comparative method among the researches was employed. Findings reveal that strong positive antecedent family variables are present. Each participant perceives strong advantages and a positive impact from being an Alpha Female in the collegiate environment. Suggestions for further rich, qualitative investigations and Possible educational interventions and institutional support are offered.


CONTEXT
Clients making clinic visits related to reproductive health might benefit from participation with their partner. There is little information available, however, on whether either clients themselves or clinic staff would feel comfortable with such a possibility.

METHODS
The Multnomah County Health Department Sexually Transmitted Disease Clinic in Portland, Oregon, conducted a survey of 237 new clients in June 1994 to assess clients' and providers' responses to the idea of offering couple visits.

RESULTS
Twenty-six percent of female clients and 16% of male clients were accompanied by their partner on their visit to the clinic. Eighty-seven percent of all clients favored the clinic's offering couple visits, 5% opposed the concept and 8% were undecided. Fifty-four percent would have wanted their partner to be with them during their present visit if this choice had been offered, and 62% would want their partner to join them in follow-up couple visits if this were recommended by their provider. Seventy-one percent had already discussed with their partner the reason for their immediate clinic visit, and 88% expected to discuss the visit with their partner afterward. Attitudes toward couple services were similar for male and female clients and did not vary by race or ethnicity. For more than one-fifth of clients, clinic staff reported that they would not recommend couple visits; however, many of these clients reported that they would prefer being accompanied by their partner.

CONCLUSIONS
Appropriately designed couple-friendly options are likely to be generally accepted and moderately utilized by clients of varying backgrounds. Clinic staff may be more reluctant to involve clients' partners than the clients are themselves, however.


We quantify the effects of Galactic extinction on the derived luminosity and diameter functions and on the density field of a redshift sample. Galaxy magnitudes are more affected by extinction than are diameters, although the effect on the latter is more variable from galaxy to galaxy, making it more difficult to quantify. We develop a maximum-likelihood approach to correct the luminosity function, the diameter function and the density field for extinction effects. The effects of random and systematic photometric errors are also investigated. The derived density field is robust to both random and systematic magnitude errors as long as these are uncorrelated with position on the sky, since biases in the derived selection function and number counts tend to cancel one another. Extinction-corrected luminosity and diameter functions are derived for several subsamples of the {\it Optical Redshift Survey} (ORS). Extinction corrections for the diameter-limited subsamples are found to be unreliable, possibly due to the superposition of random and systematic errors. The ORS subsamples are combined using overall density scaling factors from a full-sky redshift survey of \iras\ galaxies, allowing the reconstruction of the optical galaxy density field over most of the sky to 8000 \kms.


Learning a decision tree from data is a difficult optimization problem. The most widespread algorithm in practice, dating to the 1980s, is based on a greedy growth of the tree structure by recursively splitting nodes, and possibly pruning back the final tree. The parameters (decision function) of an internal node are approximately estimated by minimizing an impurity measure. We give an algorithm that, given an input tree (its structure and the parameter values at its nodes), produces a new tree with the same or smaller structure but new parameter values that provably lower or leave unchanged the misclassification error. This can be applied to both axis-aligned and oblique trees and our experiments show it consistently outperforms various other algorithms while being highly scalable to large datasets and trees. Further, the same algorithm can handle a sparsity penalty, so it can learn sparse oblique trees, having a structure that is a subset of the original tree and few nonzero parameters. This combines the best of axis-aligned and oblique trees: flexibility to model correlated data, low generalization error, fast inference and interpretable nodes that involve only a few features in their decision.


Commonly in reinforcement learning (RL), rewards are discounted over time using an exponential function to model time preference, thereby bounding the expected long-term reward. In contrast, in economics and psychology, it has been shown that humans often adopt a hyperbolic discounting scheme, which is optimal when a specific task termination time distribution is assumed. In this work, we propose a theory for continuous-time model-based reinforcement learning generalized to arbitrary discount functions. This formulation covers the case in which there is a non-exponential random termination time. We derive a Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman (HJB) equation characterizing the optimal policy and describe how it can be solved using a collocation method, which uses deep learning for function approximation. Further, we show how the inverse RL problem can be approached, in which one tries to recover properties of the discount function given decision data. We validate the applicability of our proposed approach on two simulated problems. Our approach opens the way for the analysis of human discounting in sequential decision-making tasks.


The collegemosque of Sultan Hassan is considered one of the finest examples of Islamic architecture not only in Egypt but also in the East. Its open interior courtyard is paved with three different types of marble slabs. These marble slabs suffer from severe deterioration. Causes of this deterioration were determined accurately through the ocular examination of the courtyard and confirmed by the laboratory tests which were carried out on samples representing the three common types of marble used in the floor namely the white, the red and the black marble. Sun light and heat are the main deterioration factors and the consequent thermal expansion is the main property which led to the detected deterioration phenomena. Types and mechanisms of deterioration affected the floor were described and explained.


This research verifies the relationship between the lack of action of the FUNDEB Monitoring and Social Control Councils with the indicators of active waste (corruption) and liabilities (mismanagement). The main sources of data used were CGU's audit reports and the websites of FNDE, IBGE and UNDP. The sample is composed of 173 municipalities supervised by the auditors of the CGU, drawn in the 38th, 39th and 40th public draws. The methodological strategies used were the content analysis and the regression for count-data, based on the negative binomial model by maximum likelihood. The results indicated a positive and significant relationship between the lack of action of the FUNDEB Monitoring and Social Control Council and the waste of public resources allocated to basic education related to poor management. This result has a general implication in evaluating the effectiveness of the FUNDEB Control Council's audit function, in accordance with its attributions established by the government's policies and norms.


Contractors' performance, amongst other things, has been associated with the high cost of public housing in Papua New Guinea. Given that small indigenous contractors undertake construction of all public housing, this paper investigates the performance of small indigenous contractors. Eight likely factors that affect small indigenous contractors' performance are identified from the literature. An empirical study is then described aimed at determining how 80 Page (iv) The Australian Journal of Construction Economics and Building these factors affect project cost, time and quality. This comprised a survey conducted in Port Moresby by personally administered questionnaires to a sample of small indigenous contractors to assess the level of factors associated with the problem of lack of performance. Additionally, the view of each firm concerning the effect of each factor on performance was also obtained. The results show that, with the exception of culture, all the factors are perceived to have an effect of construction performance. It is also shown that the incidence of these factors, within the firms surveyed, are quite low. Of particular concern is the level of cash flow.


Women's breast-feeding patterns are complex, and existing definitions of breast-feeding behavior do not capture this complexity adequately. We used results from a prior qualitative study to define trajectories for feeding during the first half of infancy, and then examined household-, maternal-, and infant-level determinants of these trajectories using logistic regression analysis. The 1472 women in the study cohort lived in rural Bangladesh and were participants in the Maternal and Infant Nutrition Intervention in Matlab trial. The 3 infant feeding trajectories included women who fed only breast milk and water [full breast-feeding trajectory (FBT)]; offered mixed feeding continuously when their babies were 0-4 mo old [continuous mixed feeding trajectory (CMFT)]; and practiced any other type of breast-feeding [intermittent feeding trajectory (IFT)], which was the normative feeding behavior in this community. In adjusted regression models, women who lived in rural areas [odds ratio (OR), 2.1; 95% CI, 1.2, 3.4], came from the poorest households (OR, 3.4; 95% CI, 1.5, 7.7), and offered prelacteal (OR, 1.7; 95% CI, 1.0-2.7) were more likely to be in the FBT. Women from the richest households (OR, 1.6; 95% CI, 1.1, 2.6), employed mothers (OR, 1.7; 95% CI, 1.1, 2.6), and older mothers (OR, 1.02; 95% CI, 1.0, 1.1) were more likely to be in the CMFT, and women with higher birth-weight infants (OR, 0.6; 95% CI, 0.4-0.8) were less likely to be in the CMFT. Thus, these trajectories were associated with distinct groups of women and these results provide information useful for developing interventions to improve breast-feeding practices.


Desert environment modeling involving sand dune migration is important for better understanding of Earth and planetary surface processes. This paper presents a geographic information system (GIS) add-in for automated measurement of dune migration directions and migration rates using multitemporal, high-resolution digital elevation models (DEM) derived from light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data or other sources. Using the angle of repose (AOR) as a sensitive movement indicator of barchan (crescent-shaped) and transverse dunes, an add-in toolbar for ArcGIS was developed using the Python programming language to automatically detect, measure, and store dune migration direction and migration rate at random point locations on dune slip face centerlines. Pseudo-code and application samples from the White Sands dune field in New Mexico, USA, are also presented. The free add-in can be used by the geoscience community for studying coastal and desert sand dunes.[1][1]

 [1]: #fn-1


Digitization of electoral processes depends on confident systems that produce verifiable evidence. The design and implementation of voting systems has been widely studied in prior research, bringing together expertise in many fields. Switzerland is organized in a federal, decentralized structure of independent governmental entities. Thus, its decentralized structure is a real-world example for implementing an electronic voting system, where trust is distributed among multiple authorities. This work outlines the design and implementation of a blockchain-based electronic voting system providing cast-as-intended verifiability. The generation of non-interactive zero-knowledge proofs of knowledge enables every voter to verify the encrypted vote, while maintaining the secrecy of the ballot. The Public Bulletin Board (PBB) is a crucial component of every electronic voting system, serving as a publicly verifiable log of communication and ballots - here a blockchain is used as the PBB. Also, the required cryptographic operations are in linear relation to the number of voters, making the outlined system fit for large-scale elections.


The retrieval of crop biophysical parameters using spectral indices obtained from high temporal and spatial resolution satellite data, is a valuable tool to monitor crop growth and status. Tasseled Cap Features (TCFs) for RapidEye data were derived from spectral variances typically present in agricultural scenes. The TCF Greenness (GRE) was aligned to the spectral variance of vital vegetation, and therefore, it represents the typical reflectance characteristics of green vegetation, with relatively higher reflectance at the nearinfrared (NIR) range. The TCF Yellowness (YEL) was aligned to correspond to the reflectance characteristics of senescent crops, with relatively higher reflectance in the visible portion of the spectrum due to chlorophyll breakdown, and lower reflectance in the NIR range due to cell structure decomposition compared to vital green vegetation. The goal of this work was to assess the potential of RapidEye's TCFs for the prediction of green leaf area index (LAI), plant chlorophyll (Chl), and nitrogen (N) concentration, as well as the identification of senescence patterns. The linear relationships between the biophysical parameters and the TCFs were compared to the performance of the widely used indices NDVI and PSRI. Preliminary results indicate that GRE is strongly related to LAI in vital crops and suggests a higher predictive power than NDVI. YEL demonstrated a strong linear relation and a higher potential to estimate Chl and N concentration in senescent soft white winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) in comparison to PSRI. PSRI showed a stronger correlation to Chl in senescent soft white spring wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), compared to YEL. Results indicate that YEL may be used to characterize the variability in senescence status within fields. This information, in conjunction with soil fertility and yield maps, can potentially be used to designate precision management zones.


Using light scattering matrix elements measured by a polar nephelometer, a procedure for estimating the characteristics of atmospheric particulates was developed. A theoretical library data set of scattering matrices derived from Mie theory was tabulated for a range of values of the size parameter and refractive index typical of atmospheric particles. Integration over the size parameter yielded the scattering matrix elements for a variety of hypothesized particulate size distributions. A least squares curve fitting technique was used to find a best fit for the experimental measurements. This was used as a first guess for a nonlinear iterative inversion of the size distributions. A real index of 1.50 and an imaginary index of -0.005 are representative of the smoothed inversion results for the near ground level atmospheric aerosol in Tucson.


Background: Previous studies involving axially loaded ankle cadaver specimens undergoing a passive range of motion after fracture have demonstrated rotatory instability patterns consisting of excessive external rotation during plantar flexion. The present study was designed to expand these studies by using a model in which ankle motion is controlled by physiologically accurate motor forces generated through phasic force-couples attached to the muscle-tendon units.Methods: Eight right unembalmed cadaver feet were tested in a dynamic gait simulator that reproduces the sagittal kinematics of the tibia while applying physiological muscle forces to the tendons of the major extrinsic muscles of the foot. Six-degrees-of-freedom kinematics of the tibia and talus were measured with use of a VICON motion-analysis system. The experimental conditions included all combinations of lateral and medial injury to reproduce the clinical classifications of ankle fracture. Statistical analysis was performed with repeated-measures analyses of variance.Results: The talus of the intact ankles demonstrated coupled external rotation and inversion relative to the tibia as the ankle plantar flexed. Osteotomy of the fibula, simulating a lateral ankle fracture, slightly but significantly increased external rotation and inversion of the talus (p < 0.001), whereas disruption of either the superficial or the deep deltoid ligament increased talar eversion (p < 0.003) and disruption of the deep deltoid ligament increased internal rotation (p < 0.0001). The aberrant motions were corrected by repair of the injured structure.Conclusions: The predominant coupled rotation of the talus is external rotation associated with plantar flexion. Following progressive ankle destabilization, talar external rotation and inversion increased.Clinical Relevance: The clinical decision-making process regarding the treatment of ankle fractures centers on determination of whether the injury is expected to result in abnormal motion, which is thought to predispose to the development of arthritis. The present study demonstrated a remarkable degree of ankle stability during stance phase even when there was severe disruption of medial and lateral structures. This finding suggests that a main determinant of clinical outcome after ankle fracture may be ankle motion during swing phase, when ankle stability is not augmented by the combination of axial loading and active motor control of motion. If swing-phase motion is abnormal, then the ankle may be in a vulnerable position at the point of heel-strike.


A new analytical methodology for a simple and efficient on-line preconcentration of trace inorganic anions in water and salt samples prior to ion chromatographic determination is proposed. The preconcentration method is based on partition/ ion-exclusion chromatographic ion stacking (PIEC ion stacking) with a hydrophilic polymer gel column containing a small amount of fixed anionic charges. The developed on-line PIEC ion stacking–ion chromatography method was validated by recovery experiments for the determination of nitrate in tap water in terms of both accuracy and precision, and the results showed the reliability of the method. The method proposed was also successfully applied to the determination of trace impurity nitrite and nitrate in reagent-grade salts of sodium sulfate. A low background level can be achieved since pure water is used as the eluant for the PIEC ion stacking. It is possible to reach sensitive detection at sub-μg L^−1 levels by on-line PIEC ion stacking-ion chromatography.


The Association of Official Analytical Chemists (AOAC) method for determining bioavailable P was rigorously tested in agronomic studies during the 1930s when the principle constituents of the citrate-insoluble (CI) fraction were Ca phosphates. The presence of Fe, Al, and Mg phosphate compounds in the Cl fraction in today's fertilizers requires a reassessment of the AOAC method. A greenhouse study was conducted to determine if the CI-P fractions of five monoammonium phosphate (MAP) and five triple superphosphate (TSP) fertilizers were unavailable to sorghum-sudangrass [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench]. Plant shoot weight (SW) and P uptake from fertilizer applied at 15 mg total P kg -1 soil was compared with the same indices obtained from reagent-grade MAP and monocalcium phosphate (MCP) applied at rates of 13.8, 14.2, 14.6, and 15 mg P kg -1 soil (corresponding to 8, 5.3, 2.7, and 0% reduction in P supply). With a few exceptions, there was good agreement in SW and P uptake among fertilizer and reagent-grade materials in regard to the percentage of CI-P in the fertilizer, which lead to the conclusion that the AOAC method correctly determined unavailable P as CI-P for short-term plant growth. Residual availability is discussed with reference to the solubility of suspected P-impurity compounds in the CI fraction.


During a survey of the moss-inhabiting diatom flora of the sub-Antarctic Campbell Island, located in the southern Pacific Ocean, several unknown centric diatoms were observed that could not be identified using the currently available literature. Detailed light and scanning electron microscopical observations and comparisons with the characters of several species of Melosira , Angusticopula , Ferocia and Arcanodiscus worldwide indicated that five of them should be described as new to science: Angusticopula cosmica Goeyers & Van de Vijver sp. nov., Arcanodiscus crawfordianus Goeyers & Van de Vijver sp. nov., A. indistinctus Goeyers & Van de Vijver sp. nov., A. saundersianus Goeyers & Van de Vijver sp. nov. and Ferocia houkiana Goeyers & Van de Vijver sp. nov. A sixth species, Angusticopula chilensis , was illustrated for the first time using SEM and as a result is considered to differ sufficiently from A. dickiei to warrant epitypification as A. chilensis . The new species were first described in genera that formerly were included within the genus Melosira . All six species are morphologically characterized and compared with similar species within their respective genera. Their presence and distribution on Campbell Island are discussed based on the observations made in the available samples.


This article has three aims. First, it surveys the literature examining the claim that small businesses experience regulation more keenly than larger businesses. The survey indicates that, relative to their size, the burden of regulation is higher on smaller businesses where regulations impose the same requirements regardless of firm size. Second it demonstrates how a tiered regulatory approach can increase the net societal benefit of regulation. However, it also shows how tiering can have the unintended consequence of providing disincentives for small firms to grow due to more favourable treatment for remaining under tiering thresholds. The article concludes that reducing the burden of regulation and making compliance easier will typically increase the net benefits of small businesses regulation. This improvement results from increasing compliance rates and reduced compliance costs.


There are a number of threats that violate the security policies and breaches all over network. This has happened when malicious node present on the network; it may be present on one or more node that detect the pattern of the packet or frame and the misuse the information. In this paper we detect the network based attack and our proposed methodology detect suspicious activity, it respond when any wrong information enter in the log or any even occurred. Depending on conditions we fix the threshold value that alarms it when any suspicious activity occurred. If the value goes higher at certain level then our system disconnect the suspicious node and send reply to all the authenticate nodes. The proposed approach has been working in Mobile Ad Hoc networks (MANETs) and detecting bidirectional traffic; the bidirectional traffic can be configuring in access point out of this we used an infrastructure approach to identify the intrusion.


Through a discussion of seemingly 'hyped-up' controversies concerning Easter eggs, Palm Sunday celebrations, and phrases such as 'merry Christmas', this article analyzes the way in which celebrations of and rituals related to religious holidays have become the subject of political contestations in the Netherlands. This article highlights how nominally secular politicians increasingly come to the defense of the religious dimension of Dutch national identity. Focusing on the discourse concerning religion by the two largest parties in the Netherlands, liberal party VVD and populist right-wing PVV, this article outlines the contours of new interactions between religion, secularity, ritual and politics.


The goal of Project SPACE is to create an automated solar panel cleaner that will address the adverse impact of soiling on commercial photovoltaic cells. Specifically, we hoped to create a device that increases the maximum power output of a soiled panel by 10% (recovering the amount of power lost) while still costing under $500 and operating for up to 7.0 years. A successful design should operate without the use of water. This will help solar panel arrays achieve a production output closer to their maximum potential and save companies on costs associated energy generation. The current apparatus utilizes a brush cleaning system that cleans on set cleaning cycles. The device uses the combination of a gear train (with 48 pitch Delrin gears) and a 12V DC motor to spin both a 5.00 foot long, 0.25 inch diameter vacuum brush shaft and drive two sets of two wheels. The power source for the drive train is a 12V deep cycle lead-acid battery. Our light weight design eliminates water usage during cleaning and reduces the potential dangers stemming from manual labor. Our design's retail price was estimated to be around $700 with a payback period of less than 3.5 years. To date, we have created a device that improves the efficiency of soiled solar panels by 3.5% after two runs over the solar panel. We hope that our final design will continue to expand the growth of solar energy globally.


Processing of Japanese encephalitis (JE) virus non-structural (NS) proteins expressed by recombinant vaccinia viruses was analysed to characterize the responsible viral protease. Analysis of the processing of polyprotein NS2A-2B-3' containing the N-terminal 322 amino acids of NS3 revealed products consistent with cleavages at the predicted intergenic junctions as well as at one or possibly two sites within NS2A. Cleavage at the alternate site(s) containing the cleavage sequence motif within NS2A could possibly explain the production of the NS1' protein in JE virus-infected cells. Polyprotein NS2A-d2B-3' containing a large deletion within NS2B was cleavage-defective, despite the presence of the proposed NS3 protease domain. Cleavage of NS2A-d2B-3' was restored if NS2B or NS2A-2B was supplied in trans, providing evidence that NS2B is strictly required for NS3 proteolytic activity. NS2B- or NS3-specific sera raised against the bacterial TrpE fusion protein co-precipitated NS2B and NS3 or NS3' from the lysate of JE virus or recombinant virus-infected cells. Thus both protease components are associated as a complex, presumably representing the active JE virus protease. JE virus and the analogous dengue 4 (DEN-4) protease components were employed to examine the activity of heterologous proteases. The defective cleavage of JE virus NS2A-d2B-3' was complemented by heterologous DEN-4 NS2B, whereas the defective cleavage of DEN-4 NS2A-d2B-3' was not corrected by heterologous JE virus NS2B. This suggests that the heterologous JE virus NS2B-DEN-4 NS3 protease is not active, despite the considerable sequence conservation of NS2B and NS3 between the two viruses. The cleavage activity was restored by replacement of the C-terminal 80 amino acids of JE virus NS2B with the corresponding DEN-4 sequence, consistent with the notion that the C-terminal region contains amino acid residues for interaction with DEN-4 NS3.


Markov random fields are a popular model for high-dimensional probability distributions. Over the years, many mathematical, statistical and algorithmic problems on them have been studied. Until recently, the only known algorithms for provably learning them relied on exhaustive search, correlation decay or various incoherence assumptions. Bresler gave an algorithm for learning general Ising models on bounded degree graphs. His approach was based on a structural result about mutual information in Ising models. Here we take a more conceptual approach to proving lower bounds on the mutual information. Our proof generalizes well beyond Ising models, to arbitrary Markov random fields with higher order interactions. As an application, we obtain algorithms for learning Markov random fields on bounded degree graphs on $n$ nodes with $r$-order interactions in $n^r$ time and $\log n$ sample complexity. Our algorithms also extend to various partial observation models.


ABSTRACT Our knowledge of the genetics and molecular basis of the pathogenesis associated with Leptospira, in comparison to those of other bacterial species, is very limited. An improved understanding of pathogenic mechanisms requires reliable genetic tools for functional genetic analysis. Here, we report the expression of gfp and mRFP1 genes under the control of constitutive spirochetal promoters in both saprophytic and pathogenic Leptospira strains. We were able to reliably measure the fluorescence of Leptospira by fluorescence microscopy and a fluorometric microplate reader-based assay. We showed that the expression of the gfp gene had no significant effects on growth in vivo and pathogenicity in L. interrogans. We constructed an expression vector for L. biflexa that contains the lacI repressor, an inducible lac promoter, and gfp as the reporter, demonstrating that the lac system is functional in Leptospira. Green fluorescent protein (GFP) expression was induced by the addition of isopropyl-β-d-thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG) in L. biflexa transformants harboring the expression vector. Finally, we showed that GFP can be used as a reporter to assess promoter activity in different environmental conditions. These results may facilitate further advances for studying the genetics of Leptospira spp.


BACKGROUND
An aim of the use of computer navigation is to reduce rates of revisions of total knee replacements by improving the alignment achieved at the surgery. However, the decision to adopt this technology may be difficult for some centers, especially low-volume centers, where the cost of purchasing this equipment may be high. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of hospital volume on the cost-effectiveness of this new technology in order to determine its feasibility and the level of evidence that should be sought prior to its adoption.

METHODS
A Markov decision model was used to evaluate the impact of hospital volume on the cost-effectiveness of computer-assisted knee arthroplasty in a theoretical cohort of sixty-five-year-old patients with end-stage arthritis of the knee to coincide with the peak incidence of knee arthroplasty in the United States.

RESULTS
Computer-assisted surgery becomes less cost-effective as the annual hospital volume decreases, as the cost of the navigation increases, and as the impact on revision rates decreases. Centers at which 250, 150, and twenty-five computer-navigated total knee arthroplasties are performed per year will require a reduction of the annual revision rate of 2%, 2.5%, and 13%, respectively, per year over a twenty-year period for computer navigation to be cost-effective.

CONCLUSIONS
Computer navigation is less likely to be a cost-effective investment in health-care improvement in centers with a low volume of joint replacements, where its benefit is most likely to be realized. However, it may be a cost-effective technology for centers with a higher volume of joint replacements, where the decrease in the rate of knee revision needed to make the investment cost-effective is modest, if improvements in revision rates with the use of this technology can be realized.


Identification of biological agents which is thermo- tolerance is a key success for biological control in the arid regions such as Arabian Peninsula. Date palm is one of the indigenous plants in this region. It can tolerate high temperature and survive the drought. It is expected that microbial communities associated with date palms would have similar characters. It would be reasonable to search for bio-agents from such microbial communities. This study is a apart of a project to identify microbial communities living in the phyllosphere and rhizosphere of date palms. Bacterial colonies were isolated from date palm leaflets and soil samples containing date palm roots. Samples were collected from the date palm experimental field at the Agricultural Research Farm, Rwdet Al-Faras, Qatar. Isolation of bacteria were conducted on nutrient agar media using the standard techniques. Hundred eighty five bacterial isolates were obtained. They were evaluated for their antagonism potentiality against Alternaria alternate as a causal agent for leaf spot diseases in date palm and Fusarium solani and Macrophomina phaseolina as causal agents for root rot in Phaseolus vulgaris crops. Suppression of mycelial growth of the pathogens were recorded as the result of the interaction between the pathogen and different bacteria. Two modes of action were observed. Eleven isolates grew on the area of inoculation but they suppressed the pathogen by their extracellular antifungal metabolites while the growth of 18 isolates spread all over the plate and prevented pathogens from growing either by their growth or by both the growth and the extracellular antifungal metabolites. Screening for thermos-tolerance were carried out by picking up a single colony from each bacterial isolate, inoculating it in 1 ml of LB liquid media and incubating the culture at 90 °C for 24 hours. Then they were cultured on nutrient agar media plates, incubated at 30 °C for 24 hours. The two separate evaluations of antagonism and thermos-tolerance of the bacterial isolates showed that only 18 isolates had both characters. These 18 isolates were exposed to high temperature then evaluated for their antagonism. Only 7 isolates kept their potential to suppress the growth of pathogens. This test demonstrated the possibility of losing the antagonism effect as a result of high temperature. In this test 90 °C/24 hours was used. Molecular identification was carried out to on the seven bacterial isolates. They were identified based on 16s rDNA sequencing using universal primers and standard procedures. They were Pseudomonas putida (3 isolates), Bacillus subtilis (2 isolates) and Bacillus megaterium (2 isolates). These species were reported to have a potential as a bioagents and some of their isolates were developed and being used commercially as biopesticide. We do not recommend using Pseudomonas putida as biopesticide because they might have a potential risk for human. They can cause infections in cases of immunocompromised patients It can be concluded that both thermos-tolerance and antagonism are important to have a successful bio pesticide in the arid region. Losing the antagonism after exposing to high temperature showed the importance of evaluating each bio-agent for this character. So far we did not elucidate the mechanism of losing the antagonism. In this experiment, a very high temperature for long time was used however using lower temperatures for shorter periods can reveal different results.


Background: To evaluate the efficacy and safety profile of Xen gel stent implantation combined with deep sclerectomy in eyes with neovascular glaucoma. Methods: Twenty five patients with neovascular glaucoma due to central retinal vein occlusion were included in our study. Panretinal photocoagulation treatment was completed within a break period of two weeks. Intravitreal 0.05 ml bevacizumab was injected seven days before surgery. Despite iris and angle neovascularization regression, full antiglaucomatous treatment to patients whose intraocular pressures (IOP) were 21mm Hg and above were operated. Xen gel stent implantation with deep sclerectomy was performed to all patients. Complete success was defined as IOP ≤18 mm Hg and ≥20% IOP reduction without antiglaucomatous medication and another IOP lowering procedure. Partial success was defined as IOP ≤18 mm Hg and ≥20% IOP reduction with antiglaucomatous medication or needling. Surgical failure was considered in eyes requiring a secondary antiglaucomatous surgery. Results: The mean preoperative IOP was 35.88±8.24 mm Hg under medication, which was reduced to 14.92±1.68 mm Hg at the 1st year visit (p<0.001). Complete success occurred in 15 (60%) patients and partial success occurred in 9 (36%) patients after surgery. Ahmed glaucoma valve implantation was performed in one patient at the end of the first month due to surgical failure (4%). Conclusion: Xen gel stent implantation with deep sclerectomy is demonstrated to be an effective treatment with a good safety profile in neovascular glaucoma patients at the 1 year follow-up period. J Opthalmol Res 2022; 5 (1): 29-34 DOI: 10.26502/fjor.2644-00240055 Journal of Opthalmology and Research Volume 5, Issue 1 30


Lancelot "Capability" Brown is often thought of as the innovative genius who single-handedly pioneered a new, naturalistic style of landscape design, but he was in fact only one of many landscape designers in Georgian England. Published to commemorate the three hundredth anniversary of Brown's birth, this book casts important new light on his world-renowned work, his eventful life, and the wider and robust world of landscape design in Georgian England. David Brown and Tom Williamson argue that Brown was one of the most successful designers of his time working in a style that was otherwise widespread—and that it was his skill with this style, and not his having invented it, that linked his name to it. The authors look closely at Brown's design business and the products he offered clients, showing that his design packages helped define the era's aesthetic. They compare Brown's business to those of similar designers such as the Adam brothers, Thomas Chippendale, and Josiah Wedgwood, and they contextualize Brown's work within the wider contexts of domestic planning and the rise of neoclassicism. Beautifully illustrated throughout, this book celebrates the work of a master designer who was both a product and harbinger of the modern world.


ABSTRACT Context-based learning aims to make learning more meaningful by raising meaningful problems. However, these types of problems often require reflection and thinking processes that are more complex and thus more difficult for students, putting high demands on students' problem-solving capabilities. In this paper, students' approaches when solving context-based chemistry problems and effects of systematic scaffolds are analysed based on the Model of Hierarchical Complexity. Most answers were initially assigned to the lowest level of the model; higher levels were reached without scaffolds only by few students and by most students with scaffolds. The results are discussed with regard to practical implications in terms of how teachers could make use of context-based tasks and aligned scaffolds to help students in this activity.


The US Decennial Census is arguably the most important data set for social science research in the United States. The UScensus2000 suite of packages allows for convenient handling of the 2000 US Census spatial and demographic data. The goal of this article is to showcase the UScensus2000 suite of packages for R, to describe the data contained within these packages, and to demonstrate the helper functions provided for handling this data. The UScensus2000 suite is comprised of spatial and demographic data for the 50 states and Washington DC at four different geographic levels (block, block group, tract, and census designated place). The UScensus2000 suite also contains a number of functions for selecting and aggregating specific geographies or demographic information such as metropolitan statistical areas, counties, etc. These packages rely heavily on the spatial tools developed by bivand08, i.e., the sp and maptools packages. This article will provide the necessary background for working with this data set, helper functions, and finish with an applied spatial statistics example.


A cytochrome P450 (P450) enzyme in porcine liver that catalyzed the phenol-coupling reaction of the substrate (R)-reticuline to salutaridine was previously purified to homogeneity (Amann, T., Roos, P. H., Huh, H., and Zenk, M. H. (1995) Heterocycles 40, 425–440). This reaction was found to be catalyzed by human P450s 2D6 and 3A4 in the presence of (R)-reticuline and NADPH to yield not a single product, but rather (−)-isoboldine, (−)-corytuberine, (+)-pallidine, and salutaridine, the para-ortho coupled established precursor of morphine in the poppy plant and most likely also in mammals. (S)-Reticuline, a substrate of both P450 enzymes, yielded the phenol-coupled alkaloids (+)-isoboldine, (+)-corytuberine, (−)-pallidine, and sinoacutine; none of these serve as a morphine precursor. Catalytic efficiencies were similar for P450 2D6 and P450 3A4 in the presence of cytochrome b5 with (R)-reticuline as substrate. The mechanism of phenol coupling is not yet established; however, we favor a single cycle of iron oxidation to yield salutaridine and the three other alkaloids from (R)-reticuline. The total yield of salutaridine formed can supply the 10 nm concentration of morphine found in human neuroblastoma cell cultures and in brain tissues of mice.


The aim of this study is to clarify the mechanism of the progressive excessive deformation observed in real underground RC box culverts of about 30 years of age. It was found by the site-inspection, monitoring and the destructive testing that the excessive deflection of top slabs for the culverts, which is almost 10 times the design estimated value, accompanies the out-of-plane shear failure. It is also computationally investigated that the coupling of subsidence of the backfill soil and the combined creep and shrinkage of concrete after cracking is closely associated with the delayed shear failure found in the culvert in service. In order to prove the delayed shear failure under higher sustained loads, the timedependent shear crack propagation was reproduced in the laboratory test and the computational approach used in this study was examined.


Fusion power off�ers a promising source of clean energy for the future, however, one of the greatest challenges in tokamak reactor design is developing materials
suitable to withstand the intense plasma-material interactions. Carbon, mostly in
its graphitic form, is currently a favorite plasma facing material in many reactors.
Diamond, however, o�ffers many advantages over other materials but is not widely
accepted. Although diamond exhibits excellent structural and thermal properties,
tritium retention is a major concern for carbon. However, recent experimental evidence
suggests that diamond might fare better than other carbon structures as a
plasma facing material.
This thesis investigates the the cumulative eff�ect of exposing diamond to high
thermal shock and tritium bombardment using classical molecular dynamics simulations.
Of interest is diamond's resistance to graphitisation and the mechanisms behind tritium retention.
Surfaces of di�fferent lattice orientation and level of hydrogen termination were
incrementally heated to temperatures in excess of 2000 K. Generally, these diamond structures appeared to be stable up to temperatures of about 1000 K. Orientation
did play a large part in determining the temperature of phase change, as did the level
of hydrogen termination. Greater hydrogen coverages mimicked bulk continuation
and increased resistance to graphitisation.
These diamond surfaces, as well as a graphite and a diamond grain-boundary
surface, were bombarded at a range of temperatures (300-2100 K) with high fluxes
(1029 m-2s-1) of 15 eV tritium atoms in studying relative tritium retention at and below the surface as well as sputtered hydrocarbon yields. Below temperatures of
graphitisation the diamond structure con�fined tritium, and thus further structural damage, to the upper surface. The graphitic surface allowed for deeper tritium
penetration and retention. The presence of a grain boundary in the diamond slab allowed small amounts of tritium to penetrate deep into the bulk.
Diamond surfaces were also bombarded at 300 K whilst independently varying
incident ion energy (7.5-30 eV) and incident interval time (0.3-1.2 ps). Greater ion energies caused proportionally greater damage as well as reducing the ability of the
structure to disperse incident thermal energy. At these extremely high fluxes sputter yield appeared to not vary with flux but was found to be proportional to
fluence.


After exchanges and alternative trading venues have introduced electronic execution mechanisms worldwide, the focus of the securities trading industry shifted to the use of fully electronic trading engines by banks, brokers and their institutional customers. These Algorithmic Trading engines enable order submissions without human intervention based on quantitative models applying historical and real-time market data. Although there is a widespread discussion on the pros and cons of Algorithmic Trading and on its impact on market volatility and market quality, little is known on how algorithms actually place their orders in the market and whether and in which respect this differs form other order submissions. Based on a dataset that for the first time includes a specific flag to enable the identification of orders submitted by Algorithmic Trading engines, the paper investigates the extent of Algorithmic Trading activity and specifically their order placement strategies in comparison to human traders in the Xetra trading system. It is shown that Algorithmic Trading has become a relevant part of overall market activity and that Algorithmic Trading engines fundamentally differ from human traders in their order submission, modification and deletion behavior as they exploit real-time market data and latest market movements.


Abstract. The French–German Arctic research base AWIPEV (the Alfred Wegener Institute
Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research – AWI – and the French Polar
Institute Paul Emile Victor – PEV) at Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard, is a unique
station for monitoring cloud-related processes in the Arctic. For the first
time, data from a set of ground-based instruments at the AWIPEV observatory are
analyzed to characterize the vertical structure of clouds. For this study, a
14-month dataset from Cloudnet combining observations from a ceilometer, a
94 GHz cloud radar, and a microwave radiometer is used. A total cloud
occurrence of ∼81 %, with 44.8 % multilayer and 36 %
single-layer clouds, was found. Among single-layer clouds the occurrence of
liquid, ice, and mixed-phase clouds was 6.4 %, 9 %, and 20.6 %,
respectively. It was found that more than 90 % of single-layer liquid and
mixed-phase clouds have liquid water path (LWP) values lower than 100 and
200 g m−2, respectively. Mean values of ice water path (IWP) for ice
and mixed-phase clouds were found to be 273 and 164 g m−2,
respectively. The different types of single-layer clouds are also related to
in-cloud temperature and the relative humidity under which they occur. Statistics
based on observations are compared to ICOsahedral Non-hydrostatic (ICON)
model output. Distinct differences in liquid-phase occurrence in observations
and the model at different environmental temperatures lead to higher
occurrence of pure ice clouds. A lower occurrence of mixed-phase clouds in
the model at temperatures between −20 and −5 ∘C becomes evident.
The analyzed dataset is useful for satellite validation and model evaluation.


The aim of this work was to synthesis aluminum trihydrate from kaolin through alkali dissolution route. Thermogravimetric analysis showed that the material had good thermal stability and can withstand temperatures up to 206 ̊C without any physical deterioration. X-ray diffraction confirmed that synthesized aluminum trihydrate had monoclinic structure and scanning electron microscopy indicated that the product had a particle size range between 10 to12 μm. Aluminum tridhydrate has a unique fire retardation mechanism. When it is heated, it decomposes endothermically in to Al2O3 and H2O, the oxide layer forming a protective barrier which prevents the fire from penetrating into the surface and cause further burning, and H2O in the form of vapor suppresses the toxic smoke produced.


Fiscal policy is the sum of decisions on taxation and spending that one takes in an economy, particularly in times of crisis. As such, it is of existential importance in the life of a society. Known for its recent waves of spending cuts and tax increases (austerity) during recessions (Blyth, 2013), 2020 Europe has had a more expansionary fiscal policy than ever before. How do we make sense of this shift? To answer this question, let us draw on select insights from three political economy literatures on fiscal crisis management. The first is the literature on learning. For its proponents, changes in fiscal policy are powered by evidence-based, yet politically mediated cognitive updating in the corridors of power. Plainly put, policymakers are keen students of what changes in their environment. This literature has showed that a great deal of learning took place in the EU since 2010 in particular (Schmidt, 2020; Kahkhaji and Radaelli, 2017; Dunlop and Radaelli, 2019). Its main implication for fiscal policy under corona is that between 2010 and 2015 the EU leaders learned about the limits of austerity and the virtues of more spending and tax cuts in a recession. Consequently, one would expect that when a deep recession arrives again (and it did in the spring of 2020), they would not be tempted to do a rerun of the self-defeating policies of the 2010-2012 period. As Keynes put it, "when the facts change, I change my mind."


In this paper, we perform an empirical analysis of email traffic logs obtained from a large university to better understand its impact on the effectiveness and efficiency of anonymous mix remailers. We analyzed data containing records of almost 790,000 emails sent over a period of forty days – the largest dataset we are aware of. The initial analysis of data is followed by an exploration of how variance in message arrival time and size impact the anonymity and efficiency provided by timed and threshold mixes, respectively. The analysis results are subsequently explored for their possible impact on traffic analysis.


The electrochemical performance of a MIL-101(Fe) metal–organic framework (MOF) as a lithium ion battery electrode is reported for the first time. Iron metal centers can be electrochemically activated. The Fe3+/Fe2+ redox couple is electrochemically active, but not reversible over many cycles. A comparison between ex situ and in operando X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) on the Fe K-edge is presented. Our results indicate that the capacity fade is related to a time dependent, irreversible oxidation of Fe2+ to Fe3+. These results are key in proving the importance of in operando XAS measurements. The MOF side reaction with an electrolyte has been computationally modeled. These results provide further insights on the mechanism responsible for the MOF lack of reversibility. Future guidelines for improving the reversibility of MOFs used as electrodes in Li-ion batteries based on the fine-tuning of the electronic structure of the material are proposed.


An In-Situ Consolidation Evaluation Device (ICED) was developed for field measurement of consolidation parameters by electro-osmosis. A brief description of the test apparatus and the measurement procedures is presented. A set of pilot tests was performed with this device in a soft clay deposit for which laboratory 1-D consolidation test results had been previously obtained. This paper discusses the initial results obtained from the in-situ pilot tests. Consolidation parameters estimated from the in-situ tests compare reasonably well with those from the conventional laboratory test. In addition, the values of electro-osmotic conductivity evaluated from laboratory electro-osmotic tests on undisturbed samples reasonably agree with those indirectly computed from the in-situ test results.


Sex and birth order of siblings are important determinants of an adolescent's risky behaviour and economic outcomes in later age. Both parental choices and "peer-effect" are the two possible mechanisms investigated in the literature. This paper studies the "peer-effect" to show how gender of preceding siblings shape risky sexual behavior of teen girls in Nigeria, a context characterized by age and gender based hierarchy. Using individual data from the DHS surveys it shows that women born in families with a male firstborn are significantly less likely to have a premarital teen pregnancy. Such reduction is assessed to be as high as 33% when compared to their counterparts in female firstborn families. Additionally, the effect of a male firstborn is a function of age difference and his survival status, as well as the presence of the father in the household. The study underlines how gender roles and the birth order of siblings affect adolescents' risky behaviour.


This article uses ethnographic research on gig worker advocacy groups in California to make sense of an apparent paradox. Extant survey research finds that a majority of Uber/Lyft drivers in the U.S. do not want to be employees. And yet, drivers and gig worker groups aggressively advocated to pass AB5, an internationally heralded bill in California that makes it very likely that they are considered employees under state law. I argue that the paradoxes embodied in the perspectives of workers in my research can be theorized as attitudinal ambivalence. This ambivalence toward employee status was informed both by their relative powerlessness in relation to gig companies and by the uncertainties and insecurities specific to app-based gig work. Overwhelmingly, drivers both wanted employee benefits and feared how the companies might behave as an employer. Rather than re-shape employment laws and restrict worker benefits to accommodate the policy prescriptions of app-enabled gig companies, regulators may use these research findings to expand the benefits available through the traditional employment regime.