Student employment trends have many implications to administrators, educators, counselors, as well as the employers. The major purpose of this research was to study the impact of student employment on achievement and retention of MSU College of Technology post secondary students in Great Falls. The secondary purpose was to assess the perceptions of MSU College of Technology instructors in regard to employment. Is there conflict between teachers' academic priority and the students' work priorities? The students at MSU College of Technology are changing. The typical student is over 30, female, single and working. The majority of students have responsibilities of work, family and school. The college needs to be proactive in determining and meeting the needs of this new student population. Of the students who are at risk, 16% have considered quitting, 11% have dropped a class, and 10% are not confident in their success at college. The review of the literature indicated that employment is a determining factor in student retention and academic success. The results of the survey indicate that more than work, motivation and organization are the determining factor in student success. Respondents who worked tended to be more efficient in managing their time and setting priorities. Also, as the number of hours worked increased, GPA tended to increase also. A majority of students are working in related employment that allows them to use the skills acquired at college.


A novel method is presented for inaudibly hiding information in an audio signal by subtly applying time-scale modification to segments of the signal. The sequence, duration, and degree of the time-scale modifications are the parameters which encode information in the altered signal. By comparing the altered signal with a reference copy, compressed and expanded regions can be identified and the hidden data recovered. This approach is novel and has several advantages over other methods: it is theoretically noiseless, it introduces no spectral distortion, and it is robust to all known methods of reproduction, compression, and transmission.


Preface Contributors Introduction Diet and Bone Overview of Relationships between Diet and Bone John J.B. Anderson Role of Lifestyle Factors in Bone Health John J.B. Anderson and Philip J. Klemmer Bone Marrow and Stem Cell Recruitment Sumithra K. Urs and Clifford J. Rosen Skeletal Tissues and Mineralization Sanford C. Garner and John J.B. Anderson Optimizing the Skeletal Benefits of Mechanical Loading and Exercise Stuart J. Warden and Robyn K. Fuchs Hormone Actions in the Regulation of Calcium and Phosphorus Metabolism David A. Ontjes Renal Regulation of Calcium and Phosphate Ions Philip J. Klemmer and John J.B. Anderson Effects of Specific Nutrients on Bone Calcium and Bone John J.B. Anderson, Sanford C. Garner, and Philip J. Klemmer Inorganic Phosphorus: Do Higher Dietary Levels Affect Phosphorus Homeostasis and Bone? 141 Mona S. Calvo Vitamin D and Bone Michael F. Holick Vitamin A and Bone Hakan Melhus Vitamin K and Bone Cees Vermeer and Marjo H.J. Knapen The Iron Factor in Bone Development Denis M. Medeiros and Erika Bono Micronutrients and Bone Elizabeth Grubert and Jeri W. Nieves Dietary Protein's Impact on Skeletal Health Anna K. Surdykowski, Anne M. Kenney, Karl L. Insogna, and Jane E. Kerstetter Omega-3 Fatty Acids and Bone Metabolism Bruce A. Watkins, Kevin Hannon, Mark F. Seifert, and Yong Li Is There a Role for Dietary Potassium in Bone Health? Susan Joyce Whiting AcidBase Balance Susan A. Lanham-New Antioxidants and Bone Health Martin Kohlmeier Effects of Life Cycle Changes on Bone Diet and Bone Changes in Pregnancy and Lactation Frances A. Tylavsky Calcium Intake Influences the Bone Response to Exercise in Growing Children Bonny L. Specker, Ramu Sudhagoni, and Natalie W. Thiex Obesity, Adipose Tissue, and Bone Sue A. Shapses, Norman K. Pollock, and Richard D. Lewis Exercise and Skeletal Growth Adam D.G. Baxter-Jones and R.A. Faulkner Peak Bone Mass: Influence of Nutrition and Lifestyle Variables Jennifer L. Bedford and Susan I. Barr Calcium, Other Nutrients, Exercise, and Bone Health in Twins John D. Wark Nutrition and Bone in Young Adults Christel Lamberg-Allardt and Merja Karkkainen Nutrition and Bone Health in Older Adults Connie W. Bales, Kenlyn R. Young, and John J.B. Anderson R ace, Ethnicity, and Bone Bone Growth in African Children and Adolescents Ann Prentice, Kate A. Ward, Inez Schoenmakers, and Gail R. Goldberg Skeletal Racial Differences Felicia Cosman and Jeri W. Nieves Nutrition and Bone Health of the Japanese Takuo Fujita Diet and Bone Health of the Chinese Population Suzanne C. Ho and Yu-ming Chen Osteopenia and Osteoporosis Prevention of Bone Loss with Exercise Anna Nordstrom and Peter Nordstrom The BoneVascular Axis in Chronic Kidney Disease Philip J. Klemmer and John J.B. Anderson Contribution of Clinical Risk Factors to the Assessment of Hip Fracture Risk and Treatment Decision Making Guizhou Hu, Martin M. Root, and John J.B. Anderson Conclusion Nutrition and Bone Health: Promotion of Bone Gain and Prevention of Bone Loss across the Life Cycle John J.B. Anderson, Philip J. Klemmer, and Sanford C. Garner Index


Repetition is a common literary device that can be used to create associative networks within a text, parallel structures suggesting similarities in meaning, or a wide span of effects ranging from monotony to excitement. If repetition is a common literary device, then it follows that its translation is a common challenge for the literary translator. However, translators tend to avoid repetition and by doing so often fail to recreate the function the repetition fulfils in the source text. Using Michael Cunningham's literary travelogue Lands End: A walk in Provincetown and its German translation as a case study, in this paper I will have a closer look at the literary function of repetition and how omitting the repetition in the target text can affect the text's meaning potential. In addition, I will discuss alternative solutions that maintain the literary function in the target text. In particular, I will argue that the target text does not necessarily need to mirror the linguistic form of the source-text repetition, but can employ other stylistic means to recreate its literary function in the target text.


The effects of different circular saws on surface roughness were determined for heat-treated wood, including Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.), eastern beech (Fagus orientalis L.), Uludağ fir (Abies bornmülleriana Mattf.), and sessile oak (Quercus petraea L.), which are used commonly in Turkey. Samples were heat-treated for 3, 5, or 7 hours at 140 or 160ºC, and cut with circular saws with 28, 48, 60, 72, or 96 teeth. Then, the surface roughness of the samples was determined using a scanning device (TIME TR200) with respect to the ISO 4287 standard. Heat treatment increased the surface roughness of the wood used, and changed the colour of the wood. To obtain smooth surfaces with or without heat treatment, a circular saw with 28 teeth and a double chamfered (WZ) mouth profile is recommended.


Mandatory disclosure is a defining characteristic of U.S. securities regulation. Issuers selling securities in a public offering must file a registration statement with the SEC containing detailed disclosures, and thereafter comply with the periodic disclosure regime. This regime has been highly controversial among legal academics. Some scholars argue market forces will produce optimal levels of disclosure in a regime of voluntary disclosure, while others argue that various market failures necessitate a legal mandatory disclosure system. To date, however, both sides in this debate have assumed, inter alia, that market actors rationally pursue wealth maximization goals. In contrast, this paper draws on the emergent behavioral economics literature to ask whether systematic departures from rationality, such as herd behavior or the status quo bias, might result in a capital market failure. The paper concludes that such a market failure could occur, especially in emerging markets, but also contends that one should not jump to the conclusion that legal intervention in the form of a mandatory disclosure system is necessary, especially insofar as the highly evolved U.S. capital markets are concerned. The paper concludes with a cautionary note against the potential for behavioral economics to be glibly invoked as a justification for government intervention.


ABSTRACT Dog ownership is often advocated for its potential benefits to human health, with changes to oxytocin and autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity proposed as possible underlying mechanisms. The aims of the current study were to a) examine the effect of two common types of human–dog interactions (dog-walking and affiliative interactions) on salivary oxytocin concentrations and heart rate variability (HRV, an indicator of ANS activity), and b) investigate any putative moderating role for the strength of human–dog attachment on such responses. Twenty-nine dog owners completed a four-condition random-order cross-over trial: dog-walking (DW); walking without the dog (W); affiliative human–dog interaction (H-DI); and resting without the dog (C). Each condition was performed for approximately 15 minutes. Saliva and HRV samples were collected before and after each condition. Linear mixed models were used to analyze data, with the participant considered a random effect; condition, order of conditions, and condition duration as fixed effects. Oxytocin concentrations were not significantly different following any of the four conditions. HRV was significantly reduced following DW (mean change HF HRV = –0.37, 95% CI = –0.70, –0.04) and W (mean change HF HRV = –0.49, 95% CI = –0.81, –0.17). Considering moderation by the strength of the human–dog bond, pairwise comparisons revealed that, compared with W, DW elicited an increase in oxytocin concentrations (mean change 9.32 pg/mL, 95% CI = 6.52, 12.12) and HRV (mean change SDRR = 0.41, 95% CI = 0.19, 0.63) in owners with lower levels of attachment. These owners also displayed increased oxytocin concentrations following H-DI (mean change 3.90 pg/mL, 95% CI = 1.48, 6.32), compared with C. Overall, we did not find a consistent pattern for positive oxytocin or HRV responses to human–dog interactions. The strength of owner–dog attachment was found to have a moderating effect, suggesting that human–dog interactions may elicit greater physiological responses in low-attachment individuals.


Insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) in whites is strongly associated with particular HLA-DQαβ heterodimers composed of a DQα chain with anrginine at residue 52 (Arg52+) combined to a DQβ chain lacking an aspartic acid at residue 57 (Asp57−. With the aim of confirming this association, clarifying which heterodimers account for the highest risk of IDDM and explaining the excess risk of DR3-DQw2/DR4-DQw8,115 unrelated white IDDM patients and 108 unrelated healthy nondiabetic control subjects were studied. With polymerase chain reaction and sequence-specific oligonucleotide probes, both patients and control subjects were typed for their HLA-DQA1 and DQB1 alleles and their DQA1-DQB1 haplotype and genotype frequencies were compared. Four major findings emerged from our analysis. 1) Arg52+ DQα/Asp57− Dβp heterodimers, formed in cis and/r in trans, are strongly associated with susceptibility to IDDM; 97% of patients and 46% of control subjects had at least one such susceptibility heterodimer (relative risk [RR] 32, confidence interval [Cl] 14.25–71.86, P < 10−. 2) The degree of disease susceptibility depends on the number of such DQ heterodimers that a subject can express according to his or her DQA1-DQB1 genotype. The highest RR was observed in patients with four susceptibility DQ heterodimers (RR 41, Cl 17.05–95.9). 3) Only part of the susceptibility DQ heterodimers were significantly increased in patients, conferring IDDM susceptibility of different strength. The strongest association was with the DQA1*0501-DQB1*0302 combination formed in trans position (RR 35.2, Cl 12.88–96.78, P < 10−7). 4) The simultaneous expression of four different susceptibility heterodimers explains the highest risk of DR3-DQw2/DR4-DQw8 heterozygotes. In conclusion, there is a dose effect of cis- and trans-encoded HLA-DQαβ heterodimers in IDDM susceptibility influenced by the diversity of these molecules.


As an important part of spatial data, the point feature has always been an essential element in web maps and navigation maps. With the development of location-based services and the rapid increase in volunteered geographic information and social media data, the amount of point data is increasing day by day, resulting in inevitable problems of overlay and congestion during visualization. Map generalization provides multiple algorithms that can be used to select, aggregate and make typification of points or point clusters. For the generalization of point data, however, the traditional stand-alone computing environment has difficulty with real-time realization. Currently, the rapid development of cloud computing technology provides a powerful support for improving the efficiency of map generalization. However, compared with the stand-alone environment, the data decomposition and the real-time display of point generalization in the cloud platform imposes higher requirements on the point generalization constraints, which play an important role in point-generalized process control. Based on the computational characteristics of the cloud platform, this paper analyzes the changes in point generalization constraints. In addition, our work proposes the constraints of point generalization based on the cloud platform and its construction method, builds a prototype system based on the Hadoop cloud platform. Our prototype system is tested using typical experimental data. Its efficiency and the quality of its results is examined. The results show that the efficiency and quality of point selection can be significantly improved by controlling the point generalization process with the generalization constraints in the cloud computing environment proposed in this paper. This paper provides a possible way for the realization of map generalization in the cloud computing environment. Its usability with real data and with many users accessing it will be the focus of further research.


Inspired by the ability of StyleGAN to generate highly realistic images in a variety of domains, much recent work has focused on understanding how to use the latent spaces of StyleGAN to manipulate generated and real images. However, discovering semantically meaningful latent manipulations typically involves painstaking human examination of the many degrees of freedom, or an annotated collection of images for each desired manipulation. In this work, we explore leveraging the power of recently introduced Contrastive Language-Image Pre-training (CLIP) models in order to develop a text-based interface for StyleGAN image manipulation that does not require such manual effort. We first introduce an optimization scheme that utilizes a CLIP-based loss to modify an input latent vector in response to a user-provided text prompt. Next, we describe a latent mapper that infers a text-guided latent manipulation step for a given input image, allowing faster and more stable text-based manipulation. Finally, we present a method for mapping text prompts to input-agnostic directions in StyleGAN's style space, enabling interactive text-driven image manipulation. Extensive results and comparisons demonstrate the effectiveness of our approaches.


Pite Saami is a highly endangered Western Saami language in the Uralic language family currently spoken by a few individuals in Swedish Lapland. This grammar is the first extensive book-length treatment of a Saami language written in English. While focussing on the morphophonology of the main word classes nouns, adjectives and verbs, it also deals with other linguistic structures such as prosody, phonology, phrase types and clauses. Furthermore, it provides an introduction to the language and its speakers, and an outline of a preliminary Pite Saami orthography. An extensive annotated spoken-language corpus collected over the course of five years forms the empirical foundation for this description, and each example includes a specific reference to the corpus in order to facilitate verification of claims made on the data. Descriptions are presented for a general linguistics audience and without attempting to support a specific theoretical approach, but this book should be equally useful for scholars of Uralic linguistics, typologists, and even learners of Pite Saami.


A novel fluorophore–spacer–receptor has been designed with hydrazono methyl phenol as the receptor, anthracene as the fluorophore and imine (CN) groups as the spacer. This newly designed fluorophoric system has a receptor that can bind with ferrites and a fluorophore core that can conjugate non-covalently with multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) via π–π conjugation. The hybrid nanoparticles were thoroughly characterized using Raman, UV-vis and fluorescence spectroscopy. This unique hybrid is further explored as a novel material to screen electromagnetic (EM) radiation. By precisely localizing these hybrids in a given phase of an immiscible co-continuous blend, unique microstructures can be constructed. Herein, blends of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and polycarbonate (PC) were chosen as a model system. The hybrid nanoparticles were selectively localized in the PVDF phase owing to its higher polarity and were systematically characterized by electron microscopic and solution–dissolution techniques. The hybrid nanoparticles that were designed to shield from the incident EM radiation resulted in >99.99% attenuation, dominated mostly by absorption. This non-covalent approach of conjugating MWNTs with ferrites, aided by the fluorophoric system, was noted to be a more effective way to improve the properties (both bulk electrical conductivity and structural) than direct physical mixing/covalent conjugation approaches. In order to further enhance the shielding effectiveness (SE), a layer-by-layer architecture was constructed essentially with outer layers containing PC/PVDF blends with a MWNT–ferrite hybrid and the inner layers consisting of PC/PVDF blends with only MWNTs. An ultra-thin shield of 0.90 mm showed >99.9999% attenuation suggesting new pathways for designing lightweight, flexible EMI shielding materials.


The characteristics of impulse bursts in remote sensing images are analyzed and a model for this noise is proposed. The model also takes into consideration other noise types, for example, the multiplicative noise present in radar images. As a case study, soft morphological filters utilizing a training-based optimization scheme are used for the noise removal. Different approaches for the training are discussed. It is shown that these techniques can provide an effective removal of impulse bursts. At the same time, other noise types in images, for example, the multiplicative noise, can be suppressed without compromising good edge and detail preservation. Numerical simulation results, as well as examples of real remote sensing images, are presented.


A large fraction of the energy released during solar flares is carried by accelerated electrons and ions. At present the most direct diagnostics of accelerated electrons are the radio emission produced from the microwave to the sub-millimeter domains by gyrosynchrotron emission and the hard X-ray/gamma-ray continuum from electron bremsstrahlung. These diagnostics have brought valuable information on the electron energetics, but the characteristics of relativistic electrons are still poorly known, although they provide the most stringent constraints for acceleration models. This is, at least partly, because radio diagnostics were usually obtained below 100 GHz and gamma-ray measurements were restricted to energies below 100 MeV. Recent radio observations in the 200–400 GHz range have revealed a new spectral component, the origin of which is not yet understood. Observations at higher frequencies are necessary in order to discriminate between different possibilities. Although solar observations in the far infrared domain have not yet been performed, this spectral region contains key information on both relativistic electrons and the response of the low atmosphere to energy deposition from the flare. The combination of observations obtained in the far infrared continuum (2–10 THz) with measurements of high energy gamma-rays (up to 500–600 MeV) will not suffer from the limitations of the present diagnostics and thus provide new constraints on acceleration and energy transport processes.


In April 2007, elective first-trimester abortion was legalized in Mexico City. As of June 2011, more than 60,000 women from Mexico City and other Mexican states have obtained legal abortions in the city's public hospitals and health centers, with private facilities providing additional abortion services. This study examines women's experiences of abortion services in one public and two private clinic settings in 2008. Twenty-five in-depth interviews were conducted: 15 with women who obtained abortions in a public health center and 10 who obtained the procedure at either of two private clinics. Participants were highly satisfied with services at both public and private sites, although some had to go to more than one site before receiving services. None expressed doubts about their decision to have an abortion, and they felt unanimously that they were treated with respect. Furthermore, participants were pleased with the counseling they received and most accepted a contraceptive method after the procedure.


Minimizing the exposure of an annual crop to abiotic stresses may increase seed yield. A study was conducted to determine the effect of high temperature stress during reproductive development on pod fertility, seed set, and seed yield of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L). 'Myles' desi and 'Xena' kabuli chickpea were grown in a controlled environment under 20/16°C day/night air temperatures (control). High (35/16°C) and moderate (28/16°C) temperature stresses were imposed for 10 d during early flowering and pod development. Compared to the control, the early flower high temperature stress decreased (P < 0.01) pod production by 34% for Myles and 22% for Xena, whereas high temperature stress during pod development decreased (P < 0.05) seeds per plant by 33% for Myles and 39% for Xena. Consequently, the high temperature stress during pod development decreased (P < 0.01) seed yield by 59% for Myles and 53% for Xena. Yield reduction was greater due to the stress during pod development compared to the stress during early flowering. Plants recovered to a greater degree from the early flower stress compared to the pod development stress. The Myles desi produced 40 seeds per plant and the Xena kabuli produced 15 seeds per plant, whereas the Myles had smaller individual seed size than the Xena. Consequently, the Myles desi produced 26% greater seed yield than the Xena kabuli under the same conditions. Minimizing the exposure of chickpea to high temperature stress during pod development will increase pod fertility, seed set, and seed yield of the crop.


We consider the effect of galaxy intrinsic alignments (IAs) on dark energy constraints from weak gravitational lensing. We summarize the latest version of the linear alignment model of IAs, following a brief note of Hirata & Seljak and further interpretation by Laszlo et al. We show the cosmological bias on the dark energy equation of state parameters w0 and wa$ that would occur if IAs were ignored. We find that w0 and wa are both catastrophically biased, by an absolute value of just greater than unity under the Fisher matrix approximation. This contrasts with a bias several times larger for the earlier IA implementation. Therefore, there is no doubt that IAs must be taken into account for future stage III experiments and beyond. We use a flexible grid of IA and galaxy bias parameters as used in previous work and investigate what would happen if the Universe is described by used the latest IA model, but we assumed the earlier version. We find that despite the large difference between the two IA models, the grid flexibility is sufficient to remove cosmological bias and recover the correct dark energy equation of state. In an appendix, we compare observed shear power spectra to those from a popular previous implementation and explain the differences.


1. Angiotensin II (ANG II) was measured in acid-ethanol homogenates of rapidly frozen rat kidneys by a method involving ion-exchange and immunoadsorbent purification of peptides before radioimmunoassay. 2. Concentrations of ANG II found in kidney were 10--20 times that in plasma. 3. Perfusion of the kidneys via the renal artery with isotonic sodium chloride solution or with disodium EDTA solution did not alter the concentrations of intrarenal ANG II. 4. Animals fed on a sodium-deficient diet for 8 days had markedly higher concentrations of intrarenal ANG II, plasma renin activity and kidney renin concentration than sodium-replete animals. 5. After oral sodium loading for 3 weeks, rats had suppressed plasma renin activity and kidney renin concentration but unchanged intrarenal ANG II when compared with animals on a normal sodium intake. 6. One hour after the administration of a converting enzyme inhibitor (SQ 20881) plasma renin activity was elevated, kidney renin concentration unchanged and intrarenal ANG II was depressed. 7. These results demonstrate the presence of ANG II in the extravascular compartment of the kidney. They further suggest that its quantity is influenced by sodium intake and that angiotensin I converting enzyme is essential for its formation.


Driven by climate change concerns, our energy system has been under steady change. Renewable energy sources are increasingly used to decarbonize our energy system, making it also more decentralized. At the same time, information and communications technologies (ICT) are enabling smart services for consumers, offering financial benefits through demand side management (DSM) programs. This study investigates various DSM solutions for a detached house in Northern Finnish conditions in 2050. A thermal model is used to model the thermal behavior of the building and test out DSM programs in direct electric space heating and underfloor heating alternatives. The 2050 scenarios are created from climate change projections, existing data on electricity generation and from projections on the future energy system and cost of electricity. The results indicate that load shifting with photovoltaic (PV) generation is a potential way of reducing costs and CO 2 emissions both today and in 2050, but it lacks economic feasibility due to long payback times of the investments. Cost optimized direct electric space heating and underfloor heating are both able to provide economic and environmental benefits when compared to manually controlled heating. The scenarios presented in the paper suggest that 95-96% emission reduction can be achieved; however, the electricity cost of households is expected to increase by 174-253%. At the same time electricity consumption from the grid is expected to reduce by 3-10% in all the scenarios.


This paper analyzes the interactions between vertical integration and (wholesale) spot, forward and retail markets in risk management. We develop an equilibrium model that fits electricity markets well. We point out that vertical integration and forward hedging are two separate levers for demand and spot price risk diversification. We show that they are imperfect substitutes as to their impact on retail prices and agents' utility because the asymmetry between upstream and downstream segments. While agents always use the forward market, vertical integration may not arise. In addition, in presence of highly risk averse downstream agents, vertical integration may be a better way to diversify risk than spot, forward and retail mar kets. We illustrate our analysis with data from the French electricity market.


Integrated photonic circuits offer the possibility for complex quantum optical experiments in higher-dimensional photonic systems. However, the advantages of integration and scalability can only be fully utilized with the availability of a source for higher-dimensional entangled photons. Here, a novel fiber integrated source for path-entangled photons in the telecom band at 1.55µm using only standard fiber technology is presented. Due to the special design the source shows good scalability towards higher-dimensional entangled photonic states (quNits), while path entanglement offers direct compatibility with on-chip path encoding. We present an experimental realization of a path-entangled two-qubit source. A very high quality of entanglement is verified by various measurements, i.a. a tomographic state reconstruction is performed leading to a background corrected fidelity of (99.45±0.06)%. Moreover, we describe an easy method for extending our source to arbitrarily high dimensions.


Neuquensaurus, from the Late Cretaceous of Argentina and one of the first dinosaurs described from Patagonia, is one of the most derived sauropod dinosaurs, and its proportions and size place it among the smallest sauropods ever known. In this context, Neuquensaurus is central to understanding late stages of sauropod evolution. This contribution offers a full description of the appendicular skeleton of Neuquensaurus. The anatomical analysis reveals that the appendicular skeleton of Neuquensaurus exhibits unique characteristics only shared with closely related saltasaurine titanosaurs; for example, the laterally directed preacetabular lobe of the ilium, the prominent fibular lateral tuberosity, and the presence of an intermuscular line on the femoral shaft, which is proposed here as a synapomorphy of Saltasaurinae. Neuquensaurus also displays many reversals to primitive character states, such as the presence of a prominent olecranon process of the ulna, a trochanteric shelf, a lesser trochanter and an ischial tuberosity. Additional characters that allow its evaluation in a phylogenetic context are here provided. Among them are the extremely deflected femoral shaft, the elliptical femoral cross-section, and the anterolaterally oriented cnemial crest.


Does purchasing have a role in corporate strategy? The central theme that has emerged from an examination of prior research in the areas of competitive strategy and purchasing strategy is that the image and status of purchasing is driven by the contribution of the purchasing function to overall corporate performance and to the performance of other functions. Does purchasing performance impact corporate performance? Is purchasing really strategic? This article documents the impact purchasing decisions have on corporate performance. There are strategic "levers" that purchasing can use to enhance the chances for firm success. The implication is that any firm can successfully develop and implement purchasing strategies. A firm's efforts at purchasing strategy development can be successful. Purchasing is indeed strategic.


We propose a heterogeneous meta-learning method that trains a model on tasks with various attribute spaces, such that it can solve unseen tasks whose attribute spaces are different from the training tasks given a few labeled instances. Although many meta-learning methods have been proposed, they assume that all training and target tasks share the same attribute space, and they are inapplicable when attribute sizes are different across tasks. Our model infers latent representations of each attribute and each response from a few labeled instances using an inference network. Then, responses of unlabeled instances are predicted with the inferred representations using a prediction network. The attribute and response representations enable us to make predictions based on the task-specific properties of attributes and responses even when attribute and response sizes are different across tasks. In our experiments with synthetic datasets and 59 datasets in OpenML, we demonstrate that our proposed method can predict the responses given a few labeled instances in new tasks after being trained with tasks with heterogeneous attribute spaces.


Todd Thompson, an equity researcher at Strategic Investment (SI), is using his Friday train ride home to work on his earnings model for a FirstCall note. He checks in with his client, Charles Buron, to run his estimate and get some feedback. He has developed a good working relationship with Buron, an investor-relations manager at NoTel. Buron cuts the call short and warns Thompson that one of his firm's institutional salespeople has leaked the model numbers to his clients. Even more disturbing is that SI is going to put out an earnings model at a much lower figure than the company expects. Thompson needs guidance from Buron. If he comes out with a note that contradicts NoTel's model, it could create a stir in the investment community. Thompson's contact at NoTel has always provided guidance, but that relationship has been compromised by the information Thompson's institutional colleague has leaked to Vanguard and TRI-CREF. Moreover, Thompson has been invited to present his model to the client's brass on Wednesday. He needs the feedback from Buron. Thompson has to decide what his next step should be. This case offers an opportunity to discuss problems and issues surrounding managing communications and client relationships. See also the B case, NoTel: Stop Talking (B) (UVA-BC-0181).


Scleral lens fitting can be challenging in the presence of localized conjunctival/scleral elevations (pingueculae or filtering blebs) in the area of the lens landing zone. We report on a case that was virtually fit successfully with a new corneal-scleral topography system. The patient had a history of keratoconus and subsequent penetrating keratoplasty as well as a previous trabeculectomy and glaucoma shunt surgery. Scleral topography revealed a 7mm wide and 2mm deep supero-temporal elevation. The topography software contained a "cut-out" tool which removed the elevation for the purposes of scleral lens fit since inclusion of that area could adversely affect fit when a notch or a localized vault of the scleral lens is used to avoid this area. Customized fitting software recommended a base curve (BC) of 42D and 288μ of posterior haptic toricity to achieve 300μ of central corneal clearance and haptic alignment. The diameter and elevation of the bleb from scleral topography were used to order a notched lens and one with a customized back surface haptic. Both lenses were successfully fit in the same eye, equally comfortable with improved vision. No fitting complications resulted from either design and both lenses were well stabilized with posterior haptic toricity. The patient currently wears the lens with the customized back surface haptic.


2-Chlorophenyl isocyanate (CI) reacts with didodecyl dimethyl ammonium bromide (DDAB) functionalized graphene oxide (DDAB-GO) dispersed in ortho-dichlorobenzene under mild conditions. The CI treatment complements DDAB functionalization to further decrease the hydrophilicity of pristine GO sheets. The resulting CI–DDAB-GO exhibits improved compatibility with the conjugated polymer poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT), compared to DDAB-GO. CI–DDAB-GO sheets can be homogeneously dispersed when blended with P3HT, resulting in an improved morphology compared to P3HT:DDAB-GO composites. The incorporation of CI–DDAB-GO can effectively reduce the dark current of photo-diodes based on P3HT composites, showing potential to enhance the performance of electronic devices based on conjugated polymer composites.


The cornea is the transparent part of the eye that allows light to enter into the eye and reach the retina, thereby activating the neurons that will send messages to the brain. The sclera is the hard-white part of the eye, and its main function is to provide structure and form to the eye, and to support the retina. Indeed, while the cornea best performs its main functions when transparent and it is capable of adapting its curvature to allow the eye to focus, the sclera must be opaque and hard to function correctly. Both structures are mainly composed of collagen, some elastic fibres and ground substance, all components of the Extracellular Matrix. The disposition of the collagen fibres and the amount of ground substance around the fibres is responsible for the differences in the aspect of both these structures. In this chapter, for the first time we have compared the structure and ultrastructure of the cornea and sclera in humans and the whale adult (18mts) Balaenoptera physalus, the second largest animal on the planet. We will discuss how the differences in their structure may be related to the maintenance of intraocular pressure in their distinct environments, which is of particular clinical interest as increased intraocular pressure is one of the main causes underlying the development of open angle glaucoma.


Heterozygous mutations in the gene encoding isocitrate dehydrogenase-1 (IDH1) occur in certain human brain tumors, but their mechanistic role in tumor development is unknown. We have shown that tumor-derived IDH1 mutations impair the enzyme's affinity for its substrate and dominantly inhibit wild-type IDH1 activity through the formation of catalytically inactive heterodimers. Forced expression of mutant IDH1 in cultured cells reduces formation of the enzyme product, α-ketoglutarate (α-KG), and increases the levels of hypoxia-inducible factor subunit HIF-1α, a transcription factor that facilitates tumor growth when oxygen is low and whose stability is regulated by α-KG. The rise in HIF-1α levels was reversible by an α-KG derivative. HIF-1α levels were higher in human gliomas harboring an IDH1 mutation than in tumors without a mutation. Thus, IDH1 appears to function as a tumor suppressor that, when mutationally inactivated, contributes to tumorigenesis in part through induction of the HIF-1 pathway.


In Chile every permanent worker is entitled to one monthly wage per year of service with a maximum of eleven wages in case of dismissal. To regain flexibility this has triggered a widespread use of subcontracting. To assess the "true costs" of the regulation, I estimate a dynamic industry equilibrium model in which firms optimally choose the division labor between subcontracted workers that are totally flexible, and permanent workers that entail tenure-dependent firing costs. To overcome the potential costs of dismissing workers, firms hire permanent workers only up to the point where their expected firing costs equal the wage premium on subcontracted workers. Hence, firms' use of subcontracted workers is decreasing in their relative cost and increasing in the volatility of shocks. I use a simulated method of moments by fitting plant-level employment dynamics and the size distribution in the manufacturing sector in Chile. I use data from the Chilean Annual National Manufacturing Survey, which reports permanent and subcontracted workers in the establishment where they physically work. I find that severance payments are equivalent to seven monthly wages, and that workers get tenure after four years. Firms are willing to pay a "subcontracting wage premium" of 10% to substitute for hiring permanent workers. A naive researcher willing to estimate firing costs without considering the subcontracting margin of adjustment, would conclude that the Chilean labor market is rather flexible. Allowing firms to subcontract in a heavily regulated environment increases output, employment and productivity; firms respond more aggressively to productivity shocks, which enhances the allocation of labor across firms and hence total factor productivity. Removing the regulation leads in steady state to an increase in average labor productivity around 1%. Restricting the use of subcontracting to improve working conditions will lead to a decrease in total output, employment and productivity.


Three ethical criticisms of managed care are often voiced: (1) by "skimming the cream" of the patient population, managed care organizations fail to discharge their obligations to improve access, or at least, to not worsen it; (2) managed care organizations engage in rationing, thereby depriving patients of care to which they are entitled; and (3) by pressuring physicians to ration care, managed care organizations interfere with physicians' fulfillment of their fiduciary obligations to provide the best care for each patient. This article argues that each of these criticisms is misconceived. The first rests on the false assumption that the health care system includes a workable division of responsibility regarding access that assigns obligations concerning access to managed care organizations. The second and third criticisms wrongly assume that we in the United States have taken the first step toward assuring equitable access to care for all, articulating a standard for what counts as an "adequate level of care" to which all are entitled. These three misguided criticisms obscure the most fundamental ethical flaw of managed care: the fact that it operates in an institutional setting within which no connection can be made between the activity of rationing and the basic requirements of justice.


A new and conceptually simple data structure, called a suffixarray, for on-line string searches is introduced in this paper. Constructing and querying suffixarrays is reduced to a sort and search paradigm that employs novel algorithms. The main advantage of suffixarrays over suffixtrees is that, in practice, they use three to five times less space. From a complexity standpoint, suffix arrays permit on-line string searches of the type, ''Is W a substring of A?'' to be answered in time O(P + log N), where P is the length of W and N is the length of A, which is competitive with (and in some cases slightly better than) suffixtrees. The only drawback is that in those instances where the underlying alphabet is finiteand small, suffixtrees can be constructed in O(N) time in the worst case, versus O(N log N) time for suffixarrays. However, we give an augmented algorithm that, regardless of the alphabet size, constructs suffixarrays in O(N) expected time, albeit with lesser space efficiency. We believe that suffixarrays will prove to be better in practice than suffixtrees for many applications.


The status of heavy metals contamination in Lukut River, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia was studied in September 2003. In general, except for Pb in the water, the level of heavy metals in the water and sediment of Lukut River were found to be within the range of other Malaysian Rivers. The metals concentrations in T. telescopium and the prawns P. monodon and P. merguiensis was within the range of heavy metal measured in other gastropods or prawn species previously studied in Malaysia indicating no serious metal pollution exists in the study area. Heavy metal concentration in the muscle tissues of the prawns was found to be lower than maximum permissible levels recommended for human consumption.
High level of Pb was found in the water of Lukut River (390.10 μg/l) which was found to be relatively higher than some Malaysian rivers. The pattern of Pb concentration in water samples and low Pb level in the sediment suggested that dissolved Pb was originated from the sea–based inputs.
The sublethal toxicity of the metals on growth, moulting and Ca content in exoskeleton of P. monodon juveniles were also investigated in 21 days period. Results indicated that after 21 days the juveniles exposed to Cu concentration of 1000 μg/l, Zn concentration of 1000 μg/l, Cd concentration of 160 μg/l and Pb concentration of 316 μg/l or above grew slower than controls (P<0.05).
Among the metals studied, Cu and Zn were found to have an inhibition effect on exoskeleton calcification. The lowest concentration caused reduction in exoskeleton calcification was 100 μg/l and 1000 μg/l for Cu and Zn respectively.
Metals exposure was also affected the moulting of P. monodon. The period of molt cycle was increased significantly in the prawns exposed to 3160 μg/l Cu, 1000 μg/l Zn, 160 μg/l Cd and 316 μg/l Pb. However, low Cu and Zn concentrations were found in Lukut River do not affect the calcification of the prawn's exoskeleton or their molting.
Penaeus monodon does not regulate the level of metals in the body. It was found to accumulate heavy metals (Cu, Zn, Cd and Pb) in proportion of external metal concentrations. Meanwhile the metals accumulation in muscle, exoskeleton and remainder were found to perform in different rates. The highest accumulation rate for Zn and Cd was found in exoskeleton while the highest accumulation rate of Cu and Pb was found in remainder. In addition, the lowest accumulation rates for all of the studied metals were found in the muscle tissue. Among the metals studied Cu and Pb were accumulated faster than Cd and Zn.
Heavy metals depuration from muscle, exoskeleton and remainder of tissues were studied during one week duration. The fastest depuration of Zn, Cd and Pb was found in exoskeleton, while Cu was mainly depurated from the remainder of tissues. Furthermore among the metals studied Cu and Pb depurated faster than Zn and Cd.
Moulting was found to cause no significant reduction in the Cu, Zn and Cd concentration in the moulted prawns. On the other hand it caused significant reduction of Pb content in the prawn's body. Comparison between exoskeleton of the exposed intermolts and the exuviae of the newly moulted prawns (post moults) indicated that Pb concentration in the moults was significantly higher than exoskeleton which indicates that molting could be a effective way to eliminate the accumulated Pb from the body.
In general, based on the results from field study (analysis of water, sediment and biological samples) it is concluded that Lukut River is not polluted by heavy metals. Except for Pb, the level of metals in the water of Lukut River is not high enough to cause any impact either on aquacultured or on wild prawns.


Particle Deposition Behavior from Coal-Derived Syngas in Gas Turbines at Modern Turbine Inlet Temperatures Robert Laycock Department of Chemical Engineering, BYU Doctor of Philosophy Certain types of fuel used for combustion in land-based gas turbines can contain traces of ash when introduced into a gas turbine. Examples include synfuel, from the gasification of coal, and heavy fuel oil. When these ash particles travel through the hot gas path of the gas turbine they can deposit on turbine vanes and blades. As deposits grow, they can reduce turbine efficiency and damage turbine hardware. As turbine inlet temperatures increase, ash deposition rates increase as well. Experiments were conducted in the Turbine Accelerated Deposition Facility (TADF) at Brigham Young University to better understand ash deposition behavior at modern turbine inlet temperatures. Experiments were conducted that varied deposition duration, gas temperature, surface temperature, ash type and characteristics, and film-cooling blowing ratio. Analysis included measuring and calculating the capture efficiency, deposit surface roughness, deposit density, and deposit surface temperature. Test results indicate that capture efficiency increases with time and as the gas temperature increases. Previous studies have shown that the capture efficiency increases with increasing surface temperature as well, but the results from this study show that at a gas temperature of 1400°C, the capture efficiency of the ash used in these tests initially increased but then began to decrease with increasing surface temperature. It was also shown that different ashes, with differing ash chemistries and densities, deposit at very different rates and produce different surface structures. The film-cooling tests showed that film cooling does reduce the capture efficiency at modern turbine temperatures, but has a smaller relative effect than at lower temperatures. Tests performed with heavy fuel oil ash and increased SO2 levels (similar to those found in heavy fuel oil combustion environments) indicate that the increased sulfur levels result in the formation of more sulfur compounds in the deposit and change which elements are dissolved by water, but has little effect on the amount of deposit that dissolves. CFD simulations were performed to model the fluid dynamics and particle trajectories in the TADF. The resulting particle impact data (particle impact velocity, temperature, diameter, etc.) were used in sticking models to evaluate the models' performance at high temperatures. Results indicate that while the models can be fit fairly well to specific data, they need to be able to better account for changing surface conditions and high temperature particle behavior to accurately model deposition at high temperatures.


This paper shows how uncertainty about liquidity demand can lead to a high degree of dollarization in the banking system. I study a model where the demand for currency in each period is random, and where it is easier for banks to borrow in local currency in times of crisis than in dollars. Banks choose a portfolio composed of local currency, dollars, and real loans. Compared to the anticipated transactions demand for each currency, I show that the bank will hold a relatively large amount of dollars and a relatively small amount of local currency. I also show the existence of a dollarization multiplier : as the anticipated transactions demand for dollars increases, the dollarization of the banking sector increases more than proportionately.


Significant advances in longwall mining technology and equipment have occurred over the last decade. By the late 1990s, longwall mine output accounted for 40 percent of all underground output in the U.S., and today longwall mines account for approximately 50 percent of coal produced underground in the United States. A 53 percent increase in average shift production rates has occurred over the last fifteen years. This increased longwall productivity has meant that far more dust is being produced and controlling respirable coal dust provides an ongoing challenge for coal mine operators. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has completed a series of benchmark surveys at longwall operations across the country to identify current operating practices and the types of controls being used. Gravimetric and instantaneous dust sampling was completed to quantify dust generation from major sources on the longwall section and to determine the relative effectiveness of the different control technologies in use today. Substantial reductions in dust levels were realized at sampling locations on the face when compared longwall surveys conduct in the 1990's. This paper summarizes the results from the underground dust surveys and discusses current longwall dust control technology and operating practices.


This work introduces an ongoing research project that seeks to develop appropriate visual techniques for the design of future scenarios that are able to capture interdependencies within and across different systems. These design methods are being explored as part of a wider research on the future of cities and sustainable urban living. The issue of cities as complex systems has been explored by a considerable amount of literature, across different disciplines (for example, Simmel, 1971; Lynch, 1960; Jacobs, 1992; Abrams and Hall, 2004). Cities are not only defined by buidings and infrastructure, but also by the material and immaterial flows generated by the activities that take place in the urban environment, as well as the personal experience of its inhabitants Environmental, social, and economic challenges call for actions of radical interventions in modern urban areas. In order to be truly sustainable these actions must be collaboratively developed in trans-disciplinary sessions. Here, people from various backgrounds and with different interests explore alternative solutions, find a common ground and plan concrete actions towards a desirable future (Holman et al., 2007).
One of the challenges of this approach is to find effective ways to visualize how individual solutions impact the general context and relate to each other. There is a need to develop "means for drawing things together" (Bruno Latour, 2008), a common language to describe complexity and allow hidden interdependencies to emerge. The field of information visualization is rich with examples of how diagrams can be used to describe a complex matter by focusing primarily on the relations between different sets of qualitative and quantitative data. In this context diagrams are processes rather than finished products: they are working tools for design and decision making.
Liveable Cities is an interdisciplinary research project that aims to develop a method of designing and engineering low-carbon, resource-secure UK cities that do not compromise on individual and collective wellbeing. Different areas of the project are investigated by research teams at Lancaster University, University of Southampton, UCL, and Birmingham University, with the help of expert panelists, partners and potential users of future services. Great importance is given in the research to the human dimension of living and working in a city. Quality of life, wellbeing, and citizen aspirations must be assessed and translated into design criteria for transforming the engineering of cities to deliver low-carbon living solutions.


Abstract. Taphonomic factors may significantly alter faunal assemblages at varying scales. An exceptional record of late Holocene (<4000 yr old) mammal faunas establishes a firm baseline to investigate the effects of scale on taphonomy. Our sample contains 73 sites within four contiguous states (North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, and Illinois, USA) that transect a strong modern and late Holocene environmental gradient, the prairie-forest ecotone. We performed detrended correspondence (DCA) and non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) analyses. Both DCA and NMDS analyses of the data sets produced virtually the same results, and both failed to reveal the known ecological gradient within each state. However, both DCA and NMDS analyses of the unfiltered multistate data set across the entire gradient clearly reflect an environmental, rather than taphonomic, signal. DCA tended to provide better separation of some clusters than did NMDS in most of the analyses. We conclude that a robust mammal data set collected across a strong environmental gradient will document species turnover without the removal of taphonomic factors. In other words, taphonomy exhibits varying scale-dependent effects.


The study examined patients who had symptoms indicating peptic ulcer. Forty-five patients, 24 males and 21 females, aged between 16-60 years were included in the study. Twenty-five patients, 18 males and 7 females, were endoscoped, their ulcers located in the duodenal bulb and gastric (angulus). The ulcer sizes varied between 0.5 to 1.5 cm in diameter. Capsule-filled turmeric was given orally in the dose of 2 capsules (300 mg each) five times daily, one half to an hour before meals, at 16.00 hours and at bedtime continuously. The result after 4 weeks of treatment showed that ulcers were absent in 48% or 12 cases (DU 9 and GU 3). Eighteen cases (DU 13 and GU 5) had absence of ulcer after 8 weeks of treatment. Nineteen cases (76%) (DU 14 and GU 5) did not have ulcers after 12 weeks of treatment. The rest, 20 cases were not found to have ulcers and some were not endoscoped. They appeared to have erosions, gastritis and dyspepsia. They received turmeric capsules for 4 weeks of treatment. The abdominal pain and discomfort satisfactorily subsided in the first and second week. They could take normal foods instead of soft meals. Blood chemistry and hematology of all 54 patients had no significant changes in hematological system, liver and renal functions both before and after treatment.


From the Publisher:

Microsoft SQL Server 2000 DBA Survival Guide is organized into several parts that comprise the various jobs and tasks the DBA performs. Each chapter is presented with the goal of providing knowledge and "know-how" to Database Administrators of a SQL Server database. The chapters also offer real-world insight and experience by passing on tips, tricks, and suggestions based on what the authors have learned the hard way. The book also takes time to provide checklists and examples for various SQL Server DBA tasks. The book also provides insight into the tasks that make-up a DBA's job including discussions of topics such as the creation of naming standards and conventions which are essential for efficient administration.


Two organic–inorganic iodobismuthates, C5H6NBiI4 ([py][BiI4]) and C6H8NBiI4 ([mepy][BiI4]), have been prepared with their structures revealed by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. One-dimensional BiI4− anionic chains built by edge-sharing BiI6 octahedra were found in both materials; short I⋯I, I⋯C contacts and hydrogen bonding give rise to three-dimensional intermolecular interactions. Both compounds are semiconductors, with band gaps of around 2.0 eV, and the contribution from the organic moieties to the conduction band minimum has been derived by density functional theory. Solid-state optical and electrochemical studies performed on powders and thin films were carried out, and their stabilities under an ambient environment have been demonstrated. Their use as the absorber layer in printable mesoscopic solar cells without any hole transport material has led to efficiencies up to 0.9%, showing a promising new approach towards the development of lead-free third-generation photovoltaic materials.


Abstract This paper focuses on empirical connections between crime and immigration, studying two large waves of recent U.K. immigration (the late 1990s/early 2000s asylum seekers and the post-2004 inflow from EU accession countries). The first wave led to a modest but significant rise in property crime, while the second wave had a small negative impact. There was no effect on violent crime; arrest rates were not different, and changes in crime cannot be ascribed to crimes against immigrants. The findings are consistent with the notion that differences in labor market opportunities of different migrant groups shape their potential impact on crime.


This paper extends the research on stock return volatility in the Philippines. It presents evidence on the asymmetric effects of positive and negative shocks on the volatility of market returns in the Philippines. The empirical findings of the study provide additional support to the so-called leverage effect at the aggregate level. A drop in security returns lowers market value of equity and increases the leverage of firms. The change in financial leverage raises the risk and is reflected in increased volatility.


A woman with Down's syndrome (DS) had subfebrile temperature, nodular/patchy shadows on the chest X-ray over the right pulmonary base, and a history of recurrent respiratory infections. She was pale, asthenic, uncommunicative, mildly anemic and the erythrocyte sedimentation rate was 80/first hour. The tuberculin skin test (TST) PPD3 was negative. Mycobacterium tuberculosis was isolated from oral mucosal brushing, sensitive to the first line anti-tuberculosis drugs. Patients with DS and other mental disabilities need special care and attention during diagnostic procedures for tuberculosis (TB).


This paper presents a new method for monitoring and tuning plastic injection molding machines. It consists of two parts: quality monitoring using the Radial Basis Function Neural Network (RBFNN), and operation parameter tuning using Support Vector Machine (SVM) and Virtual Search Method (VSM). The quality is measured by the part weight, which is estimated using hydraulic pressure signal and ram position signals through a RBFNN. The tuning is aimed at finding the optimal setting of the machine operation condition. It is done in two steps: first, a SVM model is established as the virtual model to track the part quality variations, and then the quality variation is minimized by tuning the machine operating conditions using VSM. The new method is validated by two sets of practical experiments, and the results are very promising.


The accurate assessment of microsatellite loci on specific chromosome regions for loss of heterozygosity (LOH) is important to identify potential tumor suppressor gene locations and recently correlations to clinicopathology of tumors. Analysis of microsatellite markers usually requires performing polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with labeled primers. This often leads to spurious PCR products that make interpretations of specific PCR bands difficult. Assessment of LOH by radiolabeled PCR is not always easy to interperet when there are multiple bands present, multiple markers and specimens are being assessed, and in multiplex LOH PCR. We describe an approach to accurately verify PCR-based LOH in which labeled PCR primers are not needed to detect allele expression. Specificity is determined by using a digoxigenin-labeled oligonucleotide (CA)13 as an internal specific probe for hybridization. Because the majority of di-nucleotide microsatellite markers contain the sequence of (CA)n or (GT)n repeats, this (CA)n probe is highly versatile. Forty cutaneous melanoma biopsies from advanced stage patients were assessed using the oligonucleotide probe at five chromosome regions (1q, 6q, 9p, 10q, 11q). The LOH frequency in informative cases varied from 33% to 47% in which chromosome 6q was the highest followed closely by 11q. We observed a higher frequency of LOH in the 6q (47%) and 11q (41%) compared to previously reported studies using the probe technique. This new approach was also demonstrated to be efficient in multiplex-PCR to detect LOH in melanomas. Using the probe hybridization approach it was demonstrated that in advanced cutaneous melanomas LOH are quite frequently expressed on 5 different chromosome regions.


Blueberry is a shrub of the Ericaceae family, that belongs to the genus Vaccinium, which comprises several species, among them V. corymbosum. Due to the high medicinal and nutritional value of the fruit, these plants are considered of great economic value and a production alternative for upland farmers. In order to establish this species in vitro, explants were taken from adult plants (variety Avonblue) from Fraijanes Experimental Station of the University of Costa Rica, Alajuela. For in vitro establishement, cuttings were subjected to four different disinfection procedures, likewise evaluated and compared, the effect on budding of various cytokinins as 2iP (N6 [2-isopentenyl] adenine, isopentenyladenine), BAP (6 - (benzylamino) -9 - (2-tetrahydropyranyl)-9H-purine, benzylaminopurine) and CPPU (N-(2-chloro-4-pyridyl)-N '-phenylurea, Forclorofenuron) at a concentration of 2.5 mg L-1. It was found that the use of young cuttings from mature plants allowed the highest percentage of aseptic explants when a disinfection solution was sodium hypochlorite at 1.5% and 0.1% Tween 20 for 40 minutes and the addition of CPPU induced highest number of shoots from initial explant, however, 2ip promoted the greatest length of shoot.


A method for the reconstruction of 3D shape and texture from integral photography (IP) images is presented. Sharing the same principles with stereoscopic-based object reconstruction, it offers increased robustness to noise and occlusions due to the unique characteristics of IP images. A coarse-to-fine approach is used, employing what we believe to be a novel grid refinement step in order to increase the quality of the reconstructed objects. The proposed method's properties include configurable depth accuracy and direct and seamless triangulation. We evaluate our method using synthetic data from a computer-simulated IP setup as well as real data from a simple yet effective digital IP setup. Experiments show reconstructed objects of high-quality indicating that IP can be a competitive modality for 3D object reconstruction.


This study examined the nature and level of participation in a community-based natural resource management project. It is based on the premise that low levels of public participation are found in community-based natural resource management projects, as highlighted in the literature available on this issue. At times, it was documented that resident populations became involved, as the government could not manage the vast extent of available natural resources. Hence it became clear that not involving residents (who are also users of the natural resource) and addressing their requirements could lead to the failure of a specific project. It is therefore important to reflect on the importance of sustainable collaboration between the government authorities and the local people for the effective management of natural resources. This understanding became the motivation to analyze the principles of public participation as designed for a successful community-based natural resources management (CBNRM) project in-depth. There are a number of CBNRM principles but the principle of public participation appeared to be one of the most important for this case study for which the Ramgarh micro-hydropower project was selected. It lies in the Nainital district in India that is in the western Himalayan Range. A conceptual framework with various dimensions of public participation was developed by adapting Arnstein's ladder of participation that appeared in a paper published in 1960. It was then applied in this instance to determine the involvement of the resident villagers in the Ramgarh micro-hydropower project. Participants of this study included members of the Ramgarh Energy Committee (REC). The results revealed that the residents did have major roles to play in the project and were also involved in the decision-making processes. This indicates a high level of public participation in the project and the participation of residents was representative. Only the members of the REC used to participate in the meetings that used to take place for making decisions related to the Ramgarh project. It should, however, be understood that, to involve all the villagers in the decision-making processes is a practical impossibility, because not everyone would always be free to attend every meeting held. These meetings required investment of time and money, and involving all the residents might not always have been possible. REC however, invites all residents in the annual meetings where the REC members discuss the progress of the project with them and also listen to their issues if any. Data collected did not fully support the claims the members of the managing committee made that the committee did resolve all the issues. It is unclear whether all residents were happy with the project as sufficient data to support this claim unequivocally was not forthcoming. However, the participants did provide statements to support its validity. This study provides an example of collaboration between residents and the government in which the residents are also involved in the decision-making processes related to a project. Much can be learnt from this work, and its findings can be applied to other projects to improve the level of participation of residents in the area where they are located. Furthermore, it is evident from this research study that there is potential to extend the scope for research related to different principles of community-based natural resource management. May this work also attract the attention of the people whose concern it is to explore ways of improving participatory approaches in the management of natural resources.


Urban legends are tales circulated widely in modern societies. They are generally transmitted orally (although some are discovered and disseminated by the mass media) and are told as "true stories" that contain astounding, sensational or bizarre details. Many achieve an enviable longevity…there are very few people in the Western world who have not heard of the vanishing hitch‐hiker, the alligators lurking in the sewers, the funeral ashes mistakenly used as spices, the babysitter terrorized by the madman upstairs, etc. Popular music has proved to be an especially fertile ground for the propagation of such stories; whether by word of mouth, through fanzines, or across the Internet, the (often dramatic) urban legends of popular music have been, and continue to be, generated to ever wider audiences. By examining some of the more familiar urban legends of popular music, I hope to illustrate the roles that their persistent repetition perform, and to assess the social and cultural functions they fulfil. In addition, it is important to focus attention not only on the substantive details of the tales themselves, but also on the ambitions of those who relate them, and I will suggest that there are a number of motivational categories into which the story‐tellers may be placed.


Using data for four South Asian countries over a twelve-year period, we examine how the stock markets in these recently liberalised economies assess diversification attempts of listed public banks. We find that the income diversification has a significant positive association with market to book value and a significant negative association with return volatility. However, the relationship observed between diversification and markets' assessment of value and risk is non-linear. Relative to listed banks operating in India, the relationship observed remains less pronounced for the banks operating in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.


Langtjern is an acid lake situated in south-central Norway, 516 m above sea level. The watershed is underlain by biotite gneisses and granites. Coniferous forests cover 63% of the watershed, while 16% is covered by peaty areas. The lake has a relatively large watershed (4.8 km2) in relation to lake size (0. 23 km2), and most of the water and chemicals reach the lake via the watershed and inflowing streams. Direct precipitation on the lake surface is less important.

The two major inflowing streams show rapid responses to influxes of acid precipitation (weighted annull mean pH 4.3) and long recovery periods between episodes. The fall and spring acid episodes have different impacss on the lake-water chemistry. The spring episode during which large amounss of H+ are released in the first phases of the snow melt reduces the pH in only the surface layers of the still ice-eovered lake and much of the inflowing pollutants are promptly discharged. In the fall, however, the acid inputs are readily mixed through the entire water column during the autumnal circulation period.

Assuming chloride as a conservative parameter, mass-balance calculations show that there is a net loss of Ca, Mg and Al from the watershed while there is a net uptake of H+, NO3 and NH4. SO4 and Na budgets balance. The net uptake of H+ in the watershed is directly related to net losses of other cations. The net uptake of NO3 and NH4 is most likely due to biological uptake by the forest ecosystem.

For the Langtjern itself the inputs of all major ions equal the outputs, except for H+ and NO3 which are retained by the lake. The neutralization of H+ in Langtjern varies seasonally, whereas only 10-20% is neutralized during spring, in the autumn 50-70% is neutralized.


Seagliders are a type of propeller-less AUV that glide through the water by changing their buoyancy. They have become mainstream collectors of standard oceanographic data (conductivity, temperature, pressure, dissolved oxygen, fluorescence and backscatter) and are increasingly used as trucks to carry a wide variety of hydrographic and bio-geochemical sensors. The extended sensor capability enhances the utility of the gliders for oceanographic observations. Seagliders are designed and optimized for long-term missions (up to 10 months) and deep sea profiling (up to 1000 m). They provide high resolution oceanographic data with very good temporal and spatial density, in near real-time, at a fraction of the cost of ship collected data. These performance parameters are sometimes at odds with the physical dimensions and electrical requirements of the hydrographic and bio-geochemical sensors scientists want installed in gliders. However, as the acceptance of gliders as an integral component of the oceanographic suite of measurement tools grows so do the efforts of sensor vendors to develop products that meet the size, weight and power requirements for successful glider integration. Turbulence microstructure sensors are one measurement system that scientists desired on Seagliders but that until recently did not fit the glider footprint. In collaboration with Rockland Scientific, Inc., a suite of RSI turbulence microstructure sensors was recently integrated into a Seaglider and the system's performance validated during field tests in Puget Sound near Seattle, WA and in Loch Linnhe on the west coast of Scotland. Ocean turbulence controls the mixing of water masses, biogeochemical fluxes within them, and facilitates ocean-atmosphere gas exchange. As a result, turbulence impacts global ocean circulation, polar ice melt rates, drawdown of atmospheric carbon dioxide and carbon deposition, coastal and deep ocean ecology, commercial fisheries, and the dispersion of pollutants. Turbulent mixing is also recognized as a key parameter in global climate models, used for understanding and predicting future climate change. Seagliders equipped with turbulence microstructure sensors will allow scientists to map the geographical distribution and temporal variability of mixing in the ocean on scales not possible with ship-based measurements. This presentation discusses the technical aspects of the integration of the turbulence sensor suite on a Seaglider with an emphasis on achieving high data quality, while retaining the performance characteristics of the Seaglider. We will also describe applications for this sensor suite, examine the turbulence measurement data already collected by the Seaglider and discuss future deployment plans.


Objective. To evaluate the receipt of information and knowledge about influenza and vaccination, as well as influenza vaccination status and reasons for declining vaccination, among registered nurses. Design. Cross-sectional survey of registered nurses (RNs). Setting. A large tertiary medical center with a long-standing, multifaceted influenza vaccination program and relatively high vaccination rates among employees overall (76.5%). Participants. Randomly selected group of 990 RNs employed as inpatient staff nurses at the institution. Results. The survey was completed by 513 (51.8%) of 990 RNs. Most RNs (86.7%) had received an influenza vaccination in the past, and 331 (64.5%) intended to receive vaccination during the 2005-2006 influenza season. More than 90% of RNs acknowledged exposure to educational bulletins, and most had received information about influenza severity (383 [74.7%]), transmission (398 [77.6%]), vaccine safety (416 [81.1%]), and the time and location of free vaccination (460 [89.7%]). A majority (436 [85.0%]) felt they had received all the information they needed to make good decisions about vaccination. However, only 49 RNs (9.6%) gave correct answers to more than 85% of the knowledge questions on the survey. The reasons most frequently reported for declining vaccination were doubts about the risk of influenza and the need for vaccination, concerns about vaccine effectiveness and side effects, and dislike of injections. Conclusions. RNs exposed to a longstanding, multifaceted educational program had received information about influenza vaccination, but misconceptions were common and only 331 (64.5%) intended to receive vaccination. Strategies other than educational interventions are needed to increase influenza vaccination rates and thereby to ensure healthcare worker and patient safety.


OBJECTIVE
To compare rates of fatal drug-related overdose death (OD) cases--a major harm outcome of illicit substance use--in the two provinces of British Columbia (BC) and Ontario, and the two largest municipalities in those provincial jurisdictions, namely the cities of Vancouver and Toronto, between 1992 and 2004.

METHODS
Provincial coroners' data of drug-related OD cases for the provincial jurisdictions of BC and Ontario, and the municipal jurisdictions of Vancouver and Toronto, are descriptively presented and compared.

RESULTS
After drastic increases in the initial part of the observation period, OD rates in BC have been declining; moreover, due to major reductions of OD cases in Vancouver, the ratio of OD cases between Vancouver and the province of BC has fallen considerably. Conversely, OD rates in Ontario have remained stable at low levels, whereas Toronto has seen a slight decline in such rates during the observation period.

INTERPRETATION
The recent establishment and expansion of treatment and harm reduction interventions may have influenced the decline of ODs in BC, yet similar interventions in Ontario did not have a similar effect, perhaps due to different patterns of illicit drug use. OD rates in jurisdictions across Canada need to be monitored and analyzed to inform evidence-based policy development.


In accordance with nonperturbative quantum scattering theory, we investigate photoelectron angular distributions (PADs) from above-threshold detachment (ATD) of negative ions irradiated by circularly polarized few-cycle laser fields. Electrons ejected on the polarization plane demonstrate distinct anisotropies in angular distributions which distinctly vary with the carrier-envelope (CE) phase. The anisotropy is caused by interference between transition channels; it also depends strongly on laser frequency, pulse duration, and kinetic energy of photoelectrons. Optimal emission of photoelectrons, which varies with CE phase, makes it possible to control photoelectron motion.


Fluoride greater than 0.1N interfered negatively in the determination of Al by the rotatingdisk-electrode technique. Fluoride interference was eliminated by the addition of H3BO3. Aluminum in the 1–100 ppm range was successfully determined in the presence of 0.25N fluoride by making the solutions 2.5% in H3BO3. The coefficients of variation among six determinations for solutions containing 10 and 100 ppm Al were 3.0% and 0.9%, respectively. Recovery of known amounts of Al added to fluoride-extracts of soils ranged from 98.4% to 102.2%. The proposed method thus gave acceptable accuracy and precision. The method is simple and rapid since it does not require the removal of fluoride by distillation as H2SiF0 nor does it prevent the determination of Si in the same sample.


Are financial markets efficient? One proposition that seems to contradict this is Shiller's finding of excess volatility in asset prices and its resulting rejection of the discounted cash flow model. This paper replicates Shiller's approach for a different data set and extends his analysis by testing for a long-run relationship by means of a cointegration analysis. Contrary to previous studies, monthly data for an integrated European stock market is being used, with special attention to equity style investment strategies. On the basis of this analysis' results, Shiller's findings seem questionable. While a long-run relationship between prices and dividends can be observed for all equity styles, a certain degree, but to a much smaller extent than in Shiller's approach, of excess volatility cannot be rejected. But it seems that a further relaxation of Shiller's assumptions would completely eliminate the finding of an overly strong reaction of prices to changes in dividends. Two interesting side results are, that all three investment styles seem to have equal performance when adjusting for risk, which by itself is an indication for efficiency and that market participants seem to use current dividend payments from one company as an indication for future dividend payments by other firms. Overall the results of this paper lead to the conclusion that efficiency cannot be rejected for an integrated European equity market.


The WSAVA Vaccination Guidelines Group (VGG) was convened in order to develop guidelines for the vaccination of dogs and cats that have global application. The first version of these guidelines was published in 2007 and they were updated in 2010. The present document provides a further updated and expanded version of these international guidelines for the vaccination of small companion animals and indicates the scientific evidence base on which the recommendations are made. The VGG recognises that the keeping of pet small animals is subject to considerable variation in practice and associated economics throughout the world and that vaccination recommendations that might apply to a developed country may not be appropriate for a developing country. These guidelines are not a mandatory edict, but rather should be used by national associations and individual veterinary practices to develop vaccination schedules relevant locally. However, the VGG strongly recommends that wherever possible ALL dogs and cats receive the benefit of vaccination. This not only protects the individual animal, but provides optimum 'herd immunity' that minimises the likelihood of infectious disease outbreaks.

With this background in mind, the VGG has defined core vaccines as those which ALL dogs and cats, regardless of circumstances or geographical location, should receive. Core vaccines protect animals from severe, life-threatening diseases that have global distribution. Core vaccines for dogs are those that protect against canine distemper virus (CDV), canine adenovirus (CAV) and the variants of canine parvovirus type 2 (CPV-2). Core vaccines for cats are those that protect against feline parvovirus (FPV), feline calicivirus (FCV) and feline herpesvirus-1 (FHV-1). In areas of the world where rabies virus infection is endemic, vaccination against this agent should be considered core for both species, even if there is no legal requirement for routine vaccination.

The VGG recognizes that maternally-derived antibody (MDA) interferes with the efficacy of most current core vaccines administered to pups and kittens in early life. Because the level of MDA varies among litters, the VGG recommends administration of multiple core vaccine doses to pups and kittens, with the final dose given at 16 weeks or older and followed by a booster at 6- or 12-months of age. In cultural or financial situations where a pet animal may only be permitted the benefit of a single vaccination, that vaccination should be with core vaccines at 16 weeks of age or older.

The VGG supports the use of simple in-practice tests for determination of seroconversion to the core vaccine components (CDV, CAV, CPV-2 and FPV) following vaccination, for determination of seroprotection in adult dogs and for management of infectious disease outbreaks in shelters.

Vaccines should not be given needlessly. Core vaccines should not be given any more frequently than every three years after the 6- or 12-month booster injection following the puppy/kitten series, because the duration of immunity (DOI) is many years and may be up to the lifetime of the pet.

The VGG has defined non-core vaccines as those that are required by only those animals whose geographical location, local environment or lifestyle places them at risk of contracting specific infections. The VGG has also classified some vaccines as not recommended (where there is insufficient scientific evidence to justify their use) and has not considered a number of minority products which have restricted geographical availability or application.

The VGG strongly supports the concept of regular (usually annual) health checks which removes the emphasis from, and client expectation of, annual revaccination. The annual health check may still encompass administration of selected non-core vaccines which should be administered annually, as the DOI for these products is generally 1 year.

The VGG has considered the use of vaccines in animal shelters, again recognising the particular circumstances of such establishments and the financial constraints under which they sometimes operate. The VGG minimum shelter guidelines are simple: that all dogs and cats entering such an establishment should be vaccinated before, or at the time of entry, with core vaccines. Where finances permit, repeated core vaccines should be administered as per the schedules defined in the guidelines and non-core vaccines against respiratory disease may be included.

The VGG recognizes the importance of adverse reaction reporting schemes, but understands that these are variably developed in different countries. Wherever possible, veterinarians should be actively encouraged to report all possible adverse events to the manufacturer and/or regulatory authority to expand the knowledge base that drives development of improved vaccine safety.

These fundamental concepts proposed by the VGG may be encapsulated in the following statement:

 We should aim to vaccinate every animal with core vaccines.

 Non-core vaccines should be given no more frequently than is deemed necessary.


Within complex socio-technical systems human error has consistently been implicated as the major causal factor in a high proportion of accidents and safety compromising incidents. For example, recent research within the road transport domain indicates that driver error contributes to as much as 75% of all roadway crashes. This article describes the work conducted to date as part of a research program of which the main aim is to promote error tolerant intersections in Victoria and an error tolerant road transport system in Australia. Based on a review of the human error-related research conducted to date and of the error management techniques that have previously been employed in complex sociotechnical systems, a conceptual framework for an error tolerant Australian road transport system is proposed. The proposed framework contains appropriate methods for the collection and analysis of human error-related data within the Australian road transport system, and a number of error management approaches and strategies that could potentially be used to reduce or manage road user error and the conditions that lead to it. It is the opinion of the authors that the implementation of the framework will considerably increase our knowledge of road user error and the conditions that cause it, and could potentially enhance error tolerance and road user safety within the Australian road transport system.


the value of a holiday or trip can be much enhanced by a few local detours. Fishing trips are often characterised by rushed travel to a particular destination to get one's line into the water as soon as possible. A recent fishing trip to the Nqabara River mouth and a few, subsequent detours was certainly time well spent. The area is home to the almost 200-year-old grave of a revered Xhosa king, and a forgotten trading station built before the 9th and Final Frontier War of 1877 to 1878, between the British and Cape Colony, and the Xhosa.


Globalization, the process by which local social-ecological systems (SESs) are becoming linked in a global network, presents policy scientists and practitioners with unique and difficult challenges. Although local SESs can be extremely complex, when they become more tightly linked in the global system, complexity increases very rapidly as multi-scale and multi-level processes become more important. Here, we argue that addressing these multi-scale and multi-level challenges requires a collection of theories and models. We suggest that the conceptual domains of sustainability, resilience, and robustness provide a sufficiently rich collection of theories and models, but overlapping definitions and confusion about how these conceptual domains articulate with one another reduces their utility. We attempt to eliminate this confusion and illustrate how sustainability, resilience, and robustness can be used in tandem to address the multi-scale and multi-level challenges associated with global change.


Recently data stream mining is new emerging field of data. It is different from traditional static data. In stream data, data is changing dynamically. They have characteristics like timing preference, data distribution changes constantly with time, data flows in and out with speed, amount of data is enormous and immediate response is required. So, to preserve the privacy during data stream mining many privacy preserving techniques have been proposed. Many existing techniques for privacy preserving are suitable for traditional static database but not suitable for dynamic data. So in data stream privacy preservation is an important issue. To achieve the privacy and balancing the accuracy we will use geometric data transformation (perturbation) technique. This paper present survey about geometric data perturbation technique for privacy preserving data mining.


The Bakken Library and Museum announces the availability of a new online database of its outstanding collection of artifacts relating to the history of electricity and magnetism and their uses in medicine and the life sciences. Records for approximately 90 per cent of The Bakken's unique collection of roughly 2,000 artifacts have been entered into the database along with images of almost every item. The information provided typically includes description, remarks, and an image, as well as materials, date, size and weight, and a list of accessories. The database is located at http://thebakken. org/artifacts/database/ and is organized by The Bakken's accessioning categories. A person interested in plate electrostatic generators, for instance, would first click on ''Electrostatics''. Under ''frictional generators'', click ''plate''. The result will be a list of the plate electrostatic generators in the collection. Clicking the hyperlinks will then lead you to an image and description of the generator in question. We hope to implement more sophisticated search functions in the near future. The instrument collection focuses on the history of electricity and magnetism in the life sciences. It includes electrostatic generators, magneto-electric generators, induction coils, physiological instruments, recording devices, and accessories. There are hundreds of pacemakers and defibrillators, and dozens of magnetic devices. A partial online catalogue of The Bakken's extensive book collection has been available for a number of years at http://www.thebakken. org/library/library.htm#BooksAndManuscripts. Plans are being made for an online public access catalogue of the entire collection. The artifact database is a work in progress and The Bakken welcomes feedback from researchers. Please direct comments and questions to Ellen Kuhfeld, Curator of Instruments, at firstname.lastname@example.com.


We measured the third-harmonic spectrum for each of four squaraine dyes in chloroform. By fitting the experimental dispersion of the third-order susceptibility, γ, to a four-level sum-over-states model, we determine the strength and the location of the lowest-lying two-photon-like transition. In each case, we find that the lowest two-photon-like state appears just above the dominant linear absorption peak in energy and that the transition moment to that state makes a significant contribution to the nonlinearity, as do transition moments to one or more higher-lying two-photon-like states in the ultraviolet. The spectra of two of these dyes contain additional features, evidencing a nonzero dipole moment difference between the ground and the first excited-state dipole moments that we attribute to asymmetry in their structures. From our measurements, we also predict the dispersion of the real and the imaginary optical Kerr susceptibilities in the near infrared for two of these dyes.


This paper advocates a systematic distinction between the fields of Historical Pragmatics and Historical Discourse Analysis on the one hand and Historical Text Linguistics on the other. Building on basic distinctions introduced in Brinton (2001), it traces three major perspectives of research (Historical Text Linguistics proper, diachronically oriented text linguistics, and text-oriented historical linguistics), giving an overview of relevant linguistic studies on texts and genres in the history of English. It also sketches out a plan for a history of English as a history of its texts and genres, illustrating the outline with the domain of religious discourse.


Student wellbeing and mental health are increasingly a concern of universities. Most universities provide central counselling services and, in recent years, some have introduced wellbeing programs. However, an unrecognised source of support and pastoral care for students is academic staff. This pilot research project explored the experiences of academic staff in one university's enabling programs in terms of the type of support academic staff provide (academic and/or non-academic), how equipped they perceive they are to support their students, and how this role impacts on them. The study is qualitative; interviews were conducted and a thematic analysis undertaken. It was found that academic staff viewed supporting their students as part of their role, particularly due to the diverse and complex nature of the cohort, and noted that students sought support from them for academic and non-academic issues because they had a rapport with them, trust and regular contact. A positive finding was that the academic staff had clear boundaries and lines of referral, which means they were not taking on pseudo-counselling roles. How equipped staff perceived they were and how the support role impacted on them varied depending on their teaching role. The findings in this exploratory study prompt a re-conceptualisation of the academic role. The article proposes a model of support that is holistic, student and course centred, and that integrates the centrally-located university counsellors. Furthermore, it posits that at the core of the enabling programs is a philosophy of care.


Accumulated knowledge from the early pioneering wells and subsequent exploration history led to the discovery of several fields in the Utsira High area during the 1990s. One of these, the Jotun Field, was discovered in 1994. The Jotun Field consists of three structures and is located on the western flank of the Utsira High, close to the eastern pinchout of the Tertiary submarine fan system. The reservoir at Jotun comprises Paleocene Heimdal Formation sands shed from the East Shetland Platform and transported across the Viking Graben area onto the Utsira High by high density gravity flow processes dominated by sandy turbidites. These distal gravity flow deposits display both thin-bedded sands alternating with shales and thicker, more massive sandstones (tens of metres thick). Minor sand injections occur throughout the field but are volumetrically insignificant. The production wells in one of the structures are completed in a slump and injection complex above thick massive reservoir sands. The Jotun Field development strategy was designed to optimize oil capture and minimize risk based on the interpreted reservoir geology. The initial development comprised 14 development wells: 12 horizontal producers, 1 water injector and 1 water disposal well. Production from the Jotun Field started in October 1999 and reached peak production in June 2000, with 140 000 BOPD. After exceeding initial expectations, declining production and rising water cut prompted an infill well programme, time-lapse seismic data acquisition and production logging in 2002. The first two wells were disappointing due to facies transition to interbedded sands and shales on the flanks of the structure and underprediction of oil–water contact movement. The newly available time-lapse seismic data were then integrated with production logging and updated depositional facies studies to evaluate additional drilling opportunities. The discovery, appraisal and development history of the Jotun Field serves as a good example of the key challenges in the Tertiary Utsira High play and the strength of applying multidisciplinary team efforts, partner co-operation and involvement to optimize asset value through tailored drilling and data acquisition programmes.


We review here the studies performed about interactions in an assembly of cold Rydberg atoms. We focus especially on the review of the dipole–dipole interactions and on the effect of the dipole blockade in the laser Rydberg excitation, which offers attractive possibilities for quantum engineering. We present first the various interactions between Rydberg atoms. The laser Rydberg excitation of such an assembly is then described with the introduction of the dipole blockade phenomenon. We report recent experiments performed in this subject by starting with the case of a pair of atoms allowing the entanglement of the wave-functions of the atoms and opening a fascinating way for the realization of quantum bits and quantum gates. We consider then several works on the blockade effect in a large assembly of atoms for three different configurations: blockade through electric-field induced dipole, through Forster resonance, and in van der Waals interaction. The properties of coherence and cooperativity are analyzed. Finally, we treat the role of dipole–dipole interactions between Rydberg atoms responsible for Penning ionization. The perturbation of the dipole blockade by ions and the evolution of the Rydberg towards an ultracold plasma are discussed.